The National 2026 day 3

Welcome to the Sports Card Lessons Podcast with your host, Big Ken. A retired teacher bringing you lessons each week. He's learned in the hobby by taking you behind the table and inside the mind of a dealer and a collector. Sit back and relax. There one-of-one be a test. The only thing being graded here is the cards. Welcome to the Sports Card Lessons podcast. I'm your host, Big Ken. Whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on a streaming service, please, like, subscribe and hit that notification bell so you'll be notified whenever I drop any new content. What is going on? Day three Recap. Before we start, I have to apologize for the. These microphone. Like, I, I know I. I listen to myself and I know it's not. Not the quality you're used to listening to, but. So it's the best we can do in the hotel room. But same quality of content though. Yu-Gi-Oh Maybe not the same quality of audio, but the content has not dipped at all. So. Yu-Gi-Oh good news, bad news. Best day yet, right? We both one-of-one the day. Yes. Bad news is, you know, getting organized. This morning we realized we both had cards missing. So at some point during the day, on day two, some, some people walked off with, Yu-Gi-Oh with a, with a number of mic, I think both cards. Right. I mean, both, both of us, a number of our cards walked off with, Yu-Gi-Oh some inventory, which was Zebra disappointing. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh And you noticed it in the morning, and it was not a good start to the morning. I mean, how could you, you know, still have the same positive, cheery attitude to start the day when you realize you got your. A lot of your Kate Martins were missing, some Caitlin's, some Sabrina Unescu, all the Sabrina, every Sabrina in a row. And then I checked my two row boxes in the afternoon, evening, and realized I had some Kevin Garnett, you know, probably about $500 worth of cards at least that I could notice that were missing three Kevin Garnett autographs. And. But you know, and the thing that kind of stinks is that it wasn't our fault really. I mean, I guess we could have kept a closer Yu-Gi-Oh but, I mean, you expect Bill to be honest too. But it was just disappointing because if we would have done something to lose money, that would have been our fault or, you know, lost money on a card because of a bad purchase. But this really wasn't our. In our control as much so. But what can you do? I mean, you know, we still, we still feel like we one-of-one the day. Yes. Yes. We still one-of-one What was. Was in our control. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh So we took. We took lemons, right? We made some lemonade out of it today. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it was. It was a good day. Lots. Lots of buying. And. And I'm good. I'm gonna choose my. My words carefully because someone pointed. Listener pointed out, you know, maybe I wasn't describing the cards, you know, that I should be using raw against graded and not singles and slabs and. And all that. So. And I'm still gonna stand by the majority of the people coming to our tables. Even though we've got three showcases and boxes full of graded cards, the. The raw cards are still very popular. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh You know, everybody's looking for these raw cards, these autos, these numbered inserts, RPAs that type. It just. It's amazing the amount of people looking for that. And there was one point today that we had four or five people that were comping. They're saying, can you do that on this? And that on this? And. And we're saying, yes. No, not to you, but yes to you. And what do you have? And, you know, it was. It was like a traffic cop. Like, you go, okay, you. Hold on, hold on. Okay, walk across, walk across. Okay, good sir, now you step forward. Present your offer. Yu-Gi-Oh so, Yu-Gi-Oh it was crazy today, and I think we both feel tomorrow is going to be even crazier, but. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it was definitely a crazy day. But still, even though Wednesday's like Friday, and. And Thursday's like Saturday, and Friday is like, you know, because now we're in. Friday's like Saturday, Saturday's like Saturday, Thursday is like Saturday. But we still see it ramping up. Yu-Gi-Oh I still see it ramping up. I, I, you know, for. For whatever reason, and people come upstairs, and we're upstairs, and I think that the quality of cards and dealers upstairs is. Is really good. Yu-Gi-Oh Let me get that for you. Sorry, sorry. Phone's ringing. Oh, it's Bill. Yu-Gi-Oh Bill and Billy. Do we do a live call in? Hello, Bill, you're on the line. Bill. All right, Bill. All right, Bill, we're. You're. You're