Interview w/ Master Collector Darren Rovell

Yeah podcast on the show Food March Job. Hey, everybody, welcome to
a special bonus edition of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast. I am the producer,
Mark Sterling. Here, I'm, of course, joined by the illustrious
host of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast. Right, guys, well, I'm
here always ready. Matt Cardona, Brian the most professional wrestler, Brian Myers.
What's up everybody? But we got a big very guest today, big
guest, A big get my guest. I got return the return mister Darren
Ravel, the very controversial in our uh, in our collecting world. I
love you so, I don't know what the controversy is about. And you
want fifty per as wrestlers, you want more than fifty percent of people to
hate you. Right, there's my guy, a little heat, which I'm
not. I am not. Listen, the worst thing you can have is
for you to be right down the middle these days. That means you're irrelevant,
you're not making money, and no one cares about you. Well,
I'll tell you that. That's the name of my game. Pat you're your
name and my Hey, you know, the first return guest on the show.
I here. Yeah, we're not We're not that typically a guest podcast
R and we're a definitive interview podcast because that's because that's because I bring it
and will I will prove it again tonight. Yes, I mean we had
to have you on. We're going to talk about the Tom Brady controversy.
You know, we brought it up. We we we mentioned you last week.
I figured we got to have you onstead of trying to put words into
your mouth paraphrace what you said, let's just let's just talk about it.
Maybe if you can give it one who hasn't listened, maybe they don't know,
kind of catch up then catch up up to speed in your in your
view and your terms. So everyone is at fault here, okay, because
what happened is Fanatics. Obviously. I think Tom Brady will make about five
million dollars this year from Fanatics, which is the most any athlete has made
in a single year from from a signing from signing exclusive deals. Now Fanatics
has an exclusive but you know, every once in a while, Tom,
we don't want to bother you. We're going to look the other way.
Now, why would they do this, Well, because Tom's got other business
and we're not going to stop him. From doing other business. And in
October of twenty twenty three when he went to Mexico, he did this deal
where he was speaking and then they said, all right, let's throw in
one hundred autographs in one hundred pictures now in Mexico. The autographs, as
I found out, we're autographs on hats and useless things and little trinkets in
this and that they were not worried about it. But then what happened was
when he does to do this, he does this motivational speech in Miami,
half the tickets were sold or half the VIP tickets were sold to or this
guy was a partner of the main guy. And he goes out to the
memorabilia hounds, and he goes out to the Boston guys who have all the
great Brady stuff and says, hey, Fanatics is going to charge a ten
thousand dollars to put it on a game news item that Brady sign a game
news item. For thirty six hundred, you get the speech, a photo
in an auro. Now, so that's the opportunist part here, where these
guys know that it's not exactly closure. Okay, let let's call a spade
a spade here. It's not exactly kosher what's going on. And so Tom
does his speech and he takes the photo, and then he goes and he
does the whole autograph thing. He walks in the room, no one is
in there, and he'd hey, settle down. So he's he's he's just
like, he sees these items, and to be honest with you, he
definitely wasn't expecting it right, Like these items, I don't I think he
knows what they are, the way that they're labeled. You guys know when
you sign stuff, you know what is yours, what you use, what's
special, it's not special, Come on, come on, Okay. So
he sees this stuff and I think immediately it's like, well, I got
a contract to sign on hundred autos, I should just do it. So
part of me is not. I don't think Tom is like, Oh,
let's f these guys, let's scribble, let's be Tornado Tom and go through
all these things and destroy game used stuff. I don't think that was his
intention. He probably should have taken a breath and said, I'm not going
to sign this. This is not the spirit of the contract that I signed.
I was supposed to sign a couple things, and now these guys from
Boston have come and so I think you know, so that he ruined some
items. These guys are angry, and you know Tom's getting blitzed on which
you know, there's definitely some fault there. There's a lot of fault to
the conference and there's some fault to the collectors. They they knew they were
taking a chance. So let's not act like you weren't taking a chance.
Yeah, I think we said at the bat, he either signs them all
correctly or doesn't sign them at all. Yes, you know, but also
these fans, they're innocent in the sense that their items are ruined, but
they knew, they knew they were getting involved in this. A little too
good to be true here, yes, But right on the flip side,
you just said Tom knew the value of these items. I think Tom did
know the value. So for him to not take his time and give a
nice signature on something that he knows is oh borderline. The replaceable is the
conscious decision that he made. Yeah, yeah again again, I do think
you guys know, people come to you, people come to stars, and
a lot of what you do is situational. The fan complains that you are
a jerk off. Well guess what, you just came from somewhere else.
And it's like, you know, they're analyzing its like this is their one
time meeting you. It can't be one hundred percent every time. And so,
you know, I think he was coming off a speech. I think
he really believed this the speech was the main act. That's what I said.
