Latest / The Sports Card CEO Podcast / Episode 29: LIVE PODCAST | Special Guest MIKE MAHAN, CEO of Fanatics Collectibles

Transcript

Episode 29: LIVE PODCAST | Special Guest MIKE MAHAN, CEO of Fanatics Collectibles · The Sports Card CEO Podcast

0:00
[SPEAKER_03]: What has happened everybody?
0:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to another episode of the Sports Card CEO.
0:05
[SPEAKER_03]: As you can see, we are not in our normal locations.
0:08
[SPEAKER_03]: The boys are all together, and we have a special guest with us, Mr. Mike Mayhand CEO, Fanatics Collectibles.
0:21
[SPEAKER_03]: What's up, brother?
0:22
[SPEAKER_03]: What's the going on?
0:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Happy to be here.
0:24
[SPEAKER_03]: So to all of our listeners and viewers, we are on site at cards HQ and Atlanta, Georgia hours before the home render be to record this pod.
0:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Boys, this is like after five cases.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You can turn it through, Bowman, how much damage did you do?
0:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We did some damage, a lot of damage.
0:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's like building a new wing with your name on it.
0:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's going to be a good sign.
0:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
0:49
[SPEAKER_03]: The CEO wing over there.
0:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
0:50
[SPEAKER_03]: So we've been having a blast and to kind of kick things off here Mike, we had to share the story with you.
0:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So we've been as we said on a burner of rip and open for the product, right?
1:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So last yesterday, we drove in from Wilmington, North Carolina, about six and a half hours.
1:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And when I get to Gary's house to Bubba's house, he looks across the counter and he goes, he boy's ready to open the case.
1:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, dude, I didn't come to your house to drop all this money on his case.
1:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I need to go in the pool.
1:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I was like, I came to take a dip in the pool and you got me open and waxed.
1:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, we all agreed to open a case and it was twenty-five moments.
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I must stop you there.
1:25
[SPEAKER_01]: We all agreed me and you agreed.
1:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's just say I was absent here.
1:29
[SPEAKER_01]: He was in New York, but I made the call and I got a hate current.
1:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I said we're gonna open a box.
1:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want it normally?
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, he's normally like absolutely I'm in.
1:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like thousand bucks.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you in?
1:40
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like No, it's not making it like it was about the money here.
1:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a person I just want to give you a background.
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in Southampton on a go-kart while my son is driving and I'm trying not to get killed.
1:55
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a gas-powered go-kart and these guys face-time in me going, you want in on the bottom?
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: On the case?
2:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, no, man, I'm good.
2:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You sure?
2:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, I want to be there with you guys when we rip.
2:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, we're gonna rip plenty tomorrow.
2:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
2:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I'm out.
2:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So we proceed to distributes.
2:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I have my three boys with me.
2:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Gary has his... And so it's an even split.
2:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, hey house and a bum and farmer here.
2:18
[SPEAKER_03]: All the boys.
2:19
[SPEAKER_03]: All the boys have their boxes and we're slow rolling and everybody's chatting, nervous, ripping wax or whatever.
2:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And all of a sudden, Eric's youngest son, Red.
2:31
[SPEAKER_03]: That's dad.
2:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I hit a red sire.
2:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no way.
2:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And that thing red.
2:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That thing is part of it.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a ten ten ten all the long centered.
2:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So the red sire.
2:42
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it was hit.
2:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And in the same case, we had a Kevin McGonagal true gold.
2:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like the magic.
2:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, guys, I'm really, really happy for you.
2:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got a special trip playing tomorrow.
2:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on its way to Cali.
2:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going right to the PS.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Then what?
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Then what?
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Then what?
3:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so anyway, we just thought that would be perfect.
3:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it.
3:14
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a super good brand.
3:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, so so we're here at cards HQ ahead of the all-star game, home-run derby, all the stuff.
3:21
[SPEAKER_03]: But we had the opportunity to connect with you at Fanatics Fest.
3:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I just want to say what a great job I thought you guys did.
3:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It's second year.
3:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Just wanted to kind of get your feedback on the pod to our listeners about the thoughts of Fanatics Fest and any announcements you wanted to make.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I will say, I think the team did an incredible job putting that together.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, when you think about what it takes to do an event of that scale, it's enormous.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And then to put that together in your two, right?
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: With all of those names, all of those brands, all of those people coming together to celebrate sports and fandom and celebrity and culture and cards.
3:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look, I come from the world of live events.
3:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know what it takes to put on an event
4:01
[SPEAKER_00]: of that scale and it takes years to get it right.
4:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for the events team to have that come together in the way that it did and only two years.
4:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was just it was a remarkable achievement.
4:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for our world and the world of cards, you know, having this event that celebrates
4:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Sports, sports fandom, all of these athletes, all of these celebrities, all of these fans in one place, and then to have so many of those fans touch cards for the first time.
4:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
4:28
[SPEAKER_00]: If you think about how you grow the market, it's really sports fans into collectors.
4:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have collecting featured in such a prominent way, such an authentic way, you have all these athletes that are collecting, you have all these dealers there.
4:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you go talk to any of them, they'll tell you they did record business, but more importantly, the number of new collectors and maybe casual collectors that they touched and talked to and transacted with.
4:53
[SPEAKER_00]: For the first time, that's really what is setting the foundation to grow the industry in.
4:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And look, we all love this hobby, but for sports fans that don't know the hobby or maybe haven't done it in thirty years or all these kids that maybe don't know how to get started
5:06
[SPEAKER_00]: getting them in for the first time so that they can enjoy this journey, this passion that we all hold so dearly.
5:12
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what's important for all of us, and I think that's what it achieved.
5:16
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a whole episode on it after Matt and Little Matt got back in.
5:20
[SPEAKER_01]: In this show, just so you know, we're always the key for the show from the get-goes.
5:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to be a real show, real emotion, real, and a year ago, the first year for Nattox fast, it was like, everybody was like, one great.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: First year wasn't great.
5:32
[SPEAKER_01]: This year, completely awesome.
5:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody that came back was like amazing.
5:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It was better.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like the national on steroids.
5:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first year I was there the first year this year I couldn't make it but the first year you guys had like three months it felt like to put it together which was nothing.
5:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought you guys did a phenomenal job in the short period of time that you had.
5:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it was a good opportunity to you figured out the kinks of like you know lines being longer or whatnot and more activations this year from what I've heard but
6:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it was curious about it to me.
6:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a perfect blend of the entertainment industry and the hobby.
6:07
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
6:08
[SPEAKER_03]: When you like have the athletes and the entertainers like you said and then you have the cards, there's a lot of people that just don't get the card thing.
6:15
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't understand it.
6:16
[SPEAKER_03]: So when you put all that stuff in the same room, that energy was definitely there.
6:20
[SPEAKER_03]: That was what was so unique about it to me.
6:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Well that's what I, that was one of my questions coming into the day for you Mike, because I'm coming from the business world and looking at, you know, buying and selling businesses, you're, we're obviously looking at the analytics and saying, okay, who are potential customers?
6:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you, when you came to buy tops, right, and you'll obviously looked at the demographic,
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You looked at all the geographic and said, what can we do to broaden our horizon, right?
6:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So now here y'all were that event did that.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You talked about that earlier.
6:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But what were the numbers when you looked at it?
6:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just curious.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it ten percent of the current populations in the cards at some point to y'all?
6:54
[SPEAKER_01]: What did your background study information came back and say?
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're at ten percent, but we think we can get to fifty.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We're at thirty percent, we think we can... So, it's funny you ask.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I like you, I'm very into analytics and data and information and analysis.
7:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Good luck in this industry, right?
7:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about how hard it is to figure out who is actually collecting.
7:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Because think about where people buy, right?
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: If you buy from our website, okay, we know who you are.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what you do with the product.
7:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: There can be a lot of people buying the product to resell.
7:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You buy from a hobby shop.
7:24
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know who you are.
7:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You buy from a show.
7:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know who you are.
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You buy from eBay.
7:30
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know who you are.
7:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So you buy from each other.
7:33
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know who you are.
7:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of challenges around how we measure the market.
7:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it's unquestionably, it's growing where it all time highs.
7:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And every anecdotal piece of information will suggest that we are at the beginning of a movement here that this is a special time with what is going on in the card industry.
7:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But in terms of the fundamental analytics of hears who's collecting, hears how many people hear the demographics, hear the age groups, that information is very hard to come by.
8:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So we extrapolate a lot.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: can't really guess a lot and ultimately where we get to is let's just make the best products we possibly can.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just tell the best stories we can and bring those to life through marketing.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's have the right commercial strategy where we partner with hobby shops, breakers and retailers, right where we're not going this through distributors but we're going directly so that consumers get the best price and let's
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: partner with athletes in a real way, let's bring them into the hobby in things like ripnite and things like fanatic specialists, put some energy behind this category, and then let's see what happens because I think regardless of what the demographics are and what the analytics say, all things point back to, just make great product tell great stories, do the right thing by the collector, have the right partnership with athletes,
8:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And this will be a very special industry for years and decades to come.
8:53
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the things that was actually here, we've been here at Cards HQ today, I was talking with Aaron Layton, who was with just baseball, who, you know, is one of our partners.
9:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And he started telling me about his dad and him collecting cards and he was a kid.
9:05
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a really awesome story, and his father passed away, and he found all the cards as his dad had stored up for him, you know what I mean?
9:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of them is like, he said, it's my card that I'll never get.
9:14
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a dad gave it to him in graduate high school.
9:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a T-T-O-O-Six tie-com in a low grade, and he's like, this is my thing.
9:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And so he was talking with my son, and my sons are here, and I've Gary's sons, and then current, he got kids.
9:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, this hobby is so cool because it transcends generations.
9:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And it really has a unifying capacity over the thing we all love, right?
9:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Sports and hobby and kind of the fun and the rip and all.
9:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just, I think it's like prom.
9:39
[SPEAKER_03]: The state of the hobby right now to make the word is promed.
9:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you all see the joy collecting?
9:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we did.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you haven't seen it, just go on YouTube, go joy of collecting.
9:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll see it.
9:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But the idea was that when all of us are dads, when you think about our kids, when you think about these or the members, they're making today, or what they're going to be thinking about in thirty years.
10:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, that's where the magic comes.
10:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And we wanted to tell that story about why people should collect.
10:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when you think about the, you know, all the things that we all get to do and all the privileges we have, some of my best memories are when I was young, going to cards shops and going to shows and, you know, I was too nervous to buy the upper decks, I was stuck with the Don Russ and the tops, but it, you know, for me,
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: those memories, you know, nothing compares to them.
10:28
[SPEAKER_00]: How I feel when I have cards now, it takes me back to that moment when I was a kid, and now it's just nothing else like it.
10:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And also the other thing that's crazy is I think about how much business is like trading cards.
10:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's, you know, you think about
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, whether it's how you negotiate with people, how you interact with them, how you choose what to collect, how you keep things safe, that expected value, investing.
10:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's just a lot of life skills that frankly are hard to come by in this new digital world that you develop through cards.
10:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, and doing it with my boys, building the memories with them, that's the most important thing, far and away.
11:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But also having them build these life skills that are hard to replicate anywhere else.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That's, like, I can tell you, Lincoln, my oldest son.
11:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He was,
11:11
[SPEAKER_00]: painfully painfully shy three years ago right when I first took this job he's twelve and a half so when I remember we went to our first card show early on and he goes dad what's my budget what's my budget I said twenty bucks and he says okay great good dad and then so he wants to buy a LeBron James card for five dollars
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And he comes he goes dad I want to buy this card for five dollars that I think I'm a great I'm like, but you're not paying retail He says what do you mean I go you got a negotiate that's the whole point of this I said you tell me what you've buy for three and you settle for four he goes okay when then you do it
11:46
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't sit back for too long.
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no.
11:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's going to get the better deal?
11:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
11:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The cute nine-year-old kid, or me?
11:52
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, the cute kid.
11:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I go, okay, so go get it done.
11:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, you've never seen someone who walk up so neatly to it.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and I can't really hear it because I'm back and he comes back five minutes later, a huge grin on his face.
12:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I got it for three dollars and fifty cents.
12:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
12:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the end of the day, he's offering dealers like two
12:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, for a hundred dollar card, two dollars.
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he is handling fine, right?
12:18
[SPEAKER_03]: He's not allowed to make it off from the desire.
12:21
[SPEAKER_00]: He completely come out of his shell and you would if you talk to him now, you would never know that was the kid that was just
12:28
[SPEAKER_00]: painfully shy that could not look people in the eye, that could not talk to adults or kids.
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: He just couldn't do it.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And now he just he's completely grown out of it.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe it happens anyway.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But I saw it manifest in that data card show.
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for me, right, it's a great memory.
12:44
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also a great life skill and important part in his development.
12:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's just, there's a,
12:49
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of good and a lot of special things that come from the hobby.
12:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You're spot on my eight year old who's never been the baseball fan of the three brothers.
12:56
[SPEAKER_01]: She's kind of the last one coming through.
12:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It was always a little different.
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I want to like baseball.
13:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And the whole last two days, you knew we were coming down here to cards HQ and he had little sticky notes.
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And I told him how he looks up on card ladder values.
13:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And he came back over about an hour ago and he was like, so proud.
13:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So these cars are about these cars and they're wheeling and dealing to me like it's such like he said a business skill to be able to go up and whether you're in sales or anything how to talk to people Yeah, and just how to engage and so it's it's an amazing thing well because now it's all it's all on the phone, right?
13:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all digital and so to do that in real life is it's meaningful and it's important
13:35
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a big difference, too, to sit behind a screen and haggle with people over pricing and actually have to go face to face and make it to a different story at a car show.
13:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, even my first car show since I was a kid was at the national last year, believe it or not.
13:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I didn't do much buying or anything, but I felt kind of shy going up to dealers and like the lingo and how you're talking to them and how you're going to make the offer and what, you know, it's so much different the way I handled.
14:01
[SPEAKER_02]: those conversations that I would online, you know, or like through Instagram or something like that, just so much different, even as a forty year old here.
14:08
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure, for sure, Cam.
14:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I know you boys had some questions about like CEO and family life, or kind of transition in there, so I wanted to kind of... Yeah, no, no.
14:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, our show is called the Sports Curse CLR.
14:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
14:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to hear about the CEO, Mike Mayhand, and the father, Mike Mayhand.
14:24
[SPEAKER_02]: How many children do you have?
14:26
[SPEAKER_02]: You have two children.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard one of them hit the Paul schemes debut back.
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's go fetch a number of text messages.
14:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I got about that.
14:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm, you know, I'm looking at my phone and all of a sudden it's blown up an eleven year old boy in Los Angeles at the Paul schemes.
14:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought for a minute, I'm like, did Lincoln hit this and then it was
14:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It was offered to buy any chose not to.
15:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, how cool is that story?
15:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Amazing.
15:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's an amazing story.
15:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's what you dream about as a kid collecting.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know, so much of what we talk about is how, you know, we balance our lives and work and, you know, Matt has what five kids, Gary is four and I have, you know, three.
15:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, so how do you manage?
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I mean, you're busier than ever your schedule and like having a manage having two children and being a CEO of the CEO of that.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will tell you the simple answer is I've brought them into this world.
15:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's important to me when I do things like this.
15:35
[SPEAKER_00]: My son will be with me at the home run Derby.
15:37
[SPEAKER_00]: My son's with me at Fanatic's Fest.
15:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my little one is just getting into it and he's like, yeah, I'm at Phenax next year.
15:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm coming.
15:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He's, how will this be?
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: He's nine.
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
15:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's, I think for, you know, having these guys love what I do, love the hobby, love the fact I bring home cards, love, you know, start trading with each other.
15:57
[SPEAKER_00]: They're into it and that has helped enormously because this job is extraordinarily demanding.
16:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's, look, people go, oh, is it because of Ruben and how relentless he is and how hard he works in?
