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5 TCG Collecting Rules I Live By (One Piece, Pokemon and More) — Transcript

by One Piece of Insight · 6,055 words · 855 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Hello and welcome to One Piece of
0:02Insight. In today's video, I'm going to
0:04be boiling a lifetime of collecting down
0:06into my five golden rules that I follow
0:09to have a sustainable and enjoyable
0:12collecting experience. As always, this
0:14isn't financial advice. This is just me
0:16sharing what I've learned in hopes that
0:18it helps you on your collecting journey.
0:20So, with that, let's jump right in. Now,
0:22you might be wondering, why do I need a
0:23collecting strategy? And if you're
0:25anything like me, life without a
0:27collecting strategy was chaos. Before I
0:31had a strategy, I just bought whatever I
0:34wanted, whenever I had the money to do
0:36it, and I ripped a bunch, I bought a
0:39bunch of different products. I was
0:40buying top Star Wars, I was buying
0:43baseball cards, I was buying Pokémon.
0:46No rhyme or reason, no sense of whether
0:48I should open it or whether I should
0:49keep it sealed. And while I had fun
0:52doing it sometimes, what I was left with
0:54was often what like a giant pile of
0:56stuff that was not valuable enough to
0:59sell, but valuable enough that I didn't
1:01just like want to give it away, but it
1:03didn't fit into anything, and it took up
1:04a ton of space. And so, I realized that
1:06if I was going to keep doing this, I
1:08needed to have a sensible set of rules
1:10that I was going to follow to put me on
1:12the right path to a more sustainable
1:14approach to collecting long-term.
1:17So, my first rule, and this is like
1:19maybe the most important thing that I've
1:20learned about collecting, is that we
1:22have to be logical about our emotions.
1:25When people talk about logic, they
1:27generally talk about it as a
1:28counterpoint to emotion as if they're
1:31mutually exclusive. But, the reality is
1:33is that collecting is fundamentally
1:35about what you enjoy. And so,
1:38while we want to be logical about the
1:40way that we collect, we also have to
1:42understand that that enjoyment and that
1:44passion is fundamental to it. You know,
1:46the first anniversary collection's hot
1:47right now. It's my personal favorite. If
1:50you're just focused on profit, the
1:52evidence seems to suggest that keeping
1:54it in the brown box is the way to do
1:56that.
1:57But, if you're focused on passion, why
2:00would you ever leave this in a brown
2:01box? It's a beautiful product. So, if
2:03you're someone like me who cares about
2:04both of these things, the question is,
2:06how do you balance? For me in this case,
2:08the answer was clear. I was going to
2:09take it out of the box because I cared
2:11more about the passion than I did the
2:12profit. When you think about it in a
2:14larger context, it becomes kind of
2:16complicated to figure out how you're
2:17actually going to balance these things.
2:19And so, I try to understand what my
2:21priorities are. I care about both profit
2:24and passion. But, my number one
2:25priorities are I want to enjoy the
2:27cards, I want to enjoy the game, and I
2:29want to enjoy the community. That's the
2:31main reason I started this channel is
2:32just to be able to build a great
2:34community to be able to hang out with,
2:36and you all have delivered amazingly.
2:38Your comments are the best I've ever
2:40seen.
2:41I love you all, and I appreciate you for
2:43watching and commenting.
2:44You know, I also at the same time want
2:46to create value. I like, you know,
2:48studying markets, I like making
2:50predictions, and seeing positive results
2:52from those things. But, another thing is
2:53I want to be in this for the long term,
2:55and I don't have unlimited resources.
