We already just did welcome. Hold on. Welcome back to Book to Last. Adam, how are you, man? I am doing good.

You know? Starting like, I the the frigid temperatures here in Minneapolis have warmed up a little bit. Not too hard. Are single you in digits now? Not negative anymore?

In the single digits. Yep. There we go. We're supposed to be at 40 degrees next week, which I'm gonna be very happy for. But, yeah, I mean, it's it's I mean, Royal Rumble last, last weekend and already well on the way to WrestleMania as we'll get to here.

But how about you? How was your weekend? It was good. I didn't work. I had a little wrestle not WrestleMania.

A little Royal Rumble party that kicked off at noon. So that was a long day, but, it was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast. I brought home every kid that came over, got a blaster box, a twenty twenty four Select w to b hobby blasters. So I surprised them with that, which was cool.

You know, I always like to do something when we do that. WrestleMania, we go even bigger, but it was good. Had a I had a great time with that. Did not watch any of the so called Pro Bowl on Sunday, so I just enjoyed a good week with the family. Got to watch some, you know, Royal Rumble, it was awesome, man.

Yeah. I think, like, Royal Rumble weekend, like, usually is, like, appointment viewing for me. It's like, okay. I know I've gotta plan my entire day around, like, at 7PM. I'm gonna sit down, and I'm not gonna move for, like, three and a half hours.

And because it's in the afternoon, I will talk about it here. But because it was in the afternoon, I was like, this is this is obscene. But, let's, let's get into the opening pyro, we can go through it. I gotta say, like, I I think in terms like, if we take the the environment out of the picture and let's just discuss the wrestling, like, I I think it was a pretty solid Royal Rumble. Mean, like, they had some great matches.

They had they had a good men's rumble. They had a good women's rumble. I think the the two in between matches with the championship and AJ Styles and Gunther were both good. Like, I I I had no real issue sitting through that entire pay per view. I think, you know, there are times where you you get into a show and you're just like, okay.

Bathroom break, snack break, whatever. I I was I was pretty happy with it. It's just it just felt weird because it was at, like, 2PM in the afternoon. Yeah. I think that was my biggest thing.

It just wasn't I wasn't in my normal element to enjoy it, but, it turned out to be more enjoyable as the day went on. More and more people came over because we're known to have a rumble party and a mania party. Last week, couldn't do a rumble party because we were there in Indianapolis. So this year was a little weird saying, by the way, we're having a day party at our house. If you're like, what?

Like, well, a lot of people have sports. You have kids. You you were at a sportist. Right? Weren't you?

Yeah. Yep. So you know what that's about. I might have missed my son's basketball game because I had to be there for people to come over, but, they came a little bit right before it started. But, no, I think that was the biggest takeaway was getting used to the adjustment of the time, which, again, we're gonna have to adjust for Romania next year.

That's a different story, different time. But, overall, I'm with you on this. I thought it was a very well put together rumble. No crazy surprises, which we'll talk about. But, overall, I think we almost got this all right.

Almost got this all right with the picks. I think Lynne Morgan I got that one right. Cap. Yeah. Exactly.

Well, it's in my cap, obviously. And, you know, Roman Reigns was the obvious. It should make sense. But Lynne Morgan winning, I think the biggest shock was not seeing Bianca Belair back. I think you'll agree with me on that.

Yeah. So I don't know where they're gonna go. I think Bianca Bianca, I'd like I saw so she posted a picture on social media, and I don't know if it was recent or if somebody was just showing me a a past post that she had made. Her finger, I wish I hadn't seen that picture. It was awful looking.

Like, she it looks like she has a ring. The like, she's wearing, like, a baseball ring. Like, that's how big her, like, knuckle is. Oh my gosh. And, like, it's it's really disgusting to look at.

But, like, if if that was recent and she she still hasn't had surgery or she still hasn't fixed whatever was wrong with her broken finger coming out of last year's WrestleMania, That is a that I don't see her being ready for any of this. And she she I think she avoided surgery at first, but, yeah, seeing not seeing her at the rumble and then somebody texting me that picture tells me that there was something up. Not a lot of surprises as you said, but, you know, we're we're we've been conditioned. Like, as wrestling fans, like, there has to be surprises or it's not cool. And, like, I think that's where I differ from the Internet wrestling marks is that, you know, when you have a solid pay per view and it's entertaining and you you walk away and you're like, wow.

I did not see that coming or whatever. Great. But if it's also, wow. That was really fun. I think that accomplishes a lot of the same stuff.

Right? Yeah. No. I think the biggest surprise was Bron Breakker. The situation there getting eliminated right off the bat by another masked man.

You know? So the question is is who is this mystery masked man again? So I think besides that, that might have been the biggest surprise. I already saw somebody leak that Brie Bella was on a plane there. So I was like, yeah.

We're I already kinda called my party. I go, we're gonna see the beltsuits, which the I think that was the biggest surprise was how big of a pop they got from the crowd. The crowd was so dead. Intend to be, like, ten years late. Yes.

Right. Well, you I mean, like, it started, and you got the vibe that there just was not many people in the stadium when it the women kicked off. It was so dead. I mean, there was no vocal. There was no crowd.

And as the mat match went on and then we saw the Bella Twins, the the yes moment was just I'm laughing the whole time I'm watching the Yes movement. I'm like, oh, we're we're like you said, we're about ten year ten years behind, but the the crowd was great at that point. I'm like, alright. They're in this. Because you gotta remember, I think over there, I mean, it was super late.

I think it was like Yeah. It like, 2AM when they finished or something. That's crazy. That's crazy. But I saw, like, all the traffic they showed at, like, 1AM their time.

I'm like, well, I guess they don't sleep over here. So Imagine living in that general area and, like, at 2AM, like, an entire thirty second fireworks display just goes off around you. Like, your body gets freaking out. Like, everybody's like, what is going on here? That that fireworks display is pretty wicked, man.

That was awesome. It was cool. So I think just let's start with the women, just because I think from a card perspective, like, Liv Morgan getting her moment is the best thing that could have happened to wrestling cards. Like, there there's there's no other way around it. Like, as much as I wanted Tiffany Stratton to win given the the final few participants or Rhea Ripley, I think Liv Morgan had the most to gain.

Rhea Ripley would have also helped cards out a lot as well, but she was a tag champion. I don't think anybody really expected her to win this rumble. She'll probably be involved as they go into the first feuds after WrestleMania, at least I hope she will. But, you know, I think the the match was was good. I mean, it's like for a women's match, which tends to usually be a mess.

This was pretty solid. There weren't many issues. And, like, I think the NXT people showed out. Solruka looked like an absolute million bucks. Like, wow.

What a performance from Solruka. I think, you know, the Tiffany Stratton return was good. But, yeah, I think, like, again, we're gonna take the environment out of that. We'll get to that in a minute. Mhmm.

But, like, overall, I think the match was pretty solid. It was worked well, and the the person everybody expected to win won. And I think it sets up a really pretty good path to WrestleMania was Stephanie Vecaires given what happened on Raw this week. So I I overall thoughts on the women's rumble? No.

I'm with you on that one. I think overall is done well. There wasn't really a lot of bad botches. It was overall, I think everybody kinda hit their spots, I guess you could say. Liv Morgan winning the momentum's there, not just for her, you know, her popularity, but her card values right now.

She's selling like she's the champ, and she's not right now. But Yeah. You know, the question is, is she gonna continue to get that momentum to go beat Vakir at Mania as hot you know, as amazing as Vakir is? I would think at this point, if you're gonna keep this judgment day going, you've gotta get more gold with judgment day. So, again, that's a different time, different story, but I like what they did overall.

I think they got it right. I I don't think we're on the same page on that one. Yeah. And I like so selfishly, I was stashing cards from January on I'm sorry. From Jan, February, I have been putting away Liv Morgan cards because as far back as, like, the year of February Diehardt Liv Morgan fan.

I I love Liv Morgan to the nth degree. No. I'm just kidding. It was purely selfish and purely for the money. So everything everybody on this podcast network is gonna hate.

But I knew that I started reading in the in the dirt sheets that Liv Morgan's gonna come back. She's gonna be the focal point coming into the Royal Rumble, which means she's gonna win the Royal Rumble. And at that point, I knew exactly what was gonna happen, and I started buying them. They were cheap. They were, like, $50, $60.

Like and then she comes back, goes through a massive spike, and then I was like, nope. I still gotta hold. I'm gonna go against every one of my traditional interests and hold a little bit longer. And, I I worked out, some some situational salesmanship with Alex, Breaker Mayfield. We'll talk about that here in a second as well.

But, yeah, it worked out perfectly. The cards ended up selling through the roof as expected, taking advantage of the situation. Again, I'm not a Liv Morgan fan. I did this purely to make money, which is the wrong thing to say on a wrestling card collecting podcast. But, you know, given the expense of of some of these cards and stuff like that, you have to build this equity to be able to afford other things that are coming out with universe and royalty and tops chrome, which we'll talk about here in a minute.

But, like, this is gonna be a big year for wrestling cards as long as the momentum for the, the the sports card market as a whole continues to be bullish. And I think Liv Morgan winning only solidifies a lot of what people were already, like me, who aren't fans of her, but buying for the sake of what I bought for is is literally gonna be able to take that equity, hopefully, and put it into cards that I'm I'm gonna keep. You can see I'm actually a collector. So even though I'm saying invest and flip and do all the wrong things, it is for the purpose of building the stuff behind me if you're following along on Patreon. I mean, honestly, I think everybody in their own mind does it.

There's a lot of people that are collectors. But, I mean, you're prospecting, but it's not really prospecting when she's been around for a long time. But your your point was she was kind of your Drake May. You could have been buying Drake May a year ago, sat on him, cashed out in the football world, and look at his stuff right now. So Liv Moray was was a wise wise hold for you.

I mean, I I do it. I mean, I'm holding hoarding from basically since the national end of this year and during the national till next year to have cards for collectors at my cases. So I'm holding for different reasons, but I'm eventually gonna cash out on the non PC stuff. But I'm a you know, to the end the day, I'm a business. I have to put business things first, but I love wrestling.

I'm passionate about wrestling cards. So I want people to show up to our booth and see all that stuff. So it's a we're doing different things. You're whereas, like, I'm still probably holding my Liv Morgans that I probably should cash out, I but wanna have them at my booth. Complete different.

But, again, no. I don't I don't think there's any of will in that. I think you knowing you as a collector and knowing you as a person, your goal is to co help your collection. So you're like, hey. If I could turn a $100 into $400, that goes towards this Becky Lynch.

I mean, at the end of the day, you're really just trading. Essentially, you're just pivoting around. That's that's my thought process exactly. Yeah. Put put it that way.

So Well, no. I mean, like, think about it from this perspective. Like, you you mentioned Drake May, Jackson Smith, and Jigba. Again, Super Bowl Who can they do? Like, collectors have been doing this.

Money doesn't grow on trees, and wrestling cards have gotten exponentially more valuable over the last couple of years. And, like, I've made these plays almost every single year, and it's because I know that when royalty comes out and that WrestleMania patch, one of one hits, the price tag is not gonna be a small one, which means I can't dip into my $4.00 1 k. I can't take out of my kid's college fund. I gotta have some money available to be able to pay for it. So I've been dabbling in things to ensure that I can make the money work for my financial situation.

Think I this is a good lesson for a lot of people. Like, if you pay attention and you watch TV, you see the queues Mhmm. You follow along with the dirt sheets as best you can, make some plays that you feel comfortable with, not what I'm recommending, what you feel comfortable with, whether that's Bron Break or Roman Reigns, whatever. We'll talk about what Roman Reigns did in the rumble here in a second. Like, all of these things pile up, and you've gotta be able to find the best way to make that work so that you can continue to collect the way you wanna collect.

And that's basically it. Let's sort of take a a step over to AJ Styles before we get to Roman Reigns here. I thought that match was one of the best matches I've seen in a long time. AJ Styles continues to be one of the ultimate wrestling sort of savants in this era. And Centimeters Punk was on the preshow, and he said, wrestlers from the previous generation looked to Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart.

We look to AJ Styles It's awesome. In my era. And I think that could not have been a more perfect explanation. Sad this phenomenal run for the phenomenal one is over, but, man, what a what a way to go out with that match. Sad it it ended without the pomp and circumstance with John Cena and in Saudi Arabia, but you take what you get, and I think he he made the most of it.

He did. Overall, great match match of the night. No question. And what I I you know, I think we saw the end of the era with WWE. I don't know if this is complete end of the era when he did not leave the gloves in the ring that indicates to me, especially that he, I guess, days before or week before, I guess, got all the rights to all his names and stuff like that.

I'm sure WWE was very cooperative in that situation. So if he wants to go on to other things I don't think we've seen the last AJ Styles wrestling. I think at WWE, yes. But with watching him, he still caught it, man, at his age, his level, what he's doing. I mean, what is he?

47, 48? I don't know. Something like that. Yeah. On top of my head.

And he does not look 47, 48. He does not perform like he's that age if that's his age. So it was a great way to send him off. And, I mean, you're watching Gunther, you took out Oldberg, calm. You took out John Cena and now AJ Styles.

You know, again, three legends, I guess you could say. It's it's crazy to watch AJ Styles. Was it ten years ago he showed up to Rumble? Was it ten years exactly? Yeah.

Ten years exactly. Ten years exactly. Exactly. And good. Why not go out at the one place you came into the WWE back into in 2016?

And what a phenomenal career. That's all I can say about him. Yeah. He he he's been wrestling since the mid two thousands, I believe. And what Yeah.

What I think goes down in his mind is, like, he doesn't want the pomp and circumstance. We kinda talked about it last week. But and and I don't think he probably has the same level of, you know, sort of value to WWE that John Cena did as much as a, you know, a ten year career can can give you. I mean, he's maximized his time. Don't get me wrong.

But, I mean, he's been injured for a while, probably needs to heal up a little bit. Yeah. Maybe he goes and does some shots with TNA. Maybe he goes to AEW or whatever and wrestles god knows whoever. But, you know, I think, like, the understanding that he's done, sad, but I think this was a a great match.

Yeah. And speaking of vendor value, mean, his stuff is grossly undervalued. His autograph cards Oh, yeah. My machine was $30, and that's that's a slap in the face for, an all time great in my opinion. I mean, he signed for every pro I mean, like, that's the price.

So he got there So does John Cena. I mean Yeah. So did John Cena. I mean, his was not valuable either. Like, look at how inexpensive John Cena stuff was until this year.

Correct. Like, AJ Styles signed for literally every product from the day he walked in the door. He signed tons and tons of cards. He was a two time champion in WWE, so it's not like he didn't have the resume. He's a tag champion multiple times.

He's Intercontinental champion, I think. You know, he's done a lot. And, so, I mean, like, he he definitely deserves more value. I think he gets that. I think he'll get a bump probably 30%, coming out of this.

