Mascot Simplifies the Trading Card World With Innovative Technology

Have you heard about Mascot and their innovative new technology that aims to change the way you manage and sell your cards?

With new buying, selling and trading outlets rolling out seemingly daily, the process of keeping a trading card collection organized has grown to be harder and harder. There are dozens of places to sell trading cards but no clear guide to inventory management. Until now.

Enter Mascot, an all-in-one, digital asset management tool for your cards. Users can upload their graded and raw singles into Mascot’s database, which is seamlessly integrated into the biggest marketplaces in the hobby. If you’re a shop owner, an everyday collector, or a new hobbyist, Mascot’s software is built to maximize efficiency.

We caught up with Ezra Levine, Mascot’s CEO, at the National Sports Collectors Convention. With the hype and speculation that the National brings, Levine and his team looked to educate hobbyists on the benefits of using Mascot. Here’s what he had to say about the newest five-tool software for the hobby:

Talk about your journey in the hobby and how it led to landing at Mascot. Were there any lessons or feedback you picked up from Collectable that you will take with you in this new venture?

As an entrepreneur in the industry, and having co-founded a few properties such as Collectable and The MINT Collective, I was immediately excited when I thought about the potential of Mascot. I was evaluating a lot of opportunities and Mascot continued to win out because of its ability to solve real pain points and reduce friction across the industry - whether you’re a collector, dealer, marketplace, grading company, local card shop, or live event. It saves people their two most precious resources, time and money. Simply put, Mascot is the fastest way to list your sports cards, non-sports cards, TCG, and comic books - either graded or raw - on secondary marketplaces AND the fastest way for people to manage and price their inventory. What used to take days or hours, now takes seconds or minutes with Mascot. That’s why I joined Mascot, and that’s why we’re so excited to roll it out to the collecting community. 

The last three years of trading cards have resulted in a huge influx and migration of collectors. With the current state of the hobby, is there a target audience for a service like Mascot?  

The industry has undergone dramatic change over the last few years. On the pricing side, vintage, low population assets continue to show strength whereas modern assets have fallen back to earth dramatically. Still, the activity levels in the industry continue to be incredibly strong. The collecting boom brought a lot of human and financial capital to the industry  and continues to elevate the industry to new heights and awareness. With Fanatics and other large firms such as Blackstone, Amazon, DraftKings, TikTok, IMG, IAC and others making meaningful investments in the category - along with teams and leagues now incentivized to promote the industry - I’m incredibly bullish on the future of collectibles. Think about it. Only about 1 million people collect out of a population of over 2 billion global sports fans, alone. That’s a tiny percentage today. Now compare that to sports gambling or fantasy sports, which are used by close to 20-25% of sports fans. And that’s just sports! This industry has huge growth potential if we can solve for ease of access, excitement, trust, and bringing the infrastructure up to speed. Mascot is an incredibly valuable tool to reduce friction and increase connectivity of the entire industry. Mascot will become even more important as the hobby continues to reach a wider audience. People will always have inventory that needs to be managed effectively and easily, and transacting will never go out of style. 

Do you envision a social/community-building component for Mascot? (i.e. collector profiles and ways to access their stores)

Absolutely. Already through Mascot, people can create storefronts through Shopify and manage and blast out their inventory through their own distribution channels with Mascot serving as the backend operating and inventory management system. We will also have the ability for people to share profiles and inventory. There’s so much more we can do on the social/community-building side as we continue to build. 

Card shows and conventions are the heart of the hobby. How does Mascot help collectors when they’re traveling to and from shows?

Pricing and managing inventory is a real pain point, particularly as people prepare and activate at card shows and conventions. I know some dealers who have spent weeks preparing and updating their inventory for the National. We are in the final stages of rolling out pricing data integrations directly through Mascot that will alleviate that point of pain. Mascot can also keep track of all the inventory dealers and collectors bring, sell, or buy at the shows, and handle all the backend accounting functions needed to stay on top of it all. Mascot will become an invaluable and sticky tool for collectors and dealers once they discover it.

Wha was your pitch for people at the National who were just learning about Mascot for the first time?

Simply put, Mascot is the fastest way to list your sports cards, non-sports cards, TCG, and comic books - either graded or raw - on secondary marketplaces AND the fastest way for people to manage and price their inventory. Mascot saves people their two most precious resources: time and money. What used to take hours or days cataloging inventory and creating marketplace listings now literally takes seconds or minutes with Mascot. Plus, the platform is completely free to sign up. We are integrated with true market leaders such as eBay, MySlabs, Amazon, PSA, Beckett, SGC, CGC, Tag, CardHedge, and plenty more to come. 

Walk me through the next 6-12 months for Mascot. 

Mascot is laser-focused on increasing the secondary market sales channels that are available via Mascot, and on increasing the number of verticals we support. With Mascot, we want users to be able to manage and sell their items across whatever channels they want. You will see many other partnerships with leading secondary market channels and the ability to support even more categories such as sealed wax, tickets, photos, memorabilia, etc. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

To give an example of the power of Mascot, VeeFriends and GaryVee uploaded roughly 300 cards from a CSV file they pulled from a vault. Within under 45 seconds, they had their inventory fully synced onto Mascot, with all high res images, grading data, card data, and more. Collectors will be amazed at how fast and sleek the platform is and how useful it will be to their workflow. We’re excited to get the word out.

You can sign up for free on www.withmascot.com and follow us on all socials @withmascot. For any questions, reach out to support@withmascot.com.