Latest / Collectors MD Features / #4: Gambling Addiction With Alyx Of Collectors MD | The Card Diary

Transcript

#4: Gambling Addiction With Alyx Of Collectors MD | The Card Diary · Collectors MD Features

• 0:00
  Thank you. Welcome to episode 113 of The Card
• 0:35
  Diary by Hobbyist Thompson. I'm your host, Denny
• 0:38
  Cards, and this is a, I don't know, somewhat
• 0:40
  of a cross -podcast format because I usually
• 0:47
  try to keep my hobby podcast... Oh my gosh, is
• 0:52
  my mic okay? Okay, here we go. So basically...
• 0:55
  I like to keep the car diary a hobby kind of
• 0:59
  like recorded. You know, I don't really do edits
• 1:01
  to my podcast, but I like to keep them as recordings
• 1:04
  that I do. And then the hobby hangout, I've been
• 1:07
  trying to do this 9 p .m. live on Sunday nights,
• 1:10
  Eastern time. But this is a. I don't know. I
• 1:14
  think it's kind of like a dual episode that I'm
• 1:17
  going to put up on both platforms because my
• 1:20
  guest today was willing to go live Sunday at
• 1:23
  9 p .m., which is today. Oh, of course, may the
• 1:26
  4th be with you, Alyx, and with all of you listening
• 1:30
  and tuning in. And yet, this is not a casual,
• 1:35
  easy conversation. This is going to be a... pretty
• 1:40
  it may get kind of deep for some folks so this
• 1:43
  is kind of you know not a warning or hey this
• 1:47
  isn't for kids because this could also be for
• 1:49
  kids in the sense that anyone really can get
• 1:53
  uh head uh in too deep into the hobby whether
• 1:58
  you're a kid or an adult you know there i think
• 2:02
  we all know that With breaking culture, there's
• 2:05
  just a lot of money being spent and the gamblers
• 2:08
  or the gambler adjacent folks can really be affected
• 2:12
  hard by this hobby. So I am going to allow my
• 2:16
  guest to introduce himself here in a moment.
• 2:18
  But I did want to say on a positive or fun or
• 2:21
  light, bright note. I did go to my local FedEx
• 2:26
  Kinko's. I am going to have a YouTube video coming
• 2:29
  out about this. And yet I did want to kind of
• 2:32
  share with all of you. Today's sponsor is me.
• 2:34
  It is me. I am hosting my own very own trade
• 2:38
  night at the Garden ALX. The address is right
• 2:41
  there. I'll put it in the chat as well. 5380
• 2:45
  Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia. It
• 2:47
  is going to be May 15th. That is two Thursdays
• 2:51
  from now. And I am covering the time. It is going
• 2:53
  to be 6 to 9 .30 p .m. So I paid myself a handsome,
• 2:57
  a very large sum of money to promote myself on
• 3:01
  my own podcast today. It's going to be giveaways,
• 3:04
  family friendly. I'm going to have some hobby
• 3:05
  companies do some things. So be on the lookout
• 3:08
  for that. If you're in the DMV area, please.
• 3:12
  I've had people in the past drive kind of far
• 3:14
  to come to one of my trade nights. I would not
• 3:16
  advise people to come all the way out on a Thursday
• 3:19
  evening on a school night to come out to this.
• 3:22
  But if you are in the area, May 15th, 6 to 9
• 3:26
  .30 p .m., and it is free for everyone who attends.
• 3:29
  So thank you for indulging me on that. Without
• 3:33
  further ado, I really want to have my guest today
• 3:36
  introduce himself and what he's trying to create,
• 3:38
  and then we're going to really dive into it.
• 3:40
  But I'm very supportive of what he is standing
• 3:44
  for here. So Alyx, the floor is all yours. Denny,
• 3:48
  thank you so much, man. Truly. Appreciate you
• 3:52
  having me on, appreciate all of the support you've
• 3:56
  given me over the last couple weeks since we
• 3:58
  first got in touch. And hey everyone, my name
• 4:02
  is Alyx Effron. I'm the founder of a new movement
• 4:06
  in the hobby called Collectors MD. I've been
• 4:09
  in the hobby for years as a collector, as a seller,
• 4:13
  buyer, breaker, you name it. I've seen firsthand
• 4:17
  how easy it is for passion. to spiral into something
• 4:22
  a lot more complicated. I've experienced it firsthand.
• 4:25
  I've spoken and met with other people who have
• 4:28
  gone through the rigor. And so that's why I started
• 4:31
  Collectors MD. We're a support -based movement
• 4:34
  focused on helping people collect with intention,
• 4:37
  not compulsion. We host peer support meetings,
• 4:41
  publish daily reflections, basically journal
• 4:43
  entries. We work with creators, breakers, influencers.
• 4:48
  and platforms to push for real reform in the
• 4:51
  space because let's be honest, the hobby's growing
• 4:54
  super fast and there are no guardrails that have
• 4:59
  caught up in time to help those that need them.
• 5:03
  So today I'm here not just someone who loves
• 5:06
  the hobby and is extremely passionate for sports
• 5:10
  cards, sneakers, memorabilia. collectibles, you
• 5:14
  name it. I have been involved in it my entire
• 5:18
  life, but also as someone who wants to help reshape
• 5:20
  it into something healthier, more sustainable,
• 5:23
  and more human. That's really good. All of that,
• 5:28
  I super, you know, 100 % endorse. One thing you
• 5:32
  said that I actually didn't know about you, and
• 5:33
  I really have only gotten to know you in the
• 5:36
  past couple of weeks, you know, like in the month
• 5:38
  of April is when I really got to really understand
• 5:41
  what you're trying to do. And I am supportive
• 5:43
  of it is I didn't realize that you were previously
• 5:46
  a breaker. Can you talk on that? Can you kind
• 5:48
  of talk about you? You're going to go there.
• 5:49
  Yeah. So that's that's a great place to start.
• 5:54
  In 2020, beginning of the pandemic, a buddy of
• 5:58
  mine who I grew up with, very close with, reintroduced
• 6:02
  me to the hobby. And he was on Facebook and Instagram,
• 6:07
  basically hosting live breaks. And it was basically
• 6:12
  the first time I had seen anything like it. And
• 6:15
  I was, at first, a little bit hesitant, thought
• 6:18
  it was a little bit cheesy. Like, what is this
• 6:21
  guy doing? uh as a grown adult opening packs
• 6:26
  of sports cards for other adults it just felt
• 6:28
  like really strange right and as i engaged with
• 6:33
  it more and more and started to join the breaks
• 6:35
  myself to support him i got super addicted and
• 6:38
  you know found a lot of interest in it and as
• 6:42
  a collector as somebody who has been a sports
• 6:45
  fan my entire life love being able to enjoy a
• 6:51
  tangible item that holds value as opposed to
• 6:55
  a digital asset like a stock or an NFT. I've
• 6:59
  always loved the idea of investing in something
• 7:02
  that you're passionate about, that you can own
• 7:05
  and appreciate, enjoy, potentially pass down
• 7:08
  to a future generation. it was like the perfect
• 7:14
  match for me not to mention i grew up in the
• 7:16
  90s and you know i collected pokemon cards and
• 7:18
  basketball baseball cards as a kid so it was
• 7:22
  awesome to sort of re -engage with a nostalgic
• 7:26
  time in my life and um you know at the time it
• 7:30
  was really exciting in the hobby because it was
• 7:34
  um It was all about the 2019 -2020 basketball
• 7:38
  class, right? There was Zion, Ja, and you had
• 7:41
  like all those quarterbacks, Joe Burrow, Justin
• 7:44
  Herbert, Tua, Hertz, Jordan Love. It's like one
• 7:48
  of the best QB rookie classes of all time. And
• 7:50
  this was all happening at once. And so the products
• 7:53
  were coming out and the hype was there. Zion
• 7:56
  base cards were selling for like hundreds of
• 7:59
  dollars. I think a silver PSA 10 present at one
• 8:02
  point was like. upwards of 2000, maybe more.
• 8:06
  So anyway, you know, it was, it was very easy
• 8:08
  to, to get sucked in. And I did. And, uh, my
• 8:11
  buddy who I mentioned in reintroduce me to the
• 8:13
  hobby invited me to, uh, start breaking with
• 8:17
  him under his brand called Bogo breaks. His name
• 8:20
  is Paul Bogosian. Uh, and the, the brand, uh,
• 8:24
  is basically, you know, a play on his name, Bogo
• 8:26
  breaks. And it was me, Paul and two other buddies
• 8:29
  that grew up, uh, together. that were running
• 8:33
  live breaks on Instagram, Facebook, primarily.
• 8:38
  Towards the end, we also started to break on
• 8:41
  Whatnot, but really focused a lot of our attention
• 8:46
  on Instagram. And so I was doing that for the
• 8:49
  better part of the pandemic between 2020 and
• 8:52
  2021. When things started to return to a state
• 8:57
  of normalcy, we all kind of slowed down with
• 8:59
  it. you know we were basically alternating breaking
• 9:01
  every night uh and then you know towards the
• 9:05
  end of 2021 it was basically like once or twice
• 9:08
  a week uh depending on you know what product
• 9:11
  was coming out and you know who had time but
• 9:14
  we were all kind of just you know refocused on
• 9:17
  our careers and moving on and i was the one who
• 9:20
  kind of uh still you know continued with it uh
• 9:26
  you know from the other side of the fence where
• 9:28
  i was participating in breaks other breaks other
• 9:31
  breakers uh buying personals collecting watching
• 9:36
  the you know the crates of cards pile up to the
• 9:40
  ceiling and just eventually spiral out of control
• 9:43
  and uh so you know we still post on there sometimes
• 9:48
  we still like buy sell trade uh and engage with
• 9:51
  um customers or people that we have done deals
• 9:54
  with in the past. So that page does still exist,
• 9:57
  but we no longer break on it. I should take that
• 10:01
  back actually. Paul and one of the other guys,
• 10:05
  Tony, I think they went live like a month or
• 10:07
  two ago to open up WebC. One thing I'll ask you
• 10:11
  before I get to the next question is could you
• 10:13
  move maybe a couple of inches away from the microphone
• 10:16
  because I'm getting a little bit too much. Somewhere
• 10:18
  in between that. and where you were yeah kind
• 10:22
  of like that that might help yeah awesome thank
• 10:24
  you so um not that it matters too much i did
• 10:27
  want to ask you though what what were you breaking
• 10:30
  actually maybe it does matter because in the
• 10:31
  sense of like uh what sports were you breaking
• 10:35
  and were those the sports that you collect because
• 10:39
  i know some people like to do just one type of
• 10:43
  collecting but then they break another i mean
• 10:46
  i've heard that from some folks but let me know
• 10:48
  uh what What sports or what genres were you breaking
• 10:51
  and who do you like or who do you PC and who
• 10:54
  do you collect? Oh, no. Now I think you might
• 11:01
  have disconnected your microphone because I can't
• 11:02
  hear you now. What about now? Yes. Now I can.
• 11:07
  Go ahead. I'm just posting real quick that we're
• 11:09
  live on my story. Okay. And then I'll answer
• 11:12
  your question. But I want to try to get some
• 11:14
  of the followers in the room if we can. Okay.
• 11:19
  As you do that, not my cat, this cat, this neighborhood
• 11:23
  cat wants to come on my lap and is now messing
• 11:27
  with me. Okay. So neighborhood cat. Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:31
  Just cat likes to, as soon as I'm comfortable,
• 11:34
  it's time to. want attention from me so that's
• 11:39
  just kind of how it goes um but yeah i i did
• 11:41
  post that we were live on my instagram as well
• 11:44
  i was kind of looking for any questions if people
• 11:47
  had any questions i don't see any roll in and
• 11:49
  i don't see any questions in the chat um uh but
• 11:53
  i'll kind of get to that in a moment but yeah
• 11:55
  so who what what were you what were you breaking
• 11:57
  and what do you collect So we were primarily
• 12:02
  breaking basketball, football, baseball. I actually
• 12:04
  started out as the baseball guy because they
• 12:06
  were doing football and basketball. Paul was
• 12:10
  doing football. Tony was doing basketball. Other
• 12:14
  guy, Joe, was doing a little bit of both. And
• 12:16
  then I was like the baseball guy. And then it
• 12:18
  got to a point where all three of us were just
• 12:20
  rotating and doing all three sports. This was
• 12:24
  also before some of these secondary sports really
• 12:27
  blew up and became... you know incredibly popular
• 12:30
  in the hobby uh you know those sports being like
• 12:33
  ufc wwe um f1 women's basketball uh of course
• 12:41
  you know there's a whole other side of it with
• 12:43
  tcg um i don't know like there's like marvel
• 12:47
  and disney and uh all that sort of stuff fall
• 12:50
  under the same umbrella as uh tcg or is it like
• 12:54
  more so just like uh trading cards i guess like
• 12:59
  somewhere in between you know the the term tcg
• 13:02
  is the trading card game part and i think that
• 13:04
  loricana would be a tcg because there's a trading
• 13:08
  there's like a tournament aspect to it a game
• 13:11
  gamification or gameplay and then marvel like
• 13:15
  let's say uh you know the most recent i can't
• 13:17
  remember what it's called like 19 um was it 1987
• 13:22
  i see that i wish i wish i hadn't uh 1994 something
• 13:27
  x -men top 94 that has no actual like say points
• 13:32
  and uh they're they're not used in like tournament
• 13:35
  play that's those are just kind of like characters
• 13:38
  so i think magic gathering uh certainly pokemon
• 13:41
  is a tcg because they have the the stats and
• 13:44
  the combat points and all that stuff right so
• 13:47
  it depends which which product yeah but yeah
• 13:49
  i would say marvel you know i remember as a kid
• 13:52
  marvel masterpieces was like a huge thing of
• 13:55
  course back then the packs were like a dollar
• 13:57
  or two dollars um the artwork was beautiful um
• 14:00
  but it didn't break the bank i think that you
• 14:03
  know uh before we get to maybe what you do collect
• 14:05
  like back then like it was wax has always been
• 14:09
  a gamble it's always been a gamble it's just
• 14:11
  that gamble it went from penny slots to a thousand
• 14:16
  dollar uh you know, swings of the jackpot of
• 14:20
  the slot machine. Right. So that's the issue
• 14:24
  I think a lot of people have. But so did you
• 14:27
  become the baseball guy because you like baseball
• 14:31
  more? Not really. I'm just knowledgeable. I think
• 14:35
  I was like the only knowledgeable baseball guy.
