It's time to talks boys, time for the show. You hear this song
on the radio? Better fast, let me get that potograph. Sports Talk
Radio starting now. Let's go. What's up everybody, and welcome episode one
hundred and seventy seven. Up, let me get that potograph. As always,
my name is Drew the DH. You joined him an awesome co host,
mister Scott Rappa. Four. What's up, dude? Oh, what's
going on? Drew? Thank feeling I'm feeling better, a little bit better.
So we took we took last week off because Drew had a little surgery
done and uh he thought he was gonna be okay. Yeah, but you
know, like those things go uh nope, nope, no, far from
okay. Last Yeah, so, yes, we took last week off.
But that actually that kind of worked out because we've gotten a lot more insight
on some of the things we're going to talk about last week, and obviously
things have happened over the weekend and earlier this week that we are going to
be talking about which we would have talked about this weekend or this week anyway.
So yeah, so what we got on t apter, well, we
got a lot to talk about today, but I figured we start off with
the NBA All Star Game. All Star weekend just happened, um normally,
or at least the last couple of years, pretty forgettable. Uh, not
many people paid attention. If any more people would go on social media and
complain, then I think than actually watch anything. Yeah, but this weekend
a little bit different. Yeah, but I but I will say before we
get to the little bit different stuff. Um, the game itself was.
I mean, don't get me wrong, the All Star Game is always like
a ridiculously high scoring event. Nobody ever plays defense and all that kind of
stuff. But this was just I mean, I know it was like it
was unwatchable. No, it was. And I loved Nicola Joki's comment before
He's he said before the game started, he's like, this isn't my type
of game. He's like, so don't expect me to do good. And
he ended up with like four points, eight rebounds, like six assists because
he's not that flashy I'm gonna take the ball down and just chuck something up
all the time. Yet people, you had what Damian Lillard taken a half
court three pointer just because yeah, of course, and then you got and
then he got guys like Tatum who seemed to have seemed to take it seriously
and put up fifty five points. Yeah, him and Brown, they they
seemed to h relish in playing each other, Tatum putting up fifty five,
Brown putting up I think thirty eight or thirty nine, something like that.
And I understand the aspect of like, hey, we you know, this
is an exhibition game. You know, we don't want to go out there
and kill ourselves and get hurt because the rest of the season, you know,
still has to be played and things like that. So like I get
that, but at least make it look like you're trying to play defense,
right, No, when you when both teams almost put up two hundred,
I mean, I know HIMBA basketball games are high scoring. I still struggle
when I go to Place beps looking at the over unders being at two hundred
and thirty and it being a really smart idea, Like that's just weird to
me. Is someone that grew up When I mean in the late nineties early
two thousands of both teams hit over one hundred, it was like wow,
like okay, they were what was the what was the over underline on the
All Star Game? Oh? God, I don't know, probably four hundred.
I mean, it's got to be three fifty. It was definitely three
fifty plots. Yeah, which is which is just absolutely ridiculous. And it
ton't get me wrong, I love I love high scoring, I love you
know, all kind stuff, but not when there's no defense exactly around,
like exactly. And that's that's my biggest issue with and like and back in
the day, like growing up as a kid watching the All Star Game.
Now, granted, the All Star Game has always been a little less defense,
but you had people. I mean, I think back to when Lebron
came into the league and he made his first All Star Game, him matching
up against Kobe, and they would do those one on one battles, like
you'd at least get a couple of minutes where legends are going at each other
and trying hard to you know, attack each other. This was just let
yeah, grew up the court, throw a flashy alley, no one trying
to block it, no one looking around. I mean, the no look
passes are cool, but when there's not one hand in the lane trying to
take the ball, how great is that pass? No, It's true,
I mean I grew up with the you know, the traditional East West format
the Ulstar game. You know, where you had Jordan and Larry Bird teamed
up together, you know, Magic Johnson and Karl Malone and stocked In and
you know, and those guys, and it's like, this is like,
I'm not a fan. I'd rather have it, Honestly, I'd rather have
it East West than have that whole draft thing. I would love to see
the East West just for the simple fact I'd like to see how many points
the West would put up against the East right now. But I also think
you'd have more competition. I think that people might play a little bit harder,
and you would have these matchups that you don't see. I really don't
like the team Captain draft format, although I will say I did like it
this year for my bank account, because betting on Jannis to hit the under
on his points was a guarantee. And thank you for playing two minutes and
leaving, Buddy, I appreciate that I lost. I'm gonna tell you I
lost a massive parlay on the Bucks Bulls game before the All Star break because
Jannis got hurt. YEP, it would have been better for me if he
hadn't have played right have been there, would have just dropped the parlay from
five to four exactly. It would avoided out his line, and you know,
everything would have been great. I literally hit I think it was like
twelve different twelve legs in the parlay, and I hit all of them except
for the two legs involving Yannis, which he would have probably easily hit against
the bulls. And that's that's why I think it was like, I think
it was like thirty, you know, thirty plus points and I think it
was like eight plus rebounds or something like That's that's easy. Yeah, against
the bulls. Yes, and he it just killed me. Now. But
here's here's the other question. You know, the captains of the team,
it's basically a popularity contest, and I mean, when was the last time
that it wasn't Lebron and Jannis. I couldn't tell you. I honestly couldn't
tell you. And that comes for two reasons. One, I didn't pay
I don't pay that much attention to the game. I'm more interested in the
Saturday night stuff, the skills skills competition, right, the three point skill
slam dunk thing like that, which will touch on in just a few obviously,
then the game like the game, I don't know it as soon as
it became like the Pro Bowl with flags like that, it's just I don't
want to watch it, Like it's not fun. Like I already know these
guys are insanely talented. I already know that John Morant can throw insane behind
the back no look passes, blah blah blah. I already know Tatum can
score fifty five if he wants to. I don't need to see it with
a bunch of guys standing around. Yeah, I I totally get that.
