A Hobby Turned Side-Hustle, In The Days Of COVID (and beyond)

Covid seems so far away now, and yet, it’s effects are still apparent on a day to day basis. At least for me and my family. This is a reflection piece.

Back in those very early days of Covid, initial lock-down, we didn’t know what to expect. Didn’t think it would have the effect that it ultimately did. When it started to become serious, it because a very scary thing for me. You see, my daughter has pretty intense viral-induced asthma. Prior to covid, we just came off of a couple harrowing years where she spent numerous nights in the E.R. or at Children’s Hospital, including an entire Christmas day. It was always the common-cold that put her there. Coronaviruses. So when we started learning more about COVID-19, this became a very serious subject in my house.

Then my office (small local company) closed up it’s office space and we all went fully remote. The work-from-home time had begun and I had no idea how long it would last (it still is, but that’s a good thing). My work slowed down quite a bit, although we were neck-deep in helping clients with their own transitions and covid adaptations. I did, however, find a little extra free-time – mostly in my freed-up lack of commute time. And I was cooped up in the house with my younger daughters and wife, as we all were, and we needed to find ways of distracting ourselves and coming up with “covid hobbies.”

As a long time trading card collector, I turned to cards. Also as a fine-artist (who hadn’t done much for years but wanted to get back to art a bit) and graphic designer, I started combining these passions into a brand new form of art… card art. Or #CardArt. A now wide and diverse niche of card collecting, “card art” wasn’t a thing until really myself and a couple other artists started making art with, and out of, sports cards and putting our creations up on Instagram. At first, it was all just for fun. Then some people started taking notice and even started purchasing and commissioning pieces.

During this time, the covid-economy was crashing. Political turmoil was everywhere. Riots and insurrections were happening in real time. People were getting sick, people were dying, and we were still scared for my little girl. “Alternative investments” became a real thing especially during this time. Card and memorabilia collecting…no – “investing” – went absolutely crazy. As did cryptocurrencies, the rise of NFTs, and just about anything and everything else you can imagine that people could sink some money into instead of the teetering stock market and their who-knows-whats-going-to-happen bank accounts. Trading cards took off. Grading companies got slammed. People like me – late 30s to late 40s mostly – guys who collected cards as kids in the hey day of the junk-era ’80’s and ’90’s, started pulling out their old cards again. We had time on our hands, and stimulus checks in our pockets. Looking back, I should have bought more gold. Or Bitcoin.

Well, the #CardArt game was a lot of fun. I made art, which led to doing some print making with sports cards subject matter, and getting fully engrossed in the CardArt “community.” No need for air-quotes, it really was, and is, a community, and a really great one at that. After some time, I started really thinking about going another level and trying my hand at making my own legit trading cards. Professional design (I’m a graphic designer after all), professional printing. Limited editions. During this time, I didn’t realize that the brand and concept I started developing was happening simultaneously with another brand just coming on the scene – G.A.S. Trading Cards. I actually somehow didn’t know about them until after I concepted and dropped Heavy Trading Cards to the public, but quickly realized they also existed and we had a VERY similar idea. To the extend that I had already had some cards designed and planned that GAS had already done! The Tic-Tac comes to mind. As well as Satoshi, and Elon Musk cards. Maybe some day I’ll share my early versions of those.

Well, that became interesting, but also fun. As G.A.S. quickly grew in popularity, so did Heavy. Still dabbling in #CardArt, but I sunk virtually all my free-time into the newly hot and popular “alt-card” scene. G.A.S., Heavy, and a few others, were picking up major steam as alternative trading card brands, specifically with focuses on pop-culture topics, non-sports, tech and current events, things like that. Alt Cards blew up.

G.A.S. had their early struggles to deal with supply and demand. But they rocked out a quality product and continue to do so. With Heavy, I saw the issue with the model of “sell first, produce later” and made sure I produced and had product in hand before anything went out for sale. It worked tremendously. Many a G.A.S. collector headed my way and Heavy officially blew up. The first half of series 1 was bonkers. There were cards that sold out entirely in a matter of hours, less than an hour in one particular case. The Heavy community picked up steam, partially crossing over and in tandem with the G.A.S. community and others, and we all had a blast.

