#126. Comic Books, Real Estate, and Vinyl: A Humboldt Life | Don Chin

Don Chin has built a distinctly Humboldt life across comic books, real estate, and vinyl. He joins Scott Hammond to trace the path from growing up in Myrtletown and running a comic book business to a decades-long career in Humboldt real estate—and the record collecting and selling that came with it. Along the way, Don talks about his father, Ben Chin, Chin’s Cafe, growing up Chinese in Eureka, local business, family legacy, and why collecting never really leaves you.

Transcript

Welcome And Don’s Humboldt Roots

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast. Welcome with my new best friend Don Chin. Hi, Don. Hey, Scotty. What's going on? I'm doing well. Doing well. I haven't seen you since yesterday or Monday. Right. I saw you twice this week. That's right. We did a zoom and then we did a live. Yeah, live in my playroom. That's right. That's right. We'll talk about vinyl in a minute. Don't skip forward to the vinyl records now. Hey, um, tell us the Don Chin story.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

The Don Chin story. Well, since this is 100% Humboldt, I am 100% Humboldt grown. Um, I was born here in Eureka in 1963.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

My parents are Ben and Mary Chin. My father, uh, he passed about um seven plus years ago. But uh a lot of people know him from Chin's Cafe being a restaurateur, uh, one of the first Chinese people to come back to Humboldt after they expelled them in the late 1800s. And so they've got a mural over by Co Central Bank of him when he was a veteran. Um, lived a ripe old age. I think he almost made it to 100. Wow. And uh so my mom is still living and she lives close to my old stomping grounds here in Myrtletown.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Wow. Yeah, we're not far away. No. Here in ours. No, I could have walked here. Yeah. You could crawl here. We're uh yeah, we're in uh the historic uh Myrtletown district of Eureka, which is right over here on my prop. Do you see my prop map? Yes. I'll get you one of those because you're a Humboldt County realtor. I am get to talk about that. You should get a Metzger uh map, courtesy of your new best friend. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

I like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

They're really nice, yeah. I it's really trippy when you sit there and stare at it. I what a weirdo, right? You listen to Pink Floyd and stare at it or you could. I hadn't thought of that. That's a great idea. So you you went to grade school. Tell us about your schooling through Eureka and then did you go to Humboldt State?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Yes. Actually, I grew up in Myrtle Town, so Worthington was my elementary school. And so I started there. Um I was the smallest guy in my class. I think my mom started me before I was, I think I was like not even, I may have been like in my late fours when I started. So not even five. So being small, um, that was kind of a challenge. And being Asian, that was kind of a challenge because there were too many Asian kids in my class. But um, after that, I went to Zayn Junior High School and I graduated there, I think in 78, and then I went to Eureka High. I graduated there in 81. Wow. And then I went to Humboldt, CR. Um, I even went to a place where you trained to be in to work for airlines. Oh, really? In my yeah, in my youth. And I thought I might have been like wanted to be like a ticket agent. But um, that wasn't for me. So what'd you study at Humboldt? I went in wanting to be a film major, Scott. I was really influenced by uh uh filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in my youth, growing up and watching Star Wars. So I always thought, you know, what it would what it would be like to maybe be a a film director. Wow. So I started making films with my classmates, even when I was in elementary school and junior high, and that continued through high school, and I would send in my my films, and some of them would do well in some small film festivals. And so I thought, well, why don't I make the jump and go to Humboldt as a film major? Cool, cool. And then I found out that real actors are kind of weird, so they weren't like hanging out with my friends in my skills. So I took a little diversion and I went into journalism, but more of a cartooning journalist. Um and so that kind of fueled my comic book uh craving as well. Because you know, comics is something that a lot of people know me for as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah, you're getting ahead of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

I know.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

It's like it's it's all real estate comic books, vinyl.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I know. It's like we can just try for four or four hours too.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Tri-city stuff. So I I knew you from uh the Tri-City Weekly. Some of you locals will remember the Tri-City Weekly. It's a remember that thing called newspaper? Yeah. It's on newsprint. And uh I did uh I did 20 years at the Tri-City.

unknown 4:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

I know. 83 when I had hair.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Were you the longest tenured employee?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Um I would say continuously, except for Ron, the owner. Okay. I had to think about that for a second. Gary was on and off, so he might have

School Film Dreams And Early Comics

SPEAKER_01 5:10

had some seniority, but he took off for a couple years to do the Lighthouse Ranch with Gospel Outreach out in Lolita.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Did you know? Yeah, and we met.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

We met. Um my wife and I were doing prepress for the Tri-City.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Describe what prepress is, because I know you guys were part of Ron's team, but you actually had your own business too, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Yeah. Um when you do comics, you kind of learn the the process of how to do printing. It's it's not it was just starting to get into the digital realm back then, like in the 80s and 90s. Apple. So yeah, Apple, Macintosh. So our comic books, we were doing um first we started with black and white comics, which doesn't require a lot of uh expensive equipment. But then when you start doing color comics, which we started to do, it involves a lot more um computers, digital uh storage space. So we started to do um our production on comics using desktop publishing equipment. Wow. Like Macintosh. Cutting edge. Yeah, pretty cutting edge for the day. Because, you know, before the 80s, there really weren't too many people doing stuff with computers and comics. It was all hand-drawn, hand-colored, hand lettered, everything. But then when computers came into play, people were starting to say, Oh, I can make, you know, I have this huge range of colors I could use. Right. I can do my lettering with a computer instead of having to cut it out with an exacto knife.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Imagine that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah. So my wife was really savvy and she um she basically taught herself how to do color separations, which everything that you have printed that's in color would need to be color separated. Sure. And so my wife was doing some calculating. She's very um smart, and she said, you know, if we did our own film, I could probably save you like $2,000 per project. And I'm going, Okay. That makes sense because we're doing like several books a month, and we could try we kind of did the math and we saw that um if we bought this equipment for like a hundred thousand, we could easily save that like in a in a year.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

So we bought that and we had this huge setup in our house in Virginia when we lived there, and we were doing color separations. And when the comic book business kind of went a belly up, we knew Ron. And Ron said, I need somebody that can do color separations. So would you come if you come back to Humboldt, would you maybe partner with us and we'll have you set up a shop in our Tri-City building to do color separations?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

And that's kind of how so maybe for a fancy Pearsons ad or something like that, front page.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

