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Join us as we dive into the world of card collecting with Tara and Adam Reynolds, the masterminds behind Triangle Area Trading Cards. From childhood nostalgia to serious collecting, they share their journey from avid collectors to successful business owners running a beloved local hub in North Carolina. The couple recount their initial foray into card trading, their challenges of moving from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, and the tight-knit community they've built around their passion. Learn about the evolution of the trading card industry, their biggest finds, future aspirations, and the joy of bringing families together through this timeless hobby.
00:00 Meet the Card Pros
02:30 Adam’s First Packs
04:09 First Big Pull
05:56 From Passion to Business
08:06 Opening the First Store
09:28 Early Challenges and TCG Shift
10:54 Outgrowing the Space
14:04 How the Hobby Changed
16:38 Getting Started at the Shop
18:23 Avoiding Collector Burnout
19:27 Trading Online vs. In Store
20:01 Breakers and Live Auctions
20:48 The Shop Community Vibe
22:27 Biggest Collection Purchases
24:20 Babe Ruth Signed Baseball
25:58 Balancing Hobby and Business
27:35 Advice to Younger Self
28:48 Future Plans and Growth
29:59 Lightning Round Favorites
32:36 LEGO Collecting and Minimalism
33:59 Where to Find the Shop
35:01 Final Thanks and Wrap Up
Creators and Guests
What is What’s Up, Wake?
What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.
51 Whats Up Wake - Triangle Area Trading Cards
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[00:00:00] [00:01:00] . If collecting [00:02:00] cards is a game, today's guests are holding a full house of expertise. I've played my cards right and get to sit down with the team behind Triangle area, trading cards, the place where cardboard becomes treasure. Childhood nostalgia meets serious.
Melissa: Collecting and pulling the right card can feel like hitting a home run. . Whether you're chasing the next rare Pokemon find, building a sports legacy collection, or just reliving the thrill of opening packs, these are the people who make that magic happen every day.
Let's get to know the collectors, traders, and community builders who turn to passion for cards and to a hub for fans across the triangle. Please welcome Tara and Adam Reynolds. Hey guys.
Tara: Hey, thank you. Appreciate
Melissa: it. Hey, welcome. Okay, I of course need to start with who was the collector to begin with you, because you must have,
Tara: yeah.
Melissa: You must have started out being a collector yourself, right? 100% Adam.
Adam: [00:03:00] Yeah, no, it it definitely came from me. Um, it was. My first pack of cards was 1990. Okay. 1990. My dad took me to a And
Melissa: you were two?
Adam: I
Melissa: a little bit older. We'll,
Adam: we'll call it seven.
Melissa: Okay.
Adam: Um, my dad took me to a marriage game grew up in Seattle.
They were given away a pack of cards and a little. Binder and we would open the packs, but get this, the cards didn't fit in the the binder, so we had to cut the cards.
Melissa: Oh no.
Adam: That was a big no-no. But back then, didn't know that was a big no-no. Now, obviously, um, but that's what got me into it.
These guys on the cards and the baseball game and connecting it is just something I fell in love with. Mm-hmm. Was baseball.
Tara: When Adam tells that story to collectors now, they kind of shudder at the fact that he used to cut the cards up and put 'em in the binder.
Melissa: Yeah.
Adam: Wow. You know? Yeah. We know you
Melissa: didn't know any better.
No. Yeah. I mean, but does that render them totally worthless once you do that?
Adam: [00:04:00] Completely?
Melissa: Ooh,
Adam: there's zero value. However, the good news is 1990 upper deck, there's nobody to collect in that set, so
Melissa: Oh, gotcha.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: So it didn't matter.
Adam: Didn't matter. Okay.
Melissa: No harm, no foul.
Adam: No.
Melissa: Yeah. So when did you move to North Carolina?
Adam: Oh, we moved in 2011. 2010. 2010.
Tara: Yep.
Adam: Yep.
Tara: We moved out here to be closer to my parents.
Adam: Mm-hmm. '
Tara: cause they live in Cary relocated from Denver, Colorado where Adam and I met.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. So tell us about the first time you, you found a card yourself that you realized, oh, this might be worth something, and how you even came to realize it.
