Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- February 11, 2026

Transcript

MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- February 11, 2026 · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:11
What's going on everybody? It is Wednesday and Wednesday is
0:15
Q&A day. This is where I share my
0:17
thoughts, my opinions, my just reactions to your questions.
0:22
And remember, if you have a question for an upcoming
0:24
episode, please down below in the comments.
0:27
Just take a second type out the question.
0:29
I'll add it to the list and I would love to participate in
0:34
this hobby with you by having some interaction and hearing
0:38
what you are curious about. To all of you that have not just
0:42
this week, but have for the last 2 1/2, almost three straight
0:47
years. It's been almost three straight
0:50
years that we've done Q&A episodes on virtually every
0:54
Wednesday. I think I missed one and two,
0:56
one or two for like when I was out of town or something.
1:00
But for the most part, I've hit almost every single Wednesday
1:03
for almost three straight years. So thank you.
1:07
Please keep the questions rolling in.
1:09
Without questions, there is no Wednesday Q&A.
1:12
It's just a, which isn't as interesting as Q&A.
1:17
So again, heading down to that West Coast card show, going to
1:20
definitely take some footage down there.
1:22
I'll have at least one episode later this week, probably
1:26
something Saturday maybe. And then Sunday, I don't know,
1:32
but I'll definitely have at least one episode from the show.
1:36
Looking forward to seeing some friends for that.
1:39
We have 5 great questions again this week where I share my
1:43
thoughts. Again, just because they're my
1:45
thoughts doesn't mean anything other than the fact that they're
1:48
my thoughts. So if you agree with my
1:51
thoughts, if you disagree with my thoughts, if you have your
1:53
own opinions about these topics, share them.
1:56
Again, these are conversation starters, not conversation
1:59
Enders, so share your thoughts on whatever it is that you find
2:04
interesting from this week's episode.
2:06
So first question coming at you right here.
2:11
This first one says thanks for answering my question.
2:14
Great response. Sadly I do have an OJ rookie,
2:18
but my dad and I got into it before the crap hit the fan for
2:22
him. Not that it makes it any better.
2:25
When I see it I think of my dad. Well, you know, not the murders.
2:31
Still looking for that killer though, right?
2:34
Silly Question Time. Since you answered such a
2:37
difficult one. Does anyone else have pictures
2:41
of the cards they own on their desktop so you can just open
2:45
them up whenever you want while at work and look at them?
2:48
Or is it just me? I love doing this.
2:53
First off, I don't think this is a silly question.
2:55
Secondly, I think that we can all relate.
2:58
There are some cards that we like to look at.
3:01
We like to look at pictures of these visual objects, these
3:04
items that many of us have great stories from why we wanted them
3:09
to how we acquire them. And so looking them, looking at
3:12
them is a lot of the fun. Now, First off, I'll say this,
3:17
everybody's collection is different.
3:18
So some people have lots of cards, some people have fewer
3:21
cards, Some people have cards that they have to store in safer
3:25
locations than others. I have many friends that have a
3:29
lot of their cards stored in safe deposit boxes.
3:32
And if your card is in a safe deposit box, you're not going to
3:35
see this frequently. It's somebody who can just go
3:38
into their closet or go into a desk or go into a safe in their
3:42
home and take a look at the cards.
3:45
So I think that you are not alone in wanting to find good
3:50
ways to see your cards, see them frequently, even when maybe
3:56
you're not directly in possession of them, when they're
4:00
not physically in your presence. So I have two main thoughts
4:04
here. I have two main opinions or
4:06
suggestions or recommendations or ideas that you may like and
4:11
you might not like. But these are just kind of my
4:14
thoughts on this. First, my buddy Dave.
4:17
I've shown Dave, I've had Dave on the channel a couple of
4:20
times. I've shown a lot of Dave's
4:22
collection. I recently with Mike Petty went
4:24
down to Dave's house. We looked through a bunch of his
4:27
cards. I did a little episode on that.
4:31
Dave's got some big cards. And when you have really big
4:34
cards, again, you want to store them somewhere safe, but you
4:39
still want to look at them. So what Dave did is he got a
4:43
photo frame and you know, those like digital photo frames where
4:47
it's, it's like a it, you know, you can get him different sizes,
4:51
but it's a little digital photo frame which he has on like the
4:55
island in his kitchen. I saw it and it scrolls through
5:01
all of his carts and it scrolls through his, his, his
5:06
collection. So he can see them all the time,
5:10
and he's not physically seeing the card itself, but he's seen a
5:14
picture of the card. And it's a great way to enjoy
5:17
them. And it was fun when I was
5:19
visiting him because he had told me that he had done this.
5:22
And it was fun when I was visiting him because we were
5:26
sitting there talking and as we were talking and the pictures
5:29
were scrolling through and we were looking at them together.
5:32
Because again, not, you know, most of his collection isn't at
5:36
his house. It's in a safer location.
5:38
And so that's one idea that I think is a really good one that
5:43
that he suggested he uses and it works really well.
5:48
Another one is, you know, I know that, you know, everybody has
5:52
different opinions on, you know, card apps and, and you guys know
5:59
where I stand. You guys know that I believe, I
6:02
feel that the best card app is Card Ladder.
6:05
And that's the reason that I've aligned myself with Card Ladder
6:09
and that's the reason that I endorse Card Ladder and I am now
6:13
sponsored by Card Ladder. And one of the best attributes
6:18
of Card Ladder. One of the coolest things about
6:21
Card Ladder is you can load your collection into Card Ladder and
6:27
you can put in the the price at which you originally obtained
6:31
the card and you can scroll through your collection.
6:36
And so when friends, when I'm with people, this happens all
6:40
the time. I'll go to a card show and
6:41
someone will say, Oh yeah, you know, you pick up anything
6:45
recently. I say, yeah, I don't go to the
6:48
photo section of my phone. I go to card Ladder.
6:51
I open the app in Card Ladder, I go to my collection and I scroll
6:56
to the card. I click on it and I open up the
6:58
picture and I show them. I can show you a lot of my
7:01
collection now. I didn't really start really
7:06
getting into card ladder until the fall and in the fall I was
7:09
super busy because school, the school year was starting.
7:12
Lucy was in the middle of her soccer season.
7:15
I had a bunch of stuff going on and so I've loaded in a chunk of
7:19
my collection, but I've not loaded in my full collection yet
7:23
into card ladder. But what it does is in addition
7:26
to being a central location that has access to the pictures and
7:30
access to the data and access to, you know, updated values and
7:34
things. What it allows me to do is it
7:37
allows me to easily add cards, easily take cards out if I were
7:41
to move them and and have my collection all in one place that
7:45
is an and I can see what is their evaluation of the
7:51
approximate value now compared to what I bought it for.
7:55
And then each day, if you, if you want to know the values, if
7:59
you don't care, you can turn that off.
8:01
And the other thing you can do is you can go into you can, you
8:05
can set it up where card ladder will e-mail you every day.
8:07
It'll tell you a grand total of your collections value that was
8:13
updated that day based on any changes in the card values in
8:18
the accumulation of the card values.
8:21
I love that. To me, to me, the two parts of
8:26
card ladder that I use the most, not even close is the collection
8:31
portion and the portion where I can look back at comps for
8:36
years, years and years and years.
8:38
I can go back and I can look at comp values.
8:41
And that's especially valuable for rare cards.
8:44
And you know, I, I'll, I'll put the promo code on the screen
8:48
here out right there. I'll put the promo code on the
8:50
screen again, card ladder. You can get one month, an extra
8:56
month free or you can get $20 off the first year with the
9:01
promo code midlife. And, and I, I know a lot of
9:05
people have said this. In fact, my, my buddy Brian, the
9:08
high pop professor, he was saying just the other day, you
9:10
know, my, my card budget is small.
9:13
And so I don't really want to spend like $1520 a month on, you
9:19
know, on, on a card letter app. I, I like knowing the values.
