GoCollect Interviews Pokemon Trade Master, The Real Randy Chavez

NOSTALGIA RESPARK!

One of the greatest pleasures of my collectibles experience, particularly with digital assets that awoke a paused passion, and writing for GoCollect, has been sharing so many unique experiences with incredible people across the globe.

I just had a wonderful conversation with Ohio's DEEP POKEMON EXPERT, THE REAL RANDY CHAVEZ! Podcaster, YouTuber, VeVe Video Influencer and Pokemon Expert, like Level 1000!

When I heard the news GoCollect was moving into the Pokémon space, I instantly reached out to Randy to ask if he might share some thoughts on the space with our readers, which I am very happy to offer you below. 

Randy also shares some of his thoughts on friend & business connection AL KAHN, who is like...THE GUY that brought Pocket Monsters to North America, changing the name to what we all know and have appreciated since.

The Pokémon frenzy is very alive & well – check out this recent live 'Pokemon Hunt' event in England, which was shared recently on socials by VeVe Community Fan Favourite, MR FALCON:

BONUS - for those who prefer watching YouTube vs good old fashioned reading, here is the link to our FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW! (It's an hour, but full of Pokemon, Physical & Digital Collecting discussions on where the industry is headed)

CHRIS: What a pleasure to have this interview with you, Randy…I've been a fan of your YouTube channel for many years, as I just love your grassroots, no BS approach to the world of collecting as you see it. Of course, I've picked up on the fact you're pretty damned knowledgable when it comes to Pokemon, so let's see if we can't pull some of that out for our readers!

1. HOW'S YOUR DAY SO FAR, AND JUST WHO IS "THE REAL RANDY CHAVEZ" - ARE THERE CLONES OF YOU OUT THERE?

Well, pretty awesome actually! I just finished meeting with a client I consult for (six figure collectible deals), chatting with you about GoCollect and just had my 35th birthday - what a week!

'Chavez' is a pretty common name in the Hispanic community, where all of sudden I started noticing more 'Randys' on socials, so figured this would be a nice way to protect the brand, maybe even allow for my personal army clones one day, like Jango's on Camino!

Or maybe an NFT version, though I think people would prefer my DASHI over me! I grabbed his rare (1 of 4 versions) ceramic dog collectible from Lloyds in New York, negotiated a helluva deal (estate sale), and he's been in my videos ever since!

2. LET'S CHAT COLLECTING & THE 1ST THING YOU DOVE DEEP IN? (Love the Facebook Header BTW)

I'm sure there are things I had a kid that mattered then, but the first real asset I went big on was Pokemon. It was EVERY Saturday watching first thing in the morning, then my friends at school started crazing, then I loaded into the trading cards. The song, "GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL" had me!

3. WHEN DID YOU GO DEEP AS A POKEMON MASTER?

2020 I started going deep into Pokemon sales data. PWCC (Auction House) every 6 weeks would sell your Pokemon cards on their eBay channel. Their size & notoriety helped, as there were so many people trying to sell cards themselves. You paid a small commission, but had great success.

Then this place called E4, like Reddit for Pokemon came out with sub-Reddit's and groups popping up everywhere. I started posting on E4 related to PWCC auctions, tracked & reported sales data, lifts or drops in valuations that just had to be talked about.

This led to my YouTube channel launch, discussing all this great Pokemon intel. I'd come out of the Military and focused on trading key assets - first edition, graded PSA 10 where so few were available. Viewer questions & comments began to blow up so I knew something was there to build from.

Then the Pandemic hit.

Everything shut down and my first business was about to WRECK. HOW could people buy Pokemon cards when incomes had halted or rents had to be paid? Uh Oh moment...

But then...those $1200 government cheques started coming in. Suddenly those without as many financial responsibilities, or now had remote work to support incomes further had some play money to work with, and my channel started picking up again quickly.

So I started to again focus on grails, like "Choki Cards" and Trophy Cards (only given out at specific times, places or for completing specific tasks), re-engaging all the community groups and so forth. Some of these are now worth 10's of $1,000's...

This led to a rare trophy card find I invested ~$80,000 into. People thought I was NUTS - I should have bought gold, silver, stocks...even people in the Pokemon community questioned the decision, believing since no other card had ever sold that high, how could this be a good decision?

One year later, I sold the card for $279,000.