live because we're recording a podcast while you're calling, so thanks for bothering us. So here's your life. Here's your live call in. We are ripping in our hotel room. We ripped so far a 2025. What is that? Chrome? Platinum anniversary. Platinum anniversary. We had nothing really good out of there. Rich had a 2026 Goodwin champions. Okay. And Billy's ripping a 2020 Prizm mega box. So far, we haven't hit anything good, so it's Business as usual, buying the wax and not getting anything. Not getting anything. So. But we're having a good old time. Good, Good. Yu-Gi-Oh Well. Well, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for calling in. How was Trade Night? Well, you know what? It's good. We can get to Trade Night right now. I went up to Trade Night. I was able to get into Trade Night. I was. Went up there to do some content with Bigger Than Cardboard my guy Corey, and so they got me into Trade Night immediately. Just gave me a badge, you know, to walk right in. And I just could not believe how many people were in that room. I could not believe that. That anybody could even get anything done with how loud it was and how crowded it was. But there was a lot going on. There were three or four different stations around the room with, you know, people on stage ripping and doing all kinds of stuff. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I think it was probably really good, you know, for most people that were having fun, I was there to do some content that because of technical difficulties and a dinner reservation, I ended up not being able to do. I had to leave. But, Yu-Gi-Oh I got nothing. Nothing done. Nothing done at the trade Night. Even though I had some cards, I did not get anything done. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I. I felt a little overwhelmed last night myself when I was there with Billy. Yep. We didn't stay there for more than two hours. It's definitely busier than last year. It's. Yu-Gi-Oh it's definitely a little chaotic. But, you know, listen, the cards that you see out on the tables is this stuff that you don't see anywhere else. So, you know, I. I do love to see the different stuff that's there. Yep. So good. That's awesome. All right. All right. Anybody else want to say anything to Big Ken and. And. And the entire audience? Yu-Gi-Oh the entire audience. Oh, look at this. Nervous. Well, thank you so much for taking the call live, Ken. I appreciate you. You guys have a lovely rest of the podcast, and we'll see you in the morning. Yep, sounds good. Thanks, Bill. Bye. Bye. All right. See that? Live calling. You never know what you're gonna expect there. Yu-Gi-Oh there you go. That was a good summation of the trade nights, though, both nights. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh And it was. I'll tell you what, when I. When I did get in, because I saw the people outside, so I didn't think they were letting people in yet. I didn't really realize what was going on. And when I went up there and walked in and got in, I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh I said, I cannot believe all the People that were, were in this room that. Yu-Gi-Oh it's crazy. Crazy. It might have been less than yesterday. Yu-Gi-Oh Because I think they gave out less bands. Right. And they give out less. Less trade night bands. Yu-Gi-Oh Because when I went, they were out of trade night bands. And yesterday it didn't seem like there was. I don't know if there was a limit, but you know, we were waiting next to the escalator for a long time and it seemed like there was a lot of giveaways. I mean people. I saw people putting on T shirts and getting hats and winning cards and boxes and packs. So I think there was a lot of, a lot going on. So if you made it into the room. Yu-Gi-Oh I think you're being treated pretty well. Maybe we'll have to try to get a band again tomorrow. Yu-Gi-Oh So Craig. Craig, your guy. My guy, New York City sports cards. He arrived today. I know if somebody was asking in the. Put a comment on the YouTube. Any sign of Craig? Well, he did arrive today, Friday and, and not only did he arrive today, but the moment he showed up and got deals done, I got a deal done with them. Yu-Gi-Oh you did. For Trinity. A couple Trinity Rodmans. Yu-Gi-Oh I can show you. Yu-Gi-Oh So I was Zebra excited. He. He thought of me. He brought these cards. It's the Obsidian Color Blast. And this was a great. This was a select patch and I think this was to 25. Yu-Gi-Oh It's a select tie dye patch auto. That's a nice patch too. Number to 25. Yu-Gi-Oh So it's. Is that player worn or. Let's see. Oh, not associated. How many colors would you say do you. Do you keep going on or is it just a two color? Maybe three. Is that like a little gray? White, red and gray? Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh So nice. Yes. So. So shout out to him. He came bearing gifts for, for a nice deal and I actually did a second deal with him later in the day. I bought this Otani Finest gold to 2018. Yu-Gi-Oh From him today. So this was a late in the day purchase. So it just got in my case before pack up. So I have a feeling this will be gone tomorrow. So, you know, I've got a few more cards I'll show you a little bit later. But most of the cards again that I've Beckett up today and put in my case, I sold right away. Yu-Gi-Oh so did I too. Yu-Gi-Oh Beckett up Heinz Ward autograph that got sold right away. Ted McMillan from yesterday got sold a few others that, that we Beckett up and we combined well on a few deals. Today, which was nice. Like somebody would be interested in one of my cards. And one of your cards, they give you an offering. You look over. What can you do on this? I'm like, this is what I can do. And you take a slight discount off yours. And there's a point. We got a deal done. We took our own. Like we were doing deals with somebody else. Oh, it's funny. We shook our own hands. Each other's hand. Well, we didn't shake our own. We shook each other's hands. And then we each shook the hand of, like, the dad and the son at one point. And I leaned over, I said, that's the most handshakes I've ever had for one deal. And they were laughing, too. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh that was funny. Yu-Gi-Oh that was good. Yu-Gi-Oh The sales were good today, though. I thought a couple that I sold, which I was happy about. I sold. You had a guy. You had somebody. You. You put up the. A story. Right. Of your. Of your case and somebody saw a card in there. Yu-Gi-Oh And reached out and came to buy. Exactly. Yu-Gi-Oh So it was this. If you're watching on YouTube, it's a really nice 0506 Ultimate Collection Bird and Magic Dual Auto BGS95 with a 10 auto grade. It's the ultimate dual signature set with the really nice hardwood basketball court design. And I got. I was into this for 3,000. I got it at the national two years ago from Prizm God, which was like half trade, half cash. And I sold it today for 3,300. So it wasn't really that great of a profit, but it was a lot of money back for me to get 3300. And I have a duplicate of this in a PSA9 with a 10 auto that actually looks better as far as the odd, the bold autograph. So that's really the reason I was able to part with it. Plus, you know, a good amount of money coming back. So that was nice with Bird being my main PC guy. So that was my biggest sale. That was. I mean, that was the biggest card I brought easily. And so that was a great one just to mainly get that money back. And then I had this really cool seven card lot, which he did a deal with the same guy. He was definitely a hustler. He probably took like six or seven phone calls during the deals we were making with him. At the same time. He was very nice guy, though, from. From Pole Wax. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh That's where he's from. But he was. I loved how he was hustling and not hustling in a bad way, but just like he was really trying to get stuff done. And he's like, hold on, hold on, I'm getting a deal done. And he would hang up and then another person would call. But he was very fair, very nice on his pricing and worked out well on this deal. For seven cards, it was two Jeremy Lynn Contenders rookie ticket autos that I had an 0304 Patrick Ewing ultimate signatures Exquisite Peyton Manning autograph that I bought at the show. Jared Goff player worn Flawless one of one Nike patch which is something you don't see very often. Dwyane Wade SP authentic rookie auto a dual auto of Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp from the University of Miami, which is fun. And so those seven cards were a good deal for me and good deal for him too. So that was my second biggest deal. And in fact, while they were counting out the money and the guy that was, had the camera was taking a picture of the money. After the money was done, he leaned over and then he pulled the camera away and they were doing the deal on my case and he saw a card in my case and and he was like, he tells him, come back, look at this card right here. And Yu-Gi-Oh it was Flawless. Puka nikua, you know, RPA2 patch RPA number to 25. It was still sealed by from Panini. So Yu-Gi-Oh that was nice. Yep. Bought that card out of my case too. So. Yu-Gi-Oh just funny how that happens, right? And we talked a lot about like positioning our stuff at our table that. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, getting people to see like, you know, if you put cards along the bottom of the case, right. With there's two and three deep, no one's ever going to see those cards because when they're, they're looking over, they're missing the first three rows probably or through at least two rows of the cards. So they're seeing from like two rows up. So it's like where do you put, you know, your better cards or do you not put anything in the bottom? B puts it like utilizing that space at the very bottom. So I adjusted my, my cards today where some of my nicer ones I pulled up to like the third, fourth and fifth row, you know, my higher dollar ones that people would, would see. And I think it made somewhat of a difference that I was selling more, you know, higher value cards. Yu-Gi-Oh that, that's a good point. And I thought we made the tactical. Well, I bounced the idea off you but I was like, I have these three, two row boxes that people were digging through. That did really well. The first two days slowed down a good bit the second half of day two, which was Thursday and we were noticing there wasn't that much like we talked about in day two of the recap, there wasn't that much showcase activity with people buying out of the showcase. So I said Ken, what do you think about me taking these three boxes off of my area of the table and just having the showcase be the main thing? Because it wasn't just that people were are focused on the box or the two row box and digging through. It was that they were standing in front of the showcase and they came with friends. And they came with friends. So it's one person digging. Yu-Gi-Oh And one on each side. So it's. Yu-Gi-Oh Picking up the front of you and it's usually a time consuming thing where they'd be there for 10 minutes. Dig through. And how many people who could potentially be looking in your showcase are passing by not even able to get a look while they're digging through and maybe buying nothing or it could be good. But I felt like that had run its course a little bit. So today I don't think I would have gotten that seven car deal done had I had the boxes in there and somebody standing there while the, the guy from Pole Wax was coming up to. To do that deal. So I think that worked out. Yu-Gi-Oh Pretty well. That strategy change. Probably do the same thing tomorrow with us thinking that more money will be in the room looking to showcase. So. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Move the discount stuff out of the way and let the real stuff get Beckett through and you let me use the, your middle boxes which was, which was helpful too. Sepia. That was great. Yu-Gi-Oh So just, just, just keep on, keep on figuring it out. Right. Yep. So we did had a great dinner tonight. We went, we met up with Anthony Military Breaker and Brian. Two military guys. Yes. We went over, went to Gibson's, had a nice dinner with them. It was a great ending to, to, to a day I believe we both one-of-one Yes. Despite our setbacks that we covered early and we can't do anything. You know. Yu-Gi-Oh That what's done is done in that. So. And, and you know, lesson learned. We need to you know, watch things a little or I you know moving forward at shows like this just can need to, I mean you pay more attention I guess. And I think, I think just adjusting our cases too a little bit to keep like the room off the front will help us out. Do you think we should have set the. Not to harp too much on it. But do you think we should have set a lower dollar limit to what we put in the. In those boxes? Like, to me, I cut, I kind of cut it off at like 160. And maybe if we cut it off at a hundred. But then at the same time, we made a lot of deals out of those cases that maybe we wouldn't have made. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I'm not saying it was our fault, but you know, I just think, I guess temptation maybe Zebra busy and, you know, that stuff's gonna happen. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, no matter what. What we do. So some of the, some of the other pickups that I had that actually this was really cool. I want to show this card first. I. I had a listener show up and just said love the content. And he gifted me this 20, 23, Topps Chrome UWCL Lily Johannes. It's a blue Mojo PSA9 and it is numbered to 250. Huh. So excited about that. I love, I love getting gifts. Yu-Gi-Oh you can't lose on that one. And then some pickups I had in the day, so. So again, the, the Sophie Cunningham. Like this is the last one I have left the fur right. Of all the cards, of all the cards I bought today, this was the white Disco number to 75. But you know, people coming up, are you buying WNBA anything? So you know, anything like price wise that, that, you know, like stuff like this and autos and things like that. I'm buying out that and Olivia Miles. Yu-Gi-Oh You sold that Olivia Miles. Yu-Gi-Oh sold the Olivia Miles that you talked about yesterday. So. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I Beckett up this Jackson Dart Uptown from another listener was selling. So you bought some cars from him too. But this was a Jackson Dart Uptown PSA9. And my other one was part of a, a small deal that ended up being like a 30 card. Ended up being this huge deal with some extra cards and come back. But this was one of the cards that was thrown in on the deal. It's a 2003 Upper Deck. LeBron James phenomenal beginning gold PSA9. Yu-Gi-Oh that was cool. And all the basketball I had the LeBron, the, the Jordan and then some other players that I had all gone. I sold all the basketball that I had in there. So. And basketball I seen, I think has been big. Yu-Gi-Oh This week. Yu-Gi-Oh I wish I had some more. It definitely has. So that you mentioned the listener coming by. I got off of him along with a few smaller things, but worth showing this. Drew Brees Flawless achievements auto out of 20 and the achievement in this case is the 2006 or what year is that one-of-one Late 2000s. NFL offensive player of the Year auto. So that's cool. And then I actually tracked the guy down to get this one. We were like, $10 off, and I. And I. Then he moved on, and his phone died. So the guy's phone died right in the middle of. His phone died. His phone died in the middle of the deal. And then you were helping him out. You're showing them all the comps and doing all that stuff. Oh, I should have just told him. Too bad. I'm just kidding. And then you guys Goldin get a deal done or $10. So the guy was using your phone in your comps. Yu-Gi-Oh And then telling you he Goldin do a deal, like he was losing. I didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know. He. His phone died. But either way, I would have showed him one-of-one But, Yu-Gi-Oh So I got this Conor McGregor Topps Chrome lineage Auto, which is pretty cool and good conversation starter at the very least, but it's my first Conor McGregor auto. Nice. So, Yu-Gi-Oh that was cool. I sold a couple UFC cards today, too. I sold a Nate Diaz and a Khabib Nurmega Midov, undefeated. He's arguably a UFC goat. But it was funny because I asked the guy. He was a UFC guy, and I said, no offense to Nate Diaz, but who's easier to understand when they speak between Nate Diaz and Khabib? And they started laughing. He said, oh, probably Khabib, but, you know, he's, like, got a very thick Russian accent. But poor Nate Diaz, he's taking a lot of hits. But so two interesting UFC people kind of in the unique lane that I like to get into. So that was cool. But the. The seven Card lot and the. And the Bird and Magic Dual Auto were the two big sales, so today was my biggest sales day. Yu-Gi-Oh Which was great. 8,600 total. So that was good. It was like 7. 7,200 the first day and like 4,000 the second day. And bounce back, it doubled yesterday for today. So that was good. And then spending, you know, reinvesting, and then see what we can get out of those. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Like, so you don't even think about, like, you count your blessings at the end of the day, and then you don't think about all this stuff you. You spent. You. You bought, right? Yu-Gi-Oh And it's nice, like, buying some of these cards and popping them in the case, and, you know, they. They're just getting turned out, turned over. So Quick. So, Yu-Gi-Oh it's like a little. It's little profits, too. It's like, you know, one time you hit a home run and then. But a lot of times it's the singles, doubles, the Tony Gwynn that we talk about on crosstown cardboard with Craig and myself. That Tony Gwynn, though, is key, you know, to make those 20 in between 20 and 30 consistently profits. And by the end of the day, it turns into something. Yu-Gi-Oh it's good. So every bit adds up. Yu-Gi-Oh So tomorrow, what are we thinking? Absolute mayhem. Yu-Gi-Oh well, that's what I saw you wrote down on the word. On the Word document, like, of the notes of the show. Like, tomorrow will be Absolute mayhem. But I feel like. Yu-Gi-Oh steadily definitely increased. But Wednesday started off so strong with the foot traffic already. Yu-Gi-Oh there's definitely been more people, but, like, it started off really well, so I would expect it to be, of course, the busiest tomorrow. Yu-Gi-Oh And I'll probably do the same thing with just the showcase and no boxes in front, partially because of, you know, the. The tampering that people did and so just relieve my mind of that. And plus you gave me the. The two boxes that I could put my stuff in and then. But the showcase, hopefully sell more out of the showcase. Yep. And, you