Interview With Bryan (@thevaultcollection83 on IG) Sharing Some Great Card Stories About The 1952 Mantle, Bulls Super Team Card, Peyton Manning Shield 1/1; Plus An Update From Japan

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 the Cards to the Moon podcast. This is episode 356. My name is Clark from 5cardguys.com. You can also find me at 5cardguys on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and on TikTok. Now super short intro today because as I'm recording, I'm halfway across the world in Japan. I'm over the jet lag, but calculating the time zone change for many of you back in North America still confuses me to be honest. So I'm really hoping things like my daily auctions page, which you can find at 5cardguys.com slash daily auctions is updating at midnight Eastern every day as usual, which is 1pm in the afternoon here. I'm also hoping this podcast goes out Tuesday morning Eastern time as it usually does, which means I have about until Tuesday evening around 6pm to record and edit this episode you're listening to right now. So anyway, I'll deal with it. But I'm hoping to recap some of this trip that I'm on now later on with some highlights from my visit to a sports card store. It's kind of a chain store in Japan called Mint. I also dropped by Hobby Korea while I was in Seoul last week. And while I was there, I ripped a blaster box just to see if my luck was any better here in Asia than back home. So stay tuned for that episode. Hopefully later on this week or next week, we'll see. But today I do have a special guest interview for this episode. And if you heard the Friday episode where I continued the not for sale series, I actually used Brian's card to continue the second installment of that series and I teased it then that the full interview with Brian aka AtTheVaultCollection83 was coming. And promise made, promise delivered today. We talked about his awesome collection and how he got into collecting and what he PCs and why. And I should mention one more thing before I press play on the interview. I said his IG handle during that interview was AtTheVaultedCollection83, which is totally my bad. I realized I did that afterwards when Brian let me know off the air. It's actually AtTheVaultedCollection83 and I'll include all the correct social media handles below in the show notes. All right, without further ado, here's the interview with Brian aka AtTheVaultedCollection83. Hey guys, we got another special guest interview today on the pod. His name is Brian and you can find him on Instagram at TheVaultedCollection83. And if you check out his page, he's got some very impressive cards and I know he took some out of his own vault to show us later. So we'll definitely talk about some of his awesome cards later in the show. He's also got a cool story about the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. So I want to touch on that a little bit and we'll get to that in a bit as well. But first, yeah, without further ado, Brian, welcome to the pod. Clark, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy listening to you guys on the way to work. I appreciate all that you guys do for the hobby and it just really helps summarize what's going on without having to go through Instagram and everything. So thanks for all that you do. Keep up the great work. As I was saying, Brian, off the air, I appreciate you and all our listeners and this is what keeps us going because knowing that you guys are commuting, driving somewhere and listening to us along the way, I'm glad to be part of that journey. But yeah, with all our guests, I like to always start from the beginning. Can you tell us a little bit about your hobby journey? You know, when did you start collecting and all the way up to now, like the cards that you're collecting now? So yeah, where did it start for you? Yeah, this started at a really young age. My dad was a big Lakers fan and I think the joke was when I was in the delivery room, he was listening to Lakers game and my mom had to throw the radio in the house. But yeah, just always around sports. I remember when I was growing up, my parents took me to Frankincense. It's a really popular local card show in Southern California. Now they're at their third location. I used to go to the original one. But just collecting was a lot of fun. And then throughout the hobby, I met some amazing people like there's a gentleman named Mark Neiman. He owns Ultimate Pastime Sports. I worked with him when I was in college. I used to go to trade shows, national events with him. So I was around this hobby a lot. But obviously back then, just like we are a similar age, we couldn't afford much, right? And a really cool story I want to tell is back in 96, my parents took me to the