Alright, everybody. Excited to be back on this episode of Passion and Profession. I think this is gonna be a fun, conversation, especially for anyone out there who is, a collector of memorabilia or is interested in memorabilia.

Chances are, you've probably interacted with, today's, guest and and and his brand at some point.

Today, I am joined by Brian at Schwartz Sports Memorabilia. We're gonna get into, the building of the business, scaling it, and everything in between. But without further ado, Brian, welcome.

How are you? Good. Thanks for having me. I wanna start. Feels like everyone we have a conversation with at some point, they're a big time collector, and that collecting gene gets them into, kind of the the business build.

I I'm curious. Do you remember the first piece of sign memorabilia that you ever got? And it doesn't need to be the biggest or the rarest, just the one that kinda made you fall in love with, sports memorabilia.

Yeah. I don't know if it was the very first, but, when I was growing up, when I was seven in 1987 when Andre Dawson was the MVP, so that was kind of the summer.

I fell in love with baseball, Cubs, all of that, even though they finished in last place. You know, he had obviously a year to remember.

I remember getting a, autographed ball as a gift, but then going a step further, couple years after that, waited in line at, like, a mall grand opening and was able to get one, you know, in person myself and meet them myself.

So that was kind of probably the initial foray into that.

You know, we did also my parents, I think, probably when I was around 10 or so, took a spring training as kids where, you know, you stood along the fence and got autographs and, you know, have them sign a a book of paper, you know, not not any value to it except just cool to get as a kid.

Maybe, like, those early days, when you were, you know, starting off first pieces. I guess, you you get those moments. You're a Cubs fan. How did how did those moments kinda take off into your own personal collecting?

Like, were you did that set you on a path to collecting autos and memorabilia? Did you get into cards? Maybe share kinda some of those early days of collecting moments.

Yes. So I I definitely was collecting cards. Unfortunately, primarily in that, you know, 1987 to 1992, '93 range where every card was mass produced and worth, you know, basically nothing by, you know, ten years later.

You know, obviously, come COVID a few years ago, all that stuff started to, have some value again, but that stuff's, you know, long gone from my collection. But that was, kind of the initial collecting.

You know, I remember, like, Shaquille O'Neal rookies and, Greg Jeffreys and and, you know, some some of that kind of stuff. You know, we had, we would have little card shows in people's garage and and, some of that.

So I did I did a little bit in cards then. The autograph bug, really kicked off, more in high school when we started going to golf tournaments and chasing autographs.

So, you know, the summer I turned 16, we went to, you know, the Motorola Western Open was back then, the Ameritrade or Ameritech Senior Open.

I think the Senior US Open was in town either that year or the following year, and, we ended up finding a local dealer who was buying autographs off of, you know, kids, whomever.

At the event, we got we got hooked up with one, and, you know, he's paying, like, a $100 each for Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, and racked, like, 21 of them in a week.

And And it was like, that's more money than I made in my entire summer job. So, that was definitely probably the kinda like the hook. You know? Yeah. That's it. That's incredible.

And I I wanna, like, focus in on that and the the moving over to the selling part, but I have to ask. And it's it's been this weird trend in this series, and I would never have expected this. But Greg Jeffries is like the MVP.

It seems like anyone who's talking about that era, like, his name has popped up so many times on this, in this series so far. From your perspective, like, maybe explain the the the Greg Jeffries of it all.

Like, what happened? Like, why was he so popular? Maybe get into it. Well, again and it's no different than now. Obviously, every year, there's you know, this is gonna be the next big thing, rookie.

He was, you probably know the year better than me, but I wanna say it was, like, 1990. He has, like, that Topps card that or, I think he also had an upper deck on the shoulder card similar to Griffey.

You know? And it those were you know, everyone wanted those cards because he's gonna be the next big superstar. The guy I actually remember is, Cubs top draft pick, Gary Scott.

Mhmm. He's gonna be the next Ron Santo. You know, spoiler, he was not the next Ron Santo. So, you know, so the, you know, the whole who's gonna be the next big thing. I mean, that existed even all the way back then.

I mean, back then it was, hey. This 10¢ card is worth $20. You know? Now it's this $5 card is worth 10 you know? So the the dollar amounts have changed, but the idea, has existed, you know, as long as probably collecting has existed.

So Yeah. The the hype train is always moving. That's for sure. You mentioned the golf tournament and making more money than and then your summer job.

