From Trading Cards to Connections: The Heart of the Industry with Matty Rich

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Speaker 3 The guy you think's going to come in and spend a dollar spends 500 and the guy you think is going to come in and spend 500 spends a dollar. You never know, man, and that's why it goes back to that.

Speaker 3 You have to treat everybody the same.

Speaker 3 Take care of everybody, treat everybody right.

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Speaker 4 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 1 Right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now and our special series on trading cards.

Speaker 1 Look, when you have a number one show, you get to have guilty pleasures and talk about what you want.

Speaker 1 But when it's one of the hottest industries in America that might be, I don't know that it's undercover anymore.

Speaker 1 I think the cat's out of the bag. Tom Brady brought it out alone last week, if nothing else.

Speaker 1 But nonetheless, we're continuing our series on talking the trading card business, bringing you, yeah, we take the BS out of business, baby.

Speaker 1 It wasn't really the intent, but it's working out that we're going to have like all three levels of the business from producer to distributor to retailer. And you know what?

Speaker 1 I live in the wonderful state of South Carolina and got a number one show. That's why I like to go to number one.
The number one retailer

Speaker 1 and shop in South Carolina. We got Maddie rich in studio.

Speaker 3 Number one's got to stick together, my brother.

Speaker 1 I know. Let's go.
Love having you here, man. It's been great getting to know you.
You too. Maddie and his family.
Wonderful family.

Speaker 1 Like, I love the business, and I'd probably like Maddie anyway because my kids are into cards, and we go in there. But since the moment I walked in, I was like, this is where I want to do business.

Speaker 1 Awesome. And the best shop in the best city in South Carolina.

Speaker 1 Brian's trading cards and more.

Speaker 3 Brian's sports cards and more.

Speaker 1 Sports cards and more. Yes, I got it.
I'll throw it off.

Speaker 3 And that was one of the things when I started, I didn't want to create a store. I wanted to create an experience.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, I was doing the breaking. I was setting up shows for years before that.
And I just got tired of being in the house and being in the office and being around nobody. Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, talking to everybody through the phone and the camera all night.

Speaker 3 So that's why I had to give Greenville this experience.

Speaker 1 It's, you know,

Speaker 1 when you grow up, like when I grow up, you know,

Speaker 1 I'm living through my kids' eyes now and my own eyes. Right.
You know, rekindled in it. You know, rekindled my flame and my wallet.

Speaker 1 But nonetheless, you know, the idea that you own a trading card store growing up.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you collect, did you collect when you're a kid?

Speaker 3 I did my whole life.

Speaker 1 Yeah, okay. Didn't let the dream come true.
Yeah. Oh, it's work.
It's work. Let's not get confused.
It is work. It isn't bubblegum and crackers.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, no, no, no. It's still work.

Speaker 3 There's a lot worse things to do. Oh, there's a lot worse things to do for sure.
I mean, but this is a 24-hour 365 job. I mean, every holiday, every night, it doesn't matter.
My phone is going off.

Speaker 3 There's always some kind of a business that we can be working on.

Speaker 1 It is. And it's fascinating because I'll text Maddie about some, I have an idea or just be like, hey, man, you got any of those new, whatever.

Speaker 1 So I can only imagine times a thousand or who knows how many people.

Speaker 1 Maddie knows everybody because everybody's got a silent, you know, itch for some trading cards, but always probably trying to get you into some deal or like, hey,

Speaker 1 they find a card or they find something.

Speaker 3 I mean, well, that's why I had to get another phone line just for people to send in pictures of what they wanted to sell. Yeah.
Because my phone was going crazy. My Instagram was going crazy.

Speaker 3 My Facebook was going crazy. I said, okay, we're going to confine this to one phone, one line, and get this thing under control.
And I check it two or three or one time a week, but I check it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's being checked.
Yeah. All right.
That's all that matters. I've said this a couple of times.
The local stores do a good job of this, but I grew up in the. Dealers were assholes, man.

Speaker 1 They were. Jerks.
Oh, they were the worst. I remember feeling when i and and i sit there like the first time i came in start

Speaker 1 and i hit it off and i remember like the way you talked to like my son and i was just sitting there going this is the way it should be i never felt the way my son felt in that moment when i grew up i didn't either i felt talked down to

Speaker 3 i was annoying him you know why because we weren't spending big bucks We were coming in with a couple dollars and we wanted a couple packs. So that's why we got treated like that.

