Sam Kiki spent years building online gaming platforms. His latest venture hits closer to home.
Kiki launched Tilt Rips this week, a platform where users buy and open physical Pokémon card packs online, chasing pulls the same way collectors did on schoolyard lunch breaks in the late 1990s. The timing isn't accidental. The trading card market is projected to reach $52 billion this year, with Pokémon leading a resurgence fueled heavily by adults who grew up with the cards and are buying back in.
Average card values have jumped 46% over the past year. Card Ladder's Pokémon Index is up 116% year-over-year. In February, a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator owned by Logan Paul sold for $16.49 million at Goldin Auctions, the highest price ever paid for a trading card at auction, per Guinness World Records.
A Japanese Base Set Charizard PSA 10 went for $1.7 million in March. A Mario Pikachu PSA 10 cleared $31,800 in April.
"When a single Pokémon card sells for sixteen million dollars, you stop thinking about this as a hobby category," Kiki says.
"The collectors driving it are sophisticated, and they deserve a platform that takes the experience as seriously as they do."
Tilt Rips offers four pack tiers: Standard ($25), Enhanced ($100), Premium ($500) and Elite ($3,000). Users rip digital packs for a shot at authentic, PSA-gradeable cards. Pulls can be shipped home, listed on the in-app marketplace or showcased in a public collection. A live feed tracks the platform's biggest hits in real time.
Kiki, a Las Vegas-based poker player who founded the MonkeyTilt entertainment platform in 2024, said a trip to Japan earlier this year pushed him to act. MonkeyTilt hit roughly $200 million in monthly betting volume within eight months of launch.
"Japan is a mecca for collectibles," he said. "I came back and told my team we have to build in this space."
The appeal, he said, is as much emotional as financial. Pokémon was the first thing he ever collected. The platform he's built is meant to recreate the specific tension of not yet knowing what's in the pack.
"The suspense, the reveal, the chase," Kiki said. "And at the end of it, you still get the card in your hands."
Tilt Rips is live in beta at tiltrips.com. Additional collectible categories are expected in the coming months.
