Collector Nation - Is Whatnot’s $12B Valuation Real or Hype? Ryan and Brian Break It Down

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

SUMMARY In this episode of the "Trading Cards and Collectibles" podcast, hosts Ryan Alford and Brian Ludden discuss the latest trends in the hobby, including rising football card values, new basketball releases, and the impact of live streaming platform Whatnot’s $225 million funding round. They recap recent sports events like the World Series, share a live card rip session, and debate industry sustainability. The hosts also highlight their podcast’s award nomination and encourage listener participation by sharing favorite card pulls. The episode wraps up with updates on upcoming card shop visits and ways to connect with the show.   Plus — exciting news! Brian’s company, Ludex, is nominated for Innovation of the Year at The Hobby Awards. Show your support by voting here 👇🗳️ Vote for Ludex: https://thehobbyawards.onmantel.com/nominees/ludex   TAKEAWAYS Recent market trends in trading cards and collectibles Player card values and notable increases in specific cards Overview of recent sports events, including the World Series Discussion on the performance of players like Ohtani and Ja'Marr Chase Updates on trending football and basketball card releases The impact of live streaming platforms like Whatnot on the collectibles market Comparison of Whatnot's live streaming capabilities to eBay's efforts Insights on industry speculation and sustainability of card prices The significance of innovation and technology in the collectibles hobby Community engagement through sharing personal card stories and experiences

You got whatnot for live streaming. They dominated that so much. So what I think is like, hey, look at what we did over here for sports cards and live shopping. We're going to crush it all. And they might, but like, that's a high valuation. There's a lot of things that potential. And investing potentials doesn't always work out.

eBay should not confuse themselves. Their marketplace versus their live streaming, they're different companies. And they have to look at it differently and be like, we're protecting what we've built on the marketplace or we're attacking what we want to have. You know business low enough. That's different mentality. But Tani didn't have a great night, but what a series so far. We were high on L.A. coming after their last series, it seemed like they'd come in, but the Blue Jays are like, not so fast, my friend.

We can score and we can score fast. Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From Chasing Grails to Colin Bluffs and going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. Hello and welcome to trading cards and collectibles. It's Brian and Ryan here on.

It's a Thursday for us, Brian. My days are rolling together. I'm looking at rain out the window going, oh my God, finishing this move in the studio, but I'm glad to be with you, man. It's always a pleasure, my man. I like it's starting to come together. It is.

It's coming together. It's good. Look, dude. You don't need, this is just like a taster. This is going to be like a sports center set here soon. We're the depths of imagination and lighting and all kinds of stuff. This is just getting through to the other side until we can like pull out the big guns. That's awesome.

Well, I know your vision. I know what the vision is. And I know you, you'll get there. Yes. It'll be, it might be painful for some, including me. If you should send the bandages I was ripping off my hands just to get on. I had white bandages. I have cuts on every finger and moving shit and being impatient like I am.

But I'm ready to talk some collectibles. I take my mind off of painting and moving. Let's do it. What's happening this week? What's going on with Luttex? What's the life of the CEO? What's big in your territory? Today's like this week is kind of quiet for me.

I mean, obviously the meetings and working 12 hours is like the norm. But I'm home. I'm not traveling. We have a couple cool releases coming out this week that we're concentrating on. We're also up for an award on Mantle. They're doing kind of like the collectibles awards. And it goes from like Best Hobby Shop to podcast. And we're nominated for innovation.

So that's cool. We're doing some things around that. You know, if we win or don't win, you know, whatever. But the fact is, it's cool for us to get out there and be recognized at some level. So we're excited about that around here. We got, we're moving in a month, which I'll get your advice on that when that happens. And then I'll be at the card shop next week, starting taking videos and showing you guys what we on going on. I'm excited to see that. And so we'll have links to the award. Hey, give us some love.

