← Collector Nation
Collector Nation
From Plastic Slabs to Fine Art: How M1nt is Revolutionizing Trading Cards | Brian Pirrip
00:46:55
Loading summary
Transcript140 lines
- [00:00]
A
It's amazing how many people have forgotten that this actually is a hobby or that it's fun. And people that just become so obsessed over judging other people on how they collect. Or you're doing it wrong. We're doing it right. Or the value of the card is the entire purpose of being in.
- [00:16]
B
Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast on the Radcast Network. From chasing grails to calling bluffs, we're going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hello, and welcome to Collector Nation, here on the Collector Nation Podcast Network. I hope everyone is doing well. Wherever, whenever, however, you're listening. We really appreciate it. We know you got options, but I saw that we were number seven in all of sports on Apple podcast rankings. We right up there with the Kelsey brothers. We're coming for you, Trav. You know, I don't care if you're retiring or not, but ultimately, we're here to talk some cards today, how we make them sexy and cool. Displaying them. That's what I'm talking about. I was at the national and met this guy, and I'm like, it called my Mike Baker, who does NBA grading, was. You know, had him over. They. They were talking, and I'm. I remember meeting him, and I was like, with my boys, and I go. And things like that grab. You know, I'm an innovator, and, like, I think I'm coming into the space at the right time. And I was like, what is that? Well, he's going to tell us what it is. His name is Brian. Yeah, he rips. Brian Rips. He's the founder of Mint. What's up, brother?
- [01:38]
A
Hey, thanks for having me on here, Ryan. A real honor, real pleasure.
- [01:41]
B
Yeah, man. Likewise. I enjoyed meeting you at the national, you and your guys. And, dude, I just remember going. I walk around, you know, the Nationals like, you know, a fire hose. Oh. You know, of, like, wonderfulness and also just, like, overwhelming as, you know, like, everything going on.
- [02:00]
A
Always overwhelming.
- [02:01]
B
And it's just somewhat a sea of sameness. And that's kind of a little bit like the hobby is like, okay, you know, like a psa, still grading stuff. And there's this going on. And that's why I like Mike. Mike Baker's doing something different, you know, head grader. But bring some innovation to it, bringing some transparency to it. I love it. I gravitated to Mike and had him on the show, and then I saw what was the most beautiful case I'd ever seen. For how a card should look. I was like, man, these things are pieces of art. We should treat it that way. And sure enough. Damn, you guys are doing it, man.
- [02:32]
A
Thank you, man. Yeah. Mike Baker, like, what a guy. Not only so, you know, foundational to the hobby as far as grading. There's nobody better in the grading space, but he's actually a really cool guy. Yes. It's actually, like, I had a friend introduce me to him, and I was like, okay. You know, there's. I don't really find. You know, it's hard to find people in the hobby that I actually truly respect or go, hey, I really want to hang out with this guy. And Mike Baker was one of those people where I'm like, you know, an hour goes by talking to him. I'm like, hey, let's, you know, let's come down to Huntington Beach. Let's hang out. He's from here originally.
- [03:07]
B
Let's.
- [03:08]
A
Let's go surfing, whatever, right? And so. But, yeah, I remember the moment we met you because we had just given Mike Baker a Babe Ruth card put into one of our mint G1 cases. And it was fun to see his reaction because the reaction is always the same. Like, it's these insane cases made out of steel and glass, and you think, oh, it's just, you know, it's another slab, or it's like Rare Edition. It's nothing like Rare Edition. It's actually. Everyone's reaction is always the same. It's like, oh, that's really heavy. It's cold. It has a real heft. It feels like jewelry for dudes, you know? And so this is a piece of art. It's giving cards the dignity they deserve. Because why is a $40 million Mickey Mantle PSA 10 in the same 99 cent, a plastic piece that a $1 card is? And so that's really why I started mint and why, you know, got a chance to meet you at the national. And walking around with all these, you know, people that. You're right. There's a lot of sameness. And I've been collecting for, like, 15 years. Seriously. I mean, I collected as a kid and then got distracted by, you know, my 20s. And then when I rediscovered the hobby, it was like, why, you know, I'm buying these really expensive cards, and I'm buying these very beautiful cards that, to me, are my fine arts. That's my version of fine arts, and I can't put them on my wall. Or you have these really tacky displays that you get from Hobby Lobby or Michaels and, you know, and. And I remember going to, like, a frame shop and seeing if I could, like, take all my favorite cards, put them into a frame, and they're like, well, we're going to have to destroy your cards in order to do it the way you want with, like, glass and, you know, various finer materials. And I was like, oh, no, I don't want my grade cards destroyed. And so it was one of those things that every year for the next, like, 15 or 10 years, I would just Google is somebody making a better display or a better case? And it never happened. And, you know, Covid comes along and boom, all of a sudden it shakes up your life and you have a chance to do something different. And I'm like, I'm going to be the guy. I'm going to go out and hire material engineers, industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and do whatever it takes to make cases and displays that I would actually buy myself and that I would display in my home. That's how it all kind of started.
- [05:25]
B
And, you know, I'm a little angry that I don't have one in my hand for this. We're gonna have to fix that.
- [05:31]
A
That is upsetting.
- [05:32]
B
That's upsetting. We're gonna have to. You're gonna send me one. You have to pay full. Like, I'll pay overprice, you know, whatever it is to get one here, you.
- [05:41]
A
Know, Ryan, on the house, man. On the house. Show me whatever your favorite card is and let's get it done.
