Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A- December 31, 2025
Transcript
- 0:10What's going on everybody? Alright, the last day of 2025 is
- 0:16upon us. I wanna take a moment to again
- 0:19thank everybody. This channel revolves around
- 0:23your participation. If you do not respond to my
- 0:28questions to you on Mondays, if you do not ask me questions for
- 0:32Wednesdays, if you do not submit card pickups for the Midlife
- 0:38Community Show and Tell, this is a completely different channel.
- 0:42This channel is a little bit different than others where it
- 0:46does depend on all of you. So everybody out there who
- 0:51during the year has left a comment, has submitted a
- 0:54question, has submitted a pickup, whatever it is that you
- 0:59did, I appreciate you. Genuinely, I appreciate you.
- 1:03It was so much fun meeting many of you at Strongsville and at
- 1:07the national and at local card shows.
- 1:10People that have reached out to me, it means a lot and it is
- 1:15vital for this channel to continue on.
- 1:18So with that said, remember, if you have a question for an
- 1:23upcoming episode, ask it down below.
- 1:27By asking it down below, it allows this Wednesday Q&A to
- 1:31continue to live on. There are going to be weeks that
- 1:35people will ask questions that maybe you're not interested in.
- 1:38Maybe it's a topic that you don't like.
- 1:40Maybe it's a topic that has hobby drama or some of the
- 1:44recent chaos and how to navigate through the minefield ahead of
- 1:48us. That doesn't mean you have to
- 1:51listen to every single question. Pick the questions that you
- 1:55like, focus on those, listen to those parts.
- 1:58But I feel it as an obligation and I feel as an honor to be
- 2:04able to answer each and every question.
- 2:07If you've asked a question and it's not yet been answered, I do
- 2:11have an ongoing list. Trust me, I will get to the
- 2:15questions as as it seems fit depending on what's happening in
- 2:21the dynamics of the card community.
- 2:24So with that said, thank you again.
- 2:27Have a safe night tonight out there on New Year's Eve.
- 2:31It can be a little bit sketch to say the least.
- 2:35And let's take a look at our first question here.
- 2:40This one says here's a future question for a show.
- 2:43Let's say you've been appointed to be.
- 2:45The CEO of Collector's. Universe with the major task of
- 2:48figuring out how all three brands can coexist and how to
- 2:53make sure each branded slab cards moving forward have equal
- 2:57value to each other. How would you handle this merger
- 3:01and the inner workings? This is a great question and
- 3:07this is a great situation because now that I'm CEO of PSAI
- 3:11am Rich, which is fantastic, which is a far cry from my
- 3:17current situation. I think that, you know,
- 3:20collectors, collectors, universe collectors, holdings, whatever
- 3:24you want to call them. You know, they've got 3 grading
- 3:28companies now. They've got PSA, they've got SGC
- 3:31and they've got Beckett. And when you look at those three
- 3:35options, to me, they they should not continue to live.
- 3:42Again, you're asking me as CEO, what would I do?
- 3:45I believe that each of those companies bring something unique
- 3:50to the table. What PSA has long been known for
- 3:54is sort of like the umbrella grader.
- 3:57They are known for grading vintage, they are known for
- 4:00grading modern. They are known for grading
- 4:02everything in between. I would kind of leave them as
- 4:07is. I would have them continue to do
- 4:09what they're doing. If you want the umbrella option
- 4:13go with PSA. If you are SGC is something that
- 4:18you like. I would continue to leave the
- 4:21black insert the the the tuxedo look.
- 4:24And what I would do with SGC is I would make them vintage only.
- 4:28I would make them prior to 1980. Anything from pre war to the
- 4:34beginning of cards all the way to 1980 is all that they grade.
- 4:38Let them specialize there and take the PSA graders that they
- 4:42stole. Take the because when, when,
- 4:45when PSA took SGC graders, which they admit that they took SGC
- 4:51graders, they admit that one of the reasons.
- 4:53Well, we'll get into that in a minute.
- 4:55But when SGC was purchased by PSA shortly thereafter, they
- 5:00went to the employees and they said, do you want to continue at
- 5:04SGC or do you want to grade under the PSA brand and be APSA
- 5:08employee? How do I know that?
