Speaker 1: Hey, good morning sports cards fans, and welcome to Hobby
Hotline on four Collectors. My name is Dan. I am
joined by two of my favorite guys in the entire hobby.
I'm so excited about this. We got a Orlando good
morning sir, How are.
Speaker 2: You good morning? Dan? Doing great? And Uncle Rich we got.
Speaker 1: We got Uncle Ridge down there in bal Meat, Texas.
How are you Uncle Rich?
Speaker 3: Cooler than you are? In book City.
Speaker 1: We were at one hundred and four yesterday and then
this massive thunderstorm comes in like it only lasted for
like a half an hour, but there were trees knocked
down and everything. It was crazy. And then it dropped
to like the seventies. It literally went down like thirty degrees.
But it's back up again, so we'll be all right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not used to this before we went on live.
The young guys are.
Speaker 1: No, here's a rarity. I'm the youngest guy on the screen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so hard, I should say, are more.
Speaker 1: Than That's a And I'm glad you brought that up
because as as our chat fills up a little bit,
and we'll visit with the chat in a second. It's
it's July fourth, and I volunteered to do this show.
John John was looking for a host, and I said,
I'll do July fourth. I got stuff going on later
in the day, but eleven o'clock in the morning, I
had nothing to do, and I'm excited about this. America
two fifty. I'm old enough. We're both ra old enough.
America two hundred, nineteen seventy six. I was twelve years
old and my folks took us in from Long Island
to New York to see the tall ships, and it
was an experience. I still remember it, and it was,
you know, it was a big deal. Seventeen seventy six,
nineteen seventy six. It was a big deal. And so
what I'd like to do is start off the show.
I'll say hello to the chat, but also to talk
about some fun stuff before we get into the not
so fun stuff. We've got. We got some July fourth
memories because baseball and July fourth are interconnected, and we'll
get to some of the big ones. But they used
to play double headers every July fourth. They don't do
that anymore. I wish they did, and affect some teams
are off on July fourth, depending upon what day of
the week it is. Of course, everybody's going to play today.
But so anyway, let me just say hello over to
the chat and we'll come back. We'll talk about some
July fourth stuff we've got. Mad City Brew was first
in here. Good morning, sir Scott. How are you? Stuke
was in the was in the Carlos live stream last
night until until the bitter end. Vintage card collector for
three three. Happy birthday to America indeed, July fourth, Always
love this day. Good morning to everyone, Rick, Rick oz
Bunn Okay, not familiar, but hello sir, Peter B. Of course,
how are you, sir? Thank you Peter B for doing
that VR for me. I think you really nailed it
on that one. Jim at the Bank, Hello, Jim Abe
in Vegas, Good morning, happy happy two fifty exactly. That
is Ruben Sneyder Confluence Sports Card. Zach Pierce again another
another guy who was in Carlos till late last night. Indeed,
great group. Very happy to have these two gentlemen with
me today. Mike Jay Hawker, Good morning and happy fourth
doctor Larry, how are you, sir? Thank you for your
wonderful comments on my newest video. Whoa Eric? Eric's making
the joke there we go. See we we've already made
the joke. So Eric, you're you're you're behind the times
here as you uh tall trips, it's tall ships in
Newport and seventy six. Yeah, we had it down in
South Street Seaport in Manhattan. But uh uh uh there
he is the Rickey cards specialists and uh happy to
see you this morning, sir. Uh collect Washington and Lincoln cards. Yeah,
I don't know. I got an important I got an
important person in uh General Sherman won the won the
Civil War for us. If you know the Civil War,
you know. Good morning, Philly, Joe. How are you? Doctor
Gitlan campedon Colorado with his future wife? There you go,
not sdy, doctor, I've met you. I don't think you're
that Oh it's cold time, so I haven't stopped talking.
We're five minutes in Orlando before I bring up some
some photographs of from baseball in July fourth. Tell me
about July fourth.
Speaker 2: For you, Well, I mean July fourth doesn't mean a lot,
because I celebrate July fourth every single day being here
in America. As a person I was born in Cuba
or born into unfortunately the socialists or communism, you know,
coming to this country was the greatest thing that ever
happened to me. So I celebrate every single day that
I'm in this country because it is the greatest country
in the world and I've experienced you know what, see free.
So to me, you know, July fourth is a day,
but every single day that I'm in the United States
is a gift. And you know, I could quickly share
my story if you want to hear it, but you know,
give me a few minutes and I'll talk a little
bit about it. You know, I was born in Cuba.
I came here when I was four years old. My
family was pretty well to do family. Both my parents
had master's degree. My dad was the senior vice president
at the Bank of Havana. You know, we were in Cuba,
you know, until nineteen sixty, right after Fidel came in.
My dad was not with Fidel. He was against Fidel.
So he was going to be thrown in jail basically,
just for disagreeing with the Communist government. And we had
to come to this country. And we came to this country.
We were coming to Miami, and in those days you
had to have a sponsor. My grandfather had come earlier.
The government had taken away both of his He owned
two groceries and the government took them away, and you know,
made up a government grocery. So he came to Miami
and then he was got the visa to be our
sponsor to bring us in. And because that's the only way,
they didn't give you any handouts, you had to have
somebody that would be able to support you. So when
we got to the airport, you know, and I was
four years my sister was three, my other sister was
six months old, they literally found out that we were
not you know, we were with Battista. So they took
away everything we had, all our luggage, all our clothes,
my mother's wedding ring, everything. Instead of sending us to Miami,
they sent us out to Honduras. And you know, eventually
we were able to get to Miami and live a
great life here. But you know, what you hear about
communism is all true. They you know, they promise everything
and they don't give anything. And you know, I my dad,
my parents and grandparents always told me the story and
I've gone back and read even though I was a
young kid. You know, they promised everything, Dan, you know,
everything you hear today. The free healthcare, the free schools,
the free you know, government handouts, the government grocery stores.
All of that was promised. And yeah, you have free education,
but there's no job to take after your you get
your education. You know, doctors and teachers there today are
making fifteen to twenty dollars a month, and that's a month,
five dollars a week working full time. The hospitals there's
nothing there. There's no medicine. All you know, gone to crap.
You know, try to go to the hospital, you can't go.
You have to wait some months just to go to
the hospital. They don't have any anything there. The free
food they promised, they give you what's called the Livetta,
which is a little book that tells you what you
can get every month. And basically what you get is
nothing anymore. You have to stand in line to get
a piece of bread and some rice. That's all there
is in these grocery stores. When they tell you that,
you know what they did was they limited the capitalism.
So my dad had built a brand new house, the
government took it away. The government took away all business,
They privatized everything. No capitalism anymore. They all the people
that had money, they were taxed or at taxed so
much that eventually, you know, because everybody's supposed to be
equal in socialists, in communist government, everybody's supposed to be equal,
what ends up is everybody's equally poor. And at the end,
you know, they don't have enough money to take from
the rich because either the rich came to Miami or
they left, or they became poor. And when it gets
to a point that just they're desperate. And then what
they end up doing is they have what they call
the go mite, the committee, which is what they do
is they have a few communist people in your block
that are the people that are like the snitches. So
they will tell the government just to get a little
more food, a little more stuff. They tell the government
what's going on, who's talking bad about the government. You know,
who's going doing things in the black market, who's doing
stuff illegally, if you're putting your air conditioner on, if
you have an air conditioner, but if you're turning it
on when you can't, not supposed to those types of things.
And at the end, you know, look look how they
are today. All the infrastructure is gone, it's not been modernized,
in you know years, the same thing happened in Venezuela,
the richest country, where the richest country in South America
became the poorest country. Cuba, which was one of the
richest countries in the area, with beautiful scene. They had
all the latest cars back in these which they still
have today, all those cars, and you know the people
that drive those are government employees, no private but you
have a little business which they allow. Now the government
takes most of that money. And basically, you know, it's
the poorest country in the world. People are starving. The
only people that have money that are the government. And
most of the Cubans that came to Miami. We made Miami.
We made Miami the biggest and best international city in
the world. And that's because of all of the top
business equal and the smartest people in Cuba left once
they realized what was going on. So that's why I
say that I celebrate your life for every single day
because to me, you know, this is the best country.
And when you get a government like that, the only
people that have money or make money are the people
that are in the government, and everybody else is the same.
They're all poor. So it's the best country in the world.
I appreciate every single day that I came here. You know,
since my family came and we had no money, my
moms didn't throw anything away. That's why I saved. She
saved all my baseball cards and that's what got me
back into baseball. And you know, going to the baseball
field talking Cuba, and I know I'm talking a lot,
but it's just to me. This is I can't tell
you how great this country is. And those people that
live in America all their life don't realize how country is.
But you know, some of the greatest players were in
Cuba and they came here, people like like Mini Minoso
and Tony Perez. Later on you had players like Jose Canseco,
Rafael Pobero and you know players even you know, my
greatest thrill I think was watching Levon Hernandez win the
World Series at the Marlins and say, you know, I
love Miami because he was able to get out of
Cuba along with his brother Orlando or El Duque. And
you know, even today we have some of the greatest
of Cuban players here with our oldest Chapman, you have
Jordan Alvarez and players like that that are still playing
in the majors, and that's Miguel Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: Right, yep, yep.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think my biggest story I think
I'll tell is a player which was supposed to be
one of the biggest superstars. Jose Fernandez. He died ten
years ago. You remember a pitcher for the Martins, Jose
her Netfertis, Yes, Fernandez. He died at twenty four years
old and fourteen of voting on him. But he tried
to leave Cuba three times, and he was caught every time,
you know, in the rickety rafts that he had made,
rafts that they would try to bring he'd come here
in that way, and hundreds and thousands of poole died
coming through that Gulf of Mexico stretch, you know. And
that's not talking about the hundreds and thousands of pool
that were shot and killed in a firing squad in
Cuba because they were against the government. But the story
on Jose Fernandez is he was caught the first two
times that he was was trying to come to this
country and brought back to Cuba. The third time he
came and brought his mother here. And when he Unfortunately,
on the way here his mother, they had a big
storm and his mother fell off the boat and drowned.
And he made it to this country, and he was
so proud that see him every time that he played
that he was one of the happiest guys. And then
I was so excited just to be here knowing that,
you know, he was free, even though he had lost
his mom. And there's many stories out of one of
your favorites, dan Is Lewis Taint like you say, Luis Tiante.
