Making Profit and the Business Side of Collecting Pokemon Cards w/ @vanadergrowth

Evan is an entrepreneur, inventor, and educator. He helps people start businesses the proper way. For 8 years Evan worked both as a firefighter and a CEO for his businesses. Now he runs them full time and teaches the things he's learned along the way. To learn more about Evan visit Vanader.com.

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Language: en

so i'm looking for webcams or whatever and i'm on 
a time crunch because i like i had another podcast  

i had to you know stream for and i needed it in 
a certain time and they were all freaking out of  

stock this was like in october and november when 
everything was out and so i'm like uh okay i guess  

i'll get another camera nice so are you happy with 
the decision going with the sony yeah yeah i do  

really like it because of the fact that i don't 
have to know too many things for it to just look  

acceptable you know i have one light 
that's on me and then that's it like  

one light one camera super easy setup you got 
to keep it simple and plus you probably have  

it set up in a way so that like it you only 
need like a button press to start recording  

yeah yeah it's that simple it's that 
easy that's why i do this way to do it  

that's why i do it do you have a similar 
setup or um yeah i use streamlabs so i have my  

i have my dslr plugged in with like uh hdmi to 
the computer and all that stuff i couldn't get  

the cam link to work because it's a canon it's 
a crop sensor it's got a mirror like it's just  

not ideal for what i'm doing but it's all i 
had and so i was like okay how can i make this  

really easy to record because setting up lights 
and everything's a pain in the ass so i have a  

bunch of lights clipped to my desktop and then the 
camera is right there and it's just ready to go so  

i just open up streamlabs hit record and i'm done 
that's awesome do you use um those elgato lights

i'd like to they're just a little expensive yeah 
i noticed like amazon stuff for now that's that's  

what i'm using i got like a set of maybe three led 
little lights that i can you know dim and increase  

it's so easy 45 bucks or something like that 
it's crazy like everybody has this stuff now  

like um these these lights and the ring lights 
and the tripod setups everybody's got one because  

everybody's creating content at least in some type 
of way shape or fashion in their houses i think  

maybe not yeah yeah no it's it's crazy how that's 
happening and honestly it's not going to slow down  

just because like i listened to all the little 
teeny boppers all the little teenies that are  

like you know when i grow up i want to be a 
youtube influencer or something like that so yes  

yes i mean it's great i love it but yeah so 
it's just going to keep on growing um eventually  

sometime in the future i'm probably going to want 
to like just this is really random but just build  

tools around creators i know there's a lot of 
things out there so i want to spend much more time  

like doing the thing to figure out like what 
would really help me because i'm just all about  

scratching my own itch and so um i think those 
tools would be really helpful for people i'm  

really interested in like those ai tools where 
you can um like generate blog posts and things  

like that those are really interesting to me 
some are not that great but oh really mm-hmm  

that's awesome gpt3 to you um it's called copy.ai 
and you they use gpt3 to um write blog posts and  

descriptions for youtube videos and titles 
and i like that i like that that's awesome um  

there's some really good products out there 
i use uh contentbot.ai but i'll have to use  

what was your buddies uh called again copy.ai 
or copiedcopy.ai copy.ai okay cool i'll have to  

check that out because i'm i'm really interested 
in the tools because there's there's like you know  

obviously a level of quality that that vary and 
so it's so it's nice to have a really good one  

that you don't have to spend too much time editing 
you're gonna have to edit there's no doubt but but  

yeah so tell me about your project oh sorry no i'm 
sorry i was just gonna say i'm so happy for you  

to be on today and i mean this is just amazing 
i'm really excited that you're able to spend some  

time so i'm excited too and then at the end we're 
going to open this up because i want to open it  

oh okay cool nice is that cool this would be 
great yeah yeah that's absolutely cool i hope you  

i hope you have fire hands because i want 
to know something real good but i have not  

i haven't gotten anything recently and so i 
was like i was at target the other day with  

my daughter i was like look let's go gotta run by 
the pokemon cards let's see if they got anything  

by two packs and you know children why not 
that's actually what i do too the other day  

i was at target and they have nothing now 
i'm really glad i was able to get like maybe  

eight or ten i don't know something like that but 
but anyways let's go ahead and get started i want  

the audience they've never met you and they're 
gonna love you i know this for sure because  

you're so knowledgeable but evan i was hoping 
that you could tell us a little bit about you  

um because you do a lot of things online which 
is really cool and interesting and then i guess  

we can talk a little bit about you know you're 
collecting because you do collect pokemon you've  

got that psa six first edition charizard psa four 
psa four either way still bomb but anyways yeah  

if you can let us know sure um i'm glad you 
asked i'm super stoked to be here because i  

really enjoyed the first time we got to talk my my 
listeners got to learn so much about programming  

and code and like having you on was just amazing 
so i appreciate the chance to get to talk to you  

again it's really cool so let's see i've been 
an entrepreneur my whole life i've been doing  

stuff selling lemonade mowing lawns working in 
you know selling food like whatever i could come  

up with you know it's just selling pot in high 
school you know whatever it is that could make  

me money and i could be able to get a leg up and 
try and dig out of this rat race that i was and  

i was trying it i didn't know what it was called 
at the time i was just trying to make a buck and  

so um trying jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs and then 
finally you know um after working a bunch of  

different jobs you know i'm like oh man i'm 
getting tired of working just jobs man and  

you know what am i going to do as a career and 
that's you know my old man's influence he's a baby  

boomer he said he's the of the generation where 
you you work hard you go to school you graduate  

with a bunch of debt and then hopefully you're 
able to pay off that debt and retire with a meager  

salary and afford your health insurance and so 
i'm like okay sounds great let's [ __ ] go and so  

i moved away and to become a fireman so i went to 
a fire academy i got my emt uh i started working  

on an ambulance that's where i met my wife and 
then i got hired uh going to paramedic school and  

then started working for a big fire department in 
southern california and when we started that fire  

department you go through what's called an academy 
and so there's 30 guys and it was 18 weeks of just  

some of the physically the hardest [ __ ] 
that i've ever done in my life it was absol

uh oh is the connection so good

it looks like it froze

jess can you still hear me

me oh no

can you hear me still jess

let me know hey are you there yeah there okay hey  

internet might be a little choppy 
over here um but anyways go ahead  

okay cool we're good so um so we get in this 
academy it's grueling there's like 30 of us  

and you know we have to go through it in order 
to become a firefighter you have to go through  

the fire academy you have to go through all these 
these take these steps and when it was all said  

and done we wanted to commemorate that experience 
and so we i made this big walnut eight you know  

my wood shop and i really wanted to would 
burn our motto in together in together out  

i really did and i grabbed my soldering iron 
and i plugged it in and i heated it up and  

i screwed up the entire project i screwed it up 
and i had to start over from scratch and i was  

like there's got to be a better way to wood burn 
this motto in and my wife and i started doing a  

little research and we put together a chemical 
formula that allowed us to do it with just heat  

and so we we draw we would paint on this formula 
with a stencil and then we would apply heat with  

a heat gun and then it would burn the wood only 
where we drew it was super cool and the project  

looked great it turned out amazing but out of 
all of that um we created this product scorch  

marker and so it allows you to draw on wood apply 
heat and then the wood burns only where you drew  

wow and so it's kind of a cool like little new 
crafting product so they looked very different  

when we first started i guarantee you um but it 
was the reason i bring it up is because it was the  

product that allowed us to um that finally gave us 
a chance to kind of grow it into a company it was  

something that it was working you know aside from 
all those other side jobs we've done in the past  

and so while i was a fireman over like the last 
three or four years we were working on this  

company on the side and building it up and then 
last year the company became so profitable that  

it was time for me to leave the fire department 
because the fire department was now holding me  

back it was holding me back from what i really 
wanted to do which is build businesses and  

teach other people how to build businesses and so 
i left my wife and i made a collective decision  