After that, like, when it was settling in, like, how much cash you had from you kinda just doing something that you really enjoyed and loved, like, how did that scale out?

Like, what what was it, like, that was on ice for a minute? You just went on with your business?

Or did you just have, like, this mindset, like, I wanna try to snowball this. Maybe share kind of the story post, selling golf autographs, and we're gonna try to lead to how it ended up being kind of the business that you built today.

Yeah. So the I would say so the golf autograph, I'm pretty sure we did. Like, you know, I would have been 16 my second year of high school.

So, I you know, basically, three years of high school, me and a couple couple of buddies, you know, one of whom is still my best friend today, just chase you know, as I'm chasing autographs, I think we brought, you know, like, younger siblings and, you know, paid them to get autographs.

I remember even, you know, bringing in some girls that we were friends with, to get autographs at a, like, a celebrity pro am.

So, it was just, yeah, it was just a a good sum you know, it was like, gotta do something in the summer. It was a good summer job at the time. What what also ended up paying it to the next level is actually, believe it or not, eBay.

So which, you know, came out, basically, my freshman year of college. And, you know, all of a sudden, you see, you know, the, you know, the $100 Tiger Woods that, you know, we were able to flip.

You look on eBay, and it's like, oh, you coulda got, you know, $300 for it. And it was it was like there's a place where you could sell directly to the end consumer yourself.

And so that kind of could could, you know, continue that, but also allowed it to expand a little. Because now you're not just selling to one person or local person. Now you can reach everybody.

May maybe, Todd, I I think it's interesting, like, the fact that, you know, you're maybe selling something for $100 that was selling for 300 online, and you were maybe you didn't even, realize kind of the comps and what things should be valued and what things should be worth.

Maybe talk about just, like, the impact of, like, comparable sales, what that did to the way you thought about, selling kinda memorabilia cards or whatever.

Well, so, I wanna say, like, going to the college, like, we still continue to go into some golf tournaments.

I think we even, went over, spring break one year to, some of the tournaments down in Florida, but also, made me start looking for autographs that, we could buy and, you know, and resell online.

It didn't have to be one, so we got ourselves in person.

There was a site called UBID around that same time. I don't know if you're familiar with that. So UBID was a it was an another 10 auction platform primarily for electronics, and they tried to get into the autograph space.

So they were selling bulk lots. They were getting a lot of them from, like, Steiner Sports and Mountain Memories and whatnot, you know, the big big guys of that day.

But, again, you know, probably a large company that had a bunch of, you know, seed money or whatever it was, and they were selling things, you know, even if it was at a loss.

And we ended up buying a ton of stuff on there for less than you could have bought it, you know, directly from Steiner or Modern Memories or actually Upper Deck even because we would get Michael Jordan stuff on there for cheaper than upper deck to sell you for, and then in turn go and resell it on eBay.

Oh, that's amazing. I I don't remember you bid, but, that's that sounds very, early days, marketplace and, eBay time frame. There was a million of those, sites that I felt like popped up. Yeah. They didn't last.

Yeah. No. They they didn't it turns out it's really hard to to build something like that and have it scale. So you're doing this in college. When when did you reach the moment that you decided, okay, like, I think this is a business.

I wanna turn this into my own business. Talk to us about kinda, like, the vision you had and how it all came to to play. Yeah. So like I said, freshman year, definitely started selling on eBay.

My roommate at the time would make make fun of the fact that I was just sitting on eBay all day and, actually gave me the idea for Schwartz Sports as the name, so I'll give him credit.

But it was still, you know, still just a, you know, more more so a side hustle. But as we kinda grew inventory and grew you know, my dad was retired at the time, but was basically at home shipping stuff.

I would say my sophomore year was kinda when I decided, like, hey. You know, this is ultimately what I'm gonna do. Like, kind of rolled with it, tried to get into autograph sign you know, actual signings.

You know, I did my first signing, I believe, I believe early in my junior year, with, through another through another individual, but with, Joe Namath.

Back in, like I said, I not sure if it was '99 or February, but it was around that time.

I think it was February. You know, went to the national that year, went to, there was a big show in New Jersey called the Triumph Sports Show that had 50 plus autograph guests and, you know, bought inventory there.

You know, you you have this guy come sign 50 pieces.

You have this guy come sign you know, it's basically a a a in the backroom, big warehouse, basically, to, for the companies to build up inventory, you know, which that kind of thing still exists today.

But, you know, you obviously, there's all these big shows and, you know, the public only sees the player coming out to the public and signing for them.

But there's obviously this whole back end of it, where these players are also signing, you know, hundreds of items that are going to sellers like myself and, you know, dozens of others that are, you know, all around the country to resell it.

Maybe with the, like, the Joe Namath signing, it could be anybody else that you've worked with over the years. May help us understand, like, how does that process work?

Like, is it as simple as you want to bring in someone to sign items and you reach out to them or their representation and you just work out some sort of deal and you make it happen?

Is it as simple as that, or is it more complex? To to to a degree, I mean, yes. I mean, on its most basic level, you reach out to the agent marketing agent for, you know, player x y z, you know, negotiate a fee.

You know, player will get x amount per autograph. You'll guarantee a minimum amount of autograph and, you know, agree on a time, place, location.

Obviously, typically with private signings, you're going to them. You know, they're in LA. You're gonna go rent a conference room near their house in LA, and, you know, you gotta incur flights and shipping and and everything else.

And then, obviously, you know, the flip side of that is the public signings where, you know, kind of the same idea, but in that scenario, you're flying them to wherever the event is, and you're doing the signing right there at the event.

How how big of a piece of that, like, the the signings and and getting talent in, how big of a piece of that is as a part of your business?

Like, how how many of those go down kind of at an on on an annual basis for you? I mean, that so, I mean, that basically is, in a nutshell, our business.

I mean, we've been doing, you know, literally hundreds of signings a year for, you know, twenty five years now. You know, obviously, obviously, twenty five years ago, it might have been less signings, you know, as we obviously grew.

But, you know, between, the three big shows we run, which average about, you know, 50 to 70 guests each, that's just in three weekends, you know, plus the, you know, countless signings that we're doing in between.

You know, we fly guys to our office on a regular basis. Obviously, guys who are not willing to travel will have to go to them.

You know, we buy stuff from other people's signings. Obviously, there's other companies doing what we're doing. You know, some of them buy from us. We buy from some of them. You know, you can't do a signing with everybody.

More and more, there's a lot of players that have exclusive athletes with a given company, and then, you know, that's the company you need to go you know, in that scenario, you need to go to that company to buy those autographs of that player.

What what is it what what with 50 to 60, you know, star athletes, like, what does the operation look like to be able to, like, manage all of those individuals, make sure they're where they need to be on time, make sure that they're happy, and while they're doing what they're doing that seems like, a whole lot of work.

Maybe take us inside on how it all gets done and how it all gets done in a way where, the signers are happy about what they're doing, and then also, you know, whoever's getting the autographs are pleased with the end result as well.

Yeah. I mean, those, obviously, those weekends themselves are insane. I'm I'm I'm usually pretty happy when it's Monday morning rolls around.

But, also, like, that process starts, you know, three to four months out. You know, our next big event in Chicago is November. I've already started booking the talent for that show, you know, even though we're four plus months out.

You know, you gotta again, because every every athlete, obviously, you gotta get the travel you gotta get a flight, get a hotel, make sure they've got a ride.

It's, yeah, it's a lot of coordination. It's it's obviously not, you know, it's not brain surgery, but, it's just a lot to juggle and not screw up.

And, you know, even after twenty five years, you know, there's still a guy who didn't get picked up, you know, a last last minute flight prop you know, there's there's always problems that pop up when you're coordinating 50 of any kind of person to be in one place at one time.

You're gonna run into some hiccups, and when they're dealing with, you know, celebrities on top of that, you know, it it would run into some hiccups. So, you know, to me, you know, only a couple minor hiccups is victory.

You know, I don't expect I don't expect it to go off without a hitch. But, you know, considering the number of guests and, you know, the number of times we do it, you know, we pretty good track record, most of the time.

Talk about the the curation of athletes. Like, what is that what is that look like going from, is it I've got this list of this many and this percentage are likely to say yes.

Is what's the method to the madness to make sure that you're pulling in enough of the right type of athletes that are going to appeal to kinda and cater towards, your audience?

Like, how how do you go about it? Yeah. So it's kind kind of what you said. Obviously, there's athletes that have been on my hit list for years.

It's just either the dates keep on not working or I, you know, maybe we're not where do they wanna be on terms or there's a variety of factors that could pop up as to why, you know, a a given weekend.