- 5:10Because that's what all of the employees told us that at the
- 5:13National, all the people working there said, yeah, they came and
- 5:16they asked us, you know, we had a choice on, on what we want to
- 5:19do, stay with SGC brand or go over to PSA brand And, and
- 5:23obviously a lot of them went over to the PSA brand.
- 5:26How do I know that? Because it went from a 5 to 10
- 5:29day turn around to now it's like a month, month and a half.
- 5:32And so they lost graders and if, and I've seen responses from the
- 5:37customer service department and it says we have a much smaller
- 5:43number of graders, we have a similar number of submissions.
- 5:47So we're backed up. So clearly people went from the
- 5:52SGC grading shirt and took off their black and white shirt and
- 5:56put on their red shirt with the white and blue, red, white and
- 6:01blue logo on it down the hall. So what I would have, what I
- 6:07would do is I would reinstate them.
- 6:09I'd say whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not SGC versus PSA.
- 6:13It's not PSA or SGC. It's what's best for the
- 6:17company. So maybe you have some graders
- 6:20that grade under the PSA brand and sometimes they grade under
- 6:23the SGC brand, but I would not pillage and take and steal all
- 6:29of the best SGC graders and bring them over to PSA just
- 6:33because the profit margin is higher.
- 6:35If I am in charge, what I would do is I would let SGC continue
- 6:41to do what they're doing. I would get rid of TCG grading,
- 6:44I would get rid of modern grading, and I would focus all
- 6:47of the efforts on vintage grading.
- 6:49I would also change the label. I would change the label of all
- 6:53three brands and I haven't gotten to Beckett yet, but I
- 6:55will in a second. I would change the label to say
- 7:01GC by A or SGC by collectors and PSA by collectors and BGS by
- 7:08collectors. And what that would do is it
- 7:10would bring some uniformity. I would make all of the flips
- 7:14the same, the difference being what the label has as the
- 7:18grader. So instead of the PSA
- 7:20lighthouse, you have APSA lighthouse, you have an SGC
- 7:24lighthouse, you have a BGS lighthouse.
- 7:26I would create uniformity in the flips and they would all have
- 7:31the collector's universe stamp on them.
- 7:34They would have the individual brand.
- 7:37I would have collectors come out and say with the flip, with the
- 7:44uniformity. They are part of us right now,
- 7:48it feels like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, their boutique over
- 7:51there. But what what we really want you
- 7:54to do is send stuff into PSA because that's where we're
- 7:58putting all of our resources. That doesn't show that you care
- 8:01about the label. It doesn't show that you care
- 8:05about SGC. When you steal all the graders
- 8:08and you slow down the turn around times.
- 8:11That's not that's what that is doing is it's saying this is
- 8:15inferior. This is our value brand.
- 8:18It's not our premium brand. And that's what they want.
- 8:22But you're not asking me what the current people want.
- 8:25You're asking me what I would do.
- 8:26So SGC would be vintage only. It would be prior to 1980 only.
- 8:32It would be no TCG. It would be sports cards and non
- 8:35sports cards only. And I would make sure that I
- 8:39have some graders that could flex between PSA and SGC down at
- 8:45the Florida Boca Raton offices where what they could do is when
- 8:49SGC is slowed down, you flex them over there and you see.
- 8:52But the grading standards are different.
- 8:54I understand that, but the rubrics are going to be
- 8:57different, the grading sheets are going to be different.
- 9:00If you took these people from SGC graders and you turned them
- 9:03into PSA graders, there was an adjustment.
- 9:06So I'm just saying utilize them in both capacities.
- 9:10My humble opinion. The third thing I would do it
- 9:14obviously with BGS. To me, some people want, they
- 9:20want the sub grades. Some people.
- 9:23To me, Beckett is a company that has done OK with TCG, but
- 9:30they've always kind of done the best with ATCH cards and the
- 9:35thicker cards because they have the thicker slab and people like
- 9:40some people want the sub grades. So what I would, what I would do
- 9:44is it would be, you know, again, you have the flip which matches
- 9:48the other ones. The difference being what the
- 9:51lighthouse is. It'd be a lighthouse with BGS.
- 9:54It would be BGS by collectors. It would be a focus.
- 9:59I would steer people towards patch cards and thicker cards,
- 10:03RPA type things, flawless cards, Immaculate cards.
- 10:08The ones that are a little bit thicker and I would, I would
- 10:11phase out some of the extra options with Beckett.
