New Beckett CEO Chopra interviews with ‘The Chase’

‘The Chase’ Episode One Recap

By David Yarger
Co-Host “The Chase”

Monday began a new era in the Dave & Adam’s history, as the company debuted its brand-
new podcast called “The Chase.”

“The Chase” is a live podcast streamed on Twitch beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.
The show, hosted by Troy Licastro, alongside David Yarger, will dive into all the fresh topics in the card-
collecting hobby. Additionally, there will be new release information, interviews with people in the
hobby, as well as sports banter and interaction with the audience on Twitch and the followers along
Dave & Adam’s social media platforms.

– Monday, the crew revealed an Instagram video of Ken Goldin talking about the 2020-21 Panini Flawless
Basketball LeBron James triple logoman. Noted as the “modern card grail,” the one of one hit is
currently at auction on Goldin’s website. The highest bid currently sits at $1.6 million.

In an Instagram video, Goldin says Panini came up with the idea of this triple logoman a couple of years
ago, and the card ended up becoming “The single most sought after and single most talked about
trading card that Panini would ever produce.”

The auction for the triple logoman ends June 25.

– Next, PSA announced the return of its value service level at $30 per card. It’s now available for its
collectors’ club members. PSA said the estimated turnaround time for value orders is 120 calendar days.

Submissions must include a minimum of 20 cards with a declared value limit of $499 per card.
PSA added it requires customers to submit cards from only 1996 to 2022 at the value level.
New value orders will only start shipping after all 2021 value orders have shipped.

– Additionally, coming this fall, Topps, under the Bowman University brand, will release cards featuring
collegiate athletes from nearly 150 universities. The agreement will include over 200 name, image and
likeness deals with athletes to produce collegiate basketball and football cards.

“The Chase” interview with Beckett CEO Kunal Chopra

On the inaugural episode, for the show’s first live interview, the crew got to meet Beckett’s newest CEO
Kunal Chopra.

Chopra was most recently the CEO of Kaspien, a software and tech-enabled services platform for retail
marketplaces, in the Greater Seattle Area since 2019. He also lists experience as a general manager at
Microsoft and Amazon Fashion; COO of Unikrn, as well as additional leadership roles at Microsoft and
Groupon.

Chopra owns a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Mumbai, as well as a Master of Science
from Clemson University and an MBA in strategy and finance from the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business.

Beckett’s appointment of Chopra comes as part of a multi-year strategic growth initiative in the
company.

Chopra said an executive recruiter from Beckett reached out to him to gauge his interest in the CEO
opening and that’s where the conversations began to rise.

“I knew of Beckett as an iconic brand in this industry,” Chopra said. “I’m not very familiar with the
collectibles industry, I’ve been really a tech guy all my career. So it got me the opportunity to really dig a
little deeper into the industry and spend time with people in the industry. I spent time with a bunch of
the people at Beckett, met with the board of directors and one thing led to another and they offered me
the position.”

Making the decision to move from Kaspien to Beckett, Chopra said, was based off his love for creating
products and services for consumers. He added, in his previous experiences, even before Kaspien, his
role and focus has been to serve consumers with amazing product and services, and he sees a very
similar and compelling chance with Beckett.

“I felt that there was an opportunity to create some amazing products and services for collectors,”
Chopra said.

He added, regarding his thought process for the decision, “With this new sort of vision going forward for
the collectibles industry, for collectors as a whole, and to rethink how can we serve this community
better? How can we still utilize the original, iconic brand that Beckett has always had in this industry, but
even better some of the products and services, (and) use technology in a great way to serve this
community even better is what got me very excited.”

In his first 90 days at Beckett, Chopra said his overall goal is to refresh the brand a bit and focus on
modernizing the consumer experience online. Chopra said he plans to launch new applications to
improve the consumer experience. In addition, he plans to improve the grading and authentication
services that Beckett provides.

As far as collecting, Chopra said he hasn’t dived into the trading card realm, but he’s an avid coin
collector. He said the habit started as a young boy, when his grandfather gave him a box of coins.
Chopra gave a commitment to “The Chase” crew though, saying “I’m going to go big into sports cards,
you’ll hear from me soon there.” So viewers heard it here first on “The Chase,” new Beckett CEO Kunal
Chopra will be getting into the hobby.

As far as the hobby goes, Chopra said the industry just continues to grow off the charts.
“I truly believe the growth is global. Not only are you going to see more folks adapt to this industry,
you’re going to see a global proliferation of this industry. … No. 2, I think there will be a rise in digital
collectibles. The tie-in to both physical and digital is going to be a big piece of the game moving forward,
as well,” Chopra said.

To see the full interview with Chopra, click here.

Dave & Adam’s Question of the Day

The crew also took time to answer and read input on the D&A question of the day. The question for
Monday was “Who’s your dream jersey swap partner?”

Troy’s answer was legendary Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., while David’s was Buffalo Bills
quarterback Josh Allen.

Several answers in the Twitch chat included a Jeff Gordon race suit; Buffalo Bisons and Sabres famous
vendor Cone Head cone; a Hulk Hogan boot; and a Gorkys Hernandez Pirates jersey.
On Instagram, @freddyream commented Kobe Bryant, @njcardcollector said Pete Alonso or Clayton
Kershaw, @suede_wade said Greg Maddux, @rozcoeripz added Brian Dawkins, @2nddeck said Dennis
Rodman and @moosii_cards said Joe Sakic or Patrick Roy.

Meanwhile on Twitter, @chrishert1 said Teemu Selanne, @drunkbowler857 added Christian Pulisic and
@rickmastfan67 claimed Sidney Crosby or Marc-Andre Fleury.

To view the question of the day segment, click here.

“The Chase” will be back with episode two at 9 a.m. tomorrow on Twitch with special guests Jason Hickey (1/3 of the current Lebron Triple Logoman owners) & CSG Senior Grading Finalizer, Andy Broome, to discuss the fake Brady rookie CSG recently caught.