Speaker 1: Well, good morning and hello, welcome to episode three hundred
and twenty five of Hobby Hotline. Happy to be on
bench clear this morning, as we are every Saturday morning.
Adam from Splendid Sports and doctor James Beckett Sports card
insights in his NFL season hat, always fashiona believe Yes seasonable,
Doctor Beckett, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not gonna wear a cowboy thing because they are no
longer in the n Phil.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious, Adam, How you doing good?
Speaker 3: Didn't they just sign Daniel Jones, Doctor Beckett.
Speaker 2: They're gonna trade Dak for Daniel Jones.
Speaker 3: I heard they're gonna get Daniel Jones.
Speaker 2: Speaking Peter's hope might be an improvement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like this, Mad City Brew. Good morning, eighty
days until spring training. There we go, Rubin doing the
evening and the morning Flip. Good to see you, Trey Sombres,
Good to see you, Stukes, Billy Joe, Good morning, al Ball,
Good morning. We got everybody today. Morning guys, Doctor be
in the house, vintas card collector, Mookie, Well, look at
this lineup. Two out of three is not bad, Mooky.
I'm just holding down the other the other box here
and hello everyone. Peter, Thanks for joining us. Peter, So
I'm a I'm a baseball fan. I want to start
off with a little bit of baseball talk. We had
all the awards announced recently. I don't think there are
a ton of surprises, uh, but relevant to the hobby.
First of all, are the MVP winners. So adam any surprises?
Any thoughts on Judge in show?
Speaker 3: Hey, I think it was pretty obvious.
Speaker 4: I think everyone really knew who was going to win,
right from each league.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was the two best players from each league.
Speaker 4: So you know, they were in the World Series, which
was cool. But yeah, it wasn't a surprise to.
Speaker 1: Me, Doctor Beckett, No surprises at all.
Speaker 2: What I might say, Oh, I'm totally shocked. Yeah, double
anonymous winners. You know, one of the things I look
at when I'm trying to figure out who the best
players are in baseball or anything, but at baseball especially,
I look at the top ten in the MVP because
this year, anybody that had a really good season was
smoked by Otani and Judge, if you came in second
this year, that would have been first in a lot
of years. And so I look at the top ten
and try to see who the best players are and
if they're the top ten and you, it's like it's
like when Ripken was the All Star short stop every year,
if you're the second best shortstop in the in the
American League, you didn't you didn't make the All Star
Games or at least the starting lineup. And so those
other those guys were almost otherworldly, and.
Speaker 1: Ripkin was deserve it every year. Let's be honest, I.
Speaker 2: Know, but who the second best Guy's not Chop Liver
now Derek Jeter after that, So and double points for
the chop Liver reference Red Light thirty four.
Speaker 1: Hello all, good morning, Rubin. I feel if Witt has
much exposure that Judge, it would have been a closer vote. Adam,
I love that point. If you put Judge in Kansas
City and you put Wit in New York, does that
change the voting or Judge's numbers just off the charts.
Speaker 4: I think Judge still wins. But Bobby Witt in New York,
that that would be something. Really I think that would
I mean, that would make him on an level in
the hobby if he was on the Yankees. But I
think Judge, no matter what team he was on the
season he had he deserved the MVP.
Speaker 1: Doctor Becka, what do you think if they flip flopped?
Speaker 2: Well, all I know is that not everybody rises to
the occasion in New York. In New York, New York's
a tough place to play. And so if Bobby Witt
goes to New York, does he have the same stats, better, worse?
I don't know, but there's there's a lot of players
that have gone to New York and have been intimidated
Bobby Witt. I think he's great where he is and
uh to come in second and have a great, great season.
Like I say, there ought to be awards for the
silver medal and the bronze medal in these in these
award content because he had a great season.
Speaker 1: I think Mookie's speaking to that. Sorry, show Hey, I'll
still take Francisco Lindor switching the shortstop great leader. I
don't think he surpasses show Hey. But doctor Beckett's point
from before h Francisco Lindor not chopped liver, and I'll
go a step further. Mookie Betts would have been healthy
all year. He absolutely is the type of player who
would have been in the MVP conversation even if he
doesn't want it all right. But what that leads to
and the hobby relation is the MVP buy back program.
I'm a big, big fan of the MVP buy back program.
And let me get the numbers right here. The base
card is twenty dollars in credit, A refractor is forty.
Number to one hundred is one hundred. I mean number
above one hundred is one hundred dollars in store credit,
and under one hundred is two hundred dollars in store credit.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Doctor Beckett's Start with You LCS has seemed to be
loving this. Is this a program that's kind of here
to stay?
Speaker 2: Who doesn't love it? It's a it's a it's one
of the really good deals for opening opening wax. You know,
you break something that's a product that you just got
to be loving in it, And it wasn't. They weren't
unexpected winners, so they weren't going to go cheap at
any point. And this is a bonanza.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry, That's where I was headed. Adam. You
know how long ago would you have been buying Judge
and Otani if you wanted to, you know, make money
on the buy back. I mean, you could have bought
them months ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think this this is the I'm gonna
say a bold statement. I think this is the best
idea in sports cards since Doctor Beckett made the price guy.
Uh that I really I just love the concept of
it because I actually think they should expand it. I
think they should do things like, uh, you know, pick
pick a player or whatever. You know, you you bring
in ten of their base cards and you can upgrade that,
upgrade that to a parallel or something like that, or
you know, store credit's good. But you can get real
creative with this idea. And it's bringing people out of
their house to card shops, inter acting with and it's
bringing traffic into card shops. So I just see so
many benefits from it, and I think they should not
just do it for MVPs.
