Collector Nation - Whatnot Is Worth $20 BILLION… Are Sports Card Breaks Just Getting Started?!

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Joe Hollywood joins Ryan Alford for a deep dive into the rapid evolution of sports card collecting, live selling and breaking, and how a hobby that once felt niche continues to push further into the mainstream. Joe shares how he went from selling cards out of his basement with virtually no audience to building the most-followed sports show on Whatnot. He explains why community has been the foundation of that growth, what new breakers get wrong, and why he believes live commerce could eventually extend far beyond mobile apps and become part of the way people watch and shop through traditional media. Ryan and Joe also discuss the economics behind massive chase cards, the changing grading landscape, PSA backlogs, AI grading, a potential opportunity for Panini, growing demand for iconic names like Jordan, Kobe and Ohtani, vintage wax, missing grails and some of the biggest cards Joe has ever pulled live. Topics Covered Joe Hollywood’s journey into live selling Building the #1 sports show on Whatnot Growing to roughly 500K followers The rise of sports card breaking Why community drives successful live shows The future of live commerce Whatnot’s growth Million-dollar sports card chases Cooper Flagg and modern chase cards PSA and grading backlogs The future of AI grading Panini’s potential opportunity in grading Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shohei Ohtani Vintage wax and unopened product Why rare cards can’t always be valued by last comp High-end cards that have never surfaced Joe’s Kobe Bryant Essential Credentials pull Where the hobby goes next 🔗 Links Mentioned in This Episode Collector Nation Website: https://thecollectornation.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecollectornation TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecollectornation YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecollectornation Collector Station Website: https://thecollectorstation.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecollectorstation Ryan Alford Website: https://www.ryanalford.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford Joe Hollywood Website: https://www.joehollywood.com Whatnot: https://www.whatnot.com/user/joehollywood Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealjoehollywood/ ⭐ If you enjoyed this episode, follow Collector Nation, leave a 5-star review, and share it with another collector.

What Not just announced a $20 billion valuation. They were at like 11.5 or $12 billion on their last raise. I don't think it was even a year ago. And now they were at $20 billion. I never thought my show would be the most solid show on whatnot for sports. At the end of the day, people buy from people and they buy from real people. And that's why you're successful. I was a guy just selling cards out of his basement.

I woke up in the middle of the night. I had one of my channels with streaming live. And I looked and I kept scrolling. And there were so many people live. It's unbelievable. how many people have adopted it. The great thing is, if you have a passion to do this, you have the ability to change your life. I'm Ryan Alford.

And I'm Bella Schaefer. And this is Collector Nation. We're curating all of the content in the hobby just for you all in one place. All the videos, all the podcasts, all the reels, all those drops you want right here, right now. On today's episode, I sit down with the number one sports breaker on whatnot, Joe Hollywood. He went from selling cards out of his basement to being the most followed live seller in the hobby. So what does he see coming next? We get into the explosion of live selling, the problems with comps and grading, why the hobby is becoming mainstream,

and why Joe believes we're still only scratching the surface of how big collecting can become. Let's get into it. What's up, Joe? Welcome to Collector, Naysia. What's up, brother? Yeah, it's great to be here. How are you? I'm good, man.

We were talking before the episode. We'll be transparent here. like we kind of got rolling i didn't realize joe's right down the road we're in upstate south carolina listen he's two hours away you're literally two hours away and we're like oh you got to check out you got to check out the place i was like yeah i'll check it out and like yeah we're over i'm in Atlanta and like not without accent you're in Atlanta i said no i'm really in Atlanta so maybe parts you'll be down of your place i like that that'd be cool yeah man i'm uh on main street and easily you can't say easily without it sound

and Southern, you know? Easily. Yeah. If anyone could guidofy it, it's me. Yeah. I just love Joe Hollywood. The moment, and I knew who you were from watching breaks the last couple of years and like catching you.

Admittedly, like I told you, I've been knee-deep in projects. So I haven't caught the newest stuff. I want to get into that with you. But like, it's a crazy damn world out there. And it gets crazy. And it's getting crazier and crazier and crazier and crazier. I just know that, but the amount of the sanity I see at the national. That's my, that's my gauge.

Like, every time I'm at the national, like, the last three years on this journey, I just see the level of craziness that happens. And that is my gauge of where the hobby is. And it's never been stronger. It really hasn't. It's never been stronger. It is incredibly popular. And the run right now, the run that we're seeing going into Michael Jordan, Kobe,

me, I mean, all the big names, Victor, I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable. The show, Hey, Otani. I mean, they are really, they are just going after big names right now. Now, I don't know if that's going to continue. I don't think anyone can predict that, but we have seen where it's gone from, hey, what's the, you know, well, let's see if this person who is, you know, pick 27 round one is going to make it. And let's go get his, you know, his out of 10 or his super fracture to now, hey, we won't Cooper flag, we won con canipple and basketball, and that's basically about it.

So it's crazy. BJ Edgecombe, right? I mean, there's a couple of other ones. But the fact is- I mean, Harper is pretty sick. I mean, it's hard, you know. Yeah. But I will say, I wrote an article for Quetre Nation online.

We'll have a link to that at the show notes about this very topic, Joe. And since you went there, I want to talk about the National a minute. We're going to get in all the shit you've been up to. But, you know, when you have the Cooper flag get hit that's the you know, it got the bounties out. Everybody's chasing it. You've got non- hobby news talking about it.

And we, you and I both know there's a lot of valuable cards in that set, other than that card. But it became, but it does become the golden ticket. That's literally, I've got a picture of the golden ticket like with Cooper's face on it. And, you know, it gets found. And it's like, I don't know if that's good or bad

for the hobby. And it's like, how does Topps read, you know, you have a once in a lifetime guy, you know, potentially until he proves it. He's proven it to me, at least that he really does have that potential. He's got to stay healthy and, you know, live it out the next 10 years. But, you know, you have that, those ingredients that come together for you. But then it's like, how do you ever, are you always trying to out top that, you know, with every new set and everything that goes on? So I think it's a good thing. I'm going to tell you why I think it's a good thing. There's a few reasons.

