We're back. The staging area with DC Sports eighty seven. My good friend, Tory, we're talking the topic that never dies, and that is Tops Chrome basketball. We we've we've been talking about it so much, and I thought, Tory, we'd be done. But a big sale through, DC Sports eighty seven alongside a lot of these other sales that right before we hit record, we were chatting about.

But, how are you? Welcome. I'm excited to talk cards. Yeah. Likewise.

I'm good. I think, we're a little further into January now, so 2026 feels normal. Catching our breath, hitting our stride, all that good stuff. But, yeah, I feel like every time we talk about something, then the market just responds and says, oh, no. You're not done talking about that.

Here's, like, way more to dive into. So excited to jump down the Tops Chrome rabbit hole yet again today. These prices and we'll we'll just I'll be as general as possible, and we can we'll narrow in on Tops Chrome. But I I'd I'd say across the board, digging into what cards are selling for, even the beginning of last year, it was nowhere near as strong of sales as what is happening now. It it do it seems like every category.

Like, I'm looking at wrestling cards, and it's like, I can't find a wrestling card that I'm interested in for under a thousand dollars, which if you would have told me that, like, three years ago, that would be people would laugh in my face. So Right. Like, I don't know. Like, I I wanna just start there. Like, the strength of the market right now, the prices, I think a lot of people are like, are these prices real?

We're gonna talk about a car that you sold through DC Sports eighty seven where you, like, went out and said, like, this was paid for. I think there's a lot of, like, is this real? Is this not? Like, what's your read on the current market and what's happening with prices? It it feels real.

And I'm just basing that off, obviously, the the number we've sold that I know I'll I'll hold some some comments here until we narrow in on the few we wanna talk about. But a lot of it is regular buyers of ours who are high end basketball buyers we're seeing by multiple of these, you know, 4 and 5 figure cards out of top screen basketball. We're not seeing, you know, cards going repeatedly unpaid or things like that. I don't think this is any kind of a pump and dump or shill bidding or anybody gaming the market. Obviously, there's gonna be some of that here and there at auctions, so I I get it.

But these are legit sales. We're seeing them paid for. We're seeing a crazy amount of demand. And I know we talked about it before. You know, there's that weird crossover of it's cool for those of us who are around for Tops Chrome twenty years ago.

It's Fanatics who's done a great job, you know, pushing into the license space on on basketball and other products now. So just a perfect storm, I think. You know? The the hobby's hot. The product's hot.

There's a lot of promotion behind it, and, obviously, it's working. So and like we said before, with the price of what these boxes cost right now, I'm glad it's working. You know? Somebody needs to get paid when they hit big. So definitely not asking to disclose any information on buyers or people or any of that.

Right. Can't do that. We won't do that here, although we've seen it elsewhere, but we're gonna keep it disclosed here. The I think when people hear about this, like, high end basketball market, it it almost seems like this mystery, although these cards are getting sold. Is there anything just based on your observations of, like, whether it's regular customers that are coming in buying these cards, like, same types of names, is there anything you have noticed different from, like, over the years to where we're at now about, like, those individuals who have obviously a lot of disposable income to to spend and are spending it on this brand new stuff, like this top scoring basketball brand new, like, rare and scarce?

Anything that you can lend to help us as we're trying to understand, like, who are these people? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a mix. Right?

You know, there's never gonna be a one size fits all answer to that, but I I will say there are probably way more people out there. Way more buyers that we have than you would expect who are buying using the PSA grading option through eBay and then vaulting this stuff. And so, you know, I think a lot of times the mentality nowadays is it's such a fast moving buy, sell, buy, sell that it's if somebody's buying something, it's gotta be for a quick flip. But we see a lot of people who are just it's hey. Tops Chrome is back, and I wanna do a rainbow of this player.

So they're buying it and holding it for that that project or that PC thing for them. We see a lot of people who are buying grading with PSA goes to the vault, whether that's a long term speculative hold or that's a, hey. I think, know, something big's gonna happen next season. I I don't know where their heads at. But, you know, there's a lot of that stuff we see maybe a little bit more than in the past where it just kinda felt like, you know, buy this and sell it or buy it, take it to a show, and see what I can do with that kind of thing.

And I'm I'm convinced there's obviously some of that going on too. But, yeah, we see that. And I would say, and I think we all know this has been a trend, but just a lot of international money. I mean, there is a ton of this that's coming in from The Philippines, from the Far East, from a lot of places where we're seeing these huge big ticket items get shipped out internationally. So there's definitely a lot of, you know, new entrants to the hobby that are not just here domestically, but, you know, worldwide getting involved.

