Blake Martinez made $28.5 million in his seven seasons as a professional in the NFL. He retired in November 2022 to fully focus on the business he launched in July. in these seven months his new professional activity has generated income of 5 million dollars. All thanks to his love for Pokemon cards.
Martínez (Tucson, Arizona, 1994) played three seasons with the Green Bay Packers (2016-2019), to later go to the New York Giants (2020-21) to later land in Las Vegas Raiders where he retired just two weeks after selling a Pokémon card (one from Pikachu Illustrator more specifically) for $670,000(650.000 euros).
In his time as a linebacker in the NFL reached 84 games. He led the NFL in tackles (taking an opponent down by locking their legs) with 144 in 2017. He averaged 148.6 tackles from 2017-20.
During the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, when everyone was stuck at home, He began to resell his Pokémon cards when he saw the money that was moving between collectors before the sale carried out by influencers like Logan Paul . At this time he had signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Giants.
Now the only thing that hurts is my fingers from opening about 1,000 packets of letters a day
In 2021 the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee was torn which left him off the field until September 2022. Released by his team, he signed for the Raiders, but he already had in mind leaving the field to spend more time selling cards through his company Blake’s Breaks.
“Now every day when I wake up, my shoulder doesn’t hurt and my back doesn’t hurt anymore. Since the only thing that hurts is my fingers from opening about 1,000 packets of letters a dayI think, ‘I’m going to keep doing this,’ says Blake Martinez.
In the last seven months, has generated over $5 million in revenue on collectibles reselling platform Whatnotas reported by CNBC Make It. A quarter of the revenue goes back to the business, Martinez said, while the rest goes to him and the company’s 15 contract employees.
Martínez He began collecting Pokemon cards at the age of six. The $15 weekly pay was used to buy envelopes. He had over 1,000 cards in an album that he played with his friends. With the passage of time, her mother decided to give away the album that she had forgotten at home.
Seeing the money that moved during the pandemic with the sale of cardsHe decided jump headlong into buying boxes of these stickers to resume your collection. She paid thousands and thousands of dollars. Then, in streams on Whatnot, he would open the boxes and auction off the cards.
He started to earn a lot of money and, after retirement, he started the company Blake’s Breaks. It has branches in Miami and Denver, and soon in New Jersey. He wants to open two more in Canada and Great Britain. He hopes to reach 10 million annual income and also incorporate the sale of comics, step prior to adding all kinds of products sold on the Whatnot platform to your catalog.
