Ep.253 w/ Matt Peek of Parkside Cards

SPEAKER 1: What is up everybody? Episode 2 53. Today, we are joined with Matt Peak of Parkside Cards. They do some great releases. And they, they, you know, they, they've been around a few years here. We're gonna learn about the birth of the company where they started, where they're going, the difficulties of being a smaller car manufacturer.

SPEAKER 1: But, you know, like Matt says, he's living his dream, every day. And I think if you've been in the co, if you've been a collector in this hobby for any length of time, you've kind of always thought in your mind, right. What if I owned a card company or what if I produce my own cards? How would I do it?

SPEAKER 1: What I wouldn't do what I would do what I would do differently, right. We all have at least thought that, in brief mo moments. But, Matt's actually, live that we're gonna learn all about, what he does and he's a collector as well and, inspired by, from being a collector. So we gonna learn about kind of what he still collects, besides being a card manufacturer.

SPEAKER 2: It's time to start the show. Let's go.

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SPEAKER 4: Hi, this is Pat Hughes Cubs announcer. Coming to you from the sports card shop in beautiful New Buffalo. Michigan. The Goer family has built an incredible place here for collectors to buy, sell and trade cards and memorabilia. Be sure to stop by and let them show you around the sports card shop dot com. Connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors around the world.

SPEAKER 5: Hi, this is Allen Pinkett and I'm here to tell you the Goer family has done it again.

SPEAKER 5: They've just opened up the sport card shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana and it is awesome.

SPEAKER 5: If you're a collector, you need to check this place out. Tell them Alan sent you and get a free gift on your first visit.

SPEAKER 1: Excited to be joined by my next guest on the sports card shop, guest line. It's Mr Matt Peak of Parkside Cards. Welcome, Matt.

SPEAKER 6: How are you, man? Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER 1: Oh, thank, thanks for making some time. I know you're busy. You Dad, you, you, you obviously got Parkside. So you got, you got, you know, a lot of Irons in the fire, as they say, I, I know, you know, we all have like that first pack of cards that, that kind of roped us in, to the hobby, if I'm not mistaken, yours was 1986 tops.

SPEAKER 1: And, you pull the cal ripkin card and, and, and the rest is, is sort of history as a young man. Did you ever did, do you think, like, hey, someday I, I wanna do this and make these and I can maybe do it better or do it my way. Was that when, when did, did you ever think along those lines or, or not necessarily?

SPEAKER 6: No, not, no. Like, nowhere along the process of anything. Pre park side was, was Parkside an idea.

SPEAKER 6: We conceptualized it. My business partner, Eric Christensen and I, in, in a moment of just the realization of, of a void.

SPEAKER 6: You know, I always love trading cards as a hobby. Couldn't stay away from it for any substantial amount of time. College would pop into a trading card store every now and again. Moved out to Los Angeles from Maryland. Walmart Target. I'm in Burbank, California, which is, you know, Burbank sports cards is a stone's throw away from my home.

SPEAKER 6: So I've been blessed and cursed, you know, that, that Rob and, and Ryan are, are just right around the corner. So he just, it was ever present. And having a daughter, made me hyper aware of the growth of women's soccer, which, you know, I already knew it was huge. I grew up with a title nine athlete in my house.

SPEAKER 6: My, my sister went to Penn State pre varsity women's soccer and is one of the, the athletes that forced the university to make that change. So, you know, just kismet, the way the world works, you just kind of sometimes have to follow whatever path is put in front of you. And I, and, and thank God I did and thank God I could convince Eric to do it cause here we are having the time of our lives.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, no doubt we're gonna talk about it. I know you're very philanthropic and, and you do a lot of stuff for other people and, and, and you help out in, in that respect you've, you've had licensing with, with various leagues, as you mentioned, the NWSL, Major League, lacrosse, at one point, big three basketball, fan controlled football, the Negro League Baseball Museum.

SPEAKER 1: You know, for those that, that don't know if you, you probably make it look easier than it is, but kind of talk about sometimes, you know, the logistics, we, you don't have to give away the, the secrets but you know, in, in working with leagues and, and partnerships and, and licensing, some of the difficulties so that go along with that.

SPEAKER 6: I don't know that there's any, I don't know that there's any proprietary secrets, everybody's individual.

