Ever since my brother started his online sports card business in 2020, I would watch him pore over his sports cards for hours at a time and think, "What's the big deal?"
After a few years of collecting, my brother met other collectors and sellers online, and started to become a part of the sports card community. One of those people was Brody Kirkpatrick, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who makes money flipping sports cards.
“It was a hobby at first. And then I realized I could start making money through sports cards,” Kirkpatrick says. “I started with $300 worth of cards, and I started posting them and didn't realize how expensive they were and just started flipping from there.”
Brody sells cards with his good friend, my 18-year-old brother, William Stevens.
“I've sold a few cards in the thousands,” my brother says. “A buddy of mine sold a card for around $10,000. But you can see in the news, there's a card that just sold for $3 million.”
“I've sold a few cards in the thousands. A buddy of mine sold a card for around 10K. But you can see in the news, there's a card that just sold for $3 million.”
Last July, I decided to go with Brody and William to the Raleigh Sports Card show. As I walked into the convention center, I was immediately immersed into an intricate world of its own. The room was filled with hundreds of tables with cases of very expensive pieces of cardboard in them.
Everywhere I turned, there seemed to be either a heated debate over the price of a card or a handshake being made to signify the close of another deal. Behind the booths there were everything from sellers in their seventies rocking their favorite Phillies jersey to middle schoolers in backwards baseball caps completely commanding the room.
There are three types of people at these card shows. The first are collectors, who are typically older and trying to gain a cool collection. The second are the sellers who are in it purely to make money. Brody falls into this category.
“I would sell every single card for the right price,” he says.
William falls more in the third category, somewhere between collector and seller.
“There are certain cards that I'll never sell," William says. "[Like] Julio Jones cards, and I'm a Falcons fan, so some Falcons cards too.”
I thought the Raleigh show was pretty overwhelming, but apparently it was nothing compared to the annual National Sports Collectors Convention.
“The national — it's almost in a world of its own,” William says. “It's in a class of its own. It's a huge show. It's very big. I think the one in Chicago is 800,000 square feet.”
Brody says his first national show was overwhelming.
“You walk in and you see how many people there are and how big a place it is," he says. "And you see memorabilia and cards that are worth tens of millions of dollars."
Last year, a 1952 Topps card of New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle sold for $12.6 million, shattering the record of the most anyone has ever paid for any sports card or memorabilia. It's truly hard to believe that someone would spend millions of dollars on a small, flimsy piece of cardboard. But to William, Brody and the sports card community, it’s more than that.
“There’s a lot of people with a lot of stories behind it. Like they could receive cards from their grandparents or someone that has passed away,” Brody said.
“People love seeing the guys they watch on TV, and they're like, 'Oh, you know, let me buy that card, he's my favorite player.' Or 'that's my favorite team. Let me go buy that card',” says William.
The community that forms around the thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline of scoring a strong deal, and William and Brody’s love for sports makes these pieces of cardboard a passport to a different world. And even though I only got a tiny glimpse, I could see the community’s passion for the hobby.
And I learned just how powerful a piece of cardboard could be.
To see Brody and Williams' card collections and get updates on the National Convention, follow them on Instagram — Brody: @bkcardcollector and William: @williams_sportscards
