Owning Sports History: Brandon Steiner, Founder of Steiner Sports & CollectibleXchange

Artwork for podcast Sports Business Conversations

Episode 101 • 9th June 2026 • Sports Business Conversations • ADC Partners

00:00

Brandon Steiner

Hey, this is Brandon Steiner, founder of Steiner Sports and Collectible Exchange, and this is the Sports Business Conversation podcast from ABC Partners.

00:25

Dave Almy

Hey, this is Dave Almy of ADC Partners, and if you're looking to buy a used stadium urinal, boy, have I got a deal for you. Well, okay, in truth, I don't have a deal for you, but Brandon Steiner, the founder of Steiner Sports and Collectible Exchange, sure does. That's because Steiner's in the process of dismantling Highmark Stadium, the former home of the Buffalo Bills. And in doing so, he's offering a catalog of items from that venue for sale. As you can imagine, the fanatical members of the Bills Mafia are snapping them up, urinals included. Steiner began his legendary sports business career by repping members of the New York Yankees for their corporate appearances and living by his entrepreneurial mantra of what else? He expanded that business to include collectibles, fan experiences, and a lot more.

01:20

Dave Almy

So when it came time for the Yankees to move to their new home in the Bronx, Steiner pitched the idea of managing the sale of pieces of Yankee Stadium history. Highmark Stadium is now the seventh stadium disassembly that he's managed. Our conversation is full of stories and insights from Steiner's remarkable and eclectic sports business history. But look, if you've listened to this podcast in the past, you know, I like to set things up with a question or two about how people got rolling in their sports business career. With Steiner, that's just not going to happen. We get off and running right out of the gate with him talking about some of the ways he's used his unique position to give back. So we're going to jump right into the middle of his stream of thought. Okay. Right, so here we go. Ready?

02:06

Dave Almy

In three, two, one.

02:10

Brandon Steiner

Basically, so he's going to go to a hospital, redo the children's ward, find a kid with cancer, take him to the game, get him on the field. They need players. Kind of a very. It was an Oprah Winfrey kind of thing. It was more about the makeover. Oprah, make a wish. Yes, but weren't taking dying people. That was the difference. We were just taking people that were struggling. You know, a father that hasn't seen his son, but he was, you know, serving somewhere across the world. And we flew him back and we do his man cave. It was a lot of odd stuff. A kid that had an open heart surgery, had got a heart transplant, and then was trying to become a heart doctor and couldn't afford to go to Medical school, raising the money for him. That was one of my favorites.

02:52

Dave Almy

How did the people come to you? How did you find the folks? Like, did they. Did they apply? Was it just people who came across your attention?

03:01

Brandon Steiner

We promoted that. We were looking for stories, people that were in hardship. We were looking for particularly smaller stories that people didn't have the strength to speak up for themselves. So were very small. It was like, it's a smaller food bank. It was a smaller shelter for women that were pregnant that have been, you know, been into sexual abuse or been into problems with, you know, where they couldn't go home. You know, we're trying to find small charities where there's no way anybody would ever give them enough attention. It's the big charities get all the attention. And that's what I was kind of looking for, putting my money into it. You know, I just. I've done well, and it was just a period of time, about seven, eight years. I was just trying to do as much good as I can.

03:40

Brandon Steiner

And, you know, we raised a lot of money. Like, I. I just thought, like, the thing I learned from Oprah Winfrey was like, it's not. I think most people want to do a lot more good. They don't know how. They don't know.

03:52

Dave Almy

Yeah, they're looking for some sort of catalyst.

03:54

Brandon Steiner

You need, like, a direction. And then the other half of the people want to do more good, but they don't trust it. They're going to waste the money. They're going to embezzle it. It's not going to get put to you to use. So a lot of the stuff we did went directly to these smaller charities where they were in right home. You know, were dealing. And I believe. I'm a big fan of the cancer. I understand why all those charities exist, but you are paying for a lot of administrative costs. It's part of the deal. I mean. But. And so I'm not against that. That's just not what I was promoting and what I was digging into. Like, I go to a school that barely. The library just sucked. And I just completely refurbished the library. New computers, new tables.

04:32

Brandon Steiner

Just Mack daddy the library out. And then I bring players in to kind of, you know, bring it, you.

04:37

Dave Almy

Know, blow it out a little bit.

04:39

Brandon Steiner

Blow it up a little bit. Yeah, Be like five police stations. Yeah, we did. Then, you know, the locker rooms or the muster room or the conference rooms, and it took the whole police station to a Yankee game, that kind of thing. I loved it.

04:52

Dave Almy

I think it speaks to an Element of, you know, you've obviously had a lot of success in your life, and that ability to then turn that back on the people in communities that you inhabit or, you know, serve in and to speaks a lot. So let's talk about that success if we can, for a second. Right, because you know, let's do a little historical flashback. And you founded steiner sports in 87. When you. When you realize that athletes really didn't have anybody representing them for speaking engagements and corporate appearances, which is kind of crazy to think about, right? When you think about the teams of people who. Athletes surround themselves today. So let's get started. I want to find out a little bit about how. How did you create those first relationships with athletes? How did you gain their trust?

05:39

Brandon Steiner

The obvious thing was like, we. We knew there was a lot of athletes out there that needed help, but that wasn't direction. That sucked. Like, went, I had a bunch of players, I said, yeah. But then when you go to the players, you know, a lot of them didn't want to do it and have time very hard to track them down. So, you know, developed a relationship with a lot of players, having worked at the Hard Rock and the Sporting Club, where a lot of players would come in. So I knew their numbers. You know, back in the day, having a phone number is like gold, because there's no other way to get. You had to have a phone number, no sales.

06:09

Dave Almy

There was no slipping into the DMs back in those days.

06:12

Brandon Steiner

But the aha moment really was getting to the, you know, it's always like. It's like the guy who has the hot dog stage, trying to increase sales, and, you know, he's like, two hot dogs for one. Get a soda with two hot dogs and I'll get a bigger umbrella for the hot dog stand. And it's like, no, go find a location where there's a lot more hungry people and your sales will increase, you know, and it's like, to me, I went and started chasing down companies and pitching them that they needed athletes as opposed to chasing the athletes down, which I did for almost two years. I started chasing the companies down and saying, hey, you're doing trade shows, you're doing product launches, you get some advertising going, you're doing trade shows.

06:55

Brandon Steiner

Why don't you bring an athlete in to do three or four of these things?

06:58

Dave Almy

Yeah, you came to them.

06:59

Brandon Steiner

at one point I was doing like: 2000

07:37

Brandon Steiner

But a lot more of, hey, what's the social media like? And what kind of character is this person as far as on their social media you're about to get mixed into. But a lot of the companies want players more for their influencer as opposed to the 500 people that are going to show up at their store. But then there are a lot of messages that are very hard now to communicate to your staff. So if I can bring a player in that's gone through hardshop adversity, hardship adversity, I'll bring them into the company meeting and the message is sent. And a lot of companies are spending money with that. I love that part of the business.

08:13

Brandon Steiner

If the damn collectible thing didn't get in the way, I would have been all in because I was building quite a business doing that and still doing it. But, you know, the collectible thing has been so consuming.

08:23

Dave Almy

Yeah.

08:23

Brandon Steiner

And I didn't realize my name was going to take off the way it has.

08:26

Dave Almy

Yeah.

08:26

Brandon Steiner

So, you know, you're kind of juggling.

08:29

Dave Almy

Which is sometimes you got to go where, the river.

08:32

Brandon Steiner

Yeah. With gratitude. You know, to be able to do two things that I love, which is booking talent. I put myself against anyone booking talent in this country. Sports talent.

08:41

Dave Almy

Yeah.

08:43

Brandon Steiner

With the knowledge of former and current players. But then the collectible things. Fun. You know, I've had a. Had a great run in container. So, yeah, let's.

08:50

Dave Almy

utionary on your part was, in: 2008

09:29

Brandon Steiner

tnership actually happened in: 2003

09:33

Dave Almy

My researchers.

09:35

Brandon Steiner

So two years I'm working on this relationship, and the last thing I say to them, you ever take the stadium down, I've got to do that for you. There's nothing like Yankee Stadium is the cathedral of all sports stadiums. So he said, no problem. I'm not putting that in the contract, but you have my.

09:49

Dave Almy

Okay, but a quick timeout here. You said, I got to do that. What was your experience in construction and demolition at that point?

09:56

Brandon Steiner

Zero.

09:57

Dave Almy

Okay.

09:57

Brandon Steiner

I have no experience in anything. My wife would substantiate that, by the way. Yeah, she's like, if I was on an island by myself, I'd be dead in two in about six, two days. She says, I think I could do anything. But I, you know, not being able to do something doesn't scare me, like, you know, because I'm a figure it out person. And I love learning, and I think learning and growth is the key to happiness and the key to, you know, we're. Why wall here? Yeah, I mean, I hadn't. I had no idea how to take a stadium, especially one of that level apart.

10:27

Dave Almy

Pretty big. Pretty big building.