Well, first of all, think back. You know, when they, when they, in back in 2020, they put this 12 out of 50 should be a one-on-one, right? But it's 12 out of 50 Tom Brady card at a boom draft, right? Yep. Still hasn't surfaced. Right? Hasn't come out. There's bounties all over it.

And what happened? People kind of just, you know, almost forgot that they were still a bounty on that thing, right? And bounces been going on for three years, right? And so here we are, like literally, one of the first week of update, it gets hit. And you know what?

No one's going to say, Top's held it back. No one's going to say, you know, he's never found. Hey, somebody found it, which means that these kind of things

are obtainable. And I think that everyone's going to complain about the prices of the boxes. But this almost, I'm going to say, it justifies the box prices. But I am going to say that at least people know that they're putting their best foot forward

and saying, hey, If we are seeing this kind of demand for a product, it's going to be out there. It's fair game to whoever wants to cut it. Yeah, that's interesting take it. Here's what I did. I actually defended tops more than I supported maybe the average collector. And I'm always supporting the collector.

It's only going to be wrong. But I also call it like I see it. And you can't have it both ways. If you want there to be these million-dollar chases, you've got to have the demand that drives the price up. You don't get to have $5 boxes with $5 million. our cards. So you can't have it both ways. I'm letting me word it that way. Look, I think that there's two, I'm so happy worded that way. There's two, there's two trains of thought here, right? The first one is exactly

yours is, hey, if you're going to have these big chases, you got to pay for, you got to pay for it, right? The second, the second thought process is, it's not fair to people I can't afford it. Totally understand. Totally get that. Kind of sucks. But that is the market that you're seeing right now. And if you're not able, unfortunately, to afford those things, well, then chase a card that isn't $2.5 million or $3 million. Chips a $20,000 card. And guess what? If you're unable to afford a box or a pack or a team in a chase for a multimillion dollar card, chances are that maybe something that's more affordable for you, if you hit a $10,000 or $20,000 card, that's still going to be a life-changing moment for you. Yeah, 100%.

we're aligned on that. And look, and I understand, look, I'm not, I empathize with both sides of it, but you, you, you just got to make a choice. And it's, it's okay if you choose or it's not worth that to you or it's out of your budget range, but you've got to plan accordingly. You know, not everyone can buy in a Ferrari or not everybody, you know, can buy a BMW. And that's okay. Well, it's okay.

It is okay. But because this hobby is predominantly, some people, that are watching it grow and expand in front of their eyes. They're not used to it. They're not used to billionaires wearing cards around their neck, right? And this is where we're, they're now used as not only status symbols, but now we're seeing the hobby becoming more and more mainstream.

And that's not something that happened. Like when I was, I got back into the hobby right when my son, I was a collector back in the day. And I was a collector in the 90s. And actually, I was a collector in the 80s. I'm going to show you.

now I'm really going to show you how old I am. Dude, I'm old too, man. I clicked in the 80th. I'm 49, brother. Bro, with the same age. Literally the same. I love a lot better than me. All right.

So, we're definitely the same age. So born in 77, I get my first pack of cards when I'm eight years old. My grandfather, I grew up in a broken arm, right? So my grandfather was my first pack of cards. I fall in love. Thank God I skipped most of the 86 set because it was terrible anyway. And then 87, BoJack. in future stars,

tops. I get really into it. The rated rookie Don Russ is, the Blue Fleer. I even remember, like, people are going crazy with this guy. I mean, Kevin Siteser. Like, oh, this guy's going to be the next George.

Oh, yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Will Clark, Kevin Siteser. Kevin Mitchell. I know all the guys. Oh, man. I know the whole class.

Yes, absolutely. Bobby Bonilla. Greg Mattox was in that. Greg Mattox was in that set. Tom, Gladden, Smoltz, all the, you know, it was already nice. King Griffey Jr. That changed the whole fucking game.

Bro. That was my, you, you nailed it. And so in 89, this company called Upward Dach changes the cards, right? They're super nice. Back in the time. You got a nice. It blew your mind, right? Like, you had these 40 cents cards and they were the same thing, same kind of cardboard.

And then you saw that beautiful dollar pack or $2 pack depending on where you got it from. And it was like, oh, my God. Mechanography Jr. Card number one, right? It was the toughest to keep, literally always, card number one's always the toughest to keep in condition because the way people used to store them in storing like we saw them now. They were cold and rubber bands.

They had, you know, whatever. And always card number one's always the one that gets jacked, right? So, yeah. And that was the car that we all chased for back when it was 12 years old. I still remember going to flea markets. Until it became the big hurt, Frank Thomas. that's another article I wrote too I like the dichotomies of this industry

like crazy it's like you don't want the breaking and the superstars and all the lights and the glam and everything's going higher all the while you're selling more than you ever have correct and people are selling all kinds of different stuff that you never even expect that would be valuable right

and it's all happening in front and you know what the liquidity aspect of it as well there's real demand remember when we grow up up like when we had a card and we wanted to sell it. Good luck. Good luck. Oh, yeah, good luck. You're going to like really find somebody who just got into collecting right and tried to do a trade with them and then think about the liquidity process. There was a process for the liquidity.

Like, how can you just trade this card for that card? And then maybe I can get like that. I mean, it's not my time anymore. You go to a card. 90% is what you're probably going to get on your comps and maybe more. I mean, there's that kind of demand out there right now. And it's good. You know what? It's a good thing. It's a good thing. And I'll be the first one to say, the more mainstream that collecting gets, I still think if you ask seven out of ten people if they're a collector, I still think the answer is going to be no. Maybe it might even be eight out of ten that do not collect. I mean, if you ask me, just the average person walking down the street, they'd get you collect cards, probably know.

That shows me that there's so much runway for growth here because it's still not mainstream. And it will be. The more popular and the nicer the cards get, more popular it's going to be. I mean, oh my God, the national. Let me tell you something. That was a busiest ever. And we was in Chicago last year, too. And in my, I don't know, it felt twice as busy as it was before.

