Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / Chris Sewall & Mike Talk 2026 Hobby Predictions!

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Chris Sewall & Mike Talk 2026 Hobby Predictions! · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:00
All right, it is Mike and I'm joined by Chris.
0:03
Chris, how are you today? Great man, how are you?
0:06
Good. Happy New Year.
0:08
Happy New Year to you as well. Did you take some time off over
0:11
the holidays? I did for the most part.
0:13
I basically took two weeks off. Yeah, didn't do, didn't do much.
0:16
Well, I mean when I take time off I'm still like sorting cards
0:19
8 hours a day, but otherwise I took some time.
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Off 8 hours a day of sorting cards still seems like a
0:27
vacation to. Me, it is.
0:28
It is, it is. Yeah.
0:29
I don't, when I say take time off, it means I like, I don't do
0:32
any of the things I don't particularly like to do.
0:34
Like I shut down my eBay store so I don't have to ship
0:36
anything. I, you know, I don't take in
0:39
collections where I have to price everything.
0:40
I say wait, wait till January on that because I don't enjoy
0:43
pricing stuff. So.
0:44
But I still sort cards and, you know, do the fun stuff.
0:47
Yeah, yeah. Do you ever start sorting cards?
0:52
And let's just first of all, this is my This Week in Sports
0:56
Cards video. Yeah, let's.
0:58
Let's intro the video a little bit.
0:59
Here, I'm getting a little off track here and normally on this
1:02
week in sports cards we want to talk about some big things that
1:05
happened the past week. We didn't have an episode last
1:07
week because there was nothing that had happened the week
1:09
before and then this week again, pretty much nothing happened.
1:12
So we thought we would talk about 2025 highlights, low
1:16
lights and 2026 predictions. But I also I'm interested just
1:21
because you brought up sorting, do you ever, as you're going
1:24
through cards find like a big card that you didn't realize was
1:27
there or forgot you had? Yes, it's not, it's not very
1:31
calm. It's much less common than you
1:33
might think. But it's funny you said that.
1:35
I actually can't share what it is though.
1:37
I I just did a huge 1:00 this morning.
1:41
Completely shocking, but I'll do a video on it, so stay tuned.
1:44
I'm sorry, I can't share it because yeah, it's, it's
1:48
somebody else's involved. Yeah, you're, that's fine.
1:52
I understand. Yeah.
1:53
Your video this week was it Saturday yesterday where you
1:57
talked about buying cards and you had it was a warning video
2:02
for people who are buying into brakes and ripping wax was a
2:06
must watch for anybody out there.
2:09
Yeah, it did. It did did much better than my
2:12
recent videos. But that story, so that story, I
2:17
mean, since I buy collections all the time and a lot of local
2:19
people, I'm a lot of people, I'm a repeat buyer for a lot of
2:22
people. I see that all the time.
2:26
This this person sat down with me and actually told me all the
2:29
details. So that was nice to be able to
2:31
share the details. But I see exactly that sort of
2:33
situation constantly. Very, very common.
2:36
I think it's much more common than people realize.
2:39
Yeah, I have a feature to my newsletter going out Monday
2:42
morning, tomorrow morning, just because it's the same thing I've
2:47
been talking about for years. You just took a very strong
2:50
stance on it, which I loved. But yeah, must watch.
2:55
And people on Twitter are talking about.
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I know you don't do Twitter. I've seen people talking about
2:59
it quite a bit so. Yeah, I should get on.
3:02
I should get on Twitter. Is it still called Twitter?
3:05
Some people call it X, but I've heard even employees there call
3:09
it Twitter, yeah. Yeah, never, never been on
3:12
Twitter. I used to work with a young
3:14
woman named Chrissy. And somebody told her, you know,
3:17
you'd be taken more seriously if you went by your full name,
3:20
Christina. And so she started telling
3:22
people, I want to be called Christina instead of Chrissy.
3:25
And I remember everybody was like, that's that's just not
3:28
going to happen once we've gotten used to your name.
3:31
And that's the same thing with Twitter.
3:33
Yeah, yeah. I have a no, Yeah, that's, I
3:36
mean, I have a friend from high school.
3:37
Her name's Jesse. She goes by Jessica, and she's
3:40
gone by Jessica for 25 years. I I still call her.
3:43
I'm like the only person on the plane.
3:45
I've called her Jessie, but there's no chance I could ever
3:48
call her Jessica. It's just not.
3:49
It's just not possible. I would never.
3:51
I could never make that switch. Yeah.
3:53
Same thing with Twitter. Yeah, OK.
3:55
Gotcha. So 2025 was a pretty wild year.
4:00
I think we can agree on that right in the hobby.
4:02
Nothing. Nothing really happened, no
4:05
drama, chill all the time. Yeah.
4:08
And I did in my video today, Sunday clearing the bases video,
4:11
I did make the distinction of the hobby versus the industry.
4:14
And the hobby for me doesn't really change other than prices
4:18
going up and down. But the industry as a whole
4:22
changed pretty dramatically. You know you've got PSA that has
4:26
a stranglehold on grading, then PSAI.
4:31
Don't know if you heard nobody's really talking about this, but
4:33
now PSASGC and Beckett are under the same umbrella.
4:37
Did you hear about this? No.
4:39
I don't even no. OK, that's news to me.
4:43
And that obviously was massive, massive news.
4:50
What do you make of where the industry is right now as as we
4:54
leave 2025 and enter 2026? So I want to go, go back a SEC.
4:59
I loved the way you just you, you just said the distinction
5:02
between the industry and the hobby or whatever your, your
5:04
wording was. I think that's way under
5:07
underrated as a thing like the there's all these like industry
5:11
stories going crazy all the time.
5:14
They don't really impact me at all or, or most people.
5:18
I mean a little, a little bit like, but for the most part I
5:23
can, I can still collect however I want.
5:25
I mean, I'm, I buy if if your sole like thing you do is buying
5:29
packs then or something like that, then yeah, the then the
5:32
industry has more of an impact on you.
5:35
Or if the only thing you do is grade, then then yeah, it has
5:39
more of an impact. But like grading or buying packs
5:42
is like such a small percentage of the way I hobby or what I do.
5:45
So that's such a small impact. Most of what I do is has nothing
5:48
to do with the how the industry is acting.
5:50
So I, I loved that distinction and I think a lot of people
5:52
don't realize that like these companies can all buy each other
5:56
and change everything and you can still go to a card show and
5:58
collect what you want and it doesn't really change anything
6:01
for in in many cases. So I, I love that, love that
6:04
distinction. Thank you.
6:05
But going back to what your original question, like where is
6:08
where we at? I mean, I think that, you know,
6:11
a lot of the things that happened in the last year
6:12
weren't great. I wouldn't, I wouldn't choose
6:14
them. I would prefer something else
6:16
happened, But I also don't think the sky is falling.
6:20
What about? What about you?
6:22
Yeah, that's kind of where I am too.
6:26
I think that TCG Pokémon for the most part, is much bigger than
6:32
people realize, people in the sports card world realize, and
6:34
that is causing grading numbers to explode.
6:37
And a lot of people in the sports card world are saying,
6:39
wow, PSA is grading so many sports cards.
6:42
And they are, but I don't remember the percentage.
6:46
It's like 60% of the cars that they grade are Pokémon TCG and
6:52
that's and it's doubled the number of TCG cards.
6:56
I showed it on my video today. Doubled year over year from 24
7:00
into 25. OK.
7:02
But the number of TCG but not sports cards.
7:05
Correct. Yeah.
7:07
And then when? Did sports cards go up by?
7:09
Did it go up by like? I think, I think it went down.
7:13
I know baseball and basketball went down.
7:16
Football went up nominally 10 or 12%.
7:21
So wait, football? So sports cards or fewer sports
7:24
cards greater than 2025 than 2024?
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I'd have to. I'd have to confirm that, but.
7:31
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna hold you to that.
7:33
No, it might be. It might be that would that
7:35
would be fascinating. And I actually make one of my
7:37
predictions. Not very exciting.
7:40
Yeah. So let's get to your predictions
7:42
because I'm really interested in this.
7:45
I I'm actually going to kick it off a little bit because Jeff
7:47
Wilson, I still haven't watched this video, but Greg was telling
7:50
me that Jeff Wilson predicted that fanatics would buy CGC in
7:56
2026. Was that a like a bold
8:00
prediction or is that like he has some insight?
8:02
Well, he claims it's a bold prediction, but the argument I
8:05
made on the podcast is that Jeff probably isn't going to make
8:10
that bold prediction unless he has some sort of insight.
8:15
Oh no, I'm sorry, I made the opposite prediction.
8:17
I was going to say the opposite would be true.
8:19
Yeah. So he wouldn't have any insight
8:20
in that. He would have insight in the PSA
8:22
or sorry, the collectors buying Beckett, cause what he's
8:25
predicting is that collectors will significantly improve
8:28
Beckett. And I said, well, I don't think
8:31
he would be saying that without some sort of behind the scenes
8:34
insight from his contacts at collectors.
8:38
But yeah, you're right, the CGC, one nobody had at Fanatics, is
8:42
going to be giving him insider information when Fanatics is a
8:45
public company. OK, I was thinking more in line.
8:49
Like I by the way, I like that as a bold, as a bold prediction,
8:51
like that could happen, but I, I wouldn't necessarily, you know,
8:55
I wouldn't bet on it to happen, but I like it as a bold
8:57
prediction. But I would, I was thinking more
8:59
in terms like if he did have some insight, he he probably
9:02
wouldn't be allowed to share it and so he wouldn't make that
9:05
prediction. I don't know if that's true or
9:06
not. Yeah.
9:07
So before we get moving, I wanted to talk a little bit
9:10
about year over year, sports and miscellaneous.
9:13
For some reason, it doesn't add these up here, but PSA graded
9:16
15% lower numbers of sports cards in 2025.
9:22
Wow. SGC 22% lower, Beckett was flat,
9:27
TAG was 7% lower. CGC went up by 152%, so to.
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Begin with. Yeah, they were probably grading
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300,000 in 2024 and they're graded 700,000 in 2025.
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So if you think about PSA went down by about a million and SGC
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went down by, I don't know, 1/4 of a million.
9:55
So yeah, we were down. That was down notably down
10:00
overall from 24 to 25. OK, that's I did not know that.
10:04
I would have guessed the. I would not have guessed that
10:06
either. Yeah, same here.
10:07
That's a very good thing in my opinion.
10:13
Grading people grade way too many cards.
10:16
I I've made this point in my videos a few times.
10:18
Like I don't understand where people are what people are
10:20
grading. Like I, I get more cards in now
10:23
than I did three years ago as a as a as a dealer and I'm grading
10:27
much fewer cards because the cost of PSA and how strict they
10:31
are and the resale on like PSA nines it financially just
10:34
doesn't make sense to grade so many.
10:36
It made more much more sense to grade cards three years ago than
10:39
today. So I don't know what people are
10:40
grading. Well, I think it's two things
10:42
mostly. One of them is the race to get
10:44
the first PSA 10s. So if you if you buy like Topps
10:49
Chrome basketball came out a week or two ago, if you buy
10:52
immediately and then you immediately grade the card, you
10:56
have the leg up 'cause now like I said, PSA has their fingers
11:00
and everything. You can grade it and sell it all
11:03
in one step or all through PS as app so fast.
11:09
And those cards, as you know, when APSA 10 comes out and it's
11:12
the first one, it's going to sell for insane amounts of
11:14
money. I've never, I've never played
11:16
that game. But yeah, that first, that first
11:19
PSA 10 goes for stupid money quite regularly.
11:22
Yeah. And then I think the other one
11:24
is just a lot of people who are grading things because they they
11:28
want to collect slab cards for some reason.
11:30
Yeah, I, I kind of for sure of that.
11:34
I would, I kind of assumed it's, there's a lot of new people
11:37
entering and they don't really know what they're doing.
11:39
And so they're grading base cards and and common inserts
11:43
that have no business being graded from a financial
11:47
standpoint. I guess if you want to collect
11:49
grading cards, cool, But. Yeah.
11:51
So let's talk about your predictions. 2026 fanatics
11:55
buying CGC seems like a good, it's certainly a very
12:00
interesting noteworthy prediction by Jeff.
12:03
And we talked about, I don't think it will happen, but Greg
12:07
kind of convinced me it might be better than I thought initially.
12:11
I mean, yeah, on the surface I don't know anything about these
12:14
two companies and their structure and whatever, but on
12:17
the surface it makes perfect sense, right.
12:18
Fenatics has everything but a grading company and their CGC is
12:23
the one. Actually CGC is the 11 remaining
12:25
1. So and TAG and and Tag, sure.
12:30
Yeah, true. They could also buy TAG and try
12:32
to ramp that up. But if that did happen to CGC or
12:37
Tag, I I think those companies would would get a huge boost or
12:41
the the cause FNAX would throw a ton of money at them.
12:43
Whereas I, I don't necessarily see that with Beckett.
12:47
Yeah, although I, I would like to see it with Beckett,
12:49
certainly didn't see it with SGC there.
12:51
Nope. Quite the opposite.
12:53
You know the boutique. I wonder if who who said
12:56
boutique 'cause I wonder if that was like if they regret saying
12:59
boutique cause everyone throws that around now.
13:01
Ryan Hogue did on Neo's channel. Yeah, yeah.
13:04
That was the first time it was OK.
13:05
Yeah, yeah. So all right, let's let's go
13:07
with prediction number one. What you got?
13:10
Well, prediction number one is not very exciting anymore.
13:12
Prediction number one was PSA and grading overall will see a
13:16
decrease from 25 to 26 in sports cards in, in quantity, which I
13:21
thought was sort of like a bold prediction until you told me
13:24
that they had gone down last year.
13:25
So it's not that not that bold. I think it's going to continue
13:29
to decline for the reasons I I already said.
13:31
Yeah, I think that's still pretty interesting.
13:34
Do you, do you, do you agree or do you think that you think
13:36
grading is, you know, we've sort of seen the peak of sports card
13:42
grading quantity wise. The thing that I could see
13:45
changing is the fact that Tops has the NBA licenses now and
13:50
you've got a guy like Cooper Flag and they're going to be
13:52
1,000,000 Cooper Flag cards that people want to have graded.
13:55
Yeah, and there's quite an impressive rookie class in the
13:59
NBA and in the past couple years, I guess Wembe 2 years
14:05
ago. But yeah, it'll be interesting
14:08
to follow for sure. I mean, what's PSA now, $22.00
14:12
on the bulk, $22.00 on the bulk and it's a 5 month turn around
14:18
time. Like it's just, I understand
14:22
Cooper Flag's going to have 10 million cards. 90% of them will
14:26
make no sense to consider grading, you know what I mean?
14:29
But you might be right. The tops Chrome product is going
14:31
to be a yeah, it's going to be a yeah, a monster, but it already
14:35
is. All right, that was my first
14:37
one. All right, my second one.
14:39
I would, I bet on this or is this a bold prediction?
14:42
I think I would bet on this. I think a new credible grading
14:45
company will emerge that we're not aware of.
14:48
I don't think they're going to take significant market share.
14:50
They're not going to like have 10% market share.
14:52
But I think they will grow to a point where they make, they
14:56
make, you know, generates, you know, list their every month or
15:00
whatever. And Neo mentions them in his in
15:02
his you and Neo mention them in your in your weekly recap
15:04
videos. Very very interesting.
15:08
I did not see that one coming. So is this a grading company
15:12
that already exists and just isn't considered legit?
15:18
I don't know, that's sort of the point.
15:19
It could be something like a, like a Mike Baker, you know,
15:24
it's already there and they decide to ramp it up and, and
15:27
try to grow into a, or it could be just a sort of a new company
15:31
that comes out of nowhere and, and get some hype and is
15:34
credible. Not, not a not a goofy, you
15:37
know, not one of these goofy ones.
15:38
Well, Mike Baker intrigues me because I've been seeing more of
15:41
his slabs out there and I hadn't seen one of his slabs ever until
15:45
a month or two ago, and now I've seen three or four in the last
15:48
month. Are they just starting to slab
15:51
cards now or are those old do you know?
15:53
I, I, I don't know really they, they obviously always put the
15:56
sticker on to highlight I appeal stuff.
