The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Revolutionizing Memorabilia: The Realist’s Authentic Collectibles Marketplace

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Starting point is 00:00:33 Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, this is Voss here from the ChrisVossShow.gov. Hello, welcome home. Ladies and gentlemen, that makes it official, welcome to the big show. For over 16 years and 23 hundred episodes, we bring only seems that makes it official. Welcome to the big show for over 16 years and 23,000 episodes. We bring in the Chris Foss show, all the wonderful minds, people, places and things. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Foss.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Chris Foss won the TikTok and he and Chris Foss Facebook.com. Today we have an amazing young man on the show. Bass Nauman joins us on the show and he's going to be talking to us about his company and what he does. He's the co-founder and head of brand at The Realist where he directs creative strategy and oversees partnerships with major names like the Philadelphia Eagles, didn't they just win a Superbowl? Miami Heat, Snoop Dogg, Usher, and Paramount Studios.

Starting point is 00:01:26 The Realist is the next-gen authentication standard for sports and entertainment memorabilia. Sourcing items directly from arthritis, wow, I might be having a seizure today, call 911 if I fall over my chair. From artists and athletes powered by cutting edge authentication technology. So, it makes it easier for collectors and fans to own the most trusted collectibles in the world. Welcome to the show, Bace. How are you? Bace I'm great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, there's a lot of big words in that bio for sure. So... Pete I'm doing my fourth show of the day., so maybe the brains left for the dinner or something.

Starting point is 00:02:05 Yeah, well, the brains are having dinner. We tend to have different energy peaks in the afternoon, so it's weird enough. This is when I come to life, even though I do wake up early. I just probably need more of another round of espresso and coffee and stuff. Tell us about the dotcoms, I guess, and the realist and what you guys do there. Yeah, so the realist in a nutshell is like you mentioned is the next-gen memorabilia authentication and marketplace. So we essentially partner with artists, with athletes, with teams, with studios, and we take their memorabilia, whether it's game use items, game use jerseys,

Starting point is 00:02:42 game use cleats, balls, in the case of artists, stage use instruments, stage use outfits, we take those from the source, onsite directly, we have people that are authenticating it, witnessing it being used, and then we put it up for auction. So fans of those artists, of those teams, have the ability to buy those items coming directly from the source.

Starting point is 00:03:03 So to give you a bit of a background, we kind of all come from either a music or sports background. We understand music very well, we understand sport very well, but we are collectors in our own rights, whether it's, you know, like little things from ticket stubs to posters to whatever we can get our hands on, having worked, you know, in radio and in the music industry for a while. And we always realize that there was a gap between how sports treats memorabilia and how sports fans understand and appreciate memorabilia and how music fans understand and appreciate memorabilia.

Starting point is 00:03:39 There was this big gap where musicians were really not taking advantage of the items that they had and just like that fame and the likeness that they possess. You know, people in sports, they love collecting game used jerseys. They love collecting game used anything they can get their hands on. Music on the other hand, that whole concept was non-existent for a very long time. The only time you were able to really get your hands on memorabilia was like on some very high ticket items.

Starting point is 00:04:08 We were just talking off air previously about Nirvana. So you'll find, you know, like a Kurt Cobain guitar once every few years. And he had such a short career span, unfortunately, that there's not that many on the market. So when you do see one up for auction, it'll go for three, four million dollars. Music fans were shielded in a way. There's like the barrier to entry was so high for these items. There were only Grails that were being sold. So people were

Starting point is 00:04:34 not really able to get their hands on smaller ticket items, things that, you know, set lists that the artist would be using on stage or like drumsticks or drum heads or or vinyls or anything of that sort. So we noticed that there was that missing piece and we kind of wanted to fill that gap and we so we started working on on the concept and started going to artists and we were talking just about Dave Mustaine and Megadeth and kind of showing them the potential and telling them that you know you are some of the most followed and loved and admired people on this planet Like why are people not able to own items that you've used on stage or in your studios or just in your daily life? And that's where the authentication part comes in. We kind of doubled down on the authentication

Starting point is 00:05:19 Because we are you know big sports fan like I mentioned and we realized like Major League Baseball was the only league in the world that had authenticators on site authenticating every single ball in every single play that was happening because they identified how much fraud was happening in baseball. They even brought in the FBI and there was like, you know, a whole investigation where they identified that about 90% of autographs in memorabilia was in fact fake. So they wanted, you know, get their hands on that whole program and kind of just put a lid on it and they established their own authentication process. So we were really inspired by that.

