Collector Nation - Chasing Cardboard: Stories, Reselling, and the Hunt for Hidden Cards

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Ty Wilson, host of Chasing Cardboard, joins Ryan Alford on Collector Nation for a conversation about finding forgotten sports-card collections and turning collection buying into a sustainable business. Ty explains how the show evolved from a rejected television pitch into a successful independent series that uses sports cards as the doorway into deeper human stories. Ryan and Ty discuss how buyers evaluate collections, identify missing cards, manage inventory risk, and determine a fair offer when the final value is still unknown. Ty explains why experience, reputation, workload, and sell-through rate matter more than simply adding up recent online comps. The episode also explores the strength of the current hobby market, the impact of wealthy buyers moving money into grail cards, and the difficulty of building a business around low-end, heavily printed products. Ty closes by sharing the players, vintage cards, 1990s inserts, and in-person autographs he believes collectors should be watching. At its core, Ryan and Ty’s conversation is about doing the work, treating people fairly, and recognizing that every collection carries a story beyond its market value. Topics covered The creation and growth of Chasing Cardboard Storytelling through sports-card collections Buying collections sight unseen Detecting incomplete or cherry-picked collections Junk wax and unexpected discoveries Evaluating a seller and the circumstances of a deal Fair offers versus full retail value Collection-buying margins Inventory velocity and sell-through rate Resellers, collectors, and hobby economics Institutional buyers and alternative assets Undervalued modern stars and vintage legends Ryan Alford and Ty Wilson on growing through content Chasing Cardboard https://chasingcardboardtv.com/ https://www.youtube.com/chasingcardboard https://www.instagram.com/chasingcardboardtv/ https://linktr.ee/chasingcardboard Ty Wilson https://www.instagram.com/chasingtywilson/ https://www.youtube.com/@ChasingTyWilson Ryan Alford https://www.ryanalford.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/ Are you a Hobby Content Creator? Join Collector Nation Today! https://thecollectornation.com/creators  Collector Station https://thecollectorstation.com/

There are some crazy cards in collections hiding across America. We have just scratched the surface. How does someone go about discovering that, you know, what you did? You cannot expect to find a vintage collection in the Facebook marketplace. We'll spend 50 bucks and put a newspaper ad in that you're buying collections and watch who calls you. It's not the 17-year-old. It's going to be the older guy that's sitting on a bunch of cards in his basement. Look, we're always chasing something.

Tye is chasing cardboard. What are you chasing? That's the big question. Welcome to the. the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, you take you inside a hobby. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. In the hobby, we're all chasing something.

Chasing a grail, chasing a card, chasing a set, chasing cardboard. That's Ty Wilson. That's what they're doing on YouTube. It's been a smash success. We talk about the ends, the outs, the collections, the garages, all those things that you uncover when you are in the hobby. You never know where things will go. You never know how you'll touch someone. Ty's been doing it the right way.

That's why he's been successful. You're going to learn from his successes, his failures, and along the way, you just might chase something else. Right now on Collect your Nation. Ty, what's up, brother? Welcome to the show. What's up, Brian? How are you doing? Thanks for having me today. I'm good. I'm not in Kansas City. I'm in South Carolina.

I guess you're in Casey. Correct. Are you a Mahomes fan? You have to be, right? The guys like, he's got the keys to the city. Him and Bobby Wood Jr. can do whatever they want, Casey. You have to be fans of those two guys. I like Bobby Wood Jr. I think I like Mahomes. He seems like almost too good to be true sometimes. He's pretty polished. I mean, but I think he's. He's the real deal. Everything you hear about him is pretty cool. Dude, you know, when I think about, like, what I've been doing with the kids and starting

this journey for me as one of several businesses and things I'm in, I do look at the story you've done and think a lot of guys, you know, and like similar, oh, man, that's awesome. Is it as awesome as it seems? The whole transition to cardboard, you know, it's so perfect, right? Yeah, man, it is amazing. The amazing parts are that we get to go tell incredible stories of incredible people, most of time incredible people. We get to tell incredible stories on the road across America,

best country in the world. I get to do with my family. I get to write my own schedule. I get to hang out with cool people like you. Like, they didn't say no to people. I don't want to be around. But the unglorious part is the work behind the scenes that people don't get to see. And they think it's just like flip a switch and go all in.

And there's a lot of that. But the stuff behind the scenes, man, is real work. So who came out with chasing cardboard? So Matt Coleman's the producer of the show. He's out of Dallas, Texas. He had the idea of like, how do we blend American pickers with sports cards? He's been a producer for 20 plus years and goes, let me use my skills. You're a good podcast host.

This is what I was doing, you know, seven, eight years ago. Can you be the host? And so we took that idea and filmed a couple pilot episodes with the idea of pitching it to networks. And we did. We pitched to networks. And four and a half years ago, they said, these are really cool. What sports cars, man, like, that's not big enough. So, good luck. Go do your own thing. And so we took that personal, man. We're like, let's go, let's go throw it on YouTube. See what happens. And it like, it exploded. We had, it exploded like, we had 20 or 30,000 views. We're like, oh, shoot, like this could be really good. And so 120 episodes later, five years

later, four and a half years later, here we are. Yeah, man, I'd like to meet those producers and laugh at them. You know, now, I've kind of been watching this percolate for several years. You know, my friend Gary V's been telling me for 10, you know, like, this shit's coming. And I knew,

I collected growing up, I mean, I was 1986. Darrell Strawberry, Roger Clemens, you know, still got the cards, still got the place. That was 86 to 93. So good couple first years and then really bad. Next one. Yeah, I'm the junk, junkwacked dad.

That should be my username. Junkwax Dad. That was unfortunately that time period. But boy, I loved it. But nonetheless, I didn't get back into my kids, dude, but I saw this sort of like percoling last year. So those producers, if anybody's looking at the economics now, I'd love to know if they would still say no.

