You Can't Comp This: NBA Trading Card Podcast
You Can't Comp This: NBA Trading Card Podcast
Episode 188: Chris Gawlik Talks Hobby Regulation + Lock Up Your Slabs!
This week, we’re joined by Chris Gawlik from Silver State Cards & Sports, host of the Locked on Vegas Knights podcast and editor at Hockey News: Collectibles. We dive into the latest in the hobby, including:
🏒 Chris’ insights on the potential for regulation in the card collectibles industry
🔍 Lock Up Your Slabs! The alarming trend of Melbourne hobby stores being burglarized
📉 SGA’s new status as undervalued on CardLadder
🔄 Markelle Fultz is back—does he have any hobby love left?
🏆 Mac McLung going for a three-peat in the dunk contest—can he do it?
Tune in now! 🎧
Thank You to our Primary sponsor:
Check Out My Cards Australia and US Sports Cards Australia
Sponsor PROMO: Fast Break Trading Cards
Use the promo code 'YCCT10' for 10% off all Fanatics Memorabilia.
Game Time International: Best Mags In The Hobby
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00:00.00
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah, it's gonna be pretty quick hitting today.
00:00.00
Adz
ah number three awesome alright and the multistream is going blah blah blah update update update can we connect to the internet yes we can and we are live how's that technology is beautiful right all right good to go when you are
00:15.37
Russell Gibson
Beautiful.
00:28.79
Adz
Welcome everybody to episode 187, I think it is, of the You Can't Comp This NBA Trading Card Podcast. We're your hosts, Adam, Amy, and Russell Gibson.
00:40.55
Adz
Is one seventy is it or 188?
00:44.59
Russell Gibson
And let's start again.
00:45.12
Adz
Let's start again. I'm gonna go to our podcast.
00:47.24
Russell Gibson
I thought what I wrote was correct. Yeah. So it's 188. Yeah.
00:50.27
Adz
It's 188.
00:50.64
Russell Gibson
It's hard. It's hard with all the, um, cause we don't, these extra episodes.
00:53.32
Adz
No, that's all right. Yep.
00:55.60
Russell Gibson
All right. You ready?
00:56.33
Adz
Hang on. I'll just put it here. hope My brain hurts.
01:01.07
Russell Gibson
So good.
01:02.23
Adz
Everyone on YouTube is going, what are you talking about? This is how the magic happens.
01:06.40
Russell Gibson
I mean,
01:19.63
Adz
Welcome everybody to Episode 188 of the You Can't Comp this NBA Trading Card Podcast. We are your hosts Adam Aimee and Russell Gibson. And Russell, I believe you have been a very busy man this week.
01:36.23
Adz
You caught up with
01:36.63
Russell Gibson
Slightly sleep deprived.
01:38.32
Adz
I was going to say, it was it was some ungodly time of the morning. um and unfortunate Unfortunately, I couldn't be there.
01:42.64
Russell Gibson
Slightly, but yeah,
01:44.70
Adz
I actually wish I was ah for this, but you caught up with with Chris Gorlick and he's responsible for the that article, wasn't it?
01:51.44
Russell Gibson
Las Vegas based.
01:54.63
Adz
To regulate the hobby.
01:55.06
Russell Gibson
Wrote an article, really busy guy in the hobby actually, which I didn't realize he's a full-time breaker. He edits a magazine.
02:02.17
Adz
Yeah.
02:03.65
Russell Gibson
He writes articles obviously. So just yeah interesting guy and good to get his insights about it. And the other thing I didn't realize too was that his background was gaming. So the prism that he looks at cards is through that background of gaming laid on top of the the probability and chance part.
02:17.12
Adz
Ah, yep, yep, yep.
02:21.36
Russell Gibson
So really good conversation with that. and
02:25.76
Adz
Yeah, like that would, I'm, I'm really um sad that I missed it really. Like I, yeah um, but that's all right. I guess i'll he will.
02:34.31
Russell Gibson
I reckon he'll come back on man to to chat with you.
02:37.14
Adz
This will be great. Cause I'm, yeah, I'm very curious. So, um, yeah, without further ado, let's, let's, uh, let's go and listen to that interview.
02:46.93
Adz
And for everybody on the YouTube, obviously you won't be able to listen to that interview. Please check out the the latest episode, which will be 188 of the podcast. And yeah, we'll be yeah where you get to hear the film. It'll be part one, part two, I believe. It goes for about 40 minutes, that that interview.
03:06.54
Russell Gibson
Correct. Alrighty, and we're back. How you doing, buddy?
03:11.00
Adz
I'm great, I'm great. It's ah yeah its very interesting interesting times with you and Mr. Goolick, I'm sure we'll be touching base again. let's um Because I've got thoughts on regulating as well, as we all know.
03:23.84
Russell Gibson
I think you'd be keen to have a chat with you, mate. Honestly, we need to get you two together. Alrighty, let's talk. Our next segment is going to be about the Pokemon card thefts that are happening across Melbourne at the moment.
03:35.27
Adz
Yeah, let's give let's give some context for for, I suppose, our global listeners, even outside of Victoria, because it's very local. This is local to us, but I think it's a national problem.
03:45.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
03:46.46
Adz
It could be, and we saw the madness going on around the world. So it's not like we're the only ones that are affected by this, but I think we're in in the midst of almost like a crime wave.
03:57.74
Russell Gibson
I feel like globally the problems they have with Pokemon and more people fighting in Walmarts or fighting in targets, you know, we don't have that same type of cultural phenomenon happening, but to me, this is very much becoming a thing.
04:02.65
Adz
Punching on in a Walmart, yeah.
04:11.08
Russell Gibson
And actually the reason why I put it into the sheet, I was a little bit reluctant to put it in, but I've had people come and talk to me about it outside of cards, you know, friends, colleagues, my wife's work colleagues.
04:11.61
Adz
Yeah.
04:21.39
Adz
Well, it's been on the news.
04:23.22
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's right.
04:23.41
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.
04:24.55
Russell Gibson
And so, It makes me think maybe this is actually something we should be discussing and bringing some light to because actually that's the the main thing I wanted to talk to you about is, you know, what can we do about it?
04:34.45
Adz
It's about awareness and yeah it's about creating awareness and and understanding what's happening.
04:39.40
Russell Gibson
Well, there's more and more footage coming out of them.
04:41.66
Adz
oh
04:42.47
Russell Gibson
their faces from the CCTV and they're not always wearing, they're wearing face covers, but not fully fledged face covers. So I've been sitting there trying to pause it, see if I can screenshot it, but you know, it's obviously, it's very pixelated, but I, my sort of gut feeling of, you know, fast forwarding to the end of this, I think someone's going to identify who they are.
04:50.58
Adz
Really trying to yeah hope so.
05:02.11
Adz
I really hope so Well, it's been it's been what 11 stores 11 stores inside the last eight weeks or something
05:02.57
Russell Gibson
Just a matter of time, because my sort of gut feeling is,
05:10.81
Russell Gibson
Yeah, actually, let's go back to the start. Adam, tell the story about how this is all unfolding and and coming out.
05:14.16
Adz
ah so So throughout Victoria, as as I just touched on, over the last sort of eight weeks, maybe a few, maybe 10 weeks, I think it was around about 10 stores when I first heard.
05:15.25
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
05:26.36
Adz
Oh, sorry, it was eight stores when I first heard, but then it was different stores around the place.
05:28.34
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
05:30.91
Adz
One place got broken into twice. um And then there it some very reputable, well-known stores also. getting targeted by this, and it's all in the Melbourne, sort of Melbourne Metro area, um and and the suburbs, but yeah, but it's Melbourne.
05:43.71
Russell Gibson
and out of north, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:47.18
Adz
Melbourne, Victoria is, it's it's not like one shop in Australia and then a different state in a different state.
05:48.46
Russell Gibson
Correct, Melbourne Victoria, yep.
05:53.37
Adz
This is the this is in a capital city and the in the surrounding suburbs, but I think we're now, it's ah it's either 11 or 12 inside the last three months.
05:55.56
Russell Gibson
Correct, yep. Yeah, yeah.
06:03.87
Russell Gibson
yeah
06:05.26
Adz
And that's, That's not a coincidence. That's not an opportunistic, oh, what's in here.
06:11.42
Russell Gibson
Yup.
06:12.35
Adz
This is very targeted. This is a very um concerning group of individuals going in and breaking into stores and they're targeting the Pokemon stock.
06:22.50
Russell Gibson
Yeah. So why don't we talk about how they're breaking into the shops first and then we'll talk about what they're stealing in a sec.
06:29.86
Adz
Yeah.
06:30.52
Russell Gibson
So they are relatively well organized. And the reason for that is because they're stealing cars to do the break ins. So they actually have identified the cars that have been used in the theft, but at the same time they've already been noted as stolen cars.
06:47.41
Russell Gibson
So there's that part of it too.
06:47.72
Adz
Stolen vehicles.
06:49.66
Russell Gibson
So obviously it's not their first time committing crimes. So they're obviously quite around that.
06:52.77
Adz
Yep.
06:54.10
Russell Gibson
The other thing they've said too is that they're very adept at breaking into places and quite quickly.
06:58.45
Adz
Yep.
06:58.68
Russell Gibson
So they're using crowbars and other sort of heavy tools to to break into places. And then the third part of showing that, you know, organized criminals or, you know, someone who's done it before is that they are very targeted in what they want.
07:13.40
Russell Gibson
So there's some suggestion within the hobby community that actually they're going to the hobby stores before they're robbing them, casing them out, working out where everything is, hitting the places, going to exactly what they need and getting in and out within sort of five or 10 minutes.
07:28.10
Russell Gibson
And so it's not enough time for security services to respond.
07:28.57
Adz
Yeah.
07:32.49
Russell Gibson
They're getting away before the police are attending the scene and and this is not a sledge at the Victorian police but they're not exactly known for quickly attending crimes like they're often very busy doing other things and so um you know we had an assault in in our street this is going back a few months ago but the police didn't turn up for three hours and and this was an assault with machetes and so you know the police are just very much under the pump and
07:42.78
Adz
Yeah.
07:53.94
Adz
Yeah.
07:57.62
Adz
yeah
08:02.04
Adz
It's chasing through the streets and stealing garbage trucks and running, smashing property like it's, yeah, I know.
08:02.38
Russell Gibson
It's not like in the movies where they turn up immediately and start chasing the bad guys down the street. That's not how the, it's not how the Victorian police are, you know, are baked in basically.
08:12.93
Adz
No, speaking of garbage trucks, didn't they and use an a wheelie bin in one of the break-ins?
08:14.11
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So that's the other part of their MO is that they're using a wheelie bin to move all the stock out, which is, I suppose that's portable.
08:21.91
Adz
Load everything up and wheel it out.
08:25.28
Russell Gibson
It can, you can put a lot of stuff into it. It's. You move it around corners pretty quickly. I'm not calling the criminals smart here by any means, but in terms of the logistics of it, it's quite smartly organized.
08:34.85
Adz
They've got a plan. They've got a solid plan.
08:36.55
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
08:37.60
Adz
They're probably not thinking of the quality of the cards and if they're damaging them, chuck them in wheelie bins.
08:41.62
Russell Gibson
Oh, look, I mean, the criminals, right? So let's talk about what they're stealing.
08:43.66
Adz
True.
08:45.36
Russell Gibson
So they're stealing Pokemon. My suspicion of the reason why they're stealing Pokemon is because it's not serial numbered. And I suspect it's easier for them to move the stock on without being identified.
08:56.07
Adz
Court.
08:56.48
Russell Gibson
But at the same time, too, The amount of stock that they've stolen. So some shop owners are saying it's $20,000 of stock. They're coming in and stealing. Other people saying it's up to $100,000.
09:08.30
Russell Gibson
But that's not easy to move that amount of stock in such a short period of time without other people knowing about it. So just kind of makes me.
09:15.40
Adz
So they're stealing predominant predominantly sealed product or are they are they sit but they are they also taking singles because because that's the thing and one of the interviews that I was watching and I was talking about cards and yet and all they're showing is graded Pokemon cards with thousands of dollars on the price tags to given for context.
09:18.55
Russell Gibson
Sealed product is the main thing that they're targeting.
09:33.82
Russell Gibson
I think they're doing that for the TV sets. But I think what they've actually been, so yeah, that's right.
09:37.57
Adz
Yeah.
09:39.90
Russell Gibson
They're trying to demonstrate the high value of some of these cards. But from what I understand, the majority of the stuff that's been stolen is sealed product.
09:42.25
Adz
Yeah.
09:46.73
Adz
Yep.
09:47.01
Russell Gibson
They have been stealing some singles, but that's been a very small portion of what's been taken.
09:50.47
Adz
Yep. Okay. kind of yeah
09:52.79
Russell Gibson
I mean, so my theory around that is that they would then be breaking them on, say, a breaking platform. Not that this is any in any way affiliated, but for example, whatnot. where you're relatively anonymous, you know there's an expectation that a high volume of stock will be rolling through these breaking platforms.
10:07.01
Adz
Mmm.
10:10.81
Russell Gibson
And so if you're lifting the stuff, none of it's serial numbered, you know none of it's numbered at all. It's actually kind of a clever play again.
10:18.02
Adz
yeah no but stealing the graded cards would lead to trouble because you'd be able to track them down you'd know who you'd identify them as stolen like if the stores have got records inventories of all their graded cards then
10:21.28
Russell Gibson
I'm not trying to give them kudos in any form whatsoever, but that's right.
10:30.72
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's exactly right.
10:35.80
Russell Gibson
Yeah, actually tying this back into the interview, I just did with Chris, you know, my sort of crazy idea about what can we do in the future to um trace product and putting a GPS into it.
