Geeked Out Collecting

Conner is a practicing financial professional who collects TCG's and bodybuilds! He especially loves collecting vintage Japanese slabs and vintage Harry Potter cards.

James is an avid investor across the board and recently re-entered the Pokemon market in 2020. He also has been an avid Soccer fan and card collector.

Show Notes

Here's where you can find Conner
Here's where you can find James:

Get on the waiting list for early access to CardFolio!

You can find me here:
IG:@geeked_out_collecting
Twitch:/feliwankenobi
Website:www.GeekedOutCollecting.com
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Patreon: www.patreon.com/Geekedoutcollecting

What is Geeked Out Collecting?

At Geeked Out Collecting podcast we apply financial and investing principles to our hobby collecting - from trading card games like Pokemon and Magic the Gathering to Comic books and Funko Pops, we do it all. The goal is to turn dusty hobby collections into profitable nest eggs.

Let’s go!

Find us on: www.geekedoutcollecting.com

Kind: captions
Language: en

oh yeah you know connor i want to tell you your 
displays look so dope like you really beefed it  

up yeah i will i also like yeah so i picked up a 
couple from pogo dreamer and obviously but also  

like i used to sit over there but i put a desk 
on this side of the room so that people could  

actually see my stuff instead of syracuse 
basketball and a light so i tried i tried  

it looks good have any of you guys been 
participating in the eevee day today sylveon man  

all you need are seven hearts after this i'm gonna 
get my last heart so i can finally get a sylveon  

all right open yeah i haven't 
opened pokemon go in like  

months i feel like i don't know i 
like ever like it alerts me all the  

time like the notifications come up 
and i want to play and then i'm like  

i don't i don't know what i'm i'm not doing this 
right now i don't know it just like escapes me i  

forget oh i gotcha i know but it should be it's 
evie yeah it's some special eevee thing right  

um no it is it's all eevee stuff today so yeah 
there's like a [ __ ] ton of eevees i caught my  

first shiny so i'm turning i'm turning the 
shiny into sylveon i just gotta you know  

remember to finish the things because i think 
like to get to evolve evie to sylveon you need  

70 hearts which is a [ __ ] ton of hearts if you 
remember like when you have your buddy right yeah  

did you play when it first came out i thought 
you just named them something else and then  

so that was that was the hack that was from 
the cartoon that when it first came out you  

could name them the flurry on the vaporeon and 
the jolteon after the ones on the show and they  

would evolve into those specific ones but now 
yeah it only worked once though yeah like like  

now like now i think i can't remember if it's 
umbreon or espeon it's probably espeon but  

like for example you need to walk 10 kilometers 
with your buddy and then evolve them at night  

and then you get and then you get the espeon 
you can get jolteon vaporeon and flareon those  

are just like randos so you can randomly evolve 
and you can kind of get them wherever but if you  

want like the special ones um uh leafeon umbreon 
you have to do some stuff you have to you have  

to you know but anyways yeah it's random back 
i did the naming hack that's how i go i think  

a flareon or whatever i don't remember it's a 
lot easier to play now than when it first came  

out when you had no idea was going on because you 
couldn't see the id's you had to like hack i used  

to have to like hack into like some weird website 
and like and i also used to spoof my location too  

so yeah yeah so it was almost like so it's like 
playing the game it was almost like playing the  

gameboy game but on your phone so like are 
you getting travel so i would go i would  

make it simulate all the way to like england or 
australia so you can go click catch the specific  

region ones oh yeah but then people got banned 
for that the company that used it got so i never  

got so they would just shadow ban you so you 
couldn't catch anything for like five minutes  

but the company who created that app got sued 
for five million dollars because they basically  

took the server and just hopped off like just 
made like a duplicate and then made a way to go  

back into it and they were spoofing the system um 
wow i had no idea that's why i was so slow because  

everyone was trying to cheat the system and all 
those other companies were making it so you could  

fake where you were but they were 
also slowing down the other servers  

see so that's what was happening because i 
left the game super quick because of those  

stupid servers always you know failing super slow 
low tides were shitty they also like it just like  

exploded like they had no idea that it was gonna 
yeah they just took over that's her overload yeah  

did you guys ever play the harry potter version 
like i tried it night one yeah i tried it and then

i just don't like staring at 
my phone while i'm outside  

it's hard it's like i don't know i just like it's 
hard for me to play sometimes you know honestly i  

can understand that yeah i can understand that 100 
like like at this point the only reason i do it is  

because i have like a monthly or no a daily goal 
for steps just to keep active because i cuz like  

i you know we spend so much time sitting down 
at a desk right i'm like no i'm gonna like i'm  

gonna be better about him and be more deliberate 
so i'm thinking okay if i'm walking i might as  

well also beef up my stats like i'm at level 29 
now which isn't much but you know step by step

well y'all this is great um before you got 
on connor james and i we were talking about  

how like one of these days if and when 
we ever go to a card show or comic-con  

we should do the full the 
full cosplay so i'm expecting

it would be hilarious it would be so funny oh my 
god i was literally i'm not gonna lie i was just  

watching pokemon movie 2000 or whatever i think 
i might like try to like watch them all like  

over time just for the heck of it because i don't 
know how many of the pokemon movies i've seen but  

i'm really still trying to figure out there's 
so many there's there's so many and i'm still  

trying to figure out if this coco movie or i guess 
like in english and secrets of the jungle if it's  

ever actually going to come out in the united 
states and if they're gonna do it in theaters  

or if they're just gonna like release it online um 
i don't know how they've done like recent releases  

i don't really remember but i could see them 
just like doing it with netflix and releasing it  

straight out you mean even slater had that same 
issue with their movie too they were trying to  

figure out how to get it in because the theaters 
were just there was no point going to theaters so  

yeah demonstrator came out with a movie so they 
like a live action no it's a car it's a part of  

the no it's the anime they broke all the records 
of was it spirited away had all the records in  

japan it broke are you serious yeah there's a good 
show i've only seen season one though i don't know  

if season two is out or not not yet but i haven't 
been so much into it but the movie looked cool  

so the article anything that gets live action is 
awful turns to [ __ ] completely complete [ __ ]

good old air that that that started it all right 
and then and then there was death note that came  

out which was william defoe didn't even read 
the manga and he played the shimigami and i'm  

just like how how do you even understand the 
role you're playing if you've never read it or  

watched it like it was mind-blowing to me and 
it was terrible it was so it's like it's like  

any time they try to live action a video game 
movie or video game into a movie or an anime  

into a live action show so that's why like 
is this pokemon show gonna be terrible or is  

it gonna actually work i hope not i'm hoping it's 
good because i have cards i want to sell that are  

hopefully gonna be based off the show yeah it'll 
be two or three years from now probably so perfect  

the only anime movies that i like that are 
based off shows are those 50-minute recaps  

oh yeah when you go back oh yeah that those are 
the only well no i do like the um like spirited  

away in those movies those actual movies were well 
but yeah i just watched that a couple of weeks ago  

again for the first time in a long time it's 
so good i mean it's like it's beautiful like  

the animation's amazing it's hard to believe 
it's like 20 years old gosh honestly i couldn't  

agree with you more princess mononoke that 
was a good one too um what's the other ones  

that are all of a sudden like not coming to mind 
but spirited way is definitely a really good one  

now i'm going to have to try and see how i can uh 
watch this demon slayer movie i have no idea who  

liked it online somewhere so you can always watch 
it for free online yeah that's how anime works  

i was gonna check crunchyroll so but you're 
right bootleg that's true they might have it  

now i know netflix didn't yeah i think 
netflix had season one of demon slayer  

they're not gonna season two though i don't 
i think crunchyroll but didn't you see the uh  

didn't crunchy roll by funimation or 
other way around for like one no um uh

sony bought crunchyroll yup 
oh [ __ ] right yeah i forgot  

i never like read the press release my buddy told 
me um which is interesting i never have had a  

crunchyroll subscription but i've always like been 
this close to pulling the trigger because there's  

i mean it is nice to like have it all in easy 
access in one place and not have to like bootleg  

it and airplay it to it or like whatever but 
it's uh yeah i've never decided to pay for it

well i mean i think i don't pay for it 
either but i have funimation and then so  

i one of my co-workers he's got crunchyroll 
so we just swap you know nice share  

fbi i don't actually do that that's fbi agent  

that's not what i do i you know i heard recently 
that netflix was gonna start trying to criminalize  

like shared logins when you share a login am i 
am i going crazy have you guys heard that too or  

no for netflix i wouldn't be surprised if they're 
gonna crack down on it more yeah they're trying to  

because they're they're they can't go any higher 
with subscriptions or yeah their subscription  

numbers are hitting a wall so they want to 
try to make it so you can't share passwords  

anymore so their numbers go higher like i know 
on mine we have at least three profiles though  

three or four different profiles so they might 
use ip this is probably or some kind of mix  

i would assume to try to limit that yeah yeah 
for sure we do we do the same thing and i want  

to say it's a limit of like three viewers at 
one time or three devices at one time too yeah  

yeah yeah but for sure download 
everything then they'll never know

all right so the whole way around it yeah well 
i mean i guess we could start getting into the  

market stuff because there's a lot of things a lot 
of things a little bit that happens a little bit  

right now a little bit actually impromptu hopped 
on the phone with schwammy today which was sweet  

i don't know if you guys have ever seen any of his 
videos but we were talking a little bit about it  

oh really what'd y'all talk about 
it's great um we were talking about

largely like the psa backlogging grading and 
some of the like gem rates and stuff because  

there's been some good videos that have been 
put out about psa and their backlog and the  

percentage of tens lately that have been graded 
this guy used i forget his i always forget his  

handle but he has like really good youtube 
videos and largely they're around um nba  

uh card data but he has a ton of data on the 
psa um basically grading history and he's been  

tracking them as well and so it was interesting 
because i like i just pulled all the pop reports  

i pulled monthly and i was reviewing some 
stuff for a video i'm gonna do this week so  

we're just kind of talking about that but it's 
uh it's funny because you know i won't you know

i don't have to go too much down the 
rabbit hole but the interesting thing  

is that the complete through dates 
for value tcg is sitting literally  

at october 5th which is like the the like two days 
after the logan paul video the first logan paul  

video so we're like we're at the precipice of all 
the cards that got sent in right after logan paul  

got back into the hobby so the next 
three to six months of watching the  

psa pop reports and watching uh cards that 
come back is going to get crazy interesting

um yeah that is going to be really really 
interesting to see that data and i've heard  

i mean even a few people like charlie i know 
i i can't remember when he told me when he  

put his sub in but he's gotten subs back 
which i'm sure are old subs but got subs back  

um and and the gem myths there weren't that many 
there weren't as many uh the people that you've  

been talking to connor have they also kind of seen 
the same thing or the content you've been showing  

what the data has kind of shown like roughly 
if you extrapolate it across everything at psa  

is basically the rate of gem mint tens is at about 
half of what it was before so if 40 of submissions  

were getting tens now it's 20. and that's like 
kind of what he extrapolated over a very short  

term time period from this data but i think it's 
like it's an interesting thought exercise right  

like in this i'll probably talk about some 
of this on the video this week but like the  

how much is a function of psa becoming more strict 
with grading how much is a function of people  

literally just sending in whatever they wanted 
to psa either either just because you know like  

charizard's a great example right like any first 
edition charizard in any condition became valuable  

right it became worth grading right among a myriad 
of other vintage and modern cards so you know you  

can get a seven and whatever first edition bass 
holo and it still was worth grading right so  

so how many people had all that backlog that they 
just decided to dump because it was not worth it  

and then just the people that we know that are 
totally uneducated right that just just just said  

hey i have a shoe box of cards here they go and 
you know whether it was unlimited or first edition  

or fake cards or whatever like they just sent it 
in so um and then there's also the idea of like  

over time like there's only you know 
let's say let's just make an easy  

number like let's say a hundred thousand of a 
certain card in a set were ever printed right  

like there might only be in existence like from 
the hundred thousand that were produced like  

