PSA Pricing, Super Bowl Card Hype & the Vintage Advantage

Hey, super bowl happened. I call it the Super Bust. Everything about the super bowl was a bust for me. There was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. The game itself just was not good. And I'm happy for Darnold. No offense, but I'm fine watching the Patriots get their butt kicked in the Super Bowl. Did you see PSA announcement? Yeah, I did see that. Price increases and timing increase. Is that right? That's what I saw. Hey, when you rule your own world, you can set all the rules. It's just you gotta have the right level of scrutiny. And the tools are there with AI and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be great. I think the biggest risk you have back there is altered people trimming those. But I like vintage. There's less pressure. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, we take you inside the hobby. Here are your hosts, Ryan Alford and Brian Ludden. What's up, guys? Welcome to Collector Nation here on the Collector Nation Network. Always with my good buddy here on Fridays, Brian Ludden. He is the CEO of ludxs L U D E X, the best scanning, collection management, ebay listing software on the App Store. What's up, Ryan? What's up, my man? How you doing? I'm good, man. Hey, super bowl happened. I call it the Super Bust. Everything about the super bowl was a bust for me. I'm just gonna be. Just gonna put it out. I'm not normally a Negative Nancy. I try not to be, but there was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. I agree. I mean, it was. I don't even know who Bad Bunny was, and I don't ever need to know who he is. But the game itself was just. It was. It just was not good. I mean, the Seahawks, I mean, they're a good football team. They probably were the best team all season. They beat some really good teams. Really? By a lot of points. Yeah. And I'm. I'm happy for Darnold. Yeah. And no offense, but I. I'm fine. Watching the Patriots get their butt kicked in the Super Bowl. It was hard for me to root for the Patriots as the underdog. And I knew and. And they were. Four and a half points was a joke. Seattle looked like the better team coming in. The defense was dominant. It played out. Exactly. Is having no skin in the game not caring about either team. It played out exactly like I would have analyzed it too. Which is dominant defense from Seattle and Patriots defense was good too, but just a better overall showing. But it's hard to root for the Patriots. Like it's too soon for them to be the underdog and me to go, oh the yeah. Hope the Patriots can as the underdog really overcome Seattle. That narrative didn't really work for me. No, that was. They. They beat him last time on that stupid play calling. So I was. I was fine with it. I'm gonna miss football. I mean I don't watch the NBA. I will watch March Madness. I do watch U of I basketball. I'm U of I fan but honestly I miss football and you know, baseball. It is the doldrums of, you know, of the time period with sports. You know, I do like March Madness, but then it's kind of. That comes and goes. The playoffs of the NBA are just too long. I can't get into four months of the NBA playoff. I get into like the last two series but the. The four month NBA playoffs and then it's just count. It really just becomes officially the super bowl is the countdown to win football starts again. That's true. It does doesn't does tops. Pick it up. Pick up the license now. I thought it was after the Super Bowl. I don't. I thought the date is technically the cards coming out like April or May. Okay. But I'm really. I'm excited because there's been no nothing but panini. It's been weird a little bit. Even though the unlicensed top stuff I wasn't a big fan of but now. But I'm a football cards are my thing. Like that's mine. It's funny talking to Cole who's here at the shop helping me manage the store and I go if you look around here and we've got everything in the store but it goes, you know, tell me your owner's a football fan without telling me your owner's a football fan. We got more football cards than anything. So bring on the tops. Licensed now. Yeah. Then I'll just be counting the days for when the season starts and hopefully Clemson's a little better this year. Well, I don't think that could be much worse. Honestly. That was like you start talking about disappointing teams that they're. They're in. They're in the top. God, ironically it was us in Penn State biggest disappoints of the year in the. In the toilet bowl game that we lost that too. So anyway, Drake May didn't have a Great game. But you know what? I know his cards are probably getting bashed a little bit. I haven't even looked at the pricing, quite frankly. I have a lot of his cards and I'll be holding those long term or selling them in the store. Overpriced. But the. Just kidding on that one. We have great prices here. They're on sale. But the. It's kind of as expected. First super bowl, playing one of the most ridiculous defenses of the last, I don't know, five to seven years. I'm not going to say all time. I'm not that guy. All time. Best defenses. No. A really good defense. All time. Last five years probably. We're right up there with some of the best all time of the last. All five years. They were the best. Brian, I need some kind of hyp. I need some hyperbole for this highlight clip. Hey guys, the NBA playoffs are where you really start to lock in rotations, tighten up. Stars are playing big minutes and you know exactly who the ball's going to. That's why I've been on Underdog during these games. It's simple. You just pick whether players are going to go higher or lower on their stats. Like just the other night I was watching the Celtics and I had Jason Tatum going higher on