This market is about to explode

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 won't 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. Welcome. Thanks for being here. Happy Sunday. Apologies if you looked for me at the White Plains show on Friday, I ended up not going. A few people I knew were I was planning to meet up with, I, I had to let call them and let them know that I wouldn't be there. Something came up and, and I just couldn't make it down on Friday. But I still was able to set up at two shows this weekend and both shows were more downtime than deal time, lower foot traffic than usual with, with pockets of being busy. We had so many shows going on in and around Connecticut this weekend, most notably that White Plains show at the Westchester County Center. A bigger three day show that closely borders Connecticut definitely takes the foot traffic away from Connecticut shows, especially the bigger buyers. And I know New Jersey on the other side that had a few shows going on as well. People I know down there saying the same thing that they noticed that that foot traffic was low. But talking to the people that went to Westchester said it was, it was crowded down there. I saw some, some videos of long lines waiting to get in and that's why I go on Friday. I know people are like, I don't want to pay $40 to go to a card show. I'm like, you know what, it's better than standing in line paying 25 and standing in line and waiting to get in. And when you get in there, you, you can't even get up to a table. So that's, that's my reasoning. I'll, I'll spend the extra so I can go in and enjoy myself at the card show and not be fighting with people all day. I set up at the big show in Bristol, Connecticut on Saturday. You know the weather. If you looked at the weather all week, you're like, oh. I was like, thank God I've got shows this weekend. It was calling for cold, rainy, windy all weekend. You know, I get up early Saturday morning and it's a bright sunny day with clear sky. I'm like, what is going on? I guess the weatherman definitely got it wrong this time. Right. And about an hour after that show started, I looked out, somebody said, oh, it's raining as downpouring outside for like 15 or 20 minutes. And then from that moment on, on Saturday, it just stayed, you know, mostly overcast and windy, but it really didn't rain. I knew the sun kept coming out, going away and coming out. I think, I think rain all day would have been much better for, for card shows, especially this time of year when there's kids, sports and lots of other things going on. I was thinking the weather could, could drive people to the show. The morning foot traffic at the big show is definitely busier than late morning and afternoon. There was a good rush in the morning, you know, maybe from 10 to 11:30 somewhere in there. And then it seemed to, you know, fade away and then maybe a couple, couple other short rushes throughout the day. But the show was definitely a family oriented and collector oriented show. You know, the people attending the show. I was set up next to a guy who was selling vintage baseball and football and he had a steady stream all day. Set builders showing up, pulling out their, their sheets of paper and going through all his boxes and things like that. And I know we just talked about it on. That was one of the listener questions on the hobby shop Thursday night Basketball card guy asks, is, is there any more set builders out there? And you know what if you don't see them? Out of sight, out of mind. But I'll tell you what, I watched them come one after another all day to his table looking for cards in different sets and different years and things like that. And it was interesting, interesting just to hear the conversation and you hear the people saying, oh, I've been building this set for 35 years. I've been building this set for 40 years. You know, so a lot of work being put into building some of these sets. A lot of parents with young kids walking the show and you know, you can always tell, you know, when people are coming to the shows. Nobody has any cases, right? You know, the parents and the kids and the, the kid buys the card and holds it for a while and then just hands it to mom to drop in her pocketbook or dad to put it in his pocket. You know, it's, it's, it's so, it's first of all so good to see the parents getting the kids involved and going out and doing that. And I think whether it sticks at that particular moment, consistency with anything else. Attending shows will definitely get the kids, keep the kids involved. Another thing I saw, there was not many people selling cards, right. I've been talking about every show after show, just people lined up, coming up, dropping their case down, you buying, you buying, you buying, you know, just going through and going through and copping cards. And I mean, Edish is selling and comping cards and trying to buy cards is just as exhausting. Right. And not much of that happening at this show, which was. I expected to see it a lot more, you know, Randomly. People would walk up and pull one card out and say, are you interested in this? Or maybe two or three cards. You know, a couple people came up and I actually went through their cases and I had a buying sign on my table, which is usually the attractor to get people to come. There was a hallway when you first came in. There was like a long hallway before you went in the main room. And there were, there were some guys up set up out there with some massive buying signs and maybe it worked out for them. It's quite possible that a lot of the attendees, what they were selling, got sold out in that long hallway before they entered the, the main room. Right. So, you know, it's quite possible that happened as well too. That's why I didn't see that many, you know, didn't have that, that many buying opportunities in that room for myself in my inventory. It's a, I have to say, it's a funny time of year. Everything I'm buying is going to the national. And I. And I've been in that mindset for a while now, probably since December or January. Just, you know, buying things, putting them away. Buying things, putting them away. Just building that, building that inventory. So a lot of that stuff's not going back into my case. So everything I'm selling now is mostly WNBA cards. I had, I had had and have, you know, some NBA, some football that I'm putting out. So I have a little, a little taste of it in my case. And soccer cards. I've broken out soccer cards now knowing that World cup is starting in a few weeks, you know, just putting out there what I can to try to keep my case looking as good as I possibly can while I, I am, I'm selling off, which I did, sold off most of the football and a bunch of the soccer. Right. And just trying to reinvest that other cards that I'll bring out to Chicago with me. I know the next two shows that I have coming up over the next month for the opportunity that I could. I'll Actually sell those WNBA cards is this Saturday coming up. I'm in Albany. I did that show, I don't know, month, two months ago, and surprisingly I sold a bunch of wnba. There were a lot of people in that area that were looking for the wnba. So I'm excited to go back with that inventory and the EC3 con show later in June at Mohegan Sun. That's another great show. A lot of, A lot of repeat buyers and customers that know me come find me at that show. So that, that's usually a really good show for me, especially with the wnba. It's like, like right in the heart of women's basketball country right up, up there. So that's definitely a good show for me. But, you know, most of these local and small shows and shows that I've been doing, they're not going to be selling that much wnba. If people are selling it, I mean, they know they'll come right to me with those cards. They know I, I could be their guy to buy. But as far as selling it, not really, not, not a lot happening at the local shows, you know, especially with the WNBA stuff. And it feels like we're on the cusp of football really starting to fill up these cases now. Starting to see it come out. Not only is it showing up at the table, but, and I'm not talking about Topps Chrome football, because that's all I, all I've been seeing from, for, for the last month. But I mean, real graded football, like stuff that just been collecting dust and you know, somewhere that nobody's pulled out because the prices have been down and, you know, nobody wants to take a hit on it. But I'm starting to see it, some good cards showing up in the football cases, not just people like me saying, okay, I've got these, this football, I want to put football in. I can attract football, but these aren't really cards that I'm probably going to do necessarily well with at the National. So I, it's okay to just drop him in my case here, hopefully attract, you know, what I want to buy, but, you know, maybe sell them too and just reinvest that into, you know, level up two or three of those and cards and level up into something a little bit bigger. I'm finding though, you know, everything I'm seeing is priced over comps, stuff showing up to the table. You know, you're saying, look, I see the last one, they're like, oh, yeah, but it's, you know, it's off season now, right? Last one sold at 125, I really need 150 on that card. You know, with stories of, this is the guy this year, his market's gonna go up. He got a new quarterback, he got a new wide receiver. You know, if a lot of those cards come in with a story, and, and I, I completely understand it. I, I completely understand it. I, I, I may be selling a card with a story myself. So for me, buying and selling is just getting harder and harder now. It's funny, all, all the, all the national treasures that I've been sharing with you guys over the last, I don't even know what it is. Six, seven months, six, seven weeks, the national treasures, the autographs, the RPAs, all those cars, they were just showing up, right? Everybody's case just full of them, buying them up on great prices. And then all of a sudden, I started seeing the values of these starting to rise up, and I'm like, I'm getting excited about it. I'm looking for more. And I'm noticing either one, they're scarce, or two, the comp is way higher than, than it should be, the price tag sticker is way higher. And I inquire, I just, you know, and I say, hey, where are you at on this? And they're like, oh, yeah, I'm way over comps on that. You know, I'd rather just hold it, you know, than try to move it right now. Completely understand. I, I have a whole, a whole case full of them over here that I've been acquiring, you know, over the last six to eight weeks. So happy to have them, but difficult, you know, to keep, continue to buy at the right price, knowing what I've paid for some of these already versus what their, their present comps are. And hey, let's face it, if, if I wasn't setting up in the national, probably in the next week or two, these, I would be putting these all out in cases, right? I mean, definitely by July anyways. But what are you seeing out there? Do you get the feeling football is about to explode? Is it already exploded in your area? You know, where, where your shopping and what you're seeing and what shows you're going to. I just, I think it's just a matter of weeks before cases are just full with football again. It's funny how the