Speaker 3: I think they should expand.
Speaker 2: It because it involves base cards. Yes, base cards are
important in the hobby.
Speaker 1: And they're now worth twenty dollars for an MVP. I
can't remember. I mean, doctor Becka, when was the last
time commons that were non rookies, you know, not your
can grifth junior rookie cards. But base cards had this
type of pricing well.
Speaker 2: Back in nineteen fifty two. This young Mickey Mantle and
young Willie Mays. Now it's unprecedented and it's so outrageous
that it gets attention. Like I said, the card shops
have to be loving this. Ye, it's win win because
Tops is promoting it in a way that encourages more sales.
It's just like I said, there's got to be if
Mookie Bets is still going to be a fifty card
of his base card and Lindor and Bobby Wit. You
know when it's a whatever third or fourth year of
some of these guys that those are not high demand comments.
They're not comments, but they're they're star cards, but they're
plentiful base cards. If there was a buy back on
Bobby Wit for five bucks, everybody would be in line
Lindor at two bucks.
Speaker 1: Do you see this expanding to other awards at them?
Speaker 3: I hope so.
Speaker 4: I mean I think, like I said, I don't think
it has to just be awards. I think they can
create whatever they want gamify base cards because who doesn't
like opening a pack and getting more things that you're
excited about right now?
Speaker 3: When you open a pack of cards.
Speaker 4: A lot of kids they see the bass card I
was when I was a kid, they were all base
cards that I was opening. But now you know they
see the bass cards as I didn't hit anything, but
fanatics tops. They can gamify this where you know they're
creating whether it's artificial or not, it really doesn't matter.
They're creating demand, which I think if they do want
to grow collectors and grow the hobby, it's a fantastic idea.
So I hope they do it, not just awards, pick players,
you know, pick whatever, Pick a team, you know in
a local market. So if you're in Boston and you
you bring in Red Sox based cards to a hobby shop,
you can whatever, exchange that or they'll come up with
ideas on what to do with it. But you know
you're just creating activity, which is awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, you're also creating oversupply, and so this is why
this idea really should only be applied to a flagship
type set. There's going to be running the presses so
that everybody has a chance, and so you're not going
to complain about overproduction because you're you're still looking for that.
But if they applied this broadly to all products, it
would increase production, not a good thing. We want a
ten X, we want ax the number of collectors. We
don't want a ten x the number of cards.
Speaker 1: Right, how about the breakers who are now used to
shipping commons. Now all of a sudden, every he's going
to want all their base commons shift. I'm always good
for an MVP conversation. So Mike Petty says that Shoeles
stole forty useless bases when Ricky would have had two
hundred with these rules injured when it mattered. MOOKI is right,
Mookie Chilsen Lindor got them. There is good arguments for
other people. I think that show. Hey, it's more than
just the numbers. It's the market, it's getting to the
playoffs for the first time. It's the obviously the stolen
bases home run combo. It's just too many factors that
I think converged all at once. Rex who if you
don't know, Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's hard to steal two hundred bases. To steal two
hundred bases, you got to get on base two hundred times. Yes, well,
actually not. You could just get on first and steal second, third, home.
But Ricky Henderson, you know, he hit a lot of
leadoff home runs. But he had a lot of singles too,
and he walked a lot. And so he's on first
base and he would have a ninety percent success rate
for getting from first to second and maybe even second
to third. So I don't know that you make two
hundred stolen bases, but he would, he could, he could
break the record. Any any of those guys at the day,
lou Brock, you know, you need to get on base
and then it's just they'd have a field day.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the things that blows me away,
to be honest, that people don't talk about that a
little bit more. And I wonder if one day we're
going to look at, you know, there's all these different
errors in baseball history, if the new rules era will
be looked at and show his numbers, you know, maybe
looked at differently thirty years from now, forty years from now.
If people are stealing seventy bases every year, Adam.
Speaker 2: Was worth a asterisk. I mean, it's a fun rule.
Speaker 4: Well, similar in football with the NFL adding an extra game,
you know that's good, like someone like Patrick Mahomes or
some of these young quarterbacks now having that extra game
every year is going to really compile over their career
for all time yardage and all that stuff. So yeah,
I just you know, it just game. The game changes
over time.
Speaker 3: I guess you got to look at it in different lenses.
Speaker 2: Well, and it's it's moving toward more excitement because bigger numbers.
You know, it's you know, the last time when they
when they raise the mound, you know, I guess that
pleases the pitchers, but it upsets the hitters if they
lower it. There's always an effect, and it's usually toward
more off en. Yeah, in all the league, I think
more scoring.
Speaker 1: And it was sixty seven. I think they raised it
because Frank Robinson won the Triple Crown in sixty six
with like a three sixteen batting average or something very
low to lead the league. So you know, there's always adjustments.