10:29

Brandon Steiner

Go on, Dan. Because everything, what's little to some is so important to many in a stadium like that, because you were in that one section or that seat or you were there for that moment. Everything was important and doing it the right way, besides the authentication. But I've taken down, I think it's about seven or eight buildings now. You know, Mass Square, Garden, Giants, Texas, in the middle of taking the Buffalo Bills High mark Stadium.

10:51

Dave Almy

Yes, you are.

10:53

Brandon Steiner

And as daunting as that can be, maybe more daunting than the Yankee Stadium because how important it is to that community and how passionate those fans are. And the thing that. The key to that is getting to answer your question is you got to be able to have empathy and be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. You can't approach a stadium like High Mark or even Yankee Stadium for that matter. As a business person, you have to approach it with some business knowledge. You have to approach it like the consummate Yankee fan or the consummate Bills fan. So, like, for the last two years, I've been a crazy Bills fan. I wear a Bills hat every Sunday. I'm watching the Bills games.

11:31

Brandon Steiner

I'm going to Bills games because to really take the stadium out authentically, you have to really understand what that stadium means as best you can and show that fan the respect of what you're doing. I think Yankee fans know how serious I was when I took that stadium apart. Most people would just sell off the most important assets and leave the rest behind. I told the Yankees and I said the same thing, their Bills. This is going to be about a three year project, maybe possibly four. I'm putting a Yankee Stadium collection together. But it take us four years to sell hundreds and thousands of pieces and I've now sold the Bills on that. So, you know, I don't. You don't make a lot of money on some of these little things, but to a fan, it means a lot.

12:13

Dave Almy

To that one person. Yeah.

12:15

Brandon Steiner

I. Cutting the high mark turf up into as many as 20,000 pieces.

12:21

Dave Almy

Yeah.

12:22

Brandon Steiner

But it's what people want.

12:23

Dave Almy

That's going to be planted in 20,000 lawns.

12:25

Brandon Steiner

Yes. Or it'll be, you know, somewhere on your desk or, you know, some people will buy a piece big enough to have their whole lawn be in the turf. We made that available.

12:34

Dave Almy

I mean, thinking these kinds of partnerships that you talk about with the Yankees isn't so much just walking up to the Yankees and say, I'm going to help you take down your stadium. Let's do this thing and go. It's not as easy as going to the Bills as it is to say, hey, let's take down the stadium. Let's go. These are intricate negotiations that involve not just the team. Right.

12:55

Brandon Steiner

It's, it's, it's intricate because you're going to get involved with the most important asset that the team has, which is the fans.

13:01

Dave Almy

Yeah.

13:01

Brandon Steiner

And then you start touching around their stadium. You know, you got to make sure you know what you're doing.

13:05

Dave Almy

Yeah.

13:05

Brandon Steiner

And you got to be doing it with complete authentication and making sure you're doing again with empathy. Because they don't want their fans bitching that I screwed it up, which is my biggest fear. And, but remember, I had five years into the Yankees before that stadium thing came up and they knew the commitment I have with, you know, I worked.

13:22

Dave Almy

With you on other projects.

13:23

Brandon Steiner

Yeah. With the players. And were selling bases. I mean, I was inventing, you know, remember I've invented the whole team collectible concept and out of desperateness, by the way, not because I was feeling like, you know, I was desperate because the collectible business was just flat and we need to do something. We need to get the teams involved. So when I went to the Yankees, I was like, we got to sell bases. We're going to sell dirt. Lineup cards, we're going to sell the outfield wall. And they're like, dirt.

13:51

Dave Almy

The Yankees just took the words right out of my mouth. Dirt.

13:54

Brandon Steiner

And they were like, I guess we can give you dirt. They really started laughing. But, you know, we sold 50, $60 million of dirt and of all stadiums around the league, so, you know, they see the creativity. So when I went to them on the stadium, I already been full bloom on Yankee Steiner. At that time, they knew that I was real. Like, now I partner up with Air Force, St. John, Syracuse, live golf, XFL. And I have the reputation to be able to go into platforms like Savannah Bananas and create something from nothing, but yet do it the right way. You can create something from nothing and still do it the right way with the experience and knowledge I have. Because you have to go into these situations not knowing what the f. You're doing.

14:39

Dave Almy

Yeah.

14:40

Brandon Steiner

You have to assume that grip that I have no clue to what I'm doing, but I'm going to do it anyway, and I'm going to do it the right way. And that's frustrating. No shortcuts. Yeah.

