Darrell Chan Reports Back From Edmonton Sport Card Expo (How He Picked Up 35 Raw Ohtani Cards, What's Hot, Show And Tell); Top MLB Prospects (ie. Konnor Griffin, JJ Wetherholt) Worth Buying Now?

You're listening to Cards to the Moon, a podcast about trading cards from both a collector and investor perspective. We hope you'll stick around for the ride as we take a deep dive into the state of the hobby, share some hot takes, hopefully some useful advice and fun stories along the way. Hey guys, welcome back to Cards to the Moon. This is episode 360, and my name is Clark from 5cardguys.com. You can also find me at 5cardguys on Instagram, YouTube, and on Facebook. And in for today's Friday episode, I have my guest co-host, who should be familiar to all our loyal listeners of the pod, Daryl Chan, aka DC, with me. As always, DC, I appreciate whenever you come onto the pod, and especially today because you just came back from the Sport Card Expo in Edmonton that was held over the long weekend. So definitely something we'll talk about on today's show, but DC, welcome back to Toronto. Welcome back to the pod. Thanks so much. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm just really tired. I landed this morning at like 6am, got to get a couple hours and back to work again tomorrow. I hear you. Well, Edmonton is what? Two hour? Or is it three hours? The time zone difference. The time difference is two hours, and it's about a four and a half, five hour flight. I don't even know how many hours. At that time, time doesn't even make a difference anymore. And when you fly back on a red eye, it's a... Right. Oh, red eye. Dang. Yeah. I mean, travel days in general are tiring, going to the airport and all that stuff. Before we begin, you were saying how at the show, people just recognized you by your voice from just being on this pod. Is that right? Yeah, it was really crazy. It seems to be happening more and more now. That's good. So I was at the booth, I was talking to someone about some baseball prospects and just my journey as to what kind of stuff I buy and how that's shifted even a little bit since when I started. And this guy walks by and he's like, are you on a podcast? And I said, sometimes, right? He goes, oh, I recognize your voice. And I go, oh, yeah, cool. Right. And then we just started talking and stuff. So he listens to Cars to the Moon. Amazing. So that was pretty crazy. And then when we were in the airport lounge before coming back to Toronto, there was a bunch of the guys, the dealers there, I guess that were from Toronto and stuff. But he's like, hey, are you on a podcast? Yeah. All these other people that were around that, I guess, not car related, he started like looking over like I was someone famous or something like that. So, you know, that was kind of jokes, too. But it's good. Good to see that people are listening to the show and getting some value out of other things that we talk about. For sure. One hundred percent. I'm glad to hear those kind of stories. I know we'll share similar stories about people recognizing his voice as well. So, yeah, appreciate you listeners out there. And and well, I already told DC I'll probably hit him hit him up a little bit more this year as we as we do the pod and especially this month. You know, Hyung, one of our regular co-hosts, he's in Korea right now. So I'm always trying to fill these gaps here and there. And I know I could always count on DC to hop on every once in a while. But before we get into your show experience out in Edmonton off the top for this Friday episode, I wanted to talk to you about baseball prospects. I usually have this kind of discussion with Hyung because he's really into it and see which ones he would like to invest in. I know you've held baseball prospects, first Bowman chrome cards over the years. You know, loyal listeners, again, will know your Kevin Maitand story. That's a good one to hear, which you still have, right? Or did I have one black label left? I sold I sold one. Oh, amazing. Not because it's Kevin Maitand. I actually sold sold it to the guy based on the fact that this is the cheapest black label you'll ever get. Yeah, that's you know what? I will buy that, too, just to have a black label. I have two left. I have one Kevin Maitand black label. Okay, let's talk after. No, but yeah, in all seriousness, though, you know, something about baseball prospects and and, you know, for this year, the ones that everyone's talking about, obviously, Connor Griffin is number one. He just made his rookie debut. And then J.J. Weatherholt as well from the Cardinals. He's off to a pretty good start. So my question to you, DC, is if someone came to your booth, they said, hey, I got Connor Griffin, first ballman, Chrome Autos. I got J.J. Weatherholt. Would you be interested or are you passing at the prices they're at now? I think you missed the boat already. If you want to try to to to do really, really well on those because once they get called up, that's when you get the next kind of buy sell point. And then if they do really well, then you'll hit a next a next buy sell. But the problem is, is now you're kind of like super, super highly invested. So unless they do really, really well. Yeah. I mean, I was offered a Connor Griffin before he got called up, but, you know, after he got sent back down for, I guess, contract, I was offered one. But like, I didn't want to repay in the built in price. I think with these kind of prospects, you have to be in there like years ahead of time. Like, I mean, you think about the way Bowman draft works, like Connor Griffin was like a couple of years ago. I mean, J.J. Weatherholt was, you know, the only reason why is because he's an older prospect. So, you know, like it might have been maybe again a year or two ago that his cards came out. Yeah. But if you were talking about some of these other prospects, like Chase Delauder, his his thing was out a while ago. 2022, I think, is his first