Speaker 1: Welcome to the caffeine entrance. As always, I always forget
how in your face that is good morning on a Saturday.
Eleven o'clock here on the East Coast. I think it's
like four am. For Chris, I don't know where he is.
And Brodie, where are you? What time?
Speaker 2: Well are central? So it is ten o'clock here in Illinois.
Speaker 1: So you guys are doing the heavy lifting. Ere I'm
mid afternoon. What's going on? How's everything going, Chris Man?
Speaker 3: Things are so good, just busy, like it's it's a
really fun time in the hobby right now. There's two
new shops that just opened up in Burbank and David
Adams in New York. And yeah, when you see places
open up at retail, it's a good indicator that things
are going really well in the hobby.
Speaker 1: We've got a whole segment dedicated to p s A today,
so we're going to cover all sorts of news. I
know there's some new hubs open. Uh, there's a policy
on cleaning that that came out on submissions, so I
definitely want to touch on some of that. Brody, what's
going on, man, how's it going? What are you? What
are you opening these days, and what's going on with
your collecting.
Speaker 2: It's going good Man opening some wrestling when I can.
It's still crazy. I'm not a surprise to hear that
still crazy expensive. And it's been a minute since they've
put out a new set. Tops. We need a new
wrestling set. But anyways, it's been good to open in
some baseball Baseball seas has been great. The White Sox
actually look like a competitive team, even if they stink.
Speaker 1: Not not not to throw it out there, but two
to one yesterday, Okay, we lose by one run.
Speaker 2: I'm not mad. I'm not bad.
Speaker 1: We might be racing for the bottom this year. It's
been a sad year. You know what? You just brought
up something I'm gonna vieer off topic. Real quick patch
cards in WWE and UFC. Thoughts on patch cards in general, Brady,
And do you like to see it in WWE and UFC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited for that. I think it's great because
these wrestlers have big time matches, and I think especially
the higher end sets, TOPS will put a note like
this is from this specific match at this specific event.
I think it's cool. We had some patch stuff with Gernini,
but not a whole lot of stuff. And with fanatics
being with tops, they'll be able to get really specific
material from the wrestlers. So I think it'll be really cool.
Speaker 1: Chris, how often are people when they're grading? Is the
patch a real big part of the grading process? I mean,
the threads and all that. I mean, does that play
into it at all? I've I've never actually asked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, honestly, it's not as big a deal
as it was when I was on the manufacturer side.
You know, patch patches and PA swapping was a major
concern when I was at upper Deck, And while I
was there, you know, I was talking with the president
and he was like, I got I got something coming
down the pipe. I got something that's going to make
this better. And I was like it better be good, man,
Like this is this is a problem. And for upper
Deck to share that for Connor Bedard's rookie season, that
they are actually slabbing cards and imaging them to create
an image database of all the different patches is a
really big deal for the hobby in my In my opinion,
I think that one of the reasons that that we
didn't do it when I was there is. The more
you handle cards, the more issues that that can you know,
the more they're all conditioned sensitive, right, so you want
them to be hard signed, you want the athlete to
handle them.
Speaker 4: The athletes don't always know how to perfectly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're not exactly greaters themselves.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So so for them to come up with this program
is you know, pretty pretty amazing. It shows the hobby focus,
whereas I think some of the other manufacturers may not
be as understanding to to the plight of collectors. Uh
and and how they might may have been burned by
fake patches or things along those lines in the past.
I'm really impressed and happy with what they came up
with there. For again, connor Bidar's rookie season in the Cup.
Speaker 1: Can you just piggyback on that a little bit because
I'm not sure people are aware always because patch cards
are so limited, the patch card world can get expensive quickly,
and there's some real big niche players. What exactly is
faking the patch? What were people doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't want to give them the secret
sauce on how to do.
Speaker 1: It in general, where they I went out of one
card putting it.
Speaker 3: In there is there is a way to you know,
die cut out what patch you want to put in
to a card, and there is a way where you
could separate the card and remove the pats that's in there.
You have to do it very carefully, obviously, it's more people.
More often than not, people totally screw up the card
with type of process and made it make a terrible mistake.
But there are a few that can can actually get
this done. And if you take a white swatch, let's say,
for the Toronto maple leaves, and then replace it with
a brilliant C for the Captain or something else, really
unique that that card can sell for two to three
times the value. And there were enough bad actors in
the industry that were doing that that it created a
gray market, if you will, where where people were creating
these augmented cards. And unfortunately it's they're they're not game used,
they're not player war, and they're not even photo shoot.
They're just some dude grabbed a patch and cut it
up and inserted into a card. So now it sounds
like for Upper Deck they're going to slab the cards
and then image them several times over from different angles,
so there will be a whole image database, bring up
the you pull that card, you can go to their
website and enter that that serial number and it will
bring up various images of the cards, so you know
that that patch is the patch that was from the manufacturer.
Speaker 1: Brody, I'm slow, so let me ask one more question
than I've got three for your promise. Mooky asked a question,
and this was kind of what I was thinking. Does
Upper decks slabing them take grading companies out of the process?
Speaker 3: You know, we've seen, We've seen company is to slabbing
so to speak. Leaf has done it tops with luminaries,
which is a premium product, does it? And we still
get those cards in for submission at p s A.
I know other grading companies do too, So not necessarily,
I personally, and I'm sure my company would agree that
anything that helps protect the collector is a good thing.
So yeah, I think it's awesome. So no, we'll still
see those cards come through for for grading, for sure,
But to have it start off in a in a
safe space, I think.
Speaker 4: That's really great.
Speaker 1: Bertie. You don't submit a lot to grading, you break
a lot, right?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yeah, I've noticed, I've noticed Brody, your PSA
kind of little light.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chris emailed me to bring that up earlier. He
will to publicly call you out on that. My point is,
I hear so many people getting back to your opening
packs again. I hear you know it's just taking packs
to baseball games, Chris, I know you've done that and
opening them in random places. Do you have a routine?
Do you like to just take packs with you as
somebody who opens a ton of Is it always at
the kitchen table? Very organized? What type of opener are you?
Speaker 2: I open packs everywhere. I mean I filled my daily
rip at this desk. I'll open stuff in the back
room when I'm watching, you know, MLB game or we
things on. But anywhere I go that I think is
kind of interesting. I usually have a pack. Like I
was at the Admirals game last week and I brought
a hockey pack. Any sort of event or anything like that,
even like six Flags or something like that, where it's
nice outside and cool stuff's around, I always got a
pack in case I want to film something or I
just want to open a pack for fun.
Speaker 1: Do you ever tried it on a roller coaster?
Speaker 2: I mean I could, but i'd want to do something
in one card because we better go fast. That would
be an epic video.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, you know, maybe maybe a good briefcase.
Speaker 2: On there, and you know, I'll just lie down on
the right and we got.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need a full protective case for them. But
in all seriousness, do you ever worry about damaging the
cards or is it about pulling the card for you?
Speaker 2: I think about it sometimes. I always have a case
or something that I can or I just put them
back in the pack. I always have something just to
sure that you know, if I do pull a big
card that nothing happens. But I mean, I'm never too
worried about it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: One of the has happened with a hobby becoming more
mainstream is at my son's baseball game. Snackshack now sells
baseball from tops boxes like that, and most of the
kids know me as the card guy.
Speaker 4: So there will be.
Speaker 3: Times when someone will pull a good card from the
Snackshack and they'll be come running to me like, mister Carlin,
what should I do? And I've started to put Ultra
pro soft sleeves and card savers and semi rigids in
my car, so I'll bring them out to kids, like, Okay,
just keep it safe because they're you know, one hands
covered in like nacho cheese sauce and the other one's
got the card. So yeah, always have supplies with them.
Speaker 1: That brings up my next question. I've seen like four
articles in the hobby recently on protecting cards. Now that
there's one touch, there's toploaders, there's card savers for raw cards.
When you guys are opening how do you like to
just hold them before you do anything with them or
just to put them in a cardboard box? Brodie, what
do you use?
Speaker 2: I usually use toploaders, I mean, and I'm not like
against card savers and anything, and usually just toploaders just
what I have, So I usually end up using a
sleeve in a toploader for the most part.
Speaker 3: Chris, Yeah, I I have a new thing that I do,
and maybe it's like collector add but coming to work
for PSA, there's there's oils on your hands that can
transfer to cards. And so now anytime I'm opening packs,
and I just opened up a box with my son
last night, I made him wash his hands thoroughly and
dry them and I did the same. I know it's
like crazy, but like you have to protect your cards
a little bit. So that's my that's my new policy
before I before I open product is a thorough hand washing.
So again, I know it's a crazy collector thing, but
I know that it happens where you know, you can
you can screw up a nice card by having something
transferred to it.
Speaker 1: I'd be curious in the chat room what people do.
I've actually really started to like the one touches with
the penny sleeve on the inside so it doesn't scratch
the card. Also, and that's not for every card in
the pack, but you know, for something you pull, uh,
you know, it's fun if you can get it.
Speaker 3: Into a penny sleeve like that is my that's my
go to is like immediately something cool goes into a
penny and just I know it's it's not totally safe,
but it's it's not raw.
Speaker 1: You know, I just penn sleeves on ye, Orlando, I
know a lot of people every card into a penny
sleeve absolutely all right. Logan says that he's eating chicken
fingers while opening up card packs. I think that's it
your purse.
Speaker 4: No, Like we all do these things.
Speaker 3: Like I used to eat SA like every every breaker
night was like, all right, let's get pizza, and uh,
it's the worst thing you can have is greasy hands
and extremely collectible cards like it's absolutely going to transfer.
So I've just gotten weird and a little ad D.
I guess with with this.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that in the hobby, by the way,
that's I know you you are almost well Chris, you're
amongst your people. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, Well, I
wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't say you
walked me into the next question. I think we need
to talk a little bit about the Ryan Hogue tweet
and the cleaning, if you can comment on it. If not,
definitely want to talk about the two new facilities that
have opened up, because I think people don't realize that
one is exclusively for tickets in Texas and another one
in Florida and hopefully to speed up turnarounds. So I
know people have a lot of questions, Chris, what can
you talk about?
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean we are we have a team
always looking at what else can we do at PSA
to help collectors on their journey. We have a mission
statement make collecting safe and fun, it's something I really
believe in, Like that's that's an important mission statement. And
we're always looking at what collectors would.
Speaker 4: Like from us in terms of services.
Speaker 3: It's crazy to me how we forget sometimes how different
everyone collects. Every collector is different, even though we all
are like you said, like we're all nerds. I'm in
a safe space, but we all collect in different ways.
I collect different than Brody does. And because of that,
it's important for a company like ps A to know,
you know, what services do people like, so frequently put
out surveys about collecting habits and what services can we
offer that collectors might be interested. For some reason, this
recent survey where we were looking at, you know, and
a variety of options that we could give collectors has
stuck out with one thing that we put on there,
which was cleaning up the cart a little bit, doing
some doing some basic clean.
Speaker 4: Up for it.
Speaker 3: And and right now graters actually do some minor touchups
to customers cards when they come in. If someone has
a big thumbprint on a card, they'll they'll clean it
up a little bit with they you know, they're not
using solutions or different materials like that, they're using a
microfiber cloth and cleaning it up, touching it up.
Speaker 4: So if people with us having.
Speaker 3: This relationship with eBay, a lot of people now are
buying cards directly from eBay. A new service we just
launched is buy from eBay and go directly to grading.
So you never even touch the card before it goes
to grading. So how can you even look at it
to properly assess if it needs to be wiped down?
So that's honestly the reason that the company put that
question in there and wanted to see if if people
would want a service like that. But for some reason,
sometimes the hobby globs on on to little things and
makes a big deal out of them. So, uh, that
seems to be the one that has been causing a
lot of collector Well what are they doing? Why are
they why are they cleaning cards? It's simple wipe downists,
So not not really that big a deal.
Speaker 1: Well it's hobby hobby high school, as we always say. So,
can you just talk about the new facilities real quick?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So those are are pretty exciting. So I'm actually
in the process of looking for people to man uh
the Plano, Texas facility. Uh, we're going to be interviewing
for that shortly. So the roles that I'm looking for
are for concierge reps to take in submissions from dealers
from collectors. Not only will this be a ticket grading
facility in Texas, it will be a drop off point
for collector going to the Dallas Card Show and other
shows like that. Like you know that it is a
hotbed of collecting out there, and for us to have
a hub there to allow people to drop off everything
from cards to funkos to tickets, it's a good thing.
Speaker 4: So PSA.
Speaker 3: The biggest thing I've been amazed by as I joined
this company is how quickly they've been able to scale
operation and it's crazy for greaters, Like when we launched Tokyo,
we had greaters working in our sant Ana facility for
six months who were going to be greaters in Tokyo.
Like that's how much they invest in people, and I
think that that's pretty amazing and awesome. So it's been
really cool to see how big the company has, the
levels they've gotten to with facility in New Jersey that's
fully operational and Tokyo. But the craziest thing to me
is the grading consistency that if I take a card
for grading and I drop it off in a location
New Jersey, California, or Tokyo, the consistency of the grading
is frighteningly accurate. So uh, that's that's pretty cool to see.
I often say, like, our our graders are just a
different level. Like it's something I never could do. Like
as much as I train myself to look at cards
or things like that, like I still miss a crease
or or little things and the Greater. I'll talk to
Greater sometimes and we'll be like, it's right there. How
do you not see this? I'm like, I don't know, man,
Like you're that's what they pay you the big bucks for.
So uh, graters are a different animal. It's really cool
to see they have and how good they are at
spotting things. But then the new the other facility will
be in in Florida, and you know, I think that
will be another great opportunity for us to continue to
scale and give regionality to get things back to people quicker.
So yeah, I think it's going to be exciting to
see what comes next.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Uh, Broty, I'm going to switch over to fanatics
Fest because nothing you're going and nothing you're you're an
expert on it, but the amount of coverage for not
just the card show, but the athletes signing, the interactive
wrestling UFC, all the corporate entertainment. Is that the type
of show you could see in the future being more
interested in is it? Does that appeal to you more
or you appear just card jumbling.
Speaker 2: I can see it to the general sports fan being
the bigger show because like, the athletes are there, and
the athletes are doing things there and contests there. I
think to the broader sports fan that, you know, maybe
they somewhat collect cards, but they're just a huge Patriots fan,
so they get to see Tom Brady or whatever, I
think it appeals more to them. But I think to
the card collectors it's kind of split. I mean, I
know there's a lot of people that like going there,
but shows like the National I think are still at
least to people like me that I love sports, but
I love sports cards too. I think appeals more because
of just how much is there in terms of different vendors.
Speaker 1: Chris experiential athlete, you know, initiatives are very hot, and
fanatics is certainly doing that. Upper Deck, you know, continues
to sign athletes to deals and who knows what they're
going to be doing with them. Can you just your
opinions on where the market's going with actually working with
the athletes and what fanatics Fest is trying to tie
that all together.
Speaker 4: Listen.
Speaker 3: I went to fanetics Fest last year. I had high
expectations for it. It blew my expectations out of the water.
I have never seen a show like Fanatics Fest. They
really tried to make it like a comic con. So
one of the cool parts about comic con is all
the people that are in cosplay, you know, that are
dressed up and feel like when you get there you're
in a different world almost, And so for them to
do something cool with regard to having people dress up
and giving prizes out for people who are are dressed
up like their favorite app Like I was. I was
walking around and I was like, Oh, there's the Iron
Chic and there's Tom Brady, you know, like you know,
not the real Tom Brady. He was walking around there too,
like it was. It was crazy. One of my favorite
pictures I have is I was trying to go down
the escalator and Dana White was coming up the escalator
with like three three State troopers and like this huge
crowd and I'm like Sam and going upstream like there's
no way I'm getting getting down the escalator. And but
that's what was so cool. And you're you're walking around
and there's Livy Dunn dressed up as Paul's schemes and
like it's like, where where am I? And it's it's
it's it's a show like I've never seen. It's it's like,
it's okay to collect and just be a total nerd
for sports you love. We are not going to be there.
PSA is not going to be there, but I'm I'm
absolutely would I choose to take my twelve and thirteen
year old to Fanatics Fest or the National It's Fanatics Fast,
and I'm really planning this out, like how do I
take my kids to this? Because it was again an
event like I have never seen before in the hobby.
So what I hoped for when TOPS was initially purchased
by Michael Eisner was Okay, this guy's going to elevate
the brand. He's going to do things that have never
been done before. He's this entertainment icon, He's gonna do
these cool things. Well, he didn't and it took someone
like Michael Rubin and his team to elevate a little
bit and listen, there's a million different things that we
can say that we like or don't like about Rubin
and Fanatics at the Tops acquisition, but they do some
really great things like Fanatics vests that bring you closer
to the hobby you love and closer to the athletes
you love.
Speaker 4: Literally, you could.
Speaker 3: Be at a at a at a table and you turn,
you turn to your left and there's freaking the real
Tom Brady, you know, like it's it's crazy. So I
think it's a really special event. I think if you
do not go in its infancy, uh, you are going
to miss the opportunity to uh to.
Speaker 4: Be close to some of these athletes.
Speaker 3: I think it's just gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger,
and you'll miss out on how intimate it currently is.
Speaker 1: My real big beef with Michael Rubin iss I bought
an entirely white outfit and have not been inviting. I
don't know if the chicken or the egg. I don't
know how this works. Yeah, yeah, but you know.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, honestly, there's there's a whole vip area, Like,
when's the last time you saw jay Z and Beyonce
trading card show?
Speaker 4: Seriously? Like what?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, there's flipping young ageoe, you know, like
it's what's going on here? So yeah, I think it's
I think it's a pretty crazy, crazy environment that they've
created and a good thing for the hobby for sure.
Speaker 1: I went last year and share a lot of your sentiment.
But I will say I think this is a pretty
fair comment. It sounds like a Super Bowl card show
and a Baseball All Star Game fan fest. Fun a bet,
but not real great for finding cards I need. I
could see that you're not going to get the it's
not the national for card strictly for cards at this point.
It doesn't compare. You're not going to find Rose and
Rose and Rose to go through for set collector. I
didn't get that vibe. I got a vibe of a
lot more dealers, a lot more modern, and a lot
of the athletes that were actually at the event.
Speaker 3: Yes, a lot more modern. So yeah, it is not
Age Card Show by any stretch.
Speaker 1: Rex, are you guys going, I'm just curious. He says,
they've expanded their space dedicated to dealers. This year. I'd
be curious if any dealers on here are going and
what they've learned so far. But the autographs are ridiculous.
And I know that it was a first year there
were some things to work out on the autograph side,
but my understanding is they've worked all that out. Berty,
How big are you into autographs? If you go to
a card.
Speaker 2: Show, I I like like getting a meeting athlete, but
at the same time, like I feel like that it
takes away from the card show kind of because I
got to dedicate this time and I got to be
there at a certain time. But I mean, if it's
somebody that people really like, I get why they do it.
Speaker 1: Definitely, do you see the average person? And this is
in general, I think the autograph prices have gotten expensive,
and I know to get these types of athletes that
there's going to be a cost there. Do you have
a break even point? BROTI, like up to fifty bucks
you'll t anybody? You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like I think like that one hundred
dollars range is like, you know, like one hundred dollars
range I think is good. I mean, but you see
at the National I'm sure if and I access to
some of the people, you know, like Mariano Rivera is
like four hundred and fifty bucks. David Ortiz was supposed
to be there. I think he was like five hundred
bucks when he was scheduled. And I mean, yeah, they're
Hall of Famers and stuff, but that's a lot of
money for a quick little autograph and it sits on
your wall.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, I'm looking at Chris's background. He obviously
has no interest in memorabilia or autographs or anything of
the kind. Are those signed? Any of those?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're all signed.
Speaker 3: Uh, And I I have never I have never done
a gotten an autograph at a show, believe it or not.
So I am a big believer in send in signings,
So I think those are those are definitely cool. But
I don't nothing that I've is done into the show now.
Usually it's because I'm busy. It shows like I'm always
working for a manufacturer or with P. S A. Today,
so I don't have a lot of extra time to
stand in the line. That's the thing that I think
just drives people crazy is that that line. Now, granted,
the line is filled with collectors and everyone has an
ink story and so it's it's good line gossip. You know,
it's better than being at Disneyland waiting for a line
or right in the line. But yeah, it's uh, it's
it's not something that i've I've done before.
Speaker 1: My son got a couple of autographs. I don't do it.
I will say those interactions with the athletes Bo Jackson
and Alan Iverson specifically were so positive. It just he's
going to be a fan of them forever. And they weren't.
I mean, they were on the mid to lower end
of cost compared to some of the other guys. And
but after seeing him do it and get the interaction,
you're paying for more than the signature. So I just
want to say, if you have kids and they have
a favorite athlete or you want to teach them somebody
you grew up in your generation. So the logan says,
in the twenty Nationals I've been to, I've only paid
for two autographs. Who are they? Logan? That's how much
I care about meeting athletes and celebrities. Logan, that's because
you're a PSA Hall of Famer. Did you got to
get your well.
Speaker 3: One thing you just mentioned Allan Iverson one and going
back just a quick step back to Fanatics past. One
thing that I found amazing about that show was on Sundays,
and most trading card shows, you see people start packing
up early, you know, and you instantly when you walk
in on a Sunday to a Saturday, it's a very
different experience, right because on Sunday you'll see that already
there are booths that are not manned, they're not stationed,
there's empty tables, and you're like, wait a second, I
paid for this experience and I don't feel like I'm
getting my whole thing. At Fanatics best, everyone stays till
the end. And one thing that they did last year,
I was like, this is crazy. They did a panel
with Alan Iverson half an hour before the show was
set to close on Sunday, and it was amazing, Like
everyone was jam packed around this Alan Iverson panel. It's
just spitting all sorts of amazing knowledge, and it's the
show is still like highly functioning and totally you feel
like you felt like Sunday late afternoon was a Friday
at six o'clock, you know. So I kudos to them
for that. I think that was really surprising to me
from you know, getting your bank for your buck for
a three day pass to see it still busy on
a Sunday was really cool.
Speaker 1: Stuch says some of us old timers were spoiled on
the old prices and free events for autographs. Yeah, not
only talking to George, Mike and Warren Spawn when getting
an autograph was very true. Also, want to give an
update on hobby Hotline in general. Meant to meant to
do some housekeeping. At the beginning, We're going to the
every other week model, so starting in June it will
be the first and third weekends Saturdays, UH and that'll
help rotate and help with the schedule a little bit.
So I just want to clear that up. John has
made that decision to go to UH two weekends a month,
which is probably more than enough of us. Anyway, moving forward,
UH broty baseball, Who's Who's the cards? If price wasn't
an object, you would be you'd be chasing because there's
still runway, there's still some upside.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people this season that have been
showing out. And I know I live in Chicago and
Pete Crore Armstrong's having this great year but not mentioned
Pete Armstrong, cal Raley on the Seattle Mariners. I know
he's in an interesting market in Seattle, but that man
has got a great average for a catcher. He's hitting
home runs, and his cards are not that expensive. I
love cal Rally, You're gonna invest in somebody. That's my
play right there.
Speaker 1: In the best nickname baseball, the big Dumper.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. Do you think there's any room left on
Judge or Atani?
Speaker 2: I think yes, because Otani is still supposed to come
back to pitch, and if he comes back in pitches
like he was before, I mean, he's the best player
in baseball. But then you bring up Aaron Judge, who's
hitting three ninety two right now, and I think his
second in home runs or third in home runs. He's
having the best year of his career, and we're at
I mean we're a fourth in the season, a little
past fourth through the season. The fact that he's still
hitting three ninety two. I'm not saying he's gonna hit
three ninety but he might certainly finish the year three
seventy five or something like that, which is crazy for
this day and age in baseball. So I still see
some room, especially with the big market teams that they're on.
Speaker 1: Chris, I see Showy hit two homers much less coming
back pitching, and I think, oh my gosh, could we
really just be getting started? I mean, what type of runway?
I mean, you're out there and have a better feel
for the pulse of it. Are you seeing? I mean,
could there still be?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The coolest thing I've done in my life is start
going to international baseball games. So as a family, we
decided last year. My wife grew up in South Korea,
and we went to the MLB I think it's called
the World Tour. So it was the Padres against the
Dodgers in South Korea. How awesome. I'm a Padre fan,
hate the Dodgers. Great, And we go there and the
experience is just so different, right like you're you're in
a There's just a simple difference. There's so many when
you're sitting in the stands. But you could buy a beer,
or you could buy a six pack of beer, or
you could buy a case of beer and take it
to your seat and drink it. Like that's how they
offer it up. So all these little things. There's cheerleaders,
there's songs for different players and for my family and
my kids to experience that.
Speaker 4: It was so cool. But it was show Hey.
Speaker 3: Show Hey was out there and it was a big
deal and people flew in from Japan to Korea to
try to try to see show Hey. It's the closest
he's going to be and it was a huge deal.
And then this year we went to Japan, we went
to the Tokyo series and the one thing that my
kids could not get over was right when we got
off the plane. So when we got on the plane again,
when you go to Japan, show Hey is everywhere, Like everywhere,
watch watch commercial, you know, just everything you could think
of for an athlete to promote, he's doing it. And
it's it's a whole different level of fandom for Otani
and rightfully so, like he hit a home run there,
And the other thing that was interesting about Japan that
was different than Korea is everyone is definitely silent, silent
between pitches, so they do that out of respect to
the batter, and so it was just a different way
to watch a baseball game, I guess. But when he
hit one of his home runs there, people went crazy,
Like so it goes from deathly silent to pandemonium, you know,
So it was a different way to watch a baseball game,
a different experience. But long story short, the worldwide interest
in this this player is something like I've never seen before,
and and I gave out I think it's funny. I
know this sounds terrible, but as a Padre fan, I
think it's really fun to give Angels cards of show
Hey Otani to Dodger fans. Like it's just like a
little like a little jab I can do. But they
love it, you know, they're so excited to get them.
