Hanna Chang, co-host of Women of the Hobby, talks with Boardroom about the growing woman population of sports trading cards and The MINT Collective.
With The MINT Collective (March 25-27 in Las Vegas) on the horizon, Boardroom has had a chance to sit down with some of the leaders in the trading card hobby. Here, we chat with Hanna Chang from Women of the Hobby, covering everything from her platform to her personal collection.
Related: Card Ladder’s Chris McGill talks the Hobby & The MINT Collective
First, some background:
Women of the Hobby is a community, led by Hanna Chang and Sam Shuford that provides a platform for, as the name suggests, women in the hobby. Through Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify, Women of the Hobby highlights woman collectors and investors by showcasing their collections, thoughts on the hobby, and highlighting a “woman of the week.”
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Brett Pickert: Can you explain Women of the Hobby for those who may not know?
Hanna Chang: Women of the Hobby is a platform giving a voice to the female card collecting community. This community ranges from ladies who have been doing this for 30-plus years to women who have gotten in in the last few months who collectively share a passion about sports. In a hobby that’s entirely male-dominated, our mission/vision is to encourage other women who are passionate about collectibles and sports but don’t feel like other collectors who look like them. We want everyone, especially females, to enter into the hobby and highlight the amazing women in the industry and collectors. You don’t have to be a woman to join this mission. Sam (co-host of Women of the Hobby) is incredibly smart and had a lot of drive for this mission. We partnered to drive this platform and promote women of the hobby on social media platforms. Honored to be a part of this group.
BP: How have you seen women get more involved in the Hobby?
HC: What’s really meaningful is, we are able to connect with shops around the US. There are only a few shop owners who are female in the US. Being able to leverage years of shop ownership, it creates a level of synergy. The Bullpen in LA is co owned and co-founded by a collector named Tai Fauci, a woman. The wealth and wisdom of a shop owner for many years is priceless. We’ve created private chats to help promote our mission. The entire industry knowledge is shared holistically. When and how you know this information is incredibly unique. It provides an open space to share this knowledge for investment. Giving 1/1’s of PC teams with other members. There’s a huge level of trust with one another to make these kinds of deals. No worries about being backstabbed. I’ve seen way more women and age group diversity popping up. It’s an amazing sight to see. The goal is the more diverse people you have coming into the hobby, the more diverse thought leadership will go on. Diversity is always good.
BP: Who are some of the most influential women in the hobby?
HC: Card Ladder co-founder, Kristina Thornson. Card Ladder is an incredible pricing and tracking tool with an extensive back-end of data source. Kristina provides insight and opinion on the hobby. We’re genuinely here for each other and not for self-interest gains.. She continues to be open and available to all of us.
[Fauci] from Bullpen LA. Her executive background provides an exclusive way of thinking when it comes to market trends. She’s able to see the end to end of the supply chain, nuances of the hobby and provide insight.
[Shuford[, Women of the Hobby co-founder. She has a niche for collecting women’s cards. She’s willing to share her time and has been a valuable resource for the community.
BP: Take us through your collection. What are the highlights?
HC: LeBron James rookie cards. I have to give props to LeBron for solidifying my commitment to the hobby. All of them are Topps Chrome refractors, including a black refractor. I’m also a huge collector of Lewis Hamilton. Hoarding everything of Lewis Hamilton. Including two autos of Lewis Hamilton, 9 base colored #’d under 50. Another player I collect is Son Heung-min of Tottenham, who’s also the captain of the South Korean national team.
BP: What are your expectations of the MINT Collective?
HC: Extremely excited for this event. I normally don’t get excited for these kinds of events.. No show in the past in the card collecting industry has been able to hit all three components of the industry: Education, Networking, Trading,
They have standardized these three pillars and packed this agenda in three days. This is going to be revolutionary. MINT Collective is partnering with IMG, the best in the event industry. I’m highly interested in the Education piece. You have probably the top 1% of the industry leaders speaking, which provides an incredible networking opportunity. They’re not going to sit there and talk about themselves, they have topics that will be exclusive to the MINT Collective. You have someone like Josh Luber speaking about the future of the hobby, price, design, supply chain, all aspects that can impact the hobby. He’s going to be a key player and have him talk about his journey and what future he envisions. Using the knowledge he already has, it just can’t get any better than that.
BP: What can we expect from you and Women of the Hobby at the MINT Collective?
HC: I’ve been invited to speak on the topic of the community. Coming into the hobby, I had zero expectation of building out my network. I’ve made lifelong friends. When I get a DM on IG or Twitter, I’m willing to answer any question. In the last two-and-a-half years I’ve had a great experience meeting new people, individuals becoming mentors, and mentoring new people entering the hobby. I want to highlight the positive things and come with a few examples for that session. Also, to grow as a person and collector as well.
BP: What are your predictions for the hobby in 2022 and beyond?
HC: 2022 and beyond, we’re going to see a separation of regular collecting (true sense of memorabilia collecting aspect) and purely art (cards whose worth is in the millions of dollars). Base rookie cards such as the Luka Doncic rookie prizm will be for middle school and high school kids. Ultra high-end cards such as the Luka Doncic NT RPA that wouldn’t be attainable by the general hobbyist audience, will be in a museum.
Boardroom is a partner of The MINT Collective. You can purchase your tickets here.
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