It's time to talks FORO. It's time for the show. You hear this
song on the radio, It's time to tune in better rap beast, let
me cat that on Potograph Sports Talk Radio starting now. What's up everybody,
and welcome to episode two, one hundred and twenty one. Uh, let
me get that potograph. We are back and my name, of course is
Drew or the Dhent joining me my awesome co host, mister Scott. Rap
up or what up? Dude? What is going on? Drew? It
is going to be back after a couple of weeks. It is as the
people in the green room who listen on YouTube and this week on Facebook,
I've heard us say multiple times prior to the show, and if you want
to catch that action for yourself, the pre show, the break, the
post show, check us out on YouTube and Facebook, and don't forget to
hit that like and subscribe button at the bottom to make sure that you can
notific notified every time that we Yeah, do what he said for sure?
It helps. Oh please? So things been good, but no, it's
good to be back. Sorry guys. Once again, we were going for
a few weeks. A lot of that is my fault, A we normally
have our birthday show since oddly enough we have the exact same birthday. It's
really weird. But yeah, so we didn't have our birthday show, which,
by the way, Scott, happy birthday day you too as well.
Thank you. Turned the Big four. Oh fuck, But we work on
for a few weeks. Well, hold on, I turned the Big four
five, so I don't want to give that the whole Big four oh craft,
because there you go. So we skipped the birthday show this year and
I had to do a couple of things and just things didn't work out.
So we're working on it for a few weeks, guys. But we are
back today and we have a Jam Jam Jam Paw show once again. You
guys can call in and join the show. Simply click that link call in
first time ever. On let me get that potograph, but drop any questions
anything you got in the chat. We'll get to it either on the break
or at the end of the show, or if we really like it,
we'll get to it during the show, or if we really don't like it,
we'll just ignore. But you know either way, or we'll get to
it you yes, yes, or a lots of different options on that,
so just call in. It's a lot easier. But anywayst's dive into it.
We got a jam packed show, dude. So some craziness happened.
Pretty wild story really, when you think about it, it shows what a
lot of money can do for you. But ever since the Michael Jordan rookie
card came out, you know, in eighty six tops and all that stuff,
there have been no copies that were PSA ten ten's in terms of the
card and the autograph, an autographed copy of the rookie card. Now,
there's a lot of auto rookies period, but the ten tens, not one
head ever surface forever, that is until now, and that is until last
week when six of them hit the market. That's right, six Jordan PSA
ten ten ten autos hit the market. And this story is just crazy,
Scott, This is this is nuts. So some guy paid for a private
signing with Michael Jordan, which is going to be expensive enough as it is.
He brought with him, Yeah, he brought with him ten already graded
PSA ten six eighty six fleer Oh sorry six. I was looking at the
grade ten six eighty six fleer PSA tens along with somebody from PSA who came
with him cracked the cards out right there, you know, witness the signatures,
and then they went back to PSA in order to get slabbed with the
ten grade and the ten autograph. That is one of the craziest things ever,
because one, how much do you think it costs to do a private
signing with Michael Jordan? Oh God, I have no idea. I have
a feeling this person had some type of connection with Michael Jordan to begin with.
I don't think it was like any type of just regular thing, because
I mean, Jordan doesn't even need the money for a private signing or anything
like that. I think this is a person that has a little bit of
a connection and knew like, hey, Jordan's gonna be here, this is
probably a good time to get him. It's six cards, it's something really
iconic, and Jordan's gonna understand. Jordan, trust me, he knows what
his stuff is worth. He probably looks at it as like, Okay,
this is pretty awesome, because I mean, think about it, for almost
fifty years, there's been no ten tens and so now you're gonna get six
of them. I think it was more along the lines of he either has
a relationship with Jordan or knows someone that has insane access to him, which
that could be something as simple as just someone that worked on the Bobcats and
the Hornets. You know, there's a lot of ways you can have that
access. It could be, and nobody's mentioned like how risky of a move
this actually was. Well, it's a risky move as long as PSA is
not there. Well no, no, no, no, no. I
think even with PSA there, it's still a risky move because what happens if
Jordan is signing the card and something happens to the marker and all of a
sudden streaky, streaky or something. There's something along those lines where it's not
going to turn out where the autograph turns out to be a ten. You
know, I'm not concerned about Jordan like running off the card or anything like
that. I'm concerned about like, okay, uh, I'm gonna use this
marker he's gonna sign. He probably had six different markers that he would,
you know, one for each one, just to make sure it was all
fresh, and probably tested it out beforehand. But there's always that chance that
like it could come up from the surface just a little bit where it just
makes it so it's not a ten. Oh yeah, and all of a
sudden, you well, I don't want the card, but you know,
you still it is risky and that would automatically ruin it because there's a ton
of autographs that aren't a tend, you know, so you know these had
to get tens. And especially considering he was putting inscriptions on the two and
not just the autograph. Yep, there's a big chance, you know,
for that to possibly happen. He really had to have taken his time or
they really had to make sure these markers were good. And he just used
a blue sharpie, which as we look at the photos again, Scott,
I got to ask you, when you're looking at stuff like this, was
blue sharpie the way to go? No, blue sharpie was not the way
to go. You could if you're looking at it, because if you use
ballpoint pen then it's gonna mess up the surface and it's not gonna tend.