14:50

Dave Almy

So like with the Yankees and working with the municipality and all the different partners there, you kind of developed. Okay, I understand how these kinds of things work, but it's not a template, is it? Right. You can really. Did you do what you did in New York and Queens with the. In the Bronx with. With the Yankees and just export that up to Buffalo? What are some of the unique things that took place in negotiating that relationship with the Bills and Erie county that were kind of new to you that you had to unlock?

15:17

Brandon Steiner

Well, I mean, you know, with. With. With. With Erie County. I mean, obviously the main focus on getting as much money as they could have projects going on in the county. There's the troughs in the bathroom, which, you know, the Yankees were no part of selling urinals or anything like that. And I say that with all sincerity. You know, with the Bills fans, you have Bills mafia. And a lot more of the stadium is bleachers. So you have to be more creative with the bleachers. That's critical. You have a lot more signage in the stadium than ever at any stadium I've taken down.

15:47

Dave Almy

Oh, really?

15:48

Brandon Steiner

And people are very serious about their section where they sat. There wasn't as big a deal in Yankee Stadium. It was a very big deal Imark. I've sat there for 25 years, my family sat there. You know, I want the sections.

16:01

Dave Almy

I want section 109. Yeah, yeah.

16:03

Brandon Steiner

So that's become a very important aspect. I think everything's been kind of an important aspect at the Buffalo Bills stadium. This is way. Like, the Bills went way past anything I forecasted. So even though I thought maybe I knew what I was doing, this blue buy it completely where for the Yankees, it was a much bigger takedown, but it was a little bit different. And there's a lot more hype about the new stadium. And at that time where the high mark. There is tremendous interest in the new stadium, but these people are very connected. This is like taking. This is like. I don't know if anybody's old enough to realize, like, you're moving out of your house. You lived in your whole life and you got a downsizing. This is like.

16:43

Brandon Steiner

There's a very serious, emotional thing going on right now where people feel like they're leaving this home that they've been in. And it's. It's tight, man. It's. It's real. It's different than anything I've experienced.

16:55

Dave Almy

So it's interesting. I know it's a good segue to talk about fan passion, right, because you've been doing this work for over 40 years, or almost 40 years. You know, what have you learned about fan passion in that time? And I'm wondering if you feel like it's changed during the time that you've been doing projects like this.

17:13

Brandon Steiner

Well, you know, I'm very grateful for the fanatic. You know, people are just so fanatical and so crazy about their teams and players. But, you know, I have to remind people that, you know, this business is a sport, so there's def. There's some things that are getting, you know, getting. The war is a little muddy, the gambling, all of a sudden now, you know, people sitting there, instead of really rooting with some kind of authenticity, they're rooting, you know, because they've got some stupid prop bet. So I worry about that kind of.

17:44

Dave Almy

Stuff that it becomes more transactional.

17:47

Brandon Steiner

Yeah, it's very. And then just the prices have just been so outrageous, even to watch games. Now it's so much money, even on tv, to watch. And I think it's starting to get underneath people's crawl a little bit, you know, but, you know, I look back 20, 25 years ago, I mean, you went to a game for 20 bucks, you sat in a good seat, and it really wasn't a whole much money to Pay to watch the game at home. And gradually everything is getting lifted and especially when you get into the concessions and everything else. You know, a family of four is a big concern of mine. Like, you got to drop at least a couple hundred bucks and not even good seats to go to a ball game. So it's very concerning to me because we need, you know, involvement breeds commitment.

18:29

Brandon Steiner

You need people involved. Getting people to your games and, you know, as often as possible is everything. And I know the real world. High, high, die hard fans. It's getting harder and harder for to keep going to those games.

18:45

Dave Almy

Do you feel? I mean, obviously there's so much money that's running around in sports right now. Private equity is getting involved and we see the media rights are super expensive. Everything is predicated on that idea of like, look, you're dealing with fan passion. Right. And it's always going to be able to generate a return because you have this committed fan base. But do you think, based on what we just talked about, is ownership start taking that for granted? Is there a inflection point that can happen where fan passion is like, I look, I love them, but it's just too expensive. I got to go find other things to do.

19:18

Brandon Steiner

I think there's. There's a lot of things to do. There's a lot of new leagues coming. They're just trying to get a little more wider and spread out. But listen, you know, a crazy world we're living in, and I don't know how many people don't have some level of anxiety these days with everything that's going on. You know, sports is a great break.

19:34

Dave Almy

Yeah.

19:35

Brandon Steiner

And there are moments that happen that are memorable. You know, when you get outside of your marriage and the birth of your kids and some other good stuff, like, you know, it's usually a sports moment that breaks in at least your top 10 greatest moments you've had. And it's important to be able to just forget everything and watch some people compete on a high level and root for somebody. We can't lose that. It's really important on any level. But it's now taking over college. High school is probably not far behind.