Adam: Oh wow. Um,
Melissa: like was there a card shop that you used to go to?
Adam: So there is a card shop that still exists today in Renton, Washington called DJ Sports Cards.
Melissa: Oh, nice.
Adam: Yeah. DJ Sports Cards. He's been there since 1988. In fact, I worked there for four years in high school.
Melissa: Gotcha.
Adam: So not only did I have an outlet for my [00:05:00] passion growing up, um, but I got to work there.
End of middle school all through high school, and that was the mid to late nineties. Um, now you ask. When was the first time I really pulled something of value Easy. It was Nolan Ryan FLIR Ultra Smoking Heat from like 93 94 FLIR Ultra. It was like 55 bucks at the time. And I remember pulling it at a card show.
My dad worked for Boeing. They had these card shows. I pulled this card and it was a huge card at the time. 'cause of 55. You
Melissa: knew instantly it
Adam: was a big
Melissa: deal. Yeah,
Adam: it was huge. That was a big card back then. 'cause a $55 card back in the, the early nineties, that was a lot back then. Mm-hmm. That was a lot back then.
That's pretty poor for today's course to a point. It's not huge in in today's world, but that was huge. That was my first card that I was like, man, I get to put this in a screw down. There was dealers offering me money for it, didn't, I never sold it.
Melissa: Yeah. I was gonna ask you, do you still have that card?
Adam: I have sold, I bought it back, I sold it a long time ago.
I sold everything I had when [00:06:00] I went to to college.
Melissa: So. Okay. So you bought it back? Yes. And do you still have it now?
Adam: No.
Melissa: Oh no.
Adam: Yeah, no, that's
Melissa: okay. We have a whole store filled.
Adam: I've got lot of
Melissa: look at all of
Adam: them. Yeah, I have lots of other way cooler cards.
Melissa: I, I do wanna mention, um, that you are Adam, are a part of our 2025.
Member class mm-hmm. Of our movers and shakers for Carry Magazine.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: How, how did you turn your passion into becoming an innovator in our community? So, I know, I know you, that was a part-time job in high school and it was, yeah. But it was always your passion,
Adam: always always been a passion. The drive to do this came through a lot of a lot of time conversations about how to move on from a corporate.
World job to really becoming that entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. Um, it wouldn't happen without Tara. It's not gonna happen without the vision and the [00:07:00] ability to build something without the both of us.
Melissa: Yeah.
Adam: Um, but I'm gonna be honest, it started slow. I, I went to Tara one day and I said, Hey, look, I think I can buy these cards and I, I think I can flip 'em.
So I went out and bought a bunch of cards and we started going to shows. We would set up with one table. At the local show in Raleigh years ago.
Tara: Mm-hmm. Adam, Adam always has this passion and whenever I see that passion within him, I'm like, yes, let's just, let's go and do it. 'cause usually it works out and yeah.
So far it's, it's been great.
Melissa: Well, that's one thing, a, a commonality that I have found with interviewing business owners in the triangle is that. If you follow your passion mm-hmm. It's going to lead to success because you're doing something that you love.
Adam: Yeah. It it started with one table and then it kind of grew to two tables.
And because it's a passion, like it's, it's not working. I could do this. I would sit until midnight, four or five days a week up until the days leading to shows. [00:08:00] And it didn't feel like I was working. I was just loving what I was constantly doing. Mm-hmm. Um, I would sit there after I got off of work, you know, constantly getting ready for the shows.
And then it just, it grew and grew until we were doing, you know, three tables. Now we do, we set up with between six and eight tables now.
Melissa: Yeah.
Adam: So at the shows.
Melissa: So you're still going to shows?
Adam: Absolutely. Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. I didn't realize that. Mm-hmm. When, when did the shows turn into an actual storefront, though?
How long ago was that? So our, we opened the original brick and mortar we opened in October of 2023. Mm-hmm. Um, it took a number of months for looking of, looking for a place, trying to figure out what that budget would look like. Yeah. In terms of what, what do we think we can afford in a monthly basis where we getting our product from, which we'd had relationships prior with vendors.
