Cards Collectibles Asia (CCA) is almost here. To be held at Marina Square in Singapore from 11-13 October 2024, the event will rank among Southeast Asia’s largest TCG-related events and feature TCG and sports cards of a wide range of brands as well as various other collectibles.

Before the big day, we had a word with the team behind CCA to get an inside perspective on all the major details about CCA as well as their own personal journeys within the TCG world.

Left to right: Mark, Mason, Ryohei, Aaron

First of all, could you introduce yourselves?

Aaron: Hi, I’m Aaron from CCA.
Ryohei: Hi, I’m Ryohei from CCA.
Mason: Hi, I’m Mason from 1Collectibles as well as CCA.
Mark: Hi, I’m Mark, the founder of 1Collectibles. I’m also part of the CCA team.

How did you first get involved in the TCG scene?

Mason: When I was about 10 or 11, the first TCG I ever bought was Yu-Gi-Oh because I was fascinated with the anime and everything. As I got older, I started watching a lot of football and started thinking to myself about how I wanted some memorabilia from Manchester United, my favorite team. I was looking and looking and that’s how I ended up discovering cards. I found out about boxes and sealed products from Panini and Topps that already carried the autographs inside the boxes, did more digging, and eventually ended up with 1Collectibles.

Ryohei: I’ve been in Singapore for more than 15 years and when I had a chance to work with Aaron, it was then that I learned how large the TCG market here actually is. That led to us starting CCA.

Aaron: I started collecting cards when I was a kid through the old vending machines near the apartment blocks. You’d put in a coin and hope to get a rare card; usually Dragon Ball for me since I was interested in the Dragon Ball manga. Actually, back then I wasn’t really interested in Pokémon until my oldest son was born; he was into Pokémon which got me into it as well; we started playing Pokémon Ga-Olé and that eventually led to me looking at the card market which I realized was starting to boom post-pandemic, which is how I got back into collecting cards.

Mark: I’ve been collecting cards almost all my life—ever since I was 8. I’ve never stopped collecting; I’m now 33 and still collecting. I don’t really know why—perhaps it’s my inner child that hasn’t truly been satisfied yet. Now I have the money to buy the cards, so I do. I’m really excited to be hosting CCA with them because I think it’s a huge milestone in our industry, especially among the subcultures which had been underground for quite some time. It’s a good way to showcase what we’ve been doing for all these years to people who want to know more.

Can you elaborate more on how CCA came to be?

Aaron: The idea of CCA started about a year ago. In Asia, there had never been large-scale card shows as there are in the US; just smaller ones usually held at brick-and-mortar stores, not in expo halls. There’d never been one singular show at that scale, and that was the gap that we identified.

Over the past year, we’ve seen more card shows spring up, which shows that the market is there and that people are interested in them for buying, selling, trading, or anything else. We can tell that it’s picking up and that the interest is there.

Mason: Aaron actually first told me about the idea at 1Collectibles. At first I dismissed it as just an idea; I didn’t actually think we were going to plan out everything and put it into action and so just skeptically brushed off the idea. Then he said “what’s the worst that could happen?” so I agreed to give it a shot. We did a mini-show and as we carried on and did more planning, I realized that this might just work. I always wonder what would’ve happened if Mark and I hadn’t gone ahead with this—CCA might not have actually happened because I was thinking about how many things 1Collectibles was already working on and assumed we might not have the manpower to work on this, but one thing led to another, it worked out, and here we are now.

Aaron: The synergy between the different partners here is important. I’m from a marketing and advertising background, so creating a brand comes naturally to me. 1Collectibles helps us from an industry standpoint so that we can know our audience better. Ryohei, being a Japanese who lives in Singapore, helps connect us to Japanese brands linked to TCG.

We didn’t have an open call for everyone who wanted to come. What we wanted to do for a show like this was to curate it in a way that set up an equal distribution of TCG cards, sports cards, and other items. For future shows, we do plan to have open calls for them.

What’s been the interest in CCA been like at a regional level?

Mason: The response we’ve received from people around Southeast Asia about CCA has been pretty responsive and receptive to this. There’s been lots of hype building around this event as well as future ones we’re holding; those will also be large-scale events.

