How to Make it in the Card Business with Brandon Stuff

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Don't be afraid to take a loss on some cards. I have lost plenty. But the goal is to win more times than you lose. And not everybody's perfect. You're going to lose at some point, but recognizing that you can get out of something is so instrumental, and you can put that money into something else that can grow. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Hobby Handbook. As you could tell, it's just Trent this week. Alex did get that call that he was hoping for and the Cuban national team said that they needed somebody else for their soccer team for the World cup, so he's busy doing that or. Or something else. I don't know. I didn't really read the text. But it's good to be here with you guys this morning. It won't just be me here for the entire episode. Today we've got a really cool guest coming on a friend of mine for a couple, I'd say a couple years now, and just a overall really good dude in the hobby that I feel like doesn't get enough love. But before we get into that, kind of just want to give like a brief overview of like, hey, what's coming out this week? So Topps tier one baseball releases today. And it was funny because last night I was texting with, with one of my buddies, Jeremy, and he said, oh, man, you know, Topps didn't. Hasn't even shipped it yet. And I'm like, hasn't shipped what? He's like, tier one for tomorrow. And I was like, it's coming out Tomorrow, I feel like we're getting release after release, and it's almost a bombardment of stuff. But I will say this. I am a huge sucker for, for, for tier one. Those right there, I don't know if you could see behind me, but the one of one Bat Knob Autos are a huge chase of mine. I love them every year. And my thing is, as much as I would love to, you know, get a Shohei, get an Aaron Judge, whatever, honestly, I feel like some of the names on there that are kind of like the sleeper picks where you can pick them up for less than 500 bucks, like a one of one bat knob auto. You're, you're. I feel like you're silly if you don't even try and get one at that price because they're so rare. They're a unique feature. And I'm just overall a huge fan. But yeah. So today's episode is going to be Alex Free. He's actually out on a little vacation. He's not with the Cuban national team, which would be way cooler, by the way. But I'm not going to do what Jesse did in the big show and, and have, you know, chat GPT start chit chatting with a. With a thick Boston accent. If you haven't seen that yet, seriously, go check it out. It's kind of hilarious. But without further ado, I do want to bring on Brandon Stuff of Instagram. He's a dude who travels the country to a bunch of shows, gives out some crazy cards. I think a couple months ago on his Instagram, he gave away like $5,000 Shohei Ohtani all Aces card. So I'm super pumped to bring him in. So without further ado, ladies and gents, Mr. Brandon stuff. All right, Brandon, welcome to the show. What's up, dude? Hey, what's up, dude? So after some technical difficulties, we finally got you on here, but no, super pumped to have you on the hobby handbook. I wish Alex was here this week to chat with you too, because I know he'd love to pick your brain. But with a bunch of big card shows coming up with all the content you've been putting out, I wanted to bring you on and kind of, you know, chat with the, the listeners and kind of get your. Your perspective on all the shows coming up and things like that. So can we start out with an origin story of you? How'd you get into the hobby? You know, just things like that. Of course. So I was born. No, I'm just kidding. So I, I started cards because I just Got bored one day and I looked on Facebook Marketplace for card lots of and I thought that's how you could find some really cool stuff. So I found this one lot, it was $100. It was like 20,000 cards or something crazy. I just want to look through it. Given a lot of it was junk wax 80s and 90s. It was still really, really cool to look through. And I looked through it, found some crazy, crazy stuff like a Jimmy Brown rookie card, 1964 Mickey Mantle and believe it or not, six rookie Nolan Ryan's. I know this doesn't happen. I know this never happens to anybody. And I thought that this happened all the time. So I tried it again and I got absolutely smoked. So I stopped doing that and I started going to card shows and fell in love with it, fell in love with the community, everybody. I know you have your bad apples, but dude, 99% of the hobby is good, genuine people that I could seriously see myself hanging out with, which is a community I want to be a part of. So I started going full steam ahead and traveling every single week into shows and here we are. Yeah, here you are. What a year. Nearly 40,000 Instagram followers later, nearly, you know, a Paul Skeens rookie rainbow later Ohtani Dynasty. That to me it doesn't seem like a, I don't want to say a realistic expectation for most people in the hobby of how you go from 0 to 100 in the span of just a little while. So how did you kind of take those steps from, okay, I'm buying this lot on Facebook marketplace to I now own the entire Paul Skeens rookie rainbow of his autograph from Topps Chrome Cosmic. So I know it's not realistic and anybody seeing it on my channel thinking that they can get there as fast as I can. It's possible, yes. But it doesn't happen a lot of times. And the reason for that is because I don't necessarily care about money. Yes. I have like money that keeps me safe, my family safe. Yes. But I take risks. I for that one on one dynasty, for example, for Ohtani, I sold all my stocks to pay for that. And for the Paul Steen's rainbow, I took all my Money except for $2,000 at the time that I had in my bank to put into that. And then I tried to rebuild from the $2,000. And I know this doesn't happen a lot, but you have to be very, very specific with what you buy. For example, after I bought the Paul Skeens Rainbow, I had 2,000 left I went and bought a one on one rookie, Ellie. And Ellie at the time, before the season starts last year, he was the talk of the town. He, everybody wanted him, everybody was waiting for him to start. And so I knew that that hype was happening. Everybody was still trying to buy high and sell high. I knew that it wasn't his peak yet, especially with the season not even starting yet. So I found a one to one rookie archives Ellie auto and I bought it for 2000 and within the same week and again this doesn't happen but within the same week I flipped it for 6k and that helped me get my start. After that after buying the Paul Skeens Rainbow. And then I immediately took that 6k and started buying cards to send off to get graded. And keep in mind this is a year, almost a year and a half ago. So PSA times were actually a little bit on point to where if I bought a bunch of stuff with that 6k, I typically made it just $1,000 plus. If I bought $6,000 plus items, I sent it off via the $90 service level. I would actually get it back in like three weeks or four weeks or whatever it was. And then I'd instantly sell those to put into cards again, get them graded. Dude, I was in and out of my local card shop shipping them out almost every week just to have that constant. Yeah, yeah, you put up, I feel like you put up a video like every week of you, you know, going and picking up more stuff and things like that. So. So Alex actually brought this up a couple episodes ago, but he was talking about like, hey, you know, grading to flip is a huge part of the hobby where a lot of people, you know, use, use grading as an avenue to help fund the hobby. So I'm assuming like it's very safe to say that you were one of those people that it's like, hey, grading is a huge part of my, you know, hobby, business, hobby experience, things like that. Yes. And also no, I've kind of grabbed, gravitated away from doing grading cards. Yes, it's still good but with PSA's times nowadays, it's just something that, I mean for the common collector or someone just trying to expand their collection, you're waiting like six, nine months, whatever it is. So it's not for the average collector. Not something that I'd say is a route that you'd want to take. Nowadays I go off of predicting markets a lot more and I know I just do ohtani. So a lot of people assume that it's a little bit harder to, I mean a little bit easier to predict where it's going. I mean everybody, every, everything's going up but you want to try to pick and choose what's going to go up the highest. His pitching cards super undervalued right now with what his batting cards are doing. Specific to 2018, you can still find a rookie PSA 10 pitching card for under $500 and they're getting hot, they're getting more, more expensive. But I try to pick those and then buy a ton of them and then sit on them for a month and then sell them and then put that into a bigger card. So I've kind of changed up the way I do things. Do I think grading is still the route to get the quickest income? Yes. And that's only if you deal with $500 plus items. So PSA now doesn't accept anything that's value, bulk or value plus the lowest, lowest level is regular. And so you want to keep it within reason. You don't want to send off of $100 card. You get it back and then you pay the grading service another hundred bucks and you're breaking even on $100 card. Yeah, yeah. It's just not, it's not sustainable either. Even, even, even when folks make like the, the even if it's for PC argument. Like my, my thing is right now with, with collectors who are saying like hey, like I still want to send stuff off just to have graded stuff for my PCM and you can see my shelf, most of my stuff is PSA graded. But at the same time in my opinion if you want something graded and it's just for PC, the time really shouldn't matter. Like obviously spend your money how you want to. But you know PSA did say that once they, I think grade what is it like 6 million cards or something like that that they expect to open value tiers back up. The thing is like hey, in that time like if it really is a PC card for you, trust me, just get some one touches. They look pretty and you know it. You can still enjoy the card without it being slabbed up. So 100. I mean and this is something I'm doing too. Yes. PC cards. I mean I don't, I don't grade in general. If I have a PC card, whatever grade it is, I'm like, I don't really care. I have like a PSA6 Mickey Mouse. I like it's just a cool looking card. But I, I know that if you are trying to Grade stuff, keep it $500 plus and keep it within a market that is going to consistently go up or it's something predictable to where in six months you're not like, okay, is this going to go down that way it takes your risk level down and it even has the potential to be worth more to where you're sending off $200 card now raw. But when you get it back, it's actually $400 raw or $300 raw to make it that much more worth it. That's why dealing with Ohtani is something that's also very, very good. Dealing with any goats. So Jordan, Kobe, they're constantly on the rise to where you can kind of take those risks. And it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It just matters in the amount that you'd be putting out towards the grading level, not necessarily where the market's going to go for sure. So when I started kind of expanding into, into a higher end of cards, you know, I'm, you know, going from the five $10 singles up to even, even just a couple hundred bucks. I noticed that it gets harder to sell the more valuable a card is because, you know, a lot of people, I would say 90% of this hobby are people who, who have, you know, blaster box money. Not everybody's out here ripping dynasty like of course there's still plenty of folks who do, but you know, a lot of people are in that, you know, not super duper, high end level. So you still have to find the right buyer for a lot of these cards. So for you, when you travel across to these shows, what do you feel like you know, moves the fastest out of your showcase? Like what kind of like value level? Honestly, there's not an answer just because there will be people that buy anything. It's just dependent on the show. So when I first got into the hobby and I kind of had a speed run of this, learning all this info just because I started going to shows about a year and a half ago, but I didn't start traveling to shows so flying until November. And this past November was the first Dallas show that I went to as well. And seven months, dude, that's impressive. That's actually genuinely impressive. Seven months. Thank you, dude. I mean I just, again, I just take risks and if it's enough money to get there and get back to Ohio that I have in my bank account, I'll take that risk just to experience it, just so I know. And like the networks alone make it worth it enough to travel to Dallas for the first time and a bunch of these other big shows like the national ton of connections there. Yes, it might have super overpriced stuff or you're not going to be able to move everything. But as far as connections go and networking and you know, interactions with the hobby, like these big shows are where it's at. I, I'd say like as far as growth and stuff, if you have like let's say zero. I know you can't have a zero dollar card, but let's say you have a zero to $2,000 card, you can stay at your local shows. That's what I did for the first six months that I was doing the hobby. I was just driving every single weekend to somewhere nearby. You can, you should be able to find somewhere to move it. Maybe even up to 5k maybe. But I would say if you're looking at traveling to shows, make sure you have inventory to make it worth it. So I would say if you're traveling to Dallas, networking is great. But if you have just $5,000 in cards, yes, that's still a lot of money. But it doesn't cover the costs that it takes to get there. It might cover the costs to get there. Like you're in on it. So if you're in it for 3k and you sell it for 5k covers all the costs. But that doesn't make it truly, truly worth it to go to that show like a Dallas. What if I want to buy something? Exactly, exactly. There's that too. You, you know, you want to be able to have fun and experience it, experience it fully. So I would say, you know, when I first went there, I had 15 to 30,000 in cards that I brought. I can't remember the exact number. It was something like that. And dude, I'm telling you it was, it was unreal. Like the trades that you were able to do, the people that you're, you're there network with a lot of things that people ask me is, okay, let's say you get a ten thousand dollar card. How do you move it so quickly? It's connections. You can go into a big show, you can talk to as many people as you want. But not everybody, even at the big show is going to buy your big card. You just have to talk to people, have to talk to people about, oh, what's a, who's going to buy my Ohtani Brandon stuff? I'm kidding. But who's, who's going to buy my big Jordan? Who's going to buy my big Kobe. And there are people there that do buy that and pay extremely strong. You just need to find those people. And once you do, it makes your life a lot easier. Especially when you tap into the bigger markets where you're dealing with instead of 5k, 10k cards you're dealing with, you know, all the way up until 100k, 200k, which sounds unreal for cards, but it happens all the time. It sounds unreal for me. Like, I feel like, I feel like for, for 99.9% of people, like even just thinking about carrying around that much cash is just like terrifying. But. Oh, it's, it's unreal. It's crazy. I don't know about it, man. But so here, here's something that I, I what immediately came into my brain when you said, like, hey, you can still move this stuff, this, this bigger, these bigger pieces. Even at your local card show, you know, a couple thousand dollars. I was thinking to myself and my immediate gut reaction was like, I don't know if I buy that because you know, when I walk around to local shows here in Utah, a lot of times like some tables are, you can tell that somebody opened up a case of blasters and just put everything out, you know. But then I started thinking about it and I was like, well, you know, for every three tables like that, there might be somebody who comes to that show looking for higher end stuff. And if you're the only guy who has it, they're going to be sitting at your table for a little bit. So it makes sense. I feel like the bigger shows, the Dallas, the West coast card show, the national shows like that you're, you're dealing with more people who have those deeper pockets who are there to spend big money on cards. I mean, it is also location too. I could be just saying that as far as local shows, because there are a lot of local shows in Ohio. I don't know about Utah, but in Ohio there's at least six a month that are above, I would say 200, 200 tables. So that's, that's a good amount of shows. But that's, those are the shows. It might not be the ones that are 100 tables, but it definitely is the ones that are 200 plus that you're able to move those $2,000 cards. And I say that because when I first got in the hobby, that's something that I did, I immediately gravitated towards higher end because the margins were there. And especially grading and getting it back, you're into it good. So you're able to just move it extremely quick by giving the other person a deal. So going to these smaller shows, yes, you're not going to have every single table buying a 2K card, but you're. If you walk it, you walk the whole show, there will be someone that buys it. You just have to find that person. Which again, ultimately comes back to the connections thing. Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense because, I mean, like I said before, I feel like finding that person is the toughest thing, but when you're in the space enough, when people start to recognize you of like, oh, that's the guy who, who tried to sell me this huge Tom Brady card. And it's like, oh, my buddy's with me here today and he's a big Tom Brady guy. Do you have anything? You know, it's. It's really just getting the reps in there that I feel like delivers the most value for when you go to these shows. Oh, dude, 100%. It's the, it's the reps. Because not everybody at these local shows knew who knew who I was. For the first six months that I was doing this, I was just going there, just trying to learn as much as I could. I was dealing with 100 to, I think, the most that I had. Again, this is a lot of money, but it's. I think the most valued car that I had at the time was like a 5k card. But I was mostly dealing with the range of 1,000 to $2,000 cards tapping in, like maybe $500 range too. But it's just reps, I mean, and it's just actually wanting to get to know people instead of just walking up to their table and saying, hey, I have this stuff for sale. It's saying, hey, you know, if you come across any Ohtanis, for example, if you come across any skins, follow me on Instagram. I'll follow you back and shoot me a message because I might buy it. It's stuff like that. Then they can put a face the Instagram. And you also get connections more that you can reach out to. Especially. I think Instagram is very, very undervalued. I don't think a lot of people do it too much. I know a lot of people do it. Yes. But a lot of newcomers that are coming into it don't utilize it enough. And it's not necessarily using a card account. You can use your personal, like, whatever you want to use as long as you get people's contact info that you can reach out to again. I mean, it's just. It's a game changer. That's how I grew my connection so fast. Yeah, I mean, literally at this last show, there was somebody who's a huge Elliot Ramos collector, and I was sitting at a table flipping through bargain boxes, and this guy goes, hey, are you interested in this? It's a Elliot Ramos super fractor. And it just a light in my head of an account that I follow that I've never even DMed with. I've never chatted with him. I just know that he has this really cool collection of them. And I was like, let me listen here. If they don't make a deal, I'm going to connect these two because this belongs in this guy's collection. It's one of those things where it's another just avenue for people to buy, sell and trade. And I think you're totally right that not enough people kind of really utilize it to where you can really gain from Instagram or even just other social networking platforms. Because you can meet some cool people, you connect with them, and you make those connections to where you can make better deals in the future. You build the relationships. Say it all the time. Relationships are what drives you in this hobby. Oh, dude. A hundred percent, 100%. Especially if you're, you know, if you're constantly trying to get the best deal, yes, that's great for you, but is that great for the other people that you're dealing with? It's. Relationships and reputation go a long way in this hobby. If you're constantly trying to get that leg up on someone, it's not the best in terms of people wanting to deal with you in the future. That's why if I'm into a card for good, let's say I get a graded, I don't care giving. So I know it's me. I know that's me. Other people are different. I don't care. Giving someone 80%, 75%, as long as there's someone that I can see myself like working with in the future, them, you know, helping me out in the future, I'll give them that. I'll catch them that break. Just because in the future, again, it goes a long way with relationships and reputation, doing that type of stuff. And that doesn't happen a lot because a lot of people are asking for 95%, which is great. I mean, Ohtani, I do it with Ohtani, I get caught sometimes. But those deals that you even lose $10 on, I'm not saying to lose $10, but those relationships, especially with the Guys that you see all the time at shows are really what drives your growth. So allowing that, allowing that loss or make break even or make $10 on a deal just to get that, that relationship growing is something that I know I personally did and helped me and you don't have to give everybody a break but like that. But it is good to do that to someone that you're going to just see all the time because they, the next time are going to give you a deal on something and it could be something that treats you a lot better. Who knows? But yeah, so, so you, you, you kind of quickly brought this up where you're like, hey, like, even if I have to take a loss on something, we talk about this all the time of on social media, on Instagram, on any platform. You always see like, oh, I bought this card for $5 and I sold it for 500. Tell me the opposite. Give me an example of a time where you just got smoked by a card. Uh, you have one new message translating. Disney and Pixar's Hoppers is now available on Disney. You could say that again. Critics are calling it Pixar's funniest movie ever and a wildly entertaining ride. Blizzard potato. It's certified fresh and verified hot. Now we party. This is incredible. Wow. I am clearing the rest of the day. Disney and Pixar's Hoppers now available on Disney. Braided PG. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability various 18 plus. Okay. It doesn't happen often. It doesn't. Okay. Okay. This is why I choose to get smoked sometimes is because let's say I had a card that I was into that I planned on keeping for a good amount of time. So like let's say six months to a year and I'm into it for basically full comp or if not a little bit more. I take those risks because I'm not going to come by it again. There is a card that I had. It was a Junior Camin Arrow 101 inception. And this is before I knew that Inception was player worn instead of game used. So I was like, oh, dude, we're good. We're chilling. But come to find out, it's player worn. And it was a sticker auto as well, which is not as sought after in the hobby. Not everybody likes it. But I paid. Don't yell at me. I paid 4,000 for it and I sold it for 1,500. And the reason for that is because I was putting it towards an Ohtani. Now, that Ohtani that I bought ended up being something that I made more on than I lost in that deal to where I was. Okay, losing on that card to make on that, it was all. I think it was all kings. It was an all kings Ohtani that I sent off to get graded. It didn't get a 10, but it got a 9. And it treated me very well. Very, very well. So. So that. That's something that I feel like you just dropped a nugget. That is one of the biggest pieces of advice that I give people all the freaking time in the hobby is can. Can that cam and arrow go back up and be worth 10k? Yes, it absolutely can. If you had the opportunity to buy something that would 2x 3x 4x, would you sell that card now and buy into that other one? I feel like everybody would say yes. If your intention is to make money with it. If you collect cam and arrow, absolutely keep it. I'm not judging you, but if your goal is to make the cash off of it, don't be afraid to take a loss on some cards. I have lost plenty, but the goal is to win more times than you lose. And not everybody's perfect. You're going to lose at some point. But recognizing that you can get out of something is so instrumental and you can put that money into something else that can grow. And yes, and there's a fine line between selling at a loss and knowing what you have. With the Junior Camino, it was something that was like, okay, this is so, so niche that not everybody's going to like it just because not only is the Junior Camino, which is a beast, he's a beast, by the way. But it's inception. It's a sticker auto. 2, 3, 4, came and arrows back here. You know what that means? It means you should have reached out to me, dude. You would not. You probably. You probably would have offered a thousand. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just. 100 for. That's good enough, dude. I would take in that. It would have helped me pay for that Ohtani. But no, it's just again, realizing that again, there's a fine line between selling yourself Short and then also getting out of car, out of a card. The only time that I try to get out of a card is when I'm trying to put towards something that I know that doesn't come up often. I know that I can get value on, not necessarily selling it, but at least something I can get value on in the long run or even short run. That's the only time that I try to do it at a loss. If I did it all the time at a loss, I'd be negative a lot of money, Trent. Yeah. You would not be traveling to these shows. I would not. So it's just again, that fine line that collectors need to know, is this something that, you know, you see going up in a short amount of time or is it something that you know you're okay with taking a thousand dollar loss on to put towards something that in a very short amount period, you can make 2000 on whatever it is? I think, I think also comps scare a lot of people and paying the strongest on something. I'm a big fan of paying strong. It's just knowing what to buy. That's something that in predicting markets, that's also something that not a lot of people do if they see a. One second, one second, Trent, one second. You're good. I'll talk through this here. So, I mean, you bring up a good point with not being afraid to overpay the one of one bat knob auto that I was talking about before. Obviously it has a comp. I think it's, you know, 600. I paid 800 for it. Why? Because it's a card that will never show up again. It's a one of one. It's a bat knob. And sure, somebody can be like, oh, there's a comp on it. It's like, okay, go buy another. Go buy the other. Well, it's a one of one. It's like, okay, well then you can either choose to buy it from me at my price or you can pass on it. Like there's, there's no big deal. But I, I paid over that comp because I recognized its scarcity. I recognize that it's super cool. And. But I mean, right now it's. It's on my display because it's so freaking cool. Yeah. And it's something that other people would also like and think is very cool. And you have the argument that it's up this much. It's so subjective that you're able to say it's valued at this. You want to be right about the valuations, or else no one's going to trust you. But the reason why I bring that up is because in comps in general, is because this is something I picked up recently. I know my lighting is not the best. Yeah, it's cooked. It's cooked. But if you can't see it, it's a camo out of 25. Ohtani. I was drooling at it yesterday on your Instagram story. Isn't it cool? It's so sick. I wish the lighting in here was a little bit better just so people could see it a little bit better. But this, this card didn't sell since September of 2025. And then before that, it didn't sell for two years. And that's any, any. Not just a 95, that's any version, any grade of this card, even. Raw. Yeah. For those who are just listening, it's a 2018 update Shohei Ohtani Memorial Day Camo. So those cards are numbered out of 25. So they're super, super hard to come by. But, yeah, I mean, that doesn't shock me. I mean, the card, the card's been out for, what, eight years and there's only 25 copies in the world. Who knows, there still might be five of them that are still in packs somewhere, you know? Well, there's only. There's only that. There's. From what I know, there's only two gem pluses, this being one of them, which just means all of them are nine fives and then 110. Or I think if there's two tens and it's a ten, I think. Don't quote me on that. But it's just meaning if they're all nine, nine fives and then a ten in there, there's only two gem pluses. But again, there's. There's only four nine fives in general, and then two nines and then I don't think there's any eights and then I don't think there's any sevens. But again, this is something that hasn't sold since September. So using that comp, especially for Ohtani, it's just something you can't do. I paid way, way, way, way, way over that comp because it's just something you don't come by often. And it's something that, you know, a lot of people rely on comps. I rely on my ability to, again, because stuff like this is so subjective. I rely on my ability to sell it afterwards. So bringing up, you know, what the Father's Day or what the Mother's day out of 50 does in a 10, that's an out of 50 card. The mother's Day and Father's Day. If I, if I see a comp for 95 or one of those and it's like, I don't know, 30,000, I can argue that this is worth being out of 25x amount more than that. So I would say try not to use comps, especially for this super rare stuff that you can't find within reason. If you're dealing with a player that doesn't come up often or a player that's not as solved after, I mean, that's so subjective that you're just going to need to feel it with your gut, especially if it's someone you collect. But with Ohtani, with these markets that are bigger, that have a lot more people that are wanting that card, it's a lot better to pay stronger on stuff like that because you do not want to miss the opportunity. If you're buying a card for, let's use that $30,000, for example, if you're buying a card for 30,000 and the last comp on it was 29,000, you don't want to risk the potential upside over $1,000. It's just what it is within reason. You obviously don't want to get ripped off either. So, yeah, you, so, so you, you brought this up before of, you know, using Instagram to your benefit. Do you ever use, you know, what other platforms do you use? Do you buy and sell on ebay at all? Do you, you know, I know you use Facebook, but like, what are the avenues that you usually use outside of shows? You know, get inventory in, get inventory out. So inventory. I mostly rely on people that reach out to me now, nowadays, but prior to before that, I would just use Facebook and that's literally it. I didn't use ebay because that sets a comp and it's going to be harder to say it's a different value if you buy it off of ebay. Unless it's like super, super rare, it doesn't come up often. I go on Facebook, join these groups like specific to, let's say Ohtani or specific to baseball. And I put out a post saying, hey, I'm looking for anything that's $1,000 to $4,000. Show me what you have. And then people will hit me up with their different stuff they have and we'll try to come to a deal. You just have to have to be very, very careful with the amount of scammers that are out there. There are a ton, there are a ton of scammers that are trying to rip you off. PayPal goods and services is something that I used when I was doing this. However, something that a lot of people do not know is PayPal recently released something where they no longer cover collectibles, and a lot of people don't know that. So if you do get scammed for, let's say, two, $2,000 and you're cover covered under PayPal Goods and Services, you go to dispute it through PayPal, you're not going to get your money back because it's no longer in their terms of services that they cover collectibles. So you're out that $2,000. Now, I don't know how that's going to affect, you know, PayPal or online purchases, but again, it just goes back to those people that you've dealt with before. That's the only people I buy from now, if I'm buying online is just people that I've dealt with. Or if it's such, like, such a low amount that I'm like, okay, I can take this risk and not be too much of a loss. Like if I'm dealing with, you know, $200, $100, it's not going to break the bank. Break the bank voice crack. But if I'm dealing with like 5,000, 30,000, it has to be in person. It's just what it is. Yeah, that or honestly, like shout out, sponsor show, ebay. Like, dude, ebay will cover you. I mean, that's one thing that I really appreciate about it is like, you don't have to really worry about that because at the end of the day, like, I've had multiple times where I've been stupid and I haven't even like hidden in the details of an item was like, I. So for me, you know me, I'm baseball 99.9%. I wanted to have a little bit of fun and jump into the football market. Well, I went to go buy a Travis Kelce downtown. The title said Travis Kelce Downtown. The description said Travis Kelce downtown. And I placed a bid, ended up winning the card for below the recent sales. And I was like, heck yeah. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Well, buried deep in the notes of like the item description, it says oversized. And I go, oh. And I ended up, you know, disputing it with PayPal or with eBay and everything. And it went through fine. But that's when something like shout out another big sponsor of the show Haystack comes into play. Because with Haystack, I can use my phone and take scans of every single card that I have. And I tell you what, Haystack will let you know, if it's an oversized card, it'll let you know, like, all the little details of the card when you upload it in there. That's why I feel like more people should be using it. Because at the end of the day, that guy, whether he was trying to scam me or not, he could have used Haystack and it would have populated on the Haystack website, like, hey, this is an oversized card. So when he goes to put it up, it's in his description, it's in his title, so that some bozo like me, it doesn't come around and overpay for it. And then in the end, have to get, you know, ebay involved to do it. So all of that to say, ebay is already, you know, the king of the marketplace when it comes to collectibles. And I think it's only going to get bigger considering they have those protections for buyers and for sellers. Because, yeah, I know. I mean, I run a Facebook group. I see it all the time. Like, I am on it every single day. Of like, hey, I think that I might have gotten scammed here. Hey, I think this person might be doing something shady. Like, I'm on it all the time. There's 75,000 people in my group. There's bound to be some bad apples, and I'm doing my best every day to get them out of there. But I think at the end of the day, you can only do so much. The one that kind of scares me and I want to transition back over to social media for a minute is Instagram, because there's no dedicated groups to sports cards. It's simply just account to account. How do you. When somebody reaches out to you and says, hey, Brandon, I've got this really cool ohtani, like, would you be interested? How do you kind of vet them before, you know, sending payment? So I actually do something that completely protects me and kind of doesn't protect them at all. And that's. I know that sounds bad. I know that sounds bad, but it's just. It's just something I have to do. Just because, again, I'm dealing with. When it's going through Instagram, I'm not dealing with like 200 cards. I'm dealing with, you know, 10,000 up to a hundred thousand dollar cards. So if it's not me flying somewhere, it has to be so bulletproof. That I'm not losing money at all, and all the risk is on the seller. Because at the end of the day, that's what it is for me. If I ship something out, I expect the same. So how I've been doing it recently on Instagram and I know not everybody can do this. It's just, again, a lot of trust is I have people that reach out to me if they're trying to sell me a card. If they can't meet in person, they have to ship it. I ask them to ship the card first. Completely understandable if they don't want to do this. But they ship the card first. It arrives, I look at it, make sure it's all good, and then I send the money. And I've done this with 40,000, 60,000. Again, it comes with reputation. So that's why, again, getting those connections, getting people to know who you are, is very, very important. Because it adds like, not everybody's going to be allowed to do this if they're just. If they're just now hopping into the hobby. It's something I need to do because I don't want to be out that money and take that risk over 10,000, because I know I'm not going to scam anybody, but I don't know if they're going to try to scam me because it's happened already to where I've, you know, sent money on accident, especially when I'm in Facebook groups where I've sent money not on accident, but first, and then I just completely get blown off. And this is luckily when PayPal goods and services was still covering it, but again, they no longer do that. But Instagram, there's shady people everywhere. Reputation matters. What I do is not going to work for everybody. But with reputation comes those that trust. And it's. And it should be reflected both ways to where if someone ships me something first, then the next time I send them some money, or if not all the money, depending on who it is first. So it just depends. But that's how I do it. I know that doesn't work for everybody, but yeah, yeah, that's the. That's where, you know, there's a couple other things that kind of you can do there. Like I said, with ebay, obviously, authenticity guarantee, I think is. It is a blessing in disguise because you're getting what you pay for. Because at the end of the day, that's what everybody's concerned about is like, hey, if I'm buying this $10,000 Ohtani, I want to make sure, I'm getting that. Ohtani. I'm not getting a reprint. I'm not getting, you know, a card that's super damaged and he's trying to hide it. That's where something like authenticity guarantee comes in and really, really protects you. But I totally get with Instagram with you being like that. And I'm assuming you like, record yourself opening it and stuff just to, you know, have that peace of mind. If you don't, you should, especially with. No, no, I do. No, I do. I do. I do all that, you know, I do. I record it for my videos, but also record it for my. Yeah, I was just joking. So. So you brought up something there. You record it for your video. So for those of you who don't know, Brandon did something. Like I said, he. He is definitely in the far right end of the bell curve in terms of. No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately, though, the shop's been quiet. So Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs and help him see if he can afford it. Copilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now Hanks has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Copilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more@m365copilot.com work this episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World cup live in 4K for just $19.99 a month with 3 days free. Build your own multi view. Choose up to three streams and follow players spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights and instant replays. The FIFA World cup streaming live on Fox One offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions. I don't mean this disrespectfully, so please don't take it away. Oh God. Oh God. Of somebody who, you know, has put in the work and has just absolutely exploded, you know, because I feel like I think you have like a third of the. Or you have like, I don't know, a tenth of the number of posts I have on Instagram. But you have 100x the followers because you've put in the work and you've hit those little markers for somebody who is, you know, debating, oh, I want to make a card page. You know, I want to film content, things like that. Give us your quick blueprint of, you know how to go from zero followers to almost 40,000 in the span of, like, a year. To be honest, I don't really know. I'm just kidding. Okay, so this is what worked for me. It doesn't work for everybody. And that's just being consistent. Finding out what you want to do with cards, it's such a niche hobby in general, so finding your niche within its. Within a niche is going to be a little bit tougher. So you got to broaden it a little bit. Ohtani, I understand, is really niche, but a lot of people know who he is. A lot of people like who he is. And I personally just like collecting it. Collecting him. And so it makes the videos out to be a lot better, especially since I'm excited to do that. But three of the things that I learned, especially working at Mr. Beast for a year, was one retention rate. That is the number one driver of your videos. If. If you. So what retention rate is, is the average amount of time that someone's watching your video. So that's why it always starts up here. 100% of people are watching. And then for my videos, it tanks. No. And then it goes. It, like, kind of plateaus. Yeah, it kind of. It kind of plateaus to, like, 30, 40%. You want to see those videos that are like, okay, it started at 100 and it ended at 70%. That's a good video. If you're keeping 7 out of 10 people that are watching it, that's a very good video. And you want to kind of replicate why that happens. Some of the talking points that you said that kept people kept people around, or some of the stuff that you did that kept people around. The next thing, the first three seconds of your video matter the most. A lot of people don't talk about how much the hook impacts your video. It matters a ton, especially when people are first trying to figure out who you are. Because if they look in a video and it's you saying, hey, guys, Brandon stuff here, they're going to swipe away immediately. They might even swipe faster if they see that. But if you start off saying, let's say it was a card negotiation or, Shohei Ohtani is the worst pitcher in baseball. See, that's a good one for a podcast. If you're doing a podcast, like, that's a hook that I'd use. Maybe not me myself, but other people would use that, and it would grab someone's attention for card negotiations. It's. Yeah, I'd like to start at 30,000 that's someone, someone listening that they're like, what the heck is $30,000? So the first three seconds matters a ton. And then third thing, consistency. If you're posting once a week, you're not going to grow to the extent of some of these people. If you're posting every day, which is something that I did especially when I was first getting started, not only does it help you in your editing and understanding who is truly watching you, but it helps with your growth and getting in the algorithm on Instagram, I'll put it. For example, I'll give an example. I haven't been posting too, too much recently just because I'm trying to figure out, you know, using a camera guy, not using a camera guy, let that type of stuff. So it's impacted the consistency of posting videos. And yes, I have some videos hitting 60,000 100,000 views still, but I do have some videos still hitting that 15K. And before, when I was posting every single day, it was 30,000 to 50,000 views consistently. And normally, typically after three weeks of me posting consistently again, it gets back to that. So consistency is very, very undervalued. I know a lot of people bring it up, but the reason why they bring it up is because it's important. Yeah, 100%. So for our listeners, they probably know this. I think I even told you about this. But I, we, we've talked about this ad nauseum in on Instagram and I said I wanted to challenge myself in the month of June by posting 100 pieces of content. I wanted to post, have a hundred things up there, 100 new videos and just see how it does. And you're 100% right. Because my videos. Yeah, just like you were, you know, 15,000 every time. No, for me, it's, it's still in that consistent like 5,5000 view range. And even for me, I'm like, holy smokes. Like, you know, it's the saying, if 5,000 people were in a room with your 5,000 people are in your backyard, how would you react? You know? Well, guess what? All those people just saw your face, just saw your content. You know, it's incredible. Like, it's, it's so cool to see. But yeah, it's just seeing the videos that you make and stuff, like, it's all really phenomenal. So thank you. For those of you who do not already follow. Brandon, Brandon, give yourself a little plug because that you post some phenomenal content. Honestly, Trent's just saying it's good, but it's really not. You Guys should not check it out. Mine, my Instagram is Brandon underscore stuff. I just post Ohtani content right now. I want to get it. I want to branch out into football, basketball shortly. But again, it comes back to that find your niche thing. I found my niche. I enjoy it. I enjoy the crap out of it, especially when I can watch a player that's just kicking. I don't know if you can cuss on here, so I'm not. But he's just kicking. He's kicking butt. So Brendan underscore stuff. That's me. Crappy name, but we're working on it. But it works. Brandon, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for giving us insight to all of our listeners and stuff. Yeah, go check him out on Instagram. He. He deserves a follow. And you never know, he might do another giveaway where he gives away another $5,000 Shohei Ohtani card. I don't know what I was thinking there, but there's going to be some big, big stuff market here first. This is gonna be the first place I'm talking about it. Eventually I want to give away $100,000. Eventually. I want to try to do that, I think. And again, I don't. I don't do any sponsors. I don't have any sponsorships. So this would be a hundred percent funded by me. I think it would just be cool. We're not doing there that yet, but we're going to. Mark my words, we're gonna try. But seriously, hey, I appreciate it, Trent. I appreciate sports card nonsense for having me on. I love talking baseball. I love talking cards and talking in general, if you guys couldn't tell. And I appreciate you all at home for listening and you guys for following me as well. So thank you. Yeah, of course. We'll have to have you back on soon. Thanks a bunch, Brandon. Thank you, dude. I appreciate it. All right, and we're back. So that was an awesome interview with Brandon. So I met him a few years ago through. Through some Facebook groups. But I'm telling you, he's a. He's a genuine good dude. In case you couldn't tell from listening to him, he's a super cornball. But that's why I love him, because he's a genuine person and he drops so many good little nuggets in there that I feel like are super beneficial to collectors out there, whether it's from, you know, talking about, hey, you need to network. We've talked about networking here so many times, and I don't. I'm using the word networking loosely, because I. I don't want it to feel like, you know, you have to go to a card show and act like it's LinkedIn. No, I mean, you know, just make deals with people. When you. When you make a deal with somebody, don't be afraid to say, hey, like, do you mind if I, you know, get your social media? Or do you mind if I get your number in case I come across something else like this? Or, hey, message me if you have any more. Cool. I don't know, Mets cards come in your way. You know, at the end of the day, a lot of. A lot of relationships in this hobby are built off of those initial transactions with people and over time, even with Brandon. Like, him and I did deals over a year ago, and we're still friends because of it, because we kept in contact. So don't be afraid to reach out to people, even if it's been a while after you've made a deal, because, you know, these relationships last a long time, and a lot of times they go way beyond cardboard. Although Brandon and I did a deal a while back. We haven't done a deal in a long time. Why? Because for me, I'm not a big baller like he is. I can't. I can't go drop 100k on an Ohtani card, but I can, you know, pick up a, you know, a base pitching image and, you know, just appreciate it. So at the end of the day, don't be afraid to reach out to people to make those connections and, you know, expand your horizons when it comes to social media, he. He has broken the code. Like I said, I. I didn't mean to offend him, but I was like, dude, this doesn't happen. That or I'm not doing something right. And even I internalized that, you know, the retention rate. When he said, you know, you got to pay attention to see what videos do well and things like that. Because, like, like I said, I've been putting up a hundred videos in June, and I've already seen, like, a lot of growth on my page. However, like, you know, it's trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. What can I do to provide value to others to where they want to enjoy and consume my content? So at the end of the day, it's. It's really just reps. So I feel like the biggest underlying message throughout that entire video or the entire interview is just, hey, be consistent with what you do. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Go to card shows, interact with people, you know, build these relationships. Have fun. He was laughing and cutting up throughout the entire interview. Why? Because this is fun for him. I was laughing and cutting up. Why? Because this is fun for me. Don't be afraid to have fun. This is a hobby at the end of the day, and it's all meant to be enjoyed. So really hope you enjoyed the interview with Brandon. We'll have Alex back. I think he's putting up a It's going to be a show without me next week, so you won't be able to hear from me. But as always, if you ever need anything, don't be afraid to reach out. So thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Hobby Handbook. Cheers.