Yesterday's Price is NOT Today's Price!
A packed show with Alex and Trent. Trent's wife is getting into cards during his "funemployment." Alex is a maniac who placed 500 bids on eBay over the last 24 hours. Diving into why pitchers just don't retain their hobby relevance as long as hitters. Plus, Sapphire products hold up after the initial hype. Wrapping up with a rising market and why yesterday's price isn't always today's price when comps keep going up.
Video Transcript
The McGuire Sosa Topps Chrome refractor from, I think it's 2000.
I overpaid on that card.
But if Barry Bonds is bumping, you're gonna see some of these other home run kings start to bump up.
That market is just juiced right now.
All right, welcome back.
Trent, how's it going?
It's going good.
After a little bit of technical difficulties, I'm finally in.
A little bit it We s- Brennan and I sat here for 10-plus minutes- No, it was like five minutes while Trent was gallivanting, updating his computer.
I'm sorry that somebody wants to have a smooth-running machine.
Excuse me.
Y- you know, Trent, I expect you to think a little forward, th- you know, some proactivity here.
But- No can do we're here, so.
Oh, dude.
What's up?
What's new with you?
Not much.
We're still in Upstate New York.
We're here for another couple of days.
My wife is doing her first week of, like, her new job in person, so solo parenting with Nana Grandpa playing daycare.
So right now, like, I get to work my normal work week, but we tap out, and then I'm on, you know, baby duty all day, which is great.
I love spending the time, but we're in a beautiful place.
Hard to complain.
It's been good.
What about you?
What's new with you?
That's awesome.
No, not a whole lot has changed.
I went to a card show this- Still funemployed.
Yeah, still funemployed.
I've got one more week until I start my new job.
My, my new job, my same job.
But dude, it, it was so much fun.
So I know I, I briefly mentioned this to you over text, but I started a card Instagram with my wife.
So we- When's she coming on the pod?
So, so what's funny is she actually mentioned it, and I was like, I was like, "You know, just give it a few weeks.
I want you to get your feet under you a little bit, and then yes, absolutely."
How about next week?
"Why not come on?"
Yeah.
Maybe.
We'll see.
I She's very confident in joining, but I have a feeling that once she, like, sees recording and everything, she's gonna be like, "Wait, this is an hour long?"
No, I don't get- What I Like, my view on it is, like, it's just basically we're on a Zoom call chatting- Yeah and it just happens to be recorded.
And it just happens to be broadcasted to everybody on the internet.
Yeah, to tens of thousands of followers on the SCN pages.
The No, I She had a lot of fun.
We made the page, and I was like 'Cause she's like, "Yeah, you're always making content.
I'm always filming it."
She's like, "Why don't I join sometimes?"
I'm like, "Yes."
Yes.
"Absolutely.
Why not?"
And so- Honestly, she's probably gonna end up bigger than you.
Oh, oh, I'm well aware.
A, an attractive redheaded female in the card space, absolutely she will do great.
But we went to this card show, and she got to, like, you know, wheel and deal for the first time and everything.
She bought her, her first card and everything, and it was super, super fun.
I, I don't know if you saw the video, but she bought a Paul Skenes Final Draft- I did and a Shohei Otani Cancer.
And, well, let me, let me For those of you who don't know, it's an Allen & Ginter insert where it's, like, their star signs and stuff.
But the thought process- Star sign Cancer, not cancer cancer.
Yes.
But no, so she I was like, I was like, "All right.
What's your Like, g- give me the, the thought process here."
She's like, "Well, this Skenes card is really cute because there's a baseball over here that has a mustache, and I'm a Cancer, and Shohei Otani's a Cancer.
So that's why I'm buying them."
I'm like, "You know what?
I can't argue with that logic.
That's wonderful."
I mean, w- I love the For me, it's the perspective that I enjoy of, like, the fresh eyes, fresh legs, whatever you wanna call it, in terms of not being so hyper-obsessed with market value, with am I able to flip this card, et cetera.
She's just buying cards 'cause she likes them, which is what the hobby's supposed to be about.
Yeah, exactly.
So- And it makes it fun because I'm getting to see things through her lens of, like, what she really thinks is cool versus what I think is really cool and kind of, like, going in between there and But no, it was a good time.
And the best part was it was a show that, and I know a lot of people don't like this, but it was probably 70% Pokemon.
Mm-hmm.
So there wasn't a ton of sports tables, which I think was good in the end because it wasn't overwhelming for her to, like, walk around and chat with dealers and stuff.
So I, I think it was really good.
Yeah.
And, I mean, it's always a balance.
When there's less sports, there's oftentimes therefore less sports buyers, which means there's less comp- You know, it balances out in many different ways.
But hey, I know that Mike has been saying SCN needs a female face.
Yeah.
She wants to join the podcast.
Yeah.
She, she would, she would do very well.
But I will say this, something that scares me in the future, though, is her getting on eBay, getting on Fanatics Collect, and being like me, where, you know, "Oh, it's Saturday night.
Let's just go scroll and see what's up."
And, you know, I just see a ba-bing, credit card purchase, ba-bing, credit card purchase.
So- She's like, "These are cool" I have to tell you about that.
I was This week being solo parenting, I've been busy, but I also, I just put out my monthly business update.
Go check it on any of my socials, YouTube, whatever.
I realized how little I spent last month in terms of sourcing inventory, and I'm like, "Ooh, I'm low on inventory.
I need to do some buying."
But I'm also super busy this week, so I've been playing around doing a lot of I, I d- I buy a lot from DC Sports over on eBay, and they list an ignore amount of cards.
Ig- Like, the amount of auctions that they do, and I know they use Haystack to do it, and it makes it super efficient and easy for them.
Like, they list tens of thousands of cards a day.
Yeah.
If you can go through their auctions and actually, like, see all of their listings for one day- I- you have spent too much time on eBay.
I have done that the past two days.
I have gone and looked at, I have seen every single baseball card.
On Monday, I placed 350 bids on cards.
Oh, dude.
Yesterday I placed 175.
It was a smaller day.
But on Monday night, DC Sports had nine of the Shohei Otani short print variations from Topps Chrome this year, the one in the World Series jersey- Yeah whatever, like the celebration after the game.
I bid on all nine of them.
I b- I placed the same bid.
I'm like, "I would take this card at this much money."
I lost the first one, I won the second and the third, and then I was like, "Oh, crap.
Am I gonna win eight of these?"
Like, don't get me wrong, it was at, it was a- No price that I was confident at buying.
It's Ohtani.
I knew that I would've done okay l- in the long run, but I had this brief moment of like, "Am I gonna end up spending, like, $2,000 on Ohtani short print variations?"
I only ended up winning the two.
Later, as the night went later on, more people came in to bidding, which was good for me because it meant that things went above what I paid for it literally that same night.
But buying a ton, I think I spent, like, $2,500 on Monday night.
I spent, like, $1,100 last night.
But the Oh, yeah, just- just spending mo- but I gotta spend money.
You gotta spend money to make money.
Yeah.
And it's, one, the volume is just insane, and I wish, I truly wish that there were more eBay sellers who were able to list with the scale and efficiency that DC does.
And I know that, you know, they, they're a massive operation.
They have their whole warehouse, their whole shipping team.
Their whole listing team is crazy.
I'm, I think Trike did a video on it where he showed off their backroom where they list everything.
Yeah.
They use Haystack, the software, and they, they use some of the Haystack ones as well as the, like, Ricoh auto feed scanners if they get pick lots, things like that.
It's insane the number of cards that they have.
I was spending a stupid amount of money, but I need the inventory and, you know, sometimes you g- you gotta buy stuff.
I bought a- Yeah Ellie Constellation for the- Ooh set that I'm working on, so I picked that one up.
