Dave Youhanaie is the founder of Dave Buys Ticket Stubs (DBTS) and a nationally recognized vintage ticket dealer and ticket historian dedicated to preserving the physical artifacts of sports, music, and popular culture.
What began as a personal passion for collecting ticket stubs grew into one of the largest vintage ticket operations in the country. Today, Youhanaie has bought, sold, researched, and evaluated hundreds of thousands of tickets spanning more than a century of history, from everyday games and concerts to artifacts connected to some of the most significant moments in sports and entertainment.
His expertise lies not simply in identifying old tickets, but in understanding the history behind them. A seemingly ordinary ticket can document a Hall of Famer’s debut, a record-breaking performance, a championship, a legendary concert, or an event whose significance wasn’t apparent until years later. Youhanaie’s research focuses on connecting these physical artifacts to the moments and stories that give them meaning.
Through DBTS, Youhanaie works with collectors, families, estates, and lifelong season-ticket holders across the United States, purchasing collections ranging from a handful of tickets discovered in an attic to historically significant pieces valued in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. His business sells more than 500 vintage tickets in a typical week, giving him an unusually broad, real-time perspective on collector demand and the evolving ticket market.
Youhanaie is also an advocate for preserving physical tickets at a time when digital ticketing has made the traditional paper ticket increasingly obsolete. Through the company’s #SaveTheStubs mission, he encourages people to look twice before discarding old tickets, scrapbooks, and collections that may represent irreplaceable pieces of cultural history.
Based in the Chicago area and a lifelong sports fan, Youhanaie is particularly passionate about the stories that exist at the intersection of history, collecting, and nostalgia. Whether researching an overlooked ticket from an ordinary regular-season game or handling an artifact connected to an iconic moment, his philosophy remains simple: every ticket tells a story—and some of the best stories are hiding in plain sight.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
I wake up early, usually before 5am and I begin catching up on my emails from the previous day. I research customer collections via email and photos. I also review daily a few hundred tickets that come in. I organize tickets and research them, taking notes, and gaining new knowledge. I spend time on the phone with customers.
With over 300,000 ticket stubs (and over 10,000 listed for sale on eBay), organization is critical for me. I organize all my tickets by the home team, and then by date. If the tickets are concert tickets, we organize them by artist and then by dates. Posting social media regularly about our cool finds, and helping people discover the value in other items they have (like sports cards, autographs, original photos, and more).
How do you bring ideas to life?
I do a lot of journaling. A lot of day-dreaming. I love focusing on problem-solving. I keep avid notes and have an incredible memory for recalling details about games that I read about once. I am detail oriented. I love history. And I love collecting. I love discovering, and restoring items. I love protecting and preserving bits of the past and keeping their stories alive.
What’s one trend that excites you?
It excites me to see so many people from the sports card world get excited at the prospect of collecting ticket stubs. The more people I talk to, the more people get excited to collect tickets stubs. I love when I show people a ticket stub to a very historic and important game/concert and their eyes light up as they hold it.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I spend very little time on social media (other than for work), and I never really watch TV and stream shows. I am laser-focused on the 2-3 things that are most important for me each week and I stay hyper focused on those and cut out all the noise.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Persistence pays off over everything. Nothing is easy. So it’s whoever persists who wins. But in order to persist through difficulties, you must be connected to a great cause. Something that makes you work hard in the face of adversity. Cause adversity is waiting for you no matter the road in life you choose.
So you must be persistent, and the only way you can do that is by making your work something that feeds your heart and soul. The only thing I wish I would have done, was to believe in myself sooner. To believe in my vision and get started on that sooner.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
I believe rarity is one of the most overrated concepts in collecting. People constantly assume that because something is rare, it must be valuable. I disagree. I’ve handled tickets where only a handful are known to exist that almost nobody wants to buy, and I’ve handled relatively common tickets worth thousands of dollars because thousands of collectors want them.
Rarity matters, but demand matters more. Something can be incredibly rare and still be worth very little if nobody cares about it. Ultimately, an item is only worth what someone is actually willing to pay for it. After buying, selling, and studying hundreds of thousands of ticket stubs, that’s probably the misconception I find myself correcting more than any other.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
You have to take action. You can read every book, make every plan, and do all the visualization in the world, but if you don’t get up and actually do something, nothing changes. I believe in moving toward my goals every single day, even if it’s only one step.
I’d also tell people to cut out the noise and ruthlessly prioritize what matters most. We all have the same limited number of hours in a day. Stop spending them on things that don’t move you, your family, or your business forward. Figure out what matters most, put your energy there, and take action every day. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Meditation. Deep breathing and quieting my mind. If my mind is too active, or I’m in a funk, I find myself in nature. I explore a quiet forest, climb a remote mountain pass, or camp next to a quiet stream. And if all else fails, I bang away on my drum set ;-).
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
One strategy that has helped me tremendously is to assume positive intent. It requires confidence to believe that people generally aren’t out to get you and are trying to do the right thing. Approaching employees, customers, and disagreements from a place of trust rather than suspicion has helped me build much stronger relationships.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
I have been wrong plenty of times and will continue to have many failures. But I really tend to use failures as an inevitable ingredient to success. So is it really failure if it’s on the road to success?
Overcoming failure is tough though. Cause failure feels defeating its easy to wallow in it. But persistence is key. You must keep going at whatever you’re doing. My failures simply teach me what does not work. Which, in turn, allows me to further refine my understanding of what DOES work.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I’d start a high-end mobile charcuterie business called “The Chart-Cart.” Think of an elegant, beautifully designed cart that sets up at weddings, corporate events, country clubs, wineries and upscale parties, where guests can have personalized charcuterie boards made right in front of them.
Instead of another buffet table, you walk up to the Chart-Cart, choose your cheeses, cured meats, fruits, nuts, spreads and accompaniments, and someone builds you a beautiful individual board on the spot.
It combines three things people seem willing to spend irrational amounts of money on: great food, beautiful presentation and something they can photograph for Instagram.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Loom – I use it constantly to communicate with my team and contractors. Instead of scheduling a meeting or trying to explain something in a long email, I record my screen, talk through exactly what I’m seeing and explain what I want done in real time. Saves so much time and offers so much more clarity.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
The best $100 I’ve spent recently was taking my wife and kids to a Kane County Cougars minor league baseball game. We ate ballpark food, watched some baseball, laughed a lot, and just had a genuinely great night together.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
Oh definitely Coaching for Leaders with Dave Stachowiak. I’ve been listening for years, and I love that it focuses on the human side of leadership rather than simply managing tasks or chasing results. It’s helped shape how I think about coaching, communication, feedback, and developing people.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve taken from it is that great leadership isn’t about having all the answers it’s about creating an environment where other people can become better. That philosophy has followed me throughout my career and into entrepreneurship.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I really try to watch as little TV as possible, but I almost never miss a Chicago Cubs game. There’s something about baseball that I love, the history, the strategy, the statistics, and the fact that no matter how long you’ve watched, you can still see something you’ve never seen before.
So if 162 episodes a year counts as a series, my answer is definitely the Cubs.
Key learnings:
- Persistence is essential to success, and lasting persistence comes from doing work that genuinely brings joy and meaning.
- Believe in yourself, work hard, and keep going—especially when success doesn’t come quickly or easily.
- Focus on serving people and creating genuine value for them. Build the business around that principle, and growth tends to follow.