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After Conquering Esports, T1 Faker Officially Stuns the TCG Market With a $50K Card
Riot Games' new trading card game Riftbound has caused a stir after a limited-edition bundle tied to esports team T1's 2025 World Championship win quickly sold out and is now being resold for vastly inflated prices. The $360 Riftbound x T1 2025 Worlds Champion Signature Edition set has appeared on eBay for thousands of dollars, with some sellers listing a card featuring star player Faker's gold-stamped signature for as much as $50,000, highlighting the growing speculative frenzy around scarce trading card releases.
The bundle features five League of Legends champions chosen by T1 players, with gold-foiled, serialised cards and a random gold-stamped signature from one team member. Riot produced only 10,125 English-language sets, meaning roughly 2,025 could contain Faker's signature, given a one-in-five chance. Standard eBay resales are fetching $5,000–$7,000, far above the $360 retail price, while some past Riftbound cards have sold for up to $39,000; despite Riot's attempts to curb scalping by limiting purchases per Riot ID, no buyer has yet paid the $50,000 asking price for the top listings.
In short
- Riftbound's $360 T1 Faker card set is reselling for thousands
- Some sellers ask $50,000 for Faker's gold-stamped signature card
- Only ~2,025 of 10,125 sets likely contain his signature
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The high resale prices can be seen as a market response to genuine scarcity and strong demand from fans and collectors. Limited production, the championship connection and the chance of a Faker signature give the set cultural and collector value, while resales let buyers who missed the original release decide what it is worth to them.
The case against
The steep mark-ups can also be seen as speculation that puts collecting further out of reach for ordinary fans and rewards access to scarce stock more than appreciation of the game. A $50,000 asking price, especially without a buyer, may amplify hype around a collectible whose resale value is uncertain and encourage scalping despite purchase limits.
Explained simply
Riftbound is a new trading card game made by Riot Games, the company behind the video game League of Legends. It uses characters from that game, and Riot has been releasing special collectible card sets tied to real esports events and teams.
One such set celebrates T1, a professional League of Legends team, and their 2025 World Championship win. It included cards linked to the team's players, including their best-known star, known by the nickname Faker, one of the most successful competitors in the game's history. Only a limited number of these sets were made, and a small fraction contain a card bearing his signature.
Because the set sold out quickly and the signed cards are so scarce, they have become sought after by collectors, who are now reselling them for far more than the original price. This reflects a wider trend of trading cards, especially rare or celebrity-linked ones, becoming valuable collectors' items and investment objects, sometimes trading for many times their retail cost.