10:48.02
Russell Gibson
I think that would be like a really interesting thing, because if the product was stolen, you'd be able to immediately identify.
10:51.60
Adz
You'd be able to report it to PSA.
10:53.61
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
10:53.65
Adz
Or whoever you grade with, right?
10:54.04
Russell Gibson
what Well, what I was thinking was actually sealed cases.
10:54.85
Adz
Have a central base.
10:59.50
Russell Gibson
I think it'd be too hard to label every single box, but if you had like a small tracker in,
11:04.51
Adz
Mmm.
11:04.79
Russell Gibson
in a case that you could then track back. So in the instance that it was stolen, that actually would be another really useful tool to then say, okay, this is where this stolen case has now been moved to.
11:16.58
Russell Gibson
So then you could actually track it down in that sense.
11:18.68
Adz
Yeah.
11:19.98
Russell Gibson
It's a crazy idea, but yeah,
11:21.29
Adz
it's But it's it's concerning to know that stores are being targeted in this way.
11:25.91
Russell Gibson
sure.
11:25.93
Adz
um I think it's a good thing that people individually haven't been targeted. ah That's where I suppose my concerns lie. if So so again I guess the on-flow to this or the more global version of this is, because a lot of colleagues of mine and people outside of the hobby have seen this on on the news and they've gone, what's going on here?
11:32.55
Russell Gibson
Yeah, you're talking about that affair. Why don't you flesh that idea out a little bit more?
11:48.51
Adz
like See, surely it's not that bad. like Like, are the cards worth that much?
11:53.81
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
11:54.52
Adz
And a lot of people don't know that theyre that the trading cards are worth a lot of money.
11:59.69
Russell Gibson
Yeah, which also leads me to think it's an inside job because there are people in the hobby that do appreciate it and understand where the value lies.
12:08.08
Adz
Yeah, yeah.
12:08.99
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so I don't think these people, I actually wonder if these people are very much deep seated into the hobby, because that's the other thing too. How do you shift that much product without knowing people in the hobby?
12:17.83
Adz
without knowing what to do, where to go, because you're not going to cash converters with $100,000 worth of Pokemon stock.
12:19.93
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's all right. It's yeah.
12:24.66
Russell Gibson
Which is the other reason why I think it's just a matter of time before these gooses get caught.
12:28.95
Adz
And I do hope that, I think I share the same views as you, that we really hope they get caught and brought to justice really quickly.
12:35.74
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
12:35.76
Adz
um I can't imagine it's gonna be easy for the stores to get their stock back.
12:39.26
Russell Gibson
We're not talking about lynching these people or or mob violence.
12:41.66
Adz
No, no, just actually correct.
12:41.78
Russell Gibson
We're talking about through the court system, aren't we? add We're not advocating for any, you know, forms of violence.
12:46.83
Adz
No, we're not advocating that. I'm not going to turn vigilante in the night.
12:50.97
Russell Gibson
This is not Backyard Breaks podcast, is it?
12:54.54
Adz
ah No, no, it's not. No, I definitely hope they brought they brought to justice. um I think the the bigger problem is, well, not bigger problem, sorry. the the The lesson here is just be careful who you tell what your product, what your cards are worth.
13:10.91
Russell Gibson
That's your takeaway, yeah.
13:10.92
Adz
Like I think, my my big thing is, They've seen, so if they're in the hobby, then I guess they already knew this stuff, but when they're not in the hobby, they don't realize what potentially sealed product's worth, like holding onto it and things like that.
13:24.24
Adz
But they see dollar signs and it draws unwanted attention. I think the break-ins are the unwanted attention I'm talking about. But if you're in a site if you're at a bar and you're telling somebody in earshot that you have cards that are worth tens of thousands of dollars,
13:30.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
13:41.08
Adz
And then like somebody follows you home, breaks into your house, and you lose that tent your your your basketball cards. like Do you know what I mean? like i wouldn't I wouldn't be going, check this out, this card's worth 50 grand.
13:50.25
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, no, I get what you're saying.
13:55.64
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
13:56.09
Adz
And then someone tears your house open and upside down looking for a $50,000 card.
14:00.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
14:01.59
Adz
Or goes the vault, looks for your vault because you're they know your trading cards are worth money.
14:01.93
Russell Gibson
Look,
14:07.44
Russell Gibson
it this to me like is like an interesting one because when I go to say hobby hangout, I take a box of cards, like my trading box, I don't even particularly watch it.
14:13.10
Adz
Mmm. Yeah. Yep.
14:18.48
Russell Gibson
And actually I've never had someone steal a card from me. And so, you know, from that sort of perspective, I actually think most people in the hobby, when I say most,
14:25.72
Adz
Oh look, I agree. Most of them are honest for sure.
14:28.58
Russell Gibson
99% of people that you interact with actually are, you know, really good about it. And this is how I sort of feel about this. You know, this is an extreme example of that 1% that just spoils it for everybody.
14:36.12
Adz
Yep. Yep.
14:38.01
Russell Gibson
And so it's like, well, what actually can you do about this?
14:38.10
Adz
But yeah, yeah.
14:39.81
Russell Gibson
I think at the end of the day, they just have to make sure they've got insurance, that they've got, you know, some video cameras and they have, you know, some semblance of
14:43.10
Adz
Being sure, be careful.
14:49.30
Russell Gibson
making it difficult for people to break in.
14:50.95
Adz
Yeah.
14:50.98
Russell Gibson
But I think at the end of the day, you can put all of these protections in place and you're always going to have, you know, people like this, which is just an unfortunate part. Hey, just like really quickly before we move on from this, do you think that they view themselves?
15:04.06
Russell Gibson
I'm talking about the robbers now as like some form of Robin Hood in that the the sheriff of Nottingham is in this instance is like the the hobby shops and they're actually liberating the the Pokemon from these like um greedy owners or something like that.
15:07.66
Adz
nine No. Pokemon. No.
15:17.88
Russell Gibson
Like I actually I sort of had that thought the other day because, you know, what's happening with Pokemon is it's what is it selling for double, triple what the RRP currently is at the moment?
15:26.48
Adz
True, but but Pokemon tend to reprint that stuff.
15:30.63
Russell Gibson
Yeah, well, that's that's something else that's happening in Pokemon, isn't it?
15:31.57
Adz
My other point to that, right? Like I have a lot of friends in the Pokemon community and it's, they're like, I don't know why people are fighting at Walmart.
15:33.35
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
15:41.73
Adz
step breaking into stores, they run out of product, you know what Pokemon will do? They'll just print more.
15:46.87
Russell Gibson
Well, they are actually are doing that, but that was something that was unannounced. That was the other thing about that too.
15:50.17
Adz
Yeah. Yeah, but it's, yeah, it's it's one of those things that might be my final thought is just be careful and be careful who you tell what you have that's of value.
15:53.03
Russell Gibson
All right.
16:04.22
Adz
If you're an individual collector.
16:04.25
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
16:06.32
Adz
All good to be proud of your cards, but I wouldn't go putting monetary value on them, because they're there are ears out there.
16:13.52
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's get to a break. Let us thank the Melbourne Cartel. And I think if I'm counting my numbers right, this is our last advertisement with these guys. So Darren and team Melbourne Cartel, we really hope that in the future we can work with you again. It's been an absolute pleasure and and and an honor.
16:34.73
Adz
Love it.
16:35.70
Russell Gibson
and thank you for everything that you've done for us.
16:35.78
Adz
It's been great.
16:38.13
Russell Gibson
So basically, the Melbourne Cartel are a Melbourne-based repack business, AFL, NBA, NFL, UFC, card grading, On demand shipping card accessories are also sold there.
16:51.11
Russell Gibson
The hitman series is $35 per packet. Darren works on a one in four type ratio where there's not particularly one huge hit in each one.
17:01.14
Adz
Yep.
17:01.49
Russell Gibson
It's like a one in four hit ratio that you would expect to be getting out of them. So the value is more evenly distributed. The other thing that's important to us and one of the major reasons why we signed up to do advertising for Darren is that all the cards in these repacks are available in the list for you to get to.
17:16.58
Russell Gibson
So again, Darren, thank you so much.
17:18.04
Adz
Yeah.
17:19.36
Russell Gibson
Go to Melbournecardtel.au for all of their services. And I think that the promo code will still work for one more week.
17:28.21
Adz
Nice.
17:28.81
Russell Gibson
Comp this 10% off all of your goods and services there.
17:38.37
Russell Gibson
Adam, we're back. How are you, buddy?
17:39.65
Adz
I'm great. I'm great. Excited for the ready for the home stretch.
17:41.54
Russell Gibson
Feeling good.
17:44.38
Russell Gibson
Homestretch. Right. What would you like to talk about first? Mack McClung or Mark Kelfault's back in the league?
17:50.59
Adz
We'll fall back in the league. Let's touch on that. He's gone to you to your old team.
17:54.68
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
17:55.75
Adz
Sacramento will make it moves.
17:57.77
Russell Gibson
I deny them being my old teammate.
17:57.96
Adz
trying
17:59.61
Russell Gibson
They, they're dead to me. I don't know what you're talking about.
18:03.71
Adz
Some random team in Sacramento.
18:03.96
Russell Gibson
Honestly. Yes, some California team.
18:06.92
Adz
all They don't know what they're doing.
18:08.25
Russell Gibson
That's all i'll ahll I'll refer to them as.
18:08.40
Adz
I don't know.
18:10.56
Russell Gibson
Look, I actually I love this. For me, it was really difficult for me to understand why Mark Markoff was out of the league. So I'm really
18:17.20
Adz
Yeah, I think he just didn't find a spot in Orlando really, didn't he? Just not gel there.
18:22.43
Russell Gibson
Look, I'm really not too sure. And actually, there's been nothing said about this at all. So that could just be that the magic is such a classy organization, they wouldn't let anything slip out.
18:32.30
Adz
Yeah.
18:32.48
Russell Gibson
My gut feeling it was a contract negotiation thing where he wanted 10 million a year and now offering him say 3 million a year.
18:35.68
Adz
Yeah.
18:38.92
Russell Gibson
I honestly think that's what the end of that was.
18:39.93
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.
18:42.35
Russell Gibson
And so You know, here we are. He's back in the league. Look, he didn't look to me to be in awesome shape. So I'm sort of not anticipating he's going to be coming back um and lighting the world on fire.
18:48.95
Adz
Okay.
18:55.37
Adz
Speaking of random Philadelphia picks that are back in the league, you really you hurt did you hear that Ben Simmons has moved to philip de Los Angeles?
18:55.82
Russell Gibson
I just.
19:02.63
Russell Gibson
How do you feel about that?
19:04.09
Adz
I think it's funny. He's going to play two games and then he'd be done. We saw back again. Yeah, we're fine.
19:09.75
Russell Gibson
Look, Actually for me, he might be the best minimum paid player in the league and maybe that's just his future.
19:17.12
Adz
That's fine.
19:18.02
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
19:18.08
Adz
You can just keep going around a bit, but you're paying more than the minimum and easier, but he's already cashed in, he's fine.
19:22.32
Russell Gibson
He's not the, he's not the number one pick in the league anymore. That that day is absolutely sailed and he's definitely not a number one option on a team. And so I think once you sort of get past that, he's actually a very serviceable NBA player.
19:34.02
Adz
Serviceable rotation NBA player, as simple as that.
19:36.52
Russell Gibson
Him with Kwai Leonard and James Harden though, that's a decent team. Plus Norman Powell, how well he's playing at the moment.
19:41.72
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:42.30
Russell Gibson
It's, it's kind of a cool team. ah Matthew Yuga did a really good segment about Ben Simmons and the pricing at and how far he's come down.
19:52.78
Russell Gibson
So his PSA 10 silver is currently selling for just $27 population on that's 139.
19:59.92
Adz
Frankly, that that's overs, that that's overs for me.
20:02.58
Russell Gibson
Look, I actually think that's a really good buy. No, but so the reason I say that is because the population's low.
20:08.49
Adz
Yeah, true.
20:08.50
Russell Gibson
You're always going to have Aussies collecting this guy. And it's also one of those things, too. It's like it's not going to go down any more than 20 bucks. So.
20:14.88
Adz
Yeah, it's $20 card. Yeah, that's it.
20:16.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
20:16.47
Adz
You're right, you're right. Yeah, good point. I like it.
20:18.19
Russell Gibson
That's totally fine. Look, I actually don't have any Ben Simmons at all. So would I buy that for 26 US dollars? Yeah, I think that's a pretty good buy. Yeah.
20:27.58
Adz
Yeah.
20:27.81
Russell Gibson
ah Mac McClung, let's talk about that really quickly. What do you got for me?
20:30.58
Adz
Mac McClung oh my goodness the three-peat we were hoping for a three-peat from well some of us were in the Super Bowl a week ago we didn't get it there but we got a three-peat in the dunk contest so
20:39.45
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
20:44.60
Adz
Mack McClung Collectors, is it buy-held sell time? I think it's very much sell time, because this is the time of year for the last three years that it's been Mack McClung season.
20:55.11
Adz
Get it get those goes cards out. that du That third dunk though, over the um the car with the guy holding the ball out, and he jumped over the car and dunked it.
21:06.34
Adz
Yep, class act.
21:07.11
Russell Gibson
I feel like that was just paying tribute to Blake Griffin at that point, honestly.
21:10.25
Adz
Well, it's a 20 year anniversary of Vince Carter.
21:10.55
Russell Gibson
that
21:12.29
Adz
I thought it'd be the the time to to give props to Vince, but not true.
21:17.11
Russell Gibson
Can anyone else do those vinstungso? They were just insane.
21:24.08
Adz
Very true.
21:25.19
Russell Gibson
All right, so my perspective on Mac McClung is that it's not a buy, a hold, or a sell. It's if you like the guy you buy it, and it's not really something that's going to go up and down that much.
21:31.14
Adz
He's like the guy by the guy.
21:34.62
Russell Gibson
And so the other thing too is, he's is a known commodity now. He's not particularly known as an NBA guy. He's a slam dunk competition guy.
21:40.36
Adz
Yep.
21:41.65
Russell Gibson
You know, that's about, you know, it, I actually don't think I think he's on a two way contract with Orlando, but at the same time,
21:43.80
Adz
He plays in the G League, doesn't he? Mainly.
21:48.17
Adz
Orlando. Yep.
21:51.04
Russell Gibson
You know, I'm not really expecting him to break out in the league and become an All-Star or anything like that. Look, if you want to buy some of his cards, I think that's fine.
21:54.84
Adz
Correct.
21:56.88
Russell Gibson
But for me, it's a PC. I don't see any sort of flip potential on that at all.
22:01.88
Adz
For sure.
22:02.11
Russell Gibson
Hey, mate, for this next one, can we please do the SGA rise? And are you able to step through this on on the video so that we can do it like that?
22:11.88
Adz
Oh, I can do that. Hang on, my...
22:18.23
Russell Gibson
And then I'll just introduce the segment. I'll edit this out and then I'll introduce the segment.
22:24.72
Adz
Let's see if I can get in there.
22:31.74
Adz
Yes, it's me.
22:34.61
Adz
I'm just approving logins.
22:37.33
Russell Gibson
Beautiful.
22:47.09
Adz
um Yes, trust this device. Sorry, I'm giving you the story. Thank you.
22:50.47
Russell Gibson
Do you need me to log you in, or are you good?
22:52.59
Adz
No, no, no. It's my personal Facebook that wouldn't link link to the...
22:55.31
Russell Gibson
Oh, OK.
22:57.92
Adz
Okay, so which one are we looking at? We're at...
23:01.20
Russell Gibson
So I can give you the instructions. You just have to go to Cardlet a bit. Can you do it on the screen so people at home can watch it?
23:04.05
Adz
Oh, for sure. We can play this at home.
23:06.34
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
23:07.61
Adz
Card letter.
23:13.61
Adz
and Dashboard card letter. Done.
23:18.53
Russell Gibson
All good.
23:19.49
Adz
ah Card letter, yep, I'm on the dashboard.
23:21.83
Russell Gibson
Great, okay guys, so for people listening at home, this is a little bit of a tutorial for using Cardletter and another feature out of that. So this is looking at the undervalued list. And actually at the moment, it's it's changed quite a lot in the last couple of weeks.
23:34.18
Russell Gibson
So if you go to Cardletter, go to indexes on the left-hand side.
23:36.75
Adz
Yep.
23:39.86
Adz
ah Indexes, where am I? Left hand side, it's about halfway down the screen, indexes, yep.
23:45.08
Russell Gibson
Yep, scroll down to basketball, which is on the right-hand side.
23:49.57
Adz
Mm, fun basketball. Yep.
23:53.11
Russell Gibson
Then click on cards, so there's a little tab at the top.
23:55.72
Adz
Oh, stats in cards.
23:57.13
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
23:57.31
Adz
Yep. Okay.
23:58.42
Russell Gibson
Then when that comes up, you can then click on undervalued percentage, which is one of the drop downs on the right-hand side on the filter.
24:03.92
Adz
Undervalue. Oh, so score value. Yep.
24:08.98
Russell Gibson
Yep, right.
24:09.38
Adz
Yep. Undervalue percentage. There we go.
24:11.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah. So when you go to that, it'll bring up actually like quite a nice list. And some of the the data on this is a little bit flawed. So for example, the Steph Curry, is it saying it's 7,600% undervalued.
24:22.74
Adz
percent yep you mean all the yeah it LeBron LeBron Yannis okay ah okay
24:23.92
Russell Gibson
The reason for that is obviously that's excellent metrics by card letter, but it hasn't sold for a long time this card. So take that one aside, start to scroll down a little bit.
24:38.48
Russell Gibson
Yeah, but for me where it starts to get saucy is SGA and he's right up the top there. So on that. nice fast break bronze to 20 raw. I think the other thing about this too, because these statistics are so unbiased, it's all driven by data.
24:54.99
Russell Gibson
That's not a card that I would particularly, you know, think about, like particularly a fast break, but then not something that's, you know, overly chase. So I think that's really cool to see that up there really high. You've got more Lebronze, you've got some Jordan sprinkled in there, which I think is really good.
25:08.79
Russell Gibson
You've got some Cobies,
25:08.89
Adz
Couple of Iverson's yeah which yep yep
25:10.52
Russell Gibson
And now this is where we get to the really juicy stuff. We've got SGA, SGA, Kobi, Nicole, Yoko, and this is the card we've been talking about the last few weeks. And then SGA back in there again with these vertical NTRPA.
25:26.96
Russell Gibson
And then more Jordan, you know, all the way down through here. Actually really interesting. The showstoppers refractor is there too.
25:34.26
Adz
Yeah.
25:34.99
Russell Gibson
Interesting. That looks like a direct copy of a hoops card, doesn't it? Yeah, so look, I think this is another one of those tools that...
25:40.70
Adz
Mm.
25:43.42
Russell Gibson
you know, we we don't talk about, you know, we don't really look at too much. I think this is a really good guide to help you do it. You can, and there's all different types of, you know, ways you can look at different cards. There's values, there's last sold, there's populations, there's monthly growth.
25:55.78
Adz
Yeah.
25:57.39
Russell Gibson
You can look at all the, you know, the the monthly changes and stuff like that.
25:58.52
Adz
Yep.
26:00.46
Russell Gibson
So I just thought that was really interesting of, and maybe also too, it's a snapshot of how well SGA is playing this year and how much extra hobby attention, you know, he's getting. And I suppose it's also, in my mind, this is actually a way to measure the marketplace in terms of how hot SGA is and also potentially how undervalued he is.
26:18.88
Adz
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
26:21.90
Russell Gibson
Because realistically, like he's going to win MVP this year, isn't he?
26:22.38
Adz
Yep.
26:26.61
Adz
SGA, well, it's either him or Jokic, right? We're halfway through the season, there's still half a season to go.
26:32.92
Russell Gibson
I just think with the record of the thunder, it's going to be really tough to look past him.
26:35.26
Adz
Yeah, like look, their record, but if if something happens,
26:37.51
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
26:40.11
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
26:40.96
Adz
But you're you're right, the the name that stands out the most, like Jokic being on the undervalue doesn't surprise me. Shaq, Kobe. God, there's a pip in there as well. Do you know what I mean?
26:49.50
Russell Gibson
Yeah. And Pippin is underrated that and absolutely he does not get enough hobby love this guy.
26:52.54
Adz
Agreed, agreed. But there's a lot of SGA, which is actually quite shocking.
26:54.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
26:59.41
Adz
Like the Steph Curry's, the Kobe's, they're cards we know are getting.
27:00.02
Russell Gibson
Do you know the one I'm actually surprised is Jordan. There's a lot of Jordan there. Like how much love does Jordan get? And it still values it as unders.
27:10.31
Adz
Well, maybe it's just they're just like under undervalued, yeah, compared to other Jordans.
27:14.41
Russell Gibson
Other the Jordans. Yeah. Yeah.
27:17.99
Adz
Like what they what they appraise the the that card to be worth relative to other cards.
27:21.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah.
27:24.26
Adz
Maybe scrolling right down, apparently Damien Lillard's rookie is Prism Green is underrated.
27:31.48
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
27:32.09
Adz
But that's maybe because he's gone to Milwaukee now, so the people are chasing the green.
27:36.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah, not too sure. All right, let's, how about we pick one more card off this each and then we'll tie off today's show. That's pretty much we're done, mate.
27:43.36
Adz
Wow.
27:43.51
Russell Gibson
My last card to pick off is the 2015 Excalibur by Chris Paul. I think that's really cool. And I think again, that just sort of reemphasizes in my own head, just how important cabooms are.
27:51.62
Adz
Hmm.
27:54.72
Russell Gibson
And particularly guys like Chris Paul, who aren't overly represented in case hits.
27:58.34
Adz
Yep.
27:58.87
Russell Gibson
I think that's actually like a really clever, yep.
28:01.82
Adz
Well, that's, um, well, well, we're, we're on. Kabooms, why don't I just finish with another kaboom as well?
28:09.24
Russell Gibson
Of course.
28:09.43
Adz
Where's, which one shall I pick? There's a few kabooms here that are actually considered.
28:12.74
Russell Gibson
There's a Kobe. There's a LeBron.
28:16.57
Adz
There's one of the, one of the Lebron's caught my eye, the 2015 Excalibur Lebron Kaboom. Yeah, undervalued.
28:23.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
28:24.90
Adz
But it's saying it was a, oh, okay, BGS 10 black label. That's why it's undervalued.
28:29.16
Russell Gibson
Yeah, right. Yeah.
28:32.21
Adz
And that's, yeah, the Cleveland, um horizontal. So let's start the vertical. It's a bit of a weird, weird look.
28:41.32
Russell Gibson
Well, thank you, everyone, for listening to today's show. We really hope you've enjoyed it. Thanks, Adam.
28:45.59
Adz
That was good.
28:45.71
Russell Gibson
That was a wonderful show. It was good to catch up with you today.
28:48.48
Adz
And, um, and yeah, I'm looking forward to next time, uh, Chris Goolick arranges a time to chat. I'd like to be there.
28:56.93
Russell Gibson
Sounds good. Thanks, everyone.
28:58.99
Adz
Thanks everyone. See you next week.
29:00.64
Russell Gibson
Go Spurs, go.
29:04.12
Russell Gibson
Alrighty. So we just go straight into timeless moments.
29:06.66
Adz
Yep. I'll just, it I'll end the live and I'll start the time.
29:07.59
Russell Gibson
Great.
29:08.90
Adz
It was so easy to record it as a, as a separate thing for for YouTube and whack it up. That's what I did.
29:14.96
Russell Gibson
Okay.
29:15.49
Adz
Yeah. So I just do it as a video.
29:17.08
Russell Gibson
All right. So you're going to end that feed and start a new one, mate.
29:19.28
Adz
Yep.
29:20.18
Russell Gibson
Okay, cool.
29:20.37
Adz
Yeah.
29:20.46
Russell Gibson
Just let me know when you're good. Yep.
29:21.97
Adz
Yeah. And do we do it as an episode number?
29:27.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I think so. I think that's the easier way to track it.
29:30.26
Adz
Cool. Cool.
29:30.92
Russell Gibson
Yep.
29:31.66
Adz
All right.
29:31.88
Russell Gibson
So it'll be episode 189.
29:32.13
Adz
So this is but one 89.
29:34.40
Russell Gibson
Yep.
29:36.29
Adz
That's all right. I just, yeah, because 189, 187 was under 186, I saw 186 at the top of the thing.
29:43.56
Russell Gibson
It's okay.
29:43.77
Adz
That's why I read, yeah, yeah.
29:45.19
Russell Gibson
It's okay. Don't stress. It's, it's, it's all good.
29:46.25
Adz
So next week I'll just write 190 at the top or something. So I remember.
29:49.63
Russell Gibson
Yeah. I thought I wrote it in the sheet.
29:51.85
Adz
Now it's in the sheet.
29:52.11
Russell Gibson
It's okay. It's like, I should just communicate it better.
29:53.85
Adz
It's just because it goes 186 and then under it says 187.
29:54.03
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
29:57.83
Russell Gibson
yeah Yeah.
29:58.53
Adz
I didn't see 187. I just read from the top.
30:00.05
Russell Gibson
It's okay. It's my, I should have communicated better. Don't do stress, man.
30:03.59
Adz
I'll just,
30:04.33
Russell Gibson
I'd rather just like, um, stop and just like start again. Do you know what I mean? Like that's heaps easier to manage it.
30:08.26
Adz
Yeah. Yeah. Fuck yeah.
30:10.67
Russell Gibson
Yep.
30:11.97
Adz
All right. And we're not doing it with um audio this time though, are we? Or are we doing it with the audio?
30:18.44
Russell Gibson
What do you mean audio?
30:19.56
Adz
The intro.
30:21.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah, we can do intro.
30:21.85
Adz
Yeah, cool.
30:22.80
Russell Gibson
Well, actually, what would you like to do?
30:24.71
Adz
No, no, no.
30:24.95
Russell Gibson
I kind of like the idea of just like quick hitting, just getting straight into it.
30:25.26
Adz
Yeah.
30:27.95
Russell Gibson
But do you want to do the audio?
30:28.35
Adz
Yeah, sweet.
30:29.15
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:29.73
Adz
Yeah.
30:29.77
Russell Gibson
Is that you mean the intro music?
30:31.56
Adz
Yeah, exactly.
30:32.15
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:32.67
Adz
Yeah. We don't have to do the intro music.
30:32.84
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:33.91
Adz
No.
30:34.00
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:34.85
Adz
Cool. All right.
30:35.68
Russell Gibson
All right, cool.
30:36.95
Adz
Count me in. Ready?
30:44.40
Adz
Welcome everybody to episode 189 of the You Can't Comp this NBA trading card podcast. We're your host Adam Amien, Russell Gibson, here with another timeless moment segments.
30:57.39
Russell Gibson
Let's go. Let's go.
30:59.10
Adz
Let's do it.
30:59.87
Russell Gibson
Yep.
31:00.36
Adz
um What would you like to speak about this week, Russell?
31:03.57
Russell Gibson
I think it would be good if we spoke about what to do in your first 12 months as a collector. Where do you start?
31:09.16
Adz
way back when, I'll have to get in the time machine. it's ah it's ah It's been a while, but yeah, I think, yeah, when, hmm.
31:12.89
Russell Gibson
Yeah, because I think I get this question from time to time. And I also get this question from a different perspective. what How do you start as an adult? How do you start as a kid? You know, all that type of stuff.
31:22.54
Adz
Yeah, that's a good one.
31:23.12
Russell Gibson
So, yeah.
31:24.89
Adz
it's I think we lose focus of that as collectors sometimes, that when people are new to this, as say it's a very overwhelming, it can be overwhelming, and a lot of people don't know where to start.
31:29.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
31:33.01
Russell Gibson
Absolutely.
31:34.72
Adz
So yeah, very, very good topic.
31:35.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
31:36.58
Adz
and um Yeah, what what what was your what would your first bit of advice be if you're brand new into the hobby? and
31:43.71
Russell Gibson
So if I was starting again from scratch and planning everything out, because I would probably say that's the other thing too about when I first got back into the hobby, I didn't really have a plan.
31:46.13
Adz
no
31:52.50
Russell Gibson
I was just doing things and essentially experimenting. And so the first thing I'd actually do is, and I say this for a healthy approach to the hobby and also I think maybe not so much for mental health but just to clear your mind of maybe burdening yourself is just getting a budget right because I feel like that is what one of the major stresses that people can come into contact with is that they
32:11.42
Adz
Yeah.
32:16.84
Russell Gibson
don't particularly have a budget and then they can go in too deep so I think that's like the first thing just be realistic with it and stick to your budget because I i would also say too I feel like particularly at the start there's so many different things you can buy and spend your money on you can lose track particularly at the start of you just sort of just buying everything.
32:36.30
Russell Gibson
Because I think that's maybe one of the bigger things that I experienced, and I've seen other people experience, you just start buying everything that you see. So that will be like the the first and foremost thing.
32:46.34
Adz
Yeah, yeah, look, it's, it's the, you either get one or the other, right?
32:48.34
Russell Gibson
Yep.
32:52.02
Adz
You either get the paralysis of not knowing what to buy, or you just buy everything and then it's, it becomes not problematic, but it's just like, I feel like you're wasting, you you start wasting your money.
32:55.36
Russell Gibson
Yep.
33:05.22
Adz
fo for use of a term because it's not focused. It's not a, it's not a ah well thought out purchase.
33:07.40
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
33:09.86
Adz
It's not researched. It's impulsive. And yeah, sure, you might end up with a few extra trades ahead of that.
33:15.98
Russell Gibson
That's right.
33:16.15
Adz
and Because, but yeah.
33:16.76
Russell Gibson
I mean, it's not the end of the world. Like if you're buying singles, you can always resell them, you know, so that's, it's, it's definitely not, you know, you haven't sent yourself, you know, into a whole doing that, but at the same time, nice to have a plan.
33:21.53
Adz
Yeah.
33:28.90
Adz
But I think, yes, number one, have a plan, have a budget.
33:29.90
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
33:31.95
Adz
Know how much you want to invest slash spend on your hobby.
33:36.29
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah.
33:37.96
Adz
Because if you don't, you could get out of, it things can get out of hand very quickly.
33:42.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah, for my next bit, I would say I'm gonna have two A and two B and you can do these interchangeable, but I would actually say use a tool like CardLadder.
33:46.77
Adz
Yep.
33:51.18
Russell Gibson
There's lots and lots of different tools out there. So CardLadder is not the only one, but let's just use CardLadders as an example. look at the zoomed out data. So look at cards from an all-time perspective.
34:02.57
Russell Gibson
So what I'm saying by that is then you can actually look at the ups and the downs. And I feel like sometimes when you are buying cards at the start, you actually don't realize, are you buying a card that's decreasing in value or are you buying something that's going up in value?
34:17.44
Adz
Yeah.
34:17.51
Russell Gibson
And sort of getting your head around that, I think that's actually a really good idea because
34:20.84
Adz
Yeah, great.
34:22.48
Russell Gibson
is actually, you want this card, but actually, is this the right time to purchase that card? Should you be waiting three months, six months, a year even, to actually make that purchase because it's diving in the moment, you know, that's it's a bad buy.
34:32.36
Adz
yeah Yeah, I think...
34:36.84
Adz
but Well, timing's everything and learning that and not not sort of not falling into impulse, not falling falling into fear of missing out on a card.
34:38.73
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
34:46.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
34:46.35
Adz
Don't let that um that emotion cross over with the the reality and the facts. and
34:53.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah, sure.
34:54.33
Adz
by using those apps. And we can, you can use all of the the data tools. We go into a lot of them on the show. We go into Cardladders specifically, but then we we look even deeper into stuff like for pop reports with Gemrate.
35:03.56
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
35:08.35
Adz
Gemrate's got some amazing data. We use the 130 point app to obviously see what recent sales look like.
35:15.73
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
35:16.24
Adz
So just be be equipped. I think having having that ability to do that race extra research with the apps is very good for sure.
35:18.50
Russell Gibson
Hmm. I think there are more tools out there available for you too and I think it's just and also knowing like what tools you know a good for you to use I suppose that's also part of that teaching piece to us and it's like okay you know this is a tool that you know shows you so on the last episode we'll talk about Ben Simmons so that's a classic guy like you look at the him he has had
35:25.90
Adz
Yeah.
35:42.02
Adz
Yeah, we do.
35:42.38
Russell Gibson
five or six significant peaks and troughs, you know, are you buying this guy on the up or the down, you know, and cards can go very much up and down and also cards can go down.
35:47.13
Adz
Yeah.
35:50.61
Russell Gibson
I think that's the other thing to, you know, really express to people, not everything is going to keep going up.
35:54.27
Adz
Yeah.
35:56.63
Russell Gibson
And so yeah,
35:56.80
Adz
not Not every card you buy is going one way only. There are times where where a player tanks, where Ben Simmons is the example, you've got Zion, um you've got play, chat.
36:00.76
Russell Gibson
yeah. Yeah.
36:06.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Ja Morant was horribly down at times.
36:10.31
Adz
Yep.
36:10.44
Russell Gibson
So, you know, there's something else to talk about.
36:12.29
Adz
Yep.
36:12.81
Russell Gibson
So my 2B would be to say, look at product and look at cards. Find out actually what you're interested in. There's so many different sets for you to buy these days. What are the cards that you actually find aesthetically pleasing?
36:23.65
Russell Gibson
You know, what do you like?
36:23.93
Adz
Mm, yep.
36:25.42
Russell Gibson
Do you like Crown Royale? Do you like Prism? Do you like Hoops?
36:28.78
Adz
Yep.
36:30.32
Russell Gibson
is Don Russ, your favorite type of card. you know And so you can watch breaks.
36:33.02
Adz
The design. Yeah. Yep.
36:34.86
Russell Gibson
There's heaps of people making content on Instagram at the moment. That's the other thing too. Start to follow some people that make some good YouTube content, some good Instagram content, watch breakers online.
36:40.58
Adz
Yep.
36:45.61
Russell Gibson
I think for me, the one that I used to really enjoy watching was Latent. That was like my my reference point, I suppose, because I find them very accessible.
36:50.00
Adz
Yeah.
36:54.45
Russell Gibson
I found the way they spoke about cards and presented them, was you know it was clear, it wasn't sort of, um the backyard breaks type sort of pizzazz.
36:59.70
Adz
Yeah. The hype stuff, yeah, yeah.
37:02.04
Russell Gibson
And that was just probably, that was probably just my personality type. Yeah. um Did you want to add anything to that?
37:08.35
Adz
No, look, I think i think um knowing what you wanna do and knowing what you wanna collect, yeah.
37:09.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
37:14.32
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
37:15.21
Adz
Find out what cards you'd like and then figure out how that's going to, what that's gonna look like in line with your budget.
37:21.98
Russell Gibson
Yeah, then my third thing to say is what type of collector are you?
37:26.49
Adz
Ah.
37:26.54
Russell Gibson
So this is a little bit maybe controversial, but like bear with me here for a second while I play this out. Are you a flipper? Are you a set collector? Do you buy cards because you like them?
37:36.72
Russell Gibson
Do you buy cards because you want to buy them and put them away and hold them for long term?
37:41.43
Adz
Yep.
37:41.77
Russell Gibson
So I think you have to sort of work out who you are. Do you have to be only one of those things? Can you be all of those things? Absolutely. Yeah, you can.
37:48.85
Adz
And can it change over time?
37:49.29
Russell Gibson
um Yeah, and and it can change too.
37:49.97
Adz
Of course it can. Yeah.
37:51.82
Russell Gibson
But I also think too. um Buying cards to flip is very different to buying cards for your PC. So where I'm going with that is I really want to get a Darren Fox micro mosaic.
38:03.80
Russell Gibson
So let's use that as an example. If I was buying that card to flip, I think that would be a terrible purchase. And in fact, I would almost guarantee you and you know everyone that's listening, if I buy that card, I'm going to lose money on it.
38:10.05
Adz
yep
38:16.46
Russell Gibson
However, if I want that for my PC, You want it for your PC, you just want to get the best deal possible.
38:23.84
Adz
Yeah.
38:24.08
Russell Gibson
Maybe you'll be looking at it from the context of, is it in good condition?
38:27.03
Adz
Yep.
38:29.10
Russell Gibson
Am I going to send it to PSA or am I just going to put it straight into a one touch and then put it onto display?
38:33.21
Adz
100% yep.
38:33.57
Russell Gibson
You know, that's that, that will be the conversation piece. Yeah. um I really enjoy doing set collecting. Actually, that's probably the thing I enjoy the most because I enjoy the chase.
38:41.03
Adz
Mm hmm.
38:44.56
Russell Gibson
I enjoy buying cards of people that I don't really care about and then you then you start caring about. mark helpfulfuls You start caring about Ben Simmons, that particular card in a set.
38:55.61
Russell Gibson
So for me, that's something I really enjoy, but probably the thing that I would say that keeps me in the hobby and keeps me coming back is finding those cards that I want to keep in my collection long-term forever.
38:58.49
Adz
Yeah.
39:08.50
Russell Gibson
So for example, making a list of cards that you want to come into, and I think
39:08.54
Adz
ye
39:13.49
Russell Gibson
Uh, this is something that was from card school that they, they spoke about on an episode. And I remember hearing this vividly and it was almost like a ah light bulb moment for me. I was like, okay, great. This really helps me steer my collecting into the right direction because otherwise you can be a little bit with that.
39:29.67
Adz
I really like that. I like those. So in in essence, you not only are you can you be a so ah checklist collector, but design your own checklist.
39:37.03
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. actually I never thought of it like that, but absolutely.
39:40.70
Adz
Do you know what I mean?
39:41.16
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:41.42
Adz
it's like right don't Don't just go on what they manufacture for you.
39:41.72
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
39:45.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:45.54
Adz
create your Your PC can be a targeted list of cards that have a theme that is unique to you.
39:49.80
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:52.70
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:53.42
Adz
And there are no rules about that. It's however you wanna do it. So yeah, I really, I think that's very inspiring.
39:58.03
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I think it's just fun too, because then
40:00.06
Adz
I like that. I like that a lot.
40:05.15
Russell Gibson
I think also for me, part of collecting is the anticipation of it. So it's like, okay, I, I desire this car.
40:09.21
Adz
Yeah.
40:11.18
Russell Gibson
I want this card and I've spent this many months looking for it and trying to get the best deal and, you know, talking to people about it and stuff like that. So I think, you know, that's also, you know, part of the experience too. So maybe we could talk about now where else to, to buy cards from.
40:21.38
Adz
Mm-hmm.
40:26.09
Russell Gibson
So I,
40:26.91
Adz
Yeah, yeah, like um all the different waters you can wade into.
40:31.97
Russell Gibson
I think this is actually a bit of the problem with the hobby at the moment, to be, ah to be honest with you, there's so many different platforms. There's, you know, the golden auctions, which is yeah.
40:40.56
Adz
can i Can I just like go get very philosophical? Maybe we're spoiled for choice.
40:43.52
Russell Gibson
Sure. Oh, spoiled for choice in the sense that it's so competitive.
40:48.46
Adz
It causes paralysis, there's too much.
40:49.85
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
40:51.22
Adz
There's so many choices you you don't know if you're going in the right place or you you're in the wrong place at the right time and vice versa.
40:56.73
Russell Gibson
Totally.
40:56.98
Adz
Like, that's yeah, lunacy.
40:57.54
Russell Gibson
Yeah. So eBay is one of the biggest platforms for buying and selling cards.
41:03.16
Adz
eBay's easy.
41:03.76
Russell Gibson
Yeah, they've they've improved their customer service enormously.
41:03.98
Adz
Yep. You've got protections on eBay, which is great.
41:09.24
Russell Gibson
So I think that's something you should talk about.
41:09.54
Adz
Yep.
41:11.26
Russell Gibson
But I think, you know, Goldens auctions is something that they do quite well.
41:15.30
Adz
Yep.
41:16.04
Russell Gibson
The other one we have to mention, even though I've never used this is the new fanatics platform, because I kind of suspect moving into the future, that's going to be getting a lot of massive cards onto it. And looping this back to gold.
41:28.38
Russell Gibson
And so he was complaining online recently about how that that huge baseball redemption didn't get put to open market. It went from redemption straight onto the fanatics platform. And if I'm being not a conspiracy theorist, but if I'm trying to predict the future and get inside of fanatics heads, they're going to want to repeat that many, many, many different times when it comes to basketball redemptions.
41:49.96
Adz
Yeah, agreed.
41:50.87
Russell Gibson
And that's actually an excellent business model when you think about it.
41:53.57
Adz
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
41:55.53
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
41:56.62
Adz
um i Yeah, there's well, I suppose there's, all right, so so there I think there are two main streams and you're talking about digital platforms, so marketplaces.
41:57.54
Russell Gibson
So that platform, Facebook groups.
42:03.67
Russell Gibson
Sure. Yeah.
42:07.46
Adz
So we're talking about, yeah, so eBay is a marketplace, Golden's an auction house, online auction house.
42:07.95
Russell Gibson
Marketplaces. Yeah.
42:13.82
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
42:13.96
Adz
um Fanatics is a website, is another marketplace type environment well where products are available. Actually marketplace as in Facebook. Is is that what you were referring to next?
42:25.50
Russell Gibson
So I prefer not to go into Facebook marketplace. The reason I say that is because you don't particularly know them. And also there's no true oversight in terms of admin on those groups.
42:37.72
Russell Gibson
And there's, I also, my personal experience is there's a lot of scammers on there in terms of, um, PayPal scams and stuff like that.
42:37.80
Adz
Good point. Very good point.
42:44.73
Russell Gibson
So for me, yeah.
42:45.11
Adz
I will say on that, if you go to the general marketplace, not a admin controlled basketball card, like a card focused marketplace group where people ask for vouchers and things like that.
42:52.37
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
42:57.09
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
43:01.13
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
43:01.72
Adz
So if if if you someone's like, has anyone done a deal with Russell before?
43:05.20
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
43:05.33
Adz
Let me know. and And then everyone I'm like, yep, dealt with Russell hundreds of times. Guy's amazing. No problems whatsoever.
43:11.12
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
43:11.26
Adz
You've got a community that will back you.
43:13.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so an example of that type of Facebook group community is NBA Card Market Australia. Fifteen thousand members, very well established, you know, rules and regulations.
43:19.78
Adz
yeah Yep.
43:22.45
Russell Gibson
They've got admin on there that approve each post.
43:22.71
Adz
Yep. Mm hmm. Yep.
43:26.07
Russell Gibson
So that's the type of group that you're referring to there. The one that I probably enjoy the most.
43:28.45
Adz
Well, protection and protections on that. If you get scammed there, the admins will put you on a watch list.
43:37.92
Russell Gibson
Yeah, if you do the scamming, do you mean?
43:40.11
Adz
If you're a scammer, if you get identified as a scammer, you'll be put on a watch list.
43:42.87
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's correct.
43:43.74
Adz
So you won't be in the group.
43:44.30
Russell Gibson
yep Yeah.
43:44.66
Adz
So they protect the group to new people to the group from being exploited.
43:47.22
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
43:49.79
Russell Gibson
yeah The one that I enjoy the most at the moment though is NBA Card, 99 Cent Auctions Australia, 3,300 members. Again, very active admin group there. they They do a lot of really good things for the community. You know, I think that's a good place to find cheap cards and and I'm using the the term have some fun here.
44:11.80
Russell Gibson
I really enjoy this in terms of you know building up my collection and and getting cards to either put it to sets or to flip in the future, all that type of stuff.
44:15.44
Adz
ye yeah
44:19.63
Russell Gibson
It's just it's a part of card collecting that I that i really enjoy that page. so yeah um I think that's the probably the end for me.
44:24.49
Adz
no fish
44:27.84
Russell Gibson
What else would you like to add for so new collectors coming in?
44:31.24
Adz
One of the things, and this is when I got, when I was in the hobby to begin with, this is something I really craved when I got back into the hobby, which is what led me to find cherry collectibles when I was in the city.
44:40.69
Russell Gibson
Yep.
44:46.54
Adz
Also led me to find places like Fastbreak and other, do you know what I mean, shops that we know locally? Find a local card shop. Someone that's got some dollar boxes, some $10 boxes,
45:00.93
Adz
Find your local card store.
45:02.67
Russell Gibson
Perfect time to segue into our sponsors fast break trading cards.
45:02.90
Adz
um Yep.
45:07.22
Russell Gibson
Fantastic customer service. They've got heaps of boxes for you to so sit through and and sift through.
45:10.86
Adz
Perfect.
45:11.74
Russell Gibson
Yep.
45:12.33
Adz
Yep. Like turning up to a physical card store, nothing beats it.
45:13.58
Russell Gibson
Yep.
45:16.90
Russell Gibson
yeah
45:17.89
Adz
Flicking through cards, making those decisions. I know there are people that will sit there and flick through card boxes for hours. They've got their budget of $100 for the day.
45:28.50
Adz
What are they gonna do?
45:28.58
Russell Gibson
Exactly.
45:29.55
Adz
Flick through boxes, spend three hours, spend their $100, meet collectors, talk to the guys in the store.
45:30.05
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
45:37.52
Adz
It's perfect. It's it's the best way to embrace really immerse yourself in the community. And then the other thing that I would obviously say is maybe check out a card show.
45:41.65
Russell Gibson
Definitely.
45:47.23
Adz
Check it out, go go along, see what it's all about.
45:50.68
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
45:51.37
Adz
Set yourself a budget, because you will be overwhelmed.
45:53.12
Russell Gibson
Yeah, actually that's, yeah, I totally missed that. You're right. Yeah. That's a great way to network, meet people, see a huge volume of cards in two hours.
45:58.00
Adz
And it's the the people, yeah. Meet people, meet people
46:03.70
Russell Gibson
You can see 5,000 cards.
46:04.01
Adz
you stores, yep, yep.
46:05.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
46:06.42
Adz
It's seeing, it's it's meeting all the different shop owners.
46:08.98
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
46:09.30
Adz
You might meet people that operate stores interstate, but you you get a a feel for what the community are like. And I think they're very welcoming to, I've always found that the stalls at places like that, people, there are trade zones,
46:26.82
Adz
If you're new to the hobby, it's a really immersive experience and a really positive, immersive experience from from my experience.
46:32.86
Russell Gibson
ye
46:34.38
Adz
Yeah.
46:35.11
Russell Gibson
Thank you everyone for listening to this Timeless Moments episode. We really hope that you've enjoyed it. Thank you so much, Adam. That was fantastic.
46:41.71
Adz
so This is a pleasure. I love going down memory lane and reflecting back to early days in the hobby.
46:47.80
Russell Gibson
Yeah, great.
46:48.02
Adz
So, awesome. Thanks everybody. We'll see you in the next one.
46:50.28
Russell Gibson
Go Spurs, go.
00:00.36
Chris Gawlik
So you drink coffee now to wake up or do you like just drink water and go back to sleep like what's the plan?
00:03.78
Russell Gibson
No, I'm just going to go water and then just go back to sleep.
00:06.63
Chris Gawlik
Fair enough, okay why what my wife There you go
00:06.50
Russell Gibson
So my, um, I got two kids. My daughter's got choir in the morning. My wife will take her to that. And then my son, look, he's ah got a lot of energy, but at the same time he's pretty chill.
00:18.71
Russell Gibson
Um, so I'll just hang around with him tomorrow morning. And then I'll just like, I'll just put the TV on and like let him watch TV and I'll sleep in for a little bit. So that's, that's my game plan. Yeah.
00:29.32
Russell Gibson
It's a Valentine's here yesterday.
00:29.91
Chris Gawlik
help
00:30.80
Russell Gibson
Is it Valentine's for you guys?
00:32.85
Chris Gawlik
yeah This morning. Yes today. We don't do much for it.
00:34.68
Russell Gibson
Oh yeah, right. Okay.
00:35.69
Chris Gawlik
But yeah Cool
00:35.57
Russell Gibson
Good. Yeah. All righty, man.
00:44.87
Russell Gibson
Welcome back everybody.
00:45.22
Chris Gawlik
Welcome back everybody and if you're paying attention
00:45.95
Russell Gibson
And if you are paying attention, we are not with Adam at the moment. We are with Chris Golic from Silver State Cards and Sports, who is the president.
00:57.76
Russell Gibson
He is the lead breaker.
00:58.80
Chris Gawlik
lead and thank you so much for joining us
00:59.20
Russell Gibson
He does hockey cards. He's also a podcaster himself too, locked on Vegas nights. And finally, he's the collectible site editor for Hockey News.
01:10.74
Russell Gibson
So Chris, Thank you so much for joining us. We're very happy that you're here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
01:16.67
Chris Gawlik
Good early morning. I can see you getting that morning stretch going right there.
01:19.12
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
01:19.39
Chris Gawlik
um Yeah, no, I mean, I'm a, I guess I'm umm a hockey guy that kind of jumped into the the sports card collectibles world. I created my business, Silver State Cards and Sports. and rip hockey cards five, six days a week on whatnot.
01:35.24
Chris Gawlik
I got a podcast locked on Vegas Golden Knights.
01:35.43
Russell Gibson
Whatnot, of course.
01:37.68
Chris Gawlik
Anyone's curious about what's happening with the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL. And then on the collectibles site editor, like you said, for the hockey news.
01:41.17
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
01:44.41
Chris Gawlik
So that's ah that's what we got going. Hockey coach, hockey referee, a lot of hockey, a lot of hockey.
01:46.51
Russell Gibson
Sounds like just eat, breathe and dream about hockey by the sounds of it, man.
01:54.41
Chris Gawlik
I don't know if it's dreams all the time, but it's definitely, hockey's in my sleep too, yes. i I actually did dream about hockey last night. It's funny you said that. I dreamed we were we had a hockey game inside of a casino, like in like a ballroom, and it was just really weird.
02:06.53
Chris Gawlik
It was actually kind of cool though at the same time.
02:10.10
Russell Gibson
So my stock standard question for everyone that comes on as a guest is what's your original or your first hockey memory?
02:10.56
Chris Gawlik
So
02:16.93
Russell Gibson
Well, actually, I say I say collectibles memory. Do you remember walking around the school ground with cards in your pockets like what's your.
02:23.10
Chris Gawlik
I can give you my first collectibles memory. um I was probably, I mean, I'm 44 years old, so born in 81, it was probably 1986, 1987 maybe, maybe 88, somewhere in there around that ballpark.
02:25.03
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah.
02:35.80
Chris Gawlik
ah Little hot dog joint in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
02:36.14
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
02:39.42
Chris Gawlik
I grew up in the town next door of Glendale Heights and it was called Sporty's Hot Dogs. They had a pack they had like little cello packs down there for like a buck or 50 cents. and Look at my daddy, buy me a pack of cards. Bought it and that's my first pack of cards.
02:51.84
Chris Gawlik
um
02:52.17
Russell Gibson
yeah
02:52.97
Chris Gawlik
first hockey memory I think I'll probably go back to my first and NHL game I went to was probably in 89 or 90 it was a playoff game with the Chicago Blackhawks and the St.
02:59.93
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
03:02.89
Chris Gawlik
Louis Blues and Brian Newton got a hat trick I think it was a losing game but Brian Newton had a hat trick so I can't see a hat trick in the Chicago Stadium in my ah first ever NHL game way way way back.
03:13.53
Russell Gibson
It's just like the details you got of those memories is crazies in it. Do you remember what cards they were selling in that little shop?
03:18.12
Chris Gawlik
remember
03:21.85
Chris Gawlik
They were, it was top space ball, it was like a cello pack, and I remember my dad actually quizzing me about what cards I pulled afterwards, I remembered most of them.
03:32.23
Russell Gibson
All righty, so how I found you actually was on Twitter and the article you wrote is, is it is regulation needed in sports cards?
03:32.57
Chris Gawlik
All right, so how I found you actually was on the screen, and the article you wrote is,
03:40.63
Russell Gibson
And um Adam, who's the guy that I do the podcast with, he's literally got a t-shirt that says regulate the hobby. So I think when I was reading this, I...
03:52.07
Chris Gawlik
I want that shirt, he sent it to me. I'll pay the shipping. I'll send it, I'll pay for shipping. I know it's expensive coming from there, but I'm in.
03:58.53
Russell Gibson
Um, I think we can see what we can do.
04:00.41
Chris Gawlik
I'm in, I am in.
04:00.49
Russell Gibson
That's, that's easy. i' I'll chat with you afterwards, man.
04:02.77
Chris Gawlik
All right, okay.
04:02.69
Russell Gibson
Like I'll see what we've got on hand anyway.
04:04.99
Chris Gawlik
Looking for the shirt.
04:06.66
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Um, so when I read this, I was like a hundred percent, we need to reach out to you.
04:09.09
Chris Gawlik
So when I read this, I was like 100%, we need to reach out to you.
04:12.41
Russell Gibson
We got to like, get you to come on the show and have a chat about this. So what preempted you to write that article?
04:15.85
Chris Gawlik
What preempt did you use to write that article?
04:18.81
Russell Gibson
I think that's where I wanted to start with this and then let's sort of, you know, go from there.
04:19.41
Chris Gawlik
I think that's where I wanted to start with this.
04:23.49
Chris Gawlik
Number one, I'm in Las Vegas. um I have a background of managing poker rooms. I manage two poker rooms on the Las Vegas Strip for about 12 years.
04:31.57
Russell Gibson
Right.
04:31.88
Chris Gawlik
um
04:31.89
Russell Gibson
And that makes sense because at the start of the article, that was the first reference you made was a comparison of gambling and regulation.
04:37.48
Chris Gawlik
i think i used ah I don't know if the Buffalo slot machines are a thing out where you are or not, but it's a very popular slot machine here in the United States. and i think i
04:45.55
Russell Gibson
We have pokies. I'm assuming it's the same, same type of thing.
04:48.85
Chris Gawlik
Yeah. um And I think I just kind of started joking about, Hey, you're, you're in the, you're in Harry Reid airport, former McCarran airport.
04:49.47
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
04:57.31
Chris Gawlik
um We have, we have gambling in the airport. If you haven't been through Vegas recently, it's pretty crazy. And the gas stations and ah um grocery stores, by the way, you can gamble on it if you knew that Vegas is crazy.
