What's going on, everybody?

Welcome back to another episode of Passion to Profession brought to you by my good friend at eBay. I'm excited to bring back a returning guest. I got my man, Dave, from SportCard Auctions on the program today.

Like we've been doing with some of these other sellers, we are talking about the market in 2025 and how a business owner and operator shifts when big changes happen in the space.

I think Dave has a great long track record of building a business and a hobby, and he shares some really great perspective here in this one today.

Shout out eBay for supporting Passion and Profession. Loving doing this series. It is so fun to talk to owners and operators and how they think and contextualize what's happening in our space and our hobby.

If you wanna show your support for stacking slabs, hit the follow button, tell a damn friend. Run on over the Patreon group. This is Dave, Sport Car Auctions, Passion and Profession coming at you. Alright, everybody.

Welcome back to Passion and Profession brought to you by eBay. Been having fun reconnecting with some guests from earlier this year. Today, I'm joined again by Dave, owner at SportCard Auctions, and wanted to just check-in, catch up.

It's been a definitely fun and interesting year of growth across the board in the hobby. So we're gonna be talking a lot about current market, his operation, decision making, mindset mentality, all those things that we like to do.

But without further ado, Dave, welcome back. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? It's great to be back. Yeah. I'm I'm excited, on a we're recording this on a Friday.

It's always fun to have conversations about cards in the hobby, and we were just getting a a chance to catch up on our respective teams in the AFC. If you don't remember or you're listening for the first time, Dave is a big Bills fan.

I'm obviously a a Colts fan. And right now, it it feels like we're in a pretty good good spot, but, you know, you never know by the end of the season so much, changes.

But is just on the NFL front, your team, anything what what's been kinda top of mind for you? Like, any any big surprises?

I yeah. The Colts are a a huge surprise. I mean, Daniel Jones has gone in there, and he's just he's just, you know, he's he's got the team on an on on a nice run. He's just gotta get him to the end of the season.

No injuries. Keep Jonathan Taylor nice and fresh, and then they gotta go beat some monsters, but, you know, that's that's why we do it. Okay. So from a Bills fan perspective, I gotta get some, mindset from you.

It it I've when I watch the Bills for as good of a team and as great of a quarterback as Josh Allen is, I sometimes, like, put my, put myself in a the Bills fan shoes, and I remember before Manning on his first Super Bowl, the Colts were always at the top of the AFC, and they always, you know, were expected to, you know, win, but always came up short in in the playoffs, and it was against the patriots until they finally won.

And in the Bills case, it's the Chiefs. Obviously, they just they just beat the Chiefs in the regular season, but, like, you watch all these games.

The Bills are continually good. Do you is your mind already, like, in that inevitable moment of the Bills having to probably beat the Chiefs in order to finally get to where they've been?

Yeah. I'd like I'd like to see them I'd like to see them beat the Chiefs in the playoffs. It would feel good to to have that happen.

It would be great if somebody else knocked them out and we didn't have to play them, but, you know, the the teams are so good when you get to the end of the year, and the quarterbacks are so good.

And, you know, you just gotta try to get there and get a little lucky.

And and, but I think it's our year. I I I think the Bills are gonna win it this year. I'm very confident as I was last year, but, you know I I don't wanna gas you up, but my the the Bills were my Super Bowl pick winner this year.

So eve if the Colts don't do it, at least I'll be rooting for the Bills so I can say that, maybe I got I got something right.

That's what I think I think that those are are I I I mean, Josh Allen's home is, like, half an hour from where the Super Bowl is.

So I think that's one of the things, and I think with the new stadium being open next year, I just I think it's a I don't know.

I I think it's our year. I do. I love it. I love it. So let's get into it. You we talked about just how long you've been doing this and the the build business you've been building, for a long time.

And I think the kind of the theme of these conversations is, like, this year. And there's obviously down periods. This this year is certainly not one of them. It's been a hot streak across the board, across the market.

Just curious just as a business owner, and I know you're a collector as well, but, like, how do you stay grounded when the market shifts in especially shifts in this direction where there's a lot of exuberance across the board?

I mean, I've been on eBay since 1999. So I've seen a lot of good.

I've seen a lot of bad. But, honestly, the last five years, even though we've had some down, like, it it it's amazing. Like, to to see what things are selling for, and it just it seems like you can't lose with whatever you buy.

I mean, Jordans are up. Like, mantles keep going up. Like, anything vintage is just it's just amazing. And then if you go to a card show nowadays I'm at the Dallas Card Show right now.

I'm in Dallas, and we're staying at the hotel. I mean, it's amazing. Like, you go downstairs at, like, 10:10 thirty at night, it's like the halls are littered with people on the floors with setups. It it it it it's amazing now.

Not nothing like this ever happened, I mean, in the until five years ago. It's just it's an amazing space we've we're we're in right now. So you're you're in Dallas. I've been following Dallas just through Instagram accounts from afar.

Is that just I know, you know, we're recording this. You've probably been there for a short short amount of time. Is it outside of, like, the crowds just from, like, the Dallas show perspective?

Is there anything that you've noticed in just the time you've been there that stands out to you? Today or yesterday was was a little bit slower. Thursday, everybody's setting up. There's not too many crowds.

But today, like, when you go today, like, when the show actually opens, you won't even be able to get through the aisles. And then tonight when the show ends, it'll be people set up in the hallways on the 1st Floor all night.

You know? It's it's it's an experience. So and, you know, it's funny. You have to book your hotel months in advance because the hotel sells out so fast, though.

Good good good sign good signal for just the excitement in our hobby. And, you know, you were talking about you've been selling on eBay since '98 and especially now, like, the prices that you feel like you can't you can't lose.

And just as someone who who sells cards too, I I've I've felt the same way just getting strong prices for the cards that I've, you know, taken to market or taken to auction.

How how have you, just as an operator over the years, managed kind of that emotion from, like, the highs and lows.

Obviously, we're in a a a really strong period of time strong period in the market. But just how do you make sure you're not kind of getting over your skis? Like, anything you can share there?

I mean, for a long time, you know, I don't remember if I mentioned this last time, but I had owned a restaurant for about thirty years. And up till two months ago, like, because I did the eBay thing, it was a hobby.

And, you know, we turned it into a business about seven years ago, started the consignment, but two months ago I actually sold my pizza shop so now I'm like a full time, car guy and so it was a hobby for a long time, so it didn't matter.

Like, if you made money or you didn't make money, it was it was just fun in your collecting. But, I mean, since COVID happened, it's just like anything that you collected, like, you it's just it's up just so much money.

It's just it it it it doesn't it doesn't matter a lot, you know? You but I think recently, though, like, I think if you're you're gonna be buying and investing and I don't know.

I just I I just I think if you're a collector, I don't think it really matters. You know? You you're collecting. If you make money or lose money, I don't think collectors think that way.

How has your mindset shifted around, like, your day to day, how you operate, how you think about your business now that it is, like, your primary focus and that you're not, you know, working in the in the pizza shop.

Like, has has anything substantially changed for you now that you're all in? I mean, since my last podcast with you, we've we've exploded.

I mean, we are probably doubling our our sales since the last time we did a bot podcast, and, I mean, it's just trying to keep up at this point. You know, we've gained so many new people, and it's it's awesome.

But, you know, I've got some great employees that keep up and you know we just ship a crap a ton of crap every day and you know we get up and we do it again the next day and I mean there's not a lot of thought that has to go into it anymore, we just we've got it set up the right way, and, you know, we're we're crushing it.

Is it is it the doubling in that short amount of time? Would you say it is based on the, like, the price of items that you are selling, or are you selling more volume, or is it a combination of the both?

It's it's a little bit of a combination, but, we've we've we've gained a ton of new people.