Starting point is 00:05:54 We even worked with people from that league, people that pioneered that whole technology and we started applying it to music and to other sports. So we have witnesses Sitting courtside at every game. We authenticate sitting stage side at every concert We authenticate sitting in studios when studio sessions are happening witnessing items being used witnessing instruments being played witnessing balls and jerseys being worn and Taking them from those artists like literally taking a jersey off of the players back That way you have a hundred percent line of sight. You have a hundred percent provenance, you know exactly where it's coming from. There's no room for error. There's no great area. And that's how you ensure that

Starting point is 00:06:35 something is a hundred percent authentic. Wow. That's crazy. You know, I remember seeing Dan Rather in the interview with Getty Lee, we were talking earlier about Geddy Lee in the pre-show and Rush. And he'd mentioned that he'd gotten into collecting baseballs. And his first baseball he ever bought was supposed to be really, really a hot baseball. And turns out it was a fake autograph and he paid a lot of money. He said he didn't say how much. He said it was a lot and he just got so... He wanted to double down. He wanted the real thing even more. So yeah, there's a lot of fraud. There's a couple of Rush groups that I'm in. I'm a big Rush fan and there's always somebody posting, hey, I saw this online or I bought this or I'm looking to buy this.

Starting point is 00:07:25 Do these signatures look real to you? And nine times out of 10 or eight times out of 10, they're like, no, that's about as fake as it can be. And they charge a lot of money for this. I mean, there's a lot of money for, you can be ripped off if you're a collector. Yeah. People don't realize how much of that stuff out there is actually fake. And for the naked eye, it's almost impossible for you to tell the difference.

Starting point is 00:07:48 If you know, it's a, it's an autograph, especially if it's a famous person whose autograph is pretty much anywhere you can see online, it's not that hard to go and replicate that even like on Photoshop. Now with AI technology, it's like almost pretty much impossible for you to tell the difference. And even people, you know, with all due respect to everyone that's, you know, an appraiser or anyone that's really inspecting autograph, like the best they can do is give you their opinion. And that's usually where those like paper COAs come in place. And if you if you

Starting point is 00:08:19 read any of them, it just says that, you know, based on our expertise, we think that this autograph is authentic. That's not giving you 100% guarantee. And even those papers could be, you know, forged. We've seen that happen so much. If you are able to forge a Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan autograph on a baseball or on a jersey, you're able to just create a COA on a piece of paper. Once you bring that up to people and bring you actually bring that up to artists they don't even realize how much of their stuff is being

Starting point is 00:08:47 you know sold online. Wow. Their fans are getting ripped off, they're making zero dollars and then people are just getting mad because once people find a fake autograph they're gonna get mad at the artist they're not really gonna get mad at whoever scammed them because that person is just long gone. Oh, wow. So, it's a whole ecosystem of just like fraud that's just hurting both sides that we're like trying to, you know, make people aware of and make people really doubt every single thing that they have. That's why we offer that kind of provenance. We want people to see the item being used from the stage all the way to their hands

Starting point is 00:09:22 and they can see the exact trajectory of the item. I can see I'm perusing the Megadeth autographed stuff on your site. We mentioned before that I'm also a Megadeth fan and there's a ton of stuff and you got everything from guitar picks to posters to drumsticks and you know the thing the great thing is you know that they're they're real you got usher has some stuff here Snoop Dogg has some stuff here you got any signature autographed baby oil from PDD? Not yet we don't have we don't have authentic AZA where he's at right now hopefully never but yeah Megadeth it's funny it's a funny story Megadeth was actually our first partner

