The WNBA Card Podcast: Collecting the Washington Mystics’ New Era with Matthew (@dynastysportscards_)

Foreign. Welcome back to another episode of the WNBA Card Podcast here on the Stacking Slabs Network. Hosted by my good friend Caitlin at Cold Lunch Cards and presented by Card Ladder, the official data provider of the WNBA Card Podcast and the broader Stacking Slabs Network. Caitlin is trudging along. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I almost don't want to hit that light quite yet because I have been enjoying these passionate collector driven team focus conversations that Caitlin has been facilitating this season. It has been so much fun to learn about the cards, the franchises, the passion and all that encompasses what it means to be a team collector in WNBA cards in 2026. And this episode is got a lot to it. Caitlin is joined by Matthew at Dynasty Sports Cards Talking Washington Mystics. One of my favorite teams to watch. I'm a big Sonja guy. I love watching the Mystics on League Pass. Matthew gets into his collecting the origin and there's a lot of fun stories Beckett in this one. Make sure you're following us at the WNBA Card Pod on Instagram. If you want to show your support for the broader Stacking Slabs Network, hit the follow button. Tell a damn friend. Run on over to the Patreon Group. It is WNBA Card Podcast. We are talking Washington Mystics with Matthew. Let's get into it. Welcome back loyal listeners, the Stacking Slabs podcast to season five, episode 11 of the WNBA Card Podcast. My name is Caitlin. I go by at coldlunch Cards, mostly on the Instagram machine, but you can find me on other corners of the Internet as well and and I'm so excited to continue bringing collector driven and community focused content wherever you guys are listening to us today. Today's episode is going to be a fun one. As everybody knows, this season has been focused on team collecting and we're trying to unlock new characters for you guys out there. We're all focused on different teams this week. We're talking all about the Washington Mystics. We're talking with Matthew from Dynasty Sports Cards. Going to be talking all about the young core in the Washington Mystics team, what seems to be a very popular young team, a dark horse for the playoffs this year and just an exciting franchise all around. Let's get into it today. Matthew's joining us here. Matthew, how are you doing? I am fantastic. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. And side note, the Mystics clinched their playoff spot so you're right on with that one. Awesome. Yu-Gi-Oh we look forward to seeing them for sure. I'm just Zebra excited about today's episode. I Think last year I declared the Mystics were one of my quote unquote league pass teams. That kind of side allegiance just because of that young core of rookies that they had that have really transformed the Mystics from being kind of a not a Zebra competitive team the past couple of years after their championship run into a team that's just Zebra exciting. So we're going to talk to Matthew all about collecting the Mystics, the fandom of the Mystics, talk about cards, everything we're here to talk about. But before we get into that, Matthew, for people who may not know who you are, do you mind introducing yourself to the audience? Yu-Gi-Oh I'm obviously. My name is Matthew Warner, a partner with Dynasty Sports Cards. You can find us on Whatnot, Instagram, TikTok, eBay, trying to expand on the Loop app. But we specialize in WNBA only, whether it's breaks, singles, consignment, all the good stuff. Trying to have a one singular place where people can find what they're looking for no matter what it is. High end, low end, middle ground. I'm just trying to provide a space for the collector, you know, where they know when they think wnba, they think Dynasty sports cards and we can find them what they want and have what they need. So that's who I am and that's how I got into, you know, the quote unquote business side of it. So awesome. I think we'll get into more of what that business kind of means to you and how you got into it and, and how it kind of changes your perspective on collecting. But before we get into those topics, I want to start with the origin story of you. Could you kind of talk to us about how you got into cards or the hobby in the first place? Is this a newfound love or something you're returning to? Where did you start? Sure. I mean, as a kid growing up, it was, hey, let's go to the local gas station, right, and grab a, a pack of, you know, early 90s baseball cards and, and look for Ken Griffey Jr. Cards and stuff like that. And you know, as you grow and you get older, you kind of, you know, you move away from that. And the cards became less and less valuable in the mid to late 90s. And then sometime in 2014, I think I found, you know, sports cards again. And I was doing, you know, mostly NFL breaks on what was then breakers tv. So that goes back quite a ways. I think it's still around, but not very active. So I did that for maybe a year or two and Then again, you know, that prices then just got too expensive. And I was like, I can't compete. And then one day I was on. On Whatnot, and I was actually looking for sneakers because I'm a big sneaker head and stumbled across, you know, WNBA cards. And I was like, I never knew that this was even a thing. And this was, you know, right around the time that 2024 select had just come out, not that long ago. But, you know, I was just enamored. I coach girls basketball, the high school level. I've coached for years, my daughter and many others. And so it was just kind of natural that I was drawn to it and just fell in love with the hobby again and the chase and everything that's involved, and it's just kind of mushroomed and grew from there. That was the start of my WNBA collecting. That's awesome. When you talk about kind of like everything in the hobby, something that comes up to me is these labels that we put on different people. We say people are flippers, we say people are pure collectors. We say business owners. You know, there's all these different kinds of identities in collecting today. What kind of contingents do you identify with specifically in the WNBA space? Yu-Gi-Oh I would say I'm a collector for sure. You know, if I'm, you know, getting into a break, I'm getting in to get, you know, my PC players. I'm not concerned. If I hit a big card of somebody else along the way, so be it. But I'm not out searching the, you know, the auction sites for steals and deals that I can then turn around and resell. Like, a lot of our work is done in consignment on the single side. So we're not buying and flipping anything. We're just helping our, you know, our customers get some better return on their investment. But for myself personally, I'm a collector 100%, and that's sort of the vibe that I like to treat the business side of things with, is for the collector, not necessarily for the flipper or the gambler, although, you know, everybody's welcome. But the idea was, let's provide a space for those hardcore collectors like myself to come and find their. Their PC cards. Absolutely. We always need more of that. We always need more spaces where collectors feel welcomed and feel just like a part of a community. And so one thing I want to talk to you about before we get into the mystics of it all, because that's what we're here to talk about, is the Washington Mystics, is I want to Zoom out. And you kind of touched on this in some of your explanation of who you are and what you do on coaching women's basketball, things like that. But I've got a big question to kind of bring us deeper before we get into the Mystics, which is a lot of this podcast was created