- [05:46]
B
Yes, and we'll do a follow up because. Are you interested in effortlessly growing your bitcoin portfolio? I sure am. The Gemini credit card earns you Bitcoin back on every purchase. Use it like any credit card. Buy gas, lunch, or your weekly groceries, and you'll earn up to 4% back instantly in Bitcoin or one of over 50 other cryptos straight to your account. All that with no annual fee. And right now, you can grab a $200 bitcoin welcome bonus. It's the easiest way to start building your bitcoin stack. Go to gemini.com card to learn more terms apply. See the link in the description for more information regarding rates and fees issued by web bank.
- [06:37]
A
To Qualify for the $200 crypto intro.
- [06:38]
B
Bonus, you must spend $3,000 in your first 90 days. Some exclusions to instant rewards apply. This is not investment advice and trading.
- [06:43]
A
Crypto involves risk. Check Gemini's website for more details on rates and fees.
- [06:47]
B
Let me tell you, came back in the hobby. The first thing I did was, okay, there's got to be an app. There's got to be an app. Beckett Candy, right? There's got to be an app. That's when I met Brian Ludden doing Ludx and who's become a good friend. And there's multiple apps and lots of great apps. So I was, yes, we have apps. Okay. Still people using spreadsheets at the shows, but I'm like, we have apps if you want to use apps. And then I'm like, okay. PSA still grading. That's not surprise. That's fine. Those cases still look like crap, but that's fine. I go and I look around, and I'm like, all right, nice acrylic. Hobby lobby. A good. Good reference point. And I'm like, okay, how. I've got some old cards I'm pulling out that I'd love to display. And, you know, me and the boys. This is a couple years ago, getting back into it with my boys who, you know, have come of age, and I was like, nothing. And I've been searching, and then, you know, saw you at the show called my. I mean, there's just been no innovation and no, like you said. I mean, I'm not a. I mean, I think I'm. My friends would probably say I am a little bougie, but not a lot bougie for a dude. I just like my stuff to be nice and to be like. I like to display things or, like, I don't throw up, you know, a crappy poster or, like, even in college, I didn't have the crappy wall art that, you know, was from Walmart or whatever. I would at least have something that someone painted for me in nice fr. You know, that I would take the time to do. You know, like, I appreciated the display of.
- [08:18]
A
You have the Belushi college poster like everybody else.
- [08:21]
B
No, it was like, you know, if it was Jordan, it was a painted.
- [08:23]
A
Dave Matthews band all ripped up.
- [08:25]
B
Definitely a Dave Matthews Band. But it was a nice poster that, like, you know, autographed and, like, you know, I preserve.
- [08:34]
A
It's nice.
- [08:35]
B
Yeah. So this was so overdue in the. In the hobby and what I do. Yeah, you really can't get a feel for what this thing is until you hold it. Like you said, cold brick. It is a. It is a sight to behold. It's something. It's a sight. It's a. It's really a. To hold. To behold and hold, literally.
- [08:59]
A
Yeah, it really is. I mean, every single person that's held this, it always is shocking to them and. And that was it. I built this for myself. At the end of the day, I. I thought, if nobody ever use, I'm still going to have them in my own home. And also, I did things like, you know, I added, like, the most hardcore UV protection in the world. Like, we hired special material engineers just to do the UV protection of these. And so now I can spill them. I've had them in the sunlight the whole year just to be able to test and prove that autographs don't fade, you know, and so I've. I've kind of fallen on my own sword to make sure that we're, you know, developing products that are actually legit. But. But it's the kind of thing that, like, every time I've. I like. I actually. It's kind of funny. I went to Derek Jeter's Golf International a while ago, and I brought a couple cases, and I. I met up with Ken Griffey Jr. And I was showing him a couple cards in the world.
- [09:55]
B
Brian, that's my favorite. That's it.
- [09:57]
A
Oh, man, this is. Isn't this beautiful? That's stunning, right? And it's got the Mike. Mike Baker logo and grade on the side.
- [10:04]
B
So.
- [10:05]
A
But. So these are all, you know, they're graded cards, and they can also be raw cards as well. So we. But I ended up taking a couple cases, and I had made one that had Mariners colors on it with kind of a gold outline using kind of a gold bezel like this one. And I took it to Ken Griffey, and I was showing it to him, and he took one of them, put it in his pocket. He's like, this is mine. I'm taking this now. And what was funny about that is. No, I also showed him our wall display. Like, we've been doing a bit with Ken over the last few years, but he ended up saying, you know, Brian, I've had my own card. I have like 10,000 of these, like, sitting in a box in my house in. You know. And he goes, but I've never liked the card as much because I don't like the display, and I don't like the pieces of plastic. He goes, you finally made a case that actually makes my card look like fine art. And I told him. And this was one of my points of pride in life is I said, you know, Ken, the card that you actually selected out of the two that I had brought, I actually pulled that card when I was a kid. And so we encapsulated the card I pulled as a kid. And Now Ken Griffey Jr. Has his favorite version of this card, is the one I pulled when I was a kid. That's in one of the mint G1 cases.
- [11:21]
B
How cool is that?
- [11:21]
A
And according to. Last I talked to his manager or his agent, he goes, you know, Ken takes that case with him everywhere now. And it's just like the source of pride, thinking that moment that I pulled that card as a kid, and now Ken's walking around with it in his pocket when he travels. And that's just a. And to solve the mystery, this is Ken's favorite card of all time as well. His own 89 upper deck rookie. He just loves it.
