it's episode twenty seven yes it is i have returned from another vacation however i did not miss last tuesday even though it feels like i missed last tuesday but i'm back hope everybody had a wonderful fourth better yet adam how we doing i i had a busy fourth we were traveling for baseball as usual every weekend this is that's all you do that's what you're doing tomorrow oh you're gonna be so close to me you can't yeah you can't come visit me you're only three hours away yeah oh i mean depending on how badly we lose on sunday maybe yeah i've gotta be confident in your ball club there buddy i'm it's not mine it's my we're playing up a year so he's playing with the older team this year or this weekend so yeah fourth was good got to do a lot of driving and a lot of sitting in the sun in rockford illinois but it was a good time you're just everywhere you're not in minnesota right now it's time of year to be up there where it's nice and cooler you're going south where it's more heat we had a major storm yesterday so i mean probably going down worries we have alright let's there i mean as shocking enough there's there's a lot to talk about less from a card perspective for the second week in a row but more from like what's going on on tv we'll get into the opening pyro here we've got some stuff to talk about for people who are you know buying and selling we're gonna do some some advice sharing here we'll talk a little bit about fanatics fest as well and then we'll get into our title match topic no guest this week but i'm working on getting brian thd sports cards to come back on he is collecting everybody who is at the national convention this at the end of this month he is collecting information and anybody that will have wrestling cards available we're gonna try and have him on so he can share the information that he's gotten back and hopefully that'll give an opportunity for people to see exactly what's going on at the national convention who's selling what where to be obviously ryan my podcast cohost is gonna be setting up there but you know guys like griffey guy always set up with wrestling cards brian's gonna be set up himself we've got chad from sports car junction another sponsor of wrestling card takeover we've got a ton of other dealers and and you know like mike bev celtics always sets up with some wrestling cards and stuff like that you're nailing them we'll try and what was that you're nailing them all again the the thing about this they're all kind of in our area we're working on our map and you mentioned all those names those guys are gonna be on our map of our area it's some wrestling non wrestling people on there but thc mike bev griffey guy and junction we're all kind of in this area within a a radius so i know he's gonna be doing a big map of everything but it's really nice that we're all kind of in the area which is gonna be great yeah and i've gotten some information from others who are gonna be there too i don't think they'll be close to you but they'll be set up there so we'll try and cover we'll at least get some booth numbers maybe we'll we'll share a map or whatever but we want everybody who is selling wrestling cards at the national convention to get some airtime here because we think that's awesome so we'll get into that we had a pretty eventful monday night raw this week not only because of what happened on the show but also what happened outside of the show so starting with smackdown last week sami wins the title we talked about that last week on the podcast sami wins the title at night of champions unexpectedly within three days or four days in between the end of that pay per view and smackdown they have already taped a second smackdown because they they were off for fourth of july so they taped this on tuesday of last week and so everybody was aware that there was going to be a match on smackdown which ended up being jey uso versus cody rhodes the winner would get a title shot for the smackdown title on raw that raw was happening in chicago which immediately kicked off a ton of speculation rightfully so it was the least surprising thing to happen but centimeters punk replaces cody rhodes after gunther attacks cody and he eventually goes on to win we have said a couple of times in the podcast i think they were always planning to do cody versus centimeters punk for summerslam it's a marquee main event type of match they've been hinting at it now for close to a year but you know this again this the way that they've gotten here seems odd to me and it seems weird and i one of one of the guys who follows me on twitter says like one of my favorite wrestlers of all time just won the title and i don't feel anything like that's that's a really interesting way of putting it mhmm but i'm curious what's your reaction sammy has a nine day title reign you called this again you're the if you if ryan says something on this podcast you better listen up because he's usually right ryan called this transitional champion the only place i'm right at is on this podcast not at my house with my wife the only place i'm right yeah yeah i it was so obvious the fact that it was in chicago it just i mean i i don't want cody to have the belt but i don't wanna fight him for the belt i'm also not a big c and pong guy i feel like i but when it twelve years ago thirteen years ago whatever when he made the whole comment of part time guy gets to leave come back hasn't done that for three months wins the title he made comments how he hated that now he's getting to do that i get he's forty seven years old now and it's in chicago and this is probably coming up to some of his last runs yes we need to have a better main event name besides sami zayn pawn draws names sell merchandise cody rhodes go sell streetfighter now i can't wait for the man to come out so hopefully he takes a break for a little bit but i'm just i was telling the guys this morning and i'm i'm just so frustrated with it's been the rinse and repeat same people over again and i get like plan shifted seth rollins is my guy he got hurt changed things up punk took over but punk dropped that belt and then he has not wrestled since he lost to roman in a incredible wrestlemania match and here he is showing back up and gets this oh here you go by the way here's your participation prize for losing there we're gonna give you your opportunity to beat sami zayn which was blatantly obvious it was gonna happen the only way it wouldn't have is if somehow there would have been some type of interference potentially like goonther or centimeters punk drawing a triple threat match not gonna happen now you don't need sami zayn in the picture he's out now right call yes get something fresh you had it fresh with oba you had it he was supposed to get his title shot and now again brock lesnar oba's gonna be awesome we know it was awesome when it ended at wrestlemania when it was done and now here we are dragging it out and oba should be fighting for the title right now instead he's gotta have match number three with blesser this whole thing if you break the it's just a it's a mess i'm trying to keep my words myself it is absolute mess to get to this point it's ugly i get it's long term storytelling but this was fumble dropped from the beginning and and i just don't know if it's derailed by injuries or whatnot but i'm not happy about it i'm okay with it it was obvious i get it come on get something fresh here this is getting old and guess what these guys are getting old punks pushing fifty yeah i i hear all of that we've been saying it for weeks it's it's harder and harder to stomach this stuff and i think smackdown really has been injured by randy orton we'll talk about that in a second here randy if randy orton was able to take that belt and run as in unhinged viper that he would've been running to summerslam and made a thing yeah that would've been drop it there which would've been fine yeah and if brock had ended if brock had truly ended at wrestlemania you could've spent the next two months dropping hints that cody and oba were going to cross paths instead of dropping hints the other way with roman reigns and i think like that's where that's where they messed up because having to go back to obafemi versus brock lesnar twice since wrestlemania once in wherever it was main event or i can't remember and then now at helena cell and summerslam again it's gonna be an awesome match but it didn't need to happen i think that's really what damaged it in terms of like from a live card reaction because this is my new favorite thing to do is after somebody something big happens let's see how many sales actually take place since yesterday centimeters punk has had sixty one cards sell on ebay the top card was only two hundred and seventy one dollars it was a downtown psa something eight i think not a ton of movement on his stuff i don't think people are gonna react well to this they're not i'm curious so you need a face and a heel you need a face and a heel is this the catalyst similar to what happened when becky lynch came back beat bianca belair really popular champion do they flip centimeters punk heel and take advantage of the fact that there's horrible goodwill around some of this stuff but also a lot of support for sammy losing that title because people were not happy he won i don't think you could flip him i think if anything it's time for cody to flip heel i think that's how you salvage how everybody's got the bad taste of cody in their mouth it's been the story's been finished here we are you've won how many times now you were you literally screwed over drew mcintyre so guess what i'm glad you kinda got screwed out of this but at the same time it's just it's just frustrating it it really is and and again i'm not just because i'm not the biggest punk and i like cody if you could turn cody heel i'm in if you could make her homelander cody cody i'm here for you it bring it on you need it you know years ago i said put paul heyman on roman reigns it'll be the greatest thing i've ever since because he just couldn't get over the crowd differently they did it and look what it turned into now that kudo you know credit to roman for rebranding himself and doing everything but it's time for cody to go heal either summerslam or some in the near future because it's becoming stale i get it it's merchandise very stale it's like oh you know the kids the merchandise well this was seen up forever and and i get it but cena and cody aren't even in the same sentence in my opinion and never will be the same sentence they never will be no but here's the here's the thing jim cornett always says how can we miss you if you never go away and i i i don't really listen to cornett anymore but i did for a while because i i'm not a huge aew fan and he was the only realistic person i felt talking about aew but like the the idea of like if you're constantly on tv and we'll talk about this in a minute like the idea that people just get sick of you is very real and like i think like for cody he has been on tv since coming back from his torn pack which he he had that epic hell in a cell match he goes on this major run which i think is probably one of the best stories that wwe has told in a long time with roman and the two years of the bloodline and cody and sammy and all that other stuff like it that was the best story told in wwe probably in the modern era and now he has been on tv almost constantly for like four years hasn't taken time off hasn't done anything like it gets to be a lot and i don't think he has the mic skills to be able to keep things interesting like you saw that opening promo with seth rollins and la knight like people always rag on la knight because he can't wrestle at the same level that he would be phenomenal promo dude unreal he's he's an engaging promo that connects with the crowd even though he doesn't say much in what he actually says like he's he's really gonna keep you interested even if he can't wrestle he's like stone cold steve austin after the knee injuries right it's like yeah austin was just a brawler but man was he engaging when he was on camera right he kept you in same with seth rollins same with roman reigns brock lesnar is a very good example of this when he is on camera even if he's not talking he's doing some really good stuff so i think like that's where i think cody rhodes struggles is that when he's on camera he doesn't have that same allure that i think those top top top tippy top guys have had for a very long time because he doesn't have the the the the charisma at that level i think that a lot of those people do but he's very very good in the ring and he's very you know clean and and does the stuff that can make people love him from a kid perspective and so on and so forth same with jey uso for a good amount of his time too but that being said there was some news that came out ahead of raw which i was pretty sad about because i think he's a really really good part of the roster probably one of the most consistent workers that they've had even though he's had major neck injuries sheamus is no longer gonna be with wwe he's didn't renew his contract he's at he's about the same age i think as as centimeters punk and some of these guys like he's an older guy he's been around forever has stenosis of of his of his neck so there's there's a lot of problems there but i i think he's a first ballot hall of famer i mean he's done it all and he puts on great matches he i i love watching him and drew mcintyre or him and gunther like those three guys going at it in a wrestling match is always gonna be entertaining it wasn't there yeah a great wrestler i've seen him perform multiple times a person he is just he's incredible he really is and he's really good on the mic and he's had some great storylines long career he's put in his time yes hall of famer for sure sad to see him go but okay he's gone let's fill the void let's not go you know we're apparently bringing back enzo and cash great sell merchandise taglines get to that but you know what you know what like karrion kross i mean dude like is out there in the indies right now dominating and just you had something great with him he was over at the crowd and you let him walk you could get bringing somebody like him it's just i i don't know right now it's i'm just frustrated with baron corbin's coming back too from what they're saying i don't dislike baron corbin i did i never disliked him he was a good wrestler he's really entertaining he's good on the mic sure bring him back i mean i don't know if you're gonna lose seamus you can't though i feel like that one is where what the hell that's worse than hell freezing over with seeing punk coming back because i never thought intel would get another chance back i don't think so either see yeah that that's for another time another story maybe later today i don't know so i think we've been talking about people that have been missing in action for a while i wanna go through a few of them like if you when you look at this list of names which i'll go through in a second here like which of these names really stick out to you with doing the most damage with their absence on the brand obviously randy orton and becky lynch have been gone for since wrestlemania for randy and just after wrestlemania for becky so they've been off tv for a month ish and randy two months ish like so we'll probably not as much commentary there but guys like rhea ripley has been gone now for a month i think her absence has been grossly felt stephanie vaquera has been gone since wrestlemania two that's about two months liv has been dead in the water as a result bronson reed's been gone for four months bianca belair has been gone for a year plus at this point she's probably not coming back until next summerslam kevin owens same thing about a year plus he's he's hinting at some return but like i i'm curious like you see this list of names they're obviously hurting asuka's gone too she's back in japan dealing with family issues like bron cerise looks jacked centimeters punk comes back looks like he's jacked like i love seeing these guys come back huge pops all that stuff is my favorite part but like i think the absences of people like rhea ripley randy orton becky lynch stephanie vaquera like they add up and it's really had done some major damage do you agree yeah i mean obviously rhea is your champ right now he she is worldwide known that is a big ouch this hurts she's not around right now smackdown's in trouble they need some people to step up right now yeah obviously punk coming back is key that's great i mean bronson's great that's not really gonna move the needle for me i think kevin owens great can build in a great storyline vakir though that's that one hurts i mean they had so much momentum with her and just squash it with your girl liv which is unfortunate and now here we are obviously we don't have to give my thoughts on randy you don't have to give your thoughts on becky but i mean these are some big names that have been missing and they gotta figure out what they're gonna do yes they have some young stuff but it's like you guys have bron breakker on this great trajectory and then all of a sudden he got hurt and now guess what he's a tag team champ again so now he's just falling down to a mid card level type guy when he's got super sharp potential you have obafemi right now that's supposed to be fighting for a title and he's not you got trick williams in the mid level a little above it you got these young up and covers you gotta do something with it obviously we know danhausen's selling but we know he's not gonna be a premier guy a premier wrestler he's there for merchandise and the name obviously but yeah they've gotta figure out who's gonna be able to carry the torch right now because we're sick of the cody we have admit admitted that puck will carry it he's entertaining he's great we know seth rollins is gonna lose a rumble but we're gonna see a great promo run between now and summerslam we're gonna see a match there but here's my question to you bringing up summerslam now that you have punk back in the picture you have punk more likely versus cody you have roman against rollins and you have brock against silva who's main eventing i i gotta think you've even though lesnar's always first match how do you top that hell in a cell insane match you gotta end that night with that i would think and then roman's gotta that roman's gotta be the other one so i mean punk and cody can't be main of any i i think i think there there's a a wild card here and that's the first hour on espn i think they're gonna wanna put something on there that's cool i don't think they'll put hell in a cell on there because it'll probably be bloody it'll probably like they don't they usually don't use those types of matches on espn true that how do you like over how do you oh that match is gonna be in my opinion probably the most hype match of yeah summerslam being in brock's home you can't have that match anywhere bev except the main event because everybody else is about there and dominate after that match and good luck with that night night one main event hell in a cell it's not even a question now that's if i was doing it i think you put roman and and seth on night two the main event punk and cody probably starting off either night one on espn or starting off night two on espn makes sense and then liv and eo sky is probably one of the other ones that probably starts off on those as well but i i think like just before we get to that going back to sort of like these things i i did an article on main event on sort of these people that have been missing now punk is back you were talking about this like are are any of these people you're buying the dip on like i think like a lot of these people have have seen some impact to their cards some more than others because they've been out especially people like bianca belair who's been out almost a a year and a half at this point like are you which of these are you buying dips on i don't think there's been much of a dip on rhea ripley because he's only been out a month but like even her cards are down about five ten percent in some cases yeah i mean i don't think i don't think when you name rhea punk orton even becky i don't i think they're kind of in a category where they're not really gonna dip much because of who they are vakir is is dipped because she's signing more i think she's gonna continue to dip out of the other ones bianca could be your best buy because she has dipped tremendously not being on tv for obviously she was her main announcing she was pregnant she could be the best buy of them all right now because i'm seeing some of her autos get to twenty thirty forty bucks kevin owens is probably never gonna be more than what he is except his inscriptions and bronson reed is significantly cheap and affordable but i don't know if he's gonna get that main event hype but you know i'm gonna continue to buy i mean when we buy wrestling we look for key names rhea punk brandy but more or less like undertaker stone cold all those people but if i'm buying on the dip i think as much i'm not a fan of her bianca is your best buy if you can hold her for about a year she is gonna be the best buy and flip if you could be patient because her stuff is getting to an all time low from before she came up to the main roster so i think that would be a great opportunity to go in and buy i i think my looking at bianca i mean her cards have have cut in half almost like it's she's she's an all timer she's already won four or five titles like she's gonna win more she's gonna come back and probably be right in the main event you saw the reaction she got at wrestlemania when she came out to announce the pregnancy she won't be back in february next year's summerslam and that's if everything goes as correct like as clean as it can go and she's doing it for good reason obviously she's becoming a mother that's awesome but i think the other person i'm probably buying is stephanie vakaire i think she's young i think she's got a long career ahead of her her prices are are very low right now as you said getting her autographs at thirty forty bucks i think she comes back because of the lack of hands they have available she's probably right back in the main event scene people are gonna want her cards i i think she's a big a big buy right now bronson reed being like a five dollar auto like a ten dollar auto i don't think that there's a future that exists without bronson reed getting a a chance at something and i think if you can buy them for like five or ten bucks and just stash them away for until that happens and then just dump them all like bronson reed has the he's had good booking and he's and he's been a good wrestler and if they can really sort of sell him as maybe like this foil opposite fatu or something like that that could be really big for him so that those are really my my takes on that but i i was just curious as for like summerslam i don't think we're seeing much of a bump in any people coming into summerslam i think booking's been too erratic i think people are just kind of like wait and see how the dust settles afterwards i don't think iyo gets a bump if she wins i don't think liv gets a bump if she wins i don't think they haven't even booked the other match for rhea if she's even wrestling i think the title matches really don't do anything for rollins or roman those guys are already sort of bulletproof so i mean like coming into those like if you're buying cards trying to flip at the national or whatever knowing what you know coming into that because summerslam's that weekend i i think we're we're probably waiting until much later in the year royal rumble time frame before we really start to see you know buyback type you know buys and stuff like that for chrome when it comes out in twenty twenty seven like there there's a there's gonna be a gap in some prospecting here while wwe sort of gets their shit together right go back you gotta watch nxt there's a lot of talent in nxt i'm telling you that is where you can buy smart i mean guys like trick williams la knight those guys used to be so cheap for autographs so cheap if you watch them i mean tony d'angelo used to be five bucks and he's been champ since since i watched him here you know and that is your best place to go buy these people watch them see whether what they're doing down there with them obviously kendall gray was too high to begin with now she's champ she's come down because she's signing more very common to happen she has a bright future but probably waited a little bit on her at the price mark she's at but no i think that's what we're gonna look at out of all these matches i think oba stands the most to continue to go up yeah i i think oba is yeah yeah oba's gonna be a dollar short yeah but i'm saying i think you could i think you're gonna see i i gotta