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I was obsessed with football cards as a kid. My dad would keep a stash in his drawer, always the reward for a job well done (or a bit of quiet time, now that I come to think about it). My brothers and I would trade, sort, and battle with them for hours. Then I completely forgot about them.
Sitting down with Grayson White from Cherry this week brought all of that back. What makes this conversation special isn't just the business story, it's how Grayson thinks. He's built Australia's biggest trading card retailer by deliberately choosing restraint over growth at almost every turn. He puts his community first and is determined to do things the right way.
Straight after we wrapped, I bought a box of NRL cards. Spent a morning opening them with my kids and nephew. My Kaeo Weekes game breaker was the highlight. Unfortunately, I also got an Ezra Mam double. Hit me up for trades.
Cheers
Bushy
PS. Grayson is offering 10% off with code ‘ADDTOCART10’ for the first 100 users. A pretty good excuse to start your collection. Check out Cherry.
EPISODE CHEAT SHEET
Lessons in Scarcity and Live Commerce from Australia's Biggest Trading Card Store
⏭️ SKIP TO THE GOOD BITS
Starting a business from a gap no one else had spotted (3:17)
Why Grayson almost walked away and what brought him back (6:17)
Managing supply when you don't control the manufacturer (14:30)
The pricing decision that grew an entire market (17:15)
How to introduce your audience to a new category (23:25)
Building a fraud prevention system when no one else will help you (26:40)
Why live shopping is theatre, not retail (27:50)
How to spot the product worth buying before everyone else (40:50)
💬 QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Put a box of trading cards in front of them, give them four or five minutes. It reduces us all to kids again."
🧠 THE BIG LESSON
The 3 Rules of Live Shopping (From Someone Who's Been Doing It Since 2009)
Grayson was live selling trading cards in 2009, seven years before Facebook Live existed. Cherry's community didn't happen by accident. Here's how he thinks about it.
Rule 1: Build trust before you sell anything
Cherry never opens a live show with an offer. They open with community. The collectors who show up know each other, take the piss out of each other, and care about the outcome. When an offer does come, it lands because the trust is already there.
"We treat our community as an engaged group of collectors who want to escape the grind. Every now and then we fold in an offer we think is either good value or genuinely interesting for everyone watching. And when you've got that trust, they activate."
Rule 2: Every show needs a reason to exist
A camera pointed at inventory isn't live shopping. A drop, a reveal, a world premiere is the hook. Without it you're not creating a moment, you're just broadcasting.
"There needs to be events. Every show should have a really clear call to action."
Rule 3: The platform does the heavy lifting if you bring the right product
Whatnot (now valued at approximately US$12 billion) is built for collectibles commerce. Discovery, community, and transactions: all handled. The seller's job is to bring genuine passion and show up consistently.
"You just need to find what the product is that you drop in. Whether that's Lego mini figures, DVDs, band t-shirts from Japan. Boom, boom, boom. You're going to have seriously good results."
Cherry is still getting their reps in on Whatnot. The sellers who started earlier are already ahead. That gap keeps growing
✏️ ECOMMERCE ACTION TIPS
Use Shopify Flow plus a human review layer for fraud. Cherry was absorbing six figures in annual chargebacks before they built this two-step system. (~26:40)
Live shopping works as an event, not an airtime game. Every show needs a hook, a drop, or a world premiere to give your audience a reason to show up. (~31:00)
Price for market growth first: Cherry matched global rates when the weak AUD meant they could have charged 30 to 40% more, and the collector base they built now drives record launch-day sales. (~17:15)
Only repurpose big live moments. Six-figure reveals get clipped and shared; the rest of the stream doesn't need a second life. (~35:30)
If your customers spend time with you beyond the transaction, you might already have a third space. Design for that belonging deliberately rather than optimising it out. (~39:40)
🎧 OTHER EPS YOU MIGHT LIKE
Who Owns Your Customer? Anna Samkova on Retail's Biggest Blind Spot | EP500
Grayson built a community that lives in the stream and in the store. Anna asks the harder question: if your customers are on someone else's platform, do you actually own that relationship?
How to Be Named Australia's #1 Person in Ecommerce. Twice. | EP605
Grayson has been doing live shopping since 2009. Guy Napper's team at Oz Hair and Beauty is just getting started, deliberately building their reps before TikTok Shop lands in Australia.
Simon Beard from Culture Kings: Thrifty Customers, Tight Retailers and Artificial Intelligence | EP318
Simon Beard Cherry sells out a new drop within a week and can't restock without a 30 to 40% price hit. Simon Beard built Culture Kings on scarcity and drop culture, and he's got strong views on where it goes wrong.
💬 CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Grayson raised a few things worth picking apart. Is live shopping viable for your category? Can the "grow the pie" pricing strategy translate to your business? How are you handling fraud right now?
We're talking through all of it in the Add To Cart Community. Jump in, ask questions, throw your own take into the mix.
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