We need to, take some video cameras down to The Philippines at some point and and just, like, check out some of these collections because Right. Just it's incredible. Whenever those collections pop up, they're doing something special definitely there. So let's let's get into the big sale. And you know it's a big sale when, d c sports v seven uses their branded page on Instagram to say, this has been paid everyone, which is Yeah.

Right. Maybe, like, before we get into the card, like, I'm sure that question comes your way all the time. Like, did this sale hap is this real or not? How do you think about, like, final like, putting the punctuation point on a a a big card that's sold to to let everyone like, why'd you do that? Yeah.

Yeah. Honestly, it's just for that reason. I think it's just there's always those questions of was it a legit sale? Did it get paid? Is it gonna get relisted?

Did the buyer follow through all that? And so, for one and I'll admit, I'm happy to admit when I was wrong. We saw the card come in. It came in, got hit in a break by fell thumb brakes. We work with them a ton, saw a ton of cards through our partnership with them, which is awesome.

Card came in. I was like, well, this is an awesome exciting card. And I thought, okay. You know, this is a cool $1,520,000 dollar, if it does really well. So, of course, I come get in the office the morning after the auction closes and I see 45, and the first thought is, I don't know.

Please tell me this is legit. Already paid, and it just so it was just one of those where it's like, it's an exciting sale. I'm excited for the customer. It's great to see the singles performing so well on eBay. You love to see the high end changing hands are going well.

So it was like, alright. Let's just all this is, the the happy path for these kind of cards. And so it was just worth worth sharing at the time. Love to hear it. We're gonna introduce the card because we're holding it back now.

Here it is. It's the 2526 tops chrome Victor Wimbanyama auto geometric white refractor, attitude raw selling on January 18 for $45,100. When I saw your post and I saw the sale, Tore, the first thing that came to my mind is what in the heck is a white geometric parallel? I know it's added too. So I did some research and found out that this is the first year that Topps is introducing it.

So perhaps, I know we're gonna get into the non rookie card rookie card of it all, but perhaps the demand for this was someone looking at it from the lens of this is the first year they're doing this parallel, and they believe that maybe tops will continue to carry that forward. But, yeah, let's maybe talk about the the aesthetic of it all. Like, what do you think about this card from a aesthetic perspective? Right. Not not to mention this jersey numbers.

Now maybe that doesn't mean as much, but it's literally a point flip. You know? It was it was fifty fifty. But, it's it's cool. It's like, why geometric is new, but geometric refractors are not new.

But I but I do agree. Maybe there's something to that. I mean, if we, you know, maybe go to the extreme, and I think this is not really apples to apples, but it's like, look at the exponential increase in value in, like, 02/1213 Prism Silvers, the first year we had Prism, the first year we had that parallel, and, like, look at the demand for those today in the hobby. You could do that now, but, again, because geometrics aren't new. I don't quite look at this the same way.

To me, this is more of a Wemby is a huge face of the hobby in the sport right now. It's the first year of tops chrome. It's, you know, a print run of two. So let's say you're out there and you just wanna chase the rarest parallels there are. Let's say you're gonna try to do a rainbow.

Maybe somebody wants to the Wemby Auto rainbow. You might be waiting forever for two of two to pop up. So to me, this was more of just there were buyers out there who had to have this card. They're invested in Tops Crombie and back. They're invested in the buzz of the return of the license to Tops, and this was just a perfect storm sale for that.

So, yeah, again, super excited at it. But, yeah, not the price I was expecting to see this one realized, I will admit. The one thing we didn't mention too, you called out the jersey number, which I didn't recognize. How about the color match? White jersey with the white parallel?

There you go. You know? It it's checking all the boxes. So, yeah, very, very cool card. But, yeah, I mean, $45,000.

Like, it's, again, I know we talked about this a little bit the last time, our our last episode, but, like, these boxes aren't cheap. Right? I mean, the the geometrics are exclusive to the breakers to light boxes. And so you're talking about a box that's running in the, you know, 1,500 to 1,800, I think, ballpark a box for for not that many cards. And so, you know, you're you're honestly if there's an a rationale for it that I can get behind for sure.

But, yeah, massive sale. The one box that isn't checked on this card is the rookie card of it all. Now there's so many ways to look at it. I mean, we can look at the Wimby rookie and Tops Chrome unlicensed, and then maybe the debate of people saying, do we really want that? Are people treating this as the first official?

How do you think about it it might not be the a rookie card, but then obviously first license. So there's all these dynamics. Like, how do you think about the nonrookie of it all in this card fetching a price like that? Yeah. I mean, there's still a a relevant, like, first factor.

