Sports Market Report

Bill Mastro – The Ringmaster of Memorabilia

If you ask most serious sportscard or memorabilia collectors where they acquired some of their top pieces, they are sure to name MastroNet, Inc. This Willowbrook, Illinois consignment auction house has represented some of the most significant, high-end cards, collections and sports collectibles to ever enter the marketplace.

Since the company was founded in the early 1980s, they have carved out a niche as one of the top forums in which collectors can buy and sell high quality individual items and important collections. MastroNet, Inc. has built their reputation on offering consignors the peace of mind that their consignments will be treated with the utmost care, and that every aspect of the auction process will be executed with the greatest attention to even the smallest detail. They have staked their claim by providing highly respected research and authentication services that have made them one of the most acclaimed auction houses among sophisticated and discriminating collectors.

From the start, MastroNet, Inc. has been committed to publishing the finest quality and most beautifully designed catalogues that boast the largest circulation of any auction catalogue devoted to a specialty field of collectibles. Every item they present is photographed in full color and accompanied by an in-depth historical description. Today, they send out well over 15,000 copies of their auction catalogues to the most prestigious sports collectors in the world, renowned athletes, professional teams, museums, institutions, and even to those who have made MastroNet, Inc. catalogues themselves collectors items.

MastroNet, Inc. was also at the forefront of the Internet’s role in the collectibles field by establishing a sophisticated, secure, and user-friendly website that was the first to offer internet-telephone integrated real-time bidding. Their site receives over 3 million hits per auction, making it the most visited auction website devoted to the hobby of collecting sports memorabilia.

The man behind MastroNet, Inc., who ringmasters this magnificent amassment of memorabilia, is Bill Mastro, a tightly wound, mass of energy whose electrifying personality and over-the-top bluntness is not for the faint of heart.

“I’m a high energy guy,” says Mastro. “I’m high energy to the max – with an attitude. But I have gained a reputation as being a guy who has provided the marketplace with excellent stuff. I’m a perfectionist who knows and cares about the quality of the things I represent.”

Widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of the high-end sports collectibles world, Mastro grew up in a middle class home in rural New Jersey. “I was a collector when I was a kid,” Mastro recalls. “I was always a collector. You either have it or you don’t. There’s a gene we collectors are born with and I saved everything comic books, baseball cards all sorts of things.”

In the mid-1960s, when sports memorabilia collecting was still in its infancy, then-12-year old Bill Mastro discovered a small, almost clandestine group of guys, who had established a network in which collectors communicated with one another.

“I really found the collecting of cards to be a hobby in 1965,” says Mastro. “There were a few guys who advertised in these small ads in The Sporting News. Most of them were just interested in trading cards. They would put out these mimeographed lists to about 200 people of what they were looking for or had to trade. Very few people sold cards back then.”

Mastro says that it was only after he responded to these ads that he became aware of the fact that vintage cards even existed. “It blew me away to learn there were cards made in the 1940s and before,” says Bill. “I loved those old cards. They fascinated me and I spent every dime I made as a kid on sports collectibles.”

As the sportscard hobby began its growth, a handful of collectors began fancying themselves as dealers and, by 1969; they began to surface at local flea markets. Shortly thereafter, organized card shows and conventions started popping up although they were few and far between. It was during that time that collectors began to realize there was so much more to collect than vintage cards and current Topps sets. Regional issues from various food-related companies began to capture attention as did “collector issue” sets that weren’t available in retail stores and only sold directly to collectors.

One of the largest manufacturers of collector issue sets was the TCMA Company, founded by the legendary collector and dealer Mike Aronstein. TCMA released their first offering, a set entitled The 1930s, in 1972, and Aronstein went on to become the king of collector issues, putting out over 120 different sets throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s.

“I remember my dad drove me up to Mike Aronstein’s place – his basement,” laughed Mastro. “I bought a card there for $45 and I remember my dad thought I was crazy for spending that kind of money on a card. But those were great days. I met guys like Bill Haber, who was the statistician and historian for Topps who also wrote the copy on the backs of cards. That was when a whole new world opened up for the hobby. It was when it went from being a hobby of faceless mimeographed sheets to being a hobby with real people and personalities. When collectors started to meet one another at these card shows, it became a fellowship. That’s when the hobby really began to flourish.”

During the 1970s, Mastro, a dedicated fan of the New York Mets, would make regular pilgrimages into Manhattan for conventions. “I would go to places like the Roosevelt Hotel for shows,” Bill recalls nostalgically. “I would buy and sell cards to make money to feed my habit. That was a time when it was still easy to go way beyond Topps and Bowmans without a lot of money. I became obsessed with older cards and regional issues. It was such a great time. Guys came from all over the country with cards other guys had never seen before. Believe me, it was a lovefest!”

A lovefest was genuinely what the hobby was back then being as those cards were purely pursued for love rather than money. “It was so different back then,” says Mastro. “There were no price guides. It wasn’t about money. It was about the hunt. What you needed. The art of the deal when it came to trading. Watching how deals were made. It was so much fun back then.”

While many collectors lost interest in card collecting during their college days, Mastro was the exception. His interest in cards actually increased. As he continued to buy and sell, he became known as the student at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who always had money. “I was the only kid on campus the mailmen knew by name because I was always receiving packages of cards,” laughs Mastro. “I was running this little business out of my fraternity house. It was during that time I began putting together complete sets to sell. Remember, you could put together sets of Goudeys and T-206s for a few hundred dollars back then. I was 19 years old and had completed major sets that I was getting $1500 a piece for.”

After completing his undergraduate degree, Bill’s desire to pursue a career as a respiratory therapist led him to Chicago. While studying in the Windy City, he also taught classes and proudly admits to having made more money selling cards in the evening then he did at his day job in the classroom.

By the early 1980s, Mastro had married and was working as a successful respiratory therapist. It was then that a realization slapped the breath out of him. “I started to realize I would never really make any money as a respiratory therapist,” Mastro recalls. “Then in 1982, my wife Mary Lou said: ‘Why don’t you sell sports collectibles?’ She encouraged me to do it full-time. It was a really bad time to get started. We were in a recession. But I just decided to do it. I sold off a lot of my cards to finance the start-up of my business.”

Mastro attributes his early success to the many people he had crossed paths with due to his longtime involvement in the hobby. “I had tremendous people in my life to help me,” he says. “They helped me understand collectors their psyche what to do and what not to do.”

When Mastro first began presenting his wares at conventions and shows, his displays clearly stood out from the rest. “I always had the best stuff on display,” he says. “My tables looked like a museum display. I’m extremely meticulous and it showed in the way I presented things.”

Along with his elaborate displays, Mastro says he was also a standout because he didn’t sell the typical Topps and Bowmans that most dealers were handling. “I only sold the old stuff, and I gained a reputation as being the guy who carried excellent quality stuff.”

Soon after establishing himself as a widely known and respected card dealer, Mastro began to acquire an appreciation for other types of sports memorabilia. “I have stuff all over my house,” he laughs. “I believe collections should be displayed and enjoyed, not hidden away in a safe or a safety deposit box.”

Among the items that are on display in the cabinets and on the shelves of his twelve thousand-square foot home are original photographs, game-used items, and a healthy supply of Mets memorabilia.

While he hedges at naming any one thing as his favorite piece, he clearly considers a Babe Ruth hand print in cement that bears The Bambino’s signature to be the focal point of his amassment. “I’m not really into the big things,” says Mastro. “I enjoy what I see as the miracle of existence, the small things that have survived. Sure, I like some of the big things like game used-uniforms. I had a Cobb uniform, a Ruth, a Robinson, but I sold them. Take the T206 Honus Wagner card that sold for $1.3 million dollars in 2000. I owned that card once and maybe I’ll own it again someday.”

Mastro also points out that when it comes to adding to his own personal collection, his approach is devoid of any highbrow notions such as preserving things for further generations. “I collect for two reasons,” he states bluntly. “My own personal enjoyment and to make money.”

And make money he does. Even he is quick to admit that many of the items that MastroNet, Inc. offers are not for the faint of heart (or more accurately, for those who are void of a hefty bank account). “There’s no question that our stuff is on the high end pricewise,” he declares in an unrepentant tone. “I’m running an auction house and my job is to make it a successful business. My goal is to do the very best job of doing what we do. We were the first to put out a full color catalogue. I have always demanded that the catalogues we put out have to be the best in every way layouts, paper, photography, descriptions everything has to be of the highest quality. I’ve seen the horrible flaws in the auction business and I have always been determined to do everything 100 percent advertising, promotion, everything. I want my clients to get what I would want my wife to get for my stuff if something happened to me.”

Mastro is also blunt when asked if it is the pure love of the hobby that keeps his fires burning. “No!” he flatly states. “I love my stuff but, when it comes to the business side, I don’t enjoy a lot of what I have to do to make this company the best. I’m not like some other executives who sit behind a desk and oversee things. I have conversations with each one of our employees every day, no matter where I am. I’m down in the trenches. I personally go through collections. I personally load things on trucks. Very few executives do that. I would be lying to you if I told you I love it. I don’t! But it is what I have to do to be the best at what I do. Our customers expect that, and they deserve that.”

As for the current state of the sportscard and memorabilia hobby, Mastro believes that it is incredibly strong and will only get stronger thanks to today’s more sophisticated methods of authentication. “I’m a dinosaur when it comes to this business,” he laughs. “I’ve seen it all, and today it is consumer confidence that is the big thing. The more authentications that exist on an item, the better. Knowing that respected companies such as PSA and PSA/DNA have authenticated something, authentication that will run with the item for life, brings real confidence to buyers. Collectors want that confidence and they are willing to pay for it, that’s what authentication does for the hobby. I hate the doomsayers. This hobby has never been stronger. There is a tremendous collector base out there and I dwell on the positive and stress the positive things that are happening in our hobby. Believe me, more people want a signed Babe Ruth ball today than ever before, and they are willing to pay for it.”

And so, one may wonder if the hobby is so strong, and if Mastro is so positive about its future, why did he recently sell MastroNet, Inc to Silk Road Equity LLC, a private investment firm that invests in and acquires businesses?

“It was strictly a financial, business decision,” Mastro explains. “I’m still the CEO and I’m still running the company just like I always have. I still do it all. I proof every page of every catalogue. I know people think I’m crazy but it is that attention to every detail that has made MastroNet what it is my sticking my nose into everyone’s business. I come to work motivated everyday because I care. I’m not leaving! I’m not going anywhere!”

MastroNet, Inc. is a subsidiary of Silk Road Equity LLC of which Andrew J. “Flip” Filipowski is chairman and chief executive officer. Filipowski is one of the world’s most successful high-tech entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and industry visionaries. Named one of the100 most influential individuals in the technology field as recognized by Upside magazine, who named him to its 2000 Upside Elite 100 list, he built one of the top ten global software companies in record time and now devotes all of his expertise, thought leadership and entrepreneurial talent to the portfolio companies of Silk Road Equity. For further information on MastroNet. Inc. you can visit them on line at www.mastronet.com or contact them at (630) 472-1200 or info@mastronet.com