Yeah, yeah, And so he's in the moment and I think he's
quickly surprised and then he makes a bad decision and I'm not you know,
collectors are like you're supposed to protect us, you cover collecting and that I'm
trying to just call it as it is. Like they spoke to fanatics and
they said game use items are ten thousand, this is thirty six hundred.
So and then you know, there's never a guarantee that things are going to
work out. Everyone wants to autograph everything. Alan Iverson took an Allen Iverson
ray Allen debut that I had which ticket which is not easy to get,
and he like tested the pen on it. She's about and then they call
and it's literally the only NBA debut where two Hall of Famers debuted in the
same school, and they called me. They're like, hey, what do
you pay for the ticket? I'm like, but I waited it two years,
like and I got it a long time ago. Well would you pay
three hundred? But yeah, but what is it? What was it worth?
Right? Like you know, and now it's destroyed and we have to
take it out of the population. So yeah, So so when you autograph,
it's always a it's always a crapshoot. So how much is a Tom
Brady autograph? Like if he was just putting it on an eight by ten?
Like, let let's say if you bought three thirty six this for the
thing and it was now through fanatticts and eight by ten might be eight eight
ninety nine and that's with no decimal point. Okay, Okay, So that
is that is definitely cheaper than thirty six hundred dollars if you want to get
him to sign it on it. Yeah, But then if you want to
get him to sign it on a ticket, now it's five thousand Holy spell
game game used ten thousand. Wow, So there was some tickets here,
there was gaming used items, but weren't there also some things that he flat
out did not sign, like some cards. He didn't sign cards because that
expressly says he had in his fanatics deal he can never sign cards. And
I'm sure fanatics said don't sign cards. I'm sure you said that. What's
and those guys not lucky, those guys lucked out? Yeah, right,
imaginely to face the rookie or something. Yeah, exactly. Man, it's
such an interesting topic because there's so many opinions and none of us are right.
Right. It's all our opinions, you know, And I could you
know at the airport. We were telling this story last week. If I'm
at the airport and some quote unquote fan is shoving something to my face,
they're getting a Tornado Matt autograph. You know what I'm saying. They are.
But if they're coming at a signing and they're pain they're looking at the
eye to eye, of course I'm taking my time. But let me let
me show you the one autograph I didn't ask for. Man, that's great,
those listen, says Johnnie Johnny Manzell. Uh, because I was I
was trying. I almost got it. I only got him ineligible for a
half a quarter after his Heisman season. For him, he is perpetually Uh,
angry at me. So that's that's one. That's the one I didn't
ask for. So, but that's probably worth more than at right. Well,
this is a this is a one of one day, That's what I'm
saying. And I feel like this Brady situation has a similar you know what
if to it, Like autograph autographs are tough, uh I That's why I
enjoy, you know, collecting the autographs of dead people. You know it
it helps you know nothing's ever gonna happen to them, you know they're dead.
You talk about all the time the importance of a historical situation, historical
night. Could these Tornado Tom items be worth money? Now? You don't
think so. I don't think that this will turn into some kind of like
oh remember the Tornado Tom saying oh you have something from that. Let's you
know, you don't think it's gonna know, no way, no way.
I do feel like it's already lost some steam, you know. I kind
of wonder what's what's next. Like people are like, is Tom gonna like
have a make good? Are these guys gonna sue? Who were they suing?
Like suing the conference I who was selling them was kind of like an
offshoot was an official like, I don't know if they have messages or something
with that guy saying, hey, come to this and pay thirty six hundred
you can get whatever you want signed. I'll guarantee you. And they definitely
have messages. I'm not there. I'm not justifying this one bit. If
you look at the ad, right, this is in Miami, Florida,
correct, Like the number is like a Mexico phone number. It doesn't that
like scream like red flag right like comes he as Tom Brady price too good
to be true. Oh by the way, the number is a zero six
five four five four three. It has too many numbers, right, Yeah,
there's not a little red flag like these These customers, these fans knew
they were kind of walking that fine tightrope, you know, like it was
a risk. Yes, it was paid thirty six hundred bucks. What do
you think he should have done in this situation? Walked away? Walked away
and not This is not this is not the spirit of what I signed.
I was. I was going to do one hundred autographs and this is not
a separate signing. This is not a paid signing. Yeah, this was
a speech plus a couple extras. On some hats and pennants and trinkets,
not anything from a Super Bowl. I feel like it should have been like
a head shot eight by ten, not even like an NFL but you know,
like motivational speech licensed. Yeah, and you think those guys would have
got their money? You think that it's fair for those guys thirty six hundred
bucks, you get an eight x ten the photo, And no, they
wouldn't have. They wouldn't have participate, would have done because that's the whole
gig. They were getting the deal. They were just getting a deal.
Got it here, so they would have been pissed off either way. What
do we got here? Dan? That is the best George Washington in the
world. God put that on. It's from seventeen ninety nine, two months
before he died. So what is it on. It's on an envelope now
from seventeen seventy three to I think eighteen seventy three. If you got a
dignitary to sign your envelope, you did not have to pay postage. So
some guy was like, hey, George, George, sign the envelope,
so I don't have to pay one cent postage to mail this to Captain Abraham
Shepherd. All that handwriting is unbelievable. On that you want you want,
you want to see all that, Henry. So this is this is uh,
this is actually look at this handwriting. This handwriting is stupid. You
can you can cut this if you want. But this is great stuff,
all right. So this is so. In in seventeen ninety, this guy
named William Bell got bad salt in the harbor and he was like, I'm
not paying taxes on this shit? Are you kidding me? I can't even
sell it. So they're like, you must go to Hamilton, and here
comes Alexander Hamilton. Sure, I have received your letters of the twentieth instant
in closing one to you from mister William Bell of the same date. The
certificates mentioned in the letters was not found in your enclosure. I am always
disposed to exercise the discretion that may be vested in me by the laws for
the reasonable benefit of the fair traders in cases and under circumstances that admit a
relief from me. Considerable difficulty occurs in the present instance, wherein I am
called to authorize an allowance without any precise fact to direct me if the salt
were on board or if the proportion of foreign matter had been ascertained at the
time of landing. I now have something to govern my opinion, But at
this late day everything rests on mere conjecture. No, I lost my place.
This appears to me to create impediment, and the more so because the
legislature has been very particular in directing the mode to be persuaded with allowances for
damages, drawbacks, or any abatement of duty is permitted. Like can you
imagine, by the way, there's not any white out. I know they
didn't have that at the time. There's literally not a mistake here and up
and and he's writing with a a feather, a freaking feather. Could this
difficulty be surmounted? The case would still remain embarrassed by questions of this kind.
Whether the salts could be considered as damaged during the voyage, Which circumstances
requisite to obtaining an allowance. Upon consideration of all circumstances attending this case,
I am not satisfied that it is in my power to authorize an allowance to
mister Bell. Hold on, ye, hold on, I can't even okay
with respect your obedient servant, Alexander Hamilton and this is slabbed right. That
sounded like a broken bat hearty promo too. Where do you get something like
that? So pretty much what happens is someone makes a mistake, like their
great grandfather had it and they kept it in perfect condition, and then they're
like, yeah, no, I hear you by and I'm like, yeah,
how much are you charging me? And they're like sixty five hundred bucks
and I'm like, yeah, let's go. Like all they think they don't
know it's where it's seventy five grand, but like Jesus, you know,
or or the the best Thomas Edison in the world right there, look at
that umbrella. Wow, that's really cool. Actually, now, so do
you have this stuff? Like I know, this stuff display what are you
really just gonna ask? No, I do not have I do Everyone asked
this, They're like, do you have like you know, like where do
you display this stuff? The really really valuable stuff is like you know,
I pulled this for you guys, right, I'm not do you have a
man cave with this stuff? No? I don't have ten million dollars worth
of stuff in a man cave, you know. But uh, and these
are like investments, right, investments. Everything is in. Yes, I
have twenty percent of my money and collectibles. I love that. And and
the reason that you did that is because we were talking to I have a
so so, so I have an advantage. I have a I have an
arbitrage game, which is that there's way too many collectibles being auctioned. Most
of these people don't know what they are. The descriptions are bad, they're
in the wrong auction houses, they go off at the wrong times, and
and so unlike the stock market where they're like, oh, you you you
invested in a company and they beat earnings, but it didn't beat the whisper
numbers, so the stock is down. It's like what that's the It's like
you you won, but you didn't really win. Like so, I don't
think that game is fair. I mean this game I can I can just
torch. I can torch people and it's fair. There there is, right,
there is an issue, which is that if I'm in person, it's
it's much like being a wrestling character. If I'm in person and I'm Darren
Ravel and people see my face, I have to give you a fair offer.
Because I am a spokesman for the hobby. You know, I got
people into collecting, and so it's technically I can't like rip you off.