Luis tian was another great player that came to this
country from Cuba, and you know, he couldn't bring his
dad there. He is, he couldn't bring his father, Loui
tant Senior, who was a legend in Cuban baseball. But
finally at the end of his career, he was able
to bring his dad, and his dad literally threw out
the first pitch and cried because he was able to
see his son pitch and he was able to come
to the United States for the first time. That's a
lot why I'm so proud to be an American and
why I'm so proud to be in the greatest country
in the world, the United States.
Speaker 1: It was in the seventy five World Series. I think
it was Game six, actually, if I if I'm not
mistaken that that lewis here's this Camel Deportivo throughout the
first pitch and had come to this country for the
first time in nineteen seventy five, and yet he played.
This is a nineteen forty five baseball card, so you know,
thirty years later he gets to come. I really really
appreciate you telling that story, Orlando, and telling your own
personal you know, your own personal experiences, and you know,
real life experiences are are important to understand because you know,
you can say all this stuff, but when you talk
about your situation and being a four year old, you know,
on a boat from Honduras, it really hits hard. And
you know, it's one of those things that you know.
I obviously the hobby loves you. I you know, we
appreciate you every day for what you do for the hobby,
but you know it's important to understand that they are
backstories to everybody in the hobby, and yours is particularly compelling.
So I really appreciate you sharing that list today. Uncle
rich you you got an all car for that.
Speaker 3: If you think I'm gonna top that.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, I grew up in New Jersey.
Speaker 3: But okay, so when I was at that, one of
the big July fourth is Addis, which is a which
is a suburb of down basically at Addison Basic Arrestaurant,
and what I mean by that is basically just a
lot of places. Addis is one of the richesties of
the world because they got collected attacks and they didn't
have anybody living there. You talk about about having money
to put away, they had money. But the thing was
for the Beckett Building three. We could see kaboom on
firework from the park and it became a party and
it was really cool because you know, you know, we
would gather outs, be a lot of so I'm that's
kind of sort of hobby related where we were actually
using the buildings, and we had somebody there to make
sure because obviously it's the restroom. We made sure there
was a way for we're just there, get to the
restrooms and get in and get out. You know, we
didn't want any roaming the building. But it was really
when I got matters. Is it the backyard of where
I live. You can watch in the fireworks from the backyard,
so I don't go anywhere anymore.
Speaker 2: You the own.
Speaker 3: Downs outside is so many people come after about three
o'clock you realize because otherwise you're gonna sit in traffic
for hour, so you kind of sort of get get
your day done. So I mean that's a minor downside,
but being able in the fire. And I know you've
got some special for video, so I'm not gonna top Orland.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I have one thing I want to show,
which is one of the coolest things I own.
Speaker 3: I think you've got a couple of cool views to
talk about a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we'll put up some baseball stuff,
but first I want to show this. This doesn't mean
anything to anybody, but it's one of the most important
documents in my entire life. It's the ship manifest from
the Lusitania on March tenth, nineteen twelve, and the fifteenth
person listed here is my grandfather, James Jay Burns, who
came over from Ireland on the Lusitania on Saint Patrick's
Day is the day that they let him off of
Ellis Island and he showed up to visit with his
cousins and nobody was home. Because it was Saint Patrick's day,
and he said he will, he would if he were
alive today, would echo exactly what Orlando just said from
a different standpoint of you know, different politics and different
you know, life experiences. Back in Ireland, they were farmers,
they had survived the famine. He was the younger, he
was the oldest, and he came to this country and
he said his entire life, lived to the age of eighty,
that he absolutely loved this country and it was the
best thing he ever did. And he went into World
War One, became a sergeant, and received his citizenship on
an army base in Greenville, South Carolina, and I believe
nineteen eighteen, and lived his entire life as as a
proud American. And my grandfather and you know, I love
Ireland and I've been back five times now and I'm
an Irish citizen. But you know, he said, best thing
he ever did for himself. And his family used to
send money back. And when we visited my great grandfather's
gravestone and all the brothers and sisters, his name was
at the bottom because he had paid for all of
it from his earnings in America. So that's my July
fourth story and not as good as Orlandos, but I
like it.
Speaker 3: But we did one question. When you go to Ireland,
have you ever.
Speaker 1: Collected I have looked for collectibles in Europe and it's
hard to find. I think England is where you can
find a lot of the tobacco stuff. But when I
was in France, when I was in Italy, mostly everything
you find is soccer and modern you know, TCG. Stuff.
I did not look in Ireland, though, and that's a
great question. I'm gonna I'll be back. I'm certainly going
to go back again, and maybe I'll look for some stuff.
So good. Thank thanks for putting that idea in my head,
Uncle Rich. But July fourth in baseball, the first thing
that comes to mind is July fourth, nineteen thirty nine,
several weeks after lou Gerrig's you know als diagnosis Yankee State,
he retired, and Yankee Stadium had lou Gary Day, which
is of course known for his speech. But as Uncle
Rich pointed out before we even got on to the
to the video, we don't have the whole speech. We
have the very end of it, and I wish we
had video of the whole speech, which you know, if
it were now we would have eight different videos of it.
But Lou Grek, of course gave the Luckiest Man speech
on July fourth, nineteen thirty nine, and it's one of
the most famou this moment team baseball history. So any thoughts, gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Just really it was one of the greatest and really
art breaking speeches ever given. And I wish we would
have the thing because the end of it alone is
just it's heartwarming and art breaking at the same time.
Speaker 1: So the other thing I have is this. Let me
see if I can get this going. It's not it.
I'm gonna share my screen here. Uh here it is
and Dave Righetty.
Speaker 4: On the threshold me gig history right here at Yankee Stadium,
Kay said, the ket and the pitch he stuck give out.
Bregetty has pitt stud O ridder Baghetty has pets stand
o hdder Hey strike out Budge for the final out
of the ballgame at the Yank Games pour on the field.
Speaker 1: So yeah. July fourth, nineteen eighty three, Uh, Dave Righetty
pitched a no hitter in the Yankee State against the
Red Sox. Eat it Red Sox.
Speaker 2: And Bogs, being the last strikeout crazy because then he
played for the Yankees after that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and the other thing, by the way, that's
the radio broadcast because famed longtime Yankee anounce for Mel
Allen was doing EV broadcast, yes, or for the cable network.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was before I missed G existed.
I think it might have been Sports Channel. It was
called back then, and they hired Melott for a couple
of years in the early eighties, even though he was,
you know, deep into his seventies at that point. And yes,
mel Ott is the announcer, and I wish I had
that audio. I thank you for pointing that, Uncle that out,
Uncle Rich, But that was the video I found, So
it's fun.
Speaker 3: It's a great video to see. I was just pointing
out when you're a Yankee fan for Mel.
Speaker 1: Allen, of course. Uh, here's one pointed out July fourth,
nineteen sixty one Speedster Harmon killerbrew in Minnesota, Twins first
inside the park home run. There we go a couple
of other July fourth things. I should add that when
I read Phil Rosenswig's Great A Splendid Season book recently,
he pointed out that in nineteen twelve there was a
no hitter on July fourth, whitch by this gentleman, George Mullen.
So I went and cheated, as Orlando calls it, and
I researched, I came up. There have only been three
no hitters on July fourth, pitched all two of them
early time, pre war times and Davirghetty, and the other
one is New York Giants hooks Wilsee through a no
hitter on July fourth. I believe nineteen oh eight, nineteen
twelve for Mullen, and nineteen eighty three, and those are
the only no hitters that have ever been thrown on
July fourth.
Speaker 2: You no, George Mullen when you pictures in one season
to win over twenty games and lose over twenty.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He also was one of the pitchers in speaking
of Cuba, when the Tigers won in I or down. Yeah,
he went down.
Speaker 2: To play against the Cuban team. Yeah, when the Tigers
came down. And that was the first nineteen oh nine
where the first Cuban baseball cards ever produced, and it
had the Detroit Tigers team and a couple of the
teams from Cuba.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd like to find that Mullen card someday, but
probably going to be expensive. Yeah, Don points out July fourth,
nineteen thirty fourth satur Pation Judge Gibson were the only
battery of Hall of famers in Major League Baseball part
of a no hitter. So I am technically wrong. If
we're counting this particular event, then there would be another
no hitter on July fourth, and it would be Satchel Paige. Yes.
So the other one is, if you're a Mets fan,
you remember July fourth, nineteen eighty five, you remember this
Uncle Rich in Atlanta time.
Speaker 3: That game lasted almost as long as the party last night.
Speaker 1: Inside joke, but a good one. So Mets and Braves
played just a regular July fourth game. It's a ninth game,
and at the end of the game, the Braves have
scheduled fireworks. So unfortunately, the game goes nineteen inning and
is most famous for a home run in the sixteenth inning,
down two runs, a down, one run, two outs, two strikes.
A pitcher who was perhaps one of the worst hitters
in the history of Major League Baseball, Rick Camp hits
a home run to extend the game. But actually I
think that was the eighteenth and then the nineteenth inning,
Camp comes out to pitch and gives up three runs
and the end of the game was sixteen to thirteen
was the final score the Mets won. Keith Hernandez, although
it was an ext trading game, hit for the cycle
in the game and the game ended at four am
local time, and as promised, the Atlanta Braves set off
the fireworks for angering every It's funny because I have
the police department got a whole bunch of after that.
Speaker 3: What is going on? Are we under it?
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because I, uh, it was the summertime,
so I was working at a job and July fifth
was not a holiday, so I had to go to bed.
On July fourth, I watched the Mets game until I
don't know eighth or ninth anying, went to bed and expected, oh, okay,
you know whatever, and read about it in the newspaper
the next day that you know, maybe I didn't even
read about it in the newspaper. It may I heard about
it because the newspapers printed early and they wouldn't have
been printing at four o'clock in the morning. But I
forget how I heard about it. But I was like what,
And then of course you get highlights and stuff. It
was not there was no internet in nineteen eighty five,
but it was. It trickled the information trickled down. But
I remember, I'm glad I didn't stay up because if
I had stayed up, I probably would have gotten up
two hours. That's the other July fourth thing. There's a
few others, but uh, fun, fun discussion. We've taken up
half the show with July fourth and USA USA. Certainly,
good morning to Laura, how are you? And uh so
we've got a couple of hobby discussions. As you can
see from the rundown PSA National prices came out and
I have a little graphic for it.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I have thoughts. I should say I
will not be at the National this year. I made
decisions and I've talked about it multiple times, but I
don't know. Oh, this is the other one. That's of course,
I forgot this one. Nolan Ryan three his three thousands
strikeout was on July fourth, nineteen eighty Thank you Dom
for that information. I'd forgotten that one. So, yeah, good point.
