The Football Card Podcast #50: Linebacker Summer, Myles Garrett to LA, and Can Old-School Collectors Learn to Love Prizm?

Foreign. What's going on? Welcome back to the most listened to industry acclaimed one and only football Card podcast here on the Stacking Slabs Network. Hosted by my good friend John at Pacific Nicholson. This is the show where we talk about football cards and most importantly, football cards. Make sure you're following us at the Football Card pod on the Instagram machine. We have a call to action always at the end of each of these episodes and we need you to share your damn cards and tag the football card pod. Fun one, number 50. We're here. Linebacker Summer. Lot of fun. Players in the 50s excited for today's show. We had a big trade. Miles Garrett. Heading out west, we get into that. Talk about some big cards and a whole lot more. Appreciate all of your passionate engagement for the Football Card podcast. If you want to show your support for the broader Stacking Slabs Network, hit the follow button, tell a damn friend. Run on over to the Patreon Group Shout Out Card Ladder, the official data provider of the football Card podcast and. And the broader Stacking Slabs network. It's number 50. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to the Football Card Podcast. This is it. You made it. It's Friday and you're listening to the fastest growing podcast in the entire world that's centered on football cards and most importantly, football cards. I'm Your host, John, aka Pat Nicholson, and with me, as always, is Brett, Mr. Stacking Slabs himself. Brett, you doing? I'm. Well, lot of feedback last week and it wasn't necessarily about cards, but it was about, you know, McDonald's and Wendy's. So perhaps we build in a fast food segment on here and routinely check in and maybe we can, you know, do a feature on like Hardy Stick burgers or talk about what the new item is on Taco Bell's menu. It seems like there's a lot of interest out there, so I'm. Well, I'm glad we're out of the we late 40s. That time was dark for me. As someone trying to get excited about players. We have entered linebacker summer. Yeah, we're here. So many fun guys to talk about in the 50s. So I'm fired up. By the way, episode 50, this feels like a milestone. So congrats to you, congrats to the audience. We're, we're here and people love football cards. So I'm excited, man. Yeah, 50 episodes is pretty crazy. When you, I remember when Stacking Slabs, when you had your 300th episode and it was, I was like, wow, 300 episodes. That's like a lot. And 50, I mean, it's not 300, obviously, but it's 50 is a good chunk of. Of time. Two away from a year. And which is crazy because when I think of when the football card pod started, it, like NFL season came so fast. After that, like, it made the off season go by fast. So to think that we are pretty much a year away from starting this thing, which means football's right around the corner. And I mean, football is. OTAs are going on. It's some. We're. It's close, we're getting closer. Otas, all the reels, all the content. There's a lot of stuff even to kick off this episode. I want to talk about, but wanted to ask you. I was scrolling the IG and maybe it was shefty. Shefty. Let me know that your quarterback, QB1, Caleb Williams on the COVID of Madden. How you feeling about that? It's insane. I'm a little scared and nervous, I think. I mean, as a Bears fan, as a Caleb Williams fan, it's sick. It's awesome. I love the covers. I think they look cool. I want to get one signed. I want to get one graded already. It's like, all right, like, I want the setup that's going to go right there in the shelf. I can see it already. It just. There's already expectations and pressure going into this season and I think this adds even more. It feels early in my estimation. If I remove my Bears bias and just as an objective NFL fan, I'd be like, you had one good season. Like, is that really what we're giving them a Madden cover for? But I think the last season was so electric, the moments were so big that it does make sense for a video game to put a guy like him on. He makes video game plays. So I'm excited. It. I don't have a system anymore, but I think I need to get a system. So I need a system now. So I might have to become a gamer. We have a switch. We got a switch during COVID one of those classic purchases. And so I'm sure Madden's on a switch, but that's not the same. I need a Xbox I've been thinking about. I need a PS2 in Madden 03. I've just wanted to go back and just get that in my exact setup. So maybe I can, I don't know, can do new Xboxes, let you play Madden 03? If I can play Madden 03 on a new system, I'm getting a new system and I'm getting Madden 27 and Madden 03. What? What I want to know and we need to hear from you gamers out here. That question is very valid because if the answer is yes, then I'm. I'm running to the local video game store and buying one. I want to know if I can play the game on the new system and if they still support the online play for that gear. Can you imagine getting on like 2003 Madden right now and there's like 20 guys like hanging out waiting for games going on because that's their game. Like that's that they need to create that experience. If you cannot do it right now, because that would, that would get me to sign up. I would buy the old headset that I used to have. It would just be all nostalgia franchise mode, online play. Give me it. Yeah, I would. 100%. That would be incredible. And I need the gameplay to feel like O3 because some of the new Maddens that I've played, I haven't played Madden probably in a couple years. It's like too realistic. I want my video game to feel like a video game. I don't want to have to like lift right leg, lift left leg. Like sometimes I'm like the. These controls are too intense. I just want to like joystick this person around and do things that wouldn't actually work in an NFL game. But I can do it because I'm playing Madden. Do you remember the year, do you remember the year with the QB vision? It was. I didn't, I didn't. Honestly, I didn't even really understand the feature when I bought the game because I was just playing with the Colts and Manning and his vision was the field. It was, it was the whole field. And then I remember like playing someone and I ended up with like, I don't know, maybe like chin or something and it was just like little, little. Oh, it was tough. Any Bears QB they ever had during that era, like it was probably Grossman and. Or Kyle Orton and they were just so small. It was like the. What's the snack that like people put on their fingers? Bunions. Bugle Boys or Bugles? Yeah, yeah, just a tiny, tiny cone. Small cone. But yeah. I don't know. And then this got me thinking of men, curses and Cuz honestly, for a while I'm like, I don't. I had to look back to see who was on Madden because I feel like I know the core. Early 2000s, probably into 2000. Wow. Peyton Hill is 2011. Classic Calvin Johnson then so 13. Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson for Madden 25, that was in 14. Richard Sherman on Madden 15. See, I don't remember that. OBJ on Madden 16. Grock on 17, Brady on 18, Antonio Brown on 19. I didn't remember that. Sick. See like I feel like the Badden cover means less now. Who, who was. What year was. I guess it would have been probably after the Super Bowl. Palomalo and Fitzgerald. Yeah, that was Madden NFL 10, 2010. Okay. Peyton Hillis I believe was a fan vote. They fan vote for Peyton Hills. I remember that vividly all time. Pton Hills had a great year, but that's the thing already I'm like, there's probably Peyton Hill's comments on the Caleb posts already. There's people who didn't break his neck the year he was on Madden. He. The curse got Pton Hillis. I don't know if it was a, a neck break that would be. Maybe I'd made that up. Had a difficult. The. He had strep throat and then he injured his hamstring. I don't know, maybe a neck injury happened eventually but. And then we had Mahomes men 20, Lamar 21, Brady and Mahomes 22. John Madden, Rip Madden 23, Josh Allen 24, McAffrey 25, Saquan 26. So good group. It's a, it's first ever Bears player on Madden. It's exciting. Peyton. Manny never got a Madden cover that seems there was, there was, I think he was in one of the deluxe editions or whatever, but there was. He had an agreement with 2K I think during the height of it. So he could not be on the COVID He was like, you remember the Xbox game, whatever it was called that no one played because everyone was playing mad and that was like Peyton was involved in that. Right? Well, NFL 2K, like the ESPN one had a good run there for a bit when it was like 20 bucks because like Madden was $50. And then ESPN2K came out and they're like, hey, we're 1999. Yeah, that's incredible. And, and they had like features I remember like on a goal line play you could jump over the line, jump over the mile and it's like in Madden you just had to run into the back of your lineman. So that was always one, that was never, I was never playing. But I'd go down like in my fraternity and like go down to like the, the second floor and I'd like enter room like 18 or 20 and one of those guys would have it. So I'd like Get on the sticks and I'd have to like adapt. It was that. Talk about being at an away games, going to somebody else's room to play an entirely new game on another system and trying to win. You get the shitty controller that's not actually like licensed by the company. It's the TEMU controller where you're like, ah, the joysticks are way too spread out and the hand doesn't work the same. The muscles aren't in shape for a controller of that poor quality. Not, not connecting. You know, when the controller doesn't connect on startup and you have to fiddle around with it, you're. You're doomed. Oh, that. That's been the downfall of a lot of society back on our anti tech tirade. But like batteries, just everything needing charge, I pivoted. And this was pre Caleb Williams. I pivoted away from airpods a long time ago because I couldn't keep them charged. I just would forget. And then it's like, oh, I'm going to mow the yard right now. Like now is my window to mow the yard. And I pick them up and they're dead. Oh, nothing worse. So just