speaker-0: we've got Mr. State side.

speaker-1: States States States

speaker-0: I'm noise.

speaker-1: I need to get my face out there a little bit more. I've had a busy time the last 12 months and now I'm back and ready to... Ready to get involved.

speaker-0: Is it I think I think we spoke about content and that sort of thing. Yeah. You guys are not only funny, but you simply get yourselves everywhere as well.

speaker-1: Everywhere, everywhere. We have loads of fun. And like I you said, just follow us around with the camera would be like funny. And like Phil always says, he always says, we do too much cool shit not to film it. Yeah. But I also really, really struggle with the content, getting it out because I'm a bit of a like a, not a perfectionist, but. I know my capabilities are really limited in the tech space. There's so much coming out, like AI and clipping and getting your stuff right and all, even the things you use to film it. I find it really difficult to keep up with them showing me unk status, exposing myself. But it's hard, it's moving so fast. So I think probably the move is just to pay someone to film you. But then it's like... don't want to get cancelled, day one either.

speaker-0: We've gone the other way, so we've we're using like Grace and everyone to film it. Yeah. But we paid for the editors now. That's

speaker-1: Makes sense.

speaker-0: Yeah, we have a team of editors and stuff like that and they go through everything to pick out. Because that's why we always find the bottom network.

speaker-1: That's the hardest stuff, yeah, yeah, the bottleneck. Who is Richard? Mr Beast, it? Is that where you got the bottleneck from? I he's the bottleneck.

speaker-0: Must have the

speaker-1: I've seen that, the bottleneck. I've started throwing that round, but it just keeps telling Tony he's the bottleneck. And he doesn't understand.

speaker-0: Just.

speaker-1: He just keeps moving right away. Every time I say, Tony, you're the bottleneck, he just goes, what?

speaker-0: Okay, but i I think it is it's where it's going in it.

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean your content's like come on so much out of the last 12, has that been like a main focus to like get content out there and get your ass?

speaker-0: We sort did it accidentally, we did. we got Danny on that did the NFL streams and stuff that. And that was his job on the like his proper job. So then we we started doing a little bit and we picked it up. And then he had to take a step back so then we took over and then I think because we relied more on just us being funny and us. Yeah. It was sort of yeah. It's quite raw, it's quite yeah. It's just what you get. It's no different to if you spend an hour here, you're gonna see the same

speaker-1: Exactly, That's the best thing about it. Your content doesn't feel forced and that's what I worry a lot of the time. We'll have a conversation and go, right, what content do we need? And that's the bit of hate. it's like, come up with an idea and just haven't got the time. Just that much, isn't it, in the card world to be... Obviously, you've got a shop on top of it. I don't know how you keep on top of all of that, but like... This is the first ever show that we've vended singles. So like, it's just crazy. But you know what? It's it's more exciting. Singles. No,

speaker-0: I think you're never quite sure what's gonna come up.

speaker-1: he's just laughing because obviously, I went to Chicago, we only bought two cards. One was a Steven Gerlach auto and then the other one was a Trent Alexander Arnold card.

speaker-0: Function. No, it's y I think it is we sort of it stands when we try to force content out, but by the time you planned it and done it, it's irrelevant. Yeah. Do you know what I Like you

speaker-1: That's the hard thing, then you record it and then you don't put it out. we were just there, that was the guy who ripped the box. He sold me a Barcelona box, took the seal off before I gave him the money. and then said, right now you have to open it. And he ripped it open and I got a number one of ten, Ron Alvino on the Bonafide insert. And then I him all the other cards to this little kid here. So he's just gone through. What else have we been up to today?

speaker-0: You say saying about Disney, weren't you?

speaker-1: yeah, Disney, yeah, there you go. So yeah, we bought a load of Disney Sapphire 2024 at a really good price. bought it, well, to be fair, when we bought it, I thought we'd been ripped off, but we

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: didn't. We just left it. Sorted it all into numbers, and then we had one Mickey Mouse, which we graded at the National, and we've come back a PSA9. and that is, we just sold that before and that is almost paid for the entire collection.

speaker-0: Sitting on it is probably the best thing to have done it. Exactly. But it just

speaker-1: just did know when it was there. Have you seen some of the big breakers in America or big shops in America? have pallet trucks? and they'll just put them and they'll be like, wrap it up, store it away, that's for five years time and then they'll get the next one. So you know for like rotating in the shop, the cards, so they'll have like, they'll take a pallet of cards, they'll have rachin in the back and then they'll take the whole pallet and put it up and be like, we won't get that out until like next one. So then it's like rotation in the shop, in the cabinets, so people aren't seeing the same. Because how do you deal with that? You must get that a lot, like people coming back and going. What's new?

speaker-0: That's why we do a lot of the shows. Yeah. It's a good way, so like we'll clear out a lot here and then we'll predominantly we'll buy a lot more in the shop than we sell. Yeah. A lot of people treat a bit like cash converters.

speaker-1: I'm a

speaker-0: So then we'll buy a lot, then we'll come somewhere like here and like especially football stock. Yeah. Like you're getting rid of like your London teams, all that sort of stuff. And then the people will be selling in the northern teams. Yeah. It works out alright. Yeah. But it it's something we work on.

speaker-1: Review's got a Manchester card show next weekend. We're doing that. Going to Chicago was like a real eye-opener for us for the singles market, like the buying and selling, the trading of it all, the passion that people have of getting involved with cards and getting in and getting out of cards. It's a thrill. Obviously we used to have a motto, which wasn't great for a company that... not deals in cards, but our motto used to be, don't sell cards. that was like the origins of States are was we don't sell cards. But now we do sell cards. Boxers, breaks and then what?

speaker-0: How did it come about?

speaker-1: States are the beginnings of states are. So Tony, this was like 2019, 2020. Tony had a look and got into collecting NFL cards. And then basically. said he was joining on some Facebook break and he was like these prices of the boxes are like ridiculous. He'd done it where? I think he ordered, he found David Adams website, looked at what was being charged on a break and then looked at David Adams and was like I can get these cards for well cheaper. They're boxes for cheaper than these break prices all add up for. So he went out and he bought, he sold his car. He sold his car, yeah, for like £2,000, obviously. That was what was left after the finance. He his car, up at like £2,000 or just over £2,000 and bought £2,500 worth of NFL cards, boxes. He got delivered and he picked them up from his house and then he phoned me and he went... I was involved at that point. And he phoned me he went, lad, went to meet Gerald. I went, what? And he went... I'm coming round to yours, I'll be there and whatever. He turned up, this was like pre-Covid, turned up and he was like lad, I've sold me car and the box that's been delivered to this big... The

speaker-0: Just always look bigger on the picture.

speaker-1: box being on screen, the camera adds 10 pounds. It was hilarious. So he comes to mine and he was like lad, I need some help here. So I helped him set out his first brief on Facebook and then he... Basically he ended up, I think for two and a half thousand pounds worth of boxes that he bought, he ended up selling for about, I think was about a thousand pound profit, so it was like three thousand five hundred pounds. So Tony said to me, went look, here's your five hundred quid for helping me sell. I it took us like two weeks of trying to like get people to get into these spots. So he said, here's your five hundred quid. And I said, well why don't you just keep the thousand pounds in, you take your money back, go buy a car, and then we'll just keep going and that's basically. and then we never took any money out of the business for the next six or seven years until December just gone when Tony went full-time with States Hards and then I'm now full-time on States Hards as well as of the 7th of August so literally last Friday. So I'm a week into my tenure. So I was on holidays so I actually took off from July so that's why we went to the National. So that was a good first week, earlier. Your second national?

speaker-0: Chris's first, my second. Yeah.

speaker-1: How did you find the difference between first and second?

speaker-0: I enjoyed this one a lot more. Yeah. I think 'cause last year I was trying to do it was just me and Kay last year so I was trying to do everything I was trying do. All the meetings, all the biting, selling, all that sort of stuff. It seemed it was like very much walk through the door you go no turn on lock off and come back in.

speaker-1: It's quite overwhelming innit?