about that community, about opening a space where collectors feel like they're part of something bigger. And in the WNBA space, we know that that space historically has not been available, or if it was, it was a really niche community. So I've asked every guest this same question. And, Matthew, I'd love to hear from you. What does being a fan of women's sports and collecting women's sports cards mean to you? I can remember a few years ago I. When I was. I was the head coach of varsity girls basketball team, and we went and I got to know the. Obviously the boys coach pretty well through that time, and I said, you know what? We need to have, like, a night where we bring both teams together on the court and kind of introduce them to the fans and in the process of that, you know, have some competitions between the boys and the girls. And, you know, they did. We did some shooting competitions and some other things and just obviously having fun. But after that night, I remember telling the girls, like, what you just did because they were Zebra competitive as far as against the boys. I said, what you did is just prove that girls basketball is just as exciting and just as good as boys basketball. And you just proved that to a whole new set of people. And that's really what it is to me, is just, you know, understanding that just because it's women playing the game doesn't mean that the game is less than. It just means that the game is different. And the game is so much closer in the WNBA to what the game was when I played basketball than the NBA. I don't. I don't identify with NBA basketball at all, but women's basketball, I can identify with, you know, traditional bigs and not everybody's jacking threes. And, you know, so when it comes to the game itself, you know, it's just so much more in line with what I know of basketball. And then to transition into the hobby side, you know, to be a part of something that's growing so rapidly but yet still has so much room to grow. It's exciting because, you know, the sky's the limit, and we're just. I feel like, you know, scraping the tip of the iceberg. And, you know, it's just going to continue to grow. And I'm glad to be a part of that. I hope to be a part of that for a long time. But that's what it means to me is just being part of something new and exciting and helping to boost a group of people who haven't had their due respect and their due admiration now for a while. Yu-Gi-Oh well, we could all get behind that. I love that answer. I love the twofold. I think something that doesn't get talked about a lot when I ask people that question is the game. I mean, like, you're talking to somebody who. I was a very mid level JV varsity player. I wasn't very good. But like, that speaks to me, is talking about like just the elements of women's basketball that do feel different, the game on the court than men's basketball. And I've heard a lot of people online talk about how that's kind of been what brings them into women's basketball is just a different identity of the game. And, you know, that's what we're all here to watch is some sports. Like, that's what brings us all together here. We like cards, but what we're collecting on the card is the sports. So I think that's just a really good call out, Matthew. And I think I'm just excited to talk more about you about or to you about the game and about the team. So let's get into that. We talked about who you are, what your business is, your journey, kind of like your relationship with women's sports. And I want to take all that and really zoom in on one specific part of your basketball fandom. The Washington Mystics. For anyone who might be newer to the league or unfamiliar with the team, a little bit of background is the Mystics have been in Washington since the league's 1998 season through an expansion draft. They spent their early years kind of like searching for sustained success. Became a real Contenders in the late 2010s behind one of my favorite players, Elena Deladon, and finally broke through with her winning a championship in 2019. Today it's looking a little bit different. They're building around an exciting young core with people like Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafin and Georgia Amore, and a new kind of brand of basketball, a new coach, too. So with that kind of little bit of Mystics lore as our backdrop, Matthew, let's get into your relationship with the team. Was there a moment or a specific moment in time or memory were you remember kind of like pledging allegiance to the Mystics? What kind of pulled you to them. So interestingly enough, I, at one point I was interviewing for a college coaching job and so I spent a lot of that. And it coincidentally was like 2019-2020. So I spent a lot of that 2020 season watching women's college basketball. And of course I was enamored and in love with Sabrina Enescu and Satu Sabali at Oregon. I wanted to see that, that NCAA tournament so bad. While I always knew about the wnba, I never was really a Fleer You know, it was just, it's hard to find. I didn't, you know, really search it out. It was in the middle of the summer and having young kids, I just never really spent the time finding it. But once I actually had some time to sit down and watch games, you know, I fell in love with them and then followed them into the wnba. And then that's when really my WNBA fandom started. And of course New York Liberty, I still have New York Liberty T shirts and blankets from when they one-of-one their championship a couple years ago and all that. But as far as the Mystics go, it starts with two words. And those two words are Georgia Amore. Okay. Because I watched there was a girl who played high school ball in our area in the league that I coach in and she went to Virginia Tech to play Division 1. And so obviously I wanted to check in and watch her games and see how she was doing. And then I just saw this girl and I watched her all five years in college when she went to Kentucky and I was just enamored. Like this girl's amazing, you know, and so talented and watching her and Liz Kitley and so when Washington drafted him, I was, I was in, I was, I told my daughter, I'm like, we're getting, you know, we're going to start with a seven game pass. We're going to go down, we're going to see Georgia. I'm all excited. And then of course she gets injured before the first game last year and sits out, but we still had our seven game pass. So, you know, we went down and fell in love with the rest of the team as well. And that's kind of what brought us to where we are. So I'm still a relatively young Mystics fan in the sense of how long I've been following them, but definitely a hardcore die hard mystic fan at this point. I love that and I love that it's Georgia. I also kind of had this affinity for Georgia. Watching her at Virginia Tech and then transferring to Kentucky, just like a really, really Surprising output from such a small guard. Watching her Blue Ice just so fun. So I completely understand kind of the, the magnetism that you felt towards her. And I'm. It's so cool to hear. I think recently we hear a lot of these stories where like players in, in collegiate, in the collegiate level attract WNBA fans. Now it didn't used to always be that. It used to be like people would be fans of the collegiate athletes. They transition to the WNBA and they'd kind of get left behind. But fans, they didn't really transition with them. They just stayed with the school. These days it feels like that's a very common pipeline for people to become fans. So I just love that and I love that you pick Georgia and you ended up on a pretty fun team to watch for sure. If you could speak to a little bit about what this team kind of