me and my personal problems with charging stuff. I had to go back to wired headphones, but the Xbox controllers, when all of a sudden, I mean, I guess it was nice to have a little more freedom of range with the. They'll grab chips and still game go to the. Then when they die, it's like, oh, I got like. But I guess you could plug them in. So there, there are benefits there. And honestly, I have my Sega Genesis from when I was a kid that I've recently like, I got that all set up and the controller cords are like 12 inches. They're so short. I'm like, how did, how did we play video? Like, I'm too restricted here. So yeah, maybe I'm. Maybe I'm wrong. Batteries. Batteries in video game console controllers, good. Batteries in my headphones bad. Man, I love Sega Genesis so much. Next. Next pod we can go hammer there. I could talk Sega Genesis all day long. Love that system. Yeah, you were, you were buying some, some carts. Yeah, I still got it, but I still got it back on the shelf. Every time I pick it up and look at it, I'm just like, man, I need a Sega to, to play this. I'm to the point where the decoration isn't enough. I need to get my hands on the controller. Yeah. All right. Episode 50. What else is going on? We got to talk about Miles. We got to Talk about Miles Gare. Yes. So obviously, you know, this isn't sports talk radio. We won't get into all the nitty gritty, massive trade for the Rams. F them picks going all in. And now you got the rumor and innuendo about Aaron Donald potentially coming back. I mean, they're just. The Rams are going for it. So I guess as a, as someone who, you know, is in the afc, it pro, it's probably a good thing because I don't need to, if, you know, play the Browns. Don't need to watch Miles Garrett rip Daniel Jones's head off and eat his lunch. I. I've said this, but when last time the Browns played the Colts in Lucas Oil, Miles Garrett jumped over a pile and just absolutely destroyed. I think it was Gardner. Gardner Minshew. At the time, it was the. One of the best performances I've ever seen out of a football player in any game I've ever seen live. One of the. I think, I think he's the best player in the league in my opinion. Just any sport, any spot. Like, he's the number one player in my opinion. And now he's on a team that a lot of people thought could have won the super bowl last year. So before we get into maybe the card side of it, he's obviously like you. Your stakes are probably a little higher because if the Bears have the type of season that you did last year, there's a high likelihood that you would have to face the Rams in the playoffs. So how are you feeling about this trade? It's, yeah. Scary for the Rams. I. I kind of think the Browns win this trade, though. I mean, I know it's the best player in the league, but I think you get younger. Jared Verse is sick. Jared versus really, really good. You get the picks you on a rookie contract, like, all. All the business side of things does make sense for a Brownstein that's already like, not a contender. And for the Rams it makes sense. You get Miles Garrett. He's so good. Like, there's no one I've watched like Miles Garrett except for Aaron Donald. T.J. watts up there. I don't put Max Crosby even up there though. Like, he's good, but, like, Miles Garrett's different. Aaron Donald were. Was different. Like those guys. Aaron Donald like, won a Super bowl, like, willed his team like the. Even down to the last play where he like, got to burrow. So yeah, it's a difference maker. It makes the Rams even more scary and it's shades of even. Like the Stafford situation. Of like you were in this downtrod Midwest franchise your whole career putting up unreal numbers and now you get to go to the bright lights of la and yeah, I'm excited to see Miles Garrett like play in meaningful playoff games. You have never seen that book, gotten to see that before. I mean I guess they won that playoff game in like 2020 or 2021, but it's gonna be cool to see him play in high level prime time games too. Like I feel like I never see Miles Garrett play because they're playing at noon or the same time as the Bears always. So just see the highlights. So I'm excited to watch more Miles Garrett, but yes, terrified about the prospect of those games coming against the Bears in potential playoff situations. But we'll see. I think we are entering maybe and I would like to stake a claim to this the Football Card podcast as Cheap Heitman for the defensive guys and collecting the defensive guys. I think especially maybe it's because we're entering episode 50 linebacker summer that we can start saying we're entering the defensive player era of collecting. And the reason why I say this is because I've never seen this happen before. But when the the news went out came out, I looked on Instagram and just saw Miles Garrett banger after Miles Garrett banger being posted and just want to share a few of these. So first of all, I gotta shout out 409 collectibles who literally has every Miles Garrett black finite, but the rookie, or maybe not all of them, but he's got his page. He's got the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 with like that. Look at this. He's a rookie in 17, right? Yeah. And I, I, I will share the 17, which is with a different collector, but my God, so real that he has eight of them. Like can you imagine? Like he gets the news and then it's like, well, time to start posting my Miles Garrett Black Friday night. Well, and this is one of the trades, not rare trades, but where this like boosts Miles Garrett's. I'm more excited for my big time. It's not the oh getting traded off to another team and it like feels like it hurts their stock. Which sometimes a trade can feel like. This feels like. Oh my God. If I was a Miles Garrett fan, this is great. This is the greatest possible situation for Miles Garrett if I'm a Miles Garrett fan and collector 100%. So there's that which is absolutely insane and I guess we might as well While we're at it. So Shard Knock Life is the owner of the 2017 Rookie. This. This to me, I mean this is how I feel about the Josh is when I talk about Josh's Aaron Donald 2014 Black finite being one of the most important football cards of the prism era. I I do not put this one too far behind that. I mean this is the. If I'm stack ranking all prism football cards, this card is in the top 10 on my list right here. Yeah. That. I don't know if I'd ever seen this before on. Yeah, I've seen this bold I before but this card's insane. I love and that picture is awesome. The white looks good because that the Browns have some unfortunate looking uniforms in my opinion. But like the brown one especially. But this the white with the orange helmet that looks awesome. Can. Can you think about 2017 Mahomes Garrett Watt McCaffrey. I mean that's like an insane year of rookies that we don't talk about enough. Yeah. And it continues to stuff like this like Miles Garrett. I feel like every. Everyone knows Miles Garrett's incredible and then he sets the sack record which is awesome last year. But I feel like he was kind of somehow under the radar still a little bit just being in Cleveland, I think being like not playing in these big playoff type games. So like anytime when you can get out of that situation and the stakes are higher or just see the a player like this play in the on the biggest stage, that's exciting. So I'm very excited. A couple more I want to share. This one I thought was cool. So this is Preston cards posting the 2020 mosaic miles Garrett nebula choice one of one. And what I like about this is Preston is a massive Rams fan. So he had this card and then he saw the news and he's like, how fun. I mean how fun is that? You own the player you got on your team and you've got a sick card. So let me. Let me post it. Yeah, that's awesome. That looks great too with the. The nebula pattern kind of like a like vortex that he's going to the Rams. I feel like I could convince myself that this is still a cool Rams card. Yes. Okay, so let's see here. One more that I want to share. We have Ryan Card Collector 2. Just, you know, hey, I got this kind of hanging out, you know. Let me post the 24 absolute miles Garrett Kaboom vertical green one of one. Not the horizontal. We're not horizontaling here. We're in the Kaboom room. And we're doing it correct this. I mean this card is pretty, pretty awesome. And this is what I loved about the defensive player collecting era, is that a move is made and all these guys are just like time to share my awesome Miles Garrett cards. And I think that's a lot of fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. If you're in the kaboom room, we're not horizontal. We're not laying down. You stand up in the kaboom room vertical. Oh, so that's fun. And it's. It also led to an article that I just want to just touch on real quick. But the Athletic put out and put out an article 10 biggest trades for defensive players in recent NFL history. And I just want to run through some of these and I had so much Fun reading this. 2008, the Chiefs sent Jared Allen in a 6 round pick to the Minnesota Vikings for a first round pick. Two third round picks and the return from the trade was solid for the Chiefs because the Chiefs ended up drafting Brandon Albert and Jamal Charles. So that's fun. You have 2013 where the jets sent Revis to Tampa Bay for a first and a fourth round. You've got the Khalil Mack trademark from Oakland to the Bears. Gruden just came in there, wanted to shake stuff up. You've got Jalen Ramsey getting traded from the Jags to the Rams, which ended up being a great trade for the Rams in their super bowl aspirations. Jamal Adams from the jets to the Seahawks, obviously. Micah Parsons got Sauce Gardner last year too. Quinn Williams, Dexter Lawrence, which felt like such a huge deal and now like pales in comparison to the Miles Garrett trade. And then obviously Miles Garrett. So. And maybe should have been Max Crosby, but wasn't Max Crosby. So these defensive guys, man, there's been some huge trades over the course of the last several years and I love how the Athletic just kind of took note of that. Yeah, that's. That's great. Seeing a lot of guys for two first rounders. And I was thinking, I keep not, I don't keep forgetting, but the Jared