The Professor - The TCG Times

Magic: The Gathering vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026?

Leave a Comment / Cards vs Capital, MTG Market, TCG Finance & Investment / The Professor

The final instalment in our Cardboard vs Crypto series, and in some ways the most fitting comparison of the four, because Magic: The Gathering is the oldest major TCG on the planet, and Bitcoin is one of the newest major alternative assets (the classic old vs new). Between them sits a genuinely interesting question: does

Magic: The Gathering vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026? Read More »

One Piece TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026?

1 Comment / Cards vs Capital, One Piece Market, TCG Finance & Investment / The Professor

Get ready for something that would have sounded completely ridiculous three years ago… in the first half of 2026, One Piece trading cards significantly outperformed Bitcoin. Not marginally, not in a few niche categories, across the whole damn board. And given that Bitcoin dropped approximately 40% in the same period, from roughly $97,000 USD at

One Piece TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026? Read More »

Yu-Gi-Oh TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026?

Leave a Comment / Cards vs Capital, TCG Finance & Investment, Yu-Gi-Oh Market / The Professor

Bitcoin investors had a rough first half of 2026 (Calm down, bitcoin boys, it’s not a shot, just a rough H1). We are going to say that upfront, because it is the context that makes every TCG comparison in this series genuinely interesting rather than just a fun exercise. Bitcoin opened 2026 at around $97,000,

Yu-Gi-Oh TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026? Read More »

Pokémon TCG vs Bitcoin How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026

Pokémon TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026?

1 Comment / Cards vs Capital, Pokemon Market, TCG Finance & Investment / The Professor

That’s right, it’s time for the most anticipated crossover of the year! The finance bros (and bro-ettes) meet the Pokémon “Investors”…. (it’s a joke, chill out homie) Let’s get into it. Every now and then, the world of traditional investing throws up a result that makes even the most emotionless financial brain do a double

Pokémon TCG vs Bitcoin: How Did Cardboard Stack Up in the First Half of 2026? Read More »

Japanese vs English One Piece TCG: Which Language Should You Be Investing In?

Leave a Comment / One Piece Market, TCG Finance & Investment / The Professor

We have had this debate before, and it is a good one. When we covered Japanese vs English Pokémon investing, the answer was fairly clear… English for long term, “blue-chip” investment, Japanese for superior print quality, earlier trend signals, and some genuinely compelling exclusives. One Piece TCG scrambles that formula almost completely, and understanding why

Japanese vs English One Piece TCG: Which Language Should You Be Investing In? Read More »

Grading Timing: When to Submit, When to Hold Raw, and When to Sell Before You Ever Grade

Leave a Comment / Slabs & Stacks, TCG Finance & Investment, TCG Investing 101 / The Professor

Grading your cards is not always the right call…. there we said it. We know that sounds strange coming from a publication that has written enthusiastically about the BGS Black Label and the premium that high-grade copies command over raw cards. But the grading decision is not binary, it is a timing and economic problem

Grading Timing: When to Submit, When to Hold Raw, and When to Sell Before You Ever Grade Read More »

The Social Capital of Collecting: Networking and Trading as an Investment Strategy

Leave a Comment / TCG Finance & Investment, TCG Investing 101 / The Professor

Most TCG investors think about the market in terms of data, price history, population reports, pull rates, reprint risk. And they should. We do it constantly here at The TCG Times. There is no escaping the numbers. But there is a layer of the market that no spreadsheet captures, and it is responsible for some

The Social Capital of Collecting: Networking and Trading as an Investment Strategy Read More »

Why We Think Gol D. Roger Is the Charizard of One Piece TCG

Leave a Comment / One Piece Market, Pokemon Market / The Professor

In every TCG, there is that one card (or character). The card that anchors the market. The one that non-collectors have somehow heard of. The card whose price people reference when they are trying to explain to a confused relative why they keep buying cardboard (we’ve all been here). In Pokémon, it is Charizard, we

Why We Think Gol D. Roger Is the Charizard of One Piece TCG Read More »

The Tax Man Cometh What Selling Pokémon Cards Actually Means for Your Tax Return (USA, UK, AUS, CAN)

The Tax Man Cometh: What Selling TCG Cards Actually Means for Your Tax Return (USA, UK, AUS, CAN)

Leave a Comment / TCG Finance & Investment, TCG Investing 101 / The Professor

Here is a conversation we suspect very few collectors have had with themselves: “I just sold a card for $400 profit. What do I owe the government?” Most people in this hobby are thinking about pull rates, price trends, and what to buy next, not about tax obligations. And honestly, for the casual seller moving

The Tax Man Cometh: What Selling TCG Cards Actually Means for Your Tax Return (USA, UK, AUS, CAN) Read More »

The 90-Day Rule: Why We Never Judge a New TCG Set’s Investment Potential Before Three Months

Leave a Comment / TCG Finance & Investment, TCG Investing 101 / The Professor

Every new TCG set release follows the same emotional arc, and we have watched it play out enough times now that it is almost predictable to the week. Week one: excitement, hype, “this is the best set they have ever printed,” pull rates declared criminal, chase cards listed at astronomical prices. Week four: the hype

The 90-Day Rule: Why We Never Judge a New TCG Set’s Investment Potential Before Three Months Read More »