It's time to talk flo, It's time for the show. You hear this
song on the radio fast Let Me get Photograph? Sports Talk Radio starting now's
go What's up everybody? And welcome to one episode one hundred and seventy eight
of let Me Get that Autograph? As always, my name is Drew or
the Dhjen joining me. My awesome co host is a Scott Rapp Before what's
up, dude? Oh? Living the dream Man? How was Collectic on
last weekend? It was awesome. Collecticon was great. It was packed to
the brim. I will say the show itself was incredible. I did not
get a chance to walk the entire floor outside of set up and tear down
because we were so busy, but the turnout was probably two times what it
was last year. It felt like it was. It was incredible, totally
worth going down there for you because you did get a chance to spend some
quality time with Chumley. Yeah stars, which was insane. Okay, this
this is actually I'm glad you brought this up because this is a story that's
worth telling. What's up chum Ley? Um? But we're setting up and
I hear someone yelled Drew, and then I hear someone say dh and so
then I I obviously turned around. It's Chumley from I. Literally at that
time, my brain is just like, what what the hell is going on?
So I walk over and obviously I'm like, oh my god, hey,
how's it going? And my first question, how do you know who
I am? And he goes, dude, let me hit that potograph.
Let her rip. I've been listening to you for years. So yeah,
that was pretty crazy. Um, And then it was pretty awesome because I
figured I figured it might have had something to do with you know, just
like you and I have both known Steve grad for a very long time.
Yes, and I just years exactly mean, he's you know, he's part
of the pawn shows, Punstars cast, um, you know, being the
authenticator and stuff like that. So um, we figured it might have had
something, you know, to do with that. But no, this is
and this is the first time I'm hearing the you know, the story about
how he approached you. So that's a cool to hear. No, it
was. It was really interesting. And I don't know if it was from
the show that me and Steve did, like I don't know, probably like
six seven years ago now or what it was. But um, yeah,
that was pretty cool. That was pretty interesting. So what's up, Chumbley
shout out to you. I will say this, dude loves the freaking hobby.
He was set up selling all weekend and I really every Yeah, he
was set up. He was not just a panelist or something. This year.
He had a table and everything, and he took time with every single
person. And I'm not talking about like, hey, how's it going real
quick? He would pictures, he would talk anything you wanted to talk about.
You could have an incredibly personable conversation with him all weekend. It was.
It was incredibly cool to see. And now here's here's my favorite part.
He is an amazing actor. He is, And I'll tell you why
he is an amazing actor because he does such an amazing job on that show
convincing you that he's an idiot exactly. But in reality, he's one of
the smartest guys that's out there. Oh he is so sad, he is
so smart. He is an incredible actor because he is playing up a character
I'm an idiot on pawn Stars for the comedy relief factor, when he could
easily do that show as an expert and be that expert type of guy.
But obviously he can also do the humor, so they put him on a
humor side for pawn Stars. But man, he is not legible about the
hobby. He loves it to death and he is I was so impressed with
how I immersed in the hobby with other collectors. He was. He wasn't
there or he just talk pawn off his stuff and sell autographs or anything like
that. He was there to talk to people and set up a table.
Yeah, which was, Um, I don't know, it's kind of kind
of weird to see it is, you know, if you think about it.
But um, hopefully, you know what, hopefully he'll be at the
National this year. Oh I would assume he'd probably, yeah, because I
was not I was not a collector con and it would have been would have
been cool to hang out with him for a little while. But yeah,
So sound like he had a good weekend. Yeah, it was. It
was a very good weekend. Also, got to spend some time with my
mom, so that was that was really nice as well as she's going through
some stuff. So really good weekend overall. But um, before we start
the show today, guys, and we've got a lot get into. I
do want to take one moment and just remember somebody who meant a lot to
me that just recently passed, and that original Panthers owner and the reason that
the Carolina Panthers exist. Jerry Richardson passed away. Now. I know his
exit from the NFL wasn't exactly pretty, with the whole with the scandal stuff
that happened and all that, and I don't want to well, I don't
want to get into all of that. But what I want to do is
just remember this man. Because I was a Panthers beat writer for a number
of years, I got to know him very personal. I knew him on
a first name basis, he knew me. We knew each other a lot,
and I talked to him a lot. What he did for the Cydia
Charlotte, for the state of North Carolina and South Carolina, it cannot be
expressed enough. He was instrumental and the only reason we have a pro football
team. What he did for the community, of the stuff he would do
and how he would talk to every single person, just like I was just
saying with Humiley, he was the most approachable owner I've ever talked to.
In my life, and when it came to his players. You've seen the
outreach from Thomas Davis and a lot of other people. The only person that
doesn't like him is Steve Smith and rightfully, so I'm not gonna get into
that that was the one thing he did mismanage outside of you know, a
couple other things. But you can't look, you can't get it all right
exactly. That's if that's the you know, if that's the one managerial mistake
aside from you know, the big one that caused his exit, you know,
then you're doing okay exactly. But Jerry Richardson, I just wanted to
take a minute to remember him say thank you for everything that he did for
me, because he opened up a lot of doors for me when I first
started out, because this was my first gig doing anything, and he easily
could have shut down the amount of access I had and instead, from the
second that I met him, he helped open up a lot of doors for
me and he did not have to do that. And so I knew Jerry
on a very personal level. Obviously, we've been a PSL owners since day
one. Our names are on the outside of the Panthers at the stadium.
We've been involved a lot. He was very involved with the PSL owners and
everyone else and and all fans that we're in this and so just one to
remember. Truly great man that did a lot for not only the state of
North Carolina and South Carolina, but for football and a lot of people in
general. Very charitable person and a wonderful man. So oh miss you,
and I do want to say one more time thank you, because honestly,
without without him, I probably wouldn't have made it a year two of being
a beat reporter for the Panthers earlier in my life. So thank you.
And for those of you that don't know, PSL is a personal seat licenses,
Yes, season taking into the details, yeah, well it's it's season
tickets to the next level. But um yeah, I don't want to get
into the details because every team does a little bit differently, but go look
it up. That's what it stands for, is personal seat license. I
would have popped in, but I didn't want to ruin your flow with that
one. There. So yeah, sad, sad day for the Panthers fans.
You know, yeah, I know a lot of people in the community
are going to miss you. Know the work that he did, and hopefully
his family members, you know, continue on with all the stuff that you
know that he was doing behind the scenes for the community as well. Yeah,
and and any Panther people if you are listening, since I still talk
to a lot of you, please get that statue back up. We need
we needed that statue up. You took it down for no reason. Get
that statue back up. That man desires to be honored. But anyway,
Leah said, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about someone that
really influenced my career that led me here to do this show. So thank
you, you know, thank you, mister Richardson. All right now,
speaking of doing the show, we have a great show coming up. So
this week was the Tops Industry Convention, and we had a correspondent on the
ground at the convention. Our good buddy Kyle Stallsberg from Badger Breaks is going
to be coming up a little bit later in the show to talk about what
he heard and saw behind the scenes. He's also going to touch on the
Bowman Transcendent party which he went to, which is kind of cool, and
then we're gonna get an update as to what going on with Badger Breaks.
