The World Cup is officially HERE. The biggest One Piece set ever made dropped this week. A missing $200,000 LEGO Star Wars collection has turned into the biggest internet drama of the year. And Heritage is selling EC horror comics so famous they once got pulled into a Senate hearing. What a week to be a collector!

Let's get into it.

This week:

⚽ The 2026 World Cup is here, and Panini stickers are flying off shelves 
🎴 One Piece TCG: OP-16 launches today with three Manga Rares in one set
🦅 A $200K LEGO collection is missing, and the internet is on the case
🧸 The most expensive vintage toys ever sold
🔥 Heatseekers: Top upcoming releases

Let’s get into it.

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The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially kicked off yesterday at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, with Mexico opening against South Africa.

For collectors, this is the moment the Panini sticker album goes nuclear. The 980-sticker, 112-page album is the largest one Panini has ever produced, and packs come with 7 stickers each now (up from 5, the first bump since 2014).

A few things worth knowing as the tournament unfolds:

The World Cup is the rare global event where collecting is mainstream and intergenerational. Kids trading on the playground, parents trading at the office, grandparents finishing the 1970 album they started 56 years ago… It's all the same hobby ⚽

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Collectibles.com recently updated their definitive ranking of the 10 most expensive vintage toys ever sold, and the #1 spot belongs to a 3¾-inch plastic action figure that was supposed to be destroyed before it ever left the factory.

At the top: a 1979 Kenner Rocket-Firing Boba Fett prototype that sold for $1.34 million at Goldin Auctions in August 2024, more than doubling the previous record. Kenner made roughly 100 of these as a mail-away promo before the spring-loaded rocket was pulled (a similar Battlestar Galactica toy from Mattel had been federally recalled after a child died). The figures were ordered destroyed. A handful came home in the pockets of Kenner engineers. This one stayed sealed in its mailer for decades before the engineer's son finally opened it. It's AFA 85+ NM (AFA grades action figures the way PSA grades cards. 100 is gem mint).

A few other entries worth knowing about:

If you've got mystery boxes of old toys at home, the move isn't to sell yet. Catalog first 👀

See the full list here →

YouTuber Reckless Ben has spent the last three weeks investigating a missing $200,000 Star Wars LEGO collection that was consigned to a Bricks & Minifigs franchise in Salem, Oregon. When the store changed hands in late 2024, 83-year-old Ed Mansell's collection allegedly vanished with it.

What started as a consignment dispute has spiraled into one of the wildest internet sagas of the year. Ben's investigation videos have tens of millions of views. He's been arrested, had his Airbnb raided, and fled to Mexico on a warrant. Bricks & Minifigs filed a lawsuit and obtained a gag order blocking Part 3 of his series. Patreon's CEO publicly told the company to "stuff it" when they tried to deplatform Ben. A GoFundMe for Mansell's legal fees has topped $445,000, the franchise has since parted ways with the store owners in question, and the story is still developing. Kotaku has a full breakdown.

This is a big one for TCG collectors. The One Piece Card Game's OP-16 "The Time of Battle" hits the English market today, just two weeks after its Japanese release on May 30. Bandai's push toward simultaneous global drops is officially in full swing.

What makes this set worth paying attention to:

If you missed the One Piece TCG boom of the last 18 months, here's the quick context: the game has actually been closing the gap with Pokémon on PSA submission charts, Luffy cards just had their best month ever (up 215% year over year per Card Ladder), and Bandai is treating Western collectors as a first-class audience for the first time. OP-16 is the biggest test yet of whether the momentum holds 👀

The world of collectibles is wide and deep, and there's a constant stream of new releases. Here are some of the big ones that are coming up:

This was a "look at the reach of this hobby" kind of week.

A World Cup the size of three countries kicked off in front of a stadium that's now hosted three different generations of finals. The biggest One Piece TCG set ever made dropped at the same moment the franchise is having its biggest collecting year ever. And a missing $200K LEGO collection turned into the year's biggest internet saga, complete with arrests, gag orders, and a half-million-dollar legal fund.

And that’s the hobby in a nutshell: global exposure, insane growth, and insane legal disputes over highly valuable collector’s items. And while we could do without the bad, it’s somewhat of a side effect to the massive influx of collections, collectors, and capital in our mom-and-pop-shop hobby.

See you next week!