Adam: So it wasn't too big of an issue to do that. Um, the scariest part was really just leaving the comfort of a regular. Job. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. But it [00:09:00] was four years from the time we started going to shows to opening up a brick and mortar. Mm-hmm. So about four, four and a half years. Yeah. When we finally decided, and really it was Adam, he came to me and, and said, I think, I think I can make this a business.
Mm-hmm.
Tara: And months and months of conversations. How are we gonna do this? Both of us, I mean, working really great jobs. Giving that up was definitely a difficult decision for us.
Melissa: Yeah. I'm sure that leap is scary.
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Adam: Real scary.
Tara: Yeah. Yeah.
Adam: Like real, like how do you pay the mortgage?
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Adam: Because you're going into something with a huge unknown.
And I think that was the biggest, scariest part of how are we gonna make this work? Yeah. And we've, we've been able to make it work.
Melissa: So what would you say was your biggest challenge opening the brick and mortar? And you know, after you took, finally took the leap.
Adam: I think. Initially, I think the biggest challenge was [00:10:00] trying to understand what, what is, what does a day look like?
What does a month look like? How do we budget out products? ' cause the original name for our store was Triangle Area Sports Cards. And unbeknownst to me in this area, it's very TCG. Driven in this area.
Melissa: So what is TCG?
Tara: Pokemon Magic
Adam: Trading Card game. Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. So everything non-sports related? Correct, yes.
Yeah. Okay.
Adam: So,
Melissa: and I've seen lately there's a lot of like anime cards. There's Oh, yeah. Um star Wars cards. It's, it's ever changing and growing, it seems to me.
Adam: Yeah. Um, yeah, the day-to-day operations, I went from a corporate HR job to now running a retail business. I've never done that before.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Adam: So even today everything we do is, is new.
We run into new challenges every day running a business that we've not run so
Tara: well. And I think the. The number one challenge [00:11:00] when we were in our first space was first getting product for TCG. Mm-hmm. Because we were sports heavy. And then after that it became, we didn't have enough space. We started in 1400 square feet.
We were first
Melissa: Oh, so y'all were in a different location to start. Oh, okay. I've only recognized the, the one that you're in now. Mm-hmm. Off. Is it Jones, Franklin and Tryon? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Adam: yeah. In the Swift Creek, we were in 1200 square feet, literally. 13, 1200 square feet. Right. Right across. We'll meet in the middle.
1300 middle, middle 1200 square feet, right across the parking lot next to Jumbo Wings Grill.
Tara: Yeah. Mm.
Adam: And it was. We went through a couple iterations of that store where we had to knock out one of the back walls to give us more
Tara: space. More space so we can add magic in.
Adam: Yeah.
Tara: And then our trade nights became so big.
People would call in and ask if, if it was busy, and if we said yes, then people wouldn't come. So we were losing out in business.
Adam: Yeah. And that was our biggest indicator. We're like, Hmm. The light bulb kind of went on, like, okay. This isn't,
Tara: yeah, the space wasn't working anymore. Mm-hmm.
Adam: The
Melissa: space wasn't working anymore.
Adam: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And [00:12:00] where you're now, is it working a lot better? I mean, you guys are still quite packed at times, so we, especially when you have games and event and events.
Tara: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Adam: Yeah.
Tara: I mean, we're 3,200 square feet now. Mm-hmm. Um, it. Has worked and we are always pivoting and trying to find new space where there isn't space.
But I think our biggest challenge now again, is space. Because we have some of the largest tournaments in the area. We hold 128 people tournaments, which is a lot for our shop.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tara: And we would love to give a bigger. Space. Mm-hmm. Just for playing.
Melissa: Do you think that that is kind of riding on the wall?
Like that's what's gonna have to have to happen next?
Tara: I think if we have, if we wanna grow, yes. Mm-hmm. Right. Because we're all about community, bringing people in, having a, just a place where people can come and play.
Adam: Yeah. Um,
Tara: and if we, I think if we don't at least consider [00:13:00] looking at larger spaces, then.
We're kind of limiting ourselves
Melissa: in the
Tara: community.