Obviously, when you're telling a player, hey. It's gotta be one of these two days.

You know? They might be on vacation that weekend. They might have plans. They might just not want to, or they might not be able to commit until it's too late and you've already you know, we've already got our lineup.

You know, if I've I've got my lineup set and it's four weeks from the show and some big star wants to come, you know, sometimes we might add somebody late, but sometimes it's like, you know what?

We're gonna wait till the next one. Like, we've already kind of, you know, over committed ourselves or whatever for this event or, you know, we're kinda maxed out on talent, because I'm always, you know, thinking of the next event.

There's always the next show of three months, four months, you know, down the road.

So, yeah, a lot of times it's a hit list of you wanna you wanna get a mix of you know, obviously, football is the sport we do the most of, but you wanna get some baseball players, some basketball, some hockey.

We like to do some celebrity, mixed in, you know, occasional boxers and and, you know, soccer. So, you wanna try to get a little something for everyone. But also, again, the deals need to make sense and the players need to be available.

So if you have a list of, hey. I'd love to get, you know, these 100 people, you know, maybe you'll get halfway there. Yeah. I I wanna know. I'm sure there's ones that you have not been able to land.

But I wanna know, like, who is the one athlete that you maybe had been chasing for a while and then you ended up getting and it ended up turning out to be just, like, an incredible experience?

Like, is that who's, like, that one story that comes to your mind when you think about, like, the the get that you were able to get and it ended up being an awesome experience for everybody?

Yeah. So we, kinda kind of, fell into my partner's lap a little bit. But, last March, so March of twenty four, we got Sammy Sosa back to Chicago for the first time in twenty years.

You know, since that time, he's, you know, reconciled with the Cubs, he's actually done, like, another three or four signings after he realized it's not so bad.

It's not so hard. But, you know, the fans that you know, the real Cubs fans that love him still love him. I know a big, big deterrent for him was I think he was worried about, you know, the, quote, unquote, haters.

But the reality and and there are haters, but they're not gonna pay, you know, a $199 to come meet the guy to tell him they don't like him.

So, like, everyone who was there, everyone who was in line, you know, we had him there two days, you know, Saturday and Sunday. You know, between the two days, he did over 500 tickets.

He was great with the fans. You know, he was great with us. And, obviously, we got, you know, we got publicity out of it because it was a big deal that Sammy Sosa was coming back to Chicago.

You know? So, obviously, definitely, it's good to get get free publicity for the show, but he was, you know, he he was very nice to us.

I mean, obviously, you know, whatever you think of whatever might have happened, you know, twenty five plus years ago, he's obviously a Cub Cub icon.

And so to to be able to get him to our event and and have that go off without a hitch was was pretty cool. What what was it like, you know, I'd imagine, you know, there was some trepidation from him, right, because of everything.

And but, like, seeing him sit there and interact with the fans, and I'm sure you have the fans telling him stories and that all that interaction, like, how quickly into that signing could you tell that, like, this was great for everyone and actually, maybe Sosa is actually getting a lot more value from it personally than he thought he was gonna get?

I mean, I think I kinda knew that going in. I mean, obviously, a, based on the the, the presale numbers, but also, like, I've been doing this a long time. Like, we've done signings with other, you know, controversial figures before.

The reality is, you know, at least I've been lucky enough to never have it happen where, you know, the hater doesn't show up and, you know, people are big Internet warriors, but they're not gonna come and start messing with a Sammy Sosa or, you know, a Michael Vick, you know, we've had before.

You know, guy guys who've had whatever controversies they've had, you know, people aren't gonna show up in person at the event. Like, people who are coming are the fans. You know, they're paying they're paying good money.

You know, obviously, you can't get in line without a ticket. You know, we have security there, you know, just in case. But like I said, you know, luckily, we've never had really a a big incident like that.

You know, it's possible it's happened to someone somewhere. But I think by and large, you know, people who were gonna come out to meet these guys are people who genuinely wanna come out and meet these guys.

I love it. You mentioned eBay earlier, and, obviously, our good friends from eBay are helping put on this series.

But wanna maybe understand just, like, the role eBay plays in Schwartz sports memorabilia. Like, how big of a role is it? Like, how has your business evolved because of eBay?

Maybe share any perspective you've got there. Yeah. So in the, in, like, the early two thousand period, there was a time where I would say eBay was definitely north of 50% of our total business.

