Why We Made Trading Cards for Ecommerce | The Story Behind SHOPPS

[00:00:00] Grant: Welcome to the Commerce Playbook podcast. I'm your special guest host today, Grant Sanati, CMO of Common Thread Collective, here with the one and only CEO of CTC, Taylor Holiday. Taylor- What's up? When was the last time we were behind a camera together?

[00:00:16] Taylor: Um, in, uh, it's funny, I was looking back through Instagram the other day trying to find when we were looking at stuff from Nick, and, like, the- Mm

[00:00:23] couch in front at Quail maybe.

[00:00:25] Grant: Yeah, yeah.

[00:00:26] Taylor: Has it been that long?

[00:00:27] Grant: I think we were... Yeah, it's, uh, that- that's no reference to anybody listening, but it's probably been- Pre-pandemic where we used to film a lot of stuff sitting on a couch at our old office- Oh,

[00:00:37] Taylor: yeah ... we would

[00:00:37] Grant: do this kind of-

[00:00:38] Taylor: Yeah, the one at, uh, Crotty.

[00:00:40] Grant: The Crotty.

[00:00:40] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:00:41] Grant: The live webinars, et cetera. But, um, but I'm here today with you, and the reason this is such a special appearance is because we're doing something that is very different. If you're listening to this or watching us right now, um, and you work in e-commerce, please stay and hang out. We're not gonna get tactical, but we are going to talk about something that is...

[00:00:59] You're gonna ask yourself, "Why are we doing this? Why is this happening?" But this is also really cool. I hope that's the response. Um, and that's why we're sitting down today because we've been working behind the scenes on something for, uh, it turns to be about six months now, um, that you and I both have been really excited about.

[00:01:13] It's been, uh, a labor of love on top of everything else that we have to do. But this is something that I say if you're in e-commerce, keep listening because this is actually built for you and this is what we're here to explain. So, um, I'll set the stage like that. Tell us, tell us kinda how some of this started when we got Mr.

[00:01:29] Bezos sitting here with, uh, your baseball card that people may or may not be able to see right now.

[00:01:33] Taylor: Yeah. So this is, this is... I just stole this off BG's desk. So we share an office with Skullcandy, um, at least a small portion of their team, including their CEO, Brian Garafalo, a good friend. Congrats to them by the way.

[00:01:44] Just announced- Yeah ... yesterday, sale to Bose. Yes. Um, but this is off of his desk. I stole it. So this is his Jeff Bezos action figure holding his Taylor Holiday baseball card. Um, so some, uh, people probably still don't know this about me, but my first life was as a professional athlete. And while it was a very short-lived professional career, uh, when you're drafted, your first season they send over the, uh, photographers for Bowman and you sign a licensing agreement and everybody gets a baseball card.

[00:02:08] So this baseball card has gotten me more cool points with my kids and their friends and the general populace. I think there's a bunch of D2C people who jokingly put this on their desk and keep it around and say that it brings them good luck on Black Friday, et cetera. But it's just, it's fun and it's a cool thing.

[00:02:26] And the part I've always considered sort of funny is that my, my professional career in business has, was way more successful than my professional career as an athlete. But yet I have this like sort of iconic representation of having made it- Mm ... of having, uh, reached a certain threshold of pursuit that like no one can take this away.

[00:02:43] Like this exists in history forever. Um- Yes ... and so it's sort of this marker that I've always appreciated, um, and has been a trophy for me, like in a way that has been really cool. And so because of the engagement that pops up every now and again and what it's meant to me, I've thought why shouldn't there also be a marker for us as entrepreneurs, for people building?

[00:03:04] And I know there's things like Forbes 30 Under 30 and these random stuff, but like it doesn't exist in the physical world in a way that your kids, your friends, anyone else could see that like, "Hey, I've built a thing that means something." Like, and I even think about this with my kids. My kids' sort of conceptual understanding of CTC and what we do and what does my dad do, it's like there's something about this, uh, representation of the effort that a lot of these entrepreneurs in the community put into it that I think a trading card is sort of this cool- significant, uh, object that you could point to and be like, "Hey, look, there, I'm, I'm a thing.

[00:03:38] I did a thing, and I went out and made it happen." And so with that in mind, we thought, like, there's gotta be a way that we could lean into some of this and create this series of ongoing, uh markers to celebrate the community, to look around and go, "There are a bunch of people who have built something."

