Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / "I'm Too Old For Drama" -- talking with Sooz @yanxchick about content and collection

Transcript

"I'm Too Old For Drama" -- talking with Sooz @yanxchick about content and collection · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:00
All right, hey everybody, it is Mike.
0:03
This is the Meet a content Creator podcast and I'm joined
0:08
by Suze, also known as Yanks chick on Twitter and Instagram,
0:13
right? Yeah, pretty much every social
0:15
media channel I try to just keep Yanks chick across the board.
0:18
Yeah, that's smart. Thanks for joining me.
0:21
It's a it's a pleasure having you.
0:22
I've actually been doing this for 4 1/2 years and I've never
0:26
had a woman on to discuss cards. Well, I'm happy to be the first.
0:33
Yeah, it's, you know, I've, I've asked a bunch and I think that a
0:37
lot of women see the sports card space as less inviting than they
0:44
would like. And they're, they're afraid of
0:46
the getting their faces out there and in.
0:49
And I get it. I'm on Twitter, I see the
0:52
controversies, the the, the people attacking women for
0:55
expressing their opinions. So how do you avoid that?
1:01
Because I don't see any controversies with you
1:03
whatsoever. Well, I think a lot of it has to
1:09
do with personality and that's not like a shot at anybody.
1:12
I just want to say that I am very much been a person who is,
1:18
I don't care what you have to say or what you think.
1:21
So people have like a problem with something.
1:23
I'm like, OK, like that's a you problem.
1:24
You need to figure that out for yourself.
1:27
So I kind of just like, you know, focus on me and like
1:33
curating my feet, so to speak, of what I want to see.
1:36
So, you know, it's less about like getting involved in the
1:40
drama because like, also like we may be of a similar age.
1:44
I'm too old for drama. Like I'm a mom, you know what I
1:49
mean? I've been, I've been long out of
1:52
high school. Like I don't really have time
1:54
for drama. So when I generally see like
1:56
drama and that kind of stuff, honestly, I just scroll past it.
1:59
I it's not something that like fills my cup.
2:02
Yeah, I love sports cards. I love content.
2:06
I love about sports cards. So I try to find the things that
2:10
are going to like, fill my cup and make me feel, you know,
2:14
whole and satisfied. And drama's not it.
2:17
Yeah, yeah. I scroll by it too.
2:19
It, it interests me, I would say, but not in a way that I
2:22
want to get involved in it. And so I see all the things that
2:26
are happening and I just, I just keep on scrolling.
2:28
I don't like any of the posts. I just that's not for me and I
2:32
move on and I think I'm too old for Drama is the perfect title
2:37
for this episode. It's.
2:39
Fair, let's do it. I'm too old for drama.
2:41
Yeah, so first of all, I should probably give a better
2:46
introduction to you. Why don't let why don't I let
2:48
you do it? What Who are you and what do you
2:51
do on social media and for your job since it's also card
2:55
related? Yeah, who I am, I'm still trying
2:59
to figure that out, even though I'm too old for drama.
3:01
So everyday I'm still trying to figure out who I am.
3:03
But I'm serious, you know, my content creation actually
3:09
started long before sort of the explosion of social media, as
3:14
you would back in 2007. I created a blog called A
3:19
Cardboard Problem, which still exists on the Internet but
3:22
hasn't been updated in a very, very long time.
3:25
But it was during like the sort of heyday of blogs.
3:28
And back then sports cards blogs were actually like incredibly
3:32
popular and blowing up. And my friend Marie and I had
3:36
one of the most popular sports cards blogs out there.
3:38
People liked it. And to be fair, I'll say they
3:41
liked it because it was like, oh, here are two women who are
3:44
collecting sports cards, not something you see everyday.
3:47
So we became pretty popular based off of that.
3:51
But it was, it was more than that, right?
3:53
It was like, here are two people who are like super passionate
3:56
about cards and know about cards.
3:59
And, you know, to be honest, I never felt, and I still see this
4:02
a lot now on social media. I never felt like people were
4:04
like testing me like, like, you know, who was card number 1 And
4:07
like this, you know, it was like never like anybody was trying to
4:09
test me on my card knowledge. So that was appreciated because
4:13
I do think, you know, our passion, the fact that we just
4:17
love the cards and we were in it for the sake of collecting,
4:20
really like was able to shine through.
4:22
So I did card blogging, so to speak, for, for a very long
4:27
time. It's now almost, Oh my gosh,
4:29
almost 20 years later, you know, you forget that 22,000 and seven
4:32
was almost, almost 20 years ago. But you know, so I started, we
4:36
started out then, then I was, I was a sports reporter at the
4:40
time covering different sports. So I was covering baseball and
4:46
hockey and football and everything.
