Passion to Profession: From One Million Cubs to a Full-Time Card Business with Beau Thompson

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Passion to Profession here on the Stacking Slabs Network, brought to you by my good friends at ebay. This is that time of the week where we dig into the entrepreneurial and operational journey of people building cool things in the sports card industry. This conversation today is one of my favorite chats I've had in quite some time. Today I'm joined by Bo Thompson, who runs 1 million Cubs. Bo set out on a feat a few years ago to collect 1 million Cubs cards and he took his experience from that to build a business and he's building that business on ebay. I got the chance to sit with Beau many years ago at a dinner during the national and we got to talking and several years later, here we are putting out an episode the week of the National. Just an awesome conversation. So much passion, energy. This is one you are not going to want to miss. Shout out ebay for putting these on. We wouldn't be able to do it without them. If you want to show your support for the broader Stacking Slabs Network, hit the follow button. Tell a damn friend. Run on over the Patreon Group. Happy National Week. This is Bo. One million Cubs. Let's get into it. We are back with another episode of Passion to Profession, brought to you by my good friends at ebay. This is the week of the National. As this is going live, we're recording it in advance of that because I'm sure both of us are going to be running around like chickens with our head cut off. But we were reminiscing before we hit record. We actually met in 2021 at the national, so time flies when you're having fun. Today's guest is Bo Thompson. One million Cubs. He has just an incredible story about collecting and turning his collecting into his business. But without further ado. Bo, welcome, man. How are you? Hey, thanks for having me on. It's good to catch up. We, like you mentioned, it's been five years already since we first met back at the Goldin Dinner. That's. It's crazy to think it's been. And how much has changed, which we're going to get into it in this, in this interview. How much has changed in. In those five years? Yu-Gi-Oh and I was thinking about. I'm thinking about that Goldin Dinner now and I'm thinking about all of the different conversations I had and most everyone I interacted with at that dinner is still building something or collecting something in this hobby. So there are people that say people come and go out of this space, which is probably true, but I've learned that there are also a wide contingent of people that stick around and are deeply invested in this space. Oh, without question. And, and even further, you know, I, I think for both, for, for, you know, yourself and I, we've, we've gone even further into the, into the hobby and industry before we jump in. I'm assuming you're going to the National? Absolutely. I'll be there all five days. And what, what is your plan at the event? Do you have a, a plan or strategy? You collecting, you connecting, doing all the above. What are you, what are you up to? All of the above, you know, with, with, with my business on, on ebay. And it's specifically on ebay. Live inventory, invent. I can never keep enough. So I'll be doing a lot of buying on the show Fleer So Wednesday, Thursday is going to be heavily in the buying mode. I'll hit up the, the YouTuber get together on Thursday night. And then Friday, I'm going to take the day for myself, go to Wrigley, catch the Cubs Yankees at Wrigley, and then back to business on Saturday at the National. That's pretty awesome that the Yankees are in town. That's special for a Cubs fan, especially during the National. Oh, without a doubt. In, in previous Nationals, I, I just, I am all business. It's cards, cards, cards. Last year was the first year that I actually decided I'm going to take a day for myself. I don't need to be on the show Fleer from, from open to close every single day, all five days. So the Orioles were in town, which was, you know, unique interleague, interleague matchup. So I took the day and I'm like, you know, what if, if, if the stars align and the, the Cubs are home again next year? And then it just so happens the Yankees are in town, which makes it even better. Also more expensive. But, oh, well, treat myself. So, Yu-Gi-Oh we're going to do it again. I was in New York and there was obviously, you know, the World cup going on, but then there was also Yankees, Dodgers, which brought another element. So all of the fun fantasy matchups that everyone wants to see are taking place in the summer. Obviously, you love baseball. You love the Cubs. Maybe for anyone who is unfamiliar with 1 million cubs and are hearing about you and the project for the first time, like, talk about it, talk about the story, like, the origin of it and how it came to be. It's, it's, it's a really simple story and it's at its Core, it's pretty boring, but it turned into what it became. I just, I'd always collected Cubs baseball cards. Going back to, you know, my, my first days collecting back in the late 80s, I always had like a Cubs collection. And over time I would collect different things. I was pretty ADHD when it came to collecting. I would, I would jump on a project and, and then I would, you know, abandon it and go to something else. But one thing that a recurring theme in my collecting over the last 35 years has been Chicago Cubs baseball cards. And the Cubs are always, has, have always been my number one team, rooting interest in all of sports. And Cubs cards have always had that, you know, bit of nostalgia and something that I've always been attracted to. And back in 2017, of course, we were coming off the World Series one-of-one in 2016, I was acquiring, I was starting to buy collections and acquiring more and more cards. I had accumulated over a million cards, many of which were, you know, your typical 80s, 90s junk, wax era stuff. You can't really. There's not an easy outlet for that stuff. So I thought I'd always been kind of compiling the Cubs. What if I just keep the, the Cubs pilot, the