The plastic's it's more expensive to get plastic than it
is to buy silver anyway, So I mean, I think
what they're doing is essentially saying, do not send us
your nineteen sixties common cards for your registry. If you're
going to get something greater international and you want it
to turn it around, it's got to be worth thousands
of dollars. And if you give us a card that's
worth thousands of dollars, we will grade it, but we
will charge you a ridiculous amount of money. Two hundred
is the lowest, and you know you can go all
the way up to twelve, twelve thousand dollars to great
a card. I don't even have a card in my
collection worth twelve thousand dollars, you guys, I don't. Oh. Well,
you know, we've talked about the we talked a little
bit about the forms of governments there and their and
their you know, negative parts of certain forms of government.
But you know, capitalism does have does have issues because
capitalism has to be tied to morality, and in this
particular circumstance, putting a piece of cardboard into a piece
of plastic shouldn't cost twelve thousand dollars. Welcome.
Speaker 3: I want to get into because that's actually a topic
coming up, and it actually ties with our second topics
tonight yep and recently in New Jersey where I grew
up and not too far from where Dan, a father's
son was robbed of somewhere, but depending on newspaper report,
one hundred or two hundred thousand dollars graded Pokemon cards
and twelve thousand dollars last year at the NFCC there
were several cars broken. I explained the last time I
was on why I think getting more badge and important.
But that's a different subject for a different day. But
he's asking about insurance when you're not getting shipped. PSA
has tons of PSA has tons of security, but if
somebody really wants to do something, don't get your card.
And so that's legitimate that they have to have after
they have your cards. And it's a very difficult set
because we don't you know, we want to be a
friendly hobby and yet we've spun so far out of
We have to have lots of security in almost every
show week. I know what the Dallas cards, show cameras everywhere,
there's tons of police. There's seven hundred tables and trust me,
there's a lot of both. Very it's very safe and
still happens that. We haven't had anybody walked out in
handcuffs for a while. There was a time where every
single show we were having people being walked out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, as far as they call the
assured value, really they just want to know the value
of your card, so that is to determine what they're
going to charge you for the card. You know, it's
more like the card value, a card ladder value. Now, yes,
if something happens and they damage it, you know, that's
the amount that they're going to pay you for it.
So you got to be careful that you don't undervalue it,
because there was a situation like that that I think
somebody said their card was valued twenty five thousand, but
it was actually valued fifty thousand, and then PSA ended
up even though the card was value fifty thousand, only
paying what they said the value was. So it's kind
of tied into the value of the card, not truly
the insurance, you know, because yes, you're gonna get the
card right there, either the same day or at the
end of the show. They're not gonna ship it.
Speaker 3: And by the way, it was twenty five or twenty
five thousand dollars the purse in the cards were, but
when he submitted them at a p event, he the
twelve thousand, five hundred, which brings up a different case
about should you actually declare your full value because PSA
will up charge you, which is a different subject for
a different day than I don't make it into. In
that case, PSA had a very legitimate case. He said
the cards we worth twelve five. They offered him twelve five.
I mean, I mean, to crime out loud.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah again, So if they're handling a card,
I'm trying to look at the maximum value of the
maximum issured value two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
the for the twelve thousand dollars cards. So I mean,
they're supposed to, you know, they're supposed to be professionals.
They're supposed to be people who can handle this kind
of stuff. And I'll tell you they've got security. PSA
has security, no question about it, their own personal security
on site. And if they don't, then they don't, then
then you know they're committing negligence. But I don't know,
I just don't see this as as something that I mean,
I don't know, maybe they're insuring against their own incompetence
in a way, if they're able to, if they can't
handle a card, they shouldn't be doing what they what
they're doing. And as was said, I think with Zach said,
they're not shipping it, so what are they ensuring against?
And so twelve thousand dollars is just completely just completely absurd, crazy,
because I mean two hundred dollars is absurd for a
fifteen card.
Speaker 2: They're literally going to take around the same time to grade,
you know, a five hundred dollars card then one hundred
thousand dollars card, you know, and they're going to slab
it the same way, same plastic slab, the same flip.
There's no difference. But because of the so called value
of the card, you know, they get to give you
that massive tax I guess I don't.
Speaker 3: Think that's into true. If you have a Wagner, in
a lot more time grading a Wagner a typical pokemart.
So you're you're basically right, but there but there are
delineations in that you will spend more time looking at
certain cards because you know that there's a lot more money.
Speaker 1: Plus p s.
Speaker 3: A will make sure the wagners. They're really big cards.
They have their seniors there. Guess who's going to be
greating those cards. It's not you or me. It's gonna
those senior graders who get paid good money and have
a lot of your concerns.
Speaker 2: But they're not going to spend any more than five
minut card there.
Speaker 3: No, that's true. Spend thirty seconds so you can get
a TCG.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they may spend you know, a few minutes.
Speaker 1: So you know. This comment brings up something I watched.
Chris swe Will put out a new video this morning,
and one of his discussions is the fact that somebody
had a Wade Bogs rookie not even a rookie card.
Wade Box autograph card graded by PSA was like eighty bucks.
