Speaker 1: Welcome, folks, another episode of Hobby Hotline. We have got
a great show lined up with me this week. We've
got Uncle Rich Kleine and Alex Army, etc. Twenty two.
How's it going, guys.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's a cool It's the only cool day like
in Plano, Texas here for like the next six months.
So it's fine.
Speaker 3: The weather here in Virginia is just up, down, up down.
It can't make it make up its mind. It's like
I think it heard the groundhog, and but it's like, na,
we're good.
Speaker 4: But other than that, everything's great.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll hear in Oregon we've almost forgotten to get
rain this winter, so and it's still not happening in
the spring here either, so so it's a little freaky.
Speaker 2: And hello, chat, don't forget to tell us all where
you're where you're listening or watching.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we've got a few people joining us early
here on, well at least for me on the West
coast as early. But Philly Joe, welcome to the show.
We've got hoops Hobby hangout, Nick chen Iowa collector, Orlando
a collector's Dream Welcome, So.
Speaker 2: You always beautiful days geez.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Florida. So yeah, as always, this is a
call in show that is option. So anybody if you
want to step here on screen and join us for
the conversation, you are welcome. Just go ahead and click
that link and we'll get you in here. So oh
now we got mister Mangini joining us there. So but
get things started. I have got a little slide show
I put together. It is that we've had Opening Day,
so always a big deal for us that follow baseball.
Any opening thoughts of Opening Day, Rich, Well.
Speaker 2: I don't have Netflix, so I didn't watch Opening Night.
Opening Day should be a national holiday. Having said that,
it's always a sign that spring is coming or spring
is here. When you have Opening Day, every team feels,
especially on opening Day, they have the chance to win
the World Series, even if they're the Rockies in the
White Sox that seemingly are doomed for one hundred losses.
But it's a time for renewal. It's a great day.
And when I worked at beckat Wade back in the day,
opening day at what's now Globelife Field at the time
Ballpark at Arlington was almost like a company day off.
I mean, we had hundreds of tickets, and you know
they were upstairs, but we still had hundreds of tickets.
It was just a social gathering and you know, and
you had to get there early because everybody would tailgate,
so you'd be you know, you might get an hour
or two work done and then oh, I'm off to
the ballpark, or you just say I'm taking the day off.
So it was always fun. And I loved going to
opening days when I was in New York way back
in the day. And I remember in nineteen eighty five
at Chase Stadium, which is the coldest place on earth.
Mookie will know this about Chase Stadium. When Gary Carter
in his first regular season game is a Met HiT's
a game winning homer to send us all home to
get warm after we all sat in the freezing cold
for several hours. And it was an extra ending game too,
and he hit it off Neil Allen, who was a
former Met reliever who got traded for Keith Urnandez, a
cornerstone of the great Nets teams of the late eighties.
Speaker 1: Nice all right, Alex, I know, I know your preferred
opening day is still what six seven months away, but
on baseball opening no.
Speaker 3: I love all sports yeah, football, I do a lot
more in but baseball it's America's pastime. I grew up
playing it. I was center fielder and everything else. But
it's like opening days turned into an opening weekend, is
it not?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: I mean there were still teams, you know, two days
later after you know, that one game on Netflix that's
still having their first game. But it's it is like
like Rich's saying, it's more of the you know, the
family going out to you know, the ballpark. This is
this is the time frame when some of those teams
that you know might not be that decent at the
end of the year, they had the whole stadium filled.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's it's that uh, that time frame where those maybe
those players, I mean.
Speaker 4: You talked about the White Sox.
Speaker 3: I think they had a pretty good first opening day
with their their big rookie from uh from Japan coming
in there and hitting a home run and his you know,
in his in his first appearance. It gives those teams
a little bit of hope, write a little bit of
hope out there be like okay, look we got fans
out here, and then might just gradually down. But then
you have the other side of the you know you
have you know, Aaron Judge getting the Golden you know,
uh sombrero, you got, Paul Skeep's not making out the
first inning. You know, you got all that flip side
from the people that crushed last year, now how they're
starting this year. So I love it. I love it.
Like you said, it should be a national holiday for
all the sports enthusiasts.
Speaker 2: I should point out, mister Judge hit a homer last night.
Speaker 4: He was the next day.
Speaker 3: Maybe he needed to shake off the everyone's saying the
World Baseball Classic, you know, a little bit of rolling
over and and so we'll see.
Speaker 2: And it was fun to see Mike Trout playing center field.
And I hope he can stay healthy the whole all
year and hitting homers in the first two games of
the season. Yeah, and Chase the louder of the Guardians, Hey,
I got that right. I usually I usually call them
Indians hitting three homers in his first two regular season
games because he's already played in the postseason before he
ever played in a regular season game. When did MLB
become like the NHL and you could play in postseason
games before you ever played in a regular season game.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the most significant thing this year with
Opening Day is probably the shift to streaming services. Uh.
You know, as someone who was a very early cord
cutter and only got cable back five years ago when
my dad moved in with us, then I have him
coming to me, how do I get this Netflix app
to work so I can watch the Giants and the
Yankees game. And it's been a narrative kind of in
the NBA for the last five years that viewership was
supposed to be down and now this year games are
readily available via streaming services and they say the viewership
is strong and fine now. So I mean it's really
a case where audiences, especially younger, have cut the cord,
and you know, if all they do is show games
on cable, then people aren't going to be able to
watch as much. So I think it's a huge positive
for the long term health of the sport that they
finally got the shift to streaming so well.
Speaker 2: I think you hit a key point when you said
the NBA and younger audiences. Baseball is an older audience
and we don't want to search seven different streams to
and even the NFL's being need to have this problem.
I mean, the NFL has games on what Netflix and Amazon,
Amazon and all these places, and they'll probably have more,
and financially that's good for them, and at least for
the NFL. They're smart enough to know if your team
local is either home or on the road, even if
it's a streaming service game, it will be on some
available network, you know, net station in your home area.
So they're smart enough to make sure that happens. But
I you know, how how many times have you heard
complaints about you're in Houston, Texas and you can't get
a Saint Louis Cardinals game on the stream? And I
hear those complaints all the time. It's like, if you're
going to have a stream, just make it open to everybody.
