Latest / Tonight's Card / Tonight's Card Pod - Ep 6 - Hype v Collectors, Midtown Card Show, PSA, Celebrini God Tin, WWE, UFC
Transcript
- Jonathan Crawford: On tonight's card, we discuss the collector focused market versus the hobby hype market. More scandals in the hobby and UFC three three three and the Midtown Card Show. And now Mr. Cartel, how are we doing this evening? Cartel: Your friendly neighborhood cartel is doing great, Toronto Card Collector. I am the cartel that traffics in sports cards and you are the collector from Toronto. And I want to say hello to all our hobby hosers and hobby heroes who are checking us out today. Please like, subscribe, and comment down below. And we have a wonderful topic to get started with amidst this incredibly hyped up, inflated, just bursting with all sorts of juiciness and goodness hobby at the moment. The stuff at the top is has never been has never been as as high in numbers as we are seeing. There's a lot of excitement. We've already talked about the fact that there are a lot of shows, but we are gonna be attending a show on Halloween. Isn't that right? Jonathan Crawford: We are, yeah, the Midtown Card Show Halloween special. it's gonna be October thirty first from ten AM to four PM at Parkview Manor in North York. a lot of really great vendors are on tap to attend. So come get your treats. We won't have any tricks for you. That's later in the evening. but yeah, really looking forward to setting up and buying, selling, trading all morning and afternoon. Cartel: That's right, relatively new show in the area. I like the area that they're having it in in terms of accessibility. And we're going to be checking it out, seeing how that goes. And of course, it's on Halloween, which is fun times all day long. And the other thing is that you know it's another example of getting a show going in the preamble to the big expo coming up that a lot of people are excited about, and the general gist of what I'm getting in terms of feedback about this. Midtown card show is hey, it's it's a card show that we are gonna check out is generally what people are reporting to me because in the mood for a card show before the before the expo and and as the season turns it just seems like a good time to perhaps finish off whatever it is you're doing in terms of picking some stuff up for the expo or selling certain inventory before the expo. expo to get your hands on some cash for the expo. and just checking out that area and what people may have with them or what they might be looking for obviously, right? Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, I think it'll be a little preview, a little expo preview. get a sense of what people are looking to pick up before and after the show. so I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be be a great time. Hope to see a lot of you guys there this Saturday. Cartel: And and of course it's always interesting, this last little while, to check out what's selling, what people are asking for. of this incredibly hyped up market, the aforementioned market that we are referring to, where we are continuing to see record sales, where we are continuing to see people jumping on to certain kind of specific avenues with what they're looking for, whether it's a cup subset, whether it's a player. we're just seeing a lot of that. We're seeing a lot of speculation, a lot of investing in this market, knowing full well that prices can change so rapidly. from one week to the next. And of course with the hockey market you've got active and as well as basketball and football at the moment, right? Where you have active players shifting the market with their performances as well. So now John I wanna throw it to you because you were talking about some very interesting aspects of kind of countering the hype market and some of its volatility. The key word being volatility. So I want you to speak on that. because you have a perspective on what we talk a lot about, the collector-focused market, and why it has some advantages. So let's hear that. Jonathan Crawford: yeah. I was just on my my morning commute today. And I don't know, for some reason just these things were popping into my head. Maybe it was expo seasons in the air, the the fall weather. but I've been hearing a lot recently about the the vintage Pokemon market specifically and how that's been blowing up. I know obviously we're you know we're more of a combat card focused podcast, but humor me here. and it kind of got me thinking about the thing that has annoyed me at times about the wrestling card market, which I've been in for a number of years now, is also one of the best things about it, which is healthy, steady, consistent growth. unlike the Pokemon market, which has, you know, been seeing these insane spikes recently, especially on the vintage market, which invariably is going to lead to a crash, right? Or correction, call it what you will. the best cars in my wrestling collection, my PC, have slowly been increasing in value over the past few months, few years. so yeah, I think it's easy to get caught up in the hype of of things, right? Like, you know, you see these record setting sales, whether it's in Pokemon, whether it's basketball, whether it's