Graded by JSA CGC was like forty bucks. And part
of the problem. And ostensibly the CGC card just looks better,
presents better. JSA, as far as I'm concerned, are better
autograph analysis analysis than the PSA people. And yet we're
paying twice as much for that card. And the reality
is that people don't and that's why PSA can continue
to charge the prices they charge, because we, as the
hobby have not taken it. You know, we give more
money for PSA cards, which I don't simply that it's
not in my you know, it's not in my hobby
that I'm giving more money to PSA. It's just the
way it is. And so maybe it's the problem is
it's it's partially our fault. This, this disgraceful group of
prices is our fault. I mean we we have empowered
we the hobby have empowered PSA to screw us from
behind like they're doing at the at the National Frankly,
I don't want any part of it. And you know,
as one million cups says, go to a different company,
I do not have a graph like that for the
CGC prices. Uncle Rich, you mentioned that you had seen them.
What did you think of their GC?
Speaker 3: And Beckett and SGC is going to be at least
taking some missions. And I saw that we are fully
vested in all the grading companies, being at all the
key grading companies. And when I say this is no
slight to the tags, the arena clubs, the people one
level below those four, I'm sure they will be there too.
So we will have a lot of you will have
a lot of and I don't want to sound like
a PSA apologic, but Chris Carlin, one of our fellow panelists,
has explained on the shows why all this insurance goes on.
You know Chris, you know, I know he works there,
but he's very well spoken on it and explains what.
And even Bo explained in his post of why yeah,
damn right, we're insuring their car. It was a post
from one million coups Thompson three or four comments and
he's right, absolutely, they're handling cards. You're paying two hundred
dollars for car, be worth ofly gone right, You're gonna happen.
Speaker 1: That's my alternative grading these days. A beautiful one touch
from Penny.
Speaker 2: Sleever dropping off some cars at s G. You know,
I still like their their the tucks. I still believe
in them, and the prices are reasonable and I know
I'm going to get it back, you know, in reasonable
time compared to the p s A bulk rates or
whatever they have, because you know, it's just not worth
it to me. I don't have that high end of
cards to submit to p s A right then and there,
but to send to have SGC take them home to
Boca and grade them, mail them to me. I'm good
with that.
Speaker 1: I'm coming up on three months. Yeah yeah, my latest
SGC is coming up on three months. And uh, it's
not even in grading at this point, so you know,
I mean it used to be a month. Now it's
three to four months. And that's not like you said,
it's compared to PSA. It's not. It's bad, but it
should be better. Let's put it honestly.
Speaker 3: Just like Orlando, if I was gonna have any I
really wanted to have graded at the beck of there's
literally five minutes you know, you know I can drive there.
I mean I went there once during rush hour. It
was five minutes. Or I didn't go there, but I went.
I did the timings. Five they're during rush that's close
enough where Yeah, if I'm going to do something, I'll
make the appointment.
Speaker 1: And drop off wait rush hour rush.
Speaker 3: Like eight thirty. I actually test. I actually tested to day.
I was going somewhere else and I figured, let me
test this to see how long it actually so I
can talk about this someday video.
Speaker 1: Well, PSA is New Jersey City. Location is one stop
on the path train from from my from my my job.
So I've gone over there a couple of times. Say
it again, don't they have graders card grade? I'm not sure.
I just submitted actually, I think one of them. They
said they had to send it to California because the
nature of the car hard. But I'm not I'm not
gonna be doing that anymore. Well, actually it was this.
It was not card. It was a ticket.
Speaker 3: Has a ticket office not too far from where I am.
Speaker 1: So, uh, okay, well will you you did bring this up? Rich?
It's the what happened in uh in Jersey, South Jersey.
So what's interesting about this is, you know, you have well,
I'm a criminal defense lawyer, so I'm pretty well versed
in what crimes are and uh and and and to
to look at the you know, the circumstances and determine
what what what's the underlying thing here? And in reality
it says armed thieves. This was not some sort of
crime of passion or some crime of opportunity. It was
a bunch of guys coming up or a couple of
guys coming up with guns, knowing who their target was,
and then driving away in a BMW. The robbers had
a BMW, so they they you know, there was there
was some there was some knowledge here or inside knowledge
here one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of Pokemon
cards and twelve thousand dollars in cash, and there was
some pistol whipping going on, and it was a pretty
brutal thing. But the thing about it and Richie talked
about security at shows, and we could talk about that too,
but this didn't happen at the show. It happened in
a parking lot some distance from the show after load out.
And how do you how do you guard against something
like that? You know, how how do you prevent people
from understanding what where? You know where the money's going
when it's going off site and those guys with their
guns in their pockets aren't anywhere in sight? How do
you protect against that?
Speaker 3: It's it's hard. I'm not just talk about the Dallas card. Yeah,
you know, it's the Water's conventions. Unfortunately that it's A seven.
It's literally six or seven floors of the garage. But
I almost think you have to close that. People want
when I say one, to pat that area as well
or lease off in addition just to me, I'm know
I went the last show about between in the after
because to show how secrety conscious com see where I
worked with, and they asked me to come. The person
who does the booth asked me to come to just
make sure there were bodies there to close the show
down was part of just parts of shows or loaded
and this was a loadown and one person went and
brought the cards going to be shipped. It was an
easy access to get FedEx office. Is literally very little
is going to happen to him, do the cards into
the car, they go across the street, he drops them off.
It's all good. But we have feuters, we have other
and because it's twelve minutes from my house, they asked
me if some of the some things in Texas, but
they want to sure that nothing happened and you have
to be careful and this is part of what I
talked about badges. But I got there at three in
the after on Sunday and anybody could have walked in.
