As a kid in the late 80’s, my older brother, dad, and I would take a drive down to Mission Valley the first Friday of every month. Sports cards were widely popular when we were kids and the Scottish Rite Event Center was the spot for our beloved monthly baseball card show. We would hit the show every month with a little bit of pocket money that we’d spend on packs of cards, singles of players we liked, and supplies that we needed to sleeve up our good cards. Ahhhh… the good ole days in sunny San Diego at the Scottish Rite Center as a young sports card nerd.

As my collection of cards grew and I got older, my interest began to fade in the hobby. I was too busy hitting .200 as the last guy bench of the high school baseball team, bumping all things Death Row, and beginning to chase Filipino girls through AOL instant messenger. But while I didn’t care for my collection as much, I still kept it stashed at my parents’ place because there were so many memories loaded in those card savers, penny sleeves, and 800 count cardboard boxes. They were relics from a childhood I loved so much. Memories were packed into sports cards just like they were with my music collection. The feeling of ripping a pack and smelling that stale piece of gum ranked up with my favorite activities of all time. But I just hadn’t done it in a very long time….

The pandemic hit and we were all forced to stay inside our homes and find new ways to pass the time. I was used to hanging with my friends any chance I could but my wife was pregnant at the time so the unknowns with Covid kept me inside looking for things to do. My wife used any spare time she had to organize like nobody could even imagine. She needs her own HGTV show because she’s next level. But for me, my organization was just sifting through all of my collectables that I’ve stashed over the years. One being an unopened box of 1991 Yo! MTV Raps which I broke down and ripped every pack to shreds in the matter of 2 or 3 minutes. I was that fiend who just came up on a quick hit of that good good and I got lifted. I felt the rush of ripping packs again.

So then I did what every rational 41 year old would do with a baby at home. I took my bonus and fat tax return and just balled out on sports cards. A few G’s here, a few G’s there, a few G’s everywhere. My first time ripping packs in a store in 2021 and I dropped $800 on a few blasters like it was nothing. Charged it to the game. Pulled a Zion cracked ice rookie parallel and thought I hit gold. Then my buddy Mickey breaks the news that my card is off-centered so its value is pretty much gone. Sweet… Thought I was sitting on a bag but nope…. I paid a lot for the packs too now that I think about it. And I had to drive too damn far to get them. Gas is a grip these days. I wasted my damn money like an idiot. Money gone….

I had the itches just trying to get my next hit…. I needed to rip more packs. But the problem was that I would have to drive at least 20 miles just to find some packs to rip. Well actually, there is a spot not too far from me but every time I go they are closed. Are these people about making money or nah? I’ll lean on the latter. My brother mentioned the idea about getting peeps together at a brewery to hang out and trade cards. My homie Mickey was saying that there was a need for a trade night. And then we got Brooklyn Greg who eats, breathes, and sleeps on 10 in my ear telling me we need to do this shit. His ideas are million dollar ideas but we’re trying to make a dime out of a nickel so they’ll have to be in the stash.

Then I thought about my buddy Scott who runs Hardihood Cowork down in North Park…. He had a rap show there before… He would for sure be down with me throwing an event right? I didn’t have to even sell him…. We locked down the date and then it was on. I internalized all of the information people had fed my mind with and put the world on my shoulders like I always tend to do. At this same time, I was running out of my prescription meds and my local pharmacy, my psychiatrist, and my psychiatrist’s assistant all let me down. I went 3 days without my Klonopin and didn’t really think much of it. But that 3rd night was bad…. I couldn’t sleep… Bad thoughts came into my mind. In a few minutes I went to a deep dark place that I’ve lived in on and off for the better part of 5 or 6 years. I slept an hour and a half that night with crazy nightmares and a mind racing faster than a lambo.

It was 12:15am and I was up for the night. My wife was asleep on the couch so I tiptoed to our balcony and grabbed my weed bag and went to the middle of the street outside of our apartment complex. I pulled out a joint, lit it, and looked down the hill with my hoodie on and realized it was time to go to work. I kicked an email to Todd, Mickey, and Brooklyn Greg with my ideas for the show. I got input from each of them and Todd even came by The Maketory and we whiteboarded everything out…. Great ideas… Todd crushed it. And then Brooklyn Greg erased it without anybody taking a pic of it. Dude….. My memory is shit…. I forgot all of it. So from the hours of 12:30am - 3:30am I looked through cards and bumped nothing but Benny the Butcher while putting my thoughts together. More weed… More ideas… More weed… More ideas. But you know what? A year ago I would have been walking around aimlessly in the middle of the night which is a lonely dark place for anybody. But this year I took my weakness and turned it into my strength and built the foundation for the event. Hit Yams up with the flyer and this was the first one we went with.

Went woodgrain on the design with my homie Yams and what we were left with was a buttery flyer that spoke to the all the sports card nerds. Gotta pull on their heartstrings ya know… Don’t worry… I’m one of those dorks too. But then we had to flip our other flyer… the real flyer. The flyer for The Exchange. This isn’t just a sports card trade night, it’s a vibe. We’re going to have dope local artists doing their thing on the spot. We’re going to have some fire mini machaco and chorizo burritos. The Spindrift will be flowing on tap for all flavors. The baklava will have just the right amount of crunch. The music will be dope. UFC action live as it happens. Fresh live edge coastal wood home decor all over the place. This is a marketplace for creatives y’all. If we can build this one event, we can blow this thing up in San Diego and create a community that shoots the shit about sports, music, or whatever. This is all a part of my dream. Saturday, November 6th from 5pm - 10pm down in North Park. Hope you can cruise!