House of Cards

House of Cards

Fanshawe grad scoring big in the sports card market.

For many, collecting sports cards is a nostalgic hobby, often born in childhood and tied to memories of watching games, trading with friends and chasing favourite players. For Frank Swiderski (Business Fundamentals alumni, 2016; Business – Finance alumni, 2019), it has grown into something larger: a thriving business with a vast collection of over two million cards and a loyal customer base.

The journey began when Frank’s older brother passed down a binder of ‘90s hockey cards.

“There wasn’t anything particularly valuable in there, but that wasn’t the point,” he says. “It was just a fun way to connect with the sports we loved, and it sparked a passion that’s still with me today.”

By high school, his hobby evolved into a side hustle. He began buying, selling and trading cards to earn extra income. When he enrolled at Fanshawe, it began to look like a viable career option which led him to establish his business, Frankie’s Sports Cards.

I always thought about it as something I loved, but I didn’t really see the potential for it to become a business until I was at Fanshawe.

The business programs at Fanshawe offered him the tools to take his hobby to the next level. “The Lawrence Kinlin School of Business has an incredible reputation, and I couldn’t have chosen a better place to learn,” he says. “I learned so much about communication, networking, investing, budgeting and financial planning.”

Frank would like to open a storefront but admits that’s realistically a decade away. For now, his passion for sports and collectibles is still alive so he is content to continue trading, learning and growing his business—one card at a time.