4:48
And with that, you know, my writing was also like, it was
4:54
like pretty good writing, if I may say so myself.
4:57
And I started actually then freelancing for Beckett.
5:00
So I was freelancing for several of their magazines after about
5:04
2009, I want to say it started. And then in 2012 I became their
5:11
hockey, football and basketball editor of Back In Magazine.
5:16
So I was writing about that and that's actually really where a
5:19
lot of what I do on social media, mostly on Twitter really
5:25
was born from. So started sharing a lot of
5:27
content on Twitter. That's actually my week.
5:30
I have a weekly card chat on Twitter where, you know, I just
5:33
every Wednesday announce every Wednesday at 8:00 PM, you know,
5:36
I have 6 questions during the hour, different topics,
5:38
different topics of cards. It started during that time.
5:41
So with the card chat, weekly Twitter chat has been going on
5:44
since about 20, 2012, 2013. So that's been going on for a
5:47
while. So yeah, then I started working
5:50
at TOPS after two years of 2014. I worked at Tops.
5:53
I was there. One of the jobs I had was
5:57
picking the images of cards, which is always fun.
5:59
But then I was also running their social media channels for
6:01
four years. So a lot of my content creation
6:04
personally kind of took a back seat to what I was doing versus
6:08
4 Tops. And then I left and went to
6:12
other places outside the industry and then I came back,
6:16
worked for Golden, and now I'm the senior marketing manager at
6:19
CGC Cards. Yeah, and that's where I met
6:22
you, was at the National. You helped me get my order done
6:27
at CGC at the booth. Yeah, so that's what I do.
6:30
And then I also have a newsletter card chat, 'cause
6:33
that's what my Twitter was like, a weekly card chat.
6:36
And then I have a newsletter that I've been doing since 2020
6:39
on the collectibles industry and less about like how expensive
6:45
cards are and more about I've been involved for so long in the
6:48
industry and like sort of using my knowledge of what I have
6:51
about from working out all these companies to sort of, you know,
6:55
give my perspective and insight into the hobby.
6:59
Yeah, and your newsletter's amazing and I wish you published
7:02
more of it. Me too.
7:05
I think that there's in the last two years we've seen a pretty
7:09
large growth in newsletters and sports cars.
7:12
And I would say that yours is probably the best I've seen.
7:16
And, you know, you said you're a pretty good writer.
7:19
I would. I think that undersells a little
7:20
bit your story about selecting. I don't remember.
7:24
Was it Stadium Club, theater card?
7:27
Yeah, that was great. They're all great.
7:29
But that that that one has always stuck with me.
7:32
I appreciate that. Like, and that's part of it too.
7:34
Like, like I said, I've worked in these places.
7:36
So it's funny 'cause like some of these things happen to me and
7:39
I just tell these stories to like my husband or to other
7:41
people and they're like, that's really cool.
7:43
Like you should tell that story, those stories to more people.
7:46
And I'm like, yeah, you know what, I I probably should, I
7:48
probably have some like an interesting stories of like, you
7:53
know, also just like how things are done right.
7:54
Like I got to spend three years picking the images for Stadium
7:58
Club. Like what an amazing honestly,
7:59
though, what an amazing job to say like the coolest product
8:03
with the coolest images. Like I I did that like that,
8:06
that was and that was so much fun.
8:07
And like, and the reason with the Jeter, I'm a huge Derek
8:10
Jeter collector. Like that's my PC.
8:12
And, you know, I spoke about how the the image I picked for that
8:16
card was the last time he ran onto the field at Yankee
8:20
Stadium. And maybe some people don't
8:21
realize that just by looking, you got the card, you know, it's
8:23
like, oh, these are Derek Jeter running out of the dugout.
8:27
But there's a there's a story behind that picture.
8:29
And for me, you know, that was super important because like,
8:32
yeah, that's my PCI get to, I get to, I get to do that.
8:35
Like it was. It was fun.
8:36
Yeah, it's very cool. It's very cool job.
8:39
It's kind of if you're a collector, that's kind of the
8:42
dream, right? Yeah.
8:44
Yeah. And when I was a kid, I was.
8:49
When did Stadium Club come out in 91?
8:52
I was 12 and so it was kind of, I was approaching the end of my
8:57
time as a collector in 91, as a, you know, entering my teens.
9:02
I think I ended, I stopped collecting at some point in 94,
9:05
but Stadium Club was the peak. The, the, the absolute pinnacle.
9:09
I hate to say pinnacle cause Pinnacle was also cool but the
9:13
best set and then when tops brought it back?
9:18
When did Tops bring Stadium Club back?
