The card game craze of the post-2010s: addiction, comparison and social interaction

Recently on TikTok, live broadcasts of “unpacking cards” have become popular, and collecting cards has become one of the hottest social activities for the post-2010s.

There is a very popular live broadcast on Tik Tok.

In the "card opening" live broadcast room, there is a pair of scissors, a transparent acrylic storage rack, and all kinds of cards. The host doesn't even need to show his face to attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Those poker-sized cards, printed with various IP characters, can be divided into different grades according to the rarity of the card surface. They are hot-selling items in the card-opening live broadcast room.

The number of viewers in the live broadcast room soared sharply. Here, luck was personified. Some people got lucky in one shot, while others bought three boxes but still didn't win. Although the live broadcast room said "Minors are prohibited from placing orders", this sentence also means that a large proportion of the viewers of the live broadcast are minors.

The new hobby of the younger brother and sister: watching the live broadcast of card opening (Photo source: TikTok)

For the post-2010 generation, Pop Mart is outdated and card games are the new trend. Kayou, a company specializing in card games, has submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January, preparing for its IPO.

The crazy card collecting scene not only appeared in the live broadcast room of card unpacking, but also in the canteen next to the elementary school. "Now everyone in the school is playing these cards. If you don't play, you can't fit in. If you own a rare card, you can become the center of attention."

Collecting cards has become a social arena for the post-2010s, controlling their joys, sorrows, anger and happiness.

1. Card opening in the live broadcast room, Xiaohaijie's flowery game field

"I feel uncomfortable if I don't watch it for a day!"

Fang Si, a third-grade primary school student, is one of the people in the card-opening live broadcast room. She feels extremely satisfied just by watching the host neatly cut the packaging and place the cards in his hand on the transparent rack according to the different card positions.

She seemed to be addicted, immersed in the dopamine brought by opening cards in the live broadcast room.

After school, Fang Si asked her mother for her tablet as usual, and couldn't wait to log into the new card opening live broadcast room. She only had one hour of tablet use per day, but she would spend this hour watching the card opening live broadcast room.

There are so many different ways to play cards in the live broadcast room, and each one makes Fang Si feel itchy.

Fang Si, who has watched all the major card-opening live broadcast rooms, summarized the common ways of playing in the rooms: there is "stacking", which is to stack the number of packs according to the card positions drawn out, "stabbing", which is to stab a high card position to add a whole box, and "hide and seek", which is to keep opening the card if the designated character does not appear, etc.

Card opening live broadcast room, more ways to play than you can imagine (Photo source: Xiaohongshu)

The pricing is naturally different. Take the My Little Pony cards sold in the card-opening live broadcast room as an example. The price of a pack of Huiyue cards in the "Stacking" gameplay is about 25 yuan, while the official price of the card game is 10 yuan per pack. If you are lucky, you can stack from one pack to more than 50 packs; if you are unlucky, the game will be declared over when you open the first pack.

There is a joke in the industry that if you buy something and then forget it, the heartbeat is the real fun.

On the screen, the host was unpacking the cards with scissors while introducing them to the audience who had just come in. "Now we are going to unpack the sponsor's box!" The "box" the host was referring to was a whole box of cards that he had bought in one go.

In the live broadcast room, those who can carry a whole box are called "gold owners". In Fang Si's eyes, this means being rich and having a good reputation.

After all, the pocket money she got from her parents was only 20 yuan a week. The My Little Pony Fun Pack series selected by the sponsor tonight has 48 boxes in a box, a total of 1,440 packs, and the price in the live broadcast room is 2,640 yuan.

Even if he didn't spend any money every week, plus the money his grandparents secretly gave him, Fang Si would have to save until he graduated from elementary school to be able to buy this box.

In the live broadcast room, the assistant brought a large cardboard box with the card game logo printed on it from the warehouse and held it up to show the audience that it was a brand new, unopened box. The host and the assistant spent nearly ten minutes just unpacking the outer packaging. After all the outer packaging was unpacked, the table in front of the host was already flooded with stacks of unopened cards.

​

The box worth thousands of yuan is the focus of the entire live broadcast room (Source: Xiaohongshu)

The game that stimulates dopamine secretion has just begun.

"Then let's start opening the cards! Good luck!" The host quickly took out ten packs of cards from the pile of unopened cards on the table, cut them open along the top, poured out the cards and put them into the transparent rack according to the different card positions. The excitement of opening the cards live is that no matter how rich you are, the probability of drawing a card is equal for everyone.

After half a box was unpacked, the sponsor's luck was not as good as expected. On average, one rare card is released in four boxes. Now that half a box has been unpacked, there are only four cards on the transparent shelf. Because the sponsor only wants cards above SSR, the common cards that have been picked out are thrown into the discarded cardboard box by the anchor like a waterfall.

She sighed, "The world of rich people is so wonderful." At the same time, she also felt strange, thinking that it would be better if her parents were richer and they could give her more money.