yeah it was uh that's amazing um is is your scorch 
pen can you find it in retail or is it only online  

or do you do direct to consumer we sell we started 
out selling on amazon of all places um just out of  

ignorance and then we sold on our website and 
now we're in michael's and hobby lobby and we  

had did some stuff with home shopping network and 
so we're like we're growing and we have employees  

and systems and we're learning about how to 
run businesses so while we're doing this um  

you know the pandemic starts to happen and i get 
on tick tock and i'm still at the fire department  

so i'm sitting there and refilling helicopters 
on this wildland assignment and i'm snapping some  

videos of it right and i put it up on tiktok for 
fun and it got like 60 000 views and i was like  

what i was like what there's a tension here and so 
i'm like [ __ ] this i'm not going to talk about  

firefighting anymore i'm over it like my heart's 
not there anymore i want to talk about business  

so i started talking about business on tick tock 
and that's how this brand started my personal  

brand putting myself out there helping people 
with the foundation and the core fundamentals  

so that they could remove that fear of not 
wanting to start that's what it was for me  

it was just afraid because i didn't know what 
steps to take to start and so i was just stayed  

in that permanent side hustle mentality that was 
my life but now that i know what to do i can teach  

other people and give them and you know empower 
them to make their own decisions and i think  

that's really cool so that's how it kind of all 
started reading a couple books and and tick tock  

that's awesome wow god i bet you got some 
really awesome or very um interesting clips  

from like on tick tock from when you so you were 
in the helicopter you were firefighting up in the  

helicopters or no i wasn't in the wild first um 
i was down on the ground so i was working for i  

got put on a water tender to go shuttle water back 
and forth and then we had these big things called  

pumpkins they're 3 000 gallon foldable pools that 
we put out and then we dump all the water in there  

and then we have the helicopter come in and they 
have a snorkel a big long straw and they just like  

hover down suck up a couple thousand gallons 
of water and then they go drop it on the fire  

oh wow oh wow that's that sounds like a lot of 
work but that's that's awesome work though that  

that's amazing but i'm glad that you're able to 
make the transition because it is a really scary  

thing i mean even for myself it's it's super scary 
to take that leap into kind of the unknown into a  

new life and one of the reasons why i wanted to 
bring you on is because i know a lot of people  

on here um and throughout the people that i met 
in the hobby they love pokemon cards they have  

them they own them they collect them i mean i 
mean so do you too i don't know if you deal but  

but what they also do is they also deal cards too 
so they're making a little bit of a side income  

you know whether or not they it is just more 
so because of the opportunity um you know to  

kind of flip a card at a really great price or 
if that's something that they really love to do  

it's it's honestly something it's kind of nice to 
deal into a market that you collected because you  

get to know a little bit more about that market 
a little bit more of the ins and outs of it  

and that was one of the great reasons 
why i wanted to have you on was because  

they are doing those things and now with new 
changes in policy for you know people who i  

think are i think the number might be six hundred 
dollars you know if you're earning more than six  

hundred dollars on paypal now you really have to 
start paying attention to the taxes to how all of  

those things you know play into it because right 
now i don't think ebay puts out 10.99 but i think  

ebay and paypal might i don't know if ebay but i 
think paypal definitely will start doing that now  

um because of new rules and new laws that are 
in place and those are some things that you have  

to think about and you know if you're selling 
like um you know over a thousand dollars or a  

few thousand dollars worth of cards depending on 
what you have like now you have to start thinking  

about it like a business right um which is talk 
about that 600 too because i think it's really  

important that we shed some light on it the whole 
1099 thing is that that 600 it's a special number  

and so at any time during the year if you pay 
someone 600 or more you have to 1099 them you  

have to tell the government that you paid them 
money otherwise you're going to be on the hook  

for the taxes so if i hired you to write some 
code for me and i paid you a thousand bucks  

and i pay you under the table and i don't tell the 
government the government's going to expect me to  

pay taxes because i earned thousand dollars but 
if i fill out a 1099 and i say no no i paid just  

that thousand dollars tax her they say okay 
you don't have to pay the tax we'll text yes  

and that's what paypal's doing and that's what 
ebay hasn't really been doing yet but that's  

what amazon does too like all these companies 
are sending out 10.99 so that the taxes can be  

correct so it's you're 100 right like if you're 
if you're selling more than 600 dollars like  

yeah you got to start treating it like like a 
business and you need to uh be cognizant of how  

you're dealing with the money so how do you deal 
with it um for me i don't sell okay or i don't  

sell that much but as i get in throughout the year 
i'm starting to to get rid of a few things things  

that you know are not really that personal to me 
that i don't really need that you know i can do  

without and that i know i will you know 2x or 
3x you know because of my original entry point  

so but now i do have to start thinking about 
those things i will at some point this year have  

to start thinking about those things um and so i 
so as far as that goes i mean so when it comes to  

the six hundred dollars if like let's say you sell 
you pay someone 200 and then you pay someone 400  

are you 10.99 each of those people if you 
paypal them for your items or is it just  

when it's over that 600 and then now you have 
to for any like for for all future transactions  

that you need to do that for it's six hundred 
dollars per person per calendar a year  

okay 600 per person per calendar year so for 
example like i've had workers for me that work for  

me that don't want to get taxed and they're like 
well i don't want to pay taxes and i'm like well  

i mean what do you want me to do i was like 
here's what we do how about i write a 600  

check to you i'll write a 600 check to your 
brother to your kid to your husband to your  

aunt and so to keep it under that limit and 
you won't have to pay taxes and i won't either  

that's that's one way people get around it 
but it's messy and it doesn't always work  

so directly answer your question um if 
you're paying people let an individual  

less than 600 you're good it doesn't need to be 
documented only when it goes above and beyond  

so then if someone is deciding to hey i want 
to start a ebay side business because i have  

all these cards that i've collected over the 
years you know what are the first things that  

they need to do and consider because let's say 
they have anywhere between two thousand to five  

thousand dollars worth of product that they could 
that they could realize um in sales i mean what  

do they have to think about opening up an llc do 
they have to operate like a business at that point  

well you don't have to you don't have to and 
this analysis isn't mandatory for everybody and  

some people probably won't be right for but 
i'm a huge fan i'm a huge fan because llc's  

give you protection then what it does is it 
just creates an entity that's separate from you  

and it gives you the opportunity to 
like basically make a copy of yourself  

more or less in a company form and then start 
treating it like a business and the cool thing  

about llc is they allow you to do great things in 
the future too like s corpse and change your tax  

status and you know awesome stuff that saves you a 
ton of money but in the beginning most people just  

sell cards as themselves right they'll just jump 
on ebay and link up their personal bank account  

and start selling cards as themselves and and 
that's okay um but if you start to make some  

serious money if you start to if you're making um 
like more than like a thousand bucks a month like  

it would it would make sense to get an llc to at 
least separate it and protect yourself so that  

in case you start blowing up and making a bunch of 
money you can take advantage of all these cool tax  

laws that are available for you um but we don't 
really make a ton of changes until you're making  

about 50 000 in profits or more once you get to 
that mark that's when it's like all right let's  

start putting like corporations in place so that 
we don't have to pay as much money in taxes and  

that's when you're really going to start feeling 
it um when you have like significant profits  

right but until then like yeah and llc's are i i 
i'm of the mindset that everybody should learn how  

to open an llc because it's a it's a fundamental 
core principle of just doing business in america  

it helps to know it yeah i absolutely agree and 
even opening up an llc is a little intimidating  

because it's like okay what are the fees how 
do i do it where do i go you know what else do  

i need how do i prepare you know these filings 
because you have to prepare quarterly filings  

um but but i i agree with you i think it's a 
it's a great fundamental skill i know i know  

for myself my first llc i filed through legals 
and we talked about this before but now that i've  

seen the paperwork i i see everything what goes 
into it you know i'm just ready to do it myself  

you know so there are a few more that i'm going to 
need to open up in the next few like six to six to  