I don't think they would. I don't. And we get this, we get asked this all the time. Why don't you go back to Netflix or go back? Because it was, it was a history channel. It was A&E and go back and pitch them.

And it's like, why? Like YouTube is the most watch network in the world. We control the narrative, which is great. Exactly. Josh Pate is a friend and he does a college football thing. And he's gone independent.

I mean, he still does, and goes on the show. and leverages their, you know, their universes, you know, that he borrows their land sometimes, but he's got his own land,

you know, on YouTube as well with his show. And he's done the same thing. He goes to all his sponsor deals. I mean, it's a new, it's a brave new world in media. The last, it's been,

it's been really coming for 10 to 15 years, but like the last five, I feel like it's just, if you've got the right idea and persistence, and willingness to stick with it, you know, it, there's never been a better time to make it yourself. Totally agree.

You know it, though. It's the persistence. It's the stick-to-itiveness, as they say, right? If you don't have that, man, don't even jump into it because it's a two or three-year grind to get off the ground in a competitive space. You had to do that with the podcasting, dude. I mean, I'd tell people all the time. I mean, I've been doing it for almost 10 years in now.

And it's like, first two years, I tell the story every time, you know, my mom and I made up the 200 listeners of the show. Me over analyzing it and her going, honey, I really enjoyed it. And I see in the IP address, you know, that I'll link back to my mom's house in Columbia. One, at least mom's listening. I guess I'll keep doing this. Mom and over burner accounts. Yeah, exactly.

But no, but then you go, okay, you either do one of two things. But you guys had a great idea out of the gate, you had producer, and you, you know, you guys are great on camera. But like, mine was like,

wait a second, it sounds like I'm in the library and I'm, I'm dead. And I'm like, I don't do all the time. Don't forget these four letters. It's a show. S-H-O-W.

Go look up what that means. It means you got to carry the energy, baby. You got to make it interesting. So true, man. Like, you're natural out of it,

though. Your voice is great. I can see why I finally took off. But I had to open it up. I was just like, you know, and this is how I am in person. Like even 10 years ago, this is how I am in person. This is me. But I was like, wait, I just said you'd be myself.

And not like, you know, the guy that's talking about SEO, you know, search engine optimization. It's really interesting. Oh, well, no, it's not. Yeah. You got to make it interesting. Then you guys are interviewing immediately. You guys are storytellers, man. That's what I love.

It's like, I'm a creative at heart. And so, and I'm a storyteller myself. They're not all as good as chasing cardboard stories, but they are, you guys are good at it. I'll just give you that. Thank you. I love it. I mean, where did that creative energy come from? Well, the creativity, I think, it spawns out of Matt's, uh, skill set as a producer.

He's a very good producer. Uh, out of me, I was in corporate sales for 15 years. like you can appreciate this. You were in the corporate world in marketing. Like, I mean, I sold enterprise software for 15 years. And to survive in that world, you have to ask really good questions to get really good deals done. And so I learned how to ask questions. And so, I mean, that's the secret sauce to any good story is just asking the third, the fourth, the fifth level questions.

And it comes out. It just naturally comes out. And so we were able to kind of combine those two. And the stories have just taken on a world of their own. What's the feeling of walking into these random strangers, houses, garages, you know, tombs? Yeah. Yeah. That's the way it seems I'm sure.

Like, wait, did we just go back into a, where's doc? I'm in the dime machine. Cue the Doc clip. Where's the Dolorian? I got to get out of here. I mean, it is. Sometimes it's like you guys got to feel that way. Oh, we do.

I mean, you can walk in and open the garage at the basement door and just smell. You feel like the smell takes you back 30 years immediately. But man, it's so fun. It's so like, it's hard for me because I'm such a collector at heart. Like, I just want to dig right into the cards and just go search for stuff. But you got to, you got to grease the skids with the sellers. And so it's like, let's ask questions. Let's help them.

Let's guide them along. And then let's dive into the cards. but there are some crazy cards in collections hiding across America. We have just scratched the surface. People are always like, come, can I find these collections? I'm like, they're everywhere. They are everywhere, I promise. So fun.

That would be me. So this happened to me, Brian Ludden, who does a show with us on Fridays and owns Liddix. He's got a storage unit. I went up to Chicago three weeks ago. And this is what I would do if I were, like, I would be a hard time. like, you know, you're pretty sure yelling at me. Like, I just shook Ralph's hand, the collector, and I'm over digging through the box. Hey, don't interrupt me.

I'm going to do this. I thought I did if Ryan Storgy did it. I was like, yeah, wait, we've been here an hour and a half? I thought it was seven minutes. Just digging through cards. That's a real struggle. That's a real struggle. I wouldn't be able to, I mean, it would be like, we'll get some money and we'll figure that out.

Like, just tell me, I want to look at these for a minute. That would be me. I mean, that's got how it's Phil. Do you, how often does it happen where you go into that stuff and someone doesn't even know what they have? I would say, well, we get enough leads now to where we're, we're being very selective. So like we lean into those types of collections where it's a guy where he goes,

ah, you know, I collected for the last 40, 50 years and stuff things in boxes. And I hear that and I go, okay. Be there tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, we film. So like, surprisingly,

it happens more than more than you would think, but it's because we cherry pick those collections. And that's the best part about it, right? It's like, that's what gets your energy flowing. The great unknown about a collection,

not just when you're with the seller, but like when you take it home. Man, talk about getting the endorphins going like, that'll do it. That's a phone. Unknown's an interesting word. It's,

it's right. It is. I mean, it's like the intersection of curiosity and, specter and like excitement. I don't know. And hoping that it's not

1989 tops. Yeah. We can get into that. For sure. You still pick it up on things. Yeah, that's not the only thing that walks in my store. I got these old cards of mine. I'm like, don't be $89.

Don't be $89. Don't be. Oh, it's 1990. Don Russ. That's even worse. It's even worse. How many times out of 10 is it worse than you thought it would be?

Like, not as good, especially like the unknown stuff. Have you already cherry picked? I mean, have you, like, gone down the road so you're not walking? I know you're not filming, but like, like when you're walking into something, then you think it's good and it's not so good.

Well, a perfect example. I mean, five minutes before. we started recording today. We just released a new episode today. And we're filming with a guy named Stan in Ohio. And he said, I got binders and binders of stuff from the last 50 years. And so we, an incredible guy, like an amazing guy. But was a true collector.

And unfortunately, we had to break the news to him like, man, 99% of your stuff is junk wax. We extracted maybe 200 cards out of the 50,000 cards in two hours. that were worth more than $20. And so it was a rough conversation, but like that could happen every single time we recorded if we wanted it to because that's what we get. But just like your shop, most of our leads are that.

So every once in a while we have to give the audience, like remind them like, hey, guys, there is a lot of stuff out there that is not valuable. Yeah. I get text because my number is like, I don't know where it got, I think I post on Craigslist or something.

Is that even still exist? I don't know. But I get deals like text to me. And I feel like it's friends of mine that have like a burner number and they're, they're just punking me. Because every time it is like, it's Bill Bozo, you know, like 1991, Bowman or something. Like, I don't even know if they made it in 91 in Bowman, but I, you know,

the big card that's like not King Murphy Jr. Not even not even remotely Ken Griffey Jr., like some guy you never heard of. And like, yeah, it's every, like, every other day. Like, it's like punking me. Brutal. I don't get it.

That's brutal. It's never Mickey Mantle. It's never Ricky Henderson rookies. It's never, uh, you know, nothing. I'm like,

people, I think I'm getting punked. It's like, there's so much data out there. I always just assume everybody's already scan their cards or done whatever, and they know exactly what they have. Yeah. You're like people trying to get over on you?

Oh, yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we, we have learned so many of the signs, of somebody that is trying to pull a fast one on us. Like you start picking up on missing players and sets and runs.

You kind of go through stuff and you're like, mm, okay. And then you see them like avoid questions about cards or things that they're keeping. Like that's huge, right? If you start seeing them avoid questions or skate around it, I immediately it's a red flag. No big hits, big cards taken out, kind of like a fake ignorance about their collection.

We don't broadcast it in the episode, but we'll step outside and I'll be like, Matt, he's hiding something. I can already tell. Like, he's pulled the big stuff out. We're walking into a trap here. Let's be careful. So, like, again, you can't, you don't want to throw that guy into the bus, but like we're picking things up all the time or we know.

And we'll ask questions off camera. And we're like, bingo. This 86th, Flare basketball set's awesome. There's just one player missing, unfortunately, both the sticker and the red car. You know the one with him, Dunking? His name's Michael Jordan. Ah.

And you're in the middle of like Chicago. Like, you know, like he's got Jordan posters all over the wall. It's like, I have no idea what happened to that one. I don't even know who you're talking about. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. We're going to go ahead and leave now. Yeah, I guess. So that's usually worth $150 maybe. I don't know. Yeah.

Probably one of the biggest drop-offs, you know, from one card to all the others. Even though there's some good cards in there. I have a pair of it. That's the one good thing I had for my collection was like 86 and 87 Fleer basketball. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

So that wasn't terrible, but everything else was. Talk with Ty Wilson. He is chasing cardboard all the time. What's, tell me a good story that's not out there, Ty. Is there anything unpublished that you want to announce here on Collector Nation? Like, you know. All you do is storytell. you know, or maybe one that's coming up.

It's out, you know, tease it a little bit. I'll give you two that are coming up. One is probably two or three months away. So this is a good one. So we, speaking of the junk wax, right, we bought this.

I teased it on Instagram because we walked into a warehouse in, um, in Indiana, 30,000 square feet. This guy had been buying collections and buying sealed wax for like 30, 40 years and just stuffing it in a warehouse because he didn't, he just, the endorphins,

I just wanted to open it and then he would stuff it away. Yep. But it was literally, Ryan, like 98% junk wax. And so it was such a concerning buy to me because I'm like, we have to get a 26-foot U-hole, take this back to KC, and somehow justify a fair price. Well, fast forward three weeks after we get it back and I'm going through it with the boys. And I find in the middle of junk wax,

rose. We find probably 15, 20 Kobe rookies, three to four Tom Brady rookies, we find a star rubies, a metal PMG, essential credentials, all these random like crazy cards in the middle

of junk wax. So it wasn't even on the episode. But like I'm coming back and I have my Rayvan Medaz in and I'm like doing these little shorts for like future use. Oh, I love those. And I pull these cards and I'm just like in shot, truly in shock because I was like, I was basically going to throw him away.

So that's the nuances of collectors, man. And then one other, man, we have a really cool Jordan episode coming up. And it's one of the few times where I paid a guy, paid a guy more than he wanted. The guy wanted 20K. I paid him $28,000. Just because it was worth more.

I got home, excuse me, went through the Jordan collection, the Pippin collection, and I realized it was worth even more than I thought. And so I called him up two weeks later and I said, hey, John, I sent him something. And I said, don't open this until you call me. And he calls me up and I said, open it up, opens it up. And it's an extra check for five grand.

And he goes, what's this for? And I was like, man, I just uncovered more value. I just wanted you to be taken care of. And it's a cool story because he's a disabled guy and he's trying to do something for his wife. And it was just really fun for us to do that. It probably won't be on camera. but it's just a neat story behind the scene to take care of people. Hey man, that's what keeps, you know, I sense that about you.