Starting point is 00:10:04 or the first people we convinced to work with us And the way it happened is we happen to be in Paris with another band and we were kind of like looking around town We're like what's happening tonight? Who else is in town? And we saw that Megadeth was playing at the Olympia Which is a legendary venue in Paris. So we reached out to their management We had a like contact with and we actually went to their show in the hopes to just meet them, right? And kind of like give them an idea of what we're doing. We didn't you know how it is backstage. It's usually chaotic You don't get to talk much. It's kind of just you know show and face and then we'll like connect later But in fact like we got to speak with their tour manager who was super cool

Starting point is 00:10:41 Super knowledgeable who understood everything we're trying to do from the get go. He was like, I get it. I know exactly what you're trying to do. We in fact do all of this. We collect every single thing. We don't throw nothing away. So he like took us in the back, started giving us posters from previous shows. He started taking, you know, posters from the venue, like anything that has a date

Starting point is 00:11:01 on it that has that provenance is something that, you know, it's a moment in time, you can like replicate that has a date on it that has that provenance is something that you know, it's a moment in time You can't like replicate that you can't have another poster that says Olympia Paris with that date so we kind of left that show with like hands full of things and then we ended up going to like more shows with them and we went on a couple shows on the tour and Dave was Sitting with us and signing, you know setlist. He was signing Dave was sitting with us and signing, you know, set lists. He was signing posters. He was signing all of these things, all like telling us, you know, the story behind how

Starting point is 00:11:29 he got started. And then we were able to get our hands on one of his guitars, the Flying V Gibson guitar, which is like a signature Dave Mustaine guitar. And he signed that one. We went and sat with him in Nashville. And he like told us the entire story you can see on YouTube or on social media about his guitar and how he like, you know, help invent and innovate the Flying V and then just that, you know, that storytelling from him and him having that guitar in his hand while he was like, you know, telling the story just gave it so much more value. So it's gonna forever have a special

Starting point is 00:12:02 place in our hearts working with Megabeth. Pete Yeah. That's great that they did that with you guys, that they were open about it and stuff. I wish more bands would do that because, you know, I've never really collected autographs mainly for that reason because I've been concerned about the authenticity and, you know, I'm dumb enough to go ahead and do a wrong buy. I'll be like, yeah, look fine to me. That would be a skill. J. Yeah, I mean, we all bought things online. I've bought

Starting point is 00:12:27 stuff that are autographed to God knows if it's real or not. I don't even want to find out at this point, but, um, yeah, with Dave, it's like we had an authenticator sitting there with him every time he was signing, everything was being filmed. If it's, you know, not signed in front of us, we can't give it that same authentication seal as we would if it was signed in front of us. So that's why we were super protective on our we call it the sticker because it's in fact the actual sticker that has like many layers of tech and authentication standards. So we were not able to do that. If someone was not signing in front of us, we will not attest that we witnessed it and

Starting point is 00:13:05 it will forever be unknown, even though it's coming from the artist. But we have different levels of authentication just to make sure we're like 1000% transparent and make sure that people, when they buy something, they know what they're getting exactly and there's zero room for questioning or error. Wow. This is crazy. I'm looking at the website, you got the eagles up here. You've got things of their celebration confetti.

Starting point is 00:13:30 You got things of the field grass from Lincoln Financial. You got to keep that alive so it doesn't die. Yeah, we have the ones that's, we have grass that's already dead, that's clipped. And then we have this grass that we just launched the South Philly bonsai Which is grass and it's turf that is meant to stay alive and grow so eagles is obviously an amazing partner to have as well We got really lucky partnering with them in the beginning of the season and they're pointing the Super Bowl. Of course. Oh, yeah Yeah, what like how much better can it get? And so after every game not only we were taking jerseys and we're taking,

