Passion to Profession: Tait of Hoody's Collectibles on Building a Card Business from the Ground Up
What's going on? Welcome back to Passion to Profession, a new series we are running here on stacking slabs, where we dig into the entrepreneurial journey of eBay's top sellers. Excited for today's conversation. I am joined by Tate, who owns Hoodies Collectibles in Oregon. This is a fun chat about him starting a business while in college and scaling it to be one of eBay's top sellers.
Speaker 1:He's got two retail locations. We dig into his journey and also spend some time talking about some cards that are up for auction on eBay, and they end tonight. There is a ridiculous story associated with a PSA ten Michael Jordan noise boys that you just have to hear. If you like what I'm doing over here, follow, subscribe, hit all the buttons, join the Patreon group. We're here to talk about passion, tape, hoodies, collectibles.
Speaker 1:Here we go. Alright. Pumped for this episode. I was telling today's guest that I've definitely bought cards, from his store before, and that's maybe the most fun for me in having these conversations. Today, I'm joined by Tate, who owns Hoodies Collectibles store, in Oregon and also, obviously, a big presence on eBay.
Speaker 1:We're gonna get into his start of the business, talk about his passion for cards, and dig into some cards that are at auction that will end tonight if you're listening to this on launch day. But without further ado, Tate, welcome, man. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm great, Brett. How are you doing? Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm great. This is gonna be fun. Maybe we start with you and your background and just talking maybe about collecting. Curious just out of the gates before we get into the hoodie stuff and starting the store. Have you always been a collector?
Speaker 1:What's what sort of things have you collected?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. I've always been I've been a collector since I was seven, and that is I guess the origin of that is discovering jersey cards back in the day. So if I was seven, that puts about 02/2001, '2 thousand and '2. I was born in '94. And so the jersey and umbrella cards were to kind of a nuance.
Speaker 2:Well, they started in the nineties, but started becoming more and more prevalent in the early two thousands. So I thought that was the coolest thing. You know, autographs, all that was out the door, just being able to get a piece of jersey that a player wore or, a bat that they use. I was always a baseball collector. That's what got me into it.
Speaker 1:Question on that. Do you pulling you in on the jersey and, kind of memorabilia side of cards, how do you think, like, are you still very engaged with, like, where that's gone from where it's gone from a kid from just seems like game use from a collector perspective is always the thing that most people want and desire. Yeah. Just through your experience collecting, is that what you gravitate to? And then also maybe just like what people who are buying from you gravitate to?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Anything that's gaming is gonna serve as a premium, right, on the secondary market. And then the ironic thing is as a kid, that's what got me so in so into, collecting, you know, game worn jerseys. But now, you know, especially with, like, Panini product, Topps does a lot better job at, you know, putting more game use relics in in their product. But if you want, like, a, you know, panini game use jersey from a basketball player anymore, you gotta get flawless.
Speaker 2:And if you're a kid, you're not getting flawless. So, yeah, I I think that most collectors are really conscious of that, and you and you can see that when the in the prices that things sell for in the secondary market. But Topps does a good job at, you know, putting game use items in, most every of their product, at least for for baseball. But, yeah, I mean, I remember this thing, and it was the coolest thing. I remember I ate a fudgesicle one time.
Speaker 2:I had this Edgar Martinez jersey card that I didn't wipe my hands off, and so there's a fudgesicle mark on it on the white jersey. And so I told all my friends it was just dirt. But, you know, yeah, those are that's what got me into it. And I know from the shops, there's still a lot of kids that really like the concept. But we know we have to explain to them that, you know, player worn doesn't really mean anything or and then now, even more specifically in the last couple of years with a lot of Panini stuff, it's just we don't know where it's from.
Speaker 2:So but, yeah, that was what got me into it. And as far as collecting, I'm a big collector still. Huge Ken Griffey junior collector growing up in the Northwest. That was, you know, our god. Him and each hero.
Speaker 2:But Griffey was the guy I fell in love with, and I'm I'm still a huge collector of them. I got most all of his, you know, late nineties inserts and parallels, and then I'm a big autograph collector. So I have all his, you know,
Speaker 1:number to 24 autographs and things like that. Does it surprise you that Griffey is still revered and held in such high regard. I think if you analyze, like, the nineties baseball market, rare and scarce parallels, like, Griffey is always at the top.
Speaker 2:He's it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know, like, we we think back to his upper deck rookie card and just felt that there's a whole story there. But being from the area, seeing it maybe more up close and personal than most of us, does it surprise you that Griffey is so collectible today?