And, you know, that's not necessarily because eBay was better now than it is now. It's more because we were more reliant on eBay then than we are now, and it kind of is our business has evolved.

You know, we are less reliant on eBay. We still use it. We still list all of our products on there. We've, you know, tried to venture to do some some eBay lives, you know, which is a newer, obviously, platform of theirs.

You know, we I mean, we sell stuff on eBay every single day. I actually still buy stuff off of eBay. You know, first of all, when we wanna get cards signed by athletes, there's no place better to buy them than on eBay.

You know, go out there and buy a lot of, you know, 25 rookie cards of player x that's gonna be coming to our next signing.

So I'm I'm a constant buyer on eBay and, you know, like I said, we've got, you know, I would imagine, like, probably 7,000 plus queues up on eBay at any given time.

How over the course, you've been doing this for quite a while. How has maybe the memorabilia space changed since you, started Swartz Sports memorabilia?

Lot lot of ways to deal with that question. Well, so so so I would say one thing is that the people, not all the people maybe, but, definitely, the the the reoccurring collector has become more knowledgeable.

Obviously, a lot of that is due to the Internet. You can it's a lot easier to look things up.

It's a lot easier to get information. A, obviously, big positive of that is even though it still exists, even though it's still an issue, forgeries, I know there's always reports, oh, 90% of autographs are forgeries.

I don't I don't believe that to be true. They're a problem. They're a real problem. Don't get me wrong, but I think those numbers are greatly exaggerated.

A lot, you know, a lot of the reason is because people become more educated because there are, you know, the PSAs and the JSAs and the backgates out there authenticating all these signings because there's companies like myself and the fanatics of the world doing all these, you know, legitimate signings.

You know, I really do believe the lion's share of the autographs available are legitimate. People are able to There you are.

People are better able to compare compare, an autograph that is for sale to, you know, real versions, to find out what companies certain players signed with, you know, that should be upper deck and, you know, etcetera, etcetera.

I believe a lot of times if you'll look, the four you know, the forgeries that are still prevailing online are selling for a fraction of the real items because most people are educated enough not to bid on them.

Obviously, unfortunately, somebody is still, you know, even at a cheaper price, you know, fakes to fakes.

They're worthless. Somebody is still getting ripped off. And, obviously, everybody could do a better job to prevent that and and fight that, you know, eBay eBay included.

But but I I do think it is less prevalent than it was, when I started this where I think in the early days, VBA, it was wild wild west because people didn't know the difference, and there were so many foragers so rampantly, they're selling.

What what is if you're a buyer right now on, you know, autographs, memorabilia, and maybe you're just new to it, what sort of, like, advice would you give to individuals just to make sure that they are protecting themselves from ending up falling into one of those traps?

Like, what's what's, like, some some tips that anyone new to it should be thinking about going into purchasing autos?

Yeah. Well, just I mean, just like anything else you'd buy, if it's too good to be sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

You know, if Michael Jordan Jersey is going for $7,500 and somebody offers you one for 900, you know, it's probably too good to be true. Like, it is too good to be true. Like, it's not gonna be legit.

So so that's obviously a part of it, but, you know, also somebody could try to charge you $7,000 for a fake jersey. So that's not, you know, it's not just about price. The price is like the the first red flag.

You know, the authenticity, again, I would say take the time to educate yourself. It would take you five minutes to learn that, you know, Michael Jordan has been signing with Upradex since the nineties.

You know, Upradex got their, you know, tamper proof system, and, you can verify them online and and then this and that.

You can educate yourself and make sure that you don't buy, you know, especially high end autograph like that, the fake Michael Jordan.

You know, with, with vintage stuff, obviously, it's hard early. Obviously, you know, we weren't around to do other signings with Babe Ruth.

So with that stuff, you know, you you, a, want it to be authenticated by a highly respected authenticator, you know, like a like I said, a PSA, a JSA, and Beckett are kinda like the big three, but, but even they make mistakes.

So, you know, the, the thicker the COA is part of it, but also, you know, look at you know, there's there's examples online.

You can find real examples of anything online and compare. If it looks off, if it looks wrong, it looks fishy, you know, a lot of times it is. Great advice. Great feedback. I wanna maybe, dig into just your own collection.

Is do you have a specific item that you've acquired maybe through your own signings or, just through another channel that is in your personal collection that you have no plans of ever selling because it's that significant to you?

Yeah. That's it. I've got a if you want me to show it to you, I've got a cool cool right here.

