Thanks for having me. I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life and Based Trading Cards started from a love of collecting, art, nostalgia, Bitcoin culture, and the feeling of holding something real in your hands. I saw an opportunity and need to create trading cards and a collectible that blends premium art, education and the best chase in the industry while bringing light to transparency very much lacking in the trading card niche.

What makes us different is that we are collector-first from the ground up: transparent print runs, original art, real scarcity, premium production, and cards that are meant to educate as much as they are meant to be chased. We use upwards of 15 different printing techniques across our cards and collections, which goes far beyond the industry standard, where many brands still rely on a handful of techniques that have been used for decades.

Our cards have developed an amazing customer base, and our collectors, known as Packstackers, remind me every day why I do this for a living. I know we’re doing something special, and thankfully, the industry is starting to take notice.

Most of our new business comes from the collector community itself: word of mouth, social media, pack rips on YouTube and other platforms, secondary market activity on places like eBay, and people seeing the cards out in the wild.

I love organic growth, but I’d also like to see more people discover us through education around finance, family values, art, and the larger story of why physical collectibles still matter. Thankfully, when I speak with customers and collectors in person, I get a lot of feedback about what draws them to the brand, and those values are clearly resonating with our collectors.

AI has been helpful for speeding up certain workflows, research, and organizing ideas, especially when there are a lot of moving pieces and only so many hours in a day. But anything involving the soul of the brand, the art direction, the collector experience, and the final creative decisions still has to be human.

AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini can assist, but they can’t replace taste, instinct, or knowing what collectors actually feel when they open a pack. People can see right through things made entirely with AI, so I think it’s important to use it as a helpful tool, not as a crutch.

Yes, customers are showing up much more informed than they used to. We’ve been mindful about making sure information about the company shows up properly across AI search, social media, and other discovery channels, and of course that process is always changing. I think a potential customer or collector can come from anywhere: word of mouth, a social media post, a ChatGPT search, or really any place where people are discovering new brands.

Collectors who buy our cards have often watched videos, seen breaks, checked eBay, looked up the cards on Instagram, and already understand parts of the story before they buy. I do think AI assistants are becoming part of that discovery process too, because people are using them to research brands, compare products, and understand what makes certain collectibles different.

I’d tell them to focus on trust, quality, transparency, and community. Collectors are smart, and they can tell when something is built with real intention versus when it’s just another product trying to hop on a trend or cash in. I’d ignore the hype cycles, shortcuts, and anything that puts quick money ahead of long-term collector respect.

The collector and TCG card space is massive right now, and there is a lot of information and buzz to take in. The brands that last will be the ones that actually care about the people buying, ripping, grading, trading, and holding the cards.