And I think leaving the space has has has helped us, and I'm sure anyone else doing consignment has helped. And, yeah, it's it's just been it it it's crazy. Every day has been crazy.

What we're watching kind of on the outside looking in, especially when it comes to Probstein starting his new, platform, leaving eBay, but maybe shed some light on the ripple effects kinda downstream, and how that impacts a business like yours.

Yeah. So, you know, it was a pretty quick decision.

I mean, everyone knew that he was gonna start something new and no one knew what was gonna happen and I guess he just decided he was gonna leave eBay and I just think that a lot of the people that use him, they like eBay, they like to sell on eBay, they like not having to do the work and just getting a payout so you know, that that led to all of us people doing consignment on eBay gaining a whole bunch of new customers.

Is there outside of, like, the those customers who like to sell on eBay who find just end up finding you, have have you have you done anything intentionally to try to get the attention of those potential, customers or clients, or is it has it just organically taken place?

No. I'd typically, I I like things to go organically, but when we saw that he was leaving the space, we we we actually put together a business plan to try to get some new customers.

We actually recently hired another full time person as a lister, so we we wanted to get some new business and, we actually started offering a 3% final value fee on anything over a thousand dollars till the end of the year to just to get some new people.

And, you know, once once we get them signed up on the website, they're ours they're ours forever.

So it's, there's a little bit of a plan. Yeah. So the I think when there are changes and shifts, so we've got we're we're we've talked about several, but we're talking about probe steel leaving.

We're talking about the the market and just I feel like as a business owner and operator, like, agility is really important.

I know another change has been right. You're all in on it. So there's a lot going on in your world right now. But has based on all of those factors, has your approach at all been impacted or affected?

Or have you made any made any big changes or shifts based on how you've typically run the business before you've been all in and before the 2025 market has been surging like it like it has been?

No. I don't we haven't made too many changes. I mean, our our our day is is the same every single day, because we run auctions, like, six days a week.

We typically don't run any auctions Friday. Kinda gives me a day to to separate from from the grind and just take a day and and do what I wanna do.

But, I mean I'm also a home based business so like you working from home it's tough to get away from work you know you find yourself working a lot more hours but I think that's one of the reasons I've done so well is I don't have an office.

My office is at my house, and, you know, I kinda feel like that's how I've I've gotten to be successful as I just I put in the time, and when it's time to stop, I stop and you know?

And yeah. Maybe this will be a little therapeutic for me because me working from home, a home based business in this hobby, although we do separate things.

My my my hobby, which I think is dissimilar to you, is we're both into sports cards from a collecting perspective. But then it's also our business and our livelihood, and it's also in under our our roof.

And maybe this could be therapeutic for me, Dave, and I'd love to get your feedback. But sometimes it's hard for me to separate. Like, my kids go down.

I just wanna go back to work because I love it. Yeah. Like, how do you manage that, passion and ambition you have for your business under your roof? Like, how do you give yourself breaks? Do you give yourself breaks? I do.

I I actually you know, that's a honestly, that's a great question because when you you you understand that, like, sometimes you just you gotta put the time in and and, like, I'll I'll get to a point in the day and I'll because my kids are grown now.

And I'll get to the point in the day and my wife gets home, and I'm like, we need to go out for dinner. I just need to get out of the house for a couple hours.

So we'll go out and we'll do dinner and we'll, you know, take our few hours and I'll go home and get back to work but when I had kids that were your age, like that's the great part about working from home is when you decide you want to stop and you wanna go to a soccer game or you wanna go to a Colts game or, for me, a Bills game, you have that ability to just take that time and you just you stop working.

So One of the observations I've made just from all the conversations is that it feels like there are more opportunities to leave your corporate job and work for a hobby business.

I'm seeing more and more people in my network, do that, and they're trying to kind of do what we're talking about here is kind of bridge the gap between professional career and hobby career.

