Alright. We are back with another episode of Passion to Profession.

I have been really enjoying revisiting some of the our previous conversations from earlier this year and excited to catch up with Quick Consign. I'm sure you've bought cards from Quick Consign.

I know I have. Today, we'll be joined by Nick, who is the head of consignment at Quick Consign. But without further ado, Nick, welcome back, man. How are you? I'm doing great, Brad. Thanks for having us back. Really appreciate it.

Looking forward to this. We were talking a little bit about growth, this year, I think across the board. Anyone who is in, the hobby, building a business likely has seen some sort of growth, definitely on the consignment side.

How has this past year maybe changed for you and the quick consign team just in terms of all the wacky and wild growth that's happening within our industry?

Yeah. I think it keeps us on our toes. You know? There definitely wasn't any sense in the last in the last year of stability and regular quantities or regular volume or regular customers.

We've kind of been on an interesting just upward trajectory where seems like every quarter is our biggest quarter.

You know? Every milestone we hit with the amount of customers we have or the amount of, you know, payouts we're sending out, it just kinda continues to grow.

So, I mean, I think that with how the market's gone and and kind of been an explosion in growth, so has our business. You know, trying our best to keep our standards, keep our speed, keep our accuracy, and all of that.

And but but continuing to take on all the business because that's honestly what we're here for is to to serve the market however big it might get.

Have you noticed just in terms of cards coming through your shop? Has it been more volume, more, quality quantity and quality?

Like, how would you describe just this year and what's coming through Quick and Sign? You know, I think it's a little bit of both. It's a good question. We've seen our quantity nearly double since this time last year.

We've seen the average cost per card go up, but not quite double. So I think it is probably more, quantity than quality as far as if you're if you're considering quality like the price that it's sold for.

I think that a lot of it too is that I think that it's it's a seller's market and that there is a lot of collectors out there that are buying stuff that maybe they wouldn't have bought last year at this time.

I think that we're seeing less and less unsolds, and, you know, we have a whole process in place to try to avoid unsold. So we do our process, and we end up with some inevitably that that don't get sold.

And then that's been going down and down. Like, it just seems like there are collectors out there, and investors out there who are just scooping up, like, even some of the lower end stuff.

So in my mind, I think it's I think it's big, ultra modern, ultra high priced type of products. I think it's the explosion of all of these different new markets that weren't exactly humongous last year at this time.

And that brings in a lot of new money, a lot of new collectors, a lot of people who maybe aren't interested in football or basketball, but really love the WNBA or really love SpongeBob, or Disney or something like that.

I tend to I feel like I've been having this I I just love the in the kind of the perspective, but there's a multitude of factors, certainly, regarding kinda growth and what's the cause behind it.

But is there anything in particular within the hobby this year, whether it's manufacturers, technology, Pokemon, you name it?

Like, is there anything specifically that you would point to and say, this is the reason we've gotten to this point and it seems pretty stable? Or is it a multitude of factors kind of from your seat?

So, yeah, I think that I don't think it feels unstable in maybe the way that it would have in, say, 2020, where you did see this massive growth, but it seemed it almost it it was almost like everybody around could feel that it wasn't gonna last forever.

You know, Zion based rookie cards going for $250 a pop. Like, that wasn't gonna last forever. Eventually, something was gonna happen there.

This feels different. This feels like steady growth from a number of different channels. It seems like you're you're seeing people who are discovering ways to to make money or or at least enjoy the hobby, on the lower end.

I think you're seeing you saw Panini throw, you know, everything that they had at the wall this year, I think, with some of the new product releases.

Prism Black, big flawless, big eminence. You know, we did crazy numbers on that stuff, the rookie royalty stuff.

The WNBA is crazy. I definitely didn't see that one coming. I did not think that the name Caitlin Clark would have been on our top 100 sales this year that many times.

But, yeah, it's unreal. I'm I'm I'm excited to when we talk cards to get into it, I picked out a Clark card I wanna talk about. But I I was doing the, research ahead, and I was digging through all the sales and card ladder.

And I was like and I do this quite a bit with other just through a lot of different reporting, but I was, like, astonished by the volume of big ticket Caitlin Clark cards that sold through, quick consign, which if if that's not if that or if the whole category like that's not even doing anything in one year and then the next year, it's just additive to everything else, that makes probably for a pretty, year for you all.

And that's what's interesting, right, is that if you have a big top scrum Disney collector or a big WNBA collector, there's definitely some crossover, but odds are that your big time football collector isn't the guy buying those Caitlin Clarks or buying the Wally Super Factor or something like that.

So you're almost opening the doors to new new avenues, new people, new investors, new markets, and that's the cool part about it.

That's why to me, it feels a lot more sustainable than maybe some of the growth that we've seen in the past. I wanna hit on you mentioned the Panini kinda dump.

And what's interesting about it is, from my perspective, is just looking at basketball, for instance, it seems like a lot of the basketball product that was dropped at the end, whether it's, you know, flawless silhouette, like, it's been revered by collectors.

Like, collectors are excited about the product. People are spending money on it.

When you have that volume of new releases that are coming out, essentially, all at the same time on top of the Topps release and the new momentum around Topps Basketball, like, what has that been like for you all?

Because I would imagine a a large volume of what's being sold through quick consign are likely new cards that are just coming out. Yeah. And that's actually been one of our focuses.

I think when we get into sort of the business conversation, we could talk a little bit more about that. But getting the cards to the market as quickly as humanly possible on new releases is one of our main focuses.

So we've seen that in real time. You know, we were we were working with somebody on release day, living, well, having flawless basketball cards, living even just like the Mosaic basketball release.