12 months from now that i already know like it's 
okay you know i can do this i can do that um you  

know i know how much this is gonna cost me here 
and honestly there's a ton of information online  

um you know especially through your state 
wherever you're deciding to actually file for and  

and fun fact is i live in the state of illinois i 
registered my llc through the state of illinois it  

required a registered agent and at first i wasn't 
too sure i'm like okay let me just pay legalzoom  

to do that because i don't have to deal with it 
but i learned that you can actually be your own  

registered agent which was really cool because you 
you could save yourself money because really what  

that person is is they're just an entity something 
where they can send official documentation  

so if your address is up to date and you don't 
plan on moving anytime soon you're not worried  

about stuff getting lost in the mail because 
redirecting you know mailing addresses you don't  

have to pay anyone to be your own registered agent 
you can just be one yourself you could be your own  

which i really liked your own app the only 
downside to being your own registered agent is  

that now your address is public record because of 
how you set up your company but i mean if that's  

okay if you're okay with that then yeah you're 
you're 100 on track and then you can go to the  

full opposite side of the spectrum where you can 
pay a company to be a registered agent you can pay  

a company to give you a mailing address where they 
scan and open your mail and email to you and you  

can live in a completely different place and have 
a company in another state where everything just  

goes to because you're paying people to do it for 
you oh yeah that's right i remember the last time  

we talked you had talked about that specifically 
uh do you go through any other states outside  

of california you do right yeah for the for my 
companies that do business in california i have  

to have a california llc but for like my personal 
brand my holding company it's a wyoming llc  

because it doesn't do business in any one specific 
state physically it does business internationally  

so i opened it up in wyoming and i pay people to 
take my mail over there for me because it's more  

affordable and i like the anonymity that wyoming 
provides oh that's awesome yeah yeah um i mean  

so as far as someone opening up an llc because 
they want to have an ebay side business  

should they or is there any benefit to having 
an ein number from the irs i think there is  

so when someone starts a company um there's kind 
of like a five-step checklist that i talk about  

and i probably talked about this with you before 
but there's like five things that if you're going  

to go down this path and you want to be legit 
this is what you got to do and the first one  

is you open up an llc you just open up an llc in 
your state and you get that over with and that's  

the only thing that's really going to cost you a 
bunch of money um because it's the most expensive  

part and then you go get an ein which is free 
which you've done from the irs totally free and  

that gives you a social security number for that 
llc makes it legit now that you have an llc and  

a social for it or an ein you can walk down to a 
bank or a credit union and you get a bank account  

or you can even open one up online like if you 
don't want to go down there that's fine so now  

you have a way to take money your llc is official 
um then what you're going to want to check and see  

if there's any like locals like city permits 
you need to run a business out of your house  

because sometimes those are required sometimes 
you know um you just want to pay them in  

and then last step is you just want to keep good 
records you want to make sure that you know where  

the money's coming from where the money's going 
out and the way that you do that in my mind  

is if it's a business expense if it's something 
you're spending to run your business then you  

spend it out of the business account if 
it's a personal expense like toothpaste  

and a hoodie you know what i mean like 
spend it out of your personal bank account  

and if you ever need money for your personal 
bank account from your business you just simply  

transfer it over call it an owner's draw and 
you're good because realistically if whatever  

the business makes is what you make you you and 
the business are going to be on one tax return  

and so leaving money in your business account is 
not going to stop it from being taxed that year  

that's what i thought when i first started and 
oh my gosh was i so wrong um because there are  

so many mistakes that i made there are so many 
mistakes and that was one of the big ones but  

yeah that's that's how i would like set it up if 
you're looking towards becoming an lc that's what  

i would do okay that that makes sense and i think 
and i think for me to um you know come next year  

i have to look at or at least for my llc that 
i just created i think i do have to still even  

though i haven't got any income in because i'm 
putting um i'm investing money into the business  

so i'm not and i don't expect to be making income 
anytime soon for those things you still have to  

declare those things in a 1099 right you still 
have to let the government know that you're i  

mean even even with the filings as well that 
you have to let them know like hey you know  

this is the money that i put into the business the 
business didn't make any money so that at the very  

least that you you have everything tightened up 
and and pretty much pretty in a bowl so that the  

government doesn't come back and say hey we needed 
this paperwork you didn't send us this paperwork  

are there i mean i'm guessing there's got to 
be you know repercussions to that if you're not  

making sure that your paperwork is clean and good 
and up-to-date because um surely the irs would  

come and find you they're pretty good at it um you 
know who's really good at it though is states and  

local governments like sales tax like states are 
even they're way better at it than irs they will  

hammer you first if you're not paying like state 
taxes um but i i like the way you put that you  

know um making sure they know what you've done 
making sure they know that you're trying to make  

this business legit and what you've put into it 
by quarterly filing and even if you put money  

into a company and you're not making any money out 
of it you can show a loss on your tax returns up  

to five thousand dollars for the first year so 
you can literally dump five thousand dollars of  

your money into this business to try and make it 
work and show a five thousand dollar loss at the  

end of the year and it will offset your income 
and that's okay but you have to keep track of it  

exactly exactly and it's only so it's only a five 
thousand limit in the first year does that change  

after the second third fourth it changes when 
you start to have more gross receipts so if you  

like um if you make more than 
forty thousand in a year in income  

but you're still showing a loss you can show 
more than five thousand but you need to have  

more money coming in in order to push 
above that five thousand dollar limit  

okay so if you only have made ten thousand dollars 
you can show up to a five thousand dollar loss if  

you only made 39 000 you can show up to a 5 000 
loss but then it starts to tear up after 40.  

okay gotcha gotcha that makes sense so then um 
you know one of the things i actually thought  

was really cool with ebay because um at first like 
when i was connecting my account through ebay you  

know you could only well for me i was only using 
paypal because that's all that i had available but  

to me but now they want you to move completely 
just to you know an actual bank account so it is  

really nice that if you do have an llc and you 
get you know an actual account for the business  

that you can completely separate it and i mean 
we talked about this before using hash card i  

finally got mine in a few weeks ago it takes a 
little bit of time to go through the process yeah  

but it's so nice because then you can just operate 
exclusively out of it and you don't have to  

worry too much about the accounting because you 
can go back in and just see all the activity  

now i have activity form from before then because 
i wasn't always llc but i mean you know as long as  

you have good records of things then you should 
be fine but um you know as far as what you use  

i think we talked about this before you do tend 
to use quickbooks though to to like manage all of  

those like uh oh you know all your transactions 
travel or anything that's necessary mm-hmm i  

really like the way you said that jess like you 
have this [ __ ] figured out you're killing it and  

i am really impressed and i think you are setting 
out a fantastic example like i love it so yes now  

that that's said i use quickbooks to manage all 
those transactions because there's so much that  

comes in and out of the account eventually um 
you're just like and so i have a bookkeeper  

marissa and she goes through every month and 
logs into all of my different quickbooks for  

all my different companies and make sure that all 
the transactions are put in the right places and  

then at the end of the year i take those reports 
and i give them to my tax guy my cpa and then he's  

the one who looks at those reports and helps me 
save as much money as possible when telling the  

irs how much money we owe them because that's 
really your job it's your job to tell the irs  

how much you owe right and so yeah the more you 
know about the tax code the less you have to pay  

did you have to do a lot of studying of the 
tax code initially when you first got started  

i had to study i spent a lot of time on the 
irs website i spent a lot of time reading i put  

myself through a five thousand dollar class from 
uh from the author of the book tax free wealth  

who is um rich dad poor dad's tax guy and so i 
learned from him and through him i started to  

learn like the surface level stuff i started to 
understand entities i started to understand why  

taxes exist in the first place you know just as 
a government incentive and i started to help me  

get a better big picture understanding and once 
i had that big picture understanding i was able  

to understand who i needed on my team as a tax 
professional to get me to where i wanted to go  