SPEAKER 6: You know, league licensing is adhering to a set of rules and standards and doing your very best to make sure that you're representing your partner in the absolute best light. And if they have an agenda or initiatives really responding to them in as fast a AAA manner as possible, You know, it's, it's a collaborative industry, it's a collaborative business.

SPEAKER 6: It has to be if it isn't you, you sort of start to see, you know, some of the unfortunate stuff that might be rearing its head these days in some places, you know, it's, it's honestly, it's like, II I can't understate this and I can't overstate it. It is ridiculously fun. Like to wake up every morning, walk in the office and be like we're making trading cards.

SPEAKER 6: We're representing these like dynamic ridiculous athletes that are, you know, so powerful and so inspirational to so many people across the country and across the world.

SPEAKER 6: I, I think if you just remember that if you just remember, like at the core of the whole thing, what you're doing is you're chronicling and creating a historical, you know, template for fans to remember this moment of time, then it becomes easy, it becomes easy to adhere to all your rules and all and all the initiatives that are put in front of you.

SPEAKER 6: There's no, yeah, sorry, there's no grand secrets into it at all.

SPEAKER 1: No, no, no, it's well said. And, and you, you, you're speaking from experience and no one can argue with experience. You, you kind of touched on kind of the, the current landscape with the, the big folks if you will.

SPEAKER 1: You know, you, you got started in this mad as a collector like most of us did. So you sort of have a, I'm, I'm sure a fondness to whatever brands, for a lot of us is tops because they're the, you know, the biggest one, kind of your thoughts, you know, on kind of what's going on now where you're seeing, you know, now that fanatics has acquired tops, they want, they literally want everything.

SPEAKER 1: You know, I've said this on my show.

SPEAKER 1: I, I think having more people doing stuff, brings out the best in, in everybody.

SPEAKER 1: I'm, I'm old so, and from Brooklyn, New York. So I have a fondness of, of Cops the way, the way it was obviously, you know, times change. We're, you know, we're talking many years later. Ok. What are your thoughts on where the hobby going when it comes to, you know, fanatics licensing and them kind of wanting to, to get as much of the pie, as possible. Do you view that as, as good, bad. Maybe a little bit of even both.

SPEAKER 6: I think it's so everything evolves, everything changes over time.

SPEAKER 6: There are some irrefutable truths when it comes to fanatics, they are amazing marketers, they are amazing growth engineers. And so everyone should be incredibly optimistic what the wizards and, and, and, and, and, and you know, their, their marketing gurus can do with this thing we love.

SPEAKER 6: I do think competition breeds innovation. I always, we talk about it internally, you know, you need to have multiple entities existing in a space or you'll get stagnant. It's just the, the, it's the way the world has proven itself over and over again to work.

SPEAKER 6: I don't know that fanatics wants everything. I don't know that, you know, there isn't a future in which they consolidate and become collaborative across other, other companies and other entities.

SPEAKER 6: I, I do understand, you know, they're investing a lot of time and resources and so they need to make sure that they can satisfy those investments. And I don't think anyone can argue with that. I think right now is the best possible time to remain incredibly optimistic because thus far it seems like they're shining the light on all the good stuff. And I'm really, really fond of that.

SPEAKER 1: How much of, of what you do at Parkside is o obviously, you, you, you, you know, you're internally driven, you, you, you know, you, you come up with your own, but how much of it like, hey, I don't like this that goes on, I'm going to do it kinda, in other words, something you don't like or mistake or perceived mistake and you say, hey, we're gonna do it this way because I think it's better how much do you take from what else is going on with manufacturers and, and, and, we pay attention, you know, there are things that, we've decided to draw a line in the sand regarding, you know, listen, we're most known for the NWSL.

SPEAKER 6: You know, and that was really the, the, the genesis of, of where Parkside comes from. We started because of Eric and myself having soccer playing daughters who were watching NWSL games on, on, I forget the name of the cable channel at the time, but it was like, I think it was lifetime and loving it.

SPEAKER 6: And so here we are now. So in our 2023 product, we finally made an NWSL relic. We made one and we only made 100 and 11 copies of it because it's a pair of shorts and we put on our blog that here's the shorts before we cut them up.

SPEAKER 6: These were given to us from the team from this game and, you know, people seem to respond very favorably to that. We don't want to just do relics that a player may be touched or wafted past. It seems disingenuous. That's my, honestly, my biggest gripe with the hobby these days.