Like, I think we sold the black gold to the farm castle for upwards of $4,000.

You know? Just not a product you would think of to to net this crazy amount of money. I think that the interesting basketball is really interesting. It's also my wheelhouse. I'm a huge basketball fan.

But this year's basketball in general, I think, was interesting because the wax prices kind of aligned with comps in a way that we haven't seen from Prism Basketball or from basketball in general in the past few years, for lack of a superstar rookie.

I think what you'll you'll see you're you're seeing still, I think, to this day, like, Prism Hobby Boxes are, like, $500.

And, you know, maybe a third of the boxes that you rip, you might make your money back, which is on almost unheard of when you get into sealed wax products in that in that way.

And then I think you're just seeing, so I think that there's a really big value proposition in that, 2425 market.

And it was really cool to see the juxtaposition because as the end of this 2425 Panini stuff is coming out, so is flex Topps' flagship drop.

And so you saw people going one day buying buying Panini from last year and then the next day jumping into Topps from this year, and it is interesting. Topps is interesting, man. I don't think that they it's not gonna be the same.

I think that there's a lot of value in what Topps does, but Topps does things a lot differently than Panini does. So some of the you know, that that flagship product, that's a Topps rip.

That's not a good it's not not the best time. You you go through a lot of base cards and a lot of base rookies before you find something interesting. I think that Topps Chrome refractor rookies are about the most precious thing.

You know, I I I'm 36, so I was 10, 11, 12 years old in the late nineties and the early two thousands when Topps Chrome was was at its peak and, like, those were to my in my mind, like, that's what I would want for my favorite rookie.

But, yeah, I think that that that juxtaposition between those two is really interesting. I think it's good for just basketball in general. I think you've seen a lot of people get excited about it.

So interesting. And I I it these are these have been thoughts that have swirled around in my head, but I have not, like, put them all together up until you talking about it right now, and maybe hitting it, from a different angle.

Like, how do you view the, rookie having, like, the star rookie that drives new product, drives interest, brings people to the party versus having maybe not the star rookie or the rookie everyone's hyped up on, but having affordability within, like, the box price.

Like, you can comfortably go to your LCS or buy into a break, and you're not gonna kill yourself by, you know, having a rip.

Like, how do you view, like, those two different positions? And, maybe what is, like, the healthiest mode, just in terms of, like, if you're a collector trying to build out your collection?

Like, how do you think about those two positions? Yeah. It's tricky. I think that maybe the healthiest thing that happened is kinda what happened in 2021. The only problem is is that when 2021 dropped, it was way too high.

So 2021 had dropped based on the the grading of sort of the draft class in general and been around where 2425 is now. And then Anthony Edwards became a thing, and some of these guys kinda climbed out of it.

And then that, like, belatedly became this good draft class that had a lot of big rookies in it, you know, then that's kind of, I think, probably the healthiest method because, ideally, when the product comes out on release day, every collector is gonna wanna get into it.

Right?

And then if every single box, every single year is just gonna plummet a week or two after release day, that's not good for the hobby. So it's tricky. I think that having a big massive star rookie favors like the long term investor.

You know, you go in, you spend your your money, you get your win Banyama rookies, you get them graded, you put them in your safe, and you wait until he's a hall of famer, you wait until he win he wins the championship.

But I think that for the collectors and for maybe some of the guys who are are playing more on the margins, they're trying to grab those no name rookies. Like, that's the cool thing about '24, '25. Right?

There's 10 rookies that could potentially make an all star team. I don't think any of us know who they are yet. I mean, Bluezealous is a guy that I really like. Castle's a guy that I really like. Alex R is a guy that I really like.

I'm not positive that they're gonna be all stars, but the cool thing is that I could buy those boxes and collect 10 of them, and it's not crazy expensive. I'm not paying sort of the surcharge on Wembley like I would last year.

I love that perspective. Has there been outside of basketball, has there been any, cards or categories that I we talked WNBA, and I'm sure we'll talk more about that.

But anything else that is kind of surprised you just one way or the other, positive or negative just based on performance?

Yeah. I mean, I think on the positive side, you know, the the obvious elephant in the room is, like, Pokemon's going crazy.

TCG in general is going crazy. Think in the last year, you had the the rise in popularity of, like, the one piece market.

And it seems like every time there's kind of a new TCG angle, it it sort of inspires interest in even, like, Magic the Gathering and Yu Gi Oh and some of these sort of older or not not as popular in the ultramodern era category.

So we're just kinda seeing TCG explosion all over the place. And then I think even bigger, the elephant in the room is, like, these these Topscrone Disney products, this Topscrone SpongeBob that just came out.

We just put up the, the SpongeBob Patrick Star dual autograph to '5, or I'm sorry, '1 01. And forgive me one second. Okay. Sorry. I lost you there.

Yeah. We just put up that dual 101, Patrick Star spongebob autograph. And the fact that I could buy a Joe Montana autograph rookie card or something like that for much less than what that goes for is insane to me. But I think it's good.

I think it speaks to what what these cards are in general, which is, like, kind of a representation of nostalgia. Right? You look back to your your childhood and remember memories, and and that's why people wanna collect these things.

And it's not always sports for everybody, and it's cool that the card market is kind of expanding out to capture even more people in nostalgia, I think.

One of the things that I've observed just definitely is, like, TCG is on the rise. Like, you know, prior to this year, I never talked about Pokemon, and it's never came up in the conversation. Not that that wasn't happening.

It was, but it was almost an alternative universe. Now that universe is becoming closer, closer together with the sports and sports cards. Not saying there's a ton of overlap, but there are collectors who dabble in both of those.

