DJ Skee Talks Sports Card Collecting Origin Story, Satchell Paige, 1991 Minnesota Twins, Nineties Nostalgia
Scott Keeney, better known as DJ Skee, is best known for introducing Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Post Malone, Travis Scott, and others to the world on his television and radio platforms.
A trend setter in multiple avenues including sports cards and sports culture, Skee released his own wildly popular Project70 card series with Topps in 2020, becoming one of the year's highest selling products.
His work has generated over four billion views and over two million followers across all platforms.
In this exclusive interview, we discuss the origins of his card collecting story, his high-end Satchell Paige cards, his affinity for the 1991 Minnesota Twins and 90's collecting nostalgia.
Tony Reid- I’m joined by musician, artist, host, radio personality, entrepreneur, author and collector DJ Skee. There are a lot of titles there. I'm sure I missed a handful as well. You're quite a busy man. I wanted to talk about your history in collecting. I know you collect so many interesting items across so many different categories, from music memorabilia to autographed football jerseys, cards, and everything in between. What is it about collecting that moves you, fulfills you and keeps you on the grind, adding to that collection?
DJ Skee-I don't know. My dad introduced me to it when I was a kid and as any big fan of something, whether it be music or sports, the things that have really been the most important elements in my life and career now, it's been taking those memories, these artifacts are how we tell stories through cultures. The 1991 Twins are what got me into collecting after watching them win the World Series. I wanted to do baseball cards. That’s how I stayed engaged with the team. And to me that was the moment that I fell in love with sports and it's like I've been chasing that high ever since. And having a game used jersey from game seven, looking at a piece of the AstroTurf from the Metrodome with the ‘91 World Championship logo embedded onto it, having a ticket from game seven in a PSA slab and even creating my own cards honoring Kirby Puckett and from that doing a collaboration with the Twins. That’s been how I've kept that memory alive of what, in my eyes, and yes, I'm biased, is the greatest World Series of all time. So that's why it's important versus a kid that's not there today. So for me, it's my way to reminisce on my youth and spread that love and joy and the incredibleness of that story to the rest of the world.
TR-Absolutely. And I always like to tell people for whatever reason, being a collector, you just kind of feel if you're collecting something that somehow brings you a little bit closer to that idol or that hero or that person, you enjoy so much. And that's why memorabilia and autos and those things are so popular. And even myself, I was watching the Netflix special yesterday with Joey Chestnut Kobayashi. I wanted to go out and grab Kobayashi and Chestnut's Ginter rookies. You want to be closer to that person or event.
DJS-One hundred percent. One hundred percent. You nailed it.
TR-You mentioned your dad. One of the most amazing cards in your collection is that gorgeous SGC 9 1949 Bowman Satchell Paige. You said your dad taught you a lot about Paige. What was your relationship like with your father at the intersection of life and sports? Could you share a memory with your dad from your time that is collectibles or sports related.
DJS-Yeah, I mean he's the one that really introduced me to sports. He took me to the World Series as a kid, the 1991 World Series I referenced. And when I had to do a book report and got drafted with something in the Negro Leagues, he was the one that taught me about something that at that point, transparently, I had never heard of and didn't know it existed. And then as I dug in and saw the stats and saw the level of talent and realized that Satchell Paige, in my opinion, no question, the greatest pitcher of all time and his story wasn't out there. It's where I just fell in love with the stories and also just the insane history. One, the fact that there was even a Negro Leagues, the fact that players were separated blew my mind. I couldn't understand that as a kid at first and learning all the horrible history of our country's past was really eye opening. And then secondarily, learning how incredible he was barnstorming pitching night after night, all the legends and who knows what's real and who knows what's not, right? His specific pitches, right? All the different types of 'em. And I don't think people, again, until you hear those stories, they're not mainstream. The average person probably doesn't know about that. They might've heard of the Negro Leagues, but they don't know as many details. They're just astonishing. And that's where for me, whether it's even doing a card with Topps and doing Satchel card with that, I want to play my little role in helping storytelling, maybe introduce it to another kid that feels the same and goes on to do a lot more and spread that word to others.
