Ep.227 w/ Ivan Lovegren "Building a trustworthy hobby marketplace"

0:00 >> All right, real happy to have the next gentleman on his sports car chip, a guest line. He's back on the show. It's been on the show before, but when I knew it was coming back, I looked when he was the last time he was on. And it was November of 2020. It was a little bit shocked by how long it's been. So long overdue, but welcome back to sports car nation, I've been loving it. Mostly known as Watch to Brakes on Twitter. And doing something new now too that we're definitely going to talk about, but welcome back. >> Hey, John, thanks for having me. Wow, what an intro. I'm like, I'm ready for the feature to start. That's an awesome new intro, man.

0:42 >> Yeah, thank you, thanks. >> It's full binding. But yeah, the general sports car nation podcast intro, blew me away. Personal intro. Yeah, basically it's however much time you take is how much longer you have to wait to come back from the podcast. Last time we talked so much that it was two episodes. So I think it's fair. >> Yeah, we did it. And listen, that's how good it was. We had to do a sequel. You know, wasn't good enough for just one show we had to do too. But yeah, I remember is I missed at Lanick City last year because I was in a bit of some personal nothing bad, just a lot of transitions.

1:23 Were you in Atlantic City? >> I was. >> Which was nice for me, I was in the striving distance five or three of the hours. My wife actually went. She didn't go to the national itself, but she went to the beach and would have booked in a beverage in an umbrella and enjoyed that aspect. Well, I was at the convention center. So there was nice to drive, because as you know, when you drive, you can bring more stuff and all that could stop and kind of travel at your own pace and your own schedule. So, which Chicago this year to be back back on the plane. But at this point, I try to get to all the nationals while I can. I don't know how many I'll have left in my lifetime.

2:05 So I've got to get them in when you can. And I'll never catch up to Dr. Beck who's been to everyone that's ever had. >> Okay, the hobby is not about comparing jobs. >> I'm just about doing your best. >> You're right. >> Yeah, that's what I'm going to be my follow-up. So I will see you in Chicago this year. >> Yes, they're going to be there and look forward to again seeing you in person. So man, it's been over two years since you've been on. Again, I can't believe that. That's has changed. You're a dad again. You're third son. You have twin boys in now. >> Six more. I've been and you got the cup starting line up.

2:46 >> That's starting line up. >> What did I just say about comparisons? >> I'm done. >> Who is good. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, so how did kid last year? So that's number three for us. And also you may notice if you're on the video podcast. My background's a little different. We migrated. So I'm much closer to Chicago now. We migrated across the country from Los Angeles where I was before. And now we have a home in Omaha, Nebraska. So I'm broadcasting from my office that still has not been unpacked, even though it's been five months. >> Yeah. >> Talk a little bit about that, LA to the Midwest. It's a different culture, life, thousands of speak.

3:27 I mean, you're originally from the Midwest if I'm not mistaken. So it's not on charted territory, but talk about the difference in living in both areas. Like, you know, proud of your adjustment isn't as bad because you're familiar with it already. But even like for your family or your kids, too that were made me not know it the same way you do. >> Yeah, well actually, honestly, I think for the kids it's been easier because there's so much new for them to experience. And it's just different in LA. We were in an apartment, you know, like if the door opened, once we had kids, it was like panic, you know, like, the kids aren't trying to go outside, right? You know, like yeah, cars going 45 miles per hour, up and down our street every 30 seconds, you know.

4:11 Whereas here, they actually go outside. They play with kids in their backyards, you know, those things. So I think for them, it's been absolutely fine in that regard. Now it's funny because I got asked this for 15 years living in LA. I always got asked, oh, what was it like coming from Nebraska? And like I'm a city guy, like we live in Omaha, you know. >> Yeah. >> The honestly, the difference in moving to LA was even with the traffic. Everything was closer. I had two great movie theaters within literally within 1.5 miles either direction. Whereas in Omaha, the nearest great movie theater is eight miles away. That miles is 10 minutes.

