S8 E14: Preparing for the National, WannaShuffle Updates

This episode sponsored by Jace Medical. It's 11pm the pharmacy is closed and you need meds now. That's exactly why Jace Medical helps you prepare before emergencies happen. With the Jace case from Jace Medical, you can get 10 emergency medications and treatment options for over 50 infections shipped to your home after an online physician evaluation. Whether you're traveling abroad, stuck during a storm or dealing with a fast moving infection, Jace Medical helps you have medication on hand when it matters. Go to jace medicalase.com that's J-A-S-E.com join the thousands who trust Jace Medical and get your Jace case now at J-A S E.com. Foreign. Welcome to TTMC, your sports collectibles podcast. TTMCast is brought to you by Wanna Shuffle, the free monthly autograph trading service also supported by sportscollectors daily.com if it happens in the hobby, you'll find it on sportscollectorsdaily.com and sponsored by gemrate.com the latest grading statistics from the four major grading companies are just a click away. Visit gemrate.com it's free. And now here's our host, Drew Pelto. Well, hello everybody. We're coming to you here with TTM Cast, your sports collectibles podcast place. We talk about ttm, cards, autographs, collecting, any kind of sports stuff, even some non sports stuff. Whatever comes to our mind, we're going to cover it. This is season number eight, episode number 14. We're coming to you on July 18th here on this nationally ranked sports collectibles podcast. I am Drew Pelta coming to you here from the Dallas area of Texas right between Dallas, Fort Worth, joined me here by our co host Aaron Littleton, coming to us also from vast north Texas. Aaron, how are things looking up there? It's, you know, it's hot. It's not as hot as it normally is. So that's good if we can keep it under 110. Normally that's a victory at this time of year. So. So yeah, ready to do a great show. So let's get on with it. Well, got a lot going on right now, of course, the World cup down to its final two days as we record this, we're getting ready to play the third place game between England and France. Tomorrow's a championship game between Spain and Argentina and maintain. I'm still tooting my own horn on this one that I called Spain from the very start as winning it all. So sticking by that, here's a take on Argentina. Aaron, I, I know soccer is not exactly your, your area of expertise here. Any thoughts, any predictions, any. Anything to say on it at all? Well, as you know and mentioned, I am completely unqualified to make any sort of predictions, but, uh, you know, so I guess, uh, I, I'm hoping for, for good matches, you know, I mean, the World cup has been phenomenal for, uh, you know, I think for the world, you know, but certainly for, for America and you know, the perception of America worldwide, it's been great. And, and yeah, so the cultural impact of it has been phenomenal. So, so yeah, hopefully, hopefully it draws to a fitting conclusion with a, with a fitting winner and hopefully all the teams have fun, you know. Exactly. So how about we go over to an area that, you know a little bit better? Of course, baseball had the All Star Game this past week and I end up missing all the action of it there. I mean, I saw the second through the ninth innings, but by the time I got there was already 3, 0American League. The final score was 4 nothing. And I had it on in the background as I just gotten home from work, trip out to Las Vegas, but it just seemed like kind of a boring game really. I mean, I had on the background, next thing I know, I look up and the game's over. I'm like, wait, what this, how did this happen? But four, another game. You don't see many shutouts in the All Star Game there, and especially one that only had one run scored through the final eight innings of it. You know, All Star Game is always interesting because you got a bunch of guys who don't play together. You know, it's like you've got phenomenal individual talent with most, most of the, you know, most of the guys who are, who are on the All Star team. But you know, the, the lineup and, and bullpen cohesion, you know, generally leaves a little bit to be desired. But, but yeah, so obviously I'm happy that the World Series home field advantage in the World Series is no longer on the line in the, in the All Star Game. The Rangers got bit by that twice, but don't get me started on, on how that worked out. But, but yeah, so it's always good to see Mid Summer Classic. I didn't get to a chance to watch a lot of the All Star Game, you know, seven o' clock on a Tuesday night, not exactly a great time for me. I'm normally working at that point. But I did get a chance to watch the Home Run Derby and watching Kyle Swarber, you know, put on a show and then, then obviously Jordan Walker Being able to best him at the last minute, that was. That was a pretty good cinema. Yeah. So I think all in all, the. The all Star festivities were. Were a great thumbs up for. For baseball. And we'll see. We'll see how, how well that goes. You know, going into the goodwill that they, that they. That they brought out. We'll see how that goes. Going into the offseason and a potential lockout from here on out, I actually had to miss the home run contest. I was out in Las Vegas for five days there with Panini, did a basketball photo shoot. So it was kind of cool. I got to go and help out with that and meet some of the incoming NBA rookies and everything with that, so end up missing it while I was doing that and playing in a poker tournament out there as well. Got in on one of those after we got done with all that, but sound like it was a really good home run Derby there and, well, perfect segue into my previous couple of weeks here there. Like I said, you know, I was out in Vegas. I actually got this shirt that I'm wearing right now, the Piny Athletic Department 1 was one of the things I got while I was there. But yeah, doing that. Prepping for our big trip, which we'll be talking more about here during the show, and doing a lot of sticker trading. Started with 992 stickers in the Panini World cup album. I have 11 left to get for it at this point. So I know Clemente Lisi said that, hey, if I have any extras that you need, I'll definitely get them to you. So hopefully he's gonna be able to help me out without the national, and there may be some listeners out there that can help me out as well. The last 11 that I need are Czechia, 11, Switzerland 7, Turkey 14, Germany 2, Netherlands 1, Argentina 12, Colombia, 16 and 20, England 1, Croatia 17 and Ghana, 16. So any listeners that can help me out, I would greatly appreciate if you can. And hopefully I'll have this knocked out pretty quick then, now that I've gotten that far into it. So that's how my previous couple weeks have gone. Aaron, how to. How about you? What have you been up to? Well, my life has been dominated the last couple weeks by, you know, trying to. Trying to get ready for our. For our trip. You know, it takes. It takes a lot of. A lot of prep to, you know, I found to know what you have to know what you need at the National. You know, there. There are cards all over the place. You Know, and you never know what, what you're gonna, you know, what you're gonna do, what you're gonna need, what you're gonna run into, you know, at the National. So the better prepared you can be, the better off, you know, I guess the more success that you can have. But, yeah, so, I mean, I've been getting ready for that. All of my player collections, the various ones are, you know, including the Michael Young one, are done. They are ready to go. And I tried to prep better this time. You know, this. This will be my third time going to the national, so I'm a crusty veteran now. But. But, yeah, I tried to learn from last time when I was constantly trying to pull up my Michael Young collection on the WI Fi there in Atlantic City. And it was just. There's so many people that the WI Fi is just shot normally. So I took the liberty of printing out my Michael Young collection and all the other collections. So I have like a hard copy on hand so I won't have to deal with the Internet. And I know that you did that last year. You were much better prepared than I was or the last time that we went, not last year. So it's really learning from my mistakes and hopefully this year that will set me up better for success. You know, doing that, actually having it all printed out in front of me. So that's really most of what's been going on. The other thing that I want to remember or the other thing that I want to mention, I guess, is that I did complete my goal in. In losing 50 pounds before we left on this trip. I did it with about a couple weeks left to go. Weighed myself 227.8 pounds and I started at 280, so. So that it's been a little bit of a road for me to get there, but I'm proud of my progress and. Yeah, so I just wanted to mention that. And then, yeah, the last thing is I'm going to do a little bit of a game zero because we are not going to graph enough the next few weeks. But, yeah, so I'm going to go see Tulsa and the Frisco Rough Riders on my way to you before we leave on Monday. And so I'm going to go to see them tomorrow and yeah, looking forward to that. Hopefully get a little bit extra ink and let's go. I'll be skipping out on that one. I've got. I still haven't packed my suitcase yet. I've still got to get all my stuff, various things together. I've at least got my graphing books done and all that kind of stuff. So let us know how you do. And I'm sure we'll be doing updates throughout the the trip and during the national. So we'll get any, any reviews on that first on Game zero there before we even hit the road. Well, this week's show we are dedicating it 100% mostly maybe about 95 to the national because we've got that coming up. We're about a week and a half away, two weeks like that, somewhere around there, away from that. Starting of course, Aaron and I are going to be out there. We'll be meeting up with all of you that are listening that are going to be out there. And yeah, we got stuff going on that we'll talk about a little bit later on. But we'll be covering everything with the national in Grapher diy we also have all of our regular segments, Baker's dozen covering signings and news throughout the hobby. Some upcoming card releases as well. Hobby happenings talking about we've got one other show to promote besides the national so we'll cover that in there as well. Following Grapher diy, we're going to talk about making the grade, covering grading here in the world of our hobby along with the stamp of approval where we give our thumbs up to something, anything from the previous couple weeks, sometimes collectibles and sports related. A lot of times it's not. We also have the Verne wrap minute covering deaths in the