SPEAKER 6: I just bought a Box Of Allen and Ginter because I'm a collector. I always will be. I have two hobby boxes I buy every year.

SPEAKER 6: That go back to, well, one hobby box that goes back to probably 1988 Allen and Ginter since it came out. Now I buy, W NBA Prism and I also will buy, the top U A for women's soccer because, you know, I got to support them for, for making women's product because it's awesome.

SPEAKER 6: But I bought that box, Allen and Ginter and I got, I got three relics in it and I wasn't happy about it. The rest of the cards were awesome. But, you know, the relic thing is, is something we draw the line at. We spend a lot of time and resources trying to do on card signatures for as much as possible.

SPEAKER 6: You know, we wholeheartedly buy into this notion that when a collector gets that card out of a pack and they're touching it. There's a trance, there's a, there's a moment where they both, they realize the player touched this and there's an exchange there that, that, you know, the players have no idea about, but the collector does.

SPEAKER 6: And at the end of the day, who are we here to serve the collector? So those are our two biggest things, the rest of it. We, you know, we're, we're trying to figure out the best way to put the most product in the most hands, every day of the week and there's some trial and error to that.

SPEAKER 1: You, you launched, I in 2019, but obviously stuff was happening before you officially launched. W was it, was it harder than you expected about what you expected? Like, you know, looking back now and, and launching a, a new car manufacturer, you know, was it, was it diff more difficult than you thought? I, I mean, every, everything has a degree of difficulty but, how would you gauge it sort of in, in retrospect, it was.

SPEAKER 6: It was everything I thought it would exactly would be, it was, you know, phone calls. So again, beautiful thing is I get to split this down the middle there, there's, you know, Eric, he and I are sitting across the table calling people writing emails.

SPEAKER 6: You know, there were a few pretty pleased. Why won't you just say yes moments. We had a couple, you know, crapper, get off the pop moments ourselves. I, it's, it was, you know, it was exactly as hard as it needed to be to make that first pack of cards go out, which was 2019 Major League lacrosse. Be like the most ridiculously satisfying thing ever.

SPEAKER 6: And then when we finally got the NWSL because this all actually starts with an email in 2018 to the NWSL who to their credit said not yet. They didn't say no, they just said not yet.

SPEAKER 6: And, and that gave us all the energy we needed to get to 2020 where we finally got the NWSL license and got to make a product celebrating, the, the, the players of the league. So if I think about it really hard, maybe I'll go back and be like, yeah, man, there were some days that were, that were lean and tough, but they have all faded away to memory to just that first box of lacrosse.

SPEAKER 6: The, the first time we looked at proofs of, the NWSL, the, the Negro League Baseball Museum set we've made in 2020.

SPEAKER 6: You know, it's, there's so many victories that, that anything that could be considered complicated or difficult has faded away. I remember them when it comes time to start working on another project. Boy, do I remember all the mistakes we made too? Goodness. But, I choose to just look at all the moments we've gotten to celebrate along the way.

SPEAKER 1: You mentioned that 2020 Negro League, the, the draft class set which actually features, I don't know, you know, some people may realize it, but I'm, I'm gonna clue people in, I think, you know, where I'm going there, first car, the Jordan Walker and, and, and Mason win.

SPEAKER 1: I mean, you know, speaking to that obviously, especially with Jordan Walker. He had a pretty decent year, showing a lot of promise. Was that more luck or, or was there some skill? There it was with, with totally fake.

SPEAKER 6: So that set was, you know, we met this amazing guy named Jay Caldwell. Jay Caldwell was a, Negro Leagues baseball historian and he, was making a trading card product with an artist. Craig Craig Krendler. Krendler.

SPEAKER 1: Krendler Craig Kinler has been on show and it's funny you mentioned not to cut you off, Matt. Just a real, a quick aside here. They did the, the, the book together. I'm actually reading it literally. Not as we speak, but currently and you know, so yes. And, and Jay Caldwell is like you said, an Ego league historian and Craig Kreiner is just an amazing, amazing artist. So, but just not to cut out. I just wanted to.

SPEAKER 6: Let you know who Jay is. So, yeah, Jay, we met Jay. Jay was Jay was just this amazingly interesting guy and we're talking about it and he's like, you know, it's 1/100 anniversary and we're like, no, and he was like, yeah, and so we sat down and started thinking like, how would you celebrate that?