Verse part of it all. Like them getting Jared Verse in return. It's like they got two first round picks with the. For sure. His. His analytics are crazy too. When you look at like quarterback hurries and I don't know, fumbles or something like he. His. You can't just look at sack stats or the time with these guys. And J. Jared Verse has had a very, very nice start to his career. Yes. But speaking on just the stats, I wanted to See where Miles Garrett stands on the all time sack list and where he could end up. So he's 31 years old. He has 118 and a half sacks in his career. Coming off his best year ever, 23 sacks. That's good for, let's see, 20th all time tied with Dwight Freey right now. That's nuts. Well, that's in. Maybe this in combines with playoffs because this stat sheet that I'm seeing says he has 125 and a half, but I saw 118 and a half. I'm not sure. But regardless, Bruce Smith at the top of the list with 200. So 75 more sacks would put Miles Garrett ahead. So you know, 15 a year for another five years, which is doable. It's doable though for a Miles Garrett type where who has never had so his sacks by year coming into the league. Miles Garrett, 13 and a half. 10, 12, 16, 16, 14, 14, 23. I mean, he just does what he's been doing for five more years and he might have a shot to pass Bruce Smith, which would be pretty crazy. I never re put it in that sort of context. It'll be interesting to see this landing spot in la, which seems a lot more cozy than Cleveland. If this extends his career. I would imagine if he stays healthy and they're winning ball games and he's producing, he'll probably play for a while. Yeah. All right, episode 50 linebacker Summer has arrived. But without our sponsors at Car ladder, we wouldn't be here at all, would we? Absolutely not. So you all go run over and you subscribe the card ladder, the official data provider of the Football Card podcast and the broader Stacking Slabs network. All right, episode 50 linebacker Summer have to kick it off. Samurai Mike. Mike Singletary, Bears legend. But also just, I mean, I know Mike Singletary and I've always like, yes, he's a Bears legend, but I was looking at his stats, I'm like, oh, Mike Singletary, is he one of the most underrated linebackers of all time? He has seven first team all pros. Two defensive players of the year, won a Super bowl, was the foundation for a dominant stretch of the Bears. But I didn't realize he had seven first team all pros. That's pretty, pretty crazy. Lawrence Taylor, arguably the greatest linebacker of all time, which we'll get to in episode 56, has eight first team all pros. So Samurai Mike's right up there with LT and the nickname Samurai Mike. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. And also then with talking Michael Mike Singletary always have to shout out his tenure as the 49ers head coach and just his legendary motivational tactics and post game pressers. No pants. Didn't even do no pants. Like dropped his pants in the locker room trying to get guys bumped up. And then the can't win with him. Vernon Davis quote. That tirade is just all time. So, yeah, shout out Mike Singletary. My take on Singletary is, I don't know if I would classify him as underrated, but I think, and this is an outsider looking into the Bears universe, I feel like the lore of Dick Butkus overshadows him a little bit and that could be the reason why more people don't talk about him. But that's just a reactionary take. Yeah, I think he gets just lumped into like even Urlocker where it's like butt kiss Singletary Erlocker, like just kind of like grouped together with like Bears legends. But I hadn't. And I feel like there's part of me that, yes, I love and respect the 85 Bears. Obviously I'm a Bears fan, but like part of me always looked past that team because I wanted the current Bears that I'm watching to like make their own mark and like not always get compared to the 85 bears. It's like, oh, stop talking about the 85 bears. I don't care. But this forced me to look at Singletary's stats a little more and I'm like, all right, he was actually killing seven. First team all pros is insane. Including six in a row. And during that six in a row, he wins a Super bowl, wins two defensive players of the year, gets top five MVP voting. So dominant. And his highest selling card, $3,000. It's his 83 tops, which I believe is his rookie, or called his rookie. He was a rookie in 81, but I can imagine he maybe didn't have a card then. This is has an IP auto on it and it's a gem mint 10 auto 10. Very cool looking card. And then I, I was so close last night to just buying one in a PSA 9 because I'm like, I'm not gonna buy a 10. The tens are expensive. But then the drop off between a 10 and a 9 for some of this vintage stuff is insane. And I'm like, should I just start picking up all these legendary Bears guys, especially linebacker Summer? I mean, might as well kick it off with a Singletary card. I, I love, I feel like if you're going to do this you just get 3k for a Mike Singletary 10 10. Of course, it's a lot of money, but I don't know. That seems like a fun person. That seems like a fun thing to own. Like, makes it special. I love how he autographed it at. At the top of it in the Bears. You can like see his auto with the Bears outline behind it. He's like, I'm not gonna autograph it like on my jersey where it's dark. Like, he knows. He knows ball when it comes to autos by that placement. I think that's really cool. That is a great call out. If. If it was like a silver pen, do it on the jersey. But blue pen can't go on the blue. And you can't cross out the 50 because it's episode 50. So he. I think he was thinking about the football card pod and when he signed this. It's all about the eyes with single Terry, right? That's you just pre snap looking at that old NFL Films footage up close and personal. Like, those eyes are. Are sending a death sentence to the other side like that. When I think of Mike Singletary, I just think of him pointing and just the eyes just staring a hole in the office. You have to be pissing down your leg if you saw that guy looking at you like that. Yeah. And Samurai Mike. I can't get over Samurai Mike. Just a sick nickname. We love nicknames here. On the football card podcast, bring back nicknames. The other guy I had to talk about other hall of Famer Ken Strong. So. And I link to a good Ken Strong card there. His 1935 national cheekily, Ken Strong. I love on this card, Ken is in quotes because his name is. Is Kenneth, but just quote unquote, Ken Strong. What. What's your free. What's your frequency, Kenneth? Oh, I am. Exactly. And so I was looking up Ken Strong and his. He has one of these classic vintage guy stories that I love, where he started playing professional football in 1929 for the Staten Island Stapletons. And just I love these regional teams from back in the day when the Staten Island Stapletons got beat by the Newark Bears. And like, there's like, just reading some of these paragraphs on Wikipedia where you're like, wow, there were pro teams just in these different boroughs in New York or like, even across the country. There's just so many random little cities and towns. Basically, if you had some sort of manufacturing plant, you had a football team because you had a bunch of big grown men who needed to play Football or do something to burn off their something to not be home with their families is what these men were looking for back in the 30s and 40s. So yeah, shout out Ken Strong, he led the NFL in scoring one year. He was kind of a halfback. Also kicked one of these do it all type of guys. Won an NFL championship in 1934 with the New York Giants. He was a four time first team all pro. And yeah, he just seems like he was a freak of nature back in the day. Kind of legendary football player in the hall of fame. So shout out quote Ken Strong. So a couple things here. Little vintage football talk here with this chickle his cars is pose is crazy too it. Yeah, it's the visual on this thing. This sold May 5th of 2006 for $11,352. I didn't know people were spending that kind of money on ken Strong in 2006. Yeah, what is that? What's that card letter value now on that bad boy? That's probably. It's worth a look at in real time. 40 or 40. Yeah. I thought, I thought the multiplier would be higher from 06.11k to that. But maybe there's probably actually a recent sale that is dictating that. The final thing I'll say about Ken Strong is that Ken Strong had to have been just an awesome ideal husband. I think about all of these guys with the multiple positions and scoring points and kicking. Like they have to be just a master of tasks at the house. Great cooks. They, you know, great dads, you know, great at taking out the trash. Like if you can be that versatile on the football field when you're at home, you've. You've got to be able to just dominate and do everything. That's just what I'm thinking. He looks like a good husband. I don't know. Like I said, I've been watching a lot of Mad Men and there was a era of time and that's late 50s, early 60s in the 1935s. I don't think Ken Strong's coming home from the plant and making dinner. Yeah, I don't think he's doing it all in. In that sense. I think he has certain expectations and okay. He has a vision for how he's the breadwinner. Yeah. How marriage and life works in the Strong household. You think Ken Strong is gonna let his neighbors see him wearing an apron and cooking. Cooking a meal. Yeah. Right. Point, point, point taken. You're. Now when it comes to getting firewood for the fire, Ken Strong's back there chopping logs, no question. But what is Ken Strong? You look at 1935 National Cho Card. What is his preference on tobacco of choice? Because, you know, this guy's using tobacco. Like, what. What is his product? What is he doing? I don't even know what's the. What were the options? And I bet it's just pipe, right? I feel like everyone's just screwed pipes. It's just because were cigarettes really. When did Big Tobacco really figure out and start making Cigs Football Tobacco Card Podcast. We need to do that? I don't know, but yeah. Anyone out there work at Philip Morris? You got any Philip Morris listeners out there? Yeah, we'll do our own independent research. It's. It's linebacker