2:56So, I need to figure out how to preserve
2:58resources through my collecting so that
3:00I can apply them to future things that I
3:02want to buy and continue building my
3:04collection. And then finally, this is a
3:06hobby. I want it to be fun. I don't want
3:08it to be stressful. And ultimately,
3:11understanding things that are going to
3:12stress you out is really important to
3:14knowing what you want to keep in your
3:15collection and what you don't. The idea
3:17of having like a $100,000 black label
3:20stresses me out. So, that's just not for
3:23me. So, one of the ways that I think
3:25it's important to apply logic to our
3:27emotions is when we decide whether or
3:30not we're going to rip. So, recently, I
3:32bought a pack of Ascended Heroes with my
3:34kid. It was 12 bucks. He spent his money
3:37on it. He opened it up. Of course, he
3:39hit nothing because the pull rates in
3:40the set are pretty bad. And he just
3:42looked at me and said, "I really wish I
3:44still had my $12 back." And I think
3:46anybody who's ever ripped expensive
3:48product can relate to this. We have to
3:51understand that feeling of man, I really
3:55just wasted my money
3:57can be crushing and make the entire
3:59thing not fun, right? So, I think most
4:01people watching this video would assume
4:02that the reason I don't rip very much is
4:04because it has a really low ROI. You're
4:06most likely going to lose your money,
4:08but that's actually not the main reason.
4:10You know, somebody posted in the
4:11comments that they opened a bunch of
4:13illustration boxes
4:15um and even though they lost money, they
4:16hit three SPs. That's awesome. I love
4:19hitting SPs. If I knew that I was going
4:21to lose some money ripping product, but
4:23I was going to get three amazing hits, I
4:25would probably still take that deal
4:27because the things we pull do feel more
4:29special to us than the things we buy,
4:31right? So, it's not inherently illogical
4:33to rip. It's just important to
4:35understand that when you rip, what
4:37you're paying for is the experience and
4:39the excitement of ripping.
4:41What I've learned about myself is that
4:43when I rip something and when I don't
4:45hit anything, it feels awful. And so, I
4:49then find myself in a position where
4:50I've spent $200
4:52on a box and an experience and I'm left
4:55feeling bad. Of course, it feels really
4:57good when you hit something, but it also
4:58feels really good when you buy a card
5:00that you want to buy. And it also feels
5:01really good when you keep a box sealed
5:03and it doubles in price, right? And so,
5:05I'm trying to balance all of those
5:07things. So, I'm not inherently against
5:09ripping uh strictly from an ROI
5:10perspective, but if you feel bad when
5:13you rip, there are better things to do
5:14that are just going to make you happier.
5:16And that's sort of what I've learned
5:17about myself. Another thing to
5:18understand is how are you going to feel
5:20if the price goes up or down, right?
5:23One piece is still relatively new. It's
5:25a relatively volatile market. I mean,
5:27TCGs in general are pretty volatile,
5:28right? So, whenever I buy something or
5:30whenever I think about selling
5:31something, what I'm asking myself is not
5:33just what do I think the price is going
5:35to do in the future, but how do I feel
5:37about it if I'm wrong? You know, I have
5:40this chopper here. I know I've said this
5:42before on the channel, but I bought this
5:44when it was like six bucks and I sold it
5:46when it was like 50 bucks, because I
5:47just felt like it was such a gain that I
5:49was going to feel dumb if it went down
5:51in price and I didn't sell it. But, the
5:53reality is I underestimated how bad I
5:55was going to feel if it did go up in
5:57price and I wasn't able to buy it again,
5:59which is exactly what happened. And so,
6:01I ended up rebuying it for 70 bucks,
6:03which thankfully was only a little bit
6:05more than I sold it for. I think a lot
6:07of people think about how they'll feel
6:08if the price goes down, but I think you
6:09need to think about both sides of those
6:11things. You know, on the other hand, the
6:14151 cards I recently sold like all of my
6:17151 illustration rares or like special
6:20illustration rares. My logic being that
6:22there's just a shocking amount of 151
6:24product, and most of it's still sealed,
6:25so
6:26I don't particularly love the prospects
6:28of these cards long-term. And also,
6:30they're not my favorite art. And so, I
6:33looked at this Blastoise and thought,
6:34you know, if this price goes down and I
6:37lose out on the ability to get like 80
6:38bucks in profit,
6:41how am I going to feel about that
6:42compared to if it continues to go up?
6:43And the answer is if I never buy it back
6:45again, I'm totally fine with that. So, I
6:46would rather have the profit, and so I
6:48sold.
6:49You know, the OP05 box is sort of an
6:52interesting example for me.