And I understand not using a paint pen because they could could leap through that.
It may not it may not have been a it may not have been
a sharpie, It could have been a different like I, I use these
Stadler markers for uh autographed signings. This is uh, you know typically what
typically what tops and Panini will use also. But the I would have gone
with a different color because again you can get you can get these in silver
or and red actually look beautiful. Silver. Red wouldn't have worked. Red
jersey, Yeah, red wouldn't worked because of the jersey. Just like blue,
it blends in with the crowd. So I would gone black. Wouldn't
Black wouldn't have worked either, because that's gonna blend in with the bund.
You gotta go with silver, maybe gold, maybe gold since the sides have
you know, that yellowish a little bit and the Fleer logo, the clear
little flag that everyone you know looks at when they're trying to tell if it's
a fake or something. You know, like maybe that, yeah, you
know, because it looks good with that, But you got to go with
a color like that. I thought blue was just terrible. I saw that.
The guy that did it said he did that because blues the favored color
of collectors, and yes it is, but that's when you can see something
when you can't see it, every collector is gonna want to see it.
But exactly, or maybe maybe you do three three and silver three and gold
two in silver two and gold two in white. You know, anything of
that life awesome. White would have looked awesome and it would have matched the
bulls them. You know, white would have been beautiful. So I do
hate the blue. But apparently he's already turned down one hundred million dollar offer
for this now to get this done, he probably played paid close to five
million when everything, when everything's all said and done, because just to get
the cards alone, he had to pay over two million dollars, like to
acquire six PSA ten Jordan's. I thought, they've got they've come down.
They've come down quite a bit since the pandemic when they were when they were
running like of thousand. Well, regardless of that, getting Jordan alone is
going to cost well over right dollars. So if you had those two together,
plus all the flights, hiring PSA to come down there, all the
re slabbing costs, all that type of stuff, everything all sudden done.
Way over to me, I'd say close to like five million, maybe ten
million to get this done. But you know it, if you're turning down
one hundred million and you're paying that kind of money to begin with. You
don't need it, you know, I mean, but I'd still I'd still
take I'd still take the offer. I would take it too. My cash
out number is way lower than one hundred million dollars. Uh, in this
hobby. If if I got a third of that, Bye, guys,
you won't see me again. Well you might, but not for a long
time. That you'll know, and you may keep it quiet, but there
will be subtle hints. Yeah, oh yeah, there'll be total hints.
But I mean, maybe this is just a flex he wants who knows,
or maybe that one hundred million dollars offers not exactly the one hundred million dollars
that they say it is. You know, it's not like it's confirmed or
anything. It's not like it was a there's not like a screenshot of a
declined eBay offer. You know, it's just kind of what we have.
But let's be honest. Even if there was a screenshot of a declined eBay
offer, people can make those up all the time anyway, So it's not
you know, oh yeah, I got one hundred million dollars off. Turn
it down and it turns out it's like it's your buddy that made you the
offer, and you know it's all for publicity. So but look, it's
I'm not saying. I'm not saying it's not worth a hundred million dollars,
right, No, I'm saying that I would have taken could be. Yeah,
I would have taken from the entire Dude, They're the only six in
the entire world, like I mean ship all right, So the last one
June twenty ninth one sold for two hundred and seven thousand, four hundred dollars,
So six of them, you're looking at over a million dollars for the
Michael Jordan rookies. Yeah, so he's paying way over two million dollars to
get that done. Oh absolutely. Hey, Hey, to let's say even
if it's five five into and let's say the hundred is not real, but
seventy five is five into seventy five, it's seventy million dollars come up on
doing this? Oh yeah, asolutely brilliant in mine. I'd be doing that
in the heartbeat. And the reality is he probably flew Southwest for fifty nine
dollars and brought the PSA guy on a companion pass for free, and no
I'm actually probably flew private jet and you know, yeah actually spirit right,
yeah, flu spirit you get it done, all right. So if you
haven't seen it, check it out. It's pretty interesting story. But Scott,
let's move on now to a couple million dollars that were but that was
stolen. Two million dollars might not have been what uh this guy paid to
get to Jordan's but someone in Dallas, dude, they had a bad weekend.
Yeah. When I saw this post, dude, this was the craziest
thing and the funny. So the weird thing about it was about a couple
of days before the theft happens, the same guy posted in a in a
couple of the groups, Yes that he had, you know, like anybody
who wanted, you know, fifty two Mickey mantles for then you know,
inventory of the national he's got them and he's looking to sell them. And
then the next thing, you know, like those get uh, those get
stolen, and you know, along with a whole bunch of other cards that
I think they were valued to like two million dollars. Right at two million
dollars. There's been people trying to you know, challenge that and everything.