Talking about the buyback program, Ruben would like it to
apply from eighty eight to ninety two. That'd be fantastic
if we could go to previous MVPs and pull out
you know, Willie Geryermo Hernandez from the Tigers in eighty
four and if you still have his cards, you know,
wouldn't that be a fascinating promotion talking about Ricky Henderson
high on base percentage. Very true, and Mike Petty says,
give him six inches a replaying two pickoff moves. Yeah,
huge advantage in today's running game. Mooki says, no asteris
after they lowered the mound. Good point, Larry, good morning,
Good to see you. Rex who, by the way, thank
you for your comments. If you guys don't know Rex
Od's the sports card shop and so talking about the
LCS is loving the buy back program. But he says
that Bradshaw, Montana, Aikman, Marino Lway all played when you
could actually hit quarterbacks and wide receivers. Brady did not,
Adam was Brady? Uh, I want you to answer this one.
Uh what do you think of Brady? Did he did
he ask for too many calls? Was he a little whinye?
Speaker 3: Well, you're asking the wrong guy.
Speaker 4: I'm from New England, you know Tom Brady, so I'm biased,
but I did Rex.
Speaker 3: I do have to kick back.
Speaker 4: Look at some of the highlights from Tom Brady's maybe
the first half of his career, he took some huge hits.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, the latter half of his career.
Speaker 4: Obviously the league had changed, but he still played in
you know, in the early two thousands. The league was
rough back then, still so, but yeah, I understand. I
think Brady's at a point now where like Michael Jordan
was after he retired.
Speaker 3: H but now everyone loves Michael Jordan.
Speaker 4: I think everyone will love Tom Brady after the dust
is settled over time.
Speaker 1: I couldn't I couldn't help but throw that one at you. Yeah, yeah,
thank you for putting that in. Rex.
Speaker 2: Uh. It's also correlated with the uproar about the you know,
traumatic brain injuries and other kinds of concussions and things
like that. So they're football is not as brutal as
it was, and that's it's actually not to the advantage
of all the quarterbacks that are mentioned there as much
a it is to the new breed of quarterback, which
is the the Lamar Jackson, highly you know, Josh Allen,
highly mobile quarterback who's out there and if the old rules,
they'd be getting their heads taken off. But they're sliding there.
You know, they're they're being coddled in the pocket and
and you you can't if they're running out of bounds,
you better not even touch them. You just let them run.
Speaker 1: Out of bound, which makes me wonder across different sports. Uh,
the m v P buy back buy back program, Doctor Beckett,
real quick, do you think that would boost other sports
based sales at all? Or does it people are just
going to cash in on what they're already buying.
Speaker 2: Well if ken, we'll see, because Fanatics in a year
or two is going to have the major license of basketball, football,
and baseball, and they it might be something that they'll have,
probably a flagship type set that they could do that.
I think it'd be a good idea. I'd encourage them
to do it now. Again, not across all brands, and
I don't think Panini wants to be a copycat in
their kind of lame duck situation, but tops that'd be
great if the flagships had that. That would be a
kind of a trademark or at almost a patented provision
and benefited bonus in the flagship sets. That's it's MVP,
you know, there's you know, MVP promotions have gone way back,
there have been things like that, but this one is amazing.
You know, twenty dollars for a base car is just
that's not short printed, you know, it's that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And how many people are just turning those into a
couple of packs of cards and leaving thrilled. You know,
it's it's not like you said, down Payton on a
fifty ten mantle, a reinvestor right back into I think
new product typically and and good for the lcs, and
and then it's money right back to fanatics. So I
think it's a win win for everybody. Also, just want
to point out, to wrap up the quarterback conversation, the
money they make now makes it a lot easier to
retire younger and not have to put themselves at risk
longer in their career. Back in the day, guys a
lot of times played longer to get the extra paychecks
in in those final couple of years. Let me just
wrap up some of the vintage conversation here on the
Stolen Bases nineteen sixty nine, man was raised after all
the great pitching seasons. Absolutely one is that a thirteen
hundred ops I guess hitter in the ale and sixty
eight gives well one three hitter, thank you, good thing.
I'm not an editor. Give some Lora Drysdale's six straight
shoutouts McLain thirty one win, Yeah, no, no out the
rules today favored different different things than the old days. However,
you know, you had a world series that had Gramm
rule triples at the beginning of the century because they
let fans stand on the field with their world So
things have been different forever.
Speaker 2: Show.
Speaker 1: Hey, I think is in better shape than most of
the people in the chat. I'll leave it at that.
Chris Harris, good, good to see you, buddy. I'm sure
if you rely on a rebate program, you're basically conceding
the fact that the price of the wax is too high.
There's a you know, that's a great point. You know,
Adam will start with you on that one. Does that
Does that imply that the wax is too high, that
they're doing this, or is kind of a thank you?
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess prices are probably too high, but
you know, people people are paying it, or breakers are
paying I don't I don't really understand why it's so
high so much. I mean, I guess it's because of
the demands high. But yeah, I don't know. I don't.
Speaker 3: I just think it's a great idea.
Speaker 4: I just think think of the ramifications is all these
things like I saw.
Speaker 3: In the comment.
Speaker 4: You know what about the ones that don't get turned in,
they are they going to be in the future like
chased after because there's not many still out there. And
I was thinking, like, what's the what's the last iconic
baseball card because of all the dilution and products, you know,
and there's so many different variations that maybe it's twenty
eleven mic trout based card or something like that, but
this could even create like iconic based cards that people
remember down the road.
Speaker 3: Hey, remember when I traded that card in and got whatever,
you know.
Speaker 4: So it's it's just creating more memories and more activity,
which I love.
Speaker 1: I love your attitude. You're you're You're so wholesome. I
want to picture Cheeck sometimes.
