Building a Hobby Powerhouse: Brian Walders and BWA Breaks
When Brian Walders was working as a store manager for Target in Florida, he noticed a an increasing trend: customers were lining up for trading cards before the doors even opened. Why is there so much demand for this stuff? he wondered. That curiosity set off a chain reaction that would take him from retail employee to full-time hobby entrepreneur in a matter of years.
From Collector to Breaker to Shop Owner
Walters’ love of collecting goes back to childhood afternoons with his grandmother, who encouraged his first Tampa Bay Buccaneers collection long before card shows or eBay streams were part of the picture. “My grandma and I would go to the Bucs training camps and I still have autographs from players like Mike Alstott in my PC,” he recalls. That early bond—rooted in team loyalty and family connection—still shapes the way he approaches the hobby today.
Walders started collecting in earnest in 2020, focusing on baseball and football, aligning with his personal passion for the sports. Within months he was hooked—not just on cards but on the business opportunity behind them. By early 2021 he launched BWA Breaks, a live-selling operation built around the adrenaline of group breaks. This summer, he took the next step: opening a brick-and-mortar store in Land O’Lakes, Florida.
“As much fun as it is to have PC stuff, I wanted to grow my business so I’ve reinvested most of my cards back into building the business,” he says. That focus on growth—rather than personal collecting—has shaped every decision since.
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Betting Big on Football
Many breakers chase basketball or baseball. Walters zagged to focus on an underserved market.. “The pop culture of football in the U.S. is so much bigger, in my opinion, than basketball and baseball,” he explains. He predicted the football card market would catch up and then some. The 2020 NFL draft class—Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa—proved him right, sparking a sustained hot streak for modern football cards.
BWA Breaks focused on building a community across social media (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram) and built their initial community breaking on Facebook.
Today, football and Pokémon are the heartbeat of BWA’s eBay Live streams, and player performances move impact demand in real time. A big game on Sunday? Expect spots for winning teams—and their big name players—to sell out that night.
Live Selling as the Future
Walders is equally bullish on the format that made his name. “Live selling is where all of e-commerce is going,” he says, pointing to China, where 35–40% of online retail already happens live.
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Platforms like eBay Live are his stage of choice, blending entertainment with instant gratification. The secret sauce: “Being consistent really drives results and drives the community to where you’re having those same guys come back regularly.”
While most of their daily breaking shows are focused on current releases like Optic and Prizm, BWA Cards recently broke a case of 2020 Prizm Football—hitting some big cards for customers. “We pulled some great stuff, including a Blue Cracked Ice Herbert, a Jalen Hurts auto, a Tua Green Scope /75, and a Justin Jefferson RPA /99” said Walders. “For a case of Prizm, I was really impressed—I’ve seen some cases not go that way.”
Fun fact: In his time breaking, Walders has pulled over 70 of the coveted Downtown inserts from Optic!
What’s Next for BWA
While most people would be happy having a thriving store and online business, Walders is only getting started. The immediate plan is to increase the duration and frequency of their breaks on eBay Live for both Pokémon and sports cards.
Even more exciting and ambitious? Their five-year plan includes a second retail location and a dedicated off-site breaking studio—evidence that BWA Cards sees breaking not as a fad but as a permanent shift in how collectors buy cards. “It’s never a bad time to pull a Downtown,” he adds with a grin. “It always gets the juices flowing.”
Lucas Mast is a writer based in California’s Bay Area, where he’s a season ticket holder for St. Mary’s basketball and a die-hard Stanford athletics fan. A lifelong collector of sneakers, sports cards, and pop culture, he also advises companies shaping the future of the hobby and sports. He’s driven by a curiosity about why people collect—and what those items reveal about the moments and memories that matter most.
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