That had multiple layers of color.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Yeah, because I think before Ron had to send out Probably had to job it out. Right. Out of out of the area.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Talking about Ron Pelleggi. Hey Ronnie.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Hey Ronnie.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Tri-City Weekly, Lighthouse Ranch, all the all the guys and gals from a bygone era, right? Seems like a different life ago. It does. When there was a newspaper and no internet and just all the weirdos working together. But we uh I we take great pride in letting you know at the time standard, you uh you you pretty much got an ass whooping in terms of advertising and just a better product. Just saying, just for the record, I I'd like to go on record as saying that you know it it's it felt good every year to outdo you in so many ways.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Well I'm not sure. Is that is that arrogant or is that just true? Uh graphically Tri City was just a good looking.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

40,000 copies, Garberville de Trinidad every week. And you know, I meant to ask Ron the other night. I don't think he ever missed an uh an episode, a uh uh an edition. I I think they always published continu contiguously.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Like 52 weeks.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah, well, and and 40 years or however long it was till Time Standard bought it, bought it and sunk it. That was fun.

unknown 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Good run. Good guy to work for her. My dad called him a prince of a guy.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Very nice guy.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah, took care of me and and my wife and nine kids and on one income and Humboldt and you know, my son goes, Dad, you couldn't do that today. I go, Micah, I th he goes, Dad. I go, you're right. There's probably no way. If you're just joining me, my new best friend Don Chin from uh Born and Bred in Eureka and uh CR and then Humboldt. And so what took you to guys to Virginia?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Well, we were doing comics um pretty much full time,

Tri-City Weekly And Prepress Work

SPEAKER_02 9:40

and a lot of the distributors that we were using back in those days were over there, and we were just finding like no, we lived in Humboldt most of our life, so we kind of wanted to just kind of see what life in another part of the country would be like. And one of my main artists named Bill, he was from Virginia Beach. Oh, and we kind of, you know, we used to watch the 700 Club with Pat Robertson, and that's all we knew about Virginia Beach was Bill Mouse and and the 700 Club, and we thought, yeah, that sounds cool. Check it out, yeah. Like interesting. And we we live on the coast, west coast, but we never lived on the east coast.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Is that Bob Jones University there too? There's a couple of super conservative Christian universities.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

It may be, but Regent was the one Regent.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

That's where Tom Stansbury went. Right. Hey Tom.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Hey Tom. We um another Tri-City.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yeah. So during that period, I had a Pat Robertson sticker, bumper sticker for president. I heard. On my car. My politics have changed just a little. And I was driving through Arcade and man, I got the whole the sick the hand signals.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah, just hey, how dare you fly your flag, bro?

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Well, he'd always pray away the hurricane, so we we only tried to stay on his good side.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Uh hey Pat. Thanks for the prayers. He's dead now, right? Did he die? He died, yeah. Yeah. Well, you might argue he's very much alive. That's true. Anyway, maybe more than ever. So say we all. So uh so you guys came back from Virginia Beach back to Eureka Beach.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah. We lived there for about three years, and we were starting to get a little homesick, and then there were some family members that had passed. So we we kind of felt like, you know, maybe we should go back to Humboldt, and the comic book business is was kind of starting to fizzle out.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

But you got sort of famous in that time period or right after with um Tell us about the the hamsters.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

The black belt hamsters. Yeah. Um well, I was going to Humboldt State and the Tr Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had just started to come out. Sure. I think they debuted in 1984.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

They were a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

They were a big deal, but they started out just a couple of guys from the Boston area and they just borrowed some money and they got this weird concept comic book published, and before long it just started to catch on, and stores were buying it. And I was running a computer store while I was going to Humboldt in the mid 80s. That's right. We used to sell at you or Jeff Kessinish used to sell ads. Both, yeah. Where was the store? This was called Comic Castle. Was it downtown? Imperial Square, like right. Yeah, you had a little store. Yeah, second story of Imperial Square, where uh yeah, used to be Tommaso's. Right. But there's still offices up there. And John Sullivan was your number one customer, one of our graphic artists at Tri-City, super nice guy. Great guy. Hi, John. Hi, John. Um, yeah, so basically uh I I had a Mad magazine kind of mental uh that was the way I was built to do satires. I felt like that was my my niche as a writer, creator. And so uh I just kind of thought, well, this Ninja Turtles thing is so absurd. I wonder if I took it one step further, how well, how how might it be received? Right. And so I just came up with this crazy concept of adolescent radioactive black belt hamsters. Yeah. I d doodled them during a a college lecture and I took it to my friend Parsonovich, who was the best artist I knew that lived here locally, and I said, I think I can come up with a story, you know, about these characters. Would you be interested in drawing it on spec? You know, I won't I'll pay you when we get paid. And he didn't really have anything else to do. So he did it. Nice. And we shopped it around and eventually it got picked up by a a publisher out of uh Guernville, California, believe it or not. Guernville. Guernville, Eclipse Comics. And they they decided, yeah, we'll give it a shot. And they got orders over like 75,000 copies. Wow. And it was by a couple of guys no one had had ever heard about before. So that's wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

And then it started just snowballing after that. We were they said, you know, I know you just wanted to do one issue, but it sold so well, would you consider making it a series? So I did, and eventually it sold over half a million copies and wound up on Jeopardy and just kind of a weird cult comic book.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

So it was a Jeopardy question?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

It was a Jeopardy question.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

That's cool. Yeah. Huh. Do you have that episode? The recording.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

I do. It's on YouTube. If you look up Jeopardy Black Bell Hamsters, you can find the little short.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah. So so what crashed the comic book industry?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Um The web greed.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Greed. Worse than greed.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Well, see what happened was after I did the hamsters, it kind of opened up the floodgates for everybody and their brother that wanted to do another teenage mutant ninja troll comic book. So after the hamsters came out, there must have been like another