market gets stuck on certain players too, right? So with baseball, it's been Ohtani, right? It's been. Been Ohtani for, you know, all the rage, right? And then basketball, of course, with Wemby now is his market just keeps Climbing and climbing. Now they're going the finals. Like, I'm sure it's, it's after, after the game last night. I, I didn't see any cards today, but I'm sure they're, they're, they're up again. So who will be the football chase? I mean, who's going to be the guy this year? People keep asking me, like, big Ken, who do you got? Who. Who's gonna be? And I'm like, look, I know as much as you do, right? I, I try to buy a good variety of people. I do my homework. I look at the draft. I, I see free agency, who's got who, what I'm thinking. And, and like, my guess really is educated, right? But it's, it's a guess. I mean, I have no idea. No idea. There's going to be some. Something that's kind of going to come out of training camp or a trade is going to be made or something that's going to blow somebody up. But, I mean, I think at this point, we just don't know who it is yet. You know, I, I would imagine, you know, being in Chicago again with the National, Caleb Williams is going to be, you know, probably pretty high. I know when Justin Fields went there, you know, we were there in 2023, right. 2022, whatever. With Justin Fields. I mean, he, he was all the rage. At one point, I couldn't believe some of the prices those cards were selling at. And you know what? Yeah. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Chicago players. The wide receiver, the tight end, the quarterback. So I, I've certainly stocked up on some of them, but leave me a comment, let me know predictions and why. Who do you think will be the football chase on Sunday? I went down to Bill and Billy's card show at Danbury, Connecticut. Three local shows, all on Sunday. So it's definitely a day of pocket activity. People will travel from one show to the next show to the next show. So you'll see, like, a good wave of people come in, and then it would slow down, then another good wave of people come in, then dies down again, and then another wave of people come in. I was happy to set up next to my guy Howard. It made for a great day, hanging out and chopping it up with him during the, during the slower times. A number of people coming through the show, commenting on the soccer that I had, in my case, asking me, you know, when do I think the market is going to pop on soccer? I'm probably the Last person to ask on that. I always say, look, I hope it's today you want to start buying. Since I had, I have the cards in my case, I hope it's today. And I've had these cards out the last few weeks and I haven't gotten any looks at all at them. But today was the day somebody showed up and bought a couple of them. So super excited on that. I know, I know. I co signed a video by special1cards. It's on my story if you want to go check it out. I shared it with some good information about soccer and the soccer market and World cup coming up and his thoughts I would recommend. I mean if you're interested in the soccer market or you have some cards or you're wondering about it, I'd recommend giving a listen. It's very short but very informative. Formative. My philosophy on these soccer cards, in my case, they don't owe me anything. I don't mind. I think I'm putting, I've already had them out a few weeks so I think I'm putting them out early, right? I'm giving some like in my mind and especially in something, something like this, I've got six, seven, eight of those cards, right? And I'm not talking about super expensive, you know, probably anywhere from, from a hundred dollars to five hundred dollars, right? I'm happy to put those cards out. Somebody who knows the market and, and kind of has a plan to know what they're doing. I mean, I'm, I'm hoping I'm giving them more than enough time to come and buy the card at a decent price and go flip it and hopefully make a little money on it. I mean, I don't want to be the person waiting like, oh, I need to get every penny out of this card. I'm gonna wait till the end. I'm gonna wait for this guy because you know what will happen? I'll end up sitting on these cards for, for two to four more years, right? I mean, and that's basically what will happen. These cards have sat here some of the, a couple of these cards have sat here since last World cup, right? So, you know, I, I, I, I'm happy, I'm happy to move these cards to anybody who's wanting and willing to take them, right? So take them, flip them. Hopefully you can do well on them too. It's funny, I can set up two shows, right? One on Saturday, one on Sunday and I'm guessing maybe 30 miles away from each other. One show. I hardly sell anything the next day at another show, same case, same cards, and some of the same people I saw at the show the day before, it didn't come the next day and buy cards, but I'm just saying, just the similar people, right? And all of a sudden, I sell a bunch of cards on Sunday, Saturday, I couldn't. Couldn't hardly sell anything. And then on Sunday, I saw a whole bunch of cards. And it's still people with the same mindset of buying and flipping the cards, right? I'm not saying it's. Oh, it's. It's a whole different crowd. It's not a different crowd. It's the same thing. Everybody's doing the same thing. They're coming in, they're comping the cards. They're. They're saying, look, if I could buy this card for this and I can sell it for that, I can make a few bucks. I mean, that's what I'm doing. That's what they're doing. So it's not like all of a sudden I went somewhere else and I had this true soccer collector that came in and bought. Or a true