Gary has been ahead of the curve on a few trends. Most recently, he’s foreseen the explosion of popularity of sports cards. The team sat down with Gary to ask him three questions about what this phenomenon means for fans of spectator sports.
Team GaryVee: What’s the biggest reason that sports cards are exploding in popularity now?
Gary Vaynerchuk: I think one of the single biggest reasons that sports cards are exploding, and are about to really explode, is because daily sports betting and daily fantasy [leagues] is a culture that’s really established [itself] over [the past] 15 years…if you look at fantasy sports and you look at DraftKings [and others].
Team GaryVee: Is collecting sports cards a wiser financial decision than, say, betting on the game itself?
Gary: I think that sports cards are a more financially sound way to enjoy a game that you don’t care about. The downside of betting on a player who gets hurt or doesn’t perform [as well as you hope] might be something like minus 20 to 60 percent, versus maybe 100 percent loss on the gambling game. [To my point], being right about Lamar Jackson last year and betting on the Ravens a lot…you might have done well for a couple of weeks before everyone else figured it out and the lines moved.
Team GaryVee: Can you expand on that?
Gary: The lines are built to be 50/50 at some level or even just more for the house right? But you being right about Lemar Jackson could have returned 20 times your money and so, I think, that over the next three years people are going to get more educated that sports cards are a more financially sound way to get enjoyment out of games and I think you’ll see a lot of gamblers and causal gamblers switch to that behavior.
Team GaryVee: How would, or how has, sports card collecting changed the way you view spectator sports?
Gary: [Well], I don’t care about the Chicago White Sox but if I–and I haven’t–[bought] 20 Eloy Jiménez rookie cards, I would watch White Sox games every day this summer. Or, at least, check in on the box score.
For more on Gary’s thoughts on sports cards, check out these sources:
