Topps Industry Conference Review (Part 1: Amex/Fanatics Credit Card? Topps Marketing Strategy); Goals For Sport Card Expo; Offering New (And Wacky) Ideas To Improve The Hobby

You're listening to Cards to the Moon, a podcast about trading cards from both a collector and investor perspective. We hope you'll stick around for the ride as we take a deep dive into the state of the hobby, share some hot takes, hopefully some useful advice and fun stories along the way. Hey guys, welcome back to Cards to the Moon. This is episode 361 and my name is Clark from 5cardguys.com and you can also find me at 5cardguys on Instagram, YouTube, and on Facebook. Co-hosting with me today is Will and Roy. They're back to talk a little bit about the Pokemon and WWE card market, of course. And we'll also be talking about the TOPS industry conference that happened just this past week. But off the top, let's actually talk about the Sport Card Expo coming up in Toronto, the biggest card show in Canada. I think we all have booths and as of this recording, we actually only have three weeks to prep. And I was initially going to ask you, have you guys started prepping, but I feel like I already know the answer. It's kind of like asking, have you guys started studying for an exam when you're at school? We all know the answer for that too. We just crammed last minute. So what I'm interested in is, three weeks out from the Sport Card Expo, like I said before, do you guys have any goals, specific goals for this expo coming up? Like are you looking to sell certain cards that you have right now or are you looking to mostly buy? What's your game plan? For me, I kind of want to liquidate a lot of cards and try to trade into something that's kind of bigger and more rare, whether it's the Mario that I've been chasing for so long or like a special trophy card. Chances are I probably won't, but that's the hope and goal. Maybe I'll walk around with this big stack of cards and just take 90% or whatever someone's going to be willing to trade and go into something big. But I don't know, with the market's so crazy now with like high-end cards, it's going to be tough. Yeah, I'm curious, you know, you've been vending at multiple shows over the past couple years especially, like what is your inventory? Do you have even more cards from say last year or are you kind of even? I probably have more just because I'm starting to get all my cards that I sent in for grading about five, six months ago. Like I just got two subs back in the past two weeks. Well, one's in the mail, but I should get it on Monday. Okay. But in terms of quantity, yeah, I definitely have more cards. So yeah, I need to get rid of some and hopefully get into something bigger. I've slowly been selling off some things like Sealed and whatnot. So just building up that cash, buy something big. Nice, nice. Well, you mentioned Super Mario, that Pikachu. What is the update like in terms of the value of it? Have you checked recently or not? No, I haven't been doing too much card research lately, but I'm going to guess it's like 40k Canadian. 40k Canadian. Yeah, 41.4 was the last sold three days ago. Canadian. Canadian, 47,000. Okay. So that's about 30k US for our American friends, which is insane. Yeah, so 41.4, 47, 42, 42, 40. Yeah, so it's just above the 40,000, so around 30k. All right. So you got to liquidate a lot for that Mario Pikachu. Yeah. But I'm actually willing to do it just because everything else, I mean, if you trade up things that have gone up as well, like net, you're going to be even. Like if my cards were worth 2,000 and now they're 5,000, trade enough of those, net even, right? Maybe pay a little bit of a premium, but I'm okay with that. Cool. What's the likelihood of seeing a Mario Pikachu at the show? Oh, you'll probably see one at Expo. Most of the shows, you probably see one or two. There's a bunch of big players in the Toronto market, but I don't know. Lately, I feel people have been holding back their high-end stuff just because there's so much theft and crazy stuff going on in the GTA. I think the last show or one of the shows, there's two instances where one person was followed after the show. They went to go eat at a restaurant and then as they were inside the restaurant, they smashed the car, grabbed all the cards and then took off. And then the second instance was from the same show apparently. There was a couple driving and then they had to get gas after the show. As they're filling up, they just took the girlfriend out of the car and they just stole the car and everything inside. It's wild times here, man. It's actually kind of crazy. It's a little scary. Yeah. I mean, now is the time to insure your cards if you have high-end cards, get a safety deposit box, get something. Don't leave your valuables at home because you never know. Oh, that's so sad that it would come down to that, but that's so what money does, I guess. Will, how about you? Sorry. I brought the whole mood down. Let's end this show. Let's end this episode right now. I don't know how to segue from that. Oh, man. Yeah. I don't know how to transition. Yeah. I am prepping for the card show. Oh, nice. Okay. Just a little bit. I was digging through just old baseball inserts that I thought were completely valueless, but in our group chat, somebody posted about the Shohei Otani All Aces from, I think it's like 2021 or 2022, that first year set. And I'm like, I have a bunch of those inserts. Let me go dig through them. I didn't have a Shohei, but I do have seven or eight other pictures. And I was like, oh, I wonder if any of these inserts are worth anything. I looked up these medallion inserts that were just like, they're manufactured, they're just in boxes, like when you rip hangers or blasters or something like that, and I ripped so much of that. And then, yeah, I'm like just screenshotting, or I'm just taking pictures of it for card ladder. And then I realized some of these cards are worth like 30 bucks, and I was like, oh, shoot. So my dollar box from Collector's Super Show got an upgrade. Yeah. Well, I mean, at the show, it got rifled through a lot, and a lot of my inventory got bought out. So yeah, I think these inserts will help replenish the dollar box. I wasn't going to have a dollar box, but I think I need something for people to look through and hang out and stuff like that. I mean, your dollar box did really well last show. Yeah, yeah. So I can't turn my nose against it, turn my nose down against it. There's some money to be made there. So I've been just looking through all my old boxes and stuff and just collecting things that maybe people will want. And then kind of like what Roy's been doing, just slowly collecting all the cards that have been all over at different mailboxes and different vaults and all that stuff. So I think I've got everything, all my cards now. And I saw Roy a couple of days ago, I was like, hey, are you prepping? He's like, what? Why am I going to price them out now? That's the Pokemon market, right? You have to price the day before. Meanwhile, I've already started pricing all my baseball stuff. So I'll probably have to start doing some of that work pretty soon. That's true. Yeah. Nice. Well, when you first talked about how well your dollar box did back at the Collector Super Show, I'm like, that's what I'm going to do. So I've got to start prepping too. And I can't remember, did you put your dollar cards in top loader sleeves? You did that for each one? Yeah. I laboriously sleeved every single card. Every single rookie card. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. All right. Yeah. Just turn on some Netflix. You didn't top loader everything, just sleeves, right? No, no. So I had a system where it's like, if it's on a penny sleeve, it's a dollar. If it's on a top loader, it's $2, unless the top loader has a price on it. So that kind of helps too, because when I'm pricing things out really quickly, it's like I have a general idea of what they're grabbing and what price I can do it for. That's smart. I've seen people that do like a color system. There's like a green means $1. A lot of stores do color system. Yeah. I haven't been to a store in years. So. You're just too busy going to card shows. No, I don't even go to shows anymore. I haven't gone to a card show in a while. Just sitting on all that Charizard money. I mean, every weekend is like hockey now. So it's just like for miles. Okay. Well, that's going to slow down, right? Soccer season now. It's going to be great when our kids are like 20 and they don't want to hang out with us anymore. 20? Yeah. Because that means 12. We'll be at the card shows all the time. I can already envision that. That's for sure. Okay. Yeah. For me, I think, honestly, I'm going to be doing a lot of content or I'm hoping to. And shout out to our, I don't want to say one Dominican Republic listener. I'm sure we have a few or several, but I got a message. I got a DM saying one of them is coming to Toronto Sport Card Expo. So we're looking forward to meeting at the show later this month. So yeah, I'll do some content. Hopefully people will sit down and we'll have a short interview for the podcast. And I'll have a few cards too, if people want to peruse. And I already know I'm going to be exhausted after the first day. So it'll be interesting how the second and third day goes, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it though. It's my first time vending or having a booth. So I've learned a lot from you guys already from previous podcast episodes where we talked about it and visiting you guys while you're set up. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, three weeks away, boys, I hope we're ready. And one more thing I want to touch upon very briefly, speaking of the Pokemon card market and of course, while you're into WWE, what's the update on how you feel things are going? I feel like, well, Roy, we already know the Pokemon card market is still white hot for the 30th anniversary. Any news on that regard, speaking of 30th anniversary? I think it comes out in October, if I'm not mistaken. What comes out in October? We're going to have a 30th anniversary set, so similar to the 25th anniversary and 20th anniversary celebrations, or generations is 20th and then celebrations is 25th, so they're going to come out with a 30th anniversary. Wow, that's going to be popular. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any idea how that's going to work? Is there a limited supply or they're going to print to the moon? I mean, they would probably print it to the moon, if I had to guess. And I think most of it's going to be retail, Walmart. So people are going to be camping out or whatnot, so yeah. I'm sure we're going to see more videos on social media of Brawls, hopefully not many, but yeah, crazy customers out there. I was only able to get 25th from Walmart and I wasn't able to get it from anywhere else. And I only saw it once, so luckily I got there right when they restocked. So hopefully the same could happen, but it's so much more popular now. And every time I go to Walmart now, it's empty. Every single section is full, like the sports, and then there's a big hole where all the Pokemon are. So people are just selecting the Pokemon cards to buy. But I saw an ETV, I saw ETVs at Walmart maybe a few months ago, and the price on it was like $110. Oh yeah, that's what you're paying now. I was like, is that actually how much it costs for retail? Walmart and GameStop, I feel like they've raised their prices to almost market price for the most part, around $100. It's like, why even buy it at that price? I mean, if it's Ascended Heroes, I think they're selling for like $160, so you still make $50 if you're to sell it. And if you just want to rip, yeah. That's just the way it is now. Why are we selling these for $70 when people are still paying it for, buying it for $110? It sucks, but it is what it is. That's the reality. It's funny, just seeing the evolution of what's available at retail. I remember seeing, easily you go to any retail store, Walmart, Target in the States, Pokemon cards readily available. And then, as it really became more popular, now you go to Walmart, they're behind those enclosed glass cases where you need someone to unlock it. And now it's like, you can't even find them in those enclosed glass cases. It's crazy. I know, like evolving skies, there's just so much of it. Just sitting at Walmart's shelves, just sitting and singing, I mean, nobody wants that, but. Will does. Was there nothing good in that one? No, there's a Charizard in there. There's a Charizard. I think there's two Charizards. All right. How about WWE? You know, I sent you guys in the show notes that one interesting stat where on car ladder, the index, there's like, what, 20, 30 categories of different sports and even non-sports. And everything's in the green over the past year, over the past 365 days, except one. category which is wrestling which is down 6% doesn't mean a whole lot I'm sure but I'm wondering if that's something you felt maybe you did or maybe you haven't so so I was I was really shocked when I saw that I was like oh man am I like so so out of touch I'm going headlong into something that's just like a sinking ship and I was trying to understand like you know cardliners indexing of the cards like what what do they value what are they looking at how do they what's their scoring system for that and so I played around with it a little bit if you look at the one-year trend yeah it's down 6% but if you look at the longer trends like two-year five-year all that it is it isn't the green and so I was like okay well what happened in this past year and I realized there's just no cards and I was looking at actually tonight like we're recording on Thursday night and this is gonna go up on what Tuesday right yeah so it's actually the night before tops releases 2026 tops chrome WWE and last year they released that in January oh and so before that and then after January's release they had tops finest in September and then they had universe which is like just like this trash set in my opinion that's the 2025 year but it came out and fit at the end of February this year and then they just had exalted come out from 2025 which is like a little bit higher end is five cards two autos and that just came out April 1st like it literally came out last week so I think maybe the reason that the cards are down is just there's no volume right there or there's just no cards to buy and sell there's no flipping you're just looking at like older cards and stuff like that hmm and what I find is like a lot of higher-end WWE stuff because they're not priced so outrageously it's not like show Hayes or Connor Griffin's or even Pikachu's they're all still reasonably priced like if you want to get a super factor if you want to get a red out of five auto yeah it might be a thousand dollars for your favorite wrestler and so what I think what I think happens is those really high-end or the low pop rare cards they get bought once and then they just stay in people's collections right so there's no transacting there's no movement so I think that's probably what's been happening just not a lot of cards in the market yeah and just like the markets pretty low so people are just collecting and keeping and yeah sure how often do collabs come out like like the babe collab and like those types of products yeah I mean like the bape one was just like a one-off and then they did the cactus Jack but I think that was part of tops is bigger plan of cactus Jack but like I told you guys last time what's-his-face Travis Scott yeah he's persona non grata in the WWE circles because of the botched rock and and Travis Scott storyline with Cody Rhodes so so that set was I mean that's that did come out I didn't even bring it up because it's readily available like anyone can buy that those hobby boxes at below release price yeah they're just there's no value nobody's looking for them nobody wants them even if you hate like a big card it's no like I'm red yeah yeah you might be interested you might but it's not like there's nothing in there that's so desirous that that you'd pay you know 2x pre-release price so I'll be the judge of that I'm gonna look on eBay afterwards and see if there's anything that strikes a chord with me but yeah no you know what I was thinking it's really smart analysis by will or he's still deluding himself that wrestling cards are I think I think this year's this April end of April show is really going to open my eyes to two things one is if the WWE market is sustainable and two if I actually do enjoy vending versus walking around because I'm not the type to owe it like to think the grass is greener on the other side yeah but sitting at the card shows really nice but at a certain point you feel like you're anchored there and you can't walk around and you can't explore and all that stuff so yeah for sure yeah yeah well I mean we'll be together will so you might have more opportunity to do that leave his booth so quick it's gonna be a race each time hey well I'll be back all right I'm sure you know what this is like what it's like the perfect time when you have to go all in on these things you know when when you know everyone's going one way you have to zag and that might be the case for wrestling yeah you know but but no we always fall for it though we we always want the FOMO cards instead you know when everyone wants it we're like I'll double the price and get it you know so wrestling might be in that sweet spot right now all right thanks for the update guys and yeah you know what I'm gonna follow up with you well after the April show to see what you decided whether you prefer vending or walking around that's always the dilemma for a lot of us that like to go to card shows okay let's move on to hobby headlines all right so maybe one day we'll be invited to the tops industry conference but this past week in Arizona I guess mostly hobby shop owners and breakers are invited to to the annual conference and Mike Mahan was there and he announced a few interesting things so I'll go through some of the announcements and then we can just react to them whether we think it's great news or not or somewhere in between all right so first if you didn't know the theme of this year's tops industry conference was the joy of collecting and so along that theme tops is looking to offer more value products to make the hobby a little more accessible to newer and I'm sure younger collectors I feel we talked about this before but what do you think of that idea like if they started offering more value products take more tops fire or you know other lower tier products with something like that get more collectors into the hobby would that be effective what do you guys think yeah so I was thinking I mean this kind of flashes forward to the next segment but for the next segment I was thinking about this idea this hot take of getting rid of paper like series 1 series 2 interesting and as I was wrestling with this idea I realized oh no you know what that should be where the kids are collecting that could be what what is like a lower end price point that everyone can collect and I realize it kind of is doing that because you know we're griping at all these releases off tops website where it's like gone in a second but you know what when series 1 releases they're still hobby boxes available hours after release right yeah so okay like I don't want everyone to see tops fire again I did I did like big league I thought it had like I was fun like a cute fun looking design yeah maybe maybe top series 1 and series 2 you add in some of those more fun kind of cards and stuff like that and make it more geared towards the kids because everyone else is just chasing chrome anyway so well like all the adults are chasing chrome yeah but I mean before you go Roy like the thing is with these so-called lower tiers it really depends on the hits right you know it's like you could you could include nice hits in top series 1 and that's going to almost determine the value of the hobby boxes especially on the secondary market whenever you know whenever the initial release is sold out so yeah it's true the hours after you could still get some but I know friends that are like months maybe a month or two after the release they're like I do you know where I can get a hobby box of top series 1 because my LCS doesn't have any you know so it's still kind of hard to get because I feel like the hits are still pretty good if you're you know the the chase cards are still have value so I don't know if that means for lower tier cards you just got to take some of these of these hits and and just make it more about set collecting or something like that I'm not sure what do you think yeah I mean for me like if you add more product like it's product really scarce other than hobby boxes and like because when I go to Walmart like everything's there there's that's true you can still get last year so is it really scarce it's just the hobby boxes that everyone wants because there's guaranteed auto or like you know that's what people give me it's guaranteed man yeah the relics have so many guaranteed relic so adding more of these and then then people are gonna complain there's too many rookie cards there's too many variants there's like you know 50 different you know rookie cars parallels yeah you know this this person has a hundred in his rookie year the different cards so and then if you're gonna add more product is gonna add to that so is that gonna help no but yeah I guess it depends what they mean by more yeah top so what kind of products are they gonna add to the inventory I mean I feel like if they if they add like more collabs like that like the Bob Ross but keep it like don't make it so hype or and like the price keep it low and have a limit those are fun right but like tops fire and all those other junk revolution hoops or whatever it is like those I don't feel like you don't need you don't need more of you know that's what they mean by more more accessible products they make the cards really ugly just release it yeah we got tops fire too coming out don't worry there'll be some they'll be enough for everyone all right because in Pokemon like you're everyone's ripping the same set right so everyone gets excited about the chase card if you're in sports let's say we're all into baseball we're all gonna be ripping different product and it's just not as you know the the hit isn't it as exciting because it's gonna be a different chase every single set that you do right so it makes it a little bit more like diluted in terms of if you're gonna be adding more product I feel like it's tough with base it's tough with sports because there's only so many parallels you could do before people complain and if you get rid of these products and just focus on then no one's gonna get a hit right so yeah it's complicated I think but I guess we'll see they got a plan apparently okay second this is I found the most interesting in a way American Express they're partnering with fanatics and offering a new credit card for collectors and some of the perks include 5% cash back early access to tops products and as well as fanatics fest access and if you spend $1,000 a month at least $1,000 a month for a year you get a free Jersey okay fanatics Jersey the I guess of whatever team does any of that make you want to pick up this credit card I don't think it's available to Canadians yeah that might be true but I guess maybe over time but just for our American listeners if you're if it if I could I would 100% get it 100% early access the tops yeah that's pretty huge it's not even that it's like there's no annual fee right oh yeah there's no annual fee okay there's you get what was the 5% cash back in finance cash so if I'm using this purely just for cards 5% back is nice like and like if I'm gonna use that towards cards like that's great like the best credit cards you can get in Canada right now you're getting like 3% off purchases off a limited amount of expense right like up to like 5,000 or something like that so 5% is pretty high rewards yeah it's only for fanatics cash but if you're into the hobby and you're buying stuff then that 5% is the same as cash and then I know I saw a lot of Instagram posts or they're just like making fun of the like yeah spend 12,000 and you get this crappy Jersey but I mean the reality is like a fanatics Jersey costs like what 200 bucks like for a baseball jersey or something like that so if you spend 12,000 and you get a $200 reward it's actually 1.6% plus the 5% plus the 5% so if we're just looking at credit cards cuz like it's like one of the things that I like to do I like to start like research on credit cards and like you know like I have a friend who like churns and burns the credit cards like just like figures out how to get as much maximized rewards points like it like pays for vacations just through like doing this kind of stuff it's actually a pretty good reward system plus like you're saying Roy you get that front of the line access who knows what it means who knows what products is for but for a card that doesn't cost anything for an annual fee it's pretty good yeah when you put it that way doesn't sound bad is it 5% cash back in all purchases or is it just like I think that's the fanatic store yeah yeah I think it's just a hobby product I think you can also use it at card stores that are like partners with Topps. I mean, I've probably spent $0 at card stores or on Topps or Fanatic's website. So for me, I'll probably pass. But I mean, there's a lot of good Topps product releases. So that early access, like after seeing a couple of them, it might be like, okay, it doesn't hurt to kind of sign up for it. You get a case of Topps Chrome Basketball, it's going to be like $5K. You're getting money back. You're guaranteed to get it or have a better chance. Yeah, and you get 5% back on that. It's pretty good. I'm sold. Well, you sold me on it. I also saw some people saying like, oh, it's dangerous. It's like feeding addiction and all that kind of stuff. I mean, like, sure. But you could use any credit card to buy sports cards. So it's not like this credit card is the one that tips it over the edge. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I agree. And if you don't have good spending practices, like if you carry credit card debt, you shouldn't be collecting cards anyway, right? That's not true. You're almost at 25% interest rates. Yeah. You're never going to recover from that. That's tough. That's tough. Wow. Yeah. I guess it depends, like you guys were saying, whether you're going to buy Topps products anyways. And that's the case. And that's the case for myself and Will in particular. It's a no-brainer. For me, yeah, the early access to Topps products was the most intriguing part of it. And I think just for that alone, it could be worth picking one up. So hopefully, it comes to Canada. I don't know what legal hoops they got to go through to offer in Canada, but hopefully we have that option in the near future. All right. Third, at the industry conference, they really touted their social media marketing, which actually Hyung and I in a previous pod acknowledged how much better it was than in decades past, which was non-existent. And so it wasn't that surprising to hear they've pretty much 10Xed their engagement numbers year over year. They got more athletes involved as well on social media. We've seen that personally. And so my question is, do you think this is a good way to get more people into the hobby? Essentially, people who might just be on the periphery of the hobby, maybe just they're into sports or football, baseball, basketball, and this is how they're trying to capture their attention and make them collectors. The whole marketing thing. What do you think? 100%. People, kids, adults, everyone's so focused on the social media aspect. And when they see their favourite players ripping cards, it makes them intrigued, right? So they're like, oh, that's kind of cool. And then they go to Walmart with their parents or themselves. They see a box. They're like, okay. That's kind of their gateway. So it kind of opens their eyes, makes them curious. And it definitely helps grow the hobby. Very effective. If I was a 12-year-old kid and I saw my favourite player ripping some cards just on social media and then he gets a hit and see his excitement, I'll be like, oh, I want that. I want to try to open a pack. You go to Costco and then you see, what do they have? Updated now or something like that? One of the baseball sets they have. I'll be like, oh, can I get that? Because it's pretty cheap. Yeah. Why not, right? I agree. I think it's all just about hitting that next generation. And that's where the kids are. Us old people, yeah, we're on social media too. But really, it's that next wave of young collectors who are going to come in. And I think what Topps is doing is setting themselves up for 20 years in the future, or 10 years in the future. The groundwork that they put in now is going to be rewarded in a decade or two when these young kids have disposable income. And they're like, oh man, I watched so much of these breakers growing up and now I get to break, I get to rip, and I get to collect. Yeah. So it's good work that they're doing. Yeah. I mean, out of the several announcements they came out with at the conference, I think this was probably a no-brainer in terms of how well they've executed. It's just been so effective. And yeah, you guys are right. I think this is the way you really connect with the next generation for sure. All right, one more. Mike Mahan said this, quote, technology today just isn't a big part of the hobby. That's going to change within a year. So no real specifics on what that means exactly. But on one IG account, I saw that they, at the conference, they set up a machine where you can scan a Topps product and it tells you exactly what's in it. Like number of packs, what kind of hits you can get. So it differentiates between blaster, hobby, jumbo. Like what the odds are. So it's kind of tied in with their other theme of the conference, which is trying to educate new collectors as well. Because if you're coming into it, you just don't know which hits are available in the different box configurations. So that's kind of what that one machine did. But in general, what would you hope for when he says something like that? Technology is going to be a bigger part of the hobby moving forward. Is there anything in mind that you hope that tech can help improve the hobby? I've been saying for the longest time, just because authenticity is so important. There's so many fakes now. Put it like an NFC chip inside the cards. That way you can authenticate it properly. That's a good idea. The only bad thing about that is now the pack foil has to be RFID proof. Otherwise you can just kind of scan through the box. And then now with PSA slabs, once it's slabbed and it goes in the mail, you can kind of scan it. So there's flaws to that technology. But if they could kind of figure it all out and work with the grading companies or whatnot. I like it. That's something that could help. Like a fake auto or a fake patch. You don't know what the patch looks like because the guy who pulls it will take it out and swap it. If you could kind of scan it, see what the original product looks like, and see what the auto looks like, then you could kind of authenticate and go through their channels to say, okay, this is a real product instead of going to some random website. That's one thing. That's always kind of been on my mind. No, that's good. And you said there's a few flaws or other questions that come around with it. But I'm sure there's nothing that ChatGPT can't figure out or plot, speaking of technology. So use technology to figure out these technological flaws. That's what I'm saying. But going back to that TOPS thing where you kind of scan, how are you going to scan it if the blasters are all behind the glass wall? Yeah, that's a conundrum. How about you, Will? Any ideas? This kind of merges into the next segment, but yeah. When it comes to tech, any other solutions? Those are all good that Roy came up with. Yeah. I'm going to save it for the next segment because it hits directly into what I wanted to say. Okay, let's do that then. You know, perfect segue. And I think we covered most of the TOPS Industry Conference notes anyway. So next segment, it's called Just A Thought. All right. We haven't done this segment in a while, but this is when we come up with ideas that we think might make the hobby better or more entertaining or more exciting in some way. And it's meant to be a fun segment. So some of these ideas can be far-fetched or outlandish, but there might be something there, like a little nugget to work with. So, Will, why don't you get things started? Because I know you have a couple already. All right. So this one, Just A Thought. Maybe... Maybe, TOPS, you could fix your website. Maybe... Okay, what's wrong with it? Maybe we can eliminate bots from buying up all the inventory on release day. Maybe... I don't have to, you know, click 14 buttons in the span of half a second when it releases at 12 o'clock noon and it's 12-0-0-0-1 and it's already sold out. Like, maybe you can do something to fix that. And I know there's a lot of discussion of how do you do it and whatever. And it's funny that you're talking about ChatGPT and Cloud. I asked ChatGPT. I was like, hey, ChatGPT, is it that hard to restrict bots? And it was like, yeah, kind of, but not really. There's different strategies and whatever. And, like, I'm an idiot. Like, I'm not smart. I don't know anything about this area. But I just think, like, wait, why can't you just limit a credit card from purchasing more than a Jumbo Case? Like, if a Jumbo Case is $5K, then that one credit card can purchase up to $5K in product, on that website, for the next hour. So there's these things called online that are like credit cards. I don't know what they call it. They're like spoofers. You put in your credit card number and it will regenerate as many different credit card numbers that just kind of redirect to that credit card number. So computers think it's a different credit card, but it's really the same one. There's that aspect to it. I also read there's, like, where you can get, like, gift cards. Like those Visa gift cards or whatever. But you can catch that pretty easily if you take a little time. Like, you could partner with Amex. You could partner with Visa. And you could, you know, use their database, check it against the actual credit cards and the addresses and all that kind of stuff. I think there's definitely ways that they can do it, but they don't want to because it's going to cut into their bottom dollar. But it's getting frustrating as a collector who wants to purchase not having a chance. But this goes into a bigger thought. A bigger just the thought. Just the thought. We have to realize that the way that we are purchasing cards, or the way Topps is selling cards, is completely backwards. So what they should do is figure out the botting and then release the product, like Topps Chrome WWE to the masses and within that first day, you can purchase like, I can purchase my case Clark, you can purchase your case. Anything that's left over will then be distributed to the card stores or to breakers. It doesn't make sense to me that if we are talking about the joy of collecting if we're talking about making this a better space for the collector why are breakers getting first access to product? Why are they getting access to product before we have a chance? Why are they able to buy up hundreds of cases that I would love to buy just one and keep for myself and rip for myself? Because they're 10Xing the engagement through social marketing For sure. For the next generation. Are you paying attention? Sure. How many people are you going to outreach to? Sure. Me, myself, and I. My 49 followers will watch me rip my case. You're proving, yeah, okay. Go ahead. But that's the thing. That's like saying it's more important to social engagement or whatever. It's like yes, but to the detriment of the collectors. So I think there's some things that you could do to make more money, but maybe you shouldn't do because in the end it hurts the collective culture and society of card collectors. So I think it's backwards. I think you have to offer it to the mass public first. Let them take one if they want. And again, you have to restrict it because you can't let me buy 12 cases. But at least allow me to buy one hobby box if I wanted for myself. So you're saying a made-to-order system. Everyone puts in an order then they print afterwards. No, not necessarily print afterwards, but it's like we get first dibs. So if the mass public is like, well, the demand is there we all want it for ourselves then okay, there's none for the breakers and then the breakers could rip diamond icons and all these higher-end There's always going to be product for breakers to rip. But if it's like No, I mean Utopian world you're thinking of Mike Mahan's talking about the joy of collecting. He's like prancing in the garden and like plucking flowers and throwing them there. We can have a kumbaya moment if we all just enjoy collecting and all this stuff. If you want that, then you have to put the work in to get collectors to enjoy to have joy in collecting. Because what is the joy of collecting? What are we talking about when we're saying joy of collecting? Joy of collecting for who? For the breakers? Or joy of collecting what? Money? For Tops? Is that what their phrase is about? This is all about the joy of collecting your money. Pretty much. Yeah, exactly. If Tops is not making profit year over year, then guess what? There's no joy of collecting for anyone. But the thing is Tops is making the money work. regardless But I think I don't think the breakers are buying like well, I mean they are they're buying these on the tops drops but they're They're doing these drops for the collectors to go out and purchase. Are we able to get them? no, because we're too slow with their fingers and these These ones these are just I mean there's people yeah There's some crazy people, how about EQL doesn't that solve any of any of this? To every to every anti-bot there's a smarter Potter, right? It's like these guys these animals exactly, it's cat and mouse but cats gonna win most of the time because They're the predator, right I I mean it's gonna be always a race to have better technology, but I Like it. I like it for this just a thought segment because it does get you thinking. Hopefully someone from Thompson's listening, but Yeah, so many other questions This could go on forever because I guess you do put a restriction on the individual buying if they get first dibs But you know shop owners hobby shops There are also people too. So those probably try to find people that they can, you know Pay a little bit to get more allocation that way. There's always two ways to cheat And tops is they're generating scarcity. Like there's only a certain amount of cases like they could just print more cases and have it more accessible, but they're not gonna do that because Yeah, they would they want to create hype. They want to create this. Oh, it got sold out, you know, 10 seconds Too bad now you got to buy my hobby box that we printed millions of that come in a case that you just we just open Up, right. I don't know I think I think optics are really important and I think if we were in an eql and There was two boxes left and there was three of us in there I'd be upset that I didn't get it, but I'd be like, yeah Well, I lost out to Roy and Clark getting a box But what I don't want to hear about is when you see like these Pokemon bots or whatever And they're buying up thousands of UPCs or ETBs and they're just displaying it on there like Instagram. Yeah It's not a good feeling for any anyone in that hobby. So I think Yeah, I think if we're talking about technology, that's your number one problem. Like that's the number one issue in the hobby right now It's getting the cards into collectors hands getting the boxes into collectors hands Yeah, I don't I don't know how to do that unless you turn back time, you know, just a thought you got to collect it in person just Mike man was talking about I didn't get to watch all of it, but he was talking about like how there's this like this this You're showing this chart about like where it's unhealthy. It's unhealthy if it's that secondary market price is so high Something I didn't get to read all of it or watch all of the videos. So I don't know what he was saying Was the solution to that but it's something that they've identified as a major problem for the hobby. So so hopefully Smarter people in the room can figure it out. Yeah, I'm a dummy. They should figure it out you too. Yeah, exactly I'm just a content creator. Come on. I Just react. I'm just yeah, I'm just a content creators fan No, man, you are a fellow content creator in arms, okay Roy you got a just a thought on your mind for us. I can't think of anything right now. No, okay I'll go then cuz I got yeah, I'll think I'll try to think of something. Yeah, no pressure Alright, so I was just at the Blue Jays Dodgers game on Tuesday. It was a fun game. Yamamoto He's still a Blue Jay killer I wish I went to the next game when we beat show a when he was on the mound That was a fun game to watch. But anyway, I was at the Jays game and you know In between innings they do a lot of stuff on the jumbotron, you know They there's dances and you know people who like to bring cute kids They get on the jumbotron, but you know, I've always said this, you know like the hobby and sports go hand in hand and I did see a few like patch cards At some of the booths like the vending booths So that's kind of cool to see but if you really want to get more people into collecting where there are sports fans You got to try to arrange just a thought Maybe there's a prize where you get to see a pack rip live opening on the jumbotron Okay, just you know, just a thought and then it's kind of kind of cool. You're like, oh this person can hit this guy Let's see if they get a big hit or there's like or maybe just personalized packs where you're guaranteed a Hit of a Blue Jays player or whatever stadium you're in and so you get to see you know You open in front of 40,000 people and then that gets people like oh what's going on here, you know And not everyone's gonna be a collector I'm just saying this is a golden opportunity, you know, you can do at every ballpark yeah, you know what click you're really on to something because you know when we go to those Blue Jays games and they have those like little marketing things and add things or it's like Yeah, like they always do the shell game right where it's like they flip over three cards and it's like digitally Moving and all that stuff But if you make the prize a baseball card like a vladdy like an autographed vladdy card Yeah, or like you get to go down to the field after the game and get a card Yeah, I get it. Yeah autograph card. It's like that puts cards into people's Mindsets. Yes, and then actually for them it's it's really good because the the amount of like product you have to carry is a lot less like When you're giving out jerseys or giving out t-shirts, it's a lot of bulk You just give it away one card. It's like it fits in an envelope I Think we're on to something. Yeah live pack opening on the jumbotron. That's my just a thought You know, oh, yeah just like to go off that like sure when you come in everyone gets one pack Oh, yeah her game and then you rip it and then one of the packs out of the 40,000 or whatever it is Yeah, we'll have like a come down to the field or upgrade your seat. Yeah You know incentives plus you get a baseball player of like your home team Yeah, or maybe even like home opener genius home opener you get a like you'd get a top snout card Mm-hmm, right. I got that like you're saying you get one as you enter and like yeah, that's cool like this. We're on to something So many different ways BP what you get to experience one BP. Yeah, you know with a family or four or something like that. Yeah That's yeah. I mean they're halfway there like when we went there They're doing the commemorative ticket giveaway of the first game 1977 commemorative tickets, so I got one of those and that was kind of cool But yeah, you could just and they're just handing it out What's you scan your ticket in so easy just one pack each like you're saying Easily done. I think I think we're gonna see this in the in a few very near future and then Well, we'll take credit for it Let's let's I'm gonna make it real just so we have it on record on social media and tag every every MLB team Every 30 30 tags on that real you don't need to take the Marlins. I don't think That's right, okay. All right. I got one more if no one else has any To close off this segment it's kind of like sports card speed dating. All right, so It's not really dating to you, but you know like you go to car shows not everyone's very You know Ford When they want to make a trade, you know, it's a lot of people are shy You know like sometimes even I'm like, I don't know approach this vendor to see if they're interested in buying No one wants to really be rejected But you know like in a sports card or like not, you know, like a speed dating scene Everyone's there for a reason and purpose, you know why you're there and then everyone gets equal opportunity, you know how it works, right? Like You there's like ten people just say seated at a table and then you just kind of rotate every Five minutes or ten minutes or whatever it is. But at these like let's say trade nights You just have a area where if you sign up you can just go to each table. You know what you're there for you You know, you show each other your cards and it's like not a you know, if even if you're a shy person you're like Oh, they know why I signed up everyone's here for the same reason and then you just show each other's cards and that kind of And then you could talk to the person and you maybe make a connection that way As a friend I'm not saying anything more but you know You show each other your cards and then ding you got a next person and then it's just a good opportunity to meet new people While potentially trading nice cards with one another But I don't understand why this is different than a trade show I'm just saying people are nervous like people just go to trade night some some people might be like have anxiety over going to like a I Know come on. Well, I know you that's not the case for you. Okay? No, no but does introducing a bell and Like a forced seating arrangement Hey, it's it's it works for speed daters, you know, a lot of those people are there because they're you know, I I can't Find a date any other way. So I'm trying to speed dating thing Same thing with trades, you know, like oh, I'm not good at trading with people I'm kind of shy but if there's a place where I can go and meet other people that are maybe just as shy and you know You know, you know just just a thought. Yeah, just a thought There's never a bad idea there's just unfinished ideas. Yes, I remember like Right when kovat was we're kind of coming out of the kovat world and we're coming back into public spaces There's this idea where it's like you can wear different colored bracelets. Like let's say you went to church or something It's like if you're like if you're like really into like We don't need the masks we might just kiss it's okay And then, you know for the more antisocial or the more anti like, yeah You know, is it better Is it better here? We know oh we we love the hugging we don't need the masks we might just kiss it's okay And then, you know for the more antisocial or the more anti like, uh Covid stuff like a little bit people who are a little bit, you know more concerned about it Hesitant or maybe they have health complications, you know, they're wearing a red bracelet. So it's like, you know respect I'll respect your space or whatever and so maybe a similar thing It's like hey if i'm really extroverted and I want to talk about the hobby and you know I'm looking to make friends and all this stuff. I got the green bracelet But if i'm like, you know, this is just strictly about the cash I'm wearing a red bracelet Let's not talk Just show me your cards. I'll show you mine. Yeah, no small. We'll just have a calculator I'll just show you i'll punch in numbers And if we agree we agree. Yeah It's an unfinished idea but we can get there I like it give me the red bracelet and let's go Yeah, that's I think this is what the segment is all about, you know We this is just the beginning of something and we'll flush it out later, you know All right. I love this. We we got to do just a thought more because I think the hobby needs it Roy's bracelet is gonna be neon green Well, what does that signal yeah, what does that mean he's just like super extroverted you're like, oh that's not me at all I've i've i've seen roy enter into public situations where very quickly he's like He's just the center of the of the room the world. Wow the focus. Yeah. Yeah No, that's just because you're wearing the the pink bracelet introvert in the corner I'm i'm like just like i'm not even wearing a bracelet. I'm just like i'm in the closet I don't even want to be here I don't want to be here at all Oh man Good stuff good stuff. All right, let's finish this episode with our regular weekly segment. We call pick one All right. I usually always start off with will you got one for us today? Yep. Yep. So let's do it Um You know every time we're on it's it's always gonna be something pokemon related just because the pokemon market and shohei Are the two things that are propping up? The card hobby. Wait, are you gonna steal my pick one? No, no And so I was looking at some pokemon cards and I was looking at roy's Mario pikachu the one that he's been chasing the one that he loves And I saw a recent sale of a psa six Oh, okay. Psa six mario pikachu It just sold a couple days ago for 14 000 That is insane. That's crazy. Like roy said the psa 10 the last sale was around just north