How do you, at Quick and Sign, as someone who's, you know, traditionally been selling, you know, awesome sports cards, like, how have you started to grow awareness in some of those TCG categories to make sure that people know in that space, they can go use your services to sell your cards.

Is that been, like, an intentional strategy, or is it kind of organically happen just as the growth has evolved? Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question, and I think that the answer is that it's kind of a a circle.

It's a little cyclical, where I think initially I mean, we always accepted Pokemon. We always accepted TCG. It was never a a rule that we wouldn't sell those.

But it was definitely you know, there was if we're talking about a few years ago, there was a period of time where sports was king, and that was, like you were saying, that was super secondary.

Or it was a completely different world where there were sales that were happening almost outside of our our world.

But a lot of it has come from you know, I think, initially, our push came from our customers, guys who are are into into the stuff that we do, but also into to Pokemon and TCG and asking us if we can, you know, accommodate handling some some Pokemon, and are we comfortable doing that?

And, you know, then we did, and then we found the right people internally who could, you know, get the titles right and make sure we captured all of the different rare parallels and things like that.

And then that in turn led to us sort of realizing the the crazy market that we have and then making a concerted push that to them look for more collectors.

So it was almost like the the customers gave us the the will to build the infrastructure.

And then now that we have that infrastructure, you know, I'm actively going out and looking for big TCG customers on almost a daily basis. Which so what is the yeah.

What it what is I would love to know, like, what is that you know, without, you know, sharing any trade secrets or but what does that look like when you're, like, on offense trying to find the sources of a certain category, whether it's TCG, WNBA, you know, baseball, vintage baseball?

Like, what does that look in look like for you? Like, what does that entail in order to kinda make those connections and build that relationship?

Yeah. I mean, I'll describe it this way. I would describe our marketing strategy as all out assault from everyone. So, you know, we reach out to our customers directly.

Obviously, we wanna make sure that they're having a great experience with us. But we also want to offer them incentives to bring people our way, make sure that they're sending all that they can send.

I would say that's one one level of it. There's just the general social media presence. There's marketing and promotions, which we've been running like crazy over the last, couple of months.

You know, something as simple as, like, focusing on TCG and running a promotion and then, you know, directing your socials at some of the TCG accounts can kinda get you there and and build some organic progress.

Focusing on where they get the cards is one of our biggest biggest things as well.

You know, partnering with other organizations so that we're available, sort of at the source of where you're buying your boxes or where you're ripping your stuff, making it super easy.

You know, I think that the the the not so the the the most obvious thing is oftentimes the truest one, but just making it super easy for people to sell stuff is the number one thing for us.

You know, almost more important than speed, and speed is a big, huge focus for us, but almost more important than speed is just ease. Just I just send you stuff, and I put my I put my account number on the package, and I ship it.

And then in a couple of weeks, you'll send me some money, and then I don't have to do anything. I just know, and I have I'm actually, like, looking at a pile of cards. I'm in my I'm in my apartment right now.

And just looking at them and the amount of time it takes to sort and top load and take pictures and all that, it just it gives me anxiety to the point where if I could just put it in a box and ship it to myself, it would be a great it would be it would be a great feeling for me.

So, yeah, I don't think that there's anything I don't think I would say you know, obviously, we have a couple of of things up our sleeve that I don't wanna disclose just yet, for stuff moving forward towards the end of the year.

But in general, I don't think that it's it's anything super crazy.

I think that it's just focusing your marketing that way, reaching out to some of the bigger people in the in the in, you know, in that side of the hobby, trying to be the best that you can at what you do, and, you know, speaking to to the potential customers and accommodating them.

You know? What do you need? Like, what makes your needs as a TCG collector?

One interesting thing with TCG, I will tell you, is that so if I have like, right now, you say Matas Bozzelas is a big is a big rookie right now, or even if you went in the flagship and talked about VJ Edgecomb.

Right? If you had 30 silver VJ Edgecomb or refractor rookies or whatever from the silver packs out of the flagship, you'd wanna sell them all today. He couldn't be any hotter. Sell them. Sell them. Sell them. Sell them. Sell them.

On the TCG side, there's actually sort of a law of diminishing returns on that, and there's actually value in spacing things out over time, which is something that is kind of really unique because sports are so rise and fall based on player performance, based on what's coming out next.

So it's almost a completely different game, and I I actually you know, we we talked to some of our bigger customers and kinda worked that out to the point where now it's a part of our process.

But, yeah, there is actually value in the TCG side of, like, spacing things out and, you know, not burning so many cards all at the same time so that that one collector isn't the only guy looking at them at that time.

So I thought that was pretty interesting. That is interesting.

And it's like, I'm sure you as the individual running the show and, you know, aligning teams, people process, and technology, and all that fun stuff. Probably the last thing you need is to add another workflow into the mix.

But sometimes you gotta do it for the good of, the the sale and making sure you understand or that that you're helping educate kind of the market as you're trying to help support them along the way too.

So, that's awesome. Yeah. The the, I think the secret sauce to what we do is to have the ability to build and fix a process quickly enough so that you get it done just before the next one needs to be started.

You know? Like, that's basically it's what we do. Every every process that we fix, another one arises, but it's all it's all for the good of the hobby.

It's all to make us better at what we do, and that's that's the that's our goal. Awesome. So we're we're gonna hit some cards that have sold through Quick and Sign this year.

I cherry picked them ahead of, this, and why not start off with a pretty relevant card in our hobby and a player that, certainly has a large collector base.

This is the 2004, 2005 exquisite collection, Kobe Bryant, Gameborn Jersey Patch, auto, b G s nine five out of 100.