think there's gonna be a massive push even more of oba he's got that i get a a title shot maybe this is a title shot he uses right away on centimeters punk or cody rhodes i gotta think it's i mean i gotta think punk's gonna win but who knows triple a's just got a hard on for cody so maybe oba takes his title shot pretty quick runs championship yeah or he bottles it up and saves it and uses against roman at wrestlemania you know i don't know i i don't know how that works because obviously elimination chamber does that royal rumble does that it's like you've he's gotta use his title shot before then i don't really know what the hell they're doing with this it's pissing me off i gotta get it december now so you mentioned nxt though i wanna i wanna say one quick take on that wrestling collectors who buy the the big cards of people hold on to them if you're watching nxt and you're finding somebody that has it kendall grey came up through evolve tiffany stratton came up through nxt like all of these guys had cards they were on tv at nxt they had it like you have a chance to get in early on some of these guys just pick a if you wanna start a pc you really have to find that time in nxt or right when they get to the main roster so that you can start to get if you really are one of those roman type collectors that we were talking about from last last week or a ria type collector we were talking about from last week who wants to get all the top stuff like doing it while they're in nxt and having that in your pc by the time they're already reaching stardom or when they're already reaching sort of that level is key so if you're not paying attention to finding your new pc early on in their career by the time you get to them when they're at like let's use liv morgan as an example liv morgan has had cards since twenty eighteen maybe even before that if you come in and start collecting liv morgan right now you'll have no shot in any of her top stuff it's all been spot and sold it's in collections you're not gonna get it and if you do have to get it if you do get it like you are gonna pay three x four x probably what it's probably worth because the people who are selling it to you are not gonna wanna let it go because it's their main pc as well so like if somebody wanted to come in and collect becky lynch or come in and collect randy orton those are our two main pcs you're fighting ryan and i and we're not paying we're not giving up the good stuff in our collection it's it's being held so i think like finding those things in nxt those guys who have won two cards right now chrome maybe you like dude this is your opportunity to watch a great product in nxt it's really good tv and get started on that thoughts yeah no i think you hit a spot on giving a shout to jason sudanski from minnesota he is really locked in and has done great over the years buying some of these the black one zero ones the golds everything like that when he was a millennial that stuff but he has tiffies he's he's done great for years got kendall grey yeah he has been on that i remember him messaging me on kendall grey when she had the finest card he's like hey i'm looking for her i'm looking for this other person he's always up on that i gotta give him a shout out because he's done great over the years buying these people well before because once you get to the quote unquote big leagues you're there's more eyes on you i'm telling you the the wrestling in nxt is awesome i love nxt i love the brand i love what they're doing down there my all time favorite is triple h is done at triple h hbk is down there running things and doing great things out there so i think that's the minor leagues however some of these people have been established either on the indies or aew i think a great guy to buy right now even though he just got caught ethan page is so cheap oh he's so good too good ethan page is so good ethan page can wrestle he can talk on the mic he's entertaining he was dominant over in aew doing things like that so i i mean think outside the box if you wanna get in a prospect early watch the product watch what they're doing see the trajectory if you go with your gut biggest thing you do is go with your gut and if you're wrong you're wrong you didn't maybe you say i wanna spend a thousand dollars into this wrestler and wait two or three years to develop because that's what it takes sometimes there's not a fast track all the time for somebody like stephanie mckeer who just comes in shoots up and out the door you know they build this up for a while you know when they used to have manny rose down there she was on the main roster went down and started dominating for years you know and people were buying her cards up obviously she loved wwe for other reasons but she was cheap at one point when she's on the main roster they didn't do know what to do with her sent her back down sometimes that does that sometimes people can't promote a few things up there and come down there so just yep watch what you're enjoy what you're watching okay i wanna end this opening pyro because we've been talking for a while but a lot of cool good card takes here as well i have a hot wrestling take and it's gonna play into the cards as well i i've talked about some of the bad choices they've made with music over the last couple of changes to major stars my hot take is this wrestlers who get stuck with bad theme music will always struggle to get over and wrestlers who luck out with great theme music will get over that much faster so some examples of this liv morgan's new song is absolutely horrific chad gable's new music is bad i mean rusev's music is about as bad as it gets like these creator wrestler themes if you get stuck with it like you are you are almost doomed to be a mid card wrestler for life and i i think the collectors who go and like latch on to pcs guys who have awesome theme music like obafemi like who've just it fits his persona and it he didn't get deaf rebelled he didn't get deaf rebelled so it's like he he lucked out to the point where now that music is about as good as it gets somebody somebody like randy orton in voices and obviously you have stone cold steve austin like going way back but i mean we just for recent guys like rhea ripley has had two of the two of the best theme musics i think of any modern wrestler ever and like when something changes like you had charlotte flair go from what she had to what she has now which i think is a lot worse like it hurts your collectibility do you agree no i i agree i think when the music is everything it sets the tone for the wrestler the crowd everything and i i i was i listened to orton while he was on pat mcafee before elimination chamber actually it was like days after he was here for a bit and he was talking about how he wasn't huge on his song to begin with it wasn't really kinda what he's into but the crowd just took over loved it and he was thinking about changing it and then i guess he was over overseas somewhere and he just couldn't believe the how loud this is the loudest he ever heard but he praised trick williams' song he's like i love that song i'll be back there in the back good yeah bump into it you know and i think that's huge to to gravitate and get a wrestler to the next level their their entrance is everything their song how they come out it it really is everything i mean i i love listening my kids love listening to wrestling so i'll just be in the house and say play randy orton play bray wyatt play cody rhodes play you know that's the thing if it's resonating to kids that's saying something they're not going on saying play rusev god how do they fumble chad gable already shocker shocker of the world already fumbled what they could have done with him but i i think that's everything to really engage the the fan the collector because i love i'll put on like serious radio and i'll sometimes get in the mood and say play wrestling songs and you know how many times i skipped like next next yeah like that one because it's all like it's all garbage yeah but the like i wanna use one example like kurt angle's music made him get to the the peak because he was probably the best technical wrestler ever in a lot of different reason and but that music with the you suck chants like it's it's iconic right ric flair's music hogan's music like you can go back a million miles but kurt angle specifically like when he fully embraced that entrance like i think that's when he really started to shoot up but i i'm just like i was watching raw last night i've been watching smackdown and over the last few months and just even since the royal rumble when they first came back from covid and everything like that like people just didn't know wrestlers because the theme music was so generic and somebody posted on instagram that the old titantron videos really helped to set a standard for what the character's all about and now that they're gone it really relies on the wrestler and the theme music to come through and now without good theme music most of these wrestlers are dead oh you perfect example before you go on centimeters punk obviously had good songs over the years but the second he took cult of personality yeah was he was gil switch was different though like gil switch was good i'm not saying they aren't but it also is a there are certain type of music for certain people i don't know i think what's he with the colts personality is when his career really changed when he came out to that yeah and cody's music too like cody i think the popularity of cody rhodes is that's somewhat due to his entrance yeah i think he's got a he's got a pyro and all those interests absolutely alright let's get on to some card market news i wanna take a quick look ahead to two products one of them is top decades it's a uk uk product that's coming out shortly and then we still don't have a lot of news on stadium club so let's start with decades have you gotten any additional information on sort of when this is gonna be available no originally i think it was supposed to come out like three weeks ago or something it was supposed to like say release it on our my tops pro thing and i still have it on my incoming list on my sheets and it's still just i don't know when it's coming right now so who really knows with that one now to be fair we've asked for a break we're getting that that's good okay i'm i'm i'm not complaining about this we we needed this break like we needed this break decades probably not a set i'm obviously not interested as much in my pc really doesn't align i don't like a lot of the uk stuff i don't like the designs but this is probably the best that they've ever done in uk interested to see how it breaks interested to see how it comes out we have a checklist already so we know what's in it so i don't think there's as much mystery here stadium club on the other hand is it gonna be affordable is it gonna be expensive like what's the secondary market reaction gonna be will they use the photo sort of approach that they use for baseball lot of questions still outstanding with stadium club yeah a lot of hearing not really hearing but i'm hearing that this one's having a little bit of delays i don't really know for what there are some issues going on that's delaying it which again we're okay with that we needed a break but let's be honest you need to have something released before summerslam i don't think the uk product is is what it's really gonna move the needle but again we got so like everything thrown at us in a in like a three month span that it's time for a break but stadium club i i gotta think it's gonna be more affordable because even baseball is in the mid hundreds usually it's usually very affordable for what you get i i don't know if wwe will be there but if you compare apples to oranges it could be a little bit more just because you make it two autos or whatever but i gotta think this is gonna be more of an affordable type product even even the ufc is affordable you know we're in top of the mid hundreds maybe two hundred tops that's perfect that's what we need we need a product like that all it looks like it's all on card base the images look amazing i'm thoroughly looking forward to this one a lot more than it was on like cosmic and stuff because all those i think this is gonna be a very popular collector product it's not gonna be a very popular market product which is fine we need that we need we need people in all areas of the hobby