Speaker 2: I think you. The dream of every card manufacturer is
to produce and sell more product at higher prices that's
good for their bottom line, and so this has done that,
and it's it's you know, there's a there's a circular
to it that it's also promoting the card shops, which
I think is terrific. So they're loving this.
Speaker 1: And to piggyback on that, rex, he says, expanding the
buyback would have to make good economic sense for them
to do football, basketball chrome Baseball wholesale prices were much
higher this year than last, so that's an interesting combination.
There rex always dropping the knowledge, Reuben says, with the
buy back going back to the manufacturer, does that make
cards that aren't turned in sought after card? I thought
they had a deadline. I thought there was a deadline.
So I think if you don't get it in by
the deadline, then the cards go back to base cards.
It's like the pumpkin. You turn into the pumpkin at midnight,
and I think that's how it goes. Adam, if you
were looking at next year's MVPs and you're buying bas
cards coming out, who are you looking at?
Speaker 4: Well, Bobby Witt, like we mentioned, maybe he makes another
step up, you know, Bobby Witt. And then my favorite
player is Mookie Betts. I love Mookie, you know, I
wish the Red Sox never traded him. But if he
stays healthy for a full year, to your point, I
think he could give show Hey a run for his
money with with the stats and everything.
Speaker 3: So it's just funny they're on the same team. It's
kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: Doctor Becky, do you like the strategy of trying to
buy the m vps early in the year.
Speaker 2: I'm sure people are doing that. I mean basically, you
could you'd make a market, or you'd be hedging, or
you'd you'd buy a product. You're gonna get rid of
anybody that has no chance, but you're gonna hold on.
And you may even say maybe not bounties, but you
may even put out buy offers.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Like you say, you're going through a dollar box and
you see somebody that potentially could be the MVP may
maybe in a quarterbox, you know, but I don't know
they're going to be in there because people are There's
enough really smart, savvy collectors that want to get ahead
of the game. So if you if you, if you, uh,
you know, you break your own box or a couple
of boxes, you're going to be very careful about selling
too soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, no, And in general I don't like breaking
boxes looking for single cards. I'd rather look through the
dollar box or buy a lot of comments from.
Speaker 2: Your ten top guys, you know, ten guys like I said,
the top ten from last year or up and comers.
But you know a lot of these things. Sometimes there's
somebody that just comes out of nowhere. So I'd be
I'd be real careful about selling off if I had
If I had it, you know, if I had it
that those products that are eligible, I'd open them up,
but I wouldn't be quick to sell base cards of
guys that potentially could be the Hall of Famer listen at.
Speaker 1: Premium, retsays it's not too high if the market demands it.
Talking about pricing, shops have been sold out of Chrome,
Hobby and Jumbos for months. There are only blasters left
at this point, you know, said doctor Beckett's point before.
These are for profit businesses. Don't confuse that with charity.
And if they can sell out, then they're going to
sell out. And if they can sell out at this price,
next year we'll be even higher and they're gonna see
if they can sell out at that price. And talking
about the MVP buyback, the deadline is February, so you know,
I guess you can, you know, offer what you want
up to a certain point to make money until February.
Rex says Chrome comes out pretty late in the season.
I looked at a Tanian judge based on eBay when
they first hit, and they were both going for fifteen
plus shipping tough to make money on those. Well maybe
that's the point of breaking your own and not buying
them on eBay as a as a better way to
get them.
Speaker 2: Well, sorry, there's it's math. You know, you look at
the Vegas odds throughout the season of Who's potentially be
the Hall of Fame? You you can, you can, you
can you know, work work it out. You know, if
you got ten to one odds for somebody, you're gonna
pay X. If it's five to one, you're gonna pay
something else. If it's even odds, you're gonna pay something else.
If it's even odds, you're probably gonna pay ten bucks
or less to get the twenty.
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, Maryland has legal sports wagering, and
hypothetically that's one of my theories on dropping a dollar
or two when a player is just watching the odds
and seeing how they move and paying very little for
somebody who could pay could have a good return.
Speaker 2: I fanatis will be moving toward the greater integration of
gambling with apparel and cards and memorabilia. That's they're gonna
integrate that in a way that we don't. I can't
foresee how it's gonna happen. But this is an example
of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Philly Joe says, is there a max amount
of shops will buy cards back for? So I don't
know if.
Speaker 2: That amount of cards. I think they have to take
whatever you bring in.
Speaker 1: That was my understanding, or is it a maximount they'll
pay per card, which is standard negotiating on that pay. Yeah,
there's no negotiating on that. All right, Well, that that
went longer than I expected. But I love talking m
vps and things that don't have answers always.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things that I think, and we'll
stick with cards for a second is uh Sada horror
great Japanese player, all time home run king, uh worldwide
home running I believe. I don't remember if bonds whether
or not you count that beat him, but I think
it's fantastic that they're bringing his cards and it's and
it's a long term contract. It's not a one on
one super fractor that nobody that he's going to start
having cards inserted uh into into regular products, Adam does
Does that make you want to go out and get
his cards?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: No, But I do want to mention my friend Dylan
double D vintage baseball cards. He John Mangini and a
dealer of Japanese cards. I forget his name, but they
recently did a video on Dylan's channel where they talked
about Japanese cards atahirow Oh they collect those cards, and
that made me want to collect some of these cards.
But yeah, I mean, I think it's great that TOPS
is like highlighting this now, but yeah, it's it's a
it's a big rabbit hole to go down, I guess,
so I'm trying to be careful. But watching that video
and learning so much about all these cards that had
no idea about made me want to collect them.
