Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- February 4, 2026

Transcript

MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- February 4, 2026 · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:10
What's going on everybody? Alright, this February is off to
0:15
a hot start. I mean, I guess it was
0:18
technically the last day of January.
0:20
On Saturday I went to that card show with my dad, about 350
0:26
tables. I picked up a couple of cards.
0:28
He had a big trade. That was fun.
0:30
Posted that episode on Sunday, then Monday did the normal ask
0:36
all of you for your thoughts on different topics.
0:39
That was Monday and then Monday night Midlife live #13 with my
0:44
crew. That was a blast and now I'm
0:47
here and guess what? I am about a week and a half,
0:52
two weeks away from what it what is it, 2 weeks, week and a half
0:57
week and a half away from the Burbank West Coast Card show
1:02
down in Ontario and a whole bunch of people are going to be
1:06
there. I cannot wait to hang out with
1:09
so many friends. Hey, what can I say?
1:13
The hobby has completely taken over everything that I'm doing
1:17
apparently. I'm not sure if my wife is as
1:20
thrilled about it as I am, but I've been having a lot of fun.
1:23
Now this is Q&A day. This is where I respond to all
1:27
of your questions, all of your topics that you want to talk
1:30
about. And it could be pretty much
1:33
whatever you want, as long as we kind of keep it away from the
1:37
the polarizing things of politics and religion.
1:40
I try to I try to just anything else I'm I'm down for.
1:44
So if you have a question for an upcoming episode, don't hesitate
1:48
down below in the comments, ask it.
1:49
I'd be happy to share my thoughts on it. 5 great
1:54
questions, really good questions.
1:57
This week I'm excited to share my thoughts on Yeah, I mean,
2:01
what more can I say? Ton going on, lots of exciting
2:04
stuff, lots of things in the works behind the scenes that I'm
2:08
excited to share about soon. And heck, what are we two 2 1/2
2:16
months? Not even 2 1/2 months away from
2:19
Strongsville or I should say the card show formerly known as
2:24
Strongsville. All right, first question, let's
2:26
take a look at it right here. This is an out of date
2:31
reference, but regarding your example of a 1997 Ford Taurus in
2:36
pristine condition, if PSA had a car registry, I bet that PSA 10
2:42
Taurus would be worth 6 figures. As to my question, I think I
2:47
have the perfect middle-aged man question.
2:50
How do you report your card sales on your federal income
2:53
tax? Do you report it as a hobby
2:56
income, as a business income or something else?
3:01
All right, the perfect middle-aged man question, like
3:05
you said, and I got good news for you.
3:08
Most of us here in midlife nation are middle-aged men.
3:13
So it's going to be perfect to share our thoughts.
3:16
It's funny, when I was a kid and I'd, I, we'd go and visit my
3:19
great grandmother, my great grandmother Miller, she lived to
3:21
be like 102 or something. And we'd go up there and she'd
3:25
talk about how all the different aches and pains and ailments she
3:30
had. And then she'd talk about the
3:32
weather. And when it was warm, she'd talk
3:35
about the warm weather. When it was bad, she talked
3:36
about the bad weather. And I'm like, Oh my gosh.
3:39
Well, I'm just sitting there like quietly in the chairs.
3:42
My dad is talking to her. And I'm like, I can't believe
3:45
people talk about this stuff. And then here I am talking about
3:50
my aches and pains. Even in YouTube videos.
3:53
I'm talking about the weather all the time.
3:55
I'm talking about, I mean I find myself at work talking more
3:58
about like retirement and how the retirement system works and
4:03
planning for retirement. Then I went with my Co workers,
4:07
not with my students anyway. So, yeah, I mean tax stuff.
4:13
It's it is a reality, right? What do they say?
4:15
Death and taxes, Those are the two things that will always be
4:19
around. I don't, I don't know the
4:20
saying. I'm sure you guys will tell me
4:21
down below if I say it wrong, you'll tell me the right way if
4:25
I say it right? I don't know.
4:27
So here we go. I, I don't think we have an
4:30
option when it comes to taxes. I think that we have to claim
4:34
our income. Now.
4:34
The question is not do you claim it?
4:37
The question is, do you claim it as a hobby?
4:39
Do you claim it as a small business?
4:41
Now, here's kind of my take. First of all, I don't sell a
4:45
lot. I've sold more in the last year
4:49
than I've probably sold in the previous 5 or 10 years combined.
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Now on my taxes. Now, first of all, OK, I am not
4:58
a tax attorney. I am not an accountant.
