Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / Is Beckett Grading Doomed?

Transcript

Is Beckett Grading Doomed? · Sports Card Clubhouse

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In our massive country, there are card collectors throughout
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the land participating in the hobby.
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There's Mike of Junk Wax Hero and Greg of Midlife Cards, and
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while distance may separate them, here is where they come
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together to talk cards. Hey Mike, It has been a slow
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week in sports card hobby news. There's like nothing has
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happened. The slow, I mean, I mean, the
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news cycle is getting boring. There's just nothing to talk
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about. Yeah, it's a shame.
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I mean, nobody's watching any YouTube videos.
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Nobody cares about this stuff anymore.
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What are we doing here? I, I don't know, I mean, we're,
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we'll figure out something to talk about, but I am very
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excited because, you know, we do surface issues, which is a show
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on our YouTube channel and on our podcast network.
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But there is 1/3 and and I would say better looking piece of the
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puzzle who hasn't been on a surface issues episode with us,
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but he has been on the podcast network, he has been on the
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YouTube channel and he is furiously been working behind
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the scenes on the website. And that is none other than this
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handsome fellow, Adam of Splendid Sports.
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Adam, what's up, buddy? How you doing guys?
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I'm going to tell my wife to watch this one because you
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called me handsome and you complimented me so this will be
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the one I share to her. I mean, Mike, am I wrong?
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But when I look at Adam, I'm like, he would fit in perfectly
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in that car of of friends driving around in Goodwill
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hunting. I mean, he looks like a
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Bostonian. If anybody does, he looks like
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he belongs in that group of friends in that movie.
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So before you said Goodwill hunting, I when you were saying
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he looks like he would belong, my first thought was a Ben
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Affleck, Matt Damon movie. And he's, he's got the, the
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look, he fit right in. He's he could soup up his accent
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a little bit, 'cause I don't know, his accent isn't that
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thick, but I know he could do it.
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Yeah, I, you know, I grew up on Cape Cod, so for whatever reason
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we don't get a lot of the accent down here.
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Although my parents both had like a very, very thick Boston
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accent. So I don't know why I didn't get
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it, really. I got a little of it, but not
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much. It's because how old are you,
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Adam? Like 454444, I'm 46.
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It's because we watched a lot of TV growing up and nobody on TV
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had the accent. So I grew up in Maine, Very
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thick Maine accent, which is a close cousin of Massachusetts
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accent. My parents have it.
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Mine is there. It's just nowhere near like my
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parents or my uncle who is a fisherman.
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Very, very thick Maine accent. I Speaking of Goodwill hunting,
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I have to share my goodwill hunting story.
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So when my brother Long story short, I spent a week with my
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brother in Boston and he stayed at a apartment that was like 4
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doors down from the from the eastern edge of Boston Common
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Park. And we walked over there and we
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watched the Goodwill hunting movie to find the exact bench
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that they sat in in that scene. And like we took pictures in it.
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We asked these people to take our picture and we were like
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looking off like to the side like they do in in the like the
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the famous picture of them talking.
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And so anyway. All right, I want you to make
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another trip to Boston or somewhere around here, and then
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we could meet up. The three of us, dude.
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A bunch of other people too. I love Boston, Boston is an
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awesome town. Like at the north tip of the
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Boston Common there's a major theater and my brother performed
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at that theater for like 3 weeks.
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He was on a tour for a couple years and at the northern tip of
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it, there's also there was at least a Ritz Carlton where I met
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Ross Perot. We had It was the craziest
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thing. My brother stayed next door to
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Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was walking his dog
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and walked past me as I was walking home one night.
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It is a wild week, but. Now that guy had an accent.
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He had an accent. Yeah, he had, he had a lot.
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He had a lot of interesting characteristics going on.
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Yeah. So First off, I want to promote
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and pump one of my favorite things on YouTube, which is you
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and Dylan and your Turn Back the Clock series that you guys have.
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And it is genuinely like there's like 3 or 4 things that whenever
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they post, I get like super excited.
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And one of them is a Turn Back the Clock episode.
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And you guys were gracious enough to bring that into the
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Sports Card Clubhouse network. Tell me, tell people who haven't
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seen that for some reason the history because you got been
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doing it, you guys been doing for a while.
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Yeah, it was boy, so I I used to do that show three and three and
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it. Was the first first time I think
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I was ever invited on somebody else's channel was when you
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reached out to me and said, hey, I don't know if you've heard of
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me. Splendid sports.
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I do a three and three, love to have you on.
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And I, I was like, I was shocked, amazed, flattered, and
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I was thrilled to go on. Yeah, yeah.
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When I came on it, I was all about just like, you know, I've
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said this before, but like, I'm not, I'm not as good at, like,
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at talking by myself as you guys are.
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I mean, Greg, you're a master. I, I don't know how you do it.
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You, I, I picture you like driving to work and you just
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like thinking about what you're gonna, I don't know.
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I don't know how you do this like, but you could just talk
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into the camera for on and on and on.
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You do such a great job. I'm not as good at that.
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So I, I do better when I have someone else to talk to.
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So I knew like, hey, I wanna just, you know, invite people on
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the channel. Cause not a lot of people knew
5:57
me. So I was like, no one's gonna
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invite me anywhere. So I might as well just invite
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people. And Dylan was the first, first
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person. He left a comment on one of my
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videos. And then I just, I reached out
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to him. I said, let's, you know, come
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on, let's do 3:00 and 3:00 and then let's do a show together.
6:13
Just every, whatever, every so often, let's jump on, talk about
6:16
cards, call it turn back the clock, 'cause we both loved and
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still do love to turn back the clock cards.
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So that's something we had in common.
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And yeah, we could just I, I, I wish we could do it more.
