On The Bench With Geoff Wilson, the Sports Card Investor
Give us some background on your current involvement in the hobby.
GW: Like many people, I was a big sports card collector as a kid but then lost touch with the hobby for many years. When I got back into the hobby a few years ago, I couldn’t help but notice the potential of sports cards from an investing and flipping standpoint. I wanted to read and hear more about how sports cards were changing in price and how to make money in the market, but there was very little content available about that. So, I decided to create the content that I wanted to consume. I started the Sports Card Investor website, YouTube show and Podcast in July 2019.
The show quickly took off, as there were many other collectors and investors like me who also wanted to learn how to profit from the hobby. As my subscriber count grew, I added a Discord Server and Facebook Group to get the community talking. Both grew fast to thousands of members.
Geoff in his studio and rip room filming his Sports Card Investor show and podcast
I then decided to build a data tool to make it easy to see how sports cards were changing in value and which cards were being bought and sold the most. I assembled a team of software developers and we built Marker Movers, a dynamic price guide and market research tool for sports cards. Market Movers is a dream come true for sports card investors and flippers who want to gain an edge on the market.
Market Movers launched in February 2020, along with my Sports Card Investor membership program. By April 2020, I reached 1,000 paid members, and we’ve continued to grow rapidly since then. We’ve been very busy adding new features to Market Movers, including Inventory and Collection Management which is launching next week!
Our mission is simple: to help investors and collectors profit from the hobby they love. Our content, membership, and tools are all designed to help people make money while enjoying the thrill of buying and selling sports cards.
What’s your earliest memory of Trading Cards?
GW: I started to get into sports cards when I was 8 years old, and I quickly became crazy about them. I remember bringing binders of baseball cards to school every day in my backpack, looking to trade with friends. Any allowance I received would immediately be spent buying packs of cards from the convenience store near my house. It was a total thrill to rip open packs in search of key rookies. When I turned 14 and could legally work, I immediately applied for jobs at the local sports card stores and ended up working for one.
How did you get started in the Hobby? If you took a break, how did you get back in?
GW: My son, Reaves, was partially responsible for pulling me back into the hobby. He spent some time at his grandmother’s house and came back home with football card packs she had bought him from Target. He wanted to show them to me and go buy some more. I hadn’t seen sports cards in years — but, I still had my old collection of thousands of cards sealed in my closet. I pulled them out and we started going through them. Then I started to learn more about all the new brands and sets and types of cards today. When I learned about grading, serial numbered cards, and how liquid the market is thanks to sites like StockX, I immediately saw the business and investment potential and got hooked.
Geoff with his son Reaves, who helped pull him back into the hobby
Who are you currently investing in?
GW: Sure, there are a bunch of cards I’m investing in, and my targets change depending on where I see the biggest opportunities at that moment. This is the type of question I’m constantly answering for my Sports Card Investor members — in fact, as part of my membership, I send out a weekly email titled “Cards I’m Buying and Selling This Week (and Why).” I’ll leave my specific recommendations for my members, but in general, I’m most bullish about modern basketball cards, and right now I’ve been buying up the star players and secondary players on the teams that have the best chance of making the NBA Finals.
Geoff holding his 1986 Fleer Jordan Rookie BGS 9.5
What is the biggest hit you’ve ever pulled?
GW: I don’t open a lot of boxes, because opening boxes generally isn’t a good investment. It’s like a slot machine pull in Vegas – you are hoping you hit the jackpot and win big (meaning, you pull a Zion or a rare card), but most of the time you strike out (meaning, the cards you pull aren’t worth as much as what you paid for the box). But, despite that, I still do enjoy ripping boxes open for fun occasionally. Also, as part of my Sports Card Investor Member program, I do an exclusive Members-Only Livestream twice a month where I open boxes and give all the cards away to my members. In the last Livestream, I opened a box of Prizm 2019-20 Basketball and pulled a Zion Silver, followed by a Zion Base a couple of packs later, as well as some other great rookies. It was a great box, and pulling the Zion Silver for one of my members was a real thrill. He was in the chat watching live and went crazy when I pulled it for him.
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