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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 3: Ken and Logan, thanks so much for joining the Bloomberg

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Speaker 3: Business of Sports. I'm so excited to have you guys here.

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Speaker 4: Glad to be here. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Thanks so.

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Speaker 3: Ken, the new season of your show just came out

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Speaker 3: on Netflix this season and you know, I tuned in.

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Speaker 3: It is so it's so good, it's so interesting. There's

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Speaker 3: all the different human stories of it. Logan, you come in.

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Speaker 3: You lure him in with, you know, trying to break

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Speaker 3: in some boxes trying to find some rare cards. Logan,

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Speaker 3: I have to, you know, jump right in here. You

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Speaker 3: have the card around your neck. Now, the Peakest two

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Speaker 3: illustrator Ken has been trying to buy it from you.

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Speaker 3: Why is now the right time?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I appreciate how you say the card because it is

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Speaker 1: the card, and that's that's how I reference it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: now's the right time for a few reasons, mainly because

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Speaker 1: the Pokemon market is hot. It's hotter than it's ever.

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Speaker 1: There is actually a Bloomberg article that came out recently

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Speaker 1: highlighting that Pokemon has outperformed the stock market by upwards

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Speaker 1: of three thousand percent in the last twenty years. Luckily

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Speaker 1: for me, I heavily invested in Pokemon and this card

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Speaker 1: was my heaviest investment. I spent five point three million

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Speaker 1: dollars for it back in twenty twenty two, and given

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Speaker 1: that the market's hot, given that I just spent way

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Speaker 1: too much money on my wedding, but it was the

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Speaker 1: best experience in the world, so totally worth it, given

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Speaker 1: that I just bought a new house, have a have

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Speaker 1: a daughter. It was like the perfect time of my life.

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Speaker 1: And Ken gave me a deal I could not refuse.

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Speaker 3: Can Did you just lure him in with the idea

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Speaker 3: of you were going to find a rare card and

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Speaker 3: then you were like, really, I really just want I

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Speaker 3: want young.

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Speaker 4: I know, it's like a kid opening up boxes, you know,

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Speaker 4: he gets very excited, and the opportunity to you know,

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Speaker 4: try to find a card that we were looking for,

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Speaker 4: you know, worth worth six or seven million dollars. And

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Speaker 4: then the hidden opportunity that nobody knew until they started

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Speaker 4: watching the show about opening up the you know, t

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Speaker 4: two of six cards from nineteen oh nine got them.

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Speaker 4: But quite frankly, you know, it's It's always better if

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Speaker 4: you can get in front of somebody and talk face

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Speaker 4: to face and figure out, Okay, what is going to

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Speaker 4: make this deal happen?

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Speaker 2: What are they looking.

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Speaker 4: For and how can I help them accomplish That's goal,

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Speaker 4: and that's what I did with Logan.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's interesting as we're obviously we're talking

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Speaker 3: about sports, and when I think of trading cards, I

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Speaker 3: almost think of it as a sports entity in a

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Speaker 3: sports industry. But really, Pokemon does dominate the trading card industry.

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Speaker 3: Why why is Pokemon so hot right now? Why is

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Speaker 3: it still sharing so much of the market.

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Speaker 1: Because Pikachu can't tear his acl You won't win by

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Speaker 1: a glock. I'm live and Instagram live and get get

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Speaker 1: his brand destroyed overnight. It's Pikachu. He's the most beloved,

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Speaker 1: most famous character of all time. Pokemon is the highest

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Speaker 1: grossing franchise of all time. And so it sits at

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Speaker 1: this intersection between community culture and collectibles that happens to

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Speaker 1: be at the very pinnacle of what this entire industry is.

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Speaker 3: I love the way you said that for sure, at

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Speaker 3: the epitome of everything, right, the intersection of everything ken

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Speaker 3: what I'm building on that what do you think it is?

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Speaker 3: And are they different collectors? Sports collectors and Pokemon collectors.

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Speaker 4: Some are different. There are a lot of people to

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Speaker 4: collect both. I mean people who want The buyer of

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Speaker 4: that card, to me, is more likely going to be

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Speaker 4: somebody who spent you know, five million dollars on a

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Speaker 4: sports card before, and they simply want to own the absolute,

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Speaker 4: single best item that they can get, not just in Pokemon,

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Speaker 4: but in the world's largest franchise. And the other thing

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Speaker 4: that you know, I notice is, you know, you know,

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Speaker 4: Pokemon started thirty years ago, so you had you know,

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Speaker 4: maybe nine year olds, twelve year olds, fifteen year olds.

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Speaker 2: That were playing it, you know, late nineties, two thousand.

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Speaker 4: Now, you know, except for Logan, you know, they're they're

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Speaker 4: you know, in their thirties and forties and maybe and

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Speaker 4: somebody even older is in their fifties, and they have

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Speaker 4: disposable income and they're now spending it on all the

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Speaker 4: stuff they couldn't afford when they were younger, because this,

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Speaker 4: to them is their life buying. Whether it's a sports card,

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Speaker 4: whether it's a Pokemon card, whether it's an autograph or

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Speaker 4: a game used item. These collectibles are you know, capture

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Speaker 4: moments in time, their history, and when you own something

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Speaker 4: like that, it.

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Speaker 2: Brings instant gratification. It brings instant recognition to you and

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Speaker 2: to anybody that sees it, like I remember that, or

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Speaker 2: this is what this represents. And you know I told

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Speaker 2: one person one time, They said, what do you do

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Speaker 2: for a living? And I said, I sell happiness because.

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Speaker 4: People have a crappy day at work, their kid gets

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Speaker 4: bad grades, they get into a fender bender, but they

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Speaker 4: go home them and they look at their collection and

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Speaker 4: it makes them happy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he sells happiness until you lose the auction against

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Speaker 1: Drake exactly. I was bidding on a bob Ross against Drake.

