The Secondary TCG Market is Wrestling

[00:00:01] Speaker A: All right, I'm ready. I'm ready to get banged in a flashing manner. [00:00:07] Speaker B: So I'm just gonna send you a quick picture of a card. I'm just gonna drop it in the chat. Chat. And just. Why don't you take a look at this card. When it loads for me, tell me if. If you think it's any good. Okay. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Okay, one second here. I'm gonna take a little hit. A hit of herbal medicines and. Oh, that's pretty there. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it isn't it? [00:00:28] Speaker A: All right, let's bring this up. The candelabla of Thanos. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Of Tawnos. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Awesome. Does this one have, like, a French accent and, like, make funny little quirks? Because I want. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Well, Tanos is a friend of Urza who's a war criminal, so. [00:00:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Awesome. Sweet fucking French. All right, so. Untap X. Separate lands. Thanos learned quickly from Urza that utter simplicity often led to wondrous yet subtle utility. That sounds like a fun colonizing frog leg. Bastard. Sorry. Anyways. Yeah, no, it's beautiful. I don't know. It seems like it's fine. [00:01:05] Speaker B: You pay. You pay X money in, you get X money out, right? [00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It says right here. Yeah. Subtle utility. Yeah, it kind of feels like it says it right there. It's got a little one there. Yeah. It doesn't seem overly complicated. It's pretty wrong. Nope. [00:01:22] Speaker B: No. Here. And I'm just. I'm just gonna. I'm gonna put another card in. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:26] Speaker B: And so what. What if. What if you have a land that's kind of like this? [00:01:32] Speaker A: Tolarian Academy. Oh, my. All right, well, this looks like. I hate the people who go here. So. This is a legendary land full of asses with too much money. [00:01:45] Speaker B: You're so correct. You know nothing about the magic, and you're so correct. Academy. [00:01:54] Speaker A: Okay, well, I need Urza to, like, reparations some. Everyone is saying this like, you're so correct. You do not have this kind of academy that I'm looking at unless you have oppressed some people. [00:02:08] Speaker B: And speaking of oppressing some people, read what it does. [00:02:10] Speaker A: Okay, so tells little attorney guy. You still haven't told me what that means. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Oh, tap. That's a tap symbol. [00:02:17] Speaker A: That's a tap sub. Tap. Tappy. What up? Call me. Add water to your mana pool for each artifact you can control so that the academy worked with time until time ran out. Yeah, like other people's money. You. [00:02:34] Speaker B: So I want to refer you back to the first card I showed you. That's an artifact. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [00:02:39] Speaker B: Artifacts are very easy to make. If you have two artifacts, you can tap this for two blue mana and then pay one of that blue mana into the Candelabra of Tanos and Untap Tolarian Academy. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:56] Speaker B: And that's what we call an infinite mana loop. You will go one mana positive every time you do that. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Well, that. That makes sense. And that sounds like something that people who live inside that building would come up with. [00:03:09] Speaker B: And certainly there's nothing that you couldn't use that mana for. This is a little bit more complicated of a card, but it's fitting. Certainly. This doesn't give our favorite war criminal any. Any funny ideas. So this is Urza. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Yes. Hi. Erza. You're a human artificer. I think I've seen you before. I think I might have seen a variation of you at some point. [00:03:36] Speaker B: And I just want to refer you down to that bottom little thingy. 5 generic mana. Shuffle your library, then exile the top card until the end of your turn. You may play that card without paying its mana cost. So if you were to, say, generate infinite blue mana, you could just keep activating that over and over and over and over until you cheat out a bunch of. [00:03:58] Speaker A: I don't like that at all. [00:04:00] Speaker B: Or criminal. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Okay, so you're. You're just setting yourself up specifically to. To win again at the cost of like, whatever it might take with anyone else? Yeah, no, that's. You know, even if it's a little shady, there's nothing pro wrestling about that. What are you talking about? I can't think of anything. The NWA that. That might have anything like that. [00:04:30] Speaker B: And to really set up the. The theming of today's episode, I want to refer you back to the Candle Leper of Tanas. How much money do you think that card costs? [00:04:38] Speaker A: I mean it, like. Because, like, looking at it doesn't seem like it's like whatever, you know, like it can't be by itself. But what you just told me tells me that it should be priceless. I don't know, like $2. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker B: You're. You're a couple magnitude. Oh, there's a 2 in its price tag. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Oh, me. Okay. We hundos do hondo twenty one hundred dollar card. Me sideways, upside down, front in the back. Whatever it takes to give me some of that money. What the fuck? I got the wrong special interest. Bugs. What the. [00:05:21] Speaker B: So we can start talking about our card prices. Graps is. Is the secondary market for cards. Graps. [00:05:29] Speaker A: I. I think that the secondary market might be Wrestling. Hit that beautiful bell. Way to flashbang me, Buzz. Welcome back, everybody, to Everything Is Wrestling where we are kind of building the, the Ella and Bugs theory of everything. I'm Ella. This is Bugs. Say hi, Bugs. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Hi, Bugs. [00:06:08] Speaker C: Hey. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Hi, Bugs. What's up, doc? How are you? How are you doing this week besides bang, flashing me? [00:06:16] Speaker B: Just, you know, just kind of yapping, hanging out, getting a lot of. Went for like a five mile walk today. That was pretty nice. [00:06:23] Speaker A: Well, that's good. That's. I'm told that that's wonderful. Maybe someday I'll find out. We'll see. [00:06:30] Speaker B: It's beautiful down here. It is. I mean, it's like 90 degrees, but it's like a. It's a. It's a real dry heat right now. So it's. It's like, you know, 20, 30ish percent humidity. [00:06:44] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, see, it's still pretty. It's still pretty. It's 90 degrees, but it's still a little humid in the, in the Minneapolis, I could go with a breeze and I would be fine if only my bike was fixed. Well, Bugs, I'm so happy you made it to tell me about the secondary market and how it is potentially wrestling [00:07:04] Speaker B: for our theory of everything just might be. [00:07:07] Speaker A: And we brought in a guest like we said we were gonna do. It's not the guest that I were going to have because things happen. So putting the time machine back in the basement of the theater for now, we instead have a friend of various pods that I do too many. Kennedy T. Cooper, delight of the Internet. How are you? Hello. [00:07:31] Speaker B: Hey. [00:07:32] Speaker C: I've decided I'm going to be a difficult guest. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Awesome. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the. Would not be the first time on the show. [00:07:40] Speaker C: This is the new show and I feel like, you know how like, management puts you through trainings where they pretend to be a shitty customer and you know that they just want it. They just want an excuse to be a jerk to you for the day [00:07:53] Speaker A: you get back at me for the way I produce the election show. Okay. Yeah. [00:07:59] Speaker C: So I'm going to push back on everything. First of all, I don't think, okay, TCGs are wrestling. Second, I don't think wrestling is real. Third, I don't know what a TCG is. Fourth. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Oh. Holy. All right, so, okay, the gas is already leaking, folks. I mean, I'm gonna. I will find it by the end of this. I will find where it is. [00:08:30] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm here, I'm here to talk about. I'm here to Talk about card games of the traded variety. [00:08:39] Speaker B: Yes, It's. [00:08:41] Speaker A: It's a more logical next step from last time. I will say that. Than where we possibly were going, which, you know, kind of works. But I will say, like I told Bugs Kennedy, you have just been ranting about this concept at me whenever possible for quite some time. You have tried to get me to start a whole podcast with you about it, and I was like, oh, I want to start paying all this money again. I don't have. Like, I'm famously unemployed, Kennedy. Like, I am. [00:09:12] Speaker C: I am strongly considering starting entire podcasts about the speculative TCG market. It's true. [00:09:21] Speaker B: It's fucking insane, dog. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Well, the fact that you even could. [00:09:27] Speaker C: But, you know, we'll. We'll get some of those out here today, so that's cool. [00:09:31] Speaker A: Well, what do you say? Well, what do you have to say? What is the secondary collector's market of a TCG game? Do you look at me? I'm an interviewer. Look, I'm professional. [00:09:41] Speaker C: So trading card games. So there's the game itself. So that's like the first layer of things, right, is that you have the trading card game itself, which is a thing that you play. Right. So we were describing some mechanics of the game, Magic, the Gathering at the start of the show, right? And so, like, these are the. The ways in which you play the game, right? [00:10:06] Speaker B: They're the game pieces that, like, this is just, like, how the game functions, right? [00:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And so. So there's the game itself. And it's worth noting that the game itself does rely on luck, and in some cases involves winning money. [00:10:20] Speaker B: It can. [00:10:21] Speaker C: So I want to point out that we already have one layer of gambling right here. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Yes. [00:10:27] Speaker C: Marking that down, we're at layer one of gambling. [00:10:30] Speaker B: The act of playing a trading card game, you will be shuffling your deck. There might be luck elements involved, different game mechanics, and, yeah, there's money on the line if you're playing at certain competitive level. So that's not. It's. It's. It's gambling in a way that, like, it's poker, right? [00:10:47] Speaker C: And. And famously, Magic the Gathering is, in some deep, deeply seated ways, influenced by poker, which people don't really think of on the surface, but I certainly have. But Richard Garfield famously really into poker and has. Has been making games inspired by his love for poker for a long time. So you have this first layer of gambling, then there's a secondary layer of gambling that you apply on top of this, which is that you buy trading cards in randomized packs and sometimes you get to buy a pre constructed deck or whatever, but those are always ass. That's. That's an intentional marketing thing. [00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:39] Speaker C: Because it depends on what game you play. But if you play Magic the Gathering, they're. [00:11:48] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, the competitive decks are the Commander precons have gotten much more playable, but only in the last like, year and change. [00:11:55] Speaker C: But even those, like everybody. Every Magic the Gathering player I know will be like, yeah, the, the, the Commander precons are pretty good these days. You know, you take one, you place about 50, 60% of the cards, you're great. [00:12:07] Speaker A: You know, [00:12:11] Speaker C: Which, I mean, it's not nothing, but still. So, you know, in general though, you're buying these cards in randomized packs, you don't know what you're going to get. And so you're gambling on that aspect of it. And of course you can jump on to any streaming service right now and it doesn't matter what time of day you're listening to this podcast, it'll be true what I'm saying. You can jump onto any streaming service right now. Watch someone rip open packs of cards. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:12:39] Speaker A: On Al Gore's Internet. No way. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Oh, dude. Dude, those tubes are full of cardboard. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's weird. Be shame if someone were to drop a match. [00:12:54] Speaker C: Those people are gambling as well. Okay, so we have another layer of gambling attached to it. But then what if, what if we had. So we have poker. Right. And we have the lottery. Okay, what, okay, had the stock market. [00:13:12] Speaker B: Are you telling me that the prices of cards fluctuate sometimes for no reason? [00:13:18] Speaker C: I'm telling you that the prices of cards fluctuate sometimes. Sometimes. Get this. Wait for it. Or no reason. [00:13:29] Speaker B: No way. [00:13:33] Speaker C: Again, this is a, this is a third layer of gambling that is, in theory influenced in some ways by the other two layers of gambling below it that you are contending with at this point, which is the speculative trading card market. This is where you have people buying and selling cards and deciding their value based on sometimes how they play in the game, sometimes the art, sometimes their rarity, sometimes purely on vibes. [00:14:08] Speaker A: So like. [00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sometimes it's really arbitrary. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Right. Because like, it's like. Okay, because. So it's not even one or any other thing. It's not even about like the people actually playing the game. It could just be about this one. So pretty. [00:14:25] Speaker C: Yes. And in particular, I would say, you know, I play the Pokemon trading card [00:14:29] Speaker A: game and I, I used to. That's how you tried to get me back in, you sneak. [00:14:33] Speaker C: Yes, the Pokemon trading card game. Is actually. It's affordable to play. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Yes, you keep saying that, and I'm not. I'm. Maybe someday, if once job happens. Listeners. Folks, I don't know if we have a Patreon yet, but if we don't, if we do go there, sign up [00:14:48] Speaker C: for the Patreon so that Ella will buy a Pokemon deck, please. [00:14:51] Speaker B: Yes, Pokemon is startlingly accessible financially. [00:14:57] Speaker C: Like. Like, at any given time, the top 20 Pokemon decks will be between 40 and $150 each to make. [00:15:06] Speaker A: That's. [00:15:06] Speaker B: God, I wish that were standard right now. [00:15:08] Speaker C: And these are the top decks in the world at that moment. And you can just. You can just go make them. You don't have to be making some fucking Wall street salary or work in the Silicon Valley. You know, increasingly, you have to basically be a tech bro or a famous rap star to play Magic the Gathering. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Guess which one I am. [00:15:33] Speaker A: I was gonna say Bugs. I didn't know you rapped. That's awesome. [00:15:36] Speaker B: I was gonna say I'm not the [00:15:37] Speaker C: tech bro, you know, but. But Pokemon does have its own speculative market. And what's fascinating about a speculative market around a game like Pokemon is that in the case of Pokemon in particular, the speculative market is really far divorced from us, from those of us who play the game has so little to do with those of us who play the game. A card will be good in the game, and it'll go from being sold for like, $1 to, like, $6, which is, like, still, like. I mean, that's something, but it's like, [00:16:09] Speaker B: that's a substantive jump. But also, like. [00:16:12] Speaker C: But also, like, it's not gonna break your wallet to buy four of them for your deck. Right? [00:16:16] Speaker A: You know, it's not 20 $100 for a single. [00:16:22] Speaker B: Oh, oh, I forgot to tell you. The decks that want the Candelabra of Tanos want four of them. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Get the out. [00:16:31] Speaker B: Dog Dog Legacy Wild. I. I don't. I don't play those formats. I do not play those formats. [00:16:38] Speaker A: Like, do you want to be super into Magic the Gathering or do you want a car? [00:16:42] Speaker C: I was. I was about. You have to be in Silicon Valley or be a famous rap star to play Magic. But if you play vintage, you actually have to be in Silicon Valley or be a famous rap star or you have to. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Been playing since, like, 93. [00:16:56] Speaker A: That's. [00:16:57] Speaker C: You cannot. You can also be 65 years old. [00:17:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:00] Speaker B: Like, yeah. There's a secret third option, and it is to be on, like, Social Security. [00:17:12] Speaker A: Still, Elon can get no one to play Legacy with Him. Yeah. That's unfortunate. [00:17:17] Speaker C: But yeah, in Pokemon, the secondary market, it's all about. It's all about the art cards. And so I'm gonna show you a card in. In chat and listeners. You can look it up at home because I'm gonna describe it in detail. This card was inspired by. So the Pokemon company did a Van Gogh collaboration. [00:17:45] Speaker B: That's cute. [00:17:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I have. [00:17:47] Speaker A: What's Vincent's favorite Pokemon? Do we know? [00:17:49] Speaker B: Oh, Gengar, definitely. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. [00:17:52] Speaker C: Probably Gengar. Yeah, I think that's a strong choice. Somebody out there will come up with something even smarter, probably. But that. We'll go with Gengar. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Gengar's never the wrong choice. [00:18:05] Speaker C: So. So. So Pokemon did a Van Gogh collaboration. And so I have. I have some of the sleeves and one of the deck boxes from that era. Super cute stuff. But also during that era, there was a super limited edition Pikachu card. A. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Of course there was a Pikachu inspired [00:18:25] Speaker C: by Van Gogh's self portrait. No, not the ear one. The gray hat one. The less famous one. And so it's called Pikachu with gray felt hat. I'm going to post it into the chat for you two to look at listeners at home. You can look it up. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Oh, that's so cute. Holy Pika portrait. [00:18:52] Speaker A: I wasn't ready, y'. [00:18:54] Speaker C: All. It has this one Attack. [00:18:57] Speaker B: Search your deck for. It's a Pikachu tutor. That's crazy. [00:19:01] Speaker C: It's a worthless ability. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:04] Speaker A: No, this is. [00:19:05] Speaker B: I. I'm like, I can't imagine ever running this. [00:19:09] Speaker C: That is dog. [00:19:15] Speaker A: I would. No, I ran a Raichu deck for a while and I could maybe see happen [00:19:23] Speaker C: even that. Not with the What? Not with the car. [00:19:26] Speaker B: How do you pronounce the artist's name? Because they did a beautiful job on this. [00:19:30] Speaker C: Sure. But yeah, incredible art. [00:19:34] Speaker B: Kimura. Oh. When it's angered, it immediately discharges the energy stored in the pouches in his cheeks. Look at that gentleman. I feel like I like that. This is also, like, a little bit closer to the OG Fat Pikachu era. Like, they hadn't quite put him on Ozempic yet. [00:19:49] Speaker A: Yes. He's got some chunk, and he's not gonna, like, have any of those weird side effects that we don't know about yet. I want to see Nao Kimura is how Kimura. Because that's like a key lock. I know that because of Graps, this [00:20:05] Speaker C: person has illustrated some banger ass cards and a quite a lot of Pokemon cards at that. And so, yeah, I think like, but [00:20:15] Speaker B: yeah, like you were saying, this is a game piece in technicality only. [00:20:20] Speaker C: Yeah, this is. This is. This is a dog shit card that you would only want for the art. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Do I want it so bad for the art, though? [00:20:28] Speaker C: And this one's unusual because most cards in Pokemon have an art version and a non art version. This one is an unusual one and it only exists as an art version. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Well, yeah, because it's a Van Gogh. [00:20:42] Speaker C: It is. It is pretty hard to come by. And there's no other version of it, so it's rare. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:52] Speaker C: So what do you think? This card that is not have any play value in the game and is purely a collector's item on the speculative market. What do you think the cheapest one I can currently buy is going for, [00:21:07] Speaker B: I'm gonna say, conservatively, 500, $550. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Wow. That. It's just art. No playable use. [00:21:18] Speaker B: Wait, wait, when did it come out? [00:21:20] Speaker A: About. It says 20 years ago. Yeah, it says 20. 23 for the copyright. [00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:27] Speaker B: All right, so 22 or 23. Yeah, I'm gonna stick it around 500. I think you could find maybe a heavy plate version. [00:21:37] Speaker A: All right. So I'm sitting here going like, I don't remember. It's been so long since I. I used to listeners. I used to play the Pokemon trading card game when I had money and I gotten my ass kicked by so many 5 year olds. Greninja. Greninja forever. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:21:59] Speaker A: Oh, my God. That little. That little like. And his mom's just. His mom's just in the corner just smiling like, yay, honey. And I'm like, you shouted over here. And he's just like, juice box, mommy, I got you. I'm a God. I just get my ass. [00:22:20] Speaker C: Ella, what you got on this car? [00:22:22] Speaker A: I don't know. I want. I'm. I. I would. I would pay tens of dollars for it. I would. 100 bucks. Like, I'd pay a hundred dollars to have that little guy. [00:22:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I'd cap it personally. It's paying about 100 bucks, but I. I could see it going for like five. [00:22:38] Speaker C: All right, the cheapest. The drum roll please. The cheapest Pikachu with gray felt hat, scarlet and violet promo card I can buy on TCG player, which has a corner indent. [00:22:58] Speaker B: I call it heavy plate, heavy played. [00:23:02] Speaker C: $950. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Are you kidding me? [00:23:08] Speaker C: No. [00:23:09] Speaker B: What the hell? [00:23:11] Speaker A: This is a fucking problem is what this is. This isn't. Okay. This is crime. Is this crime mods. [00:23:20] Speaker C: So actually part of. Part of why the Pokemon trading card game is so cheap to play. If you just want to play it is because this speculative, these speculative market people are buying packs, ripping them open and then just dumping most of the cards onto websites dirt cheap because they don't give a fuck. 5 look very like this. Now this card, you couldn't get that way exactly because it was a promo card. [00:23:47] Speaker A: But all right, I. I'm gonna admit to something. Okay, okay. So in middle school, so imagine just a little, just a wee squishy little rotund that everyone thinks it's a boy in middle school in the Wisconsin. It's just like you someone love me. Yeah. And who. Whose parents owned a small business and they rented out the front of this small business because they just needed office space, you know. So they rent out the front of it to a guy who owns a sports memorabilia shop. A. Well, in middle school when the Pokemon TCG hit, all of a sudden he became a card store. And I usually hang out at this. In this guy's shop that like my parents like rented to him. And this man would just fleece me for his rent money back. Like just. Oh my God. But like he also like taught me the ways so like I would hang out with this absolute again listeners scumbag. Just piece of like there's no way this guy wasn't an absolute monster because like everything he said sounded like wall. Like Wall street. But he's talking about a Pikachu. He got Charizard. And like, I mean I did some crazy. I pulled some crazy. But back in middle school, that little rotund closet case did not play the game. I was a secondary market because of this. He like groomed me and like, so I would be sitting in his shop opening packs for what I want. And now I'd have all this in my binder and I would go to school and hustle and come back after school and open more packs. [00:25:58] Speaker B: So that's crazy dog. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Yeah, this is like sixth, seventh grade. I didn't play the actual game until I was in my late 20s. So like, so I'm listening to all this going, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know this. I know. Where do I know this from? Reach deep. [00:26:28] Speaker B: There is a. Yeah, a secret world this guy. [00:26:32] Speaker A: But 950 for this Pikachu get like no, no way. [00:26:38] Speaker C: Again, no, no, no play value. [00:26:41] Speaker A: Well then what. But what are like the rare really badass play value cards going for them? Like what's an example of that? Out of curiosity. [00:26:51] Speaker C: So there's a couple of cards that like in Particular, like they're just, they're. They're not highly printed and you don't need a lot of them in your deck also. And so that also contributes to the secondary market being able to ask a little bit extra on top of what they would normally be worth. Because it's like they know that you only need to buy one of them and so that you'll just kind of begrudgingly pay that cost. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. See, no, I had a little bit of experience with that when I got back into it because my, I built a deck and like had a couple of specific cards that I was looking for. Like trainer cards I was looking for. And like even I think the most rarest one, and this was like almost 10 years ago now, was like, I think like 6 bucks or something like that. And it was like a very like shiny like special art print of it. Like the nicest one I could get. You know what I mean? And even then it was, it was like six bucks and it was something that was like actually playable and not just like this beautiful, beautiful lightning mouse in a hat that we are looking at here, which but. Oh, Jesus Christ. [00:28:02] Speaker C: So the one of the cards that's gotten the most speculative value that is played but isn't like when I say the most speculative value, I'm speaking relative to cards that actually it's based on their play value rather than this art, so. Pheasantipity. Exactly. Really defined [00:28:27] Speaker A: Bugs is like. Was that English? What the did you just say to me? [00:28:32] Speaker B: Like, I'm out here talking about Tolarian academies and you're out here with your feather dipping the ex's. [00:28:39] Speaker C: So flip the script. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:45] Speaker C: Once during your turn, if any of your Pokemon were knocked out during your opponent's last turn, you may draw three cards. You may not use more than one. Flip the script ability each turn. [00:28:55] Speaker B: That's fucked up. [00:28:56] Speaker A: I'm such a slut for abilities. Bugs. You don't even know some of them. [00:29:00] Speaker C: And also adding to this Pokemon's usability, in almost any deck, its attack takes colorless energy. [00:29:07] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that's huge. [00:29:09] Speaker C: And so feasandipity Ex is a card that shows up in lots and lots of decks, as you can imagine. And there was a time at which before it got its reprint, it was kind of hard to get a hold of. And so this particular card went up as high as $16 for the non art card at one time, which is ridiculously high in the Pokemon scene. But again, it was partially because it was hard to get a hold of and partially because the speculate. Everybody knew that you really only need one of these per deck. And so, like, they could kind of get away with charging a little more. [00:29:47] Speaker A: No, I'm looking because, like, I'm looking at this and just going, if I had one, two, tops. Like, if you had two of these, it's just like, okay, well, that's. There should be a rule. You know what I mean? Like, you can't wait. You know what I mean? Like, that shit's like, wow. It's almost op that, like. And the cruel arrow being able to do 100 damage to any of them, even if they're benched. God, I'd love. Oh, I would. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. No, the bench, plus the fact that there's. Yeah, there's no cost of inclusion with this. This is just a good card. [00:30:17] Speaker A: Yeah, this is just a good card. And that was the kind of. I was. I loved killing people's Pokemon in the balls. Like. Like killing. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Getting killed in the ball. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Killed in the balls by a trans woman. I should be getting paid. [00:30:36] Speaker B: I love Chuck Tingle. [00:30:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Come on. [00:30:41] Speaker C: Because. Because this card gets played, its art versions do. Even though it's not like, one of the art cards that's considered, like, highly desirable by the speculative art market in particular, its art versions do go for, like, more than some art cards because it is a card that people play, and so people will, you know, consider buying some of these art cards for their deck. So. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:09] Speaker B: Because you're, like, blinging at your deck a little bit, it's cool. It's special. And if it's like. If the price of admission for your deck otherwise is, like, 36 bucks, you might as well. [00:31:18] Speaker A: I admit to having some overtly pretty right shoes in my right shoe. Deck. [00:31:23] Speaker C: I give you the scale of what gets inflated by people who play the game versus what gets inflated by the bizarre secondary market people entirely. [00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:34] Speaker C: The three art card versions go for around 16, 15, 50, and $80, respectively. [00:31:41] Speaker A: Jesus. Can you. Do you have those pulled up? Can you drop those? [00:31:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I would love to see. [00:31:48] Speaker A: I would love to see the difference. [00:31:51] Speaker C: So the 16 version looks like. [00:31:53] Speaker B: Why am I paying? [00:31:55] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I love her, and she's in my colors. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Okay, so that's the. That's the $16 one. [00:32:00] Speaker C: I'm not gonna lie. I bought a couple of these. [00:32:03] Speaker A: Oh, that's. [00:32:03] Speaker B: That's a cunty card. Like, don't get me. [00:32:06] Speaker A: No, no. Like, she's serving the. Yeah, like the. [00:32:09] Speaker C: Out of that card. I love the pink swirl. [00:32:14] Speaker A: I wanted listeners to understand too if you're not looking them up. Just the. The regular one. The regular one. You dropped it. And I was like, she's beautiful. Like, I want four of her just because I can't stop looking at her eyes. And then you drop this one. It's like, oh, girl. Okay. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I do. I do think. I like the rendering on the second piece more. I like that it's more like two dimensional. I like that. Really nice. Like cyan outlining. [00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And the pink background. Like, the pink swirly background. [00:32:45] Speaker B: I don't love the no text box. I wish there was a little bit of an opaque background there. The text, a little bit difficult to read. [00:32:54] Speaker C: Pokemon art cards are just like this. [00:32:55] Speaker B: So Magic has started doing this too in the last, like, two years, and it's awful. [00:33:00] Speaker A: Whoops. All right, so what's the next layer? [00:33:02] Speaker C: But anyway, so here's the next tier up. This one goes for usually at least 45. Every now and again, you might snag a deal and get this one for 40. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Is this three times better? Oh, I don't like that. [00:33:15] Speaker A: I don't like that at all. [00:33:17] Speaker B: I mean, ew. I. [00:33:19] Speaker A: No, that's, like, so not my. I mean. Okay, I'll put this way. She's got an ass. [00:33:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:25] Speaker B: I was gonna say it's an upskirt shot of Fendipity. So if you want that, like, we do got full KOA on main. [00:33:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:34] Speaker C: I haven't bought any of these ones personally. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. I don't particularly care for it. [00:33:42] Speaker A: I mean, maybe if you're, like, really into that bird stuff, but it's not. I'm not dropping 45 on that. So there's one more. There's an 81. That better be better than this. [00:33:53] Speaker C: It really runs for more like 70 and up. [00:33:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:33:57] Speaker A: All right. This better be better because otherwise I'm going to be like, really? [00:34:04] Speaker B: Oh, wow, that's. That's really pretty. I don't think it's $70 really pretty, but it's really pretty, so. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Hi, buddy. [00:34:15] Speaker C: Hi. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Do you come here often? Hey. Oh, my God. [00:34:23] Speaker C: For listeners at home. I mean, look them all up. But. But it has, like, a cherry blossom thing going on. It's very detailed. [00:34:34] Speaker B: Great composition. Like, some wonderful leading lines. That frame, as in Deputy, wonderfully, right above, like, the rules text that, like, the lighting's really soft. It's very. There's, like, almost a romance to it. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:48] Speaker C: He looks like, you know, bold and brave and, you know, like a little kind of country. [00:34:54] Speaker A: But she's got like, a little upturned smile here, more than she did in the other country or one. And like, just. Oh, my God. Oh, I'm in love. I'm in love. [00:35:05] Speaker C: So I just want to demonstrate, though, that's the difference between, like, so there's this. So. So there's again, there's the game that people play, which can inflate cards and can inflate art cards, but then there's the freaky speculative art card people who are totally divorced from us. And so even though Fezendipity Ex is this highly playable card and this very rare version exists, the very rare version still goes for under a hundred dollars. Whereas there are other cards that are total dog. There are cards go for, you know. [00:35:45] Speaker A: Hi. Pikachu with gray felt hat. Yeah, Pikachu with gray felt hat. I'm looking at you because, like 950. You're adorable. You're so cute. You're not that cute. And I'm in love with a pheasant, so [00:36:02] Speaker B: you're not that cute. I'm in love with a pheasant is right. [00:36:04] Speaker C: That shit did you think they have Pikachu is as bad as it can get because not. [00:36:10] Speaker A: All right, you can. All right, hit me one more, and then I have a rebuttal here. [00:36:14] Speaker C: Okay. Y' all want to see you ready for the expensive Pokemon card. [00:36:19] Speaker A: I'm ready for this. And then I'm ready to make my case. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Yeah, don't tell us the price, though. I want. I want to guess this, knowing that you're. The way that you're framing this, it's like Pikachu with gray felt hat is chump change. [00:36:31] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but like, this is more. We'll just say that and you can get. [00:36:38] Speaker B: Okay, okay. Okay. [00:36:41] Speaker C: This is the most expensive art card. Not rare, like old collectible, but the most. [00:36:47] Speaker B: Right, Right. Because there is a difference for like, oh, I have like, a shadowless base set Charizard that da da da da. Like [00:36:56] Speaker C: you. There's misprints. There's. [00:36:59] Speaker A: Well, quick aside. But like, folks, remember when I was talking about how I was a hustler in. In middle school and the binder I would take to school, that. That c. That holds all the. The fruits of my labor that exists in the parents. My parents basement, who I will never talk to again. And it's like prestige as far as I know. Like, never get got open. Like it just. Just been sitting in the Bible. [00:37:27] Speaker C: You need to talk one time. [00:37:30] Speaker B: That's where I'M at because there's probably like 10 grand in golbats down there. [00:37:38] Speaker A: I did the math 10 years ago just based on what I remembered I had for like hollows and I cried like so hard. [00:37:50] Speaker B: I was gonna say between. Between now and then Covid happened. [00:37:55] Speaker A: Hello mother. Hello father. I'm a girl now. Can I come over? [00:38:00] Speaker B: Give me a binder. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Get me binder. [00:38:06] Speaker C: And actually that's. I want to get into that just very briefly. Not. Not as a strong derail, but just as a quick aside here that it is interesting that there is. There's multiple layers of the speculative market beyond just game versus art. Because within that it's also like. Well there's. There's full art the art. Like the true art market, speculative market. And then there's the like old card misprint. Like that whole speculative market different people also. [00:38:35] Speaker B: No, because like. Like magic. Magic has something like that with something called the reserve list which is just cards that will never be reprinted. [00:38:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:44] Speaker B: So like like the Candelabra of Tanos is on the reserve list. [00:38:48] Speaker C: So this is the card that has been topping the art card market, hehe. For the last couple of years. Umbreon. Vmax. Check it out. [00:38:57] Speaker B: I've. I know about this card. I know about this card. [00:39:02] Speaker A: Okay. That's not even my favorite umbreon I've ever seen. But okay, you're all right. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Let's see. Is this playable? Kind of. [00:39:10] Speaker C: Well, it's out of. It's out of rotation right now, so. [00:39:13] Speaker B: Right. But like. I just mean like are it stats? [00:39:16] Speaker A: Like would I give a fuck to have it? [00:39:19] Speaker C: Yeah. So for the expanded. The expanded format, I. I think it's. I would say it's not very playable. [00:39:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I'm reading it like it's. It's not total dog water, but I. I would have to really justify to myself like. Like this is maybe. I know there's a singleton Pokemon format. I would maybe run this. [00:39:42] Speaker C: This could maybe work in. In. In Gym Leader. [00:39:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I. I would. I would maybe as like a fun of one of just for me play this in Gym Leader, but I don't [00:39:52] Speaker C: think this gets a lot of play in Expanded. [00:39:55] Speaker B: No, I. That's. It's not the worst. It's better than Pikachu in half, but this is barely better than Pikachu and Hat. [00:40:04] Speaker C: It's. It's definitely. I mean like it's an okay utility Pokemon. I'm not saying you'd never see it in an expanded deck, but you're gonna. It's not like, it's not hot. [00:40:13] Speaker B: No, no. This is. Especially with it being a vmax. And just like, the prize carding that. That, like, there's such a cost of inclusion with this card. [00:40:22] Speaker C: Right. For listeners at home that aren't aware you need six prize cards to win the game of Pokemon, Normal Pokemon, when they get knocked out, are worth one prize card. There's a number of Pokemon that are worth two prize cards, and there's some Pokemon that are worth three prize cards when they're knocked out. V. Max Pokemon are in that three prize card category, which makes them pretty spicy to play. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Yeah, like, this didn't exist when I was playing still. And I will say, like, it was starting to come out, and I was just like, oh, all right. I will find a way. Like, I'm sure there's a. Like, at that point, I've been playing it enough to be like, I'm sure there's a mechanic. There's like a meta mechanic that's out with this series that makes this make sense. But right now, looking like. But like, sometimes you see a card like this out of. Completely out of context, and it's like, how can you play this without being. [00:41:28] Speaker C: Even without context? I mean, listen. All right, listen. I'm just gonna read off its powers. So it has an ability, Dark Signal. When you play this Pokemon from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon, during your turn, you may switch one of your opponent's bench Pokemon with their active Pokemon. Not bad, not amazing. Just a perfect, fine ability. [00:41:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a nice tempo play. [00:41:50] Speaker C: Yeah. It has an attack, which costs one dark, one colorless, one colorless max darkness, which does 160 damage, which is just kind of fine. It has 310 health, which is pretty good. But that's one of its best features, is just that its health is on the slightly high side. [00:42:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:10] Speaker C: Like, both. [00:42:10] Speaker B: Both its health and its damage look like a little north of average. [00:42:15] Speaker C: Even its damage, I wouldn't really say especially, like, compare, like, comparative to. I mean, expanded includes all of the modern cards, too. We don't have vintage format in Pokemon. Really? There is one, but nobody plays it. Even expanded doesn't get a lot of play. So in expanded, you have access to a lot of cards that can dish out way better damage numbers for 2 and 3 energy. So you. You wouldn't