Melissa: Yeah. You'll stay stagnant.
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Adam: this last Saturday was just a regular Saturday. Nothing going on other than just being open. And from the minute we opened at 11 to the, to when we closed, there was, every seat was taken. We had to break out folding table in the back for for more people to sit because we were just running outta spot.
So we're, I mean,
Melissa: it's a good problem to have too.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah,
Adam: yeah. Yeah. [00:14:00] How would you say the, the trading card industry has changed really even since you guys used to just do trade shows? Has it become more game focused versus sports or is it still pretty equal?
Tara: I think it's definitely become more game focused.
Mm-hmm. Especially with Pokemon.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Tara: Right. And I believe when it started taking off was when the 1 51 set came out, which is the original 151 [00:15:00] Pokemon. Um, and more adults started that used to collect back in the nineties, came out to collect again, and now they're collecting with their kids. So it's really taken off, I think, over the past couple of years.
Adam: I think if there's anything positive that ever came out of COVID was, it brought a lot of the. Games from the basement up to the kitchen table. Right? That's
Melissa: very true
Adam: because that was a big
Melissa: boom for Pokemon, right? Mm-hmm.
Adam: It was a huge boom for sports cards. It was a huge boom for Pokemon, more for sports cards.
Pokemon kind of followed a little bit later because Pokemon went through this. Even magic. It's going through this renaissance of like, there's this pop culture phenomenon. That Big Bang Theory. Let's see, stranger, that favorite show. Show I watch that
Melissa: show every single
Adam: night. So we love it. So you look at those, those nerd centric Yes.
TV shows. It brought it from the basement to the, to the living room. To the kitchen. To the kitchen room or kitchen. Table. Like to play it. To be it. So now you have Pokemon, which is multi-generational. It's [00:16:00] international. It's the pop culture phenomenon that is huge. It's massive. And it's here to stay.
And that wasn't it, five to 10 years ago. Mm-hmm. That's, I think, one of the biggest changes. Oh. Online social media influencers.
Melissa: Oh yeah.
Adam: Yeah. I think the online aspect has really, really driven those pieces too.
Melissa: That's a good point too. And to your point about the ages, it's, it's adults and kids.
Adam: Yes.
Melissa: Right. And it's something that can bring families together.
Adam: Yeah. Yeah. And look, the barrier to entry to get in and play. Is pretty decent, right? You can buy a pack for a couple bucks. You can buy a starter kit for, you know, 20, 30 bucks. So the barrier to entry to get into play isn't too tough. Mm-hmm. You can even come see us on Thursday nights when we have our open play format and you've got people there to teach you how to play, which is great, and you'll get from free packs with it as well.
So. Why not?
Melissa: That would be good for somebody like me who I can't stand instructions. If you give me instructions to a game, I am not gonna read them because I know I'm not going to, I'm just gonna black out. Yes.
Adam: [00:17:00] Game. Yes, totally. Not
Melissa: totally black out and not understand it. I have to work my way through a game.
Tara: Yes.
Melissa: So for someone that is new and just getting into collecting and playing, where should they start? Is that the perfect time just to come and just pull up a seat to the table?
Tara: I, I think one of the things that sets our shop apart is that we educate our team. To educate the community, right? Because if you have, if you're bringing your son in to learn about Pokemon, he's passionate about Pokemon and you are wanting to support that passion, I think it's just as beneficial to have the adults come in and learn you know, the collectability aspect of it as well as the playability.
And we love to educate the community on that because it brings families together. So
Adam: we've also created an environment too, where you can come in and play our Star Wars community, [00:18:00] our Pokemon community, our magic community. We have a lot of people there that if you don't know how to play. They'll teach you how to play.
Mm-hmm. They want, they want to grow the community. They understand how cool it is to build up what that community is. We've got a lot of really good world class players in a lot of these leagues. They wanna teach you how to play. So if you don't know how to play, you can stop by any of the nights that we have leagues or anything going.
And they'll teach you how to play. They want to. Yeah. And that's what we wanted to build in the first place. There's a lot of places that. It's super competitive. They don't wanna play against people or teach new people 'cause they think they're repeating on their space. We have the opposite thought process in what that is.
