From Trading Cards to Connections: The Heart of the Industry with Matty Rich

0:28This is the story of the one. The guy you think is going to come in and spend a dollar spends 500 and the guy you think is going to come in and spend 500 spends a dollar. You never know, man. And that's why it goes back to that. You have to treat everybody the same. Take care of everybody. Treat everybody right. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks?

1:04Well, it starts right about now What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now and our special series on trading cards Look, when you have a number one show, you get to have guilty pleasures and talk about what you want But when it's one of the hottest industries in America that might be I don't know that it's undercover anymore. I think the cat's out of the bag. Tom Brady brought it out alone last week, if nothing else. But nonetheless, we're continuing our series on talking the trading card business, bringing you, hey, we take the BS out of business, baby. It wasn't really the intent, but it's working out that we're going to have like all three levels of the business from producer to distributor to retailer.

1:46And you know what? I live in the wonderful state of South Carolina and got a number one show. That's why I like to go to number one, the number one retailer. and shop in South Carolina. We got Matty Rich in studio. Number one's got to stick together, my brother. I know. Let's go. Love having you here, man. It's been great getting to know you, Matty and his family. Wonderful family. Like, I love the business. And I'd probably like Matty anyway because my kids are into cards and we go in there. But since the moment I walked in, I was like, this is where I want to do business. And the best shop in the best city in South Carolina.

2:22And I'm Brian's trading cards and more. Brian's sports cards and more. Yes, sir. We got it. I'm throwing it off. And that was one of the things when I started, I didn't want to create a store. I wanted to create an experience. Yeah. You know, I was doing the breaking. I was setting up a shows for years before that. And I just got tired of being in the house and being in the office and being around nobody. Yeah. You know, talking to everybody through the phone and the camera all night. So that's why I had to give Greenville this experience. And it's, you know, when you grow up, like when I grow up, you know, I'm moving through my kids' eyes now and my own eyes.

3:01Rekindled in it. You know, rekindled my flame and my wallet.

3:08But nonetheless, you know, the idea that you owned a trading card store growing up. I don't know if you collect. Did you collect when you were a kid? I did my whole life. Yeah. Okay. Isn't that the dream come true? Yeah. Oh, it's work. It's work. Let's not get it confused. It is work. It isn't bubble gum and Cracker Jacks. No, no, no, no, no. It's still work, but there's a lot worse things to do. Oh, there's a lot worse things to do, for sure. I mean, but this is a 24-hour, 365 job. I mean, every holiday, every night, it doesn't matter. My phone is going off. There's always some kind of a business that we can be working on.

3:43It is. And it's fascinating because I'll text Maddie about if I have an idea or just be like, hey, man, you got any of those new, whatever. You know, so I can only imagine times a thousand or who knows how many people. Matty knows everybody because everybody's got a silent, you know, itch for some trading cards. They're always probably trying to get you into some deal or like, hey, they find a car or they find something. I mean, well, that's why I had to get another phone line just for people to send in pictures of what they wanted to sell. Yeah, because my phone was going crazy. My Instagram was going crazy.

4:16My Facebook was going crazy. I said, okay, we're going to confine this to one phone, one line, and get this thing under control. And I check it two or three or one time a week, but I check it. Yeah. It's being checked. Yeah. That's all that matters. I've said this a couple times. The local stores do a good job of this, but I grew up in the – These were assholes, man. They were. Jerks. Oh, they were the worst. I remember feeling when – and I sit there. The first time I came in, Maggie and I hit it off. and I remember like the way you talked to like my son and I was just sitting there going this is the way it should be I never felt the way my son felt in that moment when I grew up I didn't either I felt talked down to or I was annoying him you know why because we weren't spending big bucks we were coming in with a couple dollars and we wanted a couple packs so that's why we got treated like that and that's one of the reasons why you know I don't care how much you come in and spend I love every single kid that comes in there, man, come in and spend a quarter.