6:54I bought a bunch, I opened a bunch,
6:56um you know, when they were around MSRP.
6:58And then the prices went up to like 250
7:00bucks. I think I had three left, and I
7:01sold two at $250.
7:04And then I ended up selling a third at
7:06like $350, because, you know, it felt
7:09like it was a ton of profit, and I
7:11wanted to use it for something else. I
7:12ended up taking the proceeds of one of
7:13those boxes and buying like the OP04 Boa
7:16SP and the OP05 Nami SP. And so, I feel
7:18kind of mixed about this, because
7:20obviously the prices are really, really
7:21expensive,
7:22but we also need to make decisions with
7:25the information we have at the time,
7:26right? And so, that is the balance that
7:28I'm striking. The second rule that I try
7:31to follow is to understand risk
7:33tolerance. What am I comfortable with?
7:35What am I uncomfortable with? And how is
7:37that going to affect my emotions? And
7:39one of the ways this plays out for me is
7:41that I tend not to buy very expensive
7:44cards for a couple reasons. When
7:47something is expensive, inherently
7:49there's a risk that you lose a lot of
7:51money with it. There's also the
7:52possibility that it goes up a ton. But
7:54the reward for me, because I'm not
7:56primarily chasing profit, isn't worth
7:59it.
8:00And also, when I'm investing such a
8:02large percentage of my collection into a
8:06handful of items,
8:08am I really getting that much more joy
8:11out of having those few items as opposed
8:13to spreading it around to to more things
8:15that I'm going to enjoy? I personally
8:17don't. I know other people do, and
8:19that's totally fine if that's how you
8:21feel. Now, I've never owned anything
8:23crazy expensive, but like the only manga
8:25I ever opened was the Silver's Rayleigh
8:27when it came out in OP-08, and I
8:29immediately sold it for $375.
8:32At the time, it was the most expensive
8:33card that I'd ever owned, and there were
8:36other things that I wanted to spend the
8:37money on, right? Buying OP-09, for
8:40example, which I did. So, for me, it
8:44felt out of balance in my collection to
8:46have something that expensive,
8:47especially something that I wasn't all
8:48that attached to.
8:50You know, then on the other hand, you
8:51have the Luffy Dodger promo, which I
8:55absolutely adore. I'm a big baseball
8:57fan, and so the intersection of One
8:59Piece and baseball is like absolutely
9:01incredible. But when you see a card like
9:04this that PSA is saying fakes are
9:06everywhere, spending the most money
9:08you've ever spent on a card when there's
9:10also a ton of fakes running around is a
9:12really, really high-risk endeavor. And
9:14so for me, it wasn't worth it to make
9:15the decision. Somebody else probably
9:17would have, but it was outside of my
9:19risk tolerance. And that's the point,
9:20right? Not that there is a single right
9:22answer to any of these things, it's just
9:24about what makes you comfortable, right?
9:27Knowing that I had a card that expensive
9:28that I couldn't verify whether it was
9:30authentic would eat at me, and it would
9:32make my emotional experience worse, and
9:34so I choose not to do that. And then the
9:36last example I have here is the Gray
9:38Felt Hat Pikachu. You know, as I
9:40mentioned before, I'm really into art. I
9:41like Van Gogh a lot. So, this was
9:43another collaboration that really spoke
9:45to me. When I saw how many cards were
9:48out there, though,
9:49I didn't feel comfortable spending a lot
9:51of money on this, even though I expected
9:52that there would be a lot of demand,
9:54because it just felt like a lot of risk,
9:56right? And it felt like, in all
9:58likelihood, there would be an
9:59opportunity in the future where prices
10:00would go down because there's just so
10:02much supply.
10:04That hasn't happened yet. Will it ever
10:05happen in the future?
10:07I don't know. But, it was outside my
10:09risk tolerance, and so I don't have it.
10:12So, what is inside my risk tolerance? I
10:14guess is the question. So, my bread and
10:17butter is I love buying things that are
10:19low risk and have high upside. To me,
10:22like, one of the best examples of this
10:24was the stained glass Moltres, Zapdos,
10:27and Articuno from Pokémon. This was like
10:30one of the first promo cards that I
10:31bought when I got back into collecting
10:34Pokémon.