SPEAKER 6: And how would you, how could you create a modern baseball card product that would pay homage to, to the Negro Leagues, to the history of, you know, pre pre you know, unsegregated baseball pre Jackie Robinson. And so we just kind of cooked up this really simple idea where we would go after the players of color from the 2020 Major League baseball draft.

SPEAKER 6: Because, you know, 100 years ago, none of them were getting drafted, none of them were getting signed. They would be getting on a train going into one of the, the many Negro League teams. And so that was, that was basically the idea. We started, we started calling baseball agents that represented the players. And I think every single one of them said yes, it was in a matter of moments.

SPEAKER 6: And we made a baseball card set and we're like, we're so proud of it. And, you know, I, I look back and, and I would say probably about every two weeks I checked every single prospect to see how they're doing. So it was great to watch Jordan Walker's Meteoric Rise. Mason Wynn is, is superhuman.

SPEAKER 6: Now I'm holding out for Ed Howard II. I, there's, you know, there's some great, some great upside in that product for, for, for long term hold. But I also just think it's a really cool trading card product. Baseball card product. It's time.

SPEAKER 2: For a quick break, but we'll be right back.

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SPEAKER 2: Let's go. You are listening to the Sports Card Nation podcast.

SPEAKER 1: I gotta ask you, I'll put you on a little bit on the spot here. I mean, you know, might we see a another baseball product, you know, somewhere in the future or really an op, you know, an opportunity for anything you want to share or you know, something may be coming up to the Turnpike Park sitewise, we.

SPEAKER 6: Have a lot of things, that are constant. So let me, let me, let me take a step back to answer that question. So, Eric, I, my, my partner at Parkside, he comes from television. He was producing reality television. We're based in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER 6: So his previous life to Parkside was producing TV. My previous life from Parkside Before Parkside was, I was a comedy writer and, I decided to go into the restaurant world because, you know, I, apparently I'm a glutton for punishment.

SPEAKER 6: So when we got together, we started looking at how do you develop product? How do you, how do you look at this in, in terms of it being a long term, you know, sort of repeating business and we've always kind of had this sort of subtle nod to television development. So we have, we have projects that are in development from 2020 that are still going.

SPEAKER 6: They're, you know, sometimes you just got to work on something for 56 years before you feel comfortable enough about moving forward with it.

SPEAKER 6: Baseball is a place we are desperate to go to, but I'll let you in on a little something. We really like softball, man. Do we like softball.

SPEAKER 6: We'd love to get into American football. There might be some opportunity there.

SPEAKER 6: We love the NCAA stuff. There's so many sports and so many athletes that are overlooked, but they have huge fans, huge fandoms. So there's a lot that we're working on.

SPEAKER 6: Hopefully by the end of this year we'll have another cool thing that we'll tell everybody about. But, next year I think is gonna be a really big year for us. I think, I think we'll be ready to push a couple of out. One of the, my dreams I wanna do, I wanna do the single greatest multi sport product ever.

SPEAKER 6: Because I love them. So I love Alan and Ginter. I love, I love what Panini does with. Well, when they did the the golden age, I love what upper deck does with Goodwin Champions.

SPEAKER 6: I think all of those products are so cool and I think I can absolutely make 1000 times better product personally because I'm weirder than anybody that works on that stuff. And I have a much, much stranger, much stranger mind when it comes to things that I think might work together.

SPEAKER 1: You think outside the box and, and like, like I asked you even like sometimes seeing others do what you say, man, I, I can do that better or hey, I would have did that rather than, than this. You mentioned a multi sport product.

SPEAKER 1: They've been around, you know, the first one I think of sort of in, in my mind that like is the cla remember the classic four sport, back in the early nineties and, and, and that sort of thing and, and, you know, look, you know, at the time it was very cool and then when you kinda look back you're like, it's not as cool as it was.

SPEAKER 1: It was, then, you know, it's sort of, you know, the bloom, a little bit of the bloom comes off, off the rose and, and that sort of thing. But, you know, that's, that's the one that really comes to my first. I think I'm older. I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, Matt. So I, I know that.

SPEAKER 6: I bought, I bought a lot of boxes without my friend. I wanted that o'neal Autograph and I never pulled one.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Yeah. Then they had, then they had the gold sets where you can get you guaranteed the shack. I, I wound up, I never pulled one either but I, I cheated and bought a couple of the gold sets, back in the day I think they were numbered to the 85 8500. So I, I got two of those.

SPEAKER 6: That's one of those stories that's on my, that's on my checklist of, when I walk around show tables and stuff, I'm looking for stuff that Shaq Classic is, is on my checklist that and you know, the 91 Brian Taylor tops Autograph. I want one of those so bad. That was, man, I think we were, we were told that card, if you had that card, you were gonna be a millionaire.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Yeah, that the, you know, the pratt falls of, of prospecting, and that works the other way too.

SPEAKER 1: But, there's probably, you know, more of the misses than the hits and, and, you know, that's why even with the, the, the set you did with the Negro League Baseball Museum and, and those first cards of, you know, in particular, those two players so far and, and still, you know, we, we forget it's only three years old, like there's a lot of baseball to be played. So, that, that story is not finished.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, but I, I, I'm excited to hear some other, you know, some other things are in the works, like you said, people may not see it on the surface but there's stuff going on behind the scenes that just hasn't, you know, it's that, that the, the final production isn't, isn't there yet, but that doesn't mean that it's not, you know, working towards that goal.

SPEAKER 1: So, it'll be interesting to see, you know, what comes of that and, and, and, and that sort of thing, you know, what your, your paramount set your, your number to base cards, which I thought was really cool.

SPEAKER 1: You know, we, we've seen that before but not, you know, not very often. So I think that's sort of refreshing. What was the, the, the thought process with, with that product and, and numbering of, of the, of the base cards?

SPEAKER 6: We, we, we wanted to take an ambitious swing.

SPEAKER 6: We thought, you know, it was, we, we thought we were, we needed to try something ambitious, something a little bit outside the comfort zone.

SPEAKER 6: I think we did a lot of things really well on that product. I think we did a lot of things adequately. I think we could have done it better and I think when we do it again, it will be light years better.

SPEAKER 6: You know, it's, we look at women's soccer, women's, women's trading cards are an emerging kind of segment of the market. There's a lot of people that still don't believe in the hype.

SPEAKER 6: And, you know, we think that every, every day 123, maybe, maybe 1000 maybe 5000 new new collectors get that first women's card into their collection.

SPEAKER 6: And so we know that everyone likes, you know, numbered limited stuff, which we don't love all the time. We do a lot of stuff in our kind of our flagship product that is limited but not numbered. Then we do number some stuff. So we just wanted to try something a little bit more elevated. A little bit weird.

SPEAKER 6: We went for, you know, instead of that op to chrome higher end product. We wanted to try something that was uniquely Parkside. We went with this kind of heavy, heavy linen stock paper, which we thought was gorgeous.

SPEAKER 6: And we've seen some PS A tens out there in the marketplace and in collectors collections and when I see them as A P ss A 10, they are every bit as gorgeous as we envision them to be the sevens and the ones that are a little bit off center makes me II I weep a bit but you know, we learned a lot making that product and I think when we revisit that, well, it's going to be infinitely better.

SPEAKER 1: How much, how hands are ha how hands on are you as far as with the printing process, the, the, the design and, and that sort of thing? And, and you mentioned Eric as a, as a partner. Do you guys kind of think along the same lines? Did you ever have like a little push and pull or tug of war on a, on a topic or decision? It's, it's, it's.

SPEAKER 6: It's we're of one mind with two completely different opinions about everything. So we know the end goal is good product. We know the end goal is to captivate and satisfy fans and the licensees, the LIC orders.

SPEAKER 6: So we will, we get into some heated debates over stuff because we both have pretty strong opinions of the way things should look and, and the ultimate reality is that we have moments where we act like a married couple.

SPEAKER 6: And we can't leave the office if we're mad or frustrated or haven't finalized in a decision or a direction towards a decision because then no one's benefiting from it. So, I think what you have is a really good yin and Yang sort of functioning with at the top level.

SPEAKER 6: And then the reality is we've, we've only hired like geniuses. We, we, we, we tend to work with people far smarter than us, which I think is what everyone should ultimately endeavor to do.

SPEAKER 6: Printing has been up and down. But we found, we found a ridiculously good printer now.

SPEAKER 6: You know, it's really funny. So it was our original printer but there was, they had some technical cap capacity, you know, shortcomings if you will.

SPEAKER 6: So we went and migrated to a bigger printer who necessitated us finding another printer and our original printer by then had gotten all of the things that they didn't have. And we were, it was a beautiful reunion and I'm overjoyed by it.

