Latest / The Sports Card CEO Podcast / Episode 33, S2: Navigating Hobby Challenges | The State of Grading and Market Trends

Transcript

Episode 33, S2: Navigating Hobby Challenges | The State of Grading and Market Trends · The Sports Card CEO Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: What has happened everybody?
• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back to the sports card C.E.O.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: Current in Ham in the house today.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: a 47-D season and a season of life in the other and naturely baseball history from one of the Kodia Junior.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a drive right on the Man of Heaven to find out what a season he is having.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: He hits this one hard.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: He hits the line of the left.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: My truck has ripped them all wrong.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's up, guys?
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: My truck.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen to the sports car CEO of this current
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we have a to the point episode.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're going to go ahead and get to business.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's get down to business and let's talk a little bit.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: But appreciate you guys tuning in as always.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: Check out the website, the sportscar.co.com, got some inventory.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can learn more about just all things the sportscar of CEO, what we got going on.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: Bubba is on a summer hiatus.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's just currently not rocking it in the house today.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Current I know you're probably feeling a little bit saucy after the next, you know, let the spurs back in the door last nice.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the pressure the pressure's back on now.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know why I had a feeling that was going to happen.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just had a feeling, but yeah, the city was pumped up and then all came crashing down.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but the pressure's back on them.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: They got a win game for after it makes it it makes it more enjoyable though from like a fan who really doesn't care on the outside.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, 100% away with it.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you want to you want to see it go seven if you're an outside fan.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody wants to see it goes seven.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: All the money, you know, there's more money coming in the door if it's seven.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do not want that.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's, you know, we're kind of like a quasi Carolina Hurricanes fans.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, they're in Raleigh at the road.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: We don't really like big hockey fans, but then being in the Santa Cup playoffs is like, you know, super energizing, right?
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: The boys are loving it and they drop the Vegas and overcome.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: Been some really good hockey games.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: Hockey matches, I guess what you call
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I didn't even know the Stanley Cup was on.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do you know they have this thing called the World Cup?
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I do know that.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think that starts like the World Cup.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like the World Cup.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to go any games?
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's right across the river from you.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm not.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually, I'm going to LA on Sunday, and I'll be there for the week.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, but I think it goes on for a while, right?
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, a few weeks.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm not planning to go to any matches.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it wasn't sunny LA.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: You're going back to your old stomping grounds.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my, my brother-in-law and his wife and kids live there now.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to visit them.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the cousins didn't see the cousins.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll do a little Disney land and do a little bit of everything.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But they live out there now.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to visit them.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Nice.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Straight out of company.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: LBC.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Straight out of company.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Straight out of company.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got this beautiful hotel in
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Good stuff, man.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: We'll catch this up on your week.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: Then I'll roll and we'll dive into great stuff.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm just back in the grind after vacation.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's the city's been just like all nicks.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's been a nicks city.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, at I always say New York is
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know to me New York has always been like a baseball town right but at the end of the day it's it's the next town because it's the one sport that everybody in this it's the one team that mostly everybody in the city roots for i mean they have the nets that that used to be new jersey so there wasn't really any at that point there wasn't really any
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: competition from the city standpoint along island, you know, the suburbs of New York is everybody, everybody root for the next.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some net fans went over there, but like for the most part, it says everybody in the city roots for the next, you know, but we have two teams here for every sport.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's always split, you know, you got messy, Yankees, Jacks, Giants, Islanders, Rangers.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's nice to see like the city come together and it's just
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's electric, you know, and my office is right outside Madison Square Garden.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I have a view from my office of the garden.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I got out of there early yesterday because my street was shut down because Trump was in the in-house.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, I'm adding it to hell out of there because it was just a disaster.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, people were waiting online to get inside the garden for like two hours because of because of security.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, nightmare.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But other than that, man, like,
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we'll get into it.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm getting this like fatigue.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Go and you know what I mean?
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I understood.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really good.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's going on with you?
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: We'll dive into it.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's funny.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like we all go through these waves.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I'm saying?
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like I remember coming up.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had all this fatigue and I'm feeling a little bit more energized now and, you know, it rebretates.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's okay.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, you know, I always heard one of my favorite quote-unquote motivational speaker guys.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: He said, listen, you're either in a crisis coming out of a
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's just part of like life, right?
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so the more that we can kind of just embrace the idea that like we are where we are and we're not gonna be there forever, it'll be all good, you know what I mean, kind of keep doing.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it's been good, did we've been up and running at the agency, you know, last two months, April and May were the two best successive months for the insurance agency.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: So ton of growth there will positive.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I'm kind of getting into more of a leadership type role where I'm able to kind of see the development of the agency rather than just be in the guy in the trenches.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, which has been good for me.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think that'll be healthy long term.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Big big.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think I mentioned in the last week's show, but the Ham's bought a boat.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: We got it.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: Have you taken it out?
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: Back in the water.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: We did.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: We got it last Wednesday.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: And you know, basically my house is probably two miles from the actual water.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we keep the boat and what's called a dry slip.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's like out of the water on like a rack.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: And they pick it up with a big fork lift and they'll put it down in the water and we'll go cruise it around.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: So the cool thing is you can put a phone call in, right?
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And you can, you know, just drop down there and hop on the boat and then cruise around.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: There's a bunch of restaurants on the water so you can get take out food.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it was just really, really fun for the, for the family.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we knocked that out on, let's see, Thursday and Friday.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: But we had our also had our last travel basketball game this weekend.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank the Lord.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: in a life, you know, and I'm not going to get on a rant here, but I just had an experience at the travel basketball gym this weekend where I was like, what are we doing?
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I mean, these are these are kids playing basketball and adults are moving their dagger minds.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's just insane, you know?
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that part of it is just super, super, super challenging to be, you know, it's a cat to deal with the emotion of all that and the emotion of all the people and stuff.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's that's what my wife was like,
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have too much stress in other areas of my life that I don't need to subject myself to the stress of other people's energy.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: And sometimes it gets like that in a hobby, man.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: You recognize that people around you were just too stressed and too, high-strong or whatever.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: And you need a break from it, you know?
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: That's kind of on a personal front.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: We did have a local car show this weekend, which is super cool, a little Matt got to, you know, do some deals, kind of get his feet wet again before we had a fanatics fast.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: Um, he also got to interview Jalen Coker, who's a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: That was cool.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: He was super nice guy.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: I kind of get into the hobby.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: He was their son.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: So that's been been good, man.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: And, uh, you know, we've been buying some cards again, kind of getting back in the saddle with some of the stuff that we've been collecting.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'll be honest, dude.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: I turned the boom and false it off.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: They're booming for me right now.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we'll dive into that today.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: But all in all, it's been really, really good.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think I want to kind of lead into today's conversation current with a bit of a market pulse.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I just pulled some numbers that I wanted to share with our listeners, kind of as we get into today.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: So since the first part of the year, so it's an inch to anywhere, basically, six months, the high-end sports card market is up 33%.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now, that's card ladder, that's cards over $5,000.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: So you've seen 33% price increase on high end inventory, $5,000.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: Which I think is ridiculously accurate for where the market is right now.
• 8:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: There's a lot of money coming into high value cards.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: We talked about that with Brent.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: you know, simultaneously the baseball market is up since the first of the year, but the last couple of weeks, it's pretty much flat.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: Over the last month, it's like 2% up.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: But if you go to the Bowman market, over the last two weeks, we have a 4% decline in the Bowman market.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so the Bowman market is definitely pulling back.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it's really interesting because
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, I think we're kind of in the baseball doldrums right now.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I think teams are what 60, 70 games in it.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: This point, you know, you've got some big injuries.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that now here judge is out for the season or it's not the season, but yeah, at least he's being really evaluated and thinking about it.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's not as out for a short stint right now.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it's just, you don't have anybody that's doing anything super exciting right now.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: like there's really nothing dynamic going on in baseball.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: And as a predominantly baseball boom and focus podcast, you know, at least that's where we've spent a lot of our time.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, man, it's interesting right now because like baseball's a grind.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like nine evenings is a grind.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: In 162 is 182.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: What is it?
