Getting ready for The National | WC Picks | Zip's PC Pickups

Welcome back to the Hobby Chop Podcast. This is the podcast for the people. I am Big Ken. He is Zip. Zip. How you doing, my friend? I'm doing awesome, man. I. I had a pretty cool hobby week, and seems that the deals are not stopping. I. I haven't even really, like, I haven't been seeking out deals. I've actually had some come through the dms, which is always great, and that doesn't always happen. So I've been really appreciative and grateful for that. So stuff has been. Stuff's coming out of the woodwork now. Like cars that you normally don't see. See. Or you wouldn't see. Or all of a sudden, like, I. I've just been amazed at some of the cards I see coming across some streams and popping up and just. Just cards that either you haven't seen or haven't seen in a while, or cars that you're like, I can't believe people are parting with those cards. Yeah. And also, you know what else I'm seeing beyond that? Like, first off. Absolutely. I'm seeing that. What I'm seeing beyond that is market inequalities. And more than ever that I think as the market's surging, there's a really big herd mentality around things that I don't know if they're necessarily should be. Like. I feel rarity is not being respected as much as it should be. Still, that's. That's who I'll put it. I don't know what you think about that, because, like, here. Here's what I'll say. You ever see, like, cards that you're like, wow, I can't believe that card sold for this much. And then in turn, you go, oh, if that sold for that much, this card has to be whatever, and it's. It's way less. And you're like, makes no sense, right? I've been seeing that a lot. And I think as the market tends to mature and grow. And another thing, man, is like, we haven't been in the hobby forever, right? Like, we've been around since. Around Covid around there. That's a really long time compared to a lot of the new people getting into it, though. That's a lot of knowledge that we have in this surge that we can use to identify things that are not necessarily lining up. And that's kind of what I've been trying to do for stuff that I'm trying to PC and hold. So, yeah, like, that's just kind of how I feel about that. So. So what if as you were describing that you know that, that something sold for a lot more and you expected this, I mean immediately comes to my mind as a collector, like somebody said, identified and said that's a card I want and you know, either went out and paid, you know a super high price on it or there were a couple of other people saying that is a card I want. And even know that it may look like it should have, you know, another card should be equal that there may be more of those around a different pop count or you know, it's just not as sought after as. Because you know how this hobby goes. Somebody comes out and says hey, oh this card is so hard to get. And when one pops up, mentality of the herd is everybody starts bidding on it because they want to be the one to have that card. Right. Yeah, I, I was really thinking about like first off two, two of the goats. Right. Brady and, and Jordan like the Brady Bowman and Brady Bowman Chrome stuff is crazy. Have you, have you seen the prices on actually like is at a point where I think it's crazy. Yeah. Someone just goes Brady Chrome PSA9. Going crazy. His Bowman paper PSA9. Yeah. Someone is literally a sports mic two is literally typing. So like you have that right. I just think when you're looking at those prices, look at some of the things that are are like serial numbered and rare and they go for like way less. I just. And you know what? This also prompted this. I want to give him a shout out. He didn't posted it post it but he reposted it on his Instagram stories860slabs. Logan, you know Logan. Yep. He posted something about watch out for the Brady that market, that Bowman Paper and Bowman Chrome and all those like iconic type cards making this crazy run up right before national like market manipulation. Yeah. Because there's enough of them and if you have enough money you really can manipulate it and I mean it's maybe it's a little tin foily or whatever but crazier things have happened. Right. So but you think about heading into the national like you could literally say okay, you know, you know these people do this videos and say I'm a mind reader, I know what I know who's on your list, who you want to buy at the national. You could go through Brady and Jordan and Kobe and. Right. And they're going to be on everybody's list. So yeah, of course that you know, if these prices are just driving up, I mean good news for the dealers at the national that are that have Got these cards to sell. Yeah. I guess for that short term I agree. What happens, people show up and they're like, this is the card I want and I'm gonna get it before I leave and I'm gonna pay the premium because it's part of the experience. And I can't, I can't blame them. It makes sense to me because you're making, you're making an entertainment and enjoyment and memory purchase which is valuable in its own right. I'm just saying, like, the way I've been looking at things a little more critically is that I'm trying to look at rarity a little bit more than I had before. And I, I'll share one card, but if that's not even the card I'm talking about of that, that, that really was pure PC, like just enjoyment and nostalgia. The. The card that I'll mention I just bought is from. I, I think I've said it before. I love Tops Chrome Cosmic. I love that set. It's like my favorite set. And I just bought the 10 out of 10 lunar eclipse Patrick Mahomes red color match. Which, that will lead to another announcement later that I already told you about. But with that being said, red color match out of 10, I bought that for $950. There's only 10 of them. What do you think about that with a red color match? 10 out of 10? Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. I. The out of 10 black geometric variation from Topps Chrome did $5,400. I, you know, I'm not saying it's as good of a card as that, but it's not a true color from Topps Chrome. It's like that geometric thing y. The Geo. Yeah. Right. Like, I'm not saying it needs. And we know from Bowman too, from Bowman basketball and, and Bowman and first year football that the Geo was. Yep. And I'm not saying it has to be that card. Like it has to be that valuable. I'm saying that's a really big difference for a card that's not a color match. And it's the true base parallel of Tops Chrome Cosmic, which I personally also enjoy the most. That's like, that's a little caveat to it. But aside from that. I told you, done with the Dolphins. I'm. I'm joining, I'm joining the Sith Hoodie and the Blowfish. Right? They sure do. And I'm done. I'm joining the Sith Chief Kings. Chief Kingdom, baby. We're in it. Yep. Yep. We're in it. I'm done. Yeah. But I. You know what? It's okay to join and I'd like to say, you know, you haven't gone through the pain over the last, you know, whatever. Let's see, 50 years or now it's like 45. Right. I don't know when they heard of winning Super Bowls, but I guess, I guess what the Dolphins. The Dolphins and the Chiefs were almost the back to back super bowl winners right. In the early 70s and neither of them have won a. Until the Chiefs started winning them again. And what Watch, now that you're a Chiefs fan, a couple of years now, you're. You're Dolph. Yeah. They're going to tank. And your Dolphins fans, your Dolphins team is going to go win a Super Bowl. I'm sorry to look away. Sports mic two goes that Mahomes on eBay. Now question mark. 10 out of 10. I want to see if that guy relisted it, but he did not. So I was like, my heart just dropped for a second. But. Oh, he's. He's referring to. This is a. Or maybe. Well, there's a. There's also a few other. The Stars in the night parallel. You know that. Or the insert. Yeah. Because there's a. There's a red out of ten listed for four grand and there's one of those that's on auction at $830. That's 10 out of 10. Which I'm watching. So. Yeah, yeah, I, I think that's help. I know I'm getting a little off topic with this. What do you think about. Yeah, so Sports Mike too. The Stars in the night is 10 out of 10. I didn't buy that. I bought the true, like the true base card. Like the, you know that his actual car card. Not the. Not the Stars in the Night insert. But that's. I love that insert. You know, everyone always is like, oh, release day. The prices are crazy high. I also think you can get steals on release day because people don't know like that's the first one. Right. They don't know how. They don't know what the. Yeah. If you, you could be the first one. Especially at the Buy it now prices. Like somebody put something up at a Buy It Now. Yeah, yeah. And I've seen. And we all say, oh, that's ridiculous. I can't believe that sold for that. And, and I've gotten a few of those. I've had one of those cards at a show and somebody, somebody actually came up and said, no, that Card did not sell for that. And I'm like, I was the buyer. I have that card. Yeah. So it. Yes, it did sell for that. Yeah, you're right. And also, the gold Interstellar Mahomes I. I saw before is doing like, 350, 375. So I'm like, out of 10. I'll take a shot at 950. I think there's way worse buys. Yeah. So, yeah, also at shows, too, when somebody pulls a big card, if you can be the first. So much more fun when I act like a collector. Ken, you see this? This is way more fun coming over to the. To the. I really am coming over to the dark side. To the dark side. That's funny. You had another card. I think you wanted to share before we jump into. Yeah, I might as well. Yeah. Since. Since Jordan's a collector now, and he's. He's. He's got a piece of PC card since we traded away Jalen Brown. It's gonna be Jason Tatum season. How about the True black mosaic? 1 of 1 from 23 24, the championship year? How about that? Pretty sweet. Where'd you get that? It was on ebay for less than five minutes. I messaged the guy, got him off ebay, on Instagram, and we closed the deal very quickly. Nice. In. In. Was it, I think last month, the nebula from that. That. That version. The nebula in the PSA 9 did 1700. So what do you think? What do you think that would be worth if the nebula did 1709 and this is the true black. And it was in a nine and the true black raw. I mean, probably somewhere in the 2500 to 3000, I got it for 1300. Nice. And I was very, very happy with that. Yeah. So, yeah, I was. Or it's. Mike even said 2400. Yeah, I was very happy with that. And the person also had a 24. Tatum. Like, the next year, the disco. The Black Disco 101. And I. I just. I didn't want that, so I threw it on my story. A couple people reached out, but I think that Card's around, like, 6 or 700 bucks, and he wanted, like. I think you were on, like, a thousand for it. And I just. I didn't want. I didn't want it that bad, but I'm very happy with this card. So I had a sim. I had a situation where I was making an offer on a card like, a month ago, and I didn't even want to listen to my. You know, it's like, no, no, no, I'm like, okay. And now all of a sudden he's messaging me, still interested in that card. Well, now I see three of them sold for around what I was offering. You know, now, Now I'm lower. Yeah. And I, I actually just closed a deal on a. On a different Patrick Mahomes lot from Cosmic. You know, the planetarium. That insert. I'm a big fan of that insert. I'm picking up one of those too. Yeah, I, I gotta act. I'm a Chiefs fan now, so I gotta, I gotta throw a few in there. You know what I'm saying? Now, I, I mean, obviously buying numbered cards, anything that's unnumbered, do you think that will hold any value or do you think just, just, just the number? I, I think they will hold value. It's also the same thing of like, we always talk about, like, wow, I can't believe how expensive downtowns are when they're not rare at all. You know, there's. There's obviously a, A demand for that too. Right? So a card that is really interesting to me is also out of cosmic. The planetariums are really cool. I don't know if they're for everyone. I really enjoy them. If you ever see them, the front. If. Have you ever held one? No. They're like this thick. And if you ever saw. If, if you ever saw the card, you would think it's like, fake, because on the card stock on the side, it literally looks like a book. There's like four or five cards that it makes up because it's like shadow boxed and overlaid with all the different planets in the solar system. Okay. So. But it. Look, it's a great looking card in my opinion. It's just you, you. I, I feel like if you saw, you'd be like, did I just get a fake card? If you ever saw this thing, you'd be like, what the hell is this? Right? A child's toy. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So constellation variation. The constellation. Have you seen those? No. What's the one that has like the sun, the moon, and those are Planetary Pursuit. Okay. Yeah. Those are really cool in my opinion too. I'm, I'm a. I'm a sucker for cosmic chrome. Like, you're, you're. I'm like number one fan. Cosmic Chrome fanboy. But the, I'm sorry, the, the constellation, it's literally a silhouette of the player. Like the card is all black and then the silhouette of the player is literally stars. It's. It. It's almost like quasi pointillism. With stars. It's so cool. And I, I think that is a. They're. They're also way less. They're less than a case hit. Like they're like I remember for baseball it was like every four or five cases one would come out. They're rare cards and those are some I think like could pick up over time. And the football ones are not selling for that much. The like though Tani and Judge sell for crazy. The Mahomes did three 500 off the rip and then one sitting for 31. I bet you that card comes down into the twos or high thousands in like a month or two. But I, I don't know. That's a card I think is pretty cool. Nice. Something I would look out for is that constellation. Those are. Those are pretty great cards if you see them. My opinion. But yeah I still though above all that like go to like the checklist. You can like look at odds of the parallels versus. Do you think people are catching on to the pack odd stuff now? I don't know because that's something else you have to look at too with you know, the on the pack odds. And I've been opening up Disney, you know, top scrum Disney, Lightning McQueen stuff. You always got a buyer in me, Luca man, my son Lightning McQueen. Everything but. But pulling out the cards I go and I'm looking up, I'm. I've printed out the sheet, I'm looking at pack odds to see how you know the rarity and scarcity of. Of some of the cards. Because that's really the only know. Yeah, absolutely. And I, I think with that there's nuance to it too. Right. Because at the end of the day ever all of that comes to supply and demand. Whether. Whether the intelligence for the supply and demand or the knowledge catches up and that changes things. That's another like that's a whole. Another thing that's me making that speculative play at. For. At the cosmic Mahomes. Red. You know Red I just bought like that's. That's. That's what I'm. That's what I'm like hoping for. But his Super bowl downtown PSA 10 is exploding in price that the. It's like over $5,000. The Mahomes. Yes. The super bowl downtown is like. Which was like the 2023, 2022, 2023. Kill some air. I'll try to pull up comps. Yeah. And it's funny you should say that I would tried to buy this that same one from a guy three times at Three different shows he had that same card. And we were so close, but in. In the mid mid 2000s. And I mean that the card had sold for like 20, 20, 23. You're saying with the. In the. In the desert PSA 10. Well, I know what it just sold for on PSA. PSA's eBay account on an auction two days ago. Take a guess. Well, I'm gonna cry if it was over 5k. What if I told you 6200. Wow. Yeah. Just look back at that card. Was that card selling for like the card That's. It's a pop 310 sell for like 23, $2400. Not that like. Like six months ago for. Let me go back. So we're saying like February. February PSA 10. 2370. 2370. 2370, is that what you're saying? 2524. So. So the guy who had the car was firm at 3K and I was just. I was trying to get in at somewhere under 3k. And then he ended up selling it. So, you know, that would have been a great card to own. But how about that? A pop 310. Yeah. Now. And now he's starting, right? They got him starting the season. He torn acl, mcl. And I love, I love watching Mahomes. That's like a huge reason I just made the switch. Also my mother in law, my son, like, you know that logic though, it's a pop 3 10. The one thing I will say about that though, right, Is the popularity of. It's a downtown and then the. What do you call it? The. The super bowl part of it is. Is unique as well. Yeah, it's funny sports Mike says the Panini Black. White Knight is sick too. SS Barry. Yes. So do you remember the car that got me like a hundred percent in the hobby? Yeah, it was, it was, it was that Mahomes. It was the redemption of that. That card right there, which never. They never redeemed. Ziggy's here. He said White Knight was the insert. I thought you. You had like the midnight signatures or something. Yeah, yeah, the mid. The. But it was the obsidian Mahomes card, right? No, it's Panini black. Oh, okay. Yeah. Midnight signatures. It was numbered. It's supposed to be numbered to 10 and it would have been an on card auto as well. Ziggy's here. He's late. Cheers, gents. Oh, yeah. So Chiefs, he says, Mike says team is stacked for a run too. Ziggy said something here? Yes, is. Oh, he's talking about hobby logic. The card should sell for y. I know. And it's. It's the truth. It's the truth. The logic is not always there. Sometimes we're like, wow, I'm glad I didn't buy that card. And sometimes we're like, oh, man, I should have bought that card. Yeah, absolutely. And. And I'll put one more point to that. With the purchase I made was color match on top of again, my favorite set. Price inequality from other stuff I was seeing. I was like, I'll take a shot at it. Right. Am I sitting here saying that I 100 killed it on that? I have no clue. No clue. Yep. Only time will tell. Yep. I just want a vintage card collector. 433 said I get the appeal of kabooms. Cool looking, never understood the downtowns. And I just want to say which. Which is something very interesting. If you go to as many shows as I do and you're looking in cases. I mean, you can find downtowns in almost everybody's cases around the room. But you don't see kabooms like you see downtowns. And. And I know it's the. The case hit and this and that. And I know absolute, you know, they. They had the what? The explosives, you know, just like coming with the uptowns. But you still don't see as many kabooms at shows and of cards as you do. As you do the downtowns for whatever reason. So in my mind, I always think they're more rare and scarce than the downtowns themselves. Agreed. Agreed. Okay, so one. One piece of trivia before we move on to the national stuff. Okay. Which you may not get it, but it's just something I came across in my office the other day pulling out cards, you know, to comp for the national. So before I was sports card lessons, I came into the. I came into the hobby with my. My Instagram account. Any guesses of what that account name was before it became sports card lessons? Did it have to do with your former podcast? No. Oh, okay. But it was tied kind of to my business name. Was it like C works? Was it. It was close. It was close. It was Casey Card works. Oh, I kind of like that. Not gonna lie to you. You know, so the business was computer work, so I figured I'd do the. The card works. I kind of like that. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, I always like that too. Is your initials and the Kansas City. I. I like that. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. He says one man's ugly is another man's hottie. We may have to, we may have to make all alter ego card accounts and then have non family friendly podcasts. Yeah, those would be probably more, more sought out after than the family. The one a our 1am live stream. Yeah. Yeah. Once a month. Billy is good. What's up, Bill? So I don't even know what is the date today. What are we 20 days away? We're less than three weeks away to the national. So we thought this would be a great episode about talking about prepping for the national and, and I, and I sat here and typed up this whole thing so. Well, to be fair, like I'm not going. So I, yeah, I could be. Oh no. And I know, but you've been. It's not like I have been. I have been. I've been multiple times. So I can, I can, I can pop in where I see fit. But I'm gonna let you run the show on this one. Yeah. Right. All right. So, so getting ready. Plan ahead. Right. I always say purchase the VIP or the early admission tickets. Make sure you have your hotel reservations. Location is everything. And, and one of the, and I'm going to just point out things that, that I've learned over time going out there. I know the hotel is closest to the national are expensive, but not having to take transportation back and forth, being able just to walk back and forth to the, to the convention center is, is unbelievable. And one of the things about the national, right. That you know, if you were, if you after covet, if you started going, it was Atlantic City, it was Chicago, Atlantic City. Every year it just gets busier and busier. So it used to be that Wednesday, right. Wednesday would be, you know, not too busy like that first Wednesday from 1 to 7 or 2 to 8, whatever it was. You could pretty much run from table to table. And then Thursday would get a little busier, Friday busier. Saturday was the busiest day, right. And Sunday would, would start to drop off. And now I'll tell you what, and I've talked about this over the last, you know, few years is every, every year it seems like it's one day earlier. Like Saturday is now Friday and Friday is now Thursday. And now, now we're at a point where, where Friday is Wednesday and the rest of the week is Saturday, right? Just because it is so busy. And you used to watch that build up, build up, build up. And then, then once it. Now that it's like that, it's like last year there was pictures of people, you know, the, the, the lines all the way videos that Aligns all the way down the street of general admission. People just trying to get in. Right. So definitely worth having the via paying up for the vip. And you get more benefits from that VIP too. You get into the VIP room upstairs, which is, you know, the, the, the VIP room. Like, like the first couple years, I don't know if people really understood how to use them, but now people are. They, they set up their own. They're. They're. That's their own table at the National. They're just going up to the VIP room laying out cards and, you know, it becomes same. Same as what the trade night is. Makes the table cost pretty worth it. Then if you're paying for VIP to run up and do that, I honestly, I say, hey, it's pretty smart. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I learned from somebody else. I. I was in Cleveland and I went, went to the VIP lounge and all of a sudden I saw people set up like a trade night. I'm like, wow, that's genius. And I brought my food, I went down, I set up my cards, I'm eating my lunch, and people are coming around buying my cards. I'm like, this is great. You know, and, and look, if you're not, if you're not, you know, location, I just want to jump back to location. If you have to take Ubers and lifts last year for us, for me, because I. We had a hotel shuttle that came like once every hour and a half back and forth because it was so much traffic for that thing to get back and forth. You know, all of a sudden you're like, I don't want to wait around. I'm going to take an Uber or a Lyft. You could wait as long for that as well too. It was like crazy last year trying to get transportation back and forth during, during the height of the show. You know what I feel like a hack would be for the National? Tell me what you think. You bring the wife. She has her own vacation. Be like spa day every day. You do whatever you got to do. All I need is to be dropped off in the morning here and picked up here. Here's the credit card. Here's the credit card traffic. She gotta drive in that traffic. She hate you. After day one, she'd be like, bro, take an Uber. Like, this is why I booked the spa days, because it is stressful when you gotta come and leave. You're ruining my vibe. If you're planning on getting autographs, doing in advance, that stuff sells out. Make as many plans in advance as you can. Restaurants, reservations, trade nights, meetups. If you're meeting up with people, easy to meet in the VIP lounge. I mean, that's what I've done the last few years. When I wasn't set up, I would just message with people, yeah, I'll meet you. You have vip or I'll meet you in the VIP lounge at whatever time and then just go sit down, have a conversation. It's easy when you try to meet up with people on the floor. It's. It's crazy trying to, you know, keep attention with so much going on. Not. Not to mention, it's so easy to just be, like, lose yourself while you're walking around. I remember one of the nationals I went to is the first time I saw so much cash in my life, and someone just was like. They were almost. They were just, like, at a time, two hand in cash and throwing it in a money counter, like, repeatedly, like. Like it was a cartoon. And I was like, oh, my Lord. Yeah. I was like, you know, and. And that's just commonplace. That is really just commonplace there. Yeah. And some of that cash is coming out of a brown paper bag. That's crazy. I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's taxed and reported correctly. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Huge tip. Plan your route for the show. Look at the interactive Ludex. It has an interactive floor map. And. And one of the things last year is, like, specific booths that have, like, you know, exclusive giveaways, or you're getting in line for something, like, do that during the VIP time, because once those general admission doors open up, the place gets crazy. So when I was planning on buying something or I needed something specific, even if I was dropping a card off for grading, I did that all during the VIP time, you know, just to try, because those lines. Everybody's doing the same thing you're doing. Trying to. Trying to get the. Whatever they're giving away or submitting cards or, you know, exclusives, whatever it is. What do you think about having a list of cards going into beforehand? Because your eyes are gonna be just. You're just gonna be overwhelmed with stuff you see. So having a plan of what you want to get. Yeah, yeah, that. That's coming up. Okay. National musts. Travel light. Days are long. And that we all. I think that's the biggest mistake everybody makes is, like, you try to take as much as you can in there, and then it becomes. It becomes a long day. Carrying stuff around. Comfortable shoes, backpack or a crossbody bag or a case on Wheels. I'll tell you what, I, if I was walking this year, I'd be with a case on wheels just because it would give me an extra place to sit down. So you're walking around and get tired. You know, you come up to a table, you're going to work a deal like, like most of the Repackers do. Just roll up, sit on your case. Well, you did a nice Vanna White presentation of that case on wheels you got on YouTube. So you got that. I mean you're gonna be set up, but I'm sure you're using that thing. Yep, yep. Tribby. Traveling with my cards in that and back and forth each day I'll be taking, taking my cards in there. You're gonna need some Ray Ban sunglasses and a backwards hat. We'll call you Ken the Repacker. There you go. You know, besides cards in that backpack, water snacks stay hydrated and nourished. It's easy to say oh you know, I should have got a water. And then you go look at the line to get a, get a five dollar water and you got to stand there for ten minutes. It's, you'll be happy you, you filled your bag up with, with waters and goodies. Fully charged phone battery pack and my favorite hand sanitize hand sanitizer. Right. It's a lot, a lot of handshaking and high fiving and stuff happened. A lot of money handling at this thing. Try to stay as, as germ free as possible. If you bring a cars to sell or trade, print out an inventory price list with some notes on recent sales. Never know when the Internet will get spotty and it's great reference when things are busy. I do this all the time. Any busy show I go to, especially if somebody like is looking at some stuff to buy from me and they're saying oh I could take, do this on this and this on that. I just, usually just pull out my list because it just helps me concentrate a little more and then slide each card at a time and calculate just so I, I'm, I'm, I'm sharp with all the numbers going on. Especially when there's busy. There's a lot of people distraction is easy to, to misad or, or you know, not get it right. And if you're buying and looking for a specific card, know their prices. Ah, be prepared to negotiate and, and you know, I heard I was listening to some content today and somebody's saying hey, you're going to the national expect to pay more For a card, which I didn't 100 agree with him. And then he said, you know, the vip, the hotel, the transportation, everything, you know, it's costing you thousands of dollars to go to this show. Are, are we gonna, are we gonna walk away from a deal because you don't want to pay, you know, like, you know, 10 over of a card. You came there to buy. We need to hit the alarm. Ken, you're going anti dealer on me right now. It's supposed to be my role here in this show. And you're supposed to be the pro dealer. No, I mean I was listening to this con. I mean it made like it made some somewhat sense what he was saying. And, and he was saying that's kind of why, you know, dealers are get excited because, because stuff will sell for more at this show and people just expect to pay more. And a lot of collectors are coming. Their big, their big show, one big show of the year. Like they don't want to leave empty handed. They're gonna, you know, they, they want to go buy what they're what they want to buy there. And I mean one of the things that happens too with these shows is you see a card and this happened to me last year. Like I saw a card I like negotiated back and forth. I'm like, you know what? I, I really don't think it's worth me paying an extra 200 because I thought this card was worth like 1800. And the dealer was like, I'm firm at 2K. And I'm like, okay, all right, I'll, I'll move on. I remember I knew where this was. And then that night I was thinking, I'm like, you know, it's a, it's a super, super short print. It's a low pop on the card. That card's there tomorrow. Just go back and buy it, right? I went back that next day and that card was gone. Right. Like I didn't have a shot. And then I thought to myself, you should have did it. Like I was kicking myself. Now that Card's probably worth 500. So I'm glad it all worked out that way, right? But at the time, like you know, once you start really thinking about it and this is me too, I'm a dealer. I like, I, I, I'm on that other side and I'm now I'm going to be on that side. But you know, going there, this happens to me too. Like you walk away from a deal and you start to say to yourself, should I have walked away for A hundred dollars or walked away for, like, if it was a card that I really wanted, you know. So I, I also think too, it's important to keep in mind that it's really easy to get caught up while you're there, like for what you just said. Like, you could absolutely, even if it's low, pop the odds of that card being available in the next month. You probably will be able to buy almost any card you want within the next month too, at a reasonable price. So, like, as it's important to keep that in mind. Right. Like, I guess that's some. Each person has to weigh up how much do I really need this now? And want it now? But also be like, well, what would it be? Here's an, here's a quick one. What could I go buy this card for right now on ebay? And what is that worth? Is that price difference worth it for me to get it in hand right now? I think that's like a little like, stop point for someone. And I've done that. I've literally pulled it out and said, bro, I could buy this right now off ebay with taxes and shipping less than what you're asking. And that, and at that point I purchased that card. Right. And then go, oh, you won't. Yeah, like I want to be, I'll buy it right now. Yeah, I'll have it in a week. But I think it's important so you don't get caught up is to at least stop and do that check. Yeah. Yep. Dylan Walker says, do you ever get stopped by TSA when bringing a bunch of cards? No. I know people who have been stopped. I, the only time I was ever stopped was going through customs, going to the Toronto show. And at the airport I had them in this, the metal slab mags. And they were more interested in what the slab mags were than what the cards in there. So I've carried cards plenty of times through tsa. No one has ever, ever asked or opened up the cases about that and the cash wise. No, that, and that's something he asked. I've never been on a plane bring a bunch of cash. Do they question it? So, so I, I, I know there's some rules about over a certain amount, I think over $10,000, you're supposed to, you know, let somebody know or, or you know, do something with that. I just know there's some rules. I've never brought that up. I've carried the cash in a backpack. I've sent it through the, the TSA scanner. It comes out the other side, no one's ever said anything. So. And again, I've asked a few people and they said, yeah, like, if you own a business, you know, bring some, bring a business card with you. Something like that. Again, I, I've never been asked and being a card, I really love Canada and it keeps me from trying. He says, I love the hobby. I have little interest in being a card show dealer. I really love Ken's perspective and it keeps me from trying. Sports Mike says, okay, we, we do dealers put cards aside for the national. If it's 400 today, why hold it for six weeks and sell it for 400 at the National? So many dealers holding. Is there, is there a national premium? Yes. That's a great question for you. I'm, I'm doing the same thing. Like, literally, if you've been here listening to what I've been saying over these last months since December, I'm doing the same thing. There's cards that I've pulled out that I've, I've could have, I've operate. If I brought those to a show, they would immediately sold. But I am keeping these for the National. Right. So I am planning on. Yeah, there's going to be a premium on not every card, but there's going to be a premium on some cards that I'm going to put out there that, you know, and if I don't get it, I'm happy to come home with them too. So that's the difference. I, I also think, Ken, with you too, though, it's like it's, it's not necessarily all about the money where it's also part of, it's part of, part of, it's part of your plan and your experience and your, your big hurrah at the national too. Like, it's also part of the experience for you. Even more, I don't want to say more so than the money, but how you explain it, you know, it, it, it. There is an element of that, right? Yeah, I, there's so much that goes on with it that, that. Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. And, and, and you know, a lot of people I've taught, I'm talking to, you know, they're, you know, we've all been talking over the last so many years, you know, this 80% and 85% and oh, if it's a case hit, it's 95, but everything else is 92, 87. N. I mean, you're going into a big show like this, it's 100% unless there's a thousand of the same card in the room. Right, right. And then. And if that case, you know, you do what you want to do, whether you sell it today or you hold it. But I mean, the goal is when you're getting cards to bring to a show like this, you're not. I'm not just buying just a. A card that has a pop count of 15 or 2000 or 2500. I'm trying to get a 300 pop count on it, 250, something like that. So it's a little bit more rare. So when someone sees it and says yes, like the, the, the chances of me finding another one here. Yeah, they're slim, but maybe not. So maybe I'll just buy that one now. And, and also, too, I think another thing about, like, logistically for you, setting up as a dealer, holding all that stuff, you could sell out all your stuff in the first day, so you need to make sure you have more stuff to put in your cases. Like, that's a real. That's a real thing to it. That wasn't really mentioned there. But like, that, that's logistically as a business, like, you need inventory. Not that you couldn't just buy inventory coming up, but just to have more on deck. Probably. And you'll probably run out of stuff by like the third or fourth. But like, you know, it's just to try to. To try to keep that from, from going, I would assume. Yeah, yeah. 100. I mean, I've. Literally, people have been reaching out. I'm saying literally, way too much today. I don't know why, but people have been reaching out. Repack. Repacker has been reaching out to me, saying, I'll, I'll. I'll clean you out. Like, I'll buy you out. I'll buy everything you have. You know, if you have anything else you could bring to the national, you take that and let me buy all your cards, type of thing. Yeah. Ziggy says, I've been watching Ken for years. I remember when you shared a table, then you were out with the management change. Then you went to the side. Yeah, I went to the, the SoCo. Yeah, that was in Cleveland. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I know. Up. Up until that point, I was setting up. So this last couple years, I, I've been out walking the floor. Why I have so much great information to share with you today. But now I'm back behind the table again, so I'm excited about that. So we were to just asked you a good question. Are you scared to Run low on inventory before Friday starts. Yes, okay. Yep, I am. And that's, and that's why you put premium prices on stuff that, I mean, going into it on Wednesday, Thursday, the price is the price. It's like you want to buy the card that's the price. You know, Saturday, Saturday, so many people will come through there. Even if I didn't sell one card on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I could sell every card on Saturday. Yeah, so, so, yeah, so you have to have to pace yourself. And I have to, I, I honestly, I have to say when I would. The last time I set up in Chicago in 2023, I was in that position. I sold a lot of cards on, on Wednesday, Thursday. And then I started going to all the trade nights and buying cards so I could bring back and put in my case. And, and I, I don't want to, I don't want to be in that, that position again. But your perspective, Ken, do you think Paige Beckers or Caitlin Clark will sell better at the national and, or, and, or Fanatics Fest? And why? I, Yes, I hope they sell well because I've got a ton of more, really more. A ton of Caitlyn rookies. But I think the national, I just think it's a much bigger stage than, than Fanatics Fest. And, and you know, I, I went to Fanatics Fest last year and I know people I talked to said absolutely crazy, crushed it. I felt the prices were insane. I thought the prices at Fanatics Fest were higher than, than the National. Just that was just my opinion when I was there, some of the cards, like I was just comping cards out and then, you know, looking at prices and seeing them 30, 40, 50% over what last sales were. So I would think a bigger audience for Paige and Caitlin will be the national and not Fanatics Fest. And I think we have a lot more, there's a lot more WNBA collectors that are coming to the national now too, that, you know, over the last three years I think that, that those collectors have really been growing and growing and growing and I like, I'm in these groups and, and I talk to a lot of people and a lot of people who've never been to the national are going this year that big WNBA fans. So. And do you know that the WNBA All Star Game is the weekend before the national in Chicago? That won't hurt. No, not at all. Just gotta hope that some girl doesn't try to beat the hell out of Caitlin Clark again. It's ridiculous. We have a limit of how many repackers can buy. I mean, if they're going to pay 120 on cards, they can. They can buy them all. Billy is good. Everyone in the room will be firm for almost all the show until the last two days. Yep. That's. I mean, we've. We've watched that. I mean, and. And I'm gonna tell you, you know, not to hurt myself, but I think the best deals happened in the VIP room and the trade nights. I mean, the. The easiest deals, the best cars that I bought last year all came at the trade nights, and they came at the. In, out of the VIP room because it puts everyone on the same level. Yeah, yeah. And Ziggy says moms and daughters are much more now. Yep. Yep. 100%. All right, let's just jump back onto this. Travel light, comfortable shoes, besides fully charged phone battery pack, hand sanitizer. Did we get all the way through this? Yeah. Bring. Oh, pace yourself. It's a long show. Bring cash. Like, I know people are. I talk to a lot of people like, they don't want to bring cash. They're like, oh, I'm gonna bring cards. And, you know, that's fine. Make sure your paypal Venmo ready, Zelle, Ready if you're going to be making electronic payments. But, you know, dealers still like cash, so if you bring cash, you're probably going to get a better deal. And. And, you know, talk when you're. When you're negotiating, when you're negotiating, depending on how you're paying. As a dealer, I love when people say it up front. I hate when I have to ask them. They're like, oh, you know, what can you do on this and that? I'm like, you know, versus when I'm at a table as an attendee, I'll be like, hey, what could you do cash on these two right here? Or something, like, so they know how I'm paying and we can get started that way. It's. It's. You know, it's the worst thing when you're negotiating with somebody and they're. And you're like. You're like, okay, yeah, we can do that. And then they pull their phone out and they want to PayPal you or something. You're like, no, bro, you got to pay me cash. You know, I can't. I can't get that great of a deal on. On PayPal type of thing. So. And that's a whole other episode we can talk about. But, yeah, cash is king. And definitely, if you're paying cash, tell people up front, you're You're. We'll start that episode with Ken hates taxes. We'll have a nice graphic for that. Yeah. And the next one, which I kind of just talked about, utilize that VIP room. Up until this year, when I needed a break, I used to go to the VIP room, right? Set up my cards like a trade night. Eat lunch, have a drink, iced coffee. Whatever I was doing, I. Setting up, and I was selling cards in there. Trade nights are in the VIP room. Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. Get there early, get a table, buy and sell in the. In at the trade night. And trade nights in the hotels are huge too, especially the hotels that are within walking distance of the convention center. And you have to remember, I mean, those. Those hotels are huge right across the street. And, and those hotel rooms are like 500 a night. And I. It's crazy because I know, you know, those lobbies have people at 3, 4, 5, 6 in the morning, 6. Still doing deals down there, right? You know, still running trade nights, just doing deals. Like, people buy those rooms, and I don't think people ever even sleep in them, basically. Yeah, that's. That, that, that, that's. That's my big run through there. That's all I got to say about that. Yeah. Life's like a box of chocolates. And be sensible. I mean, just pace yourself, especially buying things. If you find something super rare and you just make. Make a choice, you're gonna, you know, make a decision on it. If you want to think about something, find out what table number you're at. Right. You can just ask the person, what's. What's your booth number? What's your table number? You know, take a picture of it or make a note in your notes. You know, just so if you want to go back, you know where you're going back to, to that point. Is that app mascot still a thing? What's that? Is that app mascot still a thing? Yeah, yeah, it is. But the Ludex. The Ludex is doing the same thing. Okay. Yeah. They have an interactive map. And definitely that was another. The download. Put that thing on your phone. Because especially like, like when you're looking for Big Ken sports car lessons, and he says he's at table 20007 upstairs. You could pull out your Ludex map and just put in my. And it'll give you directions how to get there. Very cool. All right, so that's your table number, 20,007? Yes, sir. Wow, it's a lot of tables. Jesus. 20,000. I don't know. That's my table number, though. Okay. We'll wrap it up with something really quick. World cup quarterfinals coming into this weekend. Let's do some picks. All right. France versus Morocco. France. Deal. Same fair that France and Spain are on the same side. They gotta. They gotta beat each other up to get. For one of them to get there. The luck of the draw, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Spain versus. Oh, Ziggy says France won, so. Oh, all right. So great. Game over that was. Tonight's Thursday. All right. Spain versus Belgium. Spain. I'm gonna say Spain too. But if there is an upset in this, I think it's Belgium because you're looking at youth versus experience. That's what that matches Norway versus England. I. You know what? I want to pick the upset, but I'm just gonna go. I'm going Norway. I'm going Norway. I'll go against you, then I'll go English and I want to pick the upset. But I. I'm just. I'm going Norway. That's a. But you want them to win, right? You want Norway to win? Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna root for Norway. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm. I'm rooting with my heart. Argentina versus Switzerland. Clear. Yeah, I agree. So my thing is I want Norway to win. I think Belgium could be an upset with just the experience. One thing I wanted to touch on personally is a little update on. I have. I have three decent auctions ending the winner. Are we gonna wait till next week? Oh, I was just saying we're gonna go quarterfinals and then next go around we'll go semis. We'll just keep it a thing. Okay. See where we're at. All right. I'm golden. Two days left. My Aaron Judge auto out of five is only at $650. It's pretty terrifying. Is that the one you sent and you thought you were going to send it back and then they decide they list? No, the one that they tried to send a PSA is a messy autograph right now that is not in my possession as right now would be pretty good time to have it, right? Yeah. So that sucks too. And then on fanatics collect, I have a. A Berry Bonds patch autograph. It's the highest graded and the Beckett Beckett Pop Pop report, it's a BGS 95. It's at 410. It's 2, 000 upper deck pros and prospects. And then the last card I have that I want to mention is a super fractor of Josue Gonzalez. That is on PC sports cards. And that is currently at. Oh, God, let me pull it up. That is at 1050 with two days left. So we'll see where that ends up at. This chat is on fire with everybody with the soccer. I love it. Billy is good. The Judge auto is in the June Golden Elite auction. So if you type in 20, 26 tops, Chrome, black auto, out of five, it should pop up. Oh, they want. I will share. Give me a second. I will share the link in the chat. We have a couple requests here. Share copy. Let me get into our YouTube live. Ziggy, what days are you at the. At the national this year? Because. Because at some point we got to meet up. So either you got to come to my table or we gotta. I gotta find you somewhere. I just dropped a link in there, too. Oh, good. Dylan Welker says, as a dealer, if you don't have a good show for selling stuff, do you prioritize leaving with inventory and try again somewhere else or selling low and taking the loss? No, I mean, this. This. This is a marathon. It's not a sprint. So I am happy. I am happy to take the cards and move on. You know, I know everything I buy, I have an exit strategy for. I try to buy stuff that's that other people want, that are pretty liquid and that there's collectors for. So, I mean, I. Especially at a show like the National, I feel. They feel really good about moving all my inventory there. But if something doesn't move, which I. I'm never surprised, I go home with inventory. I am happy to take it with me and set it up in another show. Ziggy says, Nice. 50. 50 right now. Agree. Look forward to meeting. We need to do a big picture with all the fans at the National. Ken's booth. Absolutely. Ziggy says he might hug me. No, Dylan, that's why we're here for it. That's what we're here for. You got questions? And you know what? We appreciate everybody and all the active chat tonight. I mean, that's the goal when we do this show, to get everybody active and asking questions. And, you know, and a lot of times, if you're asking a question, somebody else probably like, wow, that's a great question. I can't wait to hear the answer, you know, so, yeah, don't ever apologize for that. Anything else to touch on? No, I think that's it. That was a great episode. So next week we have to talk. Zip is not available for Thursday, so just keep an eye out. We're either going to change to a different night next week or I will find somebody to bring on to co host but we're hoping the, the, the, you know, just changing up the date a different day next week that'll work for him. So alrighty. And that's where we're at. Hey, great episode. Thanks Sports Mike. Thanks Ziggy, Thank Dylan. Everybody else who's been in, Billy, everybody that was in here tonight, appreciate you guys love the, love the interaction stuff but oh, this weekend too. I'm not sure, I'm not sure what I'm doing this weekend for show wise. There's, I think there's like a local show on Sunday. I'm not sure about Saturday. Whatever there is, I'm probably going to be at that locally. No plans to travel far this weekend. So if you're local here in Connecticut, look for me. I'll probably, you'll probably see me at a show. I want to thank everyone for watching, thank everyone for listening. Please, like please subscribe. If you haven't subscribed, please hit that subscribe button below and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Zip. Have a good night. Have a good one. Sa. Sam.