Jason Masherah, President of Upper Deck, joined Cheddar to talk sports memorabilia.

Jason Masherah, President of Upper Deck, joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to break down the trends he's seeing in the trading card and collectibles market, as new technology allows people to reap huge sums of money for cards of both proven greats and prospects alike.

From a Hobby to a Hustle, Sports Trading Cards Are Seeing a Resurgence

Welcome back to closing bell and cheddar news. Everyone, sports card trading is coming back into the fold while N. F. T. S. And digital assets have seen a spike in popularity in recent years. There does still appear to be a major appeal for physical cards themselves. Of course there is something to be said for assets that you can actually hold in your hands. So now many collectors are turning what used to be a hobby into a hustle as cards are selling for hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. It's amazing joining me now is Jason, Mash ra, president of Upper deck, a company that does produce trading cards and memorabilia. Jason is great to have you on the show and I want you to talk to me about this recent resurgence that we've seen in trading cards. What's behind it. Well, you know, it's interesting that the growth of the market really started around 2015 and what we saw was a couple of things. We started really marketing towards families. Uh we saw gen x really kind of reaching in and looking for things to do with their kids that weren't involving screens so much. And and we saw families really enjoying collecting cards and opening cards together and passing down the generation that grew up with cards largely in the nine, you know, doing something with their kids. We've also seen a large influx of technology in the space in 2016, we brought to market a concept called a pack where you can actually open physical packs of cards on a website 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can leave them there, you can store them, you can trade them with other collectors or you can have them shipped to you and the technology has really brought a lot of extensive reach to collectors who maybe don't live by a card store or have cards handy to them around the block. I am interested Jason in terms of where you are seeing the demand amongst generations and whether or not some younger generations for instance are jumping on board to the memorabilia trade as well. Yeah, you know what I think is really fun for us to see right now is you know, when I was a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, a lot of us as you know, especially tweens and early teenagers kind of did the same thing. We, we saw this as a hustle, we saw this as a way, an entrepreneurial venture. You know, a lot of us worked in card stores, we set up at shows, we started our own shops were seeing that whole cycle happen again, the kids are very entrepreneurial now, they're, they're trying to make money and we're seeing it at all levels. We're seeing it in adults, we're seeing it and in the gen Xers as well and it's, it's really fun to see kind of that reinvigorating of the entrepreneurial spirit in our business. It's amazing too that some of these young prospects, right? Not necessarily even proven yet per se, but really kind of potential up and coming stars are seeing huge bids on their products as well as see in fact, one card it looks like even selling for half a million dollars, $500,000 what's behind that sort of demand. So it's all about the risk reward we call it prospecting in our industry, it's about getting to that next big star before they become a star, right? So you have people chasing the Michael jordans, the Wayne Gretzky's, the Tiger Woods before they become those athletes. And you know, they're hoping that if they get in early enough that they'll be worth a lot of money down the road. You know, we're excited next week that the NHL season starts, You know, we have a young prospect, you know, signed to an exclusive deal in the name of Shane, right? Um, and people are going to be when his cards first hit the market, they will be speculating on, on his rookie card as well, hoping that he's the next great hockey star. But we see this across all the sports, it seems like this went from a hobby to a hustle, would you call it a hustle these days? Well, I think it's, it's actually, it's many dynamics to many different people at the base of everything that we do. It's about the pure collector, the people who really use trading cards and memorabilia to get closer to their favorite athletes. They're the base of our hobby. That's what keeps it healthy. That's what keeps it going. What we've seen is a large influx of speculators and quote unquote investors. Typically they come in when they see an RV garage opportunity in the industry and they've come and gone over the years. We've definitely seen a large portion of that. But what I think more than anything, we've seen a large nostalgia for the people. Again, the gen x and the baby boomers who enjoyed it growing up now passing it down to their kids and their kids are becoming entrepreneurs and the hustlers and sometimes they're doing it together. So there really is a blend of a lot of different things going on in the market, which is fun to see What's the highest price that you've seen. I'm reading here one Mickey Mantle card recently selling for 12.6 million I think, especially during this environment, Jason that is a pretty eye popping number. Yeah. So that is the record in the industry right now and what we've seen, you know, and I think we've seen a lot of this in different markets, not just trading cards over the last three years is people are looking for alternative assets to invest in and the reality is whether it's trading cards, art, you know, cars, watches, autographed memorabilia. The best of the best of all time is what people typically seek out and that's what you see in our market. People are paying record dollars for cards of the best players of all time. They are very limited. The Lebron James, the Michael Jordans, the Wayne Gretzky's. Those are the cards that people are paying record prices for on a regular basis. How does the N. I. L. Work itself into this? Are we seeing college athletes, male and female, I should say, getting some traction in this space. Yeah, no, we're seeing a lot of action on the N. I. L. Front. You know, again, it goes back to the prospecting. People want the cards of who they think is gonna be the next world class athlete. And now, with the college athletes having the ability to sign and have endorsement deals at the college level, all the companies have definitely jumped in and started signing college athletes and it's gonna be a lot of fun to actually see, you know, alumni and fans of different schools chase the players that they cheer on because they've never had that ability to do that before. All right, Jason, we'll be watching closely. Jason must president of upper deck. Jason, thanks so much for joining me on the show