The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game was launched by
Konami in
1999 in
Japan and March
2002 in
North America. It was named the top selling trading card game in the world by Guiness World Records on July 7, 2009, having sold over 22 billion cards worldwide.
As of March 31, 2011, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. Japan sold 25.2 billion cards globally since 1999.
As of January 2021, the game is estimated to have sold about
35 billion cards worldwide and grossed over
¥1 trillion (
$9.64 billion). Yu-Gi-Oh! Speed Duel, a faster and simplified version of the game, was launched worldwide in January 2019. Another faster-paced variation, Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel, launched in Japan in April 2020.
Professional Sports Authenticator
was launched in July 1991 by David Hall, owner of the coin grading
company Professional Coin Grading Service, to serve collectors as a
third-party card grader. When they started, they struggled as a
business, due to a low demand of collectors wanting their cards to be
graded. A lot of sports card dealers were against the idea of having a
third-party grade their cards, and decided against using card grading as
a benefit to their business. Eventually, the market quickly shifted
towards wanting cards graded, due to a prevalent amount of dishonesty at
trade shows. Customers rarely felt comfortable with a purchase, and
always felt as though it was a gamble if they were getting a real card,
and not a fake. A third-party grading company started to make sense; a
party that had no financial influence in telling you the honest grade of
a card. Having a card graded gave peace of mind to customers, who can
buy a card with confidence knowing it was a legitimate card, instead of
believing the dealer's biased opinion on what the grade of the card is.