Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / Hey Now! The Rise of Professor Sports Cards! And His Industry Gripes!

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Hey Now! The Rise of Professor Sports Cards! And His Industry Gripes! · Sports Card Clubhouse

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. It is Mike and I'm joined by
• 0:03
  Jason, Professor Sports Cards. Jason, welcome to the show.
• 0:07
  Hey, Mike, thanks for having me on.
• 0:09
  Yeah, so this is normally this week in sports cards.
• 0:12
  We'll get to a little bit of stuff that happened this week.
• 0:13
  There's nothing big that really happened, but I've been wanting
• 0:17
  to have Jason on for a while because he has had a a pretty
• 0:21
  interesting rise in YouTube and his popularity skyrocketed.
• 0:25
  Would you say it was within the last year, Jason?
• 0:29
  Yeah. I think about May of 2025 was
• 0:34
  when things started it, you know, take up.
• 0:37
  Yeah. And you've been doing YouTube
• 0:40
  videos consistently leading up to that, right?
• 0:42
  Haven't you been on for like 5 years?
• 0:45
  I think I started 20/22, so about four years, yeah.
• 0:50
  So. What do you think?
• 0:51
  What changed for you in 2025 that made things start to click
• 0:57
  with audiences? What were you doing differently
• 1:00
  a year ago that you weren't doing the three years before?
• 1:04
  I think there was a YouTube that called it stacking, and it's
• 1:09
  where you make one thing better and then a second thing better
• 1:13
  and a third thing better. And so after doing it for three
• 1:16
  years and I just have, I don't know my unique way.
• 1:20
  And so I, I had tried different things and evolved different
• 1:24
  things and you over the years, always changing it up.
• 1:28
  And then something clipped, I guess clicked in May and it was
• 1:34
  kind of, you know, pushing back on some of some of the obvious
• 1:38
  things we see that no one's going to say.
• 1:41
  It's like we're not. We all some feel a certain way
• 1:44
  and, and most of the content is not created by well, it's
• 1:48
  created for a certain reason. And so I think when I started to
• 1:53
  just kind of shed a light on things all people know or
• 1:58
  worried it doesn't have to be. So how about just fake cards?
• 2:01
  That's not calling anybody out. I mean, there's a lot of fake
• 2:03
  cards out there. And so just put shining some
• 2:07
  light on things that I guess a lot of channels were not.
• 2:10
  And then obviously the stacking, making titles better, making
• 2:14
  thumbnails better, making lighting better, getting a a
• 2:17
  different camera, buying a computer, yeah, those things all
• 2:22
  helped as well. Or or yeah.
• 2:24
  Yeah, absolutely. I remember the first video of
• 2:26
  yours I ever saw was about that time.
• 2:29
  I guess it was the one where you were talking about views being
• 2:33
  way down, right? And then I did a reaction.
• 2:35
  A lot of people did reactions to that.
• 2:37
  I think that had to. And while I disagreed with your
• 2:41
  process, and I almost never agree with people's process when
• 2:44
  it comes to data and analytics of stuff like that, so no
• 2:49
  offense, I disagree with your process.
• 2:51
  What I enjoyed about that, that's fine.
• 2:54
  What I enjoyed about that video was you had a unique personality
• 2:59
  and it was compelling and I was like, OK, I've got to subscribe
• 3:02
  to this guy and see what else he does because most Youtubers
• 3:07
  don't have very compelling personality.
• 3:10
  Most Youtubers in our space, no offense to anybody out there,
• 3:14
  there are a lot that do, but you were just very unique.
• 3:18
  And I think that's what people, a lot of people can come on
• 3:23
  YouTube and and call people out and say, hey, this is happening.
• 3:27
  That shouldn't be happening. But it takes a unique kind of
• 3:30
  personality for it to catch on. And I think that's what worked
• 3:34
  for you. What do you think?
• 3:37
  Yeah, no, I do. Some of it is definitely and and
• 3:40
  I've learned that more through the lives and getting feedback
• 3:43
  through the live is that yeah, I I can be I've I've maybe beat to
• 3:49
  my own drum sometimes. Yes, the unique and and the real
• 3:54
  quick thing about the buying the views, because a lot of people
• 3:56
  it's not just you. A lot of there is a segment, but
• 3:59
  I didn't make those metrics up like I looked into it because
• 4:05
  it's not just sports cards that do this.
• 4:07
  Many niches way bigger than sports cards are doing this for
• 4:12
  various reasons and there's telltale signs or metrics you
• 4:17
  look at. And so I don't know, I didn't
• 4:20
  when I look at those metrics, it's not like I'm just making
• 4:25
  looking at those metrics up. That's something that is, is
• 4:28
  kind of, you know, and in the streaming world, especially on
• 4:32
  Twitch, very common for people to be using bots to make their
• 4:37
  streams look bigger, things like this.
• 4:40
  So anyways, I know that's not the point for your to your
• 4:46
  latter part of the question, yes, being unique and I think
• 4:48
  attacking it in a unique way. How about, you know, I think a
• 4:51
  lot of the content can get stale.
• 4:53
  A lot of the content can I try to be myself.
• 4:56
  And and that's something I told you a long time ago and I
• 4:58
  respect about you a lot is you were 100% genuine in yourself.
