Accessibility in the cards with Oakville mom's new online venture
· Toronto Sun
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Parents are always looking for creative ways to get more involved in the lives of their kids. What better way than through a variation of a national pastime?
“Sometimes the best way to connect with your kids is just to step into their world,” Michelle Oryschak told the Toronto Sun. “It was something (my son Johnny) naturally had an interest in; his friends were collecting (Tim Hortons hockey cards) and trading.”
Oryschak is the creator of a new online card-trading platform called Binder Bench that deals with the free trading of Tim Hortons hockey cards.
Her son was about eight years old when he started collecting and trading cards with friends, teammates, and classmates.
‘Something fun’
“It was something he was really excited about,” Oryschak said.
A Saturday morning trip to Tims for a coffee would inevitably morph into purchasing hockey cards because that is what parents do — they buy stuff for their kids.
“It also gave us something fun to do together around the dining room table,” Oryschak said.
Through osmosis, the Oakville resident said she fell prey to the excitement or disappointment when a pack of three was opened; a prayer to the god of cards either granted or denied. A pack consists of two base cards and one insert.
“I really enjoyed it,” Oryschak said. “My hand to my heart, it was probably the favourite pastime I had with him growing up.”
And in the Oryschak household, the excitement found a breath of fresh air elsewhere.
“Even my parents got involved,” the founder said with a laugh. “My dad would be camping with his friends and he’d come back with cards from Thunder Bay.”
Years on now, Oryschak’s son is in his mid-teens, perhaps less enthusiastic about collecting and trading cards, but those pesky common cards never disappear. They take up space, a gentle reminder to a time when a portion of family life revolved around the hobby.
Oryschak figured there had to be a better way to get unwanted cards into the hands of different owners.
‘A Canadian mom’
“It’s a Canadian mom solving a very Canadian specific problem,” she said.
Back in May, Oryschak rolled out Binder Bench; its sole purpose is to facilitate card movement via an online trading platform.
“The purpose is to remove some of the barriers that make collecting more difficult than it needs to be,” Oryschak said. “The whole concept was building a platform where families could build their own trusted trading communities.”
The most sought-after set this year is the “Powerhouse Pillars” series. The odds of nabbing one of those cards is 1:100. Oryschak estimated that $3,250 is needed to complete a set of 234 cards.
Oryschak also said some of the rarer cards can be sold for as much as $100-200 on websites like Facebook Marketplace.
“Exorbitant dollars,” she termed the pricing.
Binder Bench costs $14.99 per season. There are no charges for individual trades or gifts. It’s strictly a trading platform, not a marketplace. There is no buying, selling, auctions or card pricing.
“You don’t necessarily recognize how much you’re investing in this hobby,” Oryschak said. “After a while, you’re collecting piles of doubles, you still have a ton of missing cards, and then you’re buying more packs just to try to find the ones that you need.”