world of sports, celebrity, music, movies and politics. Anybody that passed away, that is a TTM signer. We try to let you know about it. And last, the main reason why the show even exists, it is our TTM returns to finish things out. If you'd like to get a hold of us, Aaron, how can the people get to us? That would be ttmcastahoo.com so any questions, any comments you want to send our way, make sure you do them through that address. If you want to get a hold of one of us individually, you can find my website@dfw grapher.com you also email me dfwgraphermail.com and of course you can find me on all social media. FWGrapher mostly Instagram being the place for that but also a little bit active here and there on Twitter, Blue sky and YouTube. Give us a follow and see our trip. YouTube.com DFW Grapher Aaron, where can the people follow you at? That would be mostly on Instagram at the moment. You can check out Aaron Sportscard explosion at AaronSportscard explosion. That is Aaron A, R, R, O, N. And that is how you spell my name. I get a lot of funny looks when I tell people that's how you spell it. But indeed that is true. Yeah. And so you can check out my Michael Young collection. I've been posting additions to that. I've been posting autographs, all sorts of stuff. So you can just check out my miscellaneous stuff there or you can check out the Eternal Graphing Tour with the underscore in between each one of those words. That is my to see all of the affiliated ballparks in the United States and Canada. I'm currently at 94 ballparks. So God willing here in about a week or so we are going 100. I'm told that that will be in Beloit, Wisconsin. And so yeah, we are. We are looking forward to that. We're gonna have some fun stuff. And I'm not sure how live I'm going to be. I'm going to be posting all of these things because it takes me a while to do the write up. But yeah, so I will as soon as I can get that up. I'm going to be doing it as as close to live as possible. So probably the the next day or within the next couple days you can read about our stuff as much as the character count on on Instagram will allow. I normally post it to my regular Facebook. I will say that I've had a few of you wonderful people reach out to me about various sets and stuff like that. Ju just a. And I love hearing from y'. All. So thank you for doing that. Please continue to do that. But I normally check Aaron Sports Card Explosion more than I checked the Eternal Graphing Tour. I've got them both, you know, saved onto my Instagram account, but for some reason I haven't been getting the the notifications when you send me a message on the Eternal Graphing Tour. So if you're trying to get a hold of me, definitely do it on Aaron Sports Card Explosion. And I'm sorry if it takes me a while to get back to you, maybe I didn't get the notification, but I'll try to do that as soon as possible. There you go. So if you haven't given us a follow yet on all those locations, make sure you do so so you don't miss a minute of the trip that we're going on starting on Monday with that, I think it's time we start things up with Baker's Dozen. Baker's dozen sponsored by sportscollectors daily.com Smart collectors turn to Sports Collectors Daily to stay up to date. From new releases to incredible collections hitting the auction block. News from inside the business of sports collectibles and much more. Sports Collectors Daily has it all. With no subscription cost, SC Daily also delivers a live look at the most watched sports card auctions on ebay for every sport. Sign up to get the headlines in your email for free or just visit the website whenever you like. With 16,000 stories in the archive going back 16 years, there is always plenty to read at sportscollectors daily.com. Bakers Dozen is a summary of all things around the collectibles world. Talking about some upcoming releases and some upcoming signings. And we want to make sure to remind you to check out sportscollectors daily.com they are the place to go for any kind of sports collectibles news and I write a article for them pretty much every couple weeks or so. Didn't do one this past week. We had to delay last week's show show's release by about a week and by the time it got up I was out in Vegas and busy. So I'm like, I'll just push it on to this week. So coming up this weekend we're gonna have a actually about on Monday we're gonna have a kind of a memorial piece on Jack Smalling along with my TTM return postings and all that kind of good stuff. So make sure you check out sportscllectorsdaily.com for that and all sorts of other great hobby news. Our website here on the show is ttmcast.com if you go to the top banner on the right side, you can find a link to the TTM Cast store. Get yourself a T shirt. Get yourself a hoodie. Get yourself a hat. We've got stickers, we've got a pouch to keep your graphing pens in, all kinds of stuff like that. So get on there. TTMcast.com the store is in the upper banner on the right side. Speaking of shirts, we are going to do a giveaway this month of a T shirt. We only have three entries into it, so we had, like I said, we had kind of a short week there. So we're gonna go ahead and push this to the end of July. If you want to get in for a chance to win a TTM cast T shirt, send us your name, your home mailing address and whatever size you want, what color you'd want. Aaron, what's the email address to send that to? That is ttmcastahoo.com send that over to us, get involved and entered into our contest to have a chance to win yourself a T shirt there. And yeah, we'll draw that here in first August episode which might be recorded on the road. It might be recorded right when we get back sometime in there. It'll be before August 12th approximately, I would think, slash hope so somewhere in there. We'll get you drawn for that and pick a winner on it. You can also still get yourself a signed TTM Cast hosts card if you'd like one. Just send a self address stamped envelope to Drew Pelto, P.O. box 140421, Irving, Texas 75014 and we'll get that sent right on back out to you there. We'll have those at the national here with us as well. And lastly, speaking of the National, Thursday night at the show we're going to have the TTM cast meetup at the show. We've only had one listener RSVP so far, so it's going to be a very light showing there. But we're gonna make sure we have a little extra space at the table there. I mean Aaron and I will be there. I know Clemente and Les are planning on being there. My wife is flying up that that day so she'll probably be out there for it as well. So yeah, come down, hang out with us and we'll talk hobby. We'll eat some pizza and fun will be had. Unfortunately, we can't pick up the tab for your food or anything like that. Food and drink, we don't have that kind of a budget, unfortunately. But so you've got to be on your own there. But hey, we'll all hang out and we'll talk some talk some hobby. So come on down to that Thursday night at the national. That's at Giordano's at 9415 Higgins Road. Lastly, we are still looking for sponsors here for the upcoming for the next year, half year, year and a half, however long you want to get on that for. So email Ruthie Baker once again just to get in on that. Send us what what you'd like to possibly sponsor here with the show. She can get you our pricing packages and all that and help keep us on the air here for another year or so. I think it's about time we look at some upcoming releases here as we've got five of them I think here to talk about. So let's start some hockey. We've got 2026 upper deck PWHL coming on July 22nd. That's gonna come with six cards per pack and 12 packs per box. You'll also get 13 inserts or parallels in that box. Pre sale price for upper Deck PWHL is going to run you $120. And then we have 2026 upper deck artifacts golf that drops on July 29th. Upper deck artifacts is always one of my favorite sets. In there you'll get four cards per pack. You'll get eight packs per box. You'll get three autographs, memorabilia or tech cards and five other inserts per box as well. The pre sale price for that is $120. Well, if you're a fan of punch and kick in the face contest, you'd like this. Panini contenders PFLS professional Fighting League 2026 product drops on July 29th. In there you're gonna see eight cards per pack with four packs per box, four autographs in that box along with 16 other inserts and parallels. Pre sale price on Panini contenders PFL $100. As you mentioned it, I am a fan of punch and kick in the face. There you go. In fact, I think that more people could use a punch and kick in the face, but you know, that's just me. Yes, absolutely. Then we also have 2026, 27 upper deck MVP hockey that drops on August 5th. In there you will get eight packs. You will get eight cards per pack. You'll get 20 packs per box, 30 inserts in Parallels per box as well. And the pre sale price for that is only $60. Lastly, we've got 2026 Onyx Rips track and field. I have never seen a track and field product before in my life, but Onyx is coming out with one on August. In there you're gonna see five cards per pack with 24 packs per box, eight autographs in that box. An autograph, one autograph in every three packs out of that. That's, that's pretty nice right there. Pre sale price on that will run you $140. And you know that you've got a nice week of some budget budget price products there. When a track and field one is the most expensive one out of any of them. So good to see that there's some good stuff out there for the budget collectors such as us. Well, we've got the national coming up here. We're what, a week and a half away from that starting up. It'll be on next Wednesday. And so normally we cover upcoming mail in signings in here, but we're Going to go ahead and cover stuff that's going on with the national here with everybody that is signing out there. So Aaron, take it away. Wednesday, who do we got? If you are going to be at the VIP party, which we will get yourself some baseball autographs because they will have Cecil Cooper, Greg Jeffries and Jerome Walton all signing there at the VIP party. So come and hang out and grab yourself some ink. Also, if you've got the VIP package, not only do you get to go to the party, but you also get a couple of VIP ticketed signers as well. And those are former Bears Kurt Becker and Patrick Manoli. So all that going on at the very beginning of the show on Wednesday. Patrick Manley is a long snapper. I'm way more geeked than anybody should be to get a long snappers autograph, but this is the first time I've seen a long snapper at a show ever. So I'm totally all about this one. Moving on to Thursday, VIP ticketed ones. If you've got the VIP pass, you'll be seeing Jerry Korab, King Kong Korab of the. Let's see the Buffalo Sabres, the LA Kings, probably a couple other teams. They're 1970s NHL. A tough