Betau & Loney of Cardsmiths join ‘The Chase’

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

It’s Wednesday and “The Chase” is back after a long Labor Day weekend. As we steadied back into action, the crew welcomed Jeff Betau and Steve Loney on the show from Cardsmiths. 

If you didn’t know, Cardsmiths is an interesting company who uses creative designs and art work based on pop culture, comic books and gaming titles. Some of their sets include Currency, Street Fighter, Bob Ross, Double Dragon and Golden Girls. Betau and Loney mentioned their idea for the company, as well as some of the creative thought that goes behind their products. 

“He and I have both had an affinity for trading cards,” Betau said. “A few years back, we started noticing the trend coming back in the hobby with trading cards, and we thought we really had some good ideas and some interesting thoughts as to how we could contribute and maybe tackle some genres and themes that aren’t being covered.” 

Betau added that since the sports trading card realm was dominated already, he figured they could dive into the entertainment and pop culture realm to try and make a splash. 

As more entertainment/pop culture cards start to come to fruition, Loney said him and Betau had background in the field and that a lot of attention has not been given to entertainment cards. 

“In the sports world, you have all these cool cards, chase cards, autographed cards, variation cards. But it seemed like when people made entertainment cards, they weren’t really doing the same thing. They were just working with screenshots or making some character cards,” Loney said. “I wanted to take some of the concepts from the sports world and apply that to the entertainment world. I wanted to make some of the cards using similar variations and chase cards. … I think that’s one reason why entertainment cards have failed, because people haven’t done that.” 

He added that the entertainment world is almost, if not, bigger than the sports world and if sports cards can make it, it leaves a wide open door of possibilities for entertainment cards. 

Loney added, when people rip open cards, they’re on the chase for the rare card to show off on their socials, which he said with the Cardsmiths sets, people have a chance to do, in addition to stellar looking bases, unlike some other pop culture and entertainment.

Betau said in the Currency set, there is an Elon Musk sketch card and it’s been a very popular card, which shows the amount of variety in genres the cards have. Additionally, in the same Currency set, consumers can find crypto currency redemptions. 

On their website, they have a statement that reads “Expertly crafted trading card sets by collectors, for collectors.” 

Betau said the quote truly means what it says, as both him and Loney grew up as collectors. 

“We’ve come up, first and foremost, as collectors (and) enthusiasts. … We’re deeply interested in pop culture and literary content and video games. … We’re collectors at heart, so we feel we have a good understanding of what the collector is looking for,” Betau said. “When we go about setting up our card set, we try to think of it with a collectors mind. … We want every card to speak for themselves.”

Multiple products on the Cardsmiths site say coming soon, but Loney said they’re very close to being live on the site. 

Loney added, the entertainment cards realm could greatly benefit if it had an ambassador, sort of the way athletes hype up sports cards, because the youth nowadays heavily follow celebrities. 

“I think if we could find somebody that might be able to help our cause. I’m not looking for a pump, just someone who actually believes in cards and would help support it and get the word out more,” Loney said. “Being in this trend of pop culture business now for over 20 years, you see things take off out of nowhere and things get very popular that at one time aren’t. … If you see a Luka Doncic card sell for $5 million, who says that a Kim Kardashian or Elon Musk autographed card can’t sell for ‘X’ amount of dollars.” 

To discover more on Cardsmiths, visit their website. 

Also on “The Chase” …

Wednesday, the crew opened the new release of 2022 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Hobby. The cards included a Victor Robles game used memorabilia quad patch out of 99, a Colin Moran patch out of 50, Christian Yelich game used mem out of 99, a CJ Abrams rookie card out of 50 and a Nico Hoerner dual patch auto out of 399. And those were just some of the notables.

Interested in winning them? I thought so. All you have to do is comment on the YouTube video how many home runs you think Aaron Judge of the Yankees will finish with this season. 

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