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It's, it's a lot of it. It's very tough now because I'm
6:29
on the East Coast and he's out in Hawaii.
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So there's a six hour, 5-6 hour difference.
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And I have a hard time doing things at night.
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I would prefer if I'm going to do YouTube stuff, you know, I'm
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during the day is perfect for me because I work from home.
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But obviously it's like the middle of the night his time.
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So it's tough, but yeah, we still do it when we can.
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And as long as I'm doing anything on YouTube, I'm going
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to be doing that with Dylan 'cause that's the most fun, you
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know? So.
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Yeah, it's a it's a shame he doesn't have any enthusiasm.
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Though. Yeah, exactly.
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So yeah, I knew right away I was like, I want to talk to that
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guy. You know, when I saw his first,
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first video, I saw his. I was like, I got to talk to
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this guy. He's awesome.
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So that's one of the, one of the things that you do with the
7:12
channel and with the group and, and for anybody out there, it is
7:16
the, the, the, the whole sports card clubhouse thing is the
7:19
three people on the screen right now.
7:21
So three of us that is, this is our thing we've been working on.
7:24
We're constantly texting, constantly having fun with each
7:28
other and, and talking about ideas and, and kicking around
7:31
things. And, but another thing that
7:34
you've been working on, and I know a lot of people are aware
7:37
of this, but some people aren't. I'm going to pull it up on the
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screen. If you are watching on YouTube,
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if you're listening, I'll do my best to describe what we're
7:45
looking at, but it's a website and the website launched couple
7:51
weeks ago. And so I'll pull that up and on
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the front page here right now, there's a picture of Mike and
8:00
John Mangini. And then there's a link to Pod,
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our YouTube channel, our podcast network.
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And if you Scroll down, there's a link to more links.
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There's more links on there to get to YouTube stuff, to get to
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the podcast stuff. Right now everything that we're
8:20
doing is on the YouTube channel and the podcast network.
8:23
But I think that's going to change.
8:25
I'm I'm starting to work on a few things to start doing
8:29
podcast only from time to time. So if you are watching this on
8:33
YouTube, you are missing out if you are not subscribed.
8:36
So if you go to sportscarclubhouse.com and you
8:40
go to the podcast, it will take you into our Spotify and you
8:45
could subscribe on Spotify, but we had some other stuff up here.
8:51
You can get it anywhere you get your podcasts right?
8:53
Correct. But yes, yes, Apple, wherever I,
8:56
I know that a lot of people are Apple or Spotify.
9:00
You, you, we've got this about us.
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So this was all designed by Adam.
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This was all put together by Adam.
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This is one of the many things he does.
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By the way, Adam's done an amazing job.
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By the way, I just want to comment on these photos.
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My photo was clearly like APSA 9 centering Greg's.
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Greg's just like APSA 9 OC this. Cut.
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I'm OK with it. You know, it's it this.
9:28
Yeah, this is super fun. This is the three of us we've
9:32
got. So again, we've got links to our
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YouTube channels, cause in addition to us having this
9:38
together, we also have our own channels.
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And so that's cool. So our Instagram links are
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YouTube channel links are on there with us.
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Then we've got this vote thing. So I want to talk about this.
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So Mike, tell us about what we're looking at on the screen.
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We've got a countdown clock and at the moment we have the best
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auction house poll. Tell us about the polls with the
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channel and the the the website. Yeah, so the plan is to update,
10:09
put a new poll out every single week, something hobby related.
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Of course. The current 1 is what is the
10:15
best auction house and then there are like 15 options there
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and you can go and you can vote. And then we will talk about
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these during every week's surface issues.
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You might hear us talking about them on our own channels as
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well. You, I don't know if Greg and
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Dylan, sorry, Adam and Dylan will talk about it as well, but
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it's, we're trying to come up one every week, something
10:36
topical, something interesting that people are, are wanting to
10:41
vote on. And then we can, we can talk
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about it and it, it's fun. Hopefully it'll be exciting and
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will lead us to more things. This is a simple way for us to
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start with the website and will lead us to adding more things to
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the website for people to go and do.
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And this particular poll has three days left.
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I haven't voted. Do we want to talk about where
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this is, or should we wait until it ends and then talk about it
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next week? Right.
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Throw a vote in there. Well, I mean, I have to disclose
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that CIA is a sponsor of my channel before I sponsor.
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My channel too. So, you know, when we look at
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these, I I do like love of the game.
11:25
I think they're good guys. I have I have some positive
11:30
feelings. I I think Mile High I know has
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some decent things. A couple of these I'm not
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familiar with eBay pros and cons I could.
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So those are the ones I I leaned toward right off the way.
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But you know, I'm going to I'm going to go.
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Hey, if you, if you sponsor me, that's going to definitely sway
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me. But I've, I've, I, I haven't, I
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don't think I've announced this yet, but I actually submitted 9
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cards for the January CIA auction. 9 cards from the
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midlife reserve are going to be available.
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So let's see where we're at. I submit that and look at this.
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I didn't know this. So Golden 2% Fanatics is at 4%
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CI as at 48% Rea 11, we don't know.
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How many votes there are? I don't know how many votes are
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eBay 27%, Clean sweep 2%, Love of the Game 7%.
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So CIA and eBay are making up 3/4 of the votes.
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Pretty interesting. And we can get the total votes
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information too. It's all available.
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And maybe when it's over next week, we can kind of talk about
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how many votes and, and all, you know how it turns out.
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But that is definitely interesting.
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I, I, I understand. See the thing about this is a
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lot of us are collectors and a lot of these auction houses are
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really designed to rig the system for the consignor, not be
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the collector, the buyer. And CIA has quite frankly, CIA
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and and I would argue in a lot, in a lot of ways, eBay are the
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two most buyer friendly auction houses.