9:20
Oh, I wanna say 2009 is sticking out is like one of the years
9:23
they brought it back. I'm really bad.
9:25
I'm just terrible at history of cards.
9:27
I thank goodness for Google because.
9:30
It's they have kept the, the kind of essence or the spirit
9:34
alive of Stadium Club, which is, you know, the the coolest, most
9:39
unique photos, not just the the fun action photos, but there's,
9:44
there's a higher quality to Stadium Club.
9:48
Yeah, definitely. And I think that's in, you know,
9:51
going in when they're like, hey, we want you to pick the images
9:55
for Stadium Club this year. Like that's cool.
9:57
And like for me as a collector, like that's a lot of pressure,
10:00
right? It's like every other product
10:01
you're like, OK, I kind of know like this is what I'm going to
10:03
go in and these are kind of shots, but no Stadium Club, you
10:07
need to find the best of the best images.
10:09
And, you know, and it's so like a lot of pressure, but it's also
10:12
a lot of fun. You know, you go in and, you
10:14
know, uses Getty Images for the pictures that go on cards.
10:17
So you just sit there and like, you know, you just scroll and
10:20
scroll and scroll and scroll until you like, oh, and for me,
10:23
I always say like, I, I try to look for pictures that made me
10:27
feel something because like a random action shot, whatever.
10:30
But like, if something made me feel something and that's when I
10:34
would see that, then I'd be like, oh, OK, this is one of the
10:37
options. Cause and then I'd end up with
10:38
like 10 tabs across. Like, you know, the top of my
10:40
browser was like all the different images I made were
10:43
were like potential possibilities of what would end
10:45
up on the card. That's awesome.
10:48
So another thing I find really genuine about you on Twitter is
10:51
that a lot of people like you or me who are posting a fair amount
10:55
on Twitter are, you know, they have the blue check mark and
10:59
there's no knock on the blue check mark or people who have
11:01
it. But a lot of those people tend
11:04
to some of them, their content feels a little bit less genuine,
11:09
like they're chasing views so that they can get more money
11:13
from Twitter for their posts. Kind of like YouTube where a lot
11:17
of people are are chasing views, but you don't have that.
11:21
You have 23,000 followers on Twitter and you don't have the
11:24
blue check mark. So you're just doing it for the
11:26
love of cards? Yeah, that's kind of been my
11:30
motto. You know, when I worked at TOPS,
11:34
that's actually when I got into marketing, because actually when
11:35
I was working at TOPS, you know, social media PRI started all
11:40
that really started at Tops because prior to that I was a
11:43
sports journalist. And my goal, and I've said this
11:46
a million times to whoever listened to me, is I just want
11:50
people to love cards as much as I do.
11:53
And that's still how I feel about it to this day.
11:56
So for me, it's about, you know, and he knows it's about
12:00
community. Like cards are cards is a lot of
12:02
fun. Cards are a lot of fun, but it's
12:04
more fun with people and it's more fun sharing that with other
12:07
collectors. So I think that's also part of
12:09
like we talked about like the drama, like that doesn't that
12:12
that doesn't do it for me. That doesn't move my needle.
12:14
Like I want to talk about cool cards.
12:16
I want to talk about yeah, like, yeah, things that are happening
12:19
in the industry because I do think that's important.
12:20
That's where my newsletter comes in.
12:22
But like I want to be able to share that with people and
12:26
engage with people and just have fun.
12:28
Like I don't need to make, I would like to make more money in
12:31
general, like in life, you know? But like when it comes to like
12:35
Twitter, I don't, I don't, I don't need to.
12:38
It's always fun when you see a post, it's like, Oh my gosh, I
12:40
got a lot of views. But like, I don't need that.
12:43
I just want to be with other collectors.
12:46
That's what makes this hobby so much fun.
12:49
Yeah, that's cool. So Speaking of collecting, you
12:53
are a mega Jeter collector. How many unique Jeter cards do
12:57
you have? I don't know, I have a bunch I
13:00
got recently that I haven't logged.
13:02
So but it's it's probably close to like 3100 different Jeter
13:06
cards right now. Yeah, I recently got AI was at
13:09
my local card shop and they're like, hey, we got some really
13:12
cool Yankees cards that came in. You want to check this out?
13:14
I'm like, yeah, sure. So I'm going through the box and
13:17
as I'm pulling out the Jeter cards I don't have and there's
13:19
still like a whole row of Jeter cards in this box and I'm
13:22
looking and I'm like, I'm about half and half of like what I
13:24
don't have versus what I have. And I was like, here's a crazy
13:28
question. I'm like, how much is for all of
13:29
them? I'm just going to take it all.
13:30
I'm not even going to look through them.
