Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / Are Sports Card Auction Houses Being Ethical?

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Are Sports Card Auction Houses Being Ethical? · 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. Here is where we come together
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to talk cards, myself and Mike. Mike, another week down, another
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week of some drama stuff, but we're still here.
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And a week from today, as we're recording this on Thursday, we
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will be eating until we hate ourselves, which is always my
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motto on Thanksgiving. It's not a long trip for me.
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Hating myself is is always so close.
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Well, you know, we're just trying to stay positive.
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That's a Louis CK bit. Is it?
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Yeah, he talks about he, he, I don't, I don't remember.
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I'm not going to ruin the gig of the gag, but he talks about
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eating until he hates himself. I I mean, I knew I ripped it off
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from somewhere. I just didn't know who exactly.
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Yeah. So another, another, another
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week down. I've, I've had a very busy week.
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I've had videos like every day, not because I want to have
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videos every day, but sometimes I feel like there's some videos
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I need to do because there's something I feel the need to
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address. So I have so at, if you are
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listening to this on the podcast, it would be Saturday.
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And I have a video today for my something like my sixth straight
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day. If you're listening on YouTube,
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last week was crazy. So one of the things we're going
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to talk about today is one of those conversations, or at least
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the topic around that conversation.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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And I just want to say I haven't watched all of the videos you
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put out this week, but the ones that I have watched are I guess
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the concept of the videos, even the ones that I haven't watched
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is brilliant. You've taken the the next step
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in the shill bidding scandal, controversy, whatever you want
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to call it. And you've said, OK, we've gone
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through this. What do we do next?
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We've talked to three experts in the industry and gotten their
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perspective. You've asked them really good
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questions and then gotten out of their way.
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Let them and that's that's the perfect interview is to just ask
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a handful of good questions and let the experts speak.
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And the Jeremy Lee one, which we're going to talk about today
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was a plus. Oh well.
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Jeremy is. I really like Jeremy.
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There were a couple of times in that conversation where I was, I
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was trying to get my bearings. I was trying to get my feet
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under me because I was like, where is he?
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I'm not sure where he's going right now because I was just
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kind of, I was so unaware of the intricacies and the history of
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auction houses that he was saying stuff.
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And in the the Jeff Wilson and Doctor Beckett episode that
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dropped this week, I feel like there were times that Doctor
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Beckett was saying some of the things that that Jeremy
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mentioned in the episode. And I think some of the people
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that were listening were maybe not really following because to
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them, they're so aware of the history of auction houses and
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the intricacies between them that some stuff was just glossed
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over. So part of me feels like where
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we should maybe start is by just kind of backing up and looking
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at that. The and and and I, we have not
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talked at all since you've seen the episode.
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So I have no idea what your take away is.
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I have no idea what your opinion is.
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But one of the things I do feel like we need to say here to at
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least set the foundation for the conversation.
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His auction houses have been around for a really long time, a
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really long time. And they've.
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Jeremy says 150 years, some of them.
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Correct. In in in the interview, he
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mentions a couple of times he's writing a book on this topic.
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I think that's important to know.
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It's important to know that he's done tons and tons of research
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on auction houses, on each of the auction houses in the sports
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card space right now. He's an expert in auction
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houses, especially with cards right now and in his in in his
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digging, he's seen that a lot of the things that some of these
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auction houses are doing are things that have been happening
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for decades and decades and decades.
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But but we all are experienced walking into the auction house
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space is eBay and and Doctor Beckett mentioned this in the
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episode and Jeremy mentioned it early on in in our conversation
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that we come in thinking eBay is the standard of how auction
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houses work. And Oh my gosh, these other
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auction houses have house bidding.
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That's insane. You can't do house bidding.
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Now, whether or not we like house bidding or not is beside
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the point for a moment at least. The fact is that they've been
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having house bidding for 150 years.
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And now we're, we have eBay come in.
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We are have eBay as our experience.
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That is our, our understanding of how it works.
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And then we're saying you can't do that because that's not
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allowed on eBay. So with that as the the premise,
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what were some of your takeaways here?
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The first of all, the the challenges with with auction
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houses are myriad. There are so many of them and
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Jeremy does a great job of laying out a handful of them.
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And I think I'm really looking forward to his book.
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And, and if I can just say instead of selling your cards
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via an auction at an auction house, you should go with Chris
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Sewell. Our sponsor for Surface Issues
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is Chris Sewell Sports Cards. He will buy your cards from you
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and he will give you a great deal.
