Naoufel Groen

Why this persona fits the audience

Sells Modern Pokémon and Japanese promos from a home cabinet, watches recent sold comps before each listing, and keeps one spreadsheet that includes purchase price, grading notes, and expected fees across Cardmarket and eBay.

• Age: 28
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Occupation: UX researcher
• Income: €44k
• Education: Master's degree
• Company size: Mid-sized tech consultancy (150-300 employees)
• Years in role: 3

“If you can't explain your margin calculation in three lines, you don't understand the market well enough to trade it.”

Naoufel Groen is a 28-year-old UX researcher based in Amsterdam, navigating the intersection of digital design and physical collectibles. With a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, he applies a rigorous, systems-thinking approach to both his career and his side hustle. Unlike many in the trading card community who chase hype, Naoufel operates as a solo collector-seller, focusing exclusively on Modern Pokémon and rare Japanese promotional cards. His operation is entirely home-based, managed from a dedicated cabinet in his apartment where every card is cataloged with obsessive precision. His business model relies on a single, sprawling spreadsheet that serves as his command center. This tool tracks purchase prices, detailed grading notes, and projected fees across both Cardmarket and eBay, allowing him to calculate net profit margins with surgical accuracy. Before listing any item, he conducts extensive market research, watching recent sold comps to ensure his pricing reflects current demand rather than inflated retail values. This habit stems from a deep-seated skepticism toward market volatility and a desire for calm control over his financial assets. Professionally, Naoufel spends his days helping tech companies understand user behavior, a role that mirrors his personal approach to collecting: understanding the underlying motivations and patterns behind the surface activity. He is financially stable on an income of €44k but views his card flipping not as a get-rich-quick scheme, but as a disciplined exercise in asset management. Recent decisions have seen him resist the urge to automate his listings, preferring manual oversight to maintain quality control. He is currently evaluating ways to reduce the administrative burden of his hobby without sacrificing the accuracy that defines his success, viewing time as a finite resource that must be allocated efficiently. To him, status is not defined by the number of cards owned, but by the integrity of the system used to manage them.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Naoufel wakes up at 6:30 AM without an alarm, immediately checking his phone for overnight sales notifications on Cardmarket. After a quick jog and breakfast, he heads to his office in Amsterdam Zuid, where he spends the morning conducting user interviews and synthesizing feedback. Lunch is a solitary affair at his desk, spent reading industry news. In the late afternoon, he shifts focus to his personal project: updating his master spreadsheet. He meticulously inputs new acquisition costs, adjusts grading notes, and recalculates potential fees for upcoming eBay listings. By 6 PM, he returns home, changes clothes, and spends another hour curating his physical cabinet, cleaning sleeves and photographing new inventory. Dinner is eaten while reviewing market trends on a second monitor. He winds down around 10 PM, ensuring all data is backed up before sleep, feeling a sense of calm satisfaction from a day of structured labor.

Lifestyle

Naoufel lives in a quiet, sunlit apartment in Amsterdam Noord where the living room doubles as his archive. He maintains a strict separation between work and leisure, often working late into the evening when the city is quiet. His weekends are split between attending local card shows for physical inspection and spending hours at home organizing his collection. He is health-conscious, jogging three times a week along the IJ river to clear his mind. Financially, he practices 'slow wealth,' reinvesting most profits from card sales back into the hobby or high-yield savings rather than luxury goods. Socially, he prefers deep one-on-one conversations over large gatherings, finding energy in shared intellectual pursuits rather than partying.

Work life

As a UX researcher, Naoufel spends his days observing human behavior through interviews and usability testing sessions. His role requires him to synthesize complex qualitative data into actionable insights for product teams. He works primarily in Figma and specialized research platforms, constantly refining how he structures information for clarity. The pressure comes from meeting tight deadlines for client deliverables while maintaining high ethical standards in data handling. Coworkers view him as the person who asks the hard questions about user motivation. He thrives on the structure of his workflow but finds the constant context-switching between different client projects mentally draining, leading him to rely heavily on detailed spreadsheets to maintain a sense of order.

Relationships

Naoufel has a small, tight-knit circle of friends, mostly fellow collectors or colleagues from university. He maintains a warm but distant relationship with his parents in Rotterdam, calling them weekly. His partner, an architect, shares his love for organized systems but lacks interest in the card market, creating a gentle divide in their weekend activities. He occasionally trades via Discord servers but avoids the chaos of public forums, preferring direct, private negotiations with trusted individuals. His primary influence comes from online communities that value precision over hype.

How they decide

Decisions are made through a rigorous, multi-step verification process. Naouvel never acts on impulse; he gathers data, cross-references it against historical records, and simulates outcomes before committing resources. He is deeply skeptical of 'quick fix' solutions, preferring to build his own frameworks even if they take longer. Peer validation matters only if it aligns with his internal logic. He weighs risks conservatively, often opting for the safer, lower-margin option to ensure long-term stability over short-term gains.

How they sound

His speech is measured, precise, and devoid of hyperbole. He uses technical terminology related to data and markets naturally but avoids jargon when explaining concepts to non-experts. He rarely raises his voice or uses slang, preferring clear, declarative sentences. He tends to pause frequently to formulate his thoughts accurately, often prefacing statements with 'Actually, looking at the data...' or 'I'd need to verify that.' He avoids emotional outbursts or speculative claims, sticking strictly to what can be proven or observed.