Is that have you have you noticed there are more, like, opportunities in this space to to do work and people migrating over to, you know you know, put their professional skill set inside the hobby? Yeah.

I mean, there's there's such an opportunity to do so many different things. You can just go to card shows and grind and I mean Facebook marketplace and grind and just there's so many ways to make money and you can make a lot of money.

I mean working for yourself is you you have to be motivated to to accomplish whatever your goal is but there's nothing better than working for yourself and you know, if you're gonna fail, it's gonna be because you're not working hard enough.

I just think it's, I grew up and my mother still owns a flower shop in her 70s so I grew up with a business so it was just natural when I turned 20 that I opened my own and I opened a little drive through ice cream shop and I mean it's just once it's in you, like you you you can't work for someone.

I mean, working for someone at this point in my life, I don't know how I would do it, you know, just to take direction what I feel like I know better.

I love this. So much of what you just said resonates with me, and I wanna get your perspective on this and maybe just, like, the financial component. And I think that there are there are good there are there are okay times.

Like you say, there's bad times. There's okay times. There's even better times, and there's great times. There's all these, like, periods of, like, financial fluctuation that you go through as a bit You don't you don't even yeah.

You don't even if you don't do this, like, the financial thing, like, sometimes you you have no money, like, but you you always have products.

So, I mean, when you're broke, you're broke and you just you gotta you gotta keep grinding, keep buying and but you you you also don't wanna be so broke that you can't buy the the good deals.

So you you definitely have to pick and choose what you're buying because there's there's a lot of opportunity.

How do you how do you make sure that, like, your position financially, because it changes so much, doesn't, like, stress you out and take you down a a a path where you're you're not being productive as a business owner and operator?

Like, how have you been able to, like, manage that over your course of whether it's your your sports card business, your pizza business?

Like, how have you been able to deal with that? So I deal in such big numbers now. I I don't have a conscience.

I don't ever like, if I have a, if I have a bill that I can't pay or I know I'm gonna be a couple days late here, I I it just it doesn't bother me anymore, which could be a problem because if you can't say no and these the deal keep coming that, like, but I I I don't have a conscience anymore.

I mean, I I I'd share some crazy numbers, but I I I don't think I should. But I definitely, don't have a conscience about owing or anything like that anymore.

I just I keep buying, keep grinding. You know? I love it. The and so, well, I remember last time we spoke, I, you know, you're talking about lots and buying a bunch and you're referencing it here.

How as a, like, as a collector, how do you like, when you're buying, do you get into this moment where you're buying a big lot and there are specific cards that you want to keep because of your collector mentality and you have this debate, well, I should sell it because it's it's what Right.

Right. Is this a priority? Like, how do you manage that from, like, an emotional versus, like, business ownership perspective when you're, like, buying a lot?

So I get to see so many amazing cards every single week now. I feel like I've shifted a little bit from collector to understanding that I get all these amazing cards every week that that's kinda like, I get them for a week.

You know I get to see them and I get to have all these great things but I have been on a Jordan rookie buying issue lately and I have a lot of Jordan rookies buy a Now Best offer in my eBay store and but they, you know, they sell.

And if I really have to have the money to sell, like, I couldn't auction them, but I don't know.

I I kinda get to be a bit of a hoarder on stuff like that at times. So with with, you know, being, in the Jordan rookie zone, obviously, there are those cards aren't changing, and you've been in the space forever.

They're the same, but I would imagine what has maybe shifted up or down is maybe the value and price.

What what makes you, like, move into a segment like that in in this moment right now where you're saying, you know, if there's an opportunity to buy Jordan rookie cards, like, you know, based on these conditions, I'm all in on that.

Like, maybe talk through why Jordan rookie cards right now. There's just a few things. Like, you got Jordans and Mantles that are just they're they're just they're never gonna go down in value.

So, like, if you want to buy something that's gonna be worth more money in ten years you should be buying Jordan rookies you should buy a Mantle rookie even if it's a Bowman even if it's a second year Bowman or second year Topps these cards are gonna be so hard to find.