And that's like, upstairs was completely different. Upstairs was the land of misfit toys last year. Is what I called it. And this year, hey, no, no, you got, you stepped it up. If you're up there, you had the stage. We did some stuff up there. You had other things.

You had signage up there. The museum. I couldn't fucking believe it. I went up there last year. I went up there last year. And I was just like, I was like, oof, I was like, I didn't. It kind of was the land of misfit toys. I mean, I think there was like bong sellers.

I don't even know what was going on, you know? I didn't, I missed the bon I miss the bong seller. I'm telling you, something was weird at there. It was why I remember going up there and I was like, this is not good. That's all I said. And I was with my son. I was with my son again this year because he, me and him were really the reason where I got back into collecting. And so I went up there last year with him.

And then I was going up there this year, with him and I ran into Steve Hart at the BBC 8 and what a nice guy. I don't know if you ever met C. Hart, not one of the nicest guys you'll ever mean. I don't think I've meant. Yeah. So they're the authenticators of all the older product of the event. They're like the number one.

And so basically if you have like a wax box from 1984, let's say you're going Dan Marino and John Elway on saying you're sending it into BBC eight to make sure that, you know, none of these guys that you sold in card shops back in the day tamper the product went through it so that way you're buying isn't searched or isn't tampered with like he's literally the guy that makes sure that none of that stuff happens their backlog is so big they stopped authenticating in march they're still not authenticating and they saw the backlog wild that is the year that is the term like you know they have words of the year like industry backlog like yeah yeah i mean i think about be if they brought out becket right i mean think about that yeah but

What? And I wrote, I'm not trying to promote all my articles, but I've written articles on all these topics lately. Interesting way, you know, SCG's sales has been down like 70%, 50% since the purchase, you know, like the tank. Suddenly they're the only ones that have a value tier available. Who, who benefits the most by FSA and Beckett being closed? Well, I mean, yes. I'm not saying that it's a weird.

I don't, I think it's coincidental. I don't think that that's how they would try to revive the company by taking the other. It's just the reality of how crazy the industry is. But it is ironic and does point to maybe the intelligence of the purchase. They still have a game, a horse in the game. But SCG is not set up for the volume that, you know, like that. You know, you know, listen, I'm really surprised by CGC, not really trying. We have a big footprint, right?

They have a bigger footprint than you would say. I was just in a movie. I was just in a movie with them. It was signed still delivered on Amazon Prime and Apple TV, and we did a movie, and they were actually part of it. They were in the movie as well. And I'm actually really surprised that they haven't really, like, maybe they are,

but I haven't seen them really tried to try to take a strangle hold on that, like, really market to those excess, you know, amount of, you know, cards that need to be great in and say, hey, bring them here. Like, you have a home here. I think that would be such an easy layup for them to do, but they haven't done that. The other thing is people still have not embraced AI grading. And I think that's the issue is that you have a lot of, you have these newer graders that are trying to embrace the AI grading.

And for some reason, it's just people are still thinking of AI still not being able to spell a name properly on a thumbnail. And they don't understand the, you know, they're still not fully comfortable with it yet. I think that they will be. But as of right now, they're not. And if there was a big company that would come out with a grading service, I think this would be the time. If you ever wanted to do it, now's the time to do it. Because there's so much backlog. PSA is rejecting, you know, myself told me that, you know, well, first of all, that they stopped doing, they stopped doing economy, right?

There was no more economy orders. And then you have to be a certain value now for the cards to be graded. I don't know. If I was one of these very large companies that I'm not going to point out which ones, but I would be very interested in starting that service. And I'm sure that a lot of people that would be interested in that. I think it's all about the strategy of, you know, PSA has a stranglehold on the value, the perceived market value.

It starts with like a ground warfare or something with and some interesting, tactics, I think, to immediately make your grading services as close to PSA as possible. And I would be in a war room. And so what I used to do with brands and everything else. Like tacking that, because you can build the infrastructure. I mean, you go hire people. You can train them. Use AI where you can.

I want to talk about that in a second because I 100% agree with you, too, about the comment on AI. But it starts with like whatever it is. even if it seems gimmicky at first, whatever it is that gets you in that, you know, obviously PSA has built a brand for 30 years, 40 years, whatever it is, but you can't chip away with that overnight, but something that just immediately gets to where, you know, you're not coming out and people seeing yours at 50% of what PSA is. You know, that's the biggest hurdle immediately. I mean, obviously, I shouldn't say the COO would tell me, you know, infrastructure, which he would

be right, you know, so they don't have these same issues. But that's the biggest sort of stranglehold is around the value that PSA still holds versus the other ones, right? Sure. Well, think about this. Think about, think about if you're Panini right now, you lose NBA, you lose your NBA license, you lose your NFL license, right? Your, you still have your WNBA license, but like it, things are not the same, right? Yeah. unfortunately for them. If you're them, why not look at this massive opportunity?

You're already trusted by the hobby. Some people still missed your cards, right? You're not getting those licenses back anytime soon. Why not say, you know what? We're going to shift focus here and we're going to say, hey, we already have a name in the hobby. We have a trusted name in the hobby on the most part. They were terrible. I agree with you.

They were terrible redemption. So it's all call a spade to spade. absolutely freaking pits when it came to redemptions, right? Terrible, like, did not really want to partner up on social media for anything. They were really kind of they were kind of standoffice on that way.

But if you were then, what an amazing opportunity it is to try to dive into something. Now that you don't have a license in any of those major sports, you can say, hey, we're going to start great baseball cards and basketball cards and football cards. And you know what? We're not going to be, we're not,

we're going to hire independent graders to come here we have a trusted name in the hobby and you know they've got to show up to the booth every every year of the national and what what a great way for them to regenerate to make home and the irony of them judging and grading all the tops cards but it's true i don't think it's a terrible idea i agree with the trust and like yeah there's annoyances but i think there's still affinity and there's still a ton of equity if they capitalize on it but the the license things is yeah that seems to be a ship's sale i don't know where that lawsuit's going to end up maybe toops is going to have the right of knack's going to write a big check but i don't know i don't

coming back a genie's not going back in the bottle but i think if someone can figure out how to not just let the halo of the category come to them but become a beacon like you're saying cgc they should at least be getting all the the pfm people that were headed to psa back right don't Let them keep running, you know. No one's sort of, no one's doing anything like line in the sand. Here's what we're doing. Making a stand. Like, here's how we are, how we're going to attack pricing value and come to us.

