Recap Of The West Coast Card Show (Summer 2026); Interview With Dave B. (@wolfheartscards) On Crazy "Ohtani" Comps And Current State Of The Soccer Card Market; Plus Big Card Pick-Up

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 another edition of Cards to the moon. This is episode 383. My name is Clark from Five Card Guys.com and you can also find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and on TikTok at Five Card Guys. All spelled out all one word. Okay, so this is part two of this week's pod. And if you missed part one, go back to episode 382 where I recapped my recent trip to Fanatics Fest in New York City. It was my third consecutive year attending and in a nutshell, it was an awesome time. In my opinion, it's gotten bigger and better each year. Now, the card show component of the event I think is still great. Lots of different cards to see, to buy, to sell. I made a couple of deals myself and I wish I had more time there to maybe buy more. But I also committed to going to the West Coast Card show this year, which happened to coincide with Fanatics Fest. As we all know now. I will reiterate that at Fanatics Fest, I didn't see much of vintage around, if that's what you're into, so we'll have to see if that's something that changes in the future. Or maybe the primary audience for Fanatics is the newer collector or those who are just more into modern. So we'll have to see how that plays out. All right, for part two, it's going to be focused on my first ever visit to the West Coast Card show and off the top, what's not to like about California summers? The vibe was relaxed and when I got to the show it was already buzzing and compared to Fanatics Fest, it wasn't as chaotic. Things seemed a little more orderly, and it might have to do with there being less people at the West Coast Card Show. The music wasn't pumping constantly like it was at Fanatics Fest, and there were no big crowds following a celebrity athlete around, but the showroom floor was still very active. It was definitely more of your traditional card show with all those in attendance there for one reason, which is, of course, cards. Now, if you haven't seen my recent YouTube video about me letting go of my Bobby Wood Jr home field advantage super factor, I'll include that link in the show notes below. But I Bring it up because that meant I had some cash to spend at the West Coast Card show and I was eager to find a big card, or maybe two that I could add to my collection. In particular, any low grade Jackie Robinson 1948 Leaf rookie card that was within my budget was high on my priority list. Or of course, I'm always looking for a nice Shohei Ohtani autograph card. As loyal listeners of the POD will know, we talk about Ohtani quite a bit now. On my search for these cards, I quickly found out something about where we are right now. The hobby. The card market is piping hot with no signs of slowing down just yet. And in this kind of market, honestly, comps for highly desired cards don't seem to matter much. And unfortunately for me, that's certainly true for nice higher end Ohtani cards. Honestly, it wasn't that uncommon to find sticker prices on some of the Ohtanis at 2x the latest comps, which were only a few months ago. So that's how insane it is right now. I remember even on the last day of the West Coast Card show, I thought maybe before I leave I can spend 1500 dollars US on a lower end Ohtani. Okay, and at one of the booths I saw a Swinging for the Stars insert card of Ohtani and it was a red refractor number to 5 and a PSA 8 slab. Okay, now I looked up comps just curious to see what I was going for and I found the latest one sold for $1,200 in a PSA nine just two to three months ago. So okay, maybe I thought I can offer a little more than that latest comp in a higher grade. But when I asked what they were asking for, he said $3,000. The sale before that PSA 9, I looked it up on card ladder was actually for the PSA 8, which might have been the same card. I should have taken a closer look at a certain number, but that PSA 8 sold in September 2025, which is almost two years now for $560. So suffice it to say, I kept walking out the door and didn't end up buying it. But that's just a quick illustration of what the market is like right now. Maybe this is a good time to play the interview I did with a friend of the podcast and past guest Dave AKA Wolfhearts Cards who was actually set up as a vendor at the show. And we talked about just how crazy some of the prices were. And even for soccer cards, which Dave knows a lot more about than I do. We did touch upon the soccer card market in the midst of the World cup tournament at the time and what his thoughts were. So let me play that interview we did live at the West Coast Card show and I'll return with some shoutouts and closing thoughts. All right. I am at the West Coast Card show with my friend Dave. If you're a loyalist of the pod, you'll know that he was the soccer guy that we had on the pod earlier and I was a surprise because I wasn't expecting him at the show. But I'm glad he noticed me first and said hi. So Dave. And he agreed to come on the pod just to give us his opinion on how the show has been here because he does have a booth. So, yeah. Your general thoughts on the show this year? Yeah, I think