But even if you look at like insanely low comps, and some of them
really don't have any recent comps. I mean, you're looking at one point
seven to two million dollars easily, if not more. And so what I
don't get is so the the pictures they showed of the guy walking off with
the case, I mean some of them are a little bit greeny. Some
of the close up ones of his shows face. You can definitely see who
it is. It looked like the case was one of the relatively smaller ones,
but maybe that was just me and then the quick you know, the
quick notice it didn't look like it could fit all of that stuff in there.
I'm not saying he didn't. You know, the case could have been
larger than I you know that I'm remembering, but like I'm thinking about that,
like holy like that that case seems smaller than what, uh, you
know, what would fit all of those slabs, right, But again,
from a distance, it could just look smaller, and then you know they're
probably all in there. Look ah, she is a good guy. You
know, he's got a great reputation within the hobby, So I have no
reason to doubt him. You know, if those were all in there no
reason. And these guys, uh, the pictures I was just showing were
the clothes they were wearing before they switched out fit. They specifically moved and
got all of his people that were surrounding him together. That looked to me
like exactly what you have a high end like all your high end stuff in
I guarantee you the high end stuff was in there. Everything else was in
something else, because you know, a lot of people carry the same thing.
My biggest thing with all of this is and I don't want to make
it sound like I'm saying it's like his fault that happened. This should never
happen at a card show. And I don't care if you have cameras.
There needs to be better security for this. And as someone that worked shows
like literally every other weekend, I'm about to do fourteen days on the road
and do three shows including the National, and I've already done fifteen to twenty
this year alone, there's a major problem with people getting in that aren't vendors.
Like there's a lot of people that can easily get into a card show,
whether it's bad swapping, whether whatever it is. Some of them just
walked straight through and just get in there and they can walk around all week
and long. These guys, it was proven through camera angles they were scouting
this dude's table all weekend, which tells me at the beginning of the show
the footage we probably haven't seen. They walked the floor, they saw what
people were putting out, they saw this boost, and they were like,
all right, we're gonna figure something out. They probably want. Yeah,
they probably walked in during setup when the show wasn't open, but the back
door is usually open. You know, people do that in Chicago all the
time. They used to People used to come to the show and like they
would know that Beckett was taking submissions for rock rading and stuff like that,
like the Thursday for setup, and they wanted to get their cards in line,
so they got them back on Friday, so they would come in and
you know, drop their stuff off on Thursday. They just walking through the
back door. There's nothing. Now, those people are all legit it.
They were there for legitimate reasons, even though they were vendors. But these
guys clearly knew what they were doing. Oh no, no, no,
they knew what they were doing. This was a big set up. The
one dumb thing. They switched their clothes, they did everything else, but
they forgot that they had tattoos. I think the tattoos is gonna make it
very easy when they do get caught. As far as the car is being
insured, I do not think so. They may have been. And a
lot of people were saying this was an inside job type of deal. No,
guys, an inside job. You do not go to a card show
to fucking do it you like they're so, if you want to do this
with insurance, there's so much better ways to do this for insurance fraud.
This is people stage stage, a breaking stage of breaking at your house.
Yes, we're talking about that kind of money. Yeah, you do not
take it to one of the biggest shows in the country for insurance fraud.
So that just makes no sense. And that's just people's you know, conspiracy
theory, brain jumping out like we do nowadays. We got to try and
blame the person that's fucked over. Plus I know the person right here and
they have a lot of integrity and it's not someone I think is one day
going to go bad or anything like that. No, this is a stand
up person that doesn't need to do this like this did. Not ruin his
life in any way, shape or form, but it's a massive blow to
his life. So yeah, you know, I hope they do get it
back. I think they will, like I said, because of the tattoos.
But here's my biggest thing. If you've got that type of cards,
and this goes for all of you out there, even if you have cards
that are worth hundreds of dollars, whatever's big to you, your big cards,
go on Amazon dot com. Buy a freaking air tag. Hide it
underneath the padding of your case. If an air tag had been in here,
all they'd have to do is click on it, show the police.
They're arrested in no time. Here's the funny thing. Heck to yourself.
