Spread the love
I’m very excited to share interviews conducted with several sports cards hobbyists, enthusiasts, champions, and hustlers. Check out the entire interview series at the bottom of this page and let’s all learn, improve, inspire, and collaborate.
Today, I bring to you Kyle from SoCal, known online as KWJ Sports Cards formerly psasportscards. Instagram is @kwj_sportscards.
Tell me a bit about your background, any other hobbies/interests
- I’m currently living in Long Beach, California where I also went to college at Long Beach State. I have been in the IT field for the past 8 years working at Apple, Volcom and Quiksilver. I have slowly been transitioning to working with cards full time. Other than cards I love to surf and still play baseball in an adult league with some former college players and few older minor leaguers.
What is your sports card background, how are you involved today including your collection and what you love most about the hobby
- I first got involved with sports cards like most others when I was a kid playing youth sports. I was a big fan of Derek Jeter and Steve Young. When I first started collecting it was the late 90’s and early 2000’s so I was really into the early jersey and bat cards starting with Jeter.
- I love that sports cards has something for everyone and anyone. All sports have some sort of card in the US and there can be low end collectors to extremely high end collectors. It gives a chance for everyone to be involved.
- Right now my collecting is mostly focused on grading low to mid end stars and rookies. Doing bulk PSA grading submissions with these cards is a great way to make my hobby profitable and still buy myself some cool PC items.
- The players I personally collect right now are Walker Buehler, Pascal Siakam, LeBron James, and George Kittle.
- Like many other sports cards collectors I spend a lot of time watching sports…..when they’re on haha. Along with that I spend my free time surfing or playing sports myself. On the side I do invest some money in the stock market and I have had pretty good success over the last 4 years. Purchasing AMD at 12 dollars has helped me acquire new big cards.
Biggest sports cards related regret or mistakes you’ve had and lesson learned to help others
- So far I haven’t made too many huge mistakes when selling cards at the wrong time. I thing the biggest would have to be selling 2 Luka Doncic PSA 10 Prizm Silver cards in 2019 when they were around $600-700. I also regret selling a Juan Soto 2016 1st Bowman Chrome purple refractor auto at $900.
- Luckily when I sold some of those high end items I listed above, I reinvested into a nice Mike Trout lot with a 2009 1st Bowman Chrome Auto BGS 9.5 with 10 auto grade and a Mike Trout 2011 Topps Update PSA 10 for $5500 for both cards. Since then they have really jumped.
How do you stay motivated, what keeps you going or excited in this hobby
- I think the thing that keeps me going is knowing I have a good eye for raw (ungraded) cards and what they will get graded when I submit them for grading. The best thing is to have a bulk submission full of mostly 10’s and 9’s. I love getting a grading submission back with cards I picked myself or cracked and cleaned.
When was the moment you realized you can make money with sports cards
- I think after my first grading submission, I learned I could make money. There are certain players and trends you learn over the years and know who and what certain sets will bring in money down the road.
What’s your hope for the future of this hobby
- My future for the hobby is that there will be a place for everyone…from the card graders to the team or player collectors to the low and high end collectors. I don’t want the hobby to get so expensive it pushes young people away. I don’t want all these hypebeast dudes taking over…I also don’t think they will last.
What are your favorite specific, detailed ways to make money with sports cards
- There are a few ways I like to make money in the hobby. I like to put together my own bulk PSA grading submissions where I choose the right 500 cards from thousands that look to be in great condition. Most of these will be serial numbered or SP (short printed) superstars and rookie cards. These will be cards mostly in the $5-50 range. This way with a good submission I should be able to make a good profit for each card.
- I have also had good success cracking cards out of their slab and cleaning them for another submission.
- Also always cracking out vintage cards from Beckett and submitting to PSA. I have had success with some 2nd year Mickey Mantles and rookie Bob Gibson’s.
Anything else you want to say or share
- Find something you love about the hobby! I love taking the time to go over cards and finding pieces that would look great in a graded slab. I enjoy cracking cases, cleaning cards, and prepping them.
I hope you found some helpful nuggets in this interview. My goal is to help the community because we can all be more open minded.
Check The Rest of The Sports Cards Interview Series
- John Newman of Sports Card Nation Podcast and selling 150 1993 SP Derek Jeter RCs way too early
- Kyle of Wax Museum Podcast as a full time teacher and leaning on one another to help grow each other’s collections
- Jon, the Basketball Card Guy, an emerging media field professional and helpful thoughts for the many new people entering the hobby
- Ron, founder of the largest sports cards scammers group on Facebook with 27,000 members and how a $25 deal ended up helping countless number of collectors
- Kyle of KWJ Sports Cards shares several ways to make money with sports cards
- Agostino of A&M Centerpiece Sports Cards Investments and what he learned buying, selling, and grading a 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols auto
- James AKA Awe_SomeProCards and how nostalgia kept him in sports cards and continuing to learn about the hobby
