Wicked Good Pulls

Is starting a sports card podcast in your 40s a midlife crisis? Mike’s 9-year-old son seems to think so, but the boys are too busy chasing high-end retro wax to care.

This week on Wicked Good Pulls, we dive into the ultimate hobby betrayal: Matt visits GOAT Card Shop 30 times without an invite to the "Back Room," but Mike (Retro Ripping) gets invited behind the curtain on his second visit. Plus, we discuss the "Flea Market Queen" conundrum, the desperate need for Whatnot affirmation, and Joe questions if the $699 animation budget is worth his sanity.

In This Episode:

• [05:20] The Animation Debate: Is the $699 yearly price tag for podcast cartoons actually worth it?
• [12:30] Whatnot Jealousy: Mike’s desperate search for affirmation in the chat.
• [25:30] The GOAT Back Room: What really happens when you’re invited behind the curtain to see the high-end wax?
• [35:00] Flea Market Hunting: Why Kris gives Matt "the look of disgust" at 6 AM

This week on the podcast, Mike tries to do something genuinely nice by giving a shoutout to his favorite Whatnot streamer, but Matt immediately ruins the moment by critiquing the guy's Southern accent—leading to a desperate, podcast-long attempt to un-cancel himself.

Later, the guys pivot from sports cards to their biggest domestic grievances: their families ruthlessly stealing their hidden stashes of Orbit gum and Burt's Bees chapstick like a pack of wild raccoons.

In This Episode:

• Apologies to G-Man: Mike highlights G-Man Sports Cards as the best stream on Whatnot (and Matt gives a nod to DLava), only for Matt to accidentally insult the host's accent on a hot mic.
• The Gum & Chapstick Thieves: Matt and Mike vent about the "ghosts" in their houses that instantly consume any gum, chapstick, or healthy Yasso bars left unattended for more than five minutes.
• The Great Litter Debate: Is spitting your gum under your car in a parking lot worse than tossing a wooden ice cream stick on the ground?
• 90s Disney Nostalgia: Joe rips a pack of 1992 Impel Disney Collector cards purely to get a rise out of Matt and triggers a wave of classic cartoon nostalgia.
• The First Grade 10!: Matt shares a massive win from his first professional grading experience at the local Carver card shop, turning a raw $20 Paul Skenes Black Foil rookie card into a pristine grade 10 worth over $170.
  

This week, the podcast gets completely derailed when Joe completely blindsides Matt and Mike with a surprise VIP guest: their sister, Leah! But before the family reunion kicks off, Matt makes a shocking confession about his brand new obsession with Disney trading cards. Mike immediately plots to buy vintage 1992 Disney packs, while Joe questions everyone's sanity.

Later, the brothers force Leah to listen to their dystopian survival plan (where she is immediately sacrificed) and finally make her pick a side in the great "Ethics of the Flip" debate.

In This Episode:

• The Disney Confession: Matt admits his kids had to literally drag him away from the Topps Chrome Disney cards at a recent show, sparking Mike’s interest in the Disney investment market.

• Apocalyptic Sibling Survival: Leah reacts to the guys' apocalyptic survival strategy, which delegates her to decorating the shelter and petting chickens.

• Frankie the Hustler: Leah shares a mom's perspective on her son Frankie's card-collecting journey, praising the real-world haggling and business skills he is learning at card shows.

• The Ethics Debate Settled?: Leah officially weighs in on the infamous Episode 4 debate regarding Whatnot starting prices. Does she side with Matt's morals or Mike's free-market capitalism? (Spoiler: Matt calls them all immoral).

• Feeding the "Algo": Matt begs the listeners to bookmark his upcoming Whatnot streams and breaks down exactly why pre-show bookmarks are the secret to pleasing the algorithm.

This week, the brothers agree to officially ban the word "strategy" from the podcast and dive into the logistics of organizing massive card collections for live streams. Mike confesses to making up sports facts on the fly, while Matt reveals his secret framed shrines to Drew Bledsoe. Later, things get personal as Mike vents about the emotional rollercoaster of raising a teenage daughter.

In This Episode:

• Thrift Shop Nightmares: Mike realizes that hunting for cheap items to flip for a massive markup is his absolute nightmare—until he immediately decides he might actually be into it.
• The Whatnot Command Center: Matt breaks down his method for organizing cards by era, player, and insert, while admitting he heavily relies on his kids for mid-stream card pulling.
• Fake News & Space Jam: Mike admits that his impressive sports knowledge on streams is mostly made up, or heavily dependent on whatever documentary he watched five days ago, such as Space Jam.
• The Drew Bledsoe PC: While Mike contemplates starting a Jaylen Brown personal collection, Matt proudly confesses to collecting and framing two-cent Drew Bledsoe cards on his walls.
• The Teenage Conundrum & Movie Escapes: Mike talks about the highs and lows of parenting his 14-year-old daughter, Emmy. They bond over the movie Interstellar and simulation theory, but she still calls him a loser when he waves at her school bus. Plus, Mike reveals his deeply stressful emergency drop plan for escaping movie theaters.

The brothers return for Episode 11, and things get heated when Joe admits he is ready to go to war with artificial intelligence. Later, the conversation pivots from cash flow management to post-apocalyptic survival strategies, complete with a brutal breakdown of why their sister wouldn't survive the end of the world.

