THWC 410: The Hobby Has Too Many Rules

What is up, everybody? How About Cage Episode 410 brought to you by Arena Club by card letter, use code Cage. Save yourself a couple bucks. And by the Philly Show. It's funny. Later episode released today and happy people will understand. I was waiting because I got a notification that I was gonna have a FedEx delivery of cards, you know, stuff that I bought from, from Fanatics Weekly two weeks ago. And waiting for the delivery. And you know, of course FedEx, it'll be there by 12, it'll be there by 1:40. And you know, here's one of those things. I don't want to be interrupted here while I do this, but I also don't want to miss my delivery. So a couple times I thought to myself, I'll hit record and you know, we'll cross our fingers and we'll get through 15, 20 minutes and I won't have to get up and break the flow and, you know, go answer the door. But I know as soon as I hit record record, you know, FedEx guy is gonna show up. So I waited and I waited a while and. But I got my delivery. I'm very happy. I got my cards. You know, I'm putting a nice collection together to bring to Fanatics Fest and probably some cards left over for the national. And we're gonna have some fun. Bring some cards, make some deals, make some trades, sell some cards, buy some cards and, you know, have some fun, as I like to say, right? So that's why we got a little bit of a delayed episode here for 410 of the hobby with Cage. But it's a fun one today if you haven't seen it yet. I sometimes like to do this. You know, the question becomes, does life imitate art or art imitate life? The question for me is more of, you know, do I post things because of episodes that I did, or do I post things and they create episodes? It's a little bit of both. But yesterday I posted something that I knew would generate discussion and I was kind of waiting for somebody to post one of these cards I knew would generate discussion that just. I think it's fantastic. I mean, I think that the conversation around, around the topic that I posted yesterday is just great. I posted, if you haven't seen it yet, there's an Otani from the Dynasty that just released this year's Dynasty. And it is a. It is an a current year card. And obviously Otani is playing, right? I mean, this is a Playing Years Ohtani card. But here's the fun part. It is a picture of him in a, an angel's jersey. And the patch is an angel's patch. No, he signed it this year, I'm sure. So, you know, he signed it, now he's playing. And I just posed the question on the card to everyone and it's, is this a playing days card? Is this a playing, you know, year card? Because, I mean, I think if you, if you take it from its most basic and literal interpretation, the answer has to be yes, right? He's playing. He's playing this year. He's playing this year. And because he's playing this year, then, you know, it's a playing card. It's a playing days card, a playing year card, however we want to do it. And what's funny about it is this topic, it brings out so much venom in people. I saw a story post yesterday of someone saying, just a reminder, you know, this guy's playing this cards this year to this year, and anything else is trash. That that was the actual word that was used. So if it's outside that, it's trash. Keep in mind someone like Michael Jordan, think of how much money people spend on Michael Jordan Exquisite cards. Think of the, the Jordan LeBron duel, you know, the, the Jordan Kobe Duel logo man card from Exquisite. That's outside of Jordan's playing days. So for Jordan, that's not a playing days card. It's trash. Sold for millions of dollars, but it's trash. It's interesting to think about that. But what's funny about it is the person who said it's trash and a lot of other people, they agree. And this is part of the fun with the hobby and why I put that post out there. It's. We have a lot of rules, you know, to me, dynasty for soccer, for baseball, for F1, and soon for basketball and football. That's a premier product. It's game used, you know, starting 2025 for F1, it's race used, you know, for soccer, it's game used. And soccer is an interesting thing, right? Because, you know, look, Ohtani has played for two teams and, you know, he's currently on the Dodgers. A lot of people said it's got to be the Dodgers card for it to be a playing days card. You know, he's not playing for the, the, the, the Angels anymore. It's interesting. He's clearly playing. You know what I mean? He's playing. I brought this up. There was a, you know, a 2022 Patriots Tom Brady kaboom while he's playing for Tampa Bay. That Year. I haven't heard anybody say, I'm not buying that card because it's not a playing day. His card, and clearly he was playing. He just happened to be on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's, it's, it really is a funny thing. And I would implore you to go to my page and take a look at some of the conversation. Right. I mean, for some people it was fair, you know, Some people it was, you know, it was. It's a playing era card. The important thing is game used. I do think as hobbyists, we put too many arbitrary walls to say what we say is important overall. But it's a great card. These guys, you know, a lot of people said, no debate, it's game used 100. It was made during his playing days. So it's a playing days card. It matters if you want it to matter. I like that. Right. Some people said they only care that the jersey was worn. Some people said it might be playing days. I have no interest in a 25, 26 card with a 2123 jersey. Specific patch dates back to something meaningful. Okay. But one guy says it goes in the commemorative sports card bucket. That's one of my favorites. That's a, that's a crossover card. Ladder analysis there. I love that. I love that. You know, Dynasty is not a playing days product. Bowman technically isn't a playing days product either. You know, think about that for a second from the other end, right? I mean, when somebody is get their first Bowman card, they're not really playing yet. You know, they're playing for the minor league team. Not really a quote unquote playing days, you know, either. You know, it really is an interesting thing. It really is fun to kind of consider it. There are a lot of comments that basically say, you know, nope, not game used. You know, and I. One guy, you know, said, think about it like Rockets. James Harden going to sell for more than a 20, 24 rockets panini card when he's no longer on the Rockets. Compared Westbrook and McGrady, there's a lot of fun conversation to be had there. One guy went as far as to say that he liked it because the angel stuff is where, you know, the guy started out. And when the career is said and done, there'll be way more Dodger stuff, you know, because he's ultimately going to wind up playing many more seasons for the Dodgers. He'll probably be known more as a Dodger. It's