16:09
[SPEAKER_00]: That's part of it, but honestly, the biggest factor is just what it takes to do the job in the right way that people expect and that I can be proud of, right?
16:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you're prioritizing the collector, what does the collector want?
16:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
16:21
[SPEAKER_00]: The collector wants excellence.
16:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The collector wants innovative products, they want quality control, they want their products on time, they want customer service, they want all the things that we all would know and expect.
16:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I took over this as the CEO three years ago, I was amazed about how underdeveloped the infrastructure of the industry was.
16:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you think about it, you had these businesses that were privately held companies that were run more or less for cash by ownership, right?
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: They were making good profits.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: COVID happens, the business explodes.
16:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now, no one was prepared for it, right?
16:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The business has gone to new heights.
17:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And the system really buckled.
17:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, people couldn't get product out.
17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: There are all sorts of areas.
17:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You have redemptions going through the roof.
17:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And you just, you had an industry that wasn't built anywhere near to support this scale.
17:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And you had a lot of third party manufacturers and third parties doing all these various things with respect to the hobby that hadn't invested in a modern way to support the industry.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, why should they?
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Traditionally, this business had been fairly cyclical.
17:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So no one was going to invest for the next twenty years.
17:33
[SPEAKER_00]: not knowing what the next two years would look like, especially coming out of COVID, right?
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Because think about what happened to most businesses after that had a big spike in COVID, right?
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They were ingressed to print COVID, no, I'm just about every other consumer products company.
17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: They think about watches and jewelry and all of these things that took off, right?
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: All have come back down.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my challenge coming into this was, okay, what I'd like to do is just call time out, just completely focus on the infrastructure, particularly with all these new licenses coming.
18:03
[SPEAKER_00]: and just build the foundation.
18:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once the foundation's ready, we'll build the house on top of it.
18:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll start with the product innovation and the marketing and the athlete and really bring the industry to life.
18:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But we'll have a solid foundation with which to do it.
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem with that was all these collectors had come in during COVID and if you lost them, it would be difficult if not impossible to ever get them back.
18:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So we had to, we had to say, look, buckle up.
18:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to try to innovate and grow the hobby and really keep those collectors that now have other things to do again.
18:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep them invested in the hobby by new and exciting things.
18:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But by the way, we're also going to have to build the infrastructure to support all these new licenses and doing things
18:43
[SPEAKER_00]: What we think is the right way the way we want to do on prioritizing on-card autographs with customer service and quality control and innovation and all the things that have become so important in the last three years is just harder from an operational perspective.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Trying to do all of that at once has been extraordinarily taxed not only for me by the way but for so many people on my team and it's just made so much easier on a personal level because you ask the question just having my boys love what we're doing, love being part of it and so when I'm
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: working.
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: My son's running around out there, you know, probably.
19:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He's having a good time and he's doing a thing.
19:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's awesome.
19:23
[SPEAKER_02]: What is what is my, sorry.
19:24
[SPEAKER_02]: What is Mike Mayhand, the dad doing during the week at home on a Wednesday night.
19:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you watching baseball?
19:30
[SPEAKER_02]: You watching Netflix?
19:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You
19:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a watch TV shown for her and I come from TV.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I love TV.
19:36
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I mean, when I when I your day look like, you know, you're regular day.
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you a day?
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Most days, it's a workout in the morning.
19:43
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's school, I take my kids to school if I'm in town just about every time.
19:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you checking emails before you work?
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm up at like, I'm up at four in the morning.
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
19:51
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how you want to bet six hours.
19:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm up anywhere from three thirty to five I would say.
19:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if I'm lucky, I get another half hour, forty-five minutes to sleep after that.
20:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm up, they say, don't check your phone, but I'll otherwise I'll just sit down and look at the ceiling.
20:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I've tried that.
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm not a good sleeper, but yeah, it's probably six, six and a half of I'm lucky.
20:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes four, sometimes seven, but... Have you always been that way or is it good for a while?
20:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
20:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, it doesn't have anything to do for it.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just gonna, your mind gets raised.
20:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You're waking up, you're checking emails, you're going to the gym.
20:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You come back, you're working well.
20:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you should, so I'd say the first hour, that's when I'm hunting around on,
20:25
[SPEAKER_00]: social media.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at what people are saying.
20:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm checking emails.
20:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at box scores, right?
20:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see what's going on.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking now.
20:34
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you following?
20:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You're following people that you're collecting.
20:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You're following your teams.
20:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm mostly following people where I think narratives can be developed.
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So right now, first thing I'll check is show hey, I mean, I generally know what the Dodgers do before I go to bed.
20:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm checking show hi regularly.
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm checking judge.
20:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I'll go through the rookies, right?
20:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get all stuck on.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I have my boy Cag's deal, which will turn around eventually.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I usually go to James Wood.
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I go to Nick Curse.
21:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm always curious how Jackson Holiday and Gunner Henderson are doing.
21:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just kind of go team by team.
21:06
[SPEAKER_00]: player by player and player by player and I just want to see what's going on because and I check whether Troud did he did he home or is he getting four hundred you know I want to know those story lines because as a company there's things that we want to lean into and I just want to make sure I'm going to be built around that yeah content what's for breakfast
21:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I have the most random questions, but you're great.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it.
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I'm in home, it's two to three bowls of wheat skewered squares with blueberries and bananas.
21:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Great choice.
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm on the road, four-scroomed egg whites, no oil, blueberries and bananas mixed together, smashed avocado, and the weekend some, it's that plus at least three pancakes.
21:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Pan is inside and out whole wheat.
21:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Coffee guy?
21:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Never.
21:51
[SPEAKER_00]: No caffeine.
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: No, just be not I'm not a diet cook everyone's allowed, but yeah, I just don't like the taste of coffee which which for lunch lunch it I order in most days I used to go out but I've for sure I don't have it anymore Usually it is a spinach salad with cranberries go and then it's either like a chicken bowl or now I've started there's this
22:16
[SPEAKER_00]: new bull that I get with hummus and grains which is pretty good.
22:19
[SPEAKER_02]: See this is the content we need.
22:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm never here marking off biscuits and gravy.
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: When you get to, by the way, it all sounds just want to talk to the ice cream.
22:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Well that's a make you way to feel better about each other.
22:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say two to three days a week on ice cream.
22:38
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the killer seal.
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I crush.
22:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Current feels better now.
22:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I have about two to three ice cream snicker bars a night.
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean kids and ice cream just go together.
22:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and you can't.
22:50
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no world that I have the discipline of the world power to take my kids to ice cream and stand there and watch them eat it.
22:56
[SPEAKER_01]: on a personal side, like personal collection side, are you bigger into the bone and stuff, or are you trying to get guys to establish, or are you vintage, like, where are you at?
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little of everything.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I would tell you what's been important to me is when we as a team come out with a new product innovation, I generally want to dive into that.
23:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
23:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I want to, it was important to me to have a Brady.
23:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It was important to me to, I love the first milestone.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been a little under-market because they kind of fell between the DB patches.
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The DB patches and Bowman draft and so they just got a little lost and then this year they just came out and they were right before dynasty and dynasty was so sought after and obviously that brand means something.
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They've gotten a little bit lost, but to have those relics from the first time a guy gets a hit, and I never knew this at the time, but the richness that comes off the bases.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the MLB logos and some of the color and the texture that comes out of it's so cool.
23:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think those cards over time are going to be super important, and then like I like
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the inserts were doing, you know, I love the home-filled advantages.
24:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the anime's.
24:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so things like that, though, I like to dabble.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm interested in a player, buy those inserts with which I'm interested in because I think that that's a fun way for me to experience the hobby, just because I knew, I know some of the thought that went in some of those inserts, some of the conceit behind it.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I can align that with a player, I'm interested in that's fun for me.
24:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I got one question for you, so my dad, as a kid, he said this to me.
24:33
[SPEAKER_01]: If he said it one time, he said it a hundred times.
24:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to ask you this question, because I think it's a question a lot of people want to know.
24:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when you look at your career, and you look at where you're sitting here today, very successful, CEO of a large company in Phenetics, a successful company.
24:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He said every time he ever asked super successful people, and I mean, love talking to someone like yourself, what do you account your success to?
24:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just curious in your mind when you sit there today and you say, I'm successful because of X. What do you believe that is?
25:01
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great question.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, I think there's a lot of things that would go into it, right?
25:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Hard work, determination, making the right decisions, keeping a nose clean, working hard in school.
25:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's a lot of things that matter.
25:12
[SPEAKER_00]: If I had to say I would say really two things, okay?
25:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the first one was, and I think it's more of a tried and true path now, but I was pretty early on getting internships and things like that, which really set me up for my first job at Bear Stearns at the time.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That was one of the big Wall Street firms.
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And then from there, it was, that was the springboard into dot coms and then private equity, and that ultimately led to declare
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just kind of led to everything else, right?
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So I didn't start.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I started a little bit ahead just because I got an earlier start in college.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So everyone else was partying.
25:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I was grinding away and investing bank.
25:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And look, there were some sacrifices with that.
25:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But I got, I had a head start.
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I really started my career, you know, maybe somewhere between first and second base in that way because I just had experience.
25:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when all these college kids came out,
26:03
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, I had real experience and it was just very differentiated and that really set me up in a different way.
26:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think my skill set is I often see opportunities or have creative solutions to things that are unique or people haven't thought about in a certain way.
26:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you combine that with a real persistence around, you know, hard work and really coming to, you know, pushing the envelope in terms of where we can take this thing.
26:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that has been a driving force for the business, right?
26:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you really, I think as a leader, you set the tone with where we want to take it.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've had some, some early wins.
26:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we really do have this culture of innovation and excellence.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that we achieve that in each and everything that we do, but it's so ingrained in what we are trying to do each and every day we're trying to do right by the collector work.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And it can be everything from just getting the on card autographs to getting the product on a time to what's the next debut patch.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we've got the gold logo men coming on and things like that.
27:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And everything it takes to put that into motion.
27:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would tell you, it's not any one thing, but for me, I would say those two things kind of
27:15
[SPEAKER_00]: relative to maybe somebody else have been my real points of strength, if you will.
27:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear you're like a creative, you see opportunity, motivated, angry.
27:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you call yourself also organized or unorganized?
27:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It depends.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think if you go ask my assistant, should say unorganized.
27:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I say that's how I am.
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like very, very creative, but very unorganized.
27:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I wouldn't look.
27:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it depends on what we're talking about.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
27:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think in,
27:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say organizing is not my strength, right?
27:48
[SPEAKER_00]: But being, you know, creating an apparatus to function an environment that is organized is, right?
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, think about it.
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I was in the live television business for the majority of my career.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be organized.
28:02
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no, it doesn't show doesn't start five minutes late, right?
28:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Things have to run precisely to the second.