[00:03:55] You've made it. You created a thing, and it deserves to be celebrated. I'm also a collector. I trade cards. I was into NFT. I love the hobby of it all. And so I thought, man, this would be fun if there was a recurring way for the community to participate in the hobby in a way that I think ultimately trading cards are...

[00:04:12] They're, they... You've seen them expanded into Pokémon and Disney characters, and I think that they're gonna expand into cultural icons as well at some point. I think you could see a pop stars collection. Like, I just don't think there's any reason why this shouldn't be a real thing. Um, and so we started brainstorming this idea, uh, of...

[00:04:30] Can we say what it's called?

[00:04:31] Grant: Can we talk about it?

[00:04:32] Taylor: Say it. Of Shops. Uh, obviously a play on the name of Topps and shopping, and this idea that there should be a collection, uh, an annual and a recurring drop of a way for everybody to participate in the hobby. And so we built Shops, the first collection of trading cards that come in packs that you get to open, um, to celebrate the community and to allow everyone to have some fun and enjoy and put some, uh, cool figurines on your desk that maybe will bring you luck during Black Friday if you get, if you get the right one.

[00:05:03] So, um, that's a little bit of the setup for it and what it meant to me and where it came from. Uh, and we have spent a long time, we've been after this, working to find the right card manufacturer, to build the parallels, to get all the participants, to build the prizes, all the things. To create the packs, to get them sized right, to figure out how to get it, make it all happen.

[00:05:21] We've been working on this, I think, for almost nine months now. Uh, Grant and team have really taken it, and Randall on our team, uh, as well.

[00:05:29] Grant: Shout out Randall.

[00:05:30] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:05:30] Grant: Uh, so let's... We're gonna get into this, but what I think that why this idea is so relatable, not only to you, but also to me, I was never a professional athlete, but as a kid- Yeah

[00:05:40] collected baseball cards. Yeah. Liked it. Um, but over the... So there's a nostalgia factor as well. Yeah. Right? To something you remember doing. And then even if that wasn't you, as you get older, maybe have your own kids, you kind of see it through their lens potentially. Yeah. But then, like you said, there's things like Pokémon that the gamification element, so there's collectibles, there's gamification, there's nostalgia, all of these things that when it comes to this kind of stuff, that it kind of can unite people in a lot of different ways-

[00:06:04] Taylor: Yeah

[00:06:04] Grant: um, depending on what's important to you. And it's obviously a marker. They're like, "Oh, how cool would that be to be recognized in that way?" So I think you take all these things together, and it became a no-brainer, but what was really challenging for me, I don't know if it was for you, 'cause we, we operate and think a little bit differently, and that's what, what makes this work.

[00:06:20] But to me, I said, "Okay, yes. To all this, it's, uh, this is really exciting. It, it got us going, but it has to be done a certain way."

[00:06:29] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:06:29] Grant: Um, it ha- Meaning if the gamifay- gamification's gonna be there, you gotta create scarcity.

[00:06:34] Taylor: Yep.

[00:06:34] Grant: If the product, if people want this, you gotta make the product worth value of some sort.

[00:06:38] Yep. Right? Otherwise, we c- you can do this a lot of different ways. So to us it was like- We really got to, are we willing to invest that time, that money to do this in the way that we think that the community or people would want to collect? They see this- Right ... as a cool product, not a cheap thing. Yeah.

[00:06:51] 'Cause there's very lot of ways you can do this, and, and I think that if, uh, we don't go with a real card manufacturer, yes, it's gonna be more time, more cost, but like, then it becomes something that people actually wanna put on their desk. Right. Want to put with Base Us. It's something they wanna collect.

[00:07:02] If we don't create, uh, some type of model with packs and ways for the, the community to get them, that if it's not about that and it's about just selling them, well then, like, now we're trying to compete with Topps. We're not Topps.

[00:07:12] Taylor: Right. Well, or even calling it CTC, like there's all these ways in which- Yes

[00:07:15] it could've been just like a very simple- Yes ... sort of exercise. And, um- I think that we-- There's stuff we understand about the mechanics of the trading card market. Again, it's a place I spend an exorbitant amount of time. So the idea of scarcity, right? Like there is-- So in this collection, we thought, all right, let's, let's identify 100 people for the first season that we think are meaningful contributors to the community in a purely subjective interpretation of our own, not ranked in any way.

