The Football Card Podcast #51: When Collectors Stop Waiting for Perfect Copies

Foreign. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Football Card Podcast here on the Stacking Slabs Network hosted by my good friend John at Pac Nicholson. Shout out to our good friends Card Ladder for sponsoring the program. We appreciate Card Ladder, the people and the platform. It is the official data provider of not only the Football Card Podcast, but the broader Stacking Slabs network. And we are in the thick of Linebacker Summer here. Episode number 51. A lot of good guys wearing 51. We talk about them, we get into the mailbag. Shout out all of you for contributing to the mailbag. You can do that at the Football Card pod on Instagram. It has really become the part of the show that gets us to have conversations. Consider your perspectives and take a step back to think. So appreciate all of you for your contributions to the Football Card Podcast Mailbag. Big sales, maybe highlighting a collector. Whole lot jammed in this episode. If you want to show your support for the Football Card Podcast and the broader Stack Slabs Network, hit the follow button, tell a damn friend. Run on over to that Patreon group. We're here. We love football cards. Episode 51 coming at you. 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 Pac Nicholson, and with me, as always, is Brett, Mr. Stacking Slabs himself. Brett, how you doing? I'm well, it is Linebacker summer. It's fun, but I'm ready for it to be linebacker Fall because I. We were just talking about this before we hit record. I can't seem to walk outside my house and take out the garbage without sweating through my shirt. So, you know, my, my 44 year old said to me, daddy, I don't really like the heat. And I said, I'm right there with you, pal. So we're stuck in the thick of it, but at least we have the ac, we got some microphones and we got the football cards to talk about. So that is making me cooler inside. But that's. This is what Linebacker Summer is all about. It's all about facing the elements, being out there. Two a days start doing two pods a week. Two let's, right after we finish this one, recording another football card pod. Can you imagine? We, we should record the Football Card podcast, then run a mile and no shower, come back in record number two and then maybe we'll do some bear crawls or some burpees. We'll just get really fit while we're talking football cards. Yeah. What if we just got jacked this summer for linebacker summer, I feel like we need to use. And this is, I, I, I try to, you know, get some fitness in, but it feels like these days everyone's taking something. You know, it's like, I remember when I was growing up, it's like if, if you, like, touch creatine, like you were banned from something. It's like these days, people are pumping their bodies full of God knows what. We're, we're in this wave where everyone's jack. So I just feel like the old guy and maybe I should be taking some of these supplements. Yeah, get a little GLP1 in the, in the mix. Some creatine. Some just get some juice. Like, let's go. Oh, man. Why not? I'm not in a league. Yeah, neither am I. But, and I will also say this, and you know, there's been this, this is not, has nothing to do with performance enhancers, but it has everything to do with kind of the culture we're in. There's the Brandon Sorsby story and the gambling and all that going on in college football right now. And, and my, my perspective is like, systematically. Something's got to change because the way sports has gone is the integration of gambling in everything. Advertising. It's right in our face. It's like, what do you expect? Of course some kid's gonna, you know, play some bets. And I'll also say this, I'll double down here is. I think Pete Rose should be in the hall of Fame. Like, you bet on a bet on a couple games. Like, why is that? To discount the performance. But I'm also a guy who's a, I'm a big advocate that the juicers should be in the Hall. It's like you're letting all these guys just because they, they want to put a little, you know, special something in their system. And I mean, you still got to knock the home runs out of the park. You know, you still got to make contact. So gambling, performance enhancers. I don't know. It's like we should have a little grace. Like, some people make mistakes. You know, Pete Rose, the hit king, needs to be in the hall of Fame. I mean, that's like, even if you gambled as a coach, that doesn't, that shouldn't take away from the on field performance, separate the art from the artists. That's what we've said on the football card pod before. Like, yeah, he's not in the hall as a manager, but put the. Put Charlie Hustle in the Hall. And don't get me started on Bonds. Bonds needs to be in the Hall. Bonds is the best baseball player of all time. Just come on, hands down. And the pitchers were juiced. Everyone was juiced back then. And he was still just crushing homers. I saw a great piece of content. It was a clip of Bonds and Greg Maddox, and it was like going back and forth as they were both, like just breaking down in at bat. And you see. Oh, I've seen it. I've seen it. Dude, that's an amazing video. That is so good. I would watch that kind of content all day just because. I mean, specifically with those two. Because I love Greg Maddox and he's just a master. His. His stats are unreal too. Like the amount of hall of Famers he struck out or like hall of Famers career average against Greg Maddox is insanely low compared to their overall averages. And then Bonds is. Is Bonds. But going through the at bat and like, this is pitch one. And after that, what Maddox is thinking, what Bonds was thinking, I was. I was loving that. So shout out the algorithm or someone. If they post that, shout out them. So when I was a. When I was a kid living here in Indianapolis, we have no professional baseball team, but the access we had was wgn. We had the Cubs and we had tbs, the Superstation, we had the Braves. So those were like the. Although I was not fans of either, but those were like the teams in my hemisphere. So Greg Maddox would show up on my television a lot as a kid. And I'll just never forget, like when I was a kid, one time my dad, like Maddox struck out some guy and I was like, my dad, like, kind of like cheered and I was like, you. Are you a. I didn't think you were a brace fan. Daddy's like, no, I like Maddox. I was like, why do you like Greg Maddox? He's like, well, Brett, I'm an accountant and Grant Maddox looks like an accountant and he's striking guys out. And I was like, fair enough. So every time I see him on the mound, I think of that comment by my dad. That's incredible. I mean, yeah, he was four straight Cy Youngs for Greg Maddox. That's unreal. The baseball card podcast. And people don't want that because all we're going to talk about is the steroid era. Yeah. What are you doing buying these old beat up cards? Like, just buy the guys that were just crushing balls out of the park. It's Linebacker summer. What do you expect? We loved the juice heads and you love the two sets. Maddox. Maddox. Clean but wow. That, that just reminds me of just the Braves era though, where they just won the pennant every single year. They're NL Central, but they couldn't win the World Series. Or they won one but should have won. They were just. Their starting rotation was insane. Yes. And Smoltz do closing glam. Wow. Good times. And yeah, wgn back when football car pod is always nostalgic and anti tech, but when there were a finite amount of channels and thus you had to just make a choice, you flip through once, you're like, all right, this is what's on. These are my options. I'm just going to make a choice. And now you could spend two hours looking for something to watch which is that's just a waste of that's dead time. Just put something on and let it run. Put on WGN and watch the Cubs even if you're not a Cubs fan. Yeah, you, dude. I have this visual as you're talking, being at my best friend's house in the world. His brother was a massive Cubs fan and I'm just thinking about being at his house. You've got the board game on the floor, you've got the baseball cards all spread out, you got the windows open in the summer, you've got the Cubs on and you got Harry Carey just talking to you. I mean, that, that, that's making me nostalgic right now. But remember cards just always being involved, like stats. And I remember, you know, keeping books as stats and just cards everywhere. I mean, God, I think this, these are the reasons why we love cards so much. Those moments that were so formative for us as kids, right? And the, the quantity of cards was never that much like in my memory. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I had so many cards as a kid. But then I as I've gotten back like my childhood binder and that and it's like, oh, no, not really. Like, sometimes you would open a box, but a lot of times it was a pack here and there and. But then. And it wasn't, oh no, I got all base cards and no hits. It was, I have 15 new cards to just memorize the front and back of all of these and learn everything about this player and all their stats, where they're from, what their hometown is, just all the little nuances of their career. And yeah, I don't know if that, that's lost these days, even that we've given props to topps Chrome, the new release. I like the design on the front, the backs. Oh, not good. Yeah. When you see a good like Bowman card from the back where it's like they have the little blurbs. There's like multiple scouting report paragraphs. There's all this information. So many stats, so many. Sometimes extra pictures. I don't know. Backs of cards used to be great a concept that I appreciate that's non stats. But I think about some of my favorite backs of cards of all times. This concept might work in 2014. Topps Chrome had a little technical error there. I was talking about in 2014 tops. Chrome WWE. When you flip over open the. The to the back of the card. It. There is a. The section says from the pin of Jim Ross and it is Jim Ross's commentary on the person on the front of the car. That's great. And it usually involves the story. And I'm like that you could repeat that with some person in either all of these sports that has high authority and is some sort of analyst. Like let's hear from them and share their perspective. But yeah, the. It feels very copy and paste right now with what we got on the backs of cards that I want to read. The Jim Ross Triple H card. Hated Triple H and Kane. I feel like I always get served compilations where triple. Like he's just talking about Triple H or just this son of a. And then when he's talking about Kane and just being a freak and just an abomination. Oh, here we so good. Yeah, so good. Okay, so I actually I'm gonna. I found a base card. We'll just read it here. Yes. From the pen of Jim Ross. The current chief operating officer of the WWE will always be the Cerebral Assassin to me. And he remains one of the most dominant superstars ever in the wwe. The game's body of work is amazing in his innate ability to learn from the greats like Killer Kowalski and Harley Way Race has always impressed me. He's a first ballot WWE hall of Famer if there ever was one. I mean that. That like that just makes the card better. You know, just having some authority add some context on the back of it. Yeah, he. He gives him props there, but that's great. That's a. Yeah, that's a good concept. You went to a card show? Did. Did you go. I went to the Monster. I hit up the Monster Midwest Monster in Fishers, Indiana last Friday. First card show since the last national. I mean I don't get to card shows often. The net it's been the national. And then I have gone to the Midwest monster, I think every year for the past five years or so. But yeah, so it opened at noon on Friday and I saw the window where I was like, all right, because I couldn't go on Saturday or Sunday. I can't not taking my family there. And I also can't just ditch my family for card show during the weekend. But Friday I like got there right at around noon when they opened and was there for like two and a half hours. Was home by like 3:30. But the, the card market is. It's just interesting to see how different it is compared to past. I think of the Midwest monster a few years ago and when it just felt like cards weren't moving. You're walking around, everything's like sticker too high. You don't want to spend a lot of money because you're kind of skeptical about spending big money on cards. Whereas I walked in this time and there's just like buying stations everywhere. Like people are buying and selling cards at a much higher clip than three years ago. And I don't think that's breaking news based on, you know, the monthly sales volume that we see car later reporting. We know that the market is in a much different place. But to see it manifested in the physical realm was interesting because I went with like the goal to sell some cards because I had stack of cards that I. You know, I'm always randomly buying stuff on ebay that I think like, oh, I could maybe resell this or grade and sell it later if I. If something pops up and is a good deal with the PSA shut down and all that. I was just like, all right, these cards I'm not gonna send off for grading to have back by like football season. Let me see if I can just sell them. It was so easy to sell cards. To just walk up to a buying station and I'm like, these are some cards I have. And they look up comps. We talk. And I sold cards. I was like, this is. This is awesome. Cash in hand, just getting cash in hand. Just going to the old atm. It was great. Who were these bot. Were these dealers or were these companies a mixture of both. There's dealers. You could tell that some of these buying tents were for probably like repacks, whatnot streams. Like, because I had just random. I had random ungraded cards. Not random, but just like I had some 2024 Prism Golds of like Devon A chain and James Cook and like, you know, just cool fantasy guys that like, if they popped up for 90 bucks on eBay. I was like, all right, I'll buy this, because whatever. And so the raw stuff I sold to these, like, dealer kids. But then I had a bunch of random slabs from. I don't know, some from childhood, like, just random, like, a David Robinson graded card that, like, I don't even know how I got it. I've just, like, always had it. And I'm got like 30 bucks for it. And it was, like, a very good price based on what they're selling for. And that I could tell, was just going into, like, for a whatnot stream or some sort of. Some sort of entrepreneurial effort in the hobby by these kids. And, yeah, it's just. It's funny to me to see all the different booths and how people, like, are marketing themselves and, like, setting up and card shows are funny. But I. I walked in at right after noon, and kind of right away, I stumbled upon Kevin, the captain, his booth. And he shout out, Kevin. Awesome. Awesome. Curation. I just love when a table has a focus or. Or just there's, like. You can tell. Thought went into his case on, like, all right, this is all Brady stuff. This is. Here's Manning. Here's new people that you might want. Here's vintage, like, just very, like, calculated. He had sitting in his case a 2002 finest gold refractor. Pton. Manny. I saw that sold. I saw. He moved it. Yeah, I think it was a BGS 75Y and, like, a good sticker price on it. I think it was like, 4K, which, you know, the 10 selling for 10K. Like, SE75. But the subs were good. I think there was just one. I think the surface maybe was like a 75 or an 8. Anyways, I was like, you brought an 02? Hold it. I was. I was just shocked. I was like, that's a sick card. I wouldn't have expected to see that. And we talked for a little bit, and then I did my lap because I was like, all right, I gotta go sell stuff. I'm here to sell stuff. And so did my lap. Did the selling journey. That took, like, 45 minutes. And then I had, like, a bunch of cash, and I was like, wait a minute. That O2 Manning Gold is just sitting there. I should. Do I go get that? Do I think, like, let me think about this. And so I walk back over, and it's already gone. Yes, let's. This is right up. This is right away. Right, right, right away. Yeah. So this is within, like, show opened at 12, I probably walked in at 12:15. I probably saw the card at 12:30. He knew it too. Indianapolis. He knows. He's been there. He knows what he's doing. He had a finest gold manning too. Like, he had all. He had good stuff sitting out there and because, yeah, I just had this moment of like, wait a minute. You're not going to find anything that you like better than a 2002 Gold Manny. Like, can you. Can I make this work? I have some cash now. I had some other cards walked over and of. Of course it's gone. And that though, to me is like. I mean it's. I wasn't actually like. I'm not like heartbroken or anything. It wasn't like a top card I was after. It was just, you know, a thought. Spur of the moment thought. But it reminds me of the Pocahontas line in just around the riverbend where she says what I love about rivers is you can never step in the same river twice because the water's always moving, always changing. It's like that's what I love about card shows. You just walk up and down the aisles and it's different every single time. You can never walk down the same aisle twice because cards are flying in and out, especially in this market. Like, I could have just walked in circles around that place. I could have gone back two more days and kept doing that because I just love looking at cards and so many cards to look at. A lot of baseball, though. A lot of baseball. And a lot of autograph cards just like. And a lot of like sticker autos. But I don't know. I. It felt like there was more football than I remember in past years. It feels like football is ticking up, but it still felt like there's like a delay in what people have. Like because I was wondering like, am I going to find a bunch of cool Caleb Williams cars laying around like Caleb Williams is hot right now and were in the Midwest, but there just wasn't a lot of Caleb. It still seems like there's a lot of. From the last stretch, from the last couple. Like, like still like seeing a lot of like Herbert and like Burrow and Tito and like you're. That stuff is still like just lingering around. You can tell people aren't able to move that they bought too high. Yeah. And. And more 90s stuff. I feel like that is growing too. I think I feel like in previous Midwest monsters, like I. Grant Slayton is normally there Waldorf stories. And I remember he used to felt like Be like one of the more like only 90s cool 90s booths. And this time I feel like I saw more, more people with more stuff like that, like 90s Jordan inserts and you know, some of the big parallels from that era. So overall, very cool show. Fun experience. I recommend it for anyone in the Midwest. Check it out. I think they do another one now. I think they do one in the winter. Yes. I think there's one coming up. I think in the fall. I man. Yeah, it speaks to me about not being able to get out of the house on the weekend. I knew that I stood no chance and I was talking with you, I was like I was trying to get out on Friday and it's. My life is so chaotic from a kids and from a work perspective. I thought I had like the window you just had and it was just completely closed shut for me. And I knew like I could have managed how it just became not worth it because I was like, I'll be here for a half hour, then I gotta go have this meeting and then I gotta go pick up my kid. So I wish I could have gone especially seeing Kevin and some of the other guys who I knew was at the show. But there's always next year and there's always, there's, there's big shows this summer that I'm gonna be at. So I'll shout it out because I'm gonna be there. So if you are in the area, Columbus Card Fest, Card Collector 2 Ryan show, which is at the end of the month. If you are going to be there, let's talk about football cards and then you know, the big shows, Fanatics Fest, the National. So there will be another monster and I'll be there. Are you setting up at Columbus Card Fest? I'm not setting up. I will be in attendance. I might be working on something. But yeah, still, still, still a little. It's in flight right now, but I, I will be there. And I've had some conversations on the back end with Ryan and they. He is, he's a, he is pushing hard. I'm very, I'm very confident that this is going to be a fun show based on just the energy he's putting into making this happen and he's got an awesome team behind him. So Brad, who does Shipshawanas working works with Ryan. They're all organizing around this show. So I'm very excited to see, see what, what goes on. So definitely if you're going to be in the Columbus area or outside the Columbus area, head over to The Columbus Card Fest, and hopefully I'll get a chance to say what's up? Awesome. Love a card show. Just. It's just so funny to see, like, what we do every day online for hours and hours, like, in real life, of, like, oh, my God, there are all these people who are doing this. And a lot of tcg, too. A lot of Pokemon there, of course, but, like, not a lot of one piece. And, like, I just was surprised by that, just based on seeing, like, grading numbers and, like, how much one piece has risen. But I guess that's just maybe more online or more international than at a Indiana card show. That kind of makes sense. But, dude, I have a tcg. I wish it was a card store. So bad. In my backyard on, like, in my backyard on Meridian, there is a TCG shop. It's literally a stone's throw away. And I just. It is this little shop with this little parking lot, and the volume of activity all the time is insane. It's just like, if you. If you got in early on one of those stores. Bad. You're. Yeah, you're probably doing okay. Well, we were in Walgreens or CVS the other day. I was with my daughter, and there's a little rotating display stand, and it had Lorcana Disney cards on there. It had all. It's. It had, like, little prism basketball blasters and some optic football blasters. I was very tempted, but my daughter, like, saw a Lorcana one. She goes, I want that. And I was like, you're getting that. I was like, we're getting a couple of these. Enable, Enable, Rip and so rip some Disney Lorcana packs the other day, and I was like, this is fun. I. I was telling my wife before this. I feel like this recording. We record this in the mornings. I felt like I already had a day. I've already. I've already consumed an entire run of Toy Story 2 already today. Yeah, the. The middle woke up early making breakfast. Daddy, I want Toy Story, too. You got it, pal. Let's throw it on there, Al. It's got two heels in it, Al. Big Ali's such an. And then the Prospector is such a dick. So I think that's why Toy Story 2 is the best. It's insert and Zerk. God, how do I forget Zergs? You've got three. The. The move to steel. Woody is such a coward. He is such a coward. Like, oh, and he's a fat, he greasy guy with the Cheetos all over his hand. I'm like, this The. I'm looking at my daughter, Ruby. I'm like, ruby, these are the people we hate these guys right here. They're just trying to take advantage of us. Yeah. Going into the lockbox at the garage sale to get. It's. It's not for sale, bud. But all time scene is when the Woody, like, repair guy comes. Yeah. And, like, cleans up Woody. That's one of the most pleasing, like, OCD ASMR scenes ever where he's spraying the eyeballs and, like, covering up his bald spot and painting on the bottom of the shoe. Restoration of Woody. Restoration of Woody. Yes. Love. Love that. And his little box with all the drawers and kits. That all time scene. But, yeah, Toy Story 2 is a great one. What does he say? You can't rush perfection. Yeah, I think so. Something like that. I've got my Toy Story 5 tickets already. I need to get Father's Day. We're going on Father's Day. I'm pumped. Wow. We are going to be out of town. We get back, I think Saturday, we're going to tour. That's going to be the first movie theater experience for my daughter, though, to. We should. She's ready. She'll be okay. Moving now. She'll be pumped. Yeah. And the iPad being the enemy. I mean, just. It's built for us. We've been talking about this. I. I cannot wait. I feel like it could be a moment. After this, we start ripping some Loracon over here or some Top Scrum Disney. It sounds like fun. I've. I've seen enough other dads do it. I'm like, that seems like a good plan. So maybe this time next year we'll have the. The Disney Card podcast. Yeah, I did. At the Monster, I picked up a $1 Rapunzel Pops Chrome refractor for my daughter because, like, I had shown her that Rapunzel cards exist when sometimes, like, if I'm at my computer working, which is in cards, and she'll be like, I want to see. You know, she wants to see characters she knows. And then I was like, yeah. Like, so I had started, like, all right, I'm gonna get her a Rapunzel card at some point. But then I just hadn't, because I was like, I want to get a PSA 10. I want to get something nice. And of course she doesn't care. But between her finding out there are Rapunzel cards existing and the Midwest Monster, there were several mail days where I was getting cards, and I'm opening it and she's like, is it a Rapunzel card? I'd be like, no, this is. This is for daddy. This is Willie Snead. Oh, that's too good. You know who. You know who is? I had a similar moment. We were on the couch, and my. I had ebay open, and my. My daughter wanted to see Elsa cards. And I was like, man, Elsa's like the Laminia mall of. Of Disney cards. I was like, it's hard because I was like, man, I. I do want to buy one of these. But then I was, like, looking at, like, red refractors, I was like, good Lord. Like, like, we're not getting this Elsa card. The Elsa market's booming. Oh, Elsa, man, she. Her. Yeah. I don't even want to look at Moana. But Elsa, man, she was popping. I was like, she's like, La Nina Mall over here. Although she might be more proven. She's had more box office. I mean, there's. There might be a better comp at this point, but I remember we talked about on episode one of the Football Card Pod, we are now on 51. I believe we talked about an Elsa superfractor selling. Oh, yeah, we did. That's right. It sold for $23,400 May 25, 2025. So that tracks. That now has a card letter value of $37,000. So maybe we should have just, instead of recording the football card pod, been just buying Elsa cards. Good lord. That's her all time high card. Let's see what Moana is real quick. Moana's highest card is 7500. Okay, so maybe I still have time to get in and get some Moana stuff. See, but then I don't. Yeah, Disney. This is 2025 Disney Wonder. And then there's like, tops, Chrome, Disney. I want the tops, Chrome stuff. There's Disney Sapphire. There's a lot. There's a lot of things to figure out in the Disney market. I feel. I just think about going to Disney on Ice with my kids, and when Moana came out, she got the Road Warrior pop from the crowd. I'm like, that. That. That tells you something. Like. Like, there's demand for this, for this entity right now. Like, maybe I should start collecting her. Yeah. So the streets want Moana. That's what the crowd wants. Win the crowd and win your freedom. Yeah. Granted, it was right around Moana 2 launch time, and I'm like, does this play a role? Are they just excited because they just saw Moana tube? So only time will tell. Yeah. But Frozen 3 is coming next year. So that's gonna, by the way, and we can get off this Disney talk. Although we could probably talk Disney all day. I did share a clip with my wife this morning at the Toy Story 5 premiere. You had Randy Newman playing you Got a Friend in Me, which I think is one of the greatest written songs of this my lifetime. And you had Taylor Swift on stage with Randy singing it. I mean, you talk about star power. Taylor Swift has a single on The Toy Story 5. They're. They're going all. They're pushing all the chips on the table, the budget, all of it. That Toy Story 5 is going to break every record imaginable. Yeah, they are. I'm. I'm ready for that soundtrack because we've been on over here a big Spidey kick. Spidey. And they made friends. And that soundtrack all out boy. Patrick Stump. Yeah. I mean, of the soundtracks to listen to with your kids, it's, there's, there's some hits there. Bangers, King Lizard. King Lizards. Like a Prince song. It's so good. My dog. My daughter Ruby's favorite character on the show is Doc Ock. Like, she likes the heels. I'm like, this is great. I'm like, you don't like Spidey? She's like, nah, like Doc Ock. I'm like, okay, Gabby. I think I'm a Gobi guy. Yeah. Wow. But Spidey, the show's not my favorite. The show. I'm like, I don't like that kind of animation. The kind of like two computer looking. It's not my favorite. But soundtrack. Soundtrack slaps. All right, Any other opening Topics? I had two things, though. I'll make these quick. 1. Have you played 20zero.com yet? I've pl. So I played the, the basketball one and I played. There's a. They've made a wrestling one for five star matches. I have not. I'm kind of burnout on it. So I have not got to 200 yet, but by the time this airs, it's, yeah, very old news. I feel like 820 had its moment and then they made a football one 20 0. But I just love the. I mean, once I got 20, now I was like, all right, I don't need to play this anymore. But yeah, it's. The fantasy numbers are the best. And I feel like it gives appreciation to some of these guys that, like, if you get Seahawks 99 to 06, you get Sean Alexander, you're getting 27 touchdowns and 1800 yards. Like, that's who you're picking every time and making people think about some of these players that they probably haven't thought about in a while. Yeah, I. I need to check it out. I need to at least play once. My. It's funny, my. That story I told of like, Cubs cards. My friend's brother growing up, big stats guy. So my best friend introduced him to 82. 0. And dude, he got the 82. 0. You got it. So his. His team was Oscar Robertson, George Gervin, LeBron Giannis, and Kareem. That's sick. I mean, but that's the thing. It's all up to the draw. It's all up to the draw. Like, there's not a way you can go 82:0 on every time you play it. Like, if you. But if you get served, 90s bulls, it's like, all right, I get MJ. If you get. And then like 60s bucks, you get Wilt or whatever. There's certain ones where if you just are. Are hitting all of those. It just is kind of easy, especially if you're looking at the stats. Like, if you do. I don't do the stats, I go blind. Okay, see, now that's. That's the impressive side. I was looking at stats. Yeah, my 82. 