Speaker 1: Good morning, hobby friends. Welcome to Hobby Hotline. This is
episode three hundred and thirty of Hobby Hotline. I'm your host,
Logan Ward, and with me today is the rookie card specialist,
Victor Roman Senior.
Speaker 2: How are you doing, Victor, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3: Good morning guys. More importantly, good morning to the chat.
Speaker 1: Yep and the man who needs no introduction, the Han
solo of the Hobby Uncle Rich Klein.
Speaker 2: How's it going, hello, Chat?
Speaker 4: It's it's all good. It's a beautiful Saturday morning here
in DFW. We're supposed to be like in the seventies
all week, which is in February. One of the reasons
I have never moved back to New Jersey. I'm not
a big fan of winter in February.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be sixties here. I remember a few
years ago I was it was like this, it was
very warm, and I went out on my mountain bike.
I was mountain biking. I came home and I had
a tick made in February. That's that's unheard of anyway.
It's crazy.
Speaker 4: Kim with a great comment. The last forty eight hours
have been a hell of a year in the hobby
you know, there's a thing sometimes a week is a year,
and sometimes a year is a week. These forty eight
hours is a year.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's been uh, it's been crazy, and we're going
to talk about it here in a minute, but I
want to do I do want to give a shout
out to Rex and crew at the Sports Card Shop.
I'm sure we're on the big screens right now, so
that's cool. But really, before we get started, I do
want to say that we want to send our thoughts
and prayers to the family and friends who have lost
loved ones in the tragic aviation accident in Washington.
Speaker 2: That's very sad.
Speaker 4: And don't forget the accident in Philadelphia last night too.
Speaker 2: I had not heard about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there was a plane, I guess a medical
plane that crashed into a neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Oh no, So.
Speaker 4: We've had back to back days of that.
Speaker 1: So well, you know, they say these things coming three
so let's I don't even to think about it.
Speaker 4: Hey, John, I'm proud of the fact that I still
have enough hair to have an earl morral cut at
my at my age, we were in both Spencer Thompson's
one million Cubs chaff. We were talking about Earl morral
this morning because Row was mentioning how Bob Greasey doesn't sell,
so we mentioned Earl Morrele was the quarterback for the
Dolphins during most of their undefeated season, and then I said,
if you want a great career history, go to his career.
He's had. He had some ups and downs that are amazing.
He may even had a better flattop haircut than John Unitas,
which is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was kid, I had a flat top.
There's some pictures of me with the flat top. I'll
have to dig those out one day and scare everybody.
Speaker 4: We should all host one day with our childhood.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, just just have the photos up there. Yeah,
that would be That would be hilarious. So yeah, looking
at the chat, there's a lot of a lot of
good mornings here. Good morning from Dean Hodges four fifty five.
He gave a video like yeah, everyone hit that like
buttons he Stevens. He's being Marravel today, Victor.
Speaker 3: So that's about fifteen minutes away from me, maybe twenty
minutes away from me. I'm wondering is there a card
show or something out there? That I missed, or you're
going out there for other reasons.
Speaker 2: Who knows.
Speaker 1: Uh One Me and coach project there's Bo, Good morning Bo.
All right, So we're I think we're kind of caught
up on the chat. So we're gonna go ahead and
we're gonna we're gonna talk about this subject that's actually
the the big elephant in the room, so to speak,
backyard breaks. There were some crude comments about future miners,
a daughter that this breaker.
Speaker 2: Has yet to have.
Speaker 1: They were pretty disparaging comments.
Speaker 2: It's really set the hobby on fire.
Speaker 1: Me personally, I don't I think I don't condone this
kind of behavior, you know, because you know, you've got
little kids that that are very impressionable that are watching
these backyard breaks guys for you know, because they have
a lot of antics and they have a lot of
stick and things like that, and they they're popular, you know,
and when.
Speaker 2: They say things like this, that's that's not good.
Speaker 1: It's not good. So Victor, I'm gonna go to you first.
What are your thoughts just you know, starting out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I you know, I hate to regurgitate what
everybody else has been saying, but it kind of a
bummer right, It's just one heck of a way to
start off twenty twenty five. But I'm looking at it
a couple of ways. One is what I keep hearing
kind of like the term degenerate, right, And I really
I always often looked at that word as kind of
a that sort of thing. But when I looked up
the word, I looked up the word. I'm a nerd,
and I like to look up words. I'm just I
do that kind of thing. But the word degenerate is
a decay of morality. Okay, We're kind of really diving
into a dark subject that really has no place.
Speaker 2: In a break in my opinion.
Speaker 3: And then on the other side of things, what I
don't hear a lot of people talking about is the
heart of the matter. What is that the root of
all of this? And there's a there's an old Bible
verse that says, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks, And that's the kind of thing that
I feel we're dealing with, is what is coming out
is what's truly inside of the heart of that person.
And unfortunately it's unfortunate, but that's kind of where we're
at now.
Speaker 2: The bigger question.
Speaker 3: In my opinion is, what are they going to do
about it? And it doesn't seem like so far, we're,
what forty eight seventy two hours into this thing, I
haven't heard of a corporate decision that has been made yet.
Speaker 1: No, I have not heard anything from whatnot. From what
I understand, backyard breaks is by far their most popular
channel of their I assume it makes the most money
for them. You know, it's it's making me wonder, you know,
is this going to be a deal where it's it's
money over morals?
Speaker 4: You know? Right?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: And And one other thing that I'd like to add
is a lot of times, like I can understand somebody
saying something stupid. I mean, it happens to me, it
happens to all of us. I've said things that I
instantly regretted saying. But it wasn't like a one handoff
common It was like the conversation, that topic conversation just
kept going and going and going, and it's like, Okay,
now we've crossed the line, and that's what needs to
be dealt with. There's there needs to be consequences for
this type of behavior.
Speaker 2: Yep, I totally agree, Rich, What are your thoughts.
Speaker 4: I'm going to attack this from a totally different point
of view, and I'm not going to talk about the comments.