Bowman's or like, you know, Owen Casey. I mean, I know he's Canadian and he's hitting great now, too. But technically, I think he's still a rookie, even though his prospects are from 2020. Right. And the funny thing is, like, I have a lot of Owen Casey. Like, I bought it to 100 case break. Yeah. And that was my player. Nice. So I have a lot of base refractors, like a lot. So I mean, that one's going to pan out for me. OK, I think. So at Expo, you'll come find me. I have literally hundreds. He's your own Casey dealer. Yeah. So I would say, I mean, Connor Griffin is like playing really, really well. You know, even that that first day was was amazing. The first game. I mean, he's got a lot of poise, plays plays a premium position. So those are all going to be really, really good things. Whether or not I would buy in at this number, I think at those numbers, I would rather buy something else. Like I play with. Yeah. No, that's that's fair. And, you know, kind of Griffin certainly getting all the hype right now. There's a lot of Mike Trout comparisons already, whether it's fair or not. But, you know, a follow up question to just, you know, prospecting. Do you find it's more difficult to do that now? Because even the top prospects, even before they even play a single MLB game, those prices are factored in, aren't they? You know what I mean? Like the top five. Oh, for sure. For sure. They're definitely factored in. But I think it's also tied to what the price of the product is. Right. Before, when you were buying a box of Bowman draft or something for like, I'll go back to 2017 again. Like boxes were like less than 200 Canadian dollars. Right. Wow. And now a box like just like the three auto box is probably like five, six hundred, seven hundred dollars. So all of a sudden when your card price costs so much and then you also have the increase of the prospects in that product, then all of a sudden the ones that are more sought after are obviously going to be more expensive because they're harder to hit. Plus like the cost, the cost per card average is a lot higher. So, you know, that makes it more difficult. And then I think the risk is a little bit different. Yeah, for sure. Right. It's just your investment, how much it costs to get in. Totally agree. I mean, I wouldn't even say to the point where it's just not worth ripping and hoping for a top prospect. At that point, you might as well, if you believe in one, just buy the single when it comes out. Right. Oh, this is for sure. I mean, I've been like a big, big supporter of not ripping as much product anymore. I mean, I used to rip like so much stuff, cases at a time. Like I would buy, like I was telling you before, I buy two cases of something and I would open one and I would keep the other one sealed. Right. And then, you know, the season goes by and the cards come up and that sealed product is worth so much more money than I've kind of sort of ripped my other one for free. But then I got so busy that I ended up having two cases of something. And then, you know, it's not worth it to rip it anymore. I would rather just get the card. So at the pricing of what these things are nowadays, I find it a little bit more difficult to rip because you think of a cost per pack or a cost per box. It's crazy. Yeah. You know, like now I see why people would just break. You know, it's still a gamble, but, you know, at least you have a slightly better odds, I guess, of hitting some of the players that you want, right? Yeah. Well, yeah, I appreciate the insight there. And yeah, let's move on to our Friday discussion, which is about your recent trip to Edmonton. And for some of our non-Canadian listeners, it's in the province of Alberta, which is west of us here in Toronto, the province of Ontario and north. I just looked this up on the map of the state of Montana. So a couple hundred kilometers probably just to get your bearings. And Edmonton is one of the big cities in Alberta, but obviously not as populated as it is in Toronto. So DC, how was the show in Edmonton? And have you set up in Edmonton at the Sport Card Expo there in the past? So this was my first time in Edmonton. Are you serious? Yeah, I've been to Calgary, but I haven't been to Edmonton. So, I mean, definitely new. The reason why I was there is because Martin and Steph, they set up in Edmonton. I think last year, maybe even the year before, but they said, why don't you just come on and check it out? There's some different type of stuff there. And because I don't do a lot of hockey, it's kind of good for us when we go out there because we have stuff that not as many people have. It's not the same. So it was very apparent in our booths too, because we had a lot of traffic just because people said, oh, these guys have baseball. Oh, there's like football, there's basketball here. So I think that was great for us. I think the venue was pretty big. It was like sort of in a, I don't know, it was a hockey or curling arena. It was pretty big. Okay. And it was nice. It was quite a few vendors in there too. But we set up our stuff the way we always set up in other shows and people will come see us. And we were at the front. So we definitely had a lot of traffic. Colder, like I was saying on Instagram, it's the first time I've left the cold to go somewhere colder instead of going somewhere warmer. But overall it was good. We had a good time there. And again, meeting our other collector friends that are from there, they kind of take it upon themselves to kind of like host us. So it was great. We got to go hang out with those guys and just celebrate the hobby and our friendship. That's the best part for sure. And you said you went with Martin and Steph. Did they say anything about like how it was in previous years since they set up at Edmonton before compared to just even this past weekend? I think what they told me the expectation is to treat it more of a buying show versus a selling show, so to speak. But when we