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- [00:01]
Grainger Announcer
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- [01:00]
Ryan Alford
If you give a card an 8, it's probably PSA 8, 9, 10. I mean, do you feel like there's a lot of correlation?
- [01:05]
Mike Baker
I'd like to believe that, yes. But there has been serious consideration to how PSA in particular is graded over the last 18 to 24 months. All I can tell you is, is that we grade what we see.
- [01:15]
Ryan Alford
My perfect Josh Allen explosive was only worthy of a 9.5 from NBA.
- [01:22]
Mike Baker
People say we're strict. I. I like to say that we're fair and we can explain. You know, the lines are just different. There's different standards, different interpretations.
- [01:30]
Ryan Alford
As we all know, NBA puts the stickers on the diamond because not all PSA numbers are created equal. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast. Here on the Collector Nation Network, whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, we take you inside the hobby. Here's your host, Ryan Alfer. What's up, guys? Welcome to Collector Nation. Here on our NBA edition, we do these almost monthly. I like saying, are you down with NBA? You know me, it is Mike Baker. What's up, Mike?
- [02:09]
Mike Baker
How's it going, Ryan? Great to be here again.
- [02:11]
Ryan Alford
You never know when the new tune's coming out for Mike Baker, the world's greatest, most professional, coolest authenticated grader. His name is Mike Baker. Yeah. World's greatest grader joining us this time. Mike, where are we? We home? Are we catching our breath before the national or what else is going on?
- [02:35]
Mike Baker
No, I just got back from the Northeast Sports Expo in Boston or Marlboro. Massachusetts. Prior to that. We actually did the first time. We went out a day early. We went to New Hampshire. We went to a company's. A business called Collectible Tags. They're in Manchester, New Hampshire. Really cool office. They promoted it. They're big in Pokemon tcg. And we showed up there for, I think roughly six hours and had a great day, met a lot of great people. And actually, you know, we were busy, so they did a great job on their end to, you know, get people there to submit cards to us. And we were able to provide same day service for kind of a introductory level. We were doing 25 same day. It was kind of a test.
- [03:22]
Ryan Alford
Wow.
- [03:23]
Mike Baker
Kind of see how the NBA day at a card shop would kind of unfold as opposed to the experience at a card show. And what we found, got some good data out of that and looking to kind of. We'll definitely do that again with them at the next run when we're out that way and looking to hook up with shops like, you know, your shop and.
- [03:43]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [03:43]
Mike Baker
And others across nations.
- [03:45]
Ryan Alford
Like, hey, dude, I know somebody that can.
- [03:47]
Mike Baker
Yeah, well, you're. Your shop was the first one. We went to, like, do the grand opening and so. And then this shop was the first. So we'd actually provided the service and so the next time around. So now we've kind of burned in some systems and figured out something that really works to, you know, get people there and create that kind of draw. So how many.
- [04:04]
Ryan Alford
How many cards do we want? Like, if you. If we did, we did something like that, or no matter where you go, I mean, obviously I'm thinking through a selfish lens, like normal Mike, you know how I am. But I tried to get all of Mike Baker's time. The. But in all seriousness, I mean, how many are we looking to get done? Four or six hour. Like, how many, you know, would you want? Is ideal to sort of make it worth your time, worth shop's time, all that stuff.
- [04:34]
Mike Baker
We got a little over 30 orders at the shop last time. Compromising maybe 200 plus cards. So it was perfect. Good, good cadence, you know, we weren't rushing, we weren't slow.
- [04:47]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [04:48]
Mike Baker
So, I mean, a few, you know, I'd say up to 500 cards would probably be for like a six hour kind of deal. Would. Would be well worth it for everybody.
- [04:59]
Ryan Alford
Oh, wow. Okay, that's. That's doable.
- [05:02]
Mike Baker
Yeah.
- [05:02]
Ryan Alford
Okay then. All right, we're gonna sign that one up. We need to get you on the counter, man, and I'll do it. We'll do a minimum order. I, I'll put my own cards in there to meet the total if we have to.
- [05:14]
Mike Baker
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, it was, it was a good, like foundation to kind of set to figure out what, you know, and I'm sure there'll definitely be more data and more learning points, you know, as we, you know, do more to make it a better experience and, you know, create, create ways to, to make the whole thing interactive and whatnot. We've got some cool ideas.
- [05:33]
Ryan Alford
Such a win win. It's such a win win because, I mean, especially in the climate now. I mean, because I'm assuming everybody got their cards back that day, right? I mean.
- [05:41]
Mike Baker
Yes. No one left with them.
- [05:43]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, drop them off. I mean, we could probably get, I know a good marketing guy. We could probably get people here from surrounding counties because, I mean, again, not back to PSA's plight with all the, all the business they have to do. But. Yeah, you know, but being behind that certainly helps that type of event too. Right? I mean, I mean, it's not that you're trying to feed off of that, but it just is reality of the business.
- [06:09]
Mike Baker
Yeah. You know, PSA providing, you know, rock hard grading or, or us, that's all going to be done back at the office. So we have this, you know, kind of this little niche area of, of putting third party, or putting stickers on third party holders. So it's a lot of the stuff can be done or all of it can be done in house. The cool thing was we tied it to a show that was within an hour's distance. So if there was any overlap with us not being able to, you know, to complete, we could have said, hey, come, come, come by the show and pick up your order then.
- [06:40]
Ryan Alford
So, you know, so these were slabs getting stickered, getting diamonds. Okay, that's a good, that's a good. Which is a very valuable service, by the way, because Baker does, as we all know, NBA puts the stickers on the diamond because not all PSA numbers are created equal. Everyone knows it. And this is how you differentiate and know what you really hold. That makes sense, but it does. I was hoping for the Raw, though, to be honest, Mike, but I could understand why that might be more than you could do.
- [07:10]
Mike Baker
So here's the. Add on to it though. We do offer pre grading at shows and we offer pre grading at the shop as well. So you were able to, we were able to grade the cards and I, you know, and the customer could identify what they were working with to then decide whether or not they want to give it to us. Take back and encapsulate, finish the process.
- [07:26]
Ryan Alford
What about authentication? Could you provide that service?
- [07:30]
Mike Baker
Authentication of just cards? Yeah, like yeah, we don't, we don't do authentication of autographs. No, we don't do authentication of autographs. We don't do authentication of packs. So all we're going to provide really is the authentication for a rock hard, rock hard sports, tcg, non sport, that kind of thing.
- [07:47]
Ryan Alford
I've been spending time on Whatnot lately and what I love is that it does not feel like normal. Online shopping feels live, it feels personal and it's community driven. You're watching real sellers talking with people in the chat, seeing products in real time and finding deals you probably would not find just scrolling a regular marketplace. And as someone who spent a lot of time around collectibles, cards and entrepreneurs building businesses, I can tell you this is where selling is going. Whatnot is the largest live shopping marketplace in the country with thousands of sellers across categories like fashion, beauty, electronics, luxury, sports cards and more. The real difference is connection. You're not just posting a product and hoping someone finds it. You are showing up live. You're building trust, creating repeat customers and turning what you love into real income. Buyers on whatnot are engaged, they stick around and they come back. I use whatnot and I think you should too. Search whatnot W h a t n o t in the app store. Download and you can start selling right away. When we opened the card shop, one of the biggest things we had to figure out was how to make the buying process easy. Because in a business like this, people are not always shopping the same way. Some customers are coming into the store, some are going to see a product online, some are watching what we post, and some are ready to buy the second they see something they want. This is why we use Shopify for our storefront. For us, Shopify helps keep the business moving. Whether someone is checking out online, buying sealed product cards, merch, or coming back to grab something they saw from the shop, the process feels simple and professional. And when a customer is ready to pay, that checkout experience matters. You do not want a clunky system getting in the way of the sale. That's called friction. And I'll be honest, hearing that Shopify, when an order comes through, still feels good. It is that reminder that the business is working even when you're busy running everything else. This is why Shopify does so well. It gives you the tools to start, sell and grow so you can spend less time fighting the setup and more time actually building the business. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So get out there and make it one. Start your free trial at shopify.com collectornation Start your free trial at shopify dot com collectornation@shopify.com collectornation. But that's pretty valuable because there's a lot of stuff that's vintage where at the very least, just to know that it's real in a trade.
- [10:34]
Mike Baker
Well, I mean, right now you could submit a card to any of the services and everyone's so backed up. At least you get it real time. You get a sense of what you have to then make a decision about what you want to do.
- [10:45]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, yeah.
- [10:46]
Mike Baker
Technically it doesn't have to go into an MBA holder. I mean, that's what. That's our preference. But if. If you've got a pre grade and it was an eight, let's say, and you're like, oh, this card and an 8 at PSA is going to be worth X. Let's see if I get an 8 from them. And then you can make a, you know, business decision whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze.
- [11:04]
Ryan Alford
Exactly. I mean, I hate to say, Mike, but, you know, as you build the brand that I know you will, and I'm gonna help. Like, I do. I'm gonna keep helping because I know how great of a job you do. I mean, the world's greatest grader has to have the world's, like, greatest grading company. So the. But. But. No, you are man. And. And so. But the amount of business, like, on, like, just adjacent to the players, like, find. And I love that you're finding these niches that. Where you're adding value to the community, adding value to things. And it's adjacent to. Okay, fine. PSA is the lead dog. Fine. How can I add value to what they're doing in and around it? That's. It's brilliant and it helps.
- [11:46]
Mike Baker
Yeah, that's. That's exactly the. That's. That's been our core and.
- [11:51]
Ryan Alford
Yeah.
- [11:51]
Mike Baker
Now pivoting from the core and then introducing, you know, we've had the NBA graded product online since January 25th. You know, incrementally going to all these shows and, you know, introducing that product, showing what it looks like they can hold it, knowing that we are a viable option or, you know, we're inherited, we're, you know, in major auctions whatnot. So we're listed on VCP card ladder. So a lot of the boxes Check for a service. Technically, that would have taken a lot longer to get those kind of credentials, and we were able to get those in under 18 months, which. That's a feather in the cap.
- [12:28]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, man, It's. It is. Talking with Mike Baker. Mike Baker authenticated. I want to get into. We don't have time. Everybody's busy. We're right around the holidays. So we're not going to do a full official 301 add on. We'll. We'll do 301 next month, but it'll just be like 2.5 on a couple things before we get to that. Mike, let's preview because I don't know if we'll have you on again before the National. Is this. Am I saying that right? This is probably the last time we have Mike before the National, Most likely. I think that's probably the way the dates work, and it's coming up quite quick. So, Mike, maybe preview the national. What NBA? I know we've talked about it before, but let's set the table for everyone of what you guys are gonna be doing there.
- [13:12]
Mike Baker
We're gonna be doing what we have. We're gonna be at a corporate booth. We've got a 20 by 20 space. We've designed it to make it look like a museum. So it'll be a big square. All the. There'll be, I think, six or seven display cases showing our different products and services, highlighting our new products. We. I think I mentioned the last time I was on. We have a T3 holder which will hold a T3 and 5x7 star Jordan type cards. All kinds of little knickknacks that'll fit within the. The confines of that size. We have the tall boy holder which will, you know, it's a big deal. Get into tickets and, you know, the tall boy card sizes. We have a foil pack, so we'll be doing Pokemon packs and those types of packs coming online soon. Um, so all that'll be, you know, shown there. We. This is the first time that we'll actually be doing all the processing in a private area at the National. They set us up with a big office, big kind of conference area within the national space. So we'll have runners that are taking the submissions at our booth, and then the process will be done, you know, kind of in that area. So a lot of the, you know, shaking hands and kissing babies type thing will happen at the booth and it won't be interrupted by processes and, you know, craziness and whatnot. So kind of seen that'll be fun to see how that kind of works out. And then, you know, myself and my right hand, Nick Dolezal will be coming in Saturday prior to the national. And we're actually, we have appointments Sunday and Monday taking cards and getting them processed to kind of, you know, release the pressure valve off of kind of the onslaught that we're expecting based on the emails and calls and customer interactions we've had with the amount of volume that we'll be getting. So it was kind of prudent to think about going out there a little earlier, you know, maybe taking some of those and a lot of these guys too, if they can, you know, figure out a way to get their stuff done without the crowd, you know, that's, it's advantageous for everybody.
