I was watching Leonhart’s video today
Link:
then i realized it sounded awful like the collection that was posted on reddit about a month ago.
Link:
Do any of you e4 members know if it’s the same collection? I know he was looking to sell and said it was only a small part of what he had. I wonder if he’s a member here…really jelly Leonhart got it but i’m sure it’s found a good home for more vintage pack openings.
Can anyone fill me in on the current situation with Leonhart? I didn’t know him until recently and heard he has a hard time right now. But then I see videos like this where he purchases the most expensive stuff?
Hard times indeed. His viewership is down since youtube is not recommending his videoes. Something I doubt, after I watched the 1st edition charizard opening my feed is full off him. And as you say he purchases stuff like this.
This forum went from hating him to loving him for some reason. I enjoy him helping the communtiy a lot and him raising money, but the content and the reaction that people hated hasn’t changed.
Im super jelouse of this find tho! Thats a lot of cash so I wouldn’t be able to buy it
And to aswer OP, looks like its the same collection
I’m quizzical about this one myself. I’ll preface by saying I think Leonhart is fantastic, he’s clearly a hard worker and has been a huge boost for the hobby & I enjoy his content.
From the videos he posted he does seem genuinely concerned, however I do think having a “hard time” is incredibly relative - for Lee it might mean instead of earning $5k a month from ad revenue he’s now earning $4k (for example). This might be concerning to him if it means he can’t continue building capital to buy those high value items to open on his channel. He mentioned in one of his more recent videos that he was putting more pressure on himself to go bigger and better each video in case that was the reason for the decline in viewership (which we now know not to be the case). In order for him to go bigger and better, he needed more and more capital, which was at odds with his ad revenue income - hence probably why he was getting depressed.
I think if he can learn to take some of that pressure off himself - I mean let’s face it, there’s only so many vintage packs left to open - he’ll find it easier on himself. After all, I’d be willing to bet he was doing fairly well just with his modern TCG openings. He’s a creative guy & I’m sure he’ll bounce back strong.
The WOTC seal logos are in different places in Leonhart’s vid compared to the reddit one.
That is unless he had multiples of all of the boxes and Leonhart just bought the ones you cannot see in the reddit pic.
I remember Leonhart saying that he felt that he needed to do bigger and bigger openings to get the viewers he had before. I know that he has since learned that it is due to to COPPA, but I don’t know if he plans on stopping this trend. Also, I always thought that even though he probably makes a decent amount of money from YouTube, that he supplements his discretionary income with money he made from being a lawyer. This is just a theory-apparently he was a pretty good lawyer. Also, we don’t know what his wife does for a living, which may also help with these purchases.
I think with Leonhart he has goals and expectations for growth in his channel and he was headed in the right direction and then youtube just kind of put all of his progress to a screeching halt. He was probably expecting to do his 900k subs video by like a month ago already and is just sad that even though more people are at home watching youtube than before he can’t see progress because of an error on YouTube’s part so he is speaking out because its not just him who has had this trouble and it really does suck even if he isn’t in trouble financially. Have to remember he is a pack opening channel AKA throwing money away channel so he’s putting a lot of the money he gets from views back into the channel.
Why doesn’t he just do what PokeRev is doing and sell the packs and film the opening. Will get the same veiwership (maybe more) and not have the financial burden that comes with opening the product for yourself.
I don’t have any issue with PokeRev whatsoever, but the purpose of his channel is very much to supplement his Pokemon TCG selling strategies (he’s making a TON of money / huge profit margin on the booster boxes he’s cracking & selling the individual packs from). I don’t have a problem with that - he’s found a way to make money that doesn’t screw anyone over & is entertaining - fair play to him. I think this is at odds with Leonhart’s approach to the hobby and his channel. By contrast, Leonhart doesn’t operate an eBay account or selling website (that I know of), he doesn’t flip or mark up Pokemon cards for financial gain. You might argue that he leverages the Pokemon TCG to make money via Youtube, but this isn’t in the same vein as the likes of PokeRev and Z&G. Leonhart’s Youtube ad revenue is a well-earned by-product of him creating a channel about something he loves, and that serves the Pokemon TCG community. He was still a Lawyer while he was making his videos for some time; at some point he realised “wow I can actually make a living from ad revenue by creating content that I’m passionate about” which is an opportunity anyone else would jump on. The crucial difference is that Lee makes money through passionate content creation rather than marketing and merchanting a product.
Seems like Leonhart is still collecting while PokeRev has most of what he wants (collection complete) and is focusing making money. If he were to grade and sell the cards he opened he might make more money. However, I’m not sure how that would go over with his audience. He always refers to the opening as we or the hartsquads collection. It’s on that premise that he created and grew his channel. I’m sure his audience would understand, but if making money via selling the cards were a large chunk of financial profits his squad might look at him differently. It also seems like Leonhart is still collecting cards so he probably would rather keep the cards than do other methods that would cost him to lose the boxes/cards etc.
Yes it is, or it’s the biggest coincidence ever. The story in the video and in their reddit comment match perfectly.
True if pokerev can sell out of everything with 20k subs, his almost 900k would have zero problem he could open a booster box a day
imagine what that would do to the sealed booster box market and the eventual effect it’ll have on single cards.
He’s a big fan of mental health so I wonder why he never partnered with things like Audible or some exercise based thing for revenue.
reading and exercise are great for mental health. I hope he’s able to find alternative sources of income. He’s very smart and I don’t think it’s a creative issue for finding ways of increasing revenue. Seems more like a desire to not change his current model.
if you read the story, sounds like the same story that Lee shared in his video. both mom and dad got into collecting in the late 90s, bought tons of stuff. those connections in Hawaii, etc…
maybe lee needs to have an alternative channel, call it leonhartbreak(er) where he supplements his earnings a bit and not hurt his main, core audience. let’s be honest, youtube revenue will only keep going DOWN, not up. this is how capitalism works. to purchase increasingly more expensive sealed items to break for increasingly lower rates of ad revenue on youtube is a losing proposition. i think channels like lee’s will need to pivot or stop altogether, unfortunately.
I can really feel the struggle with youtube revenu and watch numbers in this picture. Hard times!
https://instagram.com/p/CAyQ2RrHXGK
(No hate, just for fun)
I like that Leonhart helps the hobby, but I can’t stand the fake acting and his dramatically dense fake reactions. Just personal taste, hope he is good, and for what he is buying, it seems he is.
I’m taking it you don’t really understand how big the youtube advertising market actually is. There is a 10 year old kid named ryan’s toy review that made $22 million in a single year just off youtube ad revenue.
Regardless of Leonhart’s financial intent, he is an overall net positive for the community since he brings kids into the hobby by getting them excited about pokemon cards. Those kids are the future of this hobby. Same story for the other creators. As long as they are making positive content then they are a net positive for the community overall.
He definitely is bringing in the next generation of collectors. I remember watching primetimepokemon. Pokemon tubers provide an increase in collectors and overall benefit the community.
While I don’t watch his channel anymore, Leonhart was a big reason why I came into the hobby last year. Yeah, I find the reactions too much now but when I first started back in, the reactions were part of why I got so excited ripping packs and collecting again. I phased out of it but I do think he’s done a lot for the community as a whole and I think his work with mental health is extremely positive. Plus, I’m always a fan of when people open vintage packs and boxes. I could never do it myself but it’s kind of surreal to be able to relive your childhood, albeit through a video.