4:51 That 1.5 miles was tits. >> Yeah. >> But like, so there's a lot of similarities in that regard. And it's nice to be close to family. And again, have that like the kids can open the front door without you being like, they're going to die and get kidnapped and all that. >> Yeah, no doubt. And I'm a New York city guy. So I know all about how long it takes to go short distances. >> But you're not in the city now, though. >> I know. >> No, I'm an exception. I'm an York in Syracuse. But yeah, I get the city. It's nice having stuff close to it's always kind of a convenience. You know, let's start off with GoGTS live. You were there for many years. And obviously, not now.

5:31 Kind of talk about what happened. I know you said you were recently just back on the guest seat, if you will. But I miss you. I miss you. I know I speak for for many others when I say that, you know, not exactly the same without a I haven't loved. And I don't mean any disrespect to, you know, robbed and crisp. But it's when you use this someone in the seat and then they're not, it's different. I don't care, you know, especially if you like. And if you don't like it, maybe that's different in a good way. But when rooting like my demise. >> Yeah. >> But when you like someone. >> It's great now. You're missing out. I haven't watched it. >> Yeah.

6:12 So I was just absolutely blessed to be able to co-host GoGTS live with Rob Bertrand for seven, seven and a half years. Over 100 episodes. Maybe over 200 episodes. >> Yeah, because we were doing it weekly. We did a lot of episodes. The basically as last year, you know, as we were getting close to moving, having the new baby, knowing all this was coming in the pipeline. It was like I just had something had to give somewhere in my personal life. And that was one of the things. And even now, like my wife who loves Rob and loved everything with it, but still if I'm like, you know, in my new role, hey, I have to record a podcast tonight.

6:55 She's like, is it going to be three hours? >> No, no, it's like a 20 minute interview. She's like, oh, okay. >> Okay. >> So yeah, so having those Thursday nights back with her is very helpful now that we've got the third mouth and the third. Going from two to three is tough. >> Yeah. >> Like that's a tough transition. And maybe it's just because we were used to two because we got two out the gate. The two wasn't as tough, but it definitely is tough going from two to three. So it's been helpful. And like like I you said, and I told you before the show, yeah, I was just in Vegas for the mint collective this past weekend. Really great event. I hope you can make it out for the next one. >> Yeah, it's pretty good. >> It's on my list. It's just the bad thing about an I was not for lack of desire.

7:37 It's just it's during the school year and it's you know, >> Yeah. >> It's kind of during the week. It's tricky. There's going to be one year. >> We've got a schedule that I spring break. >> That's what they're going to do. >> Yeah, yeah, or I just have to say, you know, I do get time off, but just have to kind of say, hey, I'm my we're a little short. Honestly, we're a little short handed at my school like staff wise. >> Yeah. >> Or otherwise, I'd probably would at least consider it more if that wasn't the case. But so when we get a year where we're we're we're stronger staff wise, I'll definitely put in for a couple days and make the trip. And it looks like it's going to be an annual event. I mean, you sense that being there. >> I do.

8:18 It'll be interesting to see how it iterates next year because I heard rumors that they may try to do it somewhere different location. But I brought it up specifically because GTS live was broadcasting live from there and Rob invited me. So hey, make sure you come by and we'll get you on the show and we had a good, had a good 20 minute interview on the show. So check their channels for that. If you enjoy any of what you hear today, make sure you check it out. >> Yeah. >> GTS lives channels for more. >> You miss it. >> Yeah, do you miss it? I know you said it works, but you know, your wife, you spend more time in your family. But just to show itself and be in the, the, the, the, the, you missed it. >> Of course it was so fun. >> Yeah, it was fun. It was, you know, able to keep me tuned into all the products, not just the top three, you know, like there's the top three that everybody's breaking that week, but it's like, oh, there's all the products.

