Sports Cards Nonsense at The National | Thursday, July 30, 2026
Sports Cards Nonsense is taking over The National, the biggest card convention in the country! Join Mike Gioseffi, Dalen from Junk Wax Vintage, and Doug from MojoBreak from Rosemont, Illinois. We recap the first day of the show, discuss the big PSA news, and look ahead to Day 2 from the floor!
Video Transcript
Hey.
All right, guys.
We're back.
it's day two, so technically day one of The National.
Thursday is kind of the main opening day almost always.
I'm gonna start off with the dumbest, stupidest cliche crap we've ever said.
I said this leading up to it, that we weren't gonna do this dumb content, and we're gonna start our first official podcast from the show with it.
It's the biggest show ever.
I know everybody's gonna say that, and it's dumb, and the line's Just to put it in perspective, me and dad got out yesterday just to walk in on Wednesday.
Wednesday used to be, like, our day.
It was the vendor day.
Some VIPs came in, but it was just, like, the ve- set up, hang around, like, do nothing special, and just kinda make some deals with vendors.
A half a mile line out the door, like, just to get in.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Again, this is not even a real day.
Wednesday was a nothing thing.
We had the booth out there.
We've got 10 tables.
There was not a minute from 2:00 to 8:00 that wasn't absolutely full.
It was ridiculous.
We had a ton of highlights, obviously.
Some, some buying, some selling, trading, transactions, cool stories, all that stuff.
We're gonna start off, though, because we're gonna do one of these every day, it's a special week for us at SCN, n- number one, really just want to thank you guys, the audience.
We don't do that enough, and we, we BS, and we're sarcastic, and I make fun of everybody under the sun.
And I will do that after.
I will degrade everybody, I promise, later on.
But sincerely, like, a thank you.
We have an awesome setup here.
The content's been amazing.
We have a full camera team.
You never see me on camera 'cause I'm an idiot, and we don't ever pay for this stuff.
We went all out this year because you guys in the audience have been crazy supportive.
So, I mean it, super appreciative for that.
Having said that, the room was still full of plenty of dummies yesterday.
We're gonna release some reels and some side skits and stuff of just some of the worst things we've ever seen, some of the most egregious pricing, and some of the biggest sloths under the sun sitting there who couldn't, you know, utter a sentence but are have a half a million dollars worth of cards on the table.
We did kinda wanna just pull the curtain back and give you a glimpse, though.
Again, some of the transactions, you'll see all that stuff.
A absolute highlight for me, the Ni- the 2001 Sign of the Times Terrell Davis.
Had a guy, a, a Peyton Manning collector, the guy name was Drake, walked up to me within the first hour of the show and handed me the Terrell Davis card.
Again, that seems insignificant.
It's a $100 card.
I have been chasing that thing for nine years.
Never seen it.
This guy who I don't even know came walking up, listener of the podcast.
So I bought the card.
He got the bounty that we talked about.
It set the tone for the whole day, though.
We were able to sell a ton of stuff at the booth.
Again, the buying, the selling, that's gonna happen every day.
You'll also see in some of the other footage that's not gonna be released on this, two pretty amazing shop stories.
W- we talk with one kid, Brady.
Two ends of the spectrum, by the way.
Brady, 19-year-old shop owner, literally opened his shop before his 20th birthday.
So kid has millions of dollars worth of cards, wax, a shop, and everything.
He cannot legally drink.
It was a wild story.
And then Jean, 60-year-old woman, retired Navy vet, who also just opened a shop in the last couple of months.
So we were really trying to, like, focus on some of the actual collectors and the stories that got people here and brought them into the hobby.
But it's been an amazing start to the show.
I have a feeling this weekend's gonna be absolutely insane.
And so we're gonna add some people in.
We're gonna talk to Dalen from Junk Wax Vintage.
Had an awesome time.
Dude, Dalen is the most energetic, off the charts wacko in the hobby, and we freaking love him.
We're gonna kinda do a little bit of a recap and look back with him for a few minutes, and then we're gonna get Doug in here from, Mojo Breaks.
