Record Wemby Sale and What's it Like Running a Card Shop with Aaron from AAMint Cards

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]when there's such a wide breadth of it.

[00:00:01]You have to pick and choose what you're going to invest in. So, that's the tough part of it. But, um, I love it. I personally, I'm collecting a lot of things that aren't necessarily your normal sports cards, but there's just so much so much IP that goes unnoticed. I still think it's it's one of the biggest opportunities.

[00:00:19]Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the Hobby Handbook. Doug Pleen's here with you filling in one more top here on the Hobby Handbook. Big thanks to the guys for trusting me with keeping the train on the tracks here.

[00:00:31]And uh again, you'll have your regular hosts back next week. But again, thanks to them for trusting me with the seat here. And thanks to all of you for being on board with us. Again, I'm Doug Pleans. You can usually see me over on Nonsense on Ice where we talk hockey and the hobby, our show presented by Upper Deck. And we have new episodes of that dropping every Tuesday. So you can find out all the latest in the hockey collecting world over there. We invite you to tune in and we invite you to chime in, of course, every edition of Nonsense on Ice. And hey, even if you're not following along with the podcast, you can always chime in on the TwitterX platform, DougPlaggins, Dougplaggins on Instagram. Always great to hear from all of you. And hey, feel free to like, subscribe, comment. We love the interaction and we love hearing from everybody tuned in out there regardless of where or how you're tuned in to this edition of the Hobby Handbook or any of the great program across the Sports Cards Nonsense Media Network. So again, lots to get to here on this edition of the Hobby Handbook. We have an interview guest segment coming up here in just a few moments. friend of mine, great card shop down here in South Florida, AA Mint Cards. Aaron Amaran is going to stop by and tell us about the journey of AA Mint Cards, the growth of AA Mint Cards.

[00:01:51]Great shop down here in South Florida.

[00:01:52]If you ever find yourself down here, stop by. You'll be impressed with the store. Great selection, great feel when you walk in. And again, Aaron's going to join us here in a few moments to just tell us about how it all came to be over at AA Mintard. So excited for that. Was excited for that segment here. So, we're going to get to it here in just a few moments. That was an interview that was recorded a few days back. So, we're going to get to that here very shortly.

[00:02:18]We've got some news items since the last time we spoke to you here on the Hobby Handbook. That big Victor Webmanyama sale, the 2324 Prism Black one of one PSA 10 was a private sale brokered by Fanatics Collect. $5.11 million sale. The biggest Victor Womenyama card sale that there's been per collectibles guru. I believe he was the one who had it. The highest previous Victor Womenyama sale before that one was $860,000.

[00:02:51]So, just blew right by that one. We'll see if that uh investment pays off at the time of our recording, the Western Conference final in the NBA. It's ongoing. My question to you would be, if the Spurs don't win the Western Conference Championship and move on to the NBA final, or if they do, but then they don't win the NBA championship, do you expect there to be a cooling off on Victor Wmanyama cards? Do you think the market will just keep doing what it's doing moving forward? I sort of feel like if they don't win the title, especially come national time, perhaps you might be able to get a little bit of a discount compared to what the cards are selling for right now. And at a little bit of discount, I think I'd be taking a look at some Victor Wmanyama cards if we get to the national and we see a bit of a drop off in the prices of some of these. So, hey, keep an eye on that. Let me know what you think. Doug Pleggin again on the Twitter Xplatform, Doug Pleggin on Instagram as well. But uh again, it's hard to say that there would be any kind of a an uptick in pricing if the Spurs don't win the title. Now, if they do win the title, all bets are off. We'll see what happens as far as the Victor Wyama market is concerned going into the off season.

[00:04:12]Folks, uh looking at some other items elsewhere. The last time we spoke to you on Hobby Handbook, we were still awaiting the results of the auction for the Wayne Gretzky 7980 PG rookie card PSA 9 with a 10 autograph grade, an in-person autograph on the card with a 10 grade on that. So, a 910 on the 7980 OP sheet. The uh highest graded such card with the autograph that is $540,000 per kat fanatics collect. That was the end of the auction there. That's how that one ended just about a week ago or so at the time of our recording here.

[00:04:53]Um, huge hockey card sale. One of the biggest hockey card sales that there's been. And uh, another huge Wayne Gretzky sale. What do you think about the Gretzky market? Are you I'm always looking for Gretzky cards. That's one of the players that I will always be collecting. I'll always be shopping for Gretzky cards. I'll always be looking at eBay. I've got save searches up when I go to the national. I know I'm going to be looking at showcases to see any Gretzky cards that might be out there. I personally never get tired of weighing Gretzky cards. What about you? Are you shopping for Gretzky stuff? Doug Pleggin again, TwitterX, Instagram, all those different platforms. Speaking of hockey, Upper Deck Extended Series coming out very soon. June 3rd, a first of its kind item there. You're going to have those debut game jersey cards that uh again are going to be a part of extended series. Got the one of one version.

[00:05:42]You've got the autographed version numbered to a player's jersey number.

[00:05:46]Then you've got the non-autograph versions. There are nine different players checklist made up of nine of the top rookie chases in this year's products. Again, the rookie debut jerseys. Next edition of Nonsense on Ice. We're going to have some more conversation and more digging into the rookie debut jersey cards. So, be sure to follow along with that on a future edition of Nonsense on Ice. Um, folks, I've got to mention one other thing. My own personal collection. Was just telling our producer Brendan this off the air, but I've been working on an autograph set for a while. 2022 Tops Pristine Pure Power Autographs out of baseball, Tops Pristine Baseball. And I was trying to run down the last one in the set. I needed the Mark Maguire. And it just so happened that uh a few days ago at the time of our recording, one popped up on eBay and I wasted no time.

[00:06:41]I hammered that, buy it now, and I'm waiting for it to come in the mail as we sit here and do the hobby handbook right now. And I can't wait to get the whole set together. Now, the conundrum that I've got, the big question at this stage is it's 21 card set and I've got to determine what I do with the 21 of them. Do I grade them all? 19 of the 21 are in the tops pristine one touches. The Dave Winfield is in a top loader because that was how I got it. The Mike Piaza is in a PSA 10 because that was how I got it. Do I try to find the windfield and the piaza in the top pristine one touches?