But before we get to that, something confusing has happened within Top Series one,
and we wanted to give an update because we talked about the product on
the last show. I want to talk about it a little bit more because
this is just weird and nobody knows what the hell's going on, and that
is the hidden Gems. Yes, Tops at the conference actually confirmed it,
but it was very vague with their answer. Their reply was you just can't
see them. They're there, but you just can't see them, as the
quote, And so I posted on my personal social media page, and obviously
I talked to Ryan and them over Real Breaks and the uncommon app who've ripped
over three hundred cases alone. Stephen Michael was filth Bomb, who've done like
two hundred. I think we had like thirteen hundred cases confirmed in this little
group feed, and no one had seen any of them, and so now
everyone's trying to figure out where they are now. But it's an interesting comment.
They're there, but you just can't see them, and it immediately makes
me think that it's like a John Cena card. Well right, yes,
yes, exactly, it's John Cena and in series one. Yeah, and
now What it made me think of was old school Alan and Ginter when they
did the hidden cards inside the box. I'm I haven't opened any hobby yet.
I do have some coming, but I wonder if there's a way that
they're putting a extra flap or something on a box that has the hidden gems
in them in there in the actual box, or that would be that would
be something that would be noticeable. When they did it with Alan and Ginter,
it was the the glossy one of one, right. They embedded it
into the lid of the box. Yes, and you had to like rip
open the top of the box very carefully to see if you had one in
there. Now, you would think with the and that would be something that
would be noticeably thicker on the lid of the box. And you would think,
with all of the people that commented on the post that you put up
there that represented like three hundred plus cases of this product being open, that
one would have shown up. No, Yeah, you would think so.
And that's what blows my mind. And that's why the other thing that I
think it could be was did they take a age out of the Pokemon book
with the Ditto card where they spel because that I'll tell you right now,
there's a million of those that people don't know because you can't tell a difference.
You cannot tell, well, you can, you can't tell the different
because there's a tiny little logo difference down in the bottom ley. No,
I'm at holding it. When you're holding it the cards, you cannot tell.
Like if you're just flipping through Pokemon, you're not gonna be able to
tell. Yes, there's a logo to show you to peel, but there's
no way in I mean, obviously there probably is in weight if you have
some crazy scale, but when you're just flipping through the cards, there's nothing
you know, texture wise or weight wise that's gonna give it away. True,
And so where are these? And the only thing, well, I
got a better hold on I got a better question than where are these?
What are these? Right? Because there's one posted on Reddit that is no,
I'm saying there's a card posted on Reddit that maybe one of them that
or it may be an unannounced parallel who knows. But it's a rainbow foiled
card with a lot of cracks in it, almost like it almost looked like
lightning strikes kind of yeah, and it's on a rainbow foil, but also
it almost also looks like a custom card too exactly. But could this be
a printing error on the rainbow foil. I don't know it. Maybe a
rainbow foil was crimped at that one part and then somehow I don't have any
idea, Or is that the hidden gem? I mean, who knows?
But where are these and what do they look like? And how in the
world can so much of this be opened but so many people and not one
be discovered yet. So it would be nice to have more information from tops,
like is the code on the back? Difference? Do they look like?
And I want to see what I didn't see on that post the Reddit
one was is the code different on the back? Because you would think that
something like this they would absolutely change it up a little bit. Yeah,
I don't think it's a code, though everyone keeps going back to the code,
the code, the code. I don't think so because of their statement
you just can't see it. If it was as easy as a code,
then But that also makes me think that that one wasn't it, because that's
pretty freaking obvious. Yeah, exactly, That's why I think it may have
been some type of printing air or something weird that happened to that one card,
because, like you said, this is a very blatantly obvious parallel the
way one card that we've seen that could possibly be it wait to Wait,
to wait, to wait to Wait. Did I trigger a light bulb?
You triggered a lightbulb because I actually have I have something sitting here on my
desk in one of these two piles that goes back to twenty eleven Tops And
if you remember that far back twenty eleven Tops had a parallel that's right here.
I've the Austin Jackson sitting right here, has a little sparkle coming out
of you see that coming out of the jersey, and yeah, yes,
this was the parallel variation. So I'm wondering that I'm going to be pissed.
But here's the thing. These were very difficult to spot, if you
right, So I'm wondering if it's something like that where it may not be
a it may not be like a sparkle that pops out of it. And
now they would have done better if they had made the sparkle shiny um.
Yeah, but it's very possible that's somewhere in the background. Of the card.
Yeah, like maybe like when like holiday when they do the holiday variations
and they're so that some of them you can barely even notice. Well,
but it could be a but it could be a like an actual image,
tiny little image of a diamond or a ruby, an emerald or something like
that. But it would be really nice to know what the hell are we
looking for? Exactly? Please? Anything? Are we Is it a completely
different design? What do they look like? What are we looking for?
Or here's even better? Are they only available in certain variations of the product?
Right? Are they only in hobby boxes like you know oranges sometimes?
Are you know twenty five? Are they only are they only in you know,
hobby and jumbo? Are they you know? Are they in retail?
What I mean? Where are these cards? Where can people find them?
Because I'll tell you. If somebody's sitting there looking through them and all they've
bought is retail and Tops comes out and says, oh no, it's only
a hobby in HTA, then well you're gonna save a hell of a lot
of people a hell of a lot of time. Yeah, that you are,
But seriously, tell us gotta tell us something. It's it's crazy that
not one of these has come to light, and I it just blows my
mind. Yeah, I don't, I don't get it. But there's you
know, there's a lot of people that have spent a lot of money on
this product for various reasons, and it would be really nice to be able
to know what the hell they're looking for. I'm gonna go back through a
mine and just start peeling the tops off all the basency. If one peels,
I know, I know. Um, it's just I don't. I
don't. I don't get it, but I don't think it's appeeling. I
don't know if it's appealing thing. Yeah, but I won't. I will
say when they finally do surface, these are gonna be some insanely expensive cards.
Um well, unless they finally tell us what it is and all of
a sudden they people realize is that, oh crap, No, they're not.
They're not rare at all. They're you know, they're they've been here
the whole time, and all of a sudden, fifty thousand of them are
going to pop up overnight. Well, what I was told from some people
that are doing research, and I don't know if this was mentioned at the
conference or not was that they are supposed to be one in every like thirty
eight thousand packs plus or something like that. Now I don't know how accurate
that is, and I don't know if it was confirmed. I mean,
obviously they've got to be insanely rare. But how with all of the product
that is out there, none of these have popped up and people figured it
out? When people find the most I mean, people find serial killers in
the background of fifty year old cards. I mean, you know you I
just it blows my mind. Well, let's just let's just take a look
at you know, if you're if you're thinking it's one in every thirty thousand
packs, thirty eight one or thirty eight thousand packs, all right, So
the platinum and this is this is the hobby pack odds, the platinum one
of ones is one in every sixty or sixty seven thousand packs. Yeah,
so if it's on every thirty eight thousand, they're they're slightly more available than
the one of one base. Yeah. So if that's the case, we've
seen plenty of one of one bases that have popped up exactly Let's see where
I mean, there should have been at least several that have hit them up.
That's my point, and hopefully, hopefully we can figure this out and
give you guys an update next week on what they look like anything. I've
messaged the people I know at Tops with the image of the card that possibly
is what the hidden gem is. If so, it would disappointing and doesn't
line up what you just can't see it as you can blatantly see this,
So I'm expecting them to say no on that. But yeah, it would
be nice if we had any idea what we were looking for. But it
is definitely I've never seen so much craziness over Series one. Top stick phenomenal
job with this product, because now here we are a week later after we
spent a long time talking about all the great things they did going forward,
now we've got something else driving this product wild. It's well, this is
incredible the amount of people or the amount of time that people are gonna put
into trying to figure out what this is. If they keep releasing this cryptic
crap like this, this is gonna be the flagship version of the Ginter code,
right, you know, I just don't know. But without without the
prize, yeah, without the prize, an unless unless you know, like
there are only five total of like five players and five hidden gyms, because
you know that thirty eight thousand could be not true. You know, Like
I said, this is just from someone that I trust that is digging deep
into this, and that's a number that they had come up with and that
they had been told from some people who were at the conference and all that
stuff. So you know, we'll see. But obviously, I mean,
you would think the uncommon guys who were you know, going through so much
and all this stuff would have hit multiple and I'm sure they probably got people
right now going through all those trying to figure out if it is something like
the Sparkle, because that's something that I thought of. Maybe it is bringing
the Sparkle back as a tribute. Who knows. It's very interesting to me,
and I'm excited to see what they are. But I love stuff like
this, and you know, hey, I've never seen so much talk.
I've never seen so much hype. I've never seen so much excitement over series
one in my life that didn't revolve around let me get the best rookie,
Like, yeah, there's so much other stuff that's making this product cool and
making this product fun to collect. It's brilliant. Yeah, no, I
would agree. Now I'm curious with you know, with not knowing what this
hidden Gems stuff looks like, especially with that that cryptic comment. There's people
that bulk sell all their bass cards, Yes, And I'm curious if people
are not going to be doing that until they announce what this is, or
if people are, or if the other hand is that you're going to see
massive amounts of people buying bulk bass and stocking away on the off chance that
like, you know, hey, they're gonna you know, they're gonna share
what it is six months from now and all of a sudden, I got
twenty cases worth of bass cards to sit there and look through. But either
way, people are going to be wasting a hell of a lot of time
on this. Oh absolutely, And I do think you're going to see a
lot. At this point, you have to stash your base. At this
point, you have to stash every single card you have. For all we
know, it could be an insert that then has a maybe it is a
peel off. This dad has nothing to do with the base. Maybe it
has something to do with an insert. Who knows. We have no idea
outside of a cryptic little comment uh there there, you just can't see it.
I mean, I don't know. Maybe look, maybe it's something as
Maybe it's something where like one of the relic cards that are that are thicker
has an actual diamond embedded in the card somewhere and you have to peel apart
the card to get to the diamond, a truly hidden gem. Yeah,
something like that. You couldn't do that with a bass card because it's too
thin, But the commemorative relics and things like that absolutely. Yeah, I
just don't I don't know. Yeah, and yeah, the possibilities are endless.
But please, guys, if you're out there, if you find out
what it is, please share it with us, let us know, because
I mean, this is something I'm very interested in. I always love these
these chases, these unknown and things like that, and it brings a level
of excitement to a product beyond just opening the packs and the excitement of the
hits. Well, some see excitement, some see madness. Yeah, you
could call it both. Yeah, you can, depends on how you look
at it. You know, if I if I had twenty five five thousand
count boxes of bass cards to go through, if it's something where it is
like a sparkle or hidden in the background or something like that, then that's
you know, that's what it is. So but on that note, we're
gonna be coming back with our guest Kyle Stalzberg from Badger Brakes, talk about
the Industry Conference. But we got past some bills before you do that,
so we will be back right after this break. All right, guys,
So everybody's been hearing a lot of stuff that has been coming out of the
TOPS conference. Yeah, it happened, you know, this this past week,
and we decided that since we couldn't go, you know, just like
we did with the Industry Summit, we had Terrence Wimberley on. We had
a correspondent on the ground at the TOPS conference. My buddy Kyle Staalzburg from
Badger Breaks is joining us right now. You are back in Wisconsin right now,
but you spent what was it three days at the TOPS conference. Yeah,
so Sunday Monday Tuesday was the conference. We want a little early,
caught some spring training, and I actually attended the Bowman Transcendent party after the
conference as well, so we're there for quite a bit. It was really
cold there. It was like fifty degrees, forty degrees at night cold,
because you know, you know, we're you know, I'm sitting here in
Chicago, you're back home, and you know in Wisconsin it's seventy in North
Carolina, yeah exactly, And like like they don't know, they don't know
cold in the Phoenix there, they don't know cold. Wasn't get down to
like thirty five maybe maybe in the winter. I did see some locals like
bondled up in like snow suits, like shivering, and I'm like, I'm
sorry, I'm so sorry we brought this weather to you guys in Meanwhile,
meanwhile, it's like, you know, it could be like, you know,
ten degrees and snowing outside and I'm walking my dog in shorts. Yeah,
welcome, not me, but welcome to the Midwest people. All right.
So we had there was a lot of exciting news that that popped off.
Let's just start off. What were the things, the announcements and the
you know, the things that you learned that you were actually the most excited
about because you have a you have a different perspective than than Drew and I
do. Um you own a shop. Yep, you're one of the largest
breakers. Yeah, you know in the in the country. Uh. And
you know you're in obviously in the hobby just like everybody else. So what
was it that you were most excited about hearing? UM? Honestly, it
really was. I mean, I guess the most exciting thing that that that
I heard was just the organ It seems like they're more organized with what products
are working, what products are not, UM, getting their products into the
hands of the right people to UM you know, distribute those products. UM.
I heard a lot of stuff from different employees of TOPS. They seemed
like they brought a lot more employees UM from years past. This was the
third year that I've been there, and it was a lot different. It
was a lot different. It seemed more organized. The employees, There's tons
of them there. They had information for you, h after the you know,
the discussions that we had, so anything that you really wanted to ask,
they had answers for you, which is good. Now some of the
things that we saw come out of it. UM. There was a list
of products that they are going to be discontinuing yep UM. And I'll be
honest with you, there's some products on that list that I'm I'm not disappointed
about going away. No, a lot of need to go No, exactly.
The one I was disappointed about, it seems to be on everybody's list
was Gypsy Queen. Yeah. That that seems like the only product. I'm
right there with you. That's the only product that I was like, Oh,
that that could have stayed. But everything else I was like, get
it out of here, you know. Yes, And it seems like they're
trying new stuff as well. They're getting away, they're getting away from some
of the light products. They might not be doing flagships with certain products like
Formula one. Interesting, so they'd be sticking they'd be sticking with chrome and
higher up, the higher up Yeah, the higher up products. Ye with
that. Interesting. That's actually something I had not heard yet. Yeah.
So there seemed like they're trying new ways and you know, trying new stuff
to have at work for the collector, which is that this is what it's
all about, you know. Um. Also, you know, they they're
introducing you know, higher end stuff, and it seems like they're getting ready
to um change some stuff up for when they get the basketball and football licenses
as well. They asked us a lot of questions what we want to see
you know when you know, football basketball stuff, come around and let me
let me ask you what did you tell them? Uh? We said,
you know, dynasty basketball. Um, there's a lot of spitballing. Uh,
I'm assuming, I'm assuming tops chrome top tops chrome. Yeah, that
was a given. Tops chrome was a given. UH five star football coming
back, Triple threads football coming back. Um, you know that was U.
Now did they make because last year's conference they made some announcements about limiting
the number of UH director acounts and distributors, you know, things like that.
Did they did they talk about that at all this year? They didn't
really touch on that too much. They did say, hey, you know,
come up to us during the intermissions, you know, talk to us
about your accounts, your store. They definitely want a lot of information from
you. They want to know how much you're selling while you're selling, you
know, which is good. You know, they're doing their research. They're
not just gonna give you know, some random guy you know accounts. Um,
you know, I guess that really isn't into it. That doesn't have
you know, a doesn't have a store, doesn't it doesn't have skin in
the game. They want people that have skin in the game. You know
that have stores. Um, they're really big on social media right now,
you know, content creating, they're you know, they they had a whole
you know, hour and a half presentation about how to connect with your customers
the right way, um, and then they took feedback from us on how
we want them to help us connect with our customers and their customers. And
literally they setting up like a lot of people said like, hey, this
reposting stuff that we post because they really never done that tops reposting stuff.
Yeah, and then literally the next day they had like ten things reposted from
different hobby shops across the United States. So so did they so in regards
to that, did they talk too much about you know, Michael Rubin a
couple of right before the conference, he had talked about how that they were
going to start really pushing marketing of the hobby and how it had never been
marketed correctly. And you know, then we were talking last week how you
started to see times square billboards things like that. Did they talk did they
go in depth any on you know, some of the things that they might
be doing from a marketing perspective, and you know, in growing the hobby.
They didn't go too much in depth about that, but they did talk
about that a lot. And like I said earlier, with you know,
the employees that they brought, you could really see that they were they were
forcing that. Um they had content creators that multiple you know, taking videos,
pictures. Uh. I mean, I don't know how many roles you
know with you know, marketing and you know social media type stuff that that's
that's above my h it's above my head. But they seemed like they had
like twenty twenty people there just you know, ready to get the word out.
You know. Seems like a lot of online stuff is there that they
were pushing, but for like big billboard stuff, they really didn't go too
much in depth about it. Sure I also saw I also did see that
that they were talking about some new new ways to connect with the actual customer
that they were going to be in it, like I guess to put it
there instead of redemptions, having extra experiences and things like that coming to products.
Um. Could you expand on what they kind of talked about in regards
to that, Yeah, so they forget the exact product. I want to
say, maybe big league they're bringing big League baseball back, um, and
they're getting rid of pro debut, which is awesome. Wheeling in one of
those. Yeah, and uh so I'm pretty sure it's Big League Baseball.
They'll have a card in there, like say Mike Trout, so you pull
the Mic Trout card and it's a social media card where he follows you back
on Instagram or whatever. So that's a that's actually kind of cool. No,
Yeah, especially if the if the athlete's gonna you know, also interact
with you and stuff too, which it looks like they're trying to get the
athletes a lot more involved with the lectures, which I think is really cool
because that I think that's a way to really pull new people in as well,
but also provide the current hobbyous with something they've never had before and something
we've never seen. Yes. Yeah, and they really made it a point
to give these players more incentives to sign their cards, like make events,
you know, cool things for these kids to do. Not all kids,
but a lot of these guys are younger, and um, you know,
have them at events and you know, do cool things, get them on
socials, interact with the customers, interact with the fans, and at the
same time, you know, they're signing their cards. So it's not just
like here we're sending twenty thousand sticker autos or twenty thousand cards to your door.
Just sign them, you know what I mean. It's more personable,
and the players are learning about their fans and you know, the businesses that
they're you know, engaging with. And that's that's actually nice because I've seen
a lot of the the up and coming baseball prospects really you know, kind
of run with the whole. Let's get the fans and you know involved.
You know, guys that you know are putting, you know, inscriptions on
the cards, guys interacting social media guy Benny Montgomery shout out to the man,
Benny Montgomery. Jordan Lawler has been you know, all over that as
well. There's that new guy was a Jed something. Yes, there's an
ESPN article out on it where he wrote high dad as an inscription and his
dad's looking for the card exactly. Um, you know, and there's a
lot of there's I mean, and you could tell these are guys that you
know, they grew up you know, either in or dabbling in the hobby.
I mean, he's he's both exactly. And actually, I mean even
Mike Trout has gotten into collecting. Yeah, Mike Trout is definitely into collecting,
no doubt about that. He bought a I won't go into details about
it, but he bought up home in draft case from a friend of mine,
um before the event. I mean, and I guess hee Um dropped
it off or something. I don't know exactly, but he bought up home
in draft case. So I mean he's collecting, he's opening cars himself with
his kids. I'm assuming. Yeah. Well, I think when he first
there's a really funny story that's been told and confirmed. But when he did
first start collecting, he was buying on eBay under his real name and actually
and then the agent had to advise him, Hey, but um, you
might not want to do that. That's funny. Well, there's a I
mean, look, there's there's guys that have been that have been players that
you know, have been involved. Obviously, Phil Hughes is a you know,
it is kind of a big one, um, you know, but
there's there's been a couple that you know that I've sold too and bought from
and stuff like that in the past, and it's a you know, it's
fun for them to kind of get in uh yeah, you know, to
to do in that kind of stuff. Um, there's the guy the football
player that just retired to go sell Pokemon cards. Yeah yeah, there you
go. Yeah, and it's you know, a lot. So a lot
of these guys are getting in earlier and it's good to see. But speaking
of early um, we also heard that there was some announcements in regards to
NIL products that popped off at the conference this week. Yep, um,
you know, can you add anything you can expand on what they told you
aside from they're gonna be releasing more. Yeah, yeah, they're gonna be
releasing more. Uh, they're gonna be releasing more. I can't touch too
much on it, um about what products and when they're releasing. Um,
but they did say, you know, they did talk a lot about shops,
like getting athletes in there and how to conduct that, uh, you
know, whether to work with agents and not to work with agents, certain
price points, what to do, what not to do. So that was
that was very helpful. Um. Okay, because Drew and I over the
last year have talked a lot about the Bowman University product. Yes, and
both of us happened to love that product. We think it's a great This
year UM football just came out and a lot of them, a lot of
them have the team licenses, the NC double a license card as opposed to
last year's which did not UM you know, so I'm hoping the TOPS is
going to continue with that and and kind of roll with it because that is
going to be you know, obviously there's no prospecting in football. Yeah,
you know, that same thing really with basketball too, because there's no minor
leagues you know for that. So this is kind of the like, I'm
really hoping that you know, the industry and the hobby really you know,
jumps on this and you know, looks at the first Bowman cards out of
the Bowman University products at you know, the same way that they look at
the first Bowman cards for baseball. Well that's actually that's actually kind of something
that I wanted to ask you about. Coming from conference. I've seen you
know a ton of people's posts where they'll give you bullet points of what they
what they heard and everything. But one thing that I was really curious about,
and you mentioned that they said that they were bringing back you know,
five star football things like that. Um with the licenses, about the transfer
here in a couple of years. I mean it sounds sounds far away a
couple of years, but I mean it's gonna go buy in an instant um
and they're gonna have these licenses. Did they really talk any about the transition
how they plan on pushing into that. Are they gonna start putting out,
you know, more of those products, any unlicensed possibly before license? Did
they Did they mention any of that at all in regards to how they are
gonna kind of segue into these new new avenues. Not really. Um,
we had a product breakout session at least during my session that as they had
like two or three different sessions. The session that I was in as pretty
much as spitballing. I das um for you know what they can do when
that time comes right. UM, we're seeing like, you know, giving
them ideas for different products, you know, for them to come out with,
um, you know, ideas like I'm bowming you you know, certain
things to do to make it better. Which this year's product was great.
I like it, A lot of people like it. It's selling in the
shop, selling online. But they just you know, they always want to
make things better. Um, they had a panel of like, like I
said, eight different guys in, eight different guys in there, and it's
a lot of people you know on their end listening to to us and they're
all taking notes, so they are really listening, and uh that's a good
thing. So so yeah, no, it absolutely is. And so as
we mentioned, you know, and I want to touch on this after we
talked about the conference, you own a shop and also as we said,
you're you're breaking forever and one of the bigger breakers. I know a lot
was talked about about their upcoming platform that they're going to have for breaking,
and I know a lot of people were saying, Oh, it's gonna be
Tops only you know they're gonna do all that. There were all these doomsday
scenarios of how fanatics and tops we're going to handle having their own um you
know, breaking platform or whatever it is, and all of this similar to
a whatnot or a loop type of deal. Did they prevent how much?
What did they kind of talk about in regards to that, And as a
breaker, how did you feel hearing what they had to say? Did you
come away looking at it with a positive outlook or native Honestly, the whole
conference in the hall I looked at as a positive, you know, everything
that they're doing to make the industry better for the collector, um, you
know, for the hobby shop owners and the breakers, but they really didn't
get too much into the Fanatics live, like who's gonna be on there,
how's how's it going to work and all that, um. But I do
kind of think that it's going to be exclusive, you know, you know
exclusive I guess deals with certain breakers that are going to be on there,
and they're just not going to allow you know, everybody on there, like
you know whatnot um kind and clears out Walmart's not gonna be on there,
yes, correct, Yeah, Yeah, I don't think there'll be you know,
blaster box breaks and you know which, which I think. I think
it's great. Yeah. I think it was interesting to hear that that,
uh, and I was hoping that this was going to happen, that Panini
products will be allowed to be sold on the platform, which is which well,
and I think I think they're doing that because it's being branded as Fanatics,
not branded as Tops. Yes, and you know, you can go
to Fanatics as website and buy Panini products. Yep, you know, you
know currently, so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do that.
But it was always my impression that it was going to be in house
people at Fanatics, that we're going to be doing all the breaking. I
didn't, you know, I didn't realize it was going to be a platform
that you know, certain people like Badger might be able to you know,
to pop on and break on there as well. I was not aware of
that. Yeah, that's that's from what they're saying. That's what I think
they're going to do. I mean, we're a little bit you know,
we're a little bit out from you know, being live and everything happening.
It seemed like they really wanted a lot of ideas, you know, they
wanted to hear what we had to say too, which is good because my
my concern with it was if it was only going to be internal, that
they would all they would immediately have a massive advantage over every other breaker because
they would have unlimited access to any at least of the tops products right now
that they wanted, and you know, in the future, obviously they would
have unlimited access to any of the uh, you know, the other products
that you know, they pop out whatever, you know, brand names they
put it under or if everything is going to be undertime, whatever they wind
up doing once they get the additional licenses, so that you know, that
could hurt you because you've only got you have a limited allocation. You know,
then you have to rebuy on the secondary market where the places go up
and you know, or sometimes occasionally they go down. Depends on you know,
depends on how good the products selling. But you know that affects your
margins you're pricing. And you know, my my big fear is that they
were doing this and everything was gonna internal and because of their access and their
pricing and things like that, that you know, their goal was to put
all the other breakers out of business. Yeah, unless unless they flip the
script script on us. It seems like they really want to work with the
you know, well established, you know, well known reputable breakers and hobby
shops throughout this, throughout the whole process. That seems like what they're what
it is what they're doing, and it seems like they're going to keep doing
that. Now. One thing I heard, and this directly will affect you
significantly being a breaker and owning a store did I hear Did I hear this
correctly? That they're going to be kind of changing up the allocation system to
where there's out for people that like yourself to own both that are able to
get allocation for breaking and for the store. Was that something that was brought
up because I was told the allocation method was being switched up a little bit
in terms of breaking and sending to the store and kind of splitting it up
so stores that have both, like yourself, have products for the shelves and
for breaking. Yeah, yeah, that is correct. So I think that
the store, you know, the store format, I guess is kind of
like if you ever, it's almost like dealing a distributor. You kind of
get what you can move or what you put in for um. And it
seems like the breaking program is if you can move say forty cases of Bowman
Draft, well, um, they're probably gonna be able to supply you with
those forty cases if you can move those cases on time, you know what
I mean? And you know efficiently all that stuff professionally, you know,
yeah, and professionally is great. I mean you have your breakers, you
know, Like I love watching Tyler break. He was Yeah, the dude.
Dude's got a ton of personality. I absolutely love the guy. And
there's a you know, and there's other you know breakers, and I'm actually
to you know, with the platform, I actually like if they're gonna do
it where they're going to allow the reputable, larger, you know, well
established breakers you know, come on and break on that platform. It brings
that extra personality aspect, you know to it. Um, you know,
your guys are great, you know. Then you got you know, guys
from like Platinum and uh Layton, you know and things like that. Well,
sorry not platting those guys. Yeah, no, I mean, I
mean, but you guys and Monster and Layton and um, you know the
guy Like you guys have a team of people that have everybody's got a unique
personality, you know, that that they bring when they when they're doing breaks.
And I love seeing the variety of different, you know, different people
that are that are popping over on you know and doing that kind of stuff.
Um, as long as they don't allow backyard, then then I'm freaking
good because those guys, you know, they're not professional, they're you know,
a bunch of a bunch of freaking clowns and leave them on what backyard
might be uh one of the one of the bigger guys on there. Let's
just say, let's just say, yeah, Well, I'm actually i'd be
shocked if they were if they were willing to move off of whatnot or do
some things off of whatnot, because they, you know, they have such
a such a huge market there, and I think there's some marketing dollars that
whatnots you know, has put behind anythings like that, Yeah, for sure.
But I mean there's there's a couple of years you know here that that
a lot of things will happen and shape up before Fanatics Collectibles fully takes over
all the licenses, you know. The I think they get the MLB Players
Association this coming year, so I don't think there'll be any more Panini Baseball
products. Um, I don't know what they'll do, so which I'm I'm
not I'm not too sad about it. With the exception of National Treasures and
Flawless. I was about to say those great, with the with their use
of the old school and yeah, the historical stuff, Um, that's what
I'm gonna miss. And I'm really I'm really hoping that at some point fanatics
will be able to get the intellectual property from Panini, or least some of
it, because I would love to see a fully licensed version of Ante and
Flawless, I think, you know, I think that would be an absolute
killer product. Yeah, um, you know, and they would add into
you know, the lineup that you know would be put out under the you
know, I don't know if they change the branding to it or you know,
leave it as a top thing or something like that, but they,
you know, I think they would. They would be well served to spend
the money if it becomes available, yeah, you know, to buy up
that that ip. Yeah. I think it's just a matter of time,
honestly, Yeah, I do too. And the longer, I mean,
the longer they wait, the cheaper it's gonna get, because you know,
Panini is running out of time. Yeah, that's so. I don't know
why they're I mean, I guess they're trying to make as much as possible,
but that's a that's another story for another day. From what I heard
to A couple of deals have fell through, so I mean, who knows.
They could be in the talks right now again, I mean right,
yeah, And that's that's cool. So all right, so you went from
the convention to the Bowman Transcended party. Yeah, so let's let's talk about
that for a minute because we want to know, like, I haven't seen
anything that's come out, you know, no picture, you know, nothing
that had been popped off. What had I mean, what went on behind
the scenes at that party. Well, it was fifty degrees and raining all
day. So the party was so supposed to so is that American Family Field
the Brewers spring training facility, And it was supposed to be out on the
field, but like I said, it was raining, it was cold.
So they had a you know audible a little bit and it was kind of
put us in like the yeah, like the the rotunda or whatever, right
when you walk in, right, and uh, it was kind of small.
Then they had us, so they had us in another room you know
where we're eating. You got the Q and A with Kumar Rocker, George
Valera and Drew Jones. Um. It was pretty personal though, you know,
we're all close, you know, in the small their room, and
it was good. I guess it was good. As a Brewers fan,
it is good for you. Um, yeah, it was supposed to.
You know those Cubs fans of us, right, you know, be like,
oh man, we it's like, you know, I feel like you're
burst into flames walking into that field or something. R It was it it
felt it felt like I was at home with all the Brewers stuff around.
So that that was one of the good things, I guess. So,
so it was just it was just the the was a meet and greet,
the Q and you know Q and A with the players. You get pictures,
yeah, sign they signed some stuff for you, yep, yep.
So yeah, it was you know, Uh, they had like a little
thirty minute cocktail hour or whatever. All the people that attended, which there
was one hundred tickets, not everybody was there, so I would say there's
probably around seventy five eighty people. Um. Then we sat down, Kumar
Rocker, George Valeria, Drew Jones L came out, sat down, answered
questions, uh, Kevin with tops uh. He also asked some questions,
and then they came out served as dinner and then we had the meet and
greet. We got autographs from all the guys and was he was the original
plan Like you guys can like bring a ball in a mitt and you know,
throw around on the field and things like that or was that not was
that not supposed to be part of it? Um? I don't know,
honestly. Uh, they didn't. They didn't tell us to bring a ball
in a mit, But I mean, who knows. I mean maybe they
would have let us hit some balls out there. I have no idea because
I know in years passed that U they had like a batting thing at Chase
Field at the last Tops Transcendent party or whatever. So now knows well would
have happened if it was nice out on the field. Yeah, And now
one thing I do want to ask is, you know, we just talked
about how especially with the MLBPA and that they announced, you know, that
they want to have a more close and personal relationship with the collectors. Well
they had this party right after, So how was the interaction with the players.
Because I've been to the Panini VIP parties. I've been to a lot
of these parties in the past where some of them the access was amazing,
like I shot baskets with d Brown, you know, and stuff like that,
and then there's been others where you walk in, you get a quick
little photo and then you walk right out and you don't get any interaction with
them as well. So how was the actual interaction with everybody there. We
really didn't get like up in close, you know, to talk to them
at all, like shooting hoofs the d Brown I was at that one as
well. I remember I think Mo Bamba was there too, right, yes,
yeah, yeah, um, but uh yeah, we didn't really get
up and close, you know, be able to make it really personal.
I mean, we took pictures with them, you know, dapped them up
a little bit and we walked by. But the Q and A, I
mean that was took about an hour, so that was you know personal.
We're all in the same room as a smaller room because they didn't plan for
it to be in that room. They planned for it to be out on
the field. So what it did feel kind of personal, but it wasn't
like hanging out with them or anything like that. Yeah, you know,
but over over on all you overall you mean you say you had a good
time at the party. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a
great time. It isn't my first Transcendent party, um, and it was
probably the first one that tops had to change a little bit because of the
weather. Um. So I mean overall, I mean it was a good
party, I mean, and also Bowman Transcendent is probably their second best transcendent
brand behind Tops. And also you know the players, I mean, Dud
Jones is nineteen years old. Yeah, you got a room full of mostly
forty to fifty year old males or twice as age. So you know,
it's a little bit of age disconnect, I would say. And I think
I think part of that is the cost of the product. I mean you're
looking at what is it twenty five grand or something like that for the Bowman
Yeah, Bowmen I think was like seventeen to twenty somewhere aund there, So
a little bit, a little bit less than the Tops. Yeah, a
little bit less than the Tops. Yeah, okay, because like I know,
in the past, like you know, Derek Jeter has been, you
know, the the highlight of one of the you know, Tops Transcended parties.
And yeah, yeah, so it's a little I could see that with
a discrepancy. But you're also talking about guys that you know, are you
know, they're either dropping twenty five grand on a product and can afford to
do that, or they're buying the ticket on the secondary market for you know
what, three to eight thousand, depending on who the guest is. Yeah,
so it's a little bit, you know, a little bit different.
Yeah. I think the tickets to this transcendent uh party, I think they're
going around two to three thousand dollars depending. I think three thousand out the
gate. And then it kind of, you know, cooled off a little
bit as you got closer to the party actually happening. Yeah, no,
that makes sense. Yeah, all right, So let's talk about the shop.
Let's talk about you know, the breaking uh you know, let's talk
about stuff like what's what you got coming up? What is exciting going on?
So the shop I was up there shortly before you guys opened. Yeah,
you guys have been open about a year. Uh, pretty close to
a year, almost a year. Um, how's that been going for you?
Um? And I'm asking, I know the answer to this, Oh
yeah, I got that. And then, um, you know, what
do we got coming up? You know, breaking wise, that is gonna
be you know, something cool, um, something different, you know,
kind of kind of going into that. So what do we got? Yeah?
So the shopman we opened late April last year, and this every month
we keep getting busier and busier, which is awesome. We had to hire
another person to help out in the store. Breaking wise, we're still this
breaking NonStop, all the new releases. We got Bowman inception today. I'm
actually gonna be going to the shop here in a little bit to break some
of that. Got tons of football stuff that's coming up, Immaculate football.
What else we got Prism Football's coming up, Honors football. Do not sleep
on Honors football. That's gonna be great. We'll have all that stuff in
our shop and our website, Badger breaks dot com. We break every on
release days at noon all the newest products, and we're usually breaking every day
almost until one am. So if you want to get into breaks, you
know, we got you. Yeah, man, definitely have tons of them.
M Where is just for everyone listening that may not be familiar, where's
the shop located and everything like that? Yep. So we are in on
Alaska, Wisconsin, right on the Mississippi River, right next to Lacrosse,
Wisconsin, which some of the listeners might know a Lacrosse, Wisconsin. We're
kind of famous for october Fest and our downtown nightlife and your your shop is
conveniently located. If you happen to own a private plane or a private jet
to the Lacrosse Airport, which is, you know, kind of just behind
the building. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, the airport's not too far away.
It's not too big though, but there are a couple of flights going
in every day, especially from Chicago. Yeah. And then speaking of Chicago,
you were also going to be set up at the show coming up here
on seventeen, eighteenth and nineteenth in Rosemonts. Yes, that correct, Yes,
yes, we will be at the spectacular. We'll bring a bunch of
our you know, high end cards. We'll have some cool promotions going on
while we're there. So definitely if you're in the Chicago area. Was it
the sixteen, seventeenth and eighteen seventeen? I think it's the seventeenth, eighteenth
and nineteen seventeen. Eighteen sixteenth is when set up starts. Okay, so
I will see you on the sixteenth, Yeah, but you will see everybody
else on the seventeenth, eighteen nineteenth. And um, like you and I
had talked about a couple weeks ago. Um, you're also bringing wax.
Yes, we'll be bringing tons of wax. Um higher end singles. Uh,
Like I said, promotions, fun stuff to do for the kids to
get engaged, you know, coupons for a website, and you know,
just a bunch of stuff, you know, for the people, you know,
having a fun time coming to that show, and uh yeah, it's
just gonna be a great time. And you know, being able to talk
to you know, our customers, you know, our collectors because you know,
I don't like to call everybody you know customers too, Like a lot
of these people are my friends, so you know, collectors, customers,
you know, however you want to word it, I guess, but uh
yeah, we're really excited to be at that show. Awesome. Well,
we greatly appreciate you coming on and giving us some inside scoop from some people
that were there, from someone that was actually there at the conference today,
I really appreciate it. For all of our listeners out there, if they
are interested in Badger of Breaks and everything, would like to possibly get into
it, or would like to hit you up on socials or anything, how
would they do that. We're all over the place. We're on Instagram,
TikTok, Facebook, just you know, Badger breaks across all platforms. We're
on Twitter a little bit too. But our main places where you'll find us
as Facebook. Our Facebook group has ten thousand members in it. We feel
breaks in there, and on our website Instagram, Like I said, TikTok,
I mean, there's so many of these days, but Instagram is you
know, it's our main thing. I guess, TikTok. We're on them
all. Awesome. So thanks for coming on, Kyle. Yeah, thank
you for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah, I will see you in
person in a couple of weeks, and I'll see you at the Nashville Yeah,
We'll see you. I'll be there too, We'll be there too.
Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on, man, greatly appreciated. Yeah,
thank you guys. Appreciate you having me and look forward to you know,
being on another show at some time again. Absolutely, yep, awesome,
Thank you guys, And once again i'd like to thank Kyle for coming
on this show. Man. It's always nice when we can have somebody,
especially someone who's awesome as Kyle and Bagger breaks come on, that was there
at the at the conference, you know, oh yeah, absolutely, And
I you know, I know, you know, we've been you know,
klled you know, been talking about having Kyle on for a while now and
oh yeah, you know, this is a this is a great way to
make that happen. Yeah, and you know, and guys, there was
and you know, guys, there was a lot of other news, a
couple of pointers that I did want to touch on and kind of get your
reaction on as well. Um, there there was so much stuff that came
out of it. There's no way to cover everything. But two things that
stood out to me, and it revolves up around autographs, were one that
Tom Brady is going to be in Bowman with autographs. They're gonna have him
in his exposed gear and have it have Tom Brady and Bowman. And also
we're gonna get with the nil We're gonna get Brawny James tops all American autographs.
Those are two things that you know, I didn't get a chance to
bring up in an interview, But that's freaking awesome. I mean, it's
the Brady thing is awesome. I think I'm really excited about that. Oh
that, yes, absolutely, I don't know how excited I am about the
Brownie James you know thing. Really Yeah, I have a problem sometimes with
the children of really good athletes, you know, I mean, yeah,
I know where you're going with that. But he is a projected top ten
pick. He's a projected top ten pick. But I mean, how many
projected top ten picks just haven't panned out in the you know, in the
league Son, regardless of that, But like I'm looking at you know,
Michael and Jeffrey Jordan, who you know, turned out to be nothing from
bad. They're great guys. Look, I've known I've known those two since
they were little kids, you know, you know, coming in while Juanita
was working with medias and stuff. But the um like, they're great,
great people, but they're they're not their father when it comes to basketball.
Jared Payton, Uh, you know, same thing. He's not Walter.
You know, I'm I'm having a hard time thinking that the brawnie James autos
are gonna be hugely meaningful. I don't think meaningful in the long run because
obviously, like I said, he's gonna be a top ten pick, He's
gonna have plenty of autographs in the future. I just think, you know,
it's a neat use of being I l and hey, it it shines
a light on some of this stuff, which I really do think. And
I'll keep talking about it as it comes to fruition, the nil market,
the college market, the over in basketball, you can't even really call it
the college market because the first college player isn't projected to pick five. It's
all overseas. So the international market and all that that's something, and that's
a area of the hobby that I see exponential growth in in the next five
years. And so something like that is in my opinion, going to do
a lot to move that forward. So while they might not have a massive
amount of value long term in terms of his cards, I think it does
do a lot for the upcoming you know, prospecting market. Like we're talking
about getting people to look at the Bowmans and all that stuff. So any
attention and good stuff you can put in any of those products, I think
is going to help that happen on I agree, And it's only frankly,
it's only a matter of time before somebody comes out with a multi sport and
il product because there are so many, so many of these athletes in high
school and college and things like that in other sports besides the major ones,
besides you know, your your basketball, your football, you know, things
like that that really could drive a product. I mean, there's some amazing
golfers that are that are out there that that could be part of that.
Obviously, what's her name, the Olivia or Olympia Dune from LSU. You
know, obviously she's she's huge. The you know, the hobby I think
would be taking care of really well by having a product like that that it
is a you know, like a multi sport and I l as opposed to
just focusing on you know, one short for basketball or something like that.
Yeah, So a couple other things guys that did come out, just some
little bullet points for you if you are interested. And then one thing I
do want to get your opinion on because it's hilarious to me. But there
is gonna be multiple news Our Wars releases, at least ten. We're also
getting Tops Chrome Tennis. It is coming finally. Yes, Tops Chrome Tennis
is coming this year. They confirm that. Noah, wait, is it
the twenty twenty two edition or are they just redoing it for twenty twenty three.
No, it's it's a new one and they said it's going to be
followed by an even bigger release next year. So it looks like next year
we might get Tops Chrome, Tennis and another one, so it does like
the tennis market just coming out as well. And from the non sports side
of things, Dune is coming in when the Dune movie comes out, there
will actually be Dune cards. Naruto Chrome is coming in October, and then
on the sports card aspect, a really cool a couple of things from There's
something I think is really cool, you know, a debut and update this
year. But it's called First Stitch. It's patch cards at the very first
first jersey Fanatics creates for a new player, and these are gonna be patches
in update. I thought that was pretty cool. Well, I'm torn on
that because of how they do it. Is it gonna be patches from the
first unif first jersey that the player ever wore, or is it the first
one that Fanatics just created and now all of a sudden it's like a like
there's no tie to the player at all. It's not even like event right
right. That's what it's going to come down too, is if it's the
first one they created that they use or is it just the first one that
they make. So well, yeah, we'll save if that's a good thing
or a bad thing for later. But this is one I want to get
your opinion on. And now we'll wrap up the TOPS conference with this.
They announced, and this is baffling to me. They're going to be frozen
fractors coming out. Now. You say to yourself, what is this?
Well, if serial numbering couldn't get stupid enough, we are now going to
have cards numbered out of zero, and these cards will be numbered out of
zero and negative one through negative five. So I have mixed emotions about this
one because I've been saying for a long time that they need to have like
certain cards. You can't possibly have a card for that player numbered to their
jersey number, right, And this is more prevalent in basketball. But there
is one player in baseball, It's Marta Stroman, who wears the number zero.
Right. But let's talk about it as it relates to basketball for a
moment, because you see that more often one of the biggest stars in the
NBA right now wears number zero, as Jason Tay. You cannot have like
the contenders, they have the die cut rookie autos that are numbered to each
player's jersey number. You can't you could, You couldn't have a Tatum.
You couldn't have a Kobe White and who also wears zero, because we can
deal with that though. Yeah, well no, but okay, I understand
White Tatum. So if they if he was a rookie this year, they
you know, how would you handle that, right number? You have just
one of them, but you number it zero of zero? Yeah, I
understand. It's just in I thought it was funny. Um, I thought
it was interesting. I mean with maybe this, look, maybe this is
just a prank, Maybe this is just maybe I was thinking of making them
making fun of some of the numbering errors that they've had over last They had
plenty of those. But that was very real because they announced it that they're
also doing retro fractors and these are going to be first Bowman cards for historical
players who never had one, like Bay Bruce. That's cool. I love
that. That's a great that's a great idea. Yes, that is gonna
be coming out, so we'll have a Babe Ruth first Bowman and things like
that. Jackie Robinson, I'm sure, and all Ricky Henderson people like that
that didn't get a first Retro fractors will be coming, but frozen fractors,
I don't know. It seems a little gimmicky to me, obviously. I
think in the long run it's just gonna be looked at as a card out
of five because they said it, we're going to be negative one to naked
at five. So it's really not that big of a deal. But I
just find it funny. And I thought that was the funniest thing I saw
come out of this conference. All right, so I give them points for
creativity. I yes, yes, absolutely, whoever thought this up, definitely
they had their thinking cap on and is getting points for creativity. But the
practicality of exactly is something that I don't know. I I completely. I
only have one question, and that's how many pounds of weed did it take
to come up with that idea? I know, yeah, because you know
the answer. And maybe when maybe when it got cold in Texas, uh,
and everyone in Texas was having that big cold front, someone just had
an idea and was like, wait a minute, I'm freezing here we are,
and then that that could be it. But we're definitely involved. I
think I think people were, Yeah, maybe they were dropping ascid. I
don't know. That sounds like something that would you know, that's right along
the lines of doc Ellis' is no hitter in the story behind. Yeah.
Yeah, but you know, I think there were there was some narcotic that
was Maybeawaska session. Well, I mean they are getting back into football.
Maybe the head Aaron Rodgers in and this is what came out. Um yeah,
I don't know. We'll see how We'll see how it plays out,
you know, when they actually get released. The historic historical bowman first absolutely
killer idea great knock it out of the park with that one. Yeah,
um, but it actually CV. I mean some of the guys that are
still alive, you know, you can you can get like Barry Bonds never
had a first bowman. You can get on card autos right of a first
bowman. For these are exciting. Nolan was one of the coolest things I
heard from the conference in terms of stuff that's going to be on cards.
You know what, you can get a Nolan Ryan first bowman on card auto.
That would be cool. That automatically creates one of the most in demand
Nolan Ryan cards of all time exactly, even though it's not technically a rookie,
it's still at would be a cool piece. And I have no idea
if Nolan Ryan's to be in there, right, assume they are probably gonna
make a card of you know, a first Bomban retro card of him,
and that's yeah, you kind of have to. But I'm just I'm just
thinking back of guys that are, you know, the guys from that era
that are still alive that could potentially have an on card signature. I don't
think Derek Jeter had a first Bomban Nope. And you know, you know,
he's a top athlete, So you'll see a Derek Jeter first bowman on
card auto potentially that would be that would be awesome, that would be a
massively in demand card. Yeah, so I completely agree. So yeah,
I personally, after even though not attending the conference, after hearing everything from
Kyle and all the stuff that I've read and the other people I've spoken to,
I come away and I want to know how you feel before wrap up
today's show. I really feel very confident, a lot more confident in tops
and fanatics than I did a week ago, not just from the conference,
but I'm also bringing in some very new high profile executives. Someone that was
noticeably absent from the conference was mister Josh Luber. He had absolutely no presence
there as his contract comes up. Coincidentally, what's up, Loops. But
they're bringing in some high profile people outside of the hobby that they're bringing into
the hobby to kind of bridge that gap with athletes. Lots of big stuff,
and so I'm really I have so much more faith in this and have
come away from this with so much more positivity than I expected. So I
don't have any more faith than I did before that Fanatics was going to be
able to you know, really make this work improve wrong because I had a
high level of faith prior to this conference. I did. The thing that
I'm the thing that I am excited about. It is not necessarily the new
products, the new ideas, things like that. It's the it's the you
know, the fact that they're taking the efforts to bridge that gap between the
athletes and the collectors. Yes, you know, that's that's going to be
a huge step. And that that right there is probably the biggest piece of
news that I have, you know, that I think has come out of
this. Yeah, and outside of just the social media stuff, I did
see that there were also going to be in Lewis Redemptions um like experiences with
athletes we're going to fly you out to do certain things. They're supposed to
be a lot of new type of interactions and stuff like that. So I'm
right there with you. The incorporation of the athletes and the closer you can
get the collector to the person that's on that card, the physical, actual
person that's on that card, the better the collector experience. And that's the
infrastructure that Fanatics has and that they can bring to collecting that I think is
really going to serve the hobby. Well, if you yeah, now here's
here's something that I would have done if I was Fanatics for especially with Bowman.
So if you were to take all of the super Fractor autos, the
first Bowman super Fractor autos, and instead of putting the cards in there,
you put it and I know you everybody's gonna hate the fact that I'm talking
about redemptions, but you take you make all of the super Fractors redemptions,
okay, And part of that redemption when you redeem it is they will fly
you out to the watch athletes and you get to watch them sign the super
Fractor for you, well you know, it's really funny, and then hand
it to you you know, it's really funny. What you just said is
actually something that they talked about, having them doing the flying out stuff,
flying out athletes to have them sign cards and things like that. So that's
actually so well, have them have them fly I have them signed cards.
But if you were to do it with every with every one of the superfractors,
that would be cool. I just don't know if the practicality of that
with a lot of collectors that wouldn't a want to take the flight be couldn't
take the flight things like that. You know, well, but if tops
is paying for it, that would eliminate the financial aspect of somebody like not
being able to afford to take, you know, take a flight. Well
no, I didn't mean the plane. I mean everything else that goes along
with it. No, no, no, no, no no, yeah
no, no, I get that too. Um, but maybe not do
it with all, maybe do it with like ten right, yes, no,
I agree and it But the one good thing is is you can tell
from everything that Kyle said and everything I've seen online that they are truly listening
to everybody, and they there is finally, finally, maybe maybe it will
trickle down to the actual card designs, but it seems like there's a lot
of innovation going on right now. Yeah, I would agree, So I
love it. I think it's awesome. But you know, Scott, there
was a lot we covered today. I think this is probably a good time
to wrap it up. What do you think I would agree with that as
well. And guys, I know we didn't touch on everything going on in
the hobby. There's no way we could right now. It is just NonStop.
But of course we'll back next week with tons and tons more. But
before we go, do want to shout out our awesome sponsors, Show your
Slabs, Card Ladders, Slabs, Drown, Denver Card Shows, Treasure Hunters
and Vanity Slabs. Of course, let a rip new episode coming out this
week. We are a great box, soope, and I'm really excited about
that. Of course, Hobby Hotlines every Tuesday and Saturday, Tuesday night,
Saturday mornings Saturdays on Pagecoat Media. And if you miss the announcement I will
be doing. I will be writing. I'll make the announcement here. The
brand new Hobby News daily website to launches April first. I will be the
football basically doing modern football and I'll be having a couple of articles a month
out on Hobby News Daily covering modern football products things like that. So a
lot of cool stuff coming up in the future and a lot of cool stuff
coming up on Let me get that photograph. But Scott Man and Dog a
great episode, Absolutely the same as always true. Well, you guys know
the deal. Keep ripping those packs, pulling those hits. What taught you
next week, please,