gives you versus maybe some of your other fandoms, if you're watching other sports or if you, I mean, you talk about your own teams that you're coaching. What does kind of the Mystics, what separates the Mystics for you? Oh, they're just fun and they don't quit. I think they've had like five double digit comebacks this year. They were down 20 against the Wings and came back in one. They just one-of-one the other night against Portland. Down like 15 in Portland. They just keep fighting and clawing and they do all the things that as a coach, I always tried to implore, you know, my players to do, like be gritty, be, be hard nosed, dive on the ball, find a way to one-of-one And they just like talent wise. Yu-Gi-Oh they're definitely talented, but I think they just kind of play with a joy and sort of a not knowing any better mindset. Yu-Gi-Oh that just makes them so fun to watch because they shouldn't be doing half the things they're doing, you know, they just, they shouldn't. And their coach, he's just, you know, he's having a ball, he's. I see their post game locker rooms where he's just running around acting like an idiot and I love it. And so it's just so fun to watch them play with joy and not just be out there, you know, kind of going through the motions, being a robot and earning a paycheck. They're just, they always, they just, they're a real fun group to be around. And as we've gotten this year, we've transitioned to a full season pass, you know, as far as tickets go. So we see them all the time. They're Just Zebra down to earth, Zebra nice women. We had to meet the team the other night, and they all were just so gracious with their time and, you know, do above and beyond. I mean, needs to learn how to say no every now and then because, like, she sits and signs for like 45 minutes at the meet and greet, and it's like, you've signed for these people every night at every game. You know, you could say no to a couple of them and nobody would care. Like, nobody would be offended. But they're all just phenomenal. They're. They're really great. I think they're still the youngest team in the league, or at least at one point they were. And I think you can feel that kind of energy of maybe people have lower expectations for us because of our age and our inexperience, but we're going to fight and we're going to try our best. And I think that comes through the screen when I watch them. They're one of my favorite teams to watch outside of my Minnesota links. I think watching the Mystics, especially under this new leadership, has been Zebra fun. And I want to ask you a question that I ask every guest on this season, which is that if you had to try to decide to pick three words that kind of capture the essence of the franchise, specifically right now, how would you explain the Mystics in three words or less? I would use energetic, I would use gritty, and I would use joyful. That's a pretty good formula. Like, if you've got those three things, I don't know what else you can ask for, both as a coach, but also as a fan. So I agree with you. I think the Mystics have an interesting identity that they're building over there. It feels different. It feels different than other teams, and maybe it is that youthful aspect, but I completely agree with the three that you gave, 100%. I have one more kind of like, rapid fire question for you that we ask, which is that, you know, we talk a lot about looking back. I mean, obviously you're a little bit newer to the mystic, so you might have a different view on this, but we talk about greatness a lot. We talk about different players that come from franchises that played Zebra well. And I'm curious if you had to carve out a Mount Rushmore for the Washington Mystics. So four players that kind of are the pinnacle of success for the Mystics. Who are you putting up there as of today? Obviously, I think the first one would be Elena Deladon. Right. You can't make up Mount Rushmore of pretty much anything, I don't think, without having her on there. Nikki McCrae. I know they're still relatively young, but obviously Sonya's well underway. They're chiseling the stone, I think, as we speak, and then trying to think of her name. We just. They just gave us a bobblehead. And I forget. Monique. Oh, Monique. I forget her last name, but it's. She's got enough. And I'm ashamed because I was there and. But there's been so many. Obviously, you can't. You can't name them all. But those. Those are the ones that, you know, mean. I mean, when I think Mystics, even though, again, I'm a newer fan, it's Elena Delano. So, like, that's just where it kind of starts. When you mentioned that, I think that her kind of bringing the championship to the Mystics and she was also one of the only players, I think her and Fee that have had a 50, 40, 90 season, which to me, like, you could say that stat, but it doesn't. I think it's just, like, so impressive. It's just like one of the most impressive statistics of all time. I think Daladon is one of those players in our hobby that isn't quite respected. Which brings me to my next question for you, which is we have this concept of the Disrespect Index, this idea that players perform really well on the court, but the hobby, our hobby, doesn't necessarily translate that on the court play into market prices. Would you pick Elena Deladon as your highest scoring on the Disrespect Index? And if not, who are you choosing? I wouldn't. I think in her time, you know, had the hype been what it is now, that her prices would have been. That's a good point through the roof, but I'll give you mine. Even though it's probably going to hurt me because everybody was going to want to run out and buy her. But my most disrespected right now is Shakira Alston. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, you can pick her up for pennies on the dollar in breaks or singles. And it hurts my heart because she's so fantastic. And she would definitely be my most disrespected on the. On the list right now. Well, I have to call out that two episodes ago. I think on the LA Sparks episode, somebody else mentioned Shakira Austin as just being a player that is completely disrespected in the hobby. So I think people are starting to pick up but Yu-Gi-Oh her, her play, it just doesn't make sense in terms of prices especially I will have to say like post her joining unrivaled and like directly learning from fee on the Owls and then competing in the one on one tournament. I thought like her game improved like tenfold after that and she's become a dominant force in the post who makes like good decisions, which I think in post players. I'm speaking as somebody who is not a post, so it's easy for you to stay so frustrating sometimes this, the decision making under the hoop. She has good instincts and watching her grow and succeed has been so much fun. And I would love for her to get more kind of respect in the hobby. But it sounds like maybe people are catching on. But, but I don't know. And you want to talk about somebody that probably like, you know how certain players, you see them on court and you think they're going to be a certain way. Yu-Gi-Oh Like you see her and you think, oh my goodness, like she's yelling and you know, getting the crowd, you know, nothing makes the crowd in that arena cheer louder than a Shakira Austin block. And she just starts yelling at the, you know, but you meet her off the court and she is just so calm and so like down to earth. Like you would not put the two together, like if you saw a picture, like you just wouldn't, you wouldn't relate the two. So she's probably even a little bit under or misunderstood off the court as well because of the, you know, her intensity on the court is so, so strong. Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. That's awesome. I kind of want to transition away from like, we just talked about the Mystics as a franchise and move into the cards of it all. And I think that like the intersection of fandom and the hobby is really a part that I want to lean into here. And at some point, you know, being a fan turns into actually collecting their cards. You have to, you have to like the player and then you have to go out and spend hard earned cash on them. And I want to talk about that kind of like evolution for you. What did kind of the beginning of your Mystics collection look like? Was it Georgia Amor 100% focus or where did it kind of like start? Well, anybody that was around last year over Christmas time knows that we had some illnesses in our family and so we weren't able to really put up and decorate our Christmas tree. And so I chose to decorate it myself with Donruss Georgia Amore base cards. So. And we, we put some pictures out for, for those who know. And you know, we topped it off with a gold Georgia Whatnot, you know, it was the star. And so it was just fun, you know, and, and again, we were going through some hard times as a family and so it was just a good laugh and, and you know, trying to be as cheerful as we could in that season of life. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, it started with a couple Georgia, you know, kind college autos and kind of again once we got to know more about the others and you know, then you fall in love with Sonia and Kiki and you know, Shakira, she's my wife's favorite player, hands down. She loves her blocks. And when she, I forget who we were playing and we were at the game and she swatted somebody out of bounds and my wife says that's my favorite player, you know, and so forth. I gotta start collecting her now for my wife, you know, I can't, I can't let her go. And so, you know, then it just kind of morphed and now it's, you know, it's mostly those four. Georgia, Kiki, Shakira and Sonya. There's not really, you know, many more right now that have cards because most of them are rookies. But Yu-Gi-Oh it'll be Cody and Lauren Betts and all them come, you know, a couple weeks when we get new product. That's exciting. I want to kind of ask about your collecting approach and strategy. Obviously you talk about a team and now we're getting into kind of like core players that define that team in your fandom. But in terms of the cards themselves, what are you kind of looking for? Are you a quantity person? Just let me take one of everything, please, off the menu. Or are you looking for specific qualities in a card that kind of makes it into your PC? Yu-Gi-Oh I think definitely early on it was give me everything. It was give me anything and everything. That was Georgia and then of course the others. But interestingly enough, obviously I collected Sabrina and Satu first and I kind of, you know, Sabrina especially her prices are just for rookie stuff especially, is just so outrageous that it became, okay, maybe I just focus on a few nice pieces instead of everything I can find. And so I've kind of tried to transition that into, you know, these other current players to where it's like, all right, I don't need one of every base card. I don't need a silver of everything. You know, just give me some nice pieces, some nice low numbered stuff, some nice autos, especially rookie stuff, you know, because you Know, that's. That's where the money is, if you want to look at it from that side of things. But, Yu-Gi-Oh just let me get some nice stuff and. And try to have sort of a, you know, a nice mix of mid. I. I refuse to spend outrageous money on cards as far as for myself, because, you know, that's just not in my nature. I'm not a gambler, so, you know, it's like I'll try to hit things out of a break for, you know, cheaper, even if it costs me more in the long run, which is kind of a stupid stride into two, I guess. But, you know, we all have our own. Our own ways. But I would definitely consider it that I would rather have a few nice pieces than to have just one of anything and everything. Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. I think that evolution is a common story told by many collectors is at first, we kind of take anything. We drink from the fire hose, so to say, and at some point, we begin to figure out what meets our expectations or put these rules on our cards. Does it meet a certain type of threshold that we're. We're willing to enter this into our collection? And then I think we kind of zoom out and we think about our collection as a whole. And I'd like to ask you, when you zoom out and you look at your kind of, like, collection, do you think of your Mystix PC as sort of this curation? Do you think of it as a story? Or is it just, like, cool things that you're trying to accumulate over time? What does that kind of, like, zoom out look like to you? Yu-Gi-Oh I think. I think I look at it. I mean, I think the cards are art, you know, and. And they're art pieces that you own. And so for me, I don't know how many of the cards I'll actually keep forever. Yu-Gi-Oh Because there always comes a point where I feel like, okay, I've enjoyed this card, you know, and now it's time for somebody else to enjoy it. And so then I want to pass that on to somebody else. I have a. A Georgia Amore, one of one auto from Donruss. And I'm at the point now where I'm like, you know what? I've had it now for about a. Or whatever the timeframe is, and there's other Georgia collectors out there that are looking for it. Maybe it's time for me to just let it go and move on and let them enjoy it now for a little bit, which I guess is kind of like art. I mean, I know there's collectors there, too, but for the most part, it's like, well, I've had this painting in My House for a while and, you know, let me swap it out for something else and chase, you know, something else or look for something new. So I kind of see it that way, I guess. I guess I would be a curator as opposed to a storyteller in my. In my collecting. Yu-Gi-Oh I think that approach is something that is not easy to kind of like, stumble into. You have to be very intentional about it. When I think about cards that meet that criteria, for me, in my head, the way that I think about it is sort of as like, a rental. Like, it's like, okay, I have enjoyed it for a year or two, and now I don't enjoy it as much as I used to, but I know that somebody else will let me get rid of it. And if I take a loss, that's the cost of the rental, and if I don't, that's the kind of, like, profit that I'm just making on. On just time and luck most of the time. So I think it's an interesting way to go about it. Another part that I want to ask you about your PC is this idea of prioritization. We talked about this, how you started off kind of like with a big C, and then you shrunk it to figure out, do certain Mystics players kind of rank over one another, or do you try to evenly distribute against those. Mostly those four players that you mentioned before? I mean, I buy a lot of Georgia and Shakira because they're cheap. Obviously, Sonia is ridiculously hard to come by, especially at, you know, a decent price. My daughter is a really big Kiki collector. Okay. And so, you know, I'll buy her for. For my daughter. But I guess if I did prioritize, it would be Georgia, just because that's the one that kind of brought me here. Obviously, money wise, I'd rather prioritize Sonia because she's probably got the most upside. But, you know, Georgia's coming around. She's starting to play well, so maybe her. She'll get some more love here. But I would definitely, if I had to choose, I guess I would still go with Georgia just because she's, again, the one