I lost a Vlad last night, but it went over comp.
I'm fi- When you're working on a set, y- you can't force it too much.
But that was definitely sp- spending a lot of money, which is a good, a, a good thing when you're getting cool cards.
Yeah.
I, I spent some money too last week on Fanatics Collect.
And typically, when I buy on Fanatics Collect, I usually win, like, one card.
This week I won three.
Mm-hmm.
And I have them in hand, and it's actually pretty fun- Already?
And cool.
I do Well, the week before.
Okay.
So two weeks ago I won these, and then I shipped them to me.
The scale, it goes from $45 to $450.
I've got three Well, technically I have four cards in my hand, but you'll see why.
So starting on the lower end, nice Corbin Carroll X Fractor PSA 10.
Not too shabby.
This one I was super pumped about because it might be a little familiar to you.
Bobby Witt- Yeah Jr. Sapphire Green rookie debut PSA 9, because at the National I picked up his true rookie Sapphire.
Mm-hmm.
So, you know, a nice little combo.
I don't know.
I think they look cool together.
Why not?
Yeah.
But this last one, this last one I feel like I got a, a good deal on.
I paid close to comps, but this just doesn't show up often.
2018 Topps Up- Topps Chrome Update Acuna X Fractor numbered to 99.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, Acuna's stuff is down.
When he's healthy, he's phenomenal.
I was super pumped.
Is it to 99?
I thought it was to 125.
It is.
It is.
Interesting.
No, this one is, this one is 18 of 99.
Yeah, so I mean, I was super pumped to get that.
And the Witt, I feel like, h- so I didn't tell you how much the Witt was, 'cause it's in between those two, so it gives you a ballpark.
How much do you think that Witt is probably worth?
PSA 9?
Yeah.
300 bucks?
I won it for 250.
Okay.
So I'm, I'm super excited.
I think that was a good buy.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a, it's a rookie debut.
It's a Sapphire.
So I mean, like, it's, it's tough to beat Sapphire, in my opinion.
Yeah, I mean, you, I know you wanted to talk about Sapphire today.
Y- you had that some people hate Sapphire?
That's a, that's a sentiment that I have not heard.
I, I, I have heard people hate the price of Sapphire.
Yeah.
So I, I'm leaning more towards, like, if you had the option So I've got three cards in my hand.
They are all Jackson Chio 2024 Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Autos.
Yeah.
The number of people that have told me, "Dude, why do you have three of those?
Why don't you just buy a Topps Chrome True Gold instead?"
Like, "Why can't you just do that?"
Yeah.
Versus Sapphire.
Like, Sapphire doesn't hold its value as well long term, and it just doesn't make sense to me, 'cause to me, like, I think Sapphire just is more visually appealing.
But I don't know, some- I feel like I get the sentiment that it's not Like, just spend your money- I mean, it's- on Topps Chrome the True Gold will outsell the Gold Sapphire.
We know that the hobby does enjoy, the cracked ice Sapphire, whatever you wanna call it.
Have you seen what the Ohtani Sapphires are selling for, just the base from 2026?
So, I couldn't tell you how much, but I know it's absurd.
One sold last night on DC Sports for $580.
Just raw?
The raw base from 2026.
Wow.
Okay.
And you know what?
Hey, if But that's the thing is, like, it Oh, man.
But- It's a color match naturally, which, like, looks good.
It's a great-looking card.
I understand it.
Like, I, I get it, but I also don't get it.
Why wouldn't they just send it in for the MVP buyback instead and get $20?
I actually- don't think Sapphire is eligible.
Really?
Hang on.
That's surprising.
But I'm actually thankful that it's not, if, if it isn't, because, you know, like, a Sapphire of an MVP is going to sell for more than the 20 or $40 that they're gonna give you in buyback.
Yeah.
Yeah, I see.
So the refractors, 'cause I assume that it would be d- the base card would be deemed a refractor, not a- Agreed refractor, X Fractor, prism refractor, red, white, blue, baseball seams, the Topps Fractor, Ray Wave, geometric, MLB logo Fractor, and the Wave Refractor.
Okay.
Sapphire autos.
So I guess it's not.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense, but- Dude, have, have you seen, you're, you're telling me how much stuff is going for.
Have you seen what Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Basketball is opening at Topps' website at?
No.
$1,800.
And it's probably gonna market-wise be 3K plus?
Yeah, I- If not more?
So don't get me wrong, I think it'd be a super fun product and it'd be super cool, but man, unless you're a big baller, please don't, please don't spend $3,000 on a box of Sapphire.
I mean, it's-- all that that is, is basically-- and i-i there's-- this isn't on my list of things, but, like, all that that is, is that's the-- it's, it's breakers.
Like- Yes high-end product, and I actually think that, honestly, I think high-end product is where breaks make significantly more sense, that to rip into that box does not make sense for you.
But if you're able to break it up and say, "Okay, you know, I can get my favorite team, my favorite players," et cetera, I, I-- it's-- that just, that is a product that I look at and I say, "If you are gonna spend your money on it, enter a break."
Yeah.
Simple.
People- The, the thing that scares me is the last couple years it's been on average one auto and two parallels per box.
I thought it was three.
Okay.
All right.
Maybe three.
But I, I knew it was just a couple.
Yeah.
But I mean, that, that value at 1,800 bucks, it just scares me, 'cause I was looking up Cooper Flag autos from Topps Chrome and, I mean, now don't get me wrong, a base auto is still, you know, 1,500 bucks for Cooper Flag.
Yeah.
But you gotta think about Sapphire.
There are no base autos in Sapphire.
The base autos are numbered to 199.
So now don't get-- it's a short printed product, yes, but you can gamble on it, and it-- I feel like, as with most boxes now, if you don't hit that chase player, you are making half your money back.
And let's be honest, I'm sorry, you're not pulling Cooper Flag.
You're probably gonna pull Micah Peavy.
I'm looking at the au- the auto- checklist right now.
Or, you know There, there's-- it's a, it's a pretty-- hon-honestly, it's a pretty significant auto checklist.
There's a good amount of names on here.
And I mean, there are some big names too.
There's some of the big vets, et cetera.
But it's-- one of the things with baseball that I've historically appreciated about Sapphire is that it's a trimmed down checklist.
Like, I think the baseball- Yeah auto checklist is 40 people this year.
The auto checklist in Sapphire Basketball is 77.
Yeah.
That's tough.
If you're- And- you're only looking for one or two people, like, it's so hard.
And in basketball, exactly.
I think the, the, the challenge with basketball is that you are looking for only a few people realistically.
Baseball has at least I think a wider net in terms of hits, viability, et cetera.
So it's-- the market is the market.
1,800 bucks undoubtedly seems high, but I guarantee you that the market is gonna put it even higher than that, and people are gonna whine and complain about 1,800 bucks.
And I understand it.
I'm not gonna pay $1,800 for that box.
I would not do it.
But there are lots of people who are willing to pay that, and the market's- Yeah gonna market.
So Yeah.
Well, at least there is something that's a little bit more affordable coming out next week that I'm excited for.
What?
Bowman Chrome Baseball.
Why you shake your head?
Are you not a fan?
No.
Oh my gosh.
We can disagree on this one.
I, I-- we were actually talking about this.
I feel like, and I'm curious on your opinion here, we've sh- we've seen a big shift into the, like, goat market as we've talked about.
Yeah.
You've seen the rise of Griffey.
You're starting to see the rise of guys like Barry Bonds.
Last night I was bidding on some light, nice low numbered Mark McGwire stuff, and it was going for way above what comps were.
Yeah.
I think that we're starting to see the majority of people in the hobby saying, "Hey, why would I go spend my money on this prospect who might maybe someday be half of what these all-time greats are?"
Yeah.
"When I could just go buy a real thing?"
I think that we are seeing-- we've talked about the goat market, but, like, I think that my problem is, is that because of that, I have seen a big decrease in my streams in terms of just my personal interest in prospects.
You know, there's still some good prospects to be excited about.
Chase, you, I know you have a Lazaro Montes on here of a guy who just got called up.
Yeah.
Literally, I have a Lazaro that I've been holding onto for a long time that somebody clicked on eBay the night that he got called up.
Yeah.
Because- You know, I want on it, but- That's how it works.
But I think the number of people who are playing that game for the most part is shrinking, and that's where I just don't love Bowman Chrome.
I'm gonna buy Bowman Chrome singles.
Yeah.
That's fair.
I mean, so for me, a fun PC that I decided to start doing a couple years ago were Bowman Chrome rookie refractors.
Mm-hmm.
Just numbered to 499 of, you know, big names.
A guy in particular, and I can pull it up on my eBay.
In 2024, I won a Shohei Ohtani from 2023 Bowman Chrome for I think $10 or $12, 'cause I bought a '23 and a '24.
Both of those I flipped for over $400.
Bought them raw, gemmed them, flipped.
Like, there is still the opportunity for legends and, you know, rookies and vets in there for parallels that I feel like are super slept on and people just forget about because they're chasing the first autos of a 17-year-old who's mashing in high A.
Like, I, I still think that Bo- I think Bowman Chrome is personally my favorite Bowman release of the year, just because you get Chrome vets, Chrome rookies, and Chrome prospects.
Do you think- That therefore, given our discussion of the market shift towards current players, you know, rookies, all, you know, vets, greats, et cetera, do you think that there's maybe then an opportunity with Bowman Chrome to look at some of those checklists and say, "Hey, there may not be any..." And this is a bad example because the Dodgers are gonna be expensive, but there may not be any great Dodgers prospects, and so the cost of the Dodgers is low.
That's not The, the Dodgers are gonna be the most expensive team most likely.
We know that.
Just stay with me now.
It's a hypothetical, guys.
Come on.
It's a Exactly.
It's a hypothetical.
Do you think that, though, maybe there's an opportunity if somebody is looking to enter a break to buy, say, a value team where you might be able to pull, you know, Kansas City Royals, buy that and chase Bobby Witt Jr. Cards and Jack Cagliano as a rookie, as opposed to, oh, there's no big prospects for the Royals in Bowman Chrome, so therefore they aren't an expensive team?
Thoughts?
My thought is no, and here's why.
So there's not too many parallels in there.
If you wanna chase base cards, that's where you're gonna crush it.
But my thing is, if you're gonna buy into a break or buy into a box and you're only looking for one specific player or one specific parallel, do me a favor, look up the Watch as many breaks as you can of the product and add up that spot price each time, and then put a saved search on eBay, and the first time it pops up, tell me how much money you would've saved buying that one card.
I know that we talk about, like, "Hey, just buy the single," but if you wanna have fun, sure, buy them once or twice, but then, you know, save that extra cash, and I bet you that that spot price would cover and more for some of the cards.
Trent, you're too logical for a breaker.
Hey, you know, I'm just a Never mind, I'm not gonna say what I was gonna say.
Dude, there's too much, like, idiocy.
Oh, buying the single is always going to net you out ahead.
Yes.
What I'm saying is if you're looking for value in a break.
Yeah.
If you're somebody who says, "I'm a, I'm going to enter a break.
I'm gonna take the risk.
I'm gonna roll the dice," I feel like buying a team that you're chasing maybe some of the vets, maybe, and I know the odds that you're gonna pull some of the big guys is slim.
But you look at, say, the Tigers.
You can pull Max Clark, you can pull Kevin McGonigle, you can pull And then, and then you've got, I'm sure Scuba will be on the team, you know.
That type of stuff.
The GPK's checklist is 50 players long this year.
Yeah.
There's some cool names in there that, you know, if you hit, if you hit it, it's an if.
You're not gonna hit it.
I'm sorry, you're, you're not gonna hit it, but if you hit it- Yes, you will.
Spin the wheel.
Do it, do it.
Spin the wheel.
Yeah, I, I don't know.
I feel like my draw to Bowman is the, some of the cooler inserts, whether it be, you know, it came to the league.
I love those.
One of the best, more common inserts that Topps does.
Super fun, sell super well.
I enjoy them.
That's a great one.
You look at the checklist and you say, "Okay, you know what?
The Cincinnati Reds.
Maybe I chase Chase Burns and Sal Stewart, and also have the upside of pulling some Elly De La Cruz stuff."
Yeah.
Like- Exactly versus what are the big prospects in Bowman Chrome?
Who's the 16-year-old who's played in the DSL for 17 at-bats that is the next greatest thing, but I'm gonna have to sit on his card for seven years until he makes the Major Leagues?
Yeah.
The, it's fun, though.
It's fun.
Come on, Alex.
I know.
It's fun.
But Bowman has never- Speaking of GPK, hey, I got an Ethan Solas GPK that I know just went up, up, up because he got called up too.
And where, what was he?
He was the chase player in 23 Bowman Chrome.
So here we are three years later.
But here's the trick.
All right?
I'm gonna, I'm gonna let people in on the big secret, all right?
Of how to actually make money in Bowman if you were legitimately invested in prospects.
The trick is you take a product, you buy singles a year plus after release.
You have to alwa- it has to be a year after release.
They could be playing well, they could be The problem is people forget about the names and they wanna chase the new shiny thing.
People have asked me, "Hey, Eli Willits, he's super talented, number one pick.
When should I buy him?"
And I go, "Not this year."
Yeah.
Because everybody knows that he's the number one pick.
I tell you what, when 2026 Bowman draft comes out, people are gonna forget about Eli Willits for a few weeks because they're gonna be chasing everybody else drafted in 2026.
Yeah.
They're gonna be chasing everybody in this release next week in Bowman Chrome.
They're not gonna remember him, and guess what?
His stuff's gonna go down.
I bought Travis Bazan stuff for pennies on the dollar.
I bought a ton of him.
Why?
Because I know that whenever he gets called up, there's going to be a notification to everybody's phone who has any sort of sports app saying, "Number one draft pick called up to the big leagues."
Yeah.
And what's gonna happen?
People are gonna go straight from that notification to eBay, and they're gonna hit buy now, buy now, buy now.
But we are here to educate our I mean, you can do that.
My hope is that in the long run, the average person in the hobby knows don't do that.
And I know that that means- Why not?
That you're gonna lose the oppor- I know that means that you're gonna lose the opportunity to flip those cards, and I know that there are a lot of people who love that and, you know, would disagree with what I'm saying here.
But I, I don't like that because I, it's People are wasting their money.
Well, I tell you what, the money I made off of Travis Bazan is now in a Barry Bonds auto that I am much happier with.
I'm sure you are, but I'm curious- And I mean, to a person what the person who bought the Bazan auto thinks.
Ah.
But at the end of the day, whatever people buy is up to them.
I don't know.
I feel like it's, at least if you are going to prospect, you need to be confident in a player.
If you have never watched this player take an at-bat in the minor leagues, don't buy their cards.
Yeah.
That's my opinion.
Yeah, I, I don't know.
Bow- Bowman has never been, and I, I am the first to admit this, Bowman has never really been my thing.
I have always been a fan of, you know, I would rather buy cool rookie cards of a player that I collect over a first Bowman, personally.
Yeah.
But, you know, that's just me being me, and you know, that's We can agree to disagree, Trent.
Yeah.
That's fair.
That can, that can happen sometimes.
You can be wrong, that's okay.
Yeah.
So there Okay.
All right.
That was rude that you th- you just tossed that in at the end.
I'm gonna ignore that, but you, you just blocked something out that I wanted to touch on.
Okay.
I had something really interesting happen to me yesterday.
I was on Fanatics Collect, or excuse me, I wasn't on Fanatics Collect, I was on my phone and I got a notification from Fanatics Collect that said, "Hey, here's your opportunity to get Bowman Chrome baseball."
And I was like, "Huh.
Weird."
I click on it, and it prompted me to a screen that said, "Hey, you can buy one hobby box of Bowman Chrome for..." It was like $350 shipped to me.
And I was like, "I don't have to u- lose EQL.
Again, I can get a box."
So I'm actually excited that I've never seen that happen.
Have you seen that happen before?
I have not, and I did not get a notification, so I'm curious what the, like And I have the Fanatics app on my phone.
You know, they notify me all about other things, so- Yeah I saw Zack's Bowman hacks talking about that there are some people who got an email from Topps about, like, early access to Bowman.
I'm curious if Topps and Fanatics are trying ways to make sure that some boxes get in the hands of collectors or people- Yeah that they say, "Hey, you know, we see that you buy a little bit, and based on historical data and what you are spending your money on," whether it be in breaks, whether it be Because they have a bunch of data, being in that it, they are a large corporation.
Totally.
Yeah.
"Hey, we think that Trent is a guy who probably would be interested in buying Bowman Chrome."
He buys so much Bowman, we need to let's, let's see if he- No, but- Let's dangle this carrot in front of him.
But what it does, I mean, yes, y- but here's my thing, though.
Bowman Chrome is gonna sell out.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Regardless of whether or not they send you that push notification, there is enough in today's hobby, and this might not always be the case, and we're gonna have the conversation on a future podcast about is winter coming, is the p- is the hobby too hyped up, et cetera, but in today's hobby, those boxes will sell out.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Fanatics doing that is not them just dangling the carrot in front of your face and saying, "Ooh, come buy this," you know?
"Come spend your money with us."
I mean, yeah, they want you to come spend your money.
Yeah.
But they know that they have so many shop owners, and so many breakers, and so many people that will buy those boxes.
They don't have to do that, but clearly they're trying some things out and testing some things out of ways to actually get boxes in the hands of collectors.
I saw, somebody talking about it.
Who was it?
With Topps Chrome tennis, a case, you paid a premium for a case.
If you buy the boxes, if you were to buy a, the, a case has 12 boxes.
Yeah.
If you were to buy the boxes individually, it's $95 a box times 12, you would pay 1,140.
Okay.
I think a case was 1,300 bucks.
Interesting.
But that's because what does the market do?
There is a premium for ca- Yeah for sealed cases.
So- Which do- which doesn't make sense anymore, but I'm gonna- Back on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm gonna- It does not make sense, but- I'm gonna- I, it- step off that horse but I think that, you know, seeing Topps do those things, I saw some people complain about, "Well, I didn't get the email of early access."
Yes, okay.
Yeah, 'cause I'm famous.
I'm world famous and recognizable everywhere, and they're like, "We need to treat him."
They gotta- You know, I think, I think- They gotta throw you some bones before your wife gets bigger than you.
They saw, they saw how many EQL losses I have, and they're like, "You know what?
Let's give him this one."
But honestly, I'm, I'm for it.
I think it's a good thing- Yeah.
Agreed because it's them finding ways to make sure that you can buy a box.
Right, and exactly, and it was one box.
It was limit one box.
Yep.
So I'm like, "You know what?
This is awesome.
I'm gonna rip this.
I'm gonna have some fun," and guess what I'm gonna chase?
I'm, I'm not chasing what you think I'm chasing.
I'm not chasing the prospects.
I'm not I'm kinda chasing the rookie refractors.
Dude, I am chasing my favorite insert once again.
I put the set together in 2023, the World Baseball Classic flags.
Yep.
They are back- Beautiful and I am so excited because I saw them post yesterday.
They posted a few supers.
I put, I put pictures in, but you know, Acuna, you know, PCA Shohei, like, oh, they look phenomenal, dude.
And for me, like I, I just put together the 499 set, and it's just awesome.
Yeah.
They look so cool in their WBC uniforms, and I'm a big fan.
What, you don't want to put the super refractor set together, Trent?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I don't have that kind of money.
Now, you mentioned it is awesome to have those, and I agree.
I want to shift and talk about something that I think is not awesome.
All right.
Let's do it.
Did you see the SGC news today?
Today?
No, I didn't.
Oh, yeah.
I get to break news to Trent.
Oh, boy.
SGC today announced that they are increasing prices and turnaround times.
Why, dude?
SGC now- Ah, yes, the value boutique.
If you are sending in a card at the base level, it is now $50 a card with 40-plus day turnaround time.
It's, it's off the table.
Like, truly?
Pay the extra 30 bucks and send it to PSA Yeah.
Or honestly, even Beckett.
Beckett's prices have increased in terms of, like, value for Beckett slabs.
I think the new slab is helping them.
I feel like SGC's completely off the table now.
Like, I mean, it, it There's You, you can't justify it to me.
Even, like, for me, I've got a stack of stuff that's PC that is on my shelf right now.
You can see behind me is one touched.
Because for me, I prefer my, the look of my stuff in slabs.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not submitting this stuff at $50.
I'm not submitting it at $40.
I'm submitting it when value bulk opens up again because I just want it to be in a slab, and I'm not looking to flip it.
I'm not looking to turn around and maximize value or whatever.
I'm just gonna submit it somewhere where it's affordable, and that's why I'm leaning more and more towards Beckett because it Dude, you can't, you can't tell me it's gonna take that long for an SGC holder.
I just I- I'm so disappointed because I feel like a year ago I was doing well with SGC, both from a, like, sending cards in to get graded with them, pretty solid turnaround times, affordable.
The market, at least on my end, was It, it was nowhere near PSA, but- It's like 60 to 70%.
Well, but also, at least for me, the upside of the SGC 9.5 versus a PSA 9, I felt like I was getting a premium on 9.5s because there was the perspective of maybe I could cross it and get a PSA 10.
Yeah.
That it's, like, in between.
And I It's just really disappointing because there's, there's not an option out there right now.
Like, I, on one of my, on one of my videos yesterday that I posted, somebody put in a piece of a card that they had a Andre Joshivas, the third wide receiver for the Bengals, a rookie auto out of Obsidian.
He was like, "Should I grade this?"
And I was like, "No."
Yeah.
And he was like, "Why not?"
And I'm like, "Well, because it's gonna be so expensive to grade it unless you're grading it with somebody that's not a known reputable company."
And I know there's gonna be people out there who say Degree is reputable or, you know, DGI or any of these other There, there's so many grading companies out there.
If they are not at the national, the national convention for your industry, if you are not there, as a corporation you can buy a corporate booth.
If you're not able to be there, I don't think you're big enough to be worth considering to grade with.
I actually love that take.
I think that is a phenomenal take because not only, like, just the fact that you're not there, it's just this is the biggest card show on the planet.
Why are we not at least Why are you not at least marketing your stuff?
Well, and I mean, back in the day you, you, you might say, well, smaller startup companies can't afford that, and I know, I don't know how much it costs to be able to be one of these companies that are there.
But, you know, back in the day, my very first national, HGA was there.
Yeah.
Walk right up to them- Hybrid grading approach who- introduce.
Yeah.
Introduce yourself.
Like, just at least show up.
It's, I It's just really disappointing because grading is so important.
Slabs are so much more liquid than singles are.
But I think that we are entering a phase in the hobby where unless it is a, like, big time hit, couple hundred dollars at least- Yeah it's not worth grading.
And then if you, you know, you get that big card and you grade it, guess what?
You're gonna get up charged even more above that level, and you're not gonna get the card back as fast as you want ever.
And it's just so much fun.
I We can disagree on this.
I actually don't nec- I Don't get me wrong.
I don't like up charges.
I don't have a problem with up charges in the way that I think a lot of people in the hobby do.
Neither do I, and I just keep that to myself.
A lot of people have a problem with it.
I understand it in the sense that, you know, especially I saw some critique from PSA at the National that people getting up charged when the whole argument that a lot of times is made, "Well, okay, now there's more It's a more valuable card, so insurance, you know, premiums, all this and that," therefore, and people are like, "I'm not You're not shipping it.
I'm gonna pick it up from you."
But- It's the Wilt Chamberlain situation.
That's what it is.
I mean, do you remember that article from, like, six months ago?
It's like, yes, they cut the guy a check for $600,000.
Yep.
That's what you're paying for.
Yeah.
It's I don't like it, don't get me wrong.
But when I got my Shohei Ohtani home field advantage that I got up charged on because it got a PSA 10, and I had to pay an extra 75 bucks, okay.
It took what was a $500 card, and it was now a $3,000 card.
Yeah.
Fine by me.
Yeah.
Hot take, but whatever.
Yeah.
Agreed.
It's, it's tough.
But at the end of the day, if, if I send in one of these cards and it's a 10 and they get a new label or something and I'm like, "Hey, I want to get this," and it comes back a nine and they mail me a check for the difference, I mean, I'm just more tempted to hold onto the nine now.
Yep.
Yeah.
It's I don't know.
I, I'm, I'm fine with that.
I'm not fine with SGC's pricing and it's It'd be one thing if they were like, "Hey, we're speeding things up.
We scaled the, we scaled the operation."
But it's just, it's really disappointing, I think.
Yeah.
Back in the day it was, they had the best grading specials by far.
I submitted so many cards- Grading specials, five to 10 day turnaround times.
Yeah.
$9.
$9, like, for, let's say, you know, Bowman Chrome comes out next week.
They, in 2022-ish they would say All right.
Submit any Bowman Chrome cards, 10-day turnaround, nine bucks a card.
You best believe that I was sending stuff in to them all the time because- Yeah it was like, "Oh, this is good turnaround time.
Like, this is fun, and I get to, you know, unbox graded cards.
This is awesome."
Yeah.
Yeah, I It's disappointing, but whatever.
Something that got announced last week, I think right after we filmed our podcast, you wanted to chat about, the Instant Rips.
Yeah.
I'm kind of living under a, a rock here and didn't really look into it, and I was hoping that, you know, you being, you know, the, the smarter of the two of us, you could explain to All right, you didn't need to agree to that.
What's- I, I'm more clever.
We can put it at that.
Fine.
What's the deal with these Instant Rips?
What, what is it?
Can you- So, picture A- and I think it works well, 'cause I see you, you know, like It works well for a Chrome: Black product because it's a box that has basically three packs in it, essentially.
It's two packs and a sealed card.
Yeah.
Those boxes, Topps was selling for $300.
And basically, you can open a digital pack that has physical cards that will be automatically added to your Fanatics Collect vault when you open it.
And, you know, one in three packs on average has an auto in it, so basically if you spend 300 bucks, you statistically will get an auto.
You might not, you might not get an auto, but somebody could also open three packs and pull three autos.
I don't love the product.
Topps Chrome: Black Basketball, I think Mike went on a rant about this on SCN last week, this week.
I can't remember which episode it was in.
But, uh- Don't worry.
If you missed it, I'm preparing one as Alex talks about how it's just not a great checklist.
It's not a great product.
Like, th- you can spend There's If you want to spend 300 bucks on a basketball box, there's much better ways that you can spend your money, is basically his argument.
Let alone 400-plus, which I think is market right now.
But I like it in the sense that if, r- let's say that you don't want to enter a break and play the game of, okay, did the box that they opened have a card of the team that I specifically have?
Instead, you say, "I can spend 100 bucks.
I can get one pack.
I have a chance, I have a one in three chance at an auto.
I have a chance every pack is gonna have a numbered card in it."
And, you know, you do that.
I think that my stance generally on it is the people that don't like it, that's fine.
If you don't like it, don't buy it.
But it's a way for It's, it's another way to enable people to collect.
So, I don't think it's a negative.
There, so there are some people who think it is, and the, the one critique I think that is fair is that it removes some of the friction to spending your money- Yeah in terms of that.
And that therefore But Fanatics instituted limits.
You can only buy six packs a day.
Dude, I don't So you're telling me that I could go out and I could buy six of these Instant Rip packs- Mm-hmm get zero autographs, and they're just like, "Oh, okay, cool.
There's your 600 bucks."
That I don't know.
I feel like it should be like, "Hey, here is a full box."
You- Or- They, they did have full boxes, I believe.
If you look at the, like, Instant Rips on the Collect app, it says that full boxes were sold out, whereas- Gotcha the I'm trying to see.
The Gambler pack.
But, so here's, here's another question.
Was this announced before Topps Chrome: Black released?
I don't believe so.
I don't think so either, and here's, here's where my, my I don't really like this comes in.
Where's Has the Cooper Flagg super auto been pulled?
What do we do if that Cooper Flagg super auto is pulled out of one of these Instant Rips?
How are all the people who bought all those Topps Chrome: Black boxes gonna feel?
Well, that's I, I posted a video about it when it was announced, and I bought, I bought a pack with my own money, for the record.
Yeah.
Not Fan- not sponsored by Fanatics in any way.
Industry shill.
No.
Industry shill.
I wish I could be an industry shill.
I know, I- But- Dude, I'd be hap- I'd- Yeah have some cards.
You wanna pay me to be an industry shill?
Sign me up, baby.
But I bought a pack with my own money.
One of the questions that I posed is in the, like, information sheet about Instant Rips, it showed off, hey, you can pull autos, you can pull this, you can pull that.
One of the things that it did pu- show that was a pretty significant card was that you can pull the Home Court Advantages, and the image that it showed was the one of one Cooper Flagg- Home, Home Court Advantage.
And so my question that I posed is I said, "Hey, does that mean that that card is in Instant Rips?"
Because, and I, I'd be curious to hear how Upper Deck manages this as well because- Yeah, 'cause they do a lot of the e-Pack.
Yes, the ePa- Upper Deck e-Pack has been a thing for years.
So anybody who wants to complain about digital packs, they have been a thing for way longer than anything.
Oh, yeah.
Whether it be slab packs with Arena Club, which by the way, use code SCN to get 10% off your first slab pack.
A little ad read right there, boom.
Whether it's slab packs, whether it's Instant Rips, whether it's e-Pack, whatever.
These have been a thing for a while.
I don't think that it's- Yeah it's nothing new outside of the fact that it's the physical cards where Topps now knows what cards are not in those boxes because it is at Fanatics Collect.
Right.
The I, and this is what I think is kind of cool with it.
I was, I opened my boxes, or my b- my, my boxes, my pack, and I was able to I pulled a orange auto of some Hornets rookie.
Not Kahn, unfortunately.
Oh, Kahn would've been a big deal.
If- imagine if it was like, "Yeah, some, some, some Hornets rookie named Kahn."
Yeah.
I sold it on eBay for $12.
I don't know.
But it was a, Liam McNeely Orange Auto.
I don't know a ton about him, but it's an Orange Auto numbered to 25.
What I was able to do is I sent that baby to Fanatics Collect Auction right away.
It ends in four days and 11 hours.
Wow.
And so with that, what's kind of interesting is the, the built-in liquidity of I never have to, like, manage or handle the card.
I just simply get to say, "Hey, it's r- it's in my showroom or my, my vault."
Showroom is Arena Club.
It's in my vault.
I can send it to auction.
I can retrieve it if I want.
I like the ease of dealing with that.
Yeah.
But if I was chasing Liam McNeely Orange Autos, how many of those are in instant rips versus how many of those are in, you know, sealed boxes that are out there?
I think that there's a little bit of a question there.
I wonder if the solution And then I'm gonna shut up because I've been talking for a long time.
No, I've, I'm just, I'm just riling myself up over here, dude.
Just keep going.
Just keep- I wonder if the solution is actually to have some sets that are instant exclusive.
In the same vein that you had online exclusive sets- Yes like- Oh, yes Black & White- Yes Bob Ross, et cetera.
If you say, "Hey, Topps Chrome Black is an instant exclusive set," that could work.
I love it.
No, I, I actually love it.
Now, I wouldn't do it for Chrome Black, but I mean- No like you said, Bob Ross- Make a standalone thing yes a unique set, you know, Topps X Derek Jeter type things.
Basically, well, basically anything that is an online exclusive should also be an instant rip exclusive.
Well, no, excuse me.
I guess that doesn't make it exclusive.
You know what I'm trying to say.
But dude, this is so smart on Fanatics.
If you think about this from a business perspective, they Sure, it costs them money to print the cards.
They have to get the player to sign it, whatever.
They don't have to ship it anywhere.
It just stays in their vault.
Yep.
They make, they make money when people buy it, and guess what?
They're making money when they put it directly on Fanatics Collect.
I mean, it's a cash cow.
It's-- I-- We talked about it last week.
You know, Fanatics is a business.
They're here to make money- Yeah and that's fine.
I think that it's a good innovation.
Yeah.
I don't think that instant rips are inherently a bad thing, like I think a lot of the discourse online is.
I just think that there are some questions for me in terms of how it structurally works, in terms of they know, in the same way that I've heard people complain that the Cooper Flagg debut patch was not in a Breakers Delight box.
It was a redemption.
Yeah.
But it, I believe, at least historically in baseball, the debut patches are live in Delight boxes and are redemptions in hobby, in Jumbo hobby, in boxes.
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think that's right.
Fanatics or their printing company or whatever knows which ones theoretically then therefore are live and which ones are redemptions, AKA they are not in Breakers Delight boxes.
Had the Cooper Flagg been in a Delight box, that would have been some knowledge that was out there.
And if that knowledge gets out, then you see the price of some boxes tank and the price of Breakers Delight- Yes skyrocket.
I think that it's just a question of there is now confirmed knowledge of which cards, of some cards being in boxes or in the vault, and if that's the case, I want to know how that structurally works.
Again, I think that my solution is I would just prefer there to be instant rip exclusive sets, but that might be a little too much.
Yeah.
Something I just want to touch on really quick because you brought it up, and I want to get your thoughts.
If we talk about, you know, if we look at 2024 Topps Chrome Update baseball.
Yeah.
Obviously, Skeens was the big chase, but what did Topps say after the World Series last year?
Yamamoto still has not been redeemed.
Mm-hmm.
Why can't they all be redemptions, and why can't they just have, like, a tracker?
Because there are plenty of people who try and be like, "All right, this many have been hit," but they all show different numbers.
They all show different names being hit.
I wish that there was just a way that there was one consolidated tracker.
But I- Yeah I don't think that that would get put out because at the end of the day if they say, "Oh, they've all been hit," well, what happens to the boxes?
Yeah, I-- There are pages that try to do that, like Super Fracter Tracker- Mm-hmm Debut Patch Tracker on, you know, Instagram.
I-- Topps has the ability to do it because if Do you remember a few years ago when they had the quality issue or quality control issue with, I think it was Bowman Chrome, where multiple Super Fracters got out into the public?
Oh, yes.
Yes.
And they had a page that basically tracked and said, "Hey, here are the Super Fracters out there.
Here is the price that we will buy them back at, and here is whether or not it has been, you know, that has been taken advantage of."
Yeah.
So, it told you whether or not that Super Fracter had been pulled.
They have the ability to do it.
I think it's a question of is it beneficial for them to do it.
Right.
But it's also a question of, and this is where I do think that a lot of the conversation There's a lot, there's a lot of negative Nancys in the hobby, and we know that.
A lot of people who think that Fanatics is just sucking the hobby dry and that, you know, they're just here for a quick buck.
I don't think that's the case.
I think that there is a lot of forward thinking and a lot of, you know, they want the hobby to be successful long term because they have these licenses long term.
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, just go talk to some of the people.
Like, that, that really gave me a little bit of hope, I hate to say it, 'cause I mean, like six months ago I was one of those people that was like, "Oh man, these guys are just They don't even- they don't- they're not even in the hobby."
Yeah, until guess what happened?
I had a couple guys who work for Fanatics come up to my booth at Fanatics Fest and say, "Oh, that's super awesome."
Like, "Here's my PC of this guy."
Like, "Are you willing to do this on it?"
And I'm like, "Wait a minute, I thought you were one of those corporate guys who's just here to make money."
And they're like, "No, like we, we collect cards.
Like, why else would we work here?"
And that honestly- Yeah helped change my perspective.
I So I can see a world in which they say, "Hey, this is not going to maximize profits, but it's a good thing to do."
And I, I, I can see that decision being made.
I can also see it not being made, and I would not blame them for not doing it.
But you know, it's, it is That, that's an idea that I have not heard of and I do think is interesting.
I do think personally, I agree that they should all be redemptions.
Yeah, because- It should not be live.
Yeah.
A card of that caliber, I think should, in the same way that, you know, the Luka 101, the Curry Superfractor rookie have not surfaced, those obviously would not have been redemptions.
But these cards being redemptions, imagine if the Paul Skeens, it, you know, the, the window I think is 10 years for redemptions now.
Yeah, 10 years.
If it goes past 10 years, guess what?
They can take it and they can say, "Hey, we're gonna randomly insert a chance for you to pull it again in this set."
Right.
So- Yeah, I think it's, I think it's awesome.
I think that would be, that would be sick, because at the end of the day, somebody gets the card.
Yeah.
Which is the goal.
That it's 'Cause all that it takes is one box getting lost with USPS or, you know- They'll, they'll- something happening it is the opening scene of Ace Ventura where the delivery driver is kicking the box down the hallway.
Because imagine how it would look if that Cooper flag was live and it came out of a pack bent in half.
Yep.
Imagine the publicity on that.
That would be awful.
Yeah.
If for- Yeah for any of them, if any of them came out of the pack just absolutely mangled, it would look terrible on tops.
So why not just make them redemptions, that way they can maintain the quality of the card.
Yeah, no, I, I agree personally.
But I'd be curious to see whether or not they change it.
I don't know whether or not they are live in Breakers to Light this year.
I For, for basketball.
I'm not sure.
I don't know that I've seen any live get pulled, but that doesn't mean that they're not, you know I, I'll wanna, I'm gonna look into it and maybe we can touch on that in a future episode.
I wanted to touch on some viewer questions last night.
I got a few questions during my whatnot stream that I thought were good enough for us to have a conversation on.
Yep.
First one: Do we think that pitchers are going to hold value long-term, AKA Skeens and Mizerowski versus, Kevin McGonigal, Juan Soto, et cetera type player?
The market has started to shift and it's, that pitchers have value now.
That's good- that's a good thing.
I'm happy to see it.
Do you think that is a blip in the radar, or do you think that there is actually going to be true long-term viability in terms of pitchers?
I will say this, all it takes I, I say no, and here's why.
So I completely agree that pitchers should have value.
They should have good value for the good pitchers, just like there are for good hitters.
The problem lies in most of the time when a hitter is out of a lineup for a day, nobody bats an eye.
Mm-hmm.
He's just getting a day off.
If a pitcher misses a start, everybody starts asking questions of, "Is his elbow okay?
Is his shoulder okay?"
And it's two weeks between you see them.