But the whole thing with Backyard Breaks is I think
they try to stretch things as far as they can,
if not further. At a recent Dallas card show, they
were actually set up with a breaking table or whatever
in the main room and they came to the young
lady happy and by the way, she announced on Facebook
she and her husband have just celebrated their thirty third anniversary.
So Jerika is a very sweet lady. Ryan helps at
the Dallas Card Show. He's a great grater for Dallas
Card Show. So I mean they're both actively involved in
the hobby and they just and I sit with Jerika
because it's ever an hour to every show because it's
fun to see who the dealers come. How you know,
what goes on at a show, and it still gives me,
as a person who's promoted shows some things. And these
guys from Backyard Breaks sort of sauntered over and said, oh,
by the way, we're leaving, you know, that's sadly, and
they were probably actually going to do something fun. And
I was sitting there and I was trying to get
them to the point, hey, hey, we have a chance
to go to a football game tomorrow. That's really fun
to you know, really special. We've never been able to
go there. All you had to do is come up
with an excuse like that to say, hey, I've got
to go somewhere tomorrow. But they were like, we're more
important than the show. And that's the attitude I have.
The feeling Backyard Breaks has towards everyone, and they have
sixty employees. Has noted they're the biggest what not breakers
and they've done a lot of stuff that is not
great but money and stuff Trump saw and that was
an example of what they did at the Dallas card show,
of their flouting rules. And the next day, the funniest
thing is somebody took the table no relations. Somebody came in,
Oh yeah, we got a table for you, and and
the setup was much more professional than the one day
that they had had the day before, and it was like, hey,
take a look, it's this is a really professional you know,
for a card show. This is a very nice setup.
They had done a much better job than the BYB
people had. And this is just the latest example of
BYB not doing the right thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you make a great point, rich in that I can.
I can even you know, look at it differently if
this was their like first offense. But but there has
been like multiple strikes, right, and it's like, uh, strike three,
You're out. Isn't that the you know, when when does
it end?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 4: This might be strike eight?
Speaker 2: You know. It's like it's like me with restaurants here
in town.
Speaker 1: I'll go to them three times, you know, if if
I've had a bad experience, I'll you know, once I
get three, I don't go anywhere. I mean, how many
how many strikes do these guys deserve?
Speaker 2: I mean it's like what richid eight? I mean, I
don't know, it's it's hard of.
Speaker 4: It, you know, and nobody's perfect, but they they've been
stretching the barriers far more aggressively than most people in
the hot Yeah. That's and I think, as kN just
pointed out in the in the chat, how many of
their supporters are more newer people to the hobby, since
you know who came us since the pandemic and are
part of them, we'll call it the new ros in
the hobby instead of the more traditional hobbyists.
Speaker 2: Probably the majority yeah, probably.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: You know, back in the day, I used to collect
hot wheel and I had a lot of run ins
with hot wheel collectors. One I actually pushed my son
down when he was little to try to get to
hot wheel. I actually had my my safety threatened. Somebody
threatened to come and burn my house down over hot wheel.
So I used to think that the hot I got
to think that the hot wheel's hobby is like got
some of the worst people in it. And until you know,
and I was proud to be in the card collecting community,
we didn't have things going on like that. We didn't
have the push and the shoving, the you know, people
people trying to outdo each other, you know, the greed,
that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Then the pandemic hit and now we have all those things.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I think the card collecting hobby has gotten
worse than the hot wheels hobby.
Speaker 2: To me, that's very sad and logan.
Speaker 4: The funniest thing that this is when I started collecting,
I would go through boxes at card shows and it
was hyper competitive. Forty years ago, forty forty five years ago,
it was hyper competitive. You know, everybody's trying to get
the best thing. Now, at least in the Dallas card
show when we go through the value boxes. You know,
we've talked about this on Doctor Beckett's podcast, Him and I.
There's everybody. I don't want to say we cooperate with
each other. But there's no fighting, there's no thing. We
just there's enough boxes. We just figure it out, you know.
And so there's a lot less of that in that
realm than there was forty five years ago. Which but
you know, you're right during the pandemic. Oh, there's this
video somebody shot of all these people running at Walmart
or Target when they just put out some new blaster
boxes and basically scooping up everything. And you know, almost
as you said, pushing kids to the side or pushing
adults to the side.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, there's there there were you know,
I heard reports of people putting you know, putting trackers
on people's cars, you know, the the airpads or pods.
I forget what they were doing, but they were doing
all kinds of crazy things. So you know, I you know,
going back to backyard breaks, you know, what kind of
what kind of message does this send to young kids?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And also what kind of message does this send to
to people trying to enter the hobby. To me, it's
a it's a very bad message. It's one that I
don't think we can we can overlook. I think I
think there needs to be something done about this. I
mean they've crossed the line. I mean, I get it.
You can have some bro stick and say some lude things.
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: I get that, you know, but this is a line
that was crossed, and this is a line that should
never ever be crossed.
Speaker 4: And if you and Victor have kids, correct, yes, I
only have nieces and nephews. I don't have any kids.
The closest they came to having a kid is when
I found out one day we were going to get
temporary custody of my five year old great nephew. And
we had them for about four months while my wonderful
niece was sorting out some sorting out some issues. And
I will tell you, being a power to a five
year old, even for only four months, was the most
tiring thing I think I'd ever done in my life.
You know, I will tell you it was really tiring.
And I was, you know, and I was in better
shape six years ago too. But if anybody had ever
said anything like that in front of him. I probably
would have hit him. I probably would have thrown the
biggest punch I could have thrown that. And that's where
we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, hey, Logan.
Speaker 3: Before we transition to the next topic, I want to
give an update on my man Cave project. But I'd
love for you to show that Whatnot policy that you
showed me before the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna I was actually to get to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what not has a policy about let me find
it up here on the board. What out has a
policy about you safety, And here it is. It says,
what Not has zero tolerance for any activity or interactions
that endanger the safety and well being of minors.
