Would an MLB Lockout Crash the Baseball Card Market? | Wax Packs & Warning Tracks #39

Before we start, a quick word from our sponsor, Ebay Live. If you've never checked it out, eBay Live is eBay's live shopping experience built for collectors. It's where you find rare, exclusive and hard to find items through live auctions and special drops you can only get there. What makes it different is the energy and the community. Real sellers, engaging hosts like sports cards, nonsense and streamers that make it fun and interactive. It's all Beckett by ebay's protection and authenticity guarantees, so you can shop with confidence. Just download the ebay app and hit the ebay Live button under the search bar and jump in. Now back to your show. Foreign. What's up everybody? Welcome back to wax packs and warning tracks. Mojo Breaks Baseball Card Podcast. We're back. We're back, baby. It's been a minute. We had a whole Bowman Chrome release cycle. We're still ripping Bowman Chrome, but thrilled to be back. Now there's a few people, people asking in the chat. Hey, where you guys coming back? Well, here we are. It's been a busy time here at Mojo Break. So it's Cody and it's Bubba here. It's time to talk some baseball. Yu-Gi-Oh I, we have a little bit of, a little bit of baseball stuff to kind of backtrack on and kind of catch up on and. Right. We have a lot of stuff to look forward to as well for just kind of how the season is winding down right now. I think the, the Dodgers are in LA playing the Giants. It's their last series in Los Angeles and then against the Giants and then they'll, in my favorite fashion being now living in Northern California, they're going to finish the season up here in San Francisco. We clocked this at the beginning of the season. The fact that the Giants and Dodgers play six of the last nine games against each other is crazy. Yu-Gi-Oh And we were, I think we were hoping too, maybe there's going to be a little bit more implications. Maybe the Giants are going to be, you know, vying for like a wild card or something like that. But it is the worst case scenario. Well, for me, not for you. But that these games are true. And I guess for baseball in general, these games are truly meaningless because, well, the Dodgers could still have an outside shot of a number one seed. I know they're also fighting for. I think it's more, it's, it's starting to feel like. More like they are going to get the buy right now because the Braves are. Yu-Gi-Oh right now 89 and 64 as we speak. 93 and 60. That's the Dodgers record. So they're probably going to be. Get the. Get the buy one-of-one But Yu-Gi-Oh Giants are fully out of it. Dodgers have already locked it up. These games basically mean nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh And I think they, they end up meaning a little more to the Giants here than they do the Dodgers and pride that. And. Yu-Gi-Oh And it's. I mean, I'm going to be at at least two of the games, I think when they're, when they make their way back up here. Yep, nice. Right. At this point for the Giants, I think the biggest thing I'm rooting for. Let's get Eldridge, let's get Bryce to 20 home runs for the season. If we can get a 20 home run season for him. What's he at? I think he's at 17. Okay, he's at 17. He needs a hot week. But three in a week is not. In three and nine games is not crazy. And he's been hitting a lot better. I got to find. Go ahead. I'll make your point because I want to find the stat that I saw. Edwin Diaz is back from the injured list today, so maybe Bryce Eldridge does have a shot to get to 20 home. There you go. Yu-Gi-Oh of little faith. What happened? 12 ERA doesn't give me much faith. Okay, here it is. 1185. Sorry. This is the stat. And this is. Look, folks, I know his prices are. Prices or prices are way up now, but like, you know, he's got a debut patch coming up and he's, he's got rookie cards still out there. And, and I think maybe if he was on a different team and in playing, playing competitive baseball, maybe his price would be even higher given this stat. I saw this from MLB. Clutch points at 21. Bryce Eldridge is going to finish with numbers that belong in historic company, as they say. 443 play appearances as of this post, about a 13% walk rate. 465 slugging. 131. Way to runs created. Plus three other players since 1983. 21 years old or younger have done this in a season. Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto. Yu-Gi-Oh The walk rate is probably what tips the scale a little bit there. 100. Which is impressive considering how nasty pitchers are right now and how you have to be preparing for 100 plus every pitch. Yu-Gi-Oh I, you know, and that's a guy too, that I haven't seen play enough this year. I just haven't seen him play enough this year. I didn't make it out to enough games. I'VE probably seen less than like 25 at bats between live and on TV and I feel like more often than not I'm seeing him get on base. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Walking a lot. The patience has been the most impressive part, especially because when he got called up last year and again, it was a quick call up, there was a whole lot of swing and miss in the bat. And there still is a little bit because again, he's, he's a 6 foot 7 power hitting first baseman. That's what's gonna happen. The swing. That's what I recall from seeing him in San Jose for a little bit. And then the call up was like, Yu-Gi-Oh a lot of swing and miss, but he got a hold of some balls in San Jose that were like, I never, I never seen that. And you know, growing up, you know, watching Brandon Belt and Buster Posey, you know, and like he hit one in St. Louis that was impressive this week. About 450ft or so. Ridiculous. So, Yu-Gi-Oh he's the real deal. Very, very exciting. So something to hang your hat on. And a different frame than like the Juan Soto and the Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. He's a completely different guy than those guys. Yu-Gi-Oh Zebra tall, Zebra lanky. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean he's, he's air again. He puts on a little more Mosaic He's, I mean, he's Aaron Judge. Right. Not that he's not a Mosaic Not that he isn't already like a big, huge dude. Like, imagine him in two or three years, he puts on more muscles and look out. Yu-Gi-Oh What's a comp? I don't even like, he's like a skinny Judge, I guess. I mean, Judge. Yu-Gi-Oh Judge. Judge was up and look up rookie year Aaron Judge. And he was, he was thinner. Right, right, right. I think a little bigger bodied than what Eldridge is now, but definitely wasn't as, as huge. He's pretty, he was always pretty big out the gate, but still like, that's, that's the closest comp, at least in terms of body type and like, what that can do. So. Remember Kyle Blanks? Of course I remember Kyle Blanks. Yu-Gi-Oh Again, if I were a gm, my entire team would be guys. Like, it would be Kyle Giancarlo Stanton, Kyle Blanks and Fran Mil Reyes. That would be my whole team. Fran Meal. I'd be fired instantly. That's awesome. Great job. Everyone can hit 50 homers. They're all batting 180 and they have the worst defense in baseball. That's awesome. I hope to see not, not to get Too far off track. But a guy, another guy that we saw up close in San Jose when he was a Modesto nut, Lazaro Montez. How good dude, that rushing the ball, that home run he hit in Seattle, Good gravy. Wild like 500ft. And then Jacob deGrom piecing him up. You know, Lazaro Montez is another one where the moment I saw him I was like, that is a man, right? That is a man among boys right there. Yu-Gi-Oh he is going to be a dude and looks like he could be in, in, in Seattle. Not a lot has gone right in Seattle this year. So we'll see how it goes next year. Yu-Gi-Oh let's talk about things that have gone right with the awards race. We're wrapping up the season. A few that we just kind of catch up on. Ones. The thing that strikes me is that I feel like these races have basically been locked up other than one that we're going to talk about more extensively. But these races, I feel like have kind of been locked up since, I don't know. August. Yu-Gi-Oh It may be the NL Rookie of the Year race. Yu-Gi-Oh I was going to say it seems like the NL has been a little more buttoned up than the al. Ish. I don't know. Like, I think there's. How about. I think there's a race on, on each side that kind of has been close. So I think the Rookie of the Year was not conclusive until very recently. I think recently Sal Stewart feels like he's running away with it now. I think it's. Yu-Gi-Oh I think it's set in stone. Yu-Gi-Oh Weather Hole getting hurt. That was really, I think the thing that kind of. That tipped the scales a little bit. Kevin McGonagall, probably your favorite in the American League, although Parker Mosaic It's tough because for, you know, pitchers just don't tend to one-of-one Rookie of the Year unless they are so overwhelmingly good. But Parker Mosaic and Peyton Tolley have both been very good this year. But it's probably McConnegills to lose. But I do want to focus on the NL because again, Sal Stewart is going to do something that apparently potentially hasn't happened in I think since the 50s, since 1950 he could lead the league in RBI. That has not happened since. Here you go. Who remembers Walt Droppo? No one. No one does, of course shout out to Red Sox fans who do or the drop off family who does. Who hangs their hat on the fact that Walt Droppo was the last rookie to lead the league in RBI before that, it was Ted Williams. Yu-Gi-Oh And thanks for watching our show. Droppo family. Thank you to the Dropo family. We patronage. Yu-Gi-Oh that would be. That would be historic if he does that. But JJ Weatherhole continues to outsell him. Yu-Gi-Oh This is one example I had. I apologize. I should have had an auto for you for Sal Stewart. But I think you kind of get the picture here. This is a red lava JJ Weatherholt that sold on September 4th. Auto First Bowman, $5,300 PSA. And that's a raw. A graded red lava of Sal Stewart. It's a non auto. But even with that explanation. 17. 17. $49 versus $5,300 for the raw Weatherholt, I still think that's like a huge, huge gap between the two of them. What an auto of that Sal Stewart is. How much more does that get to. Probably still about a $1000, 1500 difference. You think for Sal Ste. Huge card there on the right. Right. So I think part of this, too, and I know they both are, but. Right. They're both huge cards. Part of this, I think, is Weather Hole had obviously all of the prospect pedigree going into the season and going into that Bowman release. And I know a lot of people also point this out. His WAR is still higher than South Stewart's, almost entirely based on his defense. Defense. Yu-Gi-Oh But the offensive numbers are, I think, overwhelmingly better for Sal Stewart. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, and he's younger. There are examples all throughout the league that, you know of guys that have better offensive numbers but lower WAR or so. And so plays a premium position like shortstop. And then, you know, is selling a little higher than someone that's crushing the ball at DH or first base or left field. I'm not surprised to see that. I think. I thought that the Delta wouldn't be as great between the two, but Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, South Stewart, I'm trying to think of like, red stars. Is South Stewart a Red in five years? You know, is Ellie De La Cruz a Red in five years? Yu-Gi-Oh This is the thing, is that the Reds do have. They're in a weird position where you look at that team. There's so many good young stars. I mean, we've been collecting a lot of them over the last few years. Ellie was legit top chase in almost every product he was in from his first moment onward. He's starting to prove it right now. Yu-Gi-Oh He's quietly having an amazing finish to the season. Yu-Gi-Oh But Yu-Gi-Oh this team continues to be just kind of floating around.500, never never bad enough to fully sell, never good enough to fully go all in. And you think, Yu-Gi-Oh And now these young players like him and they, I know they've invested in Chase Burns and they have undergreen there as well, who's been hurt. Like, are they going to be able to afford a deli daily Cruz a South Stewart down the road when push comes to shove? I don't know. And it's a, it's a bummer because Yu-Gi-Oh this team, I think if you put a couple of other vets around them, they could make noise in, in the National League. Yu-Gi-Oh they need to be able to pitch. I mean, like, I don't think like the Andrew Abbott thing has really worked. Yu-Gi-Oh they're not healthy right now, unfortunately, on a green, you know, tough. You know, they lost Sonny Gray, right. Just a couple years ago and oh, he had that great year with them and he had a great couple. Incredible. Yu-Gi-Oh Couple years and still doing it. So it's, it's like they'll have flashes and then they, they'll move on. They were a playoff team last year, right. They were a wild card team against Dodgers. They were a wild card team. That six wild card spot, I think they snuck in with like 83 wins. Yu-Gi-Oh they kind of had a little run here and I think as of right now, because this is the thing with that six wild card is that it could happen where someone sneaks in. But the NL wild card is pretty much locked up. Diamondbacks have over four games out in that final spot. But that's basically the Diamondbacks, man, the Padre, I mean the Padres came to play. I mean the, the Diamondbacks, though, man, they were on such a run there. I thought they were the better of the two team for sure the season here and they just really. They've fallen off a little bit. Other awards to talk about. We kind of know what's going on with the Zion awards. We've talked about it at length. It's amazing that it's these two guys. Yu-Gi-Oh Who are both rookies in Tops products, the AL Cy Young, I think. I mean it's, I think it's pretty much set in stone now after Schlitty's last two starts. But it was a way closer lead coming into September than I think many were. Kind of like giving it credit for. I mean, Dylan Cease has been uns, like nearly unstoppable. He hasn't really slowed down his last couple starts. I think just one run allowed in each. Just Schlitler has been so much better. And then whether it was Boonie himself or. Or, you know, Twitter or whatever. But there is now MVP chatter for Schlitty. And not like, he's gonna one-of-one it, but like, he'll get some down ballot votes. Whereas two weeks ago, I think he was not even in that conversation. So, Yu-Gi-Oh the whole MVP thing is. I don't. Yu-Gi-Oh I feel like you've got to be so overwhelmingly better than, like, it's good. This would be truly historic seasons. And I guess some people might say, well, what Schlitler is doing is pretty historic. He's got a, you know, he's got an ERA of 1.95, which isn't the best in baseball, by the way. That belongs to Jacob Mizarowski. So that's the thing is like, then if that's the case, then isn't Jacob Mizarowski also an MVP candidate? Yu-Gi-Oh I guess he is. I mean, he should be. He should be viewed that way. I would. Yu-Gi-Oh absolutely. And again, y', all, it's not like I'm. If I were a voter, I'm giving him my first place vote. These voters get. I think they get. You vote for 10 guys. Yu-Gi-Oh I think you vote for 10 guys for MVP. So, you know, Yu-Gi-Oh he's gonna be here. Yu-Gi-Oh he might be a finalist. He might be an MVP finalist. Yu-Gi-Oh as. As could Jacob Mizorowski. But Yu-Gi-Oh Jordan still is, to me, the guy. Even though he's probably not going to one-of-one the. The. The triple crown, which would have been amazing, but, Yu-Gi-Oh I don't think it's gonna happen. What a year. Yu-Gi-Oh amazing year. What a year. But, Yu-Gi-Oh Mizrowski running away with it again. Those debut patches are gonna be insane. Speaking of debut patches, we gotta talk pca. The guy I think I have never been more wrong about. I don't know if I've ever been more wrong about a player than pca, because at the beginning of this season, I said, not just on this show, on multiple podcasts, sell, sell, sell pca. Because this is it. This is the peak. We got the moment. And now take a look at this. Here we are. His debut patch just went up for auction a couple days ago. This from, I think yesterday. We're recording this on Friday 18th September. $200,000 for the PCA debut patch with about 11 days to go at Goldin Auctions. Yu-Gi-Oh dead wrong about this guy. That. How much is that card? $200,000. There's about two weeks left. If the Paul skins is a million, shouldn't that also be a million? Should. Yes, Will it? Probably not. The skiing's hype was different, man. Like, sorry, pca, but like where's your Livy Dunn? You know, like where's your canes? You know, Cane's chicken? Where's that raisin case? Where's your dick sporting goods? Where's your corporation but that's owned by Fanatics going out to buy your card. Pca. This is true. Who's going to. Who is Michael Rubin going to buy the pca? No. Maybe. Maybe you should. Big Mike. Mike, Buy it for a million. Buy it for $1.1 million so it becomes the biggest MLB debut patch. Because they deserve. Wasn't skin's 1.2, 1.3 million. Michael, if you hear me, Michael, 1.3 million. Do it because it needs to be the biggest. Or sorry dicks. Dicks. Sorry, Michael. Or dicks. Whichever one. Why don't you buy it? Forgive us for my money confusing the two. Yu-Gi-Oh sorry, big ribs. But like you all these X factor things you're mentioning, I do think PCA has those X factors too. Like, he's got. He is the definition of, you know, a white boy can have a little motion to like. I'm not. He's great. He's great. He's got the blue hair which in many, in many, you know, him and Caleb Williams being like this right now in Chicago sports and being like besties going to each other other's games. Like that is something to me. Like, he's just. He's got the swagger, he's got the attitude. He's got the style. 4040amazing deep. Like, he's just like electric everything, full package. And I think he deserves to be the guy right now if you're going to be like, who has the biggest debut patch of all time. Yu-Gi-Oh he one-of-one be. You're right. I think you're right. I don't think he will, but I think he should. I think it should. It should outsell the Skins. Yu-Gi-Oh A way I've been thinking of it is like for an investor or a collector or anyone that's going to spend a million dollars or close to it, like will again and this is me and look at the. As I'm wearing a Dodger jersey. Like, I don't think PCA ever is going to one-of-one another mvp. I don't think the Cubs will one-of-one a World Series with PCA on the team. I don't. I just don't. With. With Shohei Ohtani existing, I just don't see anyone in the. In the enl But I mean, this was the kind of having, having odds to one-of-one or, or being even like near the likely of favorites for any futures bets. Because when you spend a million dollars on a card and it's Paul Skeens, it's. For me, it's easier to project that Paul Skeens is going to be a perennial Cy Young Award winner. He might bring a team like the Pirates that have been nothing for much of my lifetime and bring them to playoff, you know, maybe perennial playoff pedigree or whatever, and then maybe that puts him in the MVP category. That's who, that's who I'm feel better spending a million dollars on less. So a guy that people that are not casuals like yourself and myself were not even giving him credit three or four months ago, that's not a guy I'm spending a million bucks on. To me, it's more of a fluke and like things kind of came together for him and. No, no one's spending money on that kind of money on Ronald Acuna Jr. When he, when he had way more prowess and by the way, already one-of-one an MVP and a World Series. True. No one's spending any kind of money on him that now he didn't have a debut patch, that car didn't exist. Is this card is such a unique thing that like, if we were to be like, oh, there's a, there's a Acuna one or like, let's say next year Ellie De La Cruz puts it together for a full season and like you're like, oh, there's a real MVP candidacy. Like, does that involve his. To that level? I think Paul Skeens has more potent. Has a higher ceiling than. Than PCA in the card market. I think that if PCA has a down year, people turn on him way harder than they turn on Paul Skins. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, again, it's, it's. We, we could just be snowballing our hot takes into hot takes on pca and like, you know what I'm afraid of? I don't want it now. I'm like, I already got caught being like, Yu-Gi-Oh like 287 on base percentage. No, I'm not. I'm not investing this much money in a guy with a sub.300 on base. And now that. On base, by the way. Yu-Gi-Oh like, I mean, how about Julio Rodriguez and Juan Soto have had some big halves. They have. And no one's spending close to a tenth of that money on their cards. They have a ten war season though, is it doesn't Happen often. Yu-Gi-Oh We're in rarefied air with PCA. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean like he is three stolen bases away from 40. 40 as well as we. As we sit here right now. That is huge. Yu-Gi-Oh He's gonna get it because he's gonna go for it and he's just a good enough athlete and baseball player to get there. He has to. Yu-Gi-Oh At this point just try because again Cubs are gonna be in the play. I know that that wild card race is getting a little bit tighter right now. I want to say like again it's like I. Who you spending a million dollars on? Yu-Gi-Oh A guy that you know it's like not a guy that just had things clicking personally. Do not take it financial advice from me. But like if you have a million dollars but go buy Lewis Hamilton. Go buy Max Verstappen. Go buy Lionel Messi. Do not buy pca. Don't do it. The baseball market is not strong enough and we're good. What we're going to talk about coming up here is another reason why is it probably not a great time to be spending a million dollars on baseball players. That's fair. There are two other sales that are notable. There was these one if we can get these ones up. There are like some one of ones that did recently sell. These are the biggest selling PCA cards as of this moment. That's a tops Dynasty Gold RPA 66 grand. The card on the left there is pound for pound according to like baseball buyers. A top two card. Yu-Gi-Oh That's his second best. Second best card. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh And a Superfractor 2024 rookie BGS9 sold for 48 grand on September 6th. Non auto on that one out of top scrolling baseball. So that's where we stand right now with him. Yu-Gi-Oh So that tells me too it's not going to be a million dollar card. I think it eclipses the Kurts at 500k which is the second biggest. Now I was going to. I was going. Mostly the point I was making is that it wasn't going to beat the skins. Right. It could hit a million because I know that number's been floated around and it could just be like it's a big bu buzz number. And to someone that's spending 900k or 800k really what's the difference between that and a million? Maybe a lot but maybe not. I just don't think. I think the collector is going to keep this is going to keep the skins higher. Yu-Gi-Oh Even after the year he's having right now. Yu-Gi-Oh Maybe Maybe. Well, Yu-Gi-Oh I. Very curious where that lands. I think it ends up in like the three quarters of a million. Like it's like a 750k. I'm in against the neighborhood. I'm gonna guess 6, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7,. It's going to be a 6 and a 7 in there probably. There you go. Fair enough. There you go. We're gonna go with that. Well, here. What month is this? How long? one-of-one whatever. Let's move to. Seems like every week there's another digital repack company popping up. Every card you see on Trove is held securely in the PSA vault, and PSA independently verifies that Trove actually owns it. There are bigger and better chase cards, but Trove offers a 100 instant buyback. The fact that they're thinking beyond just ripping packs with insights and analytics on every card, plus monthly dividends on the card you keep, it's pretty cool. There are also pack battles. We can go head to head with friends, compete for the best polls, and make opening packs together an actual experience. Again, if you collect cards, go check out Trove. Look, let's talk about something no one wants to talk about, and that's baseball not happening at all. Yu-Gi-Oh But it's a reality at this point. And I think now we are getting close enough to the end of the season where a majority of teams are not going to be your. Your favorite team is probably not going to be going for a World Series championship just by the odds of things. Not present company excluded here, but now you have to start focusing on the off season. And in three months, there may not be an off season, there may not be a baseball season. The. I thought it was a very illuminating Jeff Passon, his latest podcast. Did you see that part where he talked about. He reached out to every owner in Major League Baseball about basically about the strike, about a potential strike, about basically, are you willing to risk a whole season over the issue of salary cap? All that. Maybe the wording of that question doesn't help invite answers, but it's notable that he went 0 for 30 on responses and in some cases was given a direct response of. We have been instructed not to talk about this. You can direct your questions to the league office. That's not a good sign. Yu-Gi-Oh So the. The owners are all playing together. They're all on the same team. And, you know, it's. It's an owner's league. It's. That's. Yu-Gi-Oh The commissioner's job and the job. The fact at the end of the Day like they go to service the owners and this. Yep. As I've heard it, I think I. On a few other. I can't take credit for this, but it is the most exclusive country club in the world is being an owner of a professional sports team. Yu-Gi-Oh And it, it does seem that players had more control when, when I was, when we were younger and growing up and more influence and. Yu-Gi-Oh Yes. And so for nearly all of my lifetime it's been. I've been having to get. Get myself used to these team evaluations and these just like the, the hidden intentions or behind business. Business decisions and how they affect the. The play on field. And we're fans of teams where I think that like our front offices do a good job of. Yu-Gi-Oh They spend. They do a good job of providing a good product and the stadiums are nice and it's a good experience and there's good fan culture and so like it, it's. It's an owner's league and all the serving the commissioner and like it is. It has also been like the strongest player union in sports. It is still to this day. I mean there's just so much pride in it. Both things are true. Right. So in which is why it's like this solution. A solution coming to what to one seems so daunting because they are so headstrong and like rightfully so because for decades and decades, I mean the culture of baseball has been you have your players union, which is the strongest union in sports. Player union in sports. And then you have these owners that are like we own the most valuable franchises in the world. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean when you see that lakers sale at $12 billion, the fact that I'm now having conversations with other fans and other, you know, anyone who wants to talk about this of like, are the Dodgers worth $15 billion? And it's not. And it's Right. That's the crazy thing. Is it like if the Lakers are this or the Dodgers that. Because they. And you don't get laughed out of the room because they're doing like two and a half billion in merch every year. It's insane. So when you have that, when you have these like unfathomable numbers and you're right. And then the strongest union in all of pro sports. This is why we are now at this insane standstill potential standstill. So how is that going to affect this world and baseball cards? I think one thing we can look at is that the most obvious one, I think veteran prices are probably going to take a dip unfairly. So Yu-Gi-Oh just because we're not going to see these guys, like, they're just. We're going to not forget, but like they're going to be in the back of our minds and we don't get to see a highlight of Ellie De La Cruz making some amazing play. James Wood inning, a mammoth home run. Like those at the, at the best, those prices freeze. At worse, everything probably trickles down. And I think that's more likely. That doesn't, I think, apply to guys like Aaron Judge, guys like Oshohei Ohtani. I think those are basically the two modern, the two active exceptions to the rule. Yu-Gi-Oh I, Yu-Gi-Oh I agree. And it's crazy to like, for me to just like be so okay with that because that's like, like maybe like 90 to 95% of the card market, Baseball card market will probably be negatively affected, whether it's like anywhere from like 1% to 100% or greater. Yu-Gi-Oh the, I mean, and, and even still, like will Ohtani and Judge, will they dip like 5, 10, 15%, but just not like the, the drastic drop. Maybe also it could work in the inverse where like what we're seeing right now with Ken Griffey Jr. Michael Jordan, even like a lot of money's being moved into, like one-of-one Gretzky and Connor McDavid, even though he's still active and you know, not retired yet, but a lot of big money we're seeing getting moved into those goats. Brady's another one. Yu-Gi-Oh kind of more of a sure thing, if you will. So as we come up on a strike and we're not playing baseball, who are the sure things in baseballs? Like Cody said, the judges, the Ohtanis. Do we see greater appreciation for guys that, like Jose Ramirez, maybe that has had a tough market because he plays in for Cleveland. But do you, do people start going to look at like people's stats and go like, which is a little more time. Is J. Ram a Hall of Famer? Question mark. Like, and then we. Interesting take. We start to like put stock in players that we weren't considering because we were considering rookies and second, third year guys we're hoping to develop now. It's like all we really have to look forward to is maybe enshrinement or, or then on the flip side, prospects, and there's still going to be ball being played. Right. And this is the biggest thing that I think you're going to see go up is that top prospects. Look, Bowman investing is already huge. It's prospect investing is already huge. It's in many ways these guys are outselling all of the biggest names in baseball. But like just expect that maybe to now there might be a premium on these guys that we didn't see before. Yu-Gi-Oh Especially as we get more Bowman products and buy your pro debut, y'. All. Buy pro. They're playing. They're going to be playing in those uniforms. Yu-Gi-Oh that's a great. They one-of-one even be playing in their Bowman uniforms. Superimposed airbrushed Bowman uniforms. They're going to be in their pro debut. Pro debut. Amaze. Always an amazing buy such a good product. Even more so now that like that is going to be the only thing. And again if you're, you know, to anyone who's like how does that possible? Because now we are in a post minor league baseball players union world where they have their own separate union so they can keep playing and that's. That will not be affected. What could be affected is you basically get a log jam which will be unfortunate. So you got a lot of guys who are sort of your, you know, as we call them, sort of quad A guys, guys who are like not quite there, quite good enough for the major leagues but are clearly too good to keep staying in the minor leagues. Those to me are the guys who are on the chopping block for a lot of teams where they're like, Yu-Gi-Oh it's not worth it to just keep them on the roster. When we have this young player who like he needs time and like a higher level and we just need to keep like we have to move guys up and when you move one guy up, you got to move a guy into the next level and the next level and then there's no other level to go for Major League Baseball right now. Yu-Gi-Oh to that end too, not just the top prospects but like you're going to see I think a lot of sort of quote unquote lower ranked prospects. These three guys that I have pictured right here, Braylon Payne, Chenri Vargas, Manuel Pena, who doesn't even have a first Bowman yet. All three of these guys are league leaders in their respective minor league divisions and leagues. But they're not selling for the same amount as number one prospects because they're not just ranked the same way, but if we're going to be watching more minor league baseball, which you'll probably see more televised, you'll probably see, hear more like it's just going to be on more because there's nothing else. If there is no mlb, you're going to start to follow the stats and like, oh, so and so's leading the league. Oh, they're like the 20th ranked prospect in this system. Oh, this is a great buying opportunity. Why is nobody on this guy? So keep an Yu-Gi-Oh out for that. Like again, that might already be your play. It's like I am always looking for those Topps of guys to buy low on. Well, just again, expect that now everybody's going to start to play that game if you keep collecting these Topps of guys. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh And it will become like a little showcase and potentially too just. I just thought of this right now. If we come out of the strike with a cap and Fleer but just for this conversation's sake, a cap at the very least, would it be who of major league scouts, slash organizations to be keeping a very, very close Yu-Gi-Oh on organizations and stuff all across the board. Will there be some extra nice value to be able to get guys that a steal? Because now you have financial conf. Like restraints and parameters. Could someone. Could a GM be like, well, we have this, the shortstop that we were paying, you know, 20 million a year. There's this guy that we saw in, you know, Tuscaloosa or whatever that, you know, we could pay 900k or there's going to be renegotiated minimums too out of the moment. CBA the moment they get out of it. And if. Yes, if you. Like you said, because that's kind of. I think we can agree, like if there is a salary cap, the players are only going to accept that and they may not. But I think the only scenario where the players accept that is if there is also a Fleer Now if that happens, and this is constraints we have literally never seen in baseball history in 150, 200 years of professional baseball. And you are going to see like salary cap goofiness and manipulation that the type of stuff you see in the NFL and the NBA. And man, part of me is like, it makes me sick to my stomach that we're gonna get that, to be honest. Like, Yu-Gi-Oh because I'm sure you've been seeing the. The Clippers stuff unfold and Pablo doing all that, all that manipulation that Steve Palmer did and everything. So kind of the vibe I was getting from that 16 and 16 part series. And I think there's still more parts that they're doing. Was it like. It's probably. The Clippers are probably not the only ones doing it. No. 100%, no. Hell, we don't have to go far to find out a team that was doing that. It was the 49ers were doing it, you know, during the Eddie D years. Not to that extent. Oh my gosh. I forgot about that. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh 100. Yu-Gi-Oh By definition there's a reason he's not. He's not allowed. Yu-Gi-Oh Eddie D is not allowed in NFL premises is because of that type of stuff. So they are going to find a way and billionaire again. It's a class of people who have basically gotten away with everything and feel like they can get away with everything and are going to keep trying until they finally don't get away with something. And that's what I'm with. Steve Ballmer, like Steve Cohen is not going to be able to just have the, you know, like not just going to be able to spend endlessly. So things like that, like it's going to be quite a shift back to. Back to the card market. You already alluded to it. But vintage and goats are safe. Yu-Gi-Oh Like that's. It could be stronger than ever. Like if you have been a vintage collector and have always just been like I never have to worry because like Willie Mays is never going to take another at PAT and he's locked in. He's literally a statue of him outside of a ballpark. And like the legend will just continue to grow. And that's true. And it's, it's. And I could see some huge record breaking prices for some vintage stuff during a potential downtime for baseball even before that even just kind of in preparation for that. I could see some big vintage sales going down here and there always are big vintage sales going down frankly. But you might, you might see some historic stuff in preparation for like knowing this is happening. And then. Yu-Gi-Oh Ohtani. I think Ohtani Judge, those are really the two sort of. If you put in the goats, I think those are the two guys who, who are safe. Maybe less so Judge, given the injuries this year. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean that's that theme that, that caliber of player. Yu-Gi-Oh Is your spot on, I think. I don't know if I group Trout into that. It could be a really cool time to buy trout. Trout might be grouped in with like that. That vet group that could see a dip in their, in their volume. But then once baseball's back it's like, oh, he like he's still one of the goats. I've been trying to think about like, like a fun silver lining. You know what, like what am I personally gonna try to capitalize on or take advantage of an opportunity within the market. Vintage was one of them. I really want to get a Jackie Robinson Rookie card. Nice. That'd be amazing. And while I agree that vintage will go up, I think that also there's going to be more volume and more quantities available. Yep. Potentially at a card show a little bit more area for negotiation and stuff like that. But just coming back from the national there were hundred thousands of I mean people at booths has had like Jackie rookies stacked like oh, here's my stack of sixes, sevens 5.5 like and so I'm looking forward to more of that. And then Yu-Gi-Oh people. I'm looking forward to people getting some. Getting creative and showcasing their ultra creative pieces. I mean I, you know. Well, I get an extra Instagram post out of me a month of my, you know, 10 of 10 Corey Seeger collection or my, you know, my funny names collection that no one knows I have or. Oh man, you would have been shoe in on our last podcast. Oh really? Yu-Gi-Oh we were just talking about great baseball. Oh, that's great. Dicky Lovelady came up. That's up. There you go. I think I have, I have a. Oh, nice. Yu-Gi-Oh And a place to where I. Where it's all started was opening tops archives like the modern tarps archives and then they have the, the box toppers or either the oversized card or they're an original buyback card. And nine times out of ten the. The names are like dirty or suggestive and it's, it's great. And that's kind of how it started. So I just went and found a bunch of stuff for like 50 cents on eBay and card shops and dollar bins and that's a great PC. So like. Well, Yu-Gi-Oh well like we need that video like now. Will the hobby glorify obscure collections? And also too does the hobby move a little bit away from baseball? I mean I think that's the biggest takeaway and the biggest fear is frankly how uncertain the whole. What. What happens in 2027 with top speakers. Yu-Gi-Oh Collectors aren't going to spend less, they're just going to spend differently. Exactly. And when you have now for top well, one here's the thing too is it's not like it was. There is some precedent 2022, we did have a lockout. It just didn't affect the season. Right. It affect the off season a little bit. But then there was. It really, really didn't do much to change that season. No. And I think there was one product top flagship baseball that coincided with the strike. And when that. And we were like, then what happens? Nothing. Because then we got baseball. But if there's no baseball. Then we start to think, I don't know what the rules. I was trying to look it up. I think the only other precedent was 1994. There continued to be baseball product. But now that there is this connection with Fanatics and a vested in that the players union has a vested interest in Fanatics, which I remember was such a big deal and I don't know if enough people give thought about that that all the players, all the major players unions, NFL, NBA and MLB have it. Have a stake in Fanatics and what they're doing. And I don't know if that then basically halts production of these products. I don't know if it delays it. I don't, I don't know. And if somebody in the chat, if you're, if you're watching this video, let me know what happens here. Because there's so much uncertainty. And frankly, the other part is like you said, the nightmare scenario of nobody wants to buy baseball. Does that affect TOPS as much because they have football and basketball? No, but it's still a huge, huge chunk coming out of, you know, that's still a huge part of their business is baseball. It's what they're known for at the end of the day. Yu-Gi-Oh Forgive my potential ignorance on the topic, but I'd like to believe that the cba lack of agreement agreeing on it like a, you know, CBA is separate from deals and I think contractual agreements that Fanatics has made with the players union and with, with the owners, with the league. I could see how maybe the players could be like, we're not agreeing to you using our. In our name imaging likeness on. On a Cubs card. If PCA is like, nah, like screw ownership. They. They want to like put a cap on us and not give us a Fleer Like, I don't, I don't feel good about you guys producing cards that have me in a Cubs jersey. You can make cards of me, but just not in a. Do you know what I mean? Yu-Gi-Oh Are we gonna get some weird, some weird product? Like I don't. Yu-Gi-Oh Again, is there where it's basically like it's Pete Co Armstrong in street clothes with a vetch with a, you know, a Barry Bonds in a Giant. Are we gonna get a Goodwin Champs feel of Right. Like an Ultra Ginter Ginter. It would be a strange. Yu-Gi-Oh This mix of like sort of like pseudo unlicensed but licensed simultaneously. I don't know. I don't know what happens. And because again like because of these, the existing rules, there's not really any precedent. Again, there have been products. No precedent. No. The thing is, too, if they print the cards, once the cards are printed, and maybe that's the other thing, we see a big rush to be like, we got to print these cards first. And so I don't know. I really don't know what happens here. They haven't been doing that already. Well, well, you might see an even bigger rush of, like, get these products printed so that we just get these out during this potential dead time. Or does major league does tops, like, own a certain, like, set of images and they're like, they're just going to be printing, like, the same, like, Shohei Ohtani, like, at the, like, the same exact image just across a bunch of different sets. Maybe we've seen that before, too. We have seen that. I don't know. Whatever it is, I think the things you can count on is why is no one asked this question yet? Well, that's why we're here asking these questions. I want to know what's going. What is going to happen. We were kicking the can down the road of just looming lockout. Yu-Gi-Oh And I think that there were so many other headlines that were, and understandably so, more important and pertinent than like, what's going to happen to the trading card market that, you know, around CBA or lack thereof. Now we're finally getting to the next layer of the domino effect. And Yu-Gi-Oh dude, what the frick happens? Everybody in this industry. And when I say this industry, I mean this industry of baseball, because that is what it is. At the end of the day, it's an industry on top of being a sport. Everybody will be affected in some way, you know, from. From the owner to the all star outfielder to the guy selling hot dogs. Like, a lot of people are going to be out of a job for a while who, you know, can't. It's going to be a lot harder on them than it is on, say, you know, Bryce Harper or on Dodger ownership. And then, Yu-Gi-Oh it's going to affect, like, what are we going to rip? What are we going to. What people who make a livelihood selling cards, what are we going to have to rip? What are we going to. Are we. Is the market just going to tank and we got to figure out how do we fill the gaps. The fact that minor league baseball is out there, international baseball doesn't go anywhere. I kind of. I could. That's something I didn't even think about till right now. Remember how we filled the gaps during COVID where We're watching Korean baseball. We were watching like those were the first ones to come back that we're like, great, there's something. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm going to watch it. Of course I'm going to watch it. Those aren't going to be going anywhere. So. And hey, who knows, maybe you could even see some MLB players being like, I just need to play. I'm going to, I'm going to go to Japan and Korea and just stay warm. Could there be like an independent league that pops up good? Could like Jay Z and Brady and like everyone get together and you know, hear me out, you know, put together like an eight team? Yu-Gi-Oh 15, you know, a 20 man roster, 25 man roster, eight teams, you know, hear me out. I'd go try out Paul Skeens, your next starting pitcher for the Savannah Bananas. Okay. Make it happen. So now, yes and yes. There would need to be crazy money pumped into these leagues. Crazy. Plenty of money in the Savannah Bananas. Crazy. Like benefits and because I think a lot of like what is not being mentioned is through cb, like the CBA talks and like through passing is like, there's still pension things that need to get worked out. There's still insurance, there's still like, Yu-Gi-Oh there's the big issue, which we all know about. But you're right, there's a lot of little things. Like there are things that hold up like, just like throughout, over the history of baseball and cba, like there, there have been things that have always held up that have pushed things like a day, a week, a month where like, Yu-Gi-Oh they end up playing baseball on time or you know, within like a week of projected time. And it's like we never really see the difference as fans or spring training is pushed a week or half a week or something like that. And like we don't see the difference. And those things like still are going to exist and hopefully the overall separation between the two sides doesn't exacerbate even the smaller issues. Like, hopefully those are like, they're able to button up as per usual. But Yu-Gi-Oh it's like, Yu-Gi-Oh I think you said it best. Like, it'll be interesting to see if any MLB stars take it upon themselves to seek new opportunities. Or is there a guy that's like, shoot, man, like, I, I've only been in the league for a couple years. I'm making the minimum also. I don't know how that works with like breach of contract and all that. But again, if there's a strike, you can void your contract. Why not? Savannah Bananas. Make it happen. PCA doing backflips, closing his eyes, making catches. I could see maybe less dancing. Less like, maybe less so. Like the Paul Skins of the type of the world. Like meaning like guys that actually. Fringe guys. Fringe guys, but like guys that are like, Yu-Gi-Oh like we talked about my whole class of baseball player who probably doesn't play next year. The quad A guys. Yu-Gi-Oh like I can't, I can. Yu-Gi-Oh Like I, there are guys. If the fringe guys are like, I might not have a spot, but I can do a backflip or Yu-Gi-Oh or I can. But I've got a great. I, I, I know how to tap dance. Yu-Gi-Oh call me up. I can, I can do the worm, you know, and then all of a sudden you can, you can be a 2 to a 220 MLB hitter, but you can be a star. Yu-Gi-Oh there you go. And so and I think like the, the, the, the underlying theme or like more of those stories is just like opportunity. There's going to be so much opportunity. And others try other companies and organizations trying to capitalize on lack of baseball. I think we're going to have some like snarky commercials coming out. I think they're going to be like some awesome like content that comes from this and we might have some like I could just see an angry Bryce Harper just making some funny YouTube videos and putting them out there. And it's like, I don't know, angry Bryce vlogs. Baking, you know, baking something. You know, it's gonna be like baking. You know he bakes, right? I. Does he bake? Bryce Harper. Harper bakes. No, that's not, there's no way Bryce Harper is a baker. Somebody help me out here. Bryce Harper has got a sourdough starter kit. We can move on. But I think he bakes. Oh, well, on that note, does Bryce Harper bake? Let us know in the comments and of course let us know what you think is going to happen here. Does Cody Bellinger bake? Well, there you go. Smoke him if you got him. Folks. Make sure to subscribe to Mo Break media if you're watching this clip. Bryce Harper is a baker. Unbelievable. I okay, I'm not trying to like be right. I think confirmed it came it. I thought of that when you, when you guys were like, I don't know. I was willing to be, I was willing to be wrong there. Okay. I wasn't like for sure for sure. But Yu-Gi-Oh I never knew this the last guy I would expect. I think it was like a Covid thing. I mean Yu-Gi-Oh like everyone found their. Found their thing. Some people found sports cards. Yes, they did. Some people found baking. A lot of people found baking. What did I find? I found. I found a jump rope for like a week. You were doing jump rope? Yu-Gi-Oh Then my ankle started hurting. Yu-Gi-Oh Jump rope's like, that's. Yu-Gi-Oh I was like, this is sucks. I'm gonna go back to Fortnite and ripping cards. Oh, my gosh. What a. How awesome was it just to. That's. I think what I was finding with that. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Collecting Jared Kelanick, Kyle Lewis for myself, brother. Shout out to Kyle Lewis wherever you're at. Let us know what you think about what's going to happen here with the strike in the comments. If you're watching the video version of the podcast and of course, make sure to subscribe to Mojo Break. Wherever you get podcasts, just search Motor Break and hey, find us wherever you break. We've mojo break.com Fanatics live Whatnot. Of course, ebay live. Gotta mention ebay live because we're ripping baseball now on ebay live. Not just hockey. We're doing a prospects and the guys you want to be looking out for. Bowman Chrome. Bowman Chrome on ebay live. Luis Hernandez, top chase in Bowman Chrome was on ebay live. Ripping with Doug on release day. It was a very cool moment. So find us on ebay live. We're ripping there five days a week. We not only have baseball, but of course we're doing a ton of hockey over there. We're doing Pokemon as well. Tcg. Everything you could want. Single shows. If you want to find your goats that we were just talking about, they do a ton of Jordan, Ohtani, Griffey. They have a big hockey presence. So there's. There's Gretzky stuff out there anywhere you consume. Mojo Break. We love you. We appreciate you. Bubba Dot Breaks on Instagram. I just posted a really cool PC hit of mine. I'm usually pretty bashful and don't share my stuff, but I had to share this one. Go check it out. Breaks and follow me at Mojo Cody on Instagram and we will see you guys next time here on Waxbacks Morning Tracks. It's good to be back. See you guys. It.