whatever the case may be, And it's easy to lose sight of that collector mindset of you know finding rare pieces. What is the reason that I actually bought these cards in the first place? You know what I mean? and trying to have that long-term perspective. And listen, hey, Cartel, you and I we're both, you know, we're both dealers, we set up at shows. You know, I'm not saying that I'm against, flipping, obviously. I think it's something to be aware of, right? Like, You don't want to be the one holding the bag on these cards that, a month ago or two months ago were selling for five, ten thousand. Now all of a sudden they're selling for two hundred thousand dollars. Right. So I think that's what where my mind went to of like, don't get lost in the hype. Be careful, stick to your principles. And you know, kind of having that that long term mindset can be helpful when these crazy spikes are happening. Cartel: Yeah, one of the one of the the first things you mentioned is the most interesting aspect, being that we are collector dealers, big shout out to the sports card collector, dealer, investor. that gentleman on YouTube, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. But we're all of that, right? and it's just degrees of each one. but it's this weird kind of paradox where I'm excited that I can hop on to social media or something and get myself a Patty Pimblet rookie autograph that's serially numbered for under two hundred dollars. Exciting. But then I'm like, why am I able to get that in this market? And why was it even cheaper, a year ago? But see that's the whole thing. There is a slow and steady growth. You see it. It's sometimes nearly flat lines and you kinda have to go through it a little bit. But it's like you mentioned, it's a slow and steady growth. More people getting into it. in the case of wrestling, Jeremy Padmar gets into it and starts posting all these grails and starts talking about how much he loves collecting the the older wrestling stuff. It's new players in the game for wrestling and UFC adding their two cents on what they like to collect in it, expanding people's horizons about what wrestling cards actually are, or what UFC cards actually are and what's available out there. And it doesn't just have to boil down to current superstars. I love that but they're expanding it so that that's all part of slow and steady growth. and that is an interesting feature of the collector focused market. There's some very dedicated people out there who don't just collect the stuff. they want to educate people about it in the interest of expanding the market. Like I want to expand the market. I often find myself giving people really good deals when they show me the passion, the spark for not only the sport, but also the you know getting interested in the cards, because I want them to get excited about the cards, so I want them to have more cards and I want them to know more about it. do you ever find yourself feeling that way with wrestling like someone is pretty excited and new to it. you're probably likely to maybe want to give them a deal kind of thing, right? To kind of encourage the forward motion. Jonathan Crawford: absolutely. Yeah. And honestly, now that you mention it, I think of times where that's happened and it like it gets me fired up too, hearing their passion, hearing their excitement. I've had so many cases where people don't even know that wrestling cards exist. And so it's so cool, like seeing their I mean it sounds really corny, but like seeing their faces kind of light up, seeing, you know, autographs of Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: their favorite wrestlers from the when they were a kid, right? Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, whatever the case may be. so yeah, it it gets me excited too, honestly. And being Cartel: Yeah it Jonathan Crawford: able to share this new avenue of of fandom with them, right? Cartel: Yeah, and the in the other sports and Pokemon, and don't get me wrong, it's not I'm I'm generalizing here. Because You will have people talk to you about a a team or or a player or you know, I collected Pokemon when I was younger and here's a story relating to that. But for the most part, it's the card or the slab. They're interested in that hockey card. There's not too much going on with anything beyond that. I just want that card. And that card is either potentially going to a collection or it's gonna be flipped. But with the wrestling and the MMA, there's usually a bigger story involved, and there's the surprise about what's available. And there's the whole I'm starting to get into it. for obvious reasons. I'm not going to hear that as much with the other sports. I'm starting to get into baseball. I'm starting to get into hockey. They were already there. Right? Most of the people you're dealing with, they were already there. But people will be telling me quite routinely, I'm starting to get into UFC and I'm doing this, or I'm collecting that, or this is what I'm focusing on. That's awesome. And and with the wrestling as well. And I get it a lot from kind of family oriented collectors as well, like a dad and his son. you see a lot of that as well. Jonathan Crawford: For sure. Yeah, that's definitely a big part of it too. the the generational thing, right? It's like you're you're into Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: something when you're a kid and then you get out of it, then you come back into it. I feel like that's it's Cartel: Yeah, and Jonathan Crawford: such a common story with cars in general too. Cartel: And and relatively young markets and in the case of mixed martial arts, it is a very young sport. Like we're talking early nineties, For Battlecade and UFC one. So not a lot of time in terms of the collectibles and awareness spectrum. And also an even lesser amount of time for the cards themselves, which started popping up around 2009. Yes, there were some international and weird funky releases before that, but generally speaking, 2009, Topps Round One, 2010 Leaf MMA, that's when it really starts to get going. And in the case of wrestling, I mean Most starting points for people is gonna be the 85 OPC set. you could talk about wrestling all-stars, but again, that was kind of a weird distribution. You you're not a kid buying packs and opening up wrestling all-stars, I don't think. so it was 85, right? OPC and Tops. So these are relatively new, man, compared to all these other sports and all these other pursuits. Pokemon is just the sheer volume since the late 90s, right? And the international appeal and just how much production there is. these are relatively new markets. And we have to we have to remind ourselves of that when when we do kind of get frustrated, like you said, about, you know, there not being spikes. But like the main point you're trying to say is what I'm getting is that we should be happy that there aren't those massive spikes. You know? Jonathan Crawford: I hesitate to say that I'm happy with with that, because like again, obviously there there's part of you that's like, if if only, you know, my card's five X, ten X, whatever. But but again, I think like it's healthier for the market in general, having people that actually collect the cards. You know what I mean? People that actually care about the cards. And again, there's nothing wrong with buying, selling, flipping, whatever. But I just think like the long term picture, I think it bodes well for you know, the the for the collector, right? And I think that's something important too, is that we can't just we can't just flip everything. Somebody has to hold these cards eventually. You know what I mean? Cartel: Yeah, yeah. And there there were a couple of interesting auction sales, I believe, this the past week, that included some fantastic wrestling and MMA items. in the MMA world, a ticket to the UFC one PSA slab sold for over eighty thousand dollars, I believe, which was really cool to see because that is a very significant piece of history. a lot of people seemed surprised by that even, particularly people on the outside of the collectibles industry. Ariel Halwani was really taken aback. By that. and he talked about how he was surprised just because of the fact that it's not a very expansive market at this point. but it's so funny that Helwani, who's one of the top content guys in mixed martial arts, is kind of underplaying what I see as a reality, that it's growing. And it just extends to all sorts of interesting stuff. Like again, I've mentioned my my shelf that has those. old UFC VHS tapes, that's how we took in UFC. That's how my generation took it in early on. So it stands to reason to me that those types of items are gonna be interesting. Anything that throws back to those early days, whether it's a ticket, whether it's a VHS or a poster, I think will be popular. And then that will translate to some nostalgia about some of the old time guys. the classics from from way back. There's a generation where it blew up Chuck Latell's rand Jackson's, but even before that, the Gracies, the Severns, the Tarogs, that sort of stuff. And then we saw the Intercontinental Belt sold for what did that go for? Like 750,000. It exceeded expectations. I think it was like estimated at half a million. Holy cow. And that was the classic macho man belt that's on the cover of so many Coliseum videos and so much promotional material. I I feel like that's the belt that I'd want to own. and strap and and put on. I don't know how do you feel about that belt? You're a belt guy, you like belts. Right? You wear a belt you hold up your pants. Jonathan Crawford: I wear belts sometimes. that was such a cool on occasion on occasion. that was such a cool I I didn't even know about that auction until you showed me the sale price of it. And it kind of blew my mind honestly. Yeah, I didn't really know that belts could could sell for that much, to be honest with you. I thought it was really cool. And I mean, for me personally, I'm a bit of a newer belt guy. in my mind, it would be maybe like the winged eagle. or personal favorite would be the WWE championship, the Eddie Guerrero one. but I can definitely see why the Intercontinental Belt sold for what it did, you know, given who who held it. Cartel: the belts like the Eddie Guerrero belt that weren't around for too long. I love like those specialized belts, but when you're talking about classic WWF belts, and you mentioned the winged eagle, I