We recently connected with Darrell Halk and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Darrell , thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

In November of 2022 my company Halkman Sports was approached by the sports agency team Beverly Hills Social Club about an exclusive autograph memorabilia deal with Rangers catcher Jonah Heim. It was an honor that their team reached out to us and we were excited about the possibility of an exclusive partnership with a young, seemingly up and coming player like Jonah but had some concern about the financial commitment it would take to secure this deal. Our company has always been more focused on working with retired players who’s track record has already been proven and working out deals based on a per item payment structure or a lower risk lump sum payment. We had never been a company to sign up and coming players based on potential.

Jonah had just finished the 2022 campaign hitting 16 home runs but had batted .227 so there was some unknown on if he would take the next step forward in his career. With some hesitation, I agreed to the deal believing that Jonah could win the starting catcher job in Texas and take a strong step forward in the 2023 season. It would be a big win for all involved as Jonah would go on to being named the 2023 American League All-Star Starting Catcher, win the 2023 American League Gold Glove for Catcher and help lead the 2023 Texas Rangers to their first ever World Series Championship. Following the World Series Jonah and Halkman Sports were able to participate in a major private autograph signing with large companies like Fanatics and TriStar and achieved record sales via the Halkman Sports Website Store for collectors looking to add Jonah to their collections. This was a huge win for Jonah and the Halkman Sports Team. We truly believe Jonah will only continue to grow as a player and will continue our exclusive relationship through the 2024 calendar year with hopes of working out an extension post our original contract.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Halkman Sports provides public and private send in autograph signings for collectors to gain access to current and past sports, movie and television stars to add autographed items to their personal collections. We are collectors ourselves so whether getting one of our stock items signed or handling a collector’s prized irreplaceable item we treat every item as our own. We aim to provide a quality signed item that every collector would be excited to show off or display in their home or office.

The way I got into the business is through forming relationships with numerous former players in attempting to add items to my personal autograph collection based on some of the collecting projects I was intending to complete. When making connections for myself I realized that I could help other collectors by offering signings with the guys that I was connecting with. I began conducting periodic signings with guys in 2007 and when co-writing the autobiography for former MLB All-Star Glenn Wilson in 2012, I made numerous connections that opened up increased opportunities for me to do signings and led to the launch of Halkman Sports.

We now run and admin some of the largest groups on Facebook for collectors looking for public and private autograph signing opportunities giving us access to tons of customers and fellow collectors that we have been able to help with their collections dating all the way back to 2007. Some of this groups grew to 20,000 plus members after numerous collectors jumped back into the hobby during COVID in 2020. Darrell and Halkman Sports is now one of the most trusted names in the Sports Memorabilia industry.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think the key to building your audience on social media is following people who already are interested in the item or service that you are selling. You can’t sell books to people who don’t already love to read. You can’t sell sports autographs to people who don’t already love sports or collect autographs. We make a point to add people weekly who are already engaging with sports or autograph content to our friends list to help build our customer base. I also think telling the story of your why on social media is important. The question I get all the time is how did you get into this? One of the most interacted with post we have online is about our why and story. Tell your story. People connect with stories.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I can’t count how many times I thought maybe it was time to walk away from this “fun”, passion based business as I was busy with my primary careers in Real Estate and Ministry but something continues to bring me back. The ability to help people add something the treasure to their collection is what keeps me going. Seeing a fanatical fan who is so beside themselves excited that you are able to get their treasure card or item signed or to help them relieve some fan moment from their childhood makes it all worth it. With the Rangers winning the World Series this year, it felt so good to give local fans access to one of the stars of the team that helped make the dream of every Ranger fan come true. It felt good to know I was helping add to the experience for Rangers fans. If you keep your “why” in front of you, it will help you navigate through tough times, times where maybe your passion wains or you have that one customer that can’t ever be pleased and helps you keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.halkmansports.com
• Instagram: halkmansports
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/halkmansports
• Linkedin: darrellhalk
• Twitter: durkel777

Image Credits
Tiffany Halk