Speaker 1: All right, welcome hobbyists to Valentine's Day edition of Hobby
Hotline and with me for this week's episode. I've got
none other than Uncle Rich Kleine in Orlando, a collector's
dream to a favorites in the hobby. So how both
of you guys doing on this fine Saturday.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's a rainy day in DFW area, so it's
a nice day just to stay inside and stay warm.
I actually turned the heat on. I don't live in
Paradise like Orlando does.
Speaker 3: Well, it's totally different here. It's a beautiful I've got
the ac on. I just went off for a walk
and come back like about a few minutes before. We
got a good walk listening to a lot of the
YouTube it's fun.
Speaker 1: Is there enough good YouTube stuff now? You know, apologize
to non community YouTubers. It is, you know, Hall of
Fame season, so it is flooded with the not enjoyable
to watch for someone not in the community Hall of
Fame videos.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I was watching some of those nominations and
got a whole crew of my buddies out in California
getting together for the West Coast Card Show. It's a
big show out there so great from mid Life just
put out a video there with a bunch of guys.
Dylan is out there, Pino Man is out there. Yeah,
I think Tony was coming out to collect Yea, A
ton of guys are out there, almost kind of like
they do at Philly get Together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it should be nice. So you guys got anything
on your plans for this weekend outside of this show?
Speaker 2: I have a actually because it's gonna rain. It's gonna
rain all day. Well, if my wife and I do anything,
it'll be tomorrow night instead of battling tonight and I
my synagogue's monthly brotherhood breakfast will be tomorrow morning. So
that's i'd be. My social life is you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be probably going up to dinner to my
wife out and married now over forty five years. So
I think some of the some things like that you got.
Speaker 2: Well, we are very we are very practical in this household.
We're okay not actually going out on Valentine's Day. If
we do, we'll do something lighter and then we'll save
a better dinner, so when they're not jacking up the prices.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my wife and I are twenty seven years and
I think it's gonna be a weekend of doing home projects.
So it's very remain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, I got almost like a triple header. Come,
it's Valentine's Day, next weekend is her birthday, and the
following weekend is our anniversary.
Speaker 2: Well happens to me in June. My birthday is fifteen
days before anniversary. So a lot of times some you know,
a lot of decent places send you birthday coupons. Well,
what's the good anniversary dinners? Because I just use those,
you know, as I said, we're practical. Hey, if I
can save fifty dollars on an expensive dinner and we
still get the good dinner, I'm all in favor of that.
You know, Hey, got to save money for the cards exactly.
Speaker 3: You can do a lot damn fifty dollar box.
Speaker 2: Hey, I found some good at the last dollar boxes.
The funny story is the guy's telling me and he
had posted on Facebook he had put a whole bunch
of vintage into the dollar boxes. There might be some
high numbers in there, and as I think I pointed
out on the last show, there were about fifteen sixty
one high numbers in probably five or you know, probably
five or six condition in there. It's like, thank you,
that's that pays for everything I picked up from that box.
Speaker 1: Well, I gave us enough time to get some people
into the show, So now I think it's time to
say hi to the chat out there. We got some
of our regulars. Melissa Hello, Sports Card Queen, Good morning, Peter,
Phil nicro Fan, Good morning, Chris See four, Welcome, Ruben Snyder,
Confluence Cards, Welcome the Chippindale's Crew. I don't think so, sir.
Speaker 2: No, no, we are the mature Chippindale's Crew.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, sure, foul Ball, good morning, Mad City Brew.
We got Andy's addic, Philly Joe, Mookie Chilson in the house,
Adams Card closet, have yourself a Chipper day Hammer forty four,
Good morning, Craig's Cards, and I think we're cut up.
There we go. So it is a Lomer hobby week
this week, isn't it? Without any crazy ultra crazy controversies.
So we got some mild their topics for this week's episode.
Then what's been happening over the last few months. But
to start things out, we have got some new pricing
and turnaround times posted by by some folks would say
the Evil Empire. Other folks are completely you know, dedicated fans,
but it is none of the PSA. If you haven't
seen it, I've got it ready to share on screen
what they've done now. So their value bulk went up
twenty one four ninety nine. Value went up five bucks
value plus up five bucks value max five bucks, regular
five bucks. And their turnaround times for the ones they
actually post have gone up five days a piece. And
you know, as per usual, I guess valuable can value
is what nine months to a year. I don't know
what the hell they're doing these days. But yeah, so
is this much of a story or is this just
going to be business as usual and they rake in
more dollars? I mean thoughts Orlando.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely a way to rake in more dollars these guys,
I don't care what you say, but it's pretty much
a monopoly now. They can do whatever they want. It
seems like, you know, Dave found an opportunity to raise
the price and if they get in a little bit
less cards as they're just overloaded and over flooded with
the amount of business that they're getting. So you know,
for us regular guys, it hurts. The five dollars even
though I don't submit, but the people that do regularly
then you know, five dollars per card, you know, adds
up to a lot of money holding their cards for
you can imagine probably six months or so, even though
they say their turn around time is less, you know,
not going to get your cards back with it, especially
the value bulk, it's going to take another six months
for you to get your cards. So to be without
your cards for six months, I think that's ridiculous, and
continue to raise the prices, but people will continue to
continue to send them the business and what I think
it will do is people will begin to send cards
in at the higher levels to get them back. Especially
the guys are going to be flipping cards, the modern cards.
They're going to be paying additional money, you know, and
of course all that eventually passes on to the consumer.
If somebody's got to pay another ten, twenty or thirty
bucks more to get their card graded, they're going to
jack up the price of the card they're going to sell.