went, I think even from last year to this year, it changed quite a bit for them. I know Steph bought a lot of, she got a lot of TCG stuff. Martin and I were able to actually acquire some really, really nice pieces as well. We did move some large pieces. So it's not like they don't have the market there. But a lot of people, there are still a very, very large hockey focus over there, especially with the Oilers and stuff like that. But definitely when we have something a little bit different that's not as common, then we get a little bit more eyes, a little bit more attention. And then also brings up the fact that people say, oh, would you consider taking some of these cards? Whereas maybe before they didn't have that same option for buying, selling, or trading. So all of a sudden I think that opened up a little bit of options. Interesting, because one of my questions was like, if the expo there out in the West was predominantly hockey, I was wondering if you got a lot of people that wanted to sell things that are non-hockey. Did you get a lot of traffic that way? Or was that hard to come by? I mean, I did. I mean, I did buy a couple of hockey pieces, but I'd say predominantly that's not what I focus on. So as I was telling you before, what I did was I posted in Nelson's group Velocity. I was like, hey, I'm going to be in Edmonton. If anybody wants to buy, sell, or trade some mid to high end non-hockey stuff, send me a message. And a buddy of mine, I guess before, from years ago when I used to break stuff, in Nelson's group, he messaged me, he goes, hey, OTC, I have some Ohtani stuff that I ripped and I never graded, just like straight from pack to top loader, are you interested? And I said, yeah, for sure, tell me what you got. And I'm thinking it's like four or five cards, but I bought a lot of 35 Ohtani rookies. 35? Yeah, it doesn't sound like a lot, but considering the way Ohtani's market is like so hot right now, to be able to even get those, let alone all from one person, and then, I'll show you later the video, but I shot a video of them just all laid out on the table and it's amazing, that was like, it made the trip out to Edmonton worth it just for that. Sure, yeah, I mean, and that goes to show you like the relationships that you develop through even forums or different Facebook groups come in handy in times like these, right? Oh, definitely, definitely. And then other people too is like, you know, we talk about how the pod is, we're becoming a little bit, I don't know, infamous, but even the person's like, hey, I recognize you, I feel like we have some sort of like, not connection, but maybe like familiarity, so we feel there's a little bit more trust, so even being able to do certain deals, it became a little bit easier. That's awesome to hear, I love it. I'm hoping that's the case for the Toronto Sport Card Expo where I'll be setting up for the first time, primarily for content, but I'll have a few cards out there for sale, but yeah, no, that's good to hear. How would you describe the current vibe at the Edmonton Expo? Like we know the hobby has been really on a tear lately, have you seen that kind of translate to even like comparatively smaller shows out in Edmonton versus, you know, what we're used to seeing in Toronto? So, I mean, it's the Easter weekend, so sometimes you think it could be really, really good or really, really bad. The Friday was actually really, really packed. I think even more, like from when we were talking to Steve, the organizer at the end, when we were leaving, I think the attendance was pretty much the same for both days, but I felt that Friday just felt a little bit busier. I think what was happening was there was a show at a local mall where I think there are some vendors that couldn't get a table at the Expo probably set up at. So people went, there were some people that went there, but I think that it might not have been as good because I think we got them back on Sunday. Sunday's definitely slower. Again, that this could be, you know, people aren't doing their family stuff, it's Easter weekend and stuff like that. But overall, the show was pretty busy. I mean, it's nonstop. Even though we have so many people in our booth, we were like negotiating who can go to the bathroom and stuff because if you didn't look over someone's booth for a couple seconds, it was nonstop. Oh, wow, okay. There's maybe a small lull in the last half hour of the show or hour of the show, but yeah, it was pretty much nonstop. You love hearing that, you know, that's for sure. And, you know, we talked about the show being predominantly hockey as expected out in Edmonton, but do you notice anything else that was new or different at the Edmonton Expo versus other card shows that you've been to? Well, I mean, I'm starting to see different people that are on the other side of the table that come to Toronto are actually set up there. So I'm starting to recognize people go, oh, what's going on? You know, like you're set up on this side, whereas usually they're traveling on the other side. So, I mean, because we go to so many shows now and we see so many people, whether they're a vendor or not, just seeing them in their own hometown is interesting. I would say that there were a couple more vendors now that didn't have only hockey or that used to be all hockey that have started adding- Diversifying a bit. Adding a little bit of stuff, you know, but like when some of these people also adding like shohei base cards or something, just to show us something a little bit different. I mean, usually when I go look at stuff, I try to look before the show starts, right? And the thing is not everyone shows up on time, sets up their stuff. So sometimes a little bit more limited and we don't get to always walk around. But there were a couple of high-end guys and there's actually one guy from the US that we know that's set up there. No way. So yeah. So we were able to do some deals because I think we