The Reality of Owning a Pokemon Card Business

Thanks to Brian for having me out! You can check out his stuff here:
/ @pokene_pokemon
To sell us your video games for top-of-market prices download our app OneUp here:
one-up.app
To sell me your collection email:
[e-mail]
Want to buy stuff you see me pick up in videos? Follow my live auctions on Whatnot!
www.whatnot.com/invite/phoeni...
Check out my second channel: Renix Pesale!
/ @renixpesale
Other places to hit me up:
Tik Tok | @phoenixresale
Instagram | @phoenixresale
PO Box | PO Box 2124, Lexington KY 40588
#videogames #retrogames #collector

[@pokene_pokemon]

That’s me!! This edited SO FREAKIN WELL. Bro I had a blast/ thanks for having me

[@PixelGameSquad]

Thanks for the editing love ❤

[@pointmanzero]

Where do you source your product from?

[@xiuyxy]

Congrats on running your business well so far! 🎉 I love pokemon, and the cards are my favorite merchandise of it. Some time ago, when Shiny Star V came out, i tried getting into the market flipping a few boxes from it and older series as well, and the profit was really worth the patience+effort, but I would not consider it reliable until i have a bigger budget with which i can be comfortable spending on new sets, and risk profit to stay relevant. Thanks for your insightful participation on the video❤

[@Konkitsuv]

so sad u dont deliver to poland . I would love to buy

[@TryoTrix]

Hey! I've been watching your New Website Journey :) You're selling other cards like One Piece - have you thought about selling the upcoming Star Wars Unlimited TCG products too? Would be very interesting, because word hasn't spread yet that this TCG is coming (in a week)

[@carsormyr]

Solid interview, but man you have to stop interrupting the people you're interviewing 😂

[@kasimirtobler3590]

Hey dude I like your comment😁

[@stephenjohn841]

Mfs basement is the size of my entire apartment

[@dragonariusshinzo9061]

Endeudado de por vida, no creo que tenga ni para comer.

[@MYSTlC7]

This dude a legend

[@D3enjoyer]

If mysticrips approves, you know its bad.

[@kedjfj798]

​@@D3enjoyer what you mean its legendary to have a marnie painted on his car and doesnt even know the difference between a marnie and a lillie XD

[@D3enjoyer]

@@kedjfj798 yeah something like that

[@OceanPlays08]

@@D3enjoyer*good

[@burntout9815]

This interview is a huge upgrade over your last one. Great job!

[@myplatinumlife]

Great videos. Love this type of content. I scaled as a reseller up to 3000 items on eBay, and am always interested to see how other people did the same and operate their business

[@dogbog99]

Those fees tho 😟

[@ADNmusic92]

@@dogbog99the more you list and sell, you forget about the fees. Plenty of items that you can get for dirt cheap and keep your margins really good. You just gotta learn what sells

[@thejoechee]

This was an awesome episode to watch - love how humble Brian is and love his goals of creating a life he wants to live vs infinite business scaling. Thanks!

[@Playerz714]

This dude and other sellers are these reason JP are changing the ways they sell cards since they scoop up a good percent of supply to export out of JP

[@younkilee2794]

As a Korean, I’ve never seen a Korean Pokémon cards ever! Super cool! Thanks for showing us around!

[@shermhart7617]

Not enough collectable here as say Japanese

[@solunaescutcheon5428]

I have korean cards

[@kcnc92]

14:00 to move "dead weight" like the eraser blister, I've seen a couple options 1. Break down and sell the packs individually or as discounted lots. If you have built a trustworthy rep customers will buy without fear of tampering. 2. Bundle the "dead" product with a Great Seller at a price point that gives a profit margin of $1-$5 on the "dead" product.

[@JalapenoDNA]

Great solution!

[@XingCollectables]

Yup you can move dead weight like those with breakdowns but for the trainer tool kit it's a little bit harder since it comes with a lot of bulk cards that take a lot of time and effort to either list individually or even sell as bulk. So in his position the best thing to do is just sit on the stuff as in 5 years those packs can easily be $8+ packs due to age. then breaking them down or even just selling packaged can net a huge profit especially since he likely bought them at a good price per pack cost.

[@silverbullet_retro]

Amazing video! Love to see where people started and where they are now in thier businesses. Your channel and business included to see where you came from to where you are now its great.

[@charlesreed5506]

Loving this new content!!! Thanks so much, i learned a lot in 45 minutes

[@michaelcorrea6714]

Great new format Caleb, I definitely love hearing other people's stories and business ideas.