5:16And I'm going to treat you the same way as the guy that comes in and spends a thousand dollars. And you know what? Before I even knew Matty, you know, I was a, they call it mystery shopper. Like Matty and I didn't know each other because I was there for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, because you're busy. And I'm just shopping, looking around, rekindling is like first month back into the thing with the kids. And I watched Matty, like I watched him. I wasn't the only thing I was doing, but very observant. And he's no different now that he knows me. Right. And I am a customer and a friend. But what I saw for 20 minutes for how you dealt with a busy store with a kid that's wanting to trade a Pokemon in the middle of non-trade time and how you handled it.

5:55That's what sets you apart. Thank you. It's different. That's the result of a few things. One of the things you said it was a dream job. One of the reasons it's a dream job is because of the way me and you were both treated. When we went into those old grumpy men shops when we were kids, it was a mess. There's stuff everywhere. No organization. But he knew where everything was, but we couldn't find anything. Right. We got treated horribly because we were kids spending a couple bucks. So it's you know, it's a result of dealing with that, knowing the future of the hobby and the business is the kids taking interest as kids.

6:32So they're being treated the right way. and then I had 20 years of customer service before I got back into, you know, before I made sports cards of business again. Yeah. How many years are you into it? I'm five years back in, but in and out my whole life, though. Yeah. My collecting. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For everything else. I mean, anything you can think of matter. Are you like the guy that just knows how to get stuff? I think I kind of. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Especially the stuff that's in that nostalgia, collectibles, and, you know. Yeah. I think that's it. Yeah, I can find kind of whatever you need.

7:13I remember that. It is a unique experience, I come to the store. I'm always blown away by the stock. Every shelf is always full. It's like in a world that, especially as competitive as God, and I walk into some of these shops, and it's just like, what desert did I walk into? Yeah. Like it's barren because it's, you know, have a hard time getting stuff. But obviously you're moving stuff, but you always got stock. Open to people like, you know, the newest thing, you know, like you encourage people and they do. They're opening the cards there. Yeah. It almost feels like everybody in there feels like they're at home.

7:42That's what we want. Yeah. We want everyone to feel at home. We want this to be an escape from the real world. So when we're in there, we don't really get into, you know, politics, religion. Some of the subjects that can be a little touchy, I kind of ask the guys to leave that outside. that way we can just focus on sports and make it a happy place you know when you make it a happy place it's an escape from the real world it is i sit at that table i mean me myself i can sit at that table and i might have a million things going through my mind but when i sit down open a box and open a few packs and pull a few bencinats it changes you know if you're into sports cards at all especially football cards you'll get that joke it's an inside joke the hottest card in retail this year has been jayden daniels the rookie phenom and rookie of the year for the washington absolutely commanders when you're opening packs you'll do the whole okay look at the logo the team yeah because you're kind of it's called sweating it yeah you're sweating sweating you're like all right all right so you see that rookie sign and you see the washington commander's logo or the You begin the slow roll.

8:50The slow roll. Yeah. And it's either jubilation or something not jubilation when it becomes Ben Sinai. You know, it is an escape when you're opening packs. It's an escape. And, you know, you've got the table set up. You've got cards. You've got the couch. You've got the TV. I can't tell you how many people I've seen come in as strangers and become friends. Yeah. Guys sit in there. Someone told me the other day they looked my spot up on Google. and Google says the average person spends an hour and a half there. That's unbelievable. Having spent about a time last night there. Yeah, we wouldn't do that if we weren't creating a community.

9:29Oh, yeah. You know, people are coming and hanging out and getting to know other people. You're meeting other people that partake in the same hobby who you can buy, sell and trade with. I mean, that's what it's all about. And I literally sat there. I've sat there a couple of times and usually buy stuff. But a couple of times I didn't buy anything. But watching other people buy and the energy is fun. It's a good time. It's like you could charge admission. It's kind of like literally, I probably paid$5 to get in just to watch this kid. The sure elation of, you know, popping some Pokemon that's$10 or whatever, you know.

