Meet trading card king Tubman Breaks: 'I've sold £2m worth of cards using live selling'
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'Oh my days, oh my days,' Andrew yells, the happiness in his voice undeniable. 'This is insane.'
Andrew Thomas, known in the trading card world as Tubman Breaks, has just unboxed a one-of-one trading card autographed by former Brazilian football players Ronaldinho and Rivaldo.
It's a rare card, and Thomas is understandably happy with the pull, but he isn't adding the card to his own personal collection.
In fact, Thomas is livestreaming the unboxing on the live selling platform Whatnot.
Some of the cards he is showing have already been purchased by viewers who are hoping he will reveal a prized player, others cards are soon snapped up by buyers during the livestream.
Sometimes six days a week, potential buyers login to the platform to watch Thomas open trading card packs, be it football, Disney, Marvel or Pokémon.
On Whatnot, Thomas's Tubman Breaks page has amassed more than 18,000 followers.
In the space of less than two years, Thomas's life, along with that of his wife, Chantel, and his son, has changed dramatically
The first of Thomas's current 65,600 sales came less than two years ago when Whatnot invited him to joint the platform as a seller.
Up until then, Thomas had only used the platform to collect trading cards, a hobby he and his son had picked up during the pandemic.
After Thomas's first live selling show, there was clear demand for more live streams, he says.
He told This is Money: 'We went from doing one show a week through February, then we did six shows in March. Then we must have done eight or ten shows in April.
'Then we got to the point where we thought "we're going to have to take this more seriously".'
Thomas began streaming two to three times per week, all the while working full time in motor sales.
'In July last year it got to the point where I was running myself into the ground. I realised I had to either stick with my nine-to-five and stream once a week, or take the leap of faith.'
Thomas chose to jump.
'We never really looked back. It just went from strength to strength, and since we have opened up the second page and we hired another breaker [someone who opens packs of trading cards on a live stream],' Thomas said.
'Now we have a small team of breakers, a third page opening and we are launching an independent website.'
In action: Andrew Thomas's doesn't hold his emotions back when he unpacks a prize card on a livestream
In the space of less than two years, Thomas's life, along with that of his wife, Chantel, and his son, has changed dramatically.
In the first ten months of trading, Thomas's business has turned over more than £2million in sales.
It's hard to give exact projections for the future, Thomas says, but there is an expectation that sales could surpass £3million in the next year.'
'Put it this way,' Thomas said, 'we're a lot busier now than we were when we started.'
It is Thomas's work as a car salesman that he credits with enabling him to be so successful on Whatnot.
He said: 'I've always been able to sell, my background was selling in the motor trade, I always felt like I could do this.'
For the trading card uninitiated, these figures may seem eye-watering, but the market for such collectibles is thriving.
Certain cards, especially those that are unique or autographed, can reach well into the thousands of pounds.
In December last year, Thomas made sales of more than £25,000 in a single show as viewers made purchases ahead of Christmas.
Live selling, meanwhile, is booming in Europe, with applications going far beyond just trading cards. On Whatnot alone, $3billion worth of live sales were made across the world in 2024.
Globally, some two million hours of live selling are watched by Whatnot users, with the average watch time extending well beyond an hour per day.
More and more sellers are joining the platform. In Europe, the figure is growing 600 per cent year-on-year, Whatnot said.
Daniel Fisher, Whatnot UK's general manager, and head of categories and expansion, told This is Money: 'We had more sellers join the platform in the first five months of this year than we had in the entirety of last year.'
In the US, Whatnot's main market, Fisher says Whatnot is the US' fastest growing online marketplace ever, surpassing the likes of Uber and Airbnb.
Figures from Grand View Research indicate that the live streaming market in Europe is expected to reach $83.9billion by 2030, while data from consultancy McKinsey suggests that live selling will account for 20 per cent of all e-commerce transactions by 2026.
Tubman Breaks means more to Thomas than profits alone, however.
'I'm a lot happier now than what I was a year or 18 months ago,' he said, 'I'm a workaholic, I grew up on Tesco Value and free school meals, that's probably why I have always worked so hard in my life… Now I've found a job I enjoy, I've taken it to the next level.'
Thomas added: 'I've found something that allows me to pay the bills and I literally love doing it.
'I'm lucky enough that I get the same buzz of opening and hitting something big for a customer as I do with my own cards. It's the thrill of the chase, and when you finally catch that big one, it's amazing,' Thomas said.
'Being the best breaker on the platform isn't about hitting the biggest cards. For me, being the best breaker on that platform is making it so that even people that don't necessarily hit good cards that night, still leave having had a good time.'
I don't know how anybody could doubt that live selling is the future of selling
Viewers, Thomas says, don't just tune in to his shows to make purchases, many do so to access the community of other collectors, and communicate via the platform's chat function.
Fisher said: 'It seems to work well and translate well for all categories because essentially what we're doing is giving people the opportunity to converge in a live chat around the thing that they really love.
He added: 'Going into a shopping centre, you are sometimes there to browse and you don't necessarily know what you want to buy. In this case the sellers are the shops and it's very much down to the personality of the seller and the connection with the audience.
'Live selling builds a real personal connection, you know who you are buying from and you can interact with that seller directly.'
Thomas agrees, he said: 'The high street is closing down, and with websites you don't get that personal touch.
'I don't know how anybody could doubt that live selling is the future of selling.'
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