How Dugout Mugs Built a $55 Million Collectibles Brand (Kris Dehnert Interview)

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Trading Cards & Collectibles Podcast

Episode: How Dugout Mugs Built a $55 Million Collectibles Brand
Host: Ryan Alford (Radcast Network)
Guest: Kris Dehnert, CEO of Dugout Mugs
Air Date: September 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, host Ryan Alford welcomes Kris Dehnert, the energetic CEO of Dugout Mugs, to discuss how the company took a simple idea—a baseball bat turned into a mug—and built it into a $55 million collectibles business. The conversation spans origin stories, product innovation, the importance of meaningful relationships, and what makes both collecting and entrepreneurship deeply rewarding. Kris shares rich anecdotes from the world of baseball, collectibles, and business, sprinkling in memorable stories about collaborations, lessons learned, and the powerful ways his products connect with the hobby’s passion for nostalgia.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Birth of Dugout Mugs: Inspiration and Early Days

• Origin Story
  • The initial idea came from Kris’s ex-partner, Randall: “He took a baseball bat, hollowed it out and turned it into probably one of the coolest mugs on the planet.” (03:28, Kris Dehnert)
  • Kris joined for his business expertise and network, seeking something “fun” after some professional ups and downs.
  • Launched officially in 2017, quickly gaining traction through strategic division of labor—Randall on logistics, Kris on promotion.

2. Product Line Evolution and Innovation

• Product Range
  • Beyond mugs: bat slice keychains/ornaments, bottle openers (from cut baseballs), home plate-shaped coasters, “shortstop” whiskey mugs, “windup” wine mugs, “cutter” bottle openers, “knob shot” shot glasses, metal “dinger” mugs, and even baseball-themed board games.
  • Customization is key—personalized with team/player names, custom graphics, laser engraving.
• Production Approach
  • Source billets of birch wood before they become bats, maximize wood use, and streamline scalability.
  • “We have custom equipment that punch the hole...there’s a sealing process, a curing process...” (07:16, Kris Dehnert)
  • Majority of products made in-house or in North America for quality and quick turnaround.
  • 60,000+ online reviews and high customer return rate (~20%).

3. The Collectibility Factor

• Unexpected Affinity
  • Customers often collect not just one, but full sets of different teams/products; heavy customization supports sentimental value.
  • “There’s a real affinity towards our products and the customization ability...every time they go to a new stadium, they'll take one of our mugs and they'll engrave the date that them and their dad went...” (20:17, Kris Dehnert)
  • Limited and numbered edition collaborations with players (e.g., Pete Rose, Sandlot collection, Wade Boggs) add serious collectible value.
  • Signature series: player-signed and individually numbered runs.

4. Human Connections, Storytelling, and Purpose

• Personal Impact & Giving Back
  • Kris recounts reaching out to a grieving fan seen online, designing a custom mug to honor her late father.
    • “Why’d you do that?” she asked. Kris: “Why not? It’s the right thing to do… just putting good into the world.” (10:56, Kris Dehnert)
  • Business built around “celebrate and serve the heroes of the baseball community by creating next-level stuff.”
  • Relationships also crucial in business—Kris’s philosophy: “Go first” in building connections.
• Memorable Advice
  • “It’s not somebody else’s job to remember you. It’s your job to be unforgettable.” (25:38, Kris Dehnert)

5. Hobby Perspectives: The State of Collecting

• Market Trends and Cautions
  • Kris expresses concern: “It’s a junk wax era 2.0, which is the overprinting...” (26:11, Kris Dehnert)
  • Parallels between vintage and modern overproduction, risk of pricing kids out of the hobby.
  • Values established, proven players over speculative prospects.
• Collectible Value & New Money
  • Discussion of cards selling for millions: “That piece of cardboard could be worth 12 mil.” (29:30, Ryan Alford)
  • Importance of scarcity, nostalgia, and perception in assigning value.

6. The Power of Relationships in Business and Collecting

• How Deals Get Made
  • Kris’s approach: focus on deep, quality relationships; partnerships stem from authentic value, not just transactions.
  • Recurring collaborations/events with legends like Mariano Rivera, Big Papi, Pete Rose, and even sponsorship at major golf tournaments.
  • Detailed stories of mingling with baseball greats and celebrities (Ozzy Smith, Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Emmett Smith, John Smoltz, Barry Bonds, Dave Chappelle, 50 Cent).

7. Kris’s Personal Collectible Collection

• Signed mugs from legendary players.
• Favorite rookie and rookie cup cards: Mariano Rivera, Kyle Tucker, Chipper Jones, Craig Biggio, Wade Boggs, Pudge Rodriguez, Pete Rose—many signed.
• Plans to display his signed cards as part of his home office: “...all flat on my desk and I’m gonna get a piece of glass over top...all these autograph rookie or rookie cup cards.” (33:59, Kris Dehnert)
• Show-and-tell segment (31:38–36:19).

8. What’s Next for Dugout Mugs

• Future Directions
  • International distribution, especially in Canada.
  • Expansion into corporate gifting: casinos, beverage brands, and big-name companies are investing in custom runs.
  • Growth into retail: partnerships with Hallmark, Dick’s, Rally House, Shields, Fanatics.
  • Continued media exposure (Fox & Friends, GMA, Today Show, Forbes, etc.)
  • New product launches teased: stone coasters, mugs with integrated bottle openers.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Collectibles and Memories:
  "All we got is our stories, right? And I think that's what collecting does for a lot of people. Brings us back to that story..." (12:54, Kris Dehnert)

• On Business Principles:
  “I build a lifestyle by design. ...My metrics changed because a lot of people chase the dollar. I was chasing the happy. Like, what makes me happy and how often can I do that?” (10:56, Kris Dehnert)

• On Relationship-Driven Success:
  "It's not somebody else's job to remember you. It's your job to be unforgettable." (25:51, Kris Dehnert)

• On the Hobby’s Future:
  "It's a junk wax era 2.0, which is the overprinting... But the one thing I think they're missing the most is they're pricing it out of the ability for kids to get involved..." (26:11, Kris Dehnert)

• On Giving Back:
  “Why’d you do that?’ and I said, ‘Why not? It’s the right thing to do… just putting good into the world.” (11:05, Kris Dehnert)

• On Fun as Currency:
  "Fun's a very real currency in my life." (16:31, Kris Dehnert)

