Earlier this year, we hit the 25th Anniversary of when I publicly launched SportsCollectors.Net allowing collectors to join. It's hard to believe, and I thought I would celebrate a little bit on the site's blog.

Where It All Started

Growing up in the 1980's in NJ, I used to watch (and root against) the Yankees on WPIX channel 11 all the time. Their announcers were such a great combination - the super biased fan boy Phil Rizzuto and the straight laced Bill White.

At that time I was really getting into learning about baseball history and starting to collect cards. One of my friends told me that you could write to players to get autographs. So I wrote letters to each of them c/o Yankees Stadium and got back these items in the mail:

That was my first taste of collecting autographs and I was hooked!!! I wrote a few letters a week to current day players and retired stars alike. It was always exciting to see what I would get back in the mail.

Fast forward to the late 1990's, when I was about to graduate from college and the Internet was starting to become more mainstream. I came up with the idea of creating a website that would allow collectors to track when they wrote to players to get autographs and share their successes with other collectors.

I spent hours in local book stores (this is way before Google and Stack Overflow) and taught myself programming specifically to build this site. I wanted to create a place where collectors like me could connect, share successes, and help each other grow their collections. It's been the coolest passion project I could ever wish to have – combining two things I love: collecting and building something that brings people together.

SCN over the Years

Version 1 (2000-2002)

I publically launched the first version of SCN in 2000. It was a simple (and ugly) website that allowed collectors to track their autograph requests and everyone could view the successes with other collectors.

The first version of SportsCollectors.net (2000-2002)

Version 2 (2002-2005)

By 2002, we had introduced community features and encountered challenges moderating abusive content. I had to take the site down for a few weeks and I re-coded the site in a different technology stack. In addition, I added a very affordable subscription model to help support the site. In the first week, 2000 collectors subscribed for $10.99/year. It was AMAZING!!!

Unfortunately I can't find a screenshot of the second version of SCN (it was also kind of ugly). This version laid the ground work for the site's future and was a great learning experience for me.

Version 3 (2005-present)

By 2005, I wanted to extend the site with a bunch a new functionality that I personally wanted as a collector. I decided to redesign the site from the ground up and move to its current technology platform. I introduced a cleaner look and feel and added a lot of new functionality that still exists today:

The current version of SportsCollectors.net

This version has allowed me to build features (over several years) that I had dreamed of to help my collection. Judging by the community's engagement with them, they seem to be popular and successful:

• Player signing habits mapped to teams and card sets
• Collector Trading and Feedback systems
• Private Signings
• Photo Galleries and Collections

Some of my Favorite Highlights

In David Letterman fashion, here are my Top 10 favorite site and collecting highlights from the past 25 years:

1. Launching SCN (2000) - It was pretty amazing when people first found the site and got all excited to share with other collectors.
   
   
2. Associating pro sports rosters (1948-present) to player signing habits (2007) - Introduced player rosters to SCN. Allows members to see the signing habits of their favorite teams, broken down by years:
   
   
   
3. Finishing my favorite signed card (2007) - I got to meet Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal in a 2 month span at card shows in NY and NJ to complete this 1967 Topps leaders card:
   
   
   
4. SCN Collectors Set (2009) - A group of 50 SCN members organized where we each got cards made on the Topps site. My 1976 Topps inspired card pictures my daughter and me cheering on our Red Sox (she was 7 months old then):
   
   
5. Associating 5+ million cards to player signing habits (2010) - By far this is the most ambitious (but awesome) feature I have built. It has been a dream feature for set collectors like myself:
   
   
   
6. Private Signings on SCN (2010) - We introduced a feature that allows approved promoters to offer private signings to our members:
   
   
   
7. Cooper's collages (2020) - One of our members shared about his son's fun activity of making a really cool collages from his old cards and then sending them to players to get signed:
   
   
   
8. Completing 1978 Topps basketball set (2020) - After needing one card for 4 years to complete the signed set, I finally acquired the Pete Maravich card from a member of the community:
   
   
   
9. SCN member elected to Football Hall of Fame (2021) - Not sure what is more amazing, the insane Browns collection of Ray "Showdawg" Prisby or that Jim Brown showed up at his house to let him know he nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
   
   
   
10. We hit 2,000,000 autograph successes tracked (2023) - The announcement of this milestone for the community was pretty exciting.
    
