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It might sound a little silly that theres an entire subgenre of influencers who offer investment advice around Pokémon trading cards. Probably because it is a little silly. The idea of some YouTube Jim Cramer breathlessly warning viewers that Surging Sparks is setting a fire under collectors and investors is the stuff Saturday Night Live sketches are made of. Yet, theres nothing silly about the amount of money changing hands in the Pokémon card space these days. Especially right now. If it werent clear from all the viral videos of brawls at various Costcos, the soaring popularity of Pokémon cards has lately reached stratospheric new heights. (Costco ultimately had to institute a one unit per membership per day policy on its Pokémon offerings.) Overall value of the cards has spiked by 20% in the past six monthsaccording to Elizabeth Gruene, who oversees Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA)’s pop culture and trading-card-games divisionwith some individual cards skyrocketing by as much as 150%. And a lot of that increase has happened in just the past few months. Whats behind the surge? A confluence of events Gruene describes as a perfect storm, building on several years of intense interest in Pokémon. The Pokémon phenomenon originally began in 1996 when Japanese boutique video-game company Game Freak launched the first-ever game in the series. Players set out to capture all 151 species of pocket monsters dispersed throughout a magical realm, hence the catchphrase, Gotta catch em all. The game was an instant, monster-size hit that spawned a multibillion-dollar empire of movies, TV shows, theme parks, and, of course, trading cards. When it reached the U.S. in 1999, kids across America quickly adopted the catch-em-all ethos, tearing through packs in search of rare cards to impress their friends with oramong the more enterprising youngstersto appreciate in value. Those kids have since grown into working adults, many of whom now have enough disposable income to buy the rare cards that once eluded themsay, a first-edition Shining Charazard now worth $4,000or buy packs for their own kids from the Pokémon vending machines now at grocery stores around the U.S. (The standard price for unopened packs is generally $4.49, but good luck getting your hands on them at the moment.) Millennial nostalgia, combined with high-profile superfans like Logan Paul, led to a veritable pokéssance, so to speak, starting in the early part of the pandemic. Pokémon trading cards have since become so popular as a game, as a series of collectibles, and as an investment opportunity, that PSA, the industry leader in assessing the condition and legitimacy of trading cards, now grades more Pokémon cards than baseball or any other sport. Even with Pokémon interest already fairly high, though, Gruene noticed a massive uptick of late. Our submission numbers are just insane right now, she says. We have quite a big backlog that we’re working through. [Photo: John Keeble/Getty Images] One of the main drivers of the surge, according to Gruene, is a newly strong release slate. While 2024 was mostly soft in terms of excitement around new Pokémon offerings, Novembers Surging Sparks series introduced a lot of highly sought-after cards. That release was followed in January by a new one, Prismatic Evolutions, featuring some extremely popular characters from Pokémon lore, including Eevee and the Eeveelutions. (Some of the chase cards from Prismatic Evolutionsan Umbreon ex Special Illustration Rare card, for instanceare so sought after that theyre already reportedly worth more than $1,500.) One reason the excitement around certain new releases reverberates beyond players and over to the purely investment-minded crowd is because more new Pokémon cards have instant high value than their sports-cards brethren. While the most valuable baseball cards are overwhelmingly vintage cards, Pokémon produces a greater volume of high-value new cards. A particular rarity from Novembers Surging Sparks release, for instancePikachu ex Special Illustration Rarerecently sold for $1,000 on eBay. With the new sports releases, it has to be a one-of-one or some really low population-count card to have a ton of value, but we don’t really see that as much in Pokémon, says Gruene. There might be a new card that comes in 10,000 or 20,000 packs that could each still sell for $1,000-plus. The total market cap for these cards is just a lot bigger than what we see in sports. The value of any trading card is determined by the secondary market, and whatever people are willing to pay for it. In the case of Pokémon, people are willing to pay five, six, and in some cases, seven figures, though since the vast majority of packs contain only cards worth as much as the paper theyre printed on makes card-flipping more like gambling than an investment. But booms in value like the one were now experiencing, tend to follow excitement around the cardsa hype cycle in which resellers can charge more once demand outpaces supply. While some coveted new releases have helped fuel the current enthusiasm around Pokémon cards, another factor driving it is