And with all the stuff being opened, you know, it's
I think it's just going to continue to feed the
feed the beast, as they say, and you know, they
have people like, for example, Backyard Brakes, they're about they're
in book, they're about a mile away from you say,
you know, Grady Well used to be the SGC, which
is not PSA's building. And you know, my understanding is
that they'll break the cards and they'll go ahead and
take them over and get them graded. And they get
them graded in less than a week because they have
a special deal with them and pay a lot of
money to get them graded. Because the cards are going
to pull out of packs, you know, they're gonna they're
gonna flip them. So these flippers want these cards graded
and get their tens right away so they can flip
them and be the first to market. And as long
as they have people like that that will pay, you know,
the higher rate to get them back within a few days,
which Backyard Breaks is one of the biggest breakers out there,
and they're sending them hundreds of cards every week. You
know they don't they'll do that, but what that does
is all up all of the regular submission guys because
they'll continue to get flooded with that. And now with
the Pokemon which they're grading, it used to be about
half pokemon, it's almost like three quarters of their cards.
Speaker 1: Now, oh yeah, LA generate numbers. Yes, it's gone nuts.
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. So those are easy to grade for them
with the rounded corners, and most of them get nines,
er tens. Most of them are getting get tense, and
people can continue to send them in and they're just
raking in the dough. I don't think it's going to
make any difference in the submission rate. It's just going
to hurt the person that's doing the value, the guys
that don't have the big bucks to you know, to
pay the faster submission and stuff like that. So it's
always what always happens. The little guys suffer longer, wait tops,
more money, But the guys that do the flipping and
all that stuff, they don't care. They'll make their money
and PSA will continue to prosper.
Speaker 1: Thanks Orlando, any differing opinions or anything else to interject
on this one, Rich.
Speaker 2: As I pointed out in our green room chat before this,
this was also noted on several of the YouTube videos
that I watched or listened to that get at the
last Dallas Card Show raised their raw card review price
from twenty five dollars to sixty five dollars. Now you
would think price jumps like that would name that they
you know, nobody would be bringing cards and as lead
course always say not so fast, my friend. The line
literally took hours on Thursday night and they were jammed
the entire weekend with people bringing in cards to Beckett.
It was absolutely bonkers. I thought, for sure, Okay, they're
gonna have less people. No, not even close. Will we'll
buy the cards, we'll sell the cards. We'll still be
doing graded cards. And one thing that will never happen again.
And this is kind of sad, but pre pandemic what
in Orlando. You'll know this better than I was, was
it's like six dollars or eight dollars in bulk for
PSA cards. We will never see that pricing again. No,
And that is a fact of life. This is capitalism.
You know, you have to do things to meet your demand.
When I first started at COMMC in twenty seventeen, nine
years ago, we were charging a quarter a card to
process cards. If we charge the quarter a card today
to process cards, we would lose money on the processing
of arts. Sometimes you have to raise your prices just
to just stay in business. Now I can't say what's
going on. But PSA has a lot of employees, they
have a lot of offices, they have a lot of overhead.
And I'm going to kind of go back to my
beck At days when I say this, we had about
a fifty percent success rate in getting when I was
working in the price Guide division, we had about a
fifty percent success rate of analysts. About fifty percent became
good and about fifty percent washed out. Now I'm not
saying they all wash out. Boston Hunter did a great
interview with a PSA greater, which when I listened to it,
it wasn't anything controversial. Most of what he said made
a lot of sense to me because I have stack.
Even though it was a long time ago, I did
sit one afternoon a month or two afternoons a month
in the Beckett grading room helping basically with difficult verification.
And his process and the process he told was basically correct,
But he didn't stay. How you know, not only do
you have to get grads, you have to make sure
they're good, you have to make sure they stick. You
have to make sure that they can handle the workload.
And it's and that's and let's let's assume that the
fifty percent not great success rate we had at Beckett
is low for a grader. Maybe it's a sixty percent, right,
You still don't have to hire more graders. You have
to train them, and that's an expense in itself. So
on a corporate level, it sounds terrible for the consumer.
And I'm sure Chris Carlon can explain this a lot
better than I can, but it's sometimes things that have
to be done just so a company can keep their
head about water. Do we ever want to see PSA
where they shut down their local post office system again
and basically had box You know the photo Nat Turner
showed during the pandemic of all the boxes that weren't
even close to being open, sitting on the floor and
he had to shut down the submissions, which I thought
was a terrible idea, but in retrospect, was the right
thing to do. I hate to say this, but we're
not going back to those days, and we're not going
back to those days where we're going to shut down
a post office in a city. Either. You have to
make calculated business decisions as to how you stay in business,
and that for me it doesn't really matter. I don't
I go in value boxes. It doesn't affect my life
one way or the other. There are people it effects,
and as Orlando pointed out, like, for example, mister Daniels,
the Commander's quarterback. He started the year as the super
one of those super hot quarterbacks. He got hurt. If
you sent in a card at the beginning of the
football season and you got it back now, the price
is probably nowhere near where it was when you sent
in the card, So there's got to Eventually the balance
will come. Maybe someday the balance will eave now and
we get slightly lower prices again. But we're not going
back to six and eight dollars. We may end up
back at fifteen. But it's corporate then, it's a business
as capitalism, And I'm sorry for those people that can't
do that. And believe me, I've priced out a lot
of things in the hobby too. I used to do
and it sucks.
Speaker 1: But life's like that, all right. Remember everyone, this is
a call in show and we have a special call
in right now that I am going to bring on screen.
Welcome Greg Midlife.
Speaker 4: Oh Greg, hey, guys. West Coast Card show is pretty good.
I got to say it's pretty good, way more vintage
than I was told, way less Pokemon than I was told.
Speaker 5: It has been. It has been really fun. So I just.
Speaker 4: Wanted to give a little report on how this is
going here. But there's some good stuff in the room.