because i've had four different cpas for these 
businesses trying to find the right person and  

so it wasn't until i knew what i needed that i was 
able to find the right person so i had to educate  

myself a little bit first before i could find 
steven who was my current cpa who we're now like  

best friends we talk all the time that's awesome 
and you know i'm really glad that you say that too  

you know you had to kind of do some trial 
and error yourself because even for me  

if i'm going online trying to find someone to help 
me with content to um you know just delegate out  

things that i don't want to do and i'm not really 
good at for example design i'm terrible at design  

i can't do it i try my best but but in order and 
but in order to even communicate properly with  

what i wanted what i need them to send them 
in the right direction that i wanted them i  

had to learn a little bit about design and and 
get a few you know um you know test runs under  

my belt in order to even communicate for the 
most part um you know which is really crazy but  

it's one of those things that you have to think 
about as a business owner um you know as you're  

just kind of going through that now of course 
that doesn't that isn't really relevant to ebay  

so much you know because the only designs that 
are necessary are just the pictures really  

um but but yeah i i love that i love that 
um you're right and and as far as no so much  

they need to know like you know differences 
between vectors and pixels and do you want  

this in png or do you want a jpeg like do you 
need a transparent background why like what what  

aspect ratio is it going to be tall wide square 
like there's a lot so i feel you i get it but  

that's what elon musk does you know he's not a 
rocket scientist but he employs rocket scientists  

and the way he does it is by learning enough on 
the surface to be able to have a conversation  

with an expert and being able to articulate his 
vision you need to know enough to be able to  

articulate your vision and once you can 
effectively get across what you want done  

then your workers can be like oh yeah i can 
make that happen yeah that's so true i mean uh  

you know for for elon to be so i mean i that's 
probably part of the reason why he's been so  

successful is because he's been able to like you 
said learn enough to communicate effectively gosh  

i mean because i've had so many um experiences 
with you know my normal job and how i work seeing  

people not know what they want talking to 
especially to a technical person if you don't  

know how to speak their language you you are on 
two completely different fields and they're going  

to completely misinterpret the need and then it is 
just not going to you know work out right and you  

know all the back and forth it can be a lot it can 
definitely be a lot yeah yeah thank you thank you  

um and you know i'm kind of curious about about 
you too because you do you know run your um you  

know you do have a channel you do have like an 
instagram you have a huge following it's really  

great i freaking love your website by the way 
i didn't tell you this the last time but i love  

your website i don't know who designed it but they 
did a really good job appreciate it kim yeah let  

me shout her out kimberly erp she is my website 
designer she's an artist first and foremost and a  

web designer second she's really good at wordpress 
she's super affordable and i was re it took me a  

long time to find her to be a long time but i'm 
very happy with the work she puts out she's good  

yeah seriously i love the graphics and i like how 
it looks really seamless um and and i mean for the  

content that you do on instagram i mean like when 
you do your reels for your like podcast clips do  

you also contract that out i mean i guess i guess 
for a lot of the things do you contract out um i  

don't edit anything i only drive the ship i only 
drive the ship and i only do what only i can do  

and i learned that lesson the hard way because as 
things start to come onto your plate you know i  

can't do it all like sure i could design the the 
listing images sure i could edit the clips and do  

captions and split everything up but um it's not 
for long it's a lot tried i did it long enough to  

understand the process and now i put a system in 
place like um like literally like wrote down like  

a template of how i want things done and then i go 
um i hit up enrique and enrique manages overseas  

contractors people in colombia and india and kenya 
and africa and all these different places who get  

paid like five to eight bucks an hour and they're 
killing it in their country but for us it's  

really affordable they speak english they have 
skills and so you know i reach out to them and  

i do an initial like interview check out their 
resume and i train them up and then i delegate  

and so i have a whole slack channel built out with 
like 20 different contractors that i work with  

and one's a video editor one's a graphic 
designer one does my podcast one does social  

media management one just does posting and you 
know so i have all these different people and so  

what happens is i'll jump on like a zoom call like 
um uh to do a podcast or just to help somebody out  

on zoom and i'll record it and then that zoom um 
file goes into dropbox and then i don't touch it  

again my designer my editor will pull it and chop 
it up into youtube clips for me we'll chop it up  

into a youtube video it'll turn into a podcast 
it'll be turned into tick tock clips and it goes  

into a drive folder where my social media managers 
and people just pull from it and post as needed  

for me a blog writer goes in and pulls it rips 
the audio and then turns it into a blog post  

and it just all happens behind the scenes and 
i don't do any of it anymore and uh it's called  

splintering content i learned it from garyvee 
and it was one of the biggest time savers i ever  

implemented for myself that's amazing that's 
amazing so then so then when it comes to like  

creating content each week how many hours do 
you think you spend like you not not your team  

max you know i don't i don't like and that's like 
me sitting down with like my my journal and like  

you know drawing out the stuff that i like to draw 
out and like really do like the original content  

and so my original content i post maybe once 
or twice a week and everything else is just  

recycled filler from the splintered content that 
i have and just getting the message out there i  

i really love that otherwise i would just be 
overwhelmed you know it's a lot you know just  

instagram they want what three you know stories a 
day a post an igtv two reels like are you kidding  

me dude i'm not gonna do all that oh my god but 
i mean yeah i don't disagree with you it's just  

i mean i don't even want to call it pay to play 
it's like it's like pay with your time to play

that's your payment i mean that's your 
payment with facebook anyway they're free apps  

facebook instagram tick tock all of them 
they're free and you pay with your attention  

they monetized it so they will sell 
your attention to people like me who  

has a business that wants to 
advertise to people like you  

and that's how you pay and um a lot of people 
just don't a lot of people don't know that  

gosh yeah i know i know there's always you're 
right every app is not truly free because even  

even beyond that even beyond that you know when it 
comes to users that are you know downloading um uh  

apps on their devices uh google has a number 
has a number of what you are worth to them  

um so so i mean you know as far as as far as 
like advert i mean i guess it just comes back to  

advertising and what in your data because that 
that's that's a huge thing oh man i remember i  

went to a conference a few years ago where they 
were talking about that and how like the biggest  

resource right now is just sheer sheer data 
and and you know when people buy and sell the  

data and and how they're making money so free apps 
i mean free apps they come at a price because of  

your data too so it's it's it's really interesting 
to think about because you're like oh man you know  

i can get all these apps for free you know like 
what's the benefit to them well there is a benefit  

to them they're really 100 100 even when you're 
building a website you know you want to put a  

facebook pixel and a google tag on there so you 
can collect the the user's metadata because if  

you know who they are and where they're visiting 
from you can and they make a purchase you can  

target other people just like them and so the the 
data game is uh it's like this secret behind the  

scenes like war between big companies sharing 
and selling people's data it's bizarre it is  

it's funny it's like the man behind the curtain 
but everyone knows that he's there so but i mean  

it's it's definitely really interesting to think 
about because especially you know within the  

world of like pokemon and markets and and tracking 
this and tracking that you know even even from my  

perspective someone who's trying to put marketing 
like marketplace data together so that people can  

use that data to figure out okay what's the trend 
right now and then what's coming up in the future  

i mean i you know having that data all together in 
one place is like incredibly incredibly tremendous  

like data couldn't be more important and 
i think um you know it doesn't seem like  

it there is that much resemblance but we 
had a similar time actually back in the 70s  

we were going through a very similar time yeah 
because what's happening right now is like we  

have so i'm we're going into a rant right now 
but we have so much data right now we don't even  

we haven't even fully analyzed it we haven't 
even fully gleaned like all the insights that  

we could and something similar happened back in 
the 70s you know when computers started to become  

cheaper and more accessible um you know to 
everyone data back then you know people had  

data but weren't gleaning all the insights you 
know squeezing out as much as it could um from  

back in the day which ai could potentially change 
that for us so oh my gosh yes most definitely and  

