The Chase Ep. 18 Recap

Gritser of East:West Sports Cards joins ‘The Chase’ to discuss Fields 1/1 pull

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

The 2021 NFL draft class at quarterback has received quite the buzz and hype over the last year. With six solid QBs – Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Davis Mills III – the interest in the hobby has been impeccable. Each QB has pulled significant value in everything from flawless to national treasures and more.

For Joe Gritser, owner of East:West Sports Cards, he got to witness the excitement of pulling one of the top guys from that 2021 class.

Gritser recently pulled a one of one Justin Fields horizontal shield auto out 2021 Panini Flawless. Fields is currently the Chicago Bears starting quarterback and was drafted out of The Ohio State University.

Gritser, live from the East:West store in Naples, FL, revealed his excitement with the Fields pull. In a video on social media, he continuously shouted “Ricky!” who won the one of one in a break. In the same break, Gritser said Ricky also pulled a rookie patch auto out of five of Trevor Lawrence.

“He’s been on a heater,” Gritser said.

For Gritser, he said breaking began in his garage in New York City pre-pandemic. After getting some traction, he said he joined up with a business partner, which then kick started the move to Naples. He admitted, the pandemic helped boost interest in his company, as many people turned their attention to breaks as entertainment. Additionally, Gritser said his interest in the hobby came at a young age, collecting and ripping packs in local shops. His interest soon turned to WWF figurines, but then his interest once again peaked after seeing a friend’s Instagram story of a Prizm Zion Williamson card. After asking some questions about the card, he claimed he began looking back into cards and then after watching breaks, he felt his experience with figurines was perfect to help develop a page for breaks.

“I jumped in a group where they would let anyone do breaks or whatnot. And I hooked up with a guy for some product and I started doing it on a smaller scale and then I branched, did my own group and basically it snowballed from there,” Gritser said.

A big fan of National Treasures and Flawless football, Gritser said the emotion upon seeing the Fields one of one was unprecedented.

“You know that one of one you see the platinum blue color. I didn’t know what it was, because usually you see some of the shields are vertical rather than horizontal. And it was the first shield that I’ve pulled from the Flawless product this year, so it kind of took me by surprise. Once I pulled it, since it was the first one of this year, it took me back. I was pumped,” he said.

The Fields pull isn’t the only heat that’s come Gritser’s way recently. He went on listing several pulls East:West has ripped open from the likes of Jones, Lawrence, Aaron Rodgers, Jerry Rice, Mills, Wilson, Lance, Tom Brady and more.

“We’re very thankful we have a great (group). We are tight-knit, we’ve met up many times. We have a fantasy league,” Gritser said of the community in his breaks. “I don’t like to call them customers, I like to call them friends. They’ve supported me from day one.”

East:West will be in Atlantic City at the National next week at booths 5100 and 5102. Gritser unveiled some big plans ahead for the group, including giveaways for spots in breaks. Thursday through Saturday they will break, one being a 32-random-team National Treasures football from 2017 to 2021; and Friday will be basketball, also from 2017 to 2022, just to name a few. Gritser said there will be giveaways almost daily for spots in breaks of high-end products.

East:West Cards can be found on Facebook, WhatNot, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Also on “The Chase” …

• PSA recently released their stats for the month of June. To see a full list from the athletes submitted by sport, top sport graded, and much more, visit here.

• The crew ripped open two boxes of 2021 Leaf Trinity Baseball Wednesday and the hits were pretty good. David pulled a Robert Hassell patch auto, Gavin Williams patch auto and a Kahlil Watson out of 50 patch auto. Additionally, Troy had a solid Zac Veen acetate auto, as well as Hedbert Perez out of 25 patch auto. For a chance to win these big prospect pulls, comment on the YouTube video “prospects” to be entered. Winners will be announced on Friday’s episode.

• Additionally, wanna have a chance to go to the National? You have your chance now. Check out the box rip from Wednesday’s episode and comment who you felt pulled the most heat from a monetary viewpoint during our “box war”. So simply either comment “David” or “Troy” on the YouTube video of today’s show and we will select 2 random winners to each take home a sold-out, all-access Super VIP package to the National next week!  Winners will be announced Friday for the Super VIP package.

For more information on everything Dave & Adam’s Card World related, visit dacardworld.com or visit all the social media platforms here.