were like Martin, myself and him, we were just really happy to see other people and some other higher end product that we could either trade towards or like, you know, either buy in or sell. So it kind of worked out overall. I mean, it was great. We got some deals done and we'll all be at West Coast Card Show. So- That's in the West Coast, of course. That's the one in California coming up. Yeah. Okay. I'm looking forward to that one too. And I'm sure we'll talk about it closer to that date. But, you know, when you were selling all your stuff and making the deals, what kind of stuff was selling? Like what was really hot there? Otani stuff. I mean, like I was telling you, I got some of those, like that lot of raw stuff where I could just basically put one out and it'd be gone. And I put another one out or, you know, I'll end up trading it. But like Otani stuff in general, we were acquiring it and, you know, just transacting, buying, selling and trading. So, you know, like for instance, that Topps Chrome Otani Rookie, I probably had four or five different copies of a PSA 10 or a PSA 9 throughout the whole show. And it was crazy because people will come to us and goes, hey, I see you have these. Do you want some more? Sorry, my dog is having a... It's all good. Something else going on. But yeah, they go, I see you have these. Are you interested in more? And I always say, yeah, I'll take more. Right. Just being able to either trade up or trade down, you know, whatever the situation may be. But, you know, I think what happens is people see what you have, then they're able to decipher whether or not it makes sense for them to show you what they have. At the end of the day, like I ask to see everything. Yeah. You know, even though I might assume that it's mostly hockey, I'll still take a look at hockey stuff. I mean, I acquired some hockey stuff there. Just sometimes, you know, whether or not the number makes sense. If the number makes sense, I'll take almost everything. Yeah. Almost. Well, I mean, Otani stays white hot, so that's not a huge surprise. And even as I prep for the Toronto Sport Card Expo, I'm like, oh, what other Otani cards do I have just lying around? So that's... You can dig up second, third year stuff and it's going. I mean, like, have you seen some of the pricing for like 2019 Chrome? Like any refractors or like negatives or pinks or like anything, all that stuff is crazy. Even just like the base Otani is like the one, you know, when he's in the cart with Trout or like the three home run, because they're technically rookie year. Right. So they're all worth something. And I, you know, like Kyeong created those three home run ones and those still did all right. It's a crazy, crazy market when it comes to Otani cards. That's for sure. Yeah. Anything other than Otani that kind of stuck out or is Otani just getting, stealing all the headlines right now? You know, I picked up a couple of vintage pieces, which I'm really happy about. Like that's the kind of stuff I still like. And there were a couple, there actually are some really, really low key high end collectors there. They just, they're not super flashy about it. And, you know, a lot of the older, the older collectors, you can see they have the money. It's just, they don't like to sell their stuff. Yeah. So it's like, they just buy it and they keep it. So, you know, obviously I ask, you want to upgrade any of your pieces or do you want to, you know, maybe move some of your duplicates? And they go, yeah, yeah, I have higher stuff. You know, kind of thing. And I'm like, oh, I can't even upgrade you. It's kind of, oh, maybe you need to upgrade me. I don't want to, I don't want to sell anything. But I did meet quite a few people that had collections and stuff like that. Or like, you know, their parents, you know, passed away and they have some stuff that they wanted to, you know, just to get like an appraisal on. So there was actually a couple of people that came to the booth and like he had like a random shoe box and I was like, okay, I'll take a look. And it was a 1970s baseball. And I looked at it. I was like, okay, this, it looks really good, but I didn't see any of the key cards in there. Yeah. But the condition of the cards was like amazing. They were all just raw, like sitting literally in a shoe box. But he told me, he goes, DC, I have like 100, 100 different boxes, all broken down by year. This is just a sample. I'm like, I'm, he's like stationed in Halifax or something. He just happened to be back for the weekend, but we exchanged contacts and I said, hey, you know, if you're really interested in, in, in like taking a look, I want to see what kind of stuff it is to see if it's worth it for me to fly down there. But he's telling me he's got stuff from fifties onwards. So if that's the case and the key cards are in there, then definitely it's worth it just to figure it out. But this is the first time that that's something like that has happened to me. And I think part of the reason why we were able to, you know, make that connection was because he saw I had some older stuff in the case. And then, you know, I didn't show him away. Like I see like a Nike box and I'm like, okay, right. But then he tells me all this other stuff. Now, whether or not this is true or not, we don't know yet, but the fact of the matter is like, you know, contacts were exchanged and we'll see if we can do something and if something is there. Yeah, that's a good lesson for sure. Cause you never know. And I think you said something similar in the last Pockets episode that you were on, you know, you just never know who, who will come to your booth and they might seem or appear a certain way, but then when you start talking to them, you'd be surprised, right? What their collection is like, what they're looking to buy or sell. It's just. There was this other lady that came by the booth and she had like an assortment of slabs. So I took a look at it and it