10 000 that qualify as a 10 and then from there 
you go what's been damaged what's been lost  

you know then you kind of add in some that 
you know get some leniency right but there's  

only a finite number right so then the percentage 
could go down if the population just keeps going  

up from an overarching standpoint because 
there are literally no you know more tens  

out there to be graded like potential tens so 
um it's kind of it's it's tough it's tough to  

like and then we don't even know what the other 
you know ps or cgc looks like right we don't know  

how many cards are there so it's about to get 
so interesting so i don't know what you guys  

think about that the market's already down 
usually in the winter anyways into november  

december what's going to happen when those cards 
start coming on the market and people start  

panicking because they need to sell because 
they need to pay back all of their psa subs  

because i'm glad well i'm gonna forecast that 
out so that's what i'm banking on is just people  

needing money and just having to offload because 
there's no more raw bulk anymore that's worth  

buying even the stuff that i'm 
looking at now like it's still  

it's trash yeah i mean i found one i'm 
trying to get the guy to tell sell to me  

but like it's these cards would be probably 
like 80 cents a piece and there's probably  

it's probably 60 percent mint to nearmen um but 
even i mean that's might be worth the risk but i  

mean i think just back to congressman like i don't 
think there's a lot of tens that are out there and  

people i think the junk slabs are going to be 
coming in now going forward like this is where  

it got stupid because all those articles came out 
middle of october and then it got worse after we  

went home for the holidays for november december 
and then people are just sending cards in and just  

it's going to be like you said it's going to be 
interesting because i don't know how people have  

planned out how they're going to pay for these 
subs they probably haven't but if they're a  

business they might have right or they might have 
access to some leverage or credit or whatever but  

it is it's hard because there's so many like 
um there's so many conflicting catalysts  

right like like you have 25th anniversary you 
have the holidays like the seasonality of the  

hobby like all those things that are like pros 
and then you have you know so that could say hey  

do we get another like slight boom into this like 
fall into winter but then you also have like have  

people really made a bad mistake and are a lot 
of them upside down on slabs and it's like well

maybe because it was so cheap to grade then that  

they might be okay like they still are gonna need 
money right like i've taken advantage of that  

already with cgc lots like bought cards from 
people for 60 cents on the dollar because they  

needed money to cover their grading fees right um 
especially with japanese because they're just like  

get it out the door you know japanese hollows 
so um it's really hard there's a lot of like  

odd factors and then the whole macro 
overlay right um whether or not

you know the delta variant picks up or how people 
perceive it picking up whatever what happens with  

the world with that and then just like the 
broader you know economic recovery worldwide  

as a whole and then you also have like what you 
know all the you know the unemployment benefits  

ending the extended ones you have uh people are 
going to start paying student loans and their  

you know rent to getting him maybe pay their 
student loans who knows but so there's so many  

of these like conflating factors on like it's it's 
such like comes down to like a personal level of  

liquidity needs and it's like we don't know how 
many people that sent cards one want to sell a lot  

of them two how many of them were just like random 
individuals versus like larger businesses that are  

looking to just churn right and it's we don't know 
the character of the submissions that have been  

made which is really tough to see because i think 
a lot a lot of those people probably sent the cgc  

later you know in the year but i think we're 
still in that period of a lot of people were  

just sending the psa you know in october november 
because that's what i did i i didn't i didn't send  

him in until april may but i also sent in a dumb 
amount of cards um but it was also just a cheaper  

option at that time because of just how many 
cards i was sending his psa would have been i  

think was it fifteen dollars a card around i mean 
it's been 15 was the lowest right or was it 20  

god i can't remember now trying to remember now 
yeah well there were before that it was like

it's like somewhere between 8 and 12. yeah like 
right at one point depending on the quarterly  

special or if you had vouchers or whatever 
they're giving them away yeah it's weird  

because we we were like i felt like we were so 
hyper obsessed on the price changes and then  

since psa closed and cgc hasn't moved their 
prices since like whenever that was february  

or march like i've just kind of forgotten 
like the price history and just taken like  

it is what it is now they made that move in 
february march and then they made another move  

in what was it june when was it because their 
website was a disaster when i was trying to do  

one of my last subs i think jessica would be like 
12 hours to be one of yours because they just kept  

because there were so many people putting cards 
in it was stupid that was good it that's when you  

were sent you because yours just got checked in 
right yeah may was the one that i struggled with  

the most that was the worst to get in that that 
was the worst to literally put in it was i paid  

7.65 per card so it's awesome i mean i don't i 
mean it's not gonna happen again i don't think  

even with like specials or anything like that i 
don't see a company being that cheap if they're  

not one of the big three i mean if they're like 
newer ones i can see them being cheaper but even  

then like how do they stay afloat they're 
going to be that cheap they're not going to  

like all these new ones no doubt like they're 20 
minimum and then they're kind of going up from  

there yeah i wonder like it's hard because 
we don't see like what their business looks  

like right so if they're doing things at a much 
more rudimentary level if they're using cheaper  

products and inputs but also they're probably not 
able to purchase the raw materials for the stuff  

they need or anything like that at scale like 
obviously a psa is they probably have really  

bad terms for all that stuff like i can't imagine 
the economics are great have you guys looked more  

into randolph's grading company that he launched 
because i know nothing about it at this point  

i haven't are you talking about is he the the 
gentleman that actually uses like a scanner he  

doesn't he use some ocr technology and then 
zooms in i can't remember i'm thinking of a  

video that i saw in gary's profile one time that 
he invested with no doesn't mean oh okay yeah this  

is random pokemon the dude from the uk who's 
the um he's also like a musician like a rapper  

um but he started a grading company recently 
to my understanding but i never got around to  

looking into it i think that's smart over in 
europe especially with just shipping there's  

nothing really over there that's defined i don't 
think right there's not i mean they're all pretty  

much space in the states and shipping is just an 
absolute nightmare coming from the uk that's why  

i don't buy from europe usually because just how 
expensive it is not to make a currency exchange so  

i mean they don't really have many options over 
there so i can see that being a viable i'm kind of  

surprised psa hasn't like tried to like buy one 
of those smaller ones just to so they can have  

some kind of way to get their name overseas more 
so they could start grading cards over there but  

well i think connor and uh what's his face 
from um graded gem i think they work with the  

see i always forget if they are working where 
the grading facility is for psa that they use  

but those guys graded gem at first was in 
the uk and then z from z g was also doing  

middle manning for graded gem on the u.s side of 
their business but their business started in the  

uk um i know there's a small facility smaller in 
japan for grading but grading cards in japan is  

not really a big thing yet they don't care they 
feel like they're yeah they do sell them like  

they're great and it's hilarious but isn't 
it because of like how just how they keep  

they just like hold on to stuff better than than a 
normal american does they just keep they just keep  

their cards in better condition and they're just 
better about i mean i'm sure a lot of those cards  

that are over there from like the early 1990s i'm 
sure they're still in pristine condition or close  

to it even if they aren't even graded yet just 
because of how they keep their cars there could  

be people with like there could be people in japan 
like abandoned stores or like you know just random  

families who maybe had a store before bought 
during the 90s like who could have like boxes of  

like like cases of like bandai cards like we have 
no idea like the ones that went in the vending  

machine like all the not the not the appeal sheets 
but the actual vending cards like there could be  

who knows how many of those could be over there in 
pristine condition and then yeah my i was thinking  

about this today like i i miss just because the 
raw market has been harder and because of grading  

costs and where we're at in the cycle like i 
haven't been looking as much for raw cards but  

um i also haven't had as much time to do so but i 
do miss like buying as much from japan because it  

they always came very well packed in very good 
condition like with a lot of care behind it and  

that was like always one of my favorite things 
about buying from japan is just i felt like they  

they cared a lot about like the quality 
that's how the canadians are too

who i thought was sending me heroin when i got 
the packaging of how it was like it was red it  

was wrapped in trash bags uh duct tape uh it 
was in sleeves but they were like i don't know  

he did it some sort of way sorry just making 
spit water but like they he had it like triple  

poor like it looked like drugs and that's what 
nicole thought when he had drugs when i ripped it

i got 600 cards from him so he like it was 
a thick stack and i was like oh my goodness  

oh my god look it took at least an hour just to 
like really unwrap everything take everything  

out take inventory okay did did i actually get 
everything you know that that was insane canada  

bread came in clutch they looked like they had 
just came out of a pack that's how nice they were  

which was i was still surprised that he was 
selling them for what he was selling them for  

with how nice they were like they 
looked like they just were packed fresh  

but he had opened them in 2012 i think he said 
so it was they were like eight or nine years out  

of packs so i don't i mean i don't know how that 
guy assume he just kept it that was insane i don't  

know how he kept him so nice i i don't either and 
honestly like it'll be really interesting to see  

what those cards great at between you and i 
because i'm hoping if if i get pristine's if i  

do it would come from that it would i i don't know 
that i will but looking nines maybe maybe some 9.5  

if we're lucky i mean if we get if we get 
pristines out of those then i mean like  

seven or eight of those cards pay for all 
of the raws so i mean it's it would be nice  

but i mean cgc doesn't give out tens do they 
yeah you guys only only if you're a pancake  

of everything i sent in i think out of like 175 
to 200 cards i pre-graded two of them as a 10. i  

asked pancake too and i said have you ever gotten 
vintage shenzhen i don't i think he said he hasn't  

they're only modern tens that he's gotten him for 
yeah i wouldn't be surprised i don't i'm trying  

to think of i've ever seen a vintage 10 from cgc 
either version of their 10 pristine or perfect  

i think i've only seen modern but i mean is that 
that's going to be like a black label for people  

oh no i've seen one i've seen one japanese one 
okay uh it was a poly is it the poly wrath from  

uh i think it's a neo discovery holo maybe i can 
like see it in my mind's eye um but someone i know  

from who's a seller from hawaii who has a ton 
of japanese he got he got a 10 a pristine 10  

it wasn't a perfect 10. and that's the only uh 
vintage one i've ever seen it's so interesting i  

still think i think there's a lot of opportunity 
there still like you know more more from just a  

i mean it's an arbitrage opportunity basically 
right where if you want to churn you know and you  

can buy really good cards in cgc slabs that look 
like they might be able to be a psa 10 someday but  

the biggest risk there other than just the hobby 
risk is the fact that you don't know you're gonna  

have to pay to regrade that that's true you might 
i mean at this point i won't even bother regrading  

because i don't i think i'm also betting on 
cgc but right you're making that yeah which is  

i mean the market's gonna tell us right like we're 
gonna find out yeah definitely yeah i mean it'll  

be really interesting to see because you know with 
the increase in prices and we've talked about this  

before the debate is there going to be a new floor 
for graded cards some say yes and i can understand  

why they do because sellers want to cover their 
cost bases but at the same time will there be  

enough demand for those prices and i mean we've 
already been seeing a win in the market you know  

i think um what ebay's uh most recent uh quarterly 
report said that their active buyer base dropped  

by two percent granted that's probably not due 
to pokemon and all these other factors but i mean

you can't command prices if you don't have the 
demand for the prices and the item i think with  

that too with ebay is there's not they're not 
the only show in town anymore i think whatsapp  

is gonna that's true whatsapp is coming for 
their for their market share especially with like  

they just can't offer the same kind of stuff that 
what uh whatsapp does and i guess i mean gather  

samples do you mean whatnot email why not whatnot 
what no yeah sorry yeah one that's the thing they  

also came through with whatsapp but um whatnot 
i mean that's it's just a unique product that i  

don't think ebay i mean ebay might try to get into 
that kind of live auction thing but i think ebay  

is trying to diversify their business in a myriad 
of ways right we're seeing them dabble a little  

bit in content we're seeing them dab more in the 
commercial lending on like the high-end you know  

watch market for example so they're figuring 
out different ways to make money and try to  

try to adapt but i do think i do think the way 
things are trending is more that experiential  

marketplace like what whatnot started to establish 
um it's just way more fun right um you know the  

hard part is like i know i can go and buy 
something for x on ebay pretty much you know  

by and large at any time if it's fairly common but 
on whatnot it's always going to depend on you know  

are they doing a raffle with you know for the top 
bidder in this thing and brilliant for sellers oh  

my gosh i mean you can sell you can sell a hundred 
dollar slab for 200 just because someone's trying  

to be the highest bidder like it's brilliant but 
um back to the the original debate i have i have  

i think come to the firm conclusion that there 
is no such floor anywhere for anything um  

from for a variety of reasons right i think you 
know one first and foremost is there's this weird  

lag between how many people graded you know cards 
for eight bucks and the card maybe cost them 50  

cents and so they're more than willing to 
sell you know if they're a business yeah but  

like even you like you have volume right like if 
you if you could sell all of those cards for 20  

or 25 and the you know psa's lowest grading 
fee is 50 like you don't care that that's 50  

like you're making a double or a triple on your 
money and you're just running that churn like  

that's how a business works like that's where 
the money's going to be made in this hobby  

going forward is on like those low cost higher 
volume like transactions i think and then like  

in a longer term perspective some like you know 
unique investment pieces but anyway right like the

the fact that there's such like a large amount 
of low-cost basis slabs that people are going  

to be willing to let go of for you know pretty 
pretty low prices i think because as a business  

you don't need to hit home runs you just need to 
hit a bunch of singles and it'll be interesting  

to see like it's kind of like what i alluded to 
before i don't know how much of the market or how  

much of the backlog at psa for example is cards 
that were submitted by like for gosh sakes like  

the guy like dan and travis like i know they use 
cgc largely but like the volume that they submit  

to run a business like that's why they'll 
sell me a first edition cgc 9 or whatever  

for 15 bucks because their cost basis is 
like four dollars that's awesome for them  

you know so how long does it take for all those 
low basis cards to flush out and for there to  

be some like reset of you know there's only 
cards entering the market that have you know  

