Son Heung-min Rare Card Sold for 400,000 KRW in Secondhand Market
Pok?mon Ttibushil Collection Sold for 1.5 Million KRW
KBO Baseball Cards Sell 1 Million in Three Days
K League and Overseas Soccer Sports Cards Also Popular
Limited edition items targeting sports stars and character enthusiasts in the distribution industry are being sold at extremely high prices through secondhand transactions.
According to the distribution industry on the 28th, the 'Son Heung-min Gold Card' was listed at a price close to 400,000 KRW on a secondhand trading platform the day before. The Son Heung-min Gold Card is a type of UK Premier League (EPL) Plus Panini card sold by the convenience store Seven Eleven.
Panini cards are known as the "Pokemon cards of the soccer world." They are collectible photo cards produced by Panini, the world's longest-running sports card company based in Italy. Among soccer fans, they are considered essential items to show fandom and are already being collected by many sports fans overseas. In particular, special cards of players Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan, who are active on the European stage, are made with a special gold material to emphasize their rarity.
The 'Ddibuseal' sticker collection included in SPC Samlip's re-released Pokemon bread in 2022 was traded for 1,500,000 KRW on a secondhand trading platform. Pokemon stickers were extremely popular among Pokemon fans at the time of re-release, selling out to the point where it was difficult to find stock. Rare single Pokemon stickers currently fetch prices of 30,000 to 50,000 KRW each on secondhand platforms. The price of one sticker is more than 30 times the price of one Pokemon bread.
As marketing products leveraging fan passion have established themselves as a 'financial investment tool' to the extent that people pay premiums in secondhand markets, Seven Eleven has been continuously launching related products. On the 12th, they introduced the 'KBO Official Collection Card' (KBO baseball card), which sold all 1 million packs within three days. Each pack contains three cards, meaning 3 million cards were sold in just three days. Notably, at the Seven Eleven store near KT Wiz Park, a baseball stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, about 8,000 packs were sold in one day, and the Seven Eleven app's real-time stock inquiry ranked first.
This card set consists of 140 baseball players from 10 professional baseball teams in Korea. This marketing strategy targeting baseball fans, who are considered the most popular professional sports fans in Korea, proved effective.
Seven Eleven secured an additional 1 million packs of the second batch and resumed sales from the 25th.
Previously, Seven Eleven gained popularity by releasing sports cards for the EPL, professional basketball, and professional volleyball. Seven Eleven has released various types of sports cards including ▲K League Panini cards ▲EPL Panini cards ▲EPL Plus Panini cards ▲Panini 2024 Top Class ▲KBL (Korean Basketball League) photo cards ▲KOVO (Korean Volleyball Federation) photo cards. The K League Panini cards sold 1.5 million packs, and EPL cards sold 700,000 packs. In total, more than 4.5 million packs of sports cards have been sold so far.
An industry insider said, "As individual tastes become increasingly segmented, unique marketing reflecting consumers' diverse 'deok-sim' (fan passion, the heart of a fan deeply devoted to something) will continue to emerge."
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