Collector Brian Pirrip’s quest includes ripping packs, sharing stories as he travels the country spreading hobby joy
Brian Pirrip never intended to become a hobby ambassador. But the longtime collector is a man of the people, and he’s shown that in various ways in the last few years.
Between handing out packs to anyone and everyone around the country to starting a company that specializes in state-of-the-art hobby cases, Pirrip is well entrenched in the industry.
Pirrip’s background is in entertainment. He’s been a music producer and television producer; he was Mr. Hollywood, Calif.
“I was living in West Hollywood during the pandemic, but I was doing a television show with China at the time that dealt with tourism and I had a little tourism company as well,” Pirrip said. “So, the worst possible business you can be in during the beginning of the pandemic is television tourism in China. The worst. There was that moment I was like, ‘Well, that’s the end of that.’”
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It was onto Plan B. However, there wasn’t a second option for Pirrip. That’s until he mentioned to some of his buddies that he’s been collecting cards since he was a kid and doing it very seriously for the last 15 years. It has always bugged Pirrip that there aren’t any high-grade displays or protection for ungraded and graded cards in his collection.
“If I have a $30,000 card, I hate that it’s in a 99 cent piece of plastic that is the same plastic a $1 card comes in,” Pirrip said. “I was like, ‘I want to be able to display it on my wall and I want to make sure there’s no fading of autos because of UV.’”
Pirrip and his buddies thought, why aren’t we tackling this hobby issue? It wasn’t long before Pirrip founded the company M1NT. After hiring an industrial designer and mechanical engineering firm and investing millions of dollars and three years into the project, M1NT hobby cases were born.
HITTING THE OPEN ROAD
The first week after starting up M1NT, one of Pirrip’s employees had a grand idea. He wanted to get Pirrip on camera and ask him about one of his favorite cards of all time—the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco.
“He posted it on TikTok, and the next morning it had like 37,000 views,” Pirrip said. “The next day, I posted a video about Griffey Jr., just a short clip, about what I thought about his cards, and 100,000 people watched it. All of a sudden, it was like, ‘Woah, there’s something here.’”
Feedback from viewers was overwhelming. Pirrip discovered that he thinks about cards the same way his followers do. It’s not about flipping and making a quick buck. It’s about collecting and enjoying the hobby.
While sitting around at the start of the pandemic, Pirrip told some friends he was going to buy a box of 1993 Upper Deck SP Baseball and drive around the country. He planned on opening packs in a myriad of different places, searching for Derek Jeter’s rookie card.
Pirrip also picked up a box of 2018 Bowman Chrome to find a Shohei Ohtani rookie card and a box of 2011 Topps Update to get Mike Trout’s rookie. Pirrip called it The Quest: trying to find those three specific cards.
Pirrip and his camera guy, Sam Norcutt, drove from Los Angeles to Key West, Fla., to New York, cutting across the country. The journey started in October 2021 and lasted four months, spanning 30 states.
On Day 1 of the adventure, Pirrip went paragliding over Malibu, all while ripping packs of 2011 Topps Update.
“We thought it would be fun to go on these adventures and rip packs,” Pirrip said. “So, two days later, I’m in Phoenix, Ariz., racing cars—we were drifting out in the desert, ripping packs. I’ve got a GoPro on my chest while I’m ripping packs. We go over to Mark Grace’s house, my favorite baseball player when I was a kid, and we’re ripping packs, looking for his rookie card. We just kept doing these adventures.”
There were also stops at the Everglades to rip packs near the alligators, snorkeling in Key West, and visiting the Washington Monument. Pirrip was hitting all the big tourist attractions and making sure local card shops were on the itinerary as well.
Pirrip and his ripping companions ended up finding all three cards in the Quest.
“But in the process, what we discovered is that it wasn’t about the cards. It was about the human interactions and the stories about them,” Pirrip said.
A prime example happened when Pirrip and Norcutt were driving through Pennsylvania when a follower sent Pirrip a direct message. A guy named Joe wanted to rip a pack of 1989 Upper Deck with Pirrip.
“He said, ‘I’ve been following your journey. I’d do anything to rip that pack,’” Pirrip said. “I had about 10 packs of ’89 Upper Deck in the car with me. And I thought, this guy’s from Jonestown, Tenn., that’s so far out of the way, it would add eight hours to our trip. ... My camera guy, Sam, and I drove to Jonestown, Tenn., and this salt-of-the-earth guy pulls up in his tow truck, and he gets out and he’s like shaking. He’s so excited to meet me, and he has a little bag of presents for me.”
The two got to talking about Joe’s collection and he told Pirrip he had been deep into drugs and alcohol the previous year. Joe said he started watching Pirrip’s videos of him opening packs around the country and it brought him back to his childhood. He turned all his OCD habits he had for drugs and alcohol and directed them toward collecting.
Joe told Pirrip: “You have actually helped me get off drugs and alcohol.”
Pirrip asked him about his favorite cards of all time. Joe quickly responded: 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr., the 1991 Upper Deck Michael Jordan baseball card, and Nolan Ryan’s 1968 Topps rookie.
Pirrip and Joe ripped the remaining packs of 1989 Upper Deck but came up empty on a Griffey. Pirrip went to his car where he had his cards from his PC and grabbed a Griffey and Jordan and handed them to Joe.
“This grown man, 46, 47 years old, breaks down, starts crying, and gives me this big hug,” Pirrip said. “He tells me I have no idea how I’ve impacted his life. Me and Sam, we get in the car and we start driving again. We just were overcome. It took us like a half hour, an hour before we could start talking to each other again. And we’re like, ‘What just happened?’ We had this total revelation of, this is way more than about cards. This isn’t just about values of cards and flipping cards. There’s something greater about collecting that bridges different cultures, that bridges different demographics of every kind, every age, from little kids to great-great-grandfathers to every possible race, ethnicity, you name it. As soon as people start talking about cards, it transcends something and it’s hard to describe quite what that is.”