20:05

Dave Almy

Yeah, it's already there.

20:05

Brandon Steiner

The good news is our other leagues are coming. Women flag football, I know it sounds like, but some 10 years from now, probably be something, you know, the soccer we didn't think was going to be a big deal has become a really big deal.

20:18

Dave Almy

Yeah.

20:18

Brandon Steiner

It's another additional league. Lacrosse is climbing, growing. The women's basketball and all women's sports Softball, there's a new softball league. So when you get into those options, like to me, I go watch a great woman's softball game all day. Phenomenal. I mean, so I see future in some of these other sports that may level things out a little bit and give everybody something to go watch. Of course it's great to go to the super bowl, but you know, listen, you may be going to the high school championship game. Would be a really highly competitive, amazing game too.

20:49

Dave Almy

Yeah. You know, you also, your career has spanned where collectibles have gone from. Well, I'm just going to call them analog. Right. Kind of the, you know, the things you can look, touch, feel and like baseball cards and you know, hats and things like that to one that's got a pretty significant digital component too. Right. It's. I remember collecting tickets that I used to, you know, go to events that I went to and obviously can't really do that anymore unless you print them out. Is there a future in digital collectibles? I mean, NFTs kind of came and went. Was the market just not ready for it or was there never going to be a market in your mind for something that would be shaky?

21:28

Brandon Steiner

I think it was shaky right from the start. I didn't jump into it and people begged me to. I was going to compromise my name on something that was.

21:35

Dave Almy

You didn't like it from the get.

21:36

Brandon Steiner

Go now didn't like it. I think the physicality memorabilia is memorable moments. You want to have something you can look at. I thought the play always was to have a digital and physical combined. I still think there's a play with tickets. I've collected ticket stuff since I'm a kid. I have hundreds, literally thousands of them. I think the play is. If I've gone to a big game, I think the team should be able to produce a ticket. I can see Art working into it. I think there's a lot of play where you can get some digital stuff going. Yes. I want to be able to prove that I was at that game when that big home run got hit or whatever. And if I bought that ticket, I should have the right to go be able to do that.

22:15

Brandon Steiner

But the digital thing, I mean there's so much, you know, online, the collectibles have fallen away. There's so much gambling, you know, card breaks, you know, ways to buy stuff and where, you know, you got a 1 in 50 chance of winning this autograph, incredible ball. So it's definitely found its way digitally that way. But I think as far as a collectible Standpoint, I think people want the real thing.

22:36

Dave Almy

Yeah. You brought up women's softball just a minute ago. And I'm interested in, you know, the growth of the sport. Women's sports has been pretty explosive. Has there been a commensurate increase in the collectibles market as well? What do you foresee as far as how women athletes, with their increase in profile and everything, what's that doing for the market in that regard?

22:58

Brandon Steiner

Not great. I mean, you know, I mean, thank God for Caitlin Clark, but I just feel like the women don't, you know, women, you know, men are stupid. You know, men are. Men are idiots.

23:08

Dave Almy

They belong to that club for sure.

23:10

Brandon Steiner

And you know, women are just a lot smarter and they have just a higher level. I don't want to use the word integrity, but they just have a lot more intensity about what they're doing and where it's going. And I don't know if women have really gotten their arms around this whole collectible thing and why it's important they're interested if they can get the same money the men are getting, but they're not interested in, you know, they like the view, but they don't like the climb. And I say that with all. I mean, I've been into women's sports for so long and grinding out with so many women trying to get them into these collectibles, but they don't feel like they should be getting paid to do it. They really want to do it for free.

23:48

Dave Almy

Is it a kind of a give back quality that they still have to what they're doing? Like they're still too close to that part of their experience.

23:55

Brandon Steiner

You know, let's do the business side of that. Kind of part of the deal. Like you want to make more money. Yeah. You show up, you sign autographs. That's kind of part of the experience for the fan.

24:04

Dave Almy

Right.

24:04

Brandon Steiner

And most of the women, if you they gave them a truth pill, they'd be like, I really don't want to do that. I don't want to charge kids and fans for it. But on the other hand, it's inevitable it's coming because some really great women athletes. Yeah. And when they realize it or not, the stuff that they're wearing, playing and signing is getting sold.

24:22

Dave Almy

Was that ever an experience with you for male athletes where they said, yeah, I don't really want to charge for this every day. Yeah.

