Back from Holiday! Prepping for a New Store Event??

[00:00:00]Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Collective Stream YouTube channel.

[00:00:03]Hope you guys are all doing very well today. And uh today, this weekend in Hong Kong, there's a lot of stuff happening. Uh particularly, there's actually the grade 10 summer show that's happening and I got some feedback from a lot of my friends uh that are vending there and I got some friends that lined up and went into the show to check it out. Um, unfortunately I got I don't know if I'll be able to make it this weekend because uh I know some of you guys are visiting from overseas and then you guys want to you know have a chat about the uh state of the market and just you know have a chat with me uh at grade 10. But because right now with the situation with the store and we actually got in a lot of rolls that I'm trying to price today, uh we're about 1 and 1/2 hours before store open at 1:00 p.m. So I just got in a little bit earlier to have a quick discussion and update on you know what I've been up to for the past uh 10 days. Um it was very very hectic for the beginning of the month.

[00:00:58]So, I actually went back to Toronto just to take a breather and just to walk away from all the crazy slat market and all the SEAL products, all the Japanese uh you know, the entire IP basically. I went back to Toronto with my family and we just enjoyed the early summer weather in uh in Toronto. Uh I went to play some basketball. I went to play catch with my son and then uh we visited some friends and we went to the park uh patio weather had some beers and you know went to like first marketplace got bubble tea and just really enjoyed and spend family time and I think that is just super super important cuz living in Hong Kong is such a high stress environment and I also felt like you know I needed to take a break and you know just step back and look at things from a bigger picture and a like you know a larger macro view. So that's why now after 10 days I'm back to the store and uh yeah I want to talk a little bit about you know the things that I have uh in front of me right now because we have amassed so many new uh raw cards that there's so much stuff that I want to talk about but maybe as I uh discuss with you I can show you guys a little bit of the cards and maybe I can try to reduce some of the glare.

[00:02:11]Yeah, but we got in a lot of mid eras um that we will try to sell in in the shop in the upcoming days and we're going to also make uh the uh social show post content. So, if you guys are in located in Hong Kong and you want to buy any of these insane, beautiful artwork that you don't really see, you can't really you can't really move these at car shows, I would say. You really need to go to a car store to slowly and gradually enjoy and admire the artworks. Because at a car show there's a vending cost like recently uh the most recent show in Hong Kong grade 10 a very very successful show shout out to the organizer and uh there's you know inherent cost of vending right so it's uneasy and it doesn't really make financial sense to be uh selling raws cuz you need to be moving a lot of rolls to make it worthwhile but a lot of these cards are just really beautiful and excuse me for a lot of the crazy glare that's happening right now I'm trying too. Uh maybe like here will be a little bit better. Yeah, that looks a bit nicer.

[00:03:12]And these are the stuff that you don't really see uh much nowadays cuz a lot of the new uh collectors, you know, they like these Gardavore, you know, they haven't even seen this before. Or, you know, maybe something like this, you know, a Eser uh Staries. Uh let's finish off the the gallery and then we can talk a little bit more. Oh, I love the Squirtle. You know, this one is from Crystal Guardian. Yeah, this Squirtle is amazing. Reminds me a little bit about the uh McDonald's 2000 or is it a 2002 McDonald's promo? Uh the Squirtle, the Japanese exclusive. So yeah, even like a Wingo like this one, like you don't really see it. Uh Dong and Gold. Yeah.

[00:03:48]So all these stamp cards are actually worth, you know, uh not significant amount of money, but it's really nice to see because if you've seen so much Mega Dreams, if you've seen so much, you know, Inferno X and you saw a lot of the modern cards, sometimes it's nice to go back to the basics and look at the older cards. And we're going to be hosting an event soon where you can come over to the shop and just buy these rare raw cards in uh in Hong Kong. And hopefully, you know, it's going to be a success.

[00:04:18]Uh, so far, you know, the community feedback has been really, really good.

[00:04:24]So far, the community feedback has been really, really good. And look at this sequential uh, shaman with the Rayquaza.

[00:04:30]And then look at the uh, Xernius and the Yetol. Yeah. Like amazing cards from almost 10 years ago now. Right. So, we have plenty more where that came from.

