What is up everybody? Good morning, Welcome to episode two hundred and ninety
five. God, that's a lot of episodes creeping up to three hundred of
Hobby Hotlines. Good be back. My name, of course, Drew or
the DH joined today by Victor the Rookie card Man himself and Erica from Love
What You Collect? How y'all doing today? Doing? Good? Good morning,
everybody? Good morning chat? Yes, good morning everyone? Yes,
what's up? Mad City Brew Abel and Vegas Hodges. Thanks everyone for tuning
in so so, like I said, this is episode two and ninety five
of Hobby Hotline. We're live over on bench Clear Media, and of course
we'll drop the link in the chat. We would love for you guys to
call in join the show. This is, of course your show. You
control everything if you want to, and feel free to call in. I'm
gonna post the link right now. But if there's any topics, anything that
you guys would like to discuss, please feel free to leave it in the
chat or call in. You can do video or audio. But guys,
let's I guess dive right into it. Kind of a slow hobby news week.
You know, nothing massive, nothing shocking or controversial, really to talk
about. But one really big thing that did happen, obviously, at least
that always pushes the hobby forward. Major League Baseball is back. Opening Day,
opening a has happened. We're here. Baseball season is back. So
I don't know how big fans of baseball you guys are, but you excited
that this spalls back. I am personally it to me. I don't know
if it's been the sixty degree temperatures that we've had here in the Chicago land
region in the month of February, but just leading to opening Day, to
me, it's like a holiday. I like singing that one Christmas song.
It's the most wonderful time. That's kind of like my vibe that I have.
That's how excited I get for the baseball season. But here, my
beloved Chicago Cubbies are number one starter ace right Justin Steele pitching opening day lights
out. I mean he's just whipping that thing through a swinging bunt situation down
the first baseline and he throws out his hamstring and I'm like, you got
to be kidding me. So that's kind of a bummer right out of the
gate. I hope he's doing well. I haven't gotten an update on him
yet, but I hope he's doing good. The other thing that I want
wanted to share was, uh, I was watching Quick Pitch this morning and
they were talking about Jackson Cheerio and they and they kind of like brought him
up, and you know, this was his first major league at bat,
first major league game, and here we go. They did all the hype
and all the highlights on Jackson Cheerio. But I'm looking for that major league
debut patch. Yep. I couldn't find it. Really, I could not
find it. Wow. And I even rewounded a little bit to kind and
it was hard to see because he had like a patch on each arm,
like a real big patch. Now they're becoming soccer jerseys, right, yeah,
everywhere on these things now, So he might have had it. I
just missed it, and I was looking for it, And I do know.
I noticed the same thing last year where he had some key rookies with
their first major league debut, and I couldn't find the patch on those guys
either. So I don't know if this is only for a certain amount of
players, or is it every single major league player that makes their debut.
I don't know. Maybe the check can help us. Maybe you guys know
a little something about about it that I don't. Well, Eric, I
don't know if you have anything on that, but I'm just very interested to
find out that answer as well. You know, if everyone well, I
think I'm really surprised on Cheerio because he's not somebody that's you know, he's
obviously popular in the hobby. I've sold a lot of his stuff. He
moves easily, he sells quick. You know, people at shows asking about
him. So he's kind of a key rookie. So I'm surprised that you
can't see that on him. But it could be you might have to go
back all the way at the first inning because you know, Sue's Yanks Chick
put up a post showing the Wyatt Langford that he had his pro debut.
Could you could see it right right clear as day, that he had his
on I don't know if they take that jersey right away or not. I
mean, if you talk to people like Greg Mannitt's and stuff from back in
the day, they they would say in key games that they would go through
four or five jerseys, and so there are some of these games where they
know it's important and they want to maximize how many game used jerseys they can
get, and so Maddox has a great story about how he had five jerseys
for one of his games that are game used. So it's possible that he
wore it, maybe not even up to the plate, and then they took
it off. I don't know how they do it or not. Yeah,
but that is interesting. But yeah, I think Jackson Cheerio would have it.
I don't think you were for every call up, but I mean I
could be wrong. I did not. I didn't look at the update check.
I would want to take advantage of every call up because you don't know
what these guys. They might pop and become something big down the road.
Especially with baseball, it usually takes these guys a minute to get settled in,
so I don't know, maybe that's a missed opportunity if they're not doing
every call it. Yeah, I also think they should do I always.
I don't know. It's only like a one of one, and I get
the one of one, but I think they should have an MLB debut patch
card for every inning that they played in that game, and that way we
can give the player one right because they probably want one, but then you
know we'll have more than just one. You know that once you do something
you just said really interesting. I wonder how many of these players, as
you see more and more athletes getting involved in the hobby in terms of actually
collecting, like truly being collectors, how many of those guys are going to
go back and try and buy those cards of themselves. I know, if
it's me and I'm a collector and I'm playing, I would want that card.
I would want that patch for my jersey. I mean, at least
I would if I'm a collector, especially and someone that you know wants some
of my stuff, that would be like a holy grail of my collection,
even if I'm a pro athlete. And instead of glue the patch on the
jersey, they can put like a piece of velcro or something, and then
maybe inning one, you can they can put it somewhere, and then the
following inning, you know, second inning, third inning, so on and
so forth. And if he gets pulled out and five after five innings,
will hey, then that there's only five? But just giving the hobby a
little bit more chance at owning something as cool as that Mad City Brewer has
a question here and Eric, I'd love to get your answer on this as
well. But as he says, you have to think the player has the
original patch and collectors are getting a copy. So he's saying that they might
not even get the actual patch on the jersey, and that could, like
I said, if they're using multiple jerseys like they've done in the past.