• On Collectibility:
  "That was something that I think kind of caught me off guard is the collectibility of these..." (20:17, Kris Dehnert)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:28 — Dugout Mugs origin story & partnership formation
• 04:56 — Product expansion and sales milestones
• 07:16 — How the mugs are made: production walkthrough
• 08:13 — Pete Rose limited edition mug & collaboration stories
• 10:56 — Living life by design after a major health scare
• 12:54 — Heartfelt story about gifting custom mugs as a memorial
• 15:30 — Full lineup: mugs, coasters, keychains, etc.; new product teasers
• 20:17 — Collectibility and customer stories
• 23:46 — Working with players & celebrities; how deals are structured
• 25:38 — Business advice: building unforgettable relationships
• 26:11 — State of the hobby: overprinting, prospecting, and access for kids
• 31:38–36:19 — Kris’s personal cards and story segment
• 39:30–42:34 — Memorable events and stories: networking with legends
• 42:43 — What’s next: retail, corporate, media
• 47:01 — Plugs for Dugout Mugs and Kris’s Big Golf company, philosophy on life/business
• 50:19 — Commitment to regular updates and building the hobby community

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Episode Takeaways

• Kris Dehnert’s journey with Dugout Mugs is a masterclass in combining craftsmanship, business acumen, and authentic relationship-building to create a thriving collectibles brand.
• The deep emotional connection people have to memorabilia—and the stories behind the pieces—drives long-term loyalty, collectibility, and joy.
• Success in both collecting and business is often rooted in pursuing authentic happiness, giving value first, cherishing relationships, and daring to innovate.
• The hobby is changing fast: new money and technology are bringing both opportunities and new pitfalls.
• The episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, collectors, and anyone seeking inspiration from a “lifestyle by design” story.

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This summary covers all main topics, memorable quotes, and key moments in the episode—with accurate timestamps and speaker attributions for easy reference.

Transcript

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[Chris Dennard]

We got a whole thing going on, but yeah, we're over $55 million in sales. That was something that I think kind of caught me off guard is the collectability of these.

[Ryan Alford]

Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From chasing grails to calling bluffs and going inside the hobby, are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford.

What's up, guys? Welcome to Trading Cards and Collectibles here on the Radcast Network. You know, I don't always get like shock and awe anymore. I don't always go surprise or go. I haven't seen that before. And this next guest has been around. This company's been around. They're doing pretty well. You're going to hear that in a second and be ready to fall on the floor like I did a minute ago when Chris and I were talking. But I got sent a little gift and this means why you got to watch the show. If you're listening. You need to watch. If you're watching, you need to listen. But I got a beautiful baseball bat that's been carved into a mug. It's got our logo on it and my name handcrafted for Ryan Alford. Who doesn't like that swig for the fences, we've got Chris Dennard. He is the CEO and just bad mfer of dugout mugs. What's up, brother?

[Chris Dennard]

What's happening? What's happening? Thanks for having me.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, man. This is fun. I love these. You know, you had me. You had me at the mug. It's cool. I mean, what the hell, man? It's like, I'm all so simple but so fun. And who the hell wouldn't want, you know, your favorite team player, whatever, on a damn baseball bat?

[Chris Dennard]

Just people with bad taste, I guess. That's who wouldn't want it. When you grab our wood, man, you're gonna fall in love. So get ready.

[Ryan Alford]

I knew I liked you. Yeah, man. Yes. A lot of ways we can go with that. But, Chris, man, I mean, where'd this idea come from? And what kind of bats are we talking about here?

[Chris Dennard]

So the one you got right there is birch. And you know where the idea came from. I will always show love to Randall, my ex partner. We took the bear, he took a bearable baseball bat, and he hollowed it out and turned it into probably one of the coolest mugs on the planet. And he had the idea right, and he started jamming with it. And I have a long background in business, and at the time, I was looking for something just fun. I needed fun. I needed, you know, I said some prayers up about it. I said, send me somebody who needs my skill set to just run with something. And I've had some successes and failures, you know, learn more about yourself and the failures. But this guy came out of nowhere, and I was like, dude, this was it, and this was the guy, and this was the thing. And, you know, I was like, you handle logistics, I'll handle the promotion. And I just started digging into my. I have a pretty cool network of people and business and otherwise. And yeah, man, we hit the ground running 2017, but he's the one that came up with the idea, and that was kind of like the. The rocket fuel. And, you know, we ran it for, you know, a handful of years together, and then he ended up retiring. He's significantly younger than I am, and he's having a family and all this. I was like, dude, rock and roll. I'm having too much Fun. I'm not going nowhere. So, yeah, we've been, we've been, been jamming ever since, man, I don't know.

[Ryan Alford]

How are you comfortable sharing Shell's numbers on the show? I don't care.

[Chris Dennard]

I'm an open book, man.

[Ryan Alford]

How many, what, what are we selling in bats? We're doing how many mil on this thing?

[Chris Dennard]

Well, to date. And it's not just the mug, right? So we make, you know, we have, we turn bat slices into keychains and ornaments and we have, this is one of my favorites, a baseball cut in half, turned into a bottle opener and home plate shaped coasters and that. We got a whole, we got a whole thing going on. But yeah, we're over $55 million in sales, which tells us, and you know what, so that, you know, what metric or what, what number is more impressive to me? 60,000 reviews online, that's what's more impressive to me. Because what it means is one equals the other people. Yeah, right, right.

[Ryan Alford]

Feed each other, right?

[Chris Dennard]

But if you don't put a good quality product out there and you don't back it up with a good experience. So like we, you know, our whole motto is to celebrate and serve the heroes of the baseball community by creating like next level stuff. Right? And that's what we've done. And the reviews and the, the people that we work with, you know, it, it speaks for itself.

[Ryan Alford]

Collectibles show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. And ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you. You do Case hitsollectibles show. We want you to see, send in your favorite pulls of the week.

[Chris Dennard]

And here's the difference.

[Ryan Alford]

This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. Had a couple of those myself a few months back. But it's not just about the value. It's about what you're collecting, what means something to you. Share a story, share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week that was your favorite player and you nailed it. So case hits, Collectibles show, send in those videos.

[Chris Dennard]

I want to know the stories. We're going to bring them to life here on the show.

[Ryan Alford]

We're going to do a segment each week once we get rolling and get some videos in where we share that on the show with us. We want to feature on Collectibles Show. Talk to me about, I mean, this process because, you know, like, it seems like obvious once you see it. It's kind of like Those things, you're like, well, why didn't I think of that? You know, But. Or would that really work? But yet I'm holding, I think, my own custom.

[Chris Dennard]

This is.

[Ryan Alford]

Holds 12 ounces, right?

[Chris Dennard]

Yep. That one is a 12 ounce.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, 12 ounce mug here. The end of the bat. And you literally what, how's this etched on here? Like, talk to me about the process of making these.