9:07 You know, it, it robbed a great guy, James, who's behind the scenes is a great guy. So I miss the weekly conversations and bickering with Rob. You know, it's always fun coming in with different opinions. And just having a place to talk like this every single week. So, you know, I miss it, but just like, you know, you miss when you move from a place that has good sushi and you miss the sushi. >> Yeah. >> Speaking of movement has, has moving back to the Midwest. Has it changed your approach to the hobby or how you have it at all or not, not really. It's just that's where you live. >> Yeah, it hasn't really changed my approach to the hobby since everything I do is online, e-commerce, directed anyways. I will say it's been the, I wouldn't say it to change in my approach, but it's a change in what I have time for.

9:52 I'm able to get out to card shows again. >> Yeah. And that is fun. I actually took a little drive with buddy of mine, Mike, to the Iowa card show two weekends ago in Des Moines. >> Yeah. >> Hosted by Brian, I can vary, does a great job there. And again, previously, even also with GoGTS, like at the national, you know, I wouldn't have time to stop and browse a box for 45 minutes trying to find little hidden gems. And this show I was able to browse a box for 40 minutes and found things like, you know, Disney cards or super popular right now. Well, nobody's talking about, like last year, you know, in two years ago, upper deck had Disney cards, you know. And I was able to find some of those as little gems and things that I would never have had time for before.

10:38 And I'm actually setting up at a local show, you know, very modest setup in a couple weeks. So again, something I would never have had time to do, you know, just the most random one dollar $2 cards. >> Yeah, but that's the fun, right? The hot for what you can find is that's a classic. That's a nice kind of card. >> Yeah, you know, it's funny about this card. >> So they get for it. >> Yeah, it's a nice for those listening. It's the 1990 score, Bowers, where in his football shoulder pads and holding the bat behind his head. And it's the big BO on the backside. >> Yeah, we had the bow nose. >> Yeah. >> And so on the back though, this is something cool about finding this card.

11:21 I actually didn't own one and I had forgotten in the years since, but that the back that they did the B in royal blue and the O in radar black. So it's even on the back it's still a tribute to. >> You know what, you hear the crazy? Here's the crazy thing. I've owned that card multiple multiple times, sold it, owned it. I know about it, right? I never, I did, until you just said that, I didn't realize the color scheme. >> Yeah, yeah, it's like, so. >> Look at it a million times and it just didn't click, but you're right. The royal blue, the black for the radar. >> Yeah, so I guess that is a bit of a change to habits a little, but it just doesn't feel like.

12:01 It's not like I've gone from like, slapped cards to, you know, like, or switched grading companies or something. But it is cool that I get to get out to shows a bit more and the shows have more approachable items. >> Yeah. So at the national, are you gonna go buy rob and those guys and say, "Ah, I'm going to look around and have fun at the show. You're gonna do that." A little, you know, Brock's cheer to him and I'm kidding, but it will be different like you said that. I know it's talking to you at prior national, I'll ask you, like, did you get the walk the floor? >> You're like, no, I'm really good at that.

12:43 >> I'm like, from the door to here, do you see that? >> That's the route I've been able to say. >> Yes. >> Where's the bathroom? >> There's a little different for you, be a little different and a little more freedom as far as echoes. And that's not a bad thing. So, you know, I look forward to seeing you there and even in that row, we're probably gonna even talk a little bit more because you're not on exactly. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. A tight, uh, schedule. - Yeah. - You know, you got three boys, your one is is, is younger, and you go through it. Are they, are they showing interest in cards? 'Cause daddy does or, and what you do, and they are. - So, point. - So they aren't showing interest in cards, but I have one son who is a collector of the twins, really.

13:30 You know, the youngest is just too young. I think part of that might be just because, you know, different from when I was a kid. When I was a kid, we had, I'm a sound old here, but we had 15 television channels. So I'm not as old as that we only had four television channels. You know, we had 15 when I was first a kid. But among those was WGN, and among those was, you know, NBC and CBS, which had football on on Sundays. So we watched a lot of sports from the time I was two, three, four with my dad. Well, I watched sports, but I watched them streaming for my iPad, you know, which can happen after my kids go to bed. If I'm watching enough one race or, you know, soccer matches at 130 in the day on a weekday, while they're at school.