speaker-0: I forgot I was explaining it to you, but it's like I expected from what everyone said I expected it to be bigger, like a footprint bigger. Yeah. But it's very dense in it, like there's so much. You turn a corner and it's just

speaker-1: You look at this now and this is probably one of the busiest I've seen a Friday London card show. Obviously we haven't done that many because we're relatively new to shows but this would be like before EVV IDs have got in innit? Yeah. It's crazy, I wouldn't even like to guess how many tickets are sold.

speaker-0: Two thousand for today.

speaker-1: No, mean for the national, though. It must be 20,000 plus.

speaker-0: Gotta be something like that.

speaker-1: It's ridiculous. mean, that's like F1.

speaker-0: Yeah, like you you go there and you see like you get within like a mile. Yeah and just everyone's walking in with a zone case. And it's like

speaker-1: and saying about the cases and the table now and I was like the national changed me because now coming back when we were going like the airport every table I see I think, has he got some cards on me? It's just like fantasy land.

speaker-0: yeah, yeah.

speaker-1: Like we accidentally started a trade night in our hotel because we were looking through Phil's cards because Phil had a lot of the cards and we were like, right, let's sign comp them. So we were just sitting at the hotel bar, not like the little reception bit. And then next thing, you know, we turn around and there was like 15, 20 people and all just some guy was like walking past me. It's a motorway. Yeah. You guys trading? was like, yeah, come on in. I think that helped with the hires, causing down the trade night. And then obviously there was the official one, which we didn't actually. Coach, when you in the air?

speaker-0: It made unbelievable. Yeah.

speaker-1: You to get the band mode didn't you? Which we didn't realise that until like the Saturday and by then it was like if you wasn't there at like 10 minutes in.

speaker-0: th there's people outside telling the bands. They went in the queue they the bands and then turned around and sold them. So we were like, yeah, they're trying up.

speaker-1: that's...

speaker-0: That's genius though. It's the same as like it's like you walk in there and like there's just so many people again, you spend a lot of time like that and it's mental, yeah. But one of the funniest things I heard is what you actually picked up from the national. Yeah. So we bought all the cards in the world.

speaker-1: All the cards in the way, we bought two cards because it was primarily a selling trip. So we had a couple of cards that we wanted to get out of and also an experience because we're going to go again next year, like a million percent. So it was more to just learn what was moving, what was selling. So we ended up coming back with two cards, which was a Steven Gerrard auto and a Trent Alexander auto.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: So he ended up buying two because, do you know why we bought it? Tony went to, he went off and he came back and he went, you know we've got a Manchester card card when we come back. And I said, so you bought two Liverpool cards? And he was like, yeah. And then we're here now, obviously we knew we were doing London and we didn't, and they're not even out. He's put them in a box somewhere.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I mean, he pulls enough of them. He probably is the number one Liverpool breaker. That's one of the videos he's done on our Instagram. Brilliant.

speaker-0: Talking the experience of it. Yeah. How did you what do you take away from it? Like do you

speaker-1: from the national.

speaker-0: take much as like a business side or is it just very much the experience or

speaker-1: So I went as like a viewer, like a non-participating member. I was probably a waste of a VIP ticket to be honest. However, we were selling a few things which we sold very easily. We wanted to make some connections with American breakers stores and stuff like that because I think it would be good to try and get more people over to the UK as well. we were just basically trying to look and see what software was available to bring it back over here and then obviously get out of some big high-end basketball cards which would move over here but you're only going to probably sell them to three people over here. It's the same people and they're all doing the same, they're buying it to sell at National so you've got to cut in the percentages whereas obviously if going over yourself if you cover your flights or your beers or your hotel, whatever. Because it is expensive, it is really expensive. The National, it's like make-believe fantasyland, isn't it? It's not real. The National is not real.

