Lifelong collectors open Slab & Stitch in Edwards, aiming to create a hub for cards, collectibles, and connection

Rob Monson still remembers the display in his childhood bedroom prominently featuring a dozen or so baseball cards, many players from his hometown Cincinnati Reds.

“They weren’t worth a whole lot, but they were something to me,” Monson said, recalling his fondness for first baseman Sean Casey and pitcher Bronson Arroyo.

Jordan Daly still has cards on his desk that he pulled from cereal boxes in 1994, featuring baseball players such as Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, and Warren Spahn.

Both Monson and Daly are lifelong collectors who were introduced to each other at the Denver Card Show in October 2024. After quickly forging a like-minded relationship and having a desire to avoid driving hours to a card shop, the two opened Slab & Stitch in Edwards, a hobby store filled with cards, collectibles and clothes.

“We’re here for the community,” Daly said from the expansive card table in the newly opened shop, surrounded by a sports lover’s dream. “We want a safe space where people can come and hang out and meet each other. It’s just something different from taking a bike ride or going to the park, which is great, but we need some stuff for the rainy days and the Saturdays when we’re tired, or after skiing. I just want the community to know that that’s what we’re here for — for the community.”

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In addition to a variety of cards on sale and other memorabilia, Slab & Stitch is a resource for the community, with Monson and Daly sharing their experiences and knowledge in the hobby — from card shows to connections. Within three weeks of opening, a customer came in with a Joe DiMaggio autograph on the back of a disposable dry-cleaning card, saying that his aunt was in Los Angeles having dinner back in the day and got the legendary Yankee to sign it. Monson advised the customer to get the signature authenticated and directed him to the companies that do the authentication.

Surprises in every pack

“You never know what’s going to walk through that door,” Monson said.

While surprises are sure to flow into Slab & Stitch, they’re also going to flow out of the shop. Boxes and packs of cards are like lottery tickets in a way, with a small or large payment possibly yielding cards of high worth.

Thirty years ago, the sports card industry was a billion-dollar industry, according to The New York Times. Then, in the 1990s, it collapsed from 10,000 sports card shops to 1,000, dropping from $1 billion in sales to $200 million. Fast-forward 25 years, and today the industry is estimated to be back over $1 billion.

“COVID really brought it back,” Monson thinks, “having a lot of time at home to dig through stuff again, it kind of reignited it.”

And it’s not just sports cards and memorabilia at Slab & Stitch. A display case full of Pokémon cards is also worth a gander. Both Monson and Daly reluctantly admit having Pokémon cards back in their middle school days, but Daly says giving away his Pokémon binder to some family friends is one of his biggest regrets in the hobby.

“There was some good stuff in there,” he said, adding that he never really played the game but enjoyed collecting the cards.

‘We’re collectors first’

Despite still thinking about that binder (and if he can somehow get it back), Daly just enjoys the ride of card collecting. He recently pulled a rare 1-of-1 Topps Chrome Disney card of Max Goof — that we all know from “A Goofy Movie.” Valued at thousands of dollars, Daly is working on a deal with a man in California, who named his son after the Disney character on the card.

“You post a card like that on social media, it gets around,” Daly said, happy to deal the card to someone who appreciates it. “A legitimate business deal — it’s on a little bit of a different scale, but …”

Daly then goes to his desk and soon comes back with a rare Tiger Woods Upper Deck card, one of 25 ever made. It has three cloth patches built into the card that Woods used or wore in a 2013 tournament. Daly said he used to have two of the 25 at one point.

“We’re here for the people and the hobby,” Daly said. “We’re collectors first.”

He disappears again, coming back with a Scottie Pippen signed ESPN hat and a Pelé autographed brim of a hat.

Soon the conversation in the sports haven turns to what cards are hot now. Sensations like Shohei Ohtani, Paul Skenes and Victor Wembanyama are on the up and up, they say, as are young NFL quarterbacks like Bo Nix and Drake Maye.

“Jordan and Kobe are staples,” Monson added.

As kids, both Monson and Daly recall the naivety and difficulty in the hobby. Replacing annual magazines with card values are now apps that live track values. If a player has a good game, a card owner might see the value of that player’s card increase. On the table in the shop, Monson slides over a magazine from 2000 with all of the monetary values of Pokémon cards.

“Kids collecting or getting into it these days have such a bigger advantage than we did as kids,” Daly said. “We didn’t have YouTube or Instagram, or apps to scan cards — we didn’t know how to value stuff.”

Monson and Daly have built a solid relationship together, sharing a roof at one point. Monson has been in the valley for four years, joining his wife in Colorado, who is a local teacher. He also coaches baseball at Battle Mountain High School.

Daly, born and raised in North Carolina — a “Pinehurst native” — previously had a career in turf maintenance followed by a short stint in sales in Colorado. Upon meeting for the first time, they soon went to Phoenix together for a card show — a 12-hour drive that would determine if they were compatible as friends and possibly business partners. The trip to Phoenix, about one year ago, was a great success, and Slab & Stitch was soon born.

“Slab” is a term in the hobby for a graded card. Cards straight out of packs are known as “raw” cards, and to get them “slabbed,” the owner must send them to a certified company, returning with a clean plate that grades the card after a microscopic review. “Stitch” is a play on the vintage clothing in the store.

“It’s a dream of both of ours,” Monson said. “You can’t get a lot of this stuff unless you go to Denver or Grand Junction, and we were kind of tired of going to those places.”

This winter, Slab & Stitch is looking to keep growing and add new products and inventory. A monthly trade night is in the works, and other events at the shop.

For more information, follow Slab & Stitch on Instagram and Facebook. The shop in Edwards is open Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“We’re just asking the community to help us build the community,” Daly said.