the show. This is my first time at West Coast Guard show, so I think for me it's been. There's a lot of people here. Even with Fanatics Fest and the Dallas Card show going on this weekend, it's been very, very busy. I will say it might be concerning to some people though, as people are selling versus buying, a lot of people selling versus buying. But I think for me it's been, it's been great. It's been a good time. You know, I was able to see my friend Clark again, a couple other guys that I know. So it was very good just to come out here and enjoy the weather as well. Yeah, the weather's nice and I forgot that he's from Detroit, so we know what cold weather is like. So it's nice to get out here where it's warm. I mean, it's summer anyway, but, but you know, like I said, he's into soccer cards. How's the. And he brought some of the soccer cards. He has other stuff as well, but any soccer interest because of FIFA, especially this year? Oh, yeah. I think a lot of people are asking for aluminium all which is obvious. A lot of people are asking for Mbappe because he's almost tied with Messi now for the most World cup goals ever. Obviously Messi, obviously Ronaldo. But a lot of people, surprisingly, are trying to sell a lot of soccer versus actually buy soccer. Because I think everyone, right, the hype from the World cup, they're like, oh no, everything's going to crash. It's not going to. I still think soccer is on the very market and I think we're. We'll do nothing but go up from here. So I think we're pretty excited and see what Happens with the national. I think national will be interesting to see between, you know, the next two weeks and the national. See where the cards get right because the final Sunday. So we'll see. Yeah, and I just came from the fanatics fest in New York City and obviously they have the FIFA activation there. A lot of soccer fest, a lot more soccer cards there. I, I believe we were talking about this off air. Messi was there yesterday, I believe. And yeah, like you said, it'll be interesting to see if the hype dies down at all. You're a believer. Yamal, obviously making the finals. I'm sure that that helps with the value. Or do you think that's going to come down as well? Actually, surprisingly, with Yamal, his, his market's been a bit stagnant or has actually decreased because I think he had a lot of expectations as an 18, 19 year old kid in the World cup and he's only gotten one goal so far, no assists. But he did make the final. So I think we'll. If anything, I think his car, if he scores or if he does well, I think they may skyrocket again just because people had so such high expectations for him going in the World Cup. But I think, I think for me, I still think Messi's underrated, which is insane to think about because he's, he's. He's been the MLS for what, four years now and he's still proving all the guys in the top leagues in Europe that he's just, he's just kind of been toying with them, to be honest. The lack of a better term. But I mean, you haven't bought the animal and all those guys was just insane to see what 39 year old is doing. Yamal, we'll see. I think the big one will be Erling Holland. I think his stuff is going to go up if it hasn't already gone up, which I'm sure it has. I don't have any Holland, which is surprising, but I haven't seen Holland come to the table, which is even more surprising. So I think people are starting to hold on to his stuff because Norway was the dark horse this year and England barely beat him. I just still think there's a lot, there's a lot of room for growth. I think for me it's still an undervalued market just because I see all these, these basketball guys and stuff like that and just the prices on these stuff is insane. Versus soccer, which, which I appreciate now, but we'll, we'll see what happens. Yeah, no, for sure. And I'm glad you brought up Holland, because if people didn't know about him, a lot more do know about him now, just because of the Norway row as well. That was fun to see. So, to other cards, we were talking about Otani as well. Obviously, we're in la. You want to talk about how we discussed how some of the comps seem to be ridiculous? Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I haven't walked. I've only barely walked around, but the few tables I've stopped at, I would say the average of Otani or a lot of goat player cards are 1.5, if not two times higher than the recent comps. I think it's. I don't know what's. What's going on with the market. I, as a, as a vendor try to do my best to price it, you know, within the last comp. If there's a low comp. Right. We all know we'll take the average or we'll figure it out, but just the comps are absolutely insane. I think the one case you can make is probably Ohtani because let's say he has a numbered rookie card that hasn't sold since April. April's too far for Ohtani to go back. Everything changes. But. Well, yeah, like we were talking about, I think the, the prices are very, very high. Which is, which is unfortunate, right? Because people, A lot of people come here to flip and do repacks and stuff, but also a lot of collectors come here. And if I, If I go up to a table and say a card's a thousand dollars and the guy has a mark for 15, between 1500 and 2000, it's how you're supposed to, you know, discuss with them. I think it's been difficult for everybody. I've heard that from a lot of vendors, too. Yeah. No, I agree. Even the one day I walked around, just day two for me, when I ever. Whenever I ask how much for the Otanicard, they might as well say a million dollars, because that's, that's how, that's what I'm hearing because it's just so overpriced. But at the same time, how can I blame them? Because six months from now, it might even go higher. Right? But, yeah. And you know, like I said earlier, you're from Detroit. What made you want to come out to this card show? There's a lot of. There's a Dallas card show, there's Fanatics Fest, obviously. Why the west coast card show this year? To be honest, I just wanted to get into a larger regional show here in the States just before the national, because I will be set up at the soccer expo at the National. But I wanted to just kind of experience this. I've heard so many good things about it from your podcast. I've heard you and Daryl talking about it all the time, and I just want to come in here and see what it was about. And I've. I've had a great time. I haven't. I haven't bought too much. I've sold. Sold a good amount. But trade night was good last night, and I got to do some trades with Daryl, so I was pretty stoked about that. So we. We. He hooked me up with a Ronaldo auto. So, yeah, I mean, it was just. I'm just trying to get more out there and just kind of experience the other card shows. Right. Because the Midwest, we have great card shows, but it's also. You gotta expand your horizons. Love it. Last question. Well, we know in two years, the Nationals coming to Detroit, your hometown, you excited about that? What's your. What are your thoughts? I think people are gonna be absolutely shocked at how amazing it's gonna be in Detroit because it's. I know people are concerned, you know, from Detroit's reputation, but it's very much changed. And then the. The venue that it's at is right on the river, so that's gonna be very nice. There's a bunch of hotels right around. I'm stoked. Plus. Plus, just down the street there's all the stadiums, so you could go catch a Tigers game if you wanted or what. Depends who's ever in town. But, yeah, I think it'll be very nice. I think people will be impressed with the food the most, though. It's a very, very good city for. For. For kind of new age food and chefs and stuff. So that's what I look forward to. That's why I'll probably get a hotel. I don't live too far from there. I'll probably get a hotel downtown so I can eat. Amazing. I mean, you can cut us in. We'll be there in two years. It's the first National I think I can actually drive to, or I'm willing to drive to from Toronto. So, yeah, I'm sure we'll keep in touch before then. But thanks, Dave, for the time. Yeah, thank you so much. Okay. A big thanks to Dave, who we saw at train night as well. And I actually sold him a sealed Topps Chrome UCC Soccer Fanatics Fest exclusive hobby box, which I got When I was in New York City a couple days prior to meeting him and he asked if I wanted to help him rip, which I gladly accepted. Now we all know the rule, right? If you sell sealed wax to someone, you shouldn't probably watch them rip in front of you because if they don't hit anything, then you feel kind of bad for selling it to them. But if they hit something big, then you feel bad for not ripping yourself. But you know what? Since I sold it to a hobby friend, I did want him to hit something. So during trade night, we ripped the box together and I think he got some decent hits, including a Shooting for the Stars Fanatics Fest exclusive insert card of Harry Kane. It was also autographed and numbered to 25, so I was glad it worked out for Dave. And if you want to follow him on ignore, it's oolfheartscards and I'll include his link in the show notes below. Okay, so speaking of train night, there's lots of action on the first and second night. I loved how organized it was at the West Coast Card show. I personally sold like three or four cards in the first 30 minutes. And it was also great chatting with a lot of people too, who came by. I was talking to this one dealer, his name was Eric. He had cards I naturally gravitated towards. It was Ohtani Autos and Bobby Witt Jr. Autos. Now, the Ohtanis were out of my budget, and his Bobby Witt Jr cards were pretty nice. But I had my eye on a different Bobby Witt Jr card from another dealer, which I'll talk about in just a second. But the ones Eric had, they were from the 2022 Topps Chrome Platinum set. And he was selling his doubles. I think he actually completed the Rainbow, including the super, including the three, I think, different variations of red. And that reminded me of Max, who I did The Bobby Witt Jr. Home field advantage super factor deal with, because they were both collectors who like going for a particular set or subset. And I realized in that moment that with more and more people coming into the hobby, some of these more, I guess, obscure sets or insert sets might actually get harder to complete or even bid on for the price you're willing to pay for it, because someone else might really want that card too. So that's why I'm not surprised anymore if a red refractor goes for a crazy multiplier compared to the black out of 10 or orange