But if I'm and you Wildcat ninety nine on eBay, right, you know,
then then all the game is off. Yeah. I feel like in
my case, I call myself the Michael Jordan of wrestling. For your collecting,
I have like the best high D stuff. So it's a double edged
sword because people come to me right because they seek me out with the stuff,
but also nine times out of ten they're trying to jack the price upon
me. And of course, right, so like I don't feel bad if
we get to steal every once in a while. And the game name of
the game like I'm never gonna oh no, that's too low, let me
give you more money, pals. What I will tell you what does happen,
which is unfortunate, which is that once you have to send it to
me, I don't have a fake name to send it to. So like
three percent of the time people see Darren Ravel and they're like, oh shit,
I made a mistake. The item is not coming to you like an
all, or they'll relist it, like they'll relist it and be like okay,
I figured it out now, I figured it out, you know,
like, you know, come on, even I have a fake name on
eve name too. Yeah, you got it. We still we still got
a lot of good pieces. You want to see a couple of wrestling pieces,
absolutely, real question about the historical piece before you move on? Now,
these would change hands ideally among a community of people that that collect historical
pieces. You right, And then do they always like end up in a
museum or is there just too many of these letters? And you could it
depends there's less and less ending up in museums because people are willing to pay
more. And when you so, I own I own a document that has
twelve Martin Luther King's signatures on it, and I offered it to this Smithsonian
and the Smithsonian said, we will only put it on display if you donate
it to us. And I'm like, what I thought we were supposed to
be educating children, like like I thought I thought there was like some like
aspirational educational Like no, no, it's all I'm going to give it to
you so that you yeah, okay, that's why. So what if you've
gotten out of it, would you would have got like a rental deal where
they pay you like monthly rent. They won't want to. I have to.
I have to sell it for zero dollars to them. But you were
seeking a rental deal. I want it. I didn't want to have to
pay for the insurance, I didn't want to have to pay for the storage,
and I thought it would be nice to display it, right and and
that deal really doesn't exist at the high end of museums. So everyone who
says like, oh, you have this great stuff, it should be in
a museum f museums like no, no, So, you know, but
it's sometimes it's just like, so I have a John Hancock signed lottery ticket
that that they uh to rebuild Fenuel Hall in Boston, and I know I'm
the sixth owner because I have the whole tracing of it came from Charles Hancock,
his cousin, and then his cousin Charles Hancock gave it to this woman
named Winthrop g Ray, who in eighteen sixty one was collecting autographs. You
know, I mean, this goes way back ahead of the game. This
goes way back, and people are always like, wow, there aren't any
fake Lincoln autographs. They were faking Lincoln's in eighteen ninety you know, like
you know, like there, you know you got to you know, you
got to be careful. But it's it's uh, it's a it's a it's
a really fun game. And every once in a while when I get sick
of a piece like I had, I had Shack's college, I d his
LSU college. I d for three years, and you know, then then
I owned it. I will not. I will not. I don't know
if I showed this last time. I will I will not be selling this
unless I get some Really, I can't even read. What on earth what's
the first name? I can't I can't think. I can say. It's
a little blurry on our end. Okay, Hefner, komma you oh god?
Those are pills. Yeah, fifty milligrams take one tablet one hour prior
sex an increase to two tablets daily maximum. But it's not slab. Dun't.
It's not slab. It's not the sign I was gonna blue jelly bellies
in it. But like that's like an example of like an auction. Now
screwing up Crystal Afner his ex wife is having this auction, and all that
is like stupid jewelry and furniture and at the end it's this one it says
estimate one thousand dollars and I'm like, excuse me, one thousand dollars for
the greatest conversation piece of old times? What am I missing here? Right?
You know? So so? But it's it's it's always like you know,
it's you always have to try to find the next thing, Like,
what's the next what's the next thing? Have you ever seen the blax?
Thing? Is gonna be Brosky selling blue Choo packets on what He's already done
that? No he has, That's that's good blue chew. It's like the
h you never heard of blue Choo? No, we gotta get it hooked
up down he code major to set a chewable viagra. The last time we
had you on the show, you like, if we go back, if
we could roll the footage. You literally blew my mind on the show because
we were talking about the l j N wrestlers and you were telling me to
invest in guys like whole Cog and I'm like, no, everyone has Hogan.
We got to get the guys like Haku and Warlad. You're like,
no, you gotta get the guys. People grew up on their favorites,
and it totally it was like an epithy because you're you're thinking about in your
mind, you're one of one. You you know, you you got to
get the ones that no one had, and but there there there is a
there's a balance there, right there, there's a balance between like no one
opened Kamala already like whatever it is, like there's definitely a balance between you
know, there's still only one hundred and fifty unopen open Hogan's right, you
know when Hogan passes like, that's that's the item. That's item, that's
the item we all played with. And you know now you're you know they
did. They haven't gone up as much as I thought, But I think
that's because you know, they're kind of holding at twenty five hundred. They're
really good ones. But I think that's if I still have five, So
I'm still holding. Wow, I'm still looking for I've been looking for one
since that conversation. I'm very picky because I want to high grade and I
want this. Do you have the stand in any of yours? The gray
stand? They were in the very first run and it didn't last long.
This is this is the best one. I have it's a eighty five and
that's five guys on the back of five back. This is actually an eight
back. Okay, I do have a five. I do have a five
back too. And then I have a I have a sign snucka which is
pretty yeah but but pretty much all. And then I have a I have
a chic back here this is I don't know what this one is. This
is, but this one, this is a seventy five. I mean the
stickers are just the toys are the toys backwards? Are us? Yes?