This sold on June 3 for 40 k. You know, it's you see exquisite, you see Kobe, you see auto, you see Game Warren. It's it's just like checking all the boxes.

Mhmm. You know, when this when you see a card like this come through and then you see the result kinda like what what's going on in your head as especially as someone who's a big basketball guy yourself?

Yeah. And, you know, my dad is a Lakers fan growing up, so I naturally kinda revered the Kobe Shaq era of the Lakers.

I was probably 10 or 11 once my dad cheered them on. So Kobe's, like, you know, my hero. I'm sure just about every basketball fan my age is gonna say the same thing.

So I love seeing Kobe's. I like holding them. I like looking at them. I don't collect them per se. But, yeah, there's just something specifically aesthetically valuable about that era of Lakers, like, in a sports card, game use patch.

That patch is beautiful. And then I just it makes me happy that the hobby is responding to all the things that we already know are valuable.

Right? We know that hard sign cards are valuable. We know that game worn patches are valuable, and we don't want the patches that aren't game worn.

You know, these higher end products are valuable. There's value in in not sort of messing around in the scores and the, the Don Russ level stuff because this this higher end stuff does hold value over time.

And then I think, you know, this is kind of to be expected, I think, at this point in the card market.

I think even outside of the ultra modern bubbles and fluctuations that this sort of high end vintage stuff, and I think we're we're moving into vintage now with Kobi.

We're talking about twenty years. I think it's just only gonna go up in value.

I think it's it's an investment along the lines of investing in real estate if you ask me because I think that there's not a lot that could happen that's gonna bring that thing down in value, and it's just gonna go up and up and up.

So it makes me happy to see the market responding to that. Nice to see a a Beckett card get that kinda that kinda value.

Nice to see gain more patches. Serial number cards, hand signed cards get the love that they deserve. So that's the that was a that was a beautiful one for sure. So I find it fascinating that you mentioned the the Beckett callout.

And I just as I've I've I haven't done this a while, but just to get kind of the pulse on this, I I would imagine you made the the remark just in light of, like, the premium, like, a PSA 10 has gotten across the board and across the industry.

Like, if this card just hypothetical. If this card based on everything, what you track and what you see on a regular basis.

If this card, let's say, was a PSA 10, I don't know, pop four or five. Like, what what would that have done to the value of this card just based on kind of the stuff you're seeing on a regular basis? Yeah. I mean, it's it's tricky.

I if it was, you know, this was a, a Wyndham or something like that, if it was something ultra modern, I would be able to say that, you know, the numbers show that you're just gonna see a pretty significant premium.

You know? I think I think upwards of 15%, maybe even more depending on the card. I think with this vintage market, it's tricky.

I mean, the guy who wants that Kobe wants that Kobe. You know? That's where you really get into rarity, And I don't know how much of a difference it would have made because you're not playing the same game.

You know? That's why it's interesting. That's it's almost like two separate games that you're playing. Like, a guy who needs this Kobe needs this Kobe.

I don't think he would care all that much if it was a Beckett nine even. I don't think it woulda hurt that value that much. I'm not sure if PSA nine or a PSA 10 woulda changed it all that much.

I think that card is just a really valuable card. Yes. Okay. Yes. I I love I love the breakdown there, and that's good to decipher the difference, difference and agree.

Like, if someone needs this, they're just gonna grab it regardless of the grade. We gotta hop over to Caitlin Clark. And like I mentioned, like, I was scrolling.

I did a filter, like, top selling cards, and I was just, like, my job was on the obviously, I follow Caitlin Clark's market pretty pretty closely, but just the volume that, has sold through quick consign is just crazy.

And the one we're spotlighting here is her 2425 prism gold rookie auto out of 10.

This is raw, and this sold for $30,100. Just insane stuff. And so I I wanna know, like, obviously, we could talk about this card. I would love to hear you talk about this card.

But just talk about Clark in general and, what you've seen this year and, if you can even compare it to anything else from, you know, one player in a category, to anything else that you've seen before.

Yeah. This is I mean, this is interesting. And I think that this is gonna be a theme that kinda transcends a couple of the people that we'll talk about today, a couple of the categories that we'll talk about today.

But you're just getting into where you're talking about superstars that transcend the sport. And that's where that's where you get into big differences between just a superstar inside of a sport or a big name.

You know, you compare somebody like Mike Trout to somebody like Shohei Ohtani, and you can see the difference there, where when you're trans you know, when you're going across countries, across cultures, and becoming this icon that's really more about culture than it isn't even about sports, I think that's what you're looking at for Caitlin Clark.

I think that it's a really cool thing.

I don't wanna get too sappy, but I think the idea that there's millions and millions of girls out there that love basketball, that get to look and see this girl play basketball and say, like, that's my Michael Jordan.

I think that's a really big important thing that, shouldn't be taken for granted.

And I think that's got a lot to do with it. I think that, you know, I don't think that the guy who bought that Kobe is interested in this Caitlin Clark necessarily.

I'm not saying that he's not, but but I think that this is a whole new market of people. And I think that there's a lot to be said about odds are Caitlin Clark's gonna be the biggest female basketball player of our lifetime.

There was never anyone close to as big as her before, and assuming that she continues on, I think that that's pretty fair I think that's a pretty fair and conservative statement to make.

Now these prices are crazy to me. I'm not sure if I would consider it like a like, this is only gonna go up in value over time. I can't say for sure that it won't.

Me personally, I think it's a little bit of a riskier investment, but I think that there is just something to be said about the fact that, you know, people who don't even watch sports, people who don't know who Victor Wembanyama is really want this card and think it's the coolest thing ever.

So that definitely adds a ton of value, and I think that's why you're seeing that that market go so crazy.

