Hobby Musings: Origin of Q’s Cards in the Netherlands with Quintijn Algra – Interview
Hobby Musings: Origin of Q’s Cards in the Netherlands with Quintijn Algra – Interview Transcript
Editor’s Note: Some text has been edited from original audio for grammar and clarity. Interview was originally taped in early February.
KS: Hi everyone, welcome to another edition of Hobby Musings. I’m Kelsey Schroyer. Going international today with Quintijn Algra from Q’s Cards all the way in the Netherlands. Thank you so much for joining us today.
QA: Yeah, thank you for having me. Awesome.
KS: So look, I’ve got to ask, what made you start a shop up in the Netherlands?
QA: I think it all started with, well, me having some side businesses and selling different kind of stuff from sneakers to caps to whatever sports memorabilia kind of stuff. I was into cards from around 2000 till 2005. It really died down mainly in the Netherlands, but also in Europe. It wasn’t online. There was basically nothing, and the few friends I had in that little community. Well, they kind of jumped out of the card collecting.
So basically from 2020 COVID situation. So I looked at my old collection, got that out., and from there, I was like, okay, let’s, you know, all those hustle kind of businesses I did. Let’s make it into a real one, because I was looking into it, reading into it. Looking at a lot of videos on YouTube, a lot of influencers were doing it, or at least they were starting at that moment. And I was like, okay, we have something here. So what I did is, I bought the old collection from the LLC. It was more like a comic store that had some basketball cards, because I was into collecting basketball cards because I played basketball for a long time.
But they got bankrupt, I think around 2011, 2013, around that time, and I bought that collection in 2021 or 2020 around that time. And I started selling that, and from that I was like, okay, well, we have something here. I already wanted to really start something on my own. I had a couple of jobs before, but I was like, okay, I want something to do on my own, and I started it next to my job and well, it grew bigger and bigger, and I’m full time now for around seven to eight months, approximately. So yeah, it’s been really good.
KS: So what do you think has been kind of the challenges in starting up your own shop and growing it from your idea to now?
QA: I think definitely, I mean, definitely stock. At the moment we started, it was incredibly hard. Everything was incredibly expensive, because yeah, everyone was at home and prices rose a lot. So, it was really hard to get stock down. What we did is we first started off with some supplies, getting some supplies in. A couple of boxes here and there wherever we can get some. So importing some from the US, getting some from bigger retailers or other guys that started a little bit earlier than we did. But it was really scrambling all the products in.
KS: So you talk about getting the product in. I saw on your website that you do have some singles around. Even with the growth of the market in Europe, how difficult can it be to sometimes get those cards in, especially singles that your customers want?
QA: From the singles perspective, we haven’t done a lot, so we have some in the online store, but it’s not really something we focus on right now. We do want to focus on (them) in the near future. So we take them to card shows, and we have them on the online store. We have an option to make an offer, all that stuff. We want to make it more attractive. But also, it’s going up and down. It depends on what the player is doing. So, I didn’t have the time to really figure out how we were going to make a system in that.
Here, there’s also other trends then, of course, in the US. We see different sports that are the interest. The interest is in different sports. I personally like football, basketball from a collecting standpoint. But then, yeah, there’s a lot of European football, F1, some other odd stuff, stickers. So, what we’re trying to do is kind of cater all the American stuff more to what we’re going to try and do for the singles cart. For instance, that is cater that more to like international, also to the US. But yeah, then getting cards from the US, mainly in that European football, soccer. Sometimes they slaughter me for for calling it soccer. I don’t know what your thought about that is, but I think that’s another discussion. But there’s a lot of opportunities from the US to Europe, because of this sport is so popular. But yeah, we haven’t really dived into the single cards yet. But in terms of boxes and packs, we definitely see that.
KS: You talk about how some of the collecting tastes are a little different over there. Is there anything that’s popular that’s kind of taken you by surprise?
QA: I think, well, by surprise, it’s more like what I see is a WWE or UFC. Those are becoming pretty popular here, even though, well, there’s for UFC, there are European fights, but for WWE, there aren’t any. As I’m not sure, I’m not really into that too much. And there’s a couple that are more obvious. Like F1, it’s really niche, but it’s mainly because, yeah, we have Max Verstappen, so the best one out there right now. So that kind of makes sense, I guess.
KS: Looking at more, you just mentioned Verstappen. From individual athletes, who are your customers asking you for the most? In terms of like, hey, this is who we want to get cards of?
QA: So, definitely Verstappen. I think that’s one of the more asked guys. And then I think European players. So Luka Doncic, a Lauri Markkanen, I just had a question about, do you have some Lauri Markkanens?
But also, other European players, Giannis, for instance, there’s a lot of interest there. And then for more like the soccer, it’s young athletes. It’s a Musiala, a Jude Bellingham, a Dutch guy, (Xavi) Simmons, for instance. So there’s a lot, but it’s also like, I do think that the rookie chase is coming more and more, also into these other sports.
