The collectibles market is going more mainstream with an investment from none other than Tom Brady!
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is entering the sports collectibles space.
Brady will acquire a 50% stake in CardVault, a sports card and memorabilia retailer, the company announced on Wednesday.
As part of the deal, CardVault will change its name to “CardVault by Tom Brady,” and is planning to rapidly scale its footprint. Card collecting has experienced a resurgence since the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to record sale prices.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/12/tom-brady-sports-collectibles-company-cardvault.html
It’s great that a big name is investing in making collectibles more mainstream. I just hope they don’t get discouraged with how harsh collectible selling actually is. I mean I know they know, but does Tom Brady know is the question.
Baseball cards are definitely interesting price wise. You never really know which ones will hold value or be worthless inside a year let alone five years.
And of course this leads to uncertain revenue streams and inevitably to ensure card supply CardVault by Tom Brady will have to offer the harsh 50% trade values that local cards and games stores currently do. Even GameStop has some harsh trade in values despite them supposedly being able to move inventory relatively quickly.
The collectibles market is incredibly difficult to handle. I would know, I used to sell numismatic coins. Not only do you have outright fraud in the case of buyers, you have inventory difficulties on a permanent basis, and high shipping costs and fees. So you end up with a low margin, surprisingly low cash flow, business that struggles to keep going.
Even the largest and best collectibles companies are 1 in 100. As in, only 1 out of 100 companies survived to the point of achieving stability. They had to make a name for themselves. Generally for reliability, honesty, and a luxury experience. You’ll find one or two excellently reviewed coin dealers in every major city in the United States for example that have survived for decades. Maybe CardVault by Tom Brady will be that luxury experience for sports cards when they expand.
I just hope it all works out. What’s good for CardVault by Tom Brady is pretty much what’s good for the sports card market.