to be serviced and i think stadium club will provide that in a different way than cosmic and chrome and royalty and all that have had mhmm i really like the designs i like the way it looks i think they're all on card we're not gonna have to worry about relics and this and that the other thing very straightforward very easy to understand very accessible and hopefully very affordable can't complain much we have not seen a checklist yet we have not gotten a release date yet confirmed i am sure we will talk about it the day that that all of that happens but i wanted to keep it on the radar for people because that does look like it's the next set coming out alright fanatics fest next weekend i will be there brett will be there curious like do you have any initial thoughts or you just want me to take over and sort of go through my thoughts i'm jealous i i want to attend one of these unfortunately i we just vacationed for a whole month and i'm in my national mode prepping i work you save stuff all year a lot of time and dedication that started yesterday i i wanna go one time and i wanna do it with my family but going there during the world cup did not seem ideal no i i mean not on my family my bingo card so i i mean from a wrestling fan a wrestling collector standpoint what a lineup the everything that you're gonna get there is incredible the the i know a lot of people setting up at it i i i just don't know if i wanna set up i think it's an experience i'm jealous i'm excited for you and brett to go i cannot wait for you to talk about it when you come back because i'm sure it's gonna be a lot of awesome stuff i'm gonna be following on social media and just have like remorse that i'm not there but knowing that i'm getting ready for something that that my business is very is very important to my business but why don't you go and talk about it because you you're well more rehearsed than i am no and your thoughts are are so next year so lance the the guy the ceo of fanatics events was on a podcast recently i think it was sports cards nonsense and said that next year it's gonna be in june again so they're doing this to align with the world cup finals in new york during this time frame not looking forward to that because i have no interest in soccer my wife does but i i don't and so i think that it's gonna be june next year july june so they're bumping it up a month no they're going back june the previous so they're going back i'm saying sorry they just aligned they're going back yeah sorry okay well that's fine i june cool keep going i like that yeah so it's gonna align better you won't have like two weeks in between the two biggest events of the summer so that's great but this is an event where wwe fans have literally taken over the entire thing they've they if you aren't familiar with what they're offering they're they're doing a ton of autographs they're doing a ton of photo ops like all the normal stuff the only people that have really sold out are like jalen brunson for obvious reasons and then a slew of wwe people like liv morgan and rhea ripley and becky lynch and and undertaker like they've all sold out so like cody rhodes too jey uso like you name it they're there it it they're they're doing saturday night's main event in new york that night of saturday night during fanatics fest so that's cool but like it's become like an event where wrestling fans have and will travel and like it's like wwe world is the premier sort of fanatics event for wwe but this is probably a close second and you know we're gonna go and enjoy and and have a good time and get some great content we'll bring that back we'll talk about it on the podcast they are doing some exclusive baseball products no exclusive wrestling products this time but you know like that type of stuff is interesting to me they're gonna have exclusive t shirts a lot of danhausen from what i've heard a lot of great stuff with the wrestlers hopefully we'll get to interview a wrestler we do have media credentials for the event so it's gonna be awesome maybe we'll get some time with one of the superstars that's there i still haven't confirmed any of that yet but i mean we'll we'll bring a lot of it back it'll be a good time and i i can't wait it's gonna be so much fun it's my first time going so oh i thought you've been before you go to new york a lot i thought you've been there okay well hang on my first time congratulations you're going the mini credential passes is great that's another reason i was like oh i wanna go i think there'd be a lot of opportunity here one thing to really talk about here we're talking about finnex fest we also have another big show of the west coast card shows going on that is big we also have dallas card show which will probably take a hit that month because i'm sure a lot of people were dispersing but you know there are three shows big shows card related you got one east coast one west coast and one south like dead set in the middle i mean what a great weekend if you wanna be crazy to hit all three go for it but i i really wanna get to the fanatics fest i hear amazing things i next year i'm gonna make it happen gonna make it happen year should be a lot more easy to do this and i hope i get to go again as well i'm aligning this with a work trip so it'll be easy and like it'll be great like we'll have a good time we'll get to meet a lot of collectors i know babyface is setting up there a bunch of jamieson setting up there like a bunch of people are setting up there and i'm just gonna go and take it all in it's gonna be awesome i can't wait i'll be there on friday and saturday from a collector perspective lot of really good wrestling cards will be on display a lot of good wrestling people will be there with their cards so just you know i i think that's the way i would probably look at it because it's two weeks out from the national we want you to prioritize probably the national because of our party but i think this is should be on your to do list at some point in the next few years to make this a a chance for you guys i love what topps has done with this in sort of their involvement love what fanatics has done with this this event is absolutely looks like top notch i equate sort of the national convention to be like new york comic con this is more like san diego comic con where it's like this is much more of like the celebrity like the panels the the stuff like that all the podcast roman reigns is doing one like there's a whole bunch of stuff that's happening at fanatics fest that is more around the sports culture whereas the national is sort of like more about like the cards and the and the people there that's changed somewhat over the last few years but i love what the national does it's there's nothing better like if you want the best cards on the planet in one room you go to the national and that will never change i don't think that will ever change but and we love going to the national i've been there more times than i can count but like the the fanatics fest is new they're not trying to compete so this isn't like one or the other they're they're trying a different approach and i think fanatics has really done a great job lance is from minnesota i think so the guy who runs it is from minnesota so that'll be fun to hopefully get to see him and talk to him for the first time but thank you to topps for getting us some credentials there so we get to experience it brett and i can't thank them enough for that okay ryan and i have had a number of discussions about this next section and i'm hoping that it doesn't devolve into me being a whiny little asshole but this is this is something i wanted to talk about because i had a really really bad experience and ryan's adjusting his chair and getting ready for this because it's strap in here so last week i bought a card i've been hunting since the release of twenty twenty six chrome i bought snap bought it on ebay somebody listed the becky lynch one zero one superfractor on ebay listed it for a fair price which i thought maybe a little under but i bought it i just hit the buy it now bought it it was a card i wanted it was price i could afford i wanted it boom immediately the next day i started i i knew that this was gonna happen because i can't have anything nice anymore people there's too many people that dislike what we offer and the platform that we have and everything like that and how my collection has grown and all that other things there's a whole slew of baggage that comes along with buying big cards on ebay and being visible for everybody somebody reached out to the seller and the sale was canceled so i posted this everywhere i posted this information everywhere i things happen like this all the time but i wanted to make you an example of this because it happened to me and it's happened to me multiple times and i just get frustrated with it i get upset with it because it's never good to get a win and then have it just ripped from your hands so what i wanted to do in this section is let's divorce ourselves from that situation which was completely negative and let's try and turn it into something positive which is sharing some of the cardinal rules of buying and selling in cards ryan you have been doing this for decades at this point i've been doing it for decades i wanted to share some advice with people i doubt anybody listening to this podcast has ever needed information at the level that we're gonna give but we're gonna do it and if you learn something great if this is all review for you it's still good to call it out reminding people how important reputation is and stuff like that we good to go you ready to rock yeah one one last thing i i was on vacation adam knew that and adam called me he's like hey i had to call you you're not gonna believe what just happened the becky super hit ebay i bought it i'm freaking out right now hopefully i get it i'm praying i get it and unfortunately a day later he wasn't getting it so i hope one day it finds its way to you my friend it's it's unfortunate and again this is not to go with oh this is adam's story but adam has lived this more than any other human being in this hobby that i know this is you've you've had some good luck over the years at this point yeah and it's unfortunate it's happened to me too as well but i i like this segment i think this is good for collectors and listeners to hear because the biggest thing is your reputation is truly everything and i know it's on here but it's just not in a swamp community it's just in general your reputation is everything and and you wanna build a brand or build up your seller account really take into account your actions they have consequences yeah so we're gonna go through seven things here and that sounds like a lot but a lot of them are quick but this is really important information and if there's if there's one question i get on instagram and twitter and all the social media more than anything is it's about buying and selling cards it is the the lifeblood of our industry if you're not a buyer or a seller i don't know what you're doing because everybody plays one of these roles at some point every day every week every month let's take some time let's go through it so i think these are cardinal rules number one and i i can't stress this enough in a hobby built on money in a hobby built on trading assets the way we do being upfront and honest cannot be said enough your word your reputation we'll talk about here in a second but your word and being honest and being having that sort of i'm going to be the good person in this hobby regardless of what happens to me or other people i can't stress that enough be upfront and honest be upfront and honest with your communication be upfront and honest in the way that you want to approach the card don't be that guy who goes in and tries to manipulate a deal it will only hurt you in the long run well well good well said and good start okay second thing when you are negotiating a deal and this has sunk more deals for me than anybody else is arrange payment arrange delivery arrange shipping arrange fees everything before you shake hands on the deal like if you are buying and selling and you're not discussing this stuff ahead of actually completing the deal you are doing yourself a disservice and you're doing the seller a disservice or vice versa if you're in the other role i i can't even tell you the number of times i've said okay i'll buy this for this amount