Mind Your Manners! Season 6 E. 10

Hello, and welcome to the Ball Card Show eSports Podcast. For the eSports Collector. I'm Jason Otero. I'm Gary Lemaster. And this is Season 6, Episode 10, coming off of Ship Shawana, my favorite card show to name out loud. Yeah. Well, and just in general, it's one of our favorite shows. It did not disappoint in any way. I think that they set an attendance record. It was somewhere between 7,500 and 8,000 people over two days at the show, which is in the middle of nowhere in Amish country. Banger. Banger show. Do you want to know what my favorite part of the show was? What's that? Seeing you try to WWF wrestle with that backseat of the Explorer. Stop it. No, that wasn't the show. I was the best part of the whole experience. I was just trying to leave your house. I had such a good time. I had such a good time. Oh, no. It was really fun. And again, we say this to you guys. The internet enjoyed it as well. Oh, you're talking about my chair experience? How does that match up to your putting bougie water in your I hope I don't die machine at night? Well, I would say this. I could show people images of what your bougie machine water looks like, and we can compare notes. You mean just from the tap like a normal human? I think you don't realize the comments were calling for distilled water. Well, probably. Yeah. But I don't use that at home, but I'm not buying distilled water. I don't believe there's a jug of it just sitting right by my machine. If we're going to compare CPAPs, we're going to compare CPAPs, Gary. Mine's like 20 years old. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Mine has none of those stalagmites on it. That's because it's relatively new. No, I think it's because I clean it. I clean mine too. Do we want to do this? I mean, let's do it. Gary, let's do it. I don't think anybody really wants to hear us do this. No, we're doing it now. Gary, how long have you had your machine? Probably like 15 or 16 years. How many times have you thoroughly cleaned the inside despite the fact that it's a challenge to reach that and clean it? Probably four or five times. That's all I need to say, and those of you holding your vomit in, you're justified. Those have all been in the last like eight to 10 months. Do you know how many times I have cleaned mine? Well, I'm assuming way more than necessary. Just like go off of the recommendation by the doctor. I don't know. My doctor didn't give me a recommendation 20 years ago. This isn't about my CPAP machine. This is about you not figuring out the Explorer's Seat on the way out there. Oh, gosh. If you're still listening to this, we're lucky to have you. We've tried to lose you. We're a couple minutes in. We're rambling on. Also found a bar within driving distance of Ship Shawana. Yes. Did not know it exists. Snappers, right? Awesome. It was great. It was so cool. I walk in a guy that we hang out with, Jetty Breaks. He buys really cool 90s and 2000s inserts like really fun stuff. Yeah. It's always the right kind of parallels and stuff. But he's like, come on, I got a cool spot. And we get there. He's got a picture board. We have the place to ourselves. This lady's like, hey, I got these bacon wrapped chicken medallions that are like covered in dry love. Sweet. Yes. We'll have those. Great time. Good memories. Yes. I will have that triple burger. Yes. I will take that. Buying was great. Selling was great. Similar again for us where with the traffic that we had, I think we would have brought a lot more. We just sold a lot more. So now it's just kind of a game for us to cycle up our inventory from one show to the next. So. Yep. It was. The show never disappoints. As listeners, we realize we aren't the biggest fish in the pond, but you guys show up and show out at all these big shows and you come say hi and you introduce yourselves and it makes it worthwhile. Like it's just a good feeling to know that we're giving you guys enough value that you come back every week and watch and listen. Yep. And seeing you check in and what's funny is for so many of you, we just know you buy a handle on whatnot or, or on discord handle, which could be unhinged. Right. So to put a face to the name, that was a lot of fun. Had a cool moment towards the end of the show. There's a young, young man, probably 12, 13 years old, really wanted this Yankees RPA and just was like out of the budget. He had looked up comps and he caught me where I had priced it a while back and a couple more comps had hit and it was lower. So I had adjusted the price by the time he came back and he's like, oh, thanks for doing that. And he's like digging pockets, trying to figure out a way if he's going to try to make an offer. I said, just take it, bud. And it was one of those few ones where, uh, he was like teary eyed and it was just a, it was a really special moment. Um, and he even hopped on the whatnot to say, Hey, on Sunday. So that was cool. You know, you saw somebody I bought from also tear up as well, which you'd like to, would you like to share that story? That one that concluded with a kiss. Listen. Yeah. Listen, guys, you guys all know Jason and I have very different personalities in how we deal with things. If you've listened to us for any period of time, uh, you'll hear that a lot. Our friend Kyle, bless his heart, walked a guy over to us, said, Hey, you want to talk to this guy? He's got some stuff you guys will probably want. Awesome, man. Thank you. Uh, you're busy. And so I'm, I'm talking to this gentleman and he's an older gentleman and he starts pulling out of a fanny pack, just some vintage stuff, nothing crazy, some baseball, some basketball, a little bit of football, most of it in really bad condition, but a few good names and a couple of cards that were the right names that were in ex or better condition, but nothing crazy. And I asked the question I ask whenever I see a lot like that before I get too deep into it. Do you know what you want for all of it? And he was kind of taken aback and he said, well, I hadn't really thought about it, but like this card, this card and this card, there's four of them in the median price on those sales prices, $11. And I was like, Oh, what are those cards? And he opens up his binder and it's four base 1993 oral hersheiser upper deck cards. Not the worst design, not the worst design out of 90, but the last 50 comps hadn't cleared 60 cents a piece. You'll have that on those big jobs, they say. I knew I was in trouble and I knew I didn't have the patience for it. So I'm looking at, I spent about 15 minutes with the guy and we're not getting anywhere. It's never going to. So I call in Jason for the reinforcements thinking that Jason will go, all right, I can just be very kind and nice and let this guy know we're not going to get anything done. It's okay. And send him on his way. 90 minutes later, Jason is still talking. It was closed. Oh no. Yes. It was way more than 30. It was not. Oh, it sure was. You know how long a 30 minute buy is like, yeah, that's how long it was. Yes. You were spread out over one of my showcases for an extended period. It was empty. He, uh, it was close. Um, he, he finally gets a deal done with this guy. And I mean, it was, it took forever. I was done. And Jason turns around to get money to pay the guy and he starts to well up his eyes start to well, but he's holding these cards. I didn't know this happened. I didn't know. He brings them up to a timeout. Gary's annoyed that we're taking this long. Yes. The other thing that's happening is it's very clear to me what, what Gary didn't know that became real obvious, like 15 minutes in is this was, he collected every one of these 60s on like every single one. And I was like, all right, here's the meat and potatoes. Like there was a 69 mantle in there, 71 banks, uh, 71 Aaron. That was really beat up. There's an Elgin Baylor. Was that 71? 