This is still the record sale for that card, and what I believe really helped solidify my journey to becoming a Poke-Master!

C: And it just seems to keep escalating - check out the highest ever card sale to none other than Logan Paul:

WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT VEVE & WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO DIGITAL COLLECTING? (How we 1st connected, so quickly making the point...)

VeVe was a weird one. I heard a few things from Earth II Mastery (early crypto YouTuber), who had teased their crypto would be on the GoChain blockchain (in-game rewards, etc.). Then OMI token videos then started popping up, which was crypto...but connected to NFTs? Low Markt Cap? How did you say it? VeeeeV? VeeVee? Interesting business maybe...

As soon as I found out AL KAHN had joined the team of David Yu & Dan Crothers, well, that changed everything.

If Al could see the future of digital assets, their blockchain verifiable ownership, new user growth and so forth after being so successful introducing toy and collectible brands to North America, well, how could anyone NOT see this?

Digital is the future and so many new things are being built on Web3, where of course Pokemon has a pretty solid digitally-integrated background already. This just makes sense...

Link to Randy's Interview with Al:

4. CAN YOU DISCUSS SOME POKEMON BUSINESS PASSIONS?

I've been seeing a lot of people coming into the space, not necessarily as Pokemon fans or experts, but those who like 'old money' or collecting old stuff like WWII memorabilia, gold coins...they always knew Pokemon was unique, but just not old enough for them if they chased things like 200 year old-assets.

As this next bull run takes hold through the end of 2026, I will continue to buy-back key grails and reposition, but am continuing to help consult collectors on what to look for or add to their portfolios as they set up for the future. At some point, these cards will be old too, so why not acquire them now when the timing is maybe a bit more ideal price wise?

5. WHAT MAKES CERTAIN POKEMON CARDS SOUGHT AFTER?

There are definitely similarities to CGC, comic grading etc. Historical value, character appearances, scarcity...We have PSA synonymous with Pokemon - let's look at the centering, are there scratches, edge wears, whitening on the cards, etc., but those pandemic cheques spawned a flood of activity that was sort of overwhelming PSA. We saw BECKETT come in to take some stress off, but were hit or miss and harsh graders. Beckett had sub-grades, where PSA did not (they only had 8.0, 9.0, etc.)

It seemed Beckett struggled with anything under a 9.0, but for those with a 10.0 it became clear not all 10's were created equal. Now though, we're bringing in these new digital / AI tools and other grading systems to help with grading as the popularity continues to increase, and it's all getting very good, but we're always going to be open to the interpretation of the grader, even based on their mood that day. A close contact owns AGS (4th largest Pokemon Grading Company), which I would recommend to check out too.

6. WITH GOCOLLECT'S POPULARITY TRACKING PHYSICAL GRADED COMIC & POSTER SALES, DO YOU SEE THEIR ENTRY INTO TRACKING POKEMON AS IMPORTANT TO THAT COLLECTING COMMUNITY?

This definitely helps - especially with normies who may not be as into Pokemon as others. There are a LOT of influencers shilling their ideas, maybe they're pumping their own bags...but having a standard, trusted & known-for-reliability platform like GoCollect is GOOD to verify sales data. Less grapevine, more data for those who should do the homework.

7. YOU'VE BEEN VOCAL & HOPEFUL THAT ONE DAY, VEVE (THE KING OF DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES) MIGHT OFFER SOME POKEMON DIGITAL ASSETS ON ITS APP. ARE YOU STILL CONVICTED ON THAT THOUGHT?

I think it would great to see - if Pokemon spent a year witnessing how VeVe's Community interacts with their digital collectibles they would understand. All these major companies will and are already moving their assets & business structures onto blockchain technology, many quietly, where VeVe is a leader in helping brands onboard their collectible assets already. It's a natural extension.

More importantly though, are RECURRING REVENUES. Like most IP on the platform, when a new item 'drops' the brand claims a small percentage of the sale or drop price. Unlike physical sales though, EVERY time that same asset is traded (sold, bought, sold, bought...forever), the brand continues to earn a percentage. INFINITE MONEY AN INFINATE NUMBER OF TIMES. This is GOOD.

I also enjoy how passions criss-cross communities - here's a nice example of VeVe Vault Master (who creates incredible 3D images using his VeVe animated collectibles) promoting Pokemon Trading Card Games (TCG) to a network of over 250k VeVe followers. Whether or not VeVe drops any, the fact is so many great people continue to participate - it's just fun for everyone to see.

