"2026 National Wrap Up and Review Hobby Quick Hits E235

Hey everybody. Lady luck here. And we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now all summer long I'm going to be celebrating by playing on spinquest.com which is an American owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to spinquest.com get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. Spinquest is a free to play social casino void. Where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Meet the Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire? Try them all only at McDonald's hobby quick hits. Delivering that breaking hobby noose directly to your earlobes. You want to know those hot drops from the card shop. We've got you covered with your John Newman. Hello everybody. Welcome to episode 235 of Hobby Quick Hits where we're a week late than our normal slot. I apologize for that. But you know we're gonna talk about why I'm a week late. It's. It's the national. Came back from the national and I'm still playing catch up with orders, getting orders shipped, catching up on content life stuff that's non hobby related. So a lot, a lot to cover, a lot to do. We're not going to do our new segment or our product release segment on this episode so we can talk more about the 46th national in Chicago. 47 will also be in Chicago next year. Start making your resume reservations and planning your itinerary accordingly. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spinquest.com the time flies by. That two hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite spots live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players. 30 coin packs are on sale for 10 bucks. Play split spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again. Spinquest is a free to play social casino void. Where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. When she said I don't dance now I make money moves. That was a mission statement for a whole new generation. Respect. But that's not the Mount Rushmore. Listen. Cash rules everything around me. When that line Tribute it changed the whole hustle. The greatest tracks are never finished. They're just debated forever. Introducing the Sprite living track list. 50 tracks that shape the culture from six decades of hip hop. Scan the QR code on a Sprite or Sprite zero sugar to see the full breakdown. Obey your thirst Sprite. So let's, let's get right into it and you know, skip sort of the formalities, right. I got there on Tuesday, had to fly, it's a third, about a 13 hour drive. If I was to do that, that's a little bit too much for an old guy like myself. And so flew in Tuesday, you know, got my media badge midday there at noon, you know, hung out with a couple friends. Also had tickets to the White Sox game that night against the Yankees. Traffic was terrible. I had a rental car but thought I left early enough but traffic was terrible. Was traveling with my friend Brian and we got there in the bottom of the second inning, you know, pretty low scoring game. Garrett Cole was striking out a lot of White Sox hitters. The Yankees wound up winning it 32 even though Chase Madroth hit a two run homer in the ninth to make it interesting off of David Bednar. But the Yankees held on and 1, 3, 2. I always try to catch an event outside of the hobby when I'm in a sports town if, if possible and did so last year was the Phillies White Sox with the White Sox winning 14 5. This year was the Yankees White Sox with the Yankee winning 3 to 2. So Tuesday was just sort of, you know, an easy day. Pick up your passes, you know, and again attended the game and then get ready for the show on Wednesday which started midday and no trouble, no trouble there and fairly quiet, you know, not a crazy Wednesday. Obviously you get into the Friday, Saturday part of the show, that's when it's really, really, really busy. And I always go into the national with a list of 5 to 10 cards with the hope to get 2 to 3 for the personal collection. I'm always open to buy inventory for my showcases as a dealer for the shows that I set up and sort of, that's kind of my M.O. and you know, I'll talk about the pickups. I was able to pick up two, two cards for the, the personal collection and probably two at the near of that, top of that 10 card list in a Ernie Banks PSA two rookie and a Pete Rose rookie PSA three. And they're both, you know, I, I guess it's easy for me to say but they're both Yu-Gi-Oh appeal wise, better than their grade. And I've posted on my social media, if you want to get, if you want to see what I'm talking about, just check out Sports Card Nation. Look, look around national week and you'll see those. And I bought these cards from the Las Vegas dealer brothers, Dave and Jim. I've bought a, a prior purchase, I think two years ago from them was a PSA4 Bob Gibson rookie. An interesting story how I even made this purchase. So I believe it was Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I went to dinner with some hobby friends to Giordano's. A tradition anytime I'm in Chicago, got to have some deep dish pizza. We don't really have that here in New York for, for obvious reasons. I like it just the same. And so I was coming out of Giordano's and Dave and Jim were walking in and you know, we made some small talk and they asked like, hey, is there anything you're looking for? And I mentioned some stuff and they're like, you know, we just bought a pretty decent collection and we have, you know, a rose and a banks rookie. I told him I wasn't, you know, in the market or in the budget for high, high grades, but I gave him kind of a, a ballpark of the grades and they're like, hey, we think we can help you out after dinner. We'll, we'll text you what we have and we, we can go from there. So later actually the