Cardinals, the Yankees, the White Sox, all of these other teams. And I had done some team trades in the past and I'll trade my Yankees cards for, you know, 100 Yankees cards for 100 Cubs cards. And so that was kind of how it was, how was how it was born in December of, of 2017. And I just, I just, you know, put some, some notes out there like, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm collecting Cubs cards. And, and then it just kind of snowballed from there. So I mentioned that I was in New York, and as I'm a Pacers fan, it pained me when I realized when I got off the plane that I was going to have to enter the hysteria that was the New York Knicks being NBA champions. And it was literally everywhere I looked. Everyone was wearing jerseys, everyone had championship gear on, rightfully so. But this led me to think about this, and it was like, man, forever. That Knicks culture is going to live and keep feeding off of this moment. Whatever happens next year is okay, because they just one-of-one I guess as a Cubs fan, I know it had been a long, winding road to the 2016 World Series Championship, but have you come down off that cloud yet? Are you still feeding from that 2016 moment? We're, I think Cubs fans in general are still feeding off that moment. And, and I can certainly say that for myself because I was just at Wrigley on Saturday and the, the 2016 team was actually in town. They opened Champions gate at Wrigley Field. So most of the guys from that team, Theo was back, you know, Joe Madden was back. So all of these guys from that team were celebrated over the weekend at Wrigley field for the 10 year reunion. So it's, it's, it's fresh again. But I was listening to sports talk radio on the drive back from, from Chicago over the weekend and you know, I don't know if it was, if it was one of the hosts or if it was a caller, but stated I don't want this. It's great that we celebrate the 2016 team because it broke the, the long drought, but let's not celebrate this like we celebrate the Chicago Bears where we're still celebrating the 1985, 86 Chicago Bears. Like let's, let's get another one. Like we can celebrate 2016 but let's add to it. So that's kind of where we're at. In your collecting of the Cubs, do you hold that 2016 team in a higher regard? Like do you find yourself pursuing those rare and scarce pieces from that roster more than maybe any other years or is it just kind of all the same? It's, it's kind of all the same, but there is a little bit more of a, you know, I find a little bit more. If I'm digging through and I find like a Jason Hayward auto, if, if, if that were, you know, if he was on the 2010 team or the 2000, you know, five team, it probably wouldn't carry the same weight. But Chris Coughlin is a guy that, like Chris Coughlin, he's kind of an afterthought if he was on any other Cubs team. But since he was on the 2016 team, you know that like I'll pull the trigger and, and, and maybe pay a little up what I normally wouldn't pay on, on other stuff. So I think there definitely is that, that championship premium on, on the 2016 Cubs. When was the moment that you put a target on it when you said, you know what, like I've been doing these team trades. I've been ever since 2017, I've been just amassing these Cubs cards. You have this just massive inventory of Cubs cards. When did you say to yourself, you know what, let's, let's, I'm a goal oriented guy, let's put a goal, let's throw 1 million at the wall and see if we can hit it. It wasn't long at all. Just kind of formulated, you know, over the course of, I don't know, maybe, maybe months where I was, I was starting to, you know, proactively pull Cubs and like, I'm just going to collect cubs. And then there was a number. I'm, you know, it's like I bought this 300,000 card collection. I bought this card collection and you know, I have over a million cards now. And it probably from the, the time that I committed to collecting cubs, like, that's going to be my new goal. It. It kind of came together like all, all of a sudden like, okay, I have a million. Let's trade a million non Cubs cards for a million Cubs cards. And that's, that's when I started the socials in, in December of 2017. And you know, Facebook groups initially is where I did most of those trades. And then I was a little hesitant with Twitter at that time. And then eventually Twitter kind of became the, the main driver of these trades and getting the word out. So you have this ambitious goal. How do you, you, how do you, like, how did you. Did you have a, like a weekly or a daily goal when you're amassing this, knowing that you were trying to hit 1 million? Like, I don't know if any of us listening can envision what 1 million cards looks like, let alone what it would take to acquire 1 million cards. Obviously, a lot of interactions online, a lot of buying from ebay, a lot of social media as you reference, a lot of card shop stops, a lot of luck, all this stuff. Did you develop any sort of method to the madness on a daily or weekly basis? Eventually, yes. You know, that first year, that 2018 was my first full year of doing it. Early on, my focus was just getting the word out, like, hey, I want to trade you my whatever team for Cubs. And then I was, I was, I was trying to create an inventory system. I was using Excel. I had probably started with somewhere between 50 and 75,000 cubs at the start that I had already had in my collection. So just trying to find a way and it's, it's. If anybody's used websites or Excel to inventory your system, it. It's time consuming, especially when you're dealing with tens of thousands of cards at that time. So early on, those were kind of my focus points. But as you know, as the months went on and I'm tracking and I would track, I had spreadsheets from the very beginning. All right, John from California sent me 175 Cubs cards. And so I was tracking every single transaction, every single trade that came in, and I was counting every card. And so then it became, okay, I'm, I'm averaging, you know, 20,000 cards a month. Okay, if I do 125,000, 130,000, let's extrapolate that out. How many years is it going to take