Grant Williams: What NBA Players Know That Collectors Don’t

Este cuatro de julio and loaves ahoras ta cuarrentay cinco porciento en electro domestico Selectos a de mas ahora ochenta dola parria gas selecta Char broil performance series. Ahora dos sientos noventa y nueve dolares nuestra mejor Selection esta quie Lowe's. Lowe's. Nosotros ayugamos. Two ahoras. When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place. So nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. I never pulled my own auto rookie because I don't have one. What's that, like, box of panini? One and one. And I hadn't ripped that product ever. Sure. It's my rookie year. I've never done this before. And I open it and it's a Celtics box and pulled Romeo Langford out. I was like, cool. I look down, it's me staring back at you. What are the odds that the one box you've had in your closet for the past four years, hoping that Zion was gonna be amazing, had me in it? Welcome to the Collector nation podcast here on the Collector Nation network. Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, we take you inside the hobby. Here's your host, Ryan Alfurry. What's up, guys? I had a great conversation today with Grant Williams. Yeah, that Grant Williams. He's the forward of the Charlotte Hornets, which are right at the road from us here in South Carolina. Grant was awesome. We talked all about his venture into collecting. He's still just a collector. It's not a business. He's collecting for him. Talked about what it's like being a player, collecting other players and how many other NBA stars are collecting cards. Lots of fun. Talking about rips, talking about the boys and how we got into the industry. Really fun conversation. Grant is a lovable, likable guy. I'm, I'm, I was a fan. I'm even bigger. You will be bigger after you listen to this and let me tell you anal insight about what happens when those signature cards end up on the superstars coffee table. That and more right now. What's up, guys. We are here and, you know, we're going deep, we're going along. We're going right up the road to Charlotte. From where we are, we got the forward from the Charlotte Hornets, Grant Williams. What's up, Grant? How's it going? Right. Dude, I am pumped. I. I get to talk a little basketball. I get to talk a little cards. I get to talk Charlotte Hornets. I grew up, you know, right down the road. The Hornets were a. What is it, an expansion team or whatever you call it back in the day. I'm aging myself. That's how long it's been. They've. They've had names. Two different names. Now, Grant, you were alive since the 88. 88. 88 expansion. Oh, yeah, yeah, dude. I was 11 years old. You got the best of years, and then you got the low of years. Now you're back to the best of years. I know, exactly. You guys are exciting, man. I mean, congrats on the season. I mean, I. I was rooting for you. You guys look good. I mean, it's been a long time coming. I mean, just, just. Just being real about it. But now it looks like they got a lot of. A lot of good happening. Absolutely. Growing up here in Charlotte, I feel the same way. You know, I was here during the Bobcat years. I didn't get your. I didn't get the Elder. The Elder Hornets, where you had the Dell Curries and the rest of Chapmans. I was dealing with DJ Augustine, the Mecca Okafor's, you know, Gerald Wallace's, you know, I had. I had that group. So like you said, I've seen two teams. I've seen the Bobcats and now the Hornets. I remember the Bring Back to Buzz campaign. And, yeah, it feels good to be a part of the group that hopefully I can turn it around and make something special here. You know, it's super exciting and fun to watch for the generation after me. Yeah, man. How is it going? Like, it looks like if it's the first time I was watching the playoff game and the, you know, I know it didn't end exactly like you wanted, but at the same time, I was just like, this is the first time it's felt like a. Like this team's together on, like, I don't know, something felt a little different. Yeah, there's a level of camaraderie with this group. The group is very connected, but also, I think we're establishing a foundation, a great culture with bunch of guys who not only are focused on the right things and Winning, but also, you know, preparing, you know, having work, making sure that we're elevating one another every single day. Not just on the floor, but off as well. So outside of just what the organization is building with the. From the top to bottom front office to. To the coaching staff, all the way down to the players, you also have the group of individuals who focus on just the day to day. You know, I feel like we don't look ahead to 20, 30 games away or we don't look at. To the future of playoffs. We kind of focus in on just making sure we can be the best us we can possibly be. And how we show up is. Is critical. I love it, bro. I'm rooting for you. I think y' all got something brewing. And how many years are you in the league, bro? This is now my. Going into my eighth year in the NBA. Yeah, I'm kind of getting old, dating myself, dude, eight years. That's great though. I mean, you've beaten the average by like what, seven years? Yeah, I would say average, I think is nowhere around three. So. Yeah, like I said, it's been five extra years and then hopefully, you know, go from. Try and play as long as I possibly can. But honestly, it's a great place to be. Charlotte has been, you know, phenomenal in terms of, you know, starting like the organizational foundation started in Boston my first four years. We accomplished some great things. You know, I went to the finals, you know, went to a couple conference finals. It was just a great experience. And I was able to go now to Dallas and now see the development of this orange team. It's kind of. You see every part of the. The league. You saw the best of teams. You saw the middle of team, like the mid, kind of like middle side. And then you've seen the worst now back up to the midd, slash past again. I. My son trains. He's 10 with Bryce McGowan's father, Bobby, and. And so he's training. So I get to. We. We root for Bryce, who's with the Pelicans. And he got a brother's pretty good too. Yeah, his brother's good. I play. I play with Bryce when he. When he was first on the Hornets, got. Got traded here and Bryce was still on the team before and that following Summ. That's when he left the summer league and when it got signed to the Blazers. Yeah, man, he's. He's got. I think he's got another gear to unlock. He needed to put on a little weight. He did. He looked Good this year. I mean, he played a lot, so I'm rude for him, but I figured you might know that name. His dad's awesome. I mean, like, yeah, like just salt of the earth guy and works with my wife and love that family. Good people. Granger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail. Filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail. Filters ready to clog. H VAC on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it. Sure. Dude, when do we get into collecting? Yeah, collecting started honestly, what was it? When I was younger, Like, I started very, very young age. I was playing Yu Gi. Oh, I was playing Pokemon. I was more TCG than it was sports collecting. Like, I had some cards due to my like, family who played. Like I had slingstar Meyer cards or like signed jerseys and things of that nature, like memorabilia. But it wasn't really started to card journey until probably 2020 was when I got back into the hobby and it started to the national. I did a deal with ebay, came to the national, talks about how I collected in the past, and they're like, hey, if you ever like got into it recently, I said no. So went out to the show, saw the environment, and ripped a box of Shadowless Pokemon, which is what I was into back when I was doing TCG and I had a Shadowless Mewtwo. Still have the card upstairs in my PC to this day. And I was like, you know what? Like, I'm getting back into this. And then kind of just went in from there. From 2020 to 2022, 2023, I was all TCG. And then fanatics fest happened and I ripped sports for the first time with bricks With Jess. Jess Mineo. And she was walking me around the show. I was like, hey, have you ever ripped sports? I said, no, I have no idea what the sports market's like, don't know anything about. Like, why do you collect certain players versus others? Like, why the hobby is the way it is. And so I was just ripping and ended up ripping the 2018-19 National Treasures Luca Auto RPA out of 10. True RPA. And when I sold that at auction, I was like, looks like I'm in the sports now too. So that moment on, I went sports and tcg. So I have a little bit of everything now that that economic chart goes up a little in sports. Both. Both the upfront cost and the upside. Right. I don't know. Pokemon 2. Pokemon now is vintage at least is. Yeah. Ridiculous. 5,000. $5,000 packs. You know, back then we're paying $600 and there. Even that was expensive to me. So, yes, sports now is insane as well. You depending on certain products, you look at top scroll hobby, top scrum, football either, and basketball, you look at anything sports related. Baseball is kind of the one low kind of entry point. But even then, it's still not considered low. It's still expensive. Like $700 box. I know it's become. I don't know, It's. It's a whole other gear right now. I own a shop. I'm. I shoot this show right out of our shop. We're gonna have to get you down here, man. It's a cool store, man. It's. I. It's the flagship store of South Carolina. I'm. I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there. And I'm not knocking any other store. I'm saying we got 3,000 square feet, studio built in. It feels like a sports bar. We got a pack bar, so it's legit. What to get you down here. The. That'd be sick. The. But the dude, my boys and I got into it for, that's what we did. We were ripping. I got four boys. They're age 10 to 16 now. When we got into it, it was like, you know, 8 to 14. So it was a couple years ago, and I collected growing up. But dude, when you got 5D rolling every time you open packs, that gets expensive. Adds up quick. Yeah, like, man, I'm like. But we went through like 100 grand in like six months. I don't even. I don't even know what I was like. We were into it, man, but it was fun, man. It's like you know, doing it with your kids. You know, what's been your favorite pool experience with. With them? Like has there ever been a car or even just a experience where it's like maybe it's not a car but just a rip where you're like, wow, this is like something I'll always remember. Yeah, man. It was like, well, here's. There's so many now because we got into it and we're football family. Right. I went to Clemson and Clemson's football territory. This is Clemson, you know, Clemson territory where we live. So college football and then pro. Just pro football, college football, all football' you know, in the South. Right. And so. And I played basketball growing up. So we do love basketball. So it was. We were either open football, maybe basketball or football. And so we were literally. It was beginning like when the 24th season with all the hot rookie quarterbacks. Yep. And we opened. I don't know how many. I mean we knew every variation there was of every parallel of Caleb of jj, of Jaden Daniels and Bo Nicks. And so we have a lot and we would film it like of us getting like autographs or like out of tens, you know, like low numbered stuff of like Caleb and like one moment that recall at general we were about to go to bed. We always do it at night. Like it's like late night, better go to bed. And it was one of those all one more box things, you know. Right. This one laugh who might as well rip it, you know, as well. And my one son who's always using into it kind of wasn't. And then he decided to, you know, he'd get one pack in and he ripped like the most ridiculous Bo Nicks like out of 10 auto. I mean it was at the time like 5 grand. Like maybe not 5 and 3. 3 grand made card. Right. And it was like literally the last pack. So that's what made it mineral was like he didn't. He was gonna just bail it let someone. We were gonna get it either we were. Somebody was gonna open it either way. Right. But it was sort of all that and then that's how it happened. Yeah, dude. Like when I the best like best story, I said I'm need my partner, my fiance Kiki to start ripping more because like that's how it happened when every time I rip with her, her friend we ripped something crazy. When I was with her friend treasury, she ripped the Victor Womanyama auto like number to 7, like to 99. And I was like that was a true rookie. I was like, wow. This is insane. And then Tops Mercury. She ripped it out of 10 patch auto. I was like, wow. And then my fiance, we're just sitting on the couch. Same year, 2024 tops Chrome, but this time it was Sapphire. So we're just sitting there ripping and ripping boxes, and we had one case. Like, found it. Like, had a. Had a relationship to get a case, ripped it, and I'm not hitting anything. I think the best card I hit was like a. I think the best card I had a non Auto drake May to 25, which I was super excited about. So of course, I thought that was the best card I was getting out of the box. And then all of a sudden, she's just ripping, ripping, ripping. She pulls his card aside. She's like, I got this Redemption. It' Caleb Williams. It says, Papa Papa, Bro Papa, Papa something. And I said. I said, papa Radaska. And she's like, yeah. It says Caleb Williams, Tops Chrome. I said, you know, that's a one of one Caleb Williams auto, right? She said, no. And like, you know. Yeah. In her hand was one of the cars that, you know, I ended up moving it. You know, I think I. For close to 70 or something like that, but it was worthwhile. Like, I screamed. I was excited. Like, dude, I have a video on my. We were recording. So fortunately, we're recording. We're just laying on the couch. And she. She ripped it and had no reaction. And that's what I said. Like, she needs to start ripping more with me because she has the hot hands whenever she. Because she doesn't know the product. So she was like, yeah, this is this. Yeah. Is this good? And it's like, well, yeah, yeah. So. All right, I got. All right, I brought up another one. So my oldest son, Clayton, is the probably the least into cards. He's into cards, but it's just the three of them are, like, off. Off the chain, you know, into it. And he's kind of least into it. He liked to do it, but he kind of take it or leave it. This was early. It's like the first. We finally got him into it. We were watching the super bowl, not this year's super bowl, the year before, right? We're ripping through absolute. And he doesn't know the cards either, right? And so he's. We're watching the game. We're all ripping, kind of watching the game out, and he's going through them and he's calling them out, and he's calling out the names because he doesn't. He knows most of the players, but doesn't know the card if there's inserts and all that. Right. He's going through it. Okay, name, name, name. Kaboom. Name. Wait, what? And it was probably. It was a good like like 15, 20 seconds. And I go. I stopped because I knew. I thought I'd heard a, you know, a trigger word. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's not really a normal word that you say anymore. The old school cartoon name. And I said. And he'd already like gone through the whole pack and set it down. And he had no idea. Right. And I said, did you say kaboom? And he goes, yeah, I had a, you know, I had one that said kaboo. Look a pretty cool card. And. And when the other three boys start chiming and we go, what? We go through it. And literally he had a kaboom in. In the pack. And it was literally Kansas City Chiefs were playing and it was worthy for Kansas City. Yeah, Kaboom. And he was on the screen, like when we grabbed the card, like, it was that like, oh, what? And he's. He's probably sitting there thinking nothing of it. Like, oh, yeah, it's just kaboom. No, he had no idea. He had no idea if it was just a regular. Because, you know, they have a lot of inserts are pretty cool and if any. Right. You want now that we. Yeah. The accident. I'm holding a Julius Irving kaboom right here. There we go. The. You. It's one you can't forget. You're just. You're mentally tying that to a high value card. But you know, there's so many. There's a lot of those inserts that look like they could be a case hit. But oh yeah, all the time when you're ripping, you're like, when I first open a product and I don't. I never look at checklists. So like, anytime I rip for the first time, any video I post, it's me ripping without knowledge of what's in the box. Yeah. So like, I'll be like, is this good? Like, is this Bowman Sterling? And then I'll go back and look like, okay, it's not nothing. But then like, there was one time I was ripping and I'm like, this insert. And I was like, yeah, it says aura. But like, is that like, I don't know if ORA is a case head or anything like that. So I put it to the side and then you go look up the checklist and you're like, or is a case hit or ssp. It's like, oh, you got to go now. Search through 100 cars just to be able to find that one card you put to the side thinking it was nothing. Yeah, because there's some. There are sort of obvious, and then there's some that aren't. Like, like, there's. The obvious ones are like the. You know, the ones where you're like, oh, Slammy, this dude has a huge head. Like, headliner. Like, something gotta be. Gotta be huge, versus, like, other ones. You're like, I've seen, like, two of those. You know, they might both be SSPs, but I have no idea. I mean, I'll say this. Here's what I've never done that you have, And that's back in January. I never pulled my own auto rookie out of a box. Right. Because I don't have one. What's that like? Oh, sheesh. When I was in. That's a funny time. The best experience that I've had is when I was sitting with Jess, actually. She had a box of Panini 1 and 1. And I hadn't ripped that product ever. Like, I was just one card. Like, what makes. Like, how is this a super exciting product? She's like, well, if you hit like a crazy auto, you know, you're going to, you know, be happy whether Zion John. I was like, yeah. I was like, what if you hit? Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know about sports. So then I started thinking about it, and she's like, I'll buy it off you. Sure. It's my year, my rookie year. I've never done this before. She hands me the box, I pay a pair for it, and I open it, and it's a Celtics box. I'm like, okay, so Roman Langford's on the top and pull Romeo Langford out. I was like, cool. I look down. It's me. It's like staring back at you. Staring back at me. I'm like, what is the. What are the odds that the one box you've had in your closet for the past four years that you only box that you bought of this product that you were holding for the longest, hoping that Zion was going to be amazing, had me in it. And we just met. We just met two weeks ago. Next, you know, I look at it, it's patch out of five. And I was like, what? How does this happen? And also, I remember sitting at the Panini when I first got drafted, when I was sitting there signing all these cards. I remember signing this card. So it's like, it's really funny. Crazy. It's like, cool when you. It's cool when you hit yourself. But then you have to remember, like, do I even remember signing this? Like, like, even more recently, I was telling people because I had the signature class, top signature class. And I'm like, all over the product, I guess, and all of my autos are redemptions. And I'm like, yeah, guys, I apologize. I've had those on my table for the past, like, two months, so I should have said those back in. So there is a few wonder. And that's a good insight actually for. And I knew this fact. But, like, if you get a redemption, it's because, you know these superstars that are busy, you know, they got a life to live. Yeah. You got a little delay in signing. You could easily have been signing them while watching the game or doing stuff, watching film, but you're just like sitting there like, I'll get to those eventually. Not realizing that now all of your cards are redemptions because people have been waiting. And, like, I remember there was a funny. Josh Allen had a similar story where a person brought in the redemption to the practice, to the Bill's practice. He signs a redemption saying, I'm sorry, man, I'll try and get those in here soon. That is awesome. But it's. That is a crucial insight. It's usually. It's not because it's usually a delay. The players got it. Or it could be. No, it's usually. It's usually our fault. I'll give you full, full transparency, like, manufacturer. Like, the only time it's a manufacturer issue is if, like, they haven't been able to, like, locate the player's new address and, like, haven't had a chance to get the cards to them. Normally it's like the players get it to their. Whatever they play. Like, they deliver them to our arena sometimes. And your, you know, player manager or whoever it is or for the team hands you their car and say, hey, get these signed. You know, make sure you have a witness, blah, blah, blah. And then players are just like, yeah, I'll get them eventually. And then four months ago by. You'll realize, you know, that product came out two months ago. Maybe I should sign these. There it is. Breaking news. The truth comes out of why the redemptions happen. But it brings me a good question. All right, I gotta follow up on that Grant. So you now know collecting how important condition is. Yeah. Do those corners get dinged sometimes by the player? All the time. Okay. All right. Some players don't Understand the value of the cards. Yeah, they don't know. They might be like, like I have these UNO cards in front of me so they might be like, all right, cool. Like tapping them on the table, like making sure like they're stacked like this. So that way they get a good sign. So it's like. Yeah, so sometimes it's not in the manufacturer. Sometimes it is. So sometimes like when there's a consistent issue across a bunch of cards. Yeah, like I know in like, like the series one with all. All kings and they had those little peel ups on the back of the car. Yeah, that's probably manufacturer. But like the occasional where it's like why is this corner dinged if it wasn't like the breaker the. Or the, or the packager or the person that did it or you got it straight out of a pack. Why does it look like this? Yeah, it sometimes can be the player that like accidentally did something with them or dropped them or was like messing like looking at the cars touching the corners like this and just kind of going after it. They try not to put those cars, I feel like in the packs is what I assume because you'd sign so many of them like out of outside of the 99, whatever it is, they probably have six extra cars that you have signed like or six to 10 extra cars. So if like one messes up, you can always reprint it and stuff like that. But yeah. Oh no. Limited edition ones. Yeah, a little tougher. Yeah, limited the one of ones. Let's just say it's more difficult. Talking with Grant Williams. He is the forward of the Charlotte Hornets and professional ripper like yours truly, the Grant to that end on on card sticker, you know, autos suck. It's like you, you know, you signed them, you know, and it's like you see them now and collect it. You don't want that sticker. Right? Like it's difficult because you hope to, you know, not have sticker autos and you always wonder why, you know, like, why is there a sticker on this? And certain products like they may not ship to the player. So that's what the stickers are for. And I think I've signed more stickers than I have actual cards in my opinion. Like they have you sign so many because I don't think that sometimes they decide whether or not a player is going to be in a product. So like if they do decide this player's in this product, we don't want to always deal with redemptions with certain people. Like because like some People might not sign consistently or some people, like, might be harder to track down. So like it's easier just to sticker it rather than, and to like have them sign 10,000 stickers and then, you know, rather than send these 100 cards in the moment and hope they come back in time. So I think that's part of the reason. But like, for, even for me, like, I'd love a good on card auto. It makes it so like a card that much cleaner and it just shows the players kind of had it in their hands. That's another thing that makes it feel kind of cool where it's like, hey, like, I know Messi touched this card because it's something that's on card. Like he had to be there to be there to put this on. It's not like we're the ones, you know, signing stickers and then we're peeling it off and going, you know, it's just a little bit different. Different. I agree. The I, I pulled. We the boys and I opened the Hobby 20, 25 Signature Hobby Boxes this past weekend. Got a Magic Johnson on card and who was the other guy that I keep forgetting his name. And I. And James Harden. And I know James. Yeah, James Harden. Those two aren't the most common on cards you get, I'll tell you that. It was pretty cool. I haven't, I haven't seen honestly many James Carden on card autos because like he wasn't a, like it wasn't like he was this superstar prospect in the be. So even his rookie auto, I don't, I couldn't tell you if he had. I haven't seen his rookie auto before. Yeah, it was cool. That was cool. We, we. And it was 10 out of 10 sick. You know what's crazy? Like the finest autos I think are so cool. So like Larry Bird signing and like those like legends that you like, same product they had when they were playing but like there's no autos of them. Like I think that's such a cool way of like getting them back into it. Like I have a Larry Bird tops finest auto to 5 at grading, right. And like for me, like that's something that like, who knows what the value is worth of it but like it's going to be a car that I had in my collection for the longest because Celtic, you know, old school design, it just seems so clean. Yeah. There I'm a Celtics like closet like Celtics fan. I don't, I don't wear the gear around, but I've always pulled for him. I grew up watching the Bird and Mikhail and the Chief, all the guys. Old school. That was my. That's true. Old school. That's. That's fighting days. That's like back in the day when it was fun. Danny Ainge. Oh, yeah, Danny. You know, like, days was playing now, the kids wouldn't even know. Doc was a. Was a baller. Yeah, he was. Alice. I always think of his Hawks career, and I'm always like, dang, Doc was nice. And then you look at. You look at certain players, like, certain. All these former coaches, like, you'd be like, oh, they had a career. Like Emi Udoka played for the spurs. You know, like, there's certain people where it's like, you just have. You had no idea unless you were true, like, ball knowledge. Like, ball nowhere. Steve Kerr, I mean, he won five, six titles. I don't know if he was there for all six years, but like four or five of them. Oh, no, but he won. He. He won a lot because he went to the spurs right after he. He won those three with the. With the Bulls. And he went to the spurs and won immediately. And like, he's accomplished now. He has all the coaching rings. He has more rings than the most, other than, like, Phil Jackson and Robert Ori. Yeah, Robert Ori, dude, he's a dog in the playoffs. Underrated name right there. Yeah. How many players collect? I mean, how prevalent is it? I think it's pretty prevalent now. A lot collect discreetly. I feel like nowadays because, you know, not everybody wants to make content, wants to do these things where they show off kind of their collections. And like, some people just, like, are the ones who are the ones buying these cars on whatnot or buying these cars on ebay and fanatics. And you have no idea, like, how did this car sell for this? And it's like, well, there's probably a player on the other side doing it, but, like, I have a lot of friends who are into it, but they just don't like the public, like, like, knowledge of it. But then there's some that, like, love it. Like, I know what's it called from Laravia from the Lakers. He. He loves collecting. Zach Levine's posted about how he's enjoyed collecting. Like, there's a lot of guys who do, but then there's the ones who, like, do it discreetly and collect or even that just collect themselves. Like, I know talk to Seth Curry, and he just got into collecting sports. He does. He collected Disney with his daughter and people like that. But now he's into collecting his cards as well as his teammates and others. So he's been getting into that. So it's pretty cool. I got some cool. Seth, when he did V Friends, some of those manga cards, he did just get any of the new V Friends cases. Oh, yeah, it's coming. It's. And I got. I've signed up for a few other back deals. Gary's been on this show, been on a couple my business shows. Just the number one show in marketing on Apple and I. Right. He's been on it several times. So, hey, I'd call him a friendly acquaintance. Not only that we're friends. I mean, I could serve a friend, you know what I'm saying? Right. But. But we know one another. And I love what he's done with that stuff. I think it's just getting started. I mean, it's a year, you know, second round with tops, and it's in high demand. It's going. I think this year's products one going to be the. One of the best to hold and also rip. Like, I think it's just such a fun product. It's good. Like, as people are now learning about not only the characters, but, like, the stories behind them, like, I think it's just gonna continue to balloon. So, like, if you could find those 2023, like, kind of 2024 kind of cases and stuff like that, like, I'm a big fan of it. So, like, even right now, like, I was like, I hadn't. I bought three cases and I was like, do I rip all three? Do I rip one? So I'm like, rip one and see how it goes. That's what I'm saying. My plan is to RIP1. I have it at the house, my house, RIP1 and now hold the other two of them in the vault. Because I can't keep anything in the house because if I do, it's going to be ripped. Oh, yeah, it helps mine stay at the store. I take home. What's like, yeah, okay, we can. We can rip these. Right? Right. You take them home. Because if you don't take them home, like, and you're. You don't have to worry about it. But when they're at the house just hanging out, hanging around, you have to, like, then be like, it's upstairs. You know, I feel like ripping something. You know, I feel like, you know, taking a gamble. You know, I might as well see if there's anything cool in this box. It is a fascinating thing, you know, tagline at stores, you know, united in the chase. I mean, it is kind of that chase. And it's. I don't know. I mean, there's. There's all sides of it, but there's. I think it's a healthy thing on the collecting side, as long as done responsibly. And it's. I'd rather. I know you think about, we got the pack bar. I mean, I'd rather people be bellied up to this pack bar than. Than, you know, taking shots. Not that. Not that there's not a time and a place for everything, but, yeah, it's. It's a fascinating landscape because of just how popular it all is right now. Oh, no, it's going to keep ballooning, I feel like. Because even, like, in markets like you have Asia, that's really popular. It's becoming popular. I don't think Europe's really, like, taking it a full charge yet. And when that happens, I feel like, keep going, like, because, like, those European players and like, on the sports side and, like, soccer market, like, I'm surprised still by the soccer market right now, now, because of how inexpensive cards are. And like, some of these best players, like, of course, Messi sells crazyly. Of course, you know, Ronaldo and these names, but, like, even like the Yamals and the Hollands and like, the people who are currently playing that are, like, wicked like, or the old names where you have Ronaldo from old. You have, you know, Pele. You have all these names. And soccer is probably the most global sport. So seeing that market and how it is honestly amazes me. And I think that it's just something that will continue to grow. The sports card markets ballooned in the past two years. It's unlike 2020, when 2020, I feel like there was just high sales and it wasn't like people were, like, truly involved in the collecting. They weren't, like, bought in, like, collectors. And, like, I love this card. You know, it's now I feel like people are starting to get attached to products, get attached to players. Like, my favorite player is this guy because I met him. So, like, you know what? Rather than getting just a signed jersey, I'm gonna get two of his rookie cards. You know, it's really cool. Cool. Yeah, man. And I. It just, again, if with my boys, it was just fun to something to do as a family and, you know, brought us together to hang out for a couple hours during that, you know, that was. Was meant I would have spent whatever, you know, for those moments. Yeah, for those times, like, especially, like, that's how I feel like I'll be with my, like, future kids where it's like, yeah. Even if it's just like, night in sports and it's like, hey, you want to collect Disney? You want to collect these, like, certain characters you like to watch, like V Friends. You're reading the comic. Like, these are things like, hey, let's just spend some time at the kitchen table and just rip. And next. You know, your excitement and joy is the same thing that I'll have. And it gives you those same, like, you look back to, like. I remember that day when me and my dad were sitting in, you know, this card shop and we hit this crazy. Even if it's not valuable card, but it's a card I've had the rest of my life. Exactly. Brings a lot of moments. What. What's your favorite card? And. And you know, like, something you're chasing. Yeah. I feel like my favorite card in my collection right now is Gold Star Charizard that I ripped. It's a tcg. Yeah. Because it's so. It was so ra. Do and actually rip it and grade it. Like, for me, that was one of my favorite cars and probably would never leave my PC. And then as well as I have a Leon Messi Dynasty Patch Auto that, like, I freaking love. That is so sick of this year. And something that's in my collection that's more PC as well. Asset car kind of something that, who knows, I could pass it down to my child in the future. And then I would say the. The other most important sports card that, you know, I'm a huge fan of. Like, I have a bunch of, like, my own rookies, but more so the Mo Salah. Like, I'm a big Mosula fan, so he has first autos in Dynasty this year. So I made sure to pick up out of five Patch Auto. And of course, I want his one of one, but I don't want to spend that level of money for it. But it was so that for me, it's so cool. Those are two soccer cards. I collect baseball more for prospecting, just for the joy of it. You know, I like, keep up with prospects and then for football and basketball teammates. So those are probably my. My personal collection journey and also my favorite cards. And then who I'm chasing right now, like, depends. Like, honestly, it depends on the product. Like, depends on the day. Like, you name a case hit and I'm going after it. Yeah, like, you name. You name a product, and I'm like, I'm all in on it. It's like Bowman baseball. I've been ripping a ton of and it's like more recently. And then on top of that, like, I ripped some tops, Chrome, Sapphire football and I hit Aston Jen piano to five. And I'm like, is that like, for me is of a card for like my collecting journey? Probably not. But, like, who was I looking for? Like, of course I'm like, looking for friends that I know. So like. Or people that like. I'm an Eagles fan. So I try my best to find some Eagles players like and rip those. I can add those to my PC. So like, I haven't really. I haven't. Honestly, I don't think I've sold Eagles player. So it's pretty cool. Got those hurts rookies hanging out. Yeah, no rookies because those before, like 2020 was right when I started playing Pokemon, not sports. So that's where I don't have any Hertz rookies, but I have some Hertz cars. Really huge, like, really huge to me at least. Yeah. Yeah, man. Is it just. Is it a business at all for you or is it all just collecting? For me, it's still kind of passion hobby collecting. Yeah. I've never really tried to make it a business because then you have to worry about like, profits and like, you're. You're doing it as like a true, like margin game versus, like right now, I kind of do it as like, you rip what you're comfortable ripping where financially it makes sense. And then. And you know, you try your best to collect the names. Like, of course you have cars that you want to hold for a lifetime that you pass down. Like, I kind of have it in three folds. I have my assets, like kind of cars where it's my gold case. I have everything that, you know, could potentially be the 300,000, 200,000, 50,000 in the future. Like, I ripped the gold downtown Wimy out of Optic and I graded it, got a nine. And more recently, that card sold for a, I think close to 100 grand. Yeah. And I was like, you know, like, that's a car that you just keep in a collection and you know you have it. And unless someone makes you an absolutely ridiculous offer for it, you know, you. You keep it for the next 10, 15, 20 years and then pass that down to your kids if you can. And then similar thing like my Messi's in that case, a couple like, major like my basketball, like my LeBron James Choice chalk toss, like Cooper Flag, Cactus Jack, All Star Auto, like, similar products where it's like stuff that you just won't be able to find goes to that case. And then you have my like personal collection, which is more like Eagles, like I said, the Liverpool. Like teammates. Like my own cards where I have like a case for that. And then I have my last case where it's like, okay, this is the stuff that I'll actually move and turn liquid cars. Anthony Edward. Like stuff like that where it's no true attachment or it's just products that I ripped and you know, you don't really see yourself keeping for the rest of your life. Life. Hey, man, that's smart collecting though. Exactly. That's. I like those three cases. Hey, taking notes if you're listening. You know, that's a good. That's a good order. It doesn't matter what the values are. They all could fall into those classifications. Yeah, it doesn't matter values. They each fall in their own category. And how you see them, like whether. If you see it as your PC, then put in your PC case and don't touch it because it's. It's tough when you dip into your PC case and now you're like, dang, like I sold that card. And like, I wish I had that for the rest of my life, you know. So for me it's like, all right, cool. So PC case knows that when that case is open and shut, it's open and shut. There is no opening back up and you know, shuffled through and moved. And then the other two cases are more like, all right, quick transaction. The other one is gold and asset. That's really the two. Three main things that I would say are at all add up. Grant, I'll get you out of here about a real quick rapid fire. Just a few questions in the. Related to the hotel hobby. Yes, let's do it. Most underrated player to collect O in what sport? That's really. Question. Yeah, I know exactly. Let's say basketball. Let's say basketball since you're a player. If I, if you had told me this two years ago, I would said Tyrese Maxi at the time. Nowadays. Yeah, that's what makes it tough because like the hard part about the hobby is some people like don't get the respect they deserve. So like I like. Of course I like a guy like Garrett Queen right now. He's a really talented rookie, can really pass the ball. Then the guys that take off, like Jalen Johnson, I would have told you that last year because I thought he was really talented and good. And I saw the Hawks, how they were progressing them and how they're pushing them. I like Matas Bazoulis from Chicago. It's just tough because they might not win, you know. So like there's a couple players that like you hope will continue to be great and probably the most like their markets aren't great but it really just depends on what their team's success does. So those are my three probably right now that I like because I think that they'll under the radar and they'll jump. I think as season comes in comes around. Of course you know there's a superstars that are great but I try my best to stay away from those unless they are somebody I think can be like LeBron one teammate whose cards you would buy now. Oh yeah. So cons dip market is dipped. So that's a great market to get into. Of course because you know, of course you might not have the rookie of the year but puz or success. But as the Hornets continue to get better, whether it's Khan Lamelo or Brandon, I think all three I would buy into just because as team continues to get better and as a. As we all continue to improve and perform, you know they're Mark he's the real deal. Yeah, they'll all join. Like I think those three just will all. Melo might not. He wasn't a flash in the pan. You think he's got the good. No, he's top. Yeah, he's got some goods. He's got the goods and those three really all have the goods. So I would say those three on our team one player you wish you had collected earlier. Wemby even more. Like I collected him to a decent amount, you know. Yeah, we knew about it. We all knew he was coming and everybody knew he was none of us. Everybody knew he was good but the question was how good could he be? And like of course you know I had some major cards of him. I had like. Like I said go downtown and like some like rookie autos and things of that interest basis. But like I didn't get any panini silvers or panini like color. Like I would have loved to have like a gold shimmer Bunby rookie. Right. And back then you could have bought it probably for like 10k or 15k. Now you're not touching it for less than 100 to 200 so. And if not a million on certain cards. So it's. It's. It's ridiculous. One card you'd never sell. Like I my Mewtwo shadow list my gold stars are as well as really any of the cards in my PC case, like Eagles, Liverpool and Grant Williams cards. Probably those two. Grant Williams, you got to do it. Hey, this has been fun, man. Promise me we'll get together at some point. Point. Let's do it. Let's promise. And listen, it's easy. We're only about, what, two hours away from one another. I think you're less than that. If I'm driving, it'll be fast. Yeah, I'll follow your lead then. Because let's just say. Let's just say I'm staying away from, from, from the speeding tickets in that route if I can. Yeah, yeah. Cool, brother. I really appreciate it. Give me, give the audience, they know who you are. But any deets on you know, where to follow you and all that stuff? Of course. Yeah. My name is Grant Williams, player for the Charlotte Hornets forward. I have a Instagram Grant Will collects. That's my collecting page. Grant Will two is just my personal page. So if you guys want to see a little mix of both, can follow either one YouTube channel as well. Grant will. Grant two will. And last but not least, I just, you know, if you guys see me in the community, come say hello because I'm always willing to not only make a deal, trade, buy, sell, and also just to have some chats, you know, talk about basketball, talk about any sports you want to talk about, as well as talking about TCG if you know a little bit about it. I got you. Appreciate it, man. It's been a lot of fun. Let's do it again soon. Let's do it again soon and we'll do it in person next time for sure. Hey, guys, you know, to find us the Collector nation dot com. We appreciate you bringing us up to number three in sports. We beat out those Kiss Kelsey brothers this week. I don't even know what's going on. Hey, you know, funny, I'm at Ryan Alford on Instagram. We appreciate you. We appreciate Grant. Dude, I'm, I'm buying now. I got Grant Williams. This guy guy is a gym on the court, off the court. We appreciate him. See you next time on Collector Nation. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us@collectornation.com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours. Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. 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