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've always forget.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: 162.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: Her 6-2 games is a grind.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's a long season, it's a long sport.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think from a collector standpoint, you have to have a ridiculous amount of patience and staying power, which I don't want.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: So just get in and get out, man.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Get in and get out on the stuff that you are trying to move.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we did that well.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: So now we're kind of moved on to the next thing.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we've been spending a lot of time in that high-end market, of course, where it's seen a lot of surge.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I don't know, man, that's just kind of one of the start with that today.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I, from a baseball standpoint, like I think those numbers you gave are pretty accurate to what I feel is going on, you know, I feel like the high end market is really really strong and just in general from what I see from baseball, you know, the 2% would you say was up 2% in the last month at baseball.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and like, I don't know that does that, I wonder if that index takes into account like prospects that aren't in like that Bowman top 100, you know, because I would, I would normally attribute it to the Bowman release, right?
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I would also attribute the, you know, the downfall in the last two weeks to the, to the hype of the Bowman release going down, but I don't know that that's really included in that in that number, right?
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I suppose that actually isn't a baseball number.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, from a moment perspective, like, you know, I mentioned earlier that I just felt like some fatigue, you know, and I mentioned this to you off the air that like, and I've talked about it before in the last couple episodes, like this whole grading thing is really, really, I think a big driver towards my
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: fatigue like normally I'd be you know normally I'd be kind of like excited when you you know when you when you purchase stuff and you know you send it in for grading you get it you know you send cards in through super express your walk it walk through and you're getting it back within like three days like sometimes it's created same day you know when I go through high end and it's like walked in the same day but like it's so unmotivating that
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: with from Bowman perspective, the timing, timing is so sensitive.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: With these guys, that like, you cannot, sometimes you cannot afford to wait three weeks.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you just cannot.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Especially out of product, man, you can't do it.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm saying.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's taken that whole segment of the market away.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it's like if you're trying to build a business plan, right?
• 12:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: And one of the verticals, like the way I think about business is like revenue fits into different buckets, right?
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: Different verticals and you have to kind of, you know, focus on and have revenue coming in different streams because if you only have one stream of revenue and that stream goes away, you're toast.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: If one of your streams of revenue is grading or includes grading, you're done.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you're done exactly.
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can't afford a top capital for a month.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like the people that would play the crackout game, you know?
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: forget it like good luck waiting and then it's just you're waiting like more than double the normal time period you're paying the same prices they're upsharging you and it doesn't even come back to greed that you want you know they mean like yeah there's nothing more frustrating then waiting three weeks for a walk through and then getting getting an eight or nine yeah you know
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, the sad thing is, as I would say this, I think grading is one of the most exciting aspects of the hobby.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, great.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: Especially when you're passionate about this stuff, right?
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because you know that there's a big financial win, if you get a tin, but more than that, that you're securing your asset in authentication and it stabilizes it, like, it has multiple benefits.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so when you take that away, it just loses your like, it makes you actually
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: see how stupid it can be sometimes when you're looking at these unauthenticated, ungraded assets in your life.
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's not a tin world.
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then so what happens is combine that with a soft market and you get this overall fatigue in the hobby and if people just get bored with it that's what I'm concerned about is people start to get bored with it in general and then you have money flooding out of the market because people are just kind of over it and this is where I say like for PSA to allow
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've been talking about on the show for a long time.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: For you to allow a $17 million backlog, this is where I can't understand, and I'd love somebody from PSA to answer this question for me.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: You said $17 million backlog?
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: $17 million card back then.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so if you're looking at $17 million cards, which I think that's correct.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: not all of those cards are at the low levels, right?
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: So let's just assume an average grading cost of $50 per card on 17 million cards.
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: That's $850 million in revenue.
• 14:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: a 150 million.