who kind of got me into this to begin with and, you know, got me into the Mystics in general. So I have to keep her at the top, for sure. I understand completely. I think it's also, like, you've got a lot of good players over there to choose from. And they have. They all come from a similar era, so their cards are coming from similar sets. They might not be the same year, but a lot of them, they are like, they are from the same class. Are you only really collecting that era of the Mystics, or are you collecting maybe previous eras that came before this, that maybe you weren't there when you were to watch them, but you're interested in them? No, I think, I mean, most of it or all of my collection at this point is, you know, 2022 or above. You know, you got Shakira's rookie year of 2022, so I got anything 2022 and above. If. If I went back before 2022, it would be back to like, Sabrina tattoo. I would love to get some Deladon stuff, but again, I. I don't really connect with that just because of the time here. But Yu-Gi-Oh you know, we know that she's obviously a big part of. Of their history and their story. We've seen her in metarat games and. And Whatnot. But, you know, I think for me it's all about where we are now and, you know, the players that we go pay money to watch every night, we want to. We want to collect them and be able to display a little mural, if you will, of. Of Mystic's stuff over here on the. On the shelf. I completely understand. I think I talked about this on one of our previous episodes, but this concept of, like, being in person really fuels a collection. I think people underestimate the power of going to games and seeing these things in person, especially the wnba, because of the atmosphere of these arenas just feel different than maybe some other fandoms that people are a part of. So I think it makes sense that if you're there, obviously you want to prioritize and collect players that are on the court that you're seeing with your eyes, not the players that came 10, 20 years before. So that makes. Makes sense with. At least in Washington. I mean, the arena only holds like 4300 people. And so it's. It's very, you know, intimate. Yu-Gi-Oh If you will there. You know, you get. You do get quite a bit of interaction with the team and with the players. And so that just makes you relate even more. And then obviously you kind of develop even more of a connection of like, I really want to get this player. You know, I really want to get. Start collecting this one or that one versus, you know, you go to an NFL game or something where you're up in the nosebleeds and you don't have any interaction. You just see a little helmet running around field or something, you know, whereas as here, like, we interact with the players and, you know, they tell us, because we sit like, right near the Mystic's bench, like on the corner, actually right by the tunnel. And they'll tell us, like, we can hear you guys. We can hear you cheering and yelling certain things out in the stands. So, you know, it just. It encourages you to just continue to support. Through support. Obviously, you know, you have your hobby and your collection that you, you know, you want to grow as well. Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. Speaking of building and growing your collection, I'm curious if you could tell the audience kind of like what you would consider your best Mystics cards that you currently have, and then maybe what Mystic's cards are missing that you're like, damn, I really would. Would like that one. Yu-Gi-Oh So the best one that I have is probably the Georgia one of one, at least my personal. The Black Laser auto. Yu-Gi-Oh it's really sweet. My daughter has a Kiki gold vinyl all star from select, and she's actually just completed the whole rainbow of that card. Yu-Gi-Oh So that's. That's probably her crown jewel would be that whole set. We've got some pretty nice Sonja pieces, some one and one, you know, patch auto and things like that. We've got the Downtowns from Sonia and Kiki. We're trying to, like, match up the two of them, you know, get each one's Kaboom, each one's Downtown, each one this, each one that. We also have a cherry blossom Sonja variation, so that's pretty sweet too. And then an Fotl Georgia from one and one out of five. Those are some of the highlights, I guess, of the. Of the collection. You know, I never even thought about this till right now, which makes me feel silly. But the cherry blossoms must be, like, of particular demand for Mystics fans because of their, like, prevalence in D.C. and when they bloom. Right. Like, this has to be like a. Probably a parallel that means more to Mystics fans than, say, to a Minnesota Lynx fan that we don't have any of that. I never even thought about that before. It very well could. I'm not from D.C. we live about an hour and a half north in Pennsylvania. Okay. Okay. So to me, it doesn't. But perhaps to those who live in the D.C. area, the metro area, I know that they're really hard to find because there's none available. Like, I have somebody who keeps trying to gem mint off of me. Because they can't find it anywhere. And I'm like, I don't know if I want to get rid of it. Although they're offering a really good deal, you know, so who knows? Maybe I one-of-one have it much longer. I don't know. But, Yu-Gi-Oh that's a good point. Maybe for somebody who lives in that area, they do want them more. Yu-Gi-Oh It could be the Mystics team parallel is actually just the cherry blossoms. Maybe we'll see that grow in popularity. All right, I want to ask you this fun, kind of like, hypothetical scenario. If a new Mystics collector came to you and was like, hey, I'm new to WNBA collecting. I have been watching the Mystics for a while now, and I want to dip my toes in. I've got a healthy budget of, say, $500, and I want a nice Mystics collection. What kind of advice would you tell them about where to start? Are there specific cards that you think are must have to be represented in a Mystics collection? Or what kind of advice would you give them if you don't have a Sonja Citron card in your collection? I don't know why you call yourself a mystic stand. Right. So I would definitely tell you to go out and get some sort of decently numbered, you know, Sonia, Even if it's 199, 99, something like that, you know, go get yourself, like, a red Prizm or something, you know, along those lines at least. And then if, you know, you got a little money left over, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna want to get some kiki. You gotta have a little Kiki. And, you know, her stuff's a little less expensive, so you could probably get, you know, get yourself a gold, you know, or something like that. So I'd tell you to start with those two, and then I would say go get a Shakira Austin autograph from Donruss, because that's the only product that she's ever signed in. So I would say go get yourself one of those, because they're hard to hit. They're only redemptions, and it's the only time she's ever signed on a card. I did not know that. Okay, so you definitely have to. If you're a new Mystics collector and you're a Shakira Austin fan, you don't have many choices. This is what you have to do. So that's a good piece of advice, Matthew. I like that. Kind of, like, starting off. I think it's an interesting way to kind of frame the Idea of core Mystics card collecting, like what it could look like if you frame it as like you have say $500 budget. So that's a good place to start. If you guys are Mystics fans and you're looking for somewhere to start, it sounds like that's a good place. We've talked now a lot about your, your PC, how you've built it, the cards in it, the cards that you hope to add to