The company is set to buy TCGplayer -- an online marketplace for trading card games -- in a deal valued up to $295 million, it announced today. Launched in 2008, TCGplayer specializes in trading cards from popular franchises like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Digimon and more. The site will operate independently after the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. The pandemic drove a surge of interest in collectible trading cards that has only recently started to slow down. Last year eBay sold a trading card every two seconds, noted The Athletic.

As a kid growing up outside of Seattle, Douglas Haines rarely played with Pokémon cards. He remembers his pastor brought a small barbecue to Sunday school for kids to burn their trading cards. The way the church saw it: "Pokémon evolved, and evolution was bad," Haines said. The collectible cards fit into the same banned bucket as Harry Potter and Dungeons & Dragons. As a replacement for the Pokémon cards, the church offered biblical trading cards depicting scenes like Daniel in the lion's den, Haines said.

Collectors Universe has multiple business lines that grade, authenticate, and sell millions of high-value, record-setting collectibles every quarter. We're the leader in third-party authentication and grading services for high-value collectibles including trading cards (Professional Sports Authenticator), coins (Professional Coin Grading Services), video games (Wata), event tickets, autographs, and memorabilia, and with your help we can continue to grow rapidly. Our goal is to make the joy of collecting accessible to everyone -- collectors looking to complete their set, inventors looking to maximize the value of their collection, and anyone who's looking to preserve a game, card or coin that reminds them of fond memories in their lives. We're looking for analytics engineers who can support us in creating the next generation of engaging products for collectors, scalable, intuitive software for our internal customers, and innovative, best in class solutions to bring delight to The Hobby. What will you help us build?