Does the hobby have a pricing problem? | Over Priced Cards | TOPPS vs Panini

Welcome back to the Hobby Chop Podcast. This is the podcast for the people I am Big Ken. He is it Zip. How you doing, my friend? I'm doing, I'm doing buying cool cards, selling cool cards, all that stuff. What are you doing? How are you doing? I'm doing well. I, I, my kids dragged me into the NHL playoffs this game with Buffalo and Montreal. You know, my daughter lives in North Carolina, so now I got a three way text with my son and my daughter. My, my son's a Canadian fan, my daughter's a Cane's fan. And so now I had to watch the beginning of this. I just watched the first period of the game. I can't believe Montreal's four to one up on the, on the Hurricane. So I guess it's going to be another great series with them. But you know what? I used to watch all the NHL playoffs, but you know, the, these playoffs, they go, they start in April and end in June. Right. I mean it's, it's a commitment. Yeah. Yeah. That and the, the basketball playoffs, which I haven't watched because the Celtics lost. But if you go on any social media, you see that the Spurs Thunder series is gonna be epic. So I got, I gotta start tuning into that. Yeah. Wembanyama. Just see the prices on his silver prism. Did it touch 3k? Over 3k? They're over. Wow. Yeah, I just, I just looked it up. Somebody the last I saw, I thought was like 2800, but that was maybe a day or two ago that I saw a post or something like that. Let's see. May 19th, 3250. May 19th, 32.99. Wow. Yeah. 3250. Yeah. It's crazy. Yep. That's insane. But there's, I mean, I think you can fairly say there's never been anyone like him. Like you don't have, you don't get that too too often where you can literally say there's never been a guy like that. And, and I'm glad you said that because in my head I think to myself, like, I look at last year's and I know my Patriots fans are all going to scream and yell at me, but I look at last year's playoffs, right, And I see a guy like Drake May, where all of a sudden his cards are skyrocketing. And I'm thinking to myself, is it, should they really be going that high? Should his, should his value go up that much? Right? But then I look at a guy like Wimbiama and you just said like there's never going to be another one like him. Right? There will be, but. I know you just said that, but as of right now, there's never been one. One like him. He is. He is. Yeah. So, so to me that would warrant. Right. The, the, the card prices, the card value going up and maybe stay up there too. Right. Versus you know, like when Drake Mays cards were, you know, going through the roof. And I thought to myself, oh, and that's kind of, you know, maybe starting early. But that's kind of one of our topics tonight is like some of this stuff just a bubble waiting to burst all the time, you know, and, and which players really deserve. I don't deserve a good word, but deserve their value to really, you know, spike. Spike up like that. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's a great point. In the two examples we used, it was actually funny. I don't know if. Did you see the Instagram post I made with my lawnmower like, like a week ago or like on my story. So I was listening to. It was the football card podcast on the Stacking Slabs Network. And at the beginning of the, the podcast they were talking about how their podcast is like the podcast to listen to while you're mowing the lawn. And as they were saying that I was actively mowing the lawn. All, all which was just hilarious. But all of that to say that they mentioned how like the high, high end sales of football cards have not really been recorded like at the quantity of basketball. And I, I think part of that too comes down to the sport being more like for football you need a way better team to even be an mvp. Like, you know what I mean? Like the, the quarterback needs a system. Guys like they need to put up the numbers to do it. You need to rely where basketball like one person can make way more of an impact than what on a basketball court than a guy than someone can in a football field. I don't, I don't even think that's really like arguable. You know what I mean? No, not at all. And you're playing offense and defense all the time. Yeah. And Wembanyama was like a top three MVP candidate and he was like. And he was the unanimous. Not even a question. Defensive player of the year. And he's. Do you know how old he is? 22. Yeah, he's 22. Like, like, I mean it's, it's really crazy look on your face when I got it right. I was impressed. I was impressed. I was impressed. I was like all right, man. But dude, like, like it's if, if you're gonna take the, the best young quarterback at his age, say Drake May. Just right, let's just right say Drake, man. And then you have Wembanyama, who I feel like if you're gonna guess on who's gonna have a better career and it's, it's not even a shot at Drake May. It's not at all. Drake May's great. He is really great for his age and, and everything and what he's done in, in his part to help turn around the Patriots. But it's also variable. It's also all the free agents they signed and again, not a shot at Drake May. It's just like when you're talking about putting money into cards based. Because if you're going to look at it like a stock, it's how it's going to perform long term for its career, right? Like that's, I hate to say it's like a stock, but like, I don't know how it's like say is like what is the stock of Victor Weyama's career going to be? And when you go, you've never seen anything like it. And he just won a unanimous defensive player of the year at 22, top three MVP. He may already be eye test wise the best player in the league. It's just like, I, I don't know. And, and do you remember a year ago we were talking about blood clots and, and you know, doom and gloom? Well, I, I was one of the few where I was like. Because the, the, a lot of people brought up Chris Bosch, but he was so much older in his career when that, when that really like stopped him. So yeah, I think that, I think that mattered too. But yeah, man, I, again, I think that is the, I guess that's the only downfall is like if he, if he doesn't stay healthy. Because also man, it's like Dave, Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper too. They have three top three picks in a row where Castle I believe was three and, and Harper was two. So, so it's just like, yeah, I don't know. And Castle was, was probably the best guy in his draft. So yeah, you have the two. I don't know. I don't know. And that's always the beginning of a dynasty. I don't care what, what sport you're at is when somebody's lucky enough to pick up like three of the top draft picks like you know, within two years or something like that. Kelsey Tyreek, Mahomes Yeah, well, it was actually. What's his name? The running back game that year with. With Mahomes. Oh, no, Hunt. But. No, but I'm saying Tyreek was like, 2016. So you had, like, Kelsey in 2013, Tyreek Hill, then Mahomes. I mean, just. You're talking about the dynasty, right? And then all the defensive guys, they drafted, too. It's just like, yeah, you can build it through the draft. And to your point, okc, they're like all drafted guys. So. Yeah, it's just I. He's in a great spot and he's going. He's the craziest thing about this. Ken is like, this is the least powerful. We're gonna see a Spurs team. And I don't know when they're only gonna get better because he's 22, Castle's 21, and Harper's 20. Isn't it cool, though, to be. To watch something like that develop? Like, I don't care what sport it is, but when you see all of a sudden all this talent coming together, somebody drafted very well or traded or whatever they did and built up this, you know, and you see it coming together. Like you just said, this is probably the. The weakest of this team we're going to see maybe over the next five or eight years, right? Because they're going to be, you know, borrowing anything terrible. They're going to be super strong. You know, it's really like, for me, it's. I love seeing that. I love watching it develop and then sit back and watch it happen. And sometimes we think it's happening on teams and we're like, oh, it's gonna happen. And then you're like, my God, it never happened. What happened? How did this all fall apart? Right? I mean, that happens more than the dynasty actually happens, but it's really cool that. To see it happen. Well, I'm happy it's in the Western Conference because my Celtics are in the Eastern Conference. And. Yeah, I don't. I. I just. I don't know, man. They're. It's tough. It's tough. Like, it. It's tough. I don't know who's gonna be. I don't know. I don't know how you stop him either. Like, you. I don't know what you do. They're just trying to play dirty. Did you see some of the highlights? They're like, just. It was Chat or Hartenstein. One of the centers on the Thunder was like. They were at the. Like, they're at the. The free throw, and wemby was going to get a rebound and chat like. Or Hartenstein. I forget exactly. Steps on his foot. Purpose. Purposefully. Just steps on his foot so he can't. And they're like. They're like grabbing them and like, it's. It's ridiculous. Super dirty. But, yeah. Well, it gets to a point where you have to dig deep to. All right, thank you, Howard. He goes, that was homegrown. So that was chat. Thank you, Howard. Yeah, this is just, you know what to chat's point, though. Nothing else he's gonna do, nothing else is gonna stop. And this is professional, right? This is their livelihood. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. These men mean business. Yeah. Just to take a minute here to say a quick hello. Peterborough Sports Cards. Thanks for staying up with us and hanging out. I know it's very late. Spike in the house, bromista 36. What is up, Ziggy? No hello, sir Ozark 1776. Well, whatever. People will pay. That's what you ask for on those cards, Howard. Appreciate you you being in here tonight too. Howard. Did you get your cards back? I mean, that was probably the. The biggest thing. Wait, People been waiting all week on the edge of their seats. You got your cards back that you left on the train last week? Oh, yeah. We need that. That. No. Oh, he said nope. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Howard, before we get into tonight's episode, I just want to share with you, I talked about bgs. Not great. Like grading harder than psa. Okay. Right. So you can't compare apples to apples because these cards were shipped to. Hold on. Oh, Howard says, I went to Lost and Found today. They said maybe next week or odds are. Oh, odds are low. Yeah. These cards were graded a year ago. They are all women's soccer one of one. Right. They're all one of ones. They were graded over a year ago and they came back nines. And I was hoping to send to BGs to get nine fives on them, so I cracked them out, I went through them again. I felt they were good cards. Right. I sent them to psa. I actually hand delivered them at the Philly show. So they. They just came back today. So here's the first one, Hal Hirschfeld. And this came back a 9.5. So, hey, it worked. It worked. Okay, but was she the best player of the three? No. Considering I don't know who that is, I would say no. Yeah. So Sophia Smith. Okay. Now known as Sophia Wilson. One of one pack. They're all pack pulled cards. Yes. Very sad to say. This came Back in eight. Oh, and Jaden Shaw, also one of one gold, sad to say, also came back and eat. So they came back less. I would have been better to keep them in the, in the PSA nines. And now I'm at a point now where I'm not going to send them back because I would be afraid they would come back. PSA 7s. Send them the tag now. Gotta send them somewhere else. I know. I mean, so many people since last week's episode messaging me, like, if you're not sending a psa, who are you sending to? Nowhere. I have boxes of raw cards that I'm gonna sell right now. That's, that's, that, that's where I'm at. That is where I'm at as far as this whole grading thing right now. And I was talking to somebody else who said, look, I've got like a hundred cards, I want to get graded. I'm like, yeah, well, make sure that you know what you're going to do with them, you know, like next year. Right? Yeah, like if, if I'm sending stuff out to grade, it's stuff that, like, I, I don't need back. Like, if, if I'm like goats, if I buy, if I'm buying like goats to grade. Okay. Which is obviously not as easy to find those to grade. Right. So. Yep. But other than that, it's, it's too tough with how much, how, how, like how volatile. Volatile the market is. Like in eight months. Like, I, yeah, it's tough. Yeah. What do I start buying Bowman for spring training? Like, like that's, that I did in November this last year. Like, is that what I mean? I guess I did. And I'll show that later. But like, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's a show. All right. We're not swearing tonight. Remember? I, I, I toned it down. I toned it down. That was warranted. I don't, I don't feel bad for that at all. Okay. That was fair. I had a lot of support in the DMS from that, by the way. Yeah, well, we all feel that way, but it's a family friendly show, right? The kids are listening in the car. So not, not at this time of night, I hope. But hopefully, hopefully, hopefully they carry that sentiment with them too about psa, because it's the truth. Well, they will someday. They'll feel just as harsh as we do, but maybe a different company. Yeah, hopefully. All right, so look, first topic tonight. Does the hobby have a pricing problem? And you know what you and I haven't even talked all week. No, you literally came on a minute, a minute and 13 seconds before we were going live. So, So I don't even, I don't even know what your opinion is on this. I kind of want you to go first so I can get some context from where you're coming at it from. Okay, no problem. So I'm just looking at, at some of the, some of these recent sales, like even on the, the Bowman Chrome. So the, the Tom Brady. How do you say that? K A I J U. Kaiju. Kaiju Super Fracture. 1 of 1. Do you know what that sold for? Are you up on this stuff? I'm not. If I had a guess, like 30k. Yeah. $350,000. Wow. I'm not anywhere close. How about the Joe Burrow Super Fractor Auto out of this year is Chrome 50K. Yeah. So you're over 23. Well, no, I, I, I would have. Right. Like, I, I would have thought that Brady was more. But after the Brady did 350, I, that kind of threw me off. I'm not gonna lie. I was trying to calibrate for that. Yeah. The Jackson Dart. Kaiju Caillou Rookie card. Caillou's that bald cartoon Ken. Yeah, well, whatever. I don't know. Kai. How are we saying this? Caillou. Kaiju. No, Caillou is like a, is a cartoon. No, I know, but how, what are we calling this card? How do we pronounce this? Pretty sure it's Kaiju. I could be wrong, but I think it's Kaiju. All right. I, I just don't want to get yelled at. Kaiju. Kaiju 101. Are they. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have that information. I thought these are these case hits and are also numbered. I'm not sure. I think they're. No, no, I'm saying for the, that I'm supposed to be guessing right now. Is it, is it the 101 dart? No, it's the, the Kaiju dart. Not one of one. I don't think it's 101. No. Guys, if you're still with us, we'll, we'll clean this up. Yeah. No, so just the, the normal case. It, yeah, like 7511 5. The Josh Allen color match numbered to 150. So, so this is, this was killing me on this. Okay. When I pulled this card up to 150. Yeah. 300 bucks. Yeah. 7, 500. Well, I, I bought his purple auto at a 75 if by that math that thing better go off when I. Jesus. Yeah, so that's auto out of 150. Yeah. So I'm gonna go back and look at that. So you know, I'm gonna, I, I can go back and just go back and look at it because it may not have trans. But I just wanna, I'm going to talk about one other thing here. So, so a couple other cards I have sold like 2000 Bowman Gold, Tom Brady PSA 10 price on that. Any idea? Thousand Bowman Gold. Yeah. PSA 10. Is that numbered? Yes. Should be numbered to well, Bowman's number to what, 50. So Brady's rookie though you're saying? Yeah, it's his rookie. It's his 2000 gold like 500K. Yeah, well 675. Okay. Yeah, like that's a huge card. Yeah, that, that makes so much more sense than the freaking Kaiju 101. Yeah, this is what I'm getting. 2024 National Treasures. Stephen Curry one of one autograph logo man. PSA 10 of 10. It's like 800 grand a million. Okay, yeah, but I, I get that. Okay. I get that. Yeah. 2003 tops. Chrome LeBron Jane, LeBron James gold refractor. PSA 10 is, is that like 900k right now? 1.1 million. Okay so, so my point on this and I'll go back and see the other one. My point on this. Like, like these other cards that are brand new that just came out that people that, that the prices are on. Do, do we think that we got a pricing problem? Like these are priced way too high. I mean, I know, I know they're worth whatever people want to pay for them but when we start comparing them back to, to some of the cards that really, that we really think are worth like a Brady rookie. Yeah, things like that. I mean it's worth you know, Steph Curry putting that money into. Okay, I can see that. But these brand new cards, like, like how are we coming up with these valuations? Who's paying this money for these cards? It, it, I don't know. It just does not seem correct. It almost just seems like. I feel like. Right. It's like the, the, the, the, the bubble gum blowing the bubble and you're just waiting for it to pop right when it comes. Now the older stuff I completely agree on but the newer stuff I do not agree at. I agree at all on the valuation of those cards. I, I mean I think some of them could have long term value. But what is that long Term value and which cards they are. I, I have no clue if I was. I mean because also too like you're talking about Brady. It is post playing days Brady. Like but if I said to you and here this, this, this is a great conversation, right. If I called you up, I say hey Zip Joe Burrow Super Fractor auto from the new Chrome. I just bought that card for $23,000. What would you say to me? What was the thought process behind that? And, and if I said I, I, I, I think the card's going to go up. I think it's worth every penny of it. You would challenge me to, to no end. We would have a huge argument. So you know, tell me. I mean this is what I'm doing out of me like caring about you not getting freaking smoked on something. Yeah, exactly. That's. I, yeah. It wouldn't be just to like make myself feel good. It would be like Ken, you may be taking a big loss right here. That's, that's, that's what I would be worried about. Yeah. And, and I think it's a. Probably a good conversation to have between now and the national. I think we're going to see ridiculous sales like this that we're all just going to shake our head at and be like what is going on? I'm interested to see what happens because also man it's like it only takes one person to want to pay more. It just takes one person to want to pay more. And there's a lot of people with a lot of money who don't care. So it's just like I don't know man. Like what if someone wants to pay 400k for that Brady? What if Brady wants to pay 400k for that Brady, like like I, it just takes one guy to like wanna do but like no value wise like there's so many more Brady's I would rather have than, than that. Absolutely. But is there anybody in this rookie class or even because it's first year of this, is there anybody you would think to yourself maybe I'll, maybe I'd invest something in that. Maybe I would prospect on that and any player at all. I feel like the, the I feel like the two would be mahomes or dart and do you think and, and just asking this, you and I have not had this conversation. Do you think dart is, is that guy. Do you think that he is going to be around like like I'm a homes or a burrow or like somebody that that's you know and I'm not saying winning Super Bowls, but somebody that's going to be out there competing like you guy, he's got that talent. I, I do think he's very good. And there was that, I said this a while ago. I don't know if you remember this. I don't even know what it was called. There's this test that he took and he scored. It's like a, it's