Now might be the time to see if that childhood binder full of hockey cards is worth anything.
What happened: Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the leading trading card grading and authentication company, is expanding operations in Canada this year as more and more Canadians collect potentially valuable paper rectangles with photos of athletes on them.
- Grading involves assessing the physical condition of a card on a scale of one to 10. The higher a card’s grade, the higher the value it could potentially fetch.
- Of the record ~20 million cards graded last year, PSA graded 15.3 million of them. This included over 9 million sports cards — a 13% jump from the previous year.
Why it matters: By relocating its HQ from Halifax to a larger location in Toronto, PSA will be able to keep cards in Canada to grade them, avoiding customs hassles for customers. This could make it easier for more would-be collectors to get cards evaluated and sell them.
- PSA President Ryan Hoge told The Athletic that the company has seen “50% year over year growth from Canada, which is higher than the business overall is growing.”
Bottom line: Since blowing up during the pandemic, trading cards are now treated like a real alternative asset class. However, some are skeptical about their long-term potential as the inherent value of cards, unlike other assets, is heavily tied to fleeting nostalgia.—QH