it. But I kind of want to shift to the team as it is today because we're. You're collecting this era of Mystics. Kind of like as it happens, I want to talk to you about the current team and one that seems to be Zebra popular these days. What kind of makes this group, this roster different. You touched on the energy. You touched on like the youthful part of it, the age, the newness, what kind of makes it its own thing on the court. It seems as though from at least, you know, an outsider perspective that they're all playing for each other. And I've always said that the best teams that I've ever coached weren't the most talented. They were the ones that cared enough to play harder for their teammate. When you get to that point, you know, when you're playing for something other than yourself, I think that's when a team really can grow and be at their best. And it seems as though, you know, they all seem excited for their teammates successes. You know, it doesn't appear that there's a whole lot of selfishness outside of the normal, I wish I could play. I mean, everybody wants to play competitiveness, but you know, it seems like they're all there for each other. They're all got each other's backs, they're all pulling for each other and are they're in it for something other than their own interest. And I think that's kind of one of the, the factors in it, you know, I mean, we saw from the fever last year, you know, with you're out your superstar and you're throwing out a bunch of bodies just trying to make it through. And you see how they came together and they were seconds away from the fight and it wasn't because they were more talented because nobody else wanted these players. Where's Ari McDonald nowadays? Right? Odyssey Sims is on the bench in Dallas. Like it wasn't because of talent, but it was because you could see watching them like there was something bigger than themselves. They knew they were up against the wall and they just decided, look, we're going to dig in together and we're going to fight and we're just going to Blue Ice hard as we can for each other. And I think that's what you see with the Mystics and I think that kind of gives them a little bit of an edge. Plus the fact that there's no expectation, really. I mean, they were Beckett to finish like 14th or 13th in the league this year. Nobody was penciling them in at 6 or 7 or 8. So no stress. Go out and play house money. Yu-Gi-Oh for sure. You talked about those expectations and this is something I want to ask you about is how do you, as a fan, how would you kind of like rate the success of where the team is today? They, as of today or as of this week, they clinched they're going to be in the playoffs by the time this episode comes out. I'm not exactly sure where we'll be. But like, how do you feel as a fan that they're kind of like really delivering? They're delivering over their promises, I suppose. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean they're ahead of schedule for sure. Right. They're supposed to be young and inexperienced and have to figure things out. And you know, here you are on the verge of going to the playoffs and basically with a bunch of second year players and rookies. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, you got Laney Hamilton, you got Onion Wary and you got Benijah and that's really all your experience. But yet here you are fighting. They could finish anywhere as high as I think the 4 seed at this point. So they're definitely ahead of schedule and it's going to be fun to see how it continues because they get a bunch of. I think they have four draft picks again this year in the first year. So like they're just going to continue to stack talent while, you know, these players are gaining all this experience. Yu-Gi-Oh And so it's. It's just going to be interesting to see what they do with all of that, who they bring back, who they don't. But right now who cares about that? Man, we're just enjoying the ride. Get to the playoffs, you know, and who knows what can happen. They've proven they can beat any team. I think for a while, I don't know if they still are, but for a while they were the only team to have beaten all of the playoff teams this year. So we'll see. Who knows. Yu-Gi-Oh it's an exciting team to watch and it feels like their front office, like management in terms of hitting on draft picks just seems to be one after the another picking the right player to fit into the scheme that they're playing. It doesn't feel like there's been. I'm sure there are, but, like, it doesn't feel like there's been many. Oh, my God, why did we pass up on this person? Why didn't we do this? It's like the people that they're choosing are really integrating well to the team. So I think the future of the Mystics is really a promising one, especially because of the youth, the way that contracts work. I think it's just in a great spot. What do you kind of see the future of the Mystics looking like from your perspective? Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, that's. That's an interesting question because if you, you know, if you listen to the. The fan base, they've missed on 90% of their draft picks because all of the GMs online all know better than, you know, Georgia needs to be benched. Rory Harmon should be the starting point guard. Lucy Olson should play every night. You know, and look, I get it. We're, you know, it's easy to coach from home, but the fact of the matter is he sees all these players every day at practice and he knows what he wants out of his team and we don't. But as far as your question goes, you know, obviously they're going to build around Sonya, right? Like, no matter what, it doesn't matter really who they have to let go in order to make that work. When her time comes to get paid, they need to pay her. They need to have her around and kind of fit everything else around that. Whether they look at that as Sonya and Kiki or if they just want, you know, hey, it's Sonya, and then make everything else fit, who knows? But obviously with the salary cap now, they. I think they're in a great spot to be able to keep both. If not, you know, all three, if you count Georgia, you know, around and kind of build, build with them as they're gaining all of this experience. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Georgia's still a rookie. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, so she is coming off in the injury, so I think you give her another. Another year, she's going to be just fine. Starting to hit her groove, you know, But I think the futures is going to be interesting. Like I said, they've got a ton of draft picks. They got the skies first round pick, which could be number one. This guy. Imagine this. Standing out. Yu-Gi-Oh they're just for J.C. sheldon, like. All right, thanks. You know, it's no wonder you're down there where you are every year. But I mean, that could be. That could be the number one pick. It could be one or two somewhere in that range based on the odds. So you're going to throw this team with all this talent and youth, another top three pick even. Okay, we're going to have our pick between Hidalgo, Juju and whomever else. Like, I guess we'll take that. You know, I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how they fit in, you know, what, what position they go for because again, everybody thinks they need to have a new point guard. And so it's got to be Hannah. And who knows? Who knows? I mean, coaches are odd. I know this from being one. Like the biggest thing that you need to have between your players and you as a coach is trust. And it doesn't matter how talented you are, it doesn't matter what you can do on the court. If the coach doesn't trust you, it's irrelevant. And