Hobby Quick Hits Ep.89 "The Hobby is the People"

<span;>9:06 AM
<span;>Welcome to another edition of hobby, quick hits, the title of this episode to have these. The people possibly sounds familiar to you. It's the tagline to our older brother show sports car Nation comes out on Fridays interview show. And when I came up with that tagline, I get asked that a lot about that. Like, how did I come up with it? And there's no real crazy story. I just, you know, thought about Career, if you will in the Hobby and and all the stories and people along the way, and we all have those stories and different people in the hobby that mean a lot to us or different moments. And so that's where the Hobbies. The people tagged like, came from. But I never, I wanted to do an episode with a shorter episode on this show rather than Sports coordination. We're not an original. Story, I did that. Dr. Beckett did that on his podcast with me, but kind of talking about sort of my journey and my hobby and given those folks along the way the proper credit and where that hobby. The people came from for me. And so that's what this shows going to be about. Probably not going to be super long, but I wanted to sort of do. It's off episode if you will. So with that being said, we're going to hear from our great spots or Mojo breaks and we'll be right back to start the episode after that. Hey folks. Wanted to tell you about the best place to get some of your Shield sports car, wax products, great selection, and some of the lowest prices on the web, Mojo brake shop.com is that place? Whether it's a box or a whole case? They're your guys. And they ship around the world right to your door. The Mojo brake name is one of the most trusted in the house from sports cars to Pokemon. Their selection can't be beat, they offer daily deals and pre-orders. Who won first place at this year's top strip party no longer than Mojo brake. Their prices are already great. But here's a way to save even more money. Use the code quick hits. That's cute. You I CK h, i Ts for 10%.

<span;>Of anything, our mojo braid, shop.com. They also have a full service carpet shop in Santa Clara, California. So if you're in the area, stop by there, open seven days a week, so check them out at Mojo braids. Shop.com. So I've wore different hats in the hobby. Started at 7 years old. With my first baseball pack in Brooklyn, New York, then, you know, trade you. My friends, I want to give a shout out to them. You know, Brian, Joseph. We're my to probably best friends that I collected cards within my single digit years if you will. And then I started going to a card store, called seventh inning stretch. It was owned by a gentleman named Rudy bechstein and I was I went there. I was 12 13 years old. I was there almost

<span;>Every day and was there so much that Rudy said to me, you know, why don't you? I should hire you. I could use the extra help and you're here so much. Anyway, I'll give you half cash and half store credit and wound up. You know, I spent not only the store credit but probably what I got paid cash. Most most of my job was putting cards in order sleeving some put In vintage in. There's and making monster boxes. Then my role expanded to Rudy did shows. And so I worked at shows for Rudy. And when I was at the show, I would sell some cards as of the cases, help him out there and also make some monster boxes at the show. I got a sort of skill to make monster boxes rather quickly, and I rapid fashion and he hated to make those. Those things. And so became my job and I want to just to get done with it. So the quicker I did, it'd be quicker. I was done with it. It could sell cards and sort of do that that interaction and whatnot that I was a shy kid, believe it or not. So I didn't do a lot of conversating with people. I mean I spoke to read because I knew him, but if I didn't know you real, well, I was sort of kind of quiet and

<span;>But still, you know, good at math and know who has it to do, those sort of transactions and it was Rudy that really kind of got me into the business side. If you will of the Hobby and many of my friends Brian and Joseph that I mentioned were like, man, you've got quite a collection now from working at the store. You know, what you already had? You should do. Shows yourself. And so I did I've told the story so I won't go into all the details again, but I started doing shows and Rudy, you know, I had to tell Rudy that was going to do my own shows and that work for him anymore. He wasn't very happy about it. I'll just put it that way for about a year. I sort of got the cold shoulder evil eye if you will after that year.

<span;>Be at the show and, you know, extended his hand to shake my hand and apologized, and I accepted that apology, and we started setting up at the shows together. You know, I did my first show at 15. It's all I want to give out to shout out to Rudy because he was the guy that gave me my start. I learned a lot of business Acumen from him. I was in the store working, when a lot of those. These actions took place. I learned how to know while I was shy. I still learned how to interact with people and that sort of thing. So, you know, for probably wasn't for Rudy. I probably wouldn't be where I am and have it today quite quite frankly. Maybe not even in the hobby. Another person want to give out a shout out to I was my grandfather, Pasquale capobianco.