This is a two-part question: as of right now, the TCG culture of Japan/Asia-Pacific and that of the West are very different.

a) Could events like CCA serve as a way to bridge this gap and if so, how?

Aaron: In Japan, on every other street there’ll be a card shop. So it might not have been the best idea to run a card show there because individual card shops in Japan are almost like mini-card shows. Plus, over there the TCG scene has its own fandom, community, advertising methods—in general there are many active communities that not only follow the various franchises, but even individual TCG card shops, which makes it very different.

In Southeast Asia, the TCG scene is still growing; it hasn’t really exploded yet. There’s still the need for more education around it like about card values, backstories, and rarities. There’s much to do within Southeast Asia in ways that we’re not sure would necessarily work in Japan.

Ryohei: In Japan, many of the leading TCG franchises are connected to an anime or manga series, but in the West the emphasis is on sports cards. So once we combine the two, then maybe we can open collectors’ eyes to the trends elsewhere. For example, if someone is just collecting manga or anime TCG cards, we can make them realize “hey, sports cards are interesting too”.

b) What influence do the TCG markets of Japan and Asia-Pacific have on that of the West and vice versa, and how are these cross-regional influences expected to develop in the future?

Mason: Historically, many TCG collectors in Japan hadn’t really branched out and therefore haven’t heard of sports card collecting, but over the years more and more Japanese have begun to collect more sports card memorabilia and pop culture-related cards, and it’s kept building to a point at which there are now Japanese card manufacturers that produce sports cards.

In the US, card collectors had previously strictly limited themselves to collecting English cards but over the years there’s been a growing trend of Japanese card-collecting because some promotional cards are only in Japanese such as the Poncho-wearing Pikachu series, and those promotional cards have begun to penetrate the US market to a point at which many American card collectors now exclusively collect Japanese cards because of the inclusion of those promotional cards as well as the different card texture. So I would say that both have helped each other’s TCG markets grow significantly.

Aaron: Here at CCA, we started out with just cards and originally intended to combine TCG and sports cards into one event. At the same time, we’re focusing on collectibles as well, so we’re also including other items—perhaps comic books, toys, and even sneakers, for all we know. Think of One Piece’s collaboration with Skechers or artwork in Marvel comic books that’s linked to Marvel Weiß Schwarz cards, for example. So there are indeed links between other collectibles, so we don’t want to push them aside but instead include them. So as time passes, we can see how the markets will progress with regard to TCG cards as well as collectibles.

Are there any plans to expand CCA abroad in the coming years?

Aaron: Yes, we’re hoping to bring CCA across Southeast Asia. That’s the next step. We never wanted to position CCA as “CCS” or “Cards Collectibles Singapore”. If we did that, we’d limit ourselves to just doing shows in Singapore. The idea is definitely to go around the region as long as we have the manpower and resources to do so. We’ll see where it takes us, but the plan over the next three years is to have a presence outside Singapore.

As for the shows in Singapore, we’d like to introduce more regional exhibitors to the shows so it won’t just be Singapore-based vendors. For the show in October, we will have exhibitors from Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Hopefully the proportion of regional exhibitors will increase over the coming years.

Can you speak about your experiences with TCG products on the SNKRDUNK app, if any?

Mason: For me, I don’t purchase many boxes or stuff like that, though I do keep up with the market pretty much every day. I do track prices on SNKRDUNK to help me check the state of the market. I cross-reference prices across different websites, and one of those is SNKRDUNK. I often look at prices of more liquidable cards because their prices represent how the market is doing in general. By using SNKRDUNK, I can also track how many transactions have been made over a given period. If there are more transactions, it means that the state of the market is improving. For the most part, SNKRDUNK’s tracking tool helps me get an idea of how many transactions have been made and what the market for a certain card as well as the general TCG market is like at any point.

Ryohei: SNKRDUNK is well-known in Japan and regarded as very trustworthy. For that reason, many people there choose SNKRDUNK.

Aaron: For me, I’m into both sneakers and cards, so it helps that there’s one platform that combines both. For example, using the SNKRDUNK app, I can look at Air Jordan 1s and Pokémon Card 151 [SV2a] cards on the same platform. I also look at the promotions and giveaways that SNKRDUNK has on offer every now and then because they’re very attractive.