And that's one of the most to have almost extra
security and loaded and load out. They're doing the show.
It sounds it's actually it's really weird. In fact, the
one point the Dallas card show, which you start setting
up until and I'm sure they still do the toll.
We will not let you. We will not let anybody
set up. In fact, when I was doing the show once,
I had to tell Cup and out of leave because
if you don't leave, we can't set up. And then
asked me because I knew them, and I explained, none
of us can set up, like Okay, I got you.
Speaker 2: You know, Philly, Philly. Joe Man has a good comment there.
And you have to remember it's not just they're getting
robbed at some of these guys. There was one I
remember was followed from the show. They followed their car
to a restaurant, and then when they got down to
eat at the restaurant, they broke into their car and
stole their stuff from their car. You know, even today,
I still see too many dealers that are at the
shows by themselves, and you need to have people. If
you're a dealer at the show, you can't just be
there by yourself. And at some of these small shows,
I see it guy at the table.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I do my own. I don't. I
don't have thousands and thousand dollars worth of cards, but
I do have enough money on me and enough cards
to be a victim. But the local shows that I
work at. One of the local shows, shout out to
Maddie Stephen on on State Island. He's a former police officer.
He has two security at every show. They are either
active off duty police or retired police officers, which means
we know what they've got in their pocket, and they
actually affirmatively guard the load in and the way that
these shows are set up. You can park right near
the door and there's a guy, there's a security guy
at the door watching you load in or load out.
And to me, that's the safest show that I work
in terms of the local shows. But again, what and
you know the Philly Joe's point is, and this has happened,
as Orlando said, what what about tracking me? You know,
you know I've just loaded in thousands of dollars worth
of cards and I've got, you know, a wad in
my wallet or in my pocket. What's to stop them
from following me and doing it off site, which is
exactly what these guys did in Jersey. I mean, it's
not worth the time to up somebody like me, But
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of Pokemon and
twelve thousand dollars in their pocket. I mean, that's that's
that's a victim waiting to happen. And the problem is,
of course, you security can only go so far. And
I'm just concerned that we're making ourselves in the hobby
sitting ducks by not exercising maybe a little more security.
And I think it's it might have been. Yeah, Zach said,
if you had that much money, you would have your
own security. Why not. Howie Chasterer did it at the
National in twenty twenty four, had his own private security
guard because of the nature of the inventory that he
had on the table. And you know, is it an expense?
Certainly it's an expense. Is it worth it?
Speaker 2: Maybe it is, you know, yeah, And then you know,
let's let's talk about collectors. People are going to go
to the National with thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars,
thousands of dollars with a card. You gotta be careful.
You can't be by yourself, you know, I would Atlantic City.
I had to walk to the hotel, to the convention
center and back to the hotel. Hey, it was not
a pretty sight. Let me tell you. I was worried.
So I always made sure I had somebody with me
that could walk with me. And you know, you gotta
be careful at the national be flashing your cash out,
you know, if you're gonna do a big deal. Sometimes
you know, as the dealer, can I go behind the booth?
You know, don't be videotaping or a lot of of
you do it videotape the deal putting out all this
cash on the table. There are people watching you there.
Do they know what you have? So just be careful,
not just the dealers, but the collector.
Speaker 3: One who did that robbery. If they're driving around a
bf BMW, they have enough when you.
Speaker 1: When you I have to. I'm not admitted in Jersey,
but I have done cases in Jersey by you know,
having my co counsel be a Jersey admitted lawyer. So
I have done cases in Jersey. So give me a call.
Speaker 3: Guys, we got we got an experienced defense attorney. Here
a second. You know Alan Rosen, the buys he had made.
Alan Rosen never went alone to anybody unless he really
knew the perp. And what I mean by that is
there was one there was one case he went with me.
I go he doesn't happen and we did a couple
of things like that, but you know, unless it was
vetted by somebody, he stood on this. He never went alone.
And that was on three we were talking about and
I have a slightly dinnergogue because after set, after October's,
things became very but even before October set we started
having because of the shooting at the Allan output not
having disemters, but less than ten minutes show there was
that Alan outlet. Look got and thank goodness there was
a police officer there on an unrelated who happened to
stop because otherwise it could have been much more. And
we have a security.
Speaker 5: Or we have a police officer there and you know
basically the show when they run from four, well he's
basically there from nine thirty to four and most most vendors,
almost every vendor is out at four o'clock.
Speaker 3: We get everybody out on and I tell people in
a Senate we're actually for the overnight. We're the building,
you know, of if anything happens, the police will be
there quicker than I can I slip the phone call,
you know, so but you know, winder step and that's
and that's you know and understands you know, when I
set up at a show, I always figure if somebody
stole something from me, I always figure of more than yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, especially since you have the cheaper stuff out whereas
your your cases have the more expensive stuff. That's what
That's what I do. Yes, And if.
Speaker 3: Somebody steals from my cheap and I would put when
I had my before I sold out one of my
multiple times, I would put my approup of stuff, let's say,
on the corners where somebody took something from them. Okay,
the card is going to be five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it is what it is. Well, the other
thing that I've seen, even at local shows, not necessarily
like sports card guys, but the Pokemon card guys have cameras,
their own personal cameras on their tables. And I saw
a guy the other day with a sign that said
you are being recorded and you know whether it's true
or not, and how much that means. I think it
has some effect. So you know, you see occasionally you
see these videos on YouTube of you know, guy's little
little you know, ring camera right on his table finding
showing somebody's stealing. And it happens. It happens, not doesn't
have to be one hundred thousand dollars. It can be
twenty thirty, fifty, couple hundred dollars and suddenly your show
that was you were doing pretty well at you're doing
less well. So it is a problem in small, small aspects.