Speaker 1: Doctor Beckam, what do you think about the respect for
l Well, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, there should be respect for him, and but just
like with American players, there's a greater appreciation for cards
when the guy was playing, that's one thing. So the
cards long after their career is another story. There'll still
be some demand for it. I'm troubled by the fact
that they're going to have a multi year agreement with
a guy. I mean that just means they can do
a bunch of them this year, and a bunch more
next year, and a bunch more of the year after
and a bunch more of the year after that as
long as they can. If they milk it, then anything
that came out the first year is going to be
selling like hotcakes. The second year. Oh yeah, here's some
more Sadahar autographs or special cards. And so I don't
I'm a purist if they flood the market, not flood
the market, but you know, if they print as many
as they can the first year, and then as many
as they can the second year, in the third year,
at some point there's some diminishing returns. Who for a
guy who's a legendary figure in international all time home
run king, I think he's got more in eight hundred.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's all his non current cards, his memorabilia,
his vintage cards. I think all of those go up
in price. I think it brings awareness for sure, and
to your point, doctor back in the people who don't
want the modern or don't want to chase those prices.
And you know, really it is, like Adam said, there's
people out there who have been collecting Japanese cards for
a long time and are experts, and and uh.
Speaker 2: The way they're exports is that they some of the
Soada Harrow cards do not have his name on there
in English. Okay, So unless you can recognize his face
or he did have a kind of a famous uh
you know, swing kind of thing, or you can read
kanji or you know the characters, it's just a it's
just a Japanese card, and it's Robert Robert Clevens, that's right.
I've known him for a long time and he used
to he speaks Japanese. He's over there, he knows, he
went to the source, so he's got fabulous. In fact,
I got my type cards from him when I was
doing the books.
Speaker 1: Interesting, how long, doctor Beckett, have Japanese cards been on
the radar to you? As kind of a niche? I'll
admit when I was in the hobby thirty years ago,
I don't remember hearing people talk about international cards nearly
as much as I hear about it in the last
since the pandemic.
Speaker 2: Well, when I went to the I used to go
to the Hawaii show every year, and that's where you
would see them. There'd be some Japanese dealers and more
stuff there. And I was always trying to get again,
not complete sets, but type cards, and so I've got
and that was in the eighties. That was in the eighties,
so they've been out there. But in the eighties, maybe nineties,
two thousands. At some point, international cards were not disrespected.
A lot of the European, the British, the German, any
of that stuff was just not mainstream until recently. And
same thing with Japanese. It was just you know, yeah,
if you want to collect those, but that's not what
the serious collectors go after. And then all of a
sudden collectors woke up and said, hey, these these are
actually tougher and the and these players are iconic and
they're they're just because they played in Japan doesn't mean
they couldn't play in the major leagues. Because now you've
seen each row show, Hey Nomo, you've seen these different
Japanese players come over and be really good at pitching
and hitting or both. Uh, And so they get the respect,
they demand the respect, and it's and so that sends
people back to say, hey, let's let's take a second
look these these Japanese is not a minor league.
Speaker 1: Interesting perspective here, Midlife sports Card SAIDs and talking with
Robert at the National, he says that the Japanese culture
doesn't value old stuff, so the new O cards may
have much more demand than japan Well that that's an
interesting perspective, even.
Speaker 2: Though Japanese and Asians in general and most cultures value
older people. Ye may older respect, but apparently maybe older
cards maybe not so much. But you know, Robert's probably right,
except that they're just not that many amount there, so
you could want them all you want. You could put
a bounty on some of these things, and it's just
they either don't exist or they're they're not for sale.
They're they're very tough.
Speaker 1: Adam, I was thinking a lot about soccer card and
stickers and the international you know how the international community
treats different products differently. Do you think that's something that
we're going to start seeing more people respect? Is the
other cultures collectible, you know, whether it's a sticker or different,
not our standard sized card, that's just different.
Speaker 4: Hopefully, Yeah, I think I think so over time, I've
been hearing that for a long time that you know,
soccer is the most popular sport in the world overall,
and it's only a matter of time before everyone wants
soccer cards. I guess it hasn't happened yet, but it
could at some point, and obviously, yeah, in other countries,
I guess. I mean, maybe there's just not as many
collectors outside of the US right now. I don't I
don't really know the reason, but it is interesting to
think about what if what if some of these other
countries took on collecting like we do here and they
would you know, obviously some of these countries would their
favorite sports soccer, so that would be like their baseball cards,
so to speak. So it would be really interesting to
see that happen. And I'm sure Tops had that in
mind when they're putting this out. You know, this Otani's
from Japan, you know, and he's the MVP. So uh,
it's great timing, right, because I think things are very
popular there, so why not why not do it now
and see how it goes over with the people back
there and see how it goes as far as what
they want to collect. But I think that that probably
does make sense. They're going to really be attracted to
these new new cards.
Speaker 2: Probably three things.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One is that back in the day, long time ago,
the stickers were intended to be stuck and you would
get like a starter pack, but you were allowed to
send in duplicates and get you know, like twenty players
back of quote unquote supposedly the stickers that you needed,
which I think people needed the better players, and so
the superstar orientation kind of gets messed up, so there
were perhaps more of those. Secondly, just the idea of
a sticker that's being stuck it could work to the
advantage of people that don't stick them, and that they
could be they could get high grades if you don't
mess with them, but so many of them are stuck.
That was what was encouraged that the unstuck ones ought
to have more value, but they're not really because they're
too small. Now Panini now has some sticker sets that
are two and a half by three and a half
and those sell way better, and there's parallels of the
stickers and things like that, and so I think that
that's where it's going now. I think they got away
with that because they still held the regular license, but
usually the sticker license is for a smaller sticker type
thing with an album, and it could be different than
the card license.
Speaker 1: And Panemi for years is you know my understanding PSA
has expanded into Asia. I think that's a big sign
of what they think the future is and quite frankly,
to handle the physical cards. I don't know how many
times we've heard Chris Carlon talk on here in other
places that people really like to hand their cards in
and a lot of people have a hesitation with shipping.
So for them to open an office in Asia, I
think speaks to that market. Adam, like you were saying,
the collectibility growing internationally, that's a sign that's really picking up.
Shane says a multi year agreement on O cards will
have a much longer legs than most think. Well, there's
a little contradiction, but you know, maybe somebody like me
who would just love an O autograph, I don't mind
in four or five years if I can pick one up,
you know, more inexpensive as not an investment piece, just
an O autograph. I don't know how much hepe he's
signing like.
Speaker 2: The Wemby effect. I mean, if Wemby goes on to
be an all time great, he started when he's twenty
signing a lot of autographs, a lot of autographs this year,
so five, you know, five years later, you know, I
guess if it's if it was with Michael Jordan or
Lebron some kind of a combo would be interesting, but
just a plane Wemby autograph. You know, he's already one
of the most graded guys. He might be one of
the most autograph guys if we at the rate we're going.
Because people demand it, but they demand it in ways
that are not in the collector's best interest. It means
the price has to come down.
Speaker 1: And we hit it right on the nose. Mike Petty
wants to know where the one'bye talk was today? We
got that.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I am so sorry.
Speaker 1: He says, thirty eight minutes in. We'll start timing. Yet,
this is a great topic I wanted to get into later.
Rex says, any truth to the story that three hundred
and fifty thousand in cards have gone missing from GameStop
PSA submissions, causing Game Stop to pause their grading services. Well,
I did see online that they've paused their grading services.
I did not.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's true if anybody in the chat knows that
it was because three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
cards went missing. Adam, can you ever imagine Let me
make it a little bit more neutral, how do you
feel about dropping off cards at a game Stop to
get graded.
Speaker 3: I would never do that. Nothing against game Stop.
Speaker 4: I just you know, when I don't submit too many
cards anymore, but when I used to, I used to
submit it myself, and I never understood the you know,
send it to this guy and he's gonna send it.
Speaker 3: I just it doesn't it's not that hard. Once you
look it up on.
Speaker 4: The website, you know, it's pretty easy to do. So
I always just preferred to send in my own cards.
But you know, I understand the idea behind it and
makes sense. But yeah, not for me.
Speaker 2: Danny. Yeah, it's there's a new day coming for game
Stop because they have a new board member. And when
the relationship with PSA was announced, we all thought, I
wonder how this is gonna work. I see lots of
potential problems, and I think there have been problems. But
it's Nat Turner to the rescue if he's on the board,
you know, I I I think they're gonna they're gonna
try to fix those problems. There are too many retail
uh uh stores out there of game Stop, too many
retail outlets for people to to to be convenient, and
but I'd be nervous about bringing I'd rather put it.
Let's put it this way, I'd rather put it in
the mail. Yeah, it's a game stop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's and I don't want to pick
on the people who work at game Stop. They are good, good,
hard working people, I'm sure, but I've tried to reserve
games for my kids and they haven't gotten that straight.
So the idea that I would drop off any value
of cards to those employees and trust that I would
ever see them again. You know.
Speaker 2: The other problem, guys, is that this is where PSA
their strategy, which they've made work of charging more up charges.
When you have to declare the value, you're just telling
somebody this is a really good card, and it's I'm
paying extra to get this graded because I'm declaring the value.
And if they were just putting in if somebody took
hairs my fifty cards center to PSA, the GameStop employee
is not going to know which one is the better card.
Probably unless they're really really in the hobby, they're not
going to necessarily look them all up. But as soon
as it's listed there, you've got an inventory and you
find out, well, this one is the really expensive one.
It could go missing and that's I don't like that.
But like I said, I think that Turner is gonna
there's there's real potential. They're having more places, more touch
points that are more convenient for customer, and if he
makes that work, then he's going to look really smart,
which he is.
Speaker 1: Do either one of you ever see the idea of
a PSA store more, you know, I know they've got
some submission centers a couple, but an actual PSA store
that would be that you know, could theoretically sell cards
or accessories, but take submissions directly.
Speaker 2: It's not in their best interest. I mean they already
have that. They have bulk submitters, they have other they
have locations now in West Coast, East Coast, and Midwest,
or at least it's coming Japan, Germany or where they
have something going in London or Europe or somewhere or
that or that's in the works, so they're being smart
about it. I mean game Stop is a is a throwback. Yeah,
it's retro okay, but it still has lots of stores.