Speaker 2:No. God, no. Of course not. I, in my opinion, no. I mean, the the thing with Griffey that makes him so iconic, and I think this happens with a lot of, like, Jordan and guys like that and Kobe when he was around and people that are well, one, Nike helps with things, you know, especially with baseball For for Griffey, he was I mean, there wasn't a lot of guys that were getting signed by Nike that would play baseball.
Speaker 2:Like, Griffey made baseball cool. Hat backwards, the swag that he had, and just like a lovable guy, always had a smile and just love baseball. So I think the the organic feel of him, I think what people made you know, people that are fans love the game, and then you can watch him play baseball and know that he also loved the game. So he's relatable in a way. But, you know, yeah, he made baseball cool.
Speaker 2:And then one other thing is he was very prevalent on the field, and I think fans could connect them. But off the field, he's he's always been pretty quiet. So he's not like an in your face guy. And I think, you know, Jordan's kinda the same way. You know, he's they're always around.
Speaker 2:You see Jordan's image everywhere, but you don't ever see Jordan. So, I think there's like this, like, I don't know, like this God feel with these kind of guys, and I think Griffey kinda, you know, have that same feel to him.
Speaker 1:Do you still get traffic coming in your store and people, like, that's what they lead with? It's like, I I want some Griffey stuff. Is is that happening today?
Speaker 2:Nope. Our best seller in the case by far, my store manager, Austin, over there in Beaverton, he'll tell me whenever you go to Griffey to give it to me, I'll get what it looks like. Yeah. So an '89 upper deck Griffey is our number one selling single, period. Not even close.
Speaker 1:That's amazing in 2025.
Speaker 2:And number two. Sorry. In '89, the f phase ripkin.
Speaker 1:Okay. The classic still are holding up.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah. Exactly. Yep.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about hoodies collectibles, just to start the story. Walk us through it. Walk us through how this formed in your your mind, and you making it a reality. Obviously, you were a collector as a kid. Like, what happened that led to the experience of, the store opening?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I've been yeah. So pretty much started in 02/2001, as a collector. I remember I got the gold tops, tops box, the factory set that year, they were gold with Ichiro. And then so it just kinda continued.
Speaker 2:I always I collected, you know, hall of fame autographs when I was in middle school and high school. I collected Ichiro for a while. But then when I got into later high school, I started collecting Griffey a bunch. And so I played played baseball in college for the first couple of years and then, transferred to Oregon State where so go Beavers. But the I transferred over there.
Speaker 2:And then during the summers, I worked in a a card shop. Worked at a card shop called Hoopla Sports Cards. And then I went over he ended up going out of business, and then I started working at Columbia Sports Cards over in Washington when I was in this was in college. And so I I just, you know, I started meeting some people. You know, the retail aspect aspect of it, working in a card shop was kind of a secondary thought.
Speaker 2:We started with I started with consignment. So what I did is I just, you know, met people through in the through the community and then Oregon State's in Corvallis. So I would come up to Portland every weekend and meet people and do consignment. And so similar to what we're doing today, on a much smaller scale. But, yeah, we come pick up stuff at stores, what people were ripping in stores and then go back to Corvallis and enlist it for them during the week.
Speaker 2:So I literally just had a huge a small apartment, like, you know, 700 square feet no. 800 square feet. And we just turned the kitchen into, you know, four rows, five rows, and three rows and would pull orders, do mail, drop the stuff off the post office every day, list and scan all day every day when we weren't doing homework. So
Speaker 1:That's a fun, entrepreneurial, start to the journey of hoodies being in college, doing it in your small apartment. How did you how did you get exposure? Was it just word-of-mouth? Like, someone used your services and then someone else they told a friend, like, talk to me about just, like, the exposure.
Speaker 2:It was card shops. So it's like, you know, the owners of the shops and Cameron was the the one that owned Hoopla. You know? So he put in a good word for me with some some of his clients and his customers and allowed me to do that, especially since he was he had just gone out of business. And And so I kinda got my foot in the door with a lot of his really good customers.
Speaker 2:You know, these guys come in and they rip all this wax, but they can't get to listing it half the time. So, you know, I realized that there was a need for that and there was kind of a void. And so I was able to able to do that. But, yeah, I mean, it was just honestly, it was just going from and then other couple other card shops where, you know, the owners trusted me and then put in a good word for me. And and eventually, you know, I had those guys as clients while I was in school.
Speaker 2:And then once we did the retail part of the business, they came over and kept dropping off in store at our at our shops.