72? Yeah. There's a 72. There was a 72. Wilt that was in pretty good shape. But most of it is five to 15 bucks and these are mostly VGDX. So maybe a couple, I could take a chance. The mantle is the best card, but it was trashed. It's a one. It's still going to surprise you. Yeah. It's a hundred dollar card. Um, okay. It, it, it, it will probably do a little better than that. Um, that's good. Yeah. But the issue that I was running into is like, we had gone through all the meat and potatoes of like, I said, here's what I'd like to do. Cause it was clear he was emotionally attached. So I was like, I'm going to pay you strong on these cards that you really care about very close to where we agreed that the value is. And then on this other stuff, that's like five to 10 bucks. I'd like a good deal in bulk on the remaining cards over and over and over. Well, as we get time for that decision, now he wants me to comp this $5 card and then comp that $5 card and then comp this $7 card and then comp this $3 card. And finally I said, are you going to sell these? Are you just wondering what they're worth? And then he began to move forward with the deal and all that. But okay. So I make the deal. I'm relieved. I'm like, Ooh, yeah, it was a grind. There was some cool, weird, um, what were those? Like cereal box ads? They were promotional. They were promotional things. Yeah. They don't make them anymore. I promise you that. But it's cool stuff, you know? So Jason turns around to get money to pay the guy. And I watched this dude, every bit of 60, 65 years old, maybe a little older, hold these cards up to his face like a child, starts to tear up and whispers, I'm going to miss you guys. And then he kisses the stack. I don't even know what to say or do in that moment. I'm uncomfortable. It's super cringy. And Jason doesn't see any of it. I miss the whole thing. And he just turns around, hands the guy money and the guy hands him his cards and walks out. I look at Jason. I go, did you not see what just happened? He said, what are you talking about? He just kissed his cards. He literally kissed them goodbye. That just happened. He literally kissed them goodbye. Oh, man. But it was a fun buy, though. But yeah, it was. It was. And I tell you, it was the show was crazy. We were three to five deep almost all the time. Like one thing. One thing I noticed, and I was proud to hear that this sounds like it was kind of the consensus of most dealers in the room. Yeah. The the roller cart boys. They were getting salty expecting 80 to 85 percent of the lowest comp they could find on case hits. They were looking at us like, what happened? Yeah. They were getting salty. We've got we've got a few guys who buy from us on the regular, whether they're whatnot, other whatnot guys on the higher end of stuff, whether it's repackers. And we have a few that we have really good relationships with who are not last comp only guys. They're like, look at the whole picture, try to figure out what makes sense and we'll pay really strong. Those guys are awesome. And you guys know who you are. But the guys who are used to just rolling around and throwing some money on the table and getting stuff at 80, 85 percent, maybe 90 percent if they want to get real aggressive, they weren't buying stuff. Yeah. And finally, the third time around, they were like, nobody's selling anything. I said, no, everybody's selling stuff. The problem you guys are running into is collectors are buying those cards this week and they're paying 95 percent of our tag. So why would I sell it to you? Like if you want this case hit at 90, I'm happy to do that if you're going to buy three or four bricks from me or 85 to 87. But if you just want to cherry pick the most liquid stuff, it's 95 percent. And here's what was awesome about it. Jason and I both held that line and we sold all that stuff. Yep. We sold it all. And I think everybody in the room felt the same way. It was like, hey, we're having to pay up to get this stuff. You know, I think that there's something that nobody's talking about. And it's the fact that no one has done the math on what happens when the repacker at the top of the chain keeps saying yes to everyone sourcing for him. Yeah. Okay. You're on the list. You're on the list. You're on the list. And now you're in a room with 15 other people that are only going to get a payout of 89 to 91 percent because they're far enough down the ladder. And when there's 30 of you in the same room and I have relationships with the person that's paying 95, guess who's getting those cards? Yeah. If we're not actually setting up at a show and you're just coming in and cherry picking, there's some people I know. There's new people we meet and we like the way they do business. Yeah. Or they pay stronger on the light stuff. They don't even fight us on the $30 to $50 stuff, but on the bigger stuff, they want to break. There's a younger guy that sources that's humble and polite. And if he's been getting crushed, I go out of my way to find him a card that I can sell him at like 75%. Yep. I do that. Yeah. So we're going to spend some time calling up and point good business like we owe it to you. And then when you get pushed back, there's attitude. So we're going to spend some time in a little bit talking about a little bit of etiquette before we do that. Quick reminder to you guys, Discord is up and running. It is running 120, 130 people hanging out in there on a regular basis. There are 20 to 40 people in the room. It's wild, man. I vastly exceeded my expectations for three weeks into this. Yeah. Yep. So keep an eye on there. Lots of good content. It's a good way you can promote your brand. We've got a channel for that. Yep. You can ask questions to an LCO sonar like Keith Newhart, who is going to be bringing us... Look at this segue, Gary. Look at this segue. I like it. Well, if you announce it, it's not as good. Keith Newhart at Newhart Cards in Delaware is going to bring us Shop Talk right now. Hi, this is Keith at Newhart Cards, and this is Shop Talk. We're getting some really good feedback from Discord and Facebook and Instagram and InShop and all that. So we're really getting some questions to come in. So I wanted to go and talk about one of the questions, maybe the first one that we got. With all the big box retailers now, with all of the questions with allocation are, what are shops going to do going into the future? Are we going to lean into singles? Are we going to lean into value boxes? What are we going to do? And the answer is, yes, you better, right? So we've always kind of prided ourselves on doing a lot with singles, buying and selling singles. That's just what we love to do. And the wax is kind of a secondary thing. Well, COVID and past, that flipped. Everybody wants to open wax. Prices skyrocketed. It has to be an integral part of your business, right? So another part of that question I think that he asked is he's starting to go into shops and not seeing value boxes anymore, or not seeing $20 and $30 singles, which I think is the grassroots of this industry, right? You know, when somebody comes in and they'll sit and go through quarters and dollars for hours to pick out the favorite, you know, Guardians or pick out their favorite Reds, I think that, you know, hobby shops are trying for that big dollar, that content moment instead of, you know, trying to grow this hobby, this industry, you know, from the ground up. And I think that's what value boxes do. I think that's what singles do. I think that's what retail