coach obviously trust who he has on the court. Now he's had the same five in the lineup all year and you know he's going to ride with it because of that, that trust factor. So we'll see what, what they think they need for next year. But I think they need some shooting. They still need some, you know, they need a sniper, they need a sharpshooter. I don't know if you get that in the draft. You try and get that in free agency, but that's really the only thing that's holding them back. I mean, Onion, where he's doing well for what, you know, but she, I think early on she kind of played outside of herself a little bit and you know, had that 30 piece at one point in the season and you know, it was really like, oh my gosh. And then it's kind of come back down to like the 10 point range, you know, about where you would expect it. So I don't know. A shooter would definitely be helpful. Somebody that can consistently knock down an open three is definitely on the radar too. I don't think they need another big unless they don't resign. Shakira, Yu-Gi-Oh Because she's on a one year deal, but everybody else's rookie contracts. So like, you're good, you know. Yu-Gi-Oh It really feels like a good position to be in. It almost feels like you have all these choices. It's just about making them now. It's not like you're cornered as a Mystics plan or the Mystics gm. It's like you have this huge buffet of options. Of what to do, and it feels like you can't go wrong. I have high expectations for the Mystics moving forward because of everything that you just touched on and more. I think that is a really fun, exciting franchise. And when I think of the Mystics and the way that they're positioned, I'm also, like, curious how that'll trickle into the card market. Because when you have, say, a class like Sonia, Kiki, etc. All coming in at the same time, wearing the same jerseys next year, you have the potential of a top three pick. It's like prices of these teams, whether you're in a break or in buying singles, continue to go up. And so it's going to be interesting to see how Mystics fans kind of deal with that, because it's a blessing and a curse right now. It's like you have all these young superstars who are still building, they're winning, but they're not necessarily like, you know, 100 lock for the championship. But at the same time, growing expectations year after year translates to higher prices, and that could be something that's not easy to deal with as a collector. So that's. That's just kind of like my take on. On the Mystics. Yu-Gi-Oh And then, you know, you have these players from, you know, the rookies from this year, like I said, I mean, we're going to have Lauren Betts, who, you know, obviously she's had her struggles. Right. Adjusting. But, you know, she's got that thing you can't teach, which is size. You know, she's always going to be big, she's always going to be long, can see over the top of the defense and. But I think the one that everybody's going to be chasing is Cody McMahon. She's just a ball of energy. Every. Every time she. Every time she comes on the court, you know, it's ridiculous, but, you know, so you'll have at least those two, you know, that everybody will be kind of going after and, you know, it'll be interesting to see how that kind of defines the market of. Of the Mystics this coming card season, if you will. You know, with Donruss getting ready to come out, you know, I mean, Lauren Betts have a Downtown in Donruss, so that'll be interesting. You know, the gold Downtown chase. But then it also have, you know, Sonya will have a Downtown as well, and that. So how are people going to go after that in the market? You know, the first gold downtowns that we've had, those will be crazy. Yu-Gi-Oh I think the Chase of those is going to be pretty big, especially with a player like Olivia Miles in there. I mean, just the prices of her things already is just astronomical. And I pity you as a Lynx fan, have to figure out how to afford, you know, hope you can refinance your home or something to be able to get get into a break, you know, for an opportunity to get her. No, literally, it's going to be crazy. I, I'm. I'm Zebra curious to see how that plays out. It's. It's always interesting when cards come out later than maybe collectors want them to. I think with Topps and other lanes such as the NFL, they just released their Topps flagship product for the first time. It's the first time we're getting NFL product before the season starts with those rookies. It feels like with Panini, where we're at with wnba, we will not be expecting that anytime soon. It's almost like we're a year behind all the time. So those prospecting, the idea of maybe speculating on young rookies and how they're going to play isn't necessarily even an option for WNBA collectors. So it's an interesting market to see unfold in real time, 100%. Especially when you factor in the breaking of it all and just how that plays out. You add speculation plus a little bit of fun gambling equals a lot of. Exactly. Because, I mean, to that point, Olivia Miles in the preseason or before the preseason even, she would have been sought after, but not, not like she is now. I think, you know, the kind of consensus was, okay, give me fud, give me bets, give me some. You know, like, it would have been like four of them, that everybody would have kind of been like, okay, I'm taking my chance on this one. Right? And then now, being that it's so late, but they keep trying. I mean, every year it's supposed to come out in July, and every year it gets pushed, it gets pushed back. Eventually they'll get one to come out and, you know, before the playoffs. But now we'll just get them all stacked up on top of us again all winter long and hopefully next year they'll try again. 100%. We can only hope we'll manifest that well. I kind of want to segue us into my personal favorite segment that we do on each episode of season five, which is called the Personal Grail. I ask each guest to kind of look through their PC, take inventory, look at what they've got, and pick one out that really represents their team fandom. And so I want to talk to you about that. I know you sent me over a picture of what you chose, and I'm excited to hear you talk about it, kind of. Do you mind sharing with the audience which card you Beckett maybe the story behind it and why this is the one that you chose as your personal grail? Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, it's not the flashiest of cards, right? And I'm sure you're kind of like, why, out of all the ones you told me you have, did you pick that one? And it's because of the story. So it is a pink laser Sonja Citron auto from Donruss numbered out of 25. And the reason that I chose that one is because it represents everything about the hobby for me. It was a card that my daughter and I hit out of a personal box that we ripped in our basement together. And it was obviously the one player that we both collect obsessively. So it just really encapsulated everything about the journey that I've had through the hobby and through the fandom to this point. It's something, you know, this business that we have is something that started out as my daughter and I just having fun on Whatnot and then selling a few singles. And then, you know, here we are two years later with the business and being, you know, the only full time WNBA stream on Whatnot. So that card really was at the start of it all. And, you know, it's something that with my daughter and I always, that card will never leave. You know, that doesn't matter where Sonya goes, doesn't matter what happens with the rest of her career. We're going to keep that card because that card just encapsulates our entire hobby