- 10:14I would get them to sort of focus on some of that stuff.
- 10:19Not a lot of people at this point are grading vintage with
- 10:22Beckett. I would probably have Beckett
- 10:24BGS grading at this point. And this is the part that some
- 10:28people that are Beckett fans won't like.
- 10:31I would probably say Beckett is going to be 1980 and after,
- 10:35maybe even 1990 and after. And it's for the people who want
- 10:41sub grades and they have a grading authentication.
- 10:45I would keep that in intact. I would allow them to continue
- 10:48to be grading off the autograph authenticators.
- 10:53But the flip would be uniform. The difference being the
- 10:58lighthouse. It would be Beckett by
- 11:01collectors and it would be much more uniform and and I would
- 11:07show that I actually care by redoing the registry and
- 11:11including all of them. If you have cards in the, you
- 11:16could have APSA only registry, an SGC only registry, a BGS only
- 11:20registry and a combined registry.
- 11:22And you say, man, that that'd be a lot of work.
- 11:25Oh, trust me, they have more than enough resources with the
- 11:30amount of cards that degrading the amount of money they're
- 11:32bringing in. They could absolutely make that
- 11:35happen. I have enough database design
- 11:39knowledge to be dangerous. But when you have states that
- 11:43are taking, you know, 8 different databases and merging
- 11:47them all into one database, they could 100% make this happen.
- 11:52So that's what I would do. Will they do it?
- 11:55No they won't. Why not?
- 11:58Because they want PSA to be the premium brand.
- 12:01They want PSA to be the the brand that they're in their
- 12:06eyes, the premium brand, not my eyes, In their eyes, they want
- 12:09that to be the premium brand. They're going to charge more.
- 12:12They're going to offer things through PSA that you can't get
- 12:15through the others because then they can up charge you over
- 12:18there. Then they can, you know, charge
- 12:21more for the grading there. They don't.
- 12:24They don't want a combination, they want a boutique for BGS.
- 12:29If you really want subgrades, I guess you can send it down
- 12:33there. If you really want the black
- 12:36tuxedo look, I guess you could send it down there.
- 12:39They're going to streamline those and strip them down.
- 12:42They're going to cut back the staffing and they're going to
- 12:44put as many resources towards PSA as they can.
- 12:48That's what I believe they're going to do.
- 12:50That's not what I would do because at a certain point, I
- 12:56know it's all about the profit. Trust me, I know.
- 12:58I know that it's all about the bottom line.
- 13:01I understand it's all about them preparing to go public.
- 13:05I fully get all of that. But at some point, you cannot
- 13:11just completely turn your backs on all the people who are STC
- 13:18fans and all the people who are Beckett fans by just absolutely
- 13:22stripping those companies as soon as you buy them and putting
- 13:25all the resources into PSA. You can't do that and expect to
- 13:30carry goodwill. You have to at least pretend
- 13:34like you care about the hobby and you care about those
- 13:38collectors and you don't only care about the PSA label.
- 13:42But that's not what's going to happen.
- 13:43So I'm not predicting that's what's going to happen.
- 13:47You asked what I would do. What I would do is change the
- 13:51flips, stop stripping the resources, allow all three to
- 13:56coexist, but set some parameters on what they grade, which would
- 14:00allow more, you know, streamlining, which would create
- 14:04more efficiencies but would allow collectors to feel like
- 14:11it's a brand that they hadn't turned their backs on.
- 14:16This one says Awesome video as always.
- 14:19My hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and now we
- 14:23gear up for 2026. Question, is there a point and
- 14:27if so at what point do you not buy a card online but rather in
- 14:33person? Is there a price threshold?
- 14:36Take your T2 O 6 Walter Johnson hands at.
- 14:39Chess for example. Besides friends like Ash, CIA
- 14:44and other notable auction houses, is there a cut off for
- 14:47eBay in your mind in regards to price?
- 14:52Is there a lack of trust that coincides with a certain dollar
- 14:56amount in your opinion? We never know when or where
- 14:59we're going to come across the one.
- 15:02I don't know if I'm asking this question right, but thank you,
- 15:06Greg. Happy New Year.
- 15:09All right, this is a great question and it's a question
- 15:13that is super timely for me. There's a, there are a couple of
- 15:19cards that I have tried to create a savings account where a
- 15:25portion of whenever I sell something, a portion of my
- 15:28monthly budget, I have been piling into this secondary
- 15:33account and it's sort of my gold card, my grail card account.
- 15:37That's an idea that my buddy Darren returned to collecting
- 15:40suggested a couple of years ago. And I'm finally trying to start
- 15:43taking that seriously. What I did the last couple of
- 15:46years is that became my Strongsville budget and that
- 15:49became my national card budget, card show budget, and then I
- 15:55just emptied the account and brought that with me to those
- 15:58shows. What I'm trying to do, trying
- 16:02being the keyword, is I'm trying to actually set a massive card
- 16:06budget because there are two or three cards that I would really
- 16:09like to acquire that quite frankly, I'm not sure I'll ever
- 16:13be able to afford because I keep getting sidetracked in my goals
- 16:20to accomplish big purchases. And there was a car that popped
- 16:26up the other day. It was a 5 figure card and I
- 16:31don't have 5 figures in my card account.
- 16:34I don't have 5 figures in my gold card account.
- 16:37It would have been a card where what I needed to do was borrow
- 16:41against my future card money and purchase a card and then have to
- 16:46sell a bunch of stuff to pay myself back.
- 16:49That's what I would have had to do.
- 16:51And I showed it to a few friends and they're like, dude, that's
- 16:55amazing card. You got to get it.
- 16:58And I showed it to another friend.
- 16:59He said that card is sweet. You won't regret it.
- 17:03And then I sent it to my dad. And my dad, being Mr. Practical,
- 17:08said that's a lot of money to spend on a card that you haven't
- 17:13even held in your own hands. And I was like, that's a good
- 17:18point. That's a really good point.
- 17:22I haven't even seen it. I haven't even held it.
- 17:26I haven't been able to inspect it other than from pictures.
- 17:32And at that moment I was like, I can't do it.
- 17:38I can't pull this card off because I need to be able to
- 17:44look it over. This is too much money.
- 17:47So then I started thinking about my COB, which is the biggest
- 17:51card in my collection, which I bought at the National, paid
- 17:54$5000 for it. And when I bought that cob, I
- 18:00thought I, I, I was thinking back to it when I bought that,
- 18:04would I have bought that card if I wasn't in person with it at
- 18:10the National? And I don't know if I would
- 18:15have. And then I started thinking
- 18:17about, well, what are some of my other big cards, like my Walter
- 18:20Johnson hands at chest, which is over a $2000 card.
- 18:25Would I have been able to buy that if I didn't see that in
- 18:29person at the National? And I started realizing of all
- 18:32my biggest cards, my Cobb T2O6, my T2O6 Cy Young, my T2 O 6
- 18:40Walter Johnson cards, my Ernie Banks rookie card, almost all of
- 18:48those were in person purchases. And I started thinking, well,
- 18:53what's the biggest purchase I've made that wasn't in person?
- 19:01And it's about $1000. And so I don't know the answer.
- 19:08I'm, I'm, I want to give advice, but I want to give advice that I
- 19:11follow myself. It's about maybe 2000 bucks for
- 19:19me and my budget now for some people, $2000 is different than
- 19:22$2000 is for me. But I just bought a card a
- 19:30couple of days ago that I'm gonna do an entire video about
- 19:34one card. I've never done that, but it's a
- 19:38very, very special card to me. It's a very meaningful card to
- 19:42me. It's a card I've been searching
- 19:45for for two years for the right one and it was right around
- 19:53$1500. And I'm a little nervous because
- 19:58I've only seen pictures and I think it's the most expensive
- 20:02card I've ever purchased that wasn't in person.
- 20:06So I. Whenever someone asked me for
- 20:10advice, I try to say what I would do or what I have done.
- 20:13And what I have done is not spent much more than $1500 on a
- 20:19card without holding it and seeing it in person first.
- 20:25My Walter Johnson. Both of them I've seen in
- 20:28person, my already Banks rookie, my Ty Cobb, my Cy Young, most of
- 20:33my top ten, my my Sandy Koufax rookie, most of my top ten.
- 20:39I held them in person before I bought them.
- 20:43So it's a great question. Does that mean that's the right
- 20:46answer? No.
- 20:49But when you buy cards without seeing them in person, 20% of
- 20:55the time you're going to get it in hand and go, oh, I didn't see
- 21:00that. I didn't notice that.
- 21:03The picture didn't really show that, and we can't avoid that by
- 21:09only buying them in person. But I also realize that many of
- 21:12us don't have that luxury of going to shows where we can make
- 21:18that happen. So my advice would be, if you're
- 21:22stretching what you're comfortable with, send a message
- 21:27to the seller or to the auction house.
- 21:30Ask questions. Does this card have a pinhole?
- 21:33Does this card have a crease? Does this card have a stain?
- 21:38What are the things about this car that are making it the grade
- 21:42that it is so that you can try to get more information than
- 21:46just the information that the picture and the grade provides?
- 21:51It's a tough question, but for me apparently my threshold is
- 21:56about $1500 because that's the most I've ever spent without
- 22:01having it in my hands when I bought it.
- 22:06This one says being my age I wanted to grade some vintage
- 22:09cards so my wife would have a better idea of the worth.
- 22:14I hesitate because of the current state of grading
- 22:17including the shipping process. Would I be better off grading
- 22:21myself to the best of my abilities and put a number on
- 22:25them as an indicator? Example, if I have a 69 NBA,
- 22:30Wilt is between A6 and A7. Thanks in advance.
- 22:36I totally understand. I 100% understand.
- 22:41And this is one of the biggest disappointments that a lot of us
- 22:46have about not knowing the future of Beckett grading and
- 22:51STC grading is we don't know. We don't know what to do
- 22:55anymore. You know, PSA has has certainly
- 23:00takes their time getting their cards back to you.
- 23:03They up charge you if it's a big card and it feels like the
- 23:07consistency is not what the consistency should be.
- 23:13Now where does that leave us? It leaves us in a tough spot and
- 23:18you are describing the tough spot.
- 23:21Some of us just want to get them protected.
- 23:24We just want to get a, a grade that provides an, an approximate
- 23:31condition so that when somebody ends up with these cards,
- 23:38because let's face, I mean, my daughter said to me the other
- 23:41day, you know, Dad, someday these cards, you don't expect us
- 23:48to keep them, right? And I'm like, no, I don't expect
- 23:53you to keep them. Absolutely sell them, but if she
- 23:58goes down to the to the local card shop and tries to sell them
- 24:04that's not going to be good. So I have a couple of opinions
- 24:09and take it for what it's worth. First opinion is I still
- 24:18consider SGC A viable option. It's not the same option that it
- 24:24was a couple of years ago, but it does encapsulate them, it
- 24:28protects them, it gives a fairly accurate evaluation of the
- 24:34quality of the card. And it's a legacy brand that I
- 24:40believe even if they shut down tomorrow on the 1st of 2026, if
- 24:48they shut down tomorrow, I think a lot of collectors would
- 24:55continue to respect the brand and continue to respect the
- 24:59grade and continue to respect the holder because they didn't
- 25:03go out from a scandal. They went out because Pac-Man
- 25:09came and gobbled them up. That's different, you know, and
- 25:15I've talked a little bit about that before.
- 25:17So I guess my response is I would still consider sending
- 25:23cards to SGCI. Sent a submission to SGC on
- 25:28Saturday. I mailed off a submission to
- 25:32SGC. It was only like 5 or 6 cards
- 25:34but I sent. So I'm still willing to send to
- 25:37SGC and I know that I am because I just did.
- 25:42So that's an option. Here's another option, and this
- 25:46is where some of you are going to have potentially an issue
- 25:52with what I'm about to say, and that's OK.
- 25:57I have certain people that I trust.
- 26:02I have certain people in the card community having gotten to
- 26:05know a lot of people. There are a lot of people that
- 26:09I've gotten to know in the community, dealers, auction
- 26:12houses, collectors, buyers, a little bit of everything.
- 26:18And there are some people that guy is a straight up stand up
- 26:25guy and that guy maybe not so much.
- 26:30There are some people that I trust with my stuff when I'm
- 26:39gone. So I'll give you an example and
- 26:43and I'm going to preface this right now.
- 26:45First, one thing. I am sponsored by CIA Auctions
- 26:53collector, investor auctions, I am sponsored by them.
- 26:56I am good friends with my buddy Theo Clemente collector.
- 27:00One option that I believe is to leave contact information to to
- 27:08to your loved ones, to your heirs, to to contact Theo and
- 27:15Theo will take care of your stuff and your heirs.
