Investing in meaning

Justifying Card Game Collecting in an Age of Frictionless Consumption

Bibliographic Data

ID7473535
AuthorsSuzanne Abrahamse (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Michaël Berghman (0000-0002-7755-3135, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Julian Schaap (0000-0002-3656-4225, Erasmus University Rotterdam, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume19
Issue1
Pages135-150
Publication date2026-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1753-0350 • E-ISSN: 1753-0369
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17530350.2025.2559315
OpenAlexW4417343786
LanguageEN
References cited30

Toy collectibles such as LEGO, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering have seen a steep increase in consumer interest as objects of financial investment. This puts pressure on the meaningfulness of collecting, as the ‘thrill of the hunt’ is replaced by transparent online marketplaces with disenchanting financial logics and direct, frictionless consumption options. Based on qualitative interviews with collectors of the popular Collectible Card Game (CCG), Magic: The Gathering, we explore how collectors justify their continued consumption. First, by applying limitation strategies in their collecting practices they safeguard its meaningfulness. Second, and at times paradoxically, collectors invoke a parallel economic justification strategy fixed on financial value, to justify their continued engagement with the product. While the former strategy is predominantly employed to sustain the practice’s meaningfulness for the collectors themselves and their peers, the latter serves to present collecting as a rational investment strategy to (skeptical) outsiders

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Open DOIOpen Access