In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Jewelry Buying Events Are Having a Moment ft. National Rarities
Michael sits down with Justin VanMatre of National Rarities to discuss what the last year of estate buying events looked like, what the most commonly bought items were, and announces the new Punchmark x National Rarities event page templates they recently collaborated on. If you have hosted a NR event, or plan to soon, you'll want to tune in for this!
Learn more about National Rarities: https://www.nationalrarities.com/
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome to In the Loop sales and everybody seems to really love them right now. A lot of our clients are doing these events and it's one of the reasons why I actually worked with Justin to create a official or standardized page template that all Punch Bar clients are available to add to their website. They can just need to pop in the information about their next National Rarities event and the page will do all the rest, and then, if they want to get it linked, they can contact their account manager and do that as well. I asked him a whole bunch about 2024, what they saw at their events, and also we did another round of would you buy this? And I asked him all the cool things that I wonder if they would buy, like taxidermy turkeys. So if that interests you, make sure you listen to the end. Cheers everybody, enjoy.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. What is up, everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop, and I'm joined by Justin Van Meter with National Rarities. How are you doing today, justin Doing?
Speaker 3:great Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 1:Third or fourth time I've got a chance to speak with you and honestly, I wish I could have bought stock in National Rarity. It seems like you guys are continuing to grow. Another successful year with 2024. How was 2024, the second half of it, at least for you last year?
Speaker 3:Incredible. I mean, you know, honestly, for us business is booming, but really it's booming because of our partners. I mean, I can't say enough good things about the people that we work with, the jewelry stores, the owners of these stores. Ultimately, we understand that the more value that we bring to these stores, the more that they want us to have us in there, the more they talk about us to their friends and the other jewelers in the industry and it's really been incredible. They're a big part of our growth and, just as I said, I can't say enough good things about our partnerships and we love growing with them. Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just interviewed Stephanie Westdorf from Jewelcraft and I think you guys are entering a very similar kind of stage of your business where a lot of the marketing is done by your clients, because people are so pleased with the experiences that they're having with you that they are telling their friends the jewelry industry is very free with that kind of information with their friends, is very free with that kind of information with their friends and, as a result, I think that a lot of people are like oh, a free buying event at my store, I don't really have to do much, it's going to bring in new customers. Sounds like a win-win-win.
Speaker 3:Sounds like you guys are set up for success. Yeah, you know it's a lot of hard work on the back end to make that success happen, but we are absolutely seeing that work pay off. We've got a great group of buyers that are in these stores day in, working hard. I can't tell you how many times a store after an event reaches out to us to just say thank you and also tell us that they wish that they could hire that person that was just in their stores, just because of the way they deal with the customers, the work ethic, all of it. So a large part of just really being a customer service-based company and having that mindset of understanding what's important to the small business owner, up to the larger stores like the Harry Ritchie's and the Kessler's that have multiple locations as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you guys are sponsoring a couple of the episodes around this one. I don't know if it'll be on this one in particular, but just so we can start on kind of like the base floor so everybody is up to speed. Maybe they haven't heard us speak before. Can you just give the elevator pitch for National Rarities, just so people know what it is? You guys do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Essentially what we do is three-day buying events where we come into your store and over those three days we sit down and make no pressure offers to the customers coming through the doors with a wide range of items. So that wide range of items that we pay for handle all the marketing. Take that headache out of it. But the items are the gold and the jewelry and that. But we get into things like designer handbags, antiques, military artwork and just really so much more than what your typical jewelry store is buying. The value in that is we're driving a big number of foot traffic through your store over those three days. So on average we see about 170 people. We have some events that see well over 200, 300. Our largest event this year saw over 500 people over a four-day period just a little bit bigger. So it had to be spread out a little bit more. And then sit down. If it's something that we want to purchase, we'll write a check right then and there for the customer. Uh, we'll write a check right then and there for for the customer.
Speaker 3:Um, most of our stores take advantage of a store credit option that they can offer, uh, on the store's behalf. So say, we buy a thousand dollar designer handbag, they can sign that check over to the store and the store provides a 1200 store credit back to the customer. So they're just incentivizing the customer to spend that money in the store, regardless if they sign that over or not. We provide a 10% commission check on anything that we buy over those three days. Average event is about 115,000. So you're looking at a little over 11,000 on average.
Speaker 3:That commission check which, trust me, nobody turns that check away. But just in the communication, the talks with our partners, really the most important thing that we're seeing from them is the foot traffic coming through the advertisement featuring their brand and their logo on it, getting brand recognition out there for free, at no cost to the jewelry store, and knowing that, no matter how many times we do these events four times, five times we have stores that we've done over 15 events with and still with our marketing nearly half of the foot traffic that comes in for these events is new, has never been in the store before. So it's an opportunity to capture new people in your store and an opportunity for you to get those clients that you work really hard with. Well, you see all the time to give them another excuse to come in and do something fun, a little bit different, and bring a uniqueness to your store in that community that that other stores down the street aren't doing.
Speaker 1:And I really like that. Again. It kind of is you know, that whole business of free it's so free feeling. You know these people have the opportunity to walk out with more money than they walked in with. That it does seem like really good advertising. And so, if people have been listening, we've talked about this last year and we're kind of doing these yearly recaps. I wanted to ask about what kind of items you saw come in. The price of gold was all time high and then it dipped a little bit. I think we're back to pretty much all time highs or near it at least. Were you seeing more of people when it's at an all-time high? I assume people are bringing in their scrap gold and precious metals to either trade in or liquidate or get value for. Is that what you mainly were seeing? What were the buyers getting?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was an interesting year, as you said, there was that big increase of gold. It was an interesting year, as you said, there was that big increase of gold, especially early in 2024. But we did see quite a few people come in that maybe were holding their bullion, holding their coins A little bit of the scrap, but more so that influx that we saw in the first half of the year and into a little bit of the second half of the year was those collectors that were holding on to it, primarily for an investment, and they capitalized on the right time right. They held it until goal was right, around 2,600. Of course it's up a little bit more now goes down a little bit, but they did it at the right time so we did see an increase there.
Speaker 3:Beyond that, really, our sales mix or our product mix for the year has held pretty true over the last couple of years at what we buy. I mean a good portion of what we see is just those odds and ends of the, the unique military items and the artwork, designer handbags and that and that that for us is is a lot of the fun in it. It's the fun when people come in. They're not sure what they have, we get to educate them on what it may be. Sometimes we're doing substantial research, communicating with our experts at home, to identify really what they have and the value in it and being able to, you know, either let them know it's got substantial value, maybe it doesn't have any value and that's just kind of reassuring that they can maybe throw it away now, or they don't have to keep it in the safe, um. But you're definitely on track with seeing a little bit of an increase in in the gold.
Speaker 3:Uh, earlier in the year we did see it taper off a little bit in the fourth quarter as things really leveled out this year, uh, but you never know what gold's going to do. So you know 26, 2700. Honestly, I think the time is right now if people are out there holding on to it to bring it in, to sell. And you know, what's great about what we do, too, is we're only there for three days. So any of the jewelry stores that are out there knowing that they're going to see an increase in their own buying before and after the event, because we're spending a substantial amount of money to educate the community that your store is a buyer, so being able to capitalize on that as well, while somebody paid for the advertisement to educate that community that this is the store to go to to sell your gold, to sell your scrap, to sell diamonds, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:So I guess that's one of those things too I'm always focused on, you know, precious metals, because they're, you know, easier to liquidate. I guess is the key point. So it sounds like you are also buying back diamonds. Kind of a weird time in the price market for diamonds because obviously the prices have started to slip for, especially for lab grown, but just in general, I think, for diamonds. It sounds like gold is a little bit more of a liquid type of investment. How are you handling buying back, for example, lab-grown diamonds? Do you have like a certification process or how do you handle if people come in with potentially lab-grown items?
Speaker 3:So, yes, I mean, training is key, technology is key. When it comes to the lab-grown, we steer clear from lab-grown diamonds. It's not something as most of you, or all of you out there know. The resaleable market is difficult. The decline in natural diamonds is a real thing. What I think is interesting from this year compared to last year, in the communication with the customer coming through the door, that they're a lot more knowledgeable now of what the lab-grown market has done to natural diamonds. So, although those conversations are difficult and challenging to let them know, hey, your natural diamond has just really been declining in value on the resale market over the last couple of years due to lab grown.
Speaker 3:They don't like to hear it, but I think that they tend to have a little bit more of that expectation when they come to the door because it's been in the news, they've read about it, so it's not just industry knowledge anymore. There's a great understanding for the average customer walking in the door and it's made those conversations easier for us to have Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes I guess, when things break out of the silo, it does kind of sometimes take care of the harder part for you. But that does seem like it tracks with kind of the information that I've been following, at least online, and I do want to compare. So last year 2024, we spoke right at the start of the year versus this year. I was curious are you seeing that people are trying to become a little bit more cashflow positive when it comes to the stores but also just the customers that are coming in? Are people trying to like stock up on cash, or do you find that people are still signing over their checks? I don't know if that's something that you track is how often do checks get signed over to the store? Is that up this year, or I guess I would predict that it would be down? What are you seeing on your end?
