The POWER of Nostalgia with Alexis Ohanian!
Alexis Ohanian joined Gio and Jesse on Sports Cards Nonsense to discuss the power of nostalgia in collecting and why people will always prefer a cardboard card to a digital asset.
Video Transcript
You know, as a kid growing up in the '90s, like I had, just binders and binders full of that junk wax era, and thankfully my parents saved them.
and so in probably just around pandemic or just before, a couple of friends of mine in the group chat were like, "Yo, cards are back.
Like, have you Are you collecting?
Ba, ba, ba."
And, and, and I dragged out a lot of my old, cards from my dad, and then I actually slabbed probably 100 of them, and none, none of them valuable, right?
Yeah.
But just, just like memories and things that I thought would be grails one day but, you know, weren't.
and then I went back and started collecting the cards, like the I can say face card, right?
This isn't- Yeah, Billy Ripken.
Sure.
live television.
Yeah.
Yeah, we'll go for it.
The Billy Ripken card.
Yep.
89 Fleer.
Like, like the There's, there's It, it I have a lot of oddities that were just things that I coveted as a child, that I just wanted.
Like, even, like a, a, a PSA 10 Griffey Upper Deck, like, like the, the I, I Not for investment, just for sort of, you know, the sort of deep joy and satisfaction.
And then as the hobby started peaking with, the pandemic and everything else, I also started coveting Again, this is all nostalgia for me.
so I was a big I, I got into drawing and actually into Marvel comics via the Marvel cards, those Impel cards- Oh, yeah from the '90s.
Yep.
1990, yeah.
And, and like every kid of that era was collecting tons of them.
I remember I, I was really proud of my I remember saving up money for, the, was it 91, 92 Master- the, the first Marvel- Oh, yeah Masterpieces.
Mm-hmm.
92.
And the, the Jesco art and, and I, like, that's what I thought was, like, sort of elite collecting back then, 'cause, 'cause even the concept of, like I, I just wondered who were the people that could buy, like, a whole box of these things and then open them.
Like, that to me was, like, the, the heights of wealth.
And so I started fulfilling all these childhood fantasies where I would just be buying boxes and cases of these Marvel Series One through Three, the Masterpieces, all these cards that I just loved so much and, and then I started chasing holograms, 'cause those cards were mass-produced- Yes but were so horribly centered.
Yep.
Yes.
And- The holograms are Those go for a big premium still if you get a 10.
E- especially with decent grade.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause the centering- Yeah was brutal.
Yeah, the centering was awful.
But, but like I s- like i- it was So I've, I've been going back and collecting, Either I was ripping a lot of them like a psychopath and my wife would be like, like, s- seeing me at the table just tearing open all these packs and, again, just, just maybe fulfilling s- I don't know, filling some hole in my childhood heart who, who like, you know, wasn't gonna be able to afford doing this, and it just was so delightful.
And so I've been chasing building out every one of those sets, right?
And I think I've basically got There's one, I don't know if anyone's listening, I think it's the, I think it's the Magneto- Mm-hmm.
No.
I think it's the Magneto hologram in a PSA 10 that I'm still chasing from that Marvel Series One.
But anyway, all the rest from, One, Two, Three Mas- that first Masterpieces set I've got, I've got all of them now, slabbed PSA 10s.
And again, it just, it just gives me joy.
It, it fills some, some hole in my heart.
And then very quickly a buddy of mine was like, "Did you ever collect the, the PMGs?"
And- Oh, yeah I was like, "No."
And, and some of the art on some of the PMGs is, like, not great.
Like, there were a couple years where I personally don't find the art very attractive.
And they're hideous.
But it was classic.
No, no, no.
The, the, the, the first run I think was nine Let me see.
2000 Ooh, you're talking Marvel or the, or for sport?
Marv- no, the Marvel PMG.
No, no, the Marvel ones.
Okay, yeah.
I mean, I, like, I The, the aura of the sport precious metal gem for sure, but again, as a, as a obsessed Marvel guy, one of my buddies, I think it was Chris, shout out Chris, was telling me about, PMGs and I just was already out.
It was probably 12, 13.
2013 was the first one with a really good, really good aesthetic.
And so then I'm collecting all those, then I'm getting the '15s.
And so I've just, '17 I think was where they, strayed a little bit on the art front.
But anyway.
Yeah.
it's, it's weird like that.
And, and it's basically I, I, I've also been a hardcore Washington Commanders fan since I was a kid.
and unfortunately all my favorite players, those cards are from, like, the junk wax era, so, like, I've tried to buy every great Sean Taylor card I can, and they're nice.
Sure.
But they're not, you know, beautiful.
They're not stunning.
Whereas, like I, I put out a bid for the Jaden Danel- Jayden Daniels one-of-one which I, I lost to Josh Harris who, you know, is the owner of the team now, so I guess it ended up in a good place.
But, I, I don't chase too many of the modern cards that are sort of obvious for collectors.
Mm-hmm.
and now that I've gotten into women's sports and specifically starting all these teams, like I'm also collecting my own player's cards, um- Oh, nice just because if I'm like, "Well, I'm excited about Alyssa Thompson playing for Angel City or Chelsea Women's," then I wanna get her cards too.
And so, that's, that's what sort of led me down the road to that eventually got me to on it, as a backer of the UVA women's basketball team.
like seeing the opportunity in college sports specifically got, got me really excited because I think there's a great gateway here for a bunch of people who are not hardcore collectors to just rip a pack and feel that feeling and, and collect some of their favorite players.
