00:00Steve, we really appreciate you being with us today.
00:02Thank you for having me.
00:04This is quite a business you have, which you actually began when you were 14 years old.
00:09This year alone, sales totaling $2.158 billion.
00:15Looking back at the industry, what are the biggest changes you've seen?
00:21Technology, probably.
00:23I mean, the Internet changed our business hugely back in the 90s.
00:30And in the implementation of that over time, video, it is we are fully, fully, have fully embraced the digital
00:43world.
00:44You know, you added more than 200,000 new clients in 2025.
00:48Where do you see the ceiling in this industry?
00:51I know we discussed earlier when we got a chance to talk with you that sports, comic books are the
00:56biggest growing areas.
00:58Well, actually, they've experienced the most growth over the last 15 years.
01:03But in terms of, you know, growth today, some of our smaller categories are growing at a higher rate.
01:11They still have a ways to go to catch up.
01:14But there's probably 20 different categories that sort of fall into the, you know, 20 to 30 to 40 percent
01:25growth per annum rate right now for us.
01:29Specific cards.
01:31We talked about this earlier.
01:32Aaron Judge, we talked about some other cards.
01:34And what you're seeing in terms of the totals that people are willing to pay for them now?
01:39It's crazy.
01:40You know, I mean, it's really become a huge, it's become an asset class.
01:46You know, before we used to deal with collectibles, you know, and there's still collectibles, obviously.
01:50And that's the basis for the value.
01:54But a lot of people now are, they're diversifying.
01:57And they're getting into all other types of, you know, collectibles, or excuse me, investments, and cards or collectibles, sports
02:09cards, coins, comic books, movie memorabilia.
02:15Like I said, there's probably 30 other, 20 or 30 other categories that fall into that.
02:20People are looking for alternative ways to, alternative places to put their money.
02:25Let's talk about alternative places to put their money.
02:28When the economy changes, is this a business that it doesn't affect it because people still want to spend money
02:34there?
02:35Or are you seeing changes?
02:38Well, both.
02:39I mean, there are, I mean, people become passionate.
02:42As you probably have heard, people call these passion investments.
02:46And you can build a huge stock and bond portfolio, but it's not a lot of fun.
02:54Well, we deal in fun and investments.
02:59So, particularly if you're a diehard collector.
03:02I mean, you'd much rather spend time collecting, learning about, reading about what you're doing, how it ties into history.
03:15So, it's more interesting.
03:17But when it comes to the point of, are people spending less money?
03:21When there's less money to spend, when the economy's in different places, your high-end people, they may still be
03:25there.
03:26But do you see changes overall?
03:28A little.
03:29You know, there'll be some diminution of value in some cases.
03:33Maybe a little less volume.
03:34But most of the people we deal in, or deal with, I should say, are relatively affluent.
03:42I mean, you talk about some of your top five moments.
03:45You look at the Superman No. 1 comic.
03:48That was $9.12 million last year.
03:51A Mickey Mantle jersey, $5.25 million spent on that.
03:56$7.25 million Norman Rockwell White House artwork.
04:00Where's the ceiling here?
04:02I don't believe there is a ceiling.
04:04You went through some really interesting stories about things that came to your attention.
04:09Oftentimes, you say people have no idea what they have.
04:12That's right.
04:13It's usually something that's inherited or found, you know, in somebody's, you know, when somebody passes away.
04:19They find this.
04:20What's this?
04:21They do the research, and they figure out it's worth a lot more than they ever expected.
04:26Your passion, you know, 14 years old, you're starting with coins.
04:29Now you've expanded to different areas.
04:30Is your passion the same on this?
04:33You know, I still have the collecting gene, but my passion is my business.
04:40Now, just because it's your daily job at this point.
04:43It's my daily job.
04:43I enjoy it.
04:44I mean, I have a lot of fun doing it.
04:46And I get to see all this stuff.
04:48So I don't have the pride of ownership, and if I do, it's only very temporary.
04:56900 employees throughout the world on this now.
04:59That's right.
04:59This started here in Dallas in a high-rise building.
05:02Yes, it did.
05:03What made you decide to stay here?
05:06Well, I grew up in Fort Worth.
05:08My parents were both raised in Dallas.
05:11My family was in Dallas and Fort Worth.
05:13And there was really no reason to leave.
05:17It was, you know, it was, Dallas is a great place.
05:22It was amazing how they accepted this, you know, at that time, 20-year-old kid in business here.
05:31I mean, there was no, first of all, in the business I was in, or am in, there's very few
05:39barriers of entry.
05:41And so I was able to open up a shop, excuse me, an office, and what was in the LTV
05:47Tower.
05:49And it was very, everybody was just incredibly open.
05:58It was interesting when you spoke to us earlier explaining exactly what a small percentage of things that are brought
06:06to your attention actually make it to the auction.
06:09That's correct.
06:10I mean, because we're only dealing in the high-end material.
06:14I mean, of that other 98%, it has a value.
06:18It's just not in our world.
06:20And it seems like quite a process to really go through everything.
06:23It is.
06:25Yeah.
06:25I mean, we're using AI right now to, like, help sort out things and determine, you know, determine what's worth
06:31going after and what's not.
06:35Talk about the use of AI for you.
06:38It's a little like image recognition.
06:39I mean, now we have on our website, people can take an iPhone image of something, send it to us,
06:49and say, what is this worth?
06:50And then we run against, you know, millions of images and determine what it is.
06:58And from that, there's some human intervention, but we can determine what it's worth.
07:05So it's almost all automated, or will be.
07:08We're in the process of that right now.
07:10So it's not quite there yet, but it will be.
07:12So it's not quite there.
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