Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Card Q & A- October 29, 2025

Transcript

MidLife Sports Card Q & A- October 29, 2025 · Sports Card Clubhouse

• 0:11
  What's going on, everybody? All right, here we are on
• 0:13
  Wednesday. Been a really fun past week and
• 0:19
  I've got some awesome stuff coming up this week.
• 0:22
  Last week I got to have dinner. I hadn't mentioned this.
• 0:25
  I mentioned it beforehand, but not posthand, but I got to hang
• 0:29
  out with my buddy Dan of Dan's Vintage Baseball PC last week.
• 0:34
  He was in town, he came to the house, we looked at some cards,
• 0:38
  we went out to dinner, had a lot of fun hanging out with him.
• 0:42
  The live stream Monday night, those are always a blast.
• 0:46
  Thank you to everybody who came out live, especially if you
• 0:50
  haven't watched it or you didn't watch it live again, check that
• 0:54
  out. There is the recording of it
• 0:56
  that's also available. And remember, if you were one of
• 1:01
  the 50 most active people in the chat during the live, you're
• 1:07
  going into a drawing. I'm going to do that on my
• 1:10
  Friday episode. So Friday is going to be the
• 1:13
  midlife Community show and tell. And then on top of that will be
• 1:18
  an additional drawing for the two giveaways from the Monday
• 1:23
  live stream. Remember, the grand prize is the
• 1:27
  free year subscription to Card Ladder.
• 1:31
  The second thing is that awesome Clemente card, that custom card
• 1:38
  from Scott of Reindeer Studios given to us by our friend Theo
• 1:43
  Clemente Collector. Much appreciation on those on
• 1:49
  Card Ladder, the team at Card Ladder for donating that year
• 1:52
  subscription and then Theo for donating that card.
• 1:55
  So that will be part of Friday's drawings in addition to the
• 1:59
  drawing for the Pennyslever gift cards on for the month for the
• 2:05
  midlife show and tell. So this is Wednesday though,
• 2:08
  Wednesday's Q&A day. I have 5 more great questions,
• 2:13
  one of which got me a little riled up, so let's start things
• 2:19
  off with that. I don't go after other people
• 2:26
  who have channels, but when people go after others and the
• 2:33
  people that they're going after are people that I like, then I
• 2:38
  get a little bit defensive. So let's take a look at this
• 2:41
  first question and then I'll have a bit of a reaction.
• 2:48
  Our first question says, I forget if you discussed this in
• 2:51
  one of your Q&A's. Or your podcast, but.
• 2:54
  Someone asked how to track their card inventory and you gave a
• 2:58
  very compelling answer to use card ladder.
• 3:01
  I just watched Jeff Wilson's. Response video.
• 3:05
  To the criticism he got for his $4000 up charge recently and he
• 3:10
  and Teapot said that card ladder prices were wildly inaccurate.
• 3:15
  Do you have any response to this?
• 3:17
  Thanks. OK, so I don't throw a lot of
• 3:23
  stones. One of the things I don't do on
• 3:25
  this channel, and you all know it if you watch regularly, is I
• 3:29
  don't really attack other content people.
• 3:33
  I don't attack other people who have channels.
• 3:36
  I let them there do their thing. I do my thing.
• 3:39
  There are times where I will have some harsh comments towards
• 3:44
  some of the big corporations when I think that they're doing
• 3:47
  something that's not in the best interest of the card community.
• 3:50
  But I don't usually go after other people who have channels.
• 3:55
  That said, Teapot and Jeff Wilson recently went after Card
• 4:03
  Ladder and they they said some fairly strong things.
• 4:09
  And so the first thing I want to do is if you didn't see it, let
• 4:12
  me just show you a clip of what was said by Teapot and Jeff
• 4:17
  Wilson here. I think it's a huge problem that
• 4:20
  they're deciding now what your card is worth and they're using
• 4:25
  card ladder estimated values in many cases, which we know are
• 4:30
  wildly inaccurate. And I'm not saying that because
• 4:32
  I work on market movers. It's just a fact.
• 4:34
  They're not accurate. They give the times they're bad,
• 4:37
  and they're using that to determine the value of your
• 4:39
  card. OK, so they they said that it's
• 4:46
  just a fact that card ladder values are wildly inaccurate.
• 4:53
  I want to say a couple of things right off the bat.
• 4:55
  First, I actually like Teapot. I have had dialogue with teapot.
• 5:01
  I have spoken on the phone with teapot.
• 5:04
  We have texted several times. I I genuinely like teapot and I
• 5:11
  love his passion for market movers.
• 5:14
  And I think that Jeff has basically he has embraced the
• 5:20
  hobby heel status. He he went from this guy who was
• 5:26
  starting a channel and was trying to give investment advice
• 5:32
  to now he's basically just accepted the hobby heel.
• 5:37
  He just any attention is good attention lightning rod And you
• 5:43
  know, I watched some of Jeff's content, but I'm not like a huge
• 5:49
  Jeff Jeff Wilson content watcher, but I do watch some of
• 5:54
  his things. I think some of the stuff he
• 5:55
  produces is interesting. I appreciate some of the
• 5:58
  attention that he has helped the the hobby get.
