UnKommon take on Collectibles, Community & the Future of Trading Cards | Kyle Kravitz "King of the Kards" Interview | Hosted by Ryan Alford

Very few people go, I wish I hadn't taken quite as large a swing. Jesus, the other way around. The card ends up on eBay down. It got listed for auction. I said whatever it takes. When I tell you my bid on this card, I bid on this card so much higher than what I'm going for. It would scare some people. Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From Chasing Grails to Colin Bluffs, I'm going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. Hello and welcome to episode number two. It might be number two, but it's number one in the hearts and the ratings of the offer TV box. It is the King of Cards. He is Kyle Kravitz. He is the janitor of the CEO. He's all things the hobbyist. What's up brother? Look, I've got to have you do that intro so I can record it. I don't know if I can click that. I think we're not, but that's awesome. So appreciate you having me and happy to represent the TV box at the house. Dude, they say the old school way of TV ratings is like streaming stuff now, but let's just say the offer to house. Kyle and King of Cards is the number one rated show in the offer television. I think you're being burned into the screen. I'm sure you contribute a little bit, but I know that I fear the main core of pushing that ball down the hill. So appreciate the boys and yeah, hope they're watching this one too. Oh, they will be, man. They, uh, no one, they don't light up any faster than me saying. Kyle's coming on the show today and so I heard a couple of them are going, my throat hurts a little. I'm, you know, trying to fake a, you know, injury or something to get over here, but we kept them in the school. Yeah, you had a school that comes to it, man. But I'll say this, I do enjoy your stuff. I think there's a real character and I don't know, realness to the way you deliver content that's engaging. And it's not flashy. It's just, I think, raw and real. And I think that's a unique characteristic in the YouTube and content universe. And I think that's what's resonated like with us. And I know it's why you've had a lot of success. So I, I do appreciate how, I don't know, open you are, how, how kind you've been to my kids when we've talked. And so, you know, I just want to send that heartfelt as we get started. I appreciate that. I mean, it's my pleasure. And what we're building or have built even up to this point is beyond my wild extremes of trying to just turn my passion for collecting some cards into my business as well. So to be on this kind of platform, to have the effects we're having, put smiles on faces, enjoy some experiences, and share them with the world around us is special. And it means just as much to me to have kids like yours and families and people that are getting into this come up and share a moment, share their story. And for whatever reason, find a way to connect to us and myself. So it is really a humbling experience. And I'm happy to take the time wherever we can with those people supporting it. What was the moment, Kyle, when you said, I'm going to turn the camera on. Like, what, when did that, when did that like trigger to go? Okay, there's some point that you go, okay, I'm going to, you're collecting, you're doing these things, but you decided to flip the camera on. What was that moment and how hard was it? I'll answer the second question first. It's very hard at first. That's a whole other world you're entering. It makes you vulnerable. It makes you think about things you never thought you would have had to think about. So it's very difficult and so anybody dealing with that or figuring that out or who's been there can attest to it. It is a different level of openness to the world around you. When did that happen? It all happened by mistake. I was not a content creator. I still tell people I'm not a content creator. We document what I do. We turn a camera on and that is what you see. That is really, you know, I'm not going out of my way much to create content, at least not as a right now. So it really is just documentation of what we do. I think the first instance of that was me going, well, I'm starting this business. I hadn't traveled to shows at this point. I was side hustling and the side hustling was supposed to pay for the cards in my collection. That was the idea at first. I was going to finish my MBA. I was going to go get a job, but at least this thing that I love would pay for itself, right? Get to work on that. How do we market in today's world? We're talking about like 2019 was kind of when I really dug into this finishing college about to start my MBA. I was going to local shows. I was going online and I was figuring out if I could do this legitimately. How do you market yourself? How do you put yourself in front of people? How do you connect network, find deals, create opportunity? And that's when I realized that if I was going to have a chance to do something that so few are lucky enough to do, I had to do what they weren't doing. So I turned the camera on myself and it started as pictures of just the cards and it started as just pictures of me. Then I turned on the video. Then I put on the video and realized I can put that same video on multiple platforms and connect for the same work with more people. Figured out how I could get better at it, started exploring YouTube after TikTok and Instagram. Can I do long form? Tried that, put it on the shelf for a while, came back to it, but it all started about five to six years ago at the beginning of chasing the dream with doing this and realizing I was going to have to make some sacrifices and make myself vulnerable to do it. That's good insight and I think the biggest thing I'd want people to take away and we're going to get into the collecting stuff guys with my promise, but I like to dig into the business and the mindset and all that. That comes from my business show inside and Kyle's Uber smart at this stuff. Even if he won't act like he is like or whatever he's doing something and he's pieced together whether learned or observed or otherwise for how to market himself and do what he's doing and what he just crystallizes, this is hard. It's not easy. It's fun the first time maybe. It's nerve wracking, but it's fun. It's