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- [00:00]
A
You know, it's funny because we've kind of been sitting on the live tech for a while and it just hasn't gone to the top of our list. And once we started dabbling with it, you know, I would, I would be on a couple hours a week personally from my office, just selling a few things. And it was very clear early on, like, okay, there's definitely something here.
- [00:15]
B
I like to talk about the business out of these things too. Like, it's like the logistics, like, they've got to be impressive to keep up with. 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 Alford. The collectible space has changed a lot, especially when it comes to how people buy and sell items. Auction platforms have opened things up, making collecting more accessible through live selling and faster paced formats. Jared Kavli, the president and founder of Pristine Auction, has been right in the middle of that evolution. Jared, welcome to Collector Nation. What's up, man?
- [01:05]
A
How you doing, man? Good to see you, Ryan. Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.
- [01:08]
B
Hey, good to see you. I, you know, I don't use the. I like the word, but I was thinking, actually I was doing my, my research and getting to know Pristine Auctions, and I go, pristine's a nice word. You know, like, who wouldn't want to be pristine? I hope that's what they say. That's what Bella says about me when I'm not around. He's pret.
- [01:27]
A
Pristine.
- [01:29]
B
It's a great word.
- [01:31]
A
Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, it's funny, you make me kind of remember when the name was born. I was actually at lunch with a friend and we were just going through. And I know you're a marketing guy, so you kind of know how some of this works, but you kind of just got to look at like, okay, it's collectibles. We want to be in collectibles. What are some words that work? And then you got to check for the URLs, you know, see if they're even available. And you kind of go through that game and pristine is what we landed on that was available. And so we just kind of rolled
- [01:55]
B
with it in a way. And Jared is the president, founder of Pristine Auctions. We're going to talk about auctions. You know, it's, it sounds better than mint, you know, so, like, when you think about trading cards specifically, you know, mint, near mint being, you know, perfect, pretty much pristine.
- [02:15]
A
A lot of free advertising from those grading companies, which is fantastic.
- [02:18]
B
Yeah, right. It's pristine rated, you know. Right. Do we have the. Do we have a trademark, I would assume, on Pristine Auction? I guess we do.
- [02:26]
A
Yeah, we do.
- [02:27]
B
Yeah. So you got to keep that IP intact.
- [02:31]
A
Absolutely.
- [02:32]
B
You know, I've been on ebay. I've got one of the oldest accounts on eBay. 1999 or something like that. I don't know. It's got to be up there for at least my peers. I'm sure there was before, but that was like my first experience, like online auction. And. And then my grandfather took me when I was really young to a bunch of like, live auctions. You talk about, like an experience thinking about through like, you know, 1 2, 1 2, 1. I was like, what the hell is going on? So, like, the history of the word auction has like a unique place for me in like these two outer places. And then Pristine sits here in this wonderful place doing collectibles in the middle and. But why auctions for you? Where did all this originate?
- [03:21]
A
Well, I mean, really just born out of a collector myself and dabbling with all the other auctions out there. And then as an entrepreneur, one day just decided, hey, what if we. What if we give it a shot on our own? It's kind of a pipe dream at the time. So wife and I just sat down and we're like, let's give it a shot. You know, I was selling and buying from all the other auctions kind of like some things and didn't from some of them. And so, yeah, we just started rolling. That was 2010. We gave it a shot. I mean, sweet 16, baby. Business plan.
- [03:51]
B
Sweet 16. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 16 years later.
- [03:55]
A
Crazy to think, man, it feels like. Feels like it was yesterday, you know, that we were dreaming up the idea. But, you know, and then it's obviously evolved along the way. Kind of started as. As a pipe dream and we just kind of like everybody else. You're like, everyone's doing a monthly auction. We might as well do that. But you know, Ryan, I know you're a marketing guy. You got to kind of differentiate yourself. Right? So it was really when now do you know, have you heard of this website called Woot? I think it still exists. This is always part of the story here. Whooped woot. W o o t. So their whole idea was.
- [04:23]
B
I know exactly what woot is. I was a woot daily, or I got it on daily for the daily sale of the day. Right.
- [04:30]
A
My dad obsessed with woot. He is a more crap on that
- [04:33]
B
than I ever needed.
- [04:35]
A
They literally sold sometimes you remember when they sold crap in a bag, they might still do this. Like you have no idea what it is. It's just a deal. They're clearing out.
- [04:43]
B
Dude, we love deals.
- [04:45]
A
So based off of that, I was inspired to create the Daily Auction. So we created the Daily Auction pretty early into our kind of a business experience here. And I think that's what really was starting to differentiate ourselves. You know what I always say we're. This is the drive thru mentality. As a collector, I hated waiting a month for an auction to end. And so I was like, people don't want to do that. They bid at the end anyways. Let's just do it daily. They got to come back every day, they got to check out the website, Everything's new. And so, you know, kind of stole that sort of idea from Woot. I mean now that it's revolutionary, right? We just want people back every day. So that's kind of evolved even further from there.
- [05:19]
B
I love that business model. I mean I man, this you, you really sent me back there, Jared. You got me. Like, I mean I'm kind of nostalgia, like think through that way. Like, like places, things where I was like I started my ad agency Crickets. This was pretty early. This is like 2003, 4, 5, wasn't it somewhere in there like in that time period 2004 to 2008. Because I remember being. I worked right out of School in 2001 for an ad agency and ended up moving to Manhattan and opened the New York office in 2008. But I have this memory though of ordering woot before I went to New York which means it had to have happened before 2008.
- [06:01]
A
Yeah, I don't. I keep bringing this up and I haven't been to the website for years, you know, since my dad was shopping when I was a kid. So I'm sure they still exist. It's probably a lot different now. Probably more evolved because at one point it was like one item one day, you know, you know how that works. And then it's like, oh, this works really well. We've got a kind of like our daily auction was one item for a day and that happened for like a day and then it exploded from there. So I'm sure they've done this.
- [06:23]
B
There was a wine store. So this is going to come full circle. That is what actually did the wine of the day. They had a similar thing. It was kind of like a daily wine thing. WT DV W T S and it's actually how I met Gary Vee because he used to be a wine guy. And this is, this is. Man, this is going way back. But yeah, I'm aging myself a little bit. When you're running a business day to day, it's not the big ideas that slow you down. It's all the little things. Inventory, customer messages, shipping orders, keeping your site updated. It adds up fast. At Collector Station, we use Shopify for all of it, literally every day. It runs our inventory, helps us manage customers, handles our online store, and even makes shipping way easier. Instead of bouncing between different platforms, everything's just in one place, which honestly saves us a ton of time. And that's the part people don't always see. It's not just about building a website. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses and 10% of all E commerce in the United States. And it's built to handle everything as you grow. We've used it to keep things organized in store and online, run email campaigns, and stay on top of business without things slipping through the cracks, it just makes operating smoother. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com collectornation. Go to shopify.com collectornation that's shopify.com collector nation. Hey, guys, the NBA playoffs are where you really start to lock in. Rotations, tighten up. Stars are playing big minutes and you know exactly who the ball's going to. That's why I've been on underdog during these games. It's simple. You just pick whether players are going to go higher or lower on their stats. Like just the other night, I was watching the Celtics and I had Jayson Tatum going higher on points. He's just come back from injury looking better. He's getting more and more volume every game. I just thought he was going to do it. And the joker, he's always getting triple doubles. I had him going higher on rebounds because everything's running through him in that series. And you look at something like the Lakers series, you've got two major players out, LeBron's taking over. I had LeBron going higher on points and assists. It just made sense. Him in the playoffs, two other teammates out, LeBron is going to take over. Look, it just takes a few minutes to build an entry and it makes you watch the game differently. You're locked into every possession and if you get your picks right, you, you can win up to 5,000 times your entry. Download the app today and use promo code collector to score $50 in bonus entries. When you play your first $5, that's promo code Collector. Underdog make picks win money must be 18 +, 19 in Alabama, Nebraska, 19 in Colorado for some games, 21 in Arizona, Massachusetts and Virginia and present in a state where underdog fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-MY-RESET or 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.ncpgambling.org Arizona 1-800-Next Step 1-800-639-8783 or text Next Step to 533-42 New York. Call the 24.7Hope line at 1-877-8-HOPE, N.Y. that's H O P E N Y. Or text H O P E N Y 467369. That's okay. Yeah, it's man, but you were on to something and you still are with the daily auctions thing. I think the FOMO factor, the not waiting because that is one of the biggest things with especially these big auctions and what I'm sure you guys are doing them the other auction house like that. Good grief. Like I my attention span and interest, you know, it's the exact opposite of the impulse buy.
- [10:37]
A
Right, right, right.
- [10:38]
B
You're really thinking about it. You get 30 days to think about if you like that bid you put in.
- [10:43]
A
Yeah. And it's even evolved further because now it's, you know, we even started a 10 minute auction so it's not even, not every day but it's like on a schedule every 10 minutes and then obviously now we're now in the live auction game and that's 10 second auctions. So. Yeah, talk about drive thru mentality. It's really.
- [10:58]
B
You get it right now.
- [11:01]
A
Yeah. So that's, that's a ton of fun.
- [11:03]
B
What'd you collect growing up? You had to have collected stuff.
- [11:06]
A
Yeah. Well, you know, so my story is similar to a lot in my age bracket that are going to be listening here. But you know, I, I heard a story as a kid about a family member who found some cars in the attic and found out they were worth a ton of money. And I was like got to buy cards. That sounds amazing. 80s 90s is, is when I jumped in like a lot of others, same exact story. And so man, I would spend so every Sunday after church we'd go to a pizza place, I'd get my allowance, I'd run over the card shop across the, across across the street, spend it all, get absolutely nothing. And I kind of got sick of that routine. And so I had all my cards. I had very little to show for it. And I just wasn't good at picking the packs, that's for sure. And some of those guys out there. I see the videos y' all are pulling the good cards. Keep doing it. I wasn't one of those guys. And so I, I, I learned because here in Phoenix we have spring training. And so I had all these cards, and I learned that I could ride my bike up to spring training complexes and have them signed, and now I have some value there. So I was like, that's where I get my money back. So I just, I just did that for years and just collected autographs as a hobby. Loved that game. And that really transitioned into this over time.
- [12:14]
B
Yeah, the I, I was more like just a baseball. 80s baseball kid that, you know, collecting and then put it on the shelf. Then I got kids that pulled me back into it or, you know, got into it themselves.
- [12:27]
A
But I feel like it's coming back, though. The 90s inserts are, like, all the rage right now. I feel like we all want them back. The stuff we never could pull. You know, you see it on the market now, and I feel like it's gaining some steam. I love it.
- [12:38]
B
Yeah. Yeah. You can never get them. I didn't get any of those. I got none of those. I guess I'm pretty heat. Good heat now. I don't know. Gotten luckier. Or maybe they're just more in the packs, I don't know. With the boys. Had a hot hand here recently, but we'll see. You never know. It's.
- [12:51]
A
Yeah, don't press it too far, but keep, Keep it going while you can.
- [12:55]
B
You gotta enjoy the, Literally, the. I don't know, it's entertainment Pack. Ripping is Entertainment 100. Collecting, buying it all. That's sort of investing. Sort of. Or it's, it's collecting its purest sense. And entertainment is ripping packs.
- [13:12]
A
You know, that's always what I say. Everyone always asks, how'd you do? I'm like, I had a good time.
- [13:16]
B
Yeah, it's fun. Fun in a pack.
- [13:20]
A
Exactly.
- [13:21]
B
Talk to me. What was the evolution? What's the. I mean, 16 years, you know, like, what have we learned? What have we done? What. What stands out as oh, shit moments. Like, in a good way.