Yeah. It's, been, it's been fun to watch. And, yeah, I for everything you you've said, I I couldn't agree. I agree across the board where it's, she's so had said that, she's inspiring so many people. But these prices, who knows?

Like, it's it's hard to say they're gonna keep going up with the way they've come out of the gates. But this is what's fun is that we're talking about WNBA cards, and we're talking about this category in a whole new life.

And I guess just as we close out Caitlin Clark, you know, recently, it just came out that while it seems like Topps is, like, grabbing everything, you know, Avenger or Avenger style, grabbing, you know, their share of every license that is just announced that Panini is renewing their license with, the WNBA.

Do you think, like, that is a good, indicator for maybe, like, these Clark rookies that, you know, they're going to con she's gonna continue to have Prism cards.

She's gonna have Donra stuff, you know, existing legacy sets, that consistency and familiarity. Do you think that's good for her market that Panini, you know, is is maintaining the license for dub WNBA cards for the foreseeable future?

Yeah. I definitely think so. You know, it's almost at this point, if you own one of these these first year rookies, it's almost irrelevant whether they hang on to her autograph licensing as well because your card is autographed.

In some ways, it might even help if the second or fourth year card is right. So, yeah, I mean, I think that I think it's a smart move by Panini. I think that market is gonna be a big saving grace for them.

And, like I said, I just think it's a whole different subset of people. You know, there there was the whole thing with the the baseball license, but all those baseball collectors still went and bought their their Bowman Gromes.

Like, nobody was interested in Prism baseball in that same type of way. So I think that the WNBA fans will ride with Panini and ride with Prism and ride with this stuff for sure. I did just wanna mention before we finish this.

I have my, my sales report here, and I just wanted to pull it up. And I we sold 95 cars this year with Caitlin Clark's name on them that sold for over $1,000. 95. Wow. That's insane. Yes. That I'm I'm not shocked by it by the scroll.

When I was doing the scroll, it was like every other card was Clark, but that's that's bonkers. And what's fun about it is, you know, they're, you know, hopefully, the CBA and everything goes as planned.

You know, I'm I'm here in Indianapolis, so I'm right in the backyard of Caitlin Clark country. But the, you know, when she I I think about the moment after the injury she gets back on the floor.

It's gonna be pretty electric and hopefully healthy and everything else, but I know there'll be a lot of people holding Caitlin Clark's cards waiting for that moment For sure.

For sure. And I'm I just hope that she comes back and is healthy and and can continue to do the things that she does.

She's also a super talented, amazing basketball player, so that's a cool aspect of it too is that she also she she lives up to the hype when she's healthy.

100%. Alright. Talking about transcendent, even though this is tops dynasty. But talking supercharged, we gotta talk about Ohtani. So this is the, 24 tops dynasty, Shohei Ohtani, game use patch auto out of 10.

This sold in July for $13,450. I'm just gonna, like, just go on Ohtani because, like, I'll start here. My wife walked down during the playoffs. It was like the first round against the the Reds, and, you know, I was I was explaining her.

I was like, Ohtani's up. You're gonna wanna watch us. And, of course, in that moment, he does what he's he does so often is he just comes through. He just rocked the home run, and I was like, yeah.

This is why this guy is so popular. But what's it been like seeing Ohtani's card sell? I mean, it it feels I'm not a baseball card collector, but it just feels like his cards have reached a whole new, hemisphere.

And this card's really cool because you get game worn materials and, you know, a team where he's already done so much. But, yeah, talk about Ohtani.

Yeah. I mean, I think it it is cool to see the, you know, the Dodgers representation and the fact that it's not you know, seeing a card that sells for for this kind of price that's not a rookie card, is really cool.

I mean, what I almost don't know what to say about Johei. I mean, modern day Babe Ruth, absolute monster in a bunch of different areas, transcendent superstar across a bunch of different cultures.

What I said I think about Caitlin Clark is true of a bunch of kids who are big baseball fans and wanna be just like him.

We've just never seen anything like him. At least not you know, I think that the the only guy that we could say that we've seen like him is Babe Ruth, but I wasn't I'm not that old.

I've only heard stories. So, yeah, I think it's really cool to see a guy do what he's doing. He's doing things that nobody's really ever done before.

And it's it's translating into winning too, which is another thing. A lot of times, you will see these kind of nonfunction like, non nonnormative superstars that do cool things and have big stat numbers and stuff.

You know, guys getting 10 block games and stuff like that. And it doesn't translate to winning.

So it is really cool to see a guy be a winner and a massive hitter and a great pitcher and, you know, this big superstar that kinda and he seems like he has a cool personality too and people, like, like him, which is another big aspect of it.

I think that's like the Luka Doncic effect. Right? Where if a guy is likable and kind of fun, to talk to in interviews, that definitely helps with your your appeal across a bunch of different categories.

No doubt. I just think about the attributes of this card, and it's just got a lot going on for it.

Super cool. And we're I'm not sure this guy is a winner, but, maybe on this in the same lane as this the SpongeBob side. We're we're talking Wall E, and why not?

This is the '25 Topps Chrome Disney Wall E super fracture, one of one, selling for $10,100 on October 26. And I just think this is fun. I think, like, Disney plays and Pixar plays such a key role in so many of our lives growing up.

And now a lot of collectors get to share those moments with their kids through Disney plus. And it just to me, like, people are like, why is this?

But it it makes a lot of sense to me as a dad and someone who's kinda gone through these cycles. 10,000, I don't know, but and I don't collect this stuff, but I felt like this was an interesting card to dig into.

Maybe talk about just, like, these non sports sets and especially, like, Disney stuff, like, what you're seeing and just interest.