It's like they're just sort of waiting for it to happen, like the natural halo. Yeah. Like, I'm so shocked that CGC is not being super aggressive, especially with Pokemon, which is on fire, still on fire. And that was somewhere where they at least had some. you know, some advantages. And they're, if I was then, I would be, if I was ahead of their marketing right now, I would be, I would be making the most aggressive pushes you could ever make while your competitors simply just cannot handle the amount of cards that are willing to be rated.

This is such a great time to, you know, to prove yourself to the hobby and say, hey, we are an equal. We're not a substandard. We're an equal to this company. Let us show you why. Is it the time they're going to be pushing right now? I think they're dropping a massive opportunity. Give me a favor, Joe.

I mean, live selling, you talk about the hobby barely scratching the surface. Live selling, you know, it's like gigantic in certain verticals, but it's sort of just scratching the surface. So, I mean, talk about that. Let's start with sort of the live streaming aspect, how it's gathered heat in the hobby. What are the mainstays of that? What are the threats with that? But then just the broader potential. I just love perspective overall from you.

Yeah. You know, obviously when I started on whatnot about four years ago, it was a lot different than where it is now, right? There was a handful. I was thinking about this last night, actually. Actually, I woke up in the middle of the night. I had one of my channels was streaming live. So we have multiple channels.

And one of my channels were streaming live. And I looked and I kept scrolling. And there was still many people live. And then I'm looking at it these little country, country codes and there's people streaming live from France. They're in the UK. They're in Australia. I'm thinking about where we were four years ago.

And it was like, if I woke up two o'clock in the morning, I had like three options, right? I mean, sometimes I had three options and two of the great ass. I mean, it was just, it was so bad. And now when you take a look at not only just a cart, but like you take a look at every single category that's live streaming right now, it's unbelievable. How many people have adopted it, have picked it up. And now you have certain people are going to be more talented than other people. And you have certain people that picked up, you know, where their strengths are and where their weaknesses are.

But the great thing is, is that if you have a passion to do this, you have the ability to change your life. Literally, in a matter of like not a lot of time because it is picking up so much team. I mean, shoot, what, not just announce a $20 billion dollar valuation. Yeah. Yeah, $20 billion. I mean, think about that. They were like 11 and a half or $12 billion. on their last raise or I don't think it was even a year ago and now they're at 20 billion.

I mean, think how fast that is growing. And you know what? Great for them. I'm on the platform. So great for them. I want to see them at $2 trillion valuation. I want to see them continue to grow. That means they're gaining all the users.

But the thing is, is like, even if I asked right now, they're at a $20 billion valuation. Think about how many companies are on that $20 billion valuation or not. A lot of those companies you've probably heard of it for. Yeah. still not so much, man. Them not so much. Like if I went and I asked a hundred people like, hey, have you been on what, knows?

I don't know. There's five of them going to say yes. A 10 of them are going to say yes. It's less than 20. I know that. It's definitely less than 20. I'd have a thousand dollars hard cash. It's less than 20.

And I know the data is actually like 13% or something. That's brain awareness. Not even like usage is like 7%, 8%. Correct. And so when you have brand awareness, that's less than 20%, and you have a skyrocketing category. And the thing about what live selling is in China, like live selling in China is taken off. It's been totally embraced. And I'm not saying we have to catch up to like, it's great to catch up to everybody.

But live selling is totally different. I think that what people understand. This is the next. I always like to think of live selling is, and it's not just sports category. Collector Nation is not just a podcast. We are your one-stop shop for all things a hobby. All the best creators, all the best reels, all the best content curated for you every day. And if you're interested in learning more, go to thecollectornation.com or download our app on iOS or Android.

We'll see you there. I mean, you've been doing it. Tell me, I mean, what is it? What makes it magic? The community. By far, you know, I was saying this before. the community. So when you're a live seller,

this is what I firmly believe is that you're going to dictate who your audiences. And that's the beautiful part about being a live seller. So when I first started streaming with my son, I mean, we were streaming out of my basement and streaming next to a hot water heater and taking these cards from my collection and selling them.

And I had literally no audience. The only people that were in my room were either A, people that knew I was selling things for really dirt cheap and I was getting cooked on every single sale, right? My sons and I did it for like a month. That was us. God. I live on you.

You have no idea how bad. I mean, I just sure. My son actually said a day like that. If there's one card that you would buy back and I've blocked this card out of my mind because I just got so hosed on the sale. Like I kind of like put in like the nether regions of my head. And then he said to me,

tap. I said something else. what am I saying? He goes, what about the hot shots Michael Jordan from Flair? And I was like, yep, that's the one. That's the one I would want back. I mean, I opened up 50 boxes of that product and I still have not been able to pull it out. Even if I did pull it out, I'm pulling it out for buyers anyway, right? I was just like, just the magic of actually hitting that card again. It was just such a tough card to hit and I had the Michael Jordan. And of course, I sold it on whatnot for, I started out of buck. I had no idea what I had.

I don't even want to tell you that. Yeah. Oh, God. The only thing is burning harder and then that card and the flames coming out of it is my head for selling it

and for deciding that was a good idea. I know. So I got to ask you this. I'm always curious. So that was a, you took a beating on that. That one card and probably a few others, I'm sure,

like we all. A lot of others. What's the most of overvalue? that someone's paid for something you sold. The other direction. You know, I'm going to tell you this. I love the direction. I can't say that there was like one card that was like,

I can't believe that they had sold for that. Because here's the reason why. Have cards sold over Comps in my show all the time? Of course they do. All the time. But then in retrospect, like I look at some of those cards that we had sold like three months ago or six months ago, even a year ago. And I'm like, man, they got a really good deal.