25 grading fees associated with them and 
the answer is probably never because the  

market doesn't really work like that and the 
volume is too great so you know part of my take  

and and honestly like to double down 
on what you're saying with what dan  

and travis are doing i mean i remember one 
of the first conversations i had them on um  

they literally they they told me they never keep 
money in the bank they're always just putting it  

back in putting it back in in terms of cards 
sending them out to be graded you know not  

leaving money in the bank just because they 
know that in order for them to make money  

volume they did you get on base like that reminds 
you of that one movie with what's his face  

you know they're always about just getting on 
base and like the other cool thing with whatnot  

which i haven't been paying too much attention 
to their auction prices but i love how that app  

also has like virality built into it 
you know like in order to increase users  

you want to you know have a micro influencer 
strategy or an influencer strategy right  

well if you have them if you ins like they 
have their own flywheel kind of like amazon  

the more auctioneers you have on there that have 
influence the more users you have on there to to  

bid and buy things and then so the more people 
you have buying things the more people you have  

selling things and it's just this circle where it 
it's just freaking awesome i haven't used the wrap  

they're the ones who are going to be the 
like an example of the winners in all of this  

anyone who is part of the transactional nature 
of collectibles and is just getting a cut  

of every buy and sell those are the smartest 
people in the room right it's like the same  

as like the crypto market right like the coin 
bases of the world they're the people who are  

going to be the winners you know and that actually 
make the money that actually make the money yeah  

because it doesn't matter if the trade was 
a winner or a loss they still get their cut  

right they get bigger fees though yeah they 
don't care yeah they can enter into any market  

and still come out profitable in the end it it's 
great the cool thing about whatnot is that like  

they're to your exact point like they're able to 
partner with social media influencers right like  

they've done these weekly breaks you know where 
they do a succession of breaks with different  

you know polka tubers or whatever 
like i would love to know  

how many users they added after super 
duper danny opened that error box  

oh yeah yeah must have like because that went 
so viral um at least in ours like for pokemon

yeah plus all the stuff that like i don't know for 
me like i don't give a [ __ ] about like there's  

you know gosh there's vintage clothing on there 
which is like kind of cool like sometimes like  

depending and there's like funkos which i hate 
but like they're there like obviously there's all  

the sports guys like there are you know there's 
i mean stuff i do like like vintage video game  

stuff like there is a huge and diverse marketplace 
on there um across not just hobbies but like just  

things people like stuff you would go on mercari 
to buy you know what i mean right so um that  

business is super interesting they could you know 
i think they have a lot of improvement to make  

that they have a lot of opportunity and they were 
pretty much the first mover at least in the u.s  

yeah i mean they definitely have first mover 
advantage though sometimes it's a disadvantage  

to be a first mover too because because all 
of your all of your um you know they expose  

vulnerabilities exactly exactly and so someone 
can just swoop in and do it so i mean but but  

it's cool it's really interesting to see like like 
this is what i was thinking about the other day  

you know because at first when pokemon first came 
out you know we were kids we were young we didn't  

know what the hell was going on but as adults 
now when we can kind of like look back on the  

market of pokemon and to see where it could go 
right because you know i've been taking in a lot  

of uh hairy rancor content and reserve investment 
content and that's been really interesting because  

we've had these conversations before but 
used like different terminology and now  

that i've been exposed to more of this like 
content from the collectibles and the antiques  

like specifically like dudes that have been in it 
for longer than we've been alive it's been really  

interesting because they have all the fundamentals 
to it right so we're like in the second stage  

pokemon is in like the second stage of the life 
cycle of a collectible and so now at this point  

it can either grow into a no i'm sorry maybe the 
third stage so reserved investment it's like he is  

i forget whose philosophy that is but it's like 25 
or 30 years right yeah yep it's all harry rinker  

yeah harry ranker right yeah i mean and and 
so so that's so cool because now pokemon  

is at that point where it will either start 
to mature into a stable market potentially  

or it might turn into like uh you know a dying 
market where we won't have another generation of  

people coming back into it to kind of continue 
to get keep that market going because i mean  

you know when you think of markets like you know 
historic documents rare books uh you know coins  

uh ancient weapons straight blade whatever 
the crap you know whatever whatever all that  

all that business right you know those are those 
are considered in in harry rinker's eyes stable  

mature markets those are markets 
you can jump into at any time  

and most likely get an roi over the years 
if you hang on to them long term right  

which is all the things that we want to do with 
pokemon but it'll take a long time still to to see  

whether or not pokemon actually turns into 
a mature market but it's cool because we're  

adults now and we can watch it on the ground 
floor and make our choices and and honestly like

you know i think pokemon has a really good 
chance of maturing into a stable market  

because it's a huge brand compared to menazu which 
we can get into a conversation about metazoa in  

fortnite at some point but but but i mean what's 
kind of nice though is like you know i thought for  

a while i was gonna keep all my pokemon stuff 
i was gonna keep it all super long term and  

see like a 10x you know some stupid right but but 
now i'm getting to the point where it's like okay  

i think there are some things that will do really 
well over the long term but if there are things  

that i don't really care too much about like in 
my personal collection that i don't really care  

too much about but if i can 2 or 3 or 4x that's 
probably even if it's a short-term move that's  

probably a good move because we're not going to 
see everything appreciate how we would want it to  

so i'm here to just take my paper gains for those 
and enroll it into something else that's good to  

remember in like a mature collectibles or antique 
market that a lot of those are like the general  

majority of any given kind of asset is 
probably going to be something that's  

more of a store of value than anything else and 
the higher end of the market's usually where  

either the higher end which usually includes 
the things that are the most rare and unique  

right whether condition absolute or both 
rarity um those are the things where  

you know you could see some sort of significant 
appreciation largely due to a little bit of time  

and people coming into the space and 
understanding it a little better right  

but it's like the large majority ends up 
just being kind of more of a of a store of  

value play um and we're in the weird part of 
pokemon where a bunch of this stuff is gonna be  

not even close to a store of value it's gonna be 
a loss for most people honestly or at the very  

best completely like dead money um but probably 
a loss honestly like and that's the weird that's  

the hard part right it's like it's like do you 
have you bought it and collected it just because  

you want to collect it and like at the end of 
the day like people have collected things for  

a millennia because they enjoyed doing so 
because we're creatures who for some reason  

like or at least some of us like this idea of 
like collecting things and having you know stuff  

to display or show out to our friends or 
enjoy visually or whatever it is like it  

you know satisfy some sort of ocd tendency 
whatever um and then you know at that point  

it's just like it's purchased right but it's 
yeah no i think you're i think you're right is  

that the the ip is so large and i think i think 
for barring some like major screw up i think  

within our lifetimes we will probably see pokemon 
continue at least for the large part um i think  

we've got a good one to two more generations 
like as long as they don't screw something up  

um but i think at the very least like the hobby 
will be around for decades and decades to come  

um that's my hope as long as the the ip continues 
to kind of touch as many different facets of the  

world as it has right because there's so 
many outlets for it right like people who  

play pokemon go who don't even they don't 
even know what you know evolving skies is  

right you know what i mean so that's one 
of the cool things about it is it does have  

it has a lot more going for it from a 
survivability maturing you know a potential to  

mature standpoint because of that um that doesn't 
mean cards will do the best but it does mean that  

the the hobby of or the the pop i guess the better 
words the popularity of pokemon will stick around  

so i guess maybe i want to caveat what i said 
before the the popularity of pokemon is probably  

here to stay around for a for a longer duration 
right like it it this ip should survive for  

many decades to come but we don't know what 
will happen to the card specific side of it um  

it's impossible to know right cards are 
having a heyday right a resurgence but we  

don't know what that looks like how nfts come 
into play what people are going to collect in  

20 years you know how they're gonna collect 
um they're gonna want all this physical stuff  

um or if there's just armageddon we just 
have to use it all as firewood and tinder

that's always a possibility  

well you know you know it's really interesting 
too because if people are strictly thinking about  

collecting cards from an investment perspective if 
ultimately at the end of the day you want to trust  

like the jockey like if you're investing in 
the jockey of a business like a startup right  

uh you know the the idea is okay the market's 
okay you know all those things are there but  

probably the most important factor is the person 
that's leading the ship right i mean to your point  

you have to trust that the jockey is 
going to keep the ip big which is why  

i'm so hesitant with mana zoo because 
there's so many things that can happen  

before it even gets to a point similar to 
pokemon right it's only in your world never it's  

it's just never going to happen i mean it's like 
it's almost it's basically an impossibility for  

that to occur yeah it's almost a statistical 
impossibility i think just because there's no

unless unless they turned into a media yeah i 
mean unless they turned into a media company  

that's the only thing because i agree 
with you it's an impossibility unless  

they think of themselves as an ip a media ip but 
there is so much that needs to be done you you  

you're betting on the jockey like like if you're 
into metazoa and and you think that they'll go  

you're trusting that whoever is holding you know 
at the helm can grow it like that yeah and that's  

the thing is that it's here's the thing it's a 
card game first and it's a car game that's based  

off of like what i would call like historical 
fantasy i guess you want to call it it's not like  

it's not like their own media to to to create 
this universe because it kind of like is is fine  

like it exists right it from a historic like what 
they're basing it on right um and i just don't

pokemon was always so much more right like all 
these other like there's so many other like  

ip touch points like come first like stuff that's 
been around for five years or a decade like  

i mean even like fortnight's got a way better 
chance of like ever being anything like that  

endures then like something like a meta zoo 
does like i see metazu the same way i see like  

gate that gate ruler trading card game like  

some people are going to really like it 
some people aren't it's a trading card game  

collectible card game maybe people will play 
it they also have major supply constraints  

and about 25 employees to pump out whatever 
it is 25 000 boxes or whatever so good luck  

yeah i mean it almost seems like mezu was built 
as like an investment tool already like it's  

not really pokemon was built as like a card game 
that's part of a different part of a bigger ip but  

meta zoo just doesn't i mean it just it doesn't 
i don't even know how it survives the next five  

years because it's the scare like it there's not 
a lot of supply already i don't know how it's  

going to improve and if you improve the supply 
what's going to happen with the card values  

like people aren't going to want to do something 
or have that experience with their children if  

they got burnt when they tried buying into it like 
you i don't even know if you can play the game  

right now because there's just not enough cards 
out there and like i'm not a hater of like the  

like people should collect like what they want 
to right if people like like it like i have  

local friends who have opened it and like they're 
pretty objective about it um i know ketchup craze  

is gonna put out like some some kind of pros and 
cons video about it that he did um because he's  

been able to open some and he's pretty objective 
about it and like at the end of the day like uh  

if people like it and a handful of people 
continue to enjoy it god bless them um  

i think just objectively it's not going to 
become some monster um and i don't know if  

they they think they wanted to or if they needed 
to right like i kind of think it about like if you  

own a business like you can go two routes right 
you can try to continually grow that business  

no matter what like even if you're super 
successful you just always always want to grow or  

you run it as like a lifestyle practice like just 
running it for cash flow letting it just exist  

and if you have a decent margin you're making a 
good living off of you know whatever product or  

service you're providing and i can see them doing 
the latter like just existing in a space where  

they do decent sales and people kind of like it 
and there's but more than likely it becomes 10  

years from now it's like people have some of these 
sealed boxes and they're like oh remember that  

weird thing that came out during the pandemic 
that got super hyped like and it'll be like i've  

heard people put it this way like it'll just be an 
oddity right um that's why it's an interesting way  

to put it yeah i wanted to have it to remember 
2020 and 2021 like remember what happened here  

you know i would think i would think about it 
a lot if i had you know i was looking at it  

i mean i was literally having this conversation 
with jeff off the discord we were talking about  

it and like i i definitely agree i think 
people should buy whatever they want right  

i if they if they want to spend a thousand 
dollars on a meta zoo box that's on them  

do i think that price will hold i mean i don't 
know only time will tell i don't think it will  

but i mean if you bought it at a good price that's 
reasonable for you that doesn't put you you know  

in the poor house and you want to play the game 
i mean like we'll see how that goes what what's  

not clear to me is and i've i've watched a few of 
uh rudy from alpha investments videos on meta zoo  

because he believes in the product he likes the 
product he thinks it's cool um he's one of the  

reasons the prices are the way they are him and 
the other group of influencers who are you know  

supporting it is i like not just not 
saying it's malicious but just saying like  

it is just talking about it that's the world we 
live in like it's just a function of social media  

momentum but i'm sorry continue you've talked 
about it a lot no you know he he has done a  

lot of talking about it and i mean i think if you 
can get the product like i kind of feel like you  

have to sort of taste it like i i try to taste 
stuff if i can so if i could get metazou at a  

reasonable msrp price i mean i would definitely 
buy it just to try it maybe open up a box  

see what it is see how hang on to another box just 
to see what it does in the long term i mean that's  

something really interesting but just some of 
these prices gosh it kind of reminded me a little  

bit of fortnight when fortnite was really booming 
with prices there's not a problem with things  

going up in price it just seems a little too soon 
for these hobbies like fortnight cards it's only  

two years old meadows cards is only one year old 
i mean you know it's just a little soon and and i  

i think i think part of it is uh you know a lot 
of people wanting to get in on the ground floor  

or something because if they got in on the ground 
floor of pokemon and they held on to those boxes  