14:13 And so it's not the same as like my dad who would religiously watch things. And honestly, I haven't watched Sunday football in a long time. 'Cause we're just always too busy. So I think my kids don't have the same love of sports that I did grow up. So I think that kind of impacts it. Well, again, my one son, he will say, like, this is my collectible. He'll build a Lego that looks like a statue or something and say, this is my collectible. Or like six different types of Lego block formations that kind of have a theme or a similar look. And I'll say, this is my set. These are my collectibles. So he isn't treat by things that I have that are like, like I've got a gold bat mobile from an expo that's around here somewhere.

14:56 I've got like an Andre the Giant figurine. So he's intrigued by collectibles, but just doesn't necessarily love cards. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the key word, right? That, you know, so I listen, I've been doing this a long time and I started when I was seven. So and it was just a chance going into a corner store with my grandfather and saw the packs. He bought some and formed me in the rest of his history. So I think one of the things I'd want to do actually, hit me at the meant this last weekend is kind of the next, maybe the national, maybe even before then, but like take them with me to a show. Yeah, like actually take them on a trip or take them to a show.

15:38 I think that would be interesting and fun and maybe they'd have more fun that way. Because there's some really cool experiences right up in that, you know. So we'll see if that gets them into actually loving the sport and collecting, but they also, it's crazy. They do so many things. They play outside, build legos like crazy. So I don't know if this is the kids, the sports sports kids nation podcast. Well, I'm a big kid. This is why we only go two hours on these things. Well, I'm a big kid and have everything. So I always care and ask and, you know, I, you know, there's more to just how you're like, if you stuff that happened behind the scenes that I care about. So that's where that question came from.

16:19 Let's talk about what you're doing now with it's ISO. It's a selling platform. I did check it out before, you know, I had some background to talk about it. You know, talk about what you said you checked it out well before John. How do I get you on there? I know. Well, you know, here's the probably. What do you call it? I collect great in Hall of Fame rookie guys. So, okay. That's nice. Very sport. Yeah. And a little more expensive sometimes too. But, yeah. But, you know, talk about how you got involved. What it is, what you do, all that good stuff. And then I obviously have some questions for you. But kind of laid a base line here for those listening, you know, how how it became something you're involved in and what it is.

17:09 Obviously. Yeah. Absolutely. So I got incredibly lucky. So I was living in LA as I mentioned. And there's this team of people from that work together at Snapchat. And they were like, one was like head of product, head of design, head of engineering, they all worked together. And they saw some trends in overall commerce and social commerce. And they had this idea for a website and they went out and built it with a world-class team engineers and designers. And one of them followed me on Twitter. And he said, hey, you're in LA. We're in LA. Let's get coffee. So absolute for to it is, you know, can't replicate that. And it's so grateful and blessed for that. So they pitched me this idea because I had the Twitter following.

17:50 And there's kind of like three parts to what created ISO. The first is that they saw how social media was being bootstrapped into commerce and transactions. So whether that's Facebook groups or a discord by cell trade channel or, you know, Twitter stacks sale. They saw that and they said, that's really cool. How communities come together and do that. There's also a lot of inefficiencies in the system. I wonder if we could help second, you know, side by side to that. They saw all the platforms that were springing up, you know, post-COVID hobby boom. And that so many of them were instead of meeting the audience where they were.

18:31 It was like, okay, bring your whole audience over here. So you're a breaker and you're big on YouTube. Okay. Now download this app and make your entire audience download this app. It's like, well, why can't we take that and bring it to YouTube? Where the audience already is? Why can we bring it to the Facebook group where they already are? And then third was that they also saw that the way that all those platforms work is sort of their selling proposition is we bring you buyers. But those buyers either come at a really high acquisition cost or really the secret acquisition cost is they find people that have an audience and they get them to migrate the audience onto the app. But then they take their audience and they spread it to everyone else. Yeah. So as an example, like, I mean, I've downloaded every app in the hobby because I always have one friend who's selling on it.