not fun the 457th time and you have to stack it and that's the only way he gets success and that's why Kyle has been successful is because he's stacking the wins and doing these things and I mean I don't mean to summarize Kyle, but I think that's what you're saying. I mean it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, but I'm more speak to you were asking when that first time was and I remember for example the first time sitting down, I'd never done a TikTok before, knew nothing about the platform but saw the direction things were going. It's when the platform was starting against some traction. So it was another way in opportunity. I had some friends on Instagram already. I had built that up to a few thousand followers. Nothing that is significant really passed a certain point, but it was something and I remember sitting down and do that first video and at the time all that's going through my head, I remember almost sweating. I'm sitting there putting this video together. Who's going to see this? What are they going to think or like my ex-girlfriend's going to see this? What are they going to think? You know, it was what am I doing here? Am I doing it properly? What's everyone going to think? Now we're far away from that, but I know that so many people struggle with that and I identify with them and I completely empathize with that. It is a big deal to do that and get over that hump and that's what I was sitting there thinking and then you talk about time number 457. It takes a while to go away, but you do those reps and you get to practice and you get better at it while you're doing it too and just for anybody watching that's thinking about putting themselves out there, it does go away, it just got to get through the process and trust it. And set up the systems and the way it cadence, I'm sure you have process procedures at this point on some level. And a team of guys, a guy that's filming and doing all that, I mean, right? I mean, I assume it doesn't just, you guys got to have some systems in place at this point. Yeah, well, everyone always says, you know, you guys and the whole team, but my whole operation is myself, Kevin, who is my videographer and editor behind the cam and occasionally his girlfriend Rachel who he works with. So there's two and then occasionally three of us in on the operation. That's it, that's all I've had in getting it to this point. I think granted there are big steps that I'm trying to take here in the next six months to a year that that picture is going to change as we're growing, but we've done it very lean operation and but yeah, it takes, it takes a village to get to where I want to go. And we're far from there yet. What we transition into the collecting side, like what's the one thing if you could go back and tell yourself in this process that you go, Kyle, do this or think that, you know, like early on? I wish that I realized just how good of a position I was in to take bigger chances earlier. And that's what I always tell people when they ask that question or something similar. That's my only regret as much of a chance as I was taking on myself. I had the opportunity to completely fail, go back down to zero and wake up 20 something with experience and enough money in the bank to get by and cover my expenses. Why not swing even bigger? So, you know, I don't regret too much because I took a big chance on myself and I know that. I guess my only regret would be not going bigger sooner. And of course, when it comes to cards, right, the timeline I'm talking about, if in 2019, 2020, I took on some of that advice we're talking about, monumental dollar figures on some of the cards I was buying investments, I made them choices I was making. But there's plenty I could do hindsight that especially in cards and any collector would relate to this that would have had me doing a little better on my value of my collection. Couldn't know some of that at the time, but I just wish I took a little more of a swing on what I did now. I asked that question in different ways, like on my business show, and it's like very few people go, I wish I hadn't taken quite as large a swing. I don't think I've ever heard it. It's usually the other way around. And you're right. There's some wisdom to hearing you talk, Kyle, especially knowing, look, I lost a million dollars on a venture that was 45, you know, 48 now, like three or four years ago, million dollars up in smoke. And you recover, man. I mean, you know, I don't, but much less than your 20s. So yeah, man, swing for the fences, baby. Every one of those million dollar losses, though, you know, I'm sure there's been those successes at a level like that or higher, you know, and they they come or they are coming from that and what you learn from them. So that's what I've taken away. And even just this past weekend at a show, perfect example of it where went through the first day of the show. And I was in that mindset and being relatively conservative and that night I got back from the show. I was like, what's the big swing I didn't take? What was the card I left there thinking about? The market is as hot as it's been high-end stuff. You put yourself in a position to be able to forward that, maybe make mistakes, but you know what you're doing. Trust your gut. And I went made a play that the next day I went back and I got that card I was thinking about and it has already turned out really well. So it just, it speaks to that. It's a mind-take. You got to carry with you and it doesn't go away that you got to be ready for the big moment and keep taking those big swings. And over a portfolio, you'll make some mistakes and slide back down a little bit, but you'll be a lot further ahead than you otherwise would have been. Get insight. Talking with Kyle, the King of Cards. What is it about your generation and the community around you that's so drawn to collecting? And I mean, is it nostalgia, status, creativity? What is it? Well, I mean, look, it's dads like you, right? You know, that are bringing their kids out to the court show and sitting there popping online and finding something to bond over. I don't know that it's just this generation, the newer generation. I think it's actually attached to the initial nostalgia that was the main course of the history of this whole thing, connected to those once