I was delighted to have the opportunity of potential employment at Mythos Cards, a football card company based in Turkey. Naturally, this would be a dream job and a great opportunity to further myself in an industry that I am very passionate about.
Well, sometimes things don’t work out, and sometimes it can be a complete disaster. Here is my story.
Preface
During the pandemic (2020-21), my girlfriend (now wife) and I lived in Turkey for approximately one year because it was one of the only places open to foreigners. I am from Australia and she is from Belarus. We decided on Turkey because Australia was completely closed to foreigners and Belarus, despite being open to foreigners, was experiencing a bit of political instability. Fast forward approximately a year and we had lived in Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon, and had enjoyed our time in Turkey. Our resident permits were expiring and we decided not to renew and haven’t been back to Turkey together since.
Who is Mythos Cards
Mythos Cards is a football card company that produces cards for the major teams in the Turkish Süper Lig such as: Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Trabzonspor. These are individual team sets because the licensing rights don’t allow them to combine sets. As I understand, there are movements being made to get the license for the Süper Lig which would be a great and more complete product in my opinion.
Mythos Cards has most of its popularity in Turkey, which is logical as they produce cards for Turkish football teams. That being said, they are starting to get more of an international following and have now got an association with Topps. Mythos is quite a new company with their first sets being produced during the 2022/23 season. It has to be said they have had fantastic growth in the short time they have been operating. Possibly their best claim to fame is being the first company to produce cards of Arda Gürler for Fenerbahce. This is what I believe has propelled the company’s reputation abroad. Arda was lighting up the football world and naturally collectors wanted his cards – Mythos was there to fill the demand.
In terms of the sets Mythos Cards produces, I personally find them a bit confusing. As far as I know, they are no documented set lists online which makes it very hard for collectors to know what they are collecting. Of course, the prospectors will get all the Arda Gürler they can find but the regular collector will find it hard to get involved. In addition to this, Mythos Card’s main product is called “Mythos Today” – where they produce cards relevant to recent events in Turkish football. It is the same model as Topps Now. As for Topps, Mythos are now responsible for Topps Turkey and the social media accounts related to it.
Overall, I think Mythos Cards has a very good foundation as a card company with a lot of potential. I believe there needs to be a lot more work with regard to transparency for collectors – more specifically, detailed documentation of all products and also a record of all the “Mythos Today” cards. In its current state collectors will have no idea what they are collecting.
Being involved in the hobby for some time now and taking into account some of the issues listed above, I believe I could have been of great utility to the company which leads into the next part of the story.
My Mythos Cards Story
From my time living in Turkey, I made some friends who are also in the hobby. One of the friends I made often showed my cards from Mythos and I thought to myself this is great! Anyone who knows me in the hobby knows that I love products from all over the world, and if the Turkish Süper Lig can start producing cards again (Panini used to produce Adrenalyn cards) then it can only be a good thing. My wife and I had discussed how we had enjoyed living in Turkey and would love the opportunity to live there again. This prompted me to consider trying to work for Mythos Cards – it seemed like the perfect fit. I messaged my friend in Turkey who has contact with them and asked him to enquire on my behalf as to whether there were any employment opportunities – citing that I am a native English speaker and can help with growth into the Western World.
To my delight, I got a response to send my CV, which led to an online interview. Mythos Cards is comprised of three major bosses, I’m not sure if there is any seniority involved but for the purposes of writing this article, I will name them boss A, B and C. I will not be disclosing any names for their privacy. The online interview was conducted with boss A. We had a chat about my history in the hobby and their goals as a company – I got the impression that our goals aligned and it seemed like a very good fit. They were very keen to expand their operation into Europe and USA, and I was very keen to become more involved in the hobby and potentially make a career out of it. After some back and forth over the preceding month, I was informed that they were happy with what I had to offer. I was asked by boss A when I could come to Turkey – at this point I was renewing my passport in Australia over the Christmas break so I replied that I would be ready to come January 1, 2024. I was informed that this would be perfect as Mythos Cards would be attending a card convention in Germany and that I could be of use. Naturally, I was very excited and was counting down the days.
As the New Year approached (22 of December) I messaged boss A asking about the documentation I would need for a work permit in Turkey. I was informed he will speak to human resources and get back to me. Here is where the first red flag arrived. I received no response for a few days, so I politely asked the question again on the 25th – again no reply. So I waited patiently until the New Year with no response so I sent another message wishing boss A a happy new year. As the New Year approached I was a bit disappointed as we had agreed things were commence on January 1 but I remained optimistic. Upon receiving my new year message, boss A replied that he was sorry he hadn’t been in contact and that his pet has died. I was a little suspicious but gave my sympathies.
At this moment in time I booked my flights to Turkey for the 10th of January without having had any details on the work permit confirmed. My wife was waiting for me in Belarus; to get to Belarus from Australia it is necessary to transit via Turkey. I made the decision that I would fly to Turkey and if there was no news regarding the position, I would just fly onto Belarus. I let boss A know my intention to fly to Turkey on the 10th and he responded positively saying that he is looking forward to meeting me in the office.
