Hobby Musings: Eric Hecker Random Acts of Kindness – Interview
Hobby Musings: Eric Hecker Random Acts of Kindness – Interview Transcript
Editor’s note: Some text has been changed from original audio for grammar and clarity.
KS: Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Hobby Musings. I’m Kelsey Schroyer, joined today by a very special guest, Eric Hecker. Eric, thank you for being with us.
EH: Hey, Kelsey, I appreciate you having me on.
KS: So one thing I want to talk to you about, something you’ve become pretty well known for in the hobby is your ‘RAK’ program, your Random Acts of Kindness. How did that all get started?
EH: Yeah, so, RAK of the day. So, this is actually, the beginning of the fifth year of it, which is hard to believe because, when this program started, I didn’t think I was going to get past ten days. Just because it’s, it costs, you know, money financially, and there’s time and effort it’s put into it. But how it got started was pretty easy.
In 2020, when I came back into the hobby, there was, just this negative aspect to things. And I remember, this video going around of adult men, rushing Walmart stores and knocking people over for blaster boxes and all of that. It didn’t sit well with me. And, and I thought to myself, you know, there’s a better way of doing this thing. I had received my first RAK, and I learned what RAKs were within the hobby.
And, you know, I had this crazy idea of what if I gave something away every single day, and, you know, how would that look and feel and how would people react to it? Pretty quickly people responded to it, pretty favorably. And as I mentioned, we’re moving on to five years now of doing this. I’m very happy and very excited about it and just glad that people have attached themselves to it. And now kind of, it’s become, I guess, a part of the hobby vernacular, so to say.
KS: You’ve talked a little bit about the surprise of it all, but truly, in your wildest dreams did you ever, ever think it would get to the level it is now?
EH: No, not at all. I mean, like I said, I really didn’t think I would get past ten days, and the reason I say that is because I had the first ten days of 2021 planned out of RAKs, like I’ve got them, they’re ready to be shipped and all this. And then it kind of hit me of like, dang, I gotta get 355 more of these put out. Right around that time, I had other folks reaching out to me saying, hey, can I give you stuff? Can I give you money to go buy cards? And so it was one of those things where it just it caught fire and it started opening up different opportunities and different avenues, which led to what we now have are the RAK ambassadors.
So, there’s 15 other individuals within the hobby that join me. They take a day every single month and they provide the RAK. So, it kind of takes that load off of me solely. But it allows for us to build this community of people to do good. Recognize good. And just my newest thing is hobby positivity. Really creating that hobby positivity, and just, you know, making people feel valued, and making them understand that it’s more than just, you know, the true value of whatever this card is, but somebody actually thought of you, and they want to recognize you and shout you out in this way.
KS: So, when you’re putting together the RAK packs, you talk about some specific ones. But I know with the National, they’re kind of blindly handed out.How do you go about deciding what goes in the RAK packs?
EH: So, the National RAK packs they’re one of my favorite things to do. In 2024, I did 250 packs, 2025, my goal was to do 500 packs at the National. And really what it comes down to in these packs is everything’s either a numbered card a patch card, or an autograph card, at minimum. Then there are random hits within there. They could be graded cards. They could be, there’s bright credit to certain breakers that I work with. There’s retail wax, there’s hobby wax, there’s memorabilia. And they’re all randomly inserted. There’s no method to it, where I’m sitting at right now. I lay all the cards out and I just go, and I start stacking them up, and then I hand pack everything, and then drive myself to the National and start handing them out.
My target audience a lot of times at the National are large groups, family oriented groups, kids a lot of times, but also… Individuals that are just kind of like maybe walking around by themselves, or maybe they’re gives me an opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with that person and kind of learn a little bit about their hobby experience and what they’re there for and what they’re looking at. And, you know, there might be ways that we can connect and help each other out in certain aspects.
KS: You mentioned some of the things that go in there, especially kind of the redemptions that, you know, the random items. What do you think is the best card that’s ever been given out in this program?