So at the National I can't remember if it was last I think it was
last year. My buddy Vin was walking around with the case and he had
his air tag on a little keychain attached to the handle. I'm like,
yead, what are you doing? Like, so I take I take the
AirTag, take the take the you know, the little leather keyring, off
it, off the handle, dude. I took the airteg out and slide
it in between the padd and he's like Oh shit, Yeah, Like that's
that's what you need to do. That's that's it. I mean you have
to if you're taking that type of stuff around these days. Look, I'm
telling you this isn't the last time this is going to happen. More people
are going to have ship stolen from them. It will happen, I promise
you, because more criminals know what's going on in this industry. As you
can see, the cards in here are just absurd. The good thing is
a lot of these do have noticeable flaws being vined, even though they're not
numbered. And a lot of these things like the crease on this the thirty
two to five mantle right over here on the right, you know, that's
you can't really replicate that or get rid of it. So I think some
of this stuff, you know, if they don't find the guy soon,
I think you're gonna be able to find out some of the stuff that's going
on in terms of these But I hope it happens. But for Fox's sake,
using AirTag guys like, you've got to protect yourself. You can't walk
around with two million dollars. Even though I know ninety percent of the vendors
at the Dallas Card Show in particular, know each other because a lot of
times it's the same vendors with maybe ten new ones really at that show,
which was a complaint I heard this weekend. I think they need to work
heavily on getting new vendors in instead of grandfathering in everyone, because a lot
of people are tired of saying the same people and no one knew. But
I know you think you're friends with all of them and everything, that doesn't
mean you're friends with all the people they're getting in. And that's the problem
with these shows is they're really not that strict on who can get in,
like we said, And if you're not going to protect yourself with something as
simple, all you have to do is buy a freaking whatever thirty fifty dollars
air tag, hide it in the box, and the problem solved. I'm
just surprised. I'm just surprised that, like nobody has recognized. Mean,
these are clear pictures that they put out of these guys. Oh and they
got clear identifying marks, and you would think that somebody would have recognized them
by now, especially with a seventy thousand dollars reward on this. That's what
I'm saying there's a seventy thousand fucking dollar reward, Like, come on,
but they've got to have these people by now. I mean, it blows
my mind that they don't. Yeah, I know, tell me about it.
But you know what else blew my mind this past week? Do you
see the pictures of that PSA vent I'm sorry, let me rephrase that,
the pictures of the PSA vending machine. Yeah, put it in a Yeah,
I had to throw it an air quote. So I'm sorry because it
turns out that well, well it didn't really turn out. We all kind
of knew about this, but PSA had nothing to do with it. This
is one of the now I will say I give them points for creativity.
I think it's you know, I mean, I think would be really cool
to be able to walk up to a vending machine and you know, say,
hey, I'll get a slab card. Yeah I'm not paying. I'm
not paying seventy five dollars for the slabbed sports card or frankly fifty dollars for
the slabbed Pokemon card. That there were the two options, especially when you
know the majority of the cards are probably like a bunch of PSA ten Wander
Franco Rookies. No, they're worse than that. I saw a James Harden
optic insert PSA ten an insert just bas not hollow, not nothing, just
like a fast line James Harden base PSA ten come out of these things,
it's boy had it now. I do want to say one thing U the
PSA logo and everything that you see here that has been removed ever since PSA
came out with their statement, which their statement that they came out with is
a little a little ridiculous. It basically says that the person that owns and
operates this machine is a authorized dealer that is using their submissions for this machine,
so they're not taking insubmissions from other people and grading for other people and
things like that. They got authorized dealer status simply to grade a whole bunch
of stuff and put them in these vending machines. And it's so popular right
now in Vegas. It's actually sold out now. I don't know if it's
so. I don't yes, I don't know if it's sold out because maybe
they're choosing to stop for a lot. More information comes out, which I
want to talk about in just a second, or if it truly is sold
out, but they did moved the PSA logo and everything since PSA came down
and found this, which I'm surprised PSA let it go one day because the
box all it had was PSA on it, and it looked like one of
the high end PSA boxes that they send out to customers. Like they ripped
the box off completely. There's no way PSA didn't see this until because I,
I mean, with with my work with Jim Mint, i work closely
with PSA, and I know a lot of people in PSA, and I
know how active they are on social media and the groups everything. They're just
quiet and under different names, but they're in there, and I can tell
you right now, I know they saw this vending machine a long time before
they addressed it. They waited until Rattle Pokemon and all those other people started
making videos about it, questioning who's behind it, Is PSA behind it and
all that because and PSA essentially let them rip this vending machine completely off and
throw it right down there in Vegas, right near them, a couple hours
from them. And I'm really curious about one thing, Scott, Okay,
all of this stuff if we tried to do this. If we put up
a vending machine Jim Mitt, and we branded it just like this photo right
here that we're showing online. Once again, guys, we do have open
phone lines tonight, call in if you would like. But if we put
something up like that and all we had was that right there on there,
just a PSA logo, nothing with Jimmett and all that, we would get
a phone call within one to two days saying get that shit down right away
with our logo. Yep. And I want to know why these people didn't
get that call. And I have a feeling when a lot of people that
are doing this digging blowout rattle and all those guys, when we finally find
out who's behind it, I think there's a reason why. That's what scares
me. Yeah, because they don't authorized dealer status to a lot of people.
No, No, they don't give people to do it when they know
all they're doing is feeding a vending machine. No, you got to pull.