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was Drake. I was like, this

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Speaker 1: person is out bidding me. Ken's behind the scenes, like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god.

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Speaker 4: It's Logan versus Drake. I Logan telling me he's not

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Speaker 4: gonna win.

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Speaker 3: He was the happy one.

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Speaker 1: That's yeah. I was very said I didn't.

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Speaker 3: Win that, but there is that emotional connection to it,

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Speaker 3: right Logan Like he was saying that, Like, you're a

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Speaker 3: big collector, and you had mentioned about vastly different things

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Speaker 3: for when you're when you're collecting, what is it that

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Speaker 3: you look for that emotional connection. And also, I know

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Speaker 3: you had said on the show. For you, it's not

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Speaker 3: about the return really, you just like to have these

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Speaker 3: things as collectibles.

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Speaker 4: It's true.

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Speaker 2: I always try to keep the return in mind.

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Speaker 1: You don't want to be making like absolutely ridiculous purchases,

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Speaker 1: which I have done. But for me, it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: best in class assets, Like, like, what is something that

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Speaker 1: I can buy that is captivating in a way and

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Speaker 1: my interests are vast, that is the best in the world.

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Speaker 1: I bought Wayne Gretzky's last championship game hockey stick. There's

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Speaker 1: not gonna be another one of those. He's the greatest

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Speaker 1: hockey player of all time by a mile. It's number nine.

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Speaker 1: He's the great one. Wayne Gretzky. To me, that's a

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Speaker 1: no brainer. Game Warn, Kobe Bryant jerseys, game warn Lebron's

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Speaker 1: these these these are athletes that are are generational. And

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Speaker 1: so when I'm investing in things like that or buying

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Speaker 1: a Tricera tops skull, it's like, Okay, it's it's art.

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Speaker 4: It it is.

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Speaker 1: A collectible that will hopefully hold and and maybe even appreciate.

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Speaker 4: It's in value and and I and I and I

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Speaker 4: like it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like dinosaurs are the coolest thing ever. Kobe

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Speaker 1: Bryant Lebron James is like, these guys are generation icons,

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Speaker 1: and so if I can have something you know that

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Speaker 1: that means a lot to me, it meant a lot

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Speaker 1: to them.

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Speaker 2: I'm in Yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things I loved on the show

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Speaker 3: is that moment you had talked about when you're when

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Speaker 3: you're looking for that onus Wagner, when you're looking for

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Speaker 3: that card, but you had also just found a bunch

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Speaker 3: of rare cards. You'd found the whole Cogan Rookie cards

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Speaker 3: that you guys were on this ecstasy high and then

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Speaker 3: Logan ends up on the floor when in the pack.

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Speaker 3: Tell me about what it feels like that as as

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Speaker 3: in a collector, does that just encompass everything that it

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Speaker 3: feels like to be a collector.

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Speaker 1: It's the ride for me, it's the ride. I mean, like,

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Speaker 1: when we hit, it's fantastic, and that high is the

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Speaker 1: highest of highs, but also when you miss, it's not

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Speaker 1: the lowest of lows. Because like to me, that's the

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Speaker 1: name of the game, and that's almost just as much fun.

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Speaker 1: Like it's the chase for a reason, and it's a thrill,

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Speaker 1: and you're not always going to hit, and you have

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Speaker 1: to understand that part of collecting is sometimes winning and

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Speaker 1: sometimes losing.

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Speaker 4: That's the name of the game.

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Speaker 3: What about you ken? What that feeling for a collector?

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Speaker 4: You you have to if you're going to open up boxes,

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Speaker 4: you know, it's kind of like they say baseball, Baseball

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Speaker 4: is a game of failure. Okay, opening up boxes sometimes

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Speaker 4: is a game of disappointment because not every box is

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Speaker 4: going to have the thousand dollars card or the fifty

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Speaker 4: thousand dollars card or what I call the Willy Wonka

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Speaker 4: Golden ticket.

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Speaker 1: I'd say most times, actually yeah, like statistically speaking, actually

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Speaker 1: most times opening up a box is not worth the

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Speaker 1: return on investment because even if you do open up

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Speaker 1: a box and you hit that Grail card in the box,

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Speaker 1: you have to hope it gets graded a ten, which

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Speaker 1: is a whole other part of the process and grading,

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Speaker 1: meaning the condition assigned to the card. That is the

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Speaker 1: main thing that determines a card's value. And to get

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Speaker 1: a ten, which is obviously the best grade you can

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Speaker 1: possibly get, meaning the best condition that you do you

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Speaker 1: have here, which is what I have around my neck

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Speaker 1: on one is really hard. I think like a subset,

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Speaker 1: like five to fifteen percent of cards get assigned tens.

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Speaker 1: So even if you hit the card in the box,

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Speaker 1: which is not very likely, you have to hope it

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Speaker 1: gets graded to ten. And the little nicks and the

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Speaker 1: damage that will get this knocked down from a ten

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Speaker 1: to a nine. An average person would be shocked if

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Speaker 1: I showed you the little bit that can of whitening

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Speaker 1: on a corner or a blemish on a surface that

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Speaker 1: can knock it down from a ten to nine and

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Speaker 1: make it a multiple of its value, you would be shocked.

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Speaker 3: It's a crazy marking off. Logan Ken, thanks so much

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Speaker 3: for joining the Bloomberg was the Sports super appreciate yours?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, of course, thanks for having me, and again everybody, Netflix,

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Speaker 4: King of Collectibles, The Golden Touch watch season three. If

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Speaker 4: you want a season four, go watch.

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Speaker 1: Season I'm coming on season four.

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Speaker 4: Here we go,