One Piece, an IP born in 1997 that has been hugely popular for over twenty years, has its manga officially certified by Guinness World Records as the "best-selling comic series by a single author," and it is also considered a "top-tier" anime work by many.

Its widespread fame has led to a variety of derivative products, such as Bandai's "One Piece Card Game," which is highly sought after by many fans and card collectors. However, this popularity has also led to the rampant growth of counterfeit cards. Now, China finally has its first officially licensed One Piece IP card game...

2. Wide Range of Beloved Characters:
Unlike many anime works, in the world of One Piece, each character has their own stance, making it difficult to judge them simply as good or bad. Each character possesses unique background stories and personality traits, resonating with different groups and leading them to love different characters. The wide range of beloved characters increases the number of cards with collectible value, making the card-opening process more enjoyable. It's not just about finding cards of a few specific characters and discarding the rest as "junk cards."

3. Nostalgia Factor:
This IP, born in 1997, has accompanied the growth of many post-90s generation, who now have certain purchasing power. Collecting nostalgic merchandise seems to have become a spiritual need for them. Moreover, the high fidelity of the cards in depicting characters, storylines, and scenes can more directly evoke beautiful memories from their youth.

4. Rich Storyline and Varied Art Styles:
East Blue Saga, Skypiea Saga, Summit War Saga, Wano Country Saga... One Piece is divided into multiple arcs, each with different art styles and character outfits, making it suitable for card series to feature multiple card types with different designs.

5. Character Power Differences:
Exciting battle scenes are one of the charms of One Piece, and each character has different combat powers and skills. This setting aligns well with the nature of versus-type card games. Let's first look at the overseas One Piece cards: Bandai's "One Piece Card Game," launched in 2022. Its Simplified Chinese version closely followed the Japanese version, successively releasing promotional cards, starter decks, and booster packs. Thanks to the massive fanbase of the One Piece IP, the Japanese version of the "One Piece Card Game" has shown impressive market performance, with many card prices breaking the ten-thousand-yuan mark. Renowned grading agencies like PSA and BGS also offer authentication and grading services for them, indicating high collectible and market value.

▲ Highest prices for Japanese version "One Piece Card Game" on EBAY and Card Tao
Due to a smaller target audience, the collectible and market value of the Simplified Chinese version is significantly discounted. Currently, there are very few transactions for the Simplified Chinese version on overseas shopping platforms, and the highest single card price on the domestic card trading platform Card Tao is less than ¥2000. Furthermore, almost all graded Simplified Chinese version "One Piece Card Game" cards on the market are graded by domestic agencies; only one Luffy New Year PROMO card has been graded by a foreign agency, with its market price hovering around only ¥1000.

According to statistics, there are currently double-digit numbers of domestic producers of counterfeit One Piece cards. Besides filling the gap left by the absence of domestic producers with official licenses and using low prices to enter the market, some counterfeit cards on Douyin card-breaking live streams, priced similarly to or even higher than authentic cards, attract viewers to place orders with high-value physical prizes like cars, electronics, figures, and pure gold items. Card designs that exaggerate the physical features of female characters to push boundaries are also ubiquitous. Faced with such temptations, some One Piece fans and card novices can easily get lost in the world of counterfeit cards.

The first domestic authentic One Piece card, "One Piece Film: Red" Precious Metal Card, produced by Junyao Culture, was announced on April 6th and released on April 13th. Junyao Culture is the cultural and creative sector under Junyao Group, which has obtained IP authorizations from Disney, Marvel, Universal, Bandai, and others, possessing some experience in the cultural and creative field.

The "One Piece Film: Red" Precious Metal Card is designed around the movie "One Piece Film: Red," with the card material being its main selling point. It includes 7 card types: SR, SSR, SD, UR, CP, SP, and SSP. Each card contains pure gold or pure silver, with UR, CP, SP, and SSP cards accompanied by National Inspection certificates specifying the gram weight. The SSP Pure Gold/Silver King Card is the main chase card of this series. However, the author believes the design of this series is not particularly outstanding and still has significant room for improvement.