It's just so good the case I thought what I thought about. I want
to do an article ranking the stickers. Oh yeah, out of which one
like KB target, like the old Like what's the what's the stickers that you
that you want? If you could if you want the stickers? You know.
I recently bought the entire Hasbro collection, that's the set after the Elgie.
I got them all in the package, not graded or anything. But
I had a rule if it had a Toys r Us or a KB sticker,
I would count it. But if it had like a Kmart or or
you know, Mama Pop Store, I'm like, now I got to replace
this, right, I don't want this my collection, right because it was
it came on sale or something like that, right right, right, like
that that toys r us is I count that orange sticker? Oh man?
Yeah, I just think when it's over, like the talent's face or something
like that. Yeah, that's rough. So I think I think one of
the next big things is rookie magazines. So the first time someone appeared on
a cover, So I wanted to share a couple with you so that you
could and then I'll bring in the wrestling stuff. Sure, sure, So
so this is the first time Kurt Russell appeared on a cover. Kurt Russell.
Wow wow. Okay, we got the first time Rod Stewart appeared on
a cover. So these are rookie magazine covers. That what you call it.
It's basically it's basically I mean this kind of kind of feels creepy.
But Mick Jagger, wow wow. So all right, so we got a
couple of these, you know, uh little little goldie hawn action here.
Oh wow? Now are you going to get these graded? Eventually? I'll
get them graded. I'm waiting for for how about how about Robert de Niro
look at this thing? Crap? Uh? So and then I'm gonna get
I'm gonna show you a couple of good ones. Uh. All right,
so this is the first time The Rock appeared on a national non wrestling cover.
Yeah, I remember that. It's a great one, great one,
although I will tell you I do, by the way, for people listening
a TV guide, Oh yeah, I was literally going to ask you what
about TV guys? Yeah, and then and then and then this is pretty
much his greatest photograph of all time, the Student of the Month, the
great work, The Rock. When I saw this, I was like,
oh my god, this is amazing. It doesn't sound like all these days.
No, it's very art is coming more and more sought after. Because
so we got that, we have the we have the Rock debut ticket right
here. So we got a couple of rock things. The Rock sacks Charlie
Ward, his most substantive college moment, very difficult. I love how they
put that on this Labs and Sacks Charlie Ward, and you know it's always
great on the back free Blockbuster video rentel. Okay, So now now I'm
going to get you to the magazines. Uh, the the the there's two
that I want to show you. The Honald debut. Now you're speak my
language. Look at that Tomorrow's man is that like a no, no,
no it is? It is a straight magazine, okay, all right,
it's the international magazine for bodybuilding, all right? Okay. And then this
took a long time to find. I had to find Hulk's first cover.
This, This was a tough one. It is hilarious. Oh my god.
So so the best part about it is, so my favorite cover of
all time is this local Chicago cover in nineteen eighty four that says will Michael
Jordan make it in Chicago? And I'm like, that's so good. That's
so good. Okay, So this one is is Fred Blossy ruining Hulk Hogan's
career? Oh for sure? Oh that's cool. That was eighty three.
What's on that October nineteen eighty eighty before? It's like before Japan? Yeah,
damn. So in the corner it has like these these it's like the
Weird Apartment Wrestling, Violent, violent Beauties Wild. How did like, so,
how did you just do research and figure that out? Like? How
did you come by it? Basically, what I'm doing on all of these
is I look at like Wikipedia and timelines and I'm like, what could be
the earliest, and then I just keep searching back and back. So I
will on eBay or whatever, so I'll do nineteen seventy nine, nineteen eighty
to see when I could find something right, and most of the time I'll
buy it. And then sometimes I'll see something where it's earlier, and I'll
body, guess what I mean? That one costs one hundred bucks, but
most of these things are twenty bucks. The market, the market hasn't matured
on it, so I can I could take flyers on all these things,
right for sure. So last time, last time we talked, we talked
extensively about ticket stubs and stuff, which I think at the time we're very
undervalued. They've since exploded since what was that three years ago that we talked
about it. Yes, but then also especially you know post COVID, it
doesn't exist anymore, So like what are your thoughts on that? Like?
Is that just is that something where what you have is going to I feel
bad because I wish we could continue doing this. Yeah, trying to work
with teams and this is like me as kind of like an ambassador and trying
to like save things. I'm trying to work with teams to tell them,
hey, why don't you're the Chicago Cubs, why don't you just say it
costs three hundred and fifty dollars to print out tickets. Give us three hundred
and fifty dollars, we'll print you a sheet before the season, and if
it's the first time you're going to the game with your nephew or kid,
rip it out. You have one, right, you know, because the
issue is the issue is that if the ticket it is not printed at the
time of like, you can't print it after like yesa will be like no,
no, no, it's garbage. In fact, you can see sometimes
on the ticket Master it will give you like the true date and the date
they printed it is later than the date of the game. You can't do
that. So so it's yeah, I mean, I'm hoping that more and
more teams do it because there's so many reasons, Like it's it's almost like
the the the the free food on airlines. You're like, I hate the
free food. I hate the free food. And then the food's not free
anymore, and you're like it was so good, I want it. You
don't know, right, why aren't I entitled to get a free ticket like
I want them. I want them, Momento, I do have a since
we have movie the modern day ticket, the only chance you have is maybe
a comp right, so I think people still print out comps. So this
is this is this is uh, this is Peter McAllister's ticket from home alone.