mean that was around during when the the period of time when the intercontinental belt in question was around. Those are classics. Those are the absolute classics for sure. And the winged belt's great. It's probably one of the better heavyweight titles of all time, right up there with the big gold. But there that intercontinental is just so classic to me. I feel like it got more screen time in a way because you know the Intercontinental Champion was like the workhorse. You'd see them on T V and main eventing house shows when Hulk Hogan wasn't around. and of course it's just the classic worker belt. It was the guys really putting in work wore that belt. Jonathan Crawford: So it's it's been crazy to me seeing how many other big big and small names celebrities, athletes are coming in. here's one that I learned about today. apparently Mo Bamba, MBA player. I don't know if you remember him. Cartel: I seem to remember the name. Jonathan Crawford: Okay, so apparently he's opening his own card shop, card business, something like that. I saw that t today on IG. Cartel: Yeah. There you go. Yeah. we talked about Bruce Buffer has his own chain. You didn't know about that, and not a lot of people knew about that actually. Jonathan Crawford: There you go. Yeah. So just the proliferation of cards, collectibles, this whole community, this whole thing keeps expanding bigger and bigger and bigger. So I'm just curious to see what the next two years, five years, what is that gonna look like if it continues at this rate. So just interesting. Cartel: Absolutely. And getting from this bright spot that we're talking about in the collector focused market, let's do a a sharp turn right into the the negative side of the hype market. Which is all this controversy that we continue to hear and we are not, we are not one of these YouTube shows that's gonna dwell too much on this stuff. primarily, look, I'm gonna say my piece, if you have something to add or you have a different perspective, that's fine, but everything we hear is just another version of the same thing that we heard before, and it just repeats in a cycle and it keeps happening, unfortunately. and that is, a Whatnot Breaker will be hosting a live stream where a very highly anticipated tin of a product is opened that has been documented by the company that put it out there and the guy has the balls to attempt to steal it. I might be summarizing it in a weird way, but and then we've got a mail truck full of packages bound for PSA getting jacked. And neither one is a story that we haven't heard before or even had personal experience in. Right? But They keep happening. Of course, the big PSA jacking that I'm talking about also included a ton of Roman Reigns one of one cards. So definitely worth mentioning here on tonight's card. I'm gonna throw it to you. Do you have any any other perspective on this? Or is my perspective the only perspective I have on this? This stuff just keeps happening, unfortunately. Jonathan Crawford: Well, this is the whole thing, right? With how how hot the market is, how much it's in the media, social media, just all over the place. It seems like you know, thieves, criminals, breakers, you know, like it's just it's just ripe with opportunities for bad actors to get in there and try to take advantage of this hot market. And it's one of those things is it gonna go away? No, because of how how things are going. we can take measures to try to mitigate things. but like with the PSA example, I was reading about it. The driver was gone from his truck for what, an hour, hour and a half, something like that? Cartel: Mm. Jonathan Crawford: Like I mean that's if that's not suspicious, like I don't know, but just a very Cartel: It's it's certainly left. It's led to all these conspiracy theories and this general idea that it was an inside job of some sort. No one really wants to specify if they're talking about FedEx or PSA. It's a lot of there's a lot of stuff at play here in multiple companies. I'm preferring not to jump to any conclusions myself, but sometimes like the most obvious thing is the most obvious thing. And we don't need to do too much digging, but whether it's tipping off a driver just knowing that he's a FedEx shipper, whether it's PSA themselves. it's just one of those situations where there's a lot of money at hand and it's vulnerable and someone's gonna take advantage of that. And this concept though that like someone knows what they're doing is kind of weird to me because the question'll come up if there's all these one of ones in serial number cards, this is not gonna be easy for the person to deal with. Well maybe that's because the person involved doesn't really know what they're doing dealing with they just know that there's money involved which is what leads me outside of the concept that it's like a PSA inside job and it might be an external force or perhaps FedEx or something like that. Everything's on the table. I'm not you know not news reporting here. But yeah like all those one of ones, man, Not gonna be easy to move those, right? Jonathan Crawford: Absolutely. Yeah. I yeah, I'm I'm not trying to speculate on what exactly happened. I'm just more thinking from the perspective of we just had our