Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / PSA's Power Keeps Growing- Surface Issues Episode 35
Transcript
- 0:00In our massive country, there are card collectors throughout
- 0:04the land participating in the hobby.
- 0:06There's Mike of Junk Wax Hero and Greg of Midlife Cards, and
- 0:11while distance may separate them, here is where they come
- 0:15together to talk cards. Hey buddy, how are you doing on
- 0:21this fine day? I'm great.
- 0:27I I went out to grill. I just got a new grill and went
- 0:32to, I took the propane tank out of the old grill, put in the new
- 0:36grill, wouldn't fire up out of propane.
- 0:39And I have a spare propane tank 'cause I'm a griller.
- 0:45You got to have a spare propane tank also out of propane.
- 0:49And I don't know how I let that happen at the end of last year,
- 0:52probably because I was like, oh, it's the end of the year, I'll
- 0:54fix this in the spring. It's not like California where
- 0:57you just grill all year long. So yeah, I had to bake our
- 1:02chicken, which is deeply disappointing, Greg.
- 1:07Yeah, chicken is is much better grilled than baked.
- 1:12I would agree. All right, well, first of all,
- 1:15we got to let's address the elephant in the room.
- 1:18You took a few shots from David Chase and in in the 1st edition
- 1:26of Midlife card Chase and some people were defending you in the
- 1:30comments. In fact, one person said Greg,
- 1:32what kind of friend are you for allowing him to attack Mike and
- 1:37not defend Mike? A terrible friend, obviously.
- 1:40Clearly a clearly a bad person. I do think there was a fair
- 1:47amount of sarcasm in those comments 'cause I know for a
- 1:51fact that David Chase likes you very much.
- 1:54Well, he's been sending me very awful text messages threatening
- 1:58me. No, it was all in good fun.
- 2:02And I think I, I felt like it was clear that he was just
- 2:06joking. And I think he even, or you said
- 2:09there was a lot of sarcasm there.
- 2:11It was, it was fun. I met David at Strongsville.
- 2:15We hit it off. I've tried stealing him as a
- 2:19friend from you, but he's like no no no, I'm Greg only.
- 2:23No, no, no, he's friends with quite a few people in the
- 2:26community. Let me tell you, a great guy,
- 2:29love him very much and excited to have that.
- 2:33If you've not yet watched that episode that is on the Sports
- 2:38Card Clubhouse, it's going to be every other week sort of
- 2:42rotating with your This Week in sports cards, which you haven't
- 2:47recorded yet as we record this. But is this the week?
- 2:52I think now, correct me if I'm wrong, this is the week that
- 2:56we're going to have the switch in schedule.
- 3:00So people are going to be hearing this on Tuesday and they
- 3:05will be have already heard this week in sports cards, which is
- 3:09going to be this Saturday or past last Saturday as as they
- 3:15hear this. And then this upcoming Saturday
- 3:18will be another midlife card chase and then rotating that
- 3:22way. Do you have an announcement or
- 3:25do you want to share who the guest was in case people didn't
- 3:30see it? I think we made that
- 3:31announcement last week. It's Teapot episode 1 and then
- 3:35it's Chris Sewell episode 2 and they will rotate so each of them
- 3:39will go every four weeks and so it'll be in every other week
- 3:43show. I knew.
- 3:44I knew it was Teapot and Chris Sewell.
- 3:46I didn't know. Maybe I was a bad listener, but
- 3:49I didn't know Teapot was first. I would have thought you would
- 3:52have put Chris Sewell first, especially with some of the
- 3:55things that they said about me this week, which let's take a
- 3:58look at that, right? Oh, OK, so the one of the top 2
- 4:03podcasts out there for sports cards is Surface issues here run
- 4:07by junk wax hero Mike, good friend of mine and Jeremy's and
- 4:10Theo's. We're all really good friends
- 4:12with wax Mike. He's he's got that partner.
- 4:16I don't know, said something like Billy.
- 4:19Is it Billy? I don't know his name, but he's
- 4:22Thor. Do you know his name?
- 4:23Yeah, his name's Craig, guys. He's he's actually somebody.
- 4:27Oh, that's a preview show. Yeah, Craig.
- 4:29Craig's a great guy. Mid level sports cards.
- 4:32Mid level. Mid level.
- 4:33Level mid level comics? No.
- 4:35No mid level sports. Cards.
- 4:36I thought it was mid love. Was it?
- 4:37Isn't it mid Love sports cards? Yeah, did you say meatloaf or
- 4:41Mid love? All right.
- 4:44Some people say he's the best sidekick on YouTube.
- 4:51Well, I come back with my name on the screen changed to Billy
- 4:57and was real tempted to put best sidekick on YouTube, which I
- 5:03would actually wear with a as a badge of honor that I could be
- 5:06the best sidekick in all of YouTube.
- 5:09That would be quite great. Your thoughts on well, these
- 5:15guys say I am. So I did not know.
- 5:17You didn't know. I don't think that they were
- 5:19going to do that. It was funny because you put a
- 5:20funny comment on their video last week or two weeks ago,
- 5:23whenever it was saying you guys always talk about Mike junk wax
- 5:27hero. And so they, they thought that
- 5:30they would do this, but I didn't know they were going to do that.
- 5:32And I was driving home from work yesterday, I think, or Tuesday.
