How to Grow Your Collectibles Business or Side Hustle

Before we start, a quick word from our sponsor, ebay Live. If you've never checked it out, Ebay Live is ebay's live shopping experience built for collectors. It's where you find rare, exclusive and hard to find items through live auctions and special drops you can only get there. What makes it different is the energy and the community. Real sellers, engaging hosts like sports cards, nonsense and streamers that make it fun and interactive. It's all Beckett by ebay's protection and authenticity guarantees, so you can shop with confidence. Just download the ebay app and hit the ebay Live button under the search bar and jump in. Now back to your show. Welcome to the Hobby Handbook, your weekly dose of news, deals and data from the world of sports cards. Hosted by Alex, AKA Clever Cuban Cards. New episodes every Thursday. Look for more Clever Cuban Cards content over on TikTok and YouTube. Check us out live on Whatnot every Sunday and Wednesday. All right, so welcome back to another week of the Hobby Handbook. We have a kind of interesting and cool episode for you guys today. One of the things that I previously have done as a part of my card business is offering card consultations. And basically these are the opportunity for people to book an hour of my time to come and talk card business. If somebody's looking to get a card business off the ground, if they're at kind of a fork in the road trying to figure out what to do with the hobby, their collection, etc. I've offered that. I wish that I had the time to talk individually with every single person who sends me a dm. It's honestly really unfortunate. I love being and having grown to the size that I am, that we are where we are now. I used to respond to every single DM and now I barely get to any of them because there's just so many of them. But it's been an opportunity for people to book time with me. When we had our baby earlier this year, I pulled those from the website, mainly just that I didn't have the time to deal with them. But I think that we're finally at a point. She's back, she's in daycare now. You know, my wife is back at work. So at a point where I think that I'm going to be able to start reintroducing some of these card consultation calls and I'll have those live back up on the website. I feel bad having to charge for them. You know, it's. I still am charging a rate that I think is going is way less than I charge for content and other things that are take way less time than doing these consultations. But I want to be able to at least offer it to some people who are looking to have a deeper conversation. I also want to flag that none of these conversations ever have anything that is secret, kept behind a paywall, etc. There is no advice or information that I give out that is any different than what you get from me here on the hobby handbook, that is here, that is on my TikTok content, on my YouTube videos, etc. It is just simply a way that some people can have to have a back and forth, to have conversations, to ask questions that are more specific or nuanced to their specific situation. And so some people think that it's worth their, you know, time and money to do that. Some people, it's absolutely not. And I just want you to know that there is no expectation or there is no thought that I am going to keep any information, tips, tricks, education behind any paywall ever. That's not my goal, that's not my intention. It's just my way of saying, hey, if you're really wanting to talk with me in depth, the only way that I can do it is if it's, you know, with this. But what happened is I had a creator who posted a video saying, hey, you know, I'm trying to grow my card business, trying to figure out how to do better on Whatnot, trying to figure out all of these Topps of things, and I want to model myself after clever Cuban cards. And I said, hey, I really appreciated that. That's really cool. That feels really good to me. You know, that's just really nice. Said, how about you come on the podcast here and we do basically a card consultation live. We go through, kind of show you all what it would look like to have one of these conversations and kind of hear some of the tips and tricks and perspective that I would give in one of these conversations for free. So Jim is getting this conversation for free. It's not something that, like booking a card consultation is not going to get you on the podcast. That's not the whole. That's not what I'm trying to do here. This is just trying to help somebody out who's trying to get their card business started and kind of growing, but also show you guys what it's like and give you a kind of look behind the scenes as to what that would look like. So I've got the conversation here with Jim. We're going to hop on over to that right now. All Right. So we have Jim here of THX10 sports cards, is that correct? Yep. Okay, so one. Thanks for coming on the podcast, Jim. Yu-Gi-Oh thank you. Yu-Gi-Oh so I'd love to as I kind of gave the intro at the beginning. We're going to have a conversation today that basically is one of the card consultations. Would love to get a background of you, your sports card kind of journey, business, etc, where you're at now, kind of how long you've been in it, and then we can kind of talk some nitty gritty on continuing to build and grow the foundation that you are working on right now. Sure. Well, I guess I started with the sports cards like most of us as a kid it was how my parents bribed me to do chores. So that's kind of how I got started. I collected till probably my mid teens and then kind of fell away from it for a long time and I got back into it a little bit after the pandemic, I think like a lot of us did. It just kind of gave me something to do. I started going through what I personally had myself and sold some of that stuff and enjoyed it. Bought up a few collections and found that I enjoyed sorting through all those cards and kind of got into that. I started it as more of a business roughly a year ago and it was basically something to do to, to keep me busy at first. After my divorce, I found myself with a lot of Zebra time. So I wanted something productive to do instead of, you know, something else. So this episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses Setup required Compatibility and Availability Various 18 this episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one year old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom Nordstrom big or small. We're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and@nordstrom.com. that's kind of how I got into it. Yu-Gi-Oh that sounds like a very Very familiar story. I think a lot of people kind of have that kind of same timeline, experience, etc. It is really great. I know a lot of these conversations that I end up having. I think a lot of people are in the realm of I got back into the hobby, I ripped a bunch of stuff and I have, you know, all of this bulk that I don't know what to do with isn't worth nearly as much as I maybe paid for it. And now I'm like, what do I do? How do I go from here? And I think a lot of people are trying to figure out how to exist sustainably within the hobby. And it sounds like you have already kind of moved past that stage. Even if you had that stage that you are, you have a foundation, you have a business that you are running, but just trying to grow and scale said business. Would you say that's accurate? Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. And then how much I, you know, I, I got introduced to you and kind of the content that you make because you made a video talking about how you know and love to. I love the little shout out that you loved how I run my business and you know that you would love to be able to kind of have something to do something like that. I know that you also make content. How intertwined do you think that your like personal brand that you're building and the content is how much do you want to focus on that side of things in terms of growing your overall business? Is that something that you think is foundational? Is that something that you think is just kind of fun to put up a video here or there? Kind of. What's your view on the content and branding side? It's absolutely foundational. My day job right now because obviously I don't do sports cards full time, but my, my day job is in social marketing for a large auto group. So I already know kind of how that all works together. So. And I've seen it already with the card business too that a lot of the people that come into my Whatnot stream come over from TikTok. That's where they find me. So that's definitely something I see as like intricate to what I'm doing that the two will kind of have to continue to go hand in hand. Yu-Gi-Oh I, I totally agree and I think personally that's the right or the best way to go about it. That so much of the hobby and I think so much of building this business is building out your network and building out trust and I think that having content that you're building and having These relationships that you're building with an audience goes a really long way when you're doing it, especially in the Whatnot realm, where I think that you're a lot of. A lot of people are reliant on going to a card show and being able to buy a dollar card that you can then sell for three or four dollars. Hopefully that, like, that person, in theory, could go to a card show and get that card for a dollar, potentially. But that level of trust and that level, the relationship that you're building is a large part of the reason why they say, hey, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna spend money with Alex or I'm gonna spend money with Jim on their Whatnot stream. And I think that building that personal brand is really, really important in an ideal world. What do you think that, like, what would be the, like, elevator pitch as to, like, you and your personal brand and what you kind of do differently or why people should engage with you and your content? I think what most people see that follow myself on a regular basis, probably the fact that I'm very open and transparent about everything that I do. I try to be very honest about everything that I'm doing. I also try to. To buy my inventory really cheap. I try to find the best deals I can so that I can pass those on to my customers as well. Because I want people to come into my live streams feeling like, hey, I got a great deal on that. But to do that, I need inventory that I'm getting really good deals on. And. And that's kind of where the trouble comes in for me sometimes, is just trying to find enough of good stuff like that that I can still make a profit. I don't need to make a ton of money doing this, but, I mean, I can't go to the red, you know, or I'm done. So that's kind of where my holdup has been lately, is trying to find enough of that stuff that I can get cheap enough that I can still sell it at a nice discounted rate when I pass it on. So, Yu-Gi-Oh no, absolutely. And in my opinion, I actually think that while people may not necessarily think about it as this building up that honesty and that trust and that kind of view within the hobby of, like, you are somebody that is trustworthy, you are somebody that, like, runs yourself, you know, runs your business in a positive way, creates positive content, etcetera, I think that that actually can go a really long ways in terms of eventually helping you source inventory at a really good price point. Because I have heard many, many times before from people, you know, when I put out content of me going to a card show or doing this or that, they say, oh, you only got that deal because they know who you are. And my answer is, Yu-Gi-Oh that's true. Because they know that, you know, I'm somebody who. They like what I do, they like the content that I make. They know that I'm somebody who's going to come and buy from them again, that if you're somebody I know sourcing inventory, there I think two big problems. One is the quantity. I mean, I have in the year and eight or nine months that I've been selling on Whatnot, I've sold like 36,000 cards. Like, sourcing 36,000 quality cards to sell is not an easy task. No. And these people know that when you're creating this content about, you know, your experience, about growing your business and, you know, sourcing inventory and all these things, they know that there's a high likelihood that you're going to come back again. When I go to card shows, when I do those Topps of things, they know that, that is the fact. They know that I'm going to come and spend money with them, but they also know that they like to work with me. And I'm not going to lie about this because they like who I am. People want to work with people that they like. And the content side can also really help with that because it helps kind of build. Social media has all of these, like pseudo, you know, fake relationships that we basically have. And I, I don't like that the name calling them like fake relationships because I do have relationships that I've built with people that have turned into, you know, we talk, you know, I text people, I, you know, meet them at shows. I do these Topps of things. They turn into a real relationship, but it makes it feel like it's a much deeper relationship when people have seen your content and continuously see your content because they feel like they know you. So I think that that actually, I think that they, they kind of go hand in hand. Where is it that you would say that you are sourcing most of your inventory right now? I would say I have kind of a split between in person card shows. That's always kind of been my main source. I would say I actually found, whenever I started selling, I was setting up at the card shows and I stopped because I Goldin take the time to source my cards because I had my own table. And that's the stuff that I do well with those because I have found that product knowledge, knowing the cards, knowing what they are, goes a long way because I can dig through those boxes and I'll spend six, eight hours at a card show doing that. And I'll find a lot of good stuff that way. And then I also do a lot of online, either through Whatnot, where I sell myself, or scouring ebay with those auctions that are ending in the next like five minutes, Topps searches and things like that. But I found that doing the ebay thing for sourcing my cards just kind of hurt me sometimes because even when I get myself a great deal on something, I've immediately created a lower comp that kind of prevents me from selling. So I've kind of started to move away from that. But I'd say at this point, most of it's either in person or through Whatnot or collects. Probably. Yu-Gi-Oh I. On the ebay side, I totally agree. There's definitely cards that it's tough to buy. I think that, like, and this is where being a little bit further along in the, like, business buildup, that works a little bit more easily for me in that I can basically say, you know, I bought this card. I am the last comp and I bought it because I thought it was a good deal. And if you don't want to buy it, and