Leighton Sheldon bought his first pack of baseball cards when he was eight-years old and has never looked back. The budding entrepreneur set-up his first booth at a local New Jersey card show held at the Temple Shaari-Emeth in 1989, splitting the $35.00 booth with two other friends. Leighton worked his way through college by buying and selling baseball cards and working at Johnson & Johnson as a financial analyst. Leighton graduated from Rutgers University in the Class of 2000. Upon graduation, he began his first full-time position inthe hobby working for Mark Murphy, “The Baseball Card Kid” and a pioneer in the unopened market. He then went on to work for New York based Leland's Auctions for four years, rising to Director of Acquisitions.
Leighton’s passion of sports and love of the hobby always burned strong and he realized that he wanted to do much more with his sports and hobby knowledge. In March 2006 he founded Just Collect, Inc. Since its inception, Just Collect has bought and sold over $20 million worth of vintage sports cards, and is currently one of the country's largest buyers of vintage sports cards and sports memorabilia. Leighton and his team travel tens of thousands of miles every year, buying and appraising vintage sports cards, memorabilia and autograph collections throughout the United States and Canada. He is incredibly proud of Just Collect because the company offers a uniquely transparent buying and appraising process that utilizes actual, real-time market values to assess the overall value of a collection – not some stagnant or outdated price guide valuation that shortchanges the seller.
A collector himself, Leighton focuses his own collection primarily in the arena of vintage basketball cards and memorabilia. Some of the highlights of his personal collection include a blank-backed Dr. J autographed rookie card, a piece of the iconic parquet flooring from the old Boston Garden that was signed by Celtic’s great Larry Legend (aka Larry Bird) and a wide variety of Michael Jordan autographs and memorabilia.
He is also passionate about his sports teams. Growing up with the dream of playing shortstop in the pinstripe sat the big ballpark in the Bronx, Leighton is undoubtedly a die-hard Yankees fan. His fandom also runs deep and green with the New York Jets and Boston Celtics as well as being a supporter of the New York Rangers. He currently resides in Essex County, NJ with his son Crosby.
Feel free to contact Leighton directly at leighton@justcollect.com.