Greg Rouse fell in love with collecting baseball cards growing up in the 1970s.
At the time, his hometown Cincinnati Reds were a dominant force in Major League Baseball, winning multiple World Series championships throughout the decade. The Reds’ on-field success helped cement his love for collecting off the field, which he continued over the decades.
Now 59 years old, Rouse co-owns a brick-and-mortar sports card shop in Fort Mitchell with his sons Jake and Evan. The business is booming, netting the trio a substantial online following within the sports card industry and a kiosk inside Great American Ballpark. The kiosk is thought to be the first known sports card shop inside a major league stadium.
Despite the success, Rouse never envisioned opening a sports card shop as a younger collector. His mentality changed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ushered in a resurgence of interest in trading cards.
“During the pandemic, I mean, let’s face it, everybody in the world had two things: time and money,” Rouse told LINK nky.
People were feverishly buying card packs online and in big box stores and watching online card-related content, such as live pack openings. The Rouse’s were enthralled by the pack openings and routinely watched them throughout the pandemic. That’s when they wondered, Rouse said, ‘what if we could do that too?’
This question led to the birth of Hit Seekers—no, not the brick-and-mortar store—the Facebook group. In 2020, the Rouses created a group for buying, selling, and opening sports card packs. The Hit Seekers name is a double entendre, referencing looking for a hit while playing baseball and ‘hitting’ on a valuable card when conducting a pack opening.
The Facebook group quickly gained popularity. Many members of the group began to ask for more frequent pack openings. The influx of requests piqued the trio’s entrepreneurial senses.
“We started thinking about expanding it into a real business,” Rouse.
Undeterred, the Rouse’s bought out Planet Collectables, a sports memorabilia shop in Florence. Their goal? Create a space to grow the Hit Seekers burgeoning online streaming business – something Rouse said now accounts for approximately 80% of the business’s annual revenue.
‘“What we really wanted to do was see if we can utilize that space to grow the online streaming business,” Rouse said.
Rouse hired two streamers to open packs on stream for five-hour daily shifts. He said there was ‘nothing more difficult’ in his business career than finding steamers. His prerequisites were twofold: enthusiasm about all sports and understanding of the online streaming business.
“You are talking into a phone into a microphone and there are times during your stream where you may be talking to yourself, and you have to be able to do that,” Rouse said. “You have to be entertaining, right? Anybody can sit down and open a box of cards on a camera, but you have to be entertaining. You have to have your passion, and your enthusiasm has to come through. You have to leave people wanting more. That’s a hard thing to find.”
Matt Stephens fit Rouse’s description perfectly. He had been collecting sports cards since childhood and refound his love for the hobby around the pandemic. As an added bonus, Stephens was a professional wrestler for ten years and understood how to entertain audiences. Upon a chance meeting with Rouse, he was hired to stream for Hit Seekers.
“So COVID happened – I didn’t have a way to entertain,” Stephens said. “I was able to take the entertainment piece and take my love for sports cards and the entertainment that I’d learned for the last 10 years, put them together, and do a thing that I really enjoyed.”
Stephens compared streaming to working as a baseball broadcaster; instead of reacting to the game or a crowd, he’s reacting to words on a screen.
Currently, Rouse employs multiple steamers who open packs on Loupe and Fanatics Live. They stream anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day every day of the year, Rouse said.
Still, to be truly relevant in the space, Rouse said Hit Seekers needed a brick-and-mortar store. When the Fort Mitchell storefront at 2501 Dixie Hwy became available, they pounced.
Hit Seekers officially opened in June 2022 to plenty of fanfare. Rouse’s primary focus was running a ‘modern card’ shop. Essentially, Rouse wanted the store to be organized and accessible, have highly knowledgeable employees, and sell the best card boxes.
When entering Hit Seekers, patrons will see multiple card cases against each wall to their left and right. The cases are divided into different sports: basketball, baseball, football, etc. Each case features several rare and valuable sports cards prominently displayed for the interested customer.
The back of the store features a U-shaped desk where employees can help customers. To the left of the table sits a magnifying glass to grade cards. The instrument resembles something you’d see in a jewelry store.
Upon opening, the store saw immediate success, garnering recognition from local and national collectors. It’s been especially popular with younger customers and families.
Carson Grizovic, a customer, told LINK nky that he enjoys the community aspect of Hit Seekers and appreciates the accommodating staff as a newer collector.
“This place has been great,” Grizovic. “I’ve been coming here for probably about two or three weeks consistently now – every time, I always seem to walk out with something I’m really happy with.”
Regardless of the success, Rouse said his favorite aspect of the business is introducing the joy of collecting to younger people while simultaneously reintroducing collecting to older people – rekindling the flame, as he calls it.
The Hit Seekers kiosk at Great American Ballpark gives Rouse the opportunity to speak with a variety of potential collectors, both young and old.
“I love the diversity of the people that we get to meet down there and the stories that we hear are just amazing,” Rouse said.
One of his personal passion projects was developing trading card clubs within three local schools. Rouse said the club allows kids to enthrall themselves with the joy of collecting while also developing proper etiquette and respect for the hobby.
“I think the thing I’m most proud of that we’ve done is I have developed trading clubs within schools,” Rouse said. “We essentially form a relationship with generally a parent liaison at a school who wants to do this so that I can manage the club from the Hit Seekers side, and they manage the parents. It has turned out to be probably the coolest thing that we’ve done since we opened Hit Seekers.”
Hit Seekers is poised to celebrate its two-year anniversary with a blowout event on Saturday, June 22, at its flagship storefront in Fort Mitchell. The event kicks off at 9 a.m. and lasts until 5 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to participate in doorbuster sales, hourly giveaways – including Reds tickets and collectibles – PSA gradings, and the potential to snag a limited-edition Hit Seekers 2nd Anniversary t-shirt.
In addition, Reds center fielder T.J. Freidl will make an appearance from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. to sign free autographs for the first 100 visitors, along with one of the Reds’ three mascots. RSVPs are required to secure a spot for an autograph; visit www.hitseekerscardbreaks.com for registration information.