Get the fuck out of here. So yeah, and then inside we
have Kevin's boarding pass and that that's screed us. Like for the movie,
this one is not screen Hold on, hold on, we'll get it.
We'll get a screen, we'll get a you want to screen use something,
sure, let's see here. Okay, I'm gonna get you a spring used
something. Uh all right, never know what darn revel is going to show.
Yeah, we got we got Dennis Quade's helmet from any given. We
got that sign. Uh, it is unsigned. It does say inside Dennis
Quaid movie warn and he given something to have a letter that came with it.
Now, if you had Dennis Quid sign that, would you have him
signed as the character or Dennis Quaid, probably Dennis Quaid and then the character's
name. And this is one of the greatest of all time. The kids
Glasses from Jerry McGwire. Oh, oh that is really cool. Oh my
god, and you did you? Who put that together like that? He
went to Michaels, I got a customer. Yeah, you know, it's
it's not like I have a wife and three kids. Let's go back to
the ticket stubs for a second. I just purchased this. It's uh stone
cold Steve Austin, he's a six time w w f W champion. All
ticket stubs from the night he won the title, all signed by Steve Austin,
all p s A graded. Oh is that like a six slot thing?
That was this? It was just that I want it so well,
investment piece now, also to show how much of a new bim to stuff
like this. I've never been on Golden before, so I had no idea
about all those well, the buyer's fees afterwards, Holy ship, it was
like two thousand dollars extra. It's twenty it's twenty percent plus the insurance plus
the Holy fuck god, I didn't know that either. I've never messed with
Golden When you uh, when yeah that then you uh, then you buy
an item for one hundred and forty three thousand, it becomes one hundred and
sixty one thousand. Yeah, yeah, oh my god. Yeah, I
feel like Golden is too popular now because of that show. And yeah yeah
yeah yeah to get like a real steal on there. Yeah, I'm still
I'm still all over tickets. I just acquired this one the premiere of Tommy
Boy. No. So yeah, you just caught you know, you gotta
keep looking around and you know seeing, Uh, hold on, we got
we got one. We've got a good one here. This is this one,
all right. This is the best highest graded Cinderella Man ticket from a
bear just core these boxing tickets of the thirties or just that's cool. Man.
Yeah, I still I still greatly love tickets, you know, I
really do. Yeah, it's of art, their pieces. Oh, I
got to show you my just said it's a momento too, which is such
a shame that. Yeah, you can't have it anymore. I got to
show you my latest, uh my latest pick up. It's the it's the
rooming list from the Dream Team in Barcelona, the Rules not be left And
thank god Christian Latner ran out of money and had to sell it to me.
Jesus, that's really cool. Jordan and Pippin are rooming next to each
other. Malone and Stockton are next to each other. It's like really,
it's like really cute. You know what if they had joining door, you
know, joining rooms. I love that Jesus. So last time that we
talked, you also talked a lot about physical media being something on the on
the horizon, and I think you were buying video games or something maybe at
the time as a buying I was buying VHS's. That's a market that didn't
turn out. I think there were more hoarders and more sealed VHS's that you
could imagine. But you know, I mean you still you know, to
get the to get the originals. I still think they're so cool. I
think so as well. So the vhs is still are really cheap. So
even if you now they now they got cheap. I mean, I don't
know. It's funny. Pete Davidson went on and he goes and I bought
them all up, And I'm like, am I the original character that you're
playing right now? Because I was the one who did that, not you.
I don't think there's a lot of popular movies that are still going for
a lot of money, maybe not as much as they were, but you
can't get like an original Rocky or Ghostbusters like the first edition. I bought
so many Rockies and there there were still too many of them. I just
you know, I see there there were there were too many of them.
I just but steal video and stuff exploded. Your video games are going crazy,
They're going crazy. I actually bought, uh, I bought the nicest
NBA jam in the world for for five thousand, and I actually sold it
for seventy seven thousand. What yeah, Oh it was a good turn.
It was a good show. Do you think that that is worth more than
seventy seven now? Or is the reason? But you I mean, listen,
you you have to know when to take money off the table. And
normally when you're when you're in fifteen X land, you're in you know,
that's right. I think last time we talked to use the term piggish.