The Meeting
After arriving in Istanbul and settling into my Airbnb, I came to the office on the 12th of January. I met boss A and we had a very long chat with tea – if anyone has been to Turkey they will understand tea is life! We had a very positive conversation where he told me in the ins and out of the company, their goals and what I would be expected to do in my position there. My responsibilities were outline as:
- Quality control of cards for overseas.
- Grading Mythos cards
- Assisting with Topps relations with Boss A
- International Sales
- Exporting
- New product ideas
- Topps Turkey social media account management.
I was very excited with the prospect of these responsibilities and in truth, I would struggle to find a more ideal position. Boss A and I exchanged many different ideas and avenues the company could pursue which again was very exciting. In this meeting I once again brought up what documents were necessary for the work permit and that the work permit was necessary for my wife to legally stay in Turkey, with the addition that my current visa was limited to 3 months. Boss A said that it can be a long process getting the work permit but if necessary I could border hop and re-enter to gain another 3 months. This is something I wasn’t really comfortable with but I was willing to make some compromises because of his statement regarding the work permit. Boss A has told me, “don’t worry about the work permit, this is Turkey, anything is possible.” Happy with how the meeting went, we said our good byes and looked forward to what the future would bring.
“don’t worry about the work permit, this is Turkey, anything is possible.”
Boss B
Two days after the meeting with boss A, I was messaged to have a video call with boss B. Boss B lives outside of Turkey (in Europe) for work but is a part owner of the company and is active in its operations. The video call with Boss B left a very good impression on me. He was very polite and gave me further insight into how the company operates. He mentioned licences they were considering for the production of cards and how I could be of use in promoting them. I felt the conversation went very well and he was happy to have me on board. He said the company was working on the processes for my work permit which relieved any anxieties I had had previously. I left the video call feeling happy that things were starting to align and thinking that this Boss B seemed like a good guy.
Waiting
As I was given the impression everything was going forward but it may take some time, on the 16th I messaged Boss A saying it might be an appropriate time for me to go Belarus to see my while the work permit was processing, and that I needed to get some belongings from Belarus anyway. Boss A responded that he and boss B (and I am assuming boss C) had agreed on having me onboard already, but there were many procedures to jump over. He continued that they were in contact with a consultant to direct them on the correct way to employ me and that they just need a couple of days. I said that I understand and that bureaucratic processes can be annoying and time consuming. I also reiterated that I didn’t mind how long the process can take as long as it’s the best process for bringing my wife over. He responded, “maybe it will be a good time to bring her nowdays ha?”. I wasn’t going to bring her over until everything was watertight but this comment gave me some reassurance that they are serious. I mean who would tell someone to bring their wife over if they didn’t intend to employ them?
“maybe it will be a good time to bring her nowdays ha?”
Belarus
Fast forward 6 days, the 22 of January, and I have had no updates. I messaged boss A after an un-responded message on the 18th asking if there had been any updates and that if there has been none I will go to Belarus to wait. I needed to go there anyway to get belongings and I was spending quite a lot of money on accommodation while I waited. Boss A responded that it would be an appropriate time to go to Belarus and come back later, stating that they were very busy organising their expo in Germany and still hadn’t heard back from the consultant. He followed up by saying, “Also we agreed with FIBA (The International Basketball Federation) about basketball champions league trading cards. We ill need you much on this project on February.” Happy with this response I asked if I could keep some of my luggage at their office as I didn’t want to be hauling luggage if I was coming back anyway. He agreed and I dropped off my luggage the next day – we said a quick hi and bye and the following day I was flying to Belarus.
As per my passport, I can enter Belarus for 1 month. From our conversations it was estimated that it would be around 2 weeks before I flew back, so 1 month gave me plenty of time in Belarus. A week passed in Belarus and I had heard nothing, I politely messaged if he (boss A) could give me a weeks notice of when to fly back so I was able buy a flight. As a side note, flights sell out quite fast in Belarus so some notice is necessary for me to be able to leave and not overstay my visa. Again, I had no response from boss A. On the 10th I decided to buy a flight to Turkey for the 22nd of February as my hand was forced – it is not possible to extend the free month visa in Belarus. I messaged boss A on the 10th saying I am flying back and he was quick to respond saying, sorry he hadn’t been in contact and that he wanted to have an online meeting on the coming Monday. On first the first reading, I assumed bad news but in any case, I had to leave Belarus and get my luggage from Turkey. Monday came, I messaged what time the call would take place as I hadn’t received an email, but there was no response and the call never came. I messaged again three days later asking if the meeting had been postponed and I was met with the response, “Hi friend. My mom is at the intensive care. Forgot everything.”
My first thought was, what are the chances! First his pet died and now his mom is in hospital. I mean maybe. Maybe she is in hospital, but at the time I sure didn’t believe it, in fact I still don’t believe it. But in any case, this is kind of a check-mate in terms of shutting me up, what else can I say instead of express my sympathy. You can’t exactly call someone out on that – what if his mom was actually dying? To this day I don’t know whether it was true or not but if boss A did lie about something like that, I think its a very scummy move. I just had to hope for some updates and wait for my flight back to Turkey.