Starting point is 00:14:05 you know, game use items, we were also taking grass clippings because they are one of the few fields in the NFL that actually has real grass. So they, they trimmed the grass after every single game from the end zone. So we have again, an authenticator there witnessing the grass being trimmed and then they pick it up. You can also see that on our Instagram. They literally pick up the grass in a bucket from the game. They take it and they bottle it in small containers and people are able to buy in grass in that container from that specific game that has, you know, like the score of the game and it has authentication and people really, you know, some people think it's it's funny or it's crazy, but they don't, baseball has been doing this for decades. Like baseball sells dirt from every single game, every single stadium,

Starting point is 00:14:50 hundreds of games a year. So it's not like a very foreign concept, maybe like in football it is. So we're, we're constantly trying to push that, you know, memorabilia space and just like get creative. Cause not everybody can afford, you know, a $10,000 game use Jersey, but they may be want, you know, something to put on their desk, something to just like gift a friend that's like accessible. And that's really what we're trying to do. We're trying to have something for everyone and kind of like, you know, level that playing field where it's like, you can buy something that's in your budget. That's still as authentic as anything else. Pete Slauson And you've got auctions for Gladiator 2. How'd that go?

Starting point is 00:15:27 Jai Radha Yeah, Gladiator 2 also was like our first, you know, venture into film and movies. We built a great relationship with Paramount Studios. They're great partners. They're great friends. They're down the street, actually. And you know, we knew about Gladiator 2 happening and we knew how much props they were actually using. In these kind of movies, you have thousands of extras, and every single person is actually wearing those outfits. And those outfits are so well-made. Gladiator won one Oscar for Best Costume because of the accuracy and how much work

Starting point is 00:15:59 went into putting these costumes together. The same thing for Gladiator 2. Jan T. Aitch, who's the same costume designer, was the one that thing for gladiator 2. Jen T. H. who's the same costume designer was the one that's doing gladiator 2 and when I tell you like if you see these helmets and you see these armor and you see what they look like it's it's crazy how much detail and and and work goes into it so we knew that we had so much some such treasure you know that would we'd hate to go to waste you you have no idea how much stuff goes to waste How many things just either go in the trash or they don't even get recycled? So we're like, let us take this off your plate

Starting point is 00:16:34 Let us get this in the hands of real fans people that would love to own it and studios We're like sure if you can authenticate and you can do it that we kind of like do the work for them We're kind of, you know, just like someone that's taking someone's trash per se and turning it into like real treasure with our storytelling and with the way we present it and really just give it another life. And I think it's super important from, you know, even like an environmental standpoint, like these things,

Starting point is 00:17:00 instead of going in the trash and going somewhere and just like collecting dust, these are museum quality pieces. Like the level of detail that goes into that should not go to waste. So that's how that happened. And while doing that, we also got, of course, costumes from the main actors, from Denzel Washington, from Emperor Karakalla. So people were able to bid on them. and some people are now like the lucky owners of those costumes. That's pretty awesome. You know, people love this stuff. They love collecting it,

Starting point is 00:17:31 they love only pieces of it, they love the memorabilia, they love the fandom, if you will. I mean, it's great that somebody's making this because, like I said, the reason I don't collect anything with names on it is because I'm concerned about getting ripped off. Like I, I just don't want to be ripped off. I would not be able to live with myself if I end up buying some, something stupid and, and I'm like, you paid like $2,000 for that, you know, and it's worthless. So yeah, it's, it's a, it would bug the, it would bug the shit. I mean, yeah, I like that there's something out here. So what's the setup on how you guys approach people, how you guys get them

Starting point is 00:18:07 going on to this stuff, how do you guys, how do you guys secure the alliances that you have? You know, it's, it's all about trust. Really. It's like building these relationships directly with the artists and teams. We're providing them with something that's really protecting their legacy. We always say that it's not really just about making money. Cause a lot of, you know, a really just about making money because a lot of,

Starting point is 00:18:25 you know, a lot of these artists, definitely a lot of teams, they don't need that kind of money. It's not like going to move the needle a lot for them. It's more so about protecting their legacy and protecting their fans, making sure they're getting something that's real directly from the source instead of it just going in the trash or someone selling it or someone faking it and selling it on eBay and just ripping people off. A lot of memorabilia companies just resell things with like, you know, verifying the