It was when a friend pointed out to me that Heavy Trading Cards were popping up – and selling – on eBay, in many cases for extraordinary sums of cash (at least, relative to the card market), that I knew this was a thing that I needed to take seriously. But deep down, I also knew it was a bubble. Like so many other things during that time – crypto/NFTs, other cards and collectibles, sneakers, even VHS tapes – and supporting markets such as collectibles grading companies and “influencer” supporters (top loader labels…these were huge!) – went nuts and it was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down again. But, I didn’t know that for sure, and it was other people who set and controlled the market; simple economics. Supply versus demand.

Eventually, vaccines. Eventually after that, the pandemic finally started to slow down and people started getting back to a previous reality. Crypto crashed – “Crypto Winter” as it’s called (it came back up, but that’s for a different day). Trading cards started to come way back down to Earth as well. I didn’t actually buy all that many high end cards during Covid, despite being a long term collector myself, because I knew the prices were hugely inflated. A Ken Griffey Jr. PSA 10 rookie that – before covid – was fetching about $800, all of a sudden was selling for $10k…$20k in some instances. That couldn’t last, I knew that.

And in the back of my mind, I knew the same thing for Heavy and the alt-card market. I knew I couldn’t quit my day job to focus on it. But for a while – a solid couple years – I worked my tail off to do as much as I could with Heavy Trading Cards. It was (and is) fun, and it was pretty solid extra cash. Of course, during that time I really felt the need to help support the community myself as well. I wasn’t reliant on Heavy Trading Cards income, but it certainly helped. It also allowed me to support other card artists, buy my own share of G.A.S. cards and other alt-card makers. I didn’t think my G.A.S. Elon Musk would continue to be hundreds of dollars in the future, but I wanted to support them and that community myself during that time, just as others were supporting me.

I’m immensely thankful for this time period in this way. Not only was I fulfilling a dream of actually designing my own trading cards, ones that other people actually bought and collected, but the friendships I made along the way are still going strong. I met people virtually, then later in real life, and developed bonds and true friendships that I consider to be the lasting legacy of the silver-lining of Covid-times. I even traveled (when it was safe) to meet some of these people, even going to a friend’s wedding! Getting to meet people in person after getting to know them so well online was so cool, and I really hold these friendships dear to this day. Ya’ll are good people.

Well, just as I figured, the popularity of Heavy and other parallel makers and markets started to wane. People got back to the real world and had less time and money to spare on dumb pieces of cardboard. I guarantee not nearly as many people are going nuts over graded sealed VHS these days (oh, but I so want to still!). And the same with Heavy Trading Cards. A lot of the novelty started to die, and even myself; I had to get back to the real world. I have a career and a family to support. Eventually I just could NOT keep going at the rate that I was previously. I tried for a while, and I pushed myself too hard.

It wasn’t just the juggling of Heavy, family and career. The mental strain of the COVID-19 pandemic in general, combined with internal family turmoil, politics, the loss of people, the crumbling of relationships, the not knowing if my company and career would survive, and the constant, nagging, anxiety over my daughter’s health and well-being absolutely ran me down. I’m still struggling and working through it to this day, and I now understand that I probably will to some degree for a long time to come still. That is why I’m writing this now. You see, internally I’ve gone around and around all the events in my life over the last 3-4 years, but this is the first time I’m really articulating it to myself, and committing it down to word for you. I think it’s a cog in the machinery of my healing and mental health journey.

I don’t plan to let Heavy Trading Cards die, just as I didn’t and don’t plan to let my self and some of my relationships and career die, but changes have had to be made. I’m planning and hoping to keep Heavy rockin’ along. It’s not going to be able to be the Heavy of old, but I’m excited to see how it’s going to evolve. I guess that’s a good parallel to life in general, and something I’m trying to embrace and allow more of.

Thanks for taking the time and giving me the space to work so much of this out. I hope to continue to provide great cards to those who want them through Heavy Trading Cards, and to enjoy that and life as much as possible in the process.

Signing off for now,
~ Beerded Brian