- [11:45]
B
So, look, you know, I don't get. I'm not a jealous guy, Brian. Like, I mean, I'm just not. I'm more of a. I'm more of a kind of like, there's so much to go around. There's like, I never really get jealous of things or people or whatever. There's plenty of money to be made. There's plenty of, you know, if you're single, girls to be had. There's like, I'm just not a jealous guy, but I'm jealous of that. That is cool, because that's my concern. That was the chaser, man. That was me growing up.
- [12:11]
A
So I probably shouldn't tell you what it's like. So I probably shouldn't tell you what it's like to sit down in Ken Griffey's man cave, ripping packs and eating barbecue.
- [12:19]
B
Absolutely not.
- [12:20]
A
With a couple of his friends.
- [12:21]
B
Only if you're gonna invite me next time, you know, in the hobby wants to do a feature on you in the case maybe that you can make it break that.
- [12:33]
A
That sounds like something that needs to happen.
- [12:35]
B
Yeah. I'll bring the show on the road, baby.
- [12:39]
A
We'll do it. We'll do it if we have to. You know, Florida's not too far away from South Carolina. From South Carolina.
- [12:44]
B
Yeah. I'll pick up the tab. You just make it happen.
- [12:49]
A
Yeah, well, that's the thing, man. One of the things that also. That we haven't really revealed about this. We've only talked about it briefly on any of our content. Like, we've been teasing these for a long time.
- [13:00]
B
Yeah.
- [13:00]
A
And part of the reason why I've teased them for a long time is once we built them, like, we had a working prototype two years ago, but when I held it in my hand, I was like, this isn't it. Even though it had all the mechanical engineering correct. And it was secure and fully counterfeit proof like these completely kill counterfeiting. You cannot counterfeit these cases. In fact, we're probably going to do some contests where we say, if you can counterfeit one, we'll give you like $5 million or something like that, just to kind of prove the point. But when I held it, I was like, it wasn't special enough for me. And so we spent a whole other year of industrial design to be able to create this very specialized glass actually amplifies the card. Like, the colors on the card are actually brighter than if you actually held the card right in front of your face. It actually shows the details of the card a lot stronger. And then we had finished that, and we made that perfect. And then I met a gentleman who we knew there needed to be a tech component to this because there's space on the inside. And I wanted to make it so that it was more than just a case. And so I met a gentleman who runs this AI blockchain company, and we started working together on putting a chip on the inside. And so every single one of our mint G1 cases has a. The most sophisticated NFC tag currently in. In the market. And so what you do when you're getting one of these cases is you're not just getting the case, you're also able to store all the details, the provenance on the blockchain and where, you know, like, you can hover your phone over the case and know who owns it. So we're killing theft. So somebody cannot go and steal this. Because if you're trying to sell one of these out in the open at a card show or wherever, and somebody just hovers the phone over, they know who the owner is, and it's immutable. You cannot change it unless there's an ownership transfer. And so we're doing things like full blockchain integration. We're doing things like where you scan over the phone and you can watch highlights of the player, you can see a cameo of the player talking to you. How cool would it be if you pulled a Griffey card and Griffey himself on your phone is saying, hey, congratulations, you pulled my whatever, rookie card. And let me tell you a little bit about it. So we're integrating a lot of tech into this. So it's more than just a case. It's entirely secure, totally counterfeit proof, impossible to steal without having to do things on the black market. And then there's a lot of fun gamification and things. So, like, what you're saying about apps, it's kind of, like, the sky's the limit. It's essentially in every way possible. It's a true NFT of a physical and digital tokenization, which has never been done before.
- [15:51]
B
I'm glad you guys.
- [15:53]
A
Really sick stuff.
- [15:54]
B
Yeah. It was, like, one thing to behold and to hold and to all of the beauty that it did. I mean, it's the only case that really I've ever gone was additive to the card. Like, it's always, like, subtracting from the card or at best, like a necessary evil. And that taste is adding, you know, to the value because of how. Of its beauty, it's heft. And then the digital component was always what fascinated me. And I'm glad you got into that because, you know, that's always. It's always like. That was the one thing I was amazed with. I was like, have we not come along where, like, these cards aren't, you know, something like, trackable or, like, there's a QR code on every code. I know there's probably some madness, you know, method to that madness with why they don't do that. But. But to be able to preserve it that way, like you said, the provenance and everything, you know, to be able to scan it and know from a security standpoint. But then the story behind the story of, like, where it came from and all of that, I mean, that. That's really adding to the hobby, like, adding to the collecting, you know, like, it's. It truly. Because you can't document all of that, like, if you've got a collection. So if it's. It's living with the card. Because, like, why would you ever want to take it out of that case? You know, it will live there forever.
- [17:14]
A
I mean, we'll take it out. If you want us to take it out, we can take it out. In fact, it's a very sophisticated process. That's why we know nobody can counterfeit it. In fact, if you open it, it just zeros the data on the chip. And so there's some really cool stuff like that. And so Mike Baker's already like, give.
- [17:31]
B
It a grade on a card and all that. Can I send that to you? And that become what gets sort of. Because my. I got. Yeah, I need to send you.
- [17:40]
A
So, like, this Shohei Ohtani. I sent it in a 9.5 Beckett case to Mike Baker. And he goes. He comes back and he says, nope, that's a perfect 10.