• 14:37
  But I do. I do like all three sports. I would
• 14:42
  say pretty evenly. It's hard, right? Because,
• 14:46
  like, it really depends on the season and, like,
• 14:50
  the teams. Like, I'm a Yankee fan. I grew up
• 14:54
  watching or, like, I grew up rooting for the
• 14:56
  Miami Dolphins. But they're just, like, notoriously,
• 15:00
  you know, not good. And then, like, for basketball,
• 15:04
  I kind of lean towards the Knicks. But, like,
• 15:07
  you know, as good as they are this year, this
• 15:10
  team kind of, like. irks me a little bit i don't
• 15:12
  know like i don't know why like i love brunson
• 15:15
  but lately he's just been flopping so much and
• 15:17
  like carl anthony towns is so obnoxious with
• 15:20
  his like you know this whole zesty thing he's
• 15:24
  got going on so just like you are you are a new
• 15:27
  york city guy then yeah from the tri -state area
• 15:30
  born and raised in north jersey I work in and
• 15:34
  around Manhattan. My wife works in Manhattan.
• 15:37
  We actually just moved from Jersey City, which
• 15:40
  is a town right outside of Manhattan, to the
• 15:44
  suburbs in Jersey. But yeah, born and raised.
• 15:47
  You know, it's really not by design, but I have
• 15:50
  such a string of New York City guests. I don't
• 15:53
  know if it's because... I connect with them better
• 15:55
  online on Instagram or whatever it is, but, you
• 15:59
  know, so thank you for taking the time and, and,
• 16:02
  you know, from your schedule with, you know,
• 16:04
  coming from the tri -state area. So you are kind
• 16:07
  of like a New York fan, a New York teams fan,
• 16:11
  but somehow Miami dolphins, which, you know,
• 16:13
  you don't have to explain. I mean, I don't know
• 16:15
  if you're a nineties kid, but I know that. Even
• 16:19
  post -Perfect season, you just had the Dan Marino,
• 16:22
  Irving Fryer years and all this stuff. So maybe
• 16:26
  not recently that they've been good, but I don't
• 16:29
  know if they were good in your childhood. But
• 16:30
  I know with a lot of kind of, I don't know, mental
• 16:33
  health or kind of like improving yourself, it
• 16:36
  does kind of go back to who you were or what
• 16:39
  you were as a kid. Right. Yeah, no, I grew up
• 16:42
  in the 90s. I was born in 89. I'm 35. you know
• 16:47
  the chicago bulls era just like watching the
• 16:49
  bulls jazz finals uh you know obviously the knicks
• 16:53
  with ewing and alan houston and john stark's
• 16:55
  like that's all like deeply rooted in my upbringing
• 17:00
  okay so so that's the foundational base um you
• 17:05
  know you pc kind of like the new york teams you
• 17:08
  were a breaker with baseball and you have seen
• 17:12
  i guess before we get to what we're current you
• 17:15
  know the current state of things and and collectors
• 17:18
  md yeah did you as a breaker um see like you
• 17:26
  know how some bartenders uh some of the more
• 17:28
  responsible ones where if someone is drinking
• 17:31
  too much they they cut them off um i've heard
• 17:34
  the similar analogy occur with breakers some
• 17:37
  of the better uh or more socially responsible
• 17:40
  breakers even as if it's against their own financial
• 17:45
  benefit or gain. They'll just kind of say, hey,
• 17:48
  love you. You're a great supporter. You spent
• 17:52
  a lot of money. I just can't accept more of your
• 17:54
  money. Have you ever gotten to that point with
• 17:57
  some of your buyers? It's a great question, first
• 18:01
  of all. And I have spoken to a handful of breakers
• 18:04
  who have acknowledged that and have stated that
• 18:07
  there are certain customers or circumstances
• 18:11
  where they will cut off that person if they feel
• 18:14
  like they're spiraling. And I think that's really
• 18:15
  important. And it's a huge part of what we're
• 18:17
  doing with Collectors MD to push reform. But as
• 18:20
  far as from my perspective, as a breaker, when
• 18:23
  I was breaking, and again, this was four or five
• 18:26
  years ago, It was such a different landscape,
• 18:31
  right? Like the environment now with like the
• 18:34
  Whatnot and Fanatics Live streams, you know,
• 18:38
  the breaker playing the role of the dealer, the
• 18:41
  marketer, the hype man, and, you know, still
• 18:44
  breaking the cards and like all like the overlays
• 18:47
  and the music and the sound effects and everything
• 18:50
  else. It's just, it has like casino written all
• 18:54
  over it. i mean like the repacks it's like a
• 18:56
  it's like a carnival right um when we were breaking
• 19:00
  on instagram it was like so much more tamed man
• 19:05
  like we were doing like one hobby box divisionals
• 19:09
  80 bucks a spot like you know we would hop on
• 19:13
  for like one or two of those and that was like
• 19:15
  the extent of it you know we we did have nights
• 19:18
  where like we would open personals for you know
• 19:20
  one guy who we at the time considered like a
• 19:23
  whale and we would like see that same person
• 19:25
  spend a lot of money with other breakers but
• 19:27
  like those people generally you you had a sense
• 19:31
  that they just like had a lot of money because
• 19:33
  of how they were spending it and it didn't seem
• 19:36
  like it was a problem at the time Now it's like
• 19:39
  the Wild West. I mean, you go in there and, like,
• 19:41
  these spots are going for, and we're talking
• 19:44
  about, like, one team or, like, one player. When
• 19:47
  they're selling these spots, they're going for,
• 19:48
  like, upwards of $2 ,000 to $3 ,000 to $4 ,000
• 19:51
  to $5 ,000. I mean, I think I saw We The Hobby
• 19:54
  selling spots in their repack break for, like,
• 19:58
  $10 ,000 plus. I mean, it's just, like, it's
• 20:00
  mind -boggling that, like, you know, but, like,
• 20:03
  ultimately what it is is it's a... it's a $10
• 20:07
  ,000 spin on the roulette wheel, you know? Yeah.
• 20:13
  There's no other, you know, way to go. Yeah,
• 20:15
  it's not even, you know, roulette wheel is probably
• 20:17
  a better analogy because I can't remember exactly
• 20:19
  how many numbers on the roulette wheel, but,
• 20:22
  you know, you got the zero, double zero, you
• 20:23
  got the black and the red, and you have like
• 20:25
  one, double zero, zero to one to 30, what, 36?
• 20:29
  36, yeah. Right, so then you have like 32 NFL
• 20:32
  teams, 30 NBA teams, this and that, and then
• 20:34
  I forget, whatever, like 32 MLB teams. you really
• 20:38
  do. If you buy one spot, it is like picking one
• 20:41
  out of like the entire wheel. It's not a 50,
• 20:44
  50 proposition. It is not a divisional. It's
• 20:47
  not a one in four chance, one in each chance.
• 20:50
  You really are like picking one spot and it's,
• 20:52
  and not only do you have to hit, I mean, not
• 20:55
  only do you have to get, yeah, you have to like
• 20:58
  hit like the main auto in one box or the 12 autos
• 21:03
  in a case. Like you have to have like the best.
• 21:06
  you know quote unquote like hit what's so crazy
• 21:09
  about that is like the roulette wheel before
• 21:11
  a spin like every single number is pretty much
• 21:14
  like even in the grand scheme of things i mean
• 21:18
  you can look at like the history of like the
• 21:20
  spins within that like wheel and like you know
• 21:23
  in terms of the odds of the next number being
• 21:27
  people think there's yeah but there's zero correlation
• 21:30
  there's zero every single spin is a fresh spin
• 21:33
  unless of course like the ball is weighted and
• 21:35
  that's like you know a whole nother you know
• 21:38
  conversation for another day ethics of casinos
• 21:41
  and such but um the the irony is like you know
• 21:45
  i was saying all those numbers are for the most
• 21:47
  part equal to one another with these teams like
• 21:52
  you know there are 36 numbers on a roulette wheel
• 21:54
  there are 32 teams in the nfl uh so it's very
• 21:57
  similar um and you're trying to get one of the
• 22:01
  better teams right like when you put your money
• 22:03
  on an on an inside number for roulette like you're
• 22:05
  not trying to put a number you're you're not
• 22:07
  trying to beat anybody to like get to a certain
• 22:09
  number or like try to like right win you know
• 22:12
  the chance at putting your your money on the
• 22:16
  number 15 or something like that it's like the
• 22:19
  the way that these breakers uh sell these spots
• 22:22
  it's like if you get the washington commanders
• 22:25
  in a 2024 product break it's like it's a win
• 22:29
  if you get one of the the chasers as they call
• 22:32
  them now uh it's like oh my god you got a chaser
• 22:35
  like that you've already won and it's like the
• 22:37
  the the irony the oxymoron is that like you didn't
• 22:43
  win anything like you now have a chance at potentially
• 22:47
  uh you know getting whatever players come out
• 22:50
  of the box that are assigned to your team but
• 22:53
  the chances of that actually happening are still
• 22:56
  so marginal so it's like you first have to get
• 22:58
  the team the right team then you have to make
• 23:01
  sure or not make sure but like then you have
• 23:03
  to get lucky enough to get the right box that
• 23:05
  has the right cards and then that like the player
• 23:08
  that comes out has to be the right parallel and
• 23:10
  you know again it's like semantics and jersey
• 23:13
  numbers and one -on -ones and short prints and
• 23:15
  case hits it's like It's so exhausting to even
• 23:18
  think about, but like the manufacturers, I hate
• 23:24
  to say it, but like they just do such an incredible
• 23:26
  job. Maybe incredible is the wrong adjective,
• 23:30
  but they just do such a good job of marketing
• 23:34
  this stuff and making it so that, you know, their
• 23:39
  consumer just keeps coming back every single
• 23:42
  week, every single month, every year, you know,
• 23:45
  like. optic is like all the all the you know
• 23:49
  um craze right now right the optic football because
• 23:52
  it just came out and this is one of the best
• 23:54
  uh rookie qb classes we've ever seen you know
• 23:57
  we're just talking about 2020 but 2024 potentially
• 24:00
  could be like right on that same level just in
• 24:03
  terms of like the talent and like the volume
• 24:05
  the number of quarterbacks that are you know
• 24:08
  going to potentially start and be successful
• 24:09
  um and you know uh it's it's just it's it's insane
• 24:18
  how um uh we're seeing all of these new products
• 24:25
  come out i was talking about optic and the case
• 24:28
  hits the downtowns like most of the downtowns
• 24:32
  on the checklist are veterans right and they're
• 24:35
  the same players you see every single year on
• 24:39
  those checklists right you see mahomes you see
• 24:41
  josh allen you see burrow you see all of these
• 24:43
  veterans Even the retired players like Dan Marino,
• 24:47
  Joe Montana, Steve Young, John Elway, they always
• 24:51
  have downtowns. They always have kabooms. They
• 24:54
  always have the same short prints that all these
• 25:00
  consumers are chasing. It's just slightly different
• 25:03
  for that year. So how rare is it really? How
• 25:07
  many one -of -ones of the same downtown, of the
• 25:11
  same player? have they actually made it's so
• 25:14
  oversaturated but Panini and Topps Fanatics they
• 25:17
  do such a fantastic job marketing this stuff
• 25:20
  that people will always come back they'll always
• 25:23
  keep buying it doesn't matter how many they produce
• 25:26
  people will still eat it up yeah no absolutely
• 25:31
  so i i want to kind of die uh delve more into
• 25:36
  this analogy with like either roulette or the
• 25:38
  casino or the gambling aspect of the of the hobby
• 25:40
  because Please correct me if you think otherwise,
• 25:44
  but my understanding of, say, AA, Alcoholics
• 25:51
  Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Gambling, Gamblers
• 25:53
  Anonymous, is complete abstinence. It's do not
• 25:57
  drink. You've had your last drink of. You can't
• 26:02
  expect an alcoholic to socially drink. It's abstinence.
• 26:09
  Same thing with... drugs narcotics same thing
• 26:11
  with gambling my understanding is it's not hey
• 26:14
  um hey uh urine gamblers anonymous you can still
• 26:18
  participate in you know hey go to a sportsbook
• 26:22
  and just hang out don't bet right but you guys
• 26:25
  have positioned yourselves and we can get into
• 26:27
  the whole md part of the collectors in a little
• 26:29
  bit but collectors md that you're trying to create
• 26:32
  is you're saying you're not anti -hobby so You
• 26:36
  you are still kind of OK with people being in
• 26:40
  the hobby, but not the breaking part of the hobby,
• 26:44
  like the gambling part of the hobby, because
• 26:46
  because my my my, you know, before I let you
• 26:48
  answer, like buying singles is a gamble, too,
• 26:51
  because these prices go up and down. The market
• 26:53
  goes up and down. Player performance goes up
• 26:55
  and down. So let's say you do buy, you know,
• 26:57
  something that's steadily even as simple as,
• 27:00
  you know, just, you know, a base Jaden Daniels
• 27:04
  PSA 10. you know, rookie card, right? Not even
• 27:08
  silver, but for like a low amount of money, that
• 27:11
  card will fluctuate in price. So, you know, kind
• 27:14
  of speak to that if you could, please. Yeah,
• 27:17
  no, it's a great question. And it's something
• 27:18
  that has come up time and time again over the
• 27:23
  last, you know, six weeks or so since I launched
• 27:25
  Collectors MD. It's like the biggest question
• 27:28
  that I've gotten. And that is, you know, wait,
• 27:33
  if this is like gambling, shouldn't the goal
• 27:34
  be to quit collecting altogether? And it's a
• 27:37
  totally fair question, especially when you compare
• 27:39
  it to programs like GA and AA and NA, where full
• 27:43
  abstinence, like you said, is the standard. But
• 27:46
  here's the core difference. Collecting isn't
• 27:48
  inherently destructive. It's not the act of buying
• 27:52
  cards, comics, sneakers, memorabilia, whatever
• 27:56
  collectible we're talking about. you know not
• 28:00
  necessarily the problem it's the relationship
• 28:02
  we develop with them so for some people that
• 28:04
  relationship becomes obsessive compulsive harmful
• 28:08
  for others it stays fun balanced and therapeutic
• 28:11
  so there are layers to it right And everyone's
• 28:15
  threshold is different. Some people can set a
• 28:17
  budget, stick to it, occasionally rip and be
• 28:21
  totally fine. Others might find that once they
• 28:24
  start, they just can't stop and they just keep
• 28:26
  chasing. They're hiding purchases from their
• 28:28
  family, loved ones, significant others. They
• 28:31
  feel guilty. They feel shame afterwards. And
• 28:34
  for those individuals, the answer might be full
• 28:36
  abstinence or at least a long committed break.