[@Jdietz43]

As someone who almost fell backwards into owning a local card shop 9 months ago I can confirm: I lost 15 pounds, am constantly stressed about distributors, and 90% of the work is mundane; but when I'm actually there at the business itself, I'm happy.

[@TheEverydayPreacher]

Wow this was an encouraging video. Shout out to Brian accomplishing his goals and working to remain humble and loyal to those that love him. It's admirable and I wish him and yourself the best in this life.

[@GreenMachineGo]

I love watching your videos like this here. It inspires me because I want to do my own business and I am afraid to start and lose everything especially in this day and time.

[@user-ql4by3iw9d]

Absolutely loved this episode! Commendable efforts. His ideas and thoughtful approach deeply connect with me.

[@machampbeast2204]

This is one of your top 10 most awesome video you have put out I really enjoyed the questions you asked him overall and amazing amazing

[@Escobar720]

Loved watching this vid and seeing you guys interact. I came across Brian's channel not too long ago and binged it because it was very interesting. Couldn't believe I'd see both of your faces in the same space especially since you've been my favorite youtuber for a little over a year now.

[@PhoenixResale]

So glad you enjoyed Escobar!

[@Taiica]

I'm loving this series of videos. Super interesting and educational

[@francisforsey4305]

Great video! You asked some really interesting and insightful questions.

[@playniacsmcdudes9854]

Nice one Caleb! I really enjoy exploring the business aspect, I think this is a great niche to do an occasional video on

[@Mavrick7410]

Great job Editor Riff. Keep up the great work!

[@Duomonnnnn]

Riff is such a weirdo creep

[@PokemonHolo]

I watch this with a special interest. Very insightful to see. I'm not a store, so I make my money in a very different style when it comes to Pokemon. One of the reasons I never want to start an online Pokemon Store that sells the modern sets is the bad margins and massive ammount of competition. Atleast in my country you have to much choice and you got competition that don't have to pay taxes.

[@MrFishCollects]

really informative and nice to see small business doing well!

[@youtubasoarus]

I love hearing about stuff like this. Man that's so awesome. I hope many more people can do this for themselves! This dude is a genius with this stuff! 😮 Super smart of him NOT to get a location with overhead that would crush most people.

[@numberoneappgames]

This was a great video. I appreciate the honesty. :)

[@kompressahdnb]

I dig this style of video. Youre a great interviewer man.

[@CoachCoop]

I rarely comment, but this was a great video that provided some fantastic advice! I've been a full-time KZbinr/Content Creator for 7 years now, but I always enjoy dinking around with several side hustles. Flipping video games and/or Pokemon might be next! 😅

[@JoshKatchem]

We love the info. Thanks so much!

[@BigBossPokemon]

Pokene you're inspirational. Took the risk and now you're doing what you love

[@domg4538]

Glad he wrapped his HVAC and did some thermal insulation for the basement as a workspace as it helps the system and the house as I can assume Nebraska has multiple seasons.

[@Dragonor999]

Reason why Japanese cards are now more expensive folks and why English cards are massively produced. Scalpers, "investors", and resellers

[@eriks8382]

You’re at the feet of a man who was able to figure out how to build a small little empire on his own who was gracious enough to show you some spicy tricks of the trade… Quit freaking interrupting him !

[@ghnvt3]

Caleb has a knack for this type of content. Great presentation and great info.

[@ashharkausar413]

Big props to this gentleman for his success!

[@markperkins2656]

Seen this guy interviewed before… but loved your in depth style 👍

[@BWBLester]

From what I understand, people who own/run game stores where people can actually go and play, hate these types of people. They pretend to be stores or just have an under the table deal with distributors to get good deals and price under what actually stores can do.

[@BWBLester]

Like legit distributors are supposed to not undercut their stores by selling to these people with low overhead who don’t offer places for people to play.

[@callum2451]

@@BWBLester Pokemon have a Play! status for stores that run tournaments where they will receive higher allocations and some unique products like build & battle boxes for pre release events 2 weeks before a set officially releases. Otherwise there is nothing that stops non play stores from ordering product, I would say a vast majority of stores buying from distributors are not brick & mortar or play status and are online only businesses. If you feel that strongly about it then shop at your local game store and pay a premium for the product to support them.

[@TheTc4jc]

I don’t see a problem with this business model provided the customers aren’t leeching off their actual local game store. I think customers should have the option of supporting brick and mortar establishments if they utilize their services , or buying at a cheaper price if they don’t.