kids now adults who have kids of their own. And I think there's become a huge connectivity there bringing that gap together of this was the thing that was amazingly cool and special back in my day. Here's your day. We can share this together now. I love it. I want to show you why I loved it. There's been evolution and business, the technologies behind it. Now there's all these opportunities within it, even as an alternative investment, all the ways to enjoy it differently that I think that sticks with people of all ages really. And that's what I've seen. So why would this new generation be any different? They're online, they're seeing it marketed more than it's ever been marketed by who knows how much. The companies at the top are doing a good job of really like putting this as a mainstream item. And what better way than now for something like we're doing right now, a podcast shows social media like I'm doing, there's so much access to this, so much visibility that was never there. So it doesn't surprise me at all that a generation on the underside is finding it quicker. Do you think it's there's a fine balance for me even with like living this through with my kids? The collecting versus business is a fine balance of those two things. And for you, it's kind of two-part question like how you balance those things for yourself. I mean, I don't know if you can and you want it's like, is there anything not for sale in the King of Cards deck? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Easily separated. I'm a collector first. Like I said, my business happened by not by accident. It was I like to think it was always supposed to happen, but it certainly wasn't the intention. I wanted to make that money using what I knew about cards to afford and keep the cards I wanted to keep. And I'm still on that mission, right? Like now I have an opportunity to do that with grail cards and some of the biggest cards out there. I'm far from caching in my trips, but I keep the cards that I can't come across again that I need to have. And for me, that's my guys who I grew up watching. I had that connection with and everyone associates me with Johnny Mansell now because I grew up watching that era of him and A&M. And I was a kid in high school in the middle of class. I was a little pain for my teachers and I got up on top of the table and I'm going like this. I remember that era. It was a picture of me doing it by the way. I have to send that to you. I want to see that. I want that for the episode. You need to stick that to me. I'll have to get that over to you. But those were so I connected to those moments and then you get to collecting and you know people say what they want about Johnny's career, but he was the greatest in a moment of what he was doing at that time. And that's what I remember and connected with. And so there are cards of his that won't leave my collection or my favorite. I bought one. There's a video of me buying one and it went viral and it was one of one exquisite patch auto from A&M. I got ripped apart in the comments. I used to spend that kind of money on this and that. He's not even playing whatever. A bunch of know-it-alls. And little do they know the same that I posted the video right after buying it. I got an offer for four times what I paid for the card and I turned it down without even a hesitation. That's being a collector. So are there cards? I keep absolutely. That's one that always will stick out for me. That was this year actually. Derek Jeter. I grew up in New York, Hugh Janky's fan. Derek Jeter's was everything to me growing up. And fortunate to connect with him a couple times and get to meet him and talk to him. So I have some pieces of his that I hold on to that I want to keep forever and not even just cards but on the collecting side. I had him sign my ticket to his final home game where he hit that walkoff and that magic night moment and I was there and I had my ticket and I had him sign it. There's plenty of my collection from those couple guys, my favorite teams, guys that stood out to me. Cards I come across. It shows that I just think of the coolest thing. I take them and I tuck them away. I'm a collector first and that's how I ended up here. How do you think though people watching you and the younger generation, you know, kids, my kids, they're 12 to 16. Everybody's walking around and I feel like I'm writing a piece for SI that round this notion of like who's the real dealer. Kids are walking around. They're almost like the dealer. You know what I mean? Everybody thinks they're the dealer because they're at all in business in a way and I'm just a little worried and not necessarily my kids and I don't know if I need to be worried but I'm like are we raising a generation that's truly collecting or just trying to figure out how to turn 10 into 12 every time. I share that concern and I see exactly what you're referring to within it. I think some of that's gotten lost in translation. I think that people have forgotten why there's an end consumer and you know there's plenty of collectors so for all we see and that we're exposed to going to these shows 99% of the hobby is not even at shows. We forget that. We're so entrenched in the people that you see at these national size shows are online. That makes up a percentage of a percentage so I wouldn't get too lost on that in the big picture. There's plenty of people going on. They're buying with no intention to ever resell and everyone gets so caught up on people they're seeing do it that they're forgetting. Well those are people that are somewhat in business. We have someone like myself where I do that so one day I can afford those massive cards that I never would have thought I have a right to make it a playoff. It's like I keep rolling that snowball down the hill and building on it but here and there when there's a card you can't replace you keep it. I like to think that more people are like that than not and the people that are in it just on business then they'll keep turning it over and that's they're missing out on the fun of the collecting side but that's for them. I think that every kid has a favorite player has their favorite teams and that'll always connect for them and they'll realize that as they go. One thing I do see that I always have a question about is the kids that say that's