$68,000 Tennis 1/1 SPARKS Entire Market | Serving Slabs #43

On today's Serving Slabs podcast, we talk about how insane the current market trends are in the tennis card market. It's been years since we've been covering the market and these are by far the craziest trends I've seen yet. So you guys gotta strap in and watch today's podcast because we're gonna cover about six different trends in the market, why they're going up in price and what to do from here. Because honestly a lot of you guys probably have questions. So let's just start off with what is going on in the market. The biggest thing is the last week or two in the tennis car market, maybe even all time to be completely honest, is The Rafael Nadal 2025 topsh as Superfractor one of one PSA nine selling for $68,000. This sold on DC Sports a seven eBay auction. I actually covered this card in last week's episode. I believe at the time it was at like $12,000. I, to be honest, I have no words for that price. I do have words and I'll tell you them, I guess, but it really just right away first thought is no words because I honestly at the time that I pulled this card, I thought maybe $10,000. Now remember that's back in February, the market wasn't anywhere close to like it is now. Just in general for the card market, especially the tennis card market, which has really exploded over the last even, you know, month and a half. Honestly, since the national, it's been insane. So yes, we pulled this card on release day, February 2026 of Topstrom Tennis. And Yu-Gi-Oh $68,000. So that is one of the highest sales for non Carlos Alcaraz tennis cards ever. Actually behind Novak. It might be especially top tennis cards, I should say it might be the highest tops tennis card. So it's not Carlos or Novak. I, I would actually put money on that. I'd have to go look for sure, but I'm pretty positive about that. And it's not only that I should say that it was that, but now it's not only that because that sale is sparking many, many big sales for Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alacrez, Novak Djokovic. Those are the three big names in top tennis cards. Obviously Federer is not currently being made in sets. His cards also are going crazy. Just to make it clear, the Net Pro 2003 stuff like that is going insane right now. But for Nadal, his gold aces geometric raw sold for $85 August 4th. Now let me give you some context. I had this Card at our booth at the National. I had this Card priced at $100. Did not sell for days. It was probably there. Day four, it sold. I took an offer, I think like $90 or maybe 85 right around here, guys. That is insane to see what it's now selling for. September 18th, three days ago, $695. That was one of two sales. There's nearly $700 for this card. I'm like, having a hard time actually getting my thoughts up because it's so insane. What has happened to the values of these cards. Like, you could have bought so many aces. Color. I was even buying some of those and they all sold at the National. I'm sure two are before that. Orange aces and a doll out of 25. You probably could have gotten for $150 gold, raw true gold or geometric between 80 to $120. You probably could have even got a red if you found one for probably about 2 to 2.5k. Now don't even ask me how much that's worth. The black number Topps 10. I forgot to put a graphic in here. Just over, like $23,000 of adult. The Black Aces number two PSA 10. So over $23,000 on eBay. Like I'm saying all this stuff, and for being a guy that's worked in tennis cards every single day for the past nearly three years almost. It's just like not processing correctly in my head. Like, I'm the one that has bought and sold a lot of these cards over the last three years at the national, some online, mostly the national, to be honest, especially this year at the national and last year where it's just like, I can't even imagine putting out a nadal gold ASIS for $600 and having it sell. I was, like I said, struggling to sell for $100. Now here we are. This is like, I'm telling you, this is like a month and a half to two months later and it's a $700 card. I would say congrats to those that bought at 80 to 100 or selling at 700. I would be very cautious of buying this card. 700. Yes. The market is hot right now. Yes, a lot of cards are going. Price can't sell for more than $700 in the future. Yes, it probably can, but, like, as a huge gain. That's a huge gain where I would definitely just pump the brakes and say, okay, what else is coming? 2026, top stream tennis is coming. 2026 tops. Royalty tense. Is coming at some point in the future, early 2027, I assume there's gonna be a lot more cars and be a lot more ways to spend money in tennis cards, to be a lot more on card autographs to find. I'd pump the brakes and buy a card like that. That's just me. I mean, you might say otherwise. You might say, well, Aaron, that one did 68 grand. Like amount of people are going to go buy the 50s. That same card are going to be huge. And Yu-Gi-Oh it probably will be. And I definitely could be wrong. I've been wrong on this podcast, honestly, over the last six months, just because I've had no idea that the market was going to explode like this for tennis cards. None of us could have predicted it. I, like I said, I've lived it for three straight years and I wouldn't even ever think that this would happen. I'm happy for those that are obviously getting those big sales and it's great to see, but, man, it's really insane. Let's move on to another card. Novak Djokovic Red Zebra Selections. I actually pulled this card, maybe not this exact same serial number. I pulled one of these number fives at the time you're thinking, Yu-Gi-Oh $1,1500, great card. And Yu-Gi-Oh it's over 1700 in July 20th of this year. A raw just did five grand. A PSA 10 just at 5.5 K about two weeks ago. I think maybe three. A raw now did five grand just yesterday on September 20th. That's insane. That's insane. Next up, Alcaraz Topps Chrome blue Yu-Gi-Oh 250 PSA 10 did 148 July 11 when he was out injured. I had about three of these at the National. I probably sold for 200 a piece because sales before that were 250. So I was probably something about 190 to 200. One just did 700. A base Zebra PSA 10 of Alcaraz base Zebra just did 450. We were giving those out in our break skunk packs that we'd send to people if they didn't get a hit in like tops royalty. So I really hope some of you kept those. Maybe you can grade them, but oh my gosh, it's just. What is going on? It's crazy. It's really crazy. And I know there's a huge influx of money coming in from all over the world. Tennis fans are everywhere. It's a huge, you know, highly viewed sport, but also a highly participated sport. The sport's played all around the world. And I think we're seeing that spill into tennis cards