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So this doesn't surprise me a ton, but the fact that it's that
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much for CIA is a little bit surprising.
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OK, so a long go ahead. No, it's, it's, I think it, it
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is surprising, but also as you think about it, like you just
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said, it kind of makes sense. CIA has become very popular in
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our community. We do.
13:36
There are live streams for close parties and you're sponsored by
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them. I'm sponsored by them.
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It makes sense that people who watch us would vote for them.
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The people in our communities would vote for them.
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Yeah, so all you other sponsors out there, if you want your you
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want your product to be looked upon favorably in the YouTube
13:54
community, just sponsor us. We'll make you 48 percent or
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more. Speaking of the next, the next
14:02
tab is partners and this is usually about the time that Mike
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shares a little statement with us, you know a little plug for a
14:12
sponsor of this channel which is Chris Sewell.
14:15
Mike, do you have anything you want to share about that or do
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you what, what do you want to do here?
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Yeah, our friend, everybody's friend, Chris Sewell, collector,
14:22
investor, dealer, in that order. As Adam very smartly put here,
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Chris Sewell is buying collections and you, if you are
14:29
interested in selling part or all of your collection, you
14:32
should reach out to Chris Sewell.
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You can go straight to our website, sportscardclubhouse.com
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or you can e-mail him at sewellsportscards@gmail.com.
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Let him know what you have, send him some photos.
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He gives the best deals out there.
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Very fair and he will explain his offers to you.
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And has an affiliation with CIA and Jeremy, the Texas Snowman.
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So good friends of both of our channels and this channel as
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well, those two fellows over there.
15:04
So again, we got partners on here.
15:06
At some point, I hope to add more people to our partner feed.
15:12
And then we've got our feed, which this is a really cool
15:14
thing. I love this that Adam has this
15:17
going where it's got links to our channel stuff.
15:23
And I mean, I mean, if you want to see what's the newest videos
15:30
from any of the three of us, the feed get you up to date like
15:36
right here today as we record this is December 17th.
15:39
It is a Wednesday and I had a video post and Mike had a video
15:43
post yesterday and I had a video post the day before that and so
15:47
on. So it's kind of a quick place to
15:50
see what his posted recently as well as a partner video here.
15:56
We've got investor dealer and so investor dealer over here as
16:00
well. So this is a a cool thing that
16:04
Adam put in. I don't know how you did this,
16:07
Greg. Let me just yeah, just So what
16:08
that is, I think there's a lot we could do with that.
16:11
We we probably have, we haven't really even talked about it.
16:13
But you know, I think one, one of the ideas with it is that's
16:17
a, that's a software on that page there that can pull in, you
16:20
know, it's a feed that pulls in not just YouTube, but you know,
16:23
we could have someone's social media, you know, an X account
16:28
pot. It can pull in podcasts, you can
16:30
pull in articles from other blogs out there.
16:32
So I guess the idea is to maybe make it a hub of content that we
16:38
curate. And obviously right now we have
16:41
your channels, Chris Sewell's channel, 'cause he's a sponsor
16:45
of Sports Card Clubhouse, but you know, there's a lot of
16:47
directions we can go with that, but we'll have to discuss where
16:50
we want to head with that. I love it and then YouTube.
16:55
We have our YouTube a link directly to the sports card
16:58
clubhouse YouTube channel. You can see that I am subscribed
17:01
to it. If you're not, please do that.
17:04
We are now at 950 subscribers, which is is amazing, but when
17:11
you look down here and you see the last few videos, we have
17:14
2600 views, 1700 views and 1600 views in the last three videos,
17:20
but we only have 950 Subs. Why are you guys watching but
17:24
you're not subscribing? Just click the subscribe button.
17:26
It's super easy. So but that's that.
17:29
Go ahead. I made a prediction at the
17:31
beginning of November that we would be at 1000 by Christmas
17:34
and people, you guys are going to make me out to be liars if
17:38
you don't subscribe. 88 away ate away.
17:42
So yeah, but so that's the YouTube link and then a link
17:47
again back to the podcast here. And you can see that there's
17:52
Apple, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and I've never heard of that copy
17:56
RSSI don't know what. That is, RSS feed is a I used to
18:00
know what RSS stand for or something.
18:03
Syndicate. What does it stand for?
18:05
Adam I. I don't even know what it stands
18:07
for. It's basically just a link to
18:08
your podcast that can, it's like a universal link.
18:12
So like Apple uses it, Spotify uses it, Amazon.
18:15
It's just like it's kind of like if like the sports card
18:18
clubhouse.com, your domain. It's like kind of your link to
18:22
all the all the podcast stuff. RSS feeds were very big in the
18:25
early 2000s, right? Long story short, I'll say this
18:30
are the surface issues episodes post on the podcast format all
18:37
about 5 days before they post on YouTube format.
18:40
So to get the most current surface issues episode, if you
18:44
go to sportscardclubhouse.com, you go to podcast.
18:48
You can listen to it through these links right here where it
18:51
has them. I also post my midlife sports
18:55
card Q&A, which which dropped this morning in this episode.
18:59
I guess I didn't put on there yet, but it it has.
19:03
Oh, that's because it posts here on Sunday.
19:05
So that'll post later in the week.
19:07
But that's a way to get the more up to date things.
19:10
But again, I'm I'm working on doing a semi frequent podcast
19:16
only, which you wouldn't get on the YouTube channel.
19:19
You will only get if you listen on podcast.
19:22
And again, if you don't have a podcast set up because some of
19:26
us don't, you can go to sportscarclubhouse.com, go to
19:29
podcast and then you'll be able to click on the links here as
19:32
soon as they go live. So that's very cool.