Speaker 2: Too, Dan quick, five minutes before we shut down on FIFA.
Speaker 1: Yes, United States. Well, not to say one thing, let
me just I will give you the floor, But I
want to say one thing, FIFA. Why is the United
States not playing on July fourth? Please? What the heck?
Go ahead?
Speaker 2: Yeah we got Canada playing on July fourth? What is that?
But yes, you're right, Dan, You know, I gotta tell
you I was not a soccer I thought I was
the most boring sport. You know, nil nil, one one, nothing, nothing,
you know, those type of games. To me, we're boring.
But I gotta tell you this has been the most
exciting FIFA tournament I've ever seen. You know, yesterday's game
with Argentina and Copple Verde was an incredible game. Going
into double overtime with you know, the previous champion Argentina
going against probably one teams that shouldn't even been their
smallest country couple Verde, and they went head ahead with
them and tied the game in overtime and ended up
being an incredible game. And USA is playing awesome. I mean,
I've become a fan. I got to tell you, it's
really changed my way the way that I look at
soccer now or football, you know, and watching them play
here in Miami. I haven't been to the game, but
I got to tell you the amount of enthusiasm that
are here, the teams, the countries that have come here.
I mean Scotland came here after they went to Boston.
They drank all the beer over heroes, I mean, the
Norway to the row you know of course USA and
Argentina with Messi who plays here in Miami playing the
game here last night. I mean, the crowds were just
incredible and it's just great to see people from other
countries tying it back to July fourth being happy of
America saying how great Erica is. It's great to hear
people from all over the world, how great America. And
that's just you know, it's just been an incredible tournament
and anybody who hasn't been watching, you better start watching.
The games are getting better and better every round, and
now we're in the round of sixteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, USA in the around of sixteen is fun. I
feel like go ahead, rich, sorry.
Speaker 3: Switoking back hobby right. I've talked about how our local store,
which is this was a Shane thirty sums drive had
a trade afternoon on Monday for World Cup stickers, all
of us and they did some this but not as
and they dread just as many they expected, all of
who were just trading their stickers. It was so much.
I didn't I expect them, glad I did my wife.
But on the way home, I stopped at my local
card store, which is part of their got the album
which they were giving away, and but a few sticks.
She is addicted, and I explained to her, this is, honey,
this is not for money. You're not putting money us.
This is you know when she heard the boxes hundred
dollars for the stick because yeah, I'm not buying the boxes.
We'll just we'll just buy some packs here, you know,
as long as you but she is joining the whole
concept the stick and you know, for everybody there. When
I was there, it was really hot. It was hotter
than New York City. But it was so encouraging to
see people just for value and there may have been
a couple looking. For the most part, they were the
stickers to finish their out. There's like, oh, there was
like culture and I remember pre pandemic many years ago
my local car store really was and not part of
a co colabration. Every four years the day the world
cup stick and the sticker, there'd be fifty people who
would come into the store, buy the box and just
start trading them if and they wouldn't come back to
the store for another four year. Literally you know, they
would come everything. And so it's always encouraging to see
with these items what you want them, which just have fun,
you know to them. Lionel l Messi is the same
as whichever you know, Weston McKenzie of the US if
they needed for the Senate it can be a one
for It's okay, that's when it was six years ago.
Speaker 2: Back to trading cards.
Speaker 3: Back to trading cards. Yes, is trading stick It's fun
to see equal getting go. I'm going to ridge whenever
I see something. Money is important of this hobby, don't
get but it's always fun to actually collect and collecting.
I you know, when I set up at shows, I said,
I don't do a lot of that, but I always figure,
with a couple of exceptions, everybody's coming to from the
question is how much do you let them? And I
mean it's kind of sad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well gentlemen. Uh, it has been as I
had anticipated when I saw the list of people who
would be on this show. A great pleasure as always,
Uncle Rich, wonderful to see you again, and nice chatting
with you, Orlando of course the greatest and uh and
and having you on July fourth. I knew it was
going to be good. I know it's going to be
this good, so really really so pleased. The chat was
engaged and into it and having fun. And you know,
dom Dom said, what do he say? Hope to see
this trio on again here soon? So do I So, folks,
Happy Happy Birthday America two fifty United States. Go go go.
When when's the Sunday? I think Sunday tomorrow? I think
is the is the soccer game? We're gonna have to
deal with the fact that ball a gone picked up
a red card and isn't going to be able to play.
The guy who scored a goal also got a red card,
So now we lose a goal scorer. But we'll see
what happens if USA wins on Sunday. I think it
is h It's Monday, Monday, Monday, It's Monday. Okay, yeah,
they move on to the Round of eight, which would
be pretty awesome, but we'll see anyway, Folks, this has
been Hobby Hotline and thanks for coming in.
Speaker 6: 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. So that's a reminder.
Every Saturday, eleven am eastern eight am Pacific, only four
Collectors channel on YouTube. Hope to see you on the show.