Collector Nation - How Matty Rich is Transforming the Trading Card Hobby

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

SUMMARY In this episode of the "Trading Cards and Collectibles Podcast," host Ryan Alford interviews Matty Rich, a respected trading card store owner and Topps dealer from South Carolina. They discuss Matty’s journey from online breaking to retail, the importance of creating a welcoming community for collectors—especially kids—and the evolving landscape of the hobby, including digital collectibles. Matty emphasizes treating every customer with respect and fostering positive experiences, while sharing insights on industry trends, challenges, and the enduring appeal of both physical and digital collecting. TAKEAWAYS The appeal and nostalgia of collecting trading cards. Creating a welcoming and inclusive retail environment for collectors. The diversity of collectors across different demographics. The significance of Pokémon cards and their artistic value. The experience and memories associated with opening packs of cards. The concept and business model of "breaking" in the trading card industry. The challenges of sourcing products and maintaining inventory in retail. The contrast between physical and digital collectibles, including NFTs. The importance of community and personal connections in the trading card hobby. The long-term mindset and integrity required for success in the trading card business.  

I feel that just about everybody is collecting something. Opening a pack of cards brings you right back to your childhood. And that's why I want to make it fun for the kids. So they have those good memories. That's almost kind of like a treasure hunt in some ways. Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From chasing grails to Colin Bluffs and going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect?

Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan. Alford. What's up guys? Welcome to Write About Now in our special series on Trading Cards. Look, when you have a number one show, you get to have guilty pleasures and talk about what you want. But when it's one of the hottest industries in America that might be, I don't know that

it's undercover anymore. I think the cat's out of the bag. Tom Brady brought it out alone last week, if nothing else. But nonetheless, we're continuing our series on talking the trading card business. bringing you, hey, we take the BS out of business, baby. It wasn't really the intent, but it's working out that we're going to have like all three levels of the business from producer to distributor to retailer. And you know what?

I live in the wonderful state of South Carolina. And got the number one show. That's why I like to go to number one. The number one retailer in shop in South Carolina. We got Maddie, Rich in studio. Number one's got to stick together, my brother. I know. Let's go.

Love having you here, man. It's been great getting to know you, Mattie. his family, wonderful family. Like, I love the business. And I'd probably like Maddie anyway because my kids are into cards and we go in there. But since the moment I walked in, I was like, this is where I want to do business. And the best shop and the best city in South Carolina. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Brian's sports cards and more. Yes, sir. All right. We got it. I'm throwing it off. And that was one of the things when I started. I didn't want to create a store.

I wanted to create an experience. Yeah. You know, I was doing the breaking. I was setting up at shows for years before that. And I just got tired of being in the house and being in the office and being around nobody. Yeah. You know, talking to everybody through the phone and the camera all night. So that's why I had to give Greenville this experience.

It's, you know, when you grow up, like when I grow up, you know, I'm moving through my kids' eyes now and my own eyes. Right. Yeah, rekindled in it. You know, rekindled my flame and my wallet. But nonetheless, you know, the idea that you'd own a trading card store growing up, I don't know if you did you collect, did you collect when you were a kid? I did my whole life. Yeah, okay.

Isn't that the dream come true? Yeah. Oh, it's work. It's work. Let's not get it confused. It is work. It isn't bubble gum and cracker checks. No, no, no, no, no.

Still work, but there's a lot worse things to do. Oh, there's a lot worse things to do for sure. I mean, but this is a 24-hour, 365. job. I mean, every holiday, every night, it doesn't matter. My phone is going off. There's always some kind of a business that we can be working on. It is. And it's fascinating because I'll text Maddie about, I'll have an idea or just be like, hey, man, you got any of those new, whatever. So I can only imagine times a thousand or who knows how many people. Maddie knows everybody. Because everybody's got a silent, you know, itch for some trading cards. And always

probably trying to get you into some deal or like, hey, they find a car or do they find something. I mean, well, that's why I had to get another phone line just for people to send in pictures of what they wanted to sell. Yeah. Because my phone was going crazy. My Instagram was going crazy. My Facebook was going crazy. I said, okay, we're going to confine this to one phone, one line, and get this thing under control. And I check it two or three or one time a week, but I check it. Yeah. It's being checked. Yeah. That's all that matters. Collectibles. Show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. Ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you.

You do case hits at collectibles. Show. I want you to send in your favorite pulls of the week. And here's the difference. This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. Had a couple of those myself a few months back. But it's not just about the value.

