Do You Agree With What ChatGPT Thinks Are The Top 10 Most Iconic Sports Cards (Vintage and Modern)

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. My name is Clark from 5cardguys.com. You can also find me at 5cardguys on Instagram, YouTube and on Facebook. I'm going to do another solo intro today and I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure if I would have a brand new Friday episode for you because I've been extremely busy, meaning I've been watching the World Series every night it's been on because my Toronto Blue Jays are in it against the LA Dodgers. And as of this recording, the series is 3-2 in favor of my hometown team and game 6 will be played when this episode airs on Halloween. So, I'm a little nervous but I'm trying not to think about it as I'm recording this episode and I don't have any ideas off the top of my head in terms of what I wanted to kind of talk about on today's Friday episode. So, what I did was what I normally do when I'm looking for ideas, I just go on chat GPT and let AI help me come up with some ideas. And one of the ideas I thought was pretty cool was, you know, kind of coming up with the top 10 list because everyone loves top 10 lists, right? And what I prompted on chat GPT was, name the top 10 iconic sports cards of all time, alright? And I'll give you the top 10 list quickly but I don't think any of the top 10 cards given to me by AI by chat GPT is really that surprising. It's kind of boring actually. So, I asked another question but before I tell you what I asked as a follow up, I'll give you the top 10 that it initially gave me. Number 1, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, card number 311. That's not a big surprise. Number 2, again, no surprise, the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner. Number 3, 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie card, card number 57. So, top 3, I have no problems with. Number 4, we go back to vintage, 1933 Goudy of Babe Ruth. So, there's multiple variations that kind of clumped all the variations into one. Card number 5, the 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Autograph Rookie card. Got to admit, I'm not much of a football card collector but if I wanted one, this would definitely be the one that I would want if budget wasn't an issue. Number 6, the 1969 Topps Lou Alcindor, aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His rookie card makes the top 10 list. And in number 7, 1979 Opeche Wayne Gretzky Rookie card. So, you got another GOAT making the top 10 and definitely the 1979 Opeche is the one you would want. Number 8, the 1958 Pele, his rookie card. So, they include a little bit of soccer. I don't know if many card collectors would put any soccer cards in the top 10, but I guess Chats GPT is trying to be well-rounded in its choices. And number 9, LeBron James had to be in there. 2003-04, his Upper Deck Exquisite RPA, card number 78. And rounding out the top 10, I have no problem with this, the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. An important card for the hobby and if you don't know why, I'll put a link actually in the show notes below of a YouTube video I made just on this iconic 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Alright, honorable mentions, it gives me 5, the 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle. Some consider that the true rookie card because it came out before the 1952 Tops. You got the Pete Rose rookie, 1963 Tops in there. 1980 Tops Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rookie card with, of course, Dr. J, Julius Irving on that card as well. And then you got the 2011 Tops Update Mike Trout rookie along with the 2018 Panini Prism Luka Doncic rookie, which wraps up the honorable mentions. So, what I ask next of ChatGPT is to give me the top 10 iconic sports cards from the year 2000 and beyond. Because some of these vintage cards and old school cards are a no-brainer. They have such cultural impact even beyond the hobby, you can't really argue with it. So I thought it would be more interesting to see, you know, some of these more modern cards and what ChatGPT thinks. And sure enough, there are some controversial choices. But yeah, you tell me what you think while I go through the list. And I've repeated some of these in the initial top 10. Obviously, it falls under the category of the year 2000 and beyond. So you'll definitely hear some repeats beginning with number one, the 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady autographed rookie card. And ChatGPT also gives a reason why they consider this card iconic for this Tom Brady autographed rookie card. It says it's the single most important football card ever made. Brady's only true rookie autographed from his debut year. And of course, any football card collector will know there is a championship ticket parallel number to 100 worth millions. All right, number two again. It was in the initial top 10, the 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection LeBron James