10:36It was like five bucks, and I looked at
10:38it and thought, like, yeah, I know
10:39there's a ton of these out there, but
10:41like, this art is so cool. It's really
10:43iconic. You know, I am a huge fan of
10:46these birds from playing, you know, blue
10:48and red when I was a kid. And so,
10:51for me, it felt like a no-brainer,
10:53right? If it stayed at $5, I had an
10:55awesome card for $5. But, I also thought
10:58that, like, if the game continued to
11:00grow, what seemed like a huge supply of
11:03cards would actually not end up being
11:04that huge, right? And so, that's what I
11:06see as the upside argument for a lot of
11:08these lower-priced cards. You know, the
11:10Onami on the right is one of my favorite
11:12cards because, like the birds,
11:15it is a really high-population card, but
11:17if the game continues to grow, I think
11:19the artwork is really, really desirable.
11:21So, do I think it's going to be like a
11:23$10,000 card? No. But, do I think
11:26spending $5 on a card that I absolutely
11:29adore that has the potential to be a
11:31someday? These are the types of deals
11:33that I love. They look amazing in a
11:34binder. You're never going to lose much
11:36money on them. And hey, you never know,
11:38somebody might decide that that art is
11:40super iconic someday and suddenly you
11:42have a winner on your hands, right?
11:44The illustration boxes are another
11:46example of where I love to find value
11:48because when this box first came out,
11:49you know, even at market it was like 55,
11:5160 bucks cuz there were a bunch of them.
11:53Well, if you added up the cost of the
11:55packs inside, it was way above that,
11:58right? I do think if you're looking for
12:00an opportunity like this right now, I do
12:01think some of the starter decks that
12:04have the OP 11 packs in them are
12:06actually still going for less than the
12:07cost of the packs themselves. So, if you
12:10want to hunt for those, I think there's
12:11an opportunity to find some deals there
12:13on sealed. Those are the types of things
12:14that I tend to look for as sort of an
12:16easy way to lower your risk, but also
12:19have a little bit of upside. So, my
12:21third rule is to follow your passion and
12:24not to follow the herd. Again, this
12:26might seem obvious, but I think
12:29sometimes we don't realize how much we
12:31are participating in herd behavior,
12:33right? You know, if you watch YouTube as
12:36I obviously do,
12:37you know, I hear a lot of creators
12:39talking about similar cards and that
12:41makes me think about the card more and I
12:44may not realize how much of my thoughts
12:48on a particular card or a particular set
12:50or whatever have been influenced by the
12:52fact that other people are excited about
12:53it. Or conversely, that other people
12:55don't like it. I think a lot of us are
12:58driven in a direction towards specific
13:01cards and specific products and I think
13:04that can artificially extend demand
13:07beyond where the demand naturally is.
13:10And so, if you're going in a different
13:12direction, if you're being really,
13:14really thoughtful about how you're
13:16participating in that herd mentality,
13:18you will find things where demand might
13:20be artificially low because folks who
13:24might have demanded those cards in like
13:25a neutral environment are now spending
13:27their resources on something else. And
13:29so, for me, this is like absolutely a
13:31winning strategy to getting what you
13:33love at an affordable price.
13:35So, a couple things for me, you know,
13:37this Nami card, it's Japanese. I don't
13:40primarily collect Japanese cards, but I
13:42think the art on this is amazing. And at
13:44less than $40, it's not a card that I
13:46hear people talking about a lot. You
13:48know, I don't have a great sense of what
13:49the population is. I doubt it's like a
13:51crazy common card. But, I just think the
13:55art is really, really appealing. And,
13:58you know, it doesn't seem like it's been
13:59pumped. And so, for me, that seems like
14:01a great opportunity. I also love the
14:03Dawn cards, you know, I did a video
14:06where I looked at sort of like which
14:07cards were closest to their pre-boom
14:10prices as a way to identify like
14:12opportunities to buy. And Dawn cards
14:14were some of the ones that have moved
14:15the least
14:17in the time that One Piece has been
14:18booming. So, could that mean that
14:20there's low demand long-term for them?
