‘The Great Curator’ Nguyen joins ‘The Chase’

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

Happy Wednesday everyone, another episode of “The Chase” is in the books and, boy, did we have a good interview for you today. 

The crew got to meet “The Great Curator” Daniel Nguyen, a content creator who enjoys educating people on the hobby, making fun content and also collecting everything from uncut sheets to entertainment to wrestling and more. 

Nguyen said he got his name “The Great Curator” from a pop culture reference. It comes from a popular international TV show called Doctor Who, where the main character is sitting in a museum and says “I could be the great curator!”

“I always thought to myself, that’s such a cool name,” he said. “I’ve always thought of myself as a curator of pop culture and things like that.” 

So, when it came down to choosing an Instagram handle, Nguyen knew “The Great Curator” was the one. 

Nguyen is also a big advocate of hobby safety and he mentioned a few ways that people can help keep it a safe environment. 

“There seemed to be this shark mentality. Like you had to be on top of your game, you had to get the best deals, or you were going to get eaten up,” he said. “I felt like that was not a great way to conduct yourself within the hobby. … When I started making my own content I kind of pushed this mission statement that I have creating like a gentlemen investor code, where everyone was kind, nice, helpful to each other and basically kind of raised the standard of conduct we have in the hobby, where we all hold each accountable to that.” 

He added that by following his code, it’ll help the flow of the hobby, but also make it easy to point out the bad actors of the hobby. 

He also mentioned the hobby is in an interesting time right now and moving forward it could be challenging for people. 

“The last couple years if you got into the hobby or you were in the hobby before the big boom, you saw a time of prosperity. Everything grew exponentially, a lot of people made a lot of money, a lot of people got into the hobby and were able to make money, so times were good the last like year and a half to two years or so,” he said. “But now you’re seeing people really be challenged by the way that the market is reacting to everything and how people are getting smarter about what cards they buy and things like that. And you’re seeing people who are not used to seeing downturns in markets react negatively or panic. So I think that the coming years will really weed out a lot of people that are not meant, or can not handle this type of market where there’s a lot of volatility.”

With all the dips, dives and climbs on the hill called the hobby, Nguyen said it’s incredibly important to him to educate his viewers on the ever changing conditions of the hobby. 

“I think it’s extremely important, because we’re in like a really weird niche market. If you want to compare this to other types of markets where they have value, like stocks for example. People go into stocks with this profit first mentality, they know what they’re getting into. With us, there’s an emotional attachment to the things we buy, because we are collectors. So we have to constantly have this balance between buying things that we like versus buying things that we think can hold value on. … So it’s very easy for people that are coming into the hobby to over leverage themselves or make easy rookie mistakes, get burned and then leave the hobby very quickly, and that’s not going to be good for anybody or any of us long term. So it’s very important for us to have different levels of educational content that people can consume out there,” he said.

He added that creating a community in which people share their knowledge with each other and lend a helping hand is one of the best ways people can become even more educated and help each other out, which, in turn, betters the hobby. 

As far as content, Nguyen hopes his creations help people smile, laugh and also inform people. He mentioned that other people being rude and nasty to each other led to him creating content that would help people relax and ride out the waves of the hobby. Initially, his content began serious, but over time he let his personality shine and he started becoming more and more entertaining and comedic. 

Nguyen added that content drives the hobby. Before social media, he said it was hard to show off your collection and get educated on the hobby, where now everyone in the hobby has a chance to discuss with anyone else and show off their collections, as well. 

“We need that type of consistency in the hobby to keep people’s interest going,” he said. “We need creative people to continue to create content that just entertains people on a daily basis to keep them interested in the hobby, or else things go stale.”

To check out more of the interview with “The Great Curator” check out the YouTube video!

Additionally, check out more on Nguyen on his YouTube channel and TikTok!

Also on “The Chase” …

CSG announced that they recently graded the legendary 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle card. The historic card came back an 8 on their scale. 

It is the most valuable card that CSG has graded since its beginning in 2021. 

Fewer than 20 are graded higher out of about 2,000 in the world, including one that sold for $12.6 million in August 2022, setting a record for most expensive sports card at auction. 

Andy Broome, vice president of CSG said, “It was an honor to authenticate and grade what is one of the most valuable cards in the hobby. This resounding affirmation from the collecting world follows CSG’s monumental efforts to quickly become one of the market’s leading third-party authentication, grading and encapsulation services. we look forward to seeing more cards of this caliber.” 

Additionally, Beckett announced some changes to their slabs. 

The grading service announced that for graded autograph cards, they will no longer put the auto grade if it is lower than a 10, meaning there will no longer be the autograph grade in the top corner, unless it is a 10. 

Just because it won’t be on the slab, doesn’t mean they aren’t grading autos. you will still be able to search for your auto’s grade by looking up the certification number on the Beckett website. 

On Instagram, Beckett said, “As we continue to make improvements to our grading process, this change will streamline our operations to better serve collectors and improve turnaround times in the future.”

Additionally, the crew ripped some of the new release Bowman Sterling Baseball and had a decent showing! The box included five autos of some of the top up and coming prospects, including Colton Cowser (Orioles), Benny Montgomery (Rockies), Curtis Mead (Rays) out of 150, Oscar Colas (White Sox) and Wilman Diaz (Dodgers). Additional names included Wander Franco, Spencer Strider and Anthony Volpe. 

In order to enter to win, visit the YouTube video and comment what your favorite baseball card product is of all-time. A winner will be announced on Friday’s episode. 

For more information on everything Dave & Adam’s Card World related, visit dacardworld.com or visit all the social media platforms here.