There are just so many people in our space now and it like, people say, well, the market's gonna crash.

This market is not gonna crash. I mean there are just so many people and there's so many famous people now that are saying that to have assets like this, I mean it's art now, you know?

Jordan rookie is gonna be a piece of art someday because you're just you're not gonna be able to find them, especially in high in high grade.

You mentioned the the athletes and there's the celebrity promotion. There's certainly, manufacturer promotion and marketing of our hobby in ways we're seeing for the first time.

There's been so many different factors. When you think about 2025 and the growth, is there one particular, thing that stands out to you that's driving kind of the exuberance and the, you know, buying mindset, that we're seeing today?

What what what stands out? Honestly, Pokemon is just I don't know enough about Pokemon. I'm trying to learn but it's just taken over and they make so much product.

I can't believe that it just keeps going up and you can't find it and you go into Walmart and they're restocking and one person's there, it's gone within five minutes.

It's just, it's amazing to me, you know, and it's not like it's a Peyton Manning autograph on a card you can get in these things. They're all just paper cards, and it it it's it's pretty amazing.

You know? I'm I'm with you. I've noticed the trend. It's crazy. I don't know really much about anything to do with Pokemon outside of what I learned from other owners and operators who are in that space.

Do you think the growth on the t the TCG side with Pokemon, do you think that trickles over into sports cards, or have you seen that taking place?

I think I don't think it's gonna I don't I think you're either a t I I am sure there's people that do both, but I think most people are a TCG or they're a card person.

But I'm starting to see because we do sell some TCG wax. I'm starting to see other TCGs pick up some steam.

So if you are a TCG person, I mean, one piece is starting to really sell really well, and there's a couple others that are, like, people are starting to see, maybe the if it was a TV show or or whatever, cartoon or whatever.

I think some of these others are starting to pick up some steam, so it it's just it's it's it's awesome. You know? I wanna get inside maybe, sport card auctions and just how you try to be as efficient as possible.

And I'm curious. Have you had to this year based on, the changes of you going all in, spending more time? Have you had to change or establish any new processes to make kinda your operation more I have. Mean, I a neat show?

What are they? Yeah. I've recently discovered ChatGPT, and I've start I'm I'm signed up there now. I'm paying their fee. I'm using it for everything. I'm using it to proof auctions. I'm using it to, you know, create ads.

I mean, it's it's a great time saver. It's almost like an extra employee, you know, because you can just copy and paste something in there and ask it a question, and it spits out the results in seconds.

So It's it's, I love to hear that. I and when I think about my use case of ChatGPT, the I think of it like a personal assistant or an employee much like you.

It's interesting, though, Dave. Like, I've done so many of these conversations, and I I honestly believe you're the first person to bring up the fact that, yeah, I'm using ChatGPT as a as a support mechanism for my business.

The the conversation doesn't even seem to be happening right now with inside our industry. Of course, you go to tech, any other industry Yeah. Everyone's talking about it.

Do you think that, like I guess, number one, like, why do you think that's the case? And number two, do you think that's an advantage for you that you're using it while other people might not be jumping on board quite yet?

I I mean, I think the reason I'm trying to find ways to do this is I'm trying to grow my business without growing my business out of my house.

I love that I work from home. I only have three employees. They work from home and we all love our jobs, and we wanna grow the business. We don't wanna grow I don't wanna I always say I don't really have a real business.

You know? I work from home. So I don't wanna grow it into a real business where I've got, you know, a building and I've got, you know, utilities and all that stuff.

I I really just do it out of, we have a a big ranch, and I have a two living rooms, and one living room is my office.

And then we built a little fireproof vault underneath it to store everything in, and, I mean, that's that's that's as big as it's gonna it's gonna get.

You you mentioned something earlier when I was asking about just, like, the probe team thing and, you know, gaining new consignors.