Yeah, yeah, I keep that in the back of my mind about yeah,
you got it, you got it. You gotta really, you know,
you gotta, you gotta figure it out. I see, So you're
you're kind of looking at that fifteen time uh return And no matter even if
you think, what if you think that, man, this could really keep
going. Most of the time I've won, you know, like I had
that with the rock Bumblebee card. I don't know if you guys remember that.
That was like that was the card and I bought it for seven hundred
and fifty bucks and I sold it for seventeen thousand, and it turned out
to be pretty much the height you know, like but but it it hurt
to get rid of it. Now I have I have bought something and then
a day later brought it back. Uh oh god, yeah, I saw
I bought I sold a Yeah that's what I meant. I sold a Jeff
Bezos copy of Time magazine and like maybe like four or five days later,
he stepped down a ceo of Amazon, and I was like, oh god,
he's gonna go from private plane to private island. He never has to
show up at a meeting, like his auto is going to be impossible.
Yeah, I'm like, I gotta buy that back. That happened that that,
you know, uh, probably another three it was a three grand mistake,
not something crazy, but the wife didn't know about it. But anyway,
Yeah, have you ever now what's your strategy? You see something that
you have it's going down or it's not as valuable, do you try to
get up. I will, I will, I will unload it. I
mean that's something that people are really bad at doing in this industry. You
got to remember if something's going down or it doesn't turn out like you can
make money on the next opportunity, but if it goes to zero, you're
not doing anything. So you have to figure out like, okay, what's
next. I got to eat it. You have to eat it. You
can't just go down with the ship. So so I've I've done that before.
Uh, it's just it's part of you're not going to hit everything.
And if you make a lot of money because you've made great bets, you're
gonna lose. You know. You step into the DHS game and put twenty
five grand in to be ahead and then you lose. You got to be
willing to lose like a man. That's what I right. I agree with
that. Yeah, I mean that's the name of the game. Like you
gotta invest in yourself. Right. Well, I did get into the VHS
game, but I think I'm only in seventy bucks, okay, and I
think you're more like I just bought my favorite movies and displayed them. So
yeah, and then also Dad you're trying to figure out and we're all guessing
here like what could possibly be the next thing? And like it's a gamble,
right, so you win, send me lose. I'm like I'm always
trying to figure out with the wrestling figures, like what could possibly be next?
Right? Like you know what I do, Matt? Do you know
what I do? I ask I buy one or two things in a category
and ask people what do you think? And I look for someone to say
who isn't even into collecting? Wow, Like that's how I got into historical
because like once I bought like the Alexander Hamilton, people were like, holy
crap, that's on real and it's like this person is not a collecting person.
So it's like, if that person is saying something, I should just
go deep in. And then you have to and then you have to hone
your strategy. Okay, if I'm gonna collect more historical people, what is
the impetus for someone to buy historical Okay, let's figure this out. And
you really have to figure it out. And I figured it out. Twenty
twenty six is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America. There's gonna be
a lot of talk because I'm gonna put myself on the Today Show conductible,
and as I walk off the set, I'm gonna sell it all. Yeah,
I mean, really think about it. That's also the beauty of what
you're doing because you have no sentimental attachment to this stuff. You're in it
for the pure Oh, I'm that's not that's not true, that's not true.
I'm willing in certain cases, I will. I'm willing. I'm willing
to part from it. But I think I do have things that I enjoy
and I've sucked the life out of it, and it's time to move on
right, for sure. A lot of like ways, and in a lot
of ways, I'm renting stories because I buy something. It's good for my
brand, you know. And then and then oh oh this is the thing
Darren had. Yeah, I've sucked it all out, I said, been
associated. I'm amortizing the cost to my brand. It becomes part of me,
part of my story, part of my legend. And then I move
on right And it might be worth more money than you had it. It
could be if we can get P. S. A to slab the ro
velk, it could be worth less that as mind then I guess, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, But it's all. It's it's
all, it's it's all. It's so fun. It's so fun, and
it's and it's uh and it's great when you have a steal and you you
know, remember when I bought the largest Warren Buffet signature in the world and
I stole it, and I just I went downstairs and poured a scotch and
turned on the fireplace and god, like, I just I just stole that
thing and got bought it for seventy two hundred got an offer for one point
seventy five million. Said no, how much time? Like do you devote
to this like a day? Are just cruising the eBay app like a psychopath?
Or like, well, I do it as my job, so you
know we have to h I'm it's probably an hour and a half a day.
I'm looking at things that's not that at all. The good the good
part about it is I'm not doing like modern NBA, where like something goes
wrong. I'm not doing modern baseball where Mike Trout tears his body off.
Well and our last stupid talk. My first investment was a slab Mike Trout
debut ps A ten ticket ticket stub and he has not been healthy since I
bought this thing, just waiting to get rid of it. But he hasn't.
He hasn't been Mike Trout since that talk. I'm sorry, yeah,
yeah, I doubt I mean, thank you for giving us his time.