[@DroidsR_Us]

Amazing interview. Such a good dude

[@WildWolfGaming54]

Bro so much knowledge from these videos. I'm honestly glad youtube recommended these. Great learning videos thank you

[@TheRetroWorld]

This video was great and full of knowledge. You can tell you are enjoying making the content a bit more too with giving yourself some breathing space when it comes to youtube uploads. Keep em going my bro!

[@eyork153]

I love this idea! Please make more of these kinds of videos. If I could just say one thing though the guy recording on the camera keeps moving the camera when you’re sitting talking and it’s really hard to focus on the person talking. Sometimes the camera wasn’t even on the person talking. But it is still a great video! ❤

[@Jusman26]

Damn. What a thoughtful video. Great questions and very interesting take. Good stuff.

[@ryanmuy6831]

Love the video been following Pokene for a while!

[@DarkPokeScar]

This is 🔥. Thank you to everyone involved with this. Super glad I came over to your channel to check this out ❤

[@DLegend16]

Really great video, thanks for sharing all this information!

[@David-ue7vv]

It's kinda shitty that kids in Japan have to enter a lottery to just get one box per person (if they are lucky) I saw a Japanese kid crying cuz they couldn't get any boxes at the department store in Japan. Then this one guy in America is stocked... gotta blame his Japanese hookup too.

[@8justintracy8]

Great video! Interesting and informative 😊

[@foxc8646]

These videos are great hope you do more similar businesses and their setups and origins

[@tfoodplease]

Great Video, love the interviews!

[@dennisccook]

Nice video. Enjoy the b roll going as you interviewed and the Picture in Picture

[@PranyFN]

Hey I got a urgent question. are the prices on his site all U.S or CAD?

[@krissantana4660]

Being a solopreneur is awesome, great vid!!! LOVING these long form "inside baseball" business and best practices focused videos, NO MATTER WHAT EDITOR Dick says.😂😂😂😂😂

[@SparcMac]

Solid vid, watched all 45 mins 👊

[@SirSamTheThird]

Crazy how this starts with a love of Pokemon but actually ended up with a logistics company. Guy is very smart with how he has built this business.

[@XingCollectables]

that bad product is still moveable with breaking it down and moving the contents individually. Alot of stores dont want that extra tasks to do so they dont order those but if you put in the time you can reap the benifits.

[@Jon-Jon309]

WHAT a wonderful video man!

[@SpaceRanger9840]

@22:24 exactly right. Just look at Toyota vehicles for example

[@kingpkl]

how do you get it wholesale though without address and shop? how do you get allocations?

[@mjdf122]

Brian really caught em all 😂

[@erikdrizzybrizzy]

Thanks for this video and for Bryan ... So much interesting video ✌️

[@XingCollectables]

33:30 a good example of that would be if you held the Shiny Vstar V set you could have turned that 8k loss into a major gain when those boxes hit ATH of 150 per box down the road which I think was about a year from the time you said you sold. Now it's a gamble and depending on your liquid cash and work ethic taking the loss can set you up to profit more in the grand scheme of things but if you are already established and have the cash flow to be able to sit on a loss until it becomes a profit that's always a option and with Pokémon usually always come to fruition sooner than later.

[@Leon77768]

idk who put the definitions to these terms but you are the MVP !

[@CyberPsychotic]

I'm genuinely enjoying these videos 👌

[@Icon0488]

Good video. Curious to see how this business looks down the road. Pokemon starting to crack down on non licensed sellers. I know my website was taken down. So unless your activity getting product from a distributor and have a store front. Might be the end for basement businesses.

[@david_gillespie]

I never saw this coming. Been subscribed to both for a while.

[@Fabiouso]

Recently followed Pokene too loving the content im a small vendor hoping to get to the level as you guys 💯

[@jaycam16]

Editor Riff chiming in 41:50 😂😂😂 cracks me up

[@MichaelBTryn]

12:58 - I no lie celibrated seeing Ikea furnature, cause I have that desk too XD (but with one set of draws. 😅)

[@anelajokovic]

ahh i was so excited to buy some packs, the prices on the site are like third the price i pay in my country.. but i can't find international shipping :(((

[@Only1Ryder420]

Not even Woody himself could get a shine like that on his hair, damn son.

[@n8fro234]

As a digital marketer, this guy has the right idea and nails the pros & cons of owning your own site vs. going through a platform.