guy there. I was gonna see Steve Trout out there, former pitcher for the Cubs and White Sox, among other teams. I'm gonna have Randy Martz, another former Cubs and White Sox pitcher there, and Mike Squires, first baseman and the rare left handed catcher occasionally with the White Sox as well. If you're looking more for the paid ones, here we go. This is gonna be a long list of who all is signing on Thursday. In approximate chronological order they're gonna have Steve Carlton, Ron Mix, Jan Stenrud, Brian Bosworth, Earl Campbell, Warren Moon, Anthony Munoz, Bob Lilly, Kurt Warner, Robert Parrish, Phil Sims, Randy White, Tori Holt, Boomer Siason, Kevin McHale, Marshall Falk, Mel Renfro, Mike Singletary, Roger Wearley, Isaac Bruce, Drew Pearson, Steve Atwater, Jonathan Ogden, Jackie Slater, Charles Haley, Dwight Stevenson, Joe Delamier, Will Shields, Billy Williams, Dan Hampton, Bruce Matthews. Speaking of long snappers, he handled the long snapping duty for the Oilers. Also Dave Casper, Drew Brees, Leroy Butler, Donovan McNabb, Steve Largent, Chuck D and Flava Flav from Public Enemy, Kevin Moet, Neil Smith, Rod Woodson, Robert Brazil, Emmett Thomas and Jackie Smith. So a lengthy list right there. Mostly football there on Thursday, but a lot of hall of Fame Inc. Getting, getting spread out there. Moving on to Friday. Aaron, who do we have coming in on, on there? To kind of put the midpoint there. All right. On Friday, the VIP ticketed signers are former Chicago Blackhawk, Grant Mulvey, former Cub Gene Heiser. The one that I am. You were talking about being excited for Patrick Manley. The one that I am most excited about is former. Let's see here. Minnesota Twin Yankee royal Chuck Knobloch. I am. I'm pumped to get Chuck Knobloch. He is in like six sets that I'm working on. So. So hopefully we' can get that all those done. And then former Bears wide receiver Wendell Davis as well. And so that rounds up the quartet of VIP signers on Friday. Then we've got a very exhaustive list. And they are Rocky Blair, Ozzy Gan, Jim Rice, Billy Smith, Lynn Swan, Bruce Smith, all the Smiths, Jim to me. Jeff Bagwell, David ortiz, Cal Ripken Jr. Mike Smith, Luke Keakley, Emmett Smith, Jack Ham, Flavor Flav. By the way, I'm really. I'm really disappointed that you didn't do the Flavor Flav thing. I might drop that in the background there. There you go. Sound effects, we've got. We've got a huge sound effect budget over here, so. Archie Griffin, Richard Dental Walt, Clyde Frazier, Zach Thomas, Johnny Bench, Jim Covert, Edgar and James, Ozzy Smith. Again, more Smiths. Dante Culpepper, Otis Anderson, Jay Cutler, Ric Flair, Matt Forte, Doug Collins, Bernard King, Jim McMahon, Ricky Williams. The answer, Allen Iverson, Chad Johnson. Wait, wait. Is it not Ocho Cinco anymore? It's. It's John. He changed it back to Johnson. Yeah, he changed back to Johnson. What? And for the first thing, as somebody who speaks Spanish. Okay, I'm here to tell you that that Ocho cinco is not 85. It's. It's 85. That's close enough. Well, I'll allow it. Allowing side eye. I'll allow it. But I. I think what he was looking for was Ochinta Cinco, which would be 85. But anyway, I digress. Then you'll get LT. Lawrence Taylor, Carlton Fisk, Michael Vick, Johnny Manziel, Kiki Vanderway, Willie McGee, the Dream, Hakeem Olajuwon, Eric Allen, Sterling Sharp, Joe Theisman, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Marv Levy, Andre Reed, Matt Hughes, Ralph Macchio of the Karate Kid fame. You will also get Skip Griperis, Michael Papa John, Chelsea Rice Ross. Sorry, Chelsea Ross and Mike Starr. Be glad Chad Johnson decided to go with Spanish there. I mean, really bad Spanish and not French, because that would be Chad Catra Van Sank, and that just would not Fit on a jersey very well. So let's see here we've got Thursday. Here we've got, coming up for the VIP signers, Ron Kittle, legendary sort of slugger, a former rookie of the Year winner, formerly of the White Sox, the Indians, the Orioles, maybe a couple other teams. There we've got Cheryl Swoops, basketball Hall of Famer, another one that I'm very happy to get. I just got both of her rookie cards, so I'll be getting those hopefully signed. And we also have a couple of guys from the defensive side of the Bears, Mike Hartenstein and Otis Wilson, that'll be signing in the afternoon session for the VIP signers. And now, yet again, another lengthy list of signers on Saturday. Starting out with Reggie Jackson, former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis, Christian Laitner, Calvin Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, Miguel Cabrera, Dwight Freeny, Joe Montana, Megan Keller, DEZ Bryant, Mariano Rivera, Carson Palmer, Matt Hughes, Manny Ramirez, Ladanian Tomlinson, Kerry Wood, Antonio Gates, Julius Irving, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, John Bones Jones. We've got Devin Hester, Jeff Kent, Andrew Jones, Terrell Suggs, Andre Johnson, Scott Roland, Dennis Rodman, Buster Douglas, Yaromir Jagger, Sammy Sosa, Ahmad Hardy, Bone Crusher Smith, Jerry Cooney, and then the same celebrity group as on Friday there with Ralph Macchio, Michael o', Keefe, Skip Griparis, Michael Pappajohn, Chelsea Ross and Mike Starr. So that's the whole crew for Saturday. Another lengthy list right there. Unfortunately, Sunday, a little bit lighter of a day for the first thing. Before I go into Sunday. Has there ever been a more hardcore nickname than Bone Crusher Smith? Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, yeah, it's definitely one of the best ones. I mean that, that is, you know, a one tier nicknaming right there. And then getting back to what I'm supposed to doing on Sunday, after a brief aside. On Sunday, the VIP signers will be former Texas Rangers, great and more notably Chicago Cub, Giovanni Soto, uh, the Goggles, Chris Sabo, Steve Lyons, and uh, another guy that you're excited to add to your collection, Drew, uh, Reed Simpson, a former former tough guy in the NHL. And uh, for the regular signers, for the, I guess the, the paid signers, they will have such names as Tom Glavin, Roger Clemens, Lee Smith, John Smoltz, Dave Winfield, Trevor Hoffman, Javi Lopez, Jack Morris, Angel Barroa, Andre Dawson, Rafael Furcal, Fergie Jenkins, Vladimir Guerrero Sr. Rob Gronkowski, Tony La Russa, Yaxel Lindenborg, Paul Molitor, Tommy John, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Tim, Ted Simmons, Robert Robin Yount, Burt Bly, Levin, Wade Boggs, Raleigh Fingers, Eddie Murray, Tony Oliva, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Starr. So if you need some baseball hall of Famers, if you need big name baseball, it is on Sunday at the national this year. I should also say Mike Starr has been on there three times there for three the days of the show. This is the actor Mike Starr, not the former bass player for Allison Chains as he died 15 years ago and I don't think he's gonna be coming back to sign at all. So just a heads up for anybody that's out there collecting music autographs, it's not the AIC bassist. Also, TriStar will offer mail ins on a lot of these. I know they're getting. Got to be getting close to deadline on that. It may have already passed by now. Even so, go check out NSCCshow.com, click on the autograph guests up in the top banner there and that'll take you to try to start a site to find out how you can get in on any mail ins, if they're still taking them at this time. Next up, let's move on into Hobby Happenings. You heard that, right. It's time for Hobby Happenings. Hobby Happenings is proudly sponsored by Wanna Shuffle, the free monthly autograph trading service. For more information, check out Wanna Shuffle on Instagram, facebook or@wannashuffle.com Hobby Happenings takes a look at some upcoming shows. We've only got one worth talking about, but before we get into that one, we're gonna go to Belinda Wheeler with a Wanna Shuffle update. All right, we are here for an update on Wanna Shuffle with Belinda Wheeler joining us here. Been a month since we've had her on, but time to get an update from you here. How are things? How things been going over there, Drew? Wow. I can't believe, like a month. That's crazy. Time flies, my friend. Yeah, things have been going great. We've had the awesome 250th celebrations. I've had family visit. I've been watching some great sporting events, including the World cup and of course, working. So all of that combined has actually meant that I'm a little bit behind with the June Shuffle this month, which never happens. So. Yep. How did things look for the month of June there? How many submissions did you end up getting with it? Yeah, it continues to go really well, Drew. We've had close to 300 again. And that's. Yeah, it's just great. The community has been wonderful. So very grateful to everyone Any particular items that stand out in your mind that came in for this one? Yeah. So I have to actually give a shout out to, to you. I loved that. You're gonna have to tell me about the pronunciation of the last name, but. Ed Hobo, the 1960 Tops rookie card for the White Sox, that was awesome. Yeah, I had two of those and I'm like, oh, that's, that's perfect. I said I was gonna send a 60s one. I found that one. It's like that's, that's the ones going in. So, yeah, that one was fantastic. And then also TTM gems Wade Butte, who was on your show, I think it was two episodes ago, he actually sent in a 1959 top signed Lou Carpenter from the NFL packers card, which is just phenomenal. So those. I know I've kind of gone with the old school cards to shout out for June, but they were just. Yeah, when I, when I saw those come in, I was like, that is really sweet. Both of those. Yeah. Vintage is always fun. I mean, even if it's a team that you don't care about or anything like that, just getting a card that you know is in this. Well, in this case, my dad would have been 10 years old when that card came out. I mean, it very could have easily been in his collection at some point. So, you know. Yeah, I think I've just got a massive soft spot for those old school cards. And a lot of the shufflers, you know, they, they're like, yes, I like this team or this team. But then they're also like, if you've got any vintage, I'm like, interested in that and I can see why, because it's really cool. Like the, the layout, the just. Yeah. The information on the back, it's just. I don't know, maybe I'm kind of like being nostalgic, but it's very cool. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So what are, what are the bonus items going to be here for July Shuffle? We're about, you know, halfway in or so, but still plenty of time for people to get in on July here as well. Yes. So I've finally gotten around to sorting a lot of the giveaways that people have sent in over the last few months. So we have for July, one lucky shuffler will receive number one assigned certified Zach Wilson autographed card that was donated by Zach Sawyer. A signed Tim Hulet from the Orioles card donated by John Wood. Thanks to us and their price increase, I've. I've donated a 10 pack of USPS stamps that I purchased directly from USPS to help out the water shuffle community and also a wanna shuffle sticker which all of that will be in addition to the shufflers regular trade. So I think that's a nice little pack for July as a bonus. Yeah. Now are those all going to one person or is it going to be each of those is a bonus? No, it's going to one person. Someone's going to hit the bonanza with that. So we're going to have major league baseball, NFL, the stamps and the water shuffle sticker. So one lucky person's going to get that in addition to their regular trade. It's 11pm the pharmacy is closed and you need meds now. That's exactly why Jace Medical helps you prepare before emergencies happen. With the Jace case from Jace Medical you can get 10 emergency medications and treatment options for over 50 infections shipped to your home after an online physician evaluation. Whether you're traveling abroad, stuck during a storm or dealing with a fast moving infection, Jace Medical helps you have medication on hand when it matters most. Go to jace medical@jace.com that's J-A-E.com join the thousands who trust Jace Medical and get your Jace case now@jase.com Nice. Nice. Real quick. Also for people to just so they know, what are some of the teams or cities or locations or whatever that you're looking for stuff from specifically? Like what are some of the biggest, where's the biggest demand lying on all this? Yeah, at the moment it's, it's honestly every month it's a mixed bag. So appreciate everyone that really helps out female athletes. Any sport is. We're getting an increased ask for that. UFC and WWE for football, the New Orleans Saints and the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals for let's see, hockey and baseball, Tampa Bay Rays and the Lightning, Detroit Red Wings and any Cleveland or Philadelphia teams are much appreciated. Nice. You mentioned female athletes and one of the most recent additions to the list of the VIP signers for the national coming up here in about two weeks is basketball hall of Famer Cheryl Swoops. So if I'm able to get an extra ticket there, I'll see if I can get a Cheryl Swoopes one here for one of the upcoming, upcoming shuffles there. That's awesome. I actually on that note, I was listening to your last, last podcast when I was finishing up the shuffle for June and I was hearing about all the, you know, the great things that you and the community have planned for the national and I'm bummed that I will not be there but I will definitely be with you, all of you in spirit. And Giordano's pizza, that is like the best pizza in my mind. So I'm very excited that you guys are going to be getting a taste of the Giordano's pizza. That's awesome. Yeah, I love Chicago style pizza. I mean it's, it's not as good as Detroit style. That is my number one all time. But I will gladly get some Chicago style pizza while I'm there. I know there's some out there who are like that's not a pizza, that's a casserole. I'm like, I don't care. It's great. I'm going to eat it nonetheless. So yeah, we'll be out there and we're gonna get you up to the national one of these years here. I mean I think I know 2030, Aaron and I will probably doing another road trip up there. So another four years off there and we'll see. We get, let's get you out to one before then but at least we'll get you, we'll try to get you up to that one or something. Oh yes, I will, I will circle that already on my calendar, my friend. That would be really cool. Yeah, absolutely. Well hey, real quick let everyone know where can they send in their shuffle. Like I said, you know we've got about two weeks left in the month here to get that in. But what's once again what's the address there? Yeah. So if anyone wants to send in an autograph to card and a stamp self addressed envelope to want to shuffle at P.O. box 68 Cordova, SC 29039. That would be fantastic. Well there you go. And once again also just where real quick where can everybody follow you online on social media and such? Yes. So our website, wannashuffle.com on Instagram wanna underscore shuffle and then Facebook it's just want to shuffle. There you go. So yeah if you haven't already given a follow on those, make sure you go ahead and do that so you can keep track of every shuffle out there whether it's, you know, some of the bonus items that you get each month, whether it's going to be, you know what blind is looking for to help out other collectors there, give a follow, get in on the shuffle trades and looking forward to seeing what, what goes into the mail here on the July shuffle and onward from there. Yes, I really appreciate everyone in the community and Drew, if I could just do a super quick shout out if possible. Just wanted to let the community know. I don't usually get to go to baseball games very often, but at the end of this month, I will actually be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for work and part of the work trip is actually included a Pirates ticket. So I will actually be at the Wednesday midday game on July 29th. So if anyone in the. Wanna shuffle. Excuse me, T. Excuse me, TTM cast or Wanna shuffle community, Anyone, if you happen to be going to the Pittsburgh Pirates game that day, definitely reach out to me on socials. I would love to connect with you. I'll have some things for giveaways and stuff like that as well. Gonna do any ballpark graphing while you're there at all? You know, I don't know I should because I'm there, but I don't know if the Pirates like signs, so that might be something for the community too. If anyone, you know, is a regular. I've never been to that ballpark before, so if anyone has any tips about graphing there, please let me know because I have no clue about any. Anything there. So I. It would be. Be very easy for me to have a couple of cards and any tips anyone has. I would certainly love to graph while I'm there. At the very least, I do know that I made a big trade with a Pittsburgh collector a few years ago where he was trying to get rid of some of his baseball to get in exchange for some hockey. And so he had a whole bunch of stuff. He had gotten signed at Pirates games years ago. So at the very least it used to be doable. But, you know, obviously things have changed with, you know, the full netting and everything and how anything changed after Covid, so who knows. But it at least was once very graphical there. So that's a. That's a good sign. I would hope. That's cool. Yeah, I should. You know, you're right. I should pull out a few cards. Obviously, I don't think anyone like Paul Skins or that is gonna graph, but you know, there could be some players that. That might be in for it. So. Yeah, I should. I should take a pen and a few cards just on the off chance that maybe someone does. Yeah. Yeah. If you get a chance to definitely give me a scouting report because I'll be seeing the Pirates on the road up in Milwaukee. There we go. On the. On my upcoming trip. Nice. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, very cool. Unfortunately, I know we talked about hoping to meet up there at the Georgia game here, but got work stuff going on there. Sounds like a really Good. Cause, though, for what you're doing there with. With. With that. So it's like, all right, that's. That's. Yeah, go ahead and. Go ahead and Definitely miss that. I'm so sorry about that. Yes. For the listeners. I'm. I'm teaching a class and the. That I was supposed to be going to the Gwinnett game and seeing Drew and Aaron, and I was so looking forward to it, but it's actually going to be the last week of classes for these students, and they're in a restrictive environment, so if I'm not there, that would. Yeah, that would really, really be a bummer for them. But it's a bummer for me, too, because I really wanted to. You know, I've known you. You, Drew, for a couple of years now, but we've never actually met face to face, so it's still on my bucket list, my friend. Well, I still have to visit South Carolina at some point to hit my. All 50 by age 50. So whenever I get out, I mean, I'm sure Aaron and I, we're gonna try to swing up there just so I get my feet on the ground. And I think it was a town of fair play, is right over the border, so it's like, we're gonna drive up there, get my feet on the ground. Hey, hey. It just says I have to have both feet on the ground in the state. That is. That is my rule on this. Oh, is that the rule? Okay. Yes. Either way, though, whenever I finally get to South Carolina, definitely we will be meeting up, trading some autographs, whatever we can. Something like that. Absolutely, my friend and I. I think, as I've mentioned to you, I think I'll be in Texas early next year for work, so we might be able to make something work there, too. But I hope the Gwinnett game is amazing. They've got, you know, a great, great players, and it should just be great. I've heard lots of good things about the. Where they play and the environment and everything, so I'll be there in spirit. Just like with the national, my friend. Yes. Got my book all prepped for it and everything here. You're so organized. I want to live vicariously through you, Drew and Aaron, definitely. If you saw everything around me, you know, this. This is. It's not organized. It's called Controlled chaos is about all that it is. So. I love controlled chaos. That's awesome. So, any other thoughts here before we go ahead and move on here in the show? No, just thanks to everyone. Apologies for the delay. On the, on the June Shuffle. But you know, 2250th anniversary and family coming for that. You know, that's, that's a pretty, you know, amazing event. So. But everything is continuing as normal. So please get the July trades in and I'm back to full, full capacity. So thanks everyone as always. There you go. So send them on in and we'll get another update probably about a month or so on the other side of the national. We'll talk to you again and find out what's what. The latest is here on Wanna shuffle. That's great. Thanks, Drew. Big thanks to Belinda joining us here this week. And yeah, unfortunately gonna have to. We won't get to meet up with her there in Georgia. But hopefully we'll get to at some point there in the future. We'll get her out to a future national there as well. Well, as we said upcoming shows. We've got one to talk about here and this is sent to us by one of our listeners. John Guzman sent it in and wanted to make sure we got it in. So we'll talk about it here. We'll talk about it on our next show as well. But on August 22nd will be the Garden City Sports Card and Collectibles Expo takes place the Columbia County Exhibition center in Grovetown, Georgia. You're gonna