Speaker 2: This includes the following.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm want to go down to the bottom when
bottom bullet point because that's the one that really applied here.
It says any activity, comment, item, or display sexualizing miners
or otherwise encouraging the physical abuse of a minor, whether
real or fictional. So they apparently don't put up with that,
but I'm wondering if they do. You know, in my opinion,
they should do something about this. But I have has
anybody heard anything about what not statement I've not heard
a statement from Nope, I haven't heard anything.
Speaker 4: I really missed a lot of this. I don't live
my life on the interwebs like some people, but I've
heard about this and it's as I said, as Kin says,
I rarely try to get off my even keel, but
this throws me off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Like I said, this, this is a line that should
never be crossed. And they're there.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm thinking that anybody that is associated with them,
you know, whether it's what not or you know, tops
or whoever, you know, this may be a place where
you need to cut ties. That That's what I'm thinking,
you know, in my opinion, I mean, what do you
guys think about that?
Speaker 4: I think the chat's got the tone debta on and
I can't say I disagree with most of the comments
in the chat.
Speaker 3: Yeah there's been. Yeah, I'm a girl dad too, I
have four daughters myself, and this kind of stuff just
creeps me out. But there's also I think, you know,
some somebody made a common freedom of speech, and I.
Speaker 2: Agree with that.
Speaker 3: There is there is that that's our constitutional right. But
at the same time, our speech has consequences, and.
Speaker 4: Well, actually just said that that our freedom of speech
doesn't mean freedom of consequences.
Speaker 3: Correct, correct, And and that's that's that's where we're at.
Speaker 2: Man, that exactly.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, and you know, I'll live in Memphis, Okay,
so you know, we have a lot of crime here
and people do whatever they want because they don't fear
the consequences. And that's I think that's something that that's
going on here.
Speaker 2: I think that that's almost exactly what. You know, these
guys are gonna do it.
Speaker 1: They know, I think they know that there's probably not
going to be, in my opinion, any consequences towards it
at all, and they're gonna keep all. They're gonna keep
on trucking. The hobby has a very short memory, unfortunately,
and they know they allow people to do bad things,
but then they welcome back, welcome them back with open arms.
Speaker 2: I don't don't. I don't understand that. I've never understood.
Speaker 4: Logan's there's a saying on that fifty fourth time stuff,
Trump's Paul part in the punt, But the whole key
is and I wrote some this is a I'm going
to kind of quote a line I wrote on Sports
Collectors Daily many years If I went up the river
for ten years and I came back and I found
twenty or thirty t thirty two thirty one of the
fan cards, of which I believe three or four are
totally known period Edward Warder Titan had one. John Ramirez
own's one. I know Leon Muckey at one point on
one that got sold in his heritage type auction maybe
eight nine years ago. There may be one more that
crawled into the world since then. But that's about it.
If I found twenty of them, even if I went
to jail for ten years before finding them, you know
what would happen. People would be saying, rich Helmas, do
you want for those cards?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, they sure would. It's kind of how this is.
Our hobby is rolling these days, and it's very very
sad to me. Like I said, I used to be
really proud of it, and I'm not so proud of it.
Speaker 4: Logan. That's why I like playing in the world. I
play in the dollar boxes, the quarterboxes. Can't really screw
that up too.
Speaker 2: Much, No, you really can't.
Speaker 1: That's you know, you're you're having fun, you're enjoying the hobby,
and that's I think that's that's what it's af.
Speaker 4: And I do buy an occasional packer box. Heritage High
Numbers is coming out, I will buy a box of
Heritage High Numbers. I will buy a jumbo pack of
Tops one on February twelve or thirteenth when it comes out,
and that will be sufficient for the short term. So
I actually get to play a little in the New
Card World and then I'll go back to my quarter
on dollar Box.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I do.
Speaker 1: I do want to make one more comment about this.
You know, I'm not pro cancel culture, canceled or you know,
I mean cancel culture. But you know, but this to me, again,
I keep saying this, but it just draws the line.
This is the line you should never cross, and they've
crossed it. And again there needs to be, in my opinion, consequences.
Speaker 4: They didn't cross it. They storm passed it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they stampeded right through it, didn't they.
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: And you know I talk about cancel culture. You know
it's that in itself. That's a whole nother story. But
I'm gonna say something here really quick. There was a
NASCAR Truck Series driver that lost his sponsorship in his
ride because of something his dad said like thirty years ago.
That to me is abs third. But you know this,
this is a whole different you know, this is a
whole different story, and it's it's it's just it's hard
for me to put this into words. I just my
jaw dropped when I saw this.
Speaker 2: My session.
Speaker 1: My son called me, he goes, You're not going to
believe what's going on? And I went and looked, and
it is like unbelievable. Can't believe somebody would ever go there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and of course it's just the latest, as
Ken says, it's the latest stupidity on my hobby. And
we have a long we have a long running topic too,
that's not a stupidity topic, but has certainly brought out
the conspiracy theorists in the world coming up.
Speaker 2: Yes, we do.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of, you know, and I have to
admit I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 2: Every so often I wear the tin foil hat. So so.
Speaker 1: All right, so before we get to that, I do
want to talk about who you guys are are rooting
for on the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Hold on, well, yeah, okay, can I start with that one?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead, I like, uh, it.
Speaker 3: Was earlier in the chat. I think it was John
Keating who said, he apology he wants to send its
condolence to the.
Speaker 2: Yeah and the city Chiefs in advance.
Speaker 3: And that's that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's pretty confident.
Speaker 4: And he lives in Philly, he lives in the area.
Get it.
Speaker 3: And I'm on board, Like I am divided because I
see that Philly.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, is the better too.
Speaker 3: But then on the and I'm rooting for but at
the same time, I cannot deny that the having a
three peat would be pretty amazing for the sport, for
the hobby. So that's my tug of war that I
have to figure out before next Sunday.
Speaker 4: And I have an absolutely beautiful niece, married two kids
in Kansas. She and her husband are both Chiefs fans.
And the question is should I want to have say, Okay,
you're rooting for the Chiefs, so I have to root
for the Chiefs, or should I be the the pain
in the butt uncle and just say, you know, I
think I need to root for the Eagles to counterbalance
what you're doing. You know, It's as Victor said, and correctly,
there's something really nice about having a truly great team
in the NFL. And I mean Mahomes has played in
the you know, and Kelsey and some other guys, they've
played in seven straight conference championship angers. I mean, that's
that's amazing. That is you know, super Bowl number four.
I believe they're in. Yeah, you know, that's a sign
of a great team. And when you have a dynasty,
you either become a lot of times you become a
love it or hate it. And it's good for the
hobby and it's good for the sport to have a team.
But it's also good to see the Eagles if they win.
They won against the Patriots in twenty eighteen, I believe,
and then if they win this year, you know, they'll
beat the two teams that are like the dynasties of
their time. And so you have that counter balance. Like, hey,
I think outside of Kansas City and the other people
who like mister Mahomes and mister Kelsey and miss Swift
and all those people, I think you're gonna find most
of the country is real is rooting for the Eagles,
believe it or not.
Speaker 3: You know, somebody told me at work and maybe the
help the chat can help me confirm this. But somebody
told me at work yesterday that the NFL is going
to start starting next season, they're going to start reviewing
all roughing the passer calls.
Speaker 4: Well, that's going to be brought up. They can't actually
do that until the rules are changed. I believe they
can do that d make that official during the rules
you know, the rules meeting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's topic number one and during the off season.
I guess there's going to be a big push for you.
Speaker 4: Yes, well, I mean that's because the two penalties against
the Titans were kind of shaky at best. I mean,
there was one where the Titans seat each other more
than they hit Mahomes, and Mahomes has also on one
of the plays, he went out of bounds, kind of
slowed down to try to you know, which is smart football,
but it's but it was an obvious play. They didn't
call it, but he when he was pushed, he was
still in bounds. You know, that was a totally legal push.
And it's a good thing. There was no gruffing the
passer called, or no one's sports him like conduct called
on that because you would have said he was in
bounds that's allowed, and he wasn't sliding or anything, and
it's the late slides. And I think, you know, the
AHL has a rule called flopping. I think the NBA
has a flopping rule. Looks like the NFL is gonna
join the flopping rule too.
Speaker 3: Why would they implement such a rule.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of flopping in soccer. I
saw I saw like a meme or something on Twitter. Uh,
I guess last year or so. It showed, you know,
a guy getting supposedly, you know, he was flopping in
soccer and he was like holding his ankle and things
like that, and he wouldn't get up. And then it
showed a cyclist who wrecked and it was all bloody.
Is is his jersey and everything was all tore up
and he gets back on his bike and Go's just funny.
But as far as who I'm rooting for, I'm rooting
for the Eagles. You know, I'm an Alabama guy. My
wife graduated from Alabama, so we're in Alabama family. We
do have that tie to the I'm rooting for the Eagles.
But I did find something interesting on Twitter about who
people are rooting for throughout the country, throughout the United
States and I'm gonna show this really quick. So, okay,
Missouri is for the Chiefs, Vans for Eagles, and everyone
else wants to see em mediority.
Speaker 4: I think I saw in the chat somebody mentioned how
they want a sinkhole to just take the super super
domed down with it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, actually, actually, my son, Tyler sports guy, he
he posted that and I thought it was pretty pretty faint,
so pretty cool, all right, So I guess we can
probably move on to our next subject. I mean, let me,
in fact, let me get caught up on the chat
real quick. I'm trying to scroll back out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna I'll give an update because I've had
like three questions already asked in the chat. I don't
want to feel I don't want to make them feel
like I'm ignoring him. So here's an update with the
man cave being built. I started this project around Halloween
time October thirtieth, I think it was. I hired some
contractors to help me do the remodel. The contractors came in,
knocked it out, did their porch. I decided, in an
effort to save some money, that I will tackle some
of the work myself, especially on the finishing like base boards,
molding doors, that kind of thing. Well, then I ran
into a structure issue with my doors, which I'll get
into in a video, but that kind of delayed things.
And then the holidays rolled around and it was like, man,
this is a really bad time to start this kind
of project during the holidays, so that slowed things down.
But I am I will be finishing up that project today.
I have two bifold doors to hang, and I have
the televisions to hang, and it's done, and then I'll
be releasing a video. This will probably be the last
Hobby Hotline where I am upstairs. I am very urgently
wanting to get downstairs because this room is really, really bright.
It's a sun room, and I have right now. I
had to hang some makeshift curtains on the windows because
it is like super bright in here this early in
the morning. But yeah, we'll be heading downstairs real soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was wondering about that when you got
on earlier. It's like, wow, Victor's not in his normal place. Yeah, okay,
well that's cool.
Speaker 4: And Victor was great hearing you discuss the words degenerate
because I love how you research things. I'll still tell
the story of how when I mentioned the word I
mentioned diogenies, you actually did a ten minute video.
Speaker 3: Well you called me a diogenies and I didn't know what, Like,
what the heck did he just call me?
Speaker 2: Did he?
Speaker 4: There was no insult, you know, you know that was
a famous Greek person of the before the common error.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so I guess we can move on
to the next topic. This has a lot again. This
is what we were alluding to with the conspiracy theorist.
It is the ongoing saga over the Paul Schimes debut
patch card. Seems to be a lot of people are
speculating that this eleven year old kid doesn't exist. This
was all a ruse, you know, by fanatics and things
like that. I will say this, you know, going back
to our previous subject about the comments from backyard breaks.
If I had an eleven year old kid and he
pulled this card, I don't think I would want his
picture all over. I can see that point. But what
I can what I would like to see is like
maybe the dad coming out and say, hey, my son
pulled this card and now here it is. He's got
it in his hand and all this because we've never
seen any kind of picture of anybody holding this card
being proud that they pulled it. You know, I would
if I pulled that card, the world would know about it,
they would know who I was.