it's just it's the sifting and sorting part 
collecting it's not that difficult i mean you just  

you know you just divert the stream you make 
a copy you put it on on a server somewhere but  

sorting through the data and aggregating it and 
turning it into something that we as humans can  

interpret it's very challenging and i you're right 
the only way is ai and i would be so surprised if  

like the nsa and other big agencies were not 
using ai to to scrape their data oh absolutely  

i mean there's there's no way that one 
person i i've seen huge data sets and  

they're small probably 
compared to what they've got  

there's no there's just no way it would be it 
would be too much too much work for one person  

or for humans to do it but then on top of that 
you know the fact that there is a degree of um  

you know humans are flawed we are flat 
things and robots will do exactly what  

you tell them so they're going to be 
more reliable but they obviously have  

you know a limit um because of where we're at but 
there's a limit to the complexity of the tasks  

they can execute and there's no critical thinking 
and so yeah you're right there's only certain  

things that humans can do but a lot of those 
things those menial tasks are replaced by robots  

you know a lot of people think too that that's 
like it's bad it's going to take away jobs and i  

i disagree i disagree 100 with that it's going to 
create new jobs different types of jobs it's going  

to push people away from the the menial repetitive 
blue collar tasks into more of the knowledge work  

type of tasks think about it back in the day 
when henry ford brought out the car there were  

horse-drawn buggies everywhere everywhere what 
have what about all the farriers they're going  

to lose their jobs because they're not going to 
have horses to re-shoe well those farriers went on  

to go work in the production plants and make more 
money and have a better more stable living like  

it shifts it's not it's not a zero-sum game 
you don't take one away and add something  

it's that it's so it'll be interesting to see 
what happens with that especially like trucking  

um stock trading finance lending oh my god 
fine finance in general is changing so much  

it's going to be nuts but back to your app with 
the data i'm really curious how are you collecting  

all of it like how do you manage all that are you 
using just like a bunch of different apis or what  

um yeah it's going to be a collection of apis 
i mean right now the only api that makes sense  

to use that's available to me right now is going 
to be the epa ebay marketplace api um but in the  

future i do plan on expanding that to multiple 
marketplaces because you know we've got mercari  

we've got facebook marketplace we've got 
whatnot i don't know if you use that i  

haven't used that but i've heard good things 
about it um whatnot is just essentially um  

an auction house type place but what the sellers 
can do is they can have like live streams  

uh during the auction to like talk about the items 
it's really interesting because because the app in  

itself like it's built in marketing which i really 
love yeah it's called just whatnot literally that  

one word um very interesting i i think um the 
people behind that are pretty clever in my eyes  

how they built that um they built it for virality 
yeah um but uh but yeah so that's that's what i'm  

that that's what it'll be uh for right now um ebay 
marketplace is going to be the biggest uh because  

i want to be able to you know how can i aggregate 
data in such a way where i can actually give  

you know market cap numbers as close to 
accurate as i can market cap numbers with you  

know the volume of sales the sales today the sales 
yesterday um the sales in the last seven days what  

were those items um how many of the same item was 
sold you know that's really interesting to me that  

not as many people talk about because you know if 
i'm looking through data like terapeak data from  

ebay or whatever and i'm seeing certain kinds 
of cards being sold within the same day within  

over the course of a few days for certain types of 
items i'm like that's really interesting you know  

and then that's just a nugget of something 
to investigate and something to look at so  

really interesting stuff yeah okay um have you 
heard uh i i just found out today so i haven't  

been able to look at it too much i don't think 
i have access to the beta but ebay right now has  

is coming up with a beta um tool that uh users can 
use it's a price guide uh for cards for for sports  

for pokemon for magic all those trading cards 
very interesting i don't have access to it i think  

you just go on the app and you just look at 
your my ebay and you see um and you'll see  

like collector price guide or something like that 
um and then you'll have access to it but that's  

really interesting because now ebay in a way has 
become a competitor of mine because it's pretty  

much the same thing right and and the great thing 
for them is that they already have the data so the  

making the product just makes so much sense you 
know mm-hmm yeah i see what you're saying um i  

can see how they would compete compete with you 
on like the price data and things like that you  

know market data but man to be able to look at 
my entire collection in one place and see like  

the current market value of all my cards would 
be something that has never been possible before  

and i think that would be so great i 
would be oh my god i would be so excited  

it's it's oh it's gonna be so great one of these 
days we'll have to get together um so that i can  

show you uh some of the uh the wireframes that 
i've got going on right now i just started putting  

data on it oh it looks so it looks so great it's 
still oh it's you know maybe maybe after this i'll  

show you the one or two pages that i have built 
well i can give you the inside scoop on that but  

it'll it'll be really great it's going to look 
really nice um i i can't wait to like officially  

put it out i technically like i don't know that 
i would say that i've technically launched it  

i'm kind of waiting until the end of of august 
like officially launched because i also had to do  

a br uh rebranding because i found out that when i 
first did the llc when i first looked at cardfolio  

it was the trademark was in progress but it didn't 
show like so so that previous uh trademark was  

shown dead and then i literally looked like two 
weeks ago two two and a half weeks ago and and it  

said that it was live now so what industry 
is that previous trademark in do you know  

um it is an app for credit cards i'm not fully 
aware yeah yeah well then you're then you're  

good because trademarks are industry specific so 
if like uh a trademark someone has like scorch  

markers a bad example we'll say vaniter if someone 
has a manager in the automotive industry i can  

still use vanitar for the business and education 
industry and it still works so trademarks are  

industry specific so yeah yeah absolutely 100 
and so you could have cardfolio for the financial  

institution and cardfolio for the trading card app 
too like i would highly recommend you look into it  

hey buddy my son just ran in with a big spoonful 
of peanut butter oh that's the best let's just say  

hi really quick and then mike let's say hi say 
hi buddy hi oh nice to meet you oh he's a cutie

i noticed the background was a little bit 
different i'm like ooh he's serving us ankles  

i don't know i know i know i had my camera set 
up and i only have three pictures hung up in my  

office that i got the other day oh dude i got 
this cool one of of vegeta though the other day  

but i don't know where i'm gonna put it it just 
tells you when i was a kid you know what i mean  

is that is that off display yeah yeah yeah 
yeah i like being able to hang stuff on the  

magnets i think it's a way to do it oh yeah 
um yeah i used to run home every day like in  

elementary school to catch dragon ball z at 5 30 
and it was a big part of me growing up pokemon  

and dragon ball seat those two things and so now 
as an adult being able to spend my money and um  

collect those things again it's special it's 
special oh yeah oh yeah it's funny because i  

was having a conversation with someone the other 
day talking about like you know when you're a  

kid you you're in the toy aisle and you're 
thinking oh you know when i'm grown up and i  

have all this money i'm gonna spend it on this 
this this and this so like a big thing for me  

as a kid was legos right and so of course you know 
i passed by the legos and it still has this like  

pull for me but the reason why i just don't go 
and spend money on legos is because okay great  

i get the lego i spend however much it is i 
open it up i build it and then what do i do  

with it like i don't have a place where i 
can show it or put it like that's too much  

it's too much so i don't buy it because i got i 
got to know where to put it i feel you i 100 feel  

you um there's so many things that i want to but 
it's like do i really need more stuff or do i want  

to stick to the stuff that's super super important 
right i know let me ask you this question  

i was thinking about well i didn't think about 
it i've already kind of started doing it but  

putting together a youtube channel where i just 
go dive deep and talk about individual pokemon  

cards the artist the origination of the artwork 
like maybe my favorite pokedex entry compare the  

size of the pokemon to the size of the human 
like in real life and just dive deep into a  

single card you know the pronunciation the typing 
and like just interesting unique things and um  

maybe just like a couple minutes five 
minutes going deep into individual cards  

from different sets that are fun would you 
watch something like that i probably would  

i i i i probably would because that 
that stuff is fun it's a dumb idea  

no it's not dumb and i think i think a lot of 
kids out there would watch it too um you know  

