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Transcript

Ep. 132 : 2026 Topps Heritage Overview · Cards & Categories

0:16
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome by to episode one thirty two of
0:19
Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I am my Cool Art and I
0:22
Speaker 1: am joined once again and as always usually actually by
0:27
Speaker 1: Jeremy Brewer from Rasball. How are you doing tonight, buddy?
0:30
Speaker 1: We're speaking on March eighteenth, So we are getting closer
0:34
Speaker 1: and closer to opening day? You feeling it?
0:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, one week away from opening day, and like, I'm
0:40
Speaker 2: very confused by it, just because of WBC. It feels
0:43
Speaker 2: like we've been like having spring training yet the playoffs
0:46
Speaker 2: at the same time, and so in a weird way,
0:49
Speaker 2: my mind's like, don't we still have a month of
0:50
Speaker 2: spring training left, like because everybody's going, you know, going back,
0:53
Speaker 2: just not the like twenty guys that are playing the
0:55
Speaker 2: WBC type of thing. But I'm excited. I'm ready for
0:59
Speaker 2: opening day, ready to get the season underway, because I
1:02
Speaker 2: don't let you have been scouring some waiver wires after
1:04
Speaker 2: drafts right now, like after draft season you're always looking
1:07
Speaker 2: through I'm like, man, there's just not a whole lot
1:09
Speaker 2: of guys to pick up, Like, where are all the
1:10
Speaker 2: opportunities gonna come in? Like one week into the season,
1:13
Speaker 2: You're like, I don't have a roster space and I
1:16
Speaker 2: want all these guys, Like, it's just so funny how
1:18
Speaker 2: everything's changes so so fast, and so I'm excited. I'm
1:22
Speaker 2: ready to get the season underway.
1:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. I mean the WBC was really fun,
1:27
Speaker 1: and I mean we're actually speaking on the day after
1:30
Speaker 1: it rapped last night with Venezuela winning the championship three
1:33
Speaker 1: to two over the US, And I mean, Venezuela was
1:37
Speaker 1: a team of destiny, it looked like. So it was
1:40
Speaker 1: a fun team to watch. You had lots of big boppers,
1:43
Speaker 1: the Aohanua Suarez double, like it felt very fitting to
1:46
Speaker 1: see somebody like Suarez, who especially like it was really emblematic.
1:50
Speaker 1: I think of the style of Venezuela and the just
1:54
Speaker 1: the vibe that they brought that it was fun to
1:55
Speaker 1: see him get that moment against the US and the
1:59
Speaker 1: ninth and certainly the US. It was a tumultuous WBC,
2:03
Speaker 1: huh in terms of like the Mark de Rosas stuff
2:06
Speaker 1: in being confused over the actual rules of the tournament,
2:09
Speaker 1: making strange managing decisions all the way up to the end.
2:13
Speaker 1: He again.
2:16
Speaker 2: Misson Miller.
2:17
Speaker 1: He was not allowed to. He's Mason Miller in that
2:19
Speaker 1: Championship ninth inning had to go Garrett Whitlock, and that's
2:22
Speaker 1: how Aohenio Suarez was able to knock in the run.
2:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been a fun, fun WBC. It's it's
2:30
Speaker 1: great that we get it every three years, and it
2:32
Speaker 1: reminds me of like it must have been. It's actually
2:35
Speaker 1: I mean we were probably on the tail end of
2:37
Speaker 1: when the All Star Game was actually like competitive and
2:40
Speaker 1: fun in the nineties when we were growing up. But
2:44
Speaker 1: the WBC it strikes me as maybe like what All
2:46
Speaker 1: Star Games used to be, maybe like in the seventies
2:48
Speaker 1: when there was a little bit more rivalry, there was
2:51
Speaker 1: a little bit more at stake, And so I think
2:53
Speaker 1: that's what's made some of the WBC great is that
2:56
Speaker 1: we get not only like actually cool All Star teams,
3:00
Speaker 1: but competitive baseball. You get to see the different styles
3:03
Speaker 1: of the different countries. It was a great tournament. What
3:05
Speaker 1: do do you think and what have you taken away
3:07
Speaker 1: from it?
3:08
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean it it was. It was fantastic. I
3:10
Speaker 2: think for me the biggest thing is just like it's
3:13
Speaker 2: pure baseball, Like I don't know how else to describe it. Then,
3:16
Speaker 2: like these guys are playing for nothing else in the
3:18
Speaker 2: love of the game and the love of their team,
3:21
Speaker 2: and they're having an absolute blast. And that's the purest baseball,
3:25
Speaker 2: and it's purest form. It's not there's not a tomorrow,
3:28
Speaker 2: there's not anything you know to worry about. Like, you
3:31
Speaker 2: go out, you try to win, you have a grand
3:33
Speaker 2: old time. The number of guys staying the top, standing
3:35
Speaker 2: on the top railing of the dugout when a guy
3:38
Speaker 2: hits a home or like, it's just it's so exciting
3:40
Speaker 2: to see. It gives me hope for the Olympics in
3:42
Speaker 2: your few years when baseball comes back to the Olympics.
3:46
Speaker 2: There's just so much that the WBC has. If I
3:50
Speaker 2: have one gripe with it, I wish it wasn't during
3:52
Speaker 2: spring training. I wish, and I don't know how you
3:55
Speaker 2: solve this, but I wish like every league across the
3:59
Speaker 2: world could say that's same All Star Break and do
4:02
Speaker 2: WBC then or something like that, because you got these
4:04
Speaker 2: guys coming in the starters and they're like throwing three
4:07
Speaker 2: or four innings, or you're worried about injuries because the
4:09
Speaker 2: guys haven't been built up, And yeah, I think that
4:13
Speaker 2: takes down some of the ability to see the stars
4:16
Speaker 2: of these other leagues and see them in their best light.
4:19
Speaker 2: And I'd love to see some of those guys out
4:22
Speaker 2: there just you know, bringing eight innings of you know,
4:24
Speaker 2: one hit ball or something like that, because they're they're
4:28
Speaker 2: allowed and they're they're warmed and they're able to do it.
4:31
Speaker 2: But either way, WBC is is so much fun. I
4:34
Speaker 2: was excited for the US I I it felt like
4:38
Speaker 2: a destiny moment when Bryce Harper went massively deep and
4:42
Speaker 2: then it wasn't. I don't know about you. It just
4:46
Speaker 2: felt like this is it, this is They're gonna win
4:48
Speaker 2: it here and then it just like just petered, just
4:52
Speaker 2: completely petered out. But that's okay. It was It was
4:55
Speaker 2: a fun thing to see. I love seeing exposure for
4:58
Speaker 2: the other players and well some future MLB names across
5:03
Speaker 2: the pond, and some of those that we'll see before too.
5:06
Speaker 1: Long, yeah, I mean, or some that are coming back,
5:09
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of the Venezuelan squad there. You know,
5:14
Speaker 1: with Machado, he looked really great until you had given
5:17
Speaker 1: up that homeward to Bryce Harper. This is Andres Machado
5:21
Speaker 1: used to be in like the Royals and the national
5:24
Speaker 1: systems and has been pitching over in MPB for a while,
5:27
Speaker 1: but he looked electric all throughout the actual tournament. And yeah,
5:31
Speaker 1: I think it's also a great platform to see just
5:34
Speaker 1: like what the different players are doing in these different
5:38
Speaker 1: leagues that may be gone abroad, like Machado, but also
5:41
Speaker 1: to see some of the old guys coming back, like
5:43
Speaker 1: James Paxton just like pumping gas for Canada, and you know,
5:48
Speaker 1: you had just these players who were just retired or
5:52
Speaker 1: maybe not officially retired, or you know, kind of kicking around,
5:56
Speaker 1: and so it's fun to see a bunch of those
5:57
Speaker 1: players back. But yeah, I look forward to the next
6:00
Speaker 1: one because it was a great time, and I think
6:03
Speaker 1: it just gives you more hype for Opening Day because
6:05
Speaker 1: like now, it's right around the corner. At this point.
6:09
Speaker 1: Usually in spring training, too, it does feel like it
6:11
Speaker 1: starts to get to a sloggy point where you're kind
6:14
Speaker 1: of watching the games and they've been on for multiple weeks,
6:17
Speaker 1: and so the newness of spring training is kind of
6:20
Speaker 1: over and you're just realizing, like, hey, I'm done watching
6:24
Speaker 1: this exhibition baseball. I want to watch some real stuff.
6:26
Speaker 1: And the WBC gave it that to us early with
6:29
Speaker 1: a playoff atmosphere, great crowds down in Miami. The crowds
6:32
Speaker 1: were fantastic and like just deafening, especially from the Venezuelan side.
6:37
Speaker 1: So kudos to them. The first championship for the WBC
6:42
Speaker 1: for Venezuela, and on top of it, like it was
6:45
Speaker 1: really big before them before that happened a couple of
6:48
Speaker 1: games before they qualified officially for the Olympics, which I
6:51
Speaker 1: know was big for Venezuela. And yeah, what a great squad,
6:55
Speaker 1: what a fun squad, what a fun tournament. But let's
6:58
Speaker 1: get back to be in Fantasy Baseball, and we've got
7:02
Speaker 1: a great release this week. We've got Tops Heritage twenty
7:04
Speaker 1: twenty six that dropped actually today on March eighteenth, the Wednesday,
7:09
Speaker 1: So we will review that and get into the design
7:13
Speaker 1: and all of the different inserts and hits that we've
7:16
Speaker 1: got going on in that product. But before we get
7:18
Speaker 1: into that in the latter half, let's get into our
7:20
Speaker 1: news and notes. So if you want to follow along,
7:22
Speaker 1: get into those show notes, where you'll also see a
7:25
Speaker 1: rass Ball subscription link down there. If you still have
7:29
Speaker 1: leagues that are drafting this weekend, which I'm sure tons
7:32
Speaker 1: of people will do, that are listening to this. I
7:34
Speaker 1: know I've got almost I think I've got four drafts left,
7:38
Speaker 1: so it's going to be all right.
7:39
Speaker 2: I've got one this week. I only have one left
7:42
Speaker 2: this weekend, so okay, I'm not I wish I was
7:45
Speaker 2: as crazy as you sometimes, but I don't quite have
7:48
Speaker 2: the slate lined up yet. Yeah.
7:51
Speaker 1: I'll be going down to Tampa this weekend too for
7:52
Speaker 1: spring training in a live draft, so it's going to
7:54
Speaker 1: be a great time down there, and yeah, just immerse
7:57
Speaker 1: myself in all things baseball. But it's gonna be a
8:00
Speaker 1: big weekend for that. Get this at rasball subscription. Get
8:04
Speaker 1: that war room, especially if you're in a snake draft league.
8:07
Speaker 1: There's no better tool going in than using that war room.
8:10
Speaker 1: It is a league winner. You Also, if you get
8:13
Speaker 1: the whole year annual package, you get the access to
8:16
Speaker 1: the streaming Eader and the hitter Tron tools that we
8:18
Speaker 1: have on ras ball, and those are also league winning tools.
8:22
Speaker 1: They'll give you weekly projections, daily projections, anything that you
8:26
Speaker 1: need to be able to find every edge to win
8:28
Speaker 1: those fantasy leagues. Check it out rasball, and you got
8:31
Speaker 1: lots of great writers you can read too. So I've
8:34
Speaker 1: been enjoying your top one hund top one hundred hitter
8:37
Speaker 1: pieces there. They've been very informative getting into the nitty
8:41
Speaker 1: gritty of what's going on there. And you've got everybody
8:43
Speaker 1: else up and running. So the full Slate's gonna kick
8:45
Speaker 1: off next week on opening Day. I'm pumped. It's gonna
8:48
Speaker 1: be the deluge is around the corner, and it's gonna
8:51
Speaker 1: be awesome.
8:52
Speaker 2: It's honestly, it's the most exciting time on the site
8:55
Speaker 2: this time of year because everybody's in contention, Like that's everybody.
9:00
Speaker 2: It's just it's just like it major League Baseball. Everybody
9:03
Speaker 2: else hopes everybody's desires. They think they're in it. Give
9:06
Speaker 2: us three or four weeks and then like there's you know,
9:08
Speaker 2: there's always that that group of folks like, ah, my
9:10
Speaker 2: season's over, you know, things like that, but everybody still
9:13
Speaker 2: has hope that drafts are fresh. I don't know about you,
9:17
Speaker 2: but I always feel like I rarely anymore feel like
9:19
Speaker 2: I left a draft with all the tools and things
9:21
Speaker 2: we have available and like not happy with my team.
9:24
Speaker 2: And then I get a few weeks and I'm like,
9:25
Speaker 2: well I was delusional to a degree, but uh, this
9:29
Speaker 2: this is the exciting time. So make sure you're reading,
9:32
Speaker 2: make sure you're reaching out asking your questions. I've had
9:34
Speaker 2: a lot of great questions already on the article. So
9:38
Speaker 2: with that, let's get into the news. Let's let's talk
9:40
Speaker 2: about handmaid bones.
9:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's where we're gonna start, because we're gonna
9:45
Speaker 1: we've got two between Francisco Lindor of the Mats and
9:48
Speaker 1: Corbyn Carrol of the Dbacks. Both look like they're going
9:51
Speaker 1: to be getting into opening day lineups, which Carol I
9:55
Speaker 1: think was always a little bit closer to being projected there.
9:58
Speaker 1: It seemed like a much less this invasive thing, and
10:02
Speaker 1: with Lindoor there's always a question. So Lindor has seen
10:05
Speaker 1: some spring training action, and the other kind of piece
10:08
Speaker 1: of news here with Carol is that he's actually switching
10:10
Speaker 1: his batthandle to and acts back just to alleviate some
10:13
Speaker 1: of the pressure on that handmate bone. And so you've
10:17
Speaker 1: got two guys who are getting back into it. I mean,
10:20
Speaker 1: there's only been seven at bats for Francisco Lindor, so
10:22
Speaker 1: he's still shaking off the rust. We're looking at the
10:26
Speaker 1: average draft position since the beginning of March, and they've
10:30
Speaker 1: certainly the draft position has fallen much further for Francisco
10:34
Speaker 1: Lindor than it has for Carol. I think mostly because
10:37
Speaker 1: lots of people still believe that Carol can obviously have
10:41
Speaker 1: the speed and you know, flash forty fifty steel upside
10:46
Speaker 1: and on top of it, Carol's always been a harder swinger,
10:49
Speaker 1: a harder hitter than Lindor traditionally, So I think people
10:54
Speaker 1: have a little more faith in that handmate bone holding
10:57
Speaker 1: up and you know, you're starting from a higher spot
11:00
Speaker 1: backing up that strength for corporing Carrol. So between Lindor
11:04
Speaker 1: and Carroll here, though, has the news been positive enough
11:07
Speaker 1: that you are still that you might be getting back
11:11
Speaker 1: in on these players and bumping them back up to
11:14
Speaker 1: I mean, they were very solid first rounders before these injuries.
11:18
Speaker 1: That Carol was going smack dab in the middle of
11:20
Speaker 1: the first you know, usually around like seven to eight ish,
11:23
Speaker 1: and then Lindor is maybe more on the back end
11:26
Speaker 1: of the first round like twelve through fifteenth, and so
11:30
Speaker 1: they were heavy draft cost, heavy auction cost. Are you
11:34
Speaker 1: back into bumping them up there to be able to
11:37
Speaker 1: acquire them, or are you still concerned about the long
11:39
Speaker 1: term effects of these handmade bones.
11:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm a little bit more willing to
11:43
Speaker 2: give them something for the doubt, but I'm not fully in.
11:47
Speaker 2: I still have them probably about around later than what
11:51
Speaker 2: I would say they're true talent draft costs should be.
11:54
Speaker 2: And it's just because the history of the handmaatee bone
11:57
Speaker 2: injuries and even if you look at kind of the
11:59
Speaker 2: interviews with Carroll of what he said, you know, when
12:02
Speaker 2: they asked if it impacted a swing, I don't know. Probably,
12:06
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how long it's gonna last. Definitely definitely painful.
12:09
Speaker 2: Like he's like he's able to swing the bat. It's
12:12
Speaker 2: not messing with his his actual swing is what he thinks.
12:16
Speaker 2: But with pain, you adjust, and I think that's what's
12:20
Speaker 2: gonna happen here. They're doing things to alleviate the pain.
12:23
Speaker 2: He's not fully healed. He's healed enough to play ball,
12:27
Speaker 2: and eighty percent of Corby and Carroll is what you
12:29
Speaker 2: want on the field. Same thing for Lindor. But I
12:32
Speaker 2: think you have to recognize it's still gonna be a
12:34
Speaker 2: month or two until they're really back doing their thing.
12:38
Speaker 2: And so because of that, I'm looking maybe the two
12:42
Speaker 2: three turn instead of the one to two turn type
12:44
Speaker 2: of thing for these guys. I think they're valuable. I
12:46
Speaker 2: think you know, there's not a problem with Adam to
12:49
Speaker 2: your team, but I do think that there's a little
12:51
Speaker 2: bit higher variability, and I think they're gonna be slow starters, uh,
12:54
Speaker 2: to be frank, and the teams are gonna protect them
12:56
Speaker 2: like they should because a long season. So yeah, if
13:00
Speaker 2: you get a chance to get somebody for full season
13:02
Speaker 2: fully healthy, yeah, I'll bump them up against both these guys.
13:06
Speaker 2: But I'm willing enough with the positive news to have
13:10
Speaker 2: them in that second third round conversation where before I
13:12
Speaker 2: was probably you know, fourth round conversation on both these guys.
13:16
Speaker 2: So I'm moving them up, but just not all the way.
13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think I'm moving them up even
13:21
Speaker 1: a little less than you that I'm still pretty worried
13:24
Speaker 1: that like it's kind of a little bit of like
13:27
Speaker 1: a best shape of their life sort of talk right
13:31
Speaker 1: now from both Carol and Lindor getting out there and
13:34
Speaker 1: saying all the right things. You know, they're both obviously
13:37
Speaker 1: going to play ball, especially because like the defense will
13:39
Speaker 1: play for both of them, and their teams need that
13:42
Speaker 1: at their key positions, and so both the d Backs
13:45
Speaker 1: and the Mets are on the verge of like playoff contention.
13:48
Speaker 1: I mean Mets Marcel like in the playoffs and d
13:51
Speaker 1: Backs kind of writing that third wild card mix. So
13:55
Speaker 1: they're gonna need any production they can get out of
13:57
Speaker 1: these players, and so they are going to march them
14:00
Speaker 1: out there, no matter how I think the offensive numbers look,
14:03
Speaker 1: which actually isn't great because then you're getting the volume
14:08
Speaker 1: hurt you. You know, if you're in a rate space league,
14:12
Speaker 1: not just batting average, but you know, OBP slugging anything
14:16
Speaker 1: like that, you're getting just less and less volume from
14:18
Speaker 1: them that I'm just really concerned, Hey, may bones just
14:21
Speaker 1: take it's been proven that, like it's been shown in
14:25
Speaker 1: studies and stuff that, like it takes a year to
14:27
Speaker 1: get all the way back, And so I don't doubt
14:30
Speaker 1: that they're grinders. And I don't if you had to, like,
14:32
Speaker 1: if you're playing in a straight out, straight up war
14:34
Speaker 1: league where you get wins above replacement and you get
14:37
Speaker 1: the volume from their defense, then maybe they don't drop
14:41
Speaker 1: as much. But I think in a standard rotisserie five
14:44
Speaker 1: y five league, it really does give me a lot
14:47
Speaker 1: of pause for what they're going to be doing. And
14:49
Speaker 1: so because of that, I think there are more like
14:51
Speaker 1: third rounders for me when you kind of put that
14:53
Speaker 1: all together and back it all up. So because that
14:57
Speaker 1: I don't have them anywhere, and I don't think I'm
14:59
Speaker 1: going to end up with them anywhere.
15:00
Speaker 2: The only place I have him is I have a
15:02
Speaker 2: Carol in our res Slam because I was on vacation
15:05
Speaker 2: in a different time zone and he auto drafted before
15:08
Speaker 2: I woke up. So that's the only place I own
15:13
Speaker 2: Corb and Carrol. But other than that, I've I've also
15:17
Speaker 2: not been willing to pay the market price.
15:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good reminder out there to set your cues.
15:21
Speaker 2: Get those set your cues. Yeah, it was really it
15:25
Speaker 2: was really great to see Kyle Talker went to the
15:26
Speaker 2: next pick.
15:28
Speaker 1: Perfect right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, fantastic. Okay, the next injury
15:33
Speaker 1: we have is outfielder from the cub say as Azuki.
15:36
Speaker 1: He injured his PCL strained it on the right knee
15:39
Speaker 1: when he went in on slide during the WBC and
15:42
Speaker 1: came out of the game immediately. So I mean, this
15:45
Speaker 1: really could have been much worse. You could have been
15:47
Speaker 1: looking at like a ACL tear or moniscus tear or
15:50
Speaker 1: something really significant, but right now it does. Everybody's like
15:55
Speaker 1: it's the same thing as those handmad bones for Carol
15:58
Speaker 1: and Lindor, where the cub are saying that they don't think, say,
16:01
Speaker 1: is Zuki's gonna be missing much time, says is Zuki
16:04
Speaker 1: seems to be saying that that there's not an anticipation
16:08
Speaker 1: that he's gonna be out really any length of time. Here, Uh,
16:12
Speaker 1: this one, it is a little bit like stranger because
16:15
Speaker 1: like the Cubs do have some outfielders to be able
16:18
Speaker 1: to cover for him, and so like, I don't know,
16:21
Speaker 1: he might maybe take over more DH spots, but he
16:24
Speaker 1: also isn't like the greatest glove out there, and so
16:28
Speaker 1: like they don't necessarily need the defense the way that
16:30
Speaker 1: Lindor and Caroler needed. This is just like a situation
16:36
Speaker 1: where I'm worried again because like a strained pcl in
16:40
Speaker 1: the right knee, that's the knee that will that it's
16:43
Speaker 1: his back leg when he's swinging provides a lot of power.
16:48
Speaker 1: You're looking at a power hitter that's losing a little
16:50
Speaker 1: bit of his base gets dicey fast. So here's another
16:55
Speaker 1: guy that I'm probably dropping like a round or two,
16:58
Speaker 1: maybe three right now, just because of like, I would
17:01
Speaker 1: rather take a healthy player, and this is the type
17:03
Speaker 1: of injury when they pushed through it, it feels like
17:05
Speaker 1: you can lose a lot of time really quickly. So
17:09
Speaker 1: am I being too negative here with Saya Suzuki or
17:11
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about him going to twenty twenty
17:14
Speaker 1: six with the Cubs?
17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think you're actually right on because
17:18
Speaker 2: this is one of those that it's I think if
17:21
Speaker 2: what the c if I could trust what the Cubs
17:23
Speaker 2: were saying, I wouldn't be as concerned. But I think
17:26
Speaker 2: it's too early, Like I think it's too early to
17:28
Speaker 2: actually know, and you're investing a pretty pretty good pick
17:32
Speaker 2: in this, And honestly I was. I was high on
17:35
Speaker 2: Suzuki going to the season, like what he did last year,
17:37
Speaker 2: the way that he performed, and I tend to take
17:41
Speaker 2: my rankings and compare him against others out in the
17:45
Speaker 2: Fantasy ranking ethos, and I was probably around round and
17:50
Speaker 2: a half higher than on Suzuki than others. I had
17:53
Speaker 2: him as my number I think forty two hitter, right
17:57
Speaker 2: between like Ben Rice and Freddie Freeman. Like I like
17:59
Speaker 2: I was, I really liked him this for me probably
18:02
Speaker 2: knocks him down almost two rounds, if not three, just
18:06
Speaker 2: because I'm worried of what that does for his power
18:11
Speaker 2: to your expectation, and I think it could nag throughout
18:14
Speaker 2: the season, and since they have options like they could,
18:16
Speaker 2: they should and they probably will baby him to a
18:19
Speaker 2: degree to make sure that he's fully healthy. So I'm
18:22
Speaker 2: expecting an il stint on. I think it's gonna be
18:26
Speaker 2: one of these where this one nags for a while
18:27
Speaker 2: before he's like waiting for the warm summer, especially there
18:30
Speaker 2: in Chicago. That's not the area you want to be
18:33
Speaker 2: like on shaky knees going to the season trying to
18:35
Speaker 2: stay warm.
18:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. On top of like the field in Wrigley is wonky.
18:40
Speaker 1: I don't know if people like know that as much,
18:42
Speaker 1: but it's kind of sloped on the edges a lot,
18:44
Speaker 1: and so like there's a lot of really dicey spots
18:49
Speaker 1: at Wrigley Field in terms of footing and being able
18:52
Speaker 1: to keep your base underneath you. So I think there
18:54
Speaker 1: is a lot of concern here for Suzuki, So just
18:57
Speaker 1: be careful. I think when you're getting into those drafts
18:59
Speaker 1: this weekend. Another player to be careful with is Joe
19:02
Speaker 1: Musgrove started a pitcher from the San Diego Padres. Has
19:06
Speaker 1: still been working his way back from Tommy John surgery
19:10
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty four, and so he has been.
19:14
Speaker 1: He was out all of twenty twenty five. He still
19:17
Speaker 1: has yet to get to the mound on a spring
19:19
Speaker 1: training game. He's been doing stuff in the backfields. But
19:22
Speaker 1: just recently the Padres said, hey, we're going to slow
19:25
Speaker 1: the role here. He's going to start on the fifteen
19:27
Speaker 1: day IL. This is one where honestly I was a
19:31
Speaker 1: little bit interested because it had been a lot of
19:33
Speaker 1: time since Musgrove had had the surgery. He had a
19:36
Speaker 1: lot of time to recover. In addition, like the reports
19:40
Speaker 1: were pretty positive in terms of what you were looking
19:43
Speaker 1: at when he was getting that action in the back
19:46
Speaker 1: the backfields and the sim games and so on and
19:49
Speaker 1: so forth, and then when you're if you're using an
19:52
Speaker 1: auction calculator at all, the overall projections for Muscrove have
19:59
Speaker 1: been are really positive. Like he was really popping in models.
20:03
Speaker 1: I can see now that most of them have pulled
20:05
Speaker 1: back the innings a lot from where we were at,
20:08
Speaker 1: like even a few days ago. I mean, I think
20:10
Speaker 1: most of them had Joe Muscrove being around one hundred
20:13
Speaker 1: and fifty innings, but some have gotten down to nineties.
20:16
Speaker 1: Zips is at like, yeah, ninety and two thirds innings
20:19
Speaker 1: right now. So I'm just kind of putting this out
20:22
Speaker 1: there as a warning sign because, like, I think this
20:24
Speaker 1: is another guy I'm out on until we actually see
20:26
Speaker 1: him back in game action and like being healthy. Unlike
20:29
Speaker 1: you know, Garrett Cole looked fantastic today and showed everything
20:33
Speaker 1: I needed from him to be able to say, Okay,
20:36
Speaker 1: you could draft Garrett Cole and maybe discount a month
20:39
Speaker 1: off of it and feel pretty comfortable. I don't think
20:41
Speaker 1: you can do that with Joe Musgrove with this pattern
20:44
Speaker 1: of usage. But if you see him in your auction values,
20:47
Speaker 1: you see him on that draft sheet, he's gonna look
20:49
Speaker 1: much better than I think. The story of those projections
20:52
Speaker 1: is saying, so are you on the same page with
20:55
Speaker 1: me here with Musgrove or is there maybe a greater
20:58
Speaker 1: opportunity and you just like that at Petco Park too much? No?
21:02
Speaker 2: I mean I think you're right on here. This is
21:04
Speaker 2: this is the gamble with with playing this game of
21:06
Speaker 2: injured guys, and I play it and you know it.