- [13:36]
A
It's funny, I go back to kind of going back to the beginning again. We paid some guys out of Canada $2,000 to build our website, and it was absolutely atrocious. So the goal was I and Again, the business plan was miserable. Like, it's only a miracle that it actually worked. You know, hard work. We bootstrapped it. We had. We took on zero debt. My wife and I would sit on the couch, and what we actually did as a marketer, again, you'll maybe appreciate this, is we would go on Craigslist all night long, every city. We could try to beat the algorithm that Craigslist used to try to just boot them off if they don't think it's a valid ad. And we would be in every city posting things that are in our auction currently that are about to end. And we would spend all night doing that. I don't even think you can do that today. I'm sure that their. Their AI and stuff has gotten way too good to allow that to happen. But, man, that kind of. That kind of started our business. And then I. You know, we had accumulated a bunch of email addresses and stuff just over the time of selling. And so, you know, I really started the business to sell my own stuff because I would get here in Phoenix, I see the same guys all the time getting autographs. And so I just accumulated a huge collection. So I started selling it off early on. And then, you know, thankfully, pretty early on in the process, we picked up some really good consigners, which was always the plan. That was supposed to be the business model, but I didn't have a real good plan on how to accomplish that. But we picked up some really good consigners early, took a really good care of them, and it really just evolved and really grew from there. And then, you know, having a great team around me innovating with ideas such as the daily option, the tenement auction. Now getting a live auction game, just always trying to be a step ahead is really what's. What's accounted for a lot of the growth.
- [15:08]
B
What's the sweet spot for you guys? Jared, you know, like, you have to get into financials, but I'm always curious, you know, like, what makes up the pie, you know, of Pristine? Like, there's probably subsegments and groups and things. Like, what are the. What are the levers for Pristine?
- [15:26]
A
Well, yeah, I mean, I don't have the numbers with me here, but you obviously have different. A lot of different auction formats. But here's what's wild. This is kind of the wave of the future, but already. So our live auction has only been a thing for about a year, and it's already about a third of our business. That fast?
- [15:42]
B
Yeah.
- [15:43]
A
So it is, you know, We've seen a lot of growth in that segment and it's obviously, you know, where the attention is these days. You're seeing it all over the place and it's a ton of fun. You know, it's, it's the entertainment value and the impulse and the drive through mentality all in one place. And you know, I host a lot of the shows. I have a ton of fun with it. Really do enjoy that part of it. But yeah, that's, that's what's wild. That's where my mind goes when you ask that question.
- [16:07]
B
Especially I mean, a year, less than a year in a third of the business. That's, that's the number you can't ignore. It follows the trends that are happening. Talk to our audience and me, you know, I've, I've seen most of it in my research and before the show. But let's. For the audience out there, what is the pristine live auction? Exactly.
- [16:29]
A
Yeah. So we run it, man, almost all day long. It starts at 11 o' clock here, which would be what, 1 o' clock Eastern. And we run it all the way till midnight here, which is 3am Eastern. And we're just, we're slinging cards all day long. Sports, primarily sports cards. We do a memorabilia show periodically. Like on Wednesdays we do a Pokemon show. We're about to do a live rip show. But you come on, we start everything at a buck, there's never a reserve price. And we do like massive stuff. I mean, I've got. Here, I'll show you one. Just because you asked, we've got this bad boy going.
- [16:58]
B
Hello.
- [16:59]
A
Yeah, that's like a, that should be a six figure card. We're going to put that at a dollar in live auctions. What's that?
- [17:07]
B
How long is that one running?
- [17:09]
A
It'll be 60 seconds.
- [17:10]
B
60 seconds.
- [17:12]
A
60 seconds.
- [17:12]
B
How do you. All right, wish us luck.
- [17:14]
A
It could be a really good day, a really bad day for us.
- [17:16]
B
But I was about to say, okay,
- [17:20]
A
number one, we add extensions, but it's still pretty quick. It's like 10 second extensions. So under 10 seconds, if there's a bit of bumps to 10, you know, so it'll go a little longer than
- [17:28]
B
the actual minute still.
- [17:30]
A
But we also sometimes do sudden death on stuff where there's no extensions on some real high value stuff. So it's, it's, it's fun. I mean, even if you're not buying or bidding, just to be there and kind of watch that action is a ton of fun.
- [17:41]
B
How did you grow audience you know, there's a, there's there, you know, there's kind of leaders in the space or people that were out there. As for others, you've got whatnot, ebay, all these others. And now Pristine is carving out their niche. It's become 30. You're obviously rocking and rolling with it. How did you guys build audience for that to where you feel comfortable running that card for 60, you know, how many people are we need to be in the show? I got so many questions.
- [18:10]
A
Yeah, yeah, no, we've built up to it. And really, in a lot of ways, we're kind of a fly on the wall compared to some of those other names. Right now. We're building strong. I think we got a really good foundation for it, you know, a little bit different. We're the host, we're consignment based, where some of the others, you're kind of having to do it yourself. So I think that puts us in a really good position there. But yeah, I mean, we, you know, of course we started with a really good customer base, but it's something new to teach them. You know, I remember my first time going and participating in live auction as a very seasoned collector and a seasoned, really auction goer. I was kind of intimidated and I thought, this is. I don't know, I don't know if I want to do this. But once I jumped in, man, I was hooked. Like, I absolutely love it. I'm a buyer there all the time. I enjoy the action, the fun, the community. So, you know, it's just a natural transition for us. Our customers have really taken onto it and really, really seem to enjoy it. And I also like to like, we've always been more of a personable brand. I think we're more approachable than some others.
- [19:01]
B
Yeah.
- [19:02]
A
And I think that's allows us to really connect. You know, I want to do it forever and I want to, you know, I want to sit with my customers and sling some cards and banter back and forth, and it's just a really good way to connect as well. You can't really do with other platforms, so.
- [19:15]
B
No, those things just make a difference. Stands out to me as definitely the approachable auction like and like the every, like high quality. Hey, you got Pristine in the name brand is great, but it definitely feels like it's more approachable.
- [19:34]
A
Yeah. And I think, I think you see that just with what you see on our website, it's really for everybody. You know, we're not only selling premium stuff, we have it. And that segment is Growing for us. But you know, we've really figured out over the years the volume game and getting everybody involved. So whatever the budget. And even on our live shows, you know, I showed you obviously a six figure card. But you know, that same show, we sell that six figure card, we're going to sell $20 cards. So there's really is something for everybody. And you know, it's always been. Been what we've done, you know.
- [20:05]
B
How do you source your cards?
- [20:08]
A
Probably 90% of our entire business is consignment based.
- [20:11]
B
Oh, so everything the rest of those live auctions is mainly consignment.
