We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zahid Butt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Zahid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
I believe that Corporate America has kind of forgotten what the Hobby is about. The price points that they have on some of their products is kind of steep in my opinion, especially for the individuals whom are just now entering the hobby. I remember the kind of joy that I felt when I first cracked a pack as a child and I pulled a Michael Jordan card. I would sit beside myself there in disbelief. I never had a chance to come across an autographed Kobe Bryant card but if I can get it at the right price and sell it at a reasonable price I would much rather see that happen just in that off chance I am able to make the hobby remain affordable i.e obtainable, that is my whole goal when it comes to helping keep the hobby going. Hopefully that way I am able to stick around for a long time too.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
A couple years back when everybody was kind of ‘stuck at home’ I saw that there was a bunch of people talking about the hobby again. I refer to the hobby of card collecting as the hobby, just to clarify. So of course when I saw the numbers of what some of these cards were going for I couldn’t help myself and decided to dig up some of my old cards that I collected from the ages of 8-14 and well turns out I was unknowingly sitting on a handful of extremally rare cards. That mixed with my everlasting passion, love that I have for the game of basketball. I just sat back one day and asked myself. What would Kobe do? and with the help of my parents and their support and love I decided you know what I am passionate enough about this and love this game enough to make this dream a reality. Now here I am finding myself giving an interview about it actually surprisingly enough eases my anxiety about jumping head first into the industry.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
So this whole dream began for me a couple years ago, when I was bedridden from a sustained injuries from a pretty bad car accident. My son had just turned one years old and I knew I needed to grow up quick in order to be around for my son in the long run. Physically I was stuck at home, battling depression, lost the ability to workout and play with my new son. But I got better and kept at the daily grind working x,y,z, jobs for random big companies. I knew I wanted something else I wanted my own business I wanted to dedicate my time and energy into something that means something to not just me but advantageously be beneficial to others as well. So after 2 failed attempts at filing my paper work incorrectly with the state, literaly the third time was a charm August 31st 2022 I got it approved and recived my emails back from the state. The state of Florida that is, which again unexpectedly to me ends up getting hit my hurricane Ian September 28th 2022 to be exact. And the name of the company if you look up the County I am from just so happened to get leveled by the eye of hurricane Ian. So I lost everything all the stock I attempted to save over the last year and a half, all gone. but that hasnt stopped my despite damage being down to the entire town I managed to find a little office space in a building in the neighboring town. But when we are done rebuilding Charlotte County FL just know that I will have a brick and mortar location in the meantime I will remain on the road at Card Shows and my website (ecommerce)
Have you ever had to pivot?
I believe the Hurricane Ian pivot has been the latest example of a pivot.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ccfinest.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottecountysfinest_llc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086755361994
- Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/charlottecountysfinestllc