10 20 30 years later here's where we are you 
know we're looking at hundreds of thousands for  

a first edition booster box right i mean i think 
probably a lot of people have that in mind as well  

but what's not quite clear to me and i think 
it's probably important for the long term is  

how many people are buying in our actual players 
because i think like i think that's important  

you know because then they bring more people on 
board with them and then they share it with their  

kids in the future um i don't know that's not 
that's not quite clear to me i haven't really had  

anyone really comment on that specifically because 
a lot of people are in it to invest in and that's  

fine and we've had this conversation before where 
demand is demand right right but i think for long  

term of a hobby like this i think it is i mean 
you know disagree with me completely it's okay  

but um you know i think for me to feel more 
confident in that hobby potentially growing  

and expanding into other mediums or other things i 
i kind of feel like they they you know the player  

base needs to engage from that perspective i 
don't know that's just my opinion yeah i think uh  

either a player base or a real collector's 
base right or a mix of the two not just people  

expecting on something right not just people who 
are involved in other hobbies or just speculate  

on something right because when you think 
about like there will there will probably be  

so let's take like the last decade there might 
be one or zero things that come out of that  

decade that have the series of events that lead to 
them being pokemon-esque 25 years from now right  

or 15 years from now like create a massive media 
brand um have a massive you know resurgence right  

after a long low period um have a black swan event 
that caters to their you know type of product that  

they you know push right and the world's changing 
pretty rapidly right so who knows where cards you  

know for example would be 25 years from now but 
i think i think the hard part that people don't  

this is what i think about a lot okay and 
i know i say that sometimes i think about  

a lot of things a lot we're living in a in a 
time where people in our age demographic are  

have gotten used to making money in 
a good amount of money in a very fast  

period of time right so very compressed 
return period whether it's been digital assets  

or even traditional stock you know did when i say 
digital assets i mean bitcoin ethereum whatever  

traditional stocks pokemon cards sports cards 
like people who don't have a historical context  

for how all these markets work think that this is 
something that's like easy and highly replicable  

over time and the f the fact of the matter is it 
could have been anything if logan paul came out  

and said i just bought like the world's biggest 
collection of pogs then this all could have been  

pogs and all this stuff behind me could still 
be worth what it was in 2016 or 2018 or 2019  

and we could all be talking about freaking pogs 
right now right and it it just comes down to the  

fact that people are trying to use they're using 
the item to generate cash flow and it could have  

been it could have been anything that fell into 
that black swan event and you know obviously  

like there there are tailwinds for something 
like pokemon with such a massive media brand  

but let's say it was you know something very close 
right like i don't know some like like hello kitty  

collectibles right like because that's like the 
second biggest ip in the world right after pokemon  

are pretty close like yeah some real yeah it 
could have been anything um not anything but  

anything with a with a fairly substantial media 
brand around it right like it it could have been  

marvel like at like at scale right um or something 
like you know like obviously that got hyped but it  

could have been that could have been the core 
like that could have been the thing right it  

didn't have to be pokemon and now people are just 
trying to use anything to make money quickly right  

and they're just using social momentum to do that 
and it just happens to be pokemon right now so  

i guess what i'm trying to say is like again 
i always come back to the fact that it's like

it's most of it's uninvestable right

is it modern look at look at what happened 
to vivid voltage in like what six weeks  

like house of cards fell down i think pokemon has 
it also has different markets too people forget  

about like do you have the vintage you have 
the japanese vintage like there's different  

markets within that market too that people just 
i think they just look at is like one one market  

and they don't kind of focus on the different 
like the charizard card that you posted today  

that sold for was it 600 000 or what is that 
is that the price that uh 500 000 yeah yeah  

hey would that be what was was that the highest 
or was it there was there a higher one than that

i think that's right highest right yeah 
um it's like i should know this like  

immediately but i can't remember 
i thought that i thought it was  

i thought it was higher than that i thought 
it was like 5 17 or something not six  

let's see because elijah got his it i try 
to like i try to like look at the benchmarks

it's somewhere in the ballpark right we all 
know it's like around the ballpark that 500k  

marks like pretty close um gosh 
what a what a bad 10 by the way not  

i've seen worse ones oh that was not a good i 
was going to ask you how it was because i had  

only seen the front but like that's a thing 
too like those early tens like a lot of them

oh oh boy yeah that's very super it's crazy 
old um yeah it's probably like uh like uh  

around 2000 like year 2000 graded 
guard who knows um is has there been so  

this is a saita has there been talk about how 
the cases could be damaging these cards so they  

could have graded as 10 but then once they sit 
in the case for 20 years and they shift around  

do you think that might be having maybe 
maybe it was a 10 but after seeing that  

case for 20 years it could be 
now be like an eight or a nine  

i'm curious because i i've never i've only owned a 
japanese card with that old of a cert but japanese  

cards were always known to move around more in the 
cases so i don't know um i've never had that old  

of a card from psa to know if like the 
standard like english first edition cards  

move around in there but i can tell you that the 
case looks like it went through a meat grinder

it looks like it is like trashed if you 
look at the pictures like it's i saw the  

back and i was like that can't be on the card 
because this is a 10. it has to be the case  

um and it was it was bad it was really bad you 
know i have to dig up the video but there's a  

youtube video of a guy testing out cgc cases and 
i can't remember if it was one of the early cgc  

cases or the more recent ones because i have 
a i have an older one um that that it did move  

around a lot um but he literally like he he 
shook it physically and did comparisons and  

then made a machine that shook it and there 
was no change what's his face it was uh yeah  

oh wait i can't think of business matter now 
he's he's an elder he's he's a like uh online  

marketing social or social media kind of pathlin 
yeah pat flynn yeah right now he's he's like an og  

like internet marketing guy he created 
uh he was like studying for like the  

if it was the bar like what the hell it was and 
then he like created this online like course  

website for people like he wrote like a like a 
study guide book or something and then he got  

into like social media marketing and all this he's 
been very successful very good at what he does  

but he also like loves pokemon so then he like 
started to get into pokemon but honestly i started  

forgetting like what these people's histories 
are because they just don't consume their  

content as much if anything at all like even like 
like i can't even watch like leonhart like i just  

can't like it just i'm just like i don't like 
your your expressions and your reactions are  

just annoying me i don't even know like you get so 
depressed when he pulls something that's like not  

a good card like it's just like it's super weird 
i don't know so i always uh i tend to like forget  

all these like back histories i 
can't keep all this stuff in my head  

about these content creators but yeah i don't 
know i don't know how those that old case works

i might have to talk to eric and charlie next 
weekend because there's going to be some real  

old head collectors at the florida show that 
i'm going to yeah yeah so i'll have to talk to  

them that'll be really interesting because you 
i literally thought that okay shaking the card  

affected like shaking the case affected the card 
like surely right surely it would but for the cgc  

it didn't so you know i don't want to just assume 
you know by by proximity it's the same for psa  

but that'd be really interesting but i mean 
those those recent charts though uh zards that  

we were talking about a few weeks ago that went 
through auction those were really trash looking  

those are really really bad tense i'm still trying 
to remember what the record high was and i feel  

like i should i feel like it was like 400 but i 
can't remember but those ones went for like it was  

like low high twos low threes and tournaments 
but what yeah it wasn't the record highlights  

wasn't it like a grey stamp and that's 
why it was so early i'm kind of weird  

that's why i went for so high i'm trying 
i just can't remember honestly it's like  

those things i should remember like what am 
i even a pokemon content creator gosh guys  

i don't even remember what the highest 
charizard price was but i thought it was  

like 400-ish but it's always i always can't 
remember like which ones got paid for either

confirmed it was cool that 
pwcc messaged me today though  

and they told me that it had been it was 
an actual sale because when i first saw  

that sale i thought it was just like a weird 
ebay thing like just because sometimes their  

their stuff just glitches and they like you 
know like it shows sales that never happened  

or like canceled orders and they said it had 
been purchased but not yet paid for which i  

still don't understand because i think that came 
from the vault so like did the person not click  

purchase like is there some different like system 
of payment that i'm not privy to because i've  

never bought a 400 000 card on on ebay like do 
they get to like contact pwcc directly and like  

work it out like i don't know what happens there 
i think so they had off too yeah i could wire that  

money wouldn't they i would not expect you would 
be producing that on your credit card but hey at  

that at that level of wealth i mean you can have 
like you could have a black amex and just put it  

on there there's no limit like you theoretically 
could it's a hell of a lot of america's points  

y'all imagine doing that oh my gosh i'm still 
blown away with what um uh with what anna pogo gal  

told me when i had her on a few weeks ago because 
she talked to dan because i was like yo you  

need it you need to have dan and travis on your 
podcast and dan told her that they were literally  

they hadn't been paid on eighty thousand thousand 
dollars worth of listings from pwcc i think it was  

oh yeah i remember her saying that yeah which is 
which is insane to me because i'm thinking okay  

either they were selling some really nice cards or 
you know just by volume but that's something that  

like i've been trying to figure out because doing 
those market roundups like it is hard to really  

verify i mean i've got pwcc pulled up right now 
for pokemon cards right i've got it listed down  

for completed auctions highest bid first right 
but and i mean these are these are older ones so  

so like the like the illustrator that that 
went in february that one went for 375.  

you know yeah right but but these other ones like 
like what can i trust what can i trust and and i'm  

assuming that if it's still on there that they 
paid for it right that that's what i'm assuming  

but you know trust but verify yeah i like you know 
i don't want to put information out there that  

i can't actually you know say with 
full confidence like this is the  

thing so i've been trying to figure that 
out still like like how does this piece

yeah yeah yeah exactly which i know i've 
had like i've i've sold the card that then  

like for some reason it couldn't ship to 
the buyer's country so we cancelled the  

order but it still sat on like the sold 
listings like when i look up that card  

so i but i haven't like looked it up 
in a while so i don't know if it's  

stays on ebay for that whatever that 90-day 
history and then falls off or if it gets  

eliminated when they realize it wasn't paid for 
like i don't i don't know but that data is messy  

the date is super messy it's definitely gonna stay 
messy unless we we put it everything on blockchain  

which is still something i'm trying to get 
figured out but but but i agree with you i  

agree with you i don't know i part of me kind of 
feels like even though that particular instance  

wasn't paid for it would have still been 
paid for had you been able to ship that so  

it's kind of like well so someone was willing 
to or was trying to pay at that price point

would we consider that valid i kind of say 
right yeah half half-ish you know it's not like  

really true right that's what i'm saying so 
i don't know i i've been having like it's  

been a while since i've really had some 
deep thoughts on it but when it comes to  

the app and when it comes to data validation from 
the api that's going to be really hard because  

you know like shill bidding i see it all the 
time like the other day i literally saw a lot  

for like 14 cards base set unlimited basic [ __ 
] no hollows and that apparently sold for over  

2 000 or 4 2 000 something like that and i'm 
like come on people like this is stupid this  

is this is obviously it's gonna get it's 
just gonna get even harder too and like  

i mean between like for people who are educated 
especially on the higher end with the 1099k  

changes people are already disenfranchised 
by selling on ebay right the more now that  

we get these in-person sales or instagram deals 
or whatever like there's gonna be so much price  

history that we lose on a lot of like i would say 
like the higher end or the more significant cards  

in the hobby as more trades start to i mean 
people love trading trading's fantastic right so  

i think that it's gonna be it's gonna be hard 
to like kind of keep track right because people  

people have gotten so we've all gotten so 
spoiled by the volume of transactional data  

that we have at our fingertips now like we 
can look up okay hey char i forgot like the  

charizard sold for 400k at golden auctions in 
march right and i think that was the record one  

if i remember like whatever like it's it's not 
always gonna be like that like whether it's like  

cards going into like forever hands and them only 
selling like every few years maybe like more rare  

stuff or like those yeah like trophy cards or the 
just the amount of volume that ends up happening  

offline in person like we're not going to have 
as much access to that data so it's going to  

be it's going to be kind of more important 
than ever to like understand directionally  

where values are going but also like i i 
personally think and i know it's hard because it's  

one of the only ways to like look at it 
but like people rely too much on comps like  

just because something sold for something 
or has been trending in a certain direction  

has no necessary is not a necessary indicator 
for the like true value of that item like it  

just happened like we all know this right but 
people like people will just be like well one  

just sold for two hundred dollars and yours is 
listed for three hundred dollars and i'm like well  

because that's actually probably what it's worth 
and one random auction on one random day is not  

indicative of an entire market for a certain 
card and in the same way just because a bunch of  

hidden fates charizards or some or you know 
evo charizards are selling for whatever  

and now there's 14 000 of them uh like it's crazy 
to me how these like how these modern cards sell  

for more than vintage like 
gem mints or nines and there's  

a hundred times as many of them for some of these 
cards it just makes no sense to me it's promo  

they're just people are afraid they're gonna miss 
out on and they want to get it so they'll pay  

stupid prices and we see it we see that like 
it's hilarious because like the same thing  

happens right like the first like whatever 
altar from eevee heroes gets graded and  

sells for like three grand and then the next 
week another one sells for 1500 and i'm like  

you guys know we keep doing this every time 
right like definition of insanity doing something  

over and over again and expecting a different 
result like it's just human psychology is so  

fascinating to me especially when it comes to 
emotional hobbies uh and how that plays out in  

the markets like investor psychology or buyer 
psychology is just so fascinating and maybe  

what it just really means is that people are 
not as smart as we want to think they are but

emotions are hard to mitigate right when you're 
making buying decisions on stuff that you really  

want or feel like that's a true skill yeah it's 
not easy it's hard to do and that's why i haven't  

been looking at the market right now because 
everything's down from what i used to buy it  

for but i know it's not not the so i just that's 
why i just haven't even looked at cards until  

like recently because of just how it's just i mean 
the so for ebay like when it when we had when we  

were in like the middle of covid from september to 
like march like that was all like that was all the  

transactions like you did kind of have that comp 
data so you could see what was going on i mean now  

like it's a free-for-all like you have no idea 
where prices should be where they actually are  

and then you have the looming i guess cliff 
of graded cards that are gonna be coming like  

is there even a point in buying 
a lot of this stuff right now  

it's almost like you're better off just 
sitting and waiting on the sidelines until  