- 27:21Theo will send cards in for grading before putting them up
- 27:27for auction if that's what's in the best interest of those
- 27:29cards. And the cards that aren't, he'll
- 27:32put in lots, he'll sell them raw.
- 27:35I believe he'll take care of your family members.
- 27:38So one thing I would consider doing is I would consider
- 27:43leaving Theo's information so that they have a point person to
- 27:48know that they're going to be taken care of and not ripped
- 27:52off. And I also believe that Theo
- 27:56would potentially give a fair evaluation because I've seen him
- 28:00do that with people and offer to just purchase the cards outright
- 28:05for CIA and he's going to offer a fair amount.
- 28:11That's one option. Another option is, and again I
- 28:16have to preface it, another sponsor of mine, a sponsor on my
- 28:22sports card Clubhouse channel who sponsors my Surface issues
- 28:26episode with my buddy Mike, Junk Wax Hero and myself is Chris
- 28:31Sewell. Chris Sewell is a really good
- 28:34guy, a really good guy. I trust Chris.
- 28:38Chris is going to come in and Chris will not try to take
- 28:43advantage of anyone. So in my humble opinion, if you
- 28:47left Chris Sewell's information and you said, hey, if I pass
- 28:52away and the cards aren't graded or they are graded, contact this
- 28:57guy. He's going to be fair.
- 29:00That would be another option. A final option I would throw out
- 29:04there is put them in contact with somebody that you trust in
- 29:10the community besides Theo, besides Chris, if you want to
- 29:15leave them my name and contact information, I could help guide
- 29:20them through the process. I could help.
- 29:23I, I mean, I'm offering to you if, if somebody is out there and
- 29:29goes, I don't know what to do when my cards, you know, when,
- 29:32when I go to make sure that the, the local card shop doesn't take
- 29:37advantage of my wife or my children.
- 29:41You can put them in contact with me and I can help guide them
- 29:44through the process. The point I'm trying to get at
- 29:48is putting them in contact with somebody that you trust.
- 29:53If you want a dealer who you trust, who I trust, at least I
- 30:00trust Chris Sewell. If you want the cards to go up
- 30:03for auction, I trust Theo and I trust the people at CIA
- 30:08auctions. I do, otherwise I would not be
- 30:11in partnership with them. See, I don't just go.
- 30:15I've had more companies offer me money than I have agreed to
- 30:21participate with because I didn't get the right feeling.
- 30:25But I trust Ciai trust Theo, I trust Chris Sewell.
- 30:29But if you want an independent person who is just going to help
- 30:34guide them through and navigate through and not get taken
- 30:37advantage of, you're welcome to provide them with my contact
- 30:42information and I would be happy to help guide them through the
- 30:45process. Those are a few options, but as
- 30:50things stand right now on the last day of 2025, I still trust
- 30:56sending cards to SGC, and the way I can prove that to you is I
- 31:01just sent some. Cards in collectors buying SGC
- 31:07was definitely a minimize the competition move.
- 31:10Beckett purchase is not the same.
- 31:13SGC was growing and thriving. Beckett has not been growing.
- 31:18Beckett has several things SGC didn't have, like auto
- 31:22authentication. A marketplace and a legacy brand
- 31:25with extensive value gaining market share at the fastest rate
- 31:30have been TAG and CGC. The true reason for the Beckett
- 31:34acquisition will likely come to light in 2026.
- 31:39If it was to eliminate a competitor.
- 31:42That just doesn't make sense based on Beckett's recent
- 31:46results. What do you think about?
- 31:48This. Thanks for the video.
- 31:51This is. Going to be a little bit of a.
- 31:53Difficult one for me to respond because I have been told some
- 31:58things in confidence that I know to be true that may not aren't.
- 32:08How do I say this OK and say it this way I know for a fact that.
- 32:20There were two. Main reasons why PSA OK White
- 32:27Collectors, the parent company of PSA, acquired STCA Big.
- 32:34Chunk of it. Was to block somebody else from
- 32:39purchasing them, infusing money into them, and helping them to
- 32:44be a legitimate competitor to PSA.
- 32:49The second. Reason.
- 32:50Is they were. Struggling to find quality.
- 32:54Graders and SGC clearly had quality graders, so by acquiring
- 33:00the company they then controlled the graders and they prevented
- 33:04somebody else from buying them, infusing money into them and
- 33:10helping them to become a legitimate competitor.
- 33:13Head to If fanatics had bought SGC, they.
- 33:19Could have. They could have.
- 33:20Quickly become a legitimate competitor to PSA if they.
- 33:25Had bought SGC. And put some money into them
- 33:29they they could have so by collectors buying them it.
- 33:36Prevented that threat. And it got them a bunch of
- 33:40graders. And like I mentioned earlier in
- 33:42the episode, a lot of those graders they've lured over to
- 33:45start grading in the PSA label, which is a big part of the
- 33:49reason that the SGC turn around time has gone down so much is
- 33:52because they have fewer quality graders because many of them are
- 33:55now grading under the PSA label in Florida.
- 34:00I believe that. That's part.
- 34:05Of the reason? A big part of the reason that
- 34:08they went after Beckett, The other thing about Beckett is
- 34:11Beckett has a brand recognition, a name recognition that has
- 34:19value that they could potentially do things to
- 34:23resurrect. I mean, let me give you an
- 34:25example. PWCC.
- 34:31Was a marketplace and an auction house to buy and sell cards.
- 34:41And they were literally going. Under, like going under and then
- 34:46Fanatics bought them and now fanatics.
- 34:50Turned that. Fledgling dying marketplace into
- 34:56a significant fanatics marketplace that has big time
- 35:03auctions with big time cards with tons of cards for sale.
- 35:08They took this dying company, rebranded it, infused money and
- 35:15expertise into it, and now they are a major player in the
- 35:19marketplace for buying and selling cards.
- 35:25If they. Could do that.
- 35:27To PWCC, couldn't they do? That to Beckett.
- 35:32Couldn't they do that to SGC? Fanatics has the power, the
- 35:38strength, the ability, the deep pockets, the expertise to turn a
- 35:45fledgling company into a serious competitor with all of the
- 35:50biggest players in that marketplace.
- 35:54They've done it. I believe that they A, wanted to
- 36:01block somebody like fanatics from coming in, B, wanted to
- 36:05acquire some graders, C acquire the assets of what Beckett has
- 36:12to assess them and see what is salvageable, what has potential.
- 36:20But I think it was mostly a block and an acquisition of
- 36:23graders. But I also think, and, and
- 36:27again, this is you're asking my opinion, these, let me again
- 36:31remind you, everything I say on Wednesdays is simply everything
- 36:35I say every day is just opinion. Not a ton of this is fact.
- 36:39It's opinion. Some of you think.
- 36:42My opinions are. Crazy.
- 36:43Some of you think my opinions are good.
- 36:46If you think they're crazy, not sure why.
- 36:49You're still listening, but. Unless it's just for sheer, you
- 36:54know, grudge watching I. Believe.
- 36:58That that. PS That.
- 37:01The parent company of PSA Collectors is is planning on
- 37:05going public in the next couple of years.
- 37:09I think that they are going to try to go from rich to crazy
- 37:12rich. And the way you go from rich to
- 37:14crazy rich is you take a company that is a private company, you
- 37:18restructure them, you make some acquisitions, you eliminate the
- 37:25competition. You up the bottom.
- 37:29Line and then you take them public and they have become the
- 37:35I mean it is a textbook, you know, do this, then do this,
- 37:41then do this, then do this before.
- 37:45Going public? I.
- 37:47Think that. This was one of the last moves
- 37:51that they felt like they needed to do.
- 37:55Before they could go. Public and get really rich that
- 38:02that's what I think. Am I crazy Maybe.
- 38:07But that's what. I think this one says.
- 38:11Hey great video, watch the whole thing even at work.
- 38:16I'm also like most who watch, have all vintage all slabbed.
- 38:21In SGC I have every Hall of Fame baseball players rookie card
- 38:26from 1960 to present. I also have a lot of 50s as well
- 38:31but still working on these since they can be pricey.
- 38:35I'm more of a collector but will sell to buy other rookies.
- 38:40I do want my cards to be protected and hold some value to
- 38:45hand down to my kids. Should I stop with SGC
- 38:49submissions? Well SGC cards even have value
- 38:53to raw in 20 years. Would love your feedback.
