Welcome back, loyal listeners of the Stacking Slabs podcast, to episode seven of the WNBA card podcast.

My name is Katelyn. I go by at cold lunch cards on the Instagram machine and everywhere else on the Internet, and I'm joined by my awesome cohost, Brett McGrath at Stacking Slabs.

And we're excited to continue bringing you guys collector focused and community driven content around the w. Brett, how are you doing today? I cannot complain. I OD'd this weekend on the w and Monday.

I was just looking at everything that I watched this weekend, and I think I watched everything but missed the second half of the two late games. So, it's just the gift that keeps on giving. Excited that the w is back.

We've got a lot to talk about, what's happening on the court and with cards, so I'm ready to do this. This is awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to be back in the swing of things, be back in the regular season, and watch our teams.

For those of you that haven't yet, please purchase your WNBA League Pass so you can follow along with us, throughout the season. It's only, I think, $35. It's a good deal, and you can see a lot of fun teams.

And maybe Brett and I will announce which of our teams we're claiming as our league pass teams during today's show, and encourage everybody to to pick a team to root along with that might not be your primary team. Alright.

So let's kick it off today with our tip-off segment, which is something that we've been doing the past couple weeks where Brett and I talk about what the one thing that's top of mind for our personal collections as it relates to WNBA card collecting.

Brett, I wanna hear from you first.

What's the priority right now for you? So it it's complicated, Caitlin. I think I am a collector who like to collect in season, and the question that I keep asking myself is, what changes now that the league has tipped off?

How do I balance the line of enjoying what I currently own? How do I show restraint when I need to? How do I be patient? When do I just say screw it and buy a card of someone who I'm really enjoying watching?

How do I either get sucked in or prevent myself from getting sucked into the hype cycles that we inevitably face with these, rookies and younger players.

So I I I I felt like I've had I'm finding my footing over the last, you know, twelve to fifteen months, but even more so now because my excitement levels have gone up.

I collect because I am a fan of whatever I collect. And, naturally, collecting the WNBA. I'm watching everything, so it's just like pouring gasoline. Like, I'm sitting there watching the action.

I've got eBay up, and I'm not, like, trying to be transactional about it, but I'm I'm also just it's what I wanna do. I wanna look at those safe searches, especially after I get done with an awesome game.

So that's what's on kind of what I'm dealing with right now. I'll also, stay state that this is a fun ancillary part about collecting that I went through this week.

Like, I I made the big purchase of the Caitlin Clark Gold Concourse, out of 10 PSA 10, a while back because I wanted a Caitlin Clark card, and that card spoke to me.

And there was another auction of that card this past weekend, and I'm pull I'm gonna pull it up on the screen.

But it went, and it sold for a lot more than I bought the card for, which is, you know, the the trajectory of Kaylin Clark and her market right now.

But I think the fun part about it for me, and as I'm asking all myself these questions is, like, at no point based on that sale that happened, I think the auction went via eBay, Sunday night or Saturday, one of the two.

But at no point did I say, okay. It's time to sell mine. It's like it it's just like the I felt like I I got a car that I really love at a price that was expensive, but within my budget.

And I'm just like, I can't I I can't go out now and get, cards that I compare to this one because it's like the ship has sailed.

So I don't know. It's just for me, it's like that was a moment just in terms of my collecting that was really satisfying or it was like, okay. I bought this card for this price.

And, yeah, it's fun to watch an auction and the card go up in value, but I just because I'm a fan of Caitlin and because I'm, like, a long game player when it comes to collecting my favorite players, it just made me happy.

I didn't say, oh, I'm gonna sell this to go get something else because to me, like, this is, well, there's a few cards in my collection.

Like, this is my primary piece. So, yeah, that's that's a lot, but that's what's happening with me. That that is an amazing sale. And for anybody that isn't on the Patreon and couldn't see that, I think it was a PSA 10.

It went for just over $9,000 at $9,252 on eBay auction. That's an impressive strong sale. You love to see that climbing from the last sale. So, congrats to you on your investment. Mister Moneybags over here with his Caitlin Clark golds.

That's awesome. I'm I'm super excited to see that, and it's such a, a good indicator for the health of the WNBA card market for sure. What are you what's going on with you? What are you thinking about right now?

Guys, I'm having an an an identity crisis when it comes to cards lately. I feel like I've been asking myself so many questions of what kind of collector do I want to be versus the collector that I am.

And sometimes those two questions don't the the answers to those two questions don't align. And so I just keep trying to dig further and further, deeper and deeper into what makes my collecting my own.

And a question that I keep coming back to is, am I a player collector? Am I a team collector? Or is it possible to do both without getting overwhelmed or unfocused? Those are big questions.

Those are not simple questions that I can just wake up one morning and say, all right, I'm abandoning everything that I've done since I was, you know, 10 years old collecting, and now I'm going to change my philosophy.

And in the WNBA, like Brett was saying before, I feel like I consume so many games of so many different players and teams that it's hard to just stay in my lane.

The the easy solution here would be to only collect Minnesota links. They're my team. And to only collect the players that I absolutely adore on that team, so Nafissa Collier.

And I'm trying to keep myself in that box, but at the same time, that's no fun. I I enjoy watching a lot of players, and I enjoy watching players that are on teams that I maybe don't like too much, for a lot of different reasons.

And so I'm trying to discover what really what what my identity as a WNBA collector is.

And so I've been making a little chart with benefits and challenges of player collecting and team collecting and trying to see what fits my identity the most. And right now I've been drawing parallels from other sports that I collect.

So for those of you that don't know, I collect a lot of football cards. That's what I started with when I was a kid, and that's what got me back into the hobby in high school.

And, I'm a huge Green Bay Packer fan. I won't get too deep into this. I know this is the WNBA card podcast, but I've been drawing a lot of the lessons that I learned from collecting Packers cards to the links into the WNBA.

And so what my philosophy moving forward, what I'm trying to do is replicate the strategy that I've employed on the Packers side, which is I've got my favorite player on the Packers, and I've got my favorite player on the Links.

The Packers, it's Jair Alexander and the Links, it's Nafissa Collier.

Those two players, I'm allowed to spend a bag on, meaning I can get their best cards. For Jair, I've got his gold rookie pros. I'm in a PSA ten. For Nafissa, I'm working on that six pack that we talked about last week.

But then for those other players who I still love deeply, like Rashawn Gary for the Packers or like Caleb McBride for the Links, Those cards, I'm limiting myself a little bit more by putting them into a top loader binder, meaning they've gotta be raw, which inherently either means I'm buying shitty grades like a seven and cracking them out and not feeling bad about it, or I'm just buying lesser value cards.

And that keeps me a little bit more concentrated. And it also forces me to understand that when I buy those lower value cards, they're not going to be displayed. I've got a huge display behind me in my office.

Those binder cards go in a binder and they sit in there, and I'm not going to be able to look at them every single day when I walk into my office. So that's just kind of the strategy that I'm going to try out here.

I don't know how it's going to go. I'm going to I'm going to try my best. I'll keep everybody updated. But right now, I'm gonna focus on fee and the links, and anything that comes after that has gotta fit in my binder for now.

I'm sure that's gonna change, and maybe I'll cheat by buying a slab binder, but I'll let everybody know as it goes as we progress.

So I wanna, say a couple things on that. I think, number one, Caitlin, your consultant background oftentimes bleeds over into your card collecting.

You should see her, benefits and challenges chart. But, also, I think what's great, and, hopefully, you're all doing this out there, is just the introspection or introspective approach that we sometimes take about our collections.

I've always found, like, remaining curious and asking yourself those questions and making changes or staying put are is always the most satisfying way to collect.

So excited to see how that all takes shape for you. Yeah. Me too. It's it's a mystery. We'll see what it looks like. Alright.

Let's move into our second segment. I'm really excited about this. Obviously, it's league talk, folks. We're we're officially a week in to the WNBA regular season. Lots of things has happened. Brett and I watched a lot of basketball.

And, yeah, I my parents actually were visiting for my brother's college graduation, and they were like, what the hell? You're watching a lot of basketball. It's only week one. And I was like, folks, sit down, be entertained.

We're watching this. They had it on at the bar. I just I loved it. It was awesome. But, Brett, I wanna ask you, what's the number one thing that caught your attention as you were watching this weekend?

Was there a certain player that stuck out, a certain team, a performance, anything that really was top of mind for you? So so we'll take, listeners into my, Friday evening.

Shout out ion Friday nights. Yes. We I was like I looked at the games, and and this is this is a rare occasion where it was like you had the toggle because there were two games going on at the same time. Thanks, Kathy.

Before before the the late game where you had, Caitlyn's Lynx and the wings playing, and then you had the mystics and the dream playing. And, naturally, my my mind went or my priority went to the the links in the wings game.

Right? You're getting Nafissa Collier, who would is the best player out of all of those teams to watch. Links are the best team, but then you're also getting, Paige's debut, and that's must see television as well.

So I started there, and I realized quickly this wasn't going to be maybe the most fun game to watch. There was definitely, like, a discrepancy in terms of just where the teams were at, and that was very evident.

And so I found myself, I think, maybe at the as they were about to go to halftime or maybe it was shortly after halftime, switching over into the dream and the mystics game.

And what a game. I mean, that I was like once I started watching it, I was just sucked in.

It was, very entertaining, and I started to get very, very excited about the mystics. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna pull this up for the Patreon, viewers, but I have mystics winning a thriller graphic, with Britney Sykes and Sonia Citron.

And I just the Mystics were terrible last year. They were, like, the last team I wanted to watch, and now they're, like, the team I wanted to watch.

I love a young and feisty team that has a little bit of veteran presence, and so I got so excited about that. I think shout out Sydney Johnson, their new coach.

I think he deserves flowers to get this group together. And this is too when they played the Caitlin Clarkless fever, in the preseason. I was like, this is a whole new team. Like, they were competitive.

They were running the floor. I'm like, this is gonna be interesting. So, they got they took care of business, against the dream, and then they played Sunday against the sun and another awesome game to watch that they won.

So it was like the Mystics won their first two games granted probably not against the best talent.

They've got, I think the Valkyrie's next, so they could go three and o. And then they've got the aces later this week, and those games will already have been, go on.

The they're all already have happened by the time this goes live. But, between, you know, KiKi getting double doubles, Sonia Citron looking like, you know, Paige had a performance last night, certainly.

But, like, I I I left this week weekend being very excited about the Mystics and then being a fun team to watch.

And I also left this week being like, Paige has got some competition for this rookie of the year, and it's probably coming in Washington.

So, there's your Mystics chatter. They're gonna be a team I'm probably gonna talk about a lot. Shout out all you Mystics fans. If I were you right now after last season, I would be thrilled because they have a fun brand of basketball.

So Mystics definitely were front of my mind, after this first weekend. That's so awesome. They were fun to watch. And like you said, the turnaround is fantastic.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for them. They're just they're killing it. I love their rooks. I think KiKi falling out in her first game was iconic. That's very on brand for her.

Big fan, and and they still got Edwards on the bench, who's hurt right now. So it should only get more, ammunition further into the season. Well, for me, my number one team or thing that I wanna talk about is the Dallas Wings.

You mentioned Sonia Citron has given Paige Beckers, at least at the beginning of the season, a run for her money in terms of the betting odds for rookie of the year.

And the wings are an interesting team. They played my Minnesota lengths, and they had a couple more games, and they don't look terrible.

That's what I'll start with. I did not expect them to look good. I think I've been saying that, throughout the podcast. A common theme has been there's a reason why they were the number one pick.

They're not very good and not to expect too much until they get it together. And I'm starting to get a little I'm feeling a little bit better after a few games. Paige Beckers is looking incredibly efficient.

The stat lines she's putting up are very impressive, especially for a rookie. And I would just love to see a little bit less ISO ball from the Dallas wings, a little bit more team ball, a little bit more ethical basketball going on.

And I'm I'll be excited to watch the progression of the team. Like Brett said, they were playing the links Friday night, and the first half was really close.

I was getting a little nervous. I was like, what the hell are we doing, Links? Get it together. And then the third quarter happened, and then it was no longer a game.

But for those couple quarters, they held their own against a team that's really, really good. So I'm very hopeful for Paige Becker's future, for the future of the Dallas Wings.

I made a sale of a Paige Becker's card this weekend, which I think is a indicator of the market's appetite, for securing rookie cards before they continue to grow.

So, yeah, I'm excited about the wings, excited to see what they can do, but, I wouldn't have championship hopes if I were the Dallas fan.

Yeah. It it they have these moments. And watching them last night, it's like they have these moments where you're like, oh, wow.

And then then most of the moments are like What the hell? Yeah. What the like, the Enrique looks like she's having the most difficult challenge adjusting to this, and it's like she can't get the shot selection she wants to.

She's frustrated on the floor, and I hope it all balances out. But yeah. It I remember it's it's so weird.

I just remember, like, the fever going through this similar type of thing when you drop in a player like Paige and drop in a player like Caitlin. We're at the surrounding pieces that are trying to figure out how do we all play together.

Yeah. And and the thing about Enrique, I saw this Twitter user, who has, like, a a weekly ranking of, like, the top 50 players in the WNBA, and it's one of those tier lists.

And it's, like, superstar, a plus, whatever, like, terrible. And at the bottom, there's their own tier called Enrique.

And it just means that player threw up a shit ton of shots and was just going. And to me, it's like, we just need that Enrique back. Just Yeah. Just be confident. Just go up, and I I wouldn't doubt that it's gonna come together soon.

It's just a difficult process. And, you know, Paige just came off, what, maybe a month break filled with media. So, you know, I'll give them a break for now. We'll see what happens. Excited to see their progression for sure.

Alright. Do you wanna move on to our teams checking in on our own our fan favorites here? Yeah. I'll just I'll be really quick. So, the fever just I it was much anticipated. I didn't think I was gonna be able to watch it live.

I had a wedding. My kid got sick. Felt bad for my kid, but then I had to sit out of the wedding and got to watch the fever game. And it was exactly what I wanted to have happen, the brand of basketball, just the pace.

Obviously, Caitlin Clark had a triple double. Dwanna Bonner moved into the third all time scoring list, and then it was the largest season opening win in franchise history winning 93 to 58.

So everything basically on the floor that you could have imagined, and so I left myself with this question.

And as we're recording this, they play the dream tonight. But I my question is just, like, can they keep this pace? Like, this if they can keep this pace, they're going to be able to compete with anybody in the w.

So, very exciting, opener. We'll see, what's next for the fever. How are you feeling about your links? My links play a different brand of basketball than your fever. That's just fair. Much so. It's a little different pace.

I'll start by saying we missed Kayla McBride and Alana Smith in our opener, and then, K Mac is still out due to personal issues. Not sure what the deal is there, but those are two key starters that didn't play in the opener.

And then, obviously, like I said, K Mac missed the second game. So we still won both of them, which is a good sign, but I'm anxious for them to return to the court at their full capabilities.

But that being said, I am going to go out and say, Nafissa Collier is the best player in the world right now. It is very clear to me that she is leaving off or, you know, starting off where she left off at unrivaled.

And last year, pure dominance on the court put up 34 points, which was the most in a season opener until Kelsey Plum broke that the next day or the next game.

So really impressive from Fi. She plays fundamental sound, beautiful, boring basketball. It's gorgeous. I really enjoy watching it. And, this weekend, there were some really fun news out of the WNBA as it pertains to the links.

So there's three key points. The first is, Nafissa Collier signed to the Jordan brand. I was super excited to see that. I am anticipating that she's going to be, I don't know, the poster woman for the air series of the Jordan shoes.

She's been wearing those, the past year or so and just excited to see her get her flowers, hopefully get her bag there, and she fits into the Jordan mentality just like how Maya Moore did.

So really excited. I'm really hoping Jordan remakes the big wings poster that they did with Maya Moore and Jordan so I can cop one of those.

The second thing is that the WNBA GM survey came out, just before the season started where they surveyed general managers on what they thought would happen this season.

The Lynx were the favorite from GMs to win the championship, and Nafissa Collier was the favorite to win MVP.

I think the campaign is well underway for the Lynx and fee to do that, and I'm really just really proud of my team for, making sure that the league is on notice, and to not keep putting us under the radar.

And then the third piece that I'm really excited that I saw was that Nafissa Collier and Bon Iver announced a partnership, a first of a a kind partnership.

If you guys don't know, Bon Iver is a band. The lead person is Justin Vernon. He's from Western Wisconsin, and he's been a Lynx fan for a long time. He sits courtside. I feel like every game that I go to, he's there supporting them.

And he supported them both, you know, by attendance, but also financially in the past. And him and Fi are working together on a partnership that addresses gender inequities through sports and music connections.

I'm just super excited to see my goat innovating on and off the court. When I think about collecting, I would prefer for the person that I collect to be somebody that I admire and look up to.

And Fia is just doing that. Not only did she found her own league unrivaled and win it, but she also is now doing innovative things for the league and for my community.

They announced which, which partners and vendors and such are gonna get grants through this partnership, and almost half of them are in Saint Paul.

So this is grassroots change about a cause that I'm very passionate about about something that obviously both Fi and Justin are passionate about.

And I'm just excited to see the WNBA, getting on board with it. I saw this news hit and was super excited. I'm a huge Bon Iver fan.

Have seen them play debut albums live. I've seen them in Red Rocks. I've got hanging up in my our family room. I've got an original print from they made a hundred of them. It's framed, from the Boney Bear self titled album.

So to see, like, the music my passion with music and a band that I truly love, connect with a league in a you know, in making making something like this, happen is is just totally cool. So glad you wanted to talk about this.

I think this is awesome. Yeah. And I think this is just a indication of what's to come, hopefully, with the rest of the league. Like I said, this is first of a kind partnership and can't wait to see the results in my community.

For anybody that doesn't know, I live in Saint Paul. So these these organizations that they're funding are directly impacting my neighbors and my community. So just so proud of my team and my my captain, Nafissa Collier here.

Alright. Go ahead, Brett. Go ahead. No. I, I was just curious maybe tying all of this conversation into cards Yeah. I put this on the the agenda, so I was curious on your thoughts about this.

But after, like, watching all these games and binging in just the short time, did you have a did you have a feeling of, like, man, there's some there's a player that's playing that I don't have their cards, but I'm sitting here, like, loving watching the player and being like, why don't I have any of their cards?

Did did you get hit with that at all?

Oh, I got hit like a like a like with like a bus, watching AJ Wilson. And the fact that I do not have an AJ Wilson card, I don't think folks, I don't think I have ever, which, you know, tomato tomato me right now, folks.

I'm host of the WNBA card podcast, and I don't think I have an AJ Wilson card ever in my collection.

That is a travesty. I need to change that, and I'm just excited to dive in today to our player spotlight, which is AJ Wilson, which I thought was a perfect transition here.

But I just I need a card. I need to figure out what it is, and then I need somebody to let go of theirs. I feel like they're being hoarded right now, which to each their own.

That's awesome. But I'm I'm looking. I'm hunting for an AJ Wilson card for sure. I I I had one really quick. I thought my we've been talk we talked about her last week, but I watched the and and Caitlin, of all apologies.

Oh, gosh. No salt in the wounds here, but I I watched the aces in Liberty and saw the ring ceremony. And Stewie walking out with her kids, like, I just it was like, made me feel something.

I've talked about her as a parent, and maybe it's me as a parent. And as we get older, it's like you you begin to connect with these unreal athletes through things that you can relate with, like being a parent.

But that that's like a glaring omission in my personal collection. It's like, I have never owned a Stewie card, and I'm like, why don't I have a Stewie card?

And I think it's just kinda like what you said with Asia. It's just like the the right card hasn't popped up. And I do know there is some Stewie hoarders out there, so that's probably a contributor to that.

But that's kinda my the feeling I was left with on the card front after this weekend. Two legends that we picked out, not rooks. I'm proud of us. Yes. Should should we get in?

We're we're switching it up this week. Should we get into the next seg? Yeah. Go for it, Brett. Let it lead us through. Okay. So we usually talk about products during this, but I I felt like a good time to maybe spotlight a player.

And AJ Wilson's gonna be a main character in the show because it's hard for us to her not to be talked about because she is the best player, and she's done so much.

And so I felt like, you know, there are a lot of new collectors coming in and trying to navigate and understand how to collect, what to collect, who to collect.

I've been going through that, and I figured it might be interesting to talk about it, a player specifically, and talk about some of her cards.

And I think AJ Wilson, not only the the best player in the league right now, also has a wide range of cards that you can collect.

So we've talked about a few of them here and there, but I just wanna get into maybe some of her cards and catalog. And first, maybe from the perspective of biggest sales.

So the biggest sale of all time for an AJ Wilson card is the 2018 Rittenhouse WNBA, Inscription Auto PSA 10, and she put at the bottom of the card I have this up for Patreon, watchers, LV aces, with an exclamation point.

That card sold 12/04/2024, so not too long ago for $5,400. I wanna stop there. $5,400 is the highest single sale for an AJA Wilson card ever.

Now if you collect anything else, any other category, baseball, basketball, football, like, I'm not, like, pooh poohing $5,400. That's a lot of money. But the highest? Like, this is the best player.

And I think I just wanted to use that to illustrate the the opportunity to literally jump right into the best player in the league's market and be able to buy some of her best cards, out of the gates and not feel like you have to sell off your entire collection.

That's the primary point I wanna make in this player spotlight. You had her origins logo woman one of one sale for $3,500 in on October 24.

You had her select WNBA draft, Black Finite one of one PSA 10, sold for 2,500 in March. And then one of my personal favorites is the 2019 DONRIS optic gold out of 10 PSA 10, sold last year for $1,600.

And I'm sitting here seeing that sale. I was like, Robbery. What what was I doing here? Like, I I think I actually it it went up for auction on eBay, and I think I, like, I I watched it and was, like, going to bed.

And then, of course, there were other competing cards, and I'm an idiot and wish I would have gotten that card, now. But, those are, like, those are just some of the the the key or the biggest sales of all time.

Now when we're talking about key cards, I think for me and if I were just exclusively collecting AJ Wilson, what I would go after is I would I would definitely investigate and dig into the the Rittenhouse rookie year stuff.

Mentioned the Donner stuff, first year, first product, for in the Panini era. You've got the lasers, which are cool, paper based, and you've got the gold, the hollows, chromium.

You've got the twenty twenty prism. You've got 24 Select, which is the debut Select product. But those that those there's a lot there, but then there's not a lot.

Like, there's she doesn't have a ton of cards. And I just think it's very, very interesting right now because you've got the best player who has cards, but not as many cards as whatever else you collect in that category.

It's like a sliver, and the prices of these cards aren't crazy. I mean, thousands is a lot. I'm not gonna deny that.

But when you start to cross compare with other categories, almost any other category, you can't go out and buy the same profile of card of that league's best player for what these are going for now. So I'll pause there.

That's a lot. I know there's some others things within on the agent Wilson front that we wanna get into. But, Caitlin, I wanna give you some time to, react on anything that we that was brought up in the so far with our party.

So many so many things here. The first thing that I wanna say is that Rittenhouse auto, that rookie is on card. And, that just, I think, adds a lot of value, to each their own.

If you like sticker auto, autos, more power to you. I just think the fact that she held that card and it still got a 10 is and it only went for 5,400, which would be more than I've ever spent on a card, to be clear.

This is, like, a lot of money. I still think that's a steal. And, like, there just can't be too many of these. I love the the full auto.

She's done the whole autograph thing where it's shortened and changed, throughout the year. So this is the original auto, plus it has that inscription. I just I just don't think you can go wrong with this card when she's won three MVPs.

She's well on her way to four. She is the poster woman for an entire franchise, and not just an entire franchise for the past, eight years or so. But this she started the Aces.

Like, this was a team that didn't exist until Aja Wilson was was there. So I just think that the the importance and the impact that AJ Wilson has on cards and on culture, is really an indicator that these prices need to catch up.

I think there's really good value here, and, I'm disappointed I didn't catch on sooner. That's the main thing.

Let's let's maybe for anyone who's coming in and maybe let's say this is their first, experience watching the w this season, maybe they're just getting going, collecting cards, finding footing, trying to understand players.

How do you frame up, like, cultural impact of a player like AJ Wilson? And, like, obviously, like, we're sitting up here right now being like, there's a lot of value.

There's she's the best. We're, like, saying but, like, how do you frame it up from, like, a cultural impact? Obviously, if you're watching the w this this weekend, you probably saw her shoe commercial a million times.

I know I did. And it never got old, which is a good ad. But, maybe how how do you frame it up? It's so tough to put it into short sentences and little podcast clips here, but AJ Wilson's impact goes beyond basketball.

When we talk about representation in the WNBA, you know, AJ Wilson went to South Carolina, made the Gamecocks with Dawn Staley what it is today, which is a powerhouse in college basketball.

Not only that, like I said, she started or established the Las Vegas Aces as a title contender every single year since the inception of their franchise.

Add on now the shoe deal, which is a huge of course, she has a shoe deal. It's a it's a huge deal.

I I I wish I had the statistic in front of me, but I think she's like, you could count on one hand how many black, WNBA players have had a shoe deal. And there has never been one as big and as advertised as AJ Wilson's.

Like Brett said, the commercials that are going out right now are incredible. You can see it's like she's got her teacher from back in the day in the commercial. Malia Obama directed one of the commercials.

This is like black culture being put in the spotlight for the WNBA and for basketball fans everywhere, and Aja is owning it and emphasizing it and giving it a platform, and the WNBA is allowing her to.

I think that her impact beyond the court is something that we've never seen before, and something that I'm really excited to watch grow as she continues to get these kinds of deals and endorsements and such.

And and and with the a ones, I mean, I just think it's insane that, you know, when you look back, you're like, damn.

Not many WNBA players have had shoe deals. I think, you know, lately, I've been seeing a lot of NBA players talk about Sabrinas and how great they are performance wise.

And then you've got Aja Wilson, and her a ones were debuted by Bam on the Heat, and it just made waves in media.

Not only because the shoe is good looking, but because it's translating beyond the women's game, and it's going into the men's game as well. And when I look back I just wanna wanna finish with this.

When I look back on when I was a kid, which was not long ago, there were no shoes that you could buy that was a WNBA player's shoes. If you could, you know, they were hard to find and they were old, and just not that great.

Now these are front of the store at Dick's Sporting Goods and front of the magazine, everything. And I'm just so proud of Asia and what she's done for the game, and I think that her cards are gonna start to see that impact.

That was beautiful. Well done. I'll just maybe just one exclamation point to put on the end of this segment is that I like the this the more I've grown as a basketball fan, the more I dig into the analytics stats performance.

And the most important stat to me is player efficiency. And just so everyone knows and just framing it up, AJ Wilson, currently playing, is the second most efficient player in WNBA history behind Cynthia Cooper.

So and she's I mean, how many more years does she have left in the tank? So how many more championships?

How many more MVPs? Like, we we're watching it's it's just the hard part about living legends. Mhmm. We're watching a living legend play. And every time you turn on the TV and the aces are playing, you are watching a living legend.

And it's really hard in the moment to recognize that. And I just want I think we all need to, like, take a step back and just be like, alright. Let's enjoy this, and let's enjoy this ride.

And, maybe it means for you buying your shoes, or maybe it means buying a card. But I just think when there's not many players like her, and we just need to take a step back and enjoy it for every moment we can.

Yeah. She's one of one. That is for sure. I'm just so excited to see the cards, see the products, see the commercials.

It's not often that that I don't get sick of a commercial like that, so super excited. Alright. I've already transitioned the screen. May, market watch time? Let's do it. This is a fun card. Okay. So I am not a case hit guy.

I've never been a case hit guy. But the more I'm digging into the case hit of it all in the w, the more interested I am. So the card I have up is the 2021 Sabrina Color Blast PSA 10. This is the first w color blast.

This card sold at auction on eBay the past week for $1,245. This is a pop five PSA 10. There's only 20 total graded across PSA and BGS. So I basically did the cross category comparison and just found a player, and I was like, okay.

Let me look at Tom Brady. And Tom Brady's twenty twenty color blast has a total pop of 54 across PSA and BGS. So, you know, it's it's less than half have been graded on the w side, which is interesting to me.

And I don't know. It makes rarity and scarcity is a big big, compelling factor for me purchasing cards. And while I in other sports, I would maybe not have looked at something like a color blast because there are less.

It makes me more interested. So I thought that would be an interesting topic, and maybe we do a whole case hit segment in the future. But, yeah, I wanted to call that out. That's that's super neat.

I think the rarity of these is also interesting because, you know, a lot of my friends that are WNBA collectors rip a lot of packs. I'm not that kind of person, but there are a lot of WNBA players that enjoy ripping boxes and packs.

And they've gone through boxes and, like, dozens, and they don't pull the case hits and the color blasts and such. So these are just super hard to come by, and finding them in good grades is insane. I had a I think it was 2021.

I'm not sure. A Sue Bird color blast, and I was like, oh, this doesn't look bad. I'm gonna send it into grading. It was, like, one time that I graded something, and it got a seven. And it was still, like, a pop five in every grade.

And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna keep it in the seven and sell it as is. But it was so interesting to me because when you really dive into the pop reports on these, it's not like case hits in the NBA and the NFL.

This is a different game of case hittory. No no doubt about it. Moving over, you mentioned ripping packs.

And I I we I'm not a sealed wax guy or ripping wax. I don't rip many packs, Caitlin. I don't think you do either. Yeah. But I thought this was interesting. The debut Prism product 2020, WNBA Prism sold for $482, this past week.

And it was interesting because the last sale of a box was $600 on May 6. And I don't like seeing this type of stuff because I see this, and I have so much, energy and belief around a debut product like Prism.

It's like, well, my mind starts to go, well, what does the case cost? What does that look like? And it's like, stop going that way. Stop going that way.

You don't need to buy something like that. But, yeah, I just to me, this is always going to be an iconic set. And anytime, like, the price goes down a little bit on a hobby box, it always makes me think, well, maybe it's time to do it.

And I the the other, shoulder says, don't do it, you idiot. But I wanna call the sale out. Yeah. That's interesting. And I think something to be said here is the idea of holding wax as opposed to buying it to rip it open.

I think as WNBA continues to grow and grow, you look back on the sets like 1999 Ultra or even Rittenhouse, those boxes are impossible to come by. So at some point, these are gonna become extinct.

And if you can hold on to them for a long time and, you know, you never know what's really in there. But if you can hold on to them, I think this is something that would be interesting to see the market reaction to as we progress.

Last one really quick. An AJ Wilson, twenty three, prism gold, PSA nine, sold for $338, this past week. And this is this is this is just the exam this is the social proof for what we just talked about.

You have there's only so many Wilson gold prisms. Mhmm. And if you want one, like, you could have had this one for less than $400, which that the best play that does not happen in any other sport.

So that's just something I wanted to call out. This is a a pretty, interesting sale, and I could go down a whole rabbit hole on the dynamic here, which we kind of did a little bit before.

But I thought, man, whoever got this card, if you're holding it for the long haul, like, my feeling is, like, you probably bought it at a really good time.

Right. Exactly. It's not too late, I think, is the message of AJ Wilson cards for sure right now. So that is it for the, for the market watch.

What are we talking about next, Caitlin? Next up is pickups of the week. This is a fun segment. Usually, Brett, I'll start by saying, do you have anything you'd like to share with the audience, or are we going two straight weeks here?

It's two straight, and I'm scared that this might be a streak. But, I'm I'm trying. It's just nothing's converting.

Yeah. Exactly. I didn't have any card pickups, folks, but I do have a pickup I wanna share, which is timely for this episode. I got a pair of the a ones in the pearl colorway. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods this weekend.

I forced my parents who were visiting to come with me, and there were at least two other women also trying on a ones, which I've never seen that before with shoes in general, and it just felt like a moment for me.

But, yeah, I was able to try them on. They had my size, and I did. I'm showing the Patreon. You can see some some wear on the bottom already.

Brought these to the park and hooped on some of the neighbor kids. Super cool. And, you know, on the bottom, I just thought it was super cool. It says in the swoosh on the bottom of the sole.

As a matter of fact, the best is yet to come. And that is the story of AJ Wilson cards. That's the story of AJ Wilson's career. That's the story for the a ones. Just super stoked to add these.

I'm not much of a shoe person. I think this is the first pair of shoes I've bought in, like, two years, but I had to have them. So I got them. The main the main character continues to, find it find her way in our episodes.

Those are sweet shoes. Glad one of us picked them up very cool. For sure. You might have to try them out. Alright. Should we move on to what probably my favorite segment, which is the collector spotlight segment.

Yeah. So this week do that. This week, I'm super excited to highlight a new user at love the dubs. Josh is from Chicago, and he's been going crazy with some player group pictures of legends.

He's got incredible taste with some iconic sets with Rittenhouse. Brett is showing a pair of Maya Moore Rittenhouse autos, along with some other super sweet prism cards and Rittenhouse cards of other legends.

Every single caption, from what I've seen, also details the accolades and awards of the players, emphasizing Josh's appreciation for greatness.

He PCs the Ogumuke sisters, which is Nneka and Chine, and then Candace Parker. And I've just been loving seeing the influx of group pictures of awesome iconic cards from Josh.

Everybody give him a follow. I don't I think he's a very underrated Instagram account. And if you follow, you're gonna learn a lot about not only the players, but the cards that Josh collects.

Yeah. This is a this is about as good of a curated page as I could ask for, especially with the copy and the photos and the pairings and everything else.

I was watching the game last night, and I was like, man, that has got a lot of rebounds. And, like, I looked Yeah.

She 20 casual twenty three and eighteen. So she she's still doing it Yeah. Big time. But, yeah, this this page rules. It's so fun to see a collector so focused on this stuff. Yeah. Awesome to see somebody collecting madame president.

She's the president of the WMPA. So super cool. Love your collection. Keep them coming. I have a feeling there's more where those posts came from, and I'm excited to follow along on your journey, Josh.

So thanks for sharing those with our community. I we're doing the last we I know we've got maybe a few minutes here, before we close this out, but we're doing the doing it a little different.

Buzzer Beaters is different. Why don't you tell the audience what's coming? Yeah. We, solicited questions from you guys on our at WNBA card pod Instagram story soliciting questions, and we got quite a few responses.

I don't think we'll be able to cover all of the questions that you guys posed, but we're gonna try to tackle a few of our favorites, that came in.

So, right, which one do you have one that you wanna start with? Do you want me to pick one out? How do you wanna go about that? You just run it. Okay. I'll do it. So we've got at okay.

I I'm gonna say the ats, the the handles of these people, but, you know, we'll keep it anonymous in the future if you guys want. But at mostly nineties basketball cards asks, what's your favorite pre Panini WNBA card product?

I would say I do not own any pre Panini W cards, but the most interested I am is in the ultra stuff. I'm like that's where my mind's at. It's where I'm navigating.

I think it just reminds me of collecting other sports in that era. It's, they're really hard. They're challenging. And the more I go down that rabbit hole, the more I find collectors who collect this stuff and I ask questions.

So I would say that. What about you, Caitlin? Well, we have the same answer, and I have a card that I've been searching for. There's it's a, Lindsay Whalen platinum medallion, from Altra, and that is a ghost.

I saw one on eBay at one point, and then it disappeared. So definitely that product is something that I'm I'm looking to learn more about and looking to get my hands on if I can find them.

Alright. Let's move on to our next question. Former collector spotlight asked a question, which is at kevin. m. cormee.

Knowing Brett is not the biggest insert fan, but your favorite design of prism fireworks. I'll let you go because I I don't I'm not I'm not looking at prison fireworks, so I don't really have an opinion. You you shoot. First year.

I'll go 2020. I think that they the shine is just beautiful on them. I think those inserts are gonna continue climbing in value just because as the trues continue to go up, it's gonna be an affordable entry point for collectors.

Alright. Next question. S holly two thousand and three. Would you rather game used memorabilia or all on card autos? Man, that's tough. Both? Why can't we have both?

Yeah. Oh, boy. This is tough. I would say this is man, this is tough. So, basically, if if one's game used, then it's a sticker auto. And then if it's an on card, then it's a, then it's a nonaffiliated patch or whatever.

Man, this is tough. I would probably and, man, this is I I just I don't like sticker autos so much that I would probably say on card, and I know, like, the game worn is so important, but just that's kinda where my head's at.

There's no good answer to this because I want both, but I I just I don't aesthetically, the sticker auto usually causes me to move in the other direction.

And, you know, at least with the patches, like, unless you, like, are looking at the back of the card, you don't really recognize it.

So my answer is all from an aesthetics perspective. Got you. And for anybody that's not watching on the Patreon, the look of pain on Brett's face as he's answering that question is indicative how difficult this question is.

I will say this. I'd rather have game use memorabilia just for logo woman's. I think that that would just absolutely implode the market, and I would be very, very swayed to pick up a few of them.

So I'll go. That's probably Caitlin, that's probably the best better answer because if there were game worn, then there likely would be more collectors coming in to collect the stuff.

So forget everything I said. Let's just go with Caitlin's answer. Okay. We're gonna round it off here with our last question that we're gonna get to from at m j s underscore sports cards, my friend Mark.

He asked, w player each of your playing styles most resembles? Oh, man. This is Let's hear it, Brett. Alright. So we've we've talked about, we've talked about the fact that we both played some ball in our, in our self.

Maybe some JV ball. This is totally this just came to me as this question, and I didn't really advance read these. I'd I'd say Stephanie Dolson.

Okay. Big mama? Big mama. Hey. Hey. I on my JV team, we were 21 and o. I was, like, the sixth man. They just threw me in. We were up. I just hang out at the three point line and just slang it. That's that's that's Stephanie Dolson.

I love that. Okay. I did preread these questions because somebody had to so that we could pose them to each other. And I was I thought about it for a long time, and it's really difficult because I was really bad, guys.

Like, I wasn't that good. So none of these players really stick for me. But I came up with two comps, which would be Bridget Carlson Mhmm.

Or Bridget Carlton. Sorry. BC, minus the defense. I couldn't play defense for shit. I was the player that they would have to sub out when we went on defense and then bring back in on offense.

And then if I were to be blessed by the gene gods and have incredible potential fulfilled, my peak form as a player would be Alicia Gray of the dream. Just like sharpshooter, super fun to watch, but kinda underrated.

So that's my pick for myself. Hey. Thank you everyone for submitting those questions. This is a lot of fun, and let's do this again next week. So, we'll put up the thing on WNBA card pod Instagram and, put in the mailbag Caesar funds.

And thank you so much for participating. Absolutely. Thank you everybody for listening. This is an awesome podcast. Episode number seven is in the books. Can't wait to to talk to you guys soon.