SPEAKER 1: That's cool.

SPEAKER 1: And, you know, I i it's refreshing to hear you say, you know, be honest and say, hey, we do have, we don't always see exactly the same way, but we figure it out and, and at the end of the day, we're, you know, we move on and, otherwise it, it, it, no one, doesn't help anybody, including obviously the consumer who you're, you're worried about, the most and, and even saying, hey, we, you know, we've made mistakes like that, that, that was great, but I would do this maybe different next time.

SPEAKER 1: You, you know, a lot of people don't like to, to omit things like that. So I appreciate, you know, you, you saying that and, and being very candid, about that, you know, you mentioned, you know, it's a, it's a big hobby, pet peeve, right?

SPEAKER 1: The, the event worn, relics and, and you, you know, you like myself and, and countless others are, are not big fans of, of that, what's a, as a collector aside from Parkside, you know, what's another hobby, sort of pet peeve that you're, you're not fond of that sort of gets, you get, you go round up.

SPEAKER 6: Oh, golly. That's a tough one. I don't know that anything frustrates me really.

SPEAKER 6: Because especially now, especially now. Goodness.

SPEAKER 6: It's really, it's really easy to understand why so many things are done the way they're done.

SPEAKER 6: I get, I can see it. It's, it's, it's like the biggest, you know, I think years ago. Sticker autographs. Oh, now I'm like, dude, it makes all the sense in the world. I know people aren't always in love with them but, it does enable you to kind of do two things that are really important.

SPEAKER 6: A secure signatures long ahead of product B guarantee that the card when you put it into a pack is in immaculate condition. Those are two really big, big important things.

SPEAKER 6: So my, probably my biggest hobby, pet peeves is gatekeeping.

SPEAKER 6: And that's not on the industry side, although I got a helicopter.

SPEAKER 6: It's a little, there might be some that are on the, on the industry side that are gatekeepers. But, you know, it's, this is, this is a children's hobby and, and, and we're all, when we're participating it, we're, we're reliving childhood moments. I mean, you know, we pick up a card from when we're a little kid and it takes us there. It's, we're there.

SPEAKER 6: It is time travel in a 2.5 by 3.5 inch cardboard form. And, I'm not gonna name any names but there's a store that's close to me. Not Burbank sports cards and not the bullpen. And we walked in there one day and the guy told me flat out he doesn't like kids coming into the store. And I was like, what, what are you, what are you doing?

SPEAKER 6: Like, what do you, I don't even understand that logic.

SPEAKER 6: That would be my biggest gripe. I do think some pump and dump stuff happens elsewhere too. But, you know, I'm certainly not gonna, I'm not gonna get any more gray hair in my beard, stressing over any of that stuff. We don't think about the, the, the secondary market that much. We know it's there. We like to look at it sometimes and go, oh, my goodness.

SPEAKER 6: But, you know, we're, we're, we're manufacturing for that moment of opening a car pack and getting your favorite player. And if you get an autograph or you get a, a really cool looking car to that player, that, that moment of joy, maybe that transcends. Maybe it's a day of joy. Maybe it's a week. That's what we're here for.

SPEAKER 6: And it's, it's awesome because people lovely, lovingly, tell us about those moments of joy. They share them on Social Media. We get emails about them. My favorite emails in the world, man, I gotta tell you, Dad, I'm sharing the hobby. I love with my daughter. I melt when I get those emails because that's how we started.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. And very important. You know, going back to that store with the, you know, with the, that fond of kids, right? They're the future of this hobby. Like, I, you know, none of, I hate to say it, but none of us are, are living forever. We need that next generation to carry the Torch forward. I've said that Matt more times than I can count on my hands and feet on this show and they're important.

SPEAKER 1: And I, you know, someone once told me, like, you don't have to be a kid to get started in the hobby. You can start later and, and it's true. I'm not debating that. But I think a high per, I think when you, when you start in the hobby as a kid, you're more likely probably to stick with it or come back to it and stick with it than the other way around.

SPEAKER 1: I, I firmly believe that and I, I do believe it's, it's important like you said, you, you know, for that 86 tops pack, we, we're ripped in, in it for you. For me, it was a 79 tops pack with Reggie being a New York City kid, at the time and, and like you said, you can go back. I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night, but I remember that, that day I pulled that Reggie like the fourth or fifth card in.

