When your barber’s a collector, there’s nothing better than a Cut For Cards
I first met Neil Bowman when I was an assistant store manager at Walmart in State College, Pa.
Eventually one of the departments I oversaw was the photo lab, and Neil was our lab manager.
We became fast friends—as much as a supervisor could with an employee—but on a personal level, I never saw our interactions like that. We talked about sports endlessly, and we chased sports cards, taking breaks and lunch to run up and check our register area every day for the newest card releases. We knew our rep by name (Sally), and not for work-related reasons.
Looking back about 20 years, we were ripping packs looking for LeBron James rookies and other fun cards from the early 2000s. We purchased every last pack of any Bowman baseball product, pulling Justin Verlander and David Wright cards. Last year, Neil had a 2000 Upper Deck Victory card he pulled from one of our front-end trips graded and it came back a PSA 10.
You Also Might Like:
Shea Hillenbrand: Signing autographs for fans ‘the greatest gift’
Life and Walmart have a way of bouncing you around. Being a retail manager for a number of years, I sure didn't let grass grow under my feet, whether I wanted to or not. I was a manager at the Better Pike location, where Neil and I met. I eventually moved to the Atherton Street Walmart in downtown State College near Penn State University. I eventually moved to another Walmart, and another and another. Within a few years, I had left the company altogether.
Eventually, I moved out of the area, and Neil continued to build his life there. Although we were social media friends, I'd be lying if I said we got together often from that point on. I have so many fond memories with so many people from my time in retail, but as life happens, people tend to drift apart. We all know that story too well.
Fast forward to about a year ago. My family now has deep roots in my hometown about an hour from State College. I found out from Neil, out of the blue, that he's leaving retail and going to barber school. He was temporarily living only about 10 minutes away while commuting to barber school in Harrisburg an hour away.
So, naturally, we decided we wanted to hang out some more. And we had a bright idea.
CUT FOR CARDS
As adults and parents know, multitasking is a big part of family life. We came up with the ultimate fun sports card multitasking project. We decided that Neil would come over to my house once a month to hang out and cut my hair. Of course, sports cards are never far from the conversation, so I thought of overpaying him in sports cards in trade for a haircut.
Call it a Cut For Cards, if you will. We do.
So about once every four to six weeks after he's done at the shop—ironically he ended up at a barbershop right across the street from our card shop—Neil comes over and we do a cut for cards. We play ball with my daughter, Izzy, who is also a collector, and then we make our way to my dining room area.
I bring down anywhere from one to five big boxes of cards and let Neil go to town, picking as many as he likes in exchange for a top-flight haircut from my guy. Sometimes we talk about cards a little too long and it’s time to put Izzy to bed. She loves hanging out with Uncle Neil and, of course, talking about sports.
As Neil gets all of his equipment out, I rinse my hair and we're straight into a haircut. During the haircut, it's great to just reconnect and talk about life in general, like you might do with your own barber, or an old friend. We reminisce about old retail war stories, past experiences, relationships, beliefs, and often look to the future and what it holds.
Neil generally pulls some high-grade cards that he eventually sends to PSA through a mutual friend, and he's had some awesome results. His gem rate is pretty high as many of his new acquisitions have come back 10s.
From Josh Allen and C.J. Stroud rookies to a beautiful Topps Chrome Blue Andrew Luck RC, Neil has had just that—a lot of Luck!
He's also sent out a few Kobe Bryant and Wemby rookies and some pretty cool PC-worthy stuff found deep in the white storage boxes.
Our reunions are as good or better than the family kind, with the perfect mix of conversation, cards, and a haircut. Here's hoping we started a tradition we can keep going for years to come, even as my hair turns gray. My wife is sure to bring that up in conversation.
Throughout my life I have found that sports cards and sports in general are intertwined in so many conversations, friendships and lifelong relationships. I wouldn't have it any other way.
- Collector and writer Tony Reid works in a card and hobby shop in central Pennsylvania and collects RCs of star players in baseball, basketball and football. You can reach him at @tonyreidwrites on all social media platforms.