So uh, it's funny that show Hey went to such
a rival. So I loved giving out show Hay cards there.
But it was like I was handing out fifty dollars bills,
you know, and I brought like two dollars Show Hay cards,
you know, stuff from like National Baseball Card Day and
things like that. But it might as well have been
that I'm handing out gold bricks there, you know, Like
that is how much people think about something with his
face on it in Japan. And it's it's not just Japan,
like it's he's.
Speaker 4: All over the world.
Speaker 3: So he is that Michael Jordan esque type player Tiger
Woods and his prime type player and Yeah, I think
you're right, Brody. I think there's still a ceiling. The
ceiling hasn't been reached for him. If he goes back
to pitching for the Dodgers and they win another championship
like game like game over, I don't even know. Like
I've got show Hay cards. I'm looking at a box
of them right now, and there's no way I would
sell those right now, like no way in a million years,
because I know that the ceiling has not been with
this guy. And it's it's amazing to watch, Like how
cool is it that we were born in the time
where you've got Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Show
Hey o, Tani like insane.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I definitely uh talk about generational players, and Brody,
I'm curious of your opinion. I think it's Showhy clearly
for this generation, and I think it was Trout before that.
The Trout market has softened ton better investment right now
Trouter show for whatere their prices are.
Speaker 2: Trout is interesting. Obviously just came back, but he was
struggling before he got hurt. He was hitting for power,
but the average was down. But Tani, like Chris said,
Tani is everywhere and is that generational guy. I still
think Trout was was, you know, best player in baseball
for ten years, and that was like the face of baseball.
But he's like more than the face of baseball now.
Atani's like the face of sports.
Speaker 1: Without it, without a data. To Chris's point, you know,
what it's doing in Asia is only going to become
more and more like that in the USA. So I
don't think that's I think Trout is going to be
a Hall of Famer. I think his upside is probably
more the end of his career when people look back.
I think as long as he keeps going on and
off the il, his market will be up and down with.
Speaker 3: That, you know, speaking of speaking of players who have
dipped a little bit. You know, Trout was at the
Apex for a long time and then he's dipped with injuries.
But another player, like I just bought a card yesterday
of this player and it has dipped so much from
a little steroid scandal. So Fernando tattis junior like, in
my opinion, one of the most electrifying players in baseball.
Just you never know what's going to happen when he
gets up to bad or when the balls hit his way.
So fun to watch plays with such passion. Still very young,
and uh, his cards took a very serious dip, and
I still I'm I'm a big believer in buying tattoos
Junior right now, just because there's there's some great deals
to be had on a player who is absolutely electric,
who's healthy, and who I think is still going to
do some amazing things.
Speaker 1: You like him more than Jackson Merrow.
Speaker 3: Danny, it's like asking me who's my favorite son?
Speaker 1: I like question.
Speaker 4: I like them both in different ways. Danny, don't make me.
Speaker 1: How about Machada.
Speaker 4: Machado is is my favorite?
Speaker 1: So yeah he yeah, Oh he's a former World else
I understand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know he gets a bad beat.
Speaker 3: And I've I've told this story to a few people,
but I'll share here publicly. I don't think before so, uh,
my youngest son had a just a wacky thing after
COVID happened. He was on the playground and bumped heads
with another kid playing tag and he didn't realize it
at the time, but they hit heads so hard that
he fractured his skull, severed an artery, and had a
blame brain blee and he's at school, so it's, uh,
you know, it's there out of COVID and it's the
first time you can go to recess again and this
thing happened. So I got to call it work to
that there's a problem because he's crying and he doesn't
know what's going on. And they didn't know what's going on,
like it's not like there's blood and uh, my wife
goes and picks them up and takes him to the
to the emergency room. And at the time you could
only be one one family member in there because it
was still COVID and they The weirdest thing happened where
a side door opened in the hospital and I was
outside and a nurse waves me in and she's like,
you have to come say goodbye to your son. And
I was like this is this is nuts? That surreal
moment as a dad, like what is going on here?
And they had to metavac him to Rady's Children's Hospital
in San Diego. He had emergency brain surgery. Everything's fine,
like he just he just came up and gave me
a hug. He's on his way to baseball practice. Amazing that,
you know, children are so resilient. But here's the here's
the Many Machado part of this. Manny Machado ends up
when he moves out here. He's staying in Coronado and
he rents a house right next to my in laws
in Cornado, and my father in law is a huge
Padre fan. And Manny is out there walking the dog
with Yana, his wife, and my father in law's on
the porch waves to him and they're like, hey, what
do you do And he goes, I work for the Padres.
And my father in law is like, oh, I love
the Padres.
Speaker 4: What do you do?