Doug has been a veteran in this thing for years, so kinda get some of his perspective this year and looking forward.
So we'll jump to those two guys, and we'll wrap it up.
Dalen, welcome in, first of all.
Dude, studio's freaking amazing.
Incredible.
Yeah.
I am absolutely blown away.
This entire thing's amazing.
You know, our SCN corporate area is nuts.
Yeah, we're corporate now.
We're total corporate sellouts, and I'm good with that.
We've got people- Big time dude, camera crew.
We have, like, four camera guys, two in here, two out there.
It's pretty wild.
Yeah.
I kinda wanna get your perspective.
I kinda did the cliche, "Hey, biggest show of all time.
This is unbelievable," type thing.
Yeah.
This is your third National?
Correct.
So, like, talk, talk me through it.
Like, I don't want Just from the top.
Like- Yeah how does it stack up for real?
Yeah, absolutely.
So Cleveland, I think we learned really quickly, like, outgrew that venue.
Oh.
Like, we can't go back to Cleveland- Can't do that again unfortunately.
It was- Yeah.
We do- Which I freaking love Cleveland, by the way.
Right.
Most underrated downtown city you hear nothing good about.
Spot on, my friend.
It's brand new.
Could not agree more.
Yeah.
Could not agree more.
It was so cool.
Almost lost Papagio in downtown Cleveland a couple times.
How easy to do, my friend.
Well, there's some- If you- bars and casinos, so- we dragged him in Yep it's all right.
No.
Yeah.
He's I don't think he's drinking yet, actually.
He's sitting behind the camera.
We'll get him in here.
Indeed.
Okay.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
So- Yeah, yeah this has been absolutely incredible.
Yeah.
So last year, I'll share with you, obviously you saw here last year, right, they had the entire upstairs open.
Yep.
But they had it closed half of it off, right?
And if you remember, I hear a rumor that they did that intentionally, and they actually narrowed the aisles last year because they were afraid that it was gonna look sparse.
Yeah.
Okay?
That was the biggest complaint, right.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
My dear friends, that was not an issue.
So last year it was incredible.
This year they opened up the entire upstairs.
Yeah.
And not only did they do that, they put our wonderful SCN corporate area up here.
They've got a main stage up here- Yeah where it sounds like, Jesse might be doing something special with a couple female celebrities.
Dude, Logan Paul and Gar- Gary Vee today.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Talking about pervert stuff.
Some flying lizards.
Yeah, flying lizards.
That's right.
You're my brother.
So there is nothing like The National.
Yeah.
Period, dot.
The There just isn't.
Like, I hate to do this, too, like, to oversimplify, but I do.
Like, some people are like, "Is the hobby really growing, or is there just, like, venture money?"
I'm like, "Dude, there's, like, 200,000 wackos in here."
Yeah.
Like And the other thing I noticed yesterday, and you were set up, you guys did way more transacting.
You guys were freaking busy.
The amount of end users.
That's another complaint you hear, like, "Oh, everybody's buying a flip," or, "These wackos are at freaking Target- Yeah pushing kids to f- to scout Pokemon."
The amount of guys here, especially yesterday I thought, who were like- Yeah "Hey, I'm looking for this card."
Correct.
"'Cause I don't sell Whoever.
I'm keeping it."
Exactly.
You saw that, too?
Totally.
Okay.
Yeah.
I It was astonishing, actually.
Yeah.
There were so many people that came up that had lists.
Like, they had- Yeah spreadsheets of what they were missing from sets, the different parallels they were missing, what they were looking for.
You know, I sold half of my 1986 Fleer PSA subset I had.
Oh, you were selling that?
I thought you were buying that.
No, no, no.
We sold- Oh, okay most of it, which was incredible.
Nice.
But yeah.
And then the, the, the kids that came up yesterday.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Ton of kids.
And you see the excitement in their eyes, and it is so neat- Yep to see the enthusiasm.
And there were so many people, it's their very first National.
Yeah.
Like- Absolutely incredible.
That is correct.
