\n<\/p>\n
Even as more collectors cash out, retailers say demand remains strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SC Collection\u2019s Mr Chong said brands such as Pokemon, One Piece, Disney and League of Legends continue to attract buyers because of the emotional connection consumers have with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people grew up around all (these) major franchises, and there’s a very strong nostalgia factor. And they now have spending power,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s been a TCG (trading card game) hype and people’s collectibles are now suddenly worth quite a bit of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Shane Collectibles, Mr Wong said the store handles up to 1,000 transactions a month and has attracted buyers from countries including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many prefer purchasing through physical stores because they can verify authenticity in person, he added. Counterfeit products remain one of the industry’s biggest challenges as the popularity of trading cards continues to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite economic uncertainty, retailers remain optimistic about the long-term outlook for collectibles, although they expect buyers and sellers to become increasingly selective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Sugoi Collection, Mr Xu believes demand for certain collectibles could rebound despite recent declines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Labubu and Bearbrick figures are no longer commanding the same prices seen during their peak, the store continues to buy them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the low point of the Labubu cycle, but I believe in the next one to two years it will be good, because the Chinese company Pop Mart, they have a very structured plan to manage the collectibles,\u201d said Mr Xu.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Bearbrick, Mr Xu pointed to a recent huge investment in Japanese firm Medicom Toy, which owns the bear. He said: \u201cInvestors see that Bearbrick will have a future. (It means) the market will go up again, it’s a cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Mr Chong cautioned against viewing collectibles purely as investment assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some new entrants buy collectibles solely because prices are rising, expecting values to continue climbing indefinitely, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When market demand softens or liquidity dries up, these collectors may be forced to sell at a loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nature of these hobbies is for people to collect, share with their friends, and play the game (for trading cards). It’s not really designed as an investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
NOSTALGIA DRIVING DEMAND Even as more collectors cash out, retailers say demand remains strong.\u00a0 SC Collection\u2019s Mr Chong said brands such as Pokemon, One Piece,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--DW7rCZ1Y--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/25\/screenshot_574.png?itok=WlALFnOt","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[77,6884,436,4113,1397,1569,22,8811,1605],"class_list":["post-63703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-cards","tag-collectors","tag-comics","tag-costs","tag-part","tag-rise","tag-singapore","tag-toys","tag-trading","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}