RPA. Don't have to say much. I believe the BGS-9 version sold for $5.2 million. So yeah, no big surprise there. Now, this is where some people might have an issue with putting this card up this high on the list. But number three is the 2011 Topps Update of Mike Trout, his rookie card US-175. I think for baseball card collectors, it's pretty iconic. But I would put another Mike Trout rookie card above this, and that's coming up later. Hint, hint. But I have to admit, if you're a Mike Trout fan, if you're a baseball card collector in recent years, if you see this card, it is pretty iconic. The image itself, I think, is pretty iconic. All right, number four. We go back to LeBron James, his 2003 Topps Chrome rookie card, number 111. Also, very familiar to basketball card collectors. Comes in refractor, which is worth thousands. The black refractor, number to 500, and of course, the gold refractor, number to 50. And I would argue it's one of the most recognized LeBron rookie cards for most collectors. Okay, number five. And this is the card I was talking about that I thought should have been higher than the number three 2011 Topps Update of Mike Trout. But it is the 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft autograph rookie or prospect card. And for sure, I have one, so I might be biased. I have a refractor version, number to 500. But I would definitely consider this one of the holy grail of Trout cards, and arguably the most famous modern baseball autograph card. All right, number six. This was mentioned in the honorable mentions, but in this top ten list, where we only consider more modern cards, it makes the top ten. It is the 2018 Panini Prism Luka Doncic silver rookie. So anyone that got into the COVID era of card collecting will know this card very well. I even had one at one point. Spent $2,000. Sold it for $1,300. So, could have been worse. But the silver rookie, very iconic image of Luka Doncic. And I think it defines even that period of time from 2018, 2019, 2020 of card collecting. Luka Doncic is one of those cards I think of immediately. Okay, number seven. Here we go. The 2018 Panini National Treasures Shohei Otani rookie patch auto. Personally, because it's unlicensed, I would not even include it anywhere near the top ten. My friend Will, who co-hosts the pod with me once a month, might disagree. But I think they just put this in the top ten because of Otani, because of the allure of RPAs. But man, I'm just docking huge marks because it is unlicensed. Even though it is Shohei Otani. Number eight. We're sticking with Panini National Treasures, but this time it's different. It's the 2017 National Treasures of Patrick Mahomes, his rookie patch auto. Licensed, check. Rookie card, check. Mahomes. I'm all in on Mahomes, so no problem there. And the record sale, I believe, was $4.3 million, his one-of-one NFL shield patch, which did obviously really well. All right, number nine. The 2020 Panini Prism black gold parallel of Justin Herbert, his rookie card. Again, Justin Herbert, great football player, but still has a lot to prove. So not sure why this one made the top ten by ChatGPT, but there you have it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would think it doesn't belong here just yet. And number ten. Again, had to include a soccer card. I don't know if I would include any soccer card. And even this one, ChatGPT says 2018 Panini Prism Killian Mbappe rookie card should be in this list. So obviously, ChatGPT has never heard of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. That should be above Killian Mbappe. This just goes to show you, yes, it looks like AI is taking over the world, but it's not perfect. And, you know, sometimes we just got to trust our human instinct. Even when it comes to things like top ten lists in the hobby. And just quickly, some honorable mentions that ChatGPT includes is the 2005 Upper Deck The Cup Sidney Crosby rookie patch auto. So shout out to Hockey there. The 2019 Topps Chrome Fernando Tettis Jr. rookie auto. Okay, now it's going off the rails a little bit. It's a nice car, but I don't know if it deserves an honorable mention. The 2017 Bowman Chrome Ronald Acuna Jr. auto. And there's the 2022 Bowman Chrome Eli DeLaCruz auto. Okay, now I'm wondering where they're pulling this information from. And this kind of made me laugh out loud. The 2020 Topps Project Mike Trout card by Keith Shore. And the reason it gives is that it's iconic for cultural reasons. Topps Project, man, I should do a full episode on that, reminiscing on some of the biggest mistakes. Some of the biggest mistakes I made in baseball card collecting was Topps Project at the peak. Right in the middle of the COVID era of card collecting. All right, hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I'll have a brand new one for you next Tuesday with my fellow co-hosts Will and Roy. We had a great time recording it today. And yeah, that'll be ready for you in a few days. Talk to you then. 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. Bye.