Show Notes
Recorded live at Card Party 4, Jake and Rob sit down with Danny Phantump for a wide-ranging conversation on what it actually takes to run a Pokemon card business in 2025, when booster boxes are hitting $300+ at the gate.Danny breaks down how he's kept his online store at MSRP despite insane demand — including the anti-bot tricks he's used to outsmart scalpers and keep product in the hands of real collectors. He also gets into the brutal reality of allocation cuts, why he stopped doing pre-orders, and how the live selling and rip & ship boom changed everything about the hobby.Then the conversation shifts into Danny's most ambitious project yet: completing master sets for all 133 Pokemon TCG sets ever released. He's 35 sets in, trading old competitive trainer cards as bait, hunting EX era reverses and gold stars in person, and gunning to finish by end of year.Danny also opens up about his content pivot away from market talk, what Pokemon meant to him through a cancer diagnosis 10 years ago, and why staying true to yourself matters more than chasing the algorithm.Plus: live Q&A from the Card Party audience covering pull rates, EX era collecting, how to grow a following, and 30th anniversary predictions.
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