In This Episode:

• Yelling at Robots & Pop Punk: Mike airs his grievances against AI devices interrupting his thoughts and aggressively messing up his 2000s pop-punk running playlists.
• The "Rolling Profit" Method: Mike breaks down his exact cash flow strategy for selling cards, including using separate bank accounts, tracking batch profits, and joking about legally dubious tax write-offs for his kids.
• Ice Cube vs. Connor Price: The guys debate Ice Cube's transition from his NWA days to starring in family movies. Matt also drops a wild trivia fact about rapper Connor Price's child acting days alongside Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man.
• Dystopian Flea Markets & Sisterly Survival: If the grid goes down, who survives? Matt is on food duty, Mike is practicing starting fires, and Joe is placed on shelter duty due to his carpentry skills. Meanwhile, Matt and Mike ruthlessly roast their sister, deciding her only apocalypse survival skills would be "decorating the shelter" and trying to pet the chickens right next to the slaughter table.
• The $2 Start & New Targets: Mike shifts his auction strategy to $2 starts and tests the waters with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter cards.

The guys return for Episode 10 to talk streaming strategy, but things quickly go off the rails when a massive typo on Mike's eBay account is exposed to the world. Is it Retroripping, or are you actually buying from Retro“ropping"?

In This Episode:

• The Yard Sale Pivot: After seeing the massive value hidden in his son's collection, Mike considers pivoting his entire yard-sale hunting strategy over to Pokémon cards.
• Pleasing the Algo: Mike breaks down his new Whatnot strategy: streaming less frequently but utilizing targeted giveaways to hack the "algo" and boost his follower count.
• Marketplace Hustles: Matt shares his newest, slightly creepy card acquisition strategy—meeting up with elderly men from Facebook Marketplace to score massive lots of Jordans on the cheap.
• The Proud Dad Spreadsheets: Mike and Matt share back-to-back proud parenting moments as their sons start building their own card-flipping empires using complex spreadsheets and eBay comps.

In this episode, Matt recaps the massive success of his highly targeted Duke Blue Devils Whatnot stream, which he strategically ran right before the Duke vs. North Carolina game.

This inspires Joe to pitch a chaotic and completely unethical new sales tactic for future rivalry streams: let the winning bidder actually destroy the opposing team's card. Will holding an Ohio State card hostage for Michigan buyers ruin the hobby, or is it pure entertainment?

Later in the episode, Mike forces a massive pop-culture detour:

• The Rapper Debate: Mike defends his new favorite rapper, Connor Price, despite Matt revealing that his kids outgrew Price's music by age 12.
• Dead of Winter: Mike pitches a new HBO movie starring Emma Thompson, praising her highly realistic portrayal of a mid-70s action hero trying to save a kidnapped girl.
• Retro Ripping Expansion: Looking to expand his inventory beyond Jordan, Kobe, and Iverson, Mike asks for input on targeting Vince Carter next.

In this episode, Mike starts things off with a formal apology, admitting he acted like a massive jerk during the Episode 4 debate. He blames his aggressive conversational tone on unresolved childhood trauma—specifically the time he woke up at 6:30 AM to play their new Sega Genesis Batman game, only to find Matt refusing to share the controller.

Later, Matt has an existential realization and asks the group if their entire sports card side hustle is actually just a highly specific, slightly pathetic midlife crisis.

On the hobby side, the brothers break down their latest auction strategies:

• The $3 Jordan Experiment: Mike abandons his tiered pricing and starts all his Michael Jordan cards at $3, resulting in unexpected bidding wars that drove prices into the high teens and twenties.
• The Duke Stream: Matt recaps his incredibly fun, highly targeted Duke Blue Devils stream right before the Duke/UNC game, moving autos from players like Elton Brand and Cherokee Parks.
• The Back Wall Strategy: Why keeping your premium cards on the "back wall" and waiting for the chat to ask about them is the best way to handle high-value inventory.

This week, the podcast takes a hilarious turn as Matt shares the story of a father-son card hunting trip gone completely wrong.

Instead of scoring big hits, Matt ends up in a bitter feud with an elderly card shop owner who condescendingly calls him "kid" while refusing to haggle on a $3 autograph. Matt flies into a blind rage, wishing their shop goes out of business, only for his 13-year-old son, Ry, to step in and act like the mature adult to calm him down. Joe spends the segment mercilessly roasting Matt for having a "Karen" meltdown over a grand total of $6.

Later in the episode, the guys actually talk about cards.

In this episode:

• The Graded Jordan Experiment: Mike breaks down his latest investment strategy: hunting for base-level Jordans graded 8 or 9 for under $20.
• The Break-Even Margins: Mike reveals his recent pickups, including a '93 Upper Deck Hang Time and a '91 Skybox, detailing his profit goals of hitting $20 to $30+ per card.
• The Die-Cut Flip: Matt shares his recent purchase of a '96 die-cut Jordan for $40, hoping to quickly flip it for $60.

How do you maximize bids on your card stream? The crew dives deep into the psychology of pricing, debating the pros and cons of a 4-tier ($3, $5, $10, $23) versus a streamlined 2-tier ($3, $10) starting bid strategy.

In this episode:

• The Pricing Puzzle: Does adding more categories put a "cap" on your mid-tier Jordan inserts? We talk strategy for MJ, Kobe, and Iverson.

• Boosting the Algo: Our "early bird special" hack for new streamers to build quick momentum and get those first sales.

• Vintage Horror Story: We rip a '93-'94 Skybox Premium pack and learn the hard way about sticky cards—plus the truth about the "freezer trick."

• The Ball Head Debate: A mid-podcast tangent on the bizarre suggestion of wearing a basketball or football on your head to stream. You gotta hear this one.