Cards Are a Conduit to Connection

Today we wrapped up a brief interview with the Manayunk Development Corp on in-person connection. What gets people off their phones and into the same room?

It got me thinking about what we see in the shop every day. For us, the answer keeps coming back to cards as a connection to our customers. Every week, I learn something new about someone that I've just met, simply by asking them ‘hey, why do you collect that?’

The card that closed the deal

We sat across from an executive who closes million dollar deals for a living. Big numbers, a guy who clearly knows how to win a room, and what did he want from us?

A Concrete Charlie card.

A framed Chuck Bednarik, for a client. He told us a card had already helped him close a deal once, and he wanted to do it again.

Why it worked

A card is never really just a card. It's a moment in time, a feeling, something that brings you back in time or grounds you in the present.

In Philly, Bednarik isn't just a Hall of Famer. He's the last of the 60 minute men, the guy who played both ways and won a title for this city. Hand a Philadelphian that card and you're not talking business anymore. You're talking about the Eagles, their grandfather, where they grew up.

A card gave two people something real to talk about that has nothing to do with the deal, and that's usually what closes it.

Everyone collects something

I started with cards, mall shows with my pops in Springfield Mall, but collecting was never really about cardboard. People collect sneakers (ME), records, vintage clothes, watches, comics. The item might change but what it does for people doesn't.

Every collection is a shared language. Two strangers with nothing in common find out they both idolize the same thing, and suddenly they have plenty to talk about. The record collector at the flea market, the sneakerhead in line on release day, the kid with a binder at trade night.

They're all doing the same thing: finding their people, whether that's on an online forum, at an in-person show, or even during a live selling show. Half the value of a collection is the people attached to it.

Trade night at Love City

We hosted our last trade night at Love City Brewery, and we didn't want it to be a room full of people guarding their binders. So we made it a game. Every completed trade got logged on a trade card, and turned in trade cards earned prizes.

The more you traded, the more you won, and it worked. People who came alone were flipping through strangers' binders within minutes. From Pokemon to soccer and sports.

Two kids who never would have met ended up making a trade. Different schools, nothing connecting them really except common interests in the Pokemon cards in front of them. They compared cards, had fun over their favorites, worked out a trade, filled out their trade card, and kept going. By the end of the night they weren't strangers anymore.

We're a card shop, and our best moment of the night had nothing to do with the cards. I think that's the point.

TheBreakBox isn't just a place to rip packs. It's a space built around a shared interest. Take a break and connect with us and other collectors in the room.

Come find your people

In-person connection doesn't happen by accident. It needs a place and a reason. We want to be a spot in Manayunk where that happens.

Stop by 4374 Main Street, come check us out!