Hobby Musings: Inside PSA’s Game-Worn Card Program – PSA made some news recently with its game-worn card program. Partnering with Corbin Carroll and Bobby Witt Jr., the partnership brought collectors a whole new type of game-used collectible. I had the chance to catch up with PSA Director, Communications & Social Media Ryan Greene to find out more about the program.

KS:  Ryan, this game-worn card concept is pretty cool.  Can you explain how it came about please?
RG:
This concept was put on the table during a Marketing brainstorm early last year by our Creative Director, Jack Archer. Our team was discussing some potential activations with Bobby Witt Jr. after we had come to a formal agreement with him to become PSA’s first athlete brand ambassador. Over the following months, we kept coming back to this idea as something we really wanted to bring to life, and later in the year, began putting the roadmap in place to make this “Game-Worn Cards” concept a reality as a full-scale campaign and program that we can continue to grow for years moving forward.

Hobby Musings: Inside PSA’s Game-Worn Card ProgramKS: The two players who participated are young stars in Arizona’s Corbin Carroll and Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. How did you choose those two players?
RG:
Well, one thing that was important to us upon launch of this program was that we started off with athletes who are also collectors and would truly get excited about the concept from a pure hobbyist standpoint, having a genuine feel for how cool these cards would be once worn, signed, authenticated, graded and encapsulated in a PSA holder. Both Bobby and Corbin are collectors, and both were excited when we went to them with the pitch. We have other athletes who collect and submit regularly to PSA who we have also pitched this with and are equally pumped up about taking part in this as we go forward, too. And now that there is a fully visible concept live, we’re hearing from athletes who haven’t collected before but are curious, who also want to learn more about this. It’s been really cool to see.

KS: What were their reactions when they were approached about doing this?
RG:
Not only were both guys pretty excited about this, but they both showed that same enthusiasm throughout the execution. They both were able to select the cards they ‘wore’ in their back pockets during their games from a stack of raw rookie cards we presented them before the game, and both had some fun with the inscriptions after the game, as well. It was cool to see how creative they got with it.

KS: What was the biggest challenge in making this happen from start to finish?
RG:
Honestly, this was a pretty smooth activation. Having the athletes and their representatives fully bought into this made everything else easy from the execution end of things for PSA.

KS: It looks like the players added inscriptions along with their autographs. How was it decided what to note on the cards?
RG:
This was actually left up completely to the players. We gave some guidance on some key pieces that might make sense to fit in, such as their stat lines from the game they just played. But these guys both got pretty creative with it. For example, Corbin used one of the cards to document a year-by-year progression of his career to date that was really neat. Bobby had fun with the last card in his run, inscribing, “no more cards in pocket because we lost. Both guys also wrote one out to Evan Longoria, which was really unique. Corbin was obviously teammates with Evan last year, and Evan helped get him into the hobby. Bobby has a friendship with Evan as well. The idea of being able to gift these to other players/friends/collectors was really cool and organic.

KS: Granted these cards wouldn’t be in perfect shape given the nature of the program.  With that being said, was there any concern about the cards being too damaged to proceed?
RG:
Honestly, we were just excited to see what happened with them. We didn’t have a concern that they’d get too damaged, especially since each player had multiple cards. If one got wrecked, so be it. But that was the whole concept here – the lower the grade, the better.

KS: What are all the collectors can get their hands on these?
RG:
Any PSA customer who submits an order for grading at our Value Plus service level or higher between now and the end of June is automatically entered for a chance to win. The cards were hand-numbered from each player’s set. Card No. 2 in each set will be given away to a pair of lucky winners.

KS: Will we be seeing more of this in the future or is it a one-time thing?
RG:
We launched this program with the intent of having recurring executions. We have several in the works and planned for the coming months, and we’re really just excited to see where this can go and how it evolves. The players who took part in this first round already threw a couple of surprises at us with the custom inscriptions. We can’t wait to see what other creativity is out there for athletes who take part in these going forward.

 

Hobby Musings: Inside PSA’s Game-Worn Card Program – Image Gallery


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.
Kelsey Schroyer

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