boxes do. So yeah, with this question about, you know, how you get more allocations, is it spend more, get more? Well, that is definitely part of it. Fanatics has kind of put together like a score sheet, you know, so yes, we have to order their supplies. We have to order their gear. You know, we have to send cards to Fanatics Collect. We have to be on Fanatics Live. You know, we have to go to Fanatics Fest. We're about 50% of that, to be honest with you. So but it is part of the game, you know, there's a scorecard. But as an LCS owner, we can't forget where we all started. What makes this a great hobby is, you know, not everybody has $1,000 to spend on a card. People like to dig quarters, dollars, prices marked. They like to buy vintage wax. So lean into what you're good at, but don't leave, you know, the true hobbyist behind. So this is Keith at Newhart Cards, and this has been Shop Talk. All right, guys, so you saw how that worked. You submit questions in Discord, ask an LCS owner, and Keith's going to answer those. I know he had two other questions that he's already got lined up for the next couple of weeks. Love it. He also is responding in the channel. So take advantage of that. It's a good way to connect with us and for us to know what you're thinking, how you feel about the content, anything you'd like us to explore as well. Gary, would you like to jump in? Before we do this, I forgot to announce. Sure. Special guests coming up here in just a little bit. Oh, yeah. Brad Beeman, BSports, Ship Shawana, Grove City Car Fest, Fort Wayne Show, and the list could go on and on and on. Brad's going to be joining us to give a little repack, a repack, recap from the promoter side of Ship Shawana. We just think that'll be an interesting perspective to you to hear what does a promoter think after having a big show like that? What wheels are turning? What questions do they have? What things are they thinking to improve? So Gary's going to bring that interview here in just a little bit. It'll be great. Let's talk etiquette. We're at a show, there's things to do, there's things not to do. About once a year, I feel like we feel it necessary to bring this topic up. Is that fair, Gary? Yeah. And it's one that I don't think can be, as the hobby continues to grow, as more and more people are getting into it, new people, so many people telling us, this is the first show I've ever been to. I think it's helpful to know how to approach dealers, whether you're buying, whether you're selling, how you deal with other customers at the show, other people walking the show. Yeah, this was something after Ship Shawana. There were several things that hit me the wrong way that I just kind of took mental notes on. I said, we need to address this stuff. Yeah. Fair enough? Yeah. I want to do it, but I want it to be like, here's what I hope. When we do this, we don't want to come across just whining. What we're saying is, when we do 40 to 50 shows a year, here are things that we see that really impact the opportunity for you to buy cards or sell cards to a dealer, and here's the things that dealers should avoid doing if they want to continue selling cards. It's more about that. We're going to give examples of stuff we've experienced, but this isn't us saying like, we're just grumpy dealers and nobody... No. 99% of the time, transactions at card shows are great, but when they go south, I think it's worth making note of because some of you that have had a tendency to be an idiot at a show could change your behavior. Do you like how I always build it up and then I find a way to say it as aggressively as possible? Yeah. Well, at least you do the buildup. I just start with the aggressively as possible. Well, that's because I'm the nice one of the team. If you change your behavior, you're going to get better results. I'll start with one that I've seen a lot recently, and it's not a big deal until it's happened to a dealer about 20 times, and here's the reality. It's mostly kids, and when I say kids, I don't mean 16, 17-year-olds. I mean 10 to 12-year-olds. Parents have kind of let them loose, which is fine. That's a great thing for card shows. Yeah, absolutely. When I was a kid, it's what we did, but if you're a kid and you are walking up to a dealer's table and they're already talking to someone, wait patiently. Don't shove your card in between me and the customer I'm working with and say, hey, are you buying? You want this? Don't interrupt a transaction that's happening. Just take a deep breath. Patience is a virtue. Do you work multiple deals at the same time? Not often. Okay. The only time I'll work multiple deals is if I'm working one transaction where I'm buying from somebody and somebody's wanting to like buy something out of the showcase, I'll put something on hold to go take care of that. But when I'm already comping stuff, I'm already working on trying to buy something from somebody or I'm working a trade. There's not the bandwidth to shove a card underneath my nose as I'm in the middle of a sentence and interrupt me and say, hey, are you buying? Do you want this? That drives me batty. I don't mind doing a few deals at the same time, but if somebody's just being rude and it's clear that they've just been hitting every table five seconds and 99% of the time, the reason is you're trying to sell this card for a world record that it has never sold for. Or it's a BCCG Sean Kemp eighth year non-insert that you got. And you're wanting a world record for the card. So I think that's right. But I also think what makes it challenging is like one of the growing pains I think you and I have is we're probably pretty close to where a lot of these bigger shows, it's time to bite the freaking bullet and pay up for another table. We need more space to designate the buying area. I think if it's a little more clearly laid out, like this spot's the buying, we need to get one of the little archway banners, whatever. But if there's a little bit more of a line there, then it's easy to say, hey, buddy, the line's right here. Right. Yeah. But I agree. Like no dealer wants to have somebody in the middle of conversation, shove a card in their face and, you know, yeah, try to work because I'm just probably gonna say, hey, no, thanks. I just don't have time to even consider it right there. You're gonna have way more success just being patient and waiting your turn or even saying, and I know this is crazy talk, but even saying, hey, I know you're in the middle of something. Can I just ask you a question real quick or excuse me, I just real quick question. Manners. Just some manners. Yeah. And on that same subject, we didn't see it much at SHIP, which was surprising because normally SHIP is really a lot of this. But if you're doing the trade up challenge, one, cool. I have no issue. It is dying off, Dave. It is dying off some. But if you are doing it, let me put you into a hack for it that will make your trade up challenge way better. Don't tell the dealer you're doing a trade up challenge. Just say, hey, would you be interested in these cards? I'm looking to trade. I'm not looking to sell. And then see where it goes. But the minute that you say, hey, I'm doing the trade up challenge, what you're really saying is please give me free things. I disagree. I think you're being grumpy as hell. Nah, I'm not being grumpy about it at all. No, you are. Disagree. Because you don't have to. And that's one thing. Two, it is a trade up. So a lot of times they're going to give you something that's usually a five or ten dollar card. Now, here's the thing. I try to cap it. Like, I don't trade up over 20 bucks. I'll help you get started. But like a kid did a trade up with me, he had like a