13:31
And they gave me an amazing price and I was like, yeah, so
13:34
let's do it. So I have not lost probably
13:36
about 100 different. It was like 100 more cards.
13:38
Haven't really gone through them all to see what I have and don't
13:40
have. But it's it's probably close to
13:43
about 3100 right now. So when you're doing that, what
13:45
where are you logging your cards?
13:46
Is it TCDB or is it a spreadsheet?
13:49
So right now everything's on Google Sheets.
13:51
I'm and I only have a have list because because Derek Jeter has
13:56
like 25,000 to 30,000 different cards, which is, you know, I'm
14:01
never going to complete that. I've come to accept this a long
14:03
time ago. I'm OK with that.
14:06
But the problem with that is like, I don't have a want list
14:10
and I need a want list. And so I've actually been going
14:13
into trading card database to create a want list.
14:17
So I one day not too long ago, a couple months ago, went into
14:21
trading card database and to literally clicked on all Derek
14:25
Jeter cards and said put this in my want list.
14:27
I thought I broke the site by the way, because then I get like
14:29
a like it was like a screen of death.
14:31
It was like this application. I was like, Oh no, don't tell
14:33
anyone I broke the site. So now I've been slowly going
14:37
through and putting all the cards that I have in my have
14:41
list so on that site. And then I will go through again
14:44
and remove everything I don't want.
14:45
Cause like to be honest, like I love autographs.
14:47
I will buy them, but they're not like the chase for me.
14:51
I really want like bass and inserts and parallels, like
14:53
really cool cards. So then I'll go through and like
14:56
remove the hit so to speak and like just the cards I wouldn't
14:59
be chasing. So I will one day, not probably
15:03
anytime soon, but one day have like a definitive want list.
15:08
Yeah, so I also track mine in in Google Sheets and there's there
15:15
are so many different places where you can track your
15:17
collection and they're all way too complicated for me.
15:20
I need something very simple and I don't want to spend $20.00 a
15:24
month to track my collection. And I think TCDB keeps it
15:31
simple. I haven't used it extensively,
15:34
but that's probably the closest to what I'd be looking for.
15:37
Is, you know, this. The simplicity of it is
15:41
appealing to me. Maybe because I'm a simple man,
15:43
I don't know. No, I actually, that's one of
15:45
the reasons I liked it too. But what what actually had
15:49
happened was for years, way even before I was working for them, I
15:52
was actually keeping my Jeter collection in Beckett Beckett's
15:55
database. Like they have an their database
15:57
is incredible for Kards. And when I'm looking up Kards
16:01
like generally they're one of the first places I search.
16:03
And if I can't find it there, then I'll go to TC.
16:06
This is why we just say trading card database because I
16:08
constantly want to say TCBY and like probably knows what that
16:11
is. So I was just thinking, I was
16:13
telling somebody about TCBY just like 2 weeks ago, and they were
16:16
like, there were frozen yogurt places all around the country.
16:20
Yeah, they were everywhere. Yeah.
16:22
So that's why I'm like, I just don't use their initials because
16:24
I always want to say TCBY. So and in Beckett, like I had my
16:29
whole Jeter collection and then one day it got wiped out and I
16:34
was very upset naturally 'cause it was like all this work, all
16:38
these years of logging in my cards and now they're gone.
16:42
So it's actually why I use Google Sheets while I'm still
16:45
relying on Google. But in this case, like, you
16:49
know, I'm less concerned about Google going away one day then I
16:52
am about like a third party website.
16:54
Yeah, going away. Yeah.
16:58
So what is the favorite, your favorite Jeter card that you
17:01
own? Yeah, I mean, not not the most
17:03
valuable, just your favorite one.
17:05
Depends on the day you asked me. So today it's always going to be
17:09
up there for me. 2014 TOPS update, like the All Star sort
17:16
of subset in TOPS update because that was the first card that I
17:21
got to pick the image for, for Derek Jeter on a tops card.
17:26
So that to me will always be like #1 not always #1 which,
17:30
like I said, depends on the day. It's always in the top five.
17:34
So do you. Have do you have each of the
17:35
variations of that one? Don't you know, and that was
17:37
something it is on my eBay want list.
17:40
So like everyday and I check my you know, when the emails come
17:43
through for eBay, I check my little search.
17:45
It's like, oh, do I have you know, anything that I don't have
17:47
is popped up today. So I do not have the rainbow for
17:50
that, which is actually quite disappointing because I only
17:52
realized that like maybe like a year ago, that was like, why did
17:57
I never, because you know what, I even though I collect Jeter,
17:59
I've never been like a rainbow person to be like, I need every
18:01
parallel of everything. And then I was like, but why
18:03
didn't I collect this, this rainbow?