- 38:59There's a little bit of overlap. With this question and some of
- 39:02the previous questions and I thought about kind of combining
- 39:05them, but there's enough meat on the bone here to make it its own
- 39:10question. So I do want to share a couple
- 39:12of thoughts. Sort of like I said earlier,
- 39:15when there is a brand that goes away because the product is not
- 39:20good, that is different than a brand that goes away because
- 39:27they got purchased out and absorbed by another company.
- 39:31So I do believe that if we go 20-30 years down the road, there
- 39:37will be some people coming into the hobby going SGC.
- 39:41Who's that? And people go, oh, that's a
- 39:44company who used to grade a long time ago.
- 39:46They're not around anymore. And the young collectors who are
- 39:50so obsessed with PSA 10's and have always looked down on SGC
- 39:54cards because SGC graded cards, because they're obsessed with
- 39:58PSA 10s, because that's what Jeff told them to do, What what
- 40:03happens to them those people is. In 20 or 30 years I could see
- 40:08there being a a depressed market for cards and SGC holders.
- 40:14But SGC is different and Beckett is different than some brands
- 40:24and I'm trying to. I'm trying to think of a good
- 40:26example without offending anyone.
- 40:31Saturn. Was a car company the cars?
- 40:35Were OK. People didn't really want them
- 40:40because they'd rather have a Honda or a Toyota.
- 40:44They went away. Because people didn't.
- 40:48Really want the product? That's different than if Toyota
- 40:52bought Saturn and then turned all of the Saturn plants into
- 40:58Toyota plants. That would be different.
- 41:02One goes away because the product isn't that great.
- 41:08There are restaurants in your town that went out of business
- 41:13and they went out of business because the food wasn't very
- 41:16good. There are other restaurants or
- 41:20coffee shops in your town that went away because a bigger
- 41:25business bought them and turned them into their business.
- 41:31That doesn't mean that their pizza wasn't good because we'll
- 41:36see. Here's the problem.
- 41:37I'm I'm about to use a pizza company that I think is a
- 41:40regional pizza company. What would an example be here?
- 41:47The Local. Hair salon shop didn't go.
- 41:52Out of business because. They don't give good haircuts.
- 41:55They went out of business because Super Clip is Super
- 41:59Cuts. Is Super Cuts a national brand?
- 42:02I don't know. Let's say it's a national brand
- 42:04for just a minute. If you've never heard of them,
- 42:06pretend that you've heard of them.
- 42:07Great Clips, Super Cuts, they have those out here.
- 42:10I don't know what they have in other places, like like Maine.
- 42:14Maine is basically part of Canada, isn't it, Mike?
- 42:18OK, so. Carrying on.
- 42:19If, if, if Supercuts bought out the local barbershop, that
- 42:24doesn't mean that the local barbershop didn't give good
- 42:26haircuts. It didn't go out of business
- 42:28because they didn't give good haircuts.
- 42:30It went out of business because they got bought out by a major,
- 42:36a major chain. Those are different things.
- 42:39I think SGC if they go away if. It's different.
- 42:47Than some of the other grading companies that have gone away
- 42:50because it just didn't do a very good job.
- 42:53That's my take. I'm still sending to SGC.
- 42:57I'm still buying cards in SGC holders.
- 43:00But I ain't going to lie, if I've got 2 cards in front of me
- 43:04and one of them's in APSA holder and one of them's in an SGC
- 43:08holder, I am personally much more comfortable buying the card
- 43:14in the PSA holder. Does that make me a bad person
- 43:19for saying that? I don't know.
- 43:21I don't think I'm a bad person. I think I'm actually, I think
- 43:23I'm actually a pretty good guy. I think I'm a pretty nice good
- 43:28person. But I feel.
- 43:31More comfortable. Buying a big card in APSA holder
- 43:34than an SGC holder but I'm still sending cards to SGC.
- 43:39I'm still buying cards in both holders but feels a little safer
- 43:45if it's in APSA holder I. Wish it wasn't that way.
- 43:50But that's where we are. Happy holidays.
- 43:56Happy New Year. Be safe out there tonight.
- 43:59I enjoyed 2025 and I thank all of you for your contributions.
- 44:04If you'd like to contribute to the first Q&A episode of 2026
- 44:10down below in the comments, simply type out your question.
- 44:15I'm looking forward to another good year, 2026 to Infinity and
- 44:20beyond. Off we go into the wild blue
- 44:23Yonder. Midlife nation, it's as.
- 44:27Strong as ever.