The sports memorabilia industry is filled with valuable assets featuring many of the greatest players in history, and the star quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs is at the forefront of many deals.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Arena Club co-founder Derek Jeter, co-founder/CEO Jesse Glass, and CTO Vartul Agrawal about the business’s continued growth and Patrick Mahomes’ card value.
“I first met Brian Lee in 2014, right after I retired at an event in Las Vegas and (I knew of) his success as an entrepreneur,” said Jeter. “We reconnected years later, and he told me about Arena Club.”
Jeter’s interest in sports memorabilia was helpful as it further expounded on the importance of value for current and former athletes.
“It all started with my co-founder and CEO, Brian (Lee), and wanting to do a better job than what’s currently happening in the hobby, especially with grading and marketplaces,” said Glass. “We felt that with AI and the advent of technology, grading should be cheaper, transparent, and more accessible to more people, which led us to start the grading part of Arena Club.”
Arena Club’s mission is to eliminate the confinement of collector communities to four walls. Instead of hiding your cards in shoe boxes in a closet, you can share and display them in a personal online showroom or on your mobile device.
“Security is very important to us because, in the end, it’s good that people are collecting, which has a lot of value to it, So it would help if you authenticated it. So there are different security aspects,” said Agrawal. “So if you show me the card, like, if you see the label, there are various security aspects to the label itself, so people cannot fake it; that’s what ensures the authenticity of the physical card itself.
Powered by advanced machines, Arena Club’s grading process is accurate, fast, and transparent. Your card is provided with a full grade rationale and an explanation of how it was scored. One of the highest-valued athlete cards of choice has been Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“People love Patrick Mahomes cards; he’s like the gold standard,” Glass explained. “I know we have for our Slack packs; we always have grail cards at the top that attract people to like; it’s the hardest one to get. And so we’ve used Patrick Mahomes a lot. It’s a tried and true bellwether player. Everyone loves him. There’s no debate. So he’s definitely the GOAT when it comes to current NFL players.”
Arena Club now features Slab Packs, virtual packs of real pre-graded cards that you can purchase and open. Packs are revealed digitally and the cards are put in your showroom immediately. You can sell, trade, or retrieve the physical slab from there.
For more information on Arena Club, please log on to their website.