I agree with kind of the back part of what you said. It's the first year of licensed tops. It's the return of licensed tops chrome. The product was crazy hot. But, yeah, I mean, this to me is, like, the the 51 Bowman mantle versus the 52 tops and the people out there who wanna get crazy and call it 52 tops as rookie.

No. Like, I it's gonna be the card for Mickey Mantle because it was the first year of tops just like there's gonna be an extra value and demand for these cards for Wemby because it was the first year of licensed tops. Absolutely agree with that. I think it does add value now and down the road. But it's in no way his rookie and never will be and should not be considered as such.

But interestingly enough, and I know I mentioned this when we posted the Wemby on social media, we had a white geometric rookie refractor auto from 2526 tops chrome sell just a few days after this one that cleared $41,000. So, you know, there may be something too, and the buyer we know, and the buyer always pays. So, you know, maybe there's something to just this new parallel return of the license, good rookies. I I don't know. There's a lot going on.

I was also not expecting that one to cross $40,000, and there I was wrong again. So, yeah, that that sale was also pretty crazy, that we had two white geometric refractor autos combined for about $90 over the course of three days. Didn't didn't have that one on my tops chrome bingo board for for DC Sports consignment for sure. Wow. I I I I just I just wanna meet the individual who, like, pitched the idea of the white geometric and the tops team looking at these prices.

Obviously, they probably I they hit a home run with it. But Wait. And it's and it's like, I understand it, but at the same time, you know, we sold so we sold a Cooper flag orange. Okay? So different color.

I get there's 25 of them, but an orange geometric refractor auto. And Cooper flag's like the guy, right Mhmm. For $16,000. And it's just one of those things for me where it's like, even if you say Wemby over Cooper Flag and all that, I get it. It's just it's hard to imagine, like, the premier rookie, one of the most hyped rookies we had in a while, not as much as Wemby, but hyped.

Like, I could have three of those oranges for one Wemby. It just just feels feels crazy. But like I said, there's only two out there. So if you have to have one, you gotta spend up to own it. I wanna talk a little bit about, like, parallel configuration as we're talking.

It's got me thinking about this where the without a shadow of a doubt, the top parallel within the Chrome product is the super factor. Right? Right. Right. Super factor auto or non auto.

But what tops has not done at least to this point, because who knows they could keep this could keep evolving. So we'll just put a caveat there is they haven't they haven't, like, piled on one of ones in this product like we've seen in many where you go to select and there's eight one of ones. Do you like, what's that dynamic? Do you think do you think that has an impact on this where collectors are saying, you know what? Well, I'm probably not gonna get one of these two super factors, and there's not another one of one.

So we'll treat this one like it's the secondary one of one in, like, in Panini, like, how we manage that. Like, how do you see that playing from Right. I I I mean, I would I would hope not. You know, I hope there's never that, like, it's a one of one. But I do think to my point earlier, I think you're gonna have your guys who are gonna say either for their own collection, they're doing a rainbow or they wanna PC it, or down the road, somebody's gonna need this card who decides to do a Wemby rainbow or something like that.

I see the fact that there's only two. And when you own one, you've got 50% of the supply, and there's something to be said for that. So, you know, it it's still surprising me just because this parallel I guess, the big number to two obviously carries a lot of weight, but I feel like historically with chrome products, since your point, there's been kind of this, like, oversaturation of parallels across all sports. And we still see people anchor to the, you know, super factor red, orange, gold, blue. Like, those carry such a premium because they're the true color, so to speak.

I saw a Wemby. We didn't sell it, but a different seller in eBay sold a Wemby red refractor, non auto, for, like, $18,000. And and the buyer had, like, 11 or 12,000 feedback, so it looks like a legit sale to me. And so I think it just goes to show, like, Tops Chrome is in demand. Everybody's in on Wemby, and this low low print run stuff, people are just gonna buy it.

And it'd be interesting to see if we see this card, you know, change hands again in a couple months, or does it pop up in a PSA slab, or do we see it as a show somewhere kinda where it goes? But, yeah, the the parallel game has certainly evolved a lot, and there's a lot of angles to take there. Final one for me, and I I don't know why. Maybe it's because I watched him play basketball for the first time in years because he played my squad, like, a week ago. But how do you, like, compare and contrast?

Obviously, it hasn't been what everyone was expecting, but, like, we all remember what happened with the Zion of it all when Zion came out in this perfect storm and the timing and the hype and the prices. Like, I don't think I've really heard anyone compare and contrast, like, what could have been with Zion, his cards in market, with what is happening with Wimby, his cards in market. Like, how do you how do you think about those two eras and those two players and just the reaction from the market on their cards? Yeah. Yeah.

