News
MLB star, avid card collector Bobby Witt Jr. excited to join hobby as investor in CollX app
A lifelong card collector, MLB superstar Bobby Witt Jr. is getting more entrenched in the hobby each day.
During a Series A financing round for the hobby app CollX, the Kansas City Royals shortstop joined as an investor. CollX, which has three million users, is a free app for iOS and Android that gives any collector a way to scan, identify and value trading cards in seconds.
Witt, who will also be an advisor and ambassador for CollX, jumped at the chance to invest in a valuable resource in the space.
“I’ve always been a collector since I was a kid, and got even more involved once my 1st Bowman card hit the market in 2020,” Witt told SCD in an email interview. “I’ve been buying, selling and trading for years and have started working the hobby into my portfolio of brand partners and investments. I was most interested in investing in CollX once I started to use the app with my own collection. I had heard about the app and followed them on Instagram, but once I started scanning my cards, I knew that it was a product that I could support.”
You Also Might Like:
CollX co-founder and CEO Ted Mann is elated to bring Witt into the mix and have him become a face of the three-year-old company.
“Since we started, everyone’s always asked, ‘When are you going to get any athletes as investors?’” Mann said. “My answer had always been, ‘If we can find the right one, I’d love to do it.’ But I didn’t want to just get a celebrity or a name that didn’t really know the hobby, didn’t really know cards. Bobby’s reputation, he is super passionate about cards. They’re like thoroughly in his DNA. He’s an avid collector and he had been using the app, and I’d gotten word of that. I got really excited about it and just said, I’d love to get him involved. … He couldn’t be a more perfect investor and spokesperson for the app.”
WITT’S ROLE
After leading the Royals to the playoffs last year, Witt is coming off a banner year, winning the AL batting title with a .332 average and league-high 211 hits. With 32 home runs and 109 RBI, he was runnerup to Aaron Judge for AL MVP.
He is still working on logistics with the CollX team to figure out what exactly his role will look like with the company.
“We’ve kicked around a whole bunch of ideas, everything from showcasing his collection in the app, which we have a couple things we want to do first before I kind of put that out. That’s obviously one easy kind of layup,” Mann said. “But we also are planning to do content and stuff with him. We’ve been doing lots of giveaways on our own channels as well as on Whatnot and Fanatics Live, and I expect that we’ll do some of those with him.
“I think we’re going to try and do some stuff with him at spring training and as much time he affords during the season. I think it’s mostly just helping get the word out to young, new collectors, people who are getting right back into the hobby, how it all works and helping tell our story hopefully with a slightly larger megaphone like a guy like him has.”
With over 15,000 followers on his Instagram account, @bdubs.cards, Witt has a good footprint in the hobby already.
And being an experienced collector will definitely be advantageous for Witt and CollX’s.
“As an active player, hopefully I can bring a unique perspective to the CollX team that they may not have access to normally,” Witt said. “I hope that I can use my network and some of the opportunities that are on my plate to introduce CollX to new people and new markets.”
When baseball is in its offseason, there’s a possibility that Witt will attend some card shows and events on behalf of CollX.
“I have a great team around me and some great partners across the industry,” Witt said. “So, just hoping that I can use my influence and network to grow the brand any way that we can. The fun part of the offseason is I can spend more time collecting. This offseason we started to grow my hobby account, and I made some trades with fans in the DMs. Now, we’ll continue to build the collection within the CollX app.”
Witt backing CollX is the latest in a string of well-known athletes who are dabbling in the sports card hobby. Recently, Tom Brady became a 50 percent owner of the card shops CardVault, and Derek Jeter is an owner in the grading company Arena Club.
“I think it’s great for the hobby,” Witt said. “For a long time, you didn’t really see the players themselves engage with the hobby. That’s something that I started doing early and it’s fun seeing other active guys get involved like Mike Trout, Josh Jung, my teammate MJ Melendez, and other guys around the league.”
WITT’S COLLECTION
Witt has always been a big collector, and he’s a fan of all sports.
“My mantra on the field is ‘Simple,’” and I’m a pretty simple guy off the field. So, cards and memorabilia are the perfect hobby for me to spend time but stay low-key,” Witt said. “After games, I’m usually either signing cards or shopping for cards online. It’s a great way to unwind and use what I know and love the best, which is sports and baseball.”
Witt, who is entering his fourth season in the big leagues, has a vast personal collection. He owns a lot of cards of himself, along with his dad, Bobby Witt Sr., who played 16 MLB seasons.
“I also collect a lot of football,” Witt said. “I started collecting more Patrick Mahomes last year. I traded a few fans in my DMs on my hobby account to grow my Mahomes collection. I keep the DMs open for anyone who wants to offer a trade.
“Speaking of trades, I’ve traded some of my own game-used equipment to get some of the cards I was chasing. That’s been pretty fun for me. I also have been working on getting the rainbow from my Topps Update rookie card. I have posted updates a couple times on Instagram.
“Hopefully, people have had fun following along. But I have to be careful now because people are starting to realize what I am missing and offering me big numbers on those.”