PC as in like my personal collection that's staying with me and it's always these guys that haven't proven anything or just hot in the market. I think that gets lost a lot. The guys that they now care about are the guys that are seen as valuable or in demand or hot not who they've had an affliction for cared about watching. So that that part concerns me is that everyone wants to just prove it to the guy next to them. They're buddy especially at that age teenagers and whatever like hey you know look at this I got this of the new hot guy that's in there when they don't care about him or that team or anything it's just so they can show them they got the valuable cards. That part of it I think is concerning but I also think they'll learn from that and figure out what they really care about at the end of the day and it takes some time but it's there I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. I think you've really well spoken Kyle what really good point and like literally when I think about it I think it is a vacuum like it these shows a lot of them and even the content you see I think because I think eBay would be proof of that how many millions and millions of cards are sold every month that never see the floor that probably never come out again you know maybe 10 or 20 years later if they're changing out part of the PC I do think I'm probably getting a little victim to the vacuum that I've been in kind of absorbing this industry the last six months and seeing that and going man you know me like this guy this 12 year old is trying to hustle me but I think it's a good point that you know the the the large card shows is sort of its own vacuum of things that's not reflective of in the entire scope good point what's your what's the best card like your favorite in your collection now is it that Johnny Manzo it's one of them I have a handful that I am attached to but for me I think the one that takes the cake because it's just pretty to look at and has a great backstory for me I have his gold PMG so you know I have some of his brown stuff too but like really just the cards that are key cards like I have a couple of his black prism finites and national treasures one of once so like the collector side and the card side and he has attachment to those I guess but the a and m stuff the best looking card of his is his PMG and so he has a precious metal gem I have the gold and it's jersey number two of 10 in a back in 95 I think that is my favorite and it's cool the image of that card you know it's him throwing across it's a horizontal image but the aesthetic and the foil and the significance of PMG and that it was a rookie and the jersey number is essentially a one of one my favorite part about the story is that the card popped up on eBay and I don't remember exactly what I was doing when it happened but what I do remember is that I lost that card once before the card popped up on eBay and I was like I will do whatever it takes to have it and I never put my max bid in and I got busy for like an hour and a half as we all do in the auction ended and I sat there like this and I thought about that card for months I was like kicking myself how do I even continue this collection knowing that would be a grail in it and I'm never going to see it again sure enough months later the card ends up on eBay again it got listed for auction oh I said whatever it takes when I tell you my bid on this card thank god nobody else been I bid on this card so much higher than what I'm doing for it would it would scare some people but I want it and so just to have that next opportunity to get it back after that makes it that much more special to me so yeah there's a good story behind that that is one that stands out for sure I love that that's a great story what's up guys here on Lake Keywee we're doing little rad rips on the boat beautiful houseboat we have here on Lake Keywee a Kiwi Marina you're watching this can actually see multi-cam here the beautiful view scanning and getting into some 2025 football opened some of our favorites of 2024 last week this week it's 2025 football got a mega box from Donress Elite and a blasher box from score got the signature rookie's green and we're looking for autographs mirror billiard cards and all the hottest players is that looking like the most generic thing you ever see say is uh let's have the goat one of the goods my homes on the box so what we're looking for in these parallels including lime green teal matrix and of course the mega box exclusives lavender parallels and spellbind filled spellbound filled vision and more got a mega box here from Donress Elite and score we've opened up some hobby boxes of this score probably that were pretty good I have not opened a retail blasher box of either one of these so first for both here's what we're looking for let's see how it goes we will be on ebay live the rad collective look for all the cards that we break here on the show rad collective on ebay live and our ebay store or on instagram breakingrad.com actually are handle on instagram and the website for rad collective at least our hobby stuff is that breakingrad.com yes you get to play on words there i'm breaking bad we're breaking rad baby let's see what we got oh yeah there we have it gold pack screen packs here on your rad rip of the week so we get brought to you by our partners let x best scanning app in the game and the best apps are actually looking to ebay hundreds of cards in minutes these things scan it in makes it so easy great partner took them out Mason Taylor played LSU great player another pair of those willing us to know if that's something special but which used to start the old backwards training ride celebration sack attack it is first ballot very senders all the things another celebration my kevans they're on my kevans and Ford Jordan love Cooper de Jean it's not my safety and there you have it the look of don't resolute the gold packs right to get look at their what are the chances we started with you see the differences in cards immediately right but we have mason Taylor and jason Taylor James Connor takes on hill and we've been browns rookie we've got oh numbered out of 2.99 numbered two 39.9 what is it with these linemen that we're getting numbered or linebacker rubber brazil cvlam on the throwbacks calvin oil the second