know, 400 enough cards would be great. Yes. Yep. Yu-Gi-Oh Anything. Any sales. I'm surprised you haven't gotten even more interest like on those Brock Purdies. I guess Purdy's not a huge. At least from what we've seen. Well, you remember day one was a Wednesday night. Like probably four or five people in a row came up and they were asking on those. Like, you know, people wanted those, but, you know, they were opportunists. They wanted to come in, they wanted to look at the. The last comp, get under the last comp, and then they want to go turn it, you know, probably try to, you know, flip it, you know, this weekend. And, you know, I was good holding at what I was being offered on. You know, it's such a. On such a low pop on some of those cards. So. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, it's. Trust me, they're beautiful cards. If they don't sell this weekend, they will sell somewhere. But I have a feel. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be. I mean, even all those downtowns too. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I probably have 15 or so, maybe more of the downtowns, uptowns, you know, stuff. Stuff like this Jackson Dart like that, you know, and there's a lot of interest, but there's Kids that come in and they want to buy them at 80 or 85%, it's just not. There's no sense selling that. I could take those cards and walk over to the buying station and probably get 95 for them if I, you know, so there's no sense selling, selling them down. And I think, I think that's, you know, just, just part of, you know, it's like a dance, right? These five days are like a dance. And every day you're just expecting something different. And I think every day we've seen something different all almost like, you know, that, that build up. It's building up to the grand finale, you know, And I think tomorrow it's going to hit its peak tomorrow and then I think Sunday we'll see, you know, the people that stick around to look for deals, you know. Yu-Gi-Oh but I thought you made an interesting point when we were sitting behind the table about the downtowns. That because there's a lot of those in the room at the national with the simple supply and demand, there's not as much demand because there's so much supply. If you took those to your local show. Yu-Gi-Oh you're going to be the big kahuna with all the downtowns and uptowns. Yu-Gi-Oh it's going to be a different story because you're the main person with those and they're much more rare at a local show. But you did sell your Jordan Love at the very end, which was nice. Your Jordan Love Downtown. People who had had a few drinks, they started. Let's just say they just started a little early. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it was five o' clock somewhere. Yu-Gi-Oh And then it was six o' clock by the time you were packing up and you made the deal. Isn't that, I mean, if you're a dealer and you're set up at shows, isn't that always the, you know when you're just trying to get Beckett up at the end and that one person comes up and they want to start comping every card in your case. And I had just realized that somebody had taken the cards out of my bin, out of my box and I'm like trying to, trying to go and, and, and then. But it was good that we stayed so you could get that deal done. Yu-Gi-Oh Which was nice. 100%. All right, I think we're almost on 30 minutes. We've been babbling along. And it's funny because I think, I think I can tell just looking at us on the screen that we're tired. Like, oh, Yu-Gi-Oh it's exhaust. It's been exhausting. Three days, and these episodes keep getting longer and longer instead of shorter. So probably see us back tomorrow night. Unless it gets too much and too much going on. If not, we'll plan a recap next week when we get home, but hopefully we can. We can get one more night in tomorrow, but we'll see. No promises, but hopefully we'll be here for you. With that said, anything else before we finish up? I don't think so, Ken. I just think we just have to try to one-of-one the day tomorrow, and I think. I think we're gonna hit five figures of sales. I'm predicting, because, you know, we're not too far off. So I think that's. I think that's next. That'd be a good goal. I. I did that already. Oh, my gosh. Well, I. I cleared that today. Way over that one. Okay, well, that's great. Well, then I'll try to hit. I one-of-one that day. I'll try to meet that standard. All right, that's it. We're gonna. We're gonna shut it down. We had a. We had a call in, too. I mean, we had a live. We had a live call. That was a dynamic episode. All right, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, take care of yourselves and everyone around you. Sam. Ram. Sam.