BUILT BY A FATHER

It started with my son. Like a lot of kids, he fell for basketball hard — the posters on his wall, the jersey he'd sleep in, the moment he pulled his first Panini Prizm silver from a pack at a mate's birthday. From that day, every spare dollar went into one thing: NBA cards.

As a dad in Australia, I wanted to help. So I did what parents do — I went online to buy him a sealed hobby box for his birthday. What followed was months of frustration: American retailers that wouldn't ship to Sydney, shipping quotes that cost more than the box itself, customs forms, three-week waits, packages that arrived dented, and never a single price listed in Australian dollars. Every time my son asked "did it come yet?", I felt the gap between his excitement and how hard it actually was.

I kept thinking: there has to be a better way. So this year — 2026 — I built it. HobbyCard is a Sydney-based shop that only sells factory-sealed NBA hobby boxes, every price in AUD, every box checked before it leaves our hands. We're new, we're small, and we care about this more than anyone.