TR- We know your worldwide domination at this point, but you did say that cards were kind of your first business. You were selling them out of your garage around eight years old. I have to ask, what did the Skee setup look like back in the day in the garage?
DJS-Man, it was nothing. It was a little folding table and a couple shelves with things that I pulled from packs and selling it for a dollar or 50 cents or anything. I couldn't afford the Ken Griffey Jr hundred dollar 1989 Upper Deck rookie card. That was the way out of my price range. Maybe it was like $120 in Beckett at one point. I was trying to hustle my way around and collect more Twins cards to see what I could get. But in that nineties era, I was collecting, even though it was the junk wax era, I still like those inserts, those moments. My favorite sets are all nineties sets in general. Again, the nostalgia. It's what we grew up on.
TR-Absolutely. I'm 46, so yeah, I'm in the same category. You referenced the Twins and your love for Minnesota. Was there one item, whether it be a card or something that really bit you with the collecting bug? Was there one piece that really got the ball rolling?
DJS-Yeah, my favorite card was from that era and I'm holding in my hand. I just picked it up as we're doing the interview. Its the 1994 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. Electric Diamond card. The Electric Diamond foil, I just thought that design at the time was so beautiful and insane. Griffey was my favorite athlete then, and I loved his defense more than the offense. So it's a great picture of him basically robbing a home run at the wall in midair wearing his signature Nikes and the new Mariners uniform that I loved because he also had the S, it was my first initial. That card was the one that I was always hunting and well, it's not a rare card at all. I have a bunch of 'em. There's not a ton of PSA tens, but the memories of nostalgia, it's not most valuable. It's not even anywhere near the Satchell Paige. It's not vaulted. It’s something that I can actually put out. It's worth $500, a thousand bucks, maybe somewhere in that range. Not, I mean a whole lot, but not comparatively to other things. That was my favorite card as a kid. You could ask me that 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I would have the same answer. It hasn't changed.
TR-That is the power of nostalgia right there, right?
DJS-Others, they couldn't care less. But for me it was just the era that was at the height of my collecting years. Favorite player, whole new design with the foil, something that you were hunting. The foil was tough to find. It wasn't like the internet, you could just buy the card at shops. I wasn't able to find the Electric Diamond one as a kid, so I just settled on the base ones.
TR-It is crazy. You touched on it there. People that collected, not only the nineties, but any time prior to that you either had to rip it out of a pack, have a card shop, if you were lucky enough to have a card shop near you or a flea market or a card show. If it weren't for that, you didn't have the card, it's, it's wild to think about that now where we are today. But that pretty much was the reality back in the day.
DJS-One hundred percent. One hundred percent, yeah. You hit the nail on the head. It was a different era. You couldn't find those things. Now anything's accessible with a click.
TR-I know the collection. I've seen pictures and videos and whether it be home or office, if you could only keep one item, I know that's the loaded question, but if there was just one item out of everything, is there one that you hold near and dear more than everything else in the collection?
DJS-Man, it's tough. Maybe at game seven in the World Series, Brian Harper, the Twins starting catcher threw me his batting glove. I have a photo of him throwing it in midair now it's framed with his game worn jersey from game seven that I acquired a few years ago somehow miraculously. So probably that again, something not wildly valuable to others, but because of me, that memory, what I was as a kid being there and that kind of getting me hooked and bringing me today, if it wasn't for that World Series, I don’t know if I'd be here. I'd probably choose that.
Tony Reid spent more than a decade covering combat sports at the highest level. He has written hundreds of articles and conducted hundreds of interviews about sports collectibles for such publications as Beckett, Sports Collectors Digest, and Sports Collectors Daily. Reid worked full time at a sports card shop in Central Pennsylvania for a number of years. A lifelong collector, Tony treasures his rookie card collection of star players in baseball, basketball, and football. If you want to discuss the greatness of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey Jr., you can reach him at @tonyreidwrites on all social media platforms