You know, if you're enjoying the content, we're just cutting it up. We're just getting started here on the show. We'll be on the podcast awards next year. We're like 12, 14 episodes in. So we'll keep making waves. I guess I didn't want, I guess top three in all sports on Apple wasn't enough to make the awards for this year. But we'll keep focusing. Hey, we got to keep working hard, man. But you do need to go vote for innovation. LuddX, they are innovators in the space. Ryan and I are friends, but I only become friends with people whose products I love first.

So it is, it is, well, look, just being up for it's a big deal. So congrats on that. Thank you. And if you're listening, give us some love. Vote twice three times. Tell your friends. Tell your friends friends. Yeah, tell your friends friends friends.

But it's cool of them to do it. I mean, the hobby's so big and there's so many things going on. So it's, look, I mean, we all like recognition and it's good for like, you know, companies like yours that have teams and stuff. Like, that stuff matters. Like this isn't participation trophy. This is companies freaking doing things and hobbies. that are hundreds of years old that needed innovation and needed leadership and guidance, like what Brian's doing.

And like, this is what the hobby needs. It needs companies like Lodex being successful and bringing ideas and bringing technology. So this stuff matters. Collectibles. Show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. And ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you. You do case hits at Collectibles. dot show. I want you to send in your favorite pulls of the week.

And here's the difference. This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. Had a couple of those myself a few months back. But it's not just about the values, it's about what you're collecting. What means something to you? Share a story, share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week. That was your favorite player and you nailed it.

So case hits at collectibles. dot show, send in those videos. I want to know the stories. We're going to bring into life here on the show. We're going to do a segment each week. Once we get rolling and get some videos, in where we share that on the show with us. We'll feature you on Collectibles show.

We got the market pulse this week. Who's popping like it's hot? All right. Well, there's a couple on here that makes sense, and there's a couple that doesn't make tons of sense. So it's all football. And the first one is the Prism Silver, Jonathan Taylor, PSA,

10 is up 34%. He moved from 83rd on the trending players to 7. So that's quite the jump. This is one I'm a little, I don't know about this one. Jamar Chase is up 23%. And he went from trending players at 110 to 22. Interesting. Because, I mean, he's been out there a while.

I mean, I didn't see them do great things. I mean, they're kind of suck. I mean, they've been like up and down with Burrow out. And so I don't know what suddenly. I mean, he's, like, he's having a bang-up year. Like Clayton, my son has been fantasy. And all he always does say he's crushing it in fantasy. So maybe there's some tie-in with fantasy.

Yeah, it could be. And then the last one is, and you're going to have to help me with his name, is Jackson Smith. Injigma. Injigma. Injigba. In jigma. Jackson Smith.

in jigba i think i'm almost saying it fun it's funny but that's i do know how to pronounce his name i feel like just trying to say it in jason jason yeah yeah json that's what you need to say he's up 42 percent and he went from 143 and the trending players to 93 yeah he's having it he's legit yeah uh world's world series oh yeah but tani didn't have a great night last night no it uh But what a series so far. Two, two, battling back and forth. I think some people mistakenly thought. And we were high on L.A.

Coming after their last series, it seemed like they come in. But Blue Jays are like, not so fast, my friend. We can score and we can score fast. Yeah. I mean, they're doing everything they need to do. And, you know, that 18-in-game or whatever, I mean, the umpire, I don't know if you saw it,

but like in the second inning, the umpire that like i've never seen umpiring like that even like it like little league it's like the guy did not speak and when you don't say strike the whole world knows it as a ball and it was really bad and that guy should not be in the league anymore not ever but definitely not in the world series right where we at in the world series are we got l.a and new york right yeah it's it's it's It's tight. So LA's got just over 74,000. And the Yankees have just under 64,000.

So 10,000 away, which, you know, that couldn't, that could flip. Could flip. And be interesting, though, 10,000 scams. I mean, with millions that you guys get a week, right? I mean, 10,000 is not hard to flip. No. No, that can. happen.