Speaker 2: I would be extremely proud. I mean, maybe they'd want
their privacy. I don't know.
Speaker 1: But again, there's a lot of strange things going on.
And then there's these journal entries, which you know, a
lot of people are thinking are fake. And of course
Fanatics is actually in this card, and people are going, hmm,
that's maybe that's a conflict of interests. So there's a
lot of weird things going on surrounding this card.
Speaker 2: So rich, what are you thinking?
Speaker 4: You know, one thing is and I'm going to kind
of tease Doctor Beckett and I were taking some podcasts
yesterday and we were talking about nineteen ninety two football
products and football companies, and a lot of them didn't
survive more than a you know, till ninety three or
ninety four, but there were a lot nineteen ninety two.
The old joke in ninety two was if you pay
the NFL or the NFLPA five thousand dollars, you can
get a license. Yeah. One of the companies that was
doing that. Did their first product in ninety one and
then did a better job of it in ninety two
was NFL Pro Line, and they had complete cooperation from
the league. They would dressed these people up in zoobos
or other you know, league approved attire. The ninety one
boxes had like one autograph every five boxes. Ninety two
I believe was one per box. So Fanatics has taken
what the NFL did in the early nineties and moved
it to another level. They have done what they're with this.
They've done what they promised to do when they first
started in sports card. We want to control the whole process.
The debut patch is a great idea. I agree that
that's a great idea. And whoever pulled the card the
finat it ended up, it's now going to be sold
off Fanatics collectibles and they and the great conspiracy theory
part of it is did they orchestrate the whole thing
up to and including finding some kid to write.
Speaker 2: A journal entry.
Speaker 4: James wrote in his History of Baseball book, you can
always tell when a story is a legend because everything's
just too pat every part of its believable. But when
you look at it as a whole is it really believable?
And that's the reaction people are having to this. It's
not that every part of the store, every part of
the story is believable, yes, but as a whole, is
it really believable? And that's where the conspiracy theory stuff
is coming, you know, like, for example, did they kid
really pull it on Christmas Day? I will tell you
story on that. Our local store, Triple Cards of Plano,
is part of a consortium of stores where the owner
owns a bunch of Triple Cards. He also owned some wax.
He also was involved with Sappi's and the Beasts in
this area. He's very very considerate where every places, new stores.
They had the first year they ever had the Secret Santa,
they had a secret Santa thing. And I drew somebody
to give my my things to who had actually given
me donations in the past, and they always said, you know,
try to go above you know the limit if you know,
if you feel like it. Well, he's given me donations,
He's always given me good grace. That shows when I
buy from him. Hecky, I was willing to give his kid,
who's who's a collector to and plays above the price.
The pri the the amount of money at the time.
You know, they took the box and there was a
prize for opening, like if you got a card worth
more than next dollars, you would get you know, an
extra thing free. But they did open that box that night.
They opened that box Christmas Day, and they got the
case sitting. Whether it was Pokemon or the Magic or whatever,
there was well above the money. I said, you know,
if you'd opened it that night, you would have gotten
another box. But they took the box home. So it
is very plausible to have a box opened on Christmas Day.
How many people open boxes on Christmas Day?
Speaker 2: Well, I could say this.
Speaker 1: I bought I bought some boxes for my son, some
football boxes, and he I mean soon as he opened them,
you know, unwrapped them. He busted them, mean that quick.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but a lot of people do wait till Christmas Day.
They'll wrap it up and they open it. And so
every part of the story is believable. But as the whole,
that's where people are looking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know there's a people there's people going, hey,
this thing double dined with PSA. So you know, and
a lot of people look at the autograph and they
go there's no way that can be a ten autograph
because apparently people showed, you know, they zoomed in and
showed where it went into where the patch was. So,
you know, like I said, there's a lot of people
that are wearing the tinfoil hats. I would like I
wish Chris was on here to talk about the p
s a side of it from when it hit the building.
I would love to know some details about that, if
he could even divulge anything.
Speaker 4: Well, Chris posted some about something about that on his
Facebook page. I don't know how detailed it was, but
he did post on his Facebook page when it came in.
By the way, I'm subbing for Chris today. Yeah, we
traded by the way, he was originally supposed to be
on today.
Speaker 1: So but uh, you know me personally, I think I
think it's a legit story.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: I just the only thing I want to see out
of it is somebody, some real happy lottery ticket winner
showing their face.
Speaker 2: Whether you know, you know.
Speaker 4: There's a state look that you cannot protect your identity
if you're a lottery winner. Yet if I want a
big lottery I would probably not want it to be publicized. No,
and there's that element.
Speaker 1: Too well, you know, and the fact that the card
was pulled during Christmas and we just we heard about
it a month later. You know, maybe they were smart,
you know, like what I've talked about in the past,
where Okay, you pull something big, or you hit the
lottery or whatever, you go hire a lawyer, you go,
you go get an account, you go do all these
things first before you announced that you actually actually won
or pulled this card or whatever.
Speaker 2: So maybe that's what they did.
Speaker 4: And you know, and there's all sorts of stuff. I
saw somebody who posted you know, they did not you know,
like Tops on January third announced this card had not
surfaced and they but it was announced the next day. No,
I remember they didn't stay pulled. They said surfit right.
You know, that's also part of the conspiracy theory. You know,
everything has become you know, we're great at conspiracy theories
in this hobby.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: One thing I'm not going to say it is or
it isn't, but it's but give I want to say something.
Give fanatics credit. They have done a masterful marketing job
with this, and they've also hit one of their mattress.
They said, we want to control this whole process from
making the card to selling the card. Well, guess what
other than getting the card graded a PSA because they
don't know if a grading company yet. Yeah, they've controlled
the whole process. That is actually well within the mantra
of what Fanatics has announced they would do. So this
is actually very consistent with what they've talked about in
the past.
