Collector Nation - Ryan Alford, Brian Ludden & Brandon Steiner Talk What’s Wrong With Sports Coverage Today

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

SUMMARY In this episode of the "Trading Cards and Collectibles" podcast, hosts Ryan Alford and Brian Ludden welcome industry veteran Brandon Steiner. Together, they discuss the current sports landscape, the entertainment value of NFL broadcasts, and the impact of authentic commentary. Brandon shares insights on autograph quality and market trends, while Brian highlights rising stars in the collectibles market. The episode also explores collaboration within the industry, announces a giveaway winner, and previews upcoming projects. The conversation blends sports analysis, hobby advice, and personal stories, offering listeners a lively and informative look at the intersection of sports and collecting. TAKEAWAYS Current state of various sports seasons, particularly football and baseball NFL's business strategies and entertainment value Importance of quality commentary and storytelling in sports broadcasting Discussion on the collectibles hobby, focusing on autograph quality Market trends in trading cards and rising player values Collaborative spirit within the collectibles industry Personal anecdotes related to sports engagement and collectibles The significance of winning and success in sports beyond championships Community engagement through giveaways and upcoming projects Emphasis on authenticity and integrity in both sports and collectibles Start scanning unlimited trading cards for free. Download now in the Apple and Google Play stores qrco.de/trcpodcast

You can't follow the pack. Most people, when things get bad, everybody panics, everybody gets all nervous. That's when you could really advance. When things are a little wobbly, most people freeze. I always say take action over anxiety. They need to remove the L from NFL and make it NFE. National Football Entertainment. They got to remember what they're doing here.

It's a show. And that's what McAfee figured out. That's what World Wrestling Entertainment figured out. I don't even watch wrestling, but when I do, I get it, the theater. And no, it doesn't have to be acting, but you need some theater. You need some entertainment about it. Everyone has an opinion. I've learned that on something.

The second thing is, companies can help each other. Goldman Sachs is not helping, you know, Merrill Lynch or, you know, Bank of America. We can help each other. Like Brandon and I have done partnerships before. We're going to do more. And that's smart. And that's what I love about this industry is we can help each other out. 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 here on Friday, November 14th, 20, 25. It's our weekly catch up here, Ryan and Brian, and we've got a little special guest coming in. We got an OG.

Let me call him that, whether he wants me to or not. He is the OG. Brandon Steiner, what's up, brother? What's up? What's up? first of all, I had a fabulous time on my last conversation, avoided like an hour of therapy for like I was able to just release all the stuff that was bothering me.

So I'm excited to come back and get into some real conversation and talk about what's going on. I feel like a little bit, I don't know if everybody feels that way, but it's kind of like the NBA season's kind of, I don't know what's going on there. Honestly, I have some of the clue. But the baseball thing was so exciting. So I'm feeling like almost like de high, almost like malnutrition. of sports without that baseball excitement. The football season seems like it's going on forever.

Like the season doesn't seem like it's ever going to end. And it's getting a little boring, to be honest with you. And I have no idea what's going on in college sports because it's really like semi-pro anyway. And it's just the same old teams beating up on the other teams because they have so much more money. And that's kind of like my concern these days is that I'm having to start talking to my wife again. I can't use the big game play.

It's not working for me. And she's like, you really have to watch another game right now. And I'm like, yeah, not really. Kind of where I'm at right now? You summarized a lot there. I mean, as a football guy, I might disagree. But I will say there was something about the World Series and the energy of all that, that even captured me who has been, my boys and I kind of like, you know,

have been kind of passive baseball for a few seasons. It kind of reactivated. And there's definitely an energy around it that feels a little. bit like we're either catching our breath or a little bit in a lull. Yeah, you're right. I mean, football, the beautiful thing about it is if the game you're watching isn't working out, you can always flip on the four other games and you can really just move right into it, which you can't always do with other sports.

Yeah. So, and it seems like there's a lot of football anyway. Like, you know, they got Sunday night. They got Monday. What a great job NBC does on Sunday night. Monday nights actually found its rhythm now with, you know, some real commentators. So that's a good watch. And then, you got football all day.