Speaker 1:So So so you were in school doing this. What were you when you were in school, were you like, I'm gonna get this degree, and then I'm gonna go pivot and go do this other profession, this desk job somewhere? Or was your vision the entire time, I'm going to work in sports cards. I'm gonna have my own business around consignment.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it was probably, like, my junior year, I I I had the vision and that was just really just getting your, you know, your hands dirty and doing it and realizing that, you know, it was a viable business concept. And there was need for it in the area, especially. So, yeah, once, you know, June when I first went to school, that was not the thought. But as I, you know, worked worked in the shop, you know, the shop part of things, you know, during that time, those twenty fifteen shops were slow.
Speaker 2:It's not what it is today at all. So I, you know, having a retail store, I didn't think that's something I'd ever do. But the consignment part of it, yeah. Once, like, my senior year rolled around especially, I thought this is this is something we wanna do. And then I met my business partner at the time.
Speaker 2:He's not with the company anymore, but he just retired. But I met him, and, you know, him and I came up with a business plan. And that's when we decided to do the retail. But, yeah, come senior year, I knew this is something I definitely wanna pursue.
Speaker 1:Was so it started with the consignment. When what maybe when was the moment in time that you realized that maybe based on the demand in the area starting a retail shop would be the move on top of what you're already doing, with consignments?
Speaker 2:I think you just kinda I kinda correlate it too. I was going all these shops to pick up stuff, with you know, for all the clients, and that was the meeting the meeting point every time was a card shop. So, I mean, there what's the point? I mean, obviously, you know, having capital to do it and everything. But my business partner at the time, I had no money out of college, but he helped with that.
Speaker 2:But it was like, you know, why would we not have the shop of our own to meet these clients and then also, you know, you know, have some return, on our investment in the shop? So it was really just, you know, getting with a lot of consignors, like, the word-of-mouth is the most important thing. But there's no greater word-of-mouth than being in person and talking to somebody and actually forming a face to face relationship, especially in today's world. So I think there's a lot of value in that. And so that's what we saw.
Speaker 2:And we also knew that either, you know, the product that was coming out, the packs that were being ripped, that will correlate to a lot of consignment as well. So at the end of the day, there's a lot of these guys that come in, and their wives don't know that they're in that store, and they don't wanna take any back. They don't want a receipt. So they're gonna leave their cards for consignment and just, you know, have us list it, and they'll turn it into store credit for the store or maybe we'll we'll pay them out via PayPal or wire, whatever it is. But we just knew that this the concept of the consignment would flow really well with the retail part of it, especially on new releases and things like that.
Speaker 2:What do you wanna be first to market?
Speaker 1:In your early days of starting the business, what sort of roadblocks or hurdles did you face, and how did you overcome them?
Speaker 2:Oh, god. There there's plenty. I mean, capital was always you know, that was that's always something. Scaling this business, especially in the retail part of it, is really, really difficult. It's a lot worse now.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it's I mean, for somebody that is out of college or something like that, like I was, I think it's damn near impossible. Because with the distribution model, you have to put out hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars to get any new allocation. We came in just at the right time. That's changed with TOS being I mean, they're they're allowing people to come in and build your allocation a little easier than distributors do. But that was always a juggling act is having the the finances and being able to supply a good amount of product for customers, but also being profitable enough to get re up the product when when there's demand for it.
Speaker 2:So that was one of the biggest hurdles. You know, COVID was a big hurdle for sure, especially in Oregon, when when all that went down. It was just a lot of unknown at that time during that time period of, you know, if you can even be open the next day or what it was. That was really interesting. And then really just scaling in general now has become is can be a little bit difficult just, getting enough people to, keep up with demand for consignment service especially.
Speaker 2:There's just so you know, with this with this part of with with this business, especially with the consignment in mind, scaling is difficult because, you know, there can be a huge influx of things coming in, on consignment, and then the next week, it can be really slow. So having a steady stream of of, of things on on eBay and then having the people to balance it just perfectly so you kinda can have that first in first out, you know, business model for the consignment. So knowing when when to hire people, hire more people, and get more people on board to increase your output is how you become the most profitable with the consignment.
Speaker 1:How have you seen hoodies maybe just evolve over the the years, maybe just from, your area of focus, types of customers you're working with, anything you wanna talk about?
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. Well, you know, with consignment especially, it kinda goes back to be the have having the capital to do things. Where I correlate that is being able to pay, you know, hire people in more of a managerial set, that are self sufficient. When you first start, you're doing as an entrepreneur, you're doing everything on your own.