- [17:48]
B
Wow.
- [17:49]
A
And so it's got the Mike Baker grade of a 10, and it's got his diamond logo all the details are laser etched on the side. But on the flip side, I sent him my Kobe Bryant refractor and he goes, sorry, Brian, it's not a nine, it's an eight. It's giveth and taketh away. No, what I love about Mike Baker is he's honest, he has integrity, and he actually gives the cards the proper grades. But it's nice now that I know the provenance, you can upload videos of the moment you pulled that card. So if there's a break that happens and somebody, you know, finds whatever card and it gets put on into a case, the owner 20 years from now can see who owned it previously where it was pulled, and they can watch the video of the very moment that card was pulled.
- [18:33]
B
So other than my store collector station, other than my store collector station, where are these going to be available and how are like the process for getting them and, you know, all that. I know there's a process. It's not something you just like walk in and throw it in a slab like whatever else. But what's the, what's.
- [18:48]
A
What's going to be the.
- [18:49]
B
The sort of, you know, hierarchy of all of that?
- [18:52]
A
Yeah, we're going to be selling these a few different ways. We're going to be doing auctions. So I'm. One of the big things that I'm doing that we haven't also talked about yet is we're going to be putting all of the tops rookie cards of hall of famers directly into G1s. Have, you know, they're all graded into these cases. And then we're doing a huge auction of the 100 most important kind of Topps cards of hall of Famers. So that's one way people can get you ones. We're going to be selling them directly on our website on Mintiverse.com and so we're going to be encapsulating like pre encapsulating cards and cases. Like for instance, I'm going to be, you know, selling the Kobe Bryant on the website. I'll be selling, you know, the Mike Trout rookie card. We're going to be encapsulating a lot of cards and just making them available there. But for. Because we want to keep this very niche for a while. We want to keep it scarce. And it's also a huge lift. These are very complex pieces. It's not a, you know, simple. Just putting two pieces of. Not a top loader acrylic together in a hypersonic. Yeah, it's not a top loader.
- [19:55]
B
Yeah.
- [19:55]
A
And so we're gonna release certain numbers to the public. We're doing a first release to the public, to people on our wait list first and in small numbers. And so what's gonna happen is people are gonna send us their card. We're gonna, you know, full insurance and tracking and, you know, the whole nine yards. And then they can decide if they want to have Mike Baker grade it or if they want to have the raw version. A lot of people have asked us for the raw version. I know a guy that has a 1969 white letter Mickey Mantle with an autograph that really wants to have his card in the case, but he doesn't want a grading service to tell him what his card means to him. And so he just wants to keep it raw, but he wants it in the case so he can put it up on his wall. And so people will send it to us and we'll track it. High res photographs. We're going to video the process and store all that on the blockchain as well so people can actually see how it's done and that sort of thing. So we're going to be rolling this out over. We call@mint 2026 is the year of the G1. So this is the year we release. And we're going to be spending the whole year doing a lot of really cool, various kinds of launches so that people get their hands on them. But for, you know, for, you know, friends of Mint, there's an easy access to, you know, if somebody needs to get their Ken Griffey Jr. Card in one.
- [21:12]
B
Ryan, I'm going to give you, but I'm actually going to you that Michaela Williams color blast. That Mike already graded it. He graded a 9.5. There you go. But with one of his markups, I forget like, like it. It was a bonus. It was like 9.5 and a half, you know, like, because it got like excellent something. It had a diamond or one of his marks or whatever. So it was that.
- [21:35]
A
I love his.
- [21:36]
B
But he's already created. That would probably be doable because it's got all his authentications. I might send that one to you.
- [21:42]
A
Yeah, yeah, send it across and I'll put in a G1 and send it back to you.
- [21:46]
B
I love it, brother. And so talk to me about these other. You got other things going on. You talked about collaborations with Walmart, other retailers. So you've obviously got other things happening. Talk, talk to me there.
