Susan Lulgjuraj of CSG joins ‘The Chase’

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

It’s Wednesday y’all and “The Chase” was back with another episode locked, loaded and ready to go. Today’s guest was Susan “Sooz” Lulgjuraj, Marketing Manager of CSG. Some may know her with her Twitter chat “Card Chat” every Wednesday, some by her Twitter presence as @yanxchick and even her days as a sports writer for 15 years. 

Sooz has always been a collector, including a huge collection of Derek Jeter as a Yankees fan. Originally, growing up, she wanted to be a science teacher, but eventually grew disinterested in the topic. So, after weighing what her favorite things were, she decided to go to school for communications to become a sports writer.

Eventually, her writing and love of the hobby collided as she created a blog around 2004 with her friend. Through that, she said she met so many people in the hobby, which eventually led to freelance opportunities with Beckett. This led to many more connections as her sports writing continued, being the football, basketball and hockey editor for Beckett’s magazine, but soon sports writing turned into a marketing opportunity.

With the rise and hype of the hobby, there could possibly be a rise in sports journalism. Lulgjuraj said “There are times where something news will break or something will happen and I get that itch to want to be a journalist, to report, to write about more than just, ‘Hey, look at my cool card I just pulled. Look at this big hit.’ There are so many stories to dig into within this hobby, that I think there is a definite space for that. But the difficult part is that digging, but that’s what makes a good journalist. … But I think there is space for some really impactful stories and not just kind of fluffy pieces.” 

She added that her background in journalism, in addition to love of the hobby, helped transition her to her newest role in marketing. 

“A big part in journalism was also adapting to new tools, and that included social media and blogging. … So when I was able to go work at Topps, a big part of the tools I was able to take from my personal toolbox was picking really great images for card, because that was one of the first jobs I had. … It was also taking over their social media and being able to do press releases. But at the end of the day, it all kind of scales out to the same thing and that’s being able to tell a story,” Lulgjuraj said. 

She added, with telling a story, you have to connect it with what the company is all about, but also connect with the collectors. 

Additionally with her position, she said her passion for the hobby continues to flow, but she continues to become even more educated on the hobby everyday. 

Lulgjuraj added that she heard of the CSG opportunity from former Chase guest Andy Broome, whom she worked with at Beckett. 

“He knew my background, knew I worked as a marketing manager prior to my time before CSG and he asked ‘Hey, are you interested?’ and I said ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ Because it actually fit every box of what I was looking for for my next step in my career,” she said. 

She also mentioned that her program, Card Chat, on Twitter is really a way for collectors to connect. Lulgjuraj said she’ll ask questions to the chatters, but mainly a lot of people just want to chat and discuss the hobby. She reads every reply too, she said, because it is “important to me that people take time out to participate in Card Chat.” She added that the connections are one of her favorite parts of the hobby as well. 

“For me, I’ll never take for granted the connections I’ve been able to make in this hobby,” she said. 

For more on Lulgjuraj, check out her Linktree with all her links!

Also on “The Chase” …

The crew talked more about those amazing Starting Lineup figures. Great news for the lovers of the 6-inch characters and football: Hasbro and the NFL and NFLPA came to an agreement to create figures for some of the biggest superstars in the sport. Pre-orders will begin in 2023 exclusively on Hasbro Pulse, and all across the Fanatics network of online sites, including NFLshop.com. 

Aside from the gridiron, the crew also ripped some WNBA Basketball Prizm with the WNBA guru of D&A Card World breaker Steve Richardson. The hits were aplenty, including a Sheryl Swoopes gold auto out of 10 and also an A’Ja Wilson gold out of 10. These were just two of the biggest out of a plenty of hits. To win, comment on the YouTube video who your favorite WNBA player of all-time is. 

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