Tom Brady
Tom Brady ownership in CardVault shows NFL GOAT’s love for sports cards, hobby
Tom Brady is a big name in the sports collectibles hobby due to his accomplishments on the football field. Now, Brady is a big name in the hobby because he is a part owner of a large-scale business.
On Wednesday, CardVault, which runs three world-class hobby shops on the East Coast, announced that Brady had acquired a 50 percent stake in the company. With the shift in ownership, the company was renamed CardVault by Tom Brady. The date the deal was announced was 2/12 in honor of Brady’s jersey No. 12.
Brady, who won a record seven Super Bowls during his 23-year NFL career as quarterback of the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has been a lifelong collector.
“Sports collectibles and cards have been part of my DNA since childhood, and CardVault has set the gold standard for what a modern fan experience should be,” Brady said in a statement put out by the company. “This isn’t just about buying and selling cards; it’s about curating history, building community, turning fans into collectors and giving them access to own great moments in sports.”
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Chris Costa, one of the co-founders of CardVault by Tom Brady, noted bringing Brady into the ownership mix doesn’t just impact the business but also the entire hobby.
“We think Tom is an incredibly strategic partner for us for a lot of reasons,” Costa told SCD. “But as far as our ability to scale the company—which has always been our goal, and was our goal, is our goal and will continue to be our goal—we think with Tom coming on board, we’re able to do that at a much faster pace. That goal remains, get in and build CardVault in as many major markets as we possibly can across the country and internationally. The mission has and always will be converting fans into collectors.”
Costa feels as though CardVault by Tom Brady will be a supplemental component of the collecting ecosystem. And Brady will be a catalyst in helping shape collectors young and old, new and experienced.
“We see ourselves as not as a competitor to the local hobby shop, that is not what we are or what we’re trying to be,” Costa said. “We’re trying to be an entry point and a catalyst for collectors and new collectors and existing collectors, but really as an entry point and an opportunity for the hobby to get in front of as many eyes as possible. Then to create those collectors and nurture those collectors, which will then go shop at the local hobby shop.”
Brady is the latest high-profile former athlete who has entered the sports card and memorabilia industry in ownership roles. In 2022, New York Yankees great Derek Jeter was a founding partner of Arena Club, a sports cards grading company and marketplace.
Having big names who have stakes in the hobby says a lot about the current state of sports cards and memorabilia, noted Costa.
“I think it’s a vote of confidence for what we are, where we came from and where we’re going,” Costa said. “I think when it’s all said and done, if you think about trading cards, sports cards and collectibles, we’ve been around and people have been collecting for hundreds of years. The industry has never and had never been given the gasoline that it needed to propel itself into the mainstream. I think we’ve started to see that happen over the last five, maybe even 10 years where the gasoline that was needed in order to effectively make cards cool and make cards cool again has begun to be poured.
“I think we’re going to be a big accelerant to that to where you see celebrities collecting cards, you see athletes collecting cards. The social media age has allowed the fact that there are celebrities and athletes collecting and finding cards cool and the reactions they have when they pull a big card or find a big chase or the reactions the social media world has when somebody posts a million dollar card that they had sitting in their collection that nobody knew about.”
BUSY BRADY
Since retiring from the NFL after the 2022 season, Brady has kept quite busy. On Super Bowl Sunday, he wrapped up his first year as a television color commentator for NFL on FOX. Brady is also a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and partakes in a number of public appearances as an exclusive athlete for Fanatics.
With so many things on Brady’s plate, what type of role will he play with CardVault by Tom Brady?
“To be transparent and to be honest, we have grown a successful business,” Costa said. “Did we think Tom would be a really great partner and did we think Tom would be kind of that accelerant that I mentioned? Sure. But there was and would be no partnership if Tom wasn’t and wasn’t clearly going to be an active member of our partnership and part of the operating team. That’s been the coolest part of this entire process is how involved, how really dialed in and interested and how much input Tom has had already.
“Tom is 100 percent involved. Tom is 100 percent invested and excited about sports cards and collecting. He certainly thinks it’s a space that still has a ton of room to grow. He believes CardVault is a leader in the space, and he is 100 percent committed to participating in really everything we’re doing.
“If I had to guess, this is the business Tom has invested in that he will be most heavily involved in, just based off our conversations, our working together, our partnership and just his level of interest.”
That means Brady will be helping build CardVault by Tom Brady by attending events and making public appearances. When the National Sports Collectors Convention heads back to Chicago at the end of July, don’t be surprised if Brady is front and center in the company’s corporate booth.
“Not only will he be at our stores and not only will he participate at our stores when he’s in those markets or when we’re opening a new location, but he’ll absolutely participate and engage with our customers and our followers at marquee events around the country,” Costa said.
CONTINUING TO GROW
CardVault currently has three locations—all strategically placed near high-profile venues. The shops include Boston’s TD Garden, Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium, and at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
A fourth location is currently under construction at American Dream, which is next to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. That store is slated to open in early April.
There are plans in motion to build additional CardVault by Tom Brady shops in North America and potentially the United Kingdom and Europe.
“We have a number of other locations in major markets near flagship locations around the country,” Costa said. “We’re not announcing those yet, but they’re in the works. You’re going to see CardVaults spanning America by the end of this year.”