Speaker 2:And so there's things that naturally get neglected because you don't have the time in the day to do it. But so being able to hire more people and hire people, they have more of a background and go out in the field and get consignment and do things themselves. So what we've been doing as of late especially, you know, the stuff that comes in the store is always strong. I mean, we get a lot of drop offs every day, but getting out there, going to shows, getting brand recognition outside of Oregon, that's really been the main turning point for us. So our consignment director, Max, has done a really good job of getting getting people on board, traveling, going out, and and getting people to come and use our services.
Speaker 2:But the brand recognition, I mean, that's the key thing. And another thing that's really correlated with that is doing the hoodies high end auctions. There's kind of a stigma that that, you know, high end cards don't belong on eBay. That's, you know, that's been the thing people send to Golden or people send to, you know, Finax, collect or whatever it is, some of the bigger auction houses heritage. But I think we've started to see a lot more of that kind of stuff hit hit eBay and, you know, kind of, getting these specific auctions and letting people know once a month, like, this is the time to send in your high stuff, high end stuff when you're selling Jordan and Kobe and, you know, the top players, especially with high end, you know, the high end variety, I think brand recognition comes into play there especially because, people correlate that high end stuff with, you know, not being a prominent seller in general.
Speaker 2:So that was that getting the really high end stuff has helped us a lot helped us grow a lot within the industry because people remember those high end auctions. It's just the reality of it.
Speaker 1:I love this thread just regarding high end in in eBay, and my mindset has always been, like, the the most people in all of our consumer habits are, right, check our safe searches a hundred times a day and just the the audience. So it it just never, like, really, I could never wrap my head around just that that thread. And so I guess, like, if you're if you're talking to a a new customer or a a future customer and they've got, you know, a stack of Jordans, and we're gonna talk about a Jordan that, you're all consigning here here in a minute. But how do you get them over the the hurdle of, hey. Like, you should try using eBay to sell this Jordan even though it might not be something you're used to?
Speaker 1:Like, how how do you have those conversations?
Speaker 2:It's just doing it's doing our part to make sure the the option does well and gets the most high as possible. I think I think eBay, on the secondary market is like Google. So people any any collector or investor, whatever you wanna call yourself, they go to eBay first. That's the first search everyone does. It's the most accessible app.
Speaker 2:It's the it's the most known platform, period, in the car industry, not even close. Not even close. So I think it's it's educating people that, yeah, you know, they might there might be 20 autographs at a time on a Golden's Elite auction, but is that really a good thing for your Jordan autograph if there's 19 others to compete against? So just know telling them that, you know, we're gonna take that card that is $15,000, that we're gonna, you know, that's gonna be our baby, and we're gonna make sure that that gets the most exposure possible. And so getting a good, you know, allotment of high end stuff, but also getting, we also we would don't ever want items to work against each other.
Speaker 2:So it's just explaining the entire process to each other. If we have to our customers, if there's, you know, two of the same Jordan autograph, we're not gonna put them in the same auction. And so just telling them that, you know, we're gonna take the time and make sure that your car does the best it possibly can, and you're going with one of the biggest sellers on the largest platform, period. Even, you know, whatever feelings you have towards eBay or whatever it is, it's by far, bar none, the biggest platform in the industry.
Speaker 1:Is there being more and more sellers, more and more options for collectors to put their cards in different through different consignment shops like hoodies or through different marketplaces. How do you think about standing out from everyone else? Like, how do you think about differentiation?
Speaker 2:I think, for me, it's it's the we're like the whole hobby experience. So, you know, on social media and everything like that, with consignment auction houses in general, all they do is show the biggest card. Right? And they talk about the biggest card and give their opinion on the biggest card and why it's cool and all this stuff. We have stories and we have we have, you know, firsthand interaction, walk ins to the store.
Speaker 2:We had a guy bringing, you know, a 97 PMG COVID into red into the store for him. And he wanted full book value for it. You know? And I said, well, I can pay you more than that. But, so it's like having these having these stories.
Speaker 2:You know, we're not just a transactional business like that. Like, we are true like an hobby hobby enthusiasts where we interact with these collectors on a day to day basis. And I think that's one of the most important parts of our business model is that, you know, we have the retail stores. So we're out in the field. We're interacting with customers.
Speaker 2:Not most of our businesses have done online. It's, you know, it's kind of the old school feel. Where we know we talk to a lot of people online, of course, but there's people that come into our store from all over the country because they wanna come meet us and talk with us and they trust us. So trying to trying to show that on on, you know, as our business model in general, I think is kinda, you know, differentiate us with our competition.