I know we. We have the. The conversation about how if everybody wants to buy stuff for under the last comp, everything's just going to go to zero. You. You need somebody to be willing to pay over the last comp on something, which that's a whole other philosophical conversation about the hobby that we can have a different day. But I do definitely empathize and have that challenge because I hear it all the time of, oh, well, the last one did this. It's like, Yu-Gi-Oh I bought it at that price. I think that where I found more success on the buying on ebay side has been buying cards that are just a little bit more common. Because when you have it be that, you know, if you buy a Bobby Wood Jr. First Bowman Chrome PSA9, that card is just. The base card has a ton of pop. There are the. There are multiple sales on that card every single day. Somebody might see the comp that I got it at $22 and there might be another comp for $40. And it's the same thing. And that's where comps ch. Just are. Comps are just a guide. They're not a perfect thing. But I understand the frustration of when you buy something online and this is I love that you already have that sentiment of. Because a lot of conversations that I have with people when they're buying nicer, higher end inventory is. Well, you got to be careful when you're setting the comp on ebay. When you're buying online, are you registered at all as a business or are you just buying as an individual? I don't have the account registered as a business, but it's named under the same thx 10 sports cards. So one thing that you might think about doing as you're buying stuff online and this goes for Whatnot, ebay I'm sure collects does the same thing. And we're going to talk about colects actually in a second here is if you register yourself and it comes with some costs. I know in the state of Tennessee it's $300 a year to be an LLC. If you are registered as an LLC, you then can apply for sales tax exemption, which does help. It's definitely a, you know, you need to do enough volume. But for me, and I mean I don't. Where are you located, Jim? I am in Yu-Gi-Oh Okay, so what's your sales tax in Yu-Gi-Oh Out of curiosity? That's a great question. I've been here for about a month. Okay. I think we're at 7%. Okay. Yu-Gi-Oh So Nashville is like basically 10%, which 7% is still, I mean 7% off of every transaction. If you're buying in the volume that you eventually will hopefully need to be doing, that adds up very, very quickly. For me, I mean I can look at my ebay buys for the month and I've probably spent 15, $20,000 on eBay this month. So saving 10%, that's significant money like that. It adds up very, very quickly. And Yu-Gi-Oh you got to go through the work of registering yourself as an llc and then there's a little bit of complexity when it comes to tax season and you've got to have your accountant and this and that. But if you are somebody who is serious about it, it's something that I might look into because that, that can save you money and that you can register. I mean, I do my rip and flips on Whatnot where I buy boxes directly from Tops. I gave Tops my sales tax exemption. So I don't pay sales tax on Tops. When I buy a buy a case of Topps Chrome for $2,400, that's saving me 240 bucks. I'm getting a box for free, basically. Like it. It very much so adds up. And I think that if you're somebody who. Which I know you are, because you're doing this, where you're having this conversation, serious about the scaling, and you're really sourcing a lot of inventory. I would suggest that as a, like, revenue, you know, or an avenue to go to save you some in terms of when you're making money. And you can do that. I know with Whatnot, you can give them your sales tax exemption. You can do it with collects, I believe as well. All these sites will take it. And the beauty is that you're doing your. You said that you're setting up. You're not really setting up at shows. You're just going to shows to buy, which is the same transition that I really made when I started to sell more seriously and Whatnot. Which means that most if not all of your transactions are being done via these platforms that are collecting sales tax for you. The biggest challenge and the biggest reason why you generally will get your sales tax exemption is if you are a business that is, you know, you're gonna buy candles and you're gonna resell them at your local shop. There you have to be collecting that sales tax and then paying that out to the state because you're saying, hey, I'm buying this item, and then when I sell the item, I'm gonna collect sales tax, which we're doing. But we have the beauty here of the platforms that we sell on are automatically doing that for us. And. And there is no lift or any reporting that is necessary that you really have to do. Because Whatnot collects the sales tax. I don't see any of that. But I know that every time my buyer purchases a card, that sales tax is paid. So I would look at doing that. I love, though, that you're looking at, you know, online. I think that Whatnot can be a great place to buy cards. You know, going in and I'm sure you look at your stream and you say, Yu-Gi-Oh there are some of these cards that I would have bought at that price. Like, it happens to me all the time that I'm like, I mean, I. I would have bought that. I can't buy it for myself, but I would have easily paid that much money. And going in and seeing streams and it's. I feel mixed on the, like going in and finding somebody who is new, starting off and does not have a huge room. Because on one side I'm supporting them and helping bring in revenue and I'm getting, you know, giving them sales, giving them traction to grow. At the same time, I also know that I'M a lot of times getting some crazy good deals. So you can definitely go find really good deals on Whatnot. I also really like collect. There are some really good deals on some of those smaller marketplaces. Have you. How much do you buy on collects? I just started so I haven't bought much. But in the little bit of time I've been doing it, I bought some and I feel like I've gotten pretty good deals on it. Yu-Gi-Oh I feel like it's. I have, I'm in a similar boat. I have not bought much but I've recently kind of started to poke around just a little bit. Especially in the realm that I know that there are just some cards like the, the, the 2023 all ACEs insert set. You can get some of those for like two, three bucks. And I know that they'll sell for six, seven bucks for me. Like those Topps of cards that are slightly more like they don't comp for a ton. So that like when a collect user scans it and says oh it's a three dollar card but I know that I can get a little bit more for it. Like those Topps of things are great. In my mind I think that looking at those places where there's maybe a little bit less traction and competition from a buyer's perspective can be a really big plus. I know ball card genius talks a lot about Comm C as well as another one. I know that there's kind of the complications of withdrawing those cards from comm C. I've talked about buysportscards.com previously, some of the auction houses, honestly do you ever buy from like Fanatics Collect or Goldin or anything like that? I have not. So a lot of people think of them understandably so as the like high end auction houses where you're buying the, you know, $10,000 Shohei Ohtani card which like Yu-Gi-Oh they have all those things but they also have a ton of cheap cards that I think fly under the radar a fair amount. And there's pros and cons. You know, with Fanatics Collect