was, and I'll show you later, but it was a Don Mattingly rookie, but it's out of Opeche and it was a PSA 9. So like a high grade Opeche rookie is something that doesn't come across very often. So I purchased the card, but then she goes on to tell me, she's like, oh, I have a lot more of these. I just grabbed a random stack of stuff. But you know, if you're interested, we can talk about, you know, maybe doing something. And then I will say, okay, maybe I'll purchase the whole thing. So, you know, we exchanged Instagrams and this is not a person that you would think is into cards at all. It's so random, but the best story is near the end of the show, this lady comes to our booth and is talking to Martin and I, and she was like maybe 80 years old. And she has like a series one hockey pin. And she's holding it and she goes, are you interested in maybe buying some cards? And then Martin is there and he's like, okay, I'll take a look. I just like, you know, whatever, I'll just do whatever. And then he's like, oh, do you see here? Look at this, two cards. The first one is a Allen and Ginter, Hank Aaron autograph. Oh my goodness. It's graded a tag 10. Wow. Yeah. And the other one is a Conor McDavid, Opeachy number out of 125 on car auto rookie tag 10. And we're just like, right? Because that really kind of really caught us off guard. You know, like, I mean, the numbers were a little crazy. So we had to go through some of the process as to explain like, well, this is what the last one sold for. And would you be considering something, something, something we didn't get the deal done. But I think the moral of the story is, is that you don't need to come and who is going to come. Oh man. So, you know what? If I see an 80 year old lady at the Toronto Sport Card Expo. Yeah. Don't chatter up, you know, come by. It was crazy. It was like, hello, how are you today? You know, it's like near the end of the show. He goes, I was wondering if you want to take a look at some of my cards. I like, yeah, so that was crazy. These two monsters come out of there. You never know. You never know. That's the lesson of the story for sure. Well, speaking of, you know, the cards that you've seen and the cards you were able to pick up, maybe that's a good time now to just kind of share anything that you're, that you did pick up that you want to show off a little bit. So there was one guy that came by and I basically bought a bunch of Jordan inserts, a bunch of gravy Jordan inserts. So I got like maybe 20 or so. These are all, yeah, they're all pretty liquid. I mean, this is not the, okay. So this one, you know, I got the refractor, double-sided refractor. It's the same part, but it's not the refractor. This is a 98 finest. 98 finest, okay, yep. So this is the one, but it's not the refractor version, the one that I got from West Coast last time, but it was crazy. So just all Jordan inserts, all liquid stuff, like from like metal, skybox, some tops chrome, old upper deck. So MJ is, yeah, there's another player other than Otani, MJ cards still doing well. Yeah, can't complain about MJ. We only saw, there were only like one MJ. two MJ's on the floor like rookies. So like you know in expo you'll see more but right tops upper deck any insert of MJ. There's more oh but I love this one no not this one no not this one's right oh yeah this one is good. Which one is that for the listeners? That's the EX-2000 Skybox that one always does well and iconic where's that one oh I love this one again for the listeners the tops archives 1992. Yeah it's the the Jordan like the you know the slam dunk damn one and then I've always seen this card and I never owned it but I thought it was great it's funny oh what is it it looks like the 1986 Fleer from the distance but but it's like a metallic kind of version and it's like grading like WCG I don't know it's a brushed gold whatever it looks cool it'll look cool cool nice so it's pretty a lot of MJ cards MJ inserts okay yeah so that was one big thing so then I thought this was pretty cool it's a Chauncey Billups auto but in a rookie in a Raptors jersey oh interesting on card auto too yeah out of flawless okay this is uh one of the hockey cards I got the Demidov one of the hottest players right now and Montreal is like on a crazy crazy run but it's those ones that are uh it's out of 25 I mean are you familiar with like those acetate cards that um they come number the population comes so sometimes you can get them out of a thousand out of a hundred five hundred and a thousand and stuff like that but this being a rookie is a well before you go into the next one what's it is it slapped or is that the card it's not slapped this is the card it's just it's just inside it's like a mini card sort of that's uh it's not a mini card it's an acetate border yeah it's interesting I've never seen a card like that before oh yeah so if you look at it in uh in in um upper deck just the regular series ones you can you can hit these so celebrating has these two like I think a lot of players have them but specifically obviously because this one is like a rookie one yeah looks super happy interesting oh this was very cool oh what's that it looks like an artist drawn vladdy from the tops it's a vlad sketch card it's a 101 okay so on the back is that's the artist well from what set is that in tops what what year this is from 2023 tops baseball cool yeah so I had to take this card right away and you know being from Toronto this is honestly you know go in the case and people will see it and it's from it's a licensed product it's a one of one you said right like sketch cards are usually always one of one yeah these sketch cards are one how do you price them like what is your strategy generally speaking when it comes to one of one cards like that so I would say it depends on the player like you got to look and see what other sketch cards sell for right okay um but like Otani sketch cards are upwards like 800 to a thousand dollars so you