- [15:09]
Ryan Alford
So are you doing raw grading at the show?
- [15:12]
Mike Baker
Yeah, we'll be doing raw card grading at the show. Again, we're not doing encapsulation originally we were talking about doing that and then looking at the landscape and what the core business has been right now, which is the, the sticker business. It's, it's, it's just, it's on the tracks. And so we'd be doing 10, 10 of everything, 100 of nothing if we try to do everything. So, yeah, made a business decision to pull back on the actual on site encapsulation and just stick with on site card grading. And then again, people can see what they have and they can make a business choice as whether or not they want to give it to us to take back and or maybe even submit it to another grading service that is providing on site there. So how, you know, whatever you want to do.
- [15:53]
Ryan Alford
Smart, smart Mike, you don't have to, you know, you don't have to slay the giant. You can just. No, you know, you can have lunch with them, you know, like, be a service to all. Look, it's a tremendous service to have their lead and the world's greatest grader and his team looking at it before it goes to where he ran the department for quite a bit and made it what they are today. The, I mean, what a service, Mike.
- [16:21]
Grainger Announcer
So good.
- [16:22]
Mike Baker
Yes, I will say in my younger days I was very competitive and still am competitive, but more understanding of that. I was, you know, want everything to be PSA this and PSA that. Now it's like the, the landscape almost dictates kind of a food court experience where you can go to a place and decide, hey, what, what do you feel like today? Or, you know, what makes the most
- [16:40]
Ryan Alford
sense and have you done Any comparison, Mike? I mean, I know you guys are adding the great, you know, adding the stickers to, to, to things that are, you know, higher than a nine. You know, no, in between grades, which you knew kind of become the in between grade for PSA in a lot of ways. Have you done a comparison of, you know, just random, like 8. You, you graded all these cards 8. And how many became PSA? Eights and tens. 9. Tens. Do you have any kind of like rough percentages of those things?
- [17:10]
Grainger Announcer
I.
- [17:10]
Mike Baker
No, not on, not on cards that, you know, I know a lot of people have been very successful. You know, the card speaks for the card. I mean, you know, great cards have always sold from, for a little bit more than their counterparts. Same grade. It's just we're databasing it and we're actually grading it. Our service is a crossover service. You know, when we put a card, we put a sticker on a card, it absolutely means that is the pathway to what NBA standards would agree to do as well. So we're just, you know, I mean, we talk all the time about what's happened over the last 35 years and the amount. I just had a conversation at the show. You know, there's over 200 million units of plastic out there over a 35 year period. You know, 15 years of that, 14 years of that was without the half grade at PSA. And you've had all the gyrations of up and down over that time period. You know, I think there's even, you know, there has been serious consideration to how PSA in particular has graded over the last 18 to 24 months and how the new cert means that something different than what the old certs mean. So there's all this and the market kind of dictates what that means or what it doesn't mean. But all I can tell you is, is that we grade what we see and you know, if the card is there, we're going to put a sticker on it and we hope someday that card will get cracked out and come into an NBA home.
- [18:23]
Ryan Alford
Yep. Do you feel pretty good about. If you give a card an 8, it's probably PSA 8, 9, 10. I mean, do you feel like there's a lot of correlation?
- [18:31]
Mike Baker
I'd like to believe that, yes. But ultimately we're all, we're all our own company and PSA is going to conduct themselves the way they, they do. I know that, you know, being more boutique like we are is easier to manage what we have as opposed to 2 million cards. A month. We don't have a 24. You know, we're not working 24.
- [18:52]
Ryan Alford
Y' all might be more strict. You know, I think I, I, you
- [18:56]
Mike Baker
know, people say, you know, we're strict. I like to say that we're fair and we can explain. You know, I think I don't. The market, the market, the grading standard over 35 years, you know, people are going to hold, you know, what happened in 2010 or 2000 or 1995. You know, the lines are just different. There's different standards, different interpretations of that standard. You know, doing 2 million cars a month or that kind of volume, you know, maybe you're not able to grab the most experienced guy so that most, that less experienced guy is more conservative. So that could be construed as being strict. So I don't know. I guess eyes in the beholder to how much business you're doing with all the services and what you're, what you can gravitate towards, you know, towards that info.
- [19:45]
Ryan Alford
I put in front of you. This is why you need to be watching my perfect Josh Allen that got a 9.5 from NBA. You hear all the good things I say about Mike. I just want to prove that clearly I'm not paid to say so because my perfect Josh Allen explosive was only worthy of a 9.5 from NBA. The point being not to bust Mike's balls and more to prove that you can't buy him off. And he's. There was a tiny flaw that was, you know, I'd hate him to grade my, my seven year old, you know, when he was in grade school because, man, he would have flunked him. But no hard feelings, Mike, but I just wanted to put this here for our crowd to see how objective you are.
- [20:30]
Mike Baker
Well, I will say I. Every card starts at a black diamond and it works its way down, you know, so. And if it can stay as high as it can, I wanted to, you know, for sure.
- [20:42]
Ryan Alford
But this is proof of the integrity, Mike, is all I'm saying. As sad as it makes me, because I know how perfect Josh is and this card is to me, the reality was it didn't make the cut, but it is. Yeah. A beautiful card and a beautiful encasing with the gold and the heat map makes me cry. But let's not go there.
- [21:04]
Mike Baker
I was just gonna say that it's the heat map that, you know, because you and I can look at the area where the heat maps highlight.
- [21:10]
Ryan Alford
I did, Mike. That's why it made me cry, because it made me realize you were just being honest.
- [21:15]
Mike Baker
Well, you know, I mean, the transparency with the heat map and then the open dialogue, it's kind of hard to get away from what you. You and I can both agree that's there. Now, to what degree it's. There is probably more the debate, you know.
- [21:27]
Ryan Alford
Yeah, maybe. But I'd rather you be objective to prove that my. All the good things I say are because they're real and not because real quick, I do want to get people. All right, you mentioned packs. I know. We got, like, two minutes. We do have a couple packs. Tell me. Let's do a really quick. How do we grade a pack? I've got a Pokemon pack here. How does a pack get graded versus a card? Maybe we'll close out with a little info on that.
- [21:57]
Mike Baker
Yeah. I will say this. The pack standards, especially for foils and whatnot, we haven't fully mapped yet. So to kind of put the cart in front of the horse, so to speak on this, I probably defer to a later date, or I could actually be more definitive in terms, you know, like.
- [22:17]
Ryan Alford
But you're saying maybe just how you're thinking about setting the standards for how you'll grade them loosely.
- [22:21]
Mike Baker
It's going to be how the artwork sits. I mean, clearly, we're not grading what the cards look like. They're encased inside a foil pack, so that's out. So really, it just comes. Is the pack damage? Does it have tears? Are they crimped? You know, you know, does it look like some of the artwork has been, you know, stained or muddied? And it's, you know, transfer from manufacturer to box to case. And, you know, how did it all kind of go back and forth with that? So how much does the centering matter?