summer. It's Sig Summer here at the Football Card Podcast. And I had to go here with 50. My selection was Mike Vrabel. There we go. Big Mike. Yeah, we missed a lot of Rabel talk that we. We didn't touch it, did we? No, I don't think so. I feel like it was happening off. I feel like news would break, like, after we recorded, and then by the time we recorded again, there's nothing. But then, like, new pictures would come out, new things would come out, so. And everyone is probably on their own variable coverage or of course, we didn't need to knock it down or keep talking about it, but in episode 50, we got to talk Variable. We do. And before. I can't talk about Variable without talking about Diana Rossini for one second. And just the interesting part about all of this story for me is that I was a weekly consumer of Diana Rossini's content. I listened to Scoop City with her, the. The whole podcast startup, all of it. I felt like I knew her in a way. And she'd say stuff sometimes and I'd be like, that's interesting. Most specifically, when she was talking about her husband. Never thought anything of it. And I always, like, I was on record with telling my, like, group of football friends, I'd be like, yeah, she does a hell of a job. Like, I think she's really good, entertaining. And then the story drops and it was like, oh, the first thing I thought I have is, I really enjoyed Scoop City. I'm not gonna get that podcast anymore. But a lot of rumor, innuendo. We could probably do a whole podcast on it. But we'll do Mike Rabel here. Three time super bowl champion. Did not know this. First team all pro in 2007. The Patriots have like 10 all everything teams. He's on all of them. Two time coach of the year all I'm just giving him the title of all pro and first team accountability speak so we'll give him that too. And I looked up the his highest selling card of all time in car ladder and the irony of this is he's not it's not a Patriots card, it's a Chiefs card. So this is a 2024 Immaculate Variable Monster NFL Shield Patch one of one sold for $1,500 in October of 2025 full equipment shield. I have one figure out the auto here. What's going like is the auto on? Is there like a thin film over has to be. Dude. I was thinking about the same thing. I don't there has to be like a protective plastic layer covering the shield and I think he signed on that. Yeah. That makes sense. But that I've just never seen that before. That's interesting. Yeah. That it caught me off guard too. And so my question to you is the AJ Brown signing variables version of flooding the zone. Flooding the media zone. This we're. We're getting this with the current administration where it's just like let's just keep dumping news to like distract from everything else. Obviously that's a big signing. Drake may gets a legitimate receiver if he's healthy. But yeah that was my question is are we are we signing AJ Brown to fill a team need or more to get the heat off of Mike Vrabel? What do you think? I thought. I thought this Trout. This trade fuels further speculation because doesn't isn't Rossini's husband an Eagles guy? He is an Eagle. The Eagles sts. Very good point. Yes, he is. I this like when this all broke. I remember people are like oh, so that means A.J. brown to the Eagles for sure. Like because of the Rossini connection. So I don't know. Vrabel fed Racini the AJ Brown news when he was in Tennessee and Vrabel was disgusted by the fact that they were getting rid of A.J. brown. And now this. This all comes full circle. Yeah. Brian Windhorse like what's. But no. That. Yeah. What variable needs is we're, we're wanting a false flag. We needed a different story that's nowhere near connected to this at all. He needed like yeah. Something totally different to to happen so that we all look over here. So like he saw he's coaching one of his kids teams to a championship or donating a million dollars to some charity. Something like. Yeah. It's like call up Antonio Brown and be like I need you to go on live and talk about Tom Brady. Like go say that when you were on the Patriots with Brady, the Bucks with Brady that you hooked up with Giselle again. We need you to just run that up, get people talking this. Okay, so it's. We'll get off Varel here. But I have one final question for you. So it is June, beginning of June. This whole insane variable Rossini story has hit. We've been through so many cycles of it, even through so many cycles and it seems like it's almost over with. There is no way that story can't be a distraction this upcoming year. Right? Yeah. And I'm glad. I hope it knocks the Patriots down a peg. I don't need them to be good again. And. And I'm now like because going in two years ago I wanted the Bears to give Rabel so bad and I'm glad they didn't give Rabel. I'm glad that they got Ben Johnson because yes, this is absolutely a distraction and has to have some sort of effect on players on teams on the team. Like where I don't know. I'm sure they all love Mike Vrabel and he's their guy, he's their coach. But I don't know. It'd make me question just judgment, character. I don't know. It's like the optics, the optics are terrible. Especially if you are in a leader of men CEO position. If you can do that to your spouse, what else can you do? It's what I. What I would be thinking the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. Not, not a good look for old Mike boy and that. But then also kind of the it is unfair where like Rossini and I guess she resigned but like out of a job, out of the public eye. Vera Able still just like yeah just missed one day of the draft. The day that no one cares about anyways. She Rossini doesn't need my counsel. But if I were counseling Rossini what I would have done was I would have fired up the brand new podcast episode one, the Diana Rossini show instantly and immediately. How many downloads do you think her on a microphone would have gotten all dude, she would have been. She could be so self sufficient through brand and sponsorship deals. Like there would be brands lining up. She wouldn't have to worry about all the red tape at New York Times and all this stuff. Like there's probably a reason why she didn't do that. But that's what I would have done if I were her. I would have just fired up the podcast just Hit go. But also, like, what's she gonna say? It's not like she has some side of the story that's like, makes her innocent. It's like, no, she's. She's got to take a career turn because she is no longer able to function in the old world. So you might as well just burn the whole city down behind you and move forward on your new path. And so I'm just. This is what I was as a content guy. This is what I was thinking in my head how many people she had. She had everyone's attention. She probably still does. It's like, start podcast Diana. I bet. I bet that will happen. Like, she's not Instagrammer. She's a media personality. Like this. Attention spans are short. In a year, probably even less than a year if she does. Here's the Diana Rosini show on. Sponsored by Wonry. Like, people are gonna check it out. Maybe. Maybe her and Vrabel need to come on the football card pod and we mediate a little discussion before. Open invite. Yep, open invite. It's out there. Ray Rabes, Rossini. Let's go. Let's talk. Let's hash it out. So, like, what was Sedona? Magical place. The vortexes are swirling. The energy is off the charts. I get it. Where were all the other friends, though? That was always my favorite part, where there was with friends and it's just always just them. I wanted to know what. I wanted to know what the order was. What. What were you eating? What. When you're on this adventure, do you. I would imagine there's. You're not counting calories or anything. You're just letting your hair down all the way. So it's like, did you get dessert? What kind of dessert did they have on their menu like that. I'd be digging into the menu and what they ate. Yeah. Wow. The Coldplay CEO all over again. People love some public infidelity, some scandals, but maybe we get the private investigator on and we can make them anonymous. Yeah. Who's snapping these picks from the pool? That was amazing. All right, episode 50. Should we get into some questions? Yeah, we'll. We'll. We'll turn off the TMZ portion of the football card podcast and we'll get into some questions. But this is under our creed of football cards and football cards. We're allowed to talk football at will. So just if there's any critics out there listening, thinking, why are they talking about football and now football cards? Well, we're allowed to. All right, question One from TKD tickets. I'm an old school collector. I opened my first pack of football cards in 1972. I attended my first national in 1984. I've built PSA player and team registry sets. That said, I stopped collecting football when Prism came out. I understand parallels, inserts and RPAs and the ultra modern issue constructs, but what can you say to this old school collector to build my enthusiasm for these cards so it doesn't just seem like a primordial soup of limitless rainbows and endless inserts? First of all, I just want to say TKD tickets. It's thrilling to me that we have someone listening to the show that went to their first national the year before I was born. So I love that. This is a great topic and a great question. This is one of my favorite topics and questions ever in the history. So let's celebrate 50 with a banger. I think. I don't think the goal should be to force yourself to love modern cards. The goal is to find parts of modern collecting that scratch some itch that attracted you to the hobby in the first place. I think the modern hobby gives you more options in any era. That can feel like chaos if you're trying to collect everything. And I would imagine as a set collector, this is the mindset. But I think it becomes powerful when you're trying to collect something specific. Some feedback I have is to maybe stop thinking about it horizontally and start thinking about it vertically. And I mean that by saying like dipping your toe in that water and saying, I'm not trying to collect the whole set or every parallel, but I'm trying to do a Prism gold run like I'm doing of my team in this year or a specific player or a color