I didn't drop a video this morning, so after this
is over, check that out. But there's some good stuff here,
really good.
Speaker 3: I start a video Greg and congrats on big pickup
you got.
Speaker 4: Oh the trade Oh the Sitting Bowl card?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the trade card.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the trade was big. The Sitting Bowl was cool.
A couple other people in the community got some big stuff,
but I'll wait for their channel to reveal that we
had a fun dinner last fight.
Speaker 2: Which Super Bowl card did you get? I did not
watch your video.
Speaker 4: So that Native American set that's Alan and Ginter eighteen
eighty eight.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good. That's a good card.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The two big cards of the Geronimo card and the
Sitting Bowl card. And this card walked up to a
table and the guy did a trade for it, and
then I immediately said it's raw.
Speaker 5: I was like, what do you want for it?
Speaker 4: And he was like, I would do two fifty if
the card gets a one point five, which it won't.
Speaker 5: It'll get a one.
Speaker 4: But if we got a one point five, it's like
a six hundred and fifty dollar card. If it gets
a one, it's probably a four hundred and fifty dollars card.
If it gets an authentic, it's a three hundred dollars card.
So I was like, this is my affordable way to
get this cool card.
Speaker 1: All right. I was told to ask here by Peter
b if you're now collecting Indians because he thought you
were a Yankees fan.
Speaker 4: That's actually pretty funny. No, I'm I will. First of all,
it's the Guardians. Everybody we need to, you know, move on.
I did use Native Americans. I'm I'm trying to be
as good as I can. But I don't know. There
are a lot of cool cards in that set. I mean,
it's a beautiful set. I don't think I'm gonna build it,
but I'm not opposed to picking up.
Speaker 5: More of them.
Speaker 3: Well, Mookie had a great comment. Mookie said that Greg
is full of bull.
Speaker 4: Well, Mookie's full of a lot of something too, But
I love MOOKI so I'll just kind of keep that
between us. But I am meaning up with mister Mike
Petty right now. So what I'm gonna try to do.
I'm a hopefully service will stay and you can say,
hey the petty real quick.
Speaker 2: Well, we like Mookie. He's a fellow person like I
am from New Jersey, so we like Mookie. He he
gets to go twice a month to one of the
best card shows of the one best smaller card shows
in the country, the Guardfield Card Shop, which is usually
the first and third Sunday of any month. And it's
it's really and it's supported the Boys and Girls Club
for more than thirty years. And Gary is a really
good guy that runs the show. And all right, I
got Rob and his team do a really good job
running the show. They've taken very seriously and they know
what collectors want. I know, Rob for the story.
Speaker 4: Right now, hotline, what's not there?
Speaker 6: Guys? Oh goodness, See, all right, I should go We're
gonna have breakfast.
Speaker 4: But you're right, The Garfield Show is a really good show.
Sammy goes a lot, Mookie goes a lot. I know
Layton was there a couple of weeks ago. So those
guys are lucky that they get.
Speaker 5: To go to that. You're lucky to go to that.
I'm jealous.
Speaker 2: I get the Dallas Card Show six times a year,
plus we have some good local shows too, so I'm
very lucky here too. Now, fifteen years ago we had
three or four shows period a year. This is much better.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, And seriously about this West Coast Card Show, like,
I wasn't expecting much from the vintage part of it,
but it's it's really good. It's it's been really fun,
and there's a lot more dealers, and they're dealers that
I didn't know.
Speaker 5: I don't know about.
Speaker 4: They only set up here, so it's like they're not
national dealers, they're not guys on you know, online selling stuff.
They just kind of sell it this one show. And
so it's been fun to kind of meet those guys
and see their inventory. And with those guys are who
I tried to feature yesterday or this morning in my
video because people they'll they're new to you know who.
A lot of people are used to seeing some of
Ash's inventory.
Speaker 5: People are like, yeah, I know some of it.
Speaker 4: But these couple of guys like they're like, I don't
sell anywhere except for at this show. So I was like, well,
let's let's show some of their stuff.
Speaker 1: So anyway, all right, one last A couple of people
have asked if the show is crowded.
Speaker 5: Well, yesterday it wasn't that bad. And I'll tell you this.
Speaker 4: The aisles are really wide, like the interior of the room.
It's a very comfortable room. It's a very modern room.
The isles are super wide, so like you know, right
at the entrance to CIA diamond Yard, George dimon Yard
is there and we're just sitting there talking with him
with a bunch of us around the table, and it's
like moving through the room is really easy. Much wider
aisles than even the National. So I wouldn't say it's crowded.
And if it was crowded, or at least it was yesterday,
if it was crowded, we wouldn't You wouldn't feel it
because they just lay out the room really well. And
then all the way along the wall are all of
like the like the corporate booths, so like card ladders
here and Comse and Beckett and PSA, and they're all
around the well there's no SG and they're all around
the edge on the wall, and so it makes it
easy to access those guys without there being like a
corporate area that you've got to navigate.
Speaker 5: It's pretty cool he does. He did a really good job.
Speaker 2: And to Rob and his team's credit, a few years ago,
they had a they had a show. I think it
was one of the one in Anaheim where they put
all the corporates on a separate floor.
Speaker 4: And I went so years years ago, I went to
a big Anaheim show. It was like nineteen eighty eight
or eighty nine. The Angels hosted the All Star Game
that weekend, I think it was eighty nine, and we
came down because there was a huge show in the
Convention Center.
Speaker 5: And that building's good too.
Speaker 4: But it's two floors and this is like this is
like the perfect size. There's two rooms, but it kind
of feels like one room. It's like the perfect sized room.
It's all on one floor. Like it's a good location.
Like I was kind of like, why is he going
all the way to Ontario? This is an hour and
a half from Burbank, Like this is way southeast of Burbank.
