Gordy Bonker left Wall Street for THIS: Why Sports Cards Are the Ultimate 'Hidden' Asset Class

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Bonkers Cards, Gordy Bonker, Roberto Clemente, Ryan Alford
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Masterworks
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Bonkers Cards, Fanatics
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Bonkers Cards, Gordy Bonker
5. 20:00 – 24:08: Jackie Robinson

Notable quotes from "Gordy Bonker left Wall Street for THIS: Why Sports Cards Are the Ultimate 'Hidden' Asset Class"

• Inside the hobby, are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford.

  about Ryan Alford · at 0:31

• Thanks, man. Yeah, I before I was doing Bonkers Cards content full-time, I've always had a passion for the financial services industry. I was working basically on Wall Street as an agency recruiter specifically for.

  about Bonkers Cards · at 1:52

• Of those cards go through the roof. an example I spoke about, just this week, I sold two Roberto Clemente PSA 8 rookies in probably around July, August time frame. Right around yeah August September actually, because right after the.

  about Roberto Clemente · at 4:33

• There's also a perfect one for one comparison of this company called Masterworks where you can invest into fractionalized pieces of art and it's the same thesis as to why you…

  about Masterworks · at 6:24

• Finances. And at the same time you have this macro trend that's super relevant and Fanatics has just launched into the prediction markets but you have apps like Kouchy and basically the United States being all in on gambling.

  about Fanatics · at 11:39

• [clears throat] I personally love Jackie Robinson stuff as well, and you can get into Jackie Robinson stuff.

  about Jackie Robinson · at 20:49

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Gordy Bonker — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:20
  Conversations, and meaningful value to the hobby. and his name is Gordy Bonker. What's up, Gordy? being I don't know. I feel like I'm a hair down business guy. I'm I've been and done a lot in the business world, but at the same time, I.
• Mickey Mantle — Person · 2 mentions
• Ryan Alford — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:36
• Roberto Clemente — Person · 1 mention · first at 4:37
• Jackie Robinson — Person · 1 mention · first at 20:51
• Ken Griffey Jr. — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Bonkers Cards — Company · 4 mentions · first at 1:55
• Rally — Company · 2 mentions
• Masterworks — Company · 1 mention · first at 6:28
• Fanatics — Company · 1 mention · first at 11:45

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 If you didn't listen to the end, you didn't get the the scoop. We pay to go to the movies and you walk away with nothing when you leave the movies. The cards you at least still have. I really like that point. I talk about it a lot as to why the hobby is the best hobby. That is like a cheat code of a hobby. Like if I'm going to spend my free time and make money or at least at the very least not lose it, it's why it's one of the the coolest hobbies to me. Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From Chasing Grails to Colin Bluffs and going inside the hobby, are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford.

0:41 Hello and welcome to Trading Cards and Collectibles here on the Radcast Network. I hope everyone is doing all right, wherever you are, whenever you are. We appreciate we know you got options, so we're glad you made us one. Appreciate you keeping us at or near some of those sports charts we've been in. Don't know how or why, but we love you. Uh I think, you know, I I the reason I think it is is because we have people like the guests that we have today. We got the real the real I don't know guys making a difference in the hobby, doing something different, and providing quality content, conversations, and meaningful value to the hobby. and his name is Gordy Bonker. What's up, Gordy? You know, being I don't know. I feel like I'm a hair down business guy. I mean, I'm I've been and done a lot in the business world, but at the same time, I feel like I'm I don't know, still a kid and still uh you know, learning every

1:35 day, but there's a sophistication with your stuff. And I don't know, like maybe it comes with some, you know, someone that appreciates vintage and that's doing the things that you are, but there's definitely a a way and a manner about you that is both educational and meaningful.

1:52 Thanks, man. Yeah, I I mean, I you know, before I was doing Bonkers Cards content full-time, I've always had a passion for the financial services industry. I was working basically on Wall Street as an agency recruiter specifically for financial services firms primarily private equity hedge funds and investment banks. Coming across the sports card market after a bit of time writing financial content uh that I discovered the untapped potential of what this space could be as an asset class. And uh I just started to build upon that. And then before I knew it, the following I had about speaking about sports cards as an investment class outpaced the content I was doing in traditional financial services. So it was a crazy transition and I'm super grateful for that time as well cuz it helped me, you know, get a lot sharper on the content side jumping in here, you know, running full head of steam. I hear

2:43 two sides of this like my firm belief I think is yours. the untapped side of this. And then I have the naysayers that just can't get over cardboard, you know, being worth, you know, that and it not tanking one day or, you know, like being a bubble. I mean, how do you weigh that and and what's sort of your response or what's giving you the confidence that you have that this truly is a long-term play?

3:09 Collecting is centuries old. It is a human innate behavior. And then when you additionally layer on the fact that sports cards have been uh a marketable business for over a hundred years as well, you layer that in and then when you start to see the actual market of sports cards form somewhere around the 1950s and60s where people see resale value of this stuff, you actually start to see like a historical performance of these cards. And one thing that is super notable on the super high-end category is that it continues to compound and appreciate in value. Like we have the data to support it. artwork is at at the end of the day still just material that's put on canvas or paper. It's really the the creator of that artwork or the scarcity of that artwork that drives its value. The highest end artwork pieces are selling for over $und00 million. You know, the latest Honest Wagner cards, you see those

4:00 prices anywhere from, you know, 35 10 million and you might think it's a lot, but when you compare it to other like culturally relevant collectibles, it's not even close. When you look at the high-end vintage baseball market specifically, the pop counts, population counts, so the total number of cards in existence and PSA 8, 9, and 10 is extremely scarce. The higher you go, you know, 10ens are basically off the table at this point. So, you're looking at PSA 9 or SGC 9 copies of those super high-end culturally relevant cards or PSA 8s in some examples, and you're starting to see that volume or the value of those cards go through the roof. You know, uh, an example I spoke about, uh, just this week, I sold two Roberto Clemente PSA 8 rookies in probably around July, August time frame. Right around yeah August August September actually, because right after the national uh, right around $90,000

4:51 privately each. Uh, there's a PSA 8 Roberto Clemente ending this week at Heritage that if it were to hit the gavl, as we're talking would close at 163,000

5:01 almost in the Yeah. And that's in the last three months. And I think you do actually see a notable change in some of this higherend stuff that happened right towards the end of the national in between that and when Kevin Olirri publicly, you know, made his purchase and talked about wanting to create an index of the greatest sports cards.

5:20 And uh I don't I actually I can feel 100% confident in saying that. I know that that's going to be replicated by other high- netw worth individuals either that want to have complete 100% ownership of the cards or they want to create a fund structure that's going to pull capital together to acquire what's left of the supply of the best of the best cards. And um you know if that becomes more of a public thing I think you're going to see the valuations of the stuff move even higher. A few companies I have creating you know almost like stocks that you know you combine all these things and you split it up into shares. Well people companies have tried that and not been so successful I think with the you know aggregating but more let's call it the the retail uh investors so to speak. Why has that not made it?

6:10 The ones that are actually pulling this off are taking the majority ownership of it. the fractional ownership model and this has been kind of a shaky model across other assets as well. Uh there's a company called Fundrise that invests into real estate in a fragmented way. There's also a perfect one for one comparison of this company called Masterworks where you can invest into fractionalized pieces of art and it's the same thesis as to why you would want to invest into art as sports cards. and that hasn't really taken off. And um I think it's going to be important that whatever investment vehicle that whoever actually does nail this because I think there's probably a lot of listeners that just heard you and I speak the first 20 minutes of this interview and they're like, "Yeah, this makes complete sense to me. Like I would want to some capital to this."

6:55 But for some reason there's a friction in terms of maybe it's the liquidity, maybe it's the marketing or the product that hasn't landed yet. And I think that's still sitting out there for somebody who to really execute. And I'm I've [clears throat] rooting for Rally. I'm rooting for the people that are trying to do it. I I've done some content at the Rally Museum before. I've met the people that have worked there. I think they were really early in seeing this. It's just like somebody needs to execute on it. Um otherwise it will just continue to be like something that is for the highlevel high net worth elite wealthy class. and that that class of people hasn't yet viewed sports cars uh sports cards in like a sophisticated manner. They've looked at artwork that way in antiques and specific artifacts, but they haven't looked at sports cards that way. And I think that's surprising when you recognize how culturally relevant it is

7:46 in this moment. You know, like you're talking about how much your kids like to do it. You know, it is something that has been happening for the last 30, 40 years. And um I I think you just have to look at it at a longer tale, you know, like um there wasn't we don't have as much history on this as a market as we do the art market. And I think like with time um that will mature, you know.