And maybe maybe if he comes back and does something with another organization, those go up a little bit more. Let's talk about, Roman Reigns for a little bit here. I wanna say something because I saw a lot of sentiment on social media. Why is Roman Reigns winning the Rumble? And I wanna say this.

I I posted this on Twitter earlier. I said, WrestleMania can absolutely make a new superstar. Like, rest if you win the main event of WrestleMania, you are made. But every time that that has happened, it is rare that somebody wasn't already most of the way there anyways. So everybody's saying Obafemi should have won.

Everybody's saying that they should have given it to somebody up and coming, whatever that might have been. Could have been Gunther for all we we would know. He was final too. So, I mean, like, I think WrestleMania serves a purpose today that it didn't necessarily serve maybe in mid twenty tens and whatever where it literally sets the company on a on a quarterly path that they have to be able to execute on. They they're a business first.

They have to be able to put butts in the seats. Roman Reigns and Centimeters Punk, as we saw, are gonna put butts in the seats. Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns are gonna put butts in the seats. Obafemi versus Drew McIntyre, I don't know. Like, they were talking about that on the raw promo we saw this week.

Like, I don't know if that's the same level. Like, Obafemi was amazing in this rumble. He was. Like, he did so many awesome things. Jay Uso last year was already the top guy on Raw when when he won.

Even though it was a surprise win Yeah. Like, he was already there. And, like, going back to even, like, stone cold Steve Austin in '20 1997 or '98, like, he was mostly there. Like, he was already and and that just made him in that moment. But Jay Uso didn't have to close the show, and I think, like, we saw what happened with his reign.

We saw what happened with other Royal Rumble winners like Sheamus and others that maybe haven't let necessarily fulfilled that. But it was a different time, a different WrestleMania, different money involved, all that stuff. So I think, like, it does that mean somebody other than Cody and Roman and Jay are gonna win the Royal Rumble eventually? Absolutely. But they have to spend a year building towards, and I think that's probably what's gonna happen with Sami Zayn this year.

I think that'll be happening with probably someone on the women's side. Maybe they go back and they they look at their women's roster and they say, who are we gonna dedicate the resources to this year to ensure that when we get to the Royal Rumble in 2027, we have somebody ready to go. Yeah. I don't think we've seen the you know, we haven't seen the chapter close on the Centimeters Punk Roman Reigns No. Obviously.

And I think that's the biggest thing is you've had this building up for years, and you're now finally gonna come to fruition. You're not gonna have a triple threat match, which, by the way, was the match of the year last year. Still Roman Reigns main eventing Saturday night of last year. Now I'm assuming we're getting Sunday main event. It would make sense to go out that way.

So, again, I I I think Roman Reigns will win just because I think it's Centimeters Pucks carrying the title to get there, but I love it. I think these promos are gonna cut going forward are gonna be legendary over the next three to four months. I'm excited. Last night's promo was awesome. It was so done.

It was so good. And I was reading online today that apparently they worked on that together. And way to way to poop on Drew the way they did, but, you know, Drew's still gonna get his chance. And I I I hope it's not Cody Drew. I get, you know, maybe a triple threat or something like that could go in that sense.

But, no, I I like it. I obviously, my pick wanted to be my guy, Randy Orton, but Roman Reigns made the most sense. I get it. And, obviously, that's why a lot of people pick Roman Reigns because it was kind of obvious. We didn't get that, I guess, spoiler.

We didn't get that surprise. But, again, we got that last year with Jay Uso. He didn't really there was a lot of botches, a lot of he just didn't live up to everything, so he couldn't really main event one of the nights of WrestleMania. So I think you're getting the guy who's arguably one of the best, if not the best in the world in Roman Reigns against the, quote, unquote, best of world in Centimeters Punk. So I like it because let's be honest, Centimeters Punk ain't got a lot of years left.

I mean, Roman's even getting up there not as high as Punk, but, I mean, you know, it's, Punk's finally getting his one one on one main event of WrestleMania, which is what he he deserves at this point in my opinion. Yeah. And and Roman like, listen. I'm gonna catch heat for supporting Roman just because he's a part timer at this point, and everybody's gonna say, well, why are you putting it on somebody who's a part timer? Like, guys, like, things go down in WWE where they can support a part time champion.

They've done it with Brock Lesnar. They've and it it's not ideal. But when those matches happen and the and the world champion rarely outside of Centimeters Punk who has committed to being a a fighting champion. Like, they they've really made world title matches something special now. And they're not putting them on everyday raw.

They're not putting them on, like, a Saturday night's main event as much anymore. They'll do one, maybe not two. So, I mean, like, there's still a reason why they can support a part time champion, and Roman Reigns holding that belt elevates the show. And you may not like him. That's fine.

I didn't like him for a long time. I hated him before the tribal beef gimmick. I hated that he was put in that spot, but now he is the best they've got. And everybody's saying, you know, Brock Lesnar eliminated Obafemi, and they didn't build anybody up new. Look what happened to Aliyah Dragunov.

Like, guys, like, I like, how much how many moments can you have before they all start getting strung together and lost in the shuffle? Like, you really have to pick your spots because as Matt Damon said, people are watching this with their phones in their hands. Like, you're you're likely capturing five moments for the entire show. And, you know, maybe that's Liv Morgan pointing at the sign. Maybe that's Roman Reigns pointing at the sign.

So you've got three other moments that you're making for this show. You can't just say this person does this and whatever. Like, they they built up Sol Ruka. They built up Lash Legend. They Raquel Rodriguez.

Yep. And Raw. They built up Obafemi. I mean, they literally had all of these things going at once, and it felt it felt good. Now you can argue with me till you're blue in your face because that's what makes wrestling awesome is there's it's all subjective.

We all love to battle about it. But, and and just the fact that Ryan and I are spending this much time at the front of this podcast talking about it shows how fired up we are about the Royal Rumble. This is the this is the most wonderful time of the year. I mean, this is where you showcase these talents. This is where they got their opportunities not to win, but to show who they are.

Obafemi made a lasting impression. Javon Evans was the iron man of the match. You had Sol Rooka just dominant. I mean, he used the last legend was dominating the match. Mean, people these are names that if you are just an avid wrestling fan, I'm only gonna watch from Rumble to Mania, you found out who some of these people were that have been talked about and doing things in NXT level for years now.

This was your opportunity to see them do what they can do, and it was awesome. I love that. I love what they were doing with this. Yeah. It stinks how Obafemi got eliminated, but there's something you can build there to the future.

They're gonna make Obafemi look stronger and stronger every week. They already did it on Raw last night to where we could build up to this potential Lesnar, Obafimi match. Love it. I think this is showing the next era right in front of you. So, again, these guys when Roman first with his first I never forget his first trouble.

He was eliminating everybody. And when he got eliminated, everybody booed because he was so dominant. Yeah. You don't come in and just dominate right off the bat. It's so hard, especially in the men's.

Women's a little different back then. They didn't have as much talent, but it takes time to build these people up to make them the legends that they're going to beat one day. And I I loved it. I I got the watch back. I watch NXT.

I'm not an avid every week, but I follow NXT, and I watch certain things. And it's just cool to see all them come together and showcase, and I can answer people in my house watching that aren't avid wrestling fans or watching because I'm having a party. Who is this Obafemi guy? That guy's a beast, and they just see that because they showed you he was. Yeah.

Exactly. And I think, we'll we'll probably skip the section that I was gonna talk about next, which is winners and losers here. But, like, I think, like, from a from a card market perspective even as well, like, Obafemi is gonna get a nice little bump from his showcase. Javon Evans already getting a bump. Soluka.