[@wandernchill]

I actually just started doing this before finding this video. And this is Inspiring that I made the right choice lol. Tho I'm literally just starting up.

[@johnchan9392]

Great video with inspirational and tidbit wealth nuggets. 👍 New subscriber. Thank you!

[@moo_0]

Love the video, there's something so satisfying about seeing all the boxes. And shoutout to the Avatar The Last Airbender playmat lol

[@lucaslopez8986]

The collab we didn’t know we needed🔥🔥🔥

[@chrispowell1455]

Really interesting interview - I would have thought editor riff would have less to do than normal as there seemed to be longer sections of interview pieced together

[@SophondaCox]

I had a very similar story to this, however the distributor market within Canada is absolutely crazy and scarce. Only a handful of huge online hobby stores secure the majority of the inventory to the point where us smaller sellers don't have anything available to us.

[@speardrops]

Hey, did you try something similar in Canada? How did it go?

[@SophondaCox]

@@speardrops it was very hard to get off the ground and nothing ever happened. I created the website, setup my URL, and then got my business license and tax info. The huge difference between Canada and the US is the quantity of distributors. Canada only had five official Pokémon distributors, and four of them were very exclusive and hard to work with. I managed to get in touch with a distributor and they signed me on as a client for their portal. When I received my login in to order product, I was extremely disappointed. I had zero access to any current product and the prices were more than the MSRP from places like Hobbiesville or 401games. I spoke to my distribution rep on the phone and he explained that the good inventory is bought months in advance and they have a priority list. The only way I could get the new and good product (and move up the list) is to buy all of their leftover inventory (which was really shitty product) and LOSE money to gain access to modern inventory. I never went through with it because the monetary value of product I had to buy was some where in the $10,000 range and what was available to me was random quantities of Rebel Clash, TCG binders, and other items that wouldn’t drive in any traffic to the website. This was also in 2021, so it may be different now.

[@ryanmurphy375]

Man got super lucky being able to buy the cards while running an "online only" store. Nearly all the distributors I have locally won't sell to online only sellers and require you to have a physical store which people come into and buy from. Makes it very hard to sell any pokemon product since they are in exclusive distribution contracts which you can't get from any one else

[@J0hnnyTheKid]

Most people started out 2020 and exit out 2023. Shame . I'm glad I only collected. Congratulations and thanks for the insight.

[@kedjfj798]

most peoples started out in 1998-99 buddy XD

[@erebusl]

Thanks for sharing guys.

[@James_oo7]

I could never do this you would find me late at night opening all the packs in my inventory 😁

[@jarodz2846]

Well that was absolutely inspiring!!

[@krowland7584]

Phoenix asked all the questions I was wondering about. Tight

[@Jesse_Dawg]

OMFG 41:46 when the editors speaks through him. Made me laugh so hard

[@emilyarchibald1900]

Really inspiring ❤

[@p1xai]

Great new format & Great videos / Pokemon is very popular

[@KashDaGemini]

That’s crazy from a basement in Nebraska! Same thing I have in my basement collectibles also in Nebraska

[@KetchumAllCollectibles]

5:08 Lotta people stuck on "more" but "enough" is an important word

[@chikami6014]

I was joined up with the helldivers after The Fall. So, I look forward to avenging the losses of Super Earth's bravest on the hallowed grounds of MC. I wish I stopped messing up my stratagem summons.

[@Neekk_Oh]

Awesome video Caleb!

[@RedSamuraiVolas]

Hey Caleb you should do one of Thea's with business owners not in America England would be my choice but and outher country would be interesting as different country's markets are very different

[@XenoxGOWGODOFWINTER]

I've turned my storage room into a Gamingroom/GameShop.

[@Ramsby91]

Hey! Love the videos, i have just found the Pokemon card love again and i want to start collect, the Japanese cards here in Sweden is really hard to find.. i wanna buy from ebay but scared of getting ripped, can you recommend some sellers?? Much love

[@Brandon-pi4hg]

Started in 2020 along with all the other investor bros

[@willudallmusic]

maybe he could throw in an item of 'dead stock' in with the orders over a certain amount, then claim the losss!

[@currythechicken371]

31:20 had me dying when the by price came up 💀. This video is great though. Love the business model and thank you for making the mistakes, so no one who watches this and starts selling has to make these mistakes. Seriously thank you for this content.

[@Arkem9]

I like that Phoenix Resale is growing but can we still get the old content every now and then?

[@dennisluchkin2588]

Awesome video this content is awesome

[@GameBreakersCrew]

Great interview