[00:04:42]Yeah. And then we're going to have a raw car event and I'll try to document the entire uh process as we uh progress into the month of July. All right. So, now that I have kind of covered the uh raw segment, I've talked about, you know, uh going back to Toronto and taking a break. I feel like in Hong Kong right now, the market is seeing a bit of a a slowdown and I've been talking to a lot of my friends on why that is happening.

[00:05:09]Um, there's a lot of money that's going into uh the One Piece market. I had dinner the other day in Singapore with my buddy uh Johnny, shout out to him.

[00:05:18]And you know, he he's right now buying serialized One Piece cards. And then some people are asking me, you know, uh asking him, "Hey, Ken, are you going to uh buy into One Piece?" I've actually started looking into uh like the anime series. cuz I'm watching the anime series right now. But for somebody like myself that has not touched One Piece, it's a really bad idea for me to jump into the IP right now. And even if I spent a million Hong Kong dollars buying One Piece cards, I feel like I can't really buy or catch up to the people that were the early adopters back in 2021 or between 21 and 23. That was like the golden period of entering the market. I'm not saying you cannot enter in 2026, but I feel like you got to kind of commit and specialize in in things in life, you know, whether or not it's your skill set or stuff that you choose to invest. And uh right now, the amount of stuff that I've built in Pokemon, I'm getting a lot of uh great enjoyment from collecting this IP right now. So, it just really doesn't make sense for me to uh suddenly jump into the One Piece uh bandwagon. All I will be will be a bandwagoner. Yeah. and uh you know if there's any sort of market correction and I'll be in a world of hurt. Yeah. So the the short answer is I'm not going to go into One Piece. But talking about Pokemon in the local market, I don't know about other I can't speak for you know the uh western market right now, but I feel like in Hong Kong right now there is a noticeable uh fatigue in terms of the slap buying in in Hong Kong. I don't know if vendors are just displaying the same stuff uh week in and week out. Uh, and that's why I'm trying to, you know, um, switch it up and do something, uh, different, you know, in for the community. Um, so the trade nights will continue to happen, uh, if you're located in Hong Kong. And we are going to do more events within the the location of the store cuz I feel like uh, we are in a very fortunate or I am in a very fortunate position where I can really utilize the space and do something, you know, unique for the community. Another talking point is I actually moved a lot of slaps in the last 3 weeks. So I wasn't making YouTube content, but then I was going ham in terms of selling some of my personal grail. So I actually sold over a million dollars in slabs and I have uh red diverted those money into uh the US stock market basically. Yeah. So, I'm not advocating you to uh do your own financial research basically, but because some of the slabs that I've held, I got in at like $500 to $800 and then now they're approaching $10,000.

[00:07:56]So, the growth for the past 3 years in Pokemon has been tremendous for me and worked out very nicely for me. And I just thought like, hey, maybe it's time to take I I just set a benchmark and I told myself, let's take a million dollars to 1.5 out of the of my liquidity pool. And then I'm moving it into the stock market to see how how's that going. And so far I actually when I did it, the market kind of dipped 20% and then I lost like half a million dollars in 48 hours. Yeah. So that I was kind of beating myself cuz I vaporized my Mario Pikachu and I vaporized like uh a Munchet and I vaporized like a Poncho uh Y Charizard and then I was hitting myself and then afterwards then there was a pump and then it went up another like 30%. So right now I think my portfolio uh in the stocks are up 20. So it was down 20 and then now it's up 25%.

[00:08:49]And that is a reminder that you know I can also nobody has the crystal ball you know like when you're ever you're doing these sort of investment. Investment comes with risk. When you commit to spending a lot of money into buying slabs there's come there's going to be risk involved. Yeah. I don't want to be the guy that just kind of boast telling you, you know, oh yeah, I I made this move and then like I made $100 million or I like 2x my money in like a week. It doesn't come easy. You know, there's no instant success in life. You know, like grinding this and doing all of this behind the scene work is very very tiring. And it goes to show I want just want to be honest with the viewers on this channel. You know, nothing comes easy in life. you know, there is a grind period and then there's delayed gratification. And for me, I just feel very lucky that after 3 years, I managed to pull like $1.5 million uh out of it.

[00:09:41]And um and uh yeah, it's interesting.