9:23
I like doing the research. I like having all those, these
9:27
things. But you know, my budget is not
9:28
that big. I get so much more than $1520 in
9:34
value out of that app. I get the amount of data
9:40
research, the amount of looking at, you know, historical
9:44
evidence, looking up other cards and seeing what they've recently
9:48
been selling for tracking my collection, accessing pictures
9:51
of my collection all in one place, $15 is nothing.
9:55
Like literally, literally. I don't know what prices are in
10:00
other places, but in California if I went to McDonald's and got
10:07
1/4 pounder meal, fries, drink quarter pounder, it'd be 15
10:13
bucks. Might be more than 15 bucks, but
10:16
it'd be pretty darn close to 15 bucks.
10:19
Or I could have 30 days of card ladder where I can research
10:24
cards, where I can track my collection, where I can look up
10:29
data. I mean, for the amount of fun,
10:34
it is the cheapest per minute cost of anything that I have.
10:40
I use it all the time. It's a lot of fun and it's not
10:43
expensive. That said, I understand if
10:47
people would rather buy a $15 card than be able to do that for
10:50
the month. But for me, I get a ton of
10:53
enjoyment. Part of my participation in the
10:56
hobby is research and looking at what things are selling for and
11:00
looking at my collection and, and you know, messing with, you
11:04
know, oh, I see this card on eBay and what, what does it
11:08
usually sell for? What is it sold for?
11:10
Then I start going back and I go, what was it 2 years ago?
11:13
What was it five years ago? Has this card gone way up over
11:16
the last few years? That research is so much fun for
11:19
me. So to me, the price of Card
11:21
Ladder is a freaking steal. So back to the original
11:26
question, though. The original question was how?
11:30
I mean, taking pictures, looking at the pictures, is that unique?
11:34
It's not unique at all. I think we all totally get it.
11:37
And I think a digital photo frame and or the card ladder app
11:43
and utilizing the collection feature are just really cool
11:49
options on how you can enjoy your cards even when they're not
11:53
physically in your hands. This one says Greg, which top
11:58
set would you build or have for your collection?
12:02
Hope you're feeling better. All right, another fun question.
12:07
Which top set would I build or have for my collection?
12:10
Now let me first say I do have the 1979 top set.
12:16
I've got the complete set. I, I started building that set
12:20
when I was about 12. And why that set?
12:23
Because that's the year I was born, 1979.
12:27
And so I started building that set as a kid when I was maybe 12
12:32
ish, 12, maybe maybe 1111 or 12. I started building that set and
12:39
I got probably halfway through it and then eventually my dad
12:44
took over and my dad finished the set for me.
12:47
It's a super sharp set, really, really high end, really sharp
12:52
cards. A lot of centering issues on
12:55
that set, but these are like packed fresh cards.
12:58
It's really nice set. So I do have one, but you're
13:02
asking if I, I'm guessing if I were to build another one with
13:05
like what's my favorite all time set?
13:08
A lot of people like 56 tops, lot of like people like 55 tops.
13:14
For me, I love the 54 top set. The greatest card of all time,
13:19
the Ernie Banks rookie card is in that set.
13:22
One of the most beautiful cards of all time, that Hank Aaron
13:25
rookie cards in that set. Another absolutely gorgeous card
13:29
that I love very much and hope to have someday, the Alkaline
13:32
rookie card, is in that set. That set has got some absolutely
13:37
awesome colors. It's got some absolutely awesome
13:41
images, portraits, action shots, kind of in the background.
13:46
It's missing Hank Aaron. No, not Hank Aaron.
13:49
It's missing Mickey Mantle, which is just like brutal.
13:54
And obviously it's also missing Stan Mutual.
13:58
Would be really cool if it had those two, but it has a couple
14:03
of it has two really cool Ted Williams cards.
14:07
The first and last card are the Ted Williams cards.
14:09
They're beautiful cards. I just think that's there are a
14:13
lot of absolutely gorgeous cards in that set.
14:17
The Monty Irvin card is really cool.
14:19
The Yogi Berra card is really cool.
14:22
They're just so many great cards in that set.
14:25
So that's probably my favorite top set at times.
