Top 5 Non-Sports Card Sales of 2025
2025 has proven that the trading-card boom isn’t only about athletes and major sports. Non-sports collectibles across entertainment, pop culture, and TCGs have posted blockbuster auction results, renewed nostalgia, and mainstream investor interest.
Non-sports cards surged in 2025, with Star Wars, Pokémon, One Piece, and Disney leading a wave of record-breaking sales that cemented pop-culture trading cards as one of the fastest-growing segments in the hobby.
And with brands like Fanatics, Upper Deck and Leaf mining major franchises, producing instant cards capturing cultural moments, and exploring new areas of collector interests, what’s old is new—and what’s new is hot. Let’s look at some of the biggest sales of 2025 across key categories.
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Showpiece Sale: Star Wars Still Dominates
The standout headline from 2025 came in October, when a PSA 10 copy of the 1977 Topps Star Wars #1 “Luke Skywalker” card fetched a record-setting $268,400 at auction, a figure that obliterated previous highs and reinforced Star Wars’ status as the blue-chip franchise of non-sports cards.
For collectors who once snapped up packs of movie and TV-based cards for fun, that sale turned nostalgia into serious value overnight and surely sent fans digging through shoeboxes in search of their own grails.
Pokémon & One Piece: All the Way Up
While vintage entertainment cards drove headlines, the trading card game market—especially Pokémon—remains a powerhouse. The broader TCG and non-sports card market is estimated at about $7.8 billion in 2025, with continued growth projections toward $12 billion in the next five years.
As we covered back in September, a 1999 Prerelease Raichu Holo graded PSA 6 sold for a staggering $550,000 at Heritage Auctions, marking the highest price ever paid for an English Pokémon card. The sale smashed the previous Raichu record by more than tenfold, eclipsing a 2008 Japanese Promo Holo PSA 10 that sold for $44,900 in 2022, according to Card Ladder.
Not to be outdone, One Piece’s trading card boom in 2025 mirrors the franchise’s global surge, fueled by Netflix’s hit live-action series and the anime’s continued dominance. With over 500 million manga copies sold, demand for the One Piece TCG has skyrocketed—with one Monkey D. Luffy card selling on eBay for $99,700 on November 27th.
Disney’s Magic Touch: From Chrome to Auction Houses
Disney trading cards have become one of 2025’s hottest collectible categories, with both Topps Chrome Disney and Disney Lorcana driving record-breaking prices across eBay, Goldin Auctions, and major case breaks. What began as a nostalgic niche has evolved into a legitimate investment sector, with collectors chasing everything from shimmering Superfractors to limited-edition Lorcana Promos.
In the $30,000 (and above) sales, three cards stand out:
-2024 Topps Chrome Disney Magical Mickey SuperFractor sold by Goldin Auctions in May for $31,720
-2025 Topps Disney Genesis Silver Circles #21 Mickey Mouse (#1/1), also sold by Goldin Auctions in October for $30, 553.
2025 Topps Chrome Disney Sapphire Quad Facsimile Auto featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck, brokered by Hobby Nonsense for $30,000
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What This Means for Collectors Now
For anyone holding non-sports cards, including vintage movie cards, TCGs, and other pop culture sets, 2025 provides a compelling call to check current valuations and consider investing or selling. Even outside headline-making cards, demand is rising across moderate-tier items as new collectors enter the market.
If you’re collecting, cataloging, or just curious, now’s the perfect time to dig through those old boxes—or ask relatives over the holidays if they ever collected. You might be sitting on something far more valuable than you realize.
Lucas Mast is a writer based in California’s Bay Area, where he’s a season ticket holder for St. Mary’s basketball and a die-hard Stanford athletics fan. A lifelong collector of sneakers, sports cards, and pop culture, he also advises companies shaping the future of the hobby and sports. He’s driven by a curiosity about why people collect—and what those items reveal about the moments and memories that matter most.
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