So A, okay, did they overpay because they weren't knowledgeable? Or did they overpay because they're super knowledgeable? And they saw the trends. And they said, hey, this is a really good condition card. I'm going to go buy this raw card. I'm going to get it graded because I see the trends of what's happening right now. And this card's going to be worth a hell of a lot more. So let me grab it now before it goes up.

And what's the difference between buying something that's, you know, And let's say there's something that's hitting high. Like these companies, they're companies that trade at high prices all the time. And Joe, you're going to have a friend and me on this because here's what I think. I'm a personal choice guy. I'm a, we all get to make the decisions that we decide to make and be informed.

And no one's forcing you to buy anything. Correct. And if you get caught up, it's called your own personal guide. You own you. You push the button. I'm sorry. There's no pity parties.

Like, I just, I'm in that. And look, I've done done shit. But I tell you what, I don't blame the gun. You know?

Like, like, people that are like, no, listen, we have a lot of accounts out there, right? And if a car goes for $5 above a comp,

but are people going to talk about it. Yeah, okay. But like, you're exactly right. There's got to be at the end of the day. No one's forcing you. Even if it's a five second,

auction. Oh, I didn't have time to look it up. Well, you didn't have to buy it. Somebody says someone once. It was like a year ago that said show you're just too exciting. That's my fault that I run a good show. Like that's that really, the reason you're tuning it is because this is an exciting show. Entertainment. You can watch it. You can watch the show without having to buy. You really can. Right. But we are going to bring items that are going to be very unique and very rare. And it's up to you to depend, whether you want to open. or not and whether you want to buy those or not and I think it ultimately you and I have the same the same focus it resides with you it does and last comp and I have a t-shirt that says this last comp lies

especially in this market it does I mean because it's just not that shit goes you know here's it's it's so funny when people want to I'll watch people at shows and I'm not going to name any names but it's like they always go to the bottom comp you know when they're when they're buying And it's always, well, they throw out the bottom comp when they're selling. And look, I believe you throw it out every time because, you know, some auction that some idiot had end at 4 a.m. And everybody's asleep. And a $200 my homes sells for $75 or whatever happens. There's just always anomalies, number one, on both ends. So you've got to throw that out. And so you look at averages and things like that.

But then, you know, some of this stuff is so hot. that like it's $150 today, but it's trending to where that, if all data and even any annas will tell you that that card is going to be, you know, 325 and 6 months by all the available data, then it's up to the buyer to decide if they're, you know, speculating, they really like it or if they were just immature and get caught up in the, you know, competitive nature of it. And that's still up to the person. I agree with you. And the other thing that we're forgetting about is rarity.

Some of these cards is rare. I mean, some of these cards don't sell every single day, and the market has moved into definitely new levels. I mean, there are Jordans and Kobe's that haven't sold in a certain grade for a long time. And you're not going to go by last com from where it was 18 months ago. I'm something tonight. So whatnot has given me this to auction off tonight. What the hell is that?

is that a joke potato autograph potato autograph potato and I have the PSA cert right here for it oh my god is that Elmer Spud sorry I might need

dad Jake so all the proceeds are going to go to all the proceeds are going to go to to charity so so Roder McAadley yeah Justin Seal Mattias Bezellis

Max Holloway Mo Bamba, Grant Williams, friend of mine, Logan Paul, Gary V, Chad Johnson, Mariano Rivera, and Lawrence Taylor. They all signed the potato? They all signed the potato. Is that going to last? Like, is it? The issue. So we're having a big celebration show on Friday for a half a million followers on whatnot with the most followed sports show on one.

Like, we're very blessed, right? No other channel has a lot of sports followers on us on one. Yeah. It is amazing, right? And now I have a lot of sports show on one. have this fucking potato. Sorry, I have this freaking potato. There's my PSA

thing. And like, what's going through my mind right now is like this thing better not sprout. Because I see a little coloration over here, like something's happening. Who's the idea was the potato? Not mine. I wonder what. It was a great idea. I said, listen to me.

I said, I'm all about biodegradable. I mean, but please do something a little. There's a pun in that, right? Bio degradable. Yeah, so if you have to lose this, you have a couple of options. I mean, I guess you can make a Mariano Rivera French fry. I mean, maybe.

I mean, but you're going to have to freeze fry. You're going to have to freeze. I think you have to inject that thing with like some, something that just turns it into like plastic on the inside. Like taxidermia? Yeah. Yeah. No, this is my world.

And you know what? Someone, I guess, didn't realize the potatoes expire. So, yeah, I can't wait to see what we do here with a potato. We've talked about how what not. It's crowded, but still growing. I mean, what's standing out? I mean, let me share an idea and then I want to get you to respond. And it's kind of the same question.

It strikes me that we haven't completely maximized the opportunity. And not to just, I'm a marketing guy first. I mean, I'm not saying just commercializing it. But you've got the vertical screen. And I don't want TV commercials or anything. But I don't know that we've completely. exhausted what can happen on the screen within the time period,

while the show's going on. But from your perspective, what's the evolution and what's going to stand out versus what everybody's doing now? So it's more than standing out. So let me backtrack. Let me share with you what I'm seeing. I'm seeing more people like,

that have never been collectors, not just buying cards, but they're buying things for significant others. They're using it as gifts. You never saw that before. You know, the hobby to me was always mostly selfish. You would buy something for yourself or maybe you bought something for your kid, right? But most of them was, hey, it's my PC. It's my favorite player.

I'm buying this card so I could sell it at a higher price, right? That's what we're mostly saying. Now I'm starting to say, hey, I bought this card because my husband, been is a huge, you know, a huge Luca Dachic fan. The huge Michael Jordan fan. You're a huge Shohei Otani fan.

Hey, I bought this baseball bat. I bought this bass signed basketball. I bought this, you know, whatever it might be, soccer ball because my wife is into it. My mom likes it.

My kids. And now you're seeing the expansion of that. And I've never seen it to this degree as I'm seeing it right now. I am seeing more and more non-collectors. people I've never collected before coming to the hobby over the last four years that I've been selling than I've ever seen in my entire life. Like the same collectors are still there, but the expansion of it.