everything kind of settles out um and that's kind 
of where i am at this point just because i don't  

i just it's just hard to buy right now because 
there's not a there's not really a lot of  

good data really like you've been saying it's kind 
of all over the place and it's hard to get a good  

read on what things actually are worth because 
it's it's funny it's funny because you know  

by and large you would probably characterize 
what's happening in the market as like  

setting a bottom right like you can't call 
the bottom and we're talking about the  

broad market but like we've we've seen a lot of 
things reach a level of stability or even start  

to rebound and trend back in the other direction 
which is really interesting at least in like the  

the slab world and some of the vintage sealed 
market um and i'd say kind of broadly as a whole  

we're reaching a more like stable area but 
i think a lot of that to your point is like  

there's there's a lot of uncertainty especially 
because we're in literally the lowest volume  

seasonal period for like ebay or collectible 
transactions like the summer especially  

like august into the beginning of september 
worst time to be a seller like least amount  

of transactional volume like it's just how it 
works there's no holidays coming up people are  

doing a lot of other things like it's just super 
a super sleepy time of the year right and then you  

get that you know the same thing where you hype up 
into the holidays and then all that blah blah blah  

right all this stuff seasonal um and it's 
funny because there's like a lot of people who  

like six months ago were dying to buy things at 
prices one and a half times where things sit today  

but now there has been a lot of uncertainty 
introduced for people because they thought  

you know trees were going to grow to the sky right 
and then you know i think for us is is more like  

you know it's both collectors and people 
who try to like you know might try to make  

some money in certain places in this hobby like 
as a collector i think it's just like continuing  

to be a real collector and what comes with that 
is being uber specific on what your goals are  

and not like being greedy right so buying very 
selectively like whether whether it means like  

hey i want this set or i want this grail item like 
being very honed in on what's going on there like  

i know i've been super patient for one or two 
items i've wanted you know what kind of one to  

three items i've wanted i've pulled the trigger 
on one there's another two that could take a long  

time um but i don't necessarily think i think it's 
like a good time to be both a buyer and a seller  

right now like just from like where the market 
sits like it's like as just like whatever like you  

just want to buy a slab or you just want to like 
sell like you know it's just kind of like okay  

an okay time for everyone and we we don't know 
what's going to happen in the short term right  

prognosticating our short-term price movements is 
usually a fool's errand but at the end of the day

it's certainly it's certainly in a place where you 
know it's more attractive to buy than it was last  

november and last january that's for sure right 
you kind of saw that like double peak there  

um but there is a lot of uncertainty that's been 
introduced and i don't think people understand  

how liquid this stuff is and when they need money  

they're not going to be able to get it easily i 
think we're going to find out though i think we're  

going to find that out though the next four to 
six months i think they're gonna have to realize  

that they're not gonna have a choke they're gonna 
have to learn it yeah yeah all of a sudden they uh  

you know they don't have unemployment benefits or 
extended ones they might be working again you know  

child care is astronomically expensive right so 
even if kids are back in school there's still  

is some factor there if you're working again 
or working more you know all the things we  

talked about with you know if they have to start 
paying student loans again if there's you know  

different things with mortgage payments 
or rent moratoriums or blah blah blah  

blah foreclosures all these things like if you 
have to come up with money to pay you know to  

put food on the table for your kid you know the 
first thing to go are you know the luxury stuff  

like this the luxury stuff yeah the superfluous 
stuff and then you really find out that oh crap  

there might be a lot of this out there and that's 
when the undercutting starts and you're going to  

continue to get this you know i think bifurcation 
of the market where you've got kind of the  

the the part that's way there's way too much 
supply right and it's always kind of been that way  

and then all of a sudden there's gonna be way 
too much of it on the market and then you're  

gonna have the other side where there's still 
stuff that's super rare that people are pursuing  

on the higher end that that stabilizes or grows or 
you know continues to set all-time highs like it's  

it's kind of the same as like 
and i never like to make this  

here it comes comparison but it's like it's 
like it's like it's like good companies and bad  

companies in the stock market right like it's it's 
like it's like people it's like it's in what i  

what why i make that analogy is because like it's 
like what's going on under the hood right like if  

last year we saw like you know you know 400 and it 
wasn't that it was like 390 or something companies  

in the sb 500 like underperformed the market i 
think it might have been more drastic now whatever  

i forget the stats it's no one wants to talk 
about finance right now but what i'm saying is  

there can be a small concentrated portion of items 
in the hobby that continue to trend upward and  

move like okay market upward but there can be 90 
of it that's just hot garbage and underperforming  

right so so you've got you've got inflation 
as your as your baseline you've got like  

uh like one percent of the market 
that like does a high volume of  

growth above that and those are like the high-end 
high dollar items and then you've got all the  

stuff below that's super common that underperforms 
or has negative performance like that's  

that's we could see that unwind in a big way 
but that doesn't mean the overall trend of the  

market isn't going upward but under the hood 
there can be a lot of pain for a lot of people  

oh exciting that is so true i mean we've had this 
conversation you know there's always someone left  

holding the bag but what's also really interesting 
too that you've like alluded to a number of times  

going back to like the human psychology of it 
which is really interesting but rudy from alpha  

investments just recently talked about this and 
i agree with him because i think at one point i  

was this person there's always going to be people 
in the market that are going to buy high because  

they feel really good because it's high they feel 
really good they feel really confident about it  

and that's what they're going to do they're going 
to buy high and this is on anything this is on  

anything right and and then those same people when 
there is that uncertainty like right now because  

i've had conversations with people before on 
this they're like i'm not too sure about pokemon  

you know like what they should be doing is they 
should probably be buying right now right because  

this is where you can mitigate your risk 
by managing your entry point a little bit  

better versus when there's a lot of you know 
buying going on like what we saw last year  

with those huge ass spikes so i mean you know 
there's always going to be people in the market  

and and and it's probably fomo wrapped into it 
but just people that aren't going to feel good  

unless they spend a lot of money for a thing  

i mean that's a tricky area too because you don't 
want people just to buy because they're going to  

average down their investment um that's what 
i've heard a lot of like the people i mean that's  

that's the scary thing like do you do you buy 
now because there's hesitation in the market or  

is the hesitation not as bad as it should be 
because of i mean it also is because those slabs  

that are coming that's also why i wouldn't touch 
a lot of stuff because of just you there's no  

the uncertainty of like how much is actually 
coming on the market is is a huge issue um  

i know people also too just like don't have 
liquidity like they they spent themselves out  

right i have liquidity that i won't spend it yeah 
this is true but you were also like a little like  

i don't know or a little more rational i think 
than the average person that's also true but i  

mean like that's it's just i mean i think that's 
people they just didn't plan it out well they just

they just saw the opportunity to make money 
because so many people were making money off  

of it and now that's just i mean even sports 
cards right now are getting absolutely hammered  

um i think there was one i think someone i 
can't remember who it was they're talking  

about giannis rookie cards they were 
going for four grand in january last year  

he won an nba title they're just around 
i think 2k right now so people even  

that made that bet that he was going to be a 
good player and he was going to win they're  

still drowning in it so there's still that there's 
still that chance that could happen in pokemon too  

i mean cards are still up a ton they're just 
not as up as much as they were in february and  

was it february march we kind of started to see 
the turn i think that's when it was maybe april  

yeah and it started reopening more and people 
wanted to sell their cards because i'm gonna  

panic or they just wanted to go do things and 
that's something we talked about in april 2 was  

what are they going to do to in order to go out 
and do all those festivals they didn't do anything  

for i guess it was what 18 months so instead 
of spending money on festivals or traveling  

they spent it on pokemon they need to now sell 
that pokemon to go and do the things that they  

want to do already um so i mean that's another 
like what is what is that going to look like  

because i mean i wonder how many of like those 
people are like like i i sometimes i think about  

like uh what those people like we'd say that a lot 
and i think there was a there's certainly a lot of  

that but how many of like the people still in the 
hobby like do they just like to spend their money  

on pokemon and stuff right like are they just 
like if because some people that's just like  

what you do right like they'd rather spend their 
money on this than take trips right but i think  

the there were the majority of people who came 
into the hype were just average people who will  

pick social activities over a card any day of 
course um but it's kind of funny to think about  

and then there's also that whole aspect 
of crypto too like what did that play  

like how did that play into the card value 
going up because you had bitcoin selling at 60k  

our 64 thing was the high and people probably 
were cashing out and being like where can i put my  

money now like where can i spend it so like this 
is that's why i said it could have been anything  

yep there's no idea so much it was so much of 
like it was just social momentum hype that the  

money could have flowed anywhere and i think we 
did see a short-term very high correlation between  

digital assets and collectibles for sure 
because it goes back to that theme of  

folks in our generation making very quick money 
and looking for the next place to make very  

quick money and eventually that ends very badly i 
mean we we kind of saw it right we saw the crypto  

market get cut in half and pokemon get cut in half 
so we kind of did see an example of how that could  

end very badly for a lot of people right um i mean 
we saw it in options trading too that was a big  

thing like that was i mean that i kind of remember 
that too because that was a big focal thing of  

if you were like looking for option trading you 
could see tick tocks instagram posts youtubes  

about all these get rich quick schemes but they 
don't i mean it's the same kind of thing like  

people made quick bucks off of that too because 
i mean everyone i mean everything went up so  

yeah that's how everything went up yeah 
so it was it was hard not to make money  

yeah like i made money off football cards 
and i didn't even when i got into it like  

i didn't have like the ambition of making 
money off of it i paid like 70 bucks a box  

i should have kept them sealed because they 
sold for 1400 seven months later um but like  

that was just like i think a lot of people 
stumbled into it too like they had no idea that  

that it was gonna be worth anything like that 
i said i just sent an article over private chat  

the guy who sold the charizard for 350 bought it 
for 700 in 2009 or 2011. like it's not i don't  

think that's gonna happen again yeah i don't think 
so right now and i think that's where a lot of  

people are running into trouble is that they have 
this level of confidence that they're going to be  

able to make some incredible kind of money in this 
hobby and they don't realize that a lot of that  

like there were some people who very much thought 
that pokemon was undervalued and were right  

but the compression of those returns into 
such a short time period as we all know  

was something no one could have predicted like 
that could have happened over a five to ten year  

period but not a six month period i mean that is 
just its statistical anomaly right it was just  

the fact of what's happened over the past 
18 months is just insanity you know so and  

there's just this like there's people that 
this is how i think about it is that there's  

there's a lower barrier to entry lower than 
ever on being able to bet on yourself from  

an entrepreneurial uh or business standpoint 
right whether that's um your perceived skill set  

as a stock trader or your perceived skill set as 
a reseller or your perceived skill set as a social  

media you know influencer or whatever it's easier 
than ever to take a non-traditional route to try  

to make money but i'm not convinced that there 
are more people than ever with the skill set that  

lends them to be successful in those things and 
so i think what we're seeing is a lot of people  

try to bet on themselves and their perceived 
skill and knowledge and wisdom or whatever  

and some people are using pokemon as the 
medium to uh try to play out that thesis  

and i don't think that they realize that it's it's 
kind of like i said that like you know you have to  

really the people who are going to make money 
in this or the the high level of transactions  

on low-cost basis stuff that are more of 
that are a business it's not like a it's  

not like trading stocks it's a it's 
a business is a cash flow producing  

business structure right versus like this kind 
of like like what what is even attractive about  

buying a hundred dollar card and selling it five 
years later for a hundred and fifty dollars like  

what could you have done with that hundred 
dollars like where could you have put that  

to you know make a much better 
return than you know after  

fees taxes inflation whatever making 10 bucks 
on a 20 bucks you know what i mean like it's  

people don't understand the opportunity cost they 
get too hyper focused on the the thing that's  

that's exciting now and that people have already 
made a lot of money it's the same thing i talk  

about with bitcoin like when i was buying bitcoin 
at a thousand two thousand three thousand like  

that was when you made the easy money 
to now yes it was a lot of risk but like  

it's 50x like you know like it's 25 to 50 
x depending where you entered there right  

like even buying it five and ten 
thousand and fifteen thousand like  

you still was like quote unquote easy money 
right like now it's totally different ball  

game when you have more eyes on it when 
you have like i think about it like  

like let's say let's do something easier like 
like bitcoin is an example right but it can  

extrapolate to buying a card too right like if 
you bought it at 50 000 and it went to 25 000 now  

all the people who still have it at 25 000 are 
scratching and clawing their way to get out  

close to even or still at a loss but not as big 
of a loss all the way back up and that's so much  

downward pressure on pricing that you'll see you 
can see the same thing in the pokemon market where  

it's going to take an astronomical amount of 
time for the majority of these things if ever  

to re-hit all-time highs that they sold for 
because there's so much downward pressure on  

the pricing as people try to exit all the way up 
it's easy when people are piling in all the way up  

to see returns and make money but it's a lot 
harder when people are trying to get out all  

the way back up it's a it's a headwind right so 
from a market standpoint there's a huge headwind  

from a collecting like pokemon standpoint like 
i love this [ __ ] and it's still super fun  

it's wildly interesting and i i love it 
and i'll buy things whenever i want at a  

reasonable price but like from uh like thinking 
you're an investor standpoint like i'm sorry  

but like it's just not gonna happen for 
you like the average person is not going to  

