Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- March 11th, 2026

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MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- March 11th, 2026 · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:10
What's going on, everybody? All right, here we are on
0:13
another Wednesday Q&A. I've got two more days after
0:18
today until spring break. A week off.
0:22
Oh, boy, This is spring fever is in full effect at my school.
0:30
Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be a great week
0:33
off. What will this change for the
0:35
channel? Probably not much.
0:37
In fact, I might even have fewer videos next week because I got a
0:41
couple of things planned and we'll see how it goes.
0:44
But that said, you know, I'll have something to put out next
0:48
week, so keep an eye out for that later in this week.
0:52
I've got a couple of things. One, I've got my cards from
0:55
February under $50.00 with a very interesting trend that I
1:01
noticed in the digging through sales bills from February from
1:06
last month. And then also on Saturday, well,
1:09
it might go flipped Friday or Saturday.
1:12
It's going to be a Friday. There's going to be a Saturday.
1:14
It's going to be an off topic with Darren and I host the guest
1:19
this week who you all will like very much.
1:23
I am excited for those. OK, I'm going to start doing
1:26
something a little bit differently.
1:27
I'm I'm there are certain episodes where with some of the
1:31
things that have going on, I don't want to do a full pickup
1:35
episode each month anymore. Remember you can always upload
1:41
your favorite pickup from the previous month in my midlife
1:44
community show and tell episode by going over to the sports card
1:48
clubhouse website. Go to the midlife link.
1:53
There will be two links in there.
1:55
Make sure you're choosing the right one.
1:56
One is a place for you to upload your favorite pickup from the
1:59
last month. The other link is if you are
2:02
interested in buying my book. Yes, my book again is for sale.
2:08
I know some of you are probably already tired of me talking
2:11
about that. That said, I wanted to show some
2:15
of my pickups throughout the month now instead of just one
2:18
video for all of them. So first I had a mail day.
2:22
My guy Keith sent me this in the mail.
2:25
Surprised me this book. So that was super kind of you
2:30
Keith with a very nice note in there.
2:32
So thank you my friend. That is much appreciated.
2:35
Maybe that's what I'll do partly during my spring break.
2:40
Also a mail day. My buddy Brian, the high pop
2:43
professor, if you are not subscribed to the high pop
2:46
professor, you are missing out. He is heavily into 90s
2:52
refractors, 90s inserts. He's a big Greg Maddox
2:56
collector. And he just bought a huge
2:59
collection and he's taking us through the process of him
3:02
grading them and seeing how all that turns out.
3:05
Check out the high Pop professor if you haven't.
3:09
And he sold me this card. He sold me this beautiful Derek
3:16
Jeter refractor 1997 and APS. Look at the shine on that baby.
3:25
I mentioned a few months ago how I want to start collecting more
3:27
Jeter cards. And so you'll start to see not
3:32
just my normal vintage stuff, but some Jeter stuff as well.
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He threw in a couple of things. He threw in this cool item for
3:40
me of my guy Jeter and then this beautiful 95 pinnacle white hot
3:50
Greg Maddox. Look at the look at the shine,
3:53
see if I can get look at that. Those are one of those dufecs he
3:57
calls it. Yeah, he.
4:02
So thank you Brian for the gifts.
4:04
Thank. You for the homie price on the
4:07
card. All right, let's take a look at
4:11
our five questions for this week.
4:14
Couple of them are going to be long answers, couple of them are
4:17
going to be fairly short answers.
4:18
So let's dive in. First one right here.
4:23
I wanted to submit a controversial hot take for a
4:27
future Q&A discussion segment. An emphasis on I appeal
4:32
overgrade seems to be taking over the hobby.
4:35
I think for the better because I think there is too much emphasis
4:38
on a subjective numerical value dictating how nice a card is.
4:43
Much of the I appeal argument seems to focus on proper
4:46
centering. I for one won't try to argue
4:50
that a perfect centered card isn't nicer or more desirable
4:53
than an off centered card. But my hot take is I think
4:57
there's too much of an emphasis on proper centering being so
5:01
important, at least relative to vintage cards where there was
5:06
virtually little to no quality control standards.
5:10
For my argument, Ioffer this. Like you, my collecting began in
5:14
the 80s with my father. Most of the cards in my
5:17
collection were purchased at a local card shop because shows
5:20
were much rarer and that was the only way to get the more
5:24
desirable cards. If you wanted a 1961 Karl
5:27
Yastrzemski, sometimes the only way you could get one was to buy
5:32
the 9010 left to right copy. Yes I would have.
5:36
I have one and would never upgrade it back then, and I
5:40
think there's some evidence for this.
5:43
If you read some of the Beckett's in Card Collector
5:46
Digest of the time, most of the emphasis was on sharp corners
5:51
and a good picture quality resolution registration.
5:56
I think there is some strong logic for this.
5:59
How the card is printed, cut, packaged and sold is not
6:02
necessarily in the control of the collector.
6:05
However, the collector does have control of the care of the card
6:10
once it's in his or her possession.
6:12
IE handing the card, putting it in plastic pages, putting it in
6:18
fancy plastic case or a collector's cardboard box so
6:23
they don't get nicked and dented corners.
6:26
Although some of the bowing that occurs in those is kind of
6:30
funny. I think some of these factors,
6:32
at least when I shop, are just as important as centering,
6:36
sometimes more so. Nice corners and a clean card
6:40
tells me that the card was cared for once it came out of the
6:44
pack. Again, I won't argue that a
6:46
perfect centered card with sharp corners isn't more desirable
6:51
than one that's off center with rougher corners.
6:54
I hear them called honest corners sometimes, but we
6:58
collect for the picture on the card, not for the borders around
7:02
it. In closing, I would leave you a
7:05
question to ponder. If the Mona Lisa had no frame,
7:09
the frame was missing a side or slightly crooked on the canvas,
7:14
would it not still be a beautiful painting?
7:17
Would it not still be in the Louvre?
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It survives today because someone took it from Leonardo,
7:23
cared for it, and kept it nice for 600 years.
7:29
OK, this is such a great question and there's so many
7:34
different places I could go with this.
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I, I literally thought about just doing a whole video on this
7:40
one question because I have so many opinions on it.
7:44
So a couple of the, the questions later in this episode,
7:47
I'm going to have a little bit of a shorter answer.
7:50
This one might be a little bit longer, if you can believe that.
7:54
So first, let me say this, I appeal buying the grade, buying
8:00
the I appeal. Let's just start here.
8:05
Where do I start? So many places I could go with
8:08
this. It's a great question.
8:11
I believe that the greatest opportunity in vintage card
8:16
collecting that has existed in, I don't know, almost at least 30
8:25
years is happening right now. It's happening right now.
8:31
What is that opportunity? The opportunity is there are
8:35
still so many people that are buying the number on the slab.
8:40
There are so many people who go, I want a seven, I want an 8, I
8:44
want a nine. Now some of you are going, I
8:46
don't do that. That's what I used to do.
8:50
Well, there's still a lot of people that do it.
8:52
I mean, a lot of people that do that back before grading.
8:57
So let's go to the late 80s. If you went and you looked at
9:00
vintage cards, you would look at the 2 cards you'd go.
9:03
I like that one. What did you like about it?
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Maybe you liked the the picture, the color, maybe like the
9:10
centering, maybe like the sharp corners.
9:12
Who knows what it was that you liked about the card, but there
9:16
was nobody else telling us which one was better than the other.
9:21
Now there is there is a technical grade on all of these
9:26
cards. Because there's a technical
9:29
grade on all of these cards, it gives us an opinion.
9:35
Now what a lot of people do is they take that opinion.
9:37
What I would go so far as to say what most people still do is use
9:45
the number on the slab as their guiding light.
9:49
They use it as the most important thing in the decision
9:53
making process. And I know you think that's
9:55
crazy. I know, Greg, that people don't
9:57
do that anymore. It's the I appeal movement.
10:01
Is everybody really doing that? Or is it just the people on
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YouTube that are looking into their camera and telling you
10:08
that that's what you should do? Well, I I don't know, but I
10:15
based based on looking at sales data and maybe.
10:20
That's what I'll do over spring break.
10:21
Is do a sales data analysis video where we look at different
10:27
cards at different grades, compare them and compare what
10:30
they sold, what they sold for. But sevens almost always sell
10:35
for more than sixes. Very rarely does a six sell for
10:40
more than A7. Occasionally, yes, but very,
10:44
very, very rarely. Almost always the seven wins in
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the in the comp battle in in what the what does it sell for
10:53
battle? Rarely can somebody get
10:55
themselves to buy a four and pay more than A5 comp price.
11:04
But this is it is we are in such an amazing time and we actually
11:11
have been in it for a while, but a lot of people were still
11:15
hypnotized by the number. But what I believe it, I believe
11:20
that all of these videos, like that teapot video that has been
11:23
referenced a million times at this point, What I believe that
11:27
teapot video did, is it really finally proved, like
11:33
scientifically proved that it's all just an opinion.
11:39
It's all somewhat arbitrary. Now, is it based on certain
11:42
factors? Yes.
11:44
Do I think grading is just a giant sham?
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I don't think the grading is a giant sham.
11:51
And I know a whole bunch of people just launched rotten
11:55
fruit at the screen, and that's OK.
11:58
I think most of the time A6 is better than A5.
12:03
I think most of the time an 8 is better than a six, but there are
12:09
mistakes. There are outliers.
12:13
There are times where PSA gives a card a six and then you crack
12:19
it and send it to some other companies and it comes back an
12:22
8. How did it go up?
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Somebody in one of my recent videos said of course the grade
12:30
changed. Think about how many times the
12:31
card was handled. But but remember the card.
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First graded as a six with PSA. And then later got the 8 after
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it was handled, didn't, didn't go.
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It would make sense if it was an 8 and then it dropped to a six
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after all the handling and all the cracking and something could
12:52
have happened. But for it to be handled all
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those times, cracked all those times and all these different
12:56
hands and go from a six to an 8. Now again, I believe that there
13:03
are a lot of technical things that sometimes are seen and
13:07
sometimes aren't seen. And, and we are human beings
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and, and graders are human beings and they're going to make
13:14
mistakes. We, we, all of this has been
13:18
said. This is nothing new.
13:20
Everything I'm saying right now is nothing new.
13:23
I'm just sharing where I stand as of right now.
13:28
Wednesday, what is it, March 11th, 2026?
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I think because a lot of people are still convinced that a 7 is
13:39
better than a six that when you find a mistake, that's an
13:47
opportunity. Just like when you go up to a
13:50
card case, right? You, you go up to a case at a
13:53
dealer at the National and you look at a card and the card was
13:58
actually priced maybe four months ago.
14:01
And since then the card went from $400 to $600.00 and now
14:07
it's commonly selling for $600.00, but it still has the
14:10
$400.00 price sticker on it. That's an opportunity.
14:16
Now some of some people say you should let him know.
14:21
Do whatever you. Want.
14:23
But I think a lot of people would see that situation go,
14:26
this is an opportunity. Well, another opportunity is
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when a card that at least appears to the naked eye to be
14:38
way better than A5 is selling 5 prices because it has a 5 on it.
14:46
There are certain dealers that price cards based on the number
14:53
and the comps of that number. And there are certain dealers
14:57
that price the card based on what they think that it is.
15:02
Despite what the number is. What you want to do is you want
15:09
to buy from the dealer who prices it based on the number
15:15
and and then you find the card and you go.
15:18
That's a beautiful example of that card.
15:21
I know it's a four and a half. I bought a card at the
15:24
Strongsville show last year that was a four.
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And a half man, it looks like a 5 1/2.
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Or a six to me. But the dealer priced things at
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the number, not at what it looks like.
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So to me that was an opportunity.
15:43
There was an opportunity there. So I think we have this really
15:49
good opportunity and the window is closing.
15:52
The window of being able to take advantage of that is starting to
15:56
go away. But still, most people won't buy
16:01
a four for five comps if it has a four.
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On the label. Most people won't do that
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because they I have to be missing something.
16:14
I must not be seeing something. So the buying opportunity is
16:24
people are still very much believers of what the grade is
16:29
regardless of what the card looks like.
16:33
So if you dig and if you look, finding those mistakes, and they
16:40
may not even be mistakes, that maybe there's some surface
16:44
imperfection that you can't see by the naked eye.
16:47
And it it deserved the four, even though it looks like a six,
16:51
it deserved the four. It is a four, but to you, it's
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better than a four. See, I am looking at that as an
17:01
opportunity. The last thing you're going to
17:05
see me do, at least not intentionally, is buy an
17:10
overgraded card. You want to buy the undergraded
17:13
cards and you want to try to get it for that comp now.
17:17
OK, let me move on to the next thing about I appeal.
17:20
What is I appeal? I've had a lot of people go,
17:23
what is I've heard about I appeal the I appeal movement.
17:26
What does that even mean? Speaking of arbitrary, I appeal
17:32
is arbitrary. I appeal is so arbitrary.
17:39
What does it mean? What is pretty?
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What is handsome? What is smart?
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Are you smart because you got a good SAT score?
17:50
Are you smart because your IQ is high?
17:53
Are you smart because you have common sense?
17:57
Are you smart because you're artistic?
18:00
What makes somebody smart now? My brother did not have the
18:06
greatest SAT scores or GPA but that dude is like a genius, but
18:15
he's a different type of genius than what the SAT measures.
18:21
Dude is like a genius. So what is I appeal?
18:28
Well, what is it to you see, I could walk into a room and see
18:32
10 ladies standing there and and I could say, man, that third one
18:37
over is beautiful and someone else would go.
18:41
What are you talking about? Dude?
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It's the fifth one over. She's the beautiful one.
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I go, what are you kidding me? That's the whole point.
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The whole point is we have different taste.
18:58
So does a card look better centered?
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I think most people would agree that a card looks better
19:07
centered than a card that is drastically off centered, but
19:12
for some people a super sharp registration might make more
19:18
sense than the well centered card.
19:21
My buddy Tony, Southern Collective 14, he's got a
19:24
question coming up in a few minutes.
19:26
At Strongsville last year he bought a 33 Lou Gehrig and the
19:32
registration on this thing was gorgeous.
19:37
I mean, on the hat you could see the NYA.
19:42
Lot of the times the registration on that card is bad
19:45
and the Tony says the way you could tell is if you can make
19:49
out the NY. Clearly this card had dynamite
19:54
registration but it was like 7525 centered.
19:59
But Tony saw that card and went no, this thing is sweet.
20:05
Now. I think Tony had to let that go
20:07
card go in one of his blockbuster deals that he's
20:10
recently talked about. But he chose the high
20:14
registration to him that had better eye appeal than the card
20:19
that was 5050 because there was a card right next to it that was
20:21
5050 centered, but the registration was just not the
20:25
same. So the thing I would say to you
20:28
is this. Most of us can agree that
20:34
Jennifer Aniston is beautiful, A card that is 5050 all the way
20:40
around with razor sharp corners. Most of us would say that's a
20:44
nice looking card. But don't let somebody's
20:49
obsession with centering convince you that only centered
20:54
cards look good and would fit in your collection.
20:58
What you should be doing is looking in the case and what's
21:03
the card that jumps out at you? What's the card that stands out
21:07
to you because it's your collection?
21:11
It should be the card that you think looks best.
21:14
Maybe this card has doled out color and bad registration, but
21:21
it's perfectly centered and you go it's centered.
21:24
So it has good eye appeal, but it looks like the guy, his
21:28
registration is off. The color is dull.
21:31
It doesn't look good to you, but you go, ah, but it's centered.
21:34
So this is the best option because it's centered.
21:37
Centering isn't everything. You know, I was, I was talking,
21:44
who was I talking to this week? I think it was Joe Perot.
21:47
I was talking to Joe Perot the other day and around election
21:51
times, they'll do these things and we'll say like.
21:52
Find the right candidate. For you and you'll take like a
21:55
quiz where do you stand on this issue and that issue and this
22:00
issue and that issue. And they generally also have a
22:03
thing where wait, is this very important or is this not
22:07
important at all? Is this kind of important?
22:10
And that's not that important. See rate what matters most to
22:16
you And what is it about that issue that you align with?
22:21
And then it comes back with a can and goes, this is the
22:25
candidate that you're most aligned with.
22:26
And it's usually not the candidate that you thought was
22:31
the one that you saw eye to eye with.
22:33
And it it likely isn't the candidate that you end up voting
22:36
for. But what that does is it doesn't
22:39
just ask you about the topics. It also asks you how important
22:45
is that? Maybe centering doesn't matter
22:51
that much to you, but color and registration does.
22:57
It's your collection. You you can capitalize on that
23:02
because if right now there's an obsession, because there was an
23:05
obsession with centered cards for a.
23:07
Long I'm I'm sorry. Sharp cards for a long time.
23:11
Right now the movement is an obsession with centered cards.
23:16
If you're a person who is in love with Shark cards and
23:20
centering, I guess I'm supposed to care because everybody.
23:23
Else is saying that they care. This is perfect for you because
23:28
you can buy sharp cards for cheap right now because
23:32
everyone's obsessed with centering.
23:36
It's your collection. It's your collection.
23:41
What is the card that looks gorgeous to you?
23:44
That's what you have to focus on, and I think that whenever
23:51
the crowd is doing one thing, it leaves an opportunity wherever
23:55
the crowd left, and for a long time, the crowd was all about
24:00
corners, and right now the crowd is all about centering.
24:05
For years, the honest Mike Petty corners it was Mike Petty.
24:10
Who said that, by the way? The Mike Petty Honest corners
24:15
but well centered. That card was shunned by a lot.
24:20
Not every collector, but a lot of collectors for years now.
24:26
What's being shunned is the off centered sharp cart.
24:31
Maybe this is an opportunity for you.
24:35
Maybe the PSA grading inconsistencies is not something
24:40
to get mad about, but it's something to take advantage of
24:46
and capitalize on. Capitalize on the mistakes, or
24:51
at least what you see as a mistake.
24:58
Are we in a bubble or a start of a new era?
25:02
Are groceries in a bubble? Car prices?
25:05
How long does a bubble last and reality begin by now?
25:12
What's the new reality? What is the new reality and
25:18
what's a bubble? See, that's, that's a problem.
25:22
We nobody knows. I mean, I could shake a Magic 8
25:26
ball and look into it. Probably wouldn't have the right
25:30
answer for me. They're, they're, last I
25:33
checked, when you go to a palm reader, there's not a lot of
25:39
consistency on whether or not they can tell the future just
25:44
from, well, I, I don't have any experience, but from what I've
25:47
heard, it's hard to know. I, I was talking about the other
25:53
day. I, I think it was last week I
25:55
was talking about in an episode. I remember when the Dow hit
25:58
10,000 and it was like, literally it was like the
26:02
headline on like CNN or Fox or and NBC or I don't know what it
26:08
was like. Dow hits 10,000.
26:10
Oh my gosh, it's going to have to crash.
26:16
Don't you wish you had invested then?
26:19
Remember when gold broke 1000? That wasn't that long ago.
26:26
It wasn't that long ago that gold broke 1000.
26:31
You know, I was buying an ounce of silver not that long ago.
26:36
I mean, let's see, my kids were in elementary schools like 5th,
26:42
4th, and 6th grade, and I was buying ounces of silver, silver
26:46
coins, silver Eagle coins for 18 to $22.00 each.
26:53
Right now those are like $85 each.
26:57
So in 10 years, in 10 years, they went from like $20 to like,
27:05
we'll just call it 84 X. Is that a bubble or is that the
27:11
new reality? Is it that the dollar is worth
27:15
less? Is it that inflation is so
27:18
carried away that it takes more dollars to buy the same thing?
27:23
Well, isn't that kind of what the cost of anything is?
27:27
We don't know if there's an inflationary thing that has
27:32
caused all of this. If there's more demand for some
27:36
reason it it's kind of hard to know what the reality is with
27:42
carts. Is it a bubble?
27:45
Well, what I said last week was just buy what you're going to
27:50
buy when you're going to buy it. And sometimes you're going to
27:54
get a good deal and sometimes you're going to get a bad deal.
27:57
Dollar cost averaging whenever you try to time the market.
28:04
I rarely try to time the market. I'll tell you, I'll tell you a
28:08
quick story. Remember what was it maybe 15
28:13
years ago? Was it that long ago, 12 years
28:16
ago, 10 years ago, I don't remember when the automobile
28:20
industry, the American automobile industry was like
28:24
they were all going bankrupt, like Chrysler was in trouble,
28:27
General Motors was in trouble. All of the they were all tanking
28:32
and there was like a bail. I think there was a bailout.
28:34
Isn't there always a bailout? And I bought Ford stock for
28:42
$1.02 a share. I bought a. 1000 shares and a
28:50
monthly and it was I remember it was like it was like no
28:54
November, December and I remember.
28:59
Like 3 weeks later, 2 weeks later, it was at like 2:30 a
29:04
share and I was like, I'm selling.
29:10
I, I, I was just like, the United States government is not
29:12
going to let Ford go bankrupt. At least I didn't think that
29:15
they were. I bought them.
29:18
I bought $1000 for, for about 1000 shares.
29:22
And then it was like couple weeks later and I sold them like
29:27
the thousand and now they're worth, I'm sure more than that.
29:30
I don't know what is it. I don't know what Ford sells for
29:32
now. My point is this occasionally
29:37
you can maybe time the market. I did there and then I had to
29:42
pay capital gains tax. So I'm I didn't get rich,
29:47
obviously just is it? Are we in a bubble?
29:55
I mean, I know a lot of my friends have have held off on
29:58
buying for a while. I still have several that
30:00
haven't bought anything substantial in a while.
30:04
I I get it, but it might be the new normal.
30:08
I remember when houses in California in the Sacramento
30:12
area were selling for like, you know, they, they, they were
30:15
$300,000 for your standard house.
30:21
That house is now $700,000. Is it the new normal?
30:27
Is it the bubble? Don't worry about it.
30:31
Don't try to tighten the market. Just don't spend.
30:34
Money that you can't afford to lose, my good buddy Tony
30:39
Southern Collector 14 says. Awesome video as usual.
30:43
My question for next week is, what was the story in your book
30:47
that really made you reflect the most on that time in your life?
30:52
Was it a story that brought you back some realization of how
30:55
innocent you were? Was it a story that made you
30:58
reflect on what was actually going on in your head as a young
31:01
boy or something that you got more information from your dad
31:06
and it gave you a deeper meaning?
31:08
We're researching his memories to see how they lined up with
31:12
yours. Oh.
31:14
Boy, the book Where? What was the story Now again, I
31:19
did. I wrote a book.
31:21
It's currently for sale. Link to the Amazon sale link
31:26
down below in the description. If you're going to Strongsville.
31:29
I, I should, I'm glad, I'm actually glad you asked this
31:32
because I need to make this announcement and I'll put it out
31:35
there a couple of times. I'm going to have to order those
31:39
books for Strongsville sooner than I thought because it's
31:42
takes longer when I do a big batch purchase.
31:46
So I'm going to set the deadline for buying the book if you want
31:54
me to deliver it and and hand it to you in Strongsville one week
32:00
from today, March 18th. Is that enough time?
32:05
That's probably not enough time. A week from Monday, which would
32:11
have been the 16th, March 16th is going to be the deadline.
32:18
If you need to purchase that still, March 16th is the
32:24
deadline. OK, so let me answer the
32:26
question, sorry, but I did want to.
32:28
I'm glad. Anyway, there were two things.
32:34
There were two major things that I I think would be the best
32:39
answers for this. First, early in the book, I made
32:43
a trade with kid around the around the corner who lived down
32:47
the street from me, McHale. And I made that trade.
32:53
And as I was going back through that story, I had a lot of guilt
32:59
about that trade. See, I'm a person who carries a
33:05
lot of guilt, unfortunately. And I made this trade and, and I
33:10
definitely got the better end of the deal.
33:17
And I carried a lot of guilt about that.
33:19
And it made me realize, my gosh, it wasn't really that big of a
33:24
deal. And here I am.
33:27
That trade probably happened when I was about 10.
33:31
And I'm now 4636 years later, I'm still feeling guilt about a
33:39
deal where I ended up with about a $15 card at the time.
33:46
That that was actually. Kind of eye opening for me
33:50
because I realized, man, you're hard on yourself dude.
33:54
Like let go of some of that stuff, let go of some of that
34:01
junk, move on and stop feeling guilt.
34:07
The other thing that I I came to a major realization about during
34:12
writing it and reflecting back over all these stories is that
34:19
many of the times that I was heaviest into cards was periods
34:26
of my life that were the darkest.
34:29
When I was going through some difficult things is when I
34:35
really went deep into this hobby, and this hobby helped me
34:41
get through some of those times. Now everybody is going to have
34:46
peaks and everybody is going to have valleys.
34:49
And when you have a valley, you have to scrape, you have to
34:52
claw, you have to fight your way out of those.
34:55
You have to surround yourself by family and loved ones and people
34:59
to help you through those. If you are somebody right now
35:02
who is going through a dark time, it will not last.
35:06
It will eventually turn around. It's like a recession.
35:10
It's like a depression. It won't be like that forever.
35:14
You just have to hang tough. And I look back to there, there
35:21
have been many periods of my life where I was heavy into this
35:26
hobby. And there were several times
35:33
that when I was reflecting back, I got, I got very, very
35:38
emotional because I realized that the hobby is largely what
35:45
got me through it. The hobby provided me with an
35:51
outlet that allowed me to while I was scraping and while I was
35:58
crying and while I was trying to dig my way out of a valley, to
36:03
not realize just how bad it was at that time.
36:10
This is not just a hobby. I believe that this is an escape
36:19
right now. There's.
36:20
Crazy. Stuff going all over the world.
36:22
You know there's stuff in your I don't.
36:26
There's stuff going on all over the world and what you could do
36:30
is you could consume yourself in all of that.
36:34
There's stuff going on all over our country.
36:36
Our country has problems, our world has problems.
36:39
There is craziness, there is division, there is hatred.
36:44
There are people on every side of every aisle that are furious
36:49
with the opposition. I don't want.
36:53
I don't want. To spend my life thinking about
36:58
all of the misery, I want to dive into things that make me
37:07
happy. Especially when things suck.
37:14
That's what hobbies do. They distract us from real life
37:20
chaos. This hobby I believe at multiple
37:28
times saved me and saved my dad. That was my biggest take away
37:40
and these 20 stories I think prove my case.
37:47
Do you include Jim Brown in your top tier of players?
37:51
I certainly do. OK, for me this is an easy
37:56
question, but I think that there's a greater principle
38:00
happening behind the scenes that I feel the need to talk about.
38:04
Do I think that Jim Brown is a top tier football player and a
38:12
top tier football card that I would put in in the top, the
38:20
cream of the crop? Yes, I do.
38:24
So I've answered the I've answered the question, but I
38:30
think that there's more that I feel the need to say.
38:35
You know, when we collect, we get to decide what we're going
38:38
to collect. And some people, they want to
38:41
collect athletes and people that have an amazing story and other
38:47
people want to collect athletes that they remember watching and
38:52
that they rooted for or root for.
38:55
Some people it's war heroes, guys that serve the country and
39:01
were professional athletes. Some people want Hall of
39:05
farmers. Some people want the very best
39:09
of the best. Not just a Hall of Famer, but
39:12
the top tier, one of the all time greats.
39:16
Ultimately, again, we get to decide what route we take with
39:20
that. And, and regardless of the route
39:23
that you take, if if whatever you're buying brings you more
39:28
joy, as much or more joy than it costs to obtain the item, then
39:33
that's a success. If you buy something for $5.00
39:38
but it only brings you $4.00 worth of joy, that's not the buy
39:42
I would make. I would make the buy where if
39:45
you spent $5 on it, you get $6 or more worth of joy or at least
39:50
5. Dollars worth of joy.
39:54
But here's the thing, why does it matter if Jim Brown is a top
39:59
tier player to collect? It matters because as time goes
40:05
on, like if I were to ask you guys.
40:09
Name for me the 6th, 7th, and 8th presidents of the United
40:13
States. There is a small percentage of
40:18
you that would be able to do that, but most of you, including
40:25
me, wouldn't be able to do that, at least not at the moment.
40:30
If I really thought about it, I might be able to pull it off.
40:33
Probably not. But what I'm saying is, is as
40:37
time goes on, the importance and the relevance and the awareness
40:46
of people starts to fade. But then there are the outliers,
40:51
like they wrote that book, Outliers, right?
40:54
There are the outliers in early presidents of the United States
40:59
like George Washington, right? Abraham Lincoln, Teddy
41:06
Roosevelt, like there are certain people that almost all
41:12
of us have heard of and and can almost close our eyes and and
41:16
see what they look like from. Pictures that we've seen and and
41:19
stories that we've seen. But then as time goes on, other
41:25
than the outliers, like if I went back in time and I go OK.
41:30
Let's go presidents in reverse order.
41:33
You know, you got like Trump, and then you go Biden and then
41:35
you go Trump and then you go, wait, who, who was, you know,
41:45
whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, you're Obama and
41:50
we've got Bush and we've got Clinton and we've got Bush and
41:54
we've got Reagan and we've got Nixon and we've got Johnson and
41:57
we OK, I'm just going to make myself look silly if I try to
42:02
play this game with myself. But the point of, of what I'm
42:05
saying is as time wears on, we remember the outliers.
42:11
We remember the greats, the greatest of the greats.
42:17
And with that, I believe is demand.
42:25
If I said to you, you could have an Abraham Lincoln autograph or
42:33
you could have a Lyndon Johnson autograph, I'm thinking you'd go
42:40
with Lincoln. One because it's older, 2
42:44
because. He was a more.
42:46
Important President 3. He's going to be more well known
42:53
and remembered and and therefore the demand is higher.
42:58
So an Abraham Lincoln item is going to have a higher demand
43:03
than a Richard Nixon item would be my guess.
43:10
And with cards, it's the same thing.
43:13
You know there's going to be a ton.
43:15
And if you look at. Cards.
43:16
Let's just look at the golden era for a second.
43:18
Let's look at the 50s Sports cards.
43:21
Baseball, baseball players from the 50s.
43:26
You have a guy like Al Kaline, really good player, the youngest
43:31
to win a batting title. What was he like, 19 when he won
43:34
a batting title? And his cards are very, very
43:41
cheap. They're very affordable.
43:45
And the same year of Alcaline's rookie card is Hank Aaron's
43:50
rookie card, but Hank Aaron's rookie card has much higher
43:56
demand than Alcaline's. But they were both great.
44:00
They were both Hall of Farmers. They were both very, very
44:05
important to their franchise. Top three players, 2 three
44:10
players in the franchise in which they belonged.
44:15
But why can't I get an alkaline for much less than a Hank Aaron?
44:22
Why if I walked in to a card show and I went to everybody
44:26
under 20 years old and I said who is alkaline?
44:30
Versus Who is Hank Aaron? Moore would know Hank Aaron.
44:34
He was more of an outlier because of his greatness,
44:41
because of the struggles that he overcame, because of the records
44:45
that he set. Greg, what are you talking?
44:49
What are you talking? About.
44:54
We should all collect what we like, and if we like the story,
44:57
we should collect the story. If the human is a great human
45:02
and that's what you want to collect, if it was an important
45:05
player on your team, that's what you should collect.
45:07
But we do need to come to a realization at some point that
45:12
some people, some players, some athletes, some cards, as time
45:20
wears on, they will become less known.
45:27
And if they're less known, there will be less demand.
45:34
I can tell you Victoria Willis now, a lot of people who.
45:42
Are is watching this right now? Roger Bresnahan, a lot of people
45:46
watching. This.
45:49
Would would be able to tell you about Roger Bresnahan and that
45:52
Roger Bresnahan? Was an important.
45:56
Part of baseball evolution because he was one of the main
46:01
people who started introducing equipment to catchers in
46:06
baseball and protective equipment in baseball, which
46:11
helped lengthen careers and protect players and keep them
46:15
from getting injured. Very important.
46:18
And a Hall of Famer and some people go, never heard of that
46:20
guy. Rodger Bresnahan was very
46:26
important, not an outlier. And as time goes on, the demand
46:33
for Rodger Bresnahan's card cards or Victoria Willis's cards
46:37
or, you know, I could go down the list, George Davis's cards,
46:42
I could go down the list. As time goes by, more and more
46:47
and more people. Will go who?
46:50
And that doesn't mean we shouldn't collect them, but if
46:57
the demand drops and the supply stays the same, we could
47:04
probably predict what might happen to their values.
47:08
Now if that doesn't matter to you, then who cares?
47:13
But to some people it does. And that's why this discussion
47:17
about do you care about value? Do you care about future value?
47:21
That doesn't matter because if value matters to you, and if
47:28
long term value matters to you, it could it might affect what
47:36
things would make more sense to be buying.
47:42
You know, when you meet with a financial planner, one of the
47:45
first things they'd say is how old are you?
47:48
When do you want to retire? What is your risk tolerance?
47:54
Someone go, oh man, I I'm 50 years old.
47:58
I want to retire when I'm 59. And if the market takes a dip, I
48:02
can't sleep at night. Well, a good, a good investment
48:07
planner, a good wealth manager would come up with a much
48:13
different portfolio than a person who can handle a lot of
48:18
risk and is 24. And these are things that I
48:25
think are worth considering and thinking about when you're
48:31
building your collection. If value doesn't matter and you
48:37
want to collect the greats of the game, the Hall of Farmers
48:42
Victoria Willis might be a great choice.
48:45
But if future value is very important to you, I don't know
48:55
if I'd buy Victoria Willis or Roger Bresnahan carts.
48:58
It's not that they won't go up, but as time goes on I don't know
49:05
if the demand will stay as strong as it was 50 years ago.
49:13
These are just things that I think.
49:16
As we build out our collections when I when.
49:21
I have a. Discussion like I did the other
49:25
day about does value matter? But why are we talking about
49:30
value? This is a hobby, I don't care
49:32
about value. Well that's good to know.
49:36
That's a good self-assessment to make, because if value doesn't
49:41
matter and history does, that's a completely different set of
49:50
values to base your collection on.
49:53
Then the person who says, oh, value this, I'm taking
49:58
retirement money and instead of putting it into the S&P, I'm
50:03
putting it into cards. So future value matters a lot.
50:08
It's a different person and a different set of circumstances
50:13
when you're building your collection depending on what
50:18
matters. So does it matter if Jim Brown
50:23
is a top tier football icon to collect?
50:31
It might depend on what your goals are of your collection.
50:36
For some, doesn't matter at all, for some matters a lot.
50:41
That's just my two cents. These are the things I like to
50:44
talk about and think about as I'm building my collection,
50:51
which is right for me. Awesome episode, Greg.
50:55
What have been some of the funniest moments you've had in
50:58
the hobby? I'm guessing most of them
51:01
involve Mike Petty. All right.
51:05
Funniest moment? My goodness, I mean I've.
51:09
Told this story a lot, and I know a lot of you've probably
51:15
heard it, but the 2024 Strongsville show when Darren
51:21
showed up looking for this Gowdy 4 in one card with Gehrig and
51:28
DiMaggio on it, and he went to every dealer and nobody had it.
51:33
And he was like beside himself, upset, didn't know what to do,
51:39
didn't know where to, where to turn, shaking his head,
51:45
frustrated. That was pretty funny.
51:49
And then finally we just said, Darren, just just go buy
51:53
something and then you'll be fine.
51:58
Last year on the way to Strongsville, I flew from
52:02
Sacramento into Denver, and then Petty flew from LA into Denver,
52:08
and then we met up with Darren and me, Darren and Petty.
52:14
I sat in the middle, Darren on the aisle to my right, Petty on
52:18
the window to my left. The three of us flew from Denver
52:23
to Cleveland, and we were looking through Petty's iPad at
52:27
all of his cards in his collection and talking.
52:31
I laughed so hard on that flight.
52:33
I'm sure that everybody around us just was miserable.
52:39
I, I I. Have a lot of fun.
52:41
I mean, I've said this before, I'll I guess I'm saying it
52:44
again. I didn't start a channel
52:50
thinking that the goal would be to make connections and form
52:57
friendships. Like that was never the goal.
53:01
That wasn't the original goal. That is a a side effect, but the
53:05
side effect ended up being. Better than the original goal.
53:09
And I've made incredible friends.
53:12
And my favorite thing to do, I mean, who doesn't like to laugh?
53:18
And who doesn't like to laugh with people that you love that
53:25
the last three years, 3 plus years making friends.
53:31
I mean, heck, listen to here's another one.
53:37
This might be that this this might be the answer 20 or when
53:42
was it 2024 National. We, a bunch of us, went up to No
53:51
2024. Because it was both in
53:53
Cleveland. That's what's throwing me off
53:55
2024 Strongsville Show. A bunch of us, like 15 or 20 of
54:01
us, went out to dinner. One of the nights might have
54:03
been Friday night, and Chris from Missouri sat across from
54:07
me. And I think it was Chris was
54:10
right across from me. And then Darren was like over 1
54:14
and Chris from Missouri told this story about his dog and he
54:20
he said that his his his dog was the world's greatest cock block
54:30
and how the dog would constantly try to interfere whenever he was
54:36
putting the moves on his wife. And he would take treats and he
54:40
would throw it out in the hallway to get the dog to run
54:43
out of the room to get the treat.
54:45
But then the dog started to realize whenever he threw a
54:48
treat from the entryway to the room, that what that meant.
54:52
So the dog stopped running after the treat would start to go and
54:56
then stop and look at him and would growl at him whenever he
55:00
touched his wife. I laughed so hard.
55:04
I'm certain I was crying. That's that's probably the
55:09
funniest moment is listening to Chris from Missouri talk about
55:14
how his dog would prevent him and does prevent him from
55:20
putting the moves on his wife. That story is second to none.
55:27
But quite frankly, anytime I'm hanging out with any of these
55:30
guys, whether it's in a stream, whether it's backstage of a
55:36
stream, whether it's a text group that's going, whether it's
55:39
at a show at some destination, I just have fun.
55:45
I just have fun. And I literally fall into a mini
55:49
depression when they end. I can't wait a month, almost
55:54
exactly a month until Strongsville.
55:57
I can't wait to see a bunch of my buddies.
55:59
I can't wait to hang out and look at cards, but more
56:01
importantly, go out to breakfast, go to dinner, hang
56:06
out at the Chris's Chris from Missouri's hang out, hang out at
56:10
trade night with all of you. Again, Monday is going to be my
56:15
deadline. If you want to buy my book and
56:18
have it delivered at at Strongsville at the trade night
56:24
on April 11th, the four collectors trade night Monday is
56:29
going to be my deadline. Down below in the description,
56:32
and I'll try to put it in the pinned comments as well, is a
56:35
link to to sign up for that how to pay, how to order it.
56:41
I just want to make sure that they're all they all arrive in
56:44
time. All right, guys, if you have a
56:47
question for an upcoming episode, don't hesitate ask it
56:50
down below in the comments. As always, these episodes on
56:55
Wednesdays are only as good as your questions.
56:58
I appreciate all of you watching.
57:00
I especially appreciate those of you take a minute to type your
57:04
question down below.