19:34
And then if you want to contact us with any information, you
19:38
could do it in here. Now, again, we've alluded to
19:41
this a couple of times. I think that there is still a
19:45
lot that we could and will add, you know, as we get feedback, as
19:51
we see what's working, what's not working.
19:54
But there are a lot. This is sort of like a landing
19:57
page, a hub where you can get to our YouTube stuff, our podcast
20:02
stuff, reach out to us, participate in the polls, so.
20:07
It's really the for anyone, like with this episode, anyone who
20:12
votes in in that best auction house poll, I would love for
20:16
people in the comments to to explain why, you know, leave a
20:19
comment if you voted, why you voted for CIA, why you voted for
20:24
eBay or whoever you voted for. And you can leave a comment
20:27
obviously on YouTube, but also on Spotify.
20:30
They they do comments there too. So I think that's the kind of
20:33
the, one of the biggest ideas with the website is to make it a
20:35
place where people can, you know, go and share their opinion
20:40
and, and a bunch of other things.
20:41
But that would be cool if people did that for this particular
20:45
episode 'cause I don't know when it's releasing, but the poll
20:47
will be up for at least another three days, so.
20:50
Yeah, yeah, totally agree. So when this hits YouTube, the
20:54
poll will be down. When this hits, when this hits
21:00
podcast format it no, yeah, it will be, it will still be up.
21:04
So the, the kind of the normal routine is Saturday's is when
21:10
the podcast drops and then it's not until Thursday that the
21:13
video format drops. But I mean, Adam, this is
21:16
fantastic. I love it.
21:18
We're always looking for ways to add engagement.
21:21
And I think the website is something that again, I think
21:25
we're just getting started. I think we have a structure in
21:28
place and we're going to continue to add things.
21:32
You know, we've we've have talked about a few different
21:34
things that and we're going to continue developing it.
21:37
So make sure that you come back to it, check it out so you can
21:40
see the changes as they go. Now that said, as we sit here on
21:46
Wednesday, December 17th, some news hit recently couple of days
21:54
ago about, you know, collectors, the parent company of PSA and
22:01
SGC purchased Beckett as well. What?
22:06
Yes, they, they purchased Beckett as well.
22:09
Mike, I, there are a lot of places we could go with that.
22:14
But let me then say today, this morning, Doctor Beckett released
22:22
his podcast with his take on the whole situation and also shared
22:29
a few things that I, at least for me, caught me off guard.
22:33
So let me share with the audience.
22:35
But also Mike, because I know Mike hasn't yet heard the
22:39
podcast, but Adam and I have. So Adam, you jump in when I say
22:42
something wrong. But, but here's what here is
22:46
part of what Doctor Beckett said.
22:47
Doctor Beckett went in Monday to pick up a grading order at the
22:53
Beckett headquarters in Dallas, which is where he lives.
22:56
And after he picked it up, he got home and his phone starts
23:03
blowing up because apparently some news started breaking.
23:08
And then Dr. Beckett gets a phone call from Nat Turner and
23:14
says, hey, I'm in Dallas, want to grab lunch.
23:18
And Doctor Beckett says, sure. Nat Turner then goes to Doctor
23:24
Beckett's house and spent about an hour talking to him about the
23:31
acquisition that was finalized earlier that day.
23:36
And Doctor Beckett was not tipped off about this when he
23:40
went into Beckett headquarters about an hour before Nat Turner
23:44
got there is when Doctor Beckett left.
23:47
Is that right, Adam? I think he nailed it.
23:50
Yeah, from what I remember, yeah.
23:52
So, Mike, having not heard that, what is your reaction to that?
23:57
So Doctor Beckett has been very critical of Beckett on Hobby
24:01
Hotline and probably on his podcast too for years.
24:04
He has not been impressed with the the way the company has gone
24:08
in the last four or five years. It's still surprising that
24:14
Beckett the company would not alert Doctor Beckett that they
24:17
had just been acquired. And knowing that Nat Turner
24:21
reached out to him and went to lunch with him makes me wonder
24:24
if he wants to have Doctor Beckett as like a ambassador to
24:29
the brand. He talked a little bit about
24:32
that. So Adam, do you want to share
24:35
some of what Doctor Beckett said about his feelings about the
24:39
acquisition and some of the things that he said?
24:42
I I feel like I'm completely hogging the mic at the moment.
24:45
I, I, from what I gathered, he was happy about it.
24:50
He was, you know, if, if they were going to get bought, you
24:53
know, I think he was happy that collectors was the one to buy
24:56
them, or at least someone like collectors who he, he came away,
25:00
I think optimistic that, you know, I've, I've watched a lot
25:04
of YouTube in the last couple days, like a lot, probably a lot
25:07
of people have in, in podcast and there's a lot of negativity
25:10
out there. You know, I know even, you know,
25:11
I've heard you have some thoughts about it too, Greg.
25:14
But I think a lot of people think that PSA is going to do
25:17
what our collectors is going to do to Beckett, what they've done
25:21
with SGC, which is really nothing and letting it kind of
25:24
die. But Doctor Beckett at least
25:27
doesn't feel that way based on everything he's, you know, as
25:31
far as feedback has gotten from Nat Turner and, and, and anyone
25:34
else, he seemed like they were going to go the other way with
25:37
it and try to improve Beckett and build it up and, and
25:41
everything. I like Nat Turner, you know, I
25:43
didn't even know who he was until I, I started following
25:47
like YouTube and stuff with sports cars.
25:49
I know a lot of people knew who he was.
25:50
I didn't. But when I saw him do
25:52
interviews, I said, I said, you know, you could say what you
25:55
want about PSA, but I think he's, I think we're kind of
25:59
lucky to have a guy like him in charge of PSA.
26:02
And one of the things I worry about with PSA in the future is
26:06
if Nat Turner leaves, which I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.
26:09
I mean, he probably if they go public or whatever.
26:12
I know I'm going off on a rant here, but if he goes away, then
26:16
I think a lot of these systems that are in place that are set
26:19
up for a lot of problems, I think then, you know, then you
26:25
get you might have some real bad problems.
26:27
If you don't have someone like Nat Turner at the helm.
26:30
If they bring in someone else who maybe doesn't care about the
26:32
hobby, isn't a collector, then you're gonna, I think see a lot
26:36
of the things potentially that people are worried about.
26:38
But at least for now, I feel like Nat Turner, He seems like
26:42
someone who has nostalgia for Beckett like we do, and I think
26:47
he might actually try to make the best of it and and do what
26:50
he can with an awesome brand like that in the hobby.
26:52
So we'll see. I hope you're right.
26:55
I hope you're right, but I'm skeptical.
26:57
Yeah, yeah. What Doctor Beckett said three
27:00
or four times was if Nat Turner does what he told me he was
27:07
doing, this is a really good thing for Beckett, which that
27:10
was a really, really interesting comment that he made multiple
27:14
times. He said, I know that things can
27:16
change. I know that decisions can
27:19
depend, be dependent on what's happening in different places.
27:23
But if he does what he told me he's going to do, this is going
27:28
to be a good thing. Now that to me makes me kind of
27:36
go, well. But when we look at what, when
27:40
we look at why did PSA buy SGC and then what they've done with
27:46
SGC and then why are they buying Beckett?
27:51
A lot of us are thinking, well, the the road map is in place.
27:54
They've already told us what they're going to do when they
27:56
acquire a company. That's what a lot of us have
27:59
thought. Mike, do you think that this
28:04
might be different, that they might actually be buying this
28:07
distressed asset to actually build it back up again and then
28:12
in theory compete with PSA? Like what?
28:15
What do you think? What do you think of all of
28:17
this? Hearing this right now for the
28:19
first time and not having listened to the whole podcast is
28:23
unfair. But based on what we've shared,
28:26
what is your take away on this? Well, it's certainly hopeful.
28:29
And you and I had a conversation a month or so ago where you
28:33
thought, I don't know if you thought or you asked me, do you
28:35
think Beckett will go out of business or something to that
28:37
effect. And I said no, because the
28:39
Beckett brand is way too valuable and it's been too
28:42
valuable for so long. And right now it's distressed
28:45
because of what the ownership group and the new ownership
28:48
group have done to it. But to a certain generation,
28:53
ours, it's extremely valuable and recognizable and collectors
28:59
could do something very cool with it and give lowercase C
29:05
collectors like us another option other than PSA because
29:09
they're clearly not wanting to do that with SGC.
29:12
But maybe they'll do something really cool with Beckett.
29:14
I'm just skeptical because of what they have done with SGC.
29:19
I have a hard time believing or seeing them doing something
29:23
really cool or beneficial to the hobby with.
29:27
Beckett now OK, yes, I agree with everything you just said.
29:33
Now, in historically speaking, when you look at other
29:38
businesses and other industries, when a big company acquires a
29:43
smaller company in the same industry, so, you know, like for
29:47
a while didn't Ford owned Jaguar and they owned like Land Rover
29:52
and they owned a few different brands within the automobile
29:57
industry. But those brands weren't
30:00
competitors really. They were the same product, but
30:04
they weren't really intended for the same audience.
30:08
Like a person who buys a Jaguar is not going on.
30:11
Is it, am I going to go with the Jaguar or am I going to go with
30:14
the Ford Focus? Like those aren't the same.
30:17
But the thing about grading is if there was a differentiation,
30:21
if they said, you know what, we're going to keep all the
30:24
brands. SGC is now our vintage brand.
30:27
PSA is our, our premium brand for, you know, newer cards and
30:35
Beckett is the, you know, the patch, the patch RPA type brand,
30:41
the thicker cards, the, you know, and they all had like
30:45
their own little kind of niche. Then it would go OK, but so far
30:50
they've all gone been going after you know, if Beckett
30:53
became the the I, I can't even say that one of them would
30:58
become the Pokémon brand or the non sport brand cause none of
31:02
them. I mean, how does it work?
31:05
How do you have those coexist and not become competitors where
31:09
they cannibalize each other? How's that?
31:11
How could that even work? Unless you start to find a
31:15
brand, one of the brands is geared toward a certain group
31:19
that doesn't take away from the other group.
31:21
Otherwise you just have redundancies.
31:25
How does that, how would that work?
31:27
Either of you help me to help me process through how they could
31:30
all coexist. Yeah, it's, it is tough because
31:34
like you said, they're, I mean, we're, they're two competing
31:36
things at pretty much the same price point, you know, So we're
31:39
not talking about a Jaguar or Ford Focus, you know, but I have
31:44
heard that people do like thicker cards in Beckett
31:47
Holder's better. So maybe it's something where
31:49
they can just make some. I mean, I've heard a lot of
31:52
people voice the same concerns with Beckett's slabs.
31:57
You know, they don't like the 95 or they, they, I hate the inner
32:00
sleeve baggy thing, like little things like that.
32:03
That's what I'm talking about. If they can make it a signal
32:06
would be if you start to see like things change with the slab
32:10
or change with the website of it doesn't necessarily have to be
32:13
like, hey, we're going to cannibalize PSA, but just to
32:16
like make some tweaks, low hanging fruit that people have
32:19
been talking about about Beckett for years, but they do nothing.
32:22
If you see like anything that's a good sign.