• 5:03
  And sometimes it's hard for people to be that way on camera,
• 5:07
  maybe like giving them the benefit of the doubt.
• 5:10
  Thank you. The one thing that is different
• 5:12
  about me on my channels, I swear a lot more in real life.
• 5:15
  Like, I swear a lot. But when I started my YouTube
• 5:19
  channel, my kids were young and I didn't want that.
• 5:22
  I mean, my youngest was 12 and I didn't want to be swearing on
• 5:29
  this channel. And then I started having people
• 5:30
  say I watch with my son, I watch with my daughter.
• 5:33
  And I was like, OK, I'm just never going to swear on my
• 5:35
  channel ever to, you know, kind of keep that wholesomeness that
• 5:39
  maybe I don't have in, in real life, Although, you know, I'm,
• 5:42
  I'm, I'm very, it's not like I do drugs or anything.
• 5:45
  Not that that's bad, but I don't know.
• 5:48
  I don't want to call myself wholesome in real life.
• 5:52
  Doesn't matter. We're here to talk about you,
• 5:53
  Jason. A good dad?
• 5:55
  How about that? A good dad.
• 5:57
  Thank you. So yeah.
• 6:00
  And I've, I've watched. I can't say I watch everything.
• 6:02
  Your live stream start at 9:00 PM.
• 6:04
  But when you asked me to come on the live stream, I have a hard
• 6:08
  time saying no because it's very enjoyable.
• 6:10
  You, I've said this before, you put on the best live stream in
• 6:15
  this space and there's a lot of competition there.
• 6:18
  I think Greg of Midlife also puts on great, great live stream
• 6:23
  for collectors. Do some really good live streams
• 6:26
  yours. How many did you have in that
• 6:28
  last one? 350 ish people.
• 6:31
  The collision, which you which was really fun.
• 6:34
  That was the biggest live yet. Yeah.
• 6:35
  And it was about that. That's what it was.
• 6:37
  Yeah. 350 people in there, which is crazy for a lot.
• 6:39
  That's awesome. Yeah.
• 6:41
  And you're constantly working to improve them too.
• 6:44
  And so talk to me about the collision, how that came to be
• 6:47
  and what you are thinking about for future ones.
• 6:51
  That's funny. So the I did not start going
• 6:57
  live until August of 2025. I buy I did all my editing on my
• 7:01
  phone for 3 1/2 years. I did everything on my phone and
• 7:05
  then I finally broke down about it, you know, a pretty nice
• 7:07
  computer in August of 2025. Then I started going live at, at
• 7:12
  first it was trivia nights and then it just kept evolving and
• 7:16
  evolving. Like you said, I'm learning
• 7:17
  what's working, what's fun, what you do, you know, and just keep
• 7:22
  moving forward. Then three months ago, maybe we
• 7:26
  threw out, you know, I want to debate Jeff, Jeff Wilson.
• 7:30
  And that shortly after that, maybe two or three weeks later,
• 7:33
  a month later, you know, is when he announces he wants to have a
• 7:37
  debate. He does his debate thing.
• 7:39
  And you know me, Frank, who's you know, he helps me with the
• 7:45
  channel good, you know, viewers become a good friend.
• 7:48
  Some others we kind of just like whatever, whatever and we want.
• 7:52
  I I kind of understood the assignment of I want to try.
• 7:56
  I want to do what I think that should look like.
• 7:59
  And so Frank egged me on a little to do it.
• 8:03
  And so I reached out to you and several others I thought would
• 8:06
  make for a really good panel. And, and once you guys said yes,
• 8:13
  it was like, all right, now I need to nail a format.
• 8:15
  The format has to be really different or, or keep, keep it
• 8:19
  moving. And I was very happy with how it
• 8:24
  came out. I'd like, I'd like it to be
• 8:28
  every two to three months. And, you know, rotating panel,
• 8:33
  of course, have people back, but I think it's more fun for the
• 8:36
  viewer or keep it fresh. Having a panel that rotates and
• 8:40
  and getting Chris Sewell to, you know, be able to run the thing
• 8:44
  was the perfect get. So I what any feedback from you?
• 8:48
  I I really enjoyed it. I thought the collision it, it
• 8:51
  was a really interesting, fun, fun time.
• 8:55
  Yeah. I, I, I had a blast and I think
• 8:56
  that the viewers did too. You got some great.
• 8:59
  You got some big dogs in there. And I think that there were some
• 9:03
  minor things that some people in the audience were talking about.
• 9:06
  They were very constructive in their feedback saying it'd be
• 9:10
  great if you did this next time. It'd be great.
• 9:11
  It'd be great if you tweet this. I don't remember what any of
• 9:15
  those were, but they they had some good ideas in the audience
• 9:18
  and I I would do it again. So you'll be on at some point
• 9:24
  again for sure then? Yeah, it was a good time.
• 9:26
  And you know, I'm in a couple of different hobby YouTube text
• 9:30
  groups and while I can't watch all the live streams, sometimes
• 9:35
  people say, oh, on professor's live stream, this just happened
• 9:38
  or this person just said this and I'll be like, OK, I got to
• 9:40
  go watch where, where this happened.
• 9:42
  So people are talking about it and it's it's growing for a
• 9:45
  reason. And a lot of people can start a
• 9:48
  popular live stream, start a popular YouTube channel.
• 9:52
  But the continued growth of both of those things for you, I think
• 9:55
  is a testament to what you're doing and how you are building
• 9:59
  it. So well done.
• 10:01
  Hey, thank you. SO.
• 10:04
  How long have you collected? 40 years?
• 10:06
  You're like 40 something years old, right?
• 10:08
  Yeah, I'm, I'm 40 on the dot. I've collected about 35 years
• 10:11
  now. OK.
• 10:13
  And you have a Raiders hat. You're in Las Vegas.
• 10:18
  I was born in LA, they were in Lai, moved to the Bay, they were
• 10:22
  in the Bay, and then we both moved here about the same time.
• 10:25
  So yeah, they're in my DNA. Interesting.
• 10:30
  OK. And you're also AWWE fan.
• 10:33
  You have a basketball book on your shelf behind you, are you?
• 10:39
  But you're not much of a basketball fan anymore, right?
• 10:42
  No, no, still, I'm a huge I, you know, NBA is my growing up, you
• 10:47
  know, you're the kid with the basketball after school, you're
• 10:49
  going to the park. I'm 56, so, you know, I have my,
• 10:53
  it's I, you know, I, I, I'm skilled at basketball, but
• 10:56
  there's only so far, you know, being yeah.
• 10:59
  So anyways, but I loved basketball.
• 11:01
  And so I have my issues with the NBA game right now.
• 11:05
  And it's been just, I've never been a LeBron guy.
• 11:08
  He's on the Lakers. So it kind of steals some of my
• 11:10
  joy from watching Laker games. But, you know, I just have some
• 11:14
  issues with the game, but still a huge, you know, huge
• 11:19
  basketball fan. Yeah, yeah, me too.
• 11:22
  And that the the NBA is far from perfect, just like Major League
• 11:25
  Baseball is far from perfect. But I've always been a big
• 11:28
  basketball guy. Ever since I was a little kid.
• 11:30
  I had a basketball on my hands. I have photos of myself in the
• 11:34
  early 80s just trying to shoot hoops in my yard.
• 11:38
  And I was too small. I couldn't couldn't throw the
• 11:41
  basketball. And then that's How I Met my
• 11:44
  wife playing basketball in college.
• 11:46
  She was point guard on the on the college team, Yeah.
• 11:50
  So. Did you play?
• 11:51
  Did you play hoops in college? I I would, I would say I didn't,
• 11:58
  I wasn't on the team, not for lack of trying by the coach, but
• 12:02
  I just, I wasn't interested in playing that way.
• 12:05
  So I would scrimmage with the team, I would play 5 on five
• 12:08
  with the team, but I never wanted to actually play on the
• 12:11
  team and travel with the team and go through the weightlifting
• 12:15
  that they do. They have to lift, lift weights
• 12:16
  2 hours every day. And I was like, I'm good.
• 12:19
  Plus, I've never met you. How are you?
• 12:22
  How tall are you? 62.
• 12:24
  Hey now. All right.
• 12:25
  You. Yeah, no, that's, that's I
• 12:28
  pivoted into boxing because and then you think you're going to
• 12:31
  go against short people and you just, you end up sparring
• 12:34
  whoever's there. So.
• 12:35
  But yeah. And basketball, I had to.
• 12:38
  I had to put to bed because of my height.
• 12:41
  I understand. So what's your favorite card
• 12:46
  that you own? Favorite card is tough behind
• 12:50
  me. I have this Deion Sanders, which
• 12:51
  is this the most it's the easiest to show but I you know
• 12:56
  it's one of the coolest looking cards.
• 12:59
  Not many people have a baseball and football story and it just
• 13:03
  it's before they did any of like, I guess that kind of
• 13:06
  design now, OK, it's there's a lot of cool things like that.
• 13:10
  But back then it was very it it's a pretty unique looking
• 13:13
  card. Is it my favorite?
• 13:14
  It's a really neat design. My favorite, my favorite card,
• 13:19
  which I don't know is the Magic Bird.
• 13:22
  You know, I was born 85. I didn't see a lot of that
• 13:25
  rivalry, but being a a huge NBA person like that was something
• 13:29
  you read, you know, you fall in love with as a kid because it's
• 13:32
  just what a great story. So I do think that's one of the
• 13:35
  best basketball cards all time and that is probably my favorite
• 13:40
  card, but I don't don't currently own it.
• 13:43
  Yeah. So you recently, am I
• 13:48
  understanding correctly, you met with Mike Mahan of Fanatics, is
• 13:51
  that right? I do not understand still how
• 13:55
  that meeting came about. I'm I'm supposed to make a list
• 13:58
  of I'm supposed to re I Well, I'm not.
• 14:01
  He didn't tell. Well I should reach back.
• 14:03
  I have not reached back to like, but I I feel very conflicted on
• 14:11
  on I did. I met with Mick Mahan.
• 14:14
  We talked for 50 minutes and I feel conflicted on dude.
• 14:18
  What am I just going to get? They're not going to are they
• 14:21
  really going to listen? Am I really going to make any
• 14:23
  change or am I just going to be able to be their little reporter
• 14:25
  after I check in with what they think?
• 14:28
  So I just feel I'm not sure how I want to take that Ave.
• 14:34
  Yeah, it's a tough one and I have no idea how those came
• 14:37
  about. I'm I'm really interested in how
• 14:39
  they came about. Like, did they reach out to you?