People used to think back in the day, you know,
way back in the day, that oh, if the game's
on TV, the fans won't come to the ballpark. It's
actually the other way around. The more you put on TV,
the more fans came to the ballpark because they got
energized by seeing the games on TV.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they build the interest in seeing the team
and so then they're encouraged to then make the trip
to to actually see them in person.
Speaker 4: So by the way.
Speaker 2: Andy brought up a great point. I'd like him to
elucidate on this a little more. He talked about families
going to the game, and we were talking in the
green room before the show, and so we're gonna slide
a little. Opening Day is a family event, but you
do a lot with shows. Let's tie this into the
hobby as well. How Opening Day things can be related
to families and not just fathers and sons nowadays, fathers
and daughters, especially with TCG, Pokemon One Piece, bo Jackson's
Attack Battle, all this stuff at the shows.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it show was back.
Speaker 2: My Walt fell out. It comes from me yesterday. Okay,
so I call them. We're going to leave a little
early and go pick Okay, but that's where it is.
I was doing the webcast. You didn't tell me, Sorry,
that was important to ask about the to tell me
about the wall. Go, okay, did I just get on air?
Speaker 3: Don't we're giving we're giving her to We're giving her
five seconds of flame, so you know she can Okay.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately dropped her wall at a tom thumb yesterday and
they found it and she's got to go get it back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know you're talking about you know, the experience
with you know, friends, you know everyone else. Right, yeh,
the first call in your your wife's the first calling.
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: But uh, now to the booth, we brought in Rich's wife.
But uh, it's those experiences, you know, bringing bringing friends,
families to card shows. It's just like you know, opening day,
just like going to the ballpark, going anywhere realistically, go
on vacation and stuff. You know, you can incorporate the
same type of stuff like you know when you go
to a ballpark. You know, you're like, oh, I want
to get some food here. Maybe we're gonna go see
you know, the new museum piece they might have on
display there at the ballpark, or the the Let's go
check out the shop. Maybe they got some cards in there.
Since Tops is in a lot of these type of facilities,
and you got these other shops like you know, car
ball Time by Tom Brady and stuff opening up shops
right there at the stadium, right, you know, given that
experience for you know, the card experience, but you know,
tying into card shows, it's the same thing. You know,
you're gonna go to a card show, You're gonna go
see certain vendors. Maybe you're gonna go see some of
the players and get autographs if they have autograph guests
there and everything. You know, you're incorporating the the fun
times and experiences with family and friends, you know, at
both locations. And I mean there's a price points difference
in both of them, right, but it's overall great experience.
Speaker 2: And I will also point out that I know one
of my former comp Seat teammates is managing the store
that's opening at the old Globe Life Field, you know,
where you can see it as you're coming into new
Globe I Field, you know, and they anticipate a lot
of traffic. And I believe the Rangers are a partial
partner in that store too, so you might see some
more of that synergy. As much as I hate that word,
you might see some more of that synergy as well.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, to wrap up this topic, I did
put together a couple of questions for predictions here. Feel
free to chat, you know, participate as well. First one,
is anyone ending the Otani Judge stranglehold on MVP. What
do you guys think?
Speaker 2: What do you think rich eventually, yes, whether it's this year,
I don't know. You know, baseball season is a long season.
People get hurt, things happen. Otani and Judge have both
basically missed full seat, well not a full season in
Judge's case, but he he hurt his toe at Dodger
Stadium or I hear they have a corporate name. Now
I heard the corporate name. I can't it's still Dodger Stadium.
And uh Otani missed the season way back in the
day with an arm injury, you know, with the arm
surgery or had to become just a dh He couldn't
do dual things someday, yes, will be this year. I
don't know. They are always the favorites, but favorites don't
always win things.
Speaker 3: Now, I think I think the Otani you know argument,
it's like, is he still doing both?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Is he still pitching and hitting still? If he's doing
both at that higher level, right, it just averages out
to be better than everyone else. And you know, like
you said, only time will tell. I always say that
Otani eventually is gonna have to decide which one he
wants to do. Right, It's probably gonna be a hitting
aspect more than pitching, because it just it's gonna be
I think it's gonna be two biggest string on Do
I think anyone can overtake both of them? Of course,
there's there's plenty of people out there, but but it
just depends like, are we gonna have more four strikeout
games by Judge this year, you know, throughout the year,
or are we gonna have more you know, he's hitting
a home run, I mean back to back home runs
with like him and Stanton Again, that lineup is freaking
is nasty. There's a lot of lineups out there that
are that are really stacked, and some of those individuals
that are in between there, like Gunnar Henderson is supposed
to have a great year, you know, Akunya's back and
everything else, and when he's healthy, how is he gonna
do because the lineup around them, it's like you can't
just pitch away from him because you still got other
huge hitters coming up behind them. What are we gonna
see with Kyle Raley? Is he gonna have a you know,
another great year as a catcher. So I think those
two are still almost the lock for it, but I
think they have a few individuals that are chasing them,
and they're pretty close.
Speaker 2: Well. Cayle Rowley, you have to admit, has one of
the best nicknames in baseball. He does.
Speaker 4: He does a big dumper. I love it. Cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, oh, Tony's still in that prime athletic years
age wise, whereas Judge she's starting to reach, you know,
being thirty three. You know that that is the time
when some guys start decline, when they don't have unnatural
means to delay that. So, but he's such a big dude.
I don't know so.
Speaker 4: But but how much so? I haven't looked at the numbers.
Speaker 3: How much more did Otani play in Japan before coming
here compared to Judge playing and the miners coming up
to the majors? Right, you know that wearings hair might
be there for a Tani.
Speaker 2: They're there for both of them. Judge, don't forget played
college ball too. Yeah, key, And one thing with Judge
is the last thing that goes on a lot of
these players is the power. Judge may not hit for
as high as an average someday, but the power is
the last thing to go. Even Babe Ruth near the
end of his career, could still hit three homers in
the game. And by the way, regardless of what that
terrible Baby Ruth movie said way back in the day.
He did play a couple of days after that free
homer game, including the first home run ever hit out
of old Forbes Field. You know, so you know, even
a washed up Babe Ruth could still hit three homers
in a game and still was basically as as bad
as he was for the Boston Braves. He still finished
second behind Wally Berger that year in most homers by
a Boston Brave that season with six.
Speaker 1: All Right, I think I'll move on to the next question,
which is gonna be anyone dethroning the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: It's a short series in the playoffs. Anything can happen.
You get starting pitching getting hot and going seven to
eight innings all of a sudden. I don't care how
good your offense is, even though they've got an awesome
offensive team. Again, somebody could get hurt. Things happen. People
don't hit as well in the postseason because you're playing
better pitching. Two thousand and five, the White Sox rolled
through the playoffs just on basically on the strength of
their starting pitching. In the late Bobby.
Speaker 3: Jenks, yeah, I think you know, any team can, just
like in football, any given Sunday right, anything to win
any any day, it just depends on the pitching. The
pitching is huge. The bullpen's huge. You know, how's the
bullpen for the Dodgers. How are they going to hold up?
I mean they they they've already they've sent down you
know a few of the pitchers from last year that
not even with the rotation this year to start out.
So of course they have the power of the hitting
and everything, and they've even bumped it up a little bit.
But I think I think there are teams out there
that could be them who they are. It's just like
we give it, give it. I don't like making so
many predictions prior to like you know, all start break
time frame, you know, after giving a few months of them,
you know, finally warmed.
Speaker 4: Up and stuff.
Speaker 3: But uh, I think they're beatable. It's just how who's
going to do it.
Speaker 2: Let's remember the Pidways were one game away from winning
the first gun of the playoffs last year against the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the Blue Jays almost beat them in
the World Series. I mean it took them. They had
to come back. The Daughters had to come back against
the Blue.
Speaker 2: And by a player that hardly ever hits a home run.
Hitting a home run in the ninth inting, not one
of the people you have expected some guys, you know,
basically their backup shortstop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what about what about you, John? What do you think?
Speaker 1: Well, they're clearly the best team that money can buy,
and they feel like they are just outrageously spending similarly
to Steinbrenner's heyday, compared to everybody else, only they're doing
it much more intelligently than what occurred during a lot
of Steinbrenner's heyday.
Speaker 2: So well, remember the GM or the president or whatever
his thing is, Andy Friedman, who learned how to do
that type of stuff with the Tampa Bay Rings. He
learned how to do without money, and when he had money,
he did it even better. And one thing to remember, yes,
is John, You're absolutely right. They've assembled talent, but they've
also assembled talent that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and that's.
Speaker 2: Something you can do. One of the things George Steinbrenner
screwed up in the eighties he kept signing first baseman dhs.
You only need one or two of them in the
American League, you don't need six. And so people were
playing the outfield who should have never played the outfield
and things like that are too many people. And so
you have that and you have common sense. But the
thing that we're not mentioning, and there was a comment
in the chat about the Marlins earlier, maybe there should
be a salary cap, but if there's a salary cap,
there needs to be a salary floor as well. And
the teams that aren't spending money, the Marlins, the Pirates
at least this year in the offseason, spend some money.
And because they realize that they've got a chance with
schemes and their number and Connor Griffin their number one
prospect in baseball, they have a chance to be really good.
So they've been spending some money. Finally, but you need
the floor to go with the ceiling, and right now
we don't have a floor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's to me, that's one of the
things that helped the other sports really pass them in
popularity is causing more parody with you know, salary structure.
So because now you've got the what handful of major
market teams that are always going to have a better
chance because they spend so much more, And then you've
got the handful of tiny markets that barely spend anything
that you know, occasionally they might burst through for a
year or two if they've done really well with bringing
up guys through their minor leagues, but then by the
time all those guys are ready to get paid, then
the team gets broken up.
Speaker 2: So well, about a decade ago, the Royals did had
a several year run, including winning a World Series and
losing a World Series in like Game seven. So the
Royals show that you can do it. Yeah, you may
not be able to keep it going forever, but you
can do it, and you can have several years of
being competitive.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hoops Hobby Hangout just commented, you know, three peating is
is just so hard. I mean it was hard for
them to even get to the back to back. I
mean it took them a lot to get that. Maybe
the pressure to them to do that, you know, knowing
that they you know, the front office might be like
you're getting paid this much to do this, like why
aren't you performing, could possibly get to some of those
players too well.
Speaker 2: I think the last team that three peeded were the
beloved Yankees from ninety eight to two thousand and you've
got and one thing that you don't remember, and the
same thing happened in the NBA. When you keep repeating
you've basically played in three years, especially in the NBA,
another season of games covering the three years, you know
you're basically playing another full season in those three years,
and you don't get the same rest other teams do.
So it is a really difficult thing to even repeat once.
And then three peats those are very difficult, and as
you've pointed out, so you know, back in the day
you could threepeat a little more because you're only going
through one or two runs of the playoffs. Now you're
going through three, and if you're doing a playing game,
possibly four rounds of playoffs. That's a lot of extra
wear and tear.
Speaker 1: All Right, this is a fun topic that we will
get to see play out over the coming months. I
think it's time to move on to the next one.
Not as fun as topic. I think we'll cover it
fairly quickly. You know, to those of you in the
chat who have no interest, but lawsuit dismissed by against
Fanatics about them being a monopoly, so irregardless of the lawsuit,
do you believe Fanatics has a monopoly over the sports
card industry.
Speaker 2: What do you guys think, Yes, but I don't think
is as bad as everybody thinks it is. And the
reason I say that is that this complaint was about overpricing.
You know, many people in the chat, I'm gonna say,
are more sophisticated collectors, and they don't buy unopened maybe
they buy, maybe they buy one or two things, and
then the rest of the time they don't. They just
buy the singles that they want. You know, I saw
an Alec Bohm quote earlier. You know, I saw Wan Soda,
and a lot of times people will just wait to
get those cards of those players. I know, local, my
very local card store, one of the Wax Empire that
I think on trap to have thirty card stores by
the end of the year. I can go there and
I can spend thirty forty dollars and get a blaster
box of some sort. I don't have to buy the
five hundred dollars buy five hundred dollar box. I can
enjoy buying a blaster box of tops or a megabox
or whatever of heritage if they I believe they made
those this year. So that is kind of a silly
argument about the overpricing and that was the key point
of the of the lawsuit. There's you know what, I
go to the Gallas Card Show. There were millions of
dollars being traded, and yet there was a guy at
the last show. He and his wife made shirts for
a lot of us didn't have it, Like one of
the tables who are on the side rooms that has
quarterboxes and dollar boxes and they made us cards saying
quarterbox King and dollar box super King or something like that.
It was really a nice thing. So I can buy
cards for a quarter at the Dallas card Show. I
don't have to buy cards worth hundreds of dollars at
the Dallas card Show. I can go to the Wax store.
I can go to my friend R. J. Duke's store,
or I can go to the other stores in the
area not owned by Wax, and you know what, I
can still find stuff to buy. You just have to
understand that the barrier at entry on the more expensive
products is a little out of a lot of people's levels.
That and I hate to tell you that, but that's
but that's a sad that's in the hobby. That's sad,
but that's life. Everything unfortunately is going up because we've
done such a great job of making the hobby successful.
Speaker 4: So what do you think monopoly is in a.
Speaker 3: Sense, like it's hard to like Panini, all the other
companies had opportunities to bid too. Yeah, they upbet them
and everything else to get like the licenses for the
sports fanatics is when they when they took over, when
they bought Tops, they said they want to be in
They came out saying they want to be in all aspects.
That's why they're making supplies, you know, the magnates, And
it's not just the actual boxes of cards. They're in
the supply game too. They're they're wanting to do so
much more. It's like they have one threshold over everything
and and I feel like any company that's in the
space would want that type of stuff. Everything internal with
them getting all the licenses right, you know, it's it's
been back and forth. Tops has always had baseball, so
they've had the monopoly technically on baseball this whole time.
But uh, I for me, I like the aspect of
everything being in one location, one company running it and
everything else and hopefully they learn from the mistakes from
one product to help the others. And maybe it's it's
coming together and you know, getting back to like tops
chrome across all the sports having the same numbered parallels
colored parallels instead you know of red being you know
out of this out of one product and this numbered
out of another. I like the combination of all of
it coming together and hopefully, like we we don't know
how it's going to be, Like we can speculate all
we want and everything how it's going to be when
we get we have the trends and everything, and I
just hope that you know, it's good for the people
that want to buy the blasters the same as the
people that can't afford the thousand dollars boxes.
Speaker 4: I know I can, but.
Speaker 3: That's two individuals that are collecting differently. And that's what's
great about this industry, about this hobby is just like
you don't have to, like Rich said, you don't have
to go buy those thousand, two thousand, five thousand dollars boxes.
It sucks because you would love to get those cards
out of there, because those are the cards that are
featured so much all over you know, the internet. But
have fun ripping the blasters have from the impact with
someone you know that you know and everything else and
do what's within your means that the hobby is meant
for everyone.
Speaker 4: You just don't have to go.
Speaker 3: Out of your way to be part of the other
side that maybe that's just not for you.
Speaker 2: I will also point out that when Fanatics got the
licenses and it's and somebody alluded to this in the
chat about how Fanatics had their logo during the telecast
on opening night. They own all the pro they own
all the pro shops, and so one of the things
they stressed when they took over, so to speak, was
they had relationships not just with the leagues, but with
the players as well, and the MLBPA, and then we'll
say the NHLPA and not the the NBA PA, and
the and the NFLPA. That's what I meant, and the
owners everybody's bought into we can make more money, and
we can and not just make more money, but we
can increase our and that you know. And you see
Fanatics cards in a lot of places you have not
seen them before, and so that's kind of cool. But
I saw and I forgot what it was. I forgot
the product, but I saw something coming out in like August,
and it's not a licensed product, but it's like the
old MSA products, you know, where it's going to feature
the players. It's a player association thing, but it's going
to be with a product, and it's going to be
part of the product. And so it's kind of cool
to see that there's still ways around, you know, worrying.
You can do things outside fanatics too and enjoy the
hobby and that's really cool.
Speaker 3: So to answer again, I think we answer every time
I'm on here foulball asking why I'm a host, But
technically I'm not a host or a panel that comes
on here weekly and I have been introduced over a
year ago on a hobby hotline, So keep asking.
Speaker 2: Okay, you need to mute me for a second. I
had my wonderful dog, Charlie, who is unfortunately not big
enough to be showing her face on the screen, needs
to go potty outside, so I'll be back in a
couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right. So to me, this is a big guess.
I wish it were not legal to have the exclusive licenses. Honestly,
you know, as someone who previously stopped as a kid
in ninety one, I missed the nineties. But now with
my collecting all the hall of Famers project. I got
a chance to explore that decade, and it was a
crazy decade of everybody trying to top each other with innovation.
And we're never going to have that again. With just
being one company only that controls everything, there's no incentive
to really push boundaries. So I I wish that the
licenses were not able to be exclusive myself.
Speaker 3: So John, you got to make sure you pin collector's
dreams comment. Charlie is the big dumper, right, That's probably
the comment of the day. Okay, thanks, Rich can see
that when he's back.
Speaker 1: I will put a star on that so I can
show that to Rich.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: But the next question I had, I think we've got
to keep it moving is well, the fact that this
lawsuit was filed at any effect on how Fanatics operates.
I'm guessing no, no, no. It seemed like PSA was
reacting or collectors are reacting a little bit to their
legal thing with at least PR But it doesn't seem
like cares.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: I think they they have the individuals in the right
place to fix everything or do stuff in the backgrounds
that not everything has to be public. Yeah, it's out
there for if you dig enough you can find it.
But like behind the scenes type of stuff, they're behind
the scenes for a reason. We want to see the
end product to be good. We don't need to see
how it gets to it, right.
Speaker 1: All right? Uh, I will unmute you. Yes, there you.
Speaker 2: Go, Rich, thank you, good, good to be back.
Speaker 1: You did miss quite the comment here mom end of
the day. Rich, h there we go, Charlie, Yes she is.
Speaker 4: That's great. All right.
Speaker 1: Do you think Fanatics is going to change anything they
do because they got sued?
Speaker 4: I I don't.
Speaker 1: Neither does Alex.
Speaker 2: So no, I think it's I think nothing's gonna change.
I think one of the most important things for Fanatics
is I think there's a couple of things that can
affect Fanatics having nothing to do with this lawsuit.
Speaker 1: On one of the.
Speaker 2: Private equity firms that has one of their ways of
getting extra money is I'm not saying putting the kebash,
but they are limiting what a lot of companies can
take out. I don't know if that's going to affect
fanatics in any ways. And to the possibility of a
baseball strike slash lockout next year could be a problem.
Those would be much more important than this lawsuit, which
was frankly a bit frivolous.
Speaker 1: And we've got vantage card collector that mentioned my talking
about the nineties innovation. Yes, some of those companies went bankrupt,
so it was literally a survival of the fittest. So
the people that came up with the best stuff survived.
So I would love that other companies to have that
opportunity so well.
Speaker 2: One of the things to remember is he's right that
many of them. Upper Deck had a near death experience
in twenty ten. Flear went bankrupt in two thousand and five.
Jerry Meyer did an interview a few years ago where
they weren't bankrupt, but they basically shut down in the
near the fall of nineteen ninety eight and basically became
donrous Leaf Playoff and donerous Leaf Playoff had some problems
when they lost their baseball license in two thousand and
five when it became Tops and upper Deck only for
two thousand and six to help to try to calm
down the oversaturation not a product, but a number of sets.
We had more than ninety legitimate products coming out, you know,
in ninety three and in two thousand and three, two
thousand and four, and we were on their way in
two thousand and five, and so based MLB players understood
that that was too many. So if you've noticed, Fanatics
has done one thing very smart. They're not overloading the
world with products. There's a few products, but not an overload.
Speaker 1: All right, I think it's time to move on to
our next topic, which is Target is expanding their card offerings.
They're going to have the cards again fully in stores.
And not only that, they're talking about this fan central
area of the store where it's gonna be like not
just cards, but the apparel and you know, like a
sports little section. To me, almost sounding like how they
cordon off the the electronics area sort of feels different
in the Target than the rest of the store.
Speaker 3: I would I would say it's probably gonna you know,
look at the mold of the collector's clubhouses. I think
they are dicks, right they turn those sections of certain
Dick stores into a card area. I don't know that,
probably not gonna have singles there, but having the apparel
and stuff they're dealing with the sports aspect, I think
it's going to kind of be like that and having
all the cards that aspect if they're going to go
into it that's my thought when I heard about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so then I guess my question is is it
some kind of indicator here for a change modern sports
card hobby.
Speaker 4: We're seeing it happen.
Speaker 3: It started, you know, early on years ago with Game Stop, right,
and then it's moved on to Dicks.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Target's talking about Walmart said they're getting I mean, Walmart
has their Walmart Live and stuff too. All these places
are it's like they're more holding into what their competitors
are doing or other individuals because they see what they're doing.
So it's like, I mean, it happened already with Tops
and everyone. The blaster price is going up or Panini
blaster price is going up at the stores not they're
getting ahead of the resellers and stuff. You know, a
blaster used to be nineteen ninety nine and they're thirty
nine ninety nine, right, so it's like it's either get
off the pot or you know that type of thing, right,
So they're they're joining that. They're like, we're gonna, we're
going to join up and do this stuff too. I
feel that's how I feel.
Speaker 1: Well. Dan's Vintage saying feels like the late eighties again.
Are we entering a junk new new junk wax era.
Speaker 3: So everyone talks about the junk wax era, and then
that's it's cards out there. I mean, also, what's how
big is the population now than it was in the eighties? Right,
how much bigger is the population now than the eighties?
So we have more individuals that can buy cards than
they could. Then, well, I say that with cards, prices
also grow up, so maybe go up, maybe not so
many more people.
Speaker 4: Can buy cards because of the prices, but.
Speaker 3: They're they're the junk wax era. You know that that
discussion happens all the time, and it's it's true, it's there.
There's a lot because how much more retails out there,
how much you know, you know, individuals don't care. There's
not there's a fraction individuals out there that still care
about putting sets together, the whole pastime of car collecting,
putting sets together. But so many individuals they you know,
these companies came out with breakers to lights for that
reason of not having all that fluff of all the
base because some of the you know, these breakers and
these individuals are opening just want the quick adrenaline rush
of hitting some cards.
Speaker 4: They got rid of all that stuff.
Speaker 3: So there are still plenty of products out there that
have all the extra stuff. And that's why people. You know,
if you see modern individuals saying this is the junk
wax era, it's because they're opening products that have a
ton of base and they just don't care for it.
Speaker 2: And there's good stuff in the base. And the other
thing when I hear about you know, Breaker's Delight, And
I just thought about this. Fifteen years ago, a company
called in the Game, which was originally it was doctor
Brian Price who took who found in the nineties the
Parkhurst label and became Parkhurst. They did a product basically
called only the Hits something to that effect, and the
only thing in those products were relics and autographs. So
that's already so that's that's not even something new in
the hobby. We're just making it go to another level
with Breakers Delights. I'm fine with cards in the in
Target and Walmart, because for some people those are their show.
There are their stores. Not everybody as nice as lucky
enough to live near a whole bunch of card stores.
And if you don't live next to a whole bunch
of card stores, I know Chris Harris, who's been on
our Paris panel, talks about how it's a couple hours
for him to go to a card store, and so
if you don't live in newer card store, that becomes
your basic card store.
Speaker 4: It's a convenience.
Speaker 3: I give the analogy of you know, going to a
gas station and getting a gallon of milk is what
three times as much as if you went to the
grocery store and get a gallon milk, because these are
a convenience opportunity for you to open packs. It's the
same conceptence that going the LCS or buying it online
on the whole sale, you know, at some of those
places where it's cheaper. You know the same thing of
going online and having a breaker open it for you, like, okay,
you can go buy it cheaper anywhere online and have
it you're going to get a ship to you in
three days or however long you want to take to
get there, or you can buy it for a few
more dollars right here, right now, right. It's that convenience factor.
Speaker 2: And by the way, whoever I said Charlie was the
big dumper was absolutely correct. She just had to go
out again.
Speaker 1: All right, so my next question here, No, I didn't
do another question, all right, So a couple of folks
did say I missed the eighties, I missed the seventies,
and honestly, I personally am all for the product, just
not even there being a hitless product that we can
just get cards because you know, I'm not in it
for gambling, so you know, I would love to be
able to cheaply collect some of the modern players.
Speaker 3: So and that's what that's where the singles market. It's
great for you, right John, Like you going out and
find out.
Speaker 1: That's all I do now? So a band. I mean
I tried out packs when I first came back, and
it's like this isn't for me, and now it's nothing
but singles.
Speaker 4: It's the ecosystem.
Speaker 3: You have the individuals that will spend the thousands dollars
to buy the boxes and pull the dollar cards for
you to buy later and be like thank you for
getting him out of the pack from their pack homes
and coming to my home now, right, That's how the
constant rotation is.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I used to do box reviews for Sports
Collectors Daily back in the day, and one year ten
twelve years ago, there was a birthday group one of
the forums, and I was a member of it, and
I got sent an eighty two dollars box for my birthday,
and I actually got five Ripkens out of the box.
But my wife, who would open some of the packs,
went to me, where are the hits? And I had
to explained to her that the eighty two Ripken was
the hit, was the best possible hit you could get
out of the box, because she wasn't gonna find an
autograph for a relic card in that box. So you know,
there's a lot of and I'm just going to say,
she's a newer collector, so we're gonna see that there
are a lot of newer collectors who weren't around when
they when boxes didn't have hits. They don't know the
world before relics and autographs.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, that's what I mean on it to be
really honestly, that's what brought me back in in two
thousand and eight as an adult. I back when when
I was a kid with with my dad and my brother,
we were opening packs. We were taking the Post upc
sending them in and Post Cereal would send us the
small little packs in the mail and everything, right, we
would do all that fun stuff. We'd have a ton
of post zero around the house, sugar smacks and stuff
like that because we wanted those cards to come in
the mail. That was something cool that me and my
dad collected and then went through some tough times in
the army and stuff like that. In one of the
days in two thousand and eight, someone was at work
with the with there was a family day and someone
brought a kid in with their kid in and they
were opening eight tops chrome baseball and I'm like, I
remember doing that with my dad. And then an autograph
came out and I'm like, I don't remember that though,
So then I started looking more into it and it
got more back into this industry because that one little
instance I remembered something. But it's evolved into this other
stuff and it's just it's just blossom from there.
Speaker 2: Acuter with the great typo of the day.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, we'll just let people read that one.
All right, I think they're ready to move on to
our fourth listed topic. Here. Let me throw it again
out there. If anybody wants to join us, you are welcome.
Just click that stream yard link and you'll be popping
on screen with us here. But let's move on. There
is a forty nine leaf Jackie Robinson. That's a PSA seven.
There's only fifty higher rate is up for auction starting
Tuesday night, and a Pristine auction Live Elite. Uh. I
might be ticking off Alex's sponsor here, but I could
not help myself. And I need to just stay true
to our vintage community. And I got a game for
us to play. Here we go. Which card looks better?
Is it a B or C? Oh?
Speaker 4: Clearly clearly to be. Give me a second, quick eye appeal,
it's just the colors, better be.
Speaker 2: Give me a second to pull. Pull, pull this big
screen up. I'm gonna look on. I'm gonna look on
the stream. I've turned the sound down for the stream
of course. Now, of course, I get all these ads
on my way to Hobby Hotline and okay, there we go.
It all looks good. I mean, you know, they all
look they all look good.
Speaker 3: I feel like you brought the tent up on one
for a reason.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying.
Speaker 2: I think the You know, one thing with forty nine
leaf is you can see every card.
Speaker 1: Is color printing differences that can be quite arrange with
that set.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean there was a great There was
a great book written on forty nine leaf, and he
went through the circle, he went through a lot of
people interviewing him, and forty nine leaf's a fascinating set.
I kind of like the one in the middle of
the best. It just to me it looks the best.
But that's me.
Speaker 1: And what would you say, look second best?
Speaker 2: I would say the one on the right because the
color is sharper. And to me, the one I like
the least is the one on the left because it
just looks more the yellow looks more faded.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody ready for the reveal?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I already know where this is going. Just
letting you know.
Speaker 1: The card on the left is the PSA seven that
is up for sale. The card in the middle is
that very special one that sold this just what a
couple of weeks ago for twenty seven thousand, and the
card on the right sold in December in Ria for
twenty five thousand. So B and C are right now
the highest sold card in that particular grade and within
the past year. And then the expectation for a card
that has a seven on the label is to be
somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety thousand.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I get get I get the point
you're going that. Like with me and Pat Summons my
PC and everything, it's like a lot of stuff like
if this is a PC card for me, am I buying?
You buying the grade? Or are you buying the card right?
Or you buying I'm buying Pat's helm. I don't need
for my collection. I don't need graded cards. I don't
need to.
Speaker 4: Be PSA ten. I just want them in my collection. Right.
Speaker 3: The same concept with this is like if for a
Jackie collectors, just like, okay, you know, I don't need
it to be a seven, I just want it. But
when you go as a collector and you want to
visually display it, like of course that the middle one,
you know, just pops a lot more because of the
color easily.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, which is why it's sold more than a four.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So right now, the compass on that middle card versus
the highest sold four in the last year is that
one on the right, that's twenty five thousand.
Speaker 2: So the high Remember technical grade and real and I
appeal grade, especially in vented, you're two very different things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to me, the one looks comparable to what I
looked up. Is like there are seven nines that exist,
it is comparable to those ones. It just has a
mooky special pinhole. Is uh.
Speaker 3: What's wild is there's what twenty one hundred of these
cards graded total in pop count, So it'll be it'll
be interesting. It's gonna be very interesting to see a
card like this, you know, started a dollar auction and
see where it goes. See if that that room, how
much buzz that has, how many individuals are in there?
Like I'm gonna be in just watching. I wish I
had been money about it myself, but I was.
Speaker 4: Kind of upset. I was really upset.
Speaker 3: Is everyone if you don't know that, I am an
affiliate with Pristine Auction and everything, and they brought us
out for you know, headquarters tour. We went to spring training,
we went to Arizona State card show, was all on
the same weekend. This card hasn't came in yet. They're
just like, we'd love for you guys to do something
on it, you know everything. I'm just like, I want
to hold it in my hand, Like I want to
hold this card in my hand. I want to see
it like, I'll do stuff online for and stuff, but
I want to physically see this card and it wasn't
there yet, so it was upset about it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you might like me even less here
with the next slide, but I would love if you've
got an audience with them doing choir as to what's
going on here. Uh So I saw how they were
advertising the card in a video on Facebook and they
zoomed in tight with the card, and then I captured
a still image of how that looked, and this is
how it looked when in their video. So what's the
deal here? It's like the light it's so bright it
hides every flow in.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 3: You can you clearly, you can clearly tell it there.
You know, that's the deception a lot of these you know,
certain companies and stuff can throw out there and everything
and it can be the lighting trying to make it
look incredible, right, you know, for the buzz and everything.
But again, so the audience that you're bringing in for
this type of card, or you think more people are
coming in to bit on this card because of the
I appeal, or you think more people are coming in
to bit on this card because of the great and
the rarity of it.
Speaker 1: That's probably what ends up happening. When you have a
card this expensive, people are just care about the number
on the slab. Honestly, the collective community would much rather
have that beautiful one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and these auction houses, they they all
of them, not just pristine, every single one of them.
They want to be the highest one. I mean, there's
certain ones out there that just the egos just through
the roof. Right, we all know who he is that
just has to be bigger. I don't understand why he
always does knife fans, but uh, they're always trying to
outdo each other, and that's great competition. The people that
have these cards, that's great for them. You know, hopefully
they get the highest that they can get for it.
You know, kudos to that that seller.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's okay, So sorry, I couldn't resist. I
know you're about an affiliation, but this.
Speaker 3: Is it's an open, open form and everything. And then yeah,
I'm all for it.
Speaker 1: All right, So that is our plan show. Did we
want to we're not full hour yet, did you want
to read briefly to mention about the football cards? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think we you know, and remember in this is
the twenty eighth, so in three days. In four days,
Fanatics takes over the fell football license. And as pointed out,
how many of us in the world, now I'm not
talking about in this chat, I guarantee you there's a
ton of collectors looking so forward to tops and Bowman
chrome football of NFL players, just like there was back
in the nineties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so we kind of see a preview happening, right.
You know what they're doing with Bowman basketball, what they'll
probably do with Bowman football down the road too. One
of the questions I had was like when they got
those college licenses, when they were doing Bowman with just
college products, making those Bowmen first, I'm like, will they
eventually do the same thing like they used to with
the Bowman and everything. Are they going to do that
with the NFL aspect or the NBA aspect?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Bowman basketball is coming out and it's
going to have both college and football in it. So
the Bowman first will be the college and then the
rookies are going to be all in there, so they
can do the same with football. Now, Panini, if you
guys that if individuals there that know the the current
you know, modern market. They saw Panini Black Football come out.
Not one active player was in that in that product
because we I no one, no informations came out or whatever.
But apparently they might have lost the NBA rights to
do use active players, and so that whole product is
retired or n I L players. So some of the
shifting was already happening. And I believe the new product
that just came out from them, to Silhouette for Football
is the same exact thing. It's all retired or nil players.
There's no active players in the whole product, so it's.
Speaker 1: Not going to sell very well.
Speaker 3: And then and then I made a video on it.
You know, I was just like, you know, trying this.
I mean, there are they They pumped it with the mangas,
the color blast, all those case hits that you know,
push out that the main chase is. Of course, my
collection is Pat Toeman. I made a manga of him.
So I was just like, great, that's a thirty thousand
dollars card. Because everyone you know wants to pump it up.
Speaker 4: I'll never have.
Speaker 1: Wait six months to a year, right, and then the
whole product will be worth.
Speaker 3: Nothing, correct, And that's what I said, if people are
so focused in the modern market on rookies, they are,
and you know the big, bigger players like Mahomes and
stuff like that, right like that, it's gonna be hard,
but it's great for the resale market for the individuals
that collect Jerome Bettis and Calvin Johnson and you know
all these other individual Hall of Famers that are that
are in these products. They get some cool cards for
those type of collectors or even the team collections. So
you know, the announcements of you know, the the tops products.
We've seen some previews spitting on social media with some
of the players showing the cards early, like Matthew Golden
showed him signing the sapphire chrome cards and stuff like
that what they're gonna look like.
Speaker 4: So in a month they were.
Speaker 3: Gonna have start having that stuff trickle out, I believe,
and I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 2: The one thing, the only thing I'm concerned about for
the NFL and fanatics this year is it's such a
quarterback driven league. And yes, they'll have all the experienced quarterbacks,
but there a lot of times football is rookie card
based and there's one, maybe two quarterbacks going to be
drafted in the first round this year, and so one
should be number one. I mean, it looks like the
Raiders are going to draft their quarterback number one, and
then there's supposedly only one other quarterback that may even be.
Speaker 4: A first round draft pick, Ty Simpson from Alaback, yep.
Speaker 2: And he and the stories about him are all over
the place.
Speaker 3: For Ty Simpson, Well, I've heard back and forth saying
that those two are bumping up and down who's number
one and number two? From the stuff I'm hearing. But again,
how many first round quarterbacks, you know, end up playing
for a long period of time.
Speaker 4: Like we every one.
Speaker 3: We always will go back to Tom Brady being a
sixth rounder, right and all the other jats. Like it's
the generational talents there. You want to draft them, It's
just you have to draft a team around them. Also,
if you don't have that dynamic, that player is never
going I mean, they can't be Superman. You got to
have the O line, you gotta have the receivers to catch,
You got to have a good running game to open
up the passing game. So it's football is.
Speaker 2: Just both quarterbacks. I think this is and this has
been proven in baseball and basketball and just about any sport.
The higher you're drafted, the more likely you are to
have a great career. But it's not a given. Things happen, and.
Speaker 1: With the quarterback, you could have the strongest arm, be
the fittest guy, but it's so much like the brain
that separates the success from the failures at that position.
Speaker 3: So I don't think. I don't think so Mad City
talked about that. I don't think they've they even they
haven't officially announced anything yet with tops for the boxes
yet or whatever for what products. So I'm speculating it
probably will be soon. We don't we don't know. I'm
wondering if an announcement comes out, maybe like right after
the first A lot of these companies, Tops, Tops and
Fanatics seems to they get out information as quick as
possible because they want the hype it up, which is great,
you know, get the you know, everyone's been waiting for Chrome.
Speaker 4: Everyone wants chrome. We love tops chrome.
Speaker 3: And I've seen a lot more individuals, you know, on
the social media side, you know, YouTube and other places
that are they're opening older Chrome products because they're in preparation.
It was like, we're getting we're gonna get back to
opening this stuff. This is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Oh real quick, did you catch yank me Kurd Steve?
I think he served with a Kent trestler in the
US Air Force? Is that a relation? Is what he
is wondering.
Speaker 3: There's no no relation, So I was trying to think.
Speaker 4: I didn't.
Speaker 3: I don't know anyone under that time frame. So my
uncle Robert was in the Air Force. It was well
before that thing. I think might've been around that time
he was in the Air Force. But we're from Maryland,
Maryland aspect Maryland, Lower Pa. That's where my family's.
Speaker 1: From, all right. And then the other thing I thought
was wondering is are they gonna be mixing the nil
guys with the NFL and the same product like they're
doing with basketball now?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think that aspect depends on who has the licenses,
Like I don't know how many player licenses Panini has.
Like we saw what they're already doing. They're doing it
with basketball. They're gonna they're still have exclusive players with
basketball and they're making basketball products that is unlicensed. Are
they going to do the same for football? We don't
know what we're going to see probably shortly after if
they start doing it.
Speaker 1: My thought any of those licenses would instantly fall apart
once they come members of the league. Then they fall
under the NBA players associating, wouldn't.
Speaker 3: They You would think, And but you know, going back
to you know, the modern market, everyone cares about their
first cards these days, right, so they're like, we're gonna
get our money for you know, this player having his
first cards, like the Boozer player Boozer twins for for Duke,
their first cards. Their only cards are in Leaf products
right now, right, they're not in any other ones because
they were Leief exclusive.
Speaker 2: So I see the emails from Leaf every time Duke
has a basketball game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and that that's smart aspect by them.
If they're going to be they're expect to be big players.
They're getting in front of the game. There's people, there's
kids getting exclusive deals in high school prior to even
signing after they sign with with colleges and stuff.
Speaker 4: It's wild.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'm glad they're getting paid, But I mean,
and I just read I read ones piano and I
don't remember the guy's name. I think he's in Louisiana.
He's got like his seventh year of college football eligibility
to play this year for I believe Mississippi. I mean,
it's just astounding.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you everyone in the chat for joining
us this morning. Lots of great comments from all of you,
so thank you for that. Last words, what you got
coming up? Rich?
Speaker 2: As I said, the Waxed Empire Restores has a trade
night tonight, so I'm going to pop into one of
them just to say Hi, I'm going to buy something
heritage while i'm there. For twenty twenty six heritages out
and I've seen some of the cards online and even
the base cards look super, so I'm definitely excited to
get something in twenty twenty six heritage today. And and
then next week is an Easter Sunday weekends, so I
don't have much. But then there's a three hundred table
show run by NTX the following weekend, so that should
be a fun show to go to. And I'm sure
I'll be, you know, doing other hobby things as well,
but for now, that's what I do. And I also
do a local newsletter for the DFW area, which I'm
amazed by how much stuff's locally and I didn't even
catch everything for April April, and there's still a lot
of stuff going on.
Speaker 1: All right, how about you, Alex.
Speaker 3: Taking a few weeks off because of course I got
a lot of shows and stuff. I'm back on here
April eleventh, so it's a quick few weeks turnaround, which
is pretty good. But I think the next show I'm
going to is the Pittsburgh Draft show by next up,
you know, same weekend as the Draft in Pittsburgh. So
that's going to be pretty cool. That's something you know
down the road, you know, Hobby Hotline can actually talk
about that. You know how cool it is to have
a show, you know there at the same time. Then
right after that, hopefully I'm out WrestleMania, so hopefully I'll
be able to go out there and have fun in WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: So that should be fun, all right, So what about you? Yeah, So,
as it turns out from the random draw, I'm actually
hosting this show again next Saturday, And on top of that,
I am hosting the Four Collectors live stream tomorrow night,
starting at nine Eastern. I have assembled all of this
year's inductees to the YouTube Sports Card Hall of Fame
and which I'm gonna do some cards showing of some
meaningful cards talk about you know, how grateful we are
really for our YouTube experience is the focus of that.
So'd be great for you to join us, ask us
questions that should be fun. And oh, a big item
on there is that part of the inductees is been
from dead guy Cardboard, who in twelve years on YouTube
has never actually shown his face. He is going to
be on camera.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I put it on my calendar
to stop in there to ask why no one voted
me in since I was in that other category, you know,
my YouTube channel. That's all right, I'm reviving my YouTube
channel again, you know. So maybe down the road or whatever.
But hey, a collector's dream, you know. Seriously. He's on
Live with Jeremy Lee tonight. Make sure you check in
on that too. Jeremy Leaves Lives are always great.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's always a fun show.
Speaker 2: So I'm on Jeremy Lee's show every five years.
Speaker 1: All right, So everybody, thank you for watching. Well, we'll
see you next time on Hobby Hotline.