10 BILLION Pokémon cards rolled off the presses last year. The Pokémon Company says it still wasn't enough. 

A father and son in Houston cracked open a pack of 2026 Topps and pulled the most coveted baseball redemption of the year. And LEGO just launched its biggest Lord of the Rings set ever!

Plus, we're just one week away from the 2026 World Cup kicking off at Estadio Azteca.

This week:

🟡 The Pokémon Company printed 10 BILLION cards last year (and still ran out) 
⚾ A Houston father and son just found the Mantle hidden in 2026 Topps 
🏰 LEGO's 8,278-piece Minas Tirith is its biggest Lord of the Rings set ever 
⚽ World Cup countdown: the biggest Panini sticker album ever made 
🔥 Heatseekers: Top upcoming releases

Let’s get into it.

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The Pokémon Company just confirmed that 10 billion cards were printed worldwide between March 2025 and March 2026. That brings the all-time total to roughly 85 billion Pokémon cards ever printed, across 16 languages and 90 countries.

And here's the kicker… that wasn't enough either.

Demand has outrun production for about 1.5 years. Each of the last three years has added about 10 billion new cards to the global total, and the company has been printing at "maximum capacity" the whole time. The trigger was the October 2024 launch of Pokémon TCG Pocket, which dragged a huge wave of lapsed and brand-new collectors back to the physical product.

Relief is on the way, just slowly. Millennium Print Group (the Pokémon Company's printing arm) announced a 1.27 million square foot factory last December that should roughly double capacity. Full operations aren't expected until late 2028, so empty Target shelves are probably here to stay for a while.

If you've been wondering why your local hobby shop has been rationing Prismatic Evolutions packs… this is your answer. 85 billion cards in circulation, and there still aren't enough to go around 😅

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Earlier this year, Topps celebrated 75 years of baseball cards by hiding a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle redemption inside a random pack of 2026 Topps Series 1. One redemption card. Out of an estimated 40 million packs. Imagine those odds.

A father and son in Houston, TX just hit it.

They sent the unused redemption straight to Goldin, where the original 1952 #311 Mantle was graded a PSA 5.5 (a quick refresher: PSA grades cards on a 1-to-10 scale; 10 is the best a card can be). Bidding is now open at Goldin Auctions.

For context on where this could land: a 1952 Mantle in PSA 3 has been selling in the $70K-$100K range, and the most recent PSA 5 sale cleared $198,000. A 5.5 should comfortably bring six figures. Maybe a lot more if the right collectors get into a bidding war.

Imagine ripping packs with your kid on a random Saturday and pulling the card of the year. We don't think it gets much better than that. 🥹

LEGO Insiders got early access on June 1, with general release this Wednesday (June 4). The set: Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith (11377).

The stats: 8,278 pieces, $649.99, 10 minifigures including Gandalf the White, Aragorn as King Elessar, Arwen, Faramir, Denethor, Pippin, four Soldiers of Gondor, and a Shadowfax horse figure.

For perspective, that piece count puts Minas Tirith among the largest LEGO sets ever produced, just below the LEGO World Map and Eiffel Tower. The tower of Ecthelion sits at the top, the White Tree of Gondor is built in, and the whole thing is designed to display as one massive piece.

LEGO is also handing out an exclusive Grond gift-with-purchase for early buyers, which is the kind of detail that makes secondary-market resellers very happy three months from now.

If you remember the 2023 Rivendell set (6,167 pieces, $499.99) building strong secondary-market interest, Minas Tirith is set up to follow the same playbook whenever it eventually retires. Adult LEGO collecting has quietly become one of the most reliable corners of this hobby, and Lord of the Rings IP is at the center of it. 👀

We're one week out from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City with Mexico vs. South Africa. The tournament is the first ever 48-team World Cup, with 104 total matches spread across 16 host cities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. (Estadio Azteca becomes the first venue to host games at three different men's World Cups, by the way.)

For collectors, the headliner is the Panini sticker album. The 2026 edition has 980 stickers across 112 pages, which Panini says is the largest World Cup sticker collection it has ever made. Packs now come with 7 stickers each, up from 5 (the first bump since 2014).

Two things to know if you're collecting:

If you remember Brazilian police seizing 200,000 fake stickers last week, the takeaway holds: buy from authorized retailers only. The counterfeit operations are warmed up and ready.

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 week reminded us how big and how varied this collectibles community has become. 

A Pokémon factory printing at maximum capacity for a third year in a row. A father and son in Houston casually pulling the most coveted baseball card of the year. LEGO dropping an 8,000-piece love letter to Lord of the Rings fans. A World Cup album that's the biggest one Panini has ever made, with kids and adults around the world about to spend the summer trading stickers in coffee shops and on living-room floors.

Some people are here to invest. Some are here for the love of the hobby. Most are some mix of the two… and that's the part we love. Whether you're tracking auction comps with Card Ladder and Mantel, watching breaks on a Sunday night, building Minas Tirith on your dining table, or just looking for sticker #267 to finish your album, you're part of the same community.

Big numbers will keep getting bigger. New collectors will keep showing up. New categories will keep popping out of nowhere. The one constant is the people. We're glad you're here.

See you next week!