The Hobby Is Changing Fast: TCG Boom, New Releases & Card Shop Grand Openings

TCG is really grown in the hobby, especially one piece and UPO. One piece is seen as 700% increase in grading.

That's crazy. I'm in it, the back to the store. We hear it,

people are asking for it, but 60% of themselves have been Pokemon.

When I traded derivatives for 25 years, if someone's been doing it, I just picked the brain,

because I'm like, that personality made the mistakes. I don't want to make those, so it's cheaper,

and I don't care how many businesses you've opened and run. Any time you join in anything,

there's a certain humility and curiosity that needs to happen if you're going to be an entrepreneur.

I don't think data has made the hobby less fun. I think the lack of centralized assistive data

is hurting. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network.

Whether you're chasing trails or calling bluffs, you take you inside the hobby.

Here are your hosts, Ryan Alford and Brian Lut.

Hey, what's up guys? It's our weekly tie-in with Onnet, one of our great partners here on

Collector Nation. And we've got Leonard, who's been here the last time. I mean, he's just

Leonard now. Leonard with Onnet. What's up, Leonard? Hey, Ryan, how you doing? Get to be back, man.

Hey, man, it's the Champions week. I tell you what, you guys know how to pick the teams. That's

all I'm going to say. I think you loaded it up. Someone needs to get a raise in the picking the teams

that Onnet supports. They're all champions all the time. Sounds like wrestling had a big week.

Yeah, big weekend for Onnet wrestlers at the NCAA National Championships for Penn State,

the dynasty rolls on. I mean, fifth straight team title, which is crazy. They wrapped it up super

early, like before championship wrestling hatches even began for individuals. That's a dominant.

They were just getting to the finals. So crazy stuff from them. They broke their own score record

that they set last year. I mean, this is a dynasty full-fledged. We saw that, too. They had four

guys win titles in their individual weight classes. Luke Leedall at 125, Mitchell Mesmerick at 165,

Leva Haynes at 174, and then Josh Bar at 197. So the Penn State dynasty rolls on.

But Oklahoma State snuck some titles in there, too. A couple of our guys,

Jacks Forest at 133 pounds, and then Sergio Vega at 141 pounds also picked out titles. So that was

those pretty sweet to see. Yeah, man, if you're a Penn State fan, I don't need to tell you what to do.

You need to get out there and get these cards. We've got them here at collector station. We

sold them at the grand opening. We got more and more people asking about this is how you support

your teams, how you support. Obviously, they're legacy. But guess what? You're not just doing it,

like, writing that check for, oh, just something dull. These are cool cards. We took some great videos.

I was telling you earlier, Leonard, before we got on air, like, opening those baseball cards,

we had the place lit up because everybody was here for the grand opening. And my friend who's

like Clemson baseball is the greatest fan. Let's go through those Camarilla or Canelo. I can't

remember his name. One of her favorite guys. And I'm not as close to the Clemson baseball she is,

but she was like, every player knew who they were and the shine and the glitter. She got some

pretty good hits too. Yeah, and that's one of the cool things about like collecting on it cards

in today's NIL day and age. Like you mentioned, like, there's a lot of people who can and will just

write checks straight to universities and athletes. And really, all you get in return is whatever the

results are on the quarter on the field. Yeah, at least with on it cards. You got a collectible

together there. Yeah, you let's do something. I'm looking up the values on some of these man.

I mean, I know that we're not really here to push on it as like, okay, this multi-million dollar,

you know, investment that you know, like this investment cloud. I know that's not the point of these

cards there. But let's just say those values are creeping up there, man. Yeah, they definitely are.

I mean, performances on the field always help. And I think as more people, like the college trading

card space really hasn't been explored in a lot of different ways. You know, you're seeing more and

more people kind of pop up and try to do what we're doing right now because of the monopoly licenses

that we're seeing going on at the higher levels. And hey, man, March madness. It was madness. It's

funny. Every turn was different. Yeah, it's rough. We still have quite a few teams left.

Thankfully, you know, we're down to, in a lot of these regions, just one team left. My men's

a women's side like the East only got Yukon to South. We got Nebraska. By the time this episode

comes out, we'll know whether or not they got past Iowa. I think they're going to do it. I think

Nebraska could be in the final four this year, truly. I think they have, if Houston goes down to

Illinois, I think they have the easiest path to walk to get to the final four. So that would be

crazy to Nebraska is probably like of all these teams. Like I'm a I'm a college basketball guy.