match set or inserts like it. I. We haven't explored the topic enough about this of someone who is so used to like collecting sets and once the Panini era happened, the rainbow proliferation of rainbows and how concerning that must have been for those collectors. And that. That's my feedback. I think there's a way you can use some of that same mindset and mentality and apply it to specific things in these sets, but not collect every card in those sets. So that's. That's my feedback. Yeah, that's great. I was on the same lines like, because he said he enjoyed player and team registry set collecting. So it's like, why is that. Why is Prism stopping you from doing that now? Is it just the amount of parallels so that you. It doesn't Seem like you can collect a whole set because you would have to collect all the parallels because, yes, that's insane. But the base set is still there. Like, if that's the enjoyment you were getting out of opening packs in the early 80s, like, and just completing a base set, like, I don't know, do that, like, around and do a 2020 prism base set of football. Like, that'd be so easy to do, but, like, also challenging. Especially if you were like, all right, I'm only gonna look for cards at shows. And like, because you could go out and buy the entire set on ebay instantly. But if you, you know, you come up with an idea and then give yourself some limitations where, like, it's all about the ideas stuff that we were talking about last episode. And like, what's his favorite team? What's a favorite current random player? Is there anyone with like, a hometown tie or his, like, alma mater? Like. Like, I feel like there's a way to find a connection to a current player and then it doesn't have to be brand specific. You can just like, find the attachment through the player and then find some parameters to work with. Like what you were saying. Do a gold run or get the Prism purple powers of a certain player every year. Like, you could. You can limit it down. It doesn't have to be all or nothing with some of this stuff. So I don't know. I just think, yeah, there's. If. If he liked player and set collecting at some point, like, that is still available in Prism. I think it's all about just finding the player or set or team that connects to you now and then just figuring out an interesting angle. Do an insert set. Like, just. I don't know. There's. There's stuff out there. There's options. Love the question. Yeah. Next up and shout out TKD tickets. He's been bringing some great questions over the last few weeks. 305 Card Shop says looking ahead another 50 episodes. What will be the biggest change in hobby thinking on football cards over the first year of Fanatics Control? Is there a new favorite super short print or case hit that makes people move away from downtowns and kabooms? Do defensive players start to get love Miles Garrett in LA now or something else? I. Yeah, it's hard to forecast, but like, I just take what I know right now and I think one thing that Tops and Fanatics is focusing on is the moments. We talked about the rookie photo shoot. They've got the Tops now program. They've got the patches where you know, we saw kind of the, the big sales with the patches. So I would say like an emphasis on moments, which I think is a really good thing because I think we as collectors have a fondness for finest in the 2000s because of the capture of moments and the documentation of moments. So that is something that I feel like the Panini era completely disregarded. And that's what I'm excited about. And I would imagine especially just listening to the communication, the messag from fanatics regarding cards. Like they don't really say anything without talking about moments. So I would imagine that will be a feature in upcoming sets and we'll probably talk about it here. Yeah, I think when he says what will be the biggest change in hobby thinking and I think trying to figure out what that could mean. And I think maybe the best example is the hobby thinking of football cards can't sell for a million dollars. And we saw the Josh Allen sale and I feel like the change that I could see is what you're saying where there will be more of these big manufactured cards that make big sales. Like I bet a year from now that million dollar chart will have a few more football cards on it. It won't take three years for the next million dollar football card sale. I'll say that just based on their ability to. Yeah, we get a massive Mahomes game and then that one of one shield is in a card from that game and is up for auction. That's gonna go crazy. They're gonna continue to make stuff like that. And then on the. Is there a new favorite case hit that will make people move away from downtowns and Kabooms? I think there are already new inserts and cases that people like, like the Kaijus and the Ultraviolets and like so those are there but I think it's not like going to be an instant we're done with kabooms and downtowns. We're going to start collecting that because kabooms and downtowns have like a 10 year history now and people like stuff that has a lineage and history and there's going to be all sorts of ways to collect those inserts that people are nostalgic for for a long time. So I don't think those will ever go away. I was even trying to look. I'm like it's have like over the last year Downtown's like gone down in value because like new inserts are like taking over and it's like no, Downtowns are still going crazy. Like people still want those cards and it's just gonna take a while. Like, you know, it just takes a long time for things to stick. Like the Kaiju. Like that's a cool insert right now that people like. Are people gonna care in five years? Like if they do it every year for five years and they do it well and it builds like yes, that will stick. But if, I don't know, they could come out and ruin it somehow next year or move away from it. Like, I don't know. Time will tell. It can't make decisions right away. I wrote down brands are like bands and sets are like albums. It takes time for things to stick. Like just, you know, over poetry. Yeah, there we go. What One thing real quick on this that I'm just as we were talking through this and this is less on tops, more on market, but I have talked to several collectors via DMS this week and this topic organically popped up which I think is interesting regarding kind of tops in football is there are a lot of collectors out there that are just holding tight, waiting for this massive list price era of Super Fractures to pass. And during this era, because the pricing of Super Fractures out of the gates with Topps Chrome, like we can all agree, is insane. Like I love collecting my team and I love one of ones. And even I have had trepidation of just saying now, no way, I'll just wait it out. There's a lot of waited out. But while people are waiting it out, it has been fun to talk with collectors to understand how they are engaging with the new product, what they're digging into, what they like. And there are. I'll just say this, there are so many opportunities within Topps Chrome Football to not just chase after one of ones and still have a damn good time. And we have traded messages and have talked a lot about this privately. But we're not the only ones. There's a lot of people doing that right now and that's kind of a fun little storyline that is beginning to percolate that I think is interesting. Yeah. Part I'm getting more and more into. Like I do not care about like I do care about these things like lineage and like, like, like all the things that we look for in some cards. I'm not looking for that same enjoyment right now in Topps Chrome. I'm like, what's in? What's something new that I've never collected before, but it's got the current players that I'd really like at step with. I'm trying to figure out. I'm not like, oh this Parallel hasn't been around for five years, so I can't get it. It's like Caleb Williams is in this set. Joe Toonies in this set. Joe Tunis, a beast. I want a Joe Toonie card. Yes. What's a parallel that I'm gonna find and get of him? So, like, I don't know. I'm very excited just about new releases. That's how I felt about this. When I saw the Sauce Gardener card in a Colts uniform. I said, I, I need this in the right parallel. Like, I will also say this and this might be controversial, but we have a podcast. This is what we do. In my opinion, there are cards in Topps Chrome Football that look a lot better than super fractors. Like, that's what I'll say. I'll just leave it at that. We're all. We have gotten drunk off of one of ones. Like, one of ones are not the end all beyond all. Everybody. I love one of wads, trust me. But they're not worth overpaying. 