points. He's just come back from injury looking better. He's getting more and more volume every game. I just thought he was going to do it. And the joker, he's always getting triple doubles. I had him going higher on rebounds because everything's running through him in that series. And you look at something like the Lakers series, you've got two major players out. LeBron's taking over. I had LeBron going higher on points and assists. It just made sense. Him in the playoffs, two other teammates out. LeBron is going to take over. Look, it just takes a few minutes to build an entry and it makes you watch the game differently. You're locked into every possession and if you get your picks right, you can win up to 5,000 times your entry. Download the app today and use promo code collector to score $50 in bonus entries. When you play your first $5, that's promo code Collector. Underdog make picks win money must be 18 +, 19 in Alabama, Nebraska, 19 in Colorado for some games, 21 in Arizona, Massachusetts and Virginia and present in a state where underdog fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play. Call 1-800-MY-RESET or 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.ncpgambling.org Arizona 1-800Next Step 1-800-639-8783 or text Next Step to 53342 New York. Call the 24.7Hope Line at 1-877-8-HOPE, N.Y. that's H O P E N Y or text H O p e n y 467369. But. And he got rattled a little bit and didn't look good. But I don't think anybody was going to look good against them. No, I mean, when do. When will teams just dominate like the draft? Dominate, offensive line, defensive line. I mean, honestly, we've seen Mahomes look human when he gets hit. Brady lost because he got hit. Drake make had no time. He got hit. Like, I would just go offensive line, draft, defensive line, offensive line, defense, offensive defense, then fill in the rest, like, whatever, like. But when you can get to their quarterback and protect yours in that FL year, you're a step ahead. I did think. I know the running back got the mvp, but Sam, I mean, Sam Darnold is as a good story. He played really well. He's more than. I mean, he looks like. I don't. He always had it in him. You could see, you know, streaks of it. But I, I wasn't rooting for a team in the game, but I was rooting for that guy. Yeah, he's a likable dude and he went through a lot of stuff, but I mean, we came out of college, he was kind of doughy and like, I think he probably just, you know, didn't understand what it would take to make it in this league. And then I think he committed and, you know, matured and I mean, he'll be. He'll sign a big deal with Seattle and he'll be their quarterback for the next 10 years. Yeah. And looks like a good investment in Minnesota, you know, botch that. I mean, right. Like, how do you let that guy out the door? And I guess you're hoping JJ McCarthy's it and maybe he still will be, but he hasn't signed it yet. We'll see. As a Bears fan, you don't really care, do you? No, I don't. I'm glad that we had J.J. mcCarthy. He's even a Chicago guy. He grew up right by me. So, you know. No. Is he. Is he it? Is he. Is he got it or is he not? Do you know, do you have opinion on him? You know what? I think he's got to grow up a bit. Like when he was. When he talks in third person about nine. I'm nines out there doing this and this. These are the type of plays nine makes. I'm like, stop. You're like, you're in the NFL now. Like, you're not a child. You grow up, commit to your craft. So I don't know. Right. I wish you would sometimes say that's what, you know, the kind of play Ludden would make. Have you ever said that to me? I might have kicked your ass right there on the spot. I've been like, what did you just say? Yes. I have not heard that. I. I'm glad I haven't seen that. I would have never talked about him. No one does that. He definitely needs to grow up. But I was happy for Darnold. His prices are definitely on the rise. I did buy a few of those before because I was pretty certain that of that outcome of The Super bowl, oh, 124. His 2018 Don Russ optic was 260 bucks, and now it's 450. Sounds about right. Super bowl pop. Almost double. Almost double. I don't know. I like it. It might have been up there anyway, but a 20, 26 tops baseball is releasing this week. We will have that here at Collector Station. Just a little side note, but it signals. This is like the. The first thing not only with the hobby, but sort of baseball in general. You get tops release, you get spring training, and then you get opening day is right around the corner. Yeah. First week of April. First week of it. Part of me is like, where's time going and how fast is it going there? Talking about long season. Holy crap. Yeah. Baseball. April to October. When aren't you playing? Exactly. The only time. Or not exactly. So tops 20, 26. 75 years of making tops baseball. It's the 75th anniversary. I'm not good with math, so. But is that like, 51, that math for us? 1951. Is that their first year? I guess somewhere around. It has to be. That's a long time. I wish I had more. Yeah, I'd like some of those. Yeah, well, 52, tops mantle, right? Yeah, that's fine. Exactly. Give me some of those. Did you see PSA announcement? Yeah, I did see that. Price increases and timing increases. Is that right? Yeah, that's what I saw. I mean, hey, when you rule your own world, you can, you know, set all the rules. I will say this. No one likes pricing increases, and it's. It's fascinating to me what. What they're being allowed to do in this industry without much scrutiny. But, hey, Nat, hats off to him. He can get away with it. I mean, hey, good business man. Clearly nothing but respect for him. But look, in any industry, speaking for business, if you're, if your demand is outpacing your