It would have to be but you're saying it would have to be somebody
who's relatively close to Vegas because you've got to be able to constantly restock this
thing or well not necessarily it could be someone that lives on the East coast
and just hires someone to stock it. Oh yeah, I guess that's true
too. But it doesn't surprise me that it's sold out even at those even
to those prices, and even with the craft that's coming out of that machine
too, doesn't because it's especially with the attention on it. Well, it's
not even the attention. It's Vegas. People are there to gamble, That's
what it is. This is a gamble. Ripping up, ripping a box
of wax is a gamble. And see a video where one but somebody pulls
one of the cards they keep showing as a chase card on the on the
actual vending machine, because so far we have not seen anyone post a video
of oh my god, I hit some amazing card. All Westein is a
whole bunch of shit as one good card, I'll say, Okay, well,
I'll tell you exactly what it is. You probably need to buy out
the entire machine because it's probably the last box schedule to pop out. Probably
is because frankly that's what I would do. Yeah, And how many people
also, to be fair, how many people buying are also just in Vegas
see it, the kid might like cards, they buy it for their kid,
he walks away, who knows. You know, there is the possibility
of that being in Vegas. But I just find it very very suspect that
because I know if our company did it, and we work closer to it
with PSA than almost any other company in the country, and I know if
we did that, within within three to four days of that thing being up,
we'd have a call to tell him to take it down, change everything
about it, put our logo on it, have PSA not on it whatsoever,
maybe on the box on the inside or something, but it would all
be branded as gem meant not PSA. And so I it blew my mind
that they let this go for so long, and they let it go until
people complained, which is the ship that just a noys me. Well,
you know, because they stopped it. They complained because they stocked it with
crap like a James Pardon insert exactly exactly. They literally stopped it, like
if I went through a bunch of cards that like, I guarantee you I'll
find something right here that they'd stock it in with. Yeah, freaking there,
Trey Lance. Yeah, the prism pocket Rodriguez, that's what they would
stock it with or check out. I got I got this Pat Wait wait,
I got this Pat Mahomes Rookie that they'd probably stock it with me Alonzo
Morning Prism, Red white and blue. There Pat Homes Rookie. Yes see.
But that's that's the type of ship that I'm talking about, lou Bob
Bowman paper insert PSA ten right, just non and Meryld Barnes Diamond Kings PSA.
You go to there you go. Yeah, so just ridiculous. And
I hope I cannot wait to find out the names of the people that are
actually behind this, because they I just know. But we'll find out soon.
But one thing for sure that you aren't lining in their pockets with money,
I know. And you know what, we need to lign our pockets
with money too. So we'll be back after this break, all right,
we are back. Thanks for putting up with all of that crap. If
you are on Spotify, iHeartMedia or iTunes, if you were on YouTube and
Facebook this week, you didn't have to put up with it. Yeah that's
it. You got all the fun stuff. Yeah, you heard the banter,
the witty banter. You heard my comment about vending machines, and now
we are here speaking of here, so we got some weird stuff coming from
TOPS, and I say weird. I say weird because it's very unlike them
to do this. So Tops. TOPS has actually been really good with redemptions
over the last you know, decade or so, I would say, much
better than Panini has been with redemptions, with the exception of the whole with
Will, with the exception of the whole Wander Wander Franco redemption fiasco, and
yeah, credit and some random replacements and stuff for people, but typically they're
pretty good. Well, they have decided to do something that Panine's been doing
for a while and come out with their variation of the white box for redemption
cards that have not been fulfilled in was it one hundred days or more?
Thought it was one hundred and twenty, but either way, it's one hundred
days or more and are valued at one hundred or more. So if you
have one hundred, if you have ninety nine, it doesn't count. Now
the value does come between and a discussion between you and TOPS, you come
to an agreement. If you have one ninety nine you still get one box.
If you have two hundred dollars, you get two boxes, and so
that's how they're doing it. They have to. But see, you can
have two redemptions worth fifty, you can combine them to be one hundred,
So you can combine redemptions to get to that one hundred dollars threshold, and
then you get one of these boxes mutually agreed between the two. And that's
well not That's the part that throws me because with in the past when Tops
has had to do replacements, they haven't exactly been on the up and up
when it comes to value on what the original redemption you know, is currently
at from a market standpoint. So I'm hoping that you know, this is
going to change things a little bit, but I'm curious to see what's going
to happen with some of these cards that end up coming coming out of these
You know, I I completely agree with you. And just to let you
guys know, you know how Panini has the white box one oh one type
of thing that they put on all of theirs. Tops has a new thing
where it's as Tops. It's like an employee stamp. Let me pull it
up. I have a schemes. I just don't I just can't get a
picture of It's a load for us everyone that's watching live. But it's number
double zero out of double zero and has a special top stamp on it.