19:16 You know, like, one friend's like, hey, I'm going live here, download it. Yeah, sure, I'll join. I support you. And the minute that they stop, I get notified someone else is like, or in the morning, I wake up to a notification something else is going on. They're constantly trying to peanut butter the users. So combine those three things together and this team said, well, what if we just built the best place or engine for people to build a community? And we kind of bet dig on that. We bet big on if we give you all the tools, you'll want to build your community here because we're not going to take your community and spread them out to that one and that one and that one. And we're going to give you tools to take, you know, basically like live video selling live video options.

19:57 Those are just a tool. They don't need to be an entire platform. It's a tool. Options. Everybody thinks so we got to go to eBay for options. Well, that's just a tool. You can build that pretty easily. You know, I mean, it's not easy. But when you're at their level, you can build it. So that's how I so is born. And that's why if you go to ISO, you'll actually see you can find communities. If you go to iso.gg/explore or if you're a new user just logging in on the homepage, you'll see it's organized by community. So the idea is that you'll join, you know, one or two or three communities that really fit your interest and anybody with a community can spin up a marketplace for that community. So they pitched this to me and I said, okay, that's cool.

20:38 And I went home and I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I thought, you know, this is bigger than just me spinning up a marketplace and testing it. So I came back and in our second meeting, I started exploring like, hey, how how could we scale this? How are you planning to build this? And ultimately it turned into a strong relationship where they brought me on for consulting. Then they brought me on part time. And then I was able to go full time. So now I'm the category lead for sports and collectibles. So basically I help all of our marketplaces and communities on board on board sellers underneath them. And that's actually that's the other defining feature. Sorry, I'll wrap the pitch in just a minute. No, you're good. So let's say John that you wanted to go on their own cell and you created the sports card nation marketplace.

21:20 So on ISO you're not just a profile on every other platform, no matter how big you are and how many followers you have, you're still just a profile. On ISO you're a marketplace. What that means is other people can apply to sell in your marketplace. Okay. So you've got you know your 10 best colleagues. You can invite them to list in your marketplace and they can build a robust marketplace all together because you're not going to have enough stuff to sell on your own. Maybe or even if you are, you don't have the time to scale beyond everybody has a limit of what they can actually list. However your reach is infinite, right? You've got a podcast, you've got a YouTube, you've got social media.

22:02 Is there value like if I was just trying to sell on my own, would that be better or would it be better if I was part of the sports card nation marketplace? And that's where I was selling for you know, or that's where I was breaking or doing those things. So if you look at like our top marketplace right now Midwest box breaks, they have over 200 sellers in their marketplace. And something I do on demos that's fun is because basically if you want to compete with the big boys, you have to have what people are looking for. So I'll ask somebody I'll be on ISO and the Midwest marketplace and I'll say, okay, what's giving me a random team. I'm not going to stack the deck in my favor and they'll say, "Gleablin Guardians." And I'll type Guardians in the search bar and we'll get 60 results, 80 results.

22:43 You can actually browse your favorite team, your favorite player. It's not like there's 10 cards listed there. There's over 4,000 cards listed in their marketplace right now. And that's just their marketplace. Yeah. What, like you mentioned, like other people can come into your marketplace, but you have to allow that, right? You have to grant permission. Yeah, because they're getting back to the like what they saw with trust commerce and social commerce. That's the idea is like if you're in a Facebook group with 2,000 people, but you really trust them. You're all talking the same time. Somebody post something for sale. You feel a certain measure of security buying it from them because of that trust. Well, this is a way to expand that platform, but you are still gaining who's selling based on your name and your trust.