have 200 tables there. Admission will be $5. Kids under 12 will get in free. Unfortunately, no autograph signers there, but they will have food trucks set up outside. So food right on site there as well. In between checking out all those 200 tables. If you want more info, go and find on Facebook Garden City Sports Card and Collectibles Expo. So there you go. There's our one show to talk about here because we're going to be spending most of our time talking about the national right here in Grapher diy. Ready for some tips and tricks. It's time for Grapher DIY Graphic DIY to segment. We do every so often to just kind of give some do's and don'ts about things in the hobby, how to do certain things, how to improve anything that you're doing in the hobby as well. And this time we're going to be talking about the national because we are like I said, a week and a half away from a kicking off. That'll be a next Wednesday that everything will start up. That is the 29th of July, I think that's right. Yeah, 29th. Yep. There we go. And check the calendar real quick to make sure of that. And we're Going to talk about just some upcoming stuff that the national has going on with it. Some booths that are among our favorites to check out some of the big things some of the companies are doing. But Aaron, start us off here. Ludx, they've got a nice app and what do they got going on there? Yeah, so Ludx, they have a interactive show map on their app so you can check out where all the stuff will be even before you get on the show floor. So I know I've downloaded it. I know you've downloaded it and you should download it too. It's absolutely worth downloading if you haven't done that yet. So it's available on Apple and Google app stores as well. Make sure you're prepared to start the National. You know where all your favorite booths are. And yeah, you can do that with Linux. Think you can even like put down notes in there and everything and mark down some of your favorite ones. So if there's a booth you want to go and check out later, you can just, you know, mark it with a star or something like that and swing by it later on in the week if you need to. Speaking of which, some boots that we would like to highly recommend ones that. Ones I've had very good luck with in the past, of course. I mean, we talked to him on our previous episode. Les Wolf is going to be set up there. He's a TTM cast correspondent and he's set up at booth number 1000. I know Aaron and I are gonna be out there a bit. We're gonna be talking to him throughout the show and everything and posting up a few kind of short mini episodes here of TTM cast while the national is going on. So make sure you check his spot out. Another one that we've had some very good luck with in the past is singles club. They're gonna be set up at 2204. Hopefully they would have these dollar boxes of all kinds of crazy stuff. You might find, you know, 50 card in there for a buck. You might find almost anything, whether it's autographs, whether it's MEM cards, short printed stuff, anything. But they're gonna have 50 cent boxes, it said this time on their Instagram page, along with five to twenty dollar slabs. So you might find some real nice bargains in there. Definitely worth checking out and spending some time there just going through all their boxes. One that I always like is mainline autographs. They're gonna be set up at booth number 833. They always have a ton of signed cards. They typically have them broken up pretty well by set and by sport and all that throughout there. And they even have some just general dollar boxes that'll have all kinds of stuff there. You never know what you're gonna find in there. A lot of minor league baseball stuff. So if you work on a minor league baseball sets or anything like that, go and dig through those for a while, you're gonna find a lot of. A lot of good stuff in there. I know last time the 2022 show, I found a few autographs been personalized and I picked those up for a buck each. Was able to remove the personalization easily on them. So you know, something just to stick in my collection there. And that's the only way I've been able to get Josh freaking Naylor's autograph was to pull it out of one of those dollar boxes there and erase the two John personalization on it. Another one for signed cards, check out deals by George. He is set up as W.R. george and he is set up at booth number 3522. He used to set up down here at the Dallas card show a lot and he has a lot of really great stuff in there. It's all broken down by team. His prices I believe are something like it's $3 for cards for. It's $6 for cards from the 50s, $5 for cards from the 60s, $4 for cars from the 70s, $3 for cards from the 80s to the present. And you'll find a lot of really great bargains in there if you're willing to sit there and look. And like I said, he has it really well sorted by team. So you should be able to find something in there very, very easily. And lastly, Aaron, you can talk more about this one. Jacksonville Sports Cards is set at booth number 471. And yeah, you said they've got some stuff that's really well sorted by team and by player, which really helps a lot of people out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so Jacksonville Sports Cards is always one of my, one of my go to's. They've got, they've got a humongous booth that just has card boxes all over it. It's generally pretty well sorted by team and by sport. And so that's super helpful, you know, super helpful to me specifically because I collect a very, very specific things. And so, you know, I go and I look through the Rangers file, see if I can find any Michael Young's. Well, Michael Young also played for the Philly. So I go and look through the Philly one, you know, and then also the Dodgers and yeah, it makes it super, super easy to kind of find what you're looking for. And so I always, I always go and spend, spend a, spend a couple of hours there, you know throughout the show and, and probably a few hundred dollars, you know, by buying a huge stack of cards. And so, so yeah, that, that's always one of my favorite ones. So check out Jacksonville sports cards. Uh, do not buy the Michael Youngs. Leave those for me. Uh, but yeah, so we've got stuff coming up from some of the companies that are going to be set up there as well. I mean typically a lot of years somebody will do some rapper redemptions or any kind of parties or anything like that. Aaron, lead off here, what do we got for a couple of them that, that have some things going on? Yeah, absolutely. And so, and so Panini has a VIP party like super black tie event. I'm kidding. But only barely. VIP party for breakers and for big spenders. So. So if you've got some money to throw around, check out, check out Panini VIP party. You can get some awesome stuff there. And so that's the first one. And then also leaf they have got a wrapper redemption on any hobby or jumbo box purchase. You can get a free four card pack with all numbered cards. They are all number two, 99 or less. So yeah, check that out. You can get yourself, get yourself some swag there and get yourself some low number cards as well. So yeah, check it out. Yeah, tristar has some stuff coming up as well. The if you buy one of their products at the show you can get a TriStar gift bag and tickets into a drawing for some higher end items. Not sure what's in the gift bag there. I know previous years you might have some autograph memorabilia in there or something like that. You might get some packs or something like that. It was kind of a wide range there. But I don't know what's going to be in the drawing tickets either. If you're interested in getting in on Those, you get one ticket for any purchase of the TriStar mini helmet, hidden Treasures basketball, Hidden Treasures football or Dugout Dreams. You get two tickets with any New York pinstripes, baseball, platinum baseballs, bats or platinum football jerseys. You get three tickets with a TriStar mystery football, basketball or full size helmet. And if you really want to get crazy, you can get 10 tickets with end zone football or grand slam baseball products by TriStar. So, so kind of some cool stuff that I'm gonna have to look at the prices on those. But I might have to get in on one of those since I mean I did that at the, at the last show there in 2022. And lastly, tops has announced they are not going to have a Rapper redemption this. Excuse me, they're not gonna have a Rapper Redemption this year. They're gonna be doing some different stuff there with special national products. I haven't heard any specifics on there yet, just that it will not involve a rapper redemption. So keep an eye out on whatever Tops might happen to be offering there as well. I haven't heard any details on Panini's Rapper Redemption either, but they typically have stuff going on with that too. So keep an eye out there, see what they offer up, see if Upper Deck has something as well and get in on all of those. I was gonna say Tops last time. Also check out, check out the schedule because last time they kind of had like a weird impromptu signing with Daryl Strawberry, uh, at their booth. And so, uh, so yeah, sometimes you can luck into getting it, getting some cool stuff like that. So check that the schedule. So there's no wrapper redemption, but you never know what's going to happen. Yeah. Meanwhile, the individual card shops will sometimes have some big deals going on there. I know we've got a big. At least two of them here from a couple of the major online retailers have a big booth set up there. So Aaron, take it away. What we got from those two. Yeah, and so from one of the biggest ones we have Steel City and they are going to be giving away Rock Chalansky, not whatever Rob Manford said. The the former former UCLA Bruin all Star who is now the new newly minted number one overall pick by the call by the Chicago White Sox. With any purchase they are going to be giving away one of his cards. They will have a 2500 available. So those will probably fly off the shelf. So if you want to get one of his cards, check them out. And then Blowout also is going to have the Blowout number Megamix that is back and that is 10 to 20 blasters of various sports and sports and other products plus randomly inserted certificates for higher end boxes as well. And they will also be giving away store store credit and cases in approximately every two one of those mixes. So yeah, check them out. It's a pretty good deal. You can get yourself a bunch of stuff if you're looking to rip some wax. That's a pretty affordable way to do it. Yeah, I think it's $400 for that. Which I mean, if you're getting 10 to 20 blasters, you know, that's anywhere from like 20 to 40 a blaster, which is kind of a typical price there, but might get some higher end stuff in there too. So I, I probably am going to be looking into