EH: So, it was two years ago. And, and what’s crazy about it is I still don’t know to this day who actually did it because I encourage everybody to open the packs in front of me because I like to see what they get and take pictures and document everything. But in this particular year, there were a couple of individuals that were married couples that their spouse wasn’t able to come with them, and I gave them a pack to take home to them. But there was an Amon-Ra St. Brown Prizm to ten autograph.
KS: Wow.
EH: And I still to this day have no clue where that card is. Who got it. And I really want to know who has it. So, if you were in, Chicago in 2023 and you got that card and can’t remember where it is, it probably came from one of those packs.
KS: Hey, this is a message too, if you see this video, please let Eric know where that card surfaced at. So, you talked about trying to do 500 RAKs for this year. So just looking very far ahead. Do you think you’d ever get up to a thousand.
EH: I mean I would never say never. Right? When I first did this, at Atlantic City in 2022, I believe it was, it was very grassroots. I thought 100 was a lot, and I was able to do it, and then I just kept upping the number. Last year I had to pivot a little bit, for the first time, because I was only able to be at the National two days last year. So, I actually solicited five other individuals who actually did 150 of the 250, packs for me while I wasn’t able to be there. And then I did 100 packs over two days. So, I figure if I can keep that pace and kind of up it a little bit, 500 dishes is definitely doable. If I were to ever go to 1000, I would definitely need to solicit an army. Or, you know, if somebody from the National is listening, I’ll gladly take a table in the corner somewhere and, have people come find me.
KS: So, talk about your own collecting a little bit. How did you get started in the hobby?
EH: Yeah. So I think I’m probably like most people. Right? I’m 42 years old, and, you know, I collected, you know, as a kid. My parents got me started. They built each Topps baseball set for me, since 1982, which is the year I was born. They were Christmas presents, Easter presents. And so they got caught up to the specific year. They hand-built them and they really showed me that, there was value, in the fact that, this, these things were fun and it connected me to the athletes of the day.
You know, I’m a big I’m a big Guardians fan. Indians fan, you know, back when I was a kid and it allowed me to connect with those players. Kenny Lofton is my favorite player of all time and still is. So, you know, being able to get one of his cards, was something really special at the time for, you know, a 12- or 13-year-old, me and I continued collecting all the way through high school and then, you know, kind of hit that college adultish age where life just kind of happens. Right? And you got to figure out that, you know, bills take precedence over cards. And so, I put it on the back burner, but it was always in the back of my head. I always enjoyed it. I started getting into memorabilia in my early 20s. And then I had to take a break again for various reasons. But again, it was always in my head. It was always there. I mean, I’m a big sports fan, so I knew, you know, what was going on.
And then 2020, when Covid hit, I think, like a lot of people, we needed an outlet. We needed something to take us away from it. And I learned about what breaks were. So, I started getting involved in those and then got involved in this hobby community through Twitter. And, you know, it’s been the best thing that’s happened, and I just enjoy it because it gives me, just something else to focus on. Something else to do. And again, just be able to connect with people, all across the country. It’s now turned more from the card side of things to, you know, we’re friends, we know each other’s families. You know, what our kids are doing and those types of things. So, it’s really evolved over the last few years, for sure.
KS: I’ll get you out of here on this question. If there’s anyone who wants to donate, whether it’s their time or cards to you, what’s the best way to go about doing it?
EH: Yeah, the best way to get ahold of me, is on Twitter, which, you know, my, handle is, @eshecker. And we can have a conversation through DMs. You know, I’m always happy to discuss with folks how to get involved. There’s a lot that that we do with RAK of the day. As far as, the RAKs, the daily RAKs, but also, charity aspects where we raise money for various causes, and different things like that. So, Twitter is the best way to get ahold of me then. You know, we certainly can carry on the conversation from there. That all sounds wonderful.
KS: Eric, thank you so much for joining us today.
EH: Kelsey, I appreciate it.
Hobby Musings: Eric Hecker Random Acts of Kindness
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
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