Goldin Netflix Renewal Shows Collectibles’ Entertainment Potential
At this summer’s National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, dozens of prominent athletes, including Reggie Jackson and Allen Iverson, were on hand signing autographs. Collectibles veteran Ken Goldin was working the show as he usually does, from his auction house’s booth. But this year, he found attendees clamoring around him asking for his signature, as if he were one of the retired pros.
“The first time someone handed me a baseball I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He says ‘I want you to sign it … on the sweet spot!’” said Goldin on a phone call. “Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio sign sweet spots, not Ken Goldin.”
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But he agreed to sign, and then continued signing for autograph hounds throughout the day. “I signed a bunch of hats, a bunch of programs and probably people literally took a thousand selfies with me … The most unusual thing was someone wanted me to sign their iPhone case. I don’t know why, but I did.”
Goldin’s sudden popularity is mainly the result of his Netflix show, King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch, which debuted in April and was renewed by the streaming network a day before the July convention began. The show features Goldin and his staff flying around the country, convincing collectors to consign in exchange for multimillion-dollar advances, finding rare memorabilia collecting dust in peoples’ attics, and hobnobbing with the likes of Mike Tyson and Peyton Manning.
Netflix doesn’t release much data about viewership or ratings, but the first, six-episode season drew in what Goldin says were “eight figures” worth of viewers—i.e., 10 million or more. It’s not apples to apples, but by comparison the top-rated TV show last week (Jeopardy) garnered 7.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.
That raises the question: Are collectibles evolving into something that appeal to people who don’t hoard cards, photos and jerseys? “I think it can be an entertainment business,” said Goldin.
Seeing people discover the surprising value of something they acquired as a kid or that was left by a deceased relative isn’t a new format for TV. Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars all have been hits based on finding treasure from possible trash. Goldin’s show combines a bit of all three. But can the success be replicated in other ways? Goldin suggests a show that features one athlete per episode walking through the memorabilia they’ve amassed from their career could work well. “But are 20 million people going to be interested in this? Or 200,000 or 20,000?”
One exploding format that doesn’t require celebrities are case breaks—where sealed packages of cards are opened on a live stream. They’ve been done for years as largely promotional events to raise interest in a particular auction house or pump up interest in collecting generally, but—as with collectibles as a whole—they took off during the pandemic.
Last year, Goldin did a case break with Drake, where the duo spent an hour opening 1986-87 Fleer basketball card packs. It’s not exactly a compelling watch the whole time; many of the 63 minutes consist of Goldin or Drake reading out the names of forgotten NBAers filling most of the packs. But the full video still got 39,000 views on YouTube, and Goldin and Drake lucked out with six Michael Jordan rookie cards worth upwards of $1 million.
“It’s all to provide entertainment value to people who cannot afford the high-end stuff,” Goldin said. “They like to see what comes out of the pack, especially if it’s a pack they’ll never be able to buy.”
At the same collectors’ convention in Chicago, Fanatics launched its new live shopping channel, Fanatics Live, which debuted with case breaks. Beyond being promotional, Fanatics will allow viewers to “invest” in the packs about to be opened, and own a piece of whatever treasurers may (or may not) be inside. “We see a tremendous opportunity to marry content, community and commerce,” said Fanatics Live CEO Nick Bell in the company’s announcement of the platform.
Case breaks aren’t guaranteed an easy path. Last year, Ebay told analysts it sees offering live video to support case breaks as one of the many tools it wants to present to sellers, believing live video events are a way for Ebay sellers to connect better with buyers. But last month Ebay changed course—unexpectedly clamping down on case breaks, allowing only a handful of sellers to sell fractional stakes in cases to be opened. Ebay hasn’t provided a reason why, leading to speculation about complaints of fraud or the financial participation of minors.
The Ebay auctions also highlight another problem of case breaks: They may be a form of gambling when people have to pay to participate. In addition to paying to enter, there is an element of chance in finding a valuable card in box breaks, and those boxes of cards that yield little value wouldn’t be seen as a prize by participants. Those factors can lead a regulator to view box breaks as gambling, according to Dale Joerling, an attorney at Thompson Coburn. Such concerns led TikTok to ban case breaks this spring on its platform.
Presuming the industry can clean up its act, it’s possible that card breaks can move from being something people watch to something they bet on. After all, if you can bet on the Oscars or car jiu-jitsu, why not card breaks? “I’m sure the card companies would not want their trading card boxes to be viewed as gambling,” Goldin said.
For now, that means Goldin remains the biggest face of memorabilia collecting, with the debut of his second Netflix season probably coming in early 2024. Will that mean the autograph hounds on Chicago were on to something?
Said Goldin: “I hope that my signature is up there with LeBron and MJ. We’ll see what happens.”
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