0, I had Oscar Lebron, Will, Clyde Drexler and Cat Big Purr at my 4. What are you thinking of the finals right now? So we are recording this on the morning of Game 4, so people will be listening. The series is either 31 Knicks or tied up going back to San Antonio. I mean, I'm rooting for the Knicks. I. I'm not claiming to be a Knicks fan. That's like a whole thing right now too. Of everyone in New York is on the Knicks. And I know people who are like, die hard Knicks fans that can rub people their own way or it's just a thing right now with any team getting hype, all the fans start coming out of the woodwork. So I do not want to claim to be a Knicks fan, but I did live in New York for several years and I always wanted them to be good because I was like, it would be so exciting to live here. While the Knicks are fun. So to watch that makes me nostalgic for my time in New York and I'm just happy for. For Knicks fans. But yeah, that WEMBY Game 3 performance, the spurs came out and won, like, that was like, hell yeah. As a basketball fan, that was cool. And we have a series now. Let's go. I mean, like, I'm let's go to seven. Like, let's. I don't want basketball to end because then we're really in the dog days of summer of no sports. I do not watch baseball. So, yeah, I don't know. But the Knicks taking those first two on the road, it's. It's been a fun, fun series. I'm. I'm just excited watching good basketball. All I can ask for is a series to watch. So at this point, well, if I've, I've been very public on several. I don't want to beat a dead horse. And I've already, like, after they went up to. Oh, I just already chalked them up as NBA champion. So if the spurs can like mount a comeback here, it was great and I'll. We can move on. But I was watching the Fever play the Mystics and the Fever are the queens of the meltdown this year. They are get up double digits in the third quarter and then just give away the lead in the fourth is what they've done this year. And they, the Mystics took their first lead with like, you know, I don't know how 10 seconds ago or whatever. And then, so then I watched Caitlin Clark hit the game winner 3 to win the game. And it was so awesome because I was like, already in my mind, I was like, God, they're going to lose. I'm going to just be so pissed. And then I flipped it over and watched the fourth quarter of the finals and then watched the Knicks lose. And it was like, man, I haven't had a sports moment like this in a long time. So I don't wanted to. I, I want a series. The Knicks are good, but it's. It was nice to see the spurs mount a comeback and make me feel right now as we record this, like it could still be a series. Yeah, this game 4 is gonna huge, massive. I also like, I, I knew Pacers fans don't like the Knicks. Like, I grew up here. I have seen so many friends who are like die hard Pacers fans, lifer fans, and during this Finals, like, just how much they hate the Knicks and what the Knicks like, I, I knew that they didn't like them, but the, the responses that I've seen and the, the discourse that is had in these group chats, I'm like, oh my God, you guys really don't like the Knicks. I think the feeling is mutual. So that's why it doesn't make me feel bad at all. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I want to show. I want to show. Do you have Another topic you want to bring up before I highlight something. The last thing was AI captions I just wrote down don't give me AI captions in your card posts. I can tell. Are we getting that? I can tell when Chat GPT writes a caption. Oh yeah, I've seen more and more where it's like oh cool card. And then I look at the caption and it's four paragraphs and it's just got all the Chat GPT indicators of like gotta clean it up at least things inserts and the emojis and the. I'm just like, do you like the card? Right. Come from the heart. That's all I ask. This is a little content note. I don't like to talk about what other people are doing in the hobby. To each their own when it comes to cards. But then when it comes to the content, that's where I feel like I can provide some notes and all it is is just, yeah, make it your own. Let chap, let chat GPT help you, but put your own sauce in it. Don't just copy paste with the thirds and the M dashes and everything just still in there. Like the anti tech podcast, the football card podcast. I, I, I, I, I think there is a place for AI driven copy. I would say if it is a card post that you're talking about why you like the card, that's probably not the best spot. So I agree with you there. Like that's, that's a place where I, when I go into it and I'm always like there's is there a better way for this? But I'm sitting there just like thumbing out like paragraphs of the card and I make mistakes and I usually edit it after I already post it because it's impossible to like read through the little window, like proof. It's impossible to proof proofread. Like they got this little window. I'm like going up trying to find the thing. But yeah, I don't know. I like to have fun there though. Like I, that's where I like, I don't know what's going to come to me emotionally and I just let it all flow right then. It's the best. Yeah, okay, I just had it call us out and I put this on cool cards this week, but I just can't stop looking at this. And this speaks to my how much I appreciate a good prism run and I just want to shout out our good friend Gunther at Gunther's cards for putting together the Calvin Johnson playing days Gold Prism Run, which I have never seen in my life. So he's got a 2012 and a PSA nine. He's got a 2013 and a 10. He's got a 2014 and a 10. He's got A 2015 and a 10. And he just. He. He puts the exclamation point of the run by sharing the 2015 gold vinyl paired next to the 2015 gold. And this is the debut year gold vinyl on top of it, which so happens to be Calvin Johnson's last playing days year in the league and last playing days gold Prism. And dude, I can't stop. Like, when I think about the amount of time, energy and resources I put into Prism to do stuff like this in my own collection. And I see this. It. It just. This post is. If I had unlimited funds, I would be trying to. Whatever I can to go do the what Gunther posted here with just guys. I like. Like outside of the Colts, just guys. Because this is just so aesthetically pleasing. It's so cool. I. I kept going back and looking at it. I was like, I'm just going to bring it up on the pod. Just. I love this so much. Yeah. This is an incredible group of cards run of cards. Each of these individually is a sick card. Yes. The. All five of them together. That's. We've talked about that. Like, the. The sum is greater. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Like when you see something like this. This is awesome. My one note. I only have one note on this. The bottom two cards. The two 2015s. Center them. Center them under the three. So they're three. Two. I don't see. I don't like the gap. I don't like. All it does is make me think, where's the 2016? Where's. Where's the 2016 gold? This looks like it's missing a card versus if you centered them, I'd be like, okay, this is a complete five pack. So that's my only note. That's like your. That's like. You're like Pharrell, like off Pharrell offering some notes on just like a masterpiece. Like, well, just one small tweak here. I. I didn't even think of that until you pointed it out. But yeah, I. I typically do the centering when I have like, you know, multi cards, but it doesn't take away from. Here's the question. Which is your favorite? Like, take values. Everything aside, just looking at this picture, which one is your favorite? I kind of think the 2012. Like, he's about to catch it. I like the blue uniform. I mean, 14 looks awesome. Like he's just jacked. That's Megatron right there. But I like the action shot of him about to catch it. I feel like 2014 looks like he could be doing warm ups or something. That doesn't look like he's catching like a pass. The angle looks weird, right? That doesn't look like it's a downfield pass from Stafford. It's like, what about you, dude? I. I gotta give some airtime for the 2015 gold vinyl. These are the. The debut year gold vinyl with the design. And I, after this post, went up and looked at my collection and put out all my 2015 gold vinyl. I was like, they kicked this parallel off, right? So I don't know, I might pick that. It's. It's like picking your children. Like all these cards are just insane. But maybe the 2015 gold vinyl. I think it's a really sharp card. Yeah. What a group. I need the. I need a 2015 gold Jay Cutler. So just someone help that signal that that's the one I'm missing for the Cutler gold run. And then another five figure card for you. I can post that. Yep. Get the times on the horn. Let's. We got another one coming. All right. Longest intro in football podcast. Yeah, that's. We ran that up. And only one minor mishap of me just clicking out of the Streamyard window. Episode 51. We've made it 51 episodes. We are entering the thick of linebacker summer. You can hear the shoulder pads smacking into the sled. You know, we're. We're going 51. There's three hall of Famers, Astros four, but three. The three are Dick Buckus, Sam Mills and John Ringo. And then I'll just shout out one more name because they're everywhere. Cal Hubbard. Cal Hubbard I've talked about multiple times because Cal Hubbard wore eight jersey numbers in his hall of Fame career. He wore 27, 39, 40, 41, 38, 51, 35, 60. So Cal Hubard's always showing up on the hall of Fame website when I'm pulling numbers. And I know we talked about him in one of the earliest episodes, but just shout out him for just making sure that he's always brought up on the football card pod by wearing. Good marketing. Good marketing. He knew what he was doing. I'll just shout out a couple real quick. Dick Buus, Bears legend, Hall of Famer, eight time Pro Bowler, five time first team all probably just kind of a Beast define the middle linebacker position. The Butkiss award. And I just want to read off the nicknames that are listed on his pro football reference page because we love nicknames here on the football card pod. His nicknames are. And I. I don't know if how. I feel like sometimes they put nicknames on them. Like, no one's ever said that, but he has the Animal, the Enforcer, the Maestro of Mayhem, and the Robot of Destruction. Wow, that's a pretty good for Mount Rushmore of nicknames right there. The Maestro of Mayhem. Never heard that before, but I'm gonna choose to believe that is his nickname. So shout out buckets. And the one other 51 I want to shout out to Kio Spikes. Biggest. Did I saw that? I saw the name. Yeah, I. I haven't thought about him in forever. Biggest neck in the world. Keo Spikes was just a pivotal player during the, like, the Madden era. I mean, he came in to the league in 98. He was a first team All Pro in 2004. He had a great run with the Bengals his first five years, then went to the Bills for a few years and then kind of bounced around. But to Keo Spikes just was for a while one of the sickest looking linebackers in the NFL. How about Dick Butkus, his cameos on Saved by the Bell, the college years? You remember that at all? No, I'm on. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was. Let's see here. Yeah, Dick Butkus, saved by. I don't know why that came up in my mind, but I'm gonna try to see if I can pull up and. Oh, I've seen some pics. Yeah, yeah. Because he had a whole acting Hollywood side. He did, yeah. Good actor, good blindbacker. Dick Buckus. All right, so I chose. I chose Ken Norton Jr. Mostly, mostly because I wanted to talk about the punching bag goalpost celli that he had, which I think is like his father being a world champion boxer. Paying homage to his father by. Anytime he would get in the end zone by or make a big play, he'd go to the goal post and treat it like a punching bag. I mean, that was. That was a selly before selley's three time super bowl champ. Two with the cowboys, one with the 49ers. First team all pro in 95, second team in 93. Current linebacker coach for the Commanders. And you want to talk about a guy that has no cards, so here's his 90 tops. Tiffany PSA 10. This card sold for $129 in May of 2022, which is the highest selling card of all time. That card trades now for, for 66 bucks. So if, if you want to build out a Ken Norton Jr. Card collection, you can, you can do so on a budget, that's for sure. That's awesome. Yeah. One time first team all pro, three time super bowl champion. What a great card. We got to get more. I'm going to get more vintage cards like this just they got nothing card too. Yeah. And what was that? A pop 22. Awesome. Pop. Yeah. Pop 22. That's very cool. All right, let's get into some topics, some questions from the loyal football card pod listeners. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. All right, first up from Charm City, Tim. If Andre Johnson had Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson had David Carr and 19 other QBs that Andre had, are we still talking about Calvin as a top five receiver of all time or would Andre slide into that spot? These ones questions are very challenging. I think it's undeniable that Andre Johnson likely would have higher production with consistency at quarterback. But I don't know like how damaging it would be to Calvin Johnson because when I think about Calvin Johnson I just think like his physical presence. 652-354-35-40 like I think that is like anywhere you put that, like he's going to make it happen. So I don't know. My response to this is of course Andre Johnson not having to get, you know, passes from Sage Rosenfels of the world. That's probably in having consistency with Stafford, he's probably going to produce more. But I don't know like Calvin Johnson's Calvin Johnson because of his like physical traits and physical dominance. And when you're that type of player, I just feel like you're going to will your way to a Hall of Fame career one way shape form or the other. So I would probably, I mean I, I feel like this question is like gearing to take stuff away from Calvin Johnson and I know you've talked about like maybe his production isn't as much as like we make it out to be, but I just think there's never been really another receiver like Calvin Johnson and prop, maybe never will be. So I don't want to take too much away from him. I think he would still make it happen with other quarterbacks. Yeah, absolutely. I think his, that that's what came. What came to my mind first is yes, Calvin Johnson is just a freak of nature and like that on its own anywhere you put him would shine. And part of that is Due to. Do you remember the sports science? Oh, of course. Of where like you could catch a football that's bigger than a two car garage. They show it's like radius. It's like that is burned into my mind of like holy Calvin Johnson's the freakiest receiver we've ever seen. Like Andre Johnson didn't have a sports science where they showed his catching radius like that. So Calvin is just in a different level on that front. Shout out Megatron's PR team for getting that placement because it, it worked wonders, you know, 20 years later. But I do think if Andre Johnson had Matthew Stafford. I don't know if Cal. I don't know if Calvin has The, the record 1964 yard season with Matt Shaw, but I could see Andre Johnson having that season with Matthew Stafford because of Stafford's track record of feeding his number one receiver into record setting seasons. Yeah, Cooper cup is up there at number two with his 1947 season. And then I mean Puka's up there already too. I think Puka had like a 1800 yard season, something like that. 1715. The point being Stafford feeds his number one and I could see Andre having a monster season if he had played in Detroit in that same era. Yeah, I think the way I like break it down in my mind is that if Andre played with Matthew Stafford he would likely be in the same conversation as Larry Fitzgerald and like Terrell Owens. Like that's a tier I think and I think I have Johnson maybe a tear down from those guys but like he would move up a tier if he actually had a competent quarterback is kind of how I think about it. Yeah, that's a. Yeah that's a good call. All right, good question. Charm City Tim. Next up from TKD tickets we see that as we move further away from a card's year of issue that the low numbered print run cards get much harder to find. We also see that absent of obvious flaws that the majority of modern cards will grade 8 or higher. With all that said when sourcing these older low print run cards, when does the grading company or even the absence of a slab become a non factor in your evaluation of the card? It may be a long time if ever when said card comes around again. What'd you make of this? Yeah, I the the way I read it was and I have an example when I we talk about pickups for the week but when they're like let's take. We've talked about the prism stuff like, let's say 2013. This happened recently to me 2013 Reggie Wayne became available gold prism. I needed that card. Dude. I don't care if it, it wasn't in a slab. It's at PSA now. I, I, I honestly like I, I don't even question the condition. I don't like, I don't need to know. I don't need all the pictures. I don't need anything. I just need a copy because I need that copy for my collection if the other stuff is so secondary like how it turns out and stuff. So as I've been building this prism collection like I, and it's something I need for that collection. Like there's never the only time I'm moving like thinking about grading and that sort of thing is usually if there's an opportunity to like upgrade a card. Like that's the only reason. But I'm, I'm ha. Especially now. Dude, stuff, I don't know how you feel but stuff is like the prism. Well, I feel like it, it's, it's got, it's, it's lower than ever before. Like I'm like is this the, is this the state we're in? Like is this how it's going to be forever until I go like shake some trees? But I'm happy with whatever to be honest with you. Yeah. That I, I had the same thing. Like grade is a nice to have for me for these, for those kinds of cards. Like and honestly I don't want to pay like a PSA 10 premium for some of these cards like the 2015 Prism Gold color that I'm missing. I just want that card. I do not care. I mean outside of I don't want one that's like creased up or like noticeably up. I want at least a good copy that presents well that I can maybe grade myself and if it gets in eight, whatever. Like I just, I just want the card. So I'm not hunting for high grades of that but then to your point, like, and then yeah, maybe I upgrade it if a chance ever comes around. But first and foremost I just want the card. So yeah. His question with that said, when sourcing these older low print run cards, when does the grain company or the absence of the slab become a non factor? Yeah, I feel like it's, it's a factor but it's just not that high on the like the attribute scale. It's like it doesn't matter to me that much for certain for those types of cards. This, I don't know why this took me in this direction in my brain but When I was reading this question, I was thinking about like the desire that these cards that I need like that I have for them. And I think about like this like one of one era we're in. And it's just like, you know, some people will always go, want the one of one no matter what of off brands, anything. They'll like go and they want to collect the one of one. But I'm just like, man, like there is a, there's something to be said about brand aesthetics and consistency. And like I far stack rank that over any random one of one that becomes available of a player that I might like or that I collect. That I'm just like seeing for the first time I think like that built in like affection I have for brands and years. Like the print run, like, yeah, there's five copies or there's 10 copies. It's like to me finding it for the first time feels like. And there's an example I'm going to show at the end, but finding it for it feels way more significant than any one of one because like of how it makes me feel like those are some like real time thoughts I'm, I'm going through right now as I'm like navigating the market and spending money. Yeah, no good observation. And like those types of cards, like, you know they'll pop up eventually and that you'll have a shot at it. I mean the one on one stuff is just getting like, it's just who has more money? Who is willing. Turning me off, pal. Yeah, it's like turning me off. Yeah. All right, next question from LSU Tiger Collector 65. Distinguish between a collector and a hoarder asking for a friend. I, I broke this down simply. I put hoarder equals accumulator with minimal design strategy. Collector equals curator who has optimal design strategy. I like that, I like that, that I thought, I thought of it as hoarders have things they should get rid of. Collectors have more intention. Like a hoarder, a hoarder because you could hoard cards. And then to me someone who's hoarding cards, it's like they don't care about the condition and there's just like stacks and stacks of cardboard roboxes filled with cards. And maybe they're moldy and like, you know, there's been some water damage and it's like you just gotta get rid of some of this stuff. Like this isn't a collection anymore. It's become just a pile of mess. That's, that's what visual comes to My mind, when I think of a hoarder, I'm thinking about that subject in the question Asker Brooks, LSU Tiger Collector, man, has what, 6 or 72012 Patrick Peterson Gold Prism. So, like, oh, that's. Yeah, that's him. Oh, yeah. So I think he's. He's asking for some consulting because that's hard, because it's like he. That's not junk. Those are like fantastic cards. And he's almost got. He's got more than half the population, I think. But that's collecting because that's. There's a. A focus there, a goal there. There's a. An end in sight to that almost for that one specific journey. But no, that's. That's funny. All right, next up from Bolt Card Crew, why aren't Brady cards, besides the Bowman and Chrome going up? I want to first say Bolt Card Crew, I appreciate all of your