'It's booming': Mitchell brothers are at heart of resurgence of sports card collecting

Jun. 10—MITCHELL — The business of sports cards is booming.

And the Larson brothers of Mitchell are right in the thick of it.

The brothers — Tate, 22; Koby, 21; and Jace, 18 — have created a new business that buys, sells and flips cards.

They call it The Flop

, which plays off their poker games they've previously played with their friends.

This weekend, they're hosting a sports card show at the Mitchell Technical College Campus Center. That will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 12, with nearly 20 vendors planned to be in attendance. Tate Larson estimates it's the first time in 15 years or so there's been a sports card show in Mitchell.

"There's a lot of excitement around cards right now, and we're excited to bring a piece of that to town," he said. "It's booming. It's alive."

On Sunday, for example, a mix of old and new will come together at The Flop's card show. They will break open an unwrapped box at 1:30 p.m. and stream it online. For the two hours prior, they will take bids on eBay for the cards in the box, which will be split out by NFL team. Door prizes will include cards and an NBA box of cards.

Card shows are still part of the building collections and making it a hobby but are no longer as static as they once were. The Larsons are proof that the sports cards business has moved into the 21st century, doing much of their marketing through TikTok and Instagram, trying to build excitement through emojis and music set to their reveals and live shows.

"It's a fun way to try to connect with people," Tate Larson said. "We get people from South Dakota that come into our (live shows) and they can't believe there's someone else from South Dakota that's doing this."

In the last year, the brothers have picked up their interest in cards, checking out shops around the area that are open and buying and selling online. They've always collected — particularly football cards and especially the Minnesota Vikings — but now try to turn the cards with the chance to make a little money on the side. In one of the group's first breaks, they pulled a LaMelo Ball card that was worth about $1,000 on a $15 box.

"Now we're able to do this every single week," Koby Larson said.

Tate Larson said that the industry got a big boost with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Sports were done. There were no sports going on," he said. "But one of the next best things was sports cards, because they were still being printed and you didn't have to be around people to collect them."

The hobby has now been built around specialty cards that have limited production and creative design elements, whether it's a patch from a jersey on the card, or special printing and autographs. Beckett, once the gold standard for its magazine that helped understanding a sports card's worth, has been usurped by

what the value is on eBay.

For The Flop, it's all about the break and the reveal. The brothers have a TikTok account with more than 2,000 followers, with hyped up videos that show them revealing new cards as they're coming out of the packaging. Another 600-plus people follow The Flop on Instagram, where cards are posted and reveal videos are streamed.

Much like the general marketability and fame of sports athletes, the most coveted players are quarterbacks. Among them recently in the Larsons' collection have included Tom Brady, Trey Lance, Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson, along with modern cards of legendary players, such as Brett Favre and Steve Young for sale on eBay. A card with pieces of jersey for both Trevor Lawrence and Peyton Manning — billed as "Rookie Idols" for their roles as promising young players — is for sale for $50.

As one of the brothers said on a recent reveal on TikTok: "Be a QB!" It was, as Lance was waiting under the package's covering, with the card rated as a 9 on a 10-point scale.

"You're really looking for those guys that have potential," Jace Larson said. "Justin Herbert is one of those guys that's young and it's not hard to see him being a potential Super Bowl quarterback or win an MVP. And then there's guys you don't believe in as much and you might stay away from them."

It was big news earlier this month when a card with New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was opened by a 13-year-old in Ohio. That card, which has special foil and is a card from his rookie season in 2021,

has been deemed one of a kind and sold for $100,000.

As an example of how the cards have changed, a prized card for The Flop is of Tom Brady. It's a 1-of-1 printing plate, meaning to the normal onlooker, Brady is pictured in reverse on the card. The value of the card is estimated at $4,000, the brothers said.

"We're losing our minds," Tate Larson said of their reactions when they pull a card. "We're just as excited as anyone could be."

This week, a rated rookie card for Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow

is advertised for sale by The Flop

for $3,000.

If there's one player that's harder to get out of The Flop's grasp, that's Justin Jefferson. The Vikings receiver is a sentimental favorite for the brothers, who own some cards individually as well. One of those cards they've pulled of Jefferson came out of a $50 pack and they've gotten offers for $2,000 but haven't yet sold yet.

"We want to be able to collect our favorite players, too," Tate Larson said. "Some of the breakers and the people you see, they get a bad rap because they get the reputation of taking away from kids. ... But to us, we're just trying to fund our hobby as well and collect the cards that help our excitement and hopefully pass some of that fun on to the people that purchase them too."

It's not impossible that The Flop becomes a full-time business, Koby said, but for now, they want to enjoy it as a hobby. In the meantime, friends have been helping to hype up their cards and content, buying merchandise and sharing their posts online. They've created a logo that depicts the three brothers as figures on a deck of cards, which friends and family have enjoyed scooping up.

"It's nice to have them there because they're as excited as we are and it's been really encouraging," Jace Larson said.