A while back, my parents dumped a bunch of my childhood stuff on me.
Random schoolwork, yearbooks, an old CD case — and what’s left of my once-proud sports card collection.
The maroon binder still bears some sweet baseball clip-art on the front and a few dozen cards inside. A couple Chipper Jones rookie cards. Andruw, too. And on the basketball side, an unusually large collection of Alan Henderson cards (remember that guy?).
Nothing particularly valuable, best I can tell. Very Atlanta-centric. I was never out there hunting for singles.
But man … the nostalgia.
Quick links: Hawks comes up short | UGA close to Madness | Tech wins again | State hoops finals begin
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
For plenty of folks, of course, collecting cards is about a lot more than memories.
It’s juuust a tad more than a hobby, too.
And as AJC entertainment reporter extraordinaire Rodney Ho recently reported, you can find Exhibit A inside a former Pier One Imports near Cumberland Mall. That’s where a guy named Geoff Wilson opened a store called CardsHQ just about a year ago.
And business? Well, business is good.
👀 Pulling in $15 million, expanding the staff to 80 people good.
“This is fire!” rapper Waka Flocka Flame said during a recent visit (really!). “It’s like a nightclub for trading cards. All that’s missing are hookahs and bartenders.”
Consider those … unlikely additions. But there are couches and bleachers and tables for customers to “rip” boxes they just bought, plus special events (John Smoltz recently attended one) and “trade nights” that draw hundreds of people.
Plenty of non-sports stuff (Pokemon, for example), too. It’s wild.
👀 A few more eye-popping stats from Rodney’s story:
- About one-third of the cards CardsHQ posts online are sold within 24 hours.
- On any given day, employees box and ship between 1,000 and 1,500 packages.
Wilson and crew are seizing on a resurgence fueled partly by bored pandemic-era grown-ups with disposable income. Fanatics, which bought Topps sports cards a few years back, says its revenue has grown 60% since 2021.
“There were a lot of skeptics,” Wilson said. “My favorite was that our store would be turned into a Spirit Halloween by October.”
It wasn’t, of course — and probably won’t be anytime soon.
But I’m gonna make you read the full story for the reasons the CardsHQ squad is bullish on all this being more than a bubble … and ask for some feedback in the meantime!
Do you collect? What’s the favorite card you’ve ever had, past or present? What’s the story behind it?
Shoot me an email at tyler.estep@ajc.com and perhaps we’ll share with the rest of the class in a future newsletter.
READY TO DANCE?
Credit: Scott Kinser/AP
Credit: Scott Kinser/AP
They’ve done it. They’ve actually done it. Probably.
Another win in Saturday’s season finale against Vanderbilt (or during next week’s SEC Tournament) wouldn’t hurt, but Georgia basketball’s gritty 73-64 road victory over South Carolina pushed the Bulldogs’ record to 19-11 — and has some bracketologists declaring them made for March Madness.
📈 Even before the win, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi deemed them in the best position of all SEC bubble teams. And the four-letter network’s super official projection thing gives Georgia a 69% chance to make the field.
It would be the team’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2015.
“If you see him, hold him to it,” head coach Mike White said of Lunardi. “We just can’t worry about that stuff.”
📺 The UGA women get their turn on the court later today, taking on Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. Watch at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network.
TRIVIA TIME
Who was the Bulldogs' leading scorer the last time UGA men’s basketball made the NCAA Tournament?
Answer at bottom of newsletter.
MORE HOOPS
😬 With coach Quin Snyder out sick, the Hawks couldn’t quite pull off a win over the Bucks (thanks in part to calling a timeout they didn’t have). Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers dubbed our boy Dyson Daniels the best defensive guard in the league, though. So that’s nice.
🐝 Senior Lance Terry scored a career-high 31 points in his last game at McCamish Pavilion, powering Georgia Tech men’s hoops to a blowout victory over Miami. That makes seven wins in nine games for the Jackets, who close out the regular season at Wake Forest on Saturday.
CATCHING UP
In case you missed it: Our guys down in North Port checked in with catcher Sean Murphy following his latest injury — and with Drake Baldwin, the primo prospect shooting to fill his shin guards.
🗣️ Murphy, who’s expected to miss four to six weeks with a cracked rib: “Never broke a rib, we’ll see. I have no control over (the injury happening). I can be frustrated, but nothing to be frustrated at. Stuff happens.”
🗣️ Baldwin, who caught ace Chris Sale in yesterday’s Grapefruit League game: “I think I’d be comfortable up there and just learning all the pitchers, trying to do everything I can to build a relationship with them if it does happen. Just be as ready as I can for the moment.”
Veterans Chadwick Tromp, Sandy Leon and Curt Casali are also vying for a roster spot.
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
State high school basketball finals officially get underway this afternoon! Here’s today’s slate down in Macon, which you can watch on GPB:
🏀 1 p.m.: Private girls, Hebron Christian vs. Holy Innocents’
🏀 3 p.m.: Private boys, North Cobb Christian vs. Holy Innocents’
🏀 5 p.m.: Class 3A girls, Cherokee Bluff vs. Baldwin
🏀 7 p.m.: Class 3A boys, Sandy Creek vs. Cedar Grove
Sandy Creek’s shooting for a three-peat. And Holy Innocents’ is the school we told you about that’s making a run with McDonald’s All-Americans on both its boys and girls teams.
QUICK HITS
🤔 After skipping workouts at the NFL combine, top draft prospect Jalon Walker won’t show his stuff at UGA’s pro day next week either. He apparently has a thigh injury, though it’s not considered serious.
💪 Atlanta United defender Matt Edwards is feeling pretty good after his first two MLS starts.
🥳 Georgia State and Kennesaw State both started spring football practice this week. The vibes? Immaculate.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Georgia Tech kicked off spring practice Tuesday too, enjoying both indoor and outdoor workouts — and a little bit of inspiration from head coach Brent Key. (More photos here.)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
You really wanna be a competitor as opposed to a player. You wanna be somebody that seeks out the discomfort and the pain of preparation and doing the things that, necessarily, a normal person just doesn't wanna do.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of Sports Daily. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Oh, and the trivia answer: Marcus Thornton (12.3 points per game).
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