14:22Of course, there could. But, it also
14:24means that in a certain sense, you have
14:26like a time machine where you can go
14:27back and still buy cards at the prices
14:30that they were 6, 9 months ago. And so,
14:32I'm just picking up Dawn that I really
14:34love. Not as an investment, but just as
14:37something that I'm passionate about and
14:39I think looks really cool and is really,
14:41really affordable.
14:42You know, this Drowsy on the right, when
14:44I first saw this card, I was like, this
14:46is a piece of fine art that is on a
14:48Pokémon card. Like, this is one of the
14:50coolest things I've ever seen. So, I
14:52bought one for myself. I bought one for
14:53my kid. It was seven bucks, right?
14:56Again, this is my bread and butter.
14:58Like, these cards that are super cheap,
15:00but really, really interesting. And
15:02maybe someday other people will come to
15:03agree that they're interesting. And, you
15:06know, I think over the years people have
15:07put more of a focus on the artists in
15:09Pokémon, you know, props to Shinji
15:11Konda,
15:12and Komiya, and like some of these other
15:15really great Pokémon artists, right? And
15:17now this card is booming, you know, it's
15:18like 75, 80 bucks.
15:21Because
15:22people decided that this artistic style
15:24was really, really cool. Again, this is
15:27the type of thing where if you are
15:28following your passion, sometimes other
15:31people are going to land in the same
15:32place that you are, right? If you're
15:34trying to follow what everybody else is
15:36saying, you're always going to be buying
15:38at or near the top. And that's not only
15:40a way to lose money, it's also a way not
15:43to enjoy the act of collecting. The last
15:45thing I'll say to you about following
15:46your passion and not the herd, and this
15:48should seem really obvious, but again,
15:50is harder to implement than it might
15:51seem, is don't pay for things that you
15:54don't care about. The herd is going to
15:57talk about
15:58these really, really niche things, like
16:02super, super rare cards, super, super
16:05high grade cards.
16:07But if you don't care about that, don't
16:09pay for any of it, right? You know, I
16:11talked about this Foxy recently in a
16:13video because it was the least expensive
16:15of the gold SPs that was still available
16:17at $315.
16:19If you watched that video and your
16:21reaction was $315 for a Foxy card is
16:24ridiculous, awesome. Don't buy it.
16:29Buy cards that are far cheaper, right?
16:31There's no reason that anybody needs to
16:33participate in the rat race of rarity if
16:36they don't want to. Buy cheap cards of
16:38your favorite characters. Buy the cards
16:40that you love the art the most of.
16:41That's awesome. You'll save so much
16:43money. This law black label, for those
16:46who don't know, like the regular raw
16:49laws like less than $750,
16:52and someone paid almost $22,000
16:54for this in a black label. I saw
16:56recently that like a BGS 10 sold for
16:58like $1250,
17:00right? So, somebody paid more than
17:02$20,000
17:03more to have four 10s in subgrades
17:07instead of three 10s in subgrades. And I
17:10don't know about them, but I feel quite
17:11confident that I could not tell you the
17:13difference which was the black label and
17:15which was the 10 if you put them both in
17:17front of me. Now, am I saying they're
17:18wrong for doing that? I'm not. Maybe Law
17:21is their favorite character. Maybe this
17:23is their favorite manga panel. Maybe
17:26they only want one card and this is like
17:29their grail and they are willing to
17:31spend whatever it takes. There's nothing
17:32wrong about that. But if you don't care
17:34about black labels, if you don't care
17:36about BGS 10s, if you don't care about
17:38grading at all, don't pay to play. It's
17:40not worth it, right? Just buy what you
17:43love. This Jolteon on the right, I
17:45picked this up recently in a CGC 9
17:47because I really like the card and the
17:49CGC 9 was less than the price of raw.
17:52Pokemon cards are notoriously difficult
17:54to grade, right? So, a CGC 9 is probably
17:56what you would expect to get if you sent
17:57it in and this was less than
18:01the cost of raw.
