Nat Turner didn’t have a lot of money growing up to purchase high-end sports cards.
He enjoyed heading to local card shops around The Woodlands, Texas to pick up packs of basketball and baseball cards. Turner found enjoyment in collecting base and insert cards of NBA greats Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
It wasn’t until the upstart entrepreneur sold his first company, Invite Media, when he was in his early 20s that he had some money to play with. Turner co-founded the company that Google purchased for a reported $70 million in 2010.
“Without thinking, I literally just started buying one of every Jordan and Kobe card because I couldn’t afford them as a kid,” Turner told Sports Collectors Digest. “It was this weird like release where I was buying things I could never have.”
It didn’t take long for the startup mogul to co-found another successful venture. He sold Flatiron Health in 2018 for a reported $1.9 billion.
At this point, Turner could afford to purchase any sports card in the world.
Instead, he did the next best thing. Turner, along with an investor group, purchased Collectors Universe, which owns third-party grading giant Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). The investor group finalized the deal in February 2021 for $853 million.
Turner’s rise in the sports card hobby is nothing short of amazing. Now he’s one of the giants in the industry as his impressive personal collection grows daily.
Turner, who lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, has an extreme passion for collecting.
“It’s always something to do and there’s something to chase,” said Turner, who is CEO and Executive Chairman at Collectors. “I love organizing things and completing things. Having a checklist of 100 things and it being hard to find all 100. I don’t know, I just love that process. I really love the art