that to see if I can grab one there. Straight from the national itself. They've had some trade nights in the past where usually it's like, okay, hey, Friday night, we'll do this trade night. Well, those have gone over so well. They're doing a trade night every single night of the show. If you're a vip, you can get in on that. If you have a ticket to that day's show, you can get into it night. So if you want to do some trading, make sure you check out those trade nights. They're also going to, for the first time ever, they're going to have an International pavilion set up. It's gonna have dealers from 35 countries in it. I believe they said this is gonna be up on the second floor of the show. That's right, they have. The Chicago show is expanded onto two stories now of the convention center there. So make sure you visit the second floor. See that International Pavilion. I know I'll be checking out the soccer stuff in there a bit. If you're able to get there early, if you're, if you're in the Chicago area or if your travel plans are flexible, go in and pick up your VIP ticket on Tuesday. If you get there and do it on Tuesday, you also can get yourself an extra free autograph on there. Mitch Williams will be signing from 12 until 2. Bill Madlock will be signing from 2 to 4. So depending on when you get there to pick yours up, go and get yourself an extra autograph there. Unfortunately, we're going to be up in Wisconsin that day on Tuesday, so we will not be able to run down and grab our ticket. So everybody else enjoy. Get yourself a Mitch Williams or Bill Madlock. A little advice. Now we just went through and thought of some things, some do's and don'ts and all that stuff and just going off our past experiences. Some stuff I read online, some stuff I've talked to people about and we'll go back to what Les Wolf said last week and that's make sure that you have yourself a comfortable pair of shoes. More than anything. This is a very large convention center, has a cement floor. It's not exactly the most comfortable. You're gonna be walking everywhere. So try to make it as easy on your feet as you possibly can get yourself a good comfortable pair of shoes, good support in them, and for the love of God, help everybody else around you and wear deodorant every day to the show, please. What else we got, Aaron? What do you got here? You know, I'm laughing because you mentioned the deodorant, man. So they had a, they had a very small scale show in Wichita Falls, which is somewhat unusual. There's probably been like three or four in the last, I don't know, six or seven years. So it's not a, it's not a very common occurrence at all. But I, I went because anytime something comes up here, I try to go and support it, you know, so hopefully help coax them back again, you know, so that sort of thing can grow here as well as, as, you know, as well as it does in the, in the metroplex and other, you know, large areas. But man, I got stuck next to this guy like, and he did not heed the advice about do deodorant, let's just say. And man, I, I'm like going through this box, I'm like, man, they got some good stuff. I'm really trying to go through this box. But man, he is like knocking me out. It was like pig pen from, from Charlie Brown and there was just this cloud, you know, around him. And so, yeah, not a very, not a very good or enjoyable or pleasant experience. So yeah, definitely, definitely make sure you wear some deodorant. Help it, help everybody else out. Be considerate of the people around you. And speaking of being considerate, definitely the first, the first thing is, the first thing is make sure you bring yourself a backpack or something. Don't just try to carry all your hits in your hand. You know, generally speaking, I'll, I'll have like a box or two that I keep my, that keep my show pickups in. But you know, it, it goes in a backpack, you know, and so anything that I get, I can put it in there. So, you know, make sure you bring yourself, be prepared to, to have something to put all the awesome stuff that you're going to find at the show. Also, it is highly, it is highly recommendable to bring yourself some sort of chair, whether it be like a stool, whether it be whatever. Because I mean, some of these places, if you've never been to the national, it is, they say everything is bigger in Texas. That is what, that is what the national is for car shows. If you've been to card show, you know, been to your local card show, but you've never Been to the National. It is. It defies all reason and explanation how huge it is. And some of these. Some of these vendor tables have millions of cards, and if you. If you're going to sit there and thumb through them, you know, sometimes it's best. Some of them will have chairs, but it's always best to be prepared to bring that sale for you. And so that is number one. And also, speaking of being considerate while you have those things, also be careful with them. There are thousands and thousands of people that show up to the national every single day of the show. Some of the. They try to give everybody ample walkway, you know, ample room in the walkways. But, you know, if you've got two. Two people deep on each side of the walkway and then. And then people trying to walk through it can get really congested. Even though it's a humongous place, there are going to be a lot of people. So be careful with your chairs, be careful with your backpacks, all that kind of stuff. But just kind of be cognizant of the people around you. We don't need anybody getting, like, tail whipped, you know, with a. With a backpack. I mean, they. Normally, as I'm going through a crowd, I'll take my backpack off and hold it in my hand like a lantern and, you know, leave it. You use it to lead the way through, through the. Through the group of people. But yeah, there's gonna be tons of people. All sorts of stuff. Yeah. But just kind of. Kind of be cognizant of your surroundings. Yeah. Just, I mean, don't be completely oblivious to the people around you, because there's nothing worse than trying to hurry your way down an aisle and somebody standing there in the middle of it on their phone going, where are you? Huh? Hello? And I can't figure out where they're at or where the person I'm trying to find is. Just don't be that person. If you have to be on your phone and all that, go to the very end of the aisle. You know, stay out of the way for people who are trying to get up it and all that. Yeah. Don't block places on tables. I mean, if there's somebody who's trying to get into a box, you know, condense yourself down, try to, you know, let them get in next to you there to search. It's not going to be exactly comfortable, but yeah, help, help, help each other out basically, on this stuff. Be careful when you turn around. Don't. Yeah, don't whip somebody with your backpack. Don't put your bag down on somebody's table. Don't put a bunch of cards down on someone's table and say, hey, you're looking to buy these and have look and go, no, I'm not. And you're stuck, you know, have just laid them all out there and blocking their stuff. Just. Yeah, have respect for people around you. Don't be completely oblivious to everyone and everything else there. And just. That's about it there. So we've also got food options, of course, in there, but it's always good to be kind of careful on that as well. Yeah. And so definitely, you know, it's. It's a long show, it's a long day. Right. And some. Depending on where the, where the show is it, you don't know where all the food options are going to be. Obviously they'll have some sort of concession stand that you can buy stuff at, but definitely ahead, bring yourself some snacks, whatever snacks you like. I'm personally a fan of Cheez Its and Sour Skittles, so if you like that, bring it. If you like something else, bring that, you know, but. But definitely think about, you know, you're going to be at the show all day. You probably don't want to have to leave. So. So prepare to either eat at the concession stand. Definitely bring yourself some snack. I know in Atlantic City, I would, I. We stopped at Walmart a couple days right before the show, and I would get myself like a sandwich, you know, some sort of sandwich that you can just have in your bag that, you know, obviously won't spoil, you know, while you're at the show until lunchtime. But yeah, any of that kind of stuff, they will have, you know, like I said, they'll have, they'll have concession stands in food spots. But I would definitely try to eat it off hours, you know, if you're, if you're an early bird, get there at 10:45, you know, so you, so you, you know, can eat before everybody gets there, but definitely 11 to 1, with so many thousands of people in one central location, it can, the lines can get crazy. So, yeah, from 11 to 1, either try to eat, eat later or eat before, you know, so. So you're not caught in a line and missing, missing the show for two hours because there's 400 people in line. Yeah. I mean, the best thing you can do is bring your phone was. Whenever you possibly can. Also stuff that's not gonna get all over everything. You know, don't dig into that whole bag of Cheetos and Everything and go getting, you know, orange dust all over everyone's cards and stuff when you're digging through a box later on. So keep it clean, keep it, keep it easy to do. If you're looking to sell out there, be as specific as you can. Don't just go around the tables and go, hey, you buying? Hey, you buying? No, go up there, say, hey, I've got this, you know, Ohtani PSA 10, whatever set, and, you know, see if you can do it that way. It's gonna be a lot easier the more specific you are on that. And make sure that when you're selling that you pay attention. You know, don't go up and try to sell, you know, a 20, 26 or 2025 football card to a table. It's mostly vintage baseball. Don't go trying to sell, you know, T206 Honus Wagner to a guy who's, you know, selling messy or something like that. So be very targeted in your sales and be very specific, as much you can with what you specifically have for sale. You can have a lot better luck that way than just by, you know, kind of shotgunning everything out there. And also when dealing with dealers. Aaron, I know you've got a few thoughts on that as well. Yeah, number one, are you dealers, you can, obviously we as collectors can, can help the process along in, in so many ways, but dealers, you can also help us out too. For the first thing, please price your items. We are not mind readers. You know, I'm a gymnastics coach, so I'm pretty observant, but I'm not a, you know, I'm not a clairvoyant. I don't know how much you want to try to get for this card. And so don't, don't be like, ask me, you know, I mean, what is this? Is this like some back room deal? Are you the guy with the trench coat that's like, hey, buddy, I got this