And I mean, let's be honest, even before they took the you know,
they took the real football out of the Pro Bowl. When was the
last time you actually watched the Pro Bowl? Right? No? No,
I agree. But the sad thing is is when you look at players,
and we look back on retired players, one of the things they always go
to is all NBA teams championships, your individual accolade, and then all Star
accomplishments. Yeah, are they really accomplishments anymore? No? No, they're
really not. And frankly, you know what I would love to see so
during the all during the All Star weekend. We have, we have the
different skills competitions, We've got the futures games you've got, and then you've
got the main All Star game. You know what, I would love to
see. This would be entertaining as hell if the NBA could put this together.
In addition to all of that, I'd like to add something to it.
Sure, I would like to see Hall of Fame game that get Yes,
you get Hall of famers who you know, and I'm sure there'll be
willing and don't get me wrong, this will be it'll be a slower game.
It'll be a game where you know, there's not going to be a
lot of defense played and things like that. Because these guys are older.
You know, you may see a seventy year old guy out on the court.
I don't know, Charles Oakley if he got pulled on the team.
You might see Oakley trying body somebody still. Um no, that's true,
And I think, um who would be the oldest guy they would probably get
as Robert pair are still alive, dude, Yeah, if he's still I
mean, I'm sure he would go. I'm sure he would go. Um.
But you know, I would love to see the Hall a Hall of
Fame game, you take, you take Hall of Fame players, put them
back out on the court, and you could do it as a draft.
Yeah, you know, there's no question about that. You'd have like MJ
and Magic could be the captain, could be the Captain's draft. Or if
you really want to do it, you get a couple of guys that wouldn't
necessarily play, but would manage the team. So you'd get like Kareem and
maybe Jerry Jerry West. Yeah, to you know, to come and manage
and draft and you know, let you know, let the guys who were
in there, you know, forties, fifties and sixties play the game.
That would be That would be a lot of fun to watch. I think
you would. Actually, I think you'd sell more tickets to that than you
would for the normal All Star game. No, I agree, I think
that would be awesome. I mean, it can't get any worse. I
mean, for God's sakes, we're now drafting the starters as our last five
people because we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings with them being picked last.
I mean, these these are guys making max contracts, and we're worried about
their feelings and being picked last in an All Star Game. It's just it's
become so diluted, and so they should do they should do what they do
in the NFL draft is they should draft it or you know, whatever order
you want, pick the starters first or whatever and then pick the others.
But the guy who was drafted last gets a car. Yeah, you know
how many guys would be fighting, like when you get towards the last,
like three or four guys like no, don't pick me, don't pick me.
You know how many of these guys would be out there doing that.
I know it would be a lot more interesting. There's a ton of things
you could do to spice this up. It's just from a hobby standpoint.
The All Star Game, it used to be something that was a major accolade,
that was something that hang your app on, and it was something that,
let's be honest, a lot of guys careers are defined by All Star
games, all NBA teams, and individual accolades because they didn't win championships.
No, but typically, but think about this, though the All NBA team
accolades are I think those are legit, those are well earned because that is
the that is a season long, right, you know award that they're given
out to the top guys in their positions in the league. I mean that
is well earned. Don't put that. I'm just saying when you look at
when you look at the Hall of Famer, that's what you see. You
see their titles, their individual accolades, all NBA and then All Star Game
stuff, and well, I don't know if they count. I just don't
think it matters anymore. But no, but that's thing, like, I
don't think they count their All Star Game statistics within that, but they're What
they do count though, is the All Star Game appearances. Yes, and
that's fine, that's okay. You know, hey, this guy was selected
as an All Star eighteen times. Okay, awesome, Like I'm all for
that, but I don't think they're counting like all right, well you know
he averaged like eighteen points a game and the All Star No, you know,
no, I just I'm just saying, like when it I just saw.
You know, they've got the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame voting and stuff
like that coming up, and Dwayne Waited made the cut compared to other people,
and you look at his accolades, it goes past titles. It's like
thirteen or fourteen All Star Game appearances. And I saw that and I was
like wow, because I was back when the All Star Game actually meant something.
Yeah, I was like, that's that's impressive because you looked at Dark
and everyone else and he blew them out of the water. And I was
like, Okay, this is interesting. But then I'm thinking about nowadays.
Okay, if John Morant makes fifteen All Star Games, is it really that
big of a deal as compared to what it was twenty years ago? No?
No, well I think in some ways it isn't. So it depends
on how many he winds up getting into as a starter. Because remember the
starters are voted on by the fan, right, So I don't look at
that as much as I look at the overall selections because I'd rather see a
guy who does not get voted in as a starter but still makes ten All
Star Games, you know, yeah, alter, because he was voted on
by the league and by you know, I think it's the coaches the yeare
that did say, look, this guy was playing you know so well for
ten years of his career that he was sent to the All Star Game.
I would rather have that than the popularity contest that goes along with all the
voting. Yeah, no, I completely agree. Um. One thing I
did think was cool is all weekend long, you did see if you were
paying attention and looking around, you saw a lot of Panemia America stuff.
Um, you could see their advertisements in the arena. You could see their
name plastered everywhere. I thought that was awesome to see. Um from a
hobby standpoint at Lee, I know they were down there in full force.
Jeff and everybody were all down there getting on card stuff. You know,
I don't know a lot of people might not know this. All Star Games
one of the times one of a lot of those guys they can't get to
sign your redemptions. That's when they signed them. No, exactly our weekend
now in and now we're gonna talk about this a little bit later. But
since you brought up the Panini you know, branding and all that kind of
stuff that was all around the arena, I do want to point out that
did anybody notice the massive video billboard in Times Square when Top Series one came
out? Insane absolutely saying this is now, this is the benefit to having
fanatics in you know, in the hobby is they've got the money to do
stuff like that. Well, when you saw a route, Michael Rupe and
came out with some very very bold comments that I agreed with m saying that
the hobby had been marketed by mistake and it had never actually been tard getting
marketed before. And they're going to push hard and you see that with series
one getting a billboard Time Square. Um, it's gonna be interesting to see
what does hobby can beat with major marketing behind it. If you want to
see you wanted something interesting. I'm not flips up, but there's a there's
a guy that I'm friends with on Facebook. I'm gonna have to I have
to look at his name, but um, he's down in New Orleans.
He's got a shop down there, and he actually does breaks live court side
from the Pelicans games. Oh awesome, and they're yeah, I think I
think they're put up there on the JumboTron. So I'm not I have to
get on to get some details on that. But the but like, this
is the kind of stuff and I don't know how much Pennin he has to
do with that. I don't know how much it's just him and his relationship
with the team, and I'll have to reach out to him and see if
we can get him on there or you know, get him on to talk
about that kind of stuff. But he's doing breaks, you know, basically
on the court at halftime. That's or the people in the arena. I
love it, yeah, and it's it's an awesome you know, it's an
awesome thing for the hobby. And I think we're gonna start seeing a lot
more of that kind of stuff in you know, a lot of sports,
and there's there's sports that you can get away with that. Basketball is one
of them because halftime it exists. You could do it at football. With
football, you can do it with hockey in between periods. The one thing
you can't do it with is baseball. Yeah, and it's because again the
innings are too short. The only what you could do though, is do
it like in between a double header. But doubleheaders are sometimes unpredictable because of
weather, so you don't necessarily want to schedule that. But you know,
you can do it, do a pregame one, but there wouldn't be as
many people in the stands, you know, for that. But I think
you're gonna start seeing a lot more of that, and I think it's gonna
be a I think it would be a really it's interesting time for the hobby
and what kind of marketing and things like that are going to go into it
over the next you know, five to ten years. Oh absolutely, And
we're gonna touch on a lot of Series one and a lot of marketing and
stuff behind that a little later on in the show. It's gonna be very
interesting to see. And those comments from Ruben, I was I was excited
when I heard that. I thought it was cool. And I know this
isn't something we talked about before the show, but you know, having a
targeted push and a hard push of marketing towards the hobby, it's going to
be interesting to see how it does and how it reflects on boxes and everything
else. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. But back to the All Star
game for a little bit, and we'll go on and move on to the
entertainment of the wand so and Sunday we'll just call it a glorified exhibition I
pick up game at whatever y MCA you wanted to go to Saturday night.
On the other hand, my god, if the Hobby wasn't on fire,
and if people weren't on fire with Matt mclung and his G League entrance into
the NBA Dunk Contest and of course winning at all. Now, technically,
I do want to point out that he is on a two way contract.
Yes, he did get calm, yeah, and he did technically get called
up. Now the question remains as to I mean, after winning the Slam
Dunk Contest and he just got traded. Um, so he's with the seventy
sixers. Now I find it. I would find it very hard to think
that the seventy sixers were not going to ride that and at least have him
up for the next couple of games. You have to, There's no way,
I'm sorry, you absolutely have to because A it's the Sixers. They
got roster spots. Okay, yet the roster spots. They're a great team,
an amazing basketball team. They got roster spots. And I don't know
how you don't, even if it strictly from a PR prospective, and just
ride the momentum of the name. Um. Now, granted, there's a
lot of people for those of you that don't know, go look up this
kid's high school highlights. There's a reason that they called him up. They
knew what he could do. This kid has been jumping out of a gym
since he was a junior in high school. That's what got him to where
he is was his dunking ability. It was never his court vision, it
was never his three point percentage. It was the dude can hope. And
so that's what got him to the G League. That's what got him there.
But I mean, just like with Lynsanity, a little different because insanity
was going on in the games and he was putting up points. Yeah,
you do have to ride I think that momentum, especially when you've got this
guy on one hundred thousand dollars minimum, low end two way contract. Yeah.
And I think, and I want to say, he's the shortest guy
to win the Slam Dunk Contests since Spud Webb. He is, which is,
you know, which is unique considering his jumping ability. But I would
say Philly's got to have him up at least for first home game back after
the All Star Break, if only just to honor the win in the Slam
Dunk Contest. And that would be not you don't you don't even have to
make him a starter. You don't have what I mean, but I mean
it would be cool if they did. You start them, you let him
play a couple of minutes, and you pull them out and then you know,
send the normal guy back in. But they gotta do something because this
is one of those things. And if you like, I'm watching his card
prices, oh that is absolutely insane. Yes, and some draft picks being
his only stuff you could get. Yeah, and prison draft it literally sitting
on the shelves in stores not selling. I do an it's like literally just
sitting there. It's clearance retail. Yeah, well not not anymore. Because
I decided my son had the day office school yesterday, I decided to take
a run over to Walmart with him. And there was not a single box,
no blasters, no nothing, no hanger pack, nothing of Prism Draft
basketball there anymore. And everybody is out looking for his stuff. And it's
absolutely insane. What like even before the slam dunk contests started. Yeah,
his stuff went from I think you know, he had autos that were selling
for like forty bucks or something like that. I mean, which is which
is still high for a guy who for a Prism draft base like autographs.
That's a high price. Yeah, especially since it's uh, you know a
guy that like can't do anything other than dunk, right, and you've got
him selling like forty bucks. But they jumped. They were going for like
the bass autos were going for like three hundred bucks by the time the slam
Dunk Contest got over. And I mean some of the some of the color
and numbered autos and even just the non autos, the colored prisms and stuff
like that were just going for ridiculous amounts of money. Yeah. Um,
actually he's got a Hoop's auto. Yeah, that was that was a big
one. He's got he's in hoops. Um, so he's got he's got
autos in there. And those those were selling like one fifty or something like
that before the slam Dunk Contest was going on, and they were up to
like five hundred bucks or six hundred bucks something ridiculous like that by the time
it got done. But do you think he's remembered now as like in ten
years, as we look through and we go back through the Dunk contest,
I can kind of see where they're coming from. If you're i mean,
if you're buying it to resell it at a higher price, you're nuts,
because they aren't ever gonna be higher than they are now. But I could
see them kind of hanging and staying there a little bit because of the amount
of collectors that are basketball fans that follow these cult players. You've seen cult
players in the past maintain some value, and he does have that. He
does have that run since high school of being this iconic dunker obviously as small
white dudes, so that helps as well. Yeah, let's be honest.
I honestly think so here's here's my thing. I think they they're they're going
to crash compared to where they are now. They're absolutely gonna crash, But
I think they're gonna come down. You know, they'll still be there's still
are going to be collectors that are going to be going after his stuff.
The real question is going to be how many cards is he actually going to
have? Well, yeah, because you did see if you look at Jeff
Hoffer's account, he did sit down with Panini this weekend. Yeah, and
you know what that means. So the question is long term, how many
cards is he actually going to have? And if the answer is, well,
he's not really gonna have anymore after this, Although I find it hard
for Panini not to include him in certain sets going forward. And if he's
if he's not planned to be in Prism already, um, I guarantee you
he's going to have a Prism update card that comes out in chronicles. They
had him, They had pictures of him in a booth that had nothing but
the word Prism all over it. So I'm assuming, in some way,
shape or form, you've got to have him in prison. Yeah. I
think they're probably going to put him in National Treasures. They're you know,
they might do something and you know, in Flawless, who knows, just
a you know, a short print run or something like that. But aside
from that, I don't think he's going to have much over the years because
I don't see this guy having a really long career. No. Now,
I think he is actually a better fit to show up in Goodwin or Alan
and Ginter. Yeah, you know, one of those types of products where
it's like, Okay, now we can really celebrate his dunking ability because I
guarantee you that, aside from this win in the Slam Dunk Contest this year,
he is not going to be celebrated at all for his playing ability,
right, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
no. Yeah. This is this is a guy who maybe has a year
or two in the league at the most, and I think you see him
on minimum contracts as a novelty and then he's going to become halftime entertainment for
some team. You know, he's gonna come out and do crazy dunks at
halftime. I'm just you know, to get the fans going and provide some
entertainment and that is it. Yeah, that's all you're gonna see, unless
unless he winds up with the Harlem Globe trotters. Yeah, that that could
happen as well. And that's one thing I wanted to ask you. What
do you think about and what does it say about All Star Weekend that in
order to get all of this hype going now, Granted, I do think
if you didn't have him in it, if you watch Trey Murphy who who
I actually texted you before you with you and you said, yeah, you
said he's gonna be on fire, He's gonna win the Slam Duncan. Yeah.
I thought he would, and had Matt mcclong not been in there,
easily would happen. The dude did some insane stuff, but what does it
say when you've got to call up someone who it seems like almost signed a
two way contracts so he was an NBA player so he could be in the
dunk contest from the G League. Really, I mean, I look at
it in a couple of different ways. In one way, I don't think
he belonged because he's not. I mean, look, let's be honest,
he's a G League player and franyway, I think the only reason he's got
a G League contract is because he can. I don't think he belonged there
in one hand. But on the other hand, if I'm looking at it
from the NBA's point of view, I think the marketing behind it, Oh
yeah, was absolutely on point, and it was a genius move from a
marketing standpoint for the NBA to have him there. Now, the real question,
and this is this is where I'm kind of going off, just way
off base, here, is how many other guys out there that are not
NBA players that there's a there's a bunch of them out there that are just
absolutely monsters when it comes to dunking. Yeah, how many of these guys
are going to get looked at by teams now and be like, well,
let's sign this guy to a two A contract and you know, we'll throw
him in. And my that's my fear is because you wind up having a
slam dunk contest that is just all non NBA players. What they really should
do is you have the NBA players in one slam dunk contest, and then
you have the an amateur division. Yeah, like a futures game. Just
make it a future slam dunk exactly. And then but then you take the
winner of the amateur tournament, who gets their own trophy and gets to be
the champion Leapship, and put them up one on one against the winner of
the NBA contest to determine, you know, just as an exhibition, like
the NBA guy already won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the amateur guy already
won the amateur contest. Let's see who's better. And that's kind The only
problem is is I think that would dissuade even more professionals and even more all
stars from doing the dunk contest, because god forbid they win the NBA and
then lose do a g because you're already seeing the best dunkers in the league.
I'm sorry, they're sitting these out. They're not doing it. The
guys that control the probably some of the craziest shit we've ever seen in our
life, aren't going to touch the dunk contest floor. No, and the
real but the reason they're doing that is not because they're scared of losing.
It's because they don't want to get hurt. Yeah, and and that,
I mean, that's that's the one thing where you know, okay, yeah,
the three point contest, you got a slight chance of injury or whatever,
you know, you get worn out or whatever. But the dunk contest,
Yeah, when you're dunking over two people and doing all this, yeah,
I mean you plus dunking in general, you run the risk, you
know, if you're not doing it right, you run the risk of you
know, hurting your hand, hurting your risk, your arm, that kind
of stuff, and potentially your feet depending on how you land. So it's
a little bit it's a little bit different than some of the other contests.
So I kind of understand why, you know, some of these guys don't
want to do it, And I get the same reason. The guys don't
want to play defense and the freaking all there's a reason that you saw Michael
Jordan only do a couple of slam dunk contests and then be be done.
Yeah, and you know there's a reason you don't see Lebron doing slam dug.
Well, I mean, Lebron's not really a flashy dunker anyway. He
can be, he couldn't be, but he but he's not. You know,
he's really not. He's just to drive the lane and shove the ball
in the hoop, right, you know, same thing like Shaquille O'Neill,
the same concept. Yeah, just it's more viciousness less yeah, beauty so
to speak. It's it's more power less finesse. Yeah, and it's just
Yeah, that's the reason you don't see those guys doing it is because they
just they just don't want to get hurt. But that's you know, some
some to think about. Yeah, No, absolutely, there's there's a lot
I think they need to think about in terms of All Star Weekend, especially
in terms of at least when I look at it from a hobby perspective as
to how to make the like, I don't know if something has got to
change with all this, and I don't have the answer right now, And
we don't need to fix it right now, but the NBA needs to do
No, dude, we need to fix this right now. We need to
provide the answer. I need to get David Silver on the phone and sit
them down at you know it, like take them to a chair and be
like, look, you're gonna listen to us, because this is what the
league needs. You know, two short, two short white guys. You
know, are you gonna tell you exactly what the NBA is gonna bet?
Hey, well, a short white they're just dominated the dunk contests. Who
knows? All right, that's a good point. Maybe maybe we'll bring the
clug with us and you know, there you go. We'll let him do
the talking and you and I'll just hold David Silver in the chair while he
looks dacadasi lyad be done. But something definitely does need to change, because,
like I said, my biggest thing is looking at this again from a
card standpoint and from a long term collectibility standpoint. The All Star Game,
I mean, let I always look back at Vince Carter. Vince Carter was
an amazing basketball player, great All Star. The Dunk Contest took him to
new heights that he has lived on since then the dunk contest when he did
his arm into the goal, yep, the first time that was done.
That elevated his stature so much that, yes, he went on to have
I mean, Vince Carter amazing basketball player, Hall of Famer, hands down,
but in the collectibility world, in the outside of your die hard basketball
purists, that elevated him to a new level. Yeah. I don't see
the NBA doing that now, and that's gonna hurt these feature players, these
Trey Murphy's, these guys like this in their card market long term. I
think because the All Star Game used to have that push you forward type of
feel, it did elevate people to some extent. Now you are seeing Jalen
Brown's cards go up, You're seeing Jason Tatum rides, You're seeing Lillard rides
for winning in three Tatum though, Tatum, those are all guys value to
begin with. Yeah, but Tatum was up before the All Star Game when
he went on that run of you know, fifty point games, and he
had he was he's playing really well and you could see he's dialed in,
so that, you know, the All Star Game I don't think had anything
really to do with and that's kind of my point, is right, they
need to change that. Something needs to change to where this is, this
stuff is viewed as more of a they're taking the week off, we'll see
him Thursday. Whoever wins, it's whatever. I'd like some sort of I
know, I would like it to have some sort of prestige back into it.
And you know what, maybe that's one of those things, because I
know, I know the league has problems with you know, the whole load
management crap. Maybe it's one of those things where you know, they say,
all right, well, if we don't feel that you're at least trying,
yeah, to you know, to play a real game, then you
know, we're gonna we'll do something you know, two or whatever. And
then next thing, you know, you're gonna wind up having a bunch of
guys like twisting ankles that week, you know, in the last game before
the All Star game, and you know, having to get substitutes. Yeah.
So I'm not entirely sure what the fix is for that, other than
getting rid of the game altogether. You name, name your all stars,
yeah, and and then instead of that, you know what, maybe that's
maybe that is where you bring in the Hall of Fame game is you have
the all stars that are like, you have to show up, Yeah,
you have to. You know, we're gonna honor you for being an All
Star. But then hey, here's here's Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic
Johnson, Kareem, and you talk. They're gonna come out and play a
game and talk about some cool relics for your high end products. When you
where you see those All Star Game jerseys, the game used patches and stuff
in If you had a Hall of Famers game, you would have game used
All Star Game type of stuff from those legends to put in other products.
So it trickles down to the hobby and gives what would be an insanely cool
chase set. I guarantee you if they had a Hall of Famer type of
game and that would be had, it would be something that you would see
in National Treasures or Flawless Only. Yes, But then you run across.
Then you run across a problem because you know you wouldn't have the Michael Jordan
cards right because he is as exclusive. You could have relics you just couldn't
have. They couldn't be signed, and you can't put his picture on it,
right, In fact, I don't even think you put his I don't
know if you can. Yeah, I guess you can put his name on
it, because leaf Leaf does some relics every now and again where it's his
name, but it doesn't have his picture or anything like that. But I
mean, you'd still have all the other guys that still you know, could
potentially you could pull it John Cena. You just can't see him. Yeah.
So, but though that would be cool, and I could totally see
that being a you know, an NT or flawless insert or um. You
know, you can do cards for it for you know, as an insert
set for Prism or something like that. Yeah, but it'll be interesting to
see where they go from here. But All Star Game this weekend quite interesting,
made a new Superstar overnight quote unquote, at least from a dunking standpoint,
I don't buy that whatsoever, But I am interested to see where McClung
goes from here. One thing I thought was cool that was that his career
earnings were one hundred thousand dollars and he got one hundred grant from winning the
dunk contest. Needless to say, that man's bills can be paid unlike hours
which need to be paid. That's true. So we'll be right back,
all right, and we are back. The wallet is full for the moment,
and uh, we got some stuff we probably could have talked about last
week. But let's talk about Series one. Well, I think I think
we have to phenomenon right now. Well, it's a phenomenon overall. I
mean, Series one is one of it's one of those products that you know,
everybody is all hyped about because you've got the rookies that didn't make it
an update. Yeah, that are that are Series one that are always and
usually you know, it really depends on how strong the rookie class is that's
in the product, and this year happens to be unusually strong. Yes,
very You have a new design, which I absolutely love. I agree you
have I'll touch on in a minute. And yeah, we'll get to that
in a second. You have new inserts, you have new short prints,
yes, which is really dry. I think it's really driving things, you
know quite a bit. And I think part of that is not so much
the fact that the short prints are there. I think it part of it
is because Blowout put this two hundred fifty thousand dollars bounty on the first person
to bring them a complete set of all three hundred and thirty short prints,
and I think this is actually the first time the TOPS has done short prints
of all three that's the new Golden Golden Mirror image variations, and it's leading
people to do some crazy, crazy things. Oh yeah, like buying up
three hundred cases of Jumbo. Yeah, the guy over it uncommon and real
breaks doing some insanity chasing that set. It's been amazing watching that go down.
And if you think about it, though, from a monetary standpoint,
if they can pull it off, it's actually genius because they're probably they've probably
spent like two hundred twenty five, two hundred and thirty grands just on the
cases, and you're you know that if you can once you finish the set,
you know, I don't think anybody's gonna beat them to it, No,
unless there's somebody who is doing it behind the scenes, not publicly,
and you know, stuff like that. But I think they're gonna wind up
getting it so that that's gonna bring him the two hundred and fifty grand back
ards, so you're immediately profitable on that. But then you've got all the
cards that you've pulled all the autos, all of the you know, the
relics, the short prints, the numbered stuff you're gonna over the weekend,
they sold a couple of hundred I think it was a couple of hundred cards.
It might have been a little over a thousand, but they sold I
think it was like maybe twelve hundred cards for around thirty eight k that weren't
in their set. Uh. It's been really cool watching them document it um
and do everything. While they're doing it, a lot of people complaining and
crying because well, it's the Internet for no reason. I actually think this
stuff is amazingly cool to watch him chase after it. But the blow out
bounty is interesting because they've got the the two fifty that you've said for series
one ye, but then they've got the bigger bounty. Well, hold on,
let's let's get to that. Let's get to that in a second though,
because it's two. They've had a two hundred fifty thousand dollars bounty for
Series one the short prints, They've got a two hundred fifty thousand dollars bounty
for Series two short print set, and another two hundred fifty thousand dollars bounty
for the update short print set three hundred and thirty cards you know of each
one. Yeah. Then on top of that, they've got what you were
just about to bring up, which is a million dollars bounty if you get
Series one two and update all graded a PSA ten. Now that is nine
nins. Want to point out that is nine hundred and ninety cards. Yeah,
now here's here's what I would love to see. I would love to
see this, all right, I'm ready. I would love to see an
update tops only do twenty nine right short prints and not tell anybody that they
didn't do one. That that's it. That that's what I want to see.
Honestly, with the way they've been printing and stamping serial numbers lately,
they could accidentally do it. We have no well, but I think if
they accidentally do it, they would have to come out and say, hey,
we accidentally didn't do this or whatever. So but I think I think
it would be a I think it would be absolutely hilarious to see them do
it and like potentionally and just like literally not tell anybody, don't publish an
update on it, and maybe like a year from now, be like you
know, once a year after the products out, just finally admit it and
be like, yeah, no, we we just didn't do you know,
we didn't do a short print on the rookie day abut for Gunner Henderson.
Yeah, um, you know something something stupid like that, or we didn't
do uh you know what. Another it would be like some random guy exactly,
or you know, Louis Arayas or something like that that you know like,
oh, I know, we didn't do it for him. I think
that would be hilarious. Yeah, you know, and I think Pete because
people would continue to open the product and keep opening until or or you only
make one of them, right, you know, don't, yeah, don't,
don't. It's not even like a crazy short print. It's like,
hey, we're just gonna make one of this with Maryfield short print and see
what happens when somebody starts chasing it and you know, now, all of
a sudden, the guy that pulls it, it's gonna become like a what
should be like a thirty dollar card is probably gonna be like, you know,
twenty grand or something ridiculous like that. But they got to do stuff
like that just to kind of throw people off, especially when you're you know,
guys are chasing that PSA ten bounty. Yeah, so with those bounties,
how much in flu in I mean blowout to put out bounties before we
all all remember, I think the first one that was a big deal was
the Zion logo man um, when that was announced, I think that was
really when the whole bounty thing started to kick off. Blowout, you know,
a stranger you're doing other ones. How much been influence you think TOPS
had on this? I don't know. I was here now Here's because here's
here's my thing with this. TOPS doesn't necessarily have an incentive right to contribute
to the bounty amount or anything like that because the products already sold. Tops
has gotten their money oh already, you know. They're the stuff that they
sell direct, the stuff that they sell through distributors and things like that,
that's all sold. Tops isn't getting any additional money from stuff that gets bought
right now from series one. So I'm not entirely sure how much influence they
have in I do know that they you know, and this was interesting to
see this again. They partnered with SGC again for nine dollars grading for series
one cards. Yeah, and look, we all know that the flagship products
have a ridiculous print run. We all know that the rookie class in series
one is so good that you're going to see a flood of base uh you
know, and stuff like that come in on that. But aside from that,
I don't know, I don't I don't think they had any influence in
this. I think this is fish basically saying, hey, I want to
have a set of this because it's you know, I know I can,
I know it's gonna increase in value over the next year or so, and
and hey, I want I want all nine cards for this because I know
I'll be able to flip it for like two million dollars, you know,
a couple of years from now. Um. That's that's where I think is
really driving this. Um. But also I'm curious, and we're never going
to know this because they're a private company, is because of the bounty,
how much in additional sales is Blowout doing, yes, you know, from
you know, through their own just you know, distribution channels, through their
own their own website and things like that. How much of the product is
actually coming from them? Because I did notice that Jumbo prices started off in
about one hundred fifty bucks a box when the product got released, and within
a week, you know, they're sitting at like two twenty five to fifty.
But I don't know how much of that has to do with the bounty
versus how much has to do with that. You know, people are realizing
that the jumbos are loaded. Yeah, the jumbos do seem to be crazy
loaded this year. And I'll tell you I've done for twenty twenty three tops.
I have ripped one jumbo box and that is it. And after going
through the box, I thought I got killed. I'm absolutely destroyed. You
know, the auto I pulled out of it was a the eighty eight retro
auto base of Corbon Carrol And like, okay, you know liquor, and
it's fine, Look, I'm not a I'm not up on Corbon Carrol old
that much. But like sold for one hundred seventy five bucks. Yeah,
I'm like, okay, so maybe maybe I'm not as screwed as I thought
I was. Um, But but it's one of those things. It's like,
you know, the other stuff they're you know a lot of the gold
foil parallels that are in there selling for you know, twenty five thirty bucks
for some of the rookies. And it's been a solid product compared to what
you're getting out of Hobby. If you notice, the Hobby box prices have
not jumped right like the Jumbo has. And I haven't seen a lot of
stuff coming out of blasters or hangers shelves yet across the country. Blasters have.
I don't know about hangers, but you know, don't forget if you
if you believe everything you hear in all these Facebook groups and things like that.
You know, remember hangers or bangers. Man, But I had look
all all the monster stuff seems to be coming out of Jumbo. No,
it does. Um, I've seen some huge hits from it. I do
want to touch on one thing you'd said, how you love to design.
I'd like this year is designed too. I like the way they did the
parallels except for one, and it's the one parallel that used to be my
favorite and has now become my least favorite, and that's the Independence Day parallel.
Those parallels used to be the coolest looking cards that Tops put out every
year when they did the flag design behind them, back when they didn't have
a full border. As soon as they went back to a full border design,
they went just to regular old red stars. And I loved them up
through twenty nineteen. Right, yeah, no, I'm sorry, scratch that.
Scratch that. I think twenty twenty was actually good too. It was
twenty twenty one, right, which is where they just they gave up.
They gave up, They dumped the shark and those used to hold. Like
if you look at the sales from the previous years, like twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, if you look at the sales of those compared to maybe the
black out of fifty, they would sell for more than the lower numbered stuff
the Independence Day parallels because of their look, well black blacks. I thought
black was out. No, black was out of like sixty seven or sixty
Yeah, well you know what I mean. Yeah, the Mother's Day pink
and the Father's Day blew those are both out of fifty. Yeah, okay,
so those, you'd see the Independence go for more. And I just
think with Baseball America's you know, pasttime, YadA, YadA, Well,
it's the only it's the only one of the big four major sports that's actually
playing during Independence Day, right, So you, that's my point. I
would like them to celebrate that a little more. And I hate how they
have phoned in what was at one time out of pick any set. I
don't care what it is. One of my favorite parallels every year was to
see how they were going to do the Independence Day design, and within a
couple of years they destroyed it. Um, that's my one critique on it.
I was hoping this year they get back to something different, but no,
we got red stars on a white boarder and that no. What they
what they really need to do is pull the Independence Day parallel out of the
normal set and do it as an insert where not only do you have the
Independence Day design on the card, but all of the Major League teams usually
do some tweaks to their uniforms, sometimes the hat, sometimes full uniform things
like that. Make it an insert set where each card is numbered to seventy
six, and have it not only with the Independence Day design, but also
have it with the Independence Day uniforms like from that weekend that they wear.
That would be I think that would be the better way to do it.
Yeah, just to kind of give it an added added bonus. No,
I agree. I think that's something that I hope that they tweak can change
in the future. It just seems as soon as they went back to full
border completely, they gave up. Yeah, yeah, that sounds that sounds
out right, but it has you know, Series one, you know that
is it's always right after the Super Bowl or right around the Super Bowl.
It's also right it signals the start of baseball season for most baseball collectors.
You know, Series one is pretty massive, but we talked about it earlier.
In addition to the bounties, you're seeing Time Square advertising, you're seeing
massive trade night toasted by whether it be Bleaker or somebody else that are sponsored
by tops, that are having special celebrity guests come in and all this type
of stuff. I mean that the marketing push for this has been amazing,
and it's surprisingly Series one is normally okay, it's out, there's a couple
of breaks, and then all right, we know it's gonna be on the
shelves. Let's move on to something else outside of the diehards. This year
feels like Series one could have a little more staying power. Well. I
think part of that is, you know, most products are driven by the
rookie class, right and this product reminds me a lot of twenty eighteen update,
uh, twenty nineteen Series two. Um, you know where you have
you just have an absolutely solid run of like five or six really good rookies,
and I honestly I think twenty twenty Series one started off that way too,
you know, with Baschette and Nico Horner and um trying to remember who
else was in there. Yourn Alvarez you know, was in there too,
and it's like those have kind of fallen off, so it's you know,
I don't know, I just kind of that when I'm not sort of I'm
not going to include that in this, but it was kind of like that
at the beginning. But this one, I think, you know what,
the the autos that they have in there, um, at least the ones
that are not serial number two hundred out of one ninety nine, you know,
in addition to the solid relic, solid veteran and you know, retired
player autos that they have in there, I think it's a you know,
in addition to the parallels and the you know, Bass rookies and now the
Noal the short prints across the entire set, I think it's gonna be one
of those products that has long term staying power, the Golden the Golden Mirror
short prints. I think it's going to be interesting to look at back on
this in a couple of years and see how that helps this product, because
it's it's certainly commanded an astounding amount of hype right out of the gate.
I want to see, yeah, you know how it's how it's looked at
in a couple of years. I'm excited for that. Well, my favorite
thing that they've done with it, with those the Golden Mirror short prints is
the fact that you don't have to sit there and look at those tiny little
codes of the Head of Mind glass. You know, not only is the
tops logo gold on the front, but you also have a giant SSP next
to the card number on the back. And it's like, oh, thank
god, why didn't you do this years ago? Yes, you know,
I can't tell you how much damage I've done to my eyes trying to strain
looking at codes if I'm sitting there, ripping in the car, and you
know, things like that. They really need to do that, like they
started doing with Heritage a while again, right where you know they were underneath
the card number they would put like error or action or say, hey,
doesn't number just do that make it easier for all of us to identify,
especially with so many new people and with a flagship product like Top Series one,
which is literally meant to pull new people into the hobby, an affordable
entryway into the hobby, Like, let those people know that they're getting something.
How many people bought blasters got into the hobby probably thought they pulled nothing,
and they're sitting on Julio short print, a wander short print, a
tattoo short print, all that stuff and just had no clue because well,
why would I look at the little codes on the back? Yeah, exactly.
You'd like to think that with you know, the hobby being what it
is, and you know all the different groups and chat rooms and all that
kind stuff that are out there, that you know, somebody would be able
to look it up and you know, and realize that even if they're new,
but at the right time. But the thing people tend to not realize
is that the online aspect of the hobby, while it's big, it's so
far from all of it. I mean, when I go to the like
I'm headed down to Orlando for Collecticon this weekend. We're going to take in
so many people's cards that are new to the hobby just getting back in that
that don't deal with the social media side of it. Yeah at all at
all. They're like, oh, shoot, we saw a card show.
Hey, we've been buying some stuff at Walmart the last year, or at
our local car show or ELCS for the last year. Let's drop them off
and when we So there's so many people that aren't involved in the social media
aspect that probably honestly aren't even gonna think to look at it. So,
yeah, you're making a change like that, I think is brilliant, not
only for us order guys that don't want to squint at eighty thousand different little
code, but also the new people getting into the hobby that don't know that
they're supposed to look at one four zero nine, seven four to six two
eight yep, exactly, And Doria, you don't have to focus on the
whole thing. You can just look at the last three digits or sometimes even
the last two digits. Yeah, but they're still so small that even with
perfect vision, you got to sit there and be like, you know,
are kind of bugging out after a while. Yeah, those sevens turned to
eight and nine quick Man, Oh seven sevens and ones turned you know,
it's like you know, or zeros and eights, you know, to the
lump together or sixes and eights is usually what you know, usually where I
get thrown off after like an hour. I yeah, I love. I
love the fact that they did that, and I think they really need to
keep that up with you know, with everything else as well. Yeah,
I agree, and once again, like you said, I love the SGC
partnership. Once again, I'm gonna be really interested to see how that works
out with the grading because the early returns. I did see something on Instagram.
I want to credit the right people, so I'm not going to say
exactly who it was at this time, but I did see how many more
Bowman cards have been graded by SGC than by PSA and Beckett, and the
numbers were astounding. And I'm going to be interested to see what series one,
because once again you drop it down to that low level, and that's
that's absolutely awesome. I don't know how Peter and SGC keep snagging these away
from CSG, but uh, I know they're pissed and sgc's reaping the rewards
for it. Yeah, and you know what, I have an answer to
that, I really do, and it's the same answer that I typically have
everybody else. Drugs. Yeah, no, no, no, it's really
not in this case. Um, but you'll you look, you'll be able
to keep an eye on it firsthand because I believe they're going to be a
collecticon. Yes as well, they will, which is the I think it's
the first show outside of the National that they're going to be set up at
taking in submissions, so I you'll get a you know, a good idea.
Just you know, if you're walking around and stop off, you know,
you can check it out and report back to me over the weekend and
be like, yeah, this is what they're doing, and this is you
know, the lines were ridiculous or they weren't existent, you know what I
mean. I might be ripping someone dropping them off. I don't know right
now, I pull something nice, it's definitely going toc Yeah, but um,
I think that that pretty much covers everything with with series one. I
am curious to see if the guys that uncommon are going to be doing the
same thing with series two. Yeah, um, you know, trying to
snag that bounty and you know, I think we'll have to wait for the
checklist to pop out to see whether or not it's going to be you know,
a better be in series two. Damn it, opening day roster,
damn it. Come on, put him in tops. Yeah, that's up
the as I say that, that's up the tops. And whether may if
he needs to carry series too, I'm fine with that too. No,
but I mean, think about it. How many guys were on the opening
day roster last year and didn't show up to update? Yeah, that's true,
might be update, Might have to wait for that. Yeah, but
yeah, great, great rookie class. Like you said, amazing design.
But what I love more is it's always been embraced by the baseball side of
the hobby, as you know, the kickoff to this year's baseball season,
you know, the kickoff tis well. I think part of that. Part
of that is traditionally it comes out right at the same time the pitchers and
catchers report to right. So. But but collecting wise, it's always kind
of thought of as the you know, it's the first product of twenty twenty
three, it's the kickoff of that twenty twenty three collecting season. But I'm
seeing a lot of people that aren't die hard baseball collectors, people that wouldn't
normally rip a live Series one, chasing Series one. And if you can
make the flagship product that in demand, hey, that's an awesome job and
I'm excited to see, especially with like we said, circling back to the
beginning with Rubens comments about help, the hobby has never really been marketed or
marketed correctly. If I'm gonna be interested to see how some of these products
go, some of these ones that aren't thought of as the national treasurers,
the impeccables, all this stuff, how they how they're looked at, how
they're collected. Because I will say this, the hype for Serious one has
been bigger than any hype I've seen in a long time. And if you
look at the last couple of classes we've had with the Kuna Sodo tet Teas
and I Pick a Year had so many amazing people. It's pretty awesome and
incredible to see. Yeah, I would agree, and it's it's amazing to
see how far that the hobby has come, because you know, cards started
off as as an afterthought inserted into packs of cigarettes, and then you know,
tops wasn't even a baseball card company. They were a gum company.
Your goal was not to sell baseball cards, it was to sell gum.
And you know, it brought us some of the most iconic cards in the
hobby. And I think Michael Rubin is absolutely right, is that it's really
not being It hasn't been marketed properly ever, right people ever? Yeah,
And I think they're finally starting to figure that out. Yeah. And I
mean, hey, that's that's an exciting thing to see where that can go
because there are a lot of people that you know, have have no idea
or probably just have just haven't been reintroduced to it or introduced to it yet.
And if it drabs people, that's gonna be awesome. But you've definitely
seen a very different push with everything coming out with Series one Bowman. You
also dropping with some first licensed stuff, a lot of new stuff coming out.
So it's gonna be fun to watch this new marketing campaign and see exactly,
you know, what it can do. But Series one taking the hobby
by storm. I don't know if you guys are chasing that two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars bounty, but the guys over at Real Breaks in the uncommon
app. They're gonna fight you for it that much, I can tell you.
But Scott, I think that's probably about it this week. What do
you think. I think it's a good time to wrap things up and save
whatever we had left for next week. I agree. And guys, once
again, if you are in the Orlando area this weekend, or if you
live himself Florida and want to make that short drive over to Orlando, make
sure to head on over to collect the count. It is not just TCG
this year. Sports cards and everything will be a part of it. I
like Scott said, SGC will be there along with a lot of other people
will be there taking in stuff at gem Mint as well. But guys,
that did is gonna wrap up episode one hundred and seventy seven. Let me
get that photograph once again to thank our awesome sponsors, Show Your Slabs,
Slab Strong, Vandy Slabs, Card Ladder, Treasure Hunters and Denver Card Shows,
which also if you're in the Denver area, has a show this weekend
couple of days show Jam packed around three hundred tables. I believe, very
very big show that's growing by the show. So if you're in that area
and looking for an awesome show as well, make sure to check that out.
As always, we will have a new episode to let her rip out
this week, possibly if a box gets here in time live from Collecticons Man
stage over the weekend, so be on the lookout for that as well,
and of course Hobby Hotline after Saturday and Tuesday. But Scott Man, I
know we had to take a week off becausin my crazy surgery that was going
to be fine but took a week and a half. But hey, yet
happen. Look at appts man. You never expect things to go the way
that you want them to go. With surgery and you know, medical procedures
stuff. I got that straight. Yeah that right man. Man, Well,
you guys know the deal. Keep ripping those packs, pulling those hits.
We'll be back next week. Peace m h m