8:10 I think it's and well put. I'm glad you feel like I do. I'm like I would have thought this would have blown up by now, but it looks like some fairly wellunded thoughtout platforms like Rally and others. There's another one I can't remember the name of. It feels like they've made goes at it. I'm like, it's same as you. I was like, is this marketing? I'm like, I can do marketing, but is this marketing issue? But I don't know. I think it's

8:35 there. It's kind of what I saw. There's a surprising lack of sophistication, you know, in the hobby a little bit. And it's not I think as more sophisticated people that understand long-term investing come into the space, not all like billionaires, you know, but I think you might see that take off more. And there's this proliferation of the scratch card gambling side of it, right? And I do I I want to address the gambling piece as well, but you brought uh I don't want this thought to escape me while we're talking.

9:15 Please. The other piece to what has been difficult for Rally Collectible uh some of the other fractional ownership groups is the regulatory component of this makes things very challenging and it makes people kind of walk away from it when you're looking at it like a poolled capital thing. So that's the first thing I wanted to make sure that there's a huge regulatory hurdle that people need to jump. And um the second piece when you're talking about like the lack of or there's not a ton yet of sophisticated individuals that are looking at the space. Part of that is because like this in itself is a hobby that was not meant to be at its core an investable asset class and all the things that we're talking about.

9:56 You need both sides of that coin. You do. You absolutely do. and you know uh where you were going with it in terms of the trends today and how a lot of the popularity of it is sitting on these stilts of the gambling industry and the growth of that. I don't have a problem with either side of it like I cuz I it's entertainment for me. I mean it like the first been back you know right at two years back in it and the first year it was just entertainment with my kids. So, it was worth every penny, every box, every, you know, piece of trash my wife complained about to just have that time and entertainment with them. And and it was, you know, like it wasn't, I guess it's gambling, but the surprise and delight of getting cards and cuz we're into sports big, but we just weren't into cards. So, we knew all the players.

10:45 So, to start ripping packs and maybe getting stuff of value, plus knowing the players and get to see the artwork cuz I hadn't been back into it. I hadn't seen the new parallels in

10:55 20 years, you know, like it was just a lot of entertainment, surprise and delight.

10:59 I think that's really where people need to draw the line on in that this is not something especially when we're talking about the modern product that's coming out today. Like the odds of that are stacked against you from a purchasing product perspective. Like do not think that buying this box of cards is going to make you money and that this is like a trading sort of thing where like you're buying X and selling for Y and there's a delta between. like that's not going to happen.

11:24 And I think people are getting upset because the way that breaking is getting advertised, it's that, you know,

11:31 I'm going to buy into this break for 20 bucks and pull this $20,000 card and this is so wonderful and it's really, you know, messing with people's finances. And uh at the same time you have this macro trend that's super super relevant and Fanatics has just launched into the prediction markets but you have apps like Kouchy and basically the United States being all in on gambling. Like we are all in on predicting everything and it's up to the consumer to be able to have the discipline to not gamble.

12:03 I don't know. It's like the gambling genie isn't going back in the bottle. And so you can feel about it how you want, but it's up to you to have discernment and discipline. You know, you can't spend your whole paycheck on on ripping boxes or you're not going to have any money. And so, sorry. And uh and I look, I mean, I'm not shoot I've uh bought a few too many. Not not I never bought what I couldn't afford with my kids but definitely bought more I was like

12:31 more than you and we but we spent a lot of money on it fun you know it is fun but it wasn't but I never one time did it and went

12:41 it wasn't fun it was is a blast and it's it's entertainment and we pay to go to the movies

12:47 so you know and you walk away with nothing when you leave the movies the cards you at least still have

12:52 you know I'm a huge golfer avid golfer is the one thing I do to get away from thinking about this stuff. And it is an expensive hobby and all of the money you put into golf is absolutely sunk. But when you think about the sports card hobby, it is fun to actually engage in it. Like open the packs, see your favorite players, see the artwork. I've put significant money into these cards, but it's not really sunk. I'm going to get that capital back if I ever choose to sell it. And I think when done correctly, it is probably the most economically viable hobby in the world.

13:27 Bonkers. What I mean, what a great name, you know, like perfect for cards and fun and media. Oh, you know, you never knew that cuz it's like bonkers like thing and you aren't up, but it's like it puts it puts me in that whole, I don't know, nostalgic mindset.

13:41 I'm so thankful for my name. I'm actually the second. Um, it's a family name. When I started, you know, actually marketing myself, I've always put bonker in the name. you know, my financial newsletter was the Bonker Beat, and it was really supposed to be like I was a beat writer talking about what was happening. With Bonkers cards, you do have that just it's easy to remember. Um, it it's thankfully it is my name as well, and I'm always really specific about the way that I market myself. I want people to know who Gordy Boner is.