32:24
I think that, you know, they're just trying to kind of fix it a
32:27
little bit, right? Like make it so that it's like
32:29
the the glaring stuff that nobody likes or very few people
32:32
like get changed. I think that could be that could
32:36
be beneficial. But to your point, it is tricky
32:39
because like, are you going to put all these resources into not
32:43
PSA brand and then build up their slabs?
32:45
And yeah, it is a tricky thing. I think maybe maybe they'll use
32:49
if, if they are going to try to use the Beckett history and
32:52
brand, maybe it's in other ways other than even grading.
32:55
Maybe it's more to do with pricing.
33:00
I mean, I mean, if you think about it, if, if someone were to
33:03
tell you like card ladder, right, card ladder came in and,
33:06
and collectors bought them, if they never did that, this would,
33:10
this would make even way more sense, right?
33:12
Like, hey, let's buy Beckett and then whatever you could like
33:15
we'll build our own pricing tool and put, slap the Beckett name
33:19
on it. Cuz Beckett should be the
33:21
pricing. So they should be like the
33:23
price. They were the price guide.
33:24
They, they should be the online price guide.
33:26
Now, not card ladder, but it is card ladder cuz they were more
33:29
innovative and they did it better.
33:31
So I don't know, but I think they got to use the name
33:33
somehow, right? Like the the brand is like Mike
33:36
says, too valuable. It's too much history,
33:38
nostalgia. If they're going public, the
33:40
people that are going to invest, they they're going to know
33:42
Beckett. So they have to use that brand
33:44
somehow. But it might not be like hey,
33:47
grade with Beckett. Now it's it's just as good as
33:49
PSAII. Don't.
33:50
I don't know if that's going to happen.
33:51
The Beckett card ladder. Beckett Card Ladder brought to
33:55
you by Beckett. I I'm very curious to think, to
34:00
see what Chris Hoge is thinking right now.
34:02
I know he's been under the weather for the last week and a
34:04
half, but I'd be very, very curious to hear what he's
34:07
thinking. It looks like Mike just froze on
34:10
us. Can you hear me, Mike?
34:11
Oh, there you are. I hear I.
34:13
Hear you fine. Is my audio still OK?
34:15
No, maybe you were just not moving.
34:17
No, I think that the my video keeps freezing but the audio
34:23
stays fine. OK.
34:24
For us it's mostly looks fine. Let me.
34:27
Ask my My Wi-Fi looks perfect, but it's clearly having some
34:30
issues. That's OK, We'll just keep
34:32
plowing forward. This is this is going fine.
34:35
Why Mike, why did did collectors purchase Beckett?
34:42
In your opinion? What is the reason that they
34:45
they purchased Beckett based on what he doctor Beckett said
34:49
based on the little Because that's one of the reasons why
34:51
like a lot of people go immediately, they go in the
34:53
report on it and it's like, well, we don't really know a lot
34:56
yet. And as some things are starting
34:58
to trickle out, it might change our opinions.
35:01
So as things stand right now on Wednesday, December 17th at 7:45
35:06
Eastern, why did collectors purchase Beckett?
35:11
Was it a block? Was it to expand the portfolio?
35:15
Is it a distressed asset? What's the reason?
35:18
Yeah, that's right. I, I spent many years as a
35:22
business analyst and a data analyst and I still work in in
35:25
that field. And one of the things when I was
35:29
assigned to go figure out why did this happen, One of the
35:31
things that senior executives hate the most is when I go back
35:34
and say it wasn't one thing. It was like 12 different things
35:38
that caused this to happen and it's not going to be popular
35:41
with the audience. But the answer is the same here.
35:43
Why did collectors buy Beckett? There were a lot of reasons.
35:46
It is a distressed asset for. They probably got it very
35:49
cheaply, and I mean 10s of millions of dollars still, but
35:54
relative to what it was once worth it.
35:57
They're blocking another company, probably fanatics, from
36:00
buying it. They want to gain a little bit
36:05
of market share that Beckett had 4% or something like that.
36:10
They wanted to buy the graders because that's very important
36:13
right now. And I know you got a lot of
36:16
people saying, well, the graders are easy to find.
36:17
They just hire them at $14.00 an hour off the street.
36:21
But high level graders are very difficult and people who can do
36:24
it all day long and do it accurately are very, very
36:27
difficult to find. And there are numerous other
36:31
reasons for them to buy Beckett. The brand name itself is
36:34
valuable. The maybe there is an executive
36:39
team of company. I used to work for a company
36:41
that purchased a company just for the talent, just for the
36:47
people who work there, the executive team, the management
36:50
team and the people who were, you know, the doers, the people
36:53
doing the actual work had so much talent that they needed to
36:57
train their, the rest of their company on that.
37:01
They bought this company and eventually the company went out
37:03
of business. The smaller company that they
37:05
didn't go out of business, they just stopped selling it.
37:08
But they had the talent that they paid the for the company
37:11
for. And that's that's valuable to a
37:13
company like collectors. Adam, why did collectors buy
37:17
Beckett in your opinion? I, I mean, I think they're
37:22
making so much money right now. They got money.
37:25
They they got money to spend and I think I agree with what you've
37:30
said, Greg, as far as going public, I mean it, it certainly
37:33
can't hurt to own Beckett if you're, if you're going public,
37:36
right? That's that's a great thing and
37:39
it's one of the tops Beckett, I mean the most well known brands
37:44
in the hobby, right? Probably over time.
37:48
So I think it has to do with that.
37:50
But I, I really think, I mean, Nat Turner loves the hobby.
37:54
And, you know, if, if I ran collectors, I would love to have
38:00
bought Beckett that that's cool. I, you know, he, I think he's
38:04
right around our age probably, you know, and I've heard him say
38:07
this same thing. You know, he loved getting the
38:09
Beckett magazines in the mail as a kid.