But then once you get in the room, you're like
that it makes sense. It's a really good room. There's
four or five hotels right across the street. Like we're
walking across the parking lot, like literally next door to
this double tree that I'm in front of with these
palm trees is literally across the parking lot from the
convention center. And there are several hotels, like I know,
Jeremy Lee was I think seeing at the sheare it
in and there's like four or five, Like I can
see right from where I'm sitting, there's four or five
and they're nice, clean, they're good hotels.
Speaker 5: So like the elevators work and everything well.
Speaker 2: To be honest, if you're in California and you're an
hour and a half from Burbank to Ontario, you're gonna
get totally you can also get a totally different audience
because anybody who's ever driven in LA can tell you
it's not fun. It is. You'll still be in traffic jam.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's insane down here. And they've got toll
roads and stuff. Now, so hey, look at this guy.
Speaker 5: Look who it is?
Speaker 1: What's the fella? And Joe Barrow.
Speaker 2: Card?
Speaker 4: You know that.
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 4: All right, Well, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna I'm gonna
keep by the breakfast and then we got to enter
the show at ten.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go. Thank you, for letting me hop on.
Speaker 4: Love you guys, everybody in the chat love you too,
even Mookie.
Speaker 5: So all right, I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: Thanks for calling in. Thanks guys, all right, it seems
like a fun time, all right. Uh final nail. I
think on this first topic though, is uh I'm just conjecturing.
You know, some of the people are posting of like
stop sending in cheap cards. Honestly, with the volume they get,
what percentage of submission of their total submissions do you
think are even lower case collectors. I think it's less
than five percent, and it's all people that are going
to resell the cards. You guys think anything different.
Speaker 2: I don't know the numbers, but but you know, if
it stops people, frankly from sending an eighty eight top
common cards or in baseball or football, that's probably not
the worst thing in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's funny because I called junk wax cards.
If you notice in a tens their values have gone
up incredibly and there just aren't many of them because
people weren't sending. So I don't know, maybe people are
beginning to send a lot more of those in seeing
that the values have gone up a lot on some
of these, you know, joke wax cards in PSA ten
even Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1: Don't think these life belts put any dent in the
people trying to play the PSA ten lottery game. So,
you know.
Speaker 2: And the other thing to consider is will collectors ever
go public? You know, you do want to show a
positive story to people. You know if when the IPO
comes in, and if you do that and you're able
to show a constant increase in revenue, you will get
more money in your IPO. So we have to look
at it not just in terms of that, but in
terms of the future as well. And it's something it's
something to always consider. I always so people think about
this on a business level. I wish I could go
back by and get PSA cards for eight dollars each,
but that's not happening.
Speaker 1: I would agree with one million cubs here that people
that are collectors that send in that stuff don't realize
they're going to come back and get like a seven
or an eight on their card that they have had
some their kids even though A in its nine pocket
sleeve all these years. So but all right, next topic
is TOPS twenty twenty six relief and with that the
biggest news coming out of it is that they are
putting what they have deemed the top seventy five baseball
cards as redemptions in the packs. And as far as
how they deemed that they put together a panel of
folks here which included none of them Hobby Hotline contributor
right there, doctor Beckett so as well as Nat Turner
from the previous story. So but if anybody is wondering
what cards we're talking about, they do show them on
the Top's website now. And these were deemed what they
said were the top ten, which the schemes one on one.
So I don't think that's a giveaway. But uh, I'm
asking that the.
Speaker 2: Scheens is a giveaway the Ski maybe not that specific card,
but there is a Scheens giveaway card.
Speaker 1: Oh, they're still giving away some sort of autograph.
Speaker 2: Specially there's there's this that is a Skeens giveaway card.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, I looked at the checklate last night. They're
not giving away all the top seventy five, a limited
amount of them. You can go look at the checklist.
It's like a thirty page checklist and it says all
the cards are going awagh and it's not all the
five and the way they're doing it all redemption. They're
all going to be graded and slabbed. Of course, they
don't mention what the grades are of the ones they're
going to give away. But you know what I've heard already. Yes,
somebody already pulled the two May redemption, so that one's
already gone, and we'll have to find out what grade
that they are graded. Cards are going to be sent
back to the person who pulled those.
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta say, is I don't really are Rodriguez.
If you get that card, better be a very high grade,
because that could be the lowest value card of the
whole group.
Speaker 1: Uh not if they're also including some of these eighties cards,
including none other than the very special I saw when
I scan this earlier right there, Future Stars Greg Jeffries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good point. Okay, I'll accept that. Yeah, that's probably
not even as good as a sixty nine Last Series card,
even if there is a really difficult to tell variation
on the eighty nine tops Greg Jeffries card of how
the Future Stars notation is picked is as on the card,
there's like a millimeters difference between where they are now.
Speaker 1: I don't have any on front, Frank Thomas that would.
Speaker 3: Be going to be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And what I like about it is when they did
the buybacks before, they used to have that stamp, that
gold stamp on the cards. So but these are going
to be original cards with no stamp on them, and
they're going to be slabbed. So you know, I guess
that's a good thing. Even though some people, a lot
of people like the friend Shane Shoebox Slashes loves the buybacks.
Speaker 2: I love the buybacks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, original cards, you know, I say, were in the
old days versus the stamp. But yeah, buy backs are cool.