the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. The game, which came out October 30, recreates the experience of opening packs of Pokémon cards but also adds an immersive element, transporting players into the pocket monsters world. By mid-December, the mobie app had already been downloaded more than 60 million times. Popular streamers on Twitch and on YouTube had turned the act of opening packs into a vicarious thrill; TCG Pocket gave those onlookers, and newcomers, a way to experience it themselves. It seems quite likely that the games explosive popularity enticed droves of new fans to take the leap from opening virtual packs of cards to seeking out the real thing. That was a big cultural moment, Gruene says. And we did see a big bump in trading-card submissions around that time frame last year too. A final potential factor in the recent spike in Pokémon card value, according to Gruene, is the new partnership between PSA and GameStop. Sending cards off to PSA for grading can be a complicated process for newcomers, but ever since the partnership began last October, card owners can now just drop off their wares at a GameStop and let the workers do the rest. That increased accessibility for a necessary step in selling high-value cards, arriving alongside the new mobile game and some sensational new card series, may have added to the recent value surge. It certainly couldnt have hurt, at least. Of course, the danger around this boom is that it could end up being a Beanie Babies-like bubble (and fodder for an Apple TV+ original movie a decade or two after it bursts). Whether the current hype lasts much longer is a mystery for Detective Pikachu, but considering that next year is the 30th anniversary of Pokémon, many more people just may catch it.
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. This week, Zillow economists announced that they expect U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, to rise 1.1% between January 2025 and January 2026. Thats a downward revision from their previous 12-month forecast, which had projected a 2.9% increase in U.S. home prices. Zillows latest forecast anticipates home value growth in 2025 to be weaker than previously expected, wrote Zillow economists on Wednesday. New listings were higher than expected out of the gate this year, and inventory expectations that were revised higher have put downward pressure on Zillows forecast for home value growth. Not only do Zillow economists predict weak national home price growth this year, but theyre also predicting that U.S. existing home sales remain unchanged from 2023 and 2024 at 4.1 millionwhich is well below the 5.3 million U.S. existing home sales in pre-pandemic 2019. Zillow economists added that: As elevated mortgage rates dampen demand for home purchases, many potential buyers are staying renters for longer. Zillow forecasts a 3.7% increase in single-family rents for 2025, while multifamily rents are projected to rise by 3.1%. With apartment construction slowing, the growth rates for single-family and multifamily rents are expected to converge more closely than in recent years. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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Somewhere between 25% and 35% of working Americans are gig workerseither as a supplement to their primary income or as their full-time job. And for many gig economy workers, cash apps and marketplaces offer a simple and convenient way to receive payments. Enter the IRS form 1099-K. Third-party payment apps have to issue a 1099-K form to taxpayers who make more than a certain earnings thresholda threshold which the IRS significantly lowered for the 2024 tax year. The IRS anticipates that millions of Americans will receive a 1099-K form for the first time this year because of that reduced earnings threshold. If youve been wondering why you received a 1099-K form this year, heres what you need to know. 1099-K history Prior to the introduction of third-party payment apps and online marketplaces, the IRS typically received reporting about your income from either a W-2 form (for traditional employees) or 1099-MISC form (for contractors, freelancers, or other nonstandard employment). The introduction of third-party payment apps like PayPal changed the landscape for taxable income. Even though freelancers who collect payments via third-party apps must claim every penny of income (just as employees must track and claim their tips), taxpayers seriously underreported their income from third-party payment apps when the technology was new. Uncle Sam estimates that taxpayers underreported $450 billion in 2006, which equated to a 17% noncompliance rate. Recognizing that modern problems require modern solutions (or at least a new tax form), the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 instituted a requirement that banks and credit card merchants report payments to the IRS via the new form 1099-K. The first 1099-K forms were issued in 2012 for the 2011 tax year. Who issues 1099-K forms? There are several different types of organizations, apps, sites, marketplaces, and platforms that may be required to issue a 1099-K form. These may include: Auction sites (such as eBay) Ridesharing platforms (like Uber or Lyft) Crafting marketplaces (such as Etsy) Crowdfunding platforms (like Kickstarter) Freelance marketplaces (like Fiverr) Online marketplaces (such as Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace) Peer-to-peer payment platforms (like Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App) Ticket exchange sites (such as StubHub or TicketSwap) If you have earned money through any of these kinds of platforms, you may receive a 1099-K form this yearif you have taken in more than the minimum earning threshold (see below). The one commonly used app that will not issue 1099-K forms is Zelle. Thats because Zelle directly transfers money from one bank account to another, rather than holding your funds in an account for you, the way PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App do. But just because Zelle will not issue a 1099-K doesnt mean youre off the hook for reporting any earned income you receive via Zelle. You will have to report income Zelled to your account on Schedule C of your tax return. 1099-K minimums Until the 2024 tax year, the 1099-K form was only issued to taxpayers with more than 200 transactions on third-party payment apps who earned $20,000 or more in income. This meant only the individuals who were seriously committed to making a living via gig work received a 1099-K form. That is now changing. For the 2024 tax year, if you made $5,000 on a payment app, you will receive a 1099-K, no matter how many transactions you cleared. This means hobbyists and side hustlers are much more likely to receive a 1099-K this yearand the likelihood will keep going up. Thats because the minimum income threshold for the 2025 tax year is $2,500, and it will dip to $600 thereafterand there is no minimum number of transactions to trigger a 1099-K filing. 2023 Tax Year2024 Tax Year2025 Tax Year2026 Tax Year and BeyondEarnings threshold$20,000$5,000$2,500$600Minimum transaction requirement200NoneNoneNone This means your aunt Esther who has an Etsy storefront that sells five or six risque needlepoint projects per month will be as likely to receive a 1099-K form as a professional eBay seller with thousands of transactions per week. Fixing 1099-K errors Not all transactions on third-party financial apps are taxable. When your sister Venmos you $75 to pay for her half of your mothers birthday gift, that money is not taxable. But if you receive Venmo payments for your side gig as a photographer, that money is taxable. This means anyone who only has a single payment app for personal and professional payments may see errors on their 1099-K form. To help ensure youre not charged tax on nontaxable payments from friends and family, the IRS has added a space at the top of the 2024 Schedule 1 form to report any money that was included on your 1099-K in error. The spot on the Schedule 1 form also allows you to report 1099-K money related to personal items you sold at a loss. For example, if you resold courtside basketball tickets for $5,000 and accepted payment via Venmo, that would trigger a 1099-K form. But if you purchased those tickets for $6,000 and sold them at a loss, the $5,000 you received is not taxable. You can include that $5,000 in the new space on the Schedule 1 form, and you will not owe taxes on it. The future of 1099-K filing The IRS wasnt quite done tinkering with the 1099-K rules when it lowered the earnings threshold and minimum transaction requirement. As of the 2025 tax year, third-party payment apps may request your taxpayer identification numberwhich for most people is their Social Security number. If a third-party payment platform does not have your valid tax ID number, the platform has to withhold 24% of your payment for taxes. This is similar to how your taxes may be withheld from a traditional paycheck, but it can come as an unpleasant surprise to aunt Esther when she sells the $100 Kirk/Spock needlepoint to an enthusiast and only receives $76. While the withheld amount can be credited to the tax you owe when you file your taxes, or it may be refunded if you do not owe any taxes, many taxpayers will prefer to simply provide their Socia Security number to avoid the withholding altogether. File responsibly With more ways to get paid, there are more opportunities to underreport earned income. To combat taxpayer forgetfulness (both genuine and feigned), the IRS introduced the 1099-K form, which requires third-party payment apps to report earnings over a certain dollar amount. As of the 2024 tax year, anyone earning $5,000 or more via payment apps or platforms will receive a 1099-K form. In 2023 and earlier, only taxpayers who earned over $20,000 and had 200 or more transactions got such a form. The minimum earnings threshold will go down to $2,500 for the 2025 tax year, and to $600 thereafter and there is no minimum transaction requirement. Getting more tax forms may feel like a crappy reward for all the hard work you have put into your side gigbut the new 1099-K filing requirements will ultimately make it easier for you to correctly file your taxes. And correct tax filing keeps the auditor away.
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E-Commerce
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