Speaker 3: The only thing I throw a red flag on is
and I guess this was proven that Fanatics was notified
of this redemption on January third, and they didn't release
the announcement until January what was it, twenty fourth or
twenty sixth, somewhere in there, And so why was that?
Why did that happen? So there's a lot of theories
on why that happened. To me, that's the only part
that Candaly seems a little sketchy. I think though, to
agree with you, Rich if you were I like watching
the show Shark Tank on occasion, but if you were
to take that business model to the Sharks and tell
them that you're going to man factor the card, distribute
the card, you're going to get the card graded, and
then you're going to get the card sold, the Sharks
would probably think that that is a brilliant business plan.
What we consider as conflict of interest may appear more
like business genius. I don't think there's anything illegal because
they own the licenses for everything, so they've kind of
they are operating within the sphere of their authority, right,
And so yeah, the optics, right, we kind of don't
like it, we don't, you know, but as far as
them doing something illegal, and I don't think there's nothing there.
Speaker 4: No, there is nothing illegal at all about anything in
this process. And it's brilliant marketing. Yeah, And as I said,
they've done what was done thirty years ago by the
NFL and taken it to another level. And you know,
in terms of the marketing, the publicity, what great publicity
they had. I believe Rex posted the day they announced,
when the bounties all came out, how many people were
coming into his store to buy buy those packs. You know,
everybody wanted the lottery tickets. You know, it's one of
those things. And I want to when Orlando just brought
up an interesting point, and I want to kind of
address that in a different way. You're right, Orlando, it's
a monopoly, but the leagues wanted the leagues and the
players associate the leagues especially want to have a monopoly.
I have a really good friend of mine. He had
an NFL funtal license twenty five thirty years ago, and
the NFL called him and says, we're not going to
renew your license, and it's nothing bad that you've done.
We are reducing our licenses from three hundred to thirty
because it's a lot easier to manage. And as a
you know, so to speak, a private entity, they have
the right to do that. And even though they said,
we love you, you pay your bills on time. You know,
he was an accountant, he had an accounting background. He
always did perfect accounting. You know, everything was done to
the tee. They just go, you're you're, you're one level
below and so we're just going to go with the
bigger person. And there was no acrimony, nothing bad. It
was a legitimate business decision to reduce the licenses they
had from three hundred to thirty. A monopoly is well
within the realm, especially the way Fanatas is doing where
they have buying from the players and the leagues. You know,
this is what they want to what they want to do.
I'm not saying again, this is this and we can
agree or disagree whether we lik it in the hobby,
but it is something consistent with what they want to
do as a company.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, but that's a great looking signature.
Speaker 2: I agree. I think he did well. I mean didn't they.
Speaker 1: I think there was a video where they showed him
actually signing that car before they.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a great looking signature.
Speaker 3: I do see where it's like hitting the foil there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but that doesn't affect the signature. I guess it's this.
Remember it's the autograph. You're not talking about what it's hitting.
You're actually looking at. If you're an autograph grad, you're
grading the autograph, not does it touch the you know, Yeah,
if the autograph is a ten, it's a ten. You know,
excuse me, But if the card is a ten, it's
a ten. Now. I haven't seen anybody disagree that it's
not a nice signature or that it's not a nice card.
You know, it's you're not seeing, oh this is an
eight and an eight. You're not hearing that. And I mean,
let's be honest, that's a beautiful Again, that's just a
good looking I agree.
Speaker 1: It's not a scribble scribble as we call it on
nascard radio where they just kind of just put a
little whatever, you know.
Speaker 3: For two initials.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little a little slash on there, and they
call that a signature.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I agree, that's that is a nice looking card, all right.
Speaker 1: So I guess let's move on to our next subject,
and it is PSA price increases in the backle PSA,
I think on January seventeenth, raised their prices and it's
starting to get pretty pretty hefty degrade a card these days.
You you don't want to grade any common cards. You're
going to be grading some bigger cards.
Speaker 2: And I know, I know for a fact. You know,
and I am pro p s A got the hat.
Speaker 4: Well you're a ps A Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: Come on, this is true.
Speaker 1: Uh, it's getting it's getting harder and harder for me
to to get cards graded. I'm actually living off their
special I'm trying not to just send in cards at
the regular prices. So what do you guys think about
more price increases at p S. I mean, I know
they've got a lot of cards, and I guess a
way to stem the orders coming in is to increase
prices and that will slow it down at least in theory.
Speaker 3: Well for me as a as a P S A
A Fi Sonato myself, I felt like the price increases
were minimal at my I think it was like a
dollar on the lowen bulk right where the big increase
was on the high end stuff. I think that's all
like one hundred dollars increase if I'm not mistaken, if
I remember right. But people who are really grading those
types of cards don't have they don't have a problem
paying the.
Speaker 4: Extra hundred times.
Speaker 3: But on the low end. You know, again, I'm like,
I'm like, I'm doing the same thing you are, Logan,
and that's I'm living off the specials on the grand
scheme of things. It is making me, you know, think
twice about sending in you know, lower end cards, and
I think they've been trying to manage that for some
time now. You know, there's a lot of debate on
whether you should be sending in base cards. Well, you know,
I don't have a problem sending in a base rookie card,
but you know maybe that you know, a twenty eighteen
base card of Steph Curry might be a little you
gotta think twice about making that move because you know
secondary market rice is on that, So you just better
off just buying that outright instead of sending one in
because now the price is it doesn't justify the means.
So and and I think as far as the backlog
is concerned, I think they're they're making a good move
as far as getting ahead of the curve, and they're
trying to manage the amount of flow that's coming in.
And I think that's a good thing. But I think
they might have over overbit on that. For I guess
that game stop thing is what's really causing this backlog.
So they they're gonna have to they're gonna have to
straighten this mess out, hopefully sooner rather than later. I
hear it's only supposed to be like two or three weeks.
I wish again, Chris, I wish Chris would have been here,
you could have spoken on it. But yeah, we'll see
what happens. We'll see what happens. I got I got
my next batch ready to go, and I'm hoping that
it's uh, we cleared this up quick.
Speaker 4: Okay. I'm gonna provide again a little different way of
looking at it. I work for a company. That is,
when I started at COMCE in twenty seventeen, it was
a quarter per card to send the card in. It's
now fifty cents a card. We're still getting tons of
cards in. But we've had the same issues. You know,
there are issues. There's also you know, there are things
we do to mitigate some of the costs on some
of the things. We have things called fresh pulls we
have at shows. Sometimes there were discounts for select and
elite processing and all. But you know, one of the
things that was that we were all running over time.
When we were at a quarter per card, we were
just we were just struggling to keep up with what
we had. And that was eight years ago, pre pandemic.
We were getting very busy, just even before the pandemic began.
And price increases are you have to run the numbers
and see what works. And you know, I'm sure Tim
Julie and the upper management at com see run the
numbers all the time. I guarantee you, Nat Turner and
the people at PSA run the numbers and see what's
going to work. And if the numbers don't work after
being implemented, then things will get adjusted again, or specials
will be run. So these are things companies have to do.
I remember when I was at Beckett, you know, when
dinosaurs roam the earth. You know, it was a big
thing when Doctor Jim and the team raised the price
of the magazine from two fifty to two ninety five.
And he wasn't real happy about going from two fifty
to two ninety five, but it was a necessary business move.
You know. I run a show for my synagogue. I
always wanted to be one dollar to get in the door.
I wanted you to, you know, and we always ran it. Hey,
you know, if you really want to come in, just
come on, you know, come in. You know, now we're
two dollars. And one of the reasons for two dollars
is for various reasons. We have a security officer or
a police officer at the shop, and there's there's reasons
both religious based and safety based to do that, and
it frustrated me. The very first time we raised it
from one to two dollars was after a shoot. We
didn't raise at the first show. We had a shooting
at the Alan alt Leckmall like two weeks before the show.
We great, you know, what's probably a good idea to
have increased security, have a police officer here. The police
officer was approximately I forgot if it was fifty or
fifty five dollars an hour to half him. We absorbed
the cost because I wasn't going to raise a price
two weeks before the show. I was going to honor
whatever price I had posted. I'm not raising a price
two weeks before the show to have people come in.
A few people did help and give us extra money
towards that, and I'm very appreciative. But sometimes costs go up,
and when costs go up, you have to figure out
how to do things.
Speaker 3: Orlando makes a great point, you know. There you go,
there's your answer.
Speaker 4: SGC. By the way, SGC, don't forget his own by
PSA two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, this is true.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm all in with PSA. I'm a set
registry guys. So you know the only thing that that
I guess I probably don't like about these price increases
is that it makes it hard for me to try
to put any new sets on the set registry because
there are common cards that are just not worth grading
at that price. So it makes it tough. But I
will say that PSA. They sent me a coupon code
for a credit. It was one hundred and fifty dollars
towards my order. This has been several months ago to
help It was a set registry thing where they to
help offset costs, you know, to get cards that you know,
common cards graded. So that was actually really nice and
I hope they do something like that again soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you for posting that on X by the way,
because I took advantage of that special myself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you did. You have to go back and
look for emails and yeah, yeah found you got a
code too. Yeah, that was very helpful.
Speaker 3: And I thought it was a PSA Hall of Famer
deal only.
Speaker 2: No, it's for ever. It was for everybody.
Speaker 1: Well I don't know if it was for everybody, but
it was for I think that registry members. So yeah,
and you're talking about the backlog. I had some orders
that took about a month between the time that they
actually hit the p s A mothership and we're actually
put into the system. But then since then, uh, especially
this week, I have seen a lot of movement. I've
got like four orders and man, they're just going bam
bam bam, they're going from grading to encapsulation.
Speaker 2: They're the q A.
Speaker 1: I mean they're going quick, quick, quick, and I actually
have one that's actually on its way back. So I think,
what's once they get into the system. I think maybe
there's a there there could possibly be an issue with
you know, just the receiving side of the of the
house because they they're getting so many packages.
Speaker 2: But once they get into the system.
Speaker 1: They seem to be moving quite well, at least from
from you know, my vantage. I don't know about you, Victor.
All right, So, uh, one more thing that I wanted
to talk about. Let's see here you've got that.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: I do want to show something real quick.
Speaker 1: I didn't talk about this with you guys, but I've
been getting a lot of mail lately, and there's there's
some really good packaging things that I have seen that
are people people are making. Uh And trust me, I'm
not getting paid by anybody to talk.
Speaker 2: About these things. But one of the things I saw was.
Speaker 1: The clicking field and you can put you can put
cards in here inside and then you can seal the envelope.
It's it's made by a company called shipping Shield. You
can go to shipping shield us dot com.
Speaker 2: But these are nice. They're very light, but these protect
the cards.
Speaker 1: And I've gotten a couple of these in the mail
like this, and I just thought it was really neat
that people are making these kind of solutions to help
the hobby.
Speaker 3: You can put a top loader in that or what
is that just a penny sleep.
Speaker 1: I think it's a top loader. Let me see if
toploader will fit in here? No toploaded, there'd be a.
Speaker 2: Penny sleeve, a penny sleeve.
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, I guess if you're doing a plane
plain lie envelope, you know that you can put that
in here or.
Speaker 2: That in the envelope.
Speaker 3: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, you can see it, see it. It's
made by shipping ship. And then something else. I really
I saw that somebody sent a card in. Actually it
was a graded card. It was sending this box from
No City Designed. And this box opens up and you
can put a graded card in. Let's see, I've got
a graded card somewhere. We'll put put the card in.
Speaker 4: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what I think is good and I actually
ordered some of these, is you can put the graded
card is you can see you put the Grady card
in there, and you can shut it and then you
can put it in a in a bubble mailer, and
I think the card is gonna gonna make it to
you just find.
Speaker 2: In fact, that's how I got this box.
Speaker 1: So it's it's it's really and these are things that
I was totally unaware of until I actually received some
of the mail.
