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Ken Goldin - The King Of Collectibles
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Today I’m sitting down with Goldin Auctions founder and The King Of Collectibles Netflix star, Ken Goldin. Ken and his company Goldin Auctions have been highly regarded for a long time as the go-to auction house for sports memorabilia, and more recently getting acquainted in other spaces like pop-culture and historical artifacts. But Ken and his team have staked their flag as a go-to for a reason. See, Ken has the knowledge, enthusiasm, and tenacity of a specific trait that all of his biggest clients have, and that’s being a collector. Ken’s been collecting and dealing sports cards since he was a little kid, learning how to make money from the hobby early on. His parents' support pushed him to where he is today both as a collector, and founder of one of the largest and fastest growing auction houses around. Goldin has sold the rarest of the rare, from the original T206 Honus Wagner cards, to game used bats from the greats, and most recently, the highly sought after Shohei Ohtani 50/50 ball which has 15 days left on the auction with a current bid of 1.5 Million. They’ve done over a billion dollars in deals and we’re recently acquired by ebay. Ken’s been seen with the likes of Drake doing card breaks, where he happened to stumble upon three Jordan rookie cards, and sitting down with the greats like Ken Kendrick to review arguably the greatest card collection of all time. He’s a collector himself, with possessions like a game used Babe Ruth bat and other Smithsonian-worthy provenance pieces. At the end of the day, he’s the guy you want to buy memorabilia from, simply because he has the collector mindset. So without further adieu, this is Ken Goldin, for Collectors Gene Radio.
Goldin Auctions - https://goldin.co/
Ken Goldin's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kengoldin?igsh=MXIyb2I3dmYzYXFtNQ==
Goldin Auctions Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/goldinco?igsh=c2d5eXd2aWRzdG9l
Shohei Ohtani Auction - https://goldin.co/item/sept-19-2024-shohei-ohtani-becomes-first-member-of-50-50-club-actual-553vh1?queryId=eyJxdWVyeUlkIjoiNmNjMWFjZGFjOGVlZGJiNmUxMGQzOWU4NThiYWE3MTUiLCJjYXJkSW5kZXgiOjl9
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Transcript
Introduction and Narrator's Story
00:00:00
Speaker
I said excuse me like probably in know you know puberty type voice and i said can i look at your cards i literally spent less than a minute looking in one bag and said what do you want and he said a hundred dollars i had no negotiation i told my dad to pay him.
00:00:16
Speaker
And but my dad my dad reached his wallet and he had $70, and that's it, 70 in cash. So I took the 70 out of my dad's and showed it to the guy and said, will you take $70? And he said yes, and we backed my dad's card car up. we Luckily for me, it was a summer. We loaded it into his car. um I brought the cards down to my basement, and my parents did not see me for the next four months.
Episode Theme and Guest Introduction
00:00:42
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? And welcome to Collector's Gene Radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call a bunch for listening. And please enjoy today's guest on Collector's Gene Radio. Today, I'm sitting down with Golden Auctions founder and the king of collectibles, Netflix star, Ken Golden.
00:01:12
Speaker
Ken and his company Golden Auctions have been highly regarded for a long time as the go-to auction house for sports memorabilia, and more recently getting acquainted in other spaces like pop culture and historical artifacts. But Ken and his team have staked their flag as a go-to for
Ken Golden's Journey and Golden Auctions
00:01:26
Speaker
a reason. See, Ken has the knowledge, enthusiasm, and tenacity of a specific trait that all of his biggest clients have, and that's being a Ken's been collecting and dealing sports cards since he was a little kid, learning how to make money from the hobby pretty early on.
00:01:41
Speaker
His parents' support pushed him to where he is today, both as a collector and founder of one of the largest and fastest-growing auction houses around. Golden has sold the rarest of the rare from the original T206 Honus Wagner cards to Game Use Bats from the Greats, and most recently, the highly sought-after Shohei Ohutani 50-50 ball, which has 15 days left on auction and a current bid of $1.5 million.
00:02:07
Speaker
They've done over a billion dollars in deals and were recently acquired by eBay. Ken's been seen with the likes of Drake doing card breaks where he happened to stumble upon three Jordan rookie cards and sitting down with the greats like Ken Kendrick to review arguably the greatest card collection of all time. He's a collector himself with possessions like a game use Babe Ruth Batten, other Smithsonian worthy provenance pieces.
00:02:31
Speaker
At the end of the day, he's the guy you want to find memorabilia from simply because he has the collector's mindset. So without further ado, this is Ken Golden for Collectors Gene Radio.
Early Collecting Experiences
00:02:43
Speaker
Ken Golden, welcome to Collectors Gene Radio. ah Thank you for having me.