where he did his winning. So, you know, that cuts both ways. People want to have Those Dodgers cards. But I can understand that line of, of you know, of argument too. I bring this up because, you know, somebody like Lionel Messi does not have game used Barcelona jersey cards with on card autos until the dynasty set for 2022, which is the year after he stopped playing for Dynasty. It's not the year after he stopped for Barcelona. It's not the year after he stopped playing. He just happened to have been moved to PSG at the time. He's still playing today, you know, and I don't hear anybody out there saying that his, you know, his Miami MLS cards are not playing days cards. He's clearly playing. He has played, you know, since 2004, basically 2003 even. I mean he's been playing for a long time and all of his cards are playing days. They're all playing years cards. He's been playing in those years. It's an interesting thing though because you know, a purist analysis is, I mean a 20, 22, 23 card that has him in a Barcelona jersey is not a quote playing days card. And there are plenty of people who will argue that same thing with the Sultani at this card because it's, it depicts him in an angel's uniform while he's playing for the Dodgers is not valid. It's commemorative. Like every single Michael Jordan card from 2003 on is a commemorative card. Interesting. Does it matter? Some people seem to think it does. Some people seem to think it doesn't. Some people drew a line between shiny cards and patch autos and that for patch autos like this dynasty Ohtani, it doesn't matter, you know, as long as it's a year he's playing. You know, keep in mind Dynasty this year is going to have both Dodgers and they're gonna have both Dodgers and Angels for Otani. But think about it going forward now because you haven't really seen this. Well, you kind of have, you know, flawless dual logo man of LeBron or Triple Logo man of LeBron had his Lakers but also had a Heat and a Cavs. You know, is that only a 1/3 playing days card? And think about this. When Dynasty NBA comes out and they have LeBron in a Cavs jersey, people might want that more. LeBron in a heat jersey, they might want that more. Who knows, The Lakers one will be the current team. But are we really going to go as far as to say that the LeBron and the Cavs jersey is not a quote playing days card? I don't know. It's funny because there are Cards of people that matter, that don't have them in the right uniform. They have them in the uniform of that year and people don't love them. Think about 2012. Prism has Randy Moss in a 49ers jersey. Now if he happened to be in a Patriots jersey in there, I think it sells for more. But he wasn't playing for the Patriots that year. So it cuts both ways. That card is a full on playing days card, but so many people don't really want it because who wants Randy moss in a 49ers jersey? Same thing for Peyton Manning. I don't think his Bronco stuff sells as much as his cold stuff. Just my opinion. So when the NFL comes, Aaron Rodgers may have dynasty cards. Maybe he has Pittsburgh and maybe he has Green Bay. And it's a playing years card. There hasn't really been that. You know that on card game use, right? I mean you're not going to buy the dynasty and you're not going to want to buy a Green Bay Packers Rogers card because some rule that you have out there is gonna say ah, because of the strict rules. That's not gonna be a playing days car waste. He's playing, playing this year. You know, there are guys who are associated with teams, they built their legacies there and then they change. You're not gonna want that card. And the playing day stuff kind of almost goes out the window. I mean think of how much money is being paid for Tom Brady top chrome super fractor from this current year that was just released. He's not even playing. Think about that. It's pretty cool. Maybe the hobby has too many rules. Maybe if you think about it long enough, you realize that the people who are shouting about these rules so loudly have these rules in place. Because maybe they favor their own personal cards, maybe they favor their own collection. Maybe they have only flawless, messy and don't want the dynasty to be recognized. You know, maybe they have a lot of Michael Jordan cards from the 90s and don't understand why the exquisite stuff sells for so much more and they want their cards to be valued so much more. So they put up this playing days rules. I mean, I'm not going to fault it. We have to have rules. You know, we don't have rules. It's anarchy. Anybody know what movie that's from? Because there's bonus points there. You talking about movie? I don't mind the rules, but I mean rules are made to be broken. Especially when it comes to a hobby like this where you're supposed to have Some fun. And when you think about sometimes applying the rules makes for worse cards. That Randy Moss prism card is a perfect example. I mean, talk about a cool card, but guy's still playing in a 2012 Prism Gold. I have a feeling if that card showed him in the Patriots uniform, it would sell for a lot more money. That's just me. I don't know. Tell me if you think I'm right or if I'm wrong. And that's today's thought. Check out the page. You know, give it a look. Tell me what you think you'll see. You know, it's an Ohtani from this year's Dynasty. Check out the commentary in there. It's a really fun back and forth. You'll kind of see battle lines being drawn. You'll see the obligatory, you know, happy people who are like, who cares? That's an awesome card. You know, like, forget about the rules. Who cares what it is? That's a sick card. I'd be happy to own it. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, that's fun too, but I put these things up there partially to poke people because I already know what their answer is going to be, but. But more to kind of elicit a conversation. Maybe you could tell me what you think in the comments and YouTube and, you know, you can DM me if you like, or again, go on Instagram, Cage lawyer, and you know, follow along. Add your 2 cents in there and. And let me know what you think. And that's another episode, guys. It's brought to you by Arena Club, by card ladder, use code Cage. Save yourself a couple bucks. And by the Philly show. Getting excited. There's a little bit of a lull here. I mean, anybody's got a cool card show here in the Northeast, it's drivable to me in the next couple weeks. Let me know. I'd love to. My son and I were looking for some card shows. Didn't really see any. And then we have, you know, obviously Fanatics Fest and the national coming up pretty quick on us there. So, you know, those will be here before you know it. But I was just wondering if there were any between now and then that anybody knew about, because fiending gotta go to a card show. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Take care, everybody.