The audience in the live broadcast room pinned their hopes on the remaining half box, and were nervous along with the sponsor. But after an hour, Fang Si, who wanted to continue watching, had her mother take away the tablet.

In order to prevent Fang Si from secretly using the card, her mother locked all payment channels on the tablet. Restricted by her status as a "minor", Fang Si could only save her pocket money and wait for her sister who was in college to come home to help her place orders.

Fang Si even felt unhappy that her parents had given her face - other students could place orders using their family's accounts, but her deskmate used her elders' accounts to place orders, and only spent 20 or 30 yuan at a time, so her elders wouldn't say anything.

Netizens who were addicted to the card-opening experience said they felt more empty than satisfied (Photo source: Xiaohongshu)

Fang thought about it. She was going to live with her grandparents during the summer vacation. If she placed an order with an account registered with her grandparents’ ID cards, there wouldn’t be so many restrictions.

2. Ultraman Cards, M78 Nebula for the post-10 generation

The card game carnival spread from the card-opening live broadcast room to the convenience store next to the primary school.

When the school bell rang, the small shop next to the school, which was only ten square meters, was instantly crowded with elementary school students who came to buy cards. Haohao, a second-grader, struggled to push through the crowd and slowly moved to the cabinet where the cards were placed.

The containers in the convenience store are the Garden of Eden for the post-10s.

Among the dazzling shelves, Ultraman cards under Kayou firmly took the center position. Haohao, who finally squeezed to the middle, picked up the packs of Ultraman cards and carefully selected them. It was not until someone behind him started to urge him that he took the two packs that he thought felt the best in the whole box.

Ultraman cards, the new social favorite of the post-2010 generation (Photo source: Haohao)

"I will definitely win Ultraman Zero's USR card today!" Haohao nervously held the Ultraman cards in his hand and stood at the end of the line, placing high hopes on the two packs of Ultraman cards in his hand.

Take out money, buy cards, open the package, the whole process is done in one go.

Haohao flipped through the cards one by one, and became more and more disappointed. "It's the same again! This is the third common card that has been repeated!" Obviously, Haohao was not favored by the goddess of luck today. Disappointed, he stuffed the cards into his schoolbag, eagerly waiting for tomorrow's miracle.

Haohao's belief is, "As long as there is light in our hearts, Ultraman will exist forever. Ultraman is our eternal hero."

Adults are obsessed with scratching lottery tickets, hoping to get a ticket to live a carefree life; post-10s are obsessed with drawing cards, hoping to gain attention in their social circles.

"What I bought was not the cards, but the admiring gazes of my classmates." Ultraman cards are the most useful social currency in Haohao's post-2010 circle. Nine out of ten boys have Ultraman cards in their schoolbags, which is the current situation in Haohao's class.

As the trump card of Kayou, the Ultraman series supports half of Kayou's business. According to the prospectus, Kayou has sold more than 3 billion Ultraman cards. Among trading cards, the sales revenue of the Ultraman series ranks first, accounting for 65%. In other words, for every 10 packs of trading cards sold by Kayou, more than six are from Ultraman.

Trading cards have always accounted for more than 85% of Kayou’s overall revenue (Source: Kayou’s prospectus)

There are many versions of Ultraman cards, which are divided into more than 20 levels according to the card craftsmanship, including R, SR, SSR, LGR, USR, GP, XR, etc. The rarer the card, the more valuable the luxury, and the higher the status in the social circle of post-10s.

There are many versions of Ultraman cards that rely on social value to attract post-10s (Source: Kayou official website)

The Ultraman cards made Haohao feel like the center of attention.

Haohao, who would go to the canteen to draw cards as soon as he had money, relied on his thick stack of Ultraman card albums to make many classmates who didn't know him respectfully call him "Brother Hao".

At home, his father always calls Haohao "bastard", which makes him feel embarrassed; but when he hears "Brother Hao" from everyone around him, he realizes the wonderful line in Ultraman - "Believe in the light".

"Now I have the most and rarest cards in the class, and classmates who are not familiar with me will come to me to discuss card drawing skills." Haohao opened the card book and knew the level cards of different Ultraman characters by heart. As one of the best "card drawing experts" in the class, Haohao sometimes sells rare cards that he doesn't like to classmates at a low price.

However, the money from selling the cards went into the pocket of the convenience store owner before it even had time to warm up.

After buying for a week in a row, Haohao finally drew the Ultraman Zero he wanted.

Haohao was delighted and carefully put the hard-earned card into the card album. "With this Ultraman Zero, I have collected all the USRs of Ultraman! I will bring the card album to school tomorrow."​

3. Stationery stores in rural areas are also crazy about buying cards

The post-2010 card craze also gave a lifeline to a number of county stationery stores that were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Tang Xiao's stationery store is located near a township primary school, but it has a fatal flaw: it is not a must-go route for students. The winding alleys have diverted most of Tang Xiao's target customers. With only one or two hundred yuan in sales a day, Tang Xiao worries from the time the store opens in the morning to the time it closes at night.