18:02I like slabbed cards. I like the way
18:04they look. I like knowing that they're
18:05more secure in the slabs. So, if I can
18:07get them for less than the price of raw,
18:09I'm going to do that and condition
18:10frankly doesn't matter that much to me
18:12if I just like the card. Now, the next
18:14rule that I try to follow is not to
18:17chase cards and to be flexible in what
18:20I'm trying to collect. You know, I think
18:21it's really easy to say I'm going to
18:24collect a master set of X or I'm going
18:27to collect every card of this character
18:29and then suddenly they get really
18:31expensive and you're forced into making
18:33a decision that you're not comfortable
18:34with. So, let me give you an example.
18:36When OP09 came out, I was trying to
18:39collect all the Namis and I think I had
18:41gotten almost all of them at that point.
18:44I think the OP05 Nami and the OP03 Nami
18:46leader were like 100 bucks each and
18:47those were the most expensive ones I'd
18:48bought. And when OP09 came out, the Nami
18:51and the Boa were like, you know, 250
18:53bucks and I was like, that's too much.
18:55I'm going to wait till they come down
18:56and it never did.
18:58So, you know what? I never bought it
19:00because in my mind it wasn't worth that
19:03and so I just stopped collecting Nami
19:05cards, right? There was no reason that I
19:07needed to spend more than I was
19:08comfortable with
19:10to have every single one of something
19:12And that flexibility was actually
19:14really, really freeing. You know,
19:15feeling the pressure to complete
19:17something just because you set out to do
19:19it
19:19can feel like a constraint. And I like
19:21collecting in a way that is free and
19:24fun.
19:25You know, the gold Luffy SSP is one of
19:28my favorite cards that's ever been
19:29printed. I was mentally prepared to
19:31spend like a thousand bucks for this
19:33card when it came out. I never found one
19:35to do it. Obviously, it has grown far
19:38outside of that price and at this point
19:40I will never own it because it's way
19:41beyond my risk tolerance. And so
19:44I missed out on that, but that's okay.
19:47The Bulbasaur was an interesting one
19:48because when this one was at its peak,
19:49it was like $1,500. And I was saying,
19:52you know, I think this is going to go
19:53down. I think it's going to get to like
19:55850 bucks and that's probably where I
19:57would buy it.
19:59And it did get down to 850 bucks. And I
20:02still haven't bought it yet. I'll be
20:04honest, what I find myself thinking is
20:06I'm not sure that I'm comfortable
20:08spending that much money on a card. So,
20:11even though I love it and even though I
20:13think that at $850, like, you know,
20:15there's a decent chance that it's close
20:17to the bottom.
20:18I think I'm more comfortable missing out
20:20on it. Now, my opinion on that might
20:22change tomorrow, but that's sort of how
20:24I feel today, right? And so, like
20:26whether I ever get the card or not, like
20:28this is an example of the types of
20:29conversations that I'm having about
20:31specific decisions that I'm making. And
20:34at its core, like understanding what
20:36you're comfortable missing out on and
20:38what you're not will help you to make
20:40really good decisions. Okay, so the last
20:42rule that I follow and it may strike you
20:44as odd that this needs to be a rule
20:45because this seems really obvious, but
20:47again, I think it's harder to implement
20:50this than I would have guessed on its
20:51face. Don't collect things that you
20:54don't actually want. And the first way
20:56that I try to operationalize this is to
20:58leave speculating to the speculators.
21:01Now, I'm not here to diss people who are
21:02buying things because they think the
21:04prices are going to go up, but as
21:06someone who's primarily focused on
21:07collecting, I'm realizing two things.
21:09The first is that
21:11you know, let's talk about the EBO2 box.
21:13So, I've been talking about EBO2 a lot
21:15and how I think it's like the most
21:16undervalued set. I think it's one of the
21:18best sets that's ever been printed. It
21:20has a really low population. Like this
21:23is like the clearest signal to buy a
21:25sealed product in my mind like that I
21:28have seen that isn't buying a product at
21:29MSRP.
21:31So, the question you probably have is
21:32how much do I buy? And the answer is I
21:34didn't buy any.