It's interesting because yeah. I mean, definitely, we had probably a more out of control bubble in the Zion time, what's that, six, seven years ago now. But I do think with the amount of growth in the hobby and the the heat of, you know, fanatics getting a license and bringing that back to tops and everything, there's there's a lot there. So it's it's kinda interesting because I don't think it's the same. I mean, I think with Wemby, you know, knock on wood, he stays healthy.

He's looked great, but so did Zion early on, and and then we saw what kinda happened there. So I I think it's like anything else in cards. Right? Like, you're you're always investing with you know the risks and you know the best case, and nobody's denying that the the ceiling is absurdly high for Wemby. I do think people probably look at the spurs and just on, like, a team context standpoint, maybe you can project a little better ceiling there because just the pieces they've added and the other guys they've picked up and the Castle and Harper and adding Deere and Fox.

It's like, okay. I think people say maybe there's a championship or a title there, so there's some more stuff to hope for. And Wendy is kind of that generational guy, but so is Ion. So I don't know. You know, anytime we try to make guesses in the hobby, we're just you know, we're either gonna sound really smart or really dumb.

And, you know, that the same thing happens to our wallets. But That's okay. Yeah. It's a it it's interesting. Just different different factors, but it almost feels similar, I just think, for very different reasons since this one's more product, related, I feel like.

Then back then, it was just we all know, you know, COVID was was nuts. It it sure was. And I love how I can't help but continue to bring it up in these types of conversations. So that was fun. That was a fun sale to dig into.

I wanna move over to the topic of maybe looking at the difference between liquidity and demand in the hobby. And I this topic came to me because I I consume a lot of content in this space, and I'm one of those individuals who will just, like, slam through a bunch of reels. And I when I hear the people at the shows talking, they're always talking about liquidity. And so I I wanted to spend some time on that. And maybe, like, from your perspective, when you hear a card is liquid, what does that actually mean in practice right now?

Yeah. To me, that just means easy to sell at a fairly established rate. Obviously, we know the the hobby responds and the market responds super fast these days. A guy gets hurt. A guy goes off.

A guy sets a record. What whatever happens, that creates buzz. But, yeah, to me, liquid just means you know, it's like a I don't know. I'm trying to think of a of an analogy for it, but it's like if you buy, you know, silver or gold. You know?

It's like you you know you can sell it. You got a pretty good idea what you can sell it for. It's not hard to move it. It's that kind of thing. It's like, I think people kinda have those cards, whereas the cards that are not liquid are you you've got a a one zero one or, like, a really rare niche SP card or something from, like, the nineties that's got a more subset of collectors chasing it, where it's like, you gotta find the right buyer to make that sale.

To me, liquid means anybody that's in cards these days walk up to your table. They're probably interested. It's easy to sell. They know what it's worth. And that's just kind of the difference to me.

And so then real demand, and maybe you're alluding into it with that nineties example, how does how does the real demand for cards differ from this short term urgency when it comes to liquid cards? Yeah. And I think a lot of that really is maybe seller, like, priority and motivation more than anything else. You know? You you look at any card, and, I mean, it's 2026.

EBay, other auction houses, Facebook marketplace, whatnot, live streaming platforms. Like, you wanna sell a card. There is a place to sell it. I think the question is more of a, do you have urgency in selling it? And the difference with liquid cards is you're probably gonna be able to find a buyer at the price you want at the current market value really, really quickly.

Right? If you gave me a 100 super liquid, ultra modern cards, I can go move those right away to to anybody, anywhere I wanna do it. The difference with the others is if I've got, like, a, I don't know, a 24 karat gold or a pressure PMG from the nineties, Like, I can sell it anytime I want, and there probably is nowadays with all the platforms we have. Look at us. Like, there's a great way to reach maximum exposure with that card.

But if you're really trying to hold out for, like, top value, it just takes longer to kinda match with a buyer. And so to me, liquidity means you don't have to put in a lot of work to match with a buyer. Those rarer demand cards are demand driven. The demand's out there, but you have to put in a little more legwork to kinda make that connection to to really maximize what you're gonna get on it. When you hear the word liquid cards right now as we're recording this, twenty twenty six, January, what is the first cards that come to your brain?

To to me, like, I'm thinking, like, big rookies, basketball, football, prism silvers, and a PSA 10. Like, just the things that everybody wants, they're like staple cards for the player. Everybody grades them, and yet the pop and the supply on those things where they print 19,000,000 of them is so high that we all know what they're worth, and they can trade hands anytime you want anywhere. It's just a matter of, you know, are you selling in bulk to a dealer at 80%? Who's gonna turn around and try to throw those in a repack or get a little more for them?

