The Iced Coffee Hour - Inside The World’s Most Expensive $10,000,000 Pokemon Collection

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

Get a free security camera today by visiting https://www.simplisafe.com/icedcoffee - This week we chat with Gary King Pokemon who has the largest $10 million dollar Pokemon collection in the world! Enjoy!  FOR THE CHARITY: Check out https://www.aokifoundation.org Add us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/autisminstruct  https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan Send any voice submissions to [e-mail]  (10-15 seconds max) can be about anything- and we will respond in the next podcast! ENDING SOON: Get 4 Free Stocks on Webull when you deposit $100 (WORTH UP TO $1600): https://tinyurl.com/yd9slfax Join the 2x weekly mentorship group: https://tinyurl.com/yaexko4o The Equipment used: https://tinyurl.com/y78py5g2 The YouTube Creator Academy:   Learn EXACTLY how to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube, rank videos on the front page of searches, grow your following, and turn that into another income source: https://bit.ly/2STxofv $100 OFF WITH CODE 100OFF  For Podcast Inquiries, please contact [e-mail] *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, this is the 32nd ever podcast episode of the Ice Coffee Hour. I'm Gary, otherwise known as King Pokemon. So far, the podcast has made $25,814. Beautiful. I love that. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you.

So much. My pleasure. We came all the way to Las Vegas today to meet with you. And this is a really special episode because, first of all, I would say, would you say, would you say you have the largest Pokemon collection? in existence in terms of value? Not only do I believe that, but I know that as a fact. And I have a lot of items, Pokemon items in my collection that aren't even known to everybody that I have tucked away in Northern California in a storage locker.

Some people know some of the items. But yeah, that's a safe assumption. How much would you say the whole collection is worth? Let's hook people from the very beginning. This is the reason why you got to watch this episode. Well, I've never been able to answer that question accurately. I can tell you that what I've brought to show you, I'll give you the value of that,

but of all the things that we have in storage, I have no idea what the value is. Plus, Pokemon has been spiking, shooting up so high that the numbers are changing weekly. I mean it's multi-milliones, absolutely, but I really can't be more accurate. I'd love to tell you, maybe someday. Do you think it's more than $10 million? It has to be.

Yeah, I would say that's safe to say also, yes. You'll see what we have, what we brought, you know, just to show you today. Wow. So, oh, by the way, if you wouldn't mind putting the mic a little bit closer, I just want to make sure. Yeah, there we go. So I want to know, first of all, how you even got involved to begin with. When did you first discover Pokemon? I remember in 1997 or 1998 in that area, I remember a news article that came out that talked about

a cartoon episode in Japan that was causing a lot of kids to go into tremors and hallucinations and things like that. I remember that, the seizures. The seizures. I remember that. It was a flashing episode. Yes. And at the time, I had my two youngest sons were seven and eight years old.

And so I identified with, you know, what was happening to those kids. But when I heard that, I remember my first thought was, that's pretty cool. You know, of course, it was serious, right? But I thought, I thought, man, this made the international news, you know, of a cartoon. And so I investigated, what's this cartoon? What's this all about? Pokemon in Japan. Of course, it was Pocket Monsters.

It wasn't known as Pokemon. And so after, you know, that was my first exposure. Then I got interested. And then I got involved in a little bit of a business venture on bringing Japanese, there was no English cards, bringing Japanese cards over for our shop at home network. And selling them, getting them graded. and sold on shop at home, which somewhere on the internet,

there's episodes of that which you can see. And so that, they always sold right out because Pokemon was, you know, it was such an unprecedented thing in Asia that it was, I knew it was a can't miss situation in the United States because there had never been anything like it,

even in Japan, which is a good indication of things that I'll transfer over. So when it got over here and then Wizards of the Coast ended up getting the license to do the English version of Pokemon, I was as involved as I could be. Had a lot of doors shut in my face, but I wanted to get in because I knew this was a great investment idea,

which was my whole intention back then was as an investment. Then my boys got interested in it. and then my neighbor's boys. And then suddenly I was driving out of state to try to find Pokemon cards for my family. And so we'd open the packs, and then I ended up with so many. We started selling on something that was Yahoo!

Auctions, which we don't have anymore. There's a Yahoo, Japan, but not Yahoo, USA. And so we got so many, we started selling them and collecting them, but I've always been a horrible seller. I've always had trouble letting things go. I become so attached, you know, to things. And so I saved them. And obviously, that was a smart move to this day, you know, that I did do that.

So that was really the beginnings. Yeah. What were you doing for work? You said Home Shopping Network. So how were you making your money back then? Yeah. Well, I've been in the casino management business for many years and, you know, ran the Sahara Hotel and, you know, different things like that.

And so I, at that period of time when Pokemon was coming over, I got sick. I got a type of cancer that had to be treated. And it didn't work. No, it worked. I'm here today, right? So we ended up, I ended up, you know, with free time, you know, kind of like, you know, a lot of people now during this COVID thing, what they're doing, you know, they're finding time to do other stuff. And so I had time to mess with the hobby with Pokemon. And so that's what,

that's what I did. That's incredible. So, um, were you collecting other cards before you started collecting Pokemon? Yes, I have, I'm a lifelong collector going all the way back to the 1950s. I think in 1959, I was five years old. And I remember saving bottle caps with, uh, professional football players faces on the inside of the bottle caps and collecting all the Los Angeles Rams, you know, which is where I lived and who my team was. And I collected trading cards, baseball cards. Oh, absolutely. I still have a decent collection, not a super valuable one. I don't have any mantle rookies or, you know, anything like that. That's, that's here. Right. But I do have Sandy Kofax, you know, rookies and Don Drysdale rookies.

because they were my favorites in that. But then I didn't keep them the greatest condition. I was just a little kid, you know, of course. So I collected trading cards, the shows from the 1960s like Adams family and Munsters. I collected all those trading cards, those sets. I like to say that I don't think there's a single set that I either don't own today or didn't own at one time complete.

Wow. So, yeah, good question. And absolutely, I've collected my entire life, not just those things, but science fiction magazines from the 1920s, pulp magazines, I mean, just so many things. But this is where I think is really interesting, because once you start getting into what I like to call alternative investments, Pokemon cards, we could say maybe is one of them, movie posters, let's just say, like some of these other things, including artwork, are just really unique to start to collect.

Yes, they absolutely are. And I was at a little bit of a disadvantage early on because my mom and dad and family members, nobody was collectors. They were all, if there was something too much in the house, get it out. You know, they wanted to keep things neat. And so there was no interest in collecting.

So I really have a feeling. It's kind of an inherent thing, because from the very beginning, I was a collector and loved, you know, loved, you know, just the whole thing going to shows, the search, the completing sets. It all meant, you know, so much inherently to me, naturally. And so I, you know, it's, you know, kind of an individual, special thing. And I have it to this day.

Even with all I've been through, all the things I have, I mean, I still have my eye forward, you know, looking for, you know, other things and excited to see other people get things. and like what you're going to do later on, I'm actually excited to see you do that to open that. And I mean, just because that's, it's in me, you know, to be excited about such things and to enjoy it. Yeah. So let me share this.

So we got, well, I got a first edition, Jim Trainers Pack on Opened. What was it years at? With 1999, I believe, right? Was it Jim Trainers or was it 2000? Yeah, it was actually 2000. 2000. And it's Jim Heroes.

Jim heroes. Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah. So unopened, I got this pack and I've been waiting specifically for today to open it. Right. Well, I am so excited to see you open this because there can be some real treasures in there. And every single, you know, it's more of a nostalgia thing.

You know, 20 years ago when you were, you know, when you were just a little kid and go to the store and pay your three bucks for a pack and go out back and open them. I mean, that's what it's all about. And that's what you're going to relive right this moment. Yeah. And I think that's part. of the attraction to Pokemon. Yeah. You know, it's going back and it's reliving those memories.

See, I agree with that. And what you were saying reminds me a lot of myself because when I was getting into Pokemon, I never played the game, but I only collected the cards. Right. And I kept them in all pristine condition. And I got the entire,

I think I got nearly the entire base set. I don't remember how much was first edition or how much was just bass. Right. I can't remember. But someone stole my entire binder of cards. A few hundred cards when I was off at school. I put them in my backpack, but I would go and bring them to school to trade with with other kids and just, I'd bring them and like show them off.

You know, look what I got last night. And I remember I would even trade with the, with the store I would go into. And they had a big display of cards. And I'd come in with my cards. Like, can I trade three of these that I had duplicates up? Can I trade these for that one that you have there? Someone stole it. But that unfortunately really ruined it for me. Because I was so disappointed. It was like, how could I recreate that? I couldn't. So I got into the Neo set because I didn't even want to go back because it was like, it was so damaging to me because I think I was maybe 10 or 11. It's traumatic.

Yeah, it was. Because I had never had anything stolen from me ever in my entire. So this is the first wake of call like, who would steal from me? Right. Who would do this? So I got into Neo, got into Magic the Gathering a little bit, but nothing was quite the same afterwards. Right.

Unfortunately. You know, I hear that story quite a bit. Even today for people just getting back into the hobby today, if they buy a box and it turns out it's a reseal or something and, you know, it takes, kind of takes the heart out of you. Yeah. You know, it makes you not want to, you know, you don't want to take a chance of having that happen to you again. And I tell everybody that talks to me about going through an experience like that is seriously try to brush it off because there was so much value prior to that day that happened. And that same value is still there at this moment. Get back into it.

You know, do it and enjoy it and relive it. You know, those moments, they fade away over time. Yeah. But I also, yeah, bad times. I also want to mention. First, we have a quick word from our sponsor, SimplySafe. There's almost always a rise in break-ins during the holidays, and that's exactly why SimpliSafe is having a huge holiday sale.

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description at simplysafe.com slash iced coffee. Thank you so much and back to the podcast. My first introduction to you was through Pond Stars. I remember, I remember your episodes specifically. That must have been, is that like 13, 12 years ago? Yeah, that was, no, no, no, that wasn't that long ago. It was actually the early part of 2016. No, was it? Yeah. I don't I feel that episode as well. Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't it feel like Pond Stars was just, way longer ago? No. You see, Pokemon Go came out in January, I think January of 2016. And that kind of put a needle in the arm of Pokemon.

And then I started getting, see, I was, you know, kind of known as King Pokemon for many years before that. I did many things and was a top, you know, a top eBayer and did a lot of things prior to that. But the Pond Stars episode, which was in 2016, just after the Pokemon Go craze, which lifted it. The Pond Stars episode just lifted it out of sight. I mean, it brought the hobby back. Let's talk about that episode for a second because I didn't fully explain it. When I remember watching your episode, you went into Pond Stars and you were talking to Rick.

Was it Rick? Yes. About selling your Charzards. And you wanted $500,000. Yes. For how many Charzars are you? was that. Okay. Do you want the whole story? Yes. How do they reach out to you? How much, can you say how much of that is like scripted? 100% I will tell you the exact honest story about this. Tell us. Okay. They did reach out to me in advance.

Okay. Rick lives here in town. He's a neighbor of ours too. Wow. Is he really? Yeah. That would be crazy to meet Rick. Yeah. And he has some connection to Pokemon, not just this episode we did together. but he has some other connections, you know, through Chumley in that, you know, from the show. Anyway, they, his, his producer did reach out to me and ask me, because Pokemon Go had lit such a fire under the hobby, they wanted to get a Pokemon segment on one of their episodes. And so they reached out to me and they had seen one of my listings that had those Charzards. and it was over 100 PSA 10s, different types, right?

But all Charzards and all, you know, trading TCG. And then there was maybe 20 or 25 Beckett's cards. So there was about 100, 120 cards. And so they wanted me to bring those in and negotiate with Rick. They said, what I'd be interested in selling? And all I'm thinking about is, what is this going to do for the hobby? How big would this be? It's always been my focus is to,

there's more stories about the past having to do with this, but it's always been about lifting the hobby, even those recent things with Logan and that. And so, you know, right away, I said, oh, certainly, you know, I'll do that. And oh, yeah, I'll sell. Now, market for all those at the time might have been in the $400,000 range, at least as well as I could, you know, figure it.

A lot of mine were one of a kind, so it's a little hard to calculate those because there's no, you know, well, comps, which you would understand in that. So I ended up asking for 500,000 with no intention of selling. But if they offered five, you would have sold. Great question. I would have been so obligated to sell. Now, that would have been top retail at the time. Yeah. That would have been the most that I could, which is why I set that number, because anything under that, I could. easily not accept. Had they come to me and said, okay, we're going to give you the 500,000,

which I didn't expect. I might have had to, but I also might have tried to find a way out. Did you have to sign a contract going into it saying if they paid you your price, like a shark tank? Yeah. No, no. I did have to sign a contract, but it didn't deal with that. you know, just dealt with, you know, but to use my likeness and that stuff. And so, and so when that, when he finally said that, you know, he wasn't, you know, he just didn't know what he would do with it. I mean, it's probably the biggest mistake Pond Stars ever made. Something else let me mention, you might know, you might know this.

A lot of people don't. It's the second most viewed segment in the history of Pond Stars. Yeah. They've had over 2,000 segments. the Pokemon episode, that Pokemon episode is the number two highest rated. There's over 12 million already on History Channel. Well, on History Channel. Then they had tons at the time.

What's the top rated? It's... I feel like that was the car. There's some car. No, it's actually some coin, something that didn't deserve it. Right, yeah. Which we're catching up to it. It's like 15 million, but it was 15 million to 10 million to 10.

10 million at one time on History Channel. And now we're 15 million to 13 million. So ours is going, we might catch that. But no, it was nothing special. It was like a coin or something like that. But anyway, when he didn't do it, I was relieved because I knew we got the publicity for the hobby. And yet I, you know, didn't go through any type of embarrassment having to not accept his or later after the show telling him Rick, I can't. What percentage of your collection were those charzards?

Oh, okay. Well, that was my entire Charzart collection. Of course, I have a whole lot of collectibles with Pokemon. You'll see some. But, I mean, I was just, that whole thing just worked out so good because it just blew up after that episode. It just absolutely blew up. And a lot of people got to know me for the first time. So it was, you know, good for me, not that I try to benefit anyway, you know, but I,

It was good for me. It was the first time you, first time you did. First time a lot of people did. The best part of it was it was the first time a lot of parents saw it. And they have their kids playing with Pokemon. And then they see me there with a half a million dollar. They say, way to say, it kind of legitimized, you know, the investment value of Pokemon and that. And they thought, well, heck, this guy has, you know, has this stuff.

And, you know, anyway, it did two things. It got parents more interested in their kids. kids, you know, Pokemon hobbies. Plus, for people who at that time were turning 25, 30 years old, it made them think, wait a second, where's my old Pokemon binder? And then they would go through the attic. They would find their own binder, then get back involved, see, realize that, you know, well, this is super cool.

You know, the feelings rushed back. And so it did those two things also, which was great for the hobby. Yeah. Now, let's talk about the hobby now. Yes. Do you worry or feel like it's a bit bubblish in terms of prices? Do you feel like people are piling in because they just want the investment? They just want to make money.

And do you think that's going to settle down? Yeah. I mean, there is no more pertinent question than that these days because it's really hard to tell. All I can do is give an answer based on my past experience, which I have, I have, quite a bit with collectibles in that. There, I have never seen anything comparable to Pokemon. Of all the collectibles that have come before in my lifetime, I had never seen anything like the reaction.

Pokemon got in 1999 in English all the way through the 2000s, up until today, it's unprecedented. So it's really hard to say, I do understand. understand bubbles and I have seen a hundred of them. I don't see it with Pokemon because I've always believed that 10 to 15 years after the last item is produced that a hobby is safe, Pokemon is still pumping out sets like crazy, right? You know, these little kids are growing up with Pokemon. Our little six-year-old has Pokemon everywhere, whether it's cards or little action figures or plushes. I mean, it's still there for.

For these kids, and 20 years from now, that six-year-old is going to be 26. And that 10-year-old is going to be, you know, is going to be 20, 25, 30 years old. And I see the hobby as being safe for all those years. Once they stop producing Pokemon, then I would, I could safely say, you know, that maybe 10, 15 years, you know. But then again, maybe not. maybe it would still keep going. So you think as long as Pokemon is still popular to younger people, the hobby will, at least these cards could continue going up in Valley.