- [20:15]
A
Yeah. Even the live auctions? Yeah, yeah. Just about everything we do is,
- [20:20]
B
hey, this thing's, this baby's running. You're going to get what you sign off. You're going to get what you're going
- [20:25]
A
to get, like for, for better, for worse. And here's the other thing too. So, so I know, you know, you're very familiar of course with, with the comp game. Well, yeah, but some of these other live auctions, they're, they're card number one, card number two, and they don't become comps on the market. Well, ours is different. For better or for worse, it says exactly what the card is and it, you know, we're, our data goes to all the comp sites. So over or underperforming, which always happens in a live auction. That's the fun of it. Right. But those do become live comps, which is very different than some of the others.
- [20:54]
B
That is an interesting thing we're doing. What may. Yeah, what may. Well, that's interesting. I didn't realize that what, what funneled
- [21:00]
A
that decision, you know, it's just been our pro. It just, the live auction just worked through our same process. So anytime we receive product, we list it. And so it's listed. It's a full listing with full pictures. And so, you know, naturally our live auction became the same thing where we scan the item in and we sell it and so the listing is created. Yeah.
- [21:22]
B
Interesting. How do you choose? I guess you've got, I mean, how many cards are you taking in on consignment? What's that fun?
- [21:29]
A
I mean. Yeah, I mean we get, we get thousands of packages a day. We're probably in our live auction, we're selling anywhere from probably 1000 to 1500 cards every single day. That's just a live auction. And we have the daily, the 10 minute. Yeah, thousands.
- [21:46]
B
All right, what percent are selling at comp like that day's comp. How are we falling?
- [21:53]
A
That is an excellent question. I will say in a live auction environment, you've seen it with others. For the most part, cards are going to meet or exceed comps generally. I mean the market as a whole is kind of doing that no matter where you're buying, right? Yeah, everything's trending up.
- [22:07]
B
Yep.
- [22:08]
A
But you know, when you get hundreds of people in the room looking at one card and you have that attention on one single card, it's just naturally going to happen. But again, and people are there for the deals too. Like they're man, sometimes things slip, especially when they're such fast auctions. Things slip all the time.
- [22:26]
B
But people just send you like a collection or 100 cars you're wanting to get rid of.
- [22:32]
A
Yeah, that. And we also have, we have dealers, you know, that are constantly buying and flipping and selling and using us as one of their platforms. You know, we become part of the business model for a lot of our big sellers. Replace.
- [22:43]
B
So for people that are selling cards that are listening, how does that model work that you know, with getting y' all cards percent and all that stuff?
- [22:53]
A
Yeah, ours is interesting because so our, our primary selling tier, which we would start you at if you wanted to start with us. You basically, you pay five bucks a card. That's it. That's all you pay for selling a card, regardless of what it sells for. In fact, if it goes for a thousand plus, we even remove that. So you don't pay anything. So everything else is a zero percent. It's just a flat fee is how our model works.
- [23:14]
B
Interesting. Okay, that's fair. Interesting though. So every card five bucks. No, like if it sells for $100, that, that seller gets 195 or whatever. Like I think you said hundreds waived or thousand plus.
- [23:31]
A
Thousand plus. We waive even the $5.
- [23:33]
B
Okay. Is that because it's a big card that brings attention?
- [23:38]
A
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So we just give a little bit of extra.
- [23:42]
B
Yeah.
- [23:43]
A
If it's a big, big piece, obviously those are the ones that get people in. You know, when you're selling a hundred thousand dollar card, you can sell 20 cards alongside of it. But that's the car that gets the eyeballs, you know, so you get everybody in and can sell some other stuff. So that's the big ones.
- [23:55]
B
You can't fool me. Absolutely. But that's smart. I know. I like it though. That's intelligent. That's intelligent marketing and smart business model. That's. But I'll say this, no matter how smart that is, that's fair. I mean the biggest complaint I have with some of the other behemoths, we're going to name them anymore. I'm only going to mention pristine from here on out. I'm Pristine guy now. The is literally $5 a card. You know, the percents, 15, 20. Like, good grief, man. It's like. And I get looked at the service they've built brand, man, that shit adds up.
- [24:27]
A
Yeah. And it's not the other part too. On the other side, just from a business angle, that the flat fee works well for us because it makes our customers kind of self regulate and not sell us cards that are too low value. Because again, we're, we're pumping quick. We don't want to sit there and comp every card. We just can't. We just don't have the capability to do that. You know, we have guys who filter things and know that have base knowledge of it and can filter out some real low value stuff and kind of protect some, some sellers from themselves because we don't want it to be a negative experience. You know, we don't want you to sell a car that you're not going to get something back on.
- [24:58]
B
What's that?
- [24:59]
A
But that's the idea.
- [25:01]
B
It's got to be, I mean that's a, that's got to be a machine. Machine.
- [25:04]
A
It is a machine. Yeah. Yeah. Way above my pay grade. I got some great people here that handle all that. You know, I just get to do live shows and podcasts. So yeah, blessed with a great team for sure.
- [25:18]
B
That's if you're doing a thousand cards every show, I mean, or a day, you know, you got them coming in and so cataloging them and tracking them, I mean, that's what. Yeah, I like, I like to talk about the business side of these things too. Like it's like the logistics, like they've got to be impressive to keep up with it. I know there's all the, you know, there's these behemoths doing stuff, but like for you to figure all that out in one year and it'd be a 30%. Hey, kudos, man.
- [25:48]
A
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, you know, it's funny because we've kind of been sitting on the live tech for a while and it, it just hasn't gone to the top of our list. And once we started dabbling with it, you know, I would, I would be on a couple hours a week personally from my office, just selling a few things and it was very clear early on, like, okay, there's definitely something here. Like Both directions. You know, I have a lot of fun with it. Customers clearly like it, the pricing is really strong. And so pretty quickly we were like, yeah, we, you know, we were sitting on it for probably two years.
- [26:19]
B
And so you had the say, so you spent the money on the tech. You know,
- [26:28]
A
it wasn't 100 ready. You know, especially as it got kicked down the road. You know, you gotta, gotta revisit it and spend a little more, A little more R D and you know, tech expense to get it to where it needs to be.
- [26:38]
B
But yeah, back end server's gotta be strong, baby.
- [26:42]
A
Yeah. 100. Yes, that is, that is key. Absolutely.