38:12
And it's, it's probably a dream to, to buy a company like
38:16
Beckett and, and just to think like even from dollars and cents
38:19
and all that, like just to think about all the things you can do
38:22
with it. Like there's a lot of
38:23
opportunity there that like, like people have been saying for
38:26
years now, no one's doing anything at Beckett.
38:29
It doesn't seem like you never hear from him.
38:31
I, I don't even, I don't know who was like SGC had Pete Nat
38:35
Turner with PSA and then Ryan with, you know, PSA.
38:40
They got those guys. Every company had like a, a
38:43
person that was out there on social media, even CGC Mike, you
38:48
had Sue's right. She works for she you hear her a
38:51
lot on on social media. They have spokespeople.
38:54
Beckett I I don't think I've ever seen anyone over the last
38:57
few years. Maybe like one, one or two
38:59
videos, but they don't really have anyone.
39:02
You know, they had a, they had a Texas guy a couple years ago who
39:06
did like 5 videos as the face of Beckett and it was, I don't
39:11
remember, there was something embarrassing that happened
39:14
during that time and then it just stopped.
39:15
Yeah, I mean, these are brands, right?
39:18
Like it doesn't always make complete sense, but it's a
39:22
brand. So you have to be out there if
39:24
you want to build your brand further in a hobby like this,
39:27
which is still like kind of a niche hobby.
39:29
You know, really it's it's not that not a huge industry
39:32
compared to other industries. So you really, you know, you
39:35
have to get it out there. You had like, that's why Pete
39:37
did so well for SGC 'cause he was out there making videos
39:40
enthusiastic. We're doing it guys and, and
39:43
thanking everybody and people like them.
39:46
That makes a difference in a small industry like this, you
39:49
know, But Beckett didn't have any of that.
39:51
I mean, now you could, you know, tweak a few things.
39:54
You could, you could put someone else in charge of Beckett and
39:59
they're out there. And even if they make a video
40:01
every few months, I think it's it's probably there's a lot of
40:04
low hanging fruit that you could do with Beckett just based on
40:07
the name. So.
40:08
I've got a couple of quick hitter questions for you guys
40:11
that I'm, I'm super interested to hear your thoughts on.
40:14
So I'm 46 years old, OK, on my 50th birthday.
40:20
So it's 3 1/2 years from now because anyway, 3 1/2 years from
40:24
now on my 50th birthday, question number one, I'm going
40:27
to wrote, I'm going to bump back and forth between who goes first
40:30
on each because it's not fair to give them.
40:32
So, Mike, on my 50th birthday, will Peter Steinberg have worked
40:40
and received a paycheck for working at any collector's brand
40:46
by my 50th birthday? Absolutely not.
40:50
How about you, Adam? Do you know?
40:52
OK. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
40:55
Just real quick, I think that when Peter left he received a
40:58
substantial payout from collectors and as part of that
41:02
substantial payout, I don't know what it was, I suspect that they
41:07
required him to sign a non disclosure, a non compete And
41:13
they said with this payout we're locking you down for five years,
41:18
eight years, whatever it is, it's substantial.
41:21
And I think that he was happy to pay it because they sign it
41:23
because they probably paid him a significant amount of.
41:26
Money, Adam. Does Peter Steinberg work for
41:29
the Collector's company For any brand between now and my 50th
41:33
birthday? No, I think he's going to move
41:36
on to something else. If Beckett is a distressed brand
41:42
and collectors really did buy it as a distressed brand to
41:47
resurrect it and they don't have that clear leader right now, why
41:52
wouldn't they hire Peter for a good salary in addition to his
41:59
non compete? Hey, now we're going to triple
42:02
that, but you're going to come work with us because Peter, I
42:06
believe if put in charge of Beckett, could in theory
42:10
resurrected. So what I'm getting at is this.
42:13
I don't think that they're buying a distressed asset to
42:17
rebuild it because if they actually were, I think they
42:22
could say, Pete, move your family down to Dallas and turn
42:27
this company into something bigger.
42:30
I don't think that's what they're actually doing.
42:32
And I think that they have a person who could do it if they
42:35
wanted to do it. Am I crazy, Mike?
42:39
I think that's a. You just blew my mind with that
42:41
thought. It's yeah.
42:45
I mean, Peter would be the one person who could do that, but I
42:49
just think that he, I have no inside knowledge here.
42:53
I just believe that he and Nat Turner and Ryan Hogue bumped
42:58
heads. Speculation on my part, but I
43:01
just don't think it was working out with them.
43:03
I think that they want to do things that he thinks are bad
43:07
for collectors, lowercase collectors like us, and they
43:11
wanted to do them because they were good for uppercase
43:14
collectors, because they were were big revenue generators.
43:18
And I think that it didn't work out between them.
43:21
Pure speculation on my part. Adam, am I crazy?
43:25
No, you're not crazy. And and I disagree though, that
43:28
he's the one guy who could guys. It's not I mean this isn't
43:31
rocket science. I mean they just need someone
43:33
who's going to be out there with enthusiasm that has a little
43:37
innovative out-of-the-box. Think it's not like Peter's like
43:39
Einstein here guy. I mean, he's a, he seemed like
43:41
an A great guy, but I mean, it's card grading.
43:44
Come on now. I mean, anyone could do this
43:46
really not anyone but someone who cares, right?
43:49
I think that's, that's my kind of last point on this.
43:53
I think with PSA collectors, this is their shot, right?
43:57
If they, if they do want to show that they, if they truly do have
44:00
some care about the hobby and it's not all about money, It's
44:03
not about all about going public and cashing out.