This is, this is the twenty sixteen World Series Cubs team, and I've got, this jersey. I had every single player add an inscription to it, so whether a nickname or an achievement from that year.

And now I just need to get it to the framer, and, that'll be going that that'll be going up in my basement. What's your favorite inscription on there? Yeah. Bunch of cool ones. I mean, Joe Maddon wrote, we did not suck.

You know, phrase phrase that, you know, was try not suck. Theo Epstein wrote goat busters on there. You know, like I said, a couple guys wrote, you know, their achievements in the world series. NLCS MVP, Rizzo wrote last out.

Ryan, do you no. You're you're good. Do you have a, maybe your golden goose right now, is there a dream athlete that you've always tried to, land for assigning, but you just haven't been able to get them yet?

Hello? Yeah. You you get, the the maybe, the golden goose for you, a dream athlete for a private signing that you just haven't been able to land yet, but that's on your list.

Who would that be? I mean, the go my golden goose, and it probably won't ever happen, he doesn't need money, is Phil Mickelson. I'm I'm a lefty. He's been my favorite golfer since I was a kid.

You know, he, I mean, obviously, you know, he's top golfer after Tiger Woods of, you know, that generation. But we've we've been turned down, at every overture. And, you know, like I said, the guy's worth several $100,000,000.

So I would imagine it's not likely it ever happened, but it is one that I tried, you know, several different times over the years. Yeah. You gotta keep shooting your shot.

You never know. Maybe just as we I'd I'd love to maybe get a chance to have you share some advice, on kinda building a business around something that you love. Like, you've been doing this for a long time.

It comes from a place of passion. Like, what would you share for anyone else out there who is aspiring to kinda build their own, business in, you know, trading cards, memorabilia, collectibles?

Like, what sort of advice from what you your experience would you share with them?

Well, and one important thing, especially if you're trying to build your own brand, it takes years and years and years to build a reputation, and it takes five minutes to ruin it. You know, your your reputation is everything.

You know, I would put mine up against anyone's, you know, the, you know, the the respected people, you know, in this industry, who I've read you know, I would, you know, trust that they would say good things, you know, about me after all these years and, you know, their dealings with us.

And, you know, as what I've you know, the other top people who've I've worked with over the years, when you kinda go go astray, you know, whatever that might be, whether it's, you know, not making payments, not living up to your word, not doing some you know, not not following through.

You know, like that, you can rip down your reputation a lot faster than you can build it up. You know, you kind of only get one. So that's really important is, you know, probably don't over don't over commit, don't over promise.

You know, I think everybody looks and they see all this, you know, these breakers on whatnot or these videos on YouTube and think they can go from zero to a million in six weeks.

Like, that's not reality or it's not reality for 99. 9% of you. So, you know, if you are gonna try to grow a business, you know, do it the right way.

You know, do it do it at a at a pace you can afford to do. You know? If you, maybe if you just sell, you know, in a big inheritance, maybe you can go a little bit faster. If you're, you know, starting with only $10,000.

You're gonna have to move slow. Like, you know, we we, you know, we started with a little bit of money from my dad, but, you know, we, you know, took time to, you know we we took baby steps.

We, you know, we didn't go from zero to a 100, to get to where we are. What what do you think as we close this out, what do you think is the number one ingredient to that has kept Schwartz Sports going after all these years?

I think I've done a really good job of kind of, looking ahead as as as far as, like, when things are changing, you know, shifting out of them.

You know, like I said, at one point, eBay was most of our business kind of out of need because we didn't have anywhere else to sell stuff.

You know, but then we expanded into wholesale and and drop shipping and, you know, got involved in, over time, doing more and more of our own signings because then we're, you know, kinda, you know, we were cutting out the middleman, obviously, in that regards.

You know, get got into mystery boxes when, you know, that became a big thing.

We definitely pivoted when COVID hit. You know, our business actually grew during COVID. It was one of those weird unexpected things, but, you know, we were kind of ready for it and ready to you know, able to adjust.

And then that kind of allowed us to get involved in the shows that we're now, you know, running, which has become, you know, a vital part of our business.

What I hear is adaptability is key. Brian, this was a ton of fun hearing about your passion, your business, and all that goes into it.

Everyone check out Schwartz Sports memorabilia. We'll put the links in the show notes. Brian, really appreciate it. We'll have to do this again down the road. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Have a good one.