[Chris Dennard]

So that piece of wood was destined to be a baseball bat. So what we do is we get to the billet before they lathe it into a bat and we turn it into three barrels instead. So we're not wasting the wood. Originally we were chopping craft bats in half, turning the handles into bottle openers, turning the tops into mugs. Like, that's what was going on. Not scalable, by the way, and pretty wasteful. So we get to the billet before it becomes a bat, and we turned it into three barrels. And then we have custom equipment that punch the hole all the way down. Goes down about right there. And then there's a sealing process, a curing process, and then like this one right here. Like, because we're collectibles, I'm a big in the collectible space. And that's why we got this conversation started. So this is one that launches tomorrow that we did for Pete Rose. It's his commemorative mug going into the cornfield. Right. So then all this is. Oh, dude, it's sick. So I've been working with the family and we're releasing this tomor. That's why it's on my desk.

[Ryan Alford]

Is it limited release?

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, yeah, a lot. We do a lot of limited stuff, man.

[Ryan Alford]

You're only gonna send me four?

[Chris Dennard]

I mean, some. I know a guy. I know a guy. Pete actually was one of the coolest dudes I met. He and I commentated game three of a World Series together for like two hours and wow, man. Like, some of the stories. I'm happy to share any of the stories you want, but, like, I want.

[Ryan Alford]

Let's go there, brother. Let's talk.

[Chris Dennard]

So Pete, so brilliant. Like, he's so smart and he remembered things from so far back. And the Count, when this happened and that happened and what the count was and who was on second. Like, it's crazy. His recollection all the way there towards the end, that was incredible. You know, another one of the collabs I love was the Sandlot. And we all love the sandlot. So my buddy David, Mickey Evans was the writer, narrator, and director of the sandlot. And I hit him up On Twitter, I said, hey dude, I'm the guy running dugout mugs. He's like, oh my God, I've seen these things. And we launched a collaboration or up here on my shelf, it's the Legends Never Die collection. And we have a Legends Never Die hat that underneath the bill, it's the Sandlot Boys on the backstop. I'll do it. Sick. And then we'd have one where it's wrapped all the way around the mug and it comes with an autographed photo inside. Because what we do and the collectible world, because I'm big in the hobby, right? So the collectible world and dugout mugs just overlap so well, I get to do it all and call it work, right? And the thing I did with the sand lot and I mean back here it's Miggy and Big Papi and Mariano and Johnny Damon and Pete Alonzo is a great dude that we work with a lot. And it's just so cool the things that we've gotten to do. You know, Reggie Jackson's of the, you know, it's wild.

[Ryan Alford]

You know, there's a story here and you know, what I'm trying to do with this show is, is have conversations like this. They're around the hobby. But also there's a, there's a great American theme here of dreaming big and you know, turning your passion into profit and turning, you know, like doing what you want to do and like collecting is like one of the great American pastimes, you know, and. But it can become the full time when you dream big and you go big. And I mean, I think that's what your story is about. You know, you almost, you know, you had life changing experience. You go to work and you start doing what you love and you turn it into a multi million dollar business. You take over the whole company and, and now you're making things that people cherish and they collect and making a pretty damn good life for yourself. It sounds like.

[Chris Dennard]

Well, two things come to mind. Very different things. Number one, I build a lifestyle by design, right? I built it around the things that I, I love to do. And that came after that experience I had. You know, my priorities changed and I think my, my metrics changed because a lot of people chase the dollar. I was chasing the happy, like what makes me happy and how often can I do that? Every day. And if it's baseball cards or if it's celebrity events or if it's, you know, making people just incredibly happy with something we made for them, I'm going to share a story that happened two days ago. I'm in a big Astros fan page online. I work with those guys. We raise some money when the Hurricanes go through there. And I work with a lot of the players on the Astros. And there was a lady that posted something, and it was a her father's jersey or a jersey with their father's name over one of the seats that they were supposed to go to. He passed recently and they buried him in his Yankees jersey. And all the pallbearers carried awarded Yankees. So I saw that and I said, you know what? I'm gonna do something special for this lady. I reached out to her and I said, send me your favorite picture of your father and I'm gonna turn it into a custom mug with Yankees on the front side commemorating his life. And I sent it to her. Actually, I sent her four of them because she had a couple siblings. And she's like, why'd you do that? And I said, why not? It's the right thing to do. You know, I saw that you were hurting and you needed to know that there's good things that are coming your way and that people, you know, you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Like, just putting good into the world. And I've created a business that I get to do that. And I impacted this lady so profoundly. And it's just the way the world works, right? You got to go first. I just did a post about it on LinkedIn today about just going first in relationships. And guess what? At the end of the conversation, she's like, hey, my father had about 100,000 baseball cards, Mickey Mantles and Babe Ruth's and all this stuff like that. And she's like, like, when it comes time, I'd like to give you one of those and you can help me, you know, direct where to, you know, how to. How to honor this collection. I'm like, you got to be kidding me, right? I just did it to be good to somebody who did a post and who was hurting. And as it turns out now I'm going to get a cool piece at some point. I don't even care when that I'm going to have in my collection that has a story behind it, because all we got is our stories, right? And I think that's what collecting does for a lot of people. Brings us back to that story when.

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[Chris Dennard]

For a kid, that first 89 Griffey that we pulled, like, you name it, right? Like it all goes back to some kind of feeling. And I think that's what a lot of people are missing, you know, is. Is. And that's what collecting does. It brings you back to a feeling.

[Ryan Alford]

It is a feeling, nostalgia, you know, and it's always. It's a little hard to, you know, like to encapsulate everything that it is, but it ever. It definitely is a feeling.

[Chris Dennard]

And I love what you said there.

[Ryan Alford]

Like, I really hung on to like, you go first. Oh yeah, like, like that could be a slogan in itself. Like our mantra for people, like, take the first step in building that relationship or, or creating that bridge.

[Chris Dennard]

Right.

[Ryan Alford]

You know, a bridge is like from one thing to the other, but the only way that gets there is for someone to lay the bridge down to connect it.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, start building.

[Ryan Alford]

Start building it. And a lot of lessons we learned there. And it translates to the hobby too. You create these relationships and connections, you know, for trading or for business or life or all those things. There's so many parallels that come to life talking with Chris Denner. He is the CEO of Dugout Mugs. Back to the business, man. So how many different products are we making?

