Instant Rips Explained in Nick Bell Interview
On Thursday's episode of the Sports Cards Nonsense podcast, Fanatics Collects CEO Nick Bell joined hosts Mike Gioseffi and Jesse Gibson to talk about the new product from Fanatics, expanding on the already publicized Instant Rips.
The main thing that Bell wanted to emphasize was trust and transparency.
"How do we make repacks more trustworthy," Bell said. Adding while at the same time keeping the entertainment aspect of traditional breaking. "We really just wanted to create a product that, you know, kept all of the great sort of excitement of breaking but lent into a market, which is very, very popular with a lot of folks, as you know," he said.
Bell continued to talk about transparency, saying that the team wanted to make sure to publicize a checklist. While it isn't allowed on Fanatics Live, some repackers neglet to release a checklist, a complete blind buy for collectors. This was something those at Fanatics had no interest in doing.
"...you always know what's, what's there, what's available," he said. "We want this to be super transparent."
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In the genesis launch of the product, named Odyssey, there will be 1,000 packs available, with a checklist. You can view the checklist, along with all other information behind the product, on the product page.
Bell said that eventually, with new releases, they hope to administer what's called a dynamic checklist. Meaning when a grail card is pulled they will replace it with another, and reflect that in real time on the checklist. But he didn't stop there, telling Gioseffi and Gibson that innovation is a continuing practice.
"The amount of gamification and like fun features that we can build on top of this is exciting," he said. "There's going to be a lot of innovation around this."
The Fanatics Collects CEO also touted the vault aspect of the product. How it takes care of much of the logistics breakers and collectors face in the hobby.
“Three pain points for collectors is ok, you know, you get all of this stuff shipped to you, you’ve got to sort it, and then you get hassle from your spouse about how many packages are arriving," he joked. “So just removing a lot of the kind of logistical hurdles for collectors, we’re reducing a lot of the logistical hurdles for breakers and really just making it more transparent and open and making sure that, you know the repacks that go on the Fanatics Live platform are you know very, very high integrity which is something we hear from collectors a lot.”
Currently if you buy a card you can do a few things with it: keep it in your vault, list it on the Fanatics market, or request the physical piece. The latter is when you might see some tax implications. Something Gioseffi asked Bell.
"When does the tax kick in," Gioseffi asked.
Currently, you do not pay tax on the card if you keep it in the vault or list it on the market. However, when you request the card be sent to you, taxes will be calculated along with shipping costs.
The product is just in it's infancy, and you'll continue to see innovations and Fanatics reps scouring shows, PSA, and solicitations for cards to include. Currently the Odyssey version is $250 per card and can only be bought through breakers on Fanatics Live. While they only have graded cards now, down the line they may do raw cards and give buyers an option with a lower price point.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz