Alright. We are back. Passionate profession brought to you by my good friends at eBay. We are continuing the conversation around trust. When I was thinking about these conversations, one of the first people I thought of was Mike from MC Sports Cards.

Mike has been on this show before, but I can't say that there's another person that in this hobby doing what he's doing who I have heard more nice things about from mutual contacts, networks, whether it's just other collectors, people who use his services and, or people buying cars from MC Sports Cards. So I wanna dig into kinda how Mike thinks about making those connections happened and how trust is the centerpiece. Mike, I know you're snowed in. I'm snowed in, maybe not as much as you, but we've got some time to talk cards, man. How are you?

Good. Appreciate you, having me on again, and appreciate you thinking of me when when that's your topic for the next show. So that that means a lot, and I'm excited to talk about it. Let's start with maybe the brand. Right?

When it's I've always thought, like, reputation is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room. When people hear MC Sports cards, what do you want them to associate with your name? Yeah. So from the consignment side, you know, I want them to associate, like, top tier service, fast listings, and and strong results. So, you know, top tier service, that includes just communication every step of the way.

You're getting notified. You're getting an automated email. You track everything through our site, you never are left with a lot of questions about when's it gonna start, where's my card, how, you know, how's the auction looking. Yeah. And then, you know, just the the part about, like, being easy to do business with.

You know? Like, people hear you, and they know in their past experience. They they sent you cards. It was easy. No problem.

They would rather just keep sending to you because they're now comfortable sending you, and it just makes sense, and and they get get happy with it. You know? How how often, maybe over the years since you've been running your consignment business, how often have you had to think about, like, experience and, like, you thinking about how you your operations are going and if you've had to make changes to those operations based on just, like, creating great experiences. Like, when you started consignment, was it like, here's the process. This is what we're doing, and it's never changed, or has it been something you've had to kinda tweak over the years?

Yeah. It's it's changed a ton. So when we first started, it was extremely informal. A lot of it was just, like, people we knew or through Instagram. We didn't have a website yet.

We didn't really have, like, any way for people to track their cards. Basically, you'd send us the cards. Somebody would manually have to tell you we got the cards. You know, they go up, they sell, and then the next day, somebody would have to manually generate a report to send to you. And then for many of our first clients, like, that was the first time they were seeing the results or or the full result of their auction.

And, you know, that worked in the beginning. I think times were were very different in the industry even five years ago and amongst, you know, all the big consignment companies. But, you know, as we grown as we kept growing, it just became really hard to, like, manually do all that stuff, especially when we all knew there was a way to not manually do it. So we launched the site about two years ago or so, and, you know, that's done a ton of ton of work that we used to do, and it does it way faster and way better, and everyone's a lot more happy. So things have have definitely changed since since the early days.

I look at your consignment business on eBay, and I'll kinda dig into sales history in CardLadder and maybe even specifically at times just out of curiosity run reports based on sellers. And I think undeniably about your brand. When I think about your brand, I think about just, like, the quality of cards that consistently go through MC Sports cards and what you're selling on eBay. And we're gonna spend some time talking about, like, selling big cards on eBay. But I've never really noticed you as a volume seller.

Maybe you have been in the past. I'm curious on the quality side. Like, how did that happen? Like, that to me is a differentiator about you than other sellers on eBay is that you have high quality, and it's like quality you'd likely see at another auction house. Maybe talk a little bit about just why quality became kind of your lane.

Yeah. So I have a pretty extensive past in in the, high end market. You know, before consignment, I used to be big time high end wheeler dealer, you know, buy, sell, trade, go to all the shows, and built a ton of relationships there. And, you know, as we started consignment, like, a lot of these people who I had a past relationship with already kinda knew me and were comfortable dealing with me. And when they had cards to sell, they would still just give them to me, again, going back to just, like, comfort and and everything.

And, you know, from from that, like, we from, really, from the early days, we were still dealing with a higher average sale price of items than others might be. And and, you know, we liked that route. We were able to keep providing, like, hands on service to people, and, you know, we we didn't get, like, clogged up with thousands and thousands of items. So, you know, that was always the vision, and and we stuck with that. And, I'm glad we stuck with that.

I mean, there's just there's a lot of different ways to do this. There's not a right way or a wrong way. I just like the way we do it more than how other people might like their way more than my way. So it's it's whatever works best for you. But, yeah, I mean, to sum it up, really, just, like, past relationships who I knew when we started were providing high end cards, and we always were comfortable dealing with high end cards.

So we said, let's just keep this as our focus. At what point did you realize maybe, like, reputation mattered more than kind of your inventory or your inventory size? Like, when did that moment of realization hit you? Yeah. That that was early on, again, going back to, like, we never had a ton of stuff, and it was never our our goal to get a ton a ton of stuff.

So, yeah, I always say, like, we we never really had the goal or vision to scale. Like, We need to be doing a 100 times what we're doing in volume or, you know, double or something. Obviously, we wanna keep growing. Obviously, we have plans to keep growing, but, we've just always wanted to make sure that our growth does not get in the way of the experience of our our clients, especially on the higher end side. Do you remember maybe, like, early days of growing the business and maybe it was has there been any, like, memorable early day consignment you got of, like, massive cards where you just, like, got these cards and realized, like, wow.

Like, there's some individual connection that I have that trusts me enough to, you know, sell these cards. Like, are there any of those moments that, like, dating back kinda early when you were growing the business that you can think about? Yeah. I mean, we we operate a lot on referrals, a lot of, you know, friends of friends. I know we're gonna touch on that later, so I won't get too too much into that.

But, yeah. I mean, early on, we we definitely weren't getting the consistent quality we're getting today. But, you know, here and there, we would get $5,000 card, $10,000 card, and, pretty much all of those were from people we we knew well or people that they referred to us. Have you obviously, there are so many different sellers, not only on eBay, consignors across, you know, so many platforms in this industry, and everyone's doing similar adjacent things. I'm I'm curious on differentiation.

Like, what did you do differently than other consignors when they were building their businesses, like, what they were doing? Like, how did you think about, like, separating so what you were doing started to stand out? Anything specifically you can share? Yeah. Real really just the high end side again.

Like, I always felt like that's something that you can't just jump in in the mix of your competitors and say, hey. Now I'm gonna get all the high end. It's something that you have to really build a trust and earn that. So, yeah, I knew that I've spent, you know, twenty plus years building that trust in these relationships, and nobody can step in without that experience and and take it from us. So that that's something that that's really helped.

And our team is pretty much all card people, people who've had really, really good extensive backgrounds in the card industry, who have good relationships, people know and trust them well. So, like, we we are a team of, like, very knowledgeable card people. And, obviously, as you scale, that becomes harder and harder to do because you can't have 50 employees and all of them are super super card people. But, you know, we try to keep, like, just try to keep it so that our clients know, like, we know exactly what you're talking about. We know exactly what your needs are.

We know how to satisfy them, and and, you know, we're here to to do all that for you. How maybe, like, as you look at the industry, especially in this, like, growth and scale mode across the industry and then cards and every category seem to be going up, there seems to be not only growth in collectors, but growth amongst business owners. There's people coming in doing trying to do what you've spent twenty years doing. How do you think about, like, the the on the industry side and and trust? Because what you've just said, like, I spent twenty years doing this.

Right? You've spent and and trust doesn't just happen overnight. And other people are just coming in, and they're trying to, like, build what you've already built overnight. Like, how do you see that playing out just across the industry? Do you not pay attention to it?

Do you observe that it's happening? Do you just kinda stick to your guns in what you're building? Like, how do you observe that across the space? Yeah. I mean, I've I keep a close eye on the competitors.

And, honestly, like, all the big eBay sellers, we're we're all friends. You know? At the end of the day, we all talk. Yeah. I I talk to almost all of them at least a couple times a month and and everything.

So, like, we're we're in a cool spot where it's not like, you know, our main goals are to kill each other. And, you know, with that being said, everyone cares about their business the most, and, obviously, that's how it should be. And, like, people do kinda wanna do things that they're noticing other sellers are are succeeding at, and, like, you know, we keep an eye. We've we've gotten some ideas that can help us, and other sellers have definitely kept an eye on what we do with the high end and everything like that. So, like, it's, you know, it's good for the market competition and everything, and I think it just comes down to, like, can you perform the same as we can in what we specialize in and, you know, can you retain the clients on that front?

And, I mean, I'm sure there's other people that that can. I obviously, I think we're the best, but I'm not gonna say we're the only option. You know? I have heard hobby shop owners I'm thinking of Ryan RBI Crew seven, Ryan Card Collector two, Andy and the Card Exchange. I've talked to I've I've heard them talk and even spoke with some of them about this of just the fact that, like, there are they they they support more hobby shops, and they support the information sharing.

And it's not it's not that competitive, and, like, that transfer of knowledge is super important. I've never really heard anyone on the consignment side, talk about that. But maybe, like, those, like, monthly connects you have, whether it's organized or organic through someone else doing what you're doing on eBay. Like, what do you get what do you get from those sorts of interactions and conversations with people building similar businesses as you? Yeah.

Honestly, like, 90 plus percent of the interactions aren't even about the business. Might be something card related or something completely not card related that we just have talked about in the past or have similar interests or, you know, maybe they wanna buy something from us or we wanna buy something from them that's like, you know, private sale. But, you know, we we have communicated to some degree with other sellers, and, obviously, like, I'm pretty open. I'm I'm not gonna give out trade secrets, and I'm not gonna expect them to give out trade secrets. But I think it's good that, you know, I I've talked to other sellers.

Other sellers have talked to me about, hey. Like, we have this scenario with this client or, you know, something like that where it would be good for all of us to know or to be aware of something like that. I wanna move over to high end cards on eBay, and I think there is this perception across the industry that, like, if you have a high end card, it needs to go to a big auction house or a big marketplace, non eBay related. But if you dig into the data and you see what's happening in the performance of high end cards on eBay, there are 5, even 6 figure cards selling daily and weekly on eBay. You sell through eBay.

So I'm curious, like, I guess, one, like, do you do you think that perception across the industry is accurate? And, like, for you as a business builder working on eBay, like, when did you start noticing kind of these high end cards performing, whether they were your cards that are consigned through you or just listings in general? Yeah. I think the biggest change that came from the eBay side. I think the implementation of authenticity guarantee was huge because now from both the buyer and seller side now, obviously, as the buyer, you know that a third party authenticator is going to verify this is exactly what you purchased, and you no longer have to worry about getting scammed or getting the wrong item, anything like that, even if it's from a top tier seller who has great feedback.

Like, I'm sure people still always have that worry. So that that was a big one. And then, you know, a couple years back, they changed the return policies, you know, way back when and on eBay, you'd have to give thirty day returns, and, you know, players would get hurt twenty five days after the purchase, and all of a sudden, the card arrived damaged, things like that. And, as a seller, to have those kinds of worries, that definitely impacted the decision to sell high end cards on eBay because you don't wanna sell a $10,000 card and sweat for a month if, that buyer's gonna change their mind or make a false claim. And from the authenticity guarantee side, like, there's no such thing as a a false claim anymore because eBay literally verified it.

So whatever the buyer says, you know, they say you sent the wrong thing, like, they have proof that they've verified what we've sold them. I have never thought about it this way. EBay authenticity as a buyer, like, I'm all I'm I'm for it because of I know it's the card that I want is going to end up in my mailbox when it comes. But, I mean, I think it's undeniable that you regularly hear people complaining and talking about it, the waiting, having the cards take forever, this and that. But I I've I've never thought about the fact that, like, the authenticity of it all has really made way for more confidence and higher end cards being sold on the platform.

Is that is that a correlation you have seen directly since the program has been in place? Yeah. I mean, I don't have, like, hard data where I've never, like, crunched the numbers or or done analysis. But, obviously, our growth on eBay over the the last few years since that started has been astronomical. So I'm very, very led to believe that it has something to do with it.

But, yeah, I mean, obviously, authenticity guarantee is not not perfect by any means, but they've gotten a lot better. They continue to improve. They take feedback well, and I think it just makes that that program makes eBay a much better place. I would imagine when you're having conversations with collectors who are thinking about consigning their cards through m c sports cards, who maybe sold their cards on other marketplaces in the past. Maybe we're talking about, like, 5 figure cards.

Yeah. There's maybe some concern because they have a perception of the cards that do well on eBay. How I guess, what do collectors misunderstand most about spell selling high end cards through eBay? There's a few things. You know, let me preface it as, like, there are lot of times we get somebody sends us a 50,000 card, a $100,000 card, or, like, a picture of it, and we say, like, we'll be completely honest.

I don't think eBay is the best place to auction this. Like but we do kind of have a range of, like, 20,000 and under. I firmly believe that, like, if you have a $20,000 or less card, selling it on eBay will produce pretty much the same result as anywhere else. Once you get over 20,000, yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and say that eBay is the only spot to sell or the best spot, but there's certain card types that, you know, like a vintage card in high grade that should do fine wherever it sells. You know, some of these case hits like gold kabooms, downtowns that are really, really high end, like, I think those will do well wherever.

But there are certain cards that are very, very niche and that, you know, they just every platform has a specialty, and they may always have that specialty for for those types of cards. So I just heard you say something there that, like, to me, sounds like a a you might not even realize, but it's like this to me, this is like trust building where someone's coming to you with a massive card and you and you look at the card based on your history and what you've sold and you basically told them, like, hey. This might not be the best to sell through me. You should look maybe somewhere else where you're, like, punting on an opportunity to try to sell a massive card in order to make sure that card gets sold to the right channel. That's probably not a decision.

I you've, like, were was making out of the gates, but you've probably, like, matured as a business owner to be able to, like, feel confident in saying that and maybe get that business down the road. Like, talk about your mindset in, like, saying no to business and in the spirit of, like, trying to build trust with that potential client down the road. Yeah. So, you know, myself and and our staff, like, we always aim to do right by people. Like, you know, we're we're not gonna put you in a spot to where you're selling it through us is your worst option.

And it just unfortunately, with the amount of cards there are, high end cards, low end cards, everything, like, there are better places for certain types of cards. And, you know, we we wanna make sure that if you're trying to sell a $100,000 item, like, we don't wanna try and convince you to sell it with us when we know that you're probably gonna get significantly more on a private auction house. Now, obviously, it sucks turning down the business, and it's not like people are lining up offering us these types of cards. And all day long, we say no. No.

No. But I do think that if somebody owns a $100,000 card and you provide them the honest feedback of, hey. Don't sell this on eBay per se. You know, I I think if it was 20,000 or less, that's much better. Chances are they have a lot of other cards, and when it's time to sell cards that we advise them, it is in a much better range to sell through through us on eBay.

Like, they're gonna come to us. They're gonna say, like, these these guys did, you know, did me right. They didn't convince me to sell this card just for the business. And, you know, here are some cards that are in their sweet spot, and I'd love to give them a try. Like, things like that.

You know? I see videos coming from Instagram where and these are, like, great videos. I love this. It's a simple concept. It's just, like, you and you showing.

Like, here are the cards that are going to be listed or here are the cards that are listed, and it's just showing the cards, which is it's like the it's it's such easy marketing, but you're giving, like, further exposure to these cards that are available or going to be available. So to me, that's like a brand play. Do you I guess the how do you think about the promotion of cards that are being sold through MC Sports cards in this era? Is that something that you think is, like, necessary in order for that card to reach its highest potential is, like, additional marketing just, like, icing on the cake? Like, how do you think about, like, the promotion of cards that are about to be listed or actively going?

Marketing is great. I think it's a vital part. I mean, I'll I'll be honest. Like, our marketing spend as a company has always been next to nothing. I know a lot of the bigger companies, like, outside of the eBay consignment space, you know, manufacturers, private auction houses, they will spend tons of you know, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on that.

And, I I think it's it's it's a great piece to the business. But, again, going back to, like, our you know, my roots of dealing with people I know, people they know, like, our target audience has always been clients who know us or know somebody who who's used us. And, like, we've never felt the need to really expand the reach so much because we may pick up some clients that are not in our ideal range of, yeah, of the type of cards we want. And going back to, like, the Instagram marketing, I think it's great with, like, MC Monday items to to do the reels that we do, and and, you know, we are working on enhancing our marketing strategies within, and it's kind of work in progress. But I I think clients really like to see their cards featured whether whether it leads to more bids or views on eBay or not.

I think it's just a good gesture to to promote the cards on online and, you know, make sure the clients know that you're taking care of their items. I I think one of the things that some people might take for granted is just the network of and volume of eyeballs that eBay gets regularly and routinely and daily. Like, yes, when we consign our cards, we would love for the consignor to do a reel and promote our cards individually. But eBay, for in like, I know how many times a day I check my saved searches. Like, you're someone who's building a business where the volume of eyeballs that go to the platform where you're selling cards is is insane.

Like, talk about, like, how you think about that because I think that's one of the things that a lot of people don't necessarily maybe we just take it for granted that that's happening. Yeah. The I mean, eBay's platform, all things aside of, like, what cards are best for it or or high end card. Like, eBay's platform is the best platform, period, just in terms of user base, traffic, you know, views, eyeballs. And, I'm pretty sure we, in the last ninety days, had, like, or 500,000,000 impressions or or some some crazy statistic there that, like, you can't create on your own.

You can't have your own site and get that kind of traffic. Like, it's just crazy. And, obviously, not all of that leads to something. But when you're talking about 500,000,000, if literally one in a 100,000 leads to business you wouldn't get, you're looking at you know? Well, I can't do the math.

I can't either. I don't know. That's insane. Yeah. I just wanted to, like, I wanted to get a gut check on that, but those are some crazy numbers.

Alright. I wanna move over to just some data. So I I I just like, when I knew we were talking, I just pulled a report in CardLider, and I just, like, searched sales history, MC Sports cards, a thousand dollars or more in January. And, like, I did this, like, last week, and it was, like, almost 500. It might be 500 now.

But so, like, in January, you've sold nearly 500 cards at a thousand dollars or more, which I like, I look at that. I'm like, that's wild. Just like one seller in one month. What what does that say to you about, like, current collector behavior in the marketplace? And then, like, is is that different than previous years?

Like, help us understand, like, where kind of we're trending right now as an industry. Yeah. I mean, 500 cards, not even through the full month is is a good amount. I mean, that's, that averages to, you know, whatever, $10.15 a day or so. Obviously, our our Monday auctions is where the bulk of it's from, but it's a good sign for the market, just getting that much consistent inventory on eBay.

And, again, we're not the only eBay seller who's getting a good amount of high end. I think in terms of, like, density, we are by far the the highest seller with, like, just high end when you average it all out. But so if we had 500 cards, you know, the other sellers might have 500 cards amongst themselves combined. So, like, that's a thousand cards on eBay, a thousand cards worth a thousand or more consistently. That's a lot, and that that's really good for the market.

I think, that shows that there is starting to be a lot more trust in eBay on on that side. How important has MC Monday's been to your business? I think as collectors, we appreciate the consistency in knowing when things are going up and when things are ending. And I've always found that, like, there are eBay in general or eBay sellers, like, should do more of these sorts of events based auctions, and you've been doing it, I feel like, for quite some time now. Maybe talk about, like, the origin of MC Mondays and just how important it's been to what you you've been building.

Yeah. For sure. So a lot of how we do things and what our, like, core values are is because we are and we're high end collectors or just collectors. So we, like, we know what we want. You know, we being my team.

Like, I know what I liked as a high end dealer and collector. And when I wanted to sell things, I knew the experience that I wanted from the platform I would sell on. So we, you know, we needed to figure out something to really, like, specialize more in the high end. And and doing this MC Monday auction and our monthly showcase became that because now it's like all the high end buyers, they know don't miss out on Mondays. They have to look at all of our items instead of other sellers on a random Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

There might be a $5,000 card going. And, you know, a a lot of times, I I feel like I say this all the time when I talk about MC Mondays is is like, there were too many times where I'd be looking on CardLadder at values, and I see a comp. And I'm like, well, I would have bought that in a second for that price if I knew it was ending. Like, there were so many times I would see stuff, and I would just be like, jeez. Like, I don't I don't know how I missed that.

But now with MC Monday, like, as long as you know to look on Monday, chances are you're not gonna miss things like that. Obviously, we still sell high end cards all days of the week, but, like, the bulk of it is on those Mondays, and and we always push our clients to to submit their auction their items for that auction. Some wanted sold sooner, and, you know, that's completely fine. So a card I wanna call out here, got it up on the screen, is the I would imagine this is an MC Monday, sale. This is the Shohei, Goodwin champions, Kanjay autograph, selling in a BGS9 auto $1,052,600 dollars.

Dude, I know, like, Ohtani stuff is crazy, but this is like, when this I talk to me about this card. Just, like, how it came to you, like, expectations, like, this sale. This is just crazy. Like, talk to me about just this card, being sold through NC Sports cards. Yeah.

This one this is an interesting one because that one is is from one of our our really good clients, somebody that we we've dealt with on the private sales side and done many trades and etcetera with. So we actually purchased a couple high end cards for this client, and he submitted a bunch of high end cards for us to auction to pay the balance. So that was one of the cards, and, definitely, it's up there in in terms of, like, better cards we've we've ever gotten. So the the team was really excited to see that one, and, we're we're excited to have that one in the auction. Amazing card.

Amazing sale. Is is is the is funding something that you're getting into? Like, what do you see in terms of that opportunity for MC Sports cards? Yeah. We've we've always done it on the side, you know, kinda privately or, you know, we we do the whole cash advances and and everything like that.

You know, we are we are hoping to formalize it a little more to make it more accessible to people who can look on our site and and learn about it instead of having to know about it. But, yeah, it is a service we offer, and it it's very nice. It goes well. Clients love it. It helps helps the market overall because if you're now turning cards you might not care as much about into something you want, you might be happy spending a little more just to lock it down, and therefore, the price the sale price goes up a little bit, and that helps the market when when sale prices are high.

You know, everyone talks about all these different factors contributing to this market, whether it's the manufacturer and marketing and all these things. I I feel like there's not enough conversation around the funding side because I feel like funding is really helping build confidence amongst collectors and Yeah. People using it who might not have bought a 4 figure or a 5 figure card now, like, look at their collection and start to consolidate and start to get cards of their dreams. And I don't know. There to me, there's a story to be told in the hobby about how much card funding has kinda transformed what's happening across the industry over the last couple years.

For sure. And there there are a few, few players in the game right now. I still think it's a very early business model. And and, you know, the few players that we know and and work with, whether they're selling cards for their clients or buying from us for their clients, like, do a great job and, you know, definitely enjoy working with them. So I I think it's a great business model, and I think it's another business that not everybody can hop in and start.

You know, you have to kinda have some things in order to be able to provide that service. So I I always like to do things that you don't have to worry about. A million people trying to do the same thing. No doubt. I I wanna hit network effect.

I alluded to this up top, but it feels like everyone I interact with knows you at some level. I actually was having a converse I won't disclose their name because I I I don't know if they'd want me to share, but I was we were having a conversation, and they were talking about working with you on just a funding opportunity. And then they mentioned that how they've had been working with you for a long time on this. And it's just funny, like, meeting people that I know and drawing those connections, but it it like, you are someone who when I your name comes up, I I always think, like, you have this web of connections and every you have a relationship with so many different people. And everybody who I interact with who brings your name up has nothing but great things to say about you and respects you.

Maybe this is just the way you are as a person and a business owner, but that's not necessarily easy to do. Like, I I Yeah. Can only pick a few people across this industry who are in a similar spot to you who have a similar reputation. Like, how did this how did this happen? Yeah.

I I think just going back to, like, always doing right by people and building those relationships and, you know, thinking longer term in in the future and, you know, how doing dumb stuff can impact the future or, you know, you get somebody who wasn't happy because we completely mishandled something, obviously hypothetical. And they may tell their friends that, hey. This was a terrible experience. And especially when you're dealing in high end, this is, like, a very exclusive group of people. A lot of people know each other.

A lot of people talk, and, you know, their their values align with our values as a company, and and everyone aims to just keep keep that. You mentioned, like, you you've haven't been a big spender of marketing budget, and I I don't think you necessarily need to when you've built a referral engine where word-of-mouth is getting you new inbound traffic. How much of the business that you're getting at MC SportsCards outside of, like, your repeat customers, how much of it do you think is coming from that network of people who know and trust you and are just telling your friends about your services? Yeah. It's it's hard to say.

I mean, it is a very large chunk. And, like, you know, if you think about it, since we started with just networking and never really put a lot into advertising. Like, you can argue that the entire thing is a result of just really good networking and everything. But, yeah, probably a few times a week, we'll get a text or or one of my guys will get a text, and they'll say, hey. So and so referred me, and I have this, this, and that.

And, you know, let me know more about your service, and we'll usually hop on a call with them even though everything they need to know is on our site. Like, we'll still reach out and and actually talk to you and not just say, like, go to the site. Don't talk to us. Send us your cards. We'll sell them, pay you, then we'll see you later.

Like, you know, we try to add a little more personal touch to it. How how, I guess, important or, I guess, how hard is it to maybe move beyond the surface and earn that peer level trust in this space, whether it's, like, connections you made, at shows over the years or connections online. Like, I think this is something that a lot of business builders take for granted. Like, it's just the trust component, and, obviously, it's, like, the catalyst for this conversation. But, like, what do you think it takes to earn that peer level trust in the industry?

I think just long standing history doing, you know, doing things the right way, doing right by people. You know, you you wanna be somebody who you go to a show and you do a deal with somebody. They come back at the next show. They see you. They remember that deal in a positive light, and they wanna do another deal.

That goes way further than just trying to find one person you can rip off or screw over and hope you never see them again. So, like, every year at The National, we're one of the fairest dealers there. We're always fair with pricing and buying. And so many times, people come back and say, hey. I remember five years ago, I got this vintage Mickey Mantle from you, or I got this LeBron auto.

Like, it's my favorite car. I still I'm so happy with it. Like, thanks again for the deal. Like, things like that, you know, you we don't really see people come up to us and say, like, you ripped me off. Like, you know, we're not like that.

Obviously, markets change over time, and things we've sold have gone way up or way down. And, that's not what people get mad about. But, you know, we we just try to be honest, and I think doing that goes a long way in, establishing establishing that type of reputation goes a long way. And, obviously, it's like a more slow and steady type of path versus kinda, like, taking a shortcut or trying to cheat your way to the top in a way. So, you know, slow and steady.

I wanna as we're kinda rounding the corner on this conversation, I one of the threads I've been pulling on in a lot of these conversations is just trying to get some understanding of position as you scale and how do you maintain that trust as you continue to get more demand? Is that been a challenge for you in thinking about, like, how do I maintain this level of connection that I've established with my network as more cards come in, as dollars continue to go up? Like, how do you think about maintaining kinda your current position as your business begins to scale? Yeah. I mean, obviously, it's a challenge.

And, like I said earlier with the site before the site, everything was by hand, and there's if we had a third of our volume today, there's no way we'd be able to operate the way we do. So I I think just implementing technology, automating things where you can to where it doesn't take away from the customer experience. You know, we we learn that if you get an email saying your listings are going live on eBay tonight, you're not gonna be mad that somebody didn't text you saying that. Obviously, like, we we focus on the human connection areas that we need to, and I think we'll always have capacity for that. But I think a lot of, like, the little things that could be solved and and communicated easily.

Like, we we've turned to automation on that front. Maybe, kind of I'm I'm curious. Just has there been any just during this growth mode of you growing this business and scaling, you know, adding people, adding new process, adding technology, has there been any mistakes that you've made along the way that, you know, it sucked at the time, but it's like, it was very important learning lesson for you as, the business builder of MC SportsCards? Yeah. I think early on, just, there was definitely a little more organization issues of just kinda how, you know, how we keep things, where we store things, how we make sure that things are accessible for when it's time to be shipped and and everything like that.

So I think just process improvement. You know, early on processes were were not as good, and we we had to learn by doing them a certain way that didn't work to get them to where they are today. So, like, that that was always our biggest challenge in the early days, and we've evolved a lot. And then we have a really good system, and I think we could always have a better system. But, yeah, that that's kinda the one one pain point, I would say, early on.

Alright. Going to ask you to maybe share some advice to the audience, and it could be, for collectors out there that are just kinda trying to build connections to, you know, continue to make deals with people in their network or maybe it's business builders in the space like you. If someone is listening to this and they are thinking about or trying to build a reputation like you have in the business that you're building, like, what sort of feedback or advice? Obviously, building a reputation takes forever and the it's there's no shortcuts. But what what is, like, one piece of advice you'd give to someone who's who's trying to build a reputation to, do cool things in this space?

Yeah. Just do right by people. Like, make people want to do business with you. That's you know, goes the longest way when people actually prefer to to use your company or do business with you because they like you as a person and have good experience. You know, that that goes further than if your payout rates or turnaround time or things like that are, are better.

I think at the end of the day, like, that that wins over that kind of stuff. Mike, m c sports cards, always good to chat. It was fun to kinda dig into your history and building trust, and looking forward to another conversation down the road. Yeah. Thanks again for having me.

Appreciate it.