speaker-0: Even when you're not there, like there's always so much to do. Yeah. So it's just like a will, isn't it? Like you go there, you go baseball, yeah, you go view all the things like

speaker-1: Obviously we went to baseball didn't we and that was good wasn't it? Honestly that was like probably my top experience was the White Sox game. It helped that it had a little bit of an exciting end and then I was like aww, it's only to that feeling as an Everton fan. Like being let down in the dying seconds. But yeah I really enjoyed that and we went to the Chicago Fire game at the Bears Stadium. That was good to see. So was Levan Dowski's first game, I think, Chicago Fire. He scored two. He won. That was sick. obviously, Soldier Field, I think, is They're moving on at the outset. Is it next season? It's not this season. It's next season, isn't

speaker-0: Think there's one more season.

speaker-1: it? ...season after that. So, I thought, with the national moving away from Chicago, you're not going to see... You might not get an opportunity to go back there. But yeah, it sick. And we've done, obviously, use her in Airbnb. But what we've done, and my tip for anyone who's... looking to go and maybe not like 100 % like buying and selling like this is a business trip paid for itself. What we've done I think was the best which was land on the Monday, we stayed in downtown Chicago, Monday, Tuesday and then transferred up to the National on the Wednesday.

speaker-0: I thought it was brilliant.

speaker-1: Yeah, that was perfect. So like we'd acclimatised, we've got in the time difference wasn't that bad. We were in the city centre so we had access to everything. Walked around and then Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday was like cards and then Sunday we

speaker-0: Yeah. whereas w instead we went to Cincinnati and

speaker-1: That is a good way as well. So actually, so Tobi said next, he was like next year, why don't we fly somewhere else and then drive.

speaker-0: To be fair we did it. If we'd have done it that way, it was pretty cool 'cause it's only it was like a six hour drive. Yeah. But like we went through Indie Yeah went to Indie Car Exchange, we went past the Colt Stadium. Again, huge like you don't realise how big they are. You see more than like the op like you the cutaways and like you walk in, go, yeah, yeah. You don't have to place for yeah, it's mental. Yeah, it was mental. So we were like, next year we'll just go somewhere else and

speaker-1: driving yeah yeah and probably cheaper flights you know what mean if you can get somewhere direct to it but that was my other tip was Dublin you need to do your swap in Dublin man it's so good like the pre-clearance yeah I think that was one of the reasons why we landed in New Zealand ever because it was like we were landed as a US yeah an internal flight yeah probably yeah you know what I mean so it was like yeah just get because there's no because they shut the airport in the for an hour, like they completely closed the airport so when we landed they'd only had the airport open for so long so obviously the backlog of immigration would have been ridiculous so whereas we landed as a US so we landed like airside as if we just flew in from

speaker-0: No, we landed in Cincinnati. Yeah. And they must have had to pull stuff in to do the yeah. Passport I've never seen someone like Angela go.

speaker-1: Get off, get in, yeah. Ask you no questions, what are you here for, business or pleasure, get in. Scan your fingerprint, get in.

speaker-0: Very much.

speaker-1: But it was good experience doing it in Dublin, because yeah, there's a little, there's a little tippet, so obviously we're flying, I can say this now, so we flew on the Monday, on the Friday, I thought I'd do a good deed, I'll, took the baby to the... nursery dropped him off and said to Vicky I'll go do the washing, wash the bedding. So I'll put all the bedding in the wash, put it on. Me missus goes like that and Jesus says put it in the dryer. As she pulls it out me passport comes out of the washing machine, flopped on the floor. The wettest, most creased passport you've ever seen in your life. First thing I said to can you guess what the first thing I said to her in anger was? Go on. I said you've done this on purpose. You've done the washing. So that was one of reasons. when we seen you in Manchester, I wasn't very like talk to because I was panicking. So I bought my passport with some of it dried and also got an oven rack, put all the pages through, put tissue paper in between like each page was air drying my passport. Anyway, pretty easy.

speaker-0: See.

speaker-1: He's free, yeah. Because it was like an eight-year-old passport anyway, so think the damage wasn't like...

speaker-0: It wasn't too far.

speaker-1: You know, he was a one-year-old and it was like, one-year-old passport and batted like one of the blue ones, mine still on my ring head. So was like, I got away with it. Yeah, was, I was so stressed about that. So I didn't sleep the night before, like all weekend I was stressing. Like every time I touched the passports it was still wet. It was like the front cover come off. was a... wasn't ideal.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: So that was another positive for Dublin because I thought if I get turned around, I don't want to get turned around to Chicago. Imagine if I got turned around to Cincinnati.