because sometimes you just want something in the 
background that's that's nice and if you have like  

a number of them you could just you know put it on 
an autoplay and it's like okay how tall would i be  

compared to gengar you know yeah like exactly 
like yeah and i mean i don't know i think i think  

those things are fun um and i mean what's really 
what's really cool too is there's a lot of really  

interesting artists that you know not many people 
talk about like like those masaki promo cards  

those are super interesting to me i freaking love 
the art on those i i definitely want to own them  

one day they're a little expensive but for me 
anyway but or what i'm willing to spend i guess  

rather but but yeah i mean i think that that 
would be really interesting get a deep dive on  

like you know arita that'd be really cool um 
i don't know how many people actually cover um  

the artist like i know a lot of people can know 
and cite their names but they don't really talk  

about the artists and like their career and 
what they did and what pokemon they designed  

and for how many sets and stuff like that i don't 
know artists or companies too you know and uh i  

don't know i just think it's interesting 
to kind of like dive a little bit deeper  

but i want to ask you so you talk about stuff 
in the background like obviously you put on like  

lo-fi on youtube and just like listen to it in the 
background how did you know how did you know that  

is what i said oh i had this idea i was like all 
right well i listened to lo-fi in the background  

anyway and it's usually just like chilled cow 
or some of these other websites where are some  

channels where they just you know it's just a 
simple animation yeah you know it looks nice it  

looks nice but i was like okay um i could do that 
too like i'm gonna grab some royalty-free music  

and and do that too but what would be my visual so 
i set up a table and i set up my camera and i did  

like a four-hour pokemon card sorting i just took 
all my collection that i needed to sort through  

every single card and organized it so it's like 
someone's sorting cards of like actual pokemon  

cards in the background and it's just music and 
it's just made to be put on in the background  

so i just finished editing it i'm gonna put it up 
there i'm gonna see how it does just for fun send  

me a link oh do it that that'll be so much fun i 
thought about doing something similar um because  

you know you've seen the like the anime girl 
that's like doing her homework i thought like  

you know what if you just get cards and you sleeve 
them and it's just like an endless animation of  

someone's slaving pokemon cards you know thank you 
yes yeah like how important would that be to look  

at like you're just sitting there and you're like 
oh snap i remember that gengar [ __ ] that was  

cool yeah yeah how many did you store it for for 
four hours like was it straight four hours for it  

no um i had the tripod set up and i took breaks 
and i did it over the course of a couple days  

but i just rolled out a big chunk of leather 
that we had on this plastic table and i put  

all my cards out and we're moving right into 
this new place so i'm like okay i need to  

get everything sleeved properly not in these 
competition sharp pointy ass like sleeves but  

nice penny sleeves and then put away and sorted 
through you know like all of my full art and you  

know my secret rares and my rares my halls and 
reverses and everything and so i just laid them  

all out and started going through it and um it 
was fun i it was it was chill it was a good time  

i mean that's awesome i love that you know 
what's funny what's funny to like collectors  

is is at that's tedious and monotonous and 
the same [ __ ] but but at the same time  

it's the weirdest like relaxed you know no 
pressure like let me just do this for fun  

yeah it's such a weird thing collectors like 
we are weird sometimes we like somewhere yep  

i started buying like misprints like i really 
like miss prince like i'm really into it  

because i really like um i did a lot of research 
on how cards are made and so i have a picture now  

in my mind i understand how the cards are made 
so i can look at a misprint and can tell you what  

what point in the process that misprint happened 
like ah color jet on the printing wheel like did  

it happen before and after like it's it's really 
interesting and so like i chase after these random  

ones like um dark arbok has a misprint in the 
date and like you know some japanese cards like  

have like hollows i just love that [ __ ] and so 
to be able to grab something like that study it  

learn about it and then talk about it 
on a youtube channel just brings me  

happiness and i'm straight up just doing 
it for fun and i have you done that yet  

is that video out yet not the one on the gengar 
or the arbok but no i haven't recorded okay well  

i'm i'm here for that too because i don't know 
much about the printing process but i i love miss  

prince too there's a lot of really interesting 
ones like the uh you know the blue dot  

um the blue dot of vulpix i've got a few of those 
in the shadow list um yeah i'm waiting for them  

to get back from cdc already it'll probably 
be 12 months from now but you know anyways

um because at the time they were the only ones 
that was taking um subs uh because that when i  

had put it in i had sent two subs one in april one 
in may and by then psa had already stopped taking  

bulk orders i mean they're not even taking bulk 
orders right now if i'm not mistaken they said  

that they would open up uh services in july but 
it's still very limited and it's very expensive  

so i was going to cgc why do you think they do 
that why do you think they don't grow is it to  

keep a control at a bottleneck on the market 
so it doesn't get inundated with graded cards  

or do you think it's just they just 
don't know how to run their business  

so um so i could see why you would think you know 
either one would be a possible answer and i think  

i think it's a little bit of in the middle but 
maybe more so leaning towards bottlenecking  

because what's happening is they're right now 
grading they're they're up to date they've  

graded everything through september of 2020 i 
believe so they're working on october 2020 that's  

how far behind they are and there are millions of 
cards behind one of the thing that i l one of the  

things that i liked about psa before is that they 
were the one grading company that was a publicly  

owned company so they had quarterly meetings and 
you knew how many cards they had on backorder so  

that's how i know you know it was like it was like 
a meeting in october yeah october of last year  

they mentioned they were such and such millions of 
cards behind um you know just just for bulk orders  

and and and so with that said um they thought 
that okay so if i price hike things a little bit  

we can open up services more but then keep people 
from submitting cards right because they thought  

that surely you know these price hikes this 
is going to be too much it's not going to make  

there's not the economics behind it people will 
not send so many but but that's not necessarily  

been the case so with their with their price hikes 
it hasn't it didn't slow them down enough so then  

that's why they pulled back all together 
on that just so that they can get caught up  

um so so with psa because they're now 
owned by a private company so they're not  

a publicly owned company um so the numbers are not 
transparent anymore uh from from that perspective  

versus you know compared to having the quarterly 
meetings uh nat turner i believe he is now the ceo  

um it just happened like maybe a month or so ago 
i don't know within the past few weeks or a month  

or so and uh he's he's taken the reins over the 
previous ceo and um they also sometime this year  

earlier this year acquired a ocr company i don't 
know how familiar you are with ocr technology not  

a whole lot okay well long story short it's just 
um it's just pretty much a computer extracting  

words from a page so if they were to scan a 
page you know documents or anything like that  

yeah so what they're doing is they're taking that 
technology incorporating that into their business  

um to at least help with the identification 
and the verification or authentication stage  

there aren't that many details um you know so 
this is just me speculating but but they did  

so they do now own an ocr company um so it's 
really good expertise to have i still think  

there are humans in involved in the grading 
process because i think there is a level of  

you can't delegate everything to computers 
um and so and so i think the market would  

be really hesitant too potentially if 
everything was now completely computerized  

um but but uh yeah they still are incorporating 
graders because they went through a huge um a huge  

fanfare of hiring a whole bunch of people onto the 
market so so i think long story short i think that  

they're doing a lot of things i i think they're 
doing a lot of things to hopefully get up to speed  

you know if you're behind millions of cards who 
knows is how much of it is pokemon even who knows  

i know it's going to be a ton of nba stuff 
like it's it's kind of disgusting seeing the  

yeah the demand on sports cards it's it's 
disgusting to see the volume of psa 10 cards  

for certain certain players and then and then 
the and then just it demanding such a high price  

you know i don't know if that is truly the demand 
or if it's manipulation because if you know these  

markets really well you know even even someone 
who's in the antiques if they know how these  

markets operate because this is you know pokemon 
magic sports cards you know modern sports cards at  

least very speculative so you know you could 
very easily go in and manipulate markets um  