We want to teach you, we want you to come and learn how to play, have fun. We have lots of people that come in, they're like, I'm no good, but I'm having fun.
Melissa: Yeah.
Adam: And that's, that's a huge part of it. Yeah. I'm not good at Star Wars, but I like to play, so.
Melissa: So what would be a common mistake that a collector might make?
Adam: The biggest mistake I see [00:19:00] collectors come in and do is they just, they wanna open lots of packs and they're just driven by value and they go too hard too soon. They spend way too much money and they aren't getting the value out of what they're opening. And so I tell people, I'm like, just start with the small ones.
Go with, go with the small blasters, go with the small boxes. Find out what you like. Don't just do it because you're driven by the value.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Adam: Do it because you like to collect or you like to play. If you go too hard, too fast into it, you're gonna burn out and not wanna do it anymore. So have a reason why you wanna come collect.
Is it your favorite team? Is it your in TCG? It might be an artist. Maybe people are collecting an artist. Maybe they're collecting their favorite Pokemon or their favorite magic character or whatever it is. But if you come in thinking, man, I'm gonna do it 'cause of value. Probably not gonna enjoy it too much.
Melissa: Well, and I think that could go into answering my next question, which is [00:20:00] what makes it different going to your store than just trading online? And it probably really is that the people going into your store are truly, mm-hmm. Passionate and into the, the cards that they're collecting. Right. And not just doing it for money.
But maybe online is just kind of money only. I don't know.
Tara: There's different online aspects. So I guess it, it just depends. Mm-hmm. So you have breakers which we do have a breaking team. What does that
Melissa: mean?
Tara: So it's somebody who, um, sells cards online, like a whatnot app.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Tara: Um, or Instagram, YouTube, Facebook.
They go live and they open packs. They sell those certain teams or characters for a spot. Um. Or they, they sell a card and it's like a live auction, right? So you can buy cards online. Um, but then there's the [00:21:00] other aspect where you could just go onto eBay and bid for a card. Um, so I guess it just depends on if you're more into that online auction or if you like to come in and, and look for cards.
Just depends
Adam: when. I think another thing is it really kind of separates who we are and what we do is our environment. What we've set up, why somebody would want to come in and visit us. We do cards and we do cards really well. Whether you're looking for something that's 25 cents or if you're looking for something that's several thousand dollars, we have all of that and everything in between.
Because of the environment that we've created for our collectors. You can come in and depending on the day, you can just sit and you can pull a box down from one of our shelves and you can just sit and sort and look for the stuff that you want. You can put your set together, you can, you can sit and eat lunch and just watch the show and, and hang out and play the game that you're playing with your friends.
There's no pretense to come in and be anything other than just who [00:22:00] you are and love the hobby you love. Um. We've been told that the environment we've created is, is inviting. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And there's a vibe in there where you can just come in and you're like, yo. From a collector standpoint, I'm home. And you're, you're spending time with like-minded Yeah.
Melissa: People who have similar interests and it goes back to Big Bang theory as all things should. Um, that it, it's like the Stewart's, um, comic book store. Yes. You know, you're, you're hanging out with people who are. Who Like the same things that you like. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You can order lunch. We have lots of people that'll sit there.
Adam: They'll order lunch. We have the Uber driver or DoorDash personality. Oh, I gotta order for James or whoever. Yeah. And okay, you've got lunch, and then you start to smell things that are tasty and Yeah. People are playing and you're like, okay, this is, and And you don't even have to leave. Correct. Yeah. You have to leave.
Tara: And we, I mean, we have people that come in the moment we open and stay until the moment we, mm-hmm. We close. Yeah. So Ha what, tell me about your, the highest [00:23:00] valued cart that somebody has brought in, and maybe they didn't even know it was worth that much. Do you have a, a moment that stands out to you? I wouldn't say it's a card though, right?
Adam: Collections. So we have Oh, like a whole collection. Individual items too. Yeah, collections. Like we, one of the things that we get a lot of is we have large
Tara: collections,
Adam: people our age who collected back in the ni you know, maybe nineties. Mm-hmm. Or early two thousands. And they left this binder in their parents' house.
