Will Gary Vaynerchuk push the sports card market to new heights?

Gary Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur and social media giant, has set his eyes on the sports card industry with a laser-like focus that could quickly elevate the hobby back into national prominence. While some may think "Gary Vee" is trying to ride the wave of the most hyped prospects; however, he is no stranger to collecting. Vaynerchuk built his chops in the late 1980s and early 1990s, making thousands of dollars as a teenager selling baseball cards at local shows.

Gary Vaynerchuk / Twitter

One just has to look at stacks of Todd Van Poppel and Gregg Jefferies rookies from the sports card boom as a reminder that collecting was designed to be a hobby instead of a venture into an alternate stock market. Despite the historical warnings, collectors are diving into prospects hoping to find the next Mike Trout while sidestepping the likes of Greg “Toe” Nash. With new money flying into sports card investing, will the top cards reach new highs in the coming year?

I’ve been studying the sports card market quietly since August and intensely for the last 4 weeks. Im@so excited to enjoy it. Vintage classics graded are wonderful long term.
The wild ride will be bowman baseball speculation and prizm base rookies psa10 if young talent

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) April 21, 2019

Modern-era baseball cards will always lag well behind their pre-WWII counterparts, but recent history shows that modern-era cards are starting to attract more lucrative bids. Just six months after a Shohei Ohtani rookie card sold for a modern-era record of $184,000, a Mike Trout rookie card has attracted a $92,000 bid on eBay and could climb higher. According to SBD, on-field greatness only goes so far in upping a card's value, but if Trout continues to stake his claim to the title of best (non-steroid) player since Willie Mays, they set the odds at 1/2 that a Trout card becomes the most valuable modern-era card within the next decade.

2011 Mike Trout Gold Canary Diamond / PSA

With Gary Vee’s massive following turning their attention towards the new generation of sports cards (Vaynerchuk has 1.88 million Twitter followers as compared to Topps’ 125,000), we could get a win-win on both sides of the hobby. Excited hustlers and entrepreneurs could easily drive up the higher ends of the card market while simultaneously drawing an increasing amount of casual fans back into the joys of collecting.