• 14:42
  Through a third party. Yeah.
• 14:45
  They reached out to me through a third party and asked if I
• 14:49
  wanted a meeting or, you know, this opportunity to meet with
• 14:52
  them and talk with them. I was like, I wasn't going to
• 14:55
  turn that part down, you know? So sure.
• 14:57
  Yeah. I would be very interested to
• 14:58
  see, get some insight. How does this, you know what?
• 15:00
  What exactly. And I'll say he gave me fifth,
• 15:04
  you know, it was he was in the room, he was listening.
• 15:07
  It was just me and him. He I don't, I think he's aceo of
• 15:12
  a really big company and so he can only say so much or or use
• 15:15
  so many, you know. So I didn't believe everything I
• 15:19
  heard. But I give him credit for he
• 15:24
  clearly listened. He had some positive, you know,
• 15:26
  Mr. Mahan, when you put it yet some positive attributes during
• 15:31
  the conversation. So it was just you and him.
• 15:35
  It wasn't even a round table. I know, I know.
• 15:39
  And it's very it's very interesting because he has like
• 15:43
  I haven't shared this. He has this big ol office he's
• 15:46
  still in and he has one of those new owl cameras, I think it's
• 15:49
  called, where it like follows you around the room.
• 15:52
  So he's like pacing around the room, walking over here, walking
• 15:55
  over there, taking a pause, sitting down.
• 15:57
  It's like, OK, OK, yeah, that's how it was.
• 16:03
  It was cool. It was very interesting.
• 16:05
  I I've seen some comments where people in your comments have
• 16:08
  been critical of you for even taking the meeting.
• 16:10
  I would have taken the meeting too, yeah.
• 16:12
  Why? Why?
• 16:12
  I mean, how is foolish not. I'm not calling them my enemy,
• 16:16
  but it's like, what is it? Keep your friends closer,
• 16:18
  enemies closer. Why wouldn't I wanted to know
• 16:20
  and see and gain insight? That's just that's that seems
• 16:24
  ridiculous, you know? Yeah.
• 16:25
  Yeah, I remember there was some criticism of Neo for something
• 16:29
  similar last year. I don't remember what it was off
• 16:31
  the top of my head, but everybody was critical of Neo
• 16:34
  and I was like, I would have done this too.
• 16:35
  You guys are crazy. Collectors, because you know he
• 16:39
  has some Innsville collectors. I don't know if I had anything
• 16:41
  to do with that. I just know my community calls
• 16:44
  him out a little for the collectors.
• 16:46
  Yeah, sure. But yeah, I don't know.
• 16:50
  I so you you he asked you to put together a list of things to
• 16:54
  like, things you would like to. See, no, it was so vague.
• 16:57
  The third party kept it pretty vague.
• 16:59
  And they're like, no, go in there.
• 17:01
  Treat it as like a venting session.
• 17:03
  OK, whatever. So I mean, I wrote, I kept it
• 17:05
  short. I wrote a couple.
• 17:07
  I wrote two things that I would get to.
• 17:09
  But he started off, you know, the I didn't have to introduce
• 17:13
  myself. He seemed to know possibly, you
• 17:16
  know, what, what the shtick was or who I am.
• 17:18
  And yeah, it just it, he started and then we, it just kind of
• 17:24
  ebbed and flowed and and it was a great conversation.
• 17:27
  Like I wish it was. I wish it was recorded for
• 17:29
  people to see because it was just back and forth and people
• 17:32
  can make of it what they want. It was vague going in.
• 17:39
  But yes, I did write down that transparency in in the hobby.
• 17:42
  And then it like the loaded boxes and, and we spent quite a
• 17:45
  bit of time on that. And then the second one was, you
• 17:47
  know, just the overproduction. I, I feel like a lot of things,
• 17:51
  he didn't see it this way, even though he's an economics major,
• 17:54
  He's just watering down a lot of the product when they have to
• 17:56
  outdo themselves every year on every product, on every, you
• 18:00
  know, skew and they have to keep putting new shinies in.
• 18:03
  And, and I feeling, I think the business model we love on the
• 18:07
  vintage stuff, it's a completely different junk.
• 18:10
  Wax was another business model. And what we've entered now is
• 18:14
  this ridiculous business model that I don't think it's
• 18:17
  sustainable in the future. But I could also be wrong.
• 18:21
  You know, that's just my opinion.
• 18:23
  I'm with you and I also say the same thing.
• 18:25
  I, I don't, I don't know what I'm talking about.
• 18:27
  I could be wrong. So you mentioned that you
• 18:31
  brought some gripes, some industry gripes along with you
• 18:34
  to talk here today, right? Oh yeah, yeah.
• 18:37
  I'd love to hear him. All right, so the first one I
• 18:40
  wrote down and man, we're about the same age I think.
• 18:42
  So this one just, I have over our lifetime, corporations have
• 18:49
  like taken the life and soul out of everything.
• 18:52
  I mean, just even your daily job a lot of the time.
• 18:56
  I mean, it's just if you, I grew up working in restaurants and,
• 18:59
  and it's a stark difference working for a big corporate
• 19:02
  restaurant versus mom and pop or you know, owned restaurant.
• 19:05
  And so my biggest like I to keep it just so obvious is and I
• 19:12
  wrote down a few other ones. WW ES become very corporate Star
• 19:16
  Wars, AAA video games. Currently the music industry I
• 19:20
  think is a is a huge problem right now with them just wanting
• 19:24
  like little TikTok samples or things that can go viral.
• 19:26
  They don't they don't they they shut down good music almost.
• 19:30
  And so I find, you know, when fanatics bought tops and, you
• 19:35
  know, collectors is now owned by this private equity, Yeah, man,
• 19:40
  the corporate world invaded our fun grasp, you know, more love
• 19:47
  for the game hobby. And it's so obvious.
• 19:50
  And it, it really is the problem for a lot of the things, you
• 19:55
  know, not, not, not the shilling and all that, which is an issue,
• 19:57
  but to, to me that the corporate change of it all.
• 20:03
  And it doesn't get labeled that a lot, not even for me.
• 20:05
  I had to like sit there and think about it.
• 20:07
  But it's can you relate to that? Do you do you see that at all?
• 20:10
  It just it it in my heart. It bugs me.
• 20:14
  Yeah, and I am also deeply worried about what AI is going
• 20:18
  to do to things that we love. Like will there be fully AI
• 20:21
  movies? Will actors that we love sell
• 20:24
  their likeness to AI companies to make videos movies?
• 20:31
  They will. I would TV shows.
• 20:34
  Right. And that's terrible.
• 20:36
  That's what we're just going to be fans of nothing and same
• 20:41
  thing. Will baseball just do AI games?
• 20:46
  But I mean, these are crazy, but are they?
• 20:49
  I don't know. I hope not the baseball and I
• 20:53
  had not thought of or heard of but I do think I even saw
• 20:57
  something recently about how AI might change social media pipe
• 21:01
  people might they might stop using social media because they
• 21:05
  don't even know what's right wrong indifferent and so who
• 21:09
  knows what AI is going to AI is really going to change a lot of
• 21:12
  things and I people my community doesn't want to hear.
• 21:15
  I think they come to to the card show not to hear about those
• 21:19
  things, but it is the world's going to be the, the way I put
• 21:23
  it on the live. There was no social media or
• 21:25
  smartphones 15 years ago. So and imagine where we are now.
• 21:29
  So 15 years from now, who knows what it's going to look like?
• 21:33
  Yeah, yeah. Boy, that just got heavy, Jason.
• 21:37
  But the corporate, the corporate side of things, just they bugged
• 21:41
  me and everything. They've even, yeah, I'm a
• 21:43
  teacher. They've even eat their way into
• 21:47
  to the education system, unfortunately.
• 21:49
  So that that was my first, yeah, big issue in the space.
• 21:54
  There are kids, you know, young adults who are not on social
• 21:59
  media because they don't trust that and people that they're
• 22:02
  talking to are responding to them or are trolling them are
• 22:06
  even real people. We know that there are millions
• 22:08
  and millions of bots on whatever social media account you're,
• 22:12
  you're on that are just trained to go and wreak havoc responding
• 22:17
  to things, tweeting things, posting things on Facebook.
• 22:21
  And that's, that's terrifying. And we've gotten into a little
• 22:24
  real world stuff here instead of sports cards.
• 22:27
  But I, I think that the, it's, it's coming to sports cards too.
• 22:31
  We've seen AI card descriptions, We've seen AI images on card
• 22:35
  descriptions. And that's in the early stages
• 22:38
  of AI really. Where I'm just to spin off what
• 22:42
  you were saying and not to. Well, anyways, yeah, social
• 22:47
  media can be dirty and maybe turn us off and and just maybe
• 22:51
  end up making you to the point where it turns you off a bit.
• 22:53
  Yeah. But my second gripe, I guess
• 22:56
  because I don't want to get political, but my second gripe,
• 22:59
  transparency is, you know, I mentioned it with with you
• 23:04
  earlier when you asked about Mahan.
• 23:05
  I just find the loaded boxes that you came on the show and
• 23:08
  you said you finally, you didn't think so before.
• 23:11
  And now it came to the point where it's like something if
• 23:14
  they're not loaded, someone is definitely CT scanning these
• 23:17
  things before they're all open. Something weird.
• 23:20
  It's too perfect, it's too cute, it happens too often.
• 23:26
  It it's false advertising. It's getting someone to buy your
• 23:30
  product because they think they could do this because it's on.
• 23:32
  That's what happened on camera. Yeah, I'm not saying it's
• 23:35
  definitely loaded, but I'm saying it's very suspicious.
• 23:39
  It's there's, it happens way too often.
• 23:42
  And I, I know you haven't watched my Sunday morning video
• 23:45
  yet, but I highlighted a situation this past week where
• 23:48
  Tops opened a complete skunk of a box.
• 23:51
  There was nothing good in it whatsoever.
• 23:53
  And they posted on social media and everybody said, I can't
• 23:57
  believe you. You posted this box.
• 23:59
  And Will Stern of Collect said tops can't win if they post a
• 24:04
  loaded box. They are going to get criticized
• 24:07
  for having a loaded box if they post one.
• 24:09
  But it to me it's almost like did they post this skunk of a
• 24:13
  box to show hey not not everything we open.
• 24:16
  Duh, yes, of course and #2 it it.
• 24:19
  This one gets to me. They're so stupid and they're
• 24:21
  just. They're either they or they
• 24:23
  think we're so stupid because the fact is when in certain
• 24:28
  moments, it's not that, Oh my God, we only show the big ones.
• 24:32
  But in certain moments when you happen to have Michael Rubin
• 24:36
  with that soccer player who I forget his name and they pulled
• 24:38
  A1 O1, Jackie Robinson, it's not like they're it's live.
• 24:42
  It's something. It's something or I don't know
• 24:44
  if it was live, but it was a big, the big one that was live
• 24:47
  that I did mention to Mahan over and over, 'cause it's the one
• 24:50
  that let's, if you can find one that's struck like at SummerSlam
• 24:55
  last year and I, are you a wrestling guy or No, I'm not.
• 24:58
  No OK, so at SummerSlam wrestling's gone really downhill
• 25:02
  the past 7-8 months. It's really sad.
• 25:03
  But anyway, mate, you are some could argue longer, but
• 25:07
  SummerSlam before the event, they have the whole pre game
• 25:10
  right now, OK, all the fans and you have Patrick McAfee and and
• 25:15
  Michael Cole the announcer. And so they each get one pack of
• 25:18
  the new tops product. The first three are a dud.
• 25:22
  And the fourth pack they open, they go nuts for ACM punk
• 25:25
  autograph card and it they get that and there's they got 4
• 25:29
  packs like there's an autograph, maybe a box and the and CM Punk
• 25:33
  is one of their top 3 or 4 sellers of the whole company.
• 25:37
  And, and so when when I see stuff like that there, there's
• 25:40
  no argument that oh, they're just posting good boxes like
• 25:43
  that is a complete area where they want the product to be
• 25:47
  highlighted. And, and people also don't
• 25:49
  realize the difference between opening a duds.
• 25:52
  If they open 4 duds, it it's actually a bad look for the
• 25:56
  product. No, either creates no
• 25:57
  excitement. No one wants to go buy it.
• 26:00
  And so, yeah, AIH came on to the show.
• 26:04
  Let me do this in 30 seconds. Came on the show and showed the
• 26:06
  Ty Wilson video where Ty Wilson chasing cardboard went to a
• 26:10
  minor League Baseball game. The very beginning of the video
• 26:13
  was like, these are free from tops.
• 26:15
  Thank you, tops. And what do they do?
• 26:17
  They pull a one out of 10 Trout and they pull some other card
• 26:21
  that he said he's been opening hundreds of cases of and hasn't
• 26:24
  got that case hit. And so it's like what?
• 26:27
  I mean, it's just so it's not necessarily people it's in these
• 26:31
  live moments or these candid moments where it's clearly good
• 26:34
  for business that they're the one of one Trout or a Babe Ruth
• 26:39
  card thrown by Trout at at tops trade night or RIP night.
• 26:45
  Excuse me. So I don't know, there's many
• 26:47
  instances. And and see how them posting
• 26:49
  their one box of a dud does does nothing for me.
• 26:53
  Sorry to go on that long rant, that one, that one really, it
• 26:57
  really bothers me almost more than anything.
• 26:59
  Yeah. What's your next grade?
• 27:03
  We have two more. I have.
• 27:06
  Well, we'll move off fanatics. We'll go to what do you you
• 27:09
  know, up until about a year ago, I never had really anything bad
• 27:14
  to say about PSA. Yes, their turn around times are
• 27:17
  too long. Yes, it's like their prices were
• 27:18
  going up, but then they changed to the buyback program.
• 27:22
  They're consigning more cards, they're graded grails.
• 27:25
  They're going with GameStop. They're they just completely
• 27:28
  changed their entire business model and it's definitely gotten
• 27:33
  some pushback. I'm happy.
• 27:35
  Not everyone's just been so hunky Dory about it.
• 27:40
  I'm in full agreement. I stopped grading with PSAI,
• 27:42
  still buy PSA slabs, but I'll let somebody else give PSA the
• 27:45
  money, which I know some people have pushed back on that too,
• 27:48
  which is fine. I, I totally get it.
• 27:50
  It's tough when when the cards I want are only in PSA slabs,
• 27:53
  right, 'cause there's, there's just not enough slabs of other
• 27:57
  companies out there. Yeah, I, I fully agree.
• 28:02
  And in fact, I want to segue into video Mike Moynihan did.
• 28:07
  But I want to give you your 4th gripe first.
• 28:09
  Sure. Yeah, the last one, well, I
• 28:12
  don't know, even, I guess I wrote content creators, you
• 28:16
  know, I respect how you have your channel and the guys you
• 28:18
  bring on the, you know, the people in the clubhouse are not
• 28:21
  but but but some of the content just it's you look at in a
• 28:27
  market, you look at what, what the motivation is, what is what
• 28:30
  is the And so the motivation of many of the the content creators
• 28:34
  is to create business to to make the industry or cards 10X.
• 28:39
  They're on board with that. And how do they do that?
• 28:41
  They make it look sensationalized and flashy,
• 28:44
  which you, which I I respect about, you know, your channels
• 28:48
  is that's not what you're doing here.
• 28:50
  And there needs to be more of that.
• 28:51
  And unfortunately it doesn't always get the views.
• 28:53
  It's not always a flashy and you've been doing, you know, for
• 28:55
  your your channel not being sensationalized.