18:05
Having said that, I do have the clear variation which my husband
18:09
had bought for me for like an anniversary present one year,
18:11
one year. So I think that's why I was like
18:14
once I had because those are number to 10.
18:15
I was like, once I had that, like I didn't really feel the
18:18
need to chase every parallel, but I have a bunch of them.
18:21
Thankfully the rainbow from 2014 is like 8 cards and not 67.
18:27
Yeah, and it's gotten infinitely more difficult to be a super
18:31
collector of a player now, especially a player like Jeter
18:35
who is going to get a ton of cards every single year, making
18:39
it far more difficult for you to ever complete collecting them,
18:42
right. Yes, but I've also like I have a
18:44
hierarchy of cards. If you want to say of like what
18:47
my focus is on collecting his cards.
18:49
Would I want to complete every card he's ever owned?
18:52
Yeah, but that's not realistic. So for me, it's like 92 to 96,
18:57
which are his like rookie minor league prospect years.
19:00
Like that's number one. So if I, it's like if you have a
19:02
choice like here's a card from 1996 versus a card from 2015,
19:06
I'm going to pick the 1996 card. And then it's his playing years.
19:10
His playing years again will always come before like like
19:13
anything from like retired times.
19:16
So like like if so, if the options are I'm choosing playing
19:20
years versus non playing years, I'll choose the playing years
19:23
first. So I'm not as concerned with the
19:26
cards, so to speak, from his non playing years and from the cards
19:30
I didn't pick the picture of because for that point I'm like
19:33
there's no time for me for these.
19:35
So like there is a hierarchy of like how I collect the Jeter
19:39
cards because I don't necessarily need, yeah, 2025
19:45
cards as much as I need cards from 2005.
19:48
Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. I'm I'm a Red Sox fan.
19:51
I'm a Pedro collector. I wouldn't call myself a super
19:54
collector, but I love Pedro Martinez and I don't, I actually
19:59
don't care to ever have any of his post career, actually his
20:03
post Red Sox cards. I like his Expos, his Dodgers
20:07
and his Red Sox cards. And then after that I have no
20:09
interest in having them. And Pedro has far fewer new
20:14
cards coming out than Jeter. I guess that's the, the Yankees
20:19
dynasty benefit. If you're a, if you love any
20:22
Jeter cards, you're going to get a lot of them because they, they
20:25
were massive in the 90s and early 2000s.
20:30
So yeah, I, I'm looking for 1990s and early 2000s refractors
20:35
of Pedro. And then I have, I don't know,
20:38
900 or so unique Pedro cards leading up to before 2005.
20:44
That's awesome. Yeah, don't tell anybody, but I
20:47
like Pedro too, but don't, not to not to collect his cards,
20:50
just so just to be clear, but I do.
20:52
I actually when I was a reporter that we mentioned before, I
20:55
covered the Phillies and he he played for the Phillies for one
20:57
season. And like, as I'm like, you know,
21:00
interviewing and stuff. I'm like, gosh, I really like
21:02
him. I didn't like he makes me mad,
21:04
but I I kind of like him. Yeah, the the Pedro Yankees
21:09
moment in 2003 was was epic. I was at, I was at Game 7.
21:16
You were at Game 7. Yeah, when Aaron Boone hit that
21:18
walk off, I was at that game. Yeah, I think Red Sox fans are
21:21
kind of enjoying the Aaron Boone comeuppance now cuz he's kind
21:25
of, he's kind of hated by Yankees fans and by Red Sox
21:28
fans. Yeah, I mean, it was probably
21:31
the best game. I mean, I've been to a lot of
21:33
crazy games and it was probably the best game I've ever been to
21:35
in my life. Was that 2003?
21:37
Just the sheer euphoria after that game was in.
21:40
It was, gosh, it was insane. And I could still picture,
21:47
'cause I was, I was, you know, the Yankee state and Bleacher
21:49
creatures, like I was a Bleacher creature.
21:51
And I could still picture like in my mind, I just see it like
21:53
it's like a movie in my head. And I just see that ball the way
21:56
I just flew into the night at that home run.
21:59
Me too. It's not a great memory for me,
22:03
but they got good, they got payback.
22:05
Yeah, I don't think about the next year.
22:09
I blocked that. That one's blocked from my
22:11
memory. I'm sure.
22:12
Yeah. So shoot, what was I about to
22:15
say about that? Oh yeah.
22:17
So I, I like Mariano Rivera. Not supposed to, but, and I,
22:23
I've talked about this a few times on my channel, Mariano
22:26
Rivera was always hated. As a Red Sox fan, you kind of
22:29
had like, we have to hate Jeter, we have to hate LeBron James.
22:33
These guys that have beaten our team, we hate them.