Speaker 1:I gotta just add. So what's the story with the Kobe and the walk in? Like, is that is that is that a normal thing, or what were you doing when when that when that happened? And, like, where where did you get advance notice? Was it just like, here it is.
Speaker 2:Like, share the story there. He came in, like, a month earlier, and this is before this is before the boom boom. This is like 2019, which, you know, in 2018, things started to tick upward a little bit with Luca and all that, especially in basketball. But, you know, it wasn't a card that it is today. But I said, Yeah, bring it in.
Speaker 2:You know, people got it. You know, people always have crazy cards, and then they bring them in. They're not what what they say. But this, yeah, this guy brought it back in, and it sure is, you know, plain as day. It was it was that card.
Speaker 2:And so I gave him I don't remember what I paid him. But yeah. And then we just I ended up trading it to someone for a bunch of other stuff. A guy flew out here and came to our shop and traded a bunch of stuff and auctioned it off. But yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's crazy collections that come in from time to time. It's not every day by any means, but there's a lot of stories like that where, you know, we have to educate the person and tell them what they have. Yeah. There's a guy that walked in with, like, five months ago, had a binder full of basketball cards and, like, the middle of the binder in the middle of a nine pocket page was a ninety seven PMG Charles Barkley. And so, you know, yeah, I could have got the binder probably for $200.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. But, you know, I told the guy this it was an older guy that it was his kids' cards, and I said this is, you know, an 8,000, 10 thousand dollar card. We created for him an auction before.
Speaker 1:That that's amazing. It's it's all those you know, people talk about the PMGs and they're, you there's only a hundred there's a hundred copies, which seems like a lot in today's, era, but those cards are, you know, stuck in binders and people only want
Speaker 2:Hundred copy. Only one parallel. Yeah. 14 parallels is that.
Speaker 1:Exact exactly. What excites you most about the industry right now? What what's going on?
Speaker 2:Man, I'm I mean, the the tops what tops or fanatics is doing with the industry, I think, is for the positive. I think you and I were just talking about WWE. Right? And you were at the the event, and you saw kids ripping packs on the floor and all that. And just making cards my mainstream is, I think, been really, really huge.
Speaker 2:Just getting I think my number my favorite thing right now is the kids coming into the store and getting excited. I know it sounds generic, but getting excited about collecting again. It's almost like, the a lot of these kids, you know, start with Pokemon, let's say, but they're getting into sports through collecting sports cards where it used to be, you know, they played literally baseball or whatever they did. They played sports and then maybe they dabbled in cards. But cards are actually like a gateway to kids getting out and playing sports because society is gonna change where people are, you know, involved online.
Speaker 2:It's more prominent on Instagram, things like that. So they're getting involved in the collecting aspect of things and then, you know, going over to sports. It's completely one eighty. And so I think a lot of that has been done, you know, through fanatics and, you know, getting out to the younger consumers, you know, going beyond just a card and kinda advertising, you know, via experience, you know, fanatics fast and things like that, getting people in the door and then, you know, attaining them as a as a collector in the long run.
Speaker 1:With cards that maybe have come through you that you've auctioned off on eBay through consignment, is there anything just over the last maybe six to twelve months, big cards that stand out to you that the hobby probably saw and didn't even know it was coming, from Hoodies Collectibles?
Speaker 2:Oh, man. There was recently we had a, a shoeless Joe Jackson card. It was a and let me try to refresh my memory here. I forget the exact year. Okay.
Speaker 2:So it was 1917 standard biscuit. So back then, cards were distributed kinda dependent on the who the company that was advertising the player's likeness to get people in the door right or recognize their brand. So this one, during that that set, I I forget the exact number on the set, but it was from 1917. There's, like, the Boston store. So most of them were issued on the East Coast.
Speaker 2:Now this one was issued in in San Francisco, California. So if you think about the turn of the century, you know, not as many people on the side of the country. So we had, like, the advantage of this card being naturally rare because naturally there weren't as many people on this side of the country. Kinda like what we see with vintage. Like, we don't ever see 52 high number Tops cards because they didn't make it to this part of the country.
Speaker 2:Didn't make sense for Tops to send them over here. Right? So this card ended up being this card was brought in by an older gentleman and his brother in a top loader of red, red side top loader with a soft sleeve from 1998. And they just asked us is, do you know what this is? And we didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2:But anyway, we we took it in, and we got it graded for him. It ended up being a pop one with PSA. So it was the first they've seen all the Boston store versions. Some of the there's a few other versions, but they've this card had never been graded with this back. And so that walked into our store, and we auctioned it off for for the customer.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. I recently, talked with a collector named Tony, Southern Collector fourteen, and it was the conversation was all on vintage. And we and he was educating me on the Boston store, and he he talked about is this was it a nineteen seventeen Boston store, Joe Joe Jackson?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 1:PSA two point two point five?
