Welcome loyal listeners of the Stacking Slab podcast, the first episode of the WNBA card podcast. I'm your host, Katelyn.

I go by cold lunch cards on the Instagram machine and everywhere else on the Internet, And I'm super excited to be joined by the man, the myth, the legend, Brett McGrath at stacking slabs to be on the mic recording our first episode of a new series here on stacking slabs, where we bring weekly content that focuses on the collector in the WNBA card space.

Brett and I have been talking about this concept for a long time, and I'm just so excited to finally be putting pen to paper here, releasing this content for everyone to listen to.

So, super excited to get into this. And, Brett, how are you doing today?

I am fired up. This is, like, such a great the timing is everything sometimes in content, and it just feels like such an awesome time to be talking about, women's basketball, women's basketball cards.

And you and I, like, have traded so many messages over the last year about cards, the game, and there was just this moment where I was like, we need to dedicate some more time to that on a podcast like this.

So I'm fired up. I'm ready to get into it. Yeah. Let's get into it, Brett.

This is super exciting. I just wanna start by thanking you for for this platform to be able to talk about this stuff. And, you know, this is what we get nerdy about, so I'm excited for everybody else to be along for the ride.

I guess we can start with our first planned, segment of the newest show, which we're calling the tip-off to talk about any league news, big happenings in the the women's basketball card space or the women's basketball space in general.

And I think the obvious place to start here, Brett, is we're coming hot off the press of the NCAA women's championship.

Paige Beckers and the Yukon huskies took home their twelfth national championship, most ever wins for coach Gino and the Yukon huskies.

So I'm super excited to talk about the future of those cards, the card market implications of that. But did you watch the game? Did you have a good time? We had we actually had it was a family affair.

We had, my brother-in-law and his wife and their kids came over. And I told my wife earlier in the weekend, I was like, at 03:00, like, I wanna either be alone or have family over so kids could be distracted so I could just focus in.

And I think I made this comment to you, but I am not sure I've ever seen a championship performance like that at that level.

It was just a spectacular display of basketball by the Yukon Huskies. And, you know, Paige, you know, she wrote her story, and it ended the way, I think, she wanted it to.

But there are so many story lines within that game and within the run. And one of the things from a card perspective that I was kinda messaging you about, but, like, I mean, Sarah Strong and, like, what she did at that age.

And then, like, immediately, like, having, like she had the McDonald's cards, but, like, having the her Bowman First cards, like, available or maybe, like, available but not really available because no one no one's selling it her stuff right now.

I thought that was cool. It was like, man, what a great opportunity to, like, jump in and follow a player that's going to be on a perennial powerhouse, and we can watch her grow.

So it was like a kinda like a I know different positions and different skill sets, but it was almost like a passing of the baton from page to Strong, which I thought was super cool.

No. Totally agree. And I see your sport in the PSA hat today. That's what they call their their big three over at Yukon, Paige, Sarah, and AZ Fudd.

And that trio went off. I was I was very impressed. It was a dominant performance. They made South Carolina look silly, which, you know, you don't get to say that every day. That's not a normal occurrence.

So I was really impressed, and I immediately thought about Sarah Strong cards because I I had a Sarah Strong game day paper auto from Topps McDonald's Chrome all American sitting on my eBay at a pretty hefty price.

It was not sitting there to sell, if you know what I mean, and it was just marked up.

And upon the the clock striking zero, I got a notification, your item has been paid for. Please ship. Along with a couple other notifications, in my inbox saying, what's your lowest?

And I had to respond. Unfortunately, this has already sold at full asking price. So I'm already seeing the the hype build up for Sarah Strong, and I'm excited to see those Bowman First cards hit the market.

I'll be I'll be shopping for those, and it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the supporting cast members get, the card treatment.

I know a lot of them are either have one card or two cards in maximum, and and most of them don't have any. So excited to see how that pans out for sure.

I wanna ask you about because you you are I know you are because of what you showed me at the beginning of this tournament. Like, I feel like you've done a nice job being ahead on the Bowman stuff.

For anyone out there who has not bought into Bowman Bowman First stuff, like, timing, I think, is really important. Like, now maybe not directly now, but, like, soon, it's kinda, like, out of sight, out of mind.

It's like, the NBA is closing. WNBA is starting. The NFL will take over. Like, have you found within your collecting and buying a good time to, like, go all in and buy the players that you like?

That's a good question. And I think the easy answer for me to say is it's always a good time to invest in women's sports. So that's my first top line messaging for that.

But I would say, you know, something something clicked in my mindset around collecting and prospecting when I realized that, you know, it is a long game. It is not a weak, you know, buy a card and then within the week, sell it.

These players take a long time to develop, and the nice thing about, college basketball as opposed to some of those other leagues that you were talking about is that you are guaranteed some sort of hype in March.

So if you are throwing a dart at a board, something's gotta hit.

It just is who. And I think that's where, like, women's basketball is a little bit more predictable than those other sports because of the pipeline of of players coming up from high school.

You know, Sarah Strong in particular, she's been getting recruited by UConn since, like, fifth grade. This is not a surprising new addition to the team.

She's been recruited her whole life. And so just making sure that you're you're staying on top of that news cycle. And I found that, you know, even in anticipation of the tournament, I'm still buying.

I bought a huge lot of, women's basketball cards including Hannah Hidalgo, Paige Beckers, Caitlin Clark, and Juju Watkins, big names, that either have had impressive performances that people are gonna remember in March or are going to have impressive performances.

And so I don't think there's a bad time to buy, but we're certainly, seeing the effects of of a championship right now on those Husky cards.

We're I promise I don't wanna get us too far off the rails, especially as we're just starting this in the debut episode. But if you you mentioned Juju, and the stop raced through my mind.

And I wanna know your, your thoughts on this. You've got her Bowman card coming out in the first one in the USC, attire, but it's not her first. How do you look at those two cards and, like, which card to go after?

Oh, it's so hard. I actually had somebody comment that on one of my Instagram posts, and I was like, I need to think through an answer here because it's not straightforward.

And I'll say, I think that the USC uniform looks really nice, and obviously the aesthetics of it, I prefer just with the licensing.

However, that little number one in the top right corner, I think, is the end all be all for investment, quote, unquote, or some sort of value, keeping value in a card.

So I would say I prefer the UFC uniform, like, objectively, from from a design perspective.

But in terms of what I'll be buying and hopefully holding for when she does reach the championship after her injury, I'm looking at those Sierra Canyon, blurred out high school uniforms that aren't the prettiest things in the world, but that, signal, you know, the hype from the beginning from from the beginning of her career.

I love the confidence you have in in when she's going to be in the championship. But the the loser of the national championship might have something to say about it.

What after, like, the the South Carolina l, which was not what we're used to seeing, especially at that level, like, what do you make of what, Don does next with that team?

Stay calm. Stay cool. Stay collected. There's nothing to be worried about. They got beat by a good team that was on their a game. You know, I I jokingly said leading up to the championship game that it was a prophecy.

They could have been playing against any team, and I think Yukon would have won. So South Carolina, I I wouldn't be too concerned. I'm sure Don is upset, as anybody nobody likes to lose, especially teams that they showed a graphic.

I think South Carolina has over a 90% win percentage since 02/2016. They don't lose, and they don't lose by 30 points in the national championship.

That being said, they have a lot of returning players that are gonna be great. You look at, you know, what everybody talks about all Americans, they've got, like, 10 of them. Like, literally 10 all Americans on their team.

That is not normal, and that's gonna produce a lot of success for the program. I'm a big fan of South Carolina, big fan of Dawn Staley and what she's built there, and, I wouldn't be batting an eye, really.

You know, they'll be back. I I think I saw that same graphic and was, like, so caught off guard by that winning percentage, and then they showed I think it was during Stewie's era at Yukon.

I think it was her era. State Yukon was at a 96% winning percentage. I was like, that is just unprecedented.

It's just insane. That's not even, like, fair. Like, when you say it out loud, when you hear Brianna Stewart won all four national championships her entire collegiate career, that doesn't even make sense.

That's not normal. Yeah. It's crazy, and I don't think we'll ever see that happen again for sure.

Oh, man. Well, it's the fun part about the the WNBA or women's basketball is that you go from the national championship, and there's literally, like, no time to wait.

Right? You know, Paige, I'm sure, is having her celebration tour and doing all the media, but she's gotta get ready because we've got a draft.

Literally, as this goes live, it'll be a couple days later on Monday for this to go as this goes live. How are you feeling about, the draft? Oh, I'm itching. I've got my WNBA merch on right now up in the league. I'm excited to see it.

The draft last year was obviously the most watched WNBA draft of all time, for good reason with number one pick being Caitlin Clark. And, I expect some some big hype going into the Paige Becker's, show on Monday night.

I I'm really excited to see how the basketball community responds, how the card community responds, And, you know, I'm excited to see who gets kind of that Kate Martin effect of, okay, you may not be a superstar, but maybe we could mold you into one.

And I'm excited to see who who makes that that leap and, you know, who comes to my Minnesota links.

I'm excited about that. I'll be watching for that. And, yeah, I I couldn't be more stoked for for the future of the league and the new the new rookie class coming in.

But I wanna I wanna talk about, like, maybe outside of Paige, what what else, you know, is interesting maybe from a card perspective.

But maybe we focus in on on Paige just for a moment. Like, undeniably, she's gonna be the number one pick taken by the Dallas wings coming off of the national championship.

She was regardless of where UConn ended up in the tournament, she was going to be the number one pick. People who don't follow women's basketball know who Paige Beckers is.

How important do you think it is to the card market that we're going from Caitlin Clark and we're like I'm trying to, like, for the first episode, trying not to just, like, be all Caitlyn Clark because there's so many other fun things to talk about.

But we're going from Caitlyn Clark setting these all time highs and changing everything with women's, basketball cards to Paige Beckers who literally can go and take that torch and continue the momentum.

Like, how do you think about that? Because what we're seeing right now with WNBA cards is unprecedented, but I'm not sure it's going to slow down now that Paige is the, young, talent that everyone's gravitating towards.

Oh, yeah. All gas, no breaks. I I don't think this is stopping anytime soon. And I'm really excited to see, you know, Paige is the you could say queen of NIL.

There I give her that title. She has the most Instagram followers, social media flower followers of anybody that's been in the NCAA tournament this year, men's or women's.

And she really is a marketing, she she's a marketing genius for these, for these companies to pour their money into. And I think, you know, that's gonna bleed over into cards.

I saw she signed, an exclusive deal and already has cards coming out, on on online that say Paige buckets with the national championship, you know, subheader on the title on on the card.

So I'm excited to see her bring the next class in, and I think, you know, she's going to help those other players that may not be at the fourth forefront, of the hobby's eyes.

But, yeah, I I would expect her her rookie cards to to go crazy and, you know, similar to how we have, Caitlin Clark twenty twenty four cards and that design for prism, I think, you know, similarly, we're gonna have Paige Becker's class, rookie cards.

So I'm excited. I'll be buying them. Who a lot of I'm the the the goal really of this show is to just bring awareness over a category of cards in a sport that we really appreciate.

And I would imagine, outside of Paige Becker's, like, people listening to this conversation who are trying to learn more about WNBA collecting and cards might not no no other names might not come to mind, which is totally cool.

Like, that's why we're doing this show. What's I now in the the, Caitlin Clark class, right, Cam Brink, Angel Reese, like, Kate Martin, like, their cards are selling really strong.

So some collectors might not gravitate towards Paige because it might be out of their price range.

But what like, who else do you think could be in that next tier going into this season? A lot of people. I think this is a really strong class, and I'm excited to see some of them.

I think, you know, right off the bat, a lot of people are talking about somebody who maybe, you know, even even women's basketball fans may not know the name Dominique Malonga. She's a French star.

I think she's 19 years old. She's a very raw, MBA type prospect where it's like you didn't go to college and you're coming straight over to The States, to play, and she's being projected top five, maybe even top two.

Whether or not I agree with that is a whole another story, but she's certainly projected really high, and I haven't seen any cards that exist of her.

So I don't know if there's room for collectors to get in until the WNBA releases but, that's somebody I'm looking at.

Another person that that stands out is from your Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the, Sonia Citron who's, you know, I think a very underrated prospect. I know you're trying to get your hands on some Sonia cards.

So It's not it's not happening. It's not happening. Might need to exercise a little bit of patience there. But, yeah, I'm looking forward to her hopefully joining a good team and and getting a good role on a team.

She's she's really a silent player that makes a big impact. So excited to see her. And then, I would say Juju Watkins partner in crime over at USC, Kiki Irriathan, is another highly rated prospect going into the draft.

Just has all the, tangible measurements and, experience to hopefully be a really good player. She was a Stanford transfer to USC and helped that team really, hit a new level until, unfortunately, Judy got hurt.

And then, a couple more names that I'll toss out there, who I want my links to draft is Georgia Amore. She's a a small small five eight on a good day, a guard from Kentucky who transferred from from Virginia Tech.

She's also an Australian. I think she'd pair really well with the international vibe we've got going over here at the Minnesota Lynx.

And then another player that I think had a really, really good tournament showing that increased their draft stock was Haley Van Lyth from TCU.

You know, TCU has been making some big plays in the portal the past couple years, and I'll break some news to Brett here that, you know, who was projected to be the number two pick was originally Olivia Miles.

She announced this morning that she will be not going to the draft and joining TCU.

So they're making another splash in the portal. But, anyways, I think they they've all got good chances to to go high and to have some good cards available for collectors.

I had, I was getting off of a recording, and I had Caitlin not break the news and break the news when we were doing this.

And, I had mentioned to her, Yukon made a lot of sense. And then the more I thought about it and then when I watched TCU, I was like, TCU is kinda n I l u. So Exactly. That that that makes a lot of sense.

But I I'm not sure, like you you mentioned Hailey Van Lyth. I'm not sure anyone stock Rose more this tournament than her, and she already had, like, people fans, who had seen her play for a while and have been fans of her.

So I I think she might be one right out of the gates that a lot of collectors run to. And let me let me throw this one at you.

I'm I'm looking at the draft board. I'm looking like where I think players are gonna be penciled in. I'm looking at needs. What are your thoughts on Hailey Van Lyth heading to Chicago to pair up with Angel Reece once again?

I think that would be the move. That has got to be top of mind for the Chicago Execs. I don't see how you don't do it. It makes so much sense. It it makes too much sense that if you're not doing it, what are you doing?

I think those two have undeniable chemistry on the court. And just because it didn't, you know, pan out perfectly at LSU, I think it could in Chicago. And they've they've got all the pieces coming together.

Hailey Van Lyth could be underneath Courtney Vandersloot to learn a little bit from a a top vet in the league and then obviously pair up with her with her LSU alum. So I I will also just, like, cosign Kiki.

Like, I don't know. I think she's she has a game that, can translate very well into the WNBA. So excited about her. And I'll I'll throw one out there just because I got a chance to watch more of her when Florida State was playing.

Mikaela Timpson, shout out, the coaches collection on IG. She just the beast. Like, I mentioned when I watched her get got done watching her, I was like, man, I'd really love for the fever to to draft her.

Unfortunately, the fever don't have a first round pick. So, and I don't think she's sticking around in the second. And if she does, it's a it's a bargain. But, yeah, I think this is a lot of fun.

Maybe but is there anything else you wanna hit on the draft before we maybe, hit hit the next segment? Two names that I think are how about this? Two names I think are gonna be really good value for whatever franchise drafts them.

Anissa Morrow, LSU forward, double double queen, unbelievable rebounder and scorer, and Saniya Rivers, really, really shifty guard that's almost built like a forward who played at NC State.

I'd love for her to to come join the links. Those are two players I think might be under the radar, but are gonna make an immediate impact on on the teams that they join.

We we need to make you're an you're you are an honorary member of the Wolfpack. That's for that's for Dan Shure. Every time you get a chance, you're you're praising them or praising someone for I have to.

I have to. Awesome. Alright. What what, what do you wanna dig into next? Yeah. I think we should move into to another topic, more card focused topic of what's going on, in in the WNBA and NCAA women's basketball card space, I suppose.

I know we we we wanna talk about prism. I think that's something that we should talk about, and and I I wanna hear your thoughts.

I think it's been about three months or so since the product dropped. There's been a lot of hobby buzz, a lot of big sales, a lot of collectors showing off their their collections.

What have you seen since since the product came out? I've seen more WNBA cards on more accounts than ever before. I think you can call that the Caitlin Clark effect, and I think that's cool.

I think it's fun to see the category growing. And, also, I think there is so much opportunity outside of just Caitlin Clark. We buy cards because we wanna you know, we love the cards, but there's also an element of it.

We want a good deal, and we want value when we're buying cards. And to me, especially with the new stuff, there's just I I feel like I see new opportunities every day.

We'll say just, like, I love the 2024 design, and I'm so happy that it's, like, Caitlin Clark's rookie card design because, like, aesthetically, like, I can look at it and be like, man, this is these are really well put together cards.

And I think, like, the the price of a lot of these cards too, like, anywhere you want to get in and get involved, there's opportunity. I mean, Prism, whether you love it or hate it, has a lot of parallels.

So if there's a if it's you know, you don't have to go after, you know, the one of one or the golds or, it might be outside of your price range, but there's so many cool looking parallels.

Like, I bought the, the added 99, premium Clark because it was in my price zone, the 22. I prefer the the 22 over the, the the shooting pose as as opposed to the, alternative kinda standing there photo shoot poses.

But I don't know. I had been patient. I was waiting for an opportunity. I was like, I I can't go after these golds.

Like, they're way after outside of my price range, but I jumped to the add of 99 because the price point was really good, and the cards aesthetically are really cool. So I think there's that, whoever you collect, for everybody.

And so to me, it's just a great product to get people involved. And I always say this, like, if you hear this and you're a WNBA fan and wanna get more involved with collecting, like, go buy a card or two and just get your hands on it.

Find the right parallel for you. Collect your try to collect your favorite player. Like, you don't need to be spending hundreds of dollars to do that, especially with WNBA Prism, which I think is a really good thing.

Yeah. 100%. There's a lot of bargain deals that you can get on, WNBA cards. And, you know, one parallel that stands out to me as best bang for your buck is the Mojo's out of 25.

Mhmm. For some reason, they just don't sell as well as their, like, out of 25 tie dye counterparts for for instance, or even the golds are, you know, similarly numbered, serial numbered cards.

So, yeah, there's definitely place to be made for collectors and and so on and so forth.

And I've I've noticed I've been getting a lot of DMs from people that maybe haven't entered or explored the women's basketball card space before, and they're looking to align their collection philosophy with some sort of addition via women's basketball.

So I'm really excited to see people step outside their comfort zone and explore a new lane because, you know, the more the merrier.

I think, you'll you'll understand once you get here that, you know, collectors in this space are super passionate about women's basketball cards.

Dealers care about getting collectors the cards that they want, and, you know, there is an opportunity for money to be made.

So I'd I'd invite everybody to if you're interested, which you're listening to this podcast, you're probably interested in dipping your toes in, to just to just test drive out a parallel or two like Brett was talking about and see if you like it.

The Mojo is such a great call out, and I'll I'll I'll I have a k like, I'm an eBay degen.

Like, I spend way too much time looking at the safe searches, but, like, you said that the example popped in my head. And I don't even know if it's still there, but I'm gonna use it because it's a good one.

First of all, Mojo, cool design. It's been with the product from the jump. So, like, that legacy, I I think, especially in prism, is in any type of prism you collect is really important.

And so out of '25, it's it's it's there's not a ton of them, but there was I think this last week or maybe a couple days ago, I saw out of twenty twenty four prism, I saw an Aliyah Edwards' mojo, and it was like I wanna say it was definitely under a hundred bucks.

It was, like, maybe $89. 99, or best offer. And I was like, that, like, you've got this, like, emerging player in the league, like, a premium parallel, and it's under a hundred like, it's like stars aligning there.

So it I I I say that as an illustration for even if you want to prospect into younger players, there's opportunity, and it I don't think it's going to you you're gonna have to break the bank.

Yeah. I mean, that's such a good call. Aliyah Edwards made some made some waves in the unrivaled Yes. Summer. She's really just like showing off her full potential. I think the mystics have two to three first round picks this year.

It sounds like that card might need to get scooped up at some point either by me or you, but, yeah, for sure. I think the call out of the longevity of the product now is something really important.

You know, we're five years in to WNBA Prism. It has not been a lot around as long as NBA, NFL, etcetera. I suppose, what do you think that brand of prism for WNBA has done for for the space?

I think it's been, it's been incredible. And I think this is what prism does. When prism launches whatever it's going whatever the category is, it's going to do big things, and it's going to attract outsiders.

And I think that's an important thing about Prism and why in this Panini era, Prism will always be remembered as kind of the flagship because you it's it is the flagship card.

It is gonna bring other people in. And I just think, like, five years is a it's not a small amount of time.

It's a substantial amount of time. And I just think, you know, Panini has changed things up a little bit over the years with just, like, the one of one configurations and, moving over from, like, black to gold vinyl.

And there's, you know, there there's been some changes that are outside of maybe what is in the NBA product, and I think we're gonna address those a little bit.

But I don't know. Like, it's I'm so happy that there are, there's five years of prism in, WNBA because I collect prism, and I just think there's enough meat on that bone.

There's enough interesting ways to collect whether it's gold prism runs of a player every year, whether it's going and chasing your favorite one of ones, whether it's prospecting.

Like, Prism really has everything for every type of collector. So and we're we're we're seeing that right now big time with with with Clark and the rookies and everything else, but I don't know.

Like, I am not sure. I would certainly be collecting WNBA still, but I'm not sure I would have the same excitement.

So it's like category I'm really excited about with favorite product, Unite, and for me, it's like fireworks. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I think the word that I had in my head was credibility.

It almost adds a a safety net for collectors because it's not something completely net new that they're unfamiliar with. It's something that you can easily compare across sports and arrows.

And, you know, I think back on on the early years of prism for other sports like the NFL, like 2012 through 2016, those cards are highly desirable and sought after, and it's not that far out.

Well, we're now in that kind of golden era of first five years of product, and we're ending it with Caitlin Clark and Paige Beckers and these big stars.

So I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon, and I would only imagine that, you know, wax prices continue to climb, astronomically and that hopefully, singles prices get elevated as well.

So, yeah, I'm excited about the product. I'm I'm a collector of the product. I think, it's a really good place to to store your your money in in collecting.

I think, like, design in, place such a critical role in, like, overall collectability. And I I wanna toss this over to you and, like, get your thoughts because I think about this a lot.

But I think about the debut in 2020. In the debut in 2020, which is a little it's it's it can be confusing because it's 2020 WNBA Prism, but it's the 2019, NBA Prism design and look.

The and it's Sabrina's year, which is super helpful. Like, yeah. Let's let's have one of the best players in the league, like, have a rookie. And I know you've got some things with Sabrina, but we'll we'll We won't talk about it.

We won't talk about it in the first episode. But how important do you think that is, I guess, in terms of a lot of collectors came back into the hobby, and it was like the Zion Jaw 2019.

But to like, people look at that design, and it it it's they remember getting back in the cards, and you can just literally go look at the first year of WNBA Prism.

And maybe it's not ideal that it's the exact same design, but I think this the fact that it's it can be familiar to someone who's trying to research and learn about the product.

And then, obviously, we as collectors always gravitate to what's first. And so when they look at what's first, it will likely be familiar to them because they're probably a NBA collector at some level.

Yeah. I think it's I think it's a really good set to focus on, and I think it it really set the the baseline for expectations for WNBA Prism moving forward.

2020 was, you know, a tumultuous time and filled with a lot of fun card, experiences for a lot of people.

But like you said, I think that added layer of of familiarity and and also simpleness of, like, simplicity of the design is attractive to a lot of collectors.

It's not an intimidating, experience to transition into WNBA collecting if you're starting at 2020 prism.

And, you know, I wish it hadn't exploded so quickly in front of my face because I only got my hands on one of them, which I'm very fortunate.

I I have a 2020 Prism Gold Nafissa Collier. Is this the first time she's been brought up in this conversation?

Yeah. Which we need to do a better job at making sure we got her at the front of the the the front of the episode. But, yeah, she's my favorite player in the WNBA, star of Minnesota links.

And, yeah, I picked that up at the national last summer. And ever since, I've been searching for, you know, those other players that make me feel excited about women's basketball. And quite quite honestly, they just don't surface.

So I think that set will continue to be attractive for new and existing collectors. How do you feel about this? And we're gonna we're gonna move into kinda some card sales, as as the next segment.

But how do you feel about the fact that the the best card in the product, which is the Sabrina Black one zero one, has just been sitting chilling on eBay at $600,000 for a long time.

Does that, like does does that what does that does that, like, lose the luster a little bit for you?

Because we went this whole time where people thought it would still maybe in a box, and then, you know, it's overseas, and it's just been on eBay at a ex insane asking price.

Like, how does that make you feel? It makes me feel upset that I haven't won the lottery yet. Like, it makes and then it makes me makes complete sense that it's sitting overseas in China somewhere.

I think, you know, that's just a result of, you know, carry bleed bleeding over from the NBA collecting where, you know, these big whales over in in the Asian countries collect massive, highly desirable cards of NBA stars, and now they're starting to do it with WNBA.

That card has gotta be I mean, we can all make our own list and, you know, whatever, but it's gotta be a top card on everybody's list of most iconic WNBA cards that have ever released.

And so, yeah, I think somebody should buy it, but 600,000 seems like a steep steep price even for that.

I I don't I don't know what my Mount Rushmore of WNBA cards is, but that card has got to be on it at some level. So yeah. Hey. I just wanna, like, send him a message. Hey, dude. Just just go run this thing at auction.

Let's let's get the fireworks out. I'd love to see it. I bet I bet it would be blood in the water. Sharks are out for sure. Oh, I know. There's a lot of Sabrina, lovers out there. For sure. Let's move it. We're gonna do this every week.

What we're just gonna, like, hit, you know, some recent sales of cards that, have have been sold over the Internet. We're gonna start we're gonna use card ladder, obviously, just to show these sales, shout out card ladder.

But the first card that I wanted to call out, we're we're not just talking about in this podcast. We're not just talking about, like, the brand new stuff.

Although it will we'll probably lean heavily on that. But what what we also wanna do is, like, bring up older sets and older players, kind of the sets that paved the way and the players that paved the way to where we are today.

And a sale that I wanna start with is the o two FLIR Ultra WNBA, Sue Bird, gold rookie, PSA seven. We saw Sue and DT and Caitlin Clark having conversations while we were trying to watch the national championship.

If you weren't watching that broadcast, there's clips everywhere. But, yeah, Sue Bird, man, one of the one of the OGs of the WNBA, one of the greatest players in WNBA history.

And this card sold for did I say what it sold for yet or no? No. I don't I don't think so. It's a surprise. Okay. It's a surprise. It's sold on February 10 for $6,355 via eBay auction.

What say you about this card, Sue Bird, that price, anything? I think, you know, an important timeline to call out is that Sue Bird, I believe, was just inducted into the basketball hall of fame this year.

She was in the newest class. So, good timing, I think, by the buyer to purchase this before that officially, broke the news.

But the gold medallion ultra, FLIR ultra is is one of my favorite parallels across sports. I I mean, I will say I'm a I'm a platinum medallion stand, of course, but this gold medallion is beautiful.

I think it works really well with the the original storm uniforms there that sues sporting. I think the grade is really irrelevant on these types of cards.

There's not a lot of them in existence, and I think any grade, is really impressive because a lot of these cards were were held by collectors most likely raw. The cert number here appears to be relatively new if I'm incorrect.

Yeah. So this was probably encapsulated semi recently, showing that people are catching on to the fact that there's these cards from, you know, over twenty years ago now that are starting to be transacted at those higher prices.

And I I think this is a good deal. I I'm surprised by the price just because, you know, that's out of my budget. But, I think it's a really good buy, and I would love to I would love to own this one.

Alright. Another player we have just not mentioned yet, which seems like, you know, a travesty at this point, but we have the 2018 Rittenhouse WNBA Asia Wilson PSA 10.

Rookie sold 01/13/2025, eBay auction for $2,865. Asia Wilson, I don't even think you can argue, is the best player in the WNBA.

She's got the hardware to prove it. Rittenhouse, I'd love maybe for you, for anyone who's kinda listening to WNBA card content for the first time to maybe help everyone understand Rittenhouse. Like, what's Rittenhouse?

And then Asia Asia Wilson, anything you wanna talk about about her greatness? Yeah. So Rittenhouse is really interesting. You know, the WNBA didn't have licensing with Panini up until, '20 the late two thousand tens.

And before that, it was owned by Rittenhouse, which if you're familiar with the non card space, Rittenhouse or non sports card space, Rittenhouse makes a lot of non sports cards.

But they also own a license for over a decade for the WNBA. A lot of these cards were not shiny, Pulsar, prism, whatever, refractor cards, and they were mostly card stock paper cards.

Just very, classic, I would say. This card in particular, the design, you know, like, subjectively, I just really like it. I think it's beautiful.

It features the goat just positioned so nicely, almost looks like a a frame, an art frame. And I think Rittenhouse did a really good job with their designs being, true to their time, but, you know, pretty classic.

And I think they'll stand they'll stand the test of time. But, yeah, AJ Wilson, definitely the best player in the league. Hopefully, we'll we'll be able to cop her shoes this summer with her first, sneaker deal.

And, yeah, I think, you know, we're only gonna see her prices go up. This this is not surprising at all to me. The these cards, like, remind me of, like, base car the look of base cards and, like, premium products across the Panini era.

Like, it's like, you can close your eyes and see, like, a national treasure, like, a base card or, maybe something from flawless like that.

But I've I've never I don't own any written house cards, but, you know, the more you get into this stuff, the more it sinks its teeth in you.

It's like you have to go look in that direction. So I've been trying to educate myself a little bit.

A player we're gonna have a run here on finites, which maybe for the audience, the finite, which is my favorite parallel in cards, and it comes to WNBA cards for the first time in this prism, and it's not in the hobby box.

You you you pull these in the blasters, which is I can't imagine ripping a blaster of WNBA and pulling a black finite, but that is happening, all over the place right now.

Well, these are popping up, but we've got a Cam Brink finite, obviously, rookie. This is her action photo sold on March 1 for 5 g's via best offer. Dude, Cameron Brink's cards are freaking selling like hotcakes right now.

It's like, I wanna get into some Cameron Brink, but I just can't I can't do it because it's it's too expensive for me relative to what she has to do to justify the prices.

That's my position on Brink right now, but, like, what do you make a a Cam Brink in just like this card? I love Cam Brink both as a she has her own podcast.

Shout out to the Cam Brink podcast, where she she talks about some great things, but I think she's got a lot of potential to be a star in the league. She was obviously a a top draft pick in the in the Clark, class.

And then, you know, ended up in LA where stars wanna be. They wanna be in LA. And, honestly, I think she's got a lot of potential to be really good this upcoming year bouncing back from that injury.

A little funny story. I was at a card show and somebody who usually doesn't have too many WNBA cards had a camera break. Now he's interested in it. I go up the table, I ask him, you know, how much is it?

Are you willing to move off the price a little bit? Whatever, whatever. He's like, well, she had a really good year last year. And I was like, like, that's just not that's not Do your homework, pal.

Yeah. I'm like, dude, he she tore her ACL. Like, let's be real right now. But that being said, I think her card prices, you know, haven't really discounted for collectors.

They're they're still really high, and I I don't anticipate them going down unless she really doesn't meet expectations. I'm excited to see the pick and roll game between Cam Brink and Kelsey Plum.

It'll be that's a good addition. I think when you're thinking too about, like, going back to the draft, I'm thinking about, like, like, someone needs to play alongside, like, grow up.

Maybe Sparks have a pick and follow in Plum's footsteps, and that's where my mind goes to, Georgia or Hailey Van Lyth.

Like, they would be a good fit there in in LA too. I know that might be to your chagrin because you'd like to see these players, wearing wearing some Lynx gear.

But, yeah, I think Cam Brink's cards right now are are hot, so she's she's definitely someone to follow. Let's move on to oh, I can't believe I'm looking at this now, and I forgot I made this a part of the show.

Oh, man. I'm upset about this. This is a card PTSD right now, like, whiplash. Big time. This is a card I was in the middle of trying to land and literally lost it at the checkout.

That's a story for another day. We're gonna celebrate the card and whoever out there has it. And if you have this card out there, my DMs are open. This is Diana Taurasi, black finite one of one.

The goat just retired. I mean, what more can you say? And I don't know. Like, this is one of my favorite cards of hers. And you can add to it. You've got Caitlin Clark freaking shadowing her in the back.

So you've got, like, this only black finite of Taurasi with Clark in the background. It's almost just like a changing of the guard in the league, which I I'm in love with this card.

It's so cool. It's sold for, I think it was $4 on eBay, March, fourth. I try to black it out of my head because I want this card in my collection.

But, Diana Taurasi, again, I can't believe we haven't mentioned her name yet. Here we are. What do you think about maybe her news in the retirement, and, yeah, this card. I think this card is amazing.

If I was in the in this budget, in this range, I would certainly think about competing with you to purchase it. It's it's incredible. I think you hit on all the big selling points, you know, only black finite, Clark in the background.

That's just added sweetener. Taurasi going up for what looks like a contested layup being a little dramatic in the Phoenix black uniforms matching the fine eye.

I mean, it it ticks all the boxes. I think that price seems completely fair, if not a little undervalued. And I'm excited to see, hopefully, somebody we know pop up with this or it show up somewhere so that we can keep track of it.

I I wanna know where this thing is at all times. My bet my if I'm betting, I'm betting it's at PSA right now is what I'm gonna bet. I wouldn't bet against that. Okay. Final one. This is what I made an offer on and didn't get.

So I'm I'm being very transparent about, like, what I like and what I'm doing, but this is Caitlin's favorite player who I appreciated, Defissa Collier, definitely, especially through your lens of being a fan and telling me how great she is.

But, like, unrivaled to me did it. I was like, oh, this she's incredible. Like, watching her demeanor, I just love the way she goes about her business, and she's so silky smooth on the floor. Yeah. Hell of a player.

This is her black finite, which back to, like I know this isn't going to seem like whenever you get into, like, the one k plus, hemisphere, it's it's it's hard to call something a bargain because most of us are buying, you know, hundred maybe is our max.

But to me, with this card, it sold for $13. 50 on March.

I just thought, like, man, this is, like, going to be one of her best cards ever, and it tells the story of where the attention is as she's one of the best players in the league, where the attention is on the rookies, like, comparing Cam Brink's four k sale to this sale, to me, that just says, like, look at all this value right now in the category.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna step out of the way. I'm gonna let you maybe, get on your soapbox and talk about fee. But, yeah, anything you wanna share here.

I mean, we could go on and on. There could be a whole episode about my love for fee. She's just such a fundamental player that I've never seen somebody that does not get, like, too hot or too cold.

Just she leads the team. And I think this price is, quite honestly, is disrespectful. This is, like, top two and, you know, argue with the wall, top two player in the league.

You know, my bet for MVP this year, my bet for finals MVP this year, a little bit of bias baked in there. But, honestly, I I really like this card similar to the Taurasi, wearing a black uniform.

So all the better that it's a color match. And, you know, I don't have anything more to say other than I think that this was a good price. And if you own it, hit me up, and we can work out a deal because this thing is beautiful.

And, you know, I'd I'd love to see more fee cards, get more attention in the hobby. Maybe not too much so that I can still buy them. But, yeah, this this price seems low, and I'm excited to see what her other cards do for sure.

That was fun. You know, part of this, Caitlin, as we're doing this, right, it's you kinda it's like, you you you improv a little bit based on the timing, and you try to figure it out.

I know we're gonna do pickups next. Maybe we you and I can just share, like, for this segment, we'll just share maybe our favorite pickup recently.

So I know we have kind of a list, but maybe if you wanna just call out specifically one card that fires you up that you picked up recently.

Sure. How about the one sitting on my desk? Twenty twenty three Bowman U Chrome Paige Beckers SP image variation in a PSA 10 copy. I mean, I know you're not the biggest fan of image variations to each their own.

Not I am. So, here it is. I love this photo. Paige just taken what looks like a nice little routine free throw to, you know, make a basket, but super excited about this pickup.

I have the full set from 2023 that features Caitlin Clark, Paige Beckers, and Angel Reese all in a fun pose. So, yeah, this was a pickup I was super excited about and good timing with her winning the chip for sure.

Oh, I love it. Sweet card. And I shoulda just grabbed that out of my case, but this will be the card. I posted it. So I I I picked up the, Arikae select gold vinyl one of one. It's the court side to PSA ten.

This was up for auction. It's like call me guilty of, like, being in the moment, but I don't know. Anytime the tournament starts, I can't help but think about 2018 and what she did in the tournament for my Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Like, I went back and watched, like, the the final four and then the championship, like, the game winners, like, probably 20 times this tournament. But she I don't think there's a better score in the WNBA.

I mean, she's just a straight killer, and you pair her with Paige, like, there's gonna be a lot of buckets had. But, like, I I don't know. I talked about we've talked about Prism a lot, but we didn't mention anything about Select.

I love this this year, the debut of Select. It's not as watered down as some of the other sets, but, like, especially in the court side of the vets, you get the opportunity if you're trying to chase high end parallels.

You get you you can you can get the opportunity either collect a gold vinyl one zero one or a black finite one zero one, which is just so cool.

So this, like, card, the way it looks and her just setting up to put one in in in the hole, like, it screamed to me, and it was up for auction.

I was like, I missed it the first time it was up, and I was pissed about it. And I was like, I my my max bid is gonna be ridiculous on this. So I was happy to land this one. Such a cool card, Brett.

This is this is just awesome. Enrique is such a fun player. Hopefully, her cards will get more of a spotlight given the the number one overall pick going to Dallas. So Yeah. It'll be it'll definitely be fun to watch the wings.

You wanna you wanna hit maybe what we wanna do too is, like, we wanna make sure that it's not just us and but also maybe share some highlights of other collectors in the community who we appreciate and admire.

And I think you've got one, up this week on your list that you wanna call out.

So I'll let you do that. Yeah. For sure. I think it's really important to highlight these collectors that are, you know, mostly on the Instagram machine, but elsewhere.

Found a lot of good friends and and hobby friends that I do deals with or just chat with. And one of them that I wanted to spotlight this week is at not Jason Dardich aka at garbage underscore underscore p c.

That name is definitely not true. The Jason's personal collection is incredible, and he's a he's a high end women's basketball, collector, dealer, and and I would add in the word curator, to be honest.

He's got a really good eye for the best cards that are surfacing for women's basketball, both at the collegiate and the pro level.

He's got a really sick, collection and stash of logo women's, which are just a unique, space to dabble in in the WNBA. I think he PC's Ryan Howard, who is a star of the Atlanta dream.

And, yeah, he he does a lot for the community. I know he's a a dealer in person and online. I bought multiple cards from him of huge stars and then up and coming, under the radar prospects.

So, yeah, I I give him a follow, take a look at his pages. He's also on Twitter at Jason Dardick. He he posts a lot of his grading subs and what he has for sale on there.

But take a look at at what he's got. I think you'll be inspired to see a lot of huge, grails all in one place. Definitely. I I was not I know he has many handles, and I was not following the garbage PC, and it was private.

So I if, Jason, if you're out there, make sure you and you're listening to this, make sure you accept my invitation. I just wanna see your collection.

That's all I'm I'm looking to do. I love it. So but we're we're ending it here, but this is, like, all you all your ideas. So, like, what are we doing to end all of these? I think this is gonna be super fun.

Yeah. This is exciting. This is a little idea I came up with. We started with tip-off, which I think is just a nice a nice way to make a connection to basketball, and I think we're gonna end it with buzzer beaters.

You know, we just talked about Enrique and the card you picked up, so why not, use that as an excuse to talk about some buzzer beater questions.

So Brett and I have prepared three questions, that we have not shared with each other before the podcast, and we're gonna ask each other them and hopefully get just a quick, short answer, hard hitting questions.

Hopefully, that'll be fun way to end off the episodes. Who's on the hot seat first?

I think you should be. I think you should answer Okay. Questions first. Okay. So I've got one question about college basketball, one question about the WNBA, and one question about cards specifically. So I broke it into three.

So since we were coming off the the NCAA championship and NCAA tournament, my first question is around college basketball, and that is what would you give up in your collection to give Juju Watkins her ACL back? Oh, man.

This so she gets to she gets to start the season, and she's completely healthy? Completely healthy. Oh, man. What would I give up? I don't like to give up my cards if I don't have to, but this is a really good reason to give up a card.

I you know what I would do? I would I would definitely go, and I've got so many, like, Kohl's cards that are are, like, in my collection, but they're not in my collection.

And I don't wanna sell them because, like, it the value wouldn't be that much, and I'd rather just have them.

But what I would do probably is, like, those cards that aren't, like, in my direct, like, Colts PC, I'd probably try to bundle all those together so it's, like, equivalent to me selling, like, one big card, and then I would do that.

So I'm willing to sacrifice some ancillary pieces of my Colt's collection for Juju to be healthy.

Well, Juju thanks you. And if we ever get to that, we can we can cross that bridge when we get there. Should should I go should we do round back and forth? Okay. You go ahead.

If you okay. If you could collect one women's basketball product, can be WNBA, can be college, for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Oh my god. That is such a hard question. I just, like, kinda got shutters down my body.

I think I would have to go with twenty twenty prism, which seems like a cop out answer. And I would be really disappointed to not be able to collect this, the last class of Caitlin Clark and the upcoming class of Paige Beckers.

But I think, you know, I'm a simp for first year. That's a symptom of, listening to stacking slabs a lot is that you really you get buy into that mindset of first year prism. And, yeah, I would definitely go for the golds.

That would be my target. I think you and I are are on the same page there. Love it. Okay. I'm gonna hit you with my second question that I had prepared, which is if you could put a new WNBA franchise in any city, what would you pick?

Oh, man. This is a good one because there's expansion going on, and I don't think it's slowing down anytime soon. I would you know what?

This is gonna be, like, a little off the radar maybe, but I think there's just such an underrated basketball city, and I enjoy going to this city where I would travel to go see the fever play because I have such a good time in the city.

And I'm gonna go Portland.

Oh. Put a t I know you've got the storm up in the Pacific Northwest, but Blazers fans always stick with the Blazers. I think they would support the WNBA for sure. Yeah. And Portland is a a really good city for women's sports in general.

So I I think that'd be a great place for them to them to go. And I think I think Portland is on the list, Brett. Are they on the list? I think I just may have fact checked that.

It looks like they may be joining in 2026. So that's happen okay. Because we have this and maybe I heard that somewhere. So we've got this wave, of, new franchises. You've got, the Golden State, franchise.

You've got the Toronto franchise. And then I didn't know if the next wave was solidified or not. Yes. We have it here. It says it's going to be based in Portland, Oregon and scheduled to begin play in 2026.

It must have been, like, subliminally I I had heard that and just spoke it. So I'm glad you made me not, on our first one, sound like a complete, but but, yay, Portland. I'm glad you've got a squad. Love it.

Alright. So we're talking 2024 draft class. We're going back. And this isn't a Caitlin Clark question, though, but it's who will be the most collected player from the 2024 draft class in in five years from now not named Caitlin Clark?

Cameron Brink is the first name that came to mind. I think the LA market helps her a lot. I think she's, like, born to be a star. She's, you know, in the Stephen Curry tree family tree.

I think she she's made for the media, made for big spotlight lights on. I think I think I'd go with Cameron Brink. But there's some other ones that I think Angel Reese could have something to say about that.

That's what I'll say. Okay. I'm ready for your last zinger. Okay. So my last question is just about cards in general, but take it for WNBA. Would you rather have a color match or a jersey number match card?

Assume both cards are out of 99, and you like the look of both of them. Color match. I think as aesthetics to me are very, very important, and a a good color match is hard to deny. So I'm going color match.

I like that question, though. I completely agree. We're on the same page. Awesome. Final one. Actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna build it another qualifier because I just realized I know what your answer is gonna be.

So who will be the MVP in the WNBA this year, and it can't be someone who's previously won the MVP award, and it can't be fees.

You're gonna have to pick someone. Well Outside of fee and outside of the obvious Asia Wilson and anyone who who who who are you picking?

Oh god. That's really, like, a painful question to ask. Obviously, my answer initially was gonna be fee. I was like, this is the only question. I think I don't know my MVP awards too well.

John Quill has already won one, and I think she'd be somebody that could put together a season here coming off her finals MVP award. Has Stewie won MVP yet? Yeah. She's won I don't know how many she had.

That this is good good. This is a hard question. Yeah. Can I can I say Caitlin Clark? You can Are the people gonna are the people gonna come with pitchforks at me if I say Caitlin Clark might win MVP?

You know, we we intentionally did not make this all about Caitlin Clark. So if I think we can put a punctuation point at the end of this episode and say Caitlin Clark. I just I knew Stewie had won at least one.

She has won '2 '20 '18 '20 '20 '3. So definitely wanted to fact check there. But, Caitlin, this was a blast, man. I think this is gonna be a a fun series. I I there's no shortage of things to talk about.

That's for sure. 100%. This is gonna be fun, and I'm excited to have the stacking slabs listeners join us on our journey of WNBA card collecting. So thank you everybody for listening. Thank you, Brett, for for putting this on.