You know, forty years ago, thirty years ago, there were
twenty thousand card shops. You wouldn't need game Stop, but
now there's more game stops than there are card shops,
so it's if he can figure it out. But I
wouldn't want to be having a lot of cards. I mean,
if you were going to rob a store, would you
like to rob an LCS or Fort Knox, you know,
or the or the BSA store that's holding all these
great cards in process? So I don't I don't like
the idea, and I think I think Nat Turner's doubling
down with game Stop to say, hey, I'm gonna I'm
going to personally get involved and make sure they get
it right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes doubling down digs you out of a hole, and
sometimes it just makes the hole deeper. So we'll see
on this. But Peter says, what kind of well we're
all thinking. I know he's being sarcastic here. You mean
I can drop off my fifty two man on a
game stop and I'll be sent to p s A.
He'd be graded. See if folks got to run to
the mall. I think there. I think it's more for
a modern kids approach. But I agree with doctor Beckett.
I just don't see it ever being a solution. But
who knows what that'll come up with Adam when Fanatics boys, Beckett,
you'll be able to submit all your submissions that lids stores.
I don't know, what do you think of submitting it
at Fanatics stores versus game stop?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess it's probably a little you feel a
little more comfortable, you know, rather than you know whatever,
a video game store. At least it's a Fanatics store,
so it probably gives a little more credibility.
Speaker 3: But why did Fanatics buy beck did? I did I
not hear about that? Breaking news?
Speaker 1: All people making up some news.
Speaker 4: I heard that Jeff Wilson wants to buy Beckett too.
I saw a video about that.
Speaker 3: Man. There's a lot of a lot of news out
there right now.
Speaker 2: I am not I am not for sale.
Speaker 3: I wish doctor Beckett would. I wish he would get
back in there.
Speaker 1: Everybody says, doctor, uh, far more. Deny that you are
going back to toe Beckett.
Speaker 2: I can easily deny that, although I'll be over there
uh in a few weeks dropping off some more cards
for grading. But yeah, I love those guys, I mean
the guys that used to work for me. There's some
great people over there, but you know, they've got work
to do to get back to their former position.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much you can talk to this now,
but can you talk about the Beckett marketplace just kind
of the percentage of the business versus grading versus uh
price guys do you have do you know what that
breakdown is? Cannot be shared.
Speaker 2: I don't have the exact numbers, but I'm sure great
is the number one thing interesting because the market doesn't
throw off I mean it's it's uh, it's I think
it has. I guess I could be critical. I think
it hasn't been marketed. I mean, they had a great
idea there, and but I don't want a sharpshoot of
what I would do different But I would have done
things differently. And there's some other things that they've just
again they've earned the right to do it the way
they want to do it. But I had a different
approach to things, and you know, now I got hindsight.
But but yeah, marketplace was a fabulous idea and it
hasn't caught on as well as it could. I mean,
com C is something that Beckett could have done, and
we had that same idea, but Tim Getch pulled it off,
and we were busy making money with price guides and grading,
and he said, here's an opportunity, jumped in and he's
done great. And he was the right man for the
job in the sense that he had the collecting sense
as well as the programming. He's a you know, super
He's a good guy and was sharp enough and cared
about the hobby and I think did it right.
Speaker 1: Looking at the chat room, John Man, Jennie's as a
doctor Beckett, if you buy it back, I'll work for free.
So you have one free employee when you negotiate.
Speaker 3: Uh, as long as I can work from home.
Speaker 1: I'm in one and a half. Doctor Beckett is just
turning into a telethon somehow.
Speaker 2: The labor exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, I've buried probably my favorite story of the week,
Jackie Robinson debut ticket going up for our auction at
r e A, only one of seven in the p
s A database. I think it's just a legendary part
of history. I think it's you know, the term holy
Grail gets thrown around, but you know, just just one
of those games where you know, not just baseball, but
America change Adam. You know, can you think of another
game that in baseball history that would be more important?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: No, I think that's I think that's the one right there.
I mean, that's that's just awesome. And I like to
collect tickets too, you know. I know they're not as
popular as some other collectibles or whatever, but I think
tickets are awesome just the you know, especially I had
ones that like games I went to and and uh
it's just fun, you know, fun collectible and then yeah,
that's I think that's the most important game right there.
Speaker 1: Doctor Beckett. Do you still have your ticket from the game.
Speaker 2: It happened before I was born? Yeah, right, I I
agree with the Adam. I've got tickets from when I
was games I went to and and they weren't all
famous games, but some of them were you know, World
series or All Star games and things like that. But
I don't feel the need to slab them. I don't
think they're going to have exceptional resale value that that
particular one does because it's not contrived. Uh you didn't.
I suppose people should have known history was being made,
but but people and some people collect you know, held
on to their stubs in many cases. But uh, but
that's legit, fabulous collectible and I'm glad it's being slabbed
and uh, and I guess sold to the highest bidder.
It's it's about as good as it gets.
Speaker 1: There was another one that was similar looking. I think
it was a two that sold a couple of years
ago for close to a half million dollars, So you
know the market shifted. I could see this easily hitting
your seven figures? Would you guys agree?
Speaker 2: It's very possible?
Speaker 1: Adam?
Speaker 2: How much?
Speaker 1: How much are you bidding?
Speaker 3: I'll be, I'll be, I'll be watching.
Speaker 2: Well, here's an experiment. Would you rather have that or
the Otani ball that went for four plus million dollars?
It's up up in a tower in Type AI. I'd
rather have.
Speaker 1: This ticket step ten out of ten times, definitely.
Speaker 2: So does it go for four point four million? I
don't think so.
Speaker 1: Well does that happen? Does the scarcity of seven versus
one make that much of a difference?
Speaker 2: Seven is the perfect number? Seven is lucky? Lucky?