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: I can tell you for them to not put a strategy in place to even hire some temporary work, you know, workers or graders or whatever it is, like wherever the bottleneck is in their business, like they're failing and it's trickling into the rest of the market.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, agree.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know what the biggest thing?
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't get me wrong.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I point to ton of blame in the majority of the blame at PSA and the leadership there.
• 14:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 14:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I really do
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I also, I also blame Beckett for this, you know, I blame BGS for this because even during this time, they're not capitalizing.
• 15:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They have such a huge enormous opportunity in front of them.
• 15:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, do you then market in your hand and you just drop the ball?
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, first of all, it all starts with customer service too.
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Customer customer service sucks.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, they are
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: their leadership.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have an opportunity at hand to grab a significant piece of the pie back and their family.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're failing.
• 15:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: When you talk about when you talk about the sports card CEO and you talk about businesses and CEOs and leadership, when you have a potential for 850 million dollars in revenue and you drop the ball and you're leaving disgruntled customers and
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: is we all know that there's really not another option because the hobby has gravitated so much.
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: So this goes into that whole monopoly idea that Gary ranted about, you know what I mean, the end of the last year, it's like, well, you're going to do nothing's going to happen until you get a competitor in the market.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: I know.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Good turnaround times has fair prices and takes care of their customers.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and with the technology, sorry, I'm kind of hitting the preach button again.
• 16:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: No, but how would you be in where it is with, like, it is insane that they can't have better systems and processes in place to take care of, you know, collectors.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had sinned before the, before the break, we actually helped the buddy of ours grade some cards.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I just looked on the app the other day.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I can't remember the level that we put it in
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was value, right?
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we sent it in probably may first, you know, before all this, the estimated turnaround is September 1st.
• 16:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's, you can only send in value like a PC car that you don't need back right away.
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: and it's great and this is a guy who, you know, buddy of ours, local buddy, he went and he bought some, you know, some car good cards, you know, good Bowman cards, right?
• 17:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 17:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: The good news is, as he wasn't buying guys, he needed for this year.
• 17:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: He's really buying these for the offseason, not kind of stuff.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I mean, it just ties up your capital for so long.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: And that's the thing, that that's just a strategy thing that I want to mention to our listeners or whatever, like we all have different dynamics of the hobby.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: Some of us like to buy stuff and we hold it long term
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: some of us are trying to be in and out fairly quickly.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think for us, we like to move fast on card opportunities to generate revenue to buy PC cards, like that's just what we do.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: If you can't turn capital fast, it doesn't work.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: It just doesn't work.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: If you've got to wait from this national or the next national to the next big show in Dallas, like it doesn't work, you have to be quick with this.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And talking about like a new moment release that comes out, right?
• 17:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like trying to try to be first to market with high end stuff like good luck, man.
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like it defeats that whole purpose.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like that it's, and sorry, but like getting, you know, grading a super at Beckett, I don't mind, right?
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like there, sometimes there's no point in paying that premium at PSA for that, right?
• 18:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the gold vinyl looks good with the BGS slabs sometimes.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I will.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: But grading a modern
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
• 18:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, just doesn't work.
• 18:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: It just doesn't work and does and to they've almost put SGC out of business and SGC's now irrelevant.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: I actually liked when SGC was an alternative and the hobby like desired it a little bit.
• 18:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it's just, I don't know, man, it's, it's just a little bit concerning and, you know, I'm kind of like my eyes and ears are all, so I'm going to let you know, I had a buddy of mine text me there today and said, hey, Big Mac, what do you think the card market is one year from now?
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, man, that's interesting.
• 18:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: I want to put my chips in, and I said, it's interesting right now is the stock market's down.
• 18:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: Crypto's down, interest rates are high, property values are high.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, there's really not a great place for capital right now.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think it will.
• 19:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: which is why folks are going into alternative asset classes, they're looking at, okay, this collectible item, whatever, until you see money rush in.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: But at what point in time, there becomes other asset classes that people want to dot into.
• 19:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: You're going to see a softening in the collectibles market.
• 19:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I got to think about this.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: What ultimately drives the back end of the sports card hobby is corporate money and collector money.