[Chris Dennard]

We have a 12 ounce mug, the dugout mug. And again, you'll appreciate the names. Then we have the shortstop, which is a nine ounce, like a whiskey mug. We have the windup, which is a wine mug, holds 6 ounces. This is called the cutter in in honor of my boy Mariano, where we cut the baseball in half and turn it into this. Then we got the season opener, which is a baseball bat handle bottle opener. We got a knob shot, which is a shot glass made out of a bat handle. Then we have a metal mug called the dinger. It's a 20 ounce spill proof tumbler that looks like an old Easton green machine. Remember those things?

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

So yeah, and then we, then we started with the, you know, we started making the bat slice keychains that double as like an ornament. Those are cool coasters. We actually. These, we haven't even launched these. These launched next week. We started making these stone coasters. Dude, they're sick. Like.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, they look so cool. Yeah, we have stone coasters and a plan. This is something else that I haven't launched yet, but I don't mind sharing it. So we started first release on the.

[Ryan Alford]

Trading cards and collectibles.

[Chris Dennard]

We started playing around with the idea of mounting a bottle opener in the bottom of the mug. Genius, right? So it's like, dude, crack it and go. So yeah, man, we're always innovating. Like we're trying to like, how much fun can we have? Because fun's a very real currency in my life and, and we had my company and so how much everything made.

[Ryan Alford]

Here with you, like, is everything made in house?

[Chris Dennard]

For the most part, yeah. Like New York, Ohio, Quebec. You know, we get the wood from different places, the products from different places. There's a couple of the components that come in from like overseas, but we don't, I don't like playing that, to be honest with you. But like keychain pieces and like different stuff like that. But if, if I can do 100 made in America, North America, that's what you're getting because it's better quality in my opinion. I can turn it faster. Like that mug. If somebody put an order in for, you know, we did like Pepsi and Coke and Miller and Coors and Budweiser. We make mugs for these guys. So if they put an order in today for a thousand mugs, I'll have it in their hands in two weeks. Right. So our ability to just crank these things out now we're really built for dtc, you know, direct to consumer. So somebody orders a mug, you know, Uncle Frank with a Yankees logo on the front, we have that thing ripped out in like 48 hours, which is really.

[Ryan Alford]

I can speak to that on this. Yeah, exactly. We messaged on IG and I don't know, two to three days in my mailbox.

[Chris Dennard]

It's in your hand. I know it's crazy. My team's, My team's one of our. That's our superpower is our ability to do that and do it quickly and do it accurately and do it at very high quality.

[Ryan Alford]

What's the percentage of sales with like the mugs versus everything else?

[Chris Dennard]

Well, that's the OG man. Like, that's the, that's the name steak product, the dugout mug. So we've obviously done a significant amount with just that product line. But I think the fortunes in the development and the excitement's in the development of the product line. Right. We have baseball board games, names that are 100 made America, rolling dice and moving little pegs around. They're sick. Baseball material, drawstring bags. Like, we just keep developing because I have, you know, I probably have over a million customers between my email and sms and we got a few million on social media. So we got access to a lot of people. So we need to keep developing the products that, that we're offering out there to them. So it keeps it fresh and new. But what we've seen, which as a businessman, you can appreciate this, about 20% of our orders are return customers, which is wild. That's a high number. But what's happened is people buy them as a gift and the recipient is so fired up. The gift givers, like, okay, every time there's a gift to be given, I'm going back to this. Well, and I think that's why we've had so much success is the, the quality, the accuracy, the, the turn times, everything. And people just have a good experience and they keep coming back. But I'd say 40% is going to be the Dugout mug, the one in your hand right there.

[Ryan Alford]

That's why, see, I like to give gifts for my guests on the show.

[Chris Dennard]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

I think we start sending, we'll have our logo on one side, then the guest name, like a message to them, thanks for coming on. And we send them out.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, we knocked it out of the park or.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

Like, yeah, we started doing for realtors. There's no place like home. And they're leaving them as clothes and gifts. Yeah, it's cool.

[Ryan Alford]

It is cool. I think we should do that. We're gonna talk about that offline.

[Chris Dennard]

I know a guy.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. So, Chris, if I'm collecting, you know, all this about collectibles, I mean, you can see naturally, like, it goes on the shelf. A lot of people collecting these, like, different variations. I mean, and obviously, like the Pete Rose thing, I imagine that's a low print Run or manufacturer, whatever you want to call it. Talk to me about the collectibility of these.

[Chris Dennard]

That was something that I think kind of caught me off guard is the collectibility of these. Not. Somebod has the mug and they want to add the. The opener and they want to add the coasters, and they want to add the baseball opener, and they want to. One guy, he's a little OCD, but he bought all 30 teams for all products. And they line his entire man cave. I'm like, I mean, this guy went in, man. He's got thousands of dollars invested in what we're doing. But he. That was his. He loved it so much. So there. There's a. There's a real affinity towards our products and the customization ability these products, like people get every time they go to a new stadium, they'll take one of our mugs and they'll engrave the date that them and their dad went to the stadium. So, like, there's a. So much like personalization options with our stuff. I think that's what's really done it. And it's. It's not overly priced. I mean, we listen, I buy, I rip, I do, you know, breaks, whatever. Our stuff is not that expensive in comparison. You're selling a finest box for 600, you know, 25 finest, whatever it is. Come on now. You know, our stuff you can get. You guaranteed to win and get a hit for 100 bucks, 80 bucks, 70 bucks. You know, you get something that. So I think from a pricing standpoint, especially in the hobby surrounding people in the hobby, I think the price points there, I think the personalizations there. And that's why people have been collecting it now when I work with players. So I've. I've done. I call it a signature series. We did Jose Canseco, Pudge Rodriguez, Pete Rose. I think Tucker. Wade Boggs is a good friend. You know Boggs, he did some stuff with us. So we'll work with some of these players and they'll autograph mugs and then we'll sell those. I mean, we only sell them for like 100 bucks, right? We're not trying to make a bunch of cash on anybody, but it's so cool and so unique that people will buy it. The other thing we did, and I've done this with a few. On a few occasions, we do numbered because. Because we individually laser each mug. So the. The rays had a 25th anniversary and they wanted a numbered one to 125. And it was 125 available. And they were all individually numbered. That was pretty cool. It's not easy, but it's certainly doable and we've certainly done it.

[Ryan Alford]

That's cool. That's what we need on these, though. Like, we'll have their name, 101, on the bottom, right?

[Chris Dennard]

101. Yeah. The number part was pretty cool. And I did something for the Memphis Miracle League where we took that old Bo Jackson, you know, the future star.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

And we replicated that card, but we changed some parts of it. And I did it for Tops as well. And I just did. I was just at Leaf the other day in Texas. I made some Leaf mugs and a whole collection that they're going to be using. So hopefully in the very short, maybe week or two, we're going to see some influencer stuff with Leaf. But we're able to take a card and put it on a mug. Right. The lasers are that accurate?

[Ryan Alford]

That's crazy. I mean, talk to me. I mean, that process now, I mean, it's crazy. Like, is it. It's all laser inscribed?

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, yeah. We use a rotary device that, like, sits on the thing like this and just turns it. But I mean, the. The laser. The wood is so hard, the lasers can get in there and create so much detail. It's wild.

[Ryan Alford]

It is wild when you work with these individual players. So, like Wade Boggs, Pete Rose, do you go out and approach them direct and just kind of like, iron out a deal? Like, okay, sign this mini. We'll print this mini. We'll share in revenue. Like, how do. How do those deals play out?

[Chris Dennard]

I'm a bigger fan of relationships if I want it. Fewer, bigger, better. Fewer people. Bigger, better relationships. That's what I live by. And the relationships that I have with these people allow me to get the deals. So fortunately, we have a very reputable, you know, name incredible reputation in the. In the baseball industry and with. And with other people and other players. Right. So it's an easy ask. I'm like, hey, man, I know you got your thing coming up like we just did last week. Mariano's got his event coming up in five days up in New Rochelle for his tournament. And I reached out and I said, hey, man, I got your trophies. We made the trophies for the tournament. First place, second place, third place, longest drive, plus the pen, whatever the golf tournaments. And I said, but I also connected one of my buddies owns, you know, a Poker Depot. And whatever. I said, so I ripped you out 150 packs of custom logo playing cards, couple hundred poker chips that you can Give to everybody for ball markers. Like, just be somebody that somebody wants to know. Like, I think even put in the post this morning or the other day. It's not, you know, somebody else's job to remember you. It's your job to be unforgettable. So what I do is I try to bring enough value to somebody else that they're like, oh, yeah, that's Chris. Like, yeah, what do you need, buddy? Right. Do people pick up the phone when you call? Right. That's a pretty good indicator if you actually know them or not, is if they know you. And so that's what I do, man. I focus on the relationship and. And like Boggs, I was at his house. We sat in his incredible man cave surrounded by deer heads and hog heads and marlins and all this. And we just sat there just jamming, having a beer, of course, and signing mugs and talking about it and taking pictures and just so cool. And. And yeah, we do a rev share, like, but it's nothing like, hey, man, throw me like 20 bucks a signature. I'll sign 200, cut him a check for a couple thousand. You know, it's not a money thing. It's a make something fun thing. And that turns into a money thing even with our customers, man, it's relationships.

[Ryan Alford]

Lot to be learned, a lot. A big business lesson right there for anyone paying attention is in business, it's, it's about relationships. And I love the, hey, it's not so much job to remember you. It's. It's your job to be unforgettable.

[Chris Dennard]

100%.

[Ryan Alford]

I love that, I love that. But that's what, hey, same thing with collectibles, you know, be unforgettable. And what's your thoughts on the state of the hobby right now? I know you're a collector and you're going to show us some of your badass cards here shortly, but what do you think about what the hobby is today and how it's booming and where do you see it going?

[Chris Dennard]

It's really wild. You know, I knew Gary V. Briefly back in the day, and I've always followed him, and I like his mentality on things. And he was talking about it, you know, five, six, seven years ago. You know, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. Load up. Get the big ones, the Jordan rookies, all this. So it's really cool to see it doing what it's doing. I think, unfortunately, it's. It's a junk wax era 2.0, which is the overprinting it's like 47 different parallels. It's not a one of one. If there's 12 parallels, there's 12 one of ones. Now it's one of 12. Right. Like. But again, you know, people are sheep in a lot of ways. And that's what it is. You're not changing it. We're not changing it today.

[Ryan Alford]

I had that exact discussion.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. Like, we're not changing that shit today. But what we can say is that things are being overprinted. I think the valuations on. On prospects are out of control. Sometimes you'll get a skiing or somebody like that that really shows up and does it. Remember when everybody was chasing Julio and Bobby Witt was like a secondary conversation, and now look how quick that changed, you know, so JB Greer, he's their agent, both those guys. And I remember trying to get in touch with him about Julio and he's like, oh, we can't. We're all, you know, Julio, Julio. And then Bobby. Bobby was cool as hell. He signed like 10 cards for me because we were doing some giveaways and stuff. And Bobby is just so cool and down to earth. And then the script flip and I think. So my point is, is chasing the prospects is very risky. So, you know, so again. But I think that's the overprinting and the overhyping of things. I'm a big collector. Like, I like guys that are proven themselves to Aaron Judge, the. The Alonzo, you know, Atani's on that list. So. So the. The hobby is a little wonky, I think, just like a pendulum. Right. Like, it's over compensation of stuff. I think that's what's happening with it. But that's okay. Like, the one thing I think they're missing the most is they're pricing it out of the ability for kids to get involved and stay involved. It's priced so ridiculously high, and I think that's going to come back down to earth a little bit. The prices are going to, you know, be impacted from that. But overall, I think it's good to see this much all this activity again because it's going to have a long tail to it.

[Ryan Alford]

Yep. Yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of people that never been in the hobby. A lot of big money, a lot of bigger names in business, you know, that are treating it like an asset class now. And degree, I think. I think it. It's always been that to a degree. I don't know if it's been viewed that way holistically, but I think you're seeing more and more. I mean, Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, Kevin Leary, buying what, a 12 million dollar card? I mean, you know, it's like I'm knee deep in this thing now and, you know, had my little hiatus till my kids got back into it, and now enjoying it with.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

Through the lens of them and, and, you know, nostalgia and my old collection and. But it's not lost on me that, you know, these pieces of cardboard, you know, to work 12, you have to kind of stop for a second and still kind of remind yourself of that. But at the same time, you know, what makes something valuable is what, you.

[Chris Dennard]

Know, 20 bills printed on a piece of paper that's not even attached to nothing.

[Ryan Alford]

Exactly. The whole, I don't know, prospectus and perception, you know, drive value, and it is crazy. That piece of cardboard could be worth 12 mil.

[Chris Dennard]

100.

[Ryan Alford]

What'd you think of that purchase?

[Chris Dennard]

It doesn't even faze me because you see it over and over again. Like, or, or, or more importantly, like you see some of these rookie quarterbacks or some of these prospect cars. They're one of ones 130, $150,000. Damn.

[Ryan Alford]

Like, what?

[Chris Dennard]

But you can go get a Miguel Cabrera, you know, Gem Mint 10, or Albert Pujols Gym Mint 10 rookie card for a thousand bucks. That dude's a first ballot hall of famer, 700 plus home runs kind of thing.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, okay, that doesn't make dudes.

[Chris Dennard]

It doesn't make any sense. So that's the part that I think doesn't make a lot of sense. But. But yeah, it wasn't even shocking to me, you know, to see one of those old, old cards do that because they're so rare. They're actually rare dollar bills. They're not rare. We just keep printing them. They're not even attached to nothing. Like, turn on the machine. You know, that's a whole nother podcast. But.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, exactly.

[Chris Dennard]

But, but yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

What do you collect? Well, I know you got some stuff you're gonna show. I want, I want to see some of it. But what, what, what do you collect?

[Chris Dennard]

I like guns. You know, old guns, unfired stuff. I have some really cool pocket knives that my dad, you know, he's into that and, you know, nothing crazy like a dozen of them or something, but from a, From a traditional sports collecting mugs. Like, I probably have 70 mugs up here signed. Some of them are like the Miguel Cabrera. We got a Miggy 500 home run. There's only three of them that are signed and two of them are on my shelf. Nolan Ryan, Pudge. Miguel Cabrera, Poppy Mariano for sure. Johnny Damon for sure. Boggs. So like, I like these, but I mean, what a cool background, right? Like, this is what I do and it is cool and it is worth the story. But. But so what I try to do is like any of the guys that I'm, you know, do a deal with or I'm, you know, I collaborate with, I try to get him to sign a rookie card. I grabbed a few of them because I didn't know if we were going to be showing them on here. But like, some of these will bring you back, dude. Like, we'll start with my boy Mo. Like this one right here.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

Straight off the boat with the khakis, right? The old school Bowman. So we had him. We had Mariano Ink. That one of my favorite people. Super quiet kid. Hell of a player. Finally getting some respect in the hobby. Kyle Tucker.

[Ryan Alford]

Kyle Tucker.

[Chris Dennard]

Rod Rod. Wow. Yeah. That's his rookie cup card.

[Ryan Alford]

That's sweet.

[Chris Dennard]

This guy was so fun. I. We were at his tournament and up in Baltimore's golf tournament and he's cruising around. Yeah. Drinking out of a dugout mug.

[Ryan Alford]

How's he. What's he like?

[Chris Dennard]

He's down to earth. He's big as hell. I did not like, dude. I'm six foot like 290, right. And I'm standing next to this guy and I look like a dwarf. Like, he's way bigger than you think he is, man. I understand why he made it 2100 + 2131 or whatever it was. I can see why. Now this dude right here, just down to earth as you get. Remember that? Old school. Chipper, probably Chipper Jones. Yeah. Yeah. This is.

[Ryan Alford]

I mean, I mean, being in Greenville, Atlanta was my team.

[Chris Dennard]

I mean, still my team. Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

The Braves. We're like two hours from the Braves.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. So we work at the Braves a ton. And, and. And that's what opened the, the door to that. There's one I'm gonna save till the end. I'm gonna show you that because the condition, the cards next level. Pete Alonso, you know, just down to earth. Just. He's done videos for us. You know, I drink beer out of my dugout mug and. Super smart. We did polar bear trivia one time with him and, and it was just all this trivia. That dude is sharp. Like Pete is super sharp. By the way, side note, Chris Sale, he's a local guy here.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

Here in Lakeland. Crazy seeing him do a Comeback Miggy, you know, we did the deal.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

That's just a classic. Classic card. Bizio. So you're listening.

[Ryan Alford]

You got to be watching, folks. If you're listening. You need to be watching to see these. Craig B. Was that Craig?

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, this is Bizio.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

And then one of the absolute killer golfer. Great dude. I give him a hug every time I see him. Pudge Rodriguez. That's his rookie cup.

[Ryan Alford]

Fudge.

[Chris Dennard]

I got a couple older ones here. So the Rocket.

[Ryan Alford]

Wow.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. That was a cool car.

[Ryan Alford]

That brings back memories. It does look good, right?

[Chris Dennard]

So I try to get. I try to get the best.

[Ryan Alford]

Looks good.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some of these. So here I'll tell you why they're all in these and not graded or anything. So what I'm doing is behind me, you can't see it, but I'm gonna have the entire. Because there's probably 20 other cards back here that not in this stack. But I'm gonna have it all flat on my desk and I'm gonna get a piece of glass over top and it's going to kind of be the desktop. So underneath the desktop is going to be all these autograph rookie or rookie cup cards. Yeah, Bogs.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

One of my favorites. He's such a good dude. At one point we even talked about him being in the company because when you talk about beer and baseball like Bogs, he's at the top of the list. You know, that was iconic.

[Ryan Alford]

Iffy Junior.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah, I have the upper deck graded but that right there. I like the in person ones as you're talking about Bobby, you know.

[Ryan Alford]

Oh yeah, that's a. More.

[Chris Dennard]

More a newer version, right? Obviously. Canseco.

[Ryan Alford]

I got that card right here. That and the Bo Jackson of that series.

[Chris Dennard]

What is that? 86, I think.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, 86 alts or whatever, like the secondary series. That's the name. Yeah. Update. There it is.

[Chris Dennard]

One of my dude, Johnny Damon.

[Ryan Alford]

Johnny.

[Chris Dennard]

Class act. Love Johnny. He's a Central Florida guy. Then we got Altuve. That was a cool card. I actually pulled the retail blue. That and it's being graded right now. I think it's gonna jam. Sheffield 5009 home runs. Not in the hall of Fame. Cooperstown. I don't know what the hell you're doing. I know.

[Ryan Alford]

I remember chasing him, bro.

[Chris Dennard]

He's so good. Such a good person.

[Ryan Alford]

So good.

[Chris Dennard]

I. I'll tell you a story about. I'll tell you a couple stories about Reggie Jackson. Speak of Reggie Jackson. Here you go.

[Ryan Alford]

There he is.

[Chris Dennard]

I got two of these. So he's like, what can I do for you? And I said, you know what, Reggie? I said, because he bought. He gets our mugs for his event every year as the VIP gift to his attendees. And let me tell you, there is. I've never been in a room like this before. And I've been in some rooms. Like, I'll tell you a story in a second, but this right here is one of my favorites. It's the. The. The Pete Rose Rookie Cup. Yeah, Just. But, I mean, check the condition on this thing, man. What's a 64? I think I have to look. Look. But that's clean, right?

[Ryan Alford]

Damn. Very clean.

[Chris Dennard]

This is one of the ones that I kind of wanted to get graded. But, I mean, the back of it, no, I mean, this thing's just clean.

[Ryan Alford]

Dang.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. 64. Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. I would take that one. Great machine. The greatest hitter of all time.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. Again, travesty's not in the Hall.

[Ryan Alford]

Travesty's not in the hall of Fame. The stupidest. I mean, give me a break.

[Chris Dennard]

I mean, you know, bets on Hard Rock. Everybody can bet on everything now.

[Ryan Alford]

But.

[Chris Dennard]

But he couldn't bet on his own team to win. That's another story. So. So, like, yeah, some of these are really cool. And. And so Reggie Jackson. I'll tell you a cool event. I was just telling a story the other day. So Reggie has a hell of a network, like Next Level. And Jim Crane owns the Astros, and Jim has a golf course here in Florida. And Reggie does the Mr. October foundation event there. And I go down there, you know, each year in the third year, they're like, hey, bring some guests, and you can golf the next day. And blah, blah, blah. Like, okay, so I go down night before, my wife went with me and a couple of my friends, and we're just cutting it up. And I'm sitting at a table with. It was me, Ozzy Smith, Mike Schmidt, and Andre Dawson. We're just sitting at a table, just talking over a cocktail, and they're arguing over who knew about dugout mugs first. Right? So it's like kind of a fun moment. And, you know, Pudge was in the corner, and he came, you know, said, what's up? And so just surrounded by these incredible people. And Andre Dawson's like, well, my nephews keep stealing them from my house. I need to get some more. And Ozzy's like, I knew about these guys before they blew up. And Mike Schmidt' my God, I haven't heard of it. What's. You know, felt like he was having fomo. And, you know, me just being a fly on the wall watching this, I was like, this shit's crazy. But the next morning is what was really crazy. So my wife went off to a spa or something and. And I went there to the. To the event and I had breakfast. So I got there, you know, breakfast, couple hours before the golf, you know, starts. And Emmett Smith was sitting at a table, and I said, hey, Emmett, I'm gonna jump.

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[Grainger Announcer]

This is the story of the one. As head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on. That's why he works behind the scenes, ensuring every light is working, the H VAC is humming, and his facility shines with Grainger's supplies and solutions for every challenge he faces. Plus 24. 7 customer support, his venue never misses a beat. Call quickgranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[Chris Dennard]

With you. He's like, okay, so I sat down with Emmett Smith. And then up walks Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow. And they sit down there, hey, can we join you guys? Well, yeah, certainly. And then Urban grabs the mug. He's like, tim, have you seen these? And Tim's like, yeah, yeah, he's a Florida guy. And. Because, you know, we had had conversations before about it. It. And then next to me sits. And they were across from me. And then next to me sits John Smoltz on the left side. And John's like, I remember these. And he was actually the first guy. And the mug's back here somewhere. John was the first guy to see a dugout mug and sign one.

[Ryan Alford]

Wow.

[Chris Dennard]

Years, like eight years ago or maybe even nine years ago. And then on the other side of me sits down Barry Bonds, and I'm having breakfast with this group of people. And Emmett's telling me how he started to, you know, he said, oh, this big corner corn fed white guy put me to the ground one day. And that's when I started to learn how to duck and bob. And then Smoltz and Bonds are like, getting all fired up about some old rivalry, how one threw it the other one and walked him, and then he hit a home run. They went and got on the team bus and was talking to him afterwards. I was like, dude, this is crazy. But yeah, so like, to me, man, back to business, like, that's currency. Experiential Living Stories Network, my network is extremely valuable to me. And. And this is kind of that thing that allowed my passion for the hobby sports business to all just kind of lock together. Oh, man, it's been. It's been a very special last, you know, four or five years especially.

[Ryan Alford]

No, man. Hey, they say living the dream. I mean, yeah, you're living it, man.

[Chris Dennard]

Trying.

[Ryan Alford]

Making it.

[Chris Dennard]

Trying.

[Ryan Alford]

I'm just sitting there. Imagine sitting at that table and these people, just everybody, these legends is all sitting down and it's like, okay, what's happening here? I mean, even if you've been around it, I mean, I've been around celebrities. I have celebrities on my show. Like, I'm not like starstruck, but it's like, I don't know, sometimes just the. But that type of moment is, you know, how many people can say that's happened?

[Chris Dennard]

Well, and that's just an example. So we were outside. It was. I have a picture of this. Well, the cameraman captured it on accident, but it was me and then Dave Chappelle and then my wife standing in a row just like next to each, like, bumping shoulders next to each other. And we're watching 50 Cent, Neo and Flo Rida all do a performance while Reggie Jackson's up on stage dancing like 15ft away. Kyle Tucker and his wife are in front of me. Barry's behind us, Bonds, Jeremy Pena is there. And I mean, dude, it's, it's. It's wild. We're out on the chip and green and Nick Saban's over there. And then of course, DJ Khalid rolls up in his, you know, Maybach or whatever he's got going on. 50 cents. Pouring people drinks because he owns a champagne line. I'm like, dude, if I could do this, just. No, I'm not greedy. Every 90 days for the rest of my life, dude, I'm in a good place, man. I'm having fun, and I get to bring people with me. Like, this is perfect.

[Ryan Alford]

Are you getting to it? Every 90 days?

[Chris Dennard]

Every six months. There's something really badass going on. And I'll tell you, man. Man, it's. It's cool. It's cool.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. What do you have? What's coming up? What's on the horizon? I know you shared a few products.

[Chris Dennard]

Coming out, different things like that.

[Ryan Alford]

What's the. What's the future hold?

[Chris Dennard]