But obviously it's hard to watch every team a lot. I hadn't caught Nebraska this year.

They have really turned my eye in the tournament. They've looked really, really good,

really dominant. And I mean, that's been a, I mean, there are four seeds. It's not like them.

They obviously had a good season, but they have looked great. Yeah, they picked it up in the

tournament, especially kind of, you know, I mean, they started 22 and 0 and then fell off a little

bit down the stretch, but they've looked awesome. Texas has shocked me. I thought Texas was going

out to BYU in the first round. I was like, if they beat NC State, whatever, because they're going

to lose to BYU and AJ Dibonsa. And that obviously didn't happen. And now they're playing for

lead eight spot against Purdue. So one of our on it teams is going to lead eight for sure.

And then on the women's side, all the number one seeds have just been so dominant. Like

Yukon South Carolina, UCLA, Texas. They're winning games by 30, 40 points. Madison Booker dropped 40

points on Oregon. I mean, like you said at the start of this, the teams that were picking,

the teams that were playing really well. I'm going to go on a limb here, Leonard.

At least on the women's side, I think an on it team is going to win the title.

Yeah, when you got all the 40 number one seeds, yeah. And they're kicking everybody's ass. Let's

just tell it like it is. But I will say, sorry. Yeah, they're definitely, I think a team that

surprised a lot of people just the way they were up and down all season long. And I mean,

if I make it to the final floor, that'd be awesome. Obviously, we'd love to have our teams win

the championship like usual. And one of the cool things about our teams winning championships

and one of the awesome agreements that we have is that we actually have the opportunity to produce

boxes for national champions. We did it earlier this year. We had an Indiana Hoosiers

commemorative football box. We talked about Penn State wrestling winning their team title,

their national championship box just went live on our website. So it kind of like commemorates

the whole season for all these teams. So men's or women's basketball team wins the title too.

That's something that we're going to be very excited to hopefully produce as long as it's

one of our teams. So you know, we might have a Yukon men's basketball and women's basketball

commemorative box celebrating both of their 25 26 seasons. It gets real. I mean, don't stay

there's how to get them. And they're, they're dialed in right now. I don't know if they're going

to be Yukon, but I think they're going to be Oklahoma. We'll see anything can happen. But the

good thing is, hey, these guys right now is the time to buy and they start going up in one of

these wins. So you need to get out. Check out on it. Come to collector station. We're on all

throughout the store. We've mentioned them. And of course, Leonard's going to tell you where else

you could find them and buy or pick up any of the stuff we've been talking about.

Yep, you can check us out online on athlete.com. That's our website. You go there. You can

peruse the whole selection. Whether it's winter sports, fall sports, upcoming spring sports

releases, you can check it all out there. If you're into live ripping ships, we do those on TikTok

and whatnot pretty much weekly as well on it athlete. Just all one word on both platforms. You

can find us there. So if you feel the need to get some Joyce Edwards South Carolina women's

basketball cards in your life, those are the places to go. She's only a sophomore, man. She's got

a long way to climb. That's crazy. Crazy. How good. Could be talking about one of the greatest

ever. You never know. But hey, what you got to do is get on it. Oh, and it all one word. We

appreciate you Leonard. We'll see you next week. Thanks Ryan. I always get to be here. See you

guys. What's up guys? Welcome to collector nation. It's Ryan and Brian. Brian and Ryan here

on a Friday. It is opening day week, opening day week. Yes. Ryan, I mean, you know you're

you're committed when you pull the white socks, dear. The last two times that work with on the show,

you know, like I don't they haven't give me a reason to wear it. So I wear it on the show and

they put it back in my closet. True fan. True fan. When you're, you know, somehow Chicago guy

ends up away. I don't happens because clearly there's two teams, which is the strangest thing ever.

But that aside, it's not easy being a white socks fan. No, you're just I was born into a South

South Irish guy. There's no choice. Exactly. It take you good with the band. That's why we're the

World Series jersey from it, whatever, 21 years ago. Do we want to just start the episode with

the any predictions for the white socks that you'd like to get on record here for our show?

