Latest / Tonight's Card / Tonight's Card Pod - Ep 3 - Montreal Sport Card Expo - RIP Pac

Transcript

Tonight's Card Pod - Ep 3 - Montreal Sport Card Expo - RIP Pac · Tonight's Card

• Jonathan Crawford: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to tonight's card. The Bearded Buds are back from Montreal. We have new cards to show off and a lot of things to talk about tonight. And Mr. Cartel, you brought something else back from Montreal. How are you doing tonight? Cartel: I'm doing just splendid with my special gift given to me by Canadian Sports Card investor Peter. Wanted the weekend to just keep going on, so he just spread the love through bacteria and microbes, which I happily lapped up. Hobby heroes and hobby hosers, it's that time of year again, which is why I am representing the St. Louis Blues. It is hockey time. so how apropos that we were in Montreal, a hockey card hater. Even and it was a big show, a big gathering. And on tonight's card, we just gotta throw that in as many times as we can. We will be discussing the Montreal Sports Card Expo. It was our first foray into Montreal. What are your quick initial thoughts on our wonderful weekend, Mr TCC? Jonathan Crawford: Well, I am grateful that I didn't pick up the same lovely bacteria that you did. I would say it was it was a good experience. I had a lot of good deals, met some good people there, a lot of familiar faces, of course. but I think overall it was a good show. You know, we're used to the Toronto Expo. So it's kind of hard to expect that level of foot traffic and deals. but I feel like overall it was good to kind of get out of our little zone here, you know, our Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: our Toronto Markham, et cetera zone. and kind of meet some new people. So I feel like overall is pretty good though, but what what about you? Cartel: It's a g yeah, it's a it was it was like a mini Toronto Expo. A mini mini. it really I mean, one show puts another show into perspective. The the the Toronto Expo we all we all know about, it's it's a very large show. You go to the national and then all of a sudden you're like, wow, the Toronto Expo isn't that big of a show. But then you go to Montreal and you're like, it is that big of a show. So everything kind of puts everything into perspective. I didn't know I think we came in not knowing what to expect, not with any particular expectations, which is fun to do. but I will tell you this: the vibe was great, the community vibe was great. We had wedding announcements, we just had all sorts of great connections, people waiting to to speak to CSCI like a celebrity. Never before did I feel like so much chopped liver in the presence of Canadian sports card investor. you you guys had a throwdown, it was one of the better street fights I saw during the the weekend. weekend full full of street fights. So yeah, the the vibes were immaculate in Montreal. I think you know we we expected there wasn't gonna be a lot of of selling, maybe more deals, and there were many deals. Many interesting deals and correct me if I'm wrong, we had a lot of interest in the wrestling and UFC side. I got and I and I was hoping for this because Montreal was kind of a hotbed of MMA back in the day, Georges Saint Pierre, Rory McDonald. so so I was hoping for that. And never before have I had that much activity around my UFC value boxes. I picked up some great UFC stuff. I had people s looking for specific things, specific items. I want a Poeton, on card autograph, I'm looking for this obscure fighter. It it was great in that sense. we met a couple of your online wrestling buddies. Did you did you get that sense? There was a little bit of excitement, despite us being one of like maybe two or three tables that had UFC and WWE. Did did you notice that? Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, that was kind of one thing that I was kind of hoping would happen. being that, like you said, like we have things that most people don't have, right? UFC, WWE, some oddball things kind of thrown in there. So that's kind of what I was hoping in the back of my mind would happen. and it and it did, like I definitely got a lot of eyeballs, a lot of a lot of questions about my Eddie Guerrero, one of my Eddie Grero autos, some Cartel: A lot, yeah. Jonathan Crawford: stone colds, ended up doing a big deal. on a stone cold kaboom that I didn't plan on moving. I didn't even have in the in the display case. but just got, you know, talking to a guy, one thing led to another as these things happened. not quite like that, but no, no, no. It wasn't that exciting. Cartel: I was gonna sing the song. No, no, I was gonna I was gonna sing the song, but your mind went somewhere else. Which which we went it went there a lot during the weekend, so I don't blame you. By by the way, I'm also also Jonathan Crawford: Too much. Too much. Cartel: drinking one of these monsters in in tribute to Canadian Sports Card Investor. Jonathan Crawford: There you go. Beautiful. Nice nice product placement Cartel: His Jonathan Crawford: for Monster N C S CI. Cartel: His one drug of choice apparently. So well actually no, well well Jonathan Crawford: Yeah. Cartel: less said the better. but yeah, though I was I was super excited about that. I was happy to see that. the one wrestling exclusive vendor, not the most pleasant experience of our lives. I managed to walk away with some decent stuff, but he w he really wasn't having the whole discussion about how much a card is really worth. But Here's the thing I I always say to people, and I'm proud of myself, I don't get too mad about that sort of stuff. You have the right to sell whatever whatever you want at whatever price you want to. You just don't, you know, don't be too abrasive about it, but you have the right to sell for whatever you want to, don't you? At the end of the day. Don't we? Don't we, don't us all. and everybody has their own idea of what something is worth, despite the fact that there are actual metrics and ways to confirm that. So respect that. but you know, as someone who's very easygoing, particularly when it comes to value boxes and stuff in the you know, five to a hundred dollar range, it's sometimes, you know The the difference, I can feel the difference between the way I do things, the way I see you do things, and the way some other people are. And when you're like exclusive to one niche, right? Like you've got you've got Pokemon going on alongside your wrestling. I've got UF UFC wrestling, hockey, baseball, oddball stuff. When you're when you're like devoted exclusively to one thing, I think you should be a little bit more easygoing, but from what I hear about certain individuals, I'm not gonna name names, apparently it sometimes goes the opposite way. I don't know if it's like I've got them the the market. it cornered kind of mentality. But we certainly had never seen so many Rhea Ripley autographs, Stephanie Vacara autographs all there to see and drool over. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, that that was definitely nice. I I wondered too, like if the language barrier played a small part in it too, because we couldn't really have an actual discussion. You know what I mean? So that was that was probably a small part of it too. but Cartel: Sacre. Sacré bleu, ouais. Allons-y, ouais. Jonathan Crawford: yeah, but I was kinda surprised too, but the majority of people that we talked to, that wasn't an issue with, right? Even if it was a couple, you know, or the the neighbors, the guys beside us, the husband only spoke French, but his wife Spoke both, right? English and French. So for most people we're able to Cartel: That's right. Yeah. man, that that that table next to us. Holy cow, the the Crosby's, McDavids, that that that was wild. I'm sure everybody knows who we're talking about. This guy had an incredible layout of all the key hockey stuff, modern hockey stuff that you could imagine. he had some cool like Lord of the Rings autographs, stuff that. The prices were sky high. But very cool stuff, that's true. That's right. from from from what I specifically recall from walking around. But the vibe was good. People were, you know, people were looking for specific things and pretty good vibe overall. my opening experience wasn't great because I something you look for, I want to get your input on this. generally speaking, I always tell people, buy cards at the comic show, buy comics at the card show. a guy had one GSP on card autograph out of Immaculate, I think, on his table full of basketball. And I was like And the guy wanted twice the last comp. I offered him fifty dollars more than the pre- I offered him in between what he wanted in the last comp, and he did not even give me a second look. did you did you encounter any of that or like what ha what are your feelings on that in general? Generally speaking, that's a good move, right? You you're you're gonna you're gonna want to get that one UFC card someone has, but maybe sometimes they see it as like, This is my special WWE card. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah. Cartel: You cannot have. No. Jonathan Crawford: Honestly, I I was I was shocked when you told me that story that he had one UFC card because that's what I look for at shows Cartel: Uon. Jonathan Crawford: is I want to I want to find the dealer. I mean, just think about like the national. Like I remember one year I found Undertaker Immaculate Auto. It was the one wrestling card the guy had in this whole showcase full of football, baseball, what have you. And he gave me a good deal on it, right? Which which is kind of what I assume with most of these dealers. So I was kind of shocked when you told me that he was holding onto it so tightly. But maybe like you said, maybe that's his one UFC guy, you know, G S P. And it's just precious. So a bit unusual, but yeah. Cartel: I I did go back and I he didn't sell it through the weekend, so it's just I I don't know, man. I I d y it's everyone's got a different mindset. I'm not criticizing him. Like I said, everyone can do whatever they want to do. for me that's just unfathomable because I mean, first of all, I'm in more of a selling mindset than I've ever been, for for for personal reasons. I'm not, you know, buying too much to hold on to these days. But who knows, everybody's got their own situation. I would imagine, hey, what a great opportunity I have the one UFC card and there happens to be couple UFC guys in the building and one of them's offering me 150% of comps. I'm gonna hold on. You know, so that that to me is a a strange one. but we had a good time. We can agree that even going out in Montreal, certain kind of vibe there that we don't catch in Toronto, quite frankly. people are friendly and talkative. You know, and i the language barrier is a thing. It's not a gigantic thing in my opinion. We didn't I don't think we came across it that often at the show. but we heard a lot of Sava, right? Is that is that what it is? Sava? S Sava bien. And I I was doing a lot of Jonathan Crawford: I I Cartel: hey, how's it going? And that's what I'd get back on Jonathan Crawford: Yeah, yeah. I throw in a couple of bone juros, a couple of merces in there. I try to make myself Cartel: I always feel yeah. I feel condescending when I do the Mercy. I don't know. It shouldn't, I shouldn't, but Jonathan Crawford: Yeah. Cartel: but I did. I don't know. but you know, that being said, with with the Montreal Expo I'm we're we're glad we did it. It was fun. It was a little appetizer for the Toronto Expo, I would say. We saw a of the people w lot of the same people who set up the Toronto Expo were there in a much more intimate setting. It was kinda crazy, you know, there's certain guys that are running around the Toronto Expo. You're lucky if you bump into them once or twice during the weekend and we were like, you know, sitting next to them. so that was interesting. PSA did not show up. Did you hear any follow up regarding that? Jonathan Crawford: I didn't and I haven't still very Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: odd. Cartel: And we wound up in their space. The Jonathan Crawford: We sure did, yeah. It was a nice space. Cartel: yeah C S C I, T C C and S C C ended up in the PSA space. Maybe on the power of our acronyms. Jonathan Crawford: Could be, could be. Cartel: so that maybe someone would mistake us for a grading outfit. TGA was in the house representing with a big booth. a lot of a few GTA shops showed up Slab Sharks was there, Savage Kau Zue was offering a 90% payout show special. I think we're this is our first go-round giving them a go as a result. And there was a lot of there was a lot of cool stuff out there. A guy had a bunch of Griffey Grails. I I I picked up that Fleer