It's about what you're collecting. What means something to you? Share a story, share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week. That was your favorite player and you nailed it. So case hits at collectibles. Show, send in those videos. I want to know the stories. We're going to bring into life here on the show.

We're going to do a segment each week. Once we get rolling and get some videos in, where we share that on the show with us. We'll feature you on Collectibles Show. I've said this on a couple times. The local stores do a good job of this. But I grew up in the... Dude, for assholes, man.

They were. Jerks. Oh, they were the worst. I remember feeling when... And I sit there, like, the first time I came in and I hit it off. And I remember, like, the way you talked to, like, my son. And I was just sitting there going, this is the way it should be. I never felt the way my son felt in that moment when I grew up.

I didn't either. I felt talked down to or I was annoying him. You know why? Because we weren't spending big bucks. We were coming in with a couple dollars and we wanted a couple packs. So that's why we got treated like that. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, I don't care how much you come in and spend. I love every single kid that comes in there, man.

Come in and spend a quarter. And I'm going to treat you the same way as the guy. guy that comes in and spends a thousand dollars. And you know what? Before I even knew Maddie, you know, I was a, they call it mystery shopper. Like, Maddie and I didn't know each other because I was there for 15 minutes, for 20 minutes because you're busy. Like stuff's going on.

And I'm just shopping, look around like rekindling is like first month back into the thing with the kids. And I watched Maddie. Like I watched him. I wasn't the only thing I was doing, but very observant. And he's no different now that he knows me. Right. And then I am a customer and a friend.

But what I saw for 20 minutes for how you dealt with. busy store with a kid that's wanting to trade a Pokemon in the middle of non-trade time and how you handled it, that's what sets you apart. Thank you. It's different. That's the result of a few things. One of the things you said it was a dream job. One of the reasons it's a dream job is because of the way me and you were both treated.

When we went into those old grumpy men shops when we were kids, it was a mess. There's stuff everywhere. No organization, but he knew where everything was. couldn't find anything, right? And we got treated horribly because we were kids spending a couple bucks. So it's, you know, it's a result of dealing with that. Knowing the future of the hobby and the business is the kids taking interest as kids. So they're being treated the right way. And then I had 20 years of customer service before I got back into, you know, before I made sports cards of business again. Yeah. How many years are you into it? I'm five years back in, but in and out

my whole life though. Yeah. My, collecting. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For a little. Everything else.

I mean. Anything you can think of. Matt, are you like the guy that just knows how to get stuff? I think I kind of, yeah. You kind of are.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, especially the stuff that's in that nostalgia, collectibles and, you know. Yeah. I think that's it.

Yeah, I can find kind of whatever you need. Yeah. I remember that. It is a unique. experience they come into the store. I'm always blown away by the stock. Every shelf is always full. It's like in a world, especially as competitive as got, and I walk into some of these shops, and it's just like, what desert did I walk in? Yeah. Like, it's barren because it's, you know, have a hard time getting stuff. But obviously you're moving stuff, but you always got stock.

Open to people like, you know, the newest thing, you know, like you encourage people and they do, they're opening the cards there. Yeah. It almost feels like everybody in there feels like they're at home. That's what we want. Yeah. We want everyone to feel at home. We want. We want everyone to feel at home. We want this to be an escape from the real world. So when we're in there, we don't really get into, you know, politics, religion. Some of the subjects that can be a little touchy, I kind of ask the guys to leave that outside. That way we can just focus on sports and make it a happy place. You know, when you make it a happy place, it's an escape from the real world.

It is. And I sit at that table. I mean, me and myself, I can sit at that table. I might have a million things going through my mind. But when I sit down, open a box and open a few packs and pull a few bends and knots, it changes. You know? If you're into sports cards at all, especially football cards, you'll get that joke. It's an inside joke.

The hottest card in retail this year has been Jane Daniels, the rookie phenom and rookie of the year for the Washington commanders. When you're opening packs, you'll do the whole, okay, look at the logo, the team. Yeah. It's called sweating it. Yeah, you're sweating it. You're like, all right, all right. So you see that rookie.

sign and you see the Washington Commander's logo or the name. Then you begin the slow roll. The slow roll. Yeah. And it's it's either jubilation or something not jubilation when it becomes Ben Sinai. You know, it is an escape when you're open packs.

