COVER STORY
Cardboard alchemy By Sean McCarthy
P
eople are turning pieces of cardboard into gold. For most sports card collectors they got their start as a youthful preoccupation, amassing images of their favorite players, whether they were All Stars, members of their favorite team, or someone who had caught their fancy. But for some people, sports card collecting has grown into an adult passion and in many situations the thrill of owning a card of your favorite athlete has evolved into a serious pursuit that is as much about finance as it is about fanhood. For many collectors it’s about the personal pleasure of owning a particular card, not unlike collecting art. But for some it’s a million-dollar endeavor akin to wheeling and dealing on Wall Street. “A lot of people are making a lot of money, the hobby has never been hotter,” says Scott Monize, 47, who owns LTD Sports, a sports card business located in the North End of New Bedford. LTD (which stands for Living The Dream) functions out of a warehouse, doing most of its business online via the auction site eBay. Monize boasts an inventory of more than a million cards. “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of people have more time on their hands and they’re not spending as much of their money, choosing to focus their energies and resources on the sports card
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market,” Monize says. “For many years about 20 percent of collectors were doing it to make money, today it’s about 50 percent.” The majority of sports cards are devoted to baseball, basketball, football, and hockey, but there are also soccer, auto racing, wrestling, and MMA cards. For many years baseball was the most popular to collect but Monize says that the current most popular cards are basketball.
“A lot of people are making a lot of money, the hobby has never been hotter” The original sports cards were of baseball players that were found in cigarette packages beginning in 1886. Today they are sold in a variety of ways, ranging from $3 packs to boxes that can go for thousands of dollars. Cards can be bought at retail stores such as WalMart and Target, at card conventions, card shops, or online.
April 2021 | The South Coast Insider
Monize says that he built much of his stockpile by purchasing other people’s collections and continues to buy cards to this day. “I’ve acquired a lot of cards by word of mouth,” he says. “I like that I can make a little bit of money and be around sports, something that I love very much.”
Building a roster
Monize claims that he has the only registered sports card business in a 30-mile radius. He first took an interest in sports cards at the age of eight and has been a professional sports card merchant since 2007 when he bought Southeastern Sports Cards in Fairhaven. He moved the business to Westport in 2010 before changing the name to LTD Sports and relocating to New Bedford in 2016. The value of a sports card is determined by three main factors: the scarcity of the card, the condition of the card, and the greatness of the player. In addition, some lines of cards are considered to be more collectable or trendier than others. “The numbers of a card that are in print is very important,” Monize says. “Some companies will only print one card of a particular player, known as a ‘one-of-one.’ Because they’re so rare those cards can be very valuable as soon as they hit the market.” The condition of a card is also very important. A “mint condition” card will be