22:36
But Mariano Rivera in 2005 when he was introduced at Fenway
22:39
Park, let me think here, 2000 and he had was it 2005?
22:45
He had given up the game-winning hit in 2004.
22:51
And then he was being introduced at Fenway Park and the crowd
22:55
booed him and he smiled and tipped his hat and the crowd
23:00
went crazy. Like that's most guys don't want
23:03
it, don't like that they get upset about it.
23:05
And he just he he thrived on it. And that changed.
23:09
I think that changed millions of Red Sox fans opinions of him.
23:12
Like, OK, he's cool. Yeah, I mean, you know, he, he's
23:16
just like, you know, he, he's always struck me as this guy.
23:18
He's like, he's living his best life, you know?
23:21
He's like, he's lived this absolutely incredible life, you
23:24
know who's like. And yeah, you don't Boo
23:28
nobodies, right? Is that what Reggie Jackson
23:30
said? You know what?
23:30
We don't Boo nobodies. That's exactly right.
23:33
Yeah, it's a classic Reggie Jackson quote.
23:36
So what about a Derek Jeter card that you don't own outside of
23:40
the 2014 Tops update Rainbow? That is your number one target.
23:47
So there's two on my list, but I'll go with a 96 tops.
23:51
Chrome refractor don't have it. I've come close a couple of
23:54
times to like I remember the last one popped up on eBay and I
23:58
was like I'll put my snipe in. This snipe is higher than the
24:02
last ones that sold. Like I'm going to be the top
24:05
bidder because this card in this grade has never sold for this
24:09
price, and I didn't win. Yeah, I'm not the only one.
24:14
It's got to be $1000. Yeah, even I forget it was like,
24:18
I think it was like an 8 and like it went over 1000 bucks and
24:21
I bet I bid over $1000 thinking like yeah, OK, like this is my
24:25
shot. And like it was one of those
24:27
were like somebody bid just more than me.
24:29
So like my bid was like the, you know, incrementally, like the
24:34
bid was just over mine, but who knows what that person was also
24:37
willing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:40
So I, I know I guessed $1000 because I also collect Nomar
24:44
Garcia Para and his 96 tops. Chrome refractor is very
24:50
expensive. It's, I'm gonna say $150.00
24:54
maybe. And for Nomar, well, I know it's
24:57
much easier to collect Nomar than than it is for Jeter.
25:00
And so, yeah, tough though for me to justify spending that kind
25:05
of money on Nomar. I'm not.
25:07
I haven't done it. The.
25:09
Most the most I've ever spent on a Nomar card is probably $30.
25:12
Yeah, look, I've never spent 500.
25:15
I'm like, I don't, I don't spend a lot of money on cars.
25:17
I've never spent $500 on a card. I have spent a couple times $300
25:21
on like super rare one O ones or like things like that.
25:24
The fact that I was willing to bid $1000 on a card kind of made
25:28
me sick a little bit. I'm not gonna lie because I
25:31
again, I'm a huge collector I've been collecting for, but I'm not
25:33
one of these people who like I'm out there like, yeah, let's just
25:36
spend money on cars. That's not me.
25:39
That's not my style. So it was a little sickening,
25:45
but also like I was like, I didn't win.
25:46
That's OK cuz I still I still have those $1000.
25:50
Yeah, I I feel the same way. I at the 2024 National, I spent
25:54
$1100 on one card and it was like double what I'd ever spent
25:59
on a card before. And I still haven't come close
26:02
to it since then. And it's just, I remember just
26:05
having this pit in my stomach for hours that day, like $1100.
26:08
But that card, yeah, exactly that card now is worth like
26:12
16-17 hundred. So I feel like, OK, maybe it
26:15
wasn't such a, such a terrible purchase.
26:20
What else? So you're, you're just this
26:24
morning on my video, I talked about CGC and the increase in
26:29
their, their grading in the past, well, really in the last
26:32
90 to 180 days. But last month they, they
26:35
increased across the board. Sports cars were up like 46%.
26:39
There must be an excitement at work, right?
26:42
Yeah, I mean it, you know, CGC is the fastest growing card
26:45
company right now. Like it's just you could see by
26:47
the numbers, right, what generate and there's excitement
26:50
because there's just a plethora of opportunity for CGC out
26:54
there. And not just, and I think people
26:56
don't realize it's not just here, but like internationally,
26:59
you know, CGC has offices in the UK, in Germany, in Hong Kong, in
27:04
Shanghai, in Dubai, and, and then here in America.
27:09
So it's like the opportunities that are available to CGC are
27:13
sort of feel limitless right now.