Well, I mean, the division is decent. Detroit's good. Cleveland's good. So yeah, I think they're

going to win. What do they win? Like for 55, 45 games, 55 games, they're going to win 75 to 70 games

this year. That'd be good. A road to acceptability. Hey, you're reasonable. You know, at this pace,

if they pick up to two games a year, like in 40 and like 20 years will be well, how about good team?

What is like the reasonable upside for the white socks? Like,

blow things out of it. Do they have the potential to win 100 games?

This year, no, but they get the first pick in the draft next year. There's a shortstop out of

UCLA that's that's supposed to be the best shortstop since 20 to a Litzky. And they have the number

two or three prospect top 100. They got like seven guys. They're really young, super young. So

this is not the year. Like they need, you know, they need these guys to grow up. But yeah,

they're a super young team. They don't have tons of upside this year. But like, I don't mind

watching a young team as they grow. The worst is watching an overpaid team fail. Yeah, exactly.

Like what's old dudes that there's sort of has been and there's no upside. And they are playing

as well as they are getting paid to play. Yeah, they don't give a shit. Why would I give a shit?

Yeah, exactly. So we'll see who's the best player in baseball right now?

Oh, Tony. I mean, I mean, Tony's forever. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Tony's like, I mean,

trout has just like gotten buried, man. Like in the hobby, like in the hobby, his cards are cheap,

man. Yeah, I would have never thought that day would come. Like my son picked up at the card show,

like picked up some trout autos that like would have been, I don't even know, three X that were three

years ago, four years ago. Yeah. Uh, so Tony just, let me do it. You know what a pitch and hit. I mean,

come on. I still like, I don't know. It's kind of like Bo Jackson, I think about him. Like

there's not been to an all star in football and baseball. Like the ridiculous of how good of an athlete

he was. I don't know if we can do enough like true service to what he's doing. No, I mean,

just one league. He and Dion did it. I think that's the last ones to do it. But if you're in

doing it, it's going to be football baseball. I mean, basketball players are great athletes in

the own right. But have you ever seen a basketball player throw out a first pitch? Absolutely not.

They're not good. No. It's like 50 cent. Not good. Yes. Uh, check that out. Good. Have you

haven't seen that first pitch, 50 cent per pitch? He bounced it up there a few times. I don't

know if I've seen it. Yeah, you got to see it. I mean, it went like this way, but then down like,

it's like, I don't know if he ever threw a baseball in his life. Oh, God. That's disappointing.

So that was not when I threw the ball off of the Rangers. That was, yeah, you got it there.

I saw the video of that. I can't be worse than that. Great. No, you definitely work with

Verbal's last minute deals. You can save over $50 on your spring getaway. So whether it's a mountain

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How was your opening? Did it was great. Uh, we, uh, we were wall to wall. We opened the doors

and we did 12 to 6 probably had 30, 40 people online when we opened. And it was honestly,

you know, you do all that build up. We had some giveaways and different things like that.

It was just wall to wall for like four hours. And my team did great. And I was just walking around

kiss and baby shaking hands and, uh, mean people and, you know, had Mike Baker here.

Uh, my Baker authenticated. Yeah, I should go, go look that up if you don't know who my Baker is.

That's great. We're on the planet. Um, he, he was here. Brie. So it's here. Uh, who does, if you

are listening or familiar with Brian, he does look pretty popular, like going around different

car shows, uh, met him at the national when I met Baker back a couple years ago. And he's making

the mint cases that are like the uber premium, uh, PSA cases. They're pretty sweet. And he brought

me my, uh, Caleb. Uh, I should have that. I'll bring that back. Well, Caleb Bell is running

on an errand. IE picking up Nash for me. Um, my Caleb Williams Ricky card, uh, my color blast

that rated 9.5. I might Baker. It's in this case. We'll, uh, we'll have that for next week.

Do you do, do you take the 9.5 and give it to PSA? Yeah. I'll send it to my mint case in that.

You know, it's like a thousand or a case. This thing's like made a glass and

kryptonite. Uh, it's like, it's heavy, man. It's like, it's like five pounds. I don't know. I

don't know what he says. It's gorgeous. I'll be totally for showing off. Uh, yeah. Anyway,

he was here. We had a good time with dinner the night before. And then we had, but it was

wall to wall, man. The great. I couldn't even, you know, we posted on social media. Thanking

everybody. I mean, we had a huge sales day. Um, everybody really came out to support us. And

it was, couldn't have asked for better. Uh, how about this? I'm going to ask you a couple. I'll

answer her, but I'll give you a couple. What's, what's something the market is doing right now?