23:29 Yeah. So yeah, you definitely don't want to just open it up to anybody if you're a marketplace owner. You want to curate it based on your brand and your, you know, you're again, your trust level because that trust is being passed on to your audience who now become community members instead of just audience. Yeah, this brings me to the question I've been right. I'm not going to mention names. People can connect the dots. We've seen other platforms have some unscrupulous behavior happen. And this even really specifically with breaks where stuff goes off screen, something that should have probably went to consumer doesn't make it's way there. I'll call it what it is. That's that's stuff that's stealing and you know, obviously the the hobby community gets in an up or as they should, right. That's just wrong.

24:19 And you know, I don't believe in watch dogs and believe we're all kind of watch dogs together. And so that's obviously kind of publicity a site would not want do you vet like people who are on ISO is there vetting process. So you know, to maybe avoid that as much as you can before it becomes an issue. So yes and no, there is a vetting process. I will say it's a little bit light because really at the end of the day ISO is not like I don't want people to think of ISO is like this like closed platform ISO are like our goal is to be more like a Shopify where we are really just an engine that powers whatever social commerce you're doing.

25:01 And even if you think about eBay like eBay has policies for selling and policies for buying, but eBay is not doing background checks before they authorize you as a seller like eBay is democratic you know like this is America John. So I want anybody to be able to sell now the differences that ISO, you know part of why we're lower feed and those other platforms is because ISOs relying on you and your community. So you have somebody come on like they're not going to screw the ISO community they're going to screw their own community if they do and we would of course have repercussions you know we would of course we've actually got a pretty strict like auction cancellation policy like you can't cancel an auction and if you simply don't fulfill shipment on it you know your boot like options need to have integrity.

25:50 And then same thing like if you're live and you do something that that defraughts I mean like what you said that's theft like that's not even like we don't need to him in a hobby about it that's theft you know or fraud you know the the lawyers can get the exact definition but like if somebody buys in your break and then you hide an item like that's not even about a platform that's. That's the beta bo whether that's right or not. Yeah, so we would lay the hammer down but the idea more so is like you're not going to have people you're not going to get a notification that somebody's live on ISO that you have not signed up to get like that you're not part of their community. Yeah, so it shouldn't be an issue with unknown people just jumping on and then defraughting people because ISO's community based so you have to be in a community in order to make it work and without the community it's not going to work.

26:40 And again, that's one of the differences in why like Midwest is one of my favorite examples because he's just absolutely bought into the idea and what's cool is in a world that's so focused on greed you know by a world like I mean the hobby. Yeah, greed, I can't give up margin, I can't give up you know anything to anybody else what ISO's allowed him to do is actually not stream 24/7 because he's been able to look at his community which is very tight he's got a great discord. You know really great Twitter and find other breakers who fit the values of his community no flow cards zebra breaks bow tie breaks and he allows them slots in his marketplace.

27:26 So Thursday night no flow is going live Tuesday night zebra's going live you know Saturday and Monday I think bow ties going live but Midwest is okay with that because it keeps his community tied into trusted people instead of like hey Tuesday I really want to rip something and Midwest is dark I'm going to go swipe left swipe right spin the wheel you know where to everything go. So he's building a house for his community to live in that he's comfortable with that they're comfortable with that fits the values and so it's an incentive to join that community is like oh there's an entire line up that fits my values you know it's not just been. That's what we're trying to build and it manifests itself in different ways there's you know Midwest box breaks marketplace and then there's the Disney on a marketplace which is 100% Disney apps whether it's cards or you know memorabilia any of those types of things.

28:18 And so that's the audience there is just a 100% tied into Disney so you can build around a niche you know John I want you to build the the great in Hall of Fame rookie's marketplace. And only I don't sell that I don't always sell that stuff would be not a good marketplace it'd be like hey look what I'm not selling but. You answered you answered you answered you answered my follow up question in in your response that if if someone was to do something not above board you have protocols in place to to you know Rep or man and repeat like you said repercussions and and handle it so it doesn't become a long term issue and that was good to hear because that's that was my next question.

29:04 You know when you were approached when you were approached Ivan you know there's no shortages of selling platforms were you know did it was that's not me a thought about we've seen we've seen a couple go down you know what to mention a couple you know dives and star stock and others as sort of the hobby kind of reset itself and come down off that. Was that where you as that's something you thought about where you concerned with it or was all there what they wanted to build and create you know obviously was enough like hey this this I'm behind us. Yeah so I was I was behind it mainly because at at risk of alienating our audience at all the really cool thing about it is it's bigger than the hobby so if you go on our website now we've also already expanded since our like we launched last fall we've already expanded into collectibles that are not cards so we've got.

30:01 Like is that the Disney marketplace is kicking we've got a couple TCG marketplaces we've got a bear bricks market place if you're familiar with those art things they're like high high and funcows I mean they're they're not like funcows but it's similar of like. Yeah and we've got fashion marketplaces that are spinning up now there's a me in our in fashion there's a community lead for fashion and again the idea and this is what really appealed to me and why I was like I need to build this is it's for any community and I love building communities you know that's a my Twitter I've been trying to do for years is just build up the hobby community. But when I was in finance you know I was always trying to build the community of our financial firm you know like everywhere I've been I've been trying to build community.

30:49 And in LA I was part of the rotary club you know and focused on membership and helping build the community in Los Angeles of Los Angeles and to give back to Los Angeles so for me this is awesome because somebody could go on ISO you could spin up the you know the Syracuse by local community on ISO you could spin up the. Like I said the great like the great in Hall of Fame rookies honestly it would still be a good marketplace John because remember you don't need to sell yours. Yeah but if you can keep people that are selling them like say yours you're like I think I'd be a PSA five or better well if you have friends with PSA three is that you're not going to buy. And you're really cool destination and site you know in marketplace to just easily search for those things so you can spin up a marketplace around anything and so that was what was really big about I sort of me is again it's.

31:42 And I think it's an engine where you can take live video selling and bring it to Facebook and someone is able to say you know you hold an item up and you say hey you know grab this and they type claim and whoever types claim first gets it. And I think it's not because I'm checking it and following up in fact actually John there's one other marketplace that I feel like you need to know about do you know about signature for soldiers. Yeah I'm and Tim and Tim and I are very good friends and I always he's on the show at least once or twice a year and you know we we preview what he's doing we do like the Jerry Lewis Tiffany right what. And I think that's a lot of people like how the total what the grand total is and Tim's as you well know Tim's a great guy and that's a great organization and and you know I've I come sort of from a military family so it's a little nearer dear to maybe my heart but I don't care who you are right is what they do is tremendous and as you know Tim does Tim doesn't take a paycheck that's all out of the kindness of this heart and is.

32:49 And you know even Eric norton's on the board and so it's it's I always get involved always have a mind and you know yes so I'm very very familiar with with with Tim and signatures or soldiers. So I've supported Tim since I want to say 20 14 25 10 at least maybe 2014 if you were still in the impenciest stages then and I know from intimate conversations and conversations on our show and on the stage at the national. Biggest log jam is always the listing and fulfilling because Tim like you mentioned works he has full time plus job he has a family. And this is passion for him and he's making a huge difference so ISO as a tool on ISO Tim has the signatures for soldiers marketplace and what it can enable is John if you want to if you said hey Tim I've got these 10 cards I'm going to send him to you in Tim says I'm overwhelmed and I can't do it.

33:47 I'm going to send him on this website. You can now list those cards and they can they can benefit from the sale when occurs. Yeah you handle the shipping but the proceeds you know like the proceeds branch out and go directly to them since there are registered 501c3 now we're able to do that. So you can actually make Tim's life easier and everybody could so if nothing else like that I want to see that marketplace explode because they're at like 2 to 11 11000 maybe last update I saw and I remember when they hit 100,000 for the first time I'm like well now we have the internet like we could do 100,000 in a year easy if we galvanized people to just put listings up and time to options to end together.

