Making the grade: Pandemic spurs growth in trading card industry
Jon Phelps, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
6 min read
Nov. 28—Inside The Grading Authority on the second floor of a commercial building off Route 202 in Chichester, employees inspect trading cards using magnifying glasses and give them a grade.
The cards are then sealed inside hardy plastic cases to preserve their value. Some of the estimates can raise eyebrows.
A signed Tom Brady rookie card recently graded as a "7" by the company is worth about $10,000. Not quite the 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Rookie Ticket edition that sold for more than $3 million in the Lelands Mid-Spring Classic Auction in June.
A 2021 rookie card for Patriots quarterback Mac Jones recently got "9.5" grading. His success on the field will ultimately determine the card's worth among collectors.
The trading card industry has become wildly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic as collectors had more time to dust off old cards, and record-breaking sales of rare cards have sparked interest from investors.
The Grading Authority opened in June in response and gives collectors options alongside industry heavyweights Professional Sports Authenticator and Beckett Grading Services.
"There has been a major uptick in sales and the value of cards," said co-founder Mark Lemay. "As a result of the pandemic things just blew up."
The company has teamed up with shops all across the Granite State, including Quinn's Trading Cards, which opened last December on South Willow Street in Manchester.
"It literally exploded," Quinn's owner Aaron Sarette said of the trading card industry. "A lot of people were getting into it because they were stuck at home."
Target and other big retailers stopped selling cards because new shipments often led to fights. A spat at a Milwaukee-area store led to multiple arrests.
The lack of sports to watch early on in the pandemic caused many people to turn to trading cards, said Jeff Lisbon, owner Diamond King Sports Cards in Greenland.
"Everybody took that opportunity to relive their childhood memories through sports cards," he said.
Many used sports cards are like lottery tickets — ones that don't need to be thrown away, he said.
Growing demand
The sale of Michael Jordan and Tom Brady rookie cards helped renew interest in the buying and selling of cards.
"I think that started perking people's interest and saying, 'Hey, wait a minute maybe I've got one," Sarette said. "I think that is what is starting to prompt people to go through collections."
Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Society of American Baseball Research's card committee, said the pandemic gave collectors time to return to the hobby and spur increased prices.
"Cards right now are probably selling for five times what they were selling for before the pandemic," he said.
Schwartz spoke of the "Junk Wax Era" in the late-1980s and mid-1990s when cards were overproduced and historically seen as worthless.
Not anymore.
"Even the junk wax came back to life," he said.
The increases in prices also attracted those interested in flipping the cards for a profit.
"The more people who do that the prices go up even more," he said. "It can't stay that way forever."
Unlike larger companies, The Grading Authority is able to talk to people face-to-face about their services. The standard grading fee is $20 a card and $40 for rapid service. The average turnaround time is 30 days.
The company, which started with private funds of Lemay and Jason Robinson, now has about 15 employees. The company offers custom designs to match each card.
The people grading the cards look at the surface, corners and centering of the cards. The grades range from 1-10, and can include 0.5 grades. The 10s are either pristine (one blemish) or immaculate (perfect).
The company has graded almost 14,000 cards since opening. The customer base is mixed with those new to the hobby and those who are more knowledgeable. Some international companies, including one in Belgium, have reached out to partner with The Grading Authority.
About 60% of the business involves cards from games like Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. The rest involves sports cards. Customers have driven to the store from New York, Vermont and Pennsylvania.
Retail presence
In Manchester, Sarette and his wife, Tammy, originally thought they'd open Quinn's on Saturdays and a couple nights a week. But now they are open seven days a week, a sign of the increased interest in the hobby.
"People wanted a place where they could go and get cards, but also talk about the hobby," Sarette said.
The Sarettes said the shop was in the works before the increased popularity in trading cards. Their daughter, Lisi, sparked the idea with a growing interest in Pokemon cards. Aaron Sarette ran a similar shop in the 1980s and '90s.
He pulled out an old Rolodex to jump start the new shop to buy boxes of inventory.
The couple, who opened the shop using their own savings, thought about 50% of their business would be online, but most ended up at the shop.
Tammy Sarette said a lot of women are coming into the shop interested in the hobby. So much so, the couple is thinking about launching a ladies night at the store.
The company sells game cards, but the display case is full of sports cards. A Topps 1999 rookie Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant card graded "8" is priced at $300.
"There is something about this business about being able to walk into a store and talk to someone," Sarette said.
Lisbon opened Diamond King Sports Cards in Greenland in 1991. He's seen it all.
Player popularity, rookie cards and cards with low serial numbers all draw interest in the market. His shop had a Jordan rookie card graded "8" that recently sold for $14,000.
"The market is still super strong," Lisbon said. "The supply chain still isn't improving any so it seems like it will stay busy."
Schwartz said the popularity of trading cards is spreading to other sports like soccer, wrestling and NASCAR. He expects the prices to slowly drop as people get back into normal routines.
"People are buying these internationally," he said. "It is no longer collectors just here in the U.S."
The Grading Authority hopes to grow the company from grading 1,000 cards a week to 2,000. Future plans include a card shop and maybe a museum-style gallery.
"It is just going up every month. Just in the last three months we saw 300% growth," Lemay said. "It is just going to keep going and going."