next morning I got a text with some pics and a price and I one-of-one go into all the, the gory price details but like what I saw at least on, on, on picture wise and told them that, you know, I had a main stage the next morning. But soon as that main stage was over, I'd head over to their tables and see the cards in person. They' second Fleer along with the Mike Burkus main stage. A little, little off tangent here, but the Mike Burkus main stage is now on the second Fleer of the Donald Stevens Convention Center. A lot of new stuff, audio equipment, video equipment. And in past years we always, you know, if you're on a panel, you were just in some folding chairs and behind kind of a, you know, folding tables with tablecloths. Well, they redid that. Like I said, a lot of new equipment, microphones and furniture. They have real lounge chairs and, and couches and so very big difference. You know, more comfortable, feels more professional. So I did that main stage with the Sports Collectors Digest group and soon as that was over, you know, we took some photos, talked and then I made a beeline over to Dave and Jim's T up on that second Fleer Now I will say this, there's more dealers there. The last year was really, really tight. This Year was still tight. It was difficult getting in and out of there, especially when most people have backpacks. So hopefully if they continue to, to do it on the second Fleer in Chicago and Rosemont, maybe they can make those aisles wider for comfortability, not only for the vendors but for the consumers as well. So made my way to Dave and Jim's table, saw the banks and rose rookies in person and you know, again, not, I'm not a gory detail guy but, you know, we haggled a little bit and finally came to an agreement on price. I paid in cash for those two cards and those were my two first two purchases of the show. And very pleased with them. You see them, if you watch my content on video, you'll see them behind me on those acrylic desk cases and so. And also, you know, I, I like to buy, I like to do business with people who I like and know and I, you know, are good people. Dave and Jim are really good people. They've been a guest on Sports Car Nation and really, you know, guys doing it the right way. I know they, you know, they missed the national here where they didn't get a table, I think it was last year, but they got a table this year. Good for them. And hopefully that continues to be the case. They're from Las Vegas, so definitely a trip form. You know, in previous episode I mentioned that their luggage got lost momentarily for a few days. Thankfully that didn't happen to them this time. So had my first purchase. Banks rookie, rose rookie. Very pleased with those purchases and you know, had some time. Obviously I try to cover as much ground as you can. You meet people, you talk to people. I've never been short or cut anyone short. It's not my mo. Someone's willing to say hello or talk to me. I try to be courteous in that fashion. Wound up later on just kind of to close out my purchases at the show. A few days later I bought a good nice stack of vintage stars. I don't know the proprietor's name, but he was having a 50%, you know, he said, had a great show. My gift to you, remaining inventory, 50% off and had shoe boxes and monster boxes of all sports, non sports, vintage, some modern and got quite a bit of vintage stars for my dealer inventory, for my showcase and for my inventory there got a really great deal. They were, he was priced fairly to begin with. And then when you add the 50% off on that, that was very good as well. Now, you know, I think we all know, right, you got to Expect some sticker shock at the National. You know, it's expensive to Whatnot it's expensive to set up as a dealer. When you think of all your expenses, travel expenses, your table fee, your hotel, your food, right. I'm not trying to have a pity party, but you've got to expect a little sticker shock. But I will say this, two things. I don't think the sticker shock was as bad as I expected or in past years. And I also felt many of the dealers I spoke to were very reasonable. They were willing to, you know, negotiate and haggle and come down off a price. Most of them, you know, everyone to each their own. But I think the majority of the room was willing to negotiate that. You know, when we think about the modern market, Jordan stuff was insane. You know, price very well and selling very well. Ohtani, not that he's sneaking up on anybody, but I think people are really starting to realize like what he's doing is, is out of this world and he still got probably a good, barring an injury, a good double digit years of baseball potentially he's 31 years old so he could do some damage in the next two years into his, just when he turns 40 and even if he doesn't pitch again, he's just doing some incredible stuff. So Ohtani stuff was selling, moving and price tight. Griffey Jr. Was up as well and I'm sure I will leave certain athletes out but I know his stuff was moving and priced with an upward tick. And that pinnacle, I think it's 97 pinnacle, the one where he's blowing a bubble. That card somehow went from being a two dollar card to a fifty plus dollar card. It's mind boggling to be quite frankly it reminds me of the Bo Jackson, you know, black and white scorecard. Sort of the rise that had all of a sudden, very quickly, Billy Ripken, you know, F face, error card again, those continue to rise. I think Ricky Henderson rookies were up there as well with his passing, you know, in the past calendar year and so you know, some sticker shock. But really there was deals that could be had if you were smart and, and shopped around. You know it was crowded obviously on Saturday was to me the busiest day you had to sort of finagle for to get in front of a table or showcase space. But you could do it wasn't impossible like it felt like in some years. I will say this, a lot of corrections on the positive side, right. We've, we've been past years of Nashville where it's hot where you're sweating through your shirt. It was cold, to tell you the truth. And it was warm outside or hot outside. But the National AC was blowing strong. It was, it was chilly in there. And if you give me a choice between sweating my, you know what off and being a little, a little chilled, I'll take the chilled over any day because you can always wear a hoodie or a light windbreaker when it's hot. You can't walk around shirtless at the national and you probably wouldn't want people to do that even if it was okay to do so. I will say this. Definite improvement on the temperature. Market or department. Yu-Gi-Oh Fi. I didn't have any issues with my phone at, you know, looking up things, reading stuff, getting messages. You know, in past years, I remembered I texted my son from the show and he never got the text till like three or four hours later. And it was sort of a time sensitive text. So improvement on Yu-Gi-Oh Fi, improvement on temperature. It's. It was a new layout. We had sort of that breakers and you know, live breaking and you know, in all in one section, that Whatnot section, it was like a carnival atmosphere. If you didn't like that stuff or didn't need to be in that area, you could literally avoid that area completely. And they moved again. They moved the Mike Burkus main stage up to the second Fleer was nice and quiet. So you didn't, you know, in years past, the Burkus main stage was near that breakers and so you'd get all those let's goes and yelling and screaming while you were talking on the main stage. And it became very difficult to hear yourself and others on the panel. So they, you know, power to kudos to the powers that be. They're. They're trying to do things. No one's perfect, but they are making some decisions to make the experience better, I felt. And again, Yu-Gi-Oh Fi, the temperature, the breakers, all in one area. It felt like a carnival there. And if you didn't want to go to the carnival, you didn't have to go into that room. Going back to the upstairs, there was an international dealer section. So dealers not from the United States who were coming in from abroad with their inventories to sell, they had sort of their own section, which I thought was kind of neat. I thought it was neat. You know, I don't like the, the thought about segregating, but I don't think it was meant like that. I think it was to showcase and highlight the worldwide phenomenon which the hobby now or really always is but we're seeing even more so. So I think it was, it was done in, in a positive fashion and really glad Yu-Gi-Oh to see some new wrinkles. Always good like right. They changed the layout. So if you went last year and you thought it would be the same this year, you were pleasantly surprised as I was. Some things I noticed you know, a lot more kids and a lot of kids making some really head scratching big money deals. I remember being at one table and there was a young man, I was looking at the showcases and there was a young man to the right of me and I don't know what he was buying. Trying to sort of not be a nosy buddy but you know, I could hear the negotiation, whatever he was buying. Card or multiple cards. It was a $30,000 deal. Like I said, this kid Goldin be more than 14, 15 years old. He was not with his dad at least at the table. Would have known someone older at the show itself. But his dad was not with him. He was making his own deal and it was for 30K. And it's just, just mind boggling to think when I was 14 and 15 and I yes I was in the hobby then in 1986 and 87 and I was, you know, if I made a hundred dollar deal or a thousand dollar deal, I thought that was, was a big deal. And but to these kids now what they're carrying around in these one-of-one cases and the cash they're carrying around and this was a cash deal, you know, some pet peeves, you know sometimes with a lot of people were selling, right. They'd go up to the dealer, hey, are you buying? The dealer would say well take a look at what you got. And you know, the Zion case got put down onto the showcases and again it's free enterprise. This is America. I don't want to state anything to you otherwise, but a lot, a lot of that was going on and it made like whatever case that that Zion case was, was on top of. You really Goldin see what cards that dealer had available in that case. So it's sort of, you know, he had to navigate around that content creation wise. You know, there was people filming but it seemed less intrusive than in past years. So a lot of people I didn't recognize doing content creation and but with some crazy rigs, you know, think cameras where they were around the waist and then it came over their back and into their front. They look like Dr. Octopus from the Spider man series and but seemed less intrusive than in past years. And I think some of that might be due to the I think the aisles were wider, there was more space to a little more elbow room. And that was always, you know, that's always a plus. I did three main stage panels. I did, for the first time, Sports Collectors Digest had a writer's panel. I was on that with editor Jeff Owens, Greg Bates, writer and myself, and Clemente Lisi, writers, and had a good time, 45 minutes talking about the year that was in the future, what's coming for the future of the hobby. Then I did a sports coordination panel and I had Nick Jarman from the Certified Trading Card association up on the stage and we talked about what he's trying to do to make the hobby a better and safer place for everybody. You know, on both sides of the aisle, sellers, companies, consumers, at the whole hobby as a whole. And it's a worthy endeavor. I'm happy to be on the advisory board of that. So me and Nick sort of chopped up what, you know, his course of action and what he wants to make the hobbyist safer and better place. On Saturday, in our normal spot, 10am Chicago time, we did our Hobby Hotline panel and can if you didn't see it live, you can check that out on the Hobby Hotline's YouTube channel. Again, 45 minutes. We talked about the national because it was done on a Saturday morning when the show was kind of coming down, the Homestead Show. We shared some of our observations and thoughts of the current national and where the hobby and the national is going in the future. So check that out on Hobby Hot hot. Hobby Hotline YouTube channel. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spinquest.com the time flies by. That two hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite spots Live blackjack, live preps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for 10 bucks. Play spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again. Spinquest is a free to play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building. You're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Corners. Lights about to fail. Filters ready to clog. H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Some pet peeves, you know, it was more than one person but you know, there was almost every table had a buying sign on it. Whether it be a little 8 by 10, you know, piece of paper or a big bracketed above the table vinyl sign that said buying station or buying. So most, a lot of people were buying, you know, probably 70, 80% of the people set up. But one thing that you know, again to each their own, you pay for the table. You can put whatever you want in the showcases. One thing which I thought was a weird flex was dealers who put you know, showcases out, those like those metal all state showcases and just fill them with $100 bills and spread them all out and it's just a flex like hey, look at me, I got $100 bills filling this case. Put some cards in there. I don't want to look at your hundred dollar bills. I know you got money. I have money too. Let's, let's, we've established that for the most part. Put some cards in there, sell your cards, trade your cards. But just putting hundred dollar bills in a showcase and spreading them all around and it just screams look at me. You know, I got bank and we don't need. It's, I don't know, it's just silly to me. You know, I look at my table space as a dealer now I'm not setting up at the national but as precious man. I'm trying to get out as much in my inventory on insight of potential customer as much as I can. I'm not filling the case with a bunch of money just to flex and show off. So I thought that, that, that I could live without. What did I see? More of a lot of significant others, right? Kids going back. I can went off a lot more kids young and teenagers. A lot of big money deals come from that sector. Not surprised. Well, it's not a surprise anymore, right? A lot of wives and significant others, some seem to be active with their, you know, male counterparts. Others seem to be sort of hanging back, just sort of along for the ride. Another thing I saw probably more in my opinion than I should have, and I apologize if I'm being a little crass but young baby like, young baby like. I'm not even talking toddlers. I'm talking just a few months old or even younger. Whether it be a dad carrying the infant or the mom. I sell a lot of babies and to me I don't Think that's the place. I don't think that's the place. Now I have a 20 year old, so it's easy for me to, to say but I'm not bringing, if I had a baby, that's not a place I'm bringing a baby. Now it's not saying I wouldn't Whatnot but I'd make arrangements whether that's a family member that's, you know, watching my kid or maybe if not point, you can't always make the trip. I get, I get fomo, I get, I get one in either but not a place for to me young babies like that again saw numerous of that. But and the other thing I want you know, we know what's going to happen, right. It happens every year at the National. I've been almost at every show. Right. Thefts occur. Well, here's the one thing I want to say as a dealer myself, again, not doing the national. Any show I do with my showcases, those showcases are locked and I have the keys on my hip. If someone wants to see something, I can unlock the case, have them look at it, or if I make a sale, I can unlock the case, sell the card, re lock the case. Do not tempt fate. If you leave your cases unlocked. I hate to say like this, but you're, you're sort of advertising trouble. You're making it easier. Just the same as if you leave your front door, your house unlock where someone can just walk in and take whatever jewelry, money, your safe, your cards don't make it easy. Lock your door. Can someone still break in? Yu-Gi-Oh it happens every day, every minute. I get it. Well, why make it easier? And I will tell you, man, and I know something about insurance. I have it. If your case is unlocked, the insurance could, could refute covering your, your theft claim. You know, it's like you leave your car door unlocked and some and your car rate, stereo or something else of value in your car is taken, the insurance will probably refuse to pay that you just made it easy and left your door unlocked. If you locked your door and someone broke in, then you're going to be better. Your coverage is probably going to be covered. So I don't understand why dealers are not locking their case. It's a head scratcher to me. I get it. You want to be, you want the convenience, you don't want to break out your