I mean, I think we're gonna bring you in every once in a while
when someone fucks something up and we're gonna need some your expertise because I think
you think like us, you know, we're always looking for the next thing
like that. There's one thing that I'm I shouldn't even be saying it,
but I'll say it anywhere. Like I still think there's gonna be eventually,
like rookie wrestling figures, Like there's nothing right now, there's why has not
been done. I just think people don't care about it. And right now,
like let's say, for in right not looking you're saying in original in
original outfits in I'm just saying, like like the first release of a rock
figure ever, right, got it? Like you get that on eBay right
now, twenty five, Like this would be the time to stock up on
them, and like, well and you never know, but it's it's like
it's all a gamble or just keep buying that rock figure. It's pretty hard
to find in like a mint. So I think I have that. Did
that come with a ladder? A yellow ladder? No? No, that's
it's one of the early ones. That's not. Yeah, it's not the
first one to bring that. I gotta bring that because I have I have
that signed by him. So changed that I that I that I bought for
three hundred bucks? Ye? Yeah, yeah, before you go, uh,
you know last time you gave us the two tips there there was,
there was VHS's and video games, video games worked. What what's the what
should we look we be looking at now? Man? Well, the the
one thing that people are really excited about now I can at least tell you
is these type one photos. I don't know if you've heard about them.
So type type one photos are published from the original negative within two years of
of that picture being taken. So that's a type one. Well, there's
guys at p s A who look at the color of the paper. Often
it's written on the back if it was in a newspaper. These have not
hit wrestling yet. I have not seen a whole lot of wrestling type one
photos now there's a couple issues. One, they don't have population reports,
so people in general are uncomfortable with it because it's like, okay, here's
a type one. You know the first time they played the whole Cogan intro
or whatever, right, but we don't know whether if there's five or twenty
of them, and we don't you know, we don't know they who knows,
And so a lot of these things are going for big money when they
were at like fifty dollars one hundred dollars slabbed by PSA. So that's actually
just something to look for, just to see these like age old photos seventies,
eighties pretty much to eighty five eighty nine. Maybe we're just like newspaper
photos. And on the back it has like all the writings, God,
let me see if I can, let me see, if I can show
if we have if we have one here, let's see. So that would
be like if somebody took a picture, like a photographer took a picture at
the match and then printed it out like within that that two year Yeah yeah,
yeah, yeah, I have to I have to find I have to.
So the rarity there is like obviously he didn't print out a million right,
so so so like this one the Latner shot right, like, this
is not one. It's just printed on like Kodak paper at the time.
But on the if this was one, it would on the back have all
these newspaper markings and what the caption of it is. And it's as much
what's on the front as is on the back. I see. And so
a Jordan rookie one sold for one hundred and seventy five thousand. There's been
there was a really cool one that sold this weekend for fifteen thousand of Jordans
stretching the first time he was with the Bulls. But yes, so type
one, Oh, I think this might be a nice one here. So
on the back you see like all these like notations of like what it is.
It has a stamp, you know, there's all these like cool little
things that that on the back. You know it. It kind of makes
it interesting. Now the question becomes, as this gets more and more valuable,
are people going to start faking this stuff? Sure like anything else?
Yeah, of course, where they take it, where they try to get
period paper, where they try to stamp it. Yeah, I mean that
the challenge will be there. So I think I think type one photos are
at least interesting. Well, Meltzer's got all the wrestling once, right,
like the magazine guys, and anybody who's running the magazines in the eighties where
the guy's taking the pictures at ringside as well, would yeah. And then
I still I still think Beatles are undervalued. I you know, I mean,
I hate to say this, but two of them are alive if you
didn't know, and I just I just think there's a ton of autos.
Uh. And and for me, if it's not on anything special, I
don't think I should be paying. You know, the rate for Beatles auto
is maybe seven thousand right now for all of them, and I think that's
a lot of money for but if you can get unique things beatles, I
still think there's a way to run there. Damn well, Darren, thank
you for coming on the show. Hopefully it won't be another three years before
you have you on. Hopefully someone else sucks up. But we can talk
about the tornado. Tomas just too up. It doesn't it is a great
man. We need to bringing an expert. So we appreciate you man.
Thank you, guys, Thank you all. Right. Join the community at
majormarks dot com. And get access to exclusive content behind the scenes footage.
I become a member of the Major family, you get bonus episodes on our
careers, wrestling figure history, and exclusive interviews with our friends and legends in
the business. Each month, you also get early access to YouTube videos and
of course, the weekly podcast, ad free and breaking news updates, brand
news shows featuring Come, Oh, Baby and You. Each month you could
interview someone in the wrestling business with the Captain's log. Also by selling trade
in our exclusive Facebook community where people have become friends in real life. Certain
memberships include merch like monthly trading cards and quarterly mystery gifts. Become a major
mark at joinmajormarks dot com today