• 6:04
  But I I think that when whenever anybody is talking about
• 6:09
  investing and investment advice, especially when it comes to
• 6:16
  modern cards and prospects, that's not an investment.
• 6:22
  An investment is not saying this prospect is a good investment
• 6:28
  that those two things don't go along.
• 6:31
  Now are there current players who I I think somebody could say
• 6:35
  they invest in? Sure.
• 6:39
  There there are some guys like Shohei and Aaron Judge that I
• 6:45
  think are sure thing Hall of Farmers and you could
• 6:51
  potentially talk about investing in them, but investing in
• 6:56
  prospects, those things, that's an oxymoron to invest in a
• 7:01
  prospect. Now, if you want to prospect in
• 7:03
  a prospect, that's one thing. So, but that that's a whole
• 7:07
  different conversation. I'm not going to get into my
• 7:10
  pros and cons of Jeff Wilson right now.
• 7:12
  I want to focus specifically on what they said about card ladder
• 7:17
  because I I have aligned myself with card ladder.
• 7:21
  I came out and I said I am deleting market movers off of my
• 7:26
  phone. I am deleting VCP off of my
• 7:28
  phone because I don't need them because card Ladder is the best
• 7:32
  app. And I do believe that.
• 7:34
  I do believe that. I still believe that regardless
• 7:37
  of what those two had to say. So I just want to do a quick
• 7:42
  little reminder to everyone from the National.
• 7:49
  During the National, you know, a lot of people were making videos
• 7:53
  and posting videos. I'm going to show you our friend
• 7:57
  Flippin Steve. This is a brief clip of Flippin
• 8:02
  Steve's, one of Flippin Steve's videos from the.
• 8:06
  By the way, I got to meet Flippin Steve at the National.
• 8:09
  He's a really cool guy. I really like him.
• 8:10
  In fact, Steve, if you are watching this and you ever want
• 8:14
  to come on, let me know. I'd love, I'd love to do some
• 8:17
  sort of collaboration with you. Let's take a look at at this
• 8:21
  brief clip of one of his videos from The National.
• 8:24
  Made our way back to one of the CARDS HQ booths.
• 8:28
  So we're back here, the Cards HQ buying center, and they're using
• 8:32
  the card letter, not the market. OK, so we have the owner of
• 8:39
  Cards HQ who just agreed with the head of market movers, one
• 8:46
  of the competitors, head competitors of Card Ladder that
• 8:51
  the values that Card Ladder uses are wildly inaccurate.
• 8:57
  But at the National when Cards HQ are are doing buying, they
• 9:06
  are not using market movers, they are using Card Ladder.
• 9:11
  So I guess my first question would be why are cards HQ
• 9:16
  employees using card ladder instead of market movers?
• 9:22
  Especially why are they doing that if if card ladder is wildly
• 9:27
  inaccurate. OK, that that would be my first
• 9:29
  question. Why aren't they using the in
• 9:32
  house card valuation app? That's my first thing.
• 9:37
  My second thing is this I I don't think anybody is ever
• 9:43
  going to say that any card app is perfect.
• 9:50
  I think that whenever any sort of algorithm or any sort of
• 9:56
  mathematical equation puts approximate values on cards,
• 10:02
  those cards, that does not mean that those prices are going to
• 10:08
  be dead on. Because as we know, not all
• 10:11
  cards are created equal. Even 2 cards with the same grade
• 10:14
  are certainly not created equal. So to say that one app has
• 10:20
  accurate values and the other one has bad values that that
• 10:26
  that that doesn't even make sense to me.
• 10:29
  For me, the the main thing that card apps do is 1.
• 10:35
  The interface. OK, how easy is it to use #2 how
• 10:41
  much data from how many different auction sites and
• 10:46
  sales histories that are out there does a card app do?
• 10:52
  And for me, who at times are looking for cards that have not
• 10:58
  very many sales, there might be a card that's only been sold
• 11:02
  three times in the last 20 years.
• 11:04
  I want the app that has the longest history and covers the
• 11:10
  most number of auction houses possible and the most number of
• 11:16
  public sales possible, and even some private sales if possible.
• 11:20
  And Card Ladder does that. Card Ladder has the the longest
• 11:26
  history of auction results. It has the most number of
• 11:30
  auction houses and and so the comps are really important.
• 11:35
  So the ease of use to me by far easier with Card ladder #2 has
• 11:40
  the best sales history by far in my opinion.
• 11:44
  And I like that Card Ladder has a variety of options on how to
• 11:52
  value cards. So they have a few things,
• 11:56
  including they keep an index, and that index is all of the
• 12:01
  cards of a player at all of the grades, and it tracks what's
• 12:07
  happening with that particular player.
• 12:10
  Now I'm going to move to the side a little bit because I'm
• 12:12
  going to put up on the screen here.
• 12:15
  I'm going to put up how one how when you are in card ladder and
• 12:21
  you want to track the value of a card, you have multiple options.
• 12:25
  So I have this Aussie Smith card and if I put this Aussie Smith
• 12:28
  card into my card ladder collection and then I I click on
• 12:34
  it, what I can do is I can have the index plus what I bought the
• 12:41
  card to help calculate the value.
• 12:44
  There are multiple different ways that card ladder allows me
• 12:48
  to choose how the card is currently valued based on which
• 12:54
  of those options on the menu work best for me.
• 12:57
  I like that because a lot of the times if there's a card that I
• 13:01
  buy that's a 7 and maybe I bought it above comp and the
• 13:04
  reason I bought it above comp is because it's an exceptional copy
• 13:08
  of that card. Then using what I bought it for
• 13:11
  compared to the average card and tying that to the index.
• 13:16
  If the card goes up in if that that players cards are going up
• 13:19
  in value, then this card is going to stay up high.
• 13:23
  It it, it, it's kind of complicated to explain, but I
• 13:29
  think that card ladder gives you options and I think that any app
• 13:35
  that claims that their valuations are fantastic and the
• 13:41
  other ones are bad. I think, I think that's kind of
• 13:46
  lame because especially with vintage to to tie the value to a
• 13:52
  number grade is just not how it works anymore.
• 13:56
  So that's not how I use Card ladder.
• 14:00
  I don't look at that for the value.
• 14:03
  I look at it for the sales history and it has the best.
• 14:07
  I look it for the ease of use and it's the best.
• 14:10
  So because of that, I stand by card ladder and I we shouldn't
• 14:16
  be surprised that the guys over at market movers are going to
• 14:20
  throw shade at the company that is beating them.
• 14:25
  You know that they are beating them.
• 14:28
  Any company in any industry that is losing is going to talk trash
• 14:35
  about the company that is beating them.
• 14:38
  So again, I'll continue to say this.
• 14:42
  I like teapot. Genuinely.
• 14:45
  I I think Teapot is a good dude. Jeff I've never met in person,
• 14:50
  I've never talked to, I've never corresponded with.
• 14:56
  I don't like how Jeff gives investment advice on prospects.
• 15:01
  I think that that is disingenuous.
• 15:05
  I don't think that a person who has been back in the hobby for a
• 15:10
  short a period of time, as he's been back in the hobby, should
• 15:14
  be trying to tell other people what they should be doing with
• 15:17
  their money. And I also don't really love the
• 15:21
  fact that his channel is called Sports Card Investor.
• 15:26
  Because this is a hobby where a lot of people treat it as as
• 15:30
  fun. And as soon as you start
• 15:34
  attaching things like investor to it, it starts to attract a
• 15:39
  different group, but it also starts to detract from the
• 15:44
  nostalgia and the fun and the light heartedness of the hobby.
• 15:50
  Not investment segment. I again, I, I could say a lot of
• 15:56
  things. I could, I could, I could
• 15:59
  commonly every time somebody says something I disagree with,
• 16:04
  make a video about it. That's not what I'm doing here.
• 16:08
  What I am doing is I am answering a question that one of
• 16:12
  you asked about an accusation that a competitor company made
• 16:19
  about a company that I am affiliated with and that I
• 16:25
  believe in, and I'm going to defend them.
• 16:28
  I did not choose to plant my flag with card ladder because of
• 16:36
  any reason other than card ladder is better than the other
• 16:40
  options. It's the best option.
• 16:43
  That's why I planted my flag there.
• 16:46
  That's the only reason. Our next question says question
• 16:52
  for you. Like many of your viewers, I
• 16:54
  collected when I was young and got back into this a few years
• 16:58
  ago. I've spent a good bit of money
• 17:01
  and added a lot of appealing cards to my collection.
• 17:05
  However, if I take everything I have purchased in the past
• 17:08
  several years, it doesn't measure up well against my
• 17:13
  youthful collection. Is this also the case for you
• 17:17
  and other midlife community members or am I an outlier?
• 17:21
  To be fair, I collected into my early 20s and did go to card
• 17:26
  shows and a variety of card shops in my youth since grading
• 17:31
  wasn't a thing back then. Most of my most valued cards not
• 17:36
  valuable are raw and will likely stay that way.
• 17:42
  All right. This is a good question.
• 17:45
  And and I think that we have to take your question a step
• 17:48
  further and and it is actually proof, your question is actually
• 17:54
  proof that this hobby is not a Sprint, it's a marathon.
• 17:59
  It's not something where somebody can come in and conquer
• 18:02
  it in a short period of time. You said you've been back in the
• 18:06
  hobby for a few years after talking about how you were in
• 18:10
  the hobby in your youth for many years.
• 18:14
  And then you're wondering why the the collection from when you
• 18:19
  were in it for many years is not as great as the the collection
• 18:24
  that you have been back in it for just a few years.
• 18:28
  We can't build the the same amount of nostalgia and memories
• 18:35
  and occurrences that that really create a a an amazing experience
• 18:44
  in a short period of time like one of the like.
• 18:47
  I don't know if you're saying that the value of your
• 18:50
  collection is not as good now as it was then, or if your
• 18:55
  appreciation of your collection. But when you're in the hobby for
• 18:58
  like 1520 years, like it sounds like you were when you were
• 19:03
  younger, and there are so many memories tied up in that
• 19:12
  collection. There are so many hours of
• 19:15
  accumulating and building and trading and buying and working
• 19:21
  on curating your collection that you can't.
• 19:25
  You can't duplicate, you can't replace, you can't.
• 19:29
  You can't make better in just a few years of being back in the
• 19:34
  hobby. What all of us want.
• 19:36
  We live in this world right now, myself included, all of us where
• 19:40
  every question that we have, we could have answered in seconds
• 19:45
  literally at our fingertips. And what we've done is we've
• 19:48
  created this world that has absolutely no patience.
• 19:52
  We all want everything right now.
• 19:56
  There's we. We don't have to wait for
• 19:58
  anything, you know, Watch any game you want, any news article
• 20:02
  you want any fact to prove. In in as evidence in a
• 20:08
  discussion or a debate that you're having.
• 20:10
  You can get it right now, but the thing you can't get
• 20:17
  instantaneous is memories. You can't take years and years
• 20:24
  and years and years of being in a hobby and the memories
• 20:27
  attached to those cards and have an equivalent amount of that
• 20:34
  quickly. It it takes time.
• 20:38
  And if, if I look at my card collection, the cards that mean
• 20:43
  the most are the cards that have the stories attached.
• 20:47
  And the cards that have the stories attached are the ones
• 20:51
  that are the cards that are worth more to me than they are
• 20:54
  to everyone else. See the cards that I just bought
• 20:57
  on eBay and you know, I, I didn't really put a lot of
• 21:01
  thought into it, but I thought I saw it and I thought it was
• 21:03
  cool. I'm not really emotionally
• 21:06
  connected to that card. But the card where I went to the
• 21:10
  National and I was with my friends and they looked at it
• 21:13
  with me and I kind of thought about it and I negotiated with
• 21:17
  the dealer. The story and the memory
• 21:20
  attached to that card makes that card more important to me than
• 21:26
  just that card because there's the emotional component as well.
• 21:31
  So I have no doubt in the last few years, you've probably
• 21:35
  picked up some really cool cards.
• 21:38
  You've probably add some cards, added some cards that you didn't
• 21:41
  think you would be able to have acquired at least when you were
• 21:44
  younger. And you probably have have got
• 21:47
  some really cool stuff. But you go, it just still
• 21:49
  doesn't feel as great as the cards when I was a kid.
• 21:55
  That's because the memories attached.
• 21:57
  That's because of the nostalgia attached.
• 21:59
  That's because these cards are not just cards, These cards are
• 22:05
  experiences. So it's a card, but having it,
• 22:11
  why you wanted it, how you got it, the the steps that it took
• 22:16
  to add it to the collection is a huge piece of this hobby and
• 22:22
  part of what makes it unique from other hobbies.
• 22:25
  And I think that this is a perfect reminder that it takes
• 22:31
  time to build memories. When I was dating my wife, right
• 22:38
  early on, I knew that I was enamoured with her.
• 22:42
  But my love for her now, after going through all of the
• 22:48
  experiences that we have, the highs, the lows, the UPS, the
• 22:52
  downs, the places that we've gone, the things that we've
• 22:55
  seen, the the experiences that we've had make our love so much
• 23:00
  stronger now than it was back when I was completely head over
• 23:05
  heels for her when I first met her.
• 23:08
  There are times where the memories are the part that
• 23:13
  really make the collection and we can't make the memories
• 23:19
  overnight. The memories take time, the
• 23:23
  nostalgia takes time. The experiences take time.
• 23:29
  Remember this isn't a Sprint. Enjoy the memories along the
• 23:34
  way. Take time in your acquisitions
• 23:39
  because then it makes the cards that you do have that much more
• 23:44
  special and that much more likely that they will be
• 23:49
  permanent parts of your collection instead of cards that
• 23:53
  you're easier to part with because they don't mean that
• 23:56
  much to you. Because the acquisition of them
• 23:59
  was just kind of like a a random event instead of a special
• 24:03
  moment. This question says, have you
• 24:07
  ever gotten the feeling that certain?
• 24:09
  EBay sellers can see bidders. Max bids.
• 24:14
  There have been multiple instances where I placed a Max
• 24:17
  bid of an unusual amount like $212.12 and the winning bid
• 24:24
  matched that exact amount even though the current price was
• 24:29
  significantly below my maximum. It's just suspicious.
• 24:36
  All right, this is an interesting one.
• 24:40
  I, I don't know if there are shenanigans like that.
• 24:44
  I, I remember there was this story a few years ago where
• 24:48
  there was like online poker. And some of you might remember
• 24:52
  this story where there was online poker and somehow some
• 24:56
  people were, had, had hacked into some system where they
• 25:00
  could literally see other people's hands.
• 25:04
  And so when they were playing online poker, they they
• 25:06
  literally knew what everybody else had as they were betting
• 25:10
  and there was some sort of hack that they did.
• 25:12
  I mean, is it possible that something like that is
• 25:15
  happening? I suppose.
• 25:18
  But I have to think, and maybe I'm naive, that eBay probably
• 25:22
  has about as sophisticated of a security system is just about
• 25:27
  anyone. But I don't know.
• 25:30
  Here's the thing. I do know that with cards, there
• 25:34
  are kind of some ranges on what the card sells for and in some
• 25:38
  cases the range is a pretty small range.
• 25:42
  A card that is frequently sold, you know, like like sold daily.
• 25:47
  Ricky Henderson rookie card tops rookie card in, you know, A7.
• 25:53
  I bet that card sells just about every day.
• 25:56
  And so from one day to the next to the next to the next one,
• 25:59
  there's another one coming the following day or a few hours
• 26:02
  later or a couple hours later. They don't suddenly usually have
• 26:06
  wild swings and prices. And So what ends up happening is
• 26:10
  the the price range is pretty narrow.
• 26:12
  And then maybe it goes up a little bit and then it goes up a
• 26:15
  little bit and then it comes down a little bit.
• 26:17
  But in a series of of time, they're, they're pretty close.
• 26:23
  So it wouldn't shock me on a card like a Ricky Henderson
• 26:29
  rookie card in A7 that when we can see the comps, when we can
• 26:35
  see the sales history that there may not be that much different.
• 26:40
  I mean, if, if they've been, and I don't know what that card is
• 26:42
  selling for right now. I'll say, let's say it's selling
• 26:45
  for $190.00. That's a guess.
• 26:50
  I don't know what it's at at the moment.
• 26:53
  It, it's not like if you bid $195, it's, it's probably not
• 26:59
  that likely that someone's going to come and bid 220 since
• 27:02
  there's probably another one that's going to be for sale
• 27:05
  soon. And then the other piece of it
• 27:07
  is, is when you get into those price ranges, you know, the
• 27:10
  jumps, the, the bid increments are like we'll say $5.00.
• 27:15
  So if the last four, which sold over the last two days sold
• 27:21
  between, you know, 185 and 190 dollars and the bid increments
• 27:28
  are 5 bucks, then it's probably pretty unlikely that they're
• 27:34
  going to bid much differently than you bid.
• 27:38
  So I guess for this one, if it was a, a card that doesn't
• 27:42
  commonly sell at that particular grade and and there have been a
• 27:47
  month or two, then this sounds kind of that does sound a little
• 27:51
  bit strange. But if it's a commonly sold, a
• 27:55
  very frequently sold card, you know a a show, Hey, base batting
• 28:01
  rookie like that card, I bet it sells 10/15/20 times every day.
• 28:08
  So it wouldn't really shock me if somebody else bid within the
• 28:13
  same $5 bid increment as you, putting their your bid right at
• 28:19
  your Max. So I guess I would need more
• 28:23
  information. I I'm not really a conspiracy
• 28:26
  theorist, but there have been conspiracies before, so I
• 28:29
  suppose it's possible. But I'm guessing that you're
• 28:33
  probably talking about cards that are frequently transacted.
• 28:37
  And to be honest, this doesn't surprise me that much because of
• 28:40
  the bid increments and because of the frequency of the sell
• 28:43
  sales making the price ranges pretty tight on cards like that.
• 28:49
  This question says hi, Greg. You have gone on the record
• 28:53
  saying that your preference is to buy cards at a card show or
• 28:57
  in person versus buying a card that is listed on eBay, for
• 29:01
  example, because you're able to hold the card in your hand and
• 29:05
  examine it for yourself. My question is, do you ever feel
• 29:09
  any kind of pressure or anxiety over this?
• 29:13
  If you are spending a certain amount of money, do you take the
• 29:17
  card out of the top loader and examine the surface?
• 29:21
  Since being back in the hobby I have had to build a rhythm and
• 29:24
  game plan for going to shows as the bind dynamic there is
• 29:29
  completely different than buying online.
• 29:31
  I bring a small 10 loop magnifier to take a closer look
• 29:36
  at cards that I might want to grade.
• 29:38
  I'm not exactly uncomfortable doing that, but I've also
• 29:42
  noticed anyone else isn't carrying that around.
• 29:46
  And a bit like a recent midlife discussion topic about whether
• 29:51
  or not we should care what others think about our
• 29:53
  collections. I do feel a little bit of
• 29:56
  anxiety about this, even with this ability to hold cards in my
• 30:01
  hand. I have brought 3 cards home
• 30:04
  recently from 2 separate shows only to notice a bend, a back of
• 30:09
  a card wrinkle, and a surface issue that I had not noticed
• 30:13
  when closely examining the card at the show.
• 30:18
  Have you experienced anything like this?
• 30:20
  Any advice you can offer? Brad, OK, it sounds I'm a fairly
• 30:29
  particular buyer. I am, I am fairly I don't, I
• 30:34
  don't usually keep cards in my collection long term that have
• 30:39
  some sort of issue that bothers me.
• 30:42
  I I've I have absolutely purchased cards, got them home,
• 30:47
  noticed something or it bothered me more once I got it home then
• 30:52
  when I was looking at it and I ended up going I can't handle
• 30:56
  this I have to sell it. That generally happens more when
• 31:02
  I'm buying online. And to your point, that's why I
• 31:06
  try to encourage people and personally I like to buy cards
• 31:10
  in person is because remember, cards are three-dimensional
• 31:14
  objects. They're not 2 dimensional
• 31:16
  objects. So when you're looking at a
• 31:18
  picture, you're looking at A2 dimensional picture of a
• 31:21
  three-dimensional object and it's impossible to see
• 31:24
  everything about the card by A2 dimensional picture.
• 31:27
  So I like seeing it in person where I could see it 3
• 31:30
  dimensionally right. It has depth to it.
• 31:33
  It's it's, it's up and down, it's left and right.
• 31:37
  But then it's also not completely flat.
• 31:43
  And because it's not completely flat, there are surface issues,
• 31:48
  surface issues. See what I did there now by by
• 31:51
  the way, can I just say this as as as didn't that was not
• 31:56
  planned. If you've not yet subscribed to
• 32:02
  our new YouTube channel that I have with Mike of junk wax hero
• 32:08
  and Adam of Splendid Sports called sports card clubhouse,
• 32:13
  would you please consider subscribing?
• 32:15
  I don't ever ask people to subscribe to this channel, but
• 32:19
  as we're starting out this new channel together, we would
• 32:26
  really appreciate your support. So if you guys could make an
• 32:30
  impact for me and go subscribe to Sports Card Clubhouse if
• 32:36
  you've not yet done it. We're putting out some cool
• 32:39
  stuff over there and a lot of people are missing out on it
• 32:42
  because they're not subscribed yet.
• 32:44
  So if you'd consider doing that, I'd appreciate it.
• 32:48
  But to to your point, there are times there are surface issues
• 32:54
  on cards that you can't see on pictures that you might be able
• 33:00
  to see or are more likely to see in person, which is why I like
• 33:04
  buying cards in person. And here's the thing, like you
• 33:08
  just said, there have been several times you've gotten
• 33:11
  home, you've looked at a card and you saw that you missed
• 33:15
  something. Has that happened to me?
• 33:18
  Absolutely. Has it happened to my dad?
• 33:23
  Absolutely. Has it happened to my friends?
• 33:26
  Absolutely. And why does that happen?
• 33:30
  Because we're humans. Because we're taking a quick
• 33:33
  look at it, because it most shows the lighting is awful.
• 33:38
  So what are some things we can do?
• 33:40
  Number one thing I would recommend is bring a flashlight
• 33:44
  with you. Just one of those little
• 33:45
  high-powered strong flashlights that you can click in the end
• 33:49
  and you can shine it over the card.
• 33:51
  When you shine it over the card, it is so much easier to see a
• 33:54
  surface issue. Now when I am buying a really
• 33:58
  expensive card, that's even more important.
• 34:03
  If I'm buying a $3040 card, I'll be honest, I don't look it over
• 34:07
  probably as well as I should. I bought that mini Minoso 52
• 34:13
  tops card at a card show about a month and a half ago and it had
• 34:18
  a fairly significant wrinkle in the front of the card.
• 34:23
  And I kind of noticed the the lighting in the in that room is
• 34:26
  awful. And I kind of noticed a little
• 34:29
  something didn't seem like a big deal.
• 34:30
  And then I got it home and I looked at it under better light
• 34:33
  and I'm like, that's kind of going to drive me crazy.
• 34:38
  That's kind of going to drive me crazy.
• 34:39
  So I ended up selling it. The card had beautiful eye
• 34:43
  appeal, but that bugged me because it bugged me.
• 34:48
  Instead of sitting there going, well, I'm just going to keep
• 34:51
  holding on to it. Even though there's something
• 34:54
  about a card I don't like, I just cut bait.
• 34:56
  I just said, no, let's just cut our losses.
• 35:00
  Off it goes. I sold it, no problem.
• 35:03
  I'll find another one someday. Not a big deal.
• 35:05
  Not a big deal. That's the beauty of cards.
• 35:09
  Now in certain grades we do know that wrinkles are possible and
• 35:16
  even likely. You know if a card is a 1 1/2, a
• 35:19
  two or three, it probably has a wrinkle.
• 35:21
  You may not see it at first, but it's probably there.
• 35:25
  And a flashlight helps a lot. So that would be 1 suggestion.
• 35:29
  Another suggestion I would make is have a hobby buddy at your
• 35:34
  shows before you buy a card have a friend look at it.
• 35:39
  Have another person even if it's not a friend it's just someone
• 35:42
  else at the table. Go what do you think of this
• 35:44
  card and and show it to the person who's standing next to
• 35:47
  you. What are the pros and cons of
• 35:49
  this card? I'm thinking about buying it
• 35:52
  what do you think? Like when I bought my Ty Cobb I
• 35:56
  had 2-3 friends. John Mangini look at it.
• 35:59
  I had John Wade Boggs fan look at it.
• 36:02
  I had Adam Splendid. I don't know, Adam Vintage
• 36:05
  Sanctuary, look at it. I had my dad look at it.
• 36:08
  Adam Vintage Sanctuary. He looped it.
• 36:12
  He's a former coin collector and is really good on a loop.
• 36:15
  And I said, hey, will you check out the registration in his eyes
• 36:18
  for me? He looked it over.
• 36:19
  I said, what do you see? And everybody kind of gave me
• 36:24
  the green light. And then I went over and I
• 36:27
  bought my Cy Young T2O6. And when I bought my Cy Young
• 36:31
  T2O6, I before I, I saw it, I said, I think I want to buy it.
• 36:36
  I went over, I got Tony of Southern collector 14.
• 36:40
  I got Mike Petty. I got Mike junk wax hero went
• 36:46
  back over and said, will you guys look at this card with me?
• 36:48
  What do you see? Do you like it?
• 36:50
  Do you see anything I'm not seeing?
• 36:52
  And I had other people look at it.
• 36:54
  Another thing I've done, and this might sound weird and maybe
• 36:57
  I'm weird for doing it, but another thing I've done is I've
• 37:00
  gone to the dealer and I've said, so this card got a two.
• 37:06
  What do you think the reasons are?
• 37:07
  It got the 2. Is there a is there a crease
• 37:10
  that I'm missing? Is there a wrinkle that I'm
• 37:11
  missing? Is there a pinhole?
• 37:14
  Is it a is there a stain? The lighting's really bad.
• 37:18
  Can you tell me, is there a crease in this card?
• 37:21
  Is there a wrinkle in this card? The dealer's probably going to
• 37:25
  know his cards and, and if they say no, there's no crease and
• 37:29
  then you turn away and you walk away and you go outside and you
• 37:32
  look at it under the sun and you see a big crease.
• 37:35
  It's like, wait, what a SEC. I'd walk back in there and go,
• 37:38
  wait a second. I told you that I didn't see the
• 37:40
  lighting very good. And you know, is there a crease?
• 37:45
  And you said no, but there's this big fat crease right here.
• 37:47
  I couldn't see in the light like I would ask the dealer.
• 37:52
  So I think that those are a few things that I would suggest.
• 37:57
  Those are a couple of things that I would consider is to have
• 38:03
  a have a buddy look at it or a fellow collector look at it.
• 38:06
  I'd ask the dealer for details about the card that they've
• 38:10
  noticed on the card. I would bring a flashlight
• 38:13
  because that really helps you to see the texture better.
• 38:16
  That's probably the best piece of advice because at times a
• 38:19
  loop magnifies, but it doesn't help you see the texture of the
• 38:24
  card. And usually when we miss
• 38:26
  something, it's not the big chunk missing out of the top
• 38:29
  right hand corner. It's not the big stain right
• 38:32
  across his face. It's usually some sort of crease
• 38:35
  or wrinkle. And the flashlight, again, just
• 38:38
  shining a flashlight over it and and from different angles,
• 38:42
  you'll usually pick it up. I need to be better at that.
• 38:46
  I need to be better at that with lower end cards.
• 38:49
  But when I'm buying expensive cards, I always have somebody
• 38:52
  look at it and I always hit it with a flashlight, which I carry
• 38:56
  in my backpack with me. So if you're ever to show and
• 38:59
  you don't have a flashlight with you, and you want to look at a
• 39:01
  car with a flashlight, you're welcome to borrow mine.
• 39:06
  And finally, this one says question for next week.
• 39:09
  The PSA offers program seems to be gaining traction.
• 39:13
  Should card ladder, market movers, VCP, etcetera be
• 39:17
  capturing these transactions in their sales history?
• 39:23
  OK. I think this that is a very
• 39:26
  valid thought and question on you know, a lot of people are
• 39:31
  submitting cards to PSA or they have cards in their their PSA
• 39:36
  vault and they're getting offers for cards and they're doing
• 39:39
  these transactions with with collectors.
• 39:44
  And then what happens is we don't know about what those
• 39:49
  prices are selling at. And if a lot of people are doing
• 39:52
  that and that's gaining traction, then wouldn't it be a
• 39:56
  good thing if we could add those to the data of the sales prices
• 40:02
  of what cards are selling for? Makes perfect sense.
• 40:06
  So I said down below of that comment, I said.
• 40:10
  You know, I'm going to ask Hosh, I'm going to ask Chris Hosh
• 40:13
  that. So I texted Chris and I said, do
• 40:16
  you guys do this? And he said, we've actually
• 40:19
  talked about this on their show The Crossover.
• 40:22
  So Card Ladder has their own YouTube channel.
• 40:26
  They have a show on Fridays called The Crossover.
• 40:29
  It's great. I usually listen to it recorded
• 40:32
  because Lucy's been having games on Fridays.
• 40:35
  And what what he said was the the they don't card ladder does
• 40:41
  not. And the reason that card ladder
• 40:43
  does not is because it's not a public sale.
• 40:48
  A card sale through an auction house, REACIA, Golden, eBay,
• 40:56
  those are public sales where the price is out there publicly,
• 41:00
  people are bidding publicly. The final hammer price is
• 41:03
  public. It's all out in the open.