thing? You know, it's like, it's like, come on, you know, help us out. So I can see, you know, put, put your price point. You know, everybody who's been to a card show knows that most prices are negotiable, you know, to a point. Whether that be, you know, trading or, you know, if you get several items, most of, most of the dealers will, will make you some sort of deal. You know, if you've been to a card show for more than five minutes, you know that that's obviously the case. But put, put the price that you're looking to get, even if it's, you know, even if it's a high price and you're willing to negotiate down off of that, you know, give us some sort of starting point. I mean, we just don't know, you know, and, and what you're gonna get if you're, if you're too vague, if you're too, you know, if you don't tell us what you want for this car, then, then, I mean, I'm gonna put the card back, you know, and you're not gonna sell it to me. And I'm. I'm sure a lot of. A lot of collectors will like that because, you know, I don't know, it just, it's just too much hassle, Hassle, too much of an inconvenience to try to guess what the card, what you want for the card. The other thing is, is that I know as the show wears on, right, it is sensory overload. There are so many cards. You know, you walk by, you know, you walk by a table every 10ft that's got 6 million cards on hand. You know, there are so many cards. And so you can help yourself out by sorting your cards as specifically as possible, because these people can go to anybody's booth. So to make your booth stand out, sort your cards as specifically as possible. After four days of the national, thumbing through cards and, you know, looking down, and my back is hurting from looking down for four days, for eight hours a day, you can definitely help yourself out because I am automatically skipping every table on day four of the national that the cards are not at least sorted by team. You know, it's like, oh, this is baseball mystery box. It's like, okay, what year is it? What is the, you know, I mean, baseball has been around since the 1800s, you know, around a long time. Can you help me out? Can you at least give me, like, sport is not enough, you know, it's like I'm looking for very specific things. I know a lot of people are looking for very specific things. So the more specific you can be, the better chance you've got it at getting people into your booth and eventually making a sale, which is what it's all about for you as a dealer. So, yeah, do that. Yeah, there's something to be said for, you know, sitting there, being able to dig through a random $50 cent, 25 cent, whatever box. But if I'm going to do that, it's going to be early in the show. I'm not wanting to wait like you said to those, you know, Saturday or Sunday, just to try to find a cheapo out of there that I might like as as opposed to something I really do specifically want. So absolutely on that. Well, hopefully that helps out anyone that's going out to the show. Whether you're going there as a buyer, as a seller, as a collector, as a dealer, whatever you're going there as. Hopefully that gives you some things you didn't think about before. And if it's your first show, welcome, we'll see you there. And yeah, I think that's about it for Grapher DIY this week. With that, let's move on into making the great from the grading lab to your ears, this is making the grade. Making the grade is a chance to look at what's going on around grading in our hobby and we get some numbers from the big five grading companies. Aaron, take it away. What do we got? All right. For the week of July 6th through the 12th, PSA graded 618.1000 cards, which is up a healthy 25%. CGC graded 186.1000 cards, which is up 32%. Beckett graded 27.7000 cars, which is up 47%. Unfortunately, we don't have any info on tag for this week. And lastly, rounding out our list, SGC graded 10.7000 cards and that is up 26. So we got some, some tick ups all across the board that we have data for. And there were a total of 842.6000 cards graded for the week of July 6th through the 12th. That is amazing there. I'm, I'm sure the having July 4th off there beforehand might have affected numbers a little bit there. But nice to see everything up there and I mean closing in on potentially. I mean if this keeps up, we might see a week of a million cards here at some point here among these big five as as the goes on. Let's take a look now at the big three. This week's big three is brought to you by gemrate.com whose cards are hot and whose cards are cold this week? Let's find out from our friends@gemrate.com Big3 comes to us from Gem Rate as they provide us exclusively with these numbers at ttmcast. They give us all the numbers there on each individual company there in the previous week. These numbers though, you will only find on TTM cast as we take a look at some individual players grading trends both upward and downward. It's a big baseball and soccer week here this week as Munetaka Murakami is our number one player on the big three this week, his grading is up 43%. Erling Holland in the soccer world, coming in second, 36% increase on his cards. And coming in third, brewers pitcher Jacob Misarowski, 23% increase on his grading numbers. The 2023 Shohei Otani All Aces card saw its grading activity increase 39 over the past two weeks. That card has now been graded by PSA 6100 times. It has a gem rate of 60%. Means 3, 500 of that card have been graded as a gem mint 10. That is a significant population for a card that regularly sells for only about a thousand dollars or so as a PSA 10. Meanwhile, on the other side, Aaron, who do we have moving down the list? So before I get to that, you know, you mentioned early Erling Holland. I was very interested to see because I did not know who Erling Holland was before the World Cup. I mean, you talk about what a cultural phenomenon he became, you know, over, over his run at the World cup. And, you know, I think, I mean, he's an easy guy to root for. And so I was very interested to see what his number was because he was definitely going up. I'm surprised it's not like 10 times that, to be honest. Like, I mean, everybody is talking about him. My whole feed is Erling hall and stuff from him getting back home in Norway with it with a stuffed raccoon with a whiskey bottle. Did you see that getting off the plane? And it's like, yeah, that he had bought somewhere in Texas. It's like, I mean, yeah, everybody, everybody loves Erling Holland, so good for him. But, but, yeah, I would look for him to keep, to keep being on the Rising because, man, he, he really. You want to talk about somebody's stock being up because of the World cup, he is number one, I would think. And then, yeah. So getting to the other side of our spectrum, falling this week, we have Lamelo Ball, who is down 27%. And then we have KD Kevin Durant down 29. So some basketball there. And then rounding out our list, we have Reggie Jackson, who is down 34% this week. So there you go. And once again, a big thanks to Gemrate for providing those numbers to us. You can follow them on all social media Emrate. If you want to really dig into some crazy numbers for them, go and check their website@gemrate.com right now. Let's move on into the TTM cast stamp of approval. I bet you're wondering who earned this week's TTM cast stamp of approval. Well, the stamp approval is just a chance for us to kind of look at whatever is going on around our lives to give a thumbs up to it. Sometimes it's sports and collectibles related and a lot of times it is not mine. This week sort of related to it as I'm just giving a two thumbs up to the city of Las Vegas. I'd only been there once before and this time I get to go out there and help out with a panini photo shoot which was a lot of fun. I mentioned earlier in the show there I got to meet some of the new NBA rookies and hang out with them as we got photos of them to use on some cards that are coming up. Yeah, I mean we stayed at, we did the whole shoot at Resorts World at their hotel and casino. And I honestly the great thing with a lot of the casinos and hotels there is that if, if you've got something going on like a convention or some kind of a work event like that, you almost don't even need to leave that place to go and do everything you need to. I mean they've got. We had get up in the morning, go and grab breakfast at a restaurant in there, go and do the photo shoot and then when we get done we can grab a lunch and dinner inside there, go and hit the casino, casino there for a little bit. And then our hotel room was right in the same one. So I was literally in there from about Friday afternoon when we checked in all the way until Monday night was when I finally actually left the casino to go and. Well, I went and left to go to another casino where I went down to the west gate to go and play in a poker tournament there. 17 players, I took ninth in it. So out of the money but made the final table at least. Yeah, I just had, I got, I've been into with some bad luck on one hand there I got a pair of pocket aces slow played against me after I had caught a pair of tens on the turn and yeah, that did not end well obviously. Yeah, after getting knocked out there, one of my co workers and I went over to the Wynn Casino which has a nice card room. We played at one of the cash tables there. Only lost half my money there so that was pretty decent and ran into one good hand and then just a lot of just total crap that I really couldn't do anything with. So it was fun though at least I would definitely go and play at the win once again next Time I'm out there. So if I do next year's photo shoot, I'll definitely be looking at more poker tournaments and just overall Las Vegas, you get two thumbs up from me, and, yeah, hopefully be doing that again. So that's my stamp approval for the week. Aaron, what do you got for yours? Well, that sounds like Las Vegas to me. We left one casino to go to the other casino. Yeah, great, great time. I'm happy you got to go out there. That sounds like an awesome experience. My standard approval for this week is baseball road trips. This is the 10th year that I've been, you know, since I started what would later become known as the eternal Graphing Tour. This is actually the ninth trip because we had Covid in there. I couldn't take a trip in 20 or 21. So we just did the graphing that we could do in Cleveland or where Road trip. Get out, see some stuff, see. See some baseball games, get as many autographs as possible. I mean, that's just what I love to do, and that's why. Why I continue doing it. And so I'm pretty pumped up about our trip. It starts tomorrow for me with game zero. So we'll. I'm leave early tomorrow morning and go see. Go see Frisco, and then we'll get started from there, and then we'll drive. We'll drive to Georgia. It's crazy. I'd