Behind the "Blind Box" and the scrambled card: a star card sold for nearly 40 million yuan, some people want to rely on it to get rich
Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, August 14 (Yang Jingchuan) "Congratulations to the boss for getting rich!" "Nothing, two thousand are gone." In a certain star card trading group, the same words appear every day.
"I'll stop here this time, I hope you bosses will continue next time." During the live broadcast, a young man yelled.
"This box (quality) is average, and we will have a more valuable one next time. I will send you a red envelope first. Thank you again for your support."
Immediately, the group of friends gradually withdrew from the live broadcast room.
The screen was also swiped with lines of "thank you boss".
The above screen is not uncommon in major star card trading groups.
In mid-August, it is the opening period of the five major European football leagues, and many star card trading groups are about to start a new round of trading boom.
Formed a group to "open the blind box", a card sold for 5.9 million US dollars
As a niche collectible, the star card was originally only a gift for customers to buy cigarettes by tobacco manufacturers.
Nowadays, the star card has a fixed collection group at home and abroad, and has formed a more mature market and trading platform.
Star card data map.
Photo by Yang Jingchuan, China-Singapore Jingwei
The most common way to dismantle cards is to team up and dismantle cards in various groups.
The configuration of the star card box is similar to the blind box. It is possible to take out physical cards such as the autographs or clothing materials of many stars, or to take out ordinary cards.
Chen Jingyu, a post-90s owner in Chaoyang District, Beijing, has opened a star card shop for two years. He told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that he often organizes card friends in the group to remove cards.
"Generally, the source of the whole box of star cards comes from the domestic agency company purchasing from abroad or Hong Kong. Most of the time, the team is formed in the trading group first, and the price of each team is different. If you take out the pre-selected team Players, then this card is yours." Chen Jingyu said, "A box of the most expensive star card series will probably cost nearly 300,000 yuan."
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei client learned through interviews that some players said that if there is no team or person you claim after the box is opened, then the money will be "washed".
In addition to live card dismantling activities, Katao, a domestic professional star card trading platform, is one of the most important trading markets.
Xianyu, Tieba, etc. are also flooded with card removal transactions.
When the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client searched for "Star Card" on Baidu Tieba, it found that there were more than 7 million posts under the Basketball Star Card Tieba, and more than 4 million posts in football. The main content was mostly buying and selling.
In foreign countries, eBay is one of the most important trading platforms.
"If you are lucky, you can make more than 100,000 yuan if you take out a card." A star card enthusiast revealed to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client.
On July 6, Alt, an alternative asset management platform, announced that it had purchased a 2009 Curry signed rookie card with a
transaction price of US$5.9 million
, which also set a new record for the transaction price of a star card.
Calculated according to the exchange rate of the day, it is
equivalent to RMB 38.232 million.
Xiaoye is one of many star card enthusiasts, and also operates her own star card public account.
He told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that, as far as he understood, the buyer Alt company in this transaction had divided a physical star card into several shares after market valuation. He could not afford high-priced star cards but was optimistic about the future of these cards. Card fans who are trending can buy the split shares, usually tens of dollars a share to participate in the investment of this card.
The faith of the collector, or the opportunity of the speculator?
The star card has always been tepid in the niche collection circle, and most fans only keep it as a collection.
Wang Bin, who was in college, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client at another star card shop that he was a Kobe fan.
After Kobe's death in early 2020, the price of his signature star card was "fired up".
A signature card of several thousand yuan was fired up to tens of thousands of yuan overnight.
Wang Bin said that he had collected a few photos at a high price and kept them forever.
For groups like Wang Bin, star cards are collections.
They are not very concerned about the appreciation of their cards, they just hope to have a collection of their favorite players in this way.
However, in recent years, card speculation has long been common in the card circle.
Chen Jingyu said that the phenomenon of domestic star card hype is actually to imitate the overseas hype of star card on eBay platform.
"It's mainly American players who are speculating. Domestic players want to take the opportunity to follow the trend and make a wave. Players in the domestic star card market will take the opportunity to collect a large number of cards. After American players have fired up their cards, they will sell them."
During the epidemic last year, the star card market attracted many collectors and speculators "into the pit."
According to data released by the eBay platform, the number of football star cards sold on the eBay platform will increase by 1586% in 2020, and the number of basketball cards will reach 373%.
It is worth noting that while the global card market sales are increasing, sales in China have increased by 205%, second only to the United States, ranking second in the world.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that many friends around him also collect this kind of star cards.
"The so-called scrambled cards and collections are also a kind of recognition of this subculture. When this kind of recognition begins to appear, there will be such a small group of collections, and a certain scale of market transactions will be formed."
When the star card has more players and popularity, the price of the card will rise.
For example, Ronaldo’s Flawless series of signature star cards sold for only about RMB 10,000 at the beginning of 2020, but its latest transaction price in the domestic auction market in June 2021 has exceeded RMB 200,000.
According to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client, among the star cards sold by Italian star card company Panini before the 2018 World Cup, the card of the
Prizm series star card of Mbappe
in the
first year soared from $44.9 in early 2020 to $44.9. The US$2999.97 in May 2020, an increase of more than 65 times within six months
.
But only three weeks later, the centralized transaction price of the same card fell to about $1,500.
Mbappé Prizm series general card (PSA10) price chart (2020.1-2021.8).
Image source: Market Movers, a foreign star card statistics website
Mbappé Prizm Series Puka (PSA10) transaction price.
Image source: Screenshot of the card trading platform Katao
After comparing the domestic and foreign market prices of the same star card, the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client found that the price trend in the domestic market is roughly the same as that of eBay.
In April, when Mbappé's 2018 Prizm card was about US$1,200 per eBay price in the same period, the domestic auction platform Katao transaction price was about 7,000 yuan per card.
As of August 8, the latest transaction price of the above-mentioned card on eBay showed that it was 459.5 US dollars, which has fallen by more than five-sixths from its highest transaction price of nearly 3,000 US dollars last year.
But compared with the price of about $43 a year and a half ago, it is still more than 10 times higher.
Be wary of "all chicken feathers" after the market ebbs
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei client learned that although some fans have a little knowledge of football and basketball, they still took apart a lot of boxes in online team formation during the epidemic, and suffered most of the losses.
"It cost more than five thousand yuan to form a team at most, but still nothing." A star card enthusiast said, "Later, I thought it would be better to follow the trend and fry the card.
Chen Jingyu said, "If you want to make money by splitting your cards, you basically lose nine out of ten. But if you have enough confidence in the market, you may be able to make a small profit by frying your cards. In fact, few people in China can imagine it. The value of a piece of paper can reach tens of thousands of yuan, and few outsiders can be optimistic about the price prospect of this card."
In Jiang Han's view, this is not a channel for maintaining value-added assets.
Liu Chunsheng, an associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, also pointed out that although the star card is one of the products that Gen Z young people are willing to invest in, and the threshold is relatively low, investors should still enter the market with relative caution.
If it is for the preservation and appreciation of assets, diversified investments are still required.
In fact,
even when the star card market is rising as a whole, the newcomers in the card circle dream of earning a lot of money on a wave of market conditions will mostly fall through.
Fans who blindly follow the market hype and invest heavily in the purchase of star cards for appreciation and "make a fortune" are often trapped in the quagmire of the star card market controlled by foreign capital, and end up in "a place."
In 2020, NBA champion Lakers player James Prizm's card price for the first year Puka reached $2,850 on August 16.
Since then, card prices have dropped overall.
On October 30, within the month of his winning, the transaction price was only $986, and the transaction price of a single card dropped by nearly two-thirds from two months ago.
Chen Jingyu said in this analysis: “It should be that some card speculators in the United States bought a large amount of money at the low price in the early stage of the event, and sold it to newcomers attracted by the price trend when the price was high.” After a large amount of sales, even if James eventually wins the championship, his Card prices will not rise as players imagined, but will fall sharply.
In July of this year, the card price of NBA champion Bucks star Antetokounmpo did not appear to rise as much as the card fans imagined.
Although the card price rose to US$2,629.64 per card on the day of its championship, a new high in the past three months, it still fell by about two-thirds from its highest transaction price of US$7,300 in August last year.
Antetokounmpo's Prizm series general card (PSA10) price chart (2020.1-2021.8).
Image source: Market Movers, a foreign star card statistics website
It is worth noting that the phenomenon of card speculation is controlled by more capital factors.
It's not that the player's recent outstanding performance will necessarily increase the price of his card, but it depends on the number of cards issued, the degree of attention, and many factors of capital and market.
Therefore, it is relatively difficult for ordinary hobbyists to grasp the overall trend of the market.
Liu Chunsheng told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that no matter what type of investment products are hyped, they need to bear certain risks.
Although some speculation will bring benefits, when speculating on niche collections such as star cards, once capital enters the game, the price will be reduced directly after the speculation reaches the highest point, which will cause investors to suffer greater losses.
Liu Chunsheng added that for niche collectibles such as (Star Card), the investment value is not very stable, and the possible risks will be far greater than that of popular collectibles such as gold, antiques and cultural and entertainment.
Therefore, when investing in such products, one should be relatively more cautious.
Regarding the compliance of the speculation card, Zhao Zhanzhu, a lawyer from Beijing Yunjia Law Firm, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that if only normal card speculation and transactions are conducted, in principle, there is no violation of the prohibition of the law, and it is not an illegal act. .
However, in the process of card speculation, there may be exaggerations, false propaganda, or after one party of the transaction paid, the other party did not deliver the goods; and the card received the card but failed to pay, and there may even be suspected crimes and other illegal activities.
(Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
(At the request of interviewees, Chen Jingyu, Xiaoye, and Wang Bin are all pseudonyms)
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