But once they stop, maybe people might forget or not be as enthusiastic as they once were. Even more so, even more so now than in 1999, because remember in 1999, us parents didn't have any history with Pokemon, right? because Pokemon was just being released in English. And so like for my two boys who were like 7, 8, 9 at the time, you know, I was simply involving myself with them because I wanted to be, you know, a part of what they were interested in. Today it's a different story.

When you guys have kids, you guys already know about Pokemon. You guys already enjoyed Pokemon. And it's not that big of a stretch for you to join in the fun of it, you know, with your children. you actually identify with the whole thing. Back then we didn't because we didn't have Pokemon before that. So, yeah, I'd say that that is probably the biggest change is that now the parents know all about it. They loved it at one time and they're going to, they will easily participate with their kids.

Did you ever get into any of the Pokemon copycats, like any of the other collectibles? Like I know there's like Baku-Doh. Yu-Gi-O. Like Yu-Gio. Up until 2002 or 2003, I was just an incorrigible collector. I had to have every trading card set. I have all the Dragon Ball Z sets. I have all the Sailor Moon sets, the Premier Edition.

I just gave the Steve, as a matter of fact, the Premier Edition. The Yu-Gi-O, Magic the Gathering, you know, from before Pokemon. that came out, I think, 1993. Yeah, yeah, I collected them all, and I have the vast majority of them still to this day and love them, and Yu-Gi-Oh is taking off like crazy now too. Also another quick question. Yes.

When you first got started in Pokemon, how much of it was you looking into a new investment opportunity and how much of it was just genuine curiosity of a new collectible just because you like collecting things? because it seems like with as much excitement as there was with Pokemon, and the fact that it was just starting at that time, you could probably properly gauge, like, its future values. Yeah, I could at the time.

I had never seen anything like 50 to 100 people in line at a Walmart, you know, waiting for the next, you know, for the jungle release, for the fossil release of Pokemon. I had never seen that, I mean, that, that kind, it was like every single day was black, Friday. You know, it was just crazy. So, yes, I did, I did anticipate, I did anticipate, uh, long-term investment, you know, opportunities with it. But I can't say that I was so smart that I, I, uh, led my, my actions and my life in that direction because of the investment

opportunities. I'd love to be able to say that because I would look a lot smarter, right? Yeah. But I, I can't take credit for that because I just simply, loved hobbies, loved collecting, loved the connection to my sons. And I would have done it no matter what, no matter what the situation was. How much of your own money back then were you spending in cards? Like what percentage of your income were you making back then that you're like 20%? I'm going to buy Pokemon car. Yeah. A great question because I didn't have all the money I had before and after, because during that time period, I had gotten sick and couldn't work. And it was cancer.

It was a type of cancer. And so it wasn't like I was pumped up, you know, where I could afford anything I wanted. And it's just that it was of such interest to Jay and Devon, my two sons, that, you know, every extra dollar that I could, I put into the hobby. and of course it wasn't that expensive back then. You could get base packs when they first came out for like three, four bucks. So that's first edition base? No, first edition.

First edition were always difficult to find. Really? Yeah, yeah, they were always difficult to find. In fact, I don't think I ever, ever, ever saw one on a shelf at any store. And I was involved in January 1999, which is the very beginning. Why is that? They released them on the West Coast, and then they ran out, so they never got a cross-country. But I think the majority of the car, there were a lot of card shops.

Card shops were super popular back then. They ended up, you know, getting them and then breaking them open, selling the singles. And again, people were driving out of state, including me, just to find them. That's how popular. So they had no trouble finding buyers for the singles. so they cracked most of that sealed product and then sold them through their stores and the hobby stores had priority

over the Walmarts and targets in that back then who ended up getting the unlimited versions. How many unopened first edition boxes do you think there are still out there? Unopened first edition. You know I have nine. Do you know that? No, I didn't know that.

Oh, oh, okay. I did not know that. I have a case. In the, in the Pokemon community, the people know that. They've seen pictures and all that. There's, I have a case of six boxes where I have the half the lid opened up like this, just because I wanted to make sure what was inside opened up. No boxes would fit.

You couldn't take any of the boxes out, but I know what's inside. So that's a box of six. I have a picture. How did you buy it? I have a picture I can send you. I just got that through a, I think it was through Franken's, which is a collectible, collectible, I don't know what you call it, convention or something,

but twice a week in Los Angeles. What you hear was that? Saturday. That was 1999. And they're still going today. The Franken's show is still going today in Los Angeles, and now they have a lot of Pokemon. Oh, I took my boy.

is there every single Wednesday and Saturday. And so anyway, I got those six in the case, and then I got three odd boxes in those early years. How'd you acquire the other boxes? And how much was that? How much you paid that? Yeah, no. I mean, just crazy low amounts.

You know, maybe four, 500 a box, something like that. Four or 500 a box? Yeah, four or 500 for one box. So multiply that for the case of six. In that. I bet back then people were thinking that was crazy, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, totally were.

Yeah, you would go into like Franken sons. And on their shelf, they would have one first edition base pack like for $50. And it sat there for six months. Nobody would spend 50 bucks on it. Not that exact same pack, you know, especially if it's a heavy is, you know, $20,000, $25,000. But I mean, so, no, no, it wasn't that big of a deal. To me, it was kind of a big deal.

Because I knew about first edition stuff. You see, I was no kid, right? I knew about the value of limited edition items. And so, you know, whereas the kids that were into it, they didn't give it much more than two thoughts. Me, that first edition stamp meant a whole lot because it told me, well, these they will never reproduce. The Unlimited's they could produce forever, right?

So, yeah, so I was lucky I had the experience of what collectibles mean and what limited editions mean and and reputable companies putting them out what it means. Like with Magic the Gathering, you know, they can reprint those like crazy. They reserve lists and stuff like that. So, you know, once again, I can't really take much credit. It's just simply a thing that I knew at the time that I had learned. in my years of collecting. So how many first edition boxes do you think that there are? Okay, yeah, that, see, we know my nine.

I might know of another, you know, 20. I don't know anybody with two, but I know a lot of people with one. If I had to guess, and again, it's purely a guess, I would say maybe 50 to 80 in the world. Yeah. They just simply weren't available. And there may be less than that.

The fewer, there are probably the better for me because it makes mine a little more special, right? But I would say 50 to 80, very possibly. A lot of people have one. Are you ever going to open up when you're just leaving them? What's the plan? They're not even, they're not, I, do you know Placerville, California?

Yeah. It's like north of Sacramento. That's where they are. I have a storage locker, a special, security type storage, you know, there that holds all my best collectibles. And I mean, I might go up there once every two, three years. I would, I don't sell anything out of there. That'll all get passed on when I'm gone. Then what's, is that passed on to your children or do you have the expectation that they're never going to sell that or that it's what's, what would you? Yeah, I know. What do you

think. I don't think so. I don't think so. If you tell them not to me, but I'm wondering, yeah, but why not like a museum? Why not see if you can get some, some publicly funded or some museum that you could donate a portion of proceeds to charity and display them? Absolutely. A lot of that will be going on. In fact, it's already drawn up, you know, as far as our charities are concerned. But the bulk of it, you know, my boys will just, you know, have to figure it out. But, you know, that was my goal from the beginning. You know, these are, if these ever end up being worth anything, you know, any of my collections, you know, that I hope I've raised my boys in such a way that they would value it themselves or at the very least value my passion for it. Now, opening up a museum or something, there was never really much call for it. But I've actually heard some things recently where some of my stuff and some of the

the stuff in the community that a lot of the guys have is, you know, very rare special items that people would come to see. So that's not, that could be something around the corner. I would do that. I would pay like 30 bucks to get access to a museum and you walk in a room like this. They're all like first edition charts. Right. Like that would be neat. Imagine the Smithsonian sponsoring a little like for trading cards. I think it would be too. I would go too. Right. Well, I know that a lot of people would. was a show about a year ago, somewhere in the Midwest, where a lot of the guys got together to put on a show, you know, where they could show off their wares. And they had a little

museum thing, you know, set up, you know, that was curtained off and that they went in. And they showed a first edition base box. They showed a PSA 10 Charzard. They showed some of the Japanese trophy cards and things like that. And it was, it was very successful. So that tells you, people do want to go see this stuff. You know, they, because they, especially these days where the popularity is through the roof. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one.