generally the way that I go about it is I send it to their vault and then I withdraw it. And then like that it takes a couple of weeks to actually get the cards to you, which is a little longer than say buying off of ebay or somewhere else. But I think that buying from some of those sites, Alt is another one there. You know the Alt auctions, like they have obviously some crazy high end cards but then they also have some very standard run of the mill cards that I think Fly under the radar because they really market to the high end buyer and not you and I who are buying the $20 slab. So I might look at some of that and it's don't, you know, don't have a death by a thousand cut situation where you're trying to buy from a million different marketplaces and you can't keep track of everything. But play around a little bit on some of those auction sites maybe and just kind of see because sometimes there are some really good deals there. Okay, now what price range do you think that you generally play in? I would be. Well, I'm kind of transitioning my business so that's why I'm kind of. Right now actually is a good time to talk inventory because I did two shows this past weekend and Whatnot and sold a lot. So I don't have a ton of inventory left. And I had been doing a lot of the like one to five dollar cards that I would run at two bucks. I tried when I first started on Whatnot, I did the dollar starts thing and I had too much stuff. It kills 57 cents. Yu-Gi-Oh Yes. It's like I can't buy anything. So I started everything at two and now I'm trying to move into more of the two to $15 range of stuff and started all at two still. And I've only done this for a couple of weeks now and so far it's done well thankfully. But I was always so Certified to run like a card I spent $8 on at 2 bucks or to run 200 cards I spent $8 on and 2 bucks because my business is small, the budget I have for my business is small and like one bad show could undo me basically. But now I'm moving from like something like a semi decent star player out of 299 where I'm running now like in an auto of a good player at two bucks. And it's. Yu-Gi-Oh it's a little scary to do this last show I did I ran some of the bigger stuff. I've run judge rookies, Acuna rookies, some nice Raleigh rookies, things like that. And I found that those cards I, I really to step up on to pay for and actually ended up losing a little bit on those. But I think that they were kind of a loss leader for me where that brought enough people into the stream that the other stuff did better. I had a stack of like these triple thread cards about this high and I was able to get good price on those and those sold well. So like that did really well so I think like that kind of helped, you know, get people into the stream, the big, the big big stuff. And then I made money with some of the little bit smaller stuff. But I'm trying to source, I would say in the ideally in like one to five dollar range to sell things that are in the two to fifteen dollars range for my standard like two dollars, two dollar auctions. And then I try to have better stuff in my shop as well. Things that I don't necessarily want to run. Just pick that one up. I mean I don't want to run that for two bucks. Yu-Gi-Oh the last comp is like $70 but so I can't really do that. But I do try to keep maybe 50 to 100 cards that are bigger in my shop too. But kind of the, the prime bread and bow for me is going to be sourcing like I said, in that $1 to $5 range for that 2 to $15 range. So that I can make, I can make a little bit and also still give my, my buyers a deal on it too. Yu-Gi-Oh absolutely. It's hard to source it because the last show I sold almost 400 cards. So to source 400, 400 cards in a week when I have a full time job, that's my struggle. So it is and it's. I, I think that one you're spot on and that the one of the biggest tips that I give new Whatnot sellers is don't start cards at a dollar. You, you need to have a larger following. You need to. And I still have a few cards that sell at a dollar and I'm like well crap, I probably like it'd be better if it was a $2 star but whatever I can handle the card that's I make 57 cents off of because it sells for a dollar at volume. Especially when you're starting off and you're starting to try and grow your following. It's really hard. So starting them at 2 bucks I think is the right call. Love the call out of the loss leader. I refer to it as the Costco hot dog of my streams. The cards that I take the big loss on because I know that it's going to bring in other people and make kind of help. You know, Rising Tide lifts all ships that like that specific one I might be losing on but I'm going to overall one-of-one and that's one of the things that I really push is I think a lot of people get so caught up in individual comps on cards. I can tell you it is astounding how consistent my averages are on Whatnot in terms of I have sold again 30 plus thousand cards and it averages out to like 13, $14 a card and that's inclusive of my high end slabs. It's inclusive of my cards that sell for a dollar. It's inclusive of everything. So I know that when I go to a card show I need to make sure that when all is said and done I'm walking away with inventory that I'm very happy with but that I'm getting at an average of X. And I think that as you do more and as you sell more it's tough because it's so nerve wracking of I'm going to take a loss on this stuff. But as you do more you will start to understand and see I think where your audience tends to fit into. I'm not a room, I'm not debut sports who can run a one of one Kobe Bryant and sell it for 900 something thousand dollars. Insane. That's not me. I don't have high end buyers. I my guys are generally the like 10 to $100 range and I know that that's where I play. Yu-Gi-Oh but being willing to take the risk is really tough and I understand the concern there but I think that being able to focus on your like and learning what your averages end up being will then allow you to start to go in. And my approach that I'll do at card shows a lot of time is I walk up and I look and I figure out okay, does this dealer have, you know, a good value box, a good dollar box, a two dollar box, et cetera. And then I hope that they also have a, you know, higher value box like you know, 50 plus or showcase etc And I try and pick out a couple of nicer cards from the Showcase and then I try and average those cards down with dollar cards so that when all is said and done I have four or five cards that are 50 bucks a piece but I'm into everything at four bucks a card and so hopefully those dollar cards are going to sell for two, three bucks and Yu-Gi-Oh I might lose it, you know, a little bit here or there, but some of them are also going to sell for five or six dollars hopefully. And then you have the bigger cards that you're into at a lower average so that then you can take a loss more easily on those big cards and not be worried about it. Because nothing grinds my gears more than Whatnot sellers who one-of-one and complain about what a card is selling for like if you wanted more for it. And that's one of the other things too. You can also try running bigger cards at still a very good price. But say, you know, I need to get at least $15 for this card and so run it at 15 bucks. When I started out, I was running slab starting at $15 because I said, hey, I had too many slabs that were selling for eight, nine bucks. And I was like, that doesn't work for me. I'm sorry. And so I started some at 15 or it was a, you know, $100 card. I'd