Soluka gets bumped. Like, all of these people are getting eyes on themselves in a in a in a position that they would never be in. And I think everybody's like, well, they buried this guy. That's that's all Internet. That doesn't exist in real life.

Like, you heard the fans last night when Javon Evans came out. He was tossed over the top rope just like everybody else, but the fans saw what he did and still appreciate it because they don't follow the Internet like we do in reading through all the dirt sheets. Like, that is all a fictional situation. It's not reality. And so when you say, like, oh, Finn Balor is not in the rumble, but mister Iguana and and what's that?

La Parka. La Parka. Yeah. Like, there's a story to be told there. It's like, Finn was never gonna win the rumble.

So you want him to just be in there and be tossed out after ten minutes? Like, what does that do for him? At least here, he's got a story to tell coming out of it. Right? Yep.

So, anyways, from a from a winners and losers, I think big winner, men's rumble, probably Obafemi, Javon Evans for me. Losers, I I don't really have one. I mean, like, Cody Rhodes, maybe. Like, he was kinda like, you know, an an afterthought even though came and did that whole thing. Like They continue to kinda bury LA Knight, not really giving him, I think, a of LA Knight's a good one.

Yeah. And I really wonder if he just makes everybody mad in the back. I don't really know, man. I mean, he's still over with the crowd, but, yeah, I know. I mean, I think the biggest thing is I you're building up Kilt Wilson right now, and he's kind of over, which is crazy.

Yeah. Exactly. I think that was not him being a loser. I think that was loser on the writing parts that how did you not get him out there at least? I just Yeah.

I I guess maybe, again, when they wrote this was probably two months ago when he was irrelevant, and now he's relevant. So, again, I think a lot of people like me and see a lot of people like, how did Kit Walsh not get in? I think that would have been great. I think he actually would have got a big pop, and I think there would have been a lot of good laughs. Yeah.

Exactly. And I think, like, from a from a, like, a Soluca perspective, her cards were already on fire. Yep. And, like, she just she like, it's funny because now she goes back to NXT, she's in, like, a North American title match. Like, that just seems like a downgrade from being in this.

She'll be up after Mania. There's no question. She'll be up after Mania. She's got a bright future. She's incredible.

One of the greatest moves. I mean, I'm a Randy Orton fan. So that's an RKO off the rope with the backflip. It's just crazy what she does, man. So Yeah.

But and, like, you you we you mentioned all these other things. Like, the cards react to these types of things and, like, collectors react to these types of things. Like and and I think, like, we we've got comments on the things, about, like, how much even just listening to us gets them excited about That's awesome. Oh, I wanna go look at this or I wanna go look at that. Now you're you're exposing millions of people to Rumble.

Like, it just creates this this sort of this, not anxiety is the wrong word, but, like, excitement around electricity, to use The Rock's term, to to go and and do this. And I I think it's gonna be so much fun. The road to WrestleMania this year is gonna be long as it always is, but I think it'll be entertaining. Lot of storytelling. Just to close out this section here, we are gonna post a reel, coming up here with the contest winner for the box that Ryan announced last week.

I'm not gonna do it in the course of this podcast because it'll kinda throw me off to have to, like, switch between screens. Yep. So we'll record that right after we're doing this. We're gonna run it through random.org. I have all the list of the people that picked Roman Reigns, to win the rumble.

We'll post the reel, and you guys can see the winner. Congratulate them. Hopefully, they let us know what they get in the box because, I mean, you're gonna find out. Maybe that Rio Ripley is in here. Yeah.

Subscription. Yeah. Thank you to Ryan for providing the box and trying to give you your props here, and you're interrupting me. But it was It's what I do best. Come on.

So I think, like, overall, like, we hope to do more contests like this or at least more ways to engage with the audience. Excited to be able to offer this on behalf of Ryan who did, did something he didn't have to do, and I I think it's gonna be awesome. Yeah. We're again, we talked about this going in. This is stuff I wanna be able to do, especially around releases too.

So, more to come with that. Don't worry. This won't be the first and last time we do this. We got a lot of times to do this. Yeah.

And then, hopefully, we'll get to if when universe eventually does get released, we'll we'll be able to maybe rip a box here. So I'm if you're following along on Patreon, you'll be able to to see us do it. They released some tops now, cards for the Royal Rumble. I think they look miles better than 2025. They switched from a horizontal presentation for the Relic autos to a vertical one.

We got autographs for AJ Styles, Roman Reigns, Liv Morgan, few others, a number of cards, really, really good. I think the design has improved significantly for 2026. And, the and I I, like, I you see these cards. Does it make you wanna go and and buy into some of these lotteries? Like, I I was this close to to hitting the button on, like, 400 Roman Reigns cards just to get this because it looks Your looks a lot better in mind with these.

I've done these a few times. I don't have the best luck, so I just I I stay away. But if it deals with around one of my wrestlers, I think I'm more prone to do that. So, again, I I like what they did. It's a moment they captured in time.

The mat relics is awesome. Again, no inscriptions, though. That's, again, changes the aspect of it. So but, I know you're big on them. So Yeah.

I I well, I'm I only buy the Becky Lynch ones. This would have been the first time that I bought somebody that's not Becky Lynch. And I think the card looks awesome, so that was the only reason. I love Roman Reigns. I've I've been picking up a few of his cards just because I know how hard it has been for any card company to work with him.

So I'm starting to recognize that maybe I'm running out of opportunities to get the big ones. But, yeah, no inscriptions. I think, like, I there was, one that got redeemed for John Cena. It it had an inscription on the card preview. He got the inscription on the on the return, but it was kinda like squiggle, squiggle, squiggle, squiggle, squiggle.

He couldn't really read it. Jay Uso, they they promised an inscription on the preview and didn't get one when the card was redeemed. So, I mean, like and these are all one of ones. They are the one of one parallel of this. And then on the other flip side, you have the Rhea Ripley EO Sky one where she did put the inscription on the out of five one even though it wasn't advertised.

So I think they're probably just hedging bets. They're not necessarily gonna say these cards are coming without inscriptions, but I think they're they're trying to figure out how to make it work. So, I I I I think this is a really cool instance here. They did preview though AJ Styles' stickers are or AJ AJ Styles' autographs are stickers for the first time that I've seen. So that was that was pretty interesting.

Maybe it's something to do with the contract, maybe? Probably. That's what I'm thinking. Just to quickly, quickly touch on this, they are doing signings, as we said last week, for 2026 tops Chrome. They we we did get further previews from the Creed brothers after the ones from last week, and, we got this absolutely insane card from Centimeters Punk.

It is his autograph on what looks to be our first look at the red brand for 2026. And the inscription says, Dom Mysterio is an idiot, which I thought was hilarious. That's great. You see this card, like, you you have to get excited. That I think it's awesome.

I think it hopefully, there's other cool little inscriptions like that. I think hopefully, Kevin Owens has really, like, sparked a lot of people with all the inscriptions he did. Other wrestlers do just do random things like this, which is just cool. Yeah. And I think the design for the red brand autographs, the blue brand autographs, which are the insert versions of these autographs, not the base ones.

Correct. So much better looking this year. They don't have that weird shape. It's still a weird shape, but it actually fits the design here. I I really like this.

Yeah. I I'm I like both tiers. I like the fire in the background, especially with Seth Rollins for me. I think the fire goes with the BI. It's definitely a new design completely.

So, again, I'm curious to see how these all play out, but I love the the amount of space, the white that they're giving in design. They're really encouraging these inscriptions, which I do like. Yeah. That's huge. I'm glad you called that out because I didn't actually think about that.