Right, and it, and the panic ensues immediately.
So if you're holding money long-term into a pitcher who is not five-plus years into their career, you're running a lot higher risk- Mm-hmm than a hitter who every single day, or excuse me, every other game effectively could hit a walk-off home run where their name is now in the highlights.
Okay, now you're shifting that to every five days, it is either, it is he pitches a no-hitter and his stuff goes up.
He pitches a normal outing, an okay outing, and it stays stagnant.
Or he gets shelled for 12 runs.
Mm-hmm.
His stuff's gonna tank.
Cade Anderson came out in his debut and threw five great innings, and then the last inning he pitched, he gave up back-to-back home runs.
His stat line doesn't look good because of that.
But if you look at the first four-plus innings of his start, he looked fantastic for a guy in his Major League debut.
But what does that stat line look like?
The stat line looked like, "Ah, he's not what he's all cracked up to be."
And we saw a dip in his pricing immediately.
I'm telling you, pitchers, it's just so much tougher for pitchers to really hold value long-term.
Well, I think that an example of that, and, and it's not even a guy who was hurt necessarily, all of the chatter on Paul Skeens this year.
Exactly, yeah.
Of Skeens' velocity being down.
He has not been his typical normal self.
He has not missed time.
Right.
It's not like it's, "Oh my goodness," you know, "He's missed half the season," et cetera.
It's not like he is just not out there.
He's not being as good as he should be.
I think that he's getting a little unlucky.
You know, his ERA is 397, but his- Yeah expected ERA is 323.
Right.
He's got 179 strikeouts.
He almost has a 200 strikeout season.
Yep.
That's very, very good for a pitcher.
Like, you can't tell me that, you know, this dude is just like, "Oh, he's washed," or whatever.
Like, no, he's still pi- Like, that is above average Major League pitching, and what happened to his prices?
They went down.
Yep.
Meanwhile- Yeah meanwhile, you've got guys batting 215 with 40 plus homers whose values are going up.
Mm-hmm.
It's just, it's a lot harder to maintain value in a pitcher.
Now, don't get me wrong, I've got Skeens stuff all throughout here.
Why?
Because I collect him, and if his value goes to zero, I do not care.
Yeah.
I really don't, because it's, it is my collection.
Would it suck?
Yeah, it would suck.
It's always cool looking at a card that I probably will never sell and just being like, "Oh, sweet.
That's worth this much money."
But I mean, dude, I He's 24 years old.
Yeah.
He's above average Major League pitcher.
He hasn't missed time, like you said, like he- He's better than above average.
70.5 percentile in his pitching run value.
I challenge people to look at Randy Johnson's start of his career.
Randy Johnson is in a lot of people's top five and top 10 lists all time.
Mm-hmm.
For sure.
Look at his first couple years of his career.
It's w- it's worse than these numbers.
I think, though, that that is an example of what I think the answer realistically should be, is that if you want to I think that there, I think the hobby is moving towards being open to having money in pitchers.
Yeah.
But I think that you need to wait until a player has a much, much, much more established track record.
I think five years is not enough.
I think you probably need to wait 10.
I feel like at 10 you miss the window, though.
You might have been best- You're still gonna be gambling.
You're still gonna be gambling on, on their pricing.
It is.
I don't know.
It's tough.
But I think that given how much, you know, one of the things that we say in my fantasy baseball league, or my dynasty baseball league, better yet, is it's, it The, the long acronym that we type in rather than actually saying it, T-I-N-S-T-A-A-P-P.
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
Ooh.
Ooh, I don't like that very much.
Pitching prospects fizzle out so frequently.
There are so many guys who are not big pitching prospects that later on end up figuring it out and, you know, break out in triple A versus- Yeah you know, coming up through.
Just, yes, there are pitching prospects.
I understand that's the case.
But, like, from a whether or not you are making the choice to invest in a player, whether it be fantasy or a actual physical card, you probably don't wanna put all your eggs in the basket of something that is inherently so much riskier.
You can, you can look at the data, the number of pitchers that come out and have a couple of years of great That, that Grady Sizemore, for my ball knowers out there, three, four seasons of elite baseball.
Yeah.
And then fell off completely.
That is generally uncommon in, if you are th- if you are that, playing to that level.
Yeah.
Generally, you don't fall off in the way that he did.
Pitchers, that happens all the time.
Tim Lincecum, I mean, like- The freak.
The freak, dude.
Like, that's the epitome of it.
Yep.
Strasburg, I mean, Strasburg came back and had that incredible run with the Nationals in the World Series, but aside from that, it's like, yeah, it, it fizzles out.
It does.
It's so hard.
It is so hard.
Noah Syndergaard for the Mets, like, there are so many guys- Four that you can Yeah.
Like, th- these guys were the man, and then what happens?
Either hitters figure them out or they don't adjust, and then they become average to below average pitchers.
Yep.
But they always, you hope for that little shine of that, you know, that peak era of them to come out, and it's just so hard.
We can go all day naming pitchers who- Yeah.
Matt Harvey.
Oh, don't, don't, dude.
Alec Manoah.
We're not gonna talk.
R.A. Dickey.
Dude, all right.
R.A. Dickey's the man, okay?
Oh, he is.
Don't get me wrong, but- Please don't ever put Alec Manoah and R.A. Dickey next to each other ever again.
But the, the, what it is, is you can look at those guys and they say they have a brief period of elite- Yeah pitching, and then they turn into nothing, and that's one of the challenges.
I will say this, I quote Alec Manoah at least once a week.
Tire Pressure's what you put in tires.
Dude, what?
Yep.
Stick to baseball, brother.
Yep.
You did mention, though, timing.
Yes.
And that's the other question that we got.
When do we see a bump in value?
And this, the question here was specifically for awards, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, et cetera.
Is, is it now?
Is it when the regular season ends?
What's your view on how and when to time certain things like PCA's market?
I think that this week he really, I think, solidified himself as the MVP favorite, and his stuff has exploded.
Yes, absolutely blown up.
When is the, that bump W- what is your perspective there?
I have a strong opinion, but I'm gonna let you talk first.
I think that the, the timing window has shifted significantly for both awards, for call-ups, everything in between.
It used to be on the day of call-up for a guy, you've got a week, usually a week of window to sell them for this high premium.
Nowadays, there are people who have these things, I mean, their cell phones, where they are monitoring these guys like crazy.
Mm-hmm.
And guess what?
Two weeks before, they see a guy get pulled out of a game in the third inning, and what do they do?
They list their cards.
Yep.
Because they think it's happening right then.
The early bird gets the worm here, where by the time you go to list something after the announcement's been made- There have already been two dozen sales.
And guess what?
There are people who see there are 10 listed at 499 buy it now.
They're like, "You know what?
I'm gonna put it at 475 and some- hopefully somebody hits mine."
And then the guy five minutes later goes, "Well, there's one there for 475, I'm gonna put mine for 465."
And then that's what causes the trickle-down, because there are so many people holding and waiting for this moment to happen, and if you're waiting for the moment to happen, you've already missed the window.
Yeah.
I think that we agree.
I think that my-- The way that I put it is, if you are thinking, "Oh, he's locked up this award," or like, "This has happened," it's already too late.
The price is baked in already.
PCA, I mean, like, his stuff, his prices are baked in.
I've got Dude, this is, this is the best feeling in the world, the best feeling.
I had a stack of cards that I was gonna send off to get graded whenever Value Bulk op- opened again.
2024 Bowman Rookie of the Year favorites, Pete Crow-Armstrong Gold Rookie auto in that stack of things to grade later, along with a Cade Anderson Aqua Lava auto.
It's been a good week for me.
Yeah.
And guess what?
I haven't sold either of them, and I missed the boat on Cade Anderson.