attack one that's hard to say oh that looks cool as an engine tree good running back great running back going to be a stud you know fell travesty 10 climps and got medicine before you won't burn you could calm and step on go more play this alkylana great player take on standard how his second ear goes so there we have it those things Caleb things going to be a big year for my guy I think it's going to be a big year for my dude Ryan Burns Dallas Turner solid oh look at this this is cool hey now fully true my homes for actor second case hit or something or lacquer guy his autograph couple is good that's in her group and kuba he played it comes and then went to texas probably kubrick luke might be good don't know yet on the green league leaders not uh 65 yarder to that 70 was kicked by a little a Jacksonville favors throwback cool last pack magic here on the score viewers interesting how he plays that oh looks cool oh no what it is ooh jaden daniels maker mayfield throwback there's your cam ward rookie card right there as first one first you got dollar nice math dibo all right two packs left here this done our salute very grand cha and johnson tater also orange 849 very cool let's see let's see what we got I hate flip the cards there's no boy Trevor Lawrence comes to the bounce back we have spellbound their kindry three packs left here here's whoca judi oh my god very cool looking green out of 999 the quinchon junkins loving the look so what do you guys think of these liking them not liking them drake may rookies of last year Michael Parsons who knows what's gonna happen with him Michael pennix junior fandrick may in the same pack last type magic overall fun rips both of these are fun products i'll give them that we're going for the fun award fun is in a affordable there's football goes this is them dead read say it's brown martin iris the junior knows a big rookie from last year and to finish it out we've got nick bolton on the 999 all right guys there you have it score and don't wrestle lead from 2025 fun rips a lot of fun i've requested this is fun now you've so so get these solid six or seven out of ten given what they cost and what they are availability i like the don't wrestle lead look i don't know much better looking than don't face to me it's just you don't have the downtown so you've got the downtown and this is the be runaway but then the last fun rip 2025 extra rad rips on the boat final view for everyone kiwi like kiwi beautiful that's it for the rad rips of the week you see something you like in our pack rips on the show check out the rad collective ebay store and ebay live shows at ebay live store dot com or at breaking rad dot com all the cars we rip on the show will be available on both platforms how we're climpsing guys so if you're come across any climpsing cards united text me send me a picture i got a gold vinyl tee higgins just the other week that's in the pc so the boys and i are all climps any old new doesn't matter Trevor Lawrence actually having a little bit of a couple down seasons has been good for the offered house because of the the values went down so we single handedly been buying a little bit of everything of t Lawrence that i feel you on that's what i just said about johnny it's like i love them to death but like part of me is is glad the NFL thing didn't pan out to the same level of college because now let's me enjoy my guide and now you're getting on every single purchase like i'm able to get cards of that nature the cards i'd always want and not be paying the tens of thousands hundreds of thousands we're seeing on these modern guys so you know i hear him it josh alan's my favorite player i have a lot of of him i you know i lived in new york for six years it was hard to get behind the giants you know it was kind of like that's good yeah yeah that's that's even more hard yeah you know i didn't want to be the guy from south carolina moving to man hat and for you know and living there for six years and being at i do a group for the Yankees but i wasn't like the Yankees fan so i became a buffalo fan i was in the state you know and it happened to be and i was watching josh alan college it's like why you know this is back right when he was freshman at Wyoming i was like twenty seventeen something like that time period you know yeah for it Wyoming i was like he had a cannon arm i was like this kid is awesome fun to watch but you didn't know where it where it was going i don't know if you remember that so got on his bandwagon early and he's been fun to collect and he's got to get a super bowl though man i'm a jeth fan i i like the guy and i know we're supposed to be rivals with with the bills i have an affinity for bills mafia yes i think they're awesome i love the passion they're good people i have a lot of good friends and buffalo like it's a tricky one for me and josh is such a likeable guy too so when we're head to head i root again for them in the division of course but when it gets past that i found myself even rooting for them and some of these playoff runs i know just happened to be you know one of the freaking my homes had to come along at the same time it's like uh you know it's kind of like of course that that whole thing how's your approach to buying and selling and doing what you do at these shows how's it been evolving i mean you know you're out there you're showing the way you do it has it evolved is it has being you know on camera i don't think it's changed it because i mean i see i've what we've watched enough i've watched enough tape cow i'm like you know if i'm watching film it's not a climpson film it's a cow king of cards at the trade show film you know did you just did there see how you worked that angle but it has it had to change being a personality in the space as well as the traitor i mean i like that i like not i like to think not because i pride myself so much on the authenticity factor which is you know feedback that people have given us it means a lot to me to keep to that too and i feel people picked that up through the screen that i'm not changing anything because the cameras on my energy is the same you're gonna get the same guy on and off camera and when it comes to the deals i think it's important to to keep the same with that so i take care of people on off camera i try to do the best i can on and