The future for Dugout's pretty cool. Now that I have full control of it, I'm looking at additional products and additional companies. So there's a couple companies that I'm talking to right now, possibly rolling under the umbrella. So that's fun. You know, kind of diversifying our offering and. And from that standpoint, international distribution. Currently, our products have been sold in seven different countries. But doing it more purposefully, I think Canada makes a lot of sense. A lot of baseball going on up there right next door, so that's certainly part of it. But event wise, we have the Mariano Rivera event. It's right here next to me. Mariano's is coming up. Big poppies is November 13th down in South Florida. And then we have. Yeah, we have an event out in Vegas next week that we're doing because we're, you know, you know, two areas of the business that we really didn't factor at first that are starting to develop. Corporate gifting is one of them. So I think our first, like, real shot of corporate gifting was a casino. Did like, a $50,000 order. Like, what in the hell is that about? And of course, that got my attention, but it's like, okay, so they're getting it for their high rollers, their whales, whatever. This recognition gift, the concept of something fully customizable, logo branded, but still personalized, still MLB licensed and at volume. You're getting these things for under 50 bucks, right? Like, fully decked out. And that's a big play for a lot of companies. So we did. We did Coors and Miller, Bud Fox, Hard Rock, Celsius, a lot of private companies. And then I think we were. So I've been on Fox and Friends live in New York three times. I was on World News Tonight with David Muir twice three weeks Ago, I was on Good Morning America. That's the third time on there. The Today show, twice CBS Morning, a handful of times, Forbes, Entrepreneur magazine. Like it's crazy, right? This kind of publicity has now started getting us in front of companies. And the companies are really resonating with what we're doing because it's not just another tchotchke, right? The promotional product industry, just the. That comes in that this is one of those things where it's like unique and thoughtful and quality and something that people want to put on their desk. So that really started to pop. And then the retail industry. So we got picked up by Hallmark, Dick's and Rally House, Shields and fanatics and groups like that. We didn't do it. My background's E Commerce, right? So I thought it was dtc. That's what I was doing. But really, these, these. I kind of reverse engineered it because in retail and anybody that's tried to get in retail knows, oh, this won't sell. I need buybacks. I want terms. They just wreck you. So in this case, we kind of reverse engineered it to where I already have proof of concept. I have 60,000 reviews. I have hundreds of celebrities and athletes. I have the credibility. I have 3 million followers on social media. You can't tell me that it doesn't work. And they want 30, 60, 90 day terms. I'm like, no, you get to pay up front. How do you like it? Because they can't go around me because I have all the intellectual property locked up. So they can't circumvent me either, right? So it's a really unique way to go into retail. It's a level playing field. Like, I'm not an idiot. I'll give net 30 to Dick Sporting Goods. Okay, sure, sure, of course. Or net 60 if they need it, but whatever. But my point is, is it's not so lopsided because a lot of companies go into retail and it's lopsided and you just get taken. And, and in our situation, we don't have to worry about that, which has been kind of cool. So watching that, that's a show in Vegas we got to go to. It's a souvenir show of some sort. And that, that kind of stuff, we're really trying to develop that area of the business as well. Retail.

[Ryan Alford]

That's smart. Hey, I need to be a sponsor on my business show, brother. I got all the executives.

[Chris Dennard]

You got my cell now, like, hit me up if you got any ideas.

[Ryan Alford]

No, the. I'd rather build on the Relationship. I don't need to sell you always. I just want some mugs. Yes.

[Chris Dennard]

I have to take you to one of these events with me, dude. You'll really. You'll enjoy that.

[Ryan Alford]

Let's do that, man. We're gonna have to like, consummate this friendship, you know, we gotta get, get out there. Drop the website, man. Drop where they could find all the stuff you guys are doing, all those call it actions.

[Chris Dennard]

Yeah. So, I mean, Dugout mugs dot com. You can't miss us. We're the only one out there. Find us on social. I also have a golf company, it's called Big Golf. So I do custom logo golf balls. We turn golf balls into bottle openers and cigar holders and stuff like that. So it's just, I'm trying to bring fun, quality stuff to people in and around sports and like, having fun. Right. It's not like a boring industry that I, you know, so Dugout Mugs, Big Golf. And the only public social media I have is on LinkedIn. And that's obviously more of a business side of things. Everything else I kept private, man. I don't, I don't need that celebrity anymore. I used to, the old me did, but now it's like, man, I want to be famous to the people that matter. My wife, my kids, my friends, my family, you know, that that's what really matters. And then. But I'm also an open book and I don't mind being the face of, of Dugout and Big Golf and other things because, you know, I'm proud. Like you touched on a long earlier in the show where I got really sick. I ruptured my appendix. Not uncommon. But you know what was uncommon is I took a week to get my ass into the hospital and I almost died over it. Had a young girl, a little girl at home, six months old, when all this happened. So it really kind of shook up my psyche a bit. And it's like, okay, I came out the other side of change, man. And the check boxes that I look, that I have to check before I move in any direction are, can I play with my friends? Can I leverage my network? Will my kids be proud of me? Right? Does it take time? I'm. This is my home office. Does it take time away from my family? Right. The reason it took us so long to get this scheduled is because I dropped my kids off and pick them up every day from school. Right? We had to find something that fit this middle of the day thing. So my point is, is like, I feel like I'm living in alignment now. The business side of me is very business. You know, I network side of me is very, very powerful. And I still do deals, take deals, work on that kind of stuff in the business. But yeah, just on, on a topical level. Dugout mugs and big golf and we're doing some cool stuff. And if you ever want to talk shop about collectibles, like, man, I love that stuff. You know, one of my, Let me see. This is, this is one of my more favorite ones too. Right here is Tom Brady 101 plate auto. Oh, yes, that's a cool piece to go. And the others over there, those are PSA 10 Ohtani's, the 2018 Chrome 150. So I love those, you know, again, so like I'm surrounded by collectibles. I love to collect things. I love to talk about it because it's fun, you know what I mean?

[Ryan Alford]

Oh, dude, you are living the dream. And you know, the alignment thing makes a lot of sense. And it's clear this guy's living and preaching. He's preaching it, but he's living it because again, I mean, he couldn't have been more real. Reaching out to me. We hit it off. He sent me a mug. I'm like, I mean, no, you know, I drank a beer in your honor. You didn't even know it. You know, go first.

[Chris Dennard]

Relationships, man. Go first.

[Ryan Alford]

I love it, brother. I really appreciate you for coming on and can't wait to grow this relationship and here to help any way I can and just add value to anything you're doing.

[Chris Dennard]

Well, I love supporting what you're doing too, man. The, the, the, you know, I'm on a lot of podcasts. That's great. But when I saw trading cards and collectibles and I know you do some business stuff, I was like, okay, this is, this is where I'm supposed to be blocking off the schedule because I don't get to share like some of these cool cards and there's a ton of other stuff over there. Right? I don't get to share that stuff enough.

[Ryan Alford]

We'll make it a regular. We'll do like quarterly check ins with Dugout. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Dennard]

Love it.

[Ryan Alford]

Hey guys, you know, to find us collectible show, you can find that on Instagram, YouTube, look up trading cards and collectibles, podcast anywhere and everywhere. We're out there. We're thankful for guys like Chris for making the hobby great, making the collectible space. A place where we can all be proud for our kids to collect, to learn to understand business, to understand. Again, there's a human side to all of these things, and we appreciate you for listening. See you next time.

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 at www.collectibles.show or follow Ryan on Instagram ryanolford. Now get out there and collect yours.

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