PSA order come back recently. And what if our order was in there? And there goes my, my flawless stone cold from my PC. There goes my scene auto, all these things, like just the fact that it can happen totally out of the blue at the PSA. Well, okay, beside the PSA facility. It yeah, it's kind of scary, honestly, when you're sending cards that you have no plan on on selling anytime soon, like they're for your PC and I don't know, not good. Cartel: yeah. That that's that's potentially like the most tragic element whenever collectibles are involved because people are posting these lists the big cards and the one of ones. I don't know if did you look over that list? There was just a lot of interesting Roman Reigns one of ones from various products, right? And there were kind of bits of the list where it's clearly someone was building something up and and and they were focusing in terms of their order, right? Like on a specific thing. And that's sad because yeah, like you said, and let's not take attention away from the smaller the fifty dollar cards, the hundred dollar cards, that that's someone's collection. That's someone that picked that card out, they want it for their PC. Maybe they like like I obsess over certain cards and I try to get the highest grade, so I'm constantly pouring over piles of a certain card to try to get the best grade. So these are my efforts. These are my hopes and dreams and just yanked, right? Which is really unfortunate. And that is a sad thing. And then same deal when when you've got a spot in a break and you're getting a legendary hit as a result of rolling the dice and taking the chance on that spot. Whether you're into breaking or not, whether you're like me and avoid it generally, or whether you love to gamble, it is what it is. And then to have that taken away from you, especially in this manner, by God, you're watching the live stream, and everyone's gonna come to the realization that this is the famous god tin with all with multiple Macklin Cellebrini autograph rookie cards. And then the stream cuts out. You know. really, really unfortunate Jonathan Crawford: Conveniently. Cartel: stuff. And I don't even know fully the conclusion there. I think he did try to make good on it. Most likely because someone contacted him and said, hey man, you're attempting to steal something that was documented from start to finish. Like with an all-serially numbered. You're not being slick. Right? So never never underestimate the stupidity. That lurks in every corner of this hobby. Jonathan Crawford: that makes me think what we talked about earlier, about having that long term perspective. think about your reputation. Think about how important it is in in this hobby, right? you're gonna you're Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: gonna just throw it all away. I understand Cartel: Man, this Jonathan Crawford: I'm sure it's a very valuable thing, but think long term here. Cartel: man, that guy could have done something with upper deck. It could've it's it's it's like the John Cena patch. it could have been something special and it would have done nothing but help that guy's business. But here's the reality, maybe he doesn't want and again, I'm making assumptions. I I d we we don't do a ton of research here on tonight's card yet. We prefer to just geek out. But we really do need to start researching a bit more. But I'm not gonna make assumptions about this individual. I mean there's a few assumptions I can make, guys. But It it's like, you know, he probably doesn't wanna have a business. He's probably just some dude. A lot of people are just dudes, right? In in our hobby. Jonathan Crawford: That's fair, could be, yeah. Cartel: Couple takeaways if if you don't take anything else from this episode, guys, is that stupidity lurks in every corner of this hobby. And a lot of us are just dudes. So this dude, you know, is not necessarily wanting to build a business, but if you are trying to build a a breaking business and you hit the god tin and you do a great job of presenting it, and you make everyone happy, and you and you showcase how smart special it is, man, that's what this gentleman really robbed us of. He robbed the the hockey hobby of a special moment. We're gonna clip that. So less said the better. We've we've already done that whole kind of do your due diligence, do your research, know who you're dealing with, right? TCC, that sort of thing. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was gonna say something too about that and now it's gone. Cartel: if a dude looks off to you then he's an off dude. Don't go don't go with off brand dudes. Jonathan Crawford: Don't go with all panters. Cartel: No don't don't compromise on your dudes in this hobby. Jonathan Crawford: The dude abides, the dude abides. I agree with you. Yeah, we obviously don't know what this individual situation is. but to your point, think about how special of a moment that could have been for the hobby and for him. As a business, like he could have taken off from there, right? Like think about how much business he would have gotten as a result of that, the exposure, the connections he could have made. It just seems like such a short-sighted thing to do. But but to your Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: point, we don't know what what their situation is, right? So it is what it is. Cartel: Or maybe coincidentally his scream his stream did happen to cut off in a strange way. I don't think that's the case, but nonetheless. Jonathan Crawford: Sure. It's possible. Cartel: So, guys, we always want to feature here on tonight's card some show-offs and some show and tell whether that's stuff that we have sold, purchased, sometimes when we come across it. but of course I just want to build up to that by reporting on some basic news out of mixed martial arts and professional wrestling. a lot that I can geek out about because there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in wrestling, just a very quick snapshot. is that Tatsuya Naito is the G H C. I don't know why those letters were so difficult to string together. Champion. Over in Noah Pro Wrestling, where they are always navigating the waters of Puraisu. And that's interesting because WWE has an association with Noah the same way AEW does with UJPan pro wrestling. that is where Hiromu Takahashi came from, He's currently tag teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura. so I always wonder to myself, is Naito ever gonna come to WWE? Probably Probably not. He's a bit too different and eccentric of a professional wrestling star, in my opinion. I'm pretty sure you're not too familiar with Titsu and Aito. And he's a little broken down. He's kind of like Steve Austin in the late stages the Stone Cold run because he's got braces on his knees and they're just kept together with some paste and glue and duct tape. But that to me is really fun that he's still out there. Being a world champion. There's a lot of fun stuff going on in stardom. I know I'm just being very vague right now, but that's that top professional women's wrestling organization that does stuff with AEW. and of course in Triple A, we've got the Heros Immortals that's going on right now. We saw another Grande Americano and Dominic match that was very similar to the Triple Maniac Match. So I don't know why they had to run that again, but they did. featured OMOS and Rey Mysterio prominently again. Pimpinella was attacked by Omos. but thankfully the good guys and the good women and the good everyone prevailed at the end. and over in the UFC 333, UFC 333. was excellent. the cartel ran the board and I look look. You don't want to believe me, don't believe me. I ran the entire board. I picked every single winner. I think for a purist, for someone paying attention, this was a big opportunity. I did post some receipts on my Instagram stories when it came to my my bets and parlays. I had to make them ahead of time because I was out of town, so I couldn't even make new bets. I probably would have won even more. But Peter Yan and Marab Dalashvili put on another unbelievable bantamweight clinic, five rounds of pure madness in the In the third fight of the trilogy, Peter Jan prevailed, remains the champion. What an incredible fight. I recommend it to everyone. Pure grit, pure technical skill. You will see Marab Dalashvili's liver get tenderized, and yet he just continued fighting through it. Peter Jan picked it up as the rounds went on. A fantastic fight, highly recommend it. And of course, Alexander Volkanovsky. And come from dun dun dun dun. he is truly Truly one of the greatest of all time. Finished Movsar Evloev. A lot of people who know what they're talking about knew this would be the case. Volk almost made it look easy. He's such a likable guy. And retaining the featherweight championship and now a lot of talk about a potential Volkanovsky, Justin Gaitjee meeting. That would be exciting. The UFC is returning to Toronto. Toronto card collector and myself probably. We probably won't be going 'cause we're not gonna have the thousands of dollars needed for tickets. but we will be watching from afar potentially. Jonathan Crawford: Unless unless somebody wants to be so generous as to offer us tickets and which we would gladly accept. Just putting that out there. Cartel: We will we will definitely accept tickets to to the UFC event in Toronto. Jonathan Crawford: And we'll shout you out on the podcast too. Cartel: 100% you'll know that you're giving it to those who will appreciate and report on it. we will be seeing the often discussed Protest versus Morales. basically not number one contender fight. It will now, I believe, be for the interim lightweight title because Islam Makachev will not be fighting till after Ramadan. Very frustrating. Don't get me going. Don't get UFC guys started on this. It's just all very unfortunate. there were There's lot of rumors about potentially Islam in Carlos Protest, but we've got what we've got. It is an incredible fight. I am riding with the nerds. I am riding with riding with the man who smokes and drinks after his victories and sometimes during and before and always. I'm gonna roll with him. And we've also got Joshua Van who will be defending his title against Manel Cape. so that one's gonna be exciting too. This is a a heck of a card that Toronto is receiving. I'm pretty happy about that because we've had some subpar cards. but we'll see how it all plays out and if those matches even stay together as we head towards the cart. but I did want to use that as a segue. Now the one thing I'm missing I guess is Saudi Arabia. I'm always missing Saudi Arabia. I'd rather be missing Saudi Arabia. But the WWE's going to Saudi Arabia for the Crown Jewel. I want you to speak to speak on that, and I want your opinion on that because this there there's some craziness going on here. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, well I I I read an article I was saying, is this still happening in Saudi Arabia? So I guess as of now it's still happening in Saudi Arabia. Cartel: Yep. Sure Jonathan Crawford: why they have Sami Zayn as one of the champions. They love to feature him there. I don't know. It's gonna be a fine pay per view, PLE, whatever they call it now. I'm not particularly excited for it if I'm being honest with you. Roman versus Sammy or Trick, but it's gonna be Sammy. maybe they'll make a triple threat out of that. I don't know. live in Chelsea. yeah, Cody Norton. I guess Cody Norton, last man standing match will be Cartel: Cody and Randy. Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, that that's gonna be that's gonna be pretty violent, I hope. Cartel: The weird thing is about Crown Jewel, some people say it's not even canon. But it it it has to be canon. There's build up on the shows that we're watching. So it is what it is. I'm not very excited about it either. It's kinda gimmicky and it's also again all towards one particular reason, appeasing certain emissaries and money. Let's let's be realistic and honest about this. The controversy of course surrounds the safety of the rustlers being in a volatile area. I would imagine, man, the security and the checkpoints on that are gonna be through the roof, so I think it's a little overstated, but I get where people are coming from. And whether or not it's the reason why Jonathan Crawford: I'll tell you what Cartel: punk is not involved, I don't know, but you know. Jonathan Crawford: Probably. I feel like probably. I'll tell you what I'm excited for though. war games, the build up that they have now between the bloodline Cartel: yeah. Jonathan Crawford: and the nine four six. I I don't know, I was skeptical at first, but once Roman got involved, I'm like, Okay, I'm all in now. that that face off that they did with with Roman involved, like okay, now like now I'm getting invested in it. So that's one that I'm actually like more looking forward to and then obviously leading into Royal Rumble. that'll be a fun match coming up in a couple of weeks here. Cartel: Yeah, War Ga Wargames is a fun booking thing and it's all about ensuring that the match is as fun as possible. It's its own thing and it's kinda cool. It's a I think it's a cool little side quest thing for Roman before the inevitable Roman Oba. I almost said Roman and Obama. 'Cause there's the and the Roman and Robama? Jonathan Crawford: I gotcha, I gotcha. Robama. WrestleMania Robama. Book it. Hashtag. The new undisputed Cartel: Robama Femi. Just combine them combine them all together. Robama Femi. Anyway. Jonathan Crawford: champion, Robama Femi. Thank you very much. Cartel: Yeah. let's use the news and my gushing over Alexander Volkanovsky. I come from let's use that to segue to our show-offs for today. So here's a cool Alexander Volkanovsky. Where he has hair. Okay, so I I know there's gotta be some sub-PC Alexander Volkanovsky guys who focus on Volk with hair. it's not his rookie year 2019. It is, in fact, I think it's the first time he's in a base top set, which would be 2020. And it's the camo. I don't know why. It just in my brain it makes so much sense. The camo with with Volk is almost like a color match to me. And and it's numbered to 25, and I like it. It's not that special, it's not worth hundreds if not thousands. Of dollars, it's from 2020 and it's a PSA 8 because these are chippy and I like it. And it's Alexander Volkanovsky, and I wish I had more Alexander Volkanovsky cards. And then my final show off before we get to yours TCC would be the 1985. And I've got a couple here because one is TOPS and one is OPG. The only real difference being OPG has a lighter back, and the French on the card is both on the front and the back. And the reason why I love this card and have them slabbed out. Up and paid a lot of money and I'm not gonna make any money on them, because the OPC came back a seven and the tops came back an eight, when in fact I was hoping for an eight in the OPC and a nine in the tops, because this card features Hulk Hogan Rustling and Tonio Inoki. the man who brought forth New Japan pro wrestling and one of the greatest Purisu figures of all time, a legendary, heroic figure, much like Hulk Hogan. and I believe this is his first North American appearance on a trading card. it is card number 29 called Stretched to the Limit. Hogan, as you can see, has him in the abdominal stretch there, or a variation of it. I love that card. I poured through many of them to try to pick out the best, and that's what PSA did for me, and I'm gonna have to accept it. Because remember, in the hobby, we just take it. Just take it. And that's what I wanted to show off today. Go ahead, Toronto Carclub. Jonathan