CollX Co-Founder Takes After His Dad
When the pandemic forced Charlie Mann to stay home, the 9-year-old got bored.
He started getting into The Hobby by ripping packs of Pokémon cards. Charlie became curious about the prices of the cards he was pulling.
“So, I went to my dad,” Charlie said. “We looked through the Beckett guide and eBay, but the prices were all over the place.”
Charlie and his dad, Ted, looked up comps for the cards and produced a giant spreadsheet. What started as a weekend project spawned something much bigger.
“We decided to make an app where you can take a picture of the card, and it takes the prices from all these different sites and finds the average to get you the most accurate price,” Charlie said.
With an extensive background in creating startup companies that utilize visual searches—essentially using a camera phone to snap a shot, find what you’re looking for, and solve a problem—Ted was the perfect person to tackle the job.
“Charlie’s well aware of what I do and how that technology’s used,” Ted said. “He was the one who had the idea. It didn’t occur to me, but what if you could take a picture of the trading card, identify it, and get the price?”
And the CollX app was born, as was a young entrepreneur. Like father, like son.
Charlie Mann and his dad, Ted, co-founded Collx during the pandemic. (All Photos by Greg Bates)
Locking Down the App
The new project required plenty of time to develop the correct software to get the app fully functional, and the Mann men made it happen.
“The first version of this was very crude, like an Airtable prototype. But just the fact that it worked and it was a good way for him, and very quickly all of his friends, to value all their Pokémon cards made it exciting,” Ted said.
“When I started hearing from parents, ‘I want to be able to do that, too. Can it scan my old baseball cards from when I was a kid?’ That’s when it started to be eye-opening that maybe this would be a tool everyone would use.”
Now 12 years old, Charlie has become even more integral to CollX’s operation. Charlie came up with one relatively new feature for the app. When CollX launched its marketplace, Charlie felt it was difficult and tedious having to look through every card in other users’ collections when he was only interested in a specific player.
“I thought we could add a feature where you can put in some cards that you’re collecting on your profile so that they’re just available there,” Charlie said. “Also, add a feature where you can sort only the cards you want when looking at other people’s collections.”
The “What I’m Collecting” button allows users to search for specific players in someone’s CollX collection.
Charlie and Ted Mann scan cards to check their values during the National Sports Collectors Convention at the end of July.
Upping His Involvement
In getting more involved in the company, Charlie attended this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland to help “Mann” the company’s booth. Charlie has enjoyed the ride thus far.
“I think it’s really fun. I get to have all these great experiences and opportunities,” Charlie said. “I’ve been interviewed, and I never thought I would be famous enough to be interviewed. It’s cool to see people who are famous in the hobby know me and want to interview me.”
Charlie, a soon-to-be seventh-grader at Haddonfield Middle School in Haddonfield, New Jersey, has big goals once he enters the workforce full-time.
“A lot of kids want to be professional athletes, but I think what my dad does is interesting. I think it’s great to do it as a profession every day to help these collectors in the hobby find the prices for their cards,” Charlie said. “When I grow up, after college, I probably want to see if I can create a startup or something like my dad and do what he’s doing right now.”
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