- [22:48]
Ryan Alford
Like, I'm noticing immediately that, you know, a lot of space over here and not very much over here.
- [22:55]
Mike Baker
Yes. Essentially, we're talking about, you know, like, artwork like that of a comic book, you know, a ticket, like a flat item where, you know, it's not something that you can just see definitively. Definitively. How much does a corner hit on the upper right of the pack? Do people want a perfect pack? And I think that's where some of the packs are folded when they get, you know, you know, boxed up. So it's like that's part of how the manufacturer did it. So a lot of those nuances we're kind of debating right now, actually. So probably by the national, we'll have more of a framework of what the standard will kind of, like, look like.
- [23:30]
Ryan Alford
Yep.
- [23:31]
Mike Baker
But loosely I can say yes, the centering will matter in the overall evaluation of the grade. So.
- [23:36]
Ryan Alford
Okay, cool. So a few little things people can look at if they start to collect packs with the NBA standard of pack rating still to come. And you'll hear about it here first. Mike, I know you got to go last question. I mean, yeah, you know much about these Bo Jackson. You see many of these. The Bo Jackson cards. No, the Battle Arena.
- [23:56]
Mike Baker
I know what's, what's going on and whatnot. I know there are companies that grade boxes. You know, I'm sure at some point if the business case is there, we'll examine that area as well. I know boxes, you know, have especially display boxes. People love that stuff and everyone just really wants to preserve the condition. It doesn't get a bunch of dust and if it drops, it's not going to further damage it. So having a, a cool container of some sort to house it would be kind of cool.
- [24:22]
Ryan Alford
Well, I meant like his this Battle arena cards that Bo. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know much about it. Yeah. Okay. Because it's like the hottest thing, it's like the hardest thing to get. Like.
- [24:32]
Mike Baker
Yeah, no, it's.
- [24:32]
Ryan Alford
I wondered if there's probably just a matter of time or if they probably start showing up on your doorstep I would think but I, I.
- [24:38]
Mike Baker
Hey, if it's, if it's hot enough where the single start coming just like Pokemon started off as a game Magic the gathering. All those cards individually are, are fairly valuable these days. So you know, leave it to our hobby to have Bo come up with an idea like this, have it get marketed because it's been going on for quite a while and it finally found its traction and you know, here we sit.
- [24:57]
Ryan Alford
So yeah, it's very cool, Mike. Really appreciate your time as always and appreciate our friendship and still have some ideas for business. I want to get you down here again to do on site grading like you mentioned or stickering and or authentication. We'll figure out those plans. And of course MBA diamonds, website, social details, anything like that. Mike, any new details?
- [25:22]
Mike Baker
Both of them are the same grading mba, both on Instagram, both on our website. So you know, kind of make it easy like I said earlier where our pivot, our core, our flagship is the sticker but it's led. We call it the crossover diamond because that sticker leads to it being able or a candidate for not even a candidate if it has it is going so going into NBA graded holder. So we're looking forward to staffing up. We're scaling as I mentioned earlier, so things are kind of in a in a growth spot. It's been fun so hopefully the fun continues.
- [25:54]
Ryan Alford
You can also find mike@wgg.com World's greatest grader. I'm kidding. We just spun that one up. Mike, we have it at the big picture of you stepping on all the other grading company. I'm just kidding. He's Mike. You could tell. He's he's smart, he's playing it. He's adding value where people already are because he is the wg. Mike. Appreciate your time brother. We'll see you at the National.
- [26:20]
Mike Baker
Thanks so much Ryan. Have a great day.
- [26:22]
Ryan Alford
The collectornation.com you'll find links to Mike's stuff. The WG that he is. You know I kid, but you know it's. You know it's the truth by this Josh Allen sitting in front of you. Because the heat map never lies. And neither do we. We'll see you next time on Collector Nation. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us@collectornation.com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford now get out there and collect yours.
- [27:00]
Grainger Announcer
Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, Filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail. Filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.