me? And so by 2019, you know, that system had been figured out through, you know, the first half of 2018. So then in 2019, I had specific goals. Okay, I want to, I need to get to this number. This month. I want to be at 150,000 taken in for 2019. And then so on over the years. And then by the time the end came, it was, it was more on. Once I got to like the last hundred thousand, I was focusing more on quality rather than quantity. What throughout this building, the system, you know, doing the outreach organically, opportunities coming in. You have this goal in mind. What were some of the biggest roadblocks and challenges that you faced along the way? Initially, it was paying for postage. And this is, and this is, you know, almost 10 years ago now, where the, the, the postage rates were, you know, significantly less. Although I did see some, some labels where we are saving some money on, on different sizes. But postage was really what drove me to create a side hustle to build on my side hustle of selling cards on ebay. Because I was paying so much in postage just for these trades where it was going into my collection. It's like I'm spending thousands and thousands of dollars in postage just for trades. I need to recoup some of that money. And that's, that's where I really started the high end or high volume sale sales on, on ebay just to pay for that, pay for that postage. Was there a point in this build where the product project size got to such a ridiculous scale that you had to like, kind of change the way you thought about storage or thought about the way you were. Those cards were coming in. Like, what was, was there ever a breaking point? I guess not necessarily a breaking point, but there were a lot of challenges along the way based on, and, and when you're dealing with this, this amount of, of of inventory. Now, I did start with over a million cards of, of other stuff, but what I, what I learned quickly is that it's not easy to find other team traders. And I think that was early on was kind of difficult. Like who wants a thousand Cardinals cards from 1985 and 1990 and 91 in a lot of those trades where I want Otani, I want Mike Trout, I want Derek Jeter, I want this and that. So a lot of the trades, I'm only trading five or six cards for a thousand or two thousand Cubs cards. So as the trade started coming in, I'm. I'm sending out less and receiving more. So even though I, I was, I was built to hold a large amount of inventory in my card room, I quickly outgrew that over the process of, of this project. Talk about the people and the relationships. Like, how important was it to have a network of people who you did reoccurring deals with as opposed to just one offs with a lot of different people? Oh, that was. I think that was the most. That was the most important part of the project, and it was also the most rewarding piece as well. Just meeting people and developing friendships and relationships within the hobby. You know, some of the, some of the connections. I had a guy, Steve, who was. He worked with Greeny Sports cards and our first trade was at the Chicago Sports Spectacular. We did 30 or 35, 000 card trade. I introduced him to a, a guy, David, who sent out cards to multiple team collectors like myself. And I probably got150,000 Cubs cards from, from David in the Chicago area. So just developing those relationships and, and introducing those to other guys. And then all of a sudden it comes back and they're like, hey, this guy has, has these cards and, and this and that and, and just some of the friendships and, and relationships you develop. In fact, at the Cubs game, I'm, I'm at a, a bar waiting out the rain, and a mutual friend introduces me to a guy and he's like, Wait, you're the 1 million Cubs guy? And I said, Yu-Gi-Oh He goes, I sent you Cubs cards back in 2022. And I'm like, really? And he's like, here's my Twitter handle. And he showed me the messages we were exchanging four years ago. And so we ended up talking and, and he's like, if. Well, I've got a bunch of 70s cards, you know, if, if you're interested. And you know my wife's gonna make me throw them out eventually. So he's like, I'll reach out and see if we can make a deal. So just some of those relationships that you know from somebody you've never met, you've done a deal online, five years later, you meet them in person and you know, you can strike up that friendship. Are there any specific or I guess what are the most impactful or significant moments. And I want to maybe get specific if there are, like, cards that stand out to you, because, you know, I'm sure at some point you're amassing all of these cards and stuff starts to, like, bleed into each other and look the same, and you're, you know, building these sets. But then there are these moments where there are these pieces that come your way that truly get you to, like, stop and slow down, and you recognize not only the importance of the player, but the importance of the card, and it just, like, hits this sweet spot for you. Were there any of those moments? And if so, like, what are those moments that stand out? Yu-Gi-Oh there. There were several. Several of those moments where, you know, I would receive a package, and it. It would just blow me away. One in particular, a guy that I had had started exchanging messages with on Twitter, like, hey, I've got a package coming your way. And sometimes I wouldn't check my. You know, I'd have piles of packages on the. On the counter. I eventually get to this package, probably a few days after it was delivered, and open it up, and I. I go through, and it's a bunch of vintage Cubs cards. And there's a 1954, tops, Ernie Banks. The Ernie Banks rookie card. And I'm like, I flip it over. This is real. It's authentic. It's. It's, you know, a little creased up, and I'm like, this isn't Ernie Banks rookie card, which I didn't have in my collection. And I read the letter, and his name's Michael, sent me a letter. He's from Ohio. And this is where it goes beyond just the hobby. It's. It's about, you know, our personal relationship, our personal relationships and, And. And things that happen to us in life. I lost my