introduction
As a popular category in the industry in recent years, the popularity of cards remains high. Even though the track has formed an obvious head effect, there are still many companies/brands that have successively laid out, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
The general characteristics of domestic cards are strong socialization and collection, while the combat is relatively weak; is very dependent on IP, and even each brand fights for who has more IP and who has the head IP. After most of the popular and head IPs have been carved up by the original brands, the new brands that have entered the card track have also put R&D and innovation on improving the connotation of cards and increasing the form of card expression while cooperating with IP.
▌Integrate knowledge stories to highlight the advantages of content
In China, an important reason why many parents do not like their children to buy cards is that they think that "a cartoon image printed on a piece of paper does not have much effect on children's intelligence and learning knowledge". In other words, if cards can convey knowledge and become a tool for children's learning, parents may not be so opposed.
Mixed knowledge is a popular science comic video self-media. Recently, Mixed Knowledge combined its original comic work "Half Hour Comic History of China 0-5" to launch the Mixed Knowledge Heroes Biography Chinese History Flash Card. According to reports, there are a total of 212 foil cards in this series, covering important historical figures from antiquity to the Qing Dynasty. The brand will redraw and design the characters in the comics, increase special effects and skills, and each hero has its own hero biography behind it, such as Dayu's cards have Dayu's knowledge points such as controlling the water, building the Xia Dynasty, and dividing Kyushu; It also makes important historical stories in Chinese history into skill flashcards.
In addition, this series of cards summarizes dozens of dynasties in Chinese history into 15 historical periods, and 212 cards are divided into 15 small packets and 3 large boxes, which are 75 antiquity-Spring and Autumn foil cards, 71 Warring States-Sui Dynasty foil cards, and 66 Tang Dynasty-Qing foil cards. According to the category, there are 140 hero cards, 2 prop cards, 70 allusion cards, 1 gameplay description & hero list card, and 1 battle map. Note that there are no blind draws or duplicate cards in this series.
Mixed Heroes Tell Chinese History Flash Card (Mixed Tmall Flagship Store)
Under the national trend, more and more brands are keen to dig deep into the connotation of traditional Chinese culture, and various ancient books and masterpieces are particularly popular. Based on the ancient book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", the virtual Shenchuang Studio has launched a collectible card of mountain and sea mythology, 100 ancient mythical beast cards on the mountain and sea, drawing images of mythical beasts on the front and explaining relevant historical stories on the back.
Mountain and Sea Mythology Collectible Cards (Virtual Divine Creation Studio Taobao Store)
Card brand SHINING SOUL has partnered with the British Library to launch a collection of fantasy children's dream collectible cards. The brand has selected more than 20 well-known children's book stories and more than 190 original printed illustrations to lead everyone to regain their innocence. For example, "Cinderella" was selected to create a dreamy and clear FSR advanced fantasy card that looks like a fairy tale; According to the book "Fairy Mirror Kingdom: Elf World Series Illustration Book", the FR fantasy card is launched; SSR Premium Collection Cards derived from "The New Wizard of Oz" restore original illustrations, etc.
Shin Soul "New Wizard of Oz" Premium Collection Card (Shin Soul Tmall Flagship Store)
▌Break the shackles of the square and present more styles
Generally speaking, the cards are rectangular pieces of paper, and the card faces are different images printed using different processes. As the card market becomes more and more popular, the presentation form of cards is no longer limited to conventional styles, and many cards with breakthroughs in craftsmanship, style, and gameplay have been released one after another.
In mid-June, Duoqu and China Daily jointly launched the China Daily Collector's Card - Great Beauty China Series, selecting the front page illustrations of China Daily International Edition as the card face material. There are a total of 20 card types and 241 card art in the whole series, including regular style cards and cards with special designs and gameplay.
For example, the embroidery inlay card is made of embroidery + plush, presenting a card that looks delicate and feels soft; The pop-up book card is designed to be a pop-up book that can be opened, and different scenes will appear in the daylight environment and the purple light environment; The New Year's Customs Collection Card combines paper-cut illustrations with the style of film to tell about the customs of the Spring Festival; The Year of the Dragon card is postmarked with each card, making the entire card similar to the stamp style, and so on.