Or you own eBay auction where you're gonna get at comps? But those are the cards I think of. So, like, right now, I'm thinking of, like, you know, Bonix, Prism rookie, PSA tens, or, like, you know, Wemby, PSA, Prism rookies. Like, that's the kind of stuff. You just there's no denying what it's worth.

It's never hard to sell it, and yet the market is flooded with them. And that that's just what I think of. Yeah. No. And I wanna this is I've I think about this side of this all the time, but never have talked about it.

And I I wanna dig into maybe, like, if a card is liquid, can it truly be desired? Just be like, is there do those things are they always true if if it's liquid and the person on the other end really wants to wants it or desires it? And thinking about, like, this game of the PSA 10 Prism Silvers, and we'll take let's just take Wemby for instance. Yep. You know, I'm sure the population of those cards is crazy.

The is if if you have these cards and they're liquid and you're you're moving them around, like, do do you think the person on the other end who is purchasing these cards mostly wants these cards to keep, or are they just grabbing it to go then do the same thing? Like, is it a mix of both? Like, how do you how do you see this regularly playing out? Yeah. I I think it's a mix of both.

I would not say that liquid equals, like, in demand or desired. You know, just desired to me sounds more like I'm thinking, like, PC and hold it for long term and, like, everybody wants it. I think of liquid more like it's the commodity of the hobby. Liquid is what you know what you can get, and you know you can get it so you go out and get it. So if I've got a Wemby Prism Silver PSA 10 rookie, I know I can go get $1,500.

That's that's just that's just what it's worth. And so it's more of, like, it's more of one of those where I think it's more often that because there's so many of them, they more change hands, again, my point earlier, out of, like, owner priority than they change hands out of desirability. It's, hey. I've got a Wimby. I know it's worth $1,500.

I just wanna go take that cash because I'm going to a show. I got a PC card I wanna buy. I wanna buy a new product just came out to rip. Whatever it may be, I'm I'm high on this rookie. I think he's kinda under the radar right now to go to invest in him and hold him.

I think there's more of that far more often than some of the rarer cards and things, where I think that liquid stuff often fits that bill of, like, you just kinda it changes hands to fund something else and things like that. Though I do think, obviously, there's gonna be people who just wanna own a Webby Silver PSA 10. There's gonna be guys who wanna hold it long term. But when we put it in the context of the discussion of what's liquid and what's does liquidity mean, I kind of lose some of that, like, desire side, and I just think commodity, you know, marketplace trading side. I wanna lay layer in, like, a player performance before we move off this.

We're recording this before the conference championship games, and a player I'm thinking about is Drake May. We've talked about him a lot on this podcast. And Yep. I I view, like, a Drake May silver PSA 10 Prism as, like, a a liquid card. Let's say, Drake May beats Jared Stiddle in the AMC championship.

The battle of the Patriot quarterbacks. Exactly. I I was having fun talking about Jared Stidham cards earlier this week, and it's just fun that all of his rookie cards are in Patriots gear. But with with a player like Drake May, let's say Drake May, you know, does what he does and the Patriots do what they do. They win in the conference championship, then they go on to the Super Bowl and let's say, can't believe I'm speaking this into existence, but the Patriots win again.

Does does his cards like, specifically those commodity cards, does anything change with them now that he has legitimate credentials to back it up, or is it still, like, a liquid card is a liquid card? I mean, I think those are gonna be a liquid card for a long time now. Like like, he could get blown out by Jared Stedham, which is just a odd odd sentence in and of itself. I didn't I thought after Auburn, Jared Stedham was done being relevant, and here we are at 2026. Anyway, I don't know what's happening.

But, yeah, like, I don't think we're gonna see a world where he loses or something, and all a sudden his cards aren't liquid or he wins, and it's like, this is now not a liquid card anymore. Like, he's a a young star quarterback in the MVP conversation on a popular like, that's not going anywhere. But I do think what I'm thinking liquid cards and this is probably oversimplifying it. Like I said, I think it's those cards that there's a ton of you know what they're worth. That's not always true.

If somebody has a Drake May, you know, green prism from Select, I get it. That's still a liquid card. He's one of the most in demand players in the hobby, and you know you can go move that. No problem. So, like, I get that argument.

But I do think it's just a little different in that we've we've already seen, you know, those prism silver PSA tens go from a thousand 1,200 up to 1,500 up to sales recently in the 1,800 to 2,000 range. Obviously, if he wins, that's gonna keep appreciating. But I think because there is a big supply and they are trading hands so often, that probably appreciates a little slower. Whereas I would not have called Jared Stidham cards, nor will I right now liquid card assets, but they're a little different because it's gonna be so much more volatile. Because if he wins Mhmm.

Like, we're gonna see another six, seven x, and we've probably seen him six x in the last ten days just from knowing that he's gonna get to play. But then when it's over, we're not gonna go to next year and go, oh, Jeris Tim's the guy. I gotta invest in him. So I think liquidity is also stability on some level, and that kind of exists with May. But that doesn't mean, of course, that, you know, the big moments and the big games aren't gonna continue to affect the hobby because that's just that's just the way supply and demand works.

So that's not going anywhere. I saw that. Jared. Like, I don't know what we're even I think it's already new. It's all Stidham laundry tag out of n t sell for 2 k this week.

So So you just gotta love the hobby hobbing. Yeah. I gotta put you well, before we move off this, we'll just who's yeah. I think we'll have time to do Super Bowl picks by the time the next time we record. But who's winning this weekend?

Like, what what's your pick? And I'll give mine, and then we can show how wrong we are on the other side of this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm going to Rams Patriots.

That's that that's what I'm gonna go with. We'll we'll see what happens. I I don't want the Patriots to win. We have someone in the office. His name is Kyle.

He's a big Patriots fan. Many people may know him. I don't wanna see him that happy. You know, he had his years with Brady. And and I do I like, it's really interesting to me.

I mean, the the legacy of Stafford, if he wins one here and, like, wins an MVP and the way the time in St. Louis has got, like because it's really interesting where we may look back on that career as far as all time ranks and when you put all his accolades and stats out there. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna say Rams, Patriots, and Rams beat the Patriots. I'll just I'll just go there right now, and then we'll watch both my teams be out by the time we record again. The the road the road warriors, coming out on top.

I wanted to pick something different than you, but I can't pick something different than you. Because when you get into this conference championship mode and I know Sam Darnold has had a great season. I tend to always just pick the best quarterback in the game. So Yeah. I'll do I'll do your pick, same Super Bowl, but I'll as much as I hate saying it, I'll I'm gonna take the pay.

Yeah. Right. Right. It's like I know a lot of people are saying seahawks. And I tell you, I was I went to that game in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, and they're like, that defense is great.

That running game with Charmaine and Walker is great. Like, they've they've got it. And I I know we you know, maybe Darnold isn't the sexy, flashy, star QB, you know, that some of the other teams have. But the seahawks have everything to win. So I'm you know, I would not be shocked if they're winning the Super Bowl here in a couple weeks.

So it could go plenty of different ways. Who do you out of these four teams, like, what is the the hobbies what is the hobby story? What what is, like what do most people if they aren't putting their fandom to it, like, what is the best for the hobby, do you think? To me, if we're talking hobby, you have to talk quarterbacks. And to me, if you're talking hobby, you have to talk as recent as possible.

Because I feel like with Stafford, there's, like, there's already an appreciation for him, but, like, his cards are gonna go up, of course. But, like, there's fewer people sitting on chasing and holding o nine tops chrome cards versus, like, the twenty twenty four Drake Maes. Darnold, I just don't think it's, like, exciting enough for everybody. And and so we'll we'll see where it all goes. But I feel like the Patriots winning again, sadly, is probably, like, the best in in that regard.

Oh, man. It's it's once the I once the Chiefs just exited for a minute, it's like, here we go again. So I I think the best thing for the hobby would have been if we saw the bears get by the rams. So we've got you know? And then you've got twenty twenty four QBs in both conference championship games.

And if we could have gotten, like, a Drake May, Caleb Williams, Pats Bears showdown, like, I think that's great. There's so many young guys on both teams and the quarterbacks being the featured names that I think I think that would have been best case scenario on a pure hobby standpoint, but, you know, too late. So we we missed the boat on on at least part of that now. Now as, the city of Chicago and all the bears fans, hit stop and aren't ready for that thought, at this point, I I agree. Alright.

Yeah. I wanna talk about a little bit about pricing. And to me, we alluded to this at the top, but it it feels very much like the pricing at this point is maybe more unpredictable as possible. I think the white geometric Wendy is a case in point. I think as I'm digging into the data, I'm start I'm seeing, just comps aren't as rigid as they once were.

There seems to be, there's narrative, and it's also validated in some of these sales and card letter. There seems to be, like, more private deals, more stuff that moving hand off platform. And so it just feels a little different. It feels strong, but it feels a little different. So maybe if you just contrast, like, what we're seeing now or over the last three months or so with maybe this point last year in terms of pricing, like, do you have anything, like, a primary takeaway, anything you're observing?

Like, what what stands out to you? Yeah. I feel like singles in general are are going up. Like, I think there's been an increase in the value of a lot of cards. And I think, if you look at you know, probably a year ago, this holds true, but even more so as you go further back, I think it was more things were defined by comps, and we kinda wanna live and die by those.