Speaker 2: I bought two. I bought two Heritage packs at one
of the waxed stores the other day, and in the
Heritage pack, I got a Glenn Borgman stamped buy back
card in twenty twenty five Heritage and I was thrilled
because for the people from New Jersey, if they look
at the back of his card, Glenn Borgman was from Patterson,
New Jersey, So all you people who go to the
Garfield card Show should be looking for his cards. That
that's not going to happen. He was a backup Twins catcher,
but it was just a cool card to get out
of the pack. And the thing is, there are so
many seventy six TOPS cards out there that a card
with a stamp on it has to be a much
tougher card than the seventy six And I think I
put on the net fifty four boards there there is
some value that I don't want the cards stamped. Above
you just get the card. But you know, if it's
Greg Jeffries, you stamped the card to your heart's content,
it's gonna make it worth a dollar or three instead
of the ten cents or quarter it is, and it
enhances the value for those people to collect those cards.
So I'm okay with stamp cards, but I'm also okay
with these cards not being close to being stamped. I
don't want I don't want that May stamped in any way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a common bome a two mantle stamped,
and of course you know that would well I don't
know if it would reduce the value and probably make
it one. But still don't want those cards, all.
Speaker 1: Right, question out for the chat, just for fun, what's
your favorite looking TOPS card of all time? So you know,
regardless of value, which one is your favorite TOPS card? So,
but I mean, this is this adequate it for a celebration?
I mean, is it is it going to move the
needle for these packs at all? I mean I heard
someone talking that when they had ninety one, they did
a thing where you could win every Tops card of
all time prior to that, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, at one time they had the Honese Wagner. Literally
somebody actually won a Honese Wagner and it was the
Gretzky Wagner. He ended up giving away and a post person,
a post lady. I think that ended up a postman
won it and immediately sold it. But I do think
it's a great idea. I mean, it's great to see
the you know, most of these cards percent are going
to be opened up by breaker, which is really the
norm now, and I'd like to see those breakers, you know,
share some of these vintage cards and hopefully it will
get some of these young guys to get more involved
in vintage cards and want to go out and buy
some each cards. So I think it's a good way
to expose expose these new guys a new breaker dudes
to the stuff. And there's also a lot of other doings.
They're also giving away tickets to different events. They're giving
away tickets to the All Star Game, tickets to the
World Series, all as redemption. They're giving away also redemptions
to TOPS and a few seventy five dollars credit money
as TOPS credits to buy TOPS products. So and they're
giving away a lot of different package. Certain teams are doing,
like the Pirates are doing a Pirates Gift package, which
involves tickets to the games and memorabilia and jerseys and
things like that also as redemption. So it's not just
the vintage cards that redeem for, but it's also kind
of events and money if you get the credits for
buying TOPS products, So it's more than just the cards,
which is a good thing. And if you look at
the checklist, you'll see all the different giveaways that they're
having there, not just a vintage cards.
Speaker 2: A couple of things. One the person who did sell
the Wagner card when she won it sold it because
the tax issue that was like I've got to pay
the taxes on that card. I better sell that card
and have money for to pay the taxes. You know
you can't do both. Oh yes, unless you have a
lot of money, then you can win it.
Speaker 1: And you figure taxes on winning that, right, I mean
or at the time, how many million? How much was
that card deemed work?
Speaker 2: That was that was the Thame PSA card, which is
now ten million dollars or more. I think Ken Kendrick
still has it. I think he paid three million, but
I think it's at least a ten million dollar card.
I mean that specific card has a book written about
for crying out laud Yeah, and so in those days
it was like six hundred thousand. So you're paying taxes
on six hundred thousand.
Speaker 1: Dollars, which is still probably close to six if not.
Speaker 2: Yes, twenty, if you're on the twenty seven percent tax rate,
it's one hundred and sixty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit different times now because you know,
these breakers are paying taxes on the cards that are
being pulled out of pack. So that one, because it
was a whole national thing it was. But whoever pulls
this fifty, you know, I don't see them paying any
tax on that, even though it's kind of a you know,
a lottery win most like winning the lotto we have.
Speaker 2: I know Chris Harris is in the audience. He can
since he's worked for the government. He can probably tell
us more officially than you and I on that. But
I still should have to pay your tax on it.
But that that's just my opinion.
Speaker 1: It does seem like it's too high profile for the
government to not go for some money attached to that.
Speaker 2: Hey, the government will go for money on just about anything.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But here's the other thing. I opened a blaster but
I went to my local wax card store, which is
down the block, maybe five minutes from my house, and
on Thursday, I bought a blaster box because it's like, Okay,
I'm going to be out and about anyway for a
few minutes. Let me buy a blaster box. It's open,
It'll get my twenty twenty six Tops Jones taken care of.
The cards are really the cards are really attractive. They're
easy to read. You know, at a certain age you
want cards that are readable. Twenty twenty one Tops I
think was not readable front or back. I don't The
name wasn't really readable and the card number wasn't really readable.
You want one or the other that had zero for
two this they are both readable. They did a really
good job. The design looks nice. I'm a fan of
the design, and I'm a fan of how readable everything is.
And they did the same thing with Flagship Basketball. It
was very readable, and so that was and as that,
And I pulled even a card number to twenty five.
It was a leader card. Nobody great, no no judge
or show hey on the card, but you know, a
decent enough Leader's card.
Speaker 3: But I was very happy.
Speaker 2: I had a blaster box getting a card number to
twenty five.
Speaker 5: Great?
Speaker 1: Would they get a few responses to my query with
the people having the prettiest card? Melissa loves the fifty
two mantle. I know that's a favorite of yours, Orlando,
it cometh an egg. The interesting response of eighty two
tops Brian Downing, which made me then go straight to Google.
So there we go.
Speaker 2: That is Brian Downing lives in the DFW area now.
When he ended his crew with the Rangers, he liked
this area so much he moved.
Speaker 1: Here, all right. Fun fact, then we've got a fifty
nine usual. That's that's a nice looking card with the
blue border on that one, isn't it? Stan? What else
we've got anybody else put something out here? I'm not
seeing it, all right, So so do either of you
guys still buy the packs. Oh yep, there is the
thanks for Orlando usual.