- 5:36And I, I laughed so hard on my drive home, sitting there in my
- 5:41car all by myself when Theo came on and said, yeah, it's Craig.
- 5:46And I thought, oh boy, here we go.
- 5:48I knew immediately. And then he called you mid level
- 5:52sports cards, which is so good. Yeah, so for the rest of this
- 5:58episode, I'm going to be Billy of Meatloaf sports cards on the
- 6:02screen. If you're listening, just know
- 6:04it is proudly displayed across my chest at the moment.
- 6:09And then in case anybody was wondering the seriousness of
- 6:13this, I do have a quick follow up.
- 6:15No, hey, get back on here. Theo.
- 6:17We're all joking. Greg, you're awesome.
- 6:19We love you. We're sorry.
- 6:21We call out Trump Wax Mike every episode and forget to call you
- 6:24up. That's not intentional.
- 6:25That was just that was just the the way the chips landed.
- 6:28But yeah, Greg from midlife, he's amazing.
- 6:32I mean, they said I'm amazing. They said I'm awesome.
- 6:36I mean, I'm my my heart is fluttering.
- 6:40They're great guys, love them very much obviously, and it was
- 6:45awesome that they joined the clubhouse this past week on
- 6:50Thursday, last Thursday for for their first appearance.
- 6:56Now will that be a regular thing?
- 6:57I hope so, but I don't know. But extra innings again, we've
- 7:02been having Jake Wax pack wisdom along with Matt from Providence.
- 7:07And then once a month we get Tony Southern collector with
- 7:10Mike Petty. And then this one here we got to
- 7:14have Jeremy, Theo and Chris Sewell, which that's I mean, all
- 7:19of these guys are great guys. It's part of the whole point of
- 7:23us doing this is an opportunity to hang around, joke around
- 7:27better relationships of connecting with these guys.
- 7:29So that was awesome. Absolutely.
- 7:33I love listening to their podcast, not only those guys,
- 7:36but the extra innings crew as a whole.
- 7:39I, I haven't listened to the actually I'm 2 episodes behind,
- 7:43but I did listen to the hit list of Matt and Jake this week and
- 7:47those guys make me laugh too. They're they're fun.
- 7:50They like us. They took some time to really
- 7:53hit their stride and get to having, you know, really good
- 7:57rapport with each other and and knowing how to bounce off of
- 8:00each other. But they're so good now.
- 8:03Anybody who isn't watching the hit list on Jake Wax Pack
- 8:07Wisdoms channel, you're missing out.
- 8:10Yeah, I totally agree. It's, it's great stuff.
- 8:13I guess this is probably a good opportunity for us to shout out
- 8:17Chris, who is also a sponsor of the Channel Collector Investor
- 8:21dealer.com. You can contact him at
- 8:23sewellsportscards.sewellsportscards@gmail.com if you're interested in selling
- 8:31part of or all of your collection.
- 8:33Again, Chris is a great guy and even if he busts my balls a
- 8:37little bit, nothing but love because he is the best.
- 8:41He's always looking for collections to purchase and we
- 8:46can attest that he will definitely treat you well cuz
- 8:48he's a great guy. All right, let's let's get into
- 8:55our first topic now. We're not going to go on a 15
- 8:58minute rant about Twinkies or Oreos or Little Debbie's cakes
- 9:04or anything like that because apparently we're starting to
- 9:07wear out our welcome with that. But I mean, we are going to talk
- 9:10about snacks, but you know. Greg, I will say that I think
- 9:15it's the most popular part of any of our episodes.
- 9:18Is it? We get so many comments about
- 9:21snacks. People love it.
- 9:24It's a little bit different, right?
- 9:26But you people come to us for the sports Car Talk, but they
- 9:29really enjoy the well, you're the king of off topic.
- 9:34You have your own podcast called Off Topic.
- 9:37But here we we go off topic and it's very popular, I think.
- 9:41There's actually going to be an off topic later this week on
- 9:44Friday with myself, Darren return to collecting and from
- 9:49across the globe. Carl from Oz will be the guest.
- 9:53So we're we're very excited about that.
- 9:56OK, here is the central theme of the topic.
- 10:00And then there are two branches to the discussion that I want to
- 10:03bring up. You have no idea what the topic
- 10:05is yet. Well, you might have a hint, but
- 10:07the power of PSA is at an all time high and it's starting to
- 10:14feel like an arms race, like, you know, the Cold War between
- 10:18fanatics and PSA at the moment. And there are a couple of things
- 10:23that spiked my intrigue about this topic over the last week.
- 10:30One of the things that happened was there was the news about
- 10:34GameStop buying eBay, which I definitely go ahead.
- 10:40GameStop wanting to buy eBay? GameStop, correct, wants to buy.
- 10:45Allegedly wants to buy eBay and what are the ramifications about
- 10:50that? Now, there have been some people
- 10:51that have talked about it, but I certainly have some opinions
- 10:54that I haven't shared on this topic yet.
- 10:56I would be interested in picking your brain at least a little
- 10:59bit. But part of this obviously are
- 11:01the ties with PSA as Nat Turner and eBay.
- 11:06PSA and eBay have a close relationship.
- 11:09GameStop and PSA have a close relationship.
- 11:12Nat Turner sits on the board for GameStop.