basketball, you know, collector. No, it's the same people buying the card saying, yeah, I think I could take this. Buy this card from you at this price and make money somewhere else. So it's even the same mindset. People looking in my case on Saturday, saw no value at the cards in my case. And then on Sunday, all of a sudden, we find value. No rhyme, no reason. It's. It's some. It just amazes me sometimes. And. And I've learned setting up all these years at these shows is. Know the show, but don't. Don't let the show dictate, you know, how you feel about your inventory. Where I could set up at three shows and four shows and put the same cards out there, right? And not get a look. And then the fifth show, I. I could sell some, right? I know when a card stale is when I've had that card way too long. And people show up and they look at my case and they're like, oh, yeah, I remember that card. I saw you. Okay, well, now, I've had these cards too long, right? But if you get out there enough and put these cards out in front of enough people, I. I think you find your buyers. We talked. We talked about an earlier episode or I've talked about an earlier episode of my. My case being trash. Someone called my. My case trash. And. And in my mind, like, I'm driving home Sunday in my mind thinking about this episode, thinking about what I'm doing. I said. I said, people on Saturday were like, yo, this guy's case is trash, right? And then on Sunday, they're like, oh, look, look what we got here. We got. Not trash anymore. We got lots of value now, right? It's just. It's just crazy. It's. It's no rhyme or reason. You never know. I. I had a handful of pickups this weekend. The most expensive card I bought was a hundred dollars. So nothing to get excited about. I don't know how many I have here. Six, seven cards. But the hundred dollar card, the most expensive one, comes with a story, right? So a kid brings this card to my table. You want to buy that? So I look at it. It's a 20, 23 Don Russ optic Bryce Young, mythical PSA 10, last three comps. 125, 130, 135. I offer him a hundred dollars on the card. He says, I need 140 on it. I says, can you do any better than 140? He said, no, I need 140 on the card. I said, all right, I'm not your guy. So he walked off. We did not get the deal done. He went to another table and. Because it's slow. And I watched him sell the card to somebody else at another table. And I thought to myself, why would somebody pay 140 for that card? Like, I. I mean, I could see it happening, but I thought to myself, realistically, why. Why would that happen? Because I could. I see the young kids he's selling the card to, you know, that are usually pretty sharp and set up at all the shows. And it was someone that Bill and Billy knew, they were friends with. So I walk over to Bill and Billy and I said, I tried. I said, your friends just bought that card? He said, yeah. I said, I tried to buy that card. I said, I can't imagine what they paid for it. He said, I think they paid like 85 for it. I'm like, what? That's crazy. I just offered the kid 100 for the car. Why would he walk over there and sell it for $85? So Billy walks over to the table and he comes back with the card. He goes, here, a hundred dollars. I just bought the card from the guy for a hundred dollars. I'm like, how did this happen? What did I do wrong over there? Like. Like, you know, sometimes, you know, some. Some. A little bit of this that, you know, if someone's got a deal or somebody owes somebody something, maybe Like, I don't know. I. I just thought it was. Was strange. I still have no idea what happened. I. I know I ended up getting the same card for $100 after it changed hands. So somebody got a better deal on that card and made money selling it to him for $100. Unless. Unless that's what he paid for it. And then he was just like, you know what? I don't want this card. Just. Just get me out of it. Just make me whole. I. I'm not sure I'm. I wasn't there when their deal went down. I mean, I'm. I'm assuming they probably got it for like $90 or $85 or something, but it was just like. Funny things like that happen at a card show. Makes me shake my head like, I. I don't know why, don't know why that happened, but either way, I ended up with the card for what I wanted it for. Oh, and I'll show it to you here. You're on YouTube. It's the. The mythical Bryce Young. Oh, some pickups. I picked up a redemption card. It's a little late to get a black box at Panini, but it was Jaden Blue Freshman fabric Mirror signatures A Roshan Johnson. That's a rated rookie Optic Don Russ Optic. Rated rookie Auto Prism auto number to 150 again, Chicago player. Happy to have it. Another Chicago player. The red black Caleb Williams. Red black Shock RJ Harvey micro mosaic. And these are all. If you're listening, they're all raw. None of them are graded a Bucky IRVIN Phoenix Auto to 49. This was kind of a cool card. Like, I mean, I would buy more Brady cards if I could if it just seems like they're always so overpriced. And then I. I saw this card. This card is numbered. And I looked at the comp and I couldn't believe how inexpensive it was. It's a tops 2015 Tom Brady Gold and it's numbered to 2015. It's raw. I took it. The last card I is as a Tina Thompson. It's a gold prism logo, number to 10. Yeah, I told you. Trashy pickups, but happy to have them. Happy to have something to pick up. Thursday night. I'll be live 9pm with my guy Zip on the hobby shop next weekend. Two shows. I mentioned the Celtic show in Albany, New York on Saturday and the Hamden card show. My guy Rich Zwiddlebug cards his show on Sunday. And that's it until next time. Take care of yourselves and everyone around you. Sa.