15:59
I mean, I don't, I don't know him, but he, he's, he's a very
16:03
like credible and reputable long time person in the hobby from
16:07
what I understand. And I think they've recently
16:09
started grading cards. So I don't know, I don't know
16:12
what sort of volume they're doing.
16:13
I guess it's very, very small, but, and I'm not predicting
16:16
them. I'm just saying like something
16:18
like that a company will will emerge as a credible option.
16:22
Have you heard of Zigley? I have.
16:24
I don't know anything about them, but yeah, some another.
16:26
Oh, is that? Is that the joke one?
16:28
Yeah, they, they started up in like, I don't know, April of
16:31
May. OK.
16:33
And I, I featured them on my channel a couple times just
16:36
because they're, they're everything about them was so
16:40
hilarious. I I that's right.
16:41
That's right. I remember.
16:42
Yeah, they and. They they've now have their
16:46
website back up again saying they're coming, they're making
16:48
their returns soon. OK, good for them, I hope.
16:51
Yeah, maybe it's time. What else you got?
16:58
OK, that was #2 #3 I don't know if this this might not be a big
17:03
one either 'cause this might have already happened.
17:05
I think Fanatics Festival surpassed the National in terms
17:08
of attendance. I don't think it happened.
17:11
I think that's a good prediction.
17:12
I think that the national I think got like 120 a 130,000
17:18
people last year. And I don't know how many
17:22
fanatics fest got, but I don't think it was anywhere near that.
17:27
But they, they had a massive surge of visitors to like, I
17:32
don't know, it went from 10,000 to 80,000 or something crazy.
17:36
Like I'm just making those numbers up.
17:38
But I just remember hearing that it had.
17:40
It was 5X more than double. Yeah, is OK, like 5X type of
17:43
thing. Yeah, yeah.
17:47
So I could definitely see if they have a location big enough
17:50
and Fanatics Fest, of course, isn't in fact, sports cards is a
17:54
very small portion of it. Do they have a location big
17:59
enough that can support that many people 'cause I know a lot
18:02
of Fanatics Fest is kind of these large not displays, but
18:07
activity areas which take up a lot of space and only like two
18:10
or three people can participate at a time.
18:13
Whereas a card show like The National, you can have thousands
18:17
of people in every area. Yeah, yeah, that's a big a big.
18:21
Did you? You didn't go to Fanatics Fest,
18:22
did you? Nah, it's not really my kind of
18:25
thing. I can't see myself going anytime
18:27
soon. It looks cool, it looks fun, but
18:30
it looks more for younger people than me.
18:33
Yeah, so you know, at the National it's like there's,
18:36
there's card tables everywhere and then it's a big section, but
18:39
there's a section of the, of the carnival games with, you know
18:44
what I'm talking about the the room with all the not, not the
18:46
wait. There's like an entire Breakers
18:48
room, but not that room, like the room with the basketball
18:52
hoop and you, you know, all the games you can play and there's
18:54
like loud screaming everywhere. It's a big portion of the
18:58
National maybe 25% volume wise of it is that I don't know some
19:04
whatever at the fanatics fest. It's like switched, right?
19:07
It's like 75% carnival games. And then I mean, I say carnival
19:10
games mockingly, but I I don't mean it anyway. 75% carnival
19:15
games, 25% cards. I don't even know if that's
19:17
true. That's sort of my understanding.
19:18
That's also my understanding, but I also don't know if it's
19:21
true. OK, so I I imagine there's more
19:23
room to grow in the in the carnival games space than the
19:26
card space if you're talking about dealing with mass the
19:29
masses. Yeah, so slightly off topic, but
19:32
also very, very much related. At the National this past year,
19:38
your buddy Jeremy at CIA had a table up in that jam packed
19:44
spot. Do you know yet?
19:45
Does he know yet if he has a better spot if they fix that
19:49
problem? They, I, I believe they've, I
19:53
mean, everyone complained, like every dealer up there complained
19:58
and that, and it was truly ridiculous, like truly, truly
20:01
ridiculous. And I believe a lot of the, the
20:04
customers complained too 'cause they couldn't walk through the
20:06
aisles. It wasn't, wasn't big enough.
20:08
So I, what they've said is that they're, it, they're just gonna
20:12
have the same thing but have a lot more space, a lot more
20:14
spread out. I think.
20:15
I think that's what the plan is from what I yeah.
20:19
It was, I know it was a terrible experience for me as a, as a
20:23
just a buyer wanting to walk around and look at cards.
20:26
I had to stop at Jeremy's table and he was like, oh, you got to
20:29
go down to this table down here and see this and I couldn't even
20:32
get there. I had to turn around and go.
20:34
I can't, I can't even go that way.
20:36
It's so bad. And I'm sure it was way worse
20:38
for the dealers. I don't, I don't know how on
20:41
earth they it. It was baffling how how amateur
20:45
that was that set up was. So yeah, I my, my, by the way,
20:49
my plan was to like hang out at the booth the whole national and
20:52
yeah, go take a walk a couple times a day.
20:54
I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't even get there.
20:56
And then the booth was so tiny I couldn't be there anyway, so.
20:59
Yeah, yeah. That was that was ridiculous.
21:03
So Fanatics Fest, more people than the National.
21:06
I can definitely see that. I think that's a pretty bold
21:08
prediction, but I I like it. I can see it, Yeah.
21:10
I don't know. I don't know what the numbers
21:12
are like. Is, is the National like 3X
21:14
Fanatics Fest right now? If if it was.