dad 10, 10 years ago. Yu-Gi-Oh passed away of cancer in 2016, a couple months before the Cubs one-of-one the World Series. And so. And I shared that. You know, I shared my journey of. Of. Of losing my dad on. On social media and through blogs. And Michael had sent me this letter, and he had also recently lost his dad. And it just so happened on the day. I believe it was the day of the funeral, he happened to see a blog post on my one million cubs.com website, and it was about my top 10 most wanted cubs cards. And of course, at that time, I didn't have the Ernie Banks rookie. So what Cub collector, you know, wouldn't have number one Ernie Banks rookie card on his want list? That's number one on My want list. And so just based on, you know, what he was going through, what I had shared. And then he goes, it was just, it was meant to be. And so he, he sent me this letter, sent me this card. And he goes, this belongs in your collection. Based on the circumstances, he goes, this belongs to you. And so it's moments like that that just kind of make you take a deep breath and think about, you know, how it's, it's not just about pieces of cardboard. It's not about your favorite team, about your favorite card, but it's about the personal, personal connections that we make in life through whatever it might be. But in this circumstance, it's baseball cards. That's an incredible story. And I think so much of this hobby gets focused on what's new, what's trendy, what's going up, big hits, pulls, and all those things. And all those things are great. And I think we need those things in order for our hobby to continue to expand. And new people come in, they attract attention. But I think what gets lost in this growth is stories like that. The connections, the relationships, people helping people. How much of this project, I guess at the conclusion of this project did you kind of take stock? And just the emotional value in what you were doing, like, how do you think about that now? You know, it's, it's kind of that, that whole journey thing where the journey truly is better than the, the ultimate goal. And it, it's, it's every step along the way, it's every story that I just shared about the Ernie Banks or one of, one of the guys that I did a trade with. He was in from Alabama and happened to be doing some contract work for a company. And I'm like, what company is it? And it was a company that was literally, you could see from my backyard, and I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. He's coming in from Alabama for contract work, has these old Cubs cards. And he's literally, you know, a block away from My House. And, and I'm like, I invited him over. My wife's like, just stop inviting random strangers to our house. But you know, just those, those, those little steps along the way of, of that journey. And this was a seven and a half year journey to, to collect the million Cubs, you know, because I didn't want it to be. I wanted the, the end goal. I wanted to have, you know, memories like this. And, you know, I could, I could have bought a million cards from Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, ebay, card shows, card shops. But I think what Made it more special was how much of this collection came from other collectors and all the stories that, that they shared along the way. So this was a heck of a build, a heck of a story or many stories all turned into one. When did you realize that this could lead to something bigger and that something bigger being this is kind of what you're doing as a full time job? When was that moment where you stopped and said, like, I have inherited a lot of skills through this. I have a lot of relationships. I use ebay. When was that moment where you said, I might leave my job and just go all in on this? You know, it's, it's, it's funny you ask. And I loved, I, I, I love this question because I didn't want to sell cards full time and I wanted to keep, you know, I, I loved having the extra, the extra money that I did that I sold cards on as a side hustle. I like taking that money to a card show and just buying whatever I want. And, and I knew that I Goldin do that if this is my full time. I've got a, there's got to be a com, a solid line between business and hobby. But it was, it was the 2021 National. And I mentioned to you this before leading into that national, I had zero aspiration to, to, to be in the industry full time, to sell cards full time. And we were at the Goldin Dinner, and you know, I'm sitting with you and Buster. Sure was, was at our table. Yu-Gi-Oh And I, I can't remember his name, but he was the soccer guy. Yes. The messy guy. The messy guy. And so we were sitting at this table and I'm like, and, and I didn't know who Buster was at the time. He's telling me all these stories and I'm like, what do you do? Like, who are you? And so like, when I got back from that, I'm, I'm telling my wife and I'm like, man, I don't. What am I doing here? Why was I in this room? And I, you know, I think things just happen for a reason. And, you know, I think that gave me, I think the confidence to. It gave me the confidence, like, okay, I can do this. Like, this is, this is what I can do. And from that point, you know, I kind of in my own head before I shared any, my wife had actually leading up to, because my business, my side hustle business was really building leading up to, to that, that point. And, but again, I was just, no, I don't, I Want to keep these separate. Even though I didn't really care for my job at that time, my full time job. So I started, you know, crunching the numbers and it's like, I. I think I can do this. Like, I can make this work. And so that was, that was my springboard. Like, you know, you were sitting right across from me when the wheels were turning. Like, I think I can do this. There. There needs to be a. The. The Goldin team needs to. Or Omaha Productions and the man and crew, they need to do a behind the scenes on that dinner because I think a lot of projects, maybe it was. Something was in the air that night because as you were saying those names, I was like, yes. Like, I remember Buster being right