And now that I see it, it's like, oh, that makes a lot of sense because now you get to have people do what Kevin Owens did last year by saying Roman Reigns isn't actually cousins or what or the Undertaker and Kain aren't actually brothers or whatever he put on these cards. Julius Creed, previewed the one of one. I'm not Papa Giorgio, let's just go with that. No. But it's the and and so we know Sapphire's coming back.

That's that's gonna be I hope they add Legends Autos this year. I hope they add the Sapphire selections this year. Last year's Sapphire product was light. Yeah. It was, not a fun rip.

I'll say that. Okay. We're gonna get into a a bit of deep water here, and I wanna make sure that Ryan has a chance to sort of walk us through because I think you're a little bit closer to this than I am having been at Dallas the Dallas show. Correct. You've had the conversation with THZ.

Brian, I gave you some rundown here. We're doing this in the public interest to provide a public service announcement. So I think we're we're gonna try and steer away from accusations and and use, nondefinite language as much as possible. But do you have, like, sort of a, like, a thirty second rundown of sort of what your experience has been with the Panini downtowns and and the the the rumors flying around on on social media? Yeah.

Basically, a nutshell, these are really surfacing kind of everywhere. I think a lot of it generated on whatnot from my understanding because a lot of my customers locally started coming in with these downtowns that weren't in the Panini stickers and Panini magnetic holder. Really weird. I'm like, was that person trying to grade it? I don't know.

It was a whatnot stream. So then I'm in Dallas, and I got to talk with Brian THC sports cards who has done a ton of research and investigation in this. He is suggesting that these non sealed, non with you again, they're sealed with an ultra pro magnetic, which isn't true. It's supposed to be a panini. There he's suggesting these could be fakes.

So not we're not sitting here saying they're fakes. I don't know if these are fakes or they're backdoored. We don't know. We're just making the listeners and the viewers aware that if my advice and Adam's advice from us since you listen to us about wrestling cards is I would probably be more prone to only buy these if they're already graded by a legit rating company and then potentially the Panini magnetic and the Panini sticker. I would just say go ahead and focus on grading.

I've already told my staff, if it does not come in a grading holder or one of those Panini one holders, do not buy it. If it is raw, we are not buying it. Again, not saying they're fake, not saying that they could be backdoored, but there's just a plethora of these hitting if you look on eBay and look all over the Internet. Too many of these are surfacing without the seals. People don't just crack these out to crack these out.

They do if they grade them, and that's it. But these things, I've graded several of these, left them in the holder, sit in. Most of these I've graded come back tens. They're very clean. So we're just making you aware.

We're just looking out again. Gotta give credit to Brian Tietze for doing the homework investigation, but we just want our listeners to know that this is going on. We don't know if it's fake, backdoor, or what. Just be prepared and be aware if you see a lot of these. Yeah.

And I think the the major thing here is there is a high volume of these. Yes. And they're running with big and sorry. One last thing. They're being ran with a lot of big eBay consignment type companies I'm noticing.

So they're mailing it to them to run, which also shows sketchy type stuff because they don't wanna put their name behind on eBay. Something else to remember. Yeah. That's a really, really good point. I I've I've seen like, if this was just one or two cards, probably not a subject we're gonna talk about in-depth on this podcast.

We're talking 50 to a 100, if not a thousand. Too many. A project, been out for how long now? Yeah. It's been it's been out since, like, October 2024 or something like that.

Yes. Very They're just coming to market. Be very careful. All we're saying is if you want a downtown, if you want one that you know is authentic, and you you want to have that for your PC, I would say buy one from a TPG already encased in a grading holder. So the third party grading companies should at least give you some level of provenance.

As Brian has told me, that may not be the only thing that prevents this from being authentic. True. But at least it's a level above just buying it raw in a one touch. The second thing is if you're buying into case breaks, they're coming out of boxes, don't worry about those. Those are ones that are pack pulled.

Just go with that. But, you know, if you see it in the one touch with the without without the sticker, stay away. Look for the ones that have the the Panini one or the Panini three count sticker on top, and, make sure it's in the Panini magnetic as well. Alright. Let's move on quickly here, just to some big sales.

Last week, we talked about how many Panini Black Prism one of ones have surfaced. A number of them are selling because of the Royal Rumble, because of playoff season. Yep. A lot of these are coming to market. A lot of them are going for big numbers.

Charlotte Flair, PSA nine went for $3,000. I actually think, again, I think that's kinda low. But Yep. I think it was, it was the best offer on eBay. And, you know, great photo.

It's a horizontal card, that probably took the value down a little bit. But I I love this card. If I'm a Charlotte Flair collector, this would have been a no brainer. I would have smashed the bin as fast as humanly possible. No.

I'm with you on that one. Think was this, like, a best offer or just get hit? Yeah. It says best offer here. Okay.

So I don't know what they had it up for originally. So but, no, I I agree. I think as these blacks continue to surface, I feel like unless they're ridiculous asking price, they're only gonna continue to go up. We've we had a whole talk about this last week. So another one hits.

Now we get sucked up. I'm hoping this went to a collector. I know a very big collector, Charlotte Flair, so gonna actually message him when we get off to see if he actually bought this. I would be shocked if he didn't. But Yeah.

Like, the the thing is is, like, it's rare that, you know, these go in best offer. They're usually put up in some random auction, and they get chilled to hell. Yes. But, like, seeing that this went best over I when I say I think it went low, it's because I'm looking at this from the context of, like, what Charlotte Flair has accomplished and where some of the other black one of ones have sold. Like, Charlotte Flair is selling for $3,000 when others have sold for $1,015,000 dollars given that she only has three of these.

That's my context. And, the market says what the market says, but I wanted to call attention to this. Like, Bray Wyatt last week, I think, went a little bit low as you were seeing. We've seen some of the other, excuse me, We've seen some of the other, superstars that should have huge collecting followings going in massive numbers. So just because this particular one, it went a little bit below what my expectations were, doesn't necessarily mean like, oh my god.

Everybody's getting out of these. It's just this is playoff season. This is when people list their cards. Yeah. Brushing cards are hot right now.

That's for sure. But I gotta get hotter too. Yep. Another big, card from tops finest, I believe. So awesome.

This so you if you're following along on Patreon, you can see what the inscription looks like. It is a triple h legacy insert. This is the continuity set that they were running, through a couple of sets last year. And, this is the time to play the game set. He signed it 2002 Royal Rumble winner.

It went for close to $2,700, $26.50. Huge sale on just a random card number to 10 that he inscribed. The inscription for h h h tend to be a little bit hard to read. This one looks very, very clear, which is unusual for him. So I I think this is an absolutely awesome card.

Yeah. The ink they use really hell. I mean, this thing looks like it's 10 all the way around in the ink, man. There's just no streaks or anything like that. Very well done card.

Love the background of how they did this. No. I'm I'm very jealous because this is an awesome triple h card. Yeah. This and the photo is great.

Yep. Like, you know, usually when they do, like, triple h photos, it's either, like, corporate game or, like, you know, just, like, way late in his career. This one is, like, because it's a legacy set, it's kind of yeah. It's like a peak triple h. Like, he's got the iron cross.

This is, like, right after he got back from Madison Square Garden where that pop was just insane. Awesome, awesome card. I'm I'm jealous too. I wanted to to call attention to this one as well. It is a Roman Reigns frozen fractor from, 2025 tops chrome, Gen Min 10, $1,700.