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: When there is a company on the back end, like a repack company or a card shop or whatever, if they have the need for inventory because they want to get retail users or buying cards, then you're going to have a strong market because the corporate money has to have inventory to generate revenue.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: So that's positive.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Secondly, if you have actual collectors who are buying cards that they want to keep, you know, or even the transaction stuff, it's strong.
• 19:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: But once one of those things breaks, the system begins to pull back.
• 19:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I told him, I thought that you were going to see strong, continued strong presence from corporate numbers and from collectors into the next year.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: But if they don't fix some things with grading, if they don't fix some things with that, I think we could see a pull back.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have a bad feeling about a year from now between between what's going on with grading between a baseball strike from that perspective like I there's too many unknowns to me right now like there's too many things along with like being in this quote unquote bubble right like there's just too many unknowns like and the grading things only going to get worse before it's better right.
• 20:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and you know, I don't see anybody running to the rescue here to kind of salvage it and I don't know why PSA and Fanatics and these big companies that have so much sway in the hobby aren't doing something about it.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean?
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's just think about how many shops generate revenue from helping their customers submit value plus orders.
• 20:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: on the Cooper Flag base rookie that they hit in a pack.
• 20:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Do you some saying?
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 20:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: And now that's gone.
• 20:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 21:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: You take that revenue out of the market.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
• 21:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, it's creating this backlog at PSA, right?
• 21:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Pokemon.
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Really?
• 21:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Pokemon.
• 21:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: because PSA has put in entire focus on creating Pokemon.
• 21:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's grown, the business is grown significantly.
• 21:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Pokemon is back logging everything else.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's everything else.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Pokemon.
• 21:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Pokemon.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: I will, I shared on last episode, I don't know if I shared this or not.
• 21:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, one of the early strategies that little Matt and we were going back over like where we started, he was in sixth grade, you know, seventh grade, and a lot of the kids were kind of maturing out of Pokemon, and they were wanting to get into sports cards.
• 21:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we had sports cards of just base stuff we had ripped, and they wanted to show
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: whatever.
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't even know the names of the cards.
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so little Matt would basically say, hey, I'll trade you, you know, these base baseball cards or whatever for like your Pokemon.
• 22:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then we would take the Pokemon and sell like a bulk of Pokemon on Facebook Marketplace and get like $100 cash out.
• 22:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: And that would go into one card that we would buy.
• 22:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so Pokemon was actually a decent strategy for us early on.
• 22:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: We probably made about a grand on Pokemon bulk cards that we traded a send to to get going.
• 22:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: But dude, I don't like Pokemon at all.
• 22:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't understand it.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: I just don't understand it.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't have intrinsic value to me because, you know, to mean there's no actual.
• 22:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's not a tie to a real world thing.
• 22:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: But then again, neither is Fortnite, neither is Minecraft.
• 22:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: neither is Roblox and all this crap is just fanatical for all these kids and it's crazy because it's like a fairy tale world.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's like they live in this fairy tale world with these fairy tale characters and cards and all this kind of stuff.
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: And again, bless them and love them, the Comic Con's I guess is the same thing with fighting, you know, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and all this kind of stuff.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so everybody loves what they love and I don't have any kind of shade or shame for people who love what they love.
• 23:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: And
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it would be nice if Pokemon at PSA had its own division and it was not in the general grading side And I feel like they could have done something there to alter that that didn't have such an impact on the sports card market.
• 23:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the
• 23:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like with PSA and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but like I don't know where they're employee, you know, I don't know where their employee shift is like is are they are they low on graders are they low on, you know, from what I understand, like a lot of things are being great, it's not the grading of them, but it's the assembly of all this stuff.
• 23:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: and it's the processing and the assembly and all that stuff, but, you know, if it's the great, I wouldn't be surprised if they start or they haven't have started, you know, having AI grading for a lot of the stuff because they don't have the manpower.
• 23:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I wouldn't be surprised by that if they have not already.
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, you know, it's something I'm thinking about right now is like, you know, again, and I'm just going to show this because it's on top of my desk right here.