Sunday. I'm liking, you know, that, I mean, there's nobody who's just done it better than the NFL. They have figured how to get money out of everybody in every which way. And I think as a business person, like, I'm always thinking, like, I need to be more like that. You know, how can I spread my wings? How can I collaborate with more people that have more money that can take advantage of what

I have and vice versa? And I just think they've done it in a way, which everybody seems to be cool. I mean, even the NFL is on like six channels. Six. And everybody's cool. And also, think about all the different countries they're playing in. I mean,

sold out stadiums, London, Germany, Spain. Like, that's pretty cool to get up at 9 of the morning or whatever when I get up on a weekend. And football's on for 15 hours.

Collectibles. Dot 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 Collectible. Collectibles. 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 value. 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. Show, send in those videos. I want to know the stories. We're going to bring them to life here on the show. We're going to do a segment each week.

Once we get rolling and get the show, some videos in where we share that on the show with us. We'll feature you on Collectibles show. It's so funny, Brandon, you mentioned how well they do Sunday night football. It does remind me like how much that theater and all that goes on with that matters because I'll sometimes catch myself, you know, watching the Tuesday, Wednesday, like the Mac attack or like, you know, football's on all the time. And I'm like, why is this?

I know why it's boring, but why is it boring? It's the commentators that, you know, it's the D-E League commentators, everything. You don't realize how much professionalism and how much interest, like, good commentators, good storylines and everything else that's built around the game matters. It does. It's everything. Otherwise, you just watch, I mean, the commentators are critical. There's never going to be like Howard Kosell, Don Meredith.

I mean, there's never, that's not going to, I mean, that Monday night, when you think about what we had, I mean, that was entertaining. those guys were, I mean, I wish some of that would come back. And it's not that Romo and Brady and Aikman. I mean, they're good, but we don't get the best of them. I mean, if they put their hair down, maybe ate a gummy, had a couple beers. I'd like to see what the hell they're really thinking about. I agree.

You know, every now and then it slips, but they don't really give you like, that was a stupid play. Like, that guy sucks. That was terrible. And I think there's room for a channel. Like, you have the, by the way, did you sense that? tension with Eli and pain a little bit the night. Definitely something going on there. It was a little weird.

Because Eli's usually goes along with anything. But I just feel like there needs to be a completely uncensored channel that we can actually listen to somebody who knows what they're doing and is completely torching anybody and everybody with the complete truth. If you watch her- You don't really know what's going on in that game other than what they tell you. Herb Street's podcast, if he would become the character, or the person, the real person he is on his podcast on Thursday night, it would be

much watch TV. Like, because he lets it, he lets his hair down on his podcast. Like he says exactly, you know, and I'm like, it's a little bit what we get with Pat McAfee. Like, yeah. He's been a breath of fresh air, at least for me. I agree. Besides being entertaining, besides, like, doing the right thing with these field go kicks.

And I just think he's unbelievable. He's funny. He's funny. He's not sitting there ripping on people all the time. but he will at time and time, get real. Like, I love that. I wish there was more of that. And I can't get enough of him, man.

Like, he's just, and you know he's knowledgeable because he played. I mean, played it. He's lived it. He's respectful. I think he's just, what a great package of, of, what a great, what a great package he's put together, man. I mean, I don't know if everybody on board's listening to him. I could agree, but like, I just think he's become a really good watch.

he fought the status quo with the SPAN, told them to go F themselves, you know, people that were giving them a hard time. This is how it's going to get done. And I feel like when I watch his show, generally speaking, I'll find out something that I didn't know prior to the show, which I think is really important. Hopefully we'll cover that in this conversation. But I think it's important to deliver something that the audience didn't know other than just, you know, we're eating the same old soup. I want Brian to respond to that. and then I want to share something related to MacB. I mean, Brian, what's your take on MacBee?