And then, we actually, the biggest surprise is I have to go buy now because- Yeah, you didn't leave the booth dude, I thought that we would have enough to get through the days.
I was so wrong.
Yeah.
Because w- I'm gonna have to go out and buy because we have an eBay show on Saturday, and I have very little inventory now thanks to yesterday, so.
Dang.
Okay.
Yeah.
You know what, speak- so speaking, it's a good segue, we did the eBay Live thing, so Junk Wax Vintage was live on eBay.
We did, like, a live watch party with me and Jesse, which I told the eBay people ahead of time I thought was gonna be kinda, like, not gonna work, and I was like, "This might be kinda dumb."
Right, right, right.
Not your end.
I was like, them walking the floor is cool and buying, so basically you and Amanda walked the floor, bought cards- Correct and then we auctioned them.
You auctioned them live right on eBay Live.
And what, it actually was pretty cool, dude.
The stands around the thing, we probably had, like, 30 or 40 people, like, a bunch of weirdo 14-year-old Bears fans screaming for Caleb at this point.
Right, right, right.
But dude, they were pretty into it, and, like, eBay was throwing in a bunch of stuff.
Ebay is obviously a sponsor of ours, but they are all over this building.
Like, it- That is correct the branding is nuts, so.
Ebay is here in full effect.
Yeah, yeah.
It's been pretty wild.
'Cause that was my goal, too.
Like, I, I mean, you know this.
Like, if we sell on live, you have to source singles.
Dude, it was tough to leave the booth, so today I, I'm actually That's my strategy today.
I'm not putting out nearly as much.
Okay.
I'm like, hey, I just, the stuff I don't n- and e- and everything I've bought except for one Ohtani, I just put away.
Yeah.
Like, I told Dad, I was like, "Dude, put in the Zion.
I don't even want it out 'cause it's gonna sell."
so yeah, I agree.
The PSA thing.
You just, you just mentioned this.
I actually had not even heard this, so let, like, let them know.
So PSA, the, the, I, I can't substantiate this, but I've seen several articles from really dependable sources that have said that PSA has closed down the lowest tier option.
I think that was, like, the $230 option, something like that.
Okay.
The rumor is that they received more submissions yesterday, in just yesterday, than they did for the entire national last year in this same building.
That's crazy.
So now I think you've only got the highest tier and the mid-tier options available for the- It's between, like, 400 bucks- trading card service 600 bucks?
I believe the mid-tier is around 400.
I think the high tier's 800.
Dang.
So kudos to you if you have a card that can sustain that.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's absolutely incredible to see the volume that just happened yesterday on day one, and we didn't even open until 2:00 yesterday.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it was like I was saying, too, like, Wednesday u- like, I, I said this already, but, like, Wednesday was just our day before.
Like, vendors come and hang out, walk around, shake hands, like, just catch up with people.
Yeah, exactly, rubbing shoulders with the people that you see- Yeah, yeah every few months.
And now it's like, dude, if you leave the booth, you get guys, like, wait.
I actually appreciate how aggressive the buyers were 'cause I made that thing last week.
I was like, "If you're a vendor, be at your table."
Yes.
"Don't be over here shoving hot dogs down your throat or walking around like an idiot."
Right.
"Do your job."
Yep.
Solve the best- And a couple times people, like, gave me that wave, and then Dan was, he was like, "Hey, dummy, get over and do your job."
it has been pretty cool, too.
The National hooked us up with an awesome setup, the studio, the other, but right across we've got the transaction booth.
Yes.
My favorite part is watching Gio and David throw people off that thing.
We left that open intentionally- Yeah because you've never seen, like, an angry Californian and, like, a midget Italian halfway drinking guy.
It was pretty funny.
Oh.
Some of the card guys did not know what they were supposed to do with that, so.
Right.
Yeah.
Papa Gio is the real MVP in my humble opinion.
Yeah.
He has held it down here.
He has- He holds the money bag.
Right.
Right.
It, yeah, nobody's gonna mess with him.
So the cool thing, here in our sports cards nonsense area specifically, we have the all-star SCN team basically.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah, dude, it's pretty wild.
Around Lauren here, so you can see- Yep all of us in one spot.
It's your one-stop shop for the best content creators in the entire hobby in my humble opinion, and of course, the best podcast in the entire hobby.
Nice.
My brother.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, so we got Mojo Break set up today.
We got Gordie Bong, as you can I'm pointing like you can see, but it's all, it's literally just a horseshoe outside.
So Mojo, Gordie, Dalen, Amanda up front.
I think Chris Thomas, Attaboy Cards is gonna set up.
Yep.
We got the Ball Card guys.
We got Clever Cuban.
We got Jesse.
We're gonna jump across the way today, so yeah, it's been a pretty awesome setup.
Last question, goal for the show, like, remaining show- Yeah you know, like a card- Yeah a box you're trying to buy, a thing you're trying to do- whatever, like, what's, like, the one?
Yeah, so eBay is doing something really, really cool.
So they're doing, they're trying to promote the buy it now feature.
Oh, yeah.
So if we do a seller suite on Saturday from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM Central Standard Time, shameless plug, during that if you take a buy it now down, you will automatically get an eBay certified repack for free.
It is a gift with purchase.
Oh, nice.
So my goal today is going out and finding some really, really special buy it now options for our audience to buy for our Saturday show.
There was some shame.
That was not shameless.
There was a little bit of shame in that plug, so.
Dude, hey, if you haven't checked him out, this is a shameless plug, dude.
I, I don't say this about many people.
Dalen is a freaking, I said this, the perfect wacko in this industry.
It is beaut- like, the most positive, like, happy dude who's a psychopath.
Occasionally he cusses off camera.
It's the weirdest frigging thing to see.
I, I'm not even gonna repeat Nothing crazy, but he swore yesterday and I was like, "I don't even know who I'm talking to."
What?
Yeah, not you.
There's some awesome people here.
Yeah, like I said, I know you're gonna s- and, it, last thing, too, w- when you're here, I know you're gonna hear some of this stupid negativity.
If people are not here, they're the whiny losers who are at home making stupid content about it.
If you came here yesterday or if you're not, come here one of the next few days, it is unreal.
So- I would encourage anybody to be here so if I may, I'm gonna hop on my soapbox for just one moment.
Oh, please.
So there's a lot, uh- No cussing here.
Of course.
Chill out.
Of course.
All right.
Just making sure.
You can mute me if we need to, right?
Bleep me out?
Yeah.
You're, yeah, you're- Kidding you're the real worry here.
So there's a lot of, as Mike just said, it feels like if people aren't here, that they're gonna hate, right?
Yeah.
That's their first reaction.
Of course, I completely understand that that gets clicks, right?
And if they're doing it for that, more power to you.
That's just not my style.
The fact of the matter is, this is not my opinion, this is a fact, our hobby is growing almost at an unbelievable rate, and there's a lot of people out there, this is gonna be a hot take, a lot of people out there think that there is a chance that our card hobby could fluctuate and go down.
Of course.
I've been in this hobby since I was almost seven years old.
I turned 44 a couple of weeks ago.
I've watched this card market go up and down.
What I think we're looking at is a new normal, okay?
Really?
The card- Let me interrupt you real quick.
Yeah.
So singles, right, 'cause I actually am one of those people.
Yeah.
I think the next three to six months we see something leveling off.
You think that- I disagree.
Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
And I'll tell you why.
Please.
Yeah, yeah.
I, I- I'd love for you to disagree with me I just think back to- Sure so- There has never been So there's a few nevers, okay?
Number one, there has never been a company like Fanatics that has dumped almost an unfathomable amount of money into this hobby.
Fair.
Right?
Their goal is to 10X the hobby, and they've done that through education and exposure, and I think that is incredibly intelligent.
And marketing.
And that's the way you do it.
And marketing, by the way, right?
Of course.
Tons of marketing, shameless at times, but tons of market- Okay, go ahead.
Exactly right.
So- I'm only gonna interrupt one more time, so you're good.
I'll, I'll pick my spot.
You are totally good, brother, I welcome it.
So Fanatics is amazing.
Nobody has ever injected that much funding into the hobby.
Number two, there's an infrastructure, okay, through Fanatics and through the distributor program, and they've got breaker allocations and things like that.
There are so many independent businesses within this hobby.
I'm not gonna say it's too big to fail, because I don't believe that, but there are so many people that have a vested interest in this hobby continuing.
Sure.
It would be really hard for me to believe that it goes backwards, barring some kind of, like- Economical event or something.
Ex- exactly.
Okay.
You know what I mean?
A cosmic impact or something like that.
Sure.
You know, I could see that.
Alien invasion.
Agreed.
That's, that's correct.
So I think we're looking at a new normal, because there has never been the amount of collectors that are new to the hobby as there has been in the last couple of years especially.
I've talked to literally thousands of them that have just gotten into the hobby in the last few weeks or the last few months.
Incredible to hear.
And again, I've got to give it all to Fanatics.
I know Fanatics gets a lot of hate.
I am not sponsored by Fanatics at all.
I have n- I am the ultimate- Yeah, no allocation, nothing no one.
Yeah, yeah.
Correct.
But I have to be honest, and they're doing the right thing.
So that is my hot take, my brother.
I don't think this hobby is going anywhere, at least for a while.
There will always be ups and downs, especially player-specific- Sure sport-specific, when you come in and out of season, totally normal, but as far as, like, some kind of a crash, I don't see it.
Like a 2023 event, you don't think it goes like that?
Correct.
Yeah, I don't think so.
I think we're probably somewhere in the middle.
Like, I do think, like, especially now that I've, I've done the singles side so much, I'm like, I could see that coming down.
Yeah.
But either way, I do think there's, like, growth.
And honestly, like, again, we've been working with the National now.
I was crazy critical of the National a few years ago.
The job they've done here, you've got hundreds of new vendors who are on the list.
Yeah.
They're actually trying to open that up.
You're letting new blood come in the building.
Yeah.
They're doing the thing where you can get one table, not a whole booth, 'cause it was pricing people out.
Like, again, I'm not saying everything is perfect here or everything is perfect with Fanatics, but at least it feels like we have people trying, so- That's right there you go.
It's very clear that they're trying to do the right thing, and it's very recognizable.
There you go.
VIP is opening now.
That's our cue to get out of here.
Yep.
So, we're gonna get Doug in here real fast, then we'll, wrap it up.
Hi, guys, second guest of the day.
Kinda wanna do, like, the, the look back with Dalen.
He was here yesterday, and then Doug and the group got here a little bit later, in the day yesterday.
But Doug from Mojo Breaks, which you guys know.
I just wanna get right into it.
How many Nationals have you been to?
13.
Okay.
I was wonder- me and Eddie were actually talking, I was like, "I think he's been to, like, eight or nine," but yeah, so 13.
I think nine Chicago.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
We were counting them yesterday.
Nine Chicago.
So Chicago, Cleveland, AC.
Mm-hmm.
What, anywhere else?
We just missed Baltimore.
Baltimore was, like, in 2012.
Okay.
I think the first one was 2013.
And no California then?
It was already done?
No.
Yeah.
Okay.
I wish.
So I, I am super curious, then.
Kinda walk me through, what was the first one w- I, I dunno, 13 years ago, what do you remember about the first one?
Oh, man.
You know, it was, a couple of us friends just kinda soaking it in.
It was obviously overwhelming, 'cause, you know, we hadn't even ha- I, I don't even think we had been to a show, card show at all, even in California at the time.
Never?
Never.
So it was like- Dude, I love your freaking Mojo Breaks, by the way.
They sell, like, billions of dollars of stuff.
You guys do your own thing, though.
I'm always like that.
I do- I, I hate these guys that have to be at everything.
No one Dude, that's awesome.
Okay.
Yeah, so we were like- This is a good card show it was, like, crazy.
Yeah.
And then it was right when 12-13 National Treasures dropped the same week we're at the National.
Oh, okay.
So, we broke a little bit in our hotel room.
Okay.
And then Rich Leighton, was like, "Hey, you wanna come break with us?"
We went to his hotel room, broke some National Treasures.
Dang.
If you remember, that was a double rookie class.
That's right.
So it was like, uh- Kawhi, Kyrie, AD.
Yeah.
Crazy loaded class.
Yeah, Klay Thompson.
Um- That's right.
Dang RPAs were at 199 then.
Yep, that's right.
Okay.
By the way, what does breaking look like back then?
You guys are live from what?
You're not doing it from, like, an iPhone, obviously, so what are you- No what are you breaking on in 2012?
We were on BlogTV for the live- Okay which became Breakers TV eventually.
Yep.
And, you would record on a separate camera to upload to YouTube, so you have, like, two cameras going.
Oh, really?
Sheesh.
All right.
And then with the internet, you know, you'd be uploading, like, 10-minute videos.
It might take all night to get up on there.
And you're collecting payments.
It's not, like, auto-payout to the Or was it?
What was, what was Blog?
How would you get money in?
You wouldn't.
You would have to do it through your, uh- Just drop your PayPal or something?
You'd have to do it through your website.
Dang, okay.
So we had a website back then, like Little bit, a lot of people don't know we were actually the first breakers with a website.
Okay.
I actually remember you saying that.
I was curious.
I forgot about that.
So did the website even work through Breakers and BlogTV and all that?
You would just drop the link, and then, you know, people would, uh- Oh, man yeah, there was no way to, like, buy on there.
They were just l- literally allowing people to stream.
Okay.
And there was no recording capabilities, so none of the streams were saved or anything like that, so- Dang you know, if a guy missed the break, you have to have a recording, so it'd just be uploaded to YouTube.
Oh, okay, so that's the YouTube.
Okay, all right.
Anyway.
And it would be different angles, right?
So you'd have it, like, so some people would watch on YouTube, and they're like, "Why do you have the card off-center?"
Because you have two cameras right there.
Yeah.
So you're, like, trying to, like, get it in both.
Yeah.
So it w- wild times.
The good old days, okay.
So what, what do you remember about the Na- your first show, gotta be kind of overwhelmed, but, like, what's the crowd size?
What's the atmosphere like?
What's the buzz at that point?
We were young guys.
Yeah.
There was, everybody was a lot older than us, so- Sure that's where it was like, you know, you walk in and you see the vintage, and you're like, "Wow, this is crazy," all these jerseys, all these, you know, 62s.
There w- one guy had a whole set of 62s, you know, PSA 6, 7s, and, just a lot of vintage at first and, you know, not a lot of modern back then.
Really?
All vintage.
All these guys that have been with the National around, like, what, year 45 now?
Yeah, some- Yeah, something like that like bulls of those guys.
You know, one thing the National's done is they've given the loyalty to these guys.
Yeah.
Let them have their same spot or table and stuff.
Right.
You walk in, it's the same dudes who were here 42 years ago.
Yep, yep.
Yeah, okay.
What's crowd size?
What are we talking?
Maybe a 10th of what we're seeing today.
Was it here in this building back then?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was?
Okay.
No upstairs, obviously.
No upstairs, no.
And not half the downstairs.
No.
Like, that horseshoe- Right Dang.
Okay.
What's like a- and again, I don't know if you can look back, but like what was like the hot item?
I'm trying to think 2012.
I know 2012 basketball got crazy hot, but it took a little time.
Football Oh, football was Yeah, it was RGIII, Russell Wilson.
That's right.
Andrew Okay.
So that was kinda like the early heyday for breaking, 'cause we started in, '10, with Strasburg.
Strasburg was kinda like what got us into breaking.
And what ruined pitchers for everybody until Paul Skenes.
Yep.
Yeah, 100%.
You had that, you know, that paper auto they, they, they shoved in there, and I think somebody pulled a 1 of 1 and- Okay Brian Gray wound up having it in a repack later or something like that.
He's probably still bragging about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, still bragging about it.
And then '11 you had Harper, so it was r- it was pretty baseball dominant.
I mean- Okay football you had like Sam Bradford had a little buzz, and then, you know, '11 was Newton.
Oh, yeah.
Cam Newton.
Von Miller came out hot.
Kaepernick a little bit later.
Yeah.
That's- In that class that's right.
Okay.
But then '12 it was just with the, with Locke and RGIII.
That was nuts.
It was just like a lot of people came in then.
Okay.
And then '13 did just the opposite, EJ freaking Manuel and Geno Smith.
Yes.
Okay.
If you can, fast-forward like, so that's 2012 national?
Yep.
So give me like 2019 or 2018.
Yeah.
What's a national right before COVID you kinda remember, and kinda what's, what's it look like?
You know, really just the emergence for us as like the breaker pavilion, right?
And, uh- Oh, yeah.
So that wasn't around originally?
It was like, I wanna say it was like '16 or '17 it started, and we were a little apprehensive to even- Okay even get into it.
And I'm still honestly to this day, they've done a great job down there, with the, with the pavilion, but like to me if you're at the National you're looking at singles, you're meeting athlete.
Yeah.
Like, you don't wanna see some dude break cards for you.
And I don't wanna be on camera.
Like, I did it the one year.
The first year we ever set up was in Cleveland.
Yeah.
So 2017 maybe.
Mm-hmm.
By the way, Cleveland back then was great.
We freaking drove my Chevy Avalanche across the floor- Yeah and they're like, "Just drive it in."
Yeah, yeah.
They- They're like, "No, you..." They're like Here are union guys.
To start my car you have to pay somebody in freaking Chicago.
Cleveland they're like, "Dude, just pull up.
You're fine."
Yeah, you're good.
My dad's just walking around 7:00 AM drinking beer helping me set up a table.
But we broke there, it was cool for like an hour 'cause some of your people are there, but then you're like, "I'm sitting behind a booth like an idiot like I would at home.
Like, I wanna be out."
So, yeah.
Right.
And that's what I'm saying.
It's like, you, you go to Disneyland.
Does somebody ride the rides for you?
Yeah, you watch them.
Yeah.
You wanna, you wanna experience You wanna see all this stuff, and if you're sitting there watching a breaker Break, to me break is when you're at home, you're, you have a hard day, you put the kids to bed.
Exactly.
You know, you get into a break, you have some entertainment at- Sure evening, you know?
So.
So crowd size even then, so like at the very beginning, tiny.
2018-'19 before COVID compared to now, what, 10% is that what you're saying?
Or- slight growth from '13, but- Okay still just around the same and, and still the, generally an older crowd.
Yeah.
You know, k- Ton of vintage.
Yeah, a ton of vintage still, and, you know, kids were here with their parents, but they weren't, you know, like we see now with the Zion cases walking around.
Yeah, $50,000 on a 10 Dude, I had a twe- a 11-year-old kid yesterday, I think his name was Brady, walked up, he's like, "Hey, are you buying?"
Pulls out his iPhone, he's like, "I couldn't bring it.
My dad said I had to leave it in the hotel.
It's a, it's a Kobe Jordan dual patch auto on a SP Authentic."
Jordan the Wizards.
And I was just like, "What is that worth?"
He's like, "We're asking 80.
We got offered 60."
I was just like, "Get away from me."
I was like, "Dude, you're 11 freaking years old.
Just literally just get away from me."
We- "We, that's in the safe at the hotel."
The last show in New York that we did, we had a f- a eight Jordan sitting in this case asking 19 five, you know?
Okay.
19,500.
And I mean, this, I didn't ask him his age.
Looked like maybe 17 years old.
He's like, "You got..." You know, he w- he's bartering.
He's like, "Uh, will you guys take 19,000?"
We're like, "Sure."
Pulls out a bank bag.
Freaking bank bag, all money wrapped, everything.
Oh, like, God.
This is, this is, this is wild.
Dude, 19 I'm rocking my toot in my 1993 Chevy Lumina Eurosport, bright blue with the race, with the racing stripe.
Yeah, buying like $5 inserts, so yeah, different day.
At, at When I was 17 I was, well, 18, I was overdrafting in my bank account and I was wondering- Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah how I was, I was wondering how I was gonna get a meal, let alone- Yeah.
How can I pay for, 30 bucks for overdrafting?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's a different world.
And, and now it's, it's wild.
The amount of kids, like dude, you can see Even this kid over here we talked to yesterday as a matter of fact, that, any young dude with a fanny pack like that, number one, don't wear fanny packs anymore, but number two, it always means there's like five cards and the average is like 60,000.
It's, it's stupid.
Um- The fanny packs are coming back, and these kids are wearing these like, you know, I don't know if you wore JNCOs and the baggy- Oh, yeah, dude, the baggy stuff's back.
They're back.
I know.
It's crazy.
Yep.
Man, no, I'm wearing s- mediums now.
Yeah.
That's where I'm to the point where I'm trying to keep stuff in, so.
Okay, flash forward to today.
So like you, you got a kind of a glimpse of it yesterday.
Just to kinda give peop- I just want a different perspective.
I kinda had said what I thought about it.
Like, how does this show now stack up even compared to last year?
It's, you just wonder how it, how You know, last year it's like, "Can it get bigger?"
And now it's like, it's bigger.
Yeah.
Right?
It's just there's more peop- You see the lines, you see the amount of traffic on a Thursday.
And I will say, people think that Saturday's gonna be more busy.
I think Friday's the busiest day.
I think people are avoiding Sat- Dude, people are already talking about that, "We're not coming Saturday 'cause of the line."
Right.
But actually you'll see, I bet you you'll see, my prediction, Saturday will be less busy than Friday.
Okay.
Yeah, I think, I actually think you're probably right about that.
'Cause I think people get in on Wednesday or Thursday, they do their thing, and they're out by Friday.
Yeah.
Yeah, and the weekend's gonna be a mess, so.
I've asked Dale on the same thing, like, you know, goal for either you, for Mojo, like what's like the one thing, either the one card, the one opportunity, the one whatever, what's like the one goal if you could hit it this weekend it's a success?
You know, we just, we're doing eBay Lives, so we've got two eBay- Oh, you are?
Okay.
We're doing, we're doing one today at 1:30 here, doing some, some hockey.
That's why I'm in the garb today.
Nice.
Is, we're doing some '05-'06 Series 1, trying to get, Crosby.
Damn.
'05-'06 Series 2 with Ovechkin, '15-'16 with, McDavid, and we're doing some '24-'25 Cup too on eBay today.
Dang.
Okay.
And then tomorrow we're doing a, with We Man we're doing, '03 or '04 Chrome packs starting at- I was wondering what we're doing.
Am I doing that with you on the main stage?
I think so, yeah.
Okay.
We're gonna open some '03 or '04 Chrome.
Dude, I have not opened hockey in forever.
I used to do like one box of the Cup a year, so I'm actually- Well, you're gonna be opening basketball tomorrow.
I'm, I'm pumped for basketball.
Screw hockey.
We're gonna hit that gold LeBron, which I've- Oh, oh, three I'm sorry.
Basketball.
Dang.
Yeah.
Okay.
So we're gonna do it by pack.
Dude.
At, at a dollar, so, you know, whoever wins the pack, you know, starting at a dollar, we open it up, maybe they get a gold LeBron, which I think the last time I checked a gold LeBron is like freaking a million dollars right now.
Stupid.
So.
Just dumb, man.
Awesome.
Well, hey, that's kind of our show.
Just wanna kinda get a few perspectives.
Doug has been We kinda try to do like the, hey, the new guy with Dale's been here a couple years, I've been here five or six years, Doug's 13 years.
I did not expect that.
But yeah, it's been pretty awesome to see the growth.
So yeah, if you're in Chicago, if you see this before you leave Rosemont, I would say it's, it's worth coming down for a day.
It's like nothing you're gonna see anywhere else.
There's your show.
Guys, Sports Cards Nonsense.
We're gonna drop a daily pod all week.
This freaking idiot on the PA is overriding us again, so we're done.
Come say hi to us, booth 527.
Goodbye.
Appreciate it, dude