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He is our one trusted dealeremailsewellsportscards@gmail.com.
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If you are interested in selling part of or all of your
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collection. I receive emails from people.
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I just got one 1/2 hour ago from somebody saying he was selling
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his collection to Chris Sewell and he was very happy with it.
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Well, that's awesome. Yeah.
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So that being said, one big take away for me is something I heard
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a few times in the past week and something that you and Jeremy
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kind of alluded to, but you didn't go quite as far as I've
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heard a couple of other people say it, which is if you have two
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people that are willing to bid, if well, one person, one real
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person and then a shill bidder. And let's say the card is $1000
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card just to keep it it simple. And the, well, sorry, the shill
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bidder bids it up to $1000. And the other person, the real
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bidder, bids $1010.00. The argument that I keep hearing
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that you and Jeremy came up to but didn't quite say, I don't
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think is that that is now $1010.00 card because that other
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person bidder #2 the real bidder was willing to pay that much.
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And it's a legit comp. And I strongly disagree with
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that because the most important bidder isn't the real bidder or
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the shill bidder. It's the third bidder who is the
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2nd legitimate bidder. Because if that second
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legitimate bidder only bid to 500, then that card is only a
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$510 card because the winner the the other real bidder only would
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have had whatever the next increment is after $500.
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Depending on the auction house, it could be 525, I'm not sure,
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but it's a little over $500. The only reason it went for over
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$1000 is because the shill bidder bid it up there and so
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some people say well the other person was willing to get there.
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Yes, but they wouldn't have needed to and there isn't any
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tracking. There's no on if.
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If I'm put in my Max bid of $1000 and only pay $500 that
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doesn't make it $1000 card. It is a $500 card there.
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EBay doesn't report out the winning bidders.
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Mike froze temporarily, which is perfect.
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It's like I have a remote control and I can just pause
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Mike whenever I want. Except in this case, I didn't
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have to hit pause. He just froze.
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It was perfect. It's like, let's just cut him
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off, Cut them off. I was in such a groove to my
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Internet. Keep going.
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Where was I? When when you.
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Lost you, you, I think it wasn't that long ago.
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It was 10 seconds or so ago and you were basically saying that
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the card isn't $1000 card, it's really a $500 card 'cause that's
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where the second real bidder left stopped.
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Right. So did did you hear me talk
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about eBay in my Max bid in eBay?
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Yeah, OK, so eBay doesn't report out what my Max bid is if I won,
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right? So if I Max bid $1000 but I win
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at A at a 500, eBay isn't saying he won at 500, but his Max bid
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was 1000. So now the comp is $1000.
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That Max bid is completely irrelevant.
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The only thing that's irrelevant is what won.
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So I'm going to be totally straight.
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I've done on Monday, I did a recording with Darren on on
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Wednesday, No, on Tuesday I did a recording with Jeremy and with
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Hosh. On Sunday I did a recording with
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Joe Perot. And I don't remember which of
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those four conversations I said the following, but my opinion is
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that in an auction, the the true comp is not what somebody ends
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up paying, it's what the second highest person is willing to
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pay, the second highest. Second highest bidder.
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Legitimate. Bidder, not just yes.
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So you have to take out the shill bidder here.
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Yes, 100% I, I am. I am in full agreement with you
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so far. I don't know how I've come
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across in some of these conversations, I don't know
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which of those I said that, but the comp is really what the
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second real person, the the underbidder who is real is
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willing to pay for the auction. That's the real comp for me.
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That's the real value to me. Now when you when you start
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getting into these semantics though, then when you start
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looking at valuations, best offers versus auctions are very
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different. Because in an auction it's the
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second highest real bidder. In a best offer, it might just
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be some lazy rich guy who found a card and goes, I don't care
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that it's $1000 too much, I'm going to pay it because $1000
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doesn't mean anything to me. So best offers and buying for
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straight amounts at times in my opinion don't truly represent
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the market. They just might represent
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somebody with a lot of money who's lazy.
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And and for years before I started having before I had card
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ladder, before I had market movers, before I had VCPI used
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to go through and I would find averages.
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I would literally go for like a three month stretch and I would
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look every in eBay because it would go back three months in
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sales. I would put every sale of that
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PSA 8 Mark McGuire card. I literally wrote it on a piece
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of paper. Then I added them all up.
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I divided by the number of them to get the average.
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I did it by hand and when I did those, when I did those, I did
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that for a year and a half before I had any app that can
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tell me the information. I did it by hand in eBay for a
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long time. And I had people come on the
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channel who who would leave comments and say the fact
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because, and I said I'm only using auctions because to me
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those are the only comps we can actually somewhat believe now.