key every few minutes potentially. But err on the side of caution. Lock your case. Lock your case. And someone will say, well you know John, I don't lock my cases. But I'm, I'm always looking at them. It just takes a distraction. It takes you. You could drop something on the ground, go to pick it up and someone goes and pulls something out of there and mad dash it away. Just avoid that from a possibility. You know, someone can pick a lock, sure. But you're going to see that a lot easier than if you leave your cases over it and, you know, get distracted and someone can slip a card out without making very much noise or commotion. So when are we going to learn? Well, I've learned my cases are locked, but dealers, please lock your cases. I hate as a dealer, and it's not even just as a dealer, as someone who loves the hobby. I hate someone get robbed of something they built. Right. And don't make it easy. Don't make it easy. You can tell I'm, I'm sort of passionate about that as a dealer as well. So, you know, very good national in my opinion. You know, went to some of the, oh, you know, real, you know, went to the PSA registry party on. I believe that was Friday night. Great, great event. Last year they had hosted Jerry Rice with Scott Hansen from the NFL Network. This year was Barry Sanders, another goat. And you know, everyone got a PSA box handed out to him. And in that box was a couple packs and a Barry Sanders slab registry card. And your card was either not signed or signed. And there was 500 cards, 50 were signed and thankfully and luckily mine was. So I got a Barry Sanders Certified PSA DNA autographed registry card, which was very cool. My friend Tony D. Who was sitting next to me with his son, his son Anthony got one as well. So congrats to Anthony. One other person at my table of 10 got one and a few other people I know got one. So I know about five of the 50 Barry Sanders auto to be had at the event. PSA does, you know, you can say whatever you want about them, and I do that too, that they did a great job. The food was great. The event was not too short and not too long. Was big timing. Scott Hanson, you know, Barry did some photo opportunities. If you pull the Barry base card out of your packs. I didn't. I got the Barry auto, but I didn't get to take a picture with him. Last year I got to take a picture with Jerry Rice, which I thought was. I'll never forget that. And they just put on a great show of great party for people who enjoy what they do and gave out some awards to people with like the best sets and sports and non sports again the food was excellent and after the event, even when it was over, you know Scott Hansen, former Syracuse Orangeman football player, now of the Red Zone NFL Network. He stays in chats with everyone, does videos, pictures, talks. Just a great down to earth guy. Even at one point someone with his group sort of went up to him and I was close enough to hear say hey you know you're kind of long with people knit up. Hey these people are waiting online to see me. I'm going to the least I can just really cool to hear a celebrity and yes he is a celebrity say that right. And not rush through it. And just great to great to see that and very appreciative of that. He cut a little promo for me. You might hear it on if you listen to Sports Card Nation podcast. So that was great, great you know, great Donruss We had our hobby Hotline dinner on Saturday night at Harry Carries. It's kind of become our our Saturday night tradition. We had some of the folks from Hobby Hotline there. Small, intimate. We you know wasn't a ton of people. About eight, six to eight people. We had a couple people even not a part of Hobby Hotline friends of ours to Whatnot Just a good way to decompress, enjoy a great meal with you know hobby fraternity we're alt art of and it's one of the things as crazy as it sounds, I look forward the Hobby Hotline dinner on Saturday with some really dumb just a great event. You know right now I'm still just trying to play catch up with content and orders, you know. Never seems to fail. Whenever I go on this trip I have a stack or I don't, I don't put my stuff on vacation and I just seem to have a stack of orders catch up on when it back home I'm tired. My aura ring says I'm 14 hours behind in sleep. I probably have to sleep a whole day even to get back on track. That's not going to happen. I do have a couple weeks coming up here with no summer school and no regular school yet sort of to maybe catch up on some of that, take some naps, sleep in and hopefully get that 14 hours sleep deprived number gone or at least a lot lower. So I hope you if you went to the national, I hope you enjoyed the national. If you didn't go this year, I understand that sometimes it's hard to be here. If you didn't go this year I hope and you want to go hope you get to to the next again. Thanks everyone that I met there in person. Whether it's the first time or I met you already, I enjoy those conversations. Talking about life cards, you know, anything, right? I really do appreciate those interactions. So with that being said, I think I've sort of covered everything I wanted to cover and we'll see you next time. What's going on everyone? It's bluff here and we're driving through the states in the Bluff Mobile and the best thing that we can do is play our favorite casino style games. On Spin Quest, they have over a thousand games including live dealer, blackjack and craps. With tons of slots and unlimited options, you can get a 30 coin pack for just $10. For new users sign up today. Go to spinquest.com right now Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see. See through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, Filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.