1543 - Out-Takes from Hobby Hotline 052326

Doctor Jim, you got a new title with an upcoming card company called oh Yas. I know Jeremy Allen is a part of. That's a novel idea. There was a press release and before I even get started, I am so sorry that the press release which I agreed to came out the exact same day the Beckett Media logo refresh was announced. And that was very unfortunate. I wasn't in any way trying to steal anybody's thunder. In fact, I don' think it's that big a deal. Basically, I'd been helping these guys for almost five years as a pro bono consultant. I help lots of people in the hobby and so I'm an informal advisor to many companies, many nonprofits, but these guys in particular I've met with a couple times a year for almost five years. And then when this year came around, they said, it would really be helpful if we could say that you're our advisor. So I'm just happy to help you guys. I help lots of people. And they said, we want to get some PR value out of that. And I said, what do you want from me? And they said, we don't want anything different. I said, wait, you just want a continuation of meeting a couple times a year to do that again? They said, yeah. So finally I said, okay, I'll do this. It's the first time you've ever been an advisor. I said, no, I've been an advisor many times, but I can see that your company, I wouldn't call it a card company. Yes, it has the capability of that, but it's broader than that. It's a technology company that does involve cards and I've just enjoyed interacting with them about the future aspects of where the hobby could go. So if it was just a regular card company, that wouldn't have been as interesting to me. So I know I've helped them over the last almost five years and I look forward to helping them future. Basically, I had a 45 minute conversation last week with the founder and that may be it for this month. He's a friend, I believe in what he's doing and I want to be helpful and I think it could be really good for the hobby. So that's kind of my rule. I don't help people unless I think they're going to be good for the hobby. A lot of fun, a lot of energy, a lot of new approaches and I love that. So I'm enjoying working with it. Jeremy is not the coo. He's the cco, which is the Chief electable officer, but he's A lot of fun. In fact, how I met Jeremy long time ago ago and how I met Scott, the founder was through one of my favorite employees that left to start his own thing 25 years ago. But a guy that worked for me for a long time was very entrepreneurial and when it came time for him to go off on his own and he did great. So I've had a number of people I hired that were entrepreneurial that I encouraged when it was the time to fly the nest. So I met Scott and Jeremy through that guy. And so it's a small hobby. John, relationships matter. And so I already had some kind of relationship and now it's just a little bit formalized. If it's an hour a month, I'm going to make it the best hour that month that I can. And it's basically them calling me usually is saying, hey, we've got a problem with this or we're thinking about this. What do you think? And Jeremy's a seasoned hobbyist too. But I think entrepreneurially I'm enjoying it and they are too. Are they based in Dallas? Yes. That's a big deal. Pro bono consulting does not involve me jumping on a plane at my expense. So they've come over a couple times a year and earlier this year, maybe February, they had a dinner where most of their team were there and I said, okay, I'll come to the dinner. And I was impressed with the rest of the team that I finally said I shouldn't be withholding. I am helping you guys. I do believe in what you're doing and if it's helpful for me to be listed as an, they have other, I'm their third best advisor. They've got two other super sharp advisors they've had and I met those guys and I thought, you know what, this is going to be a two way street. I'm going to enjoy this and I think I'm going to receive a benefit and give a benefit. So gung ho. I already knew you were active in the hobby, but even more so now with this, I don't think it's more John. I really didn't sign up to do more. I just agreed to make public what I was already doing. If they were going to say we're going to pull you in, we're going to pay you this much. And I said, no, I am still retired, but I do like to work on interesting things. It's not about the money, it's about being engaged. It's not going to be an increase in my hours. If it is, then I guess I could resign. I'm not going to be an advisor anymore. Ask for a raise. I'm not asking for. I'm enjoying the interaction. And they're doing things that are not being done. And I have a chance to speak into that and help shape it for the good of the hobby. We heard a recent story where a deal at a show was a registered sex offender, and it brought up the topic of safety for kids in the hobby. I've done shows for 35 years now, actually 39. I started in 87 with shows. Most of the times I've had to provide my tax number to set up as a dealer, but they're not doing background checks on people setting up. Should promoters be doing more due diligence to who's allowed to set up and be badged at the show? Should the responsibility fall on the promoters? A promoter has a brand. We're seeing consolidation and expansion among some of the promoters. Kyle Robertson now has the Dallas card show in New Jersey. The front row has gone out of the west into the East. So there's some national brands. And they ought to be aware of who they're signing up. It shouldn't be just taking money of anybody who shows up. They're already asking, do you have Pokemon or do you have sports cards? And they ought to fill out an application and ought to give them permission to do background checks. That's just good business because they're representing your brand. If something bad were to happen, it's almost like you're saying you can trust these dealers to the best of your knowledge. And so it's not that tough to do that. But that's on the promoter side, on the kids side or a potential victim. There's some Dallas nonprofits and ministries where if you want to tutor an inner city kid who's having trouble with reading and you want to drive to a bad part of town, you're not allowed to do that one on one. First you gotta be vetted, and you've gotta do it two on one. So it can't be one adult with one kid. But if it's one adult with a bunch of kids, that's different. This is such a relational hobby, but there ought to be this prudence that you're making good decisions to not put yourself in a compromising position. That goes for the promoter, for the dealer, for the kid. I don't want to see bad things happen. And there are safeguards, one of which would be to prohibit dealers from setting up. On the other hand, they could still come in. There's not going to be any background check for people that walk in. So adults or kids, anybody ought to be aware there are occasionally bad people out there and be careful about getting isolated, dominant teaching. I definitely had to have a background check. Matter of fact, I was hired, but I couldn't start until that was cleared, but actually caused a slight delay in my start date five years ago. Obviously, working with kids, there should be background checks. I don't know what they cost. But, Brody, as a kid, what are your thoughts here? You're probably taller than most dealers at this point. But all joking aside, you've been in the hobby for years. Even as a younger kid, was it something you worried about or you were just so locked in with cars? And now as a young adult graduate high school. Yeah, I don't think it's really that crazy to do background checks. If a business owner hires an employee, they're going to do a background check. And a promoter is hiring somebody to set up at their table. Hiring for a weekend as a promoter, just having an app that they have to put something down that they could not tell the truth. That happens a lot. But in the app, if the potential dealer is saying, I agree to have a background check, even that is a determination. But some criminals are going to say, I'm just not even going to sign up. Now the promoter. To do a background check on one person is expensive. To do background checks on a hundred is not. Okay. If you did all your dealers, there's online services that you can get a subscription. Whenever I go in there, I want to check on somebody. It's always like, they want to charge you 50 bucks, but then you can get as many as you want or something like that. I think I just want one. I just want to find out who I'm doing business with. So, yeah, if a promoter made it a part of their business, there are services that drive the price way, way down for an individual thing because they're just searching the web. Usually they're not hiring a PI to track anybody. And like I said, the bad guys don't like that. If they know they're going to get a background check, then they just either need to fess up or move on. And if they're bad guys, I hope they move on. The punishment ought to fit the crime. I would just like to add, too, kids, be smart. Obviously, with everything. I've been on social media for eight years. Not many people even know my last name. So don't tell strangers things they shouldn't. Know the obvious things that you would do if a random guy came up to you at the park and asked if he wanted candy. Some of us parents, I see young kids running around the show almost unattended and having fun, which is good to see. But still, sometimes I'm like, where's mom or dad? This kid's very young and they could be nearby, but I don't see any direct supervision. Maybe I notice it more being a dad. Obviously, if you're a promoter that's doing one or two shows a year, it might not be as cost effective as someone who's doing 12 or more if it's a monthly show. But I do think, Dr. Jim, like you said, somebody does fall on the promoters, right? I have responsibility for the safety of everyone. We see cameras now at a lot of shows to capture potential thefts or wrongdoings on video, right? That's obviously a deterrent if someone had ill intentions with children. As someone who sets up and shows, by all means, background check me and everyone else I'm setting up with. In my podcast, several times in the last month, I've made references to Disney World because I'm actually going to Disney World with my grandkids and kids in the near future. But my point now, now is it's just as safe to be in a card show for a kid as it is to be at Disney World. Bad things can happen at Disney World and do and bad things could happen at card shows, and they generally don't. But you're not unsafe at a card show, but safe at Disney World. Brody's saying you got to be smart as a kid. But if the parents aren't hobbyists, I think you ought to be teenagers to be kind of dropped off and then picked up later. What age do you think it's okay to be dropped off and then just be picked up when you're done? I'm sure, like teenager 14, 15. But honestly, looking at this from a different point of view, this hobby is the best when you're doing it with other people. Even if your parents thought a joint introduced it to them, everybody's safer that way. There's so many friendly people in this hobby, there's no reason to do it by yourself. Just to pick up on what Brody was saying, when we go to the national in a couple of months now, there are going to be some parents with their kids. In many of those situations, the parents are going to grudgingly be there because it's their kid's hobby. In some other cases, it's going to be the kids grudgingly there because it's the parents hobby. The ideal situation which makes you not be a helicopter parent is if the parents are loving it and the kids are loving it and they're doing it together. That is the best I can tell you. Dr. Jim is someone that does shows at least once a month. I'm seeing more families attending shows where they're all active and participating and that's nice to see. Dr. Jim has been to every National. When do you start thinking about the next one? The day after the one before I get my hotel and air as soon as possible. They won't let you reserve too early, but as soon as they release the rooms, I'm first one in as much as I possibly can and so I'm set on that. In the meantime, to use your baseball softball analogy, that's it. I'm getting ready for the big game in Chicago in late July. When I go to the Dallas shows or Rich's show, it's other shows that I would go to. That's my batting practice. I'm staying in shape so that I can still hit the fastball because if I were just going to one show a year, I wouldn't be preparing. You could say those are regular season shows and the Nationalist World Series. It's like that. Yeah. The other thing I do in preparation and it really does start right after I make some notes after last year's national of who I must see. There's some tables I'm for sure going to hit, some people I'm definitely going to see. And then there's the stretch goals I'm going to make sure I'm going to have dinner with certain people. I'm going to make sure I hit certain tables on certain days. Maybe record a podcast with a person or two. Again, I'm not looking for a full time job, but I am on the clock when I am at the National. The travel challenge in Chicago is not outside the show, it's inside the show. The layout is really tricky in the sense it's not a rectangle. The I've said it's kind of like a baseball field. The northwest corner is like home plate and old guard or between first and second base and PSA is out in right field and then there's an upper deck out there and the autographs are in center field and the singles club is in deep left field. You just get disoriented. Even the numbers of the tables, even that's tricky. Upstairs is going to be way bigger than it was and spread out. So that's going to be another thing to try to handle. The good part about Chicago is it's probably similar to last year. The bad part is last year was very confusing.