27:15
There's just so much out there. And like ice collecting grows
27:18
and grows internationally. It's like what, what, what can,
27:22
what else can we do? And it's like you're not limited
27:24
just by what's been done before because there's so much just
27:29
newness, especially overseas in this space that like, I don't
27:33
know, you always say that it is really exciting.
27:35
And for me, it's like, OK, I go to work today, what's going to
27:39
be different today? And like, what cool, who, who am
27:41
I going to be meeting with today?
27:42
Because like lots of, that's the thing.
27:43
Like with that comes lots of opportunities.
27:45
We're different companies and people want to work with you.
27:49
So it was really nice to see like, you know, when I started,
27:53
you know, CGC was two different companies, you know, there was a
27:56
CSG and A/C, GC trading cards. And now it's just CGC.
27:59
It's really exciting and fulfilling to see how far you
28:06
know it's come as a grading company in cards because in
28:08
comics, you know, they've they've been around for a long
28:10
time and they've been number one in comics.
28:12
But it's been and nice seeing how collectors have really
28:15
embraced it as well. Yeah, I actually have a the
28:19
first Nintendo Power magazine headed to CGC very soon.
28:23
Very cool. Yeah, yeah.
28:26
You know, I feel like there's a little bit of a tide change with
28:29
sports cards just in terms of excitement of CGCI.
28:34
Remember there was some excitement in 2022.
28:37
Was it 2020? No, 2021 when CSG got started.
28:41
And then I feel like there's just this a little bit of a
28:45
turn. You hear more people talking
28:46
about them. You hear people talking about
28:48
their the beautiful slabs much more frequently in the last six
28:52
months than in the last three years combined does.
28:57
You must feel that too, right? Yeah, IA 100% because I'll have
29:01
people like on Twitter, like reach out to me or DM me and
29:04
just like you want to just show me like, hey, I'm dropping off
29:07
these new cookies cards. Like I want to show you what I'm
29:09
going to have in my collection for great.
29:10
And I'm like it. And it's cool that to see that
29:13
because like you said, it's, it's definitely feels like
29:16
there's an upswell right now. And it's, it's nice to see
29:20
because I am a big fan of competition in this space,
29:25
regardless of what it is, Cardi manufacturing, grading and
29:28
everything. I love competition.
29:30
I love there being options. I want options as a collector.
29:33
So, you know, the fact that, you know, CGC is able to give
29:37
options to other collectors, you know, is, is for me, it's like
29:41
it's, it's gratifying not just as somebody who works for CGC,
29:45
but also as a collector. Absolutely, I agree.
29:48
And just seeing like if if any of the other companies were to
29:52
start surging, I would be excited about it because getting
29:55
that, you know, competition has to be good for for collectors.
30:02
So I'm I'm enjoying it, I'm following it, I'm talking about
30:06
it every week almost about seeing this and hoping that it
30:10
continues and and expands. Yeah.
30:13
I mean CGC is definitely all in on cards.
30:15
You know, just from like I said, the meetings I'm having and from
30:20
support from like, you know, the executives, they are all in on
30:24
cards because they see the growth, they see how far it's
30:27
come. They see not just the growth,
30:29
but then the opportunities that are available and just what's
30:32
happening and they're they're in.
30:34
So it's not as though like, you know, anybody has to like, oh,
30:38
you know, are they going to be around?
30:39
Like CGC and the company as a whole has been around since I
30:43
should probably know this number and I want to say 1987 because
30:46
when they started grading pay me paper money and then coins.
30:49
But CGC then has been around since 2000 grading comics if
30:53
they celebrated the 25th anniversary of this year.
30:55
So it's also not one of those things where collectors are
30:58
like, well, are they going to how long are they going to be
31:00
around? Is this going to be one of those
31:01
companies who like gets real hot for a minute and then goes away?
31:05
No, it's not like they're they're here.
31:07
They're not done anywhere. Yeah, and there are a lot of
31:09
those too. Like I just saw a Cooper flag
31:12
card fresh out of the pack was graded by a company that I'm not
31:16
going to name here, but it went viral because it was already
31:19
graded. And people got excited that,
31:21
wow, this Cooper flag card is already graded.
31:23
But it was, I think the guy who pulled it from the pack just
31:27
graded it and slapped it in his own basement maybe.
31:30
And that's there are a lot of those and people get excited
31:33
about them because it's only $8 per card or $6 per card degrade,
31:38
but people aren't considering that.
31:41
That's not a legitimate company. Yeah, I mean the one sorry
31:45
about. That no go ahead.
31:46
Well, the one thing I know, and I can't speak for other
31:48
companies, but I can't speak for CGC in the sense of what they
31:51
have to do to be a grader. This isn't like, you know, it's
31:55
like, yeah, OK, I'm gonna, oh, I think this card I look at, I
31:58
think it's, you know, I think this is a nine.
