Episode 269: MINT Collectables: Living the Hobby Dream & The Topps Takeover

In this "Boss Level" episode of the podcast, we’re stepping into the ring with Zac from Mint Collectables (269).

We go behind the counter to find out what it’s actually like to live the hobby dream of owning a shop. From the best and worst customer interactions to the high-stakes game of identifying fakes, Zac breaks down the reality of the retail grind.

We also dive deep into the Topps Summit, discussing the future of the industry, the controversial move toward credit card implementations. Whether you’re chasing a personal grail or trying to build a "Business of Joy," this episode is packed with industry secrets and unfiltered opinions.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Shop Life: Transitioning from collector to owner.
• The Good & The Ugly: Handling fakes and first pack joy.
• Topps Summit Intel: 3 major takeaways and the credit card debate.
• Future Heat: Upcoming releases and the Topps industry takeover.
• The Grail Quest: What Zac is hunting for his personal stash.

Transcript

Welcome everybody to this week's show.

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This is the You Can't Comp This MBA Trading Card Podcast. I am your host Russell Gibson and this week we've got Zack from Mint Collectible. Zack, how you doing today?

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Yeah, really well, man. How are you?

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Yeah, fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. I actually I'm really looking forward to having a chat with you today because I definitely want to hear about your hobby story, but you've

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also told us that you've just come back from the the Top Summit, so I I can't wait to hear your stories about that. Yeah. No, it was very exciting. Um,

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yeah, first time getting to go over and being involved. Really insightful and exciting to learn everything going on in the industry and a tax deductible holiday at the same time.

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Yeah, that's always a bonus. I got to go to a few NBA games and MLB game while we're over there. Managed to go to a card show as well. So, yeah, got to make

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the most out of it when traveling to the other side of the world.

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I mean, it's a tough life traveling around the world for work, isn't it? Right. Yeah, for sure. What was the best NBA game you went to?

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So, I went to Who did I go? I went Lakers Brooklyn. So that was pretty cool getting to see like Luca, LeBron, Austin Reeves live. That was that was great.

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The other game I went to was Suns the Dallas. So we got to go see Cooper Flag.

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That game wasn't too eventful or exciting, but yeah, cool to see them in in person. You know, the guys that you spend your whole life watching and there they are in the flesh.

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Yeah, 100%. And seeing their aura that like that's the thing that really gets me is when you see them walk into the room at the same time and you just It's

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just amazing, isn't it? It's uh it's like a I think I get a deeper appreciation for how good they are at their sport like in person that I don't

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think TV gives a full doesn't do it justice.

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Yeah, exactly. Like it's so much quicker and that athleticism is insane.

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Yeah. Who is the most amazing person just to physically see cuz like for me LeBron and Russell Westbrook is my three

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like just oh my god I can't believe these guys. I've never been like a huge Webby guy, but I got to see him a few months ago and he's actually incredible.

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Like couldn't believe how Gilded that man was this time seeing Luca live that he is also very very good.

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Yeah. Let's go back to the start. Tell us about yourself, introduce yourself and just tell us about your hobby journey and how you ended up being Mint Collectibles because Yeah. Yeah.

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I love to hear these stories. Yeah.

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Yeah. Um so I'm Zach uh from Mint Collectibles. We're based in Brisbane. I started Mint back in 2020. originally was just online. Ended up opening my

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first hobby shop in 2021. I hadn't collected for a long time prior. I got into the hobby about 2018. Ben Simmons was actually the reason I got into cards

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in the first place. I remember I'm not too sure about that, man.

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I was very patriotic about him when he was uh back when he was 19, 20, 21.

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We're the same age, so I I was always excited by him. But yeah, I remember reading an article by I think Sports Illustrated and they were talking about like a $100,000 Ben Simmons rookie card,

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which now sounds unfathomable, but yeah,

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that really intrigued me. I'd always had appreciation for cards as a kid, but that really brought me back in and investigated further. So, I remember

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opening some Prism that year. So, Luca rookie at Prism and yeah, I was just in the hobby from there on. In 2020,

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product started getting really hard to access. So yeah,

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I remember bringing some in from overseas just a rip and eventually found a way to sell extra boxes and realized

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that it was a pretty pretty plausible business and and launched mid uh mint mid 2020. Yeah, here we are still doing

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it today. Have a have a store in Brisbane. We've got 15. Yeah, we've definitely scaled since since then.

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I feel like you've skipped a massive chunk between bringing boxes in to being mint collectibles today.

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without going into too much of your sort of your IP like what's some of your what made you successful you know what do you do that stands out from different hobby

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shops like why do customers keep coming back to you I think early it was definitely social media presence so important you know that's really how we got our name out

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there and it it still took time at first I wasn't exactly doing like huge money and you know I was a oneman operation for the first two three years

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yeah right um so yeah it's just I think being opening that physical store and being that community presence and somewhere to go in and somewhere to talk about cards

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and meet other collectors and I think that was a really important part of the ecosystem we were missing in Brisbane at the time and yeah as as the years have

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gone on we've just scaled and um improved on those things and increased our offering and originally

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only did basketball cards and and now TCG is a big part of what we do and and you've got events on every night too man I'm just looking that so uh we're

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doing a trade night every every Friday night for uh Pokémon. We do a sports one occasionally here and there, but not as

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consistently. And yeah, we we host TCG nights uh every day of the week these days. So yeah,

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uh that's not something we did until 2024, I think. So four years without that. And yeah, now that's a big part of our business as well.

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I really agree with that and I think that's where it's at because I think of course people love collectibles, but I also think actually they quite enjoy the interaction of it. And then I'm assuming

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guys get in there and trade and they they'd be buying up to fill out their decks and all the rest of it. Like it's Yeah, exactly. I think it's a big part

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of being a hobby shop. You can't just be somewhere that sells boxes. Like it's so important to be that community space and where we're that place people to come

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and hang out and um yeah, I think that's so important.

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I got to ask you though, why isn't there an NBA trade night or sports?

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We do we do them here and there. Uh we don't So for the Pokémon one, we get 80 people a week. The shop's always packed.

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Um, Pokémon's absolutely thriving at the moment. We do have a big sports audience and like we'll get people along to the trade days, but I we can't really run

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them weekly. We feel that they'd be a bit too fatigued, but we try one run one every couple of months and they do Yeah.

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really well as well.

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Yeah. Interesting. Maybe that's more about where the hobby is at the moment that Pokemon is just so dominating.

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It's insane at the moment. Yeah. I remember we we didn't do Pokemon for ages and now we can't look back. A huge part of our business.

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Boston Card Guy's doing I mean he does a lot of clickbaity sort of stuff and a lot of the scam stuff, but the other thing that caught my attention from him recently was he believes that Pokémon's

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just in a huge bubble and it's about to burst. Like what do you think about that in terms of There's some truth to that. Like uh one

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difference I see now to the 2020 bubble that the NBA had where we lost 90% of the value on lots and lots of cards.

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There is like a genuine collector base.

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There's there's a massive audience of collectors. Well, back in 2020 for basketball, I feel like it was a lot of like new money that was like investing in cards more than like actually collecting.

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So, I do think Yeah, I do think Pokémon has like a long long-term audience regardless if card prices do come down. So, I don't think it'll be as severe,

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but there are definitely cards that need a big correction at the moment.

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Yeah. Interesting. What's your favorite customer interaction or your favorite type of customer interaction? This was a hard one. uh because there's,

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you know, so many exciting things about owning a shop, but one I really appreciate when we have new people come in and it's their first experience in

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the hobby and, you know, they've decided to dive in and try something new and,

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you know, that that first experience of opening a pack, being excited. Like,

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it's it's so good to see someone else appreciate and enjoy that that experience and seeing them come back and, you know, really embrace the hobby.

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That's that's something that excites me every time.