I was lucky enough to go to his studio with Erlacher and I. And he did a lot of Lodax kind of shout out. This is when he was, you know, this is three years ago. So I kind of caught him on the way up. I don't think he would have me again. But it might be. But, you know, I'll be knocking on that door and see what happened, see if he answers. I love him.

And let me say this. he inspired me with my business show right about now, which I consider the edgy, you know, he was the inspiration for kind of taking a left turn with business and content, a little edgier, bringing on people. Like, I think he's amazing. And I don't always love every little thing, but I respect the hell out of the entertainment value.

And they need to remove the L from NFL and make it NFE. National Football Entertainment. They got to remember what they're doing here. It's a show. And that's what McAfee figured out. That's what World Wrestling Entertainment figured out. I don't even watch wrestling, but when I do, I get it, the theater.

And no, it doesn't have to be acting, but you need some theater. You need some entertainment value. How great is Saturday mornings? Yeah. I get up and look forward to that show. I watched it because I love a little holds. You know, I love all those guys.

That was a classic, you know, almost comparable, them to, like, Barclay, Kenny, Smith, and all that, and Shaq. I mean, that's an incredible show, too, by the way. Yes. And you realize it's not easy to put those shows together for some reason and get the chemistry right. But I got to tell you, man, like, Pat has gotten the best out of Sabin. He's got Sabin laughing. He's got saving comfortable. He gets a big of hair down.

He's loose. He's, you know, you know that guy's got great insight. Yes. 100%. Yeah. But he does that. What I like about Pat is you nailed it, Brandon, and you said this. Like, he doesn't, he shares his opinion and he's direct, but he's also disarming and respectful.

It's like he has this ability. Some people are either all or nothing, kind of like, you know, find bombs all jerk all the time. You know, like a lot of these guys are all or nothing. And Pat finds this line of being endearing, warm. edgy and critical sometimes, and he blends it all together really well. And he's himself. He's himself. Yeah.

The shirts he wears. Yeah, exactly. The whole thing is this, it's a pretty good package. I agree. That's why I think it starts with, like, he doesn't take himself too serious. And because he's doing what he loves, he's getting paid for. And it kind of radiates around, like, all good leaders have that ability. I want to touch on.

something, Brandon. You just said, you like him because he keeps things real. And I would say that's you. If knowing you over these years, it's been a pleasure, but you do keep it real. And I have a little story that it kind of will tell you how it is. So in the, at Cleveland at the National Ludox VIP lounge, we had a back room, nice tables, chairs, some refreshments. Good food. Yeah, it was excellent. I had a great time with my bull. boys. It was wonderful. And so Brandon came in and he and I are talking and the next person in the room was Gary D. And Gary's like, oh my gosh, my idol. And they know each other and they gave hugs. And Brandon says, Gary, I'm glad you came in here. I got something to tell you. He goes,

your autographs are shit. You got to do a better job with your autographs. And Gary just like looks at it and starts smiling because that's why I love this guy. Yeah, I mean, listen, I've had a few moments with a few players I've had to get into this kind of conversation. And they don't always go pleasantly easily. And I got into a gallery because he fuffed up my cards. I bought some Gary friends cards, which I'm a fan of his cards. I like the cards. I think they're cool.

But I saw the cards differently. First of all, there's great art and kind of cool sublimial messages. So I send them out as gifts to people because they say these cards remind me of you. You know, your generosity reminds me of this card or your intense. or your focus and all those cards have those little innuendos on there. And I looked at it as a corporate gift, not even as a typical card collectible. But then he takes the card and he freaking puts a line through it. I'm like, that's his order.

I'm like, no. I said, Gary, you had your mind? Like, you just ruined my card. Like, that's not an autograph. You don't know what. I mean, that's like some Russian hockey player comes over. It doesn't speak English gives you that. It reminds me of that because that's what I got with the Russians.

And they came over back in the 90s when Sergey, him and she, off and Alexei Kovola. All those guys came over. I'm like, dude, you got to, but they don't have to figure out your name in English. It makes sure you spell one of the two names so you could read it. And they started doing that. And I just remember that lesson as I made them $1,000 to do a three-hour appearance. And they were like happier than, you know, they were the happiest human beings on the planet.