05:08.33
Chris Gawlik
um But point being is I joked,
05:09.44
Russell Gibson
I did know at grocery shops. That is crazy.
05:13.97
Chris Gawlik
Oh yeah. um The point being, as I was joking about it, I said, hey, what if ah you know you hit a jackpot on a slot machine and all of a sudden the machine turns off? What do you do? How do you how do you get your jackpot validated, especially if the machine says you didn't really win a jackpot?
05:28.64
Chris Gawlik
Well, the answer is you call gaming and you get this worked out and they'll come and review the the video, they'll review the slot machine, the data, and ultimately they'll do their best to validate your your jackpot.
05:28.95
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
05:39.56
Chris Gawlik
and It got me thinking like, okay, well, what about sports cards? And I think I'll start by putting this out there right now. Dave Adams, Dave Adams, very big ah in the hobby. They put out a $1 million bounty on a Connor Bedard Young Guns Gold Outburst 101.
05:52.75
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
05:58.53
Chris Gawlik
Million dollars if you pull this card, $1 million, life-changing money. The boxes, they retail the for close to 400 USD.
06:06.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
06:06.31
Chris Gawlik
when they came out and they dropped a little bit as time went on, but people still were chasing this million dollar card.
06:12.12
Russell Gibson
yeah
06:12.45
Chris Gawlik
And then lo and behold on one random, I want to say it was a Friday morning, little fine print, three dots, dot, dot, dot, or three little stars updates, December 9th, 2024, the product released and in early March, by the way, this is no longer an active bounty.
06:31.21
Chris Gawlik
It has expired. No warning, no lead way, no nothing. So people had spent you know six months chasing this bard. I had opened tons of this for my customers and everything.
06:39.79
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
06:43.17
Chris Gawlik
So this gets you thinking, ethic, morals, is this legal what happened? And it kind of then brought everything together.
06:53.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yes, I suppose just to try and maybe fill in some gaps on that. So David Adams is a massive
06:58.25
Chris Gawlik
That was a lot there.
07:01.07
Russell Gibson
um They're a reseller but they also do wholesale allocation out to their customers.
07:02.23
Chris Gawlik
a resell of
07:07.94
Russell Gibson
They will buy sealed product off customers too and then sell it back into the market so they're absolutely huge in terms of
07:11.25
Chris Gawlik
so
07:15.41
Russell Gibson
where they are in the hobby. Probably the thing I would add to David Adams is I feel like they're not as big as what they were maybe five years ago. Other companies have sort of come up and taken some of them.
07:24.69
Chris Gawlik
Sure, you got Steel City and Blowout doing a lot of business and breaking breakers now, too, yeah?
07:26.77
Russell Gibson
Yeah, taken some of their market share. Yeah, and breakers and then also do they they break cards now too. So that's probably where they're sitting at the moment. And that's not the first time they've actually offered a bounty on on a card is that they've done other things similar to that too.
07:41.33
Russell Gibson
I think to get interest and get people buying product, I think it's a market strategy. They've definitely implemented. Yeah.
07:47.75
Chris Gawlik
great strategy.
07:48.87
Russell Gibson
Yeah, for sure.
07:49.20
Chris Gawlik
Yeah, for sure.
07:49.43
Russell Gibson
So I suppose the next part of that for me is, okay, they've done this thing.
07:50.22
Chris Gawlik
So I suppose the next part of that for me is, okay, they've done this thing, you're questioning the ethics of it, you know, how do you unpack that next?
07:56.08
Russell Gibson
You're questioning the ethics of it. You know, how do you unpack that next? Like, what do you think that the hobby should do after this?
08:00.41
Chris Gawlik
like
08:03.81
Chris Gawlik
ah That's a fair question. So I guess starting with the concern about this, why this hit me pretty hard. um This product was selling for, like I said, it was close to 400 bucks when it released, dropped around.
08:17.74
Chris Gawlik
And again unit USD, however that converts, I don't know. But um it dropped around the...
08:20.93
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it's about 600 for us, basically.
08:23.67
Chris Gawlik
Okay, it's a lot of money, right? That that that seemed like a chunk of change.
08:24.81
Russell Gibson
Exchange is not fantastic. year Yeah.
08:27.48
Chris Gawlik
So the product dropped a little bit as time went through.
08:28.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
08:32.04
Chris Gawlik
And maybe right before the bounty, you could probably get boxes for upper 200s, maybe a lower 300, maybe about 260 or so.
08:41.48
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
08:41.69
Chris Gawlik
Still a lot of money. The concern that I have as a consumer, because I play in the hobby as well, and as someone on the industry side of it, if you will, is this company has now made
08:50.97
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
08:55.35
Chris Gawlik
how much money selling on this product? I mean, how much more money are people really paying? So here's the comparison. You can buy the same product 2023, 24 upper deck series too. You can buy this product now after the bounty has been expired, air quotes.
09:11.45
Chris Gawlik
for less than $200 a box right now. That's how much it dropped. So the first question that we're going to ask ourselves is how much money did Dave Adams make off of this? Because it was inflated. I feel pretty confidently, although I don't have their financials in front of me, I feel pretty confident they've more than profited a million dollars for the extra chase, if you will, the thrill of the chase people have spent because you look at what the boxes cost now. So now the continuation to where this ties into regulation.
09:39.66
Chris Gawlik
I'm going to make sure I choose my words carefully here. Number one, I'm not accusing Dave Adams or Panini or Topson Finax of any level of improprieties.
09:41.74
Russell Gibson
Yeah. yeah
09:47.79
Chris Gawlik
I'm not saying they're juicing boxes to people. I'm not saying, um'm I'm not going to say that. but
09:52.33
Russell Gibson
This is just a purely conversational piece.
09:52.74
Chris Gawlik
what
09:54.17
Russell Gibson
Absolutely.
09:54.48
Chris Gawlik
no No, no, no, I understand, but ah it's going to be out there.
09:54.73
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
09:56.92
Chris Gawlik
We'll make sure people understand my perspective on this. Um, but in the same breath, what I want to know is what is my protection as someone who has bought from Dave Adams, who buys from places locally and places around the country.
10:11.11
Chris Gawlik
How do I know where, how do I know this Connor Bedard gold outburst is not just sitting in the farthest bottom pallets. of a shelf somewhere, whether it's at Dave Adams, whether it's at Steel City, whether it's at Blowout or wherever it may be.
10:26.38
Chris Gawlik
How do I know they didn't just tuck it all the way in the back to make sure the hobby, you know just just to make sure that a lot of... Because let's just say that that card got pulled on day one on release day.
10:37.98
Chris Gawlik
right The product would have tanked.
10:38.37
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
10:39.60
Chris Gawlik
That does nothing for the hobby shops. That does nothing for all these big giant retailers. so That's where the regulation comes in. I wanna know how it's determined where these boxes are given out. When you run a casino, when you run a poker room, you have a bunch of rules and regulations you write for the poker room. Those are the things you hold yourself accountable for. You present those to gaming. In the event of an impropriety, someone says in poker in the poker room, hey, I won this hand, but it got it went to this patron, why did this happen? Well, we're gonna look at our rules, and then the patron's gonna say, no, I disagree.
11:14.77
Chris Gawlik
And now we're going to bring in an independent party, which is Nevada Gaming, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and they're going to review our rules. They're going to review a statement from me. They're going to review a statement from the customer. They're going to watch surveillance and they're going to say, you know what? Here's what happened. We agree.
11:30.35
Chris Gawlik
the casino made the right decision, or no, you you patron XYZ, you should have got that $400 pot, the casino owes you $400.
11:38.71
Russell Gibson
yeah
11:39.03
Chris Gawlik
Gaming protects both sides, and I think that's needed to protect both sides of the hobby. Businesses and consumers both need that protection.
11:48.13
Russell Gibson
yeah So just to unpack that a little bit further, I think that's a really fun part to speculate on. so What was the timing of the release of the bounty? Had they stockpiled a heap of stock at say, they bought it at $100 a box and they can then resell it for $300 a box after they've announced the bounty. That's like, that's definitely fun to speculate on. I think, and the next part for me to add to that is,
12:11.91
Russell Gibson
So I'm reflecting on NBA into this conversation now for the higher end products, they are hand packed for the lower end products.
12:15.92
Chris Gawlik
now for the higher end products, they are hand-packed. ye
12:20.74
Russell Gibson
So just say we're talking about Don Racello's or Prism, that's all machine packed.
12:24.36
Chris Gawlik
yep
12:25.57
Russell Gibson
So I think in the event that it's machine packed, it's less likely that a human knows where that one-on-one card is, although I'm sure they'd be able to trace it and logistically work it out, you know, where it was shipped out to it and at least you know identify into a stream where it was.
12:31.53
Chris Gawlik
that one-on-one card is although I'm sure they'd be able to trace it as
12:40.81
Russell Gibson
so If we're being um controversial here, you could say, well, we could send this particular palette, as you were saying before, to a bigger breaker. Or if you wanted to to go to David Adams, you could do it that way. Like, definitely, I sort of see your point on that. But look, I'm probably not in that conspiracy theory of they know where cards are, because even though, you know, you sort of hear stories about backyard breaks getting all of the good cards and they get the one of ones and all that type of stuff, I'm probably more of the opinion that
13:12.30
Russell Gibson
they get a lot of one-on-ones more to the volume of cards that they actually rip on their page, as opposed to the there's a deep-seated conspiracy that, you know, Pinniny is feeding them all the hits.
13:18.27
Chris Gawlik
Bingo! Bingo! ...to speak with all the kids, and so, you know,
13:23.46
Russell Gibson
And so, you know, look, maybe I'm being naive with that.
13:28.05
Chris Gawlik
Look, maybe I'm being naive with How do they trace them back?
13:29.74
Russell Gibson
Maybe we should be a bit more skeptical and, you know, be discussing how are the cards packed? How do they trace them back? How do they serial number them?
13:37.31
Chris Gawlik
How do they Weighing them like to the Graham you mean?
13:38.33
Russell Gibson
and you know, put them through all the crates because there was that instance where people were mapping out the Crown Royale boxes so that they could get the kaboom out of the single box. Do you remember hearing about that story?
13:54.87
Russell Gibson
So
13:57.52
Russell Gibson
How did they work it out?
13:58.96
Chris Gawlik
I know people were, there were stories like on Reddit and other places.
13:58.84
Russell Gibson
Either there's, there's a printed bar, no, there was a bar, it wasn't about the weight. It was about either a printed barcode on it, or there was a serial number on the box.
14:04.29
Chris Gawlik
Okay.
14:08.32
Russell Gibson
So people actually like going onto live feeds, asking the breaker to, you know, zoom in, rotate the box around, look at the number, cause they'd worked it out like actually where it was sequenced.
14:08.81
Chris Gawlik
people actually like going
14:17.25
Chris Gawlik
It's crazy.
14:17.92
Russell Gibson
So when someone did it on a live feed, that was sort of it.
14:19.01
Chris Gawlik
when someone did
14:21.41
Russell Gibson
Like the story became quite public. This must've, this must've just been a basketball isolated incident.
14:26.66
Chris Gawlik
I know someone, ah a friend of mine gave me a similar conspiracy theory with, once he was the Zion Williamson National Treasures collegiate product a while back.
14:36.99
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, cool.
14:37.41
Chris Gawlik
um And he, again, this is no more than just me and a friend talking, but pretty convincing. And he was buying boxes and he was showing me his hits and reselling them.
14:43.71
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
14:46.45
Chris Gawlik
And he was becoming profitable at it in a very difficult ah It's very difficult to open a box of cards and make and turn it into profit. and He found a way to do that in the short run with National national Treasures of Collegiate, whether that was simply making money off of the Zion hype at the time, which overinflated every rookie from that product or if he really knew something.
15:05.58
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
15:07.15
Chris Gawlik
but yeah there's and and that's Those are the questions that we should be asking and those are the questions that should have answers. um I guess ultimately what I would like to know is when I select if I'm going to buy a case from any giant online retailer or if I'm buying factory direct.
15:28.18
Chris Gawlik
I want to know why they're giving me this case. I want to know why they selected this case and not that case over there. I want to know why they took a case from the top shelf and not a case from the bottom shelf.
15:36.24
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
15:40.23
Chris Gawlik
And again I'm not saying there's anything happening out there. and There probably are things happening. I don't know if it's happening that high, but like you said, it would be naive just to assume everything is is going the way it should be because it's that's this is why we have checks and balances, whether it's in sports cards or politics, I mean, not a subject for another time, of course, or casinos.
15:54.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
16:06.45
Chris Gawlik
lotteries, all these local things that people are gambling on. And this is another conversation, is sports cards gambling? I mean, to ah to an extent, I think it is because there's a lot of elements of chance every time you open one of these packs.
16:17.29
Chris Gawlik
So what we need as consumers, as sellers, as business owners, as kids in the hobby going to Target or local retailers and buying you know stuff off the shelves, we just need to know that
16:17.70
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
16:30.58
Chris Gawlik
everything is happening, everything is on the up and up and I should be able to reference some type of procedures that show why things are happening the way that they are. And when you do see a retailer going back to the Dave Adams situation, when you do see a giant retailer just pulling the rug out from the entire hobby that quickly,
16:55.97
Chris Gawlik
You know, those are the types of things that someone should be able to look at because people have spent so, they're so heavily vested and now if they pull, what's that card worth if you pull it now? It's not a million dollars, it still hasn't surfaced yet by the way.
17:07.73
Chris Gawlik
It still hasn't surfaced yet.
17:07.62
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
17:09.18
Chris Gawlik
It's not worth a million dollars now and you know, that's that's ah that's a kick in the you know what for a lot of people even when that happens.