Yeah. I mean, it's you know, I'll I'll make a confession and say that I've never seen this movie. I've seen all the rest of them. I'm kinda surprised that this one never never got to me.

I know it's a lot of people's favorite. It's definitely not the if if I was if somebody told me I was gonna sell a top scrum Disney card for $10, I wouldn't have said, oh, it must be the Wall e.

You know? I I don't know. It's it's a really interesting thing. I think what I was saying before holds true, which is that at the end of the day, this really does all boil down to nostalgia and memories.

And, you know, I remember watching Kobe and Shaq with my dad, and that's why a Kobe card is gonna be more valuable to me than it might be to somebody else or a younger kid who didn't didn't have that experience.

I think the same holds true in this that that's why I think I think Topps is doing a really good job on capturing on some of those other markets. And they're doing it the right way.

I don't think this is the first attempt. I mean, I remember, like, movie trading cards coming out when I was a kid in the nineties. It was junk wax era stuff, and there was no parallels, and none of the cards were worth anything.

So Disney's kinda taking Eratost is kinda taking that and applying the same sort of metrics that we use in sports card with scarcity and autographs and, you know, ways to make things valuable based on their rarity.

It's a really cool thing to see.

And like I said, I just think I think this is great for the hobby in general because it just opens up avenues to different people who there might be there's plenty of people out there that don't watch any sports and aren't interested in it at all, but that could be their favorite movie.

This could be the most important thing, one of the biggest memories of their lives, and I think that's what make people want these cards.

And then when resale value is holding that high, I think that was a surprise to everybody. When you saw these products come out, you were like, oh, that's cool.

I could see people wanting to buy it. But then when you saw people being able to buy it and sell it and having those prices hold and go up, I think that's where the market is really interesting.

So people there's definitely some money out there that thinks that this is, like, a long term success play.

These sort of non sport Disney SpongeBob style trading cards. Oh, I I've I have seen it, and I have followed the sports card collectors who see a ton of value in this stuff and are are stashing it away.

Next maybe next time we we talk, we you'll you'll have seen Wall E, and we can do a deep dive on this. Just turn this into a movie podcast. I like it. We can go step by step.

Exactly. Alright. Last card I wanna hit is the just a cool one. This is the, '20 2024 Topps transcendent Ichiro MLB logo one of one hand sign. You know, Ichiro is just his stuff sells so well, and he's got such a strong collector base.

And these MLB, logo patches, it it does not I see collectors stashing them away, and there are some specific collectors I can think about on Instagram who collect this stuff.

But it's not the same as Logoman or NFL Shields, and it feels like it hasn't got that same breakthrough yet.

So you're able to get a card like this for under 10 k, which I think is, super cool. Not saying 10 k is affordable, but just I think about Okay. What this would sell for in in some of the other categories.

But, yeah, maybe talk about just, like, MLB logo, Ichiro, what you think about this card. I mean, it's there's nothing quite like a like a like a league logo or like a Nike swoosh on one of these cards.

I just it stands out in such a major way. It's really cool that that logo has kind of the color match with the manners manners. That card just looks aesthetically really, really nice.

Mhmm. Yeah. I think that, you know, I think that baseball is sort of geared on the prospect and weight. And just, you know, I mean, past few years too, baseball has been humongous for us, and baseball has been growing, I believe.

And you are seeing a lot more interest in these, sort of ultra high end sets that are coming out in baseball now that are a lot of cards that look a lot like this.

It's a really beautiful card, and I think Ichiro, again, it just fits into that category that I'm talking about, which is just, like, transcending across multiple cultures.

You asked everyone in the world to name their top 10 MLB baseball players.

I bet you he's second or third on the list of of how frequently he gets mentioned just because of how many cultures and how many different people and how successful he was internationally, and what a superstar he was.

I mean, I was a kid when he came in, and, you know, I if somebody asked me to name my top 10 baseball players, he'd be one of the first ones that I'd say. There is something to be said about that.

I really think that that's you know, I'll be honest. Like, as a basketball nerd, I wanna talk about, like, the you know, people don't understand that Nikola Jokic's advanced stats are, like, nothing we've ever seen.

And it's like but, yeah, like, housewives in Montana don't know who Nikola Jokic is necessarily. Like, that there there is a difference there, when you're talking about star status, and that does play into the card value.

It's not all about, you know, how good you are. It really does have to do with, you know, your popularity and what type of impact you've had on the culture and and the people who are who are buying your stuff.

I love I I've never thought about Jokic and Ichiro in the same breath, but I I think that's such a fascinating thought exercise.

And I think about Ichiro, and it's, like, not only cultural impact, but, like, statistical and analytical. Like, whatever side you're on with how you like to collect, Ichiro probably checks up that one of those You're absolutely right.

You're absolutely right. And for the record, every analogy that I make is related to some basketball player or another.

So just you're gonna have to get used to that with me. Hey. All all good. Yeah. We we, we speak in basketball here in Indiana, so that's that's quite alright with me. Alright. Maybe hitting super cool.

Just wanted to highlight some of the cards, selling through quick consign this year, and maybe hit some of these other topics before we get out of here. But I was going back to just, like, twenty twenty five shifts, Nick.

Wanted to maybe get some perspective from you on just, like, what do you think has changed the most for consumers? And then, also, what has changed most for kinda, consignors this year?

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it's it's it's kind of a this is gonna sound a little redundant, and I think it kind of applies to both sides of that, but it's kind of like, the spoils of more. There's more sellers.

There's more buyers. It's easier than ever to sell your cards. It's easier than ever to find the cards that you're trying to buy. You know, things are getting automated. Things are becoming just more and more simple.