- [21:57]
A
Yeah, yeah, we, you know, a lot of my content that I've been making over the last five Years has been very, you know, salt of the earth, man of the people. Like I go around the country to card shop. To card shop. Initially, like I wanted to get market testing of everything I was doing. I wanted to get to know people across the country and what everyone was thinking about the hobby. So like my chief of staff and I, we went on like a four month road trip where we, during COVID where we drove from Los Angeles to Key west up to New York, all, you know, under the guise of finding a Jeter rookie card out of a box. And we documented it in high resolution, like we drone shots. Like we went hardcore like we used to. Because my background's all entertainment and so and my chief of staff was my, you know, my original location scout on my first TV show, you know, 15 years ago. And so we're cruising across the country, drones, high res footage. We're ripping packs at like a ZZ Top concert in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry. We're doing it at the Bayou in New Orleans. We were, you know, scuba diving off Key west, always, you know, ripping packs everywhere. We were going to find Jeter's rookie card and Trout's rookie card. And what we discovered is we were prepping for making these G1s. We were starting the process already. We'd already launched the company six months before, very quietly. And we realized that it would be unfair to create all this content and just have a very high end, expensive product as the only option. And we realized we wanted to have something that anyone could afford, at least one. And so we ended up taking the same form factor and built these cases that we call mint hobby cases, which are meant for raw cards. And they're a much nicer way to display cards than any other option that's out there. And it's very secure. You can't like shake your card around and, you know, have the inside falling out. There's like eight different magnets that hold it in there. But these are beautiful. And we ended up launching these this year, early in the year and to great acclaim. All of a sudden we had Walmart reaching out and saying, we want to partner with you on this. And we ended up doing it with Amazon. We ended up shipping these all across the world this year. And now we have like a 4.95 rating on Amazon and Walmart. We were told by both companies that we're the number one seller of, of any product on the collectibles section, like the number one top seller on both platforms. In fact, on Amazon, we were one of their Top sellers just in the whole of Amazon. And so these are like very unique products that, you know, we decided instead of just, you know, making another one touch or making something a little bit thicker, we wanted to re engineer the entire experience. And so we added a bunch of magnets. We recessed the insert acrylic past the bezel so that you're not scratching your acrylic on tables anymore and having a bunch of scratches. So it keeps your card scratch free. We made it so that you could ship these and you're not going to have your card with all sorts of dents and dings when it arrives. And then we're also building a display just for the hobby case so that people are going to have really cool LEDs and for their most treasured cards that they don't want graded. These are for, you know, for raw cards. And so we've been building these, we've been building a number, a whole host of other products that I think are going to shock a lot of people over the next couple years as we release. But we're not going away. We're not a rare edition where, you know, we have got great partners to this company and we've been building this over five years. And what we did our homework. You know, a lot of companies, it's easy to just throw something out there quickly. I wanted to make sure that anything we sold I would have to be able to want it myself to purchase. And that's what we did. And so now we have these products and we have the ones that are coming later this year and next year and as well as the tech side and we also have some really sick plans for content. More in the kind of the television world that those three kind of pieces together, the platform, the content and the product, all working together to kind of build this company into something special. And everything is fully crazy patented. We built like a patent minefield around everything so that, you know, this is mint is coming, it's on its way. And we're excited to get these in people's hands because everybody that seems to buy our products loves them. And so it's pretty fun stuff. And I've got great team, a phenomenal team. I've been hand picking these guys over the last 15 years. Two of the guys on my team, I've worked with them for, yeah, 14 years now and they were on my first TV show together with me. And I've kept them because they're amazing guys. And we're trying to add more people as we go along. So it's a really fun experience here in Huntington beach with the Mint team.
- [26:38]
B
I definitely need some of those in the store. That's slick. I saw one video, I think, before I was looking through your content, and I was like, I hadn't seen this because you didn't have those at the Nationals.
- [26:48]
A
Yeah, yeah, we didn't have those.
- [26:49]
B
Yeah. And I'm like, that. That. That's slick. That. That's a good. You know, those could be in store. I could see those on the shelf. Oh, absolutely.
- [26:57]
A
We're piloting them right now with about. I think we have five card shops that we've been friends with for the last few years that are piloting right here.
- [27:05]
B
Collector Station in South Carolina.
- [27:07]
A
Yeah, we're gonna do Collector Station. But you know what's kind of fun is that a lot of people know about this. We do quests with these, where every certain number of hobby cases that we ship, we put a golden ticket inside the case, and it's redeemable for, like, massive prizes. Like, some guy that we in Cleveland found one of our golden tickets, and it was a $15,000. It got redeemed for a $15,000 Griffey Mantle dual autograph. You know that card from 1994 that everybody wants? You know, we did another one that was a 1957 PSA8 in a G1 that we gave away to a guy. I think he was in Ohio. That another town? No, he was in Illinois because he found a golden ticket in one of our cases. And we're doing that with all the hobby shops, too, so that as people are buying their hobby case, we put a card in every single case, Whether it's a common or a $2 card or a $10 card, there's always a card. As an example, like a picture frame, right? Like, if you go to the store, you go to Walmart, and you buy a picture frame, there's always some sort of picture in there. And so I wanted every single product that we ever shipped to have at least a card in there as an example of how the thing works. And so we inserted these golden tickets like Willy Wonka because. Loved the movie when I was a kid. And I thought it would be more fun. Like, who wants to just buy a supply? It's boring. And so I thought it'd be a lot more fun if we put cards in there. And I threw, actually most of the autographs of my whole collection, all the Bowman Chrome ones that you just have sitting in a box somewhere. And I put all those ones in. We put in, you know, a lot of special cards, a few, like, $1,000 cards, we spread them out, shipped them out. But these guys that are finding these, you know, 5,000, $10,000 cards as golden tickets, it's made the whole experience a lot more fun for everyone. And so anybody that's been following my content the last year, I just. I love, you know, giving stuff away and giving away these prizes. And so people aren't just getting a hobby case. They're always getting at least a chance that they might find something like, crazy.
- [29:11]
B
Hey. As a lifelong marketer, Surprise and delight. It works every time.
- [29:16]
A
Surprise and delight.
- [29:18]
B
That is. I love it. Brian Pura.
- [29:20]
A
And for me, it's just fun, dude.
- [29:22]
B
Yeah, man.
- [29:23]
A
But I just have fun, Ryan. You know, life's too short to do boring stuff. You know, I don't like doing boring things. In fact, I like doing things where I'm working with cool people and I'm having a great time. If I'm not having a great time, why am I doing it? And so, you know, every time somebody finds one of our golden tickets, I actually call them and tell them they won. And then we always post the phone call so that people can see that there's people winning these things. And. And I just have a great time. Yeah, it's fun.
- [29:51]
B
It's only perfect when it's only meant. I'm thinking of taglines for you already, man. That's the way my brain works, dude.
- [30:00]
A
I love it, man.
- [30:01]
B
It's like there's a play on words there somewhere because of, like, the additive nature to this, of the cards and the experience. It's. It's. It's. It's sorely needed. That's why I was so pumped to have you on the show and seeing what you're doing. Like, this is the stuff that's kind of like, yes, like, all right, how do we take these things a little further? We've had top loaders. We've had penny sleeves. Yes. We had the one touch. But, like, how can we, like, advance the ball here for how we display and carry, do the. Like, there's so many opportunities that it's exciting to see you guys innovating, like, with this stuff. And look, people pay for, like, it's a premium thing. Like, collecting is premium, and people will pay for premium, additive experiential things that. That bring and make their hobby better.
- [30:55]
A
Yeah, people want that. You know, it's kind of like when I first started sharing some of these cases around the hobby, it, like, I would just very quietly at card shows, be like, hey, what do you think of this? And anybody that was like, no, I love my PSA case. And I'm like, well, that doesn't make any sense to me, but there's a couple guys that are like, truly, I know. I love my PSA case. I love the flip at the top. And I'm like, no, it looks like a Dewey decimal system. It looks like a card catalog from 1985.
- [31:21]
B
Yeah.
- [31:22]
A
And I'm like, that's not for me. And it kind of reminded me of back in the day. In 2007, I had bought this. You know, everybody's walking around with their Motorola razors and their crazers and Nokias or whatever. And I remember showing up to my job. I was working at Disney at the time at the corporate offices in Burbank, and I walked in with this thing called an iPhone. And I remember walking around the office, and these are pretty, you know, sophisticated people. It's the record labels of the Disney, you know, company. And I was walking around showing people, and people were like, nah, I like my BlackBerry. I like my Nokia. I like my flip phone. And. And it just really. And I was like, no, but there's this thing called multi touch. I was always, like, an early adopter on technology, particularly. I was always an Apple fanboy during the Steve Jobs years. But I worked with Steve Jobs team.
- [32:16]
B
In New York launching the first iPhone. Can you hear me now?
- [32:20]
A
There we go, man. Thanks for your phone, man. I really appreciate it.
- [32:25]
B
I just helped market Steve Jobs brilliance.
- [32:28]
A
But, yes, well, I appreciate it, man. Thank you for the phone. I'm very grateful. Well done, Ryan. But, yeah, I went out and picked it up. I would always watch the Macworld keynotes, and as soon as he announced it, I'm like, that's mine. And so I'm walking around the Disney studio showing off to my friends this new product, and people are like, that's ridiculous. Why would we use that? I need to have a QWERTY keyboard that a tactile feeling on my fingers. And I was like, no, this is the way of the future. In fact, I ended up investing every dollar I had into Apple stock about two weeks later. And I put it all into Apple options with a very high strike price. And about three weeks later, I quit my job because I was a multimillionaire, because the stock had risen that fast, that high. And so that's actually how I made my initial money was from that moment at Apple. I mean, at Disney, when I realized the iPhone was something special. And I feel like that's the same thing with these cases, is that people that are clinging onto their PSA case or their Beckett case or even their SGC case, which is probably my favorite out of the three, but still, that's like, okay, I prefer a Motorola Razr over a Nokia, whatever. They're essentially the same things. And so. And they're easy to crack, extremely easy to counterfeit. I could buy a hypersonic welding machine from China in like a month and, you know, start building my own SGC and PSA cases. It's so easy to counterfeit. And so I'm like, I don't understand why people don't want something better. So it's taken several years to be able to change hearts and minds, to put these in people's hands, to have people go, oh, I get it now. I get it now. And now I really want one. And now our wait list will never be able to satisfy our wait list in 2026 because there's so many people on the wait list. That's why we're going to release these and maybe even the lottery kind of format. But this is the way of the future. It's the mix of technology and aesthetics and protection. It's like presentation, preservation, all in the same piece. And so this stuff's coming whether people like it or not. This is the way of the future. And I'm excited to get one in your hands. Ryan. I know it's time you had one.
- [34:42]
B
I know I'm here to see it. And I want to sell those other cases too. Don't let Walmart have them all, you know. So you're gonna get a kick out of this.
- [34:49]
A
Yeah.
- [34:49]
B
My store. Let's just say I was painting gold yesterday, and I'll tell you why. I'm gonna have the first drive through in trading card hobby shop history.
- [35:03]
A
What?
- [35:03]
B
I have a drive through that I painted old yesterday. Like, literally, I have this. I bought this old building that was a dry cleaners at one time. And it has, like, it actually has a mid century modern kind of look. And I've remodeled it and it has a little, like, offshoot aluminum. And it's actually done well. It's got glass and aluminum and it offshoots because it was the pickup window. And I'm turning it into the collector station express lane. And it's gold. I painted gold inside and out the little booth. It is solid gold.
- [35:36]
A
To be in gold, and it had to be gold used to be solid gold.
- [35:38]
B
And so from the street, now you see the gold side of our building, just that one spot and it's the express lane. It's the only drive through that I could find it exist in the hobby.
- [35:48]
A
So please tell me you're going to also sell like, you know, you can get a McFlurry or, you know, maybe some coffee at the same time.
- [35:56]
B
You know, you know, coffee and cards or energy drinks. You know, I'm an energy drink guy. But yeah, I was so sad when.
- [36:01]
A
I walked into a shop called Cards and Coffee. And I walked in and I said, where's the, where's the coffee? And. And they're like, no, we only do cards. It's part of the name. And it was like, that doesn't make sense.
