Last year, we interviewed Mark, the founder of Singapore card store 1Collectibles, in his capacity as one of the organizers of Cards Collectibles Asia (CCA).

We’ve once again spoken to him—but this time with regard to his role as the 1Collectibles founder.

Could you introduce yourself?

I’m Mark; I’m the founder of 1Collectibles. I’m a lifelong collector and started collecting when I was 8, so it’s been about 75% of my life.

Like many people, I started out with the Pokémon TCG. Back then, it was the biggest craze among kids of my age. Then I eventually branched out into sports cards and even sticker books.

I’m still finding out more about why I’m still collecting today—but that’s part of the whole journey, right?

How did 1Collectibles start?

I used to work in Germany and also went to the US a lot; over there, I’d been to many hobby stores for sports collectibles. Back then, there were no sports card stores in Singapore.

Then after Covid-19 happened and I came back to Singapore, I was looking for a space where I could be in a community, ripping packs with people from different cultures, jobs, lifestyles, but there weren’t any. Then I decided that Singapore needs something like that, so I eventually opened this store—which can be regarded as a cultural space of sorts.

What have been the main challenges you’ve faced while running 1Collectibles – when you first started out as well as more recently?

One of my biggest challenges happens when we sell a piece that means something to me. Some of those we’ve sold over the years really mean a lot to me—but deep down I know someone else wants it more and ultimately, it’s all about sharing the joy of the card community.

For example, I love the Munch collection (from the Pokémon TCG’s SM-P Promotional Cards). They’re among my favorite cards of all time. Every time we sell one of those cards, I’ll leave a “☹️” emoji in the staff group chat because of how much I love those cards.

Another challenging part is how new all of this really is, especially because the recent surge of the Pokémon TCG has only been in the last three to four years. The unexpected attention into our subculture, while overwhelming, has also made 1Collectibles closer to where we’ve always wanted it to be.

And what have been your most memorable experiences running 1Collectibles?

Just meeting all the people who come in. When we started out, I just wanted this to be a space for collectors to indulge in their hobby. Then we realized that, for example, sometimes there’d be a CEO of a certain company opening packs alongside the kid who’d just opened their first pack. Then they might even start talking about their love of certain Pokémon or sports stars. Occurrences like this happen fairly often.

Not only that—these days we work on event organization and management as well as marketing. We’re working with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) regarding their grassroots marketing—and this, along with many others, was an opportunity that came about from people who walked into our store.

It’s a nice little hodgepodge of different expertise that all comes together, allowing us to build different businesses together and enjoy the hobby in different ways together.

Every now and again, there’ll be TCG products which end up in huge demand despite not initially having been expected to be that way. In your time at 1Collectibles, what would you say was your most surprising best-seller and why?

I think the level of fandom that Weiß Schwarz products have is very underrated. Another surprising best-seller would be our Topps baseball cards. Even though baseball isn’t that popular in Singapore, we noticed that there was a rising interest in those cards beyond what we expected.

Though there is a growing baseball community here in Singapore, that didn’t make it any less unexpected. We think it could be because of Shohei Ohtani’s impact.

Following the recent announcement over the upcoming restock and product raffle for Terastal Festival ex [SV8a], we’d like to ask you about the release day(s) that made headlines all over the world. What were the release days of Terastal Festival ex [SV8a] and/or its English version Prismatic Evolutions [PRE] like at 1Collectibles?

Leading up to release day, we got 70-80 DMs—amazing considering we only had about 4,000 followers back then. They were all asking about when the products would arrive. I even received messages from people I hadn’t seen in years or people who I went to secondary school or university with, asking if I was still selling Pokémon TCG products.

I mean, everyone can relate to Eevee in a way, right? Even back then, every time there was a new Eeveelution revealed, we would all be so hyped over it.

Since most TCG franchises print their English cards in the US, have you seen a decline in demand for English cards as opposed to Japanese cards or those in other languages as a result of the recent US-imposed tariffs, and do you expect such a decline to begin/continue in the future?

I don’t think so; I don’t think there’s a correlation between the tariffs and collectibles. This is mainly because the demand in the US is big enough and the main distributors like The Pokémon Company (TPC) know how to export their products to the rest of the world.

That being said, Japanese products are becoming pretty expensive now—but that’s the reason why we’re trying to bring in Chinese Pokémon TCG products as well. Most of the art is the same, but some also have unique Chinese-exclusive art—and at a generally lower price point. They’ll appeal to collectors who might not be able to afford more expensive cards and thus let them have something to collect.

Here at 1Collectibles, we don’t believe that price should be the most important thing. We believe in the “why” of collecting much more than the monetary value. So, we want to make sure that collectors of every level of purchasing power are fulfilled.

What do you think the future holds for local card stores (LCSs) in general across Singapore?

I think they’ll be fine. The thing about Singapore is that it’s so small that anyone who wants to buy a certain product doesn’t even have to go to a particular store. One can buy a product onlineand have it delivered within the same day. Thus, what we do differently here is make 1Collectibles a cultural subspace.

People don’t just come in to open packs; they come here to connect with other collectors as well. On top of that, our staff are very well-versed in the products’ details like the cards’ names, sets, release dates, and even Pokémon Center if the card in question came from one.

If LCSs follow that playbook, they’ll probably succeed.

What’s next for 1Collectibles?

Every week there’s something new; I always say that “we have six new problems before breakfast”. Usually we have three to four new releases every week—not just Pokémon, but also sports cards like Topps and Panini. We even have Korean cheerleader and ice hockey cards, among others—and we’re trying to bring in sumo and horse racing cards as well.

I think we’re just going to increase our product range so that people can come in and discover something new every time they step into the store. So if someone comes back two weeks after a first visit, we might have six new products for that person to explore.

Just for fun: if you were an Elite Four member in the Pokémon universe, what would your team of six be?

I’ve been thinking about that ever since I was a kid. Well, definitely Psyduck because it’s my favorite. I do love Feraligatr as well—my fiancée and me have this joke about how I just bite my way through the whole game with Feraligatr.

Next, we have to have a Legendary there, right? So my Legendary would be Articuno. And a Dragon-type too—I’ll go with Dragonair. Not Dragonite—I’m leaving it unevolved. And to finish it off, Annihilape and Chandelure.

Can we have a final message for your social media followers as well as your current and potential customers?

You can find us on social media under the name “1Collectibles” where we post information about new releases at our store.

In our store, we have product activation events sometimes, especially in conjunction with certain releases; for example, a watch-along of a baseball game when we released new baseball cards. We also had a sketching session with a bunch of collectors for Star Wars Day (4 May). It’s just a place to hang out and meet people who might be very different from you—but at the same time are very similar to you.

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