I that might be the most expensive frozen fracture that is sold, I think. I I'd have to check, but it's gotta be up there either way. This is an absolutely enormous number for a Roman Reigns frozen fracture. I I have the Becky Lynch. I I I don't know how I feel about these cards.

I think they look cool in practice, but, like, comparatively, when you see them versus other parallels, like, I don't know how they sit for me. I think they're they're cool cards, but I don't know. Is it is it really worth the premium that these these cards have been getting recently? Are these kind of, like, in that case hit level chase that people have? I don't know about that.

I think there's still I would still say in the early phases they've they introduced in baseball years ago. I still think it's every year, they're trying to get to stick. I I'm indifferent. I like and I don't like. I think it's just an extra numbered card you have to chase if you're building a right now.

So if you you're like me or traditionalist, you probably just rather have, like, a red refractor and a five and call it a day. But I also have the Randy Orton of this. Parker has the Bray Wyatt, and I believe I have a Seth Rollins. To see this sale, if this is legit, which seems to be outstanding sale, drives the market up on these crazy number for Romy. But, again, PSA 10, if somebody's building a rainbow and they want the best grade possible, this is chances are there's only four other one of these out there and it has to 10.

And these are all eights to tens on most of these touch home cards from what I've seen. Yeah. They're they're I've even seen them starting to give 8.5 grades on the super factor, which I've noticed in the middle the few of those in my submission. I just got back. Everybody's like, are we back to eight fives?

I'm like, I guess we're back to the points then. I don't get it. They like, I have a couple of Becky eight five super factors just because that's sort the way I would bought. They bought if you don't wanna give me that, give an eight. Yeah.

Just give me an eight or nine. Yeah. Alright. I wanted to update as well. I've been talking with the card ladder team.

We did get a ladder headline for the first time for wrestling on a modern side in almost I it's gotta be years. And the Roman Reigns kaboom that we talked about last week, $3,500, in a PSA 10. It it seems like, CardLadder has taken our our our notification under advisement. So I went and talked with Chris, and he confirmed that the research team is in the process of adding more WWE cards to their indexes. So we should see that live soon.

Great. Awesome news. That's awesome. Good job, Adam. Good job, Charlotte.

Good job. You said on him, though. You've been you've been beating this drum for a long time, man. You're like, we need more data. We need more data.

We need more data. And, you know what? You maybe you're the front to really get on him just to get it up. I am a fiend for data. Like, I can't I can't function if I can't, like, slice and dice charts.

Like, that's just part of my job in real life. Like and, like, when I see that things are changing because I have my own tracking. I have my own spreadsheets. I have all the stuff. So, like, when when shit goes down, like, I I definitely refer back to my own data and try and figure out where all of this sits.

But I think, like, having card letter at your back improves the market. So let me let me just take a thirty seconds to walk through why. For us, the dGen community, as we like to say, the the digital repacks, tend to use evaluation to determine a buyback for the cards that are in the packs. That's Arena Club, that's Blez, that's GameStop power packs. Whatever it might be, all use a specific algorithm to determine how much money they're gonna offer to buy back the card in the digital repack you just pulled.

Most of that data, because CardLadder is a collector's company as is PSA, they use the CardLadder data to be able to fund that part of the the application. So you have the repacks using CardLadder. You have all of the, the the people at shows, all the people around the hobby. They use CardLadder as a source to understand the value of a card for the purposes of doing trades, deals, buying, selling, whatever. Having more available on CardLadder means more people will have access to understand the value wrestling cards have achieved over the last few years.

Do you agree? Disagree? I agree. No. You're spot on, man.

Alright. Well, for the first time in five episodes, we've made it to the title match topic, and we have enough time to actually go through and spend some, some quality time discussing this. For five episodes, so five weeks now, I have put this Roman Reigns graphic on our screen for Patreon with the card in the corner from main event set in in WrestleMania, or I'm sorry, in Topps Chrome, where he has the main event, one of 25 orange refractor with the inscription acknowledge me. I did a deal, where I sent all of my cards that were part of my sort of, like, sell to get money pile to Alex, who is known as Breaker Mayfield and whatnot. And I said, Alex, you know, run these on your stream.

And he did, and we worked out a deal where he had I didn't know this at the time, but he had this card in his collection. And being that I'm a tribal chief and I acknowledge I I'm a tribal chief fan, and I frequently acknowledge our tribal chief. I look like Paul Heyman. Like, you know, I wanted this card. And so Alex and I made a deal.

I got it in today. It is absolutely awesome. And now because I run main event wrestling cards, I named it that before this set was created. But I've really become, like, a a sort of a a collector of this set. I have a lot of the Bron Breakker, Centimeters Punk.

Like, I've collected a lot of these because it's main event. And I think it's really cool to have this Roman Reigns in my collection. So I wanted to shout out Alex, and thank you for doing the deal with me. This is just one of those cards I'm very proud to have. So it's been on this slide for a while, and now I have it.

It's kinda crazy. Okay. So our listener and viewers here, if you're gonna own this card, you gotta do me one thing. You gotta acknowledge him. Acknowledge me on on Instagram.

W Finger to the sky. Come on. Yeah. Finger to the sky. You can't you can't see it.

There we go. There you go. You gotta put it up there. Acknowledge I had it over here where it was off camera. I'm I'm obsessed with inscriptions and on card.

This is incredible card. It's it's awesome. Yeah. I'm really happy to have it. Again, thanks to Alex.

Roman's I've been told Roman's tough to deal with, and I I don't know how many more inscriptions we're gonna get. And I think this acknowledge me inscription was awesome. So wanted to talk about that and and thank Alex for for that. So let's get into the title match topic here. We are in a historic sports card boom, second in five years, if you count the COVID boom as well.

How should long term collectors, so people like you and me who have been holding these cards forever, approach these this period of time in the wrestling card spaces? Like, do you look at this boom as an opportunity to see the valuation of your collection grow and use that equity like I have, to acquire new pieces? Like, what's your approach in a in a bull market like this where wrestling cards are all of a sudden that much more valuable than they have been in the past? Yeah. I mean, you know, the example I'm gonna use here is I used to collect LeBron James autos like crazy.

At one point, I had a 125 different upper deck autographs all graded. And I did this as a collector because he was my favorite basketball player and is my favorite basketball player. But, again, I was buying these for years. Ones that used to be $300 are now worth $10 now. You know?

It's it's insane. So, again, not in the wrestling world, but it came to a point where for me, I sat down and go, do I really need a 100 and something different LeBrons, or would I rather just have some better LeBrons or better other pieces of my collection? So I came to a crossroad. I made a decision. I own a LeBron exquisite RPA.

Actually, two now, which is stupid to say, but it is it's my it's my grill card, and it I got on the second one a lot cheaper than the first one. But, you know, for me, it was a pivot. It was a pivot for me to go, I enjoy these cards for years. I bought them at the right time and did it as a collector, But I didn't just outright some. I was putting them into other pieces.

I put my eggs in a lot of baskets. It's a phrase I love to use is always put your eggs as many baskets as you can. So right now, I think if you could prospect or you can collect something you enjoy, eventually let's be honest. You're eventually gonna look at and go, is that really what I wanna do anymore? I've done this collected forever, you know, for since, jeez, thirty something years now.

And, obviously, I've changed so much over that time frame to where you're gonna go, maybe I don't need all these right here. Maybe I just want this one card, and maybe I saw these other five that are parallels or whatever, and then move it into other big pieces. Like Adam was saying earlier, he's using Liv Morgan to benefit his better his Becky PC, but also to help him pay more money than he would like to ideally. So I think it's the time where you can use that to your advantage and, you know, collect to collect, but you will change. Everybody changes.