21:17
I think it's like 2X or less. Oh, then it, yeah, then I'm
21:21
going with it. I put, I put, I put a, I put, I
21:23
put a dollar on that. OK, Those are my first three.
21:28
I got two more #4 Are you ready? I am.
21:36
Junk Wax Hero will continue to grow his brand and become a
21:40
bigger voice in the hobby than it is now.
21:43
Well I I do want to talk about that, but I just googled it and
21:46
apparently Fanatics Fest drew over 125,000 attendees.
21:50
What was? What was?
21:51
What was the the? National was also right around
21:54
125,000. No, this isn't even a bold
21:56
prediction. It's like so they're they're
21:58
basically even as of now. Yeah, that's crazy to me.
22:02
Good for fanatics, good for them.
22:04
That's. Crazy.
22:05
I mean, what's what's really impressive?
22:06
What's really impressive about that is what is this year 3 of
22:09
Fanatics Fest? Two or three, yeah.
22:11
And it's year 50 for the National.
22:13
Yeah, something like that. 50, but yeah. 4546.
22:18
They're also they're also probably not operating in a
22:20
profit though, whereas I'm sure the National is raking in a nice
22:23
profit. Well, the National is a
22:25
nonprofit. Oh, then I take that back.
22:29
I I didn't say that. You heard you heard me wrong.
22:31
I'm pretty sure they're a nonprofit.
22:33
There are a couple of channels that analyze their financials
22:35
because their financials are public.
22:38
OK, I didn't know that. I'm pretty sure that's right.
22:43
It's a. It's a collective are.
22:45
You sure that would actually, that would actually kind of
22:47
surprise me now that I think about it, but you think that's
22:50
true? I'm pretty, pretty darn sure
22:52
that's true. OK, I'll, I'll take your word
22:55
for it. But more importantly, Chris,
22:57
let's talk about me. Well.
22:58
I was gonna say you're, you're a very credible voice in the hobby
23:00
now. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna believe
23:02
you, take you out your word on the on the National.
23:06
This is your prediction about my channel growing.
23:12
I'm not trying to grow my channel.
23:15
I'm sorry to say, I think it's going to happen.
23:18
Greg of Midlife Cards talks about how he wishes he'd cap
23:21
his. I hope I'm not saying something
23:24
that he wouldn't say publicly, but he wishes he could have cap
23:27
his subscribers at 5000 and he's at like 80000.
23:31
That's interesting. Why?
23:32
Why? Why is that?
23:34
You start to once you get outside of the your normal
23:37
viewers, you start to get people as you know having what do you
23:41
have 75,000 subscribers. Yeah, yeah.
23:44
But I mean, I don't get anywhere near that in terms of views and
23:47
and. Right.
23:48
But you also get more views and you get the people who are are
23:53
jerks and I I've got 14,000 some odd subscribers now and the jerk
23:59
ratio increases. The higher you go.
24:02
And the higher you go, yeah. It's true.
24:05
I'm. Sure.
24:07
Yeah. I mean, you've got 5X.
24:09
What I have is from you so, but Greg is it's starting to
24:12
experience that like the first 5K, very few jerks sneak in
24:15
there, but at some point you start to get some jerks sliding
24:18
in there. Yeah, So like Greg will put,
24:21
Greg puts out lengthy videos and there he does an amazing job.
24:26
He's I wish I had the skill that he has of just talking and
24:29
making great cogent points for as long as he does and the the
24:34
metaphors and analogies that he does.
24:38
But then he'll get people who will complain about the length
24:40
of his videos. And they're they can be really
24:42
rude about it too. Like, don't watch.
24:46
By the way, totally. You're spot on, Greg.
24:48
I can't believe Greg can talk. That's it's impressive.
24:51
Like I would, I would. I can't talk that long without.
24:55
I gotta, I gotta I gotta stop and then rerecord.
24:57
It's a talent. Yeah, it's a talent.
25:00
Yeah, No, that makes sense. I the whole like your videos are
25:03
too long. What are you watching my videos
25:05
for? Right.
25:07
What are you? There's a there's 8 billion
25:09
videos to watch on YouTube. If mine doesn't speak to you,
25:12
don't. Don't watch it.
25:13
Yeah, like it's it's free. I'll refund you how much you
25:17
paid to watch my video. How's that?
25:20
So I, I think we, we and I have talked about this early on when
25:22
you start a YouTube channel, those those comments like sting
25:26
so bad, right? And then as you go, you they
25:29
sort of you sort of stopped caring.
25:32
I remember somebody I remember early on.
25:34
I, I think somebody commented like, my gosh, your, your videos
25:38
are so boring or something like that.
25:39
And it just stung, man. I, I talked to someone and they,
25:43
and they said like, and put it into perspective for me.
25:46
It's like imagine huge you Mike going onto somebody's YouTube
25:51
channel and then leaving the comment.
25:54
Your videos are really boring. Like what sort of a place, what
25:57
would be have to be going on in your head for you to even do
26:00
that? You'd have to be really, you're
26:02
either in a really, really bad place, which is more likely, or
26:05
you're just like a complete, you know, buffoon.
26:08
But it's more likely that they're just in a in a really
26:10
bad place. And that sort of changed the
26:11
perspective of it. I get those comments
26:14
occasionally too. Like I I talk too slowly.
26:18
I'm I'm too boring. I'm not screaming woo all the
26:22
time. Yeah.
26:23
You can do that. But again, 99% of my comments
26:28
are very positive and so it's easy for me now.
26:31
But if I had, if I had received that one comment, one negative
26:35
comment at the beginning, I would have shot my channel then.