sharing of not only stacking slabs, the football card podcast, all the content I do like. This guy is constantly consuming it and constantly sharing it. And I saw a clip, I think he was at the Midwest Monster. So I want to thank you personally for all of that sharing. He shares other people's content too. But this is a guy who is in it, man. This guy is in it. And so this question, I just went to car. I don't follow outside of like sales reporting we do here. I don't follow Tom Brady's market on a weekly monthly basis. So all I did was go to Card Laer and did a Tom Brady search of his index, and I did over a year and it said he was up 63%. So he's up 63% over the last month and he's got a ton of cards in the index. So I don't know if the. What you're referencing is like isolated to a type of Tom Brady cards you're trying to buy or you're buying or what. But the data and what I have found suggests the opposite. Yeah, I just went to 2012 Silver Prism PSA 10, and that's up 50 in the last year. So I was like, brady's up, Brady's up across the board. I don't know. Yeah, I. I mean, and if there are other. If there are ones you're seeing that aren't going up, maybe that's an opportunity there. All right, next up, Jay cuts 713 said Sam Mills for 51. Sam Mills is a hall of famer. And then he followed this up in a second message where he says, as you are seeking content Ideas. Maybe at the end of linebacker summer can do a ranking of the best linebacker groups and a full write up of why it's the Dome Patrol. Dude, that this is. This is a great question and great. This is great, like motivation. But just a minute on Sam Mills, because I. After, when I saw this, I was digging in and doing some research, I was like, man, I haven't thought about Sam Mills in forever. So a member of the Dome Patrol in the New Orleans Saints, but then also just a forever Carolina Panther. He was 35 years old when he signed with the expansion Panthers. He is responsible for the first touchdown in franchise history and the moniker of Keep pounding, which I've seen if Panthers still use that, that comes from Sam Mill. Sam mills, before the 2004 playoff game, he gave a speech. He was going through cancer treatments and talking about, like himself. And he. He said, keep pounding. And the Panthers took that quote and really used it as their quote, which is awesome. He coached during cancer treatments, like five, nine, undersized. Like, he's got a hell of a story. So, like, when I think about players who's like, football life that I want to see, I want to see Sam Mills after, like getting reeducated on him. That's incredible. I did not know all that backstory. I'm looking up his highest selling card in March of 2026, his 97 green PMG and a PSA9. Wow. Sold for $4,700. $4,750. What's crazy about it, dude? After reading all about him, I'm thinking about if I were a fan of the Panthers or even the Saints, maybe most specifically the Panthers. I. I probably would spend whatever it took to get that card if I was a fan, based on how important he is to that franchise. And I didn't know that. I didn't know that outside of like this question being asked and me doing research. Yes, that it's amazing what just a core or just a powerful memory like that combined with cards can do. I saw a clip. I've seen this before, but on, pardon my take, Mike Breen was on there. I think it was last year. It was after Bill Walton passed away. And Mike Breen tells this amazing story about Mike Breen's dad being sick and he hangs out with Bill Walton for a weekend. They have this amazing weekend and it's just basically about how awesome Bill Walton is. And I saw it again recently and I was like, God, Bill Walton was the best. Like, everyone loves Bill Walton. They have the greatest stories about him. Like Should I start collecting Bill Walton? Should I hit, like, and just went down, like, you know, just had this strong desire to go buy a Bill Walton card. And yeah, it's just like with sports, with the Sam Mills moment, it's like, you hear the story and it's like, oh, my God, why am I not collecting this guy? Why do I not have a Sam Mills card in my PC? Exactly. Quick Bill Walton story. My favorite Bill Walton story that I heard was they had, like, some important game, and Walton was, like, kind of rushing out, getting ready, and started talking in the locker room, like, what are you doing? And he's just like, the Grateful Dead are here tonight. Like, I'm getting ready, talking to Jerry and the guys, like, I can't wait for the show. And, like, I think it was like Robert Parish or something was like, well, can we come? He's like, can you come? Of course you can come. And so, like, Larry Bird, Robert Parish, like, all the guys, like, I think Bill Walton hosted them over at their house. They got, like, a limo, and these guys are like, Bill's like, man, this is the best. Like, you're not going to know. Like, you don't even know what you're in for. Like, all this stuff and all this whole team expected to just, like, be in the crowd. Like these giants watching, grateful that they get there. And, like, they pop open the back door. They literally are coming on stage, and Bill Walt just, like, is behind the curtain. They literally are what? They are what the Celtics team are watching the Grateful Dead right on stage with them. And the Grateful Dead, Jerry and all the guys, Phil, they like, they put out, like, Kate, like, just coolers of beer for these guys. So these guys are sitting there having pops. Just imagine Larry Bird having pops on stage at a Grateful Dead job. Just like Bill Walton rules. So good. That's incredible. Yeah. Shout out Bill Walton, basketball car pod. And then, yeah, back to J cut 713's question. Dome patrol. Awesome nickname for a core of Saints linebackers. Dome patrol. We got a more nicknames. We're bringing back nicknames this year where I can't wait for football season so we can start crowning some nicknames out in these streets. All right, last question from Bird. Brain Sports cards. More Madden talk. Favorite soundtrack. Question mark. Memorable teams. You built in franchise mode. Question mark. Say less. Big Bird cards. I, I will happily go in on this. I, I, I didn't even get to the. This question excited me so much. I didn't even get to the favorite franchise mode teams. I Just my response was immediate. And it was 2003 Madden and dude, I just like, I want to play this game so bad. You had Andrew Wk Party Hard, which always felt like it opened up the game like was every time. Dude, are you. Have you gotten into the conspiracy theories that there were multiple Andrew Wks? No, but this sounds familiar. This is. This is a rabbit hole to go down. I did. I got lost in an Andrew W.K. rabbit hole recently and I was reading all the. The conspiracy theories and what. There's. There's content on. You just. Just dig in on YouTube, you'll find it. Okay, that's. This is my type of stuff though. I will list this up. So you have Party Hard, you have Good Charlotte, the anthem, which is just such a banger. Nappy roots rock remix of all. Naw, dude, the one that really popped me when I was going through the track list was. And it just. I just like heard this song as I'm like thinking of like the mini games and stuff or See there's Fine Again like that. It's like I feel like I fell asleep so many times playing this game and woke up and like, see, there's Fine Again, which is blasting out of my shitty TV speaker. So. O3 lives forever in my heart. Yeah. Shout out man03 maybe my favorite game of all time. And that was the first year they really did the soundtrack. Yes. EA Tracks thing. Like, because I was looking back 2001, 2002, there were like theme songs, but not necessarily. I mean, oh3 had like a 12 song track list, so. And oh3, yes to me is very nostalgic. But I wanted to take a moment to also shout out 2004 men, which then they upped it to almost looks like 20 songs including. I mean you got Blink 182 like a feeling, this remix. The Roots are on there. Killer Mike's Action, Joe Budden. Pump it up. Oh, pump it up. Yes. Afi the leaving song part two. Hit Jet. Are you gonna be my girl? Is this a Apple commercial crossover? Yep. And then Bubba Sparks is on there. Back in the Mud. Avenge Sevenfold Outcast has a song on there. Red Cafe, Shout Out Red Cafe. Rapping his ass off. Nappy Roots. I mean Bone Crusher. Never scared. Never scared. So Madden 2004 just has a, you know, 20 more songs, you got more chances for hits. And then O5, you've got bands like, I mean, Green Days on there. Hooba Stank Alter Brim. Which Hoover Stank song is it? Same direction. Okay. Franz Ferdinand, Take Me out also, like, just very nostalgic time too of like, what was popular in Music in 2005. Dude, I remember getting 05 on release day and coming back and being in college. I went to the Walmart in Greencastle, Indiana. Going back and literally, like probably skipping class to play it. And I remember turning on Madden, being so excited. And I remember hearing Take me out. And just like I. It was that era where Fran Ferdinand, the Hive, like the Vines, like all those bands were blowing up and I was like, this is everything I want in my life right now. Yes. Got newfound glory on there. I'm. I'm a huge newfound glory fan. Forever. I'll forever ride or die with them. Yeah, there. This. That was a very, very nostalgic era for me. Or just, I mean, formative years, right? 