off i'm not perfect there's no there's no perfect system to be able to buy sell and trade these things at the end of the day some of it's arbitrary right like it's the value we want to put on it the systems we choose i do the best i can to be fair with everyone feel like i can make some money explain why and get deals done and keep people happy and i think that's what's gotten me here when the cameras weren't on yet it's how i got to start of the business and then as the cameras have been on you try to keep to it if anything maybe here in there i pay a little extra so i don't have to hear about in the comments you know it's uh i think i think i do pretty much the same exact thing i was doing and yeah you know you still you still have your people that love hate are in between how you're doing things but we've been fortunate to have more i'd say 99 percent love on how we're doing it and um yeah i try to just keep to it same way i would do with the without the camera but the camera i mean i told i told my boys i was like you you would think that what he's doing is made everything easier but that's not necessarily the case like it's it's definitely probably open doors and i'm sure you know created connections to make desi i have no doubt you wouldn't be doing it uh if you didn't enjoy it and it didn't create opportunity but like you said i mean when there's that much camera on you all the time everybody thinks oh calls you know he's in it for business he's making money like some people just get offended by that immediately i'm like the dude's running a company this is his business this is livelihood like get over it people have different opinions and these things it's not for me to say who's right or wrong about them but the way i've always approached it this is a trade it's an art there's an arbitrage to it there's things that i understand why i think i can get more value on certain cards or what i'm comfortable paying and i see it from all angles you know there's times where someone might be looking for the cash so they can go buy another card and it makes sense for them to move it based on what they're into it what's the review of that someone might see it and say well based on what they're doing why are you only paying them that you're lowballing you're ripping them off and it's like well two sides just agree to it we're both happy about it he's comfortable for his reasons i'm comfortable for mine that's a done deal and we do it again so you know i'll say this anything that's not positive in terms of the feedback has not been from someone i've dealt with before or has actually worked with me or built a relationship with me and that for me is telling while on the other side i think we're only in this position because the feedback is positive but yeah there's going to be people that say something about everything no matter how you do it and i think i've gotten far past that point where it's like fully coming to peace with that and just doing my best to do right by the person across from me and build those relationships and show people how they can do the same well said and i think it's like why do you care like if because again to your point if someone buys something like they like their friend or someone gave them something or said man just take it for $10 and it's a $40 card and Kyle gets it from him from 20 and he just doubled his money and then Kyle sells it for two everybody won right yep that that mattered in that transaction and it's like but some people just want to get their panties in the lot over i appreciate them watching but whatever they want to take whatever they want to say it's there's some negativity out there we try to be a positive light in this try to do it the right way um and i try to be transparent like we we really do show pretty much everything not not much of anything gets cut and so you can go see it all and and some deals are better than others and i'm in a split second i'm in those moments and i'd challenge people to say hey if the camera was on you if you're thinking any negatively about it what would you do in those moments and if you had a camera on all the time how perfect would you be i like to think we get pretty close to taking care of everybody and i've never gotten a deal done that two sides didn't agree to so that's uh that's how it works hobbyist you sort of turn the mindset into a visible badge what values do you feel like you've talked about them here but it feels like the embodiment of what you're trying to do you're being transparent in the deals this is a business but there's that collector and nostalgia and i don't know i think it was a warmth to what you're trying to do but talk about hobbyist so hobbyist i wanted to start a brand that was going to represent a lot of what we're doing here in those exact sentiments right there's a lot of incorporation that goes on here there's a lot of opportunity for businesses to make money we were talking about it earlier how many of them are collectors how many of them actually care about something outside the bottom one now do i have a business in it yeah am i looking to make money sure i want to make my millions like everybody else but i tell people i feel you can do both i feel like i can run that all the way up and crush it on the business side and make those crazy dollar figures but i can do it at the same time while having a positive impact on the community i'm in caring for it giving back to it showing people how they can be a part of it and i think that's what i want hobbyist to be so i acquired the trademarks for the word within that realm and wanted to give people an opportunity to rep something that has to do with what they're doing i feel like it was a gap in the space that was lacking i feel like we built a brand of course king of the cards is now just associated with me that's almost become like a title so i wanted to create a brand right next to me that can relate to everybody and give people way to represent what they're doing their passion and then find ways to give back within it so yeah people have only seen the hats roll out and see me wearing the hats and all the videos and everything there's a ton on the way with it it's taking time but i'm building it out slowly but surely behind the scenes and the something that i think people will appreciate as it