And so when you're talking about like what like whatnot and what we're seeing like trend wise, I'm seeing not just sports cards, but like the, you're in the category that I'm seeing growing the most right now. If you go on whatnot and you say, hey, who has the most viewership of any category? It's women's clothing. Women's clothing is more people in women's clothing than they're on sports cards right now. It's crazy. But because sports cards are becoming some more popular, guess what? You have that cross of where now you're seeing these people that are going into one category, whether it's coins, whether it's luxury bags or whatever.

We've researched about that before, actually. They are coming into cards and like, oh, this is pretty cool. This is mainstream. Let's talk about it. Let's let's get into it. And you're seeing that. Yeah. Is, do we have an opportunity with trading cards specifically to flip the script or just make it?

I mean, like, there's a balance between not making it about the card and making it a show and all that. And it can be both. But I don't know. Just feel like, you know, you have the wheel of the teams and that's somewhat kind of what I feel like the hamster wheel we're on a little bit with the same old, same old. We are. I mean, we are a little bit on the hamster wheel. where you have to make yourself different. You got to make yourself stand out.

And I say this all the time. If you're a new seller, if you say, hey, it doesn't matter what platform you're on, you can be on eBay Live, you can be on TikTok, you can be on Fanatics Live. We used to be on Fanatics Live. We have an incredible relationship with Fanatics. We're a top seller of underwaps and, you know, I think in the world. Nobody sells more underwaps products than we do. And I'm proud about that because that product, let me tell you something, that product

is unbelievable. That is unbelievable. They do a great job with that product. And that's why we are proud to carry it. But I think if you're a newer seller and you're something that's coming in, it's just like anything else. Don't do the same thing that everybody else is doing because you're going to get the same results as everybody else. You're going to be the you're going to get the same 20 or 30 people in your room.

And people are naturally attracted to something organic, something they can relate to. And ultimately, I think people use this as an escape. That's what I think. I think generally people are using going on these platforms as an escape from the day-to-day grind that they're going through in the nine to five or whatever, the working or the graveyard shifts or whatever it might be. And they are coming on here and they're doing something they enjoy. You know, swiping is definitely a little bit of fun.

But they're doing something that brings them to a better place. I never thought I was going to be the top life. I never thought my show would be the most followed show and the most watch show and whatnot for sports. I never thought that. I was a guy just selling cards out of his basement. And we just did something. And we kept building it. And you have no idea how many times I failed.

Bro, I failed more times again. I was streaming on a fucking ping pong table. I had a ping pong. I thought it was the most interesting way, all right, listen. Are you playing ping pong against the wall up and you're playing it while you're on? No, the net was up. The net was up. The net was up.

The net was up. And then I would have to take the net down. because in my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be the most brilliant idea to have the basketball game going in the background. So I would have a TV in my basement going on in the background. So major distraction. And a reminder that, hey, if you want to watch the game,

put it on your own TV. You can see it in a lot better color than you can in the background of my Wat Nacho. And then I would sell cards on a pink one. This was the upgrade. This was the upgrade. This is an upgrade. The pink part is a little.

This is like where I started. No, no, no. This is like the third rendition of the show. We learned a lot, which is what I've learned the most is that you got to, number one, do something different than everybody else. But like the reminisce of where we were and then building those memories and building those core, core memories, whether it's your kids, your dad, whatever I might be. That's something that you can't replicate in a lot of things.

This, what this hobby brings. That's interesting. I think I remember that. I think that, I mean, I would summarize that. I mean, it is bring sort of authenticity to it. You know, like, lean into, remember, I always tell people like this, like, remember it's a show and go look up what show means. You know, it means it's your job to entertain and to educate and to like, it doesn't mean you have to be funny because if you're not funny, it doesn't mean you have to be loud if you're not loud. but you got to keep things moving.

You know, if you've even watched dead airs, you know, dead air. There's so much dead air and like, that's where I think there's like, brutal. Yeah.

Brutal. How many times I go on somebody's channel and nobody's walking? Yeah, and I'm like, like what happens is pretty full sleep? Like what happened? And it's brutal or the people that just say, live down below.

Oh my God. Listen, there's got to be some, authentic enthusiasm. You don't have to be the most outgoing person. You don't have to be the loudest person. You don't have to be like me. Just be yourself or be actually authentic and excited about what you're doing.

Be passionate. How about that? Just be passionate about what you're doing. Because that conveys, that comes out. Like, you're passionate about this. You can tell. You're very passionate about this. And they, if you miss the passion, you're going to mess.

You're going to miss what you're doing. And this is just like consistency, right? Like, you got to start showing. up at same time, same bad channels on some level, right? Like, and, you know, like, I was talking to the team about a playbook, and I, you know, I did it for a month with the kids and I go, wait a second, I'm going to build a store. I'm going to do some things. I'm going to come back to this when the time's right, but the time's not right right now.

That was like a year ago. And, but I kind of know, like, just because it's kind of like marketing in general, you know, consistency showing up, repeat impressions. And people say they don't like formulas, but they're. they do. Like there's a there's formula for shows, right? If you watch law and order or you like whatever, there's formulas for it, right? There's structure and it doesn't mean you have to have everything figured out, but you do need structure and like a flow. And is that important? Because I would think that it would be. Okay, my start time is important. What my community loves is there's

never an end point. All right. So my show is very, very different than I show you. So maybe that's why it's popular. So on Friday night, it starts at 8.18 p.m. That's when it starts. But that's a lot of structure. Yep. And they know that time. And it ends at some point Sunday morning. And I go and I'm the person who goes all the way through with no breaks. I know. I don't know how you do that. Uh, I don't know. I and everything else like you said. The IVs. You've seen the IVs. Yeah, I do. I get the IVs every Friday. if the nurse that comes in here. She's always putting in chlorine and the B complex in there and all kinds of.

