Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q &A- December 17, 2025

Transcript

MidLife Sports Cards Q &A- December 17, 2025 · Sports Card Clubhouse

• 0:10
  What's going on? Everybody All right, it's only
• 0:13
  Wednesday and we've already had another crazy week.
• 0:17
  Every week it seems like week after week after week there's
• 0:20
  some sort of scandal, some sort of massive news in the hobby.
• 0:26
  And I mean, it was just two days ago.
• 0:29
  I, I posted a video about everybody's sort of predictions,
• 0:35
  I guess predictions for 2026. And then we have a major,
• 0:41
  absolute, major story on Monday that afternoon.
• 0:46
  It breaks that PSA slash collectors slash collectors
• 0:51
  universe slash conglomerate that is in Santa Ana, CA is buying
• 0:57
  and, and is purchasing Beckett. I mean, my goodness.
• 1:03
  And, and, and I guess in fairness, the, the predictions
• 1:08
  that I asked about were for 2026 and, and that happened in 2025.
• 1:13
  I don't think any of us thought that with two weeks left in the
• 1:15
  year that there would still be a major story like that.
• 1:20
  But here we are. This is our new reality.
• 1:23
  A year of consolidation to say the least.
• 1:27
  My goodness, what's this going to do?
• 1:32
  Well, talk a little bit about that in this episode.
• 1:35
  There were several questions about the grading situation, the
• 1:38
  grading industry, which is normal.
• 1:40
  We usually have a couple of questions like that.
• 1:43
  We got some other really interesting questions this week
• 1:45
  as well. I'm excited to share my thoughts
• 1:49
  and hear where you guys think I I went right and where I went
• 1:52
  wrong. Remember a couple of quick items
• 1:55
  first, Sunday is the deadline for the Midlife Community Show
• 1:59
  and Tell. You can have your card featured
• 2:02
  on our last Show and tell of the year of 2025 and the last
• 2:08
  opportunity to be one of the four winners for a Penny Sleever
• 2:12
  gift card of $25.00. There will be four of those
• 2:16
  raffled off in that episode again.
• 2:19
  Sunday is the deadline. Down below in the description
• 2:22
  there is a link to that to take advantage of that.
• 2:25
  Also Monday. Monday is Midlife live #12 #12
• 2:32
  Suddenly it feels like there is so much to talk about since the
• 2:38
  last time I talked to my core group of Petty, Tony and Darren.
• 2:46
  So that's going to be a blast on Monday night. 9:00 PM Eastern,
• 2:50
  6:00 PM Pacific. You will not want to miss that
• 2:53
  one. And as always, if you have a
• 2:54
  question for an upcoming episode down below in the comments,
• 2:57
  don't forget, don't hesitate, simply type it out in the
• 3:01
  comments. I will add it to the list. 5
• 3:04
  questions this week, 5 good ones, variety of topics.
• 3:08
  Let's take a look at that first question here.
• 3:12
  Question, what is your take on Mike Baker authenticated cards?
• 3:17
  Do they have a chance to dent into PSASGC market?
• 3:22
  Some of their graded cards seem undergraded compared to the
• 3:25
  rest. Maybe it's just me.
• 3:28
  Great question and such a timely question.
• 3:32
  This question was actually asked before the news posted on Monday
• 3:36
  about Collector's Universe, the parent company of PSA and SGC,
• 3:41
  now acquiring the third of Beckett.
• 3:45
  And it's funny because you know, I have that second channel,
• 3:51
  Sports Card Clubhouse. We have a podcast.
• 3:54
  We also have a YouTube channel. We also have a website, go to
• 3:57
  Sportscard Clubhouse, scom. We are just getting started with
• 4:01
  some of the things that are going to be available on the
• 4:04
  website. And by the way, again, if you
• 4:07
  haven't subscribed to that, please take a second go over.
• 4:10
  Subscribe to the Sports Card Clubhouse.
• 4:13
  We've got conversations with me and Mike Junk Wax Hero.
• 4:16
  Mike's been doing this awesome series with sort of hobby news
• 4:20
  and having a special guest each week and talking about whatever
• 4:23
  the news is. Those have been really, really
• 4:26
  good. There's a bunch of stuff over
• 4:28
  there, so go check that out. Sports Card, clubhouse.com and
• 4:33
  and a couple weeks ago when Mike and I did our podcast on our
• 4:36
  surface issues episode, we were talking about the the topic of
• 4:42
  the opening in the market. The opportunity for somebody to
• 4:47
  come in and become a major player in the grading industry
• 4:50
  that is currently not has never been more open than it is right
• 4:55
  now. There is a gaping hole in the
• 4:57
  grading industry because there is there are people who do not
• 5:00
  like PSA. They like them even less now
• 5:02
  that they've been doing what they're doing with SGC.
• 5:06
  There are a lot of. People who think CGC is.
• 5:08
  Good, but more for. Modern and non sport tag has
• 5:13
  gone mostly the Pokémon route. So there are a lot.
• 5:16
  Of people where there is, there is an opening for anything and
• 5:19
  Beckett hasn't even tried. To capture that they.
• 5:23
  Have invested no money into because they have no money.
• 5:27
  But. But they're not even.
• 5:28
  Trying to capitalize. I mean, I'll say this, I've
• 5:34
  literally. Had multiple people reach out to
• 5:37
  me like. That are fairly serious that.
• 5:41
  Have some money and connections to money, say, What do you
• 5:45
  think? It would cost to buy Beckett
• 5:48
  Grady 2. $150 million investment in the last roughly year.
• 5:53
  And so if they have a $250 million investment, the company
• 5:56
  has to be worth, yeah. The $250 million investment in
• 6:00
  Beckett, where's that money gone?
• 6:03
  That that's the question because.
• 6:05
  The magazine still sort of exists.
• 6:08
  The database of information kind of exists.
• 6:11
  But nothing works very well anymore.
• 6:13
  Well, that's my point. I mean, if it's worth if they
• 6:15
  invested $250 million, they need to get some of their money.
• 6:18
  Back because I don't. Know if they actually, I, I know
• 6:21
  they pledged a $250 million investment.
• 6:23
  I don't know if they actually did it.
• 6:25
  I mean, I, I, I don't, I, I don't, I don't even know what to
• 6:30
  say. Now is the time, the opportunity
• 6:34
  is. So it's such a low hanging fruit
• 6:37
  that if if fanatics isn't considering it, then they're
• 6:41
  never going to consider it. They're just never going to
• 6:43
  consider. It and I don't know.
• 6:44
  Why they wouldn't consider it? The depth of the pockets that
• 6:48
  are available for. Fanatics to put into.
• 6:51
  The gaping hole, The biggest hole in all of the the the.
• 6:56
  Industry right now, it's not a. Producer of cards.
• 6:59
  It's a competitor of PSAI Mean. We all know, you know, we've all
• 7:03
  taken. Econ One O 1 and.
• 7:05
  The invisible. Hand will control the market.
• 7:07
  And what happens is when one company gets fat and happy,
• 7:10
  somebody else starts to come in and balance it out.
• 7:13
  That time is now like. Now, but step one is acquire A
• 7:17
  grader and and and as far as we or make your own.
• 7:22
  It feels to me that. The easiest route would be
• 7:28
  Beckett. But then I mean, didn't we hear
• 7:30
  that PSA? Was setting up a new.
• 7:33
  Headquarters. Like in the same town?
• 7:35
  As Beckett like. Like on the same block, it's
• 7:38
  like on the same street or something.
• 7:39
  It's. Like on the same building I
• 7:40
  think. Well, that's SGC in PSA before
• 7:42
  they kick SGC into the broom closet a la Mike Petty saying
• 7:46
  that I mean. It is is just such a golden.
• 7:50
  Opportunity right now for somebody with deep pockets.
• 7:54
  Let's do it. I've got $17.00, how much do you
• 7:56
  have? Well, let me look in my wallet.
• 7:58
  I mean, Mike, I've got hold on. Oh, oh, oh, Mike, I've got $100
• 8:03
  bill. I've got you.
• 8:05
  Obviously it was just payday. How many?
• 8:08
  How many pirate cards will that buy?
• 8:10
  Depends, is it a common or is it a captain?
• 8:13
  260 bucks I have available. We have $277 between us we could
• 8:18
  buy, I mean. Beckett And I was like the The
• 8:21
  gaping hole in the industry right now is the opportunity for
• 8:26
  somebody to capitalize on the opening in the market.
• 8:31
  And you say, what are you talking about?
• 8:32
  There's not an opening in the market.
• 8:34
  How is there an opening in the market?
• 8:36
  A is crushing everybody and they are.
• 8:41
  And then they bought SGC. But see, The thing is, is there
• 8:44
  is a fairly decent sized contingent of people who don't
• 8:48
  mind and they're they're cool with just going along with the
• 8:53
  PSA machine. But there are also some people
• 8:56
  that just don't like PSA, they just don't like PSA.
• 9:00
  And hey, when you start buying at the competition, we start,
• 9:04
  right, raising prices when, when you start making turn around
• 9:08
  times longer. I, I, I kind of understand.
• 9:12
  And then not to mention all the consistency issues.
• 9:15
  You know, some of the news that's been coming about grades
• 9:18
  changing after cards are being sold.
• 9:21
  And there's been kind of this firestorm, right?
• 9:24
  There's been this firestorm with PSA.
• 9:27
  So what do they do to change the narrative a la my friend Mookie
• 9:32
  in Jeremy leaves live stream the other night.
• 9:34
  He puts in the comments one way to change the narrative is to, I
• 9:39
  don't know, create a new narrative, which they did by
• 9:43
  buying Beckett. Now that's not the reason that
• 9:46
  they bought Beckett that you don't just to change the news
• 9:50
  cycle for a few days, make a multi $1,000,000 purchase of
• 9:56
  another company. That's not what you do.
• 9:58
  But, but Mike and I were talking about the opening in the market.
• 10:03
  We were talking about how this is the moment that that Fanatics
• 10:09
  could go out and acquire Beckett, resurrect Beckett and
• 10:15
  turn them into a major player again like they did with PWCC
• 10:19
  when PWCC was struggling. Now it's, you know, Fanatics as
• 10:24
  a marketplace and, and it's gone really well.
• 10:29
  I think a lot of us were hoping that Fanatics or some other deep
• 10:33
  pocketed company with hobby roots was going to go in and
• 10:38
  take over Beckett and actually create a decent competitor.
• 10:42
  But PSA purchased them so now not.
• 10:47
  PS I know I, I, I always get these comments.
• 10:51
  Listen, guys, we all know that the parent company is
• 10:54
  collectors. We know that that is the parent
• 10:57
  company of PSA, but we also know that an overwhelming majority of
• 11:02
  their revenue comes from the PSA model.
• 11:05
  It's like saying Disney, you know, Disney has a lot of
• 11:09
  different income streams, including ESPN, right?
• 11:14
  Disney owns ESPN, or did or I don't.
• 11:18
  I I can't even keep track anymore.
• 11:20
  The point is this. The point is this.
• 11:24
  The parent company that owns PSA owns SGC, stuffed them in the
• 11:29
  broom closet, slowly dismantling them, taking away all of the
• 11:33
  competitive advantages they used to have, and now they bought
• 11:35
  Beckett. What do we think's going to
• 11:37
  happen? Most likely exactly what they've
• 11:39
  done to SGC. Why did they do this?
• 11:42
  Well certainly it was to probably buy U some of the
• 11:46
  talent, meaning the graders. Certainly some of it was to
• 11:50
  reduce competition. Certainly some of it was to
• 11:53
  prevent somebody else from buying them.
• 11:55
  Maybe CGC from buying them. Maybe fanatics from buying them,
• 11:59
  but ultimately we all know the major game plan and the major
• 12:03
  game plan that that the collectors company is focused on
• 12:08
  is to go public, is to take the company into the New York Stock
• 12:12
  Exchange, into the NASDAQ, whatever, and go public.
• 12:16
  Because what you do as an investor is you get rich from
• 12:20
  taking a company, restructuring it, fine tuning some things,
• 12:24
  making a couple of acquisitions and an increase in the revenue
• 12:28
  stream. That is definitely one way to
• 12:31
  make some money. But the way you get crazy rich
• 12:35
  is you do that to a company privately and then you take them
• 12:38
  public. That's how you get bonkers rich,
• 12:42
  crazy levels of rich. That's what's happening.
• 12:47
  That's what's happening. They they, they acquire Beckett.
• 12:50
  Because now if you're an investor, you go, whoa, who are
• 12:55
  the competitors? What is the market?
• 12:57
  What is the market share? Who is the the closest
• 13:00
  competitor? What is the likelihood of the
• 13:03
  closest competitor now actually maybe creating any sort of
• 13:10
  threat to PSA? Way less likely than it was a
• 13:13
  week ago. If if Fanatics bought,
• 13:18
  hypothetically, if Fanatics had bought Beckett and then they
• 13:21
  said, hey, Peter Steinberg, you want to pick up on the beach
• 13:26
  that you're hanging out on, We're going to give you an offer
• 13:28
  you can't refuse. We're going to buy out your non
• 13:31
  compete clause. We're going to wait it out and
• 13:33
  then bang, you are going to take over at Beckett.
• 13:38
  Suddenly there would have been a serious a serious competitor for
• 13:45
  PSA and SGC and the Collector's Universe umbrella.
• 13:49
  That would have happened. Maybe.
• 13:52
  But now it's not going to happen.
• 13:56
  So I haven't even started to answer the question.
• 14:00
  Here's my take. I still think there's a gaping
• 14:03
  hole in the card grading market. That component of the hobby.
• 14:10
  There is a hole. There are people who want to
• 14:13
  have cards graded. Some of don't grade your cards
• 14:15
  anymore. It's a scam.
• 14:17
  It's it's a joke there. It's you know, it is a sham.
• 14:21
  It's a scam. It's a this, it's a that, OK,
• 14:24
  there are a lot of people that are going to continue grading
• 14:27
  cards. So I respect that.
• 14:30
  I will probably be less likely to grade cards now than I would
• 14:34
  have been six months ago. That is probably part of how I
• 14:37
  am going to adjust on this whole thing.
• 14:40
  But there are still a lot of people that are going to get
• 14:43
  cards graded. And because of that, there is an
• 14:47
  opening for the people who don't like PSA because there are a lot
• 14:51
  of people who don't like PSA. If you read any of the comments
• 14:55
  in any of my videos, there are many people who in every single
• 15:00
  video will tell you about their hatred for PSA.
• 15:04
  But a lot of those people still want to get their cards graded
• 15:07
  and now they don't have an option.
• 15:09
  Or do they? So what's going to happen?
• 15:12
  Who's going to fill the void? Well, it's not going to be
• 15:15
  Beckett now. It's not going to be SGC now.
• 15:19
  Quite frankly, CGC is a it's a non sport, It's a Pokémon, it's
• 15:26
  a modern, it's an authenticator. There aren't a lot of people who
• 15:32
  are sending cards to CGC for vintage card grading.
• 15:37
  There just aren't. So what is your option now?
• 15:41
  What is your option now? You're probably not going to
• 15:46
  send it to CGC. Beckett is now been stuffed in
• 15:51
  the janitor's closet. CGC is living rent free in the
• 15:56
  broom closet. So you're going to go to PSA?
• 16:00
  Well, a lot of people will and a lot of people who don't like PSA
• 16:06
  are saying I will not do business with Beckett or SGC or
• 16:11
  PSA because I don't like what they're doing.
• 16:14
  I don't like what they've done. Fair enough.
• 16:17
  That's fair. That is absolutely fair.
• 16:19
  I understand that level of frustration.
• 16:24
  So is Mike Baker the answer? Maybe.
• 16:28
  Now, Mike Baker was the first grader at PSA.
• 16:31
  He was the head grader at PSA. He has been grading cards since
• 16:36
  the early 90s. He's been grading cards for 35
• 16:40
  years and mostly as a vintage card grader.
• 16:46
  So is this the opportunity? Maybe.
• 16:52
  You know, I know for a fact that some of the auction houses used
• 16:59
  to be, you know, we're just doing Beckett, we're just doing
• 17:01
  SGC, we're just doing PSA. Those are the three.
• 17:04
  We're not going to really, you know, auction cards off with
• 17:08
  anybody besides those three. I know for a fact that some of
• 17:13
  the auction. Houses.
• 17:15
  Are are now starting to be open and we'll be using in the near
• 17:21
  future. Mike Baker Grady.
• 17:25
  So does that normalize Mike Baker grading?
• 17:29
  Does that get them their foot in the door?
• 17:33
  And I know they don't have money to compete with PSA.
• 17:36
  They don't have the infrastructure to compete with
• 17:38
  PSA. They don't have the facility.
• 17:41
  They don't have the staffing. They don't have.
• 17:44
  I mean, we're we're that's like saying, hey, yeah, Joe down the
• 17:48
  street has been making cars from scratch.
• 17:52
  You think he's going to take on Toyota?
• 17:55
  Probably not. Even if he's making, even if
• 17:57
  Joe's making some fantastic cars.
• 18:01
  I don't think Toyota is feeling a threat at the moment.
• 18:04
  But he's got connections and he's got expertise and he's got
• 18:12
  a few skeletons in his closet. There's been a history of some
• 18:18
  shenanigans, but at this point it feels like everyone who's
• 18:22
  been in the hobby for very long has some skeletons in their
• 18:25
  closet, as we're slowly but surely starting to uncover.
• 18:32
  Mike Baker might have the opportunity to if there was a
• 18:37
  partnership, if there were, if CGC were to acquire Mike Baker
• 18:44
  and have a wing of vintage grading, if fanatics genuinely
• 18:49
  wanted to try to do it, there's there's at least something there
• 18:54
  to start working with. Will it happen?
• 18:59
  I don't know, but the opportunity was massive a couple
• 19:07
  of weeks ago when Mike and I were talking about it on surface
• 19:11
  issues on the sports card clubhouse.
• 19:14
  The opportunity has grown exponentially since then.
• 19:21
  Could Baker get a loan? I don't know.
• 19:25
  Is is Mike Baker grading the next thing that's going to
• 19:28
  happen? Probably not, but I will say
• 19:33
  this maybe and just the fact that it's a maybe is a big deal.
• 19:43
  I'm rooting for any form of competition for the for the
• 19:47
  three headed monster of collector's universe grading.
• 19:52
  I am rooting for somebody to come in and challenge them.
• 19:57
  But CGC a week ago, like 8 days ago, you raised your prices.
• 20:08
  This was your moment to seize the day.
• 20:12
  Carpe diem CGC. Now is not the time to raise
• 20:19
  prices. Now is the time to gain market
• 20:23
  share, not raise prices. Who in the heck hire me as a
• 20:31
  consultant, please? This stuff is not that
• 20:36
  difficult. You just turned down the faucet
• 20:41
  when you should have opened the valve full throttle.
• 20:46
  What are we doing? Somebody, somebody challenge
• 20:51
  this. These guys somebody please.
• 20:57
  This one says excellent points on the evils of monopolies.
• 21:01
  When SGC used to be present at local card shows, the orders
• 21:06
  would show up as processed the very next week.
• 21:09
  Is anyone else angry at collectors for taking our best
• 21:14
  option away from us? Many people are not comfortable
• 21:17
  packaging, shipping, insuring expensive cards.
• 21:21
  I don't want to just complain about it.
• 21:23
  So what can we collectively do to get SGC?
• 21:27
  Back OK, I got, I got bad news and I hate to break it to
• 21:34
  everybody. I got bad news.
• 21:38
  I don't think we're going to salvage SGCSGC.
• 21:42
  Looks like me and SGC is up against a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
• 21:50
  triple black belt, purple belt, quadruple whatever belt and is
• 21:55
  just getting choked out like SGC is gasping for air and Beckett
• 22:04
  is now right behind them. If you thought Beckett's
• 22:09
  submission numbers were pathetic 3 months ago, just wait until
• 22:14
  three months from now. PSA did not buy SGC to fix them,
• 22:25
  improve them and grow them. That is not why they did it.
• 22:30
  They did not buy Beckett because they're like, here's a
• 22:34
  struggling company and I think with a couple of tweaks we can
• 22:38
  really get things back on track. That is not that is not why
• 22:43
  Collectors Universe bought Beckett and SGC.
• 22:48
  They bought them to throw them on the ground, put their foot on
• 22:54
  their throats and press. It is to eliminate the potential
• 23:01
  of another company from possibly being a threat in the near
• 23:06
  future from another bigger company purchasing them, putting
• 23:13
  money into them and making them a threat.
• 23:16
  It is a competitive advantage move to eliminate future
• 23:21
  competition. They're not shutting them down
• 23:24
  immediately because they're they're playing this game of Oh
• 23:29
  no, we're a great. We're a company that loves
• 23:31
  great. We grade video games, we grade
• 23:34
  comic books, we grade sports cards.
• 23:39
  We, we just saw this other company that was a great value.
• 23:42
  So we're buying them. Swampland, Florida.
• 23:49
  I'll sell it to you at a heck of a deal, guys.
• 23:52
  That is not going to happen. They wanted to eliminate a
• 23:58
  future competitor if Beckett is under their control.
• 24:03
  It's like the it's like the guy who's got a ranch.
• 24:06
  It's a beautiful ranch. He loves his ranch and the and
• 24:11
  he's rich. The property next door goes for
• 24:15
  sale, so he buys it. Why does he buy it?
• 24:19
  Is it because he wants a bigger ranch?
• 24:22
  No, it's because he doesn't want somebody else to own the ranch
• 24:26
  and ruin what he loves. That's what it is.
• 24:31
  They bought the ranch next door so that somebody else didn't
• 24:35
  build a casino on it. That's what happened.
• 24:40
  They want to control it. And why do they want to control
• 24:43
  it? So that when they take it
• 24:45
  public, the financials look better, the revenue stream looks
• 24:50
  better, the holdings look broader, and there's no threat
• 24:55
  of competition. SGCSGC has been treading water
• 25:03
  and treading water and treading water, and now there are two
• 25:07
  alligators pulling down and SG CS reaching up, trying to get
• 25:13
  one more last grasp of air, gasping for air before the
• 25:19
  alligators pull them completely under next to their friend
• 25:24
  called Beckett. This is a slow death.
• 25:27
  I am sorry to say it. I am sorry to say it.
• 25:32
  I am as upset about it as anybody.
• 25:35
  I was happy two years ago. We didn't know how good we had
• 25:39
  it. Two years.
• 25:40
  Let's go back two years, guys. Let's go back two years.
• 25:45
  Remember how great we had it? We had SGC was surging.
• 25:50
  They were at shows. You could go to shows and drop
• 25:54
  your cards off. They were at Strongsville and
• 25:56
  the Philly show. They were at the National and
• 26:00
  they had a booth and, and Peter would come out and he would talk
• 26:04
  to you and Peter would come on channels on YouTube and he would
• 26:07
  talk to people. And he was a great guy and he'd
• 26:10
  talk about his collection. And then he wasn't.
• 26:15
  And then SGC wasn't and now Beckett isn't.
• 26:22
  I agree. One of the biggest, the biggest
• 26:27
  loser in this whole deal is us. There are many stages to grief
• 26:39
  part of the stage. One of the stages is denial.
• 26:44
  One of the stages is acceptance bargaining, right?
• 26:49
  I mean, I took a psychology class once.
• 26:52
  I know all about this stuff. It's over, guys.
• 27:00
  It's over. I know we don't want to accept
• 27:04
  that What we, what we have to hope for is a massive company
• 27:12
  with very, very deep pockets decides to get involved.
• 27:20
  That's our only hope, Luke. Luke, you're our only hope.
• 27:27
  Luke. I can see the projection from R
• 27:31
  to D to now it's over. I think I and probably others
• 27:41
  are maybe using the wrong paradigm for grading.
• 27:45
  I always thought it was a score, A ranking of its relative to
• 27:49
  perfection. When I got back into collecting,
• 27:52
  I referred naively to a Gem Mint 10 as a perfect card.
• 27:57
  If the card is a score, then paying extra for a 10 is
• 28:02
  rational, but it is also. Possible for a?
• 28:05
  Card to have all the technical things right, but just still not
• 28:10
  be a very attractive card. Or there could be a small
• 28:14
  blemish that isn't visible at a quick glance but can really
• 28:18
  drive down a grade. But what if it's not a score,
• 28:23
  but maybe a category? You've said yourself that if a
• 28:27
  card is a given grade, you know, or it can be reasonably
• 28:31
  confident that somebody looked at this card and it is highly
• 28:36
  likely to be authentic. It does not have a crease, it
• 28:40
  has minimal to no staining, etcetera.
• 28:43
  I'm not sure category is the right term, but something more
• 28:48
  like giving you information about the condition of the card,
• 28:52
  but not necessarily having to do with rating the perfection of
• 28:57
  the card. Does that make sense?
• 29:01
  You're asking me because I think you want to hear my opinion.
• 29:06
  Is it a score? Is it a category?
• 29:08
  No, but you're on the right track.
• 29:11
  What the grade is is very simple.
• 29:15
  It's an opinion, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to get
• 29:18
  the same grade because it's again, it's a graders opinion
• 29:20
  and there's ranges and standards.
• 29:22
  So it could grade something differently.
• 29:23
  Just because it got APSA eight the first time doesn't mean it's
• 29:26
  always going to get APSA 8. It could get a nine, it could
• 29:28
  get A7, it could get a 7.5. That's what it is.
• 29:31
  The grade is an opinion. It's a person's opinion at a
• 29:37
  grading company on that particular moment of that
• 29:42
  particular day. And as many of us have seen over
• 29:47
  and over again, those opinions change.
• 29:51
  And, and I know that that's hard for us to accept because we are
• 29:55
  used to scores and numbers and rankings.
• 30:00
  It's like, oh, well, if you won the gold medal, you're the best.
• 30:05
  In theory, you would be. You would be.
• 30:10
  But in in this case, it's not a time that we could use a
• 30:16
  stopwatch for. It's not a time we could slow it
• 30:20
  down to see who crossed the finish line first.
• 30:23
  It's just a dude with a happy, It's Doug.
• 30:28
  It's Doug down in Santa Ana. I'm sure he's a great guy.
• 30:32
  He's got his, he's got a Starbucks coffee there.
• 30:34
  He's got his half eaten donut there.
• 30:37
  He maybe he's got a, you know, like a granola bar for later so
• 30:41
  he can act like he's healthy when he's really not.
• 30:44
  Doug is deciding whether your card is going to be worth
• 30:51
  $10,000 or 150. Doug is the one making the
• 31:00
  determination. It sounds insane, right?
• 31:04
  It sounds insane because it is, because it is insane.
• 31:12
  I will continue to say this. I think 99% of the time grades
• 31:19
  do provide you with some information.
• 31:24
  Some it does not provide you with all of the information.
• 31:30
  Why does it not provide you with all of the information?
• 31:34
  Why isn't the grade A category? Why isn't it a score?
• 31:40
  Because Doug is a human being and Doug makes mistakes and
• 31:45
  maybe Doug accidentally ran a red light on the way to work
• 31:49
  even though you're not supposed to go when the light is red.
• 31:54
  Doug went, why would Doug run a red light?
• 31:59
  Doug, would Ryan run a red light?
• 32:00
  Because Doug's a human. He makes mistakes, just like car
• 32:05
  accidents. Do you think anybody wants to
• 32:07
  drive their car into another car?
• 32:11
  I don't think. I mean, unless you're in a
• 32:15
  demolition Derby, then I don't think that's the goal.
• 32:19
  Unless you're in the bumper cars at the fair, I don't think you
• 32:26
  want to drive into another car. Doug doesn't want to make a
• 32:32
  mistake. But Doug's a human being.
• 32:36
  And, you know, maybe got a couple of crumbs on his face,
• 32:40
  got, you know, a little bit of Maple, a little Maple glaze kind
• 32:44
  of stuck to his cheek and he's kind of scratching.
• 32:47
  He doesn't see that the card actually has a crease.
• 32:58
  It's not a score, it's not a category, it's an opinion.
• 33:05
  And I'm fortunate because my dad was a really early adopter of
• 33:13
  PSA Grady, and I saw some absolutely insane things happen
• 33:25
  with grades 30 years ago, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, 20
• 33:34
  years ago, I saw cards go from trimmed to PSA nines.
• 33:48
  I saw cards go from nines to 10s.
• 33:52
  I saw cards go from sevens. A phone call with a complaint
• 34:00
  become eights or nines. I saw cards get trimmed grades
• 34:09
  for a regular person, but then the same card was submitted from
• 34:16
  an influential dealer who does lots and lots of submissions and
• 34:27
  the card get an 8. And then that influential dealer
• 34:31
  went back and said this grade is wrong and they said we're sorry,
• 34:37
  we'll fix it, we'll make it a nine.
• 34:40
  You think I'm kidding? Greg?
• 34:42
  You can't just say this stuff. Why?
• 34:47
  Why can't I say it? Why can't I say that?
• 34:51
  It's a fact. It's not an opinion, it's not
• 34:53
  hearsay. It's not I heard my friend say
• 34:56
  this. These are things that happened.
• 34:59
  Now all of those things, I will preface it with this.
• 35:02
  All of these things happened before the current regime of
• 35:07
  leadership took over. This is a previous leadership.
• 35:14
  But then again, doesn't that matter if we still accept the
• 35:19
  grades from the past leadership, if the past leadership grades
• 35:27
  are still honored with the current leadership and the past
• 35:32
  leadership said, oh, sorry, 40 cards from your submission that
• 35:39
  got sevens, we'll go ahead and change them to eights.
• 35:43
  That's a problem, right? Isn't that a problem?
• 35:48
  Wait. Greg, are you saying?
• 35:49
  That actually happened. Didn't happen to me.
• 35:53
  It happened to my dad and I saw it and I was there and I
• 35:58
  experienced it. Those things happened.
• 36:04
  And and I, I I. Asked on Monday.
• 36:08
  Want me to have my dad? Tell us the.
• 36:12
  Story himself. So guess what's happening later
• 36:15
  this week? Question for 12/17.
• 36:23
  When the 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth SGC 3 went up for sale
• 36:29
  2 years ago, I rooted for the price to go as high as possible.
• 36:33
  I enjoy rooting for the health of the hobby, and big sales are
• 36:37
  just plain fun. When I saw it come back out for
• 36:41
  sale this past month, I immediately was rooting for the
• 36:45
  lowest possible price. As someone who always cheers the
• 36:49
  hobby, wishes for it only to thrive, I was keenly aware of
• 36:54
  how irritated the sale made me, and I felt myself being very
• 37:00
  pleased when it sold so much lower than the first time.
• 37:04
  What's your take on this? Experience.
• 37:06
  And do you relate? To this instinctive reaction,
• 37:12
  all right. Here's my thought.
• 37:15
  This is what I think you're and, and, and you know, I think
• 37:19
  sometimes we don't. I don't know why you were
• 37:24
  rooting for the card and then you were rooting against the
• 37:27
  card. I don't know, but I think it
• 37:31
  might be because of the following.
• 37:36
  When you are a collector. In this hobby, the thing that
• 37:40
  kind of collectors get a little bit resentful of people who are
• 37:47
  making a quick buck on the hobby.
• 37:50
  Now I. Kind of I kind.
• 37:55
  I I understand that, but I also am like, why?
• 38:01
  I can see both sides of that particular topic.
• 38:05
  I can see somebody going, man, when you buy a card for cheap
• 38:09
  and then you you list it and you sell it for more, like you're
• 38:12
  costing the eventual collector extra money.
• 38:18
  Yeah, you are. And that's the finder's fee, I
• 38:24
  guess. I don't know.
• 38:26
  I mean, there are times that I have bought cards and the cards
• 38:30
  were such a good deal. I bought the card and maybe it
• 38:33
  was a card that I wanted anyway, so I bought it.
• 38:35
  It was a good deal. And then I said, this card's
• 38:39
  actually worth a lot more than this.
• 38:42
  So I'm going to put it up for sale.
• 38:44
  And if somebody's willing to pay me this crazy number, I'll take
• 38:47
  it. Otherwise, I'm totally happy
• 38:51
  having it in my collection. See different people at.
• 38:57
  Different price. Points have different
• 38:59
  opportunities. It it it.
• 39:01
  Feels to me like. When when somebody buys a card
• 39:07
  and then the cards value goes up or they got a good deal on the
• 39:11
  card and then they sell it for more.
• 39:15
  I I understand I I. Actually appreciate the grind of
• 39:19
  that. It's like a person who like
• 39:24
  flips homes, like they buy a home, they kind of, you know, do
• 39:29
  a couple of things and then they sell the home for more and
• 39:33
  there's kind of a fun it it, I don't know, tell me, am I wrong
• 39:38
  about that? But I think the reason that you
• 39:41
  were rooting for it and then rooting against it is because
• 39:45
  you felt like this person was trying to make a quick buck.
• 39:48
  And you were like, I, I just was rooting for you.
• 39:52
  I was rooting for you to go out and buy this amazing card and
• 39:58
  add it to your collection, and now you're trying to sell it.
• 40:01
  How dare you try to sell it. I was rooting for you and now it
• 40:07
  turns out you were just trying to make profit.
• 40:11
  Well. I understand where you're coming
• 40:15
  from if. And I'm not trying to put words
• 40:17
  in your mouth, but that's possible that that's what
• 40:20
  happened. That's.
• 40:22
  Possible for why? You started rooting against it
• 40:28
  and tell me down below go Greg, you're insane.
• 40:31
  Like wouldn't be the first time I heard that.
• 40:35
  But I guess my my comment is, I understand why people get
• 40:42
  frustrated when somebody sells a card for way more than they
• 40:46
  bought it for. But do you feel guilty when you
• 40:50
  buy a house and, and you live in it for 2-3 years and it goes way
• 40:56
  up in value and then you sell it and then you take that profit
• 40:59
  and you put it into another house?
• 41:01
  Did you do something wrong there?
• 41:03
  Well, Greg, that's completely different.
• 41:06
  That is a house. This is supposed to be a hobby
• 41:11
  and you are taking profits from other people for yourself.
• 41:18
  Is it? I.
• 41:21
  Don't know, I bought a boat a few years.
• 41:22
  Ago bought the boat. It's a hobby.
• 41:27
  We took it out on the lake multiple times.
• 41:31
  The girls had fun. We tubed on it, did spun
• 41:35
  doughnuts on it, went over the wakes on it, had sandwiches and
• 41:40
  drinks, and enjoyed the sunshine.
• 41:42
  And then about five years later, I sold the boat.
• 41:47
  And I sold the boat for more than I bought it for.
• 41:50
  Should I feel bad? Should I feel bad?
• 41:56
  Maybe and I'm just. Hypothesizing.
• 41:58
  I don't know why you were rooting for it and then against
• 42:01
  it, but I think it's possible because I know there are some
• 42:07
  some people in the hobby that the hobby is so like they're so
• 42:14
  pure about their the reasons that they're in it that they
• 42:21
  get. Frustrated.
• 42:23
  They get frustrated when other people it appears that they're
• 42:27
  using it for profit and again. I I do understand.
• 42:32
  That, but if we're never allowed to sell something for more than
• 42:36
  we bought it for. I mean that that seems.
• 42:42
  That doesn't seem right either. But tell me is do you think that
• 42:46
  that's maybe what it is? Am I crazy?
• 42:49
  Yes. You're crazy.
• 42:50
  OK, I'm crazy. Now we all know it's officially
• 42:54
  been established that I'm crazy, which is fine.
• 42:59
  I'm. I'm totally.
• 43:00
  That's fine and. Finally, this one says.
• 43:05
  Question do your top 15 iconic players to add to your
• 43:10
  collection for a reasonable price?
• 43:12
  Under $100. This is AI think this is kind of
• 43:19
  a tough question and I'm not sure I fully understood the
• 43:22
  question. I think what the question is
• 43:24
  asking me are who are some players where you could buy some
• 43:29
  of their cards for under $100 that are iconic players that are
• 43:34
  worth buying their cards of I think is what it's asking it.
• 43:39
  I don't think it's asking for specific cards of under $100.
• 43:43
  It sounded to me like it was. Asking for specific.
• 43:45
  Players who are iconic players where you could buy their cards
• 43:49
  for under $100.00. So it also wasn't mentioned
• 43:53
  which sport. So what I'm going to do is I'm
• 43:55
  going to provide three lists. Each list is going to be a
• 44:00
  handful of players in that sport where you can buy some of their
• 44:07
  cards for under $100. Now, when you say iconic, like I
• 44:13
  could, I could say, Oh well, APSA 8/19/89 Upper Deck Ken
• 44:19
  Griffey Junior like that would be an iconic player, an iconic
• 44:22
  card under $100. And you know that that would
• 44:27
  check the box, right? Maybe some show hey card, maybe
• 44:33
  some maybe a Don Mattingly rookie, like those are kind of
• 44:37
  iconic guys in my eyes. But the majority of people who
• 44:44
  hang out here on with this channel are vintage collectors.
• 44:49
  So I decided to go with a vintage era.
• 44:53
  So these are vintage era players from three different sports
• 44:56
  where you can absolutely buy some of their cards in pretty
• 45:00
  decent condition, in a lot of cases for under $100.
• 45:04
  I hope that I'm answering the question right.
• 45:06
  If I'm not down below say you, you completely didn't answer it
• 45:10
  right. I will say.
• 45:13
  This like in my head right now as I'm about to go over the list
• 45:17
  and I'm going to put a graphic on the screen of the lists.
• 45:21
  I'm like like a perfect example would be Larry Dobie.
• 45:26
  Really important figure, really important player, really good
• 45:29
  player, really iconic name. I think the stature of Larry
• 45:33
  Dobie has gone way up recently. I think it's going to continue
• 45:37
  to exponentially go up in stature.
• 45:40
  He's an iconic player. You can buy his cards under
• 45:42
  $100. He'd be a perfect example, but
• 45:45
  wasn't included in the lists I'm about to show.
• 45:48
  So let me first put on the screen some names of baseball
• 45:53
  players. These are baseball players who
• 45:57
  you could absolutely buy their cards for under $100 and they're
• 46:01
  iconic players and iconic figures in the sport.
• 46:05
  I got Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Ernie
• 46:11
  Banks, and Sandy Kofax. These are the baseball players,
• 46:14
  5 baseball players. Now here's the deal.
• 46:17
  I just did a video a week ago about base cards, meaning non
• 46:22
  All Stars, non specialty cards like their their core card,
• 46:27
  their main card from that year of each of those guys for under
• 46:33
  $50. And some of them might have been
• 46:35
  twos and a half, some of them might have been threes and a
• 46:38
  half, even fours. But I only picked cards that I
• 46:42
  thought were pretty good looking.
• 46:44
  So you could absolutely buy cards of those five players for
• 46:50
  under $100, and I think they're iconic players, and you can get
• 46:54
  iconic cards of those players for under $100 easily.
• 46:58
  So 5 baseball players that you could afford under $100 that I
• 47:02
  think are iconic, those are 5. You could absolutely throw in
• 47:08
  Larry Dobie if you wanted something more modern.
• 47:11
  You could absolutely say Ken Griffey junior.
• 47:14
  You could absolutely say Cal Ripken rookie card.
• 47:17
  You could say, you know, there are a lot of Tony Gwynn, you
• 47:21
  know, Wade Boggs, but vintage. That's my 5 that were off the
• 47:26
  top of my head. Next football players football.
• 47:32
  Players where you could buy. Their cards for under $100, and
• 47:37
  they're iconic players. Autogram, he'd be the hardest,
• 47:42
  but you can do it if you're patient and you find the right
• 47:46
  card. You can find autogram cards
• 47:47
  under $100. Jim Brown, another one that
• 47:51
  would be a little bit more difficult, but you can find Jim
• 47:53
  Brown cards under $100. Johnny Unitas absolutely under
• 47:57
  $100, Bart Starr absolutely under $100 and GAIL Sayers
• 48:01
  absolutely $100. Those are 5 football players,
• 48:05
  vintage football players that I think are iconic and you can
• 48:09
  absolutely buy their cards for under $100.00.
• 48:13
  So now I'll do basketball. Basketball players you could.
• 48:17
  Buy for under $100 that are iconic players.
• 48:21
  Kareem Abdul Jabbar absolutely can buy his cards for under 100.
• 48:25
  Lots of his cards for under $100 back in the early 70s.
• 48:30
  You could go as far back as. Jerry.
• 48:32
  West you could buy for under $100.
• 48:34
  Will Chamberlain you could buy for under $100.
• 48:37
  Pete Maravich and Julius Irving, Doctor J, those 5 basketball
• 48:43
  players, you could absolutely buy their cards.
• 48:45
  Big, big names, iconic players, great cards.
• 48:49
  Under $100. You don't have to spend
• 48:52
  thousands and thousands of dollars to buy an iconic player
• 48:58
  and an iconic cart. You just don't.
• 49:01
  You don't. It doesn't have to be an
• 49:03
  expensive hobby. There are a lot of YouTube
• 49:07
  channels that I watch and the pickups from the people on the
• 49:11
  channels are not expensive carts and the channels are fantastic
• 49:18
  and they are having a blast. I have a lot of friends who have
• 49:22
  a lot of fun in this hobby without spending a lot of money.
• 49:25
  You can absolutely buy cards under $100.
• 49:28
  That is one of the whole reasons I do my monthly episode of cards
• 49:33
  under $50. It posted last week.
• 49:36
  Check it out if you haven't. Lots of guys that you could buy.
• 49:44
  If you are still watching. Thank you.
• 49:47
  This was a little bit of a long one, I think today.
• 49:50
  And and that's that's saying something for me.
• 49:55
  All right, I appreciate you guys.
• 49:57
  If you have a question for an upcoming episode, please down
• 50:00
  below in the comments, simply type it out.
• 50:03
  Looking forward to it.