It was just sitting in a drawer and they're like, Hey, I got some, some value here. What do I have? They'll have maybe done some research and we'll go through it. And, um, what we will do is we will work with them to find the value that they have.
Tara: And we're very transparent too. That's, we pride ourselves on being very transparent
Adam: Yeah.
Tara: Of the market value that we come up with, and then what our evaluations are. So it's, it's very transparent.
Adam: We have we've had people come in and say, Hey, I had this place. Offer me X amount. And we [00:24:00] will then come back a day later and say, Hey, we can offer you this. And we will blow them out of the water with what we found and what we can offer.
We have, I think the biggest collection we've purchased to date was about $54,000. For a collection.
Melissa: Wow.
Adam: Mm-hmm. Oh. We did buy a, was
Melissa: that person blown away or did they kind of know that they, that what they had was worth something
Adam: that individual knew kinda what they had. Mm-hmm. Um, but we were able to kind of, it took a couple weeks to kinda work out what that deal would look like.
Mm-hmm. Since it was a larger amount. Um, on the sports side, we've done similarly large collections as well when it comes to some of the vintage cards and some memorabilia, but it's. Um, kind of fun to know that we can kind of bring that to people that may not have known that they had that kind of value.
Tara: What I would think most recently, the, the one item that we picked up was the Babe Ruth Ball.
Adam: We did, yeah. We picked up a it would've been fun to have brought that with us. Yeah, we picked up a [00:25:00] 1943. Let's pause
Melissa: this episode. Y'all run back and go
Adam: Right,
Melissa: because I would love to see that.
Adam: We picked up from a very good customer of ours.
A it was a ball autographed in 1943 by
Melissa: wow.
Adam: Babe Ruth. Very deep, dark signature on a very nice clean ball.
Melissa: Very clear,
Adam: but not, also, not only did it have Babe Ruth, it had Cy Young on there. Um. Roger Bresnahan and another hall of Famer. There's four Hall of Famers on there with Babe Ruth that autographed this ball.
Melissa: I don't even know how you would value something like that.
Adam: Super challenging it seems
Melissa: and invaluable really.
Adam: It's,
Melissa: yeah.
Adam: Yeah. It's, it's super challenging. There's lots of places you can kind of go out and say, Hey, what is this worth? But it's a very unique item from an era that is just highly desirable.
Yeah. And how do you do that? Yeah. It's, it's, it's super challenging.
Tara: Mm-hmm. Well, we take our time with. F large collections valuable collections because we wanna make sure that we [00:26:00] are getting the value out of it for ourselves, but also for the customer. Yeah. So something like that. It took weeks and conversations between Adam and I of, okay, do we wanna purchase this?
Do you think we can resell it? Does it, should we save it? So it's not like we jump into these collections and say, we're just gonna do it.
Adam: So that's,
Tara: it's very methodical.
Adam: That's the hard part to
Melissa: build. We do. Yeah. 'cause you wanna make sure that the customer's happy and mm-hmm. And you're happy and everybody is fair to everybody.
Adam: So here, that's kind of one of the interesting pieces of how do you go from being the collector to balancing this now as a business? Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah.
Adam: Because as a small business owner and an entrepreneur. It's fun to have these things and this, this, these collectibles, but at the end of the day, it's a business.
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Adam: Right? And so we have employees and we've got. Overhead and all this other stuff. So how do you make that work? Not only for the person that has it, but for us?
Tara: Yeah.
Adam: So that's probably one of the most challenging pieces that when people in with collections we're honest about where we're at where we can [00:27:00] be.
Do we win out all on everything? No. Sometimes we just can't. And sometimes we'll actually tell people, Hey, look, take your collection to the show. You might and probably will be able to get more than what I can offer you because I want what's. In your best interest, not, not just mine. So we're gonna look out for you as well.
Melissa: Well, and I bet your customers know at least the ones that have, have. Done business with you over and over, they probably know that you're honest and that you're not just going to say, yeah, this is worth a hundred dollars. When in the back of your mind you're going, kaching,
Adam: kach, kach,
Melissa: kaching.
Tara: Right? Yeah, exactly.
Adam: Yeah. No, there, there's
Melissa: a lot of stuff you have to build up the trust. I, I'm, I'm sure,
Tara: and that's why we get a lot of referrals coming into the shop too, because it's that word of mouth, you know, we. I ask customers all the time, how'd you hear about us? And a lot of the times, you know, it's the Google Review reviews, um, but surprisingly it's, oh, I was at Target or Walmart looking at cards, and somebody next to me said, have you checked out triangle?
Melissa: Hmm.
Tara: So
Melissa: I'm sure that's [00:28:00] rewarding to hear that too.
Tara: Absolutely.
Melissa: So if you could go back and talk to your, your younger self. The one that got that first baseball card that you started cutting, what would you tell him other than, don't cut this. Yeah,
Adam: don't lose focus in your passion.
Melissa: Mm.
Adam: Know that. Know that your passion will lead you to where you want to go.
Follow it and put everything you can into it. I look back. If I had followed that out of either high school or college and had started something.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Adam: Back up though. First this didn't exist when I, in, in, in 2000. Right. The live video breaking, we have to understand too, like in the year 2000, we didn't have smartphones, social
Melissa: media,
Adam: we didn't have social media.
None of this existed. We didn't even know what
Melissa: social media was.
Adam: Right. Yeah. So the opportunities that really popped up over the last 15 years are, are new. But if I had followed that [00:29:00] instinct to say, Hey man, you should really stick with what your passion is. Yeah. With cards and collecting, I even outta college, um, I got tear into it in 2009.
A little bit. Like if I had followed that and gotten into it somehow and followed that, who knows what it would be.
Melissa: So speaking of how things have changed so much in the last couple decades, where do you guys see this going in coming years?
Tara: Interesting. I, I mean, it's, it's a constant conversation mm-hmm.
Where Adam and I we're always looking to evolve
Melissa: Yeah.
Tara: And grow this business, but strategically so I, I think that we just currently do, um, better what we're currently doing and then expand from there. We really listen to the community and what they want, and that's how we got to this second location or the bigger location.
Mm-hmm. Is based off of community feedback.
Adam: It's a lot with what Tara said. It's listening [00:30:00] to the community, leaning into the community and what we do best. We do have a lot of things on tap that we will probably get more into a little bit later in the year, but there's lots of pieces from a strategic.
Vision that we have that we want to move forward with. We are just scratching the surface of where we're at, so we've got a lot of things in store. So just kind of stay tuned with us throughout 2026.
Melissa: Okay. It is time for my little version of a game called What's Up, Roundup, where we end with a lightning round series of questions before we go.
My first question, and you guys can either one can answer these questions. What is your personal favorite type of card to collect?
Tara: I don't have a favorite.
Adam: My personal, my, okay. So my PC right now is actually,
Tara: sorry. No,
Adam: go for
Tara: it. Mine is definitely Alison Winterland. Yeah, that is my pc.
Melissa: Oh, I haven't heard of that.
Yeah. Okay. Disney,
Tara: Lana? Yeah.
Melissa: Okay.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: I do love Disney. So that, that might be the one that could [00:31:00] get me into it.
Adam: Yes. Mm-hmm. Um, I, anything baseball is, is huge on my radar When I nerd out, I have a collection of, I have a complete collection of Star Wars unlimited serialized cards from the, one of the first sets from
Tara: yeah, we went to the Galactic Championship in Vegas this last year, and we went to the artist, got them signed which was.
A huge event. It was, but it was fun to see Adam kind of nerd out. Yeah. And get every single card turn back into a kid. Yes.
Adam: Which is crazy. Coming from a sports, I love baseball cards. Yeah. Coming from a sports background, saying, man, I love these serialized Star Wars cards. Mm-hmm. But that's kind of my geek out.
I find 'em, I'm like, yeah, that's.
Melissa: Yeah. And you're wearing a hurricanes hat,
Adam: so, okay. Look, the hurricanes supporters were huge. H we got season tickets this year. It took a while for me to really get into hockey mode. Mm-hmm. But I love the hurricanes. Yeah. We're huge fans.
