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MISSISSAUGA — The international trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump has complicated collecting trading cards in Canada.
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Several facets of the hobby have been impacted by the shifting web of tariffs between Canada, China, and the United States, with distributors, retailers, resellers, auction houses and collectors riding the highs and lows.
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Jeff MacDougall, the general manager of 401 Games in Toronto and Vaughan, Ont., said that virtually every aspect of his business has been affected.
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“There’s a lot of things that it’s getting tagged on to, primarily Pokemon cards, Magic (the Gathering) cards, sports cards, Yu-gi-oh cards are the big ones,” said MacDougall, adding that he has written to several members of federal and provincial parliament about Canada’s reciprocal tariffs. “Konami, who makes Yu-gi-oh cards, they’re absorbing quite a bit of the tariff themselves, but that’s not the case with anything else.
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“We’re seeing a 25 per cent increase on all that stuff from our suppliers.”
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The issue is twofold for retailers.
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Getting new packs of hockey, baseball, Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering cards into Canada is more expensive because they are printed in the U.S. and subject to retaliatory tariffs. Supplies to protect and display cards, like thin plastic sleeves, are becoming harder to find because they are subject to two sets of duties — one as they enter the U.S. from China and then again when they are sent north into Canada from American distributors.
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“Any board games we carry are printed in China and so much of the supplies like sleeves and supplies that people use to put their hot trading cards in, that’s all China stuff, right?” said MacDougall. “From what I understand, in most cases, if anybody’s got a project that’s ready to ship, they’re not shipping it. They’re storing it in China right now.”
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It was a widely discussed topic at the Sport Card Expo Toronto on Friday. Thousands of collectors are expected to visit the show at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont., near Toronto’s Pearson Airport, over the weekend.
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Elliott Frankl, president of SRM Sports & Entertainment, is a Canadian distributor for BCW Supplies, an American company whose line of storage boxes, sleeves and hard cases are produced in China. He said that the tariffs and duties on the supplies made them so expensive that he’d have to sell them at a loss.
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