- 11:15So there's a lot of intermingling between there.
- 11:18So that's definitely something I want to pick your brain on.
- 11:21But then there was a discussion over on The Odd Couple, Tony and
- 11:26Petty. They were talking about the
- 11:30power of PSA, and Tony was again, defending, you know, how
- 11:35people are always attacking that autographs, you know, might be
- 11:40fake and how many of them are fake and what percentage of them
- 11:43are fake. And then they started talking
- 11:45about, well, how many of the cards that have been graded are
- 11:48actually trimmed or altered? But we just trust PSA 'cause if
- 11:53it's in APSA Slab, it's all good.
- 11:55Where do you want to start with those 'cause I have a specific
- 11:59example as well. So I just threw a lot out there.
- 12:03Let's not forget. Let's not forget that collectors
- 12:05who owns PSA also owned Golden Auctions and sold Golden
- 12:09Auctions to eBay. Yeah, I think it was a trade.
- 12:14It was like a trade in in exchange for the eBay vault,
- 12:19which is now the PSA vault, right?
- 12:21Yeah, some. There were a couple things in
- 12:23there, but yeah. Yeah, OK, well, this happened,
- 12:28so I'm going to share my screen. So if you're listening, I
- 12:30promise to do my best to describe what's on the screen in
- 12:34the theme of the PSA, Power and influence on the hobby.
- 12:39I'm sharing my screen. Now there are two cards on the
- 12:42screen now they're both modern cards.
- 12:45These are Ben Rice. OK, Ben Rice is a a younger
- 12:50Yankee, although on spitball and cards the other day they said
- 12:53he's not that old. He just turned 27.
- 12:56And are he they he's really old. He just turned 27.
- 12:58I was like, is that old? But Ben Rice has, has had a
- 13:03fantastic season for the Yankees so far.
- 13:07He's batting like 340 or something as we're recording
- 13:10this. He's got like 11 or 12 home
- 13:12runs. And, and, and so as a Yankee
- 13:16fan, I've been intrigued by Ben Rice and I've actually purchased
- 13:213 Ben Rice karts. OK, now would you say I'm
- 13:24prospecting? I don't know.
- 13:26He's, he's a guy on my team. I wouldn't call it prospecting,
- 13:29but I think Ben Rice is the real deal.
- 13:31Now on the screen there are two cards. 1 is a blue logo fractor
- 13:42of Ben Rice and 1 is a teal a lava fat fractor, something like
- 13:51that. First question I have for you,
- 13:55just looking at the screen, which of these cards would you
- 13:57rather have? The one on the left or the one
- 14:00on the right? If I had to have one, I would
- 14:03take the one on the left. I would not want either of these
- 14:05cards. Not because it's Ben Rice, just
- 14:07because these. I don't like these parallels at
- 14:09all. But if I had to have one, I
- 14:11would take the one on the left. And yeah, it's not a very
- 14:15difficult decision. I.
- 14:16Mean it's it's clearly the better looking card, right?
- 14:20Oh yeah, and let me just say I think I understand what Spit
- 14:23Paul and guys are saying, which is that it 27 is old for a
- 14:26breakout. And it's very unlikely that he
- 14:29will make the Hall of Fame, which doesn't mean he can't have
- 14:32a good career or even a great career, but 27 is just old to
- 14:35have a breakout. Absolutely, and I love the
- 14:38spitballing guys, Teapot being one of them.
- 14:42I listen to pretty much every spitballing episode.
- 14:44I greatly enjoy them. And you're right, they would.
- 14:48They kind of followed up and said, well, it's not that he's a
- 14:51bad guy to put money into, it's just that it's more of a short
- 14:55to midterm kind of hold, not a long term hold for exactly the
- 14:59reason you just mentioned. So good.
- 15:01Good on you for clarifying my laps there.
- 15:05Now let's go to the next screen here.
- 15:08I'm going to I'm going to flip down one now.
- 15:11The card on the left is a blue and it's the card that you
- 15:16picked, and it's a color match with the Yankees blue and it's
- 15:21out of 150. And the card on the right, the
- 15:24card that you thought was not nearly as nice looking if you
- 15:28had to have one, was out of 199. So does this change anything
- 15:33about your desire? If you had to have one of these
- 15:36cards, does does that do much for you?
- 15:38The 150 or 199? Not remotely.
- 15:41I didn't even consider that they could even be numbered, let
- 15:45alone care about the print run for them.
- 15:47OK. So you're still strongly on the
- 15:50left. OK, let's go to the next screen.
- 15:53Next screen, they have the grades.
- 15:56So the card on the left, the blue one, the color match, the
- 15:59one that's numbered out of 150 is APSA 9.
- 16:03The one on the right is an Aqua Lava is what it was called, I
- 16:07guess, and it was out of 199. And that one is APSA 10.
- 16:13Now, does this change what you would want in as far as the
- 16:18cards are concerned? Well, what is tops, Chrome LEI?
- 16:22Think that's I'm going with something edition.
- 16:29I could Google that. I think it isn't it.
- 16:32Is it logo edition? Chrome LE.
- 16:37It might be like a short print, like a variation, like a picture
- 16:42variation or something. Image variation.
- 16:45Look it up and see what we get. Mike is currently Googling.
- 16:49I can see his studious eyes focused on the screen.
- 16:54I I don't know what it is. It's it's a limited edition rare
- 17:02low numbered parallels and special inserts within the Tops
- 17:05Chrome brand, often featuring vibrant refractors like Yellow
- 17:09Wave or Gold numbered to 50. That one's an LE.
- 17:13Hold on. Go ahead.
- 17:15See this is this is when AI overviews are wrong.
- 17:19It is logo fractor edition. OK, so I I I'm I'm leaning not
- 17:30because of the 10, but I didn't I don't know what logo fractor
- 17:35is. I don't know what that's just
- 17:36like a special brand is that. Do you see in the background?
- 17:39It's got like an MLB logo. Right, but I didn't know that
- 17:42was a separate brand and then tops Chrome.
- 17:45It's not a separate brand, it's an insert.
- 17:47But it says it's 2025 Tops Chrome Logo Fractor edition
- 17:51which is a separate brand. And if I look at my Google
- 17:54search right here it is Tops Chrome Baseball Logo Fractor
- 17:59edition which is a separate brand.
- 18:03OK, so which card? Go ahead.
- 18:07I don't, I guess it kind of looks the same, but like I don't
- 18:11like Sapphire I I like standard tops Chrome, but I still like
- 18:18that one better. The card looks better to me than
- 18:22the weird lava. I don't know, Aqua Lava.
- 18:27It's silly. What do you think the price
- 18:30difference is between the two? Between the nine and the 10.
- 18:35Yeah, the 9 out of 150 LE and the 10 out of 199.
- 18:43I think I'm going to guess that the 9 logo fractor blue
- 18:48refractor is about $150.00 and the Aqua Lava PSA 10 is probably
- 18:57$300. OK, let's take a look. 78 for
- 19:04the blue refractor PSA 9 and 390 for the Aqua Lava.
- 19:10Wow. $390.00 that is for mathematicians out there. 5X5
- 19:21XI, think it's exactly 5X55X the 9 when the 9:00 seems to be a
- 19:31better looking card. It's numbered out of fewer so
- 19:34there's fewer of them and but it's 5X because of the 10.
- 19:41Now when you really inspect the cards, now that you know that
- 19:45it's a nine, I guess the top to bottom centering on the left is
- 19:49maybe like, I don't know, 6535 or something, which is probably
- 19:53the reason I got the 9. The centering on the right card
- 19:56is a little bit better, but 5X. For a more plentiful card, not a
- 20:03color match card, a less attractive card because of the
- 20:08number going to a 10. Now, I this is not earth
- 20:14shattering news. This is this is not anything
- 20:18that anybody hasn't already said before, but I was I was watching
- 20:22both these cards. In fact, I think I threw a bid
- 20:24on both of them and I didn't get either one of them but I they
- 20:28were still in my watches so I was like I wonder what they
- 20:30ended up selling for. I was blown away that it was 5X5
- 20:35X for a more plentiful card that's not as good a looking.
- 20:40That's insane, isn't it? So if P if PSA says it's a 10
- 20:44instead of a nine, it's 5X. But then if you listen to, you
- 20:50know, some of these guys that are, you know, running PSA,
- 20:54they'll say, well, you know, it's an opinion.
- 20:56Sometimes it's a nine, sometimes it's a 10.
- 20:59Just depends. So raw they go for about $50 on
- 21:05the logo. Fractor.
- 21:08That's raw. And then whoops, Aqua.
- 21:16It's just such a dumb name. Aqua Lava Ben Rice and that one
- 21:21was numbered to 199 raw. Actually selling for more.
- 21:30I guess, and it's interesting because there are other.
- 21:34About the same. Actually, it's right around the
- 21:36same. OK, I mean, if it's selling for
- 21:4050, OK, let's just take a look at this.
- 21:42So if it's selling for 50, the Aqua Lava is selling for 50 raw
- 21:47and it's selling for almost 400 in A10.
- 21:52Why aren't we out buying all of the 50s that are centered?
- 21:56All of the ones at 50 that are centered, sending them in,
- 22:00Waiting 8 months for us to see if PSA has made us rich or not.
- 22:06Because those Cards in eight months won't be worth even close
- 22:12to what they are now. They will be way down.
- 22:14Unless. Unless Ben Rice has 60 plus home
- 22:18runs and the Yankees have won the World Series.
- 22:21Well, Ben Rice doesn't need to have sixty home runs.
- 22:23Ben Rice they what they were saying on spitballing cards is
- 22:27just imagine if Ben Rice or if if Aaron Judge gets hurt, Ben
- 22:34Rice carries the team and then they win the World Series.
- 22:38Ben Rice's cards would go freaking crazy.
- 22:42Whatever that's worth. My point is not Ben Rice, even
- 22:46though I I like Ben Rice. My point is that's the power of
- 22:50PSA. If I send an autograph in to PSA
- 22:55and they say it's legit, it could be worth thousands
- 23:00depending on who it is. If I send an autograph in and
- 23:04they say it's not legit, then it's worth nothing like nothing.
- 23:11And that's a lot of power. If if PSA says the card is
- 23:15altered, it's worth much different than if they say it's
- 23:18not altered and sharp and legit. The the amount of power that we
- 23:23have handed over is unbelievable.