So they do have something for this as like a white box stamp. You
know. Well, but according according according to this program, though it said
that it was they were using you know, unfulfilled redemptions. Uh, well,
and that's stunt, and so I don't if they're going to put a
separate stamp on that. Well, they might not, they might not.
We'll have to see when everything does roll out. I just know that someone
recently just got a redemption back and in their redemption they got multiple cards that
were numbered zero zero out of zero zero with a special stamp. So we
might be getting this top exchange program right here in an and also getting these
cards on the market that are number zero zero out of zero zero in replace
of redemption. So who knows that there could be two separate things. We
haven't seen one of these, you know, the programs not out yet.
It says here on the form that each collector's allowed one appointment slot, so
you have to it looks like you have to book an appointment, discuss everything
with the representative. They're coming to an agree in on your redemptions and then
they'll send you the boxes out. I'm very similar to this. I don't
think they're gonna send the boxes out. I think they're going to have them
on site at the name. That's what I was gonna say. I yeah,
Well, it doesn't say how long this program is going to be.
It looks like this is going to be for a while, but it could
be at the national But I think they're going to send them out as well.
Maybe the ones they send out are going to be the zero zero at
of zero zeros and I don't know, but the but if you're scheduling,
if you have to schedule an appointment, that typically indicates because they're talking about,
you know, being at the TOPS booth, if you have to schedule
way, it's actually, yeah, it's actually an appointment at the TOPS booth.
So it's very similar to what Panini does, you know, where you
can schedule an appointment with them and swap out redemption. So they're doing this,
so it's going to be interesting to see what they do with redemptions ordered
in one hundred days past this or this might just be their way of jumping
in and saying, hey, let's get as many of these outstanding redemptions gone
as we can at the national by doing something similar to what NIMI does,
and then maybe this goes away after that. It's possible. But then here's
what I still want to know though, hold on, I still want to
know why this guy got three cards in the mail for redemption that had zero
zero at a zero zero, which is essentially a white box one a line
in the mail for his redemptions. Well maybe, well maybe if there's hold
on, maybe, if there's somebody from TOPS who's watching the show right now,
you can jump on that call in line and you know, give us
an answer, because that would be really cool. But my biggest here's my
thing, because if this is going to be an ongoing promotion, keep in
mind the TOPS has recently extended their redemption period on these cards from expiring after
a couple of years to expiring in ten. So eventually, if they keep
doing this, they're gonna run out of inventory if they're using old redemptions that
were never redeemed, because they're gonna have to wait ten years to find out
whether or not something actually got redeemed or not. That's very true. Yeah,
so that's the first piece. Yes. The second piece is, of
course, during the week of the National as has been customary since at least
twenty nineteen, we have the upcoming release of twenty twenty four Tops chrome based
Oh yeah, big big release every year, huge product. I usually love
the product. I'm actually really excited to see this year's card design in chrome.
Oh I can't wait to see this year's card design in chrome because that's
what it was designed for. Yep, exactly. But here's the cool part,
and this is this is the best part. They threw in random refractor
autos on card of Sandy Kofax. So kind of like how kind of like
how Bowman did the like the historic Bowman firsts you know whatever, the Bowman
first it never were or whatever they call them. They decided. I don't
know why they chose Sandy Kofax. I'm happy about it. Don't get me
wrong. I love Sandy Kofax. If he was around the hard signed cards,
I mean that's probably true, but Sandy, Yes, Sandy Kofax.
You can get a super Tops chrome super fractor in the twenty twenty four card
design of Sandy Kofax. I think I think it's I think it's huge.
I will say this though, with the price that they have on these boxes
this year, and the way that they and the way that they increased the
veteran autos to the point where you're not even guaranteed rookie autos in this anymore,
I'll tell you right now, And they're better either be more than Sandy
kofacts or in terms of the legends that they're just not gonna tell us,
they're better be a much better veteran checklist yep. Or there better be some
crazy hidden gems that they're not going to tell us about, which I do
think we'll have hidden gems again. And I think we'll have a couple of
unannounced things that pop up, because it seems like Tops is really going that
way with big releases, like with the fuck Face with Holiday and all that
type of stuff. I think we'll find some unique different things. But you
can't just have kofax to make up for how you have deluded this product in
terms of the autographs the last couple of years. Well, they have to
make the boxes so high. If the box prices are going to be so
high, you have to get the auto checklist lower and back down. Or
you've got to beef it up with the vets to where VET autograph polls are
good pulls too, or go back to guaranteeing the damn rookie autos. And
here's an idea, just don't print so much of one product. And that's
the bit. That's the reason they had to that's the reason they had to
start doing the veteran autos is because they had to start paying printing so much
product. You know, they only get so many auto product all year,
just one product tops all year. Just don't print this one like crazy and
bring it back to what it used to be. And then then guess what's
gonna happen. People are gonna want it more than ever. It's gonna be
your most in demand product ever. And then those ridiculous prices you're charging for
it, people are gonna say, Okay, yeah, I get it.