5 to 7x this game people have right now are just hoarding these one of ones that don't like the players don't collect it. Like, it is not going to end well for everybody. That's what I'll say. So I am much more. I'm having much more fun and being satisfied by getting creative creativity with financial responsibility. Really good pairing. Especially when you're approaching something with this much attention. Yeah. And like the price drop off from super factor to any of the red stuff out of five, any of the black stuff out of 10. Like, those are so affordable. Like, you can tie, dye, attitude. Like you can get awesome players for 50 bucks. And it's like, all right, this is, this is scratching the itch that I need. Like, I want. Can I get a team set of this? All right, sick. So I'm having a ton of fun with old, old TC stuff right now. And Finest. Finest is I. I need to get some finest cards. The we talked about last week, the numbering still a little annoying to me. But I have like 05 finest gold x factor Rex Grossman. And I'm like, what's the best looking Caleb card that I can get to pair with that, like 20 years later? You know, because some of the finest designs have like the circle in the background that kind of looks like 2005. So it's like, is it the gold geometric? Is it the black geometric? Like, which of these am I going to get that can match, like some of these old sets that I have? Because yeah, it is A brand that, you know it's back, baby. So I, I, I, I have a strong feelings for top scrum football. Once I started getting them in hand, I think they did a really, really nice job. Finest. I talked about not as big of a fan, but top scrum, good stuff. Just, you know, we all don't need to chase super fractures. People are trying to hoard them and get everyone to pay them. Like, you don't have to play that game. There's a lot of options in that set. Yep. All right, great question. Next up from J cuts713. This is a statement which we allow. It's not all questions, we're just. If you want to fire off a taker topic, feel free to reply to the question. Call out, feel free to DM the football card pod whenever you want with anything and it'll be noted for the next episode. And just one more note on the the question thing. Your question doesn't have to go into the little box. You can just reply to the dm. I feel like I get people who will reply and say my question wouldn't fit. It's like, well brother, just send it here. Like we're talking. Type it out. Type out Drake. You think Drake's two paragraph questions fit in that tiny box? No, those are, he's sending letters. J Cuts just says PSA shutdown is great for the hobby. Most of what is being graded doesn't need to be. I can talk on this real quick. I am biased that I work for collectors who owns psa. But all I'll say about the whole shutdown and everything is just that the volume is insane. Like just the amount of cards coming in is insane. Whether they're cards that should be graded or not. That's not for me to say. It's just logistically, like think about what it would be like to receive a hundred thousand packages like in a day like even 50,000, whatever, whatever the number is. Just like that one step of the process. For example, like what do you do with all that mail? How do you sort it? How do you track it? How do you make sure that like not a single piece of that gets lost? Because if one piece of mail gets lost, everyone's going to come for your heads. So like the logistics that go into the this, the operation at that scale are crazy. And if you ever see it, it's just unreal. So I again probably biased, but I'm a little empathetic with the receiving side and just the grading side of the company. That's not at all what I work in, but I just knowing the amount of cards that are coming through, it is absolutely wild right now. And everyone's doing their best to just get cards graded as quickly and as fast as possible. But yeah, I, I do think they needed to pause. Like everyone's just getting more and more upset about longer turnaround times and higher cost and they were trying to do that to deflect people from sending so much stuff to grade. That didn't help at all. So a good old, good old pause. It's like, just like Covid, we're back. Everyone's good insight. Everyone's entitled to be able to express their opinion on what's happening in the hobby and businesses. I definitely my least favorite flavor of content in the hobby is the corporate complainers. People who take all their time out of their day to do reels and post about all this, how sad they are and when, when, when businesses, all this stuff, it's like that part. I just do not like that content. That's my opinion. I will say this, that some things in business are outside of the control of business. And one of those is demand. And it is based on the numbers we see in car ladder based on car trade card shows everywhere. Like we're in a period of heightened demand. And when you have heightened demand, go into a service based business that involves people, process, technology, systems, all that stuff, shit's gonna break. Like that's what happens with scaling businesses. Demand goes high, the existing process and system in place breaks and you have to take time to rebuild it the right way with the new demand in place. And so like, I don't know, like, obviously I'm biased because like this business here at Stacking Slabs is built on the back of supporting hobby businesses like that. I'm very transparent about that. But I'm also someone who's worked in business my entire professional career and understand like stuff happens that sucks and you stuff needs to change internally and you can't just like snap your finger and have 200 new graders and you can't have everything laid out and it be solved. Like my feedback, whether you like what's happening or whether you don't, it's just like have some grace. Like give companies PSA or anybody else give companies a little bit of grace and if they come back after the time they said and stuff still sucks. Like, okay, now we've got a legitimate, legitimate argument. But I don't know, I just, I feel like we as collectors need to just chill out for a second and trust that what's going to happen on the other side has our best interest in hand. And that might be overly optimistic. And that might be me saying. Saying this because, like, I'm rooting for any business in the hobby to do well. But that's just my perspective on the situation, right? And it's like, yes, I would love to be able to get cards back in a month from grading, like, a couple years ago when it was like, 30 days for leaving my house, coming back for literally valuable submissions. But you can't. I just can't do it right now. But I still have the cards with me, so I'm like, all right, this is fine. But I understand the people who. Their cards have been gone for months. Like, that sucks. But I don't know. I also. There's something where psa, when they shut down during COVID they were, like, grading around 15,000 cards a day. When they shut down now, they were grading around 100,000 cards a day. So it's like the business has scaled up. It's not like they've stayed the same since COVID and haven't hired more people and opened up more receiving. Like, they've done all that. It's just the demand is outpacing that. And then as a business, you also have to deal with, like, what is. What is, like, the new floor and what's just like, a blip. Like, you don't go out and build or, like, lease or build a bunch of space and hire a thousand people, and then this demand drops off and then you have to fire a thousand people. And, like, you've bought all this property and. And those things take years to do. And it's like, you only do that if, like, this demand is, like, the new level. So it's like. And that's all out of my. I don't know any of that shit, like, the forecasting and, like, truly, like, running a business of that level. So, like, all I can do is be like, hey, I trust what they're doing on that side. Like, and if you don't like it, just go. You can grade other places. There are other. Can. You can do that. You can do it. Like. And. Yeah, so. But yeah, overall, it's like this. The hobby is booming more than ever. It's very apparent it sucks that we can't get our cards back as fast as we used to, but that, like, no one likes being stuck in traffic. I get it. But it's like, what. What are we supposed to do? Thanos was Thanos, right? Like, there's just too many people. We gotta, we're, we're due for a hobby. Finger snap. Just get half of these people out of here right now. All right, next up from Terrell Suggs, 55, I love that cards isn't anywhere in his name because it's like, is this actual HE sizzle asking this question? He, Terrell Suggs wants to know what is the best way to break up a larger player collection piecemeal or sell big ticket items first or collection as a whole? I've cut off player PCs completely in the past. Some of them normally when they're smaller. But then my only like norm, like current example would be like my Priest Holmes PC. I've trimmed that down but I've kept like the top of that collection. Actually like my favorite cards that are graded. I've kept that, kept those. And yeah, I guess like this is all personal and situational but like are you weeding and you just need to pull the plant completely out, pull the roots out and get it completely out of there. Or have you had this player PC for a long time and you like, you love this player and maybe you just need to sell everything but two cards and keep a couple and then like you have a couple of those one card collections that turn into a grouping. I don't know. I think it's all situational, but those are kind of what I was thinking. What about you, Brett? Yeah, when I, when I'm moving out of a player PC or anything, I don't, I don't try to overthink it. I don't have time to think about, well, should I hold these there or should I sell these privately? Should I like I ripped the band aid off and I ripped the band aid off by putting everything into a box and sending it to consignment and just waiting for the money to come hit my account. What I have found people sometimes are very like, well, do you flood the market with that many that all those cards of that player? I think yes. And I think yes. And it's worked for me in the past because that gets the attention of buyers of that player and there aren't very many moments in time. Take Charl Suggs for instance. There's. He's selling his whole Charles Suggs collection. I have no idea. But this is my speculation. Just, just, just sell them all and send them to consignment because the people who want those cards are like waiting for those moments in time and they'll like, they're not just gonna buy one card though. They'll bid up and try to buy as many as possible, especially if you have rare and scarce stuff. So I don't know, Like, I think about this. Like, I think about prospecting and. Or timing the market for sale selling. Like, none of that for me. I don't have any time for that. Like, just put it in a box, send it away, and hope for the best. That's usually how I roll. Yeah, just fully lopping it off is not a bad. Not a bad move. Okay, couple more from Black Hat cards. With today's current pricing, I found myself researching and buying more paper cards. Any paper sets you have a soft spot for, or do you treat them like shield cards? I just this. I love paper cards. Maybe less. Maybe less in football than other areas. But I just, I. My response was just Contenders. I think Contenders is such a football product for football. Yes, it's in basketball, but it doesn't really matter in football. It has just such a great lineage and legacy and the first on card autos, all that stuff. So I tend to just lean into contenders if I want anything paper