Happy Short-Week Thursday, Collectors.

On Monday venture capitalist Vasu Kulkarni of Courtside Ventures (investors in Mantel, as it were), wrote a piece on why the collectibles industry is booming and poised for more growth.

Per Kulkarni, collectibles are no longer niche hobby purchases; they’re increasingly functioning as cultural assets with global audiences, institutional infrastructure, and expanding pools of wealthy buyers. The piece argues that watches, art, memorabilia, and sports cards derive value less from utility and more from storytelling, identity, scarcity, and social signaling (all things we’ve said in these pages as well).

As online communities (including Mantel) create more educated collectors and global wealth accelerates, demand for top-tier collectibles continues to outpace supply. The broader thesis: while hype and irrational pricing exist, the best collectibles may still be early in their transition from passion purchases into legitimate long-term cultural stores of value.

And like we said last week, when it comes to trading cards and sports memorabilia, The Hobby has a ton of growth to go before it comes close to the fine art markets. I find that exciting.

A bottle of LeBron James grip powder just sold for $2,150 from TheRealest, which tells me this new collectibles momentum is more than… dust in the wind (sorry). Why? Because teams, brands and athletes are realizing almost anything tied to a memorable moment can become a collectible asset if it’s properly authenticated and presented correctly. Sports memorabilia is quietly shifting from “historic artifacts” into “experience commerce,” where fans are buying emotional proximity as much as the object itself, something The Realest, the masterminds behind the Philadelphia Eagles collectible snow, know well.

Victor Wembanyama’s hobby market just entered a completely different tier. His 1/1 Prizm Black rookie card reportedly sold for $5.11M this week, smashing the previous public Wemby record of roughly $860k and becoming the fourth-highest publicly known NBA card sale ever. What’s fascinating is that the card itself isn’t especially memorable visually — it’s essentially just Wemby dribbling against a black-curtained background. But it’s a 1/1 RC and it’s a Wemby, who is playing like someone who could one day land on the Mount Rushmore of Hoopers, so uninspiring design aside, it could turn out to be a good buy.

Brazilian police just seized roughly 200,000 counterfeit 2026 World Cup Panini stickers, which honestly feels inevitable once you realize this year’s album requires a ridiculous 980 stickers to complete. At some point, the combination of scarcity, cost, and obsession practically creates its own black market. The fake stickers reportedly had thicker paper stock, weaker image quality, rougher texture, and blank backs instead of official Panini printing — though increasingly sophisticated fakes are making that harder to spot. Meanwhile, real rare parallels are already exploding in value, with a Messi purple parallel recently selling for $1,600. So yes, we now officially live in a world where counterfeit World Cup stickers require forensic analysis.

Pokémon card theft (and counterfeit sticker) stories have become weirdly common over the last few years, but this one may have officially introduced the hobby to the “Florida Man” meme. A man in Palm Beach allegedly used a battery-powered chainsaw to cut a triangle-shaped hole through a hurricane-proof window in order to steal roughly $12,000 worth of Pokémon cards from a local shop. According to reports, he also managed to leave behind blood at the scene and apparently parked his own car directly in front of surveillance cameras (not exactly a ‘Thomas Crown’ affair). At this point, sealed product is basically being treated like portable jewelry stores.

Ferrari officially entered the EV era with the debut of the 1,035-horsepower Luce, a four-door, five-seat electric grand tourer and reactions were… mixed. Designed with input from Jony Ive (the guy who designed every Apple product you own), the Luce leans heavily into futuristic aerodynamics and tactile interior design rather than retro Ferrari nostalgia. It produces over 1,000 hp, hits 0-62 mph in 2.5 seconds, and starts around €550,000, but the bigger story is philosophical: Ferrari is betting that emotion, craftsmanship, and exclusivity matter more than what’s powering the car. An opinion of just one, but Pope Leo seemed to dig it.

Rittenhouse’s Game of Thrones autograph cards might quietly be one of the most entertaining corners of the entire hobby. Not because they’re the most expensive, but because the actors clearly understood the assignment when it came to inscriptions. Instead of generic signatures, many inscribed cards feature iconic quotes, inside jokes, or outright chaos. Hannah Waddingham’s “SHAME!” card somehow still sells for under $100 despite being tied to one of the show’s most unforgettable scenes. Rose Leslie’s “You Know Nothing Jon Snow” remains the crown jewel. And then there’s Edward Dogliani taking a subtle shot at being recast by writing “Russ O’Hennessy Who?” on-card, which honestly feels like the kind of hobby pettiness we should encourage more often.