In today’s collecting world it is an undeniable truth that size matters. Yes, I know it sounds unfortunate, but people do not like big things, it is the truth. It is very rare to find a millennial, or even someone from generation X who like’s collecting anything at all let alone furniture, so what do we collect? We have learned about comics, toys, and video games which are all typically small(er) and lighter than your average antique. Granted video games can get clunky at time with the older systems or if you choose to buy an arcade machine for the bachelor pad but you get my point. So what is today’s transient millennial friendly collectible? The answer is TCG.

TCG which stands for Trading Card Game is a term used to describe a body of cards which are produced for people to both collect and play as a structured game. It’s a two for one item, a collectible which originally had a purpose. Most will argue trading cards have been collected forever, over a hundred years even when factoring in baseball cards.  Baseball cards have been around for over a hundred years beginning in the late 1800’s, but the first TCG was only released in 1993 with Magic: The Gathering. So we are talking a very young market that is on the rise. Your big three for TCG are Magic: The Gathering (1993), Yu-Gi-Oh (1999) and of course, the craze which set the world on fire, Pokemon (1996).

Now don’t freak out and go crazy looking through your basement (All though you should!) but if you are a child of the 90’s and later odds are you collected one if not all of these three card games. 99 and 9/10th percent of all cards are nearly worthless, and by worthless I mean $2.00 or less, but there is that 0.1% like in all collectibles that is just insanely valuable. Here is the breakdown. For Magic there are approximately 20 cards to really keep an eye out for, but the number one is the Black Lotus from the original Beta set with a black boarder, in near perfect condition the card at auction easily brings $30,000+ when graded. Even if you have the original unlimited release with the white boarder it can be an $8,000 card in the right setting. The same rule of thumb applies to both Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh having approximately 20 or so cards really worth cake. For Yu-Gi-Oh the fan favorite has always been Blue Eyes White Dragon. For a first edition non-starter deck card in 10 out of 10 condition you’re looking at about $4,000-$6,000 at auction. That’s a lot of money to think the card is only from 2002. Last but not least for the one who just has to catch them all the first edition shadowless Charizard is the crown jewel of Pokemon, and in perfect 10 out of 10 condition you have a $25,000+ card, but have just a 9 and you’re looking at about $2,500. So you can see how important condition is. If you stumble across your old binder of cards your best bet is to contact a Pop Culture specialist, you’ll drive yourself crazy. There are so many variants and factors to consider it’ll be impossible to know what cards you truly have, and you don’t want to make a mistake.