21:12
Speaker 2: You have to know this is going to happen, and
21:14
Speaker 2: when this type of news, like you have to also
21:16
Speaker 2: recognize that this news means he's out for another two months.
21:19
Speaker 2: Like that's I think that's the easy way to look
21:21
Speaker 2: at it, because these guys need, you know, a good
21:23
Speaker 2: five weeks to kind of build up from a spring
21:25
Speaker 2: training perspective. He's not even really throwing right now, so
21:28
Speaker 2: we're not talking that we're gonna ce Jo musk Grove
21:30
Speaker 2: until June at this point in time. And so for me,
21:33
Speaker 2: I'm pretty much out on that profile. Sure, if I
21:36
Speaker 2: have an open il spot at the back of my team,
21:39
Speaker 2: I might throw him there just to see what happens,
21:40
Speaker 2: and you know, see if I can get some rehab.
21:42
Speaker 2: But if I'm gonna need to move on, I'm moving on. So, uh,
21:45
Speaker 2: it's it's disappointing, but yeah, this is kind of the
21:49
Speaker 2: risk you play with trying to play look at those
21:51
Speaker 2: guys that are coming back from an injury.
21:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And so the next injury we have is
21:57
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Brews starting pitching starting pitcher Quick Priester is dealing
22:02
Speaker 1: with all sorts of arm issues. So this started as
22:05
Speaker 1: a rist issue, which honestly was kind of piqued my
22:09
Speaker 1: interest because I was, like, you don't hear about wrist
22:11
Speaker 1: issues too often for pictures, which is surprising considering like
22:16
Speaker 1: the snap that they get out of their risk to
22:19
Speaker 1: be able to like throw breaking balls and stuff like that.
22:22
Speaker 1: But maybe they're obviously the connect chain is probably weaker
22:26
Speaker 1: in the elbow, and maybe that's why you don't see
22:28
Speaker 1: too many risk issues. But then it really is unraveled
22:31
Speaker 1: within the past few days where it's in the family
22:36
Speaker 1: of thoracic outlet syndrome is what Rob Murphy has said,
22:39
Speaker 1: where it's actually a nerve issue going all the way
22:41
Speaker 1: back into his shoulder that's causing this wrist pain. And
22:45
Speaker 1: so they've really pumped the brakes here on Priester. But
22:48
Speaker 1: the news has been encouraging in terms of like they
22:52
Speaker 1: think he can overcome it rest to rehabit that they
22:55
Speaker 1: don't think surgery will be needed. But this also maybe
22:59
Speaker 1: reminds me a little bit of like how things really
23:01
Speaker 1: unraveled with Shane McClanahan last year, where like the just
23:07
Speaker 1: news kept getting worse and worse as the rehab continued
23:10
Speaker 1: further and further, and before you knew it McLanahan missed
23:13
Speaker 1: off of twenty twenty five. So I'm just kind of
23:16
Speaker 1: throwing this out there because I don't think it's a
23:18
Speaker 1: great kind of dark to be throwing. And I've only
23:20
Speaker 1: got one piece of Quinn Priester in the draft that
23:23
Speaker 1: we had this past weekend, where honestly the news broke
23:26
Speaker 1: right around our draft time, and so I don't know
23:29
Speaker 1: if I would have taken him in the reserve rounds.
23:31
Speaker 1: But also we've got four il spots and you got
23:34
Speaker 1: to use it on somebody. I've always liked Priesters, pitch
23:37
Speaker 1: mix and just moxy with the Brewers. So is this
23:40
Speaker 1: somebody who's off the draft board for you right now too,
23:42
Speaker 1: or is he a little bit more in that stash
23:45
Speaker 1: and hold injured picture that you'd be willing to take
23:48
Speaker 1: a gamble on.
23:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's something about Preest's profile. I've always been a
23:51
Speaker 2: little bit lower on it. Just hasn't been the kind
23:53
Speaker 2: of guy that I typically like to bring on. And
23:55
Speaker 2: then you add injury and the way they're describing it
23:58
Speaker 2: was like, yeah late, you know, April May's like they
24:02
Speaker 2: have no idea what he's going to be back, And
24:03
Speaker 2: so I'm actually looking at the other side of them,
24:05
Speaker 2: seeing Okay Brendan sprouts, We've got Littgan Henderson, Kyle Harrison.
24:09
Speaker 2: There's there's actually some intrigue of why might get what
24:12
Speaker 2: might be in the rotation. I know Henderson's was out
24:16
Speaker 2: with some elbow discomfort, but seems that that's that's passed,
24:19
Speaker 2: and so I'm really looking forward to seeing like who
24:21
Speaker 2: gets a run here. I'm not saying that Chad Patrick's
24:24
Speaker 2: really to hold those guys back either, but I do
24:27
Speaker 2: think there's a ton of potential and like the upper
24:29
Speaker 2: miners for the Brewers, and so I'm excited to see
24:32
Speaker 2: those guys get a run. But for Prety, sure, I'm
24:34
Speaker 2: I'm pretty much avoided him at this point.
24:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think even in the league where
24:38
Speaker 1: I've got him, if I get more injuries, he's the
24:39
Speaker 1: first one I cut. I just have him because I
24:41
Speaker 1: have an injury injured list spot and it costs me
24:44
Speaker 1: nothing at the draft table. So if you're in that situation,
24:47
Speaker 1: I don't really mind it. But I don't invest anything
24:50
Speaker 1: heavily in Quinn Priester because I think this season could
24:53
Speaker 1: go awry pretty quickly. Speaking of things going around pretty quickly,
24:58
Speaker 1: Angel's reliever Robert Stevenson. It looks like, honestly, he everything's
25:02
Speaker 1: really teeing up that this dude's headed back for another
25:06
Speaker 1: elbow surgery, and probably the career is probably going to
25:10
Speaker 1: be wrapped up here for Stevenson, because I just don't
25:14
Speaker 1: see how he comes back from this that. Like, you know,
25:16
Speaker 1: he missed all of last season, and he's always really
25:19
Speaker 1: battled injuries, and it seems like this one will finally
25:22
Speaker 1: do him in. He was in the mix for the
25:25
Speaker 1: closer role. Actually he didn't miss all last season. It
25:28
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty four. He missed all of.
25:29
Speaker 2: So he missed a few games. Yeah, just his most
25:33
Speaker 2: last season.
25:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, just just materially most of it and all of it.
25:38
Speaker 1: And so, uh, the what we're looking at here too
25:41
Speaker 1: is also like one of the worst contracts that they
25:43
Speaker 1: have ever seen handed out by the Angels when they
25:46
Speaker 1: brought him in and.
25:47
Speaker 2: Then say something.
25:48
Speaker 1: He got three year, three three years, thirty three million dollars,
25:51
Speaker 1: which was certainly not needed to secure Robert Stevenson's services,
25:56
Speaker 1: I think, and they just flushed that right down the drain.
25:59
Speaker 1: So I know he was your pick for the closer
26:03
Speaker 1: role there in Los Angeles in Anaheim because of the stuff. Honestly,
26:08
Speaker 1: I think right now Kirby Yates is the odds on
26:10
Speaker 1: favorite to take that job because he's looked pretty solid
26:15
Speaker 1: in spring. The question, though, is, like, I honestly this
26:18
Speaker 1: Angels team is garbage like it is. It might be
26:21
Speaker 1: teetering on like that White Sox Rockies sort of badness,
26:25
Speaker 1: where like if Mike Trout goes down injured. Honestly, everybody
26:28
Speaker 1: else in this lineup has injury issues, and the defense
26:33
Speaker 1: is terrible, the pitching's kind of rough, the bullpen's terrible.
26:37
Speaker 1: There might not be more than fifteen to twenty saves
26:39
Speaker 1: on the Angels anyway. But if you're looking for someone
26:42
Speaker 1: really sheep, I'm okay with Yates because he's been looking good,
26:45
Speaker 1: but don't expect much anyone else. Maybe you're attacking in
26:48
Speaker 1: the Angel's bullpen and anyone else that maybe anything else,
26:52
Speaker 1: You've got it. In terms of different opinions on Stevenson
26:55
Speaker 1: or Yates.
26:55
Speaker 2: Here, no, I mean, I it's unfortunate steven says so
26:59
Speaker 2: much talent just ways because of injury. But the only
27:03
Speaker 2: only difference is I might be more willing to throw
27:06
Speaker 2: a dart at Ben Joyce, and that's more from a
27:09
Speaker 2: long term kind of a dynasty perspective rather than just
27:12
Speaker 2: a redraft redraft, I'm with you. There's just a lot
27:14
Speaker 2: of saves here. I think it's gonna be mixing match.
27:17
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's getting barely into double digits on
27:20
Speaker 2: in that bullpen. But I do think Joyce is that
27:22
Speaker 2: guy that they want to be the closer long term,
27:25
Speaker 2: and so if you're in a more of a dynasty format,
27:27
Speaker 2: this team at some point is going to maybe be better.
27:30
Speaker 2: I think Joyce is the guy that, you know, if
27:32
Speaker 2: they want to be a closer for them, and you
27:34
Speaker 2: know it's not gonna be the thirty nine year old
27:35
Speaker 2: creates the thirty seven year old Drew Pomerance. Yeah, Jordan Ramiro,
27:40
Speaker 2: I didn't realize he's only thirty two. Feels like he's
27:42
Speaker 2: been around forever, you know, But they don't worry. Is
27:44
Speaker 2: they back it up with a thirty seven year old
27:46
Speaker 2: Hunter Strickland. Uh So they've got a lot of closures
27:48
Speaker 2: of the years past, for sure. But I think Joyce
27:51
Speaker 2: is the only guy that I'm really interested in here,
27:54
Speaker 2: and that's more long term.
27:56
Speaker 1: Okay, got it? Less bit of news that we have
27:59
Speaker 1: on the real world baseball news is Hiromi Eto and
28:05
Speaker 1: Taruki Sato are likely to be posted in this upcoming offseason,
28:10
Speaker 1: and so Ito has pitched for Nippon hand Fighters, it
28:16
Speaker 1: would be the I have to relearn some of the
28:19
Speaker 1: actual like designations they have on fangrass, not that they
28:22
Speaker 1: have that, but it is nh The Nippone Hand Fighters
28:25
Speaker 1: was terrific last year, one hundred and ninety six and
28:28
Speaker 1: two thirds innings, a career high of a two fifty
28:30
Speaker 1: two ERA and almost nine k per nine. Do remember
28:33
Speaker 1: that it is a very low offensive environment in MPB,
28:37
Speaker 1: but certainly Eto is the type of pitcher who I
28:40
Speaker 1: think could come over and have success where reminds me
28:44
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like a just a more
28:47
Speaker 1: control pitcher, where MLB trade rumors comps him to Sonny
28:52
Speaker 1: Gray in their piece, and so you know, somebody who
28:55
Speaker 1: will have good kind of secondary stuff, have a good
29:00
Speaker 1: command of the fastball, and just be able to pitch honestly,
29:03
Speaker 1: which is really I think one of the hallmarks of
29:06
Speaker 1: Japanese players and something that it will be interesting when
29:09
Speaker 1: Eto comes over. Sato has played for the Hunching Tigers
29:16
Speaker 1: and last year as a twenty six year old, he
29:19
Speaker 1: had a monster year even in that low offensive environment,
29:22
Speaker 1: forty bombs, one hundred and two rbi with a two
29:25
Speaker 1: seventy seven, three forty five, five seventy nine slash line.
29:29
Speaker 1: The MLB trade rumors is a little bit lesser on
29:32
Speaker 1: him and the compas more rhyan O'Hearn, But I mean
29:34
Speaker 1: Rhino Hearn in his prime is still a decent bat.
29:38
Speaker 1: So you have become recently the resident Japanese baseball card
29:43
Speaker 1: and Japanese baseball guru. So what are your thoughts here
29:46
Speaker 1: on Eto and Sato? And do you have any of
29:49
Speaker 1: these cards that you're already starting to tuck away?
29:53
Speaker 2: Yes and yes, and so let's let's start from a
29:55
Speaker 2: perspective of like their potential. And so I'm actually I
29:59
Speaker 2: actually do flip these guys from what like it will
30:02
Speaker 2: be trade rumor says, I think Sato my comp for
30:06
Speaker 2: Sato's hobby Bayas prime hobby Baya's not Detroit Tiger's Hobby Bayas.
30:11
Speaker 2: And this guy, this guy has a little mean streak
30:15
Speaker 2: and he can hit the ball hard. He plays good defense,
30:18
Speaker 2: there's a third basement also plays a little outfielder, And
30:21
Speaker 2: I just see him as a guy that like he's
30:22
Speaker 2: kind of dynamite, really fits into a clubhouse and he
30:25
Speaker 2: can make things happen. Now he just has he has
30:28
Speaker 2: one massive season. He's had some like good season lead
30:30
Speaker 2: that one massive MVP season. But from a card perspective,
30:34
Speaker 2: his markets already starting to heat up. He didn't play
30:37
Speaker 2: a ton in the in the WBC, he he kind
30:39
Speaker 2: of fit in. That's one of the interesting things with
30:41
Speaker 2: the Japanese team. They got all these guys, uh like
30:44
Speaker 2: Suzuki and Matsuzaka that are coming over from the MLB
30:49
Speaker 2: and not giving some of the MPB guys a chance
30:51
Speaker 2: to show their stuff. But he definitely was. When he played,
30:55
Speaker 2: he looked great. Uh So I'm really really excited about him.
30:58
Speaker 2: And yeah, his card markets really starting to go. People
31:02
Speaker 2: are getting excited about what what he can bring. And
31:05
Speaker 2: then Ito on the other side. The interesting thing with
31:10
Speaker 2: him is he is a small guy. From a pitching perspective,
31:13
Speaker 2: I think like Tim Linsim, he's five nine. He's more
31:17
Speaker 2: of a control artist. He's high floor or low ceiling.