14:30
At times I also feel that it might be the 52 tops because
14:35
there aren't a lot of cards in the 52 top set that I don't just
14:38
really, really like. But it's like, I mean, there's
14:43
no way I could ever build that set.
14:44
You know, there's just, it's just too expensive.
14:48
So as far as what I like, 52 and 54 tops are probably the two I
14:53
like the most. 54 tops if I were going to build the set that's a
15:00
top set, it would probably be the 54 tops.
15:05
And and I know a lot of people are are throwing rotten fruit at
15:09
the screen right now going you didn't even you just skipped
15:12
over 53 tops. 53 tops is great too. 53 tops is great too.
15:18
But I love the colors and I love the portraits in the 54 top set.
15:26
But that's the beauty, right? Is that I could be saying this
15:29
and you could disagree with me. If I said, oh it's the 54 tops
15:32
and everyone said Yep, that's it, then this wouldn't be very
15:35
much fun. So for me, love 52 tops, but
15:41
it's completely impossible. I love the 54 tops and that one
15:47
I wouldn't rule out. I'm not really a set builder
15:52
type I I have a couple of complete sets, but let me throw
15:57
this out there too. Is is a little offshoot which
15:59
you you, most of you, many of you couple of you might have
16:03
seen come in, but many of you wouldn't have.
16:05
In 1952, Tops made the baseball card set, but they also made the
16:11
look in C set and the look and see set is awesome.
16:15
The same artist that was commissioned to do all the
16:18
portraits for the 52 top set also did all the portraits for
16:23
the 52 look and see set. But instead of it being baseball
16:27
players, the 52 look and see set are famous historical figures.
16:32
So there's Einstein, there's George Washington, there's
16:36
Abraham Lincoln, there is a Babe Ruth in the set.
16:40
But there's inventors, there's historical figures, political
16:45
figures, founding fathers, just some really beautiful cards.
16:51
They're not full size. The 52 tops are a little bit
16:54
bigger than the standard size and the 52 look and see are
16:59
smaller. They're almost like the, the 75
17:01
mini size. So they're about 70, maybe 7075%
17:07
the size of a standard card. I love the look and see set.
17:11
I, I have probably, I don't know, 15 cards from that set.
17:15
So I wouldn't say that I'm building it, but I have many
17:19
cards and, and when one pops up, I I do add them still from time
17:23
to time. It's a really, really cool set.
17:26
It's if anybody's interested in a non sport set, a non sports
17:32
set that's vintage 52 look and see is awesome.
17:38
They're awesome cards. So 54 tops is the most likely
17:43
set of baseball cards that I would probably build.
17:46
But the 52 look and see I would also is tops.
17:51
I would also it's the tops look and see.
17:53
I would probably I would also consider building that complete
17:56
set and, and and moving through that one as well.
17:59
Both are fantastic, but there are a lot of great choices to to
18:02
choose from. So if you don't agree with me,
18:05
that's OK. But those are probably my 2
18:07
favorites. This one says Greg, really good
18:12
video. I think you may be on to
18:14
something that PSA might go public.
18:17
Now my question is, if PSA does go public, would you buy stock
18:22
in them? OK, so I, I, I hear the
18:27
question. I, I get the question.
18:31
I see what you're, where you're going with this.
18:35
Let let me, let me say a few things first, just I'm not AI do
18:41
invest. I, I set up my retirement
18:44
account when I was 23 years old and I have put money into my
18:49
retirement account every single month since I was 23 years old
18:54
and I started with a 401 Ki also, you know, 15 years ago
18:58
started a Roth IRA. I am very much a believer in
19:03
investing in the stock market, dollar cost averaging, putting
19:08
it in every single month and then just letting it sit back
19:11
and grow and try not to think about it.
19:14
And 99% of the time when I invest in the stock market, it
19:20
is in like an index fund, a mutual fund, an ETF, sort of
19:25
something like that. It's not usually in a single
19:30
stock. So let me just throw that out
19:33
there. Now, have I ever invested in
19:36
single stocks? I have.
19:39
I have. I don't do it very often.
19:42
I did do it during COVID. So when, you know, when the
19:46
COVID outbreak went everywhere, the stock market initially just
19:52
absolutely plummeted. It just crashed, went down like,
19:55
I don't know, 3545% something. And so I immediately went out
20:03
and bought a bunch of stock in a bunch of the companies that got
20:09
hit the hardest by that. So like, I remember buying like
20:14
FedEx, Federal Express because I was like, well, people are going
20:19
to ship more, not less if we're not leaving the house.
20:24
I bought a bunch of Home Depot because I'm like, well, people
20:28
are going to be home. So if they're going to be home,
20:30
they're probably going to be working on projects at home.
20:34
That's a whole different story. But I am kind of a contrarian
20:38
and I tend to do what people are the opposite of what people are
20:42
doing and people are buying. I'd usually sell when people are
20:44
selling. I usually buy when I'm dealing
20:47
with individual stocks. That's kind of how I've always
20:50
done it. I've, I've won a lot from that.
20:53
I've lost some as well. I know there are a lot of a big
20:57
contingent of people out there who have strong opinions and
21:02
have enjoy doing the stock speculation stuff and it can be
21:06
fun about let's see about let's see, Molly was in about 6 Chris.
21:13
So about 8 years ago I bought a couple 100 ounces of silver and
21:19
I actually just sold that silver physical silver coins, one ounce
21:29
silver, silver eagles. I, I, I bought a couple hundred
21:35
of the a couple 100 oz and I just sold those about a month
21:40
ago. Now some people think I'm crazy
21:44
for selling it because I feel like it's going up.
21:47
It it, it, I definitely sold higher than it is at this
21:50
moment, but I think that silver is anyway.
21:54
What am I talking about? Well, I don't even know why I'm
21:56
talking about this. You're asking me about what I
21:59
invest in PSA and I'm off on this tangent talking about my
22:03
investing. OK, What would I invest in PSA?
22:09
I think PSA is in a very strong position in their tiny little
22:17
niche of the market in card grading.
22:21
They now own the three most dominant sports card grading
22:28
companies, and that's a strong position to be in.
22:35
They have charged more and they are grading more and their
22:43
return time is slower. So imagine this for just imagine
22:49
a world for a second where over the last two and a half, three
22:54
years, the biggest company in an industry bought #2 and bought #3
23:02
and. And then over that same period
23:04
of time, their return time, their turn around time doubled
23:12
at least at least doubled, maybe tripled.
23:17
And they're charging more than they charged before.
23:23
And the consistency is a little bit questionable, a little bit
23:29
questionable. And the competition is they own.
23:36
So they're in a very strong position.
23:42
I can't even think of an analogy of, of a, of a similar, I mean,
23:47
Google like own like there's not really a good competitor for,
23:53
for Google right now. So it's similar to Google.
23:59
Would I buy them 'cause I know what you're getting at is like,
24:02
oh, you know, do you agree with how they do things and how they
24:05
treat people? And would I invest in a company
24:08
like that? Feels a little bit like a gotcha
24:11
question. I don't, I don't think I care
24:17
about investing in a a sports card company.
24:21
That's not why I'm in this hobby.
24:24
I'm in this hobby to to buy the cards and and enjoy looking at
24:29
them. I'm not in the hobby to look for
24:34
ways to financially benefit from investing in the companies
24:41
involved in it. So if, if, if I were to invest
24:47
money, if I had 2-3, four, $5000 to invest into the stock market
24:54
and PSA was a company that was available that went public, was
25:01
on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange and was one of
25:05
the options. I think there are a lot of other
25:07
companies that I would invest in before I would invest in PSA.
25:12
So would I invest in PSAII? Wouldn't not.
25:18
But if I had money to invest, I think there's a lot better
25:22
places to invest it than PSA. So I guess my answer is given
25:28
the other opportunities or options of how I could invest
25:32
that same amount of money, I wouldn't pick PSA over those
25:36
other options. I think there are other options
25:38
that are better investments than PSA is, so I would invest in
25:44
those instead of PSA, but I don't think I would have like
25:48
this. You know, there's no way under
25:51
any circumstance that I would invest in PSA, but I just think
25:55
that there, there are better places to invest my money.
25:58
Like it's too niche of a, of a market.
26:01
It's just not, I'm a conservative person who invests
26:04
conservatively and I don't see myself putting two $3000 into
26:09
PSA stock. I, I just assume throw two $3000
26:12
into the S&P 500 index fund. So I don't know if I answered
26:19
your question I wouldn't not invest in them, but there are a
26:23
lot of things I would invest in first, so I would invest in
26:27
those things before I'd invest in PSAI.
26:30
Guess that's my answer. This one says thoughts on TAG.
26:36
Their whole model is based on AI and seems to me to be the least
26:42
subjective. All right, my thoughts on TAG.
26:46
I don't really know why they haven't caught on more.
26:49
I don't. Everybody says what they want is
26:54
consistency and everybody says what they want is a really nice
26:59
sleek looking slab and TAG does both those things.
27:07
If it's fully AI or if it's fully computer grading and it's
27:12
not human error is not involved anymore, then they would be
27:17
consistent. And if they're consistent, I
27:21
mean, we all say we want consistency, but it's hard to
27:25
believe that when we have an option like TAG and then people
27:29
aren't drawn to it. And then I think their slab
27:33
looks great. I really like the look of their
27:36
slab. So why is TAG not taking off?
27:41
I have no idea. I have no idea.
27:47
I have no idea. Did I have I said that yet?
27:50
I know that they don't grade vintage.
27:53
And so for a lot of the people watching this in our community,
27:56
that, I mean, I, I'm assuming the people who watch this are
28:00
mostly vintage card collectors, right?
28:03
And, and they don't grade vintage cards, they grade modern
28:06
cards only. And, and so that eliminates
28:09
vintage. It also by eliminating vintage,
28:13
you're also eliminating people who want uniformity in the
28:18
grading company that they use. So now you can't have uniformity
28:23
for any collector who collects vintage or modern, right?
28:28
You you can have uniformity if you collect modern, but you
28:33
can't even use tag if you collect vintage.
28:36
But I don't really get it. It seems to me like vintage
28:43
solves a lot of the problems. And and so I guess where that
28:46
brings me is, do people really hate the lack of consistency?
28:54
Because you could make the argument that the least
28:56
consistent grading company is PSA.
28:58
Like you could definitely make that argument that over the last
29:02
two or three years they are the least consistent grading
29:05
company, but but they're getting 10 times the submissions of
29:10
Beckett and SGC, 20 times the submissions of SGC.
29:15
So if if what people people keep saying we want consistency and
29:23
people keep saying we want nice looking slabs and people keep
29:28
saying they want faster turn around times than what PSA is
29:32
giving us. But the company that is the
29:35
company that is by far the most popular right now is the one
29:42
with the slowest turn around times PSA, the highest grading
29:49
price PSA and the least consistent.
29:58
So what people say they want versus what people are actually
30:03
doing now. Where does PSA dominate?
30:07
PSA dominates with a their sale price.
30:13
Their aftermarket sale price cards sell for more in PSA
30:18
holders. They they definitely dominate
30:20
there and they have the PSA guarantee.
30:27
So is that what people actually want?
30:29
Do people say they want consistency and they say they
30:34
want faster turn around times and they say they want low price
30:39
of submission, but in reality, what they want is the most added
30:45
value because that's where PS, that's the only place that PSA
30:49
dominates, right? Isn't that the only place that
30:53
they're dominating? Isn't PSA not doing well with
30:58
turn around times, consistency and price, but value of cards in
31:03
their holders? See that's part of the problem
31:07
is we all say what I want is this and I want this and I want
31:13
this. But then people keep submitting
31:15
to to PSA. So maybe people just aren't
31:21
being honest with themselves is what they want.
31:24
I don't know. I like, I have a couple of tag
31:28
slabs. I like them a lot.
31:30
I like the looks of them a lot. So I don't get it.
31:35
I don't get it. It seems like they potentially
31:40
for modern collectors eliminate a lot of the things people say
31:44
they want fixed. But here we are with with tag
31:49
doing OK and and PSA breaking records every month.
31:55
So I don't know. Finally, this one says so let me
32:02
get this right. I need auction wire and card
32:06
ladder slash VCP. It's possible that I'm
32:10
defensive. It's possible that this question
32:15
is a little bit of a of an attack, but here's the deal.
32:22
You don't need anything. I, I don't think I ever said
32:27
that we need a car ladder or that we need auction wire.
32:34
I don't think that I ever said that we need them.
32:38
What I have said is that I get a lot of joy from both of them and
32:47
people talk about, you know, I mean, I went to a card show the
32:54
other day and it was like, I don't know, 10 bucks to get in,
32:58
10 bucks to walk, to walk around this show for a couple hours,
33:04
right? But but then card ladder or
33:09
auction wire, like 10 or 15 bucks a month and we're like,
33:13
no, no, no, no, I won't pay 10 bucks for a month's worth of
33:18
entertainment. I won't pay $15.00 for a month's
33:24
worth of entertainment. But I'll pay 10 bucks to get
33:27
into the card show and I'll spend $30 in gas to drive to the
33:32
card show. But that that is to me, I like
33:40
the research. That's part of the fun for me.
33:44
Like I mentioned earlier in the episode, I like researching
33:49
historical sales data. I like looking for cards that
33:53
are for sale. Even if it's cards like I'll get
33:57
these like Mile High catalogs or Golden catalogs or Rea or
34:02
Heritage catalogs, like they mail them to my house, right?
34:05
And I I get those and I am like, this is going to be so much fun
34:10
looking through this catalog of cards I can't afford.
34:14
I will spend a couple of hours flipping through the catalogs
34:20
and looking through all the stuff for sale.
34:24
When CIA posts their their preview for the upcoming
34:30
auction, I am like pumped. I go straight over and I spend a
34:35
couple hours looking through all the stuff that's for sale and
34:39
then I have Theo on and we do the episode and I have an
34:42
absolute blast with Theo talking about what's up for sale.
34:47
I love that stuff. But that doesn't mean you need
34:52
auction wire, doesn't mean you need card ladder.
34:59
But to me, it's such a small amount of money.
35:03
Literally a loaf of bread in California is 8 bucks.
35:09
No, I'm not talking about like, you know, Greg, No, it's not.
35:15
I can't show you the prices. If you get a nice loaf of like
35:19
name brand bread, it's 8 bucks. Or you could have auction wire
35:26
for a month for 10. Like here's here's the deal
35:33
again, I'll just say it. You know, card ladder promo code
35:38
midlife, $20 off a year subscription or a month free.
35:44
Or you can auction wire promo code midlife.
35:48
When you sign up, you get an extra month for free.
35:52
So you can get two months, you get 60 days for free if you use
35:56
the promo code midlife. I want to be very clear because
36:01
you know, as soon as as soon as I'm affiliated with anybody,
36:06
which by the way, yes, Cart Ladder is a sponsor of the
36:11
channel. And yes, CIA Auctions is a
36:15
sponsor of the channel. Now I'm working on Auction Wire.
36:20
We're talking about it, but I just believe in these companies.
36:26
But let me back up for a second. My channel is 3 1/2 years old.
36:33
All right? 3 1/2 years old is my channel.
36:38
And for three years I didn't receive a dollar from a single
36:45
sponsor. I was putting in 30 hours a week
36:50
plus on this channel and I was getting 0 sponsorship dollars,
36:57
OK for for three years. And, and I had a lot of people.
37:03
I had many companies. Many companies came to me and
37:06
said we want to do a sponsorship deal, We want to do this, we
37:11
want to do that. And I said no.
37:13
And people said why? Why won't you take our money?
37:17
And I said because I need to make sure that I build a
37:22
relationship with my audience and that they know that I'm
37:27
genuine, that they believe me, that I build trust with them.
37:33
So I turned down a lot of money for a long time.