[00:07:29]Keep them like that? Do I grade the whole set? What would you do if you were in that situation? Tell me. But I was pretty pumped to find the last piece, the missing piece from the Topps pristine pure power autograph set that I was trying to put together. Finally got it. And now it's going to be on to choosing the next set to put together.

[00:07:47]This was the first autograph set that I'd ever successfully put the whole thing together. So, uh, now I've got to go out and find what the next one might be. I'll always take your suggestions, ideas, fire them off, uh, at Dougpluggins. Have the Otani, the Reggie Jackson. Cool set because they're on card. They're vertical. I like vertical uh, sign cards. They're oncard autographs. There's an Otani in there.

[00:08:11]There weren't any rookies in it that I was going to have to pay hype prices for as I was shopping for them. And it's a cool player selection. Like I said, you've got Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Edgar Martinez. So, you've got some Hall of Famers mixed in. You've got some cool names from what I would consider to be my formative years following baseball. Ceil Fielder, Moon, Ryan Howard is in there. That was a cool one. Um, and again, you've got some current players. Yordon Alvarez is in it. Jose Ramirez is in it. Pete Alonzo's in it. It was a fun set to put together and excited to get the Mark Maguire in the mail. I've actually never had a Mark Maguire autograph in my collection uh in any in any form. So excited to get that for a number of different reasons. But uh excited about that little collecting conquest that just took place. Folks, let's get into our conversation on this edition of the Hobby Handbook from AA Mint Cards right here in South Florida.

[00:09:08]Aaron Amarant was kind enough to stop by. Let's get right into it. Well, Erin, first and foremost, thank you so much.

[00:09:14]Really been looking forward to this. I wanted to give you a chance to tell the AA Mint story to all the folks out there nationwide. How are you doing today, sir?

[00:09:22]>> I am great. I'm so happy to be here. I know we've we've chatted about doing this for a very long time in one facet or another, whether it be our podcast, your podcast, or somebody else's podcast. But I'm just happy to happy to be here. Happy to chat. Our our conversations usually do feel like podcasts sometimes because we go we go pretty in-depth on stuff. So, I'm glad other people can listen to us ramble.

[00:09:42]>> Really excited about it. And uh I can tell you and when I'm going to the card shop, when I say I'm heading over to the card shop, it's it's a mint cards right in Some people say Cooper City, some people say Hollywood. It's right there on the border here in South Florida.

[00:09:56]>> It's a funny location because I remember when we were setting up this business, right? We we were at an old location that was firmly in Cooper City, right?

[00:10:04]No debate. across the street from remember. Well, >> yeah, that was a fun location, but we moved here and we were expanding and we'll get into all that, but Apple Maps calls it Hollywood and then Google Maps calls it Cooper City. So, I'm filling out all this paperwork. I'm like, I don't know which one to put because both of them I like it just depends on which parent you go to what answer you're going to get. So, yeah, it's there's a still a debate. I don't know where it is. Well, I want to get to a couple things off of what you just said going off the geography there, but uh as you mentioned, you guys have been in a couple of different locations and you've grown this thing and the hobbies obviously been doing great, but never once have, just from my perspective, never once has it looked like you guys were getting comfortable and just enjoying uh you know, the strength of the hobby. It's a strong hobby right now, but you guys are always pushing the envelope. You're always looking for ways to grow, ways to evolve. But before we get to all that, take us back a little bit. How did this all begin? Because I've mentioned this to you and your dad before. But the >> AA Mint Cards little label at the bottom of eBay scans like 6 years ago. That was where I first remember AA Mint Cards was seeing cards for sale on eBay. And before you knew it, you guys had a store location and things just took off from there. give us kind of the nuts and bolts version for how this whole thing began, the origin story.

[00:11:28]>> Yeah. So, it's it's funny you say that because eBay was the origin, right? Um, we So, even before we started, before aiming cards was even a thing, I was in high school. Um, I was going to a school that was connected to a athletic training facility. And I would leave school for lunch because they let us do that senior year and go to Target down the street, which is still the Target right over there. It's the same Target.

[00:11:53]I know it well.

[00:11:54]>> Yeah, that's that was like my childhood target. And I'd buy Prism football blaster boxes for from 2018 for 20 bucks. Um, what else would I buy? I think it was the one I mainly bought was Prism. That was like the cuz it just looked cool. I didn't know the hobby at the time. I was just like, "Oh, this is sick." So, I would take those boxes. I would bring them back to school and rip them with my friends and we'd look for the players that we saw training at the athletic training facility because we want to get autographs and and meet some cool people. So that's how it all started. Little did I know what that set would become. Little did I know what, you know, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, I don't think I even knew who those guys were at the time. I was just looking for players over there. Um, but that's how it all kind of started. So from that inkling of ripping and just getting my feet wet in the hobby, then I started also on the side just as a kid buying selling arbitrage stuff on eBay. Um go to garage sales with my mom and buying some stuff that like, oh, this this could sell for maybe $10 more. Little did I know eBay fees were were gonna eat up all my profits, right? So I was doing that on the side. So I had an eBay account with a pretty good following.

[00:13:10]Nothing crazy. maybe, but it had like a solid standing, you know. Um, then my grandpa actually gave me a box of I think it was 89 Fleer Jordans. I think it was 89 or 1990, one of the two. They were all incredibly offc center. That's all I remember. And he's like, I want you to sell these for me. So, I was like, "Okay." So, I just started selling individual ones of those on my eBay account. And this was like end of 2019 going into 2020. So, I started selling those. was making like 10 bucks a pop, sharing sharing proceeds with my grandpa, $5 each after fees, which was probably, you know, probably wasn't making anything. And then during once COVID happened and then The Last Dance came out, my dad sort of like woke up like a a sleeper agent like, "Oh my god, I love cards, too." I'm like, "Where the hell did this happen?" Right? Like I was like, "What's going on here?" Like all of a sudden, my world was converged with cards like in a very short period of time. And he's like, "I want to collect all the goats." I was like, "Okay." And he and then he started buying a ton of cards and I was like, "Okay, this is great." And then he's like, "Well, we got to sell them and we got to flip them and we got to trade them and we got to" He was like He was just going crazy over it. And it turns out my dad was actually a car dealer back in the I want to say 80s.