2005, like I was 16, just got a car, driving around, listening to music. I want to listen to you. Are you kidding me? Going home, playing Madden, Life is good. And oh yeah, a couple notes I wrote down for the Madden because he asked memorable teams you built in franchise mode. And there's just one that I'll always remember. The Okeechobee Octopi was a team I created because that giant lake in the middle of Florida is Lake Okeechobee. And I just, I don't know, whatever reason I was like, okeechobee. Sick name. Sick. They need a franchise. Let's give them the Octopi. Made some sick jerseys, sick octopus logo. And then nothing better than just gearing your guy up, giving him every accessory. Even if he's a quarterback, give him a neck roll, you know, double armbands, double wristbands, gloves, cornrows, visor. Just eye black with the visor. Eye black and visor. No sun, no UV getting through to these eyes. And then one other mad memory is when you had the, like invisible wall line of scrimmage where you have to be like running with the guy on the edge and as soon as the ball snapped, you're just getting the best jump. I remember you eventually grow out of that. You have to take it off. You have to, you know, honor and respect the. The process of jumping a snap on your own. And you can't use the invisible wall. But nothing better than that invisible wall. Dude. I had a. I had the line stunts and the corner blitzing. I would, I would show blitz and I would be running a dime package. Show blitz, blitz the corners, do some line stunts. If you did that with the right team, whoever you're playing against was just like the Ra. You did that with the Ravens. You just crushed everybody. Like their, their cornerbacks were too fast. God, man, I just want to play these games. Yeah. I need to get a system and get Madden. I gotta get Madden 27 and then I gotta get Madden 03. I don't even want to play Madden 27, though. I know. I'm just gonna get mad because it's not gonna be as Fun as Madden 03, but give the opportunity to the Xbox team or the PlayStation team. Which one of you wants to, to, to sponsor our video game? Like, we will. We, I promise you we've got the right demographic for you people who are just needing a little push to get back into video games. And we'll, we'll sell you some systems. So come with your best offer and we'll be your number one champion. Yeah. We are open. We are PS2. Xbox what? Psych. What are they on now? PS5. Who knows? It's like a great Chappelle standup where he's like, I've done commercials for Coke and Pepsi. Truth is, can't tell you the difference. Tastes the same. All I know is Pepsi paid me most recently, so it tastes better. All right, thank you everybody, for your questions. Let's keep it moving. Cards. Yeah, cards. Sales market watch presented by card lighter. All right, we have to talk about these every time they pop up. We've got a 2014 flawless Tom Brady patches auto ruby with a sick patch. The auto left to be desired at the top of it, but these cards are hard to sign. This card sold at auction via golden auction for 73, $200, which this is the second highest sale of all time for this card and is the highest since 2021. So that is saying something, you know, and as I was preparing for this and looking at this card, I, I, I really think this card is the standard for patch autograph cards of the Panini era. Like, I can't, I can't think of anything else when I'm referencing a patch auto card that I would think over. 2014 flawless. And obviously Tom Brady is the most significant character of the bunch. But Monster sale and these cards, like, they're beloved. Like, people love these cards. They do change hands a little bit, but they're, you know, you've got different levels, but yeah, the, the patch on this is sick. Yeah, that just card presents so well. That looks awesome. I would want that card. I want that card for players that I collect. No one really actually like that. Cutler has something like this. I need to dig in there. And see what he's got. But that is an awesome card. We have a slew of finite sales that I just felt like we needed to talk about and I'm glad I dug these up. So we have on alt, the 24 prism Josh Allen black finite and a PSA 9 sold for $24,928. Wow, that is a sick card. First and foremost, price. I, I have no idea. I don't know it. That's, I don't know. That's what I'm like. I felt like why I wanted to do these finites in a row is just to like, talk about. This is the finite market right now. Yeah. Like, you know well and that like Caleb Williams, second year finite sold raw for, I think it was $30,000. It was Josh Allen for 25. To me, like, the Caleb's too high. He hasn't done nearly as much as what Josh Allen has accomplished. Yeah. The Caleb 25 raw sold for $35,000. That's insane. But one thing on the Josh Allen just in general a point that I wanted to bring up this episode. The SGA MVP logo, man, redemption auto one of one sold for a million. Josh Allen's sold for 1.3 million. And that to me is an interesting, like here you have football versus basketball MVPs, I'd say, I mean, SGA has a championship and a Finals MVP, but I'd say they're both 2018 rookies. Like, similar, like modern players. Biggest, biggest quote unquote cards from this new set. And the football player outsells the basketball player. So there's just little food for thought. There's something there. There is something there. I, I, I saw the SGA sale, but I didn't do the comparison. That's, that's interesting. Go football cards. Here's a monster. We all know people love Sean Taylor cards, his 25 black finite, which isn't his first black Friday night. It is a sick card. This card sold at golden for $2740 in a PSA 10. That's, I mean, you could say post playing days and you don't like them or whatever. But for certain players, especially defenders who just don't have that big of a card offering, cards like this make total sense to me. And I would want that for my. If they made a Mike Brown 2026 or 2025 prism black finite, I would be all over that card just because I've exhausted all the Mike Brown cards I could get because he's just not in any sets. So Agreed. This card rules. That's why I think this we. You shouldn't collect post playing day cards should come with a caveat. And that what you just described is the caveat. This card is incredible looking. The shoulder pads look huge. His arms look huge. You still have the. They. You know, they don't change it to commanders. It is a Washington Redskins card with the old logo, like so. The. The documentation is exact. Like, exactly how this look. This. This like, it looks like he is an active player, but he's not. It's. I don't know. This card rules. Great cards are so sick. All right, last finite here is. Look at how big his helmet is, by the way. 2022 prism. Aaron Rodgers black. Finite. This sold for $20,000. $20,400 as well. But, yeah, I mean, it's like if you are a stud and you got a black Friday night, it's like you're selling for 20k or more these days. Yeah, that's crazy. That 2022 is not my favorite Europe. And yeah, his helmet does look abnormally large in this photo. I don't know what's. What's going on here. This is one of those big head inserts, the slammies. It's sick, though. I mean, Rogers, I think as time passes, history will be kind to Rogers. Like, I know he. I don't like him. He rubs me the wrong way because also, I'm probably very biased on that front. But it's undeniable how good the guy was, and his stats are unreal. He's got the MVPs, he won one fluky championship. But, yeah, stud 20K. Kind of feels like. I don't know, kind of. I don't know. I don't know. This market's crazy. I can't say $20,000 for this is a good deal. Yeah, Rogers, you know, Josh Allen has taken that position for me. But the guys, I have no dog in the race. And I just love to watch ball like that. Rogers, was that for me before Josh Allen. So I. I think just think about, like, those moments of, you know, you got one play left. Like, what's he gonna do? And it's like every time I was in a moment where I was watching him do that, it's like it feels like in Detroit or whatever, it was like he. He was converting it. So what do you. What do you. Okay, so Rogers is back in Pittsburgh. I think, you know, he's got another piece. He's got Michael Pittman Jr. There. Like, what. What do you. Like, what do you, what do you think? What do you think of Aaron Rodgers this year? Like what? Like, do you think it's going to be terrible? Do you think it's going to be all right? Do you think it's going to be more than fine? I know you're a little biased, but like, what do you, this is his final year with his old coach. Like, what do you think? I mean, I despise him less now because he's on the Steelers. I don't really care. I just don't think he's, I think his talent is diminishing because he's so, he's old, he's getting older. The arm's not there. Like, what made Rogers incredible was, I mean he's a brilliant football mind. He can read a defense and do whatever he wants. But his arm talent was off the charts. I feel like last year he wasn't able to throw the ball down the field the way he used to. And so to me, as just a guy and just guys talk of football, it seems like his ceiling is lower than it's ever been, obviously because of how old he is. So I could see the Steelers being maybe a wild card team or I don't know, that division kind of up in the air, but I can't see them winning a Super Bowl. I just can't see Rogers having, just doesn't have it anymore. Like I can't see him beating Josh Allen or beating Momes or beating these guys who are in their prime and can move the ball at, you know, downfield. I still think he's going to be good and efficient and probably have pretty good numbers, but I don't know, I, I, I don't think he's washed yet, but I just don't think he's gonna put up like the 40 touchdown, four interception season like that he felt like he did every year in Greek Bay. I, dude, I feel that for sure. But then there's a part of me when I like close my eyes and open them, I can like just see because it's the Steelers. Like, I can just like visualize the super bowl and for somehow like we're talking about like the last Huron, Aaron Rodgers being there because I just, I don't know why. If he was on like the Cardinals, I'd be like, no way. But like the fact that he's on the Steelers, I'm like, I don't know. But yeah, no, and honestly, I guess I won't be shocked if he just comes out blazing and they're awesome and he's throwing three touchdowns every game. And it's like, why would I ever doubt Aaron Rodgers? Anytime I doubt him, he comes out and he does this. So Q. Q up. The Bon Jovi Wanted Dead or Alive package. And they'll have that soundtrack playing. Roger. They'll show Rogers highlights. I don't. He's been. He is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. So anytime one of those guys is on the field and it's the last rodeo, yeah, I'm interested. I'll be watching, that's for sure. This is maybe the. Because I was thinking, it's like I have never once rooted for Aaron Rodgers on any single play ever. And it's like every other quarterback, there's been some situation where I'm watching a game and I'm like, oh, I hope this team wins. Like, let's go Patrick Mahomes. Like, I've rooted for every quarterback at some point. I've never spent an ounce of effort rooting for Aaron Rodgers. But. But maybe this season, this. The Swanson season. It is a. Would be a cool story. Baby face turn for Aaron Rodgers. Just a. Just a bad guy. I don't know. Here's a big sale for you. An 81 tops. Walter Payton PSA 10. This thing sold on eBay via MC Sports cards for $10,099, which beats the. It is the highest sale of all time. All time high. And it beats out the last all time high, which was in February of 26, which was 7900. So it basically went up almost 