5:01
I am not a certified public accountant.
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I don't know anything about taxes, OK?
5:08
All I know is that I use TurboTax and I log in, I put in
5:14
my information, it asks me a bunch of questions, I plug in
5:18
the information and then I send it off and, and it's, it
5:22
stresses me out every year that I'm doing it wrong.
5:25
And I'm like, am I answering these right?
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I think this is the right answer.
5:31
I don't, I'm not trying to cheat on my taxes.
5:33
I just, I don't, I don't really know for sure.
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So I'm always stressed out about it.
5:38
And for years and years and years, I wasn't selling a lot of
5:42
cards. And so there was never really
5:45
any income there. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, the
5:50
the income is the difference between what you paid for an
5:53
item and what you sold the item for, assuming that you made
5:57
money. And I mean, a lot of the stuff
6:01
that I sell, it's not like I'm like making any money or any
6:04
substantial amount of money. And then, I mean, conversely, I
6:09
think if you buy a card and then you sell it at a loss, that
6:12
offsets some of the income, right?
6:14
So I've always just been like, yeah, I mean, I maybe sold a
6:18
handful of cards for a little bit of money, and I probably
6:21
sold a handful of cards where I lost money.
6:24
And it's kind of a wash. And I never really thought about
6:27
it because I don't really sell a lot.
6:29
But then last year I sold more than I usually have sold.
6:33
And the year before I sold a decent amount.
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So, and they've changed some laws with like eBay and stuff.
6:39
I can't, I can't keep track. I'm, I'm not an attorney and,
6:41
and, but, but like 2 years, no, last year, a year ago at this
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time, I got a form from eBay and it said you got to, you know,
6:52
fill you got to upload all this stuff into your taxes.
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So I'm like, OK, so I filled out all the stuff and then it, it
7:00
went through and it said, OK, go through all the items that you
7:03
sold and figure out what you paid for the items.
7:08
So I went back and I, I researched on eBay and different
7:11
places that I bought them and use my best memory.
7:14
And then, you know, you subtract out like your shipping supplies
7:17
and, and travel to the shows and stuff.
7:21
And when I got done calculating it, it said that I had like lost
7:26
like $300.00 from my eBay sales. So I'd never really claimed any
7:33
income because I'd never really sold anything.
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And, and again, I, I lost on some, I, I came out ahead on
7:39
some and it was always kind of like a wash.
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So I never really thought about it.
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But then I got that tax form for me from eBay and I'm like, OK, I
7:46
guess I'm doing this. And so I uploaded it.
7:49
You know, when I answered the question, did you receive one of
7:51
these forms? Yes.
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You know, how much is in this box?
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Type it in and, and then when I got done crunching all the
7:59
numbers, I, I lost money. So I'd actually ended up working
8:03
out my, my best interest because I think, I think that I got to
8:06
write it off as a loss and it helped me a little bit on my
8:09
taxes maybe. So I, I'm not the right guy to
8:13
ask because again, I don't sell a ton, but again, I think the
8:21
way it works is, it's the difference between what you paid
8:23
for the item and the profit. If you have a profit and then
8:28
the times that you sold it for less than you bought it for, it
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offsets it. So I'm not a guy who's buying
8:34
cards for $100 and selling them for 10,000.
8:39
I, I don't know. And, and do I do it as a small
8:42
business or a hobby? I've no idea.
8:44
I just know that when I go into TurboTax, it asks questions.
8:48
Did you earn any income from any of these things?
8:52
Yes. Then it asks me other questions
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and I put in numbers, so I have no idea.
8:57
I, I think I, I, I and I do my taxes.
9:03
I mean, and I think I'm doing it right.
9:06
I don't know if you work for the IRS.
9:09
Just know that I'm not trying to do anything wrong.
9:11
If I, if I'm doing something wrong, if anything, I think I'm
9:14
one of these guys that under deducts and overpays.
9:18
If I were to guess, I think I probably pay more in taxes than
9:22
I'm supposed to because I'm so afraid of doing something wrong
9:25
that I'm going to get in trouble.
9:26
That's just kind of how I work. So Long story short, I don't
9:31
have a great answer. When I put in the form from
9:34
eBay, I think, I think that it did it as a business, I think,
9:40
But then I ended up with a loss. So I guess I didn't even pay any
9:44
taxes because I sold more cards that went down.
9:49
When you factor in all the costs and everything as as I as the
9:55
amount of the cards that went up.
9:57
So I guess I'm not very good at this, I guess.
