# Rare Candy

> Rare Candy is a New York- and Dallas-based online marketplace built for trading card game collectors. It brings the social energy of the neighborhood hobby shop online, letting people buy, sell, auction, and track sealed booster boxes, vintage packs, and graded cards across Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Gundam, and Lorcana. Co-founded by product veteran Chris Knape and YouTuber Lee Steinfeld (Leonhart), the platform pairs verified inventory and Thursday live auctions with an AI-powered card scanner that identifies cards in English and Japanese and surfaces real-time pricing.

- **Founded:** 2021
- **Headquarters:** Dallas, Texas, United States
- **Founders:** Chris Knape (CEO & Co-founder), Lee Steinfeld (Leonhart) (Co-founder)
- **Team size:** Approximately 19 employees (per LinkedIn/Apollo)
- **Products:** TCG Marketplace, Live Auctions, AI Card Scanner, Collection & Set Tracking, Exclusive Drops
- **Notable:** Raised a $4M seed round in 2021 with backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital, Multicoin Capital, Seven Seven Six, and Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke, Grew monthly active users roughly 30x in the year leading to mid-2025, Secured strategic investment from Konvoy Ventures in July 2025

## Products & services

- **TCG Marketplace** — Buy and sell sealed booster boxes, booster packs, vintage packs, and graded cards across Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Gundam, and Lorcana.
- **Live Auctions** — Thursday auctions open to graded and sealed items, with featured lots hosted live on stream by co-founder Leonhart with audience chat.
- **AI Card Scanner** — Mobile app that identifies any card variation (English or Japanese, raw or graded slab) using image recognition and surfaces real-time third-party pricing.
- **Collection & Set Tracking** — Add cards to a digital binder or wishlist, browse and track sets, and monitor live card values over time.
- **Exclusive Drops** — Weekly deal drops, exclusive auctions, and new-release pre-orders for members.
- **Seller Services** — Flat 13% fee on final sale price, plus a White Glove service for high-volume sellers (minimum 100 graded cards or 25 sealed SKUs).

## Achievements

- Raised a $4M seed round in 2021 with backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital, Multicoin Capital, Seven Seven Six, and Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke
- Grew monthly active users roughly 30x in the year leading to mid-2025
- Secured strategic investment from Konvoy Ventures in July 2025
- Co-founded by Leonhart, a Pokemon creator with over 1.8M YouTube subscribers
- Expanded from Pokemon into six trading card games including Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Gundam, and Lorcana

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Announced strategic investment from Konvoy Ventures and began expanding beyond Pokemon into Magic: The Gathering and additional franchises.
- **2025-06** — Reported roughly 30x growth in monthly active users over the prior year.

## Links

- Website: https://rarecandy.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/rarecandy
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RareCandy
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeonhartYT
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rarecandy

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rare-candy
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-03