Speaker 3: And he goes, I play third base and my father
in law about dies. But so they strike up a friendship,
right and they share that my son had this experience
and my son loves playing baseball. He's out and playing
outfield and he wanted to go back and play, but
they made him wear like a John Olerude hard hat
out there, you know, just to protect his skull when
he's in the field. And he thought that that was
the worst thing ever, Like everyone's going to think I'm weird.
Speaker 4: What have you?
Speaker 3: Well? Manny hears about this and he says, bring Drew down.
So we bring Drew down to Coronado. He's got to
play a game later that day. He doesn't want to
wear this helmet. Many signed the helmet and gave it
to Drew and said, hey, little guy, keep this on
your head until you're feeling better.
Speaker 4: I got you.
Speaker 3: And for him to show up to the game with
a Many Machado autographed helmet that he's out there playing
it was the coolest thing ever for a guy to do.
And you know, there's a lot of stories about players
that are are good and bad, but I want to
collect cards. I want to collect things from people who
are are good. And I tell you what, Many plays
hard on the field, and there's a lot of things like,
oh he's a jerk, he plays too hard, he's too serious,
what have you. But off the field, he's a really
special individual. So that's my And I might have made
Many Machano cards more expensive now because they're actually a
pretty good deal. But I think just one of the
most special guys in that.
Speaker 1: I love that story, Philly, just as awesome story, Chris,
aplus you have not shared that. I thank you real quick.
And Bertie, I'll throw this to you. Any living guy
is going to get to five hundred home runs. Rex
is asking, and I love this question because Charal's had
three eighty seven. Stanton's the only player with more than
four hunts. Most people would think Judge is. I mean,
does Judge have fifty homers in him for six more
years or yeah?
Speaker 2: I think Judge will. It might be close because he's,
you know, a little bit older, but I think he will.
I think Trout has a shot, but he'd have to
stay healthy, and you know that hasn't really been happening,
so we'll see. But I think Otani could too. I
think Otany Machado has three forty eight. I could see
Machado if he has.
Speaker 1: One year and he's one year younger than Trout and Judge,
which I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I could see Kyle Schwarber too because he d h
is every day, so he'll have a long career and
he's already at like three hundred something.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's the issue with Stanton and Trout.
You know, somebody put in the chat earlier. Availability is
the biggest ability, and there's some truth to that for
staying on the field and show Hey, you know, because
of the dhing, we'll get the at bats but I
don't know that. Uh, hopefully it doesn't get hurt again. Yeah,
all right, I want to wrap it up on the
home scratch here. I had something I wanted to specifically,
and of course I can't remember NBA Finals, NBA Playoffs,
real quick cards, cards and players that I mean. Obviously
SGA has helped his market a lot. But who else
in the NBA are you guys excited about or you
think turn the corner in the playoffs?
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously Tyre's Halliburdon has shown some great flashes.
That guy is really fun to watch. He does at all.
He has down games like in Game five he didn't
really do much, but he doesn't turn the ball over.
Great fundamental player. I'm gonna throw one at you that
you might not know much about. Terrence Shannon, Junior, Minnesota Timberwolves.
Started getting some minutes in Game three, in Game four
of that series, and he's electric off the bench. He
is going to be a huge part of the Timberwolves
going forward. So keep that name in the back of
your minds.
Speaker 1: I think it might be a pump and dump, but
I like the tip.
Speaker 2: He's an Illinois legend. I loved her.
Speaker 1: Okay, there we go.
Speaker 4: I've had something controversial to say about NBA playoffs.
Speaker 1: Go for it.
Speaker 3: No, no, this needs to be made clear. This is
me as Chris Carland, the person, not the not Chris
Carlin from PSA. So my take on the NBA playoffs is,
screw the NBA playoffs. Are you watching the NHL playoffs?
Speaker 5: Connor McDavid is the in the NHL Final, Like we've
been waiting for this forever, and the Florida Panthers are
flipping good man, Like this is gonna be maybe one
of the best NHL Final series in history.
Speaker 4: Like this is basketball.
Speaker 3: Like you watch basketball the last four minutes of a
game and you get what's happening hockey, you watch the
whole entire thing. Watch the NHL Final, people, that is
gonna be special. And if you've got Connor McDavid cards,
if he hoists the cup, if hoists the Stanley Cup, pandemonium,
Like all your McDavid cards are gonna go exponentially higher.
Because what I've learned in this hobby, when I've been
doing this a long time, collecting is a cold weather hobby. Okay,
So if you're in Boston, there's a better hobby area.
That's a better hub than San Diego, California, where you
go outside and there's to do. So if you're inside
and it's an inside hobby, collecting is bigger in those markets.
Speaker 4: All of Canada is.
Speaker 3: Cold, like everyone does collects cards, Tim Hortons.
Speaker 4: You go to Tim Horton's.
Speaker 3: There's there's two different upper deck offerings a year where
you buy your coffee, your donut, and you get a
hockey pack. So I'm telling you all watch the NHL
Final and if Connor McDavid wins the Stanley Cup, Holy cow,
Holy cow, what that will do for the end. It's
gonna be It's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1: Can I ask a question, how quickly will you see
an increase in submission? So is it within days? Does
it take a couple of weeks to see it?
Speaker 3: I mean no, It's just it's just like the hobby,
like if you go on eBay, like cards. It's always
kind of gruesome that when an athlete dies, there's a
whole bunch of eBay list, you know. Ricky Henderson was
one of the more recent ones that I can remember.