I think a lot of things are influencing that right now. I think we've talked about repacks before, but I still think they're a huge factor here because there are a lot of guys who know they can go pay 10 or 20% over comps because in a repack, they can do the the accounting works for them, and they can make that money back. I think on the cards that are less liquid, or liquid but in high demand, you have people who are just insisting on selling above comps on the basis of projected appreciation. You know? If I'm sitting on a Drake May Prism Silver right now and the last one did $1,800, I don't wanna sell for 1,800.

Right? You know, I wanna ask for 1,900 or 2,000 because we're going into a weekend where he's gonna have a huge game, and you kinda wanna sell on that hype. And so, I think we see more and more people who as they acquire singles is just turning around, and there's a 10% markup, and then they wanna put that out there. And so people respond to that. They see what's available, and the market's telling them, I can't just go by the comp.

I have to go by it's that whole, like, you know, something's worth what you're willing to pay for it. So I think we're seeing some of that bleed into the hobby where it's people are willing to pay more, and there's more happening privately at shows, things like that, less documented. And there's kind of this, like, spoken comp versus the receipts comp. And as the more that stuff happens, you're just gonna get kind of it's more of perceived value than maybe documented value in some cases. And the comps are always gonna be there.

They're always gonna be relevant. They're always kind of that foundational piece to go look up as a resource. But, I do think we see more and more kind of venturing outside of that. I'm sure that's coming from the repack business. That's coming from people who are acquiring singles and looking to flip those at a profit.

That's coming from the pinch on allocation and the increased prices of wax and more people may be shifting spend and budget into the singles market. There's all kinds of things at play there, but, I think a lot of those are just driving more volatility and maybe less predictability than we've seen in the past. A lot that a lot of what you talked about, I I I kind of was thinking about it through the lens of one to one direct deals, whether that's at a show or maybe online through eBay. I wanna maybe layer in the auction component and run through just a hypothetical here where you've got a liquid card, let's say, a let's say, a a Drake May downtown. That probably that card would probably move right now.

Yep. Let's say this card is listed at DC Sports eighty seven and it's up for auction, and you see the card and you're like, you're a Pat's fan, you're a Drake May fan, you're like, you wanna get the card. How like, a card like that, which, again, I should've came prepared with the data and how much is in the population report, like, how much should that individual look at the last sales data if they want to acquire that card to try to acquire that card? Like, how do you think this plays out when the cards are being run-in auction? Yeah.

I mean, if somebody's not looking that up, I I judge them a little bit. I mean, I think, you know, writing blank checks is generally not a good practice. So you you've gotta know what it's sold for. I think you have to like, if I'm buying a card off eBay, I'm at the very least gonna go, okay. What were the last two or three auction sales?

What were the last couple buy it now sales? I generally urge people to look at auctions just because I find them a little more reliable because you never know. Sometimes there's somebody got a steal on a buy it now that was underpriced or they overreached and overpaid on a best offer kind of thing. And I think auctions are everybody have their shot. Everybody was in on it, and you kinda see where the market said it it was gonna be valued.

But you've gotta do some of those conflict ups. But then it is a matter of if it's for my PC, maybe I'll pay a little over. If I think May's gonna win this weekend and I'm looking to sell it at a card show next Saturday and I just want it at my table because I know he's gonna be in demand, maybe you overpay for it a little bit. We do, though I will say, this kinda goes back to your previous question, but we see more people than we ever have reaching out to us on Instagram, on eBay, everywhere saying, hey. You've got this up for auction.

You know, the last one sold for 3,200. Can I give you 3,300? Let's get it done now. Like, those messages are flying in fast and furious now. Now we're just you know, we're eBay auction, and we live and die by that.

So we don't do any of those deals, but it's interesting that it is exponentially more of those messages than we used to get of people trying to pay, and they're not trying to they're not trying to steal it from us. Like, they're trying to pay at or a touch above. You know, we don't go down that rabbit hole, so who who knows if they follow through on it. But it's interesting that just to your point with, you know, private deals and things not happening in the traditional sense as much. There's so much of that happening right now.

Oh, that that it pains me because I'm thinking about cards that I had on my eBay watch list. And this is a trend, and I'll they'll be at auction, and then I'll check ended, and they will have ended because somebody is doing that, and the person is accepting it, which Yeah. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm oftentimes I'm like, well, maybe I should've there's nothing raw. Like, maybe I should've just done that, and so then I get in this whole thing.