“Also we agreed with FIBA about basketball champions league trading cards. We ill need you much on this project on February.“
Turkey 2.0
On the 22 of February, I landed in Istanbul and checked into Airbnb again (more money spent). I had messaged Boss A on the 20th with no response and messaged again on the 24th expressing my sympathy again and asked what my situation is. I’m sure you guessed it, there was no response. At this point I was sure that there had been some problems and that he was avoiding me but I decided to find the contact information of boss B (who I video called and is outside of Turkey) and boss C. I first emailed boss C, who I had never met or interacted with. Upon receiving no response, the next day I messaged him on discord and I also found boss B’s contact on discord and messaged him. All messages ended up with no responses despite them being online on discord. It seems I was getting ghosted haha!
The Truth Emerges
In the time I was waiting for responses on the messages, I got a message from my friend, the friend who initially lined up the opportunity for me. He messaged me asking if I was okay. A little confused I replied that I am fine and what’s the reason of him asking. He said, “I heard you didn’t get the Mythos job.” I said this may be true but I don’t know anything about it! Upon hearing this, he was also confused and went to get information off the person who told him. It turns out that a regular employee of Mythos had told my friend’s friend about the situation. Apparently, and I can verify everything up until now, but this is what I was told. Apparently, Mythos Cards had gone through the processes to get me a work permit but found the foreigner insurance costs too expensive to pay. The Mythos employee had overheard this and told a friend who told my friend who told me.
Upon hearing this, I organised a flight to Belarus with a visa that can be extended, and messaged boss A on the 29th of February saying I will be coming to the office to grab my luggage that I had left there. AND lo and behold, boss A replies on the same day! The first message in exactly 14 days! His response was, “Hi Lachlan. Can we speak tomorrow? You can take your luggage whenever you want for sure.” Now I’m not stupid. I may have been a little naive through this whole process but I can figure out when someone is avoiding me. His plan was clearly to avoid me while I am getting my luggage and never message me. I arrived to the office that day and was met by two younger workers. They looked quite nervous but I wasn’t going to be rude to them, they did nothing wrong to me. They helped me grab my luggage and I was on my way – boss A was nowhere to be seen. And as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the afternoon, there was no message from boss A the next day – quite predictable. I proceeded to fly to Belarus on the 5th of March around $2500 down, time lost, and still with no message or explanation to this day.
“I heard you didn’t get the Mythos job.”
Here is a photo I took of the office on the way out, with my luggage if you can see the reflection 🙂
The Rant
Now I will accept that I have been a bit naive through this ordeal. There were red flags along the way and maybe the prospect of a dream job clouded my judgement a bit. That being said, I genuinely think that Mythos Cards had the intention of employing me but it wasn’t possible for them. I guess everything isn’t possible in Turkey! Whether the insurance costs for foreigners is the reason? I guess I will never know but I am still very perplexed as to why I couldn’t have been told this. Yes they have wasted my time and money which I am quite upset about but it would be somewhat understandable if they explained the situation and apologised , this article would never have been written
My suspicions lead me to think that boss A was supposed to tell me this in the online call he requested but never made. But alas, I was just waiting in Turkey spending a lot of money waiting to hear back from them. This is the real catalyst to the writing of this article. How can anyone with any ethics or empathy be okay knowing they are the reason someone is waiting for them in a foreign country, spending their money and not knowing what their future holds. I still have had no message – for all they know I could still be sitting in Istanbul waiting for them! It’s literally their fault I was waiting there and they don’t have the courage to give me the bad news. By delaying the bad news they made the situation at lot worse than it had to be.
If you have got this far into the article you have probably come to the opinion that boss A is a real piece of work, a big time liar! I don’t know if he knows he is lying at the time or he is just one of those guys that talks too much to impress. I got the impression it was the latter – thank God I didn’t listen to him and bring my wife over like he suggested! Okay, I can understand that boss A may be an unreliable person, but what is most confusing for me is the fact that boss B and C never responded either. Boss C, as I said earlier, I had never interacted with, but boss B not responding to me has stumped me. He seemed like a genuine guy during our video call and I really got the impression he was a gentleman – maybe it is me being too naive, I don’t know. Surely it can’t be a case of all of them being too scared to message me the bad news? I will let the readers ponder and speculate on that.
“I guess everything isn’t possible in Turkey!“
Author
Final Word
Thanks for reading if you have got this far! From reading this I am hoping you agree with me that this has been an absolute ridiculous series of events. I had previously collected some of Mythos’ products but as of now I will not be supporting this company with any of my money. In my opinion, this company is not run good good people. If these people are willing to leave someone out to dry in a foreign country after they had requested them to come, who knows what other business practices they might be putting into place.
I wouldn’t say I hold any resentment to the company or the 3 bosses that run it. I am more baffled by the whole situation. For those collectors who don’t like their money going to bad actors in the hobby, I would recommend not spending their money with this company. I sure hope they run their business better than they handled my situation. All I can say is that I am lucky I had the resources to get out of the situation. If something like this happened to someone and they were stranded, it would be a real disaster!
I may be $2,500 down but at least I got my yearly fix of dürüm!