• 28:40
  So we're not anti -collecting. We are, you know,
• 28:45
  we are pro hobby, but what we are more importantly
• 28:49
  is pro honesty. It's about helping people figure
• 28:51
  out what kind of collector they are and whether
• 28:54
  they can participate in the hobby in a way that's
• 28:56
  responsible, sustainable and healthy. Right.
• 28:59
  So at the end of the day, it's not like necessarily
• 29:01
  a one size fits all solution. Recovery in this
• 29:05
  space isn't about like rigid rules. It's about
• 29:08
  reclaiming control. setting boundaries and finding
• 29:11
  a relationship within the hobby that adds to
• 29:13
  your life adds value to your life instead of
• 29:16
  draining it yeah and uh thank you really well
• 29:19
  said and j2 comics thank you for being in the
• 29:21
  chat and uh watching live and he says you're
• 29:23
  right it is a lot and it's important to set boundaries
• 29:26
  so boundaries is like the operative word honesty
• 29:29
  operative word um these are really important
• 29:31
  things so i mean uh The, you know, we talked
• 29:36
  about mental health and boundaries and all that
• 29:38
  stuff. So the MD part of Collectors MD is, does
• 29:41
  not stand for medical doctor. None of you and
• 29:44
  the people who are helping run kind of Collectors
• 29:47
  MD is not, you guys are not trained mental health
• 29:50
  professionals, but can you kind of explain what
• 29:52
  that part is about? Yeah. So the MD, you know,
• 29:56
  when I. came up with the brand when i came up
• 29:59
  with the the idea of collectors md it actually
• 30:02
  originally was supposed to be collectors anonymous
• 30:04
  but i wanted it to be uh more approachable i
• 30:08
  wanted it to be uh you know something that anybody
• 30:11
  can uh be involved with right it doesn't necessarily
• 30:15
  have to be somebody who has a problem because
• 30:18
  at the end of the day we all like the hobby is
• 30:21
  all about community it's all about making building
• 30:25
  relationships making new friends meeting new
• 30:27
  people and eventually you're going to run into
• 30:30
  somebody who might have a little bit of a problem
• 30:34
  so it's about creating awareness for others um
• 30:38
  you know to help others so when you see a gambling
• 30:42
  ad and the bottom there's a disclaimer that says
• 30:45
  if you or a loved one has a problem call 1 -800
• 30:48
  -GAMBLER right that obviously doesn't exist right
• 30:50
  now in the hobby and that's what we're trying
• 30:52
  to change but they always add that you know um
• 30:56
  additional if you know somebody or if a loved
• 31:01
  one you know has a problem make sure to reach
• 31:03
  out it's so so important for us in the hobby
• 31:07
  collectively as a community to look out for one
• 31:10
  another and so um That doesn't exactly answer
• 31:15
  why I came up with MD, but again, I just wanted
• 31:17
  it to be more approachable. Now, with that said,
• 31:20
  after creating it and moving forward with it,
• 31:23
  I realized that a lot of people would question
• 31:26
  me and ask if I was a medical doctor or a trained
• 31:30
  and licensed therapist, or if we're based in
• 31:34
  Maryland, which none of the above apply. But
• 31:38
  what I have turned it into. is a bit of a play
• 31:44
  on words and so if you actually go to our website
• 31:47
  and scroll to the bottom there's a disclaimer
• 31:50
  and within that disclaimer it says the md and
• 31:53
  collectors md is intended to be tongue -in -cheek
• 31:55
  we're not medical doctors or licensed therapists
• 31:57
  and we're definitely not based in maryland that
• 31:59
  that does come up uh quite a bit actually in
• 32:03
  when you go to like when i go to my search i
• 32:06
  see maryland everywhere which is like a little
• 32:08
  bit annoying but whatever but the MD it's a nod
• 32:11
  to how real the struggle can feel. And our goal
• 32:14
  is to help diagnose unhealthy habits and support
• 32:16
  emotional wellness in the hobby. So we came up
• 32:20
  with three MDs is what we're calling them. Mental
• 32:23
  detox, money discipline. and or meaningful decisions.
• 32:27
  So within the recovery guide that we've created
• 32:31
  for our weekly meetings, there's actually a section
• 32:33
  in it where we focus on those three MDs. And
• 32:37
  basically what it says is we believe in practical,
• 32:39
  sustainable change below our core tools and guiding
• 32:43
  principles that support healthier spending and
• 32:45
  hobby participation. The first one being mental
• 32:48
  detox practices, and it outlines basically three
• 32:52
  bullets that are associated with that. And then
• 32:54
  there's money discipline strategies, same thing,
• 32:56
  three bullets, and then making meaningful decisions,
• 32:59
  again, three bullets. So we ended up turning
• 33:02
  it into kind of like a core pillar of the brand
• 33:05
  and something that we are focused on as a part
• 33:09
  of the journey towards recovery. Hmm. Okay. So
• 33:13
  I'm sharing it on the screen here for those of
• 33:15
  you who are watching live or watching the replay
• 33:18
  on video on YouTube or video podcast. So, you
• 33:22
  know, really good testimonials in here. Certainly,
• 33:25
  you know, there's. There's a lot of good information
• 33:29
  on collectorsmd .com, and I'll put that in the
• 33:31
  chat as well. Let me stop sharing the screen.
• 33:34
  Let me come back to the chat and just say Collectors MD
• 33:38
  .com. So here's a thing, okay? And I don't think
• 33:42
  this is like the $64 ,000 question, but I mean,
• 33:47
  maybe it's a good segue. So earlier today, so
• 33:50
  I have collectorsmd .com up on the screen here,
• 33:52
  but we have... Not anonymous, but he's in the
• 33:56
  chat and he said this, but I'll just say his
• 33:59
  first name for the audio. Michael says, what
• 34:02
  are you talking about? I just joined. And then
• 34:05
  he said, OK, never mind. Goodbye. So why do I
• 34:09
  highlight? The reason I highlight that is. even
• 34:13
  if you do make it seem as approachable as possible,
• 34:16
  I mean, I think there are a lot of people who,
• 34:18
  again, it's the stages of grief and all that,
• 34:20
  but like they are in such denial. And again,
• 34:23
  this is not about Michael, but I feel like much
• 34:26
  like a lot of things that we have been told to
• 34:28
  attend in life, the people who attend things
• 34:31
  are the, usually the ones who, if you, if you
• 34:35
  willfully go into something, you almost like
• 34:37
  don't need it. Like. Let's say there's a free
• 34:40
  training on diversity in your workplace, right?
• 34:44
  And they're like, it's not mandatory. If you
• 34:45
  want to go, you can go. The people who are open
• 34:47
  -minded or who want to learn how to be, say,
• 34:49
  you know, an ally will go to those. It's the
• 34:52
  people who aren't allies, the people who are
• 34:55
  the ones who maybe need that diversity training
• 34:57
  the most who should be in that. classroom or
• 35:00
  the virtual meeting, but they're the ones who
• 35:03
  are not there. Right. So you, you created the
• 35:05
  space, my concern, you know, and I know we can
• 35:09
  talk about like the first meeting and the subsequent
• 35:10
  meetings, but my, my worry is the people who
• 35:13
  need it the most are going to be the most resistant
• 35:15
  to even considering this either because one,
• 35:19
  they think that they don't have a problem to,
• 35:21
  they think, Oh, wow, I've been doing really well
• 35:23
  in breaks. I don't need this. I'm actually making
• 35:25
  money. And three, just kind of like, oh, it's
• 35:31
  none of your business. You know, I don't need,
• 35:33
  you know, who are you to tell me how to spend
• 35:35
  my money? All three of those are rooted in denial.
• 35:39
  It's denial of the actual reality of the situation.
• 35:42
  And so, you know, this person just jumped in.
• 35:45
  He's like, oh, what did I just come into? Oh,
• 35:48
  it's about that. It's about that topic. It's
• 35:51
  about gambling addiction. It's about, you know.
• 35:53
  breaking culture and you know compulsive spending
• 35:56
  like i don't want to hear that i want to i want
• 35:58
  to the hobby's fun i just want to have a lot
• 35:59
  of fun Alyx you're not the fun police tell me
• 36:03
  what you think about what i just said yeah i
• 36:06
  mean denial is everywhere and honestly you know
• 36:09
  it's something that for a long time like i told
• 36:12
  myself those same things like you know i'm super
• 36:15
  passionate it's not that serious i can afford
• 36:18
  this you know at the end of the day like i'll
• 36:21
  just sell some more cards to make up for this
• 36:24
  loss i even you know at one point framed it as
• 36:27
  like a business and that's how i justified it's
• 36:29
  like my wife it's like well i'm breaking i'm
• 36:32
  profiting i'm you know uh buying and selling
• 36:34
  and i'm being like i'm really savvy with it like
• 36:37
  i know what i'm doing right with like the flippers
• 36:39
  mentality uh so in my head like it felt justified
• 36:43
  right but behind the scenes like i was overspending
• 36:47
  i was hiding packages i was constantly chasing
• 36:50
  that next big hit and it stopped being fun and
• 36:53
  started feeling like something that you know
• 36:55
  i just i had to do uh and even when people you
• 36:59
  know close to me started to say like you're kind
• 37:03
  of getting a little bit out of control you're
• 37:05
  like how many more cards do you need it actually
• 37:07
  started with the sneakers which you see behind
• 37:09
  me at one point i had over 500 pairs of sneakers
• 37:11
  um and the sneakers turned into cards as I got
• 37:16
  older. But there were red flags and I just kind
• 37:19
  of always brushed them off because I didn't want
• 37:21
  to hear it. And that's the thing about denial.
• 37:23
  It's not always dramatic. It sometimes can be
• 37:26
  really quiet and it's rational sounding and it's
• 37:30
  incredibly hard to break out of that until you're
• 37:33
  ready to be open and honest with yourself. And
• 37:36
  so. Personally for me, that's why I started Collectors MD.
• 37:40
  Not because I figured it out or I'm on my high
• 37:43
  horse acting like I saw the light at the end
• 37:47
  of the tunnel and I am now fully healed. That's
• 37:50
  not the case whatsoever. But it's because I personally
• 37:55
  need the space too. It's cathartic. It's therapeutic
• 37:58
  for me. And I knew that I couldn't be the only
• 38:01
  one. So it allows me to help myself while also
• 38:05
  giving back. If that makes sense. So, you know,
• 38:08
  at the end of the day, like denial is human nature.
• 38:11
  We all want to believe we've got it under control.
• 38:14
  But for some people like that line between love
• 38:17
  and loss gets super blurry. And those are usually
• 38:21
  the folks that are most resistant to hearing
• 38:23
  it. They don't want to be told they might have
• 38:24
  a problem, especially when the hobby is, you
• 38:27
  know, their escape. Right. And for me, the hobby
• 38:30
  and gambling, those were like, that was my escape.
• 38:34
  With Collectors MD, we don't come in with judgment
• 38:37
  or shame. We don't tell people what they should
• 38:39
  or shouldn't do. We talked about GA, where it's
• 38:43
  like they tell you gambling is the devil and
• 38:45
  you can never do it again a day in your life.
• 38:47
  All we're trying to do is just share our own
• 38:49
  stories, offer support, and create a space for
• 38:52
  people to reflect at their own pace. Because
• 38:54
  sometimes the first seed of change comes from
• 38:58
  hearing someone say, I've been there too. So
• 39:01
  you can't force recovery. Right, right. Okay,
• 39:05
  so before we get into the recovery, you know,
• 39:09
  first meeting and subsequent ones, I don't know
• 39:13
  how many people in chat and people who are watching
• 39:15
  this are going to know what's called the Dunning
• 39:16
  -Kruger effect. So I'm just going to read the
• 39:19
  AI overview of it. It says the Dunning -Kruger
• 39:21
  effect describes a cognitive bias where individuals
• 39:24
  of low competence in a specific area overestimate
• 39:28
  their abilities while highly competent individuals
• 39:30
  may underestimate their relative expertise. This
• 39:34
  bias leads to overconfidence in the unskilled
• 39:37
  and the lack of confidence in the skilled. I
• 39:43
  knew about this fact. I thought it was more about
• 39:45
  the individuals with low competence. I kind of
• 39:47
  forgot about the second part, the latter half,
• 39:49
  which is about the highly competent individuals
• 39:51
  underestimating their relative expertise. But
• 39:54
  when it comes to the Dunning -Kruger effect in
• 39:56
  the hobby, the reason I bring up this, I don't
• 39:59
  even know what to call it, a scientific theory
• 40:02
  or some sort of bias. Again, I'm not well -versed
• 40:08
  in all of this at all, but I do know of this.