For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more like Habinier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Yeah. So as far as your own collection, have you ever considered or has your family wanted you to say, we should sell half of this? We could live like kings. We could buy a mansion. You could get whatever you want. Just half of it. Right. Yeah. Well, I'm kind of lucky with Twan. She's kind of known as Queen. Pokemon or at autism instruct. She has just as much passion for this as I do.

She loves it. She had never heard of it 10 years ago because Pokemon wasn't the thing in Vietnam. But in fact, it's over 10 years. It's like 12, 13 years ago. I saw her turn and look at me just. Yeah, we should. If she wants, we could bring her on for some let's meet her. Oh, yeah.

Twan? Come here a minute. Come here a minute. Meeting Queen Pokemon. Yes. Queen Pokemon. Okay. Come here a minute.

Hey, come on in. Come over here. Say hello. Yeah, we're talking about when we met in Vietnam. And you hadn't heard about Pokemon at the time, you know, over there. And yet, we're just kind of telling our story. At the time, he said he had nothing, but he has a love. lot of carks.

And he just said, come over here, visit. And then if five years later, you stay here for five years, if five years later you don't like it, then you can, we go back. Five years? Yeah. Five years? That's a long time. Yeah.

Five years, you know, by then you're settled. Yeah. That's why he's smart enough. That was the plan in the beginning. What car do you have? He said, Pokemon, car. I have no idea about Pokemon cat at that time. And then when I moved, he was.

year 2010, I saw him like crazy. Nine and day, everything in it, on it. I said, Gary, you should sleep sometime, right? He might know everything Pokemon. And then 2012, I started to get in it, but not deeply like him because I have another vision. Like, you know, that autism? Yeah.

So at that time, not autism yet. autism is about 2014 so I start to I even start my eBay but tell you the truth I sell

zero on the eBay and then I close it so I said no no this is not for me and I say okay just keep everything there for me so I put everything in the storage Wow Yeah

So you got her with Pokemon Most guys would be like Come check out my mansion I got a car. But you said come check out the Pokemon. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

At that time, I didn't know anything about Pokemon. And slowly I know it, but not totally 100% in it. Wow. But I support him. That's nice. I trust his instant and his love. And then when you love someone, you love everything about that person. Do you ever get in fights about Pokemon that it's too much?

Too much Pokemon. You tell him this? I didn't have. Instagram. Recently, I started in the RAM is that, you have to spend time with your family, Daddy. And then when I signed up, Interam, he bummed. He said, my wife, he posts on one of my boss. I suppose say, my wife just get into Instagram, just say, follow her or something. In the next morning, I saw, what, 400 people, 400 something people. You know what? What's your Instagram? Everyone is watching. Go, go, go,

Follow her. Let's do this. 50,000 people here, 70,000. Yeah, my Instagram is autism instruct. Okay. And then autism instruct. Yes. And it's for a good cause,

helping charity. Yes. Towards autism. I think this is good. So, guys, just do it. Just do it.

And then, and then I say, oh my gosh, this is what you spend time for? You love. And then I found love. Oh, I was the director of a resort,

casino, hotel right on the South China Sea. And Tuan was hired to be the assistant director. Plus she spoke multiple languages, which I needed because very few people spoke English there. And so we fell in love and I told her, just come back for that five years. And if you, because my sons, my sons, yeah, my sons would be, my sons would be, my sons would be, we're like 14, 15. They'd be 19, and then I'd feel okay about going. And I said, and if you're not happy after five years, I'll go with you back to Vietnam.

And I'll live there the rest of my life. And I do what I say. Was that the pawn stars promise? The pawn stars promise. By the guys try to get out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Those things started happening.

And like Twan was in that episode too, but she was one of the crowd. They brought, they brought, you know, some people in, you know, from the, to be in the episode, you know, as customers. in that. But yeah, fortunately, after that five years, she had gone to UNLV, gotten another degree, and then wanted to start other things, had the baby, and then decided, you know, that she wanted to stay. And I went, because I would have left. Yeah. Just like I probably would have had to have sold to Rick, because I told him I would. Yeah.

But I got lucky. I have. Yes. Yes. You know how to talk. Yeah. Which would change everything. But it's good because you would have honored it.

So you deserve it. I like that. You haven't done it. Yeah. But it just happened to the cards were in your favor. Right. That's true. That's a good way to put it.

The cards were in my favor. You know what? I think you're good luck. So how about this? Let's open up the pack. Oh. Jack, how about this? What I'm thinking, Jack, if you want to get some just some B roll.

Yeah, yeah. I don't have any sleep. So I'm planning just to put the card back in here. But if we get a, First Edition, Blaine's Charzard, or an Erika's Venusaur. We're going to go crazy here. Okay, so we got Brock's Geo-Dude. Erica's Weepin' Bell.

Energy. Starz Mankey. Bell Sprout. Might. Sabrina's Abra. Oh, we got a Blaine's Charmander. Nice. That's good.

I hope that's a sign of something to come. Oh, let's see. Rocket Snorlax. Wow. Not hollow, but still. I guess it's... I missed it from the back. I guess with these, is it...

So it's not three from the back on this one. There's no. Misty's seeking? Uh-uh. Oh, there's not. No, it was the rocket snorlax. Oh, okay, that was the... So, not a hollow.

But we still got a Blaine's Charmander. It's probably a nine. It's a little off center. But the... what do you do this? The rocket snorlax. That's the rare. Nice.

Did it. I think, too, we should see what's in your briefcase. Okay. Also, to throw this out there, we haven't mentioned this. We are filming in Las Vegas at Steve Aoki's house, the DJ, because Gary and him are friends. So we arrived at this house, and I have to say, it is now, I feel like he keeps saying this is the coolest house I've ever been to ever since I started hanging out with Graham. but now this is definitely the coolest house I've ever been to.

What house did we? Oh, no, it was the one with Kevin O'Leary. It was the one with Kevin O'Leary. And then also it was the one that we did with Christine. That was like the coolest house. This, between all the houses, this is by far the nicest. It has a jump, like ball pit or something, like a foam pit. Trampoline and ball pit.

Yes. Literally everything anyone could ever want is all within this house. And it's a very, very nice house as well. Yeah. And you guys took it. advantage of that too. We did. We jumped in the ball pit.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Absolutely. Put some pictures up here. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic time.

So Steve, thank you so much for doing this. So how much is, how much is this worth, this box? You want to guess? Yeah, yeah. I want to take a guess.

So you said you have multi, you said over 10 million. No, no. Over 10 million means, total collection. Means my entire Pokemon collection. And you have all the good stuff.

This is just a small part of this. Small. Yeah. Oh, so all your good stuff is up north. So I'm going to say in that briefcase, I feel like I'm going to say something low and it's going to be stupid. Be honest.

Just be honest. Don't, don't try. Just be what you really think it is. What I really think that is. Yeah. Oh my gosh. One point six million dollars.

I was going to say two. Okay. It's about double those numbers. Yeah. There's, I actually. Knowing that we were going to discuss this today, I actually checked current market values

of what I could sell these for within seven days. If I was going to sell them, what could I get within seven days? So these are not outrageous numbers. These are what they would sell for quickly in that. And it amounts to, do you want me to open this? Tell us how much and then open it. And then I got one question for you before you open it.

Okay. It amounts to 3.9 mil. million dollars inside this case. And it's not a huge case, but it is some of the most special items I have. How do you insure this? That's what I want to know. You don't. It's not insured. It is not insured. Can't you get this insured? There's got to be someone who's willing to insure this. Yeah, there are some collectible, some companies that will insure collectibles, but put yourself in the in the place of an insurance company that are, is trying to insure, these, how easy it would be to take advantage of an insurance company. I mean, these are just

little cards, right? You know, I could say right now, you know, well, I'm missing three cards, you know, a million dollars. I'm missing three. What's going on here, right? So they are not that open to insuring collectibles like this. There are a couple of companies that do. They are so outrageous. and the restrictions are so confining that there's nobody with half a brain would take advantage of it. So how do you protect against these either being stolen or damaged? Okay, what I did to get these ready for you was the majority I took out of one of my safety deposit boxes at our bank, and which I have a decent size box where I keep the most expensive things. Yes, you can insure things through bank safety deposit boxes,

but there's little reason to. If there's a safe place, that's the safe place. And the one I have has special restrictions on safety deposit boxes. It's not your normal system, bank system. In other words, I am 100% confident. nobody could ever get into that and they're 100% safe. And then the balance of them, I just keep in a storage. I have a couple storage lockers here in Las Vegas also.