- 23:26And then when they start intermingling with these other
- 23:30companies, it's really interesting and it's it's
- 23:35concerning. And again, I'm not a, I'm not
- 23:39suggesting this is a new topic by any means, but occasionally
- 23:43what will happen is in a 234 day span, you just get slapped
- 23:47across the face four times with how much power they actually
- 23:53have. You know, Tony's got some cards
- 23:56that are, I mean, he said it 6 figure cards that are
- 24:00autographed cards. And because PSA said they're
- 24:04legit, they're worth that. And if they said they weren't
- 24:07legit, even if they were legit, if they say they're not legit,
- 24:11they're worth nothing. Yeah, I have this fear.
- 24:15So five years ago that my very first video on this on my
- 24:18channel was my 1956 top Sandy Koufax that I discovered was
- 24:23autographed. Very weird situation.
- 24:26It was it kick started my channel.
- 24:28I sent it off to PSAI, got it got it authenticated and it's
- 24:31slabbed but it's not dual grade. It's all it says is trading card
- 24:35and it bothers me. I hate that it's, I think it's
- 24:38my only trading card autograph in my collection.
- 24:42I want to get it dual graded but I have this fear that if I take
- 24:48it to PSA they're going to say oh we made a mistake first time.
- 24:51This actually is not authentic. And if I understand correctly
- 24:57their PSA guarantee because I'm the one who got it graded, I am
- 25:01not protected by the PSA guarantee.
- 25:04It's one of the dumbest. It's worse than that though,
- 25:07because the PSA guarantee doesn't cover autographs.
- 25:10That's right, yes, I forgot about that.
- 25:13But what you could do is if it did cover autographs, you could
- 25:17have me submit it for you for dual grading because I'm not the
- 25:21original submitter. Yeah, if I was you, this is what
- 25:25I would do. If you're not asking for advice,
- 25:27but I'll share this. I would bring it to the National
- 25:30and I would get it brought in for dual authentication grading
- 25:35at the National. That way you can get it right
- 25:37back there on the spot. And then they would have to look
- 25:40you in the eye as they handed it back.
- 25:41But they're not going to switch it.
- 25:43They're not. They're not even going to look
- 25:44at that if the autograph is authentic again, they're just
- 25:48going to do the other part of the grading.
- 25:49They're not that. It's already been to that guy.
- 25:53I don't think that'll happen. Mike is making a face.
- 25:57He doesn't agree. Well, I'm, I'm thinking I'm it's
- 26:00not that I don't agree. No, I, I I have a hard time
- 26:04believing that they wouldn't authenticate the autograph
- 26:06again. Right, we agree.
- 26:13I I do think they would authenticate the autograph.
- 26:16I do too. Oh, oh, oh, you think it would
- 26:18go through the whole process again?
- 26:20I do. Really.
- 26:22Yeah. That's interesting, I would be
- 26:25curious to know if somebody out there knows if a card is
- 26:30resubmitted. Like if a card is re holdered do
- 26:33they check the grade to make sure the grade held up or do
- 26:37they just put it in a new holder?
- 26:39I thought they just put it in a new holder.
- 26:41Well, sometimes they do, and I believe RE Holder says that
- 26:46that's all they do. But there have been a lot of
- 26:48instances that people have cited where somebody sent a card off
- 26:53to get reholdered and PSA said, we can't reholder this without
- 26:58grading it. And the grade is going to drop.
- 27:01And the person says then then send it back to me as it is.
- 27:03And they say no, we can't send it back to you as as is because
- 27:06the grade is wrong. My understanding is they only do
- 27:11that when the slab is damaged, which may have damaged the card.
- 27:17That's what I thought. I don't know that to be true,
- 27:20but that that's my understanding.
- 27:26I I did you see? OK, I know I know your butt.
- 27:33Jeff Wilson, he did a video recently and he was going
- 27:38through a show and he was looking for cards where only the
- 27:43autograph was authenticated and wasn't dual graded and and he
- 27:49bought a 52 tops Willie Mays that he's like, that's a nice
- 27:54looking card, but it just says the card is authentic.
- 27:56It doesn't have a grade. And the autograph, I think the
- 28:01autograph had a grade or it was at least authenticated and he
- 28:04was looking up what that 52 Mays sells for when it is dual graded
- 28:10and he bought it, he sent it in to be dual graded.
- 28:14It got dual graded pretty good and it added like an insane
- 28:19amount of value, which again, it's the same card and it wasn't
- 28:24APSA piece of plastic. But now they're just giving
- 28:27their opinion on the cards grade too.
- 28:29Did you see that video or did you see that clip?
- 28:31I did. I watched that video and there
- 28:34is, you know, I'm, I'm loath to say something nice about Jeff,
- 28:39but it's smart If you're looking to make a quick profit.
- 28:43That is smart. Now I'm on on.
- 28:45I'm on the other end of the spectrum where I'm currently
- 28:48bidding on a, an auction, which I'm not gonna say what it is
- 28:50because I don't want anybody else to discover this card
- 28:53either. For an autographed card in APSA
- 28:58slab where it's not dual graded. It just it's a trading card
- 29:05slab, but it's a rare enough 1. I don't want a trading card
- 29:09label in my collection. I've already got 1 I don't want
- 29:12anymore, but I would make an exception for this one because
- 29:15it's a rare enough autograph that I, I looked at and I said I
- 29:20have to have that. And I'm hoping that because it
- 29:23says trading card and not, you know, the actual card and set
- 29:28that I'm going to get it for a reasonable amount of money
- 29:30because this, these autographs are not cheap.