00:02:48
Speaker
So there is so much to talk about today and I really just want to start from the beginning. So take me back to 1978. You're 13 years old and you start collecting baseball cards, a hobby and decision that would ultimately change the trajectory of your life.
00:03:04
Speaker
Sure. It's interesting. I actually so i collected cards when when I was even younger, probably you know seven, eight years old because I was always a Phillies fan and yeah would go to a local store and buy packs. That was back in the days where kids actually did chores and went to earn money for them. Right. I like my family now. yeah and um But what happened was I was going to a flea market I'm looking for you know looking at the card shop looking to me there is no such thing as a card shop looking at the people with table selling all type of your stuff trying to see who had baseball cards and i found one guy with baseball cards and i was looking at them and somebody came up to him.
00:03:53
Speaker
And that individual had you know said, hey, do you buy cards? And the guy said, yes. He goes, can you come look at my car? I've got bags in my car. And the guy said, it was a Sunday. And he said, no, it's my you know busy day. Can you come back on a Tuesday or a Wednesday? And the guy just walked away. And I heard him mutter like to himself, like no, because I'm shipping off tomorrow.
00:04:14
Speaker
so my dad was with me because he always drove me to these places and i said that's all i say excuse me like probably in you know puberty type voice and i said can i look at your cards so we looked at it and he took us back to you know when the big nineteen seventies cars with the giant trucks and open up the trunks and he had a Six giant heavy bags in there and you know stuffed and i took a peek in a few of them and they were just filled filled with cardboard all cards and i i literally spent less than a minute looking in one bag and said what do you want and he said a hundred dollars.
00:04:51
Speaker
um I had no negotiation, I told my dad to pay him. and like dad My dad reached his wallet, he had $70, and that's it, 70 in cash. So I took the 70 out of my dad's and showed it to the guy and said, will you take $70? He said yes, and we backed my dad's card car up. we Luckily for me, it was a summer, we loaded it into his car. um I brought the cards down to my basement and my parents did not see me for the next four months.
00:05:22
Speaker
That's amazing. I mean, you've mentioned in the past that your parents were really big supporters of your collecting, which isn't always the case, especially being young. You know, parents always always tell you, save if your money, do this, but they must have seen something in you and this passion that you had. And I'm curious to know how important their support was in terms of where that got you today.
Influence of Ken's Father
00:05:42
Speaker
work i wouldn't I wouldn't have started if um if it wasn't for my dad. I mean, he loaned me the first $100 or $70 to do a real transaction. And when I was done sorting that big collection, I kept what I wanted and started selling the rest by mail and I would leave out packages for him and he would take him to his office and you know he would like you know ship him from his um his mail room for me.
00:06:10
Speaker
and you know without that i couldn't have done it and we um you know i advertised to get you know advertising local papers and. He would drive me around and you would get excited by the fine you know he would not take the phone calls and and and things of that nature so is very very important and i think they saw that.
00:06:30
Speaker
I was really good at it, that I was able to earn money, that they never had to give me money for for you know anything really. um yeah know I was a self-supportive business, you know although there was a summer when I was 16 years old that my mother told me two things. um She said one is I need to get a real job for the summer and she also said that um you're not going to support yourself the rest of your life selling baseball cards and you need to learn how to take orders from somebody else and work for somebody else and I reminded her until the day she died that she was wrong on both accounts. I did not need to learn how to work for somebody else and I was going to be able to make a living ah
00:07:19
Speaker
yeah know selling baseball cards but no they were they were always supportive and honestly after that, you know my mom was my biggest fan. she you know Anytime I would hold, you know I started Golden Auctions. you know when Anytime I would hold a live auction, she would attend the auction and you know if I was doing athlete signings in the 90s, she'd want to show up and meet the athlete and you know was very, very into it and very very proud of her son.
00:07:44
Speaker
Amazing.
Growth of Golden Auctions
00:07:45
Speaker
and And just to stick it to her in 2012, you launched your company Golden Auctions. And, you know, I'm curious to know how the collecting market has changed since then. Certainly it's expanded tremendously, but a lot has happened between 2012 and now. Oh, I mean, it's tremendous. the you know when i started When I started Golden Auctions, I um I and actually was remarried and got married the 2011, the year before. and I said to my wife, you know if if I can build this company to $10 million dollars a year, you know I can run a nice, comfortable business that you know will support us until whenever I want to stop. and We did $800,000 in
00:08:31
Speaker
Sales in two thousand and twelve it it grew. Significantly to two thousand and nineteen when we did about twenty eight million and then suddenly in twenty twenty we did a hundred and two million but. A lot of the trends of change and and this is really what it's what what what has happened on.
00:08:48
Speaker
Trend number one is in 2012 to 2014, I would say. I think the aggregate sales of all the soccer cards combined by Golden would have been under 100,000. In 2020,
Expanding Collectibles Market
00:09:09
Speaker
We sold multiple soccer cards for over $100,000 by themselves um and are doing millions and millions and millions a year in soccer. There was the first six years of gold and there was almost no women's sports cards, no no college cards, no WNBA, no soccer, nothing. um That market has exploded where we could do over a million dollars a year year in in female sports cards. um What has happened to collectible markets overall is they have really changed from a
00:09:53
Speaker
for sport. U.S.-centric male-dominated atmosphere, I'm talking about the sports cards in particular, to a global all-inclusive, you know, whether it's soccer, whether it's tennis, whether it's golf, whether it's UFC, it's just everything that could be printed on a card has become popular and really accepted ah worldwide.
00:10:26
Speaker
The other aspects have come in in sports is that autographed memorabilia and game used memorabilia um has really grown in popularity and the prices, you know obviously you can talk about anything and say the prices have gone up a lot, but the prices on game used items um have just but Absolutely exploded and unlike trading cards which really peaked for modern cards in 2021 and then dipped you know after the what they call the COVID boom that did not happen to game use because it never really
00:11:07
Speaker
um went up irrationally, it was just adopted by more collectors. um And the other thing that has happened is when I started this business, they really weren't talking about alternative investment or you know making an investment or defining it as an asset class. And now
Collectibles as an Asset Class
00:11:28
Speaker
I think that you know collectibles in general and sports cards in specific are really defined um as an asset class and are accepted by a lot of people who do wealth management. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Golden is obviously known for ultra rare sports memorabilia, and but you actually auction items across all
Diversification into Pop Culture
00:11:54
Speaker
categories. would Was that always the plan to get into things like pop culture and, and you know, film and all this sort of stuff?
00:12:01
Speaker
It was. i mean In my very first catalog, in fact, and when i my my first a booth for the National Convention, you know I felt I had an advantage going into the marketplace because what I always figured the strength was is i I had previously been a certified baseball player agent, which a lot of people don't know. I also did marketing for the most well-known sports agent in the world, Scott Boris.
00:12:26
Speaker
who is represented you know you know represents price harper represent greg mallet maddox alex rodriguez barry bonds but firstly everybody so i have a lot of relationships and i also did a lot of you know memorabilia deal signing contract with a lot of players so i felt when i entered into the auction business my competitive edge would be to bring items directly from the collections of athletes where the athlete themselves was consigning to golden and i would be able to provide a level of. Authenticity that did not exist currently in the marketplace and in the very first option of gold and i said the one thing we're gonna do is everything we sell is going to be guaranteed and anything that is autographed or game use is going to come with a letter of authenticity backing it up which is something the other houses did not do in two thousand and twelve.
00:13:21
Speaker
That said, I made a conscious decision in 2012 to have certain key comic books. For example, Avengers movie was coming out. I had an Avengers number one for sale in my very first auction. I had an Abraham Lincoln document.
00:13:38
Speaker
in my very first auction i was looking at the model of some of the older established auction houses that have been around for hundreds of years not just sports collectibles and sports auction houses that popped up in and in the nineties and two thousand and that is who i was modeling the business after because i felt that if somebody collects cards no they're likely to be interested interested in the comic book or maybe a ah concert used rock album or maybe a um... You know maybe a movie prop or an abraham lincoln or george washington document. Yeah absolutely you know in in the auction market.
00:14:18
Speaker
there's themed auctions and these themed auctions are usually based on a specific person's collection or a specific moment in time.
Themed Auctions and Market Appeal
00:14:28
Speaker
And they're really, really popular and important for the collector market to have these one-off themed auctions. so I'm curious to know from your experience how these themed auctions perform in comparison to a more general auction. I think that The themed auctions are terrific for really narrow areas of collectability. For example, we run our monthly elites every month.
00:14:54
Speaker
We run our you weekly auctions and we even run pop culture auctions. But even them, you know like the pop culture ah auction is a pop culture auction. However, you can get comic books, you can get video games, you can get historical, you can get rock and roll, you can get movie memorabilia. So it's not really narrow. When we get a special athlete collection, for example,
00:15:16
Speaker
When we had the Dream Team collection and were able, I mean it was just a 24 lot auction. It was all 12 uniforms and all 12 game use sneakers from from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. That, every single item we sold set a record. It was it was just absolutely unbelievable. And to go into a complete opposite spectrum,
00:15:38
Speaker
we did we partnered with amc and we did a walking dead auction and. Some of the stuff you know you look at and you know i'll say this as somebody's in the business and as an auction owner and a collector you know i look at some of the props and i say to myself this prop probably cost two hundred and fifty dollars to make.
00:16:02
Speaker
But it was used in Walking Dead in an iconic scene and it sold for $87,000. So I think that when you can have, you know and I love the themed auctions, you can't plan for them. We don't know when we're gonna get a Walking Dead collection or we're gonna get, like we recently announced,
00:16:21
Speaker
the signing of the what is known as the Apex Collection. It is a comic book collection called the Apex and it is the largest and highest graded collection of its kind and they signed an exclusive with Golden and we're going to start launching those auctions in December.
00:16:37
Speaker
um People going to go crazy and there may only be two hundred books in ah in an auction but they're all comic books from the apex collection and it really lets you target your audience and people who really know what they're looking for um will gravitate to those options and they'll stay up all night to make sure they win.
00:16:57
Speaker
you know they'll win those auctions and you know you can't plan for them. you know We get a big athletes collection, you know we can do it. ah We get an amazing comic book collection, we can do it. um you know you you get a um Let's say we did a deal with a rock group. I'll take a wish list. let's Let's say Don Henley said, I've got all my memorabilia from the Eagles and I'd like to sell it.
00:17:22
Speaker
you would do a theme don henley and the eagles auction and we get amazing publicity so those are the most enjoyable for me because you really getting it not only from the source but you're catering to people you know are absolutely die hard fans and they've never seen anything like it and probably never will see anything like it again.
00:17:45
Speaker
Now, you obviously have an obligation to put as many great items up for auction, but you're a
Ken's Personal Collection Criteria
00:17:53
Speaker
collector yourself. So there's always some items that make their way into your collection as well. Is that a difficult decision to make, or are you pretty focused and honed in on what's gonna come in and out?
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, look, I run Golgan as a business. if we can you know If we get something consigned or somebody wants to consign something, it it goes into the auction. The only time, if if I'm dealing with an athlete,
00:18:18
Speaker
um you know Somebody I've had a long relationship with, let's say Joe Montana, and he's consigning his entire collection to us and it's 450 pieces, and there's one item, not overly crazy expensive, but you know maybe five, 10 grand that I just think is really cool. I'll say, Joe, what were you hoping to get for that? And I'll say, well, do you want to sell it to me? I may do that.
00:18:42
Speaker
once or twice every five years. But other other than that, it is um it is a business and I really only hit up a friend of mine, you know, before they auction something for for for that type of thing. But honestly, right now I probably have too much stuff. It's it's it's it's it's tough to find what I'm looking for. what What does it take for an item to enter your collection? Are you a condition guy or is it strictly, you know, rarity and provenance?
00:19:10
Speaker
I collect such a diverse number of things. For example, for trading cards, you know the only trading cards that I personally collect, not to offend anybody, but you know as an individual card, is baseball, because that's what I grew up on. you know And there are only certain sets, like a 1952 top set and a 1909 T206 set. you know So I'll collect, I'll try and get the set in the highest highest condition. um I do collect sealed boxes, and for that I've got some of the best boxes of everything from baseball football basketball even hockey in nineteen seventy nine hockey box it's got the rescue rookie in it. Game used i used to focus solely on five hundred arm run club but i've expanded more to go to greatest of all time items as well and.
00:20:02
Speaker
I started assembling a really nice comic book collection and for that I'm trying to get the classics in the highest grade that I can get that I don't think is um you know really putting me out of reach in affordability.
00:20:17
Speaker
And finally, the other thing I collect is really anything cool that strikes my eye. I mean, i I've picked up a um George Washington signed piece lately. I picked up a really nice Alexander Hamilton document when he was treasurer in the United States. Why? Because I think it's cool i think you have my office it looks cool and i also look at hey no i mean i'm next to philadelphia the two hundred fifty anniversary of the declaration of independence is coming along soon and. I feel that those items are undervalued and will probably um you know increase over the coming years.
00:20:57
Speaker
The thing I find interesting is that, you know, there is a juxtaposition on condition and how and when condition matters depending on the item, right? So a PSA 10 Jordan rookie card commands a much bigger price tag than a PSA nine or eight. But when it comes to a bat, for example, it's almost like the more you use the better because it has the patina, it has the history, it has the story. You could see where a ball was hit. You could see where the gloves were.
00:21:27
Speaker
what's your take on the juxtaposition between condition and how that really matters to people. I want to get items in the best possible condition but i also.
00:21:39
Speaker
will have my limits. you know For example, the 86th Fleer Jordan, you know as an example, and a PSA a PSA 9, I don't know what the going rate is, maybe 15. And to the naked eye, to a lot of people,
00:21:59
Speaker
those cards look exactly the same you know with maybe incredibly slight variations. But for people who want the best of the best, they want the absolute highest grade. And I think that the authentication companies have really created an amazing product with their registry collections where people have you know set registries, and they're in competition to beat each other out. And I think that drives a lot of the ultimate high-condition pricing. But also in history, in and whether it's art, whether it's coins, whether it's, you know again, an older collectible such as Stamps, or more modern collectibles like you know comic books, sports cards, and game news memorabilia,
00:22:50
Speaker
People have always paid the highest prices for the best item in the best possible condition and people have always done well by buying the best of the best. There are so many cases I can point to where people think that this person set a record price and they overpaid only to six months later or two years later that exact item in that exact condition um you know the then the new new option price shatters it so i definitely can understand and appreciate people going for the best of the best and for me. It's kind of what can i afford and what you know not even what can i afford what does not make me you know feel uncomfortable.
00:23:39
Speaker
In buying and you know to give an example um if i am going out and i am buying whether it's nineteen seventy two tops baseball cards or x-men comics you know i will want you know. A ten or a nine and all my cards and i want a nine six or nine eight year all my comics however.
00:24:02
Speaker
You can't apply that same math if you're trying to go out and get golden age comics of Superman and Batman or put together a 1952 top set or a T2 or six set because those can run in the tens of millions of dollars. If not, you know, you take the 52 man or a hundred million dollars if you want to try and get the the best set, and the best possible grade. So I go for the highest condition that I, you know, I will tolerate, you know, as an expense.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah absolutely and you know going back to the the back collecting thing you obviously have such a wide range of baseball bats that you've collected you mentioned the five hundred home run club but.
Highlight: Babe Ruth's Bat
00:24:43
Speaker
There's a couple really special ones and one of them that I wanted to ask you about is the baby with that from his sixtieth home run season or sixty home run season rather. And it happens to be the only bad that clear roof kept is that right.
00:24:57
Speaker
Correct. and I'll give you the history behind that bat. so The Babe Ruth Museum opened up in 1973 and Claire Ruth and the Ruth family um you know donated some items back in the day. and you know There's an article that I have That you know she was at the ceremony and she said that no babe only kept one back he kept you know when i have it it's about from his nineteen twenty seven season and he kept it because it was his favorite year which of course the act is one the world series and he had sixty home runs and in you know you know was it was given to the museum.
00:25:34
Speaker
And then during the, um you know, after, during duringing I guess 2008 after the financial crisis and the bank collapse and everything else, you know, to save itself from bankruptcy, ah the museum did sell a couple items. And one of those items was the Babe Ruth bat, which it sold to Reggie Jackson, as a matter of fact. And Reggie kept it for a number of years.
00:26:04
Speaker
And then um he wanted to sell it. And I actually was a sponsor and a donor of the Ruth Museum. And I told the guys, hey, you know ah did you is this bat from the collection? Did you sell it to Reggie to Jackson? And they said, yes, we did. um And I said, well, I can keep him from selling that bat publicly ah you know by buying it myself. And they said, if you could do that, that would be wonderful.
00:26:32
Speaker
So I said, oh, you know, they wrote me a letter regarding the provenance of the bat. And you know I bought the bat from Reggie. And it is the only existing bat that traces directly to you know Claire Ruth, the wife of Babe Ruth. And it was certified by PSA you know as a, of course, PSA 10, their highest possible grade with the best possible provenance. And that that is the most valuable item I own.
00:27:01
Speaker
And it's pretty amazing because a lot of people would maybe gloss over the fact that Reggie Jackson owned it, but he's another legend in and of himself. And the fact that it was also in his collection at one point adds another, even if it's a small layer of provenance through the you know the history of it, it's pretty amazing.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, I had Regina write me a nice long letter about his history, you know why he bought it um at the time, you know to help them out and um you know that he's going to you know sell it to his his good friend Ken Golden. Amazing.
00:27:36
Speaker
The other bat I wanted to ask you about is maybe the most novel, quirky bat that you own, and it's the Jim Brightwiser bat, which was used by Mickey Mantle when he was a rookie because he didn't have his own bat yet. And then it subsequently gets signed by Mantle later on. I mean, how did you acquire this? It's such a, the story behind it and the the thought process that Mantle would sign this other guy's bat is just so amazing.
00:28:02
Speaker
but Well, actually it's interesting. the the The key with this bat is he actually signed it that year when he was a rookie because the, and and I'll give you the history of the bat. So I was, you know, I just started golden, you know, I just started golden auctions in 2012 and I decided I'm going to expand my memorabilia collection. And there was an auction that was taking place and you know, it had this bat.
00:28:27
Speaker
And I called John Taube, the authenticator for a PSA, who had supplied a letter, and I said, is this legit? And he said, I said, yeah. He said, yes. I said, what's the story? He goes, well, Mantle was sent down the miners, you know, was started early with the Yankees, and that's when he was number six.
00:28:44
Speaker
And he was sent down and he um you know came back up later in the season is that and he did not have his own model bat. So he used a teammate's bat, ah Jim Broadwiser. And he used this bat in the game and I guess he cracked it because you could see the tape on it. and I don't know who he gave it to, but on the bat is what is what might be the single earliest signature of Mickey Mantle on a game used Yankee item. Because what Mantle did was Mantle used to have a very straight signature, where it was like just up and down lines. And then I think when he got to um you know after you know approach the Triple Crown year,
00:29:30
Speaker
he gave himself however a more elaborate signature with loops and more broad strokes and very very identifiable that really stayed the same from nineteen fifty six till the so the day he died in nineteen ninety five.
00:29:47
Speaker
and This bat has his rookie signature on it. So it is a Mickey Mantle game use bat, a Jim Broadwiser bat, but with a mantle signature on it. So I own one of the earliest game use mantle bats along with a, um, rookie signature. And I also, because I own that, I had to buy one of his last bats that he used. So I also own one of the last bats he used in his career in 1968. What a great story. I mean, you just don't really get stories like that nowadays with modern stuff and, and, uh, you know, just the quirkiness and, and all that, it just doesn't happen anymore. No, it's, it's, it's,
00:30:35
Speaker
it is It is very collective you know modern collecting right now, especially gaming. It's very methodical. but The teams tag everything. Players use specific issued equipment, um like that jersey that Joe Montana wore in two different Super Bowls that we sold. That would never happen today because the NFL wouldn't allow it. Yep, totally.
00:30:54
Speaker
Now, collecting is obviously still quite niche. As as much as it's grown, you know the amount of collectors out there that are really serious, that know their stuff, it's still a pretty niche market. It has so much room to grow. But it does seem that now more than ever, there is such a growing interest and people want to be a part of it and people want to learn and they want to collect and they want to do all these things. And I'm curious to know why you think collectibles and alternative assets have just become such a phenomenon.
00:31:24
Speaker
I think that part of the reason is certainly the history of the items. okay Items are cool. and you know It used to be Pino art, but I think that people, you know my generation and younger, they really didn't grow up with art. you know They probably didn't grow up with Picassos and Van Goghs. However, you know they grew up with with specifically sports.
00:31:54
Speaker
and The great ability, the authentication companies coming in like a PSA, you know you know like Beckett, like some of the CGC for comics and things of that nature, that really gave people confidence that they can buy and sell an item that they're going to get something authentic They are going to get something that a third party tells them the condition, so they're not going to get an argument when they go to sell it. Look, in the old days, like i I was buying and selling. Trust me, every time you go to a card convention and you try to buy a card, the card was mint.
00:32:38
Speaker
You came back to that same guy a week later at the convention to sell it to him that same card you bought from that he said it was mint he's gonna say was very good to excellent is gonna say excellent to me because that was the nature and it it was a difficult process in it was difficult to transact there was a lot of choppiness in the in the in being able to transact. The third party greeting and again. For purposes of this, I'll stick on PSA because it's easier is the fact that they guarantee the authentication and authenticity of the item and they graded enabled you to buy and sell an item without risk and also enabled you to really
00:33:17
Speaker
Buying an item eat without seeing and that made it more of a tangible asset that you know that that asset advisors you know can do it like the for them it became like buying and selling gold or buying and selling you know platinum or buying and selling oil um and the fact that prices kept going up really created okay this is this is an actual investment but you know when you look at this.
00:33:44
Speaker
People have been collecting you know items for thousands of years. i mean like Literally, a thousand years ago, right people were collecting art, people were collecting rare coins, people were collecting sculptures. um I tell people about you know baseball in particular. I said they organized professional baseball has been around since the 1860s.
00:34:08
Speaker
They've produced baseball cards since the 1860s. I really feel that you know people have always collected, and they've always collected in my mind, for in some degrees for the hope of future value, it's just the modernization of the ways to transact and trade and have the item ver verified in a slab with a serial number with online price guides that just made it easier and gain more acceptance as an alternative investment.
00:34:40
Speaker
Absolutely. so I recently finished the second season of your show on Netflix, King of Collectibles. You had the chance to sit down and take a look in person at Ken Kendrick's collection. and It's such a pinnacle. and I would just love to know You know you have seen everything but ken kendrick's collection is known in the market to just be some of the best of the best if not the best of the best and i would just love to know the feeling that it gave you to see these in person.