I keep them here. And, you know, inconspicuously, not in my name, you know, because people can research my name. In fact, that was, you know, some, I think it was Steve Aoki's business manager who gave me that. advice that take everything out of your name, all your storage lockers, don't use your name, don't use Twan's name, at autism, instruct. Yeah.

Follow them. Like you say, and smash the like button. Destroy it. Yeah, destroy the, because of the YouTube algorithm. Yeah. So I keep those in a storage locker and very inconspicuous. And so I feel. you know, very confident with that too.

Because I got, I got Steve's manager. He set me all up to do things properly. Good. And, yeah, so. Well, let's see what's in here. I'm really excited for this. Okay. Jack, this is going to be the most expensive thing that you've seen.

Oh, no, maybe. Christine's ring was $1.6 million. Jack held it. And how much did you guess it was worth like 50 grand, 300 grand? She says, yeah, she says, 1.6. and his face. You could pause. You could actually put this up here.

Freeze frame on your face, as she tells you the thing. It's just this. It's priceless. Graham has introduced me to a pretty different lifestyle. Yeah. We have this thing

where just Jack reacts to things. And because you have such genuine reactions to everything. It's just this utter amazement. It's just fun. All right, let's see this. Okay. I'm wondering if I should,

be roll some of this. Should we do this before and afterwards? We can do it afterwards. You sure? Okay. Okay. Now there's I feel like, yeah. Numerous different things. I don't know how you want to show this. Let's do it afterwards. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we'll do B roll afterwards. I don't want to touch anything. You show us and.

Oh, you can touch. Really? It's all protected. Can I grab one? Anything. Of course. Sure. So this is a shadowless gem mint 10 Charzard. Yeah, market value, that's not first edition, correct? No, it's not. Okay, so market value for those, I know, you know, one of the guys that we all know in the community just paid $120,000 for one of those. Jack, you want to so careful with that?

No, no, no. No? Oh, you could take it, you could throw it across the floor, it wouldn't hurt anything. How is it? grab one more? Everything. How is it so protected in there that if I threw it, I'm not going to, but it wouldn't move around and damage at all.

No, no. How is it so protected in there? Totally, totally. It's one of the reasons for grading cards for a lot of people is just to give them, you know, lifelong protection. But how does it? Maybe, maybe you want to drop it off a roof. $1,000?

That's minimum $100,000. You can get a little more than that. Yeah. Wow. Those are shadowless PSA 10. Did you grade these or did you buy? I bought of the shadowless, I would say, you know, over these years, maybe I graded, I think there's 12 of them in there.

And I think I graded half and bought half. Maybe take these. These are all shadowless. I don't know how much. Oh, you know what? I got to get a picture with all of these. We gotta get pictures. We gotta get pictures.

Okay. Oh my god. That is insane. So wait, wait. So how much am I holding here? How many is this? I think there's... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

It's a million bucks. You want to hold a million dollars, Jack? Pokemon cardboard. My hands are... My hands are sweating because I want to make sure like nothing happens to this. I'm so worried. I'm still worried about it.

If you don't juggle them, juggle with them. You could probably juggle with them and be okay, too. Oh, they're all first edition, gem mint tens. Six of them. We'll get pictures afterwards. I really want a picture right now. There's a little speck right there. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, gem mint 10 doesn't mean perfect. You know, of course. Yeah. If, you know, the process to make these, these all come on big sheets. The sheets get fed off of each rollers roll and peel the sheets off. and peel the sheets off. Cutters come and cut the edges on those. Do you have any that are like basically perfect?

What would you say the most perfect one is? Here, let's put that right there. That might bore you because I would have to go very closely through those with my special magnified jewelers loop. And some are little better than others. Wow, this is it, man. That's the one. This is a BGS 10 signed.

Yes. In this case, the signature means very little. A Rita, who did design that Charzard, and it's signed on the case, not the card. I mean, never would you let him sign that card, because that's extremely special. Wait, who signed this? Arita.

The artist of this card. Yeah, the artist. Yeah. In a lot of cases, that's a big deal. But this card is such a big deal. His signature means nothing. Yeah, I could take, I'm tempted to take it off of their. It's just on the case.

It's not on the card, the signature. I see, unfortunately, for centering, for this not to get a black label, it's the top is just a fraction. I know. Too tall. That's it. Now, this card is the one you mentioned. and Lee and I, Leon Hart and I went to Beckett's.

I wanted to get this crossed over to a black label, all tens. Yeah. And I gave it to them and they went through it. And they said, I'm sorry, we just can't. You know, it's a 10. It's a pristine 10, but we can't upgrade you on that. It's a shame that they can't just file down that top just a little bit. I know you wouldn't even want to touch this card.

Not if you knew. How was that? Do you think this is the only one in existence? Now, there are three of those in existence. Three Beckett's, pristine tens. I own two of them. I had the only two up until about three, four months ago. Only two in the world.

And somehow somebody came up with one, graded it through Beckett's, and a third one came out. Nobody knows who it was. We don't know who it was. I'm trying to find them. In fact, I've offered $50,000 to anybody that can find me the third one of those and that I can complete a transaction to own it. So I own the only three.

Wow. And nobody has come forward. Now, if you check the serial numbers, the cards before it and the cards after it are like it was a binder set. It's like somebody had a binder, took the cards out all first. edition and had them graded. And by chance and by luck, they ended, the Charzart ended up

with a pristine 10. But the other ones were sixes and sevens. So you could tell that this was no pro who got it. So it could be just some random person. Got it. I will never find out who it was. It'll stay hidden, you know, essentially forever, at least as far as I'm concerned.

How much is that card worth? Okay. Let me guess, Jack. Guess how much you think that call? That one card is worth. Yes. I thought a 10 was worth $300,000. Not a Beckett.

Beckett is like you have PSA, but then you have Beckett's like the Rolls-Royce. PSA, I would say, is like the Mercedes of grading. This is the Rolls-Royce. This is like you take a PSA, you put a PSA under a fine-tooth comb, and then you get Beckett. There's 121 of those PSA-10s in the world.

121 PSA-10. Of the PSA-10, of the PSA-10, That's a Beckett. And there's three. There's three of those. There's 121 of the PSA tens. So that gives you a little better idea of the difference in price. That is the tens of the tens.

It's like the top 1% or the top 0.1%. There you go. You guess first. I'll guess second. Now you can't be wrong because one has never sold because I would never sell them and the other one's never shown up. So this is all guesswork. It's something else here now, something new.

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I'm going to say $1 million. Yeah, I would say if, if 10 or 10, I would say this is probably worth up to $2 million to the right collector. I'd say $2 million. I would be, I would have to agree to that price. That's an awful lot. I'm there is no right answer to this if I had to put a number like you guys just did I would say maybe 800,000 to a million yeah would you pay a million dollars for one of those that's a good question

oh man you don't want to tip your hat necessarily uh I offered for anybody who could find that third one for me I offered 750,000 and 50,000 finders fee. So that would be my maximum. I really couldn't do, I really, you know, it would be too hard to do more than that. It'd be hard to do that.

What's your advantage of getting all three besides just having the market? Just because all these years, I had the only one, right? For many years, I had the only one. Then a second one popped up and with Leon Hart's help as a middle man for me in Dallas.

He found it, got the girl to agree to, sell it. I flew to Dallas. We completed that transaction. He did a video on it with him and I. Okay, see, that's interesting. I don't mind. Because of the girl, I can't see the exact amount, but I can say under $100,000. I paid for it. And that's four or five years ago or something like that. So I had the only one. And then this one came and I bought this one for under $100,000. That gave me the only two. And so I've always had the only ones, right? Now this third one came. How did you hear about the third one?

Beckett's advertised it. You know, they advertised, you know, that this card has shown up and they put it on the front page of their website. And so, okay, now those are. So we got the base. Yeah, those are the family of those guys. Those are the first edition. Those are the first edition uh hollows that came with that first edition bass set. All nine and a halfs? Yeah, those are all nine point fives. Do you have any tens? No.