speaker-0: Yeah. I it's a long way to go just to go, yeah.

speaker-1: No, can't, it's not scanning all the things. I'm like, what? So, yeah, because like we've gone to Dublin, they weren't even bothered, were just like, yeah, go Dublin. yeah. And you can fly there on your driving licence, can't you, to Dublin? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I had that, so was like, I wasn't worried about that, but then when we got in Dublin, I was like, f***ing stressed. But yeah, no, was really good. And then we had the lounge as well, that Dublin lounge was decent, they Guinness on, on the pre-clearance line, so why not?

speaker-0: Imagine you just sitting down nice and peaceful, ready for a flight and then you guys

speaker-1: Mountain? I'm out. No, there was a lot of fun, to be fair. To be honest, I only had two witnesses because when we got through I was like sweating. I was like, is this it? I didn't know because I'd never done it before. like, I in? Am I in America now? Even though I'm in Dublin still. I was like, am I in America? Anyway, I was. I was in America,

speaker-0: How did you find people to deal with? You said you went over for the business side.

speaker-1: A bit funny, to be honest. It was a bit of a mixed bag. I think the guys who had the tables... Chris said this was one of your favourite bits. Something I didn't expect. My favourite bit was the face with the vintage bit. The tables, one to thousands or whatever it is. The guys there. So chilled out. yeah, so good paying strong. Yeah, how do you simply priced cards like American football and basketball baseball? found that a lot easier to deal with yeah, like probably the main main hits of the Show was the International Pavilion. I'd say everybody wanted to be in there. Yeah, and that was like watching the guys like buying and selling was like, that's like pro, that's like the Olympics of selling up there.

speaker-0: It's a pinnacle, isn't it?

speaker-1: And that's where you want to be, like that's the greatest. But it was like stress, I was getting stressed like watching these guys, you know what mean? And like some guy come over and was showing him, you know Charlie at CLA, some cards, and he was trying to make a deal for a card and he was being a bit of an asshole and he was saying like... He had his case in charge, was like, well, let me see, have a look, if you know the case. And he was like, no, you can't see in there until we make a deal on this. And it was a bit like he's trying a strong arm, like a young lad, 17, 18 year old lad into making a deal on this, because he was really threatened. Anyway, he ends up buying the car, it was a good deal, and then he opens up the case. But that was difficult to watch, because he was like a 40, 50 year old fella who was like a big guy. imposing and he was like give me a get a price for this and it was a good car but it was like

speaker-0: One thing I did enjoy is CLA not being the young kid anymore. Yeah. And having the young kids try to young

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah. We didn't know I think we went to Soko for a night and he was in the s the same hotel in the like the lobby. And he sat then his his kids like three, four years younger trying to hustle him. Yeah yeah. And we just sat there just howling.

speaker-1: That's cool

speaker-0: But it was good to see everyone being able to ho like hold their own against him as well.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, the boys smashed it, like they represented the UK hobby scene quite well. Do know what, as well, was thinking like, deal them, so since coming back, we've done a couple of trades and sales, like buying and selling off the guys who were there, and obviously we've never done that before, but the way you deal with the likes of, you know, like Hobbybox Loop or Ben or, you know, any of these bigger guys over there, like... even Charlie, it's very much the American way of buying and selling. If it makes sense for me, it makes sense. I find it quite easy to deal with.

speaker-0: It's a lot more business is business in it, like it's got if if you can get to this then it works and it's done. Yeah.

speaker-1: Exactly, or if not, walk away and there's no problem falling out. Over 10 quid, 15 quid, not falling out, but just saying, like, no, I can't get there. I make sense.

speaker-0: Next time it's hyper fresh and then off.