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Yeah. Yeah. And then what about on the flip side? What are those customers that you just I guess it's grind your gears.

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Yeah, there's there's lots of things that aren't my favorite thing, I guess.

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But lately, we do get a lot of interest from people that are very money driven,

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which is it's usually a bad starting point for when you're coming into the hobby. Like someone will come in and they're like the first question is what

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box is going to make me money or what box can I buy and I'm I'm going to uh I'm going to be able to flip it for a profit. And I think that's a pretty hard

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thing to to come into the hobby and do and that's a really hard conversation to have with people. It's been a bit of a frustration lately just um people coming

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in and not really appreciating the collecting side. So how do you explain that to them?

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It's tough. Like we we'll still point them to boxes we find might have a good value proposition, but yeah, it is hard to explain that look you might spend

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$500 on this box and you're not necessarily going to get $500 back in that. that is often quite hard in the current ecosystem especially for things like the MBA and their current pricing.

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So yeah, we we generally try to educate and show them what to expect. I guess I think that's pretty important so they don't get burnt.

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We're going to talk about more about this later today, the the top summit,

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but that was something that was definitely discussed at the summit. you know, how do you let people make money but at the same time not let sealed

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prices go to triple the recommended retail price? Cuz once it gets to double, triple, getting value back on the boxes is virtually impossible.

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Yeah, exactly. There's definitely like a sustainable level and then like a healthy level. Like we all want to see a healthy hobby and when box prices might

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be going up over that MSRP they're setting, um, that can show the product's doing really well and it's healthy. But

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when they're like tripling in price, the boxes aren't designed to be $1,500 for a hobby box and the value proposition on that is not great.

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Yeah, I think it's a real self-perpetuating problem cuz at that point, you wouldn't really want to rip it for yourself and that's where it becomes a much better product to be

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broken. Then you got 30 guys jumping and splitting out and and doing that. And then I think as a consequence of that, then you sort of say, well, breakers are

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ruining the hobby and D. But it's it sometimes you could say it's as simple as that, but I actually I don't believe it is as simple as Yeah, I think it's definitely a more

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complex issue. Breakers definitely help hold prices up, but yeah,

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they're definitely not the sole reason the prices are where they are at the end of the day. Like is if no one was paying the prices, they wouldn't be that high. Yeah.

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The other thing to talk about too is that do you do a lot of buying and selling with customers over the table in terms of singles?

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Yeah, for sure. So, I'd say it's one of the fundamental most important things about a card shop. I think that card shops need to be a point of

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liquidity. It needs to be somewhere people can come and sell and trade and,

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you know, add things to their collection. So, singles are a big part of our business. We're Yeah. buying multiple collections a day. It's Yeah. Right.

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I'd say singles are probably 50 to 60%

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of our sales. So, it is a large part of what we do. Yeah.

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Do you prefer to buy singles of people or just entire collections? What's your thoughts on that?

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There's no no right or wrong thing, I guess. Yeah, like we we're happy to look at a one card collection or a thousand card collection. They've all got merit,

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I guess. So, yeah. Yeah. No preference really.

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So, something that's been on my mind lately when it comes to the hobby is the increased number of fakes that are being circulated around. And I spend a

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reasonable amount of time in the hobby and be looking at cards, I would say, on a daily basis. But at the same time, if I had fakes in my own collection, I wouldn't be shocked.

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It's hard. Uh there's definitely more on the market now than there were 10 years ago. That and I think with markets like Teimu that

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are selling, you know, replica cards that are so good you wouldn't be able to differentiate them as a someone who's buying and selling cards on a daily

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basis. Like what's your what's your advice to people? What's your tips to people to, you know, be aware of what you can do to protect yourself? Because Yeah, for sure. Like if if you're ever

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questioning if a card is maybe looking a little off, it it is always worth checking. Cross reference with other photos, make sure everything is looking

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looking the same. Uh because we we've even been caught out sometimes.

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Pokémon's a pretty easy one. The fakes are usually pretty low quality and they're the thing we see the most fakes of. Sports card fakes, although they exist, they are pretty rare to come

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into. Um we we very rarely see fakes come in. We recently had a guy just the other night come in with a large collection of high-end fake sports

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cards. We don't know where he came into them, but they they were very obvious and they they often are. But I I have seen some pretty good ones, too. Uh last year at a card show, we actually spent

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quite a lot of money on what ended up being a fake downtown. Is that the WBY one?

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It wasn't Webby. We had a Cadet Hogan. I think there was a Webby one that I think someone bought at the same show from the

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same person. Um and and at a quick glance they're they're pretty believable. It's hard to notice. We didn't really pick up on it until later

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on when I had a closer look and I'm like this looks a little different. Yeah.

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So yeah, they it can be easy to get caught out sometimes. So especially when making big purchases, it is important to do your research and make sure things do look legitimate.

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So what resources do you tap into when you're looking at trying to find Facebook? Even when you're um sitting

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and comping cards and going on eBay or where wherever you comp cards and you're looking at the price, it doesn't hurt to

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look at the photo as well and make sure things look the exact same. You know,

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high high quality images on the internet are really good resource. And I don't think there's much better out there to my knowledge. I don't think there's a a

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platform that'll give you too much insight on fakes. But yeah. Yeah,

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I like to use Card Ladder. I think that's a like a really good resource.

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And also too, like they're really building up a good database of pictures.

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Like there's more and more like coming to card letter. I find that I'm just using that more. But the other thing too is the PSA registry. That's the for me

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that's the two. I personally think the PSA registry needs to do a better job of being a resource for people because who else has seen as many cards as PSA has?

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And they're obviously the leader in the hobby for better or worse. Like that's the reality of the situation now. And I really think they should be using that power for for good basically. Yeah.

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Yeah. PSA um some of those big grading companies probably are an important resource for that. And where we're seeing a lot of AI

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innovation in the industry and I I wouldn't be surprised if things like AI in the next few years will be able to help us spot fakes.

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Um Yeah. Right.

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And the image recognition from things like that or already when you're going to grade your cards at PSA through their app, you're, you know, taking a photo of the card and it's able to register what

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the card is. So it doesn't sound too unfathomable that we could see them help you spot cards that aren't legitimate. So

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yeah, hopefully we see see those kind of innovations in the next few years because uh you know it is a unfortunate part of the the hobby we'd love to stamp out.

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Yeah, I I think anytime that the amount of money is involved that we deal with on a daily basis, it it's going to be there. I personally think AI is absolute dog ship.

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Like I talked to chat GPT and some of the stuff it says back to me is ridiculous. Like how on earth is this thing going to be in charge of the world

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one day? I I really have trouble to believe this. But I'm actually excited when you say to me, "Oh, AI could help us in identifying fakes." Like that to

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me would be like such a fantastic outcome if like that is true. But well, even a part of our business in the last few months, uh some of these apps

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that we use an app called Dealer Pro for listing a lot of our cards. Um Yeah. Okay. and is quite good at identifying cards and helps speed speed

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up the pricing and listing process for for a lot of our singles. And we're going to take our first commercial break and we'll be right back. Neon

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15 minutes, 10 seconds

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15 minutes, 19 seconds

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15 minutes, 27 seconds

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15 minutes, 35 seconds

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don't miss out. Neon is where the action is. And we're back and we're going to continue talking about AI in the hobby.

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Uh I remember trying to use an app like that three or four years ago, and it was terrible. It was able to identify maybe one in 50 cards correctly. And

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now it's hitting like 95% plus on on a lot of sports cards, which is fantastic.

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So, uh, just seeing improvement like that, I am I am optimistic that we'll see more of that in in the industry and

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that's going to, you know, help help everyone long term. But yeah,

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yeah, definitely definitely a long way to go before we're it's perfect.