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Now that's maybe a completely different story, but I felt like
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the best offers didn't really represent it.
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So I completely agree with you personally that that the auction
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and the second highest bidder is that the second highest field
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bidder is the true definition of what the card is worth.
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Yeah, I I agree. Did you ever consider using
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median instead of average? The I I could have used median.
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The problem with. Most of these time it wouldn't
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matter. Most of the time it wouldn't
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matter, but some. It would, there might be an
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yeah. The the problem I think that I
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had is there were times that you have 6 sales of a 1954 alkaline
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in A5, you have 6 sales and and four of them were at $3000, four
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of them were at $1000 and one of them was at $500 and one of them
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was at $600.00. And it's like, well, it's not
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real. The median in this case isn't
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really it's so they both have value.
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They have a different value. Could have been a good choice,
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but it depends on the sample size on how valid a median is I
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think. Yeah, that's fair.
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OK, so Jeremy said in the conversation that when I said
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auction houses are dot dot dot, he said misunderstood before
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listening to that episode, before listening to that
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conversation with Jeremy. And if I had said auction houses
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are misunderstood, I would have said, huh?
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But personally, after listening to it, I would say he might be
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right. Where are you on that?
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Well, calling on auction house misunderstood makes me feel like
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it's the auction house is the the weird kid down the street
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that nobody likes and their parents are saying, well he's
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just misunderstood when auction houses are these behemoth
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corporations for the most part, especially the ones that he's
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talking about. And I think that they're
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misunderstood probably for good reason.
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They probably are intentionally hiding certain things about
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their company that I I think that what Jeremy a better way
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for Jeremy to phrase that would have been that buyers, auction
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participants or even people are too scared to participate in
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these auctions don't understand enough about what they're
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getting into rather than saying the auction houses are
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misunderstood, which is just a an unusual turn of phrase for
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Jeremy to use. Do you remember when do you
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remember the app Angry Birds? Of course, I played it for about
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7 minutes, yeah. You would you would slingshot
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birds and try to knock things down.
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And that was like this whole, you know thing for a little bit.
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It was Angry Birds was this app that everyone had and, and I
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remember saying to my students in my computer technology class,
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I, I teach an introductory basically computer applications,
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how to use Microsoft Office is basically the class.
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And I said, how many of you have Angry Birds?
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They all, you know, they all had it at the time.
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How many of you know why they give you this free game to play?
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Nobody because, you know, because it's fun.
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So they just spent all this money to create this app for
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your enjoyment. That's why they did it because
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behind the scenes, when you went scroll, scroll, scroll click, I
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agree and accept what you were scrolling past were things like
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we can track all of your data. We can track, you know, your
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your search engine use. We can track where you're going.
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We can track what you're spending, all these things that
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you just are scrolling by and you hit accept.
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And I think that that's part of the problem with auction houses
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is it's so easy to skip all of that because they want you to
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skip all that. You don't actually know the
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rules. I mean, you've said many times
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that you used to play tennis, right?
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You played like high school tennis.
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You were pretty good tennis player, right?
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Yeah, I was better in college. OK, so in college you played
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tennis and you understand tennis.
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Have you ever played pickleball? I've never played pickleball.
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OK, do you know the rules of pickleball?
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I don't. I know that there's one really
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strange rule, but I don't remember what it is.
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So, for example, a rule of pickleball is the area toward
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the front by the net. It's called the kitchen.
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You can't step into that area near the net.
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You have to stay certain distance away from the net.
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And if you travel into that area, the kitchen, then you lose
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the point. And somebody who's been playing
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tennis for years and years and years would say, oh, I know how
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to play this. It's just like tennis.
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It's it's like ping pong meets tennis.
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I know how to play both of those.
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And then you step over the line into the kitchen and they say
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you lost the point. Will you come in?
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We sometimes we come into these situations with some knowledge
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of somewhat how something works. Because, you know, we've all
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been to a silent auction at a charity dinner and we've, we've
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all bought something or sold something on eBay.
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So we think we know how it works, but nobody knows how that
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one works. And because we kind of know how
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auctions work, but we don't actually know that this one
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allows this and this and this, we then get mad when we find out
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people are doing things that are actually allowed.
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Now, personally, I think we should all have an uprising to
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not allow those things. I don't think we should allow
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house bidding. I think we should get our
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pitchforks out about people bidding on their own cards.
