Modern collectors can find endless listings, estimates, charts, and opinions. The harder problem is deciding which information deserves to influence a purchase, sale, or grading submission.
FlipForge LLC is building an evidence-aware decision-intelligence platform that helps collectors slow down, verify the exact card, inspect the support, and understand the risk before acting.
The goal is not to replace judgment. It is to make the decision process visible, disciplined, and repeatable.
Founder · Educator · Builder
Todd Holbein grew up collecting sports cards throughout the 1990s and returned to the hobby in 2023. What he found was a market filled with more information than ever—but without a dependable way to turn that information into a disciplined decision.
Collectors could search marketplaces, pricing tools, auction platforms, grading-company data, and online opinions, yet still struggle to answer the most important questions: Is this the exact card? Are the comparable sales truly comparable? Is the asking price supported? Does grading make financial sense? What evidence is weak or missing? What should happen next?
After more than fourteen years working in education, Todd brought an educator’s mindset to the problem: a useful system should not simply produce an answer; it should show the reasoning, expose uncertainty, and help the user understand why the conclusion was reached. His background in technology, programming, database development, testing, documentation, and systems design became the foundation for building FlipForge.
FlipForge began as a response to the fragmented experience Todd encountered as a returning collector. It has grown into an evidence-first sports-card decision-intelligence platform designed to connect discovery, exact-card identity, comparable-sale validation, grading economics, confidence, liquidity, risk, and outcome tracking in one controlled workflow.
Todd’s goal is not to replace collector judgment or promise profit. It is to build the missing intelligence layer between finding a card and deciding whether it deserves someone’s money, time, or grading fees—so collectors can move from scattered market signals to an explainable next step.
These boundaries are part of the product—not fine print added afterward.
Answer the practical questions collectors face before they spend, sell, or grade.
Never disguise weak support, incomplete identity, or market uncertainty as certainty.
Show the evidence, exclusions, warnings, and assumptions behind the candidate state.
Use authorized APIs, approved feeds, user evidence, and controlled imports.
FlipForge does not bid, purchase, or authorize a transaction for the user.
Preserve later results so the system can be reviewed and calibrated.
The private beta is designed to expose weak assumptions and confusing guidance before public launch.