And I made my $150 commission. I was happy. Jeez, those were the good old days, huh? Yes. But it's still funny that you told Gary and Gary's probably not, you know, he's probably got a little bit of buddy. He's not used to just getting told. You know, he's kind of the guy that's telling people more than getting told. Having four boys that are younger, I've got from 9 to 15, there's nothing more disappointing to my kids.

Like, they wouldn't care who the autograph was, but when they get it and they opened the pack and they got an autograph and the guy has just mailed it in like two letters or you can't read it. And it's, it's, I'd say six or seven out of ten are that way. It's more than a shit than are good. And it's the look on their, they're just disappointed, you know? So it's like, they couldn't, they couldn't take the time to like figure out how to write their name. Like, I mean, it's, I don't know. I think there's, I think you're going to make a good point. And like, hey, we need to lead to charge.

Like, let's make it. It matters, though. You know, it matters. It makes the piece a lot nice when you have the autograph and they sign it correctly. We have to have the hall of shit. shame of like the worst autographs. I may have to put that. I always have the greatest autographs I've ever seen. I've got that list pretty well in my head now, but maybe the worst autographs could be a fun episode. Yeah, TCCC worst autographs of all time.

Tom can step up his game and I think Tom should put for $2,000. I mean, I want either DNA or I want some blood or something like, or an inscription. $2,000? How is that helping the hobby who's supposed to be the man of the hobby who's opening up card shops and he's charging 2,000 for his autograph like that's not helping us and I always felt like when I had a big name athlete and you were getting bigger numbers for his autograph I always thought the 8 by 10 was the little Johnny for the kid maybe not the most collectible thing have an 8 by 10 but I always ask my players to sign the 8 by 10 is really cheap so we could sell them inexpensively we knew they weren't going to go for big money down the road but at least the little Johnny you

He could put it up in his room and he has his autograph. And that's guys like Tom Brady and even at Michael Jordan. You used to sign 8 by 10 is a lot cheaper, by the way, Jordan. I know he has forgets about it. That's all been forgotten about. But at least Jordan's been Jordan since day one. He's always been like I'm not signing a lot of stuff and it's always been kind of tight. But there was a point in time in the early 90s when he was signing 8 by 10s.

You could pick up one for 100 bucks. and he was signing certain things cheaper. But it's like some guys don't understand. You have to build that up. Yeah. Yes. So that touches on the other thing, Brandon, that I wanted to talk about. Tell the story about the Yankee Stadium and how you took advantage of that opportunity of old Yankee Stadium getting torn down.

Because talking about starting something, I thought that was super interesting. You know what's crazy about that. it took me, people don't realize, people always want to do what I do, but they never want to do what I did. And it's like, hey, like, I'm working two years to get Yankees Steiner done at the time. And I knew that would change the whole business as far as collectibles once the Yankees got on board, all the other teams. And they did. The leagues have now gone on board. I knew it would be a big game changer.

And I think when you lead in an industry, you have to sometimes do for the common good. So I'm trying to get this deal done and it's done. And the last second, I'm like, man, like, if you can. guys ever take the stadium down i've got to be the guy who does that right he goes we're not adding that to the contract we're not moving it i'm like oh man i forgot to put that in there that's crazy but meanwhile five years later literally i get called up to the executive's offices and like hey look at this we're building a new stadium i'm like i know we probably what's amazing is they remembered and i know we promised that you were going to be the guy to do it it's a little more complicated as the city had owned it

And it was, I'm in the middle of doing two stadium demos. And next time I come on the show, if you have me, I'd love to be able to tell you one of them is a really big deal that I'm about to announce in about 10 days. It's a very big deal for you NFL fans. But it's crazy like how much is involved when you actually take a stadium down, at least the way I viewed it. It was different than anyone else.