Every the new wears off. It always does. It it no matter what it does, and I think that's an opportunity for you to go, alright. What do I want my collection to be for this year, for next year? What's my focus?

And I think those are things you have to consider when you're looking into this, but use that to your advantage. If you're into something for $50 that's worth 800 now, well, then you go, maybe I wanna put this into something I want more than to this card here that I'm into for this. I I could not have said it better. I think that's exactly the the approach that I would recommend. Again, not making any financial advice on any of these podcasts, but I think what Ryan just explained should be the blueprint for a lot of people out there.

Like, I like, listen. I've been collecting Becky Lynch since 2017. Ryan's been collecting for a very long time with LeBron James, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt. I mean, I could name him all 20 people that he collects. Too much.

Too much. Babe Ruth these days. I don't know what's going on me. You got bat knobs and all these other things. I got I got issues.

I hear voices. That's all I can say. Yeah. So, like, if you're in that scenario where, hey. I spent $50 on this card in 2017 like I did with some of the major one of one Becky Lynch cards, and now they're worth $8.09 hun thousand dollars, some $10,000 potentially.

Like, I've like, the growth in collecting changes with the market. And the market since 2010, 2000 even, has been growing exponentially. So that means that equity, you have to come to a decision on whether or not you're gonna spend that money to acquire a piece that is of more value to you than what you bought originally. And I've sent a bunch of cards to Ryan here because for me, it doesn't fit anymore in my PC or I need to fund another purchase. Like, again, money's not unlimited for most of us.

So I think, like, it's it's really difficult to say, hey. Sometimes you gotta turn this stuff over. But as a long term collector, I never approach a card with I'm gonna make money on this. Like, I never overspend. Like, let's be honest here.

I never spend what I should on these Becky Lynch cards, but I also never buy them with the intent to make money. So I think, like, you know, there's been people like like, you know, there are other Becky Lynch collectors, Matt and Eric, who have said, hey. I'm gonna offer you $10,000 for this card or $15,000 for this card. I had to say no because that's not the reason I'm in this for as a collector. But that doesn't mean that sometime down the road that mentality doesn't change because my kids are going to college or whatever it might be.

And so I think, like, having that perspective is really important. So now the next question is, like, how sustainable, Ryan, do you think this is knowing that things tend to be a dolphin here, they go up and they go down and they go up and they go down. And, theoretically, the the trend line is always up. But I because we haven't seen it really go down since, like, 2023 time ish. But, like, what is your do you think that this is sustainable?

Yes and no. I think this is double edged sword. I think this could be answered in both ways, and I think this will tie into the next question you have here. But I think the things that will be sustainable will be the things that are rare. I think the ones that are the one on ones, the fives, the inscriptions.

I think the things that are all over the the case hit type stuff that really is out there, I don't know how a lot of that stuff is gonna be long term. The more let's just put Panini, for example. Let's be honest. Downtowns are everywhere now for Panini for football. Let's use your example in basketball.

And the older they are, the more rare. For sheer kabooms are insane. Again, we've already talked about the WWE revolution kabooms, how the rare those are, but I think that comes down to how rare something really is is and also, I think it goes with is the purse you're collecting considered, quote, unquote, a legend goat. You know? If you're prospecting and things go belly up or career ends, that's going to affect things.

You know? When Bray Wyatt passed away, that was hard. And but the thing was is his it drove his autographs up because we don't get Bray Wyatt autos anymore. If a wrestler continues to sign like he used AJ Styles earlier over and over and over and over and again, it's gonna drive the market down. It just is what it is in this industry.

So I think the things that will be sustainable will continue to grow are the true hard to find rare things, not the things that you see all the time. If you type in eBay, go look and put in w d b downtown, bad example right now for what we talked about. But, you know, but, again, things of that nature that are just out there, I don't know how that sustainability is gonna be, especially that we're looking at, like, Tops Chrome last year came back out. Well, Tops Chrome released for WWE in 2014. We just got it back.

2014 stuff's gonna be rare. It's you know, it's first year Chrome. Is 2024 gonna be rare? '25? I mean, sorry, '25?

I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? I think so let me use an example. So I I remember talking with, some of the people at upper deck, and they said, we put Paul Horning in every product of football cards. Paul Horning is a running back for the Green Bay, packers who long, long time ago, older guy.

Paul favorite. Has he passed? He might have passed away recently. Years ago, I think it was Yeah. Yeah.

So they used to put him in literally every product because he was $5 a card, and that's just the way it went. And, like, AJ Styles, I'm sure is charged the same for his autograph every year for the last however many years. Like, there's a reason why Shinsuke Nakamura is in literally every product is because he's easy to to get signatures from. He's easy for tops to process. And so he's not gonna be as rare and desirable as somebody like Roman Reigns who signs once in a blue moon.

And when he does, it's a very small quantity. Right? You don't have, like, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Panini Roman Reigns autographs. You don't have hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of, you know, the rock autographs. That was one of the reasons why his autograph is so valuable.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, like, all those guys have not only desirability, but they're still considered to be, like, harder to find in packs. You pull a Stone Cold Steve Austin autograph, even if it's out of 99, you're happy. Yeah. Because, you know, he's he's he's not in every set. He was gone from, you know, '20, 1998 all the way up to 2019.

Like, that transcendence set in 2019 was the first stone cold Steve Austin autograph that tops had ever offered. And it's like, that's crazy to me. So I think there's still this mentality of, like, hey. Rare, desirable, but also scarce. Because scarcity is just as important as contrived rarity with the serial numbering that is in every product.

Right? So then the next question is, what are given the market situation is right now, where we are, everything's up, what are the dos and don'ts that you operate by usually in your own life? We'll say, let's push those out to collectors to sort of hear what your thought process is and and maybe adopt some of those for themselves. Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is don't don't buy into the hype.

Don't buy into what everybody else is doing and everybody's suggesting. Collect what you wanna collect as a collector. Collect what you love. Don't just go, oh, this is the hot new insert. I gotta have it.

One thing I'm gonna give Adam advice, and he doesn't do it, but he just gets Adam's one of those things when a new release comes out, he just has to get it quick and be done. He has to get it and be done. He cannot wait. Whereas, like, you could be patient on a lot of things. I get it when it's super low number to rare, especially one on ones.

But a number to 99 Becky Lynch, Adam just joins breaks, gets them. He wants to be done and get it done. I get that. Yeah. But I think you could be patient with a lot of stuff when the new new release, when universe comes out, it's gonna be insanely hot.

Everybody's itching. We've waited so long. So I think at that point where if you're like, hey. I wanna buy such and such wrestler. You can wait on a lot of the more affordable things because let's be honest.

We're pricing tops chrome from a year ago that released basically a year ago, and those numbered cards that were probably $40.50 bucks when they came out are about $15.20 bucks now. So you could be patient on that type of stuff. That's one thing I could say to be advised on. If it's a higher number parallel or whatever, just wait. You can wait.

Let let them all hit on eBay. However, I'm beating the drum with this guy who just cannot wait and just has to get it done. Luckily for him, he gets in enough breaks to where he usually just hits him into breaks so he doesn't have to track him down. Yeah. And, like I'm trying to see my print money here.

Yes. I understand. So, I mean, like, listen. I am a terrible example because I do everything wrong. I have very little time to be patient, and I have the money to spend.

So whatever. But, and that's really the the long and short of it. For my budget, spending, $75 on a $25 card isn't gonna make or break me, so who gives a crap? But for others, that may not be the case. And for others, they they may have, other collecting limitations.

But for me, I I mean, like, for me, I wanna join the breaks just in case something rare is hit. And I have, again, an an addiction that needs to be fed. But I think, like, also, like, you're completely correct. Like, things dip. They they come out hot.

Everybody gets FOMO. Everybody wants to to get in and get as quickly as as they can. I just don't wanna deal with it anymore. I wanna clear eBay searches. I wanna get things off of my phone, and I just wanna move on so I can focus on the things like the one of ones and the out of fives and the inscriptions where I can clear out the things that I don't need to chase anymore so I can focus on the things that I do.

That doesn't mean that my strategy is beneficial. It's just how I do it. And I'm not saying my strategy is the way to go about it either. You know? But one thing I would what I try to tell myself, and, again, I'm not always the best at it, is track down if you wanna build a rainbow, try to track down the one zero one first or five, and then work your way back would be the way to go about it.

Usually save you money in your pocket. Again, our advice is just you're listening to us. We're just collectors. We've done this long enough. So him and I do complete different things.

And I'm not saying he's right. I'm not saying I'm right. We're just Well, I'm saying I'm not right. Yes. I'm saying I am not.

You said it, not me. So Yeah. My my approach is wrong. Like, come let let me just say that right now. My approach is wrong.

You should wait. Everybody should wait. No one should get FOMO, and everybody should wait. However, the entertainment value of buying into a break is is unmatched. Like, the dopamine rush, Brett talked about it on stacking slabs a couple of days ago.

I I listened to it a couple of days ago where he was talking about, like, the the chemical markers that come along with the things we do. And for me, that's, I'm a slave to those things. And, like, it sucks, but at the same time, the entertainment value that I've gotten out of this is is so valuable. And because I I live a I live a very high stress life. I have four children.

I have a very demanding job. So escaping that world to come into the card world and do what I do even though it's the wrong way to do it brings me entertainment and joy, and that's why I do it that way, which I know Ryan supports because he's helped me do those types of things. And he's enabled my addiction because he's a good friend, and and I love him for it. But, like, I think the the understanding here is that collectors as a whole likely aren't gonna function all my way or all Ryan's way. There's probably a gray area in the middle.

And I think the dos and don'ts really are gonna change person to person. And Ryan mentioned, you know, collect what you love and doing all that stuff. Yeah. Of course. I think, like, no one should be overextending themselves buying cards they hate.

But I also think, like, at the same time, this market is going to change. Everybody needs to be prepared for that, especially in April when Fanatics takes over NFL. They will have the ability to control things they have never controlled before, which means means of production, auctions, licensing, merchandise, whatever. And that gives them the ability to act in a monopolistic way even though they may not be deemed, quote, unquote, a monopoly by the federal government. So they can do things that will change this market dramatically starting in April.

And if I'm in their two in their shoes running their business, I'm doing those exact same things because my goal is to make money. And so if you know that as a collector and you know that as a hobby participant that this market is gonna change dramatically, then be prepared for it. Yeah. Well said. I mean, I I can't even rebuttal.

I mean, it's the the big saying goes adapt or die. Change is gonna change without you, so it's either adapt to it or die. And I think a lot of people don't wanna adapt, and they they leave the space, and I get that. And some people just aren't for it. But if you wanna stay within this this hobby, this industry, this whatever we've got going on here, it's gonna continue to grow.

We're seeing more and more celebrities in this, more and more athletes, more eyes on this. I mean, my kids watch YouTube stuff, and then here comes a panini ad, a top 10, a breaking ad. It's like, woah. Like, they they know I'm a a card guy, but now they're just gearing towards that. So it's being out there more.

So things are gonna continue to change. There's more eyes on this than ever, and that's only gonna continue to grow. You know what's funny is, like, I I take my son to baseball almost every day, and, he's, you know, in high school baseball training year round even though it's, you know, negative outside. He's in a dome doing whatever. And I'm I'm driving and listening to the the sports talk radio or whatever, some podcast.

And I look over on his phone, and he's got, like, a clip from, one of the breakers watching them open packs. And I'm like I'm like, Noah, like, what what are you doing, man? Like, you don't collect like, he's like, oh, no. I just like seeing them react to this stuff. And he's he's 15 at this point.

He's gonna be 16. Like, that's the exposure that this hobby has. And I think, like, that's gonna change as more and more is pushed to channels that like Instagram, like, Twitter and whatever, YouTube. Because my son who has no like, obviously, I'm a big collector. He sees cards all over the house.

He sees that he's probably gonna stop longer than a normal child would on those reels. But the fact that he actually stayed and watched it is surprising to me. He's never shown an interest in that. It's usually my younger ones. I love ripping packs.

So, anyways, next week, we're gonna talk a little bit looking ahead to elimination chamber, another big event coming up seemingly in the next couple of months. I think there's a Saturday night's main event in between there. We'll look at some news and info from the week as usual. I'm sure there's gonna be a ton of signings at SmackDown. There's gonna be a bunch of stuff going on, over Raw and everything with, Liv Morgan and Roman Reigns and so on and so forth.

The the masked man, whoever he may be, hopefully, it's somebody that's not Logan Paul. And, you know, we look at, and for a title match topic, I'm talking about card ladder today, something about processing data and some of the ways to stay ahead of the game, find an edge. Ryan has been very good at that over his career, and I I've taken that to heart. And I know other friends of mine, Jameson, Ben, all those guys, like, they look at data exclusively because they don't wanna be the ones catching up. They wanna be the ones setting the tone.

So I think that'll be a fun topic. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that, man. Alright. So, again, don't forget to like and subscribe.

Leave a comment here. Hopefully, you guys have been enjoying these episodes. Subscribe to the Stacking Slabs Patreon group, www.stackingslabs. Oh god. Www.patreon.com/stackingslabs.

Subscribe on Main Event Wrestling Cards, www.patreon.com/maineventwrestlingcards. Visit Ryan's shop online, www.rbicrew7.com. Lot of stuff, happening in your store. I'm sure it's, quite a an interesting time for you with the NBA and NFL and Super Bowl and everything. So little bit of everything.

We had a crazy busy weekend here at the shop, and we've got, tops rip night coming up here in a couple weeks. Yeah. We should talk about that next week. We we definitely that's up in the twenty first, which is also Neil's birthday. Gotta give a shout out to Neil.

Yeah. So top strip night's going on, which we'll talk more about that. And then we've got, just a lot of things going on in community. We got a little show that used to be across the street from my old shop. It's the fifth year put on by the Warriors baseball team, which is awesome.

They've been doing that for a year at the child of God church. So, yeah, there's a lot of things going on in the area. Not a lot of releases right now. However, we have a storm coming of a ton of releases. We know series one tops for baseball's coming out.

But, again, my calendar shows WWE Universe into the month, which I care about for me, so I'm excited. So, no, had a lot of fun, get a lot of feedback on this. We hope the listeners are enjoying this as much as we are. I enjoy taking time out of my day. I know Adam does as well.

My favorite thing is I don't have my watch on me or my phone on me. I go back, and I'm like, you know, nobody's banging on any windows to tell me something's going wrong. So I can just take some time away and just be myself. So, again, having a lot of blast. I hope you all enjoying this.

We're on the road to WrestleMania. Just kicked off this past Saturday, so get fired up. We've got a lot of fun coming up in the months ahead. So get get excited because I am. I know Adam is.

I'm excited too. See you guys next week. Thanks again, everyone. See you later.