like a quarterback predict. It's like a quarterback predictor success rate test. And like the top 10 scores on the combine. They do it at the combine. Yeah. And he, he beat out like Mahomes, Allen, Lamar. Like he has the best score. Not that that means everything or anything, obviously, but also I think he has a ton of tools and talent. And I also think if he does have success in that market where no one can freaking have success other than Eli, which was so up and down, like, if he can be a guy there, his prices could go crazy. I think that's also part of it. But like he showed a lot of talent, man. Like, he showed a lot of, a lot of like highs. Like he, I feel like he was less erratic than Caleb Williams was his rookie year. Yeah, I mean, I think Caleb Williams looked good last year. That's what I'm saying though. But Caleb Williams, his rookie year, it was like, oh, is this guy. I don't know. Right? Like, I don't know, but I, I don't know. I, I, I like dart. I like dart. I do. Yeah. I mean, prospecting wise, if I was gonna do anything, see, I go the opposite way. I wouldn't go after the top player. I'd go after the other players that I think have, have tremendous upside, spend less money, look for the upside and try to, you know, move the cards. He says you would try to pro you try to. Like, who would you prospect? Yeah, you know, like Tyler Shook. Like somebody like him. Like, I mean, he's a guy that, you know, they just drafted him a wide receiver, right? Like a, another guy who came from the draft that had, you know, very high IQ or football, you know, analytics, that they feel he could be a very good receiver, like something like that, like a quarterback, like that, that his prices aren't through the roof yet. You know, like, you go, if you want to go try to buy a Jackson dark card, he's probably the most expensive card out of that product right now, you know, as far as the rookies go. Right. And then I'm thinking to myself, why, you know, I mean, we did this with Mac Jones Right. We thought Mac Jones was going to be everything and we spent all that money on Mac Jones and you know, it didn't, it didn't pan out. Even though his first year he was pretty good. Right. I mean I remember a Mac Jones card selling for a million dollars. Right. Or was it a million or what was that? No, 100,000. It was a hundred thousand. Yeah. Pulled the 101 and then the guy who bought it sold it for more. Yeah. And now what's that card worth today? 5K. It's like. Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's just like with that specifically and not even like to Dart, but Shug turns 27 in September. Yep. And Dart turns 24 in nine days. So it's just, I mean. And you know what else is rough too is like I think Cam Ward could be pretty good. But it's the Titans that kind of holds you back on it. Yeah. But if you're talking about this year for Tops Chrome, like I do get like the. Trying to get those super fractures of those guys because you look back on some of like the, like the one of ones from original Prism or original selects like those first years releases and I know it's not the first year of Topps Chrome, I know that. But it's the, their reintegration to it and there's, it's a lot of these guys first licensed Tops Chrome super fractors. So I mean it's its own market. I think the 101 market is its own market. It's. Someone has got to pay to get it. So. Yeah. Yeah. Peterborough sports guard said Dart won't have success while being with the Giants. Now I would say that about the jets, but I wouldn't say that about the Giants. I think the Giants have a lot of good pieces in place over there. How well their new court, their, their new coach can, can help. Yeah. I mean it's also. You have to remember how competitive the Giants were with a lot of people and they like they lost neighbors. Scatterbo. Like they just. I, I don't know. I, I think the Giants would be good. Yeah. Especially if you're going to compare them to the Jets. It's not even. I don't even think that's a conversation. Our guy Michael said he had the mic up Harbaugh last night. I wonder where that was. Says he's pumped a coach in New York. Ziggy. Ziggy says you're too close to the New York media and that. And that is Kool Aid in The hobby. So they glaze Jaden Daniels all the time. Yeah, I think Jaden's very fragile. So I mean we probably could say anything about so many of these, these players. Homer sports card says Mendoza. There's money to be made buying, graded and selling. Yeah, I, I think Ziggy, I think you're right. I think the play is almost the buy graded right now. Anything, anybody that comes back out with grading, like immediately when it's coming back from, you know, like, like first to market type thing, just, just try to eat them up as fast as possible. Because I think, I think a month and two months and three months from now, I think because the, the pop counts are going to appear so low because it's so delayed in grading that I think the values could go up on those things. And, and I believe that the nines are going. You're going to watch my opinion. You're going to watch the PSA 9s that do come back are going to be more valuable at the beginning than, than they should be. I think there's, there's going to be a lot of inflation on the nines because we know, you know, here's another thing that, that I pulled up that, that was, that was part of that. That will. It. That's going to go a little bit later. But right now, and it's a small sample size of the, of the grading. But the data shows, you know, PSA's top tops Chrome football. Right. The data shows that 21.4% of rookie autographs have received a PSA 10 grade. For comparison, in 2024, it was a 50 gem rate. So it's, I mean, that gem rate is super low. The base set gem rate is 24.6% whereas the 24 base set had a 40 gem rate from. And this is again tops chrome. So even the gem rate right now is super low. And they're talking about roller marks and all kinds. I saw that. I saw that. All kind of issues with the cards, which is going to slide us into our, our, our, our. Our next topic is panini. I mean, putting, putting panini versus tops. Right? I mean, did we just trade one for another? Right? I mean, they're still overprinted, they're still overpriced and it's still terrible qc. But I think it's even less. The QC is even lower right now because if you go back, you know, in previous years, even though we complained about the quality control and the gem rates on those cars, they were so. They were a lot better than 21 and 24, right? Yeah. That's like worse than WNBA prison by a lot, right? Yeah. I mean, what, what, what are we doing here? I mean, who, like, I, I understand everything's backed up in grading, but at this point, who would want to send those cards to grading? I know, it's