Speaker 2: Yeah. As I pointed out, I did buy a blaster box,
and next week will be the TOPS Rip Night, so
I'm sure I'll be getting some more TOP stuff next week.
You know, the stores they have a little party for that,
and we can talk about that next week. That'll be
a topic for next week. But they do have TOPS
Rip Night next Saturday, which is always a fun event.
You know this. You know, Tops gets store stuff and
the stores do have to pay for it in a
lot of cases, but there's stuff Tops gets to the stores,
and there's prizes that they also send, and it becomes
like a you know, a communal event and it's a
lot of fun and there's usually, depending on the store,
pizza or other foods and drinks and you get a
In the previous years, I've got on a blaster box
when you walk in the door and you know you're
you're with other collectors, and I think that's a great,
great thing to do. So I know next week I'll
be doing that and that. In fact, next week I
have a doubleheader of a the second biggest local Dallas
area card show, The NTX card show will be next
Saturday and Sunday, and then I will go to Ripnite.
So that's that's a great card. By the way, even
if it's even if it's scored, the black and white
bow is a great card.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: My favorite TOPS card of all time isn't a baseball card.
And I double clicked on it to make sure I
was right, and you can pull it up. I just
for whatever reason, I just love the design. It's a
basketball card from a team I can't stand a of
a really minor player who had one brief moment of
fame because he played really well in a three overtime
NBA Finals game seventy and so I'm gonna have you
pull it up to show seventy five seventy six Tops
Phil Hankinson card. For whatever reason, that card just strikes
me as like the perfect and as a post shot.
It's not an action or anything, but it just struck
me as one of the prettiest cards I've ever seen
in my life.
Speaker 1: Belling on that last name.
Speaker 2: Hankinson h A NK I M so O M okay.
It's a basketball card for those all.
Speaker 1: Right, let's share again. Is that the right one.
Speaker 2: That's the right one.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a different What is he standing in?
Speaker 2: That's the point. It's such a cool design and a
cool background and everything, and you know, it's nothing. It's
a common card. Yeah, it's a pure common card. But
it's my favorite card. It's it's it's my favorite card
I've ever seen. All right, there shouldn't be any reason
for that.
Speaker 7: I mean, okay, we've also got a ninety six score
a bip Roberts from stale Gum.
Speaker 1: But let's check out what this.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a cool card.
Speaker 1: As far as my personal favorite TOPS card, I think
it's still nineteen sixty Eddie Matthews.
Speaker 3: Mine is the fifty three Nicky Talk I assume.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you mean the Bowman or the Tops?
Speaker 3: The Tops?
Speaker 2: Okay, they're both. They're both really pretty cards. Yeah, both
Bowman and Tops and fifty three are really pretty cards.
You know who else is fifty three? You know who
else had his fifty three Tops is his favorite card?
Speaker 3: Oh that's a great card.
Speaker 2: That is a great card. But you know who else's
favorite card was a fifty three Mantle Al Rosen the
basebook cart dealer.
Speaker 3: I didn't know it was like the one.
Speaker 2: Card he kept for himself.
Speaker 1: Oh the mister Mint. Yes, okay, all right, so fun
little topic five.
Speaker 2: Tops beda pins and I'm gonna look at that too,
because that just sounds like a that is a cool card.
I agree with him. That's that's a nice a nice
smile on.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's great. So yeah, he's got some really good,
nice natural smile faces on a few cards I saw.
I saw someone show something that was a larger sized
I don't know if it was a team photo pack
or something that had a similar really nice natural smile
from him.
Speaker 2: So you know who else spelled on every one of
his cards, Dave Henderson.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and he had the interesting with the little
little gap tooth thing thing going.
Speaker 2: And if you ever Dave Henderson's cards, he's smiling hot.
Speaker 1: All right, we're getting all kinds of extra submissions. Now
I'm seeing sixty four tops race to Decy. Not with
that one either.
Speaker 2: We'll get the background on the SIDEKI card and you'll
see why it's a favorite.
Speaker 1: All right. Oh okay, an abbreviated ad right there at
the background, all right, nice and eighty tops Geary Carter,
I've got that one over on my wall and a
cloud of dust. So that's a great pick. Seventy seven
Charlie Angels. Okay, I wonder why he likes that one,
she's very pretty. Sixty seven earning banks. That's one of
his great smiling cards. Yeah, great choice there.
Speaker 8: And Top, Oh no, god, indeed, Tops, to me is
like the worst set of the fifty.
Speaker 2: And to Top's credit, when they did Heritage in two
thousand and seven and did that set, it looks so
much nicer, you know, they were able to use. That
was a set where modern technology really improved a card
compared to the original, you know, and I don't always
say that, but that's one where the modern technology saved
the cards.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, all right, it's slowing down in the chat.
Thanks for all the interaction. This is a fun, fun
little game here pulling up these cards. So moving on
to our last topic. Chris from Missouri had a recent
video that stirred some conversation or where I think his
title with something to the fact of how long can
we keep doing this? And it had to do with,
you know, an exit from the hobby, like how long
are you just going to own a massive horde of cards?
You know, are you gonna consolidate? Are you gonna liquidate?
You know what, as you get older and your concern
might be leaving behind something that is overbearing for your
children or your spouse. You know, what are people's thoughts
on that situation? Does it even cross your mind? Do
you just like live for the now and forget it?
Or you know, Orlando Light, I know you have been
a consolidator. Was what was going through your mind of
you know, what was the reason. Why Was it just
because so you could acquire big things you could before?
Or were you really pairing it down for your family too?
I mean, what's what's the thought process there?
Speaker 3: Well? I mean I gotta also say that video about
that John three John Wade box venue out on. But
for me, no, you know, I am pairing down consolidating
as they say, but it's it's not due to anything.