- 29:36Now, Gai, so GIGAI was a grading company that somebody out there
- 29:45can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is Mike Baker
- 29:48was the head grader at PSA. He left PSA and started his own
- 29:52grading company, Gai. There ended up being some
- 29:55scandals in there about and you, you would know this more than
- 29:59me, but so I'm kind of speaking out of, you know, whatever.
- 30:03But I he, there were some scandals about some things that
- 30:06happened at GAIGAI eventually folded and there was some stuff
- 30:11that went down, legal stuff that went down.
- 30:14And now Gai slab cards. Everybody kind of looks at them
- 30:20side eyed like, well, it's in a Gai holder though.
- 30:23Like certainly there are some cards in Gai holders that are
- 30:28legit and some that aren't legit per the scandal.
- 30:33I would think your thoughts on that with also the thing that I
- 30:39have going on in my mind is we've put, and this is the whole
- 30:42point of the question, we've put so much faith in PSA.
- 30:48Is it impossible that some scandal comes out about PSA,
- 30:53like came out about Gai, that would call into question PSA
- 30:59slabs? And if we've all put all of our
- 31:02faith just blindly behind PSA says it's good, it's good.
- 31:06They say it's not trimmed, it's not trimmed that someday is it?
- 31:11Is it impossible that people look at the current PSA slabs
- 31:15the way they look at Gai slabs? I'm going to say something that
- 31:21is going to sound slightly political, but I'm going to
- 31:25thread the needle here, ignore. I'm not gonna mention any past
- 31:32presidents. I mean, in the past decades and
- 31:34decades ago, in the 19 in the 1900s, little things could
- 31:39destroy a president or a presidential candidate's career,
- 31:42right? Tiny things spelling potato
- 31:46wrong could destroy a presidential candidate's career.
- 31:50Or was he a presidential? Candidate Vice President Quayle
- 31:54was the vice president. Or yelling, yeah, Howard Dean
- 32:01career was over because he yelled weird.
- 32:04Nowadays, it doesn't matter what a president does.
- 32:08As long as the economy is strong, we ignore everything
- 32:13else that happens, right? This has been happening for a
- 32:16long time now, 20 years at least.
- 32:19And I think that as long as PSA slabs stay strong on the market,
- 32:25people will ignore any scandals that happened with PSAPSA
- 32:30partnered with Backyard Breaks after Backyard had that scandal
- 32:34last year, like two months after it was really, really bad.
- 32:40And people continue to use them because they can make a lot of
- 32:44money from buying cards, grading them with PSA, and then selling
- 32:49them. And I think that people will
- 32:51ignore anything that happens with PSA as long as the PSA
- 32:56economy stays strong. I I think you did a really nice
- 33:01analogy there and I think that the point is well taken.
- 33:09I think that I think that's AI think it's a really interesting
- 33:14point and tell us down below in the comments.
- 33:16What do you what do you do you agree if the cards still sell
- 33:20for a lot now? And let me just say that doesn't
- 33:23mean everybody's going to ignore it.
- 33:24You're gonna have, you're gonna have it's it'll become more
- 33:27polarized than it is right now. You'll have a lot of people
- 33:29saying, I can't believe you're supporting them.
- 33:31I can't believe you're supporting.
- 33:32Look at all these scandals and not all these other people are
- 33:35gonna say, who cares? Look at how much money I'm
- 33:37making. Yeah, yeah.
- 33:40The per the comparison to politics, both sides, both
- 33:46sides. Now, let me ask you a follow up
- 33:49question of that at which kind of relates to a video that I did
- 33:53recently. And then Chris from Missouri did
- 33:55a little bit of a response video to it actually posted today.
- 33:58I don't know if you saw that, but it was talking about
- 34:01character and it was talking about the character of the
- 34:04people pictured on the cards themselves.
- 34:07And how much should that matter or does that matter?
- 34:12And it's obviously going to be different for each person.
- 34:16When when PSA did that partnership with Backyard
- 34:20Breaks, a lot of people said I'm done with PSA.
- 34:25When PSA. Yeah, I know.
- 34:27And and when PSA did some other things, people said that's,
- 34:31that's the one, that's the line in the sand for me.
- 34:34Fine, I don't, I don't have any problem with people deciding
- 34:37that. And like you said, other people
- 34:38said it's one thing. Now PSA didn't continue that
- 34:43partnership with backyard brakes as far as I know.
- 34:47And so at what point do people overlook that one incident or
- 34:55couple of incidents versus ongoing incidents?
- 35:00And, and, and this is something I did want to pick your brain
- 35:03about too, is when it comes to character of players, are are
- 35:07there certain people who have character flaws where you won't
- 35:12own their cards? Like how much does the character
- 35:15of the player or the person play into how you collect and who you
- 35:21collect? It doesn't.
- 35:24It doesn't at all. I mean, if it fits in what I
- 35:26want to do with my collection, I will buy any card.
- 35:29I bought an OJ Simpson rookie card 'cause it fit in what I
- 35:32want to do with my collection. I had somebody unsubscribe to my
- 35:35channel because I had bought an OJ Simpson rookie card 2 two or
- 35:39three years ago. I get it.