The Mets famously did this to crank out game, used jerseys for multiple different
picture You can read these stories from back in the day. There's YouTube videos
on them all over the internet. If they're still going through multiple things which
major League Baseball authenticate everything now, like everything if you go to a game
and sit up close. I've sat right next to the guy. Almost every
single piece of equipment that a player touches is brought over to the guy.
He writes down what it is and he puts a sticker on it right away,
like they see it. They catalog everything as game is now, so
I could kind of see them doing multiple jerseys. But what do you think.
Do you think they're getting the original patch or are they pulling a fast
woman on everybody? Because I mean, who knows, how are we to
tell? I really don't know, But that's an interesting theory. I wouldn't
be surprised. Yeah, you know, I don't think there is a lot
of transparency though where these patches or items are actually coming from, or you
know, and and and how and what fashion they were Warren. I think
they do misi lead people saying that they were game worn, you know,
even though they person could have worn it in the bathroom for five seconds and
not actually on the field, but on game day they did, you know.
So it's just a lot of lack of transparency in it, and they
just you know, just trying to capitalize as much as possible while being boozling
the consumers. That's just my personal opinion. Card manufacturers wouldn't mislead us like
that. Yeah no, they've never They've never done that before. It would
blow my mind. Yeah, but no, I mean it's it's something you
know, to think about because these cards command a lot of money. I
still think it's in the absolute wrong product. I would like to see this
since since we are going to get you get your opening day guys, but
this is a set that moves throughout the year, you know, like more
debut patches are gonna come every time someone gets caught up this year, they're
gonna have a patch. I would like to see them do this kind of
like Panini does with a set that I super collect they're Super Bowl Signatures,
where they put these cards in all different products. You never know the product
that's going to be in and you never know what players are going to be
in that product. That way, you can move it across all brands,
as opposed to keeping one product and trying to jack up the price of a
product that otherwise is going to go pretty cheap normally and putting that in there
just for that reason. I would like to see it moved along kind of
spread out among products. Since it is a you know, it's a card
that changes the checklist is going to grow as the year goes on. I
would like to see him do it in that way. And I love how
Pannini has done their Super Bowl Signatures set, and I've collected it ever since
it came out. And I love when I find out because you never know.
I love when I see, oh crap, there's a new one in
certified. Whoever, it may be awesome, I'm gonna go get that.
I would love to see that. I think it would be awesome. I
think it would create a lot of hype for tops around all their products as
opposed to one at least for these cards. Yeah, you know, that's
these cards and just an idea because I don't like having them all in one
set because they move along. You know, Get these cards out, get
them done. They're easy to do, right them out, but put them
in other stuff, you know, spread it out a little bit, like
they got They got me excited last year about it, but then it's like
it came out in what Chrome update, Yes, which came out like in
July August something like that, and it's like, man, I forgot all
about it. Oh you know, I don't know, but I like your
idea of spreading it out throughout the year in different products. It's it's it's
worthy of that kind of treatment that I mean, that's what I think.
I mean that I would like to see that personally, I think it's I
think these I think it's a great idea I would like to see. I
mean something they never show, but I would like to see a lot of
is a lot more of making this stuff, like Panini put out a great
video like a decade ago of them actually making the cards, like putting the
cards together, showing the printing facility, showing you know, the backstage method
of getting that card produced. Show that stuff so people actually know. You
know, you want to be more transparent. You want all these cool new
videos of you visiting a shop, which we'll get to later, whatever it
may be. For your socials, I mean, show some of this stuff,
you know, show hey, we're taking these debut patches, we're making
this card right now. Then this athlete will sign it. Okay, So
Mad City brew at ten thirteen seems like he found it. Okay on the
Churia, where is that the right shoulder under the m for the Milwaukee?
Okay, they're tiny, they are not big like the other patches on the
jersey. When Sue put out that tweet, Sue's put out about what would
the Wyatt Langford go for? And I'd love y'all's opinion on that, because
I think it's a good question. Because he's a really unique case of his
first Bowman's out just came out, and he just made his major league debut.
It doesn't happen much anymore, and so you know, he's got all
the Bowman people behind him, all the Bowman hype. But now he's also
going to positive. I mean, I think they'll probably save maybe save as
rookie for next year. Who knows, maybe he'll drive update, But you
know, her putting that out, it's a good question. What do you
guys think the Wyatt Langford is going to go for? Because he's he's an
interesting case in baseball because, like you said, Victor, it's normally five
years something like that. You know, you've got the bowman hype, you
got all that, you'll let that die down, and then you get the
rookie hype kind of getting that all at once with him. So what do
you guys think you know that type of card is going to go for,
and what do you guys think that demand's going to be. Man, I'm
just so to me, I don't know. I don't know much about that
young man, but I do know that the hype is real. And you
know, if it gets if if it gets pulled sooner rather than later,
I think, uh, you know, we don't know if if that card
isn't pulled until late season and he's struggling this season, you know, but
if if that card were to show up today, I think it would it
would it would the price would be astronomical, So I don't know, it's
hard. Yeah, what about you, Eric? The way do you think
it? What do you think this kind of card would go for? Right
now? I honestly do not know. I'm not really much into baseball,
and I really don't know as much about the player. So I hit the
battle out on this one. Non understandable and not many Like I said,
not many people know much about him period. A lot of people spending a
whole lot of money on his cards, right how can you know anything about
it? Like his first moment just came out, So what is it?
What's striving to hype his age or what? I guess I'm not I've never
been someone that's a big prospect. I always like to watch someone prove themselves
in basketball, I always go after guys that I think are gonna, you
know, peeking or start to make their ascent year two or three, not
their rookie year. I don't really go after the guys that are, you
know, hyped up as much. But I'm not a huge prospector so I
don't know what the wyatt what the wyat line for hype is all about.
But I know if you're getting your first bowman out and you're pretty much jet
siding right past all the whole minor system. I mean, he had nothing.
I mean, now he's here, so I mean, I guess we
just kind of have to see. We're gonna watch him grow up on the
major league level, you know, always the chance he does get dropped back
down, you know, which they may do, even though service time and
things like that are a little different now with the rules and incentivized not to
do that, so he may stay up the whole time. Who knows.
But I'd love to hear from the chat what's actually driving hype up wyat Langford,
because you know, I haven't said I haven't seen much yet. And
we've got a question from Philly Joe for Victor, would you consider his first
Tops now card? Is it his rookie card? Are we talking about?
Who? Who we're talking about? I believe, I believe we're still talking
about why at Langford, being that he had just had a bowman and now
he's got the Tops Now, Well, what Tops put on it? They
put up a call up on it or did they put up a rookie card
logo on it? I don't know. Yeah, I haven't seen the card.
I'm gon try pulling it up here real quick. Logan hypeb and Flippers,
Mike Petty morons are driving the hype and is on his opinion, So
I love I will agree with that, but I will say the people there's
Bowman collectors, man, it doesn't matter who it is. It doesn't matter
what it is people. I mean, I know so many collectors that just
collect boat. They're just prospecting guys, and that's their stuff. I don't
know why, but I don't know what's driving the massive hype on him compared
to a lot of other really really good rookies that we have this year.
I think this is going to be a fun year for baseball in terms of
call ups and the minor league system, which that's what I'm more excited about
because Hickory crawd at baseball is almost back, so get to see my Crawdads
and go to all those games. So looking forward to that. But I
love Mookie Chilsea, he says, Erica, I'm a Mets fan. I'm
not into baseball either. Well that's good. I wouldn't doubt the Mets players
having multiple GAMINGUS patches either, because, like I said, the Mets are
the ones that are famously known for trying to manufacture as much Gamus stuff as
possible, going back to the nineties as well. But as Word says,
Langford does lead all Cactus League batters with six homers and all all Major leaguers
with nineteen RBI and at one point two to eight ops. All right,
so he's legit out the gate. I'll say that. I mean, that's
strong. If you're gonna if you're gonna lead all major leaguers nineteen RBI's bounce
note, We'll see, it'll be fun to watch. But I guess,
I mean, I guess he's starting off strong. Morning reds everybody at the
shop. I hope everyone's doing well today. My petty ill prospectors never die.
I just smell that way. Oh yes, I agree, Cactus League
is not the regular league. But uh right, well, we'll see.
We'll see how he does. But yeah, I think it's gonna be I
think it's gonna be a fun baseball season. It's gonna be an interesting one
in the hobby. I think a lot of players are kind of at that
point where it's put up or shut up. You know, you only have
so many years before. People are gonna get up on you. And we've
got a lot of new people coming in, which is going to take a
lot of attention away from a lot of people, a lot of interesting stuff.
What's going to happen with the Tony market, What's going to happen with
the Trout market? Is Trout actually into play baseball for the first time in
like a decade. I mean, it's a lot of questions, but baseball
is back. I love it. Yes, absolutely, all right, guys,
So once again, I'm gonna put the link in the chat. If
there's any questions, comments, or anything that you guys would like to come
on the show and talk about, we would love to discuss it with you.
Just click that link, audio or video either way on your computer or
phone. Just feel free to come on in. But yes, I agree,
Collector Dream, it is going to be one fun season. But Victor,
there was something that you brought up in our chat that I figured would
be a pretty cool topic to discuss this week, and it kind of stems
from a video that came from Michael Rubin visiting everyone's favorite shop, Cards HQ.
But there were some interesting takeaways from that video. I'll kind of let
you lead off with this, Yeah, I found it. I found it
pretty interesting. It was kind of an episode on the Jeff Wilson Show that's
a separate channel that he has, but he was basically going over the visit
that Michael Rubin gave, the visit that he did to the store, and
I found it pretty interesting. I ended up trying to pull some context clues
from that and trying to get my take as I reflected on that video.
Now, I wish I would have been a fly on the wall and could
have heard the entire visit, right, But we just got little clips,
fast moving clips through the editing. Right. But I did notice first off
the gate that Michael Rubin just asking a ton of questions, like right out
of the gate, and it reminded me of when I was in management.
At my job. Upper management would come in and visit on occasion, right,
and when they visited, the first thing they would do they wouldn't even
say hello, but the first thing they would do is start firing questions off,
right, just question after question after question to see if I guess,
to see if you're on top of things, to see if you know the
numbers, and it's just It's one of them things where I never liked that
type of move. To me, it was more of like a like a
power play, like a power struggle, like a type gimmick that the management
likes to play, you know what I mean. And he just came off
like like a machine gun, just asking question after question, and I was
a little taken back by that. I never have been a fan of that
kind of of engagement, but it was it was really good in the aspect
of some things that Michael Rubin had said where he was where he was basically
saying some of the key elements of what they have already established in the hobby,
and that is the MVP buy back program, the MLB debut patch card,
and basically getting athletes involvement, having the athletes themselves be the marketing tool
for the product. And that was kind of the main things that they and
I guess I wanted to pose that question to the chat. How do we
feel about those three things, the buy back program, the debut patch and
athlete involvement athletes involved in the marketing. Is it a feather in their cap?
Personally? I think it is. I think it's something that I think
where the hobby had been maybe complacent or doing the same thing year after year,
and they actually really did bring an element of excitement through that. I'll
let you guys talk on that, Erica. Honestly, I'm really just like,
uh, I feel as though they could be doing so much more and
so much and so much in a more authentic and a more captivating way for
the current consumers and incoming consumers. So I'm just really not impressed with the
things they've done so far. Like I'm not upset, but I'm just it
doesn't move the needle for me. You know, with they have, they
have all the tools to make different things happen, but you know, they
have their own agenda, and I don't know if their agenda is what's best
for the current hobby or even future consumers as well. Okay, well,
I actually, you know, from the three things that you brought up,
Victor, I think I think those aspects of what they done have been great.
I think it's a good idea. I think the buyback program is awesome.
I would like to see them do more with it. I think there's
more they can do post buy back and pre buy back kind of make that
more interactive all year long, and I'd like to see some cool stuff done
with those cards. Tim Carroll makes something I don't know. There's a lot
of options you can do with with those cards that you get. The one
thing that I will say is the athlete engagement. I love the trade nights,
the trading card days and stuff which he didn't really mention, but the
trading card nights that they've been having at hobby shops and you know, just
randomly in the middle of nowhere, North Carolina, we have you know,
massive you know, superstars showing up at a hobby shop across the country at
random knights and things like that. I love that, and I love the
athlete engagement part. But at the same time, I do agree Eric it's
not I think it's a good start. I'll put it that way. It's
a great start, but I want to see I want to see a little
bit more. I think innovation is ridiculous. They talked so much about innovation
and everything like that. That's great in the marketing and all that stuff and
all the social media and whatever. The athlete engagement, that's awesome, But
how about on the cards. Because you just put out a Victor Wenbin Yama
freaking tops and out card that's literally a downtown, Like it's a Panini downtown.
Let's be honest, with a ridiculously stupid rookie card logo on it,
which I don't know if you like the logo Victor, but I think it's
hideous. But it's literally a downtown. There's no innovation there whatsoever. It's
a blatant rip off of the home field advantage, which is a rip off
of the downtown. But I mean, company's been doing that for a long
time. But I want to see more of this innovation in the actual cards.
Like I don't see it in the cards. I see it in other
areas, and I think that's great. I think that's the way you're going
to get more new people into the hobby. But I would I think there
needs to be an overhaul in that, in the actual thought process of the
design elements and things like that. If you're going to preach innovation, I
would like to see a lot of testing being done, especially when you have
an on demand product and line that you can do all this testing on.
You don't have to make full products and all this stuff, but test some
stuff out, test the waters a little bit more but overall, I think
it's a good start. Yeah, and we can talk about that that tops
Wemby Card in just a minute. But I had another question that I wanted
to pose when it came to this interview with Michael Rubin, so in it,
I picked up they were they they did a segment talking about old card
shops versus new card shops, and they understood the nostalgia of old card shops
and they you know, they kind of based it off of chaos and paneling
on the walls type of thing, just a real old nineteen eighties, nineties
type feel to it. And what Ruben and fanatics are wanting more is the
kind of what cards HQ has to offer, something a little bit more esthetically
pleasing to the eye type of card shop. And I guess I don't know.
I would love to hear the opinion of the chat and you guys,
but is this a fact? Is this something that the hobby actually needed?
Do you want to see card shops updated? Okay, because I know I'm
I'm fifty three years of age and I grew up through the eighties and nineties
inside of card shops literally, But I do know that when I go into
that type of card shop today. I do feel that it does lack in
customer service a bit. I do feel that it lacks in modern cards a
little bit. I do feel that it's a little outdated. And I don't
know. Sometimes I get not on all shops that I go to, with
some shops that are outdated. It just feels a little creepy in there,
and and I find my visit to be a little shorter than I expected.
And so I and I wanted to know, is that just me feeling that
way, or is that like other hobbyists feeling that way? First, that's
a good question. You know, this tug between you know, updating the
older card shops making them more current. I understand why why there's a tug,
and there's a one for it, but I believe there's a place for
everyone. I think what it comes down to is more or less tracking to
see what numbers are from all card shops type of thing, you know,
the actual numbers, you know, the profits and losses. I think that's
the most important piece, not the aesthetics of it, because at the end
of the day, it's one hundred it's one hundred people per hour to go
to a broke down McDonald's and a nice new McDonald's. People, you know,
so it's the same. Doesn't mattercessarily how it looks is about what kind
of service they get out of it and the product they get out of it.
And you can get great service and great product out of an older hobby
shop with leaks everywhere and carpet passes all you can, but at the same
time you can also get terrible service. Just like a comment I just read,
you know the hobby shop owner or the worker not properly educated. Yes,
but you can also get that at the old hobby shop and the new
one. So I just think that a lot of the issues are just across
the board, depending on the person or the organ the business running things.
But all in all, I do think that if you know, if Fanatics
continues in this space, they will push for pleasingly esthetic hobby shops and they
will push the older ones out. That will be their plan. Yeah,
I could see that possibly happening in terms of the aesthetic, because they do
want to. I mean, if you're someone that's new to the hobby,
I think the esthetically pleasing hobby shops are probably the ones that are going to
bring in in their eyes at least more new customers, and they probably do.