of 40k Canadian all canadian. These are canadian. Yeah. Yeah canadian dollars it's uh pop count of There's 3500 psa graded cards that are higher value right uh versus the 1986 flier michael jordan psa psa What's my note say oh psa seven Just sold for twelve and a half thousand a couple days ago Now I did look and there was actually another sale for eleven thousand Uh, but we'll go with the higher sale. We'll just assume it's a better looking Uh less creased, you know better corners better centering kind of thing. So twelve and a half thousand dollars for a psa seven jordan Or fourteen thousand for the mario pikachu Psa six and the crazy thing is as I was doing this prep I'm, like, okay. What pokemon card am I gonna pick and then I was gonna compare it against like Tatis or Soto or Acuna and Pikachu is just skyrocketing to goat level that you can't even compare them to any of those cards anymore you have to go straight to the goats so I went straight to Jordan so which one are you guys picking? For me it's easy it's the Mario Pikachu. On a PSA 6? Yeah because goodness at the end of the day I don't think there's ever gonna be another Mario Pokemon card collab whereas like there's a ton of Michael Jordan cards yes they're not the 86 flare but you know it's this is like a one of you know there's never gonna be a card like that again for the the Pokemon and PSA 6 you know there's probably a dent in it you could probably fix that up these days crack it out you know put it into the humid or however you do it but you can do that with the PSA 7 Jordan too. I feel like it's easier with sports cards but I don't know it's just like that card has been always been a dream of mine I Jordan yeah I like Jordan but you know LeBron's a goat. Hanging out with John a little too much. Yeah I don't know it's just I rather have the Pokemon card in a 6 versus the flare 7 it feels like 10 versus 10 yeah the Jordan no problem just cuz I feel like sports card PSA 10s for like goat rookies are like those are those will in history will probably do better but in a 7 I rather just have the Pikachu Mario the Mario Pikachu. All right I'm going with MJ like purely for the reason that the Mario Pikachu values are just unsensical right now like I just don't understand how it keeps going up and I have to believe that it will regress at some point and I I don't know I don't know what the logistics are of ever seeing a Nintendo and Pokemon collab in the future but I feel like you can't say never that's true right so I'm you know if there's money to be had there's always an opportunity somewhere down the road so I'm and you know 86 flares iconic of course with MJ so at a 7 I'll gladly take that and a couple thousand in cash. Roy would you say that the Mario Pikachu is the iconic Pikachu card probably not what would you say is like the greatest Pikachu card not the illustrator would it be illustrators yeah definitely it's the most expensive card that's sold but there's like I don't know there's like trophy card there's all there's so many different Pikachu cards because in my mind the Mario Pikachu is like the goat Pikachu card to get. Yeah see like maybe that's probably why it kind of went up like crazy too because for the general public who sees Pokemon cards they see and that they like Mario and they like Pokemon they're like this is so cool but once you'd like dive deeper into the rabbit like there's so many other cards that are like quote-unquote better or more rare or you know they have some quality quality going for them to make it more expensive or whatever it is compared to the Mario Pikachu but you know from a general standpoint it's a great-looking card it's a collaboration that we haven't seen in 10 10 years so I don't know yeah like Clark your points are pretty good like I'm kind of like that's true you know they can they can come out with another Mario card in the next 15 you know if Pokemon is kind of on a downhill slope they're like oh we got it we got to revamp this up for the 31st anniversary you got to think of something big yeah whatever it is but I don't know it's funny cuz yeah there's there's so many other Pikachu cards that you know are quote-unquote better than the Mario but at the end of days what you like so yeah so I think Roy just convinced me to go with the flare just cuz there might be better mark there might be better Pikachu cards but this Jordan is gonna be the Jordan yes sir yeah all right that's a good one to start things off Roy you wanna go next yeah so I'll go with the the new Charizard that just came out in phantasmal flames Charizard X in a PSA 10 so that one has a pop of 14,000 and I think it sold just around 3k u.s. oh my gosh this is an English one English in English yes yeah so like and then luckily I bought that to know three weeks ago for 2,000 u.s. so it's already gone up 50% since it's the same since three weeks ago versus the iconic Charizard base set PSA 9 hollow base set PSA nice yes yeah so not not first edition not shadowless just unlimited 8,500 is the pop and that's sold for right around the same price so for for that set first edition is obviously the top and then shadowless is the next year and then a base unlimited set there's no other after that those are the three so it's you know the the modern chase Charizard versus the iconic base set Charizard in a 9 well go ahead oh man you know I'm always about artwork and I love the artwork of the new one like I just went over to Roy's house to pick up a couple of my cards and he showed me this card in hand that's like all looks really nice I think you were saying it looks way better out of the case right out of every car yeah like you don't see it as well in the case but even encased in the PSA slab it still looked pretty good but I think it's too scary to put that much into the modern into the modern one so I'm gonna go with the base set the old the old school even though I don't like the look of Charizard that much in that image like something's wrong with his neck he has a like a neck pain and he's like bending like some athlete spray or like some tiger bomb that's why he's blowing fire out of his mouth he's in pain oh he's actually not blowing any fire out of his mouth yeah oh yeah he is yeah he's in pain dude you don't see any dragon movies that's how dragons blow fire dude they get low and then they go up how to train your dragon you didn't see that dude you gotta watch that it's an inaccurate picture though that's not true to real dragons we're gonna have to complain to the art the artist yeah that's I love that new modern but yeah but so iconic the original Charizard the only thing I don't like about it and reason why I was asking those questions is like the fact that there are different tiers that are better and more scarce or more valued I think that's why I'm gonna go with modern you know Wow so and I I feel like I'm gonna I want one in my collection I'll probably go for the Japanese one just because I like it better you've been wanting that since it came out I know but then I'm like oh you know maybe I'll go down a little bit it's doing the mistake I did he's doing the Mario Pikachu thing right now so I'm gonna have to really think about pulling the trigger soon or not never but yeah if at that price I guess I'll go with the modern one because yeah there's only the English and the Japanese whereas the other one you know if I could save a little more money maybe I'll go for the shadowless or something like that or I will have I would rather have like a lower grade first edition something like that yeah yeah all right yeah for me yeah I love that new Charizard the artwork is simply the best in the past like long time for a Charizard card and like I watch all these videos of people say like what's the most overrated card and so many people say basic Charizard I'm like you they're either so young that they don't understand what it was what that feeling was when you're just trying to chase that card but yeah they're crazy that card is so iconic and yeah even though there's like the first edition there's shadowless like I was chasing unlimited and this is the card I was chasing and then when my friends pulled it we'd be like that's crazy you know shoving it in our pockets like passing it around with our greasy fingers yeah but that was a card that like you know that changed every that this is what probably made Pokemon like