Hello there E4 members!
So last month we had a local card show in Seoul, S. Korea. Since a lot of the members here I assume are from western countries where card shows are a common thing, in Korea we normally have 1 ~ 3 local card shows and maybe 1 or 2 big events within a year. I thought it would be cool to share with you guys how other countries tackle their own shows and as a vendor myself thought I would share my side of the story.
Since TCG is relatively a new hobby within the country itself, not a lot of TCG or TCG-related events are held around the year. Sports card has been around more than a couple of years because of the popularity of the Korean national baseball league and football figures in the European league. However, they are a separate thing on its own and are often viewed as a separate hobby where TCGs are more viewed as a niche and “otaku enthusiast” thing here in Korea. Not meaning to generalize anything.
Throughout the years a few card shows have taken place. The show related to this article was held on November 15th.
Seoul Card Festa 2025
November 15
Seoul, Allthatmind–Munraedong
10 am ~ 6 pm
1 Table, approx $60
1 Show Case, approx $22
(everything is tax included)
So before I deep dive into the local show here, I’ve been active in the local card community here in Seoul for more than 10 years (had a break around covid just got recently back with 151). I’m known as the English Vintage Guy here, so most of my stuffs are duplicates from my vintage collection that I put up for sale from time to time.
This is my 3rd show as a vendor and I’ve enjoyed every one bit of it.
Related to my vending side.
I’ve learned that my collection itself is in the niche area of pokemon collecting within the country. I’ve rarely seen any vintage collector here and if I do find them most of them are around my age with some kind of nostalgia from buying pokemon cards at WOTC era.
[a few of my sold items]
I mostly carry left over vintage bulk, vintage single, slabs and recently some modern slabs from both Japanese and Korean modern cards. I have so much stay awayed from english modern cards since prices are way out from my comfort zone. Many would disagree with me but cards that are still in rotation should not go for the prices going on sale these days…
Regarding my card prices, there were few times where people got confused with the prices for foreigners and locals.
I labeled a reverse holo Pikachu XY Evolutions for around $40 which is the asking price in the local community; eBay had it for around $8 maybe?? Some foreigners pointed out that they thought they were confused why it was so high lol. Same goes for me because Korean cards here are cheaper than what the average foreigners are asking for, mainly because of the price difference between eBay and the local community. Crobat illustration rare goes for maybe $15 on eBay, but the locals sell and buy for around $8.
Since I was placed right beside the entrance of the show I had to bring my “Clickbait” things. These are my highend PC and Pokémon-related items that I tend to showcase them to the public since it’s rare to see a few of the pieces out there in the wild…
Yeah but the main thing is the FLEX
and FLEX hard here.
I had the joy of few fellow foreign collectors showing my high end slabs and complete binders of NEO and E-reader cards. Fellow Koreans tend to less enjoy binder cards as most of them are into slabs which has been the mainstream way of collecting TCG in the country.
1. Vendors in Korea
Apart from the usual singles, slabs, sealed vendors, the most unique thing with vendors in Korea are the “Oripa” booths. Originating from Japan, meaning “Original Pack,” equivalent to mystery packs overseas, a lot of vendors in Korea sell these mystery packs for various prices depending on the hits within the packs.
I dunno why such culture got so popular here, but compared to single/slab vendors like me these booths are usually packed with younglings… I just don’t understand the perspective in participating in one of these things. Not gonna lie I’ve tried these oripas a few times but don’t spend more than $20 on these things.
However more than 50% of the community go crazy for the hits so I think these Oripa booths are definitely the main thing of the show.
Then you have the slab/single/sealed vendors as myself. Mostly the language distribution is 50% Korean, 40% Japanese, and English/Chinese makes up the rest. I mostly deal with English cards so that’s there with some foreign vendors.
You also have your local card shops setting up booths here. They mostly come with grading services to PSA/BGS/CGC. Most of the locals don’t submit their cards directly to PSA because of the hassle with documentation, shipping, and sometimes taxes. So people tend to use middlemans to proceed with grading services.
These LCSs are more than happy to accept any kind of cards and will give out advice regarding cards to submit or not — usually pointing out centering and surface conditions. Personally never tried submitting cards at a card show, but people who have used them have had good feedback.
[booth image from 워니워니님]
[booth image from 네버렌드님]
2. Live events
So every few hours or so, we have a few live events held for the people who turn up for the show. We had live bidding events and guess the Pokémon card.
Sometimes people go crazy over certain cards since I’ve tended to figure out people are more impulsive in live events… But it’s really impressive and funny at the same time where two people go bonkerz on a certain card lol.
My table was near the middle stage so I had the pleasure to see various cards go live. Guess the Pokémon cards was such a fun event. Like I couldn’t name more than half of the card silhouette… probably because I’m not into modern, but damn these people are fast. I was hoping for a vintage card to pop up but it never did…
3. The Card Show
This show had a live card show showing off a few cards from various collectors here in Korea. Trophy Pokémon exclusive to Korea, Pikachus, Gold Star Rayquaza (credit to 골드디), Palkia (credit to 갱우), Beedrill (credit to 스피아) and much more. I hadn’t had the time to look around but loved the fact there was a separate room showcasing all of these cards.
(Images are credited to 갱우, check out her original post at Naver Cafe
4. The Buyers
I usually break down my own customers and customers around my booth to see what they come for. Since I’m more known as one of those only vintage card sellers, most of the people who come are those looking for vintage singles and old back Japanese.
Because of this, I normally have a mix of locals and foreigners buying from me. Over the past years I have realized that most of those who buy from my collections are fellow collectors. Not calling them out or anything but most of the collectors here are what I consider short-term investors looking to flip for quick cash. I normally don’t sell any kind of hype FOMO-related cards(as mentioned before I have few modern cards) so less of those investors seek a deal with me…
Over the past few months the amount of children in this hobby has also risen as well, some good some bad. Occasionally you will see young children trying to harass you into buying their collection because it will be worth $$$ in the future. I find them quite cute and funny at the same time, I will give them a pack and brush them off lol. The more kind ones tend to come holding hands with their parents asking for a specific card, I had this girl only wanting plusle and minun cards (thank God I had one). I also had the joy of a kid and his father going thorugh my binder and some other collector greeting them(I think they previously met on the last show) buying what ever the kid wants from my binder. Had to give out more goodies for these kind of interaction.
[Not to brag, but I have a gang of regular customers always trying to steal my vintage bulk from me….I call them the squirtle gang]
While profit isn’t something I go for (yes extra cash will help but…) the main reason I usually vend at these shows is the greet fellow collectors within the community and interact with people showing up at my booth.
I enjoy people bringing up conversations related to anything Pokémon, it’s a great thing being able to share the passion with fellow collectors who enjoy these cards as much as I do.
Anyway thankyou for reading my small article regarding the local card shows here in Korea.
There is one coming up in December but I’m passing on that one. If another event pops up arond spring, think I’ll participate again as a vendor. If anyone is around please leave me a message so I can greet anyone of you coming to the event.