five, I don't remember the card. It was a relevant name, but it wasn't even, maybe it was a three or five dollar card. And then I gave him an Otani Mojo Refractor. He loved it. And 10 seconds later, he comes back with a different card. And I just say, hey, I do these once a show. And that's it. But I was the kid that wouldn't have had a lot of money to get a nicer card than the one that they had in there. So for me, it's like, I don't mind doing it. But when I get swarmed, it's just like, hey, guys, I can't do this all day. Like, there was a leadership thought, do for one what you wish you could do for everybody. So for me, it's a little more like that. But yeah, you can tell. And if you have facial hair, the trade up challenge era is over, baby. Yes. If you have facial hair, the trade up challenge no longer exists for you. I'm sorry. If you're carrying a Zion case around. My favorite is if you're carrying a baby and you're a grown adult with a full beard. I'm sorry, what? Yeah, I'm not doing the trade up challenge. Oh, speaking of that, you had one this week with a pretty rare refractor that was in your showcase from an etiquette standpoint. I don't, I honestly don't remember if it was a dealer or VIP buyer or whatever, but I had a, what's a 93, 94 finest Miller refractor SGC nine PSA nine just went for one 90. And then there's raw sales before that. There weren't a lot of graded sales. Raw sales were like down as low as 40 as high as like 80 or 90. It's a tough grade. It's a finest refractor in appeal. It's Reggie Miller and it's below the PSA nine. This guy started in right away. Like, where'd you get that price? Yeah. How'd you come up with that price? I'm doing some deals there and I'm like, oh no, you think I'm the nice one because I'm smiling right now. And I said, well, um, I priced it a little bit ago. I'm not exactly sure, but let's take a look. I'm sure there's a reason I would put that number on the refractor. So I look it up on card. The last comp was the PSA nine over the price of my sticker. It was like 185 or one night. I think you got your side to one 60. Yeah. I was like, I was below the, I was like adjusting for the SGC and I was like, yeah, I guess I mean just the latest graded nine. I went below PSA. Oh, I, I don't, I don't count that one. Oh, well I do because it happened. Well, he said, well, I don't, I don't believe that that had to be shilled. And so I said, oh, okay. And he, and when he, then he's like, it isn't working. I'm going to keep being more rude. Well, I buy those all the time. I mean, my son, we buy this for 30 bucks all day long. I said, that's awesome, man. You should do that. You should. I said, that's great. Then he keeps going as if to say, you're not understanding me. I'm the authority. The only graded comp in the last year is not real because I said so. To which point I finally stopped. Table full of people. I said, sir, can I just ask you, does this approach ever work for you? He didn't know what to say. And he just was like, oh! He was like, I'm not trying to be rude. Oh, you are being rude. That's very rude. And you asked for the number. I put it right in front of you. So I'm just confused. Like, is this, are you making an offer? Or, and I just kept reinforcing, like, that stuff needs to stop. That's an old school model of sourcing. Walking from your table, I need to go buy stuff, and I'm just going to talk down any card I'm interested. This card sucks. That card sucks. This comp sucks. That comp sucks. Give me your stuff at 30%, and I'll walk away a little less angry. And apparently, that probably works at some smaller shows with a lot of new people that are uninformed. But you got the wrong one today. I actually like the 90s refactors. I pay attention to what's happened to the overall market there for the last year. Don't be an idiot. Be polite. Well, that's- Make an offer. That goes back to, again, so- I might have given him that card at 75%. I've had it for a while. Yeah. But you weren't going to give it to him at 20%. Well, I wasn't going to give it to him after that. Yeah. And again, to go back to the theme of we don't want to just be complaining, the solution here is if there's a card you see in a showcase that you like, and the price feels off to you. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I'm kind of interested in this card. Can you- I know they don't sell very often. How did you- Yep. How did you end up pricing this just so I can kind of see where you're coming from? And if you do it with that tone of voice, that type of humbleness, just to get a feel, you're going to find out real quick, if most of the time the dealer's going to do just what Jason did. Well, here's kind of what I saw. And if you don't- If you think that was a shill bid or whatever, that's perfectly within your prerogative. I was okay right there. Yeah. And you just say- Could have ended there. I saw that. It's the highest ones ever sold for. No worries at all. I appreciate it. Or you can even say, I was going to offer like 70 bucks. I probably won't make sense. Yeah. And I probably would have said, no, it won't make sense. And we're cool. Yes. But you've seen the opposite happen though. When I have something that, you know, was like a brick with no comps for like a year that I thought was really cool, and I've had it in my showcase for three months, and somebody comes up, and all of a sudden there's interest, but there've been two sales in the last couple weeks. There's no way I recheck that because it's- Yeah. I bought it as a brick, right? It was a cool-looking card. And they say, well, what can you do? My answer, 90% of the time, unless it's a very unique card that I know I can hold out on, which there's not that many of those out there. There's really not. Right. I'm going to work my price down because I have parked money into a card that no one is going to spend what I thought is worth. And four months later, somebody is here to spend. And what do I say when that happens? Cal Ripken, Earl Weaver, and the Jim Palmer, triple out at a 25. You look at me, thank God. Somebody offered me 50%. Thank God. Yep. Because it's going to happen. But, yeah, that approach just isn't going to work. I had to take a loss on a downtown this week. Yeah, I had to take a loss on a downtown this week. Well, I think there's- Let's just get into the tactical instead of just me whining about it. Yep. So, there is always an emotional experience happening in a sale. Selling and buying is emotional. I don't care what anybody says. Now, those of you that are engineers probably don't listen to us anyway. You may be the only ones that are a little different that actually analyze everything and check emotion out of the moment. But by and large, people are making emotional decisions in that moment. So, it matters how they feel. So, if I'm walking up to a table and I'm interested in something, I'm going to love the card. Yeah, I'm going to be in love with this card. I'm going to hope that you share the same affinity for the card and see the appreciation that I have for it because that is a very different emotional experience at the beginning of a negotiation from, oh, yeah, those don't do that much, do they? Yeah. Those really that- Those really doing that? Yeah. You got any room on this? Yeah. Are you going to be firm there? I could go on and on and on. and on with the list, but, dude, I love that 2008 Brady patch. Yeah! That hog heaven stuff is weird. I'm sure it doesn't have that many comps, but could I take a look at it? Where'd you find this? Was this like in a collection? Yeah. Because it's just kind of unique. You see how much different that dynamic is? Now, I'm not going to pick cards that I don't