Speaker 2:This no. This was a PSA three.
Speaker 1:Okay. It's I'm looking at his page right now, and he's got this one must have come in after because he's it might be a different card, but he's got a Joe Jackson on his page. This
Speaker 2:is the standard biscuit. Yeah. And so it's Okay. 75,000.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah. That's nuts.
Speaker 2:Pretty cool, right? Yeah. So that was the but that was that was, yeah, the first that's ever graded. So just having that walk in the store is pretty wild.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So when customers are coming in, they've got a card they don't know. They come into your store, and then you're you're basically even when you don't know the card, you're giving them kind of like the full you the you can give them the opportunity to get the full service, treatment where it's like, okay. We'll not only take the card, we'll figure out what it is, we'll get it graded, and you can sell it through our store.
Speaker 2:There's so many moving parts with yeah. Exactly. Yeah. We grade. We, we or we we buy or consign.
Speaker 2:So we handle the whole process, but it's intimidating for someone that's never done it before. The you know, one, especially with PSA, you don't know what service level to send it in at. I know we didn't know the value of the card, but we warned Emilio. I mean, listen, if this, this gets x grade or if it's a pop one like this was, you know, there's gonna be an upcharge. Well, then you gotta explain an upcharge to a customer, but the upcharge correlates with a lot more money, so it's good.
Speaker 2:But, so if you don't know where to send it in, you send that card in a value, it gets in the PSA and they say, this is not a value card. This is super express. Like all these different moving parts of grading, you know, that's that's scary for someone that's never done it before. So just and this goes back to the, you know, face to face interaction, you know, making sure they trust you from the beginning and that they they trust you to do the whole process. It's a huge part of having the retail, because we, you know, we treat people the right way.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's just it's having all the means for the customer to use to not walk away from the from the store because you have what it takes to take care of them throughout the entire process.
Speaker 1:I love it. Alright. Let's share some cards that are ending at auction. And if you're listening to this when this episode goes live, these are ending tonight. So so if if this if this excites you, these cards catch your attention, like, you've got some time, get on there, get on eBay, and, follow Hoodies Collectibles.
Speaker 1:But I'm gonna share my screen here. The bit the first one's a a big boy, and this is a '9 9899 Skybox under Noiseboys, Michael Jordan PSA 10. There's 42 bids right now. It's at 13,900. Just an iconic nineties insert Jordan in a black jersey, red letters.
Speaker 1:I mean, this just brings you right back. You were telling me a story about this card ahead of us hitting record that I thought this has gotta be shared on on this episode. So talk about this card.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to see if I can find the picture of of what it came in initially. But what this so this is obviously, you know, 98. These cards are these cards are very if you haven't held one of these raw, which most people have them because they're they're great nowadays. Right? Like, this is these are the most flimsy cards.
Speaker 2:They're very, very flimsy. And they have all you know, with the way they're cut, there's so many edges and corners not, naturally because of the die cut finish to them that they're prone to a lot of chipping, especially with the the borders being black. So this walked into our Ben store. So I'm over here in Beaverton right now. This is the Ben store in Central Oregon.
Speaker 2:And the guy had it in a screw down. He pulled it in 1999, and thought he'd just bring them out and see if they were, he knew that there was value to it for sure. Didn't know how much, but he thought it'd be worth getting graded. So we sent it and he had this card and then he had an intimidation nation Kobe as well. So So two just amazing cards that he pulled from Pat, you know, back during that time.
Speaker 2:And so we sent it out for him. And when we got it, you know, it comes they get over and bend. And then once a week, we'll ship over all the grading and consignment. But when we got this card in hand, we're like, Jesus, this card is clean. Like really, really nice.
Speaker 2:You know, and with low pop stuff like this from the later nineties, especially with Jordan, you're always it's I have, you know, I think it's really tough to get a gem on something like this because they're so limited, right? Pop wise. But we thought this was like the cleanest it could possibly be. We thought it was perfectly centered and we were just hoping that it would get like a nine. So then come a couple of weeks later, we super expressed their I think we walked through.
Speaker 2:We did a walk through service on it and got a notification that it had it had jammed. And so we've told the customer that was, you know, what it was worth and everything. They're, you know, between 25 and $35,000, and he was quite happy.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. Yeah. I all you MJ collectors out there listening, go run to eBay. This thing's ending tonight, and it comes with a fun, story. Couple other
Speaker 2:ones And a screw down of all things, of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We're we're busting narratives here because just because it's in a screw down doesn't mean it's going to impact, what it
Speaker 2:might be
Speaker 1:rated for. Okay. Another one. Here's one you have up. This ends Monday.
Speaker 1:This is a 2024 Tops Chrome, Wyatt Langford autographs blue refractor out of one fifty. I I wanted to talk about this card because I'm just curious just like the the momentum for these young up and coming, baseball stars. It seems to be, I know prospecting Bowman is a is a big thing, but it feels like now more than ever, there's a bunch of just emerging stars in baseball. Wyatt Langford, this card, or just, like, what people are coming into or having conversations with you about these young up and coming stars in baseball.
Speaker 2:I think it's yeah. And I think a lot of it goes back to especially right now with Topps only having the MLB license. They're doing a really good job at, you know, broadcasting the young rookie players and getting them involved in the hobby in general. I mean, literally becoming collectors. And so I think there's especially for the rookie, not, you know, the first Bowman guys per se, but the rookie players that are just now in the show and getting them like at the forefront of the hobby.
Speaker 2:So giving this chrome stuff more of a chase tops chrome specifically for rookies because they, you know, people know about these rookies long before they would have in the past due to, you know, tops doing a good job at promoting their likeness. So with this specific card, this is something that was probably I don't know this for sure, but pulled in store, and then, you know, the person left it with us or brought it back a couple of days later to consign it. You know, it's for me, the appeal of it is on card autograph being tops chrome. Nice, bold auto, but also having the I hate to use this term, but color match of the jersey, the Texas Rangers colors. I think that moving forward, that's gonna help the value of this card as if he becomes what a lot of people believe he will be.
Speaker 2:The just the eye appeal of the card is is good because of the Rangers correlation with the blue refractor.
Speaker 1:What do you think about this design of chrome this year?
Speaker 2:I like it. I like it a lot. I like the neon look on it, at the bottom there around the logo of the rangers and the outfield position. Anything neon, I think, pops better for me, my eyes. But I think the numb the most important part with Chrome in general is an action photo is important, but they can't be too busy.
Speaker 2:So it's having a a prominent spot for the on card autograph, having a good border so you can tell the centering. So the the high grade ones get a premium because centering is key. But also having an action photo, but also making the card making sure the card's not too busy. I think this this design does that perfectly.
Speaker 1:Alright. The last one I wanna talk about here is the twenty three twenty four n t colossal Scottie Barnes Game Use Logoman. Out of three, this one has four at the time of the recording, 14 bids on it. It's at 2,075. I wanna talk about this one.
Speaker 1:Barnes was an all star last year, but most mostly, I wanna talk about the logo men of it all. Like, these cards have really taken on a life of their own within the hobby with logo man collectors. This has become certainly one of the most desirable types of cards, to chase. But maybe talk about this card or just Logomans in general, like, if they they regularly come through your shop or yeah. Anything you wanna touch on?
Speaker 2:They don't regularly come through. I wish. But they, they you know, we we've seen what? This one wasn't pulled in store, but we've seen two. We've seen a Tatum pulled in store from 2324 and T one zero one.
Speaker 2:Tatum. Wow. Boots box and T. Gotta love that. And then a Dwight Powell.
Speaker 2:But then the Scottie Barnes was brought in by a local guy, and consignment with us. He got in a break. Now the cool the thing I like about NT this year is the conscious effort by Panini to create more value for for the people that are ripping the stuff or the breakers that are ripping the stuff for people that are buying spots by extending the checklist on the Logoman. Now and what I've seen with the checklist in general and going back. Sorry.
Speaker 2:But that the reason behind that is that, you know, the most of the main well, Eamon Thompson's doing so well now that that's that's helped it a lot. But, you know, when we not having autographs and all these things, they made a conscious effort to put value in this product and chasing this product by extending the Logoman checklist. So, you know, this is we haven't seen as of late an NT. I think the rookie, logo men are number to five most of the time, and they have a one on one and then a one on one pat, you know, auto, with the logo man. But those aren't game worn.
Speaker 2:So that's why you have the opportunity to get five of them. But with these, the checklist is one extended to more peep more players. And two, some of the game use logo man are number to five, three, and then it seems like the the best of the best players remembered one on one. So I think that helped the product a lot this year, and that still gave it a lot of chase because you have more access to the logo men. And putting those logo men and just in the, you know, the biggest products of the year as unobtainable as they are for some people to rip the product, I think it's key that they're in these products.