    

Learnings and Takeaways

When I started the site I had no real idea what the site would become and what it would grow into. I didn't start with a business plan, financial projections or expectations to raise capital. I just built things I thought would be useful for myself and others, and then eventually found a way to monetize it as I went along.

I have learned a lot from this journey and I wanted to share some of it here with you:

Following your passion can work

I love sports and collecting sports stuff! I have always spent more time thinking about my hobby than I probably should have. I was frustrated that there was not a good solution for my frequent pain point (not knowing what players would sign autographs). So I decided to create one.

What I have found is that when I am passionate about a problem, I am more likely to persist in solving it. I am more likely to put in the time and effort to find a solution. I am more likely to share my solution with others and get feedback from them. I am more likely to iterate on my solution and make it better. I am more likely to be successful in my quest. Recent research shows that passion can be a key factor in entrepreneurial success - Entrepreneurial Passion and Entrepreneurial Success.

Delivering value has to be at the core of your product

Keeping folks' attention is REALLY hard! And providing something that can keep them engaged and happy is even harder. And even harder than that is having a product that they are willing to pay for year after year.

I have tried to make it pretty obvious what users will get with SCN:

• Free Basic Features - Ability to track when you send to players and limited access to our data.
  
  
• Premium Features - For the very affordable price of $14.99/year, you get to be part of the community and get access to all of the best features + data for sports autograph collectors.
  
  

Building a Community is really hard, but SO amazing

Since I have been asked before, here's what I think worked for SCN:

• Timing - We launched before social media's rise (no Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc.), so it was not as easy to connect with people with similar interests. Also, there were many superstar + Hall of Fame athletes that regularly signed (compared to the last 5-10 years) and collectors were excited to share their successes with other collectors.
  
  
• Super Members - I attribute much of the site's success to the community's engagement and willingness to help each other out. We are lucky enough to have a group that is extremely passionate, having some exceptional collections and is incredibly knowledgeable about the hobby.
  
  
• Build what members want - I've tried to build the best tools and features that encourage our members to interact, share experiences and transact with each other. We actively solicit and listen to feedback on what works, what frustrates them and what we should build next.
  
  
• Do right by our members - I am a big fan of Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole's energy and his "Fan First" philosophy:
  
  
  
  The site and community exist because of our members and the community!!! So I generally tend to prioritize their benefit (over short term profits):
  
  
  • The price of our subscription is super affordable at $14.99/year (the same price since 2005), even though I am very confident we could raise it in line with inflation.
  • We don't charge extra fees for additional features (like selling items or promoting private signings).
  • This year our hosting vendor caused an outage for 26 hours, so I proactively extended all active subscriptions by a full week.
  
  
• Day to day challenges - Running a community with 1000's of contributors has challenges I never considered when I started the site. I spend lots of time on customer service - helping folks with the use of the site, answering questions and connecting members with each other. Sometimes moderation of content and/or limiting users' privileges are necessary to keep the community safe and enjoyable for everyone.
  
  

Thank You

I want to thank everyone who has been along for the ride. I am continually amazed how many folks that joined early on are still regular contributors and such a big part of our community. It's kind of crazy just how many folks have been subscribing for over 10, 15, and even 20 years. Also, by how often many of members proactively reach out to help and do nice things for other collectors. Through SCN, I have become my personal friends with so many collectors, and they have brought me such enjoyment sharing their passion for collecting.

Looking back at 25 years, I'm proud of what we've built together. This site has always been about connecting collectors, and seeing that spirit thrive year after year is the best reward I could ask for.

Here's to the next however many years of collecting, connecting, and community!