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Yeah. Increasing accuracy of listings, I think that would be fantastic. And just decreasing your overall sort of burden of, you know, working in the hobby. I

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think that would be amazing. even for the colle like we're we're a business so we're maybe in a different position but even for the general collector that they

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might have a hundred cards and it's a lot of work to list those on eBay so yeah definitely some of these middleman apps they can help speed that up from a all day

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process to maybe an hour like that's that's definitely going to help people you know liquidize those cards that um they might not need in their collection

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and that keeps them in the hobby more so that's uh yeah I'm always excited to see those innovations. Anything else you want to chat about with your hobby shop before we move on to TOPS summit?

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No. Yeah, I'm I'm happy to jump in.

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Let's uh Yeah, let's talk about the conference.

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All right, man. So, you've just come back from the conference. I think let's just start super high up at the moment. What was your three biggest takeaways?

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So, I' I'd think uh the three things I took away uh tops do care about the collector. That's that's one thing. Uh

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you obviously a lot of see a lot of hate online and people are so negative but uh tops do care. They do listen to us and

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uh I definitely got that by sitting there and actually meeting these people that are making these decisions for for the whole hobby at the end of the day.

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Yeah. Uh some of the other things uh I thought was really important and a big emphasis uh they made at the conference

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was uh educating in the hobby and like the importance of uh stores to to

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educate new collectors and um you know teach them about the hobby to keep the hobby healthy and and thriving. Uh so

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that that was a big point. Uh the third one I'd say uh really came down to wax

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pricing. I think wax is uh pretty it's an it's a touchy topic at the moment for some people. It's there are some pretty expensive boxes out there.

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Yeah.

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Uh so that just seeing their perspective on that ecosystem was was quite interesting and what they deemed was

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healthy and unhealthy and yeah I think it was very insightful being there and learning from from the top. All right,

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let's go straight back to tops do care because I think this is a really for me I want to talk about this because y I've been pretty vocal about I'm team

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panini until team tops turn me over like that's until I see it and there's definitely good signs

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already. So I want to hear from you about, you know, why should why should we be giving tops that money? Why should we be tops?

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It's no, it's a very valid question. And um one thing I I didn't love about Panini over their years is uh when they

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did make mistakes, getting getting anything out of them was always impossible. Like they Yeah.

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Yeah. They were usually silent on any any product issues or if you did get something back from them, it was a pretty crap reward. Like I think that's that was my experience

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with it. Yeah. my the 100 panini points didn't do us any favors. Yeah.

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Um but yeah, tops tops generally do respond to a lot of their issues and I think that's a really good sign. Um, but

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yeah, like uh just hearing them uh in person and like the some of the people we got to talk to such as like product developers, the people making decisions

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on checklists and what products to put out and they they really do listen to to feedback when people are sending them

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emails about how hated this about a product or really like this and this is why this price point was bad. Like they they're pretty receptive to those

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things. Um, and a a lot of the guys making these decisions are big collectors. Um, so I'm I'm pretty

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optimistic that they they do care about getting collectors the putting out the best products they possibly can and

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making it accessible and they're very understanding of the pain points of things like uh product being too expensive or uh you know not being able

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to be accessed and they do want to put out more accessible products and we heard that a lot and uh they were pretty understanding that yeah looks chrome

20:44

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basketball's what 1,500 Australian a box at the moment. And that's quite a lot.

20:49

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Like that's I think even more for the like 2,000 at some retailers. Yeah.

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Yeah. Exactly. And that's that's pretty hard for the average collector to pallet and uh you know they they hear those

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things and they don't want that to be the situation like but at the end of the day they're also very understanding is the prices have got to that point

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because the market has deemed that that product is worth that and um yeah so they they are working on ways

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to to get product in our hands uh which did they talk about any ways they're actually going to do that like did Yeah, definitely. So, uh they

21:27

21 minutes, 27 seconds

mentioned something they I can't remember their name for it was something like the retail vault or retail reserve and they wanted to implement a thing

21:35

21 minutes, 35 seconds

with shops like us and I think it's predominantly going to happen in the US where there is a an amount of retail

21:43

21 minutes, 43 seconds

they've held off that they will sell to shops but the promise is that it will be you have to sell it at RSRP you can't

21:50

21 minutes, 50 seconds

increase it for 60 days or something like that. Um, and I think they plan on expanding that into things like a a

21:58

21 minutes, 58 seconds

flagship hobby box, etc. It's not exactly designed for those high-end sets like Dynasty or Motif or um even even

22:07

22 minutes, 7 seconds

Chrome. I don't think it'd be a plan for that. It's more for that entry level.

22:11

22 minutes, 11 seconds

They do want collectors to be able to access that at affordable prices.

22:14

22 minutes, 14 seconds

There's no need for an entry- level product to be tripling in price. And yeah,

22:19

22 minutes, 19 seconds

they agree. I would love to see a product that they just print unlimited.

22:23

22 minutes, 23 seconds

That would be my preference. And yeah, like it's uh I'd love to see I'm sure the data be out there to see the print runs and what that look like

22:32

22 minutes, 32 seconds

compared to the '9s. Like obviously no one wants us to go back to the '9s and having too much product, but yeah,

22:38

22 minutes, 38 seconds

having having things like flagship be plentiful and accessible is just advantageous for all. I I think not

22:46

22 minutes, 46 seconds

everything in that product has to be um unnumbered and printed out. Like you could still have one of ones in it. You could still have your numbered cards.

22:54

22 minutes, 54 seconds

And I still think you could limit hobby down. But for example, if they kept printing blasters out to demand, I I don't really see the true detriment to

23:03

23 minutes, 3 seconds

that because particularly when they're talking about it and actually I think at the end of the day there's no other way that you can keep the price down other than doing that. So, I'm really like,

23:12

23 minutes, 12 seconds

it's interesting to hear that they've got some type of stockpile there. I I probably still think some retailers will just hold on to that product for the 60

23:20

23 minutes, 20 seconds

days and then release it at the higher price. So, I think it will help, but it might not also.

23:25

23 minutes, 25 seconds

Yeah, exactly. I've always worried like what's what's stopping that that that reseller or that breaker coming and

23:32

23 minutes, 32 seconds

buying those products to to resell for what they deem the market is. It's Yeah.% Yeah. It's hard things to navigate, but like it's it's good to

23:40

23 minutes, 40 seconds

hear that they're at least mindful of that and want to fix those problems. Yeah.

23:44

23 minutes, 44 seconds

Um but yeah, it's uh it's a step in the right direction, but maybe not the the end solution.

23:50

23 minutes, 50 seconds

Yeah. So, I've just found this on Instagram from Ludix app. They're talking about the top the TOPS conference. We need shops and breakers

23:58

23 minutes, 58 seconds

to be actively enhancing the collector's experience. you've already spoken about a couple of things when it comes to educating people coming into your shop and you've got your trade days that are

24:06

24 minutes, 6 seconds

going on. Um, what else are you doing to to maintain this dot point that Topps wants you to do?

24:12

24 minutes, 12 seconds

Yeah, like and I think it's something they brought up a lot is like it's it doesn't matter how much product you can

24:19

24 minutes, 19 seconds

sell. That's not a measurement of how good a hobby shop is for them. It is those other experiences like how many trade days are you putting on? like are

24:28

24 minutes, 28 seconds

you activating with athletes or putting on uh those kind of events or maybe the the rip night you see in the US? What

24:36

24 minutes, 36 seconds

kind of uh yeah events are you putting on to really enhance that bringing people together aspect to the to the

24:43

24 minutes, 43 seconds

hobby which is in their eyes the vital part of shops in the ecosystem. It is that building that they can't replicate by selling a box online.

24:52

24 minutes, 52 seconds

So you would have to like put that onto socials then and like really document that then too, wouldn't you? cuz you couldn't.

24:57

24 minutes, 57 seconds

Yeah. We're in an interesting interesting situation in Australia. I guess we're not we're not currently involved in the same programs as the

25:06

25 minutes, 6 seconds

Americans. So where they we do send reports back and tell them about the things we're doing and they they do measure. Yeah. They

25:15

25 minutes, 15 seconds

measure what we're doing and how we're engaging on social media and you know even even on social media educating

25:22

25 minutes, 22 seconds

about um product. It's it's important to them. So,

25:26

25 minutes, 26 seconds

they do like seeing those things and uh yeah, it's a it's a big takeaway we took from the show and something we're always looking to improve even further. But yeah,

25:34

25 minutes, 34 seconds

and so if you were in an interview with Topps and they asked you about the joy of collecting and your hobby shop, what would you tell them?

25:40

25 minutes, 40 seconds

Yeah, I think it's important for us to to let them know we we are passionate.

25:45

25 minutes, 45 seconds

Uh you know, our staff of 15 absolutely all of our staff come from collecting backgrounds. Um, you know, a lot of them

25:52

25 minutes, 52 seconds

have been customers before and we for us it's for me it's important to have a team of passionate people because we we

26:01

26 minutes, 1 second

want to share a passion for collecting with the customers. Yeah.

26:04

26 minutes, 4 seconds

Um, so, you know, presenting in that way that we're we're getting excited when you hit cards. We're we're getting

26:12

26 minutes, 12 seconds

excited that you have that new piece for your PC and we we love embracing trade days and and those kind of things. And

26:20

26 minutes, 20 seconds

um you know that that's something we we're quite proud of and yeah we'll we'll happily tell tops when they ask us about it.

26:26

26 minutes, 26 seconds

Yeah, I'm I'm genuinely surprised how many trade days you've got. Like I think that's a like that's a real um contribution to the hobby because I'm

26:35

26 minutes, 35 seconds

sure a lot of that is actual love and passion versus like straight business.

26:39

26 minutes, 39 seconds

Honestly, I think that's Yeah. Like uh the trade days when we first started doing them like they financially they were quite good for us.

26:47

26 minutes, 47 seconds

you know, people were spending quite a bit of money, but now they're like, we don't really mind about that.

26:52

26 minutes, 52 seconds

It's we we get excited to have 80 people in the store. That's that's what I'm excited about.

26:57

26 minutes, 57 seconds

Yeah. You know, I I'm so thrilled to have a thriving hobby locally. Like, when I got back into cards in 2018,

27:05

27 minutes, 5 seconds

we didn't have a single shop in in Brisbane at all that did basketball cards. and that I was something was

27:12

27 minutes, 12 seconds

missing I guess that uh there was no community to come in and really get into cards with like I none of my mates were really into it. So uh it was it was

27:21

27 minutes, 21 seconds

definitely an aspect I thought was missing in in Brisbane and now we have lots of shops in in Brisbane and all over Australia and uh the hobby is definitely thriving through shops.

27:32

27 minutes, 32 seconds

Yeah, I agree. I think the the hobby in Australia is just I think some people will say well parts of the hobby is not doing so well but I just think overall

27:40

27 minutes, 40 seconds

it's just such a thriving um energetic space and I think from my perspective what I sort of see is when I go to card shows we like just a couple

27:48

27 minutes, 48 seconds

of years ago we didn't have the hobby hangout we didn't have collect fest we didn't have the national and now we've got these massive events that just sell

27:56

27 minutes, 56 seconds

out and there's so many people there you can barely get around you know it's yeah there's a feels like there's a card show every weekend these days which is

28:04

28 minutes, 4 seconds

it's it's great. Um yeah definitely uh we definitely see segments of the the hobby that you know might might be

28:12

28 minutes, 12 seconds

struggling versus others but I think one one great thing about collecting like there's no no right way to collect and there's so many different facets of collecting. So 100%

28:21

28 minutes, 21 seconds

yeah over overall the market's definitely in a um an up. It is definitely thriving at the moment.

28:27

28 minutes, 27 seconds

Y all right so the next thing that we're looking at here is the credit card. I'm sure almost everybody has already seen this online and they've heard about it.

28:35

28 minutes, 35 seconds

So, I don't think this is breaking news by any stretch of the imagination, but I really do want to talk to you about this and we did talk about it offline. I

28:43

28 minutes, 43 seconds

think my personal feeling about this is that there is a little bit of a conflict of interest in terms of fanatics have got a credit card that potentially could

28:51

28 minutes, 51 seconds

be used for gambling and so they do now have a gambling platform. So, I think that's the part of it that doesn't sit perfectly for me. So that's that's my

29:00

29 minutes

perspective. If it's just being used for trading cards and you've got a handle on your spending and you know how to use a budget and a spreadsheet, I actually

29:09

29 minutes, 9 seconds

don't see any real difference between the credit card that I've currently got, which is a master card versus, you know,

29:15

29 minutes, 15 seconds

a Topps card. So, do you know what I mean? Like I'm trying to be sort of I'm not trying to be OTT about this. I'm just trying to be pragmatic about it. It

29:22

29 minutes, 22 seconds

is time to take a break now and we're going to go to our first commercial of this week's podcast. Thank you to US Sportscards Australia for your ongoing love and support. Go to usportscardsaustralia.com.au.

29:34

29 minutes, 34 seconds

There you will find sealed products,

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29 minutes, 36 seconds

brakes, card protection, Ross' Beloved Water Pistols, and Coma,

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29 minutes, 42 seconds

or as Ross calls it, Coma. Coma is a card consignment service that is local to Australia. Go on to the main website,

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29 minutes, 50 seconds

click on the three little noodles, get your submission form, pay only 9 cents for your total submission. No matter how many cards you submit, just pay for the 9 cents right on your submission form.

30:01

30 minutes, 1 second

You can't comp this for this exclusive promo deal. Sales have been steady on the website. 600, 390, $240, $165. Money

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30 minutes, 10 seconds

is flowing through the website. Ross is continuously developing on the back end and the new website will be launching very imminently. Also check out comca on

30:20

30 minutes, 20 seconds

Instagram, comca.trading cards. Thank you to US Sports Cards Australia for your ongoing love and

30:27

30 minutes, 27 seconds

support. And we're back. We're going to keep talking about Tops and Fanatic's new credit card.

30:32

30 minutes, 32 seconds

Credit cards in general, like if if you're not great at managing your funds,

30:35

30 minutes, 35 seconds

they're, you know, they're pretty dangerous. And I'm sure what's the interest rate like 20% or 18%. Like that's I think it's even high. I'm worried.

30:42

30 minutes, 42 seconds

Someone was telling me it was 30%. So that's ridiculous honestly.

30:46

30 minutes, 46 seconds

Yeah, exactly. So super dangerous if you're not good at paying your bill on time. Correct.

30:51

30 minutes, 51 seconds

Um but like if you're a hardcore collector and you're you know you're already spending quite a lot of money at at Tops or on Fanatics merch, etc.

31:00

31 minutes

Yeah,

31:01

31 minutes, 1 second

this could be a good way for you getting 2% back to to spend on that. In saying that, there's plenty of good credit cards in the US that give you 2% cash back that you can spend on anything. So,

31:12

31 minutes, 12 seconds

uh, is it really a a groundbreaking thing for those kind of people? It might not be. And, uh, honestly, I don't know

31:19

31 minutes, 19 seconds

if the credit card takes off, uh, super well. That's my my personal take on it.

31:24

31 minutes, 24 seconds

I don't think it will be that well received.

31:26

31 minutes, 26 seconds

Yeah. Okay. Look, I I also think too that my gut feeling with Fanatics coming in, like how many billions have they spent on licensing alone,

31:35

31 minutes, 35 seconds

I'd love to know.

31:38

31 minutes, 38 seconds

You you knew they were going to come back and get their pockets filled up.