[00:07:39] Just like these are 100 people that we think are worth celebrating and deserve to be iconically recognized in Season 1 of Shops. Um, and we hope that every year this is a thing that continues to grow, and we get to find more people, and, uh, it becomes a, a continual ongoing list. But, but the idea was, okay, to your point, scarcity.

[00:07:58] So one of the fun things in collecting trading cards, and I'm a big... Bowman Chrome is like my favorite line, um, for baseball collection, and they do what are called the base cards. So think of that as the, uh, most common card in the set. Usually, uh, the Bowman Chrome base is what it's called. And then there are parallels, and parallels are different color representations that have varying degrees of scarcity.

[00:08:21] So a blue might be out of 150. Uh, green might be out of 50. A, or gold would be out of 50. Uh, and then there's what's called the superfractor is the one of one, the, the card that ends up being worth the most in the series. And so we thought, okay, well, can we mimic that where every player gets 50 cards in the set?

[00:08:39] I think there's a, uh, 100 people. We got, um-

[00:08:42] Grant: 10 cards per pack. 10- Only 1,000 packs available.

[00:08:45] Taylor: That's right. So 10,000 total cards.

[00:08:46] Grant: Yeah.

[00:08:47] Taylor: That roughly, right? Yep. So t- uh, 1,000 packs, 10 cards per pack.

[00:08:51] Grant: Yep, yep.

[00:08:51] Taylor: And so 100 people, that means that each person roughly has about 100 cards

[00:08:55] Grant: out there in the world,

[00:08:56] Taylor: right?

[00:08:56] Yeah. So you have a one of one. You have a five of five. I think the next one is 10 of 10. 10

[00:09:00] Grant: of 10.

[00:09:00] Taylor: 10 of 10, and then the rest are base. Is that

[00:09:03] Grant: right? Yeah, we, we, and then we got Chrome parallels.

[00:09:04] Taylor: Oh, and Chrome parallels. Yeah,

[00:09:06] Grant: yep. So

[00:09:06] Taylor: there's varying degree-- Each player has varying degrees of scarcity. So then we thought, okay, well, that's sort of just manufactured scarcity, which is part of what'll make it cool, and it'll be fun to chase those limited edition cards.

[00:09:15] So what we did is we talked to each member of the list, and we said, "Hey, would you be willing to assign a cool prize

[00:09:21] and these guys all, and girls all stepped up in incredible ways ranging from getting to take a trip out to go see Four Seats of the Thunder, thanks Mike Beckham, to consulting hours or product from the brand, all sorts of cool stuff that's associated with it that will increase the sort of objective value of the asset alongside the fun and community demand for each person as well.

[00:09:40] And so built into that, I think is an amazing set of prizes, uh, that are all just will make the chase more fun.

[00:09:46] Grant: 100%.

[00:09:46] Taylor: Um, and also give you access to these people. So like the idea that they would represent a way for you to get on a call with Jordan Menard or whoever else, and you get to learn from them and participate as their card holder, then there's like sort of this like experiential tie between the object.

[00:10:00] 'Cause another thing I love to do with trading cards, so like one of my favorite life memories is My kids and I were at game one of the World Series when Freddie Freeman hit the walk-off grand slam. So one of the most expensive cards I own is Topps now did a limited edition print autograph of Freddie Freeman.

[00:10:13] So I have that card, and one of the things I believe about cards is that they're like a store of cultural value. Like they, they represent, just like photos do of my family vacation, is like that card and buying an expensive version of it, like is me assigning to it that this cultural moment that I have to remember forever, I'm gonna give it to my kids someday.

[00:10:32] They're gonna tell the story of it. They're gonna give it to their kids someday, and it's like, it's like it passes down the energy of that moment in this cool way.

[00:10:38] Grant: Yep,

[00:10:38] Taylor: yep. Um, and so I think some of this can be the same. That one of one is gonna represent that cool meeting that you had or that experience that you had that will represent some of the, uh, uh, the experiential value trapped into an object, and I think that'll be a cool way, uh, to participate as well.