And I think your audience does. And I think there's not, a lot of people hear that. And I want to make a note of this. Like, people hear that and go, oh, yeah, man, I do the same thing, man. Yeah, man, that's awesome. You know what, Ty? Not many people would actually do that. And they're fooling themselves.

And it takes a lot of credibility, a lot of, I don't know, just, good heart and, you know, good people. Like, like, that's, that's legit. Like, it's not that. Like, people like to think they would do that. But writing that check ain't easy. And that's money. You've already spent it.

You've already, hey, you exchange value for value. And then after the fact, you go, I'm going to write $5,000 more dollars because I've got more value. So it's a lot, man. That's cool. Yeah. It's one of those things, man. I want to be able to sleep at night knowing that we treated people right. You're probably the same way.

Like, it just, it all comes. back around like your witness your your testimony all that's incredibly important you got to represent yeah man it does and i i do feel that way i'm i'm the most imperfect person on earth but i'm never trying to get over on you i'm just trying to live my best life you know and to do the right things but not in expense of someone else you know i remember you know i don't mind getting blamed for being too ambitious or working too hard or you know that but not Well, you know, that I take a short cut by not taking care of something that I should have or whatever. And it's not a fine line between perfection and morality, you know, of it all.

But, dude, I mean, that's, it's big. Talk to me. Favorite moment doing this, you know, with cardboard, with chasing cardboard. Like what? I know you probably got out, it's like your favorite baby or whatever, but what's like is there a single moment that when someone asks you that question, you're just like, oh, that's it? Probably recency bias, for sure.

But we had an episode about four months ago with Mary Kate and her husband who was dying of cancer. That was a moment where we realized how important our platform was. I think we realized how important it was to take to take care of people and use the platform to glorify the Lord. So we, we, his, her husband was dying. She reached out and said, hey, he's a huge fan of you guys. Is there any way you can come out to see us and film this collection and tell the story? I think he has two weeks left to live.

So, and it was like, pulling cancer just found out four months ago. it just erupted in its body. And so we'd stop everything because the story was so real. And we flew out there, filmed the episode and just the emotion, you throw away cardboard. Like the cards were cool, but you throw away cardboard for a minute and just realize how important these people are, these stories are.

That to me stands out by and far as the most important moment for us. And then to top it all off, we took their cards. We didn't pay for them. So we're going to sell them for you and every dollar goes back to you. And then we put their GoFundMe page in the links. Man, the hobby came around them and they paid $22,000 for their cards. Most of the collectors sent the cards back to the family after paying for them.

And then they gave an extra $30,000 to the family. Like 50,000, $60,000 to help the family out and just notes were written. It made it made us realize, man, this platform is here for a reason and it's not sports cards. So that's awesome, dude. And I mean, look, that's what happens when you build an audience and build a platform that that moves people, you know, and it's interesting. I mean, it's a lot of time. Like, once you build and have that community, you can point it in different ways for good or bad, you know.

And that's an example where, yeah, it was about the card. And people were interested that. And that might be the kind of the interest grab. But then after that, what's the next layer, you know? And that's what you're, I think, discovering or have already well down the path of knowing. And that's big. We get comments all the time, Ryan, about, can you show more cards? Like, the collector's coming.

Like, hey, can you stop telling stories? Like, we don't care about this. Like, we just want to see more cards. And our response is always like, I think you might be on the wrong channel. Like, cards are just the mechanism for us to tell a story. Yeah. It's hard to balance that. It is.

But you guys do a good job. It's the, I don't know. That's where it's clear. Give your producer credit. And you credit for bringing it to life. And then him for maybe sort of formulating the stories. But what I think what it's interesting because it's always clear to me the first time I watched an episode and saw the show. I was like, someone with industry experiences behind this.

Like, you know, like that was clear. But that doesn't make a show work. Otherwise, every professional producer that's experienced would have a hit show or a bit accessible. That is not how it works. It's got to be. Then it's the stories that come to life, the people that are bringing them to life and how it's all woven together. And, you know, it's got to, is it, you ever stop and just go, did you think you'd be, whether you're hobby famous or famous. But like, is that, you just stop for a moment and think about, okay, I'm a YouTube star.

Well, I wouldn't say that. I don't remember we're YouTube stars. But, you know, you're a hobby. Yeah. I think sometimes maybe we get ahead of ourselves and think we're bigger than we are, and that's a good chance for that. That's the beautiful thing about having a close friend on the same team as you is, like, you hold each other accountable.

But yeah, man, like, we've been super blessed. Like, this thing is taken off. And, like, there's been moments where you go, wait, I quit a very good job. And I'm supporting eight kids by filming. collections of sports cards on the road. Like, what? Like, how cool is this? This is really amazing.

So, yeah, there is no doubt that I feel lucky and blessed to be doing this. Let's talk about the business. I mean, I'm a business guy. I usually get right to the business, but I actually wanted to get into that stuff first. I hope that's all right. Yeah. What's going on in the hobby right now? Like, what's your take on the landscape of the hobby as a whole?

I think a lot of people think it's a bubble because of how fast prices have risen, especially like goats and low pop stuff. I don't think it's a bubble, man. I think it's actually pretty strong. I think you're seeing a lot of fresh, healthy money entering the hobby, which I think is good for the overall kind of perception of sports cards. But I'll say middle tier down the low tier. here, it's much more of a grind than it was even four or five years ago. Like, if you want to

survive running a business and sports cards and you're going to focus on low end, like you are fighting a current that is going to be very difficult. That was different. That was very easy to do by six years ago. So defined low end. Well, I mean, like, if you're, there's a lot of guys that was thrive in the $10 and blow stuff, $20 below stuff. Like that, it's so overprinted. like this idea of scarcity man like it's so overused in the hobby there's nothing scarce in this hobby like it's overprinted everywhere if you don't have this parallel there's another parallel right over there you can go get like if you want orange i got purple i got yellow yeah whatever you want so it becomes really difficult um i was just having this conversation with johnny johnny works

from me here and he's like man this these are low pop cards i'm like they're low pop but there's 20 other parallels that are low pop as well and you when you combine them all, it's not low pop. So it's kind of, it's, it's hard to wrap your mind around. Yeah. Very competitive now. Content, exposure, all that's feeling that is. Yeah, I think it's helpful.

Yeah, I think it is too. I mean, I wouldn't be in it. So, I mean, I'll always give solace to people that, like, I don't chase unicorns. And, and, I mean, I did have legacy here. I've got the, uh, the old junk wax boxes to prove it, unfortunately. Those come out on an episode eventually. You know, when I light them on fire. Yeah, right?

If this doesn't work, I've got plenty of kindling, give me warm and family. Yeah. But no, I, you got so much institutional money coming in. You finally going, wait a second. You know what? That Willie Mays and that Mickey Mantle, that's gone up more than my stock to last 40 years.

Yeah. They're like, yeah, you're just now catching on, buddy? That's real. That's very real. I mean, I know three or four guys that are taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars to go diversify wealthy assets. These wealthy guys are coming in. Wealthy ladies are coming in and say, hey, I, here's 400K, go diversify, buy me grail sports cards. And they're not going back on to eBay or resell.

They're going into vaults. And so those last comps, man, are driving. prices super. I mean, you look at Michael Jordan stuff right now, Tom Brady stuff. It is stupid how prices have gone up. And it's because institutional money and wealthy folks are coming in diversifying. This is an alternative asset. It's not even a question anymore. No, totally. And I still think, I'm not going to be the one to do it, but I still feel like it was just ahead of his time and not targeted to the right people. The fractional ownership thing. You know, they had like crashed and burn every time I bring that. Oh, that already, okay, already tried that. No, they tried to do that

towards the wrong people. They should have done it towards stock people and not card people. Yeah. The true collector doesn't want, you know, a fractional piece of something. But the guy that's just trying to make money, he doesn't really care about what it is, the device. He's not holding onto his Google stock in his bedroom, you know? Right. Let me coddle this thing. Like, no. Jordan cards, you know, the collector is like, oh, they get to stare at it in their, you know, their set collection in their bedroom or wherever they keep that thing and pray to it.

or whatever they do. Hopefully not that. But, you know. I mean, it, yeah, but it is an interesting time. And I, and Jeff Wilson was talking about this yesterday.

And I agree with it like this. The true collector versus the flip, like it seems like we're kind of either, you've got a hardcore, very small, like 1% that's the collector, you know, the guy that still got his notebook at the national that I'll see

and just like fall down. I can't believe you're still doing that. uh, respect them, but still just can't believe it. And then everything else in the middle, like 70% is this sort of a collector, but a flip or two. Yeah. And so like that's the state of the hobby now. I think everybody's kind of like, no, I can at least fuel or pay for my addiction.

Yeah. Or my hobby, whatever we're going to call it. I mean, it's, it's a lot of that now. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. It's like, I start to think about it. It's like, you know, it's better than sitting at the casino or, you know, sitting at the bar or doing whatever, you know, like there's a lot worse things to be doing. Man, you're so right. And I get so tired of people complaining about the reselling and the flipping and the sobbing.

And I'm like, you realize like if that disappeared how boring and unhealthy this marketplace would be. Like, yeah, there's some people, there's some players in this space that are just, idiots and like you're going to learn the hard way like their reputation is going to boot them out of the hobby anyway. Short game players. Yeah. With the flipping and the making money to fuel this and do like it's it's so important to fuel the collecting as well.

Like they can coexist and they should coexist and I get time. I'm just done with people complaining about one or the other. What's your thoughts about sealed and scalping and all? I mean, you know, it's like. I tell people the same, this is what I say to people. If those people weren't scalping, your cards aren't worth as much as they are. Because if everybody could get whatever they want, whenever they want, then your card values go down.

And then suddenly, you know, everybody wants to get and chase the million dollar logo man out of a $5 pack. And I'm like, well, that's not the way it works, you know? Right. What says you about that audience? Yeah. I mean, if there's one thing that we could solve. for, and I don't need, I don't know the solution to it. It's how do we make it more accessible for kids?

Yeah. That is a really, that's a tough one to solve because you, I mean, shoot, you go to a card show now. You've experienced this probably in your shop too. Kids are bringing in $50,000 in cards in their Pelican cases. And I'm like, you're like 14. How do you, my sons have been grinding the hard way, building a great collection. Like, you don't need, you don't need, uh, collector's choice box. You don't want a

collector's choice box that we had growing up. You want to open flawless too. So it's like there's a balance. I know I agree with you. How do you make it more accessible? But they don't want the $3 value pack. No. So yeah, we can,

tops can come out with a lower price tier and make it accessible and it will sit like all the other stuff like that at Walmart as the one thing on the aisle when you go in. You know what I'm talking about. Then 19, you know, like, I don't know, 19, 20, 23 score box.

It's, you know, whatever. No one, it's the same one that was there three years ago. And so it's like, I don't know the balance that because it's like you're not going to get $3 $3 packs to have $3 million cards of them. It's not. Yeah. So if you want the big chases, you've got to spend the money. And if you spend the money, it's really expensive.

It's a lot of investment. I don't know, even as a business guy and understanding the economics, I don't know the exact solve to it. But I do think, you know, believe in capitalism and supply and demand. If you can go get it everywhere and it didn't have some scarcity, rarity demand, then it's not going to have the value that it does. And then people are going to be as interested.