People are getting quicker at photographing cards, titling cards. You know, companies like us are making it as as easy as literally just slapping a label on a box and sending it over, and you can get all your cards sold.

No sports knowledge necessary. I think that's kind of the cool thing is that you see guys who are just kinda guys and girls who are just kinda, like, interested in maybe the the aesthetic aspect of ripping the car.

They're they're messing around with them and then having no idea what anything's worth and being able to just send them off and see what happens.

You know, I think that both, again, both on the consumer and on the consignor side, I'm a huge fan of this, but all the work that eBay has done, and I will give them the shout out, all the work that eBay has done with regards to authenticity.

A lot of people look at that on the buyer side, and they say, well, that's great for the buyer. But in my mind, it's just as great for us.

Because the second that that item gets authenticated, I can feel comfortable that, you know, we're off the hook, and we're not gonna find out three months from now that there's an issue with it. That's all really valuable stuff.

I mean, I it was definitely a little bit more wild west when you were into the, you know, pre 2010 era of of eBay and a sports card buying and selling where, you know, they're still in circulation a bunch of, like, flare hot stars Kobe Bryant that don't exist.

Just like weird weird strange card that we'll still see every once in a while from people's collections.

Yeah. I mean, as far as what's changed this year, like I said, I just think that think that the there's more cards than ever available for sale. There's more people buying them.

There's more people then in turn selling them. And that means that whatever card it is that you're looking for, you know, I think about, like, my set collectors or my rainbow chasers and things like that.

It just becomes easier and easier and easier to to find what you're looking for.

And then I think that, I did wanna mention this. I think that eBay did do some I'll give them one more shout out. I think that they did do some really good work with making it easier for people to buy in bulk.

And we've noticed one of the trends that I can definitely say for sure is that we've noticed a lot of people whereas maybe they would buy four or five cards, but now they're buying eighty, ninety, a 100 plus cards.

And I think that that's, again, also good for our consignors.

Right? That's also good if there's buyers with an open account with 40 cards in it, and they know that they're gonna get a shipping break and that everybody's fine if they just keep shopping.

That's really good for us, really good for everybody.

So, yeah, I think it really is just more. Just it just everything just feels bigger. Everything just feels like more and bigger and faster and, just kinda more transactional than ever.

We we touched on this a little bit, but maybe just, like, focusing in for a moment on growth and growth at QuickConsign. You just talked about just higher volume. Everything's up into the right.

How do you think about if there are more cards, more collectors in? How do you make sure that you're thinking about the quick consign operation, and you're able to grow and scale with the growth that's happening from the industry.

I know you can't predict the future, and you can't say that, like, this is gonna continue to go up forever, but I'm always curious in just making sure you have the right people in process and place to scale.

Like, how do you think about that on a day to day basis? Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is having a really good foundation, and having a clear sort of pathos on how we do things.

So, you know, we don't take forever to get your card done. We don't ship stuff back. We're we don't miss payouts. We're super attentive on customer service.

Like, these are the things that are nonnegotiable for us. And it's not like things don't happen, but trust me internally, that's not something that we're ever gonna, like, allow to become a regular thing.

So that foundation is crucial because to build on a good foundation becomes infinitely easier than trying to cobble together without one or with a with a a shaky foundation.

Now, you know, in my mind, growth doesn't stop until the last customer is sell sending us their last box of cards.

You know, in my mind, it's just when we started this and we built it to where to where it is today, it was always about the service.

It's because there was a genuine need for it. People love collecting cards, ripping cards, doing breaks, ripping boxes, and they end up with all these cards that some of them they wanna keep, but other ones they don't.

And I just I think that that service is super valuable to everybody in the industry, everybody involved, the guy selling the boxes, the guy doing the brakes, the guy's buying the boxes, the guy's buying into the brakes.

And so, yeah, I mean, in my mind, like, growth doesn't stop until all of our cuss you know, until we've taken care of all of our customers that we can take care of.

Scaling your back end, scaling your your process side alongside of sort of the rapid growth, it just requires you to stay really quick on your feet, and and adapt, and don't fall in love with the way that you used to do it, and don't fall in love with the exact, way that you got here.

Be comfortable being adaptive. Be comfortable automating where you can. Be comfortable changing processes to better accommodate more volume.

You know, it is it is funny because I feel like in a lot of ways, we've broken a lot of programs, where something would work really well until we hit x amount of cards, and then it broke. And then we had to figure it out.

And then that would work really great until we hit x amount of cards, and then it would break again. So we're kind of always pushing the boundaries in that way. But we were built we were built in that same way.

Like I said, I think every quarter, quite literally, over the last five years, I think every quarter has been our biggest quarter. So we're kinda just built that way, to just continue going and going.

And I don't think we have honestly, this has been our biggest quarter by far, and I we haven't quite finished it yet. But, How do you think about it? I love this mentality of, like, let's just keep going until we run it into the ground.

And, like, that's the philosophy, and that's, like, at the top, that's what you're working towards because it means, like, you're gonna have to rebuild something.

How do you get the individuals on the team, the people who are in the trenches to have that same mentality that when something breaks, they're not freaking out. But it's almost like business as usual.

Is that something just from a leadership perspective that you have to think about, on a regular basis and communicating to people to say, like, although this might not seem normal and it sucks because we have to deal with this issue right now, it's going to kinda lead to a bigger and better process for us down the road?

Like, how do you make sure that your people feel comfortable with that approach?

Right. And for the record, these aren't, like, actual breaking down of our system, just like small processes within. But, no, I mean, it's a good question, and, like, I think part of it is is leadership.