Speaker 1: Well? It was, yeah, And somebody made a great point
on here. It's sad to see everything move to electronic tickets,
no more memory keepsakes. I will say that it's not
always worth it, but if you want to go to
the ticket office, a lot of times they will print
a ticket for you if you're taking your kid to
their first game or something like that, where you where
it's a special memory. I think it's worth doing just
for that reason.
Speaker 2: However, However, when I go to the MAVs games on
my season tickets, and when I go through the turnstile
there and they check me in through my phone the
next morning, I've got an NFT in my account. Really
from that game.
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. I wonder I've never heard of a team
doing that. I wonder if if that's a Mark Cuban special.
That's that's really cool. Actually, who knows if the NFT will.
I wonder if there's ever been a resale with value.
Speaker 2: If so, good luck getting your money out right.
Speaker 1: Yeah really, Larry says, I have a ton of printed tickets,
but now you have to say if the tickets on
your phone or in your or in your crypto account.
I just want to clean up here, foul Ball. If
anybody wants to seem will be at the Pasadena show today,
White Sox, Tom they're all closing all ticket agents at ballparks. Yes,
the the good old fashion. Who needs to? Who needs to?
I will miss that was that was a big part
of my childhood. Uh. The the links printed a seat
ticket for the w n B A Finals game. Very cool.
Love to see that and clean cheap shots. As local
alma mater will no longer provide a paper ticket starting
next year.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: That's a shame.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I do just want to touch on the Jackie
Robinson uh ticket. This one was and I want to
put it back up here. Rip. It looks like it
was torn and it's hard to see horizontally and was
then repaired. That's why I got authentic altered and marked
as the stub for something like this on a game
like this, Adam, does that bother you at all? Or
is it just the ticket itself is cool enough?
Speaker 4: Yeah, this wouldn't. That wouldn't bother me, you know, just
having the ticket itself, yeap. The altered thing is whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you really find out what kind of
collector you are when you say, you know what, I'm
going to pass on that and wait for a better one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's when you know your conditioned snob. And
for an item like that, just grab it and enjoy it.
It's a piece of history and it proves somebody went
to the game.
Speaker 1: You know, well, in the ticket world, ticket stubs that
were in the building go for more money. People like
to know that the ticket itself was at the event,
so you know, you can surmise, you know, it's hard
to tell that that ticket was at the event. Mad
City Burg. Very funny. Maybe the NFT is a discount
first submission with game stock. There you go, doctor Beckett.
You can go to a game and get your discount
for game stop submissions. All right, guys, I always like
to know what's what's your hobby weekend?
Speaker 3: Look like, Adam, Not too much. I just I just
had a cool pickup I wanted to show. Actually I
got a big.
Speaker 4: Fan of the ninety two Dream dream Team and Paninium
made some cool stuff and like this was twenty eleven.
This is a game used Larry Bird, Chris Mullen, and
David Robinson from the Dream ninety two Dream Team materials
right there. So shout out to Panini for making some
really cool stuff that I don't think a lot of
people know about these type of things. So yeah, right
around this time period, they've made a few sets. So
this was one of my favorite pickups here recently.
Speaker 2: Well, why do you have your own.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, these are from Zion Cases makes these mag
pros and.
Speaker 3: These type of cards.
Speaker 4: Kind of what you're saying. I don't need the great them,
so I just put on my own slabs and put
my own spend its boots on there, so self slab.
Speaker 2: So it's an eleven.
Speaker 3: It's exactly gem in.
Speaker 1: They're all gemman when you're when you're growing them yourselves, right, Uh,
doctor Beckett? Are you still selling off the collections?
Speaker 2: Slow?
Speaker 1: One percent at a time?
Speaker 2: One percent a month?
Speaker 1: How's it going?
Speaker 2: Actually a little higher than one percent last month?
Speaker 1: On purpose?
Speaker 2: On purpose? Yeah? Yeah, speed it up? Do you have
a do you have a deadline like a hundred months?
What do you say?
Speaker 1: And Danny that well that I'm wondering, you know how
long at one percent?
Speaker 2: Uh, the fifty is a good good goal because if
I can whittle it by half in then in four
or five years, that's that's really good. And I'm on
on real good pace for that. So I'll have more
time with less cards. I'll be able to because right
now I'm still going through stuff that I haven't I
don't have time for. People say what are you picking up? Well,
I don't have time to pick up very much stuff
when I can't even have time to take care of
what I have. So and I'm making and it's it's fun.
It's fun.
Speaker 1: You can let them know that you're investing in MVPs
for the buyback program next year.
Speaker 2: I would I would be willing to trade. Yeah, I
want to. You know, unfortunately, Danny and Adam, nobody really
wants to trade quantity for quality. I'd love to take
quantity for quality. I can't find people generally that want
to do that.
Speaker 1: I've got three kids. Tell me about it.
Speaker 2: You want to trade them in for one superstar, just.
Speaker 1: One college tuition? You know, nothing wrong with that. I
love my kids, Tony. If you're watching all right, guys,
thank you. This was a fantastic show. Uh. I appreciate
us seeing you guys. It's been it's been a little
bit since I've seen each of you. Adam, be well,
Doctor Beckett, be well, and happy holidays. If I if
I don't see you for Thanksgiving in the end of the.
Speaker 2: Year, lots to be thankful for.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and to everybody in chat room. Great chat
room is always, uh simply just one of the best
out there. Take care