And you you said, like, once they come to the site, you know, they're they're our customer for life. What what do you do, or what do you what do you think the reason is that consignors who are using you stay loyal and stick with you?

Well, I think when you have a company that has a lot of people, you know, when a consignor like, if Brett's selling some cards with me and and he has an issue, Like, all my consignors have my my phone number.

They can text me. They can call me. I'm always gonna answer. If there's an issue, I'm gonna fix it. So I think the fact that my employees do the work and then I take care of all the the other stuff.

You know? I I do I basically do most of the shipping, and, I take care of all the proofing and listing the auctions and dealing with the issues and the email.

And, you know, my goal every day is my email box is empty, and I've gotten all the issues taken care of. And, consignors call and they wanna talk, I'm I'm always there for them.

So I think I think that's one of the reasons that we don't really lose any customers once we get them is that we're, you know, I'm there for them and want them to get the most money because the more they make, the more I make, and everybody's happy.

Have you observed that expectations with consignors change any in any way when the market is performing like it is right now?

I mean, we we've cut out a lot of stuff. We we stopped doing any memorabilia. I added somebody, a new person yesterday, wanted to bring me a truckload of wax to sell for him, and I'm like, yeah.

We just we're just not in the space we can do that anymore. If you got singles or slabs, we'll sell those, but, we definitely have limits on on what we're taking now, because most people mail us the stuff.

So, you know, nobody's gonna mail you a truckload of wax. Mhmm. But, yeah, that's that's about it. Is is there, I guess, in the buying and selling, you mentioned Jordans.

We talked about Brook Fun. Is there anything else just this year that you've observed that that stands out that might be different compared to last year or previous years?

It's very hard to get wax. You know? I I think I don't know how because they're they're printing more wax than they ever have, but there's there's certain products when it comes in, it just it sells so fast.

Not all wax, but, you know, you got your prisms and, you know, Topps basketball has been very good. And, I mean, Leaf makes some amazing products that sell really well, and you get them in there.

They they sell really fast. When you look at what's happening in just performance, we all have our own definitions for what I think we as owner operator or even just collector hobby participant view as healthy and a healthy hobby.

How do you define the health of a hobby from your seed as an as an owner?

It's hard to argue that the hobbies never been like, I thought during during COVID, like, things would never be the same again, and maybe they haven't hit the certain price points.

But there's just so many people in the space now. I I can't imagine it being better in a year, but it just keeps growing. You know? What what indicators do you use? Is it just simple as, like, sales data per to to measure performance?

Or is there anything else you're looking at just from your business perspective to just track kind of what's happening this week, next month, or down the road? You know, I just look for the consistency on eBay.

You you know, you you look for what percentage of items are getting paid for, and eBay's done a great job of automatic payments and and not allowing people to get on eBay and just mess with items, which is which is great.

You know, we run maybe 3,000 auctions at the most a week, and our relists are so minimal now with with the new stuff that's happening.

And, you know, eBay authentication is great. And, you know, it it just makes it a really safe space, and I always try to talk people out of doing Facebook marketplace.

And my son's a TCG guy, so I try to tell him that, like, you know, be careful, you know, if you're doing Facebook marketplace, there's a reason a reason for it.

There's just there's a lot of bad on there, and eBay is just so safe. You know, it's just it's a lot better to to be safe than than sorry and and lose a chunk of money.

One thing I've picked up on from our couple conversation is, like, you value the relationship and the personal touch with the people who are, taking a chance, using your services.

So I've always viewed, like, that relationship building as a critical component in order to build a business that's gonna have longevity.

What do you think separates good hobby businesses or businesses that'll last from the rest, kind of this year and beyond?

I mean, you just gotta you gotta I just I think it doesn't even have anything to do with business. I just I've always done the right thing.

I've always treated people right, and I just feel that's kinda the way that you shouldn't, you know, run your life is if you want to be successful, you know, sometimes you just gotta take a hit here or there for the greater good and we do that all the time with our businesses and and anything I do in life, you know, you just you just just do the right thing and and good things will happen.

One thing that I wanna make sure I hit on because you talked about it earlier, but I think this will be helpful for anyone who is trying to build a business in this space.

You're a remote you've got I love this, this mentality of, like, I have no aspirations of building this grandiose office.

Like, I like working from home. All my employees work from home. And this is just the new way we have transformed into building businesses is distributed and remotely.

How do you make sure that your team you're working with, although it's not side by side, but you're you know, I'm sure you're connected through digital communication channels.

But, like, how do you keep your team motivated around kind of the same momentum and goals that you have being in different locations?

I think it's the way I've always I treat my employees. You know, if they need the day off, they need the week off, they they just they they can take it.

They're like, oh, can I get I'm like, just just it's fine? Just take it. Just get your work done for the week and you, you know, if you only work three days this week, that's fine.

As long as your work's done, I think that helps. But my three employees have all worked for me. Well, one was a friend who's worked for me for about two or three years now.

My other two employees have worked for me for ten plus years and they both started out at my pizza shop and when, you know, eBay offered me this awesome deal where I decided to build a consignment business they both started out as part time listers which turned into one of them leaving the pizza shop and working for me full time and then recently when my pizza shop was sold another employee that's worked for me since high school she is now, working for me full time.

So then we also have, my daughter's boyfriend helps out, and he does in my eBay live once a week, and he does a bunch of cleanup and top loading and whatever, you know, just help it out.

So I don't know. I just overpay my employees, I I'd like to think, and, and and kinda let I let them run the show and just I'm there for them.

I love I love the mindset. What what ex as we're kinda rounding this out, what excites you most about, the next chapter for SportCard Auctions now that you've got some time and this is your primary focus?

Like, what what motivates you right now? We're just we're just having fun.

I mean, we've grown the business bigger than I I I ever thought we could, and I don't know. Every day is just so much fun. It it really is. You know? I get stuff in the mail every day that I get to go through.

And like I said with collecting, I'm like, how could you keep it? But it's mine for the week, and we get to sell it. And I don't know. Just life's good. Maybe before I let you go, what what is this is like, this came to me.

I'm like, I just love to hear your perspective. It's like, what is one thing and it could be anything related. It can be something to do with a product. It could be selling on eBay. It could be building a business.

Like, what is one thing that you're always thinking about or you think that you value and is on your mind, but you might not be, like, a topic that you think a lot of others are thinking about, but you kinda use it as a differentiator as you're, building out your business.

Jeez. I don't even know on that one. I mean, our day to day is so much the same every single day now. I just kinda I don't think I'm really thinking about the future.

I'm just kinda I'm just trying to get through the day and and and, hope that tomorrow is a little bit easier, to be honest. I'm I'm with you. It's and and maybe we can kind of relate to this.

It's sometimes, I guess here's the question. Do you have a desire to get to that point where you're able to look forward and it be clear? Or are you, like, completely cool, operating and going day by day like like you are right now?

No. I'm I'm I'm very happy to go day by day. I mean, like, we have so much stuff to sell, like, because I buy a lot of big collections that if I didn't get consignments for a few months, nothing would change.

We have I have so much like I guess like three row boxes of just cards, raw cards to sell and to grade and like there's so much work to do but we fit it in as we can and we try not to turn down any deals. And it's, yeah, day to day.

I I I love it. Dave, it's always nice catching up with you. SportCard auctions. Definitely, everyone, go make sure you're following the store on eBay. Dave, looking forward to doing this again down the road, and enjoy your Dallas show.

Yeah. Definitely. It was great to be on, this great podcast again. Thank you. Always enjoy these conversations. That was a ton of fun digging into a myriad of topics with Dave.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this one. Got several more of these conversations lined up heading into the close of this year. Thanks so much for tuning in, showing your support. We'll talk to you soon.