• 40:10
  But the reason I bring it up is because I feel
• 40:14
  that a lot of people think that they are good
• 40:19
  or can – because of the low barrier to entry
• 40:23
  in every single freaking thing in this hobby,
• 40:25
  whether – and I'm not just talking about collecting,
• 40:28
  but I'm talking about flipping. repacking, breaking,
• 40:32
  setting up as a vendor at a show, setting up
• 40:34
  your own eBay account. Like my whole concept
• 40:37
  of the card diary by Javier Thompson was. Hunter
• 40:41
  S. Thompson was like, I'm just going to try a
• 40:43
  lot of different things and see what, you know,
• 40:45
  not what I'm good at or bad at, but he would
• 40:47
  just embed himself into different situations
• 40:50
  and try different things. You know, the master
• 40:52
  of none, jack of all trades. So that's, you know,
• 40:54
  we're at episode 113, like the original episode.
• 40:58
  The whole reason for this podcast existing is
• 41:00
  pretty much the Dunning -Kruger effect in full
• 41:05
  display in the hobby. Me, myself, trying different
• 41:07
  things. And so. I think that it is what I've
• 41:12
  learned is what I like to do, what I don't like
• 41:14
  to do, what I'm good at, what I'm not good at.
• 41:16
  But it really is anyone who has a pulse and a
• 41:21
  little bit of money feels like they can do really
• 41:24
  anything in this hobby because no one really
• 41:27
  can tell them no because of the whole wild, wild
• 41:29
  west mentality or atmosphere that we currently
• 41:33
  are in. We do have this. And people watching
• 41:38
  things on YouTube thinking, you know, I've definitely
• 41:40
  had people say, you've inspired me, Denny, to
• 41:42
  try, you know, to try a podcast, to set up as
• 41:45
  a vendor, to, you know, to do this or do that
• 41:48
  and, you know, try my own YouTube. And I'm like
• 41:50
  really flattered. It's really nice. It really
• 41:53
  costs you nothing to create a podcast or YouTube
• 41:56
  channel or to sell on eBay. But I think there
• 42:00
  is a danger when. again if you spend too much
• 42:03
  money in it so again if you are say not even
• 42:05
  just a break or buying into breaks but if you're
• 42:08
  a flipper and you just can't get your accounting
• 42:10
  straight and you think you're a good flipper
• 42:12
  but you are just underwater on cards or there
• 42:15
  you've bought a lot of bricks or you're actually
• 42:18
  not as good not as savvy from the on a business
• 42:20
  transaction side of the hobby you are you you
• 42:24
  have a cognitive bias you think you can do it
• 42:26
  and you a lot of people are realizing you know
• 42:29
  i can't or hey sports cards were hot it was easy
• 42:34
  um to to transact in the hobby but now it's like
• 42:38
  oh pokemon's hot so i better jump to pokemon
• 42:40
  so i actually see a lot of people their vendor
• 42:43
  tables are flipping from sports 100 zero pokemon
• 42:49
  to 50 50 to now zero sports 100 pokemon yeah
• 42:54
  this is like All really, really good points.
• 42:58
  I love that you brought up something that's scientific
• 43:00
  in nature, like an actual theory that ties to
• 43:04
  this directly. And I mean, I think you really
• 43:06
  hit the nail on the head, right? Like in the
• 43:09
  context of collecting, someone starts ripping,
• 43:13
  they're flipping cars, they're chasing slabs.
• 43:15
  And after a few wins, they start thinking they've
• 43:17
  got it all figured out. Like there's some sort
• 43:19
  of expert. they're a market analyst like they're
• 43:22
  a dealer now right like meanwhile they're drowning
• 43:25
  in credit card debt they're stuck holding piles
• 43:27
  of bulk that they can't move so you know it's
• 43:31
  it's not about like being stupid it's not it's
• 43:34
  about like not yet knowing what you don't know
• 43:38
  if that makes sense yeah it's like you're super
• 43:40
  dangerous right right like because in a hobby
• 43:43
  that's in sorry my wife's calling me okay sorry
• 43:48
  phone's blown up You know, it's crazy. You know,
• 43:56
  the hobby is, like, designed to be fast and flashy
• 43:58
  and full of FOMO. Hold on one sec. She's calling
• 44:03
  me again. Let me text her. i should have told
• 44:05
  her that yeah no uh why don't you go on pause
• 44:07
  for just a minute and i'll just kind of talk
• 44:08
  about this so about the whole people okay so
• 44:13
  i'm reading off wikipedia here it says according
• 44:14
  to psychologist robert d mcintosh and his colleagues
• 44:17
  it is sometimes understood in popular culture
• 44:20
  as the claim that and this is the quote stupid
• 44:23
  people are too stupid to know that they are stupid
• 44:26
  man that is A lot of the hobby. It is from the
• 44:31
  transactional side. Again, not the collector
• 44:33
  side. I mean, there is no stupidity in collecting.
• 44:36
  I mean, you collect what you love, buy what you
• 44:38
  love. But the thing about that whole mantra of
• 44:41
  buy what you love is it really is this kind of
• 44:43
  like nice way of just saying like, hey, don't
• 44:47
  be in the transactional side of the hobby. But,
• 44:49
  you know, my inverse to that is don't buy what
• 44:55
  you love if you want to flip it. It's like. you
• 44:59
  know, hate what you flip, right? It's almost
• 45:03
  like, I don't love baseball and football as much
• 45:07
  as I love basketball. So it's hard for me to
• 45:10
  sell my Michael Jordan cards. It just is. I mean,
• 45:12
  I'm high on them, or I don't have room on them.
• 45:15
  I'm not flexible on them, because I'd rather
• 45:17
  just keep it. So it would take more money for
• 45:20
  someone for me to let go of my Jordan cards,
• 45:23
  whereas a flipper would be like, Oh, I just need
• 45:25
  to get at least uh margin like you know five
• 45:29
  percent ten percent you know as long as i make
• 45:31
  20 bucks off this transaction you know uh i'm
• 45:34
  okay i don't care about the card so a lot of
• 45:37
  people and and this is the flipper mentality
• 45:39
  is like the cards are merely just the conduit
• 45:42
  to uh financial success it's like they literally
• 45:45
  do not care about cards and so that's why they're
• 45:48
  okay moving to pokemon and they were previously
• 45:52
  in sneakers where you know that were hot earlier
• 45:55
  too so you know it is the whole stupid people
• 45:58
  are too stupid to know they are stupid i'm gonna
• 46:01
  put that in the chat too for people who come
• 46:03
  up who come out later but uh i'm gonna stop sharing
• 46:06
  screen and i'm gonna give you the the floor now
• 46:08
  there we go i don't know if you heard me but
• 46:14
  yeah i i heard everything you said yeah that
• 46:15
  was weird when my wife facetimed me it was connected
• 46:17
  to my computer so yeah like completely malfunction
• 46:21
  but apologize for that yeah um yeah i mean it
• 46:25
  all makes complete sense and you brought up a
• 46:27
  a point before about how people are like flipping
• 46:30
  from uh sports cards to pokemon because like
• 46:33
  that's what's hot that's like what's hyped and
• 46:36
  it's pokemon's always hyped right it's like that's
• 46:39
  been um a pillar of collect the collecting world
• 46:44
  for decades now uh to the point where like you
• 46:47
  know talk about vintage cards like pokemon falls
• 46:51
  in that mix with uh like the original you know
• 46:55
  98 charizard whatever year it came out but uh
• 46:58
  it's just like it kind of makes me sad to an
• 47:01
  extent just like how much hype drives what people
• 47:06
  are collecting it's like it's not about passion
• 47:08
  or meaning or connection it's it's literally
• 47:11
  just hype and again it just like it makes me
• 47:14
  sad to see people buying whatever, cards, sneakers,
• 47:18
  comics, you know, any type of collectible, not
• 47:21
  just because they love them, but because they're
• 47:23
  afraid of missing out. They have that sense of
• 47:25
  FOMO because a YouTuber or an influencer or,
• 47:29
  you know, Roth cards, I don't mean to like call
• 47:31
  anybody out, but like, they're like, oh, this
• 47:34
  is hot. You got to buy this now. You got to hop
• 47:36
  on this athlete. Everybody's got to do it. Because
• 47:38
  like at the end of the day, everyone on their
• 47:41
  feed is ripping the same product, right? And
• 47:44
  I get it. I've been there. We all have. But when
• 47:46
  hype becomes the compass, you start losing sense
• 47:49
  of why you started collecting in the first place.
• 47:52
  And it becomes less about joy and more about
• 47:54
  chasing the next big thing just to feel that
• 47:56
  you're still in it. And so I was just going to
• 48:02
  say to tie it all together, tie it back to Collectors MD,
• 48:06
  one of the big reasons why I started it was to
• 48:10
  help people reconnect with intention. collecting
• 48:15
  for a purpose collecting in what you love what
• 48:18
  you believe in to remind folks it's okay to sit
• 48:22
  on the sidelines sometimes that it's okay to
• 48:24
  collect for you not for the algorithm because
• 48:27
  when all the hype fades and it always does you
• 48:30
  know what's hot today is forgotten tomorrow what's
• 48:33
  left should be something that still matters to
• 48:35
  you and that's really really important to me
• 48:37
  j2 says uh really really good thing and glad
• 48:41
  earlier was like yeah are you guys talking about
• 48:42
  the dunning crew Kruger Fact and says, what's
• 48:45
  up? Thank you for being here. Glad. J2, flipping
• 48:47
  cards sounds fun and easy, but finding a buyer
• 48:50
  is sometimes harder than it looks. Absolutely.
• 48:52
  And Brandon just now says, finding a way to replace
• 48:56
  the dopamine rush. You know, it's really interesting
• 48:59
  that former, and I've heard this, you know, again,
• 49:05
  it's just allegorical, just, you know, just data
• 49:07
  points, discrete data points and not like a general
• 49:11
  trend, but. alcoholics um when they're in the
• 49:16
  recovery they find something else to be addicted
• 49:17
  to um gamblers we have a lot of people who stopped
• 49:21
  gambling on you know going to sports books but
• 49:24
  are now in the hobby there are people who have
• 49:26
  done drugs who they don't they stop drugs but
• 49:29
  they smoke up a chimney because they need something
• 49:31
  to be addicted to yeah there's some something
• 49:33
  to replace the dopamine rush you know go ahead
• 49:37
  it's it's crazy how for me like i okay so A couple
• 49:43
  of days ago, I met with the owner of a local
• 49:47
  facility. It's called Right Choice Recovery.
• 49:50
  It's here in Jersey. They're based in Dayton,
• 49:52
  New Jersey, and they offer service and therapy
• 49:56
  and recovery programs for people with all sorts
• 49:59
  of addiction, alcohol, narcotics, gambling. And
• 50:02
  we're talking about, you know, I don't want to
• 50:04
  jump the gun, but we're talking about ways to
• 50:05
  potentially partner and, you know, add this.
• 50:09
  uh sort of division uh within what they what
• 50:12
  they offer so um the guy who founded it his name
• 50:16
  is rob sakowitz he's he's a great great guy um
• 50:19
  really really cares about people and helping
• 50:22
  them find purpose in life and and you know just
• 50:26
  getting on the right path and he he himself was
• 50:30
  a compulsive gambler and he was millions and
• 50:32
  millions of dollars in debt and what he did was
• 50:36
  he took the negative in his life and he turned
• 50:41
  it into a positive and made it his best asset
• 50:44
  right and that in a way like i i wasn't like
• 50:47
  consciously thinking that when i started collectors
• 50:50
  md but for me this has in a lot of ways replaced
• 50:54
  that sort of itch that that dopamine rush that
• 50:59
  my body is craving right because it's giving
• 51:01
  me a sense of purpose and at the end of the day
• 51:05
  like you can't control it like The dopamine is
• 51:07
  real. It's a real chemical. And your brain starts
• 51:10
  to literally crave it. And at the end of the
• 51:14
  day, it's not about the cards anymore. It's not
• 51:16
  about the packs. It's all about chasing that
• 51:19
  feeling. And the danger is once your brain gets
• 51:21
  used to those spikes, you need to feel it every
• 51:25
  day. Otherwise, everything is dull. It's a drug.
• 51:29
  It's quite literally a drug. you can't just tell
• 51:34
  somebody like just to stop spending or to take
• 51:36
  a break. It just, it doesn't work that way. Like
• 51:38
  addiction is addiction. You're, you're not just
• 51:40
  stopping a habit. You're removing a source of
• 51:42
  like emotional stimulation. And so, you know,
• 51:45
  that's why in recover, we talk so much about
• 51:47
  replacing that rush. So I think everybody's just
• 51:50
  has to find new ways to get that same reward.
• 51:54
  Like for me, it was starting collectors MD. Like
• 51:56
  it might be a movement or another movement, creativity,
• 51:59
  community, helping someone exercise, you know,
• 52:03
  progress towards a goal something that lights
• 52:05
  your brain up in a healthier way some of these
• 52:06
  like sound obviously some of that sounds like
• 52:08
  kind of canned and cheesy but like you just have
• 52:12
  to find what works for you that helps you and
• 52:18
  doesn't harm you or those around you so because
• 52:21
  if you don't replace it you're just you're eventually
• 52:23
  just you're gonna feel empty so breaking a course
• 52:26
  if you get into like a high you know, dollar
• 52:28
  amount, it can get destructive if you're getting
• 52:31
  crushed and you're, you know, racking up credit
• 52:33
  card bills. If you have a money tree or if you're
• 52:35
  super rich, yeah, it doesn't matter losing in
• 52:38
  several thousand dollar breaks because that's,
• 52:41
  you know, that's play money. That's, you know,
• 52:43
  that's petty cash. But for the most of Americans
• 52:48
  or people who are ever watching, because I know
• 52:50
  I do have an international audience, is, you
• 52:53
  know, my question to you is, What is another
• 52:57
  way within the hobby, not exercise or, you know,
• 53:02
  eating healthy or, you know, doing other things
• 53:05
  that are therapeutic and good for you. But do
• 53:08
  you have any suggestions of different ways to
• 53:10
  replace the dopamine rush within the hobby? And
• 53:14
  one example before I let you answer is, could
• 53:17
  that be doing personal wax? Or is that just another
• 53:20
  way of, again, like breaking culture just has
• 53:22
  like. 32 teams, 36 spots on the roulette wheel.