I think that, you know, the owners and myself all kind of passed out the message of of what we're about, which is that we are, you know, we are here to serve the customers.

We are gonna get things done the right way, and that we're always gonna figure out a way to get it done. So, you know, I'm never gonna be of the mind to say, you know, hey. No thanks on that new business that you're trying to send me.

Like, that it's just not in my nature. It's not in our nature as a company. So part of it is hiring the right people. I have an unbelievable team, that does an unbelievable job.

And just giving them the freedom and the creativity to solve the problems on their own, but also knowing that they have the structure and the the support in place that if you can, if we need to all jump together and solve this problem, then we will.

And we always figure it out.

But, yeah, I mean, I think part of it is is hiring the right people, and then the other part of it is just working together and hiring the type of people that are going to, you know, are gonna operate in that same type of way where we don't we don't just say, like, oh, this is broken.

Now we're gonna go slower. Or, oh, this is broken. Now it's gonna take an extra week.

Like, that's just not an acceptable answer for us. So it's almost like if you don't allow it in the building, like, that thought just isn't even allowed to to come out, then then it just never it never becomes.

So we we touched on this, briefly before and just wanna hit this before we get out of here.

But just I'm always fascinated by the approaches, the strategies that businesses take in order to not only maintain their position, but continue to grow.

Well, if you if you think about twenty twenty five and you think about quick consign from, like, a go to market strategy and, like, placing bets, is there, like, one bet you place in terms of, like, gaining more exposure or, you know, getting new customers that has really paid off for you?

I think that the number one thing you know, this is this is where the card market's so much fun because in so many ways, it's so modern and and digital and existing on the Internet. And then in other ways, it's just so old school.

And the one thing that I can tell you for certain is that, you know, nothing is going to nothing is going to rise your company and and make you successful quite like a whole bunch of satisfied customers, a whole bunch of people happy with your service.

I think another thing that I'll say is that, you know, don't make mistakes is obviously a good idea, but it's almost not about whether or not mistakes ever happen.

It's way more about how you respond to issues, mistakes, and things like that.

So, I mean, we've had, you know, a handful of instances where, like, a customer had something go wrong or didn't have the best experience the first time, but it was our reaction to it that led them to being, like, a lifelong customer or somebody who sends regularly and regularly like that.

So, Yeah. If you're talking about vetting, take care of our customers, which we will always do.

Make sure that they're super happy. Make sure that any issues get resolved to their to their you know, to the point where they're satisfied regardless of what that means for us.

And that's gonna take us further than anything else will. Now on top of that, we're doing about a thousand other things to to continue to grow.

But, yeah, I I can't I have to put that first. I just have to. I love it. Before I let you get out of here, it is that season, you know, end of the year, people are kind of rethinking their position going into the next year.

A lot of individuals, thinking about maybe participating in the hobby from a full time perspective, whether that's joining a company like Quick Consign, starting something on their own, being a show warrior, heading from town to town, dealing cards.

You're working in this space. What what sort of, advice do you have, for anyone out there who's just getting going in this industry? Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna say I wanna say two things.

One thing I will say, and I don't think enough people realize this, but the sports card knowledge is is a language at this point, and it's a language that you can actually profit on, you can make money off of.

So becoming a subject matter expert in sports cards, knowing your parallels, knowing offhand what a card's called, what the rarity is, and things like that.

There's companies like us, and there's other companies out there that could really use that skill set.

So while you might think of it as, as laying around wasting time or something like that, I promise you that there is actual value, actual value, like, legitimate tangible value in sports card knowledge in general.

Being able to look at a card and identify what it's called, especially if it doesn't require too much time or, like, looking it up on the web is a super valuable skill set.

So I think that the number one thing, if you're talking about getting involved in the industry to make money, certainly, there are plenty of opportunities with companies like us to come work for us.

We have remote workers. We have people who work in Northeast PA here. But also, you know, to make money for yourself doing sort of a buying and selling type of thing. I think that you really have to take the fun out of it.

This is like a a mistake that I I often play in the middle where I just have too much fun ripping boxes, and then it's really just a recuperation of the money I've already lost rather than, like, an investment in trying to make money in the future.

So you have to take the fun part out of it.

And you have to know the value proposition and the risk versus reward of what you're getting into. So, you know, don't open up a panini one on one box and expect to make money. You know what I mean? Like, know what you're getting into.

My biggest piece of advice as far as, like, I want to get into profiting, and I'm starting at the very bottom. Look at the sport that's about to come into season, that currently is in the off season and is about to come into season.

Identify 10 or 20 guys that you think are gonna have a breakout season. Buy a bunch of serial numbered rookies, store prints.

You don't even have to spend more than 10 or $20 a piece. Buy a bunch of them. Wait for the season to start. And even if you only hit on 75% of them, you're probably gonna more than make your money back.

So playing that off season into in season game, I do it every year with basketball. I just grab a bunch of cards of of the guys who are about to go into year two, especially if it was a down year.

And then, again, I think one of the biggest one of the biggest things in the market is, like, don't buy on the guy who's the hottest right now. You think his markets his markets already peaked. You should have bought him two weeks ago.

So try to find the next guy who's gonna be who's gonna who's gonna pop. So looking at guys who are injured, who are gonna come back, looking at guys who are young and maybe get an opportunity, stuff like that.

That those would be some of my biggest pieces of advice as far as just, like, on the individual sort of buying and selling side of things. We covered a whole lot of ground. This was a lot of fun, Nick.

Really appreciate you coming on, talking a little bit about your role and what's happening at Quick Consign. Looking forward to doing this again in 2026. Absolutely, Brad. It was my pleasure. It's always fun talking to you.