But for me, it's the only way that I can
get certain cards that I really wanted now that I'm
retired and living on security. It's not like I can
go out there a ty Cob card, but like like this,
the only way I could have gotten this card which
I got it was to pare down my collection and
sell some of the stuff that I already had, because
it's I couldn't save up for something like that. And
you know, as I get older, I've always wanted to
have cards that I could never never acquire, And because
I have such a large collection, you know, it's an
opportunity for me to go ahead and use that. To
be kind of, I guess it's an exit strategy consolidating.
I also don't want to leave tons of stuff for
my family. But it's not like I'm going to stop collecting.
I'm going to collect for the rest of my life
until until I pass away. I mean, you know, it's
a g for me. I have the collecting g let's
have that. It's not like we're going to stop all
of a sudden collecting. So for me, it's more the
consolidation process is more using my inventory to buy stuff
that I've always wanted but never been able to afford
and never been able to get. And as I get older,
you know, I'll be seventy years old this year, you know,
I want to get it before I die, So I
can't just save up and get a house Wagoner or
a ty Cob or you know, a cracker gack. Joe
Jaxon and stuff like that. So but I do have,
you know, two closets full of cards, a bunch of
cards in my garage that you know, are sitting in boxes,
sitting in tubs, and I'm going to use that to
get cards I've always wanted. So for me, it's not
that I'm still going to leave the cards to my
family no matter what, but I'm going to use that
to my advantage now. And so cards that I don't
truly love I like, but I truly love the cards
that I really wanted all my life. So that's just
the change that I did. But it's not really because
I don't want to, you know, because I'm dying or anything.
It's more because I want to use it to get
the cars that I've always wanted in my life and
never been able to afford.
Speaker 1: Thanks for going into that detail, Orlando, Rich have you.
Speaker 2: About all Three years ago I sold out my inventory
at a card show. The last two years I've I've
sold my inventory now four total times. I buy as
like Orlando says, I have fun, and then I just
sell it and it's fine for me. I just like
looking at cards. It's fun to see the cards I have.
I'm looking at them right now, and right now I
have two shoe boxes, two three row shoe boxes, and
that's what I got. And I have other stuff just
lying on the floor. In fact, one of my friends
came over to help me declutter and there were a
couple of things and I told them just take I
told them on Thursday, just take it. You know, they're
not card related, I said, just take them. And this way,
if you know, something happened to me tomorrow, my wife
doesn't have to deal with it. It's you know, the
less I have in the house, the better I feel, Yeah,
because I don't want to set, you know, you know,
saddle somebody else with what I what I would know
what to do. And so your exits you have to
think about what your own exit strategy is. And you know,
there's a lot of people that talk about, you know,
I'm going to do this till I pass, But you
have to think about everybody else. I mean, how often
do you hear about people finding hordes nowadays? Because nobody
ever wanted to deal with it, and it's a it's
a tricky it's a tricky thing, you know. I know
doctor Beckatt talks about trying to reduce by one or
two percent a month. Well, so that gives him eight
years to finish the job, and actually buying stuff helps
him reduce his inventory because then he can make bigger
eBay lots or bigger teams, bigger team lots. So you
can act actually do that, but you have to know
your own plan, and your own plan is what you
decide you want it to be. You know, Orlando, it
sounds like you know you have your game plan going,
and you know, thankfully you're healthier this year, but you
had a health scare last year. If that had been
more serious, you would have really had some serious discussions
about what to do.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would be selling off a lot more, but
I'm still consolidating because it does get overwhelming at some point,
you know, you just can't keep it all. You just
don't look at it all, and just gets to a
point where you know, as you get older, you'll realize
you can't go through that closet and take a look
at all those five thousand boxes that you have stuck in.
You got to find a way to start moving and
getting some of the stuff that you you've always wanted
in life. So that's my process. But yeah, Eventually, I'm
going to continue, like doctor Beckett, you maybe you know,
cut down five percent of my collection every year, but
use that to you know kind of. I guess more
quality versus already is what I'm trying to achieve.
Speaker 2: And then when the time comes, your wife for your
kids can have a very basic, easy thing to do
that's easy for them to buy and sell or to
sell and say, okay, this, I'll hope my kids education
and as as an inheritance, that's one thing they don't
have to worry about the taxes on it, because if
they do it as an inheritance, it's like Okay, I've
made X thousands and you're okay, and you're.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, and I have I've written down list of
what to do with with my cards. There's a couple
of option houses they can send them to and some
hobby friends that they can contact to help liquidate with
my collection eventually, but I don't see that happening anytime.
Were feeling good, Hope, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling pretty
much back to normal from from my cancer issue.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts, John, I have re entered this only five
years ago, and I came with having a limited space
where I could even store my cards, and I entered
it with the approach of I don't want to buy
anything and put it in a box. So I am
already doing a little more limited collection, and everything I
buy goes into a case on the wall behind me,
which I only have this into the bedroom with what
seven of these cases on it. That's my entire graded
collection of vintage that I am working on is in
eight cases that fit thirty cards. So you know, my
basic instructions if anything happens to me is all the
graded cards go in one box to CIA at this point,
and you can put a next door ad with all
the junk wax stuff I brought from as a kid
and give it away to somebody free on like next
door or whatever is the current communication app of that style,
because it's not worth sorting through. So but yeah, so
I already have a far more consolidated collection than most
people try to do. So, but I am not a
person that is not buying everything without a specific intentionality,
almost laser focus plan everything before I buy it.
Speaker 2: So that's the one problem with value boxes. You can't
be laser focused when you hit a value box.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't have value box.
Speaker 2: The value boxes you you have to be somewhat flexible
within the value.
Speaker 1: Boxes because my only goal that I'm working on really
is one card playing days of every MLB Hall of Famer.