But I've seen that more within the last six months than I think I've seen, you know, in the last two years. Right. Right. And I think there's also this thought that people have that they're kind of somehow gaming the market too because the thought is if I can work something out and I can get it off eBay, then the comp isn't documented. And then when I go to sell it, you know, it's like nobody's gonna hold me to what it closed for and because there is a lot of that too.

It's you know, if you buy a card at a thousand dollars at auction and you go to sell it a week later, you never resist gonna throw the thousand dollar comp in your face and say, well, you're not paying eBay fees, I'll give you $9.50. So a lot of that takes place. But yeah. Yeah. Definitely makes you wonder.

A lot of what we've talked about is prices, comps, liquidity. We've covered a lot of ground. Maybe we close it out by just talking about I've been thinking about this, and it's been a part of my content, and I wanted to get your opinion on it. It's just this this deal making process and us making deals with each other and trying to, you know, build relationships. And Yep.

I wanted to get your perspective. I know you've been a collector forever, and you've made plenty of deals over over the years. What for you when you're working with someone? Like, what are signs of, like, this is a good person to work with, this is someone who I wanna work with for a while versus, like, this deal, like, I can't wait to get it over with, or I might just walk away because it's so brutal. Like, what based on your experience as a collector, what are some of those factors that you think about when you're evaluating if a deal is good and you wanna work with them again or not.

Yeah. I mean, it's it's tricky because it's a little chicken and the egg here because the number one thing I would point to as far as, like, confidence in a deal with somebody is my deals with them in the past. Mhmm. But, unfortunately, there always had to be a first deal at which point I had no experience with that person. So, yeah.

I mean, reputation's a big one if you ever move in a big card. You know, I'll see these posts all the time on Facebook. You know, I need vouchers. I need vouchers. It's like, that's great.

It's great that in 2026 with the Internet, social media, like, there's this, like, reliability, and there's all these resources to go to and get some vouchers. That's a good thing. But, know, a lot of times, I think it's just the starting point. Like, I I would rather deals be direct and simple than be like this long song and dance. So if you get the guy who's like, the last one sold for 800, so, you know, I'll do $11.50 for you.

It's like, well, okay. You know, it just gets a little crazy. But then I love it if somebody's like, hey. Last one did 800. I'm not in a rush to move this.

I'll do $8.50 or I'm gonna sit on it for while. Fine. Like, I just I think transparency and, like, as direct as you can be to, like, where you need to be. You know, I think, like, one of the best examples of this is if you follow Kyle, like, king of the cards on on Instagram, just watch some of his reels. A lot of them are similar, but, like, it's hey.

Here's what I think it's worth. Here's where I need to be. Think I I can move this in super liquid. I know I'm gonna sit on this for a while, so I need to be here. Like, just enough transparency with each other to explain why are you buying, what's the thought process in buying, and how are you interpreting those comps.

Like, you get on the same page real quick, and you need to figure out there's a great deal to be made here or there's not. That's, like, the biggest thing to me. It's just the the openness and transparency when you initiate that conversation, and not just trying to, like, string each other along and go back and forth forever because it you know, we don't have all the time in the world. So I think that's a huge one. Then once you've made a deal with somebody, obviously, how the last one went should be the number one influence on your confidence on the next one.

And you just kinda go from there. But, yeah, as you go, like, it is awesome. It's, like, build up a network of people where when you see something posted online, it's on Facebook, it's at a show, it's on Instagram, like, just being able to shoot a DM or a text and just chat about it. Like, it's it's awesome having that ability. And, obviously, you and I you and I have both been in the hobby forever, so we probably have a ton of those contacts.

For other people, it takes time to build those up, but, it really is invaluable to have that stuff at at hand. A lot of great insight there and data and information in this episode. Tory, that was fun. I'm sure you're swimming in the sea of cards that are hitting your doorstep, so you probably got some work to do. The sea of Jarrett Stidham cards.

Yes. 2,009 of Jarrett Stidham is all over the building right now, and I'm not joking. Let let's yeah. Let's get this I I want for the next few days here, I want nothing but pictures on the d c sports eighty seven Instagram account of all the Stidham bangers that are coming through. Tell you what.

If we see a couple crazy sales, you you might see a few posts. It's it's very possible. So, yeah. Yeah. Not gonna not gonna rule it out.

And and if Stidham wins and the Broncos go to the Super Bowl, we both must eat crow on the next episode. Yeah. I mean, we don't really have a choice. So, yeah, it's happening, but, you know, we'll we'll we'll see. Let's not let's not assume that's happening yet.

That feels a little crazy, but it, it very well could. So who knows? Yeah. We'll we'll see what happens. Another episode of the staging area with DC Sports eighty seven in the can.

Thank you all for listening. We will be back soon.