there. And I had the same feeling. I was like, why am I here? Why was I invited to this event? So that's funny. I've never talked with anyone about that dinner until now. But you said something there that I think is really important. And I think it's awesome for anyone who's thinking about building a business in this space. And it, it does change things. And I, I'm. I go through this regularly where I'm a collector. I want to keep everything, but then I also have a business to run in the business. It's expensive to run a business. You have to pay bills, you have to pay people, you have to make sure your family is taken care of. So sometimes, like, you have to sacrifice cards to be able to take care of those things. And, And I guess when I went all in on this, I didn't realize that was going to be a dynamic, but maybe share like your perspective of that and how your mindset changed once you realized that, like, Yu-Gi-Oh I'm a collector, I'll always be a collector, but I'm running a business now. You know, I think everybody is wired so differently and, and I think there's a lot of people in this space that have, that they may want to take the jump, they may want to make the jump, but they're just not wired to do it because they want to collect everything. Like, there's that collector mentality. And I think fortunately I have, I have the collector mentality. I've got way too much hoarder mentality is what my wife calls it. But like, I can clearly delineate what I want for my business and what I want for, you know, my, my hobby, my personal collection. And, you know, I keep it simple. Like anything Cubs is like, is mine. And when I'm buying, say, bulk or a collection, I Don't you know, I'm not gonna go buy, you know, a ten thousand dollar Cubs collection for my business because that's foolish because I would keep everything. So I know that, that okay, if, if I have the money and I want that I'll pay for it, I'll buy it. But it's not, you know, it's not for the business. And I, I think I can, I can, I can differentiate the diff, you know, I can, I can differentiate what I want for my business versus what's my hobby. I know when I buy a collection, I know what, oh, this is going to go over in this side, on this, on this side and everything else is going to be inventory. So I think that's, I think that's the biggest key in having sustained success is just make sure, you know, you're not, you know, you're not, you know, feeding on your own stash. And I, I'm pretty, sometimes to a fault, I'm pretty, I'm, I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to some of that. It's like, you know, I'm, this is, this is my price. You know, I, you don't have to sell it to me. I certainly don't have to buy it and we can go our separate ways if, if need be. So I think that's what's helped me the most is just knowing where to draw that line. I want to get into your business and you are selling a lot of cards at scale on ebay. And the fun part about this show is learning from all of the people who are selling cards on ebay. And everyone's kind of method to their madness is different. But maybe let's start with. I don't want to say I, I think, I don't, I don't think probably no day is, is standard or typical. It's probably changes rapidly. But like what is your day? Your, if there is a typical day, like what does your typical day look like? It's, it's fairly standard. You know, basically my day starts, I'll kind of rewind it and start at night. So most of pretty much 99% of my business now has gone to ebay live. Where I am, I am doing mainly ebay live sales and I'm doing that usually six nights a week. So my nights typically start 7:30 central. I'm doing a four to five hour stream usually sometimes longer depending on the room. And so I'm, I'm going to bed at like 2am which is a complete, complete. I used to be in bed at 9pm and I was up at 4amNow I'm in bed at 2am, waking up at 9am so my, my lifestyle is completely changed. So, so I'm typically in bed by you know, 1am and then I'm up at 9 and that's when I basically do the, the shipping from the night before. Sometimes it's longer than, than others. So I'm spending like the daytime hours shipping and I wish I had more time to sort and organize because that's crucial, especially in live selling. So I'm, I'm trying to get as much of that done as, as possible. So it's, it's really. And I, I joke about this a lot like you know, it used to be listing and shipping, shipping and listing, listing and shipping, shipping and listing. And now it's just selling and shipping, shipping and selling. Where my listing is has been replaced by the actual process of selling which I love tremendously more than just sitting at a desk and listing cards and I'm actually selling them. So what was the. Obviously eBay Live came out. EBay Live became very popular. What was. I don't think I've talked to anyone who made the decision to move from you know, selling, you know, via auction or buy it now to ebay Live almost exclusively. Like when was the moment that you realize that change was going to be best for your business? It didn't take long for me at all. I was fortunate enough to be semi early on ebay live and I know it's been around for a few years now but it was, it was very, very much in beta for a couple years and then they, eBay really started putting marketing and financial efforts behind it last spring in, in March of 25. So I had started in April of 2025 and I ran a high volume store. I'm you know, 60,000 listings in my ebay store and you know, I'm moving 150, 250 car daily basis. You know, low end, mostly low end cards, you know, high margin but low dollars. And after getting that early on on ebay live just finding, I'd never done live selling before. So I'm, I'm really having to find my bearings on what, what's a schedule I can maintain? How many auctions can I, you know, reasonably do in a day, in a, in a stream, you know, how long, what's the shipping process? Just getting all of, all of those nuances down and by July, so we're talking three months or less, I'd had everything pretty much to My liking and my comfort level on, on what, what I can accomplish