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But if you knew the rules before you started bidding and you
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didn't just scroll past it and click I agree, then it would
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probably eliminate some of the confusion.
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Am I crazy? No, you're 100% right.
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Except I have never been to a silent auction at a charity
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dinner and you said we have all been to one.
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I've never been to a even a charity dinner.
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I live in Maine. There are no charity dinners in
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Maine. They should have tons of like
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lobster. All you can eat lobster feeds
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and things up there. I mean, that's like a no
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brainer. Out in California we have crab
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feeds like crazy 'cause they just shoot it down from Seattle
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and Alaska. There's crab legs all over the
20:06
place. And so they'll do crab feeds and
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you go and you bid on some stupid crap that you don't need
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to raise money and you eat crab and it's fun.
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So anyways, that's I think part of the problem.
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Again, I think that they are deceptive.
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I think that they purposefully, just like Angry Birds, makes it
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really easy to skip what they're actually doing behind the
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scenes. I think some of these auction
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houses are making it conveniently easy to skip past
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those things. But just because we've bid on
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eBay doesn't mean we know how all auction houses should be
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working. But your comparison of Angry
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Birds with Angry Birds, you're, you're likely to never feel the
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impact of whatever they're doing with your data behind the
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scenes, right? Even if they sell your data,
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you're probably never going to know they sold it.
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Whereas with heritage, you are being impacted in bigger ways.
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Sorry, I said heritage. We weren't mentioning heritage,
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but I think that's the one that that we're talking about with
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certain auction houses, I should say, they are allowing bidding
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up to the reserve or up just below the reserve.
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And that has a direct impact on the people who are bidding on
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them. And Jeremy points out that only
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9 out of 4000 for one auction house were reserve based
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auctions. It's very, very low number.
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None that I would ever bid on, I'm sure.
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But the things that they do, they, they're allowed to do
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shill bidding. And I don't know that they call
21:42
it shill bidding, but some auction houses in some states
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are allowed to do that. And that's much more insidious
21:49
to me than the Angry Birds selling your data or using it
21:54
for other reasons. Yeah, I think some people would
21:58
agree with that. And I think some people would
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think that the fact that I'm being tracked and it's being
22:04
sold to companies to use against me in advertising and things is,
22:10
is maybe worse or better. I, I don't know.
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But you're, I, I agree with that to, to at least to a certain
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extent, I think. And, and I'm not, trust me, I'm
22:20
not defending auction houses here.
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What I'm saying is we, I am, I am defending accountability.
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I am a believer in accountability.
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As a teacher, you turn your work in late.
22:32
I hold up my garbage can. I say you can put it in my late
22:35
work container. This is where it goes.
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I hold people accountable. And I think to a certain extent
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a lot of people who are using auction houses never actually
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learn the rules of the auction houses.
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And now they're mad about how the action auction houses are
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working Again. That sounds like I'm defending
22:53
the auction house. I'm not defending the auction
22:55
house. I would love, and this is where
22:59
I want to head next with this conversation is OK then what is
23:06
a solution instead of just continuing for us all to just
23:10
pile on and complain and love. I want to hear us actually what
23:16
are some things that could be done?
23:18
What are some things that could be said or demanded?
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And Jeremy mentioned one and, and I don't remember exactly
23:28
what he mentioned on camera, off camera.
23:30
So I don't want to get into too many details.
23:31
But there are some auction houses that when he made some
23:36
recommendations and when he asked about certain things, they
23:42
have made changes or are making changes to some of their
23:47
policies when they were kind of called out on it.
23:51
So part of me is like, well, maybe we should all start going
23:56
auction house by auction house and put it front and Center for
24:00
everyone. OK, this week we're doing Rea.
24:04
What do they allow and go through it and make it public
24:08
and then demand and say this is what we want.
24:11
OK, if you have a congressman or a congresswoman who you want
24:15
something done, people will do e-mail campaigns.
24:18
Here's the click, click on the link.
24:19
The link takes you to their, you know, the congressperson's
24:23
e-mail address. Let's all e-mail them what we
24:25
want. We've all, well, I guess we all
24:27
haven't maybe had that because we haven't even been to a crab
24:29
feed. But I think, I think that there
24:34
are things that could be done. So what are some of the things
24:38
that we could or should be doing besides just continuing to stomp
24:44
our feet and pound our fists on the desk?
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Oh boy, I don't know that I have a great answer for you, but I
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think that the easy thing for us as consumers to do is to avoid.
24:57
First of all, like you said, be accountable.