10:05And it's just joy. And that's what it's all about for me. The interactions, meeting people, the face-to-face. I missed that when I was breaking. I was stuck in a room 12 hours a day. Answer me this. You know, being at the retail level, I mean, your whole life in the business, but as a collector. But now, you know, five on retail, the number one shop in South Carolina. Thank you. I accept that. Yeah. What surprised you the most about this industry that maybe you didn't see coming? The amount of people, the variety of people. It doesn't matter your age, sex, gender, orientation. It doesn't matter who you are, what you have going on.

10:48You can't look at someone until they're a collector. No, you can't. You can do it with a lot of things, but not collecting. And I'll tell you what else. You can't look at someone and tell what they're going to come in your store and spend. The guy you think is going to come in and spend a dollar spends 500. And the guy you think is going to come in and spend 500 spends a dollar. Yeah, you never know. You never know, man. And that's why it goes back to that. You have to treat everybody the same. take care of everybody, treat everybody right. Pokemon, well, we could have the whole episode on Pokemon.

11:20It's a thing. It's a thing. It's all a thing. But Pokemon is, Pokemon is the one, come out, blow you away who's collecting. I've been at Walmart looking at the shelf, got blown over by grandma. You never know who's going to push you out of the way at Walmart for Pokemon. What is the Pokemon culture? What is that? Is it just, from the game and then now it's just become a pop culture and you know what i'd say 90 of the people that come to my shop to buy pokemon are not playing the game they're just collectors they don't even know how to play the game but they like the art on the cards yeah um they you know they look put sets together or they like a certain type or a certain energy there are so many different ways to collect certain value yes a lot of people like certain values i do i have grown to like the artwork yeah it's a weird thing i mean and look as human beings art is a big part of our society culture and when you look at like i'm looking at these guys and they've done a good job with football and all but when you look at a pokemon card it is like staring at a piece of art it really is i mean it's it's there's so much detail and uniqueness it really is the variations to color and then art cards are even huge right now you have different artists putting out art cards you have art cards selling for tens of thousands of dollars have you it's incredible thought to like as different as everyone is and i think you probably talked about it's as much the escape as anything but is there a variable that hangs it all together in this whole space of collectibles that you see i mean beyond the adult roller coaster they're getting to ride and the escapism?

13:05I mean, is there anything else like in the like collecting and the whole, I don't know. We're just naturally collectors. I feel that just about everybody is collecting something. If you're not collecting nothing, you're collecting dust, baby. That's true. The fine line between collecting and courting. Right, right. But it's a pastime. We need things to do to keep us busy. You could be spending money on a lot worse things than a pack of cards. And, you know, for me and for a lot of guys that come into the shop, they always go back to the same thing. You know, opening a pack of cards brings you right back to your childhood.

13:40Yeah. And that's why I want to make it fun for the kids. So they have those good memories. It feels good opening that pack and looking to see if it's almost kind of like a treasure hunt in some ways. You know, whether you're collecting all your team or a certain player or a numbered card or autograph card or just cards of value. It's almost like a treasure hunt every time you open a pack. It's true. And transitioning back to the business side of it, even if you spent five and it's worth two, it has value. So it's not just a scratch off card that is either worth 20 or nothing. You know, like it has value that can increase.

14:19And I want to add on to that. When you get a scratch off that's worth nothing, you can throw it away. yeah when you open a pack of cards and nothing in there seems valuable to you you can just throw them in a box forget about them for two years and when you go back through that box in two years you're gonna find something in there and say man he was nobody two years ago yep so it's like yeah you might not have the value that you want right here and now when you open that box but two years from now who's to tell what's going to be what and who's going to be who yeah the thrill of the chase exactly and and but the potential the potential you know because that's what's there talking with maddie rich he is the owner of brian sports cards and more here in greenville the number one shop in south carolina thank you sir top dealer soon to be i mean he might as well be everybody dealer i know you're an official top dealer but and that they don't hand those out easily i understand those don't just come like you don't just buy those at walmart very true hard work networking and having the the right setup and the right kind of service yeah because tops tops represents excellence they're not going to just put their name on any kind of shop you know if you're not treating people right if your store is not clean and organized that's not what they're looking for.

15:44Yeah. The name of the game is getting stock. I mean, that's, isn't it? I mean, but it's popular stuff is. And so you've got to do things the right way and make the relationships. I mean, talk about that side of the business. That's very true. The hardest part of the business is sourcing product. And, you know, I dealt with that since I was a breaker. I'd go to the big shows across the country and network, meet people, introduce myself to people, Take business cards, follow up with those business cards and really just shake hands and create relationships. Hey, listen, I'm here for you if I can help you with anything.

16:21And you never know who's going to be able to help me at the same time. Yeah. You started in breaking. Started in breaking. On the business side. Yeah. Fascinating industry. It really is. Like it's a sub segment of the whole thing. Oh, wow. Describe for our audience that's learning about the business. So basically breaking is a online show. You know, you would have an audience of potential customers and you would have a box. Let's say this box is a thousand dollar box. Now, yeah, one person can buy that$1 ,000 box and open it up for themselves. Or you can do a group break. You can sell teams. You can sell spots.

17:04You can sell divisions. What I liked to do was sell 10 spots. And each of those 10 spots would get three random teams. Once we have it full, we'll run a randomizer and give each spot the three random teams. and we'll open up the box, giving each person every card from the three teams that they own. So if I got the Packers, the Panthers and the Bears. As my teams, you're opening up every pack in that box. Live on camera. Live on camera. Yes, sir. So everybody's seeing it. There's transparency. Exactly. They know what you're getting. Full transparency. And as one of those team players comes up, whoever it is, they get every card associated with that team.

17:50Exactly. So it allows the person buying it the fun and excitement of that experience in a live platform. Right. Combined with, well, they didn't have to spend$1 ,000. That's the key. It makes it affordable for them to have the thrill of the chase of stock that probably isn't just readily available. Right. Isn't that kind of what it is all about? And in that situation, they can get into 10 different breaks instead of buying that$1 ,000 box. Yeah. Increasing their odds of case hits. I've done that lately. On the flip side of that, you might not be the guy that gets the big card, but you are still a part of that box.

18:28It's just a great experience. We did that for four years. I did it 365. I was in the office. How were you sourcing product? Any which way I could. Yeah. I was buying from stores across the country. My retail was locked down. You couldn't get from Walmart back then because I was getting everything. Really? Yeah, I had the guy's number. And this was one of the ways I really got started by meeting the guy who stocked three different Walmarts. And he would meet me in the toy section to give me all the sports cards. Wow. And they never even hit the shelf. I mean, you have to do what you have to do.

19:06I'd go to the register, I'd pay for all my stuff and I'd be able to go home and break it. But I was, you know, and of course I was paying him for taking care of me. Sure. But still it was a lot cheaper than finding it from one of the major retailers, distributors online. Yeah. Because everything gets marked up. It's so hard to find. Yeah. And imagine during COVID when everyone was stuck in the house, it was even harder to find. And prices with the distributors would change by the minute. it you'd have to call them find out the pricing and put in your order right then because if you say let me think about it i'll call you back in an hour prices went up in that hour it was volatile it was like a stock that's the truth that's how it is still now it kind of is yeah it may not be as volatile but it's definitely the stuff that gets hot yeah you know yeah like blasters that are$30 if you can find them on the shelf reselling for$100.

20:03That's what's happening right now. That's what's happening right now. They literally don't risk optic. If you can find it, it's$35 at Walmart or Target. But reselling for$80 to$120 and the megas are$65 retail going for$30,$150. I mean, it's like double. That's just an example of going through the ranks and working your way up. Anything in life you do and you work hard for, it's going to pay off. And I just continue to network. And I'm not satisfied with where I'm at right now. I'm still growing. I have one shop right now. I'd like more shops. I think people need to understand how much. You didn't say how much you were making breaking.