make any sort of needle moving dollar or 
percentage return on the majority of items here um

it's because if it was that easy everyone would 
be doing it i think the opportunity is not right  

because you you have to buy cheap raw cards that 
were could be highly graded in that there are they  

don't exist anymore yeah i think we had to own 
it in 2016. you know or 18 or 19 like or march  

february of 20 you know like and that's in 
in but i in this is you know these are super  

broad-based terms because i think i think 
what all of us have always wanted to do was  

to help the average person understand or to give 
them a way to protect themselves from themselves  

people who are super deep into this hobby like 
much deeper even than than we are perhaps right  

like there's always opportunity for people 
like that because they understand where the  

true dislocations and arbitrage opportunities 
are but i mean there are people with way more  

knowledge of this hobby than than myself and i 
know they have ears and legs up on me but also  

you know sometimes it's just about seeing 
the right opportunity at the right time  

right and being able to do that you know 
at at a big scale or being able to get the  

right entry point because of a relationship 
you have and the right timing and all these

it is it's a lot of luck it's a lot of situational 
you know uh it's a lot you know being in the right  

place at the right time effectively and also 
having built the right relationships and putting  

yourself out there all the time and then also 
being you know to my sprays that i say student  

of the market a lot of the you know continually 
and knowing that hey when you know x card sells  

for a thousand bucks and you have a pretty damn 
good feeling that it should be like a 2500 card

that happens like these are highly inefficient 
markets like you you know i've had that you know  

we've talked about this before where i've snagged 
a card for you know lower dollar amounts but you  

know whatever 40 bucks and then immediately 
flipped it for 200 or 150 because there's so  

much inefficiency in these kind of markets like 
it just happens like a freaking ebay auction that  

happens on a wednesday afternoon that you happen 
to catch like that's just when it's about like  

it's about participating you know but it's also 
like having the knowledge like when there's 30  

seconds left on an auction you don't have time to 
go learn about that card what the pop is not about

what the demand should be like conceptually based 
on you know the the historical significance and  

popularity like and sorry for going on this rant 
but it's just like it's true though it's like it's  

yeah it's it's 100 true because how it mean 
that's that's what it comes down to because  

when i was buying cards like i would spend 
six to eight six to seven hours a day just  

looking at the market because that's how 
you would buy because there's so many people  

moving in and out you had to know what the 
prices were at that time otherwise it was hard to  

to know what you were paying for if it was a good 
price or not and that came out to six to seven  

hours a day wow in october uh october november and 
into december and that's kind of how i was able  

to find things like that's that was the only way 
and like it would be like sporadic so like i would  

choose like different times throughout different 
days to see what was going on and what was ending  

to kind of get an idea of who was actually bidding 
on things like and now we know this like you can  

tell like at 11 a.m like you you don't want to 
be on you want 11 a.m east coast because the  

west coast isn't up usually and that's where a lot 
of the buyers where they were west coast so like  

it was figuring out that and like you don't like 
connor said you don't have the time to figure out  

if the card is worth if it's going up like what 
your value is going to be you need to already  

kind of know that and if you're jumping back in 
now like after not being in the market for like  

three weeks like you could get burned because 
you don't know where prices are and you don't  

there's no has like it's hard to even trust the 
data on ebay because like it could be fake too  

it's like you kind of have to like live through it 
otherwise it's it's hard to buy it's just you're  

not gonna you're gonna get hurt it's hard to keep 
up with alerts too like i even trying to keep up  

with alerts where i'm not even in it all that 
often and i just try to keep up with my email  

and i'm just like oh my gosh the volume that's one 
thing that i cannot wait to kind of put together  

with the app is just to get sheer volume on things 
because i mean right now we can kind of see that  

but to really see like to be able to step back 
and look at the market from that perspective  

you know and and accumulating that in history 
with historical data like adding to that and  

seeing that over the course of two to three years 
that'll be awesome i cannot wait i cannot wait and  

that's i mean that's the thing like if you're 
if you're coming in and you're like expect if  

you're thinking like long term like three to five 
years i think you'll be okay if you are thinking  

like three to five months or even a year like i 
think i don't know if it's going to be it's not  

going to be it might not be worth it like it's 
you might only make like 15 on a card you kind  

of you it's kind of like what you do if you're 
coming in to like enjoy it and like you don't  

care about how much it costs and like go crazy 
buy whatever you want but if you're trying to  

like start something more than that then you kind 
of have to look at it as three to five years not

one to two or one to three like i'm targeting the 
30th anniversary like that's the thing right now  

because they didn't really have a chance 
to like go crazy for the 25th anniversary  

i think they'll do a lot more in the 30th because 
they'll have the printing machine they'll have the  

the availability of people being able to 
go out to like these conferences and these  

events like even the olympics like they 
were gonna i think they probably had  

more plan for that too but there was nobody 
there like how they probably might have  

something planned for that i would assume but like 
no one could really go to it and interact with it  

um so i mean that'll be interesting too to see 
what they have planned for the 30th anniversary  

um neo reprint can i get a neogenesis 
reprint please i want that i i mean or  

or southern island or anything like that i 
know you're about to say southern ireland

it is like stuff like that 
like blueprints are good  

i'm excited for like what they're doing like 
i like i i don't know like i think i think  

some of modern's pretty amazing like i think 
celebrations and 25th anniversary set japan  

like that's literally like that that'll look 
awesome the japanese stuff is just so good  

like compared to the it looks awesome i know 
i mean evolving skies have you guys seen them  

like the the evolutions the art in that it's great 
it's good i'm good i'm trying to get a handle on  

the pull rates like what's going on because i'm 
seeing a lot of great cards everywhere and it's  

hard because it's like social media is like 
you only show your wins type of thing but like  

i've seen people open like the the build and 
battle deck boxes or whatever they have a few  

packs and they got like a few more pre-release 
packs and pull like multiple hyper rares and stuff  

and alt arts and all like and i just think 
like there's a lot of opportunity in the  

card market for pokemon to do really cool 
unique things like and guys have talked about  

this right like one of ones or numbered cards 
or signature cards or you know what happened  

all the things that traditionally we've seen 
in sports or even marvel like the sketch cards  

like um which i'm learning more about you know 
through some of the guys that i like to watch  

like or you know talk to in the hobby and uh 
all that stuff like stuff that i'm traditionally  

obviously used to with sports too right like 
numbered cards like that growing up like that was  

always the thing if you pulled the card and it was 
numbered like that's still the thing now too with  

those cards yeah it's it's huge yeah and like one 
of ones now or more than more than ever a thing um  

like pokemon has a lot of cool opportunities 
to do stuff like that and i'm sure they will  

um they've done amazing things with the art 
right these alt arts are just crazy good um  

but i still think people are paying too damn much 
for all this modern stuff i mean i just don't

in that like i'll i'll i'll pay to open and enjoy 
modern but i won't pay that price for a singular  

car no matter what it is no matter how bad i 
want it i just like can't like circle that square  

um i just can't i don't know it doesn't 
make sense it's just like i would like  

like all this weight like i'll wait this three 
to six or the price to come down and like  

it's just like i don't know like like if you're i 
just i think people forget like how early on when  

those cards in like early 1990s like those cards 
like people forgot about them and that's why the  

value went up because people just the time factor 
is huge in those sets modern everyone's just going  

to keep them nice and sealed and safe and put them 
in slabs and like there's going to be thousands  

of them so literally goes into a sleeve and a 
card saver one as soon as you pull it yeah like  

come on like and especially if it's japanese 
like it's it's ridiculous like the amount of  

quality cards that are going to be around from 
this era 10 years from now is going to be pretty  

outstanding like it's going to be the i mean i've 
kept track of some of the i've mostly kept track  

of the you know for personal stuff like the 
vintage populations but man some of the modern  

populations it is just crazy yeah modern charizard 
i'm going to get these are just gross yeah yeah  

like if you look at if you look at like hidden 
fates like half the psa pop is the charizard

like that's not even in numbers like 
compares to like what like we've seen like  

i don't know i feel like a few months ago i 
looked at evolutions and there were like eight  

to ten thousand charizards and now there's 
like 14 000 charizards like just the regular  

like hollow charizard and i'm like it's gonna 
get worse did that grow so fast like it's like  

it's gonna get way worse and i've 
looked at a bunch of numbers for  

the last like six months of of the of the more 
the vintage pops but it's like i said before i  

think the next three to six months are gonna 
be fascinating and this will release after i  

do this market monday video anyway so 
i'll be double saying it but just like  

the next three to six months are what's gonna 
totally like just like get your popcorn ready like  

it's gonna be fascinating i'm i'm so excited from 
uh from a standpoint of like a person who none of  

my uh none of my like um like financial standing 
is tied to pokemon at all meaning like if my house  

burnt down i lost all like all my pokemon stuff 
like it would really suck but financially i would  

be okay i can't imagine having and this is what 
i said to swami today i'm like i can't imagine  

if this is like your business or like you've quit 
your job to like do pokemon full-time or like like  

oh my god like between like imagine if you were 
like a middleman who was also like flipping cards  

and doing all this and basically you can't get 
your cards back from psa uh all the places to  

middleman two are basically closed and uh you 
are just watching the market tank while you have  

however many thousands of dollars of grading 
fees sitting at psa like and i laugh but  

it's actually like i like i how do you use 
that it's a reality for something every day

there's probably like less people than we 
think that are like that because i think  

like hopefully because i think a lot of those 
people like have some sort like a lot of people  

well it's hard because some like a 
lot of lgs owners don't like don't  

like dabble in the grated card market or never 
have you know what i mean so it's like some  

i like i'm interested to see how some of 
these businesses have developed that are doing  

large-scale like raw degrading operations and like 
what the other parts of their business look like  

if they have anything to do with pokemon or not 
like it's it's super interesting right because  

some of them are probably sports guys some of 
them are probably totally rando doing something  

else thing like you know like people like us 
who like but at a larger scale right might  

have a regular job or whatever but gosh people 
who who really went all in at the wrong time  

that's that's a scary thought honestly um and you 
haven't even brought up you haven't even brought  

up the price increase for booster boxes like i 
i pre-ordered two evolving sky boosters booster  

boxes those booster displays i'm excited i'm 
excited you know honestly i should have just sent  

them right over to you and then be like oh so we 
can open them for you yeah that's a good idea yes

crazy i know right but but i'm just 
looking at these prices like i paid 147.

oh my gosh i don't even know what that is it just 
looks expensive it looks very cool that's going  

to be one of those super rares but um this is yeah 
what it what is it waifu wednesday waifu wednesday  

yeah so this is an sp white schwartz card so 
there's there's six of these in the full set and  

they're like faux signature it's a beautiful voice 
artist it's it's it's i wish i could like describe  

to you how stunning this is in person it reminds 
me of some of the pokemon full arts but like even  

more so any time rudy is selling weiss anytime 
rudy is selling advice i tried to get in on it  

but it goes so quickly um yeah but but talking 
about going back to the prices and the distributor  

prices and i don't know what recently everything 
has come out to but paying 147 per booster box  

36 packs that was pretty expensive to me that's 
why i only bought two because i want to go you  

know i want to get a taste for the set but that's 
pretty high so you know lgs's lcs's who like  

are already working on razor thin margins you 
know like yeah i mean it's not telling though  

it's not crazy like it that kind of falls 
between like walmart prices for a pack and like  

barnes and noble you know like or an lgs 
like because that's like what like four and  

change a pack or whatever like yeah you're right 
you're right is what it is now right like it's

you know one of the things that i will say 
that was the thing they were cheaper when  

i got vivid voltage they were like 75 
dollars of they were 500 for six boxes  

like i don't think that's ever going to happen 
again now right oh absolutely not and and i'm  

not going to lie the other thing too that 
kind of messes with that price point for me  

is is i'm very much used to buying draft boxes 
from magic the gathering and i'm paying like 80 85  

maybe 90 at the most unless i go to an lgs and i'm 
paying like 120 yeah well so i i mean i mean now  

it was just surprising to me because i'm used 
to that price range and i'm like holy [ __ ] all  

the etbs are sold out those were in the like the 
45ish range before tax you know all the etbs on  

the pokemon center website this is pokemon center 
website and i was just i was i was shook but i'm  

really excited for the set i i'm really excited 
to see where that goes because i think a lot of  

people will be really happy with it and i did have 
a conversation with poker gal i know she skipped  

the one that just came out and 
she's interested in the evolving  

skies and i don't blame her yeah yeah 
it was probably the good choice i did

i probably i you know i bought a little bit of 
chilling rain i have a little bit of evolving  

skies but not like i could really skip it mostly 
just because i love dv heroes so much and i'm cool  

with it but i did get the pokemon center exclusive 
etbs to for display pieces oh nice because they  

have pretty illusions on them yeah i thought they 
were cool like i thought they would be cool to  

keep um to kind of compliment the eevee heroes 
stuff i have but do you want to get them in yeah  

they're just have they don't know they haven't 
they haven't shipped yet no they were pre-order  

i think uh is it the 26th it's like 12 days from 
now yeah oh okay i think you're right yeah it  

says the 14th so 26 i think yeah um but now i'm 
much more interested in basically buying as much  