Starting point is 00:18:49 source and that's how someone like you or me gets ripped off. But we work with the partners directly from day one to make sure that everything is 100% real. So that's why, you know, the Eagles, Usher, Paramount, Snoop Dogg, Megadeth, and so many others trust us with this process because we show them how we do it from start to finish and you know we're obviously they're there to witness it happen and they see it landing in the hands of real fans and they see like the satisfaction of their fans and protecting their fans, protecting their legacy

Starting point is 00:19:19 and you know of course making money if off of something that they were going to throw in the trash whether they need the money or not not. A lot of them send the money to charity. So you're kind of like you're winning all those out. So there's money that goes to charity in it? However, the partner wants to spend or distribute their money. A lot of them, you know, choose to send the money to charity. So it's money that they were going to, it's found money essentially, that they were not going to have. And we're giving them something for stuff that they were going to throw away. So why not? Yeah, definitely. Why not? Let's do it. What do you have next coming

Starting point is 00:19:57 up? What's up next on your agenda or different things you're working on? Yeah, we're expanding, we're doubling down on sports. Like I mentioned in the beginning, we kind of, you know, started this idea as like a music, heavy ideas, like we were all in the music business and we wanted to emulate what sports was doing and implement it with music, but sports kind of just landed on our lap and because sports, like the sports world in general understands that concept more so than anything else. So we're expanding fast in sports. We have a lot going on with football. We have a lot going on in basketball. We're partnered with the Miami Heat. We're

Starting point is 00:20:34 doing you know the unrivaled women's basketball. We're doing a lot on the soccer kind of front that's coming soon. Definitely music more big partnerships not a lot we can announce yet but like definitely doubling down on football doubling down on basketball doubling down on soccer baseball seasons coming up we have a big Tony Gwyn auction that's coming up in the next couple of weeks Tony Gwyn of course San Diego Padres legend we had a his first auction last year we have part two that's coming up at the end of the month and we're going to have a few more auctions with him because we just have so

Starting point is 00:21:10 much cool stuff from his archives, from his estate that we think his fans should own. Pete What are you, what's been your best auction to date so far? Javier I would say like, Eagles is definitely like our biggest our biggest partner for sure that's the one that's made the most noise especially with you know, the The fun stuff that we've been selling like the grass even the snow that we sold that went like really viral like we did not Think it would get this much press. We actually sold snow from the game It was like one of those snow games where we were not able to take the grass So we're like, why don't we just take the snow instead? So we like take snow, put it in a cooler.

Starting point is 00:21:47 And then we created these like little containers, little pints that look like ice cream pints. And we put snow in it and people were actually able to buy snow, so. Oh wow. Yeah, that was- Did it freeze well in crap? It was.

Starting point is 00:21:58 I mean, look, if you're putting it in a UPS truck, UPS trucks are not always made to transport ice cream, but who like picked it up soon and or got it like the soonest definitely got like snow. Others got a bit of a much texture substance, but it's more so about the idea of it. It's more so about something that you can display. And it's that moment, you know, we're trying to give people and bring them, bring the fans like closer to those moments that matters. It's not about the value of the item more so about the memories that it brings. Yeah. Hopefully, I'd love you to get together with my friends in Metallica, man.

Starting point is 00:22:32 I'd love to buy Metallica stuff. I would love to. I'm a huge Metallica fan. Yeah, I grew up on Metallica. So I think nothing's impossible. I think we'll be able to reach everyone soon enough. They'll know about what we're doing. And we've authenticated Super Bowl champions,

Starting point is 00:22:50 Super Bowl halftime shows, concerts, medal, baseball, basketball, you name it, everything across the board in such a short period of time. So I don't think being is unreachable. It's just a matter of time and it's just a matter of them understanding what we're trying to do and just like getting a grasp on the whole idea and fans wanting to own things that are 100% authentic and real straight from the source.