So I went to the Yankees. I'm like, this is a three-year plan to take Yankee Stadium down. Like, what? I want dirt, I got to lift the grass up. I'm going to freeze dry it. I'm the black. I'm cutting that up. I'm cutting all the foul poles up.

I'm creating a whole bunch of product just with the foul poles alone. Then I've got the lockers, which got me into deep trouble because all the players wanted their lockers, and they thought I should give it to them for free. And free wasn't going to happen because between when I was how to pay to do all that work and when I had to give the city, you know, I had to give the city $11.5 million dollars right up front. Wow. There's a lot of money. and the seats need to be leitabated.

They had lead in the paint. We had to scrape all the arms down and repaint and put them in an oven. I mean, there's so many complications there. We were selling the lights, the speakers. I mean, I really, I mean, the coolest thing that I found at Yankee Stadium and all that stuff, we were digging in. But I found these, I was looking for bricks. We had 9,000 bricks in Monument Park, and I knew I could sell those. And I did.

But I found these bricks in the, you know. the ceiling that were from the original stadium from 19 in the 20s called cold brick. And they sell by five, six hundred bucks on eBay when you see them. And it was like two days before I fine negotiated to pull those bricks down from the ceiling. There were 5,000 of them. And it cost me 50 grand right out of the gate to pull the bricks down because union people. What's crazy is, so we get all this stuff going. I'll leave you with this one story.

So outside my office, I see my warehouse guy and a comment. couple of the, you know, people that work on developing products look like they're having a little bit of a nervous breakdown. And I go, what's going on? What, what's, what's going on? They're afraid to come my office and tell me, but they had ordered 9,000 cases for the bricks. Nine thousand cases. They go, the bricks don't fit. Oh. Oh, like, holy shit, the brick's not fitting. You're kidding me. So, and this is where it's not what happens to you in life. It's what you do with what happens. So I go to them, I go, look, I want you to take a slice of the brick. off, which we did.

We sliced the brick, so it would fit in the case. Perfect. Then we take the slice. I wish I had to show you example. We took the slice of the brick, and then we created a monument park piece of it. It's every number. Maris, Mantle, DiMaggio would have a picture of the retired number and a slice of the brick. That ended up one of our best selling items.

And meanwhile, I end up with 9,000 more products to sell. And those sell for $400. on eBay. It's unbelievable $400 for a slice of the break that didn't fit in the case with just a picture of the retired number. Can you share like, okay, $11.5 million is what you paid. Can you share what you made or do you feel comfortable? Yeah, I could. I mean, it was 11.5 plus you got to remember you got to pay the guy to take the seats out and to take all this stuff out.

By the time I got the lights turned on, I'm $16 million in the hole. All right. And here's the debacle of this whole Yankee state thing, which I don't really have ever shared it, but I'll share it. We were doing well. Remember, this is not a great time in the economy. If you remember, 2009, 8, 9, that full financial issues. So things were getting a little tight.

But what's weird is we send the seats up. We sold X amount of seats. But then a lot of the seats, the mistake I made is like, maybe I didn't need to take all the seats. Maybe I should have taken X amount of seats that sold with a little bit of inventory, but no, I had to take them all. You know, bleachers are not easy to sell, so now it's a lot of it. And this guy up in Syracuse decides that he can melt the arms down, the cast iron, and get money for his drug addiction problem. So if you actually have a pair of seats, so anyway, we lost about six or seven thousand pairs of seats because the guy melted the arms down.

And obviously, we sued and sued, and we had insurance. policy and that whole dilemma. So if you actually have a pair of seats, you really have some that's collectible because there are a lot more limited amount of those seats. And we only ended up taking a very limited amount of the bleachers out in Yankee Stadium. So if you have those, that's a really good collectible too. And right now in the markets are no seats out there. We got the last seats.

Maybe there's three or four pairs we have left. But from the guy who did that job, he went out of business. We took all what was left from him. But when it was all said and done, we only made a few hundred grand on that deal. But we got insurance money of a couple million dollars and now ended up being the profit, the insurance money on that deal. What's crazy is that stadium, I would do that 100 times out of 100 times, the same way, no different.