The hobby market that doesn't make logical sense, but it's still working. I would say,

a consolidation of grading companies or one manufacturer manufacturing the cards. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's still, it's working, but how is it really the best? What do you think? Yeah. I

mean, I, I jumped on and I didn't stay on long enough to actually hear if it got answered. So

that's my fault. But Jeff Wilson was doing last night a lie for sports card. His show, like a

seven, he was on me in Nashville is, you know, a boy's gone wild week. Um, Nicole and Hogan

around town older boys are with, uh, my ex and so it's just me and Nash. And so boy's gone wild.

We were just YouTubeing it up, watching pack openings, opening packs. And literally,

Jeff, Jeff, I popped up, I said, Hey, live going on now. So I'll watch that. I jumped in there and

like, I asked him a question. I was like, because it was like Q and A night. And I asked,

you know, who's going to be the AT&T to PSA like Verizon is, you know, Verizon and AT&T,

kind of the behemoths and wireless and I spent a lot of time in wireless and you know,

it's been a lot of time working on Verizon, in particular. And there's always, you know, AT&T was

the foil, but it made both companies better, right? Because you had competition.

Pepsi Coke. Yeah, Pepsi Coke. Who's the Pepsi? If PSA is the Coke, who's Pepsi?

Who's the challenger? And is it good that they don't have one?

I don't know if they ever answered that question. Like I said, Nash's attention spanned it

and lasts long enough on that show. I think there's a vetting process like, yeah, he's like,

that's a, that's too complicated. It probably, it was probably too. I was like, you

went out red at a back. I'm like, what are you serious? Like I'm getting down, you know,

that's a, that's not an easy one to answer. That's funny. But yeah, it's like one

grading copy and everyone's grading everything it seems like. So it's like, I don't know how much

and if PSA is even about raising prices and doing what they're doing, they're actually saying,

slow down. Up days make more money, which is good. So there's next week as a top's industry.

Conference. And it's in Arizona. And I'm, every year, they seem to have like a new announcement

there that kind of reflects the industry. But I don't think they can make anything bigger than

what happened to what not, you know, went with that civil suit. So like whatever top's does now,

it's like not even comparable to the ripples of what I think or what not case could be.

Yeah. Bill and I talked about last week when you were traveling. And we might as well,

but you're probably not wrong. I mean, I, I don't want the government anymore involved and I hate

the litigious, unnecessary litigious, but I also did agree that there probably needs to be a few

guardrails that they're aren't. So I can agree, I can agree and disagree at the same time, you know,

like not everything's black and white. Part of me is like, say the hell out of it. People are

buying packs. If they're buying breaks of, and they're buying a team, you get that team's players.

However, on the re-packside of the odds and everything else where it's not crystal clear what

you're getting or not. Or if what the odds truly were, it gets a little gray, a lot gray.

Has data made the hobby more efficient or less fun?

I don't know. It's an interesting one. What do you think?

I'll say this. I think information is power. And I don't have a problem now as a shop owner

with an informed customer. And however, it can be a little bit of, you know, play in the comp

police at all times of, okay, yeah, this one's sold for 400. Yeah, but 12 of them sold for 150.

So how do we like that 400? But there was something either somebody made hit the wrong key

or that one had included a Michael Jordan autograph. Yeah. I mean, counts.

Counts are hard. Like, I mean, we deal with it all the time. We're the ones giving cops, right?

And people walk in and I left the list, like said this, but like in the fact, it's all,

it's all just supply and demand. And like, you're in front of one person who has to make a decision

on their business. And like, you know, it's, you can't play the cop game all the time.

No, I do think, I don't think data has made the hobby less fun. I think the central is the lack

of centralized assistive data. It's like the, it's like the financial exchanges. Like when

there was just one, like the S&P 500s, yeah, that S&P 500 would be,

would be the only pit in the world that has it. Now it's on five different pits. So now you

get all these different, these different off everything's coming to one place. There's a, you know,

you know, you know, I have all the data. Everyone has the data. It's splinter in cards.

That's, that's for sure. Like cards are splinter. And yeah, it's an interesting data is tough.