31:21
Speaker 2: He's probably coming over to MLB. He's striking out like
31:24
Speaker 2: eight for nine, but he's keeping the walks in check,
31:26
Speaker 2: keeping a good whip, keeping the ball on the ground.
31:28
Speaker 2: So he's really gonna be that intings eater kind of
31:30
Speaker 2: guy that's really gonna fit in and be solid for you.
31:33
Speaker 2: But he's not gonna probably be like the cy Young.
31:36
Speaker 2: I mean, he did win the Japanese version of the
31:39
Speaker 2: cy Young's last year, which ironically didn't know until recently.
31:43
Speaker 2: They don't give that out every year. It's just one picture,
31:46
Speaker 2: and they if they don't think anybody qualify was good enough,
31:48
Speaker 2: they just don't give it out. I think we should
31:51
Speaker 2: start doing that with our Young NVP. Like you know what,
31:54
Speaker 2: there were some guys that did good, but nobody just
31:56
Speaker 2: blew us away, So sorry, nobody gets gets the prize.
31:59
Speaker 2: I don't like that approach that that feels very like
32:03
Speaker 2: Samurai ask over there.
32:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you're trying to go back and carve
32:07
Speaker 1: back Rick Puscello's cy Young.
32:09
Speaker 2: Award exactly, That's what I'm trying to do. But you
32:13
Speaker 2: know the same thing with Ito. I'm from a card perspective.
32:16
Speaker 2: I've not dived dove in this deep. I do have
32:17
Speaker 2: a handful of his cards as well. But I think
32:21
Speaker 2: both I know, I think both of them are have
32:24
Speaker 2: rookie cards back in twenty one if I recall, and
32:29
Speaker 2: that's the first year of kind of tops chrome MPB,
32:32
Speaker 2: so they're definitely sought after and they were and that
32:35
Speaker 2: was a good year's design. The one thing I would
32:37
Speaker 2: call out if you were trying to collect this market.
32:39
Speaker 2: It's very weird because the value outside of this, like
32:44
Speaker 2: one guy we've all talked about, sho Heyotani, which I
32:47
Speaker 2: don't think is the compu use for anything. To be clear,
32:49
Speaker 2: their values peak three times, which is really interesting. They
32:53
Speaker 2: peak when the news is announced that they're going to
32:55
Speaker 2: come over to the MLB, and like it'll do little
32:58
Speaker 2: things where they say they're going to come over and
33:00
Speaker 2: they're interested, but there's peaks when they say they're gonna
33:03
Speaker 2: come over and so you get a big old jump
33:04
Speaker 2: in the card prices and things, and then peaks again
33:07
Speaker 2: when they're actually posted, and then peaks the third time
33:10
Speaker 2: when they actually sign. It's really really interesting that there's
33:13
Speaker 2: like this EBB and flow to their market and everybody
33:17
Speaker 2: wants to be first. Everyone wants to have a chance
33:19
Speaker 2: at them buying window. It's still there, but it's definitely
33:24
Speaker 2: starting to close already in these guys. So if you
33:26
Speaker 2: are in from a card collecting perspective, the time was
33:29
Speaker 2: the last year to be collecting him if you want
33:33
Speaker 2: the next year. The guy I'm calling out Shoto Morishita,
33:36
Speaker 2: who also hit a home run in WBC. He's kind
33:39
Speaker 2: of next year or two after that. Shun Pieta Yashamashita
33:43
Speaker 2: also is another one there as well, probably one of
33:45
Speaker 2: the nastiest pitchers in NPB, but has injury issues, so
33:49
Speaker 2: we'll see if he if he holds that out. But
33:51
Speaker 2: both of these guys, I'm very, very excited to come over,
33:54
Speaker 2: just hoping that no workstoppage puts a halt to that.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well, great insights there. I think there's
34:00
Speaker 1: lots of things that people can take away from that
34:03
Speaker 1: because it is it's a fun market too, Like the
34:06
Speaker 1: cards are really fun if you're into card collecting. I
34:10
Speaker 1: think it's just really it's a good flavor to like
34:14
Speaker 1: mix it up from the standard releases that we get
34:17
Speaker 1: every year from Tops and Panini, and so it just
34:21
Speaker 1: creates a little bit more of like the thrill of
34:24
Speaker 1: the hunt if you will, to be able to bring
34:27
Speaker 1: some of these cards in and kind of understand something new.
34:29
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think those are all great site, great
34:33
Speaker 1: insights there. We do have a little bit of card
34:35
Speaker 1: news because actually a couple of big stories have happened
34:38
Speaker 1: in this past week. First, we had the record for
34:42
Speaker 1: a modern card sale and an auction occur with the
34:47
Speaker 1: Bowman Chrome Superfractor from twenty thirteen of Aaron Judge, the
34:52
Speaker 1: autograph going for just around five point two million dollars,
34:59
Speaker 1: which is I mean, it feels absurd, but like this
35:02
Speaker 1: is also the type of card where it's just among
35:05
Speaker 1: super collectors, and like it's only there's only a few
35:08
Speaker 1: folks I think in the entire world that can get
35:10
Speaker 1: their hands on this sort of thing, and it's a
35:13
Speaker 1: little bit like, I mean, it's obviously even rarer than
35:16
Speaker 1: like a Honus Wagner or a Mickey Mantle card because
35:19
Speaker 1: it is the super Fractor, it's the one of one.
35:22
Speaker 1: It is technically his Bowman first, even though it's not
35:24
Speaker 1: stamped that way, because it's the year before they started
35:27
Speaker 1: putting Bowman first on the cards, and so it's a
35:31
Speaker 1: little bit of like a if you're looking at it
35:33
Speaker 1: at first, and like, what's making this so valuable compared
35:35
Speaker 1: to all the other stuff is that it is the
35:38
Speaker 1: first card that Aaron Judge had, and within like the
35:42
Speaker 1: Yankees' uniform stuff, and it is the super Fractor and
35:46
Speaker 1: it's autographed, so it hits all the boxes. I think
35:49
Speaker 1: at this point too, like I mean, the price is
35:52
Speaker 1: going to start getting even crazier. I think for Otani cards,
35:55
Speaker 1: those don't really hit the market either, because like the
35:57
Speaker 1: Otani collectors that are out there had already hoovered up
36:01
Speaker 1: the pretty like big stuff, and I think that they're
36:04
Speaker 1: not really looking to get rid of it as opposed
36:06
Speaker 1: to Aaron Judge and especially like the Yankees of it all,
36:10
Speaker 1: there's a little bit more I think of, like just
36:13
Speaker 1: like a Bravado factor to having the Aaron Judge Yankees card,
36:17
Speaker 1: and Judge is going to go down as one of
36:19
Speaker 1: the great right handed hitters of all time. So I
36:21
Speaker 1: think it's probably I mean, obviously, I think this is
36:24
Speaker 1: a pretty solid investment caveat of like, I mean, we
36:28
Speaker 1: can see what happens when people's like personal lives sometimes
36:32
Speaker 1: come forward. That's maybe the only risk here with Aaron Judge.
36:34
Speaker 1: But as far as we're aware, there's nothing out there.
36:37
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here or did you were you
36:40
Speaker 1: the one that purchased.
36:40
Speaker 2: This I was not came up just slightly short by
36:44
Speaker 2: about five point one nine million, and I probably that's
36:48
Speaker 2: probably over underselling. But yeah, I mean, at the end
36:53
Speaker 2: of the day, this just shows you where the card
36:55
Speaker 2: market is anymore. It's a crazy spot because, in no
36:59
Speaker 2: disrespect to Aaron Judge, when you look at the top
37:02
Speaker 2: ten sports cards of all time, that is a list
37:04
Speaker 2: that is littered with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Mickey mannle
37:08
Speaker 2: Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Lebron James, and Aaron Judge. I
37:14
Speaker 2: I and don't nothing against Aaron Judge. It feels like
37:17
Speaker 2: it should be show hey, Tani, or it should be
37:19
Speaker 2: you know, it should be a different name in there.
37:21
Speaker 2: And so I think that there's like I need a
37:24
Speaker 2: list of market adjusted inflation justin card sales or something
37:27
Speaker 2: like that. Because the fact that an Aaron Judge cards
37:30
Speaker 2: sold for five point two million, but I think the highest,
37:32
Speaker 2: so Tani, was what around three something like that, It's like, yeah,
37:36
Speaker 2: there seems to be a need for that market correct.
37:38
Speaker 2: But it also just tells you how healthy card collecting
37:41
Speaker 2: is and how it's actually being seen as in an
37:43
Speaker 2: investment now as opposed to just collecting. And so I'm
37:47
Speaker 2: excited for for Aaron Judge that you know, this the
37:50
Speaker 2: values being seen to your point, like he's got a
37:54
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame career, there's no question about it. And
37:57
Speaker 2: this is probably the premium card. The only down for
38:00
Speaker 2: it doesn't say first on the card. It's just it's
38:02
Speaker 2: so hard because that's like the hallmark of Bowman and
38:05
Speaker 2: this was right before that, but still super fractor auto
38:08
Speaker 2: one to one. You can't really go wrong. Maybe for
38:11
Speaker 2: five and a half million, five point two million, I
38:13
Speaker 2: sure hope you didn't go wrong.
38:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And I mean this is gonna be like
38:18
Speaker 1: one of those cards that just kind of remains tracked
38:21
Speaker 1: over time, just kind of like that Mickey Mantle nineteen
38:23
Speaker 1: fifty two SGC nine and a half and like some
38:27
Speaker 1: of the big time Mantles and stuff like that, where
38:30
Speaker 1: they're designated like they've got an entire provenance behind them
38:34
Speaker 1: that really kind of goes with the card as well.
38:36
Speaker 1: And so it's just it's fascinating to see this one
38:39
Speaker 1: reach that pantheon because it is by far the youngest
38:42
Speaker 1: card in that you know, the next youngest card in
38:47
Speaker 1: that top ten is it's weird call them the youngest card,
38:49
Speaker 1: but maybe most recent is probably the better work. So
38:54
Speaker 1: most recent card is the seven oh eight Kobe and
38:57
Speaker 1: Jordan one of one logo man pack, which is also
39:02
Speaker 1: just an exquisite card. And so yeah, Aaron Judge enters
39:06
Speaker 1: that list, it will be fascinating to see where it
39:08
Speaker 1: remains on that list, because, like you said, there's gonna
39:11
Speaker 1: be some Otani cards where when they ever come to
39:14
Speaker 1: surface and come to market, they will certainly be pushing
39:18
Speaker 1: up this list very very rapidly. Now, the other piece
39:21
Speaker 1: of news we have is that there was a recent
39:23
Speaker 1: lawsuit filed against what Not, which is a spot where
39:28
Speaker 1: there are breaks and auctions and sales of cards. And
39:31
Speaker 1: that's really a lot of what's going on there by
39:35
Speaker 1: Paul LESCo, who I mean, he does also market himself
39:39
Speaker 1: as the hobby lawyer, so kind of keep that in mind. Well,
39:42
Speaker 1: we're discussing the story that there is a pr aspect
39:44
Speaker 1: behind it, but he is issuing what Not for it being
39:48
Speaker 1: an illicit kind of gambling site and trying to sue
39:53
Speaker 1: them under some of the RICO statutes. And I mean,
39:56
Speaker 1: we've talked about this several times in terms of like
40:00
Speaker 1: what the hobby is nowadays. And I'm not surprised because
40:02
Speaker 1: like it's just fascinating to see it in comparison to
40:05
Speaker 1: like the rest of the world, with like some of
40:07
Speaker 1: these call she markets and other things that are kicking
40:11
Speaker 1: around out there in the investment finance space that they
40:18
Speaker 1: are gambling, And so I'm not surprised that this lawsuit
40:21
Speaker 1: came up. You do also wonder, I mean, if Paul
40:23
Speaker 1: Leusco is feeling good about this case and does well
40:25
Speaker 1: with it, how far away is he from going after
40:29
Speaker 1: fanatics and tops and eba.
40:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that is true.
40:34
Speaker 1: That's a good point with eBay Live. I mean, at
40:36
Speaker 1: least with the auctions, like it's a little bit more
40:38
Speaker 1: of like a auction house. But that is a good
40:40
Speaker 1: point with eBay Live. But what's your take here on
40:43
Speaker 1: this lawsuit and thoughts on kind of like what not?
40:47
Speaker 1: In general, we don't talk about as much as about whatnot,
40:50
Speaker 1: but it is certainly a big source of how people
40:53
Speaker 1: get cards and lose money on cards.
40:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if if you start with the platform himself,
40:58
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever bought cards and whatnot,
41:00
Speaker 2: And I've got cards on probably every platform and mumple
41:05
Speaker 2: countries like I've got a problem. But I don't think
41:09
Speaker 2: I've ever bought a card on Whatnot and felt good
41:12
Speaker 2: about it, like a few days later when I got
41:14
Speaker 2: the card. It's it's there's just something about the rapid
41:18
Speaker 2: decision making, not being able to look at somebody like
41:22
Speaker 2: you would in a card show face to face and
41:24
Speaker 2: have a conversation make something. There's just something about that
41:27
Speaker 2: that you feel this pressure to buy because you're on camera,
41:31
Speaker 2: you're you're going live. Even if somebody's just shuffling through
41:34
Speaker 2: and showing you cards, you just feel this pressure. And
41:38
Speaker 2: you have so much, so little time to actually evaluate
41:41
Speaker 2: a card in the auction space there that it's easy
41:45
Speaker 2: to be like, oh, this is something special, then get
41:47
Speaker 2: caught up and I want this, and by the time
41:48
Speaker 2: you realize what you've actually bought, you realize you played
41:50
Speaker 2: three X on a card. And so it is just
41:53
Speaker 2: a very difficult platform to buy on. And there's almost
41:57
Speaker 2: more of this like cult following. People are just there
42:00
Speaker 2: for the excitement of it and seeing the cards, and
42:03
Speaker 2: so I think it's a challenging platform. As far as
42:06
Speaker 2: the lawsuit itself, I you have to give a little
42:09
Speaker 2: the side eye because like, Okay, you're you're stretching here.
42:12
Speaker 2: But based on what I just said, I think it
42:15
Speaker 2: is there's a challenge with the the way that it's
42:19
Speaker 2: run in the and the way people have used it,
42:22
Speaker 2: which is going to go under some scrutiny. Do I
42:24
Speaker 2: think this lawsuit will win, not whatsoever, because they're they're
42:29
Speaker 2: not it's not a gambling something like that. People are
42:31
Speaker 2: making choices here, but it has very much analogies to
42:36
Speaker 2: the poor choices in the in the addictive nature of gambling.
42:40
Speaker 2: So I think there's a lot of corollaries there. But
42:42
Speaker 2: as far as like reco laws and things like that, No,
42:44
Speaker 2: that it doesn't hit those things, those those those aren't
42:47
Speaker 2: real here and whatnot's been around for so long for
42:51
Speaker 2: different markets, from selling purses to clothing to different things
42:55
Speaker 2: like it's it's kind of proven its metal. But I
42:59
Speaker 2: do think this is gonna be interesting, interesting to watch.
43:01
Speaker 2: I just don't. I think this is more show and
43:04
Speaker 2: marketing than anything from a lawyer perspective.
43:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean there is also like I think,
43:11
Speaker 1: especially what Lesco's focused on too, are some of the
43:14
Speaker 1: repacks that happened, which I mean certainly that is, it's
43:17
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like you are, don't know
43:21
Speaker 1: what's getting kind of coming out of them. And I
43:23
Speaker 1: think the other component with Whatnot too is when you're
43:25
Speaker 1: buying stuff over a video platform and things like that,
43:28
Speaker 1: is that you can't inspect the products quite as much,
43:31
Speaker 1: and so there's just there's a lot of shady things
43:33
Speaker 1: that happen and can happen on Whatnot that if I
43:37
Speaker 1: had more faith in just our general ecosystem of lawmaking
43:41
Speaker 1: and everything right now currently in America, I do think
43:44
Speaker 1: that like there would be a chance that there would
43:47
Speaker 1: be tighter regulation around this for Whatnot and fanatics Live
43:51
Speaker 1: and eBay and all these kind of different outlets that
43:55
Speaker 1: have been able to generate revenues off of this, And
43:59
Speaker 1: I mean it's it certainly is taking advantage of people
44:02
Speaker 1: who are gamblers and having a gambling addiction, and it's
44:06
Speaker 1: just kind of poured it over to cards. So it
44:09
Speaker 1: is a very very dangerous space that I think needs regulation. Honestly, Yeah,
44:13
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't just threw it at all.
44:14
Speaker 2: Like if you were to tell me the regulation was
44:17
Speaker 2: coming out, I mean, yep, yeah, waiting for that, Like
44:19
Speaker 2: I'm not shocked about that at all in some some
44:22
Speaker 2: type of control environment and some buyer protection. But that's
44:27
Speaker 2: where you know, sites like eBay, even like I'm a
44:31
Speaker 2: car or collects or things like that, they all have
44:34
Speaker 2: fail safes for buyers and what not's the one that doesn't,
44:37
Speaker 2: And I think that's the that's the big thing here
44:40
Speaker 2: is that eBay, like as a buyer you can basically
44:43
Speaker 2: do whatever, like it's really hard to uh not get
44:48
Speaker 2: your way as a buyer, which is hard for sellers sometimes.
44:50
Speaker 2: But there's good things there. I mean, I just I
44:52
Speaker 2: sold a card the other day and then I got
44:53
Speaker 2: responded like an hour later and canceled because he realized
44:56
Speaker 2: he already have the card, Like well, I'm not fighting.
44:58
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, here's your money back. Like it's
45:01
Speaker 2: just it's not worth it because they're really going to
45:03
Speaker 2: protect the buyer, which is fair, and a lot of
45:06
Speaker 2: these other platforms don't release funds to the sellers until
45:10
Speaker 2: after the cards arrived and they've been raided and things
45:12
Speaker 2: like that, which really do protect the integrity of it.
45:15
Speaker 2: So if the card has damage or something like that,
45:17
Speaker 2: you're you're perfectly in the right to say nope, I
45:21
Speaker 2: don't want this and send it back whatnot. There is
45:23
Speaker 2: no repercussions whatsoever. You as long as you put something
45:27
Speaker 2: in envelope and send it to them with some tracking,
45:29
Speaker 2: you're fine.
45:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so yeah, I'll be fascinating to see kind
45:32
Speaker 1: of where this goes. And like I said, I do
45:35
Speaker 1: wonder if it's also a case of where LESCo is
45:39
Speaker 1: trying to build it up to start going after maybe
45:42
Speaker 1: some of the bigger like Fanatics Live, and I think
45:45
Speaker 1: especially like where Fanatics and Tops could run into eventual
45:50
Speaker 1: trouble is some sort of like monopoly situation, especially just
45:54
Speaker 1: the way that they've really taken over all the vertical space.
45:59
Speaker 2: Yea, that's probably if you told me that's what's the lawsuit,
46:02
Speaker 2: I would buy that day.
46:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it is like they have gotten into where
46:08
Speaker 1: it was always like it was removed for Tops in
46:11
Speaker 1: terms of the gambling and because the brakes, I mean,
46:15
Speaker 1: even if those breakers are doing a little bit more
46:17
Speaker 1: of the gambling, like it was never involved directly with
46:20
Speaker 1: Tops and Live and Fanatics Live, and just like the
46:24
Speaker 1: supplier of directly of the products being involved in that
46:29
Speaker 1: is just very very strange and very very shady that
46:32
Speaker 1: like it creates lots of slippery slopes and lots of
46:36
Speaker 1: areas where it's just ripe for exploitation, and people who
46:40
Speaker 1: have these addictions and have just not necessarily the the
46:46
Speaker 1: full picture, I think too from tops and fanatics and
46:49
Speaker 1: kind of we're starting to see it even more and
46:50
Speaker 1: more on every product release, where some of the odds
46:53
Speaker 1: are tough to track down, some of the odds are not.
46:56
Speaker 1: They used to be printed directly on the on the products,
46:59
Speaker 1: on the packages. That has started to disappear very rapidly
47:02
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years. I've noticed that, like
47:04
Speaker 1: it's really it's hard to find a pack or a
47:07
Speaker 1: box that even has them listed. Partly is because like
47:10
Speaker 1: they're so close to like printing the you know, finalizing
47:15
Speaker 1: the set, printing the set, putting it into the boxes
47:19
Speaker 1: that like I think they just don't know something else
47:22
Speaker 1: have time, and so there's that factor too, But that's
47:25
Speaker 1: not a good excuse that, Like I do think that,
47:28
Speaker 1: like there are lots of things happening in the space
47:31
Speaker 1: of card collecting where I mean it's also not only
47:34
Speaker 1: to protect just people in general, but like it's so
47:39
Speaker 1: short sighted I think in terms of like if you
47:41
Speaker 1: want to extract all these dollars out of people quickly?
47:45
Speaker 1: Was that due for card collecting down in the future,
47:48
Speaker 1: when you know, people realize like, oh, these things aren't
47:51
Speaker 1: worth anything and you've totally like wrecked your own product
47:56
Speaker 1: from out underneath your feet. So it's a very fascinating
47:59
Speaker 1: business case study. I think in the future coming on
48:02
Speaker 1: Tops and fanatics and maybe even what not too. So
48:06
Speaker 1: we will take a break here, we will be back
48:09
Speaker 1: on the other side to discuss one of the stops products,
48:12
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six Tops Heritage, dropping everywhere in stores March
48:16
Speaker 1: eighteenth today. Stick around, all right, Welcome back everybody. We
48:38
Speaker 1: are going to dive right into the overview of twenty
48:41
Speaker 1: twenty six Tops Heritage, which is in stores everywhere on
48:46
Speaker 1: March eighteenth, that is the day that we're speaking. So
48:49
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, obviously you probably didn't get
48:51
Speaker 1: into the first wave, but maybe you bought them in
48:53
Speaker 1: your I hope there's some listeners that are in there
48:56
Speaker 1: out there now that like, buy the product, wait for
48:58
Speaker 1: our pod to drop, listen to it while they're ripping,
49:01
Speaker 1: get a little bit of the details, and that way
49:03
Speaker 1: they don't have to go to Beckett and flip back
49:05
Speaker 1: and forth to know every parallel that's in the product
49:08
Speaker 1: and kind of what the short prints and chase cards are.
49:10
Speaker 1: That would be if you're out there doing that, hit
49:13
Speaker 1: us up on the email because we would love to
49:14
Speaker 1: hear your story. But from the actual set this itself
49:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six TOPS Heritage, we're looking at a pretty
49:22
Speaker 1: standard annual release here from TOPS. I would say that,
49:26
Speaker 1: like right behind Flagship, this is probably one of the
49:30
Speaker 1: most anticipated releases along you know, with Chrome and Bowman,
49:35
Speaker 1: because it is a staple. This is the twenty fifth
49:38
Speaker 1: year of TOPS Heritage. It started back in two thousand
49:41
Speaker 1: and one when it was the fiftieth anniversary of TOPS,
49:44
Speaker 1: so it's always going to fall nicely and neatly with
49:48
Speaker 1: the round numbers in terms of anniversaries. It is the
49:52
Speaker 1: seventy fifth anniversary year for TOPS on that flagship product,
49:55
Speaker 1: and we are looking at another four hundred card set
49:58
Speaker 1: with one hundred short print, which is pre standard and Heritage.
50:01
Speaker 1: The one change is they used to just put the
50:04
Speaker 1: hundred short prints on the end of the checklist, so
50:07
Speaker 1: it's pretty easy to identify and say, oh, this card
50:11
Speaker 1: is three oh one through four hundred or all three
50:14
Speaker 1: hundred through four hundred or you know, I don't remember
50:17
Speaker 1: the exact math off the top of my head, but
50:20
Speaker 1: it was very you just knew the number went in
50:25
Speaker 1: was a short print. Now it's scattered, it's random, so
50:28
Speaker 1: there's a checklist there. It is in our show notes.
50:31
Speaker 1: It's also like it's buried in the check it or
50:34
Speaker 1: the Beckett checklist where they've got the star next to
50:37
Speaker 1: everyone that is the short print, which is honestly really confusing.
50:40
Speaker 1: But thankfully somebody from the internet out there put together
50:43
Speaker 1: the full list of short prints to chase. So if
50:45
Speaker 1: you are a set collector, I think that's crucial so
50:48
Speaker 1: that you know which ones are actual short prints and
50:52
Speaker 1: driving you mad. But you can tell I'm a little
50:55
Speaker 1: iffy on this. I thought it was nice and smooth
50:57
Speaker 1: to have the hundred short prints all in a row.
50:59
Speaker 1: What's your take on this, this mixing of the short
51:03
Speaker 1: prints in with the regular run of cards.
51:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not too upset about it because one of
51:08
Speaker 2: the things I used to really like about Heritage was
51:11
Speaker 2: it was kind of like a little, you know, mystery
51:15
Speaker 2: hunt to try to find short prints and oddities and
51:18
Speaker 2: things like that. And then when they started to turn
51:20
Speaker 2: like the cards around in the packs, or they started
51:23
Speaker 2: to put like the details on the back of like
51:24
Speaker 2: the nickname variations and things like that. It it just
51:28
Speaker 2: took away that like i'll say, second opening to the
51:31
Speaker 2: product for me, because I love to open it. You
51:34
Speaker 2: go through it and you're like, man, I probably missed
51:36
Speaker 2: something because Heritage always hides things in here, and you're
51:38
Speaker 2: just like looking every card in detail trying to find
51:40
Speaker 2: out what you miss Like that was just always a
51:42
Speaker 2: fun aspect of heritage for me, So I'll take a
51:45
Speaker 2: little that kind of coming back the other way. At
51:47
Speaker 2: the end of the day, the short prints really aren't
51:50
Speaker 2: that exciting from a short print perspective. There's still a
51:53
Speaker 2: ton of them. I'm sure I haven't seen kind of
51:55
Speaker 2: what it means to be a short print, how few
51:57
Speaker 2: of those there are. But traditionally it's like one in
52:00
Speaker 2: every two packs you're getting a short print. So it's
52:02
Speaker 2: not that short printed overall, but still it's a little
52:06
Speaker 2: fun twist. I'm not too upset this.
52:08
Speaker 1: Year, okay. Yeah. And then we've also got other set
52:12
Speaker 1: details are it's based on the nineteen seventy seven tops design,
52:15
Speaker 1: so that's always done in Heritage where they recreate a design.
52:18
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with the nineteen seventy seven design,
52:22
Speaker 1: I'll do my best to describe it, which is you've
52:24
Speaker 1: got a white border and all of them will have
52:27
Speaker 1: a little pennant up on the top along with the
52:30
Speaker 1: name of the team on the top and a big
52:33
Speaker 1: old font. It's all capital letters orangish usually like for
52:37
Speaker 1: the Yankees, and you know you're looking at just lots
52:40
Speaker 1: of big, bright, bold colors, lots of It's got like
52:44
Speaker 1: a kind of modern cartoon vibe where it reminds me
52:47
Speaker 1: a lot of like some of the like Looney Tunes
52:52
Speaker 1: and Tom and Jerry kind of cartoons that came out
52:55
Speaker 1: around that time, and it'll carry over into the set.
52:58
Speaker 1: I really like some of the the actual like inserts
53:01
Speaker 1: and stuff like that that are a part of this
53:03
Speaker 1: set because the designs are not boring where they have
53:06
Speaker 1: been pouring previously the past couple of times that we've
53:09
Speaker 1: done heritage that like they just kind of blob, but
53:11
Speaker 1: they pop. There's an artistic element to them. The nineteen
53:15
Speaker 1: seventy seven design is pretty is pretty popular. It's got
53:18
Speaker 1: some big time rookies. It's also got one of the
53:21
Speaker 1: the it's actually the first Yankees card for Reggie Jackson.