- [36:11]
B
That doesn't make any sense. I also have a pack bar. I have a bar that's literally a pack bar. So I got the pack bar, the Drive Thru Innovating. So I love it.
- [36:22]
A
Yeah, see, no, I very much want to see your golden drive thru. That's. That's innovation right there. That's going to be a lot of fun to pull up.
- [36:30]
B
Yes. Marketing of the store that gets used once a month. And if it does, it's just marketing, you know.
- [36:40]
A
Well, you know, after going to like, me and my, my guy Sam, we've been to probably three or four hundred card shops over the last four years or five years. I don't know how many we've been to. It's just. And we don't always post from every card shop we go to because some of them are just terrible, just truly terrible. And I don't want to do the portnoy thing of like rating them on the spot. I want to kind of remain in more of the positive space and the nice things about each one we film at. And it's amazing how little innovation there is. It's shocking. Even the ones that think they're innovating aren't innovating. There's only a few that I've ever seen where I'm like, okay, you guys are doing it right? And it's pretty rare. And so I love the ones that have other things special about the card shop rather than just, oh, we sell.
- [37:28]
B
Cards 50%, you gotta make it fun. 30%, it's a hobby, it's fun, it's entertainment. It, like, you got to lean into it.
- [37:35]
A
People forget about that. Yeah, it's amazing how many people have forgotten that this actually is a hobby or that it's fun, you know, and people that just become so obsessed over, you know, you know, judging other people on how they collect, or you're doing it wrong, we're doing it right. Or the value of the. The card is the entire purpose of being in. And I. I get it. I get the financial side of it. I. I always have. I mean, when I was a kid, I was tracking on the Becket the ups and downs of my Kevin Moss card and, you know, see if I. You could retire after my Kevin Moss cards went through the roof, you know. Yeah. But, you know, I think people sometimes forget it's fun, you know, so, like, I went to a card shop in Chicago a couple weeks ago or maybe a couple months ago. Geez. And a card shop called Trade Oak. And the guy that owns the spot, he's just. He made it fun. He's got like a bunch of games, you know, like air hockey, table kind of plays with, you know, basketball, hoop shooting. And he's got a little wind wheel that you can spin and win prizes. He hosts a lot of kid events there. And what he's doing is he's built like a community. And so all the community, they. They show up because. Not just because there's cards there, but because they all have a lot of fun there. And the owner actually cares about cards, actually loves it still. You know, I've been into some card shops where you can tell that the owner just doesn't care at all about cards anymore. Some of them don't even. Never collected and don't know anything about the cards.
- [38:57]
B
Yeah.
- [38:57]
A
And so, you know, there's. There's guys that do it right and guys that don't. And one of these days we talked about making a coffee table book of all the card shops we've into over the last five years and just being like, here's our top. You know, the top.
- [39:11]
B
You gotta visit Collector station before you. Before you officially put that book together to see if we make the cut. And you can be.
- [39:18]
A
Absolutely. It's a matter of time, Ryan.
- [39:20]
B
Yeah.
- [39:20]
A
I have to come to South Carolina. It's big.
- [39:24]
B
We've got. I've got a theater, a movie theater built in. I've got like. Like, literally like a. It's a man cave, man. It's a. I got a huge table for people to trade at and sit at and hang out. And then I got my podcast studio built in. And it's.
- [39:41]
A
But you have a batting cage.
- [39:44]
B
I do have bougie ball, though. That's gonna have to get moved. My desk kind of got moved. I got a gold frame. That's a basketball goal. But it's Actually, a gold frame around it with a gold rim, so we call it bougie ball.
- [39:56]
A
Oh, nice. Nice.
- [39:57]
B
So.
- [39:57]
A
Yes, nice.
- [39:58]
B
We got these. We're getting there, man. It's gonna.
- [40:00]
A
We saw. You got me sold, man. So you got me.
- [40:04]
B
Oh, wait.
- [40:05]
A
Your grand opening, soft opening in two weeks.
- [40:07]
B
I'm gonna do a grand opening, like, first or second weekend in March, so maybe we can line that up there for that. I know I want to. I'm gonna have to be there.
- [40:18]
A
That's my kind of thing, man.
- [40:19]
B
Yeah, I'd love to have you, man. And Brian Ludden from Ludx is coming down. I'm talking to some of Gary Vee's guys. Gary's. He's tough to get out of the house, but not. He goes everywhere, but, like, maybe some of the guys from V. Friends and maybe an athlete or two. So for the grand opening.
- [40:39]
A
Absolutely. We'll talk. No, that's the way to do it, man.
- [40:42]
B
Yeah, man.
- [40:43]
A
Yeah. I'm excited. Let's make it happen, man.
- [40:48]
B
So what's. As we wrap up here, Brian, what. What's the next 612 months? I mean, it's the year of the case, man. It's the year of the G1, but what else? Where are we going to be at? What's going to be going on, and how can everybody fall along?
- [41:04]
A
Well, what I have going on is I'm going to be doing a lot with players this year. That's another thing. We're going to be filming a lot with players. One of my favorite things I've done over the last several years is ripping packs with major league players or veterans and getting them to find their own cards. Like, I had this moment with Eric Davis where we ripped a rack pack of 85 tops and he found his own rookie card in there. And I always tell people, if you rip it, you keep it. So I'm, like, trying to give Eric Davis his own 80.