and they're like why are you gonna cover fees are you gonna do this or whatever get all of that on the table ahead of time have you had experience with these going the wrong way as a result of these types of things everybody's like oh why i want this payment or i want that payment i'm like i've never dealt with you from adam it's paypal goods i need protection you know the biggest thing is one thing you don't have on here and i think it's very important is communication communication is very key in in what you do to conduct your business we do our best to communicate with all our potential buyers collectors we get emails we get dms my job and and our team's job is to communicate the best we can to give that information the best we can so communicate to who you're selling to hey it's two hundred fifty dollars shipped paypal goods blah blah blah get to the point i'll ship it out today or ship it out tomorrow you know that's that's a huge or say hey i i deal with people all the time like hey i can i i'm happy like yeah i get it people have real life jobs they don't you know get to work in a card shop which we ship five days a week people can't just go hey i i only have like x amount of days a week i can take a break to go ship something so there's times i've done deals i'm sure you're in the same boat where you agree on a price and the guy is like hey by the way i can't ship for two more days that's fine just be upfront and honest and tell me instead of like i reach out the next day hey do you got tracking oh i got caught up today hey can i get that tracking oh i got caught i'm like well you got my money you're holding my card you're wasting time here be upfront and honest about that say hey i only go on chip two days a week perfect you know you know those are things to communicate with i i will say this i've gotten people in i've gotten deals in more trouble because people just aren't honest about their availability like if you had told me like i hey i can't ship this for a week i want the card fine just tell me that like there are more understanding if you are truthful and upfront and honest than if you try and hide things and get caught lying get caught this oh the breaker hasn't shipped it this is if you're if i'm buying a card and you're waiting for the breaker to ship it and you don't have it in hand just tell me like just be that communication is so important and i think this is in the new era of of communication online people just haven't learned this skill yet and you and i are older so we went through school where this was still a very big thing about you know how you talk to people and all those other things like people don't like to say a lot they like to talk in text message language and all those other stuff like i've had more success because i can explain and communicate and do those things make sure you do that that leads into number three which is dta this is stone cold steve austin dta don't trust anyone or anything unless you feel comfortable and i think ryan said paypal goods i never send friends and family ever unless i know where you are i can come find you and get my money back if something goes wrong and the reason is not because of the person i'm doing the deal with it's more because of the shipping services like if if somebody i've had people send stuff usps it gets lost i'm out the card like as it's your responsibility as the seller like as much as i love you as a friend or this or that the other thing i don't it's not that i don't trust you it's i don't trust the postal service right so like same if it's like you you've gotta think of yourself first in a lot of these deals in a situation where you're like hey i'm not gonna send friends and family i don't wanna battle with you if something happens card gets damaged crazier things have happened topps shipped me redemptions and they got stolen so like if if tops if tops is shipping stuff to people and it gets stolen what about just some random shmo shipping it from missouri to minnesota right it's like those things happen but more importantly like if somebody is saying i have this card verify they have the card if they are sending you a screenshot make sure they coin it put a date do whatever do not trust anybody if it feels weird walk away going you know actually i'll talk the next one good point well said i wanna talk about the next one after you're done okay number four be timely so this goes back to communication but it also goes back to things that dictate business deals right if you say i'm gonna pay make sure you pay on time i think wrestling collectors that i've dealt with traditionally are little bit less familiar with some of the the etiquette of doing deals like this so they say i'm gonna buy this card and then i say okay here's my paypal send it on over like oh i can't pay until friday or i can't pay until next payday that's not good business and i think if you're not timely in payment and then on the other side if you're the seller and you're not timely in shipping and you're not upfront with your buyer that hey i can't ship because i'm out of town or because i'm sick or because of that or this those things really get in the way of having a good experience and can damage your reputation back to communication well said go with shipping and from a a business standpoint here for somebody that used to ship ninety eight percent of the business was usps because it's cheaper and it's convenient yada yada yada it is also the worst shipping company known to man it is an abomination it is terribly ran it delays all the time heck we had we had to send mvp to tops last year we had to send to the po box we paid to overnight it to the post office it took ten days ten days to get there so what i'm getting to is yes usps is more convenient ups and fedex are more reliable they cost more but they cost more for reasons so if it's run the mill fifty hour card sure we ship ninety eight percent of our business is now ups and fedex we only ship post office if you have a po box or if you're like in hawaii or whatever something like that or something like hey i prefer post office because the timely manner because it could shake us two days on a ups that post office could take ten days on even a two day ground so something to keep in mind it not gonna say what the card was and who it was but for an example here somebody shipped a valuable card to nathan who works for me i got it yesterday for him and i can't believe they shipped this card of this value post office and the way they shipped it and i'm like i get you over business i'm just like ugh like i would so happy this came up yeah this is yeah well i'm gonna get and then a positive note i bought the randy orton royalty one zero one patch non auto recently on instagram i'm gonna post that here today or tomorrow i was on vacation when he came in that seller was like hey i've we agreed on our price told what i paid gave him information was like he's like hey at the end of the day it's more or less who cares i want to go with you to pair with the royalty patch that wasn't the point i paid a number and then he spent almost eighty dollars to ship because he's like hey i wanna overnight it to you and i put insurance on it it was almost a hundred i was like we didn't have to do all that but to me it was like that shows me a lot about you as a seller that shows me hey you do care about this you're trying to make sure that this gets to me we sell anything high end if we sell it and we're like hey if i do a deal where single i wanna make sure it gets to your hands asap so we're gonna pay the overnight especially on a bigger deal like it's just things to keep them out but again post office is trash i get it it's convenient but just not telling you to send all your stuff ups fedex because it is more expensive but time is everything and making sure you could sleep well at night and the the buyer because let's be honest how many times a horror story we know about the becky lynch horror story from from the top thing for you how many other times have you had card shipped post office that go on the sisterhood of traveling pants yeah across the damn world sometimes i've had packages go from here to west coast to east coast to south to the again it's stupid it's horribly rare company sorry i wanted to get some thoughts on that and if you ship through paypal the the cost to ship ups has dropped dramatically comparatively the cost to increase the cost to ship usps has increased so like they're much much closer it's just you have to live near a ups store live near a fedex store like our kinko's whatever they're called now like i think the the idea is be careful and and don't trust the postal service as much as you don't trust your buyers and sellers like you have to be communicative say hey i will pay extra for you to ship it this way so if i if i get so if i get a big card and there's one that i'm working on like one of the things that i'm gonna tell the guys like i will pay to have this overnighted to me because i i don't want this situation to be on him i want to control it control is such a fleeting concept in business deals and in cards if the more control you can retain the better but i think that overall from a shipping perspective anything that's above a hundred dollars at this point i'm probably shipping eps like it's just it's just so much so much can go wrong with shipping something via the post office especially with cuts that are being made like just take the the chance out of it don't spend the extra money it's worth the trouble trust me number five and this is what really inspired the segment because i told the story just a few minutes ago don't back out of deals okay like i can't even explain to you how many people their reputation their understanding of who they are in the market has changed because they've been labeled as somebody who backs out of deals and this is this is something that if you make a mistake in comping your card if you make a mistake in the way that you sell your card or something changes and you wanna back out of a deal for something that is inside of your control card gets run over by your car or eaten by your dog like fine i get it those things probably don't happen but probably have happened in the past like don't back out of deals it the the money you lose in a thousand dollars a hundred dollars two thousand dollars is not worth the price of your reputation even if you don't have a good reputation built up already so if you're somebody new and you're trying to break in or you're somebody who is still low level in sort of the overall hierarchy of things you don't want this coming back to you you can people change people get bigger collections they grow within the hobby but that one deal hobby karma is real man do not back out of deals take the loss if you have to i was talking with chad weldon i was talking with brian i was talking with kevin kulikowski they've had situations like this where they've taken losses on cars because they fucked up it happens we're human we're we're fallible take the loss don't back out of deals if you're the seller and something changes cards go up and down all the time volatility is real too it's worth it to uphold your reputation honor the deal go through with it mhmm i don't think i have to say much more about that i think you hit that really spot on i mean that's that's kind of the to me if any the number one rule should be of anything is you know don't back out of a deal when you you agree on a deal both parties agree may it be on ebay may it be on facebook or instagram you agree it's done i get ebay's different the agreement is if somebody hits to buy an hour wins at auction but the one thing you don't do is win something on auction and then cancel that on the bid that's like the worst thing because you had people bidding on it it's so different but it's just like you had people fighting for that card and that probably yes sometimes things go cheap i i run a lot with mc there's times i do amazing and i'm like holy crap there's tons of like well that was comes out in the wash that one really sucked but i'm like at the end of the day it's you don't hear me going oh mike don't sell that car and you know i i i couldn't take that long you just go on about your day take your wins and losses comes out in the wash it always comes out in the wash it always comes out you win some and lose some just chalk it up to experience yep i will say this and