in a, in a weekly basis. And at that point in time my, my sales, my revenue on ebay live was just clearly outpacing my Buy it now sales of you know, the 199 stuff. So it was also slowing me down because in a live Show I'm moving 200, you know, 200 items, 200 cards in a show. So I'm pulling, when I go to ship, I'm pulling 200 car, I'm pulling from 200 cards. When I'm selling Buy it now listings, I'm pulling from a hundred plus thousand cards in multiple four row boxes all skewed out in, in, you know, and somebody might buy 25 cards but they're in 25 different boxes. So that process has taken me 20 minutes just to ship a $20 order. So I learned quickly that that process just wasn't, it wasn't feasible for me as a one man show to do both the high volume Buy it now and the live selling at the same time. Well, what's making me the most revenue? It's the, the live selling. And so by July I was taking down all of my Buy it now listings with the exception of anything that was like $10 and over in leaving that in my, in my store as a Buy It Now. So I'm down to 3400 listings and still a trickle of sales. But it's nice, I would like to get a better balance, get some more items in there just to drive traffic to my store so people can see that normally don't know about my live streams. They can come in, they see a Buy it now listing and check out my shows. I think it's very, it's very impressive that be a one man team operating a life selling business at the scale you are. Think my question as I'm thinking through or just envisioning you running through your process is just the organization. Like how do you keep organized with all the cards, all the live streams, all the shipping and making sure that everything's getting out of the door on time. From a micro level, it's very insanely organized from a macro standpoint. If you walked in, if you walked in to any of my rooms in the basement, you would say what? Oh my, there's no way you can do what you're doing. But, but what I'm selling, what I'm listing, you know, it's, it's, it's Zebra you know, it's Zebra organized. Fortunately, ebay has, you know, people complain about the, like, I think the fees are phenomenal, like in, in. I, hopefully ebay's not listening. Like, I'll raise my feet, but I think for what you get from ebay, the fees are phenomenal just based on like the, you know, the management system on the back end and how easy it is. You know, just do a Twitter sale or an Instagram sale or a sale where there's no back end. There's no, you know, management system on the back end and start trying to get payments and fulfill orders and get addresses. I mean, so people are going to be throwing, throwing stuff at me now, but. So ebay does really help and, and not to, you know, to, to be a bootlicker, but I mean, that helps tremendously, just having that, that management system on the back end and it makes things so much easier on, on my, on my side, where I could, okay, this is, this is where I put this. And it can be in a box where I have 3 million cards in my basement, but I only need to focus on this 200 or this thousand. So from a macro standpoint, I have a professional organizing team that I hired that's, that's helping me be more efficient on, on some stuff on the macro level. That way I can be more efficient, even more efficient on a micro level. How do you manage a professional organizing team for all these sports cards? Like, how do you manage it? So they're doing things the way you want them to. So, so it's, it's a general. So they're, they're, they're a general, like, home organizing company. So they're, they're not sorting cards. They're not, they're really not doing much with the cards at that level. But it's more of a systems where, okay, here's, here's my process. You know, I, this is, this is how I work my live streams. This is, you know, where my inventory is, my shipping area. This is where my supplies and so they, they can have, they have a, an idea of, okay, what's the most efficient way for you to. Okay, you have. Everything that you need for shipping is in this spot. And it's probably, you know, it's probably something that, you know, I could do, but like, I, I, well, probably not, but, but it's, it's one of those things where it becomes so overwhelming with the amount that as I started the process of, of getting a lot of my cards, I want to get these out of my basement into a storage unit. And it's like, this is just, this is Too overwhelming. I need help. Like, I need. I need a professional to step in and guide me to more efficiency. So we've been running this show for almost two years at this point. And part of the pitch on this show specifically was there are a lot of people selling high volume, high dollar on eBay, but no one knows who they are. They're just logos. But people still buy. Like, what. What would it be like if we started telling the story and start humanizing the people behind these businesses? Like people buy from people or probably mean better reputation, more sales, thinking about your story, and you went from, you know, being a guy with the story who was just selling on an ebay store to then being every night or not every night, but most nights, being up in front of an audience via live stream. You're a very likable guy. Like, you have passion for what you're doing. You're very authentic and genuine. How much do you think that plays into your sales in it being a live platform where you're not just a 1 million Cubs logo, but you people every night get to know what BO is doing, what's going on with your life, like, what cards are available, like, how much is that live experience, humanize your brand and increased kind of revenue and your reputation online? I think that's really important because in. For. In my inst. In my case, I have a radio background. I worked in morning radio for almost 12 years. I did play by play at the high school and Division 1 college level for a few years. I can talk. I have a lot of experience doing play by play where I'm just literally doing play by play of, you know, a sporting event, whatever, whatever sport it was. Morning radio is basically like, hey, what, What'd you have for dinner? Like, just dumb topics. You know, it's kind of like the Seinfeld. Like, it's. It's. It's not really a show about nothing. It's really a show about everything because everybody can relate to the topics. That was a topic on Seinfeld. So I bring that to my live streams because that's a. It's what I know. But I think, you know, some of the biggest. When you get, you know, when you get interaction, chat interaction, a lot of it comes from. It's not from the cards you're selling. Like, there's very little reaction. If I want to put up a Joe Montana rookie card. Like, there may be a couple comments about, yu-gi-oh Montana was my favorite, or that's an awesome card. But the most interaction comes from, you know, what's your favorite pizza? And, you know, it's, it's not about. And I think it also takes away like we're, you know, we're, we're. We're selling cards, but at the same time, we're, we're trying to build rapport with our, you know, with my clientele. And, and I want them to, you know, come back and they don't bid on the cards. That's okay as long as they want to have fun and, and interact. And, you know, I think a success, a successful show isn't about the sales in the, in the money it brings in. It's about the relationships, the, the potential relationships and, and customer relationships that you bring in and having fun. And I think that's the biggest key about live selling is, is just having fun. And is it for. And, And I think the most frustrating part is. And I get frustrated and I think all live sellers do when it's a slow room, and for me, it's an okay, it's okay when there's a slow room with slow bids, but it's, it is kind of, it's. It's kind of defeating when there's no chat. And so just trying to get the chat interactive. It's not about the bidding. It's just like, let's, you know, I'm, I'm here, like, hopefully, you know, I want to be here to entertain you and sell you cards. Like, that's, that's the goal. Like, I'm, I'm. I'm here to sell cards and to entertain and, you know, I think that that's an aspect that can be lost at times, including myself. I'm, I'm guilty at times where it's like my focus turns to, okay, I need to be at this, this monetary number and, and I kind of lose. Lose that. That thought process of. No, like, it's, it's. Tonight can be about something else, not just about, you know, making a certain amount of money. So you started with collecting, then it, you have this project that you turn this project into a business. It was selling on ebay, then it turned into show. So it's, it's evolved quite a bit. And I would imagine each step of the way you've had to be adaptable based on the conditions and what were in front of you. And then obviously, since this is your business, like, there's can be a lot of pressure and there's a lot of uncertainty. I would imagine there was a lot of uncertainty when even though you thought you felt that things would Go well when you move to 90% live selling, there was still uncertainty. Like how did you self manage through all of those phases? Especially as someone, I mean, you've got the support of your wife, which is great, I'm sure, but there's, you don't have like a manager, you don't have a coach, you don't have these things. Like you're having to be adaptable and manage through just based on the elements. Like how did you get good at that? That's, it's, it's, it's a blessing and a curse, I think, you know, because you don't have, you don't have that manager or even an employee where I can bounce things off of. I, fortunately I do have a great network of people both inside and outside the hobby from, from the business side and whether it's, you know, in sports cards or not, you know, sometimes my struggle is I just put my head down and keep grinding, which is also like, is very good. But at times it's, it's that stubbornness where it's like I'm just going to put my head down and get through this. Where if I asked for advice or help, it probably could get me through the storm quicker. You know, there was a time where I, it was last year I, the calendar turned into 2025 and I'm looking at my numbers and I kind of, I got comfortable with what I was doing, the high volume, but the sales just plateaued. And I'm looking at my numbers and I'm like, I've, I've got to make a change somewhere. Like, I'm not giving up, I'm not quitting what I'm doing, but I do need to adapt and you know, I can continue doing what I'm doing, but it's not going to get me the results that I want. And I looked at multiple things and I, and at this point in time I did. I talked to a couple of, of friends that have been great mentors and I had thrown a couple ideas around and, and you know, took some steps with, with one of the plans and almost at the same time, like it's timing just works out. Ebay reaches out. And it was somebody that I, that I had known through social media and asked me if I had ever considered selling on ebay live. And I said, well, Yu-Gi-Oh but they're not taking new sellers. And he said, Yu-Gi-Oh they are. I'm new in a position and like, let's talk. So that call came at the, you know, exact right time because it was Right at a point where I needed to make a change and adapt my business model because it wasn't for what I wanted. The goals that I wanted to reach, I wasn't getting, I wasn't going to get to that goal doing what I had been doing the last few years. Um, and so ebay live stepped in and, and allowed me to reach those goals and, and beyond. I don't know if you can relate with this, but. Well, last year my father is my accountant, which is very, very handy. I don't have to deal with the tax work. I can outsource that especially as one, a one man show here. But you know, we were having a conversation doing taxes and he was telling me just like how I did and it was way better than I anticipated. And it was hard for me to celebrate that because I felt like I wanted to be doing much more. I wanted things to be going faster, I wanted partnerships to be growing. There was all these elements and I sat there and I'm like, I'm getting to talk about sports cards and I'm supporting my family, but it's