Playing within the NFL is hard and lots of gamers go away due to career-ending accidents or unhealthy seasons. But after seven years within the league, Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Blake Martinez has retired mid-season for a unique motive: He’s making sufficient cash promoting Pokémon playing cards—lately promoting a really uncommon card for practically $700,000—and doesn’t want the earnings he will get from taking part in anymore.
Las Vegas Raiders participant Blake Martinez shocked many followers when he introduced final week that he was retiring from the NFL on the comparatively younger age of 28. He was first drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2016. Following 4 years with Green Bay, he joined the New York Giants in 2020 earlier than struggling a torn ACL in 2021. He was launched shortly after, and joined the Las Vegas Raiders the place he appeared to be doing effectively this season. In his final sport earlier than his retirement, he racked up 11 tackles. However, promoting Pokémon playing cards seems to be Martinez’s true ardour—to not point out a reasonably good supply of earnings for him—and he’s focusing extra on that now.
As reported by Dexerto, two weeks earlier than saying his retirement mid-season, the NFL professional bought an especially uncommon and helpful Pokémon Illustrator card for a hefty sum. Last month, the cardboard was graded a 9.5 “Gem Mint” high quality score, making it the most effective examples of this coveted card. On October 29 the cardboard—which Martinez nicknamed “The Swirllustrator” due to two small swirl marks within the card’s paintings—was sold via Goldin auctions for a whopping $672,000.
Yes, this is similar sort of uncommon card that Logan Paul paid over $5 million for earlier this yr and wore round his neck throughout Wrestlemania in April, though his was graded a ten, or good high quality.
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Still, it is a large sale, and hardly Martinez’s first time shopping for and promoting Pokémon playing cards. The former NFL participant is an enormous fan of the playing cards and has been accumulating them for years, although in 2020, within the midst of the pandemic, his love for accumulating and promoting was reignited. He opens outdated and new card packs on his Instagram and shares his finds on-line regularly. In reality, Martinez claims to have discovered the uncommon “Swirllustrator” throughout considered one of these pack openings. The professional participant additionally has a collectible card enterprise, shopping for and promoting uncommon playing cards on-line.
“I have chosen to step away from this career at this time to focus on my family and future passions,” defined Martinez in his retirement submit on Instagram. It seems his “passion” is utilizing the wealth he made within the NFL to purchase and promote uncommon Pokémon playing cards. And truthfully, I’m blissful for the man. He’s far much less more likely to endure a horrible concussion whereas shopping for uncommon Pikachu playing cards on-line.
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