SPEAKER 1: So, yeah, it is time machine is, is real in, in those, in those terms. And, you know, and, and, and hearing, you know, AAA, father and daughter sharing, the greatest hobby in the world is Doctor, Beckett calls it. I, it should warm everybody's heart if you're, if you love and are passionate about the hobby. And I think that's, that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER 1: And, you know, I, in, in talking to you here for the first time, I, I can tell you, I have the consumer, best interest in mind and then that's where it's got, that's where it's gotta start. That's sort of my fear for what's going on in, in the bigger part of the hobby. And I hope, I hope my fears are just fears and not reality. But, you know, time will, will tell.

SPEAKER 1: But we know when it comes to park side, you, you know, your, your, standards are in the right place in your heart and is in the right place. So, again, I know you're busy. I appreciate you. You're making some time. I, I wanna give you, here before we, we wrap up, give out your website, any social where people could find out, what you're doing, what's coming, what's coming up and, and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER 6: Parkside Cards dot com. And then, pretty much all of our socials are Parkside Cards, you know, the at symbol or whatever it is.

SPEAKER 6: Yeah, man. Listen, this is, this is a gift you doing? This is an absolute gift to me. To Parkside, to what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER 6: You know, it's, it's just such a fantastic opportunity to come and tell people what we're doing. And, and, and tell somebody that's involved in the hobby that can, that can even understand anything of what I'm talking about. I, you know, all my L A friends out here they stopped asking me what, what, how, how work is and what I'm doing because they don't understand it.

SPEAKER 6: A few of them are starting to understand that. I got a buddy that just had a, his, kid play their first, a yso youth soccer games. And I was like, here you go, give him a pack of these and, and it's a boy and he was like, I know Megan Rapino and, you know, made him overjoyed.

SPEAKER 6: So it's, it's, it's, it's awesome that you, that you would invite me to talk about Parkside and I appreciate you.

SPEAKER 6: And hopefully this will be the first of, a few times we get to do this.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. No doubt. This is, this is not, it's not a, a one hit wonder, by any means you, you guys have, welcome any, you know, something new coming out. You wanna get the word out there, open door there. Matt, you, you're doing things, the right way and, I think, you know, that's the thing when you see something good in the hobby, you want to, to highlight that and, talk about it.

SPEAKER 1: You know, we hear all the, sometimes we hear just the, the bad stuff or maybe, you know, certain people, enjoy that maybe more than, than you should. But, I try to, accentuate, the good side of the hobby.

SPEAKER 1: The, the positive stuff and, you check those boxes as well as park side. So, easy to do. So I'm not gonna take any credit, other than just reaching out and say, hey, let's talk about this and, and I'm glad you did. And like I said, as far as I'm concerned, as long as you come back, we'll, we'll have you back.

SPEAKER 6: So we'll do it again then.

SPEAKER 1: Definitely. All right. Well, continued success. Matt look forward to, what's coming, you know, eventually, from the brand and, again, continued success.

SPEAKER 6: Thank you so very much, man. Have a, have a great evening and, to everybody that listens. Thanks. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER 1: Glad Matt, made some time for the show and that's a guy that's got his priorities in order and, and, you know, being a car manufacturer, the women's side of sports is, very important to him as a, as a girl, Dad, as he said. And that's, that's great. And, they're doing some great things. They, they, you know, put the customer first. I think you could hear that in, in what he said.

SPEAKER 1: We're gonna get a few final words in and wrap up the show tonight.

SPEAKER 2: Time for our hobby is the people announcer of the week.

SPEAKER 2: Hello, we are Graham, Rory Annie and we are leg.

SPEAKER 2: Please remember the high is the people if you'd like to be the hobby is the people announcer of the week, do a WAV or MP3 file and send it to Sports Card Nation PC at gmail dot com.

SPEAKER 8: That's a wrap for this week. Huge. Thanks to you, the listeners out there because without you, there is no ice.

SPEAKER 8: If you like the show, we truly appreciate positive reviews. Big ups to our great guests who drive the show and our awesome sponsors who make it all possible. Sports Card Nation will be back next week but don't forget to catch either hobby quick hits or cod mentions coming up on Monday.

SPEAKER 8: I'll leave you with this.

SPEAKER 8: How do we change the world? One? Random act of kindness at a time.

SPEAKER 8: Remember, the hobby is the people.

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