grows all right you brought that up so you know is any good person interviewing or talking to someone is there anything you can share here as a first release with the king of cards and the hobbyist brand so well i'll give you this much you know we we had one simple model of hat it was similar to this one in the navy blue this one's black nothing nothing crazy on that front there are a couple more designs coming down the line couple more and mainly where they will begin to be available distribution will be interesting to see in the upcoming so i'll give you that much that we're working on ways to to have this be a main staple in the space and you know make it the the Yankee hat of the industry you know but it's not just the hats there will be there's plenty of more merchandise of different kinds there will be this name will be associated with a lot of good things and it won't just be hats we can piece that one together we'll connect the dots for you when you see million dollars sub brand of merchandise coming out with the hobbyist well i'll have that in the headline the moment you greenlight it how i want i expect the text messages here i need to be the green light this we're we're becoming the media channel for the hobby here so this is symbiotic here you know like feed it to me i can bring some news on here this could be the the pat macka feed of my Aaron Rogers you know exactly see yeah i did i modeled my business show after pat and uh well you know i mean i'm the number one show and market i mean it's a it's a niche but uh it was kind of after that i knew marketing could be interesting you know it didn't have to be and today we're going to learn about direct mail and seo i like it who wants to hear that kind of some energy behind it right we got to do with the people uh something they want to hear and have some fun with it so that's awesome what's the future hole we talked about hobbyist there's obviously you got your hands with that like card shows collabs anything you can talk about like to the rest of this year where you're going to be all that kind of stuff yeah i mean i'll be we pop around pretty regularly last year we were at 26 shows this year will be at 21 um try to roll it back just to have some kind of life in between believe it or not i do things outside of i have a girlfriend have friends you know people don't believe it but i do and this travel get it's travel grind i mean i know the ad used to do that when i was your age and it grinded on me over time it's pretty rare that i'd say it builds up to the point of burning out on it it happens here and there but it takes quite a few shows and a short period to get me there and even so it's it's hard to be having this much fun doing what we're doing and say that it feels like a grind or that i'm exhausted i'm physically exhausted even right now we're coming off another show we've been at how many big shows in the past a couple months especially in the summer run so now has been one of those times where fatigue said in a little bit but i mean i don't get tired of it i love going to these new cities i'm meeting a ton of people this thing i'm so passionate about and been trying to work to build this is growing every single week day over day um so it's tough in those moments to feel tired outside of maybe all right i need a nap you know in terms of the mental and emotional i'm i'm not tired you know i i love this i want to get right to work i just need the physical energy to do it so i got to take care of Kyle to sometimes in between and make sure i'm getting rested but we're going to we were just at the west coast car show before that we went to ship shawana card fest for the first time which was a cool experience as well we were at the national before that we were at fanatics festival for that in Dallas so there's been a huge run of shows leading up till now and we will be back in Dallas next week and then we'll hit the Philly show for it's 50th anniversary will be October is pretty wide open i think um chantilly shows sometime in October and then the expo in Toronto so there's still a slate shows left i'd say the bigger shows outside of the expo have come in and gone Dallas is pretty much every six weeks but we're on all of them all the big shows and um we even went international a couple times in the past year or so i wonder how you balance as as you've gotten bigger the personality the brand king of cards and hobbyist balancing all right guys i'm here to sell some cards and buy some cards versus co co co co co you know like i mean you do a good job in the show you could be more gracious but like there's got to be a balance there right yeah we've talked a lot about that recently too it's what how can i not be humbled by all that right like i got people jump into me and i'm just the card dealer at the end of the day right like we've put ourselves out there we built a brand and a channel but like i was speaking about being on camera i'm still the same guy doing the same things there's just a camera on and there's people in the space that have cards individual pieces a cardboard worth more than my business and you know you got to humble yourself in those moments where yeah like is it a bit overwhelming of course but i've worked for for this to be in this position and it shows me the impact we're making so i try to take time with every single person that cares to have a moment with us that being said like we've talked in recent times it has gone very overwhelming in certain scenarios where we do struggle in a day's time in certain hours of a show because of how many people were meeting and talking to to get to our regularly schedule programmably getting up to tables and getting deals done so of course it's i keep telling people i've had that discussion a lot lately what an amazing problem to have right yeah but i want to be able to give the people the reason they were there in the first place you know i want to be able to show the big deals and how things go down there and just do our thing so finding that balance has been very tricky rewarding and it's humbling but it's tough it's tough right now i'll never be the guy that says no to anybody right like i'm almost in some situations rushing around doing things i felt it a lot at the national where i needed someone to say no for me because i'm not going