Yeah, exactly. What, how's your bracket? Did you do a bracket? You probably are too busy

even do a damn bracket. Not, I didn't do it. I mean, I like it watching it, but

Florida, I had winning the title. I had a really good look, Brian. I picked 94%

winners in my bracket through now, but I had Florida as the title holder.

That Florida loss hurt me. If there are the Florida things on right there, I am, uh, let's just

say I'm in like the 95% on the ESPN, a Florida win. Yeah. I'm 94% solid, Brian.

It's a good solid. So 94% winners, but I sit in third place in the collector station pool,

Bella's back from getting Nash. So she can be dead. I am in a dead last. You know what,

her percentage? I'm gonna let her share this because I don't want to say it out loud.

You know, yesterday, I looked at it and it was like 11%. It was 11%. It was really pitiful.

You could throw a dart to the dart board. You better than 11%. I mean, usually like, you know,

I can hold my own. I go purely based based on vibes. Like I don't watch basketball any other time

of the year except March madness. And the vibes led me astray. If you did just picked like,

high low, low, you know, like probably 60%. Well, I mean, so I 10.6% to be exact. Wow.

Is how much I have correct? I want to know what percentile that is. Is that like five percentile?

Oh, I don't even know. Um, I only have, my max is 930 points. Currently, I only have 330 points.

And you gave me 100. Yeah, your ice cold. I had like 1211 something. But my, but I'm capped

because of my champion losing. So I need, so I need some, I need some, if I get chaos,

we can get like Michigan and Arizona and Duke. We can't have any of them with,

you know, the other three, they're probably gonna win. Yep. Well, I have another bracket that

has Duke winning and another one that has Purdue winning. And those ones are doing, I mean,

better than the other one. So March, it's more like March sadness for you.

Okay. Okay. Mr. Patrick. Yeah. You should change your bracket to March sadness.

Yeah. I'll have to do the second chance bracket. Yeah. That's something.

But, you know, I'm some lost. So yeah, they totally did. And I had to get someone to share

the score with me because I see the game. But I heard they did lose.

You saw it in the near distance. Well, you say, it's kind of like I saw that train out there.

You know, like, so we went to dinner Friday night. And Bella, all I said was we need to see TVs.

And to her credit, there was TVs in the periphery. Unfortunately, you know, I'm not that old,

but there's about a hundred feet away. I couldn't even squint and see the scoreboard. I could almost tell

which team was which and all I know is Clemson lost. Okay. See, you can't blame your eyesight issues

on me. Okay. Well, it was still clearly 50 feet away. But yeah, I take that up with the host

as I guess. But, um, yeah. But Clemson lost. That's all it matters. Maybe it just saved me from

the agony. I mean, having to watch every basket and I go in.

Ferman also lost. They stayed up to 1 a.m. watching the game. That was a great game.

That was much better. I actually enjoyed watching that game. I wanted them to win, obviously. But

they represented to stay properly. Yeah. I'm like, I think Clemson did. Look,

think we got hurt by our guy. I lose freaking Carter Welling. Loan is knee out the ACC.

And we just weren't deep in. We didn't have quite enough talent to lose our second best score.

Did you see a UNC just completely fired their coach? Okay. Let me go on record right here.

I told Nicole we were watching that game together. I said, Hubert Davis deserves to be fired and

will be fired after that game. And I said it actually before the game was over before they actually

lost. They get called for a five second call because their guy didn't throw the ball in.

They were up like two or three. It was the deciding factor of it of VCU even having a chance to

get it over time. Yeah. And I said, Hubert Davis should be fired. He should have called a timeout

right there because his guy did let it get to five seconds where he didn't throw the ball in.

They had a timeout. And I said, that's coaching. Coaching to either tell him you should

call the timeout or you call the timeout for him. Yep. Uh, I said incompetence. And I look,

I got to, I don't know, Hubert Davis. I got nothing against him, but he's not been North Carolina

standard. He played there. Don't nothing personal, but not get enough North Carolina.

Now, yeah, that that was a mistake that easily could have been avoided, especially.

And then on top of that, they haven't been where they should be. I mean, North Carolina has

a top two three program in the country. They should be, they should, they should never

get past like top five, seven, like bad years should be top seven. They got everything.

They got the support. They got the historic history, the NBA players, those, I mean, money,

like there's, yeah, North Carolina should be there's no excuse for two to year, three years in a

road off the first round. Once we, you know, he did great his first year, went to title game, didn't

win, but it's been downhill since and I hate it for him. Good guy, but that coaching.