Black Belt Hamsters Break Out

SPEAKER_02 14:35

10 funny animal action. Oh, really? Yeah, even Marvel tried to do one with like thermonuclear packaderms or something like that. That's um that's good. So so the market started getting flooded with all these independent creators like myself, and it was kind of challenging the big two, which were Marvel and DC. Yeah. And uh so they just started to become a glut. So there's too many speculators, not enough sales, and the dealers were just having to buy everything thinking that this could be the next turtles. And unfortunately, um the dealers bought too much and they had too much inventory and they couldn't get rid of it. So then every the domino effect happened. We started seeing stores close, distributors close, they couldn't pay the publishers, and so we were one of those publishers. Oh man. So it just kind of yeah, but we were doing really well for a while. We were selling like uh, you know, we were our market share was just as good as Archie or Mad Magazine for a small company.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah. So we uh had my book published and I had it in Borders Books down here in Eureka. Sweet. And then they crashed. Oh man. Couldn't get my books back, dang it. Oh, all the money they must have collected, millions. Yeah, publishing, it's uh it's a thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

It is a thing. It's it's it's quite um it's quite enjoyable when it goes well, but you know, it's it's hard. It's hard work.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

We'll make segue to real estate after I say welcome friends to the 100% Humboldt Podcast. I'm your host, God Hammond, and you're lucky to have uh my new best friend Don Chin here. And uh tell so you must have transitioned somewhere in there into real estate.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

So let's let's Because you're you're definitely a a real estate icon.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

And Humboldt.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

So what happened was that while my wife was doing all this work for Ron at the Tri-City, um, I was just kind of thinking, well, you know, I I know how to edit comic books, I know how to write comic books, I know how to publish them, but now there's no market. Yeah. So so what do I do? And my wife said, you know, you're you're you've got a natural sales ability. And I've always been kind of an entrepreneur. Sure. And um I think she saw a classified ad. It might have been in the Tri-City, I'm not sure. But it said Coldwell Banker is looking for realtors.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Oh, how about that?

SPEAKER_02 16:59

So I answered an ad to go work for Coldwell Banker Sellers in Arcata. Oh, Greg Anders. Yeah, and Greg Debetty Dobkin, and they basically said if you um if you sign up with us and you do your education online and you pass your test, you pretty much automatically have a job, you know, with us. Wow. And um, it was straight commission. Sure. So it was like feast or famine the first couple, couple years. Yeah. And so I I just kind of got my feet wet in real estate. That was back in 1998. Um, they gave me the realtor rookie of the year award back then, which was nice.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

What year was that?

SPEAKER_02 17:40

98. Wow. So I've been doing this for almost 20, 28 years. Almost 30. Yeah. So I've been selling real estate, mainly residential real estate here, Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I would say you're good at known for integrity and just making it easy. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Our friend Charles McCann is is one of my role models. I like a lot of arcade.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

We rented from his parents when we first married in Arcada.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, they call it the honeymoon suite. It was 250 bucks a month. Top floor of a Vic Victorian. Oh. Oh, they were great. Chet Nestor McCann.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Is this in Arcata?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

It's in Arcata, uh something in K Street, right by the Vets Hall.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

He's a great guy. He's a great guy, man. I love that love that family. And yeah, go back a ways with them. And so how did you transition out of Arcata back to Eureka?

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Did you go to work for community after that or um about four years with uh with Colo Banker, I I was kind of just thinking, you know, maybe I could go to someplace where I wasn't having to pay a franchise fee. Because when you work for one of these big name brand offices, they will charge you a franchise fee and normally take a cut of your commission. Sure. And so um, you know, I was raising a family and I just thought if I could cut costs, I could probably make more and take home more if I worked for somebody else. So Imagine that. Yeah. So I shopped around and I found out that Community Realty was a local independent brokerage. And they still are. Yeah, they're still here. And they basically said, if you come work for us, you don't have to pay us anything other than a desk feed. Wow. And I thought, well, that makes sense. That's Brian Dunlap. Brian Dunlap is the current owner, but uh Joyce West and Tom Bronchetti were the ones that hired me. And so I've worked with them since 2002. So you're still there? I'm still at community. Oh wow, that's going back. Hey Brian. Yeah, hi Bri. Hi, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I like Brian.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

He's probably golfing or flying his plane somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah. Maybe, maybe he's flying his plane to go golfing. Probably. Or are you golfing to fly the plane?

SPEAKER_02 19:53

It's a business expense.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah, that's right. You write it off. It's a write-off, Jerry. So yeah, uh uh real estate in Humboldt County. Let's talk about that. Um, maybe past, present, future. Just a real quick uh overview. Is it a good time to buy a place in in that county?

SPEAKER_02 20:09

In Humboldt County. I would say it's definitely more of a buyer's market right now. And um it's not quite to me, it hasn't been quite as busy as

Comics Crash Then Real Estate

SPEAKER_02 20:20

it has been this year than it was in previous years. But um I'm still plenty busy. I have probably about eight or nine listings currently. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Um in a down economy.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

In a down economy. But I'm noticing that when th things were hot, they would just kind of stay on the market for maybe a week and you might expect to get multiple offers. But now I'm seeing that homes, even the ones that are kind of priced for first-time home buyers, those are still taking quite a bit longer than they used to to sell. I'm not sure it's because of the interest rates or um the economy, but I've I've just kind of seen that um every once in a while you'll get one that you price right in the pocket and it'll go like within a week.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

But there's some that I've had that are, you know, just kind of staying on the market. And I'm telling sellers, you know, you just have to be patient because what's the best rate right now for a 30-year fixed? Gosh. I haven't I didn't look today, Scott. Or roughly. I would probably say six. Yeah, six or under six. Coast Central actually has a really good rate. Yeah, local. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

So if you're looking to shop around, um Coast Central, Sam Sin, my good friend, is the uh Hey Sam, good job on uh winning uh North Coast Journal uh mortgage guy of the year. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah I just met him out of function maybe two or three months ago.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

He's a great guy. He worked for me at uh State Farm and uh uh in my office downtown, which is in Eureka, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Eureka. Um yeah, can't say enough nice things about Sam. Good guy, good man. Knows how to hustle. Yeah. So uh tell us about real estate going forward. Is it is like obviously housing has come up a lot in the podcast in terms of uh the shortage. Um is it do we have a big inventory now? What do you what are you seeing for the future with your uh future glasses?