31:40

31 minutes, 40 seconds

Like they're not doing this to be a charity. So I think that's the other thing we need to keep in mind here is yes we live in a hobby economy and we

31:47

31 minutes, 47 seconds

all love to think of it as this you know very warm and sort of fuzzy place that it's a hobby but at the end of the day like you know for these guys it's coming in and they're doing a business and I

31:56

31 minutes, 56 seconds

think this is the business as aspect of it and where they're trying to catch a little bit of money at every step along the way whether it's distribution

32:04

32 minutes, 4 seconds

they've got their own breaking platform now they're they don't have a distribution company like they're doing it straight out to hobby shops so that's something else that you know wasn't done

32:12

32 minutes, 12 seconds

by Pani. Now they got the credit card which again that wasn't done by Pani.

32:15

32 minutes, 15 seconds

It's like you can really see where they're capturing all different aspects of the market to get their I think it was something they brought

32:23

32 minutes, 23 seconds

when they first got the licensing back in 2022 before they'd even bought TOPS.

32:28

32 minutes, 28 seconds

Uh one of the statements that came out from the I couldn't tell you who made it was uh you know they want to control the grading like they they want their own

32:36

32 minutes, 36 seconds

grading, they want their own marketplace, they want their own braking platform and they've executed already.

32:43

32 minutes, 43 seconds

Yeah, they they don't have a grading company as of yet, but you know, they're coming through with what they've said like they want to be the the central

32:50

32 minutes, 50 seconds

place of of the industry and yeah,

32:52

32 minutes, 52 seconds

they definitely are at the moment and this so I I'm sure for many people this isn't a too left field of a thing. Um

33:01

33 minutes, 1 second

I didn't expect they were making a credit card announcement at the uh the conference, but yeah, here we are.

33:05

33 minutes, 5 seconds

No, I didn't I didn't anticipate that at all. And so offline you're talking about how it was received in the crowd. Can you chat to us a little bit about that?

33:13

33 minutes, 13 seconds

Yeah, look, I I definitely saw some um sour faces amongst uh or or amongst car shop owners. Uh a lot of the thought it

33:21

33 minutes, 21 seconds

might be in bad taste and uh they weren't seeing an upside to why them as a shop should promote this credit card

33:30

33 minutes, 30 seconds

and uh they were talking about uh incentives to sign people up through their store. And yeah, it'd be it'll be

33:39

33 minutes, 39 seconds

interesting to see how many shops actually take up promoting the credit card or if if it's in their their interest to do so. Um the good thing for

33:48

33 minutes, 48 seconds

us being in Australia, it's not something we have to to worry about.

33:51

33 minutes, 51 seconds

It's uh not something we have to even consider if we we offer it or not because it will be an American thing. But yeah,

33:57

33 minutes, 57 seconds

yeah, it was insightful seeing how many people around uh received it poorly and I I don't think it was a home run for

34:06

34 minutes, 6 seconds

them. I'm not sure if they they thought it would be, but yeah,

34:10

34 minutes, 10 seconds

I I think too like if you're signing people up in your hobby shop and then they're not getting cash back in that hobby shop, I think that's a tough sell.

34:17

34 minutes, 17 seconds

So maybe that's something that they can change so that the cash back that you get, you could spend it in a hobby shop on Tops products. That would make

34:26

34 minutes, 26 seconds

perfect sense and that would be a win-win for both like Topps and also for the hobby shop.

34:30

34 minutes, 30 seconds

But if it if it's the other way around where they're just being signed up in the hobby shop and they can only use it on the Finanet platform, like I don't

34:38

34 minutes, 38 seconds

know, that doesn't sound like an awesome deal.

34:40

34 minutes, 40 seconds

It was it was feedback that was brought up in some of the the sessions and Q&As.

34:44

34 minutes, 44 seconds

Like definitely heard several people mention that uh they would be so much more uh open to something like this if

34:52

34 minutes, 52 seconds

they were Yeah. if they were like the the 5%

34:56

34 minutes, 56 seconds

kickback or 2% kickbacks coming to their store and or it's even credit off their bill at at TOPS like the stores would

35:04

35 minutes, 4 seconds

yeah I'm sure they'd be jumping at the idea but uh as it stands that's not how it works so they weren't as thrilled by the idea.

35:13

35 minutes, 13 seconds

Uh anything else you want to talk about with the the summit?

35:16

35 minutes, 16 seconds

Uh yeah look uh there's a lot of uh exciting products coming. Uh one thing we we did get a an international only

35:25

35 minutes, 25 seconds

session at the the end of the conference which was um really good chance to sit down and just talk about the the hobby and the the industry outside of the US.

35:35

35 minutes, 35 seconds

Uh we often you know just get lumped in and not everything applies to us. So it's good to kind of get that uh give feedback and kind of get their thoughts

35:43

35 minutes, 43 seconds

on their international expansion and how things are going for the rest of the world. So they've one thing they said

35:50

35 minutes, 50 seconds

they've put on uh they've doubled the amount of accounts uh direct with TOPS outside the US in the last 12 months which it might have even been the last

35:59

35 minutes, 59 seconds

six months they're really pushing uh outside of America right now and um you know there's quite a few partners in Australia at the moment and they're

36:07

36 minutes, 7 seconds

really keen on our region particularly uh so we're seeing a lot more support a lot more shops being on boarded um so

36:16

36 minutes, 16 seconds

you know I think that's really positive to to hear as an Australian collector and uh access to products going to only

36:23

36 minutes, 23 seconds

get easier for us and yeah, it's exciting to hear, I think.

36:26

36 minutes, 26 seconds

Was there anything else they've got for the Aussies?

36:30

36 minutes, 30 seconds

Not uh not not yet. We'll uh I'm sure there'll be more news in the the near future, but you weren't really that convincing. I

36:38

36 minutes, 38 seconds

feel like maybe this is like confidential at this time.

36:42

36 minutes, 42 seconds

Yeah, I'm I'm sure we'll hear uh hear lots in the near next 12 to 24 months about Australia particularly.

36:50

36 minutes, 50 seconds

Uh let's talk about new products that are coming out. What really caught your eye on that and what are you looking forward to? And it can be non basketball too by the way man.

37:00

37 minutes

Yeah.

37:00

37 minutes

Yeah. So basketball wise, Bowman I think is going to be super interesting. One disappointing thing unfortunately because of licensing Bowman is not

37:08

37 minutes, 8 seconds

leaving America. Um, so we won't see any Bowman in Australia, which is very disappointing because it looks awesome.

37:15

37 minutes, 15 seconds

Uh, some of those inserts are really cool. The the anime anime one particularly is awesome. Uh, yeah. So,

37:22

37 minutes, 22 seconds

unfortunately, we're missing out on that, but I was really curious to see how how is that possible and why? Sorry to talk over.

37:29

37 minutes, 29 seconds

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's fine. Um, so from my understanding, it's to do with the college teams. Uh so with NIL like they they have individual deals with the the

37:38

37 minutes, 38 seconds

colleges themselves as opposed to the whole NCAA and there just out

37:45

37 minutes, 45 seconds

Yeah. very tough. Um I didn't know that. Yeah.

37:49

37 minutes, 49 seconds

Yeah. Yeah. No, we only found out at the conference which was pretty last minute.