44:07
This is really their shot to prove it.
44:08
I mean, this is like layup, right?
44:10
Like they could easily show the hobby that like we love this
44:14
hobby too. We like making a lot of money,
44:16
but we also want the hobby to succeed and and grow.
44:20
This is their chance to do it. So I think I'm going to say by
44:23
the national coming up, we're going to know one way or the
44:26
other if it's what the doomsdayers are saying or if
44:30
it's if you're trying to be optimistic, like maybe I am
44:32
here. Maybe if it's more towards that,
44:34
I think we'll see at least some things happen or not happen that
44:38
are going to tell us which way it's going to go.
44:40
And then I'll be the first one to say, you know what, I gave
44:42
PSA and collectors a shot here. I was hopeful, but I was wrong.
44:48
Or maybe I'll say, hey, I was, you know, I was somewhat right.
44:50
They they did have good intentions.
44:52
And Dr. Beckett, what he hoped is coming true.
44:54
So I think we're going to know by the summer of 2026.
44:58
So you say somebody, somebody needs to be enthusiastic and
45:02
cares about the hobby. Is Dylan available?
45:05
Dylan would kill it. It honestly, if they want, if
45:10
they, if they, they, you know, they need.
45:12
Yeah, just someone who someone who wants to grow a business,
45:15
let's put it that way. OK, Adam goes first.
45:18
We're at 45 minutes, so I'm going to make this quick, but I
45:21
do have two more quick hits for you guys.
45:23
Adam on my 50th birthday, will SGC be a company I I could send
45:31
cards in for grading for? Yes.
45:35
Yep, Mike. Yep.
45:36
Yeah. Wow.
45:38
All right, Mike, will Beckett be a company I can send cards in
45:43
for grading for on my 50th birthday?
45:45
Yes. Adam.
45:48
Yes, interesting. I'm hopeful.
45:51
I believe it. I let the record show.
45:56
I want SGC to be around in five years.
46:01
I want Beckett to be around in five years.
46:03
I want them to be independent brands under the same umbrella.
46:08
I want to say I like what they're doing over there.
46:11
I'm going to go with them and I like what they're.
46:13
I don't like what they're doing, so I'm going to go over there.
46:15
I want that to happen. At the moment, I just don't feel
46:19
like there's enough differentiation between them
46:22
and, and the hope originally was that SGC would be the vintage
46:26
wing of PSA. But what they did is they stole
46:31
all of their top vintage graders.
46:34
They staffed them way down and they pulled all those people to
46:40
help with the PSA backlog and, and showed us that PSA is the
46:44
priority and SGC is just like, I mean, if you still want us to
46:49
have them, they, I guess they're still an option.
46:51
They're, they're not, there's not a differentiation that they
46:54
have done with the marketing of, of SGC at this point.
46:59
How I don't see what they can do to, to not be targeting the same
47:07
people with the PSA brand and the Beckett brand.
47:09
Uh oh, I can't hear Mike. Can you hear, Madam?
47:14
No. Can you hear me now?
47:17
Yes. What if they bought Beckett?
47:20
Beckett is right now a B VG3, right?
47:23
And they bought this BVG 3 and they're going to turn it into
47:26
APSA 10 and then they're going to sell it.
47:30
Why would they do that? Why would they reserve?
47:34
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
47:36
When, when General Motors was about to go bankrupt, you know
47:40
you didn't have Ford. Go let's buy them, let's make
47:44
them really good, and then let's sell them to someone to compete
47:47
with us. Why would they do that?
47:49
They go public and they spin it off as its own company.
47:52
Well, that is you. You didn't include the go public
47:56
part if they go public and they spin them off.
48:01
OK. Last question, Mike in on my
48:05
50th birthday, can I go to buy shares of Collector's Universe
48:11
on the open market? I think by the time you have
48:16
your 48th birthday you'll be able to.
48:19
Adam. Yeah, I, I think so.
48:22
I mean, like I don't know as much about the the whole I'm
48:26
like, I work with small businesses.
48:27
So I've never really, I've never really studied like the big
48:30
business stuff too much. Are the people like if they go
48:33
public, are the people that work are working at collectors right
48:36
now? Are they going to get all like
48:37
really rich? Is that how?
48:39
They're only if they've been given equity stock options in
48:42
the company and a lot of them probably have.
48:44
They're probably, you know, stay with us.
48:46
We've, we've given you, I once got recruited by a company that
48:51
made all of their employees think they were going to become
48:53
millionaires because they were giving them like here's 10,000
48:56
shares of our stock. And when we go public with this
49:00
10,000, it's going to be worth so much.
49:02
But over time, those shares get diluted and diluted and diluted.
49:06
And like the people who thought they were going to be making
49:08
millions were making like $10,000 from their tenant, what
49:11
was originally 10,000 shares. But yeah, they, the executives
49:17
will get rich for sure. Richer, right?
49:22
Yeah, super interesting discussion and again, I look
49:28
forward to seeing how things unfold over the next six months.
49:32
I'll be paying close attention to see what things are done.
49:35
I would love it if they want to take a distressed asset and make
49:41
it a premium brand again to help with their unveiling of their
49:47
going public to make it a more interesting investment because
49:52
that would be good for us if they did that.
49:55
And so that is what I am hoping for.
49:59
We'll see what happens. Any final thoughts before we
50:03
sign off, Mike? Awesome to have Adam in here.
50:07
And Adam, fantastic job at the website.
50:11
Thanks guys. Yeah, I appreciate you having me
50:13
on surface issues and that's, yeah, that's all I got for
50:17
today. All right guys, thanks for
50:20
listening again. Check out sports card
50:23
clubhouse.com. Subscribe to the YouTube channel
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