14:08 the hobby and media to me and you know what you're doing with your content and leaning into it. There's just this I don't know relentless demand for more content, pack openings, shows, trades, all that stuff. I mean, talk to me about the media aspect for you. Yeah, you know, when I think about 2026, like the in my personal business, I want to double down on the media side of the hobby as a business. I think advertisers don't fully yet understand like how passionate collectors are and also the number of new collectors that are coming into the market. We have a pretty good understanding of who's watching the content oftent times in terms of like demographics, right?

14:55 highly skewed mail, highly skewed some level of discretionary income spend. I'm waiting for that moment when we actually see a shift from the brands that want to sponsor this content only being hobby related to brands to, you know, just larger blue chip names that whether it be in the consumer product good space or wherever that just like want a piece of this action. And uh I think it's coming. It's just a matter of when. My primary platform when I started was Tik Tok. That's my biggest current audience. probably got 22 and change thousand followers there.

15:28 Yep. I was dedicating so much time to short form video on Tik Tok that I really stopped posting on LinkedIn. And one of the things that I I really want to try to re reccalibrate and focus on in 26 is sharing some of these contents more consistently on LinkedIn. I mean, it's it's no one's fault but my own. like I know what the value of that audience is and I benefited from it for years when I was talking about the market

15:51 as your marketing advisor unpaid and uh and you didn't ask for it. Uh get the hell back over there now Gordy. That is your audience.

16:00 Here's the here's the secret. It's not a secret. Um the hobby is media. Media is the hobby. It's in commerce, you know. It's like commerce is media, media is commerce. It's it all feeds one another.

16:16 When I left my job uh a few years ago, that was what I made my bet on that I was going to make a living for my wife and I on was live selling. And I recognized the same thing that you were talking about early on that this is not only um the [clears throat] action of me selling cards directly, but it is entertainment for the viewer. like they are choosing to watch Bonkers Cards Live on Sunday night at 8:00 on TikTok versus watching a rerun of something on TV or whatever. For almost 2 years, I was doing it every Sunday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday night, 2 hours a night. And I did that for a while. And I just sold a a sponsorship deal for my live show.

16:57 So that at the start of the show, in the middle of the show, the end of the show, I'm reading an advertisement for a hobby company. That piece of attention is so valuable because those, you know, my live show will carry somewhere on last Sunday, I had about 250 concurrent viewers watching throughout the course of the night. You get close to 5,000 people that will stop in the show. If you look at what the base of sellers are doing on those platforms, it is a still shot of a pair of hands or a Zion case of cards sitting there and it is incredibly boring.

17:29 And one of the things that my show is different on is that I'm constantly voicing over tidbits about the sports card market, the history of the players. There's constant turnover in the cards. I talk about the live selling platform for me similar to a radio show. This needs to be a radio show. No dead air. Keep the audience entertained.

17:50 Everybody's favorite radio station is W I FM. What's in it for me, baby? Yeah. And you got to remember that it's not about what's in it for you, the creator. It's what's in it for them. And they're there to be both. Yeah. They want to buy some cards at a good deal, but they want to be entertained.

18:07 They want, you know, we live in the Tik Tok nation. So, educator. I think [clears throat] you need to be entertaining. Educating or inspiring. I

18:14 entertainment. We've mentioned it, we'll have it in the show notes, but drop all the deets for uh how people can work with you, see what you're selling, learn from you, etc.

18:24 Yeah. So, you know, if anyone's interested in, you know, the brokering side of the business or getting into specific cards, I I always read my email at bonkerscards@gmail.com. Um my social media handles everywhere on Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube, everything is bonkerscards. It's the same handle every platform. And then um the thing that I'm like the most excited about is uh my newsletter. I'm doubling down on my writing. I've always loved to write and it's the base of my membership. So the Bonkers Cards Club is my paid community. It's $8.99 a month. It gives you bonus access to my writing, thoughts, observations about sports card market. It also gets you a part of the club. So I have all club members get invited to a monthly Zoom call I host and I talk about what's happening in the market. I've brought guests on uh from across the industry to speak to the club. Um our final club meeting, I don't

19:15 know when this is airing, but it's Monday, December 22nd if people are around to want to join the Bonkerscards Club. Um and you can check that all that content out by going to bonkerscards.substack.com. And yeah, man. I'm on Instagram. I I'm starting to get um more of a focus on Instagram. Uh, I started on Tik Tok, so if you're searching me, my Tik Tok audience is more robust than Instagram, weirdly, which isn't usually the case, but I uh I'm excited to continue to build and grow that there. And yeah, you can listen to the Gordy Bonker Show every Wednesday on the Sports Cards Nonsense YouTube channel. That's my long form YouTube podcast. That's wherever you get um podcasts as well. So, check them out. And uh I think that's everything man.