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Yeah, I think um Charles, in fact, Charles, who we just talked about, he has a monthly newsletter that he puts out that kind of is a snapshot of his um he's been keeping track of like. Like real estate trends in Humboldt for like the last 20 years. He'd be a great guest for you to have on as well, I think. But but what he does is he he takes our MLS and he'll parse out pending solds actives. And he's got a running chart that, like I said, is over 20 years. So it kind of shows you what the medium home price is, how many days on the market. So I would definitely say you can sign up for this newsletter for free. And Charles will send it to you each month. And it tells you kind of like how the market is headed. And so I think right now the medium home price is probably somewhere in the mid to low 400s for a house, like you know, three bedroom, two bath. But um, you know, I would personally love to have starter homes because I think they're a lot easier to sell. Yeah, wish there's a lot more of those.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Right. Yeah, it's certainly shifted. Um so let's talk about so you're entrepreneurial and you hustle and you do side hustles, and you sold San Francisco Giants baseball stuff, and you have an eBay store, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah, I've had an eBay collectible store since like in the 90s.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

What's what's that about? What do you sell and what's your what's your most chief mem memory, the biggest sale?

SPEAKER_02 23:47

I've been kind of a hoarder my life, my uh Scott.

Humboldt County Market Snapshot

SPEAKER_02 23:50

So you know I'm already uh big into comics. Yeah. So I had a store and I had thousands of books. That's why I opened this comic book store is because I had too much of my own personal comic book collection.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Is that true for vinyl now, too?

SPEAKER_02 24:04

It's true for vinyl. Um we'll talk about that. I'm a big baseball card, football, basketball card collector. So uh I I went into eBay thinking, because my wife was probably saying, you know, you have all these cards. Are you ever gonna do anything with them?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

They just sit here.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah, and I'm going, well, you know, I could sell them and as hard as it would be. But so I started to delve into eBay. And so uh I think we've done, gosh, probably over 20,000 eBay sales. Wow, that's a lot since we started.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So cards are people like will complete collections, right? So they'll need five cards to get the tops 1982 lineup.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

That's kind of what I started with was like the baseball cards and whatever I thought was a popular player. But then my wife said, you know, you put a lot of work into just listing one card. Wouldn't it be better if we found something that you could buy wholesale or we could buy wholesale, and then you can just put in one auction and have multiple items available and not have to redo an auction. So she looked into this, and my wife Laura is very, very brilliant, and she found a distributor to sell these collectibles like um music boxes and uh plates with Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, Thomas Kincaid. So for quite a while there, we were just kind of supporting ourselves um when things were slow in real estate by selling collectibles online. So over the years, it's kind of gone from trading cards to these music boxes and so forth. And now we're not really doing that so much. So now I'm mainly selling vinyl and actually it's kind of weird because now digital trading cards are kind of a thing. They're different, yeah. I sell digital baseball cards. Um, people they try to wrap their heads around it. It's it's almost like a is it a file? It's like an NFT, you know, it's like a there's a trading card app that Topps has called Tops Bunt B-U-N-T. And you can go to the app store and you can download it for free, but in order to buy packs that are more highly sought after, you have to pay money. Of course. So it's almost like collecting um, like on my phone, I have probably about 400,000 cards on my phone that I can access. And if someone wanted to offer me money for one of those cards, I have an eBay listing that says, if you look at my account, you can make an offer on a card and I'll quote you. Wow. And so that's kind of how I sold. I honestly, I had a guy that bought probably about $10,000 worth of Aaron Judge digital cards just this year from me.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

The Bitcoin of baseball cards.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Yeah, it's crazy. But but the thing is that if Topps ever wanted to stop the app, you have to realize it's a game. You don't physically have the cards. So if they decided to end the app, there goes your investments. They go belly up and so it's kind of uh, you know, it it's been going on since like 2012. Huh. But I don't I think it's still going strong.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

I've heard of this. Heard of this. But you actually have Giants baseball uh baseball stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Like Yes, a big collector of Giants. Uh my dad made grouped me up as a baseball fan and listening to the case.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Tell us about how the Giants are doing this year, Don.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Do you really want to know? Tell us uh they're doing not as good as the Padres. That's that's your team, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Not as good as the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

No.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

The Padres are not even yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Dodgers are kind of slumping right now.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Are they good? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

That's good to know. They're humbling. Even they got Tarek Scuble. They they lost.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

I wish we could have got Aaron Judge. That's that's the whole that's the source. That's the sore subject.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

He was for sale and they uh who got him? He's still in New York. Yankees. He's still there.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yeah. So sore subject. I won't go there with you. Hey, let's do the quiz. Do you want to win one of these really cool uh I know uh we've Laura probably likes uh chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

She does like chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Do you know um I know a woman in my life that loves chocolate too, loves this chocolate. Dick Taylor. Yeah, don't get carried away yet. Okay. Easy now.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

I don't think I've had the vanilla milk chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

It's good, it's oh, it's delicious. I like anything they touched is delicious. Yes. I gotta get my prop my prop going over here. Ladies and gentlemen, the uh the quiz. Oh no. The quiz. If you're just joining me at Ston

eBay Hustle And Digital Cards

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Chen, he's gonna join us in our um 100% humbled quiz for all the marbles. And oh boy. Would you like a digital milk chocolate bar? It doesn't taste that good.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

That's not gonna go over.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, no, this is the real one. Okay, first question. If you could live one day in history and you could be there for that day, Don Chin, what day would you pick to live in and and be a be part of?

SPEAKER_02 28:57

That's a really it's almost a tie, Scott, because I was thinking, you know, a lot of people would probably like to go back when Jesus was walking the earth, you know, and see him perform miracles.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

So like a mirac a good miracle day for Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah. That would be I don't I don't think I could handle the crucifixion, but a good miracle would be I mean the crucifixion was uh very important.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

But maybe he fed the five thousand than he walked on the water that night, right? Uh they went across the the lake.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

That would have been I mean, just seeing him heal people.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Yeah. Um but I also was just thinking in a more practical view, just to go back and relive the day that I got married to my wife to really appreciate that. Because I think I was not I was just kind of scatterbrained that day and I wasn't really the fog. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Yeah, you don't even remember the cake or anything.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

So but she's been with me through thick and thin. So I I I think just savoring that, even though we have it on VHS tape, yeah. It's not just to redo it.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Right. And be present.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

And that's the hardest thing in a wedding. That w that was my answer too. I got asked the question today ago. Probably my marriage day. Oh, really? And the honeymoon, the whole thing. Yeah. Just it's great. Good. Anyway, hey, good answer.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Number two, what's uh life giving and life draining for you?