- 35:42I totally understand that perspective.
- 35:44But I wanted the card. I he's a all time rookie.
- 35:51It was a he's a rookie card, all time player, most iconic
- 35:56athlete. You know, you think about who OJ
- 36:00Simpson was before the murders. He was massive.
- 36:05And that's what I like in my collection.
- 36:09Now, do I want the Menendez brothers card?
- 36:13That doesn't matter to me. You know, that doesn't.
- 36:17I think I actually have a couple of them from my childhood.
- 36:20When I was digging out my childhood collection, I had a
- 36:22couple that was before we knew who they were.
- 36:26But I also I hate Mark Jackson and it's a Mark Jackson card so
- 36:29I have no interest in having that card.
- 36:31Well, you're a Celtics fan is part of it, and Mark Jackson is
- 36:35an interesting character for sure.
- 36:37I mean, especially as a commentator, as a coach, as a
- 36:40player, he's got multi layers to his.
- 36:44He's awful. You have spoken clearly in your
- 36:48opinion. Yeah, I, I, I hear what you're
- 36:51saying. So, so there's a thing like PSA
- 36:57and backyard breaks. You said I'm done with them.
- 37:00Do you, does that ever wear off? Do you ever say, OK, they did
- 37:05their time and now I'll eventually come back?
- 37:08Or are there some unforgivable things where you just it's it's
- 37:14permanently off the list? This is a great question.
- 37:16Something I've been thinking about because when when that
- 37:18happened, it was last April, I'm 99% sure I said I'm done with
- 37:24PSA, I'll reconsider them in a year and we just hit that year
- 37:28mark. Am I reconsidering them?
- 37:30No, I'm using CGC. But before you said I should
- 37:34bring my my Sandy Koufax autograph to PSA at the
- 37:38National, I had already thought of doing that and I thought, do
- 37:41I want to give them my money? And I'm probably not going to do
- 37:44it, but that's only because I don't have any need to sell the
- 37:47card. So I don't know, I'm, I'm
- 37:52undecided on it, but I have been thinking I'm not going to be
- 37:54grading like randomly with PSA like I used to.
- 37:58I used to enjoy sending cards off and you know, I'd send them
- 38:0120 cards and I'd grade all 20 of them and I would sell a handful
- 38:05to make, make them pay, pay for the submission.
- 38:09I'm not going to be doing that. I enjoy CGC but I can I can move
- 38:17past my grudge. Yeah.
- 38:22Because because they they never did anything else with backyard
- 38:26breaks. But I, I would have preferred a
- 38:28statement saying, hey, we had this agreement and we had no
- 38:31legal ability to move on from this agreement.
- 38:35It was pre scheduled before the scandal.
- 38:37I believe that's what happened. But they never said anything.
- 38:42Just a quick. No, no, no.
- 38:44I, I love hearing what you're saying.
- 38:46My quick update on my grading status situation.
- 38:52I wasn't going to grade for a while.
- 38:54I, I've felt like the last couple of times with SGC, it's
- 38:57taken so long. I've been so frustrated.
- 38:59It was literally 50 days and I'm like, you're grading less than
- 39:03you've ever graded. I kind of went off at the end of
- 39:06the episode the other day with David Chase about SGC.
- 39:10If you haven't heard it yet, I, I get a little bit I get a
- 39:13little bit heated about it and then here I am.
- 39:16I, I send off 3 cards to SGC and I, I want to explain that first
- 39:24I'm big on one touches. Now I've gone, I, I literally to
- 39:29the penny sleever, to the penny sleever I sent, I bought 101
- 39:36touches from the penny sleever 'cause there were a bunch of
- 39:38cards I've had going. I think I'm going to grade them
- 39:41and they look great. That's the color frame one.
- 39:44In fact, yeah, Isaac sent me 3 or 4 of the color framed ones
- 39:50just for free. He sent me a coffee mug and
- 39:52stuff. Isaac.
- 39:52Send me. Oh well, I can put in a good
- 39:56word for you. He did something Coffee.
- 39:57Mug though, which I use everyday.
- 40:00Yeah. And so I, I bought 100 'cause
- 40:04I'm like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna start one touching
- 40:06stuff. I mean, I have some pretty cool
- 40:08cards that I have in one touches right now.
- 40:11And I just bought, I have a big BCW box sitting right next to me
- 40:16'cause I bought some new 3 rows to put all the one touches in.
- 40:20And like I'm I'm fired up about I I was having fun the other
- 40:24day. You're holding up your what are
- 40:27they called Z Folio but a penny sleever 1.
- 40:30Yeah, new binder from the from the Penny Sleever just got in
- 40:33the mail today. And and I think that that's
- 40:37great and I think that there is going to be, there is starting
- 40:41to be a little bit of a movement in that direction.
- 40:43But then some of the cards are odd sized.
- 40:49They're 1920s golf cards that aren't standard tobacco where I
- 40:55could buy the penny sleever tobacco sized one touch.
- 40:59And they're like odd sized cards.
- 41:02And I'm like, I want these cards slapped.
- 41:06So I sent them to SGCA week ago. I know more.
- 41:11A week and a half ago, I sent them, they arrived at SGCA week
- 41:16ago and I hadn't been given a notification that they had even
- 41:21arrived and they had received them.