speaker-1: Exactly, yeah. So I enjoyed that. It was an eye-opener.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. Like I said, the vintage guys were Yeah. I I think I must have spent like half a day just going through and like one thing I loved is like they loved educating. So yeah, you'd sit there and go, What like, well that's worth it. And then they sit there next thing you know behind the table, they're giving you cards and you're like, This is what this is, this is what this is and talking you through it. And I think once you sort of break that barrier, it's almost you've got to prove yourself a little bit and then they start treating you but

speaker-1: I agree, yeah. The vintage bit was my favourite bit because it was more relaxed, it was more spacious. I thought the cards were... I heard someone say, like, you don't want to go in there, it's like a museum. It is, but you can't walk around the... and buy the Mona Lisa. Do you know what mean? If you can't go to museum and buy the best piece but if you wanted a Miffy Mantle you could find it there. You could look at a card and I know there's Cooper flags and all that now, we're going for like millions plus. like that was the original big, card and he was loaded. Like the Flea Jordans, the 86 Jordans. He was a guy with just like a full on case of like PSA nines or tens or whatever. not tens. Like every PSA up to...

speaker-0: There's multiple.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, and it's like, take what's under there, or it's just the same card.

speaker-0: And it's almost like the history of the hobby, innit? Like you watch all these American YouTubes and stuff and they're all talking and referencing what they grew up with and that's where it's it's like coming over here and going, it's all full of soccer, yeah. Yeah, so you can't it's gonna be full of soccer.

speaker-1: Did you notice as well, all the vintage guys were the ones who all had the show haze. So they were, was I was made up of that little win, little win for the vintage guys. They had all the show haze. So initially we were only able to get tickets on Friday. So we missed, like everything, we always missed the drops of the tickets, like the tables. So we got three tables for today only. And then while we were on the plane to Chicago, just as we were taking off, I got an email to say there was a weekend. Yeah, there was three tables. So that's why we're moving. So we're over by you. Yeah. Tomorrow and Sunday we're opposite Dave and Adam's. Which way are the David Adams round here? The U2 there, yeah. So we're literally opposite. So yeah, so that'll be interesting. So the boys will be charge? Yeah. So that'll be it for... Look at this! Yeah, so that was driving the fear of me. So we had a budget of £3,000, purchase budget plus whatever we sell in singles. And then we was here an hour and I'd spent £2,000 on a Jaden titles. It's

speaker-0: It is the nice one.

speaker-1: a nice one. I got it for a good price to be fair. So I've smashed out the... I've smashed out the budget. I haven't left much wiggle room. And I'll be taking the tin home. I'll be emptying that and taking that home. There's another thing, so we're trying to be like proper businessmen now. Tony was like, we need to costs. I was like, okay, let's cut some costs. was like, Phil's going to share a room with someone. I was like, okay, that's a good cost to cut. That's a good cost to cut, yeah. And then he went, he said, we're going to use the same T-shirt. We're not getting new T-shirts. said, okay, that's a good cost to cut. That's a good cost to cut. And then he phoned me this morning and I said, and I answered and I was like, are you filling up the van? And he went, no, we haven't got a van. was like, Tony, that's not a good cost to cause. He was like, yeah, but think about how much we've saved. I said, we need a van, It's London. He said, yeah, but we've saved that money. I said, how much was the van? He said, 300 quid. I said, you go out tonight and spend 300 pound on shots, mate. He's like, it would have been worse with a van.

speaker-0: At least the screen now.

speaker-1: I'm a shot to three. Look, you're getting it in my head now. Maybe it's a good deal.

speaker-0: Yeah, well thank you for your time. I hope

speaker-1: Peace.

speaker-0: there's a stateside sports in the weekend. We

speaker-1: We need to, well fingers crossed, we need to do a proper pod. We've been saying it for a while. We need to come down the shop, we'll get it all boxed off. We'll get some, yous can do the content editing and we'll get it all boxed

speaker-0: We'll we'll have to do it on like when the UK game's on. Yeah. Do it in the afternoon and get it over.

speaker-1: Are you just going to come to our NFL night? you seen the date? Are you going to come? Yeah, I've been jogging. 13th. 13th set on. The hotels are cheap but only 40 quid as well. The hotel could not be closer. right above it.

speaker-0: I'll actually video for it as well.

speaker-1: Did like that one? I took some editing. It was hard craft. I've got another one with more information than I'll release this week.