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would tell you that I'm an organized thinker in those ways, right?
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I can take a lot of complexity and distill it down.
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, organizing is not my, not my strength at all.
28:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's so many great people that we have at our company that are great at that.
28:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for me, leveraging off of what they do is to help me immensely.
28:29
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of the things that goes back to what you said about, you got to build down before you can build up, right?
28:33
[SPEAKER_03]: The tree goes deep before it goes tall.
28:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And you have to have these processes in place, even if you're not the one that implements them, you have to understand them to create the structure and the flow that things can build on.
28:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm probably the newest of the guys running their own business or whatever my insurance agencies are like, we're doing this every day.
28:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's like I'm having to think through these granular things, which are not necessarily my strong suit, you know, in order to be able to kind of catalyze that and to get it moving forward.
28:58
[SPEAKER_03]: My question along those same lines is if Gary asked you kind of what got you, you know, what got you here, I'm asking you what keeps you going.
29:06
[SPEAKER_03]: because I know for me at forty three, I've experienced stuff from my life.
29:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I never thought I would experience, right?
29:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's like you've had the vacations.
29:13
[SPEAKER_03]: You've ate in the good food.
29:14
[SPEAKER_03]: You've done the cool things.
29:16
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I'm saying?
29:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know.
29:17
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, but it's like, where to from here?
29:20
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what keeps you going, man?
29:21
[SPEAKER_03]: When keeps the hustle up.
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, look, I love what we're doing.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the people I work with.
29:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the people on this industry.
29:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do.
29:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm not just saying, I don't have to do this, but I want to do it.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I think outside of your health and the health of your loved ones and not necessarily in that order, I think loving what you do every day is such a blessing.
29:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean when you wake up and you're excited to go to work, and that doesn't mean by the way, you're excited for every minute.
29:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, there's always something in my day I'd rather be playing pickleball or doing something else, but I am genuinely excited to go to work every day.
29:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited for what we're doing, and I think we're
29:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in the middle of a mission here, and we want to continue to build on this movement that I think we've had a large part in starting in terms of where the hobby is going.
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's a lot of fun.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think we're innovating, we're building great things, we're telling great stories, we're putting smiles on a lot of people's faces, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that are winning in this environment.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're just, we're having a lot of fun.
30:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And as long as it's fun and we're having success, I'm here for it.
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I think even if, you know, there comes a day where the market softens or things get a little tougher, that doesn't mean, okay, now it's time to cut and run, right?
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Not every day is supposed to be fun, you know, it rains sometimes, even if you have a sunny climate.
30:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's, you know, to me, if you have an environment that you enjoy being in, you have an industry that you care deeply about.
30:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have what I believe to be a formula and a path to success.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: What else could you want?
30:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that to me in a job is everything you could ask for.
30:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Jens, we are at MLB all-star weekend.
31:00
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a baseball focus podcast.
31:02
[SPEAKER_03]: We are in the throws of the big events, and all of us tonight are going to the MLB home run derby.
31:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So, let's chat for a second about how we feel in about this event of their boys, Baba.
31:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I hate that I have a Met's fan in town here beside me.
31:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody here is going to hate that.
31:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Ten games under for the prize been tough season.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys can become Dodger fans.
31:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's going to have to.
31:25
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll take Freeman from us.
31:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess we're going to have to go to Dodger fans.
31:28
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, I think tonight, I mean, one of the experiences for Atlanta finally have a game back.
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I drew.
31:34
[SPEAKER_01]: couple years ago game was going to be here city didn't get the game so I know the city's excited you can look behind us here cards excuse been hopping all day speaks for the hobby as well all day long has been people flowing in here but
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I think from the game tonight, my kids have been excited about going to Homer and Kirby for a long time.
31:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You got the gloves packed over there, so it's one of the few games where you look at ticket prices.
31:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And outfield seats are as much as like vinyl tape.
32:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure, right?
32:01
[SPEAKER_01]: You're really trying to get this ball and be that guy jumping around.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But as far as picks go tonight, I'll go ahead and throw mine out there because I think that's everyone wants to hear the fix.
32:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go Matt Olson.
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Braves.
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Homer.
32:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Homer.
32:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Homer.
32:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Homer.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Homer.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Here.
32:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Matt Olson.
32:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Lefty.
32:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Short porch.
32:19
[SPEAKER_03]: So are we gonna current you have some wagers involved in this you want to what are we talking here?
32:23
[SPEAKER_03]: What are you going to run?
32:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought maybe we would make it interesting with Mike here, but I don't I don't really know what it was It's like we'll put a card in but it's like I mean how big is that card gonna be?
32:33
[SPEAKER_02]: He's on your hook and maybe I can't work your way into that You might get a piece of it after all I think if we're all four of us are gonna make our picks Gary's Gary took Matt Olson
32:43
[SPEAKER_02]: None of them win.
32:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It's scratched, right?
32:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think we need to come up.
32:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's make our picks and then let's come up with something.
32:52
[SPEAKER_02]: To wager on it.
32:53
[SPEAKER_02]: My pick.
32:55
[SPEAKER_02]: is junior caminero.
32:57
[SPEAKER_02]: The junior.
32:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
32:58
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a homer pick for me because I'm heavily invested and I love them, but so I'm going to stick with them.
33:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Junior caminero.
33:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you got to go, Mike.
33:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm working with your friend.
33:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So I would honestly say that I would might have that pick and I think Garrett is doing his role film like we're on the wood train.