Yeah. Some people just want to complain about something. And that's the easiest target to complain about. But, you know, we kind of talked about it offline. There's that beauty and collection buying. That's a solution. for those that are really scratch the itch? Go buy a collection.

Dig through that. You can get that for pennies on the dollar and have fun with that as opposed to wasting money on sealed wax anyway. It's going to be a waste. I'm telling you now it's going to be a waste. Go buy a collection. That's what I would do. Talk to me about that process.

Let's do the ties. I'm making up numbers tie. I like this is, you know, the marketing. Ties five steps to finding a collection worth having. Three, five, two. You know, whatever it is. Yeah. How does someone go about discovering that, you know, what you do?

I know you don't want to give it every way trade secret here, but, you know, it's kind of what the question is. Yeah, I mean, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid to. I mean, go to the Chasing Ty Wilson YouTube channel. I'd share all of the stuff that I've learned. I'm not afraid it because I know most people won't do it anyway. They won't do it. That's the thing.

Actions, everything. Yep. I mean, the first thing, and I tell people this all the time. you if you want to buy, you got to know where your demographic is. Like you got to go to where your demographic is. You cannot expect to find a vintage collection in the Facebook marketplace.

Like the 70 year old man is not posting it in Facebook marketplace. So think about where he is. He's probably reading a newspaper. He's probably going to the library. Like I hate that like stereotype, but it's the truth. And this is where we found some of our best leads.

Go spend 50 bucks and put a newspaper ad in that you're buying collections and watch who calls you. It's not the 17-year-old guy that just got a new Drake-May card. It's going to be the older guy that's sitting on a bunch of cards in his basement. So go where your demographic is and where you want to buy and go find those people and you'd be surprised. I mean, I think the second thing is you've got to be willing to take risk. Most people do come across collections, but they don't have, they don't have an in them to take a swing. And like, that's what it takes.

You got to take a swing. You got to go all in. You got to sell every card, take your money, and you got to go take another swing. And eventually, you'll start finding some really good collections. And I think the biggest thing is like, do your reputation's so important? If you go build a local reputation, collections will find you. You might take a while, but like give it a year. If you take care of people, the world will spread and you will get a call on a life changing collection.

And it came to you because your reputation. Those are three really simple things you could do. And I think would be super easy. Maybe go to church. Good one of those old Baptist churches where, you know, the old people go. I mean, hey, then you solve two problems at one. You know, you hear the good word and you, uh, and you might get a collection. Okay. Okay.

I'm telling you, man, those people that go to these old Baptist churches are old people. Like, yeah, it's around here. It's like, they're still in the S&S cafeteria at 12 dude. Like, I know where these people are. Every, I know I could set my clock to them. And church on Wednesday night, church on Sunday morning and S&S cafeteria at noon on Sunday. Average age, 76. There you go to church and your church that says, I buy collections.

May or may not subscribe to reverse mortgage. I mean, there's a view. Okay. We can identify these people. That's what we do in marketing. There you go. You know, and you can help with that. Look, they're just trying to, hey, we're a little bit longer.

You got to extend that savings plan and much of cardboard in the basement. It's not helping them. Not at all. So and like that's the thing is like it's a two-way street of value. Someone's got to get there and look going through every card and figuring out every value and grading or not grading and going to resellers. It's a lot of work. It's like so also to the people that like poo poo, oh, you know, you're just going to that guy's collection. You're buying it low, it's old and high.

No, I'm doing all the freaking work. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I flew out to Detroit yesterday. This is not chasing cardboard episode, but I flew out to. to Troy to meet a guy who wanted the sales cards to me. And he was telling me over lunch, he goes, I, before I reached out to you, someone passed your name to me. And he goes, I reached out to six, seven buyers.

Each time they were like, I want a cherry pick. And they low-balled me. And they wanted me to go to them. And he's like, nobody wanted to actually come and make my life easy. And like, if you could bottle up the marketing strategy, like the secrets, it's that right there. you make their life easy you give them a fair offer you go to them take the stress off them you're going to get crazy good stuff 99% of people won't do that no it's too much work

you want to it to them amazon effect hey hey it's something can i get it in two hours or tomorrow deliver to my house you know hand it to me uh gift draft it was a gift because i got hand to someone i don't want to put anything on it could write my name on it for me yeah it's like Exactly. I'll pay the profits. Exactly. So talk to me, Ty, this balance of, okay, you go to, if you buy

something, yeah, like you said, you gave that example, you, you went through it, you already had a good idea of what was there, it was more, you gave got five more thousand. But where's the balance of fairness of reality of, okay, dude's just got 20 boxes

of stuff in his basement. You have opened one and you go, all right, This is a junk wax. There's stuff here. All right. I'm going to give you five grand. What's the balance of you have, this isn't where you thought you knew you were getting 20 Jordans and there could be the upside like in your situation.

Like it's almost the sight unseen. Like, but what's the balance of going and getting home and if you've got $20,000 worth of stuff and you paid five? Like where does the morale, not morality, but I guess it's just more judgment. What's the right thing to do? Is that just, is that just, what am I reading, am I telling my own story here? Like, I guess I talked through it, but, but like, is that, how often does that happen? It doesn't happen often. And I think there's

two questions here. One is how do you assess collections and then what do you do if you don't assess it correctly? Uh, I think the first one is like experience is really important. Like, you're going to make mistakes early on. I made a lot of mistakes. A lot of them were filmed. And I didn't go back and tell you how much money off. Everybody likes to trade and break better than the, you know, the takeoff. Right. Right.

I mean, I lost tens of thousands of dollars that first year and a half of just not buying corrections the right way. So some of it's experienced. You just kind of get gut feels. You learn errors. You learn like that you get tipped off on things people are saying. And then it's also just what do they want to sell for?