based in football. Yeah, that's a good call. I wasn't even thinking of modern where I went with this. I was like, this is a, to me, a personal thing. Like. Like, when I thought paper set, I went instantly to 2000 Bowman football. And I think that's just purely because I ripped that as a kid. And it's like the sets I was buying as a kid are the ones that, like, hold up. They have just a certain place in my mind where it's like, oh, that would be fun. And even like, Bowman chrome and the refractors, like, just 2,000 Bowman paper cards I like. And the goals out of 99, like, I pick those up when I see them. And then the one thing, like, I just have to. The shields. Back to the shields. Because I was thinking about it more, I'm like, why don't I like. Or why haven't a lot of shield designs captured my attention? And I got to thinking, some of these brands, like, they don't treat the shield with as much respect as it deserves. Like, a lot of times it's like the design of the card. There's a lot going on. And then it's like, oh, yeah, and here's a shield versus, like a logo, man. Like, the logo, man, is like the full thing on the card. And it's like, look at this. But like, can you imagine a NBA logo, man, where, like, half of it's cut off because the patch window is smaller? Than the logo man. Let's, let's just look at this variable so you, you, you can tell it is sick. But you would never see a logo man where the, any part of the logoman was covered. Like you see the corner, the placement of this? It's a little off, so. Yes, yes, yes. That's kind of what I was thinking about when you're talking to that. Yeah, they're so. They're like crooked sometimes or like the little square and it's like, well, wait, this is a shield and you're covering half of it. Like, show me the shield. I want this to be about the shield. Like, and I do. Like when, like, I don't know. There's just certain times where there's too much going on on the design of the card and then the logo, the shield is almost like the, the afterthought. So I don't know. We, we're, we're not anti shield here. I'm not anti shield. I'm just not pro shield. I'd be in the middle on shields. Is that all right? Final question from Drake's PC. When a seller has a one of one card you desire for your collection and you can't agree on a price, when do you wait the seller out for months or years versus just agreeing to pay the seller's asking price? If waiting is your initial reaction, what factors may cause you to give in and pay up for the card? Drake is such a thinker. By the way, if you're listening to this, on Friday, there will be a conversation with Drake around this topic. Not directly, but that'll be on the net, the network feed. So check it out. I think I know what Drake is talking about based on just some private conversations and I think I've maybe shared some feedback. But like this gave me a chance to really isolate everything and consider it. And I think this is what I've come down to. If it's a one of one you really want, you must pay up and pay the price. If you're willing to wait, that signals intent. That signals now's probably this isn't a card you really, really need. The price is the price. Especially for cards one of ones of players that are very good. And there's only one. The question I want to put back at Drake is what happens if you wake up one morning and it has been sold? Imagine that feeling and see if it changes anything about the way you're thinking about it right now. That's a good stress test and it always leads to me buying the Card, that's when you know you need it. Like, I. We can't. To me, there's no haggling in negotiations with, like, premium. One of ones of premium players that people have, and they're saying, I'm not moving off this price. Like, yeah, it's just. It's imp. It's impossible. Like, they're set in their ways. They know what they have, and it's like you're. You have no advantage as the buyer. Like, zero. So if you really want it, it's kind of like you got to step up to the plate. Yes. I love this question. I love the. Just Drake dealing with stuff in real time that you then, like, I bet if you listen for the last 10 questions he's asked, it would piece together into, like. Yeah, he's clearly just about this one card. This whole. The journey to getting this one card the whole way. And then I like thinking about this exact question, but from the seller's point of view, where it's like, if you've got a lowballing buyer, when do you just give in and take the cash? Like. Like flipping it? Because, like, who's to say what. What price is too high or what price is not? Like, your point. You just got to. You gotta pay up. But I think it all comes down to the card. Like, is this really one of those ones? One of those cards that you need, or is it something that just currently has your attention because you haven't bought a big card in a while and you're, like, itching to buy a big card? Or, like, it just. This feels like something that you need, but, like, you maybe didn't even know about it six months ago? I think. Yeah, all comes down to the card. I think the imagine it sold exercise is always a good one. But, yeah, I think if it's one of those ones that every day you're waking up thinking about that card and the price that you're off isn't that much. Like, buy it and sell something else. If it makes you feel good, just, like, sell something. I don't know. I think it. I think it comes down Drake for you, it's like looking at your collection and doing the judgment day. Like king cards. Like, there's a reason why you're this interested in this card. Look at your other collection. Ask the question, what if this sold? And then look at your collection and just do the ranking thing. And then you'll. You'll. You'll do the right thing for you. I have full confidence. Yeah. Can you turn five Cards at the bottom of your ranking into this one card and would it land with that one card, then land high on your ranking, or would it also just kind of be at the bottom? So a lot to consider. Great questions, everybody. Thank you for those. Should we just get into some sales? Let's get. Of course, yes. Let's get into some sales. We got the haircut, which is just so painful to watch the haircut take place. And haircut. He does have long hair. And imagining Clay Matthews with a buzz cut, it. It's not a. A pretty, pretty thought. So his 20, we speculated this was going to happen. His 2012 Finite PSA 10, which is a wonderful card, sold for 12,600 this week at auction. You would say that would be great. That's a great price. It is a strong price, but this card sold in September for $18,000. So we did not even wait one year between these sales. And when you, when you, when the card gets recycled again, there's no and in less than a year. It's just the likelihood of there being another buyer at a higher level is very, very low. This does not take away how awesome this card is. It's just maybe a testament to just like the waiting game. And I know playing the waiting game on one of ones is really shitty, but imagine if you are the under bidder on the 18k one and you end up getting the card less than a year later for 12 6. I bet you're pretty happ happy. Yeah. Yeah. I think part of this is the fatigue of not even this card, but his auto finite from this year sold in October. Like, okay, so this card sold the base finite sold raw in May of 24. Then the raw finite auto sold also in May of 24. And then the graded finite base sold in September of last year. Then the October in October, the auto base graded sold. And then this sold again in May. So that's five sales of this card or the auto in two years, which is just a lot like we track 2012 Prism and Finance pretty closely. And I feel like you'd seen this card or the hot like, I'm like, these keep showing it up. And that makes it, you know, lose its luster a little bit. In my mind, when something keeps coming up for sale, you're like, what's wrong with it? Or like, why? Why is this happening? So I, I don't want to see this card again for at least five years. And when I see it posted on Instagram like five years from now, I want to be like, oh, Man, I haven't seen this card in forever. Like, that's what I want to feel like. Yeah. I hope this. Yeah. Ended up in a great packers collection. And it'll be just sticking around. All right, how about the 2014 Rob Gronkowski black prism out of select PSA nine selling for 10,200 via auction. Early select grunk highly collectible black one of one. Yeah. Sick card. I feel like we've talked about this card before. Maybe did it sell raw at some point? This is a fresh cert, but because the armor. Just his body armor. He's got the bonds. Yeah. Ab is I on. On arm armor on. Yeah. I don't like that. It looks like he's backpedaling, though. He's not a db. What are we doing here? I think. I think he's, like, yelling. I think he's yelling. Yeah. Or that Miami Dolphins, like, Hail Mary game where Gronk was, like, at safety. He just got the. The Patriots loss all time. Like, Rob Growski does not need to be in your secondary. Speaking of shields, the 2009 tops unique, a set I'm not familiar with. NFL crest relic autograph of Drew Brees and a BGS 85 for $5,880. Here's your full equipment shield for you. Yeah. All right. I like that the patch window shows the full shield here. That's a plus. The design of the card, though, and maybe this is it feels like a lot of NFL shields are just in random brands too. Like Tops Unique. What is Tops Unique? I've never heard of Tops Unique, but. And the design, like, what is this? Like a stock Microsoft background design? The, like, black, white lines? Like, I don't know. I wish it was just like a clean white background. The shield was well presented for you, maybe. I just am describing a flawless card, but I don't know of. Of all shield cards, this is a good. A good looking one. I have notes, obviously, but, like, look how small Breeze is. That's what I was gonna say. He looks like a little, teeny, tiny man at the top of the card. Tinkerbell Breeze just floating around in the top corner. Like, the logo for the brand Unique is bigger than Breeze. What are we doing? Yeah, that. That's a problem. Yeah. See, I need the player. I. I need the player presented in full on my cards. And maybe that's why I'm not a shield guy, because it's impossible based on the structure and composition of a card. Yeah. All right, we got the 2016 Adrian Peterson Black Select 5520 bucks. BGS95. That's a sick looking card. I like these 2016 Select Blacks. Do you have the luck of this? I used. I used to. I. I kind of just. I. Yeah, I just. It was standing by on an island by him itself in the select group, and I just. Yeah, it was a victim of consolidation. Yeah, but those, those are cool looking cards. I have no idea the set configuration and if there's like concourse feel like die cuts in this, I don't know. But just that card on its own looks sick. No doubt. 