I was first introduced to SNKRDUNK by a friend who persuaded me to try it out because of the affordable prices as well as SNKRDUNK’s direct links to TCG sources. That was what many people were saying about SNKRDUNK at that point. Right now I do think there’s awareness, but many people aren’t just prioritizing affordability anymore. People are looking at card quality as well.

What would you regard as the primary advantages of purchasing TCG products via an online store such as that of the SNKRDUNK app?

Aaron: I started out buying TCG products online via eBay; I also go there to buy comic books. Buying these items there is a very straightforward process that allows me to easily go through all the options. I also go to Mercari where cards are affordably priced and sold by ordinary people selling cards on an online platform, not through a brand. You can get some really good deals there; you just need to be sure you’re not buying a fake and that no items will be missing. You’ll also need to check if the card is suitable for grading if that’s what you’re after.

Mason: Purchasing TCG products from online stores like SNKRDUNK guarantees the authenticity of the cards. Doing so from less reputable websites can lead to issues; I’ve heard many horror stories from my friends though I myself have never been a victim of this. By buying off a reputable platform, the authenticity is guaranteed as is the safety of the platform. That instills trust in the product and process within the buyer. These platforms also get their products directly from the source, making the whole process much easier. So I would recommend that newcomers who might be unsure to at least try out apps like SNKRDUNK’s when they’re just starting out so that they have a better understanding of the situation instead of going off to a third-party website where they might not be sure what’s happening, make a purchase, then realize that something’s wrong.

How do you envisage the regional TCG scene developing in the near future?

Mason: If you’re speaking specifically about TCG or collectible cards in general, I believe that the regional market has been pretty solid and is growing. One of the factors involved is the increased frequency of card shows and events like CCA. Even just two years ago, card events like this one almost didn’t exist at all in the region, but since then more and more like these have come up. At the same time, more and more newcomers who might be trying to kickstart a hobby have been buying cards. Most of the newcomers are adults in their 30s and 40s who are trying to figure out what this whole thing is. For many of them, it’s also a nostalgia thing because it reminds them of their younger days but only now, when they’re earning their own money, can they afford the cards. That’s why I believe that card-collecting will end up a more mainstream thing in the region; it’s slowly being brought into the spotlight and within the next three to seven years will be seen as a much more mainstream hobby even though it’s now considered quite niche to many.

Which TCG franchises which might not be the biggest at the moment can you see exploding in popularity soon?

Mark: Honestly speaking, I’d say Murakami.Flowers because of its connection to art subcultures. It’s a very niche market which I feel that a lot of people are keeping their eyes on because of its genre.

Aaron: I don’t know about popularity, but for cards which people would like to collect or are interested in the backstory about, the next move would be to look at hanafuda cards which are cigarette box-sized cards. Those have a very interesting backstory which I recently found out about.

Ryohei: Right now, Shohei Ohtani is a very, very popular athlete. So with his popularity, I can see the demand for baseball cards growing to match those of football or basketball cards which are more popular now. I can even see this happening to cards from NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) as well.

Mason: I think there are quite a few TCG franchises which are up and coming; I’ve seen lots and lots of brands come up only to fail. That said, it’s probably Murakami.Flowers; I’ve been eyeing those for quite a while. Another one which I’ve recently been exposed to was Steve Aoki’s HiroQuest; he has plans to put it out in Q1 of 2025 which I do think will be up and coming as well; I’m excited for that as well as upcoming Murakami.Flowers cards because I love the brand.

Mark: We’ve also been talking about musicians’ cards because we’re all music fans as well. Such as K-pop photocards or My Chemical Romance cards; Panini is also doing Rolling Stones cards, and other things which might be in the works as well. We don’t know what the big boys are doing but that’s a good direction to look at because they’re people who have major support, so those would be really nice to have on a card. I think some of them are going in that direction; we don’t know where it’s going to be in 2026, but if they ever do it, it’s something that I would pursue.

Aaron: There’s a lot coming out soon, like cards for WWE, UFC, Formula 1—there’s so many different industries that they’re producing cards for. So you see so much more now than before, and where that takes us or how big they become, we have no idea—but we definitely know that commercially, there will be value.

Click here for Part 2 of the interview.

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