supply and you are, you increase prices. Yeah, everyone does. Everyone does. If there's more demand and you have supply, prices go up. In this industry. Yeah, in this industry, people get so offended and I'm like, what do you think has happened to wages in the last two years? Like, and also to be honest, like, that's a really, really human intensity like to for degrade and human beings are expensive and you have to hire more people. The technology is where it flips, right? And if you start using more technology, then you can be more efficient and you would actually cut the times down. You probably bring the prices down because you're doing more. But they, they haven't really solved that yet. And, but you know, they, they're running a business. And it's also interesting because when you look at it, they're. Let's say they charge 20 bucks and they get you a 10 and your car doubles in value. So let's say it goes from 100 to 200, you make, you know, 80 bucks. I mean if it goes to 23, you're still like it, like it shouldn't matter, right? Like as a percentage, it doesn't matter. I mean the only thing I don't like and it is vintage is different. But modern stuff, if you. It's 10 or nothing, it's 10 or bust. Like, because anything else and it nines are pretty much worth raw now. Like it's almost identical. Eight's called what I call. And I'm not talking about the drug. Crack city. It's crack city. If you get an eight, you, you better keep some good pliers around because there's no reason to keep it in there for modern. Modern only. Don't take that advice. This is not investment advice. This is not PSA cracking advice. This is just opinion. There's that announcement, that disclaimer. But in all seriousness, if you get an eight, it's modern. Crack it because it's worth less than raw. Yeah, you're right. And also when you let, let's talk about modern, like the time I would say instead of like raising the prices, like the biggest thing is the turnaround. Because like these cards every week you and I are talking about them and they're doubling in price and having in price and, and like, you know, your guy can get hurt. So I think it really, I would be more concerned about the turnaround time with the modern stuff because things get hot and then they get not. I almost forgot this. I bought a. This is how we talk about like so much happens in a week, Brian, but it's related to this. I bought a box full of vintage baseball, football, basketball. We're talking 1950 to 1980. Talk about some really cool cards. Kevin McHale Rookies like cool shit. And if you. Grading vintage is a no brainer, you know, in bulk. Because Even if it's a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, it's worth more. Way more than raw. Way more. Typically speaking. Generally speaking, more than the grading. Way more than the grading fee. Yeah. To, to know that you have a four in a vintage card. That 20, 25 buck fee, it more than pays for that and it, and it creates more demand because there's no mystery of what the card is and that's what it removes. Sometimes the basis for our dissension and reason we're upset is because there's a failed premise to begin with or the problem is a lack of understanding or not being, you know, happy with the price increase on that. But when the premise should have been, this is probably underpriced already compared to what you can get for the right cards. It's just you gotta have the right level of scrutiny and the tools are there with AI and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be graded. Yeah, I think the biggest risk you have back there is altered, you know, people trimming those, I mean, but you get them graded no matter what and that just authenticates them and you're good to sell those things. But then I love, I like vintage. I mean there's less pressure there. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock. Like new players and AI stocks. Hey, you sound like Ken golden who was on the show and it will be. What, what date does that Release, Bella? The 24th. 24th? Yeah, the 24th. That's Bella Schaefer, the lovely and wonderful executive producer here on Collector Nation. Say hello again, Bella. Making me blush over there. She runs the show over there, runs the show. I try. So yeah, Ken golden will be on and he had, he talked about that very thing. I had a rapid fire with him, Brian, and pretty much same thing. He's like vintage, vintage and vintage. Vintage baseball especially. But vintage anything is a safe bet. Long term, short term, everything. He's, he's a nice guy. I like Ken. So we do have. Okay, in top series one, they are going to have some 1952 tops variations in there maybe 52 was their first year since that's what they're saying is going to be in that. Yeah, that could work. That math works pretty well. 51. They're gonna have some 52 tops. Variations. All kings, all aces. Cover athlete autos, celebrity autos. Brian L might or might not be in there. We'll leave it up for mystery. I got check my email. I'm sure it's there somewhere. Yeah, exactly. You missed the signing. You were probably win my spam. Yeah, too busy counting your Jordan rookie cards. 1991 tops autos, home field advantage. And actually this week this should be. Is this coming out this week? 218. Is that this week or next week? V Friends super stickers. We will have those here at Collector Station. We are an official distributor of V Friends and Gary Vee's team. People to work with. Love that and fun. I love the messaging with those, man. I think kids need something positive and I think Gary's doing that with his cards. Assigned Michael Jordan trading card sold for 800,000. 