Of the base? No. Have you wanted tens of the base? Not real. Not Beckett tens. Why? How hard are they and how expensive are? Very, very hard.

Very hard. Those, I mean, you figure three of those in the world and anybody who has one of any quality is getting it graded, right? There's no, none hiding away and at least not likely. That's a beauty, huh? Wow. What's the blastoys worth? The blastoys, what are the subgrades?

Nine and a halfs. All four? Yeah. That's a beautiful one. Yeah, that's a saw. That would be equivalent to a PSA 10. Oh, yeah. So maybe 30,000, something like that.

So what's the, what's off on the centering on this one? well like Graham said he saw just a little tiny bit of an off top to bottom I think you said Graham yeah I think the top is a little bit too much yeah yeah they're they it's so close I know it's but that's the main reason I sent it back in to hopefully get it upgraded to a black label 10 10 10 10 10 10 9.5 but they said the same they said the same thing you got to wait until they like recycle their employees yeah have you thought about that maybe just the person just keep sending you it and sending it until eventually keep trying. Yeah. It's someone else. Yeah.

It's such a famous card that they would know what I'm doing. Yeah, because they know, they know me. But you know what? Couldn't you have do it under someone else's name? Only because the card. They all know the card is mine. Take the card out. You take the card out under another person's name. Yeah. Too risky. It's very risky. No, they don't take it out when they, when they re-regate it. unless it qualifies for an upgrade and they take it up.

So it's too dangerous. It's too, too, I really don't even know what to compare that to. If you're trying to cut it in like one of those little plastic chards, hit the card and cause a little scratch, suddenly you're, that could be like $80.000. Right. Well, no, that could be a difference between $800,000 and $60,000.

Yeah. that a little, so that's why, as long as they're in there, again, I wouldn't care what you guys did. You guys could play catch with them. They're good. They're safe. But once you start cracking them open, it's dangerous. What do you think the Garrido's, this is the card that I pulled. Uh-huh.

And unfortunately, oh, yeah, that's what you pulled on the live street. Yeah, there's a little tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little speck on that side. Otherwise, center is good. What would, what's his card worth? That would put it to a nine probably. and that would probably, I don't know, maybe, well, for a 10, it's probably about 10,000 if it gets a PSA 10. Yeah.

For a 9, it would be 1 or 2,000 maybe. Oh, and then, you have packs in here? These are all first edition base packs. Wow. And you have no desire of opening these? What if there's a BGS 10 charizard in there? I know. I know.

Sometimes when I go, go to bed at night, that's my first dream, you know, is what's inside there? It's so hard. There's 26 of those packs here. Is that a heavy pack? There's eight heavy packs out of the 26. So there's eight packs that do have a hollow foil inside. And that's, that could be zero charzards.

That could be one charzor. It could be two charzards, right? Statistically it would be one, right? Statistically, it would be about half, about a 50% chance of there being a Charzard out of those eight packs, about a 50% chance. Even a little bit less,

because I think you have 12 in a box, 12 hollow foils in a box, and the chance for a Charzard, out of those, there's 15 hollow foils possible, 12 hollow foils in a pack, means you're not even guaranteed a hollow foil out of a full box. You're guaranteed 12 hollows out of the 15 possible hollows. And then some of those hollows can be duplicated.

You might get two or something. You might get three or something. Could you ever get two hollows in one pack? Oh, no. No, not in one pack. But in one box, one time I got three charzards. Did you film it? In one box.

This was before that. This was like 2005. And I do have two witnesses that had happened. One was my youngest son, Devin. And the other one was a business partner, Joel, who's still alive, lives in Columbus, Ohio, and he would attest for it. Because they were both there watching me open this box. Three first edition, base chariards, that's not the whole story.

All three graded PSA 10. Wow. Oh, my God. And I'm saying that with people alive that saw me do it, right? So what are those first edition packs worth? Okay. They're worth, depending how you sell it light, if you sell a light pack, maybe eight to 10,000 for a light pack,

that's pretty much guaranteed no holoaf oil. If you sell a heavy pack where you're guaranteed a heavy, like out of those eight of those, then about 25,000 for a, guaranteed hollow pack. And if you sell them unwaid, which means right now you just grab one and buy it and open it, then I would say right in the area of 15 to 18,000.

It's that much. I remember when Logan announced his packs for $11,000, I did the research on. I'm like, these packs are really worth nine. Right. And I'm like, I'm paying a premium for the shout out from Logan. Yes. But I figured, well, it's good.

make a video from it, so I can make it worth it at least. There you go. It's crazy to see how much the values have gone up. Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's real, it's real safe to say that, uh, like with Logan, with your thing that you, that you did at that time, he had just bought a first edition PSA 10 Charzard for 150,000. So now that same card that come out of those packs is 350,000, right? So obviously now that price that you guys paid, it would have to be more than that today because the price of the cards, especially that Charzard, is so high. Like had you not broke that pack, the one you have, you could have sold that heavy pack because you could await it with the Girdos that would show up as heavy, easily sell it for 25,000, maybe 30,000.

30,000. On eBay, there's trying to get 40,000. Yeah, I think the curiosity for me to know what's inside, I couldn't do it. I'll tell you that, a whole experience, I think, was worth it. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it was a great experience. Yeah, I love watching you guys. I love watching that. Yeah. If you had to pick a second favorite card, what would it be? My absolute favorite Pokemon card is Venusaur. It's not Charzart. It's not Charzard. There's something, about the looks of that base set Venusaur, you know, something about the nose, the nose on the artwork,

that just, for me, just makes me want to grab that nose and shake it. You know, it's just so cool. The artwork on the green, which is my favorite color, and the look on his face and the bulk of his nose, it's, when that first came out,

that's been my favorite card ever since. So base set venosaur artwork. Even the Erika's Venusaur, I think you mentioned earlier. I love that Venusaur too. But the Bayesad Venusaur is my favorite card. And then I would have to say the Charzards. What would you say for people who want to get into collecting, let's say, is both a hobby and an investment?

Is it worth it for people to buy like PSA sevens and sixes and eights? Or is it worth it to save up and get one good like PSA 10 instead of a whole bunch of sevens? I'm, the tens have escalated so much that it really is out of reach, you know, for the majority of people, those are really out of reach. And with that being the case, they're going to be liking the nines and getting the nines. The nines are getting scarce. Then they're going to be liking the eights. I like as an investment opportunity, I like the lower graded ones, the six is, sevens and eights. because eventually those higher grades are going to fade out.

They're going to disappear. People are going to get them in their collections like me and not release them, not give them up. So I like the idea of premium cards like these in lower grades very much. So you think that would be a good investment? I do. But you're saying if someone had the money to buy a higher grade, to go with the highest grade you could afford,

because it's that curve, the higher the grade all of a sudden, it rises exponentially. Yes. Yeah, if, let's just say money isn't as much of an issue, then I would go with the higher graded cards. Okay. Yes, I would because any time you look at a graph of value changes in that, you see the middle grades going up a little bit, and if you see spikes, it's always those PSA tens that show the spike.

Yeah. So, yeah. And, you know, I wanted to ask you something if I could. Oh, yeah, anything, whatever you want. because, you know, I was thinking, let me grab one of these. I was thinking that, you know, for investment opportunities, of course, you know, we know each other, I know that you have rental properties and stuff like that. You in Los Angeles, or they might be more, I don't know, but say a $750,000 home, you can

buy, fixed up a little bit, do your $50,000 thing and then rent it out and all that. or you can buy for that exact same, 750,000 this. Instead of a house, you're buying this slab, this car. Obviously, upkeep and everything is different. I know that's why all shooting through your head, right? And that what do you think investment-wise? Because a lot of what you do is for investment. It's, you know, this is an investment and yet,

if they were equal value today, if they were equal value today, how do you feel about that? What would you? It's tough because I feel like with the investment property, you're guaranteed a certain ROI. You could go in and see, okay, see all these houses are selling at this price. I know if I put 50,000 in, I could come out with 100,000 equity. It's going to rent for this price.