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Take note of any, any rule within the rule, terms and
25:06
conditions of an auction house that impact us.
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And you should go auction house by auction house and look just
25:11
like Jeremy is doing and say this auction house allows this
25:16
type of thing. I don't like that.
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So I'm not going to use that auction house.
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And we should also ask for that auction house to make it clear
25:26
on each auction if this has a reserve, a bidding by the
25:30
auction house is permitted on this auction up until the
25:34
reserve or whatever the the rule might be, make that more clear.
25:39
I also believe in accountability, but I also
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believe in. Holding the.
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Auction houses accountable for their behavior and and making
25:48
sure that they are protecting consumers the best that they
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that's the best that we can make them do I.
25:55
Think at the very least people need to know, they need to know
26:00
that this auction house allows shill bidding, They allow house
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bidding. They have a computer which is
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upping the bid behind the scenes every time you bid and it looks
26:14
like it's a person, but it's not actually a person.
26:17
I think at the very least that's what we should be doing.
26:21
But me saying, you know what, I'm not going to use XYZ auction
26:26
house anymore because they do this.
26:29
They are not really going to. Feel that are they?
26:32
If one guy does that, I think it has to be broader than that.
26:36
It has to be it, it, it has to be a more of a grassroots effort
26:42
to actually get something to change where they feel it.
26:46
People keep saying PSA's grades are inconsistent, their turn
26:50
around time takes too long, they keep jacking up the prices and
26:53
they upsell. But every month they hit a new
26:55
all time record on how many people are submitting.
26:58
And I know of a handful of, I know 3 handfuls of people who
27:02
won't submit to PSA anymore. Yeah, one of them has his hand
27:06
up and, and, and they won't submit to PSA anymore.
27:10
But I can tell you what, PSA could care less.
27:13
They couldn't care less. They're just like, OK, we'll,
27:16
we'll miss you. You know, they don't care.
27:19
So it doesn't, it doesn't actually affect them until
27:23
they're affected. Then it's not going to change.
27:29
Now Hoge mentioned something the other day and, and on my
27:33
Wednesday video. I don't know if you saw that yet
27:35
or saw the whole thing. 2/3 of it.
27:38
So he mentions some sort of council where the council comes
27:44
up with a grade for each auction house and the grade is
27:48
representative of the validity of the values based on their
27:57
rules and what they allow and what they don't allow.
28:00
So then if you see it in theory. Oh, this card sold at XYZ
28:08
auction house? Well, that's because XYZ auction
28:14
house has AD minus grade because they have computers bidding
28:17
against you. But if you're at CIA auction
28:21
house where they ban shield bidders, cards that are paid
28:24
for, can't be relisted for six months and all this stuff, the
28:28
validity of it is much higher. The other thing that Chris Hoche
28:32
talked about is some of the auction houses don't just
28:35
provide them with the the sale amount, but they then later
28:41
confirm that it was actually paid for, which isn't perfect
28:47
because there are still things that are paid for that were
28:50
shilled, but it's at least better than what the final sale
28:55
amount was. And then the auction house gets
28:57
ghosted. So if if you're an auction house
29:01
who not only gives the information, but gives the
29:05
information and confirms it was paid for, and you don't allow in
29:09
house bidding and you don't allow shilling and you don't
29:12
allow all these things like our friends at CIA do, well, they
29:17
get an A. So then when you see that value
29:19
or you see that comp or you see that sale, you have a more
29:23
positive opinion of that sale because of the rating that it
29:27
receives from this council. Your thoughts?
29:33
Help me understand how the rating works.
29:35
Is it just a visual on the the comp itself or does it actually
29:39
impact the index or the average comp calculation?
29:44
Well, that would be up. To a card ladder or a company
29:47
like that if they wanted to cause like this ladder.
29:50
This is a theoretical. This is a theoretical.
29:54
So card ladder. Card Ladder has a confidence
29:57
rating for every sale. So if the card is like, yeah,
30:01
they're like, yeah, we're very confident that in this comp,
30:04
this is legit. This is somebody who's bought
30:06
10,000 cards. It was through a company who,
30:10
you know, provides the data where it's actually sold and
30:14
that that the transaction happened.
30:16
It would have like a a confidence level of five and the
30:19
one where it's like 0 feedback sold for $10,000 over it's ever
30:25
sold before. It has a confidence 0 of 1.
30:28
So it would be along those lines.
30:30
But what he's suggesting is a group of industry people look at
30:36
the rules of the different auction houses and give each of
30:41
them a grade and when in the conversation.
