More than $308 million was spent on sports and trading cards online in July to set an industry record for the second consecutive month.
The highest mark recorded by data tool Card Ladder, July’s total eclipses the previous record of $306 million from June. Prior to June, March was the highest recorded month in Card Ladder’s database with $303 million in total transactions.
The record total can continue to rise as previously unrecorded sales from July are retroactively added to the database. It also doesn't include in-person sales from shows such as the National Sports Collectors Convention, which reported record attendance last week.
More than 5.5 million total transactions were logged by Card Ladder in July, the second-most recorded in the tool’s database behind only the 5.6 million recorded in March.
The record month was largely driven by eBay, which had more than $266 million in sales recorded by Card Ladder. Fanatics Collect had the second-highest total with just under $23 million. Heritage finished with roughly $10.5 million, while Alt sold $7.3 million.
Caitlin Clark’s 2024 Panini Rookie Royalty WNBA Flawless Logowoman 1/1 was the most expensive card to sell in July after fetching $660,000 in Fanatics Collect’s July Premier Auction. That result is the highest ever for a women’s sports card at public auction.
Third-party grading tracker GemRate reported 2.3 million cards were graded in July. That total is up 10% compared to June and 34% year-over-year.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.