it's insane to me yes yo you 100 can manipulate 
markets especially if you're buying a certain car  

like say you buy all the rookie jordan 
psa tens you know you buy all of them  

all of them every single one of them you 
buy hikes the price like dude like logan  

paul did it with uh first edition cards um he 
bought them all yeah like he was buying as many  

as he could it drove the price up you know and 
everybody else feels a little residuals of that  

and not to say it was market manipulation 
but it's smaller than we think i think mm-hmm  

i think it's a little smaller than we think 
but it's really interesting nonetheless  

talk about the stuff and so i'm really excited 
for for cardfolio so i can keep track of my  

freaking [ __ ] i know i know and and now i got 
to do some real mad research on trademarks now  

because i was going to trade it i was going to 
change it to card fox um because you know it's  

still the same yep i mean you know it doesn't hit 
the same like in my head i still say cardfolio  

um but i'm gonna have to do some massive research 
and honestly probably talk to a lawyer do you have  

any money to spend on trademarks um so i had one 
in progress and then i went ahead and cancelled it  

um just because you know i saw well hey like this 
is now a live trademark you know they they didn't  

communicate to me hey by the way you should 
look at this first consider this first before  

um you know you know canceling this because uh 
we had started the process but i don't think  

they put any paperwork together um but i think i 
might go ahead to and talk to a lawyer just to get  

their input because okay do you want me to dm you 
the name of a of a trademark attorney that i know  

oh yes yes please please do please do 
i appreciate that with her name after  

afterwards she's super cool and uh maybe at least 
can provide you some insight but yeah i know that  

some people get trademarks they trademark 
the whole business before they even start  

they get it all set up and squared away with the 
searches and everything and you know it can cost  

upwards of a couple thousand dollars sometimes 
yeah sometimes it's worth it if you're building  

something tangible and something that you really 
want to do the right way sometimes it's worth it  

i i agree with you i mean i think um so you know 
i've made a lot of mistakes or at least a lot of  

things i would have maybe done differently um 
as as i've been working through this project i  

mean probably the first thing would be scope 
like can you just do something a little bit  

easier girl you gotta have to be so ambitious 
why why are you like this you know but um but  

yeah i think i think one of those things is is 
really understanding that probably would be you  

know next time around it'll be easy next time 
around this would be so much more simple um but  

on the to the same token though the nice thing 
is that you know as i've been going through  

and validating you know demand and do people want 
this do they not want it do they care about it do  

like you know what about it what about it is 
so interesting or intriguing to people you know  

understanding that i don't mind putting it out 
there a little bit because it's still small enough  

where you know i don't think anyone is going to 
necessarily like take the name per se um you know  

i just have to make sure i have to secure the 
proper like domains and stuff like that i mean  

that that's always going to be something pretty 
necessary to do in the beginning but yeah but  

but you know on the other hand too you could 
spend thousands of dollars doing it all the  

right way and then realizing you're not in the 
right business like it's not the right thing  

so so trying to you know like take steps 
forward you know on on both sides of it  

is it's hard it's hard for sure but um at some 
point you're just gonna have to take a risk  

and so that's kind of where i'm at now so i i feel 
pretty confident about it and validating um demand  

um that i feel pretty confident and then at 
some point once i'm really ready really ready to  

actually have something to put out there i'm gonna 
have to do your uh splinter strategy which is  

i'm gonna have to have people um i mean so in in 
the app world it's called having a go to market  

strategy um so those are things that i am planning 
for and like okay i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do  

this and do this but i just do not have the time 
to the capacity to do all that myself to dev and  

to manage and to market there's no way but being 
involved in the process putting together the plan  

and the strategy and then finding the right 
people to execute that's something that i can  

do yeah correct and then you just need to find 
the right people and that's a matter of being on  

your network asking other people going on fiverr 
upwork you know wherever you can find someone to  

help you make that vision real like i love it yeah 
well said it has to be your vision and people have  

to know exactly what you want to accomplish or 
they can't get it done right but yeah you're  

right you can't do that until you have a product 
to sell like what are you going to go to market  

with right now you know right as soon as you 
have that thing oh yeah jess that's so exciting  

i know i'm so excited it's gonna be so great 
it's gonna be so much fun i i i love it it's  

gonna be a great project um and and you know i'll 
i'll definitely let you know uh for sure when i  

have something but you know we'll we'll have to 
stay we'll have to stay after this and i can do a  

quick screen share of a little bit of what i have 
so far so that'll be really fun um but you know  

what we haven't really talked about so so we've 
talked about a lot of things we've talked about  

a crap ton of things and and i think i think a lot 
of people probably got a ton of business value out  

of this just because it's so relevant it's like 
what they're doing like all of us are buying and  

selling cards at the end of the day probably 
not you know for me for example not really a  

main focus of mine but you know for some things 
you have to kind of know when to dip out and  

and and or when to stay the course right but we've 
talked about business we've talked about data what  

we haven't really talked about is your collection 
oh and your story because i already know your  

story but people don't know the your story 
of when you were a kid and when you had cards  

and then when you so if you want to kind 
of tell people a little bit more about how  

you are as a collector and and when you got back 
into collecting versus when you were a kid and  

you know i love that when i was i was just like 
the memories start to drip into my brain like like  

paint like it just comes in and i'm like oh my 
gosh it was so fun because in 2000 that's what it  

all happened that's when it all happened in 2000 
and i was 12 years old i was 12 years old 11 12 13  

like at the peak of pokemon i was a pre-teen and a 
teenager it was the perfect time for me because i  

was playing game boy games and i got blue version 
we had red version i had the cards i had a whole  

first edition set that i collected i was hardcore 
into it like i even collected the the japanese um  

you know the the new starter pokemon from silver 
the cinder quill and totodile and all that stuff  

i had all these japanese promo sets like oh 
like it was so sick so i ended up collecting  

i would go to the mall every day with my buddy 
cameron we get dropped off at the mall we'd go  

to wizards of the coast we would open fossil 
and jungle packs um it was yes it was like the  

peak of my childhood right waiting in line at the 
movies to get the pokemon promo cards the mewtwo's  

ancient mew like oh it was the best thing 
ever and so i actually had that little red  

pikachu binder and i collected all the whole 
base that first edition had them all in order  

sleeved like they looked good they looked really 
good and uh it was a beautiful collection and i  

made an appointment at the local collection place 
down the street where i was living at the time  

because i wanted to sell my collection i was ready 
to move on i was ready to buy yoyos and tech decks  

and skateboards and stuff and grow up a little bit 
and so i sold the entire thing for 300 bucks maybe  

it was like 360. i don't remember but i got some 
cash and i thought it was pretty cool i'm like  

hey look at that like look at me i'm 12 years 
old look what i did i wish i still had it but  

but i still played the games religiously i've 
played just about every single pokemon game  

i've completed pokedexes i've got shiny charms 
like i love the game but i'm the type of person  

who's a i'm a min maxer that's my style i like 
to ev train from level one the perfect genders  

the perfect traits like i like to do that i 
like to min max and get the best of the best  

and um now that i'm an adult and i have adult 
money finally and you know pokemon's starting  

to have a resurgence and it's back on my radar 
and i'm like oh my god like i would love to buy  

some memories and so now that's what i do i 
chase after those memories and i chase after  

those things that like i just really like i just 
really participated crobat is my favorite pokemon  

so out of all the pokemon out there crobat's my 
favorite and so i'm starting my my collection  

now as an adult just collecting all the crowbars 
i just want all the crowbars a master set crobat

the reason was is because when we were when i 
was playing like ruby and and um the first game  

was like rayquaza and stuff did i say that right 
i've heard people pronounce it differently you  

know what that's how i would have said it okay so 
anyways at the time crobat was the fastest pokemon  

in the game but he's no one could beat his base 
speed and so if you had a crowbar as your starter  

he could be a total griefer you could give him 
toxic confused ray double team and giga drain  