[00:10:54] Grant: Yeah, that's right. And, and just like Topps and Freddie Freeman and the players in that, it's, uh, while they're might be the face of it, it's allowing the people who participate in it is from experience. You like Freddie for different reasons. You were there for that thing. You wanna ca- you wanna collect those things for different reasons.

[00:11:06] Yeah. Um, the same-- Like, I think it was really important when we talked about, okay, whether... I mean, we needed to land on 100, mainly because we had to get to it an idea of how many in a pack, and we wanted to have a, a limited number.

[00:11:17] Taylor: Yep.

[00:11:17] Grant: So we said right out the gates, "This isn't..." So how do people get these packs, right?

[00:11:20] We said, "Well, we don't wanna... Do we wanna sell these? No, we wanna make this about the product." So the whole concept here is can we make the players-- So instead of gifting influencers, everyone gets one cool card, and we all celebrate them, that cool person. If this is about the community, then make the influencers the one who get to influence the people.

[00:11:38] So, so the influencers, the way you get packs, the thousand packs, isn't not just from CTC. Every player here gets the obligation, gets the opportunity to now give the packs to who is following them and who wants that. So the whole point is not just to celebrate them and here's your one thing. They get packs.

[00:11:55] The way you're gonna earn packs, you can't buy them- The packs come from the players.

[00:11:59] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:11:59] Grant: Okay? And so that was the other thing too, is like how do we make it, because you're gonna have different experiences whether you, you work with Ezra or you've done something with Ezra, and you pull this card in a pack, um, this might be really meaningful to you, right?

[00:12:10] And so the chase, everyone's gonna have a different chase for a different reason. But Ezra, instead of Ezra just getting this cool box and this, this card and, and some packs for himself, we said, "No, Ezra, if you're gonna be a part of this," and so this is the thing that's also taken a long time, is you bring 100 people into this, not only you have to get their, uh, approval, they get to choose their image, they get to choose their giveaway, all these things.

[00:12:27] That's a lot to wrangle. But we say, "Guys, to participate, you're gonna be... You have to be willing and wanting to give packs away. And so we'll supply all that. We'll give that to you, and that is the way that your followers, people, your colleagues, people around you, that's the way that you get to give back to it."

[00:12:42] Yeah. And so that was a big part of this too, is it's about these packs here.

[00:12:45] Taylor: And so- Yeah. So every, every person's gonna receive one of these, and they'll also receive then a pack and to give away, uh, one for themselves and one to give away, where they then will be able to, uh, provide to the community you guys to participate.

[00:12:55] And that's the goal, right? Like, I think if, if the collecting just stopped with giving the individuals the cards, I think the challenge with that, and I think it's important. Let's shout out Jay and what you did at the starters. Sure. I think it was super cool. Like, the timing of it was crazy. We were both sort of mind-melded there without realizing it.

[00:13:08] Like, and that's rad. Getting your own card is awesome and a way to celebrate, but I think being able to say, "Okay, it's not just for the influencers themselves, it's actually for everybody to collect and participate," is just one level beyond where we can go out, uh, and bring more people into the process and have fun with it, uh, as well.

[00:13:23] So you're gonna be able to get packs I think in three ways, right? Like, there's gonna be follow the individuals- Yep ... so the members and-

[00:13:30] Grant: Players will be giving out packs in different... You're gonna see it across social, ways that you can earn packs from them.

[00:13:34] Taylor: Yep. Right? You're gonna be able to sign up on the website to, for live drops to...

[00:13:39] We're gonna do some giveaways and access for, uh, some packs as well. That's right, so- And that's, what's the domain for

[00:13:44] Grant: that? So, so shoppscards.com. Shopps with two Ps, just like Topps. Shoppscards.com. You can go there and see when those live goes. We're gonna do three of them, where we're gonna bring in some players who are part of this- Yep

[00:13:55] in studio virtually. But on that, we're gonna actually be opening packs, ripping packs, giving away cards. And we can actually; in fact, we should do one here in a minute. We should do this and give it away. But so if you join those live or see some of those replays, we're gonna be... That's ways that you can get, um, 10, 20, 50 packs from me ripping and handing out to people in that way.

[00:14:11] So yeah, through lives. Go ahead.

[00:14:13] Taylor: So, and for this video- prove to me you're a true collector in the comments of this YouTube video. Either you already own a Taylor Holiday Bowman Chrome, you've paid for it on eBay, or you are, show me your most valuable card that you collect and we'll, we'll hook somebody up in the comments with a pack, uh, for being a true collector.

[00:14:31] We wanna put this in the hands of the real collector. So- That's true ... do that. So YouTube.

[00:14:34] Grant: Go

[00:14:34] Taylor: to YouTube. Yeah, your YouTube comments. YouTube

[00:14:35] Grant: comment.

[00:14:36] Taylor: Uh, either show me your Taylor Holiday Bowman Chrome or the most valuable card you have and we'll give away, uh, a pack in the comments for somebody as well.

[00:14:43] And so we're gonna do things like that. Again, there are only 1,000 packs. There is this a limited edition run. We don't have a crap ton to give away. The first time we just wanted to create, uh, an initial batch.

[00:14:54] Grant: Just, let's just show a one of one. Okay. That, that's your card.

[00:14:56] Taylor: So this is my one of one, but this is, this is my one of one auto.

[00:14:59] Grant: This is your one of one auto.

[00:15:00] Taylor: Okay. So this is another separate ... So there are also 100 one of one autos. That's right.

[00:15:06] So in the packs, you gotta imagine that getting the autos into the packs was just not going to be possible, 'cause we had to mail these out to everybody, get them to sign them, bring them back. So there was a limitation to getting the autos in the packs.

[00:15:16] Grant: By the way, so we will be giving away the autos in lives.

[00:15:18] Well, they're, you're gonna see those come up in different ways too, but- Yeah ... uh, if, joining the lives will be part of it, but

[00:15:22] Taylor: we- So a prize- Yeah ... is associated with the one of one autos will also be giveaways and opportunities. So you can see this is sort of like a gold print.

[00:15:28] This is my own signed, uh, one of one auto. So those will also be prizes that will be given away by the influencers, by us, in various ways. So lots of cool ways to engage, uh, and collect, uh, in the hobby. I'm hoping some people submit these to, to get graded. This one was off center and I was like, "Oh, man, that one probably isn't gonna be a PSA 10."

[00:15:45] But, but I'm hoping. But this one- Hey, some- ... this one's a lot better though. Like, some of these actually, it's just like, it's funny, it's like if you guys are collectors, you'll know that when the prints happen, they're not all centered perfectly, which is where the grading comes in. And so I was looking at some of these, like my, my base, this base right here is actually pretty well centered.

[00:16:01] I might try and submit it for grading. But my one of one is definitely not a PSA 10. It's more like a PSA 6. Let's

[00:16:07] Grant: rip a pack. Why don't you open one? You wanna ... Shall we, should we open one? I, maybe we should open one, 'cause I want, I wanna show-

[00:16:10] Taylor: I actually haven't opened them. I actually wanna keep one unopened

[00:16:13] Grant: You know there's, you know there's only been one pack opening is me.

[00:16:15] Taylor: Is you've

[00:16:16] Grant: opened them and- Yeah. I mean, we got, we literally got these in today. Is that, is

[00:16:17] Taylor: that what you have?

[00:16:18] Grant: What did you hit? Let's, I brought some. I- What did you hit in your first pack? I brought some. I had actually a really good pack. So, um, let's just, so this gives more visual. So base card, as Taylor was talking about, the base card.

[00:16:26] Taylor: That's

[00:16:27] Grant: Ezra. Looks like this. Ezra. Great. I mean, and-

[00:16:29] Taylor: And what I love is that, like, each person chose their own image. Yep. So there's, like, sort of an expression of their personality in it. Like, Mehtab I think actually leaked his. He actually- Yeah ... it's like a cartoon of him eating crayons. But it's just like, it's so indicative of everybody's personality in terms of how they see themselves- Yep

[00:16:43] in the way that they express the card. So I thought that was cool.

[00:16:45] Grant: This is another unique one that pulled in the, the first sort of pack. So, so Josh Shapiro and, and Bill Rahm from, uh, baseball. I said, they together were actually like, "Well, we love this idea, but we wanna do one together."

[00:16:54] Taylor: Yeah. Cool. So- So there's a few that are, like, pairs.

[00:16:56] I think the Sansoni brothers. There's a couple pairs. Yep. Uh, there's, who else? Um, there's a husband and wife. Yep,

[00:17:01] Grant: from, from Create. Yep.

[00:17:02] Taylor: Oh yeah, from Create Wellness. Yep. Like, so yeah, there's, there's a few different, um, multiple people on the same card. So,

[00:17:07] Grant: so those are g- those are couple bases.

[00:17:08] Taylor: Do you have any rare ones?

[00:17:09] Grant: I do. So here's a 4 of 10 Cody.

[00:17:11] Taylor: Ooh, a 4 of 10. Yeah. So that's a out of 10, 4 of 10 black Cody Klopfer right there. Yep. Hang on to that one. That could be valuable.

[00:17:18] Grant: This, this one I like a lot too.

[00:17:20] Taylor: That's your favorite.

[00:17:20] Grant: 4 or 5 chrome parallel of X.

[00:17:24] Taylor: Okay. So the X, if anybody doesn't... So Aria is a brand. I- Absolutely- We

[00:17:28] Grant: don't know his name

[00:17:28] Taylor: either.

[00:17:28] Yeah ... it's, it's truly the- Absolutely ridiculous. Um, is a sports baseball brand. I love them. They do awesome work. We both love them. He's the CEO, but he's like, he, uh, his, he doesn't, his public persona does not exist.

[00:17:37] Grant: Yeah, yeah.

[00:17:38] Taylor: And so we reached out. We a- we happened to have a contact- We did

[00:17:40] Grant: not know him

[00:17:40] yeah. Like many of the folks in this, we did not know him personally.

[00:17:43] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:17:43] Grant: We reached out, he responded.

[00:17:44] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:17:45] Grant: Still don't have his name. He goes by, it's X. I'm not gonna give his email address, but yes.

[00:17:48] Taylor: Yeah. So he literally, uh, doesn't have his public persona, but he gave us a picture and you can see his, like, face is hidden.

[00:17:53] So X, shout out to you. That's a, that's an-

[00:17:55] Grant: Yeah. And he, and he was an early, early adopter right at the beginning.

[00:17:57] Taylor: Yeah, yeah. He

[00:17:57] Grant: loved it. So I'm in right away.

[00:17:58] Taylor: So that's an of 5 X- Yep ... secret hidden card. So yeah, there's some fun stories with each one. Um,

[00:18:03] Grant: these are, these are important ones too. So, hey, this also isn't possible too with couple sponsors that came on early and are a part of this.

[00:18:09] So Omnisend and Fulfill, two, two people that are behind this idea and been with us and been great partners. So pulled their cards as well. So Fulfill, one of their clients, Moyes and, and- Yeah ... and Native, so, and is a big investor and partner of theirs. So he's that card, which is a also a really cool card.

[00:18:25] So that's, that's that. And then Omnisend, Riedes, CEO, amazing character, amazing guy. Um, and so you do that. What they also do too, in some of the packs, just like everyone else's prizes, you can pull, there's 10 golden tickets from Fulfill, and there's 10 golden tickets from Omnisend with just insane prizes as well.

[00:18:41] Um,

[00:18:42] Taylor: you know,

[00:18:42] Grant: Fulfill's giving away-

[00:18:43] Taylor: Like a full, full Hexcloud.

[00:18:44] Grant: Fulfill's giving away a full Hexcloud, thousands of dollars- Yeah ... in product, 'cause that's one of their, their clients as well. Um, Omnisend's has a really unique offer, only specific to this that you can pull that no one else can get thousands of dollars worth of Omnisend stuff.

[00:18:56] So it's just like,

[00:18:57] Taylor: again- I think there's, like, ad credits in here somewhere. Like, there's, like, there's a few other things that are, are really cool as along the way. I hope I actually don't pull one of those right now. But are we g- Let's, let's- So

[00:19:05] Grant: are we gonna do this? Let's rip a pack. Let's do it. Let's do it.

[00:19:06] All right. This is the first one.

[00:19:07] Taylor: I, I wanna keep one unopened though. Like, I got, I,

[00:19:09] Grant: I- Okay.

[00:19:09] Taylor: So

[00:19:09] Grant: you can keep this one ... I'm putting that one safe. This one, how about this? Open this, and this is what, this one we'll give away in the comments. So-

[00:19:13] Taylor: Okay ...

[00:19:14] Grant: do you wanna do that?

[00:19:14] Taylor: Well, no, I, I think we should, 'cause I think it's fun for someone.

[00:19:16] Let's, we'll send them an unopened. Let's do both. Okay, fine. Yeah. This is, so-

[00:19:19] Grant: Yeah, one, we'll give one unopened packed.

[00:19:21] Taylor: Yep.

[00:19:21] Grant: And then we'll give one that's opened. Okay. So whatever's here. Because if you do pull a one of one- You're right, you're right ... then they get it. You're

[00:19:25] Taylor: right. All right, here we go. All right.

[00:19:28] Grant: And if you're listening right now, audio, I'm sorry, this is gonna be a bit boring, but you can, we'll, we'll narrate it

[00:19:33] Taylor: for you. Well, naturally I have a whole episode where we opened a box of baseball cards. Okay. That's

[00:19:38] Grant: true.

[00:19:39] Taylor: Here we go. Ooh, right off the rip, a Jason Panzer.

[00:19:41] Grant: Ooh,

[00:19:42] Taylor: nice. Jason Panzer base.

[00:19:43] Grant: Come

[00:19:43] Taylor: on.

[00:19:44] Grant: Nice. Guys, we were just

[00:19:44] Taylor: talking about Peck's Park. Oh, I see some or- I see an orange. I see a chrome. Okay, let's see. Ooh, Andrew Farris. Oh,

[00:19:49] Grant: my gosh.

[00:19:50] Taylor: Look at that, Andrew Farris.

[00:19:51] Grant: It's like he's peeking into the...

[00:19:53] Taylor: Nice. Ooh, Chase Diamond, base.

[00:19:56] Grant: Chase Diamond base. Show it.

[00:19:58] Taylor: Uh, Katie Carr, Make the Label, base.

[00:20:03] Grant: Great brand, by the way.

[00:20:04] Taylor: Really cool brand. Ooh.

[00:20:07] Grant: This is my favorite one. This is, this is top five. This card is hilarious. This is top five for me. Yeah. 'Cause, yeah. So Jo-

[00:20:11] Taylor: John Roman, Battle Box to 10.

[00:20:13] Grant: Check that out. So, so John obviously is a big- Oh my. He's a tiger ... he's also a collector. He got this, um, him and Brian McDonald. Brian has, has been a big advocate of us as well.

[00:20:22] Yeah. But, but his card, I loved what he did with it. That's why I love it. Yeah, he, he actually made it.

[00:20:26] Taylor: Ooh, uh, Michelle Miller from Vegamour out of 10. Ooh, I got a good one here. Next one, next one. Check this out. Okay, so that's Michelle to 10. Sean Frank to five. Wow. Ooh. That, that is, that is a good one right there.

[00:20:39] And that's with-

[00:20:39] Grant: and look at the, you got the gold colorway too.

[00:20:41] Taylor: And he's in front of a McDonald's in a parking lot. That was, that was Sean's photo for himself. But yeah. That's good. So Sean Frank to five for somebody in the comment. Get in there. That's a good one Sorry, Sean Frank to five. I got the Moises Alou fulfill card.

[00:20:55] Let's go. Okay.

[00:20:57] Grant: Chrome.

[00:20:57] Taylor: I got the Redus. And then let's see, Chrome to six, Sophia Edelston from Pair Eyewear. Wow. There you go. That's a solid pack right there.

[00:21:09] Grant: That's cool. That's a, that's a really good... That's a good pull.

[00:21:10] Taylor: So in the comments you got your Sean Frank to five, you got John Roman to 10, you got some Andrew Ferris- Yep

[00:21:16] little Panzer.

[00:21:17] Grant: Sophia Chrome.

[00:21:17] Taylor: Yeah, if any of the, those people are, get in there to the comments and we'll get you that, and then we'll also give away a full pack. I gotta get, uh, some sleeves- Yeah ... for these things. You-

[00:21:27] Grant: All right. So this, this episode, or, and we're filming this ahead of time, this is be, be coming out on, um, November 3rd, okay?

[00:21:33] November 4th, the next day, Wednesday, if you're watching this live or watching this, catching this early, November 4th, tomorrow, Wednesday, is when this all goes out there.