30:43
My counter was in in Sacramento County where I live, when you
30:48
walk up to any place that sells food on the window, it is
30:53
required when you walk in to have posted an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet
31:00
that has a grade on it. And the grade is ABCDF.
31:06
And it's based on the inspectors inspection report of the
31:12
cleanliness of the restaurant. And so if you start walking up
31:16
to a restaurant, you see it has AC, you're going, are we sure we
31:20
want to eat here? If it has an A, you go, OK,
31:22
well, you know, this gives me some information about what I'm
31:26
walking into. So if you have this, these
31:30
grades that are given to the auction houses, it provides, I
31:34
think a certain level of comfort.
31:37
And, and I was like, what do you think this should be a an idea
31:41
that would be for card ladder to put together or like an
31:45
independent panel. And he's like, well, ideally for
31:49
me, he goes, I would prefer it be independent.
31:51
He goes, we would support it. But then if it's card ladders
31:55
one, then, you know, people are, is there a conflict of interest
31:59
and you know, all that kind of thing.
32:00
So there are issues with that. And so in the episode I shout
32:04
out, I say, hey, if anybody's interested in throwing some
32:07
money into this, getting involved in this has different
32:10
types of backgrounds, you know, on legalities, on, you know, all
32:15
of it. And I mean, maybe maybe it just
32:19
starts with a sports card clubhouse grade, you know, and
32:23
it's the the sports card clubhouse grade of confidence of
32:28
each auction house. Maybe that's where it starts and
32:31
then somebody can buy us out. I love it.
32:34
Yeah, 20. $5,000,000 I'd take. 23 but 25 is kind of what I'm
32:41
hoping for, but we'd report 25. Million as the comp.
32:44
Oh well, we'd. Probably comp it at 500 million
32:48
and then that way you know for tax purposes I don't yes, I mean
32:54
those are the sorts of ideas that I think have maybe some
33:00
potential. I mean, if Mike Baker can take a
33:03
sticker and attach it to the front of my slab and provide me
33:08
with confidence about the looks of the card and charge $25 to do
33:14
that, it seems like something like this.
33:19
It can't hurt. I mean I'm attaching scratch
33:24
and. Sniff stickers to all of my
33:25
slabs, do you remember? Having the scratch and sniff
33:29
stickers as a kid, you'd have one and you'd scratch it and it
33:32
smelled like a strawberry. And then you'd always have one
33:34
that was like a skunk and you'd scratch it and you'd smell the
33:36
skunk one. I can still smell that skunk
33:39
scratch and sniff sticker. Yeah, absolutely.
33:42
And there was always, there were always a few that were really
33:45
terrible. Yeah, I don't, I don't remember
33:47
what any of the other bad ones were, but yeah, there was always
33:50
one that was like a. Pine or like a, you know, like
33:53
that's exactly the one I was thinking.
33:55
Of initially, but that's not a bad smell.
33:56
That's one of no, no, no, no. Yeah, but there was also the all
33:59
the. Fruit ones like grape and lemon.
34:01
And yeah, of course, definitely. We grew up at the same time,
34:04
same era. Trapper keepers.
34:07
Yeah, I mean, they even had. Those things in Maine, they just
34:10
didn't have crab feeds, and that's right.
34:13
Yeah, what? What?
34:14
What did you have for a Trapper Keeper?
34:17
Well, I had like a this, it was like a BMX bike style.
34:21
It was sort of like checkered. It was like black and white
34:25
checkered. Before that I did have a Smurf
34:28
lunch box for sure. We talked about.
34:32
Smurfs the other day, you know I had a Lamborghini trapper.
34:37
Keeper, which is my pride and joy, and I also had a Garfield
34:39
when I was a big Garfield fan. I could see that.
34:43
Yeah, we used to build like ramps for our bikes and and
34:49
hammer and nail them together and then, you know, crash and
34:52
all that stuff. But so you.
34:55
Know to your point though, I think what is really cool is
34:59
seeing these conversations come out where we are actually making
35:02
change or we aren't making the change ourselves, but collectors
35:08
are effecting change in the industry and saying we are not
35:14
going to tolerate this anymore. We're going to keep talking
35:16
about this until somebody does something about it.
35:20
And you know. The Sports Card Clubhouse team
35:25
has a lot of ideas that are coming down the Pike.
35:29
And you know one I mean, we got, we have some stuff that's
35:32
coming. Guys, you're going to be
35:34
excited. But one of the things that you
35:36
and I have talked about is doing a weekly poll and asking some
35:42
things and then talking about the response of the poll.