00:35:11
Speaker
Oh, it was tremendous. I mean, look, I'm very desensitized to amazing collectibles and amazing cards. um But when you can hold something that is so special and so significant and also that you've read about your whole life, um it's it's remarkable. And definitely his collection is my favorite and the cards in in his collection, you know, retreat. and that Look, that scene where I said, I'm going to take a selfie and people crystal or tell self, you got to take it himself. But, you know, we don't plan this stuff. I have no idea what's going to go on. I looked at this and said, listen, I this is only going to be on camera on motion. I want to get a picture in my phone of um me holding his big cards. And it was spontaneous and I did it. It's pretty spectacular. I mean, knowing that that collection is down the street from where I live is just it's my.
00:36:04
Speaker
Speaking of cards, you know, card breaks and unboxing are more popular than ever and such a great example of, in my eyes, what makes collecting and the hunt so
Family and Collecting
00:36:15
Speaker
exhilarating. The anxiety of breaking open a pack and not knowing what's gonna be inside there. I mean, is there a card break or unboxing story that comes to mind that sums this up for you? getting Obviously getting you know three Jordan rookie cards with Drake isn't the worst story, but I mean, is that was that the most insane card break you've had?
00:36:33
Speaker
from ah From a pure financial dollar perspective, ah that was the most the insane. i mean we We opened up probably you know a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of the panini cards, um searching for the LeBron triple logo man. and um Obviously, we opened up a box of 86 FLIR.
00:36:54
Speaker
And with that we pulled the three jordan's and we pulled the um three jordan rookies and of course just being there with drake i mean that was absolutely amazing to see and he was so excited when we pull those jordan's i mean he was so incredibly excited to get back and to be part of it and it was just um you know it's for me spectacular i would like opening up cards with my you know with my son paul i remember a specific time when we had a we opening up we're opening up ninety six tops finest and we were um live on instagram and all of a sudden we had
00:37:46
Speaker
Seth Curry jumped into the live and he just like sold alive and he just jumped in and then we're going through it and All of a sudden, we hit the Kobe Bryant refractor, and Paul had it, and he was showing it, and it slipped at her he was like eight, and he was showing it. It slipped out of his hand, and I caught the card in the air. I ended up getting a PSA 9, but that was probably you know with an eight-year-old. At the time, it was probably worth about $25,000.
00:38:20
Speaker
I'm but with an eight year but that was that was a big poll not only because it was with my son but it was. um Of course with um with a bunch of people watching live and and seth curry space on my instagram and when it was great because he was a he was a six at the time. That's right that's right.
00:38:42
Speaker
Now, Golden has become such a trustworthy brand and operator, and of course there are still issues in the industry when it comes to authentication and people feeling comfortable.
Authenticity and Trust in Collectibles
00:38:52
Speaker
As a leader in collecting, you know how does Golden continue to combat this and and move forward and and remain a trustworthy brand and operator?
00:39:01
Speaker
but The first thing that we do is you know everything we sell is authenticated. so We're using the best authentication companies out there, ah whatever it is, whether it's autographs, whether it's game used, whether it's trading cards, know whether it's comic books. and you know Even with that, you know we personally inspect Every single thing that we you know every single thing that we sell um So we and people know and that's part of what what they get from gold is people know hey You know if I buy something from gold and it is going to be real it is going to be authentic I'm going to receive exactly what I'm looking at and I feel that that is why people will oftentimes pay more for something sold at golden and then something sold elsewhere and and the other part of that you know with the auction you know besides the often authenticity of the item is do you trust. The marketplace do you trust the auction house and we you know unlike a lot of competitors we verify.
00:40:08
Speaker
every single bidder if somebody wants to bid a certain amount. We get their driver's license we ask for backstations because we want people to know hey if you're bidding for something that's a hundred thousand dollars. You should know that the other people bidding against you are verified bidders who have the ability to pay and that we have check so you are not. Bidding against fictitious bidders which is extremely um extremely important so i think that is.
00:40:37
Speaker
Really what the most important thing is about Golden's business is that people understand we go to every single possible step with game used items. We will try to photo match them to a particular game so they know exactly what they're buying. We'll try you know whenever possible to get items directly from the athlete or the celebrity.
00:41:00
Speaker
And you know with cards and autographs will use the best authentication services to verify the authenticity as well as to um give them a grade. I love it before we wrap it up with the collector's dream run down i wanted to know why you feel collecting is such a great place for people to spend access mental real estate whether they ever shell out a dollar or not.
00:41:23
Speaker
Look, I think that, you know, that's why I think people like to watch King of Collectibles, right? I mean, not only is it exciting, not only is it fast paced, not only there are cool people on it, cool stories, but people like looking at really cool stuff. I think no matter what the collectible is,
00:41:39
Speaker
you know a great collectible captures a moment in time like we were talking earlier about the nineteen twenty seven not be with that you know and that brings been and look at the back and i bring back brings back memories of murders row your roof and gary twenty seven yankees the sixty home run season the mental bad of course young mickey man with all the promise in the world before his you know before his injury before he tore up his name literally a month after he uh... after he a month he signed he signed that back, but a great collectible captures a moment in time, captures a piece of history, and even if you don't buy it, I think everybody can respect it. you know like For example, we recently received for auction the actual 50 home run ball of Shohei Otani. Now, most people out there would never be able to afford to buy it. Most people out there may not think about it, but everybody out there can marvel
00:42:36
Speaker
at his amazing talent as a two-way baseball player, a pitcher and a slugger and marvel at his power and speed and all the ability and all the love of the game that he brings and can say, wow, that's a really cool item. And that is what makes collecting. Again, you don't have to, you don't have to buy something. You don't have to um by the most incredible thing in the world, but if it's meaningful to you, then it's a collectible. Couldn't have said it better. Ken, let's wrap it up with the collector's gene rundown. You can answer these questions based on any of the things that you collect, whether it's sports memorabilia or historical artifacts, whatever it is. Sound good? Sure. What's the one that got away?
Rarest Collectibles and Regrets
00:43:24
Speaker
Ooh, I sold the T206 Honus Wagner Uncut Strip.
00:43:29
Speaker
I definitely saw that in the show.
00:43:33
Speaker
How about the on deck circle? What's next for you in collecting maybe something you're hunting after? The big thing, you know um we're trying to grow categories. So we're we're looking you know we're going to build into other areas of collectibles, sneakers, watches, possibly coins. But really, my great project is, um again, Golden became part of the eBay family this year. And you know I have a big audience. And I got a lot of people, millions of people who watch you know watch me and watch Golden on canned collectibles, the Golden Touch on Netflix.
00:44:06
Speaker
um but eBay is like ridiculous they got a hundred and thirty million plus people so you know my goal and you know eBay's goal as well is really to be able to bring the golden brand and some of her inventory and some of the cool items and expose it worldwide to the eBay audience which shockingly to me I know it amazes me and somebody may not have heard of golden auction somewhere um you know in in North America or Asia or Europe but People have it but they all know we got so you know we bring you know the brand power of ebay and the great you know you need collectibles of golden and able to showcase it you know i think it is broadens our brains are horizon tremendously. No doubt how about the unobtainable so this is one that is too expensive in a museum private collection just complete unobtainium.
00:45:00
Speaker
Right now, at the time being, I will not complete my Teacher of Six set because I'm not right now going to spend the money on um on a Teacher of Six Wagner.
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, I can't say I don't blame you. But I would like to own, I would like to own one. I should have, I should have kept any of the, any of the others I've owned prior in my career, had I known what was going to happen to the price. Sure, sure. That's always the case, right? Yep. The page one rewrite, so if money was no object and you could collect anything else in the world, what would it be? Ooh, if I can collect anything else in the world and money was no object, um I would really love to put together a collection of the, but ah like locally we saw a Ruth Jersey goat for 20 million, right? I mean, someone they some some of those are like like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, things like that, that would be amazing. Yep, the original greats for sure. How about the goat? Who is someone that you look up to in the collecting world that you just feel is a great collector?
00:46:14
Speaker
o Well, I've had you know Ken Kendrick certainly is you know is amazing, right? Ken Kendrick is is incredible. Nat Turner was really before his time with collecting sealed boxes and modern cards and he also happened to be a friend. And you know really one of the original pioneers um Marshall Fogel as well as my good friend, Dr. The Pottery, who appeared in um in season two of Netflix and we saw a small part of his collection. He's built his dream and that museum is is opening, is opening in the next month. So his dream has come to reality and he put his faith in it and he had been had been buying stuff to put away for it since the 1990s. And know I love him for it. It's great. Spectacular. The hunt or the ownership, which one do you enjoy more?
00:47:06
Speaker
Uh, God, I, ah a lot of people are going to say the hunt, but for me, um, I, if I, if I acquire something, uh, you know, I typically display it and I like showing it off. So, um, you know, I don't, I don't want to chase it. i I'll go get it. I love it. Most importantly, do you feel that you were born with the collector's gene?
00:47:32
Speaker
Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I've always, you know, so some people may call it, you know, hoarding, you know, when you're younger, um but then you can fine tune it and it looks, you know, and it it becomes collecting. Amazing. Ken Golden, everybody. Thank you so much for joining me on Collector's Dream Radio today. I hope there's a third season coming out of the show and look forward to all the up and coming auctions that you guys have going on at Golden. and Thank you so much. ah You know, I appreciate the time and hope everybody enjoys it.
00:48:01
Speaker
All right, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.