It's not your job to be the buyer and the seller. If a seller wants to sell something at a certain. price and it's a great deal to do it, right? And take it. So the argument a lot of times is, well, I could go sell it tomorrow and get these comps. And I said, okay, try it. In fact, I encourage you to try it because you can't, you haven't sold 150,000 items

like I have on eBay. You don't have the audience. So you're not going to get the price that I get or sell it as fast as I sell. And you're going to quit after two weeks anyway. So like, I hate that argument anyway. It's like, you can't. go do it and you won't go do it. So let's already decrease the margins that you would get.

But I think it's experience and just understanding like you've built an audience, you've built the system, don't devalue that just because somebody else thinks they can sell it. But to make sure I distill that correctly, someone goes, hey man, dad's got an old collection. I think you want to 10 grand for it. It's a lot of 50, 60, 70s, baseball.

I don't know. It could be worth 10x that, but he wants 10 grand for it. You walk in, you open a box. I'm not saying you see a perfect 10, you know, Mickey Manor or anything. But like you validate, okay, there's more than $10,000 here really quickly. Yeah. No problem whatsoever handing the guy 10 grand, cash, check, whatever, walk out and deal's done. I wouldn't say there's no problem.

I think it's, you assess the person, you assess the situation. If it's a dire situation and you know you're going to crush it, I think you need to be, if it's a guy, you need to be reasonable, you need to treat people fairly, of course. But yeah,

if it's a guy, you're like, I don't like you anyway. I'm going to give you 10K walk out and be good. There is some of that. There really is. I hate to say it like that. Yeah,

some people are to earn what they get to eat. Yeah. Yeah. But like, it is a really tough one. You have to balance it. And like, you don't, you, I don't want people to think they should be obligated to go back and pay people more just because I did it a few times. Like, that's just the way, like, that was my gut telling me that was the right thing to do in that situation. But, man, we've got great deals.

And if you don't get great deals, if you don't hit home runs, your business will never take off. If you're just hitting singles all day, like, you're going to quit. Like, you do this to get the home run. And home runs can happen without you taking advantage of somebody. If he's happy and you're happy, that's a win. That's how I simplify it is. That's the formula. Happy, happy, all happy.

I know we're at the top of the hour here, Ty. If you got like five more minutes for me. Let's, to that end, to kind of close that chapter, what percentage, if for something, maybe not what you are at this stage with the leads you're getting, I mean, you've earned the right to get whatever you're getting. getting now. You put in the equity. You've done the things. But what's it? If someone scans the rooms, scans the boxes, they've got a rough number in mind. I think I can make this reasonably. What's the, is there a percentage that you're aiming for or they should aim for reasonably?

I mean, ideally you aim for 50%. I would want 50% margins almost every time now. And it goes upward down depending on the amount of work. So that's the biggest thing. There it is. The two drivers and margins for me are the amount of work required to get there and the sell-through rate of particular cards or arrows or players. Like if stuff that you get might sell for $1,000 but it's going to sit for five months before that buyer comes along, you've got to decrease the buy. You got to pay an aggressive price because your money's just stagnant.

So people devalue that a lot, but it's a really important thing, sell-through rate, because otherwise you're going to run it on a 10-day auction or something. you're going to get well below market value and you're going to lose in the deal. So I'm aiming for 50% on average and that covers a lot of mistakes and give me room. Ty, I'm destined and I have to get like a numbered list out of you. It's just like I'm obsessed with it. So what are like the four things? I'm not going to leave this alone.

Three things, two things. I gave me three. No, but this is worth specific. The four things on Ty's list. that are sort of undervalued that you think, like maybe it's 1961 top baseball, or maybe it's Hank Aaron's, which I personally think are too low.

Like, what are like a handful of those things, hopefully numbered, perfectly sequentially? No pressure. I'm kind of screwing with you. But the biggest thing is there's got to be some things on the list that people should be just in the back of their head. So future Hall of Famers playing now. I think those are devalued,

not devalued, but like those are really good opportunities. I think guys like Steph Curry, to me, are no-brainer buys long term. Stuff away, Steph, stuff away. LeBron. I can't believe what I'm saying this. LeBron. Probably Aaron Judge, probably Mike Trout.

Get their low pop crazy insert stuff and stuff that's the stuff that people really go after. I'm with you on the hangarie. Aaron's I think Hank Aaron, Clemente, Jackie Robinson, the highest grade you can buy of that stuff is only going to go up. I do think there's still a lot of alpha, as they say, in the investment world in the 90s inserts and 90s. You look at pop reports and some of the 90s inserts and parallels. You think of like artist proofs for King Griffey Jr.'s, even guys like McGuire and bonds who are fairly low value. Like you can get PSA 10 of some of those cards and they're like pop 70.

All it takes is for bonds to get another resurgence or Griffey to keep climbing and the big money coming in scoops those cards off the market quick. So things like that are extremely important. I think a lot of, I think a lot of IP autos, on card autos, PSA slabbed, I think you're going to make a pretty good run. Like you go get, you go find Larry Bird or Jordan or Curry, any of these guys. and you go take cool cars to get them signing rookie cards to get them IP autoed and then slabbed. That stuff, messy, Ronaldo, all those guys, man, it's going to keep climbing.

It's stuff like when guys start passing away, those markets, man, they just surge. So those are four things for you that come to mind like right now. Why Shaquille Neal so undervalued? I have a thesis on this. You might not agree. So I think Shaquille O'Neal is undervalued. And I think it's the one thing what might hurt Wendy, but maybe not. because most people can't relate to a seven foot plus guy.

Like, Steph Curry, you go out, you do a fadeaway jumper, you shoot a three, like you can be Steph Curry. You can't be seven foot two, 350 pounds to Kiel and you on your driveway.