25th anniversary stuff as i can get my hands 
on but only certain products i think that like  

what's been great is because we know so much about 
what's coming out there have been so many people  

who have been able to put together videos and 
say hey here's the best bang for your buck and  

luckily the things that i kind of wanted the most 
are the best bang for your buck so that's great  

oh yeah oh yeah no doubt no doubt 
they they have a lot of great ideas  

before yeah and that's you know 
i've said this before but it's like  

it's hopefully going to make it really 
accessible for a wide array of people  

like i think a lot of people will like this could 
be their first foray back into pokemon like if  

if the if the marketing around this goes 
right i think we could see a lot of people  

uh come in for the first time i just hope they 
can get their hands on it you know and they are  

doing a lot of reprints of a lot of those vintage 
cards like the charizard so it's kind of i like  

how they are you know tailoring it for us in a 
way because i mean those those are the ones that  

that that we recognize and so bringing even more 
of us back into the hobby which is always a good  

thing it's always fun how do people like remember 
the historical significance right like help them  

understand like the history of pokemon like i'm 
trying not to look at all the spoilers because  

i just want like i know there's like literally a 
video out there with like every single card now  

that leaked i don't know like someone stole a pack 
of cards from the some kentucky manufacturing plan  

or something i don't know i like i'm bad at 
keeping up with that stuff guys i'm sorry  

but like my brain only has so much space but how 
dare you something like that yeah gosh god forbid  

but yeah well you know honestly like hard like 
don't you feel like you almost have to like know  

everything sometimes and then like it's it's 
hard people expect you to like know everything  

like people will ask random questions sometimes 
and i'm like how would i ever know that like or  

remember that like there's only so much that 
can fit in one's brain about pokemon but  

oh my god i don't know that is so true 
i have a i have alerts for like 10 to 12  

10 to maybe 15 different keywords uh you know 
like with those google alerts right just to  

keep up on news and i get them twice a day and 
it is hard like my inbox now is perpetually  

like i i'm the kind of person that if i have like 
notifications on things i need them to disappear  

yeah yeah and and now i'm like 
i'm i'm sitting at 29 right now  

yeah i'm sitting at 29 because i can't keep up 
with these alerts you know and i have a lot of i  

did for you really i turned off the notifications 
so that it doesn't even show the number on the  

icon and i just pretend it's not happening i get 
like 50 a day from i get like 50 a day from ebay  

oh gosh keeping up with those as far as i've 
been 45 alert update yeah it's like almost  

60 of them now but it's like i'm thinking about 
turning you know it's hard it's hard i've thought  

i know i i try to turn them off selectively most 
days like a lot of times i'm just looking for the  

number on some of them but it's hard because it's 
not even how many helpful because re-listings show  

up in that right so like i'll have like i don't 
know that's true psa 10 pikachu promo and i just  

want to see how many listings are hitting the 
market every single day and just directionally  

where something like that's going right um and 
then you know it's some stuff you want to buy  

and some stuff that you're just interested 
in and some stuff that's market you know  

study related so but it's like yeah i'm with you 
it's a lot you know what though with with how i  

have it set and i'm thinking about changing it 
um i have it set to i have a few i have a set  

to where like i'll see any pokemon listing that's 
there so like no specifications just pokemon right  

and then i have another alert where it's 
pokemon but anything that's sold over a  

thousand and honestly that email in particular 
is the one that pisses me off all the time  

because i always see dumb ass [ __ ] where 
it's like oh this charmander sold for a  

thousand dollars and it's it's literally a 
unlimited base set it it looks like trash

it's it oh it's legit i'm looking at one 
right now i'm looking at one right now it  

says 1995 charmander pokemon card it is 
just a base set unlimited pokemon card  

and it's sold for a thousand dollars and i'm just 
like come on it just it makes me mad and honestly

like what's the one you like to look at the 
most or that you have that you like find most  

interesting yeah um i actually have one for 
bowman curl mottos uh because i try to keep  

in touch with baseball too just to see like 
just to see what people are listing and and  

and see what players are popular like which 
which ones people are thinking or prospecting  

you know that that's really interesting because 
there's a few guys that i'm prospecting right now  

um so yeah that's kind of what what i watch yeah 
mine's first edition raw so it's been that way

just because there was nothing it was 
first edition rasa were coming up that  

looked like someone had chewed on them 
and then put them on the bed sheets so  

it was it was an idea or they wanted 
five dollars a card which i'm not paying

gosh that's too much i mean they were not i would 
sell them for five dollars each but i wouldn't buy  

them for five dollars you know any time toad 
anytime i see raw cards on a on a bed sheet  

i think of you james because of that one sale  

i need to send those listings to you when i see 
them you probably already have seen them by the  

time i'm sending them your way but i think that 
every single time well the best part was the ship  

sending the shipping instructions too that was 
fun also yes that's wild that was i mean the  

cards were the cards were great so i can't and 
then i also got a raichu out of it too which  

you gave me for like 60 bucks that was 
that's just incredibly lucky like like  

how did you come out of that with minty cards you 
know what i'm saying well that was the thing was  

i was in december people started panicking and 
wanted to sell because they were worried that it  

wasn't going to keep going up um canada james when 
i spoke to him he already told me like in january  

that he had wished he had not stole to me because 
he didn't think it was going to keep going up in  

value because he sold me in november but like 
a lot of people just thought it was like this  

bubble that was going to pop so they wanted as 
fast as possible and just get money as they could  

and canada james sold you like all those 
cards for four less than four dollars a  

card right something crazy he was selling me 
really like making like pack fresh cars that  

so his dad made him when he opened him in like 
2000 he made him put on a sleeve and put him in a  

top holder and that's how he stored his cards and 
i'm like okay well you're like one percent of the  

people that actually that is a [ __ ] ton of top 
loaders uh yeah it's because he had 1300 cards um  

but he was basically a lot of people wouldn't buy 
from him because of the high shipping and i was  

like [ __ ] shipping you're selling me pack fresh 
cards that are going they're like two dollars a  

piece and i'm getting a guaranteed rare and he 
told me if i bought a certain amount of packs  

he'd give me hollows too so i was like okay how 
many do i need to buy so like i was paying like  

maybe it's probably the highest i pay 
was like three or four dollars per card  

but i was getting a hollow rare so it 
kind of made it worth it to do that um  

i thought he sent all of his hollows in for 
grading some but he so he's got typhlosion 17 18.  

he's got um what else did he have he had all those 
hollows from those neo sets he has all of them  

um he also had a gym challenge he had a bunch of 
those too he that's where i got the ditto and the  

the giovanni from him as well and then he had a 
bunch of uncommons and comments that he um that he  

sold too um but he had so many cards but i think 
he's still waiting to get those cards back because  

he i haven't i haven't talked to him in probably 
six months but i think he had said he had like  

i think they were like eight or nine 
months away when i last spoke to him so  

i hope when he when they come back yeah yeah i 
i want to see him he should open up an instagram  

account you should tell so he has an instagram 
account but he doesn't post cards he just i'll  

send it to you afterwards um but he ju he's i 
mean he i think he had like he had he collected  

the card with his dad he had him and then 
i think he forgot about him for 15 20 years  

and then all of a sudden started sending 
and started wanting to sell them because  

they were worth something finally again 
and people were talking about them

hey that was free money for a lot of people 
in a time where a lot of people really needed  

some money yeah exactly and that's and that 
there was just so much opportunity to buy  

stuff like that because providers educated on 
it oh yeah they had no idea it was it's the best  

situation to be in right where like those people 
gave up upside but they needed it and we were able  

to buy things and provide that liquidity in a way 
that wasn't gonna be a detriment to us because we  

were really lucky to be in a situation where we 
were still doing fine when a lot of people were  

you know in dire straits yeah so i was actually 
going to offer to buy his inc complete set but  

then i told him like you probably don't want to 
do that because these are worth x y and z like i  

was i think we were negotiating but it was going 
to be 1300 cards for like three thousand dollars  

all of them everything he had for three grand 
but then i was like well you might want to check  

out this and look into this and i gave him 
your podcast too jess just to listen to it  

and he's like oh so maybe i shouldn't sell 
these for that i'm like you probably shouldn't  

um which i kicked myself for for not buying 
all those cards for that one that's big  

because he was nice he wasn't like 
because i dealt with sellers that  

were like [ __ ] and i was like okay [ 
__ ] you i'm not gonna help you out then  

but like that's i didn't want to like rip 
him off because he was he just didn't know

when you're in the when you're in the space 
where like let's put this way like you're  

you're in a good financial position we're 
kind of like making excess money here through  

basically some arbitrage and some hard 
work like we can make that conscious choice  

to be really kind and good to both people buying 
from us and people were buying from and like i i  

think it puts us in a better situation to not get 
greedy as long as we stay grounded there but like  

i have no prob like like i'll have people 
like if i post cards to my ig story for sale  

and people will be like you know i get paid on 
friday like can i buy it then or like next week  

whenever you know the 15th falls on like the next 
wednesday or stuff like this happens and i'm like  

like if you like if if if you don't have the money 
for it like you probably shouldn't buy it like i  

have no problem telling that to someone i think 
i think that's the only way that we can continue  

to help like the hobby from a card standpoint 
move forward is if we do everything we can  

as collectors but people who are also selling into 
this to like be better stewards of the hobby and  

that we're like we're like not undercutting or 
being you know bad sellers uh and like taking  

advantage of people because the more people that 
get burned like what is it to make an extra like  

10 on something if people just keep falling out 
of the hobby because of that and if everyone's  

doing that it's not worth it because then like 
because at the end of the day i think all of us  

need to just remember like that we love pokemon 
and we love these hobbies and it like sounds  

cliche but like you have to like kind of like 
be protective of the hobby you do and you and  

part of that is you know being that good steward 
and being someone who doesn't you know backstab  

and undercut people and helps things progress 
forward you know or call options like a schmuck

you know i mean into your point too there's plenty 
of money to be made for everyone there's plenty of  

money to be made for everyone so you know there's 
a lot going around you don't have to be scummy to  

to really make like legitimate money and it's 
funny that you say that too because i drafted  

uh my roundup that's coming out tomorrow morning 
um i already drafted it it's scheduled it's good  

to go and literally that's one of the things 
that i bring up you know if if we don't take  

care of the hobby as it is right now and make 
sure um one of the points that i made was if  

we don't make sure children have plenty 
of opportunities to experience the hobby  

with positive feelings at this time around 
we're we're prioritizing short-term gain  

for our long-term game because then we 
we may not see you know who knows what  

kind of an impact it will have on those larger 
gender on on the generations moving forward but  

it could have a negative impact where they don't 
re-enter the market which is again going back to  

how you create a stable market is the next 
generation comes in and is able to continue to  

prop the market up so i mean you you took it from 
a different perspective but it's the same concept  

you know we have to make sure to also try and 
take care of people in the hobby because if we  

see people leave the hobby with due to negative 
experiences negative feelings like holding the  

bag on something you know and sometimes that those 
those situations are going to be it is what it is  

like that's an is what it is kind of conversation 
but more situation but to your point you know just  

like letting people know hey you know you could 
probably get that for a lot more even though  

right now i want to buy it and i would really 
benefit from not telling you this information  

yeah i mean some people they put themselves 
in that position where they can't do that  

they their their margins are like they kind of 
have to be unfortunately they put themselves in  

a position where they have to be kind of scummy 
which isn't an excuse but like that's that's a  

scary part of the market that could be happening 
when this when december and november come around  

people need money and they're like how do i prop 
up a product that i know is not worth something  

but i can make i can use my influence to try 
to prop it up and that i think is going to  

happen more often too and i think it's happening 
with modern and like we i mean people we know of  

content creators that do that and that's a problem 
that i don't i don't think it's been brought to  

light yet just because i don't think people know 
any better except for unless you kind of abandon  

the market you kind of understanding but people 
coming in like they don't know if someone who has  