17:16.25
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Especially if you bought heavily at the $300 mark and then it's now worth $200. Yeah. I mean, the other way I'd probably look.
17:23.57
Chris Gawlik
How about the hobby shops that are buying from distribution? I mean, they didn't know this was coming. Think about that. Sorry to cut you off there, but if if a hobby shop, if a hobby shop did a huge order on let's call it December the first from anyone, not David, it could be from anyone.
17:30.53
Russell Gibson
No, no, it's, I think we're talking about the same thing. Yeah. Yeah.
17:37.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
17:40.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
17:40.66
Chris Gawlik
They're paying based off this million dollars. Those cards tanked on December the 10th when this news got out about this. They tanked.
17:46.78
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
17:48.02
Chris Gawlik
People lost millions.
17:48.06
Russell Gibson
It definitely affects people.
17:48.86
Chris Gawlik
People lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
17:49.71
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. Now I think that's a real thing. So let's again, you've touched on a few different things.
17:55.24
Chris Gawlik
ah gen
17:57.29
Russell Gibson
i'll I'll just try and unpack this one at a time.
17:59.38
Chris Gawlik
ah keep going all over i'm sorry
18:00.68
Russell Gibson
No, no, you're totally fine. So the first thing I remembered was the number of the boxes was actually on a pinini hologram.
18:02.61
Chris Gawlik
sorry
18:07.18
Russell Gibson
So each box had its own separater separate hologram number.
18:08.86
Chris Gawlik
yep i know yeahp
18:10.01
Russell Gibson
Yeah. um The next thing you were talking about was the tracking the cards and how it comes out. And I think that conversation actually is more relevant than what you would probably imagine. And the reason I say that is because the the CT scanning conversation that now people are having.
18:24.90
Russell Gibson
And it's like, So who's owned this box before I got my hands on it? Has it been through three different people already? And one of those three different people have actually put it through a CT scanner.
18:36.13
Russell Gibson
And so I think what you're talking about there, initially when I was listening to you saying it, I'm like, well,
18:36.54
Chris Gawlik
So, so,
18:42.29
Russell Gibson
I'm not too sure how A, you can implement that, but also B, actually is anyone going to care enough about this to you know to make that happen? But I actually think at some point people are going to care about this because if you're purchasing product that is known to have gone through a CT scanner and you know that it's got nothing in it, I think actually people will care about that and you know how that's going to play out through the hobby.
19:01.31
Chris Gawlik
I think actually people will care about that
19:06.63
Russell Gibson
That's for me is very much like a wait and see thing. And I actually think that fanatics are going to do something about this. Either they're going to put a device into a product that says almost like a sensor.
19:19.46
Russell Gibson
If it goes through a CT scanner, the color of the sticker will change and then you'll know it's been through a CT scanner or not.
19:27.41
Chris Gawlik
It's like the dye pack at a shopping, at ah at a store or something. If you take the the shirt out without paying for it and the dye pack explodes, there you go.
19:36.40
Russell Gibson
Yeah, and I think also too, I really need to ah think about my time in like in my old science classes, does CT scanners have radiation?
19:50.01
Chris Gawlik
You're asking me? I have no idea. I have no idea.
19:53.45
Russell Gibson
um
19:54.06
Chris Gawlik
I have no idea.
19:54.58
Russell Gibson
While I'm asking, you I'm actually just Googling.
19:54.98
Chris Gawlik
um Oh, fair enough. While you do that, I mean, ah good i know how that's interesting.
19:58.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so it it does. It has ionizing radiation. So, look, I don't know how much of an easy fix you know this would be, but also, I suppose, too, we're talking about something on a huge scale, aren't we? Could fanatics put a ah sticker on it that does change with radiation that comes out from a CT scanner?
20:16.82
Chris Gawlik
That's very interesting.
20:16.89
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
20:17.74
Chris Gawlik
This hobby has got more dangerous all of a sudden radiation and stuff. No, um, So you mentioned the the CT scanning, which oh my God, that is just just crazy to even think about that happening right now.
20:27.66
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it's so bad, isn't it?
20:27.89
Chris Gawlik
But something else that maybe you mentioned, and this is where I'm going to give props to Dave Adams.
20:29.12
Russell Gibson
It really changes the way we perceive it.
20:33.21
Chris Gawlik
This is the first time I actually am going to offer props for this particular business of what Dave Adams does. So you can pay
20:41.71
Russell Gibson
Do you have a love-hate relationship with David Adams?
20:44.17
Chris Gawlik
No, not at all.
20:44.45
Russell Gibson
Sorry to interrupt you.
20:45.01
Chris Gawlik
Not at all.
20:45.32
Russell Gibson
ah yeah
20:45.49
Chris Gawlik
Not at all. I'm actually, I'm mad about the bounty, but um I've been very down on, they offer um something where they say it's fact like factory direct boxes or factory direct cases.
20:56.56
Chris Gawlik
And they actually like to put a video out of them wrapping and and whatever it is.
20:57.19
Russell Gibson
yeah
21:00.46
Chris Gawlik
So you have the nature of this.
21:02.43
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
21:03.11
Chris Gawlik
Actually this boasts the value because of the CT scanning and all that Dave Adams is offering you this guarantee. Hey, this came right from the factory directs.
21:11.49
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
21:11.94
Chris Gawlik
It hasn't been through all these different, you know, ah spur tracks, if you will, of a railroad. This is right from upper deck. This is right from Panini. This is right from Topson Fanatics. And we're offering you proof.
21:22.98
Chris Gawlik
This is actually good for them. This is actually, I've never liked that since day one because you're paying like 30, 40, 50% more for the box or the case, as far as what they're traditionally selling for.
21:33.79
Chris Gawlik
This actually validates that arm of their business. So I give props to Dave Adams for that now.
21:37.82
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
21:38.49
Chris Gawlik
um Back to the scanning, back to where these boxes are coming from and stuff. So you mentioned, can we track a case and all that? And that would be really interesting if you could, because let's just pretend for a second that all these cases are going through, I'm in Vegas, 89002, there you go, everyone come find me in Henderson, I'm in 89002, it's easy to find me. What if all of these cases went through the 89002 area code, and then they went to 47360, whatever.
22:11.37
Chris Gawlik
and it happens to be this big breaking company who's pulling these massive 101s and shields and um ah logo patches for logomans out of NT and Flawless or the Diamonds and all that.
22:11.31
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
22:24.31
Chris Gawlik
you know They all came from 89002 and they all went to 47430 or whatever throwing a random number out there. That'll be interesting to see because then you might be able to track along the way who owned this box.
22:37.09
Chris Gawlik
And who is doing putting these cards through scanners or weighing them consistently and all that and trying to find crack codes and everything.
22:42.42
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
22:44.53
Chris Gawlik
So that would be really interesting. And again, this ties back to the regulation and the protection for, and it's not just to protect the consumers. Like, let me be clear about this. Regulation protects consumers and the business owners.
22:57.48
Chris Gawlik
It protects both sides.
23:01.00
Russell Gibson
So what's a practical way of implementing regulation into the hobby? Because this is something Adam and I have spoken about. It's like, what actually can you do? Because, you know, we talk about regulation, but from cost is definitely something you'd have to factor in. And then also,
23:16.71
Russell Gibson
the way my brain sort of processes is how would you also police it? Once you've made a rule, how do you make sure that every person out there is complying with the regulation that you implement? So if you were in charge of fanatics for the day, what would you do?
23:32.26
Chris Gawlik
So number one, just to answer that first of all, it's very difficult for this to get going because Nevada gaming is much different than how Missouri gaming operates.
23:43.06
Chris Gawlik
That's much different how New Jersey gaming operates.
23:43.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
23:45.66
Chris Gawlik
They're all independent of each other and there's not a lot of casinos.
23:47.02
Russell Gibson
Yeah, you you quoted $10 billion. dollars What's the the comparison of price between sports card and and gambling?
23:49.78
Chris Gawlik
What the scope is?
23:53.74
Russell Gibson
Like what's the the pot difference?
23:56.86
Chris Gawlik
I mean, I'm sure casinos are probably or sorry so um hockey hockey car Sports cards are probably a what a billion-dollar industry where? gambling is probably a 10 100 billion dollar I have no idea what the scope is, but I'm sure much more Let me I can go back and read that there there is an arc.
24:11.57
Russell Gibson
I thought you said $10 billion dollars of cards was spent in your article, unless I understood that wrong.
24:22.27
Chris Gawlik
Let's see here. Let's go back to my regulation and I do remember that and a billion spent on every year. up So I found an article on SkyQuest and I linked it on the article.
24:34.06
Chris Gawlik
The card, the quote is the sports card trading market was valued over 10 billion in 2023.
24:40.04
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
24:41.54
Chris Gawlik
So that probably encompasses from the lowest level of someone buying a pack of cards from Target to the million dollar transactions that take place probably on a daily basis between
24:41.41
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
24:52.45
Chris Gawlik
factory direct and distribution and major online retailers, it's all big blankets.
24:54.29
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
24:56.37
Chris Gawlik
So that's what I found on SkyQuest.
24:57.15
Russell Gibson
So.
24:58.67
Chris Gawlik
It was an article that quoted the 2023 spending or the the valuation of the hobby in general.
25:04.07
Russell Gibson
And just Googling, I just found that $66 billion dollars was spent in 2023 on gambling.
25:04.62
Chris Gawlik
um so
25:10.28
Chris Gawlik
No, I mean,
25:10.41
Russell Gibson
So the actual, the scope is not that far away, is it? Like it's obviously a lot larger, but in terms of having a regulating body and money put into that, absolutely. It seems feasible, doesn't it?
25:21.63
Russell Gibson
There's 10 billion being spent.
25:21.91
Chris Gawlik
It does. And so first of all, on the gaming side, like I said, each individual area has a separate gaming and the rules and regulations are significantly different.
25:22.91
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
25:34.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
25:34.99
Chris Gawlik
You have to probably look at this and again, I'm referencing the United States of America when I say these things right now.
25:38.63
Russell Gibson
Yeah, of course.
25:39.39
Chris Gawlik
um We have lotteries.
25:39.27
Russell Gibson
That's fine. Yeah.
25:41.79
Chris Gawlik
Not all states have a lottery, number one, but many states do have linked lotteries of megabucks, megabucks is a slot machine, megamillions, I believe, and Powerball. are multi-state lotteries.
25:53.79
Chris Gawlik
I don't know how many states, okay, fair enough, okay.
25:54.08
Russell Gibson
Yeah. We've got Powerball back here too. Yeah. Yeah.
25:57.41
Chris Gawlik
um I don't know how many states encompass that. So you would have to look at the scale of that. And then the other thing, sports cards are sold in every single state. Every single state you can buy a sports card.
26:08.64
Chris Gawlik
So now you're bringing together all these different states. So does this need to be at the federal level, at the state level? Do gaming or do do the sports card companies just take the ball and run with it?
26:20.49
Chris Gawlik
and decide to offer this unparalleled level of transparency. Like a question that I have, like I got a box right here in front of me. I got a box right here in front of me of 20, 22, 23 extended series hockey.
26:37.17
Chris Gawlik
How many boxes of those are out there? How many boxes of those were created?
26:39.69
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
26:40.83
Chris Gawlik
I think that's a question that I would like to have answered when I starts. And then we kind of go from there. um What's the answer if I was in charge of fanatics or tops or panini or upper deck? um It would start with more controls and it would start with transparency. I'm sure they have plenty of controls internally. I'm sure there are plenty of protections that the employees have to follow. I would like as the consumer, as someone that probably does spend a high six to seven figures on cards a year for my business,
27:15.40
Chris Gawlik
I would like to know a little more about those controls. So if I go into a casino, for example, you're not gonna see all of the controls, but you're gonna see at least enough of the controls.
27:25.33
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
27:26.01
Chris Gawlik
As far as they're, you're gonna see their rules, like you look on a pack of cards, I mean I got full garbage can here, but got all that fine little print right there and all that. That's not enough to cover all the details needed about this product, you know what I mean?
27:39.31
Russell Gibson
Yeah. So I think on upper deck, it actually tells you the pack hit rate, doesn't it, of of each card?
27:40.46
Chris Gawlik
So in a compensate direction,
27:46.30
Chris Gawlik
It does unless something is considered a short print. A short print is unannounced odds, or even there could be an unannounced Easter egg, and Easter egg just simply being of a parallel that was put in that no one knew was gonna be in there.
27:49.53
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
27:59.63
Chris Gawlik
That's what that is.
27:59.91
Russell Gibson
Yeah, right. Okay.
28:00.93
Chris Gawlik
um So that's the way around to, like if you knew, exactly.
28:04.42
Russell Gibson
Calculate backwards calculating how many boxes there are. Yeah.
28:07.48
Chris Gawlik
People are able to calculate on Panini FOTL products, first off the line products. I believe you're able to calculate exactly how many of those boxes are out there based on the exclusive essay.
28:16.97
Russell Gibson
Flawless and NT is the same too. Yeah.
28:19.34
Chris Gawlik
What's that?
28:20.16
Russell Gibson
Flawless and NT is the same too, because the the way it's serial numbered.
28:21.65
Chris Gawlik
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Because you can, FOTL has exclusive first off the line parallels.
28:23.52
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
28:28.41
Chris Gawlik
You can go backwards and do the math very easily. ah Unless they say it's an exclusive short prints, everything gets thrown off then.
28:36.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah, definitely.
28:36.53
Chris Gawlik
Yeah, definitely.
28:37.93
Russell Gibson
So what would you do though?
28:38.13
Chris Gawlik
So what would you do though, like Because this is like one thing I definitely want to talk about.