[00:09:44]So, everybody's situation is different cuz in Hong Kong, there's no capital gains tax. So then if you are wherever you're located, if you if you need to pull like a4 million uh Canadian or or $200,000 US, there might be, you know, uh capital gains uh stuff involved, but luckily in in Hong Kong, it's kind of like a life hack being here. Yeah. So yeah, it's a uh it's interesting position. Yeah. So uh guys, I will kind of So guys, I'm just giving you a quick update and just going to go back to, you know, preparing the shop for opening. Uh maybe I can do a little bit of a walk around and let's go have a look at the slabs. Okay, because some people they are asking me, you know, like what stuff you should buy in in the current market and there's no better way to look at, you know, the entire collection. Uh since the store has opened, I have uh gathered a lot of new slabs. I feel like my slab count have increased by about 500. My steal boxes for Japanese have increased by about 300 boxes.

[00:10:51]That's like you know net gain you know uh my money has not been spent but yet by having a store and doing mass trading and and buying you know and earning the spread has done uh quite well to be uh quite honest. Yeah. So like a lot of these stuff you know like if we zoom in you know like uh stamp lady Lugia V uh Gengar Guillotina like these are the slabs that we have amassed uh into my collection. Uh there's also a very cool you know uh Celabby sky richidge I don't know if you guys see it like the Hoopa and a lot some of the uh munchet all of these under Squirtle and Charmander. So uh again I'm just giving you guys an update. I didn't really spend if I look at my my uh personal accounts actually it's a moment where I feel uh quite proud looking at you know like all these uh Pikachu were gained were gains you know I look at my account I didn't really drop much in terms of my liquidity and my savings and and yet I managed to even like get some of the really cool you know uh Magikarp uh PSA 10 and there's a Japanese uh Lugia right there the Japanese Magikarp And I really like these Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. And this uh PSA 9 uh the uh Psyduck is looking very happy there as well. Um even amassing some of the raw cards like you know uh some of the Pokemon Snap Pikachu, the original promo Pikachu and then Yeah. All these slabs um that you see. Yeah. Like even some of these uh older slabs. I really like that jungle Pidgeot. Yeah. Because if you're in Hong Kong or if you're overseas, you know, like you these p Pizza Hut um Pikachu might work out very well for you. And then in different market, you know, some people might like these, you know, Hidden Face Eevee. Uh so it's really pick whatever you enjoy uh seeing, right? You know, like some people in uh the US market might really like the Zechrome and the uh special BWR Zechrome. And then, you know, some people might be into the Moon Bion, some people might be into the the shinies, uh, Charmander, Charmeleon, some people might be into the older uh, Charizards, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, basically, uh, oh, I see a Dragonite V. That one is also a very cool looking Dragonite. I don't know. Yeah, it's picking up, right? And then, you know, some of the tag team and the sequential first edition Charmander and Squirtle. Yeah.

[00:13:16]So, it's really cool to stand here and admire all the slabs. I feel that uh right now all the attention is going to one piece but and people are maybe more cautious in terms of buying uh slabs in Hong Kong right now but I feel like in in the long run and in the second half of the year it really should be okay.

[00:13:35]Yeah. And for for the final key message in the in the video if you are a capable of holding on to the slabs in a year's time when there's another uh pump there will always be more attention back into the hobby. mode. If there's if it feels like things are, you know, stabilizing or even going down slightly, just, you know, hold on to your cash, just keep on staying in your day job and and, you know, spend time with the family and just enjoy the the, you know, enjoy what you have accomplished. Yeah. I I I feel like I feel like I don't tell myself enough on you know, you know, what is actually happening, you know, in a short 6 months, the portfolio has grown a lot and I cannot be more proud of uh me and the team. Yeah.

[00:14:18]>> Yeah. So, that's a quick video. I hope you guys uh enjoy a quick update on the market and what I've been doing. Uh we are going to be hosting a raw cart event next month. And there's going to be a lot of car shows in Hong Kong. So, I look forward to uh creating more content and then getting back into the game, feeling completely recharged uh after my Toronto trip. And I'll see you guys very soon uh back home in my poker cave.

[00:14:39]Okay. So, thanks guys for watching. See you very soon. Bye-bye.