• 28:58
  Kudos bro, cuz you get your you've built something and now 2
• 29:02
  now two things that are are doing you have to be pretty
• 29:05
  proud of They're doing pretty. Well, thank you.
• 29:08
  Yeah. So I am a big believer that I'm
• 29:11
  not going to get sponsored by the industry.
• 29:14
  And when I say that, I mean fanatics, PSA, whatever other
• 29:19
  big no Breakers. I won't take sponsorship from
• 29:21
  Breakers. I had a repack company who
• 29:24
  reached out to me and I said no, I don't.
• 29:26
  I don't do that. Good for you.
• 29:29
  I will take supplies, companies, software and and as soon as they
• 29:34
  do something that I don't like and I tell them this, I'm going
• 29:37
  to refund their money that hasn't been, you know, already
• 29:41
  earned. And we're going to end our
• 29:43
  relationship because the only, only the most important thing I
• 29:47
  have, same as you, is my reputation.
• 29:50
  And my reputation is as somebody who tells the truth, who is
• 29:55
  critical of the industry, openly critical of the industry, and as
• 30:00
  a hobbyist, as a collector. And I see you as kind of the
• 30:03
  same way. I think that you struggled with
• 30:05
  the fanatics meeting, which again, I don't think you should.
• 30:10
  I would meet with them as well. The thing I would worry about
• 30:13
  is, is their intent to get me to stop being critical of them even
• 30:18
  though they're not paying. Is their belief that they've
• 30:21
  taken this meeting and I'm going to be easier on them because of
• 30:24
  it. That's what I would be concerned
• 30:25
  about if I were. You and I definitely have not
• 30:27
  been and we are almost in spite of what you just said, it's
• 30:31
  like, you're right. They they cozy up to some of
• 30:34
  these people and they make them feel special and and that's just
• 30:36
  good business, I guess. But I was like, Nah, not me.
• 30:42
  Right. And you see it in the comments
• 30:44
  in your hobby collision Trike Troy Reich, who I like, is super
• 30:48
  nice guy. He has cozied up with these big
• 30:52
  companies and the comments were extremely negative about him.
• 30:57
  That's just the and you can hear it in some of his answers,
• 30:59
  unfortunately. Right, Yeah, So I agree with
• 31:03
  you. Mike Moynihan, baseball
• 31:05
  collector, did a video a few days ago has 10,000 views which.
• 31:09
  I think I saw this. I was.
• 31:10
  I wanted to watch. I won't save it for the live.
• 31:12
  I saw the thumbnail, yeah. 10,000 views for us is a lot and
• 31:17
  he his video is called a hobby revolt is coming or something
• 31:21
  like that. And in it he talked about all
• 31:24
  the things that we all talk about but he kind of brought
• 31:26
  them all together and summarized what is happening and has been
• 31:30
  happening for months now, which is people are talking about
• 31:35
  moving away from PSA, people are talking about moving out of
• 31:38
  doing ultra modern cards and moving to CGC and all these
• 31:43
  things. Excuse me, what do you think?
• 31:48
  First of all, I definitely want to watch that video because it
• 31:50
  did do really well. And the thing reason it does do
• 31:53
  well is people can relate to it. It's not like people are just
• 31:56
  going there to be a listen to what this troll has to say.
• 31:59
  I'm not calling him a troll, but it's like the the thumbnail.
• 32:01
  No, no, they're going there because same thing with some of
• 32:04
  my content or your content to resonate with is because there's
• 32:07
  truth to it. What do I think that?
• 32:10
  I mean, it's it's I'm not comparing cards to housing.
• 32:14
  You never want to do that. They're completely different
• 32:16
  things. But for a long time, it's like,
• 32:19
  OK, the housing might before COVID, the housing market went
• 32:21
  up, up, up. OK, eventually all the real
• 32:23
  estate agents think it's going to flat or go, you know, finally
• 32:25
  go down. And then COVID happened and then
• 32:28
  never happened. Why?
• 32:29
  Because big money props it up. And so right now when it's
• 32:34
  things defy logic. Well, there's a there's there's
• 32:36
  Michael Rubin money, there's not Turner money.
• 32:39
  There's Kevin O'Leary money. There's Logan Paul money there's
• 32:43
  a lot and and then many, you know, people in the New York
• 32:46
  Mets owner, I believe there's there's people in the
• 32:48
  background. We've never heard of money.
• 32:51
  So what do I believe is yeah, man, this is this is a weird
• 32:55
  time again, It it's it's COVID 2 point O and there's there's no
• 33:00
  free money. There's no one sitting at home.
• 33:01
  So it is a weird a weird time and it you know, they big money
• 33:08
  can prop things up to make things look funny and weird for
• 33:11
  has almost as long as they want until it runs at the game runs
• 33:15
  out. So logic says, yeah, things are
• 33:20
  going to change, but who I I don't know because of the reason
• 33:24
  of that money. Yeah, yeah.
• 33:27
  What did? He have to say and what do you
• 33:30
  think? He believes, and I agree with
• 33:33
  him. Well, he believes that there is
• 33:37
  a, a movement to move away from the traditional ways of
• 33:42
  collecting, which is buying into ultra modern, getting your cards
• 33:46
  graded with PSA, buying into breaks, buying into repacks,
• 33:50
  which have been really popular the last few years, and moving
• 33:53
  more towards. And I'm, I hate to summarize
• 33:56
  what he said because there's a lot in there.