[00:14:26]>> I've seen a couple I he I've seen a couple of the pictures and we're referencing the uh the great Mark Amarant is who we're we're discussing here. Yes.

[00:14:34]>> Mr. Mark Amarant, my dad. And um so he was in that world back in the 80s. This was before any numbering existed. This was before any grading existed. So we were both kind of diving into this new world of the trading card scene. COVID crazy markets grading. What the hell is a prism? What the hell is a silver prism? What the hell is a numbered prism? Like all that stuff. We were we were sort of just learning through experience. And then we use my eBay account, which we turned to a mint cards as sort of like an outlet to start actually being able to move and and gain liquidity and basically start playing the game. Um, and that's where you would see that original little TLA mint on the bottom left. Um, which I had to figure out how to do via Photoshop and my in my parents uh living room. I was >> It was effective and clearly memorable.

[00:15:27]I remember it from the early days. I'm glad it worked because that was our first attempt at marketing >> and then I saw the location of the item and that was what made me realize you were in South Florida.

[00:15:37]>> Yeah. Yeah. So that we took that little little mint thing from Probene because we saw Probene do it on all his cards and he was like the biggest guy on eBay at the time still is pretty big. Um and he just had that recogni recognizability or that recognition. I was like okay well we're Mint so let's do the same let's just copy it and let's just do the same thing with Mint, right? And it's something we still do to this day. I think it's pretty effective. It's It's like a small little gorilla marketing tactic, but it works. So, especially if you remember it.

[00:16:06]>> Absolutely. It was what kind of, like I said, drew me to you guys for the first time. And then I remember when the store opened up and I remember walking in and and checking out the old location for the first time. So, what went into how you guys got the the first the first store location, the first brick-and-mortar store location going and then what's ultimately allowed it to grow grow into what it is now. Which, by the way, folks, if you're outside the area here, um if you ever have a chance to stop by AAN cards here in South Florida, it's truly innovative and it's a place where collectors, young, old, experienced, inexperienced, can stop by and and have a good time. But what ultimately led to getting the physical location going?

[00:16:48]>> Well, first of all, I appreciate I appreciate the promo. Um, that's always appreciated. Um, but how did it go? Okay, so in July of 2020, sold our first ever thing on eBay. It's actually, if you see these shirts, these are kind of the employee shirts. The design on the back is like a PSA slab and it has that date, July 15th, 2020.

[00:17:09]And it was the first time we sold anything under the AAN cards umbrella.

[00:17:12]And that was a box of card savers.

[00:17:17]That's what it was. It was a box of card savers. Sold it for like 20 bucks, right? Um so then we're like, "Okay, we're buying, selling, buying, selling."

[00:17:25]At the time, I was also um going to college. I was just entering my freshman year as COVID and everything was kind of shut down. So I had an opportunity to actually go out of state, which I went to South Dakota for about a year for my first year of college. And I was helping remotely via social media and and stuff like that. And my parents, I think my dad, Mark, was mainly dealing with all the inventory back at home. And at the time, I was still like, "Okay, this is a fun hobby, but I want to go to college.

[00:17:55]I want to get that that experience." Um, but then I remember coming home and it was specifically winter break. Um, and we started chatting about it and we're like, "We need to Mark was like, "We need to get allocation and and get these boxes, right?" He well while well while I was God he had clearly just dove into it. I was like >> he's thinking big picture here. Yeah.

[00:18:16]>> He's he he's the kind of guy that let's say I'm you know I'm a kid and I draw him like a little smiley face and whatever and I'm like here you go dad.

[00:18:24]He's like great produce a hundred of these. We need a marketing plan. Like that's this guy right? Absolute monster in a great way. Um so he's that kind of parent. So I was like, "Okay, all right, you know, calm down. But if we're going to do this, we need to open a store because all the shops or all the allocation was for stores." And at the time, allocation wasn't, we were learning what this all meant. You know, this is all new to us.

[00:18:48]>> And at the time, I was also very big into sneakers. So we're like, okay, if we're going to do a store, we got to do it the right way. We want to do a next generation kind of store. Cuz all the shops we went to as we were on this journey were kind of like not they weren't a welcoming customer experience. Let's just say that. It's always some guy in the back who's grumpy knows the price of everything, dusty footballs everywhere. It's like, okay, this is cool for a nerd like ourselves, but to the norm to the normal people, this isn't like I don't want to I don't want to go here, you I wouldn't want to just hang out here unless I was like deeply in love with the passion of it all. So, we I took a page from uh sneaker stores like Flight Club. That was one of my inspirations was how sort of minimalist it was and how they used the wall space specifically. So, basically this twoe winter break, we kind of wrote out this plan and I was like, "Okay, we got to make this really modern. We got to make this really inviting." And then as once I went back to school, uh my dad was scoping out some locations, ended up finding the perfect location, which we thought was perfect at the time. It was across the street from Cooper City High School. Um so by the time I got back in, I want to say it was June one summer.

[00:20:09]Yeah, June. And then oh, I'm jumping all over the place. It's all coming back to me, right? I I it's in the dayto-day you don't think about these old stories, but now that it's coming back, it's like coming at me in different ways. But okay, so got the store plan, came back home, but before I came back home, we went to California and we visited Burbank. We went to all those shops out there and got inspired by their layouts and how they do things. So, we took a bit of inspiration from them as well, but we knew we were going to be more more of a modern interpretation of them. I love those shops, by the way. They're great shops, but we just wanted to do something a little different. So once we got home, then construction started and we went to the national that that summer as well. And then we went to Panini.

[00:20:55]We're like, hey, check out these renderings. This is what the shop's going to look like. And they're like, okay, yeah, keep us updated.

[00:21:01]So we're like, great, that's that's going to be a long journey. Um, so but we just kept our head down. We just kept working towards it. We kept pushing the shop to open as fast as humanly possible. And then by October, I want to say it was Halloween because FPL wouldn't turn on the power for like weeks for some reason. Um, but by Halloween, we officially opened that original store. And then, yeah, then everything sort of started. We had it was 600 square feet. I mean, you remember it was a small it was a small footprint.

[00:21:32]>> It was essentially a glorified hallway um to a back there's like a nice back patio area, but it was small. We had one table in the back. We called it the everything table. It's where we would eat lunch, we would hire people, we would fire people. It was the everything table.