like, let's, let's totally screw up the supply chain of grading, and then on top of that, let's just make shitty quality cards and see what happens. Which maybe. Well, there's. I think there's two ways this could go. One, people are just not going to grade as much if the, if the QC is down. But then again, if you do get that 10, it may just be even more of a crazy multiplier supplier. So it's like, well, people just end up still taking that risk, especially if, if nines creep up in value, which I think a lot of people would say nines deserve to be more valuable than they have been for a long time, which I think they should be too. I mean. Yep. And. And Ziggy's right. People. People won't stop grading. That was, that was the second part of it. He was just so quick with the text. He. He got it out before I said. I was like, or the PSA 10 will be so much that people will continue to do it because then it becomes a cost analysis of. Is this worth the risk to have this crazy blow up with a PSA 10? So, yeah, and we, and we talked about Topps, Chrome on the shelves, all these people sending pictures. I'm looking at these pictures on Instagram, I'm looking at them on Facebook. And I said, I cannot believe that the top scroll in football sitting on shelves. I tell you, every place I've gone since last week, I've not seen one box tops Chrome football anywhere in any retail store. So I'm not, I'm not sure where they're sitting. And I know Ziggy said here too, that there, there's no Prism football sitting on shelves. So JG says degenerates gonna continue to be degenerates. Yep. And I think we all feel that way at times in the hobby. I don't think there's any of us. Maybe there is, but I think we all feel like some type of hobby degenerate at some point or another. Whether, whether it's on. On whatnot, whether it's, you know, going ripping wax or, like me stop going retail and buying some boxes. I. I can't even tell you. I don't remember the last time I Opened up a box of cards. Right. It's probably saved me a fortune that I can't. Ken. Honestly, like, I think I've said it briefly before. Like when I did my end of year, like taxes and I'm going through everything. I literally is like, what am I doing? Because since I've stopped like rip ripping or joining into breaks at all, I've been getting awesome cards. I've just like all the time I'm just buying awesome cards and it's just, it's just better for me. And it's, it's just that, it's that funny. It's money well spent. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like the, Even if I'm, even if I break even or I'm gonna lose a little bit on the flip, which doesn't. I, I buy aggressively enough where that's not really gonna happen too, too often. Like, it's not like the negative ROI I'm gonna get with breaking or opening a box. It's nowhere close to that. Right. Like, it's nowhere close to that. So, yeah, like I sent you the other day, I got a PSA 9 on a Jesus. I actually, I'm gonna give shot. I'm gonna give a shout out. I know I texted you this. I'm gonna give a shout out to PSA for, for being really slow and sucking. Because I bought, I bought this card in November and it's, it's May now and it. And now it's on auction at PC Sports Cards. I bought this card for like 540 or 550. It's a green sapphire, first auto of Jesus made. It's out of 99. And he was like, I want to say he's like a top five. Might have been three or four ranked prospects out of the top 100. And it's taken so long that the other guys have graduated and he has now become, become the number one prospect. And that PSA 9 price is what the tens were going for when I, when I bought the card raw and sent it off to try to get. So my PSA 9 last sold over $1200 and mine's on auction now. And the cheapest one available is like 1900. And I anticipate this one to end between 12 and 1500. And this is a PSA9. And that's just like sheer luck on my end because PSA sucks. Well, because you knew who to buy. Yeah. But like if I got the card back on time, I would have sold it for like break even or maybe made a, you know, a couple, couple Bucks. Like it wouldn't have been what, you know what it is if, if you were told I said zip, starting tomorrow you could only prospect one sport and that's it. What would it be? Would it be the baseball? Do you think you would? If I could only prospect like, so I, I like take goats out of it. If I only could buy young players. Yep. I, I would personally pro do Bowman baseball. Yeah, I personally would do that for. And, and I'll give you the reason too. It's because there's so many prospects to pick from. And with that being said, there's also a demand if you're buying the right cards to like where, like if you're buying football or basketball, like there's not as many guys to really pick from that could pop off like everyone like if you're a quarterback prospect, like pretty much you, you know who's has a shot, right? Or like people like, and then like even people who buy like the backups, it's like something has to go wrong like for that granted it's the NFL, it's a violent sport. Like things do go wrong. But like with, with baseball, I mean, I, I, I've been saying to, I think, I, I don't know if you remember, I've been telling you and my, our buddy Matthias, who does a lot of baseball too, I was like, like Jesus, Mada has got to be the number one prospect next year. And, and sure enough, it happened midway through the summer. Like I thought this was gonna be a next year thing. So I was like, he's one of the names I'd get. But like, I feel like baseball, like it's, it takes a while to learn it and get and figure it out. But I just, I feel like it's, it's the best market if you're going to do prospecting. I do, yeah. Well, I think one of the differences too, I mean with, with football it's all basically just the quarterbacks, right? I mean what it comes down to, it's just the quarterbacks. And then when you're prospecting it's like, ah, okay, who can I buy? Right? And then sell before the season even starts and make a profit on because I don't want to hold it because you have no idea what's going to happen. And then, and then the other thing you do on something, I, you know, like I do and I do look at a lot of backup quarterbacks and look, I, I, I swinging a miss, right? I've got some quarterbacks here that, that have gone, gone Nowhere that I'm. They're still sitting in the box. I'm still hoping something good happens. But like all the sun, you know, when you have, you know, every, you know, Shador Sanders's value is going up, right? And then all of a sudden all the. Here is desean Watson. He's going to be the starter. He's playing better, he looks better. And now all of a sudden you see her's price is coming back down again, right? Because they don't think he's gonna be. I mean, it's, it, it, it's