And I'll give a good example of a shop that is both new,
like brand new, state of the art, but also amazing servants Double a
Mint down in South Florida, they just opened up a new shop. I
got a chance to visit it, I know, marking them really well,
and it's a perfect example of a functioning card shop with all of the new
amenities and everything that you see in these crazy you know cards HQ type of
places, but with the same staff and a knowledgeable staff, choices of wax,
choices of singles all the way down on the wall. You know,
it's not a museum. It's stuff that you can actually purchase, and it's
very it's very collector friendly. And when I went and visited on a random
day of the way, the amount of foot traffic and there was insane.
But I am a little worried about the card shops that, you know,
are not, you know, the most aesthetically pleasing or don't I think I
think the ones that don't adapt to the social media aspect, which you have
to nowadays. The ones that don't adapt to the social media aspect. I
mean, if you're not selling online. I really don't know how you're in
business right now as a card shop, honestly, like online sales have to
be a big part of your uh inventory. I would assume at least looking
at other shops that I know to be quite successful. But I think the
ones that don't adapt at least the social media aspect and showing things and you
know, being involved, well fanatics, Yeah, they are gonna want the
hobby shops that are gonna have the content, do the content and make the
stuff for them. So I could see some of those lcs's possibly dropping off.
But I agree Victor also with what you said that you know a lot
of the dingy rundown shops and things like that, a lot of times they
are it feels like they're just there, you know, they're not really there
to help you. But if if you're not there to help, if you're
not there to educate, if you're not there to pull people in the doors,
I mean, it's you know, it's one of those things where I
think at that point, it's just a fun little project for him. It's
not something they're taking seriously, which a lot of hobby shops are just second
jobs. For people, you know. Yeah, yeah, and also too,
I always wonder, you know, fanatics, who is their main target
that they're focusing on. Is it the current hobby or is it the new
consumers they want to get? You know, so that is a whole different
conversation of which they're pivoting. If it's the new consumers, they will want,
you know, the new shop or the glitzen lamb, the lounge type
vibe and you know, the trendy. That's so it just kind of boils
down to that. In my opinion, I think they lean towards the new
consumers because if they want to one hundred x, they would have to.
So that's a great point, Erica, And I think their concern is what
happens when this new collector goes into this outdated shop? What kind of experience
are they going to have? And that's kind of the rub, right,
So it's one of them things where I guess we'll, I don't know,
hope for the best going forward. Yeah, yeah, all right, agree,
but it does I mean, it is Eric Epos a great question right
there, and it is a you know, it's a separate topic, but
who are they going after with this? Are they going after you know,
are they trying to appease the collector base that they have that is literally pumping
money into this while everything changes, or are they trying to pull in the
new people that don't have skin in the game yet, you know. I
mean, obviously their answer is going to be both, but you can't really
make those moves to appease both, or at least I haven't seen them do
it effectively yet. I would like to see him do it. But to
kind of round about to what Victor had asked at the beginning, I do
think it is a you know, it's a good start, but it is
worrisome a little bit because who knows, you know, I mean, what
are they going to do? But I do love, you know, one
of the things that he didn't mention, and I will say it again,
I love what they are doing with hobby shops. And some of these shops
are just regular run of the mill shops that they're that they're focusing on right
now, but we're seeing more and more of these destination shops, if you
will, kind of pop up. And at what point is that going to
be, you know, their sole focus and are the others going to fall
by the Wayside card Vibe here says we need both for a healthy happy in
my opinion, and I agree, I completely agree. I think both are
very very much needed for the hobby because every collector is not the same in
any way, and I all want a different experience. And some people want
that old school throwback vibe where they go in and they're looking at old school
stuff. You know that a lot of these new places don't have some do,
right, I mean some do, like Market double A, they've got
a great dollar box, vintage all back, but a lot of these other
places don't. And so you know, it's all about that experience. Like
you set point too, yep yep. On the flip side, right,
imagine an old head going into a new shop, right, yeah, not
his game where you see five people breaking boxes and yet huff. You know,
it's probably not where he wants to be. And so that's where I
think you definitely need both, you know, and I like it. But
I do like seeing shops update. I mean, we had a shop here
and in North Carolina recently they just expanded a little bit, put a nice
little They didn't do much at a small shop, but they added in a
nice little area for people to sit, trade, mess around, you know,
just more room for themselves and more room to put some product out.
Made the shop look a little nicer. I think things like that. I
mean, obviously, if you want to have a successful shop, you should
always want to make it look better in my opinion, but you know,
I think you need I think you need both of them. Really in all
honesty, I just hope that both continue to stay and that we can kind
of celebrate some of the new openings of some of these smaller shops and not
just focus on these destination type shops. But just my opinion on that.
All right, talk to me about Wemby. Now, that's all I had
on that shut all right, Yeah, Well, moving on. So the
Wemby, uh, the Tops kind of threw a last minute announcement everybody with
Dynasty Baseball that just came out. They had thrown in some Wemby autographs and
of course they had to put a patch from when he threw out the first
pitch in his Yankees uniform and everything on there. And the one to one
was pulled last night late last night by Bles Breaks. The one where he's
drawn an alien on there. Look like sometime that tattoo on his face.
Ships I don't know all this crazy stuff, but Victor, I wanted to
bring it up just because you were on the show today and it was interesting
when we when this came out, we talked a lot about it on Mummy
at that potograph. But do you consider this card which in the mock ups
had a pretty much rip off of pine Rookie card logo on the card,
and it was labeled as a Rookie card, but when they put the card
out, they don't have a Rookie card logo on it. So is this
do you do you consider this a wenby r PA? Do you consider this
a Wenby Rookie? Because I mean, let's be honest, this is closest
we're gonna get to a wemb RPA. Yeah yeah, wallless all this stuff
that's about to come out that is all r PA dripping. So he's not
going to be I mean, his cases aren't there, so so Blez pulled
this last. I wonder how many cases he opened to get that sucker?
God, who I mean, there's not a lot of Dynasty put out,
you know. I mean I saw the Beatles, the big Jumbo Beatles card
had already been pulled by Anthony Laparo on Top Notch. A lot of big
cards have already been pulled out of it because not a lot of it's made.
But yeah, Wenby popped out right away. But but is it?
Is it? You know, a rookie card really? I mean, he's
in a Yankees uniform, he's it's in a base product. Yeah, it's
it's It's one of them things where you know, I'm I'm asked this question
and I had a couple of people dm me that that card and with the
with the rookie card logo of Panini, and I was like that that has
to be some kind of photoshop mock up type. I don't know what's going
on there, but that that didn't look right to me. But it's one
of them things where I answered that question like this, it's not so much
what what I think or what I say, it's it's what what do the
rules say? And and when you look at the breadth of scope of my
content, it's basically I've resurrected the guidelines from the past, kind of updated
them because some rules were outdated, and I applied the rookie card rules that
were given by the Players Association in two thousand and six, and I've merged
it two and kind of created this hybrid of Rookie card guidelines and best practices.
So when I take this Tops Dynasty card of Victor Wemby, it's not
what does Victor say, it's what do the rules say? And when I
filter that card through the Rookie card guidelines and best practices, that card of
Victor wimbin Yama does not qualify for a true Rookie card designation. And I'll
even go even a step further and say that anything of Victor women Yama produced
by Top Slash fanatics is not considered a true rookie card. Now, with
that's it, I'm not saying that they're not worthy of being collected, because
they most definitely are. Some of them are pretty cool looking. But when
we're when we're trying to establish and identify and classify certain cards as rookie cards,
those cards fall short. Yep. No, So no on the on
that question. Now, why, Well, okay, let's look at it.
A true rookie card is a player's bass card established in their debut year
of this of their specific sportmas A basketball player, not a baseball player.
So there's I wanted to ask. That was one thing I wanted to ask,
is you know, how how are we going to translate a rip card
that they're baseball products like? Right? So that's strike one. Strike two
is going to be that it has to be licensed by the Players Association and
the league. So if we flip that card over, we're going to see
that it's not properly licensed by the NBA. And and and then strike three
it has to have a rookie card logo somewhere on that card, and it
doesn't have that either, So you know, in just and I mean there's
more, but just those three right there disqualifies it as a true rookie card.
I completely agree. I I completely are. It's probably a good thing
they didn't put their rookie card logo out because if they put the one they
had on the mock up out, it's probably going to be Exhibit twelve hundred
and fifty in court for Panini if they did, because it was a massive
ripoff of their rookie card design. But they are logo, but they ended
up not putting that on that card. But Erica, what do you think
about these cards? You know, like TOPS is kind of doing this quite
a bit with Wemby. A lot of comments here saying they'd love to see
Tops put out a card of Wemby actually holding up basketball, and that's the
thing. We've had cards, but none of them. I mean, yeah,
they're worth collecting, Like Victor said, but what do you think on
it, like about these cards that TOPS is doing with Wemby right now,
Victor, he spot on the spot on with that. I do think it's
a little, just not a little. It is very disappointing that we don't
get on cards of Wemby and with a basketball. It's just it's said,
I feel bad for the consumers because it's just like, uh, you know,
they don't they don't care enough to just you know, make a better
product with him in his actual sport, you know. So I don't really
care for him and the baseball stuff. It's just because Mookie has a really
interesting comment here, and uh, I kind of haven't a thought on some
of this. I want to get y'all's opinion on it. It says TOPS
is crossing over introducing baseball collectors the biggest collector based I don't know about that
anymore. But to Wemby priming them to get ready for tops basketball when it
comes. There's a ten year plan at work here. I do agree that
they're definitely priming people for when they get other products and things like that.
I agree with you there, but I like, you know, I don't
know if I like the idea so much of all the I hope the crossing
over of like putting Wemby and take stealing these athletes. And what is c
J. Stroud gonna be in Dynasty? You know, are they saving him
for Chrome update? Like, I mean, what what are they gonna do?
They've got Stroud, They've got all these players. They're not using them
at all, you know, they don't use them for anything, But I
mean, what are they gonna do with them? And you know, the
biggest thing being are they considered rookies? But like a lot of commenters are
saying, a lot of people right now they're spending money don't even care about
the rookie card rules. And that's fine if you don't. But a lot
of true old school collectors and a lot of diehard collectors do care about that
rookie card designation. It's a big deal to a lot of people, and
so you know it's interesting to say to speed, Yeah, to me,
this it's it's it's a gimmick card. Okay. Now, if I'm gonna
use a gimmick card to sell product, hey, I get it. I'm
okay with it. If you want to use a gimmick and throw them in
there. But I think, uh, you got to be careful of doing
that too much. And I think that's going to start causing some feathers to
get ruffled if that becomes again. Now if they start throwing C. J.