31:59
I'm gonna slap it a nine in my, in my basement.
32:01
But when it comes to being a grader at CGC, like there's
32:04
extensive training and education that's happening.
32:07
So it's not like somebody can just show up and be like, and we
32:09
are, we've been looking for graders because of how busy we
32:12
are, but it's not like I'm going to apply to be a grader and then
32:15
you're like, OK, next week you're grading.
32:16
Let's go. Like there's an actual like
32:19
training that's involved that you have to go through like
32:22
process. And then months down the line,
32:24
like, OK, you've now been promoted to a grader because
32:28
you've been able to go through this training.
32:30
And what's important is it's not just one person that does like
32:33
essentially the grading at CGC. There has, there's two, there's
32:36
always two people who are who are looking at the card.
32:39
And if one person is like, OK, this I went through every,
32:41
everything, all like, you know, edges, corner, surface,
32:43
everything. I think this is an 8 1/2 and
32:46
somebody else look at then it'll go through like a SEC.
32:48
They get the second person, they have to agree on the grade.
32:51
Otherwise, like then they have to talk about it and figure out
32:54
like, you know, where are we? Where are we seeing something
32:57
different? But two people look at the card
32:58
and have to agree on the grade for it to be able to get the
33:00
grade that it gets. And I think that's important
33:03
too, because it's like, it's not just, it's not just my opinion.
33:05
And I get it how people, I know how people think about grading
33:08
was like it's subjective. But the fact that it's not just
33:11
one person's opinion and, you know, going through multiple
33:15
graders to be able to come to that conclusion I think is
33:18
important too. Yeah, well said.
33:21
I I love that about CGC. You know, I think that there's,
33:24
they're more transparent about the grading process.
33:28
In fact, you could do, you can put people through the grading
33:32
process. I remember last year, 2024, you
33:35
had that at the National. My friend Orlando went through
33:38
it. Orlando of a collector's dream.
33:42
Yeah, just a it's a really cool thing.
33:44
Yeah, and I think that was something that for me was very
33:46
important, that transparency and education because like, you
33:50
know, we've done YouTube videos too.
33:51
And one of them is like, how do graders grade your cards?
33:54
And it's actually probably one of our most popular videos
33:57
because that's what people want to know.
33:58
What is the how to see GC Grade my cards?
34:02
You know, it goes through like the YouTube series called grade
34:04
school. So it goes through like, OK, and
34:06
this is how we look at like specifically like was how we
34:09
look at edges. And this is how we look at
34:10
surface. And it's how we look at corners
34:12
for sports cards. And this is how we look at
34:13
corners for TCG because there is a difference.
34:17
So there's gonna be more of that coming next year, more of that
34:19
sort of education and transparency because that is
34:23
important to CGC to say, you know, we're not like the Wizard
34:27
of Oz. There's not, you know, we're not
34:28
going to have a big curtain. Never let anybody see what's
34:32
behind the curtain. Yeah, that's cool.
34:36
Well, Suze, where can people find you?
34:39
So Twitter 4 XI don't know what kids call it these days.
34:44
Twitter at Yankschick which is the name is on the screen there
34:47
YANXCHICK cuz I'm a Yankees fan. Some people don't pick up on
34:51
that. So I'm just saying it's like the
34:52
edgy way cuz I'm old remember I'm old, I've been I was born in
34:57
the 80s. So it was the edgy way to say
35:00
Yanks as opposed to, you know, YNKS on Twitter, Instagram,
35:04
TikTok, YouTube, even though I don't really do a lot on
35:07
YouTube, I'm a writer. So I tend to focus more on like
35:11
in outlets versus like videos or imagery.
35:15
And then my my newsletter, which is at cardchat.substack.com.
35:21
Yeah, strong recommend. I I follow Sue's, I'm I'm sure I
35:25
follow you on Instagram too, but I'm so rarely on Instagram.
35:29
Yeah and but on Twitter, I'm on there twice a day, first thing
35:32
in the morning and at night and always very engaging stuff, very
35:37
interesting. And the the car chat substack is
35:41
great too. Yeah, and, and I, and honestly,
35:44
I love your stuff too. Like I watch your videos, I
35:46
subscribe to your newsletter. I know I think it was on hiatus
35:49
for a little bit, but I, I love the fact that like you're able
35:53
to get like really cool stories about like really neat finds And
35:57
I, I do enjoy. I join your content as well.
35:59
Thank you. I appreciate that.
36:01
All right, thank you, Suze, hang around for a minute.
36:04
We're going to wrap this up, but I will see you on the other
36:06
side. Thanks everybody for watching or
36:09
listening.