and so you would be unhittable they would be 
confused um wait they'd be heavily poisoned  

and then i would be draining their hp from 
them and i just caused problems for everyone  

that i battled and i had a blast with it 
and it was just one of my one of my things  

and so consequently that's how crobat 
became my my favorite pokemon is from  

usual fights and whatnot but that's awesome that's 
a that's a freaking powerful setup you got there i  

i i think i stopped playing after yellow so i 
don't know rayquaza but dude that's so serious  

do you remember playing blue and red version and 
then like there's the ssn trick and there's the  

truck and there's the stone like maybe you could 
get strength and you could move that boulder out  

of the way and maybe there's you hidden under 
there or or you know maybe there's some trick at  

cinnabar island or maybe there's really polka gods 
you know and the misingo stuff and like dude i was  

deep deep deep jess and so now i'm like i get 
little twang or a little they have pangs of like  

nostalgia from that and it feels good it feels 
good we'll share that with my kids and it's cool  

oh that's awesome so so they're playing 
like uh so they're playing the old games  

on the gameboy oh yeah oh yeah oh that's 
awesome yeah i've i played uh sun and  

moon with my daughter we collected everything 
together and you know it's awesome we still go  

to the store we still open up packs together we 
still look at the collection together and whatnot  

have you been playing uh pokemon unite nope 
on the switch yet nope i haven't done it yet  

i haven't actually killed and i haven't played 
pokemon unite and i haven't played pokemon snap  

oh okay okay gotcha yeah out of those three sword 
shield snap and unite which one should i do first  

um i like unite i haven't 
played any of the other ones  

uh well what's really cool about uh pokemon united 
it's just for free for download um and then it's  

uh i haven't played any league of legends but it's 
exactly like league of legends just for pokemon so  

it's got matches ranked matches you know you get 
your pokemon you do your setups your builds and  

very fun sometimes your ass kicks kicks sometimes 
you kick their ass like it's fun you know i wish i  

knew like whether or not i was just like beating 
up little kids like sometimes that's how i feel  

but then also sometimes i feel like it's just a 
bunch of people my age playing pokemon unite so  

but yes i love that i'm gonna have to check it 
out because man i've been playing the trading  

card game online but i haven't yet to play pokemon 
unit and i'm excited oh that's nice have you have  

you ever done like a competition like a card 
legit tournament or anything like that never  

a tournament or anything no no no but having an 
understanding of how the game is played really  

made collecting more enjoyable because trainer 
cards are now more enjoyable for me to look at  

um you know what i mean because i'm like oh how 
could this work into a strategy and i actually  

read it instead of just look at the art and 
it's added another layer to it that's been fun  

oh yeah absolutely um i mean trainer cards are 
definitely under appreciated i will say so it's  

kind of nice but you know and and honestly to me 
i kind of feel like i do need to at some point  

really pick back up on the trading card game 
because i maybe played like one or two times  

i don't really know how to play i can't remember 
it's been so long and like a few years ago i tried  

to learn magic's gathering so i have magic and 
pokemon in my head and i don't know which ones  

the which one's not the one do you know what 
i'm saying so uh hearthstone oh gosh i haven't  

even gotten into flesh and blood yet i need to i 
need to learn flesh and blood i have some boxes  

that i need to open up um and i'm considering 
buying some metazu i might get some metazu today  

dang really yeah i've heard about it but i have i 
know like nothing i just saw like a couple posts  

on instagram whatever yeah i i know nothing 
either i'm not too wild about the art not too  

wild about it because some some of it looks kind 
of funky to me and i was never like a dungeons  

and dragons person yeah yeah apparently there's 
a lot of nostalgia with with dungeon and dragons  

like those early monster books and i don't even 
really know much about what i'm talking about  

right now but apparently that's where a lot of 
the inspiration comes from but i mean a handful  

of times oh really yeah yeah yeah i i still don't 
even know that much but it's one of those things  

that okay so the market's talking about it people 
are buying it there's a little bit of hysteria  

uh right now because there's like not enough 
price history to like really justify some of  

these prices i'm like okay what's going on here 
you know but but with that said that doesn't  

mean that i don't want to taste it and get a feel 
for it and and make my my own opinion on it um so  

you know i don't know we'll see rudy from alpha 
investments i don't know if you know him he's  

a great youtuber i learned so much from him he's 
mostly magic the gathering but he does talk about  

pokemon and stuff like that because he used to 
be a financial professional and so now he applies  

that he has a business and he he speculates 
um full-time you know i like that in magic  

and in pokemon yeah i made a very good video about 
the financial implications of buying a master case  

of xy evolutions the other day i finally recall 
oh interesting oh nice okay and um i was like  

why did i spend five thousand dollars on 
this box pokemon cards that's unopened like  

let me explain and i went through the whole thing 
about i bought a pack of xy evolution i could show  

like there's 216 of these in here you know the 
reason i bought it is because it is the only way  

that you can pull a charizard it's the only 
way you can pull a charizard a base set artwork  

charizard at least is from xy evolutionists 
unless you're going to spend an arm and a leg  

right and so yeah like i'm just banking 
on the fact that xy evolutions is going  

to be the next base set in 20 years so so 
you're going to keep that sealed for now  

until i'm rich enough to open it and it won't 
affect me or until it is um you know just yeah  

and something is needed but yeah it's a long-term 
play i don't really know honestly but i mean some  

of these cars that i have now and my my prized 
possessions are over 20 years old and then like  

i don't know we'll see what happens hell yeah 
hell yeah i'm a buyer and holder that's what i do  

yeah yeah i i i definitely i i can 
understand that for sure no doubt  

which by the way see in the chilling rain we 
should open up the patch well as in you i i'd  

like to see what you got here i'd like to see 
how lucky we are big money big money big money  

okay i don't know which are the big cards for 
children i don't even either i don't even know  

either to be honest with you we're just gonna see 
what we get and maybe your viewers can tell us  

which one's good yeah we'll see where's the camera 
at here okay ready i'm gonna go one two three  

four flip it okay let's see oh yeah it is 
okay cool we got some energy i can't even  

read it because it's mirrored and backwards and 
out of focus but we're going to do it anyway

all right another trainer card all right 
awesome wow trainer cars are plenty on this one  

what was that scoreboard no doubt  

oh that's diglett no doubt that's cute yeah i like 
that cool artwork i really like that artwork i'm  

a big fan i dork out on some of the art i really 
like it a lot hey same i i love it there's some  

good stuff no doubt all right some of these i 
recognize oh there's oh you got the reverse and

hollow okay cool i don't know what that 
is but hey i like the art there's so many  

there's like 900 pokemon now jess what 
out of all the regions i can't keep up  

i can't keep up the only one 
i know is the canton region  

yeah it's actually a secret rare no not secret 
rare just ultra rare with the white star  

or shifu cool all right well well i would say we 
you won that's a good one i'm gonna check it out  

i like it plus dude just the the the crack of 
that pack right there and just holding them uh  

and that smells it's got a it's got a new card 
smell oh yeah it there's nothing like it there's  

nothing like it well well i appreciate your time 
today i'm so happy that i was able to get you on  

um oh my gosh i know that there's going to 
be so many nuggets in here for people so  

because i want to be respectful uh let everyone 
know where they can find you so they can reach  

out and say hey yeah if you're interested in 
anything i do or you want to like learn from  

me about business or you just want to learn from 
me on my youtube channel my social media just go  

to vanader.com um just like my name that's my 
website i have everything there and you can hit  

me up on instagram or tiktok you can always dm me 
or email me i'll help you in whatever way i can  

if i have the time to help you i will and that's 
my goal that's my goal awesome awesome that works  

i appreciate it well thank you so much for 
everyone being on today i so much appreciate  

it will i see that you are in the comments i don't 
know if you're still on but thank you always nice  

to see you dude and anyways guys thank you so 
much i appreciate it peace out appreciate you

2021 Geeked Out Collecting