unknown 30:19

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Life giving, life draining. Um I think serving others is life-giving. I mean, I'm part of a uh I've been in different churches off and on, but um currently in a rotary group as yourself. Yes. Southwest Rotary Group. And uh I like doing community projects that benefit people like playgrounds and um, you know, we're doing lots of events that help people like with Humboldt search and rescue, you know, their dogs, you know, the dog team and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

I had her on the show, she was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yeah, Meals on Wheels is I think our current Martinis by the Bay fundraiser.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

I was gonna mention Martinis by the Bay is coming up.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah, it's coming up in just I think later this month. One might argue that's a community service. I don't drink, but I do I do know that it does bank a lot of money and and uh people have a good time.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

And drinkers are often generous people. What are you saying? They can be. Yeah, they can. With enough drinks, they can get really generous.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Yeah. Um you said what's the most life draining?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Probably just uh regret over some of my decisions in life. You know? Yeah. Just just thinking like, you know, before God what kind of person I was and and um but you know, I I don't want to live in shame and regret. That's that's that's what I think a lot of people find themselves in. And and I've kind of developed a lot more maturity in my later years in my faith walk.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Nor does God want us to live in shame and absolutely that um shame and blame, weird space. Uh okay, question number three. So far you're doing okay. Question number three. Um what are your best lessons you've learned from life from defeat or failure?

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Ah, that's a good one. Um not to give up. Yeah, because a lot of the uh like for my comic books and for real estate, it it was slow because when I started real estate, I don't think I sold anything for like the first eight months. Wow. So I was pretty discouraged and you know, I was doing all the stuff that you're supposed to do when you're a realtor, but when it's like strictly commission, you're not making anything. So that's probably why I had eBay on the side, was just to live to make something. And so um that was humbling because when the comic book business uh failed, uh a lot of people went bankrupt. Even Marvel, I think, had to declare bankruptcy back then. And so while we were living large in the comics for quite a few years and selling a lot, we actually um got to the point where when our distributors couldn't pay us, we had to go bank, we had to file for bankruptcy. And so here we were living in this beautiful house in Virginia, and next thing we know, I have to move back to Eureka and basically live with my parents. Wow. And with my wife and with my daughter. And humbling. Yeah, very humbling. And, you know, my wife was like burning the midnight oil, working for Ron, trying to pay our bills while I was thinking, you know, what am I gonna do with my life? But thankfully the real estate job opened. Um, so that lesson, you know, not to give up even in the face of adversity. And um, you know, with my writing, I really thought I could try to write for a big publisher. Like I wanted to write for Mad, I wanted to write for Marvel or DC. So I would send them these scripts and they would give me these rejection letters. And so I thought, well, if they're not going to publish me, then maybe I should go ahead and publish myself. Uh-huh. And that's what happened with the hamsters and with Overload magazine, which is the first thing that I ever did back in 1979. And Dwayne Flatmo was one of our artists on that. Evan Mills was our graphic designer.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Evan Mills, what's up? What's up, Dwayne? Hey, Evan. And Dwayne. D Wayne. What a great guy.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah. He's been a guest. He's a great guy. Uh, last question. What's your biggest victory?

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Biggest victory. Um I'd say my biggest victory is probably over addiction. Yeah. Good. Yeah. I've I've struggled with uh a lust issue in my life, and it was really crippling, really hurtful to a lot of people. And I've been, you know, I've been trying to be open with it because I think that if people can see you bring these things out into the light, yeah, then it offers them hope. Because if you just kind of keep the secret to yourself, you know, whether it's the bad secret or the secret to overcoming it, that doesn't really help anybody.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

But I think when you can kind of say, you know, there's people out there that want to help you, you have to just kind of step out and make that step. And and um there's a community called Celebrate Recovery that I think is really good.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

All over the world, probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Yeah. And locally uh the Eureka Church in the Nazarene puts puts one on every night or every Wednesday night.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah. I know um Pierre's son, John, John Pierre.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Yeah, John.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah, good guy.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Very good guy. And his wife, Missy, is also in mortgage as a real estate uh Bailey's Bailey's.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yeah, no, they're great. They're great. Well, congrats. You've done very well.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Oh, that's an hour already?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

You. No, and that's not an hour already. No, we're just getting started here. Oh no. It's just for you, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Enjoy that. Yeah, I think you you certainly earned it.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

Do you ever do you ever eat white chocolate? It's white chocolate's not really chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

No, it doesn't count. It's it's facetiously and actually it's really uh I think I I have had white chocolate. It's delicious. It's good, but it's not really chocolate. It ain't a chocolate experience. It's I don't know what's in white chocolate. Just white milk?

SPEAKER_02 36:15

I don't even think it has cocoa in it. No, it's just sweet and large.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

And that's all this uh this these guys do is cacao and um and sugar.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Although I think this has milk in it, 2% from uh what are they called? The uh A2 guys in Alexandre Phil.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Alexandre, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah, they're huge. Spith River and Ferndale. Thank you. Which is right over. You're very welcome. Um if you just join us, Don Chin, my new best friend. Can we talk about being Chinese for a minute? Are you Chinese? No. I I don't think so. We did a 20, you know, 23 and me. That's an interesting thing because you can have the same family and they have different stuff. Absolutely. It's trippy, man. There's some trippy DNA.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

See, I always thought I was 100% Chinese.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

I was told I was black Norwegian. I don't know what that is. Seriously? There's black German. I think it's known as the thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah, but um so what was it like growing up Chinese in Eureka? And uh tell