8. WHAT MIGHT THAT MEAN TO THE ENTIRE SPACE OR ITS POTENTIAL VALUE TO HOLDERS OF PHYSICAL POKEMON ASSETS? SHOULD THEY BE WORRIED?

This is very important as we bridge digital asset valuations to their physical counterparts. As physicals decline in availability, or their conditions erode, this is offset with digital assets as well, ensuring legacies of future trading potential.

I actually haven't seen too many Pokemon collectors be threatened by digital assets. Maybe a bit skeptical or hopeful for their integration, but not fearful and if so I help with the understanding of what is happening in the space.

A lot of people have a very wrong opinion of what NFTs are, just seeing pixelated pictures of animals where the majority really are, worth nothing. Giant corporations though, with trillions of assets under management moving into the space is important. Sesame Street is doing this now (digital assets available on VeVe). Look at the two of us - we're not "abnormal," moonbois or young inexperienced people, we've been around the block.

It's easy to be critical, angry, whine and complain about things you don't understand. Is that who you want to follow, watch and base your understanding of a new technology? Or if you like Pokemon (Marvel, Disney whatever) and they say "hey we like this and want to share it with you," chances are the space will eventually gravitate here.

10. AL KAHN JOINING VEVE'S EARLY DAYS WAS A BIG STEP FOR DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES. WHAT DID THAT MEAN TO YOU?

Think of how many brands leverage new technologies, not to 'take over' an industry, but capture a share of it. Like UBER had a goal not to replace cabs, but open a 5% stake in that category to help those where taxis just didn't cut it. It ended up turning out pretty for them though haha...

A little bit of insight from other interviews, but speaking of AL KAHN, when he first met up with David & Dan of VeVe and heard their pitch, he at first couldn't 100% wrap his mind around 'digital collectibles,' but he knew something was there. And he's in his '70s.

He understood the potential of recurring revenue and could see how far digital has come, and trusted David's background as a huge physical collector that was involved in new technologies within his operating companies. That alone was a very big deal, for many people who also decided to jump into tho this game early.

Pokemon is moving quickly into geospatial technology. Think back to 2016 and over 200,000,000 fans played in mobile spaces looking for digital Pkachus. The brand now has more than 10M scanned locations globally and from those, 1 Million have digital positioning systems to allow developers to anchor real world locations with 'centimeter-level' targeting accuracy. From a human use perspective, the lines of physical and digital continue to blend, continuing to increase excitement for the entire collectible and gaming industries. Very exciting times.

Remember Pokemon is like 1/3 owned by Nintendo, so the possibilities of what we could see next are endless and exciting - like, thousands of monsters, characters, etc. Looking back to the TV shows, Team Rocket attacks are defeated and on they went, but every show focused on a different Pokemon and their personalities so the ability to recreate those nostalgic experiences in new formats just continues to expand the engagement opportunities across the board.

FINAL THOUGHTS?

Some companies like RECUR raised $10s of Millions of dollars, failed and of course the media pounced on those stories. Yet, these point more to improper capital allocation than roadblocks to the industry. VeVe has done extremely well with this - spending little through the bear market, focusing on fundamentals while continuing to onboard new, significant brand partners. They continued to build through the hard times, and that is not easy.

I remain excited to see where things go from here, as the number of things that can be done now is almost limitless. Licenses continue to accrue, and love or hate him, Trump has made a positive impact on the entire crypto space allowing for greater investment to build upon. Think about it - STAR WARS (LucasFilm) chose VeVe to distribute the FIRST EVER STAR WARS digital collectibles on the blockchain (C3PO & R2D2, in partnership with the Disney Golden Moment Release). These are industry-defining moments.

Look at the two of us - I started YouTubing & you started writing for GoCollect simply to share our passions that came of all this, and now here we are! I applaud GoCollect for branching out into Pokemon and am very excited to see them move deeper in the role of qualifying the trading space here, and thank you for reaching out to have this chat.

C: INDEED!!!! This is all so appreciated Randy. Thanks again for taking the time to discuss what is obviously an incredible passion you've enjoyed for many years. Best of luck in your continued collecting crusade!!!

Thank You All For Reading!