And, you know, Joe, like talking with you for just under an hour. Like, you, some people go, well, why are they successful? Why does that work? And it works because you're real. And you know that you can't fake that. And I think we can talk about this time, this, this format and all this stuff. But at the end of the day, people buy from people and they buy from real people.

And that's why you're successful. I can't let negativity or I can't let outside influences that I think are going to drag me down. Like, I can't be privy to it. Like, I have to be really oriented. I'm just keeping the right people around me because my time is so limited. Because my Tuesday show goes into Wednesday night, sometimes early Thursday morning. It's insane. that's a 24-hour show.

And then, okay, then I get, I get a little bit of sleep Wednesday night, well, Thursday morning, and I'll get sleep Thursday, and I get ready for a 36-hour marathon over the weekend. And then the cycle starts again, right? So my time to me is just like, I'm sure with you, like, you're running a podcast, you have a, you have a store, you have all these things that are happening. You're developing, you know, something that's going to, you know, blow out a car ladder, right? Rapid fire, really quick. Go for it.

This product you've ever ripped. 1996, Bowman's best basketball. My favorite rip, anytime I rip it. The atomic refractor rookies of Kobe Bryant, atomic refractors of Michael Jordan. There's atomics in literally every box. The acetates, the dye cuts in there with the silhouettes,

It's just, it's my favorite product. Love it. Biggest pull you witnessed live. The one that I pulled, the 2003 EX Kobe Bryant, essential credential to nine. It was also the one that whatnot couldn't post because I cursed so many times in that clip. They would have to bleak out the entire thing. So I didn't post this. Like, there was so many F bombs on that, man.

What's it words now? Oh, God. I mean, There's no comps on it. You can't even count for things. I got a, it was back and when I pulled it a few years ago, there was angry six figures a couple of years ago. Yeah.

I don't imagine what it's worth now. It was out of the, it was out of 03 EX. It was LeBron James rookie year. And when I pulled it, I just thought I had a regular Kobe. And when I opened it and it said five and nine with a frost on it, I recently hit a Michael Jordan Auto out of SBX on card.

And I got excited about that. And there was my first Jordan Auto that I opened. up live and I was like wow like that was like a big moment for me but man I'm man I'll never I'll never forget the acceleration I had on that X card I mean I literally broke my chair I literally like like I fucking broke my chair and you're coming back it was insane I was shaking oh and then the internet trolls were all over me I can't believe it you know he was gonna ruin the car I was shaking the car I was literally shaking with the car I do see I would never troll anybody but I do see people and I'm more like

I don't want you to mess it up you know No, but at some point, like, listen, we will, when you're holding the car, you're not very much pressure, but you have it in control. Yeah, I know. I have been there. No, no, you know, but not many other people, no. No, and they'll be like, oh, my God, it's a PSA, too. No, it's no.

Yeah. Biggest mistake, New Breakers make. Biggest mistake that New Breakers make is focusing solely on the product and not your audience. Good. Last one. One hobby trend that you think is just getting started. Hobby trend that is just getting started. Yeah, I think that the trend of,

this is a really good question, man. You've stopped me on this one. I had two thoughts. I'm going to tell you what my thoughts were. I'm debating. I'm debating between A. people, you know, because of everything that's going on with PSA and them going to maybe a different grader, I think that one of the trends you might see is there's such a backlog for graded cards.

I almost feel like people that get their cards prepped, there isn't really a mainstream prepping service that is out there. You think of a mainstream prepping service like a big one. You do the old mom and pop companies. I think that eventually there's going to be a mainstream card prep service. to clean credit for better grades that we haven't seen. And I see that is something that's going to happen. So that's a trend that I think is going to build is that it's going to be a service that's going to emerge as like the card preping service. And I think you're going to see that company flourish.

I think that's a little bit. Maybe you and I need to build that, Joe. What's the other one you were thinking? I still think the trend. I still think that the smart money is still going to go into the big needs. I don't see that slowing down. I still think the Shohei Otanis are going to become even more valuable. I mean, if you go in my room right now and you say, hey, would you rather have Shohei Otani at Baybrook?

You know, more people are going to say Shohei Otani than Baybrook. It's the craziest, right? That's crazy. Right? I mean, he doesn't have the lifetime numbers that Babe Ruth has, but people really feel like at the end of this guy's career, he's going to have better numbers in baby, right? And he pitches and there's like a whole. No, I mean, he is a, if he could, he didn't have to go much longer. He's the greatest player to ever played.

I mean, he's, no one. Who's played it? He doesn't level on both sides that he has. I mean, I know Babe Ruth, but like, it's not,

I don't, I think he's, his Babe Ruth, was Babe Ruth really is dominant on both sides as Joe Hey? I mean, you think of the Babe Ruth that was knocking down like four hot dogs. Yeah,

I know. I know when he first, you know, I mean, the guy, the guy was calling his own shots. I mean, yeah,

but he wasn't playing against this level of competition and this level of athlete and this level, like, I don't know, maybe. People say that, right?

People say that, and then I watched the video the other day. of Bo Jackson throwing out Harold Reynolds on a flock. Oh, Bo Jackson's the greatest athlete to ever live. I think. One of them, top three. Like, athletic.

Like, no one. Who else? Is there another person that's been all-star in baseball, all-star in football? Dion? Did Dion? Did Dion make it? Did Dion make it?

Did he all-s-on-baseball? I don't... That's a good question. I don't know. I feel like there might have been one year he might have made it. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe.

But I still remember... I don't think of putting those two on the same. And look, Dion was... is an all-timer. I don't know if you're wrong. But just athleticism-wise. I mean, Bo Jackson was, what, 240, 2-35 ran a 4-2?

Like, he could- Right. But think about longevity, too? Huh? Think about longevity, too. Dion did it for a long time, man. Dion did. Oh, Dion did.

I mean, I don't, I think you can. Deon did it for a long time. I'm not saying one's more talented to the other listen. If you gave me the both of them. They're both of them. It's more athleticism, I think, that is where I'm at. I even hate to care on them, right?

But, I mean, if you, I do too. I feel like I hate these comparisons. Like I hate talking about even LeBron and Jordan. Like I, not because I don't have my beliefs, but because I just think it's unfair to both, you know? It is.

It is unfair to both, right? But I mean, that just, the trend is like, I don't think you're going to see a lot of love going for Jordan. I think you're going to see more and more of these products that were, I think you're going to see a shift. I think a lot of people like the new stuff, right? But I think

you're going to see this shift back to people are still going to want to search for those really high-end cards that have not come out yet. And let's say facts. There's not a lot of left to them. There's not a lot of those products left. There's not a lot of those SP products left. There's not a lot of those Flair products left. There's not a lot of those things.

You know, they find them with few and far between. So I always feel like, like, I see it shifting back. I mean, can you imagine you would have kept your blasters from 2018 baseball? You know, from eight years ago? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's so funny. You and I think very similar and like we're on the same plane

because literally before I came in here, what I've been working on in the back room, you got to come here, dude. I've got a secret passage through the Pepsi door. You got to come to it. I loved it. But literally I was, I'm working on, and I'm doing like some checklist and set stuff

with some things I'm doing. And I was literally going, saying that exact thing going, what hasn't been hit? Like I was good because I was like because going through the set list I was like somewhat this isn't documented anywhere really. I mean I know people talk about like one or two cards here and there but I'm not unaware of a database that truly exists that's like hasn't been you know it doesn't mean it hasn't been pulled it's not somebody's private collection. I haven't been publicly. Publicly put on the solar knee bay publicly put through a golden or insert auction here, pristine, whatever it is. Something that hasn't hit the public market in documenting so that.

there's kind of like that I don't know that's interesting I'm in a handful of them I mean I can think of that are just like the ultimate grouse right the Steph Curry super fire yeah Steph Curry the Luca Donchick 101 black finite from prison so hasn't been hit um or yeah or hasn't emerged yet um yeah but I've hard time believe that sometimes I think these things get thrown away or something like they stick your card can you imagine someone throwing out I don't like anyone's not in purpose saying like you know just but I've I have I have I have haven't done it, but I've come close to it, like with the cards sticking together or something. So, yes, cards, that, yes, that, that, that is a, that that's a real thing.

That's a real thing. Yeah, it could have happened. I, I think it's more, I think it's more like back of the day, like, did somebody open up a path? Like, there's a masterpiece that hasn't been found in Michael Jordan in a binder of some 30-year-old guy, a 40-year-old guy that has no idea what he has. Or his mom, like, he left his, he left his collection. And then his mom was sold it at a garage sale to like Uncle Jessup or something. And it's like never going to come out. That happened to this gap.

I know. I know it happens to all of us, dude, except I did it on whatnot. I got cooked on whatnot. You got cooked at a rummage sale. The same thing. The same thing. But like, you know what? It was worth it.

It was worth it because we were able to build up something really special. So God works in those ways. And God did humility. and then you'll learn from it and then you and then you build he is joe hollywood he will be back on the show joe man talk to me and tell everybody most of everybody who's listening to show probably knows who you are but on and seen you on whatnot but drop those details uh links and all that stuff we'd love to thank you uh follow us on whatnot we have multiple channels on whatnot but if you want to see me i'm the only person that goes live on my show and it's just joe hollywood that's it um i have joe hollywood show

I have Joe Hollywood Studios, but Joe Hollywood. That's the one that you'll catch me every Tuesday night at 18 p.m. That's a 24-hour show. That ends late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning. And then Friday nights is a flagship show. 8.18 p.m. Friday nights and Sunday morning at no one knows what time. It all depends. On fall this day, I was opening up cases of underapps baseball at 6.30 in the morning.

And I was like, I got brunch in four hours. Like, I'm cooked. Right? And I went to brunch. I'm not complaining about it. We love opening up great product. We're hunting for, we're hunting for show pay. We're hunting for Aaron Judge, right?

We're hunting for Mickey Mantle. And I go to church. I go to Mass. We always go to Mass. Right. Yeah. I was so zomified. I remember praying in the pew.

And I was like, God, forgive me for closing my eyes right now. I'm so bad. And we went, and we went to, I knew we went to fall we went to we went to brunch and I remember at brunch like my eyes are like rolling on the back of my head I'm like man I got to do something I either just got like stand up and like not like shaking it out like or like doing something and I remember like walking around the restaurant and like do I'm like man I got to go I got I got to get I remember going home and you know somebody else drove I remember going home and with my kids and I remember thank God you know I I wasn't driving I remember me and my family at home we had one of my employees actually drive us back from the from the restaurant and I went to bed dude I woke up on Monday I woke up on like I was father's day that was great yeah totally missed man it was awesome opening up those baseball six six they got but man I wouldn't but I wouldn't trade it I wouldn't trade it like that's like that's the coolest part about the show is like you just

don't know when's going to end you don't know what's going to happen and you don't know who's going to come through Joe is always hot Hollywood and we'll have him back soon. We appreciate him. Thecollectornation.com. You'll find links to Joe's show. Bjornie, are you there? Join me there at 820. I'll be there. I'm going to drop in at some point when you least expect it. You need to. I will give you a lot of love and we're about to, we're celebrating 500,000 followers this Friday. It's really cool. And we have people that have already committed to giving away tens of thousands of dollars on the show. So it might be one of those shows where you give away a hundred or a quarter of a million dollars. We'll find out.

But we have a lot of people. So it's going to be a pretty big show. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, brother. I really appreciate you. I have a lot of fun on the show. I'm looking forward to part too. Looking forward to a lot of things we're in touch into that I think we could have.

Exactly. We'll do it right here at collector station. You had promised me we'll make that happen. 100% I'm all in for it. Let's go let's just get a date. I'll come out there and let's do it live in the studio. I think it'd be great. Hey guys, we appreciate you for joining thecollectoration.com at Ryan Offord on Instagram.

Drop me a DM anytime. Tell us what you think. Give us your feedback. I'll send you a t-shirt or some cards or something. Just mention that I mentioned this. We'll take care of you. We know you got options. We thank you for making us one.

We'll see you next time. I'll collect your nation. Thanks for tuning into 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.