still not enough. And I think this is a hard part and this is maybe solopreneur therapy here, but this is a hard part about running your own show is that like in self managing, it's like there's these really high expectations you put. We put on ourselves when we're running our own businesses. Do you like, do you feel like no matter how high the sales, no matter how great it's, it, it's seemingly going that like you struggle with never quite being satisfied to where you want to be? Like, does that kind of enter what you're doing at all in a month from a mindset perspective? Every single day. Every single day. You know, my, and the, the numbers that I, that my worst day today is a multiplier of what my best day would have been a year and a half ago and that number now is not good enough. And so it's just, and I think that's, that's just the entrepreneurial mindset where if you have that entrepreneurial mindset, it's never, you're always going to be chasing a number and that number hopefully keeps rising. And that's, I think that's ultimately the goal is we're never satisfied. We're gonna, we're gonna just keep bettering ourselves and, and chasing for, for, you know, more and more. And I think that's just, that's just part of the territory. And yes, I feel that every single day. What, what are you trying to build with your business over the next, you know, few years? Man, I, that's a tough question. You know, I, ultimately, I, and, and this is, you know, my answer would probably change next week, next month. But, you know, it was, you know, five years ago. It was, I just want to replace my salary at, at my job. And then, you know, I want to grow and, and I want to make more sales and you know, I, I, I love, I love teaching other people, I love helping other people, whether it's, you know, through volume sales, through card show promoting. Although I, I want to be careful and, and it's really hard when, when you're trying to make a point, but not like paint with a broad brush where like, this is my story. And I think that's, it's hard to convey that message where this is what I did, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's what you should do. And we're all different, we all have different, you know, backgrounds and, you know, family and, you know, all that stuff. So to answer your question, it's just, I, I, I don't really have an answer. I just want to keep growing what I have and, and be successful. I want to lead, I want to help ebay live be the number one online live selling platform. You know, and that's, you know, that's part, you know, that's partly selfishness because I'm, you know, a seller on that platform, but I want to be a part of that where, you know, I watched it grow from where there were four of us on and you know, at 7 o' clock on a Wednesday night, there's four live streams and I was one of the four and now we're, you know, even today it's only been, you know, a year and a few months, but now we're at maybe 40 live streams and, but you look at other platforms and they're at 500 or more. So I'd like to see it, you know, grow and then, you know, with that, grow with it. Bo, as we close this out, you, your story's awesome. You've got a unconventional journey to be a operator in the sports card industry. There are a lot of people that listen to this show that aspire to work in this space and it might just seem like it's unattainable based on current job structure. Making the leap, like, what advice based on your journey would you have for anyone out there who's looking to get started and work in sports cards full time? I would, I think my, my, my number one Piece of advice when, when somebody asks in with the mindset that this is a business and not a side hustle, like treat this as a business. Sock away money. And if you're really like and, and run the numbers. I think knowing your numbers is, is, is crucial to success or Fleer Knowing your numbers, you know, give it a, a good solid three months. Three months. I'm going to operate this as a business. This is not a side hustle. This is not just for fun. This is a business. Treat it like a business for three solid months and then you can crunch the numbers. It's like, okay, can I build on this or not? And sock away that money. And at the end of the three months, you know, if it's something that you can aspire to do, you'll have that, that income. And I think the timing for me was, was just right. Timing is everything. I mean the best time is right now. You know, if, if it's something you've been thinking about, just do it. Like you don't have to quit your job and, and sell. If you want to go in to sell sports cards full time, you don't have to quit your job today and do it like that's the great. I think that's the greatest thing about being in the sports card sales sector is that you don't have to quit your job. Like you can, you can replace a full time income on a part time basis if you know what you're doing and take the proper steps. But I think absolutely, number one, treat it like a business. Solid quarter, three months and, and then go from there. You know, put some money aside to pay for bills because you're going to need that one way or another down the road. So that would be my, my number one piece of advice. All right. Before I let you get out of here, where can people obviously ebay live, but what's the schedule? Where can people come stop by? 1 million cubs. And I have, I have my 1 million cubs.com website which is a blog and that's 1 million cubs all spelled out. The number 1 million cubs takes you directly to my ebay live homepage. Typically I have a month of live streams scheduled out that you can find there and then on all socials. One million Cubs. On pretty much all the socials. Bo Thompson. One million Cubs. Awesome chat, man. Hopefully we can do this again soon. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Just an awesome story of passion and persistence. He has a method to his madness, but make sure you go check out his live streams. A really good dude building something meaningful. In our space. Have a great national Safe travels. Take care. We'll talk to you soon. One.