Stroud in there, and now they're they're starting to mix and and you
know, too much confusion, it's gonna end up happening. We've already got
products like that. You've already I mean, you've already got stuff if you
want to put them in there, You've got getting there, You've got you
know, all these other things that you put out. Use it right,
like use your establisheduff instead of trying to push it in products that don't need
it to sell it, like Tops Dynasty did not need that card. Top
Dynasty would have sold out in a heartbeat without that card in it, well
a heartbeat. And so that's where it's just like, but if you're gonna
do it, at least put it in something that a the average collector has
a chance of getting, because the average collector does not have a chance in
hell of getting into Dynasty. I mean, this shit is ridiculously expensive.
But you know, I don't know, wrong move in my opinion, But
we'll see. Obviously there's a plan in works going back to that comment,
and I do think they are trying to prep people for what they've got coming.
They have started to put out their rookie card logos and things like that,
which I pray they're just testing, but you know, they they're doing
a lot of work. So we'll see. We'll see what happens on it
all. Wemby crammed into a race car, all right, Yeah, hey,
let's put them in everything everything. I would actually like to see.
That'd be interesting. Oh man, classic, I think they've just got WWE.
You could put like Wemby versus Andrea's Giant or something like that, see
who measures up. But uh, I don't know, interesting so to speak.
But we'll see what happens. We'll see what this Wenby card goes for,
and we'll see how everything everything shakes out. Yep. So guys,
we're got a little more time before we wrap up one thing that is going
on right now. I don't know how much you guys are paying attention to
it. I figure we touch on it because it's interesting to me. And
we got obviously March Madness is going on where we have Baseball Opening Day we
talked about, but I've also got March Madness, which used to be kind
of this massive showcase for who are we collecting next year? Who's you know,
like this is when the standout guys I mean go back to Carmelo.
I mean, Carmelo made him himself one of the most collected and chased people
in the hobby by his tournament rhyme, you know, and there's been a
lot of people that have done that before. Does it still feel like that
in the NBA? Because to me, I'm watching tournament and it's a blast.
I think the women's tournament's better because there's a lot more competition and a
lot more spread out evenly matched teams. But is it still does it still
give you that excitement of March madness? Where I mean in terms of the
hobby, because to me, I mean, show me the guys that are
standing out to you that are going to be massive chases next year. I
just I don't see it, and I haven't seen it for a couple of
years. Who the chase has been all overseas players that didn't even play in
college. So what do you guys think about march madness? And you know
it's effect on hobby Now, I agree with you. I don't think it
has much of an effect anymore. Has died down tremendously, and you would
think that it would it will ramp up with the age of social media and
the age of you would think it'll be more ramped. But people are just
not really interested and invested in the men's players as much as they used to
be. I don't I don't know. I think it might be a generational
thing too, Like with this younger generation is not attached to an athlete versus
when we were coming up, we were pretty much attached to athletes in terms
of what we wore. We wore athletes closed and shoes, and we saw
them on every commercial And like today it is, the attachment for the is
not the same. So I think that's what the biggest thing is. And
then it leads to you watching the games. On the men's side, in
particular, you might watch it to enjoy some basketball, but you don't really
know who was who, and you don't know much about him, and a
lot of times people don't really even care to even try to learn to a
certain degree. No offense to the players. But but yeah, so that's
a no. On the women's side, things are ramped up. So yeah,
I agree, it's and I agree in the comments here with Stukes one
and Done's definitely you know, has hurt the NBA a lot or hurt colle
a lot, But it's also just I mean, and you would think it
would ramp up more because now you've got Bowman you they're trying, you know,
you've got a whole Now we've got the nil deals. So you're getting
these cards, these players, cards of these players years in advance. In
some cases, especially in football, you're kind of have them for three years
in some cases before they even go pro. Obviously not some of the ones
that started off when they were already in but eventually you're gonna have players that
are gonna have three years worth of Bowman U cards before they hit the NFL.
And the same and but with basketball, you've kind of got one year
for the most part. Some guys too. But like I said, who's
been the most impactful people in the last couple of drafts, People that didn't
go to college, Like they were either players fore and from overseas or they
were players that like the the Thompson rookies that came from Overtime Elite or any
of these kind of new NBA, you know, programs, And so it's
just it's weird to me because March madness, like you said, I mean,
it used to be a huge thing. I remember when it was basketball
season. You couldn't walk into a gas station without seeing Grant Hill on sprite
and or a crunch stand up, crunch bars stand up. You know,
they had basketball players on candy bars. Like it was everywhere, everywhere you
went was March madness, this, March madness that, and you know a
lot of attention was put on these guys, and I just it's not there
anymore. Just I just don't see it there anymore. And I think it's
you know, it's sad for college basketball. But I do like seeing what's
happening with the women's game, the women's games improving, Like I have thoroughly
enjoyed the women's NCAA tournament. It has been incredibly competitive, but the March
Madness just doesn't have the same feel, at least for the hobby that it
once did. I remember in the nineties two thousand, stuff like that,
March Madness was really important for the upcoming collecting. But there's no real big
superstars that come and stand out anymore. Well, I think I think it's
you know, we got and we got to because this is the danger of
prospecting and the and the danger of hype, right because we expect standout players
to be coming in every single year, and that definitely is not the case
in the hobby. There have been some rookie year classes that have been very,
very weak, and that might that might be what we're seeing right now.
And but I mean we can also look at upcoming players. When we
look at Anthony Edwards and the and his his season, I think he is
an up and comer who is going to be a major All Star. SGA
also say Gilgess Alexander is another guy who was really coming out of his shell.