• 53:26
  You've got to hit the team if it's a random break.
• 53:29
  If it's like pick your own team, then you're
• 53:31
  just paying a lot for the commanders. But if
• 53:33
  it's a random team, not only do you have to get
• 53:35
  the commanders if it's 2024 because of Jaden
• 53:37
  Daniels and the rookie class, and then you've
• 53:39
  got to hit the downtown in order to justify the
• 53:41
  amount spent. But what if you just buy a box
• 53:45
  of Donruss Optic, which... I recently did. I
• 53:49
  mean, I spent $250 on a fat pack box, but I know
• 53:53
  I can, I know it's not irresponsible for me to
• 53:56
  buy a box of that. So what, one, is buying your
• 54:02
  own personal wax a way to replace dopamine rush?
• 54:05
  And two, if it's not, what is? So it's, I mean,
• 54:09
  it's such a tough question to answer because
• 54:16
  Every person is different. And it's so, it's
• 54:20
  like case by case, you know, for me personally,
• 54:23
  I tried that exactly where you just suggested.
• 54:27
  I tried to stop joining breaks and just opening
• 54:30
  personals, but that ended up for me becoming
• 54:33
  like an even worse habit because the personals
• 54:37
  were so much more expensive. And these days,
• 54:40
  like, you know, the way these cases are designed.
• 54:45
  nine out of the 12 boxes are duds. And then like
• 54:49
  maybe one or two, you might come close to breaking
• 54:51
  even. And then like one might have like the big
• 54:54
  hit. And in most cases, like if you count up
• 54:58
  every single card within a case or like you value
• 55:01
  every single card in the case, you're most likely
• 55:03
  not going to find a card that even pays for one
• 55:06
  box, let alone the entire case. So like I would
• 55:08
  just chase, chase, chase, chase, chase to the
• 55:10
  point where like, you know, by the time I hit
• 55:13
  something that scratched that itch. i've already
• 55:15
  dropped like thousands of dollars so again it
• 55:19
  really depends on the type of person you are
• 55:21
  and if you are able to control yourself and be
• 55:24
  responsible if you can just go to walmart with
• 55:26
  your kid or uh you know with some friends and
• 55:30
  buy a few fat packs or mega boxes and just scratch
• 55:34
  that itch by opening those packs regardless of
• 55:37
  what you hit more power to you but for me like
• 55:40
  that doesn't work because i'm not going to stop
• 55:42
  until i hit something of note something that
• 55:46
  like i can put in my pc or like marvel over and
• 55:49
  that's just how i've always been um so it's tough
• 55:53
  man it's tough to like figure out a replacement
• 55:56
  or a solution within the hobby there are things
• 55:59
  i think that you can try to do but you know you
• 56:03
  know you mentioned like drug addicts smoke cigarettes
• 56:06
  it it's such a diluted version of the actual
• 56:11
  drug that it's, it's just, it's really hard to
• 56:14
  replace. So if you are that deep and you feel
• 56:18
  that, you know, you need that dopamine rush and
• 56:23
  you know, you can't cope without it, it might
• 56:27
  be more beneficial to you to just take a step
• 56:30
  back and take some time away from the hobby completely.
• 56:35
  I'm not saying like self exclude forever, because
• 56:37
  obviously you can't even do that. Like you can
• 56:39
  with gambling. But it might make more sense for
• 56:42
  you to just like pause, take some time to yourself,
• 56:46
  focus on other things that make you happy and,
• 56:49
  you know, figure out a better solution for your
• 56:56
  lifestyle. I mean, again, there's so many layers
• 56:59
  to it. Because like on the other hand, if you
• 57:01
  are, if you do have some control and you are
• 57:06
  responsible, like you could do things like, you
• 57:08
  know, just. organizing and cataloging the collection
• 57:11
  you already have. You know, you could just focus
• 57:13
  on like research and education and like, you
• 57:16
  know, monitoring the newest releases and just
• 57:18
  like being a bystander and watching the breaks.
• 57:21
  You know, you can like trade the cards you do
• 57:24
  have instead of buying new ones or ripping boxes.
• 57:27
  You can create content, storytelling. There's
• 57:30
  actually a young lady that has been a huge advocate
• 57:34
  of Collectors MD from the start. and i've actually
• 57:38
  been talking to her about potentially doing some
• 57:40
  con uh you know collaborating on some content
• 57:43
  together because i think she's really talented
• 57:45
  um i'd actually love for you to bring up her
• 57:48
  page if you don't mind but i think like she's
• 57:50
  a perfect example of somebody who collects with
• 57:53
  intent and it's clear that she doesn't like overspend
• 57:56
  or like extend beyond her means but she curates
• 57:59
  her collection in like such a beautiful way that
• 58:02
  clearly like she's super passionate about it
• 58:06
  and she's probably just as happy if not more
• 58:08
  happy than those collectors that are chasing
• 58:12
  the logo men or like you know the the six -figure
• 58:14
  cards in the hobby and so her name is uh bullseye
• 58:19
  breaks her name her name is maya um i've met
• 58:24
  her over video and she has again she has a beautiful
• 58:27
  page where she uh hones in on like the players
• 58:31
  that she um PCs, it's bullseye underscore breaks.
• 58:36
  So I think she PCs like Bobby Witt and like Shota
• 58:40
  Imanaga and Seiza Zuki. And she photographs them
• 58:45
  in like a very unique way that like really stands
• 58:48
  out. And like, again, clearly like that is her
• 58:51
  passion. Like she loves photography. She loves
• 58:54
  curating. And you could do that without spending
• 58:58
  your entire life savings. You know? Yes, thank
• 59:04
  you for that. So I don't want to go into her
• 59:10
  page, not because I'm like, no, she didn't pay
• 59:12
  me to and got to sponsor this whole thing. It's
• 59:15
  more of we're almost at an hour and I don't want
• 59:18
  to go too much over an hour. And I want to read
• 59:21
  some really good comments in the chat. That said.
• 59:24
  As a reminder, this is the second sponsor read.
• 59:27
  This is today's episode on the Car Diary by Hobbyist
• 59:33
  Thompson slash Hobby Hangout, live on YouTube
• 59:35
  and available on replay on YouTube and wherever
• 59:38
  you get your podcasts is me. I am sponsoring
• 59:41
  my own today. I have a trade night for sports
• 59:44
  cards and Pokemon at the Garden ALX 5380. 5380
• 59:51
  Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia. It's
• 59:54
  hosted by me. I'm going to have some hobby companies
• 59:57
  jump in and give some giveaways and have some
• 1:00:00
  food. We're going to have a great time. Free
• 1:00:03
  for all ages. Again, if you are within driving
• 1:00:06
  distance. from Alexandria, Virginia and in the
• 1:00:10
  DMV it is a Thursday night so it may not be so
• 1:00:15
  great for kids who have school the next day uh
• 1:00:18
  especially if they have to drive more than like
• 1:00:20
  i don't know 40 minutes but it is may 15th it's
• 1:00:23
  from 6 to 9 30 p .m that said i the snickerdoodle
• 1:00:29
  crowd is out in full force orange slices says
• 1:00:32
  is Pokemon packs gambling Connor says sorry for
• 1:00:35
  being late Denny not a problem at all don't have
• 1:00:38
  to apologize um before we get to orange slice's
• 1:00:42
  question i wanted to kind of stay on this uh
• 1:00:45
  this anal analogy or analog to you know the the
• 1:00:48
  you know we've had some comparisons with gambling
• 1:00:51
  comparisons with addiction of like you know say
• 1:00:54
  cigarettes so brandon a really good uh uh back
• 1:00:58
  -to -back comments he says Personal wax to me
• 1:01:01
  feels like replacing cigarettes with vaping.
• 1:01:04
  I spent just as much on personal wax rabbit holes.
• 1:01:07
  Thank you for your honesty, Brandon, and great
• 1:01:09
  analogy there. Really like that. He also says,
• 1:01:12
  that said, spending time just talking in local
• 1:01:15
  card shops and focusing on things that emphasize
• 1:01:18
  the community aspect helped a lot. Thank you,
• 1:01:22
  Brandon. That is a concrete, real example of
• 1:01:25
  what maybe is not going to directly one -to -one
• 1:01:30
  replace the dopamine rush. But again, the hype
• 1:01:34
  machine, the chases, the roulette wheels, the
• 1:01:37
  casino aspect of things, it's so hard to, you
• 1:01:42
  know, it's marketing 101. It's capitalism 101.
• 1:01:44
  It's easy to kind of get into all that, but just
• 1:01:47
  appreciating what you have. And again, if we...
• 1:01:50
  always and it's so sad a lot of these breakers
• 1:01:53
  go the community i'm all about the community
• 1:01:55
  i'm all for the people for the people they just
• 1:01:57
  it's for the buying community that they don't
• 1:02:00
  care about you if you're not spending money if
• 1:02:02
  you're not a whale if they don't have your number
• 1:02:04
  to text you and say hey uh jumping on this uh
• 1:02:06
  break it's i'm having a hard time feeling filling
• 1:02:08
  it or all these teams are going for too low they
• 1:02:10
  have these big breakers have their big whales
• 1:02:13
  who are able to jump in they have their numbers
• 1:02:16
  and they text them and they say jump in so so
• 1:02:18
  i don't get destroyed or killed and These whales
• 1:02:20
  will oblige. Sure, I'll just, you're my friend.
• 1:02:23
  You text me happy birthday because you know my
• 1:02:26
  birthday and you read my comments out in the
• 1:02:29
  chat and you laugh at my jokes in the chat. They're
• 1:02:32
  just doing that. It's like the pretty girl bartender
• 1:02:37
  who's flirting with you at the bar so you buy
• 1:02:39
  more drinks. They don't care about you. They
• 1:02:41
  just want your tips. So having said that, focus
• 1:02:45
  on what you love, what you have, folks. That's
• 1:02:48
  why buying what you love is important because
• 1:02:51
  you don't want to look at a card and go, oh my
• 1:02:53
  gosh, I remember I spent $1 ,000 on that break
• 1:02:56
  to get a $500 card. But if you have that $500
• 1:02:59
  card, it's great. It's nice to look at. So Brandon
• 1:03:02
  here says, spending time just talking in local
• 1:03:05
  card shops, that's actual community building.
• 1:03:08
  LCSs, yes, they might have higher price wax online
• 1:03:11
  or on breaks or whatever, but they actually have
• 1:03:15
  the brick and mortar. It is a third space. It
• 1:03:17
  is a place for you to go that is not your home
• 1:03:19
  and it's not your office where you can actually
• 1:03:21
  have. people who are like -minded such as yourself
• 1:03:25
  and talk with them about sports, about collecting.
• 1:03:28
  And so Brandon, like, thank you. That's, that's
• 1:03:31
  really great. Before I move on to other questions
• 1:03:34
  and comments, you know, anything you wanted to
• 1:03:37
  touch on that with Alyx? Yeah. I dropped a few
• 1:03:39
  comments in the chat while you were talking.
• 1:03:42
  I think he, who was it? Brandon hit the nail
• 1:03:46
  on the head. I think if you're trying to. step
• 1:03:50
  down or like replace your addiction with another
• 1:03:52
  habit, you're, you're just justifying it. You're,
• 1:03:56
  you're basically just, you know, tricking yourself
• 1:03:59
  into thinking that you're, you know, replacing
• 1:04:03
  it with a, a better, healthier option. But at
• 1:04:05
  the same day, it's, it's the same compulsion
• 1:04:07
  just packaged slightly differently. Right. And
• 1:04:11
  the same thing can, can be said about so many
• 1:04:13
  different types of addictions. But, you know,
• 1:04:17
  as far as like, cigarettes versus vaping like
• 1:04:20
  that's so universal like anybody can understand
• 1:04:23
  you know that they're neither are good for you
• 1:04:26
  maybe one is better than the other slightly but
• 1:04:30
  like you're just picking the lesser of two evils
• 1:04:32
  right and and regarding community like communities
• 1:04:36
  is everything like spending time in your local
• 1:04:39
  shop talking to people sharing stories trading
• 1:04:42
  building connections you know focusing on relationships
• 1:04:45
  like that's what grounds you like that's what
• 1:04:48
  we should be focused on not just the cardboard
• 1:04:51
  you know what's incredible about this hobby is
• 1:04:55
  that it brings people together you see the amount
• 1:04:57
  of people that come together at trade shows card
• 1:05:02
  shows the national Fanatics Fest and that's a
• 1:05:06
  beautiful thing you know and we can do that now
• 1:05:09
  in today's day and age with technology it allows
• 1:05:11
  us to do it together and I just want to see a
• 1:05:15
  community. I want to see a hobby that isn't just
• 1:05:19
  all about dollar signs. Everything is a goddamn
• 1:05:23
  dollar sign these days, right? It's like the
• 1:05:26
  breaks, you get a big hit and all the breaker
• 1:05:30
  talks about is how much the card is worth. Wow,
• 1:05:33
  it's a nuke. It's worth, this customer turned
• 1:05:37
  $10 into $10 ,000. Like at the end of the day,
• 1:05:40
  why can't we just focus on? The beauty of the
• 1:05:44
  hobby, the card itself, the athlete, let's celebrate
• 1:05:48
  that athlete and their success on or maybe off
• 1:05:51
  the field, you know, and maybe you're a fan of
• 1:05:55
  that player or that team. Like, let's talk about
• 1:05:57
  those things. It doesn't always have to tie back
• 1:06:00
  to the monetary value. And I think that's a huge
• 1:06:03
  reason why the hobby has been heading in the
• 1:06:06
  direction it's been headed in. Right. And I don't
• 1:06:09
  want to come across as like. overly vanilla like
• 1:06:12
  you know i get it at the end of the day like
• 1:06:14
  i mentioned this in the beginning of of the the
• 1:06:17
  live like i love the idea of investing in something
• 1:06:21
  tangible that you could take home and enjoy and
• 1:06:24
  eventually pass down you know like if these cards
• 1:06:29
  were completely worthless like would we still
• 1:06:31
  collect like you know that's maybe a conversation
• 1:06:36
  for another day, a paradox of sorts. But like
• 1:06:39
  at the end of the day, like I just, I'm getting
• 1:06:42
  so exhausted from seeing dollar signs everywhere.