37:53

37 minutes, 53 seconds

So, bit devastating for us because we thought that'd be an amazing release and it it looks it um so any product coming into Oz is coming through secondary

38:02

38 minutes, 2 seconds

channels and I don't imagine it's going to be very cheap unfortunately but yeah right so if you want to get into brakes you need to go into US breakers

38:09

38 minutes, 9 seconds

most likely or or you'll be paying quite a lot locally unfortunately um but yeah look the product looks cool I I think it

38:17

38 minutes, 17 seconds

was we've never really had the prospecting um aspect in basketball that they do have in baseball where you're uh

38:24

38 minutes, 24 seconds

I don't think we've ever really taken on the college cards as well as they have their their prospects. So,

38:32

38 minutes, 32 seconds

so yeah, really really curious a full full set release like this for Bowman if that changed collectors and how we

38:39

38 minutes, 39 seconds

collect basketball because it it has the potential to do so. I did a product review video on this and I've also interviewed two people in the last week

38:46

38 minutes, 46 seconds

literally about this first Bowman concept and because it is relatively new for basketball, but where I'm struggling to get my head around is that

38:54

38 minutes, 54 seconds

traditionally college stuff for NBA just isn't collected as well. Like let's just say it does 30 to 40% of a pro uniform autograph.

39:04

39 minutes, 4 seconds

Uh and then the other thing too is we don't have the AAA double A single A where we have that sort of prospecting league. So for me it's a little bit hard

39:11

39 minutes, 11 seconds

to understand how that is going to translate across. So like can you just convince me like why should I be collecting Bowman's Chrome because I'm really unconvinced at this point.

39:21

39 minutes, 21 seconds

Yeah, look if if anything I think the US market's the one that's really going to dictate if that takes or not. It's it's not going to be us in Australia.

39:29

39 minutes, 29 seconds

Uh you know that college is obviously bigger part of their culture than ours.

39:34

39 minutes, 34 seconds

Um, but yeah, look, Bowman thirsts are like a hobby hobby grail for for a lot of people that that is more iconic than

39:41

39 minutes, 41 seconds

a gold prism or a silver prism and uh or a Tops chrome refrator like this. This is the card a lot of baseball guys

39:48

39 minutes, 48 seconds

collect. So, it it's got it is already a hobby staple that might not have transitioned to basketball, but it probably has the potential to do it.

39:57

39 minutes, 57 seconds

even though they might be college cards,

39:59

39 minutes, 59 seconds

uh the if you go look at the pricing for WebMyama's uh first Bowman, it's still pretty expensive card. So, I still think there

40:08

40 minutes, 8 seconds

is some love for it, even though it might not be the hobby staple for basketball that it is in uh baseball just yet. But yeah, I think you're right about that. I

40:16

40 minutes, 16 seconds

think it's just one of those things where if you're not in that collegiate ecosystem and where are you from?

40:22

40 minutes, 22 seconds

Because that's like the most common way that you talk to somebody in an American bar. Like that's just the icebreaker.

40:26

40 minutes, 26 seconds

where are you from? What college did you go to? You know, like we don't have that the same way in Australia. So, I think that's part of it.

40:34

40 minutes, 34 seconds

Yeah. Like even for um Bowman Baseball in in Australia, like we we might not get as much love for it as they do in the US. So,

40:41

40 minutes, 41 seconds

prospecting in general isn't as exciting for us, I guess. Like we're very very star driven with our collecting and um you know, that's something I've seen over the last few years in business. So,

40:52

40 minutes, 52 seconds

um, yeah, it's, uh, maybe it could be the same situation for basketball that it doesn't take here, but does take in the US. Uh, yeah,

41:01

41 minutes, 1 second

it'll be interesting to see how that goes. Um,

41:04

41 minutes, 4 seconds

but yeah, outside of Bowman, I think I'm excited to see some of these highend sets Tops will be doing. Uh, we already saw Tops 3, which was, you know, that

41:12

41 minutes, 12 seconds

that was cool. There was some cool autos in that, but uh things like Dynasty,

41:17

41 minutes, 17 seconds

which have traditionally been the highest end set they're putting out in things like F1 in baseball or Diamond Icons, which is just incredible set. Um

41:27

41 minutes, 27 seconds

seeing those come after the uh Panini Flawless in National Treasures era and seeing how they stack up on on the last

41:35

41 minutes, 35 seconds

generation is uh it's exciting. I'm I'm very keen to see how it goes. So can you personally my PC I have quite a lot of Dynasty cards. So

41:43

41 minutes, 43 seconds

yeah. So yeah, just tell us more about Dynasty. Like what is it? Is it the flawless equivalent? Is that where you're going with that?

41:49

41 minutes, 49 seconds

Yeah. So I'd probably uh compare Diamond Icons is more of the the flawless equivalent. Um just in their configuration style, but in saying that,

41:57

41 minutes, 57 seconds

Dynasty is just as high-end. It's uh it's a one card box. Uh the F1 box is

42:04

42 minutes, 4 seconds

running, you know, $4,000 plus. uh you know it's it's very very expensive. It's is not for the faint-hearted. Uh but

42:12

42 minutes, 12 seconds

yeah, you'll get one patch autograph. Uh the cards are always numbered 10 or less. Um yeah, they're stunning.

42:18

42 minutes, 18 seconds

Stunning cards. So seeing that in basketball, that's something I'm pretty excited to see.

42:23

42 minutes, 23 seconds

And so was it like all game warn all uncions,

42:29

42 minutes, 29 seconds

you know, la like actually how product should be if we dreamt up a product. Yeah.

42:35

42 minutes, 35 seconds

Exactly. very flawlessesque um in in that sense. So yeah, no, it's a stunning product and I think that'll that'll be taken very well by the basketball guys.

42:46

42 minutes, 46 seconds

Y um one of the other things they they they talked on quite a lot and Gary Vee came on stage and was very high on is

42:54

42 minutes, 54 seconds

the the non-sport licenses at the moment. he's uh they're they're definitely doing a big push with their like Star Wars and Marvel and Disney

43:03

43 minutes, 3 seconds

licenses and uh we're seeing quite a lot more interest in that uh especially even through the shop. So uh they're doing

43:10

43 minutes, 10 seconds

some pretty cool stuff with that and we're seeing more more actors sign than ever and I think it's a you know a facet

43:17

43 minutes, 17 seconds

of the hobby that most people probably ignored and now it's looking uh to be pretty prominent. So yeah, some of those

43:24

43 minutes, 24 seconds

sets are looking really cool. Look, I think actors signing cards is is cool. I think it's collectible and I think there's a market for it. For me, it's

43:33

43 minutes, 33 seconds

just more how high is the ceiling on that market? Yeah, for sure. crazy.

43:39

43 minutes, 39 seconds

And it's uh it's one of those uh individual things, I guess, like uh you know, I I collect basketball cards myself, so I I don't have a a Disney

43:49

43 minutes, 49 seconds

card in my PC, but uh you know, there are a lot of Disney fans out there, and converting them to card collectors is uh something I think

43:57

43 minutes, 57 seconds

a goal for Topps and uh engaging more people that might not be sports fans to card collectors. and uh you know that's

44:06

44 minutes, 6 seconds

that's a big big part of the population that uh are there to convert and I think that's why they're so high on that that uh part of the industry.

44:16

44 minutes, 16 seconds

I think if they get the price point right they'll be fine. I personally think the issue for most people entering into the hobby these days is trying to

44:24

44 minutes, 24 seconds

explain to them that you need to spend $100 to get a box of cards. Like it's for most people would be fine. You know,

44:32

44 minutes, 32 seconds

it's asinine, man. But if you try and just explain that to a regular person,

44:35

44 minutes, 35 seconds

like it's a really tough sell. Like I think Yeah, for sure. And then when we're like Disney Chrome last year, they they're on the shelf for, you know, $600 USD, $900 Australian.

44:45

44 minutes, 45 seconds

And uh that that's very hard to fathom. Like the That's a tough sale, man.

44:50

44 minutes, 50 seconds

It is. And it was for us. And fortunately, that's how the market had reacted the previous years. And that's how how high it had been priced. And I'm

44:58

44 minutes, 58 seconds

very hopeful they do get some more affordable products for non-sport. It's time for our final break of today.