3K. This card's a pop 30 you were giving. You were calling out last week, like, who's got the walls of pain cards? It's like, are, are you. Are you prepared for someone to come to you and say, hey, I've got this card at PSA 10. Nope, that's. I mean, awesome card. But yeah, to me, I'd just rather have the 9 than paying. Like, I don't know. That's just so much money for a card that there's so many of and then you're just paying for. But. But dude, I was trying to debate that I would. I don't think I'll ever play in this arena in this game. But like I doing this show seen enough of this. Okay, so is it Walter Payton, right? We can all say like one of the greatest football players ever that like in. In 20, like four in 23, like you could have had this card for three, $400. Like there's only 30 copies. Like, yeah. And so I, I, I guess I, I understand why it's at 10k now with like the population of it and the limited inventory of the types of Walter Payton cards you can get. So I just think that's interesting to kind of look at that side of football cards and collecting and it we, I feel like these types of cards feel very much less discovered in from a, a collector perspective. Obviously people build out sets that have these cards but the high grade card of these all time grades. Like I think if you had money to spend and you wanted to get into football cards would probably be a pretty good idea just based on what's happened to other markets over the years. Yeah. Any of these guys that like, I mean this is getting into peak junk wax era 81 but like here we have a card that's tripled in value in the last two years because yeah to your point there's only 30 copies and it's, this probably isn't a card that is selling all the time. You know I bet there's a handful of sales over the past two years. So no, I mean sick card makes me want to more vintage cards and then makes me like I'm on in another tab. Shout out Ryan, mostly modern collector. He has the entire Tops run which I'm just looking at the picture, I'm like this is so sick. So yeah, doing something like that in any grade is cool. And then yeah, if someone did that in tens, that's incredible. Let me just throw this idea out at you. We, you know the, the thing we don't like as collectors of these cards, 81 tops for instance, is you know, they're, there's too many of them. What, what would you say if Tops fanatics and Topps Chrome just said hey okay, we're going to reissue 1981 tops, but we're going to reissue it as a chrome set with the same like parallel structure that we have in Tops Chrome Football. Would you say that's cool, I'm interested or we say that's too much. I'm, I'm, I'm not, I'm staying away from that. I'd stay away from that. Like it's like making a too gimmicky. Too gimmicky too. It's like a remaking movies or making a, a cover song. Like sometimes, sometimes the COVID is better than the original. But not often. Not often. I mean it can be done. Well, Shout out Johnny Cash. Nine Inch Nails hurt. Johnny Cash kind of did it did it. I like when they do it different. So yeah, maybe that's the caveat. If fanatics came out and there was some I don't know some sort of wrinkle that made it their own versus just like re copy pasting the exact same set with just serial numbers on it. That could be interesting but yeah this is very cool card. I need a Walter Payton card so but what I like about that lane is you can there's affordable stuff and I could get the affordable version of the Shel that like it's not like I could go get find anywhere a cheap version of a 2012 gold prism. It's like you got to get the gold prism and like the silver prism looks completely different. Like a PSA 8 of this arguably can look exactly the same sure as as this 10 cool card. All right. We talked about them last week had a highlight this raw 98 metal universe Bruce Smith PMG at 50 copies that's best offer 2k. I mean I just like you know, I know it's not graded but Bruce smith this European G2K it seems pretty reasonable to me. All time stack leader. Is that like damage though on the little window of him that square picture of his? It could be. Maybe we need to read the description. Maybe this is why it sold low. I'm sure the nine nineties crew that's all over every nineties car that sells. I'm sure we'll report back and that could just be the angle of it could be the the photo. But I mean what an awesome card with stop sign, top sign and just the awesome bills. Uniform 200 sacks. I can't get over that he had two. He has 200 sacks in his career. Like put some respect on Bruce Smith's name. Cool sales. Cool sales. Let's get through collecting update and card call out. We'll get out of here. Collecting updates. What are the current collecting projects that you're focusing your resources on? Any pickups Brett? I had a couple big ones this week so I couldn't hold out on this. So I have a Jonathan Taylor 2025 gold prism. I've got one at PSA right now getting graded but on the other side of it every I have every year of Jonathan Taylor Prism Gold all graded in a PSA 10 and so although I have a copy there I was not willing to risk it. So 1 the PSA 10 ran at auction and I got pretty competitive but I, I, I want it so I, I now I've now completed the Jonathan Taylor gold Prism run all in a PSA 10 and I'm the only person in the world who can do that, because the Rookie is a PSA 10 pop one. So once I get that in hand, I'll take a little photo and share it with all of you. But very, very excited to do that. And then this will have gone out yesterday. So if you want the full story of this, check out a podcast they put out. But it was such a compelling moment in searching for these Prism Gold cards that I literally almost fell off my treadmill. Checking my save searches in the morning, getting a workout in. They presented a 2015 Frank Gore Gold vinyl with a buy it now best or best offer price. It was one of those moments where I just literally, like, almost fainted. I'd never seen the card. First year gold vinyl, first Frank Gore Colts appearance. Like, these cards never come up. So I smashed Ben and I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe I just got that. And then was literally getting ready to continue my workout and said, you know what? Maybe I should click in the seller's name. I clicked in the seller's name, and the other card that was on there was the gold. Same price, best offers bid smash. And so I just smashed Ben. So it was, it was an expensive morning. But those were, those were thrilling to me because I love Frank Gore. I love this thin on the Colts. Frank Gore collectors are just savages. It's like even the Niners guys still have the cold stuff, and it's, you can't get it out of their hands. So I literally. It was the, it was my, it was my favorite buying moment of 2026. Without question. I don't even have the cards in my hand. It was feel. I'm, I'm on a. I, I, I felt so excited by it. I did a whole podcast episode about, like, all the feelings and emotions. So I'll stop there because we've, we, we've gone long here. But if you want, want to know more about that, that pickup, check out the pod I dropped yesterday. That's awesome. And yes, pro tip is when a card that gets listed that's in your wheelhouse, go to the seller's page and see what else they have, because that, it's happened a handful of times. Like, if a rare Priest Homes cards gets listed, I'm like, all right, who's this guy who has a rare Priest Homes card? Like, you click, I got something else. And I found very cool cards that way. Same with O2 finest. Basically, anytime a cool O2 finance card gets listed, I message the seller. I'm like, give me more like what? What else you got? I had a couple pickups. One is. Oh, he's getting up, getting up because I don't know what year this was. Was this 2016 prizm draft picks. Willie Snead gold in the ball state uniform. Just a gold prism of the guy in my. In my tech alma. I was like, I had to get this. I think it was. I think it was at auction. Was it? Yeah, it was at auction. $16 and 38 cents. I had a mega bid on this. I was not gonna lose it. I bet. Very fun to see. I had. I. Dude, I just remember spot starting Willie sneed with. I had like an injured receiver. I'd always throw him. He always gave you a chance of a touchdown with debris. You never knew. Never. And then I've been topps chrome curious. But I bought a tops finest card I got. What do you think? It's not in hand yet. So honestly. Wait. No. Okay. I was about to say I don't want to talk about it because I feel like I've cursed myself because there have been multiple cards that I've bought and and talked about on this pod that haven't showed up. And for a while I got a 2002 finest refractor, Drew Bledo I talked about on the pod. I was like, this was like a $8 card. I was pumped to get it. It took like six weeks to show up for a while. I was like, why did I talk about that on the pod? It's never going to show up. Cursed it. So maybe I'll wait until the Caleb's in hand. Yeah. Hold off, hold off. You have a bad track record. Yeah. Caleb finest card. I like the. The colorful background. I always liked finess for kind of doing weirder things off the beaten path things. So once it's in hand, I'll be able to officially talk about that one. So episode 51 in the books. Last week on the card call out, we asked to see $50 cards or less. Some awesome, awesome submissions. Thank you to everyone who shared this week we want to see pro bowler cards specifically in a pro bowl uniform, Pro bowl jersey, swatches, just pro cards. There have been a early 2000s especially has done a bunch of insert sets. Like there's the one I can see with manning with like the tidal wave in the background or like the tiki tiki torch guy. The Hawaiian. Like what's the name of that? Like Olmec from Legends of the Hidden temple. Yes. The wooden cards. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yes. Shout out Pro bowl affiliated football cards. Post them. Tag the Football Card Pod on Instagram. We'll share it to our Stories. Tell a friend to listen to the Football Card Pod and we'll see you next week for episode 52, One Year of the Football Card Podcast. Who doesn't like football cards? If you don't like football cards, what are you doing? So much fun. So much to talk about. It is amazing. We are coming up on a year of episodes of the Football Card Podcast, Certainly one of my favorite things to produce each and every week. Thank you so much for supporting this podcast. Shout out Card Ladder. We'll be back with more Football Card Podcast on the other side. Take care. Happy collecting. Talk to you soon.