20:42Breaking is a whole different animal. I know you know some big numbers, but there's a lot of money there. There's so much money breaking. If you've got product. I have a friend right now that makes over a million dollars a month breaking. How many rooms does he have going to 12 million a year? is that take-home profit or like revenue sales total sales total okay yeah still i mean if you're doing 10 12 million in sales i imagine he's making at least what or 23 a couple million himself yeah has to right right i knew a guy during uh covid that was making two million a month he was the absolute biggest breaker during covid this is before whatnot fanatics live and all the other platforms started all we were doing is going live on instagram or youtube yeah well that's the interesting the platforms have evolved yes and this is the live shopping component that i've been talking about for 10 years it would eventually hit here i didn't know that it would come through this channel necessarily as one of the proliferators of it yeah because it's been a little bit of slow like compared to like asia and some of the other countries where live shopping has been huge really the u.s has been a little slow like overall as a category but trading cards are ushering in a whole different thing but oh yeah i do think it's a dual part of it it's the retail the access but it's the experience it is surprise and the surprise and delight and the camaraderie and like there's a lot of components going on that is beyond just a transaction well no the breaker has to have a personality yeah you have to understand the breaker is performing the breaker is putting on a show he's there talking about stuff that people want to hear about he's a salesman he's getting his stuff going he's riling it up some of these guys sound like auctioneers i mean it's crazy you tap in on all those different channels you're gonna get something different yeah but the guys that are really excelling in it they have great personalities obviously have great product yeah and uh are working their butts off and you've got whatnot is now growing whatnot has grown from just cards to sneakers vintage clothing handbags commodities like gold and silver yeah you get Get in there and you've got not only the breaks like what Maddie did.

22:55I mean, they've got and we've done this with the boys like selling singles. Yeah, you can do that, too. They do. They've got like little timers. So you get people like live auction. Right. That's exactly what it is. And some people will take like graded cards and make repacks and sell repacks. Yeah. You know, there's just so many ways that you can sell things on whatnot on Fanatics Live. They have spinning wheels that will randomly select your teams for you. Yep. I mean, they make it fun. It is fun. And it's very easy to just swipe and buy that team. And then when you check at the end of the night, that money comes right out of your bank account.

23:35Oh, they got it. It's like too easy. One swipe in there. It's like, you know, if you think Amazon's quick and fast, oh, this is like one swipe, baby. So we transit. What made you go from breaks to retail? You know, when I was breaking, I was I was happy. I had no overhead and I was doing really good financially. I'm a people person, Ryan. Yeah. I got tired of sitting in the house by myself, running back and forth from this room to that room. I wanted to be around people again. The only time I was around people was when I went to a show, which was once every month or two. Yeah. You know, I really like the element of the face to face interactions, getting to know people, bonding with people, learning people.

24:16Like you said, you know, my family, you have a great family as well. And it's been an honor and a pleasure for me to meet your family and become a part of you. I'm an extended part of the family. I love it. So just having me stuck in that room, wasting away, I felt like I was just wasting away. I wanted to get back into the public and I wanted to get back around people. It's what I do. I just like, I like people. Yeah. It's not for everyone. Yeah. Because retail is not easy. It's not easy. It's not. I mean, even a booming industry and you've got, you know, but sales right now are good, you know, but still running a retail shop.

24:54Still a business. Like you said, man, when you come in, my shelves are stocked. I might have a really good day where the end of the day, my shelves are empty. Now I have to get stuff sent to me for the next day. So when I open that next morning, my shelves are stocked again. So it's always a fight. It's a tug of war. Do I, you know, they're buying, I need to replace. They're buying, I need to replace. Cause I don't want any empty shelves. Yeah. That's the last thing you want to see. I'm sure you do toil. Like, okay, is this going to stay hot? Is this going to sit a little bit or is it not? You get to think about that.

