Duquesne student turns hobby into a side-hustle

A young man poses for a photo with a retired baseball player at a sports memorabilia convention, with autographed merchandise and a table covered in pens in the foreground. — [Courtesy of Noah Imhof] Imhof met Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago. The show is the largest of its kind in the United States.

Rebecca Jozwiak | multimedia editor

Five years ago, the world was a different place. Littered with masks, stay-at-home orders and virtual hangouts, the COVID-19 pandemic changed livelihoods across the world.

For Duquesne University Junior Noah Imhof, the pandemic was the beginning of a new hobby: sports card collecting. A Gibsonia, Pa., native, Imhof found interest pre-pandemic in sports memorabilia through his attendance at Pittsburgh Pirates’ games and receiving player autographs.

“When COVID hit, I couldn’t go to games anymore,” he said. “A fun way to stay involved in the hobby was collecting cards.”

While the rest of the world was on pause in 2020, Imhof took the year to immerse himself in the world of card-collecting, going to Target and browsing Instagram to buy packs of cards.

As the Digital Marketing and Business Analytics major earned money at fast-food jobs at KFC and Taco Bell, Imhof was able to put more of his own money into the hobby and started to make a profit off of his collection, especially in his junior year of high school.

“What really got me started was during COVID, I collected [a] Nolan Arenado, he said.”. “During COVID, he got traded, so I was able to sell one of his cards that I bought for $300 for $900.”

Over time, Imhof began to grasp the ebbs and flows of the second-hand trading card business. He began to buy low and sell high, reminding himself that flipping cards was the key to revenue.

A 2023 Topps Transcendent Collection baseball card featuring Shohei Ohtani, displayed in a protective case, with a grading of 9.5 for gem mint condition and a Beckett autograph rating of 10. — [Courtesy of Noah Imhof] Imhof flipped a Shohei Ohtani card for $2,750. The card featured an autograph and a piece of a game worn Ohtani jersey.

The process typically begins on social media, where Imhof scouts sites like Facebook and eBay for potential purchases. He attends card shows in the area in search of interesting finds. Once he finds a card that he knows he can successfully flip, Imhof will look over the condition of the card and bring it home.

After the scouting process, he gets the card’s value graded on a scale of one to 10 by the Professional Sports Authentication (PSA). While he gets the card graded, he’ll also take into account any injuries or controversies that the athlete on the card has, which is why he focuses on vintage baseball cards.

“Say Patrick Mahomes goes out and tears his ACL next week,” Imhof said. “His cards are going to be half in value.”

Situations like these are common in the card trading world: While certain circumstances depreciate the value of the card, other circumstances can also make a card extremely valuable. Imhof recounted moving a rare Hank Aaron card for $3,000 this summer.

“I loved that card so much,” he said. “That card was hard to move.”

As Imhof moved onto college, he made sure that he was still involved with the card-trading business. His roommate, Koen Breighner, also trades cards. The two met through Instagram.

“I’ve been collecting [cards] since I was young,” Breighner said. “My dad bought me a box back in 2012, and ever since then, whenever I see a box, I open it.”

Breighner’s area of expertise is in modern football card trading. He noted that modern collectors are often more difficult to work with than vintage collectors, where Imhof’s expertise lies.

“The modern market can be filled with some pretty bad people,” Breighner said. “Most people in vintage are good people.”

According to Breighner, Imhof is one of those good people. Breighner said he might not have gone to Duquesne if it wasn’t for his friend.

Framed purple baseball jersey of Nolan Arenado, displaying the name 'ARENADO' and the number '28' on the back. — [Courtesy of Noah Imhof] One of Imhof’s favorite memorabilia items is his signed Nolan Arenado jersey. Although he has met some players, including former Pittsburgh Pirates first-baseman Josh Bell, he has never gotten the chance to meet Arenado in person.

“I actually hadn’t known about Duquesne as a school until I meant [him],” Breighner said. “He told me that he was going there. I toured it and loved it here, so I decided to commit.”

Imhof’s friendly but determined demeanor has proven successful for him going back to childhood when he met one of his closest friends and fellow collector Max Ahmadi over Playstation back in 2014. The two remained online friends throughout the years, finally meeting in-person in 2019.

Like Imhof, Ahmadi took COVID as an opportunity to fully envelop himself in the business mechanics of card trading. The two often helped each other out with advice, and still continue to do so.

“There were definitely things on both sides that we shared in terms of advice and looking out for each other,” Ahmadi said. “We were both – and still are – active on social media, so that was one way of staying connected.”

Despite being in different locations, the two still connect over card trading now.

“Most people go to Walmart and Target and they just look for clothes, vinyl records or a new TV,” Ahmadi said. “When we go to Walmart and Target as collectors, we’re always going to see what the inventory stock is like for cards.”

As he continues his studies, Imhof stays consistent in the sports memorabilia world. He plans to attend his first show as a vendor in November, proving that over time, a side hustle can grow into a lucrative business.

Rebecca Jozwiak can be reached at jozwiakr@duq.edu

Features Editor Josh Imhof is the subject’s brother and was not involved with the writing or editing of this story in any way.