10:00
I guess the Long story short is I didn't have income and so I'm
10:05
not very good at this, but I'm having fun, so that's all I got.
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But yeah, I would say consult your accountant, consult a tax
10:15
attorney and pay your taxes. That's my advice.
10:21
But if you're, you know, a a very small guppy and a very
10:26
small mud puddle like me, there's not really much income
10:30
happening. This one says, hi, Greg, another
10:34
great episode. Question for someone who's still
10:37
early in returning to the hobby, What scenarios would you be open
10:42
to buying a card with an authentic grade?
10:47
All right, authentic cards. Now you're asking me my, I mean,
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you say, what would you be scenarios that I would be Greg,
10:56
you, me, me would be open to owning a card that's authentic.
11:03
Now, the first of all, this can be a different answer for
11:05
everyone. You know, some people will say I
11:07
would own authentic cards under these cases, under this
11:11
scenario, in this scenario, but not this scenario.
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I don't, I don't have like this opinion that I think other
11:17
people should adopt on this topic.
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I have my opinion and and my opinion at times has kind of
11:26
wavered a little bit. So I will share where I stand on
11:29
this. For a while I was like, I don't
11:32
want to own any authentic card assuming that it's authentic
11:37
altered. So there are different, there
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are different designations. There's like authentic altered
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meaning somebody did something to it that they want to make
11:50
sure that the future buyer knows that something was done to it.
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Then there's like authentic, just authentic.
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Like sometimes people will just get a card authenticated.
12:01
It won't be to be graded. It'll just say, I want to make
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sure that it's authentic, that it's real.
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I don't want to grade. I just want you to tell me that
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it's real. And then there's like authentic
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and, and like minimum size not met, meaning like there's no
12:18
evidence that it was trimmed or altered, but it came out of the
12:23
pack smaller than it was supposed to.
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Cause a lot of vintage cards were cut with, you know, archaic
12:30
styles of cutting. And so the cards aren't uniform
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in size. So where would I?
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I would buy a card that was not graded, it was just
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authenticated. I would buy a card that is
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authentic minimum size not met an in some cases I would buy a
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card that's authentic altered. Now authentic altered.
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I used to say no, always no, I don't want to be because to me
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and somebody altered a card, they did it to deceive someone.
13:05
And I like the story behind cards.
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I like thinking about who handled them and that it was
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stored and shown to people and how how did it make it to me.
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And it's somewhere along the line that card, somebody did
13:20
something to it to try to deceive somebody by adding color
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or by trimming it or by trying to erase something on it.
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If they did something to try to deceive it, it kind of like
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ruined the history of the card for me.
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So for a while I was like, I don't think I, I don't think
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that's for me, but I've kind of changed a little bit on that,
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that now some cards, the fact that they even exist is special.
13:48
So cards that are super rare, like, you know, popular, for
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example, perfect example, the the N 19 Pirates of the Spanish
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main cards, Blackbeard card, right?
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There's like 30 of them in that have ever been graded between
14:04
PSA and STC is like 3030. That's it.
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And and the fact that some even exists still all the way back
14:15
from 1888 when it was printed is pretty special.
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So somewhere along the lines, you know, somebody trimmed up an
14:22
edge or somebody erased something or somebody did
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something to kind of alter it in, in a rare, in a situation
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like that where it's it's rare and just its existence is, is
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pretty cool. And, and it might be the only
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opportunity I have to even acquire it is that it was
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altered. Then I'm open to that too.
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That does not make these the right answers.
14:47
Some people could care less. They couldn't, sorry.
14:50
Some people couldn't care less. I've been corrected on that,
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that that a card was altered. Some people say, Oh no, but it's
14:58
the Scarlet letter. I have no interest in it anymore
15:01
because it's been altered. I understand all of that, but
15:04
that's for me. Minimum size not met.
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I'm good with that Card that was just authenticated, doesn't have
15:12
a grade, so it's just marked authentic.
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I'm good with that. And in the case of a very rare
15:17
card where one of my only opportunities to own the card
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would be to, you know, hypothetically own one that had
15:25
something done to it, then I would be open minded to that
15:28
too. But that is a change from where
15:32
I probably was five years ago, maybe even a change from where I
15:36
was even a year ago, because this type of question has come
15:39
up before. And I used to say if it's if
15:43
it's altered, I don't want it. And now I say, well, if it's
15:46
altered, I don't want it unless it's one of the only ways that
15:50
I'd be able to acquire it. So that's where I am now.
15:56
This one says question for your next video.
15:59
As you collect and learn about the people you collect, some
16:02
unsavory facts sometimes pop up. First, let me apologize for the
16:07
language, but it's hard to get around it straight up.
16:10
Do you collect a holes? If so, how do you determine who
16:15
makes the cut? Despite this, with the
16:18
controversy of Bill Belichick not getting into the Hall of
16:21
Fame, I figured it would be a timely question.
16:24
I'm sure not a lot of people have Bill Belichick cards, but
16:28
other names do come to mind. Barry Bonds is the most
16:32
notorious. His ability to be a jerk is just
16:36
as legendary as his feats on the field.
16:39
There are other lesser examples as well like Brett Favre which
16:43
really pained me to see after growing up watching him pull my
16:47
Packers out of the dark ages. And I was shocked to learn even
16:52
the Splendid Splinter himself. Ted Williams wasn't a great
16:56
human either. I believe Mike Junk wax hero has
16:59
even had a run in with him and got treated poorly as a child.
17:04
You should ask him about it on your next show.
17:08
I've decided to keep these guys out of my collection, but who
17:12
knows, I may change and my tune later.
17:17
All right, it it's interesting that this one came out this week
17:20
'cause I had some overlap. This somewhat kind of came up in
17:26
my Monday episode when we were talking about, you know, what we
17:30
collecting cards that are special and, and, you know,
17:33
cards that we would want to purchase if our collection were
17:38
to, you know, have something happen to it.
17:41
And, and so there's a little overlap here, but I have a
17:44
little bit of a fresh take, I think, on this particular topic
17:47
here. See, part of the problem I have
17:51
is there's a difference between an allegation and a fact.
17:58
And a lot of people, if there's an allegation, that's enough for
18:02
them and there's some people that they need to know that it's
18:05
a fact for it to be enough for them to believe something.
18:10
Now, whatever your threshold is, you know, beyond a reasonable
18:14
doubt, more likely than not, whether you want to go into a
18:16
legal definition or you want to go into just, you know, a normal
18:20
regular day definition. You know, I am a person who
18:26
tends to give the benefit of the doubt.
18:28
And I've talked about this before many times, that at times
18:32
that is a, that is a quality about me that people like.
18:40
And at times it is a quality about me that people don't like.
18:43
And some people, their threshold isn't, it doesn't take a lot for
18:48
them to feel that an allegation is a fact.
18:52
Now, what makes something a fact instead of an allegation?
18:55
Now, again, I'm sure that somebody could get into legal
18:58
terms and they can start splitting hairs.
19:01
But for me, if I know for a fact, not an allegation, but a
19:08
fact that somebody did certain things, then I absolutely have
19:16
not collected their stuff or have sold their stuff.
19:20
I've talked about this a couple of times, that I no longer own
19:25
any OJ Simpson stuff. Does that mean if you collect OJ
19:29
Simpson that you're a bad person?
19:31
I don't think it makes you a bad person, but it's just not for
19:34
me. It just doesn't sit right for
19:36
me. And, you know, some people would
19:40
say that the OJ Simpson thing is a fact.
19:44
And some people would say, well, it's probably true, but we don't
19:50
know for sure. You know, there are lots of
19:54
allegations. There are allegations about, you
19:57
know, some famous players that many of us collect, that that
20:04
cheated on their wives, that were Alcoholics, that use drugs,
20:10
that use PEDs, that stole signs, that were racists, that, you
20:19
know, dated underage people. Now, some of those people that
20:24
when I said each of those, there's probably a name or an
20:27
image that popped up for different people.
20:29
And, and you say, Oh yeah, well, that guy.
20:32
And then there's some guys, you just go, well, that guy was just
20:34
a jerk, you know, and, and OK, maybe the person is a jerk, but
20:41
on some days people might think I'm a jerk.
20:44
But on some days people might not think I'm not.
20:47
Does that mean I'm a jerk? If there have been times that
20:50
I've been a jerk, am IA jerk. Now some of you go, of course
20:54
you're a jerk, Greg. And some people go, no, no,
20:56
you're not a jerk, Greg. I know jerks.
20:59
That's not you. I think I've said the word jerk
21:02
more in the last two minutes than I have in the last 10
21:05
years. But the point that I'm trying to
21:08
make is, is how do we know what to believe?
21:12
We live in this world where it's so easy to share communication.
21:15
It's so easy to share opinion. It's so easy for us to read
21:19
something and you go, is that real or is that not real?
21:23
Is that did that actually happen?
21:24
Or is this just some, you know, story or or tale that somebody
21:28
made-up? It's hard to know, especially
21:31
with some of the AI pictures and videos that they can make.
21:34
And there's things that we all see and we don't know what to
21:37
believe anymore. But I don't know if I've ever
21:40
known what to believe. That might make me naive, and I
21:44
might be naive, and I'm OK with that.
21:47
I just know that each day what I try to do is I try to be a good
21:51
person and I do my best to be a good person, and I'm absolutely
21:55
going to fail a lot. I'm going to fail at that, at
21:58
being a good person, more than I'd like to admit, and nobody
22:01
will be. I don't need you guys in the
22:03
comments to tell me when I did something wrong.
22:07
I don't need you to e-mail me and tell me that I'm a bad
22:10
person or that I was wrong on something.
22:12
I don't need any. Nobody will ever be harder on me
22:17
than me. Nobody.
22:19
So I don't need anybody's help in pointing out all of my flaws.
22:23
I am well aware of them, you know?
22:26
But again, there's just what's true, what's not true.
22:30
Some people would say it's true that Ty Cobb was a bad person,
22:35
and some people say that's not true.
22:37
That was a lie. OK.
22:40
There have been books written saying he was a bad person.
22:42
There have been books written saying the stories about him
22:45
being a bad person are false. So what's true is one of them a
22:50
fact and one of them not. I've heard stories about a lot
22:53
of players fixing baseball games back in the early 1900s.
23:00
They fixed baseball games, but they're in the Hall of Fame.
23:05
But Pete Rose isn't. Is Pete Rose a bad person?
23:09
Maybe. Did he bet on baseball?
23:12
Well, he admitted it, so I'm going to say yes.
23:16
But if there are other people who took bribes to fix games,
23:20
but they're in the Hall of Fame and people collect them, what
23:23
makes somebody a bad person? Is it if you mistreat somebody
23:27
and you're you're disrespectful to a reporter like Barry Bonds
23:30
and you have an attitude and you think you're all that like Barry
23:33
Bonds, does that make you a bad person and we shouldn't collect
23:35
them? Or what about the guy who cheats
23:38
on his wife relentlessly? I I would make the argument that
23:43
the guy who cheated on his wife 20 times might be a worse person
23:47
than the guy who had an attitude and thought he was that all
23:49
that. So we look at some guy, I mean,
23:52
because there are a lot of people in the hobby that a lot
23:56
of people collect that were Alcoholics, that took greenies,
24:03
that stole signs, that cheated on their spouses.
24:08
But we kind of look the other way.
24:11
But then there are other people and we go, well, that guy took
24:15
APED. That guy was always rude to
24:19
reporters. So I'm not going to collect
24:22
them. Now, do I think Bill Belichick
24:25
belongs in the Hall of Fame? Of course, of course, of course
24:30
she belongs in the Hall of Fame. Well, what about Deflategate?
24:34
Well, should Brady not be in the Hall of Fame?
24:37
What about stealing signs and and recording the sidelines to
24:42
steal information? I don't know.
24:46
I mean, if we think again is what's a fact and what's an
24:50
allegation and what allegation is worthy, is worthy of, of of
24:57
saying, well, that person I can't collect.
25:01
Here's what I think. I think everybody watching this,
25:06
everybody has cards of human beings that are flawed because
25:14
guess what? We're all flawed.
25:17
And some of the human beings that you collect and you really
25:22
like them a lot and you're like, wow, this guy was the greatest,
25:27
wasn't faithful to his wife, drank too much, took some stuff,
25:36
threw some games, took some bribes.
25:40
So where do we draw the line? And this is the beauty.
25:44
The beauty is we all get to decide for ourselves.
25:48
We all get to decide for ourselves.
25:51
My junk wax hero as a kid, met Ted Williams, wasn't a great
25:55
experience for him. I met Ted Williams as a kid.
25:59
Was a great experience for me. A lot of people talk about how
26:03
Rodger Clemens is a awful human being.
26:06
They hate him and they could go through a whole list of reasons
26:09
that they hate him. He was great to me.
26:14
Well, just because he was great to you, Greg, doesn't mean he's
26:16
not an awful person. I agree.
26:20
I, again, I think a lot of you on my worst day would say, Greg,
26:25
you're an awful person. Does that mean I am?
26:29
Maybe. I don't know.
26:32
I think that there are a lot of allegations, but we don't really
26:37
know what has happened with people.
26:40
So I think instead of listening to all the noise, what you
26:44
should collect is what you're comfortable with.
26:46
If you decide you want to have an OJ Simpson card, then you
26:50
should buy an OJ Simpson card. And if somebody else thinks that
26:54
you're a bad person for doing that, that's OK.
26:57
If you want to collect the Roger Clemens card, collector Rodger
27:01
Clemens card, if you want to collect Barry Bonds because of
27:05
how incredible he was on the field, then that's what you
27:08
should do. If it brings you joy to add
27:11
Barry Bonds cards to your collection, who cares if
27:14
somebody else hates him? Who cares if somebody else is
27:18
like, I would never collect him because he was rude to his
27:21
teammates and he was rude to reporters.
27:24
It's your collection. You get to do whatever you want
27:28
with your collection, so you should collect what you want.
27:33
Now me again, what do I do? Are there certain players I
27:37
don't collect? I had OJ Simpson cards and I
27:44
sold them. Again, it's just hard to know.
27:53
Ray Lewis. But what did Ray Lewis do?
27:57
What did Ray Lewis not do? I don't know.
28:03
But I know he was around on a night where some stuff went
28:07
down. Does that mean we shouldn't
28:09
collect him? Does that mean he's a bad guy?
28:11
I don't know. That's up for each of us to
28:13
decide. The two players that I
28:18
personally don't think I, I, I don't know.
28:24
I'm going to get grief for this. Some of the allegations against
28:31
Cap Anson are pretty bad and But will I ever own a Cap Anson
28:38
card? Probably not.
28:43
Also probably because I can't afford one anyway.
28:46
Does that mean if you have a cap Anson card that you're bad?
28:48
No, it does not mean that we can collect cards of players who
28:54
were, you know, vital to, to to the game that were historic in
29:01
their abilities. And some people just want to
29:04
collect what somebody did on the field.
29:07
And I don't think you're wrong if I personally don't think you
29:12
are wrong if you want to collect cards of people that other
29:17
people might find unsavory. If you want to focus on what
29:20
people did on the court and on the field and collect them,
29:26
that's what you should do. If you say no, I'm only
29:30
collecting the good guys, the Brooks Robinsons, the Stan
29:34
Mutuals, those are the only guys that I would collect, well, then
29:38
that's what you should do. There's not a right or a wrong
29:41
way to do this. Even though I have no doubt
29:45
there are people out there that would say, Oh yes, there is.
29:48
There is a wrong way to do it. There are people you should not
29:52
be collecting. There are people that would say
29:54
that and I would say if it brings you joy and if you like
30:00
it, whose collection is this? Anyway that's my take.
30:05
I don't even know if I answered the question but I did my best.
30:10
This one says do you remember how you got into pre war cards?
30:14
For some reason they are not tugging on my collecting soul
30:18
yet. Sort of, I sort of remember,
30:25
first of all, you have to remember I grew up card
30:27
collecting. My dad got into card collecting
30:31
around 1990, maybe a little bit before that.
30:36
And we went to a lot of card shows together.
30:39
And my dad was a vintage card collector.
30:41
He collected mostly 5859 and 60 cuz those are the, those are the
30:45
sets that he collected when he was a kid.
30:47
And so my dad was one of these people who is he would dig for
30:51
deals. He was just digging for deals
30:53
mostly at that time through binders, trying to find high
30:57
quality examples of Commons that were overlooked because the
31:05
Commons weren't really cared about.
31:07
And condition, you got to remember for a long time, for a
31:11
lot of collectors, condition was not that big of a deal.
31:16
Now, now PSA would like you to believe that that condition is
31:21
the only thing that matters. But but there was a time where
31:26
it didn't matter as much as just about having the card.
31:30
And so when my dad would, you know, I would go to a show with
31:33
my dad, like a big show, and I would be like, I would have gone
31:36
through the whole show twice. And my dad was on his fourth
31:39
table. And so I spent lots of time
31:43
hanging out and a lot of the time that I hung out would,
31:47
would always be checking back in with my dad.
31:50
And my dad was always at the vintage tables.
31:52
So I spent a lot of time around vintage tables.
31:57
And I remember vividly a lot of T2O6 cards stood out to me.
32:05
I saw my first Honus Wagner. I was probably 10, saw a couple
32:09
of them at big shows in San Francisco, in the Bay Area.
32:14
And it stood out. Seen a Ty Cobb card, seen a Cy
32:19
Young card, seen a Walter Johnson card.
32:23
That was like a big deal. And the the cards that I
32:26
remember the most are the T2 O 6 is probably because of the Honus
32:31
Wagner thing. And then they were obviously a
32:35
significantly different size than the cards that I was
32:38
collecting as a kid. You know, as a kid, you're like,
32:41
yeah, I guess those 52 topsies are a little bit bigger than
32:45
the, you know, 87 donners cards I'm collecting.
32:49
But they they didn't really stand out.
32:53
So when you'd go through a case and something looked distinctly
32:56
different than what you were used to, they could have stood
33:00
out. So they they certainly stood
33:02
out. So because of all of that, I
33:06
remember seeing a lot, but it was always like, why I would
33:08
never, I would never be able to own one of those cards.
33:11
Even a common like that didn't seem possible to own a common of
33:17
AT2O6. So I always had admiration for
33:20
them. I was always aware of them.
33:23
I never really thought it was possible that I might own
33:27
anything like that. And then as I got older and I
33:32
started, I think what happened for me was the more you go to
33:38
shows, the more you scroll on eBay or CIA auctions or Golden
33:44
or Rea or wherever you're scrolling.
33:47
There are some things that you see over and over and over and
33:50
you kind of get immune to it. And then eventually you see
33:57
something. Oh, Ivan, I haven't really seen
34:00
that before. Or oh, there's one of those.
34:03
Did you see this show your friends in the case?
34:06
Did you see the one of these are over here?
34:08
Because it was different than you're used to.
34:11
And I think for a lot of us, part of collecting vintage cards
34:17
is it is a bit of a treasure hunt.
34:20
It is a bit of a searching for something, whether it's the
34:25
perfectly centered example, whether it's an affordable
34:29
example, whether it's one without creases, whether it's
34:32
packed fresh and sharp like you like, however it is that you
34:35
like. We all kind of have these things
34:39
that we are always sort of looking for.
34:43
And then when you see it, you're like, oh, we'll eventually.
34:47
I think you see enough of the same sort of stuff that the
34:51
things that you don't see that often feel more special because
34:57
it's not something you see every day.
34:59
You know, I, I, my brain is weird.
35:03
I remember my brother went to the University of Cincinnati,
35:09
which is in southern Ohio, obviously.
35:12
And I mean, Cincinnati doesn't even have their, their airport
35:15
is in Kentucky, right? Because it's right across the
35:19
river. And I remember this distinctly.
35:23
I was sitting in a a car. I was out there visiting my
35:28
brother. I was sitting in a car and my
35:30
brother ran in to get something from like his apartment or his
35:33
friend's apartment. And I was just seeing the car,
35:35
waiting for them to come come back.
35:37
And I looked out the window and I saw a cardinal, a bright red
35:44
cardinal. And it blew my mind.
35:47
I was like, Oh my gosh, that's a cardinal.
35:50
Just like, just like the team. It blew my mind.
35:56
And I just, I couldn't believe it.
35:58
My brother came back and I was like, dude, I just saw a
36:00
cardinal. He's like, yeah, they're all
36:02
over the place here. And I was like, really?
36:06
A lot of tourists will come out to the United States and
36:11
California and they'll see squirrels and they take pictures
36:15
of them because it's a squirrel, because where they live they
36:18
don't see squirrels. When there's something that you
36:21
don't see very often or ever and then you see it, it is kind of
36:30
memorable. And I think that that's kind of,
36:34
for me, what happened is the more I was around 1950s and
36:41
1960s tops and Bowman cards that I'm like, I see this all the
36:46
time. And then you go to a show and
36:49
you see something that you don't see all the time.
36:53
I think that's partly why modern collectors are so drawn to the
36:57
numbered cards like the out of fives and the oranges and the
37:01
Reds and the Super factors because you just don't see them
37:04
all the time. But every show you go to,
37:07
there's going to be a green out of 99, a blue out of 150, a
37:11
purple out of 250. Those are all over the place,
37:14
but rarely you see a super factor when you go up to a case
37:18
and you see that's a one of one is it's a needle in a haystack.
37:25
I think that what's memorable and what's drawn to us is
37:29
something that we don't see all the time.
37:31
And that's one of the reasons I think that the more you see
37:36
cards, the more you're in the hobby.
37:40
The longer you're in the hobby, the more you're drawn to the
37:44
stuff that you just don't see all the time.
37:46
That's my take. That doesn't make it the right
37:49
take. Look at the guys who've been in
37:52
the hobby for a really long time.
37:56
They still appreciate a 1960 tops Mickey Mantle, but they get
38:01
really excited for something that you see less often like a
38:07
dandy Mickey Mantle that don't catch that will catch their
38:12
attention. The 1960 tops Mickey Mantle, it
38:16
probably won't even flinch or or take a second look at it.
38:21
I don't know, that's just my take.
38:25
Question. It seems like card shows do not
38:28
sell many insert items from 68 to 72 like the MLB team posters,
38:34
decals, smaller individual posters, NBA rulers, unopened
38:40
Sunoco stamps, etcetera. Why I have a nice collection of
38:45
these items. I realize some may only bring a
38:48
few dollars a piece but thought about doing a small show with
38:53
these items and some vintage cards.
38:55
Unless there's a reason collectors are not interested.
38:58
Thanks. I think what you're describing
39:02
is the beauty of the hobby. The beauty of collecting is that
39:06
we all like different stuff. Now there are some things that
39:10
are more mainstream. Why is it that cards from the
39:14
late 60s and early 70s tend to be more popular than some of
39:19
those insert items like you just mentioned from the late 60s and
39:22
early 70s? Why is that Why?
39:24
I think more people are aware of them and more people, it brings
39:28
them nostalgia when they collect them.
39:31
See, nostalgia is unquestionably powerful and it's a lot of why
39:36
many of us are involved in this whole thing.
39:39
But if you didn't collect within those couple of few years that
39:44
had some of those things and there were different things, you
39:47
know, tops had some stamps and the posters like you, you
39:50
mentioned the pin UPS. Like there were definitely
39:53
things that happened. But if it only happened for a
39:55
year or two, a little bit here, a little bit there, maybe you
39:59
collected a year that they didn't have them.
40:01
Maybe growing up, the three 4-5 years you were opening packs,
40:04
they didn't have them. They don't hit that nostalgia
40:09
for you because they don't really remind you of whatever it
40:17
is. That you like being reminded of.
40:21
And so I think when there are things that are inconsistent,
40:26
the inconsistency of releases like the decals, like the
40:30
stamps, what that results in is a smaller collector base.
40:36
Not because they're not cool, but there's just less people who
40:41
collected them originally. And so there's less of a
40:45
nostalgia pull now. I think it's awesome how there
40:50
are some people who love collecting things like that.
40:54
They don't follow the masses and collect the things that a lot of
40:59
people collect. They go, no, I like this stuff
41:02
you don't see very often. I like the hunt.
41:04
I mean, I think ticket stubs are awesome.
41:08
I love ticket stubs and I have gone through waves where I did
41:13
lots of ticket stub collecting, but a lot of people don't
41:17
collect ticket stubs and they're just like, why would you ever
41:19
buy that? I understand that.
41:23
I do understand that perspective, but I think they're
41:26
cool and I know some people spend a lot of money on them and
41:31
really like them. So I, I guess the, the, the
41:40
question I, I guess is why aren't they more popular?
41:44
I think the fact that they were kind of sporadically released
41:49
means there are fewer people who were originally participants in
41:54
them. But if you go to something like
41:58
a card, maybe you didn't collect, you know, red heart
42:02
cards, but you did collect cards in the in the middle 1950s, but
42:07
you didn't collect that set. It's an easier transition to go
42:11
from a middle 50s Tops card to a middle 50s red heart card or
42:16
dandy card or some other smaller release card.
42:20
It's it's it's a very similar item, but I think fewer people
42:28
make a transition from cards to like the basketball rulers or
42:33
like the coins. Doesn't mean there's they're not
42:37
cool. Ultimately, you like them and
42:42
and you're saying why don't other people like them?
42:45
And what I would be saying is this is awesome.
42:48
Nobody else likes them. So I have AI have like no
42:51
competition so I can buy up all this stuff that otherwise would
42:55
be unaffordable. If a whole bunch of people liked
42:58
them. That's actually great.
43:00
It's actually great that not a lot of people like them.
43:03
If they were super popular, you would be bummed out because your
43:06
collection wouldn't be as complete as it probably is.
43:11
So I just think, why do people like what they like?
43:16
I think nostalgia has a lot of it and I think that I don't know
43:21
it's it's easier to transition from collecting tops cards to
43:26
some other type of card then it is to go from tops cards to
43:30
coins. But there are also other people
43:33
who collect all of it or just the rarer stuff.
43:37
That's just my take, I could be wrong.
43:40
Maybe I'm crazy. People tell me I'm crazy all the
43:43
time. If you guys have a question for
43:46
an upcoming episode, please don't hesitate down below in the
43:50
comments. Simply ask it in the comments.
43:52
I'll add it to the list and feature it on an upcoming
43:55
episode. Thanks for watching.