- [26:46]
B
I had a digital agency on the side. Not even on the side though. That's been my full time job for 25 years. So like, I know, I know what that means.
- [26:53]
A
Also way above my pay grade. We got good people in that, in that area too.
- [26:59]
B
Talking with Jared Kavli, he is the president, founder of Pristine Auctions. Jared, what's your favorite collectible that you own or that you've sold? That's like just way out there, man.
- [27:14]
A
So my personal favorite item, so my wife got me, it's. I'm going to, I'm going to even go outside of sports. I shouldn't be doing this, but my wife, for my birthday got me a full size Iron man character, like from Sideshow, you know, like the premium format character. Yeah, Loved it. And then I found out, so Robert Downey Jr. Was doing a signing for charity. I'm like, I'm getting this thing signed. So I sent the chest plate out, he signed it, he wrote the truth is I am Iron man on it, which is impossible. Something you just can't get, you know. So, yeah, so that's probably my favorite. That's one that, that stands out right away. I also, I'm a big NASCAR guy, so I have a Dale Earnhardt senior signed and race used suit that he actually was photo matched to a Talladega win. So that's one of my favorite pieces. And then a lot of them are sentimental. You know, I've gotten again as a NASCAR guy, like Christopher Bell's my favorite driver and a good friend of mine, he gave me his first wind gloves. So those are in my office. So yeah, those are a few things that come to mind right away in terms of my personal collection.
- [28:09]
B
I like Dale Jr. You know, he's got a good podcast, a little different.
- [28:13]
A
He does. Oh. In fact, I think he's getting into cards. I've just listened to some of his recent little Little bits. And I think he's gotta. Gotta reconnect with him. So this was senior. This is a senior suit.
- [28:22]
B
But we work with Dale. I'm about to tell you something. Blow your mind. It's a guy that's trying to. That's gonna consign with us a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Like, leather jacket. That's like. Like racing jacket or something. That's like an original. I have to call you. I might have to call you about that one. Whether you want to buy it or you want to, I don't know. It might make more sense to be a pristine auction. I don't know. It's. He came in here the other day, and I think I still got his number. I got to call him back. He's like, y' all could sign stuff. I'm like, sort of like, yeah, let
- [28:51]
A
me know about that one. That sounds interesting.
- [28:53]
B
It sounds real interesting. I didn't get any pictures, but he was. He was excited about it or he was proud of it, but he was ready to kind of move it. The. There's some. Definitely some NASCAR people. I grew up, you know, the man in black. I mean, Dale Senior Solomon, you know, freaking Pickens Motor Speedways five, four minutes from here, and it's one of the historic, like, classic tracks. That's like the old school. And it's. Dude, I grew up, and I had my uncle that was like nascar, you know, just loved it. Had every Max car. I mean, they must have printed too most of those, because he had them. They were worth way more when he had them than they are now. Those Max NASCAR cars, right?
- [29:35]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, some of that. Some of that has not held value,
- [29:39]
B
but just overprinted it like the 80s junks wax or late.
- [29:43]
A
There's some crazy collections of that vintage NASCAR stuff out there, though, man. When you scroll social media and see some people show off their collection. So here's a NASCAR piece. I'll tell you about that. It's kind of breaking news here. We haven't actually told anybody this, but we. We've done some sponsorships in nascar, so Thad Moffett is one that we sponsor. He's the grandson of Richard Petty. Yeah, well, through that, they've actually committed now to sell. They have an original Days of Thunder car like the hero car of Cole Trickle Production used, and we're gonna auction that thing. So we. We're set. In fact, I was just talking to our marketing director. We're gonna start it at a buck with no reserve. It's gonna be wild. So yeah, the orig.
- [30:20]
B
One of the original.
- [30:21]
A
The original. Holy. The original. In fact, I'm gonna have some pictures on. I don't know if this is going to come through. I can try to show you a picture on my. On my phone.
- [30:30]
B
Yeah. Put this on the.
- [30:33]
A
Literally.
- [30:34]
B
Oh, wow.
- [30:35]
A
Yeah, we can send you some pictures, but what's. Cool. It's kind of roached out. It's been like sitting in there. It's been like sitting in there on their lift in the garage.
- [30:41]
B
Are you serious?
- [30:42]
A
But that's it, man. That's like. That's Tom Cruise's car right there.
- [30:45]
B
Days of Thunder, right?
- [30:47]
A
Yeah. It's gonna be. I think they're gonna. They're working on a sequel, so maybe we can time it. We'll see. But it's gonna be wild. He's gonna. Richard Petty will tell the story about the car and we're gonna go out
- [30:55]
B
there and breaking here on Collector Nation, the Days of Thunder release by Pristine Auctions. We will have. That definitely is a highlight. Cl. How's that going to work? Starting at a dollar. How long. What will be the sort of parameters on that thing? It's not me.
- [31:12]
A
Not a 60 second auction on that one, unfortunately. I'd love to do it, but I don't know if they'll let me. But that'll probably be in our elite auction. So that'll be a 30 day. You know, give it a little bit. Run more Runway. I think there's going to be a lot of interest in that. I don't believe, to my knowledge and my research there's never been a hero Days of Thunder car that's come to market. So this will be the first one. I think collectors are gonna go nuts, man. I mean, it's a piece of history, so.
- [31:36]
B
Yes, it is. Is. Oh, I just lost a train of thought. Yeah, you got me like twisting like I didn't know we were going. Days of Thunderstorm. You didn't know I'd be able to talk NASCAR like. I worked South Carolina. I'm from South Carolina, baby.
- [31:48]
A
I didn't know how much NASCAR I was allowed to talk about, but you get me going. Oh, yeah.
- [31:52]
B
Richard Petty. You kidding? I know. I had all those. The stp. Are you kidding? You know, all that stuff growing up, the. My uncle man was into it big time and I. It's a strange sport, though. Like, I don't know what's happened. Like, I, it. It is so I'm not. I don't watch the races now. I'm just. It's just I got 100 other things going on. It's less it. But what's happened with it is it still is popular. It's still popular.
- [32:19]
A
Yeah. It's an interesting case study because it's like their, their customer base is kind of shifting. So it used to be like moonshine. Southern, Very Southern. All their drivers were Southern accent, you know.
- [32:30]
B
Yeah.
- [32:31]
A
Old timers. And that was the draw to the sport. What's really shifted now? A lot of the top drivers are like K. Larson, he's a California kid. They're more like the young up and comers. They're more, they're not really the southern kids. And it seems like that customer base and not necessarily in a bad way, but there's been a shift. And so a lot of their top drivers, you know, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. A lot of these real top drivers that had the most draw, even Danica Patrick, you know, a lot of these names that everybody followed kind of in the same era are gone. And so it's a sport that's hard to like if, like any sport. Right. You've got to have a love for a team or a driver. Once you do, it's a different sport. If you have a, if you have a horse in the race, you'll watch. I'm not watching horse racing unless I have a horse in the race. You know what I mean?
- [33:15]
B
Darrell Walter, that was my underdog. I love Waltrip. They got a wall trip in racing at all.
- [33:26]
A
There's been some different wall trips. Right. Mike Michael's now commentating. Michael Waltrip, he does a great job. And then Daryl Wall trip is kind
- [33:33]
B
of Darryl Waltrip's class og. That was my guy. Yeah. Oh man, he's still around.
- [33:37]
A
He was, I think he might have retired now, but he used to do some commentating too and did a great job.
- [33:41]
B
Yeah, he did.
- [33:42]
A
So they're still involved in the sport for sure.
- [33:44]
B
Yeah, I, I could get, I'm racking the brain cells, but I can pull, I could pull some names out of
- [33:49]
A
my, you know, get you, we got to get you into a, you got to pick a modern driver. Got to get back.
- [33:54]
B
I got to get you in. Maybe you me will go,
- [33:59]
A
you come
- [33:59]
B
see the shop, we'll do some business, we'll sit down here in the studio, do a follow up interview and then we're going to, we'll go to a race or something.
- [34:07]
A
I mean, you don't have to ask me twice.
- [34:08]
B
I mean, we'll figure that out. You know, going to the race is a whole different Thing, you know, completely. It's. It's like. It's a hard sport to like, I don't know, adapt or adopt, like, just from the TV screen, I think.
- [34:24]
A
So here's the other part about it too. So I've been getting in personally. My son and I have really been connecting on Iracing. So Iracing is a simulator. It's a game. It's like a video game, but a very. I mean, drivers actually use it to learn tracks. It's very. It's the most realistic simulator that you can. You can. You can use. And man, I tell you what, driving in circles isn't as easy as it sounds. It is a challenging thing to do too. And I'm getting so frustrated with that thing. But you really learn how good these guys are like any sport. Right. Like, Ryan, you're. I'm sure you were an athlete.
- [34:53]
B
Yeah.
- [34:54]
A
Would you play. Were you a football guy?
- [34:55]
B
I played basketball.
- [34:58]
A
So you and I, when we watch basketball, to a guy who never played basketball, understand how good these guys are in the NBA, right? Yeah, it is a whole nother level. If you've played the sport, you understand how insanely good they are. What they do. Same thing with. With nascar. You know, those guys are incredibly talented, and I don't think they sometimes get the credit they deserve, how highly talented they are.
- [35:17]
B
We have a BMW performance center here, and I've gotten. I had an M5, I don't know, 15 years ago that I got out there on that track and tore it up. And then I let one of their drivers drive it with me. For it. For me, it was. I was like, this is what this car can do. Like, exactly. There's a lot more that goes into it, and you realize that it's like, I wouldn't have been comfortable doing that. I felt. I felt comfortable. I was never worried. But like, they also showed you, like, how much that. What that machine can do. Like, I didn't. I didn't have that quarter to put in the. In the. In the slot to make it do that, but it's another level. Crazy what's happening with Pristine the rest of this year. Like, we, you know, lives taking off. It sounds like what. We've got the Days of Thunder release coming. What else are we excited about?
- [36:15]
A
Yeah, I mean, a big focus is live, you know, getting more elite items. The daily auction just continues to pump. You know, we do usually thousand plus lots every single day in the daily. And again, we're big on no reserve stuff. So daily auction, everything starts at a buck, no Reserve on anything. Live auction never reserves everything at a buck. We're going to start that live breaking channel on. On the Live. I'm going to host a show coming up here this Monday. So that should be a ton of fun. I think that'll take off and be a lot of fun. So, yeah, we're just gonna, you know, see what everybody likes and keep. Keep trucking on that.
- [36:46]
B
I wonder, I mean, what is it about this format? It's. It's fascinating where, you know, I've been talking about live shopping. I actually, I've never. I forecasted podcasting. I've been in podcasting 10 years. My business show's been number one on Apple for four years. And it's. I saw that coming. I talked. I was at. I got. I spoke at a FedEx event in 2018, 2019, and said, Live shopping is coming. Like, I saw that coming as well. And now it's. It's taken seven years, but, you know, Covid certainly helped. But, man, what do you put. How do you make sense of it all?
- [37:34]
A
I don't know. See, I remember and I don't know, maybe you tell me, but I remember the first live selling experience that I saw was in clothing. I think it became really big in clothing really fast. Like Lularoe, I think it was. Everybody on the planet was selling for a while. I don't know what happened to them, but they were everywhere. And that was all live selling. Right. There's a case study. Right. But yeah, and I think it just kind of, you know, people saw that and were like, man, you could bring that to other industries, without a doubt.
- [38:01]
B
Yeah.
- [38:01]
A
And it's an intimidating. It can be.
- [38:04]
B
Right?
- [38:04]
A
Because again, my personal experience, it felt very intimidating. But once you get used to it and jump in, man, it's. It's an addicting. And again, it's the community, it's the live experience. It's happening now. You get it now. It's just all of the things wrapped up together that I think really.
- [38:18]
B
You guys ever doing breaks?
- [38:21]
A
You know, we had it years ago. We actually had pristine breaks, and we were doing it for quite a while, but with the Allocation game and everything, we sunsetted that. Yeah, but that's kind of what we're bringing back. It's gonna be a little different. It's more like repacks and things like that that we'll be doing. But we have some, you know, some exclusive repacks and stuff that are going to come to the show that are very transparent and, you know, you open them Live, all of them are available. You know exactly what you can, you can hit. And so that I think will will change that game for us so and for us, like, we want to be fast. Like, I think for the breaks, to break a case of cards. It's a long experience. It's fun, but it is a long experience. And so it's hard to make that make sense sometimes. There will be a day probably where we have a channel that does that, but that's just a different monster, you know, So I think.
- [39:06]
B
What's up guys? I know you've heard this term live shopping. Well, the leaders in live shopping are whatnot. Instead of just listing something online and hoping someone finds it, you go live and sell directly to people in real time. I've personally been on the platform for a couple years getting our feet wet before we opened our retail store. And let me tell you, it's a game changer. They can see the product, ask questions, interact with you. It's way more like shopping in person than posting a listing. And it makes it so easy. It's also fun. That's the biggest thing. I didn't know selling could actually be fun. And the audience is there. Buyers are spending over an hour a day in the app. They're not just scrolling, they're actually buying and coming back. That's why sellers on whatnot are moving way more product than on traditional marketplaces. If you sold anything online, you know, the biggest thing is not having real time feedback. That's what's so great about whatnot. You literally have people buying your products right there, right now. You know how much money you're making and whatnot makes it easy. And for a limited time, whatnot will match your first $150 sold in your first month. Visit whatnot.com sell to start selling. That's whatnot.com sell whatnot.com sell we're gonna
- [40:26]
A
do like the one card packs and just rip them quick and move. You know,
- [40:33]
B
I like that. I will say this. This is my thing now. I'm a flyby break guy. Okay, what does that mean? I jump in and I buy it and I just wait to see what mystery shows up in the mail.
- [40:45]
A
Do you even watch the break?
- [40:47]
B
I don't even watch the break.
- [40:47]
A
That's interesting. I probably have four packages there.
- [40:50]
B
I have four show up a week packages. I have no idea what's going to be in it.
- [40:55]
A
How often are they better than they are worse?
- [40:59]
B
1 out of 5 is pretty surprisingly good or like better than expected.
- [41:06]
A
Doing pretty Good.
- [41:07]
B
Four out of five or no, you know, yeah, base central.
- [41:11]
A
That's interesting because I mean, you know, I do think the, the watching the live break now the live breaks are so long, so I get it. But like that seems like part of the fun and experience, right? To just watch it. Oh, what am I going to hit?
- [41:23]
B
I like jumping in and winning the, the bid. Like if it'll, I'll kind of, I kind of get a good value. I watch where the numbers are going and try to get a good number on what the brakes looking like. And so I do that part of it for like 10 minutes and then I'm just, I'm out. I don't care. Like the get it in the mail, surprise me. I mean I'm not doing like 5000$, you know, but I mean drop a couple, surprise. I get it.
- [41:47]
A
Like, it's kind of like the. Okay, are you a guy who wants to know if you're having a boy or a girl before it happens or do you wait until, so this, this is you now. I'm thinking maybe now because of the break thing, maybe you wait, do you wait until the hospital to know if you're having a boy or a girl?
- [42:00]
B
I have four boys, so I have three.
- [42:03]
A
I'm with you. We're close. I have three. Yeah, I understand.
- [42:07]
B
Look at this. How old are yours?
- [42:10]
A
Minor. 15, 10 and 6. Just about a five year gap between the three. How about you?
- [42:15]
B
10, 13, 14, 16. Okay, so mine are a little old, I guess a little older, but I guess a whole. But yeah, all boys. And I, my, I had two of my first wife and then my wife and I have been together since my first two were two and four. Just all they ever really known is being together with the four. And I, and I have, we have them half the time and then we've got Nash who we had together all the time. We got his, hers. Now we got a modern Brady Bunch. And, but I'll say like both of my, you know, my ex wife and my current wife, both, both were the types that wanted to know and I didn't, I didn't care. Like, could I have been someone that didn't know? Yeah, I could have been someone that didn't find out, but I wasn't like, no, we're not finding out. I just went with what they wanted, you know.
- [43:03]
A
Yeah, I'm always, to me, it stresses me out. So this is to the breaking this kind of, kind of bringing it together, right? Like I want to know, man, like I'm going to Be surprised if you tell me now and then I can be prepared.
- [43:13]
B
Exactly. Very high risk tolerance. Like, not like jumping out of planes with my life, but, you know, that's why I'm an entrepreneur. Multiple companies, like, you got to be able to throw the pot. The chips in the pot, you know, like, you got to slide them in. You know, you get one life to live, baby. You get legendary, responsible, legendary, you know, like. But a lot of people, but it is fun for me. It's almost become a thing for me. I mean, I didn't always do it that way. It's just been recent, like the last few months. I just do the drive by. And I'll say this. I did a drive by. You'll get a kick out of this, Jared. So. And this one's a big break. I mean, I think I brought three spots and about 150 spot. So I had 450 in the game. Didn't watch any of it. And it was like one of the newer football high end box products. They opened a case and you're not gonna believe this. It showed up. Okay. There's. There was three cards in there. They were all three literally the same quarterback autos. The same card. Out of 99. I had three of the 99s. They pulled out of one case, literally three. And I'm blanking on his name. He's Miami's quarterback. Who?
- [44:42]
A
Queen yours.
- [44:43]
B
Quinn yours. Quentin yours. The chances of all three of those being in one case is it ever happened. And like, that whole. That break must have gone crazy. Like, they're like. Because they've not only I got one, I got two. Two of the other teams that I had won didn't have any players, so I didn't get anything. So for the three I literally nailed, because I had Miami and got three Quinn Euro autographs of the exact same variation.
- [45:12]
A
Huh? Yeah, we've seen some of that weird collation stuff. I'm sure that's just a factory thing.
- [45:16]
B
Probably a factory thing in a case or whatever, but. But I was like, has this ever happened in a break where they had three autos out of the same series? Maybe. I don't know. I'd never seen it and I didn't watch it, so I wouldn't. I didn't even get to watch it live. But they all showed up in the mail. I'm like, it was a little bit of like, oh, what the hell? It was five. They're like 125 cards, you know.
- [45:38]
A
Oh, there you go. Nice. Yeah. Well, there you go. Not Too. Can't complain about that. No. So my history and Breaks is interesting. You know, I. I always dabble in it, too. I love box breaks. Like, I was into them for. There was a period of my time where that's all I was doing every night. Right.