24:29

Brandon Steiner

I mean, but particularly in the 90s when I was getting started, I could tell you so many athletes that said no. And I was like, well, you mean not now. Right. You know, because I had to explain how that business works. They couldn't believe that. I remember Lou Holtz, every time he came to my office, like, brandon, I can't believe you're paying me to do this. It's unbelievable. I remember Jack Lambert. I had to go grab him out of a campground the middle, like 30 miles in the middle of nowhere, trying to track him down and sign these Pittsburgh Steelers stuff. So, you know, a lot of the players didn't like initially signing autographs for money, didn't understand it.

25:05

Brandon Steiner

But listen, I like to think I was a part of taking this autograph thing, which has been going on, by the way, since the beginning. You know, 40s, 30s. Right. But I. What I was able to do is kind of departmentalize it, organize it in a way so that it made sense as a business. I was able to get partnerships like with American Express, with Neiman Marcus, you know, being able to put partnerships like that where people can actually see the value. Sports auctions. I did so many things for the first time where people can see, I remember athletes coming and saying, brad, I'll sign autographs, but I got to be in that sky mall and that you have going on the airlines.

25:43

Brandon Steiner

So people are able to see that this product that they seem to not really care much about was really part of a potential industry. And that's probably my biggest claim to fame, really, when I look at it, is taking what was a hobby and organizing in a way, and with the help of the Yankees, the Red Sox, Notre Dame as well, and making it into a business that made sense to people where there was actually real value, certain things going up in value, but also enough stuff that a lot of people could participate in.

26:13

Dave Almy

I feel like a lot of what you're talking about here right now and doing a little bit of reading up on you and your history and things like that, you use a two word phrase that kind of strikes at the core principles of where you feel like your entrepreneurial success is. You use the phrase what else? So can you talk about that phrase and those two words as the basis of your success and how they should be applied?

26:40

Brandon Steiner

Well, I think the most important thing is your first idea is not your best idea. And sometimes success is some. Is the biggest deterrent for more success. That's the worst thing that happens if somebody has some success because they I'm good. Wow, this is great. But is it as good as it possibly could be?

26:55

Dave Almy

And that's where you optimized it, I.

26:57

Brandon Steiner

Think Growing up, you know, my mother was like, what else? What's next? That's good, but that's not extraordinary. Extraordinary comes way after some success. It comes after really good, great, amazing. And then you get, maybe if you're lucky enough, you keep digging almost like a diamond, you get to extraordinary. And you have to want to have that view about wanting to be extraordinary as opposed to just being really good. There's a lot of really good. Most people don't remember really good. They remember the extraordinary, the once in a lifetime idea or person that comes through that makes a difference, makes an impact.

27:30

Dave Almy

I think there's contentment in really good too. Right. Some people can be very content with really good.

27:34

Brandon Steiner

And I have no problem with them. I mean, there are plenty of people that say, look, I'm doing enough. This is all I want to do. I just didn't have any interest in it. To me, being successful was of no interest to me. I wanted to be that guy. Oh, that guy. Yeah. I know what that guy was going to be.

27:52

Dave Almy

Transformational.

27:53

Brandon Steiner

When I found something which I call my gift is something that came easy to me and hard to most. And my goal was not really to be good at this or good at that or great at that, was to be found. My gift, something I knew that came easy to me because I was trying to rack up a lot of things that were very difficult, became very difficult to me. But when I found my gift, which was, you know, this marketing of athletes and the collectible, I had a whole different vision about the business and how I want it to be. Nobody believed it, like, you're crazy. And even when I had some success, I never got into a satisfactory mindset, was always like, there's got to be more here. And there's another way of looking at it.

28:33

Brandon Steiner

Even, even with collectible exchange now it's a completely. I've completely reversed everything I did at Steiner and feeling like I need to give people a chance to be able to go take everything they bought from me over the last 25 years and trade it in, trade it up. I also realized a lot of people are getting older, so you got to really analyze when I talk about the gift is it comes with empathy, like, get yourself out of your head. Forget about what you think, Start getting in other people's shoes, start thinking about what other people are thinking. And I started realizing a lot of people my age, they're downsizing, they're dying, their parents have died, they don't know what to do with all this stuff, and you need a really valid place to put it.

29:13

Brandon Steiner

And that's how Glyco Exchange comes about, is people want to be able to give the collection that their parents had or they had a little respect before just dumping it. It kills me when I have to give away my china that I got. Knows what I did with my wedding gifts, like half my wedding gifts for my china that nobody seems to want. But people do want the collectibles. They love these autographed items, the cards. But it'd be nice to go to a place because a lot of these people don't know what it's worth. Yeah, they know what to do with it. They don't know how to catalog it. And I figured a solution how to do that for people, and they're extremely grateful, and it's taken off.