Now, the only thing is going to, it's working against you if you're the Yanke. I mean, the Yankees players are always going to get scanned a lot because they're Yankees and they're popular. I mean, the only thing working against you is just you got the L.A. players live and playing. And as the stakes continue to get higher in the series, you're going to, you might see those continue to jump. It would have been really interesting if they had like a big release. That would be cool.

Yeah. The, um, you've seen any of the new tops? basketball you open to any of that yeah i mean they're doing what everyone does they throw out their cheap product first get everyone to buy it and then they they start elevating it uh but yeah i mean it's fine i mean it's exactly what they need to do yeah they um yeah um it makes me want chrome but yeah like you know like what it's supposed to be and but i did see a interesting comment i wanted to get your take on. The president of Upper Deck,

I don't have his name. Jason. Jason. Yeah. He made a comment that said right now, the speculation just going on in general in the hobby is unsustainable. And, you know,

$1,000 a box and, like, there's nowhere to go, but potentially down. I don't know. He was very, uh, Debbie Doutter.

a little bit about the sustainability. And I'm going to give you my thoughts and I want to get yours. I feel like there's been these moments like the pandemic and everything that were obvious bubbles. I feel like this has been sort of a slow burn coming with sort of big money coming in, investors coming in. And it's like, I think you've just, you've got like this institutional money and things that have been slow burn coming in that. this doesn't feel like an unnatural bubble like the pandemic or something.

And so while maybe it will have its burning hot moments and simmering a bit, but this feels different to me. What says you? I mean, I agree with you. I think that's really a good point. I think this is sustainable. And I mean, someone coming out and just broadly saying that this is, industry like what part of the industry are you talking about are you talking about just wax yes i agree

like that that shit's not great right yeah but that's only such a small part of this industry where that might work like the wax he might be right but singles and people going to shop shows and people collecting and flipping it's like that industry only getting bigger and he's wrong and in my opinion, he's wrong because he macrally put the whole industry into one bucket. Yeah. Speaking of opening wax and losing money. Oh, boy. I like it.

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. This is, hey, this is, we're talking real money people here. This is where, if you were kind of halfway paying attention on the treadmill, this is when you really tune in. You turn it over to YouTube so you can watch the rip card.

And it's going to be a loser. Like this card's going for $300. What do you think? How about this? I think it's a loser. Because I just, I like to be pleasantly surprised. How about if it's something ridiculous, we do something fun with the proceeds. I like that.

Yeah, I want to Gunter, Rip Card. And who's the player? Ellie. Elie Cruz. Rookie card. Yep. Ely Cruz, rookie card, rip card. It's already worth 300, folks.

So Brian's going to rip it here. It went 300. As a $300 stamp, you just ripped off. Right now I just see uniforms. I don't see anything else. So now I'm going to the bottom one. Oh, boy. And now I have to then, I guess, rip this open.

Dale Murphy stained glass. All right. Oh, boy. You tell me what you think about. this. Okay. Kersted? Not much.

It can't be worth it. It's the guy from the boris. Kirsted is his last name. It's his rookie. This is a rookie. Now, okay. I think, okay. Then you have Daxon Meryl.

Yeah. It's his rookie card. Stanglass. That's a good card. I think that's a good. I think that's a good card. And then this one I think could be really good. This is a Jackson Holloway.

Ooh. Stain Glass. Okay. All right. How do we get the value on that? This one, Luddx comes up with between $110 and $210. For the stained glass on the-Raw. Yeah, raw.

Then I'm going to scan this card. If that's $200 raw, I mean. Jackson Merrill is also $117 to $218. Oh, wow. Look, let's just go high end, $200, that's $400. You might have gone over. I think I might have gone over. Wow.

I think those comps are probably pretty decent. And then this is the base one is just five to ten bucks. So, dude, I think we, I think we did. I think we ran higher. Like, let's see you go low in. Like the worst, you broke even. I will give away. I will give away one of these next week to listeners.

Yes. Please. He's going to get to do a giveaway. We're a stained glass. You got to, yeah, here we go. Holding them up. Got to be watching this. You got to see, those are cool looking.