Speaker 1 And that's one of the reasons why you know i don't care how much you come in and spend i love every single kid that comes in there man come in and spend a quarter and i'm gonna treat you the same way as the guy that comes in and spends a thousand dollars and you know what before i even knew maddie you know i was a they call a mystery shopper like maddie and i didn't know each other because i was there for 15 minutes for 20 minutes because you're busy like what's going on and i'm just shopping looking around like rekindling is like like first month back into the thing with the kids and i watched maddie like i watched him i wasn't the only thing i I was doing, but very observant.

Speaker 1 And he's no different now that he knows me and that I am a customer and a friend.

Speaker 1 But what I saw for 20 minutes for how you dealt with a busy store with a kid that's wanting to trade a Pokemon in the middle of non-trade time and how you handled it, that's what sets you apart.

Speaker 1 Thank you. It's different.

Speaker 3 That's the result of a few things. One of the things you said it was a dream job.

Speaker 3 One of the reasons it's a dream job is because of the way me and you were both treated when we went into those old grumpy men's shops when we were kids. It was a mess.
There's stuff everywhere.

Speaker 3 No organization, but he knew where everything was, but we couldn't find anything, right? And we got treated horribly because we were kids spending a couple bucks.

Speaker 3 So it's, you know, it's a result of dealing with that, knowing the future of the hobby and the business is the kids taking interest as kids. So they're being treated the right way.

Speaker 3 And then I had 20 years of customer service before I got back into, you know, before I made sports cards a business again.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 How many years are you into it?

Speaker 3 I'm five years back in, but in and out my whole life, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Collecting. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, for shoes, everything else. I mean, anything you can think of.
Matt, are you like the guy that just knows how to get stuff? I think I

Speaker 1 kind of

Speaker 1 are. Yeah, yeah.
Like, yeah. Especially the stuff that's in that nostalgia, collectibles.
And, you know,

Speaker 1 I think that's it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I can find kind of whatever you need.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I remember that. It is a unique experience, though, coming to the store.
I'm always blown away by the stock.

Speaker 1 Every shelf is always full. It's like in a world that, especially as competitive as gotten, I walk into some of these shops and it's just like, what desert did I walk into?

Speaker 1 Like, it's barren because it's, you know, have a hard time getting stuff, but obviously you're moving stuff, but you always got stock open to people.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, the newest thing, you know, like you encourage people and they do. They're opening the cards there.
Yeah. It almost feels like everybody in there feels like they're at home.

Speaker 3 That's what we want.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 We want everyone to feel at home. We want this to be an escape from the real world.

Speaker 3 So when we're in there, we don't really get into, you know, politics, religion, some of the subjects that can be a little touchy. I kind of ask the guys to leave that outside.

Speaker 3 That way we can just focus on sports and make it a happy place. You know, when you make it a happy place, it's an escape from the real world.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 3 And I sit at that table. I mean, me, myself, I can sit at that table and I might have a million things going through my mind.

Speaker 3 But when I sit down, open a box and open a few packs and pull a few Ben Senats,

Speaker 1 it changes, you know?

Speaker 1 If you're into sports cards at all, especially football cards, you'll get that joke. It's an inside joke.
The hottest card in retail this year has been Jaden Daniels. Yes, 100%.

Speaker 1 The rookie, Phenom, and rookie of the year for the Washington

Speaker 1 Commanders. When you're opening packs, you'll do the whole, okay, look at the logo, the team.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because you're kind of. It's called sweating it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're sweating it. You're sweating it.
You're like, all right, all right. So you see that rookie sign and you see the Washington Commanders logo or

Speaker 1 the slow roll. Yeah.
And it's either jubilation

Speaker 1 or something not jubilation when it becomes Ben Sanai. You know, it is an escape when you're opening it.
It's an escape.

Speaker 1 And, you know, you've got the table set up, you've got cards, you got the couch, you got the TV.