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: But this is the Gaudy Ruth batting 1933 for those who can't see it.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: We bought it in Dallas.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a fresh label just graded.
• 24:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a PSA one.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I was sitting here thinking about this.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: The volume of cards that they're they're seeing and you've got these pristine cards.
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: This is a one.
• 24:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: So who cares?
• 24:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: But say you have a 10.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: Let's say the greater season as a 10, right?
• 24:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'd love to know the process of how are they transferring that back into a sleeve and toploader with gloves, without gloves, you know what I mean?
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: When it goes into the actual plastic casing, is it pristine and preserved all the way through the process?
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm sitting here thinking like, I bet not.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: I bet it gets touched, I bet it gets nicked, I bet it could get whatever, you know what I'm saying?
• 24:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so you have a car that it goes, oh, that's a tin and then you put it in a slab with a tin and it's not even a tin and we're sitting here going like, oh yeah, it's a tin, you know, because it says it on the slab, it just shows how subjective it all is.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that, and also, and also, it happens all the time.
• 25:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can guarantee it is that the grader will, let's just say, hypothetically give the card a 10, right?
• 25:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then it goes into assembly and QHX, right?
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're checking the grade again.
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if something was nicked during assembly or whatnot, that grade is going down.
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's happened.
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: It gets all happened.
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's, it's, it's wild.
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: So when you really think about it, man, I mean, there's a, there's a great deal of subjectivity at the end of the day.
• 25:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: We call this the hobby.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's supposed to be fun.
• 25:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it is a business for so many people.
• 25:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it can get stressful and stringuous or whatever.
• 25:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: And if you find yourself in that position, like I have been, I mean, it's probably good to take a step back and reallocate and reassess.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: I want to give our listeners kind of an example of what little Matt and our doing.
• 25:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: If you find yourself in this position, I will say this though, a lot of folks we have Brent,
• 25:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: way or I keep saying way or but it's wire because he said wire when he said wire sports.
• 25:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: But Brett wire was on last week and talking about like the low value.
• 26:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've had a lot of our listeners kind of like subscribe to that thought process and they're going after some some cards.
• 26:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've been had some people send us some stuff like hey listen to the pie look what I bought you know the mean and it's some 90 stuff or whatever.
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: So that's cool to see.
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: But one of the things that I would tell you guys that I've been looking at doing here is vintage cards present a great opportunity.
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't have a picture of it, but we just bought a 1933 Gaudy Ruth with the red back.
• 26:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay, I think it's number 149 off the top of my head.
• 26:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: But anyway, we bought it in an authentic slab.
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Not a qualifier like Alterter Trounder, whatever, but just authentic slab.
• 26:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: And a lot of times, if you find people who have cards that they just wanted to get authenticated, maybe they didn't know what they were doing, maybe they just wanted to kind of get, you know, it authentic or not, it could be that there's something wrong with the card and they just wanted to get it authentic, but like especially when you see like cards with autographs on them and it just says authentic and then the auto is graded, that presents a great opportunity for you to grab that card and resubmit it to get a numerical grade on the card.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: because we, for example, take like a, you know, like a 1981 tops or a 80, I think Larry Bird rookie with magic Johnson and all that kind of stuff like that cards autographed a lot because those guys are all still alive.
• 27:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, or you take like a, you know,
• 27:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: Joe Montana or Jerry Rice or somebody like that right and you can get their rookie card and it might have an auto on it, but not a grade.
• 27:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can actually look at the population count and there might be zero PSA4 autotins or PSA6 autotins and when you can get the one card and that grade now you create scarcity and rarity.
• 27:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: So looking for like deeper dives within the nuance of the hobby
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: The other thing I would say you can do is work on completing some kind of set.
• 27:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And one of the sets that I'm looking at right now is the 93 top's finest refractor set, because it's got all the guys that I loved watching when I was a kid.
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm just keeping my eyes out for that.
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've got the bow jacks and the very bonds right now.
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm looking for the ripkin, the no one Ryan, the Griffey's pretty expensive.
• 28:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: There's Greg Maddox, but like, that's something I go, you know what?
• 28:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: To kind of keep me stimulated and keep the dopamine flowing,
• 28:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: you know what I mean, it's fun to kind of do a few of those things.
• 28:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: So just kind of food for thought for our listeners to maybe get them through the deldrums.
• 28:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's going to advice you mentioned before that, you know, at the end of the day, it's a hobby.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was thinking, I was like, I'm sorry, but I can't call something a hobby that you're being charged a thousand bucks to grade a freaking card.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then being a, and then being a charge, I just can't.
• 28:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's, it becomes not a hobby with the money involved.
• 28:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Forget the money about the, you know, the actual places of
• 28:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: The greater itself is charging you a significant amount to grade that card and then upcharging you Which is completely in my mind just unethical.
• 28:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I get it's a business But like it's unethical.
• 28:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just randomness, you know, and it becomes not a hobby anymore And that's where I'm at with this fatigue and and you know I'm just extremely annoyed I'm bothered by it.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's not a hobby.
• 29:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's becoming a job right now like you know
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, you know, to that point, you know, I think about other hobbies, whether it be, you know, I think my golf or thing about fishing, you know what I mean?
• 29:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Anytime people are into something, right?
• 29:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: They, they love or enjoy to do something.
• 29:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: Businesses are going to capitalize on the fact that people want to experience something or do something.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: right.
• 29:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: So businesses come in and they go, oh, we can, you know, sell you these golf clubs or we can sell you this swing improvement tool or we can give you this, you know, or we can give you this fishing rod or we can get you know the main like no matter what it is, like the hobby is purely the idea of following players and following sports and following cards and buying those cards and trading those cards and whatever it is, that's the hobby.
• 29:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: But then
• 30:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: capitalized off of people who are in the hobby, and the large majority of people have no idea what's really going on there.
• 30:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: They just kind of complying go along, and I think we know enough that we look at it and go, yeah, this doesn't feel right.
• 30:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're actually capitalizing on little kids buying these things, and we're just stockpiling.
• 30:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, so not to be Debbie Downer, negative Nancy, but having awareness of the reality of what's going on
• 30:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, introduce something there that kind of reinvigorates the passion, you know, and that's at least what I've done.
• 30:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, it's going back into some vintage stuff, going into some sets, looking at some kind of nuanced ways to create value.
• 30:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it's kind of been intriguing for me, because I don't have to grind at it every day.
• 30:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think that's the other thing, too, Kern, with a new Bowman release or with Bowman specifically.
• 30:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like if you're not looking every day to Kern.
• 30:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: You're not staying on top of it every day.
• 30:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: You miss it.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean?
• 31:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: You miss it.
• 31:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're at some of this other stuff.
• 31:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: You don't have to stay on top of it as much.
• 31:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so the burnout comes from the demand on your time that Bowman has.
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: And Bowman has a person.
• 31:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's just home.
• 31:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's home.
• 31:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you're a thousand percent right on that.
• 31:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we're going to go.
• 31:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: I could say keep it short and sweet today.
• 31:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: Any final thoughts for you.
• 31:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And again, I feel like getting flat in New York.
• 31:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: Give you a hug and say it'll be okay, Kern.
• 31:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just I'm just I'm just exhausted in general.
• 31:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a.
• 31:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, life is exhausting right now.
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll feel good when the next closes out.
• 31:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: But no, I didn't mean to be, you know, negative Nancy here today, but I'm just, you know, that's just the state I'm in with from a, from a hobby perspective, you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm tired out, I'm annoyed.
• 31:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm, you know, it's just not giving me much excitement right now.
• 31:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know, but like you said, the beginning of the show, I know, that'll turn around, that'll turn around.
• 31:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 31:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, and part of the reality of this podcast in this show is we are real with people like we don't play the fake things like you know to me like I and I'm just I don't want to call him out because This isn't against a person or whatever.