like it did soccer cards. So I guess all to be said is, you know, maybe you're sitting here watching and saying, dang, I wish I held my cards longer, I wish I sold them for more, I wish I did this, I wish I did that. And I could sit here and make you a laundry list of items I've sold that probably are worth 5 to 10 to 20x what they were or what they are, what they were back then, what they are worth now. And all I got to say is don't get down to yourself. Tennis is still a great place to be. There's a new set coming at the end of this month. They'll provide many opportunities for you and others to go and collect new cards on card autographs, buy them, grade them, sell them, collect other cards you want to keep for your PC. There's so many reasons to be excited about tennis cards, especially if you own some of these, obviously are able to sell them and then build your collection further with other cards. But it's still a great place to be even with the prices rising fast on these three players. It's not just these three players. These are the three that are booming the most, but obviously Ben Shelton. These next two I'm going to show you are two we've already talked about, but two that are very results based. Ben Shelton market probably would still be gaining some value right now if you didn't beat Alcaraz, to be honest. But not like this. 1900 for the triple relic auto one of one from tops royalty back in June 15th. That same card re auctioned after he made the US open final. This sold after he lost and it sold for $5,900 after he lost. So there, there's a lot of value being gained here based on performance, which is big to see. I think based as a tennis fan watching every day for the past like, you know, two years more, maybe this is what you want to see. You want to see players who perform, who put themselves in better positions, to be higher ranked, to be getting wins over players like Alcaraz gaining a lot of value because of that. And that's I think when the market's the healthiest, Israel performances driving the price movement. And that's what's happening here with Shelton as with Rabakina, who you know, we've talked about. So I'm not going to go too deep. But world number one US Open, Australian Open this year, WTA files. She's been on one of the craziest 52 week runs that we've seen for sure. It's a dominant 52 week run and she is at $440. Raw Zebra Auto numbered out of 10 on November 13th and that is 2024 for Raw. I know this is now two years later, but keep in mind she had a very brutal early 2025, late 2024. Now the PSA 10 Zebra Auto is selling for $4,000 as of two days ago. I know that's a raw compared to PSA 10. I would back in 2024 maybe say the PSA 10 would be a $900 card based on that rod 440 and how the PSA 10 market was back then. But $4,000 now for the PSA 10 purple Zebra Auto. I mean you could have bought a lot of good Rebo cards for that much even a year ago. I passed our 2025 Superfractor auto one of one at $2900. I think um, I had the chance the 2025. The second year I had a chance to buy it did not obviously, regrettably so. But someone definitely would have bought that for me at the national for a lot cheaper than it's worth today. So just crazy. You look at Sabalenka who has had a really, I'd say brutal 52 week stretch. No majors in the last 52 weeks. Lost to world number one. A lot of round of 16 round 32 losses we haven't seen from her in a while. But her Net Pro 1 of 1 racket knob auto went on auction on Net Pro's website because they've been releasing player collections. They did Fonseca, they did Eva Jovic. They did Fonseca with the auctions. They then did Sabalenka with the auctions where they auctioned off like eight one of ones. And that racking knob auto not rookie card, not first year racket knob, not tops. Racking knob did $22,500 on Net Pro's website. That was just on September 17th four days ago. You look at the royalty one back in March. That is right before she one-of-one the Sunshine double and it did $22,251. I will provide a caveat that tops royalty. Racking Knob Auto did sell via ebay China. I know a lot of people who did not bid on that who maybe otherwise would have if it was let's say on a Fanatics collect. So with that being said, I truthfully think that that Sabinka probably should have sold over 30 at the time. Back in March and I still think of it re auction right now even with her brutal 52E stretch. I say brutal, although she's still number two in the world, but brutal for her standards. Who was world number one for 99 consecutive weeks? Having no majors, you know, one of eight attempts since becoming world number one is not great. I, I do think that that would still sell more than the net pro one did. Now although we have those are the two sales we have to go off of. So there you go. There's that comparison. The market is on fire even to see her somewhere 101 still doing over 20 grand. Insane. It is on fire. I have nothing really much more to say. High influx of money. Absolutely on fire. New product coming September 30th which I want to re bring up right now as we are breaking 160 cases on Wednesday the 30th, Thursday, October 1st, Friday, October 2nd and then Tuesday, October 6th between those four days, 160 cases. We're doing massive giveaways too for those viewing and even those who are involved in the breaks with the $250 in slaps x tennis break credit per one of one you might hit. I do want to show you guys a couple of giveaways have come in handy. It'll be very good. The bingo board will be loaded. There will be $1,500 worth of giveaways available. Ones are in hand. This is a 2026 Babylot Arrow 100 square inch racket. Very, very nice racket. The cosmetic that Al has got these playing with. There he is right there on the front. There's Carlos. And that's pretty, pretty insane. So excited about that. And then we have got the triumphant tennis box also in hand that will be given away through the bingo board. Plus many others awesome stuff like sign tickets sign tennis balls. Really nice Carlos. Orange 25 insert from 2025 Topps Chrome. Some other very cool cards. A coco gameset match 2024, first year. So very excited for that. Make sure you guys subscribe to our podcast here on Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcast or Spotify. Subscribe to our channel on Fanatics live where we do all of our top tennis breaks. It's going to be a heck of a week. I can't wait. We'll have more breaks coming after that. We will be breaking this product for a long time. It'll not only be available for those four days but make sure you guys come for that release week because it will be epic. Cannot wait. Hope to see you guys there. And I hope you guys enjoyed today's podcast. Let me know your thoughts on the current market. It's insane. And we'll see you guys on the next one.