34:30 And then all Tim would have to do is email blast supporters and say hey look we've got you know 100 options ending Friday night go get some bids instead of Tim having to go through a warehouse and sort and scan and do all those things. We can all make a difference in this impact organization by doing that. So that's an example of why ISO gets me really excited is because we can provide a way for someone like Tim to scale an impact that he has that he makes that is right now bootstrap by technology. By technology by things that technology can solve. Yeah, yeah no doubt and now no in that that's something I might you know I might want to spearhead something and let's do something with that right if you have that functionality and it's already there and it makes you know anything if it makes like you said Tim play fees or you have a full time job this is a passion project as you mentioned so.

35:23 I'll probably going to you know get with Tim and see what what we can do there you go the power communication right so. So just kind of coming down the home stretch here right it's the question you I have to ask great what's the fee structure how does you know you have bills to paid on your and so how for those interested. And when we wrap up I'll give you you can give out all that information too but how does the fee structure work for those interested. Yeah and be in part of the platform. Great question. So if you're an individual seller so John if you just said hey I just want to sell stuff on there it's 8% that's the platform fee and then we also use both stripe or paypal for payment processing and that fee is directly passed through.

36:10 So stripe is 2.9% plus 30 cents a transaction paypal is 3.49% plus 49 cents a transaction so it's a little more expensive but paypal also opens up quite a few hobby wallets because a lot of people just use that for like. And so it's not both of those it's whichever one the consumer uses the checkout we just don't know in advance if they're going to use paypal or credit card. Now if you are a marketplace we actually discount the fee you consider to pro seller and so we discount the fee to you to about 5% which then allows the marketplace to charge anywhere from 1 to 5% to the people selling it based on the perceived value or the actual value that they break.

36:54 There's some marketplaces that are charging that full 5% and people are happy to sell there because their items are selling and moving. And when they sell on ISO they feel more security and more trust that the transaction is going to go through on the auction side you actually have to input your credit card before bidding. There's no like unpaid auctions that happen so people like selling because of that so that's that there's also marketplaces that are actually at like 2% that are doing a decent job of marketing also so. If you just want to sell and not build a community you actually have some incentive to join a marketplace that already exists instead of trying to spin up your own because they'll do promotion for you and it's still maybe the same or even cheaper than just being an individual seller.

37:36 I should add since we just got to talk about six for soldiers that because they're registered 501c3 and because we want to support them are fee for them is actually our bare minimum we could do which is 3% so. So when you sell in the six for soldiers it's actually even less than that. You know public marketplace fee. Well it listen it was awesome catching up which it was too long between between appearances let's make let's make the next one how long was this one I didn't I didn't use up all my time it's not going to be good. You're good we'll have you back in less than we'll have you back in less than 2 to plus years it's way too way too long and maybe with your schedule you know to when you were you know with GTS your you're definitely way busier.

38:22 Well I don't want to say that you know but maybe we're doing constraints I've got more flexibility now that's true that's true so let's let's not make it to plus years before we see again on sports coordination. For those listening that want to find out more where they can catch you and then also that ISO information take your time. I have an and put that stuff out there for people to check out. Yeah I'm easy to find my handle on social media is watch the breaks that's my handle. It's finally applicable now that I'm with ISO and we have breaks going 24/7 and then ISO is ISO.gg ISO.gg so it's a web 3.0 handle little new fangled but check it out ISO.gg.

39:08 You know click around there bit on some options check out the communities. And I'll put it in the show notes too so if you forget or you don't remember check the show. You don't even need to just turn off your audio and just start clicking click in the show notes. It's all right there for you John your the last man. So I appreciate you making some time and my bad on the distance between appearances will promise that they won't have it again. And a couple of months from now I'll see you in the flesh looking forward to that. And maybe we're even walking the show forward. I was just going to say we're actually going to browse the show together that we've got.

39:49 There we go there we go so sounds like a plan. I haven't good seen you take care man and talk to you soon.