I'm making this month's guaranteed when done right. There's very little risk with this. The issue that I see with this compared to rental property is that you're not guaranteed income. And it's hard to leverage this. it's hard to borrow against this. It's hard to go to this card to the bank and say, I want to borrow $300,000, I want to do a cash out of finance,

so I can go move my money around. This is a lot more illiquid. Good point. That's the biggest difference I see. This is really interesting to me because I feel like you could make more money, I think, with Pokemon, but it's just the risk. You take the risk that you're not going to be able to, replace your income from this.

It's kind of, it reminds it, I don't want to compare it to Bitcoin, let's just say, but it's similar in that you can't borrow against it. Right. And you're going to do it with the expectation that someone else is going to pay more. Now, I think with this, I think just the rarity alone is worth something.

It's just, that's, it's giving up something guaranteed for something that has the potential of outperforming anything else. I see. So it's because it's a little bit or quite a bit more speculative. Yes. That takes away from some of the current value of it. Yes. From a utility standpoint, it's hard to go to the bank and say, I want to pull a credit line from this and then buy stocks. You couldn't do that at a bank. It's just getting appraisal done. And within a week, they give you a credit line. Or with stocks, it's instant. They'll just say, what's your portfolio value. They have a calculation stocks. Okay, we'll lend you a million bucks.

Right. So with this, it's harder. Would you say that also with most collectibles? Yes. So I don't think it's just, you think that's collectibles in general. In general. But I think, yeah, same thing. Got you. Yeah, same thing. What was I just about to say? Reminds me of like Dubai, low license plates. Like if you get a license plate that just says three or, or two or seven. I'm selling millions of dollars now. Okay.

Yeah. Low-digit license plates in Dubai. That's the ultimate sign of wealth is when someone has a low-digit license plate because they had to pay top dollar for that. Very interesting. But this is what I feel like, because like I'm so, because now I want one, like really badly. Yeah.

Yeah. Buy one, dude. Because I see like that's a, no, I wouldn't sell any. You buy one. you can find one. Oh, no. You know, knowing that the last one sold for $358,000, that's a record high. You would have to match that or go a little bit above it.

Yeah. I mean, you know what I have, and I think that's overpriced. And yet I own them. I'm affecting my own values by saying that because a lot of people listen to me, right, about this. I think 358,000 is excessive, and I don't think they're worth that. I don't think they're worth 250. What I'm concerned about is the Logan Paul video exploded the hobby, and you have so many people going after these cards because they see going up in value

so fast, so they're all jumping into it, paying top dollar just because they want to get it. And I think a few years from now, some of that's going to sim. or down. It's going to settle and it's going to stay there until the next thing comes on. I think it reminds me a little bit of like the Bitcoin thing where it seems like every seven years, it got boom, it just explodes, goes down, settles. There's a new base. Something else comes along. Boom. Same thing. Even higher next time goes down, settles. That's what I think maybe could happen. You know what? I couldn't agree more. And I think the worst time to buy would be today to buy a PSA 10 first edition Charzard

because I totally agree with you two, three years from now, I think they're going to go back down where they belong, which is probably in the 200,000 range. I mean, I'm not really gambling much by saying that because I'm not going to sell mine anyway. 10 years, two years doesn't make any difference.

But my honest feeling is exactly the same as yours. Wait today, two, three years from now they're going to be where they belong. Yeah. And then pick them up. And then it could go through it natural. Now, from 1999 to this day, these have had a gradual increase.

They have never, the Charzards have never leveled off or gone down. They have all had a proper increase every day for the last 21 years. Never changed. This spike that happened is sudden and unexpected. But, yeah. Like, if it weren't for the Logan Paul video,

where do you think these would be trading at? Because before that video, these at the top were selling at like 40-50. Yeah, I think once sold for 72 publicly, I know of some that sold privately prior to the Logan Paul purchase, in the, all of them under 100,000 in that. But I got many offers for 130,000. Yeah.

Now, since this is like a podcast, about investing and stuff like that. You said that you'd be willing to spend $750,000, well, 800 total $1,000 in order to get a BGS. I'd have to borrow from you guys, but yeah, I would do that. How would, how are you getting those funds? Like, is that, let's talk about building wealth and how you have built your wealth through Pokemon cards throughout time.

Yeah, well, I'm very, I'm very pokey rich. Very pokey rich, not rich. Just pokey rich. Just pokey rich, pretty much. Of course, I've worked my whole life and I've worked hard my whole life. I've saved up a little bit. But then just about all my money I put into my collectibles. And, you know, certainly if I were to sell off collectibles, I would do well.

But then, you know, then again, I can tell you, you know, another interesting story, you know, maybe privately, you know, about that situation. But because Pokemon has been, you see, I'd say 80% of my collectibles in my storage lockers that I work so hard and love them so much are absolutely worthless, right? I mean, no value whatsoever, you know, like fallen empires, you know, trading cards and things like that that I worked so hard to put together in that. They just simply haven't, you know, gone up at all and most of them have dropped down to nothing.

They're not worth anything. So a lot of those efforts I put, it just so happens that Pokemon has been extremely successful, and that was what I concentrated on for, you know, 20 years. So a lot of the, a lot of the, you know, expendable income I have, why I could buy that card for that price now is because of what Pokemon has done. done and I sold some things that are of less consequence to me. So you still sell cards and that's how you're able to. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, but everything is done privately now. I do it through friends and that I don't sell. I think on eBay, I think I have two listings that are absurd amount. I don't sell anywhere except privately like, you know, through Logan or Steve or, you know, just through friends. And if you don't mind answering this, how much of your net worth is in Pokemon cards? What percentage? You don't have to say an exact number if you're uncomfortable saying that? No, I would have a pretty good idea.

I would say probably with these spikes of values, I would have to think my Pokemon collection takes up at least 80% of my total net worth. And I wouldn't have said that a year ago. It might have been 20-30%. Yeah, 30-40. And what about investments like real estate and other stuff like that? Do you invest in that or is it more so just alternative? That's an interesting thing.

I have never invested in real estate, you know, ever. I've owned homes in the past. Our last home we owned here in Henderson was in a retirement community. And then the little girl came along, our little daughter came along and we had to move out. That was actually the last home we purchased, you know, was that one. So I don't have any real estate investments at all right now. We are looking for a house now, though, that I can also explain to you later on. Yeah.

Wow. Is there under any condition that you would sell the first edition, Charz, or at a PSA 10? Yeah, I wouldn't. Only because I sold two mainly for the good of the game, good of the hobby. Plus, I love the Shattelists the most. And I have double the number of Shattelists in that. And I think the Shattelists are rare. And I think overall, I think they're a better investment than this edition.

Why is that? There's 121 PSA 10 first edition Charzards. There's only 54 PSA 10 Shattelis Charzards. And yet there were more Shattelist Charzards produced. But don't you think that's just because people haven't graded the shadowless cards because they felt like it's not as excellent question excellent question but absolutely not because if you look at the nine populations the nine populations are much higher for the shadowless and they are for first edition if you get my drift yeah see in other words the uh the number

graded are very similar but the numbers that got tens and also people collected like me first editions. And then when the Unlimited series came out, the Shadallus, those went into people's decks and they started playing them in that. So the shadowless ones were the first Unlimited. Nobody knew there was going to be a shadowed version afterwards. So those got played with and damaged. And so I think that's the main reason they're rare and there's fewer. So if you were to pick one card that you see, Graham, you should go and buy this card, invest in it. I think 10 years so now you'll do better than 7% a year, let's say. Which card would you pick?

I would pick the Shattelus Charzart. What about a first edition Venusaur? Do you think maybe the Venusar and Blastoise might do well, or you really think the shadowless charisard? You know, the spike, see, we're talking as we're, you know, right in the middle of a spike in Pokemon. And it's kind of like, you know, when your housing market, you know, reaches the top where everything is more expensive than it's ever been before.

And, you know, Brentwood and Beverly Hills, you know, these different areas, they're all up 150, 200 percent. And then you get asked, you know, where would you recommend, should I buy in Belar, you know, Brentwood, or it'd be hard to answer that because they're all at their all-time highs. And so the ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, That's the Volkswagen Tiguan. Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents.

Under the hood, the available 201 turbocharged horsepower engine gives it a fun to drive edge. The refined Tiguan, you deserve more style. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SUV, German engineered for all. I don't know. I could be wrong about that, but that's kind of the way I see it. I don't think it's that smart buying things when they're at the top that they've ever been. Because how much higher are they going to go?