It was really a game changer for me, for the company, and also for the business. It really opened people's eyes up the way I took that stadium apart. I kind of felt like I was a surgeon. And I really took nothing in that stadium for granted knowing how passionate people were and what had gone down in that stadium. So I'm very grateful for that opportunity. But the other thing was, I'm going to share this other story. And that is, I don't really give a shit on work for that company anymore. So I can at least say this.

But you got to have balls. It's always my favorite line. So we're losing money. We're not doing well this year. and then we got the stadium thing, and we're not really making a lot of money on that on the, because the economy is bad and you have all these expenses. And I'm thinking, I'm going to end up in the year,

basically break-even losing a couple hundred grand. This is not the worst thing in the world. I work for a $30 billion company. I'm like, screw it. I'm going to triple down my advertising. I'm going to go, because at that time, you were getting advertising for 20 cents on a dollar. So you go get a million-dollar ad for $200 grand.

I'm like, shit. So I lose $3,400 grand. They'll slap me around a little bit. They'll be mad at me, but what am I going to do? I thought it was a bigger play. So I go out and literally spend it, because I was not a big advertising guy at Steiner. I didn't really believe in advertising, but I was like, you know, something? It's so cheap.

I got a billboard outside the garden. I've got billboards around the city. And people are like, man, this guy in this economy is, I'm looking large. I probably spent about a million and a half dollars, and it cost me like $300. That's how cheap the advertising was. And I think that sometimes you've got to go and really, you can't follow the pack. Most people, when things get bad, everybody panics,

everybody gets all nervous. And so that's when you could really advance. When things are a little wobbly, most people freeze. And I always say take action over anxiety. And that's one of my favorite lines. It's like, I took action at a time when most people would be shitting and trying to make cuts and not, which is what most people did.

I took advantage of the market, and it was a really good, a tremendous opportunity for me to blow my company up through some advertising that I would never have been able to afford to do in normal circumstances. I love that.

Incredible. What we got this week, Brian? Who's breaking through? So every week we do the top three players. This happens to be NFL. We're working on to see their change in their cards. And I don't think there's anyone on here and we'll surprise anything.

We'll start with Drake May. So his up, his Panini prism, Silver, is up 38%. And he now is in the second week in a row where he's the number one trending player on Lovacs. So he's, I mean, people are buying him. They're scanning him. The second is Matthew Stafford. His stuff just keeps going up.

It's up over 100%. Because I think people have started, like, like this guy is one. of the best. I mean, he's proven it here and year. The final one, true to my heart, I love seeing this because I haven't seen it a long time, is a Chicago Bears player. Caleb Williams has gone up 23 percent, and he's number 40 on the trending player list. But those are those are three guys. Allford's have a ton of Drake May and a ton of Caleb Williams. So, yay. Yeah, your network, your family net worth is up. It just went up.

I just want to throw something out of you for a minute. Obviously, I'm never going to co-host a show with you guys, but my name doesn't rhyme with Brian and Ryan. I like that kind of theory, and obviously, that's not going to work. But I've gone on a lot of different shows over the years, and I always offer a copy of my book for free. And I rarely get somebody who actually takes advantage of that, which I don't know why. I mean, I like the books.

There's four of them, and you pick one of them. I mean, who's better than now? I'm sending you a book. but I've gotten more requests from my book from your show that one show that all the pods I've done over the last five years where I've offered a book. I mean, I probably had 20, 30, 40 people ask for the book.

I'm like, what the hell's going on with this show? Yeah. People that are taking action. Hey, I love it. So I got a business. I love it. I mean, a lot of people have reached out to me. So please put it in the notes.

I'm extending the offer. But I love that you guys. I love that there's people listening and like we're respecting the hobby. Yeah. Which is, I think it's just everything. Like I,

you know, all the years I've been in there, I still respect the hobby and the people in it. And I just love that people have reached out to me. And, you know, they have their two cents about whatever, whatever is they're thinking.