Speaker 3 I can't tell you how many people I've seen come in as strangers and become friends yeah guys sit in there someone told me the other day they looked my spot up on uh google and google says the average person spends an hour and a half there it's unbelievable having we wouldn't spend about that amount of time last night there yeah we wouldn't do that if we weren't creating a community oh yeah you know people are coming and hanging out and getting to know other people um you're meeting other people that partake in the same hobby who you can buy sell and trade with.

Speaker 3 I mean, that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1 And I literally sat there, I've sat there a couple times and usually buy stuff, but a couple of times I didn't buy anything. But watching other people buy and the energy is fun.

Speaker 3 It's a good time.

Speaker 1 It's like you could charge admission.

Speaker 1 Like, literally, I probably paid $5 to get in just to watch this kid, the sure.

Speaker 1 Elation of, you know, popping some Pokemon that's $10 or whatever, you know.

Speaker 1 And it's just joy.

Speaker 3 And that's what it's all about for me. The interactions, meeting people, the face-to-face.
I missed that when I was breaking. I was stuck in a room 12 hours a day.

Speaker 1 Answer me this.

Speaker 1 You know, being at the retail level,

Speaker 1 five plus, I mean, your whole life in the business, but as a collector, but now, you know, five on retail at the number one shop in South Carolina. Thank you.
I accept that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What surprised you the most about this industry that maybe you didn't see coming?

Speaker 3 The amount of people, the variety of people, it doesn't matter your age, sex, gender, orientation. It doesn't matter who you are, what you have going on.

Speaker 3 You can't look at someone and tell they're a collector.

Speaker 1 No, you can't.

Speaker 3 You can do it with a lot of things, but not collecting. And I'll tell you what else.
You can't look at someone and tell what they're going to come in your store and spend. No.

Speaker 3 The guy you think is going to come in and spend a dollar. spends $500 and the guy you think is going to come in and spend $500 spends a dollar.

Speaker 1 You never know.

Speaker 3 You never know, man. And that's why it goes back to that.
You have to treat everybody the same.

Speaker 3 Take care of everybody, treat everybody right.

Speaker 1 Pokemon, well, we could have a, we could talk the whole episode on Pokemon. Like, it's a, it's a thing.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's all a thing. Yeah.
But Pokemon is, and it's, Pokemon's the one, come out, blow you away who's collecting. Oh, I've been at Walmart looking at the shelf, got blown over by grandma.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Like, you never know who's going to push you out of the way at Walmart for Pokemon.
What is the Pokemon culture? What is that?

Speaker 1 Is it, I mean, is it just from the game and then now it's just become a pop culture?

Speaker 3 You know what? I'd say 90% of the people that come to my shop to buy Pokemon are not playing the game. They're just collectors.
They don't even know how to play the game.

Speaker 3 But they like the art on the cards.

Speaker 3 They put sets together or they like a certain type or a certain energy. Oh, there's so many different ways to collect.

Speaker 1 I like a certain value.

Speaker 1 A lot of people like certain values.

Speaker 1 I do. I have grown to like the artwork.

Speaker 1 It's a weird thing. I mean, and look, as human beings, art is a big part of our society culture.

Speaker 1 And when you look at, like, I'm looking at these guys and they've done a good job with football and all, but when you look at a Pokemon card, it is like staring at a piece of art.

Speaker 3 It really is.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's, it's very, there's so much detail and uniqueness. It really is.
And the variations of color.

Speaker 3 And then art cards are even huge right now. You You have different artists putting out art cards.
You have art cards selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1 Have you

Speaker 1 stopped to like as different as everyone is? And I think you probably talked about it as much the escape as anything.

Speaker 1 But is there a variable that hangs it all together in this whole space of collectibles that you see? I mean, beyond the adult roller coaster, they're getting dried and the escapism.

Speaker 1 I mean, is there anything else? Like in the whole, like collecting and the whole, I don't know.

Speaker 3 We're just naturally collectors. I feel that just about everybody is collecting something.
If you're not collecting nothing, you're collecting dust, babies.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 1 The fine line of trade collecting and courting is. Right, right.

Speaker 3 But it's a pastime. We need things to do to keep us busy.
You could be spending money on a lot worse things than a pack of cards.

Speaker 3 And, you know, for me and for a lot of guys that come into the shop, they always go back to the same thing. You know, opening a pack of cards brings you right back to your childhood.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And that's why I want to make it fun for the kids so they have those good memories. It feels good opening that pack and looking to see if it's almost kind of like a treasure hunt in some ways.