28:39.61
Russell Gibson
Like tell us about your regulation because this is like one thing I definitely wanted to talk to you about. Like how would you make the the hobby, you know, safer for people because.
28:46.55
Chris Gawlik
I would start by at the highest of levels. And this starts at the factories, I think. I want to know why upper deck, why tops, why panini.
29:01.87
Chris Gawlik
I want to know why they send this case to this major retailer.
29:09.27
Russell Gibson
Yeah, sure.
29:09.61
Chris Gawlik
I want to know why they send that case to that distribution. I want to know why they send this case directly to this card shop. I don't want to know what's inside there. That obviously is the thrill of the chase.
29:20.92
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
29:21.18
Chris Gawlik
But I want to know how this selection process happens. And then if they're going to say it's completely random. Awesome. Great. Okay. How is it random? What are your controls for the randomness?
29:32.58
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
29:32.75
Chris Gawlik
How do we ins ensure that this is actually happening? And again, I'm not pointing the finger saying anything is happening that shouldn't be happening, but Like you said, the word was naive. I don't think we should also take everything at face value because you do see these major breaking companies pulling massive amounts of one-on-ones.
29:44.83
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
29:50.15
Chris Gawlik
But again, I'm with you. It's volume. It's a volume game. I ripped many more cards in 2024 and early 2025 than I did in 2021, 2022.
29:53.67
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
29:59.37
Chris Gawlik
So therefore my hit ratio has gone up exponentially. So I do support that it's a volume game.
30:02.80
Russell Gibson
yeah
30:06.79
Chris Gawlik
I think so, at least.
30:06.78
Russell Gibson
Have you ever hit a card that you're like, oh, a huge breaker would have wanted to have this card?
30:12.12
Chris Gawlik
Oh God, yeah, of course. He had a big Mc, big McDavid's, big Bedards and stuff like that.
30:12.94
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:15.64
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:15.87
Chris Gawlik
I've made the joke before. I've actually cracked the joke. Oh, this one was supposed to go to backyard. We got it, you know, and again, it's a joke.
30:20.29
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:22.06
Chris Gawlik
I'm not, again, let's make sure we take this the right way here.
30:23.35
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:24.29
Chris Gawlik
um But yeah, no, we we make those jokes or even some of the bigger breakers. I'm not, I'm not, I'm by far not the biggest hockey breaker on whatnot. There's probably four or five that can do, can run circles around me. So I've joked, oh, this should have gone to that breaker and stuff like that.
30:35.88
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
30:36.35
Chris Gawlik
It's a joke. But again, I have a gaming background. I have a background in Vegas. I have a background of controls and regulations and everything.
30:41.87
Russell Gibson
Oh, right.
30:43.85
Chris Gawlik
So, you know, it's,
30:43.73
Russell Gibson
Right. Okay. That makes so much sense about how you put your article together. like Right. Yeah.
30:49.88
Chris Gawlik
So yeah, that's that's kind of just what it comes down to, just more transparency for the hobby. And I think that's the million dollar question you started by saying, if I'm in charge of a major company, what would I do?
31:00.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
31:01.48
Chris Gawlik
And the answer is more transparency. And I would put myself right out there and say, this is why this is happening. This is why that's happening.
31:12.56
Chris Gawlik
And I would have no problem as the head of a major head of a company going on a podcast and If someone is absolutely dogging me saying, oh, my product, all the hits are going here.
31:24.17
Chris Gawlik
I would love to go on a show and say, listen, let's have a conversation. Here's our controls. Here's here's why this has happened. here's Here's why what you're saying is not, you know instead of just kind of kind of skirting it like a lot of these companies do, I think.
31:38.72
Russell Gibson
I think if I was in charge for the day and price was no measure, I would have it GPS tracked, then you can know and see where it it traveled to.
31:51.73
Russell Gibson
And actually, I think that would be a really fun thing because I think sealed product gets traded a lot and it gets moved around.
31:52.07
Chris Gawlik
and i
31:57.20
Chris Gawlik
Oh a ton, a ton.
31:58.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah, so I think that will be fun. The second one would be the the CT scanner, how you can manage that, whether it's like a piece of panel that changes color if it goes through the the CT scanner.
32:10.29
Russell Gibson
And then I think the third one would be to implement a rule that no product can be hand packed. It has to be packed by a machine. Because I just think that in terms of potential for somebody to be given a very particular card or a particular case, I trust a machine more.
32:27.34
Chris Gawlik
I liked him. life-changing, let's say that's the right way, a life-changing card.
32:30.01
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah, I trust a machine more than I trust a human. I just think if you take that human element out of it, I think it's just harder for that to be ah manipulated or to be changed. I think that would be the, if I was in charge for the day, that's what I would do.
32:46.03
Chris Gawlik
Or you would be able to at least go on some websites or some governing body and see the difference of, okay, this is a hand machine product or hand this is a hand-packed product.
32:58.37
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
32:58.89
Chris Gawlik
you can see what the controls are to ensure everything is happening the way it should be versus if it's a machine packed products.
33:03.44
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
33:05.91
Chris Gawlik
This is why it's happening. And these are, you know, again, I'm not pointing any fingers, but there's so much money happening.
33:07.87
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
33:13.65
Chris Gawlik
There's so much money changing hands and all of that. There just needs to be a little more protection for when a bounty is taken away at the last second without announcement. There needs to be a a clearer understanding as to why this breaking company
33:22.81
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
33:28.15
Chris Gawlik
might get more cards than this breaking company as far as the bigger hits. Is it simply a volume game or is there more to it? Where was this case? Was it here? Was it here? Was it here? Was it here? Was it here? And by the way, when it gets to here, when it gets to here, all of a sudden that seems like we're maybe a high volume of cases is going through here.
33:38.28
Russell Gibson
Yeah, I mean, that would be fun to see, wouldn't it? Yeah.
33:46.36
Chris Gawlik
And then when they go to the next stop, if they go to the 89002 area code, All of a sudden that's where all the big hits are coming out of, but when they go to the 4738 area code, 4738125 digits area code, they're pulled, they're getting a bunch of skunks.
33:58.69
Russell Gibson
yeah
34:01.74
Russell Gibson
Yeah, yeah, 100%. So I think when we reference our product in the back of my head, I'm always going to Panini.
34:07.40
Chris Gawlik
the back
34:09.02
Russell Gibson
I assume you're going to upper deck.
34:09.36
Chris Gawlik
issue
34:11.92
Russell Gibson
I think one of the major downfalls of Panini is that the communication hasn't been fantastic.
34:14.84
Chris Gawlik
communication
34:15.88
Russell Gibson
So when you talk about seeing what's happening in the background,
34:17.49
Chris Gawlik
that
34:19.56
Russell Gibson
I actually can't imagine Panini would open their doors for people to look at that. They just, it's just not their MO. And I think that's the difference in communication or the difference I've seen between between the two companies being Panini and Fanatics in a very early stage.
34:36.06
Russell Gibson
It seems to me that fanatics are a bit more transparent and they're a bit more ah willing to communicate with their customers on on a much larger scale. And I think maybe that's one thing that fanatics have done a lot better in the very early stages in comparison to Panini is that they're just communicating, you know, this is what's happening in the hobby. This is how we're doing things. And so for me, the easiest example of this is Panini Instant.
35:00.25
Russell Gibson
That's something that has never you know, really done well at all in in my mind and that's that's staggered me a little bit Whereas you see with fanatics already. They've had the the triple auto for the Olympics, which I don't don't know how they Managed that or how they regulated that I've got no idea at all and then the other one too is they did one for Cooper flag and I think that the money that they move through that product which is i've got no problems with fanatics making money by the way i don't mean
35:29.55
Chris Gawlik
no
35:29.41
Russell Gibson
mean it like this at all but more to the point i don't think that even the best panini instant didn't do as didn't do better than Cooper Flag. And I think that's just the study.
35:42.03
Russell Gibson
We're going to see this is just at the beginning. I think what we're going to see. So when you talk about you know regulation of that, I would love to see how they packed out those cards and how they sent them out to people, because I think that is a really interesting question, because why did I only get base cards and this guy got parallels?
35:45.85
Chris Gawlik
you talk about, you know, regulation of that, I would love to see how they packed out those cards and how they set them out to people because I think that is a really interesting question because why did I only get basic cards and this guy got parallels?
35:59.76
Russell Gibson
You know, how were the the cards packed?
36:00.10
Chris Gawlik
You know, how were the cards
36:01.86
Russell Gibson
So the reason I say that specifically is
36:03.82
Chris Gawlik
And those look like they're all hand packed too in the parallels going too. I could be wrong.
36:07.11
Russell Gibson
I've got no idea, you know, and I would love that to be machine packed to take that.
36:07.28
Chris Gawlik
i good no and i love They probably have to be hand packed because what if you buy a hundred and I buy 10? You know what I mean? but I would think there has to be some type of human element that determines that.
36:18.33
Chris Gawlik
Or there's a human at least dropping in the pair, the hits somewhere. I don't know.
36:23.56
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
36:23.92
Chris Gawlik
and We don't know. We don't know. That's the problem. We don't know.
36:27.05
Russell Gibson
Yeah, that's right. So, and one thing for me is you're talking about a website you could go on. So the cards that my brother bought, he bought some Otani instant cards.
36:36.29
Chris Gawlik
yep yep yep
36:36.72
Russell Gibson
And when they arrived to him, we didn't know if they'd already been opened or if that's how they came from. Is it upper a deck that does the Otani cards?
36:43.65
Chris Gawlik
Yep, yep, yep No, that'd be tops for next right?
36:45.63
Russell Gibson
I'm not too sure. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, tops. So yeah, I think you're definitely onto something when you, when you talk about this and With the scale of money we're talking about, it's not outrageous to talk about, is it?
37:00.35
Chris Gawlik
No, like we said, of a $10 billion dollars industry that's only going up.
37:01.76
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
37:05.71
Chris Gawlik
um I've read our other articles that project more exponential growth throughout time. so
37:11.36
Russell Gibson
I think we're going to see a lot more growth. And again, that's what fanatics have already done. They're spending a lot of money on marketing.
37:16.39
Chris Gawlik
And they're doing a great job. Let's be clear, they're they're definitely reinventing the wheel in a lot of ways.
37:17.76
Russell Gibson
Yeah. Yeah.
37:20.75
Chris Gawlik
from I don't pay as much attention to stuff outside of hockey, but even in my limited exposure, if you will, what Tops and Finax are doing, you do see a lot happening.
37:24.06
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
37:28.81
Russell Gibson
You'll be getting some blowback and some like reverberations surely in your socials about what they're doing. Yeah.
37:34.83
Chris Gawlik
yeah maybe
37:34.86
Russell Gibson
Hey man, we're already up to 37 minutes. Is there anything else that you want to talk about that we haven't touched on?
37:40.65
Chris Gawlik
No, we're good. I mean, I think we're, I think we're pretty solid.
37:41.83
Russell Gibson
All right, great.
37:43.59
Chris Gawlik
Like I said, it's not, I'm not knocking anyone and we'll make sure just the the closing argument is is is fair here.
37:46.49
Russell Gibson
No, definitely not. Yeah.
37:48.93
Chris Gawlik
You know, it's simply, if I feel like something happened wrong to me, who do I call? You can't, you can't call the same person can't be the judge, the jury and the executioner that that's not good for anybody.
38:02.30
Chris Gawlik
Um,
38:02.21
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
38:03.08
Chris Gawlik
And I don't have the money sitting around to go into litigation or sue anybody of some. I don't i can't afford to, though these companies can afford a lot more money than I can when it comes to this.
38:13.42
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
38:14.21
Chris Gawlik
And no, I'm not suing any of these companies, relax everybody. But you know the point being is just a little more transparency in the hobby. why Why did I get this case? And why did Johnny get that case?
38:24.44
Chris Gawlik
Why did this you know why did this happen? Like you said, I think the hand-packed argument versus machine is a great discussion. um why Why were these cards put here?
38:35.19
Chris Gawlik
Why? And again, I'm not, I don't need to know where the car, where the hits are.
38:36.09
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
38:39.16
Chris Gawlik
I just need to know that everything is tra is completely on the up and up from the moment they press print on the cards, even before that, whatever their controls are.
38:49.25
Chris Gawlik
And we don't need to know all the controls. that's that's That's not what this is all about, but there needs to be something between what's happening now and what needs to happen.
38:59.85
Chris Gawlik
And I think there's a solid middle ground that I do hope all these companies find because it's a great hobby. It's a great industry. It's certainly exciting to be chasing life changing cards out there.
39:04.86
Russell Gibson
Yeah, it's not going away. Yeah.
39:09.71
Chris Gawlik
And it's also equally as exciting to open lesser products, lesser value that are just fun for people to collect and stuff like that.
39:16.23
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:16.58
Chris Gawlik
So it's a wonderful hobby. I love everything about the sports card industry, a little more transparency and protection for the consumers and the the major retail sellers and the companies is needed.
39:29.42
Russell Gibson
yeah Well, thank you so much for coming on, Chris. It's been, it's been a fun conversation and actually for me, this has gone really quickly. So I appreciate that a lot.
39:38.10
Chris Gawlik
Good.
39:39.91
Russell Gibson
Have a fantastic day.
39:40.28
Chris Gawlik
Good. Thank you for having me. I greatly appreciate it and look forward to ah seeing what the feedback is on this.
39:42.26
Russell Gibson
Yeah.
39:44.78
Russell Gibson
Yeah, absolutely, man. um I'm going to end the feed, but please don't exit the room because it will just takes a minute for it to upload.
39:52.63
Chris Gawlik
You're good. You're good.
39:53.37
Russell Gibson
I should have told you that before.
39:54.63
Chris Gawlik
You're fine.