out of 25, because there's a collector out there really going for it, whether it's chasing for the complete rainbow or just likes that subset as much as you do now. On the flip side, of course, if you have one of the lower numbered cards, there are opportunities to sell them for more than you would have initially expected to sell for. So sometimes you got to go with your conviction and buy some of these really visually appealing lower numbered cards quickly. That's why I'm still bullish on my Super Factor strategy. I know it's not bulletproof by any means, even in this red hot market, but the high risk play can potentially lead to a handsome reward. Okay, let's wrap up with some shout outs of course. Big shout out to dc, who you guys know from the pod, as well as Martin, Steph and Eli, who are now good hobby friends. It's always fun to hang out with them and with that crew all having been at the West Coast Card show before is a big help for me, just following them around to get the lay of the land. We'll be meeting up again at the national and well, for dc, he'll be on even before then for our next POD episode. So that's a little teaser. I also want to shout out Santo, who you can find on IG at Dimension Collectibles. I'll also include that in the show notes below. He said that he recognized my voice from the POD and he listens every week, so that was pretty awesome. It was great to talk with him. Very friendly, like pretty much everyone I got a chance to stop and talk to at the show. It's cliche, I know, but that's really one of the best parts of going to a show. Just meeting fellow collectors and dealers and hearing their stories. A couple of tables right beside Santa were Stuart and Jason, who also said hi. I think they said they recognized me from the YouTube channel. Again, a real pleasure to talk to. Got to share a little about what I do and even talk about the Sport Card Expo, so hope those guys can make the trek up north one day and see what the hobby scene is like here in our hometown of Toronto, Canada. I just want to shout out Dusty as well, who I had a great chat with. We're both big fans of Bobby Witt Jr. And it wasn't only about cards with Dusty. He's a little older than I am, so he had some wisdom to give me about raising kids and the key to having a long marriage. Honestly, I think I'll remember these moments whenever I go travel to shows just as much as the cards I buy or sell. But ultimately, yes, it's about the cards and bringing this whole episode back to cards. I didn't want to leave empty handed and so I actually tried to make a deal with Dusty's son who had a really nice Topps Dynasty Bobby Wood Jr. Rookie Patch Auto Card. If you listen to the pod, you know we've been talking for years about how Topps Dynasty cards were so underrated. And you know what? I think it's finally getting its proper due because when I walked around at the west coast card show, I saw several booths that only had Topps Dynasty in their case and it was awesome to see. But at the same time I realized I need to buy some now before the prices go up and up. Anyway, I couldn't get a deal done for that Bobby Witt Topps Dynasty Rookie Patch Auto, but it was all good, no hard feelings. And from his perspective I get not wanting to sell a card that's special to you unless it's an outrageous offer. So I moved on and instead I found a nice Sheik Yelgis Alexander Prism Rookie card, Blue Ice parallel number to 99. It was graded a BGS 9.5 True Gem and to my surprise it was listed at close to the last comps. I did negotiate down a bit and she countered. We agreed to a coin flip, which I've never done before and guess what? I actually lost a coin flip. But I thought I still got a good deal on it. I did mention I was Canadian, so sga, he's my guy. And then I found out they were from Oklahoma, so SGA is their guy too. So we'll both be rooting for SGA this upcoming season. Oh, and speaking of star players, I know at Fanatics Fest there was a bunch of them just walking around. I don't know if I mentioned it on part one of the pod, but I got to see LeBron, Tom Brady, who actually walked right by me. Jalen Brunson, Aaron Judge for all you WWE fans, Rhea Ripley, Cody Rhodes, they were all there. But at the west coast card show right beside me as I was looking at one of the booths, I met Tyler Hyneman. Shout out to Tyler Hyneman. I know he might not be as a big deal as the aforementioned Superstar athletes, but as a Jays fan who just recently saw Heinemann leave the team, I said I missed him as a fan. He was very appreciative and it was cool to see him at the show. I guess the Angels, who he plays for now, had a day off and now at least he's got Mike Trout in the clubhouse to talk to who we all know is a big time collector as well. All right, Fun show, Had a great time. And I hope the national that's coming up next week in Chicago will be just as fun. If you're heading there, please DM me at five Card Guys or at Cards to the Moon. We'll have to meet up and say hi. Alright, got a brand new episode for you guys on Tuesday. I'll see you then. 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 @5CardGuys. Or you can follow Hyung at Integrity Sportscards or John @tradeyouecess. You can also check us out @fivecartguys.com. thanks again and hope to connect soon.