19:58 Okay. What's the one card or two or handfuls under a hundred that you would tell our audience to to buy or think about

20:08 under 100? Under a hundred and then maybe from a 100 to a thousand like one one or two, you know, from 100 and under for maybe that value crowd or someone that you know that's that's newer that's not dropping hundreds on everything.

20:23 And then maybe a couple cards that are in that 100 to a thousand. I know that's a big range, but 100 to a,000. So, uh, you can start with either one first.

20:31 If it was purely like on the investment side of things in terms of like a store of value,

20:37 I would try to identify the earliest playing year Mickey Manantel card that you can get. His 60s cards, you'll definitely be able to afford in that $100 to $1,000 price point. Can't get anything into Mantel under 100 bucks. Um, [clears throat] I personally uh love Jackie Robinson stuff as well, and you can get into Jackie Robinson stuff. probably the cheapest Jackie cards are his 19556 cards. You could probably get low-grade copies of those for two to 300 bucks. And uh Jackie Robinson, Mickey Manel, those guys are never going to lose value. Um when you're playing in vintage cards specifically under a hundred bucks, it's a hard category to me um because [clears throat] you wouldn't be getting 50s or 60s cards that are of like quality in that. I think any

21:20 sleepers in the 70s, 80s or 90s. Yeah. So, that's where I was going with it. I think you have to think about um what the lowest population counts are of culturally or historically significant players from the 1970s. So, um those even if you were to creep into the 80s, you know, it gets really touchy with the Junk Quax era. Honestly, where I was going to go though was a figure from that time period. I would say if you're looking into the 80s, 90s, Ken Griffy Jr. is going to become the next Mickey Manel. He was the guy.

21:55 I love it. I didn't even have to leave the witness and he was going there anyway. Um I got my Ernie Banks laying here, too. I mean, I got like

22:04 That's a nice one. Yeah. You know, that's a 67. Yep. Yeah. [clears throat] And this guy.

22:11 Yes. I think we got matching ones. I got the same one. What's yours? Your Mine's a five. PSA 5. This is an SGC5.

22:22 There we go. I I just sold this uh this is out the door today to somebody. 250 bucks. So yeah.

22:28 Um that's a cool card because it has Mickey Mantel, Willie Mays, and Harmon Kilgrew. Three of the best players, home run hitters of their time. All

22:36 I bought that for 60 55 like I don't know like a year ago. That's an amazing deal, man. So yeah, it's a great example of the appreciation side.

22:47 I know, dude. I can do this all day with you. Really appreciate you for coming on. Can't wait to do it again. Thank you so much.

22:54 Yes, sir. Thank you so much for having me. Collectibles.show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. And ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you. You do case hits at.show. We want you to send in your favorite pulls of the week. And here's the difference. This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. had a couple of those myself a few months back. But it's not just about the value, it's about what you're collecting. What means something to you? Share a [clears throat] story. Share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week that was your favorite player and you nailed it. So, case hits at collectibles.show. Send in those videos. I want to know the stories. We're going to bring them to life here on the show. We're going to do a segment each week. Once we get rolling and get some videos in where we share that on the show with us. We want

23:40 to feature you on Collectibles show. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www.collectibles.show or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Ulford. Now get out there and collect yours.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Gordy Bonker left Wall Street for THIS: Why Sports Cards Are the Ultimate 'Hidden' Asset Class"?

In order: 0:00 Bonkers Cards, Gordy Bonker, Roberto Clemente, Ryan Alford; 5:00 Masterworks; 10:00 Bonkers Cards, Fanatics; 15:00 Bonkers Cards, Gordy Bonker; 20:00 Jackie Robinson.

What is mentioned in this Collector Nation episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Bonkers Cards, Gordy Bonker, Mickey Mantle, Rally, Ryan Alford, Roberto Clemente. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Gordy Bonker left Wall Street for THIS: Why Sports Cards Are the Ultimate 'Hidden' Asset Class"?

The episode runs 24 min; the transcript is about 4,672 words in 57 timestamped sections.

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