like, so this makes it way easier for me because I don't have to buy stuff that I don't think will sell or that I don't appreciate. If it's the case hit game, it's just can I get the right percentage on it? Because I'm not personally very attached to any of them. We'll say some of the new Topps Chrome Basketball case hits are nice. Yeah, they're pretty. I really like those glass canvas cards. I like the ultraviolets. I think they look nice. But that's that's just you just need to start with a different mindset. And I think what people don't realize is you'll actually get better results. You'll have better results. Yeah. Start from a place of how can I work with this person to get to the price I want? It doesn't have to be a fight. It doesn't have to be a battle, right? Like I tell customers all the time, hey, I've got a tag, but I'm open to offers. Yep. What are you thinking? And if you're and if your offer is fair, I'm not even going to counter you. I'm just going to shake your hand. If I have a $200 price tag on a card and somebody offers me 180, I'm just shaking their hand like we're not. I'm not going to try to squeeze an extra $10 out of it like that's done. Right. So you can you can get a lot further with honey than you can vinegar when you're dealing with dealers, especially when you know that like at a show like ship, we are exhausted. Like we you guys are walking around a show and get to see lots of cool stuff. And that's awesome. And we have fun at shows. But we are on our feet on concrete behind a table for eight to ten hours. And it's nonstop people like I love it. And Jason loves it. I it's not my favorite part of what I do. Well, Gary, I got bad news for you. I know that's going to happen a lot more. Yes. And so when you when you come at a transaction that aggressively, it can go sideways really, really fast because I've got three or four other people with eyes on my showcases at the time where you're doing this whole thing. Yes. And I think the way I do it is like I'm going to be very persuasive and diplomatic until I can tell this is somebody that's just going to shove the boundaries of what I have going on in my business. And guess what? This is my business. I don't work for you or anybody else. Dynamic I don't want for myself or the people that buy from me. I'm going to make you look silly and encourage you to never come back. Yes. And it happens once. So you guys hear us tell these stories, but you got to understand there's a thousand transactions between every one of these things. Yes. Yes. Not all the time. But it is like when you see repetition, you're like, so I would just start that. Like, don't beat up the cards. It's not working for you. Right. It's not working for you. Or you're just going to bully people around and you're going to get a big lot purchase and you'll never buy a thing from them again. Yeah. You're going to get a reputation for that. And the last one for me, and I don't know if you had any other ones, but this was the last one for me. And this one actually happens more than every once in a while. And it may be the one that makes me the craziest because I'm all about. Especially in a business that is as interpersonal as this one and where everybody kind of keeps everybody level. I'm all about two way streets. And if you bring stuff to the table. Yeah. And you look at something in my showcase and I've got a thousand dollar tag on it and you offer 700. And I say, I just can't can't get that far down, man. I appreciate the offer. And you say, well, OK, are you are you buying? Yeah, let me take a look. And then you proceed to demand 90% on everything in your case. We're probably not ever going to do business because it doesn't work that way. I can't pay you 90 and you buy from me at 70. What world does that work like? Want me to give you my opinion? Sure. Here's the world it works in, and it's not very often. What they have is liquid and the car they're interested in. You have good margin in really good margin in and you can roll some of that equity over. But it's got to be in that case. It's got to be a show. Hey, Ted, it's going to be sure. Jordan, that's going to sell that day. And if it's a trade, that's one thing. But I'm not talking about situations where it's a trade. Oh, I'm telling you situations where somebody wants to buy something out of my case at 70%. And I say no. And then they ask me if I'm buying, not wanting to trade. And then I pull a few things out and I say, hey, what do you what do you think here? And their number is 90 to 95 percent. What? What are we talking about? I just think it's not going to be very effective. That doesn't bother as much because I'm just like, yeah, I can't. It sounds like we're both playing the same game here. Have a good day. But I'll be the devil's advocate in a positive way, which doesn't happen that often. You know what else we don't have to deal with, though, Gary, is we don't have rent. We don't have a brick and mortar. Yep. We don't have staff. We don't have a direct account to maintain. We don't have a big brother trying to keep. No, I'm just saying like, yeah, yes, these things happen. It shows, but we're paying for a significant level of convenience. And part of what's going to happen is people are going to walk up to the table and they're going to demand unrealistic things. And I think it's when it starts happening over and over and over and over that it can wear on wear on us. But the one for me similar to that was the last comp guys where it was like the last comp was lower unless the last comp was higher. So I had a few times I said, hey, if we're doing this, then let's just let's just do the last comp on all these. Let's see how it goes. Well, they didn't want to do that. Yeah, that's exactly right. So anyway, the last comp, if it if it helps there, I think a lot of this could be resolved with just if you're approaching a table to sell to do or just be polite, just understand everyone. I'm trying to make money. And at the end of the day, the percentage is going to matter. But if you don't like the person you're talking to, none of it matters. Yeah. Dealers. No one owes you a 70% buy. No at all. No. And people aren't as informed as dealers for the most part walking a show. They assume that on a $500 card, if they're going to give you 90%, they just put 50 bucks in your pocket. What's the problem with that? They're not thinking the same way that the dealers are about time and liquidity and averaging the comps and scarcity and all that stuff. So I want us to like dealers when it comes to etiquette. The piece for us to remember is everybody doesn't know everything. Right. You had if you're successful as a dealer, you committed to becoming obsessed with learning this space. And it either happened over 30 years because you never quit collecting or you spent some serious time at shows and shops on YouTube watching case a case get like learning, learning, learning. If you're going to expect that of everyone else, then what value are you providing? What are you bringing to the table? Literally, like, what are you bringing to that experience, to that show? That's why I think good promoters are picky. They don't want dealers that are going to give a bad experience. But I think on the dealer end, yes, we we hope that more buyers understand this etiquette, but on the dealer side of that, don't be a jerk. Not everybody knows. But then the percentage may not make sense to them, to the ones that do. Cool. The ones that don't keep it moving, how you do keep moving. And, you know, in Nashville, that happened a lot. What happened to us? Day two. Hey, I walked this whole room yesterday and you said you were at 75% of the car, but you had