800,000 big ones. I mean, you think they lose money on that? Like whoever bought that? Depends on what the card was. All I see is trading card. I don't know what card it was. So if it's a rookie card, probably not. If it's something else, then maybe Bella might get that detail for us before this is over. We'll leave that as a cliffhanger. The. What do you think? I think honestly, if it's like any rookie card, star card, like whatever it is, and the pop reports low. Like I don't think you ever lose money on those high end cards. I mean, I've talked to people. I've probably talked to five companies in the last five months. So one a month that, you know, these funds are coming in the Mr. Wonderful. But like there's a lot of. There's a lot of funds that are like, hey, let's get this high, high end stuff and hold it. And when it. When it becomes a herd mentality and there's too many of them, they tend to move the prices up too much and kind of stifle what their return would be. But I mean, I look at the Honus Wagner coming up like, I mean that guy made how much money and how much time? So the card was a auto 2003, 2004. Upper deck. Exquisite Collection logo, man. One of one. Oh, okay. They'll make money. They'll make money. That's $3 million card in 10 years. Maybe not in that long. Yeah. Is Michael Jordan. How do you get Jordan's signature these days? I mean, does he even do them? No, I mean, I think he's still with Upper Deck, but he doesn't sign anything anymore. Had my buddy Erlocker plays golf with him twice a year. I was just thinking about like, hey, Brian, could you just ask him to sign a couple. Yeah, ask him to sign these rookie cards I got. Dude, I mean, come on. Be a friend. You know what? You know how much I do for Erlocker. Anything else we missed, Bill? I mean, just that Pokemon over the last two years has outperformed gold and the S P 500 index. Yeah, we didn't miss nothing. Yeah, but, you know, that's not showing the state of the hobby. I don't know what is. But don't buy those gold Pokemon cards. Those are fake. Yeah. Hey, look, good story. Good story to close. You know, they say don't get high on your own supply. Well, I tend to question that. That thought. I was ripping through some Pokemon last night late. Look, I was working on the app at like 1am, Brian. I got to have like some sandy. So I'm. I'm working. Ripping a pack, working ribbon pack, little Mega Evolutions. I got the gold Mega Lucario. That's the big hitter in that thing. Like eight packs in. What's that? It was like 700 three months ago, but it's like three something. Three. 350. 350. Do you have a back end? It looks like a 10 to me. Yeah, we got to put it under the microscope. But it could be a 10. If it goes to 10. You're talking about a 900 card. Well, how does a Pokemon car. It's not like he went on the field and broke a leg or something. Like, how does it get. You know, it's like. I mean, and he had. He had a really rough. He had a concussion. He got taken out, you know, Charizard, he gets a little rough, and he messed up Lucario pretty good. Yeah, that's interesting. No, I. Because of speculation, I guess. You know, hype. Like everything else. The set, it was a Mega. Mega Evolution set. And so comes out, all the cards are overpriced. I think it's now more of where it should be and probably will be long term. Beautiful card, all gold. But it's not fake. I did not print it. And it was in the pack. Brian, that's awesome. Good for you. So you see, hard work. Hard work pays off. Stamp late kids and work. Yeah. And look, and to be truthful, I wish Someone would have just bought that box and ripped it in the store. I didn't. I wasn't trying to take that opportunity away from someone. It's just if it sits there long enough and I got nothing else to do, I started ripping cards. You're, like, staring at it. You're like, I had this box. I've been carrying it around for a week and hadn't opened it. And then I was like, I'm going to rip some packs tonight while I'm working. And this is what happens, folks. Kids listening, you know, speculation, opportunity, and risk combined with a little stupidity and beer, you, too, can rip a car to your dreams. Making the next generation of gamblers. Well, I think. Exactly. Yeah. I think that's. I think. I don't think we're having. I don't think we're doing that. I think that's more like, you know, stadium club. And all those guys can live with themselves. They're the ones doing that. And your friend that got you ripping that tops or that LeBron. Hey, shop. Yeah, hey, Shop. Hey, Shop. Exactly. I'm gonna have. When are you getting that card? You getting that card in? I got it. You already got it. It's at home. See the LeBron? Yeah, yeah, I got it like, three days later. It was pretty awesome. Oh, dude, you need to bring that on the show next week. I want to see. I'll bring on the show next week and sell it to me. I'll give you 65%. 70. All right. Traded in for Jordan. I'm doing. I think that's all we got. Brian, any final words? No, man, all good. Always a pleasure, my man. I appreciate you. Hey, guys. We appreciate you. Little loose episode here on Collector Nation. This is what it really looks like, guys. Two guys. Hey, we like the game as much as we like playing it, and we like bringing it to you. We appreciate you for listening. Hey, you know, to find us, first, go to the. Go to that app store. L U D E X Download Ludx. Thank me later. Collection management values ebay. Loading. So that you actually make some money back for all this money that we spend on these things. See where you get digital collection management. You'll change your life. L U D E X Ludx in the app store. And of course, the collector nation.com for Brian Ludden. I'm Ryan Alford. We'll see you next time on Clicker Nation. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us@collectornation.com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.