25:30Experience. Experience tells you what to order, what not to order. There's no blueprint. There's no guide. It's all a trial and error. It really is. Yeah. Is the expansion just more stores? I mean, is that? Yeah, more stores. Yeah. But then it gets into like, you know, we've talked about it, you know, the market. So do you have to leave the market? Do you have to, you know, or is it just South Carolina? Like, how do you go about thinking about that? It's so hard, man. I really think about it a lot. I think a lot of our stores' success is within our stores' personality. which consists of me and my family it's a family-run business family-owned family-run business um so it'd be really hard i mean i've been offered to to put a spot in nashville to put a spot in charlotte yeah it's hard to duplicate that right it's really hard to duplicate because now you just have a story you might not have that same experience yeah like i'm here with you right now but my daughter's running the shop yeah and i know she's doing a great job because Because this is who she is.

26:42Yeah. You've dealt with her before. Exactly. Right? Yeah, great. I'm not going to send her to one of them cities. She might have to go to Nashville, I bet. She might. She might. But, you know, just the family element, man. So I don't know. God knows. I didn't know I was going to open a store. Yeah. You know, I didn't have any of that planned. I didn't even know I was going to leave my career and take on breaking full time. Yeah. This is all God's plan. he works in mysterious ways he sure does brother where is the industry headed like the and use your crystal ball like you know tom ready's in it with card vault you've got you've got the grading side you've got you know all the brands you got panini and tops always battling back and forth with rights and all this stuff like it's a broad-ranging question but like i'm I'm just curious, like, do you even pay attention to that?

27:37I do. Yeah, because you kind of have to a little bit. I do, yeah. And, you know, I wish I prepared with some statistics for this interview because there was a statistic I read not too long ago, maybe three or four months ago, that said right now it's worth this many billions. And within the next five years, they're expecting it to maybe 5x. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Trends are looking good. Right. Yeah. And, you know, Topps has taken on more. more IPs. They got Disney this year. So everything under Disney this year, actually, Topps will take on NBA licensing. And then next year, they're going to have the NFL licensing.

28:16So as long as Topps is in the driver's seat, I feel really, really comfortable. I just love what they're doing for the hobby, the innovative things they're doing, as far as the MLB debut patches that the player wears for their very first game, the signatures, just all the fun stuff that Topps is doing right now and Fanatics is doing. I think they're doing a great job with it. There's something that's so raw and real about the physical part of collecting, especially the sports cards. Right. But you do have this younger group, the NFT space, the digital space. I don't think it's an or. I think it's an and.

28:54I don't feel like it's a replacement, but it's an interesting thing. I think they really tried it during COVID. It had a day. It had a day. I mean, even me, I fell victim. I was heavily invested in Top Shot, which is NBA moments. Oh, yeah. I remember that. Remember Top Shot? Yeah. It was NBA. And it's still going on. Okay. They still have it. I just don't know where the interest is right now. Yeah. A lot of guys that I speak to, no, I can't speak for everyone, But a lot of guys that I speak to, they want to hold that physical asset in their hands. Yeah. As opposed to pushing playing a computer and watching LeBron make a layup and saying, I own that.

29:38Yeah. It's touchy. I know. Well, I never thought that a generation would put as much value in a digital skin or costume. Right. Like my kids, what they spent on Fortnite costumes, like it means like that avatar is part of their identity. For sure. So that's the only thing that makes me. And again, not because I think it's going to replace the physical car. Yeah. But it's an and because if they do place that in that gives that digital or value to them, I'm going to call it digital value. But to them, it's just value. It means something. It does. And they're willing to pay for it. It does. So if the 10-year-olds of today are willing to pay for that skin or that thing because that's their digital persona.

30:23Yeah. I can't help but think that there's going to be a digital collection of something. I'm cool with the ant. Yeah. There's a video game out. I believe it's MLB The Show. Yeah. Where you can unlock Topps baseball cards. And I spoke to many people that come into the shop that have told me they got back into collecting physical baseball cards because of the video game. So the and, I can see that and working. Yeah. Yeah. I think it will be something as a component of collecting. Right. Whether or not it's 5 % or 1 % or 50%, 100 years now. I mean, who knows? But think about our trade nights, like the trade nights we do here.