Outside of that, I just have a few little pet
things that don't even completely fill one of the cases
right now.
Speaker 2: So how many cards fit in each of your cases
on the wall.
Speaker 1: With the SBC holders thirty So you.
Speaker 2: Make cases you can barely get one of each Hall
of Famers playing cards that might you might not even
be able to get every Hall of Famer who is
a player.
Speaker 1: Now. The list is two hundred and seventy five right now,
so you're.
Speaker 2: Dealing with two seventy five out of two forty. You
can decide which thirty five Hall of Famers you don't
want to put on your wall.
Speaker 1: Well, there's the twenty something negro leaguers that never really
even got a playing day's cards, so those are kind
of impossible. There's some guys in the nineteenth century that
I don't know if I'll ever bother with.
Speaker 2: So you've got a fighting chance of, at least with
certain parameters, getting everybody you want. Yeah, well that's good,
I mean you've got so you'll get Andrew Jones this year,
You'll get Carlos Beltran this year, you'll get Jeff Kent
this year, none of which should really set you back
a whole bunch of money. You already got them, okay.
Speaker 1: Because I don't do rookie cards, so it makes it
super cheap for those guys.
Speaker 3: So yeah, as you can see, everybody collects different, you know,
from Rich going through dollar boxes or me going a
little more on the high end cards and John going
to non rookie cards. So you know, my advice guys
is collect, like they always say christ from Suri Sa,
just collect what you like. It's your collection. You're the
one that needs enjoy it while you're alive. You know. Yeah,
you worry a little bit about will leave me. I
think overall, enjoy it, enjoy the hobby, Enjoy your collect
and I think that's the best advice I can give you.
Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 3: Don't worry. You know, when you're dead, you're dead and
your family eventually will will sell it. But you need
to enjoy it. And for me, the hobby is a
way to reduce stress and to enjoy life. It's been
my life most of my life. So it's the way
that you know, you just enjoy your cards. If you
want to hoard the cards a huge collection like Manginie,
that's great. If you want to just you know, have
a smaller collection like Uncle Rich, that's great. Also everybody
collects different But so my advice is enjoy the hobby.
Let it read stressed. Hopefully you can live longer and
collect for a longer period of time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my wife already has enough horrid scrap booking supplies.
To one hoard in the house is enough. So all right,
I think we're about wrapped up. What's on your guys'
future agenda? Anything to share with the folks.
Speaker 3: Well, I just did an interview we're talking about it
with pencing to Flood. It was posted yesterday. We want
to go back and look at that. Give him a
little bit of a subscription if you don't subscribe to
Adam pincon to Flood And you know, I'll just be
the next show here in for Lauderdale the first week
of every month, and anybody who is in the for Lauderdale,
South Florida area come and join us. It's a pretty
good small show, but it's a good show and looking
forward to a strong dependence or independence. I guess that's
really the big thing that I'm looking forward to, and
I just you know, vote. The next thing is for
the sports cars, hollose guys that do content. I encourage
you to vote. It means so much for the people
that even if you don't get voted in, just by
being you, hearing your name be announced by other content
creators that appreciate what you've done, it's a huge lift
to all these guys out there. I wish I could
have voted for more people. So sorry to the guys
I didn't vote for, but I think everybody that can vote,
that's been doing YouTube content for a year needs to
go out there and vote. Give some shout outs to
the other guys out there. It means so much to everybody.
So that's the last thing I got to say on that,
And I voted for you, John, Thank you.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, that's one of the hardest pairing down
lists of the entire year of anything, so uh it's
very difficult. But uh Rich any last thoughts.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, next week, as I pointed out, I'll
be doing going to the NTX card show and then
to the tops Rip Night and the following week there's
another Dallas, a smaller Dallas card show by DFW Airport,
which is free admission and kind of nice to go to.
So I've got lots of hobby just to finish the
month of February, and then next month there's the Dallas,
the Big Dallas card show, and there's a you know,
and it's really cool and I'm sure I'll be playing.
I did take five podcasts with doctor Beckett yesterday, so
we had so you'll hear me on a bunch of those,
which will be fun. We we even topped, we even
touched on the tops quote leak about the meetings mister
Rubin and his team had with some of the bigger
people at the National and we discussed that in a
totally different way because both of us have been hobby corporates,
so we can discuss that as corporates rather than you know,
the world is coming to the end people. So I'll
give you a heads up on that, and basically I'll
just keep hobbying and we'll go from there.
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks Rich, I've got another front row card
show coming to the Portland the Oregon Convention Center in
Portland at the end of this month, hopefully I'll be
able to hang out with Adam from Vintage Sanctuary as
well as another friend who connected with us who doesn't
have a channel. But outside of that, then it's going
to Strongsville with you there, Orlando. So which yeah, I'm
sure people have heard by now. There's going to be
a YouTuber hanging out on the Friday night of that
at the Embassy suitees Hotel. And then we have Four
Collectors are hosting another trade night that's going to be
at the Holiday Inn. So should be an awesome time.
So but yeah, everybody, I think this is another show
in the book. Thank you very much to the chat.
Thanks Rich and Orlando, and we'll see you next time
here on Hobby Hotline and four Collectors thank you for
listening to this episode of Hobby Hotline. Just want to
remind everyone we are a live show every Saturday morning,
eleven am Eastern eight am Pacific on the four Collectors
channel on YouTube. That's the number four, the word Collector's
channel on YouTube. We hope to see many of you
live on a future Saturday. We have a great interactive
chat room and we always provide a link for anyone
that wants to come on the show and chop it
up with us.
Speaker 2: So that's a reminder.
Speaker 1: Every Saturday eleven am Eastern eight am Pacific, only four
Collectors channel on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Hope to see you on the show.