37:38
And then finally, after three years, I said, you know, 'cause
37:42
my wife is sitting there going, dude, you're spending like 30
37:47
hours a week on your channel and you have companies offering to
37:51
pay you sponsorship money. And you keep saying no, like,
37:55
what are you doing? Like you're this is a lot of
37:57
time you're spending. And finally, like, OK, you're
38:00
right. But let me explain something.
38:06
The three years of trust that I built up with all of you, the
38:09
three years that I went with everybody where I was turning
38:13
stuff down was because I wanted you to trust me.
38:21
I have had way more companies approach me about doing a
38:26
sponsorship than the two companies that right now sponsor
38:32
this channel. And the difference is this, I
38:37
only take sponsorships from the channel from from the companies
38:43
that I actually believe in. I, I believe in card Ladder.
38:50
They are the best card app in my opinion.
38:53
I've had VCP, I've had market movers, I've had card ladder.
38:57
Card Ladder's the best one. That's the only reason I did a
39:02
deal with them. I didn't do a deal with them and
39:05
then I promote them because they were the highest bidder.
39:09
That's not how this works. The way that this works is I
39:14
find a product that I like a lot.
39:18
I then reach out to the company and I say I really like your
39:23
company, I really like your product.
39:26
What if we do a deal? I use, I mean, you could look at
39:33
my phone while I'm talking into it, so I can't show it.
39:38
I don't have any other card apps on my phone.
39:42
All I have is card ladder. I'm you don't need card ladder,
39:49
you don't need auction wire. But the way I look at it is card
39:55
ladder and auction wire, they both save me more money than
40:03
they cost. Auction wire pays for itself.
40:09
It's like when you have a realtor, if you have a really
40:12
good realtor. That realtor is going to get you
40:18
more for the house than they cost.
40:23
So you know, maybe the realtor charges 5 or 6%.
40:27
Let's just say they charge 5%. If they charge 5% on a $500,000
40:36
home right, that's $25,000. A good realtor is going to get
40:42
you $25,000 more for your house than it would sell for to with a
40:47
bad realtor. So they paid for themselves.
40:52
Auction wire is first of all fun.
40:55
Secondly, it's going to save you more than than 10 bucks a month.
41:04
Card Ladder is going to save you more than $1520 a month just in
41:10
the data, in the deals that you become aware of, in the sales
41:15
history information. So no, you don't need both.
41:21
But this is my hobby. If I went and played a round of
41:25
golf today, the local golf course and I walked in the
41:31
Sacramento area, it would be 50 bucks.
41:35
To walk and play golf on a public course for five hours, it
41:40
would be 50 bucks. Or for 25 bucks a month I could
41:50
have auction, wire and card ladder.
41:54
Guys, it's not that much money. Same with YouTube Premium, by
41:58
the way. And now I don't get a dime from
42:01
YouTube Premium either. YouTube Premium, there are
42:05
people who listen to hours and hours and hours mookie of
42:11
YouTube mookie hours each day. But you listen to commercials
42:19
constantly. It's like 12 or 15 bucks a month
42:24
for YouTube Premium where there's no more commercials.
42:29
And not only that, but you can listen to it like a podcast.
42:32
You can start the episode. You could turn your phone, you
42:35
know, you could click it off or whatever, put it in your pocket
42:38
and listen to it like a podcast as soon as you have YouTube
42:42
Premium. I mean, listen, I'm not going to
42:47
tell other people how to spend their money.
42:50
I'm not. But I don't know.
42:56
For me, it's worth it for me, If you're still listening, thank
43:03
you. Take a second down below in the
43:06
comments. Let me know a question for an
43:10
upcoming episode. I am looking forward to this
43:13
card to this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing
43:15
many of you and a lot of good friends are going to be at the
43:18
show. Some gathering, some get
43:19
together, some Rd. trips. Going to be a blast.
43:23
Thank you to everybody who submitted a question.
43:27
If you don't want to spend 15 bucks, if you don't want to
43:30
spend 10 bucks on a subscription, that's cool.
43:33
But for me, it's worth every single penny.