It's now $3 to ride the New York City subway ... and $3,000 for a MetroCard?
The calendar's turn to 2026 meant the discontinuation of the decades-old NYC MetroCard, as the city moved to a strictly tap-to-go system. And as is the case with most things discontinued, there's an immediate attempt to sell it as a collector's item, especially since the cards are no longer available for purchase from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The cards, which lived from Dec. 31, 1994, through, Dec. 31, 2025, have surfaced on eBay, with listings up to $50,000.
Now, none of these baffling listings have sold. So despite the headlines, the opportunists might not be actually finding a market.
A search for MetroCards using eBay's official research tool, Terapeak, returned more than 3,700 active listings with an average asking price of $420 on Tuesday.
The tool reports more than 600 completed sales over the last week, but shows an average sale price of just $11.
What is getting more actual attention though, are special-edition MetroCards that have popped up, such as the Notorious BIG MetroCards from 2022, which one seller has listed for $60, or the Hip Hop at Fifty NYC MetroCards, which are listed for $19.99. Additionally, a set of five David Bowie MetroCards are listed for $125, with different images on each one.
The top listing is a set of unopened original blue MetroCards from 1994, which are listed for $99.99.
Want more stories like this? Subscribe to the cllct newsletter and follow cllct on X and Instagram.
Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.