And, you know, you've got the tables set up. You got the table set up. You got the couch. You got TV. I can't tell you how many people I've seen come in as strangers and become friends. Yeah. Guys sit in there. Someone told me the other day. They looked my spot up on Google, and Google says the average person spends an hour and a half there.

It's unbelievable. Having we wouldn't do that. I spent about a time last night there. Yeah. We wouldn't do that if we weren't creating a community. Oh, yeah. You know, people are coming and hanging out and getting to know other people. You're meeting other people that partake in the same hobby who you can buy, sell and trade with.

I mean, that's what it's all about. And I literally sat there. I've sat there a couple times. and you usually buy stuff, but a couple of them I didn't buy anything. But watching other people buy and the energy is fun. It's a good time. It's like, you can charge admission. Like literally, I mean, I probably paid $5 to get in just to watch this kid.

The sure elation of, you know, popping some Pokemon that's $10 or whatever, you know. And it's just joy. And that's what it's all about for me. The interactions, meeting people, the face-to-face, I missed that when I was breaking. I was stuck in a room. 12 hours a day. Answer me this. You know, being at the retail level, five plus, I mean, your whole life in the business,

but as a collector, but now, you know, five on retail at the number one shop in South Carolina. Thank you. I accept that. Yeah. What surprised you the most about this industry that maybe you didn't see coming? The amount of people, the variety of people, it doesn't matter your age, sex, gender. orientation, it doesn't matter who you are, what you have going on. You can't look at someone until they're a collector.

No, you can't. You can do it with a lot of things, but not collecting. And I'll tell you what else. You can't look at someone and tell what they're going to come in your store and spend. No. The guy you think's going to come in and spend a dollar spends $500, and the guy you think's going to come in and spend $500 spends a dollar. Yeah.

You never know. You never know, man. And that's why it goes back to that. You have to treat everybody the same. take care of everybody, treat everybody right. Pokemon, well, we could have a, we could talk the whole episode on Pokemon. Like, it's a thing. It's a thing.

I mean, it's all a thing. Yeah. But Pokemon is, and it's, Pokemon is the one, come out, blow you away who's collecting. Oh, I've been at Walmart looking at the shelf got blown over by grandma. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, you never know who's going to push you out of the way at Walmart for Pokemon. What is the Pokemon culture?

What is that? Is it, I mean, is it just, but. the game and then now it's just become its pop culture and you know what i'd say 90% of the people that come to my shop to buy Pokemon are not playing the game they're just collectors

they don't even know how to play the game but they like the art on the cards yeah um they you know they look put sets together or they like a certain type or a certain energy there are so many different ways to collect I like certain value a lot of people like certain values

I do you I have grown to like the artwork. It's a weird thing. I mean, and look, it's human beings. Art is a big part of our society culture. And when you look at, like, I'm looking at these guys and they've done a good job with football and all. But when you look at a Pokemon card, it is like staring at a piece art. It really is. I mean, it's, it's, it's very, there's so much detail and uniqueness. It really is. And the variations of color. And then art cards are even huge right now. You have different artists putting out art cards. You have art cards selling for tens of thousands. thousands of dollars.

Have you, it's incredible. Stop to, like, as different as everyone is. And I think you probably talked about it as much escape as anything. But is there a variable that hangs it all together in this whole space of collectibles that you see? I mean, beyond the adult roller coaster, they're getting to ride and the escapism. I mean, is there anything else? Like in the whole, like, collecting and the whole, I don't know.

We're just naturally collectors. I feel that just about everybody is collecting something. If you're not collecting nothing, you're collecting dust, baby. That's true. The final line between collecting and courting. Right, right. But it's a past time. We need things to do to keep us busy.

You could be spending money on a lot worse things than a pack of cards. And, you know, for me and for a lot of guys that come into the shop, they always go back to the same thing. You know, opening a pack of cards brings you right back to your childhood. Yeah. And that's why I want to make it. fun for the kids so they have those good memories it feels good open in that pack yeah and looking to see if it's almost kind of like a treasure hunt in some ways you know whether you're collecting all your team

or a certain player or a numbered card or autograph card or just cards of value it's almost like a treasure hunt every time you open a pack it's true and transitioning back to the business side of it yeah even if you spent five and it's worth two it has value right so it's not just a scratch-off card that is either worth 20 or nothing. Exactly. You know, like, it has value that can increase. And I want to add on to that. When you get a scratch-off, that's worth nothing, you can throw it away.

Yeah. When you open a pack of cards and nothing in there seems valuable to you, you can just throw them in a box, forget about them for two years. And when you go back through that box in two years, you're going to find something in there and say, man, he was nobody two years ago. Yep. So it's like, yeah, you might know. not have the value that you want right here and now when you open that box. But two years from now, who's to tell what's going to be what and who's going to be who? Yeah.

The thrill of the chase. Exactly. And but the potential. The potential. You know, because that's what's there. Talking with Maddie, Rich. He is the owner of Brian's sports cards and more here in Greenville, the number one shop in South Carolina. Thank you, sir.

Top dealer, soon to be. I mean, he might as well be everybody dealer. I know you're an official Topps dealer. Yes, sir. And they don't hand those out easily. I understand. Those don't just come, like you don't just buy those at Walmart. Very true.

Hard work, networking, and having the right setup and the right kind of service. Yeah. Because Topps represents excellence. They're not going to just put their name on any kind of shop. You know, if you're not treating people right, if your store is not clean and organized. That's not what they're looking for. Yeah. The name of the game is getting stock. I mean, that's, isn't it? I mean, but it's popular stuff is. And so you've got to do things the right way and make the relationships. I mean, talk about that side of the business. That's very true. The hardest part

of the business is sourcing product. And, you know, I dealt with that since I was a breaker. I'd go to the big shows across the country and network, meet people, introduce myself to people, take business cards, follow up with those business cards, and really just shake hands and create relationships. Hey, listen, I'm here for you. If I can help you with anything and you never know who's going to be able to help me at the same time. Yeah. You started in breaking. Started on the business side. Yeah. Fascinating industry. It really is. Like it's sub-segment of the whole thing. Oh, wow. Describe for our audience that's learning about the business. So basically breaking is an online show.

You know, you would have an audience of potential customers, and you would have a box. Let's say this box is a $1,000 box. Now, yeah, one person can buy that $1,000 box and open it up for themselves. Or you can do a group break. You can sell teams, you can sell spots, you can sell divisions. What I liked to do was sell 10 spots, and each of those 10 spots would get three random teams. Once we have it full, we'll run a randomizer and give each spot the three random teams. And we'll open up the box, giving each person every card from the three teams that they own.

So if I got the Packers, the Panthers, and the Bears. Exactly. As my teams, you're opening up every pack in that box. Live on camera. Live on camera. Yes, sir. So everybody's seeing it. There's transparency.

Exactly. They know what you're getting. Full transparency. And as one of those team, you know, players comes up, whoever it is. Yeah. They get every card associated with that team. Exactly. So it allows the person buying it, the fun and excitement of that experience in a live platform.

Right. Combined with, well, they didn't have to spend $1,000. That's the key right there. It makes it affordable for them. to have the thrill of the chase of stock that probably isn't just readily available. Right. Isn't that kind of what it is all about? And in that situation, they can get into 10 different breaks instead of buying that $1,000 box.

Yeah. Increasing their odds of- I've done that lately. On the flip side of that, you might not be the guy that gets the big card, but you are still a part of that box. It's just a great experience. We did that for four years. I did it 365. I was in the office.

How were you sourcing product? Any which way I could. I was buying from stores across the country. My retail was locked down. You couldn't get from Walmart back then because I was getting everything. Really? Yeah, I had the guy's number. This was one of the ways I really got started by meeting the guy who stocked three different Walmarts.

And he would meet me in the toy section to give me all the sports cards. Wow. And they never even hit the show. shelf. I mean, you have to do what you have to do. I go to the register. I'd pay for all my stuff and I'd be able to go home and break it. But I was, you know, and of course, I was paying him for taking care of me. Sure. But still, it was a lot cheaper than finding it from one of the major retailer distributors online. Yeah. Everything gets marked up. It's so hard to find. Yeah. And imagine during COVID, when everyone was stuck in the house, it was even harder to find. And prices with the

distributors would change by the by the minute you'd have to call them find out the pricing and put in your order right then because if you say let me think about it i'll call you back in an hour prices one up in that hour it was volatile it was like a stock that's the truth that's how it is still now it kind of is yeah it may not be as volatile but it's definitely the stuff that gets hot yeah you know yeah like blasters that are 30 dollars if you can find them on the shell of reselling for $100. That's what's happening right now. That's what's happening right now.