10 000 followers like they expect them to 
be trusting and have the correct information  

they might just fall for that trap and 
they'll be in the market for a month and  

then get burnt and they'll be out of the 
market which isn't ideal for us long term  

yeah i really wish those people would just 
like stay in their lane like like if you  

create a certain type of content then stop 
talking about things you don't understand  

just because you feel like you have a large 
following and ability to make some more money off  

of it or feel like you should be talking about you 
know the money side of things or whatever like if  

you're an entertainer just entertain right dance 
monkey dance but don't start trying to talk about  

you know markets and fundamentals and you 
know investing and or on the other side like  

a lot of people like will talk about um they 
will speak as if they have information about  

the pokemon company or the like distributor level 
information or like all these things where like  

they're not even in that conversation 
like i would never try to talk about like  

what's going on from like the supply 
side of pokemon because i have no  

it's all spotted out whatsoever i don't run 
in lgs i don't have a distributor license like  

i don't know anything about that all i know 
about is traditional market investing a love  

for pokemon how those intersect and how investor 
psychology works like i will stay in my lane  

like and it it it gets really frustrating where 
like that's where so many people so easily get  

burned is when these people start talking about 
like investing and like not to beat a dead horse  

but they just start talking about that and you 
know that information is being disseminated to  

a ton of people and honestly you know i really 
do think that unfortunately there's going to be  

another hype cycle probably this year depending on 
what happens with kind of the world as an overlay  

but i like come on we're they're doing another 
freaking first edition base set box break in  

the fall like history tends to repeat itself 
right and you mix together 25th anniversary  

and getting into that seasonality of the 
hobby and you know this box break and

gary and i don't know exactly who's involved 
i know gary is involved and it's like an  

event maybe aoki's with him dude oh is that 
what they're doing are they doing metazou  

and they're doing first edition oh i don't know 
i don't know if they're doing meta zoo uh i i  

did see something about that but i don't know 
if that was the same i didn't know if it was  

first edition or that was the same break but this 
like this has been planned for a long time i know  

um it's in vegas i think but i don't think 
there's like that would make sense it's  

not like in an event to go to yeah but i know 
like they talked about it months and months ago  

um it'd be interesting to see if logan paul does 
anything again like it's i think there's going to  

be a lot of opportunity to people to sell stuff 
in into hype again it might it's not going to  

be i don't think the same level by any means but 
there's i would hope not there's no and that's why  

it's like there's all the right headwinds in place 
for like the market to do poorly but there's also  

these just weird tailwinds of like we might get 
a short-term perfect storm honestly like that's  

why like people who are very deep in the hobby 
like maybe considering buying now because there's  

certain parts certain opportunities that i think 
are going to be a short-term play on this market  

and it's just like whether or not you want to make 
money like that or put the time and effort into it  

right and just i think it's super interesting that 
you're like looking at bowman chrome like baseball  

players and stuff because i think like a lot of 
the opportunity kind of in this space is probably  

elsewhere right where there's less eyes or more 
you know i don't know just i think less like

i don't know how to say it but like less like 
social momentum around it basically right like  

um you know like i for one will continue to be 
thinking about harry potter oriented items going  

into a 25th anniversary and know what i will say 
it because not enough people are going to listen  

to me for it to affect what i'm doing but i will 
continue to search and look in different places  

for specific items because they're doing a lot 
of cool stuff next year over the whole year and  

i think it's going to be like really interesting 
they're putting out new cards harry potter no  

like stuff with the book like stuff oh gotcha and 
they're doing like uh they're doing like these um  

it's i guess you could call it like a museum 
sort of thing but it's gonna be like touring  

and they're doing a re like i just pre-ordered 
there's like a reprint of the first book uh with  

like different art in it and like a special like 
seal on the front i forget but it's like and it's  

not like limited edition but once they're gone 
you know they're gone next year like and they're  

doing a lot of stuff a lot there's a whole article 
with all these different events they're doing and  

different you know things are coming out with 
products and whatnot are the tours all in london  

no like the things in like philly to start oh 
because the first place this thing is and then  

um and then i think the goal is for it to be like 
toured around and go you know jimmy would go to  

new york city and maybe la who knows but but no 
i think like if you like it like if you if you  

my problem is like there's so many other things 
i do that like i just love pokemon so like i'm  

involved in this hobby right and then like i 
love harry potter so i do that stuff right like  

i literally just rewatched all the movies it was 
awesome um but like i just don't have the time  

personally to go and dive into a bunch of other 
like collectible hobbies that are probably you  

know under you know flying under the radar that 
have a lot of opportunity like i would rather like  

spend my time doing other things but some people 
like that's like a better use of their spare time  

and i think that's where people who want to spend 
time in this ecosphere should be spending more of  

their time is not where all the eyes are which 
is pokemon but where they're not yeah but where  

they're not yeah so but like i think people should 
just like enjoy the hobbies they like and not like  

try to like make something out of nothing 
because there's a lot of risk there you know like

and i don't i don't think the average person 
has enough like financial wherewithal like the  

biggest thing i worry about is that like most 
of the people who are involved in this pokemon  

market don't even have a savings account or 
a traditional brokerage account or a roth ira  

a lot of them probably don't have like 401ks 
at work like a lot of people just like don't  

have financial stability and that's like 
we've talked about this before like that  

worries me a lot yeah yeah i i agree with you 
well you know going back to your point about  

you know someone sticking maybe with one market 
versus learning multiple collectible categories  

so this book that i've been trying to get 
through um killer stuff and the money um  

which is about the antique world right and what's 
really interesting about these guys these guys in  

the antique world have been in it for so long 
they know so many categories on things honestly  

how the author uh maureen stanton describes 
them as being like a little bit of historians  

which is which is really interesting to me because 
because it takes a long time to learn these things  

but once you learn it you get really good at it 
so when you start to go to those flea markets you  

can find some really good stuff and you know 
exactly what you're looking for and i think  

like like for me at least i want to try to get 
there with at least one but ideally because i'm  

looking at everything from a long term because all 
the things i collect are things that i love like  

you know at first i thought 
it probably isn't possible  

for me to learn all of them but i think seeing 
these antique folks like really really focus  

in on on learning these things and just getting 
experience and it takes years and it takes time  

i mean that that'll be really interesting i don't 
know i i i hope to get there at least with with a  

few um at least with a few i don't know if i can 
do everything but but i'm with you i i don't know  

that's awesome goal though you know that's super 
cool i feel like like i've gotten i'm starting  

i'm on the path there with pokemon and i think for 
me it's probably enough for me like maybe some of  

this stuff or like other i don't know like maybe 
specific anime or like harry potter like i could  

delve deeper into from that standpoint but um i do 
just really enjoy because there's so much to learn  

about pokemon that even i haven't scratched over 
the years like always something is always coming  

up that i don't know about or that i've never like 
like for gosh sakes i've never even seen that cp6  

secret rare charizard before until the other day 
i'm like how did i not know this existed what like  

i want to know more about this like and i just 
immediately write it down in my notes to like  

look into later and like understand you know  

what the history of that card has been so far like 
blah blah blah whatever and then obviously the  

same for like you know all the interesting vintage 
stuff but i uh there's just only so much time you  

know only so much time only so much that's cool 
that's cool yeah and and and when you and when  

you bring more markets or more categories into the 
mix it it makes decision making harder because to  

your point what you brought up earlier sometimes 
people don't realize opportunity cost and you did  

talk about this on a market monday when you 
said you're probably not going to make money  

on your pokemon cards your money might just be 
better served in a roth ira if you're purely  

thinking about it from an investment perspective 
but you know that's the other thing too that i've  

been struggling a little bit with you know when 
i am looking at the bowman chrome cards like  

interesting do i go for these cards or do i go 
for a pokemon or like like i was thinking about  

it the other day when we were talking about that 
vending series sheet um that we had gotten weeks  

ago i and you and i we had talked about it you 
know i was thinking to myself hmm okay so do i put  

this money in an autonomy card or do i get this 
vending series you know card sheet that i can pee  

cost is hard right and it's like especially 
when it comes to hobbies because it's like  

it's like it's like entertaining there's 
entertainment money and then there's like money  

that you're putting in on an opportunity that 
you think is something that you can flip or that  

is an investment like and there's you know like 
those three types really like there's you know  

flips store values and and longer term investments 
right but there's all that and then there's so  

that compared to the opportunity cost of putting 
that money in traditional markets or putting that  

money you know paying down debt with that money 
for gosh sakes like doing so many a lot of things  

that create create a return either instant or 
longer term potentially and that you know opportu  

opportunity cost is is always like it's the it's 
one of the toughest factors to like decide about  

you know oh oh 100 100 and something that i didn't 
want to bring up because i just looked at it  

holy crap okay so this is immediately becoming a 
two-parter episode it's it's gonna have to be it's  

gonna cut me off i know right absolute shocker 
right um which i still can't believe the one  

with pogo gal it just immediately it didn't tell 
me that i was gonna cut it off short to what 75  

75 minutes or something like that and yeah my host 
just automatically did and i was like oh [ __ ] so  

yeah i'm gonna definitely have to split this up 
into two parts but um this is this has definitely  

been good i don't know how you guys are doing on 
time uh we can go for a little bit more if you uh  

do a little bit how about you james yeah i'm fine 
i'm getting a little tired but i'm doing all right  

is that beer no it's not i wish oh okay i was 
gonna say i was gonna say someone brought beer  

which isn't a bad idea um no but it hasn't it's 
in my cool pokemon glass so at least there's that  

okay so we do have to see the pokemon glass 
now oh it's awesome it's so awesome it has all  

157 on it what that is so cool yeah they're 
so oh man where does one get such things  

it was um this place glass to mouth and so 
they were sold out because i like waited too  

long to buy it and og ryan at og retro had one 
and i waited too long and i ended up missing  

it and then i messaged them and they were like 
hey we found an extra and so i got super lucky  

so i basically got like the last one so it's 
very oh those are fun oh those are awesome  

you know one thing that i do need to get that is 
obviously not cards related but pokemon related  

is i need to get pokemon threads like i need some 
shirts i need some hats i need some i noticed the  

togepi earlier i noticed it some dude called me 
on my youtube comments because i pronounce it  

and he's like i love that you put out content but 
you need to learn how to pronounce this and he  

like gave me a link to like an anime episode and 
i'm like bro i just it's not that serious sorry  

wait how did you say it did you say to pee pee 
yeah oh that does sound a little cringey though  

i don't know i'm kidding i'm just playing with 
you i mean but honestly some of these some of  

these newer ones like i don't know if they're 
black and white generation they probably are  

if i don't like it if i don't like the design of 
the pokemon i kind of assume that it's probably  

black and white but some of them i don't even 
know how to say and and i needed to learn just  

from other people saying it for a long time i 
couldn't say rayquaza because it just the spelling  

didn't make sense to me so i don't know if i'm 
the only one on that but surely not which um  

which reminds me i have been debating so i've got 
a shining fate etb that i got at target like a  

number like maybe last year something for like 
the 35 dollars you know it's on sale right  

the target on sale etv shining fates and last time 
i looked that was going for like over a hundred  

which kind of blow my mind a little bit debating 
whether or not to flip it just because i don't  

plan on doing anything with it i'm just gonna 
sit on it i don't know do you should just open it  

about it's modern no because i'm not like you i'm 
not like you but i'll send it over there to you  

i should have brought it with me when 
you were in chicago why didn't i do  

that i should have just brought all 
the stuff that i needed you to open  

i need to open up some strix haven i don't 
know if any of you guys bought strix haven  

uh magic the gathering set but you did 
okay so did you hit anything really good  

okay i mean i really enjoyed it it's just that 
those study collectors packs are so expensive  

um yeah that is crazy yeah i've got they're 
in they're all in that box over there i  

gotta go through them again but did you like the 
alt-art the japanese altar yeah that looks sick  

yeah they were really really cool i really enjoyed 
those oh yeah those are those are definitely fun i  

need i need to open them every time i go to target 
if i see one of those like half it's not even like  

a full draft box it's like one of those half boxes 
where you get like 10 packs oh yeah yeah um i  

didn't uh i didn't i bought some of the japanese 
regular packs and then i bought like one or two  

because those collectors packs are like 20 bucks 
or whatever they were oh my god yeah like 20 22.  

i just recently saw for one of the newer sets it 
might be historic horizons or modern horizons too  

they were going for something like 39 bucks it was 
it was kind of crazy i i have some some like uh  

collector packs from aquaria and i bought them at 
15 and now they're going at something like 25 last  

time i checked those those collector packs are can 
sometimes be you know definitely worth that money  

i don't know about openness but if you like 
street saving then i would suggest gate ruler  

because the like that kind of like feel like that 
very just almost over-the-top artwork but it's  

like very flashy like full beautiful holo 
like almost that etched card like some of  

those edged cards that are in strict saving and 
magic like the artwork's pretty beautiful so

yeah yeah absolutely absolutely  

well hey guys um this has been a good one this has 
definitely been good um i think we hit a lot of  

topics huh yeah yeah we we definitely hit a lot 
of different places um i really like it i think  

there's gonna be a lot of cool clips from this but 
um what i will say is uh we should probably wrap  

up so if you guys want to kind of let people 
know where they can find you we can start there

all right okay i can go first uh 
yes so you can find me on instagram

my computer's lagging too so like you started and 
i start then you start so it's weird but go ahead  

no no no you go

okay if i cut this out jess at the end 
uh so you can find me on instagram um  

my card account is first edition pokemon cards 
um and you can find me on there and then my main  

instagram which i keep forgetting 
the name which is super productive  

let's see uh that one is just that one's 
just my name james damon and then nine at  

the end and you can find me on there but 
i don't post any cars in the main one but  

you see pictures of purse you know 
the dog um he's cutie what do you want  

he's definitely a cutie i'll tell you 
connor sweet well you guys can find me  

roc rock pokemon that's for rochester where i'm 
from not the thing you find in the ground roc  

pokemon on instagram and also on youtube where 
you can find my market monday videos where i just  

kind of talk about a part of the part of the hobby 
or or a different piece of investing uh strategy  

or or thought process so um yeah instagram 
and youtube is what i do connor rock pokemon  

thanks for having us on jess this is awesome hell 
yeah no i appreciate y'all coming on so we're  

gonna have to do another marathon great probably 
you know i don't know i'm thinking maybe october  

or maybe when celebrations comes out that'll be 
really cool just see where things are at because  

it's possible it could be totally different 
but yeah anyways well i appreciate you guys  

well the slab game released oh my god team rocket 
blasting off with the speed of light oh my gosh

we need to seriously i'm gonna find you 
a mouth mask i really am oh my god i am  

so yeah i don't think i own one even 
meowth card anymore even though i  

should i don't think i do i can't remember 
but we'll send you guys we'll send you some  

anyways y'all i appreciate it um have a good night 
and hey y'all too see you on ig bye thanks guys