this is directly at everybody in the wrestling community it is bad business to go insert your nose into other people's deals so this has become a a big thing in wrestling because we've gotten bigger and there's more people coming into it if a card sells on ebay and this happened with the gunther last week we talked about it we said it was bad juju bad juju like if you see something happening and a seller sells something too low or whatever stay out of it like it just it's not your responsibility to go and tell the guy hey you sold too low it's also just like listen you hate people you don't like people you don't wanna get like i get it people don't like me because i have a platform and you i have a target on my back because i'm visible people wanna insert themselves in their into this business just to just to screw with me like i get why that's a feeling you have but just stay out of people's business man it's bad for hobby karma the card gods do not smile upon those that do this type of stuff i've seen people do it for cards that they have no relationship with like things like hey this you know trick williams sold at ten dollars and it showed us should have sold at thirty dollars you should have sold that higher it's a thirty dollar card it's okay like no one's gonna be made or broken by twenty bucks like don't insert yourselves into people's deals and let people run their own business man like i there are people in this hobby i don't like there's a lot of them but because we're a big hobby and people do really crazy things but i'll tell you this like i don't go if they sell something they're selling something on ebay i'm not gonna go send messages to other people saying don't go buy this car don't go engage with these people like that's just not good karma for this hobby do you like have you run into this before yeah i mean it's i don't ever message somebody if i saw and go cheap like well that sucks i mean i'm sure there's times where people message the seller and say hey do you know who the buyer would be could you give them my information if they wanna sell this flip that's different you know and yeah it's it's just i i stay out of business like i plus i just don't have the time for it it's just like but there's times like damn it sucks i missed that one but you know what i go out about my day i don't care yeah like i'm like exactly i look at it like hey i wanted that car but maybe one day it'll resurface you know maybe that person bought it i was like hey i know i can flip it to you and that's happened before too where people bought cards like saying hey i bought this i thought it was a good buy how much would you pay me for it and i'm like i don't care what you paid i'm willing to pay x if you want that and it's way over great if you don't that's fine i don't i got more important things to do in my life than to stress out over that type of stuff there are i got three kids that keep my ass in check so there's a ton of cards for everybody and there's so many keyboard warriors out there it's unfortunate it's part of a a commodity driven hobby but i think that like so many times we see people are being like i need to be the white knight in this situation please don't be that person like it it just reflects poorly on you as the person who is reaching out now ryan mentioned a situation that i've actually seen people have a lot of success with which is hey i saw this card sold i'm an interested party can you put me in touch with the person who bought it that's completely different than saying back out of this other deal and sell to me like i think that's a horrible business practice not just in cards you can do it for your car your business your sales whatever i'm in sales if i went to a customer and did this type of stuff i'd be fired and i think like that's why it's so important for people to understand your reputation is everything now i'm gonna flip the next two here because i wanna end with a reputation one recognize that pinching pennies is less important than building relationships and i think that brett has talked about this on stacking slabs we've talked about this on the podcast if you're trying to get every last penny out of a card and you're doing it at the be at the detriment of a relationship you could be building with somebody you're just resigning yourself to collect on an island you're just resigning yourself to that i've built more relationships with people doing the right thing giving them maybe five ten extra dollars a hundred extra dollars because i know that that relationship is so much more important than me saving that money agree yeah and the thing i wanna go with about is is the thing is like you as a collector i will always yeah i'll pay whatever i pay but when it comes to selling cards it's like i want them to go to the true collector i will take less money because i know the endgame is it's going to the home it needs to be you know i think that is huge and that builds a relationship i mean i've had people who are like hey i just wanna make sure this card goes in i'm not like lowballing them it's like hey i can show you what i pay and there's times i'm like i'm gonna pay you more if you wanna fish around go for it i don't i don't care but i think the biggest thing is is like i will always treat a collector differently for somebody who wants to buy and flip and and i respect anybody that does that because we do that every day but at the end of the day i'm a collector majority of my staff here who does do cards collects as well and my job is like hey you want this for your pc i'm gonna take less money than i know what we would get for it because it's going where it needs to go it's going to the home it needs to be in it's not gonna see the light of day unless something tragically happens life happens or you need money that's fine but i i think the biggest thing is take care of those collectors don't try to pinch every penny from them not saying that because him and i collect stuff it just goes in general like yeah there's i i'm gonna tell you right now adam will pay more for any becky lynch card in existence i'm telling you i i and there's tons of like why are you paying that much i need it man i need it well can't you wait for like another month and you can track it on nope nope i want it right now but at the end of the day the collectors are what really drive a lot to get they're gonna pay the probably the most and i love getting into their hands for a little bit less i really do because i respect he makes he makes me sound like i'm an impatient toddler and sometimes i am and i'll be the first to admit i didn't say it you did i know i i'm i'll be the first to admit that that my willpower and impatience has has gotten me less less in terms of my financial situation but i will tell you when i posted the situation that happened to me this weekend on twitter i got some of the best responses from people support everything because i've built that equity with the community and saying like hey i wanna help you guys i've we put all this content out for free we're doing the party for free because we want to build that equity with the community not to help ourselves but to just better the overall hobby leave it better than when we came and i think when you start to have that platform and the visibility it puts a target on your back no doubt about that people come for me all the time they wanna drag me on every platform that exists but i will tell you when i need help from the community those people are the best around there are nobody better than wrestling collectors and i can't say enough thank you to all the people that reached out to me on instagram on twitter on email on text message you name it that situation sucked when he reposted it for five x what i bought it for people went and went to bat for me and like you can't buy that and that brings me to this last one which is your reputation is everything and we've said that about four times in this segment but i wanna highlight ryan here because he probably has the best reputation of any single person in all of sports cards not just wrestling cards there is no one out there that has a bad thing to say about ryan bannister because he curates the experience of his shop he curates the experience of people engaged with him and he does it with intention because he knows how important his reputation is he's not the only one we've brought this up a number of times there's a number of other shop owners that do the same thing but ryan is on this podcast and he can talk about how important his reputation is to him as a dealer well i've aligned myself with you so i bring some of those people that don't like you over to not liking me now let's be honest so let's be honest i mean you know i'm not perfect by any means i i've had a long journey to get here there's been ups and downs but i mean i wasn't i've had to fine tooth this over the years and i wanted to grow this bigger and i wanted to do it everybody's like oh how many stores you wanna open none this is the only one what what do you mean you could open a store even tops to ask me you can open more i said no because i can't build the the shop that we have here the team that i have i'm there as much as it can be i have a great team under me building our reputation in the community space local or nonlocal is everything communicating with buyers i don't know i mean again i'm not again a perfect guy but i've busted my butt i've come from absolutely nothing in life i i've really looked up to my good friend andy at andy card exchange he has talked a lot about my brand about our brand about how we should treat how we should treat our employees more than anything and take care of them in life and that is my goal i mean if if i'm losing employees then i'm failing you the community that means i'm not doing my job because that's the inner you know internal part of it so i i appreciate the kind words i i mean i'm again i'm sure i've got some people that don't like me but i've i've done everything you know to try to do the right things to try to be a good human being to try to run a a legit good business we are a small business even though we're we're picking the most small businesses because we're grateful to be in this space with the end of the day we're a small business and and i have a a family to think about my family is my initial family and my p team here and i have the community to think about so every day we strive to keep everything positive and not focus on the negatives and not talk about the bad things as a hobby and try to talk people into the dark side to the the light you know come come over here and this is the hobby you should be enjoying and here's why you know and i'm i'm grateful to have the team that i have and the people that support us day in and day out there's there's no other hobby across any space it's just so important to have the people that care about you and the people that wanna support you that it's it's beyond unreal and i'm grateful from the moment that we opened our doors fifteen years in january was we opened our doors to where we are now and and and rba crew seven started in o seven it was just a youtube dream and ripping cars for people and here we are nearly twenty years later so reputation's insane and it is important to have a really good relationships reputation our relationship and relationships obviously we're talking about that but in this industry and let alone anything in life i mean you don't want you don't wanna be have negative things drug in the mud you know i mean you absolutely don't you know it's skeletons car hobby karma comes and gets you yeah hobby karma and like we always say don't collect on an island but like you can't do that without a reputation so i think like here's here's what i will say somebody's gonna come to me and say i'm just starting out and ryan and i like i've been writing about sports cards for twenty years ryan just said he's opened his doors fifteen years ago like a lot of these people are saying well i'm just coming in i'm just starting out how am i supposed to build up the type of collection the type of money whatever you can have fun at all levels of this hobby i think we've proven that time and time again across all sports but i will say this it's a journey of a thousand steps starts with a single step right like or journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step there we go and i think like the the the more you invest in your reputation the more you invest in your ability to to abide by these cardinal rules the the easier it will be for you to grow within the community and you don't have to have a major collection to be an influential member of the wrestling community we like having more faces around we like having more face voices in the crowd like all of those things you don't have to have cards to participate you just have to put in the work and that's where i think it separates the we from the chaff in a lot of different ways is like people don't always wanna put in the work they don't even have the availability to put in the work so that's a factor here ryan and i worked tirelessly on this content we worked tirelessly on our on our own pages on our own collections on our own everything i have four kids i have a bunch of stuff going on in my life as well i we talk about me driving to baseball tournaments all the time like there's a lot of work that goes into this so it's not something that just comes for free and the effort of your reputation what you put in is what you get out and i think that there are people who have struggled with this in our hobby recently because they've built up this negative reputation based on their actions speaking louder than words and they go on podcasts or they go on other places and they wonder why people aren't giving them a good reaction it's because of these types of things and i think that's where we have struggled as a community to differentiate ourselves as a community that is what ryan and i always explain it to me which is great people helping each other out we've just gotten into this rut because there's so much drama there's breaker drama there's collector drama there's all this drama try and stay above that and i can tell you you will be that much better because of it right i yeah i don't think there's anything else i could say we've said enough and i hope people listen to that and really took that into accountability for a future for you know again somebody could just be like hey i started off doing cards and i built a business that's how i'm here love cards built a business i mean everything every great thing starts small we had wax culture on last week with with troy yeah that was a great story great story had no idea he built it from there it was awesome to hear that all great things start small and you just never know if you have a dream of passion and you wanna put the hours in you could build anything yeah i mean there's so many success stories out there i can't even count them on two hands and two feet right but like we all have like we're people like we we are people too and so i think like that's where like when we're trying to explain this we're we're trying to provide this advice not because we feel like we have the the mountain top and we're the we're the writing the bible of buying and selling here we're doing this because this is our opinion and we're doing this because we wanna have the conversation if you disagree with us great that's the whole point of content come talk to us be a part of this be a part of the conversation don't take potshots from the peanut gallery saying x y or z come and add your voice that's why this community is a community and we love it so much to end off that segment we're gonna move on to some big sales here just really quickly because as usual we're running long one of one tiffany stratton sapphire pat parashaw mark's a champion autograph sold for forty five hundred dollars best offer i think i was talking to the guy who was shopping this around a little bit great price on this card i'm glad to see tiffany's getting her love she deserves it and i think the let me just say the pop up market on sapphire has taken off a little bit i think people are starting to recognize that that sapphire is underrated i posted an article i made an event this week about talking about that i i really am believing that sapphire has legs here yeah i think as it continues to grow in the other sports especially in basketball and football we're seeing these crazy numbers it's it's resonating over to wrestling it's starting to be more of a thing to collect these cards and the cards are beautiful i mean this card right here with the pink where she's wearing pink really stands out it stands out i i think if she inscribed this we would have seen a lot more money for this card but at the end of the day love to set the mark to champions that this year was incredible so again i i think sapphire is gonna continue to grow they they corrected the wrongs from last year and for wwe and did a great job this year the second card i wanna highlight is this roxanne perez solar flare signatures from chrome cosmic thirty two fifty for via auction i did confirm that he went to a legit buyer i think the solar flare signatures are some of the best autograph cards in the entire product this one especially looks awesome because roxanne's in in black and it has like this orange sort of solar flare thing on it went for a ton of money for a super fracture of hers but her cards have been selling a lot higher than i think what she represents on tv right now because unlike rhea and stephanie who are still in their mid twenties she's in her early twenties so she's even younger than the young you know crop of stars that are currently dominating the women's division i think the one drawback for her is she's like rey mysterio's version of the women's rey mysterio in that respect she's very small but man she is good in the ring she's absolutely awesome and collectors have been loving her stuff as a result she's gets high prices for every sale that that goes through on her big cards she was very dominant in nxt very dominant down there it's gonna translate up here i think eventually you're gonna see her live go at it it's gonna be taking the reins of everything and roxanne i think is gonna get super over when she does go face in my opinion agreed i wanna call this one out because it's one of the first pluto sales that we've seen from cosmic chrome this is the john cena pluto sold for twenty five hundred dollars best offer humongous number i wanna shout out gun gunther i wanna shout out gunther mathis who was one of the first people to complete the solar system he got all of the planets for cody rhodes including the pluto which was absolutely awesome to see this is the first of the john cena plutos i have confirmed there are more than two copies so people are sort of like floating around there's only two plutos per wrestler that's not true but this one at twenty five hundred dollars humongous price i think we may see one other one surface in the next couple of years like these are exceptionally rare cards they're hard to pull and i think this is a big number on it i don't think that these go down that much i think some of the other planets may be susceptible but i think these are so rare that it's hard for them to drop especially for a wrestler like cena yeah i'm gonna tell you right now on the back end cosmic is now going up it's trending upwards we just raised ours this past week it's going up on dealernet i'm telling you right now it's a lot of breakers a lot of breaking it it's done well for that standpoint so the the more that these go up maybe the less sustainable that they get ripped that's gonna make these harder to surface yeah if they haven't surfaced by now yeah it's it's gonna take because that was like we expect the fifty to sixty percent of the product to be ripped in week one like i i think this is gonna get harder and harder here i another marks of champions here this one is the first gen mid ten that i've seen sell personally that doesn't mean that others haven't but this rhea ripley red geometric gem mint ten twenty one seventy five on the red autograph marks of champions geometric i saw this number and i about fell out of my chair like these cards usually are around like the twelve hundred dollar range eleven hundred dollar range they've gone even lower than that in some cases the gem mint ten selling at twenty one seventy five insane it's a pop two so there there are there is another version of this card out there but that is just absolutely nuts i will tell you from some of the chrome it's created a lot this year's chrome had a lot of condition issues there's not gonna be a lot of tens going around so i think that goes hand in hand if there's already another pop one it could be in a collector somebody maybe wanting to complete a rainbow but wow yeah i will say this as well i love watching breakers delight cases be ripped you like ripping breakers delight cases for a reason i enjoy them yes they're a lot of fun these geometric cards are in hand just i can't even put into words how gorgeous they are they are amazing cards the marks of champions is my favorite design from this year i think these reds are so cool looking and the saturation is different on these cards than a lot of the other chrome cards so you're gonna see a lot more value in these these cards are just so awesome looking and i think breakers delight has huge potential so if you're sitting on cases i'd probably keep sitting on them but that's just me alright close out that segment i wanna acknowledge our sponsors for wrestling card takeover mc sports cards talked about the him a little bit through ryan's ex explanations here make sure you check out their website mc sports cards dot com to consign they've they've just updated some rates like they are doing so many promotions it's awesome chad and sports car junction we had him on the podcast a couple of weeks ago maybe a long time ago now that i've seen we've gotten to twenty seven episodes yep it's cool it's been a little bit he's gonna be setting up with the national with some dollar boxes just awesome stuff make sure you check out their website sports car junction dot com and card shop live great doing awesome breaks they broke a case of flawless this weekend this past weekend which was really cool to see national treasures they've ripped if you like just straight up any sport it could be football basketball whatever they rip everything go check out card shop live on fanatics and on whatnot great guys to rip with i love brando john all the crew over there rudy you name it they're doing a great work swish and bles online make sure you're using code takeover twenty to get your twenty percent off your first pack blizz online is one of the premier sites for pack ripping on the digital side ryan and i have been using them for almost a full year at this point way too much money but it's a great service they do great work and their customer service is unmatched so make sure to check them out card ladder is i mean we talk about them nonstop they're one of the more visible hobby companies but chris and christina and josh great guys over there stephanie and mama breaks as well go check out her breaks i'm i'm running through these because i think they deserve to have this done for them they've supported our community here stephanie does a ton of breaks she did some awesome marvel stuff this last week but does ton of wrestling once wrestling product comes out she's gonna have it all she's on fanatics live i think they're starting some other platforms as well go check them out brian thd sport cards we're gonna try and have him on coming up to discuss the national he's gonna be setting up there does a ton of great stuff on instagram buying and selling if you've got big cards to sell go check him out bcw supplies i use them almost exclusively you see all the cards i post on instagram almost all of them are in bcw holders they're great stuff for your top loaders all the way down to penny sleeves organizing as well don't hesitate to check them out wax culture we had troy on last week awesome story by the way i got to listen to it because i i you know when you're in the moment you don't get to hear as like every word that's been said so i went back and listened to troy's story make sure to go check that out last week he told a great sort of example of sort of his relationships that he's built in the hobby and one of them is with card vault by tom brady our last sponsor of the of the week here great ripping experience with them they have stores everywhere huge supporter of the wrestling card community timmy chris costa all those guys can't say enough good things want to acknowledge them and thank them for their support and give them some airtime here this week as