like stuff like that. I, I often wonder like, like, are they creating that information just for the hobby? Just for like to get people to. Because, I mean, it's a long way between now and September, right? It's a long way between now. So, so for you, for people to come out now and start to say, like, oh, desean's gonna be the starter. I mean, it's so far away and he hasn't played in so long. I, I can't even imagine, you know, that, that they could call that. So I look at a pocket there, okay, maybe buy up some more Chedur and not sell before the season starts. Or sell if they say, oh, desean's out and he's going to be the starter. See, to me, I think that's where we run into the pockets. That's where you can do that with football. But trying to go after like Jackson Dart now and hope that be like an Otani situation, like, buy it. Why it's up because it's going to go higher, you know, like, I just don't see that happening. Yeah, no, and. It's just like the, the hype window is, is way different for the baseball too. Because like, for instance, if I, if I buy a guy who is in like low A, he can get promoted to high A and do well and then his prices will go up. He can then get promoted to double A and his prices will go up. He can then get promoted to AAA and his prices will go up and then he gets called up and that's when you can sell them off. Usually at the peak. Like the value, the value is on the call up though, right? I mean, you're really. No, there are value increases on those. Are each little hype cycles. Like it depends how much you want to pay attention to it. Like if, if a guy is getting called up like from single to double A and performing like that will get some attention and the prices will go up. Also, like if they just have a Hot week or a hot month like Frank. Here's a perfect example. Franklin Arias. He's the number one prospect for the Red Sox. I bought his purple first auto out of 250. Not one of the true colors, but it was in a collection bio. And I just. I'm a Red Sox guy. And I was like, oh, Franklin Arus, he's pretty good. Bought it for $70. Okay. I didn't even. I was holding it because I'm like, I'm gonna have to hold on to this thing for a while before I even look to grade it, because he's got a little bit of time or whatever. First month into the season, he has nine home runs. He was not a power hitter before. This year, he has nine home runs in one month, which is insane. And that Same card is 300. So I just sent it to auction because if I graded a 70 card and got a 10, I would hope to get 300. Right? Why. Why am I. Why am I wasting my time? And I don't really know, like. And that happens all the time with Bowman, that sort of stuff. Every single year, that happens. And now do you think what Spike said is. That's. That's it right there. That's what. What Spike just said is. Is very much the. The issue with it is there is too much work for these boys. That is. It is too much work to. To keep up with all of that. Because, like, it's not as reported, it's not as easy to follow as the NFL. That's everywhere. And there's so many more. There's different leagues and, like, levels and numbers, and it's just. It's a lot. I also. I also had the privilege to play baseball in college. So, like, I have. I have more knowledge than the average. The average person of. Of what these stats mean and how they could project. You know what I mean? Not that I'm an expert by any means, but, like, more so than a lot of people in the hobby that maybe didn't play baseball and understand what these things do. It's just. It's just different. And I also. Obsessive Cards disorder. I love that name, by the way. Said it also helps if you enjoy baseball. Yeah, it's tough to do the Bowman stuff if you don't know or enjoy baseball, because it. Yeah. Just gotta, like, if you're speaking the baseball lingo, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And how are those cards that are coming? I mean, are they. Are they gradable versus the football being all banged up, I feel like Bowman chrome Historically is pretty good to grade. I mean you have your. The Bowman like there's a lot of like print lines like that'd be like a common error but not error like you know, printing imperfection. But other than that they're. They're fairly clean. They're fairly clean. Yep. Not like, not like the football that's coming out. It looks horrible. I, Yeah, I, you know what though? I did. I have. I, I sent two cards out from Top Scrum. I think I've sent more but the two to my that are like decent was the Jackson Dart image variation I had looked really, really good. So I sent that and then it was Isaac Tesla True Orange Auto. I sent out too. That one looked pretty good. But a lot of them that I was excited to get, they look, they look terrible. Yeah. Yeah. I have a handful like just, just the you know stuff I'd been buying at shows and just buying kind of in bulk. You know, just the you know anything that was numbered or was colored, things like that. But just, just as, as I'm like taking them out and decide if they're going to go into a one touch or just stay in. Pop loader. It was just amazing how. How what or quality control on some of these cards are. And I don't know if they were just mishandled before I got them or they were packed with, pulled and top loaded when they came out but they, they did not look good at all. I want you to tell me what you think about this since we're talking about not grading as much. This is my. The. The gold spectra Jason Tatum rpi. I have. Look at this. It's. It's fur. Oh. Oh geez. It's for a big one touch. It's like the, it's. It's like a slab mag but for a one touch. Yeah, it's pretty sweet, right? Yeah, it's nice. Yeah. I. And it was, it was like. I think it might have been like 20 bucks or less it shipped from China on ebay. Yeah, it's great. It's excellent. Great quality and I, I love how it looks to be honest with you. I just. Since we're on the topic of not grading as much anymore, it's like that was pretty cool. I like that more than putting it in a slab and you know, I think that being a thick card how it is, I think it would get like. I think that would get like a PSA8. I just rather have it like that. I know I was looking to buy some, some one touches in bulk. This week because I've got so many cards, you know, preparing for the National, I'm like, all right, everything that's over a certain value is going to go into a one touch. And I'm trying to figure out how many I need. But yeah, I've got, I've got so many shows coming up over the next six, seven weeks that I'm sure I'm probably going to double that up between now and then. Yeah. But before we get off the topic of Bowman prospecting, I feel like this would be a good time to show a cool card I picked up. Oh yeah, yeah, go