And also like, I love to get a copy of your book. I love that. So I appreciate that shout out for the book. And if everybody listening, thanks for reaching out. I love that. And don't hesitate if you still want a copy of the book.

Love it. Brian, anything to add there? No, I think, like, the thing I love, this industry. Like I was a derivatives trader. I was in the financial industry. Every day I had to

take on Goldman Sachs, which, you know, they weren't the most, have the most integrity. But this industry, everyone has an opinion. I've learned that on something. The second thing is, is companies can help each other. Like Goldman Sachs is not helping, you know, Merrill Lynch or, you know, Bank of America. Bank of America. Yeah. We can help each other. Like Brandon and I have done partnerships before. We're going to do more. And that's smart.

And that's what I love about this industry is we can help each other out. Speaking of friends in the industry, we got this Zion case. Wow. Oh, yeah. Which is Brandon Ludox. And that goes to Brian. Go ahead. Yes.

We have a name. All right. 4.494. 461. 4,494,461. 4,461. And that was over basically a 31-day period, all baseball. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And we teed up, we tried to give hints the whole time, Brian. You know, we dropped them along the way. This isn't 5,000. You know, I think what, I think you even gave away, like, maybe the last weekend in the game. It's like, you said there was like a million scans alone or something like that. Yeah, I said, I'll give you a hint. It's got seven figures. Yeah. We couldn't lead him to water any more than we did.

All right, drum roll, please. The winner of the Zion LuddX case is Ray Wistner. Congratulations, Trey. We'll get your information. We'll send you a DM. Get all of that info and send the case out to you. We appreciate everyone for sending in their guests. We're going to be more organized with those giveaways moving forward with, but hey, got to start somewhere. Four plus million scans on the Lodex app.

Congratulations to Trey who guessed right at, I think it was 3.5 million that he guessed. So he was the closest within half a million scans or a million scans, ultimately of what it was. Everyone else was a little lower, even though we tried to give you the hints. We did our best, but congratulations to Trey. First contest giveaway, the Lodex Sion case. Oh, Brian, any of the news for Lutex this week? What goes going on in your company, Brian?

Oh, nothing. We're just chilling, you know? Yeah, Lidx Card Store. The card store. The card stores can be cool. So talking about artists, we're going to do a big case that every month we bring in a new artist. We'll have some of brand and stuff in there for the merch and collectible exchange. we'll have their signs up.

So we broke around and we're probably, you know, January. So, and it's in Texas, Arlington Ranger Stadium. And if you're listening, go vote on Mantle for the Innovation Awards for Luddax. That's, am I getting that right, Brian? Yeah, on Mantle. We're up for the Innovation Award. I think just being in the conversation matters. Like winning sometimes as an always.

It's not always the quintessential part of it all. Like, I disagree. I argue with Derek Cheat about this for years, about if you don't win the World Series, the seasons of failure. Like, I think being in the World Series is extremely cool and extremely hard to do and should be a big deal, even if you lose.

I think getting to the playoffs should be a big deal. Winning playoff games should be a big deal. Like, and it's an important message. Winning is important, but it doesn't have to be the win-all. Especially if you're in the conversation, of being a winner. I love it, guys. I think that's always got time for today.

A lot of fun, Brandon. I love this show. Yeah, man. We love you and appreciate your directness, honesty, and right up my alley. So I'm forever appreciative. Yeah, thank you very much. I'm sending you a copy of the new book. I got to make sure I send you a new way.

I want to get your feedback on it. Yeah, brother. I love it. Hey, guys, you know to find us collectibles. Dot show. You'll have links to Brandon's book. Go check that out. He was so generous to continue.

to make that offer to anyone listening. Go to the app store. Type in Luddex. It's the best scanning app on the market. Lots of new features. We're going to talk about one next week, including an integration with eBay. That's amazing.

We appreciate you for listening. Brandon, Brian, see you guys. Love you. We'll talk to you soon. See you next time on TCC. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to follow us

on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www. collectibles. dot show or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Oldford. Now get out there and collect yours.