Latest / The Sports Card CEO Podcast / Episode 14, S2: The Business of Sports Cards | Nuggets for Success In The Next 60 Days

Transcript

Episode 14, S2: The Business of Sports Cards | Nuggets for Success In The Next 60 Days · The Sports Card CEO Podcast

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What is happening everybody and welcome to another episode of the SportsCard CEO.
0:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We are the official collectables podcast of just baseball.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: a 47-D season and a season of life in the other and naturely baseball history from one of the Koenia Junior.
0:44
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a drive right on the bat of Evan Connor.
0:45
[SPEAKER_02]: What a crazy, he is having the hits that's not hard.
0:46
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the lion of the left, my truck has ripped them all around.
0:48
[SPEAKER_02]: What's up guys, Mike Trout?
0:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen to sports car CEO with current, buff on hand.
0:56
[SPEAKER_00]: appreciate you jumping on with us today.
0:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, if you're watching us on YouTube, you get to look at my face today.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're listening to us, it'll be normal.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just Bubba and I in the house, but Bubba is sad to light without video today, but Bubba was having in my friend.
1:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, just since I don't have my camera on, I've got my shirt off.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got Cheetos all over me.
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I've just got my belly hanging out.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Just feeling good over here.
1:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, there's a great, great, great skit that Ron White, the stand-up comedian did.
1:22
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like the other night, I was naked in a beanbag cherry and Cheetos.
1:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, it is like the, there's a televanzus on the TV and he said, are you sad?
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, yes, sir, he's like, are you lonely and depressed?
1:33
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, I am.
1:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, are you naked in a beanbag cherry and Cheetos?
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, yes, sir.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, would you want to give our organization a hundred dollars and he goes, heck, for a second, I thought he was talking about me.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty accurate stuff.
1:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Great, great, great standups get there.
1:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, boys and girls, thank you for diving in today with us again here on SportsCard CEO.
1:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we are in the mentor middle of the winter doldrums leading up to not only the literal Super Bowl, but the Super Bowl of the SportsCard CEO, which is spring training baby and baseball kick enough.
2:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Baba, the market is ripped, roaring right now.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: We got a lot of good stuff to talk about, so it's going to be a fun time.
2:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, pictures and catchers reporting next week.
2:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So we talked about the kind of this magic moment in time where it starts to feel like baseball season.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And next week, you've got that really kind of beginning.
2:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when the Super Bowl's done, baseball becomes king.
2:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm really excited for that, obviously, just to have that kind of spring feel because, hey, I mean, I know you've been snowed in or still snowed in, like, just definitely we feel like a far away land right now from spring,
2:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's right around the corner.
2:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's it's interesting because we did, you know, here in the southeast kind of up in the Carolinas more so than down where you are in Georgia bubble, but I mean we got seven inches of snow here at the house and seven inches of snow in coastal North Carolina like shut you down for three or four days.
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's been it's been an odd week here at Ham House.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll go ahead and lead off with our roundtable seven inches of snow overnight on Saturday night kids out of school Monday Tuesday maybe even again tomorrow all sports games all basketball games suspended.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So we've just been in
3:15
[SPEAKER_00]: incarcerated if you will with the kids indoors with many snow breaks and my wife not always joke that when you have small children in the southeast and you're not used to snow it makes for an exciting few days so needless to say we've been you know navigating some card deals here and there we've had a few things going on today but we're gonna dive into a little bit more on kind of our business endeavor but yeah it's been a it's funny right now
3:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I am feeling this urge personally to just continue to rest.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to continue to relax and just rest.
3:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But yet there's all these demands.
3:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the mean work still busy, phone still ringing.
3:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we've got stuff moving on.
3:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm trying to balance out this like need for rest and winter.
3:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And because I know spring's going to be here and it's going to be crazy.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm kind of navigating that a little bit.
4:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And be honest with the snow outside.
4:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been taking excessive naps.
4:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's a, that's a personal strength of mine is the ability to nap.
4:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've been enjoying the last couple of days.
4:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Just lay in Loma, friend.
4:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's what that's needed, man.
4:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It's needed before the, uh, kind of a call before the storm here.
4:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, on the personal side here for me, I mean, I'm doing the same thing.
4:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of recharge in the batteries have really been focused.
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I've said on previous episodes on my health, um, and really just having a, having a mindset this year of only doing things that really make me happy.
4:37
[SPEAKER_01]: and continue to really strive there, I think, on that front, on the personal side, I mean, I'm just, I mean, doing really, really well with my goals so far to kind of start this year.
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, um, but one thing that we have done, and I'll show this at some episode.
4:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get a clip or whatever and get it to you, ham.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're spending a ton of time at this new baseball facility that I built.
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: bought some land right across the river for my current house when over there started back in like late November building this indoor hitting facility for my kids and man i'm obsessed with it we've got rap solo in there got a hit tracks and we got a little simulator in there and
5:16
[SPEAKER_01]: it's got a real picture in there when it's throwing to you and I mean I'm getting back my swing baby.
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting back my youthful swing alongside my kids and so if it's been in a lot of time there and like I said it's been cold here, it's been snowing here, ice storms down here, but I'm ready for baseball.
5:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and baseball really does begin down here in Georgia with travel ball practices really crank it up like this week This is the week where travel ball really starts roaring again in Georgia.
5:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm ready for it But also know that once we get started, we don't stop until about July and so on the backside of my mind I'm sitting there going
5:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I'm ready to roll, but I know that this grind is going to roll for the next four or five months.
6:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just want to keep that mindset and keep that mindset and check that man, I'm just going to have fun.
6:06
[SPEAKER_01]: My kids have fun and enjoy the months ahead.
6:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I've talked about it almost every episode this year and I want to continue this like I woke up this morning because I feel like this is the first week of 2026 where I've I've I've kind of straight a little bit away from being grateful because I have been running so far and so hard and I've got a little bit of sickness to like a little cold last week and I thought you're about kind of got through that there was covid or flu or whatever and it just kind of like got me out of my game a little bit and.
6:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But I really try to get grinded back to that grounded back to just being thankful and which is a huge goal of mine just every day Just being thankful for what we have so anyway for me on the personal side That's what I'm doing on the card front man.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I am I am like I'm as locked in as I probably have ever been
6:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I truly am just like focused, I'm locked in, I'm looking at these next 60 days is like the Super Bowl of getting all this inventory together, but now on the back side, I'm also having to sit there and go, okay, well, buying is fun, yeah.
7:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta start having a plan as well at some point and go on, when are you gonna sell and how do you recap this?
7:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Because buying's not fun when you lose a lot of money.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of a balancing action trying to find on the personal side.
7:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Really enjoyed this market because it is challenging.
7:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really challenged me.
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the last couple months because it isn't the old days where you go out and say, oh, I want an orange of such and such.
7:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just go get it.
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't work like that anymore.
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: you have got to crawl, scratch, network, you've got to fight to go out there and win in this market.
7:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been fun to have to learn new ways to do that, but that's where I'm at in the car world.
7:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and when you find that you got to get it, right?
7:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like when you see it, you know, you got to pull the trigger.
7:58
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no hesitation.
8:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And it pays off because that's, you know, that scarcity is what ultimately drives a value.
8:05
[SPEAKER_00]: We always talk about,
8:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's funny, Bubba, you're talking about the hitting facility.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday, our YMCA was open and me and my three boys, you know, Matthew's 15 now, the twins are 14 and they had open gym and we went and played pick up basketball and it was quite depressive for me because you not played basketball, my wife played for North Carolina State Women's team in college and of course, you know, I played on the the scout team there and I played it in high school, but I hadn't run pick up in a long time and I tried to go
8:36
[SPEAKER_00]: completely gasped but it is it is there is something to kind of being able to get out there with your kids and mix it up a little bit and now that my boys are getting older man That was that was definitely fun.
8:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know you're having a blast in the hidden facility.
8:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So who who wins had to add your wife for you being come on dude Like I'm gonna like post her up back or down and like you know
8:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not if it's a shooting contest, I'm done like forget about it.
8:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so my wife was a phenomenal phenomenal shooter like she won at 1314 years old.
9:05
[SPEAKER_00]: She won the national two ball like played at the half time of the NBA All-Star game and won the national shooting contest as a 1314 year old.
9:14
[SPEAKER_00]: She was the female athlete of the year her junior and senior in high school in the triangle, rolling North Carolina area.
9:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So she was a phenomenal athlete primarily a shooter.
9:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I don't we don't do that.
9:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to post her up.
9:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to take her down love.
9:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to boom.
9:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do a little bit about you versus little math.
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you ever beat you and who's 101?
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Little Matt talks a big game and like that that's where it's like started to get me out of retirement a little bit as a dad I'll toast you dad.
9:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll toast you.
9:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, okay, and Matthew can shoot to you know I mean if we're head to head shooting contest he's probably got the edge But again like when it comes to like my my my old man my dad Duke he's always say son
9:51
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference between old strong and young strong and any new at the heck he was talking about and that's that's where it is a Matthew it's like bro You can be fast and good.
9:59
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I kind of stuff, but I'm still old strong.
10:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'll be able to take you down and you know know how to play so anyway I think I beat my dad the first time one on one about 15
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's about the 15, 16.
10:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I beat them all, man, the first time.
10:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we had some epic games over the years as I was coming up.
10:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that's a lot of fun, man.
10:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Take that in and enjoy it because it's, uh, it's a man, that's one, the one thing that's, I know, anybody can relate that has kids.
10:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, it's just like, I don't know if you feel like this, but time flying, right?
10:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, dude, it's exactly what he said.
10:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You're wearing, it's crazy.
10:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, people always say it, you know, when you're growing up, you know, Tom Flas, Tom Flas, like, okay, it can't go fast enough.
10:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And then all of a sudden, you know, monitor starting to get to the age now, it's like, okay, I see what you're saying.
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Matthew's going to be out of high school in three years.
10:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
10:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's kind of crazy.
10:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's been, it's been a good season of reset for us.
10:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I mean, we had five so close together.
10:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you've got four.
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You're trying to just get through the moment.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, can I just get through this moment?
10:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so demanding.
10:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you look up and you're like, do you don't want to wish on my moments away?
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, I just need to kind of chill and embrace it because it does go fast, man.
11:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, man, I know we could talk for days on in about the kiddos and things.
11:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But we want to dive in today and talk a little bit about the business of sports cards, specifically our business that we've been launching.
11:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But real quick, we wanted to give our listeners a brief update.
11:18
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people have been asking, you know, where's current, what's going on with current.
11:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we mentioned in an earlier episode, Eric is going to take he's taken some time away to deal with some personal and some family things and it was the best thing for him to do and so he's okay.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: We appreciate you guys asking or whatever, but he's just taking some time away from the show right now.
11:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So Gary, I don't know if you wanted to add anything to that mix.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just like I said, I know I've got a lot of people reaching out lately and the main concern it's been like is he, it's he okay, you know, health wise and he is alive, he's okay, he's fine.
11:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just, he needed this time, you know, and we're hoping he's back real soon.
11:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so just, you know, just out of respect for him and for us.
12:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know there's the soon concern there, but you know, if you, you're calling us or message us, we're really gonna kind of leave it at that.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: at this moment, you know, for him and and we hope he's back soon because we miss him on the show.
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: We miss we know we miss chopping it up about cards and you know, and I know he's he's going to be ready to come back to hopefully soon.
12:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but yeah, we did we did just want to touch on that because we know we've been getting a lot of a lot of contact on that and and people been like,
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% 100%.
12:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So today's episode is going to be kind of the business of sports cards.
12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Baba, we've had this opportunity to know each other now for gosh, almost three years.
12:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we've been through different iterations of the sports card hobby, the sports card market.
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And then here a couple months ago, we finally, you know, kind of joined forces and said, hey, listen, let's combine, you know, kind of knowledge and capital and business acumen, and, you know, buying ability and all the different things into this new, you know, endeavor here.
13:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And so over the past couple months, so we've been getting after it.
13:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've been buying some cards and we've had some good success.
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We just want to kind of break that down for people.
13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's funny.
13:10
[SPEAKER_00]: We started this thing on the show.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: a couple months ago, we had these intentions to do this, you know, road to a hundred thousand.
13:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And there were so many people that responded to that.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not that that that stopped per se, right?
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But due to all the different circumstances, we just decided, okay, well, let's kind of put that on hold.
13:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's dive into this endeavor that we've now, you know, kind of stepped into, what that same kind of mentality.
13:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The difference is, as we started with some capital rather than going from zero, but the same principles apply.
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's kind of what we wanna bring to the table today, to talk about a little bit.
13:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I think it's gonna be helpful for people who are in this industry and in this hobby, and wanna capitalize on the business opportunities.
13:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100%.
13:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think the road to a hundred K is still something I want to do.
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And to be honest with you, I'm going to have some more information on that this year.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So what did I end it up doing?
14:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And I haven't talked about this on the show.
14:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think I've even talked to it with about what I am.
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've got four, let me see, it's four dads, okay?
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: That really don't have much sports card.
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: industry knowledge at all but they have sons that love baseball okay and they play baseball my sons and we're good friends and they know I'm big in this sports cards and they know about the show and they kind of heard about the road to a hundred k and so back during travel ball season one day we got the talking and we ended up starting our own little kind of road to a hundred k together as a group and that they said look we want to get involved I said okay
14:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So we actually started with $1,500, okay?
14:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And really what we did is we bought a Julio Rodriguez Bowman first auto for 99.
14:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And we bought it.
14:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew I bought it well when we bought it.
14:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, guys, we're gonna have to sit here.
14:58
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna have to sit here and wait.
15:00
[SPEAKER_01]: We can, you know, but I believe this card's gonna increase and value.
15:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we had an opportunity to buy it right and here it is right now if you that venture how that goes because I think people want to know that but like you just mentioned ham like we what we are doing right now The challenges of this game compared to the game that we have both played in the past unless you start kind of here with grading it grading right now is
15:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's such a wild card, because especially with the timing, if you were going to be grading in December, you would have time to hopefully get your cards back from PSA and go through it and have them back.
15:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But right now, we have some cards that we've sent in, what two, three weeks ago, that haven't even been registered, but yes, they haven't even been registered in their system that they've received them.
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it may not be till March that we get those back.
15:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's where I think it leads to just really, really, really sharp buying.
16:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the challenge is, it's really hard to buy sharp right now.
16:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many, there's so many people out there.
16:09
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many fish in the sea, but I keep going back to this.
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's going to be the key to this spring for so many of y'all in this game is going to be what's to come.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm hanging my hat on this.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: on the show right now.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: But I am going to say I told you so a little bit from the last couple weeks.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that with Connor in this whole market?
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: This thing's not done.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: This run up is not done.
16:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about it last week with Nick on the show.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about where this market where we thought the market was going to go.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And to me, there's no doubt it is going up.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It is going and that is where you are going to have to make your money and there is risk to that though.
16:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to sit here and pretend that there's not risk when you're buying cards, hoping that tomorrow's value is going to be higher.
16:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But in reality, it's when it always has been in cars.
17:01
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're buying a nine and you're hoping you're cracking it and getting it in, there's risk.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're out there and you're buying a raw card and you hope that it's going to grade decently and you're seeing the pictures online, there's risk.
17:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And so right now, I think the key is for us and I'll let you touch on this is buying the right stuff, identifying the right stuff, buying the right quality, buying with enough enough of a purchase off of where we think the value is and then be able to sell it when the implied value allows us to cash in.
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've already started doing that a little bit on some cards.
17:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had some good wins here and there.
17:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's no doubt.
17:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, you've looked at the spreadsheet more than I have.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Where we sit there today on inventory to what actual value is today.
17:47
[SPEAKER_01]: What would you say that as numbers are as we sit there today?
17:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, I know I'm exactly because I set them with them yesterday.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're right now.
17:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We're working off of about a 30 to 35% profit margin on acquisition versus actual value.
18:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So, hey, when you, when you look at the sheet, like where are we sitting right now?
18:04
[SPEAKER_01]: When you look at our sheet, I know we had a, we had a 300,000-dollar budget.
18:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and I don't think we've spent all that yet.
18:10
[SPEAKER_01]: We've gotten kind of close, but when you're looking at those numbers, what have we spent?
18:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you said you think we're 30, 35% profitability, but where are we sitting on total inventory?
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right now total inventory is sitting somewhere in the neighborhood of 250k, you know, ballpark, and I think we're probably, you know, into that same inventory for 190-ish.
18:30
[SPEAKER_00]: to 100-ish somewhere in that neighborhood, and a lot of those are, you know, there's a big order at grading like you said.
18:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, the interesting piece is, blah, what you talked about, I want to go back to it is, you know, current value versus future value, right?
18:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, we have had a conviction in the future value of these cards, and we're buying them at a proper current value, right?
18:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's specific to certain players, it's specific to certain parallels, it's specific to certain colors, and quite frankly,
18:59
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some guys who it doesn't make sense to bother gold or their orange right now, but it might make sense to bother their refractor, you know, so we've played that game well.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of that, we've got this built-in profit margin with the cards we're holding right now, which gives me a little bit more comfort as far as the timeframe of liquidation on them.
19:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But yes, so that's kind of where we are.
19:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, tell you, I want to hit this note because I have a lot of people that reach out about this and then we can get back to our cards because I feel like this, I get asked this question a lot and people have been coming to me lately and been asking me about players that are 18, 19 years old okay and and and I'm going to tell you I've made all the mistakes in this game so I can cut a share with you what not to do I have learned and I think this is the Matt Ham effect on me.
19:44
[SPEAKER_01]: over the last year or so that these guys that are 18, 19 are their exceptions to that 18, 19 year old rule?
19:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Conner Griffin, some of these other guys that are quick to get to the pros.
19:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a lot of these guys in rookie ball, single ball, that are at least a year, two years away.
20:03
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, if their prices are already expensive or getting expensive,
20:14
[SPEAKER_01]: because of what we continue to talk about on this show, the buying windows that you're going to be able to have.
20:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And the likelihood that those guys are going to fall out of favor at a period of time because everybody else is going to be on the next release or they're going to be on the next hot thing.
20:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the exceptions to those rules is when you can get a player and you look at the potential of what that player is.
20:37
[SPEAKER_01]: What we always talk about, okay, this guy's orange is selling for this.
20:41
[SPEAKER_01]: His blue is selling for this is gold is selling for this.
20:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can go and pick up a guy that you like his upside.
20:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, using an example of a guy is a guy like Mike Sorota, okay?
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: He might be a year away.
20:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike Sorota.
20:54
[SPEAKER_01]: He might be a year and a half away.
20:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you look at what Mike Sorota's upside is for the way he's playing in his upside, considering his timeline, he looks very appropriately priced.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you could go to somebody else though and talk about maybe a guy like a Leo, for example, a guy that I loved, you know, while back Leo's probably over a year away and he's extremely expensive, extremely expensive and that's a guy I'm looking at and going
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I love Leo, I think he's going to be a great player, but at the same time, there's a lot of time for Leo to go down, a lot of risk of an injury takes place where he doesn't play well.
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I've given a lot of questions about those guys like who's next and we will hit on that, coming up in some future episodes, but I did just want to share that kind of nugget.
21:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that you can't go out and buy those guys, but if you're looking to make money in this space in the next year, like I, I feel it's extremely risky.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: where I've lost a lot of money is thinking that I can go out there and hit on every next prospect.
21:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reality is you're not gonna hit on them all.
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you start buying these guys with these inflated numbers, you're gonna lose a lot of money sitting there holding.
22:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to have your convictions, choose those five to 10 guys.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You wanna shoot your shots on, but the Matt Ham effect of looking at your market every 90 days and having an exit plan need to be where 80 to 90% of your money trades.
22:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that's what's interesting.
22:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just gonna say this hand before starting to catch you off But that's what's interesting about our business model.
22:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's important to share this our rule from the get-go has been at least I know all of our conversations We don't want to be holding any card beyond 90 days really like that's like that's been like almost rule number one We are not long-term holding players.
22:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's funny.
22:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this mantra around the house and I said a little matter of time, add nauseam, right?
22:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the only way you lose money in cards or I get not the only way.
22:49
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a bit, you know, absolute.
22:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But the only way you lose money in cards is by wrong and hold long.
22:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just my mantra.
22:57
[SPEAKER_00]: If you buy wrong and hold long, that's the pathway to losing.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so you have to buy right and you have to be quick and, you know, again, do you miss out on opportunities?
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And you will, but you've got to be okay with it, you know, now this is specific to someone who is trying to be in the business of the hobby and I want to go back to this bubble because I think people need to hear this.
23:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be in this hobby and you can not be interested about making money and you can totally be interested in.
23:26
[SPEAKER_00]: you know buying a guy's card watching him debut and being a part of that journey with that player and that is totally fun.
23:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be in this hobby and you can be about collecting the rainbow of a player.
23:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be in this hobby and you can be about collecting the entire run of all those.
23:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You got our buddy Jimmy Jarvis.
23:43
[SPEAKER_00]: who has been building the master set of every bone and chrome refractor auto since inception up until I think he stopped in 2022 that there's all different types of motivations for folks that are in the hobby.
23:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We have chosen to look at the hobby and have a business approach to certain dynamics, right?
24:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, there are aspects of this hobby where you can make money buying wax and ripping wax on, you know,
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: what not streams or fanatics laugh.
24:12
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be in the grading side of this business and make money.
24:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's so many different things in person autos.
24:18
[SPEAKER_00]: There's guys who grind to in person autos and that's how they make money.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The point being is pick your lane and we found our lane and we're staying in our lane.
24:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And the lane to me in business is a vertical, right?
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to talk a little business language for a minute and Bubba, you can speak to this too.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm in the
24:36
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of different types of insurance out there.
24:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean, across different marketplaces.
24:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got Medicare supplement insurance.
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got health insurance.
24:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got business.
24:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got commercial structure, personal home, personal auto liability.
24:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you name it.
24:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's out there.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've made a decision in my business to focus specifically
24:54
[SPEAKER_00]: on what I would say is families and their insurance needs with their personal home personal auto liability and specifically focusing on families with a certain price value on their home that falls into the range that I'm comfortable with right and I am going to you know in a good way exploit that niche and that kind of vertical and dynamic within my business.
25:16
[SPEAKER_00]: In the card business
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: of top prospects and keeping that in a window of that 90 days.
25:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where we've made our cheddar, right?
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that doesn't mean we don't have cards.
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't collect.
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: We do.
25:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean we don't have other assets that we buy.
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: We do.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We have other PC cards that are in a different situation.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've got, you know, other cards on my shelf that have been there for two years.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Because, you know, there's people that come in and go, all you don't even keep in your core, Jews are spying to sell.
25:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, I'm utilizing what I know about this market to focus on a vertical of the business that's going to provide my revenue to help me enjoy the fruit of that labor with other PC cards that I buy.
26:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just say that to kind of reiterate kind of the mindset that I take when we look at this and so if people come to me and say, hey, do you want to get in on this case, hey, do you want to get in on this, I always say no because I know where my niche is, I know where my focus is and I have conviction to that.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's just kind of a little sidebar business knowledge from my end of how I approach the card space.
26:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, one thing I think that's interesting to talk about here is what I continue to notice as I've kind of spread that web into Instagram is how many new players there are in this market.
26:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know I've talked about it before, but now I'm starting to meet those people.
26:39
[SPEAKER_01]: They're starting to reach out to me.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm starting to reach out to them, starting to do deals with them.
26:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you start really diving and I've always wondered this, and we've talked about it before, where are all these cards?
26:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are all these true color cards hidden at?
26:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are the blues?
26:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are the gold?
26:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are the oranges?
26:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are the reds?
26:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the news flash airbase listening to dead.
26:58
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of people that are out there holding this stuff that you don't even know their name.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't even know their Instagram handle and with the news flash to all of us in this sports card industry right now, especially the Bowman space is more and more and more and more
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: smart people are getting involved.
27:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And to me, I love that.
27:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that most of the people that I'm dealing with in the Bowman space and this is it's refreshing to me in this hobby that we're getting better people in the Bowman space.
27:28
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bowman space is so refreshing to me right now in 2026 compared to then to where we were two and a half
27:40
[SPEAKER_01]: it was and and when the flippers were only ones that were in this space.
27:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember that?
27:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you and I were talking about it.
27:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all sold a, um, I think it was a gold Jackson holiday in the middle of the holiday boom.
27:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And you and I were, was it a, gold or was it, uh, we had to go 10.
27:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know or that a raw that you picked it up at the show and you sold it at a show pretty sure but there's an orange maybe there's an orange I'm not sure but I remember you and I talked after that and you were like man you were just really at the time just disinheartened by
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: the industry and by the people and you're like, you know, my son's in this industry and I'll tell you that the show and there was just so much filled and cussing and I'm not saying that that doesn't exist because obviously it's there.
28:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I just really lately been in there's especially the new people.
28:29
[SPEAKER_01]: that are entering an internet in the space.
28:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm impressed with what's coming in.
28:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And I could throw some names out there right now, like I'm not gonna do that because there's a lot of other really good names out there that are coming in.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And, but I'm really refreshed by that.
28:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I really am.
28:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think fanatics has a lot to do with it.
28:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know people hate on fanatics.
28:48
[SPEAKER_01]: But the people are seeing the success of this.
28:51
[SPEAKER_01]: They're seeing that people can make money on this.
28:53
[SPEAKER_01]: They're seeing that, hey, you know what, I could go out here and play golf, or I could go out here and do this, or I could do that, but this hobby can be fun and I can win.
29:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know, that's just to me that's been exciting, and it's been exciting to kind of start to track that code and where some of these cards are.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, it's funny too.
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like talking back to, you know, playing basketball baseball with our kids or whatever.
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's nice to see when the level of competition rises.
29:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
29:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Because at some point in time, you know, if you're good basketball player, you get tired of beating on everybody at the Y.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, how good can you actually get if you're out there scoring 30 on a, you know, the mean a 42 year old guy who can't move anymore.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in the, in the card space, you know, for a while, like it was pretty easy to kind of like play the game and you knew,
29:41
[SPEAKER_00]: What people were trying to do and you could kind of capitalize on that, but now when the elevated competition and the elevated, you know, expertise and the elevated, you know buying strategies, you got to be sharper, you know, and it makes it it makes it a little bit more fun when you know you're out there is funny man.
29:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to go this weekend as a dealer.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: reached out to us and goes, hey, God just walked up to my table and whipped out a Connor red.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, really, that's not a card you see every day, you know what I mean?
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know where some of the other ones are.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's interesting, you know, and to your point, Gary, nobody has to do that guy's name is, but he's somewhere in the Midwest because this guy messaged him and he rolled up to his table with a show and he had a Connor black and a Connor red.
30:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when you've got stuff like that floating around a little mat and I had it at the, we had it at
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: guy walked up to our table or we were talking to a guy and I want to say he whipped out like a James wood orange and his name was not Bubba and I was like, whoa, hey, hey, hey, you know, so it's interesting when you get, you know, like I said, a more refined, you know,
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: some emails that came out about fanatics and how they were like it was an internal email I think to their team about how they were going to value their different relationships and it had numbers on there about who their biggest buyers are on cases and stuff and the hobby was wanting to react like oh could you believe this and I'm like yeah it's a business if like if I'm a business I'm going to understand you my top clients are.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to create incentive for my top clients.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going like that's the nature of business.
31:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to take care of everybody.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean you, you know, we we on the people who aren't your top point.
31:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You take care of all your clients.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's always incentive to look after your top people and build those relationships.
31:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's not a surprise to me.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like this is an industry that's a business.
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you, the quicker that you can get to that in your mind and understand that that's the game that's being played, I think it's better for you
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I trust these presidents says they're really, they're, they're, they're really in the hobby.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like old man get off my lawn.
31:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it is what it is, dude.
31:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, the main just play the game, know the rules and, you know, move on.
31:57
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
31:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I want for all you guys that are on the podcast, the rest of this episode.
32:01
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to leave you with some nuggets here.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's finish this thing, this episode out.
32:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I want Matt Ham to give people his best three nuggets from the next 60 days, okay?
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I want to kind of share, we'll go, you give a nugget, I give a nugget.
32:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You give a nugget, I give a nugget.
32:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm gonna start with a nugget and then you could get yours that way you got a second to think of them throwing you on the spot here, all right.
32:25
[SPEAKER_01]: The first nugget, and I've touched on this for the past and little Matt has honestly been
32:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, somebody that's really opened my mind to this more over the last year, and he is phenomenal at this, and it's something that I think I'm doing a lot more of now that's become a, and again, we're sharing some some, I don't want to call him secret to here, but things that we utilize and it's really worked well for me lately has been to really start to look at the each color of players that you love.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: and start to look across all the different colors of different players, and what you can start to see sometimes is when a card value just doesn't make sense.
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: When a guy's orange may be selling for 13,000, but his blue sells for 1,000.
33:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Or vice versa.
33:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And where maybe his orange is selling for 4,000, but his blue just did 2,000.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And the ratios don't make sense.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, that's something where what that's telling you is most likely, that other card hasn't sold in a while.
33:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And that they, the values just haven't caught up.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: In generally, you can find a lot of buying opportunities there, because people generally, when they're selling aren't doing their due diligence.
33:39
[SPEAKER_01]: to go and look, they're looking at what the last orange did, or what the last blue did.
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's, to me, that's a real competitive advantage.
33:47
[SPEAKER_01]: For anybody that's not using that, if you've never heard that before, is really looking at each color in that person's true color rainbow.
33:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's usually value to be had there.
33:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes there's not.
33:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Some players trade just so efficiently that there's not an opportunity, but I bet you if you really dive in and sometimes even.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: In Little Matt and I had this conversation the other day, there's even opportunities on some of the knockoff stuff, the waves and the shimmers and stuff like that where the market just hasn't caught up to those cards yet.
34:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's my nugget number one to kind of keep your eyes and ears out for are those type of opportunities.
34:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes a little bit of practice.
34:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes some research.
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think there's a lot of opportunity there.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so my first nugget that came to mind is less industry knowledge and more, you know, just reminder is have a plan.
34:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't have a plan with your current inventory in the next 60 days and you don't know where every single card goes, then you're gonna get hung out of the dry.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So right now, I look at every single asset, every single card has a specific target price point and a specific liquidation plan of the ones that I want to sell.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
34:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the ones that I don't want to sell, I need to have a specific way to market those cards to the right spaces.
35:05
[SPEAKER_00]: For example,
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: very rare PSA 8.
35:12
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't intend on selling it.
35:14
[SPEAKER_00]: We threw it out on eBay at a high number, probably 20% over last comp and it just got snatched up this week.
35:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, have a plan with every single piece of inventory that you have.
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Tip number two, Bob is tip number two of the day is when you have multiples of a guy and you are high on this guy's market.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and I'm and I'm just isn't been this whole episode talking about the value of Instagram.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I also want to highly recommend to you guys that have lots of volume of a player or a specific market to be able to read when the time is right to build their market publicly.
35:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there are times where you are doing yourself the worst thing you can do by trying to save that 5% or whatever you're trying to do to sell it on Instagram where you could have thrown that bad boy on DC sports cards or PC sports cards or fanatics or golden and you've could have built the next comp that would have helped you in the whole market down the line.
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: because so many times the true value of a card this day and time is not reflected because the amount of private transactions that are taking place in the background.
36:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, tip number two is understanding a player's market.
36:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll use an example, Colt Emerson.
36:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
36:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Colt Emerson is hot as a firecracker, right?
36:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Has been for a while.
36:37
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not been a lot of big public card sold of Colt Emerson on the eBay because number one a lot of people are holding them like myself.
36:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, a lot of the cards have been transacted in the background.
36:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, guess what?
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I put a card out there on the market because it was time that his market reestablished itself.
36:56
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to start building a market when you have a lot of a player because otherwise, sometimes the transactions are never going public.
37:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get why everybody plays the private game.
37:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I do it too.
37:08
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to save the 5% or we want to keep kind of information to ourselves, but also going public with sales is the number one way you're going to build a
37:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100% is fun to carry our little nuggets here are trending in different directions, but this is just my honest take because somebody asked me a strategy and nugget for the next 60 days stay liquid stay liquid keep keep it moving I am I am one who believes more in the active value of an asset than a non active value of an asset.
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, case in point, we had a Patrick Mahomes card that we purchased and again, the day after we purchased it, he injured his leg or whatever he did and, you know, we could sit on that card and I think it's a great card that will rebound or whatever, but we just decided to go ahead and put that money to work.
37:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think my, my game plan or my nugget would be, stay as liquid as you can.
38:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and keep your money active, you know, it's a really interesting environment right now with some volatility in the economic space that if you can stay liquid with any asset you're into, I think it's smart.
38:17
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
38:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Last piece of the puzzle here and, you know, this tip is not necessarily going to help you find the next card, but it's a pet peeve of mine and I know I mentioned it before is the whole trusting.
38:32
[SPEAKER_01]: the FF market in cars.
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And ham, you not thought about this before, guys, the FF market is intended friends and family, right?
38:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a reason it's friends and family, because there's no protection.
38:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just want most of y'all to understand that the majority of the people in this space do not have collectibles insurance, okay?
38:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is not a good thing, because guess what?
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of these male providers, if you look,
38:59
[SPEAKER_01]: at what the value is on the actual card.
39:02
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were buying a $5,000 card and you look at the bottom of what it's actually in Shird 4, it's probably a hundred bucks.
39:08
[SPEAKER_01]: That card gets stolen.
39:10
[SPEAKER_01]: That card gets run over by a Mac truck.
39:13
[SPEAKER_01]: That card gets damaged and it comes in and it was a PSA 10.
39:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And now it's busted out of the case, you are out.
39:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that seller did their job.
39:24
[SPEAKER_01]: they put it in the box they sold the card you have no protection and you're just hoping that they're going to air quotes here they're going to do the right thing and they're but the right thing by the way is what for them to lose $5,000 because they meld you a card and you pay them ff and they didn't
39:41
[SPEAKER_01]: The right thing is, yeah, they probably should have had collectibles insurance, right?
39:45
[SPEAKER_01]: But most people don't.
39:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they don't, they don't understand furthermore that if companies and I'm not sure, I think it's FedEx, specifically somebody was telling me this, they don't even collect, if you even insure us, like you even put insurance on the card, they like rule out sports cars.
40:02
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of these companies now are even taking sports cards and not even allowing them even if you bought the insurance, specifically from the provider.
40:10
[SPEAKER_01]: they're not even going to allow that to take place if you read the small print.
40:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So my number one tip today is paid that pad the 3% unless you're very comfortable with that individual.
40:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay the 3% of Venmo or pay the 3% of GNS and build it as part of your cost in the card.
40:28
[SPEAKER_01]: 3% of $1,000 is $30 and $30 to sleep at night and know that something happened to your card or something happens along the way.
40:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you, you'll sleep a lot better and I just and furthermore, I just...
40:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think it's the way when you're really trying to run a true business, it's the way you should run it.
40:50
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% the last little nugget, and I have a built-in, you know, kind of assistant for these things, but check your cops daily, check them.
41:01
[SPEAKER_00]: daily because they're going to change and they're changing in a positive way right now, but again, they could change in another direction as well.
41:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of times when I see folks who maybe haven't checked recent comps, they don't understand what they're holding, you know, again,
41:18
[SPEAKER_00]: check your comps daily and if you can stay on top of the comp structure and you can stay on top of the comparable sales and you can do a little bit of cross market you know reference and stuff it's going to really really help you when you're buying and when you're selling to capitalize on that listen and as somebody doesn't want to honor the comp structure um
41:37
[SPEAKER_00]: be okay to say no to the deal.
41:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, be okay to say no to the deal, because, you know, comparable sales are what they are.
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we live and die on in this marketplace.
41:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So keeping a close eye on that and being up to speed on it, is gonna really help you for example.
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: If all of a sudden,
41:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You see a Connor Griffin refractor auto that sells at $2,600.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last public sale of a blue, right, is whatever $3,800 kind of stuff.
42:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And you didn't check the refractor market, the base market, the other markets to see where your card is, you know, you could be leaving it on the table.
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Adversely, if you see a card, you know, of a guy,
42:20
[SPEAKER_00]: that goes high, and you know what I mean, you start getting that phomo and you're trying to dive into something you go in and you overpay for something because there's no other cop structure on his other cars to support that one high stale.
42:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And so again, food food for thought, like I said, my nuggets were a little bit more general, but definitely all six of those little nuggets I think are healthy for somebody to thrive in the next 60 days.
42:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Well thought for me on the episode, and I know we'll put a bow on it here and having give your final thoughts, but going back to simplify everything we've talked about for today.
42:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You need to be looking, we talked about it last week, and I'm going to continue to say it.
42:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I've said it, and the cows come home, the market, they're coming, and they've started to show up in the last week.
43:01
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look at the Comps, look at the Comps in the last week, they are coming.
43:05
[SPEAKER_01]: They are showing up by the day, there's new buyers.
43:08
[SPEAKER_01]: There's new sellers.
43:09
[SPEAKER_01]: There's new buyers.
43:10
[SPEAKER_01]: There's new sellers.
43:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to continue.
43:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Super balls going to happen.
43:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, very soon.
43:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the Super Bowl happens, and that is done, baseball will be the king.
43:20
[SPEAKER_01]: The sun will shine again in Wilmington.
43:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The sun will shine again in Atlanta.
43:26
[SPEAKER_01]: The sun's going to be shining in Arizona.
43:28
[SPEAKER_01]: The sun's going to be shining in Florida.
43:30
[SPEAKER_01]: and people are going to be tuning in to spring training.
43:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Baseball will be all over ESPN again.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Baseball will be all over MLB network again, and people are going to get that warming cozy feeling about their team and their players in everything above.
43:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And there will be more buyers.
43:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You need to be prepared that any inventory you want to be getting.
43:50
[SPEAKER_01]: you need to be getting.
43:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you need to be prepared to exit stage left.
43:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have complete conviction in that player by the time I'm going to say by the time the end of the first week of the season is there.
44:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm not saying that's for every card.
44:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying for most players that you don't have longer than the 60 day conviction window on.
44:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But everybody that's going out here
44:17
[SPEAKER_01]: that this market's over frothy in the middle of the snow in January and the first two days of February, it's a little bit hilarious to me.
44:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And all that is is the phomo of them continuing to miss out of every next sale that continues to happen.
44:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they all want to be the next clickbaiter that wants to be right.
44:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh goodness, oh yeah, I guarantee you this is gonna happen.
44:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll bet you my salary, buddy.
44:41
[SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna lose.
44:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of these guys are gonna lose their salary because I've been around this game long enough to know.
44:47
[SPEAKER_01]: That card prices, when there's more demand prices go up.
44:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care if it's cards, I don't care if it's houses, I don't care any asset that it is when more demand arrives prices go up.
45:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what's coming.
45:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Man will increase.
45:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And then here I am to tell you,
45:06
[SPEAKER_01]: that when you know when demand won't increase anymore, it's probably some time right around mid-April, but I will leave that caveat.
45:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm also not sitting here and saying, I'm on weatherman, because there's a chance that we get in April, and there's a chance that this market continues on, just like it did last year, in April, May, June, and July.
45:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope for all of our sakes that that happens.
45:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the way that that happens is that show Hayatana keeps being show Hayatana.
45:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They've the way that that happens that Aaron judge keeps being Aaron too.
45:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Aaron judge.
45:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's strong.
45:39
[SPEAKER_01]: A Cune you comes back strong.
45:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the big names and baseball continue to show and then you get guys like Connor.
45:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You get guys like Kevin McGonagall.
45:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You get guys like JJ and all these other guys that are going to get a shot.
45:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You're getting the next wave of superstars that are showing.
45:56
[SPEAKER_01]: They are superstars and if that happens, then here's the other news slash.
46:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It will continue to go up.
46:01
[SPEAKER_01]: because those guys will just continue to drive this market.
46:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for anybody to sit there and act like they know otherwise is crazy because if those players perform and demand continues high, nobody is, I say, well, I'm going to continue to buy cards.
46:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you that.
46:16
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm also going to find my way through the next 60 days to get rid of a lot of things that I don't have conviction and I'm also going to reset my own market sometime by mid April.
46:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where we all need to be looking.
46:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think two things here for anybody saying kind of nice airs or whatever you've never held a card of a guy who had a home run in spring training.
46:37
[SPEAKER_00]: When you've got a card of a top prospect and he hits a ball, 427 feet in spring training and it's all over the Twitter X feed and it's getting reps or whatever and then they start chatting about this guy coming out, I'm telling you that's an exciting, exciting time in the industry.
46:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So be prepared because it's
46:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's gonna be somebody coming out, you know, down in Port St. Lucy, Florida, dropping a bomb.
47:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to live in Port St. Lucy for a season.
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've watched plenty of spring training games, and it is a good, good time to be in the baseball market.
47:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And well, it news flies too on that front.
47:13
[SPEAKER_01]: This happened this happened yesterday.
47:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Last night, I'm sure you saw it.
47:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw who the door got open for last night, right?
47:19
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I didn't.
47:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Brendan Donovan got traded yesterday from the Cardinals.
47:27
[SPEAKER_01]: and JJ weatherhole is in a lot of predictions is being predicted of rookie of the year because they're projecting him starting there from the get go where a guy like Connor may not.
47:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Connor may come out of camp and he may be the guy at April.
47:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It may be may, it may be June before he gets the call.
47:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't pretend to know with Connor.
47:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think when he gets the call, he's going to be a dude, but JJ Weatherhol, I'm telling you, I'm already starting that the go-go button on him before this episode even hits, before that y'all even get this information, I'll have already bought a lot, and I already have a lot, but I will have even more, by the time this episode airs.
48:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He batted 306 last year, 17 homers, 59 RBIs, 23 steals.
48:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
48:09
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got power.
48:10
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got speed.
48:11
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got swag.
48:12
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got shortstop.
48:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's on a team that's opening the door for him.
48:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's been looking for his next.
48:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're saying, oh, man, he just did it at AA.
48:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's your news flash in 185 of that.
48:24
[SPEAKER_01]: at Triple A last year, he batted 314.
48:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He had 10 home runs in 25 RBI's, almost in nine steals in 185 at bats.
48:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You play that over a major league season.
48:37
[SPEAKER_01]: That puts him over 30 bombs.
48:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He puts him as a 30 30 guy as a sure stop.
48:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And he did it at Triple L his first year in.
48:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So Gary, as you've been talking, I've got a JJ weather whole refractor that I'm holding up to the screen here just so everybody can see creating a visual there.
48:51
[SPEAKER_00]: JJ weather whole fast track.
48:53
[SPEAKER_00]: The last thought that I'm going to share as we closed the episode to God, what people don't realize about the hobby right now.
48:59
[SPEAKER_00]: If they do realize that they're just not actually taking it all the way down into that there is so much corporate money in the hobby right now.
49:08
[SPEAKER_00]: that is helping drive the pricing that we're seeing.
49:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna tell you, when Dick's sporting goods has cards for sale in their stores, right?
49:17
[SPEAKER_00]: When card shops are popping up, they need inventory.
49:21
[SPEAKER_00]: When dealers are at shows, they need inventory.
49:24
[SPEAKER_00]: When repackers are putting out product, they need inventory.
49:27
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look at the volume of businesses who's so existence is on selling sports cards, they need inventory.
49:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So that demand is demand that we haven't seen over the past few seasons that is going to continue to drive bubble what you're talking about with this idea of people being in the hobby.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the x-factor that I think a lot of people are sleeping on because when you've got that many volume of people that need inventory,
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm telling you, you're in a good position to sell because they have to get that inventory.
50:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So keep that in mind, all the naysayers about the market and all this kind of stuff.
50:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The baseball card market is very different than the other markets.
50:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just think we're seeing it unfold right before us.
50:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So boys and girls, we are, and who's nailed that, by the way, you just gave me even more food for thought.
50:18
[SPEAKER_01]: If I wasn't already convicted,
50:20
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, on this baseball market and what's there, you hit on a topic there.
50:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the other part of what you didn't say.
50:27
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bowman Farmer is going to continue to buy.
50:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Matt Ham's going to continue to buy.
50:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody all the success that people have had in cards, guess what?
50:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That gives them more pockets to continue to invest with, more money in their pocket to continue to invest with.
50:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And human nature is when you're making money on something, you don't want to jump off that wheel.
50:47
[SPEAKER_01]: You look at crypto, you look at a lot of things.
50:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody is in this game right now, and they're in it making money.
50:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're making money, you want to do more of that.
50:58
[SPEAKER_01]: There's just no reason the naysayers are, and I understand, I think it comes sometimes.
51:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I think some of these naysayers it comes from a good place.
51:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that they're trying to almost update them on, you know, what's happened in the past.
51:11
[SPEAKER_01]: But the bottom line is this is not the same baseball industry in the same market.
51:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's different players that were in it than before.
51:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is not pre-COVID sports cars.
51:23
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the totally different game.
51:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's going to be fun to see what happens here.
51:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, everybody, thanks so much for tuning in.
51:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And listening today, a bit of a behind-the-scenes chatter about the business of sports cards, the ins and outs, the nuggets, just our thoughts as we continue to process through this on a day-to-day basis.
51:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We really appreciate you tuning in and listening.
51:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you give us a like, a subscribe, leave us a review, we're on Spotify, we're on iTunes, we're on YouTube,
51:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've got a lot more exciting stuff coming with the show as well.
51:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got some special guests that are going to be joining us here as spring training kicks off.
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So you guys stick around and we'll be back next week from their episode of the SportsCard CEO.
52:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace.