Hobby Chatz

It’s been far too long but Hobby Chatz is back in its monthly form and it’s time to once again be honest about where the hobby is at.

Everything about sports cards and memorabilia commerce has changed in the last decade, most of which was accelerated during the pandemic. 

Now the entirety of the hobby and its consumption seems to come down to one thing: influencers.

Anytime you’re anywhere with cards, you’ll see someone recording that moment as they hope to strike gold for their “heaps” of followers (I’m guilty of this through Press Box Packs, but I digress). Not only that, but you’re now seeing the proliferation of these influencers promoting new products. 

The influencer-driven product one that has come across my radar the most over the last few: Arena Club’s Slab Packs. 

Arena Club is selling digital packs of graded cards that they have in their vault and consumers have the option of having that card shipped to them, selling it back to Arena Club for a fixed price or holding onto it. 

As someone who doesn’t open packs of cards very often anymore, particularly retail products as their costs have risen in the last five years, I actually like the idea of being guaranteed a single half-decent card instead of the box of crap that one often ends up with after opening a blaster box. 

The real issue I have with Arena Club Slab Packs is the way that they’re being marketed. Influencers are all over social media talking about the utility of the product as opposed to “traditional” collecting but the reality remains that opening Arena Club Slab Packs is like gambling on your phone. That’s just not for me.

Arena Club has a great idea with their Slab Packs but the whole way it’s being marketed makes me feel like this won’t be a long-term thing.

Frankly, I hope to be wrong.

Anyways, let me leave everyone with this: You’re late to the party on Lamine Yamal cards. He just won the Spanish treble with Barcelona and he doesn’t turn 18 until July. He looks like the real deal. 

I’ll also be taking a 5% commission on all sales that come from the above paragraph.

Until next time..