You can't. He just bulldozes people over and dunk. So like it doesn't relate to the common person. And so because of that, I think he's like less collectible. That's my, that's probably completely wrong. But like that's what I've always thought.

It's probably the best theory I've heard, because I've heard nothing that made any sense. that at least makes some sense to me. But it's a 6-5 guy that could dunk and still can. I didn't relate to that. But I was not 7-2 in an absolute. You're close. You're very close.

Yes. But I think that is interesting because the kids don't go out of the driveway and go, here I am doing the fadeaway shack, you know. Yeah, my jump hook. And Gene Jordan, you know, the shot or the ball fake. You know, I think that Utah player still back there, what was there, his name was. Aaron Russell. Aaron Russell, yes.

He's still in the paint thinking that ball's going. I love it, man. Hey, get insight. I think we're going to number those after the fact bill. Okay. We're going to put one, two, three, four. We're going to dub in number one. God, this is so fun.

Yeah, ask me a question. Yeah. So content creators getting into the space. Yeah. You've crushed short stuff. Instagram, man. Like, I've been so impressed. I was telling Bella,

I've been taking notes about how you do things. You're just so good at it. What would be a couple tips for guys like me who are trying to crack into the short form and like grab attention in that world? I want to be transparent. I've done it for 10 years. I saw. So nothing replaced.

It's time. Kind of like with a podcast. But I didn't mind. Here's what I started 10 years ago, Ty. Started doing podcasting the business show. I started doing IG. I was, I thought I was like 10 years ago.

I mean, I was like, and 10's, it's probably more like 9. I think it's 2017. And then, you know, so time.

And it was a different algorithm when I built a lot of the audience that's kind of stuck with me and ridden the line and built, it built, it's a different algorithm today. So I don't have to give back any of those followers.

I don't, so, like, what it takes to build today is a little different, but I'll say this. Consistency. And I think sometimes we, we get high on our own supply. What do I mean by that? Like, we think we know what everybody wants and the data actually tells you, you know, like, okay, this is what people respond to. This is how they do. And sometimes people like to be their own creative director.

And I probably did that at the beginning. and then I stepped away and let other people manage it and go, all right, like, what's working, what's not? And attention is fleeting. So you've got so little time. So it's the absolute opposite of what you do now. You're building a story over an hour, over 40 minutes, or 30 minutes, all that. This is how do I grab attention in 10 microseconds, you know, and keep it interesting. But then what you've got the audience, you know, you've got to continue to feed what they're most interested in.

and I do think no one likes it's not sexy, but that consistency. It's just kind of like the podcast. I've done my business show, rain, shine, sickness, health, two times a week for seven years. No questions asked. Like, we replay a few episodes now,

every now and then. And look, don't be, hey, here's another thing. This is actually probably the best, juiciest tip, Ty. All right.

Never be afraid to replay your greatest hits. guess what, Ty. So on TV, when everybody used to watch it, maybe it's YouTube now, but let's, if you're old enough to remember this, on television, you know those commercials? I mean, can you hear me now as my first ad campaign? And you know why you know that name and you know why others do? You know how many times you see the same commercial?

How many times do you see that same commercial? How many times do you hear it? Thousands. But somehow, someone decided on social media. I can't post that again. I've already posted it. It's done. Are you kidding?

I'm not saying you post it five times a week, but you replay your greatest hits. And that creates leverage. It builds momentum. And there's stuff with the algorithm. So don't be afraid to play your greatest hits. Learn and look at the data. And don't be your own creative director let,

learn from and ask people, you know, like what would be, what do you want to hear? What do you want to see? What do you want to do? And it's kind of back to what you said, like action being everything.

It was so obvious. Like, yeah, I ask people. They tell me what they want. Most people don't want to ask. They just want to put out what they put out, you know? So I don't know if that's helpful. That's good stuff, man. Two times a week for seven years is incredible.

Yeah, man. I mean, and you know what? And you will know that we're going to become best buzz at the national. And that kids and your kids be high-fiving. I don't know. How old are your boys? 17 to 16. Yeah.

mine are they seem like that age they're old they're 15 and 13 but sweet they're the 13 year old turn in for no he's 4 I'm excuse me 15 14 I'm like taking years off of them I think I'm this wishful thing here tied I'm doing that on purpose now it's like when they're seven I want it however when are they going eight when they're they're going to be nine one now I'm like wait when are they going to stop right here can I stop him at this moment no totally with you please stop time but yeah man it's uh I don't know we're, I'm blessed and,

but I am ADD. So like I'm all over the place. So the fact that I stuck was only two years for that long is my, my wife's like, I don't know how you've done it. I will say this. My wife in certain people, not because they didn't think I could do it.

You know, there was a lot of chuckles those first couple years. Yeah. They don't laugh anymore, Ty. Isn't that funny? Funny how that works. Right.

You can relate to that. I'm sure you can. Oh, you mean, YouTube. star, huh? Oh, okay. That's cool, Ty. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And now you get to live the dream and it's not perfect. It's not everything, you know, that maybe people have in their mind, but you know what? We're blessed to do it. I love this man. Had a lot of fun.

Man, me too. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Drop the Dietz. Website, channels, all that stuff. Type in chasing cardboard on YouTube. You're going to find us. You might find us on Instagram too if you type in chasing cardboard. Facebook, we're on all the major platforms. But you want to watch full episodes of chasing cardboard. Go to chasing Carboard. Chasing Ty Wilson on YouTube for reselling stuff. All the goodies.

That's it, man. That's how you find us. Hey, guys. We appreciate you for listening. We appreciate Ty. Look, we're always chasing something. This is chasing cardboard. What are you chasing?

That's the big question. Let's go find it. We'll see next time. I'll click a nation. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go-to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at collectornation.com

and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.