97 Skybox Premium Elway Rubies. Lot of Elway cards. This is in a PSA6 selling for $8,300. Oh, it's like 97 rubies. Football is one of the coolest designs. Super Bowl. John Elway doing his little Caleb Williams impression. Kind of rolling to the right. Left hand out. He's about to sling it. Shout out, John elway. We've got 98 Metal Universe, Marshall Falk, PMG PSA 8, 5200 pop 4 on this card. We. I think we've talked about this, but this card is so sick with that one in the back with the horse in the back. Yeah, got the horses in the back. The. I'm getting closer and closer. There's some bears. Ones that, like, there's a bear in the background. I don't like any of the players, but I'm like, more and more. I want one just to have on like a stand in my bookshelf because these cars just look so cool. There's like so much history of cards to, like, tell through that. Like, if someone asks about it, the design's amazing and like. Yeah, the animal part of it. And for Falk, like, this is Falk. He's a hall of Famer. Like, that's just a awesome card. Final card, we've got the kaiju. Caleb Williams PSA 9. $7930. I would not want to be you trying to navigate Caleb Williams cards right now. There's lanes for everybody. I found some stuff. I found one of ones from different sets that are all the 101s. I have three Caleb 101s and they're combined half this price of this one card and I'd rather have the ones. I was thinking more about this card last night because I saw it was on the list and I love the idea of it. I love the Kaiju. Like, the monster. It feels like an old Godzilla poster. I hate the bears eating the hot dogs. Why are the bears Eating hot dogs. Like, it doesn't make any sense. Like, if you're trying to make this big, intimidating poster, the. The ice theme should be more present. Maybe the Bears should be, like, behind Caleb, like, he's leading the Bears into battle. But instead, it's like they threw him at the bottom. And, oh, by the way, they're eating hot dogs. And if you zoom in on those hot dogs, they have ketchup on them, which is a big, like, Chicago. No, no. Like, no ketchup on dogs is a whole thing. So they just. They missed the mark, in my opinion, on this one with just, like. It's just, like, too on the nose. You don't want to see a Daniel Jones one where there's, like, horses eating tenderloins in the background. It's like, that makes no sense. Like, what are we doing here? Just because Chicago is known for hot dogs doesn't mean these bears will be eating hot dogs. They can't even hold them right with their claws. It's just pissing me off. Brett, this is. We. We got a couple creatives here, and so we're saying no glizzies here, even though Chicago is known for the Chicago style dog. I agree with your sentiment here. So would a better representation of this be the Bears perhaps are eating the. The cheese heads or packers players? Would that be like, more better for you? If the bears look ferocious and maybe they're ripping apart a hot dog stand, like a little truck thing, not actually holding a hot dog. Like, you're gonna. That's not real. A bear's. That hot dog is too big, though. They don't make hot dog. They don't make hot dogs for bears. No. It shouldn't look that big. You know how big a bear is? You think a bear is just holding a hot dog like that. And maybe they make hot dogs that big, but they don't make buns that big. That's for sure. Like, that. There's just too many things wrong with looking at these two bears holding hot dogs with ketchup on. It's too distracting. I can't even look at Caleb in an awesome pose with, like, the storm coming in. Like, yeah, I hope. Look at the background. The background bear. Because there's two bears. The background bear has just the. The glizzy tucked in his jaws. Now. Now, if that is like this, that's like the size of a human being. Yes. If you like. If you, like, think about it from, like, a perspective. Like, in. In this perspective, there's. There's no way A hot dog is the size of a human being. No, we need to get one of those tick tockers who, like, finds people's heights based on, like, stuff in the room. Like, I'll be like, how tall am I? And they'll, like, find the dresser on IKEA and be like, all right. The dimensions are this. And based on this ratio that I'm gonna claw this or someone's gonna figure out how big these hot dogs are for me. Yeah. I mean, I love the overall idea of the card, but then, like, my eyes just wander down to these goddamn bears eating hot dogs, and it just can't do it. Can't win with them. Can't win with bears eating hot dogs. Can't do it. You've got Madden covers, you got bears eating hot dogs. It's. What a time to be a Bears fan right now. Yeah. Collecting updates. What are the current collecting projects you're focusing your resources on? Any. Any pickups, Br. Some tops, Chrome stuff. We'll. We'll talk about it at a later date. Also, shout out to everyone who sent me messages on my 2012 Reggie Finite return. That was fun to get in the mail. Did a premium 1 service level on that. It got literally, like, the speed. The speed of that was insane that I had it on my doorstep. The grade popped on my birthday, which was. It was like the best birthday present. Ah, thank you. It was. It was awesome. And, yeah, it was great to have that. Obviously nervous about sending something like that in the mail. And you. I bought. I bought enough insurance on the way in to cover my ass if something bad happened. And this is what you want when you get a card back. PSA's coverage of my insurance. The insurance on the way to me went up, which was. I looked at it and I was like, where did they get this number? And I was like, oh, because it got a PSA 10, they're valuing it at a higher level now. So that was fun to see because that's never happened before. Also, you get greater notes when you do this. But when you get a PSA 10, there's really nothing to talk about outside of this card. Looks great. So, yeah, people ask me, like, where does this rank in my collection? It's definitely a top three card. I mean, it's. It's one of those cards that I didn't know how bad I needed it until I saw it for the first time. So thrilled with the ownership of that card. And, you know, the grade is obviously just the icing on top of the cake. Yeah, it looks so good. And like a 10 doesn't really matter on a 101, but it's always nice to have. I mean, it just. It feels even more complete. I have one pickup. Little vintage Bears talk. When we were looking at that old top set and I was like, all right, I'm gonna go get a Bears guy. Harlan hill. This was $20, like free shipping too. I was like, all right, for a little vintage Bears. What year is that? 1959, tops. Harlan Hill bears PSA 7. It's a good looking vintage card. I don't know. There's something about vintage right now. Like, it's. It's calling me. It's calling me. Brett, answer the call, man. Answer it. I went so deep down based on one of these questions, I forget what, but I had like a Walter Payton rookie in my cart. Like, I had like five listings on eBay that I was ready to start firing off offers for. And then I just had to stop myself. I was like, you can get these cards anytime. You don't need to spend this right now. Like I said this last year that my goal at the national was to get a Peyton rookie. I was like, hey, just get one at the national this year. I remember you talking about it. Maybe that's. Well, we'll bring that back. Or. Yeah. Any listeners out there who will be at the national if you have a Walter Payton rookie, any grade. Let's talk. Let's figure it out. Making deals before the show. What's the card call out? All right, tell me if what you think about this. But for episode 50, $50 or less purchases. Love it. Or. Or we do linebackers. We did linebackers kind of recently, but we could do an official linebacker summer kickoff and call all linebackers. Or episode 50. Let's go to the value bin. Let's see some $50 cards. $50 card or less. Recent purchases, old purchases. If you got a screenshot of the purchase price, more points up, more points for the receipts. Bonus points. Bonus points on players wearing number 50. Bonus points on any player referenced on this pod. That's just always fun. And bonus points if you're listening to the football card anywhere. If you're abroad, we talk about this. That escaped me. Yes. Football. Listening to the football card pod outside of the Coliseum in Incredible makes me want to re watch Gladiator right away. One of the best movies of all time. So shout out CDG sports. Taking the screen, get grab of the him listening to the pod outside of the Coliseum in Rome. That was so good. And hit me so hard I I sent a screenshot of that I to my dad and I just said this is what it looks like when you're put one of your podcasts goes international. Yeah, that is awesome. I did not say I knew Marcus Aurelius. I said he touched me on the shoulder once. One of the best quotes of all time. Shout out. Yeah. Football Card pod listeners everywhere. Episode 50. Send your $50 less cards to the football Card pod on Instagram. Post it to the story. Tag us in the story. That's how I repost. People are always asking questions about getting their card shared. Post it to your story. Tag us in it. That allows me to reshare. I'll try my best not to miss any over the weekend. And yeah, we'll see you next week. Lot of fun topics. Conversation. Can't believe we've hit 50. That was a fun one. Love the cards, love the football, love all the engagement from you. Post your damn cards. Tag us at the football Card pod. We'll be back for another one. Take care. Talk to you soon.