really consider that damage about to be great. So really all that's good about it is that it has a good bit of health. Okay. Damage. But it's this ability that you'll get to use this one time. And you know, I mean potentially if you're swapping in their damage to be Max Pokemon or whatever and you get three prize cards, I mean it could be. [00:43:05] Speaker B: That could be. That could be game ending. [00:43:07] Speaker C: That could be gaming. [00:43:08] Speaker A: And that's the kind of context I'm talking about where it's like, if you like cards like this, there was always like a way you could make it work where it's like, okay, this is the end game. This is how. This is a tank. This is how this thing is. Is able to win it for you. But like outside of that. And I always had a rough time running those because it's like, okay, well I need these conditions to be met for the like real and like it. And it doesn't leave a lot of room for, for a backup plan sometimes. And like it's a big risk if this thing gets knocked out and there's half your cards, half your prize cards. Like, Jesus, that's a big. So you got like really? Yeah, I feel like. Yeah, I feel like it's probably made sense when it came out because you're probably playing it against other V Max cards. So it made like that risk make more sense. I guess I could see that. But still just. Dare I ask how much this is going for? Are we going to ask how much this is going for? [00:44:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So we've established that this card is just fine. [00:44:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's whatever. It probably maybe has some use cases. [00:44:19] Speaker C: The art is. It's pretty nice. It's got these like spires coming up from like this mysterious kind of castle [00:44:28] Speaker A: thing down below, like over a bay. [00:44:32] Speaker C: The spires have kind of this witchy look to them. Yeah, it's looking over this bay. The moon is in the sky. The clouds are framing the moon really nicely. And Umbreon is like very vibrantly sort of in the scene and almost like a, almost like a 90s, like ultra, ultra vibrant, cutesy kind of style that. It's not my favorite Pokemon card art ever by any means, but it's a very nice looking looking card. [00:45:06] Speaker B: It's serviceable. I think it's a nice composition. [00:45:09] Speaker A: It's doing a Kaiju. It's doing a King Kong. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's got a big King Kong situation going on. Yeah. Wrapped around the top of the spire. That's more in the foreground. It's. It's fine. It's, it's. It's. I. If someone had a poster of this like removed of all of the rules text, I'd be like, oh, that's pretty sick. Yeah. I like umbreon also. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:45:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Wait, wait, wait. Do we have two trans people who are in the. [00:45:33] Speaker C: And I would also, I would also ask when they started a 13. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So, no, like, that's, that's amazing. But yeah, like, it's. [00:45:48] Speaker C: What do we think, folks? I want. [00:45:49] Speaker B: You think it costs? [00:45:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm [00:45:54] Speaker B: fifteen hundred dollars. [00:45:55] Speaker A: Oh, I, I feel like I'm, I'm gonna lean into the fact that I know Kennedy. I know how Kennedy plays these games. I'm going to say $2,500. Kennedy wouldn't drop this card on us unless it hurt. [00:46:10] Speaker C: Ella, look under your seat. [00:46:12] Speaker A: Hey, I'm still unemployed. [00:46:15] Speaker C: It's not an umbreon max. But you did get the number, right? [00:46:19] Speaker A: Holy [00:46:22] Speaker B: 25. [00:46:23] Speaker C: You can find them a little cheaper, but the median going rate for them right now is about 2500. [00:46:29] Speaker A: Get the absolute. [00:46:31] Speaker B: That. And is at this point, is it just because people like umbreon and the card? It's kind of nostalgic. [00:46:37] Speaker C: It is purely the art market. It is not the people playing the game that are dictating this at all. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Oh, well, that's. So it's not, it's not the people who like, actually like the medium or the game or any of like, the real reasons for. It's just people who are, I mean, they might be off of the people who. [00:46:56] Speaker C: I mean, some of them might. [00:46:58] Speaker A: Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy. I'm trying to transition here. Okay? Can you please. [00:47:04] Speaker B: Aren't we all. [00:47:05] Speaker C: I'm sorry. [00:47:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Can, can you get off of my syringe? I'm trying, I'm trying. Okay. So I, I, I have an argument. I, I have, I have. No, I've seen enough. Because what you're telling me, it makes so much sense. And it's funny because we're actually going to just do a little bit of the history of professional wrestling as we know it today. Like. [00:47:30] Speaker C: Okay. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Because it's basically everything that we just talked about in the sense that, like. Okay, so, like, I don't know if people know this, but, like, pro wrestling as we know today does stem from a legitimate competition, like playing card games. Right? Like, there is a legitimate competition aspect at the core of what this is. So we can, you know, you trace it back to like late 19th century. Okay. There was catch wrestling or catches, catch can wrestling. There's lots of different stuff. There's Greco Roman, there's freestyle. There's like a lot of different types of wrestling that came from kind of all over. [00:48:17] Speaker C: And like, so far More or less, yeah. [00:48:20] Speaker A: So, like, before there was a modern Olympics, you'd have, like, exhibition bouts at, like, strongman acts, at, like, carnivals, pretty much. Like, there's a reason I call them carnies, because it started. They're carnies. That's this. So, like. Yeah. What they didn't realize, though, is that, like, at a certain point, the predetermined outcomes happen because they realize, well, this competition, we could do a little more with this. There's a secondary market, if you will, to these guys having a. Having a bit of. A. Bit of a grab, you know? So, like, professional wrestling, popular entertainment all over. Modern Olympics happened, 1896. And, like, basically, that summarizes all these things into, like, amateur wrestling to separate it from what these guys were doing as pros. Because, like, even then, it was like. Like, people don't. They're like, well, you know it's fake, right? Yes, we've always known it's fake. And they've. It's never. There's never been a time. Well, I shouldn't say that, because it started that early strongman stuff, those exhibition bouts. It was literally like, you would have a strong man in a traveling carnival sometimes who was like your champ, and he would just fight in the town, you know what I mean? And they'd be like, who? Bring me your biggest guy. You know? And they would have an exhibition match, and oftentimes the guy won because he's what they would call a hooker or a shooter. Like, he can actually hook you. He can actually fight you. He. He can force first, like, actual, like, kill you. So, like, that's who you'd have. And then you. But the guys who had that guy, and you'd work up the crowd and you get another guy going around taking bets on that, gambling on your gambling. So, you know, now after a while, you start to realize, okay, well, we could raise the money higher if we raise the stakes higher and keep that guy going around, you know? So next thing you know, you got the. The. There's a big guy. Wait, Satan. And he might be in on it, and they don't know that. And now, next thing you know, you're. You're. You're embellishing. You're. You're letting them hold you a little higher in that suplex. Maybe you're helping yourself get up, you know, and like, oh, my God, what's happening? We are inventing modern wrestling because it. You realize it's. You tell a story in the ring, you get heat. These people just start spilling more money out of their pockets, gambling on their gambling. And you create scenarios. Huh, huh, huh. In the secondary market. Huh? Through sometimes arbitrary reasons, it solely to pump the ticket price you can get out of these people and the amount of money you can make gambling on it. And that's kind of how professional wrestling happened. And after a while, you know, no one's believing it any anymore. But the, the stories are great. People are still buying tickets to come see this, even though for the most part they know it's fake. Now you can't necessarily do the gambling on it anymore, but they still want to come see it because you've gotten so good at making it entertaining, you know, so BY like the 1920s, the actual competitive sport of it's gone. And all of it is these exhibitions are choreographed and the audience nod, winking, going, hey, we, our guy's gonna win. Nod, wink. And basically they're lying to each other back and forth about whether or not it's real. [00:52:09] Speaker B: But then it's kind of like the birth of like kayfabe. [00:52:12] Speaker A: This is the birth of kayfabe. [00:52:14] Speaker B: Or like in the wrestling context of. [00:52:17] Speaker A: Yeah, in the wrestling context. Because kayfabe has always been a like. Because it comes from carney's and fixed, like fixed games. That was the thing that they would say to each other. Kayfabe is literally like pig Latin for be fake. Is what we think it comes from. As far as we can tell is if someone who wasn't in on it shows up in back seat or like back backstage area, the murmur goes around the crowd. Okay, Fab kayfabe. Be fake, be fake. Don't, don't let them know that, you know, that we're not hating each other. So like being characteristic baby in character, basically. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like it's. You got it. Yeah. Because. Because it's theater. [00:52:56] Speaker A: Because it's theater. Yeah, because it's everything bugs. That's why we have this show. So. Yeah. Because then it declines during World War II, naturally, but you know, gets revived for. In like the 40s and 60s. And then like when it goes nuts is because then TV happens and all of a sudden it's like, oh, well, we don't have to worry about the fact that we can't like gamble on it with these marks as much anymore because they're in on it. We have TV and these TV execs aren't in on it. And we can get them to gamble their money on us being a product worth having on their television. And we can gamble on a gamble of a gamble on the secondary market of this competitive thing that isn't even really there anymore. Ha ha. Does this sound like something that we've spent like, I don't know, 35, 40 minutes talking about, Kennedy? Huh? Kenny? [00:53:51] Speaker B: It really is just this Russian nesting doll of fake markets built upon fake markets built upon fake markets. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Oh, wrestling. [00:54:02] Speaker C: I will say, should I keep going? [00:54:04] Speaker A: I can keep going. I can take us to modern era with this. [00:54:09] Speaker C: I don't know if you fully sold me yet, because remember, I'm a diploma difficult guest. [00:54:13] Speaker A: Oh, I got more. But what do you got to say so far? [00:54:17] Speaker C: But here's what I will say that I think you'll appreciate, which is that I think it is interesting that there are a couple of market that are allowed to do prime. [00:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:33] Speaker C: Out in the open. [00:54:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:35] Speaker C: And because of their specialized markets and status, it's just allowed. And everyone accepts this and nobody talks about it. And it's not written down. And so. Or at least it's only partially written down. Usually when it gets written down though, is when it goes away. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Yeah, [00:55:00] Speaker C: so what. Yeah, what, what. What I am getting at here is just that, you know, you have this world where you have, you know, like I say, just certain things are allowed to operate in this way that defies how everything else is allowed to operate. And they just hand wave it and say, well, we're just a different thing, you know, and trading card games are like this where they definitely violate so many laws related to gambling and [00:55:39] Speaker B: especially that, like they're marketed towards kids. [00:55:44] Speaker C: Just incredible amounts of legal violation occurring. Except that, well, technically trading cards are only worth what they're worth in your heart. So that means that there is no [00:55:58] Speaker B: MSRP for a loose card. [00:56:00] Speaker A: Well, you know what? The Ultimate Warrior was also only worth what he was worth in Vince McMahon's heart, which was very little at the end. So again, it's. You're kind of making my point for me, Kennedy. Because. Because it could keep going. If we want to talk about the gamble aspect of it into the modern age, there has been ebbs and flows [00:56:23] Speaker C: that we will get to say. Like I. I think, you know, what's interesting about wrestling to me in this context is that it's. It's the only sport you're just allowed to fix out in the open. Yes. [00:56:37] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:56:38] Speaker C: Like nobody, nobody will be mad at you for fixing the wrestling match. You're just allowed to do that. That's pretty fascinating. [00:56:49] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. It's expected. Which is what makes it all the more up and weird and funny when they tried to change the laws in the last, like 10 years with the rise of like, gambling on everything apps to be able to gamble on the outcomes of WWE matches. You know, that predetermined thing. [00:57:11] Speaker C: You know how people be like, hey, don't, don't buy a pizza on payment. I got some financial advice for everybody. Don't gamble on the outcomes of wrestling matches. [00:57:26] Speaker B: But, but if I know I'm gonna win. [00:57:31] Speaker A: Bugs has been training, folks. [00:57:35] Speaker C: Is it bugs matrix McMahon? If not, then don't do it. Yeah. Or I guess if you are related to a Triple H, whatever the fuck his real name is, that's his real name. [00:57:51] Speaker B: First name Triple, last name H. Yeah, [00:57:54] Speaker C: Bugs Matrix H. Is that your full name? [00:57:57] Speaker B: Yeah, Bugs H. Tricks. [00:58:00] Speaker C: Well, in that, in that case, it [00:58:02] Speaker A: stands for Hunter Hearst. I'm a white supremacist. [00:58:06] Speaker C: In that case, you should, you should gamble on the outcome of wrestling. But yeah, don't, don't gamble on the outcome of wrestling. Sports betting in general. I mean, like, listen, you got to do you. But it can be a very shady thing on a lot of levels. [00:58:26] Speaker A: It's, it's not great. I mean, I'm not, you can't convince me that real sports aren't also fixed to a certain degree. I've been trying to watch them lately. Been getting into, you know, because I, I love my, my country, the beautiful country of Masota, the Democratic People's Republic of Tranopolis, waving, you know, like, saluting my flag. So I was like, let's see, you [00:58:55] Speaker C: added an L to that word. [00:59:01] Speaker A: I'll salute you later. So, like, I, I, I, I was like, hey, like, thank you, thank you for, for the, you know, for the sake of. We've been through some, maybe I'll watch some, some Minnesota sports, you know, and see what real sports is about. So I tried to get into what I call the Squeakums. It's what everyone else knows as basketball. So I watched Men Squeakums and, and like, I'm watching it and like, all this, I'm watching this series and there's all this drama in this back and forth. And I was just sitting here like, like, getting ready for us to, like, we're starting to launch this show. We're having this pod baby, and I'm just watching this going, God damn it. This shit's grabs. It really, it really is the theory of everything. Because I'm watching this show like this squeakums is grabs. And now I gotta watch it. And now I want to watch Lady Squeakums. I Gotta tell y', all, Lady Squeakums better than the boy Squeakums. [00:59:56] Speaker C: Okay. When you said you were watching boy squeakums, it was what was on at first at some point and say now Ella, you know that you need to [01:00:07] Speaker B: watch the ladies who becomes. [01:00:10] Speaker C: Right. [01:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah. You know that the Minnesota ladies Squeakums team is so good that they basically had to be like you just. You can't. You can't be in the finals anymore. [01:00:19] Speaker C: Okay. But also in women's basketball, like 70% plus ladies Williams becomes like 70% of them plus are lesbians. [01:00:32] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [01:00:32] Speaker A: No, I love it. [01:00:33] Speaker C: They're literally getting married to each