21:36Even though I felt reasonably confident
21:38that we would be where we are now where
21:40it's gone from like 450 bucks to like
21:42650 bucks at some point in the future,
21:45it wasn't worth it to me.
21:47And the reason is because I'm not trying
21:48to maximize for profits, right? I have
21:51two boxes of EBO2 that I bought when the
21:54set first came out. And
21:57even if I knew and felt confident the
21:59prices were going to go up, having two
22:01more boxes of EBO2 wasn't going to do
22:03anything for me from a collecting
22:04perspective. Also, because of selling
22:07costs, even if I wanted to buy it and
22:09then just flip it, it would have to go
22:10up, you know, more than 20% for me to
22:13make any profit on it at all, right? And
22:15that's not the game that I'm in. And so,
22:17for me, if I was going to spend $1,000
22:18on my collection, there's just other
22:20things that I would rather have. And I
22:21think that should say a lot about my
22:24collecting philosophy because I really
22:26do believe the price is going to go up
22:28and I'm perfectly fine leaving those
22:29gains on the table because it's not my
22:31number one priority from a collecting
22:32perspective. The other lesson I have
22:34here is that
22:36a mistake that I've made a few times is
22:39like wandering into things I don't
22:40understand and speculating on something,
22:43right? So, one is Altered. I played a
22:46pre-release of Altered. I thought the
22:48game was pretty fun. And so, I went and
22:50I bought like two of the Kickstarter
22:51boxes thinking like, you know, if this
22:53game blows up, these Kickstarter boxes
22:55are going to be worth so much. It's
22:56going to be so great. Well, for those
22:58who don't know, Altered was shut down
23:00not that long ago. And those boxes have
23:02lost like 2/3 of their value, right?
23:05I had no business doing that. Like, I'll
23:08still happily open the boxes and we'll
23:09have a sealed event and it will be fun
23:11or whatever, but like I didn't know
23:13anything about Altered. I was not in a
23:15position to predict how Altered was
23:17going to go. I just bought it because
23:20people seemed excited about it, right? I
23:21was doing what the herd was doing and I
23:24got burned by it. And then the last
23:26thing I will say is like this Lorcana
23:29100th anniversary box. For anybody who
23:32doesn't remember this, when this came
23:33out, this was like the hottest item in
23:36like the history of Lorcana. People were
23:38paying like $800 for this box. And their
23:40logic was, well, you have cards that are
23:43basically enchanted. They look just like
23:45enchanted. They're original art from the
23:47studio artists, so that's really cool.
23:50And it's in a 100th anniversary box. And
23:51some people were genuinely paying $800
23:54for this box.
23:55And now the box is worth $67, right?
23:59Because sometimes when something seems
24:01so obviously like it's going to be worth
24:03a lot of money
24:05and it's obvious to everybody, it ends
24:07up not being worth a lot of money
24:09because everybody buys it. Everybody
24:11keeps it sealed.
24:12Uh the company prints a lot of it
24:14because they know they can make a lot of
24:15money off it, right? And so sometimes
24:17these can't miss things
24:20end up being more speculator logic than
24:23they end up being genuine demand, right?
24:26Part of the reason why I wanted to buy
24:28this and not open it is because I didn't
24:30really care about the cards inside.
24:32And the fact that I didn't feel
24:33passionately about it should have been
24:35an indication to me that maybe other
24:37people weren't going to feel as
24:38passionately about it as all the
24:39speculators were saying they would. And
24:41while I'm not saying that people are
24:42going to get burned on this, this does
24:44remind me a lot of the 25th anniversary
24:47collection for One Piece.
24:48I've heard people talk about, you know,
24:50it's one of the first things that's been
24:52printed, so it's really, really old,
24:54which makes it great. You know, they're
24:55basically like manga rares. You know,
24:58hearing people talk about these as
24:59basically being manga rares like sent
25:01off alarm bells as being exactly the
25:03same as what people were saying about
25:04the Lorcana product, right? Where
25:06they're like, "They're basically
25:07enchanted." But they're not manga rares,
25:09right?