• 32:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: No, I'm just thinking about like Jeff Wilson.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was just going to say new exactly and again, I've met Jeff Jeff was so gracious to open up his podcast studio.
• 32:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have nothing against Jeff, right.
• 32:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: But Jeff always presents the same persona on camera and it is always hype and energy and I get it because it gets you to subscribers and it gets you know clicks and links and I was even telling a little Matt like little Matt did a video there's like
• 32:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: What's up guys?
• 32:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: This is the most massive car deal I've ever done.
• 32:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, hey, like, I appreciate your energy and your 15.
• 32:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't want to ever take away from your passion.
• 32:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: But like, is it the most massive deal you've done?
• 32:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I'm saying?
• 32:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, don't, don't fall into the trap of needing to constantly present a certain image because you think that's what people want to see.
• 32:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think that's what a lot of the influencers in the space do.
• 32:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: They're not actually being real human beings going,
• 33:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm just being honest, and I'm kind of burnout or whatever, they're presenting a persona that basically maintains the status quo of the hobby rather than and sometimes they'll bring up stuff and they'll say and there are plenty of others you have their own stuff and I will say this on the flip side of that there are a lot of influencers and a lot of like content creators in the hobby who are just
• 33:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: flat out, always negative Nancy, you know, crap talking, you know, yeah.
• 33:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, and I'm just like, dude, get a freaking life like don't be so down on everybody, but don't be fake.
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: Just be real.
• 33:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: And if you're always grumpy and critical, and that's just who you are, more power to you, people can subscribe to that if they want to.
• 33:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I'm just going to be honest and at the same time, be positive and be honest when it's not
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think we do that well, I guess is what I'm saying.
• 33:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well said, I mean, yeah, at the end of the day, I think when we started this, it was just to, it was to be real and talk cards and talk like what we enjoy in life and everything and like, I say this graciously and like, I'm not gonna hide my emotions.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't care whether you like it or not.
• 34:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, I'm gonna be who I am.
• 34:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I wear my emotions on my sleeve, you know, take it or leave it.
• 34:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't get in front of a camera and just be fake.
• 34:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: and then be a different personal camera.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not who I am, you know, that's not who you are.
• 34:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't do that.
• 34:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: So, well, there's still, there's still a lot of great things about the hobby.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: There's still great connections.
• 34:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
• 34:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: After a little match, dude, you know, he's 15 and maybe 16 this summer.
• 34:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're getting ready to go to New York for an X-Fast and all this kind of stuff.
• 34:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I went back, dude, just funny, you'll get a kick out of this.
• 34:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have to sing the video current.
• 34:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: I took him to Brooklyn Nets Arena, because the ACC men's basketball
• 34:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was like 2016, maybe 2017, something like that.
• 34:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: 10 years ago, he was like six, I guess.
• 34:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I have a video of him driving in the New York City for the first time.
• 35:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: And he was just like, why died?
• 35:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, four cards ever existed, right?
• 35:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And here we are in New York City.
• 35:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: And he's like,
• 35:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: and he was standing in front of the NBC studio son over by Rockefeller and he's like, hey guys, this is Matthew Ham.
• 35:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm filling in for Jimmy Fallon tonight.
• 35:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're going to have having the cast of the greatest showman and the dude perfect guys hope you join us in like, and I was like, man, those were the seeds right soon that are now like manifesting in, like him running his business and having this like thing.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm grateful for the hobby and for what it's done for me and my family and I'm not by any means negative on it, but my also my radar is on to the realities that we're navigating right now and just want to encourage our listeners to do the same.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100%.
• 35:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The hobby is as built I built relationships here that are unforgettable, that will last the lifetime.
• 35:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's brought me to new ventures that I couldn't even have imagined.
• 35:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like I'm extremely grateful
• 36:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, you go through those times where you're just like, I could last a day, I could last a week.
• 36:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's all.
• 36:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 36:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
• 36:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, listen, friends.
• 36:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of SportsCarts CEO.
• 36:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're keeping it real and hope you guys do too.
• 36:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: We'll be back next week.
• 36:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: We'll be back next week.