experience to this point. That's so awesome. That's like the kind of story you hope when you hear about. People talk about grail, is that it has that kind of story associated with it. Do you mind kind of like taking us inside that moment when you guys were ripping in the basement, what that kind of felt like? Did you two look at each other? You're like, we did it. That's exactly it. It was exactly it. I mean, obviously, you know, with, with all of those products, there's always a trigger, right? There's always one auto that means, okay, there's going to be a big auto coming. So in like last year or in 2024, I guess it was if you got a Chez Petty auto out of Prizm you were going to get a Caitlin Clark auto. Right? Like, everybody knew that that was the Trigger or whatever it was. Or Select sorry, in select, it was Shea Petty. And so I forget who the trigger was, but when we saw it, we knew, like, okay, it's going to be a good auto. It's going to be a rookie, it's probably going to be Paige, it's going to be Sonya, or it's going to be Dom, you know, because it was just whoever the trigger was. And, you know, with Donruss, the first five or six cards are facing upright, and then the auto is always backwards. And so we pulled the card off the top, we saw that it was Sonia and that it was an auto, and we're like, okay, Yu-Gi-Oh We got a base auto. You know, like, that's awesome. We still. We'll take it. Well, then we flipped it over and saw that it was the pink out of 25. And so that just made it that much sweeter because it was, you know, it was just a moment where, again, at certain points in life, things mean more than others because we were going through a lot of stuff with our family again at that point. So it was just a really cool moment to be able to share. I mean, my daughter's not young, you know, she's not a little girl. She's in her mid-20s. So, you know, it's just still something that, that's cool to have and be able to do with her on a daily basis. And she's one of our breakers that runs every day, you know, full time. And it's just cool, a cool start to our journey on this business venture. And, and being able to. To do it together is really special. That's so awesome. I. I think, like, the power of cards really can't be underestimated. Like that moment, like you said, maybe it was a. A sense of, like, relief from what was going on in the real world. It was a sense of connection between a father and daughter who are doing something, taking a risk, and doing it together. I think to have that all those emotions that are so difficult to put into words and to capture a card can just represent that it can do it. And it doesn't have to say anything. It can just be that. And I think that card perfectly represents that. So, Matthew, thank you for sharing that story. That's a. An awesome grill that I hope never leaves your collection and that you look back at 20 years from now or whenever and you can still recall that same memory. I think that's awesome. For sure. That's what the hobby is all about, right? 100%. Well, before I let you go. I want to give you the Fleer to mention anything that maybe we didn't get to, that you wanted to talk about and then tell everybody where they can find you. If they're interested in breaking or just hearing more about your collection. Maybe they're interested in that Amore black 4 in one auto where they can find you online. Sure, we've said a lot, so I don't know that there's any more that needs to be said as far as my fandom or my collection or anything, but you can find us on Whatnot. Dynasty Underscore sportscards and Dynasty Sports Cards Underscore. So we have two channels on there. We run WNBA every day, all day breaks, singles. We run consignments. So if you have WNBA cards that you need to sell and you don't really feel like doing a Whatnot show or listen them on ebay or whatever, you can certainly go on our Instagram, which is @dynastysportscards and send us a message. We'll be happy to send you over some information on that. But, you know, we take pride in being the only full time WNBA stream and we're here for the hobby and for the community of WNBA collectors. We're not running around chasing the next dollar bill and the next new product that comes out in another sport. Like, we're here. We're grinding every day waiting for these products to come from Panini so we can help you guys get them, you know, and we try to really pride ourselves on being there for the collector and being part of it. Not just the person who, you know, sits behind the screen saying, you know, hey, getting our breaks, getting our breaks. Like, we're, we're in everybody's shows. We're buying from as many people as we can. We're, we're a part of it. We're making trades. We're, you know, we're trying to be a part of the community as. As opposed to a shadowy figure that sits in the background collecting, you know, money or something like that. Like, we really are one of, you know, the community that just enjoys the hobby as much as everybody else. So that's kind of where we are and where we came from and what the, you know, what the hobby means to us is we just want to share that with everybody else for sure. Well, if you guys want to find Matthew, who's at Dynasty Sports Cards like he said, and before we kind of round out today's episode, every episode ends the same way. If somebody's listening and they're trying to Figure out which WNBA team to watch to be a fan of and to ultimately collect. Matthew, if you could make the pitch on behalf of the Mystics fandom as to why the Mystics are the team they should choose. Well, I used to be a car salesman, so this should be, this should be a nice throwback to those days, right? No, I mean, they're, look, they're, they're the youngest, they're the most exciting team in the WNBA right now. They've got the Absolute highest ceiling of any team, in my opinion. They're young and energetic, and best of all, they just don't care. They're just going to go out and they're just going to fight. And why wouldn't you want to be a part of a team that's the underdog damn near every time they go on the court, but yet all they seem to do is come away with a W. It's exciting, it's fun. And, you know, best of all, they alt art good people and, you know, they all they care about their fans. And who doesn't want that, as a fan of a team, to know that the players appreciate you, they see you, they hear you, they're willing to communicate that, and to be, you know, interactive with you as a fan, it's just phenomenal. I would have never imagined that you could find that in a professional sports world, but we have it. So grateful for it. And come be a Mystics fan, man. It's only going to get better. Well, you heard it here. I think that's a pretty convincing pitch. The Mystics are a fun team to watch. Matthew, I could hear your enthusiasm and your passion for the fandom throughout today's episode. So thank you so much for joining the WNBA Card podcast. Like we said, you guys can find Matthew at Dynasty, Sportscard, on Instagram, Whatnot, other channels. But thank you again. I, I really appreciated it and thank you to the listeners for listening today. We'll be back next week with another episode. Love the conversation with Matthew at Dynasty Sports Cards. A lot of fun stories in there. Definitely resonated with me. As a father of young daughters, finding that connection point is always so important. Make sure you're following us at WNBA Card Pod on Instagram. We appreciate all of your support. We hear you. We can feel it. We don't do this without you. Shout out card ladder for supporting the WNBA Card Podcast. Caitlyn will be back with more conversations next week. Take care. Talk to you soon. Facebook.