Griffey PSA ten, which in my brain I'm just like, that's such an iconic design. I think it's gonna I think I think that's gonna grow with people because the eighty nine Donres is kind of a crappy design. I know it's iconic and the heads the nostalgic heads, but eighty nine Fleur's got the the the Bill Ripkin, the F face, and there's so many tributes to the F-face. There's that Simpsons one. It's such an iconic design. so I kinda I went with that one. that being said, other stuff went on the past few days as it relates to combat sports and We are all about cards, combat, and commentary. Is that Jonathan Crawford: You are correct, sir, absolutely. Cartel: Yes. Right. And so the opening question before we get to the boxing news, do you ever see yourself buying like a boxing product? I'm just throwing that out there, I'm asking myself the question as I ask it to you. Because I think Topps has come out with some stuff. There's a Tops Chrome boxing product too. Are do you ever if someone came to your to to the table with some boxing cards, how do you feel about that? Do you not do you not know enough? Do you are there things that you might be interested in? Jonathan Crawford: Honestly, I don't think I know enough about it aside from the big names Mayweather, maybe Mohammed Ali, like throwing it way back. Cartel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jonathan Crawford: I I don't think I know enough, honestly. I mean, it's interesting. You know, I would like to learn more about it. Cartel: I think we both would. And I'll be saying this a lot throughout the episode, folks. if you have some feedback about boxing cards, please comment down below. please press like, subscribe, the the ding-alingy thing, and leave a comment. And and we we would just love to interact with you when it comes to that sort of thing. Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury is a thing that's been talked about for years and years. I don't know if it's on like the same level as GTA 6 or something. And it looks like it's finally happening. There was a press conference Yesterday, I believe it was a pretty boring press conference, but this has been a thing in the making for so long. and that is the biggest news in the boxing world. My thing with the boxing world is, I think a lot of people would agree with me, you can love the sport, you can love the pugilistic excellence, but when I think Tyson Fury, I think of him getting worked over by Francis Ngana in one of his first, if not his first, boxing fights. I think about Anthony Joshua. Playing around with influencer Jake Paul. And and like Jake Paul lasting rounds with him. And I'm not getting into the conversation of whether it was rigged or scripted. I'm just saying that those are the images in my head, and that's really unfortunate. Because every time I want to get into boxing, that's the problem. I I think of the the freak show fights, even going back to Mayweather and McGregor. I think about legacies and it's just and then I think about growing up in the Tyson era. Lennox Lewis, George Foreman coming back. Evander Holyfield is specifically in the heavyweight realm. It was so much better and so different. And if everything holds up as it relates to the Griffiths, the Jordans and that era of basketball, there could be some action there, in my opinion. and again that could be interesting because people will be deciding what are the rookie cards and that sort of thing. But I know there's a lot of great boxing, particularly in the lighter weights out there. But man, the heavyweight scene to me is just depressing and not exciting. but it is gonna happen and there will be ramifications depending on what happens in the fight, how it goes down. In the collecting world, there are Tyson Fury autograph I've I've been tempted by Tyson Fury autographs, but again, I think he's on the tail end of his career, and I don't know, it's just not as exciting as to us, obviously, as as some cool and interesting profile. wrestling stuff and pro wrestling from the 1980 to 2000 era roughly I think is a lot more interesting to us. and then there was some unfortunate news and this one hit me pretty hard. I don't think you were kind of as in the era of when Neville slash Pac was doing his thing. And and I know you're not too big on AEW neither am I. And again, if you have an issue with that, like, subscribe, leave a comment down below. We'll talk to you about it. I am pretty open-minded about pro wrestling and I'm picky, and I'm not saying AEW is not a great product. I've seen some amazing stuff. It's just not my favorite. but PAC was one of my favorites. And it's a brutal loss. Coming hot on the heels, I think like a week or two after the butcher passed away. These are young guys. And something that hasn't been talked about and needs to be talked about in my opinion, so I hope this is a fresh viewpoint. Please comment down below, like and subscribe if you think so. sorry, I don't mean to be making light of the situation because listen, I've cried my tears and I've had my emotional moments. The thing that it made me think of right away. Do you have any idea where I'm going with this? The the the Jonathan Crawford: I do not. Cartel: at all? The passing of a someone way way too young, suddenly, an incredibly Jonathan Crawford: Mm, okay. Cartel: talented professional wrestler. Eddie Guerrero was Jonathan Crawford: Okay. Allah Eddie. Mm-hmm. Cartel: Eddie was 38 when he passed away. Pack was forty. These guys share a lot of similarities. I'm gonna start from what people might not think is significant and I'll go from there. They were both five foot eight. They were both billed as being five foot eight. Why is that significant? I'll get there. They were both absolutely chiseled out of like stump. These were we're talking bodies that were shaped very deliberately, very muscular. whether or not there was performance enhancement going on. I think we know the answer to that, let's be honest. But the fact of the matter is these were small guys generally billed as cruiserweights or light, light heavyweights, who were carrying so much excess mass on their frame. And I'm sorry if I'm getting into personal trainer mode. I mean I spent many years of my life in that mode and I still do. they were carrying a lot of extra mass and weight is weight. Being overweight is being overweight, whether it's muscle tissue, obesity, yes there are differences and how it's affecting your body. But one thing is affecting your circulatory system and that is how big you are. And if you look at photos of these guys side by side, and hopefully we'll have something that pops up here on the pod, they were carrying on too much weight for their frame. And they had a bit of weight on their shoulders philosophically in terms of who they were, what was expected from them, and the fact that they were so much better than those around them. Eddie had the pressure of being big because of Vince McMahon. And the WWE system. I always tell people: if you look back at those final months, the final year before he passed away, he was tagging with Batista and he was also feuding with Brock Lesnar, the biggest guys on the roster. That's more pressure to put more into your body, more of all sorts of things. Present yourself as a big muscular guy, despite the fact that your frame does not want it. and and do that while running an insane schedule, being on the road and maintaining that. Eddie I believe was found in a hotel room and Pac was found in his car. So it immediately reminded me of that. It r it it felt so unfair because they had so much more to give us and show us. They were considered locker room leaders. They carried themselves like the Bret Hart's, the Chris Benoit's, the Dean Malenkos. It was legit real business to them. They were professional wrestlers, and every movement in the ring, every cell, every movement. every i ev every sequence was professional. And I think that's going away. It's it's it's fallen to the wayside to more like acrobatic choreographed type of stuff. You felt like there was a fight going on when these guys were in the ring. The the the the the William Regal kind of mentality And it's just it's disappearing. And Pack was just so smooth. His two five live run is one of my favorite runs. It happened for me in my life, it was a particularly joyous period of time and we had luoch underground we had the nxt black and gold which which pock as neville was also involved with and then he was the cruiserweight champion he was like the ruling heel champion on 205 live for a long period of time I really recommend everybody go out there check it out and then leave a comment like subscribe down below and talk to us about it because it really was amazing He's going to be missed. Do you have any recollections of Pack or Neville at all? have you ever seen the red arrow slash black arrow, the the twisty shooting star press? Any of that? Jonathan Crawford: I mean, I just saw highlights, but that was recently from his career, obviously. but when you when you put it in comparison with Eddie Guerrero, you know, that's one that I remember very vividly. Eddie Guerrero is one of the reasons that I got back into professional wrestling at all back during the Ruthless Aggression era. So when you put it under that that context, yeah, I can understand why it's had such an impact. on you and so many other people. even though I personally, you know, didn't really watch much of him specifically. Cartel: And and by no means am I saying I'm not putting him on the level of Eddie Girl. because that's a truly, truly Jonathan Crawford: No, no, fair. Yeah. Cartel: elite level. but you know, he he just as easily could have gotten those opportunities that Eddie did fall into. he almost beat Seth Rollins for the world title famously in one match where he f he folded him up to pin him, but by folding him up so extreme, Rollins' foot was on the ropes. So it was it it it was stopped at a two count. He was one count away from being a champion. Again, small guy. Five foot eight, not Vince's favorite, probably at the time. But yeah, very very very unfortunate. obviously he didn't have a ton of cards. I I don't know his checklist very well. He had some recent AEW cards in the upper deck releases, and obviously people have been snatching some of those up because he's very much in the public mind right now. and AEW put on a beautiful tribute show. Which featured the return of Daniel Bryan, aka Brian Danielson, and he looked awesome. He was like there was German suplexes, suicide dives. I don't know the full story of his recovery or what's going on with him, but that was a crazy throwback and I highly recommend you check it out, Jonathan. Because I'm sure you were a a bit of a a Daniel Bryan fan, right? So yep. And then and you also get to see Moxley being emotional. he gave a very creepy speech, like a week before Pac died about losing things in life and getting up and fighting on, losing losing matches, losing people. And it was very creepy and and strangely prophetic. Uh-huh. Jonathan Crawford: funny you say that I actually I watched that earlier today. Somebody somebody posted it and they said, I don't know if this recency bias, but is this the best promo I've seen in years? Something like that. And I watched Cartel: Yeah, yeah. Jonathan Crawford: it and it was very yeah, very dark, but also like just like very like raw, very emotional. Cartel: It carried a lot of weight, given what ended up happening. so yeah, Pack will be missed, man. give a second look next time I'm flipping through some boxes and I see some pack stuff just for the memories and thinking back on him. So that was pretty that was pretty rough news. Other than that, there was a U of C that went on. All my picks were my picks. I didn't make official picks were incorrect. Josh Vans solidified his championship. Armin Sarukian is on his way to a title shot after picking up a victory as well. And we also had the Triple A Worlds Collide, which is super fun show. I don't know if you ended up seeing it. They didn't play it live. And they had CM Punk show up with with a lucha mask. And Obafemi confronted Omos. Which is definitely gonna be a thing in the future. With with those two guys. so that that was interesting as well. and y Jonathan Crawford: It's intriguing just to think about who who Oba's gonna be facing over Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: the next year, two years. Like he's just such a beast right now. Cartel: And that could vi and that could very well be his, you know, Andre the Giant. You know, if if Braun is his macho Jonathan Crawford: Mm-hmm. Cartel: man, I mean we could start having fun with with that sort of thing. If you wanna have fun with it, Jonathan Crawford: Sure, yeah, why not? Cartel: folks, you can leave a comment, like, subscribe, leave a comment down below. as well. And and you and I are off to a wrestling show on Saturday here in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens where Edge, aka Cope, aka Adam Copeland, will be wrestling for the first time at Maple Leaf Gardens. Are you psyched? Jonathan Crawford: it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be amazing. I I told my son this morning about it and he was like, Are you serious? 'Cause we went to SmackDown a couple of weeks ago and I was like, Yeah, we're going to another show. Are you excited? He's like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna wear my shirt, I'll bring my my championship belt and everything. So he's more excited than I Cartel: Yeah, Maple Leaf. Jonathan Crawford: am, I think. Cartel: Map Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, you and I went to one of their shows last year, correct? And it was great. Jonathan Crawford: Yeah. Cartel: You you see all sorts of talent from TNA, AEW, local independent talent. Psycho Mike is gonna be there with his body slam. it looks great. on Draw Day will be there. Johnny Nitro, A. K. A. Johnny Mundo, aka I think he's Johnny T V right now, will be there. Mascara Dorada Dorado, it's it's I'm really psyched and we're very lucky to to have that in tail. And it's wild that it's I keep c wanting to call edge. It's wild that it's Copeland's first Maple Leaf Gardens appearance. So that's that's pretty wild. Jonathan Crawford: Is it really his first time ever? Cartel: Yeah, so apparently the WMB stopped running it right around the time he came on board. So he never got that opportunity, then went off to you know, got injured, did his thing, went went back to AEW. So I think this is one of those instances they're letting him they're letting him do this because it's been on his bucket list. And that's wild. Jonathan Crawford: That's so cool. Cartel: Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling is i is rapidly expanding. They I b I believe I saw something about them being on T S N I should know more about this. But they are getting very big. They're kinda T they're I mean it almost seems bigger than TNA level. Like when I've seen TNA shows in the GTA, like at the docks, I don't know, whatever that's called now, it's it seems like a bigger presentation and it very much ties into last time we were there we saw the Bullet Club while they were still operating in in New Japan. So it seems like very relevant and and connected to so many different Organizations in professional wrestling. It was a lot of fun. So very much looking forward to that. It got us talking about the Edge rookie card. I know there's a couple because there's a is it called BBM Japan has an Edge and Christian card, but his rookie card, solo, is in that '98 Comic Images set, which is famous for Jonathan Crawford: the rock autograph. Come on now. Cartel: Right, which you've owned. Right? That's Jonathan Crawford: I've I've owned a couple of copies of it, yeah. Cartel: a big deal. those cards are always it looks like someone's cat or dog had their way with them o off the printing press. You you can't find them without being nar gnarled and chewed up. but that that Jonathan Crawford: One of the interesting things about about that set too, but the rock card specifically, the autographs vary so much. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: Like for the rock, in terms of like how he signed it and how they've actually held up over time. Like some of them you can just either like his chipping away, or some of them the Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: kind of autograph is like it was kind of weird, but if you can find Cartel: Are they like Jonathan Crawford: a clean, crispy rip rock auto, like you gotta pick it up. Cartel: Are they signed in Silver Inc.? Is it Silver Inc.? Okay. Jonathan Crawford: It is, yeah, exactly. Cartel: Yeah. So and that that got me thinking because I saw a reel today of Steve Aoki, who is the DJ that we all know loves collecting, is very deeply involved. We saw him walking by at at a show it was that mini expo after the expo. I don't know if you were there. Didn't didn't you stop by with with your son? possibly. Do you know the one I'm talking about? It was at the Internet. It was at Jonathan Crawford: I can't remember what it was, but I vaguely remember something about AOP being at a show. Yeah. Cartel: But yeah, he he was walking by. so he initially was into Pokemon like everybody else, but what I like is that he he's in he's if he's into UFC and WWE, he goes into the collecting. So he has huge collections of UFC and WWE stuff and what he was showing off was his wrestling rookie cards. So he had that, you know, that that type of case that allows you to put four slabs in the front. But Jonathan Crawford: Yeah. Cartel: his case like you could flip through it. And he had the Andre Wrestling annual rookie card. He had the Hogan, it was either Topps or Opeachy, I'm presuming maybe Opeachy. the Rock Cardinal 97 rookie card, which we were also talking about, is very affordable. So it's not like he it I like that it's not just about value. He was like, I like these guys. He had the Cena Royal Rumble rookie card, all in PSA ten. And he was very excited about that, and I love that he's excited about that. And I love that he's showing that stuff off and making people aware of it. because there's at at the top of every category it seems like, there are a lot of big investors and a lot of big money getting thrown around. So that's always good to see someone like Aoki getting excited about wrestling. And like I said, I love the fact that he was into that cardinal rock when it's not going for a ton in a PSA ten. And you just told us what was the what was the pop? it was very low pop. Jonathan Crawford: So that's the crazy thing about this card. The last sale I'm seeing on card ladder was May twenty fifth. this is twenty twenty five actually. This is last year. This the this Cartel: So there's been a lot of change. Jonathan Crawford: the sale was a thousand US. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: Card ladder is currently valuing at two thousand, double. I mean, maybe that makes sense. But the population Cartel: Mm-hmm. Yes. Jonathan Crawford: of PSA ten is thirty nine currently. Cartel: That's one of those carts. You probably you're saying to yourself, I want it, but now you gotta find it. And and then if you're some of these people in Montreal, you're gonna hem and haw over five dollars. But but it's like yeah, Jonathan Crawford: Or tw or twenty five dollars, as the case may be. Cartel: like I I love the ninety ninety one OPG Premier Yar Mariagra rookie card. gonna put it out there. I think it's w it should be worth way more than what it is and I've gone through a couple and every time I move one I want another one and then you find out it's not the easy there was none at in X in Montreal. You you know that was like one of the only cards I was specifically looking for. Couldn't find it anywhere. So, yeah. Another reason why that whole saying, if you see the card, get that card, man. Don't walk way over ten dollars. This is happening so often and I see it and I laugh. if it's a card you're not gonna be able to find, get the friggin' card. You know what I mean? Jonathan Crawford: Well it's funny you say that because there there was there was a Pokemon card I had like a Typhlosion EX from 2003, I think it was, Sand the Sandstorm PSA eight. Cartel: yes, yes. Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: And I had a few people come by the the table. I had a sticker Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: price of five hundred, which is what collector app is value was valuing at the time. I had a f some people looking at it and they were saying, I want to be under four hundred, I'm gonna be under four hundred. I'm like, I'm not selling that low, like are you crazy? And vintage Pokemon has been going up a lot recently. I don't know if you've been hearing about that too. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: so I turned down a bunch of offers, low ball offers. And then I don't know, three days after we got back from Montreal, six hundred dollar offer on eBay. And, you know, just like that. So these guys Cartel: Absolutely. Jonathan Crawford: had a chance to get the card for a lot less than six hundred, I'll tell you that right now. But you know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sell myself short either. So Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: To to your point, if there's a good deal, sometimes you gotta just pull the trigger. Cartel: Yeah, and I had I had a Demidoff card again, we don't need to go into super details, but this Demidoff card it was probably the only one at the show. I had it priced pretty much at the last comp, willing to talk to people about it. was a couple people came back five or six times. The one guy who came back the sixth time agreed to the minimum I was asking in the middle of someone else trying to close the deal. Like get the card. Like if if you're not seeing it, get get the card stopped. You know, there's too many people trying to squeeze every dollar. That may have been okay a year ago. Cut it out. And ever and everyone is everyone's aware, okay? So what you're doing is only hurting yourself in my opinion because then someone like John that you're you're trying to squeeze is going to sell it elsewhere very quickly and you're gonna and you're gonna potentially live with the regret kind of thing, right? So, But yeah, that being said, like I mentioned, the top end of everything is going nuts. We just saw that Sydney Crosby. I keep deferring to hockey. It is hockey time, folks, but you know, we are the combat podcast. But that that was a new record sale of the cup Crosby that we saw was like a quarter million US dollars. a lot of stuff like that is going on. And even in the realm of product, so the new product that came out recently, Splendor hockey, is one card they have it sealed up like they have the cut patches in that like slab kind of thing with the blue label. Me personally I think it's overkill. You could very easily create an online catalog. You didn't necessarily need to slab it up. They're all serially numbered. I get it, but nonetheless, I think it's a bit overdone. But one card, $1,000 that box. And the cards are beautiful and there's a lot of cool stuff and I can't wait for it to circulate and I can't wait to take a stab at it without buying a thousand dollar pack. it makes it makes me go back and look at the other Splendor release, which was really nice. People wanted it back. I don't know necessarily they wanted it back in this format of one card for a thousand dollars. but I I think we're seeing a lot of that, aren't we? We're seeing a lot of like very, very high end product that's very expensive and you're getting a couple cards. How do you feel about that? Jonathan Crawford: I mean it's not for me. I don't particularly play in that realm of sealed product or much sealed product at all, but for the people that love the Turtle of the Chase, you know, that's something for them to potentially get a big hit in. So Cartel: Yeah, and and in wrestling I know that they so with the UFC, like back in the day there was Knockout. When Knockout first came out, you only got a few cards. They came in these cool little like circular packs. I'll never forget it 'cause I bought so many and I and I probably moved every single one I had. I hate that. But in WWE there was fully loaded. But again it was like a mid end product. Like you could it like a hundred bucks. And you could get some really cool stuff in there. Vince McMahon stuff. There was yeah, fully loaded they did for a couple of years, didn't they? The stickered one touches. has there been anything recent that's been similar to that in the wrestling world? I don't think so. Jonathan Crawford: Not not quite like that, no. I mean there's a lot of nice patch autos, like you said, very affordable from that set though. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: And it's all on card, nice stuff. But no, I can't think of anything recently. I universe, but that's not not the same. Cartel: Yeah. No, but I I think we're gonna see similar stuff. headed out particularly for UFC and W W. I think it's I think it's a market in a niche that that lends itself to that. You might be able to get a John Jones one of one or or a Roman Reigns one of one and and everything is numbered like fifty or below. And it's all very y again, you you dread hitting that player that doesn't justify the thousand dollars, but everything at least looks nice. And speaking of Roman Reigns, and you and I should know his name. It's Annoy something, right? Like it's do you? No. Joe, Jonathan Crawford: Joe, isn't it? Cartel: is it Joe Annoy? he has a Bowman Chrome football card that has come out, right? And I've seen the redemptions already start popping. And you can't tell me that's a card the Toronto card collector wouldn't like to get his hands on. Jonathan Crawford: I'm scared to even ask what they're going for. I haven't even looked. It's Cartel: Don't know. Jonathan Crawford: Leati Joseph Anoai. Cartel: And and and there's like parallels, right? So there's gonna be all sorts of different color parallels and stuff. Jonathan Crawford: of course. Cartel: But super cool card. That's a concept I can get behind. That's super cool. And so this crossover in the football and pro wrestling world, and there was a lot of hype on that, a lot of excitement about that. So I think that's that's a very cool concept and we'll be seeing I think we'll be seeing more of that kind of thing for sure. Jonathan Crawford: curious to look at conf now if there are any. Cartel: Now you're checking it out. So I think that's that's as good of a a good of a time as any to throw to our pickups and some of those types of things that went on in Montreal. I got a couple things I wanted to show off. You you already alluded to your kaboom, your big kaboom deal that that involved a huge stuff curry card and I loved you educating people about the fact that the kabooms that are out there are the kabooms. There's not gonna be any more wrestling kabooms. Right? And there weren't many to begin with. Jonathan Crawford: Licensed, licensed. Cartel: That's right and that's important as I cling on to life here. Jonathan Crawford: Because they did have the combat anthology, the unlicensed series with Ric Flair and Hogan. But again, those are those are non licensed. So they're they're cool, good, you know, good collector card. I just don't think they're gonna have the same longevity as the licensed ones. Maybe the Ric Flair because he didn't have one in Revolution. Cartel: yeah. Jonathan Crawford: but the Hogan is unlicensed anyway. Cartel: How do you feel about the Ric Flair market? It's kind of a low-key, but we are talking about potentially the greatest of all time. That is Ric Flair, the nature boy. Jonathan Crawford: It's true. I just think he has the the problem of he signed for everything. Like he has so many well, okay, Leaf specifically. He like a bazillion Leaf autos. So I don't know that his Cartel: Yes. Jonathan Crawford: his autos or cards command much of a premium. Maybe they should, based on his career, obviously, but I think he's just signed so much stuff over the years. Cartel: There's a lot of Leaf product featuring Flair, Muhammad Ali. That was another rookie Jonathan Crawford: Yes. Cartel: that that was being shown off by Ayoki. I think he had the only PSA 10. Debatable, by the way. The Cassius Clay rookie cards, there's a few cards that are debatable. Some of them bring huge money. one of them I noticed was like a photo card kind of postcard kind of thing. And I have I have boxers and rustlers from that set. I gotta look through them actually. I obviously I don't have a Cassius. As clay, but I I recognize the design of these cards. it's interesting. It's it's it's interesting stuff. But yeah, flair and Ali, I immediately associate them with these leaf products and that sort of thing, which tend to carry less desirability, I suppose. wanted to go over some of my favorite Racetin pickups, and in the realm of the UFC, real quick, I have been p picking up any low pop stuff that's graded of guys like Patty Patty Pimpler. so I picked up his red prism PSA ten. there's only like a few. There's only like a dozen out there. So again, I'm at a show, it's there, I'm going to get it. And I'm not gonna lose it over ten bucks. I think I ended up trading for it. And one of the cards I got, which was funny, towards the end of Sunday, that you and I discussed, the the Habib Nirmagomedov finest on card autograph with a design that makes it look like a sticker and I immediately dismissed it as a sticker. It's on card. I don't know why you would create such a design that looks like a sticker, but it's on card. The finest 2026, is it 2026 or 2025? Is on card. so Habib autographs, again, we're talking about goats. I love this little bathing ape penta. I really dig it. I I had to pick up a Sol Ruka autograph. Picked up a Tony Storm autograph. I really like Tony Storm and her gimmick. this was a NXT release out of Topps, potentially women's division, I think, on card, numbered. She doesn't have a ton of stuff. And then that buddy of yours that you met in person, I guess, for the first time, great guy. He walked away with my 1987 Topps complete WWF set with the Bret Hart rookie, and that stuff was in amazing shape. Great pickup by him. And he was rocking some of these matte relics, like this Ripley, this Raya Ripley, which features a mat from the 2019 Survivor series. Says so on the back, 2020 Women's Division. So I guess I guess that's the same set as the Tony Store. and you picked up a Liv Morgan from that set. That tells you exactly where it's from, which is exactly what we were talking about last episode. Leave a comment down below about what you learned from that. Like and subscribe, press the ding-alingy. And John, what were some of your favorite pickups? Jonathan Crawford: Well, this going continuing on the wrestling train I had somebody walk up with two Oba Femi rookies. one of them was, I can't remember, just a what was it, orange parallel, some kind of and then the other one. Yeah, Cartel: Mm-hmm. The s the select, the select stuff. Jonathan Crawford: the select, yes, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And then the other one was also select rookie, but it was a silver die cut. And I Cartel: Yes. Jonathan Crawford: hadn't actually seen that that car before for Oba. Beautiful, beautiful card. So I've had to had to pick that up, obviously. I think his I mean his market has so much room to grow still, even though it's been going up recently. I sold an out of ten Oba auto recently on eBay, for for a nice nice price on there. Cartel: Yes. You you sold it for more than my mojo rookie cart autograph sold for. So congratulations on that. Jonathan Crawford: thank you, thank you. I also I still have that royalty patch auto out of ten, but that's not that's not going up for sale anytime soon, put it that way. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: what else did I pick up? Well, I mean the big one I as I alluded to earlier was the Steph Curry 2009 Topps rookie card, PSA eight. and it was funny because the guy came up to us with three cards and one of them was Wing Gretzky OPC. Cartel: Which which w which Jonathan Crawford: One of them was Maurice Richard. Cartel: Canadian sports car investor jumped all over very quickly while while Jonathan Crawford: He did. Cartel: slamming these and coughing on me. Hello. Jonathan Crawford: He didn't hesitate. He didn't hesitate. Hello, he did the right thing. You know, he didn't he didn't try to you know squeeze another ten dollars out of the guy. anyway, so Cartel: No, no. Jonathan Crawford: then he had a nice a nice Maurice Richard rookie and then the third one was the Steph Curry rookie, which he presented to me and I was like, I'm interested, like but I only have wrestling in Pokemon. He's like, I love wrestling. Okay, great, like let's make a deal happen. Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: It's not every day that you can actually make a deal of wrestling for NBA or vice versa. Especially Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: something, you know, a card of that caliber. PC eight curry rookie, very rare opportunity. So he was kind of looking around my case, didn't I mean he saw a few things, but then I was like, Okay, I know something you're gonna like. So I had to pull the stone cold kaboom out of my out of my my Zion case in the back. Wasn't planning on moving it, but you know, if if a nice deal's there, sometimes you gotta make a play. Cartel: And it's not like you came to the show wanting to get a curry, it just kinda played out that way. Jonathan Crawford: Right. Well, yeah, I've kind of had in my mind of you know, getting getting back into some more basketball, some more goat cards, which maybe some may say is not not advisable given everything's been been up so much recently, but Cartel: Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: I'm trying to diversify a bit more, I guess, before the expo. Cartel: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Crawford: obviously I'm gonna have a good portion of wrestling Pokemon, but I wanna do have have some some basketball in there as well. so yeah, pretty happy with that one. Cartel: I just wanted to note live on the air here, someone on on Instagram had mentioned that PSA did a poor job listing a Wolverine quote unquote rookie card era card in a PSA eight because they didn't put Wolverine in the title. And it was languishing at like five bucks. I actually put a bit in. it is about to end in eight seconds here, and I will give you a price. Do you wanna guess what it ended up finishing at? Jonathan Crawford: Fifty. Cartel: it is doing the whole we're determining the winner thing. The last price I saw after a bidding flurry was eight hundred and ten US dollars. And it was five bucks this time yesterday, and it's done, eight hundred and ten US dollars. It's from the nineteen eighty Marvel Terabusi Italiano set. and literally it's not the accepted Wolverine rookie, but he's on it in the same set. So a PSA eight of the actual Wolverine, I don't know, do whatever math makes sense, but I don't know that anything makes sense right now. Anymore. At the moment. I think that's a good way to put it. but yeah, that's wild. Jonathan Crawford: Well l let me put it this way real quick. I had somebody offer the Walt Disney Mickey Mouse, you know, that that rookie card. Somebody Cartel: I know. Yeah. Jonathan Crawford: offered me a copy of that in the PSA six in exchange for my Stone Cold and Rock dual autograph, which I quickly declined. but but it's I Cartel: Interesting. Jonathan Crawford: I had a quick look at the chart of that Disney and Mickey card, and it was Cartel: What is it? This is Jonathan Crawford: I mean it's gone like seven X or something in the past like three months. Cartel: The thing I worry about and I and I I've had some discussions with people and they'll be like, that there's actually an earlier one. Or maybe this that like you know you never know when something else is gonna surface and get pushed as the one. your card is there is no debate about what your card is and its significance. So without knowing the values, I get where you're coming from, but that is a that Mickey Mouse card is kind of on the realm of rails that are suddenly being talked about. But look at look at where your wrestling cards are potentially getting you. I mean that's that's very significant and and relevant to the Tonight's card podcast, which is all about combat cards, commentary, and you the viewer, liking, subscribing, and leaving a comment down below. Leave a comment, don't leave a cold. Like Canadian sports card investor. What I'm is what I'm trying to say. And you may think, Yeah, we're gonna Jonathan Crawford: We were gonna have him on the podcast. I don't know if we ever will anymore after this. Cartel: we're gonna talk about that. it's maybe not that it's the return of the cartel, your friendly neighborhood cartel. Maybe it's more about the fact that I've been bleeding out of my eyeballs. And I don't want to offend anyone with blood coming out of my eyeballs. So yeah. so anyhow. Jonathan Crawford: I don't think the algorithm would like that very much. Cartel: On the topic of bleeding eyeballs, let's leave it at that. please like, subscribe, comment down below what you'd like to hear about on the podcast. Jonathan promised me he's gonna spend the next week watching a lot of boxing, AEW, maybe some UFC, so that he kind of gets the knowledge up, right? Jonathan Crawford: You know what? I will watch whatever is okay, within reason, whatever's Cartel: Ha ha ha. Jonathan Crawford: in the comments, whatever people tell me to watch, I'll watch for next week. Cartel: the pressure the pressure is on guys. Let's have some good feedback when it comes to what needs to be discussed. And again, we're very open-minded. We dare to dabble is our tagline. whenever you see the bearded buds at a show. We dare to dabble. We will look at everything because everything is so cool and so interesting, and we want to see cool and we wanna see interesting. and that being said. Tonight's card podcast is over.