Speaker 3:So I think it's a difficult answer because it is up for us, but it's not necessarily up because of the customer sentiment. It's up, really, because we've done a better job on our end in communicating to the customer, as well as working with our partners and educating our partner's staff on how to increase the store credits. Right. We really made that a huge point of focus this year and we're going to continue to do that going forward, because we understand the value in that store credit signover. So you have to work a little bit harder now.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's in the reality of things and I think stores are seeing it too. When it's not just you know, maybe their revenue is up or maybe it's not just you know, maybe maybe their revenue is up or maybe it's equal to years past, but most of what I'm hearing is they're having to sell more items to get to that point. Right, so you're having to work a little bit harder to get there, which is okay. We just got to continue to get smarter, keep focused on it and educate the customer. Really, you're getting 20 percent more, 10 percent, 30 percent, whatever that percentage that our partners choose, the value in that and making their dollar go further. That's the key to it all Interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe we'll put a pin on that one and we'll come back to it in a year just to see how it tracks, if it keeps going up or not. I agree, Sometimes the communication does kind of skew your results. We have that sometimes with ours where it's like oh, all of our clients are upgrading. Is it because people are afraid to move? And it's like, oh, we have also been talking about upgrading a lot more, so maybe that's throwing things off. Upgrading a lot more, so maybe that's throwing things off.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask this is just a random one I had thought about Do people ever sell back the items that they bought from the store? Is that like an awkward situation you've ever encountered where it's like, oh, I'm not able to return this because it was a gift and I don't have the gift receipt. Can I sell it to you for the value, even though it was bought here? Or is that something you don't have the gift receipt? Can I sell it to you for the value, even though it was bought here? Or is that something you don't really encounter very often? Like you know, product is product.
Speaker 3:It's not. It's not, it's not often, but it does happen. You know we're seeing twenty five hundred to three thousand customers a week now, so yeah, so almost every scenario you can throw out there we are seeing, at least from time to time. I think the most important thing is really when a seller sits down with us, there's a conversation before we even get into pricing things out and that. So when we start to learn about the piece, when we find out it is a piece from the store, the first thing we want to do is see if they're interested in maybe trading it, in upgrading those types of things with the store so we're able to walk that customer over to the store to have that conversation before they sell it.
Speaker 1:Probably a more delicate way to approach that. I'm with you. I didn't know if it would be like, yeah, I got this from over there, but they won't take it back. That kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it all happens Right and if they're, the store's not interested in taking it back and you know our our team leads, you know the person in charge on the ground floor at the events is having these conversations before with with the jewelry store owner on how would you like us to handle it if this happens and that so every store is different. We really try to customize it to fit the needs of that location. Nice.
Speaker 1:Justin, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back I want to do another round of will you buy this or not, and also talk about our recent collaboration. So everybody stay with us. This episode is brought to you in part by National Rarities. If you're looking to bring fresh foot traffic to your store and connect with new customers, National Rarities has you covered. Their three-day buying events are completely free for you as the jeweler and they average 170 attendees per event. Nearly half of those visitors are brand new to the store. National rarities buys a wide variety of items from gold and silver to militaria, artwork, designer handbags and more. Plus. They pay a 10 commission to you, the retailer, on everything they purchase. That means means more foot traffic, more customers and a direct boost to your bottom line, all at no cost to you. And if you do decide to run a National Rarities event this year and have a Punchmark website, be sure to ask your account manager about the new National Rarities event landing page in Site Manager. Learn more about National Rarities at nationalraritiescom or reach out to Justin that's J-U-S-T-I-N. At nationalraritiescom. There'll be more information in the show notes below. And now back to the show. Welcome back everybody, still joined by Justin Van Mader with National Rarities and discussing this past year, 2024,.
Speaker 1:I'm always interested in items people bring in. I'm a big fan of Antique Roadshow and of Storage Wars and all those types of shows and sometimes like just what you've shared with me, talking about swords and all the different. I think crazy, but I guess they're. It's not crazy if it's valuable items that people bring in. Can you share with me what are some like surprisingly valuable things that are commonly brought in that aren't just, you know, humps of tangled gold chains and stuff like that? What's like the other stuff?