Yeah, it says inside. this card, an exclusive mini stained glass parallel and two of the following mini parallel, mini-wood parallel, mini-metal, and sketch card. So I got two stained glasses. Like, that's, I think, I won. I think you definitely won. All right, there we go. I think it was a successful rip. We'll figure out a giveaway for next week. So stay tuned. Those are cool. You did way better than me, my friend. I did see, and I know you talked pre-ups, a little bit. Some big news, a little whatnot. I wouldn't call it whatnot. I'd call it a lot of something. A lot of money. A lot of money. Yeah. Since you saw it, give the audience the full

lowdown. I mean, you know, a company, I mean, they dominate, right? Like, I mean, there's bohemists in this industry that just dominate what they do. And you're talking about, obviously fanatics for manufacturing. You got PSA from grading. You got eBay from Marketplace and you got whatnot for live streaming. And everyone else is everyone else. And they dominated that so much that I think what, how I think how I look at it as a series F round.

And they raised, I think, $2.25 on an $11.5 billion valuation, which is almost double of what it was 12 months ago. So what I think is like, hey, look at what we did over here for sports cards. We're going to do that for garden hoses. We're going to do it for this. And live shopping. We're going to crush it all. And they might.

They might. But like, that's a high valuation. Like backing into that, if it was just sports cards, that either shows how big the industry is that no one knows about or there's a lot of things that, you know, potential potential. And investing potential is not always, doesn't always. work out. eBay is the monster that everyone's trying to take a bite on. But when you look at eBay Live, now you're talking about a startup. eBay Live is a startup competing as a behemoth. It's really what everyone, every marketplace did to compete with eBay's marketplace.

But eBay should not confuse themselves. Those two are different worlds. Their marketplace versus their live streaming, they're different companies. And they have to look at it differently and be like, we're actually going to, we're, we're protecting what we built on the marketplace or we're attacking what we want to attack. And it's too, you know, you know business well enough. That's different mentality. It is. And, you know, we, we struck a deal to have the ability to do eBay Live.

And the timing was just off with things that I have with transition. Like, we intend to still get on there. But what I'll say is what their challenge has been, if you're going to, you know, just because you're the leader in marketplace, doesn't make, doesn't immediately make you the leader in a different segment. And especially when you don't bring out a differentiated product. So their legacy technology bled into their live streaming and it's causing issues. And the issues are that if I can only put 30 cards an hour onto eBay Live and I could put 250 on or whatnot, why would I go to eBay Live.

Now, the team, I love the team that eBay Live is together. I think they're going to figure this out. But they're going to get there. I just think it's a longer, longer road than they probably thought. Yeah. But, you know, well, they say more money, more problems, more opportunities too. So, but everything. Cool, man.

Anything else this week? No, man. I'm all good. Next week at the card shop. At the Rangers Stadium. Next week to the Card Shop. Yep. TCS, Ludex Card Shop at the Rangers Stadium.

Brian's bringing that to life with the team down there in Texas. Everything's bigger in Texas, baby. True that. Including the Luddx Card Shop. Appreciate you, man. Hopefully the Bears get it back together this week. My Tigers play Duke if we can't get. I might just go in Hybernation if Clemson can't beat Duke in football.

That would be bad. Good luck with your move, man. I think you're coming to the end of it, man. I know it's been a lot. Yeah. But you keep going. Keep grinding. We will.

We will. Appreciate your brother. We'll see you next week. We appreciate everyone out there for listening. You find us at collectibles. That has all the past episodes. And hey, Ryan's holding up those stained glass cards. We'll do a giveaway next week.

on those. Hey, rip it, forget it, or I think he ripped it and won it. That was a good trade off. But yeah, check us out there. YouTube, Spotify, keep downloaded, keep sharing.

We appreciate it. We're here to grow with you in the hobby and get out there and collect something, baby. We'll see you next time on TCC. Thanks for tuning into the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast, and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www.comlectables.

show or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Olford. Now get out there and collect yours.