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Let's Talk Personal Collections - Chasing Rainbows · The Scout and The Speculator

• Jaba: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Scout and the Speculator Podcast. This is Will Jarvis, also known as Jabba Cards. Joined as always by my co-host Jeremy Brown of Perfect Game Baseball, more importantly known as JGB underscore cards underscore. And today we are bringing you guys a little bit different of an episode. We are going to get a little bit more informal than usual. I know we've been very stat heavy this week with the buy sell holds, talking about Angevil Gomez. So we thought we would take things in a different direction today. We're having Bob on tomorrow, so that'll be some more heavy-duty analytical talk. We're gonna talk about the lockout, a couple episodes there. But today we wanted to do something fun, and I'll let Jeremy kinda introduce what we're talking about and take over from here for a little bit. Jheremy: Yeah, you have the TLC song, I think that's who wrote it, right? don't go chasing waterfalls, but let's go chasing rainbows. And I know you're smiling. Both of our videos are off because I'm actually in the car doing this one right now. But I know you're smiling. And Jaba: yeah, I'm I'm just standing with JGB with no video today. So if you're watching this on YouTube, sorry. Jheremy: Yeah. basically it came down to Jabba had a Jonatong Heritage Super and I'm like, hey, why don't you just go complete the whole thing now? And my side quest this whole time has been the twenty twenty five Johnny Farmello like true rainbow. And why? Well I d why why no. Did you lose me? Jaba: I think Jeremy's driving through the woods, folks. We'll we we lost either. Okay, you're you're good again. Yeah, you're back though, you're back in action. Jheremy: No, gotta gotta love it. It it's election season. That's Starlink crashing now. So the wha what what have you heard so far from me? Where did I lose you? Jaba: you introduced the Tong Rainbow and and then you went zero dark J G B. Jheremy: yeah. Okay. So yeah, like hey, go get that rainbow. Meanwhile, I've been kind of going after the Johnny Farmello twenty twenty five Bowman True Rainbow and like why? Like why go for the Farmello like nineteenth year Bowman with little like credence to anything? And it's simply because I got somebody traded me the super for a spot in a break that I did. No other reason, other than like, hey, can I do you want this super just to cover my spot? And I'm like, sure. I'm already up and I've never really had a super before, so that's fine. Then sl Jaba: Yeah, cool, why not? Jheremy: and then slowly but surely, my shop had the true red. You could I bought the true blue for four dollars shipped. So with all that, I'm down to needing the true yellow, black, and green, oddly enough. There's like one on eBay for Maybe seven dollars with a dollar shipping, and I just refused to buy it. And he auto-declined five dollars. So now I'm just not buying it. So if somebody really wants to Jaba: We're having a principle all. Jheremy: if somebody really wants to just go not even screw me over, but just go buy the two of them there for like seven bucks each and hold them over my head, you absolutely can. yeah, it was I don't like the Jaba: Not a bad idea, I might do that. Jheremy: I don't like the geos, so I don't wanna go with those and I just think having the true color all the way through is nice. instead of getting the red geo, the red shimmer, the red wave, just going straight true color. I have the red, orange, gold, like Jaba: Yeah, that really opens it up to being a wild goose chase. Jheremy: which is fun, right? But at the end of the day, your tongue, you said there's been so many variations that just pop and you can go buy them for a couple bucks here, a couple bucks there. Gives you another thing to kind of look and scour for, which like we all know the hunt is a thrill of it all. But I maybe Jaba: Right. Jheremy: once I get maybe once I get the whole true rainbow done, then I will I'll I'll move on to some of the smaller parallels just because Jaba: Yeah, I I think the reason we were so excited about, this idea in this episode is obviously the Bowman stuff can be lucrative. The Bowman stuff is fun. I think you and I both got into Bowman because it was like a hey, we love following prospects. we both know what we're talking about, obviously in very different capacities. I'm not gonna pretend I know as much about baseball as you have in your pinky finger, but I I I do know more than, you know, most civilians call it. But the the the beauty of all this is it comes down at the end of the day. We just love collecting cards. It's fun. And while we've spent a ton of time talking about Bowman and kind of how to make money there, and we will continue to and we'll hopefully continue to learn and get better and help you guys all get better, we did want to mix this in just to, you know, make it clear. We're we're collectors. We're doing this because we love the cards. And while it's very fun to make money off cards, I think it's important to have a side project going at all times with cards. And Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: I think the most important lesson here is that these aren't like expensive side projects, right? Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: you're not doing the first farmello auto rainbow. It it it's not like Jheremy: Right. Jaba: it's No, prohibitively expensive. For Tong, I he he was the first Bowman guy I really went big on last year and did well on. I'm also a Mets fan. I also had there was a time last year when his dad actually bought a card of his from me off eBay. I was printing the label. I he he was getting it sent to Jonah, who was in Binghamton at the time. So I kinda messaged the dad. I was like, Hey, this is a little weird, I'm a twenty seven year old man at the time. Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: I promise I'm not a weirdo, but I'm a huge Mets fan, love your son. He's been blown up. He seems like a great kid. You think if I sent a few extra cards, couple sapphire colors for him to keep, you think if I sent him one, he'd sign it and send it back. And his dad was super nice. He was like, you know, I can't speak for him, but I'm sure, you know, he'd be happy to. I just, you know, can't make any promises. Sent the card, gave him an envelope address back, didn't see anything for a while. I he's busy, he's flying through the minors, he's busy being the best pitcher in the minor leagues. One day go check the mail. you know, I I recognized the envelope, and he had signed a sapphire card for me, which was really cool, especially 'cause he didn't sign Sapphire. Obviously the in Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: person autos don't look as good. But it's cool for me as somebody who had collected him like that's something that I have like propped up against my T V and that's you know, never moving. It'll move when I move. But you know that that's one of those cards that I'm always gonna keep. I'm always gonna smile when I see it and it comes with a story. So anyhow, fast forward to this year a buddy of mine had the Tom Heritage Super Not sure how familiar people are with Heritage, but there's no super autos So it's a non-auto. my dad and I had both, you know, love tongue. It was a decent price, so we said, okay, let's split it and you know, it'll be a cornerstone of our collection, you know, kind of commemorating the first guy that really got us falling in love with Bowman. So I had that. I probably got that. I I mean like four or five months ago. And I was just talking Jheremy: Yep. Jaba: to Jeremy about it. I was like, yeah, check this card out. He was like, dude, you have the hardest one, go get the rainbow. And my first thought Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: was, well, being used to the Bowman world, obviously there's like a billion parallels. So at first I was kinda like, Yeah, well, yeah, that's that's a lot of money. And I actually looked into it. I built out like an Excel with the checklist from Heritage, it's only twenty-eight cards, which is definitely a lot, but I think compared to Bowman, especially chasing, you know, non-autos where a lot of the cards are paper. I think like Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: eighteen of the twenty-eight or twenty of the twenty-eight are paper non-auto. So I was like, okay. let's look into this. I also had the red ink auto, which is the more expensive of the two auto variations. And, you know, I'd Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: paid like a hundred bucks for that. The non red ink auto is like twenty five bucks. So I was like, okay, you know, I'm gonna sit down and just scour ebay. I got my checklist here, let's see what we can do. And in the last week I I I now have twenty four of the twenty eight cards. And it's like I I mean, outside of the red ink auto and the super I've spent two hundred dollars. And like a hundred and thirty of that was on like three numbered chrome ones. So like I I Jheremy: Right. Jaba: basically got the whole rainbow for like four dollars a card. And again, it I'm not doing it for the value. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: If I were to resell it, I would probably lose money. But that's not what it's about. it i it's just really cool and it's fun opening the mail every day now, seeing one or two come in. I'm kinda putting them together. I'm figuring out the best way to display it as they come in. But yeah, I'm at twenty four or twenty eight. If anyone has seen the flip stock black bordered paper, orange chrome to twenty five or red chrome to twenty five, please hit me up. I'm prepared to overpay for those. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: but yeah, it's a fun project, it's fun going On eBay every day, obviously you and I love like hunting for those Bowman deals, but once you get like a month out from release, it's probably not Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: happening. Like you you gotta get real li I mean, the first two weeks after release are great, unless you're my girlfriend, because I'm just sitting there on eBay refreshing it every three minutes, and you know, Jheremy: Right. Jaba: it's thrilling. But th this is a way to stay engaged, build something out on the side. Especially like a lot of my Bowman stuff from Chrome is now PSA. So I don't have a a ton going on in terms of buying or grading actively. So i i it's a fun way to stay involved. It it's just cool and like especially if you have kinda like a niche player. I know Tong, you know, kinda had a disappointing year. He was good when he got called up late. But, you know, it definitely helps for my case that it's not full hype time for him. I mean can only imagine Jheremy: Right. Jaba: if it was like this time last year where he was like a rocket ship and I still think he's gonna be really good. You know, I think he might be a reliever, but I think he would be a damn good reliever. And he seems like a great kid. So it's just something where like I have a special connection to it. I'm a Mets fan. I love the kid and you know, I find it fun. And is Farmello a perfect game guy? Jheremy: he was later on, so not Jaba: Okay. Jheremy: I I honestly it's because it fell into my lap of it it was Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: purely a thing of opportunity and it's like well I have the hardest one, let's just do something with it. And I think honestly, the next one I picked up, I think I went and bought a snack pack right away. And then I bought an X Fractor. Like obviously I already had the base chromes and refractors and everything. Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: But I just kind of was like, Okay, like let's just kind of pick this apart. My local shop got the red in for me, sold it to me for a hundred bucks. Great. there's there's your two hardest ones, the true black on eBay that I eventually will just bite the bullet on. And yeah, I mean, my buddy even the other day is like, What are you gonna do when you're done with this? I'm like, I don't know, but it's it's not all that often I can go ahead and just do something like this. Like a a super just Jaba: Yeah, for sure. Jheremy: doesn't fall into your lap for a spot and a break that you're running. the guy the guy got in the break. He's like, hey, I'll send you this instead of payment. Like a week after. I'm like, you know what? He could have just got his stuff, saw what he hit, Jaba: Sure. Jheremy: and never sent it. And I got nothing because it's all offline. Like life is life. But like it showed up and he hit it in a break, didn't really care, wanted to re-roll it, which he did. So why not? And then I have another like little side quest, and I say little because I think it's only like six cards. was set up at the Philly show with our guy Delang's and Somebody's Jaba: The last Jheremy: talking. Right. They like he came up, he sh what did he show us? He showed us a gauge wood red Safi auto, I think. Either him or his girlfriend brought it up and like this, I got I hit this card. I'm like, yeah, that's not for me, like in any sense of the word, but I appreciate you showing it. Like huge card. And then I heard them talking to the side. He's but I have the Cameron Millar one one. And I like I wasn't a part of the conversation, but I go, Hey, did you just say you have Cameron Millar one of one? He goes, Yeah, I hit it in a break. And I'm like, because that's somebody like I bought his true gold, his yellow, a couple other like blues, every lease, his auto. And I'm like, How much you want for it? The Papa. And he's like, I don't know. I think I'm at like five hundred. And the whole table, there are other Bowman people, because once you have one Bowman person, like it seems like everybody flocks to a table, you know? Jaba: yeah. Jheremy: And we're all like, it's probably half of that is what everyone else was saying. And I think I ended up paying the guy like 200 bucks, 250 bucks. And I didn't really think twice about it, because like again, how often is a papa gonna fall into your lap like that of somebody you were already actively buying? So I did that. I looked the other day on eBay, I bought the black, I think, for 60 bucks all in. And then like the orange, yellow, those are nothing. Those were like twenty bucks each. So I am only missing the red now for the red for the full sapphire run. Only one of them has popped up. I was deleting bid until the end. I forgot to upload increase my bid and I fell asleep and it sold for like 68 bucks or 86 bucks. Either way. I need a red sapphire. I Jaba: Happen. Jheremy: have it saved. I haven't seen one since. So if anybody's got a red Cameron Millar Sapphire, I'll give you a hundred bucks for it right now. Which is a lot more than it's worth. So yeah. Jaba: Bring it out, folks. Jheremy: Anybody has out? Jaba: Bring it out. Yeah, then the other thing Jheremy: Just wanna be done with it, Jaba: I'm working on Yeah, that that's tough missing one and especially it's what, out of five, I I mean that's like that's a little painful. You know, 'cause you're waiting for that to show up and that could pop Jheremy: yeah. Jaba: up at any time. but you know, that's kind of the fun of it, Jheremy: Anytime. Jaba: 'cause like it's not easy, it's a long term project. And I think having those long term side projects are fun. They keep you engaged and it's fun to like work with like cards you're not usually seeing. I mean, don't think either of us are buying Cameron Millar like as an investment. I do think we both think that he's a solid pitcher. Not saying he sucks, but like it it like I wouldn't be buying Jonathan right now, like his an investment, but I love the Mets, I Jonathan. And it's fun to just have like a side project. I mean it's like some people have like a puzzle sitting on their kitchen table and they go pick Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: at it every you know, every few days. I think for us this is like our version of a puzzle. you know. We're probably weird guys, but anyone listening to us, you know, you're Jheremy: Huh, everybody's got something. Jaba: the same you're the same type of weird. Everyone has something, I think that it's just like a good way to like kinda maximize not to simplify it, but I mean it is simple. It's just maximizing the fun you have with a great hobby. And yeah, the other thing I'm working on right now is international variations just from Twenty six Baum and Chrome. I think they're beautiful cards. They're really cool. And yeah, they they expanded the set this year. I know last year it was much smaller. I think it was like fifteen guys. I've since learned that this was like a big insert in like the nineties and Bowman's Best. I've Jheremy: yeah. Jaba: got a look at those and some of those old ones are cool. I mean it's a lot of like young guys that were around like as a child. Like I I love like, you know, kind of sitting around with a couple of my friends just doing that stuff you do where you're just naming random guys from your childhood, like random utility players. from 2005. So I was looking at the cards. I was like, that's cool. And I might I might get into those at some point. But for now it's just I think they're such beautiful cards. They're not super expensive. My concern is that the the quantity, the supply is going to run out before everyone's demand is fulfilled. At which point, you know, their the prices might actually go up. You know, you think usually prices would sink. I don't really know what the print run is. I should probably look into it. But That's one where I've been buying them probably thirty dollars a pop on average. I think I have eleven out of forty nine. But it's Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: like ha has you know, I get like a little money coming in, you know. I'll buy like one or two a week. Like I'm not trying to like speed run it. I'm not trying to like you know, be the first one to complete the set and like sell it. It's just something like on the side, it's like, okay, you know I didn't go out to lunch today, I didn't get a coffee. th this so and so's up for twenty one dollars, I'm buying that. but yeah, Jheremy: Yeah, exactly. Jaba: it's just fun to do here and there. I think they're beautiful cards. I think the the cool thing here is we're talking about cards from four different products now. kind of four completely different projects between the two of us. And I think that's why it's fun. I mean there's no limit to what you can do. You can kinda do it within any cost parameter. Really. obviously it depends on the player. But I think another beautiful thing about this hobby, and even like when we talk about Bowman investing, it's like, okay, not everyone's gonna be going and buying an angebil true blue after listening to the podcast. But I think most people could go buy a base. I mean, he's obviously a very expensive example, but it's like even Bowman investing, like you can do like in your own lane that you're comfortable with financially and still get basically the same results, like. in terms of ROI, obviously the the return on or the return on capital is the same, but like ob obviously the dollar amounts get bigger as you go higher. But like I think the beautiful thing about Bowman, and I think the reason that we love it so much and talking to people about it is it's not like our advice only applies to like high rollers or like dollar box hunters. Like anyone can participate like at any level. And I think that Jheremy: Uh-huh. Jaba: that's like one of the best, if not the best thing about this hobby. But But yeah, you got you got anything else on this? Jheremy: no, not really. I will ask you, can you do a rainbow without a super? Does that count? Jaba: Can you afford the super? And is it like Jheremy: They I don't know. Jaba: is it a good use of money or is it Jheremy: Whatever you want. It just can you say you have a full rainbow without the super, or do you need to have the super? what do you think? Jaba: I think you probably need the super. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: But again, you know, it it really depends on like who it is. I I mean if if you're if you're doing a Connor Jheremy: Exactly. yeah, you're not going and completing really Jaba: Griffin first year, you know, and Jheremy: Yeah, good luck. Jaba: have a h a hundred grand in the couch cushions or probably more, honestly. Definitely more. I just meant for the I just meant for the super. Jheremy: We need more than that for the rainbow. Way more than that for the rainbow. yeah. Either way. I was just curious. But like again, like if you can find one of those Jaba: Yeah, I I I think so, but like no one's gonna tell on you if you don't. I mean you you build it Jheremy: Exactly. Jaba: however you wanna build it. Like go have fun, do whatever. If you can afford a super, awesome. If you can't, you know, you're not gonna get any shade from from either of us. I mean, operate in the capacity you're comfortable with and have fun with it. You know, you can do whatever you want. There's Jheremy: I do agree. Also, say you want to do something, but you d can't do the whole rainbow because you want to be a completionist and you're a purest of mind, go for an entire color run. God knows fanatics and tops have made a million different parallels now. Jaba: yeah. Jheremy: Go get all the waves, ray waves, geos, true blues, autos, non autos, and you'll probably still get ten cards to chase for any particular color of a guy. If you want to go do like I know some people Jaba: Yeah, h honor version. Jheremy: Some people for their team get all the players in a color match. I have a buddy who's big LSU fan. Every LSU alum that gets a Bowman first, he goes and buys their first purple auto, which I think is cool. And it just gives you something to chase. Just makes it fun again, I guess, where like you get so caught up in like profits and margins and everything where this is like, yep, I I need this card, I want this card, I'm gonna overpay for it, and it doesn't really matter because I'm gonna hold on to it. Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: Which at the end of the day, like use a hobby to fund the hobby, put it back into the hobby, everything like that. So Jaba: Yeah, d definitely something we've been banging the drum on for a while. I mean it's like, yeah, we like making money, but we're not doing it to like, you know, max out our our revenue. It's basically just so that we have as much money as possible to dump right back in and make it kind of a self self sustaining ecosystem, for less term. Like, you know, we're Jheremy: Basically. I'm just like Jaba: 'cause we love it and Jheremy: I'm just looking at other things that have come. obviously a non first is always gonna be way cheaper, but an Andrew Salas Papa from this year's Sapphire went for $127 on auction. you do the trickle-down Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: economics of that, you can get that whole thing done pretty quick and it gives you something to chase. Keaton Anthony's Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: pop first papa did four forty nine, that's a lot, but Barks Harbor Papa did five sixty, and he's a he's a color only guy, he doesn't even have autos. Jaba: Yeah. So that probably made it more expensive than it would have been, yeah. Jheremy: I'm just look like Miguel Mendez Papa did three hundred bucks on best offer. non auto. Like Jaba: Otto? I guess he probably didn't sign. Jheremy: that's just like a couple different like I I get it. Wielder Dalis Papa did five hundred. But that was the one that wasn't him. That's from Chrome. Jaba: What the fuck? Sorry, that's my that's my second F bomb in pod history. At least you know it's authentic. You know, we're we're Jheremy: Yeah. Just looking like and I'm not saying go buy the Papa just because it's cheap and go from there, but there's some cheaper options I guess, at least, but Jaba: Yeah, I I'm I'm glad you said that. it it's not like we're saying, yeah, just start with the superfractor or the papa and go from there. Like, that's Jheremy: Exactly. Jaba: like I mean, guess that is what we're saying, but like Jheremy: She's Jaba: Unless you're going for a premier guy on his first, I think people would be shocked at how cheap you can get those. And a hundred bucks, I'm not trying to say that that's not like real money. But if it's like a hundred bucks for like the hardest card in the rainbow, I think that that's pretty reasonable. And Jheremy: Ooh, that the Azucar super auto sold. Jaba: How much? Jheremy: What do you think? It's listed for seventy five K, so I'm pretty positive. Jaba: I think it did eight I think it did eight K. Jheremy: Times two minus one. Yeah. Jaba: Fifteen. I'm a math guy. Jheremy: Jason Horton super did forty five hundred. That was an auto Jaba: Jesus. Jheremy: on auction. Yeah, r realistically just go join a break and odds are you're gonna hit it. That'll be fun too. So just go do that. Jaba: Yeah, lu lose everything on breaks. That's today's Jheremy: God no, I don't do breaks. but I guess you and I kind of completed a whole nother rainbow too with Talon Haley because he doesn't have true color, so we're done. Jaba: Yeah, we got the super. Everyone can fuck it. Jheremy: Congrats to us. Jaba: Yeah. That that's Jheremy: That's a joke, but Jaba: what we were all building up to. This whole thing was just to dunk on everybody, say, enjoy it, how you want? And then be like, Yeah, we got a we got a Bowman chrome twenty six rainbow. You guys don't. Jheremy: Yep. Yeah. No, there is that true red we didn't win, so he has at least one true color auto out there. So that we don't own. Jaba: That we don't own. So, yeah. Anyhow, Jheremy: Love it. Jaba: happy hunting, everybody. hope this was fun to listen to. Again, always happy to talk cards, or if you guys have questions, anything, don't be a stranger. And yeah, we're looking looking forward to having Bob on tomorrow, keeping things rolling. And appreciate all you guys for listening. We love ya, and let's go mets. See ya guys.