• 41:06
  These sales happen privately. Now Card Ladder does record
• 41:11
  private sales, but in order for them to utilize private sales
• 41:17
  they have to a verify it and B, they have to get both parties to
• 41:24
  sign off on it. So you can't take a private sale
• 41:29
  and make it public without both sides saying it's OK to make it
• 41:35
  public. So Chris said that Card Ladder
• 41:39
  has suggested to PSA there just be like a little box when they
• 41:45
  accept or reject the deal, it's OK to make this a public sale
• 41:50
  and then they have the consent of the seller and as a result
• 41:56
  they could then make it public. We can't take private
• 42:02
  transactions and make them public just because we want to
• 42:07
  make them public. It's not like it's a transaction
• 42:10
  that goes through a government agency like through the DMV or a
• 42:15
  house changing title. It it's like it's, it's like
• 42:20
  somebody selling something at a garage sale, right?
• 42:23
  And as soon as you start consenting to these things, you
• 42:27
  know, to private sales becoming public, then there's, you know,
• 42:30
  there's tax stuff that you know there.
• 42:34
  It's important and I agree, it's important that both sides
• 42:39
  consent to the private sale becoming a public sale.
• 42:44
  They have thrown that out there to PSA to include that and and
• 42:49
  Card Ladder has said that they would absolutely love to include
• 42:53
  that data in their sales history for comping purposes.
• 42:58
  But until that were to happen, they're not going to do it
• 43:03
  because it's a violation of somebody's privacy.
• 43:08
  Frankly, my personal opinion is I don't really know how valuable
• 43:15
  that sales data would be because it's not an end user who's
• 43:21
  buying it. When somebody takes APSA offer,
• 43:27
  they're basically selling it at a wholesale price because
• 43:31
  they're selling it to 1 of PSA's approved dealers or whatever
• 43:39
  their list is of people who they let have the offers go through
• 43:43
  and and they're then going to sell it.
• 43:47
  So you're basically taking a card when P when someone takes
• 43:50
  APSA offer, it's basically a wholesale transaction instead of
• 43:57
  a retail transaction. So I don't think like if, if
• 44:02
  every time I took cards to a show and sold them to a dealer
• 44:07
  that that should be now a new comp when an end user is selling
• 44:13
  it to a wholesaler, a dealer, because it's, it's like a
• 44:18
  different category of sale. The, the sales that I think are
• 44:23
  the ones that are best to comp are the ones that are to the in
• 44:29
  theory at least end user the buyer at the retail price when
• 44:35
  we're valuing cars, right. If you're valuing a a car, do
• 44:41
  you when you, when you look at the sales history, if you go
• 44:45
  into Kelley Blue Book's website, you don't look at what the trade
• 44:49
  insurance were like the trade in value is a different tier than
• 44:55
  the private party transaction sales history, right.
• 45:00
  So if if somebody trades their car into the dealership, that
• 45:05
  doesn't then affect the value of the car for private party sales,
• 45:10
  they're like in their own category.
• 45:12
  And to me that's what this is. This is a wholesale sale by the
• 45:20
  person who owns the card to PSA and their list of of buyers who
• 45:29
  PSA does the transactions for. So I don't really know if that's
• 45:33
  a perfect fit. Now maybe you all think that I'm
• 45:35
  crazy for saying that, but again, I don't think if I had
• 45:41
  five cards for sale and I called up Ash and I said, hey, Ash, I'm
• 45:45
  going to sell you 5 cards. Or if I called up Chris Sewell
• 45:48
  and said, hey, I'm going to sell you 5 cards and then they give
• 45:51
  me say 80% of the value because they're going to turn around and
• 45:56
  try to sell them for 100% of the value.
• 45:58
  I don't think that most of us would think those cards should
• 46:02
  those sales, those private sales should now be in the sales
• 46:06
  history because I sold them wholesale to a dealer.
• 46:10
  That's my personal opinion, but I appreciate the question.
• 46:14
  I asked Hoge himself. That was his answer that they
• 46:18
  don't have consent from the two, but otherwise they would be open
• 46:22
  to it. But it's a good question.
• 46:25
  Couple of questions involving card ladder this this week.
• 46:29
  Remember, as always, if you all have a question for an upcoming
• 46:33
  question and answer episode and Ask me anything episode,
• 46:37
  whatever you want to call these down below in the comments,
• 46:40
  simply type out your question. I'll add it to the list.
• 46:44
  Remember later this week, Midlife Community Show and tell
• 46:48
  there were some massive pickups this month, a huge number of
• 46:53
  submissions. As always.
• 46:54
  I love it. Also in that episode, not only
• 46:57
  will we be raffling off those 4 subscriptions, not for the the
• 47:03
  four credits, the the gift cards to the Penny Sleever, but we
• 47:10
  will also be raffling off the card ladder, one year
• 47:15
  subscription and the Clemente card from our friend Theo
• 47:21
  Clemente Collector. Remember, for those you had to
• 47:24
  be one of the 50 most active people in the chat on Monday,
• 47:29
  and in order to be in the drawing for the Penny Sleever
• 47:33
  gift cards, you have to be have submitted a card for this
• 47:39
  month's Midlife Community Show and Tell and I can't wait to
• 47:44
  release that episode later in the week.