• 1:06:47
  Yeah. Yeah. So I totally agree. An orange slice
• 1:06:50
  of says is Pokemon packs gambling. Cause I, you
• 1:06:52
  know, collecting on Z I, my, my understanding
• 1:06:54
  is, you know, maybe you did do some Marvel or
• 1:06:57
  TCG, but I don't think you got. You're mostly
• 1:07:02
  sports cards. Did you ever do Pokemon? Because
• 1:07:06
  Pokemon is so different. There's no breaking.
• 1:07:08
  The only... breaks you get into pokemon is is
• 1:07:10
  ripping ships which is like doing personals but
• 1:07:13
  you're just doing online with your favorite you
• 1:07:15
  know person wearing a funny gengar hat or pikachu
• 1:07:18
  hat and you know they fun and they talk in different
• 1:07:20
  voices and you know they have personalities and
• 1:07:22
  there's a there's a value to having someone rip
• 1:07:25
  and ship but yeah i mean in my opinion before
• 1:07:28
  i get Alyx's is Pokemon packs anything that again
• 1:07:31
  i think orange slate who who wrote rng rng stands
• 1:07:34
  for random number generator yes Since the beginning
• 1:07:38
  of the hobby, since the beginning of sports cards
• 1:07:41
  or TCG cards, we're literally talking about a
• 1:07:45
  pack that has some cards in it that you do not
• 1:07:48
  know what's in that pack. Whether it was cigarette,
• 1:07:52
  tobacco cards, gum wrapper cards, Topps. We're
• 1:07:56
  talking about the earliest of the early cards.
• 1:07:59
  You did not know what you were getting. Literally,
• 1:08:03
  as a consumer, Anything you buy at a grocery
• 1:08:06
  store, you know what you're getting. You buy
• 1:08:08
  milk, you know you're getting milk. You buy,
• 1:08:09
  you know, let's not talk about the price of eggs
• 1:08:11
  here, but if you buy eggs, you know you're getting
• 1:08:13
  eggs. Not always. Okay. Yeah, maybe there's some
• 1:08:18
  broken eggs or maybe someone stole some eggs.
• 1:08:20
  No, but, you know. you're buying uncertainty
• 1:08:24
  and you're hoping for something that's worth
• 1:08:26
  the value of the box or more. So the random number
• 1:08:29
  generator aspect of both the Pokemon and sports
• 1:08:33
  cards side of the hobby, I think is, it can be
• 1:08:36
  dangerous. Now there's a big difference between
• 1:08:39
  a thousand dollar box, um, of prism. I'm not
• 1:08:44
  even talking flawless and transcendence, which
• 1:08:46
  are like five figure boxes or whatever, but,
• 1:08:48
  or cases and cases. But, um, Orange Slices, if
• 1:08:53
  you are literally buying one $5 pack or one Elite
• 1:08:58
  Trainer Box for $60, I know some of them are
• 1:09:00
  more with Prismatic and Surging Sparks and the
• 1:09:04
  reprints and this and that and English versus
• 1:09:06
  Japanese versus Korean and all these different
• 1:09:08
  versions of Pokemon, but it's much more easy,
• 1:09:12
  especially if you're a kid. If you're a kid who
• 1:09:15
  gets their money or allowance from their mom
• 1:09:17
  or dad and be like, hey, mom or dad, can I buy...
• 1:09:21
  a 60 elite trainer box to the mom or dad that's
• 1:09:24
  much more palatable and approachable and easy
• 1:09:28
  than hey mom or dad can i buy that 500 box of
• 1:09:33
  bowman chrome right so there's a big difference
• 1:09:37
  i think what do you think Alyx uh you nailed
• 1:09:40
  it i mean okay so let's let's just like define
• 1:09:42
  gambling plainly right gambling is when you stake
• 1:09:46
  something of value when you put money on the
• 1:09:48
  table um on an outcome that's uncertain in hopes
• 1:09:54
  of a reward. And by that definition, ripping
• 1:09:57
  packs, whether it's Pokemon, sports cards, or
• 1:09:59
  even digital collectibles is absolutely gambling.
• 1:10:02
  You're putting up money. You don't know what
• 1:10:04
  you're going to get. You don't know the contents
• 1:10:06
  of the pack or the box. And you're hoping what's
• 1:10:08
  inside is worth more or what you paid, right?
• 1:10:12
  It doesn't matter if it's licensed by a card
• 1:10:14
  company or wrapped in shiny foil. If the outcome
• 1:10:17
  is unknown and there's a risk factor involved,
• 1:10:20
  It's gambling in disguise. And manufacturers
• 1:10:24
  are marketing that to children. Let's remember
• 1:10:26
  that. And they have been for many, many decades
• 1:10:30
  and even centuries. And here's the kicker. That
• 1:10:33
  rush you feel when you open a pack, that's the
• 1:10:36
  same dopamine system that's triggered by slot
• 1:10:39
  machines, by the blackjack table, by roulette.
• 1:10:41
  So whether it's Pokemon, sports cards, packs
• 1:10:45
  at Target. you know even if it's just like two
• 1:10:48
  dollar value packs it's not about the theme it's
• 1:10:51
  about structure it's about the structure if you
• 1:10:54
  don't know the contents of what you're paying
• 1:10:55
  for the chance at something better that's gambling
• 1:10:58
  period yeah you know like Denny said like you
• 1:11:01
  know what you're buying when you're you're buying
• 1:11:02
  uh you know a carton of eggs or even in other
• 1:11:05
  hobbies like sneakers you know this is something
• 1:11:07
  that um the guys over at sports card madness
• 1:11:11
  uh asked me while i was when i was on um you
• 1:11:14
  know how did like your sneaker collecting days
• 1:11:16
  compared to sports card collecting days and the
• 1:11:19
  answer is simple when i bought a pair of jordan
• 1:11:22
  threes i knew i was buying a pair of jordan threes
• 1:11:24
  i wasn't like buying a pair of mystery jordans
• 1:11:27
  and then maybe getting like a pair of like you
• 1:11:30
  know sketchers in the mail right like i knew
• 1:11:32
  what i was getting right right and there was
• 1:11:34
  one other thing i want to touch on sure and that's
• 1:11:36
  that's gambling has been around for thousands
• 1:11:39
  of years. Yeah, yeah. Right? Ancient dice games
• 1:11:42
  betting on gladiators, lotteries in temples.
• 1:11:46
  This is like nothing new. Yeah. and the reason
• 1:11:49
  it's stuck around is simple it plays directly
• 1:11:51
  into our psychology it's it's risk reward and
• 1:11:55
  the illusion of control and as humans we're wired
• 1:11:58
  to chase uncertain rewards for whatever whatever
• 1:12:01
  reason i don't know what like why that is but
• 1:12:03
  our brains light up more when we might win than
• 1:12:07
  when we know we will win which is why people
• 1:12:09
  are more attracted to joining breaks or buying
• 1:12:12
  personals versus just buying the single that
• 1:12:14
  they want from the associated product. That's
• 1:12:17
  what keeps us coming back. It gives us hope.
• 1:12:21
  It fuels the belief that this next one could
• 1:12:23
  change everything. I can open that optic box
• 1:12:25
  and hit the Jaden Daniels gold vinyl downtown
• 1:12:28
  and my life will be forever different. right
• 1:12:33
  gambling just it creates an illusion of control
• 1:12:35
  we start to think about you know how can we beat
• 1:12:38
  the odds that we have this strategy you know
• 1:12:41
  that if we just play it the right way and use
• 1:12:42
  logic we buy the right pack or pick the right
• 1:12:45
  pack enter the right break hit the right team
• 1:12:48
  we can come out ahead and for some that just
• 1:12:50
  becomes super addictive not because they're weak
• 1:12:52
  but because this system is literally designed
• 1:12:55
  to just to keep us up so yeah i mean gambling
• 1:12:57
  gambling's been around forever and it's it's
• 1:12:59
  not because it's good for us but because it's
• 1:13:02
  it's just something that's profitable and those
• 1:13:04
  who run it um you know make it irresistible and
• 1:13:09
  just you know basically mind f us into chasing
• 1:13:14
  that next minute so yeah thank you for self -censoring
• 1:13:18
  i i know the hobby hangout was meant to be more
• 1:13:20
  kind of like you know people can curse if they
• 1:13:22
  want to car diary i've been trying to keep more
• 1:13:24
  kind of not family friendly, but not explicit.
• 1:13:27
  So I didn't have to check that box in the podcast
• 1:13:29
  when I published, but it's all good. Thank you
• 1:13:32
  for all of this. I do have to try to land the
• 1:13:34
  plane a little bit here. And I want to get to
• 1:13:37
  some more chat. We've had quite a lively chat
• 1:13:41
  and, and I do want you to kind of talk about,
• 1:13:44
  you know, what, what the next steps are. Before
• 1:13:46
  I do, I did want to ask you, because we just
• 1:13:49
  on the whole temple and kind of like the, you
• 1:13:53
  know, there have been religious organizations,
• 1:13:55
  communities like, you know, it's so funny how
• 1:13:56
  not funny, but it's sad that we as a society,
• 1:14:00
  again, we're a white Anglo -Saxon Protestant
• 1:14:03
  society still. bingo halls it's like hey bingo
• 1:14:09
  bingo is safe and fun and okay but man people
• 1:14:13
  can get crazy into bingo there's jackpots and
• 1:14:16
  people spending money and like that's a whole
• 1:14:18
  subculture i want to get into a lot of scratch
• 1:14:20
  house people are okay hey um for the office you
• 1:14:24
  know march madness pools like there's definitely
• 1:14:26
  certain allowable amounts of gambling that we
• 1:14:29
  accept as society and then of course now we have
• 1:14:31
  sports books and now it's like much more of a
• 1:14:33
  big you know it's big big bucks and billions
• 1:14:36
  of dollars so um but when it comes to the aspect
• 1:14:41
  of religion a a n a g a i think my understanding
• 1:14:45
  is that there is a lot of the christianity kind
• 1:14:49
  of uh um there's an aspect that ties around to
• 1:14:53
  religion right gamblers anonymous you have in
• 1:14:55
  front of you yeah right in front god grant me
• 1:14:57
  the strength yeah or god god grant me the serenity
• 1:15:01
  to accept the things i cannot change courage
• 1:15:03
  to change the things i can and the wisdom to
• 1:15:04
  know the difference yeah so does collectors md
• 1:15:07
  do you guys have some religious uh you know kind
• 1:15:11
  of uh influence or or been to it no not at all
• 1:15:15
  um i'll be honest like i don't know why uh i
• 1:15:20
  guess i do but like you know before every meeting
• 1:15:25
  um or at the end of every meeting ga meeting
• 1:15:28
  you would chant what i just uh yeah read from
• 1:15:31
  the front of the yellow book and then on the
• 1:15:33
  inside it says i sought my soul but could not
• 1:15:35
  see i sought my god but he eluded me i sought
• 1:15:37
  my brothers and sisters and found all three uh
• 1:15:40
  and then you know god give me the strength i
• 1:15:42
  forget the rest of it or god grant me the serenity
• 1:15:44
  then you read the front but anyway like i get
• 1:15:48
  it but not everybody is religious and that doesn't
• 1:15:51
  necessarily resonate with every single person
• 1:15:53
  and Frankly, some people might feel a little
• 1:15:55
  bit intimidated by that. Or might have different
• 1:15:59
  personal values or beliefs when it comes to religion.
• 1:16:02
  So I don't want to get in the weeds with that.
• 1:16:04
  I don't want to ruffle any feathers. I think
• 1:16:06
  we have a really, really strong mission, and
• 1:16:10
  it carries its weight with or without. faith
• 1:16:15
  and religion if somebody comes to us and says
• 1:16:18
  like you know i'd love to insert my personal
• 1:16:20
  faith or religion into my personal recovery program
• 1:16:23
  we'd be all ears like we wouldn't like shy away
• 1:16:26
  from that but it's not something that we're like
• 1:16:28
  building around or like is has become like a
• 1:16:30
  core pillar of the movement got it thank you
• 1:16:33
  and i i thought that was the answer but i definitely
• 1:16:35
  wanted to give you the opportunity to kind of
• 1:16:37
  say that in case anyone in the chat is like well
• 1:16:39
  you know, it sounds like a gamblers anonymous
• 1:16:41
  and I'm not, you know, I, I'm an atheist and
• 1:16:43
  I don't like that stuff. Right. So I don't want
• 1:16:45
  to kind of, I wanted them to know that you guys
• 1:16:47
  are approachable. So I'm going to read some questions
• 1:16:49
  and then we're going to talk about the meeting,
• 1:16:51
  uh, that's coming up, uh, every, every, every
• 1:16:54
  Wednesday night and all that. So, um, I told
• 1:16:56
  myself with the hobby hanging out, I would read
• 1:16:58
  every non -offensive, non -explicit, uh, comments
• 1:17:02
  and orange slices. I know that snickerdoodle
• 1:17:05
  crowd, uh, previously has asked me. 100 men versus
• 1:17:09
  a silverback gorilla and kind of fun, silly stuff.
• 1:17:13
  You know, today being kind of a more serious
• 1:17:15
  subject, I won't get into all the silly stuff.