"It's been less than a year since I rented the place. With the renovation and stocking costs, I'll lose everything if I give up now." Tang Xiao, who didn't want to watch the stationery store close down, thought about how to improve her business every day. She tried every promotional method she could think of, such as discounts, free gifts for more purchases, and handing out flyers at school gates, but all received mediocre responses.

Fortunately, there is always a way out. Tang Xiao heard from his elementary school niece that his classmates saw on the Internet that their favorite anime IP had released trading cards, but they couldn't find a single offline store selling these cards in the entire town. If they wanted to buy them, they could only purchase them online or ask their classmates in the county to buy them for them.

Tang Xiao, sensing a business opportunity, immediately drove to the county on the weekend. When he saw that almost all the shops near the schools in the county were selling the cards his niece was talking about, Tang Xiao knew that his stationery store was saved.

Tang Xiao found a wholesaler. A colleague next to her bought five large boxes at once and told her, "Children love to play with these. Now my store can make a thousand dollars a day just from playing cards!" Tang Xiao was jealous of her colleague's success, but she didn't dare to take more as it was her first time to play cards.

With the advice of his peers, Tang Xiao bought two boxes of the best-selling Ultraman, Ye Luoli, and My Little Pony cards. The wholesaler sold them to Tang Xiao at a 40% discount of the original price. The original price of six boxes of cards was 760 yuan, but he could buy them at 456 yuan in the wholesale market.

After returning to the stationery store from the county town, Tang Xiao placed the wholesale cards in the most conspicuous place in the store.

The news that the store had cards spread quickly to the primary school in the neighboring town. The six boxes of cards that had just been brought in were swept away by the primary school students who came here to buy them. Those who were a step slower saw the empty packaging on the shelf and could only anxiously urge Tang Xiao to restock it quickly.

Six boxes of cards, net profit of 304 yuan in two days (Photo source: Tang Xiao)

The success of the cards helped Tang Xiao's stationery store to pick up business again. The store's daily turnover jumped from 100 to 200 yuan to thousands of yuan. Seeing the good effect, Tang Xiao immediately took time out to go to the county toy wholesale market to buy three large boxes.

Soon, the store's decoration changed, and half of the stationery on the shelves were replaced with a wide variety of playing cards.

Soon, however, the money-making magic of card games was no longer enjoyed by Tang Xiao alone. Small shops around him immediately followed suit and started selling cards. Tang Xiao's store's daily turnover of thousands of yuan began to decline. But compared to the competition from small shops around him, the frustration of out-of-stock products troubled Tang Xiao more.

"Now we have to snatch the goods!" There are too many wolves and too little meat, and wholesalers have no worries about no one buying. In the face of big business orders of dozens of boxes, Tang Xiao's small shop can only pick up a few boxes of surplus, and shortages have become the norm in Tang Xiao's shop.

Stores in the county town have a full range of cards, but Tang Xiao's store has been unable to restock its stock (Photo source: Tang Xiao)

"The new products have all been snapped up by the big stores. Our small store can't even get a box even if we paid a deposit in advance!" The stores that were able to get the new product, My Little Pony Radiant Moon 5 series from Kayou, have made a fortune, while the small stores that couldn't get the product are still asking wholesalers when to deliver the goods.

After Tang Xiao paid the deposit, he waited for another half a month, but the store still didn't have a single pack of Huiyuewu.

The frustration of having no goods to sell swept through stationery stores (Photo source: Xiaohongshu)

From earning thousands of dollars a day to having no goods to sell, Tang Xiao's stationery store managed to survive by relying on card games, but soon returned to its current state.

Looking around, the surrounding stores were all filled with the same cards. She didn't know how long her store could last in this business war. Tang Xiao, who was once again guarding an empty store every day, began to consider whether to close the store and find a class.

Conclusion

Each generation has its own childhood, but they are surprisingly similar.

In the childhood of the 80s, stamp collecting was popular. In the childhood of the 90s, the most memorable thing was the Water Margin cards given as gifts in the Little Raccoon instant noodles. In the childhood of the 00s, most of the memories are about Pop Mart. In the childhood of the 10s, this game was passed on to packs of Ultraman cards and My Little Pony. In addition, the celebrity cards popular among star chasers.

The cards are permanent, the faith remains unchanged, but we are ever-changing.

However, with the help of the Internet and capital, this game about hobbies has been constantly magnified, magnifying the value of face, the scarcity of quantity, and the psychological game of participants.

Even if it’s not cards, there will always be the next product that people will enjoy.

*All names in this article are pseudonyms

Author: Yang Quan; Editor: Youyou; This article is written by the author of Operation Party [OUTSIDE OF THE FIFTH RING], WeChat public account: [OUTSIDE OF THE FIFTH RING], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.