‘The Hobby’ (2024) Review – Nostalgia Means Business In First-Hand Look At The Art Of Trading Card Collecting

Collecting cards seems like a childhood pastime: fun and little effort. Unwrap the paper package and behold a trading card of a famous baseball or football player. It’s all fun and game until it becomes a serious business. The world of trading card collecting is eccentric and sometimes mercurial. In the documentary The Hobby, director Morgan Jon Fox gives audiences a first-hand account of the vast world of card collecting. For many, what might initially be a youthful hobby or even an on-and-off pastime in adulthood is a way of life. The film explores the industry’s history and insight into the mindset that goes into buying and investing in trading cards.

First, as a nontrading card collector, there is an intense fascination with collecting, which is almost an art form. This is called a hobby, but it is far from something so pedestrian. It is a high stake and a full-time business for collectors. The stakes for collecting can be dangerously high. Shopping centers became almost a war zone as people searched for the latest fill-in-the-blank trading card. Be it Pokémon or something more elusive, serious collectors’ goal was to catch or collect them all. Trading cards have gone beyond the early days of baseball players like Mickey Mantle. Now, even Kim Kardashian is on a trading card. 

And people will pay top dollar. In some cases, like a rare mint condition Mickey Mantle card from 1952 will go for $12.6 million. This art of collecting is far from being a cottage industry. This is a serious business where collecting is more like acquiring an asset for one’s investment portfolio. 

The Hobby profiles several essential trading card aficionados, like ace Pokémon collector Dani Sanchez, also known on YouTube as SuperDuperDani. Entrepreneur Josh Luber’s company, StockX, acquired Topps – the world’s largest trading card company. All these individuals, from the YouTube personality to the businessperson, showcase how eclectic the trading card industry has become over the years. The history of the sector is at the center of the film. Director Fox weaves interesting factoids throughout the piece to gauge the interest of those less acclimated to the history. 

A fun little fact to share at parties is how trading cards were once wrapped in tobacco. Later on, it became the famous bubblegum cards. Finally, the modern-day wrapping that has continued to the present day. Notably, one of the first trading cards did not feature an athlete but the 16th President of the United States. The documentary dispels the idea that trading cards are a recent phenomenon.

The industry has undergone a paradigm shift. People use card profits to buy engagement rings and make even more significant investments. The days of trading cards with one’s friends seem quaint but antiquated. This is a full-time job for some collectors, such as Rob Barris, who owns Burbank Sports Cards and is the self-described Cardfather. 

There is an awareness of the industry by these current purveyors of card collecting. The people at the top of the collecting world were children of the 80s and 90s. The people at the forefront of collecting today are aware of the mistakes made in the past. Because they grew up appreciating and seeing these cards as more than just items to collect, they can breathe new life into and sustain this hobby.

The heart of The Hobby details how the pandemic unearthed a newfound craze and interest in trading cards. In the 2020s, the simple hobby went big leagues, showcasing how the value of a card is determined by scarcity, condition, and, ultimately, value. The film notes that while a card can be rare, or “one of one,” if people are not lining up to snatch it, the rare card is, in effect, worthless. 

A theme running throughout the documentary is nostalgia. For that fact, other than profit, it is the driving force of all collectors. Today, collecting is both an art form and a lucrative business. A simple card can go for a minimum of $100,000, which is more than a pretty penny for what some might call a silly hobby. Talk about a far cry from the Pokemon trading card wars that defined school playgrounds in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Ultimately, The Hobby taps into that primal feeling racing through the media and in entertainment today: nostalgia. It is a powerful tool for motivation and, in the case of trading cards, a solid investment strategy. Still, there is an earnestness even in the gold-cased trading card. People trade, collect, and buy, all for that same nostalgic feeling they had on the playground or when they were younger. It makes them feel like kids at heart. There is no shame in that at all. 

The Hobby is currently available on TVOD courtesy of Documentary+. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKJEizLfsC8]