Pulse Trading Cards enters hobby with autograph-heavy sets, cheaper options for collectors
When Covid ended his event ticketing business, Nathan Zalta resorted back to his childhood to hatch his next entrepreneurial venture.
Seeing that trading cards were regaining popularity in a big way, Zalta started buying cards raw, getting them graded and flipping them.
With a background in the sports and entertainment space, Zalta had the idea to manufacture trading cards. So, near the end of 2023, Pulse Trading Cards was founded. The company released its first baseball and football products in 2024.
“I’ve always been a collector, so I kind of felt like the hobby needed a fresh alternative that was collector friendly and focused. We built Pulse with that in mind,” said Zalta, the company’s founder and CEO. “We feature a lot of cool, unique designs and it’s all about value to the end collector.”
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Zalta is also CEO of NRZ Entertainment, a ticket distribution company for pro sports teams, and CEO of Pro Athletes Direct, a sports marketing and fan engagement company. He also owns several card shops in New Jersey.
“We’re really focused on the collector first,” he said. “From my background in the sports and entertainment space, partnering with all these 100 teams, we’ve worked with tons of sports agents in the past. So, it was fairly easy to transition because we have all these contacts.”
Since Fanatics has an exclusive license to produce MLB cards and Panini has an exclusive license to produce NFL cards—until Fanatics takes over that license on April 1, 2026—Pulse Trading Cards is limited to putting out unlicensed products.
Pulse has the same restrictions for its cards as other unlicensed companies like Leaf, Onyx and Wild Card, where it can’t use team logos or team names. But Zalta isn’t trying to compete against any other card manufacturers.
“We’re trying to build something different,” he said. “We’re trying to push the hobby forward and do things that are a little bit more innovative. We’re just relatively new, but we have the freedom to create things that collectors are really going to love. The themes in our sets we’re coming out with, the new sets are Meridian, we’re doing Foundry, and each set will really have a theme. All of the inserts in there are based on that theme. We’re going to tell a story with every one of our sets.
“The demand for the trading card market is at an all-time high. Topps and Panini can’t meet the demand, so it kind of opened the door for somebody who is innovative like we are with collectors in mind. That’s really where we see ourselves.”
AUTOGRAPHS GALORE
Zalta is trying to set his company apart from the others by offering collectors on-card autographs as frequently as possible.
Pulse has inked autograph deals with over 500 current and former athletes—some of whom are the biggest names in their sport.
For baseball, Paul Skenes and No. 1 overall prospect Roman Anthony are two of the corner pieces for Pulse.
For football, the top two picks from the 2025 NFL Draft, Cam Ward and Travis Hunter, are under contract. Pulse also has Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Dan Marino signing for its products.
“I think using the background we had in the sports industry really helped, combined with our collector mentality to create Pulse,” Zalta said.
Those A-list athletes vault Pulse into the conversation as a major player in the autographed card realm.
“We’re able to put out a better value product than some of our competitors because, obviously, we don’t have the team licenses we have to pay for, the PA licenses we have to pay for,” Zalta said. “Because we don’t have to pay all those royalties, we kind of give that back to collectors with a better, strong autograph checklist, much less fluff. I think for us, focusing on that checklist is everything.”
Pulse, which is headquartered in Neptune, N.J., has signed about three-quarters of the top 100 MLB prospects.
“You open a box, there’s four to six autos in there, you want people you recognize,” Zalta said. “Number one is collectability. You want to collect the players you like, but also, you want to get a return on your investment. You want guys who can be worth a lot more in the future or that are currently worth a lot now. That’s really a big emphasis for us.”
OPTIONS FOR BUYING
According to Zalta, Pulse Trading Cards are available in over 600 hobby shops across the country.
The company’s first release in 2024 was Pulse Baseball. That was followed up by Pulse Premiere Football. Both products featured all on-card autographs.
Recently, Pulse released Stratos Football with Stratos Baseball coming out soon. Zalta said Pulse will have 10 to 12 more baseball and football products on the market by the end of this calendar year. Two of those products will be Meridian and Foundry.
“A lot of exciting stuff coming in,” Zalta said.
When Pulse put out its first baseball product, a hobby box retailed at $85. For the initial football release, the price for a hobby box was between $100 and $130. Both products contain four to six autographed cards and a couple non-auto cards.
Pulse recently added heat seeker boxes to its repertoire. Those boxes feature one encased autographed card for $30.
“It’s much more budget friendly,” Zalta said. “So, instead of having to spend $100 or $130, you now can buy an autograph for $30. It’s similar to the retail blasters of the world, but we give one encased card. It comes in either a one-touch or jewel case. It’s autographed, so you’re guaranteed an autograph and it’s serial numbered. The $30 blasters of the world, you’re generally not getting even a numbered card or an autograph.”
Pulse’s new third option for its products are via a booster box. Those products will debut in the Foundry product releases in July. Booster boxes will include 24 individually wrapped packs—at $7-$8 retail per pack—with every card encased and numbered to 50 or less; each box will contain two autographed cards.
“If you tell someone you get an encased card numbered to 50 or less for $7 with a 1-in-12 chance of an autograph, it’s a great deal,” Zalta said. “The checklists are loaded. That’s one of the cool, new, unique products we’re coming out with.”
Right now, Pulse is concentrating on putting out great releases for baseball and football. Zalta said there has been talk of expansion to manufacture trading cards for other sports.
“Baseball and football for us were high priorities,” Zalta said. “The football market is really, really, really strong. So, that was a target for us. And then baseball just because of the prospect hunting and we are limited to an extent how many major leaguers [we can sign], it was a natural fit to do baseball.
“We’re going to continue to progress with baseball and football. We’re always looking to improve and we take customer feedback, whether it’s from our retailers or from the end customer. We always take that into account and we strive to be better and continue to progress. But we are definitely planning ahead to expand into other sports or potentially additional non-sports, some cool, unique things we’re working on in the future.”
Zalta drives home the fact that Pulse’s products are all manufactured with the collector in mind.
“We’re here for the collector and really to deliver a premium product with as much value per box as we can,” Zalta said. “We’re trying to put out a premium product at a collector-friendly price point. Within that, elevate the storytelling within each set as well. Expect to see a lot more sets from Pulse in the near future.”