Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA

EP #358: Inside Sports Treasures: Knoxville’s Hub For Cards, Pokémon, And Memorabilia

• Skip Mauney & Zach Haire • Episode 358

Share episode

A childhood hobby, a 36-year legacy, and a community that keeps showing up—this conversation with Sports Treasures owner Zach Haire is a tour of what makes a local card shop thrive. We pull back the curtain on Knoxville’s go-to spot for sports cards, Pokémon, and memorabilia, just minutes from the University of Tennessee. Zach shares how a summer job turned into an online business, then into buying the brick-and-mortar shop, complete with the sleepless early months, a bank that took a chance, and the steady work of building trust one customer at a time.

We get real about card values and the “junk era” of the 80s and 90s, why sealed cases still exist decades later, and how social media hype skews expectations. Zach explains how to avoid counterfeit Pokémon pitfalls, what to look for in print quality and stock, and why education protects kids and parents in a fast-moving market. On the brighter side, you’ll hear the excitement behind UT player signings, the joy of a great pull, and the everyday rituals that make a shop feel like a clubhouse—library drawers of singles dating back to 1952, boxes to dig through, and regulars who stay for hours.

What resonates most is the human piece. Zach talks about wearing his 10-month-old at events, structuring hours to get home for bedtime, and keeping inventory fresh without relying on a website because demand moves too fast. We also spotlight the shop’s Facebook and Instagram rhythms, from new product drops to the lively “tip case” game. If you care about local card shops, vintage baseball, modern rookies, or Pokémon chases, this is a grounded, insider look at how a family-run business outlasts trends with knowledge, integrity, and a welcoming space for collectors of all ages.

If this story connects with you, follow the show, share it with a hobby friend, and leave a quick review so more collectors can find us.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Money.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. So we are thrilled to have a special guest in the studio with us today who's not, if this is their first time, joining us. So we're very excited to have them and learn all about them and their company. And I'm sure you will be as well because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Mr. Zach Hare, who is the owner-operator of Sports Treasures. Zach, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

How's it going? Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, glad to have you. Like I said, excited to learn all about your business. This is what we focus on is small locally owned businesses and nonprofits. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about what you do?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. So I own Sports Treasures. I'm here in Knoxville, Tennessee. I've been the owner now for roughly three and a half years, getting close to three and a half years. Business been here for 36 years now. It's in uh in North Knoxville. Uh, if you're familiar with the Knoxville area where the the Broadway exit, uh, get off going towards halls. Um we're out there not far off the interstate. Um deal primarily in um in sports cards as well as uh memorabilia. Obviously, we're about 10 minutes from University of Tennessee's campus, so we do a lot of uh Tennessee memorabilia. We had uh Tennessee's quarterback Joey Aguilar and Star Receiver Chris Brazil on here actually last Thursday for a signing. Um but on top of all of that, uh I'm actually sitting here right now. So what I was doing was uh pricing uh Pokemon cards. That's uh they're just as wild and crazy right now as uh sports cards. Um so we do a lot in that realm as well, too, with the Pokemon and um TCG, but primarily sports cards. We've probably got gosh, I think our Facebook and radio ad says over a million cards, but it's probably closer between three and five. Um we have the old school uh library catalog drawers from back in the day, um full, and they go of baseball. Baseball goes all the way back to 1952 to current football, is um we go back, I think, early 70s. We have some older but not in the drawers, and then basketball, we have a lot of the um 90s, early 2000s in those drawers as well, plus boxes upon boxes of quarter and dollar cards as well for people to dig through.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. I bet that's fun too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yeah. We've got uh we got people to come and spend about their whole day with us just digging through them.

SPEAKER_02:

I bet. I bet. Well, very interesting, Zach. How did you get started in this business?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so I was a kid, uh obviously collected cards like a lot of um kids nowadays do out there. Uh, you know, I did I did the Pokemon and I worked my way up, you know, kind of transitioned to sports cards, but there's never really there's sports treasure, and there's a couple other card shops in town, but when I was a kid, um there's really just sports treasures and and wall of fame. Uh Wall of Fame was out west. This is more north, and I'm I'm from the west part of Knoxville. Um it would just kind of go through phases like you know, a new little card shop would pop up, or you go to I go to Walmart in the summer and um buy sports cards here and there. And then um when I got to high school, I actually uh stopped in at Wall of Fame out west and uh before football practice. And uh the owner at the time go, hey, we're fixing to move basically across the parking lot, need a summer job. And I was like, I'm sure, you know, nothing else to do in the summer. So um started working there with them, and then I'd work there uh during Christmas, and then when I'd come home from college, I'd work there in the summer and Christmas as well. Um got to be good friends with a lot of the people that worked there and the owner, and then um that really is when my love for the hobby and the collecting started to grow. And then in um 2016, the owner of Wall of Fame suddenly passed away. And um just kind of talking to him and and his kids at the time was able to purchase his inventory and his eBay store and um the IRS then started calling it a business about the same time instead of a hobby. So uh so kind of worked there doing a lot of online stuff, and then um the owner of sports treasures here, he'd always joke, like, oh, you should buy my shop, you should buy my shop. And I was always at the time, you know, no one's gonna give a kid, the bank's not gonna give a kid money to buy a card shop. And um just kind of over time got a little more serious about it, and um, you know, it worked out. The the bank gave gave a kid money to buy a card shop and uh take over an existing card shop, but it's kind of uh like I said, it was always a hobby. And then 2015-2016, the the IRS said it was no longer a hobby, that it was uh a job. And so that kind of uh when that happened, I thought, well, if it's gonna be a job, let's you know, work on it. And um, you know, I I was a licensed insurance agent, my dad owns an agency, so I was doing that till you know about three and a half years ago, and then uh when I bought the brick and mortar store here, been been full go there for since then.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. Wow, what a story. Well, what are some myths or misconceptions? I'm sure there are some in the in the card business.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um the biggest one, and this is uh it's hard to say as a as a card shop owner, but uh odds are the cards you have aren't worth what you think they're worth. Um you know, we we get a lot of people bring cards in, you know, they see on TV these cards are selling for large amounts of money. Those exist. Um, but you know, most things people bring us are 80s and 90s, and um 80s and 90s are what they call the junk era of of sports cards. And um they're in here somewhere I can show you where I'm at, but I've still got sealed cases of 1987 Topps baseball. That's how much of it they made. Um, so that would probably be the biggest misconception is most people think that, you know, my dad gave me these, or uh I got these as a kid, you know, I'm gonna get these, and I see all these people selling cards for a large amount of money. I'm gonna take these down here, I'm gonna sell them, and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna take a Disney vacation. And um, you know, there are cards out there that will do that. Um, you know, but but those cards aren't as common as you think in a bulk of what people have are these eighties and nineties. Um so unfortunately, that's um you know, that's probably the the biggest misconception is is not not all cards can just retire you.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's a big one. That's a big one. Yeah, which is makes your job very important to be able to tell people, well, this is actually worth X, not XXX.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's the big thing, and and then probably the toughest thing as a shop owner is when a kid brings you like this happened a couple weeks ago. A kid brought in a Pokemon card, and it's it's it's a decent card, 40-50 bucks, but his was fake. So you had to, you know, you gotta tell the kid, oh, you know, sorry, this this is not a real card. And then just see the disappointment look on the face is always tough. Um, you know, because a lot of times, you know, they may have traded for it at school and the kid they got it from didn't know it, or you know, it's just uh that can be that's that's the hard part of of this job a lot of times, or you know, you you see a kid and he thinks he's got you know something that you said, you know, big and special. I've got you know, Jackson Dart's the big rookie right now. I've got this Jackson Dart card, you know. Well, it's it's five bucks, it's ten bucks, you know. It's unfortunately that that's that's the downside to it, but then you know you the upside of it is when you see somebody opening the pack and they they do pull that you know Jackson Dart autograph that's worth a bunch of money, or they pull that big Pokemon card that's worth a bunch of money. That's the see the joy on it. So there's there's good and bad at both ends of it.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. But of course you'd rather see the happy battery. Yeah, well, if uh let's switch gears for a second. Can you think of a hardship or life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger on the other side?

SPEAKER_01:

Um hardship or challenge. Um I would say definitely the probably still in the middle of it now, but it uh it molds me and uh makes it who I am and do it now is um you know I said it's been three and a half years since I uh took over the shop. Obviously, it took a hefty bank loan um to be able to do it. And um, you know, a lot of people see these people on social media and about the sports cards and stuff, and kind of going back, you know, saying not most cards aren't enough to retire you. You know, people see these guys that are social media influencers on cards and and things like that, um, you know, that making the big bucks and stuff, but it's it's a grind to be here. And there's um, you know, I'm getting into it now and and things are great here. And but there were definitely some um some nights when I first took it over that uh I definitely was sitting there thinking, you know, why did uh why I talked myself into doing this? Why did I um you know, I wish somebody had told me don't do it, it's a bad idea when I was, you know, uh I'm just gonna throw all my cards away. It's not worth the trouble. I wish I never opened a pack of cards before. Um, but now to be where I'm at, you know, on the on the back side of that, you know, working the way down from the peak of of that, you know, I think it helps, makes me stronger, come over it. Because, you know, now I know that um, you know, I could I can do it. It's gonna work out. You know, if you put in the time, put in the effort, grind, put in the hours, um, you can get through it. There is the light at the at the end of the tunnel. Um, you know, I've got a uh I've got a 10-month-old now at home. Um so that's that's the the difference now too is you know, I am at the point now where and making the adjustment, you know, I used to come in at 8 o'clock in the morning and be here at 8 o'clock at night. You know, now I now I drop him off at daycare at 9 o'clock and get here at 9 30, and then I leave at right at 6. Right, get home to see him, but you know, I've got the pieces in place to able to do that. And it's but I think those first you know 12 to 16 months uh of the shop were definitely the hurdle that you know I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about what I can do um and accomplish, you know, and and it's you know, I always joke, I said, you know, I used to have to take uh omeprazole, which is for for stomach acid, and I was like, now I think my body's just used to the stress and it just doesn't phase me anymore. Yeah, I don't even do that anymore. I'm over that. It's my body's like, you know what, it's just gonna be stress, but you know, it's it works out.