It's not difficult, and it's frustrating to me. But it's only frustrating me
because I fucking love this product. I know, I know. And that's
the and the thing is, like, hey, look we got Ellie de
la Cruz in there as a rookie auto that's gonna be a huge one.
I mean, it's a bunch of other rookies. Unfortunately, we don't we
are not gonna have all schemes, and that would I mean, that would
just drive the product insane. But he'll be next, He'll you know,
he'll have a rookie card in next years tops Chrome and that's that's gonna be
just bonkers as long as he continues on. But I'm excited for it.
Look, it's top Chrome. It's a huge release. And I'm sad that
I'm probably not going to be in Cleveland for this release. Yeah, that
does suck. That does I don't. I'm still I'm still trying to work
things out, trying to get out there for like a day, but I
don't know if it's gonna happen, and I probably won't know until like the
week of. But that's uh, that's something to look forward to for the
National week is top Chrome release. It is, and there's a lot of
that good. There's a lot of things to look forward to for the National.
Uh So we segue here now to one of my last topics of the
day. But the National is coming up next week. Pretty the National is
gonna start kicking off in Cleveland. I'm gonna be down there all week at
the gem Mint Booth and walking around. Hopefully we're gonna have a mainstage slot.
If not, we have a correspondent type of thing that we're working on,
and I will be on for Hobby Hotline's main stage slot as well as
possibly something with Hobby News Daily, So I'll be announcing all that stuff.
But uh, for those of you go into your first national, I wanted
myself in Scott to give us a couple of tips for you guys and those
of you going to the national maybe for your second and third time. Some
of you need to hear these tips anyway. So Scott, I'm gonna put
you on the spot first. What's your number one tip for the national?
Number one tip? I know where deodorant? Thank you? Yes, please
mind your personal hygiene at the hotel before you come to the show. Yeah,
that's it. Yeah. And with that, well, no, my
first one goes right with that, Put in your book bag some max body
spray because you might need to, you know, refresh in the middle of
the day. So yeah, it does. It's going to get hot in
the i X Center, especially if you're gonna be there on time of days
when they don't have air conditioning. I remember twenty was absolutely brutal, which
is last time we had it in Cleveland. Dude, bring a backpack,
yeah, bringing the suitcase on wheel yeah, now skip that one, yeah,
because that is a pain in the ass rolling and we're trying to roll
it around on the carpet and frankly, you've got nowhere to open it.
If you are walking things around to try to sell them to the dealers,
you are, it's going to be crowded. The aisles are going to be
relatively small. You are not going to have a place to go open a
fucking suitcase and pull out boxes of cards to have the also are going to
piss a lot of other people off there just walking because you're going to take
up a lot of space in a very crowded area. So just wear a
backpack and carry it in your hand. It's not difficult. And if you
can't do it, then you're bringing too much. Don't bring it all on
one day, it's a whole freaking week, or I mean, really,
if it's all high end shit, you might as well just hire someone to
carry it around for you. You have one back heck're somebody to carry the
second backpack? Simple easy, you know, it's kind of kind of good
to good to do that. One of my big keys is that take a
look at the floor book, the floor plan when they counts it, find
the boost that you want to go to, circle them, hit them first,
because you want to have a game plan of walking the floor and making
sure you get to the tables that you want to get to and go to
them. Do not wait until the third or fourth day to go to them.
Go to those tables first, make a plan of your favorite ones,
and if you see cards at those tables that you want, get the damn
card. Because this is not like another card show that's four hundred tables where
you can walk around all day and then go back and get the same card
at the end of the day. If there's a card there that you're really
interested in, and get it now because someone else is going to get it
if you don't. Yeah, and if you're still thinking about it, bring
a notebook and a pen. Yes, or or or I've got a feeling
that they did this at last year's National. I've got a feeling that our
friends at Luddox are going to have the interactive show floor map again, Yes,
keep that on your phone. I'm sure they're going to post it on
the website. I'm sure it'll be on the National's website. But if you're
if you are going to walk around and not buy anything yet, make sure
you bring a notebook and a pen with you because that way you can write
down what booth number it was, the name of the name of the guy
or the dealer, and where it was on the show floor, so that
way you know that. Hey, okay, well this box of cards that
you know, this nineteen eighty nine sport Flicks box that nobody else get out.
Okay, this is the table that it's at, and this is what
I find it. This is how I get back to it. Yep,
because it's pain in the ass. Absolutely no, I completely agree. But
yeah, guys, So National coming up in Cleveland. I hope to see
a lot of you guys there. I think it's gonna be a great time.
Hopefully Scott's able to make it out there. If not, though,
you'll be able to see me at least, so you know that's that's all
right. Yeah, So if you do see me, make sure to stop
and say what's up. But I know, Scott, one thing that's gonna
be hot and going like hotcakes at the national is soccer and wrap everything up.