26:38
Yeah, I know, I know. It's it stings, man.
26:40
At the beginning it really stings.
26:42
Yeah. Yeah.
26:43
Especially like you're boring or it just like a a personal
26:46
critique. Yeah.
26:48
In a rude way, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'd, I'm not, I'm
26:52
not looking to grow my channel. I appreciate the kind words, but
26:55
I. The wrong, the wrong verbiage
26:59
that I used, it's more that your, your voice will continue
27:02
to become a more more important, incredible voice.
27:05
That's the that's the what I'm saying.
27:07
I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, sure you can.
27:10
You can PayPal me for saying that later, yeah.
27:16
Yeah, you know, I, I never expected to to do anything like
27:20
this. I know I've told the story
27:21
before, but I just started my channel.
27:23
I figured I've got three to six months to recover from my foot
27:26
injury, my foot surgery. You start a channel and this
27:29
will be a little hobby that keeps that gets me by and I just
27:33
never recovered. And now I have, I hit 3 million
27:35
views a couple days ago on my channel, 3 million views
27:38
lifetime, not in a day. That would be a record. 3
27:41
million in a day would be pretty impressive in the sports car
27:43
space and not possible. No.
27:48
Yeah, cool. Yeah, right.
27:49
You, you never envisioned this, this being here, right?
27:53
No, but I love it. I this is a big I actually think
27:58
of these as two different hobbies.
28:00
I have collecting and then I have the content creation which
28:04
I hate saying content creation but.
28:06
Yeah, they are. They are two different things
28:08
for me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:11
All right, I got one more. Yeah, let's hear it.
28:15
I mean, I'm trying to decide if I think there's a bold
28:16
prediction or no. It's not a bold prediction.
28:19
I would put a dollar on this. Shohei Otani cards will be worth
28:22
significantly less one year from now.
28:27
Wow. Tell me why.
28:29
Something will happen. He will have a down season or
28:32
just an average season, or he'll have an injury.
28:35
Something will happen. Oh, I can't predict what, but
28:37
something will happen that will prevent his cards from going up.
28:40
I think that's a. The Dodgers will have a bad
28:42
season. Something.
28:45
I don't think many people would be predicting that, but I do
28:49
think it's a good solid prediction.
28:52
Because his cards skyrocketed. Like I was looking for cards to
28:57
send off to CIA for for January and I had APSA 9 2018, Bowman,
29:04
Shohei Otani. And I was like, there's no way
29:05
this is worth more than $50. It's worth over $100, Jeremy.
29:11
I know. And I was like, what the my
29:14
cards I bought, I have 3 rookie PSA 10s that I paid about 100
29:19
for two of them and 180 for the other one.
29:21
And they've all just about tripled in value.
29:24
So actually two of them have quadrupled in value.
29:27
The ones I paid 100 each for, they're each worth over 400 now.
29:33
Yeah. So what you were talking about
29:34
the 2018 Bowman like base where he's like he's pitching.
29:38
He or he just he just pitched. He just wrote a pitch that's
29:42
over $100 on PSA 9. It's it's too high.
29:46
It's, it is, it's. Crazy. 80 billion of those and
29:49
it's not even AI mean, I guess it's an important card, but.
29:53
There's. There's 80 billion of them.
29:56
Right. I have, I don't know, four or
29:57
five of them raw. Yeah, Yeah.
30:00
No, I know. I, I there's been many
30:02
collections where I would buy and there's ten of them in
30:04
there. Yeah.
30:07
So an injury would be the easiest and and most obvious way
30:12
the Dodgers struggling. Obviously, the Dodgers are going
30:15
to lose to the Red Sox in 2026, as, as we all know, certainly
30:18
not the Orioles, no. No, the Orioles will will win it
30:21
all this year. Oh no, Orkin's an owner.
30:26
A part owner again of the Orioles.
30:29
When did he buy in? Couple years ago, so he hasn't
30:33
had time to hasn't had time to like put his mark on the team
30:35
yet, but this is the first year you'll start to see it.
30:38
Like Derek Jeter taking over the Miami Marlins 10 years ago and
30:42
then destroying them. Yeah, just like, just like that,
30:44
but the opposite. Ripken seems like he cares more
30:50
about baseball than Jeter cared about baseball.
30:53
Jeter was like a businessman. He cared more about the business
30:56
than baseball. I don't know, I don't know much
30:59
about Jeter in post career. Is that that's your your
31:02
interpretation? Ripken is like the most baseball
31:05
baseball dude ever. All he does is baseball.
31:08
Yeah, right. That's my impression.
31:11
I also, admittedly, really, really strongly disliked Derek
31:15
Jeter for completely rational reasons of just being a Red Sox
31:19
fan. So the first conversation you
31:20
and I ever had in person was that I don't know if you
31:23
remember, we were at the National in line for food at the
31:27
like. Yeah.
31:29
And then you we started talking about that. 2023 How?
31:32
Much you hate Jeter. Yes, it's it's very rational.
31:38
As a red such man, as a Boston fan, I can't hate.
31:40
I can't like a Rod Jeter. I can't like LeBron James.
31:46
It's. It's the law.
31:47
It's the law. It's fair.
31:48
Yeah. I hate, I hate Jeter a Rod and
31:52
Nomar. Sorry about the Nomar thing, but
31:55
it's because when I worked at the card store, so this would
31:58
have been like 98, maybe Ripken's at the end of his
32:00
career. These three shortstops are all
32:02
on the rise. And this bratty kid man who's
32:05
probably 12 or whatever, he walked in and he always talked
32:08
about these three shortstops and I'd say, well, they got nothing
32:10
on Ripken and he would be like, Ripken's an old man.
32:12
These three guys are way better. So I hate all three of them
32:15
because of this bratty kid from from 1998.
32:18
Yeah, he sounds like he. I really knew what I was talking
32:20
about there. Yeah, Miguel Tejada was another
32:23
one. Tejada was there, he won an MVP
32:25
by the way. So going back to Ohtani real
32:26
quick, the the the injury or the Dodgers having a bad season is
32:30
sort of like the obvious one. But I think actually most likely
32:33
is he just has like a pretty good season.
32:36
And yeah, he's a good season. He might might even be like in
32:39
the MVP running, but he's not breaking records.
32:42
They don't win the World Series. He finishes 5th in the MVP
32:45
voting and his cards go way down.
32:49
That makes perfect sense. I I stopped buying Otani cards.
32:54
I wanted to have more Otani cards in my collection, Otani
32:57
rookies and I had to stop like a year ago because they had gone
33:01
up way too much. And I was like, there's no way
33:04
these are are good purchases at this point.
33:08
Right there. Yeah, they're they're he's got
33:11
to be the most valuable like modern base card rookie player
33:15
ever, if that makes sense. Like, well, yeah, well, sorry.
33:21
That's a good point. So there's like Trout and
33:23
actually LeBron was higher for a while and Mahomes, I guess.
33:26
But these the number of cards that those players have in their
33:29
rookie year is so much less than Otani.
33:34
I mean, the like, like fractions.
33:37
So that that's where that's where it comes from.
33:39
But I like it. I think that's a very good
33:42
prediction. I'm trying to think of who else
33:45
I can see. I can see Roman Anthony car
33:50
values going up significantly. This is my the Homer in me.
33:54
Here, no, don't ever, don't ever predict somebody to go up
33:56
because then a bunch of your viewers will go by and then and
33:59
then say cost the money. I, I, I have the the cards I
34:04
need of Roman Anthony. I've got a few of his rookie
34:07
autos. I don't I'd have to.
34:11
There's, there's one that I have that's like #250 maybe
34:14
autograph? OK, your, your portfolio cover
34:17
has him covered. So if he if he crushes it,
34:20
you're, you're good. Yeah, and I am not recommending
34:23
people go out and buy Roman Anthony.
34:25
Please don't say Mike told me. I just, I'm very high on Roman
34:30
Anthony and I'm definitely a Homer.
34:32
OK, that's fair. Yeah, Who am I high on?
34:36
I, I like Jane Daniel. Yeah, if I I'd say Jane Daniels
34:39
is low right now. And people, he had such a bad
34:43
season, but it wasn't really his fault.
34:45
It was mainly injuries and not injuries to injuries to him and
34:48
to the team. So everything was so awful that
34:51
I think people, I, I think they'll have a bounce back and
34:54
be awesome again. So you heard your reverse.
34:56
Go cash in your 4-O1K, spend it all.
34:58
Jane Daniel, Rookie autos. Crystal promises that will be a
35:02
winning proposition. Oh man, I I'm just picturing
35:07
like a year from now somebody suing us for this.
35:10
I totally took that seriously. Can you just put on the bottom
35:13
of the screen this? These are not for, you know,
35:15
intended for. No, Jaden Daniels, I don't know
35:19
if you got to my I know you were watching clearing the bases from
35:22
today. I.
35:23
Did highlight. Halfway through.
35:25
I did highlight Jaden Daniels plunging values on his rig.
35:29
Oh yeah, cool. OK, I didn't know.
35:32
They went down 65%. Yeah.
35:34
Yeah, this year, which makes perfect sense, but also I think
35:38
the like I made the same point. The vast majority of rookies to
35:43
2nd year players are going to go way down and value them.
35:46
The hype is huge for guys and then the hype just kind of dies
35:51
down because people forget about them or they they have a a
35:55
sophomore season that's not as good and their team isn't as
35:59
good in a lot of cases. If you think about like a Cooper
36:02
flag right now, his team is going to be terrible probably
36:05
for quite a few years. Will his card values follow?
36:09
Yeah, right. And that happened.
36:11
We saw that with Victor Wembanyama, right his his team
36:15
was terrible the first couple of years and his second year is his
36:18
cards plummeted. Well, he also had the blood clot
36:20
that he was out for a long time for.
36:22
No, but I but I mean that just sort of happens.
36:24
You you see, I mean it happened with Jayden Daniel.
36:26
You see that with all sorts of all sorts of second year
36:28
players. CJ Stroud was a good actually a
36:32
semi different example in that he was so hyped rookie year
36:35
because he had an amazing rookie year and his second season was
36:38
kind of like similar, but people expected him to, you know, win
36:42
the MVP in the Super Bowl in the second year.
36:43
So he didn't. He didn't reach that, and his
36:45
cards plummeted. Well, Drake may will.
36:48
Drake May will win the Super Bowl, you think?
36:50
And and MVP. Is that one of your 2026
36:56
predictions? Well, he wasn't the MVPI think
36:58
he's already basically he's like a heavy favorite now, right?
37:01
Or staff. He he is a heavy favorite.
37:03
Stafford is a lot of experts believe Stafford because
37:07
Stafford had a better strength of schedule, more difficult
37:10
strength of schedule, and he did it against tougher opponents.
37:15
Yeah, but what are the betting? I think that I think Drake Mays
37:17
I think, cuz I think they were basically even and then the last
37:20
game didn't may like crush it and Stafford. 5 touchdowns and 2
37:24
1/2 quarters. Yeah.
