Title: The Hobby (2024)
Director: Morgan Jon Fox
Studio: Fox Entertainment // XTR
IMDb Plot: Follows longtime collectors and a new generation of buyers from the trading card industry, diving deep into the real-time trading card fever as the hobby goes nuclear..
Joe Says: Surprisingly? The Hobby is wholly entertaining. And only possesses a whiff of that cult-ish fragrance.
Once the world started re-opening, people started shopping again. And buying. They were looking to own; to claim. And perhaps invest. Maybe this all came out of a sense of having dodged a bullet, historically-speaking. One of the beneficiaries of this renewed sense of need, for a few years anyway, were trading cards.
Yup. Those foiled packs of cardboard and color. Sometimes even with stickers or flat, stale bubblegum! Packs of baseball players or Pokemon or super-heroes were all the hot topic once again.
Leading the charge of this resurrection were nostalgic millennials, bored entrepreneurs, and multi-billion sports conglomerates all hoping to cash in on a money-making venture. Trading cards became cool again and Morgan Jon Fox’s documentary, The Hobby, follows the passion of this pursuit.
The Hobby documents the craving of collecting while highlighting the investment particulars behind the movement. The movie follows those-in-the-know who explain and sell the heavenly trading card lifestyle to us mere mortals. To personalize all this, Fox records the thoughts and theories of several collecting card celebs: tired-eyed entrepreneur Josh Luber, who was behind Fanatics’ acquisition of the Topps trading card company; podcasters and de facto voice of hobby novices Gary Haase and Mike Gioseffi; Pokemon ambassador and YouTube host SuperDuper Dani Sanchez. These fine individuals, as well as others, are all smiles and open arms. They are peaceful, and welcoming, and eager to share. And although not quite as pushy as door-to-door Jehovah Witnesses they all possess a whiff of that cult-ish fragrance.
They also take pride in their collections. The Hobby mostly focuses on basketball and Pokemon cards. Names are constantly dropped. Outside of a Michael Jordan or a Pikachu, unless one is a fan of either sport, such names and colors become interchangeable. For the purposes of this documentary, that individual name might not matter anyway. What is important is the underlying value of that card. While discussing their trade, Luber, Sanchez, and mega-collector Sharon Chiong easily throw out four and five digits numbers as if they were discussing batting averages instead of market worth. And some of those figures are inconceivably high. Even for players not named Jordan or Ruth or Maris or Aaron.
That sticker shock soon joins the world salad of names as Fox intermingles the fan base with that of business. Friendly specialty collectors, winking auctioneers, and alpha male card-graders preach and prophesy the religion of trading cards. A life of dedication and servitude and constantly hustling. Yet surprisingly? The movie is wholly entertaining.
If there is anything that The Hobby successfully sells is excitement of the chase. You do not need to know that LaMelo Ball is not a dragon type nor that Rayquaza’s did not debut for the Sixers but the color, energy, and knowledge presented makes the viewing an enjoyable one. Even if slightly repetitive.
After all, you see one plastic-entombed 2.5 by 3.5 slab of cardboard, you’ve seen them all. Right?
Like many collectables, the trading card market has dropped in recent years. A Michael Jordan card might be worth $15k but that does not necessarily mean anyone will buy the thing. Still, there might be a rogue, foil-lined Torchic card safely hiding under your child’s bed that SuperDuper Dani would love to look at. At least before the next hot hobby comes around anyway.
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