JUNK WAX QUEST
Once Pirrip and friends found the Jeter, Ohtani and Trout cards, the initial Quest was complete. It ended up costing $30,000 in product to find those cards. Pirrip bought three boxes of 1993 SP and two boxes each of 2018 Bowman Chrome and 2011 Topps Update.
“I had the time of my life,” he said. “I met the most incredible people on the journey.”
One year after the first Quest, Pirrip was at Jeter’s house and played him the video of him searching for his rookie card. Pirrip said Jeter cracked a big smile.
Asking for requests for cards for the next Quest, Pirrip picked the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas, 1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr., 1990 Score Baseball Bo Jackson, 1988 Topps Football Jackson, and 1990 Hoops David Robinson. Pirrip dubbed it the Junk Wax Quest.
For this Quest, Pirrip stopped at shops in California. He was picking up some junk wax era packs for 50 cents and ripping them with customers and shop staffers.
“What I discovered is the viewership of people watching this for the junk wax just went through the roof,” Pirrip said. “Our viewership just went crazy. We’re like, ‘Wow. OK, so it’s not just about the fancy cards. People really resonate with the memories.’ It’s more about the memories for them. So, we started chasing what we thought were the special cards: the ’84 Topps Don Mattingly. We’re ripping that with Nestor Cortes at his house in New York. And, we’re starting to do some cooler things. But at the core of it, it’s the cards that matter to people. It’s not about the price. It’s about what are the cards that matter to people, what are their memories.”
One card on the Quest that has proved elusive is the 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn. Pirrip had opened three boxes and had yet to find a Gwynn as of mid-March.
“I made a policy early on, if you rip, you get to keep the cards inside, no matter what,” Pirrip said.
At every card shop Pirrip stops in, he always chats with staffers and customers. He always asks one important question: What is your favorite card of all time? The most common response? The 1953 Bowman Color Pee Wee Reese.
During a Zoom interview with Pirrip, I was asked, “What is your favorite card of all time?” That’s easy, the 1985 Donruss Kirby Puckett.
Hearing that, Pirrip arose from his chair and grabbed a half full box of 1985 Donruss from his office shelf. “This pack is yours,” Pirrip told the writer.
With Pirrip holding each card up to the screen, just six cards into the pack he pulled a Puckett. Amazing. That’s what it’s all about for Pirrip.
“It’s just a chance to have fun with people, let people see packs that they might not be able to find or open themselves and make them feel like they’re part of the journey,” Pirrip said. “Have them tell the story of when their dad bought them that card back in ’89 or whatever. It’s been a joy of this crazy brotherhood from all over the world.”
M1NT BUSINESS
Pirrip designed two types of M1NT cases: regular plastic hobby cases and the M1NT Case G1.
The G1 case, which is made out of stainless steel and glass, are state-of-the-art protection. Along with giving a card its new home, the G1 allows for laser etching of the card details on the side of the case.
“This is a game-changer,” Pirrip said. “I’ve also built like a computer chip on the inside, so there’s an NFC tag, so this kills counterfeiting. You cannot counterfeit one of these. We stuck all the details on the NFC chip, so that you can actually scan it with your phone and watch videos of the moment you pulled the card or whoever pulled the card or highlights of the player. Anything that you can put on from a technology standpoint, you can embed onto the chip. But, more importantly, it’s just this fully UV-protected case. It feels really heavy in the hand; it’s a little heavier than an iPhone.”
The G1 cases are yet to reach the general public. Pirrip had 2,500 made and sold them to his loyal followers on his social media channels.
For every $25 G1 case sold, Pirrip stuck a free card—ranging from $1 to $10,000—in the case. In the sweepstakes, he included all eight Mickey Mantle cards he owns, with his 1957 Topps being the grand prize.
The 2,500 G1 cases sold out in a matter of just three days. Pirrip thought it could take a couple months to sell out. Dubbed the Mickey Mantle Hobby Case Quest, shipments went out all around the world, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
“I wanted to get as many of our cases into peoples’ hands as possible,” Pirrip said. “I’m not making money on this, I’m breaking even. But at the same time I’m having a blast, because I’m getting hundreds of DMs and thousands of comments on all my different channels of like, ‘I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. auto.’ Or, ‘I found your 1-out of-25 Julio Rodriguez refractor.’ People all over the world have been writing me and saying, ‘I cannot believe you put a Jackson Chourio auto refractor into a hobby case I spent $25 on.’”
This Quest and giving away his cards is just another way Pirrip connects with the hobby and puts a smile on collectors’ faces.
“I became this sort of niche person, so I’ve become kind of an ambassador face of the hobby, unintentionally through the process,” Pirrip said. “But this is entirely me. This is how I am. This is my real personality. I don’t play a character on the videos, that is actually my personality.”
The G1, which can be used for raw and graded cards, will be available to the general public in May. That will kick off the next Quest. That will include two of Pirrip’s favorite cards of his personal collection: a Shohei Ohtani 2018 Bowman Chrome Atomic Refractor Auto numbered to 100 in a BGS 9.5 and an Aaron Judge 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick Autograph Black Refractor numbered to 35.
Pirrip has also reconnected with his Tennessee friend, Joe. The two met four years ago, and he is still Pirrip’s most loyal fan. Pirrip bought Joe a plane ticket to the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill. in July, giving him $1,000 and allowing him to conduct his own Quest around the showroom floor in search of his ultimate card, Ryan’s 1968 Topps rookie card.
“Everyone’s feeling good vibes,” Pirrip said.
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