[00:21:48]>> I remember dropping off cards to send to PSA at that table.

[00:21:51]>> Yeah, that was that was an iconic that table did a lot of heavy lifting. Table carried the entire store. So, just uh going back to what I was saying about the walls and flight club, the shop since it was so small, since it had such a small uh floor plan, we used the walls. We had 18 foot high ceilings. So, we use the walls with these grids where you scan a QR code. The entire grid pops up on your phone with the uh information about the card, pricing, everything like that.

[00:22:20]And we had two, one, one on the bottom was PSA, top one was SGC. And it allowed us to actually show quite a bit of cards rather than filling up the small location with jewelry cases and making it tough to navigate. So that was sort of like our signature design look software behind it and that was sort of what led us into like the next generation of card shops. So that was how the first one got started. It was it was a journey. We didn't really know what we were doing. Even when we opened the shop, we're like, okay, we have we bought product in the secondary market. We bought cards in the secondary market, but we just were kind of doing a dry run of what it means to be a shop.

[00:23:00]So then then once allocation came, we're like, "Okay, we kind of know what we need to do here." But that was that was the I want to say that was the beginnings of the modern card shop. I'm not going to say we were the first ever modern card shop because there were definitely we're in South Florida, right? It's it is what it is. It's a small area, but it was one of the I I don't remember seeing anything like it at the time. And everybody who walked in sort of relayed that same feedback. So, we were one of the first for sure to really take the card shop to a next generation. I remember at the time everyone's like, "Oh, these co collectors, they come, they go, and we'll see if they can stand the test of time." And I'm like, "Okay, first of all, you know, nice to meet you, too."

[00:23:39]But second of all, it's like we were just figuring it out at the time and I think it turned out pretty well. So, >> and a couple of things on that, Erin, because you mention the way that you guys run the shop, the way it looks, first of its kind. Absolutely. In the region down here and it seems like more and more and more shops popping up around the country that maybe take elements of of what you guys are doing and what some of the other shops are doing kind of like what you guys did went and got inspired from some other uh other locations. But as time's gone on, you you mentioned it right there. You've seen this hobby really continue to grow. Uh what's it like being on the ground in a shop seeing it firsthand dayto day because we know that uh there was a time period about five years ago a lot of p a lot of folks thought it was a boom and it was going to eventually go back to earth and that was going to be that well you know maybe we did have a boom maybe there was a little bit of a pullback but the floor I think was higher than it was prior to that and now it looks like it's just continuing to surge forward with people who are approaching it from all different angles. looking for all different sports or TCG or whatever it might be. Just seems like right now is a super healthy time for the the world of cards. What's it like seeing that firsthand? Yeah. So, I I I get the privilege of of seeing it from a lot of different angles because um Aimment Cards is sort of the store is now one of the smaller portions of the business. Um because we have a a breaking operation that's growing and we have a repack operation that's growing and to fund pretty much the entire ecosystem buying. There's a lot of buying involved. So, I see it from every single angle because I see the customer selling, I see what we're buying, I see the wax prices, I see a lot of different interactions and sort of get to get a good pulse of what's going on. Um, right now it's with the new Topps licensing, there's a lot of product coming out and that means there's a lot of cards coming into the market and I'm we're seeing the prices of things when they first come out be extremely high. Um, but then it it doesn't sustain. Um, and same with the cards that come out of those products. Um, but right now, especially since the football license is over, we're seeing a lot of a lot of hype driven stuff. Um, especially now that we have the finals like WebM's market. I mean, he dropped 40 points yesterday and all of a sudden, you know, it's like alltime highs on everything. So, it reminds me a little bit of COVIDish, but I feel like it's more it feels like it's a little bit more sustainable than CO. I think there will be a pullback at some point just in overall market value. Um, but at the same time, there's a lot of new people getting into it.

[00:26:22]>> Mh.

[00:26:23]>> So, I think those are I think it's a balance. It's a balance between the two.

[00:26:28]It's I have cautious optimism, but at the end of the day, I tell people this all the time. They're like, "What should I invest in? You know, what's going to go up?" I'm like, "I don't I don't know.

[00:26:36]I have no clue." But but what I do tell them is like at the end of the day, collect what you love. If you love women, if you think he's your favorite basketball player, >> then great. Grab his card. It will probably go up if he wins the championship. Amazing.

[00:26:51]>> But at the same time, if you collect what you love and it goes down in value, you still love it or at least you'll find out that you loved it for the money, not not because you actually love the card. But collect what you love. And at the end of the day, if it goes up in value, that's just an added bonus. But people who do this for money, you have to be in this for a very long time to really understand the es and the flows of And there's definitely arbitrage opportunity. This whole business is built on arbitrage. But for the new time collector, you don't want to see them get burned based off of, you know, hype because then they're never coming back.

[00:27:23]And at the end of the day, the community is only as good or the hobby is only as good as the community that that fuels it. And um I just want that community to thrive. And if that thrives, then we'll all be in a better place. So it's not I'm not it's it's not a you know, oh, I got to sell this now. It's uh this isn't for the long term and I think I think a bit of that's going on. I and also a bit of the hype stuff is going on. So it's it's opposing forces I'd say.

[00:27:49]>> Well, I think I think cautious optimism is a great way to approach anything and I think the key part of it is optimism.

[00:27:55]I'm just like you. I only see this thing continuing to grow and pick up steam.

[00:27:59]You have uh obviously sports fans all over the place and that's not going away. and you see more and more people, more and more athletes out there sampling trading cards and and everything that goes along uh along with it. Want to ask you something, Aaron, because of where we are down here in this region. U maybe something that makes it maybe something that makes it challenging, maybe something that makes it crazy to be a part of, something that probably makes it great is we're in an area here in South Florida where you have everything. You have all the major sports. You've got Messi. You've got big-time college sports. You've got tourists coming in, not just from around the United States, but from around the globe. So, you're in an area where there's really a market for everything.

[00:28:49]And I'm not and then take it past sports. TCG huge. You there's there is literally a market for everything.

[00:28:56]There's really, you know, at this there's a market for and somebody a collector for everything that could possibly show up in your store, whether it's sealed product, uh, singles, whatever it is. Does that make it challenging? Does that make it great?

[00:29:11]Because, like I said, we're in an area that has everything and that has people chasing everything.