KS: You talked about the market kind of, well, just for lack of a better term, died down in Europe there. It seems like over the last five years or so, especially, it’s really risen back up, especially with the cards. Why do you think that’s been?
QA: I think it died down in mid -2000s, like 2005, around that time. It really died down. I think sneakers became very popular in Europe, as well as in the US, of course. So you’re kind of seeing the pattern where, It’s first in the US, and it’s growing bigger and well, it’s grown so big that you see it in the UK. You see it in countries like Germany. And then, well, Germany is next to the Netherlands, so it also reaches here.
I think for cards, I think, well, I think a lot of people know what it is. Mainly from stickers or old school sticker books and Panini sticker books from back in the day. But also, Pokemon became very popular, and it was always kind of popular in Europe. I think from the COVID times, it kind of got in. We created a community, a lot of shops tried to open up, mainly online. Also, I think that’s one of the big factors. Being online and being visible online on social media, on YouTube, on streaming platforms. So, I do think that really helped to get it back in and make it a lot of fun. And also, yeah, there weren’t too many guys out there. I think they definitely had a big voice in that.
KS: So we have card shows here in the United States, obviously like the National, the local shows. I’ve seen the advertisements for the shows out in Europe. You know, speaking as someone who’s never been to one in Europe, what is the show atmosphere kind of like over there?
QA: So I’ve been to the Nashville kind of National, and it was very different. So that was more like a local kind of show. I think maybe you can compare it a little bit more to a scaled down Dallas or National show where there is a big mix of collectors, but also small businesses and corporate businesses. So here, it’s a big mix of everything, and I think the shows, people that attend is right around like 2,000 people on a show, and that’s a busy, good show. So, they’re definitely a lot smaller, but I think they’re coming more. Every other two months, there’s a show now, and it’s becoming bigger and bigger where a couple already have a decent size where they do an additional day, a trade night before. But yeah, it’s a mixed one, and I think everyone that is in the hobby really wants to be there because yeah, oh, there’s not a show just around. So, people will travel from all over Europe to really be there and be present with others that also share the same love for the hobby.
KS: So you’re bringing people from across Europe to these shows. I have to ask, I mean, obviously with all the different languages, does that get a little tricky sometimes to communicate and do business or with everything that’s out there now, technology wise, it’s fairly smooth?
QA: Yeah, I think it’s very fairly smooth. I think most of the people that were already in the hobby were already really focused on the US. What is happening there. Buying cards from eBay. Getting product in from the US. So, I think a lot of people, their English is just really good. Also, it’s kind of a slang. It’s kind of easy to get in If you know the words and you know the parallels. The transaction. A lot of PayPal deals and all that. I think it’s fairly easy. A lot of German guys that speak very good English as well. So yeah, it has been pretty good.
KS: So let me ask you this. We talked about the rise in the European market. What is your big prediction for the European card market this year?
QA: Oh, I think it’s going to rise even more. I think this is kind of the breakthrough year that is becoming more and more, it attracts more interest. So, I do think that it’s going to grow this year a lot. There’s a lot of sport events happening, of course. We will have the Euros here in Europe. The Olympics, there is some buzz around it.
For the basketball team, LeBron James might be on it. Soc, I think those kind of things really help to attract it even more. We see that supermarkets are going to stock the lower-end stuff, which is nice because that’s going to be an entry level for kids to get in. We’ve already seen that a little bit, also online. But I think that is going to attract more and more, and they want into the hobby, and they want an autograph card or a numbered card and it goes a little bit further than that.
KS: All right, I’ll get you out of here on this. What is your biggest hope for your shop this year?
QA: So, we just opened a showroom, which will also be a spot for people to gather and come in to either rip boxes, but also do trade nights, trade days. We had a plan of doing a trade day with a Super Bowl party, and we kind of had that plan all worked out. We’re based in Amersfoort, which is near Amsterdam, but we were going to do that in Amsterdam, because, well, there are a lot of people that also watch the Super Bowl, so we wanted to get that together in Amsterdam. But yeah, at the last moment, the party pulled out, where we were going to do that. So, we were like, okay, well, we do have the new showroom and office. Let’s do at least a trade day where we get people in. People can trade. I already have quite the community around my own trading cards and all that stuff for my own collection.
So, I’m like, okay, let’s just get a bunch of people in. So they are coming over on this Sunday, the 11th of February. It’s going to be more of a trade day and afternoon, having some fun, ripping some boxes, trading some cards. So that’s mainly the goal for this year, to do a lot of these kind of events. Get people together, get that community together. Go to a couple shows and build more on our online store with basically also breaks and all the online content around that. But it’s mainly getting that community together, getting that community stronger and grow that community.
KS: That all sounds wonderful. Quintijn, thank you so much for joining us today.
QA: Yeah, thank you very much.
Hobby Musings: Origin of Q’s Cards in the Netherlands with Quintijn Algra
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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