Melissa: You've got to, being from [00:32:00] Raleigh mm-hmm.
Or living in Raleigh now. Yeah. Not from Raleigh. Absolutely. You have to jump on that, that team. If you could pull any card in the world right now, what would it be?
Adam: Pretty much any show Ani Autograph.
Melissa: And is that a Star Wars?
Adam: No. Shhe O baseball show is one of, I'm sorry. It's okay. Cut.
Melissa: Y'all. See how much I'm not a sports person.
Adam: It's show Ani is it's now, to my
Melissa: credit, it does sound like it could be a Star Wars illustrator saying a Jedi. Yes.
Adam: Well, we'll go. Yeah.
Melissa: The name of a, a Jedi. We'll go with that. No,
Adam: it's perfect. Yeah. He, he, he is more of a, less a baseball Jedi at this point in life.
Melissa: Yes. Okay, good. See, that's,
Adam: yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah.
Adam: Adds up. Um, yeah, I think anything in the sports world right now from a baseball standpoint, if we could pull a Aaron Judge or Shhe Tani autograph sort of patch [00:33:00] card, that would probably be pretty exciting.
Melissa: And finally, if you had to collect.
Anything other than cards or sports memorabilia, what would you collect?
Adam: That's super easy for me.
Melissa: Oh, it is? Yeah. What
Adam: is
Melissa: it? I thought it was
Adam: three Legos.
Melissa: Oh my gosh. I love Legos.
Tara: Yeah.
Adam: Legos. I love Legos.
Melissa: Well, as we've been talking, as we've been talking, I've been thinking about how Legos are also kind of.
Similar in terms of like the trading aspect and the, the hunting for rare Lego sets. Yeah, yeah.
Tara: The rarity of it.
Melissa: Absolutely. That has, that has crossed my mind. Yeah. So are you, you're still a Lego guy?
Adam: Yeah, I just got done building Rivendale.
Melissa: Nice. Okay. So do you just, do you display those in your house or like in the store?
Okay. You're gonna have to move them to the store probably. No, they're
Tara: not coming to the store. No,
Adam: they're coming the
Melissa: store. Me. You're gonna run outta room in the house? Yes.
Adam: It's just a personal thing and I just enjoy building them and I don't really collect them, but if I was going to actually [00:34:00] collect something other than cards, that would be my,
Tara: my, yeah.
Adam: What about you?
Tara: I don't know. That's, it's crazy to think about collecting. I mean, we're in the collecting world, but I don't have a collection. It's interesting.
Adam: Yeah.
Melissa: You, you probably like are super minimalist and you're in your own life because you're hundred
Tara: percent.
Melissa: So you know, you have so many things going on in the store.
Tara: 100%. Yeah. Adam will definitely tell you I'm a mini minimalist at heart.
Melissa: Yeah, I can, I can see how that that would come to be, tell everybody where you're located and where we can find more information online and social media.
Tara: Yep. So our physical location is 28 65 Jones Franklin Road in Raleigh. It's kind of borders carry in Raleigh, but it's off of Jones Franklin and Tryon
Melissa: right next to Food Lion.
Tara: Yep.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Tara: In the Swift Creek Shopping Center, we are open seven days a week, but Monday and Tuesday, 11 to seven and then. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11 to nine. Sunday 12 to seven. [00:35:00] Yeah. Online you can hit us up on Instagram at angary trading cards. Mm-hmm. As well as Facebook.
Adam: Yep. We've got a website of running.
Um, order. Come with that.
Melissa: tc.com.
Adam: Yep.
Melissa: And you've got a podcast too. You guys were talking about that coming in.
Adam: So yeah, we're working on it. We just got our studio built out in our store and so we are in the process of working on those pieces as well. So, podcast coming. We've got breaks they're already running.
And a lot more to come.
Melissa: And next time I see you, I wanna see the Babe Ruth baseball. We'll
Tara: bring
Melissa: it done. Thank you guys so much for coming today. Thank you.
Adam: Appreciate it. Great being here.
Melissa: You too. [00:36:00]