[00:29:16]>> Yeah. So, it's it's both. It's I love it. I I love the fact that that there's so many different um IPs out there when it comes to cards. Um it's funny. It's this is a sidebar, but it just reminded me on the way driving in today, I saw somebody with an Umbreon license plate and it just said Umbreon. I'm like, how the hell did you get that? I'm incredibly jealous and I hope you're coming by the shop. That those were the thoughts that come through my head. But it's TCG is massive nowadays. Um, and it's it takes about 50% of the transactions from the store, at least 50% are TCG. And we have a we have giant baseballs in the front. Our sign says baseball cards, but we we got 50% TCG, so that is going nowhere. Um, but the fact that there's so many IPs out there, I think we're only just getting started.

[00:30:07]Um, the only thing that makes it more difficult is keeping things in stock and choosing what to buy and what not to buy. Um, like for example, uh, Spongebob when that came out, um, we had to, we kind of missed the boat early on and then we had to kind of buy afterwards because it was so popular and we wanted to keep it in stock for our customers.

[00:30:26]So, when there's such a wide breadth of it, you have to pick and choose what you're going to invest in. So, that's the tough part of it. But, um, I love it. I personally, I'm collecting a lot of things that aren't necessarily your normal sports cards. Um, I mean I I'm a huge Formula 1 fan, which in itself is an emerging market, but there's just so much so much IP that goes unnoticed. I still think it's it's one of the biggest opportunities because once the hobbies is sort of like a platform and then once you take just the concept of a collectible card, you can apply it to anything out there. Um, some of it's silly, but some of it is actually has some substance behind it and it's like, "Oh, wow. This is actually a culturally um important IP that spans generations that they have cards and people don't really realize it." That's where I think the opportunity lies.

[00:31:14]>> And I want to kind of expand on that.

[00:31:16]And I love that you brought up what you're collecting because you guys are running a business and you have a shop and people see you guys every day. But um maybe getting lost in the shuffle a little bit is what kind of cards tickle your fancy? What gets you excited uh when you when you go home? And what do you what do you keep uh what what do you keep for yourself? I know just from talking to you, I consider you one of the foremost Formula 1 uh card market experts that that I know personally. But what is it that you're collecting these days?

[00:31:47]>> So Formula 1 was really what got me into like actually got me into cards like before was a business, right? But then when I realized Formula 1 cards existed, it was right when 2020 Chrome came out that I was actually getting into it as a full-time business. I was like, "Oh, wow. Wait, hold on. There's something I actually really enjoy here as a card."

[00:32:05]Okay. I like it helped me understand the mentality of an actual collector who loves a sport because yeah, football, I love, basketball, I love, but I was never huge into the cards. I was huge into the sport. I I love the sport, but I wasn't like, "Okay, I need this card."

[00:32:18]But then Formula 1 came out, I'm like, "Oh my god, okay, I get it now. I get it." So, um I do have a bit of F1. I actually don't have as much as people think. Um I find myself to ha to buy the car that I like and then I realize I got it for such a good deal that I might as well just flip it and then and then I end up not having it anymore. So, um I like to say I collect good deals, but but if I'm talking about stuff that money doesn't really matter in this context, I'm collecting a lot of snooping right now. Um, I have over I want to say I'm approaching like a hundred Snoopy cards in my collection.

[00:32:55]Um, most of them are from the same year.

[00:32:57]There's like this sticker set that came out of Italy um called or No, is it Italy or France? One of the two. I think it's France. Um, but it's called like Lef figurine de Lionus. Like there's 350 cards in the set. Um, >> and these are from when?

[00:33:11]>> 1971.

[00:33:12]>> Okay.

[00:33:13]>> Yeah. 1971. And it's all like they look like little cutouts of of a comic strip just like the one cell. And it's all just Snoopy doing a bunch of different things. Like you have the Red Baron, you have him on the the house, you have him with Woodstock, you have him playing football, you have him playing baseball, you have him playing hockey. Like these all exist in this set and it's so cool.

[00:33:34]Um, and there's so many versions. Like I need all of them. But that's like historically speaking rookie Snoopy. And I think first of all, I think it's a massive investment opportunity. But to the side, I think also Teenage Mut Ninja Turtles is a big investment opportunity.

[00:33:49]I think Godzilla is a big investment opportunity, but I'm only collecting Snoopy because I love Snoopy. I grew up my mom loves Snoopy and I love Snoopy just by proxy. And it's just like, who doesn't like Snoopy? So, yeah, there's some there's some pieces in that collection that are tough to find. I've had to do a lot of eBay International um with this one and it'll pay a lot of tariffs, but it's it's hanging up in my it's actually a display piece in my in my apartment. Uh I just got a Charles Schultz auto as well. Um that one was really cool. It was a gift for me for my birthday. Um and yeah, all this stuff is just like I I love it. I just look at it and I just like it. And if it's a high grade, I don't high grade, low grade, don't really care. It's just a cool card. And um that's what I'm collecting right now. I I think I might make a Snoopy case once I get to the point where it's like, "Okay, I have a lot." I might make a Snoopy case in the store just to show it off a bit. I think people >> I would I I'd love to see it. And uh and yeah, now I'm sure just based on you talking about this, you probably uh caused a lot of people to go and and run the 1971 Snoopy search on eBay just to see what uh what you're talking about here and and what might be out there.

[00:34:53]Aaron, I want to throw a few more at you before we let you get going. We we thank you so much for for being so gener gen generous with uh with your time today.

[00:35:00]But you mentioned obviously the store in its current version and you mentioned the the breaking operation that's happened and you know I'm glad that I've become friends with you guys. I've seen the store grow kind of uh you know from from the origins that you talked about earlier, but did you did you ever think that it was going to get to the point that it is right now where you've got the aroundthe-clock breaking operation and like you said you you have so many different tentacles of the business and the content which you guys are always pushing the envelope on and kind of been innovative on there. Did you ever see it getting to this point?

[00:35:33]>> No.