33:15
[SPEAKER_03]: A guy that I like because he seems to have that kind of magical thing going right now is the favorite is Cal Raleigh.
33:23
[SPEAKER_03]: like he just has that kind of vibe right now where it kind of reminds me of like I mean Ripkin won it in ninety one and you know Hamilton when he had that tear he just got so hot whatever that was like to that you know I think that he's the guy I want to pick
33:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I'm actually gonna pick a new cruise.
33:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
33:58
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think that James Woods gonna hit as long as you think?
34:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think there'd be a ball hit over what?
34:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Four eighty tonight?
34:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there'll be a ball that hits out of the stadium over the chop-hots no doubt.
34:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
34:10
[SPEAKER_01]: No doubt.
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's gonna hit my own toes.
34:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Good be James Woods.
34:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me guys.
34:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm I think what they should do.
34:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It is in addition to the act of players, not a mentor, but they should get retired guys.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Sirs.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give him metal bats.
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see what happens.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see what happens because he would happen.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Those guys, no, those guys can still swim.
34:31
[SPEAKER_00]: They still have it.
34:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't mean like, you mean, they're a G-DRA, or T-S.
34:36
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, I've been aware that bonds could still do some show.
34:39
[SPEAKER_00]: No, metal bats?
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I bet you Matt Holiday could out there Jackson and Ethan.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: All deal.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude's like, Jack.
34:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got a pickle.
34:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I do want to ask Mike a question.
34:50
[SPEAKER_02]: You made your pet, right?
34:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah James Wood.
34:52
[SPEAKER_02]: What's going to be?
34:53
[SPEAKER_02]: What's worth more now?
34:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And what's going to be worth more in five years?
34:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The MLB debut patch or the Bowman Super Fractor.
34:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Auto and why?
35:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, which kid do you like the best?
35:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I would
35:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I have always believed and I continue to believe the MLB debut.
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And not, but by the way, I don't think that the Bowman super-willed diminishing value.
35:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think that people are going to make room for the MLB debut patch, but the the privity of it is just undeniable, right?
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Having something that's connected to the game, to the moment.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's hard to think that that won't be the ultimate card.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, I mean, I think we've started to see it, right?
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what do you think, I mean, you tell me what do you think Paul schemes, Bowman as we're afraid to the debut patch?
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think you're seeing the data points.
35:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
35:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I think usually I think you, yeah, it's not live for sure.
35:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I think to me the answer is always its player contingent right now while it's fresh and new because a lot of these I think that they view patches have a much higher floor.
35:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not finding a debut patch for less than three thousand dollars, right?
35:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You could buy a boom and super for two hundred fifty dollars for all
36:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I think ultimately the best card to outside the Bowman world and overall I think the debut patches get the answer because it's not only, you know, Bowman is just for Bowman guys.
36:13
[SPEAKER_02]: The debut patches bringing in collectors that collect football and basketball and people that aren't even collecting.
36:21
[SPEAKER_02]: how you wear it yeah so i think ultimately the answer even though i collect a lot of supers i think the answer ultimately is going to be the debut patch i just i always wondered how much of it i mean it's a way to feel connected to the player questions how much of it will be of that value is contingent upon how they did it performed in the first game you know what i mean i don't think very well not very much right now i think people i think if you take it to me as is a more special one in the home run yeah do i think
36:50
[SPEAKER_02]: people look at these cards tied to the career and not tied to the great the one question for you I have on this is on those is you continue to you guys continue to innovate and come out with the milestone cards and in inception and the MLB golden logo man is there anything else or is there a concern that it might diminish the value of the debut patch something else that might come out that
37:12
[SPEAKER_02]: is cooler and closer to that player than the debut patch to where you see the market for these or hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars being spent on them.
37:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there something that the collector should be worried about on the horizon that might diminish the value of that from being the best card.
37:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look, it's hard.
37:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just says it's hard for me to open on value and tell people, you know, what they should or shouldn't buy because ultimately it's all subjective and it's all unknown.
37:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there something that's going to have a marketing behind the MLB debut patch that?
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there's not.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: But I will say this, right?
37:43
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, the way I think about it is, and we talked about this.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: If we do this debut patch, what's the impact going to be to Bowman and to Chrome, right?
37:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And now people are going to look at the supers and go wait a minute.
37:56
[SPEAKER_00]: There's now a third person at this party.
37:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, I think where you get to is look, let's just make great stuff.
38:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it expands the hobby.
38:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives people more ways to come in and to invest.
38:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the Bowman crowd is still going to be the Bowman crowd.
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that's even growing because, hey, maybe I get started by a debut patch and then Holy cow, what's this Bowman thing?
38:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And now because Bowman is not something you get in on the first day, right?
38:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Bowman is not an entry level product.
38:25
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, you know, that's like graduate school for, you know, like,
38:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and so I think you have to continue to grow the market.
38:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to get people in and then, hey, what's this Bowman thing?
38:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And it can be, by the way, people can get started on Bowman through, you know, the rainbow.
38:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They can get started through GPK, they can get started through anime.
38:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's a lot of different entry points, not a Bowman that I think interests people.
38:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've seen Bowman grow significantly in the last few years.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not as if
38:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, the debut patch comes along.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And now all of a sudden, Bowman starts to soften.
38:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We've actually seen just the opposite.
39:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if you're concerned, the answer is to just get both.
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll get a player.
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You like this.
39:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think when you look, we're seventy something years beyond the mantle, right?
39:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole thrill of collectors cars, right?
39:12
[SPEAKER_01]: The fifty two mantle.
39:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're seventy years later, and you think about, okay, seventy years from now, when you look at these players, what are people going to be seeking?
39:20
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no doubt they're going to be seeking those.
39:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's no grippers.
39:24
[SPEAKER_01]: There's great manners, there's great hondous wagoners, there's great baby roof guards.
39:27
[SPEAKER_01]: When you look at those cards though, I'll have this conversation my dad today, it's no different than high-end collector's cards or anything that's or paintings or anything else.
39:36
[SPEAKER_01]: The top tier is always going to be the top tier because there's only one thing I agree with that.
39:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's important to have a lot of different things to buy into and a lot of different things to collect because
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, that's what gives the hobby the expansion to grow.
39:51
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've just had one card that people chased or two cards of people chased, yeah, to get bit up.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But then it's unaffordable and inaccessible.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, those cards are still going to go for astronomical numbers, right?
40:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But the more things that we can provide in the hobby, the more collecting journeys, we can put you on the more stories we can tell the more ways we can connect you to the athletes.
40:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I think our job is.
40:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's how we
40:15
[SPEAKER_00]: not only grow the hobby, but keep it sustainable for the long term.
40:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Gryption, I think just the descriptions that the players are doing at the earlier days coming to the hobby.
40:24
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, I think kids love that.
40:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody loves it, especially if you're a fan of a team.
40:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I want to see that continue.
40:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's really cool to see these guys riding on the car beyond the autograph.
40:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I think as they're in these moments to these special moments from time as you talk about, it could be show hey, what he did this morning when you woke up.
40:44
[SPEAKER_01]: and a stuff is cool to see.
40:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
40:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, we're trying to organize it in the right way so you see the my first bomb and autos.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're also trying to have the players have fun with each other when there's milestones.
40:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to commemorate those
40:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Jack and Bobby.
40:59
[SPEAKER_00]: That was great.
41:01
[SPEAKER_00]: It's awesome.
41:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's collecting should be fun.
41:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
41:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So we wanted to be special line with special moments, but we also have some fun with it.
41:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And guys are going to sign their GPK cards, their blacks in their GPK.
41:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're going to write their GPK name on there too, which is kind of fun.
41:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
41:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to try some fun things, not everything will work or connect with collectors, but we'll lean into what works and we'll scratch what doesn't.
41:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The good news about the bits, when you find something that works, you get to do it across multiple sports for multiple years, right?
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, oh, hey, people love guard choke, it's just to stick with that.
41:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just keep going, right?
41:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If they don't, then we've moved on to something else.
41:41
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a couple other things real quick, from ripping hobby boxes, actually, because I'm, yes, you know, I'm usually a singles game, right?
41:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I've usually a single sniper's, people call it now.
41:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But I got into ripping the hobby cases recently, I ripped the jumbo as well.
41:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to tell you how fun the hobby case reports did all the different colors, all the different serial cards that are coming out there and then to be a, I didn't even know that it existed that there was a special pearl pack.
42:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know because I didn't, I wasn't
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't live in that world.
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And to see that pearl pack be on top was like the kids were like they knew what it was before I did.
42:16
[SPEAKER_01]: That was incredibly cool.
42:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And then to hear like about like you've got the seeds and the gum ball packs and all that like I think you are doing that right there with that where you when you open a box that there's those kind of elements.
42:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you going to get like a red rookie and all like then you can open a pack and you don't know like even like today we were ripping a case a spotlight came out a red spotlight.
42:37
[SPEAKER_01]: That's huge.
42:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, to be able to get something like that.
42:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, I think you're on the right track with making it from a rip standpoint, from a collector standpoint, you may not be an autograph guy.
42:47
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be into this or that, but it's there.
42:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in that pack, there's so many different varieties.
42:52
[SPEAKER_02]: What can we wager on this Derby?
42:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me.
42:55
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
42:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you've got some ideas.
43:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Hold on man.
43:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what interests you.
43:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I know what interests us here.
43:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Or me.
43:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm putting a bomb on clearly.
43:07
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you guys putting up?
43:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Help me wager tonight.
43:10
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a James, but let's get the real James Wood Jersey and I if he has a few wins, the home runner.
43:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Tell me.
43:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a big card.
43:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Pick a value.
43:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Just card value.
43:18
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you want to say?
43:19
[SPEAKER_03]: How much card got me worth?
43:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Just pick a card.
43:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Bowman first auto and of his choice.
43:25
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just to call it a point.
43:27
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
43:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Three thousand bucks.
43:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You're good.
43:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Y'all go ahead.
43:30
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Fine.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you want to do?
43:32
[SPEAKER_02]: A hundred.
43:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I was going to do a base auto.
43:34
[SPEAKER_02]: The base auto.
43:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I want some product.
43:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I want a case of twenty foot lesson.
43:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's come at the conclusion.
43:44
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll come to the conclusion off here.
43:45
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to wrap up the owner.
43:47
[SPEAKER_03]: You got only approved James Woods during your cabinet.
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
43:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike may hand CEO fanatics collectibles.
43:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.
43:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Got so much for watching the sports card CEO.
43:58
[SPEAKER_03]: We appreciate cards HQ for hosting this mic for being our guest.
44:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for that voice.
44:02
[SPEAKER_03]: This has been a lot of fun in person.
44:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for coming.