Speaker 2:So I like that aspect of it. I like that you can get the number to three. But a number to three game use logo man is a hell of a lot better than a one to one player war. So, that's what I like about this card. And, you know, Scotty Barnes is a really, really good player, an all star caliber player, like you said.
Speaker 2:And there's, you know, three versions of the card, which I think is good.
Speaker 1:I love the education on that. That's amazing. Three awesome cards ending, on hoodies, collectibles on eBay this, Monday. We'll put the link in the show notes if you wanna go check those out and follow hoodies collectible.
Speaker 2:Right. Sorry. We're also gonna when this is live, we're gonna have the, hoodies high end that that will be live as well. And so we do that once a month, the first Thursday of every month, '10 day auction, that's when we get, you know, all the the nicest stuff. We'll hold out some stuff that we, you know, don't have on auction, you know, between between the high end auctions and put the best of the best, you know, thousand dollar plus cards only.
Speaker 2:And so that will be live as well.
Speaker 1:Smash follow on hoodies on eBay. Do it. You so you don't miss out on those cards. Couple more, Tate, before we wrap it up. Curious from your perspective on just the industry.
Speaker 1:It's changing. So many businesses are changing and evolving. What do you think separates, successful businesses in the hobby from the rest?
Speaker 2:It's just you can't this hobby is a lot of people came into it, especially during COVID, as a money grab. I think if you're gonna be successful in this business, you have passion for what you're doing. You know, when I'm out with my family or friends or not, I have a newborn and a three year old, so I don't have as much time as I used to. But, you know, I love cards. Like I'm just a card geek.
Speaker 2:I still bring a card or two from my, from my safe in my office to work every day, and I put it up on one of my hoodie stands. But just having a passion, any good entrepreneur, you have to have passion for what you're doing. So it can't be you can't be focused just on the money part of it because you're gonna get especially in this business, you wanna be successful. It's a it's a grind. So I think the number one thing is just being able to, you know, enjoy what you're doing and have a passion for the business and for the hobby before you enter on a business standpoint.
Speaker 2:So that's my number one thing. I think that's what correlates to the biggest success here, for sure.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people listening who go to shows, who buy, sell, trade, who have thought about starting a business themselves. What would you like from your experience, Hoodies Collectibles from those days in college in your apartment, grinding to where you're at today with two locations, one of the biggest sellers on eBay, what what sort of feedback would you have for any listener who wants to take their passion and turn it into a a business?
Speaker 2:Don't I mean, don't start yeah. I think that's what you just said. Just to make sure it starts as a passion. And then, you know, as you educate yourself and you learn things about the industry, you know, you can you can turn into a business. But when you're first getting into the hobby, you get a lot of people just look at what's right in front of them.
Speaker 2:They look at the, you know, quarterbacks, the football quarterbacks for that year's draft class and all this stuff, and they try to flip and all these things. But like going back in time and understanding, like, how cards have evolved that they started with, you know, pretty much, you know, stemming from tops back in the day. Well, it goes much further back than that. But, you know, base cards were base cards. You had one set or two sets a year, then Fleer and Donruss and all these companies came into the mix.
Speaker 2:And then when cards became less popular in the later nineties after the boom, you know, companies had to get innovative. And now we're seeing, like, the residual effects from the game use jersey cards, the relics, and then the the parallels and the inserts and the, you know, rarity of these things. And so you have to understand like, what a parallel meant in the nineties means is totally different from what it is today. We were talking about PMGs. You had the greens numbered, you know, they were both number to a hundred.
Speaker 2:They're both number to a hundred, but the first ten were green. The last 90 were, red like they were in basketball. But, like, you know, that was the one parallel in that set. Wherein today, there's, you know, a few different versions of a number to 50 in each set. And so there's a there's a perceived rarity that isn't really reality.
Speaker 2:And so being able to understand, like, what makes things that, you know, were released previously more rare and more sought after and sell for a lot more understanding those reasons and going back and educating yourself, I think, is what will lead to a lot of success for sure.
Speaker 1:Wise words. This was a ton of fun learning more about hoodies, collectibles, id start, Tate, your passion, and everything you're up to. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your story.
Speaker 2:Oh, Brett. Thank you, man. That was awesome. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:A special shout out to eBay for sponsoring this series. Just an incredible conversation with Tate. Love hearing about his journey. Go hit follow on Hoodies Collectibles on eBay. There's some awesome cards coming through.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna wanna miss it. Appreciate you supporting Stacking Slab. You take care, and we'll talk to you soon.