Great Beauty China Series - Pop-up Book Card (Fun Little Red Book)
Puzzle card is a very popular card game nowadays, which means that more than 2 cards can be put together to form a "decorative painting" or present a certain story scene. For example, in the book collection series Fantasy Children's Dream Collectible Card, according to the story of "Young Alice", PZ puzzle cards are launched, and 4 cards can be used to spell out a scene in the story; Ahri Happy Hour cards refer to the 9 squares, and have launched a product that restores 1 scene with 9 cards.
There are also folding cards with similar gameplay, which refer to cards that resemble the style of promotional folds. For example, the "Little Red Riding Hood" PBSR with four-fold card of the book series fantasy children's dream collection card presents the scene of Little Red Riding Hood setting off, meeting the wolf, the wolf going to the grandmother's house, Little Red Riding Hood going to the grandmother's house, meeting the wolf's grandmother, and reuniting with the grandmother, and the other two sides are the cover and text content of the story; Open the "Ice Queen" PBR two-fold card, one side is used to tell the story, the other side is used to show the picture, etc.
"Little Red Riding Hood" PBSR with knitted four-fold card (Flash Tmall flagship store)
▌From packaging to matching, creativity is not limited to products
The competition in the card market is as fierce as other toy categories. In order to attract more consumers, brands not only ponder the innovation of cards, but also distinguish the packaging and supporting products of their products.
Mixed Knowledge has launched an exclusive Mixed Knowledge Heroes Legend Chinese History Collection Card Album for the Heroes Legend of Chinese History Flash Card. According to the development of Chinese history, this card album condenses Chinese history into hundreds of important events, draws 112 pages of illustrated card pages, and arranges them into a timeline, so that children can collect cards at the same time, so that the flashcards and history can be seated together, so as to better remember Chinese history and understand the logic of historical evolution.
Unlike other card album 9-grid storage cards, this card album requires consumers to complete the flashcard storage according to the question and screen, and form a complete illustration. For example, in the blank space of the card album, the question is who split the chaos? Consumers are going to include Pangu cards here; What artifact is used? Include the Open Heaven Axe card in it, so as to form the finished illustration story of Pangu Open Heaven.
The Legend of the Mixed Heroes: The Legend of Chinese History Collection Card Album (Mixed Tmall Flagship Store)
Nowadays, many cards emphasize collectible attributes and are sold in gift boxes, so the packaging design is very beautiful. For example, the packaging box of the book collection series Fantasy Children's Dream Collector's Card is designed in the form of a book, and it has the feeling of a European book collection; The silhouettes and stick figures on the packaging box also highlight the characteristics of the product's fairy tales.
There are usually not only cards in the gift box, but also many accessories, such as China Daily Collector's Card - Great Beauty China Series In addition to cards, there are also illustration artist autographed prints, hardcover card albums & inner page collection atlases, handbooks, metal bookmarks, transparent bookmarks and other accessories. These accessories are also designed in combination with related themes, and adding them to the gift box is not only to enrich the product category of the gift box, but also to promote other peripherals.
The number of exquisite gift boxed cards is increasing (Flash Tmall flagship store)
▌Collectible cards are becoming mainstream
The cards mentioned above have both design characteristics and cultural connotations, but the combat is already very weak, and this is the current situation of mainland cards - collectible cards are gradually becoming the mainstream, and more and more brands are launching various collector's editions, collectible cards and other products.
In the field of cards, collectible cards have always been available, and the representative category is star cards. The so-called collectible card not only refers to the meaning of collection, but more importantly, the value of collection, which is embodied in the second-hand premium. For example, at the beginning of June this year, Jordan's 1:1 personal star card was auctioned for nearly $2.93 million, setting an auction record for Jordan's star card; The all-time highest price for a card was a 1952 Mickey Mantle card, which sold for $12.6 million in 2022.
Auctioned a high-priced Jordan 1:1 to sign the star card
The high premium of the card stems from the player's individual achievements, popularity, and the rarity of the limited edition. Most of the domestic collectible cards emphasize the significance of collection, referring to cards with unique design, craftsmanship, themes and other characteristics, which are worthy of card lovers, artists, and IP fans to collect. Among these cards, most of the common cards are sold in unlimited quantities, and the second-hand premium is almost non-existent; Some rare cards and limited numbered cards are also resold at a higher price in the second-hand market, but they are much lower than those of star cards.
In the final analysis, most of the domestic companies are targeting the public, hoping to sell cards to more consumers, and rare cards and limited editions are just a means to increase the repurchase rate. It's still to be seen how far the card can go in this way.
▍来源：中外玩具网（ctoy-gdta） 文/编辑：Iris/Salas