GREENDALE, Wis. — Troy Kinunen Jr. was just days old when his parents took him to his first Milwaukee Brewers game. Now, he is turning a childhood love of collecting into a business of his own.
Kinunen runs TRK Cards, buying and selling trading cards while building a personal collection he estimates includes nearly 500 cards.
“I’ve been doing it since I was around like 5 or 6,” Kinunen said. “I started off with Pokémon.”
His interests eventually shifted toward sports. Today, he collects Brewers players along with stars such as Patrick Mahomes, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
Kinunen said he began branding his business last year, though he has been attending card shows regularly for about three years. He visits shows nearly every weekend, meeting other collectors and looking for opportunities to buy and sell.
Some of his cards are particularly rare. He showed off a Jackson Chourio card numbered to 50, meaning only 50 copies of that version were produced. He also pointed to a Jacob Misiorowski rookie autograph card he valued at more than $1,000.
But his connection to baseball goes beyond the cards in his case.
His father, Troy Kinunen, is president and CEO of MEARS Auctions, a sports memorabilia business. Growing up in a Brewers-loving family gave the younger Kinunen an opportunity to see pieces of team history up close.
Among the family’s prized items, he said, are a home plate from the 1982 World Series and a jersey Robin Yount wore in Game 5.
“It’s a great piece,” Troy Kinunen Jr. said of the home plate. “It really means a lot to us and our love for the Brewers.”
He said he did not fully understand the significance of the memorabilia when he was younger. His appreciation has grown with age.
Family photos also document encounters with baseball greats, including Hank Aaron. More recently, Troy Kinunen Jr. and his father met Yount and Paul Molitor at a card show at Milwaukee’s Baird Center.
“I obviously didn’t grow up watching them, but I know how much they mean to Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Brewers,” he said.
Now, Troy Kinunen Jr. is following his father into the collecting business, learning from him while developing his own interests and relationships with fellow collectors.
“It’s great that we’ll be able to do it together, too,” he said.
Troy Kinunen Jr. hopes to keep building the business in the years ahead.
“This is something I’m looking forward to in my future,” he said.
Collectors can find Troy Kinunen Jr. at the Fat Daddy’s card show Nov. 7 at the Salvation Army in Oak Creek. His business is also on Instagram and TikTok at @trkcards.
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