The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Durant, Cuban among those joining card craze
Ken Goldin has made millions selling the sports trading cards of Mike Trout, Michael Jordan and Patrick Mahomes. Now he’s lined up an even bigger score: his company.
The sports-memorabilia mogul is selling a majority stake in Goldin Auctions, an 8-year-old shop dedicated to auctioning off collectibles — and trading cards in particular — to the Chernin Group, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Chernin leads a blockbuster group of investors, including basketball star Kevin Durant, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, YouTube star Logan Paul and podcaster Bill Simmons.
The group is investing $40 million in Goldin Auctions to help the company become the dominant player in the booming market for sports-trading cards. Sales of such items have soared to new heights in the past couple of years, and Goldin’s firm has emerged as the leading auction house — the Sotheby’s of sports, if you will.
It generated more auction sales in January — $36 million — than it did in all of 2019, when it made $27 million. For the full year, Goldin is on pace for more than $200 million in sales, doubling its record take from a year earlier.
“We have something the hobby has never had before,” Goldin said an interview.“All of a sudden, we’re cool. We’re part of pop culture.”
A flood of wealthy people seeking alternate investments, ranging from bitcoin to song catalogues, has descended on sports collectibles. Many of these people were raised during the first trading card boom in the 1980s. Only this time, the market has benefited from growing interest in contemporary players and new sports.
“The younger generation doesn’t want to invest like the previous one. They don’t want to just diversify across mutual funds.”
Baseball used to dominate the industry, but now basketball has outstripped it as the most popular sport for cards. Football and tennis are growing as well. In a recent auction, Goldin set new highs for Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic, Lou Gehrig, Stephen Curry and Anthony Davis. He sold a Jordan rookie card for $738,000, and got $861,000 for a signed Mahomes rookie — the most expensive football card ever sold.
Many of these athletes now call Goldin for advice on how to collect cards.