• 33:58
  And it was really good moving more towards what we as
• 34:02
  collectors have been talking about for years.
• 34:04
  I appeal. The I appeal movement is big and
• 34:06
  important and it's going to change the way cards are priced,
• 34:11
  the cards are valued. PSA is becoming less and less
• 34:16
  popular is another big part of it.
• 34:19
  And I agree with that, especially with collectors.
• 34:22
  And I see it in my comments section, which is I'm moving
• 34:25
  away from PSA going to CGC. And I say that and I get dozens
• 34:28
  and dozens of comments saying the same thing.
• 34:32
  Will it show up in the numbers? I don't know.
• 34:35
  It's going to take a few months. Actually, I said back in
• 34:37
  December, we should see this by April.
• 34:40
  And we'll see. It's it's a little too early to
• 34:43
  say, but CGC continues to climb, but so does PSA.
• 34:48
  I will just share two stories where this is true just for me
• 34:51
  as without any outside noise. I recently found and I'll go
• 34:56
  back to wrestling just because I find it to be a fun.
• 34:58
  You know, I I don't know sports cards right now are not my
• 35:01
  favorite thing for the modern for many reasons, but I found a
• 35:05
  cool top finest insert set that I've never seen.
• 35:08
  It might be brand new and then this you know they're $0.99
• 35:11
  whatever the serial number ones are under 20 bucks.
• 35:14
  So in the 30 card set. So I bought them.
• 35:17
  I put them in top loaders. I didn't buy the whole set, but
• 35:18
  I have some of it. I'll keep collecting it.
• 35:20
  I bought a top loader binder and just like back in the day, I'm
• 35:23
  going to just put these these things in my binder and I have
• 35:26
  no interest in grading them. I have no, I just want to
• 35:29
  collect, you know, I want it to be my collect.
• 35:31
  The other one is earlier this year.
• 35:33
  I, I spent almost no money on cards last year.
• 35:36
  And so the January I spent about $1000 on 40 different one piece
• 35:40
  cards and I've been collecting one piece since it came out.
• 35:44
  It's unfortunate almost what it's done because now it's
• 35:46
  taking the fun away. These things have skyrocketed.
• 35:48
  But I bought 40 cards I thought were the rare ones, the right
• 35:52
  ones from early on, the Lou fees, da da da.
• 35:55
  And my plan was to get them graded.
• 35:57
  And I already had my issues with PSA and then PSA raised prices
• 36:00
  and I was already annoyed with PSA and I'm just not going to
• 36:03
  send, I even have a membership, which I'll, I'll let end, you
• 36:06
  know, when it runs out. And I'm not going to send them
• 36:09
  in. I'm just not, I'm not sending
• 36:11
  them into PSA. So, and I'm not sending them
• 36:14
  into any of the collectors companies because I, I, I, I, I
• 36:18
  it's not because I'm like proving a point.
• 36:20
  I'm just very frustrated. I don't believe in what they're
• 36:22
  doing. I don't like how they pivoted.
• 36:24
  And so that's just two stories from me as a collector that,
• 36:29
  yeah, it kind of fits that narrative.
• 36:33
  Yeah, for sure. And then, you know, their parent
• 36:36
  company going and buying SGC and BGS and yeah, as a collector,
• 36:42
  it's frustrating. Yes, yes, because you're a
• 36:45
  vintage guy. Actually I like the SGC slabs
• 36:49
  better. I think they feel but everyone
• 36:51
  has their own take. But I I I and once they got
• 36:55
  bought I just had no interest in using them.
• 36:58
  Yep, me too. So Jason, any final thoughts
• 37:02
  before we wrap this up? Like my final thought would be
• 37:06
  that, you know, number one, it was thank you for having me on.
• 37:11
  And part of the this time last year, I didn't know a single
• 37:16
  content creator. I didn't know I'd never talked
• 37:19
  to a single viewer of mine. I had zero community, right,
• 37:23
  just none. I mean, just and, and the growth
• 37:26
  hadn't happened, but the lives really, they sacrificed views on
• 37:32
  videos for this awesome community we're building And,
• 37:37
  and I it's 4 hours on 2 back-to-back days.
• 37:41
  Most people don't get to watch every minute or tune into every
• 37:44
  show. It's a lot to ask, but it seems
• 37:48
  like I have we have a recurring base and people are willing to
• 37:51
  come on. And now, you know, you've
• 37:52
  invited me here through that. And so it's just been really
• 37:56
  fun, I guess, to meet more of the people participating in the
• 38:00
  hobby, meet more of the people participating in creating
• 38:02
  content. And this was a blast.
• 38:05
  Yeah. And yeah.
• 38:07
  Thanks for having me on. My pleasure.
• 38:09
  I, you know, I like to bring on interesting people and you're
• 38:12
  certainly one of those people. I actually, I'd love to have
• 38:14
  you. I'd love to have you back again
• 38:16
  at some point, maybe to talk about something bigger that's
• 38:18
  happened. We'll, we'll plan on that at
• 38:21
  some point if you're interested. I'd love to.
• 38:24
  Awesome. All right, Jason, thanks for
• 38:27
  coming on everybody. Check out Professor Sports Cards
• 38:29
  on YouTube. Great channel, really
• 38:32
  interesting stuff. Thanks for watching everybody.