[00:35:34]>> With room to grow, might I add? Yeah, it's it's interesting because it feels like every single time that something we start some sort of new venture or something really starts gaining steam, it's like it always feels like we just got started again, right? So like I feel on on the breaking operation, even though we've been doing it since July of 24, we're approaching two years now. Um that's just getting started. And with the repack operation, which right now is mainly feeding the breaking, but we're just starting a whole white label program. um since we we got officially what not approved 100% on the audit passed pretty much every sort of check that you could have now we're going out and saying hey you know if Doug Pleans had a breaking operation or Doug Ple had a store you can come to Min City and say hey build us a Doug Pleggin repack and we want you know this floor this ceiling these sports only and we can make it happen for you so that in itself in my opinion can be bigger than everything we're doing because Min City is an international brand that can essentially accommodate whoever needs it. Um, we're already having I've already we've already done a launch in the UK for a for a repack product for a company called Edition One. Um, and we're we're just getting starting on that as well. So, long story short, no, I didn't think it could get to this point, but at the same time, I'm not really surprised it did. Um, and I think we're I still think we're getting just getting started, which is the craziest. Like, I see what's going on and I'm like, we haven't even scratched the surface of this. And I want to give you a chance to elaborate on something that you mentioned a few minutes ago because when you walk into your store, I think that's the first thing you notice is it's not it's not the idea of a card shop that I remember growing up in the 80s and 90s and and things like that.

[00:37:18]You walk in, it's bright, there's TVs on, you got cards on the wall, it's clean, it uh I must say it smells great in there. Whatever you guys used to clean the place, it smells great in there.

[00:37:26]>> Shower shower, that's all.

[00:37:28]>> It's it's an it's an inviting it's an inviting environment. Um, and again, not just pumping your tires here, but uh, you got a 5.0 goo 5.0 Google rating.

[00:37:38]That is, uh, nothing to sneeze at.

[00:37:39]That's that's nothing to be taken lightly. So, as far as the instore experience, you've got so many other things going on, but it's that intore experience that brings a lot of people into the hobby and makes them stay in the hobby. Whether it's somebody who's been collecting forever or whether it's, you know, a 10-year-old kid, mom's bringing them in after school and he's sampling cards for the first time. How much emphasis do you guys continue as the business evolves to how much emphasis do you still put on the conventional the traditional instore experience in terms of being what kind of cultivates the you know collectors and cultivates the hobby?

[00:38:19]>> Yeah. So the instore experience is sort of how we started, right? Because we we started as a store. I mean, we started on ecom technically, but the store was always like, okay, how do we just make this a great customer experience? We were always going for that premium level customer experience. Like, you can buy these cards anywhere. There's literally a Target down the street, but where are you going to go that has uh product subject matter experts who every single employee there collects something and it's part of their hobby as well. So that was always an emphasis from day one. And and everything we've done since then, we've intertwined that DNA of of that customer experience into it, whether it be a new product, whether it be a new breaking um show, whether it be uh the whole TCG side of things. So the intore experience is actually sort of the fabric, like the DNA that that drives everything else we do to try to figure out how to translate that into anything we do. Because at the end of the day, we were new to this hobby, too.

[00:39:13]Mhm.

[00:39:14]>> We even though my dad was a part of it back in the back in the ' 80s, it's it's completely different. Um, so back when we were getting started, it's like how do we find a place or how do we create a place that would be inviting to us as, you know, just a fatherson duo that is getting into the hobby. So that has been the underlying glue that holds things together and still is. Um John, who's the general manager here, does an absolute great great job at, you know, making people feel comfortable, but also educating people on what this hobby is.

[00:39:44]Um, a lot of the times it's people from out of town, like you were mentioning, people going on cruises, people coming from cruises, people who saw our content, people who are coming to sporting events, Hard Rocks just 5 miles down the street. So we we get a we're basically also an education center. sort of my dad used this used this analogy and I never really agreed with it because I was like, "Oh, well, I was being a bit of a smartass." But now I kind of do. It's the Apple store of cards because now when you go to an Apple store, there's a genius bar that tells you, "Hey, here's how you do this.

[00:40:13]Here's here's the latest product. Here's I mean Apple store don't sell doesn't sell mystery boxes, but if they did, it'd be something like this because it's not just selling an item. It's selling the experience. It's walking into the ecosystem and it's being educated on what this entire ecosystem even is about. Um, which also just happens to be the the hobby in general. So, I think I answered your question, but I it's the instore experience that sort of intertwines everything we do. It drives everything because without the customers and without the customers having a great experience is why would they let forget us, why would they come back to this hobby? It's expensive. It can be. We all know that. But we gladly do it um because we love it. And if we can't cultivate experience where they learn to love it, then we're not doing our job right.

[00:41:01]>> Yeah. That's the job at the end of the day of the card shop. Uh to make it an inviting hobby and and something that people can go in and enjoy, not just in the short term, but in the long term.

[00:41:09]Apple mystery boxes would be a scary thing because like, hey, you can either get the brand new iPhone or you can get a a charger that might not work for what you have. That would be a risky venture.

[00:41:19]>> I don't know about the floor the floor and ceiling on that. I don't know what that that would entail.

[00:41:24]>> You get a a mouse pad. Do they still have those? Or you can get uh a laptop, a MacBook. Do they still have the Imagine Imagine if they did it with like first edition iPhones though, like the vintage? That would be kind of >> Then it's a whole Then it is a whole different uh different ele. We're recording this before the Memorial Day weekend, May 19th. As Aaron mentioned, we're a day removed from Victor Webinama having a massive game in game one of the Western Conference final. collectors going into the store, just throw a few names out there. What are the big things people are asking for when they walk in?

[00:41:55]I'm sure with the World Cup on the horizon, there are some big soccer names getting thrown your way. It could be a lot of the names that we're expecting you to throw out there. I'm sure you get people asking about Otanis, and I'm sure you're selling Otanis every single day.

[00:42:09]But when people walk in, what are the names that collectors are asking for?

[00:42:14]And is there a name or two that that might surprise us that people are asking for?

[00:42:19]>> So like as you mentioned us being in South Florida with the World Cup coming around, a lot of people are not only, you know, just buying individual soccer cards, but they're actually just ripping soccer for the first time. Like the way I learn something is by interacting with it and doing a little bit of an investment into it because then it's like I have a little more motivation to do it. And I'm seeing that on the on the ripping side. So people are learning soccer. Um there's been a lot of hype. I mean, a ton of hype over the stickers, uh, the Panini stickers with the albums.

[00:42:47]Um, we're actually having the Panini truck tour. I don't know when is this this one should be going out in time.