Yeah, I'm interested to see who they'll fill that position with.

Yeah, I think it'll go outside the program. I mean, I don't think it'll be a big name.

And they'll make a lot of money. Yeah, for sure.

And have a lot. Look, now you don't have to replace, you know, Roy Williams, you get to replace

the guy that didn't do so great. So this is perfect. Like someone. Yeah, you get to come in

when like you're in the bottom. Yeah, you're saving the day. So you get a little more grace

and time to like get it together. And if you're a great coach, which they will hire, then they'll

be good. Not sure.

Well, more on the, the card side of things, National Women's Soccer League signed a multi-year deal

with Panini, which is exciting for women's sports. I think we've seen, you know, in the

just past year, year two, like women's sports has become a lot more of a hot topic. So I'm kind

of excited to see where they take that. Yeah, you know, I've been a proponent and talked about

the W and B.A. product. Enjoy your open those. We got a lot of those in the store.

And I know the soccer players and soccer players as a whole is getting more popular. And with

a World Cup here this year. Yep. So Panini's got to sign some things. They don't have the major

sports. So, you know, it makes sense. But I mean, I think it was a smart move because I think

they have a big opportunity there. Like you said, with the World Cup, and I think it'll be good.

So I'm excited to see what those look like. Especially because I think Panini makes some of the

coolest art. Yeah. And so I'm sad to see them go on the football side of things, but I think they'll

do some good things there. It should be good. But also, I mean, TCG is really grown in the hobby,

especially one piece and UGO. I mean, one piece is seen as 700% increase in grading. Yeah.

That's crazy. You know, and I mean, back to the store. We hear it. Love people asking for it.

We carry a few things, but about a ton. And so we're seeing increases. And then look,

we opened this store. It's definitely sports leaning and my boys and I are more in the sports,

but we did a Pokemon. But 60% of ourselves have been Pokemon. Yeah. So, I mean, at the grand opening,

that we couldn't keep the ETVs on the shelf at all. So, I mean, they were gone like halfway through

the event. I know. So it was, it's, it's big. And the grading thing is now hitting like every

facet. So everybody wants to know what they have and what, you know, the quality is. And they want

to see that bump in value. And everybody thinks they have a 10, even though they're likely eights or

sevens. We know this first thing. I'm curious as to how like obviously, you know, TCG, they're made

to play. Yeah. So I'm curious as to what percentage of people, because I'm sure when like Pokemon

first came out and stuff like that, people were obviously lying mostly more than just trading them.

So a lot of those cards are either destroyed or like heavily used. Yeah. But now that there's

so much upside value to them, I'm curious as to what the percentage of people who are actually playing

the games versus just collecting the cards. I would say, I guess it would be like 60% collecting,

40% playing. I mean, I also think it, it depends. Like, I know like magic gathering. Yeah, I think

it's more playing. Yeah, that's more playing. But Pokemon, I guess 60, 40, 70, 30, collecting versus

playing. And I think, you know, five or six years ago, it was probably more playing. But now

in the last 10 years, especially, it's definitely probably more collecting.

So we're like playing in penny sleeves. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's true. I think I don't know.

And I personally never played. So I tried to play Magic the Gathering once and

almost cried out of frustration. So it's just not for me. That's okay. But we do have the

Top 20, 25, 20, 26 at Bowman U. Now March Man is basketball. And it's direct to consumers.

So that's drop it or dropped two days ago. Yeah. And it's highlighting men's and women's college

stars, three autos, three numbered parallels. So I think that that's a really, really good set,

especially with everything happening in college sports right now. Yeah, I was

being interesting how those cells compare to tops from basketball in general. I mean, obviously

the university product, but, you know, I still think it's somewhat limited. I think they're

printing runs on this stuff. So it's probably gonna be popular. I was kind of in a white and

seed mode, but problems with this top stuff, man. If you'd wait seed mode, it was gone before you

decide you want to have in the store. It's already sold out everywhere. So I, okay, I have a question

for you. Yeah. Do you think that there that across all the brands, too many

like different releases are happening all at the same time? Because I feel like every week,

there's at least three releases that are happening in any given week. So does the market just

become oversaturated with releases that half of them don't mean anything anyway?

