Collector communities largely exist in pockets spread across a variety of digital and in-person spaces. They each offer something different, but for the most part they end up becoming their own, insular sub-groups of a sub-group. That inefficiency was seen as an opportunity for the founders of Mantel, a social network for collectors. It aims to be the platform that can pull all of those fragmented spaces together in one place to better serve this complex and ever-evolving hobby/industry.
I first checked out Mantel because its CEO and co-founder, Evan Parker, used to work here at The Athletic. It has the backing of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, “Pawn Stars” producer Brent Montgomery, and a host of notable investors like WNBA legend Candace Parker, DJ Steve Aoki, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and The Athletic co-founder Adam Hansmann. But that’s only enough for a cursory glance and an obligatory “Good luck!” What got me to come back and eventually make it a part of my daily web rotation (you can follow me on Mantel here) is the unique utility it serves.
Although its community is still small, the Mantel feed has become a mix of collectibles-related news, insights, and celebrations of personal treasures that pulls from fragmented collector niches that are out there.
On Wednesday, Mantel took a step forward by launching its mobile app, so I talked to Evan about collectors, the state of the collectibles industry and why you have to be careful when buying Shohei Ohtani memorabilia from priests.
What have you learned about collectors since starting Mantel?
Everybody collects differently and for different reasons, which is what makes this all so fun. At the end of the day, most of these items have little intrinsic value. What people care about depends on the story behind it, how the collector connects to the item, and how the community connects to the item. I’ve met people who collect incredibly rare and expensive vintage cards with collections worth drooling over, but I also recently met someone who just collects the empty plastic packs the cards come in. If an item exists, someone is bound to collect it, and I love that Mantel is giving collectors a home to share and geek out about the things they love most, and find other people who share similar interests.
This is an interesting time to be in the social network business as it seems there’s a shift in platform usage happening for many people. What do you think collectors in particular want/need in a social network?
Absolutely. The main social networks are driven by algorithms and ads, and can be incredibly toxic. Our bet is people will seek out niche spaces where they can interact with people who share similar interests in safe and fun ways. That’s Mantel. And we’re building features just for collectors, like our Mantelpiece (a digital display case for your favorite card) or our card database to look up prices, which you won’t find on Instagram or Facebook or Discord. Changing people’s behaviors is tough — we’re all conditioned to click on Instagram 100x a day — but we’re confident that if we give collectors a troll-free, purpose-built environment where they can connect with people who share the same hobbies, we’ll win people over and build something special and sustainable.
I saw an interesting situation play out on Mantel where you posted about how you bought a ticket from Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run game off a priest on X (a tale as old as time!), but it didn’t work out the way you had hoped and another Mantel user replied with some help in navigating the situation. Can you explain what happened there?
Ooph. Right after Ohtani knocked his 50th out of the park in Miami, a priest brought a youth choir to the game to sing the National Anthem, tweeted out that he had a bunch of extra tickets that he would give away in exchange for donations to his parish. I’m a Dodger fanatic, and I feel insanely fortunate to be alive at the same time as Shohei Ohtani, because what he does on the field is remarkable. And as a collector who loves a good story, I couldn’t pass up the chance on owning a ticket to the game, especially one I bought via Twitter DM from a Catholic priest. I recently took the ticket to PSA to get graded, and they said it was a reprint and denied the grade. But this is where Mantel really comes in handy — I posted about the saga on the site, and a member did some digging to determine that the ticket was likely authentic, but had different codes on it because it was part of a group purchase. I’m going to take his receipts back to PSA and hopefully convince them to re-evaluate the item. So maybe, just maybe I wasn’t scammed by the Reberendo Padre.
What are you seeing in the demographics of collectors? Do you think they’re currently changing in any significant way?