25:11There's a lot more of these out there
25:12than there are of most manga rares. For
25:14me, I picked up a bunch of these cards
25:16when they were super cheap, and when
25:17they went up, I sold them because I just
25:19don't really like them.
25:21Like, I don't think the art is great.
25:23They don't really feel like mangas to
25:25me. And so, for that reason, if you
25:27don't want it, sell it. And I didn't
25:29want it, so I sold it. Now, again, that
25:32doesn't mean that the product's not
25:33going to go up long term. I'm not saying
25:34that at all. But, if I don't feel
25:37passionately about it,
25:39I don't want to be invested in it. Uh
25:41and that's just me personally. I also
25:43used to collect one of every starter
25:44deck because I thought that would be a
25:45cool thing to do, and it turns out that
25:46that just takes up a lot of space, and I
25:48didn't like looking at them as much as I
25:50like looking at my cards. So, I sold
25:52those, too. And then, the last point I
25:53want to make here is that if you have
25:55cards that are really, really playable,
25:58and they're expensive because they're
26:00playable, do everybody a favor and just
26:02sell them. The players really want them,
26:04and so putting more of them in the
26:06market is better for them. Unless you
26:07absolutely love the card and value it at
26:09its current price, just sell it. I
26:12recently sold this so that it could go
26:14in somebody's deck instead of sitting in
26:15my binder. So, the big question, I
26:17think, is is this approach right for
26:18you, right? This approach works great
26:20for me because of my goals and my
26:23objectives, but not everybody has the
26:25same goals and objectives, and I totally
26:27understand that. As I've mentioned to
26:28people before, I consider myself to be
26:30kind of a Jinbe. He's the, you know,
26:33straw hat that I most feel like I can
26:35relate to. But other people are Luffy's,
26:38right? They just want to follow their
26:40passion, and they want to be free. Other
26:42people are Nami's. They primarily want
26:44profit and care about what things are
26:46worth, right? And so, there are
26:48legitimately different strategies to do
26:49this. So, for me, the pros of the Jin
26:51Bae approach are it maximizes for
26:54enjoyment, it prioritizes financial
26:56security, and it's super flexible. It
26:58helps me to be sustainably in this for
26:59the long term, and it helps me to
27:01understand what I really value and care
27:03about, and be able to move in a
27:04direction that optimizes for that. You
27:07know, some of the cons, this approach
27:08has lower financial upside. I'm not
27:10buying cards primarily because I want
27:13them to go up in price. I'm buying them
27:14primarily because I love them, right? So
27:16if you're trying to do that, your
27:17approach is going to be super different.
27:19It also requires a lot of patience. You
27:21know, there are cards that I really,
27:22really want that I have to be super
27:24disciplined about not going out and just
27:26buying because I think they're going to
27:27go down in price, and it's worth it to
27:29me to wait.
27:31Obviously, that's not fun for everybody.
27:33And then the last thing is it's super
27:34research-intensive. I know this will
27:35shock everyone, but I enjoy doing
27:37research on this topic. I try to share
27:39as much of that as I can with you all.
27:41Um but if you don't like doing that
27:43research, and if you don't like watching
27:45videos to help you do that research, uh
27:47this may not be the approach for you. So
27:49that's all I have for today. As always,
27:51I hope this was helpful. A big thank you
27:54to those who have been using our eBay
27:56store and our TCG Player account. It's
27:58been incredibly helpful to us. For those
28:01who don't know, I've started an
28:02affiliate eBay storefront where I can
28:04post cards on a rolling basis that I
28:07really, really like. So if you've been
28:09waiting a couple weeks and you haven't
28:10seen a video on the types of cards that
28:12you're looking for, I try to maintain an
28:14updated list there for people to be able
28:16to check in on. Again, no obligation to
28:18buy anything. I just wanted to have a
28:20list of cards that I really like for
28:21people to be able to go find. And if you
28:23do find something that you love, we'll
28:24get a commission for it, which is
28:26fantastic, and we appreciate. Um so as
28:29always, you know, if you found this
28:30helpful, please like, comment, and if
28:32you haven't already subscribed, I
28:33appreciate your time, and I will see you
28:35in the next one.

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