But it's it's similar to if if an athlete does
something great or if an athlete wins, gets in the
Hall of Fame or you know, they get a little bump.
But Connor McDavid, man, he is on he is the show.
Heyo Tani of Canada. He's on every commercial, He's everywhere,
working at upper Deck. I was always impressed by He's
not like a fun guy to hang out with, Like
he's just hockey all the time. Like he why Gretzky
will tell you some interesting stories. Connor's like, all right,
let me get this done and then I'm gonna move
on to my next thing.
Speaker 4: And then I got to get back to hockey.
Speaker 3: So he is that that player that is just totally
dedicated to the sport. But man, I I hope he
gets it. It's it would be a lot of fun
to watch awesome.
Speaker 1: Bertie. You follow the hockey.
Speaker 2: Playoffs a little bit. I was a little sad when Artie,
what's the final?
Speaker 1: I am going?
Speaker 2: I will the Jets getting out kind of made me said,
I'm a big Jets guy. I don't know why, but
I think it would be great. Especially it also be
the first Canadian team to win the Cup in thirty
four years or whatever, so it'd be interesting. Also got
Matthew could Chuck maybe my favorite player in the league.
I love Matthew could Chuck. That guy is a beast.
Speaker 4: You're right there.
Speaker 1: First of all, anytime we can work Tim Hortons into
a conversation, it's a good, good show. Just send the
coffee and donuts. Good comment here. Shay is also from Canada. Yes,
what was the stud that you guys might have heard? Also,
seven out of the last eight NBA MVPs or international players,
So just you know, following the theme that we were
talking about earlier on international collecting and international excitement, it's
more more than just show. Hey, I think we're singing
in all of it. Orlando, who is in Florida, says
Panthers are underrated. Third year in a row playing for
the Cup. Excellent point.
Speaker 4: They're really good. Yeah, totally great.
Speaker 1: Nick Abel debut MLB patch game, thousands of cards sold
that day. Still mickable. My favorite question, what are you
guys going to be doing for the hobby in the
next weekend, week or two if it's applicable, Chris, anything
for Father's Day hobby related. I'll start with you.
Speaker 3: For Father's Day, I just found out that I went
to a Trading Card show in San Diego front Row
Card Show, and a little shout out to them, Holy cow,
any front row show you go to, like it is
a really quick experience. They they bring dealers and people,
so we were super surprised. It was the best show
PSAs had in the San Diego area. But at the
hotel we were at, there were a few things going on.
One was there was a boxing match that night, so
I ended up taking I got back from the show,
exhausted and grab my kids, go back down to the
venue and take them to a boxing match. So fun
like it was, it was great. They should do more
of that at trading card shows, have a boxing match
on the side. But they were promoting a brunch for
Father's Day, and I'm a big brunch guy. But it's
a ron Burgundy brunch, so you the dads can mess
up as Ron Burgundy. There's a Ron Burgundy lookalike contest,
and I've already got three buddies. I'm like, don't tell
our wives what we're doing. Like we're just telling them
that we want to go have a brunch here and
then we'll we'll have our ron Burgundy costumes in the
in the in the bag and go into the bathroom
and change. So that's my father's day plans. But it
all came from a trading card show.
Speaker 4: So that was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Real quick, we'll get one more question and eventually we'll
book overtime. PSA accept submission. Orlando lives twenty minutes from.
Speaker 3: There, and yeah, we got you, Orlando. Yeah, I'll be
hiring people to take it.
Speaker 4: Why don't you apply, Orlando?
Speaker 3: Come on? Yeah, it's very overqualified, but yeah, I mean
we're I'm looking for good people in in Texas and
Florida who can take really good.
Speaker 4: Care of collectors.
Speaker 3: So if you're interested, collectors dot com slash careers.
Speaker 4: My shameless plug of the day.
Speaker 1: Brody, what are you breaking? What are you going to?
Are you done with baseball yourself for the season? Where
does it stand?
Speaker 2: Finish with high school ball? Starting travel ball next week?
But it's the summer, so I don't got to worry
about school.
Speaker 3: So wh wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
wait Brody, my son plays baseball too. He's in the
travel ball team. You're I thought when you get to
high school, like that's all you did? You still play
travel ball?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of different like the way it works,
but yeah.
Speaker 3: Just never ends every one of my Saturdays and Sundays.
Speaker 1: Well, to be fair, when I played, I didn't play
for my high school. I only played for the Travels
because it got ridiculous. It's non stop. Yeah, I wasn't
going and I wasn't missing a scholarship. I'm sorry, Bertie.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Chris, you could call my mo or dad
anytime and have a conversation about their people baseball games
because they understand it, and I hear about Alley mom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the whole thing.
Speaker 1: All right, guys. Well, I appreciated the three of us
seem to have a regular monthly meeting, so you know,
I'm sure we'll be getting together soon, Philly, Joe, I'm
trying to get these last couple of comments in here.
Thank you, Orlando, make sure you apply uh. Good luck
to you guys coming up. Chris, keep dodging those darts, buddy,
you're doing a good job.
Speaker 4: Appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1: To everybody else, thank you, And as soon as I
find the right buttons, we're out of here. Have a
good one. Take care.
Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome, Thanks, Thanks Brody,