45:04

45 minutes, 4 seconds

We're going to go to our hobby hangout advertisement and then we're going to be right back. The Hobby Hangout XL is coming to Melbourne Royal Exhibition

45:11

45 minutes, 11 seconds

Building in Carlton, Sunday, 26th of April, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

45:17

45 minutes, 17 seconds

Pre-release and first release and now second release are all completely exhausted. And the final release of tickets is on sale now. Our tickets are currently selling at $39.90.

45:29

45 minutes, 29 seconds

400 plus tables, international and national vendors, sports cards, NBA, NFL, MLB, AFL, NRL, soccer, and more. Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, MTG,

45:38

45 minutes, 38 seconds

entertainment, live breaks, dedicated trading zones, free play areas, expert panel, speakers, and international

45:45

45 minutes, 45 seconds

guests. Yukon Comp will be there hosting a panel and also walking around interviewing vendors and punters alike.

45:53

45 minutes, 53 seconds

It's going to be a very exciting day. It is now confirmed that Goldens's are going to be in attendance there. You may know Goldens's from the Netflix series.

46:01

46 minutes, 1 second

You may also know Golden's from their consignment services. So, bring down your huge cards that you want to sell into the US market. Vendors in attendance will include TCG Trading,

46:12

46 minutes, 12 seconds

Cardboard Guardian, Carson TCG, Charisma Plays, Cherry, Chloe O' Connor, Clyde Tattoos, Collector Bros, Collector's

46:20

46 minutes, 20 seconds

Alley, Collector's Coliseum, Collector's Kingdom, TCG, that's a very um well-used phrase in the collector's world. Cooper Cards and Collectibles, DM Sports Cards,

46:31

46 minutes, 31 seconds

DG Collectibles, Alley's Collectibles,

46:34

46 minutes, 34 seconds

Incifi, and more. Go to the hobby hangout.com.au U to get your tickets or through Ozik. You'll also find the link

46:41

46 minutes, 41 seconds

in this podcast description. Thanks team at the Hobby Hangout. We're back and we're going to continue talking about lowerpriced hobby boxes for collectors.

46:50

46 minutes, 50 seconds

That probably has been the hardest thing with converting people into card collectors is that yeah, the price point is is pretty tough on some of that stuff, especially when they're not not

46:59

46 minutes, 59 seconds

paying players to sign and there's no no game worn patches. like some some of them do relics and sketch cards and that

47:07

47 minutes, 7 seconds

stuff's all cool, but I don't think it's as uh the cost of manufacturer probably isn't as high as some of the sports products. So hopefully we do see cheaper price points.

47:16

47 minutes, 16 seconds

Redemption grade guarantee. That was something else that came out of the Topps convention. Talk to us about Yeah, that was that was uh I'm really excited about this. I think

47:25

47 minutes, 25 seconds

this is like almost a common sense way to keep your customers happy. Yeah.

47:29

47 minutes, 29 seconds

Yeah, things like that are always uh always good. I think uh that and last year they did like the the redemptions

47:35

47 minutes, 35 seconds

were extended to 10 years as uh traditionally they're only two or three years and yeah like things like that are

47:42

47 minutes, 42 seconds

great. Um you know if I missed out on a card my product was I've got a redemption at least it's good to hear

47:49

47 minutes, 49 seconds

that look it's it's going to have be in good condition like they're guaranteeing that and that's pretty cool. I think they're

47:56

47 minutes, 56 seconds

guaranteeing PSA or near mint, so PSA 8 or better on them. Um, so yeah, that's that was a pretty cool news for a collector, I think.

48:05

48 minutes, 5 seconds

Oh, it's not a PSA 10. They're guaranteeing eight or above, are they?

48:08

48 minutes, 8 seconds

Eight or better. Like uh which is still like at I think uh a lot of people don't appreciate how good condition eights and nines still are. So that is true. They're in good condition,

48:18

48 minutes, 18 seconds

but everyone wants a PSA 10, man, for the price. Let's keep it real, right? Yeah.

48:22

48 minutes, 22 seconds

The stigma around 10 is crazy. I I have so many PSA 9s in my collection because if I can buy the same card for like a third of the price, I'm going to do it every time.

48:31

48 minutes, 31 seconds

You're a wise man.

48:33

48 minutes, 33 seconds

All righty. I I feel like I'm just about through the run sheet. This has been absolutely fantastic. What did you want to chat about? Is there anything else that we've missed?

48:42

48 minutes, 42 seconds

Uh yeah, I I think we've covered a lot of the things about the is pretty exciting. Um we have tops now on there. What What did you want to touch on that?

48:53

48 minutes, 53 seconds

All right. So I think my take on TOPS now is that they've absolutely killed it and this is something that they've done infinitely better than what Panini has done. I just generally like the concept.

49:02

49 minutes, 2 seconds

So really weak example but an example that I really like. Wiggins goes off the other day and has a 45point game. You

49:10

49 minutes, 10 seconds

can in 3 days after the game you can be buying a Tops now card from that game and they've got maybe they've got like a

49:18

49 minutes, 18 seconds

patch autograph version of it too where it's got the jersey from that game in it.

49:22

49 minutes, 22 seconds

Just really basic stuff like that might not even cost you that much money to buy into it and then you've got a a really good chance of getting a a high-end card

49:30

49 minutes, 30 seconds

like yeah like it's I think it's uh you know about telling the story of the moment on a card which is is it's pretty cool like when you

49:38

49 minutes, 38 seconds

think about it like at the end of the day the whole uh thing around collecting sports cards is you're like connecting with a player or a team or um and so

49:47

49 minutes, 47 seconds

another way to uh connect yourself with with a moment of a card is that's that's pretty cool, I think. So, um and and

49:54

49 minutes, 54 seconds

still having that chase to make it a bit exciting. It's just not a playing card.

49:58

49 minutes, 58 seconds

Uh which is what Panini did with their instance. There was very rarely I'm not even sure did they even have chases in their their version. Um but yeah,

50:07

50 minutes, 7 seconds

they did have like low numbered or numbered cards in them and you could actually even just go on to the website and buy autographs.

50:15

50 minutes, 15 seconds

They did it a little bit different to Tops where you could actually sort of buy a very particular card whereas Tops more do it as a a lottery system where Yeah.

50:23

50 minutes, 23 seconds

as many people purchase them is how many they print. Yeah.

50:27

50 minutes, 27 seconds

Yeah. Like uh I think it we all enjoy the chase and that's that's part of the hobby. So uh having the chase even in something like that's uh it's cool.

50:36

50 minutes, 36 seconds

Yeah. I I do have an appreciation for tops now. Um, there's definitely a lot of collectors that come into the store that regularly are buying top snails

50:44

50 minutes, 44 seconds

cards and and they really appreciate them. So, uh, I don't have any in my PC, but yeah, it's pretty cool.

50:50

50 minutes, 50 seconds

So, how are they buying them? Do you facilitate that through the website or have you got them? No, they're all buying customers.

50:56

50 minutes, 56 seconds

Yeah, they're all buying direct. We we don't have any like facilitation of Tops Now's cards at this point. Um,

51:05

51 minutes, 5 seconds

we might see a TOPS.com.au in the near future.

51:10

51 minutes, 10 seconds

So being able to access those might be a little easier than But not fanatics.com.au though. Correct. Yeah.

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51 minutes, 19 seconds

So um yeah, like uh I I think if you're just getting into the hobby or even as a veteran, like top snail cards are

51:26

51 minutes, 26 seconds

definitely something to look at adding to your collection. Yeah. What is your grail piece?

51:34

51 minutes, 34 seconds

So, I made a big collecting jump uh last year. So, last year, before last year, I was collecting Prism Golds and I had a

51:43

51 minutes, 43 seconds

decent sized collection of gold prism basketball cards.

51:46

51 minutes, 46 seconds

Uh as a long-term hold or is it quick flip?

51:49

51 minutes, 49 seconds

No, just just for collection like it was just cards I and it wasn't necessarily even big players, just guys I appreciated. Um I had a lot of

51:58

51 minutes, 58 seconds

Australians in that like you know Bogurt and Baines etc. Um,

52:04

52 minutes, 4 seconds

so I decided to go away from that just because with the license being lost, I wasn't sure if uh how long term I could

52:11

52 minutes, 11 seconds

maintain doing that. So I ended up selling off a lot of those. That's one I would have loved the the Luca Gold. Oh man.

52:19

52 minutes, 19 seconds

Um, but yeah, now I've got into uh dipped in price 500k if you want to jump in. At the moment it's currently trading at 300,000.

52:28

52 minutes, 28 seconds

Yeah.

52:30

52 minutes, 30 seconds

Yeah. I've started buying Tops Dynasty cards. So, uh I I really appreciate that high-end allon card, patch auto set. Uh

52:39

52 minutes, 39 seconds

so, I've started picking up a few of those from other sports. So, I've got like a Oscar Piri F1 card. Uh a few baseball guys. I've got a Show Otani,

52:49

52 minutes, 49 seconds

which is probably my most expensive card at the moment. Mike Trout, few of those guys. But predominantly being a basketball collector, when that set

52:58

52 minutes, 58 seconds

comes around for basketball, I I expect to spend some money. So, uh, Luca Donic is probably my favorite NBA player at the moment. He's not currently signing

53:06

53 minutes, 6 seconds

for Tops, but I'm optimistic he does in the near future, and I can pick up a a patch auto dynasty card of Luca.

53:13

53 minutes, 13 seconds

I don't think Pennini will let go of him. I think just out of spite, they will pay him like what Upper Deck did to Jordan, just not to sign, you know.

53:22

53 minutes, 22 seconds

Yeah,

53:22

53 minutes, 22 seconds

I'm very curious at like how long his uh his contract is because we didn't see him in the first few top sets, but now I thought he was for life.

53:32

53 minutes, 32 seconds

Yeah,

53:33

53 minutes, 33 seconds

I'm pretty sure he's got a lifelong contract with Panini. Yeah,

53:36

53 minutes, 36 seconds

it's possible. So, uh I I'll be optimistic, but um yeah, if it never happens, it never happens. And there's other players I like that I'd I'd love a card of from that set as well.

53:47

53 minutes, 47 seconds

Actually, it just says here multi-year exclusive deal. It doesn't say for life. So maybe he will be a free agent.

53:53

53 minutes, 53 seconds

I I think it'd be disappointing for for everyone if he uh doesn't sign another license card. Um it's always uh it's

54:01

54 minutes, 1 second

always hard to have those like big name like LeBron not signing all those years for Panini was like a detriment to the hobby. So absolutely

54:09

54 minutes, 9 seconds

you know Luca might not be LeBron tier exactly but he's up there and yeah it's it's only a good thing the more players we get signing. He's not LeBron tier,

54:18

54 minutes, 18 seconds

but he's in that same hobby tier. Like NBA talent wise, yes. He's not in the same tier, but hobbywise, people love him. People want that stuff. Like, it's a real shame.

54:29

54 minutes, 29 seconds

Yeah, he's definitely, you know, top five at the moment. So, Jokic is another one that I'd love a I actually bought some of the Tyson Beck patch autos that he did uh a few months back. So,

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54 minutes, 40 seconds

congratulations. Well done.

54:41

54 minutes, 41 seconds

Yeah. No, they're very cool. Uh, so ideally I'll get a uh a Dynasty Joker Joker auto as well.

54:50

54 minutes, 50 seconds

I think I'm going to have to look into this Dynasty stuff a little bit more.

54:53

54 minutes, 53 seconds

You've definitely got me interested in it.

54:55

54 minutes, 55 seconds

Yeah, it's uh there's a lot of sets that we've seen traditionally in baseball and soccer and things that uh are yet to come for basketball. So, there's there's

55:03

55 minutes, 3 seconds

some cool stuff we're going to see. Uh a lot of things to be excited about setwise. Um, it's definitely the last 12

55:11

55 minutes, 11 seconds

months it's been a a big shift for a lot of collectors on what they expect and what sets they're traditionally buying. So, yeah.

55:19

55 minutes, 19 seconds

Yeah, it's a it's a cool time. It's a exciting time. I think uh it's like a getting to experience things for the first time even though some of these IPs

55:28

55 minutes, 28 seconds

might have been around for years with tops.

55:30

55 minutes, 30 seconds

Yeah. I The other thing I was just thinking about there when you're talking about this is like NBA eminent. So, it's such a weird product for me cuz it cost

55:39

55 minutes, 39 seconds

like 50 grand Aussie to open a box of that, but then you can go online and get a single for $1,000. Like, it's it's one of those things where the the maths just does it doesn't equate.

55:50

55 minutes, 50 seconds

So, where does where does that fit into Topps' plan? Cuz like, do they have a super high-end product?

55:56

55 minutes, 56 seconds

They do. Uh they don't put it out for all their all their sport IPs, but they've done one every couple of years.

56:04

56 minutes, 4 seconds

Similar to Eminence wasn't an every year thing. They have one called Transcendence for Tops.

56:10

56 minutes, 10 seconds

So Transcendence baseball this year was I think 25 grand US. Um part of the box was you got like a ticket to like a VIP

56:19

56 minutes, 19 seconds

party at the uh the National, which they only make 200 boxes, so it's a pretty like exclusive event, which I've heard is quite cool. So yeah,

56:27

56 minutes, 27 seconds

just one of the extra gimmicks for the box. But yeah, everything in that was yeah on card low numbered. It's uh yeah,

56:34

56 minutes, 34 seconds

if you ever get a chance, look those up.

56:36

56 minutes, 36 seconds

There's some stunning cards. So very very similar to Eminence. So there there's most things Panini did tops

56:43

56 minutes, 43 seconds

have, you know, an equivalent. Um, and we'll we won't really miss too much from Panini besides uh you know, we're going

56:51

56 minutes, 51 seconds

to miss those color blasts in the downtowns, but uh every product's got something that'll take its place at the end of the day, I think.

56:58

56 minutes, 58 seconds

Yeah. Hey, man, thank you so much for your time today. It's been absolutely amazing. What's your final thoughts before we say goodbye?

57:05

57 minutes, 5 seconds

Yeah, look, the the hobby is thriving and uh excited to be here and excited to see what the future has in store. Yeah,

57:13

57 minutes, 13 seconds

look, thank you so much for coming on today. It was just absolutely amazing to hear all your stories and just get your insights of what it's like to run a

57:20

57 minutes, 20 seconds

hobby shop and and all the fantastic things you're doing, man. Like, it's it's crazy. Keep up the fantastic work and I would love to have you back on to

57:29

57 minutes, 29 seconds

to talk shop again one day cuz I've I've really enjoyed this. So, thank you so much. Definitely. No, I appreciate it, Russell. Um, if you're in in Brisbane,

57:37

57 minutes, 37 seconds

guys, feel free to uh pop in store, say hi, um, have a chat. Always happy to have a yarn about the hobby.

57:43

57 minutes, 43 seconds

Yeah, man. Absolutely. Uh, actually, now we've got you here, tell us the address of your shop. Tell us your social handle so people can find you. Yeah.

57:50

57 minutes, 50 seconds

Yeah. So, you can find us on Facebook at Mint Collectibles, Instagram, Mint Collectibles. Uh, our shop is in Kedran

57:57

57 minutes, 57 seconds

in Brisbane. So, we're at uh 8/359 Gimpy Road. Uh, you can find us on Google. We're pretty easy to find. Main

58:05

58 minutes, 5 seconds

road into Brisbane. So, uh, yeah, pop on through.

58:09

58 minutes, 9 seconds

Thanks so much, guys. And we'll catch you all next week.

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