to say no to anybody that wants who supports what i'm doing that helped me get here but sometimes for my own good i say yeah and it takes up the time and we pick our heads up we've done a handful of deals and we're through the show and it's like man like if this is what i'm meant to do that's amazing that i mean enough to the people out there and the collectors and the hobby that they want to spend their time with me so maybe that's what i'm just meant to do more so than even some of the deals there's no right answer and i say all this to say i don't know how to handle it there's no textbook we're doing our best and as we speak it's something i'm trying to figure out how to take care of everybody i think you do a good job man i think uh there shouldn't be any pressure it's all a good problem like you said and i think you you handle it with class and grace and integrity and that's what you know why i want to talk to you there's several people that are popping off in this industry i'm not going to name names i could care less to talk to you know because i just see through a little bit of what they're doing but there's a character here that i don't know it's it's apparent so i just want you to know that you're putting out what's your preaching yeah now we're like i you know i never make it about anybody else i understand the sentiments uh beyond other things it's all love for me with anybody that's trying to grow the space the right way and you know i just leave it at that last question kyle before we tell everybody where to keep up with everything that you're doing you know for you like when you think about collecting and the chase of collecting you've got the searching you've got the negotiating you've got the selling what's your favorite part of all of that and you can't say all of it i i'd say as a right now it's really just those moments in between those moments that people are seeing those are very real and special and same way as the deals they're just happens to be a camera on and i'm used to it at this point it doesn't change anything for me here in people's the impact that whatever this is that we're doing has on them how it's connected with them given them something in a tough time to distract themselves inspire them to start that business connected them with their parents or their sons or daughters it is those things that make it all worthwhile and make me want to grow with that much more because what deal what dollar figure am i going to hit in a dealer bank account that's going to make it worthwhile i don't think it exists i've done a lot of big deals you could change the hundred thousand out of show to a million out of show to ten million and what what's the line what is enough so for me what makes it more than enough and wants has me wanting to keep going and building on it and enjoying it is those things because we had people coming up there was a video with a gentleman older gentleman bill he comes up to us at the ship shawana show we never met before and i'd never had such you know incredible words spoken me about anything i was doing before and this is coming from a gentleman that's respectfully probably seen a lot more than i've seen and knows a lot more than i know about the world and he came up to me and said those things and then we get to share it with the world moments like that to sit back to rewatch it i teared up there i cried after you know it's like what what else is there really so yeah i could talk about the buys and the sells and the trades how the amazing the cards are but what stands out to me is the impact we're having and it is it's wild to me and people come up and they say it's so incredible what you're doing i think i may be more surprised than anybody else out there on the way that this is it's reaching people and changing lives and to say that out loud changing lives from what we're doing what the started from how it started and it's just it's wild so that is what stands out to me i think we'll always stand out and yeah i want to make millions of dollars i sure do there's no shine away from that but it won't mean anything unless i do it the right way and have an impact on the space that leaves something special in it don't ever change blue like there's a line from a movie there you know keep it all always keep it about that gal working if i keep up with what you're doing everybody's list is probably already watching on youtube but let's give them all those uh deeds so we got it it's uh king of the cards cards is with a k and we're on tiktok instagram and youtube got short form content on all three platforms and our full videos on youtube where can i get one of those hats i can have it on the table here where we get those out so we still have the the OG that's been seen in most of the videos with the navy blue it's the same how does this but in navy blue that's up on hobbyist brand.org and the new drops are coming soon so hobbyist brand.org and that's where everything's going to be funneling through there we go brother appreciate what you're doing from the offered family and the uh show that's what's up for you i will man we can't wait to see uh at the next show i expect my phone to blow up when we've got news to drop and uh i'm here to support your brother i got you locked and i appreciate that thanks for having me and and good luck with all of this i hope everybody keeps listening. Hey guys you're going to find us collectibles.show you'll see the whole video here of king of the cards on episode two of i'm at Ryan offer give me a shout on the DMs let us know what you think what do you want to see what do you want to hear and send us in those PCs what's the PC of the week what'd you nail do you have that story like Kyle did you didn't know uh Texas A&M you know i didn't know we talked about Texas A&M so much here it's a Clemson guy but we did Johnny Mansell he was one of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time and i mean that dude nobody runs up and down on Alabama like that i remember Kyle i watched it but uh we appreciate Kyle from coming on and we appreciate you we'll see you next time thanks for tuning into the show don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on youtube you can find us at www.collectibles.show or follow Ryan on instagram at Ryan Ulford now get out there and collect yours