this chasing this one card and just it just overflowed with nostalgia of you know experiencing that well not myself but like seeing friends pull it or have it and like it's already popped 14,000 for the mega Charizard and that's gonna continue to go up so I don't know I like the classics vintage is doing really well and I think it'll kind of hold value versus you know this modern so I'm gonna go with the base set Wow okay you can't go wrong with the iconic base set Charizard for sure all right excellent and for mine staying along with the Pokemon cards on one hand I just saw every time I see my card ladder collection you know if it's gone up or down lately it's been going up and up and up for one reason the Pikachu stamp box PSA 10 card and I saw that I'm like oh wow my collection just went up a few hundred dollars more I wonder what it is and then I see it's the stamp box sold for $4,000 yesterday u.s. Wow $4,000 wow u.s. and you know loyal listeners at the pod will know that I traded that Charizard and Mewtwo the one that goes together Kronzeenith yeah Kronzeenith PSA 10 I checked recently I'm like I wonder how much those that's that goes for 1,700 US so that's also gone up but not as high as the $4,000 stamp box so I won that trade yes I got a few wins but I'm wondering compare that to and this is why I was asking whether you're gonna steal my pick one because I'm putting it up against a couple of Shoei Otani cards right that also sold for 4,000 US so I wonder which one do you would choose so the Pikachu stamp box PSA 10 or either the Shoei Otani 2017 Bowman megabox where he's in his Japan uniform and that's a PSA 10 not not numbered or the 2024 tops chrome logo edition of Shoei Otani blue refractor it's him and his Dodgers uniform PSA 10 and it's a blue so it's numbered to 150 so any of those two Shoei cards you could choose one or the other over the Pikachu card or you choosing the Pikachu card over the two Shoei Otani's what's logo edition is that like the logo fractor yeah okay yeah I'll go first I mean I love that stamp box I kind of want it again but it's already at 4,000 US I was thinking actually pulling the trigger like a month ago I was like should I buy it again yeah it'll come down why do I keep telling myself it's not nothing is coming down right now nothing in Pokemon card land is coming down yes yeah so but I don't know like the Dodgers definitely not well one it's like logo fractor two it's not a rookie but I don't know something about that World Baseball Classic mm-hmm I kind of I kind of like it you know it's like it predates his rookie card right yes by a year and like WBC like you saw it this year it was crazy it's getting bigger such a yes getting bigger it's actually amazing to watch Japan always does well as long as it's Tony's still there mm-hmm I mean they did well without him right too but yeah I think that one will do I can't say it's gonna do better but you know if you're gonna invest in a Tony something a little bit more unique I guess mm-hmm pops probably low on that right probably like a couple hundred I have to double check but yeah it can't be super high or anything like that and like and and you know you appeal to the international market with this Japanese or team Japan card so I don't know I I like it I kind of like it so I'm gonna go with the WBC Tony's okay yeah for me this is very easy it's crazy the the tops chrome logo edition blue like that that sold for $4,000 that's just yeah that's nonsense like it's number two 150 though but the crazy thing is like I was you know a couple years ago when I would go on the podcast I was the one who was like hey guys it doesn't always have to be the rookie card it could be like a color match yeah like a star player in his new team's jersey exactly this card yeah like I remember young be like and so but when I look at I'm like this makes no sense I think I think like the show a market is crazy also crazy yes this is like not a sound purchasing decision like when when you go on card ladder or market movers you should look at what other four thousand dollar shouhei cards there are the fact that you could get this 27 bowman megabox card which has always been valued it's always been a respected shouhei card because it is pre-rookie if you could get that for four thousand dollars and then somebody's offering you this blue logo edition 2024 chrome for four thousand dollars you need to slap that person in the face and be like how dare you what wow okay it doesn't make sense like if it was a super factor if it was out of red then sure you could make some arguments but it's like logo edition is a lesser edition a lesser variant and i think yeah okay it doesn't make sense so it's the japanese bowman um shouhei wow wow over the over the stamp box you're looking for more i actually really like the stamp box i think it's a really good looking card um but i have a very soft spot for that that bowman megabox shouhei i actually always wanted that card and i've had multiple chances to pull the trigger and i never did and i'm kicking myself for never having bought it well i mean i think you're really disrespecting the the uh the blue the blue the in in the dodgers uniform that's that's you can't you can't uh if it was a true blue tops it is okay not not true tops chrome but it's a true blue yeah i don't know i don't know i'm not i'm not i'm not one to collect like first year new team like that that's kind of nonsense to me it's just like a that's like a vendor or like trying to upsell you on buying their card it's like no but it's dodgers it's dodgers okay i get it if you went to the marlins or something but the dodgers it's it's like the yankees dodged the two only two teams that you know actually matters i think is the dodgers and yankees in my opinion i mean if vladdy went to the yankees am i gonna like or the dodgers i'm not gonna buy i'm not gonna be like i want that card i mean i guess i'm not a yeah i can see yeah i don't know i just don't i don't like it okay that's your opinion but i just i don't i also don't collect sports cards so i have a different mindset than you know others we're always gonna come out with a sick show sick card from the april show of sports cards i'm never trading pokemon for sports again i don't know how it happened i got this $30,000 it looks so nice um yeah uh i'm going with the wbc card too yeah i think that's that's the right play it's such a good looking card 4k i think compared to i mean i i don't know if you listened to the episode where and i were talking about some of the other showy cards that have gone up spiked up and it's outrageous like the the batting base rookie okay the base rookie batting pose of bowman chrome 4800 yeah like why would you take that over the wbc you know i mean like it's like it's it's very similar to pokemon and people who collect english versus japanese like people probably don't want to touch this because it says japan on it right it's not mlb it's not you know it's not a part of baseball history of like you know the mlb i think that that's going to change once you see like certain prices just sky high you're like you know what uh that japanese one looks pretty good you know we're gonna get there really soon with pokemon cards and i think we're already seeing that with you know showy otani cards in his wbc because it's more affordable than yeah even his angels you know when he's in this i actually think it's a pretty pretty well priced like i'm curious on the pop on this i just checked the pop counts just under 1600 okay compared to the pikachu stamp box which is about to hit 20 000 and um the other one of course is 150 but psa 10 is far less but yeah all right another great episode guys appreciate you and appreciate all our listeners um clocking in at about an hour 20 i can always expect an extra long episode with you guys because it's it's always fun um each segment is always fun to discuss cards with and yeah we'll have a brand new episode for you guys next tuesday talk to you then bye hey thanks for listening to cards to the moon we'd really appreciate you subscribing to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcast and you can also connect with each of us on instagram at five card guys or you can follow hyung at integrity sports cards or john at trade you at recess you can also check us out at fivecardguys.com thanks again and hope to connect soon