ahead. All right, so this is Joe Swar Gonzalez. He, he's like 18, came over from the Dominican Summer League. He's the second prospect in the San Francisco Giants farm system. Shortstop, switch hitter. I think he's hitting over.400 with a couple home runs this year. And when you, when, here's another thing. The, the big thing with, when you, you're buying the Dominican prospects if they only have stats, like if you go in the stat box and it says dsl, that's the Dominican summer league. And a lot of these Dominican summer leagues, like they'll have crazy stats, but it's basically like a bunch of Dominican high school age kids. And the pitching is at a much lower level than Stateside. Like just. Because when you get to stateside, like he's 18, he's going up against guys who are, you know, early, like early 20s and maybe played college ball or have been in the minors for a few years. So they're just mature, they have better pitches, better everything. Right. Just higher competition. And he's, he's come over and he's killed it. He's killed it. And what I got is the one of one super fractor of host, Jose Gonzalez. It's called, it's a, the insert auto. It's called achromatic. And it's, it's a. Well, it's a great looking image of him throwing across the body to short and from short to first. And yeah, it just came up and I was like, I'm gonna give it a shot. And he's 18 years old and he's in the top hundred prospect. He's 31st A ball right now. Single A. Yeah, yep. And 18 years old and he's really good. Well, considering what happens to you all the time. Oh, I picked this card up, oh, guess what? Now it's worth $10,000. You know, you know what they say about lucky people is they put themselves in a position to Be lucky a lot more than unlucky people. Yep. Yep. Take chances. Yep. And you know what, Ken? It's a one of. One of a top hundred prospect guy who. One of one auto. One of one auto. Yeah. So it's a pretty cool card. And I consider hit like if you are like in the top hundred prospect list, like, there is a level of safety to that. There is. So like, the big thing is like in Bowman is like, if you're able to get. If you're able to buy a prospect that's not on that top. Here's another hype cycle I was talking about the level calls up. Called up if they're not on the top hundred prospect list and you buy them and then they get put on the top hundred. Yeah, that's huge. That's another boost. Yeah, that's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. It's a big jump or then like cracking the top, you know, like, he's 31. He's 31 overall. He cracks the top 20. Pretty big jump too. Top 10. You know what I mean? Stuff. If he makes it up that high, would he. Would that also say he'll probably bump up to double A as well if he. Yeah, yeah. It's also. It's also too is like 18 years old at like, Jesus, mate. The number one prospect in. In baseball right now. He's. I believe he's 8. He's still 18 at double A and he's killing it. So, like, he's. He's super young for. For double A. I mean, Gonzalez is young for. For eight ball. 18 is young for a ball. So if he gets called up to double A, that would be pretty huge. And if he gets called up to double A before the year, he's probably cracking the top 20 like, at least as an 18 year old. That's pretty. Pretty huge. What. What level is our yard goats here in Connecticut? That's a great question. I want to say they're. They're double. Let me check. Yeah, because that. Because that'd be cool, like looking if I'm gonna prospect some guys to go get. Go get some eyes on them close by. Bring some cards. Yeah, a lot of people do the. Let's see, Double A affiliate to the Colorado Rockies. Nice. I haven't been to that stadium, the Dunkin Donuts Park. Have you? No, no, I have not. They had a card show there. Oh, that'd probably be pretty cool. Yeah, they had a card show there last year. I was. It was the same time as I think a causeway show or something. I Was signed up for another one. I never got to go there. But yeah, it's my little Bowman, my little Bowman story, you know, little 101. Yeah. So, so I've been using a lot of the chat gbt, you know, lately for a lot of different things. So I, I, I had to go in and ask it, what's the, the, what's the best sports card products to buy right now? Right. So what would you think? And, and I'll give you the year and then you could just tell me what you think. So for 20, 2025 was. It was the best overall 2025. I would say it probably said Prism or Tops Chrome. No, it was Bowman Baseball hobby box. Huh. The best overall buy right now. That 2025 Bowman baseball is, is loaded. That has Jesus mad weather hole and a bunch other. I'm not like a bunch. That, that's, that's a loaded class. Yep. And then the next one, I, it was an interesting how they labeled the second one. They called it the best football rip. Best football 2024. The best football rip for 2024. I feel like it would be Topps Chrome Football saying to chase the autos. No, it was Panini Prism Football Hobby box. It's a fun. That's probably an expensive rip. It's an expensive. They have it listed here at eighteen hundred dollars, but I mean you got to remember all the quarterbacks that came out that year too, so. Oh, absolutely. That's why I thought maybe they would try to chase the autos for a fun rip. Yeah, but Prism makes more sense. I was. Yeah, that makes more sense. Best lower risk baseball product 2025 for 2025. And they also say a safer baseball rip too, with flagship rookie cards. Is it series one? Yep. Solid liquidity and easy resale. Yep. Top series one Jumbo hobby box. Yeah, I don't know about that. Best basketball rip with upside 2024, 25. Oh, if it's not Prism Black, then I don't want to hear it. It's prism basketball hobby 202024 prism black. 1 of the coolest products ever. Also, you know what's funny? I just got, I totally forgot I had this redemption out there. I, I got a email from Panini about a Jared McCain redemption just shipped auto. Huh. Which. From Prison Black. Yeah. Do you, you know he's on the Thunder now? I do, yeah. So he, that I was like, not bad timing to get to get that card back right now. I was like, okay. It's funny the list that they put out that chat GBT puts out, you know, for. Not only does it say like, like who they think, and then they put a. A level. You know, it says your risk level and prospecting and rookie QB chasing and you know, say for this or speculation for that or. It was really kind of cool to read through, like, what it. What it gives back to me in like 12 seconds. You know, when I ask it how much information it comes back. Me and my wife call it Chad. Chad. Yeah, we gave it a name. Instead of Chad, we'd say, oh, what did Chad say? But says Ziggy says you have to train and show the AI where to search. Give it Reddit and blowout forms