The only stars hotter than Wander Franco and Patrick Holmes in the sports card business may be the three Revere gentlemen running FRESHPULLZ, a new and transformative sports card business in Peabody.
Burton “BJ†Deveau III, Jesse Deveau, and Jeffrey Ferraro, of Revere, opened the FRESHPULLZ store on May 1 after starting “box-break-breaking†cards in March, 2020.
Box-breaking is the process of opening an entire sports card box and dividing by team the cards – some of which are worth thousands of dollars – among ten memorabilia enthusiasts.
“That’s what’s really brought this hobby back,†explained Burton Deveau, a former three-sport standout at Revere High School (Class of 2008).
Burton Deveau and Jeffrey Ferraro started with one $300 box of cards, and after steadily building what is now a rock-star type following, FRESHPULLZ has generated more than $2 million in revenue, and it’s growing every day.
“There wasn’t an entertainment factor into what other people were doing, and that’s the factor we brought into it – we can entertain memorabilia collectors and investors while we open their cards,†said Deveau.
The business joined a new app, Lupe, “and four months later, we did $1 million in sales on that app alone,†said Deveau.
The new store is located at 15 Newbury St. on Route 1 North, Peabody. The store is inviting, spacious, and well-designed, and it has become a card-community gathering spot.
“We’re building a whole new movement,†said Deveau. “Tuesday night, we have card trade nights, and there’s usually 60 men, women, and children in the store, all ages with all different types of sports cards. It’s a lot of fun.â€
Deveau said collectors often come to the story with their card collections and they’re greeted warmly at the store.
“Our first goal was to build a multi-million card company,†said Deveau. “We have built that, and we’re not pivoting, and our plan is to be a billion-dollar sports card entertainment company. We’re going to be a multi-media entertainment company. We’re going to have a podcast, different reality TV show segments. We’re going to bring everybody into it. TikTok has been our No. 1 source of advertising. We now have 26,000 followers and climbing.â€
Burton Deveau’s family has been involved in Revere Pop Warner for many years. He credits his father, Joseph, former president of the RPW organization, for igniting his interest in sports cards by taking him to card shows as a child. His mother, Dottie, was an RPW vice president. His sister, Amanda Deveau is a Pop Warner cheerleading coach, while his nieces participate as cheerleaders.
From those pre-teen days as a card show attendee and collector, the 6-foot-2-inch Burton “BJ†Deveau has become one of the most charismatic and entertaining personalities in the entire memorabilia business. Deveau and his business partners, Jeffrey Ferraro and Jesse Deveau, have boldly re-energized a hobby that was so incredibly popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
FRESHPULLZ welcomes Revere collectors to join the card-collecting phenomenon at its beautiful store in Peabody.
“My advice is start collecting cards and getting kids involved in collecting cards,†said Deveau. “The kids that come into the store are learning so much about economics that you don’t learn about in school. “They’re learning the stock market, and they don’t even know about it yet. It’s really awesome to see the young generation getting into this hobby and it’s going to help them grow as adults in the future, knowing stock market tendencies at the age of 11, and not even realizing they do.â€