know I probably put this at like 500 bucks right okay because we're in Toronto too and he's a star player yeah very nice uh oh there's cheap cheap Otani slab but it's an SP it's Otani from the 20 what 22 tops holiday set we always joke about holiday sets being kind of gimmicky but when it's Otani's on it it doesn't matter it doesn't matter if it's uh it could be it could be easter egg set it could be yeah it could be like halloween set it's a halloween Otani shortbread I want it yeah I hear you another Otani from the tops cosmic chrome cosmic's been getting gaining some steam eh getting a lot of love lately um you can see some of the things is pretty crazy the pricing another Otani just Otani rookie yeah nine five out of CGC don't really care that I mean I'm happy that it's slabbed yeah you know possibly I cross this but honestly it's just a cheaper alternative when if I if I try to trade it to someone or out to somebody right but it's in a slab it'll be cheap and like what happens is sometimes you don't just get stuff at the show like so actually I don't know if I should give this away I don't want to I don't know if actually you know what I'm not going to give it away how I'm going to how we find some of these things because I'm going to start doing it okay it's a bad it's a bad okay okay fine fine fine our listeners will appreciate so the first thing we do when we land we go on facebook marketplace and we set the location to wherever we're at and then we look to see if there's something local that someone is selling that we want to buy so before the show even started when we landed Martin and I we were both going separately and looking at stuff and we we acquired pieces outside of the show just locally yeah smart yeah so it's you're grinding though like not a lot of people do that anyways you know I mean that's true I mean like I would say in the Toronto market yeah it might be a little bit different because I think a lot of the people that are selling are dealers right sure to be honest and then or some people are just out to lunch or some people are dealers and still out to lunch but you know like sometimes I'll see the name and like okay I know I'm not going to get a deal done with this person or I see the pricing I'm not going to get to deal with them with this person but when I go somewhere else and I don't know the person that they don't know who I am right it's just strictly do you want to sell it or you don't want to sell it right and then it opens up the door if they have other stuff too for sale then maybe you just negotiate a whole lot and get it done funny funny enough is like I did I did see some stuff that I wanted to to buy like a very very big card but at the end that person was at the show anyway was a dealer oh I see um and and I think just the timing of it wasn't right like it was a very very big card I didn't want to tie up all my capital into this one card and it was a hockey card um but I think the card itself was very very cool I just you know I didn't want to tie up all my funds into that because that would be more of a PC item um then then you know for me to like the whole goal of the show was just to acquire more inventory for excuse me Toronto so so that so so this was one of the ones I mean sorry that CGC one was one of the ones I got off of marketplace oh interesting along with this one okay that's another Otani Topps rookie card but yeah and it's not in a anything crazy holder but it's in a holder um but then the price kind of reflects that right so for me when I have like I could probably put together a whole Otani case you know it looks impressive right because when people look at it it's like oh there's so much stuff here I can choose from in all different price ranges then you know the whole idea is to just draw people in and then let them make the decision and when you say in a holder you were talking about for listeners out there oh like a grading company that's not the top three top four so we're talking about yeah so this one is TGA which I've never heard of I haven't heard of never heard of but it's not the first card that I've gotten um in this holder before okay and funny enough it was another Otani but just treat it like a you can treat it like a raw card like I mean raw price if you if you know you don't you don't like it but the fact that it's in a holder is is already better yeah I agree I agree yeah it's more Otani stuff and this is not even this is not even part of your 35 raw card haul no this isn't this this these are the cards so funny enough I traded I traded one card that I got for more like it was an Otani and I got like more slabs so sometimes like you do balance off deals you don't always have to trade straight right you can add or plus minus cash or you can add more cards I basically traded one Otani tops chrome um rookie and some cash and I got like this plus plus two pitching Otani PSA 10s plus a regular PSA 9 like I mean yeah yeah and then all those got transacted somehow some way but in the case instead of having only one Otani there I'd have like six and it just looks more impressive to have six of them there right regardless of what the price is but again it's just showing people what um you know what options they have and then like so this is the one like I literally transacted this card like four times 2018 tops chrome rookie of Otani I had one when I got there yeah sold it or traded it got another one someone brought it by I took it wow and then Martin and I went through it too Martin went through like three or like two or three of these not liquid eh so yeah super liquid I think this is a great card what is that uh 2023 diamond icons Ichiro red auto nice I think I traded an Otani and this was part of the deal I got back this is the card I was talking about that Don Mattingly great OPG rookie PSA 9 like you said yeah and that hopefully opens the door to to more cards from this lady yeah I want to go see what else there is