We’re absolutely seeing more women and young kids collecting sports cards and memorabilia now than we saw in years past. That’s one thing I love about this hobby — an 80 year old and an 8 year old can share the same passion. We’re working hard to make sure Mantel is safe and troll-free, and we’re actually working with an influential group of women in the hobby to ensure our Code of Conduct is rock solid. When we launch our Groups feature later this month, we’ll also have dedicated Women in the Hobby and Kids in the Hobby Groups, as well.
How do you ensure a safe, troll-free social network?
We’ll have built-in safety features at launch, so users can block/report offending posts. And we’re going to be utilizing AI to help ensure certain offensive words and phrases aren’t used. And of course, we have human moderators. But the most important thing we can do to keep the community safe is set the right tone, and encourage the right type of respectful conversation. Our community will be our best moderators, and they’ll help us maintain an experience that feels safe and fun for everybody.
What are your predictions for the hobby in the new year or over the next few years?
I’m watching how Fanatics and Topps continue to innovate and market the hobby. I hope they ease up a bit on the ‘chase’ aspect of collecting, where everyone tries to pull a handful of big cards, and the rest of the cards end up with little value. There’s a gambling aspect now with breaking, chasing, Topps Now that is absolutely fun- I participate in all of that- but can be a bad thing if the industry isn’t careful. I think we’ll see breaking, chasing, Topps Now and repacks all continue to grow in 2025, given how lucrative they’ve become. CT scanning may become more prevalent, which could create distrust when buying any sealed product from a third party. And I think auction houses will break a bunch of records. If the economy and the crypto market stay hot, people will invest more in alternative assets. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again.
What innovations do you think are most needed or coming up on the horizon in this space?
A lot of emphasis has been placed on tech solutions for pricing cards (e.g. CardHedge, which is integrated into Mantel, or MarketMovers), scanning cards (Ludex, CollX, HeyStack), grading cards (Shoebox, TAG), and collection management (Mascot). It’s great to see so much innovation in the space, with some really smart people working hard to provide products that will make collecting easier and more fun. If Mantel can serve as the hub for collectors — the place where collectors find the best services and tools — we’re doing something right.
As someone who collects a wide variety of things, what non-traditional collectibles do you think will have staying power?
I’m a firm believer in buying what makes you happy vs. chasing trends or hype. If you do that, what you buy will have staying power simply because the items will always mean something to you. Recently I’ve had my eye on ghostwrite, a collectible toy brand from Josh Luber, the former CEO of StockX. They did a great NBA collab, a golfing collab with Eastside Golf, and they have a new one coming out with the WNBA. I’ve also started grabbing signed stock certificates, which is a funny corner of collectibles that is starting to gain a little steam. I recently grabbed a Converse stock cert from 1926, signed by Marquis Mills Converse, the founder. Will it ever make me rich? Probably not. But I think it’s very unique and cool.
As an entrepreneur in this space, what’s your assessment of the health of the industry now that we’re a few years out from the pandemic boom?
The pandemic was good and bad for collectibles. So many people had time on their hands, a desire for community / connection, and maybe a few extra stimulus bucks in their pockets. Tons of people jumped into collectibles, some to make a quick buck, and some because they had genuine passion for the hobby. Once the hype died down and prices came back to earth, a lot of the get-rich-quick-schemers bailed, but those who had real passion stuck around. The entry point to collect is now lower than it was at the pandemic height, and we’ve seen a lot of innovation come into the sector to make collecting easier and more fun. I know I’m heavily biased here, but I don’t think the sports collectibles space has ever been healthier.
What’s next in Mantel’s evolution?
Over the coming weeks we’ll debut Groups, dedicated spaces where collectors can go even deeper down the rabbit hole, connecting members in dedicated spaces based on niche interests, like “Women in the Hobby,” “NBA Junk Wax” or “Vintage Non-Sports Cards”, as well as creator-led spaces giving members direct access to their favorite hobby follows. Trading and transacting on Mantel will become easier and more fun, too. And you’ll see us grow our tools for different non-sports collectibles, like comics, toys, coins and even watches. We want to build for “the collector,” not just “the collectible.”
(All images: Mantel)