Speaker 3:gold chains and stuff like that. What's like the, the other stuff. Yeah, wow it's. It's such a loaded question. We. We get so much and so much unique stuff, but you know, a few things I guess come to mind. It's always interesting to see what celebrity autographs go for oh interesting good one.
Speaker 3:So when you're talking about like we had a, a group, a grouping of robert redford, burt reynolds, um, let's see clint eastwood, and, and that group of autographed pics went for about 3500, so, uh, interesting to see something like that. Uh, you know something like like the more unique, rare things. Actually, I've got a, I've got a trivia question for you here. Hit me Any ideas. What president is on the 1928 five hundred dollar gold banknote? Oh, 1928.
Speaker 1:Let me guess Would it be Andrew Jackson?
Speaker 3:No, no, he's been in the news a little bit lately.
Speaker 1:Oh, man, oh, it's got to be, oh, 1928. I don't know, I don't know. You got to share it with me. Who's that? So William McKinley McKinley, oh, I would not have guessed that. And did one of those come through.
Speaker 3:What's the value on that then? So that that sold for 9,000 and it's actually it's the only time we've seen one of those come through. So, uh, you can imagine our our coin and currency folks were we're pretty excited about that one. Um, wow, that's so cool. You know, we see, we see quite a bit of like shipwreck coins and that, um, you know the Atos of shipwreck coins, in that A Tosha shipwreck is an extremely famous one. I believe it's the most valuable shipwreck in history Just tons of gold and silver. So you got to be careful because there's a lot of fakes out there. But those coins typically sell for a few thousand each as well.
Speaker 3:Let's see, oh, we had a extremely unique watch came in. Vacheron Constantin chronograph came in this year. There's only about 11 that are known to exist of this specific model. It's a 1960s reference model, is, I believe it's the 4075 and it was, uh, pink gold and that's for about 50 000 at sotheby's, which was, which was exciting. I mean, when you get something and and it really there's only 11 of those known to be out there.
Speaker 3:Or you think about the coins from the shipwreck. You know the Atosha shipwrecked in 1622. You know it wasn't discovered until 1985. And you know, just to know how much history, that there's, only five survivors from that shipwreck and all these coins were sitting under water for hundreds of years and now it's come into to our hands. Uh, I guess that's really where we we start to nerd out on stuff over here and and and enjoy just that history and and our buyers get an opportunity to like have that conversation with somebody that maybe that coin was just passed down from grandpa and they weren't really sure what it was. That's what makes it more than just a transactional process. Right, this is a. This is a fun, exciting event for us, for the customer, for the store, foot traffic and it's just a great opportunity. And, yeah, there's a little bit of that antiques roadshow that that goes with it.
Speaker 1:Never know what's going to come in? Uh, do you have anything that is? Uh, do you have anything that is like on your beyond the lookout list, like that you've said, hey, if there's ever a, a Mickey Mantle signed uh Jersey that comes through, make sure you buy it and give me like first opportunity on it. Do you have anything like that? Or are you a collector at all? Or is that something you could try to keep at arm's reach, because I would find it very tempting if it was me?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, trust me, some of our employees are just like you, but for me, I don't have the desire to collect, I like to experience it, and then I love to know that somebody else is going to get to experience it later on, right? You know, something that I kind of geeked out on was an old Yankton agency accounts ledger from the Indian War. Old yankton agency accounts ledger from the indian war. Just being able to look at that and and know that the importance of it back then and and just the fact that that paperwork was still around and and being able to kind of look through the details of it, was good enough for me. After I get my opportunity to see that and feel it in my hands, I'm definitely ready for the next person to have their opportunity. So I'm that perfect museum guy, right Like.
Speaker 3:I go in and look. I appreciate that I go in and look and appreciate that there's value in more people being able to enjoy it as well. And you know some things like antique daguerreotype photos, you know from the Civil War era. If you're not familiar with that, it's an old like direct positive printing process where you know you're talking about the 1800s of the amount of detail that went into this stylist, this style of printing photos. It's just incredible, uh, what they did and how they made the technology work for them. Um, you know, just on a piece of copper plated with silver and you're getting a very detailed image. You know, over 200 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of those things that I'm, you know, unfortunately. I went to my brother, but my grandpa was a big fan of Abe Lincoln and had this portrait of Abe Lincoln hanging behind his chair by the TV for, you know, as long as I knew him, and when he passed away it just kept on hanging there. And my grandma is, you know, getting older and she really wants to hand, you know, give away as much of her treasures as possible. And my brother, you know, was really close to my grandpa and was like, oh, you know, I really I like that portrait. You know where he got it and they're like, no, I don't remember, he got it at a flea market back in like 50 years ago. And they go and they do, like a little research Turns out this portrait is like an official portrait, like one of only like 200 or something like that. It's like one of like the real ones and I was like, holy smokes, that must be worth, you know, a couple thousand dollars. So I'm sure that you guys see that stuff all the time.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about this template that we built together, this page template for these events, and then we'll see if you guys are interested in buying a couple of these items, if you guys would buy these items.
