Why Trump’s new trading cards are a bad bet

Parents are collecting with their children, card shows are happening all over the country, and private equity and venture capital is flowing into trading card grading companies, auction houses and events. At the moment it seems everybody wants in on the trading card business, including former President Donald Trump, who recently announced he will be selling a new collection of digital trading cards, called the “America First Collection,” on his website. The Trump trading card NFT’s will feature 50 new portraits of the former president, according to a promotional video Trump shared on Truth Social showing images of the cards with him dancing, holding bitcoins, standing next to a buffalo or a lion, and striking various poses. By now we’ve learned that mass production and proliferation of trading cards can be detrimental to the trading card industry, which we saw in the 1980s and 1990s when card grading companies became greedy and manufactured hundreds of millions of cards to help line their pocketbooks. During the pandemic, for example, trading card sales surged. So far, the Trump trading cards are being acquired almost exclusively by investors trying to use arbitrage and make a quick buck. After the company Fanatics acquired Topps Baseball Card Company in 2022, Fanatics founder Michael Rubin has proved to fully understand that overproduction killed the trading card “hobby” decades ago, and is determined to make sure it doesn’t happen again. CollectTrumpCards For the purchase of a minimum of 15 digital cards (priced at $99 each), Trump promises that a physical trading card, which includes a swatch of the suit he wore during the presidential debate with President Joe Biden, will be mailed to the buyer. A limited 2,024 physical cards will be printed, and Trump will sign five of those 2,024 cards. So far, the Trump trading cards are being acquired almost exclusively by investors trying to use arbitrage and make a quick buck, with the physical trading cards currently being offered on eBay even though they haven’t yet been shipped to the original buyers. Remember, for $1,485 ($99×15), you are guaranteed a physical Trump trading card. There are several sellers on eBay offering the physical card for $10,000 or best offer today. If they can lock in a sale of $1,485 or over, they can make money (keep in mind eBay has sellers’ fees that need to be accounted for). I would estimate the market value of each of the physical Trump trading cards to be $200 to $2,000. It’s therefore a losing proposition to buy these digital trading cards to obtain the one physical card to sell. Some buyers may want to wait until the November election to sell the physical card, hoping for a Trump victory. As each week ticks off heading into the election, the values of these cards will only decrease. If he loses, nobody will care or want the cards. If he wins, there simply will be more supply of Trump trading cards that will infiltrate the market, and more people willing to buy them. As for the digital cards being sold, those are worth pennies on the dollar. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-trading-cards-nft-america-first-rcna168999