29:46

Brandon Steiner

So it's hard to go invent something like I did at Steiner, and then literally get your head spin around and completely disrupt it.

29:54

Dave Almy

Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it.

29:56

Brandon Steiner

I figured if I don't do it, no one's going to do it.

29:58

Dave Almy

So, as we get ready to wrap here. Right. You know, Bill's fans are, I think it's fair to say, notoriously fanatical about their team. Right. You know, the. The Bills Mafia is the name that they go by. And as you're in the middle of this project to dismantle Highmark Stadium and for lack of a better term, commoditize some of the history of that building, what's the response been to the opportunity to own a piece of that history? How have the fans responded, and what items do you think are going to generate the. Or have generated the most interesting about. You talked about section signages and things like that.

30:36

Brandon Steiner

I'm gonna get code for this answer.

30:38

Dave Almy

Okay, go.

30:39

Brandon Steiner

Because, you know, there's a lot of fan bases.

30:41

Dave Almy

We'll put you right in witness protection after this. But.

30:43

Brandon Steiner

But here's how I look at it. The greatest poker players in the world, the greatest. The ones that made the most amount of money only get 12% of their hands that they get are good ones. When I went to the Bills Stadium, I mean, I have no idea how. I mean, it's daunting. And the passion, the purpose, the commitment, the loyalty to this stadium has been second to none. I thought I had seen it all with Yankees Stadium or the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Masquerade Garden.

31:14

Dave Almy

No, High mark does not evoke that kind of, oh, Dallas Cowboy.

31:18

Brandon Steiner

High mark's on a level onto itself. And then is everyone else. I've Never seen anything like this. My biggest fear right now is the fact that I'm going to, A, I'm not going to have enough stuff to sell them, and B, that I'm going to miss something.

31:33

Dave Almy

Yeah.

31:34

Brandon Steiner

So in response to your question, like, I'm figuring it out.

31:37

Dave Almy

Yeah.

31:38

Brandon Steiner

I'm figuring this fan base out with as much respect and love for them as I can, because I've never seen anything like it. It's unbelievable. I mean, and they've been through the cold, the ups, the downs, the winning, the losing like no one else has. But I'm hoping I could just squeeze in somewhere, find a little sliver of space to become part of the Bill family. That's how intense it is. And I'll tell you something else that doesn't get mentioned a lot. I've dealt with so many sports teams over the last 40 years. I think this Bill's organization is a reason why all this works. And their management, the ownership, is as good as I've seen. Oh, they. They understand what's important and who's important. They do. What's important is important. Every day they have it. They have a tremendous amount of respect.

32:28

Brandon Steiner

But sometimes when you get successful, like the Bills are sold, how you get a little. Not this, not this organization.

32:36

Dave Almy

Not complacent.

32:37

Brandon Steiner

They're not complacent about how they feel about their fans and how important they are. And that's been the only thing that they've been riding me on. What are we doing for the season ticket holders? Making sure the fans are good. You know, two years with them, that's the only real rub that comes up is how do we make this better for the fans? I want there to be extra value for season ticket holders and that sort of thing. So what I'm working on now is a couple more things for the season ticket holders. They feel good about it, working on a really good gift for the people that work in the stadium.

33:06

Brandon Steiner

And I'm also working on a couple charity angles which I'm going to be working on to try to raise some money in addition to what the county's raising with some of the proceeds from the sale of this stadium.

33:16

Dave Almy

Yep. And it comes full circle. It's all about sometimes just giving back and making sure that these cultural touchstones are being able to use to activate other things in life. I'm with Brandon Steiner. He's the founder of Steiner Sports and Collectible Exchange. Brandon, thanks for spending the time today. Before I let you go though, Brandon.

33:31

Brandon Steiner

Yes, sir.

33:32

Dave Almy

I'm gonna Put you in the lightning round. Give you a Of course. Right. Series of questions. So feels like you were ready for this.

33:39

Brandon Steiner

So. So it seems. But I'm probably not. But I'm gonna do the best I can.

33:42

Dave Almy

Okay. What more can. What more can you do? What more can I ask?

33:46

Brandon Steiner

Okay.

33:47

Dave Almy

All right, here we go. Brandon Steiner, Lightning round. What was the first item you collected? What got you started down this path?

33:53

Brandon Steiner

Thurman munson's autograph in: 1975

33:59

Dave Almy

And wow.

34:00

Brandon Steiner

I was yelling at the game, at him, trying to get his attention. He gave me none. And then I was in the elevator and he came into the elevator, which I was extremely flipped out. Yeah. And he asked me what I wanted. And I said, we just signed my scorecard. And I knew that was a profound effect on me.

34:14

Dave Almy

When Thurman signed that, it happened. That was it. That was the catalyst. This is a true or false lightning round question. True or false? You created the everything bagel.

34:24

Brandon Steiner

the show notes. BrandonSteiner: 1981

35:00

Dave Almy

You got the email address. Time to reach out.

35:02

Brandon Steiner

The book is called you gotta have balls, by the way, my mother's favorite line. So if you want any of the four books, go to CollectibleShane. Find the book and then just email me and I'll send you one free shipping, Everything free.

35:14

Dave Almy

So, as noted, written several books and you teach quite a bit on sales and negotiation. What's the best piece of negotiating advice you ever received?

35:25

Brandon Steiner

Oh, boy. I mean, I think the most important thing negotiating is not being afraid to let the other person win. Some of it, you know, it's like when somebody's got you and they Make a good point about their particular position. Give it to them.

35:41

Dave Almy

Yeah.

35:41

Brandon Steiner

And I think the other thing is, you know, figuring out what the other person wants and where their most important points in the negotiation aren't. Giving it to them is the path to you getting pretty much everything you want. Once the person you're negotiating with gets predominantly the most important things that they want, they're going to let their guard down a little bit and try to help you get what you want. And I think sometimes some people don't really even realize what is most important to them in a negotiation. But more importantly, what's negotiating. What's the most important point? The person negotiating with is. That's my key. One of my keys to negotiating is I'm not even worried about what I want. I'm just locked in and figuring out what you need and what you want to get.

36:22

Brandon Steiner

And I'm going to do everything I can to get you everything. And then we get to my stuff.

36:25

Dave Almy

Then we get to my stuff. Right. Okay. What do you mean when you say, quote, it's a shilling, unquote?

36:34

Brandon Steiner

When did I say that?

36:35

Dave Almy

I think it was when you spent too much money trying to get Kurt Schilling to be part of the Boston Red Sox.

36:40

Brandon Steiner

Well, Shelley's a silly is unfortunately one of the worst players I've dealt with in my 40 years. And I don't know where Shilling's head's at these days. I mean, I don't run into him, but he just was one of those guys that. And believe me, there's a long line of people, this guy. So it's difficult for me to. I always say, if you don't have anything bad to say, don't say it. In this case, I'll make an exception. And we're chilling like he just created a lot of turmoil with me, with some other players, and particularly when the Red Sox won the World Series. And it just wasn't a good relationship. And I think that I always tell people, you can have a bad day, but you can't have a bad past. And that's unfortunately something that Kurt Schiller have to deal with.

37:24

Brandon Steiner

He's had. He has a little bit of a history of doing some things that a well known. I'm not sure you. I'm sure you could put that toothpaste back in the tube.

37:32

Dave Almy

Okay, last one. As discussed, the trough urinals from Highmark Stadium's men's room are among the items that are going to be auctioned off. How do you think those should be used by the winning bidder.

37:44

Brandon Steiner

Well, the Big Cat has his own agenda and you know, we have to give him a lot of credit for creating a little story about these, you know. So I'm very grateful that Big Cat is a big Buffalo fan with his own podcast, if you're listening. But I don't know, man. Like, I'm not a big, like, I'm not bringing one of those home, but there's a huge amount of people that want one.

38:05

Dave Almy

Like a planter out front of the house, maybe? No, not a planter.

38:10

Brandon Steiner

I'm not even allowed to bring anything home for that matter, unless it's jewelry for my wife or like some nice, really gift of like some new shoes or something. But you know, I, I feel like people like those and they'll be really good fit in some sports bars or. Okay, you know, when it's really cold out those troughs and you're staying next to three or four other people like it. I guess it's just a, you know.

38:31

Dave Almy

Maybe serve punch out of them at a tailgate party. I don't know, man.

38:34

Brandon Steiner

I'm gonna get back. You know, I'm hoping an auction went off with a big cat. He's going to have one in his office. I don't know, man. Like, listen, I tell people all the time a lot of these things. I have no idea what I'm doing. However, I'm going to do it anyway. I want to figure it out like the Brooklyn guy that I am.

38:56

Dave Almy

Brandon Steiner. He's the founder of Steiner Sports and Collectible Exchange. Thanks so much for the time, Brandon.

39:01

Brandon Steiner

Appreciate you. Have a great day. Thanks.

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Video

More from YouTube