never been to Georgia until last year. And then this year, we will finish Georgia. I will not have to go to Georgia ever again because, you know, we're gonna see Roman Gwinnett, and that knocks it out for me. And. Yeah, so gonna finish. Gonna finish Georgia. Gonna finish Ohio. Dayton is the last one that I need to see in Ohio after our 2018 trip that we took. So, yeah, it's just always super fun. So if you've never been on a baseball road trip, I mean, it is. To me, it is everything that Americana should be. You know, road trips are very American. You know, baseball and just eating all the food, just stuff in your face with good friends and, you know, great food and getting to see all the. All the cool sites that are all over this land and getting to eat all the regional delicacies. I mean, it's just. It's just an awesome experience. And if you haven't had the chance to travel like that, I would suggest you do. Even if. Even if you don't have the money to do it. I know money. You know, they say if you wait until you're ready, you'll never do it. And that's 100% true. And so, so save yourself a little bit of money, decide what you can handle. Obviously we're just, you know, we do a, a pretty extreme version of a, of a road trip. Three weeks, burning the candle at both ends, getting up, sometimes doing double headers, graphing at night until after midnight on the, on the street, you know, all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's super fun, but I mean those memories will live forever. And so, you know, the money that it takes to do it, it can be a little expensive, depending on the length of trip and the, and the, you know, where you're going and all of that good stuff. But minor league baseball is for the most part super affordable. For the most part it's 15 and under for, for a ticket, you know, and you can, you can see a team and you can get all the autographs you can. And, and all of that. So I cannot recommend baseball road trips highly enough. So if you haven't done it, get it together, let's go. Absolutely. And you know, like you said, if the money is a bit of an object, keep it short, keep it close by. If you're in Ohio, go up to Michigan or over to Pennsylvania. If you're in Texas, go up to Oklahoma or over to Arkansas, something like that. That's fairly close, fairly easy to get to. That helps keep the cost down. So once again, that is this week's stamp of approval as we move on now to the Verne Wrap minute. It. The Vern Rap Minute is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Vern Rap, former minor league ballplayer, major league manager. Our show's founder Jeff Baker mailed off to him not knowing that he had already passed away. And so we provide this as a service to the collectors out there to let you know when someone has passed away. In the world of sports, celebrity, music, movies, politics, if they're known to be a good TTM or we try to let you know if they've passed away. This week we lost Ron Hunt. Ron was a second baseman from 1963-74. Played for the Mets, the Giants, the Dodgers, the Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a two time All Star with the Mets throughout the 60s. He was also a very good TTMer. Through May of 2024, Ron Hunt was 85 years old. We also lost Daryl Griffith at the age of 82. He was an outfielder from 1963 to 1966 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. On November 29, 1966, he was actually traded for Ron Hunt and then they ended up dying the same same day. He was a good ttimer through June. We also lost Phil Regan earlier this week or last week. Phil was A pitcher from 1960 to 1972 is with the Tigers, the Dodgers, the Cubs and the White Sox. 1966 he was an All Star and he was a two time National League leader in saves. After his playing career from 1984 to 2019 he spent time as a pitching coach with Seattle, the Cubs, the Indians and the Mets. The Mets as recently as 2019 at the age of 82. He also was Baltimore's manager in 1995. Phil was a very good ttmr all the way through this past month. He was 89 years old. And lastly we lost Al Holland. Al was also a pitcher from 1977-87. Spent time with six teams throughout his career. On 1983 he was a National League roll a relief award winner and in 1984 he was an all star. Both those coming when he was with the Phillies. Al was a good ttm through about 2022. He was 73 years old. If you've lost anyone this week, our thoughts are certainly with you as we move on in to our TTM returns. Was our mailbox full this week? Let's take a look at this week's TTM returns. All right, time to wrap this one up here for the week as we look at our TTM returns. Of course last week neither of us got anything in and this week still a fairly light week. I know Aaron, you talked about that you wanted to send out 20 before we leave on the trip. I said I want to send out 15. I didn't to any of them yet. So were you able to get any sent out at all? And so I haven't sent any out yet but I do have 13 letters that are written and so hopefully what I'm thinking about doing is I'm trying to trying to balance the cost of not spending the money for the national or a lot of it with, you know, with sending some out. But, but I am on the way to doing it. I don't know that it's going to be done before, before we leave but maybe I'll bring it on the trip with me and I'll sit down a few as we go. I'll just Johnny Appleseed my way ttm TTM wise through, through our trip. But. But yeah, so I'm working on it. I remembered the promise. I don't know that I'm gonna get them out in time but they will be going out here very soon. That's good. I Remember, I know 2022. I mailed out a few from Atlantic City there. So yeah, we'll count that. Anyways, take a look at what we got back. I had three autographs from three sports that came back to me. Walt Terrell, former pitcher of the Tigers, the Pirates, the Yankees and the Padres. Maybe a couple of the Mets as well. Forgot who's with the Mets there got him back. I think it took about maybe a month and a half or so. I don't have my notes written down here. I was literally just scrambling to get all this, even this much down before starting the show. I also got back Scott Pollard, former Kansas Jayhawk, if I remember right, in his college career, played with a few NBA teams, including Mike the Cavs for a couple seasons there. That took about, I want to say maybe two to three months or so to come back to me there. And lastly, NASCAR driver Reagan Smith signed several cards for me. I think it was about three that I'd sent out to him and I think that one may have taken close to a year or so because I've not sent a NASCAR in a little while. So those are the three that I got back this week. Very happy to add those in and yeah, hopefully I'll crank a few out in the next couple days, but I'm not really betting too highly on it. Aaron, what'd you get back? Yeah, so I, I got, I actually got returns and when I got, when I got my first return I'm like the show was saved. It's like nobody had any returns last week and so yay, we could go on the air and not hide our faces under a bag. So, so yeah, I ended up getting back Steve Jordan who was a, the tight end for the Minnesota Vikings things. He was nice enough to sign in personalized three cars for me. Got one of the action packed ones back. I love Action Pack. That was a, that was a, an idea ahead of its time with the embossing and all of that. So I, I love that said I'd like to get those signed whenever I can. Yeah, so he signed three. Three for me. That was the first one. And then to my surprise a couple, a couple of days later I ended up getting back former Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pirate prospect Mark Farris who lived in the Austin area, maybe Houston. He's definitely Texas but like towards like central to, to Southern Texas down there. And so he was nice enough to sign three or three for me. Both of those are, are decently long Returns probably several months because it's been a minute since I've sent out any. But yeah, nice to get those long ones back. Some of which you even forgot that you sent. And you're like, hey, here or just cards on my doorstep. And so that's part of the reason I like ttm. It's investment in tomorrow. You know, it's like you've got to do the work today. Delayed gratification and one day when you're not expecting it, that work may pay off. Exactly. I mean, you ever know when you have one takes a few years, you really forget about in there and it's like, oh, hey, that's, that's pretty cool there. And yeah, so that about does it for this week. We are going to see you on the road. We're hitting the highway in two days here. We'll be out in Gwinnett, Georgia. Will be our very first game on Tuesday this week. So hopefully we'll see some of you out there. And throughout all of our travels here over the next couple of weeks, we'll try to post up a few shows or a few mini shows I guess from the road. We'll also be updating as we know, with Aaron's Instagram there at the eternal graphingtour underscores. In between each of those you can also find YouTube.comDFWGrapher. i'll be posting videos from each of our stops on there as well. Big thanks for us to Aaron, sitting the co host seed here, to Belinda for joining us in the wanna shuffle update and hobby happenings and of course to Ruthie Baker for doing all the production work to send this from our mouths out to your ears. Our next full show will be some point in August. I don't have the exact date on that, but just keep an eye out for that and of course some mini updates during the national and during our travels here on the road over the next few weeks. Aaron, any thoughts before we go ahead and call, call into this one? Yeah, no, I mean I, I'm, I'm excited about the, the trip and, and hanging out with you for an unreasonably, a long amount of time. So. Yeah, so, so let's do it. Uh, yeah, send us uh, we're, we're gonna do, we're gonna do some other stuff too as far as uh, content, uh, from our trip at the National. So uh, make sure you send us uh, your players that you, you want to see. Drew, name all the, all the teams that they play for. You know, Drew is like our version of the swab if you. If you used to watch Stump the Swab back in the 2000s on ESPN. Yeah, so. So we're gonna see if we can stump him. It's gonna be great. So, yeah, check it out. Follow us on all of our stuff so you can keep up to date and see all the shenanigans and awesome, uh, food items that we eat and, uh, any of the autographs we get. So, yeah, it's gonna be super, super fun. This is like. This is like our World cup, you know, getting to go to the national and all that. So, yeah, we're. We're pumped for it and we'll see y' all on the road. Exactly. So make sure you meet up with us out there if you can, as we wish you many happy returns. We'll see you next time here on TTM Cast. Everyone be good. Ra.