They literally, Dr. Optic, if you can find it, it's 35 at Walmart or Target. But reselling for 80 to 120 and the megas are 65 retail going for 13150. I mean, it's like double. That's just an example of going through the ranks and working your way up.

Anything in life you do and you work hard for, it's going to pay off. Yeah. And I just continue to network, And I'm not satisfied with where I'm at right now. I'm still growing. I have one shop right now. I'd like more shops.

I think people need to understand how much. You don't say how it's you were making breaking. Yeah. I know you know some big numbers. There's a lot of money there. There's so much money breaking. Total sales. Total sales.

Okay. Still, if you're doing 10, 12 million in sales, I imagine he's making at least what, or 20, 30, a couple million himself. Yeah, it has to, right? Right. I knew a guy during COVID that was making 2 million a month. He was the absolute biggest breaker during COVID. This is before What Not Fanatics Live and all the other platforms started.

All we were doing is going live on Instagram or YouTube. Yeah. Well, that's the interesting. The platforms have evolved. Yes. And this is the live shopping component. that I've been talking about for 10 years that would eventually hit here. I didn't know that it would come through this channel necessarily as one of the proliferators of it.

Yeah. Because it's been a little bit of slow compared to like Asia and some of the other countries where a lot of topics has been huge. Really? The U.S. has been a little slow like overall as a category. But trading cards are ushering in a whole different thing. Oh, yeah. I do think it's a dual part of it.

It's the retail, the access, but it's the experience. It is. The surprise and the surprise and delight and the camaraderie. And like there's a lot of components going on that is beyond just a transaction. Well, no, the breaker has to have a personality. Yeah. You have to understand the breaker is performing. The breaker is putting on a show. He's there talking about stuff that people want to hear about.

He's a salesman. He's getting his stuff going. He's railing it up. Some of these guys sound like auctioneers. I mean, it's crazy. You tap in on all those different channels. You're going to get something different. Yeah.

But the guys that are. really excelling in it. They have great personalities, obviously have great product. Yep. And are working their butts off. And you've got What Not is now growing. What Not has grown from just cards to sneakers, vintage clothing, handbags, commodities like gold and silver. Yeah. You get in there and you've got not only the brakes like what Maddie did. I mean, they've got, and we've done this with the boys like selling singles. Whatever. You can do that too. They do. They've got. They got. They got. got like little timers so you get people auction like live auction.

Right. That's exactly what it is. And some people will take like graded cards and make repacks and sell repacks. Yeah. You know, there's just so many ways that you can sell things on whatnot on Fanatics Live. They have spinning wheels that will randomly select your teams for you. I mean, they make it fun. It is fun.

And it's very easy to just swipe and buy that team. And then when you check at the end of the night, that money comes right out of your bank. Oh, they got it. It's like too easy. One slide in there. It's like, you know, if you think Amazon's quick and fast. Oh, my goodness. Like, one swipe.

One swipe, baby. So we transit. What made you go from breaks to retail? You know, when I was breaking, I was happy. I had no overhead. And I was doing really good financially. I'm a people person, Ryan. Yeah.

I got tired of sitting in the house by myself, running back and forth from this room to that room. I wanted to be around people again. The only time I was around people was when I went to a show, which was once every month or two. Yeah. You know, I really like the element of the face-to-face interactions, getting to know people, bonding with people, learning people. Like you said, you know my family. You have a great family as well. And it's been an honor and a pleasure for me to meet your family and become a part of you. I'm an extended part of the family. Like, I love it. So just having me stuck in that room wasting away, I felt like I was just wasting away. I wanted to be a part of you. I want to be a part of you. I want to be a part of you. I want to be a part of you. I want to be a part of it. I want to come. I want to be wanted to get back into the public and I wanted to get back around people. It's what I do. I just like, I like people. Yeah. You know,

it's not for everyone. Yeah. Because retail is not easy. It's not easy. It's not. I mean, even booming industry and you've got, you know, but sales right now are good. Yeah.

You know, but still running a retail shop. Deal of business. You know, like you said, like you said, man, when you come in,

my shelves are stocked. I might have a really good day where the end of the day my shelves are empty. Yeah. Now I have to get stuff sent to me for the next day. So when I open that next morning, my shelves are stocked again. So it's always a fight. It's a tug of war.

