Why We're Launching The Hobby Awards
Like many of you reading this, collecting has been an important part of my life since I was a kid. I grew up with two brothers in a sports-obsessed household, and whenever we had a few extra bucks from doing chores, we'd head down the street to a pharmacy-like shop that also sold candy, soda and some cards and pool our money to maximize the haul.
I'm reminded of the Andy Bernard quote, 'I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them,' though my version might be 'I wish there was a way to know you were in the junk wax era before spending all your cash on Upper Deck Behind the Glass.' (A PSA 8 MJ trades for less than $100 today.)
We all have our collecting origin stories, and hopefully we all still feel at least a shred of that childhood joy when participating in this hobby.
I know, I know … collecting is a BIG business. There's money at stake. Collectors are at the mercy of corporate decisions, market dynamics, IP deals and manufacturing inconsistencies. Plenty of people try to take advantage of other collectors to make a quick buck.
It's not all perfect.
But it's still net-positive to our lives, right? The anticipation before ripping a pack, or excitement at a great pull or dollar-box find or big trade is still there, right? ... Right?
Look — this hobby could stand to do a bit more celebrating, don't you think? More focusing on the things we love about collecting, the people who make The Hobby more fun, the innovation and cool releases and HOLY S*** moments we all have following our passions.
That's what Mantel is all about (...from Day 1 we billed our community and app as a celebration of the objects people are most passionate about and the relationships we build through our hobbies), and that's why we wanted to launch an awards program to highlight the best of our hobby each year.
And we wanted to include this great community every step of the way.
The categories are still being cemented, but we'll give out awards for things like:
Best Auction House
Best Hobby Shop
Best Marketplace
Best Collectible Show
Digital Product of the Year
Best Custom Art Card Artist
Best Breaking Platform
Best Live Stream Sellers
Creator/Influencer of the Year
Collectibles Exec of the Year
Grading Company of the Year
Innovation of the Year
Best Sports Card Product
Best Sold Memorabilia Item
Best Non-Sports Card Product
Best Media Platform (site, newsletter, podcast)
The collecting community will be able to vote on all of the categories, with the collector vote making up 70% of the weighted vote total. The remaining 30% will come from votes from our judging panel, and I'm so excited by the crew that agreed to participate, including:
Alexis Ohanian (founder, 776; co-founder, Reddit), Brent Montgomery (CEO, Wheelhouse; executive producer, King of Collectibles), Ryan Spoon (president, Yahoo Media Group), Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO/chairman, VaynerX; creator, VeeFriends), Josh Luber (founder, ghostwrite), Darren Rovell (founder, cllct), Scott 'DJ Skee' Keeney (founder, TheRealest), Geoff Wilson (founder, Sports Card Investor, CardsHQ), Michael Osacky (expert sports memorabilia appraiser), Morgan Jon Fox (award-winning director, The Hobby), Alex Giaimo (sports and collectibles host), Annemarie Farrell (journalist and @Women.on.Topps), Frank Hrelja (creator and co-founder, Trove), Mat Sposta (co-founder, Chck.AI and Trove), investor, creator and collector Buster Scher, Suzy Lulgjuraj (journalist and marketer), Jay Moslehi (founder, MojoSports LLC), Sarina Morales (senior media director, WeTheHobby) and more.
The website is live, and we'll be sharing updates about final categories, nominations and the start of voting there, as well as on the Mantel app and on Yahoo Sports. We are ironing out plenty of details, but it was important for us to tell the community about The Hobby Awards before so many of us hit The National this week in Rosemont, so we could talk openly about our plans, solicit feedback, and rally support for the program.
If you see me walking the halls at The National, stop me and let me know what you think. And if you aren't going to be there, drop us a line over on Mantel. We want the whole community to feel part of The Hobby Awards from Day 1.
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