Starting point is 00:23:12 I can see the importance of that. Like I said, I'm in a bunch of groups from the music bands and to see people that they're like, I just paid two grand for this and everybody in the comment section is like, dude, that's not the signatures. And I mean, it's just painful to watch some people lose that money. They're like, you have an album that's worth 10 bucks. I mean, honestly, that's how the idea, like one of the reasons this idea started, our founder and CEO, DJ Ski, he's big into sports collecting. He's from Minnesota and he was bidding on a sort of Vikings

Starting point is 00:23:45 I think it was a Randy Moss Jersey On a different auction site and he was like going up and it was like, you know The price was it was like up in the twenty thirty thousand dollars And I think he texted one of his friends who works for the Vikings and he told him he's like how much how far should I? Go with this like how much do you think it's worth? He's like nothing. It's actually fake He's like, what do you mean? He's like sup. It's up on the site. He's like, yeah But this Jersey was never issued like we never issued this kind of you know It was either a colorway or some sort of like logo variation and he's like, yeah, but it has a COA from the Vikings He's like, yeah, you know how easy it is to make a COA with a letterhead

Starting point is 00:24:22 I can make a Chris Voss Show with your logo COA, like right now and say this was your microphone and who can really prove, you know, and that's, that's when you realize how bad it is. And he was about to spend like $30,000 for this, like Randy Moss, supposedly game use Jersey. So it happens to the best of us, even like the best collectors. That's why we have to make sure that people are getting You know that guarantee there they know the provenance even if you go and look at our listings and our

Starting point is 00:24:53 disclaimers when we write something like we'll even write that we were not there to witness it just to be a hundred percent clear because We know it's coming from the Eagles. We know it's from the locker room, but we were not there in that specific moment. We still disclaim that just to be 100% transparent because you really never know. There's a lot of bad actors out there and we wanna make sure we're not, people don't think we're one of them and we wanna make sure those bad actors

Starting point is 00:25:20 are not interfering in our process. So. I love it, cause like I say, it's the one thing that's helped me back from collecting. I've wanted to do it, but I'm just saying, you know, where to get it straight from the source. I just need to get together with rush and Megadeth or metallic if you would please. And those will be the first to know for sure.

Starting point is 00:25:36 How do people learn more and stay in touch with you and give us the pitch out as we go out? Yeah. I mean, check us out the realist.com super easy a realist with an E not the I People you can mistake that you can browse our auction and see what's coming up sign up for exclusive drops If you sign up, you know, you'll get notified before anyone else a lot of times We're doing a lot of giveaways your favorite, you know artists if they're coming up or if you have a certain type of of genre music or sports or anything you might

Starting point is 00:26:05 be into, that's always a good place to start. So therealest.com, follow us on social of course, we always announce new collections over there and we have a lot of behind the scenes content, that's what's cool about it. If we were on the field with the Eagles or backstage, that content is going up in real time so people are able to see it, they're able to see how our authenticators are collecting these things, whether they're Clipping the grass from the field or picking up snow or like an ushers dressing room You know and he's like taking a shirt off like you'll see that because we are that transparent

Starting point is 00:26:35 We want to make sure it's also great content for us to have awesome sauce. Thank you very much for coming the show We really appreciate it Chris. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Bass. And thanks for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com for just chrisfosslinkedin.com. Oh, by the way, quick, quick flex. This is a death row plaque behind me. This was the plaque that was actually given to Dr. Dre from Death Row Records. Oh, wow. So this is like a multi-platinum plaque for everything from Doggy Style to The Chronic

Starting point is 00:27:04 to all of the iconic albums that he's released on death row records. So those are the things you'll find here. And this is coming directly from the source directly from Dr. Dre. It was gifted to DJ Ski. It's not something that you know, you put together, you just like make up buy on eBay. So those are the kind of things that we like are surrounded by constantly. I love it. Yeah. You can't trust what's on eBay. So those are the kind of things that we like are surrounded by constantly. I love it. Yeah. You can't trust what's on eBay at the time. Anyway, it's crazy over there. Yeah. All right, man. Thank you for coming on the show. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.

The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Revolutionizing Memorabilia: The Realist’s Authentic Collectibles Marketplace

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