- [45:49]
B
Yeah.
- [45:49]
A
Well, my third son, we actually adopted out of Utah, and we got stuck in Utah because the way the adoption process works, you got to stay in the state for a couple weeks until everything's official and you can get out of there.
- [45:59]
B
Yeah.
- [46:00]
A
So as an entrepreneur, I'm, like, stuck in a hotel room for two weeks. Like, I got to do something. So I found a local card shop, bought some boxes, brought them back, got on the Pristine Auction Facebook group, and, like, guys, I'm stuck in hotel. Let's do some box breaks.
- [46:11]
B
I love that. So.
- [46:12]
A
And we actually pulled some crazy stuff. I should pull up those videos. I remember us pulling, like, a Luca rookie auto crazy stuff. So. Yeah. And it was just a fun thing to do just to kill some time. And then that's when Pristine Breaks was born. We. It just kind of evolved from there. Like, hey, this was kind of fun. It worked. Let's just keep doing this. And then we stunted it from there. But I guess we're kind of. You know, we're on the way back. On the way back up with this live show. We'll do. We'll do some of that stuff again.
- [46:34]
B
Yeah, the repackage stuff's interesting. Like, you know, it's like, I mean, whatnot's in all kinds of heat. I said I wasn't going to mention them again, but I had to, because it kind of went there, that the. With the whole lawsuit stuff.
- [46:45]
A
Yeah. I haven't heard much about that since I saw the original kind of write up, so it'll be interesting.
- [46:51]
B
And I kind of. I defended it, like, you know, like, if you pay for something and you get something, it's a little different than, you know, putting a quarter in a slot machine and you either win or lose. You know, you're getting a card. The. But. But then I watched a few breaks the other night, and I'm like, this feels like a casino.
- [47:08]
A
Yeah. And some of them are probably not. You know, it's a little wild west out there, you know, and again, that's why, you know, I like what we're building because we control it a lot more than a wild west. But, you know, there are some. Probably not doing it very, very kosher.
- [47:21]
B
I mean, I'm all for taking. Look, I got some big ideas for taking over that vertical screen. So we should talk. But like, all right. But it's from a marketing perspective. But I was like, watching that breaks and I'm like, this is feels like Vegas overload. I don't even know what's going on. I got boxes over here. You know, I was waiting for Vanna White to come out and open up a case or something. You know, like, what's happening right now? I mean, I was like, I might would buy into this, but I have no fucking idea what is going on right now.
- [47:49]
A
Like, yeah, yeah, we all, you know, that's something that we all, Anytime we did breaks. Like, I definitely don't like the formats where you could get nothing. Yeah, I think there's always got to be a format where everybody gets something. That's, that's one thing I do like about the repacks. Number one, I think the value is better overall long term. But I also think that, you know, obviously everybody is getting something and kind of knows what the top and bottom looks like, so.
- [48:12]
B
Yeah, exactly. Because this is single card and we're doing collector station. I've built the mechanism. We're doing digital pack openings, you know, that's built off the inventory. Live inventory in the store.
- [48:23]
A
Yeah, those are huge.
- [48:24]
B
Yeah. So that's built our app launching. If I say next week, I'll have to make it happen.
- [48:30]
A
Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it.
- [48:32]
B
I know that in the next few weeks.
- [48:34]
A
Yeah.
- [48:35]
B
Jared, let's just say the single trading card store app that has more functionality than some of these behemoth brands. I'll just say that we'll leave it there. So happens when a marketing tech guy opens, you know, gets into the hobby.
- [48:50]
A
Look out now. I'll check that out.
- [48:52]
B
Yeah, it'll be fun. The. Hey, man, this has been a lot of fun. We got to go to race or something.
- [48:58]
A
Hey, let's do it. I am all about that. You're right.
- [49:04]
B
We'll do a Clemson game. You got to get down for Clemson. Clemson football is a, is a, is an experience that's up there in its own right. So we'll get to a Clemson football game, hits, hit some NASCAR or something. I, I, I still got some contacts. I need to just like, dust those, those off or something.
- [49:21]
A
Yeah, no, honestly, anytime you guys races all around you. When you want to go to a race, you hit me up. I'll get you VIP passes, I'll get you the whole experience. You and the boys. Yeah, you guys will have the, the behind the scenes that's the real experience. Your boys will become fans once they do that.
- [49:34]
B
All right, Bella, write that down. Yeah, we're gonna hold Jared that 100%.
- [49:39]
A
That's easy. I got ready to get him here
- [49:41]
B
to go to Mooresville.
- [49:42]
A
Yep.
- [49:45]
B
Drop some deets for us, Jared. Website, social media, etc. Etc.
- [49:50]
A
Yeah, you know, website, of course, pristineauction.com. be sure to check that out daily for the daily auction. And then we're on all socials at Pristine Auction, so be sure to check us out there. We're doing a lot of crazy stuff there. The social team is putting me through the ringer these days. If you go to our Instagram, you'll see what I'm talking about. So, yeah, we have a lot of fun. Anything for a few clicks, you know, we'll see what we can do.
- [50:11]
B
I love it. Hey, man. But you're great on camera and you're obviously comfortable. Like, that's a smart move for any business these days, especially if you've got a founder and owner that's like, you know, can do it and, like, get into it and enjoy it. Like, it's. It unlocks a lot of stuff and it just shows, like, an approachability, I'm sure. And that's why, hey, things are looking good.
- [50:31]
A
Yeah, I love it. Love the hobby. So that's why we're in it.
- [50:35]
B
Appreciate you for coming on, brother.
- [50:36]
A
Thank you. Yeah, appreciate you, Ryan.
- [50:38]
B
Hey, guys, you know to find us the collectornation.com that app is launching next week. That is the full media experience of Collector Nation. It will have links, highlight clips, and everything from this episode with Jared from Pristine Oxen. We'll have links to all their stuff, their live shows. Go check that out. Hey, I don't want to get in and get that mantle card, you know, I'm just saying, hey, can I get it for a dollar? No, but get in there. $5 a card, though, man. That's where you need to be at. You get to unload some cars. You can go. That's where you go. That's called fair. That's why they're growing. That's why we love the hobby. We appreciate Jared. We appreciate you. See you next time. Collect your 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.