You know, they're buying, I need to replace. They're buying I need to replace because I don't want any empty shelves. Yeah. That's the last thing you want to see. But I'm sure you do toil, like, okay, is this going to stay hot? Is it going to sit a little bit or is it not? Do you get to think about that? experience. Experience tells you what to order, what not to order. There's no blueprint. There's no

guide. It's all trial and error. It really is. Yeah. Is the expansion just more stores? I mean, is that? Yeah. More stores. Yeah. And is it, but it then it gets into like, you know, we've talked about it. You know, the market. So do you have to leave the market? Do you have to, you know, or is it just South Carolina? Like, How do you go about thinking about that? It's so hard, man. I really think about it a lot. I think a lot of our store's success is within our store's personality, which consists of me and my family.

It's a family run business, family owned, family run business. So it'd be really hard. I mean, I've been offered to put a spot in Nashville to put a spot in Charlotte. Yeah. It's hard to duplicate that, right? It's really hard to duplicate because now you just have a story. You might not have that same experience. Yeah.

Like, I'm here with you right now, but my daughter's running the shop. Yeah. And I know she's doing a great job because this is who she is. Yeah. You've dealt with her before. Exactly. Right? Yeah, great. I'm not going to send her to one of them cities.

She might a good national event. She might. She might. But, you know, just the family element, man. So I don't know. God knows. I didn't know I was going to open a store. Yeah.

You know, I didn't have any of that plans. I didn't even know I was going to leave my career and take on breaking full time. Yeah. This is all God's plan. He works in mysterious ways. He sure does, brother. Where is the industry headed? Like, the, I don't know.

And use your crystal ball, like, you know, Tom Brady's in it with Card Vault. You've got, you've got the grading side. You've got, you know, all the brands. You got Panini and tops. It's always battling back and forth with rights and all this stuff. Like, it's a broad-ranging question, but I'm just curious. Like, do you even pay attention to that? I do.

Yeah, because you've got to have to a little bit. I do, yeah. And, you know, I wish I prepared with some statistics for this interview because there was a statistic I read not too long ago, maybe three or four months ago, that said right now it's worth this many billions. And within the next five years, they're expecting it to maybe five X. Yeah. Oh, yeah. trends are looking good right yeah you know tops is taking on more more IPs they got Disney this year so everything under Disney this year actually tops will take on NBA licensing

and then next year they're going to have the NFL licensing so it's as long as tops is in the driver's seat I feel really really comfortable yeah I just love what they're doing for the hobby the innovative things they're doing like as far as like the MLB debut matches that the player wears for their very first game, the signatures, just all the fun stuff that Tops is doing right now and Fanatics is doing. I think they're doing a great job with it. There's something that's so raw and real about the physical part of collecting, especially of the sports cards. But you do have this younger group that the NFT space, the digital space, like I don't think it's an or. I think it's an and. I don't feel like it's a replacement, but it's an

interesting thing. I think they really tried it during COVID. It had a day and that about it. It had a day. I mean, even me, I felt victim. I was in Topps,

heavily invested in Topshot, which is NBA moments. It's like, yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Remember Topshot? Yeah.

It was NBA. And it's still going on. Okay. They still have it. I just don't know where the interest is right now. Yeah. A lot of guys that I speak to, no,

I can't speak for everyone. But a lot of guys that I speak to, I speak to, they want to hold that physical asset in their hands. Yeah. As opposed to pushing playing a computer and watching LeBron make a layup and saying, I own that. Yeah. Yeah.

It's touchy. I know. Well, I never thought that a generation would put as much value in a digital skin or costumes. Right. My kids, what they've spent on Fortnite costumes, like, it means, like, That avatar is part of their identity. For sure.

So that's the only thing that makes me, and again, not because I think it's going to replace the physical card, but it's an and because if they do place that in, that gives that digital or value to them, I'm going to call it digital value, but to them it's just value. It means something. It does. And they're willing to pay for it. It does. So if the 10 year olds of today are willing to pay for that skin or that thing because that's their digital persona. Yeah. I can't help but think that there's going to be.

a digital collection of something. I'm cool with the ant. Yeah. There's a video game out. I believe it's MLB, the show. Yeah. Where you can unlock Topps baseball cards. And I spoke to many people that come into the shop that have told me they got back into

collecting physical baseball cards because of the video game. So the and I can see that end working. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it will be something as a component of collecting. Right. Whether or not it's 5% or.

1% or 50% 100 years now. I mean, who knows? Think about our trade nights. Like the trade nights we do here. Yeah. They're amazing. Full of people, full of collectors,

full of smiles. I don't know how that would work with the digital stuff. Yeah, it's like, oh, you're going to put it up on the projection screen. Hey, who wants to buy this?

Honest Wagner 1-1. I'm going to take a picture with my camera phone. I'm going to take a picture with my camera phone. I make another copy of it. Right. But when you walk from table to table and who's running most of these table, kids, Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Kids will easily have $20,000. I think I got smuggled that whole night. I'm like, I don't know if I won or lost, but I had a blast doing it. Exactly. Yeah, you know. And that's what I always remind people is that, man, this is a hobby. Some people make it all about the money. Yeah.

But this is a hobby. It's meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be fun. I always try to keep it there. Yeah. Well, and that's part of your tagline, isn't it? Yeah, for sure. The hobby lives here.

The hobby lives here. The hobby lives here. I love the hobby. I love everything that it represents. I always say it's so much deeper than the cards. Yeah. You know, you're teaching children the value of a tangible asset. I see parents use.

bringing their kid to the card store to buy a pack of cards as a reward for doing good in school or doing their chores. I see not only kids buying, selling, trading with each other, but I see kids buying, selling trading with adults. Learning how to interact. Interaction and social skills. That takes a lot for a 12-year-old to walk up to a man like you and say, excuse me, sir, would you like to buy this card for me?

Yeah. It's so much deeper than 50 that night. Like do that. Right. You know, but I was like impressed. Exactly. It's so much bigger than cards, man. I love every aspect of the hobby.

Really do. And we're going to just keep growing, man. I know. But I think the industry's lucky to have guys like you. Thank you. I mean, it's been refreshing. I really respect the way you do it. I appreciate that, man.

That was kind of my thing when I was breaking. It's so easy to do the right thing when everyone's watching. But what are you doing when no one's watching? And I always operated with morals, integrity, and the right ethics. And people recognize that. Yeah. You know, people recognized my hard work and my honesty. It really paid off in the long run. It's called playing the long game. Called brand. Playing the long game. Branding. Yes, sir. And too many people take the shortcut or take the whatever and it just doesn't work out because then you don't reap the long-term benefit.

No. You know, I always tell people a story when I was breaking. I had a good friend of mine who was a really popular breaker. And at any given time, he'd have 300 people in his life. And I was a small. fry in the beginning, you know, I might have five people in there, but I was so thankful for those five people. And comparison is the thief of joy. So I never compared myself to them, but I was so thankful for the five people. And every time I leveled up, I was super appreciative. And it really paid off. Like you said, playing the long game, the guy that used to have 300 people in his lives, I mean, he had the world in the palm of his hands. He's not even in the space anymore. And, you know, I just kept leveling up at a respectable pace.

And we have a shop now and growth is inevitable. The number one shop. The number one shop. I love it. Listen, every time you say it, I accept that. Tell everybody where they can find you,

the shop, social handles, all that stuff. All right. On Instagram, we are Brian Sports Cards. It's Brian B-R-Y-A-N underscore sports, underscore cards on Facebook, it's Brian Sports Cards. And if you're in Greenville, South Carolina, we are at 500 Congaree Road,

Unit 8102 in the district midtown community. And you can find us at all the big shows. We'll be at the national. We'll be at Fanatics Fest. We move. We travel. Yeah. We'll be at the Atlanta. You'll be at the social house. We'll be at the social house. Oh, you know it. Yes. We will be at the social house. Oh, yes. Yes. Hey, go by and give them a shout out. look always amazing stock you're i mean you come into a town if you're a collector you know you're always kind of like okay where's the local guy right and you know because i've been to a couple towns lately gone in the local shop and i'm like hmm my home my collect i got more packs at home than you're like i'm like come on man nobody wants these leaf uh leaf not two thousand twenty

football cards anyway but no go get them a shout uh Thank you. Maddie and his family are wonderful. The shop's amazing. So much, so much variety. And more than anything, good people to do business with. Really appreciate you for coming on, brother. I appreciate you and everything you do.

And you have an amazing podcast, number one. Yeah. I appreciate you, brother. Thank you so much. Hey, guys, you know where to find us. You'll find the whole series on trading cards there. We go from all the way, all levels. We're covering it from every angle, just like we always do.

At Ryan Offord on Instagram. I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www.comlectables. Or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Olford. Now get out there and collect yours.