but if there if there's other OPG slabs from this like this is worth it this is like a rarity kind of thing can never go wrong with King Griffey jr that's from the tops traded set top traded PSA 10 so when you get a Griffey in a PSA 10 these are great nostalgic value people want to buy but you know how much a 1989 Griffey upper deck PSA 10 is now have you looked recently is it 3k now 7,000 7,000 how can it be what happened last year that is insane you know I looked it up and I kept looking I was like this can't be right but the last ones are ranging like like mid six to seven day oh my gosh I was gonna ask I was gonna ask you because like just read an article on the in the athletic and the top five kind of value increases the top five players that's seen the most value increase in March just this past month is obviously Otani's in the top five King Griffey jr that just you just kind of reminded me of it because you showed me that card and then number one's Wemby I don't know if you saw a lot of Wemby cards and Paul Skeens is still number two and then you got Dylan Harper at number four any of those other cards that you've seen at the show uh Paul Skeens but I think a lot of the schemes that I saw was all a lot of non-licensed I think that was something I saw a lot of actually was a lot of non-licensed product when it came to non-hockey I don't know if that's because like the collectors there were buying a lot of retail products it's possible uh Wemby's we saw but nothing like super super big you know like you might see a prism you might see a prism silver but it wasn't it wasn't like we saw anything right super super hardcore yeah and it's the market too I suppose like internationally you'll probably see it more oh speaking of basketball Luka Doncic his prism rookie pink ice pink ice I mean I got a deal I mean he'll be fine I know he's he's busted right now but can't go wrong with Luka stuff love Luka and uh you know I did a deal with this gentleman initially we were gonna do like a trade in cash he wanted I had this Roy Halladay autographed uh inscribed world's like ALCS champion or something like that it's pretty crazy actually it was a nice card I got in Toronto last year and he wanted it and I was like okay like let's make a deal I'll do this and I'll add cash to get this because I'll just buy the Roy Halladay I don't want to sell the Luka I'm like okay it's fine still sold to me the next day so so I mean like I still got the card I wanted and nice I just looked up the King Griffey upper deck before you show me the next card uh King Griffey jr upper deck uh rookie PSA 10 you're right 5,000 US which is about 7,000 Canadian so and it's at its peak now it's kind of done this parabolic curve looking thing you know what I mean crazy I mean the last time I owned that copy it was 2,500 yeah it's insane I've never predicted 7,000 Canadian right now I don't think anyone has all right next card Aaron Judge this is a top squirrel rookie refractor refractor too are those refractors numbered in that set or no they are not they are not numbered okay but I had two of these I actually I actually acquired one at the CSC show um a couple weeks ago so but I got this one I bought this and uh this is before the show started you know I just walked through my walk around I found this and uh Hank Aaron uh 56 56 Hank Aaron yeah um which I no longer have unfortunately but fortunate for somebody and that this was cool it's Patrick Mahomes I I can recognize the autograph right away that's how I know that was Mahomes but on card auto from what's that this is from I don't know this is from uh plates and patches football okay panini yeah but it's still sealed, which is great. And this, this photo is actually really nice. Let's see, diving for the ball. Yeah, it's not a standard photo for sure. But anytime I can get a sealed Mahomes stuff and right now Mahomes market, it's, I think it's opportunity to go grab it. Love to hear that. I'm a big Mahomes guy, believer. I mean. Me too. I, you know, that other one I had last time, the helmet tag. Yeah. So I located the other piece and I'm, I'm acquiring it. Oh, so you have both? Yes. And then I think as a, as a package, it might be, well, I definitely will control the market there, but I think I have a, might find an interesting buyer. Nice. How'd you even find it? You just asked around? So the funny story is, is when I was at West Coast, you know, I have, you know, people come to the booth and they go, Hey, you know, like that's a really interesting piece and whatever and stuff. And then this guy, I was walking by his booth and he had a bunch of Mahomes stuff. So I was thinking, Hey, would you be interested in, you know, maybe acquiring this thing that I have? I showed him the phone and he goes, Oh, I'm actually trying to, I'm actually trying to negotiate for, for the other piece. I'm like, where's the other piece? And he, and he shows me and I go, are you, are you trying to get it? And he's like, I don't know, maybe. But now I know where it is. So then, you know, I reach, I reach out to the, reach out to the guy and then we're, yeah. Like, I mean, the deal is almost done. Just, just funds are being sent right now. Nice. Yeah. So hopefully, hopefully I will have that piece in Toronto and I'm going to try to get them in matching BGS slab stuff. And then go from there. Oh, one more OPG. Is that OPG? Yes. Not the tops rookie of Wayne Gretzky. Yeah. OPG, not tops. Not tops. That's what I said. Not tops. Big price difference. What, what PSA? What? Four, okay. Four. Four, okay. Yeah. And it came as a trade. I mean, the best part is, is like, sometimes I take, I'll take raw stuff back, right? And then like, but raw like downtowns and stuff like that. So, you know, this guy was like, hey, I have a bunch of Gretzky stuff. Like he was another dealer actually came by and he's like, I'd be interested in these things. I take some cash and like, I'll take these raw, some of these raw downtowns. Yeah. It worked out. I was like, yeah, I'll upgrade to a slab Gretzky. Nice. Another judge card. Tops, tops and a half. Judge auto. Yeah. Yeah. And this is stuff, again, Otani, Power of Otani. He wanted the Otani. Tops Chrome. Another one. He wanted that. And just like, let's, let's do a trade. Would you take this? And I got something else too. And I got cash. So perfect. Nice. Another, what is that? Oh, tag 10. Sepia. So the tag 10, it's getting cracked out of this. This is Otani, Rookie, Tops Chrome you're talking about. Yeah. Sepia. I'm going to crack it out. But this was like a walk around a card we found at a dealer's booth. I mean, the value of the card, I mean, is great. Even I crack it out. Why are you cracking it out? It's just better value for a PSA 10? Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, even when I had this in my booth I had it priced less than the PSA 10 just to give people options. But as I tell everyone, when people come to the booth it's like, if it's raw or if it's in a not so nice holder you get the chance to buy it now. But if you don't, then I'm just going to crack it out myself and I'll reap the reward myself. Great. So this one is definitely getting cracked out. Come on, man. Tag 10 is so nice though. Tag deserves more love, man. Maybe. Unfortunately, I think value wise even though it might look nice in that holder or for what it is just from a financial plane I think it makes sense to get out of it. So interesting. I feel like TCG cards, tag gets more love in that community versus the sports car community. It does, but after talking to Steph Steph's not a big fan of tag either. Cause I actually, someone else offered me some tag stuff and they were in like TCG's ones. She said, don't touch those. Really? Yeah. Interesting. So this is the last one. There we go. Vintage 19. What year is that? 34 Gaudi. Garrick? Yeah. New Garrick. Nice. PSA 1. Scott, Scott Lang, if you're listening to this episode PSA 1, he collects PSA 1's only. So he might. Oh, that's right. It's a nice looking card. Nice looking PSA 1. Yeah. So hit me up in the DMs and see if we can put something together. That looks nice. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I got other cards too, but I mean, nothing, nothing like super, super crazy that I need to show you, but definitely there was a lot of stuff at the show. You can see like the stuff, like that was just, that was just the stuff that I brought back, right? There was other stuff that got transacted between the Friday and the Sunday. But just, just like the way Martin and I do, like our style is just really, our inventory keeps changing. So people will keep coming back to the booth because every time they come back, they see something new. So, you know, that that's our whole goal is that, you know, we can keep building the rapport with the customer, but at the same time, it's like, we're providing the experience because it's like, there's so much different stuff that comes back every time. So it's not like we price something super, super high so that it just stays there for every show, like the next five years, like some fun dealers, because that's a, that's a boring case. Appreciate you showing that to us. That's a pretty good haul, I gotta admit. And well, I guess the next show you'll be at is at the Toronto Sport Card Expo, because that's in less than a month, right? So. Yeah, it'll be Expo. And we were talking about, I mean, we're going to do the Calgary Expo because we're going to try to do this whole circuit. That one is September 18th or 19th. Interesting. And then right after that is Montreal. And I think we go to Vancouver. So three weeks, there's three shows. All before the November Toronto Sport Card Expo. Yes. That's a crazy schedule, man. So like we'll go there and we'll try to just get more inventory. I think what's nice is that when we go other places, we don't know what to expect. And there's obviously some other stuff. There's collectors everywhere. Not everyone comes up to the big show. So for us, if we go out there and we can kind of provide a platform where people can come and trade their stuff or sell their stuff or whatever, we'll go out there. And I think it's good for us. Like I said, the experience for me was very positive. I enjoyed it. And I think it's good because when we go out there, we're doing something a little bit different than what other people are used to. Because a lot of the comments we got were like, you guys are not from here. Right. But that's, yeah, no. Again, DC, thanks for sharing that. And next time you go out there and into those other shows outside of Toronto, outside of Ontario, hopefully more people get to recognize your voice from this pod and then do more deals with you. But the next one is in Toronto. So the ones you just showed us, in all likelihood, you'll see those cards at the Expo, right? At the Expo, right? Most likely, unless someone hits me up off my Instagram and like really wants to trade for something. But because a lot of people just message me and ask me if I have something a lot of the time. Always at work. I love to hear it. Yes, sir. All right. I have a feeling we'll touch base even before the Toronto Sport Card Expo. Like I said, I'm trying to fill out the schedule for April and I'm counting on all my hobby friends to step up to the plate. So be prepared for the call, DC. I always like you on the show for the insights that you bring. So this is the Friday episode. We'll have a brand new episode for you on Tuesday. And as always, we appreciate all the listeners out there. Thanks. Bye. Hey, thanks for listening to Cards to the Moon. We'd really appreciate you subscribing to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. And you can also connect with each of us on Instagram at 5cardguys, or you can follow Hyung at Integrity Sports Cards or John at TradeUatRecess. You can also check us out at 5cardguys.com. Thanks again and hope to connect soon.