35:47
And I'm looking forward to us doing that and we're going to do
35:50
that. But again, we've, we have a lot
35:52
of things in motion behind the scenes.
35:54
But but I think asking about other people's confidence in
36:01
auction houses and what do you feel about your confidence level
36:07
of the auction houses? You know, you could have part of
36:10
the percentage of the grade be the community and part of it be,
36:16
you know, different people who really sink their teeth and do
36:20
it and investigate it. But again, that's the whole
36:24
point of this week for me and the reason that I've been like
36:27
tirelessly, and I mean tirelessly pumping stuff out
36:32
every day for six days. And then by the way, I, I do
36:35
want to throw this out there Monday.
36:37
I have a midlife live #11 I'm doing so I'm doing my video on
36:41
Monday and I'm doing a midlife live.
36:43
But I am ready to continue to move forward and not stay stuck
36:49
at the same place. And part of moving forward is
36:52
OK, this happened. So what are we going to do now
36:57
to make this not happen again or at least as much and lessen some
37:02
of the issue and, and some of the brainstorming I'm trying to
37:07
create. And Jeremy shares a couple of
37:09
ideas and Hoes shared some ideas and Joe and and you and I are
37:14
talking about this. So that's where I am in this
37:17
process right now is now what? That's where we are.
37:23
Is now what? Yeah, it's a.
37:26
Like I said at the beginning, you, what you've done this week
37:29
is a really cool, really smart next step transition.
37:35
And I've, I've watched the Joe Perot 1 and I've watched 2/3 of
37:39
the Jeremy. No, I watched all of Jeremy Lee.
37:42
What did I watch 2/3 of again? Chris Hoche.
37:45
Yeah. And it's they're, they're
37:48
really, really well done. They're very thought provoking.
37:51
You've got 3 experts on three guys who have a lot of ideas and
37:56
a lot of influence and I've enjoyed it a lot.
37:59
Well, I. I appreciate that and I think
38:03
that every channel has a different flavor on what they
38:07
bring. And, and one of the things that
38:11
I try to have as a core like pillar, you know, if there's a
38:17
four legged chair or a three legged stool, one of the core
38:21
pieces for me of the channel is to be somewhat of a consumer
38:26
advocate for collectors in the community.
38:30
And if I'm a collector in the community right now, with some
38:33
of the stuff that we've been through, I would be saying, is
38:36
this still for me? That's what I would be thinking
38:39
is, is this still for me with all of this drama and it's drama
38:45
that we need to talk about because it affects collectors.
38:49
But now, OK, Hoge, what do you do at Card Ladder to help me get
38:57
legit comps instead of fake comps?
39:03
OK, Jeremy, tell me about the auction houses so I can start to
39:07
know how they work, why they work that way, the history of
39:11
how they work, so that I can start to go.
39:14
I get. I mean, my big take away from
39:16
that Jeremy Lee thing is I guess if I'm bidding at an auction
39:19
house, I should probably go back and read the rules.
39:22
That's what I hope at the end of it people think.
39:26
And to me, doing that conversation to have that take
39:31
away makes it a worthy conversation to have.
39:36
We're 40 minutes. In, we've solved all of the
39:40
world's problems. I mean, at this point, I mean,
39:44
do we just shut this whole thing down?
39:46
Now that everything has been solved, I'm shutting off my.
39:48
Channel No more videos from me. We're going to shut down Sports
39:51
Card Clubhouse. We fixed it, Yeah.
39:54
All right. Well, I mean, but I do have an
39:57
I. Do I do have a minor
40:00
announcement that I wanted to get in here?
40:03
I have been doing rotating meet a hobby creator and meet a so
40:09
you want to be a dealer and I'm changing things up.
40:12
I'm going to start doing a weekly podcast, and I love doing
40:15
those, by the way, but I'm going to start doing a weekly podcast
40:18
where I talk to somebody in the industry, somebody.
40:22
Influential or popular, somebody who, or really knowledgeable
40:27
expert about something that has happened in the past week or so.
40:30
And the, you know, this past week I talked Teapot about his
40:35
kind of part accidentally in the shield bidding scandal.
40:39
Not that he was involved. But in the week before that I
40:43
talked to John Keating about the shield bidding, shield bidding
40:45
scandal. And I really, really enjoyed
40:46
those and it was exciting and fun.
40:49
And so I'll be doing that. I do have a couple of dealers
40:52
I'll be I'll be doing videos with and then another hobby
40:56
content creator. So I'll mix those in too.