Toys R Us. You know, hopefully they come back, but the Toys R Us in Brea. I walked in there, there was a pack of 1996 tops. So I bought that pack. I went home, I opened it, and I pulled this Bulls Super Team card. And at that time, I found that was a really big card because there was a guy at Frankincense he had like a buy sheet and that was on there. And I'm like, what in the world is a Super Team card? So it's one of the coolest redemptions where if that team depicted on the front of the card wins the NBA finals, you get a full refractor set. Sure enough, I had the Bulls and I still remember they were offering me like 150 bucks for that card back in 96. And it's crazy how they ended up winning. I sent it off. It came back with a whole refractor set. And then I sent the Jordan in for grading. It came back a PSA 10. And I wish I still had that card, Clark. I ended up selling during the last dance for a thousand bucks. Okay, that's good money. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's an amazing story. You know, it's so funny. I remember those Super Team cards and I had one. It was the New York Knicks and I don't know why I didn't sell it. I should have sold it. Like the Knicks are doing a lot better now, but back then, you know, they're not as great. But you actually had the Bulls one. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And I think just seeing all these cards at the card shows and finally being able to, you know, somewhat be an adult and grow the collection. That's kind of where it transpired. But overall, I would say in 2018, when my son was born, I took a LOA, a parental leave. And that was when Otani, as you know, right? He showed up and I had a lot of time, spent a lot of time with my daughter and I was like watching games. And I just got back into the hobby. I remember buying a bunch of those retail blasters. And it's funny on my personal Instagram page, I'm scrolling and I put a picture from Target. And I'm like, oh, guys, I scored eight boxes. It's going to be a fun rip. We're all chasing that green Bowman Chrome Auto. I never hit it though, but yeah, that was the moment that really got me back into the hobby. It was just really exciting. You know? Yeah. Great story. Very similar to, you know, all our other guests, but I think you've been more involved even along the way from childhood to now. So I'm glad you're in the hobby because it's fun meeting fellow collectors. So you were kind of talking about your Instagram profile and some of the cards you posted and just documenting some of your journey. And I've noticed some of the big cards that you've added to your collection recently. It ranged from MJ, Kobe, Shaq, Gretzky. Do you target specific players or different types of cards? I'm just wondering what your collecting style is. Yeah. So first and foremost, I always collect like my favorite players, right? So I think that is kind of like the baseline, but every now and then, if I see a really rare card, which, you know, I'm going to use an example, right? Sure. Like I love this card, right? This card is a debut patch, right? He's a great pitcher. He's still young. He's got a potential. He throws over a hundred miles per hour. You know, and then on the flip side, I got this other guy right here. This is a Enrique Hernandez? Edgardo Henriquez. From the Dodgers? Yeah. I don't collect any of his cards, but I wanted to collect his best card, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Like on the flip side, I got Kyle Hurt. You know, that's his best card, but they're not made a part of my main PC. My main PC, you know, now within the last two years, I've been trying to condense. Now, typically in the past, I would want to collect anything and everything rare, right? But now I'm at that point where I'm running out of space. So I want to focus on Kobe, Jordan, Shaq, but my main focus is really Peyton Manning. I have a cool connection with him. I've never met him, but back in like 96, 97, my dad, like I said, big sports fan was like, oh yeah, I used to watch Archie Manning and he's got a son, Peyton, at the University of Tennessee. Yeah. So I just started watching the games and when he got drafted, the Colts became my favorite team. So, so yeah, anything Colts related with the Shields or Peyton Manning, rare stuff, Lakers. Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely could see that from your collection online. And I remember you showing me that MLB debut patch when you were kind of in the process of acquiring it or just, you just ripped it or you got it on a break. And we're talking, I believe it was you that even like MLB debut patch of lesser known players are not cheap, right? Is that, is that, do you remember that conversation where it's like, did you find that the case to be when you acquired those two, two MLB debut patch cards that they want more from what you expected or did you expect it to go for that much? I would say for, for the Kyle hurt, for example, that, that one, you can kind of consider it a common, but it's not really a common, like he he's been injured, but he should be playing this year. He, he, it reaches a certain bottom, but with the Dodgers being world series champions and the team, as you know, they carry a premium, right? So that one, I paid a little more than like your, your, your, your bottom end. But, but for the, like the Edgardo Henriquez, that, that one, I kind of paid a premium. Cause I saw, I see the potential in him, especially being a right-handed pitcher going fast and all of that stuff kind of puts it into play. And I know I can't chase the, the big guys like you're the Yamamoto when it gets pulled or the Roki Sasaki, so I can have a little fun. Yeah, no. And you know, I love that you collect your hometown team. You're, you're from the LA area or Southern California. And we won't talk about our, the world series this past year, cause I'm still trying to recover as a Toronto fan. I'm sorry. What a series. Yeah. What a series. Yeah. It was amazing. A seven game series that we all enjoyed, but back to cards. Yeah. So do you find it harder, not just with the MLB debut pass cards, but do you find it harder collecting some of these big cards, these grail cards that you enjoy just because of where we are in the hobby now, you know, we're, we're in this phase where the hobby is growing quickly. Every car show I go to more people are there and, and it's, in a way it's a good thing cause I get to meet a lot more people, but I'm wondering for you when you're trying to collect these cards, are you finding it a little bit more challenging or are you finding other ways to, to collect the things, the, the players you like? I will say that, you know, I'll use Peyton Manning as an example and also Kobe and MJ, right? Things, cards that I targeted back then, maybe three, four years ago, obviously it was high, but it wasn't as high as what it is now. So I almost feel like I kind of missed the boat and in order for me to catch up, I've got to move things in my collection in order to take, acquire the things I truly want. Yes. So that's, yeah. I, I, I'm kind of right there with you cause I look at some of my, you know, people who listen to a pod know that the Luka Doncic, a rookie autograph contenders, a number two 99 it's blue. And I got the Mike Trout, you, you hear about the crack one, right? It's a crack one. And then, you know, I sold it and I got a refractor now, but now I'm like, Oh, if I really want to Otani card, I'm going to have to let these two go, you know, and, and so I can reinvest it into a bigger card. Just like you were saying. Yeah. Um, it's, it's, it's, uh, well talking about big cards, uh, when I was looking through your Instagram again, uh, I saw that you're featured in one of the articles and the sports collectors digest magazine, and it was centered around the 1952, of course, the iconic 1952 tops Mickey Mantle card, which you once owned. Um, yeah. Do you want to share that with our podcast listeners, the story behind that card, how you got it and who you sold it to? Yeah. So, um, I think when, when Rob G bought that card in a PSA nine for 5.2 million, it kind of exploded. Right. And that was a card that I had always seen at all these major card shows. And I want to see, I saw Mr. Mint himself at a table with a bunch of them when I was a kid and it was just like that core memory of like this card, like, why is it so iconic? And really it's, they like refer to it as like the Mona Lisa or the low, the card, obviously you got the T two Oh six Wagner, but that's just like next level, right? This is something that's doable. Right. So, um, at the time that that was the fourth one I had owned. So every time I had one, I would sell and try to upgrade. Um, so that one I came across really random. I saw a gentleman listing it online. He was, he's a auction person or a, he sells antiques in Canada. Okay. He's also got a YouTube page. I forgot, but he's got like over a hundred thousand subscribers. Right. So, so I reached out to him and I was like, Hey, I'm really interested in this card. You know, can we, can we work a deal? So we discuss it over the phone and we work, strike the deal in a trade. And sure enough, you know, I acquired it. And when I asked him about how, how he came about acquiring it, he was like, Oh yeah. Um, there was someone that sold me a bunch of other antiques and they, they found these cards in a Mennonite barn and, um, they, they were like, Hey, are you interested? And he's like, yeah. I just give you, I'm pretty sure he got a really good deal. Like it was probably, if I were to convert it from Canadian to US, it's gotta be under 500 bucks. It was just a bunch of commons of random cards. So he tells me he gets it and he opens it up and he's telling his wife, oh, it would be a miracle if there were like a 52 tops mandolin here. And he tells me he's flipping through it and boom, he like, he freezes when he saw it. So that's really the story. And I don't know how it ended up in where it was, the barn in Canada. Because did the family make a trip down to the US to go to maybe like a liquor store, grab some food and sell the packs, right? Right, right. So I'll never know. And I don't even know if they were distributed in Canada back then. Yeah, no, that's a wild find for that person and for you to get your hands on it. And then, so I think reading further along the story, you actually ended up selling it. Is that right? Yeah, one day a gentleman named Joseph K, who I chat with a lot or communicate with a lot on Instagram, great collector. He hit me up. He was like, hey, this is a childhood card that I've been eyeing. You've got a really, it's got a great story behind it. And I really wanna acquire it. And then I was like a little hesitant, but as you know, you can't keep things forever, right? You wanna grow your collection. And I felt like with this type of card, though it was a big card, it really restricted my collecting, right? So I made the decision to move it, sell it to him. And now I have a little bit more flexibility with my collection. Bonjour, compadre. It's the Price Line Negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget, the Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle, deals, game day deals, concert trip deals. No one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold your horses, there's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities, like pools and spas and beachfronts. Wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me off. ♪ Priceline ♪ Yeah, yeah, no, great move. And I love that point. I wanna reiterate it for our listeners. You know, if you find yourselves constrained to buying more cards, you gotta probably let go some of the cards that you already own to continue to build your collection. So I love that point. Speaking of collection, I know you, I kind of teased off the top, you took some out of your vault. You wanna show some of the ones that you really enjoy having, owning right now, and the story behind some of them? Yeah, so this is a card that I've always dreamed of. The Michael Jordan. Yeah, 1997 Upper Deck Game jerseys. This is the first jersey card that came out on the market, officially licensed. This one features a jersey from the 1992 NBA All-Star Game. Wow. Right? Yep, amazing. And then I had to pair it up with Jordan's first 1998 Upper Deck Game jersey. Beautiful. And then I can't afford the big time Jordan autograph, so at the time I bought this about four years ago. It's a Camp Auto. Amazing. Yeah, it's got the hologram on the back. Cool looking card. Yeah, and then this one is just like a piece of the UNC floor. Jordan cards, I mean, well, what do you think about the Jordan market these days? Are you surprised how fast it's been going up and how it continues to be one of those cards that are always in the top three in terms of number of sales? Definitely not surprised. I think Jordan is truly a global icon, right? You can put Otani up to him next. We're a very familiar face. I think now that everyone's just getting involved even more with the hobby, the trajectory is just going to continue to shoot through the roof. Does it make your Jordan collecting that much harder now? Are you still looking for Jordan's continuous? No. You're kind of like, oh, you're done. Yeah, I'm done. I have four rookies and I actually just recently traded one in a really big trade. Once I get the two cards back from authentication, I will post them, but I made a huge deal. I traded off 10 to 12 cards in my collection for two Jordan on-card autographs. Wow, okay. Yeah, those are really hard to come by. Those are big. Yes, yes. So really excited about that. Okay, so you got your Jordan fixed that way. That's a great trade. What other cards are in your collection? All right, so this is a cool one. This is a Peyton Manning, Edgerin James, a Game Use, a dual NFL shield from Immaculate Collection. I want to say this is the only dual shield ever made of the two Hall of Famers from the Colts. Amazing, especially as a Colts fan. That's a grail card, I'm sure, for you. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. I got one that I finally got last night. I saw it pop out from my buddy Mikey, Mikey Cards. It was crazy. I was supposed to pick it up at FedEx and somehow it wasn't there and I had to go to the hub, but it's this Peyton Manning paradigm. And this has got an interesting story, Clark. Okay. So this came out in 2006. This was, the great news about this is that the Colts won the Super Bowl that year, 2006. Okay. Right. This was Topps' answer, which I don't know, I don't think it really hung around well enough, but this was their answer to exquisite and national treasures. So Topps' paradigm. I never even heard of the site, I'm going to be honest. I know, I think it didn't do too well, so they kind of stopped producing it after 2006. Wow, okay, one year. One and done. Yeah. This is another one. This is actually a leaf product. As you know, it's the only one in the world. It's a one-of-one, and I don't think any other companies have made one. It's a dual NFL shield game used of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, and does it say where it's from in terms of the shield, where they get it? Or is it more general? It just says, you have received so-and-so friendless card or game used pieces of memorabilia. And I'm pretty hardcore. I actually emailed, or DMed Brian Gray, who was the CEO formerly of the Leaf. And of all my Leaf stuff, like I've got this other one, I would message him. I was like, hey, do you remember buying this? He'll be like, yeah, I remember buying it, but I don't remember where I bought it. It's like, this one's a Shaquille O'Neal. Okay, Logo Man? Yeah, Logo Man. And then another Shaquille O'Neal. But as a Lakers fan, this is probably one piece that's pretty cool. It's got a game used Logo Man, the mini one of Kobe, Kareem, Jerry West, and then somehow Andrew Bynum made it on there. I'm like, imagine if- Oh! Oh, man, it's three out of those. I know. Three out of four is not bad, but yes, you're right. If it was a triple patch card, I'm sure the value would have been exceedingly more, but. Yeah. I mean, you're a Lakers fan, so you'll take it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have more. Do you want to see more, Clark? Yeah, anything else, like whenever you pick up this card, I remember the story about it. Okay, this is not a card, but this is something I really want to share. You will never see this, okay? But here, I'll start off with this. So my friend goes to a lot of tournaments. Ooh, okay, it's a golf ball. He got me this golf ball from Tiger Woods. Oh, what? Okay. If you think, this is a used ball that Tiger used. If you think that's cool, this is really hard to come by. This is a Nike tournament worn Tiger Woods glove, and you can tell it's TW, because he's got his old logo before he started Sunday Red. This is his new brand, but yeah, that's that. Awesome. This, this is pretty cool. This is a Kobe signed Lakers game ticket, and what I did notice, I was like, when I bought it, I was like, man, the signature looks so perfect. How in the world? So when I looked at the ticket, notice how it says charity? Yeah. So that, it was probably either something similar to maybe like a Make-A-Wish Foundation or something where a group of people can show up and meet Kobe. I think that's kind of how that was signed. Yeah. No, that's, I mean, it's obvious now to me that you're not just a car collector, but you're a memorabilia collector as well. I have a couple more questions for you, and the one I want to ask you next is, how do you, what are your thoughts on the hobby these days? Like since you came back in, especially in 2018, as you were sharing before, like a lot of us did right pre or during COVID and just where it's now. And when you look forward, even five years from now, like how do you anticipate the hobby will be? Like what's your general feeling about where we are now? I feel a lot better than I did two years ago, right? So I would say in 2018, the hobby was picking back up, right? And then it was at a good trajectory. And then when COVID came, as you know, everything exploded in price. And I'll remember, because I still have my PSA 6 Jordan that I submitted raw during COVID. At that time, I picked it up raw and sent it in a PSA. When it came back, I looked online, somebody offered me 12,000 for it. And- This is the 86 Fleer? Yeah, yeah, this is the 86 Fleer. The 86 Fleer. Yeah. That's got great eye appeal. Yeah, I was tempted to flip it. But then at that moment in time, I was like, wow, everything is going up. Like this is madness. And if I sell it, I may never get it back. You know, that feeling we always have. Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, oh man, the difference between what I paid and what it's worth, like, is it life-changing money? I mean, it helps, but it's not like super life-changing. So I was like, all right, I'll just keep, I'll just hold on to it, right? So I held on to it. And then as you know, last year, I want to say the market kind of really corrected, but now with this card in particular, it's been going up. And I think everything is kind of, the correct stuff is going up. The things that were a fluke, like your Zion Williamson, things like that, those are, you know, back down to earth or realistic value. Sure, sure. So I think the true things, like your Goltz, Shaq, Kobe, Jordan, those things are gonna hold their value strongly. Yes. Yeah, no, that's well put. And I think the one, and I've mentioned this on the pod before too, the one thing I noticed about the hobby this time around is we have a lot more savvy collectors and more educated collectors, right? So, which makes for a more healthy hobby to tell you the truth. Cause you don't have the people that are just in for the quick flip all the time and the super inflated prices like the Zions that you just mentioned. So yeah, excellent point. Last question, I started asking all our guests this question cause I'm really interested to hear, especially with the hobby, like I just said, some people are in it to invest or to flip, but then there's a lot of us that are also just real collectors. So is there a card that you have in your collection that you know for sure you would never sell? And if so, why? Tell me how you got the card and what does the card mean to you? Like if there's a special story behind it. Yeah, there is a card. Clark, I really wish I had it to show you. However, it's still sitting at BGS because I don't wanna pin up charge and it's a PC card. So I sent it in at the standard rate. So it's been a while, but I'll eventually get it back. It is, I wanna say it's a 2010. It's a Peyton Manning Shield. It's on my IG page. It's a blue one. It recently was featured or posted by Hobby Best Cards. It features the shield and two pieces of game use patches on it. And it's a horizontal card. And the reason why this card is very special to me is that I wanna say I am now either the fourth or fifth owner. Two owners ago, a gentleman, I would message him probably three times every year. I was like, hey, do you wanna sell it? So he would be like, no, I'm not interested in selling it. This is a PC card. I'm gonna keep it. And then one day another collector randomly posts about it. And I'm like, what in the world? Like this guy knew I was chasing it forever and somehow it ends up in the other person's hands. Then I was like, just, I just reached out. I was like, hey, you know, I was really interested in. He's like, oh, hey, I'm sorry. You know, I didn't, it was a good friend. So I decided to sell it to him. And now fast forward, I randomly saw it online from Matt's sports cards. So I reached out. Matt is a really cool guy. He was very accommodating. You know, it took some time to gather my funds, make some moves, right? But he had the card for me and I acquired it. But that's one card that I'm never gonna move. I don't implant, I don't plan to trading it, selling it. It is like my favorite card of all time just because of how hard it was for me to acquire it. Yeah. Is there anything specific about the card that you really like? Cause I know you have other Peyton Manning cards, but what is it about this card that just sticks out to you? Yeah, I think mainly it's, it has them in a blue Jersey, right? As a Colts fan, the white color is also an option. But for me, when I think of the Colts, I think of that blue, just like when Peyton Manning was drafted and he was holding up the Jersey being the number one pick, you know, in the 1998 draft, that just image with that blue Jersey is just very, iconic to me. And the way the card is just set up, it's a shiny card from an angle. It's a one-of-one, it's game use. I think that's one transition that I've been making with all my cards is I'm obviously preferring game use just for the fact of the stories behind it in the game. Yeah, I've seen that card on your IG. It looks beautiful. Congrats on getting that card. Thank you very much. You got to show me what it comes back as when you get it back from BGS. But yeah, I want to see that card. And Brian, like I said earlier, really appreciate you coming on to the pod. I know you're a loyal listener, so appreciate you tuning in every week. And if any of our followers or listeners want to follow along Brian's hobby collecting journey, you can find him again on Instagram at thevolcollection83. I'll include the link in the show notes below. But Brian, thanks again. I appreciate you. Yes, of course. Thanks for having me, Clark. I appreciate all you guys do. Have a good one. 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.