[00:42:52]Um, it is actually I want to get you an accurate address or accurate uh timetable on this because we have the truck tour coming out um from Panini to the shop. I want to give you a date that this is coming out because it's going to be an absolute absolute insane time. Let me pull it up here. It's going to be >> Yeah. June 13th. The night of June 13th.

[00:43:14]>> Okay.

[00:43:15]>> Okay. Yeah.

[00:43:16]>> I might be able to get out there. I might be able to get out there for that one. Is that a Saturday?

[00:43:19]>> Yeah, it's a Saturday. So, Mega Fest card show at the Hard Rock is going on, which we're also sponsoring that show.

[00:43:24]>> But then that night, the Panini uh sticker truck tour is visiting the shop with a a big Panini World Cup sticker trading event. So, the soccer hype is real. We're very excited for that. We're projecting that to be one of our biggest uh events ever at the store. So, that one's going to be very, very fun. And the soccer hype just continues. Um, and then basketball. We The playoffs are not going anywhere. They just announced SGA's MVP. They're doing the whole buyback program. Um, I've gotten many texts about SGA cards. Um, but football's still strong. I have a hunch that it's going to start picking back up once people are done with soccer. Once the World Cup final, they're like, "All right, we can we can go back to being American now and we could start ripping rip some American football." But I'd say Oh, Tony, I'm trying to think of like an oddball for you. Um, a lot of lot of hockey, too. Hockeyy's picking up.

[00:44:20]Hockey is picking up. Um, >> I noticed that from setting up at a couple shows recently. Um, yeah. People people walking right up to the table and asking what Mlin Celibbrini do you have and what Matthew Schaefer do you have and and names like that.

[00:44:35]>> It's it's great. I I always thought that hockey was very underappreciated. Um, Upper Deck does a great job with the carts, but I think now they're really diving into that fan experience. I think that's really helping out. So, hockey is definitely definitely on the up and up.

[00:44:53]Um, even if you could if you could call that kind of an emerging sport, which I kind it's it's already established.

[00:44:58]Hockey cards have always been a thing, but now you have the I think you have the crosspollinization going on. Um, crosspollination, not polization, crosspollination of football and basketball buyers also getting into hockey because they now see it more as an investment potential. Um, >> and there's some good there's some good cost of entry on product. great products that have, you know, whether you're going for young guns or you're getting oncard autographs in, you know, a product like credentials or something like that that's got a pretty manageable price point.

[00:45:27]>> Yeah. And then you take even if you take it all the way up to 11 and look at the cup.

[00:45:31]>> Yeah.

[00:45:32]>> It's still you compare it to flawless, compare it to to Dynasty, it's still a deal. Like that's still an absolute deal and a half. So I think it's it's much more accessible and and the cards are fun. I love I love the patches that they do. They they just do a really solid job on it. Um, but I'm trying to think of like a like a zinger, but it's it's been pretty pretty status quo. I mean, we have >> and the goats as you people love the goats, your your Jordans, your Kobes, your Tom Brady's, what have you.

[00:46:03]>> Oh, that's that's constant. That is that is a constant. That market continues to fly.

[00:46:09]>> Um, we have we just bought a couple Jordan Autos. actually got a Washington Wizards Jordan Auto, which is super rare. You don't see that too often. Um, but they fly. They It's It's insane.

[00:46:19]Even in the ultra high-end, people are I see choosing more goats, which I agree with. Um, than than the speculative stuff. But downtown Kabooms continue to rise now that Penny lost the license. Those gold downtown Kabooms, those black Pandora, those oneof ones, those that market's becoming absolutely nuts. Um, and Caitlyn Clark as well, WNBA still strong. Still very, very strong. She's done a great job for that sport, and now you have Paige Buer's following suit. So, that's exciting, too. We're we're at a we're in a very exciting part of the hobby where it's pre-national, the hype's starting to build. This year, we have something a little different with the World Cup and then the se then the NFL season starts.

[00:47:02]And like May is usually the slow time and it doesn't feel like that this year.

[00:47:07]It certainly doesn't. And Aaron, two quick ones, I promise two more and we'll let you get going here. But first one, is there a product, any sport, could be non-sport, is there one product every year that really just gets you going?

[00:47:22]Whether it's something you want to rip for yourself that you want to break, is there one thing you look forward to most every single year, you've got it circled on the calendar, and the day that comes out, you just feel a little different going into the store that day.

[00:47:36]>> Yeah. And everybody around me feels different because they know I'm going to steal it off the shelf. Um my dad actually hides product from me. It's it's actually it's messed up. Um it's I got two answers to that and it's it's no nobody's going to be surprised by this, but it's Tops Chrome Formula 1 and it's Tops Dynasty Formula 1. And this year there's something different called Topps Carbon Formula 1. And that I have no idea. It's first year product. Some of the cards are going to be carbon fiber.

[00:48:05]It looks sick.

[00:48:06]>> Is it like a top chrome black kind of thing or is it because I've heard about this.

[00:48:10]>> It's simil I think it's a similar configuration. Um the one thing that's interesting is in the world of Formula 1 autos are like >> really tough to find in Tops Chrome.

[00:48:19]It's does not even guarantee an auto.

[00:48:21]It's one every two boxes. So carbon is guaranteeing an auto in every box, which is a big deal for Formula 1.

[00:48:29]And there's some cards made of carbon fiber. There's some really cool patches.

[00:48:32]There's I think there might be pieces of body work in the cards maybe. Um so that one I think that one's fall. I'm very excited for that one. Um but Dynasty that one card big risk high reward. That one is I always look at it. I'm like oh it doesn't make sense financially. But then it just it's so cool. The cards are beautiful. They do a great job.

[00:48:56]>> The cards are Yeah, the cards are beautiful. one of those high-end products that just it just every card feels like it's a kind of a museum piece in a in a sense.

[00:49:04]>> They definitely >> and Erin, last thing here. Somebody goes to you and says, "Hey, I'm thinking about starting a card shop. What would be the first piece of advice you'd give them or maybe what is something that you that you wish you knew five or six years ago as you guys were getting this thing off the ground that maybe you had a little bit better idea of before you dove right in?" Oh boy, that's really tough.

[00:49:30]Is a valid answer. Don't don't do it.

[00:49:34]>> Well, I'm glad I would I I hope that's not the answer because then a great card shop wouldn't be there. I'm glad you guys did.

[00:49:40]>> So, yeah, thank you. Um, but right now it's it's a different landscape than when we started. Um, you have >> it's we had Panini, Tops, and Upper Deck going at the same time. We were able to secure allocation from all three. This was back in 2021.

[00:49:56]>> That was a different era. Nowadays, >> it's the panini allocation doesn't really matter as much.

[00:50:02]>> Tops allocation is incredibly hard to get. They're actually letting I mean, I have friends who have applied and and haven't gotten it. Um, Upper Deck is growing nicely, but I would say it's really really tough.

[00:50:16]Focus on getting product at a good price, whether it be allocation or through, you know, uh, distributors. But product is everything and product at a good price is your lifeblood. If you're buying products secondary market, there's not enough to keep the lights on and pay for rent um let alone actually grow. So as a card shop, it's a lot harder nowadays um to get that in um per se. But I would then kind of hopping off of that. I would just focus on singles. Focus on a constant flow of singles on buying slabs, buying ungraded. provide a great environment for people to look through those items because you could still get we're we're all on a level playing field when it comes to to graded and and raw singles. So, if make that your bread and butter um and just move volume on that.

[00:51:04]Make sure you have a live shopping some sort of thing. You don't have to get into breaking um but have some sort of live shopping outlet. The the whole thing is keeping velocity of of money and liquidity high because this is a very cash intensive business. you know, it's not like we're buying a 100 t-shirts that cost us X and then we're selling, you know, selling them for Y.

[00:51:25]This is something where all these deals are going to pop up constantly and you always have to make sure that you have the cash on hand to be able to take advantage of them when they come. Um, because once you get bogged down with product, then then it's really really tough to move. So focus on what moves, focus on what has margin and just make sure your cash position. It stays relatively strong because it can easily dwindle and that's when you start running into some problems. So um and good luck and keep a great customer experience. At the end of the day, they won't show up without that. So well, you guys, uh provide a great customer experience and it's been a great experience here having you on the Hobby Handbook. I'm glad we were able to make this work, Aaron. And uh again, I I've said it, it's not just because you guys are my friends and your you and your dad. Good guys in the hobby. Everybody over at your store. Good guys in the hobby, but uh and good people in the hobby, but um if you're ever in the area, go and go and check out the store.

[00:52:20]It's an inviting place, and I'm sure you'll find something in there that uh that you you want to take home with you.

[00:52:25]So um again, thank you so much for for stopping by. Anywhere, throw out all the information. Where can everybody find you guys? Uh just across the different platforms. Yeah. So on every single platform, YouTube, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, it's going to be a mintc cards. Um whatnot as well, a mintc cards. We also do Tik Tok live streams at a mint cards. Um and then Pokemon um aint tcg um on Instagram and on whatnot.

[00:52:51]And then for our repacks, that would be welcome to mint city. Um and also acards.com, welcome to mintcity.com. and pretty much. Is there anything else?

[00:53:04]>> Amenstore.com. Aammenstore.com.

[00:53:07]>> Yeah, thank you for having me.

[00:53:09]>> You covered a lot of Thank you so much.

[00:53:10]Yeah, Aaron Amarant from AA Mint Cards and Aaron, his dad, Mark, everybody over there at AA Mint Cards. Like I said, uh great people in the hobby and uh great to great to have you on the show. Thanks for stopping by, Aaron.

[00:53:23]>> I'm glad we can finally make this happen.

[00:53:25]>> We absolutely did it. Thank you again and we look forward to having you on again down the road.

[00:53:29]>> All right. Thank you, Doug.

[00:53:30]>> Well, big thanks again, Aaron Amaran from AA Mint Cards for stopping by on this edition of the Hobby Handbook. Uh, again, Aaron, his dad, Mark, great guys, some of the great guys in the hobby.

[00:53:43]Great shop. The whole crew over there does an outstanding job. Um, and again, if you're ever down in South Florida, uh, I think you'd enjoy yourself stopping by AA Mint Card. So, be sure to check out the shop. You can check them out online. Check out their social content. Once again, big thanks to Aaron for taking some time out for us on this edition of the Hobby Handbook. Now, by the way, the Hobby Handbook, it is sponsored by Arena Club. Right now, you can check out the Multisport Champions Series at Arena Club. Some of the big hits include a PSA 10, LeBron, Steph Curry Color Blast, as well as a show Otani Bowman's best autograph in that as well. But there's something for every collector over at Arena Club. lots of different price tiers, different sports, different segments, different categories, and you can always go on the checklist and see what's out there, what's up for grabs. So, again, Arena Club, uh, a great spot to go if you're looking to looking to rip, looking to add to the collection to find something maybe that, uh, you don't have much of in your collection. You want to sample a sport that you don't typically collect, you can go over to Arena Club and and, uh, look into that. So something for every collector, something for every budget over at Arena Club. And right now you can check out those multisport champions series slab packs at Arena Club and Hobby Handbook, of course, sponsored by Arena Club. Folks, that's going to do it for us on this edition of the Hobby Handbook. Again, I'm Doug Plegin. Thank you for being here with us. Thanks to the guys for trusting me to keep the train on the tracks here these last few weeks. You'll have your usual hosts coming back here very soon.

[00:55:19]But uh again, thanks to everybody here for having me. Thanks to Brendan on the other side for the great production work as always. Once again, folks, I'm Doug Pleans. You can find me each week over on the Nonsense on Ice podcast where we talk hockey and we talk the hobby and no shortage of hockey tidbits to get to each week as we get closer and closer to the Stanley Cup final here. At this moment that we're talking, the Vegas Golden Knights have punched their ticket into the Stanley Cup final. Still waiting for things to shake out between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Montreal Canadians. But uh hey, next time the Hobby Handbook runs, we're going to know potentially we may know the Stanley Cup final. I have the schedule right out in front of me. Either way, folks, thanks for uh having me along. Thanks for tuning in. I thank you for being on board with us. Again, thanks to Brendan on the other side. Thanks to Aaron from AA Mint Cards for stopping by. Again, check out all their stuff online as well. That's been another edition of the Hobby Handbook. I'm Doug Pleans. We'll talk to you next time.