Quiz On Faith And Recovery

SPEAKER_01 37:11

us about your that that journey. And I know your dad got uh uh highly honored and you were part of that. And yeah. He's an honorable man. And there's an alley, right? The Ben Chin alley.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Uh that's Charlie Moon Way.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Charlie Moon Way.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Oh, but there's my dad is right over there by there. Right. And when when they did the Charlie Moon Way uh uh ribbon cutting, the Moon family, we were there and they asked us to be stand with them while they cut the ribbon, which I thought was really, really cool. He was quite a guy. Yeah. Charlie Moon, my dad, um, they probably would have liked to hang out together. But uh yeah, growing up in growing up Chinese for me, um, I always felt I always felt different, you know, because growing up, there wasn't a whole lot of role models on on media other than like Bruce Lee. Right. Um, who was the other one that was pretty popular? Sulu from Star Trek. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Commander Sulu. Yeah, Sulu. Was he Lieutenant Sulu? That's George Takai.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, I don't know. My wife is the Trek Trek E, so she would know. But um, I think just growing up, I felt uh I felt different. And you know, there's definitely some times where I was teased for being Chinese and you know, the people with the do the slanty eye things with their with their you know fingers and sure and make jokes about how they think Chinese people sound and and stuff. And that was that was kind of hurtful. You know, I felt I think I grew up kind of feeling insecure, but I had a lot of friends that were, you know, not were not Chinese and they were accepting of me. Sure. And um I grew up in a neighborhood where we, you know, just played like every other kid, played waffle ball and football, go-karts, and so I had a pretty normal upbringing. Um but I think uh there were times where it was it was hard being kind of different.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah. No doubt, yeah, it'd be different. And those are the days because you and I are not too far in distance where bullying was kind of accepted practice. Yeah. It's like I grew up in San Diego, a lot of Mexican Mexican Americans, and um real melting pot in Nashville City where I'm from. And it was uh yeah, it again wanted the things we don't like to talk about, but it was pretty it got pretty ugly here and there. But it but ul ultimately it was very safe. I never got the tar knocked out of me too much. Yeah. And so um, yeah, just different experience there.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

I I I look back and I think, you know, my parents really they really worked hard to provide, you know, a a nice home for my my brothers and my sisters. So I'm very appreciative. And I know working in the restaurant business, they worked seven days a week and often 16 hours a day. So um they kind of instilled in me a hard work ethic as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

I've heard the only p person that Ernie Pearson ever had to rent land from was your dad. Because they're right next door in Broadway.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

That's true. That's true. Is the restaurant still up and running? Chinscafe is still over there at 4200 Broadway. Who wants? Um actually I think uh Paul and his wife, I don't know their last names by heart heart, but they they actually had been leasing it for quite a while from my family. And eventually my mom uh thought, you know, she's getting older. So she she felt like it was time to sell that off. So it's it closed maybe three or four years ago. And actually Pearsons bought it. Oh, okay. And then they subdivided the land because a lot of that land that Chins has with it goes behind uh where parking lots could be used for Pearsons. And that garden shop, that actually was my father's land, the whole the whole uh pond and all that. So they acquired that. Correct. Gotcha. Were you the realtor? Uh I helped with the paperwork, but I I didn't ask my mom for a commission.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Yeah. You're a good son. Had a boy.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

That's great. So uh part when we start to wrap up, we're gonna start talking about your legacy, what you wanna leave behind, and how you see that. But before we do, I I was thinking, um do you have any vinyl here today for some vinyl? Of course. So I'll I'll tell my story while you pull your vinyl. So I uh grew up in the 70s rock and roll scene in San Diego and Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tall, and went to both the Cal Jams in uh Ontario, never did Woodstock, but uh had a little vinyl collection, if you will. And uh eight months ago on my birthday, January 2nd, my family bought me

Growing Up Chinese In Eureka

SPEAKER_01 41:58

this very cool stereo setup with uh Audio Technica, turntable, Ankyo receiver. Sweet. Four speakers, a couple of polk, really nice bookshelf. Remember Dave Mulhern that owned Arceta Audio? Yeah. Used to sell Polks.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Really great. And you of course you start the collection with Dark Side of the Moon, and then it's you're off to the races.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

You know, I listened to that for the first time in the last year, and I wasn't blown away. I I was expecting something more, but maybe you have to be under the influence.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Well, maybe. Something. They said you could put that to uh is it. Wizard of Oz? Is it Wizard of Oz? Yeah. Yeah. I've never done that. It tracks. I I don't they didn't intend for that, but how fun. Yeah, Dark Sides it was way ahead of its time. It was fun. So uh so sometimes in my collecting, which is now an obsession, but nothing like you. You got a basement full of I do.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

My wife's yeah, I I broke my promise with my wife. So how did you get into vinyl, by the way?

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Did you uh and how how does it go and how do you buy and sell trade?

SPEAKER_02 43:03

And I just kind of remember growing up my d my parents had that Sears console, the wooden one that everybody has that with the you know, it's got the speakers built in and the turntable. Big bass speakers that you just yeah and my brother, um I mean my my my parents would buy me these records, and I just remember from an early age, just a bunch of Disney records that kind of had the story, and you open up the album and you can you could kind of read a story along with it. So those are cool. That was kind of my introduction to vinyl. But my brother, who's like 10 years older than me, he was growing up and he he was listening to stuff in the 60s. So he had like uh Beatles and uh the Association groups like that. And so every once in a while he would I would listen to those at my house, and that kind of got me introduced to vinyl. And then as I grew up in the you know, in the 80s, I started collecting in the 70s. You would get your singles down at Payless, you know, the drugstore or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

For 99 cents or 50 cents. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

So that was always fun just collecting vinyl. But then when CDs and cassettes came out, I just saw my vinyl sitting there collecting dust, and I thought, I don't know if I have any use for these. They're really bulky and they seem like they're kind of old. And they're heavy. They're heavy. And so I made that mistake that uh a lot of people my age did, and I got rid of a lot of vinyl. I don't even know where it is. Yeah. So funny. I probably traded it into the works or something. But yeah. So I I lost touch with vinyl, but then I saw it sort of making a comeback. Yeah. And so maybe two years ago, I just started saying, well, maybe I can buy some of the albums I had.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

That recently. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

So how did you what what triggered you to do that in terms of just entrepreneurial? Go, I think there's money in this, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Um I wasn't really looking to resell. It was just in my acquisition of the things that I I wanted to collect myself. I saw that, you know, this is a good deal. I should pick it up. Even though I might not listen to it, it might be a good investment that I could flip on eBay. So then I found myself going to estate sales and yard sales. And then I started buying bigger and bigger collections. So that's kind of what I've done in the last year.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

And flipped them to to pay the for the habit?

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Right. So I try to tell my wife that's that's how I justify.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

But she said, you know, I'll buy you these two really big record displays. Once you fill that up, then there then there's no more. And I said, okay. Sure. But now are they full?

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Or is there two more?

SPEAKER_02 45:46

They're about 90% full.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

That's funny. You must have some good vinyl. One day maybe I'll get the two of them. Yeah. Right now I'm getting the the old rolling stones wrinkled up stuff.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Yeah. So this is one of this is Scott's personal picks from my showed up there right in the camera.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

You like the stones. That's a really good one. That's uh that's uh uh big hits. That's a big album. Yeah. Um and then for you more modern Geyser's Prince. Ho ho. Purple rain, baby.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Purple rain. Nick, do you like do you like the purple rain? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Oh man. This guy. When he rips on guitar, he um I had no idea the musician he is. I know. He's really good. Uh maybe still is. It's hard to say. Yeah. Um, but he was uh he was quite the guy.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Just a little guy on a motorcycle, too. Yeah, a little guy from Minnesota. He's not very big.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Yeah, he was uh quite really multi-talented. Very yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

So this is uh this is one you don't have any prints yet, huh? I don't know. This would be my first prints. You like the you like the uh the Wyndham Hill stuff.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

The Wyndham Hill New Age stuff. Yeah, so this is Iris Stein. I believe he's a piano player with Obo, and that's Russell. And so they have a label that started in Stanford in the 80s with a guy named Will Ackerman. Oh, right. I've seen him. And a lot of it's just this they they it's not even uh it's eclectic. They thought it was folk and then it was jazz, and they tried to get buck at them and they couldn't. So pretty much every record they've ever produced. You've bought a lot of Win Him Hill from me. You're you're my Wind Him Hill. I'm the guy. You could turn that on. It's like The Grateful Dead and play it in the background, or Miles Davis, or any sort of jazz. This one's a good record. This band, this is a double record set. Dylan, Dylan in the band. This is Dylan with the band, that's right. Who's d who's Bob Dylan? Do you be any of this tape?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

This is in great shape. I mean, look at this. Is it? I mean, this this is one of those gatefold ones. Oh, yeah. With the uh that's the that's the thing I I miss about vinyl, is that when you have a CD and a cassette, they only give you like the little square and you open it up and you know there's no pizzazz or no wow factor. But when you get these and they have posters sometimes and you know, picture books. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Let me can I let me let me uh ex uh extrude some of the uh features, if I may. Yes. Number one, you have to sit down and listen to it. You I mean you could run by the record player and throw something on, of course, but it's built to kind of hang out versus I'm listening to Siri uh, you know, Alexa play Jethro Tall.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

You have to put it it's almost like a ritual because you you actually have to get up and physically turn the record over.

unknown 48:25

You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

There's some exercise involved. And I'm looking at this, and so this vinyl has its um its uh uh digital uh library tool called Discogs, as you know, and uh telling you nothing new, but this is cool. So this tells you the whole story about where this is recorded and who's who's on the record. But Discogs has these printouts about who was there, how it went down, how it sells, what this is wholesale, what it is retail, what it is El Cheapo, uh mint condition. Um so it's it's really kind of an interesting curation of um and you know, journeying into the past. Speaking of which, uh David Crosby, Graham Nash. Yep, those guys uh go way back. And so I I think what's been fun for me is I've discovered what I really resonate with and what was really cool and what I thought was cool. Right. And now it's Fog Hat. Right. Speaking of which, I bet you have some in there. Uh we'll get to it.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

I think that was in the pile that you pa you you saved for another day.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

I gave you some I gave you a free Eagles. Oh, look at the Eagles. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Eagles' greatest hits. Who doesn't love the Eagles? Yeah, they're great. Oh, and then this uh stray Windham Hill.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

Another Shadowfax. Another Yeah, these guys are really now they do they still uh are they still an existing label?

SPEAKER_01 49:45

I don't think so. I don't know. I haven't heard uh anything. I mean, this is these guys are 30 years ago, too.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

Yeah. They yeah, I come across them and most of them you you buy.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

So were the stones, they're still producing records. Yeah, that's true. Uh Jimmy Buffett, that's one of his original records.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Um Parrot Head. Are you a Parrot Head? Not really. No, no, but he wrote that song uh that's on that record. Uh the hit? Yeah, it's really uh come Monday. Oh, yeah. It'll be all right. Yeah. I've never sang on my podcast. You'll be holding me tight.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

You're making me hungry for a cheeseburger in paradise.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

I know, right?

SPEAKER_02 50:21

Um, so Jimmy's great. Oh, wait. See, you you you're you're in Grateful Dead, and I'm Grateful Dead people. I'm not a big Grateful Dead fan, but I have listened to them. So this is Humboldt uh right here, folks. This is this is a cool one called the flo Wake of the Flood? Oh, wake of the Wake of the Flood. But this one I like a lot.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

That's American Beauty, yeah. This is this is this is one of their classic ones. The artwork's really pretty fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

I didn't even know this, but did you get a poster in there? Well, it folds out, so it's this huge Skulls and Roses. Is that the name of this one?

SPEAKER_01 50:54

They call it that, but it's uh No, it's not American Beauty. It is Skulls and Roses, you're right. Yeah, Skulls and Roses. American Beauty is a whole other record.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

This print was in it. I don't know where it came from. I think that's uh what's his name? Rick Griffin? Um could be. Could I think it might be Griffin?

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Yeah, he he did a lot of their art for a lot of their stuff.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

So there's that.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

And then last but not least, uh a Janice Joplin that you wanted. Kind of her their contemporaries, yeah. So yeah, there's uh there's a lot to be said uh for uh the fun of the collection and the hunt and the curation and the hobby. It's fun.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

And you've got a cleaner net. Do you got an ultrasonic cleaner net?

SPEAKER_01 51:30

I don't. I bought a new one though on on Amazon that's really cool. It's a spinner. It's a spinner? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

It's amazing how much grime the records could oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Is that around? Well, th this one I tried to off on on on Poor Nick. Um this is The King Is Gone by Rodney Um Ronnie?

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Rodney McDowell?

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Ronnie McDowell. Not Rodney. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Rodney McDowell was an actor.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Yes. But this guy's uh this had all kinds of water damage. It was to your point. This was a disgusting record. It had schmutz all over it. And I I put it in the cleaner, and you just saw this before the show. This thing is like sweet clean. Very true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

I didn't know that. Yeah, it's it's uh um it's kind of my thing at night when my wife says, you know, I'm I'm going to I'm going into our bedroom to watch my show, so you can go do your thing, Don. So she gives me like two hours and I'll either either play b video games for a little bit or I'll go down and clean records and listen to records.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Work on your uh curation uh Yeah. So Yeah, no, I I I think it's super cool. I um it'd be interesting one day to do a um a uh a record podcast. I'm sure they're done, where you just take an artist and talk for an hour about Jonas Joplin and have guests. But uh that's not this show quite yet. But it's it is fun.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

See now you're a little older than me, because a lot of these groups, I mean, I am I'm familiar with them, but I didn't really listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 53:04

It's interesting because you're th we're three or four years apart, but you were like you loved a lot of 80s stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Yeah, I was more of a new wave, like the cars and um Elvis and Stello, classic rock. Van Halen. Yeah, I like some Van Halen.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

How about Bruce Springsteen?