and then ask it. Ziggy's all over the place with AI, bro. Hardboard Collaborative says AI gets it wrong. Yeah, Ziggy has all those Instagram AI posts. It's. It is very entertaining. Spike says AI is dumb. Not Allen Iverson, but AI talking about AI. Not the real podcast that I love, but you're talking about AI. I. I find it to, you know, get me some good information in a lot less time than it takes me. Like, I, you know, the more I use it, the more I'm. I'm figuring out how to use it and I'm. I'm enjoying it. Yeah. I mean, for. For my. For one of my jobs, we have an integrated co pilot that helps with documentation, which is pretty nice, so it sure can be applicable. But also it's fun for card stuff. Yeah, that's fun. And images. Right. Fun for images. Thumbnails. So, yep, Another. Another great one coming tonight. I'm having a lot of fun doing those. I. I love it. I love it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Sports car is a hobby. Prediction. Borrow. Borrows to the. Oh, burrows to the burrow to the giants eventually. Yeah, write it down. You think so? I don't know. I think he'd crash and burn in New York. They don't have the O line either to help, he says. I use. Building a bunch of use cases, checking unique card shops Count is one example. You mentioned AI can do plus pricing. You know what else? You got anything else? No, that was my. My cool pickup. Yeah, no pickup. I got nothing. I got these back in the mail today. I got stuff at PC sports cars. Nothing has happened with them in weeks. Like, I don't. I think they forgot about me or something. I. I actually do have one thing that I think I might have shot myself in the foot with. Oh, that messy card. Not gradable. Not remotely close to gradable. It Wasn't like it would probably get it. I pretty confidently would get an 8 and I just like not gonna do that. So instead of trying to send it to PC Sports Cards, I sent it to golden and I signed the contract to send the golden. However, in the contract and what I was not aware of is they don't sell raw cards unless they're part of a set or they like come sealed like from top. So that Aaron Judge Auto, I sent in the tops chrome black thing, that's fine. Yeah. So they want to, they want to grade the card for you. That's what they said to me. And also looking in the contract more, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get the card back. I think they have full call on it and basically what it's gonna be is that, is it going to be the best decision for me? No. But the, the sales rep getting his little commission is not going to give a shit about that. Watch the swear. I, I understand what you're saying, but sometimes I think Golden's grading comes back a lot higher than, than most other people. So, yeah, I'm not confident about this. So I asked to get it returned to me, but I, I doubt that, I doubt it's, I doubt it's coming back to me. And maybe they're filming a new show. Maybe you should just go down there, go stand outside with your sign and give me my card back. Yeah, no, it's just, I, I, I don't, I don't know, man. I don't know. We'll see what's gonna happen. We all, we all make mistakes, right? I mean, yeah, we should have read, you should have read the fine print, but I, yeah, I didn't. You know what? We make the mistakes so they don't have to. Yeah. So preach. Tell them. Yeah, you signed and golden took your card and took control and now you. Yeah, I signed it away. I really can't blame anyone else. It's, I messed up. I didn't read the fine print. It's basically like they have all the authority to the card once I sign it and send it to him. So it's like, well, that sucks. What are you gonna do? Ziggy says he has a huge mistake that made, made him puke. He sold the Wimby for 3k after I turned down a 10k offer last year. I hate that. All right, kid. That's all we got. You doing anything fun this weekend? You doing any hobby stuff? No, we're hosting a Memorial Day party at my house. Wait, oh, oh, that, that was that invitation I got from you. Was that my in laws family? And also, I don't think you want to come to the pool party with the pouring rain and mid-50s. It's supposed to be on Sunday, so it's pretty much. We have like a, like it's a three bay garage technically and we're pretty much just gonna clear out that and probably host it in there instead of out there, but. Oh, might be a good Monday for people to snipe deals, right? Isn't it usually the Monday on ebay when auctions are ending on holiday Sunday night or Sunday night? Sunday night, Yep. Sunday night. It's usually decent night when Monday's a holiday. Thanks for pointing that out. Appreciate that. Yeah, it's rainy, rainy, cruddy weekend up here. This weekend I'll be out hunting card shows, looking for some bargains and digging through some boxes. And you've been digging in boxes now? Yeah, but buying a lot of these single cards. You're coming down to my peasant level. Well, you know what? I, I've been digging and you know, it's, it's, it's educational, right? Because the more, the more you dig, the more cards you see, the more you're looking up values, you know, versus all the common liquid cards you see in the cases and you know, all the values. You start digging in boxes and I see cars, I'm like, wow, this looks like it should be a super nice car. And I'm like, how is this only $8? I'm taking it anyways, it looks, it looks too good to be a eight dollar card, right? So like that type of thing and it's more educational and it's, you know, just looking for value. I'm building boxes. I've got so much inventory and graded stuff for the national, I want to build boxes so when I sell out all that inventory I can replace it with, with singles boxes. Yeah, that sounds good. Is Otani in the value boxes at all anymore? I haven't seen them at all. Yeah, I figured not. It's crazy. Like you remember the stuff I was picking up for two, three bucks and I was showing you and you're like, you, me, even I was like, am I doing the right thing? Because I was just like buying all these two. They're all like 15, 25 cards now. All these two and three dollar inserts I was buying and it's. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Yeah. All right, well look, enjoy your holiday weekend and we'll be back here next week. Next week. Thursday with a brand new episode. Yeah, and I'll be either Saturday, depending on what I find for card shows for me. What when I'm gonna be back. Whether. Whether I do my episode Saturday or Sunday or Monday just depends on what I get for content this weekend. But you'll get a new one from me, that's for sure. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Please like, please subscribe. And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Zip. See you next week. See you next week. Take care, Sam.