• 1:17:18
  So I'm just going to read it. He asks, do you
• 1:17:21
  think they should change the Brawl Stars ring
• 1:17:22
  system? My understanding is Brawl Stars is a
• 1:17:25
  supercell mobile game. I have played it in the
• 1:17:28
  past. I do not currently play it. I do not play
• 1:17:30
  Clash Royale, Clash of Clans. Have I in the past?
• 1:17:32
  Have I been addicted to them in the past? I mean,
• 1:17:34
  this is the first time I've ever actually even
• 1:17:36
  said that out loud. said it in public but i mean
• 1:17:39
  those games are meant to be addictive and i used
• 1:17:41
  to be addicted to them i'm not now and i'm really
• 1:17:43
  happy to say that but If there's a way to responsibly
• 1:17:47
  play those addictive games, then, hey, more power
• 1:17:49
  to you. But I do not have a response to that.
• 1:17:52
  So maybe that was a good way, a good reason for
• 1:17:54
  me to kind of ask that or read that question
• 1:17:56
  out loud. But we're going to move on to Brandon,
• 1:18:01
  who says this is awesome content. Denny, can
• 1:18:03
  I just touch on that really, really quickly?
• 1:18:05
  Brawl Stars Ring System. Here we go, Alyx. I
• 1:18:08
  don't know that game. I actually have never heard
• 1:18:10
  of it. But what I did want to talk about or what
• 1:18:13
  I did want to quickly... caveat is that collectors
• 1:18:16
  md isn't just about cards you know this kind
• 1:18:19
  of compulsive behavior shows up across all hobbies
• 1:18:21
  uh that's something i've mentioned throughout
• 1:18:23
  uh the live here tonight um you know where anywhere
• 1:18:26
  where money dopamine and identity kind of get
• 1:18:28
  wrapped together and that definitely includes
• 1:18:31
  gaming like gaming as a matter of fact might
• 1:18:34
  end up becoming like the At the forefront of
• 1:18:37
  what we're doing here, whether it's like loot
• 1:18:39
  boxes or like micro transactions, there's like
• 1:18:45
  in -game skins and aesthetics. So many modern
• 1:18:48
  games are built on this same slot machine mechanics
• 1:18:50
  we see in pack ripping. And it's the same dopamine
• 1:18:53
  rush, the same chase, the same risk reward cycle.
• 1:18:56
  And for some people, it's just as damaging. So
• 1:18:58
  especially for kids like they're there. Oh, my
• 1:19:02
  gosh. predatory honestly uh the the adult male
• 1:19:06
  brain doesn't fully form until age 22 or something
• 1:19:09
  like that or even even older what's what's mind
• 1:19:12
  -boggling is that like you know the more and
• 1:19:14
  more we talk about this the more and more animated
• 1:19:16
  and passionate and to some extent frustrated
• 1:19:20
  i get that this it's taken so long for people
• 1:19:24
  to have a conversation about this yeah yeah So
• 1:19:29
  I just want to briefly say that I earlier said
• 1:19:32
  that I loved what you said about when hype is
• 1:19:34
  your compass. I said that we will talk about
• 1:19:36
  that in a moment. We just don't have enough time
• 1:19:38
  to kind of delve into that. We're already longer
• 1:19:40
  than I thought we would be. Again, thank you
• 1:19:42
  for your time here. And I definitely want you
• 1:19:43
  to kind of shout out the next meetings and all
• 1:19:46
  that. Brandon, speaking about the being talked
• 1:19:49
  about more, he says this is awesome content,
• 1:19:50
  something that needs to be talked about more
• 1:19:52
  in the hobby. Imagine if every top content creator
• 1:19:54
  was encouraging responsibility in the hobby,
• 1:19:56
  it would send shockwaves. man Brandon great point
• 1:20:00
  it's just that there's so much money that and
• 1:20:02
  people are happy and they're happy as pigs and
• 1:20:05
  they don't want to send any pigs to slaughter.
• 1:20:07
  I mean, it's just hard. I mean, I think I can
• 1:20:09
  speak on stuff like this because no one, no one
• 1:20:12
  controls my content or my voice in the hobby.
• 1:20:15
  It's just much as I work with hobby companies,
• 1:20:17
  I don't work for hobby companies. And so I think
• 1:20:20
  it's, I'm able to do things like that, but I
• 1:20:23
  mean, you know, collector, you know, Alyx, you
• 1:20:25
  said bingo and all that. Thanks for saying it.
• 1:20:28
  and then we have here brandon oh j2 says man
• 1:20:32
  i would drive to four different stores looking
• 1:20:33
  for buying cards wow i mean j2 i i i don't i've
• 1:20:39
  never met you in person but i've seen your content
• 1:20:41
  and i know you uh you're a great supporter of
• 1:20:43
  mine um you know i I get that feeling. And, you
• 1:20:47
  know, let's talk separately, but it's, it's,
• 1:20:49
  you know, it doesn't mean that you're like a
• 1:20:51
  compulsive gambling addict. It's just, I know
• 1:20:54
  that desire to find, it's almost like scratching
• 1:20:56
  an itch. It's like, wait, if this store is out,
• 1:20:59
  if I just go to the next one, surely they have
• 1:21:01
  something. So I get it. So thank you for sharing
• 1:21:03
  that with me. There's a lot of people are being
• 1:21:04
  very kind of open here and I love it. Even though
• 1:21:07
  this is not. you know, a collector's empty meeting.
• 1:21:10
  Brandon says there's a weird feeling of accomplishment
• 1:21:13
  that comes along with breaking the card versus
• 1:21:14
  buying a single for me, man. I hear that. Yeah.
• 1:21:17
  I've worked on it and forced myself to get the
• 1:21:20
  single. Yeah. Either you force yourself or a
• 1:21:24
  loved one forces you yourself or your wallet
• 1:21:27
  forces yourself. I mean, that's the way I think
• 1:21:28
  I see it. And Brandon says it's helped for sure.
• 1:21:33
  And Ziggy, Ziggy. Oh, man. Here we go. First
• 1:21:37
  step in addiction is to admitting you have a
• 1:21:39
  problem. One of the steps is accepting your humanity.
• 1:21:41
  Well said. Most programs leverage a belief in
• 1:21:45
  a higher power that goes to the whole religious
• 1:21:47
  aspect. If addicted, you need to remove yourself.
• 1:21:51
  i mean ziggy i i have such a you know you say
• 1:21:54
  some amazing things in here and i really appreciate
• 1:21:56
  your input um it's like you have different versions
• 1:21:59
  yourself you're there's like this wonderful version
• 1:22:01
  of yourself in this uh live chat and then there's
• 1:22:05
  the social media part where i remember you talking
• 1:22:08
  about maybe we shouldn't have kids in the hobby
• 1:22:10
  i mean ziggy in my one of my content pieces where
• 1:22:12
  i make him deal with a kid was like this is i
• 1:22:14
  forget what he said but like i i was like i don't
• 1:22:17
  think he's trolling me but it was like you know
• 1:22:19
  i would never do that or this is that was awkward
• 1:22:22
  and i'm like i kids like me and i i have kids
• 1:22:26
  on my own and i i know what it's like to be in
• 1:22:28
  a kid in the hobby and so i try to be nice to
• 1:22:29
  them but um you know, he asked me, we shouldn't
• 1:22:32
  have kids in hobby. I say we should. It's just,
• 1:22:34
  it's hard when even the kids themselves, there
• 1:22:37
  are affordable price points, you know, there's
• 1:22:39
  retail and there's NBA hoops and top series one.
• 1:22:43
  It's just that the kids don't want top series
• 1:22:45
  one. They want flawless. They want transcendence.
• 1:22:47
  They want top triple threads. They want the big
• 1:22:50
  shiny, just like adults do. So Ziggy says polarizing.
• 1:22:53
  I mean, yeah, man, totally. So I think. yeah
• 1:22:57
  i met ziggy uh when i was on the real card show
• 1:23:01
  with uh valor and uh cage Oh, yeah. He came on
• 1:23:05
  and chatted with us. He's the man. Nice. Yes.
• 1:23:07
  Yes. So thank you, Ziggy, for being in the chat.
• 1:23:10
  He said I wouldn't. And he is a breaker. I mean,
• 1:23:13
  he well, he owns a break. I mean, I won't get
• 1:23:15
  into all this stuff, but he's he's out there
• 1:23:17
  known to be part of the breaking culture. And
• 1:23:20
  for him to say that is big. I mean, that's really
• 1:23:22
  nice. Ziggy says I wouldn't do deals for hundreds
• 1:23:26
  of dollars with a kid without a parent. I he
• 1:23:28
  was he actually he was on camera, but his dad
• 1:23:30
  was there and his dad is actually a good, decent
• 1:23:33
  person. Someone who actually replaced wax that
• 1:23:36
  was stolen from me from, you know, in that video
• 1:23:40
  is coming out tomorrow. I have done editing it.
• 1:23:43
  But Friday night, May 2nd, Orioles versus Royals
• 1:23:46
  at Camden Yards. I made a joke about getting
• 1:23:49
  a case of Tufts Transcendence stolen from me
• 1:23:52
  that I was going to donate to a pack of Cub Scouts.
• 1:23:54
  I mean, clearly I'm not donating $20 ,000 box
• 1:23:58
  to. Eight -year -olds, that's silly. That's funny.
• 1:24:01
  I thought it was funny because it sounds so ludicrous.
• 1:24:04
  But did I actually get a box of 2024 Bowman stolen
• 1:24:07
  from me as I was creating content in Canon Yards?
• 1:24:11
  Yes, that actually did occur. And Jeff, shout
• 1:24:14
  out to Jeff. He, as the store owner, replaced
• 1:24:18
  that wax by giving me, gifting me a box from
• 1:24:21
  his shop, from his hardware shop. He's not an
• 1:24:24
  LCS owner. He's a hardware store guy. But he
• 1:24:27
  made it right. to uh but shout out to you jeff
• 1:24:30
  i don't know if you're watching this or if you'll
• 1:24:31
  watch it later but happy belated birthday for
• 1:24:34
  you to do that on your actual birthday yesterday
• 1:24:36
  at the um silver springs civic center uh middle
• 1:24:40
  at a car show was really big of you but that
• 1:24:42
  was his kid ziggy just so you know and ziggy
• 1:24:45
  does say i'm a fan i'm a critical i appreciate
• 1:24:48
  your dialogue i mean you know what i appreciate
• 1:24:50
  that there's there's there's a lot to be said
• 1:24:53
  about communication dialogue just talking to
• 1:24:57
  each other you know we can't just be so polarized
• 1:24:59
  and so upset that we stop talking and i think
• 1:25:02
  that's that's a big thing i think collectors
• 1:25:05
  on these trying to do is they're not judgmental
• 1:25:07
  they're not there to criticize they are there
• 1:25:11
  to listen and they are there for dialogue right
• 1:25:13
  right Alyx yeah nailed it Is that a good segue
• 1:25:17
  to telling us all about your weekly meetings?
• 1:25:22
  Because I attended the first one and I was there
• 1:25:25
  to support because I know some people, they put
• 1:25:27
  you on the, you know, nothing against sport,
• 1:25:28
  part of madness, but they had you on as guests.
• 1:25:30
  I mean, they weren't there at the meeting. I
• 1:25:32
  mean, some people have you on and it's, you know,
• 1:25:34
  it's onto the next thing, but I did want to be
• 1:25:38
  not a man of my word because I. promise that
• 1:25:40
  i'll be there but yeah um you know i i was talking
• 1:25:43
  with you and i was very curious and i definitely
• 1:25:45
  wanted to be there and i wanted to see what was
• 1:25:48
  about and you know it wasn't the most attended
• 1:25:51
  i won't say what the number was but it wasn't
• 1:25:53
  i i was wondering if it was going to be kind
• 1:25:56
  of like a low number just because of the whole
• 1:25:58
  the shame the denial the you know to themselves
• 1:26:02
  and sometimes people who go to aa were interventions
• 1:26:05
  forced or coerced or or violent uh voluntold
• 1:26:11
  by their fam friends and family ultimatums i'm
• 1:26:14
  gonna divorce you if you don't get your alcohol
• 1:26:17
  uh your alcoholism in check i'm gonna divorce
• 1:26:19
  you know I feel like people may join Collectors MD
• 1:26:22
  more if their spouse was like, and let's be real,
• 1:26:25
  it's a wife to a husband. Hey, I'm going to divorce
• 1:26:29
  you if you don't get your gamble, if you don't
• 1:26:32
  get your sports card collection, hobby, breaking,
• 1:26:36
  the credit card bills and all of this. If you
• 1:26:38
  don't get that in check, I'm going to leave you.
• 1:26:40
  So, I mean, yeah, I think much as the first meeting
• 1:26:44
  was not well attended, and I'm not going to attend
• 1:26:47
  every single one. I wish you the best of luck
• 1:26:50
  and I hope that it's just a start because I know
• 1:26:52
  how hard it is to start from zero. So yeah, no,
• 1:26:55
  I appreciate that. Well, first of all, Denny,
• 1:26:58
  thank you so much for having me on. This has
• 1:27:00
  been an awesome 90 minutes of just, you know,
• 1:27:02
  talking about really, really important things
• 1:27:04
  that matter that I I'm passionate about and clearly
• 1:27:07
  you are too. So your support is. I'm so grateful
• 1:27:13
  that you're just giving me a platform and a stage
• 1:27:15
  to talk about this. As far as our meetings, thank
• 1:27:19
  you for joining as well. Our weekly peer support
• 1:27:23
  meetings are one of the most important parts
• 1:27:25
  of what we're doing at Collectors MD. And I'll
• 1:27:28
  be real, like you said, the attendance was super
• 1:27:30
  low in that first meeting. I'm not afraid to
• 1:27:33
  say the number. I think the total was five of
• 1:27:35
  us, maybe six. And that's kind of what I expected,
• 1:27:41
  if I'm being honest. And that's okay. We're not
• 1:27:44
  discouraged. We do want to talk about why that
• 1:27:49
  might be happening or how we can potentially
• 1:27:52
  get more people involved. And the truth is, showing
• 1:27:55
  up... To say something like you said just isn't
• 1:27:58
  easy. It takes a lot to admit that maybe you're
• 1:28:01
  collecting habits or getting out of hand. Denial
• 1:28:03
  is strong. We talked about that at a great length.
