Collectors, we have a long way to go… and I think that’s encouraging.

Over the past week I’ve read multiple articles about record sales in the fine art world. Like this one, about Christie’s selling more than $1B worth of art in just three hours on Monday (I repeat… $1 BILLION, 3 HOURS). Or this one, tied to the same auction, that saw both Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi join the $100 MILLION Club (i.e. each saw a piece sell for more than $100 at auction for the first time).

The reality is, when compared to more established collectible categories like art, our hobby is, shall we say, a bit quaint, what with us getting excited when an athlete joins the $1 MILLION Club for a card or a game-used item.

But that ain’t a bad thing! It just shows how early in the game this hobby really is.

CNBC released their annual Disruptor 50 this week, and one company from the hobby made the list, Whatnot. But you could argue that Whatnot is starting to look less like a collectibles startup and more like a full-blown commerce infrastructure company these days. The live-shopping platform now claims roughly 60% of the global live commerce market, with users reportedly spending up to 95 minutes per day watching streams — which is honestly closer to Twitch behavior than traditional shopping. The company’s latest $225M funding round pushed its valuation to $11.5B, fueled by explosive growth across collectibles, yes, but also beauty, electronics, and jewelry. The big takeaway? Live commerce is starting to look like the next version of retail.

Panini’s World Cup sticker albums are going out with absolute chaos. The 2026 edition requires a record-breaking 980 stickers — plus 12 Coca-Cola exclusives hidden under soda bottle labels. Packs now contain seven stickers instead of five, but at $2 per pack, collectors are estimating total completion costs anywhere from $800 to $2,000 once duplicates pile up. And because this is one of Panini’s final World Cup runs before Fanatics takes over in 2031, even the weird quirks, like Gold Crumple parallels, Coke-bottle scavenger hunts, shiny crests, and all, suddenly feel historically important.

The WNBA’s salary boom and its card market are telling two very different stories. While stars like A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, and Alyssa Thomas are now signing contracts worth $1.2M-plus, their biggest card sales still sit shockingly low by hobby standards — often under $10,000. Meanwhile, the hobby’s money has flooded almost entirely toward the new generation, led by Caitlin Clark’s $660,000 Logowoman auto and major sales for Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink. The takeaway, per Mantel’s Mike Metzler, is pretty simple: collectors are currently paying for hype, narrative, and future potential far more aggressively than established greatness. Something many NBA, MLB and NFL collectors can relate to.

Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue dropped this week and J.R. Fickle immediately went to eBay to see what kind of collectibles exist for this year’s featured stars. The results were exactly the kind of unhinged internet archaeology you’d hope for. Tiffany Haddish has endless Leaf autos, but the best listing is an inscribed photo telling “John” to “stay alive.” Hilary Duff’s market somehow consists mostly of loose CDs. Sophie Cunningham search results become a graduate-level SEO course. And somehow Napheesa Collier Kaboom! cards still cost roughly the same as Zach Wilson cards, which feels deeply incorrect (though if you read the article above this one, you’d understand why).

Watch collectors absolutely lost their minds this week after Audemars Piguet and Swatch teased a collaboration, with most people assuming we were getting a cheap plastic Royal Oak. Instead, AP gave the world… a $400 lanyard watch. Technically it’s being called a pocket watch, though it isn’t quite as refined as what we expect a pocket watch to be. The internet immediately roasted it, compared it to a Happy Meal toy, and threatened to leave store lines in protest. Of course, there were also massive lines and some stores had to cancel the release because of crowd control. One collector’s trash is another collector’s treasure, as they say…