say, guys, listen, I'm starting this. I'm not, I don't want to talk comps before the card sells, but I can tell you that I'm starting this at well below comps. But I can't, I cannot let it go for less than this. And if nobody wants it, then that's fine, you just pull it out. But don't be afraid to also put some cards in that maybe are slightly bigger that you could say, you know, I'm going to start this one at $5 versus $2. Yu-Gi-Oh And it can give you a little bit of a, like, opportunity to run some bigger cards because it's such a catch 22 in that you want to run cards that people want to buy. You want to run the cool big cards, but those cards are expensive and if those cards don't sell for sell well, then you're going to lose money. If you lose money, then you're not going to be able to do this at all. But people aren't going to come into the stream and buy stuff if you don't have cool cards that people actually want to buy. Like, Yu-Gi-Oh of course I can run a, you know, Parker Meadows Topps Chrome base card for a dollar. But who wants that? Maybe Parker Meadows, his mom. Like, but like, people don't want that. People want the stuff that is big name players, that's numbered, that's cool, etc. But if you are running that stuff, you're running the risk of losing on that stuff. And if you lose, it's such a difficult, like, cycle to deal with. And I think that, like, one of the tips that I give, and I know you're a little bit further along and a little bit more seasoned, but one of the tips, and I think that it still is valid and fair here if people are looking to start selling on Whatnot, is, hey, go buy a big lot, go buy a collection. And you say, okay, I'm gonna buy this for 500 bucks. Sell enough cards to make back your $500. And then put the other ones aside and say, okay, this stuff is now, and I'm using air quotes for those who are listening and not watching on YouTube free. I'm into that for nothing. So I can take whatever I get on that. And what's really freeing about it is, Yu-Gi-Oh do you have a card that's maybe a $25 card that sells for 10? And you're like, well, crap, but I sold that on ebay. I could have made an extra 10 bucks. Yu-Gi-Oh but it also helps build your audience and it helps build your following. And you get people that say, I got a really good. I got a really good deal from you. You know, I'm gonna come back. So I think that that's also a potential avenue to look at when you're buying a bigger lottery collection, like, keep it and understand, like, when you made your money back and then when you can use that stuff and it's. It's, you know. You've heard of girl math? It's kind of girl math. I call it hobby math. Of like, oh, I'm into it for nothing. Like, when I bought my Ohtani rookie auto the other day and I gave up a $400 Bo Jackson auto, but I already paid for it, the rest of the stuff that I had already sold and made my money back. So boy math, hobby math. I'm like, it's free. I'm into it for nothing. So I think that that's also another thing that both can help you on an inventory side and maybe also help you grow that audience. How do you feel like you're doing, growing your following on Whatnot? Specifically, starting off first, I would say it's not like, when I see the total number in the stream, it's not where I wanted to be yet. Where are you generally? Sorry. I would say I would probably usually have 15 to 25. Okay, that's solid. Which isn't too bad. When I first started, it was like, three, four. You're hoping to, like, you're putting up, you know, 17, 18, 19 cars before someone finally bids on one. So. Yu-Gi-Oh But the nice thing that I really like about my following is I've got probably 12 to 15 guys that they're in there every single week. And, like, so I have got, like, a very devoted, like, loyal, like, small group of buyers. And, like, you're so appreciative for guys like that. And then I also still, every time I do a stream, I see, you know, If I have 30 total packages going out. 15 of them are first time buyers. Awesome. So you still get that like passing through type thing too. So it's just trying to figure out how, how do you make those people in that second group part of the first group. So like, it's, it's a slow growth, but it's, it's going the right direction. And I think when you build the foundation of like that first type of group of people, that helps. So, Yu-Gi-Oh the, the foundation really helps in a couple of ways. One, obviously just having people that are in there from the algorithm side, obviously Whatnot likes that they say, okay, you know, we've got 15 guys that are watching the stream from start to finish. That means that, you know, Jim is putting on an entertaining show that is worth watching. It's the reason why people say, oh, give me the W's in chat. It's not because they just want chat flowing, it's because it says to the algorithm there's stuff that's going on in this show that a lot of people are engaging in a conversation here and therefore, like, we should push more people to their show. So first off, one congrats. 15 to 20, 25 is an awesome number to be at. I know obviously we'd like to have 30 or 40 or 50 or 100, like the more people the better, no question. But 15 to 25 is definitely a range that like you at least I know are able to run some cards and you're not having to play those. You said getting 16, 17 cards up on the stand to finally get somebody to bid on something. I think that growing that Fleer count is definitely something that I would put a lot of focus into. It gets expensive, but I would start if you're not already doing them, like, do some giveaways pretty consistently. It is insane how quickly giveaways will get you followers because you get people in the show, they have to follow, to give, to do it. And it also, I think, does help to some extent. I don't do giveaways as much as I used to, but it also keeps people in the stream because if they leave the stream, they can't be in the giveaway. Right. Like, you have to be there for the five minutes that the giveaway is running and then you might benefit from somebody saying, oh, well, I wasn't coming in to buy something, but you know, I'm a really big Padres fan and Jim's running a cool Manny Machado, so I'll bid three bucks on it. And now what do you have? You have somebody who is A new new Fleer and a first time buyer and then that first time buyer and that new Fleer is going to get notified the next time that you go live. And that's the thing that and where the Fleer count and where the show pre saves which I have another little tip that I'm going to give you in a second here comes in massively when I start my stream, when I click start I'll get in the first 30 seconds, 45 seconds, probably like 15, 20 people in the room. And then I see the push notification go out and you I can tell you to the second when the push notification goes out because the stream will jump from 20 to 100. Like it's crazy. And I've had it before where we get two, three, four minutes into the stream and I'm like did you get your push notification guys? Because we're still only at like 2530 people like me who has 20 something thousand followers on Whatnot, who has the large tick tock following recognizable brand etc. If I don't get that push notification, I'm sitting at 2530 people. Like getting that push notification is huge. And you get that through followers as well as through people pre saving your stream. And one of the things that one of my good friends Nick, who actually just started his own Whatnot page all day collectibles, I'll give him a little shout out. He is doing that