SPEAKER_02:

It works out. Well, it is not easy to start a business or or or to take over a business. It's not easy, but it can be very, very rewarding. I I feel you, brother. Um me too. Yeah, I'm in that I'm in that boat too. So uh if you could think of one thing, Zach, that you'd like our listeners and viewers to remember about uh sports treasures, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, you know, definitely I think that it's uh, you know, I'm I'm not family to the original owner. You know, his father started it in '89. He took it over, worked with his dad, and his father passed away 20 or so years ago. You know, he took it over and ran it. But, you know, that it's as I say, as you see these things on social media, is fanatics is controlling a lot of things now in the card world. You know, you see these Tom Brady's opening card shops, uh, Bruce Buffer from UFC's opening card shops. You know, you're getting bigger corporate shops, but you know, we we've been here in Knoxville for uh local for 36 years now. You know, we are the family business. I mean, like I said, you know, we had um Joe Aguilar and Chris Brazzle out here last Thursday for half the signing. My wife had Jackson, our 10-month-old, strapped onto her, and the other half I had him strapped on to me. You know, we are the, you know, your we want to be your local go-to family, you know, card shop. You can come in, hang out, um, you know, knowledgeable, know what we're doing. We want to be here, you know, help continue to grow the hobby. Um, you know, that that's the goal. You know, you you teach kids about it, you know, how to collect and what they like to collect and how to take care of their cards, and you know, the joy of, you know, like you said, you know, you pull your favorite player. It may not be an expensive car, but you, you know, you really like Shohei Otani and you pull a car to his, you know, to keep building that hobby for they continue to collect as they get older. And then as they get older, you know, their kids may get into it, and then their kids collect. So to be able to, as you're in this, you know, the previous owner, you know, he sees people that they came in as kids and collected, and now their kids are collecting, you know, and I see it now as you know, there were kids coming in first brought the shop and they were buying Pokemon. Well, now they're buying football cards, you know, and just kind of um work through that way, and that would be what I think is you know, to remember about Sports Treasure, you know, is we're here to help impact the community, the the card collecting, the memorabilia connecting community, and um to always be here for them, providing the best experience we can, whether it be meeting players, opening cards, hanging out with their friends, trading, that type of thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. Good thing to remember. And uh local means everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, very much.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So if uh any of our listeners uh are in the region or interested, they collect cards, they'd like to come check your shop out. How can they learn more?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. So um a lot of people ask we have a website. We don't have a website because things in this industry move so quick. By the time we get it loaded, it'd probably be sold out. Um so we are, like I said, here on on North Broadway in Knoxville, uh 4819 North Broadway. If you are super familiar with the area, Broadway exit going towards Fountain City, we're in the shopping center right next door to Big Lots. Um, but we do have a Facebook page, uh Sports Treasures. The logo, I mean back here with it. I don't have anything. The logo, it says Sports Treasures, guy with a hat, sunglasses, and a beard. Um, we almost always post new products in there. Um our tip case, which took off about a little over a year and a half ago, is a game we play in the shop. We play on Facebook now. Um we also have uh Instagram, which is Sports Treasures TN. Um, you know, and old school. Uh you can always call. And uh it's really old school. It's 865-688-CARD or 865-688-2273, for those that don't know how to do the old school texting um uh there on it. Um like I said, we're open uh Monday through Friday, 10 to 6, Saturday, 10 to 4, closed on Sundays. Um Facebook probably is the um the easiest way to get us, uh just because there or Instagram, away you know everything integrates the same message place now. Um but yeah, that would be the best way to catch us. Like I said, and we do different events. You follow us on social media, you'll see about our signings, new products, uh, new cards that just came in, all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome, awesome, very good. Well, Zach, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to hang out with us and tell us all about your really cool sounding uh uh sports card store and uh wish you, your family, and your your customers, your business all the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely same here, and uh maybe we can have you back sometime.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, I'd love to.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, sounds great. Have a blessed rest of the day. Have you as well?

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Tri-Dash Cities dot com. That's GNP Tri-Dash Cities dot com or call four two three seven one nine five eight seven three.