Speaker 1:So recently, a lot of our clients, our Punchmark clients, are doing these events and they're always they put up an event page as a way to capture leads and start to, you know, get people scheduled and involved in the event Because, like you said, it's a three-day buying event and scheduling out how people are going to be coming is super important and just making sure that they know the information so that they can. You know, it's a three-day buying event and scheduling out how people are going to be coming is super important and just making sure that they know the information so that they can run ads against it. So recently we worked together and we built this landing page template that all Punchmark clients are able to put on their website. Some of the key information on there it's like location and times and some of the things you can buy um, I think it turned out really well. Is that something that you have found is, uh, increasingly useful for stores to make sure that they are, um, you know, getting the information across to their client?
Speaker 3:it seems like a simple topic but, at the same time, a lot of moving parts yeah, I mean, first off, when you guys came to us and had this idea to really make this a seamless and easy process for our shared partners, we absolutely were excited to be on board with it.
Speaker 3:Look, the more advertisement, the more reminders that are out there, the more people that you get in the doors.
Speaker 3:You know we pay for the television, the newspaper, the postcard, mailers, the social media on our end.
Speaker 3:But when the client partner, our jewelry stores, also put it up on their website, put it up on their social media, send out email blasts, send out text messages, get their sales team on board to pass out the in-store handouts that we provide them all the free avenues that you can do to promote the event it only drives more success.
Speaker 3:You know, getting those people in the doors is the first step and we will handle that paid side. But you know there's a reason why we've seen our averages increase from only about 120 people per event about 18 months ago to averaging about 170 people, and that's because not only are we smarter and spending more on advertisement doing that on our end, but it's also because our partners are buying into it. They love having the events. Our partners are buying into it, they love having the events and when they get behind it and promote it on their end with something as simple as just the template that you guys now provided for them, it makes it great, makes it an easy opportunity to put a couple more eyes on it and get a few more people through the doors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and these templates are super easy to set up. They're just a page template in the back end of your site manager. If you're at all interested, you can always go to our knowledge base. We have a whole write-up on how to do that, or you can just ask your account manager. They have a pretty straightforward kind of walkthrough on how to get those things going and it's a great place. You can reuse them all the time and, you know, just use them for the next event, because a lot of people like you said doing this three, four, five times a year, and that's kind of what we want Be smart and economical with your page use. Now, justin, we went through all the important stuff. Let's see if you would buy these items. Not that I have these items, but I wish I would. You had already mentioned luxury watches, but I wanted to ask specifically would you buy recently purchased well-known I won't mention their name well-known brands of luxury watches if it comes with like box and papers?
Speaker 3:We don't even need box and papers. You know, the box and papers do add value, of course. On those well-known brands, but yes, we buy. We tend to see, you know, those luxury brands that maybe have a little bit of age to them, but we definitely purchased quite a few of the newer N1s too. Okay.
Speaker 1:Now, what about trophies? Would you buy a trophy for a now defunct event or something that doesn't have? Maybe it's just it's metal and it's antique. Is that something you guys would buy? Does that hold any value?
Speaker 3:So, it's not the gold World Cup, walking through the doors, I mean, maybe it is. Yeah, I think. I think, if there's history behind it, if it's uh, you know, well-known or, uh, very recognizable type trophy, you know, we see that, you know not often, but you know, from time to time you might see an Olympic medal or something along those lines. So yeah, if, look at the end of the day, if there's value behind it, if there's a saleable market for that item, we will. If it's no offense, your old high school, you know, soccer trophy, that's probably not for us. So, yeah, I mean it trophy, yeah, that's probably not for us. So yeah, depends whose name on it. Uh, and you know, if it's tennis, us open trophy or something like that, I think we would be interested in the.