the highest offer. Yeah, and we didn't cherry pick the lowest comp. And guess what? You can buy this one and you can buy this one. Yeah. And you know what? You want these? I don't need as much for him. Why is that a kid? It's the way you treat people. Hey, that card's way bigger than this. Let me walk you down to great. Let me walk you to so-and-so. Let me. And it's like we do that. We don't say that. We we we will walk someone down with cards. And so I think that's that's important as well. When we're thinking about the etiquette on the dealer side, like don't be a jerk just because people are doing things the way it's different. Yep. And remember that dealers are there. To make money, some of us are there because it's the only way we make money. Some people are there because it's a side income, a side hustle. But either way, they're there to make money. So if you have a case full of stuff and you bring it up to the dealer, unless you're actually wanting to sell it to them, the dealer doesn't have a responsibility to just spend a half hour comping all your cards. Yeah. Just so you know what they're worth. Well, they don't have a responsibility. But then if you say, yeah, I'll take a look at anything you got, then you better be taking a look at anything they got. Well, taking a look. Yes. Are are you buying is the question that I get asked? Yes. Well, absolutely. Take a look. But they're not actually selling what they actually just want is somebody to tell them what their stuff's worth. Yeah. I don't think you get the good deals without having to sort through those. I don't think there's a way to avoid that. I don't disagree. I don't disagree with you. I'm just saying that from a card show tips standpoint for people walking the room, that's a that's a really good way to you might not get the wrong thing from that dealer that day. They might not be pissy, right? Get upset with you. But if you come back again, you might not get as good a deal as you might have. Because in their mind, they're going, oh, my God, I got another half hour for nothing. Well, just at me, a big thing would be like the biggest question we ask is you have an idea what you want for it. And if somebody's number right off the rip is crazy high, like I can tell. I'm still not saying anything right away. I'm just like, well, let's take a look at what you got here. And I'll try to grab a few bigger cards and see where they're at, because sometimes people just don't know or they use the new scanning app that everybody said by a million dollars. So it just if you if you get a chance, I don't think there's too many new collectors listening to this. I think it's more on the dealer side and people that have been doing it a little bit. But they're just like, yes, you tell them, boys. But you have an idea what you want for your cards. It's not a bad thing if you truly don't know. And it's so like another the flip side of that is, you know, somebody comes walking up with 2026 Series 1 on-card auto of a Hall of Fame vet that hasn't sold yet. Okay. Yeah, let's see if we can figure this out together. I shouldn't expect the average person walking up to the table to know exactly what they want for that card. You know what I mean? When it's brand new stuff, like, there's a learning curve with that. So, what I'm trying to say is I'm the nice guy. Gary's the bad guy. I'm trying to say, love is blind. Love is blind. Okay. We're going to interview Brad Beeman in a minute, but before we do that, I want to do a little update. So, if you missed last week, you should go check it out. Gary... Oh, wife's trying to call me. I'm not ignoring her publicly on the podcast, but I am texting her back. Gary, give everybody an update on eBay and how that's up and running for you. So, the eBay store is up and running. If you're looking for it, we'll drop a link here. And I think Jason may even drop a link to his family since I have one up and running now. He never wanted to do that. Not that I only have five cards in the store. It's called That 90s and 2000s Store. And I've got it up. There have been some frustrating challenges the first few days. eBay wasn't actually listing my cards when I listed them. They were showing up if you searched the card, but they weren't in my store. It was weird. Then they finally got that taken care of. I called them to get it taken care of, and their answer was like, lolz, good luck. Like, that was what I got from them. Welcome to eBay, baby. It'll eventually show up. At least with whatnot, you know no one's going to answer your question. Yes, right. You're just on your own. It's either you at least get a person to talk to. That person has no authority or clue. But you got a problem. You're Tom Hanks. You just landed in the islands. You and Wilson, the volleyball. Yes, exactly. So, I got the store up and running, and I've posted, I don't know, 20 or 30 cards in there. All just stuff that there's one or two of on eBay, or I have the only one. The fun thing was my first sale. And so far, my only sale, not gonna lie, just to be transparent, my first and only sale so far was the first card I've listed, which was a 2009 Topps Chrome Devan Hester Red Refractor. Now, here's what was fun about that. The card hasn't sold forever. And there hasn't even been one listed forever. I think the last sale of the card was four or five years ago at like 23 bucks. And I either got 140 or 160 out of mine. I had listed at 199.99, got an offer pretty quick, countered, we came to an agreement, card got shipped off, card got delivered yesterday, day before, something like that. Congrats, man. And yeah, so first sale down. Hopefully, I start getting some feedback flowing from that. That'll be fun. You will. If you haven't- Hey, good news for you. eBay updated it where if somebody doesn't leave a feedback, but it was delivered without issue, you get automatic feedback. Oh, well, that's good. That's a newer thing that they do. It used to be only if they decide to leave feedback or if they set up automatic feedback. But now it's all automatic once it's delivered without issue. Well, hopefully that's the case. And then if you haven't yet and you're listening and you buy stuff on eBay and you like the kind of stuff that you know I like, make sure you jump on our Discord because I'm going to occasionally be dropping coupon codes just for our Discord members to go buy stuff out of the store. So keep your eyes open for that. But yeah, that's where I'm at. How about you? What's your- Time for my commercial? Update then. I'm going to start selling my 52,000 card to eBay store this week on Friday. I'm going to do lot auctions. So if you don't know how I created SKUs and batches for my eBay store of 52,000 cards, I would do a team bag with about 50 cards per. And then as a sell through, obviously they thin out, but I'm going to grab a bag and we're just going to run a lot. Here's 30 cards. I'm going to start with my newest, freshest inventory that hasn't been picked over as much, but you're going to see, you know, there'll be bags full of like, you know, Bowman Chrome first. There'll be bags full of 1959 tops. There'll be bags full of Beavis and Butthead cards. There's going to be Star Wars. There's going to be, if it's collectible and people are buying it, it's going to be in there. And what are you starting those lots at? Tons of numbered and hottest. Five bucks a lot. I don't care. There you go, boys. $10 max shipping. Go buy bags. You won't be disappointed. Yeah. My plan is to run like 100, 150 of those a week as an auction. And if you source low end, I'm literally giving you my eBay store that I had to shut down because I don't have time to keep shipping. Yep. And if I got to throw up, my sales- for the last two months, I'll do it. Bye, golly, because January and February almost broke me. It almost broke me. He was dying from it. Additionally, because of my shift away, you're going to see more of an emphasis on my solo show in the middle of the week. This week, tons of goats. Griffey. Tons of Griffey. Kobe. Tons of Mystery Finest Refractor basketball. Barry Bonds patches, slabs. Just all kinds of really, really fun stuff. So it's mostly goat stuff. In there, a good little mix. Pre-bids will be, well, the show's going to be over by the time this airs. So nana, nana, boo, boo. Well, for the next week, it'll still be the same kind of stuff. You're good. It'll still be the same stuff. Your pre-bids are usually up, what, 48 hours before your show? Yeah. Oh, so that means if you're watching this as it drops, my eBay auctions are live. That's right. Yeah. Go jump in. Get you some cool stuff. All right, so now we're going to bring in Brad Beeman from Beast Sports, the promoter of the Ship Shawana Card Fest, Grove City Card Fest, and In The Fort. Thanks for joining us, Brad. All right, thanks for joining us, Brad. You were here just a little while back, but we just finished up the show over in Ship. Absolutely fantastic. We've already told our audience how great it was, but I know that the way you do things, it isn't just the lead up to the show that's important, but it's figuring out what went right, what went wrong, all that fun stuff in the days after the show. So what has your last 48 hours since the show ended been like? I mean, probably the most important thing is healing, right? Like, I have not been sick for a show outside of maybe a minor head cold or something since the very first show we ever did. The first show we ever did, I was terribly sick, and six years later, here we are, and had the flu, and I told Ryan in the morning of the show, I'll spare the audience on what was happening to me, but I said, this is gonna be my Jordan flu game. I'm not missing it, but I am not in any way, in any shape to do this. So I feel great, almost back to great, and I couldn't have been happier with the show. Obviously, Ryan and I are both people that think about what we can improve immediately, and we really have to stop ourselves and say, it's pretty cool that in the middle of Amish country, we had 7,500-plus people see us in, because Chippewa is a 24-hour show, basically. You start at four on Friday for the public, dealers start earlier than that, and then you go to four the next day, and to get that many people through, like, just super proud of our dealers for being that good to draw people, super proud of the collectors for being willing to drive. Not many, it's a town of 600 people. You can't get to 7,500 by 600 town people coming, right? Like, so I know I'm repeating myself, but just super proud of the whole thing. I have to warn people, as much as I want May and August to be that crazy, where we literally are parking people like it's Woodstock, and they're walking down the road to get in, you know, May and August might be 10% less of that, but if 10% less of that, I'll take that, too. So, and maybe Ryan and I find the magic sauce to just keep growing the thing, but super happy. I do think that you said, you know, kind of how do you look back is by looking forward and looking to see how we can improve it. We have six to seven foot aisles in some places, we have eight to 10 foot aisles in other places, and I think we're gonna buy more of the building, maybe take the rest of it over. Sure. That will take some dealer understanding to know that that will dilute the crowd a little bit across the building, too. Instead of, you know, hopefully, instead of being eight deep, we might be three or four deep, but we just want people to get strollers down aisles and people that have a cane to be all right to walk through the aisles. So we're gonna work on making the show floor more comfortable is what I'm doing literally right now outside of making sure everyone's ready to go for Grove City in two weeks. The real question is, was there a pretzel record set? There was, there was. That's what I like to hear. With two hours to go on Saturday, Arlen, the building manager, sat next to me and we were kind of rehashing the last 24 hours because even he was a little, he took his staff out into the parking lot, like guys that were maintenance men and stuff, and they were parking cars for me, like they were directing traffic, and he goes, it hasn't been that crazy here since the Willie Nelson concert. And he was saying that, I said, you gotta tell me about the pretzels because the record coming into the day was 11.50 for our show. And he said, well, I just checked with them and they, I guess, very Amish thing to do, they don't say how many, they say how many batches. Okay. Maybe you can tell me how many pretzels are in a batch. I don't know, but I know how many hit my stomach. Yeah. And he said that we were at 1,900 with two hours to go and the previous record was 11.50. It's gotta be 30, 40, 50 in a batch, I don't know. I just know that they're delicious and JT went and got pretzels for me and him and Jason because Jason and I were, we could not get away from our table. And he brought them back. He goes, hey, here's the cheese. They apologized. They ran out of hot cheese. I said, people use cheese with these? Like, you don't need anything. Just shove that bad boy into your face hole. Okay. So we finished ship, which was amazing. You said 7,500 people, you're a modest human. I'm not putting words in your mouth. I'm telling you what I saw. There were more than 7,500 people there. I'll put it that way. Now we're on to Grove City, which is in two and a half weeks. Is that right? A little less than two weeks. A little less than two weeks. See, time isn't real anymore, which is another big show. And is it, I know we've been to two gyms the last time. Are there some extra tables being added to the Pokemon gym this time? I know there's probably not room in the sports side. Yeah, we're actually on the sports side trying to do some things with Ryan's line because it's causing a traffic jam at the door. So we're going to put some stanchions up and we're going to run them down an opposite hallway to try to get him out of the way. I act like that's a nuisance. It's a blessing to have people that want to stand in line and see Ryan. So we're working on that. We actually took a couple tables out of the room. Same amount of dealers, but maybe move a supply guy to where COMC was last time just to free it up a little bit. And then in the Pokemon room, a couple extra tables. I didn't want to have people compliment how roomy and nice the 90 table show was and then jam 120 tables in there. And so we added a few, but I liked it. Then that tends to be a much heavier kid environment. So I tend to, I wanted to keep that pretty loose and free in there. And that's the problem. Probably the one feedback we got from the February show on Grove was like, kind of that, like the Barn and Ship show on it. It's getting too crowded. But you're going to kick dealers out. You know, hey, you can't renew because we need more room. So we're probably going to run it back just a little bit looser in the sports gym. Maybe not quite where people want to see it, but I guarantee you'll love every single dealer in there. It's going to be stacked with amazing dealers. That's why people come to the show because the dealers are so good. And then the Pokemon room, you'll see a couple extra, but we didn't tighten it up too much. Well, one of the things that you guys do a great job of is keeping things open enough that new dealers have an opportunity, but also making sure that you're bringing quality dealers that people want to drive four, five, six hours flying for. And that's, I know Jason said to, when I'm talking to Ryan and his wife, right, towards the end of the show on Saturday in Ship, and I want to reiterate the same thing, and I've told you this before, but the shows that you guys have developed and you worked really hard to build, and then Ryan came in and it just kind of poured gas on those fires. You guys have built something that I know you know this, but I think it's important for people to hear it. You've built something that those of us who do this full-time have come to count on and rely on as a big part of our business and has been a big part in helping us and people like us grow our businesses. And that's something that we are super thankful for that you guys do. So if you don't hear that enough, you at least hear it from us occasionally. No, I appreciate that. I've told my wife before, I said the biggest compliment is like, I have a guy, Jason Klug, who is a school teacher. Sure. He's not like you and Jason where like you're grinding every weekend. And he said, you know what? I set up three times a year at the Ship Shawana Card Fest and I buy all. I go to shows every weekend and I get to shop and buy and I know I'll sell it all. So he goes, you freed up eight to 10 weekends for me that I used to set up because I just buy for ship and I sell and you know, so that's pressure, right? Sure. You hope you never have a stinker for somebody like that where it doesn't quite turn out, but we always put the effort in and try. Well, that's the thing. And it's the right kind of pressure. It's the pressure to control all the things that you have control over. And no matter what kind of business you're in, if you use that pressure and you do that, even when it doesn't go perfect, you can look at it and go, I did everything in my power to make it good. So Grove City, the 22nd, March 22nd, right? Yeah, yes. I wish we had maybe three weeks between now and ship to really pound the promotion for it. Well, that's what we're doing right now. That's what we're doing right now. And we'll continue to do every single day. But yeah, we're excited to get back there. We're kind of at the mercy of the school when the Saturday night before the show is open to set up for the Sunday show. So it'll be, that weekend is the fourth day of the NCAA tournament's first round. So sit and watch basketball all Friday, sit and watch Thursday. Is it Thursday, Friday? Usually Thursday, Friday, yeah. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, watch all day long and then come see us on Sunday to get fresh air and then go back Sunday afternoon to watch basketball again. And VIP opens at eight o'clock, correct? Early bird, yep. Five dollar early bird. Yep, five dollar early bird, two dollar regular admission? Yep, and a portion of that goes to the Central Crossing High School band. There's nothing that gets me booed more in the Ohio card show group than there's always one or two that give you the thumbs down on the admission. But it's another way for us to support the band, helps us bring in tables from a vendor and it covers a lot of things. So if you spend the money, you'll be glad you did. There's a lot of quality in the room. You won't spend $2 and go, man, I didn't see anything. You'll find stuff. And that whole like people losing their minds over an admission fee, we were just at Nashville two and a half weeks ago. It was $10 admission. And on Saturday morning, there were at least 1500 people waiting in line to get in. So don't let the folks that are losing their minds over two bucks in admission get to you. Like I can tell you that as a dealer, this might be an unpopular thing. And these are my words, not Brad's. But if you're too cheap to spend two bucks, you're probably not buying a lot of cards anyway. So. Gary said that, Gary said that. That's my words. Those are not Brad's words. Brad, I know Brad won't have said that. He would never say that. I will though. All right, Brad. Well, thank you so much for giving us a few minutes. I know this week is crazy and it's just gonna keep getting crazier as the show schedule builds and flows into the summer. But hopefully we'll get to talk to you again in a few months as other things start to come onto the horizon. But we appreciate you. We appreciate everything you and Ryan do for the show scene and for those of us who do this full time. Yeah, I appreciate it. I'll plug one more thing. Yes. If you miss us on 322, come see us on May 3rd in Grove City and back in Chippewa on May 22nd, 23rd. Perfect. Awesome. Thanks again, Brad. We appreciate you. Thank you. All right. So that's a promoter's perspective, 48 hours after a massive show and what it takes to put that on and what their takeaways are from that type of a record setting show. Hopefully you got some good insight there into how all that works. And if you think of things that you wanna ask, we talk to Brad a lot and I'm sure this won't be the last time he joins us here on the Ball Card Show. So don't think twice about dropping those questions in Discord or shooting us a message. I agree. Don't forget Grove City Card Fest, the 22nd. Brad is putting that one on. We have a few shows coming up. I'll mention those right before we close out. The 21st of this month, we're in Cincinnati at E-Skate, the 22nd. Grove City Card Fest, that is growing. There went to two gyms. It was packed with two gyms. Shamed. There were two, three deep in the aisles. That was the episode I was talking with Mike Geo about the show scene. And I'm like, no, you need to, like Card Fest is a perfect example of like just how much growth there is right now in this space. Bronco Bash, very first time it's happening. It's up close to Anderson and Daleville. We're gonna be there. I think I saw Brad's gonna be there. A lot of familiar faces. 27th and 28th, and then April 4th is Xenia. We got way more shows coming up this week. We're getting our national tickets. So if you've been thinking about it, you wanna hang out with us, go get your tickets. We'll have them anytime. Yeah, and hit us up. We'll be there all week. If we're not there, we're gonna be at the casino right next to our hotel. Oh no. Making good decisions. No one can stop me. I'm all the way up. You know Fat Joe? I do. I'm familiar with the song. You do know Fat Joe? Yeah, I'm not completely culturally illiterate. He's not entirely fat though. Like he's more like the Kool-Aid man. I don't know if he's... I think he's lost a lot of weight too. I think he's more like just Joe now. He's just Joe. I don't know that he can be called fat anymore. Yeah. But he's still all the way up. Look all the way up, baby. And for like 20 grand, you can probably get that song sung live at your corporate event or birthday party. And it's still bangs. All right. Whatnot every Sunday at 4.30. Unbelievable NFL stuff dropping, especially this week. A couple of cool slabs, but a ton of newer. National Treasure, Origins number stuff, if you like, especially the ultra-modern and then, like, I think I saw, like, an NT Palo Malo patch. Like, there's some, there's, like, a dual, we've got, like, a Max Crosby-Miles-Garrett dual. Like, there's some crazy stuff. Nasty stuff. Those will be live for pre-bid by Saturday. Is that right, Garrett? That's the latest, yeah. Okay. At some point Saturday, so you'll be able to get a chance to take a look at those. Don't forget the Discord, man. I feel like we're just doing announcements all the time now. Is that it? Is it time to shut up, Gary? I think that's it. This has been the Ball Card Show, the esports podcast. For the Esports Collector. Bye now. Peace!