Yeah. That Charzard 358,000, that's absolutely insane. It's not worth that. What do you think the base Charzard is worth today versus what it should be worth? Base Unlimited? Base Unlimited. PSA 10. Okay.

Yeah. That's a really good one because I have 52 PSA 10 on. Unlimited Charzards. Isn't that the entire PSA market? No, there's more. Wait, how many PSA 10 unlimited? Is it? I haven't looked in a long time, maybe 400, 500,

maybe something I'd have to double check. But a year ago, a PSA 10 was probably worth about $1,500,000. Now they're probably worth $10,000 to $15,000. So they've gone up 10 times in one year. And that's this card right here. No, that's not, those that we're talking about, uh, base, unlimited,

shadowed, God, it got a shadow list. Yeah. Well, yeah, well, these are a whole different. Okay. Those were maybe 30,000 a year ago and now they're, that's over 100,000. That's over 100,000?

Oh. What do you think it should be? I could take your phone right now and I get sell every single one of those for 100,000 before we finish this interview. It's absolutely, the right price today. Why do you continue buying these cards and continuing the collection that you already have so much of? It's an illness.

Maybe we need a Dr. Phil here or something. You know, I don't know why it's a good thing I did and it's a good thing I do because it's made an awful lot of money if I were to liquidate, if I were to sell. I don't know why I want more. Why do I want that third one like you asked me before? I don't know why I want that. Well, it makes sense why you want the third one, because then you would have all three. Have them all.

Then you would have the market. Right. But buying something that you wouldn't own 100% of. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I just want them. I just love them so much. And the more I have, the happier I am.

Do you have any other, like, expensive tastes or anything? Do you drink Starbucks? Not in a million years would I do that. And I'm not saying I'm as smart as Graham, you know, when it comes to frugality in that. But I love the way he is. You know, when I see those things and I see when you talk about dates. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's me.

What you're saying is exactly what I want to be and exactly what I want to do. and I think it's so cool in that. But then oddly with spending in that, with Twan or with little Acara, I spend every nickel in my pocket, and I would just be so happy about that. My heart is absolutely what Graham is, what you advocate in that. But when it comes to those two girls,

I mean, if just next time when you're at my house, I'm going to show you her toys. And I mean, it's almost like every day I have to buy her a toy because I want her to be happy. I want to see that smile. I want to, that means more to me. But my nature is to be very frugal.

My nature is to try to be very smart, you know, with my money. And before we got married, I was very good with my money. You know, I, Starbucks, you know, $5, six, seven dollars for a coffee is absolutely insane. It doesn't make any sense at all in that. I don't think it makes sense to anybody. I think it's a laziness thing. They don't want to make the coffee, so they go and they do it. But is there value to that, to those, what we would consider wasting money?

There must be value to them. Yeah. The experience must have some value, right? Wouldn't you think? Yeah. Yeah, because I don't feel that way. You know, I feel differently, but the experience for the two girls, I totally feel. So it's almost like a split personality, I think.

Let me just change the battery. Yes. I think we could wrap up. Yeah, sure. Yes. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It was amazing having you. And nice to meet you as well.

I want to say like this is probably one of the funnest podcast we've ever done. Because I'm trying to think back. Stradman was fun. But we were doing so much other stuff that day that by the time we filmed the podcast, we were exhausted. We had a full day.

This is, I think, our most, this is my favorite one. If I were to go back for any podcast, can you think of? I mean, I don't, know if I want to pick out, like, based off the guest individually. But just overall, the overall podcast experience. This has been a great experience.

We came to Vegas. The drive over here was a brief. You wouldn't say this is your favorite one. Well, just because I don't want to put down other people. I don't know. Kevin's was great. Yes. Kevin's been, I will say this is.

You want to say top three? Yes. I will say top three. Top three. I want to say so far, this has been my favorite experience. Because of how different it has been from every other episode and, and seeing all of this together getting able to talk to you.

It's the best one. He said it. He said it. This is the best. Thank you. We got to jump in a phone pit. Yeah. Yeah.

We met Steve Aoki. That's amazing. And we got to see this just collection and talk to. I think the best person when it comes to Pokemon. Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much. It really means a lot. And by the way, we all got the illness tested. We don't want to say the C word. I got Tese. They just, They do that little thing up your nose.

That was actually not my favorite. No. That was a scary. I've never had that done before either. Twon has never had it done either. Every time we always get the finger. That's what we were expecting. Or like at CVS, they do the just right inside.

That thing was weird. You know, I haven't, I've never, none of us had that. It was scary. I hated that. It was scary. I hated that. But so we're all good. We're all negative, which is great.

Thank you so much again. Oh, thank you very much. You know, I appreciate you guys so much. You know, growing this. The financial side of things, you know, just isn't brought up enough with collectibles and with, especially with Pokemon. Information, I think a lot of people should go to your channel

and check out your financial information, how it can apply to their collectibles because you have a lot of these young people that are sitting suddenly on tons of money because their PSA 10 Lugia, that was worth 13,000 eight months ago. Yeah. Today it's worth $130,000. Suddenly these kids got $100,000 extra in their hand,

and they honestly aren't prepared to know what to do with that. Yeah. So I think, you know, you shedding some light on it. And even maybe in another video talking about, you know, when you suddenly come into hit the lottery, this is kind of like hitting the lottery. It is. And how should you react? You know, what's, you know, what should you be concentrating on?

It's too easy. Like when ballplayers get that first million dollar check, it just goes out, you know, buy a car and just blow the money in that, you know. This isn't how life is, you know, you got to be smart. And too many people don't know what. I'm old enough where I wouldn't go crazy like that. But most of these kids that suddenly are sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars. that they didn't expect, they don't know what to do with it.

And a lot of them are making mistakes because I hear a lot about this. Well, if you had any call to action, anything you wanted to mention right at the end, this is your time. That camera right there. Say what you want to that camera. Whatever you want. Yes. My main focus, my main focus these days is our charity foundation, which is the Aoki Foundation, where we have blended brain health and autism.

into one under one umbrella. And Steve and I worked very hard on this charity. And it's actually what, you know, what means the world, you know, to me now. We have a little beautiful autistic daughter. We understand what, you know, what is available to these kids and what these kids need. And this is a very, very valuable thing that I feel my remaining years, I want to devote, you know, to autism and to brain health. And working with somebody like Steve Aoki has been a godsend because he had all the

infrastructure in place. And so we're, you know, we have such a good thing going. We have events, Pokemon events, other types of events, some business things like what Graham is going to be involved with, you know, coming up in a number of months. Anyway, it's all about charity and it's all about, you know, our brain health an autism. Aoki Foundation.org slash Pokemon. We'll put a link in the description. Link down below the description.

Yes. So yeah, anybody, anybody that every single donation means one therapy session for a young kid who will not get that therapy session without it. Thank you. Donate. So with that said, you guys, destroy it. Destroy that. Yeah.

Like button. Donate. Smash that donate button. It's cool. So with that said, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. As always, smash the like button,

subscribe button, and notification bell. Feel free to add us on Instagram. All the links are down below in the description. You can also get four free stocks from Weble. It's all down below in the description. Thank you guys so much for watching. Really appreciate it. And until next time.

Thank you, guys. Cool. Thank you. We should do the mic drop. Uh-huh. And also, anything you mentioned is perfectly fine, too. Anything you mentioned maybe about this house or COVID.

testing. Anything you were to say is perfectly fine. I don't get the most service in here, but here we go. I'll be super careful on the mics. Yeah, perfect. So we'll do that halfway through. The podcast is made 25-814. So you're going to be introducing the podcast. What episode is this? Is it the 32nd? I think it's 31st, 30 second.

32nd, I think. Yeah, because we got Jack Dory. So you're going to say, welcome to the 30, 32nd ever episode of the iced coffee hour. Introduce yourself and then say, the podcast has made so far 25,814. Oh, well, what was the first word again?

Welcome to the, all you need to remember, 32, 32, ever, then 25814. 32. 30 second ever what is B roll oh we're gonna get a close up of this oh I see and then B roll is just gonna be recorded separately

so I'm gonna put this here oh okay so Jack I'm gonna have you stand right here and just record all right so just record this that camera and go is that the right side

the road side right facing you yep go perfect Thank you.