- [41:32]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [41:33]
A
I'm trying to give him his own rookie card. And he's like, no, Brian, no. He goes, no, no, this one's for you. And so he signed it and said, okay, I want you to keep this one. And it's funny to see Eric Davis kind of, you know, lighting up like a Christmas tree, and while he's ripping his own carbs, you know, and. Or, you know, my. My favorite one ever. Well, Griffey won, but Mark. Mark Grace. Mark Grace was my favorite player when I was, like, a kid in, like, 1989, 1997 or 88. That's right. And you know, I went to his house and I brought a box of 88 Don Russ, and he's ripping through the packs. And the problem is he doesn't know. He's not a hobbyist, right? And so a hobby guy would be flipping through him super fast to try to find the rookie card or the Roberto Alomar that's in that set. And he goes literally card by card. It takes him like 20 minutes to go through one pack because every single dude in there, it's like a yearbook for him. And every single person in there is like some. He's got a story about them, you know, oh, Cecil Fielder slid into me in, you know, first base, and this happened. And, you know, this guy was really funny because of this. And so when I posted that video, Mark and I ripping his packs. Oh, yeah, this is kind of funny. I. We didn't actually find because he was too slow in opening packs. And so I just was like, you know, he had to go and I had to go. And so I gave him the rest of the box of cards and said, find your own rookie card. And then I pulled out of my pocket the. The 88 FLIR update card that I had since I was also a kid, and I handed it to him. I said, if you don't find the one in the box, here's at least the 88 FLIR update. I said, do you have your own rookie card? And he's like, no, I don't think I do. And I was like, well, now you do. And so that was such a special experience. And then I realized I could do a lot of that. And so I'm going to be doing a ton of player ripping with players and kind of cruising around the country. The goal is to, like, eat food, incredible food across the country, rip packs with players and visit card shops, go to card shows and just kind of, you know, cruise around. I'm going to be spending more time on the road, even though, you know, you know, the nice thing is I just got engaged to my director of marketing, and so I'm going to be taking her with me and we're going to travel the country with our, you know, chief of staff and our social media team and go city to city across the country while we socialize our products and go have a lot of fun. Rip and pack some players. That's kind of the goal for the year. Hey, that sounds like here, right? This is like.
- [44:00]
B
This is like collector nation to hit the road on one of those and let us, you document it as well. Behind the scenes. That'd be awesome.
- [44:10]
A
Yeah. In fact, the last time I was in South Carolina, Sam and I went to Home team in Sullivan's island and we literally, we ordered the barbecue. But before we did, before we started eating, we ripped a few packs of 93 SP. And so there we are, Sullivan's island, ripping packs in South Carolina. But yeah, next time we're in the air remotely in the area, we're going to be rolling by Ryan and ripping some packs, getting some food with you.
- [44:32]
B
Hey, man, where can everybody. Where the socials, the website, all that stuff for keeping up with everything.
- [44:38]
A
Yeah, yeah, thanks. The. The website for our company is Mintiverse. That's M1NT. See, it's Mint IS. That's A1, not an I. Turns out there's also a nightclub in Shanghai, China that's called Mint. So that's our. But. Which is kind of funny. I'll have to take the whole team out there and go to the nightclub there, take some photos. But it's Mintiverse.com M1N T A V E R S E.com that's our company's website where people can learn about, you know, the wall display or the cases. But all of my channels are. They're all @BrianPirup. So whether you're on Facebook or Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. TikTok's actually my main platform by a mile. We ran TikTok for a couple years before we did placement on anything else. And so TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, it's all R Pirip. V R I A N P I R R I P A little palindrome there. And so, yeah, I would love to, you know, meet more people as we go along. Every time I go to a city across the country, I'm going to tell people ahead of time this year and we hope to have people meet up with us at card shops. In fact, I'm going to be in Nashville, Tennessee at Grand Slam Sports Cards, which is one of the great card shops in the country on. On the 21st of January. I don't know when the show's gonna air, but after that. But. But we hope to meet people as we go around the country. So, like, when we come to your shop, Ryan, we'll tell people in advance and get as many of our followers to come and support you and your card shop as we can.
- [46:09]
B
I love it, brother. And I really, really do respect and love what you guys are doing. I mean, it's much needed in the hobby and the way you're going about it is the right way with modern content and positivity, but innovation, and I'm here to support it anyway, any way I can, brother.
- [46:30]
A
Thank you so much. Well, send me your, your. The card you want. Was it Caleb Williams?
- [46:34]
B
Whatever it is, Yeah, I got a Caleb. It's already got Michael Mike Baker's has already graded it, so that might be a good one just to, you know, be able to get it since he's already, you know, done that might be an easy one.
- [46:46]
A
Yes.
- [46:46]
B
And I think it'd be beautiful.
- [46:47]
A
Send it my way.
- [46:48]
B
Yeah.
- [46:48]
A
And we'll. I'll send that back to you asap. And I think you're going to love having that case in your hand, man.
- [46:55]
B
I will. Hey, guys, you know to find us the collectornation.com you'll find the full episode, highlight clips, links to all of Brian's info and of course, mint one. You've got it. The link there, everything. You got to follow this guy. All the content they're doing. It's fun, it's professional. This guy's a pro and you'll see it. And, man, innovation is needed in the hobby. That's why we're here to bring it to you, because we got guys like this changing the game. We'll see you next time on Collector Nation. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to 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@collectornation.com or follow Ryan on Instagram @ryanalforce. Now get out there and collect yours.