I, tops would probably agree with you. That's what they're, they're goals to reduce skews,

but it's just about different sports. That is true. The basketball, football, baseball, soccer,

Pokemon. I mean, you got a lot of variety there that's not, so I collect basketball that

may not be in the football. They might, I guess it's hard having a store because you say,

like it's constantly like we have new products coming in like every day. Yeah. And so I guess

maybe it feels like there's so much, so many releases happening all at once, but it does. And

there are and there's a lot to keep up with the store. I think sometimes it feels like there's

too many, but I do think if you really look at like someone that collects only basketball,

that, that often they collect the only football, only baseball, you know, and there's, so

there's a lot of sports, a lot of coverage. And you get at college, you got non college,

you get pro, and so a lot of variation there. But I don't know. I'm also the type that, hey,

there's new ones. Yeah. And I guess that that's probably like, you know, do you want the new

Chinese Barclay thing? Yes. Yes, we do. So I mean, they're just capitalizing on that. So I get it.

So as this show releases, perfect order, the new Pokemon mega evolution set,

supposedly our in-house Pokemon expert Cole says it's kind of a dead of a set.

Oh, really? That could be a very popular. I still think it'll sell well because everything

Pokemon sells well. Sure. But looking at some of the values and things like that, it's kind of on

the, yeah. Well, I mean, because they just released ascended here. So it's like that was such a huge

release. Well, we need new stuff every. I know, I know. I know. Oh, in like the 30th anniversary,

I know they're coming out with release on that soon. And I'm sure that that's like going to be

bigger than even ascended heroes or prismatic. So yeah, it will be. And I think the man will still

be there on some level. But I think the sets kind of here. That's what I've seen. It looks that way.

It'll be interesting in like a year, seeing like the data of which products kind of

withstood withstood the test of time and which ones were just like, you know, as it for sure.

And it's like for me, as a store owner, I don't care. Like I want to sell whatever people want

provide variety and don't and want to serve the customers. But as a collector,

I have been Pokemon for the chance at the most valuable card. And also, I like the art. I enjoy opening it

because art's cool. But it's really about what's the lowest priced pack I could open with the highest

probability of a high card. And the age old question. Yes. And perfect order has a lower percentage

so far. They're they're topping cards aren't like what the new like ascended heroes. You can get

$1,000 card. I pulled it. Yeah. The ginkgoor. And you didn't record it. Yes. But it happened.

And it's in the case where it was, unless we sold it. No, no, it's. And so, okay. It's good price

to possibility ratio. Then versus versus literally open something. Okay. The upside's $10.

Yeah. I think that was art. But I do think there's only maybe like one couple hundred dollar

card or something there so far. That's kind of like that. I think it me excited. But I'm not just

curious. What if we can run like you remember a few years back when everyone on Reddit made games

stop like stocks go through the roof? What if we can do that with some trading cards? Take like

base cards and yeah, I don't know about base cards. That's not going to happen. Base could know

you want space cards. That's for Nash. I don't know. I'm just saying.

Nash offered love some base cards. Nash just walked by. That's my son. He doesn't like base cards either.

I just thought I was like, oh, you know, little kids will like these base cards. Now they don't.

They throw them away too. Yep. We have for the listeners, we have a huge bin of just a bunch of

base cards that kids can take. And they're not like the worst ones either. I mean, there's

some decent ones. And it's like, nah, they don't want that. Yeah, my roommate's a teacher. So I'll

shovel them to her. And the next day, it looks like the bin hasn't even been touched.

Yep. But there you have it. We got some big releases.

Store opening was great. Brian had to run. He's got to run a company, man. He's got things to do.

Any final thoughts or anything else we need to cover? No, I got nothing.

Collector Nation dot com. The collector nation. Yep dot com. Download our app on iOS and Android.

Yep. It's all there. All the content, all the highlight clips, ways to get touched with us.

And the collector station dot com. If you want to see the inventory, we have in the store or

buy singles or seal project. We'll seal it to you. And hey, it's all good. Got a lot of good

selections. A lot of it. Get the website up to date. We've got 85% of singles on there now. So we

got a few more coming, but update it regularly. And we get a lot of stuff. New stuff in

as as we're talking, we're evaluating collections. We've got a lot of stuff. So

we'll appreciate you jumping on the end and all the hard work on the show. Of course,

about to be here. We appreciate you guys. We know you have options. We appreciate you for making

us one of them. We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into the show. Be sure to follow us on

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