we head into the final stretch before the national yeah it's it's crazy i was talking to guys three weeks from yesterday we leave for the national this means three weeks from tomorrow which when we're recording on tuesday is when the national kicks off i wait all year for this it is here and again we've been putting a lot of behind the scenes work for the rusty guard takeover shirts are ordered in production stickers on the way nice we got a lot of things going on these sponsors again thank you to these sponsors they've got things up their sleeves that they're gonna be doing all free this whole event is absolutely free no cost to attend no cost to eat no cost to drink no cost to have fun shirts while they last stickers while they last plus all the other stuff if you're at the national you're gonna be there friday night before summerslam it's not affecting that come on by the embassy suites get amongst it if you're interested in coming get out of the list you just made the list i'll take a look you beat i was gonna wait i was gonna go back to that you beat me to it done it book to last podcast at gmail dot com let us know you're coming we're excited to see everybody we'll be promoting it at our booth at the national which i'm sure we'll talk a little bit more next week about people's locations at boost but make sure you're there friday night it's gonna be epic it's gonna be legendary it's for you the card community you the wrestling card community and it is free yeah we want it in there like listen this room wasn't cheap we want the reason we're having these sponsors on is so that we can provide this to you better than the cost you're funny yeah but i think like i think like one of the things that that we've put so much pride into this event is because we know how much the community will show up and show out and that's so much fun i've gotten twenty different messages on instagram and twitter over the last couple of weeks asking about the event how do you get involved email that email address if you have any questions reach out to us on social media we're happy to answer any questions that you have ryan did say it is free drink it is nonalcoholic don't worry we're not gonna have open bar there's not gonna be a bunch of drunken wrestling collectors running around drinking steve weisers here but we will be having food and drink at the event there's a lot of tables to sit down at listen to the content that we're providing it's gonna be amazing come bring your stuff have a good time meet other collectors meet us we'd love to connect with the community this is gonna be so much fun we say it every week but i'm hoping this is reinforcing how much awesome stuff is gonna be happening here so with that to close out our podcast this week from both because we're as i mentioned we're in the final stretch here like the approaching the finish line in ryan's busiest time of year from both a dealer and a collector perspective how are how will both of us be approaching the next three weeks before the national and fanatics best to ensure we get the most out of it i wish i had something i could just buy time anytime no i i started yesterday if you wanted to do anything from it no no no i'm saying you can talk but i was saying i need to buy time so i have more time to get ready is what i was saying so go ahead go first and then i'll i'll go ahead and finish off oh no no i i thought you needed time to think but no i need a could you have time i could buy i need time i do i need to buy so one so one thing you can't buy in this hobby you cannot i think yeah like time is of the essence and i've been picking up stuff here and there just to to bring to the national to to do some trades juice and stuff i have deals preset in motion like guys if you're coming to this show either of them and you are just looking to wing it like that's fine like go ahead and do that you'll have a great time but if you really are somebody that is using this as a springboard for your collection you've gotta do some work ahead of time for me it's like picking up stuff that i know is gonna be easily moved at the show so i can get the stuff that i want it's not gonna be like if it's a becky lynch i probably already heard about it or something there's not gonna be many of those cards that i'm gonna be chasing down just sitting at a table that i don't know about so i'm more thinking about like hey maybe i wanna pick up an obafemi or two maybe i wanna pick up rhea ripley what do i need to get to entice those dealers or those other collectors to make deals with me so that's what i've been working on i've i've picked up some good roman stuff i've picked up some rio vacker liv morgan you name it i have a nice john cena like all of those other things like i'm i'm and that's what i use buzz online for i know that's what you use buzz online for in some cases to stock your table too so i mean like all of those things are really front and center over the next few weeks like really start to plan out when am i going what am i gonna be targeting which of the tables i need to see on day one versus day three like all of those things i'm not gonna waste time saying wear comfortable shoes and pack snacks like bullshit i i get it that's table stakes wear deodorant i get it but like if you're if you're somebody that is planning out and really one of those guys that needs to have stuff written down like this is your time to start this is your this is your wake up call but if not like if you just wanna go and have fun just bring stuff that you know you're not gonna wanna carry back with you because it'll be easier to sort of make those deals at the show or if you just wanna show it off and connect with people that that works too i think this is a great time to to be a collector and that's why the market tends to slow down too is because people are saving up and not wanting to sell stuff they wanna have on the floor at the show so i think like that's why most of the stuff is is swirling about right now but yeah it's it's pretty pretty crazy three weeks here in a in a row it's wild that we're gonna get three massive shows again be between fedex fest west coast card show and the national in in a two week span i mean when that show ends ten days later when those two shows end ten days later the national kicks off so i hope you have a good game plan when you're going there from a collector standpoint i've got some of my staff that request off of work one of my employees had a number goal to save up from last year till now because he said last year was his he's older he's sixty seven and i've known him forever and he saved let's just say five grand last year and he worked hard to save it but he went there and he's like i need to have more money because i'm going back next year i thought i wanted to go one and i could die a happy man i had so much fun i'm going again i'm saving two x so he has saved it i talked to him today he hit his goal and then some again if you wanna bring some cards know what you're you know know what you want for them you know yeah yours are dealers are busy this show is intense it's busy you gotta be quick you gotta know this is what i want or know that you're willing to take that offer i know there's buying stations let's be honest some of those people are buying stations those lines are gonna be long i know if you go to like card collector two or you know like jeff wilson and his lines they have buying stations but dealers most dealers are there looking to buy also in our standpoint we will look but we're gonna vent in a little bit hey we're looking for a superstar a hall of famer autographs key game used you know i'm not looking for the case at stuff you know we we've got seven i've got seven total guys working for us for our standpoint we need to be taking care of anybody who is there to buy and if somebody needs to look we need to look quick and then we gotta know is ryan interested or somebody else interested because if you bring a bunch of run of the mill stuff that you see all the time probably gonna have a tough time selling you bring that rare stuff for those key names not just in wrestling and other sports probably have an easier time selling to michael jordan tom brady lebron curry guys of that nature like adam alluded to in wrestling roman reigns john cena rhea ripley those are ones i wanna buy i'm here to sell those but i wanna buy those too but i really don't need to be buying rusev you know i'm not gonna be looking for that so have a good game plan financially strategically mentally mark down spots like start now start now you should have been starting before but here we are with crunch time you know and for our standpoint is i've been national stashing for a year i have worked hard harder than ever to do the things that we've done i am confident that we're going with our best overall selection in history i challenge myself every year to beat the year before its goal i know you're you're you're year i'm like there's no way i'm gonna beat it i beat it i work hard and i stash and i prospect in a way but i do it because i want people to go once a year this is where rbi crew seven has their setup they they they sell singles every day but once a year you're gonna find the best of the best singles that they accomplished and acquired in the past year and it's exciting to go through them my wrestling pricing begins tomorrow literally like we're three weeks out from the national i have to start tomorrow i went through yesterday and dug through backstock to find more quality wrestlers i'm not bringing every key every wrestler i can but i'm bringing the the top tier the hall of fame greats the mid level i can't bring a lot of the lower levels it's just i don't have enough time and then on top of it i don't know what to do expensive like the space is expensive transport is expensive so recognize like if you are looking for rusev cards just as an example ivar eric whatever you can insert any lower card wrestler name here there will be people who have dollar boxes like chad does chad he's making an effort to ensure that there's affordable wrestling cards on the floor which i love but if you're looking to move that other collectors are likely gonna be looking for it and i maybe we'll talk about this a little bit more next week because we're already in an hour and a half but like the the the goat market overall in sports cards is out of control michael jordan's up massive tom brady lebron james like you name it kobe bryant no time if they're a goat their cards are exceptionally expensive same with messi all the guys for soccer world cup fever is here but i will tell you this wrestling is different and wrestling is the goat market very strong roman reigns john cena hulk hogan you name it but all of those other guys have collectors too and that's why we're having wrestling card takeovers because if you wanna find other people kindred spirits this is your place to do it on friday night so bringing those cards to that maybe it's not something ryan's gonna buy but it's somebody maybe will be interested at wrestling card takeover so i think from that perspective we'll we'll close it out but i think we'll talk about the goat market a little bit more next week that's a good topic to save and we'll talk about how important it is to recognize the trends in overall sports card versus that but man national is gonna be amazing i'm bringing my family hopefully we're gonna have the the whole gilman crew come my kids are gonna have a great time hunting down pokemon stuff get to meet ryan's kids and everything again and because i know he's bringing all of his kids and everybody so that so that he can have nothing but fun with his family running around bothering him while he's no i'm joking he's not i i i well next year maybe parker gets to hang out for a day maybe my family does something in the area but i i we have to prepare more for them like it's a little i could only imagine what it would be like for you when you're getting ready around while you're trying to do my schedule i have i'm there for monday through sunday all my dinners are booked and planned through for the whole week and it's basically once wednesday hits it's bang bang work all day shower lunch dinner meeting something like that it is exhausting thinking about it wind training for the world oh yeah it's the best we will with that we'll close out this week and we will see you next week big gulps see you later