Tzvi Wiesel, CEO of Baxus, explains why watching grown adults stand over garbage cans at card shops, literally throwing out non-rare Pokémon cards as "worthless trash," reveals the fundamental transformation of collectibles from a passion-driven hobby to pure financialization. While Target races toward $1 billion in annual card sales and Pokémon TCG Pocket crushes $1.3 billion in its first year, the market faces a critical inflection point: Pokémon's massive new printing facility could repeat the bourbon boom's fatal mistake of destroying secondary market value through oversupply.
This episode covers:
- The garbage can test: When collectibles become so financialized that "worthless" cards literally go in the trash during pack rips
- Supply paradox: How Pokemon's new printing facility threatens to repeat bourbon's capacity boom that crashed secondary markets
- Blockchain loyalty systems: QR codes and on-chain tracking that let brands reward collectors over flippers
- The vinyl display phenomenon: Why people buy records purely for wall art signals the investment mindset has won
- Tzvi's collector philosophy: The 1969 Seiko with London vs GMT time zones (worth $200 but priceless for its two-year historical anomaly)
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