Crawford: And don't forget, don't forget it took six months for you to to get that. So there you go. That's what you get. Cartel: Yes, I I took it for six months I took it. Jonathan Crawford: I had to put that in there. okay, stop Cartel: Thank you. Jonathan Crawford: me if you've heard this before. I picked up some more flawless wrestling cards Cartel: Ha ha ha. Jonathan Crawford: over the past couple of weeks. the Cartel: The The Flawless Corner with Toronto Kirkwell. Jonathan Crawford: the there we go. On tonight's card, it's the flawless corner featuring SCC and TCC. In today's Cartel: Let's see ya. Jonathan Crawford: episode, we feature a Kurt Angle Flawless performances, gold out of 10, on card autograph. We have a Stone Cold Steve Austin, Flawless Achievements, Gold out of 10, on card auto. And finally, Cartel: baby. Jonathan Crawford: we have the The Rock and Roman Reigns dual memorabilia, number to 10, gold. and all three have the Panini seal on them, which you love to see. and all three were, I feel like. Solid deals, not amazing deals, but they were solid deals. And again, with the mind to the future. Because guess what I've noticed, Cartel? The last couple of weeks, there's been a flood of lawless and immaculate on the market, as we talked about. And now, Cartel: As we discussed, yes. Jonathan Crawford: yeah, it's slowly already starting to dry up. The star swatches aren't getting posted. The golds are getting bought by me and other people. And there isn't much left of the nice stuff. You know, if you want an Xavier Woods, you know, go crazy. But in terms of the big Cartel: Ha. Jonathan Crawford: names, no disrespect to Xavier Woods. but the big names of the nice stuff is almost gone already. And it's only been a couple of weeks. So I'm very glad that I've been capitalizing where I can. There's a couple that I missed. mainly because they got bin right away like I did with that Undertaker the other day. but yeah, these things, you know, these things come quickly and they go just as quickly. And so if you're not ready to act, you can miss out. So Cartel: TCC feasting. Jonathan Crawford: yeah, those are some some nice ones. Cartel: Feasting on the flawless. Feasting. did did I Jonathan Crawford: I c I can't help it, man. I can't help it. Cartel: I don't blame you either. I would like to maybe get in on some of the scraps. did you see that Ringmaster autograph out of Chrome that I showed you today? The Steve Austin signing as Ringmaster? Jonathan Crawford: I did. Cartel: That's so cool. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, the out of ten. I remember seeing that when Topps released it, whenever that was. And I was like, that's so cool. I would love to have a copy of that. I don't know what what the comps are, but if somebody listening has one, I'm interested. I'll just say that. Cartel: And what what was that really cool card with Dominic wearing the Black Tiger mask in honor of Eddie who who was Black Tiger too? What was that? Was that was that a top Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, that was from the new stadium club. Cartel: right new Stadium Club WWE which came out? Fantastic photography. We know the deal. Beam team, fantastic photography. I don't know if there's anything else to add to that, but that is a new product. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, just some some really nice, really nice on cart autos. There's some nice dual autographs in the set. you know, again, very, very heavy, collector focused, beautiful photography. and I mean I haven't ripped any yet, but maybe maybe expo rips, maybe get a get a hobby box just for fun. You know what I mean? We'll see. Cartel: Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But nonetheless, even though the expo is around the corner, you can catch us, the bearded buds from tonight's card, at the Midtown Card Show, which is on Halloween. we'll be running from ten to four, It is free entry, there are giveaways. Jonathan Crawford: Yep, ten AM to four PM. Cartel: Yeah, and and that is at the Park View Manor. Jonathan Crawford: Parkview Manor. Cartel: Parview manor, Jonathan Crawford: Yep. Cartel: giveaways, lots of fun. wear your blood and fangs or or if you want. I don't know. Jonathan Crawford: how about we do a giveaway as well? come by the booth. Mention that you listened to this week's episode and we'll have a little just a little something something for you, just a token of our appreciation. Cartel: We will have a little something something for you guys. bring us your wrestling and your MMA and be confident that we have wrestling and MMA as well, in addition to things like hockey, baseball. TCC loves the Pokemans. I don't know why I said that with an accent, nor do I know what accent that was, but he likes the Pokemons. let the viewers decide what accent that is. Please comment what that was. Per Jonathan Crawford: Let us know in the comments. Cartel: perhaps it was a a stroke of some sort. So comment in the comments, press the buttons. Please press the button, guys. We really appreciate it when you press the buttons. And we will see you at the Midtown Card Show and we will see you on the next episode of Tonight's Card. But for now Tonight's card is over.