And they're actually they're growing in their game, they're developing, right,
they weren't all that in the beginning when they first came out, But today
you can tell that the guys are going to the next leg. Put up
sixty one last night another example. Yes, But I mean every year isn't
going to be a spectacular year, so you're going to have weak rookie year
classes. As far as on the women's side of things, I've always been
a big fan of of, you know, women's basketball. I actually remember
back in nineteen ninety seven with the when the w NBA first started. I
was a car dealer back then, and I invested a lot of money into
women's basketball and it did very I did very well with that, and I
pulled out a few cards. Here's my Cheryl Swoops. Oh, very nice
card. I remember those. Yeah, Rebecca Lobo right, and here's Cheryl
Swoops right. Great female athletes that really, to me are pioneers of the
game because I was following it so closely back then, but they really were
standout players in their era. But I think as the w NBA started and
was, you know, year after year coing into the two thousands, I
just think the game's got a little boring. And I think that's that's where
it starts. To hurt the hobby, because what we're looking for is excitement,
right, We're looking for But when the games start becoming boring, a
lot of turnovers, a lot of layups, it just we lose interest.
Now Caitlyn Clark comes around and she starts throwing threes from the from them from
the NBA. You know, it's just breaking records, demolishing records. And
we're seeing this exciting player, and it's causing other players from other teams to
kind of come up and kind of like compete against her. And now we're
seeing this competition and we're actually seeing some really awesome play. And that's what
we're seeing is the excitement generated with all of it. And so I don't
know, to me, that's the longest short of it. It's just a
matter of we're gonna have weaker classes than others, and it all comes down
to exciting play. Are we gonna Are we seeing the highlight reels of exciting
players? Yeah? No, I completely agree. It's NBA has become.
I mean, you watch it with the Lakers, I mean and Lebron for
example. Let's just take them. They look like an average team ninety nine
percent of the time and then what happens in season tournament where there's some extra
money on the line. Oh, they look amazing, like a great team
because they're trying. Half these guys aren't trying until February, I mean maybe
and sometimes even later. That's why what I mean, because playoff basketball is
still extraordinary, at least in my eyes. I think playoff basketball and the
NBA is still great, even though the rules and everything are a little different
and not exactly what I love, But playoff basketball can still be incredibly you
know, entertaining in my eyes. But uh yeah, it's just it's not
the same. They're not They're not the NBA game. You can obviously see
half the players not trying, half the players don't care. Then you do
have those guys that are grinding every night. But so I think that the
league is trying. I think they did that tournament in the beginning of the
season. Yeah, I thought that brought some exciting game. I watched a
few love the games. Yeah, I actually thought the n season tournament was
a good I didn't think it was a good idea. It made no sense
to me when I heard it. It just I didn't understand it. But
hey, if it makes teams try for an extra couple of weeks, and
I get some interesting I mean, is it is it a coaching issue?
I mean, are we having like a coaching issue. I don't know,
I don't know. I think it's just I think it's one of these things
where people these teams just think they can coast into the playoffs. I mean,
some teams grind all year long. You got teams like the timber Wolves,
Anthony Edwards driving them right now. You got teams like the thunder Who
and Shay and all them. They're trying to really make a name for themselves,
the Nicks, a lot of different teams that are really trying to push
hard all year loan to secure those spots. But I think the upper level
teams just look at it as we're gonna win enough if we try halfway.
Because there is a massive difference between who makes the playoffs and who doesn't,
you know, And so I think I just think that half of them don't
until they and I think an effort problem personally, Okay, I think it's
just effort on. You know the part of this generation. I don't.
I don't think they care until it's time. Don't matter and I heard Michael
Jordan talk on this not too long ago. But it's one of them things
when you give a young player like that, and you give him three hundred
million dollars in his first couple of years, what else does he have to
swipe? Why does he have to try? Yes, three hundred million dollars
exactly. You give him the world too soon, and that's what happens.
Well, especially when you know it's role players. I mean a role player
in the NBA. Now you're making forty five to fifty million. You know
your contracts three four years, fifty sixty million dollars. It's absurd. Yeah,
so it could be part of the problem. Yeah, no, I
completely agree. All right, y'all, Well, it is uh twelve o'clock
here, so I guess we'll start to Yeah, I know flew by today,
but I guess we'll start wrapping up the show today before we go.
Victor and Erica, you guys got anything, I know, all of us
right for Hobby News Daily, Any new articles or anything up you guys would
like to plug. I would just like to say the women's games are on
today, yeah, eighty at one and three, and then I think the
last two are ESB and following, so definitely tune in. All four games
will be very good, very good. Enjoy they are. Yeah, I
got, I got the article I just released for Hobby News Daily yesterday.
It is basically about show Heo Tani and some of the issues that I see
with athletes having their lives under such a microscope with social media. The title
of the article is say it ain't show and just some reflective thoughts. It's
typically what I like to do and with current hobby happenings and Soho Tani is
the topic for this month's article, so you can check that out. Nice
all right, guys, Well that is gonna wrap up episode two hundred and
ninety five. I've also got an article up on Hobby News Daily Iconic Inserts
where we look back at Pinnacle Masks Hockey, one of my favorite inserts,
so make sure to go check that out. And of course we are alive
every single Saturday at eleven am on bench Clear Media, so make sure you
tune in next week for an all new cast and characters and some big hobby
news. But you I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Easter to
everyone, and we'll see you guys. Next week I'll have a good day. Eight