40:59
But for the most part, it's going to be kind of a weekly
41:03
this week in sports cards. I guess I like that it's.
41:06
Yeah, I think that that is fantastic.
41:09
I also, I, I like the willingness to kind of pivot to
41:15
the thing that you're enjoying most.
41:19
You know, like when I think when we both started our channels,
41:22
our regular channels, not this channel, we didn't really know
41:26
what our channel was. And it took a while for us to
41:29
go, oh, our channel is this. And then it sort of starts to
41:32
take shape. And I think that that's what's
41:35
happening with with the podcast that you're doing is it's
41:39
starting to take shape in, in what, what is the most fun for
41:44
you. And I think that those last two,
41:46
especially they're they've all been really good.
41:48
I've listened to all of them. But those last two especially
41:51
because they're current and because they're topical of
41:55
what's happening, they've been very intriguing.
41:59
Thanks. Just got to get to it.
42:00
Jeff Wilson on one of these days he will.
42:03
He'll come on. I think so.
42:04
He'll come on, give me a couple other names just in the last
42:07
couple minutes of this. OK, So you you'd like to have
42:10
Jeff throw out three or four other people that you think
42:14
would be guess. Again, part of it depends on
42:18
what's happening at that time, but theoretically, who are some
42:21
people that you think would be good to have on?
42:24
Well, I could see it A. Rotation involving people like
42:27
Teapot, Jeremy Lee. Love to have Mike Moynihan in
42:31
one time. Well, probably more than one
42:33
time, but get him in Neo would be a fun one to have.
42:38
I'd love to get Dustin in, but I wouldn't want to talk to Dustin
42:41
about current events. I would want to talk to Dustin
42:43
of sports car dad about his channel because that guy gets
42:47
more criticism in the comments than most Youtubers do, and I
42:52
would love to talk to him about that.
42:53
I think that would be a lot of fun.
42:56
So that's there's, there's some others too that I think would be
43:00
really interesting, but those are the ones Oh, Chris Hoge, I
43:02
would want to have on. People like that, that.
43:06
Matt Turner. Sure.
43:10
Nat Turner would never come on. I don't think he or I just I'll,
43:16
I'll ask him. You know what?
43:17
I'll ask him. He'll, he'll come on.
43:20
I've asked Jeff I've. Asked Jeff.
43:22
He ignores. Me, even though he tweeted at me
43:26
saying that he wanted to come on my podcast.
43:29
Ever since then, every time I've mentioned it saying come on
43:31
Jeff, let's do it now, Jeff will come on.
43:33
Jeff will ignores me. Jeff will come on, Hojo come.
43:36
On Natal come on, all those guys will come on.
43:38
Don't come on. It's it's it's listen if if you
43:43
prestige podcast Greg. Prestige podcast.
43:46
That's what we're talking about here.
43:47
If you were. Prestige worldwide.
43:50
If you were listening to the to the teapot 1, you, you are not
43:58
unfair. You're not an unfair
44:00
interviewer. You are asking people fair
44:03
questions. You're giving them an
44:05
opportunity to talk. You're not railroading them.
44:08
There's no reason why anybody wouldn't want to come on.
44:11
If anybody who you said, hey, here's my episode with teapot
44:16
when teapot kind of had his back up against the wall.
44:19
This was my conversation. I would like to have a similar
44:23
question and answer and and interview discussion with you
44:26
like this about your situation. There's no reason anybody would
44:31
turn that down. Yeah.
44:33
I agree and I I was very fair to Teapot.
44:35
I asked him some difficult questions, he acknowledged after
44:38
we were done. Those were some difficult
44:40
questions, but they were really fair.
44:42
And that's, that's my goal. I don't want to embarrass
44:45
anybody. I don't want to railroad
44:49
anybody. I just want to get something.
44:52
The things that everybody is thinking about that nobody dares
44:55
ask. I want to ask those questions,
44:57
yeah. I I love it.
45:00
All right, buddy. 45 minutes, world solved.
45:05
Problems solved. We solve it every week.
45:08
Greg, it's amazing. It's pretty incredible.
45:11
I'm surprised that some higher level people haven't hired us at
45:14
this point to solve their problems.
45:17
I mean, yeah, it's this. This is child's play.
45:22
Bring us in for a week. We will.
45:23
Fix everything until next week when we'll fix it all again.
45:27
Perfect. All right.
45:28
I will see you in six days and 23 hours and 15 minutes.
45:38
Looking forward to it. Bye.