• 1:28:06
  It tells you you're fine. You don't need to do
• 1:28:08
  this. This is for people with real problems.
• 1:28:11
  But the reality, if you have even thought about
• 1:28:15
  joining one of these meetings, that's probably
• 1:28:17
  your gut telling you something. And here's the
• 1:28:20
  thing. These meetings aren't therapy. They're
• 1:28:22
  not lectures. They're just honest, judgment -free
• 1:28:26
  spaces to share, listen, and connect with others
• 1:28:29
  who get it. Whether you're spending too much,
• 1:28:31
  hiding purchases, feeling burnt out, or just
• 1:28:35
  questioning your relationship with the hobby
• 1:28:37
  or your collecting habits, this is your place
• 1:28:40
  to unpack all of that. No shame, no pressure.
• 1:28:43
  You can just show up and listen. You don't even
• 1:28:46
  have to put your camera on. I do ask that, at
• 1:28:50
  the very least, you just put in your initials
• 1:28:52
  or your first name. the uh first letter of your
• 1:28:56
  your last name but um you don't have to participate
• 1:28:59
  you don't have to talk you could literally just
• 1:29:02
  join and listen the hardest part is getting past
• 1:29:05
  that first hump pushing through that denial the
• 1:29:07
  hesitation the pride but once you're in the room
• 1:29:10
  i'm telling you it will click because the same
• 1:29:13
  thing happened when i started to go to ga meetings
• 1:29:14
  for the first time you realize you're not alone
• 1:29:17
  you're not broken and you don't have to carry
• 1:29:19
  all of this in silence there are other people
• 1:29:21
  out there just like you, who care, who want to
• 1:29:25
  help you get through this. Again, this is a community.
• 1:29:28
  We want to do this as a team. This isn't just
• 1:29:31
  me leading the way. This is a group effort through
• 1:29:34
  and through. So if you've been on the fence and
• 1:29:37
  you're interested in checking it out, our next
• 1:29:40
  meeting is this Wednesday, this coming Wednesday
• 1:29:43
  night, which is, I believe, May 7th at 8 p .m.
• 1:29:48
  Eastern. All that is asked is that you fill out
• 1:29:52
  a basically like a screening form, just answering
• 1:29:56
  a few questions and putting in your email so
• 1:29:58
  that I can add you to the invite. Again, there's
• 1:30:03
  no spotlight. There's no pressure, just a space
• 1:30:05
  to breathe, reflect, and maybe start seeing things
• 1:30:08
  a little bit more clearly. And it's free, right?
• 1:30:11
  Just to be clear. And it's free. i i do want
• 1:30:16
  to caveat one other thing with it um we just
• 1:30:19
  released our official collectors md recovery
• 1:30:22
  journal a recovery guide uh it's live on the
• 1:30:26
  website when you go to collectorsmd .com it's
• 1:30:28
  at the top it says recovery guide it's live it's
• 1:30:31
  free and it's already become a core tool for
• 1:30:34
  uh folks navigating compulsive collecting and
• 1:30:37
  it's uh kind of our version of again the yellow
• 1:30:40
  book uh that we use in ga but really tailored
• 1:30:45
  for collecting in this community. So if you just
• 1:30:50
  want to check that out, all the information is
• 1:30:52
  there. If you have questions, feel free to reach
• 1:30:54
  out. You can email, DM. I'm more than happy to
• 1:30:57
  just have a conversation. If you are hesitant
• 1:31:00
  about just joining the meeting, we could just
• 1:31:02
  talk. Yeah. Okay, so this is why I shouldn't
• 1:31:07
  be a pilot because I would be terrible at landing
• 1:31:09
  planes. So Reddit story says I have a gambling
• 1:31:11
  addiction. And so, I mean, you know, that's a
• 1:31:13
  serious thing. I thank you for sharing that.
• 1:31:15
  Even if it's an anonymous account, like, you
• 1:31:19
  know, I hope you do go to collectorsmd .com.
• 1:31:22
  I know the answer to this next one. He says,
• 1:31:25
  Uncle Lester Cam says, will he sell our information
• 1:31:27
  if we fill out a form? I know the answer is no,
• 1:31:29
  but I'm going to let Alyx answer that. Sorry,
• 1:31:34
  what was the question? Will we sell our information
• 1:31:36
  if we fill out a form? No, we'll not sell your
• 1:31:38
  information. If you would like to read our privacy
• 1:31:43
  policy, that's on the website as well. If you
• 1:31:46
  scroll all the way down to the bottom, you'll
• 1:31:48
  see all the information that will protect your...
• 1:31:52
  privacy and your information. Okay. Thank you.
• 1:31:54
  Just to clear that. Uncle Esther, he said something
• 1:31:57
  else I'm not going to read out loud because it's
• 1:31:59
  a minorly offensive, but he does say - I can
• 1:32:03
  answer that. Go ahead. I'm not in a dorm room.
• 1:32:07
  This is actually my home office. My wife insisted
• 1:32:10
  we stick a bed in here because we needed an extra
• 1:32:13
  guest room. And this is my little curated collection
• 1:32:16
  in the back. So I actually take that as a compliment.
• 1:32:20
  would like to consider this a little bit of a
• 1:32:22
  man cave i got some memorabilia hanging on the
• 1:32:24
  wall and stuff but uh i appreciate that you know
• 1:32:27
  it's nice that he said i apologize and says i
• 1:32:30
  thought he was a college student now he is uh
• 1:32:31
  35 36 what you said i'm 35 yeah wow how flattering
• 1:32:35
  college student i would love to be in college
• 1:32:37
  that's awesome to penn state so there you go
• 1:32:39
  we we are We are, baby. Uncle Les says, hi, Tonto.
• 1:32:44
  Tonto says, what's up, guys? We are going to
• 1:32:46
  end this very soon. He says, you're always one
• 1:32:49
  bet away from getting even. I mean, that is definitely
• 1:32:52
  the gambler's mentality. It's what is it like?
• 1:32:55
  You're just you're one step. You are one swing
• 1:33:00
  away from just. hitting the the the jackpot right
• 1:33:04
  or one one slot machine pull away from just you
• 1:33:07
  know you left it you left it for the next person
• 1:33:09
  and oh my god you know that's that's such a what
• 1:33:13
  is it called like the gambler's fallacy maybe
• 1:33:15
  you know it's just real real quick i remember
• 1:33:18
  buying i think it was like five fat packs of
• 1:33:23
  optic football a couple years ago from target
• 1:33:26
  and as i was i was 100 sure i purchased five
• 1:33:29
  of them As I was walking to the car, I somehow
• 1:33:32
  managed to lose one of them. I don't know if
• 1:33:34
  I dropped it or if I left it at the cash register,
• 1:33:38
  but I ended up with four fat packs when I got
• 1:33:41
  home. And I opened them. They were all duds.
• 1:33:44
  And for the longest time, my mind just kept telling
• 1:33:49
  me that there was a downtown in that pack. Yeah,
• 1:33:51
  yeah. It's the exact same thing. It's your mind
• 1:33:55
  playing tricks on you. absolutely it's it's not
• 1:33:58
  realistic it's not thinking logically and that's
• 1:34:05
  what you have to realize that's just what you
• 1:34:07
  have to accept right absolutely and um r gordon
• 1:34:10
  here says i am an addict too i mean really just
• 1:34:13
  even typing that saying that out loud just Just
• 1:34:16
  really, I mean, that's big. That's the first
• 1:34:18
  step. And so our Gordon, whoever you are, like,
• 1:34:21
  thank you. Thank you for putting that in the
• 1:34:23
  chat. I mean, really, really fantastic. I applaud
• 1:34:25
  you for, again, just having the thought in your
• 1:34:29
  mind. and then having that thought go to your
• 1:34:32
  fingers and to tap that out onto the screen or
• 1:34:34
  the keyboard like thank you so much and brandon
• 1:34:37
  great i mean he's like the mvp of this chat i
• 1:34:39
  think he says what player and where did you drop
• 1:34:42
  it oh my gosh brandon he might he says he might
• 1:34:45
  have to go scour the parking lot what what player
• 1:34:48
  it was uh maybe it was cj stroud or i don't know
• 1:34:52
  a parking lot yeah it's it's long gone i mean
• 1:34:57
  The full circle would be a young, healthy, and
• 1:35:04
  happy 12 -year -old collector found it, opened
• 1:35:07
  it, and is cherishing that downtown for the rest
• 1:35:11
  of their life. What a silly farce. Your mind
• 1:35:17
  goes in so many directions, and you just have
• 1:35:19
  to be able to take a deep breath and collect
• 1:35:23
  yourself. No pun intended. Call somebody. Reach
• 1:35:26
  out. But like, I want to piggyback off what you
• 1:35:30
  said, like our Gordon just saying there, you
• 1:35:32
  know, I am an addict to like, that is so brave
• 1:35:36
  and powerful and it takes so much, you know,
• 1:35:40
  resilience to come to terms with that and not
• 1:35:45
  just say it to yourself, but to admit it in a
• 1:35:46
  public forum. So, you know, really, really appreciate
• 1:35:50
  you for saying that. And we're here for you or
• 1:35:52
  garden or Gordon. If you want to reach out, please
• 1:35:55
  DM me. Collectors MD. We can get on a call tomorrow.
• 1:36:01
  We could talk about what you're going through,
• 1:36:03
  and we could talk about ways to help put you
• 1:36:07
  in the right direction. Thank you. That's a great
• 1:36:10
  way to end. The box that was stolen from me,
• 1:36:13
  in my head, I kept thinking, what if there was
• 1:36:15
  a super fractor in there? I got so upset, and
• 1:36:18
  I didn't even get to open up the box. Of course,
• 1:36:20
  my hope is that the box that Jeff... hardware
• 1:36:24
  owner gifted me is the one that does have it
• 1:36:26
  but again it's all rng random number generator
• 1:36:30
  just you know my friend was like hey what if
• 1:36:32
  the person who who stole it they it was a kid
• 1:36:35
  and they Not that they're down on their luck,
• 1:36:39
  but yeah, what if they were meant to just kind
• 1:36:42
  of enjoy it? So just all good. Uncle Lester Kim
• 1:36:46
  says, terrific life. Thank you guys so much for
• 1:36:48
  being here. At one point, I think we had about
• 1:36:51
  a dozen people in the chat. You guys were really,
• 1:36:53
  really like, I mean, sometimes the hobby hangout
• 1:36:56
  can get kind of silly, but you guys gave this
• 1:36:58
  entire time, almost over an hour and a half,
• 1:37:03
  the gravitas and the sincerity. sincerity that
• 1:37:07
  it deserves. So Alyx, much applause to you for
• 1:37:10
  doing what you're doing. The chat, you guys are
• 1:37:12
  excellent. This is why I love doing this live.
• 1:37:14
  The chat really provides a great value to the
• 1:37:18
  proceedings. And so this is where I will finally
• 1:37:21
  land the plane. It almost ran out of fuel flying
• 1:37:24
  in the air, hovering around the airspace. But
• 1:37:27
  Alyx, 30 second final words. Denny, thank you
• 1:37:33
  so much again. Truly, this has been so powerful
• 1:37:37
  and impactful. I think not just for me, but for
• 1:37:43
  everybody who's been watching. If you're rewatching
• 1:37:46
  this and you want to reach out and have a discussion
• 1:37:49
  about anything, even if it's not you, if you
• 1:37:52
  know somebody, if you have a loved one who might
• 1:37:54
  be in a crisis, please reach out. Of course,
• 1:37:59
  we are not licensed medical. doctors or therapists
• 1:38:04
  so if you are truly in crisis mode please call
• 1:38:08
  a crisis line please reach out to a licensed
• 1:38:12
  mental health professional but if you just want
• 1:38:15
  to have a conversation we're here for you Thank
• 1:38:18
  you so much, Alyx. And Uncle Lester says, I like
• 1:38:21
  going on eBay and just low -balling offers to
• 1:38:22
  people. Man, I'm telling you, that's a great
• 1:38:24
  way to participate in the hobby. And people may
• 1:38:27
  get upset at you, but hey, someone might take
• 1:38:28
  it. Someone might want to just get rid of a card,
• 1:38:31
  but there's many different ways. And I don't
• 1:38:34
  think it's trolling. It's just, hey, you just
• 1:38:36
  never know. And some people highball, right?
• 1:38:38
  I mean, there are offers on eBay that are like
• 1:38:40
  astronomically high. So anyway, that's a good
• 1:38:43
  way to end the live. Alyx, thank you so much
• 1:38:45
  for your time. Chat, you guys are actually -
• 1:38:48
  Absolutely awesome. And I don't like when people
• 1:38:50
  say chat because it's the whole breaker vocabulary.
• 1:38:54
  But it works here, and you guys are excellent.
• 1:38:58
  And remember, breakers are not – if they have
• 1:39:00
  your number and they text you saying, hey, how's
• 1:39:03
  it going? Are you doing anything? Are you busy?
• 1:39:05
  Can you jump in this live? They're not doing
• 1:39:07
  that out of the goodness of their heart. They
• 1:39:09
  want you to set the floor for their break. The
• 1:39:12
  same thing as having a VIP host on DraftKings.
• 1:39:16
  Exactly. Yeah, that's a sign. It really is, guys.
• 1:39:19
  So just keep that in mind. So thank you so much,
• 1:39:21
  everyone. I'm going to end the stream here and
• 1:39:23
  hope you guys have a great week in the hobby.
• 1:39:24
  Take care. Until the next time in the Hobby Hangout
• 1:39:27
  and the Car Diary by Hobby S. Thompson. Thank
• 1:39:31
  you so much.