There's a Shift Coming to the Hobby
Are You Ready?
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There was a lot of hobby news last week.
A LOT.
New hires, raised funds, breaks with celebrities. Last week had it all. The ramifications of the news won’t immediately be felt, but I’m going to explain why you should care.
PSA is Having a Tech Moment (Forbes)
Collectors recently raised $100 million in funding, PSA is expanding its footprint, and the $12 grading tier is likely not coming back, according to the Forbes article. But the most interesting aspect is the bigger picture.
There is a change coming to this hobby and one of the most influential companies in this industry is pushing it forward. They’re hiring people who worked for mega-corporations who have a different mindset than previously seen at companies in the industry.
How long have Topps, PSA, and other longstanding companies been around without much innovation? Decades.
The progress in the industry developed slowly. It felt like a glacier inching along.
Now, it’s an avalanche.
New technologies are being brought into the industry (read the article for PSA’s take), big names with a lot of influence are being put into significant roles, and a culture shift of developing trading cards into an asset class.
With all of the nuggets in this article, the most interesting line to me was the very last.
“These guys are kind of a little bit unconstrained,” chief operating officer Mike West, who joined the company last year, says of his colleagues. “It’s: What should the hobby be?”
It used to be that collectors decided what the hobby was. I still feel strongly that is the case, but there are is shift coming — and one that many longtime hobbyists may not enjoy.
Editor’s Note: I work for Goldin, which is owned by Collectors Holdings.
Fanatics Hires Former Adidas Exec (Complex)
So what? Right? Isn’t this is another new hire who will have fancy ideas of what they think trading cards should be?
Correct. But Jon Wexler comes with a lengthy resume, a lot of credibility and an A-list Rolodex. Celebrities breaking cases and big names on non-sports cards are only the tip of the iceberg as to what’s going to come, in my opinion.
Bringing in someone like Wexler shows that Fanatics is
1. Putting money behind trading cards and their evolution of the hobby, and
2. Planning big changes.
You don’t bring in someone like him to do the same thing all over again with only a bigger payroll.
It makes it feel like Fanatics views Zerocool and Fanatics Collectibles as entertainment companies first.
The Mint Collective (Sports Collectors Daily)
The Mint Collective took place last weekend. It had a marketplace where people bought cards, but also had panels and special guests. It was a conference with a card show.
Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice, and Paul Pierce were all in the house. As well as Josh Luber, PSA’s Kevin Lenane and execs from companies like Collectable and eBay. You can see the full list here.
The conference had a very smooth feel to it with many of the panels focused on the present and future of the industry. It was great for networking and ideation.
These three stories feel as though the hobby is on the precipice of a massive change. Longtime collectors have enjoyed a stable hobby with values of cards slowly gaining over the last couple of decades.
That all changed in 2020 when the market exploded. More eyeballs were on the hobby, savvy social media users and content creators joined the fray, technology experts saw challenges in the hobby and had ideas on how to solve them. Two years after that initial shift, the changes are happening more rapidly.
And I don’t think many long time collectors aren’t ready for it — or even want it to happen.
Hobby News Round Up
Here are other intersting articles that popped up last week:
Questlove: Collecting is an Act of Devotion, and Creation (NY Times)
WWE Ink Long Term Deal with Fanatics - Topps will be getting the WWE trading card rights back (Hollywood Reporter)
Aaron Judge Surprises Mason Furelli with Custom Topps Trading Card (The Source)
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Thansk for the interesting info! I am a newer collector in terms of seriousness and trying to learn and actually collect and even sell cards so this is all very helpful.