he gave me that's I think is Zebra smart is he will say hey guys, when we get you know, the next month's streams Pre saves to 20 if we get 20 bookmarks on every single stream, I'm gonna give away this card. And then when that is done then you say okay cool, we got to 20. If we can get to 30. And I'm using slightly lower numbers because I recognize you don't want to set it, you don't want to set your goal too high that then it's unrealistic for people to hit it. Like for me I'm like let's get it to 50 then let's get it to 75, let's get it to 100. Because I know I've got 100 people generally that are in my stream. So I'm like Yu-Gi-Oh we should be able to get it to 100. Like just go and pre save it. It's free and I'll give something away but it does a Zebra good job. And while I'm saying this I'm gonna pull up his page to tell you like he just started on Whatnot, not too Long ago, like a couple of weeks ago, honestly. And he's, he has run Whatnot pages before so I know that he has been like, he has the experience to do well with this. But looking at his shows, you know, he's got a show today, 624 pre saves tomorrow 574. Like he every single time says, you know, we will run this giveaway when we get to this number. And what that does is when you get 500 people that have pre saved your show, you're going to get insane push notification because that pre save guarantees that push notification. And what happens is if Whatnot sees 150 people jump into the stream, they're gonna say, oh my God, something big's going on here. I'm gonna send more people. So think about the giveaways get to be expensive, but I think that you can leverage it in to help you in two ways to make it worth it and that if you tie it to the pre save, say we're gonna do the giveaway when the pre save hits this goal number and then for them to enter the giveaway they have to follow you. It's a double one-of-one Yu-Gi-Oh And I think can help kind of start to snowball some of that growth that I think could be really, really big for you. All right. Yu-Gi-Oh So that's the Whatnot side. Have you thought about any sort of like strategy in terms of growing your social media, TikTok, Instagram, wherever you're posting, following as well? I've tried a few things. Okay. When I first started, I mean I went from zero to 2,000 followers on TikTok like in under two weeks. Yu-Gi-Oh And then the two to 3,000 took like two and a half months. It just really slowed down. So I tried doing the whole like, you know, here's the carbon, do a giveaway, like the post follow tag, three friends, that whole thing. I don't know if my giveaway wasn't good enough or what but like that didn't do very well for me. But Yu-Gi-Oh I do need some ideas there things to, to get that moving a little bit. I've, I've kind of gotten a little, a little bit of a jump start. It seems like the, the three to four has been moving a little bit quicker for me. But Yu-Gi-Oh that's something I want to get bigger too because I've got a personal tick tock that I've got enough to monetize on. I want to be able to do that with the, with the business too. So Yu-Gi-Oh no, it definitely helps and it's like as somebody who is monetized on tick tock and YouTube, it's, it's not insane money, but like it's money. Like I will absolutely take it. It helps. It helps every single month. I think that like one of my biggest things that I would say is one obviously like putting out the type of content that you want to see. I think also I've definitely recognized it's really odd. I feel like TikTok used to be the platform where it's like if you posted a like high quality, highly edited, you know, it looks like it's coming from my fancy camera, not my phone camera. That would used to not do well. I think Tick Tock used to prefer you to make the videos in app and I feel like now it's my stuff that I'm taking that's like my longer form content or that I'm filming on my like DSLR camera that is doing better. That's like, it's like higher quality picture. Yu-Gi-Oh But like the long and the short of it that I would say is throw stuff like post all the time. Anything, anything that happens. If you're scrolling through Instagram and you see, you know, sports cards nonsense or Jeff Wilson or Card Collector 2 or whoever, you posted a thing and you're like, oh, that's interesting. Take a screenshot and do a green screen video and talk about it. Like if something big happens or you know, you want to talk about something that happened in the hobby or hear about news or whatever. Like I like the people talking about the posting strategy of every time that you open the app, post something. Like I really would try and just like post, post, post, post, post. Because some of it will do terribly and that's fine, but some of it will start to do well and then you can kind of start to see and understand, okay, like what is it that works really well? What is it that like the audience wants to see? I think the easy, like the easy content is going to target and buying a blaster box and ripping it. Like people love to watch you rip stuff. That's the reality. At the same time it also gets to be a little expensive. Like I, I can't afford to go to Target every day and rip a blaster box. I wish I could. I can't. Like that's not realistic. But that type of stuff does do well and I know that like if I'm struggling content wise, like that's something to keep in your back Beckett or like a grade reveal. Like do you grade cards much? I know, like, the range that you tend to play in, price wise, does not typically tend to be graded cards. What do you play with there? I grade very little, primarily because with my business model, I need to get a card and flip it very quickly. Yu-Gi-Oh And also the budget I allow myself, I can't have a ton of that tied up in grading when those cards are gone for three, four months. Right now I've got two cards off at PSA for grading. And, Yu-Gi-Oh it's been three and a half months and they're still gone. So, like, I. I don't grade much. If I do have graded cards, I bought them that way. Normally I deal mostly raw, so. Yu-Gi-Oh Which, like, I think something that I might look at and consider for you as well on an inventory as well as a content side is thinking about trying to do a little bit more of that, because one, I can tell you and I, it's. I hear a lot of people complain about it because it's the same recycled content again and again of people doing grade reveals. Viewers love grade reveals. Deal with it like, you cannot like it. As somebody who is critiquing the hobby and this and that. It's a fact. People like to watch the grade reveals. I also think, and this is something that, you know, I've had the conversation with Brendan, who's doing my football singles right now. He sees it very much. So slabs can also just do crazy well because people just like slabs. And it's one of those things that it goes back to that catch 22 of. I want to run nice cards, but, like, it costs money to run nice cards, and if I don't run do well on the nice cards, and I can't afford buying the nice cards, and it just snowballs very, very quickly. I think that that's where you might be able to play a little bit in terms of taking advantage of some of the, like, really solid cheap, whether it be on an auction house or ebay or whatever. Like, the slabs don't have to be crazy expensive. And you can find some crazy good deals. I mean, last night I one-of-one a couple of. You know, they're just PSA 9, so they're nothing crazy. But, like, it was a couple of Nolan Aeronautos that were like, I don't know, like a Finest out of 150. I think it was in a PSA 9. I want it for, like, $7. Like, what is there to lose on a $7 slab? It's a numbered guy who's probably going to be a Hall of famer like you might not be able to go in and say that I'm going to run the Ohtani rookie that's $100 card aligned there. I even have hesitancies about running 100 plus dollar card starting at a dollar. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses Setup required Compatibility and Availability Various 18 this episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years Nordstrom has been part of your story. The the stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview, the first pair of walking shoes for your one year old, the tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom Nordstrom big or small. We're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and@nordstrom.com but you can go in and you can find some really solid slab deals that end up being like decent. Like I'm looking right now like I got a Colt Keith Finest rookie numbered out of 150 in a PSA 9 yesterday for $7. I got a Ellie De La Cruz power players for $12 and a PSA 9, a James Wood Fortune 15 at a Topps Chrome for $12. Like that type of stuff that just allows you to just get some of the interesting things in which can help your business grow. And the people like to bid on slabs, people like those slabs. But I think that it also doing some more grading and maybe you play it from the perspective of similar to the you know get cards that you've sold enough of the collection so now they're free, quote unquote and you can kind of forget about them. Like for me the Nashville card show was last weekend and between the Whatnot card show and the big national card show stream that I did, I've basically paid for all of the stuff that I have bought that weekend. You know I sold a very good quantity and quality. Like I sold a lot of high end singles that I did but I've basically covered my expenses for that weekend and I just sent off 60 cards yesterday to PSA. So Yu-Gi-Oh do I have to wait 2, 3 months, 3, 4 months to get those back. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm going to have to do that. At the same time, in my mind, those cards are free air quotes again, because I've already paid for them. And so from a business perspective, I've already paid for it. And yes, it costs money to grade, but with psa, they don't charge you until they've actually graded the cards. So you're not out that money right away. You get charged when the cards are graded and then in theory, you can hopefully get them sold, especially if you're doing a Whatnot stream decently quickly. Hopefully. So it might be worth starting to try and dabble a little bit there because I do think that that can help you both from a streaming side and a content side. Yu-Gi-Oh And I've, I've Zenith, the second step of the grading process because I've, I've sold a lot of cards that are very gradable. Raw. I opened up a pack of Bowman a little bit back. I pulled the, the black Refractor out of 10 of Eduardo Quintero. Okay, that's a big one. I sold it raw for 200 bucks. And the guy that bought it sends me a message like four months later. And he was like, hey, I got that card graded. It came back at 10. Now it's like a 600 card. And I'm like, dang, oh, maybe I should have, you know, and it's, it's ones like that that made me think, okay, maybe I do need to start trying to grade a bit more. But Yu-Gi-Oh it's. Then it's the ones I look at that, it's like, you know, it comes back in eight and it's not even worth enough to cover the cost of the, of the grading. And so I've always been hesitant, but I, I do think, and I think that might be where you're talking more what's good for me might be trying to get the ones those deals like you're talking, Yu-Gi-Oh those under $10 and those were all ebay buys that I bought last night. You know, some of those were directly from the PSA eBay store. And you know, saying this, I know I'm going to get more people that are going to compete and I'm not going to get that card for $10. But we're not here to gatekeep, but I think you can do some of that. And I also think that sending some of those cards off to grade can help something else. And it's this, like, it's a love hate relationship. I personally Pay for a little bit faster Service time with PSA. Now for me, the extra five $6 a card is worth it to get it back that much quicker. Because for me it's, it's a keeping up with that slab in inventory. I mean I sell 60 plus slabs a week, so keeping up with 60 plus slabs a week, like me, I'm like, oh, I sent off 60 cards to PSA yesterday. That's awesome. That's a weak inventory for me. Like that's, that's nothing. Which is why I buy, I do buy a lot of stuff that's already graded and I think that you're spot on there. I think that I would try and do a little bit of that, but then I also would try and try and start to send some stuff off for grading. Looking at the time I want to give you, I've done a lot of kind of like directing the conversation. Is there anything like burning questions wise that you have that you're looking for some insight and perspective on before I let you go? I guess the biggest thing for me right now is trying to source more because I can still find, like I said, I'm in that, trying to spend a dollar to five dollars to find those two to fifteen dollar cards when I was sourcing those like one to five to run them all at two, like that was easy enough. Dollar box. I'm pulling cards left and right. I know what I'm looking for. Stepping up a little bit in the, in the content, it's, it's getting a little bit harder to find them as much. So when I'm trying to source 300, 400 cards in a week, it's getting hard to find that much stuff. That's been part of what helps having an established base. As I know this guy's a Braves fan, this guy's a Reds fan, this guy's a Yankees fan because I know that I can get a quality three dollar card, throw it up there too and they'll buy it all day long. Whereas like some of the other teams that I don't necessarily have a buyer for, I can't do that. And so that helps kind of fill in the gaps where maybe if I lose a little money on those more expensive cards, it's okay. But I do need to find more of those five to $10 cards for two to three bucks. And I don't know if you have any wisdom there, but I think all of us would love to find those. I agree. I constantly want to. I think that like honestly where I find the Best inventory and the most inventory is card shows. Like, and I know that like for us here in Nashville, like our next show is until is it literally is not for a month. It's not until November 29th. And I'm like, okay, I, I was having the conversation with my wife. I'm like, there's a show in Chattanooga, but I'll have to probably go to a hotel like night before. It's that like there is getting to shows is not always an easy thing. It's an easy thing to say. Shows are the best place because we all know, especially if you're buying the low end stuff, shows are the best place to get good deals on bulk cards. But there's not a show every weekend, unfortunately. I think then it's this question of where and how can you source collections or like large lots from people. And that's where 1. Building up the social media presence helps. I cannot tell you. I get more DMS than I can handle of people looking to sell large lots of cards. Like I'm looking to get rid of this box or looking get rid of that. Like that really helps. You can make posts and say, hey, I'm looking to buy. Like send me stuff that you're looking