<span;>That first pack I talked about was in 1979 Topps baseball pack and he actually bought me a few packs that day from the corner store in Brooklyn. And if it wasn't for my me, seeing the packs on the, on the counter and he asking my grandfather about it, he would have just kind of said no, you can't have them. Maybe this story has a different any but he said, Hey by a couple packs that you want them and I did. And The rest is history. It is a lot of people I started doing shows with and setting up with, I can't name them all. But you know, those folks that I set up with that shows from the age of 15, the 20, preciate, all the conversations that we had about light, not just hobby, but about life, as well. I was a young kid for, you know, obviously, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

<span;>Years old, I learned a lot not just about to get not just about the hobby, but about life, from the people, I set up with which were always older than me, at that time. I was a very young dealer. I met a gentleman named Angelo varnel 0 in that show circuit. He was local with me and we sort of like just kind of half-jokingly talked about opening the Store together. And then one day, he called me up. We were on those terms. He called me up and said, hey, I found this location. It's on the second floor. But the rent is a great deal. I know we kind of bad and around the store. What about doing it? What about kind of taking just talk and making it a reality? And I said, yeah, you know, and let me think about it. I said we, you know, we need a lot of stuff. You need a cash register. We need showcases some other things and it's going to add up and so we crunched the numbers. We went to look at the location. It wasn't a big store was on the Sikkim second floor and we could put out an A-frame to draw attention. Where we were I was a little concerned about the location but the rent was a really good deal. This was 1992.

<span;>I was 20 years old, now Angelo who became my partner in the store was about 12 years older than me. I believe is around 32, when I was 20. And so we started kind of figuring things out what stuff May cost us and we decided to take this plunge together and I work part-time and initially I continued To work part-time just to build up sort of a war chest to buy some of the things we needed from splitting the cost of brand new showcase some showcases cash register where to put some shelving up. Obviously, we had to buy wax, get you know, some of the accounts I had already with the card company and then we had to get new ones. There were some that you had to have an actual.

<span;>Storefront to get online with them. They were others that the long as you were dealer and had a tax number eight, sell to you, and send it to your house. And so we got all the stuff streamline. The first year, we spent more than we made and there was almost Natalie second year. I want to give a shout-out to Angelo's wife Marie Bartonella. She was sort of our Calvin she wasn't, you know classically trained but she knew what to do and help us out when it came to some Financial stuffs and you know didn't get paid other than the fact that Angelo own half of the business, but you know that first year was rough on and we sat down and and had to decide if there was going to be a second year and we decided hey we're going to give it.

<span;>One more year. And that second year was a huge one. And lasted about six years for me, until I sold out my half to my partner, make a longer story short about three months after I sold out to him. The store was burglarized. They just stole money, but destroyed a lot of glass and that was the end of the store. And If memory serves me right, me and Angelo kinda drifted apart and that because we were mad, just kind of, you know, I think he sort of got out of cards. I think, he, he sold all his stuff and never look back. So, we sort of fell out of touch, but I wanted to mention them, sort of, in my hobby Journey, because he is a big part of it, then I did a lot of show circuit around the Northeast.

<span;>You know, New York state, Pennsylvania, Mass. Nodding are Massachusetts, Connecticut, you know, did sort of three state, three to four state show. Remember, did some Philly shows? Another guy did shows with at this point, he kind of traveled with me. We kind of split. Tables was a gentleman named Dave Hayes. He was a few years older than me, but I was in the hobby longer and I sort of Mentored him. And helped him sort of build this business up so to speak. And so we did shows for couple years. Then I really went sort of exclusively online as eBay really became super popular. And so I did that kind of my own there and then, you know, podcast, you know, met fast forward to many years later.

<span;>9:20 AM
<span;>Pie. Big and I sought out some, you know, sports card podcast, but at this time there was very, very few and one. I really kind of gravitated to was one. You probably heard of called fat packs, whatever, ignore. And and listen to it a lot when I was traveling to New York, a few times a year to visit family and my son would be in that usually in that car with Me making a trip and my son, Jordan. Who at the time was probably 12, 13, 14 years old, who knew my hobby history said, dad, you know, have you ever thought of doing a podcast and we would Ben listen to, you know, fatback, we both enjoyed it. And I said, yeah, I thought about it, but never, you know, never really did anything, but the really appreciated, what Eric did

<span;>Other gentlemen, I want to mentioned into Torah friend of mine who was working for ESPN Radio, in Orlando, Florida had some issues with ESPN. He wound up. Resigning and moving back here Syracuse and started his own Broadcasting Company. I went over there on a Friday to do a segment that kind of tied in the sports car of Hobby and sports. It was supposed to be a one week only for an hour segment one time only. And it became for 15 weeks and every Friday shows called collectible corner. And the only reason it stopped was I was off on Fridays from my job. I had at the time and that changed I didn't have Friday's off anymore. And so that was what launched Sports coordination. I had an affinity to doing that. I thought I did a halfway decent job on my appearances and

<span;>I sort of missed talking about cards on a on a radio show and so sports card nation was born. So I'd be remiss if I didn't. Thank the after tour for kind of proven to me that I can do it. So I started sports car nation and one of the first guys that I reached out to was Eric Norton. Simon. I consider the oh gee, I've joined them the pod. Father, if you will, and I reached out to him, and I was very helpful to me in my podcasting journey and I got to know him real well, and sort of the kind of Boston us all up. You know, now, we're three years into the podcast. I've met a lot of other content creators. Some that came after me, doesn't matter, whether you're someone came after me or not. We're all in this.

<span;>Canada fraternity together. Most of them, not all of them are very friendly, folks, that will help each other out this to Manning the name individually. So, I just feel kind of just, you know, say generically that all the people that I've met along the way in content creation, we bounced off whether talking about equipment, how we do our shows individually very important and this This journey. And then I want to mention not again, generically all the people that I've met as well from shows to the, to Nationals that I've been to recently that, you know, come up to me and whether they've come up to me in person, or send the DM, or an email, saying, what the show's meant to them, or they enjoy the shows. That's the stuff that keeps me going in this hobby Journey.

<span;>I've done this a long time. I still enjoy it. You know, it's to have he's a lot different hobby today than it was in 1979 when I got my start as a seven-year-old. This Hobbies a lot different today than the 20 year old in 1992 that launched their to store the LCS with this partner Angelo and you know, I wanted to mention and To go through this kind of quickly. Don't want to draw it out any longer than the had to, but mention these folks, because all all these folks, and all these stories along the way, have led me to where I am today and having that just in content creation, but in the hobby, as a seller, I still do card shows. I still sell online, but that really also enjoy the content, creation and sharing knowledge, and experience is much like I'm doing. On this very episode. So so those folks, I mentioned, thank you for whatever your role was big or small for everyone that's interacted with me. The say, the show is great or you enjoy it. And even though I just said, hey, I didn't like that segment or I didn't like that episode. Thankfully, there's less of those than the enjoy the shows, but all in all, I appreciate that feedback.

<span;>It's those things that sort of fuel the passion to keep going on the content creation. I want to kind of close to with thanking, you know, another showing news happy hotline. It's on Saturday, mornings and soon-to-be Tuesday, evenings, and we're expanding a host. But I want to thank all my host that, you know, past and current that I've done that show with it. I chose a blast to do. It's fun. And, you know, that's a a team effort. No doubt. And I enjoy being on that show being part of that show, and all my co-host on that show. Again. That's another thing that, you know, fuels that passion and drives me to do that stuff. And so a lot of fun to do. So, I want to thank all those folks.

<span;>As well, like I said, even if even if they're no longer part of that show from the original cast that they're all part of its history and I want to acknowledge them for those podcasters, you know, again not going to mention names in this case because it's, there's numerous ones. But those that reached out to me much, like I reached out to Eric Norton and ask me for advice. I sort of tried to pay that forward as well. Well, thank you for even considering me someone you would ask and pick their brain up. So I just want to acknowledge those folks as best. I could thank you. Thank you out there as well without everybody, you know, 38 years or whatever. It is now and how they lose track. It's I wouldn't be where I am today. So, there you go. Remember,

<span;>You know that again, that's where that tagline came from. Right? All these stories. How they intertwine and Lead? Leave me out of this journey, which I'm still in the process and that done, you write still going. So the hobby is the people.

<span;>All right. Thank you for listening to another episode of hobby quick hits. Want to give out our social media, starting with our website, which is www.hyken.com Nation, podcast.com Facebook. You can follow us at www.facebook.com forward, slash fourth Carnation, podcast forward slash Twitter. We are at sports card Nat T1, so it's sports car.

<span;>Nati one Instagram at, sports Carnation, podcast, or you can email the show. Highly quick hits at gmail.com. Again. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. </span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;>