other. And there's real on and off the court drama that you can follow if you. If you get into women's basketball, you can get in as deep as you want to that rabbit hole girl. [01:00:52] Speaker B: So wait, is. Is Lady Squeakum scraps. [01:00:54] Speaker A: Lady Squeakums is absolutely grabs even my. [01:00:59] Speaker C: Even my difficult guest stance. I can't really folks. [01:01:07] Speaker A: I'm choosing to wrap it up there because I feel as though I am vindicated and this feels like a great transition into future episodes. That wasn't an idea. But it is now. Lady Squeakums is absolutely grabbed a small [01:01:24] Speaker B: mouse with a nice hat. By the way, [01:01:30] Speaker A: listeners, someone out there has to have more talent than me because I mean it's not. [01:01:34] Speaker C: Not hardy mouse. [01:01:42] Speaker A: I like to bang other female mises [01:01:47] Speaker B: bring me nieces. [01:01:51] Speaker C: I live in. In behind the stairwell of a very fancy house. [01:01:58] Speaker A: But yes, I think I've proven my point that the secondary market is craps and that I'm in love with Phoen and that I'm in love with lady Squeako. [01:02:08] Speaker C: Did you have. [01:02:10] Speaker A: You're never going to be. [01:02:12] Speaker C: I'm going to leave it for the audience to decide and they're going to [01:02:16] Speaker A: layers upon layers and there's whole secondary markets to the secondary market of grabs. We. Oh my God, I could go in harder but we. [01:02:25] Speaker C: We need a secondary market for whether who's who's right about bet on Holly market right now. I've just. [01:02:33] Speaker B: Just opened. [01:02:36] Speaker A: All right. All right, folks. Well, by. By the next time the next episode comes out, we should have an answer. The. The I. I. The only reason I'm not going harder against this pushback from you, Kennedy, is because we have an entire at least one season for me to prove this point coming up. And I don't want to blow it all right now you're gonna have to keep listening. Speaking of listening to things a. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Kennedy, I didn't give you a chance to do it up front because I'm a bad host. But you should let people know where you can be listened to or read or seen if you want, or where people can give you money. I like that one a lot. Money's good. [01:03:17] Speaker C: If you like the sound of my voice and the jokes that I tell. I am on a podcast called the Most Important Election of Our Lives, and that's because you need to vote right now. You have to vote, vote, vote today, vote tonight. I don't care what time it is. Get in the line, stay in line, Vote right now. And, and you can vote even harder by listening to the show, the most democratic podcast on the Internet. [01:03:48] Speaker A: We can't really, can't argue with us there. I, I co produce and, and am the editor of said show, and we're talking about that recently, you. Literally the most democratic show in the history of podcasts. Because every time we, we're voting, we're voting multiple times an episode. Who else does that hot save guys get? [01:04:09] Speaker C: No, nobody. Nobody votes 52 weeks out of the year. Except [01:04:17] Speaker A: it's in every other week or it's in every other week or it's in every other week. [01:04:21] Speaker C: Nobody votes 26 days. 31. [01:04:26] Speaker A: Or maybe it's 26 because it's the same as this show every week. [01:04:33] Speaker C: Maybe, maybe like 17 and a half. I don't know. It depends on if it's a leap year probably. [01:04:41] Speaker A: And anywhere else you just want to listen to the election. What about socials? Where can they find you? [01:04:46] Speaker C: Katie, I'm on Blue Sky. I'm Kenny Cooper. I am an account you can follow and you'll see posts. This novel thing called Post There. Oh, I'm actually the very first person to the post. [01:05:07] Speaker B: Is that like what they used to call tweets? [01:05:09] Speaker A: I don't know what any of these things. I've been skeet, skeet, skeeting since 2023. I don't know what you all are talking about. [01:05:15] Speaker C: I, yeah, I, I, I, I sit down at a table with a piece of paper and a quill and I, I write down my thought and then I post it. [01:05:28] Speaker B: How very Lady Squeakums like of you. [01:05:34] Speaker C: It takes a few days for the Postmaster General to put it on the Internet for me, and he keeps writing back to me and saying, please, Kennedy, this is not my job. But I, I think it is his job. So listeners at home, you tell me what you think. Is it his job or not? [01:05:54] Speaker B: Not. [01:05:57] Speaker A: Yes, please let us know in the comments of wherever you're listening or, you know, Hunt Kennedy, down on the Internet. Bugs. Bugs, how are you? What's up, doc? Where do you want people to find you? How are you doing? Do you have any final thoughts for the. The people this week? [01:06:14] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I have so many thoughts and feelings about the secondary market of trading card games. I feel like we could go on for another six hours. But I'm an EP bitch, so you can find me over on Blue sky at Bugs. Matrix. Matrix with a Y. I yap about expensive cardboard. Increasingly yap about Ewoks. Not Star wars, just Ewoks. And also Gremlins. I recently found a copy of Gremlins 2 on DVD in an antique shop. And if. If anything is wrestling, it might be Gremlins 2. But I think Gremlins, too, is the other, like, unifying theory of everything. [01:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Hear more about that. Follow me on Blue sky fan tastic. You can follow us on Blue sky as well. The show itself, it's all grabs, BSG social. Yeah. And you can follow me on the Blue Sky. I'm Ella Taylor. You can find [email protected]. yes, Ella came from Ellum. It's. It's. I'm told it's clever, but I mean, really. No, it was not. Not a far reach. But, yeah, I have a show also. Oh, God, that's right. I do other things. Holy. This is the other one. This is. This is the new one. Y' all listen to the other show that is weekly because it's an AEW Dynamite wrestling recap podcast full of queers. Just so many transes. We used to have assists, but he. He disappeared and. And we. You know, I miss him. I don't know, but I'm not gonna speak for everyone else. I'm sure they do too. So, yes, we talk about Aw, Dynamite. Every week. And it's fun. I can't believe I've been doing it, like, for so long now. Uh, we just did before this. It was a different show about the Monday night wars. And with both shows combined, it is. We just released, like, our 102nd thing that we've ever released on that RSS feed, which is nuts. Yeah. I've been at this for, like, a minute now. So, like, every time, like, when people reach out, like, hey, do you want to, like, be involved with this, like, wrestling media thing? And I'm like, why the are you talking to me like. Like, I'm just some training on the Internet, talking about the apps and the graps and the goofy, and they're like, well, you've, like, like, this Is it? I was like, oh, ah. I media. I meet you, I guess after three years. So. All right. Woo. So that's what we do. We do wrestling medias with the fake fight studios. And this is, that's kind of how I got to my, my unifying theory of everything. So go find us there. That's on Blue Sky, WNFFPod, BSky, Social, patreon.com WNFFPod if you want to give money to that. Yeah. Holy. Y', all, this is, this is like our first full, full, like episode proper. Not, not an episode zero. This is one. How do you feel? I feel good. How you feel? [01:09:13] Speaker B: Feel pretty good. [01:09:14] Speaker A: Feel pretty good. I think that everything is grabs and I think that once we get someone in here who's not Kennedy who doesn't hate me and want to make me sad all the time. Yeah. Oh, oh. I'm gonna be so overbearing at the next recording, but yes. Thank you all. [01:09:37] Speaker B: This has been good. [01:09:38] Speaker A: This has been so good. I, I, I don't think we have a sign off much like orange Cassidy. I don't have a catchphrase. Happy wrestling. Works for the other one. Happy everything. Happy everything. [01:09:51] Speaker B: Punch your dad. [01:09:53] Speaker A: Yes, punch your dad. Slap your mom. Mindful. Have it coming. And if you're listening mom and dad, send me the binder. [01:10:04] Speaker B: Jump off the top rope. Yeah, send the binder. [01:10:06] Speaker A: Send the binder. Then jump off the top. [01:10:08] Speaker B: Honestly, the sign off should just be send the binder. [01:10:10] Speaker A: Send the binder, folks. All right, Sam.