37:25
So he's probably, he's got to be the heavy favorite now.
37:28
Yeah, he is and he's playing rate this moment as a matter of
37:31
fact. And I'm going to go up.
37:32
We're just finishing. I'm going to go up and and watch
37:34
the game. But yeah, what Anything else?
37:39
Well, yeah, well, I got to ask you real quick then.
37:41
So if you were draft starting A-Team today to start your first
37:44
season was going to be 2026, would you take Drake, Drake May
37:47
or Jayden Daniels? I I assume you'd take Drake May?
37:50
I would definitely take Drake May.
37:52
I don't know enough about Jayden Daniels.
37:53
I'm not a big NFL guy. 22 homers right here.
37:59
Homers. Yeah, we should make a friendly
38:01
bet on that. Who will have the better 2026
38:03
season? All right.
38:05
Yeah. We went well, we've got a whole
38:08
national between now and then. Yeah, to come up with the terms.
38:11
Yeah, OK. All right.
38:14
Are you going to Strongsville? No.
38:16
No. Unlikely.
38:17
Unlikely. OK.
38:18
Not that they're not a vintage show.
38:21
Right, they're a. Pokémon Show.
38:24
Yeah. Actually, I don't, I don't even
38:26
know that it's a situation Is that, is that what's happened
38:28
that they're going to be? They've merged with a Pokémon
38:31
show. A Pokémon show?
38:32
Oh I didn't know that. I thought they merged with like
38:34
a modern show. No, they merged with a straight
38:37
I I believe it is a straight up TCG show.
38:40
Oh dear, TCG show. Oh dear.
38:44
And they will still be all vintage, but it's got a
38:48
completely different feel to it. And there are a lot of vintage
38:51
collectors who go every year who are.
38:53
Upset. Probably going to make this one
38:55
their last. Interesting.
38:57
OK, I'll wait to hear how people say and then I'll go next year
39:00
if it's awesome. Yeah, I'll go.
39:01
I'm going. I'm going for one full day.
39:04
Oh, you're going. What gives me some incentive?
39:08
I'll be there for if I fly in on what no.
39:12
No, go ahead. I think I fly in on Thursday and
39:15
fly out on Saturday. Oh so.
39:16
You're just going to be there basically Friday.
39:19
Yeah. OK.
39:19
Yeah. It's like Danny if, if Danny
39:21
Black goes, maybe I'll ride with him.
39:25
Yeah, I would. I considered driving to
39:28
Cleveland when the National was there.
39:30
I think it's an 11 hour drive. It's a bit bit 4.
39:34
If you guys are driving I I would definitely consider.
39:37
Kitchen a ride with you now that now that you said 11 hours.
39:40
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not driving.
39:41
Well, it's less for you though. Oh OK, yeah, actually I I think
39:45
it's like 6 hours. Yeah, I'm, I'm up in the
39:48
northeast and you're just in the east.
39:50
Right, Yeah, you're like way out there, like like here, the
39:54
square, the here's the map. And then you're like.
39:58
Yeah, I'm a I'm a couple hour drive from Canada.
40:02
OK, nice. So you're basically Canadian?
40:05
I'm almost yeah gonna go oot in a boot.
40:10
I went to college about a 50 minute drive from Canada.
40:14
And back then before 911, you could just cross the border.
40:17
You pull up to the border crossing and say they would say
40:21
what are you crossing the border for?
40:22
And we would say, we're going to get drunk.
40:24
And they would say, OK, drive safely because the drinking age
40:29
there was 19. In Maine, it's 21.
40:31
So we would just drive up. And then once 911 happened,
40:35
which I was also in college for, you were not able to do that
40:38
anymore. OK Oh, I would have a quick
40:40
border crossing story. Actually it's card related.
40:43
My, my wife, my wife and I and my son, we, we were going to
40:47
Canada for a vacation and I stopped in New York to buy a
40:50
large collection and I bought it.
40:53
And so the car, our car was the three of us.
40:55
And then the rest of the car is filled to the brim with cards.
40:58
And we were going to cross into Canada and then come back like 2
41:00
days later. And we were, I was very, and
41:03
this was during COVID, not during COVID, but after COVID
41:06
when people were still like checking things.
41:08
And so I was very concerned that, and we looked it all up,
41:11
what was going to happen? And they were like, if you bring
41:13
valuables, they're going to confiscate it at the border and
41:15
you, you can't have it back till you leave.
41:17
So I thought I was really concerned that they were going
41:19
to do that with the my cards. And also we didn't have the
41:22
COVID, I don't remember the details, but we needed some
41:25
COVID paper and we didn't have the proper one.
41:27
And we were really, really worried what was going to
41:29
happen. And so we pull up to the, the,
41:31
the guy, the guy takes a look in our car and he's like, you got
41:33
any guns? And I was like, no.
41:35
And he's like, all right, cool. What year was that, 2020?
41:39
23 ish 2022. Yeah.
41:45
Did you have the passport cards or passport?
41:48
I can't, I can't remember the details.
41:49
There was some like super you had.
41:51
We had our COVID vaccine, but you had to have like some sort
41:54
of proof on paper that we didn't have.
41:56
Huh. Yeah.
41:58
Interesting. So wild.
42:01
All right. Any final thoughts?
42:05
No, no. How about you go go Jayden
42:07
Daniels? Go Drake, my.
42:12
All right. Thanks, Chris.
42:13
Thanks everybody for watching.