12/10/2021
This is the founders story for Play it! Games, Movies, and Music, the business that I own with my dear friend Nathan Krantz. We just hit 15 years in business and thought you might get a kick out of how things started off for our company. What a ride it has been! So glad to have you as a friend, and an awesome business partner 🙏🏼
Play it was truly started with humble roots, and seeds planted by my father, Herb Sebastian. He used to take me to garage sales and flea markets when I was a kid and taught me how to negotiate, or wheel and deal with folks. If I wanted 5 records or cds, and they were priced at $5 each, he would encourage me to offer $15 for them all. Often I’d get a yes, or at least a better price from the seller. That was a pretty cool but of wisdom to learn from my pops!
He also taught me how to call Children’s palace, Toys R Us, K Mart, or KB toy stores for the rare GI Joe or Star Wars toy that I was after as a little guy. Simple things to me at the time, but that early searching for the good stuff, taught me to be persistent and get that edge on finding what I was looking for (Oh and I so feel for those retail clerks who received 5 calls a day from me back in the day when I was after something rare 😂).
These days I am so grateful for those early seeds planted. In this video, I took a trip down memory lane a bit and visited the Westland Flea Market to reflect and celebrate the journey that has brought the company to where it is today. The woman in the video is Susan, a long time customer with our company. It was a nice surprise running into her during our visit!
We are so incredibly grateful for our loyal customers, and folks on staff who have joined us during this journey. There are so many of you who are like family to me and I appreciate you more than you know. There are so many places and avenues to get the items we carry, so please know I don’t take the support for granted!
Also, there’s something else I’d like to share. With this business (Play it), with my time in the flea market, along with the first company I had back in the day (video game & music exchange 1997-2004), if I’m truly honest, I feel like I took a little too much credit for the success. It wasn’t until a good bit after my fathers sudden passing in 2006 that I realized his influence and the gift of those early seeds in my life. And especially his “yes” to getting a booth with me at the flea market. That was a big one! I can only imagine how different life would be without his “yes!” So with that, I do have one regret that I didn’t say THANK YOU to my father, for his influence while he was living. I took him for granted if I’m honest. Since his passing, I have really come to appreciate the man he was and the great father that he was. He was a little tough to love but looking back, I just didn’t know how to love him well. I didn’t see the light in the man who he was. I wish I had the awareness that I had a lot to do with the tension that I often felt with him. I really feel like I do know him much better today and sure do miss him. I sure do wish I had more time with you dad... so if I could encourage something, be sure to communicate how much others mean to you while they are still here 🙂
The silver lining is, I am now able to better see the good in those who are a little tough to love. I often realize that I need a heart change to better see them and to not sit in judgement. I do believe he is looking down and knows how much I appreciate how great of a dad he was 🙏🏼
Thank you, dad !!!! ❤️
I am so blessed to do something that I absolutely enjoy so much… Thank you all for the 15 years of support, and for the love.
Yes, I offer so much credit to my father, but also to the amazing Play it crew / family! Love you guys! Also to members of the crew from the past! Thank you for all you have done (and for putting up with me when I was a little more scrappy back in the day). We would not be here without you!!
THANK YOU !! ❤️
Humbly,
Chris Sebastian
**Also, gotta give a major shout-out 🙌🏼👏🏻😀🙏🏼 to Jared Young for producing this video and encouraging that I share this story about the early days. It has been an absolute joy, and very much a blessing to reminisce about those days.
Thank you so much, man!
Sebastian Lamini Raja Gillings-Brown Isaac Erckert Zack Prater David Ball Thomas Woolf Alex Chelsea Alex Nutto Michael Glaze Jr. Sara Tiffany Sebastian