I know there's something that you'd like to talk about in soccer that I
was ready to talk about, and I'm glad you are. Holy crap,
dude, shit bro, this is like craziest ship in the world that is
going on right now, something that you see maybe once in a generation.
And we are of course talking about lam and Jamal kid is sick. Well,
he's actually seventeen. Today's birthday, so happy birthday. Today's birthday,
Happy birthday, seventeen years old. Scored his first goal in the Euro twenty
twenty four tournaments last week. Young player to ever do it. He has.
He played fifty games this past season in all competitions for Barcelona as a
sixteen year old kid. Sixteen, Yeah, like this is and how those
wasn't like he saw he held his own. Yes, he has been playing
so fucking well and people are starting to notice. He is currently in UH
twenty three twenty four Donna soccer. In both he has the paper base as
well as an optic variety that's in there as well. He is in select
La Liga this year, which has been an absolutely phenomenal product. His dude,
his base his bass rookies are selling for like twenty five bucks, which
is like unheard of for soccer. Probably, I am really I hate Barsa,
I really do. I mean, I'm not a Lalliga fan typically either,
but I am really excited to to see this kid progress, you know,
throughout the years. And I think I think in those base cards too,
those bass cards at that price, they're gonna hold. Yeah, those
are going to hold. Those are not gonna drop. This kid. Yeah,
this kid is majorly, majorly talented and he's done nothing but show you
that he's the real deal. Like, this is a guy that could that
could have much more hype than Jude Bellingham hat and we remember Jude Bellingham hype
like it was absurd. I know, now this is this is different.
He's also by the way, he's also going to be in Top Scrum you
way, which comes out the week of the National as well. Yes,
that's super dude, that's super fractor Auto that he's got in there is not
one of the craziest cards that you will you will see for soccer for a
We'll call it right now, his super fractor auto from Chrome is going to
be one of the top five all time soccer sales. I am. I
am fully anticipating somebody dropping six figures on that card. That's what I'm saying.
I think it's going to be one of his I think it's going to
be one of the top five, if not top seven or eight, but
if not top five, highest selling soccer cards of all time because of the
hype he's generating and the pure talent he has to play with these grown ass
men that are playing in the World Cup and playing for their national teams and
that have all this experience the way he's playing them at sixteen, Yeah,
I mean, come on, bro right, the only thing interning I gotta
say, the only thing I got to say about it is why the hell
couldn't he be American? I know, right, That's it. Like,
this is the guy that I would love to have, you know, I'd
love to have on a team, and he's he could potentially spend the next
twenty years. Yeah, at twenty five years. I mean, if he's
got a if he's got a Ronaldo type career, he can stay next twenty
five years with one team and just completely walk over everybody else. And he's
only getting better, you know, as he gets I mean, this is
just absolutely insane. What he's been doing as a sixteen year old, Imagine
what he'll be doing as a twenty five year old that I know. All
right, man, what do you think I think it's probably a good time
to wrap up today's show. I think it is. I think it's a
great time to wrap it up. But Saturday night, it's nine o'clock Central
time. It's time to go have a drink. All right, That's what
I forgot. Damn it, I knew I forgot something tonight. What the
iceball? The ice ball, Scott, dude, you shouldn't have even told
me. Now I'm mad at you, man. This was a you know
what, you know what I got? Ideas, Scott Man. If I
can't, if I can't make it to the name, we'll have to do
a live stream where you'll be on the show floor. I'll be sitting here
with a nice glass of Scotch with a giant ice. You better because if
not, that's a fireable offense. And it is a fireable offense. That
is correct. It is written into my contract and I must produce the ice
Ball at least once a year, and we have not done it yet.
Yes so, and I've not seen it. That is gonna do it for
episode twenty one. Ice Ball will be here soon and better. But before
we go, I do want to think are awesome sponsors we have Zion.
We've got a card Ladder, show your slabs, stand up displays, Denver
Card Show, Slabstrong end Game Time Sports cards of course over at Zion CA
get everything from the Magpro to all their new cases. They have a couple
of new ones out now that are absolutely sick, as well as some new
colors used to code the dhe DH for ten percent off every single thing in
the store. We've got an awesome a lot of cool things coming up to
you guys soon. We got some neat stuff at the National. Sponsors giving
us some really neat stuff to hook you guys up with, so stay tuned
for that. We, like I said, a lot of new stuff with
Hobby News Daily and Hobby Hotline of course, Hobby Hotline every Saturday eleven am
Eastern Time. But yeah, tons of amazing stuff coming up. Cannot wait
to see so many of you at the National and God dang, is it
good to be back. We have missed you guys so much, but Scott,
great show, Ma man. Yep, absolutely looking forward. Maybe we'll
pop in one more quickly before the national in a couple of weeks, So
make sure you bring your microphone with you wherever you go. Oh, I'm
gonna have it with me, you know that. So guys until next week,
you know the deal. Keep putting those packs, pulling those hits.
We'll talk to you then. Chris