Speaker 3 You know, whether you're collecting all your team or a certain player or a numbered card, an autograph card, or just cards of value. It's almost like a treasure hunt every time you open a pack.

Speaker 1 It's true. And transitioning back to the business side of it,

Speaker 1 even if you spent five and it's worth two, it has value.

Speaker 1 So it's not just a scratch off card that is either worth 20 or nothing. Exactly.
You know, like it has value that can increase.

Speaker 3 And I want to add on to that. When you get a scratch off that's worth nothing, you can throw it away.

Speaker 3 When you open a pack of cards and nothing in there seems valuable to you, you can just throw them in a box, forget about them for two years.

Speaker 3 And when you go back through that box in two years, you're going to find something in there and say, man, he was nobody two years ago yep so it's like yeah you might not have the value that you want right here and now when you open that box but two years from now who's to tell what's going to be what and who's going to be who yeah the thrill of the chase exactly and and but the potential the potential you know because that's what's there talking with maddie rich he is the owner of brian sports cards and more here in greenville the number one shop in south carolina Carolina.

Speaker 1 Thank you, sir. Tops dealer, soon to be.
I mean, he might as well be everybody dealer. I know you're an official Topps dealer.
Yes, sir. And they don't hand those out

Speaker 1 easily. I understand.
Those don't just come, like, you don't just buy those at Walmart.

Speaker 3 Very true. Hard work, networking, and having the right setup and the right kind of service.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because tops.

Speaker 3 Tops represents excellence. They're not going to just put their name on any kind of shop.

Speaker 3 You You know, if you're not treating people right, if your store is not clean and organized, that's not what they're looking for.

Speaker 1 Yeah. The name of the game is getting stock.
I mean, that's, isn't it? I mean, what this popular stuff is, and so you've got to do things the right way and make the relationships.

Speaker 1 I mean, talk about that side of the business.

Speaker 3 That's very true. The hardest part of the business is sourcing product.
And, you know, I dealt with that since I was a breaker.

Speaker 3 I'd go to the big shows across the country and network, meet people, introduce myself to people, take business cards, follow up with those business cards, and really just shake hands and

Speaker 3 create relationships. Hey, listen, I'm here for you.
If I can help you with anything, and you never know who's going to be able to help me at the same time, yeah, you started in breaking

Speaker 1 on the business side. Yep, fascinating industry.
It really is like it's a sub-segment of the whole thing. Oh, wow.
Describe for our audience that's learning about the business.

Speaker 3 So basically, breaking is a online show.

Speaker 3 You know, you would have an audience of potential customers and you would have a box. Let's say this box is a $1,000 box.
Now, yeah, one person can buy that $1,000 box and open it up for themselves.

Speaker 3 Or you can do a group break. You can sell teams, you can sell spots, you can sell divisions.
What I liked to do was sell 10 spots, and each of those 10 spots would get three random teams.

Speaker 3 Once we have it full, we'll run a randomizer and give each spot their three random teams. And we'll open up the box, giving each person every card from the three teams that they own.

Speaker 1 So if I got the Packers, the Panthers, and the Bears

Speaker 1 as my teams, you're opening up every pack in that box. Live on camera.
Live on camera. Yes, sir.
So everybody's seeing it. There's transparency exactly they know what you're getting

Speaker 1 transparency and as one of those team you know players comes up whoever it is yeah they get every card associated with that team exactly so it allows the person buying it the fun and excitement of that experience in a live platform right combined with well they didn't have to spend a thousand dollars that's the key it makes it affordable for them to have the thrill of the chase of stock that probably isn't just readily available.

Speaker 1 Right. Isn't that kind of what it is all about?

Speaker 3 And in that situation, they can get into 10 different breaks instead of buying that $1,000 box. Yeah.
Increasing their odds of

Speaker 3 cases. On the flip side of that, you might not be the guy that gets the big card, but you are still a part of that box.
It's just a great experience. We did that for four years.
I did it $3.65.

Speaker 3 I was in the office.

Speaker 1 How are you sourcing product?

Speaker 3 Any which way I could.

Speaker 3 I was buying from stores across the country.

Speaker 3 My retail was locked down. You couldn't get from Walmart back then because I was getting everything.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I had the guy's number. And this was one of the ways I really got started by meeting the guy who stocked three different Walmarts.

Speaker 3 And he would meet me in the toy section to give me all the sports cards.

Speaker 1 Wow. And they never even hit the shelf.

Speaker 3 I mean, you have to do what you have to do. I'd go to the register, I'd pay for all my stuff, and I'd be able to go home and break it.

Speaker 3 But I was, you know, of course I was paying him for taking care of me. Sure.
But still, it was a lot cheaper than finding it from one of the major retailer distributors online.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Because everything gets marked up.

Speaker 3 It's so hard to find. Yeah.
And imagine during COVID when everyone was stuck in the house. It was even harder to find.

Speaker 3 And prices with the distributors would change by the... by the minute.
You'd have to call them, find out the pricing and put in your order right then.

Speaker 3 Because if you say, Let me think about it, I'll call you back in an hour. Prices went up in that hour, it was volatile, it was like a stock.

Speaker 1 That's the truth. That's how it is still now.
It kind of is, yeah. It may not be as volatile, but it's definitely the stuff that gets hot.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you know, yeah, like blasters that are $30 if you can find them on the shelf, well, reselling for $100.

Speaker 1 That's what's happening right now. That's what's happening right now.

Speaker 1 Optic, if you can find it, it's 35 at Walmart or Target,

Speaker 1 but reselling for 80 to 120 and the megas are 65 retail going for 130, 150. I mean, it's like double.

Speaker 3 That's just an example of going through the ranks and working your way up. Anything in life you do and you work hard for, it's going to pay off.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I just continue to network and I'm not satisfied with where I'm at right now. I'm still growing.
I have one shop right now. I'd like more shops.

Speaker 1 I think people need to understand how much. You don't say how much you were making breaking.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 But breaking is a whole different animal.

Speaker 1 I know you know some big numbers, but like it's there's a lot of money there.

Speaker 3 There's so much money breaking if you got product. I have a friend right now that makes over a million dollars a month breaking.

Speaker 1 How many rooms does he have going?

Speaker 1 12 million a year? Is that take-home profit or like revenue? Sales. Total sales.
Total sales.

Speaker 1 Still, I mean, if you're doing 10, 12 million in sales,

Speaker 1 he's making at least, what, 20, a couple million himself? Yeah, it has to, right?

Speaker 3 I knew a guy during COVID that was making $2 million a month. He was the absolute biggest breaker during COVID.
This is before What Not Fanatics Live and all the other platforms started.

Speaker 3 All we were doing is going live on Instagram or YouTube.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, that's the interesting thing.
The platforms have evolved.

Speaker 1 And this is the live shopping component that I've been talking about for 10 years that would eventually hit here.

Speaker 1 I didn't know that it would come through this channel necessarily as one of the proliferators of it.

Speaker 1 Because it's been a little bit slow, like compared to Asia and some of the other countries where live shopping has been huge. Really? The U.S.
has been a little slow, like overall, as a category,

Speaker 1 but trading cards are ushering in a whole different thing.

Speaker 1 I do think it's the dual part of it. It's the retail, the access, but it's the experience.
It is the surprise and the surprise and delight and the camaraderie.

Speaker 1 And like, there's a lot of components going on that is beyond just a transaction.

Speaker 3 Well, no, the breaker has to have a personality. Yeah, you have to understand the breaker is performing, the breaker is putting on a show.

Speaker 3 He's there talking about stuff that people want to hear about. He's a salesman, he's getting this stuff going, he's rounding it up.
Some of these guys sound like auctioneers. I mean, it's crazy.

Speaker 3 You tap in on all those different channels, you're going to get something different.

Speaker 3 But the guys that are really excelling in it, they have great personalities, obviously have great product,

Speaker 1 and are working their butts off and you've got whatnot is now growing whatnot has grown from just cards to sneakers vintage clothing handbags commodities like gold and silver yeah you get in there and you've got not only the brakes like what batty did i mean they've got and we've done this with the boys like selling singles whatever you can do that too they do they've They got like little timers, so you get people like live auction.

Speaker 3 That's exactly what it is.

Speaker 3 And some people will take like graded cards and make repacks and sell repacks.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, there's just so many ways that you can sell things on whatnot on Fanatics Live.

Speaker 1 They have

Speaker 3 spinning wheels that will randomly select your teams for you.

Speaker 3 I mean, they make it fun. It is fun.
And it's very easy to just swipe and buy that team. And then when you check at the end of the night, that money comes right out of your bank account.

Speaker 1 Oh, they got it. It's like too easy.
One swipe swipe in there. It's like, you know, you think Amazon's quick and fast.

Speaker 1 This is like,

Speaker 1 one swipe. One swipe, baby.
So we transit. What made you go from breaks to retail?

Speaker 3 You know, when I was breaking, I was, I was happy. I had no overhead and I was doing really good financially.
I'm a people person, Ryan. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I got tired of sitting in the house by myself, running back and forth from this room to that room. I wanted to be around people again.

Speaker 3 The only time I was around people was when I went to a show, which was once every month or two. Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, I really like the element of the face-to-face interactions, getting to know people, bonding with people, learning people. Like you said, you know, my family.
You have a great family as well.

Speaker 3 And it's been an honor and a pleasure for me to meet your family and become a part of you.

Speaker 1 I'm an extended part of the family.

Speaker 3 Like, I love it. So, just having me stuck in that room wasting away, I felt like I was just wasting away.
I wanted to get back into the public and I wanted to get back around people. It's what I do.

Speaker 3 I just like, I like people.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, it's not for everyone.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Because retail is not easy.

Speaker 3 It's not easy.

Speaker 1 It's not. I mean, even a booming industry and you've got, you know, but sales right now are good.
Yeah. You know, but

Speaker 1 still running retail.

Speaker 3 Still a business.

Speaker 3 Like you said, man, when you come in, my shelves are stocked. I might have a really good day where at the end of the day, my shelves are empty.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Now I have to get stuff sent to me for the next day. So when I open that next morning, my shelves are stocked again.

Speaker 3 So it's always a fight. It's a tug of war.
Do I, you know, they're buying, I need to replace. They're buying, I need to replace because I don't want any empty shelves.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's the last thing you want to see.

Speaker 1 But I'm sure you do toil. Like, okay, is this going to stay hot? Is it going to sit a little bit or is it not? Do you have to think about that?

Speaker 3 Experience.

Speaker 3 Experience tells you

Speaker 3 what to order, what not to order. There's no blueprint.
there's no guide. It's all trial and error.
It really is.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Is the expansion just more stores? I mean, is that?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 3 more stores.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And is it, but then it gets into like, you know, we've talked about it, you know, the market. So do you have to leave the market? Do you have to, you know, or is it just South Carolina?

Speaker 1 Like, how do you go about thinking about that?

Speaker 3 It's so hard, man. I really think about it.
Think about it a lot.

Speaker 3 I think a lot of

Speaker 3 our store's

Speaker 3 success is within our store's personality,

Speaker 3 which consists of me and my family. It's a family-run business, family-owned, family-run business.

Speaker 3 So it'd be really hard. I mean, I've been offered to put a spot in Nashville, to put a spot in Charlotte.

Speaker 1 It's hard to duplicate, right?

Speaker 3 It's really hard to duplicate because now you just have a store. You might not have that same experience.

Speaker 3 Like I'm here with you right now, but my daughter's running the shop. Yeah.
And I know she's doing a great job because this is who she is. Yeah.
You've dealt with her before. Exactly.

Speaker 1 Right. Yeah, great.

Speaker 3 I'm not going to send her to one of them cities.

Speaker 1 She'll let her go to National Event. She might.
She might.

Speaker 3 But, you know, just the family element, man. So

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 3 God knows. I didn't know I was going to open a store.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, I didn't have any of that planned. I didn't even know I was going to leave my career and take on breaking full-time.
Yeah. This is all God's plan.

Speaker 1 He works in mysterious ways. He sure does, brother.
Where is the industry headed? Like,

Speaker 1 what's and use your crystal ball, like, you know, Tom Brady's in it with card vault.

Speaker 1 You've got the grading side. You've got, you know, all the brands.
You've got Panini and Topps always battling back and forth with rights and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 Like, it's a broad-ranging question, but I'm just curious, like, do you even pay attention to that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you kind of have to a little bit. I do, yeah.

Speaker 3 And, you know, I wish I prepared with some statistics for this interview because there was a statistic I read not too long ago, maybe three or four months ago, that said right now it's worth this many billions.

Speaker 3 And within the next five years, they're expecting it to maybe 5x. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Trends are looking good. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And you know, Topps is taking on more, um, more IPs. They got Disney this year.
So everything under Disney. This year, actually, Topps will take on NBA licensing.

Speaker 3 And then next year, they're going to have the NFL licensing. So it's, as long as Topps is in the driver's seat, I feel really, really comfortable.

Speaker 3 I just love what they're doing for the hobby, the innovative things they're doing, like as far as the MLB debut patches that the player wears for their very first game, the signatures, just all the fun stuff that Topps is doing right now and Fnatics is doing.

Speaker 3 I think they're doing a great job with it.

Speaker 1 There's something that's so raw and real about the physical part of collecting, especially the sports cards. Right.

Speaker 1 But you do have this younger group that the NFT space, the digital space, like, I don't think it's

Speaker 1 an or.

Speaker 1 I think it's an and. Yeah, I know it's like it's a replacement, but it's an interesting thing.

Speaker 3 I mean, they really tried it during COVID and

Speaker 1 it had a day and that about it.

Speaker 3 It had a day. I mean, even me, I fell victim.
I was in Tops heavily invested in Top Shot, which is NBA moments. It's like, yeah, I remember that.
Remember Top Shot?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 It was NBA. It's and it's still going on.
Okay. They still have it.
I just don't know where the interest is right now. Yeah.

Speaker 3 A lot of guys that I speak to, no, I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of guys that I speak to, they want to hold that physical asset in their hands. Yeah.

Speaker 3 As opposed to pushing play in a computer and watching LeBron make a layup and saying, I own that.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's touchy. I know.
Well, I never thought that a generation would put as much value in a digital skin or costume.

Speaker 1 Like my kids, what they've spent on Fortnite costumes, like it means like that avatar is part of their identity. For sure.

Speaker 1 So that's the only thing that makes me, and again, not because I think it's going to replace the physical car,

Speaker 1 but it's an and because if they do place that in that gives that digital or value to them, I'm going to call it digital value, but to them, it's just value.

Speaker 1 It means something and they're willing to pay for it. It does.
So if the 10-year-olds of today are willing to pay for that skin or that thing, because that's their digital persona,

Speaker 1 I can't help but think that there's going to be a digital collection of something. I'm cool with the and.

Speaker 3 Yeah. There's a video game out, I believe it's MLB the Show,

Speaker 3 where you can unlock top spaceball cards.

Speaker 3 And I've spoken to many people that come into the shop that have told me they got back into collecting physical baseball cards because of the video game. So the and I can see that and working.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, I think it will be something as a component of collecting.
Right. Whether or not it's 5%

Speaker 1 or 1% or 50%

Speaker 1 100 years from now. I mean, who knows?

Speaker 3 Think about our trade nights. The trade nights we do here.
They're amazing. Full of people, full of collectors, full of smiles.
I don't know how that would work with the digital stuff.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's like, oh, you're going to

Speaker 1 put it up on the projection screen. Hey, who wants to buy this

Speaker 1 Cronus Wagner 101?

Speaker 1 I'm going to take a picture with my camera phone and make another copy of it.

Speaker 3 I mean, but when you walk from table to table, and who's running most of these tables? Kids?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. Kids will easily have $20,000, $30,000.

Speaker 1 I think I got harmless that whole night.

Speaker 1 I'm like,

Speaker 1 I don't know if I won or lost, but I had a blast doing it.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Yeah, you know?

Speaker 3 And that's what I always remind people: is that, man, this is a hobby. Some people make it all about the money.
Yeah. But this is a hobby.
It's meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be fun.

Speaker 3 I always try to keep it there.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, and that's part of your tie-on, isn't it? Yeah.

Speaker 3 For sure.

Speaker 1 What's the hobby lives here? The hobby lives here. The hobby lives here.

Speaker 3 I love the hobby. I love everything that it represents.

Speaker 3 I always say it's

Speaker 3 so much deeper than the cards.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 3 you're teaching children the value of a tangible asset.

Speaker 3 I see parents use

Speaker 3 bringing their kid to the card store to buy a pack of cards as a reward for doing good in school or doing their chores.

Speaker 3 I see. Not only kids buying, selling, trading with each other, but I see kids buying, selling, trading with adults.

Speaker 1 Learning how to interact.

Speaker 3 Interaction and social skills. That takes a lot for a 12-year-old to walk up to a man like you and say, excuse me, sir, would you like to buy this card for me? Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's so much bigger. I had to know fewer than 50 that night.

Speaker 1 Like, do that.

Speaker 1 But I was impressed. Exactly.

Speaker 3 It's so much bigger than cards, man. I love every aspect of the hobby.

Speaker 1 Really do.

Speaker 3 And we're going to just keep growing, man. I know.

Speaker 1 But I think the industry is lucky to have guys like you. Thank you.
I mean, it's been refreshing. I really respect the way you do it.

Speaker 3 I appreciate that, man. That was kind of my thing when I was breaking.
It's so easy to do the right thing when everyone's watching, but what are you doing when no one's watching?

Speaker 3 And I always operated with morals, integrity, and the right ethics. And people recognize that.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, people recognized my hard work and my honesty. It really paid off in the long run.

Speaker 1 It's called playing the long game. It's called brand.

Speaker 3 Playing the long game, branding, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 And too many people take the shortcut or take the whatever, and it just doesn't work out because then you don't reap the long-term benefit.

Speaker 3 No, you know, I always tell people a story when I was breaking. I had a good friend of mine who was a really popular breaker, and at any given time, he'd have 300 people in his life.

Speaker 3 And I was a small fry in the beginning. You know, I might have five people in there, but I was so thankful for those five people.
And comparison is the thief of joy.

Speaker 3 So I never compared myself to them, but I was so thankful for the five people. And every time I leveled up, I was super appreciative.
And it really paid off. Like you said, playing the long game.

Speaker 3 The guy that used to have 300 people in his lives, I mean, he had the world in the palm of his hands. He's not even in the space anymore.
And, you know, I just kept leveling up at a respectable pace.

Speaker 3 And we have a shop now, and growth is inevitable.

Speaker 1 The number one shop.

Speaker 3 The number one shop.

Speaker 1 I love it. And listen, every time you say it, I accept that.

Speaker 1 Tell everybody where they can find you, the shop, social handles, all that stuff. All right.

Speaker 3 On Instagram, we are Brian Sports Cards. It's Brian B-R-Y-A-N underscore sports underscore cards.

Speaker 3 On Facebook, it's Brian Sports Cards. And if you're in Greenville, South Carolina, we are at 500 Congaree Road, Unit 8102, in the district midtown community.
And you can find us at all the big shows.

Speaker 3 We'll be at the National. We'll be at Fanatics Fest.
We move. We travel.
We'll be at the Atlanta. You'll be at the top Social House.

Speaker 1 We'll be at the social house. Oh, you know it.

Speaker 1 Yes. We will be at the social house.
Oh, yes. Yes.
Hey, go by and give them a shout out. Look, always amazing stock.

Speaker 1 I mean, you come into a town if you're a collector. You know, you're always kind of like, okay, where's the local guy? Right.

Speaker 1 And, you know, because I've been to a couple of towns lately, gone in the local shop, and I'm like, hmm. My home, my collection, I got more packs at home than you do.

Speaker 1 And you're like, I'm like, come on, man. Nobody wants these

Speaker 1 leaf not 2021 football cards. Anyway, but no, go get them a shout.
Uh, thank you. Natty and his family are wonderful.
The shop's amazing.

Speaker 1 So much, so much variety, and more than anything, good people to do business with. Really appreciate you for coming on, brother.

Speaker 3 I appreciate you and everything you do. And you have an amazing podcast, number one.
Yeah. I appreciate you, brother.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 Hey, guys, you know where to find us, ryanisright.com. You'll find the whole series on trading cards there.
We go from all the way, all levels.

Speaker 1 We're covering it from every angle, just like we always do. At Ryan Alford on Instagram, thank you for making us number one.
We'll see you next time right about now.

Speaker 4 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 4 Thanks for listening.

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