Speaker 2: And like I said, I actually went and bought some
of these.
Speaker 1: You can buy, like I think the minimum mortars twenty five,
So I bought like twenty five, and they were they were,
you know, very very inexpensive. Really, but you can go
to No City Design and find me. I just thought
that these were neat. I just wanted people to know
about them, and if you need supplies to ship, because
I know we got a lot of folks out here
that ship a lot.
Speaker 2: Of cards, that this would be helpful.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's it's an additional expense, but
I think it's it's worth it actually to think about this.
Speaker 2: Kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: I just ended up. I used to cut my hand
now a couple of pieces of cardboard to kind of
like sandwich the cards. I've since stopped doing that because
it's time consuming and I just didn't have the time
to take on such a task. But I ended up
going on Amazon and I found a pre cut pieces
of cardboard already in like a bundle of like one
hundred for like nineteen ninety five, and I jumped all
over it, and man has that been And they're perfectly
machine cut, you know, really nice, and it just saved
a bunch of time. But this is like next level
stuff now with the putting inside the little box and
that I still have to sandwich the cards and tape
each side so that that still.
Speaker 2: Takes a little bit of time.
Speaker 3: But I'm just trying to get little things to save
time when you're you know, listing and shipping and shipping
and listing, as Bau would say. But yeah, I'm interested
because I know bo on his program. You know, we've
had the talks about, you know, people leaving a negative
feedback because you shipped the card in a in a
what do they call that, Oh my goodness, not a
top loader but the one the card saver, card saver,
thank you. So there's been debates, right, should I ship
on a card saver or shipping a top loader? I
ship in top loaders, I have, but I have seen
people get upset about you shipping their card in a
card saver. I'm wondering how they would respond to that
little that first one you showed.
Speaker 4: And don't forget they also get upset. There's painters tape
for something on the cardloaders too, to help keep the
card in the holder. I mean, if somebody will find
a complaint about everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, does that have a little sticky tab on it?
Speaker 2: Logan? It does not.
Speaker 1: You can just put a little piece of tape on there, Okay,
but it kind of looks like it does, but it
really doesn't.
Speaker 2: Okay. It tells you do not tuck that in because
it possibly damage the card. Yeah, I wouldn't mind, you.
Speaker 4: Know, honestly, all the cards I do, I haven't bought
or sold mail order in so many years that so
I'm gonna be honest. There's enough here in Dallas area
where for me, this whole conversation is a little bit irrelevant,
understanding that we're very lucky here that I don't have
to worry about stuff outside the area, so to speak.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like the fact that there's a lot of
innovative people doing some innovative things in.
Speaker 2: The hobby to actually help collectors.
Speaker 1: And like I said, These are a couple of examples
of these things, and again I had no idea anything
like this existed till I got it, and they were
easy to find on the internet.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna check them out, Logan, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these boxes are great. I mean, I'm going to
reuse this box that somebody sent me. And like I said,
I bought a twenty five pack of these of these
so when I I don't ship a lot of stuff,
when I do, I'm definitely gonna use this box with
a bubble.
Speaker 3: So people wants to know if they're made from recycled materials.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't say I don't see the recycled I
don't see the recycled symbol on any I love that
question though, Yeah, so yeah, yeah, the rainforest doesn't like this.
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 1: Uh says he may shipped cards in cereal boxes back
in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2: You go, yeah, people who are doing that.
Speaker 4: But we're approaching the top of the hour. I think
that was a nice lighter touch to anadon.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought everybody would like that. Like I said,
I I kind of went crazy one night, Rich. I
got on the internet and I was looking for funny
name cards, and I found a bunch and I ordered
all of them, and some of them came in those boxes,
so I thought it was really really neat.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I'm glad You're Sophomoric Slabs collection is
trucking right along.
Speaker 2: It is. I've I've got a backlog.
Speaker 1: Actually I'm just trying to release one or two a week,
but I've got a backlog of probably thirty that I've got.
Speaker 2: So it's it's I found a lot of funny names.
Speaker 4: So but you probably have some names I have. I
try to find you name. When I see an interesting name,
I send them to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And I got a lot of friends out there that
are always sending me names and things.
Speaker 2: So it's it's very helpful. So that's really cool.
Speaker 4: See that. That way, you're going to have the number
one registry of Sophomoric Slabs.
Speaker 2: Yes, no, no doubt.
Speaker 4: Okay, so let's let's close this.
Speaker 2: Down, all right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's just let me say that I want
to thank everybody for spending their Saturday morning with us.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Next week we will return with your favorite hobby host.
So I'm not sure who's going to be on next weekend.
Speaker 4: I know doctor Jim's one of the three.
Speaker 2: Doctor Jim. Well, that's that's a must watch for sure.
Speaker 1: Uh So I do want to tell happy collecting, have
a happy collecting weekend. If you're going to a show,
that's great. I wish I was going to a show,
went to one last week. I always loved going to those.
And uh, do you guys have any final parting words?
Speaker 4: Hey, this was the only weekend in DFW without a
card show. I'm glad I could be on today.
Speaker 2: We're glad to grad to have you.
Speaker 3: Rich I gotta show card or they're gonna get mad
at us.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 4: Let me no card to show, So the two of
you show cards.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll show a card. What you got there, victory,
it's kind of hard to see.
Speaker 3: Aitln Clark, rookie, go ahead, that's all I am.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I've got this really cool Richard Petty Zebra PSA ten
card that I got in mailed the other that.
Speaker 2: I love that card.
Speaker 1: It's it's also a high number in this year's twenty
twenty four select which are very tough.
Speaker 4: I mean, and I have a couple of cards on
my desk. This is one of the great photos nice
and the official card at my desk, and so it
forgive me this is a little bit sexist, but she's beautiful.
Speaker 1: On that note, on that, on that note, i think
I'm getting getting ready to uh, to play the outro
real quick. So everybody, have a great weekend. Glad you
could make it, and we will see you guys later