Jimmy Haight of Kennebunk and Sean Roche Haight of Wells launched a startup named Yabe to help sports card collectors track down rare finds.
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Got your eye on a rare sports trading card you'd buy if only you could find it? Matching collectors with “bounty hunters” who track down sought-after treasures is the specialty of Yabe (pronounced “YAH-bee”), an online marketplace launched by Jimmy Haight of Kennebunk and Sean Roche of Wells.
Mainebiz caught up with the duo, who talk about cards like automobile buffs talk about vehicle makes and models.
Mainebiz: What sparked your interest in starting Yabe?
Jimmy Haight: I have been obsessed with new technologies and their impact on how people cooperate and get things done. I was fascinated with how new technology of programmable money could make a bounty system possible for the first time ever. Sean has been a lifelong collector and incredibly passionate in the space. When I pitched Sean on the idea for a bounty marketplace, he immediately knew it could work in the collectibles space because it solved a problem he himself had, spending years looking for something that never showed up on eBay or an auction house.
MB: How did the two of you connect?
JH: My wife and Sean met while working at IDEXX. Sean and I then became mutual friends and have known each other for five years prior to starting Yabe.
MB: What’s the business model behind Yabe?
JH: We are a demand-side marketplace. A collector posts a bounty for a rare item that they are looking for. An example would be, “I am looking for Shohei Ohtani’s rookie card from Japan and I am willing to pay $15,000 for it. We activate a network of bounty hunters to go out and find the items for the collector. When we have a match, we ensure the authenticity of the item and take a transaction fee as a percentage of the sale price for facilitating the transaction.
MB: How do you help collectors find what they’re looking for?
JH: We have a network of people who know exactly where to look for rare items. They go to card shows, know the right people to message, and have a nose for where things might be. When they find an item, they get a finder’s reward as compensation for bringing it to us.
MB: Who and where are your clients so far?
JH: Our clients are serious collectors who are searching for valuable items to complete their collections. They are based all over the U.S.
MB: Any big finds to date?
JH: We set the record for the highest sale of a Bronko Nagurski card graded PSA-2 for $60,000. We also helped a collector assemble the rarest and most valuable boxing card set of all time known as the 1948 Leaf Boxing Set. We are selling the set on the collector’s behalf and expect it to fetch seven figures.
MB: What era and types of cards are your specialty?
JH: We are especially good at sports cards of all eras. However, vintage cards from prior to 1960 are where we have had our biggest success.
MB: What card(s) would be a ‘holy grail’ for the two of you?
Sean Roche: A 2020 Panini Donruss Optic Pat Tillman Downtown Gold Vinyl 1/1 PSA 9. Just a great story behind the card and incredibly valuable. If we are talking vintage, it would be a 1933 Sport Kings Jim Thorpe PSA 9 — what a crazy backstory he has and potentially the best athlete who ever lived.
JH: A first-edition Base Set Charizard, because when we were kids we used to love Pokemon cards and I remember exactly where we were when my friend opened up a pack and got this Charizard and we all freaked out. (I wish he had kept it all these years.)
MB: What do you offer that other collectibles companies don’t?
JH: Everyone else works like a traditional marketplace, offering a venue for you to sell something you already have. Yabe inverts this model, activating the world to go work on your behalf. In doing so, we also allow enthusiasts to earn money by hunting for cards and doing what they love while helping out fellow collectors.
MB: What did you learn from this summer's National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill.?
JH: Bounties and cards in general are becoming increasingly mainstream! The $10 million bounty placed on the Ohtani Dual Logoman card from Mr. Wonderful was something so big and popular that it crossed over to mainstream attention, and I don’t think there is any stopping this trend.
SR: There is so much liquidity in cards. Millions of dollars in deals every day and mostly cash-only vendors. You could sit next to high-end tables and watch hundreds of thousands of dollars transact in an hour. Also, vintage is still booming. Lots of vintage cards and ‘90s inserts are gaining traction.