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Springsteen was okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Hollow Notes. Hollow Notes, big Hollow Notes fan. Cindy Lauper and all those kindy, Billy Joel.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

Yeah, uh Todd Runger was like one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

He's quite a producer. He's done a lot of musical stuff. He's cool.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

And we listened to a lot of Christian music as well.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Right, right. And that was the beginning of Christian music when it was too schlocky and Petra and Sweet Comfort Band. Oh, yeah, no, that's that's you're going back. I found, you know, uh my my other um uh drug dealer in um they call it black crack in uh Florida. Robert sent me a um a guy named Benny Hester. He's great. I have a lot of things. Benny Hester, dude. I know my brother-in-law Scott turned me on to that guy when he was Scott was six, seven, sixteen. He goes, gotta hear this guy. He had a cassette, Benny Hester. I go, dude, that guy's amazing. He's got this whole worship thing there out of Costa Mesa, probably Calvary Chaplin.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

God ran is his biggest. Okay, I wonder if that's on this record. Yeah, it's really touch. I mean, I listened to it just the other, maybe a few months ago.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

He had a lot of early Bruce Coburn. He was definitely had a Christian bent, and Bob Dylan had his Christian moment, and um amongst others. And wow, now you got third day, and you know, and even they're old now. So DC talk.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Just listen to them.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Um yeah, it's still I like Brandon Lake. Brandon Lake is very good. Brandon Lake's super cool. I'd love to see him.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Forrest Frank, I like a lot.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Okay. We're gonna go see Whiskey Myers in a week. Uh I don't I don't pretend they're Christian, but they have a lot of God adjacent uh messaging, so it's cool. Like yeah, like you too. Nice, and you too. And you too, my you too. So let's talk about your legacy and cap this off here. So what are they gonna say? What would you like us to say at your celebration of life? And uh what would you like to be known for? Uh maybe an engrave, a little engraving on the tombstone. What do you think it's gonna say?

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Um I I I would just hope that people uh that I brought light to the world and and made people laugh. Um that that I realized that the source of my

Vinyl Comeback And Collector Habits

SPEAKER_02 55:30

uh strength is dying to myself and surrendering to a higher power. Um Yeah, I just you know, I have c a couple grandsons and I try to pass on things that I enjoy, whether it be music or love of of certain movies and so forth. Um, and they're big Star Wars nerds just like me. Yeah. Uh we went and watched The Odyssey the other night. It was good. It was really good, quite intense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

Did you see it at Broadway Cinema?

SPEAKER_02 56:01

I saw it on the Broadway theater theater and they had a bunch of part porta potties out in the parking lot because the the bathroom's still being remodeled.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Oh man, yeah, they had a big blow-up of some stuff. I think a fire started. Remember when that was paying pack home improvements? Oh, you're right. Way back. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

I knew the Phillips that owned that that bought it. And um part of my eBay venture was I I connected with them and they would give me um movie posters to sell on eBay. So I would give them a cut. And at one time they had they took me to the Arcadia Theater because they owned the Arcada, and they had this huge room full of nothing but like 35 millimeter trailers from like movies from the 50s lineup. And I looked them up on eBay and they were selling for a lot. Wow. But I think over time there was some kind of copyright thing for the studios didn't want. The Phillips. I I think I know who that was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Go figure.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Yeah. So I've I've kind of rubbed elbows with different people through the real estate, collecting, eBay, comics. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

You're a jack of all traits. Many traits at all trades.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

Yeah, I'm a I'm a I'm an odd cat.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Yeah. So you're evading the question though. What are we going to say? What else would would you have us um would you like to be would you fancy people might say?

SPEAKER_02 57:33

Or would you like them to say that I loved that I loved people. I hope that I made them feel loved and appreciated. Awesome. Um that uh you know, I was a I was a good son, hopefully good father, good good grandpa, good husband. That's good. Um and uh you know it's it's nice that I have some comics that are out there and hopefully you know, after I go, people will still be able to to read them and enjoy them just like I do with like Mad Magazine and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Right. Yeah, it's funny, it it occurs to me that what we're gonna be remembered for is probably not what we think. You know, gosh, he had a killer selection of records. Man, this guy had good music taste. He's so cool. And you know, all these bald head ponytail guys. Or maybe the grandkid goes, you know, grandpa he was really amazing. Turned me on to he found joy in X, Y, and Z and me too, and now I love Jesus too, just like he did. And so, you know, that that whole um kind of the stuff we don't see coming and we don't suspect the impact that we have. But you know, men of our age now, it's like I'm I'm and women, I I pour into people now, I try to make that You do. I try to make that that um lean in and and make be present and make that effort, especially with kids and grandkids. You know, to sit there and go, okay, my son is twenty-two, he's preaching about politics, and I'm down in agreements and I'm just listening. You know, and Joni does a beautiful job of that. Yeah. What's up, Micah? You doing okay? And I go, oh, he's just connecting the dots. He's experimenting with a worldview and a mindset and a perspective that isn't mine, and it doesn't need to be, and I don't need to sell them on mine. I'm not sure what mine is every day. Mine's shifting at all times. So uh but not everything shifts in my you know, there's solid too, but I don't need to go change his mind. I just need to be with his mind and hang out and be a good dad. Yeah. I hear that in you. Thank you, my friend. Yeah. Any parting shots? How do we get a hold of Don Don Chin? Um shout out.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

You can reach me on uh I'm on all social media mainly. Um if you want to see what I'm up to, I'm on Facebook. Uh my real estate page is donchin.net. Um I'm on Instagram X Community Realty. Community Realty.net. Yeah. So I appreciate you being here. Thank you, man. Yeah, thank you. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Yep. And if you just join us, you're way too late

Where To Find Don Online

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

for the show. Uh Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. We're on all the podcast platforms. Uh we're on uh Loco, we're on Redhead Black Belt, we're on Hu uh Humboldt uh Access Humboldt TV and YouTube. So like us, love us, join us, and thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

Thank you.