Speaker 1:Olympic of metals. That's a really good one. I think I bet you those have do do have some value. Now, what about furniture? So what about things like, you know, antique sitting chairs or rocking chairs or things like that, or maybe even larger, to like nicer luxury, like futons or things like that? I don't know, is that something you guys would buy? They're kind of bulky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we stay away from those large items. You know, the biggest items we're typically purchasing are, you know, large pieces of artwork and that, um, you know, I'd say the closest thing to furniture that we've bought over the last year so was a tiffany and co lamp, uh, but when it comes to furniture, no, because you know, most of what we do is across the country, so everything's getting shipped home and so it needs to be pretty easy means of shipping I follow.
Speaker 1:Now, you had mentioned value. You know, if it has value, we'll buy it. Ok, I'm going to put this one to you. What about digital things, for example? Digital things could be anything from like cryptocurrencies or NFTs or digital goods Meaning, for example, like some video games like CSGO if you ever heard of Counter-Strike have skins which are these digital currencies that are limited, that have real value? Would you buy, for example, a CSGO skin? Or like some type of NFT or anything like that?
Speaker 3:You know it's a good question. If we're talking about certain things that have so much fluctuation in their value in such short amount of timeframes, we tend to be a little hesitant. You know the answer is not a no until we know all the details on it. But a lot of our partners that we work with you know there's licensing times that we have to hold certain items and of course we abide by all those and we actually handle that whole process on our end. So you know, 30 days in the NFT world is a long time to hold on to it and not be able, not be able to move it, you know.
Speaker 3:Uh, so I'm actually it's a good question I'm not actually sure, when it comes to NFTs, if they are considered in in that 30 day hold time itself. Uh, so I'm going to, I'm going to put a few people on our end on that case to see if I can get a final answer for you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I've heard before that with these CSGO skins they are worth tens of thousands of dollars and some of them are very valuable and like more sought after. I don't know, that's not my particular vice of choice, so I don't really have it. But the last one I have for you is again valuable, and I learned over Thanksgiving how valuable these things can be. So every year there's an auction at one of my the local pubs. They do a Thanksgiving auction. They raise money for the food pantry and all sorts of good things, and one of the things that they auctioned off at the end was surprisingly valuable. Had no idea and it was a taxidermied turkey, and I had no idea that taxidermied animals, when they're taxidermied well, can be very valuable. Would National Rarities buy a taxidermied animal? Is that something you got? Any taxidermy in general, you know I haven't seen a taxidermy come through.
Speaker 3:I know that there's certain regulations as well, that when it comes to taxidermy, of course, animals on the endangered list and those types of things that you would have to be careful of. It's a good question. That's another. I'll get back to you. It's not something I would say we would promote, for I'm going to lean towards no on this one. I'm going to say no, I would not buy the taxidermy.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh man. Well, I'm going to have to hold on to this taxidermy turkey for a little bit longer, I guess.
Speaker 3:But this taxidermy, turkey, was, you know, hanging in Abe Lincoln's cottage, and now we're back on board. Ok, all right, we're back on board okay, all right, we're back.
Speaker 1:We're back, justin. Thank you so much, man. This was a really really interesting talk. I'm so pleased that national rarity is doing well, because it really does seem like uh, something that uh kind of like aerates the ground for for these uh stores, um, a net win for everybody. It sounds like, and you know, we really appreciate you being involved in that in, uh, in in the loop, but also just coming on every year telling us what you're seeing out there. If people are interested, where can they go to to find out more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so they can actually go to our website, and that's wwwnationalraritiescom. Or feel free, send me an email at justin at national raritiescom, happy to set up a time to talk with myself or our director of sales, tyler Schaefering. Last would be, if you're heading to any of the trade shows IJO, rjo, cbg, centurion, we're at all the major ones. We'll be at JCK as well. Uh, great opportunities. Please reach out, stop by the table. Uh, we'll set up a time to talk if you want and uh see if it's a right fit for you and uh appreciate, you know, working with you, talking with you again, michael andael, and uh, and look forward to all the responses and and hearing what, uh, your listeners have to say awesome.
Speaker 1:Hey, if you ever want more taxidermy items, just come, come to the north man. You know we we got them in plethora up here. But uh, thanks again, justin and everybody. If you guys are interested, I really would recommend reaching out. Let them know that in the loop sent you and we will be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Thanks again, justin, have a good one. Bye, thank you All. Right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This week my guest was Justin Van Mater and he's with National Rarities. If you're interested in them, check out nationalraritiescom or email justin at nationalraritiescom and let them know that In the Loop sent you. It makes us look good. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom. Slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks, and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye, thank you.