[00:21:43] Taylor: Yep.

[00:21:43] Grant: So this is when you can start getting packs. Again, there's not one central place to it. Go check out shopscards.com for sure. You can learn all about the prizes, who are the players, how to get it, but there's gonna be a lot of different people.

[00:21:53] The players, again, giving it to all of you. Get packs. They're gonna be free. You gotta earn them, gotta win them, gotta find different ways you can earn it. I think it's, I think we totaled it up. It's, what we're saying is it's, it's over $50,000 in different types of giveaways- Yeah ... that you can get from these players.

[00:22:06] Um, and again, just to have this as something that you want on your desk, collect it, people you work with, get it alongside, um, is, is something really rad, and, and like you said, Taylor, I think this is something that we hope, um, goes past this. But hey, let's just ke- let's

[00:22:18] Taylor: Yeah, we, like our dreams, like, for this is, one, I love, I think what Topps has done with Topps now is so cool, where they're constantly releasing seasonal releases.

[00:22:26] So you could imagine a Q4. Like, one of the things is my dream... So one of the common things in cards is, like, that there are these inserts that include, like, pieces of the jersey. So there's, like, a logo, uh, card or different things. And so we're gonna try and get, uh, some Q4, the shirt off your back on Black Friday.

[00:22:47] So maybe Connor McDonald was wearing his, uh, tee, and we get a little piece of it- Mm ... and it's in the card for next year or things like that. So fun ways that maybe the key caps lock off of somebody's keyboard from Black Friday. Like, little, little fun ways that we can- Yeah ... create additional inserts, uh, and celebrations throughout the year, uh, as little bonuses, um, to just keep building on the collection over time.

[00:23:09] Giving out full sheet collections. Different, different ways we can do it. So, and then Grant and I are dreaming, like, next year what we'd imagine is that if you're one of the 100 that gets chosen, we could have an event. Uh, maybe we all go take BP at Petco Park and have a cool dinner. Like, some way to celebrate and continue to build on the collection over time.

[00:23:27] uh, as we go. So check it out, Shops Cards, Shops Card. Cards. With an S. With an S. Dot-com.

[00:23:33] Grant: Yep.

[00:23:33] Taylor: And, um, November 3rd.

[00:23:35] Grant: November 4th.

[00:23:36] Taylor: November 4th.

[00:23:37] Grant: November 3rd, you'll hear about it. November 4th, you can start getting it.

[00:23:39] Taylor: Yeah, we've got people posting already. We're trying to, trying to embargo all the posts, but we'll, uh, we'll

[00:23:44] Grant: see.

[00:23:44] There's, there's no way you can wrangle. I, I've just, I've said this- People don't

[00:23:47] Taylor: read emails, Shireen, but, uh-

[00:23:49] Grant: People don't read emails, and it's really hard. And I get it. 100 people outside of your org to wrangle is hard enough when they're internal, so. Yeah. Um, I just wanna say this again. It... thank you to you to, to allowing this to- Yeah, yeah

[00:23:58] to make, come to life. I think that this is something we've had a lot of fun with, a lot of late nights, but there's a lot of people behind the scenes, uh, in- including On, On, On This End and Fulfill, of course, as, as partners of ours in this, but also, um, a lot of staff here, um, that Randall, uh, Sumai, everyone else involved who's been doing this outside of their, their day-to-day stuff.

[00:24:15] But I think that we hope that you all love this as much as, as we have putting this together. Um, and it's something that we can go and celebrate

[00:24:22] Taylor: this involved.

[00:24:22] Grant: Yeah, you still have the...

[00:24:23] Taylor: Like, you all deserve to be celebrated. I think that, um, the aspirational identity of being an entrepreneur is something that I think, uh, is important.

[00:24:31] Yeah. And hopefully you can show it to your kids. They'll think you're cool, and, uh, it's a fun thing for all of us to collect and celebrate some of these people that we all, um, aspire to be like and learn from, um, and now can collect a little bit of the story and pass it on, and just continue to enrich what I think is a pretty special community in the e-com world.

[00:24:50] So-

[00:24:50] Grant: Yeah ...

[00:24:51] Taylor: thank you to everybody who helped make it happen, and enjoy. Yeah, happy collecting.

[00:24:55] Grant: Happy collecting.