- 41:22And I was literally, I was starting to worry because
- 41:24they're like, they're not super common carts.
- 41:27Like they're fairly abstract cards that don't, you know, just
- 41:32fall out of dollar boxes. And so I was like, I don't think
- 41:36I have my receipt. I didn't think I needed my
- 41:38receipt from the post office to track it.
- 41:41I ended up finding the receipt. I looked it up and they got
- 41:46there a week ago and they haven't even they were picked up
- 41:49from the post office said picked up in person a week ago and they
- 41:53hadn't even notified me that they have them.
- 41:56I mean, I'm sitting here stressing for a couple of days.
- 42:00Are are my cards gone? Are they lost?
- 42:02These are rare cards. I love these cards.
- 42:04I just want them in a slab and and they don't even notify me
- 42:08like put a barcode on the side like PSA does.
- 42:11You can just scan it and then it goes into the system that they
- 42:13have it. Like what are we doing?
- 42:16Yeah, but even PSA doesn't scan it until they've until a little
- 42:21bit later, right? Isn't that?
- 42:22Doesn't PSA have the same delay in their process where they have
- 42:27it in their possession but they don't tell you they have it
- 42:30until they consider it received, which is when they have opened
- 42:34the package or something like that?
- 42:36Maybe I just know that I've, I've taped a barcode on the
- 42:40outside that they scan when they get it and it's always felt like
- 42:44for me when I've sent stuff to PSA, it's been a couple years,
- 42:47but I was notified fairly quickly that they at least had
- 42:51it. I have one last question and
- 42:53then we'll wrap this one up. We've covered a lot of bases in
- 42:57this one. I, I don't even know how we got
- 42:58there, but here we are. My last question is this
- 43:04GameStop buying eBay and the, what's his name Cohen or
- 43:11something? The guy who?
- 43:12Ryan Cohen, yeah. Ryan Cohen, who is the CEO of
- 43:17GameStop, did an interview on like CNBC or something.
- 43:23And have you watched that interview?
- 43:26I have. It's appalling.
- 43:28And, and let me ask you my final question.
- 43:31I want to hear your thoughts and I'll share mine.
- 43:33Do you think that GameStop is going to be buying eBay?
- 43:39No, and I don't think GameStop intends to buy eBay.
- 43:43I think it's it's a publicity stunt to some extent, but
- 43:48there's also like he talked in that interview about how they
- 43:53own 5% of eBay already. GameStop does.
- 43:56I don't know if that's true or whatever.
- 43:59Maybe I misunderstood it. But if they own 5% and they can
- 44:03create all this publicity and excitement around eBay and eBay
- 44:06stock goes up and then they sell eBay stock, they've juiced the
- 44:10stock price and they sell, make make a huge profit, could that
- 44:13not be part of what they're trying to do?
- 44:16And a lot of CE OS are paid large bonuses and incentives
- 44:22based on valuations, revenue, stock prices.
- 44:29So could that be part of it? Maybe.
- 44:32But that interview was bananas. It was it.
- 44:37It was like, I, I, I mean, it was like, it was like talking to
- 44:43like a APOW or something who just wouldn't speak.
- 44:47It was just like, no, I've been instructed not to say anything.
- 44:51So I'm just going to keep saying the same thing over.
- 44:53It was insane. I'm like, this guy runs a, this
- 44:56guy's run several companies. He's kind of a well known guy.
- 44:59He turned Chewy around into a multi billion dollar, wildly
- 45:03successful company. Chewy.
- 45:06Yeah, there there was also a report that like if he turns
- 45:11GameStop into $100 billion company, he gets a $35 billion
- 45:16pay package. And so I don't know how that
- 45:20plays in here. But there's also rumors that
- 45:22he's trying to maybe get on ebay's board of directors.
- 45:27And he did a stunt the other day where he was just selling a
- 45:29bunch of junk on eBay and he said it was so he could afford
- 45:33eBay and then eBay banned. He said eBay banned his seller
- 45:38profile on eBay. But then like Ben Burrows went
- 45:42to his seller profile and was working just fine.
- 45:45So I don't know, there's a lot of stuff going on with him and
- 45:47eBay and GameStop and I'm not smart enough to figure it out.
- 45:52I think my opinion on the whole topic is virtually verbatim what
- 45:59your opinion is that you just described, so I won't just say
- 46:02what you just said, but I completely agree with you.
- 46:07I completely agree with you that I think that it is a major shout
- 46:12to try to be noticed. Hey, look at me.
- 46:15Hey, look at us. Maybe it will help us become
- 46:19more, I don't know, noticeable or noticed at all.
- 46:24I don't know. All right, any final thoughts,
- 46:28any shout outs, anything other than that This week in baseball
- 46:34cards? This week in baseball cards came
- 46:36out a couple of days ago. And this Tuesday is our new home
- 46:41day and Saturday's is going to be the midlife card chase.
- 46:45And this week in sports cards. Sorry, I said baseball cards,
- 46:48sports cards, anything else? That's it.
- 46:52Oh, yeah. No, that's it.
- 46:54We're good. No.
- 46:55No, no. What is it?
- 46:56You gotta leave us hanging like that.
- 46:57No, I'm, I'm done. Thank you.
- 47:00All right.