How Dugout Mugs Built a $55 Million Collectibles Brand (Kris Dehnert Interview)

We got a whole thing going on, but, yeah, we're over $55 million in sales. That was something that I think kind of caught me off guard is the collectibility of these. Welcome to the trading cards and collectibles podcast on the Radcast network. From chasing grails to calling bluffs and going inside the hobby, are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. What's up, guys? Welcome the trading cards and collectibles here on the radcast network. You know, I don't always get, like, shock and awe anymore and always go surprise or go. I haven't seen that before. And this next guest has been around. His company's been around. They're doing pretty well. You're going to hear that in a second and be ready to fall on the floor like I did a minute ago when Chris and I were talking. But I got sent a little gift, and this means why you got to watch the show. If you're listening, you need to watch. If you're watching, need to listen. But I got a beautiful baseball bat that's been carved into a mug. It's got our logo on it and my name handcrafted. For Ryan Alford, who doesn't like that swig for the fences, we've got Chris Denard. He is the CEO and just bad mfer of dugout mugs. What's up, brother? What's happening? What's happening? Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. This is fun. I love these. You know, you had me. You had me at the mug. It's cool. I mean, what the hell, man? It's like I'm all so simple but so fun. And who the hell wouldn't want, you know, your favorite team player, whatever, on a damn baseball bat. Just people with bad taste, I guess. That's who wouldn't want it. We tell him to say, when you grab our wood, man, you're gonna fall in love. So get ready. I knew I liked you. Yeah, man. Yes. A lot of ways we can go with that. But, Chris, man, I mean, we're. Where'd this idea come from? And what kind of bats are we talking about here? So the one you got right there is birch. And you know where the idea came from. I will always show love to Randall, my ex partner. We took the. He took a bearable baseball bat and he hollowed it out and turned it into probably one of the coolest mugs on the planet. And he had the idea, right? And he started jamming with it. And I Have a long background in business. And at the time I was looking for something just fun. I needed fun. I needed, you know, I said some prayers up about it. I said, send me somebody who needs my skill set to just run with something. And I've had some successes and failures, you know, learn more about yourself and the failures. But this guy came out of nowhere and I was like, dude, this was it and this was the guy and this was the thing. And, you know, I was like, you handle logistics, I'll handle the promotion. And I just started digging into my. I have a pretty cool network of people and business and otherwise. And yeah, man, we hit the ground running 2017, but he's the one that came up with the idea and that was kind of like the, the rocket fuel. And, you know, we ran it for, you know, a handful of years together and then he ended up retiring. He's significantly younger than I am and he was having a family and all this. I was like, dude, rock and roll. I'm having too much fun. I'm not going nowhere. So, yeah, we've been, we've been jamming ever since, man. I don't know how are you comfortable sharing Shell's numbers on the show? I don't care. I'm an open book, man. How many, what are we selling in bats? We're doing how many mil on this thing? Well, to date. And it's not just the mug, right? So we make, you know, we have, we turn bat slices into keychains and ornaments and we have. This is one of my favorites, a baseball cut in half, turned into a bottle opener and home plate shaped coasters. And we got a whole, we got a whole thing going on. But yeah, we're over $55 million in sales, which tells us. And you know what, so that, you know, what metric or what, what number is more impressive to me? 60,000 reviews online. That's what's more impressive to me because what it means is one equals the other people. Yeah, right, right. Feed each other, right? It probably wouldn't be, but if you don't put a good quality product out there and you don't back it up with a good experience. So like we, you know, our whole motto is to celebrate and serve the heroes of the baseball community by creating like next level stuff. Right? And that's what we've done. And the reviews and the people that we work with, you know, it speaks for itself. Collectibles show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. And ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you. You do Case hitsollectibles show. I want you to send in your favorite pulls of the week. And here's the difference. This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. Had a couple of those myself. A few. But it's not just about the value. It's about what you're collecting, what means something to you. Share a story, share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week that was your favorite player and you nailed it. So case hits, collectibles show, send in those videos. I want to know the stories. We're going to bring them to life here on the show. We're going to do a segment each week once we get rolling and get some videos in where we share that on the show with us. We want to feature you on collectibles show. Talk to me about, I mean, this process because, you know, like, it seems like obvious once you see it. It's kind of like those things. You're like, well, I didn't I think of that, you know, but. Or would that really work? But yet I'm holding, I think my own custom. This just holds 12 ounces, right? Yep. That one is a 12 ounce. Yep. 12 ounce mug here, the end of the bat. And you literally what, how's this etched on here? Like, talk about the process of making these. So that piece of wood was destined to be a baseball bat. So what we do is we get to the billet before they lathe it into a bat and we turn it into three barrels instead. So we're not wasting the wood. Originally we were chopping craft bats in half, turning the handles into bottle openers, turning the tops into mugs. Like that's what was going on. Not scalable, by the way, and pretty wasteful. So we, we get to the billet before it becomes a bat and we turned it into three barrels. And then we have custom equipment that punch the hole all the way down, goes down to about right there. And then there's a sealing process, a curing process. And then late, like this one right here. Like, because we're collectibles, I'm a big in the collectible space and that's why we got this conversation started. So this is one that launches tomorrow that we did for Pete Rose. It's his commemorative mug going into the cornfield. Right. So then all this is, oh, dude, it's sick. So I've been working with the family and we're releasing this tomor that's why it's on my desk. Is it limited release? Yeah, yeah. A lot of. We do a lot of limited stuff, man. You're only going to send me four. I mean, if you need some. I know a guy. I know a guy. Pete actually was one of the coolest dudes I met. He and I commentated game three of a World Series together for, like, two hours. And, man, like, some of the stories. I'm happy to share any of the stories you want, but, like, I want. Let's go there, brother. Let's talk. So Pete, so brilliant. Like, he's so smart, and he remembered things from so far back. And the Count when this happened and that happened and what the Count was and who was on second. Like, it's crazy. His recollection all the way there towards the end, that was incredible. You know, another one of the collabs I love was the Sandlot. And we all love the sandlot. So my buddy David Mickey Evans was the writer, narrator, and director of the Sandlot. And I hit him up on Twitter. I said, hey, dude, I'm the guy running dugout mugs. He's like, oh, my God, I've seen these things. And we launched a collaboration or up here on my shelf, it's the Legends Never Die collection. And we have a Legends Never Die hat that underneath the bill, it's the Sandlot Boys on the backstop. I'll do it. Sick. And then we'd have one where it's wrapped all the way around the mug, and it comes with an autograph photo inside. Because what we do. And the collectible world, because I'm big in the hobby, right? So the collectible world and dugout mugs just overlap so well, I get to do it all and call it work. Right? And the thing I did with the sand lot, and I mean, back here, it's Miggy and Big Papi and Mariano and Johnny Damon and Pete Alonzo is a great dude that we work with a lot. And it's just so cool, the things that we've gotten to do. You know, Reggie Jackson's of the. You know, it's wild. You know, there's a story here. And, you know, what I'm trying to do with this show is have conversations like this. They're around the hobby. But also, there's a. There's a great American theme here of dreaming big and, you know, turning your passion into profit and turning, you know, like, doing what you want to do. And, like, collecting is like, one of the great American pastimes. You Know, and. But it can become the full time when you dream big and you go big. And I mean, I think that's what your story is about. You know, you almost, you know, you had a life changing experience. You go to work and you start doing what you love and you turn it into a multi million dollar business. You take over the whole company and. And now you're making things that people cherish and they collect and making a pretty damn good life for yourself, it sounds like. Well, two things come to mind. Very different things. Number one, I built a lifestyle by design, right? I built it around the things that I, I love to do. And that came after that experience I had. You know, my priorities changed and I think my, my metrics changed because a lot of people chase the dollar. I was chasing the happy, like what makes me happy and how often can I do that? Every day. And if it's baseball cards or if it's celebrity events, or if it's, you know, making people just incredibly happy with something we made for them. I'm gonna share a story that happened two days ago. I'm in a big Astros fan page online. I work with those guys. We raise some money when the Hurricanes go through there. And I work with a lot of the players on the Astros. And there was a lady that posted something, and it was a her father's jersey or a jersey with her father's name over one of the seats that they were supposed to go to. He passed recently and they buried him in his Yankees jersey. And all the pallbearers carried award Yankees. So I saw that and I said, you know what? I'm gonna do something special for this lady. I reached out to her and I said, send me your favorite picture of your father, and I'm gonna turn it into a custom mug with Yankees on the front side commemorating his life. And I sent it to her. Actually, I sent her four of them because she had a couple siblings. And she's like, why'd you do that? And I said, why not? It's the right thing to do. You know, I saw that you were hurting and you needed to know that there's good things that are coming your way and that people, you know, you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Like, just putting good into the world. And I've created a business that I get to do that. And I impacted this lady so profoundly. And it's just the way the world works. Right? You got to go first. I just did a post about it on LinkedIn today, about, about Just going first in relationships. And guess what? At the end of the conversation she's like, hey, you know, my father had a about 100,000 baseball cards, Mickey Mantles and Babe Ruth's and all this stuff like that. And she's like, when it comes time, I'd like to give you one of those and you can help me, you know, direct where to, you know, how to. How to honor this collection. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, right? I just did it to be good to somebody who did a post and who was hurting. And as it turns out, now I'm gonna get a cool piece at some point. I don't even care when that I'm gonna have in my collection that has a story behind it. Because all we got is our stories, right? And I think that's what collecting does for a lot of people. Brings us back to that story when we were a kid, that first 89 Griffey that we pulled. Like, you name it, right? Like it all goes back to some kind of feeling. And I think that's what a lot of people are missing, you know, is. Is. And that's what collecting does. It brings you back to a feeling. It is a feeling. It's nostalgia, you know, and it's always. It's a little hard to, you know, like to encapsulate everything that it is, but it ever. It definitely is a feeling. And I love what you said there. Like, I really hung on to like, you go first. Oh yeah, like, like that could be a slogan in itself, like our monster for people. Like take the first step in building that relationship or, or creating that bridge. Right. You know, a bridge is like from one thing to the other. But the only way that gets there is for someone to lay the bridge down, to connect it. Yeah, start building. Start building it. And a lot of lessons we learned there. And it translates to the hobby too. You create these relationships and connections, you know, for trading or for business or life or all those things. There's so many parallels that come to life. Talking with Chris Denner. He is the CEO of Dugout Mugs. Back to the business, man. So how many different products are we making? We have a 12 ounce mug, the dugout mug. And again, you'll appreciate the names. Then we have the shortstop, which is a nine ounce, like a whiskey mug. We have the wind up, which is a wine mug, holds 6 ounces. This is called the Cutter in honor of my boy Mariano, where we cut the baseball in half and turn it into this. Then we got the season Opener, which is a baseball bat handle, bottle opener. We got a knob shot, which is a shot glass made out of a bat handle. Then we have a metal mug called the dinger. It's a 20 ounce spill proof tumbler that looks like an old Easton green machine. Remember those things? Yeah. So yeah. And then we started with the, you know, we started making the bat slice keychains that double as like an ornamen. Those are cool coasters. We actually. These, we haven't even launched these. These launch next week. We started making these stone coasters. Dude, they're sick. Like. Oh, wow. Yeah, they look so good. Yeah, we have stone coasters and I'm playing. This is something else that I haven't launched yet, but I don't mind sharing it. So we started first release here on the trading cards and collectible shot here. So we started playing around with the idea of mounting a bottle opener in the bottom of the mug. Genius, right? So it's like, dude, crack it and go. So yeah, man, we're always innovating. Like we're trying to like, how much fun can we have? Because fun's a very real currency in my life and, and we had my company and. So how much everything made here with you, like is everything made in house? For the most part, yeah. Like New York, Ohio, Quebec. You know, we get the wood from different places, the products from different places. There's a couple of the components that come in from like overseas, but we don't, I don't like playing that game, to honest with you. But like keychain pieces and like different stuff like that. But if, if I can do 100% made in America, North America, that's what you're getting because it's better quality in my opinion. I can turn it faster. Like that mug, if somebody put an order in for, you know, we did like Pepsi and Coke and Miller and Coors and Budweiser. We make mugs for these guys. So if they put an order in today for a thousand mugs, I'll have it in their hands in two weeks. Right. So our ability to just crank these things out now we're really built for dtc, you know, direct to consumer. So somebody orders a mug, you know, Uncle Frank with the Yankees logo on the front, we have that thing ripped out in like 48 hours, which is really. I can speak to that on this. Yeah, exactly. We messaged on IG and I don't know, two to three days in my mailbox. It's in your hand. I know it's crazy. My team's, my team's one of our, that's our superpower is our ability to do that and do it quickly and do it accurately and do it at very high quality. What's the percentage of sales with like the mugs versus everything else? Well, that's the OG man. Like, that's the, that's the, the name steak product, the, the Dugout mug. So we've obviously done a significant amount with just that product line. But I think the fortunes in the development and, and the excitement's in the development of the product line. Right. We have base that are 100 made America rolling dice and moving little pegs around. They're sick baseball material, drawstring bags. Like, we just keep developing because I have, you know, I probably have over a million customers between my email and sms and we got a few million on social media. So we got access to a lot of people. So we need to keep developing the products that, that we're offering out there to them. So it keeps it fresh and new. But what we've seen, which as a businessman you can appreciate this, about 20% of our orders are return customers, which is wild. That's a high number. But what's happened is people buy them as a gift and the recipient is so fired up. The gift givers, like, okay, every time there's a gift to be given, I'm going back to this. Well, and I think that's why we've had so much success is the, the quality, the accuracy, the, the turn times, everything. And people just have a good experience and they keep coming back. But I'd say 40% is going to be the Dugout mug, the one in your hand right there. That's why, see, I like to give gifts for my guests on the show. Oh, yeah. I think we start sending, we'll have our logo on one side, then the guest name, like a message to them, thanks for coming on, and we send them out. Yeah, we knocked it out of the park or. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, we started doing for realtors. There's no place like home. And they're leaving us clothes and gifts. Yeah, it's cool. It is cool. I think we should do that. We're gonna talk about that offline. I know a guy. Yeah. So, Chris, if I'm collecting, you know, all this about collectibles, I mean, you can see naturally, like it goes on the shelf. A lot of people collecting these, like different variations. I mean, I. And obviously, like the Pete Rose thing, I imagine that's a low print run or manufacturer Whatever you want to call it. Talk to me about the collectibility of these. That was something that I think kind of caught me off guard is the collectibility of these. Not somebod. The mug. And they want to add the. The opener, and they want to add the coasters, and they want to add the baseball opener, and they want to. One guy, he's a little OCD, but he bought all 30 teams for all products. And they line his entire man cave. I'm like, I mean, this guy went in, man. He's got thousands of dollars invested in what we're doing. But he. That was his. He loved it so much. So there. There's a. There's a real affinity towards our products and the customization ability these products, like people get every time they go to a new stadium, they'll take one of our mugs and they'll engrave the date that them and their dad went to the stadium. So, like, there's a. So much like, personalization options with our stuff. I think that's what's really done it. And it's. It's not overly priced. I mean, we listen, I buy, I rip, I do, you know, breaks, whatever. Our stuff is not that expensive in comparison. You're selling a finest box for $600. You know, 25 finest, whatever it is. Come on now. Yeah, Our stuff you can get. You guaranteed to win and get a hit for 100 bucks, 80 bucks, 70 bucks. You know, you get something that. So I think from a pricing standpoint, especially in the hobby surrounding people in the hobby, I think the price points there, I think the personalizations there. And that's why people have been collecting it now when I work with players, so I've done. I call it a signature series. We did Jose Canseco, Pudge Rodriguez, Pete Rose. I think Tucker Wade Boggs is a good friend. You know, Boggs, he did some stuff with us, so we'll work with some of these players and they'll autograph mugs and then we'll sell those. I mean, we only sell them for like 100 bucks, right? We're not trying to make a bunch of cash on anybody. But it's so cool and so unique that people will buy it. The other thing we did, and I've done this with a few. On a few occasions, we do numbered because. Because we individually laser each mug. So the. The rays had a 25th anniversary and they wanted a numbered one to 125. And it was 125 available. And they were all individually numbered. That was Pretty cool. It's not easy, but it's certainly doable and we've certainly done it. That's cool. That's what we need on these, though. Like, we'll have their name 101 on the bottom, right. 101. Yeah. The number part was pretty cool. And I did something for the Memphis Miracle League where we took that old Bo Jackson, you know, the future star. Yeah. And we replicated that card, but we changed some parts of it. And I did it for Tops as well. And I just did. I was just at Leaf the other day in Texas do. I made some Leaf mugs and a whole collection that they're going to be using. So hopefully in the very short, maybe week or two, we're going to see some influencer stuff with Leaf. But we're able to take a card and put it on a mug. Right. The lasers are that accurate? That's crazy. I mean, talk to me. I mean, that process now, I mean, it's crazy. Like, is it. It's all laser inscribed? Yeah, yeah. We use a rotary device that like sits on the thing like this and just turns it. But I mean, the laser. The wood is so hard, the lasers can get in there and create so much detail. It's wild. It is wild when you work with these individual players. So like Wade Boggs, Pete Rose, do you go out and approach them direct and just kind of like, iron out a deal? Like, okay, sign this mini. We'll print this mini. We'll share in revenue. Like, how do. How do those deals play out? I'm a bigger fan of relationships if I want it. Fewer. Bigger. Better. Fewer people, bigger deal, better relationships. That's what I live by. And the relationships that I have with these people allow me to get the deals. So fortunately, we have a very reputable, you know, name incredible reputation in the. In the baseball industry and with. And with other people and other players. Right. So it's an easy ask. I'm like, hey, man, I know you got your thing coming up like we just did last week. Mariano's got his event coming up in five days up in New Rochelle for his tournament. And I reached out and I said, hey, man, I got your trophies. We made the trophies for the tournament. First place, second place, third place, longest drive, plus the pen, whatever, the golf tournaments. And I said, but I also connected, one of my buddies owns, you know, a poker depot and whatever. And I said, so I ripped you out 150 packs of custom logo playing cards, couple hundred poker chips that you can give to everybody for ball Markers, like, just be somebody that somebody wants to know. Like, I think you haven't put in the post this morning or the other day. It's not, you know, somebody else's job to remember you. It's your job to be unforgettable. So what I do is I try to bring enough value to somebody else that, that they're like, oh, yeah, that's Chris. Like, yeah, what do you need, buddy? Right. Do people pick up the phone when you call? Right. That's a pretty good indicator if you actually know them or not, is if they know you. And so that's what I do, man. I focus on the relationship. And like Boggs, I was at his house. We sat in his incredible man cave surrounded by deer heads and hog heads and marlins and all this shit. And we just sat there just jamming, having a beer, of course, and signing mugs and talking about it and taking pictures and it was so cool. And, and yeah, we do a rev share, like, but it's nothing like, hey, man, throw me like 20 bucks a signature. I'll sign 200, cut them a check for a couple thousand. You know, it's not a money thing. It's a make something fun thing. And that turns into a money thing even with our customers, man, it's relationships, a lot to be learned, a lot. A big business lesson right there for anyone paying attention is in business, it's, it's about relationships. And I, I love the, hey, it's not so much job to remember you. It's your job to be unforgettable. 100. I love that, I love that. And that's what, hey, same thing with collectibles, you know, be unforgettable. And what's your thoughts on the state of the hobby right now? I know you're a collector and you're going to show us some of your badass cards here shortly. But what do you think about what the hobby is today and how it's booming and where do you see it going? It's really wild. You know, I knew Gary V. Briefly back in the day, and I've always followed him and I like his mentality on things. And he was talking about it, you know, five, six, seven years ago. You know, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. Load up. Get the big ones, the Jordan rookies, all this. So it's really cool to see it doing what it's doing. I think, unfortunately, it's, it's a junk wax era 2.0, which is the overprinting. It's like 47 different parallels. It's, it's not a one of one. If there's 12 parallels, there's 12 one of ones. Now it's one of 12. Right. Like. But again, you know, people are sheep in a lot of ways. And that's what it is. You're not changing it. We're not changing it. I had that exact discussion. Yeah. Like, we're not changing that shit today. But what we can say is that things are being overprinted. I think the valuations on. On prospects are out of control. Sometimes you'll get a schemes or somebody like that that really shows up and does it. Remember when everybody was chasing Julio and Bobby Witt was like a secondary conversation and now look how quick that changed, you know, so JB Greer, he's their agent, both those guys. And I remember trying to get in touch with him about Julio and he's like, oh, we can't. We're all, you know, Julio, Julio. And then Bobby. Bobby was cool as hell. He signed like 10 cards for me because we were doing some giveaways and stuff. And Bobby's just so cool and down to earth and then the script flip and I think. So my point is chasing the prospects is very risky. So, you know, so again. But I think that's the overprinting and the overhyping of things. I'm a big collector. Like, I like guys that are proven themselves to Aaron Judge, the Alonzo, you know, Atani's on that list. So. So the, the hobby is a little wonky, I think. Just like a pendulum. Right. Like it's overcompensation of stuff. I think that's what's happening with it. But that's okay. Like, the one thing I think they're missing the most is they're pricing it out of the ability for kids to get involved and stay involved. It's priced so ridiculously high and I think that's going to come back down to earth a little bit. The prices are going to, you know, be impacted from that. But overall, I think it's good to see this much all this activity again because it's going to have a long tail to it. Yep. Yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of people that never been in the hobby, a lot of big money and a lot of bigger names in business, you know, that are treating it like an asset class now. And agree. I think, I think it, it's always been that to a degree. I don't know if it's been viewed that way holistically, but I think you're seeing more and more. I mean, Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, Kevin Leary buying that 12 million dollar card. I mean, you know, it's like I'm knee deep in this thing now and, you know, had my little hiatus till my kids got back into it and now enjoying it with. Yeah. Through the lens of them and, you know, nostalgia and my old collection and. But it's not lost on me that, you know, these pieces of cardboard, you know, it's worth 12. You have to kind of stop for a second and still kind of remind yourself of that. But at the same time, you know, what makes something valuable is what, you know, 20 bills printed on a piece of paper that's not even attached to nothing. Exactly. The whole, I don't know, perspectives and perception, you know, drive value. And it is crazy. That piece of cardboard could be worth 12 mil. 100. What'd you think of that purchase? It doesn't even faze me because you see it over and over again. Like, or, or, or more importantly, like you see some of these rookie quarterbacks or some of these prospect cars. They're one of ones, 130, $150,000. Damn. Like what? But you can go get a Miguel Cabrera, you know, Gem Mint 10, or Albert Pujols Gym Mint 10 rookie card for a thousand bucks. That dude's a first ballot hall of famer, 700 plus home runs kind of thing. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't make any sense. So that's the part that I think doesn't make a lot of sense. But, but yeah, it wasn't even shocking to me, you know, to see one of those old, old cards do that because they're so rare. They're actually rare dollar bills. They're not rare. We just keep printing them. They're not even attached to nothing. Like, turn on the machine, you know, that's a whole nother podcast, but yeah, exactly. But yeah. What do you collect? Well, I know you got some stuff you're gonna show. I want to see some of it. But what, what, what do you collect? I like guns. You know, old guns, unfired stuff. I have some really cool pocket knives that my dad, you know, he's into that and, you know, nothing crazy like a dozen of them or something, but from a, From a traditional sports collecting mugs. Like, I probably have 70 mugs up here sign. Some of them are like the one Miguel Cabrera. We got a Miggy 500 home run. There's only three of them that are signed and two of them are on my shelf. Nolan Ryan, Pudge, Miguel Cabrera, Poppy Mariano for sure. Johnny Damon for sure. Boggs. So like, I like these, but I mean, what a cool background, right? Like, this is what I do and it is cool and it is worth the story. But so what I try to do is like any of the guys that I'm, you know, I do a deal with or I'm, you know, I collaborate with, I try to get him to sign a rookie card. I grabbed a few of them because I didn't know if we were going to be showing them here. But like, some of these will bring you back to like. We'll start with my boy Mo. Like this one right here. Oh, yeah. Straight off the boat with the khakis. Right? The old school Bowman. So we had him. We. Mariano Ink that one of my favorite people. Super quiet kid. Hell of a player. Finally getting some respect in the hobby. Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker. Rod Rod career. Wow. Yeah. That's his rookie cup card. That's sweet. This guy was so fun. I. We were at his tournament and up in Baltimore's golf tournament and he's cruising around. Yeah. Drinking out of a dugout mug. How's he. What's he like? He's down to earth. He's big as hell. I did not like, dude. I'm six foot like 290, right. And I'm standing next to this guy and I look like a dwarf. Like, he's way bigger than you think he is, man. I understand why he made it 20, 100 plus 21, 31 or whatever it was. I can see why. Now this dude right here, just down to earth as you get. Remember that old school chipper card? Chipper Jones. Yeah. Yeah. This is, I mean, I mean, being in Greenville, Atlanta was my team. It's still my thing. Yeah. The Braves. We're like two hours from the Braves. Yeah. So we work at the Braves a ton. And. And that's what opened the. The door to that. There's one I'm gonna save till the end. I'm gonna show you that because the condition, the cards. Next level. Pete Alonzo, you know, just down to earth. Just. He's done videos for us. You know, I drink beer out of my dugout mug and. Super smart. We did polar bear trivia one time with him and. And it was just all this trivia. That dude is sharp. Like Pete is super sharp. By the way, side note, Chris Sale, he's a local guy here. Oh yeah. Here in Lakeland. Crazy seeing him do a comeback. Miggy you know, we did the deal with me. That's just a classic, classic card. Vizio. So you're listening. You got to be watching, folks. If you're listening, you need to be watching to see these. Craig, Was that Craig? Yeah, this is Bizio. Oh yeah. And then one with the absolute killer golfer. Great dude. I give him a hug every time I see him. Pudge Rodriguez. That's his rookie cup. Fudge. I got a couple older ones here. So the Rocket. Wow. Yeah, that was a cool card. It does look good, right? So I try to get, I try to get the best. Looks good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some of these. So here I'll tell you why they're all in these and not graded or anything. So what I'm doing is behind me. You can't see it, but I'm going to have the entire. Because there's probably 20 other cards back here that not in this stack. But I'm gonna have it all flat on my desk and I'm gonna get a piece of glass over top of it and it's going to kind of be the desktop. So underneath the desktop is gonna be all these autographs, right? Rookie or rookie cup cards. Yeah, Boggs. Oh yeah, one of my favorites. He's such a good dude. At one point we even talked about him being in the company because when you talk about beer, baseball like Boggs, he's at the top of the list. You know, that one's Iconic Y Junior. Yeah, I have the upper deck graded but that right there. I like the in person ones as you're talking about Bobby, you know. Oh yeah, that's a more. More newer version, right? Obviously. Canseco. I got that card right here. That and the Bo Jackson of that series. What is that? 86, I think. Yeah, 86 alts or whatever, like the secondary series. That's the name. Yeah. Update. There it is. One of my dude, Johnny Damon. Johnny. Class act. Love Johnny. He's a Central Florida guy. Then we got Altuve. That was a cool card. I actually pulled the retail blue. That and it's being graded right now. I think it's gonna jam. Sheffield.509 home runs. Not in the hall of Fame. Cooperstown. I don't know what the hell you're doing. I remember chasing him, bro. He's so good. Such a good person. So good. I. I'll tell you a story about. I'll tell you a couple stories about Reggie Jackson. Speak of Reggie Jackson. Here you go. There he is. I got two of these. So he's like what can I do for you? And I said, you know what, Reggie? I said, because he bought. He gets our mugs for his event every year as the VIP gift to his attendees. And let me tell you, there is. I've been in a room like this before, and I've been in some rooms. Like, I'll tell you a story in a second, but this right here is one of my favorites. It's the. The. The Pete Rose Rookie Cup. Oh, yeah. Just. But, I mean, check the condition on this thing, man. What's a 64? I think I have to look. But that's clean, right? Damn. Very clean. This is one of the ones that I kind of wanted to get graded. But, I mean, the back of it, no, I mean, this thing's just clean. Thanks. Yeah. 64. Yeah. Yeah. I would take that one. Great machine. The greatest hitter of all time. Yeah. Again, travesty's not in the Hall. Travesty's not in the hall of Fame. The stupidest. I mean, give me a break. I mean, you know, on Hard Rock, everybody can bet on everything now, but. But he couldn't bet on his own team to win. That's another story. So. So, like, yeah, some of these are really cool. And. And so Reggie Jackson. I'll tell you a cool event. I was just telling a story the other day. So Reggie has a hell of a network, like Next Level, and Jim Crane owns the Astros, and Jim has a golf course here in Florida, and Reggie does the Mr. October foundation event there. And I go down there, you know, each year in the third year, they're like, hey, bring some guests. You can golf the next day. And blah, blah, blah. It's like, okay. So I go down there, and the night before, you know, my wife went with me and a couple of my friends, and we're just cutting it up. And I'm sitting at a table with. It was me, Ozzy Smith, Mike Schmidt, and Andre Dawson were just sitting at a table just talking over a cocktail, and they're arguing over who knew about dugout mugs first. Right? So it's like kind of a fun moment. And, you know, Pudge was in the corner, and he came, you know, said, what's up? And so just surrounded by these incredible people. And Andre Dawson's like, well, my nephews keep stealing them from my house. I need to get some more. And Ozzy's like, I knew about these guys before they blew up. And Mike Schmidt's like, oh, my God, dude, I haven't heard of it. What's. You know Felt like he was having fomo and, you know, me just being a fly on the wall watching this. I was like, this shit's crazy. But the next morning is what was really crazy. So my wife went off to a spa or something and. And I went there to the, to the event and I had breakfast. So I got there, you know, breakfast a couple hours before the golf, you know, starts. And Emmett Smith was sitting at a table. And I said, hey, Emmett, I'm gonna jump in with you. He's like, okay. So I sat down with Emmett Smith. And then up walks Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow. And they sit down, they're hey, can we join you guys? Well, yeah, certainly. And then Urban grabs a mug. He's like, tim, have you seen these? And Tim's like, yeah, yeah, he's a Florida guy. And because, you know, we had had conversations before about it. And then next to me sits. And they were across from me. And then next to me sits John Smoltz on the left side. And John's like, I remember these. And he was actually the first guy. And the mug's back here somewhere. John was the first guy to see a dugout mug and sign one. Wow. Years, like eight years ago or maybe even nine years ago. And then on the other side of me sits down Barry Bonds. And I'm having breakfast with this group of people. And Emmett's telling me how he started to, you know, he said, oh, this big corn fed white guy put me to the ground one day. And that's when I started to learn how to duck and bob. And then Smoltz and Bonds are like getting all fired up about some old rivalry how one threw it the other one and walked him and then he hit a home run. They went and got on the team bus and was talking shit to him afterwards. I was like, dude, this is crazy. But yeah, so like, to me, man, back to business, like, that's currency. Experiential Living Stories Network, my network is extremely valuable to me. And, and this is kind of that thing that allowed my passion for the hobby sports business to all just kind of lock together. Oh, man, it's been, it's been a very special last, you know, four or five years especially. No, man. Hey, they say living the dream. I mean, yeah, you're living it, man. Trying making it. Trying to. I'm just sitting there, imagine sitting at that table and these people just everybody, these legends is all sitting down and it's like, okay, what's happening here? I mean, even if you've been around it I mean, I've been around celebrities. I have celebrities on my show. Like, I'm not, like, starstruck, but it's like, I don't know, sometimes just the. But that type of moment is. You know, how many people can say that's happened? Well, and that's just an example. So we were outside. It was. I have a picture of this. Well, the cameraman captured it on accident, but it was me and then Dave Chappelle and then my wife standing in a row just, like, next to each, like, bumping shoulders next to each other. And we're watching 50 Cent Neo and Flo Rida all do a performance while Reggie Jackson's up on stage dancing, like, 15ft away. Kyle Tucker and his wife are in front of me. Barry's behind us. Bonds, Jeremy Pena is there. And, I mean, dude, it's. It's. It's wild. We're out on the Chipping Green and Nick Saban's over there. And then, of course, DJ Khalid rolls up in his, you know, Maybach or whatever he's got going on 50 cents, pouring people drinks because he owns a champagne line. I'm like, dude, if I could do this, just. No, I'm not greedy. Every 90 days for the rest of my life, dude, I'm in a good place, man. I'm having fun, and I get to bring you people with me. Like, this is perfect. Are you getting to it? Every 90 days? Every six months, there's something really badass going on. And I'll tell you, man, it's. It's cool. It's cool. Yeah. What do you have? What's coming up? What's on the horizon? I know you shared a few products coming out, different things like that. What's the. What's the future hold? The future for Dugout's pretty cool. Now that I have full control of it, I'm looking at additional products and additional companies. So there's a couple companies that I'm talking to right now, possibly rolling under the umbrella. So that's fun, you know, kind of diversifying our offering and from. From that standpoint, international distribution. Currently, our products have been sold in seven different countries. But doing it more purposefully, I think Canada makes a lot of sense. A lot of baseball going on up there right next door. So that's certainly part of it. But event wise, we have the Mariano Rivera event. It's right here next to me. Mariano's is coming up. Big poppies is November 13th down in South Florida. And then we have. Yeah, we have an event out in Vegas next week that we're doing because we're, you know, what, you know, two areas of the business that we really didn't factor at first that are starting to develop. Corporate gifting is one of them. So I think our first, like, real shot of corporate gifting was a casino. Did like a $50,000 order. Like, what in the hell is that about? And now, of course, that got my attention. But it's like, okay, so they're getting it for their high rollers, their whales, whatever. This recognition is gift. The concept of something fully customizable, logo, branded, but still personalized, still MLB licensed and at volume. You're getting these things for under 50 bucks, right? Like fully decked out. And that's a big play for a lot of companies. So we did, we did Coors and Miller, Bud Fox, Hard Rock, Celsius, a lot of private companies. And then I think we were. So I've been on Fox and Friends live in New York three times. I was on World News Tonight with David Muir twice. Three weeks ago I was on Good Morning America. That's the third time on there. The Today show twice, CBS Morning, a handful of times, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine. Like, it's crazy, right? This kind of publicity has now started getting us in front of companies. And the companies are really resonating with what we're doing because it's not just another tchotchke, right? The promotional product industry. Just the shit that comes in that this is one of those things where it's like unique and thoughtful and quality and something that people want to put on their desk. So that really started to pop. And then the retail industry. So we got picked up by Hallmark, Dick's and Rally House, Shields and fanatics and groups like that. We didn't do it. My background's E Commerce, right? So I thought it was dtc. That's what I was doing. But really, these, these. I kind of reverse engineered it. Because in retail and anybody that's tried to get in retail knows, oh, this won't sell. I need buybacks. I want terms. They just wreck you. So in this case, we kind of reverse engineered it to where I already have proof of concept. I have 60,000 reviews. I have hundreds of celebrities and athletes. I have the credibility. I have 3 million followers on social media. You can't tell me that it doesn't work. And they want 30, 60, 90 day terms. I'm like, no, you get to pay up front. How do you like it? Because they can't go around me because I have all the intellectual Property locked up. So they can't circumvent me either. Right. So it's a really unique way to go into retail. It's a level playing field. Like, I'm not an idiot. I'll give them net 30 to Dick Sporting Goods. Okay, sure, sure, of course. Or net 60 if they need it, but whatever. But my point is, is it's not so lopsided because a lot of companies go into retail and it's lopsided and you just get taken. And in our situation, we don't have to worry about that, which has been kind of cool. So watching that, that's a show in Vegas we got to go to. It's a souvenir show of some sort. And that, that kind of stuff, we're really trying to develop that area of the business as well. Retail. That's smart. Hey, I need to be a sponsor on my business show, brother. I got all the executives. Hit me up if you got any ideas. No, the. I'd rather build on the relationship. I don't need to sell you always. I just want some mugs. Yes. I have to take you to one of these events with me, dude. You'll really. You'll enjoy that. Let's do that, man. We're gonna have to, like, consummate this friendship, you know, we gotta get. Get out there. Drop the website, man. Drop where they can find all the stuff you guys are doing, all those call to actions. Yeah. So, I mean, dugoutmugs.com you can't miss us. We're the only one out there. Find us on social. I also have a golf company. It's called Big Golf. So I do custom logo golf balls. We turn golf balls into bottle openers and cigar holders and stuff like that. So it's just. I'm trying to bring fun, quality stuff to people in and around sports and, like, having fun. Right. It's not like a boring industry that I've, you know, so Dugout mugs, Big Golf. And the only public social media I have is on LinkedIn. And that's obviously more of a business side of things. Everything else I kept private, man. I don't. I don't need that celebrity anymore. I used to, the old me did, but now it's like, man, I want to be famous to the people that matter. My wife, my kids, my friends, my family. You know, that that's what really matters. And then. But I'm also an open book. And I don't mind being the face of. Of Dugout and Big Golf and other things, because you know, I'm proud. Like, you touched on a long earlier in the show where I got really sick. I ruptured my appendix. Not uncommon. But you know what was uncommon is I took a week to get my ass into the hospital and I almost died over it at a young girl, a little girl at home, six months old when all this happened. So it really kind of shook up my psyche a bit. And it's like, okay, I came out the other side of change, man. And the check boxes that I look, that I have to check before I move in any direction are, can I play with my friends? Can I leverage my network? Will my kids be proud of me? Right? Does it take time? This is my home office. Does it take time away from my family? Right. The reason it took us so long to get this scheduled is because I dropped my kids off and pick them up every day from school, right? We had to find something that fit this middle of the day thing. So my point is, is like, I feel like I'm living in alignment now. The business side of me is very business, you know, I. Network side of me is very, very powerful. And I still do deals, take deals, work on that kind of stuff in the business. But yeah, just on, on a topical level. Dugout mugs and big golf and we're doing some cool stuff. And if you ever want to talk shop about collectibles, like, like, man, I love that stuff. You know, one of my. Let me see. This is. This is one of my more favorite ones too. Right here is Tom Brady 101 plate auto. Yes, that's a cool piece to go. And the others over there, those are PSA 10 Ohtani's, the 2018 Chrome 150. So I love those. You know, again, so like, I'm surrounded by collectibles. I love to collect things. I love to talk about it, it because it's fun, you know what I mean? Oh, dude, you are living the dream. And, you know, the alignment thing makes a lot of sense. And it's clear this guy's living and preaching. He's preaching it, but he's living it because again, I mean, he couldn't have been more real. Reaching out to me. We hit it off. He sent me a mug. I'm like, I mean, no, you know, I drank a beer in your honor. You didn't even know it, you know, go first. Relationships, man, go first. I love it, brother. I really appreciate you for coming on and can't wait to grow this relationship and here to help any way I can and just add value to you, anything you're doing. Well, I love supporting what you're doing too, man. The, the, the. You know, I'm on a lot of podcasts. That's great. But when I saw trading cards and collectibles and I know you do some business stuff, I was like, okay, this is, this is where I'm supposed to be blocking off the schedule because I don't get to share like some of these cool cards and there's a ton of other stuff over there. Right. I don't get to share that stuff enough. We'll make it a regular. We'll do like quarterly check ins with Dugout. Yes. Yeah. Love it. Hey, guys, you know to find us collectible show, you can find that on Instagram, YouTube, look up trading cards and collectibles, podcast anywhere and everywhere. We're out there. We're thankful for guys like Chris for making the hobby great, making the collectible space, a place where we can all be proud for our kids to collect, to learn to understand business, to understand again. There's a human side to all of these things and we appreciate you for listening. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www.collectibles.show or follow Ryan on Instagram at ryanolford. Now get out there and collect yours.