for. Where it's hard is on the low end stuff like you really, it's hard to say like, okay, I've got a four row box. What do you want out of this for me? Because again, building up that trust with your audience. I have people that just send me boxes that will say, you know, I'm going to send you a four row, you sort through it and you tell me what you can pay and I do that. I'm sure that sounds amazing to you that like having four rows just show up at your house is awesome. And that's, that's absolutely a great thing. But you have to find those people that are looking to do it by making posts about it. There are always people that are looking to sell large lots of cars. I think that you also have a lot of people that are, to put it pretty bluntly, like breaking addicts and just rip an inordinate amount of stuff and finding those people. I have a couple of guys that I know that are just like, they are independently wealthy and they just love to rip boxes. And so I go and I go to their house or you know, we meet up and I get boxes and boxes and boxes of cards and I sort through and I pull out what I want and then I buy and I buy from them and for them it's their low end stuff that they're not doing anything with that I can literally just say, okay, cool. Like, we'll just. I'll take this at two bucks a card. And for them, it's literally gonna sit in a box in a closet because they're not the, the, the sub $10 card. You're not gonna send that off to consignment. You're not, you're. They're not gonna list that on ebay. Like, that type of stuff is where I think I make my bread and butter. And I think a lot of people can make a lot of money on cards as the low end stuff because you can get it at a much better rate. So I think also always looking out for and trying to find and build relationships with people that are doing a lot of those Topps of things. And that just happens, you know, over time, organically. It's an. It's. It's easier said than done. But when you do find it, foster that relationship. Like, one of the guys that I buy from, I know he's a big Fernando Tatis Jr. Collector. So every time that I show up, I have a cool, big Tatis for him just to give him for free. I don't factor it into the price that I'm paying for his cards, but I want him every 3, 4 months to shoot me a text and say, hey, Alex, you want to come buy the house? And, you know, come look through some stuff like fostering that relationship so that when I do find it, I don't lose that relationship. But I think that those Topps of situations can also be really good. But you got to find it. And then I also think that, like, I will tell you that I buy a fair amount of bulk inventory off of ebay through, like, Consignors, my biggest plug. And I know that they're a sponsor of the sports cards nonsense podcast. And hey, if they want to spot sponsor the hobby handbook, I would love them to do so though. But DC sports on eBay, I think is the best consigner out there. And this is free. They are. They do not advertise here. I wish they would, but they do not advertise here. DC Sports, I think, is the best consigner. They ship stuff out crazy, crazy fast. But the biggest one-of-one is that they cap you out on shipping at like $8.45. So it doesn't matter if you buy three cards or if you buy 300 cards. And I've bought like 300, but I bought like 150 plus before from them in one night. What I do. And you know, Mrs. Clever Cuban, my wife is, is great putting up with this while we sit and watch tv every night I am just scrolling through, you know, sort by ending the soonest and I just go in and I say, okay, that's a cool card. I pay four bucks here, I'd pay seven bucks here, I'd pay. And as you go and as you do more of the buying and selling, you you start to learn what you can kind of get. Because for better or worse, you know this on Whatnot, comps don't matter. Like on the. The nice stuff that's in your shop and you can kind of have a conversation about it. Yu-Gi-Oh well, that, that maybe comps do matter, but a little lower and stuff that I'm starting at a dollar. For better or worse, comps don't matter. So I'm just going pure gut check of I think that I can get, you know, eight bucks for this card. So I'll bid six and just see what sticks and there are going to be plenty of cards. I lose a lot more than I one-of-one but it adds up of, okay, you know, I got 30 cards on Monday night. Then on Tuesday night I got 40 like that plus Discord buys, plus some Facebook buys, plus a collection here or there, plus a card show hopefully twice a month. And that definitely can help as well, I think. Yu-Gi-Oh So anything else? I don't think so. Okay, then let's hear a plug. Where can people find you your content or Whatnot Streams? When do you typically stream? Give people all the info so they can come and support you. All right, appreciate it. Yu-Gi-Oh THX10 sports cards you're gonna be able to find me on Whatnot. I run every Monday night, 6:30pm Central Standard Time. I'm exclusively baseball, so it's just I tried to branch out and it didn't go well. And I think it's because it's just like it's not my passion. So I'm a baseball guy. But Yu-Gi-Oh also on Tick Tock, that's the main place I'm putting stuff out. I have a Facebook page as well, but it's. Those are kind of the big two for me right now. I'd say Whatnot and TikTok. Awesome. Well, go check Jim and his content and streams out. I appreciate you guys you coming on the stream today and I hope to hear more and hear more about the big success that you're finding hopefully with some of these tips and tricks we talked about today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks, Jim. All right. And thanks again to Jim for coming onto the podcast today. Really, really fun to have this conversation. And I hope that he finds it helpful and that you found it helpful both in terms of those just like tips, perspective on sourcing inventory, growing a brand, growing yourself on Whatnot or wherever you're looking to grow a following on. I know how hard it is to get started and I think that sometimes just having the conversation with somebody who has been through it and I'm also Zebra transparent all the time in that my experience is not going to be your experience and your experience will not be somebody else's experience. I had success on Whatnot pretty immediately, but when I started selling on Whatnot, I had 30, 40,000 TikTok followers. That's very different than Jim who's sitting here with 3,000 TikTok followers and hopefully, you know, he continues to do stuff, continues to grow his brand and find success. I wish him success. And if you are looking to continue to grow and all this and that, hopefully you found these tips and tricks helpful. Next week we'll have another guest on still working on who. So you're gonna have to stay tuned for that. We will, I think know by this time next week who is going to one-of-one the World Series. We are tied up 2. 2. So it is a ton of fun. Ohtani's market is going absolutely crazy again. Back to last week's episode. Could not have timed buying that rookie auto any better. It's really, really fun. I'm gonna miss the baseball season, but loving the start of NBA and NFL. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that a little bit more next week, but appreciate you guys listening to this week's episode. We'll catch you guys in next week's episode. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi step projects and when you need more than just answers. Give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting Work Mode Available on Plus and Pro Plans.