Yep.
But if the market sentiment is already there, it's too late.
Yes.
You If you want to make these plays, and this kind of goes into my last topic that I had for today, was, like, basically scared money doesn't make money.
Scared money don't make no money.
That's true.
You need to Everybody, and, and this is a video from Cards Max, who does a bunch of, you know, he's a high-end buyer, seller, et cetera.
But in the video he was talking about how everybody likes to make the quick flip.
You know that Pete Crow-Armstrong is hot right now.
You go, you go to your local card shop, and you find some stuff that was priced two weeks ago and is now really low because his market has exploded.
You quick it flip, you flip it quickly, and you move on.
There's money there, no question about it.
But the big-time upside is, had you bought that stuff a year ago when PCA- Yeah was having this brutal second half and was playing like a below average Major League Baseball player, and he saw a big market dip.
If you really wanna do this, you need to take a shot.
You need to be willing to plant your flag and say, "Hey, I believe in this."
Yeah.
Dude- If- I'll put it this way.
I, for preseason predictions, I will say this, I'm looking really good on one of them.
I picked Yordan for AL MVP.
Yep.
For NL MVP, I put Juan Soto.
I know.
Come on.
He got hurt.
But for, for, like, just a fun fact about the year or just, like, an interesting nugget, I said PCA would lead Major League Baseball in strikeouts.
I fully expected him to, and guess what?
Dead wrong, dude.
Dead wrong.
He's crushing it.
Yeah.
It's And I think that that's one of those things, and the, one of the statements as well that I will say is that being able to take shots like that and say, "Hey, I'm betting that it's going to, this is gonna happen six months from now, nine months from now," et cetera, you need to have money in order to make those plays.
Yes.
I was talking with Brendan, who does my football singles, and, you know, he bought a nice Ohtani blue X Factor from this year's Topps Chrome.
Mm-hmm.
He bought it for, I think, 450 bucks, roughly, and there are sales at 475, and there are sales at 600.
I said, for me, I have no problem listing that card.
If it sells, it sells, and if not, great, I'll bring it to the next year's National, it'll probably be at 800 bucks.
Yeah.
But I have the luxury of being able to say, "I'm gonna park a significant amount of money in a card because I'm willing to take a bet on it-" Yeah versus making the quick flip and having that liquidity.
If you don't have the liquidity to make those long-term plays, make the short-term plays while you can and build up the liquidity to then be able to make some of those long-term plays, because there's huge opportunities.
Look at-- Have, have you been tracking at all Shaq's market?
Yes.
The, the mega explosion?
Yes.
Yes.
There are inserts that were $5 six weeks ago that are selling for $80 to $100 now.
Yeah.
It's, it's absurd.
But had you had that forethought and said, "Hey, I feel like Shaq is a guy who's underrated."
You ask anybody and says, and I, I know that there's maybe not the love of big men, or you can say the love of pitchers.
I think that that, hopefully, that sentiment will change because if you ask anybody, they'll say that Shaq is one of, if not the most dominant players to ever play.
Yeah.
He's not the best, but he's one-- In terms of your ability to just dominate and change the game.
And do your job well, yes.
He is one of those guys.
It's the same thing with, you know, Griffey market starting to bump, and then you're starting to see Barry Bonds start to bump.
If you have that forethought, one of the comments that I was saying earlier was, I was bidding on some, like, '90s, early 2000s inserts, which are doing really, really well right now in baseball specifically.
But looking at guys like Barry Sanders, his stuff is not-- We have not seen in football.
Peyton Manning has started to see a bump recently.
Yes.
We have not seen some of those other all-time greats at their position see those really rare short print inserts that existed in the '90s that people are flocking back to, see a huge bump.
And I said, "I wonder if that's an opportunity right now."
It absolutely is.
I have not, I have not put any money into it just yet, you know, just- I'm, I'm saying this, I'm not advising others to necessarily do it, but I'm thinking about doing it because that's a long-term play that's saying, "Hey, I'm willing to accept the consequence that I might be wrong here, but if I'm right, I'm gonna make a lot more money-" Yeah than if I wait and miss the boat, and then say, "Okay, great, I gotta catch up to the boat," and there's And you're having to pay extra to do so.
So here's something that, that, that actually makes it a little bit nicer if you think about it, is aside from, you know, a crime or something, what can they do to where their value will go down?
Yep.
I d- I can't think of It's not like they're going out on the field next week and they, you know, have three fumbles.
Like- Yep no, you're- Their floor is not, th- y- there's less risk involved from that perspective.
Yeah.
That, that's what I would think.
Yeah.
All right.
So I don't know.
I think that it's very interesting.
You could buy the Randy Mosses of the world, the Jerry Rices, like those types of players, I think you might have an opportunity on.
I'm, I'm debating doing it.
It's unfortunate that, you know, I'm not a football guy, so I don't have as much of that depth of knowledge, but I can educate myself, and that's one of the things- And you can do it with baseball, too.
Yep.
I mean, they're, they're still, like, the '90s inserts of guys, like, I mean, you know it, A-Rod.
Yep.
Like, A-Rod 180.
He's start- he's bumping though.
I'll say that.
I know.
I know.
Not, not at the same level as Griffey or Bonds, but his stuff is getting expensive.
Here's my thought, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave this nugget.
If Barry Bonds' stuff is going up, McGuires, Manny Ramirez, Jose Canseco, all of them.
Sammy Sosa.
They're gonna see a bump.
I mean- You know what?
I- all it, all it takes is one I, to that, all it takes is one, I literally just overpaid on a card to that point of you have to sometimes take a shot.
I literally just bought Hang on, I'm pulling it up.
Where is it?
'Cause it's, when you I hate how eBay, when you search something, it brings up all of the cards in the order, not just the card that you actually are looking for.
Yeah.
When I buy from DC, I have, like, 50 cards in the order.
So I gotta scroll through and try and find this really cool card that I just bought, and naturally it's trying to.
They've got your address on speed dial.
They do have my address.
Well, I will say this.
When you buy something, folks, this is a nugget for you.
That Shohei Ohtani rookie X Fractor I bought at the Las Vegas show, I was 100% certain I overpaid.
Every single person I talked to said I overpaid.
And guess what?
An auction of an SGC 10, because there hasn't been an auction of an SGC 10 in a very long time, just ended last week, and guess what?
It was above what I paid.
Yep.
If you buy the right players, your overpays, you just gotta wait.
You sometimes have to play that game.
Ooh, home run kings.
Sosa and McGwire.
McGwire, Sosa, Topps Chrome Refractor from, I think it's 2000.
Yeah.
Like, I overpaid on that card.
But to your point that you just made, if Barry Bonds is bumping, you're gonna see some of these other home run kings, these guys start to bump up.
And sometimes- That market is just juiced right now.
It is.
But y- your, your point there is fantastic of if you are not willing to overpay on a card, if you're not willing to o- pay over comp, a lot of times you're gonna miss out on the opportunity- Somebody else is that is actually there.
Yeah.
Sometimes you have to be willing to put some skin in the game, take the risk, and see what happens.
Completely agree.
Yeah.
So that's the last piece of advice unless you have anything else, Trent.
No, that's all I got.
So we'll catch you guys next week.
Maybe your wife wants to come on?
We'll see.
We'll see.
Like I said, next week's my new, my, my start of my new job, so we'll have to figure something out.
Oh, no, are you, are you out next week?
Is that right?
Am I solo next week?
I'm not We'll figure it out.
Okay.
But yeah.
We'll see.
New j- new job- You guys will see next week new, new threads.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate you guys listening to this week's episode.
Hopefully you enjoyed it.
Make sure to check out all the other stuff on SCN, the sponsors, Haystack, Arena Club, et cetera.
We'll catch you guys next week.