53:26
Speaker 1: It was also like a part of back in the
53:27
Speaker 1: day in the seventies when it was a big time
53:29
Speaker 1: to chase the All Stars within the set that they
53:32
Speaker 1: were usually a little bit rarer. They were on round
53:35
Speaker 1: numbers that there was like a symmetry to those all
53:38
Speaker 1: Stars then will have all Star sharp short prints here
53:41
Speaker 1: on the design. They've also got other variations per usual
53:45
Speaker 1: on the heritage design that we'll get into when we
53:49
Speaker 1: talk about some of the parallels and different types of
53:53
Speaker 1: cards for each base card. But what's your take on
53:56
Speaker 1: the seventy seven set, Because it's got big time fans
54:01
Speaker 1: and it's got big time detractors. I think I'm kind
54:03
Speaker 1: of somewhere in the middle. It's a it's a fine
54:05
Speaker 1: design to me, But what do you think about the
54:08
Speaker 1: seventy seven design?
54:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately, I'm more the detractor of the seventy seven design.
54:12
Speaker 2: Like for me, as I look through the years, like
54:15
Speaker 2: it's right in that range where I consider it going
54:19
Speaker 2: from vintage to like slightly not vintage, going into overprinted
54:25
Speaker 2: like cards and like I'm not sure where like nineteen
54:29
Speaker 2: seventy five design that's still vintage to me, seventy six,
54:33
Speaker 2: seventy seven, seventy eight, it started to go away from that.
54:37
Speaker 2: I feel like seventy nine to eighty kind of went back,
54:40
Speaker 2: did a good job, felt vintage again, and then they
54:42
Speaker 2: just completely fall off the cliff in the eighties. And
54:45
Speaker 2: so that's that's where I struggle. It's not that exciting,
54:48
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of a funny design. I don't I
54:50
Speaker 2: have a hard time believing it's from the seventies. It
54:53
Speaker 2: feels like it's more in the eighties when they were
54:54
Speaker 2: kind of switching things up. Whenever I find these, I'm
54:58
Speaker 2: just like, ah, this is a eighty four. I don't
55:00
Speaker 2: know what year I think it is. It just doesn't
55:02
Speaker 2: feel like that vintage. And so that's where it throws
55:06
Speaker 2: me off. And it just it doesn't excite me. It doesn't.
55:09
Speaker 2: And I don't know why it's any different for like
55:11
Speaker 2: your seventy one or your seventy three or anything like that,
55:14
Speaker 2: which aren't that crazy of designs. They just feel more vintage.
55:18
Speaker 2: Maybe it's the players, but I seventy seven just doesn't
55:22
Speaker 2: doesn't get me excited, except for everything's terribly off center
55:25
Speaker 2: from that set. So that's that's the one thing I'll
55:28
Speaker 2: tell you.
55:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is. And it's also like if there's
55:32
Speaker 1: one like detraction I do have, is like the pennant
55:35
Speaker 1: that always has like where the position of the player
55:39
Speaker 1: is is just it takes up a lot of weird
55:41
Speaker 1: space within the card design and the border, so it
55:45
Speaker 1: kind of like offsets a little bit, but it is fun.
55:47
Speaker 1: I like the pennant. I like the big bold letters.
55:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think when we get into the inserts too,
55:54
Speaker 1: a lot of the inserts actually have more of like
55:55
Speaker 1: a sixties five to me than a seventies five, which
55:58
Speaker 1: is fun and interesting, but like it's gonna be I
56:03
Speaker 1: think there. Like I said, there are lots of fans
56:06
Speaker 1: of this design too, so like I think it harkens
56:09
Speaker 1: back lots of great memories for people where the seventy
56:12
Speaker 1: seven design was a crucial portion of their childhood. Let's
56:16
Speaker 1: get into some of the other details of this set.
56:19
Speaker 1: So I've said that and sour us everywhere because this
56:21
Speaker 1: one is ubiquitous. It is like flagship Heritage will be
56:25
Speaker 1: at all your big box retailers. It will also be
56:27
Speaker 1: at your hobby stores. You've got the opportunity to buy
56:30
Speaker 1: hobby boxes, megaboxes, blaster boxes, hangars, and fat packs. It's
56:37
Speaker 1: actually they've down the number of packs again here in
56:40
Speaker 1: the hobby box. You still do get your one hit
56:43
Speaker 1: per hobby box, either a relic or an auto, probably
56:47
Speaker 1: a relic and so so, but it is from twenty
56:51
Speaker 1: it's down from twenty four to twenty packs in that
56:54
Speaker 1: box as well as the blasters are down from nine
56:57
Speaker 1: packs to eight packs. So there's actually there's a great
57:01
Speaker 1: Reddit user out there who his name is cel Dude.
57:06
Speaker 1: He goes Yale Man's work putting together all the odds
57:10
Speaker 1: and the print runs that he's kind of picked up
57:14
Speaker 1: in this space, and I always appreciate all of his insights.
57:17
Speaker 1: It's linked down in the show notes, so you can
57:19
Speaker 1: see all the gory details that he put together. But
57:23
Speaker 1: technically the production run here on twenty twenty six Heritage
57:26
Speaker 1: is down from twenty five, but the number of boxes
57:29
Speaker 1: is up because they down the number of cards within
57:33
Speaker 1: those hobbies and within those blasters, something that we've also
57:36
Speaker 1: kind of seen with Flagship Series one where they've been
57:39
Speaker 1: fiddling with the number of cards that you're getting, so
57:42
Speaker 1: it feels like you're getting a decent price, but it's
57:45
Speaker 1: shrinkflation hitting baseball cards. So I think it's a trend
57:49
Speaker 1: here for twenty twenty six. Welcome because I can guarantee
57:53
Speaker 1: you that it's gonna keep going through Tops, Chrome and
57:55
Speaker 1: the rest of the flagships. That also just a bummer
57:58
Speaker 1: because if you're putting together full sets, makes it way
58:02
Speaker 1: way harder. You used to be able to do it
58:04
Speaker 1: off of one jumbo usually for sets that had them,
58:07
Speaker 1: probably gonna be less likely here in twenty twenty six.
58:11
Speaker 1: So what are your thoughts here on the degradation of
58:14
Speaker 1: the number of cards you're getting for your dollars?
58:17
Speaker 2: On a little mixed because overall the concept I don't
58:20
Speaker 2: like because of what it means, because they're overprinting and
58:22
Speaker 2: they're trying to figure out how to get the dollar
58:24
Speaker 2: out of it. The only thing that I'm a little
58:27
Speaker 2: bit okay with is is bringing back down the overall
58:29
Speaker 2: prices of some of the boxes and the accessibility. So
58:32
Speaker 2: when you're talking about value boxes at twenty five dollars,
58:35
Speaker 2: hangars at fifteen, fat packs at seven, they're still a
58:38
Speaker 2: little bit over for what they were maybe like six
58:40
Speaker 2: seven years ago when you were talking about like twenty
58:42
Speaker 2: dollars value boxes and twelve dollars hangars and you know,
58:46
Speaker 2: six dollars fat packs things like that. So it's kind
58:49
Speaker 2: of brought them back into that range where you're like
58:51
Speaker 2: I might go in the store, I might pick up
58:53
Speaker 2: a box and rip it and I don't feel like
58:55
Speaker 2: I'm out fifty bucks. Like, well, the Mega you are.
58:58
Speaker 2: But like so I think that Mega only big? Yeah,
59:03
Speaker 2: well the Mega like that, I mean, has what seventeen
59:05
Speaker 2: packs in that box? Yeah, you're fine, Uh, there's might
59:08
Speaker 2: one card per packetter. I don't know, but I do
59:12
Speaker 2: think that that's made a little bit more excessive. So
59:14
Speaker 2: I do applaud them for bringing that price point back down.
59:18
Speaker 2: And I see what they're trying to do to your point,
59:20
Speaker 2: like I feel like I should get a little bit more.
59:22
Speaker 2: I feel like you should get some more hits for that.
59:23
Speaker 2: That still is a little bit lacking overall from a
59:26
Speaker 2: price point.
59:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well let's get into the different designs and
59:31
Speaker 1: variations that we've got. I'll let you kind of prep
59:34
Speaker 1: a little bit for the Rainbow Run. It is shorter
59:36
Speaker 1: for heritage, so we're not going to be ratting off
59:39
Speaker 1: fifty five parallels. That they keep things a little bit
59:42
Speaker 1: more in check on Heritage. But the variations that we're
59:45
Speaker 1: looking at is you've got twenty cards with all Star
59:48
Speaker 1: logo variations like I was talking about, those are going
59:51
Speaker 1: to be super popular. It is the biggest names that
59:54
Speaker 1: is true, All Stars, and especially given the popularity of
59:58
Speaker 1: Heritage just overall, people love chasing down these short prints,
1:00:01
Speaker 1: so those are gonna be big ones. You've also got
1:00:03
Speaker 1: your image variations coming through again this year, where usually
1:00:08
Speaker 1: the pictures, and it's starting to get a little bit
1:00:10
Speaker 1: more towards like action pictures because it's following the tops
1:00:14
Speaker 1: designs from the past where you know, they used to
1:00:17
Speaker 1: just have photos from photo day that they use on
1:00:20
Speaker 1: baseball cards, and then you know, as you progress through
1:00:22
Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties, you've got more and more action
1:00:24
Speaker 1: shots happening as you know, photography came further and further along.
1:00:28
Speaker 1: So you're starting to see that a little bit within
1:00:30
Speaker 1: the actual base cards where you're starting to get a
1:00:33
Speaker 1: little bit more action in those cards. But you still
1:00:35
Speaker 1: have the image variations, which are also called action image
1:00:40
Speaker 1: variations in some Heritage sets. So you've got fifty of those.
1:00:45
Speaker 1: You've got twenty alternative banner cards where the actual banner
1:00:50
Speaker 1: color that I was talking about, that little pennant that's
1:00:53
Speaker 1: in the top corner of every card. It's a different
1:00:56
Speaker 1: color on these variations. That's a set of twenty. We've
1:00:59
Speaker 1: all so got nickname variations, which the CAGs one is cool.
1:01:04
Speaker 1: I think my favorite one that I found is the
1:01:07
Speaker 1: variation of Josh Naylor. He's the uh, the Missawaga Masher.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: So that's a because he is from Canada, So that's
1:01:16
Speaker 1: a that's a set of ten cards that you're gonna
1:01:19
Speaker 1: have nickname variations on the front. Throwback jersey variations. This
1:01:23
Speaker 1: is where you have throwback jerseys on the picture of
1:01:25
Speaker 1: the card. Ten of those you've got black and white
1:01:28
Speaker 1: image variations. Forty of those where guess what, the cards
1:01:32
Speaker 1: in black and white, and so those are gonna be
1:01:36
Speaker 1: your variations. I think that the hardest ones are gonna
1:01:39
Speaker 1: be the shorter number of card runs. So like the
1:01:43
Speaker 1: the nicknames are tens, the throwback jerseys are ten and
1:01:47
Speaker 1: usually let me see actually what our bro cell dude says,
1:01:52
Speaker 1: because actually I've got that wrong. Though black and white
1:01:55
Speaker 1: variations is roughly thirty five of those. There's roughly thirty
1:01:59
Speaker 1: five of the throwb accuracies. Roughly seventeen hundred and fifty
1:02:03
Speaker 1: each of the All Star base image alternate banner and
1:02:07
Speaker 1: nickname variations, so that gives you a sense of like
1:02:09
Speaker 1: which ones are gonna be hard to hit, and which
1:02:12
Speaker 1: ones if you get them, whether or not to be excited,
1:02:15
Speaker 1: because those are all unnumbered as well, so they are
1:02:18
Speaker 1: all just short print generally. But the nice thing is
1:02:22
Speaker 1: that you can figure out the number of cards out
1:02:25
Speaker 1: there by looking at those odds when you're able to
1:02:27
Speaker 1: get your hands on them. And so, like you said,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: those cards, they used to be much harder to distinguish
1:02:33
Speaker 1: from the rest of the packs because they used to
1:02:35
Speaker 1: just be mixed in with the other cards and they
1:02:38
Speaker 1: were not labeled. Some of them you would be able
1:02:41
Speaker 1: to tell from a very specific code or something. But
1:02:45
Speaker 1: these ones much easier now. They'll be flipped backwards in
1:02:48
Speaker 1: your pack. They'll be right next to the inserts once
1:02:51
Speaker 1: you start opening up cards. I think you know what
1:02:53
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, is that all your inserts and your
1:02:56
Speaker 1: hits are in the middle of that pack, and they're
1:02:58
Speaker 1: always in the same spot from the COVID. In addition,
1:03:01
Speaker 1: they should have a code on the back by the
1:03:04
Speaker 1: number of the card to tell you which the image
1:03:07
Speaker 1: variation it is. So I think all of these are
1:03:10
Speaker 1: pretty much repeats, except for the all Star logo one,
1:03:13
Speaker 1: which is obviously a little more tied to seventy seven.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: Any of these really stand out to you, or if
1:03:17
Speaker 1: you found any other cool nickname or other color variations
1:03:22
Speaker 1: that have popped to you as you've been scouring eBay.
1:03:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll say that the one nickname various that jumps
1:03:28
Speaker 2: out to me, and it is a pretty big chase here,
1:03:30
Speaker 2: has got to be Roman Anthony. You got the Roman
1:03:32
Speaker 2: Empire card, which is just is just a fun nickname,
1:03:36
Speaker 2: And so I guess the better the nickname, the better
1:03:38
Speaker 2: the card type of thing. And I am a sucker
1:03:41
Speaker 2: for just different jersey variations. So the throwback jersey, which
1:03:44
Speaker 2: again they're much harder, fine, pretty rare, but anything with
1:03:48
Speaker 2: the throwback jersey is just a fun card to have.
1:03:50
Speaker 2: So those are probably the ones that jump out to me.
1:03:53
Speaker 2: The other ones, I think they are still fun, the images,
1:03:56
Speaker 2: the banners, things like that, but again I think a
1:03:59
Speaker 2: lot of the fun you to be trying to figure
1:04:00
Speaker 2: out what it was, as opposed to the actual design
1:04:03
Speaker 2: on the card and they've taken it a little bit
1:04:05
Speaker 2: of that away. But again I'll lean into the nicknames
1:04:08
Speaker 2: and the throwback jersey variations. I think those are pretty
1:04:11
Speaker 2: cool and pretty pretty gust aroun collectible. The thing to
1:04:13
Speaker 2: remember as you're hunting for these out in the wild,
1:04:15
Speaker 2: they're not numbered, So a lot of folks they open
1:04:19
Speaker 2: these packs, they're not doing the education. They're not looking.
1:04:22
Speaker 2: They don't know what they have. If you're out there
1:04:24
Speaker 2: shopping for them, be educated. Know what you're getting after here,
1:04:28
Speaker 2: because there's a big difference between nickname variation a throwback jersey,
1:04:32
Speaker 2: and that pricing should be substantially different when you're out
1:04:35
Speaker 2: there hunting the wild.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the other thing too is since I've sent
1:04:41
Speaker 1: you down to those show notes a few times, you've
1:04:42
Speaker 1: probably already seen this, but there is a link to
1:04:45
Speaker 1: the related post on Rasball that goes with this. I'll
1:04:48
Speaker 1: have a picture of that Josh Naylor card that I'm
1:04:50
Speaker 1: talking about in that post, as well as some of
1:04:52
Speaker 1: the other variations that we've talked about, so you can
1:04:55
Speaker 1: kind of get a little bit of a sense of
1:04:58
Speaker 1: what they're going for. And then, especially when we get
1:05:00
Speaker 1: into these insert design discussions and some of the other
1:05:04
Speaker 1: designs that we've still got to cover, you're gonna want
1:05:06
Speaker 1: to look at them, because it's gonna be harder and
1:05:08
Speaker 1: harder to describe that. The simplicity of the nineteen seventy
1:05:11
Speaker 1: seven design was easy to share via the spoken word,
1:05:17
Speaker 1: which honestly, maybe we didn't even still do that great
1:05:20
Speaker 1: of a job. But as we get into these more
1:05:23
Speaker 1: and more complicated cards, go into those show notes, click
1:05:26
Speaker 1: on the post and you'll be able to see exactly
1:05:27
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. I usually also line it up
1:05:30
Speaker 1: very nicely for everybody that like, when we talk about
1:05:33
Speaker 1: the type of card, it's kind of in order with
1:05:35
Speaker 1: the podcast. So I'm just trying to make it easy
1:05:37
Speaker 1: for everybody out there listen along with all that, you
1:05:41
Speaker 1: ready for this Rainbow run. Like I said, it's pretty limited,
1:05:44
Speaker 1: so you're not looking at a million different parallels, but
1:05:47
Speaker 1: you will have base parallels and chrome parallels that are
1:05:50
Speaker 1: separate and this should apply to every single card in
1:05:53
Speaker 1: the foreigned card set. Hit them with that run brew.
1:05:57
Speaker 2: All right, let's go through here. So we'll start with
1:05:59
Speaker 2: the base parallels. So these are your base cards, not
1:06:02
Speaker 2: your chrome versions. First of all, we have the black
1:06:04
Speaker 2: border Paeril, which is a Hoby exclusive. I will call
1:06:06
Speaker 2: it a few odds here. Black borders are limited to
1:06:10
Speaker 2: fifty each, not numbered, but they are limited to fifty each.
1:06:12
Speaker 2: Those are pretty highly collectible. Also hobby exclusive. You have
1:06:16
Speaker 2: a dark gray bordered Value Box exclusive, dark green and
1:06:20
Speaker 2: dark yellow. In the fat pack. You have your decal edge,
1:06:23
Speaker 2: which I believe is new this year. And you have
1:06:24
Speaker 2: a flip stock which if you find those, they are
1:06:26
Speaker 2: limited to five each, but it is not numbered, so
1:06:29
Speaker 2: that's a little steaky one there. Either light purple border,
1:06:33
Speaker 2: you have your red border coming out of the megabox,
1:06:35
Speaker 2: and then Color of the Year, which is a heritage
1:06:38
Speaker 2: orange out of seventy seven. You can figure out where
1:06:42
Speaker 2: they got that from with a Sunday seven design.
1:06:43
Speaker 1: That's also one you should go to the show notes
1:06:46
Speaker 1: and click on the post for that because it's also
1:06:48
Speaker 1: got a seventy seven like in the border. And they're pretty,
1:06:52
Speaker 1: they're sharp, especially I think if you get it in
1:06:55
Speaker 1: an orange team, they're gonna pop. They already do kind
1:06:58
Speaker 1: of pop. And this is also what I'm talking about.
1:06:59
Speaker 1: That kind of like funky, like almost Scooby Do comes
1:07:05
Speaker 1: to mind too, like there you go pop up color.
1:07:08
Speaker 1: There is a lot of funk in these cards. And
1:07:10
Speaker 1: the seventy seven the color of the year orange, seventy
1:07:14
Speaker 1: of seventy sevens they show it.
1:07:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is like some of those Jersey number variations
1:07:19
Speaker 2: we've seen the last reeent flagships where they just have
1:07:22
Speaker 2: numbers all over them. So seventy seven all over it,
1:07:25
Speaker 2: but chrumb parallels. Let's go through there. We have bass chrome,
1:07:29
Speaker 2: we have refractor. We have the aqua sparkle, the burgundy sparkle,
1:07:32
Speaker 2: the light blue sparkle, a pink sparkle, and silver sparkle.
1:07:35
Speaker 2: We have a lot of sparkle in this set. Then
1:07:37
Speaker 2: we get into our number. We have blue bordered out
1:07:39
Speaker 2: of one, fifty, green out of ninety nine, black out
1:07:42
Speaker 2: of seventy seven, gold out of fifty, You have your
1:07:45
Speaker 2: orange out of twenty five, red out of five, and
1:07:48
Speaker 2: then you have your super fractor out of one. You
1:07:50
Speaker 2: do not actually repeat outside the black bordered and the
1:07:53
Speaker 2: color of the year. You don't actually repeat any of
1:07:55
Speaker 2: the numbered parallels, which is kind of an interesting thing here,
1:07:59
Speaker 2: but that's it. You have roughly what twenty five I
1:08:01
Speaker 2: didn't count as I went, but you have roughly twenty
1:08:03
Speaker 2: five pairs twenty three across. Look at that, I could
1:08:06
Speaker 2: eyeball it pretty well.
1:08:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it is a much limited rainbow, and I
1:08:12
Speaker 1: mean also it's not too complex in terms of you've
1:08:16
Speaker 1: got a lot more unnumbered cards, which I mean it's
1:08:20
Speaker 1: going to be really hard to track down the flip stocks,
1:08:22
Speaker 1: not only because there's only five of them, but also
1:08:25
Speaker 1: because it's really hard to distinguish the flip stock sometimes,
1:08:28
Speaker 1: so that one will be difficult. Otherwise, I think it's
1:08:32
Speaker 1: a obviously and you know, you're of fives of twenty fives,
1:08:36
Speaker 1: of one of one's are going to be difficult, but
1:08:38
Speaker 1: the other one should be much more attainable. Here for heritage,
1:08:42
Speaker 1: nice little rainbow to put together. If you've got a
1:08:44
Speaker 1: player that you're chasing and you feel overwhelmed by a
1:08:47
Speaker 1: flagship rainbow, try have Heritage rainbow. I think it'll be
1:08:51
Speaker 1: a much easier task and something that you can put
1:08:53
Speaker 1: together in a much shorter order and not feel quite
1:08:56
Speaker 1: the anxiety, the crushing, the anxiety of chasing down almost
1:08:59
Speaker 1: sixty parallels. All right, let's get into some of the
1:09:02
Speaker 1: hits that are coming through on this product, because that's
1:09:05
Speaker 1: where the fun is. The autos are gonna be one
1:09:10
Speaker 1: of the major hits. They're really hard to hit. I've
1:09:13
Speaker 1: never hit one out of a of a hobby box.
1:09:15
Speaker 1: I've hitten a few out of blasters for Heritage, but
1:09:18
Speaker 1: they are far and few between the autos, but they
1:09:20
Speaker 1: are beautiful when you hit them. They're real one autos.
1:09:24
Speaker 1: They're on card. The base will have a blue pen
1:09:28
Speaker 1: or should have a blue pen, and then the red
1:09:31
Speaker 1: on card. Real one autos are numbered out of seventy seven,
1:09:36
Speaker 1: hand numbered out to seventy seven, and those are going
1:09:39
Speaker 1: to be big time chases per usual. Pretty solid auto list,
1:09:43
Speaker 1: good set of rookies, good set of stars that I
1:09:46
Speaker 1: think compared to other checklists, you know, you don't get
1:09:49
Speaker 1: quite as much fluff within Heritage because it is on
1:09:52
Speaker 1: card that they want to make sure that they're chasing
1:09:54
Speaker 1: down and getting pretty good signers. But like I said,
1:09:57
Speaker 1: they are harder to hit overall than they are out
1:10:00
Speaker 1: of most other products because of that. In addition, you've
1:10:03
Speaker 1: got expansion autos from the Blue Jays and the Mariners.
1:10:06
Speaker 1: They were expansion teams in nineteen seventy seven. It's a
1:10:09
Speaker 1: goofy checklist because guess what the Mariners and the blue
1:10:12
Speaker 1: Jays were awful in nineteen seventy seven, so they but
1:10:16
Speaker 1: they will be cool. They're going to be fascinating chases
1:10:18
Speaker 1: and they look pretty cool. I found one on eBay
1:10:20
Speaker 1: that I've got in the post where it is I
1:10:24
Speaker 1: don't even remember the name of the player, like off
1:10:26
Speaker 1: the top of my head, it's Al Woods. Sorry al
1:10:29
Speaker 1: Woods for disrespecting you like that former blue Jay, but
1:10:32
Speaker 1: that is a I think that's a cool twist here
1:10:35
Speaker 1: for this product. And even if those aren't huge hits
1:10:38
Speaker 1: in terms of the actual names on that checklist, it's
1:10:41
Speaker 1: going to be a fun hit for Blue Jays and
1:10:43
Speaker 1: Mariners fans out there. You've also got chrome on auto
1:10:47
Speaker 1: cards here for the real ones, and I think maybe
1:10:52
Speaker 1: the number one hit of this entire product is it's
1:10:55
Speaker 1: also in the post the picture of the chrome super
1:11:00
Speaker 1: for actor Otani, one of one that is going to
1:11:02
Speaker 1: be an on card auto, so that's gonna be a
1:11:04
Speaker 1: big one. You've also got turn Back the Clock autos,
1:11:07
Speaker 1: which there are turned back the Clock cards embedded in
1:11:10
Speaker 1: the regular checklists, where because it's the twenty fifth anniversary
1:11:14
Speaker 1: of Tops Heritage, they're rolling back every five years to
1:11:17
Speaker 1: be able to cover and highlight a player. So lots
1:11:20
Speaker 1: of players from that are coming across and have autos,
1:11:24
Speaker 1: you know, the likes of Derek Jeter, Albert Poohols, others
1:11:28
Speaker 1: within that checklist, it's going to be another pretty big hit.
1:11:31
Speaker 1: And then finally you've got autos on the inserts, which
1:11:35
Speaker 1: when we get into the inserts, most of those, just
1:11:37
Speaker 1: like other products, will have autographed parallels. And you've got
1:11:42
Speaker 1: the Clubhouse collection autos as well, so you'll have those
1:11:46
Speaker 1: and duos and quads and single players. We'll get into
1:11:51
Speaker 1: the relics here after this. But what stands out to
1:11:53
Speaker 1: you from this list of autos? Lots of fun hits,
1:11:56
Speaker 1: lots of little variations and cool chases.
1:12:00
Speaker 2: I think yeah. I mean, there's no question the number
1:12:03
Speaker 2: one Auto and here is the red Ink. Those are
1:12:08
Speaker 2: solely desired cards, hard to find, hard to hit, but
1:12:13
Speaker 2: they are absolutely beautiful cards. That's one thing you say
1:12:16
Speaker 2: about Heritage, I would argue probably the best Auto set
1:12:20
Speaker 2: of the entire year, as far as like the quality
1:12:24
Speaker 2: and the the on card Auto on the the somewhat
1:12:28
Speaker 2: older stock card, they just they they're timeless. There's just
1:12:32
Speaker 2: something about that that I would argue they are possibly
1:12:35
Speaker 2: the best autos across To your point, the checklist is
1:12:40
Speaker 2: pretty phenomenal. There's only a few guys you go and
1:12:43
Speaker 2: look at it like sorry, Troy Johnston, like it's it's
1:12:46
Speaker 2: just not so excited exciting. But like you know, for
1:12:50
Speaker 2: every Jack Perkins there's like ten, you know, Michael Harris's
1:12:54
Speaker 2: and Mike Trout's and Matt Shaw's and Joseel two vays
1:12:56
Speaker 2: like they do a great job there and then you
1:12:59
Speaker 2: know you sneaking Seymour every once in a while. So
1:13:03
Speaker 2: I actually love that. I do think the autos from
1:13:06
Speaker 2: the expansion are just interesting because you're right, like it's
1:13:08
Speaker 2: a who's who of who type of thing and so
1:13:11
Speaker 2: you're not gonna get any big names there, but they
1:13:13
Speaker 2: are kind of fun, and especially for those teams. I
1:13:15
Speaker 2: actually love the fact that Tops has done this now
1:13:18
Speaker 2: multiple times with like your Rickwood Relics and different you know,
1:13:22
Speaker 2: the Phillies have their own kind of series, like all
1:13:26
Speaker 2: the different teams can try to collect their own special series.
1:13:29
Speaker 2: So I think that's as well. And then the last
1:13:31
Speaker 2: thing for me and I know we'll talk about a
1:13:32
Speaker 2: little more later, but I absolutely love the Clubhouse relics
1:13:36
Speaker 2: and the autos that go with them just are just
1:13:38
Speaker 2: such a fantastic touch. Unfortunately, a lot of those are
1:13:41
Speaker 2: what we would refer to as napkin patches, and so
1:13:44
Speaker 2: they're just these white, boring patches. If you're lucky, you'll
1:13:47
Speaker 2: get like a single pin stripe and them. So that
1:13:50
Speaker 2: does kind of hold them back unless you're really fight
1:13:52
Speaker 2: you know, hitting some of the duels or something like that.
1:13:54
Speaker 2: So I love the auto checklist in Heritage your point.
1:13:58
Speaker 2: They are hard to hit, but if you hit them,
1:14:01
Speaker 2: you are absolutely rewarded. That's that's the big takeaway here.
1:14:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean with the relics, they amplify them
1:14:07
Speaker 1: up for the duos and the quads as well, So
1:14:10
Speaker 1: that is something that like, if you hit one of those,
1:14:12
Speaker 1: those are pretty major because you'll get much better players
1:14:16
Speaker 1: involved there as well as just like they use their
1:14:19
Speaker 1: best patches for the duo and quad auto relics as
1:14:24
Speaker 1: well as the duo and quad relics themselves from the
1:14:27
Speaker 1: Clubhouse collection. The other probably other major chase card here
1:14:31
Speaker 1: is probably the real one dual auto of Skeins and
1:14:35
Speaker 1: Nolan Ryan is going to be a big one, and
1:14:38
Speaker 1: so the quads are the quads are Okay, You've got
1:14:41
Speaker 1: the Royals with jack tags, Frank White, George Brett, Bobby Witt,
1:14:47
Speaker 1: Junior Red Sox, Fredlin, Jim Rice, Carlia Skimsky, Carlton Fisk,
1:14:52
Speaker 1: Brewers of the Miz, Churio, Yelich and youn So those
1:14:57
Speaker 1: will be big ones too. But I think the schemes
1:14:59
Speaker 1: Nolan Iron and the show Hey one of One are
1:15:02
Speaker 1: gonna be a little bit of a tick above there.
1:15:04
Speaker 1: Let's get into those relics because honestly, Clubhouse Collection, if
1:15:08
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hit a relic, these are usually they do
1:15:11
Speaker 1: get these right. The designs are pretty cool and the
1:15:14
Speaker 1: ones are this year too where you'll also get hand
1:15:17
Speaker 1: numbered ones for the Red of seventy sevens, which yeah,
1:15:22
Speaker 1: once again, if you are out there from tops fanatics
1:15:25
Speaker 1: and you're the one that hand numbers those cards, I'd
1:15:28
Speaker 1: love to have you on the pod. That is just
1:15:30
Speaker 1: like an interesting, fascinating job where it's so esoteric, but
1:15:34
Speaker 1: somebody's I wonder like how the hand cramps are, how
1:15:38
Speaker 1: it all works out. Hopefully they get like massage therapists
1:15:42
Speaker 1: and stuff on sites so that there's no carpal tunnel
1:15:45
Speaker 1: or anything or work hazards for this Tops employee. But
1:15:49
Speaker 1: the relics are looking pretty solid from Clubhouse collection. I
1:15:53
Speaker 1: love the design. Like I said, it's got that Scooby
1:15:55
Speaker 1: Dew funk vibe to it and it's really fun. You've
1:15:59
Speaker 1: also got Real One relics and flashback relics as well
1:16:03
Speaker 1: as the quad and duo relics that is talking about
1:16:06
Speaker 1: from the Clubhouse collection. So anything that stands out to
1:16:10
Speaker 1: you from this list of relics and compared to what
1:16:12
Speaker 1: we've seen previous years from Heritage.
1:16:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I've loved absolutely everything about the autos and
1:16:18
Speaker 2: the relics except for one thing, and it hurts me
1:16:21
Speaker 2: because I was so excited about this. The Real One
1:16:24
Speaker 2: Heritage relics are dreadful, like if you actually look look
1:16:28
Speaker 2: them up, they've used this like they're they're putting them
1:16:31
Speaker 2: on all white backgrounds and so there knows no variation
1:16:34
Speaker 2: of team colors. And for the like numbered ones, which
1:16:39
Speaker 2: are out of seventy seven, they've used that terrible red
1:16:43
Speaker 2: around it, which is like it's an off red. It
1:16:45
Speaker 2: doesn't even really match or anything, and so.
1:16:48
Speaker 1: It should have matched it to the team color. Beatter
1:16:50
Speaker 1: should matches.
1:16:51
Speaker 2: The team color something like that, and they've also used
1:16:53
Speaker 2: a massive border around the relic on the real one,
1:16:56
Speaker 2: so instead of it just being like instead of that
1:16:59
Speaker 2: it makes it makes a relic looks small, makes the
1:17:01
Speaker 2: border look huge instead of just being this like nice
1:17:04
Speaker 2: little kind of patch that is on this actual card
1:17:07
Speaker 2: from Heritage, it's like this big, massive border with a
1:17:11
Speaker 2: little piece of Jersey in it, and it just from
1:17:15
Speaker 2: being generally game used, it's just like, man, they missed
1:17:18
Speaker 2: the mark on that one. So I love everything else,
1:17:20
Speaker 2: but those just don't look as good as they could
1:17:23
Speaker 2: and that was disappointing because the real one relics from
1:17:26
Speaker 2: like Flagship and things like that have actually been fantastic.
1:17:29
Speaker 2: They missed the boat a little bit on this one.
1:17:30
Speaker 2: So otherwise, absolutely love the checklist, but I'm a little
1:17:34
Speaker 2: sour on the real ones because they missed the boat.
1:17:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's totally fair because when once you
1:17:38
Speaker 1: see it too, you can't unsee it. It is a
1:17:41
Speaker 1: it doesn't match any of the other border thicknesses, and
1:17:43
Speaker 1: so it's like it's really strange when you look at
1:17:46
Speaker 1: the one that's around the relic, so uh, yeah, it is.
1:17:49
Speaker 1: It is odd. Probably doesn't help that you're not a
1:17:51
Speaker 1: big fan of the seventy seven design too.
1:17:53
Speaker 2: So probably it doesn't help. Yeah, it's like a do
1:17:56
Speaker 2: for me.
1:17:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Well let's get into the inserts because I
1:17:59
Speaker 1: will I'll say the past couple of years of Heritage
1:18:02
Speaker 1: have left me very very lukewarm on the inserts that've
1:18:05
Speaker 1: been included. They've kind of felt hokey and also token
1:18:11
Speaker 1: and also just like not very fresh. Lots of like
1:18:14
Speaker 1: historic events from the years, lots of kind of boring
1:18:18
Speaker 1: designs if you remember, remember like that reds design that
1:18:21
Speaker 1: we had in Heritage from last year where it's just
1:18:23
Speaker 1: like all of the like big red machine and just
1:18:26
Speaker 1: said it was like the blandest looking card I've ever seen.
1:18:31
Speaker 1: They must have used all the printing ink that they
1:18:33
Speaker 1: didn't use on the twenty twenty five Heritage to put
1:18:37
Speaker 1: it into twenty twenty six. Because these inserts are poppin'.
1:18:41
Speaker 1: The raw power is a little bit of like a
1:18:43
Speaker 1: play on the seventy seven design. So it's got the
1:18:45
Speaker 1: white border, but it's got kind of cool like almost
1:18:48
Speaker 1: comic book the flash look to it. In terms of
1:18:51
Speaker 1: the raw power, I love the ready and action film
1:18:55
Speaker 1: looking inserts where these things are great. These really do
1:18:59
Speaker 1: remind me of like throwback cards from the eighties and seventies.
1:19:03
Speaker 1: What it is is it's just kind of like a
1:19:05
Speaker 1: picture of a film reel with the player in the
1:19:08
Speaker 1: middle of it, and that's the front. There's no other
1:19:10
Speaker 1: really kind of business going on. I think these are
1:19:14
Speaker 1: going to be pretty popular. It's going to be a
1:19:15
Speaker 1: fun set. I think when you put it all together,
1:19:17
Speaker 1: it looks great in a binder, so I think that's
1:19:20
Speaker 1: going to be a fun insert And I love these
1:19:22
Speaker 1: the Enterprise inserts. So these are based on the Space Shuttle,
1:19:26
Speaker 1: the Enterprise that first flew in nineteen seventy seven, So
1:19:29
Speaker 1: you've kind of got designs that are roughly Space Shuttley
1:19:34
Speaker 1: NASA E. And I think they look great as well.
1:19:38
Speaker 1: They're very colorful, they really pop. I think it's going
1:19:40
Speaker 1: to be another great set to put together. And lastly,
1:19:44
Speaker 1: you've got the nineteen seventy seven TOPS original buybacks, which
1:19:48
Speaker 1: I know these have been one of your favorite from
1:19:50
Speaker 1: Tops Heritage of all time. Is what they do is
1:19:53
Speaker 1: they go out into the actual card market and TOPS
1:19:57
Speaker 1: buys back some of the original nineteen seventy seven cards,
1:20:01
Speaker 1: then stamps a little like fiftieth anniversary thing on them
1:20:06
Speaker 1: puts them into heritage. They're actually very very rare. I
1:20:10
Speaker 1: think you've tried to calculate like the odds of hitting
1:20:12
Speaker 1: them and how many are out there, and it's much
1:20:14
Speaker 1: lower than people think. Like, it's very especially some of
1:20:18
Speaker 1: the big time stars. You don't get too many of
1:20:20
Speaker 1: these out there, and so they're hard to hit and
1:20:23
Speaker 1: they're hard to track down. So if you get one
1:20:25
Speaker 1: of the big time stars from the seventy seven set,
1:20:27
Speaker 1: especially if you get that Reggie Jackson, I think that
1:20:29
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson could be worth a pretty penny and don't
1:20:32
Speaker 1: be fooled into letting it go for too little. So
1:20:36
Speaker 1: what do you think about these inserts? Are you on
1:20:38
Speaker 1: board with me? And in terms of like thinking they
1:20:40
Speaker 1: are more interesting than.
1:20:41
Speaker 2: What we've seen over the past few years. Marriage, Yeah,
1:20:44
Speaker 2: I would say definitely on board with you. It feels
1:20:47
Speaker 2: like the raw power, Like as much as I didn't
1:20:51
Speaker 2: like the design, that one's the one that works because
1:20:53
Speaker 2: this is kind of comic book book esque, the ready
1:20:56
Speaker 2: in action, Like we've seen a few of these kinds
1:20:59
Speaker 2: and different produt but like the film, real just feels cool, unique,
1:21:03
Speaker 2: different and like the imagery is very good, and you're
1:21:06
Speaker 2: absolutely right. I do love the buybacks. I was trying
1:21:08
Speaker 2: to look and I can't see it. Used to be
1:21:10
Speaker 2: they would be like top or box loaders, where you'd
1:21:13
Speaker 2: open the box and be sitting on top, or there'd
1:21:15
Speaker 2: be a mega card in there. I'm not seeing that
1:21:18
Speaker 2: this year. I could be wrong, but it seems like
1:21:20
Speaker 2: they might actually be inserted in packs. And to your point,
1:21:23
Speaker 2: I think what's really cool about those is there again
1:21:25
Speaker 2: rare than people think because they generally what they've done
1:21:29
Speaker 2: is they've created all these sets from nineteen seventy seven,
1:21:33
Speaker 2: which was a set that consisted of six hundred and
1:21:35
Speaker 2: sixty cards. It was a massive set, and then they've
1:21:39
Speaker 2: stamped them and just reinserted them to everything. And so
1:21:42
Speaker 2: if you actually do the math based on how many
1:21:44
Speaker 2: are out there, which is like fifty five thousand divided
1:21:46
Speaker 2: by the six hundred and sixty and set, you're talking
1:21:48
Speaker 2: about a card that's like only like eighty five print
1:21:51
Speaker 2: run for those in historical ones. And you and I've
1:21:54
Speaker 2: talked about this, like we're down to like the twenties
1:21:57
Speaker 2: and thirties because the print run over the overall product
1:21:59
Speaker 2: and so so first of all, I want to be
1:22:01
Speaker 2: that guy that has to go out, so like, I
1:22:03
Speaker 2: don't where they're getting all these go to cards shows
1:22:05
Speaker 2: or whatever and buying fifty five nineteen seventy seven cards,
1:22:10
Speaker 2: and maybe they're not doing it across and evenly, but
1:22:14
Speaker 2: they are really cool to kind of see them collected,
1:22:17
Speaker 2: and they are all shapes and sizes, let me tell you.
1:22:20
Speaker 2: Like there is bent corners, there is went through the
1:22:24
Speaker 2: bicycle spokes, There's all of the things, and I think
1:22:27
Speaker 2: that actually just makes them fun. So I actually have
1:22:29
Speaker 2: one of bob Kins and I got in a break
1:22:31
Speaker 2: and I think it's a print run roughly thirty and
1:22:33
Speaker 2: I grated it and the grade was absolutely dreadful. I
1:22:36
Speaker 2: think it's like a four or something like that. But
1:22:39
Speaker 2: it was still just such a cool, cool card. And
1:22:42
Speaker 2: people don't realize how rare they are. So I'm actually
1:22:44
Speaker 2: in on the inserts. The only one I might not,
1:22:46
Speaker 2: the Enterprise was it didn't really play for me. But
1:22:51
Speaker 2: otherwise the rest of them are absolutely absolutely great, great answerts.
1:22:56
Speaker 2: They redeem themselves here.
1:22:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I am going through the buybacks that have
1:23:01
Speaker 1: been on eBay and have sold today. But I mean
1:23:03
Speaker 1: most of them are going for like eight to ten bucks,
1:23:05
Speaker 1: you know the commons, which is mostly what's in the set.
1:23:08
Speaker 1: But you know, you got like a Fred Lynn here
1:23:11
Speaker 1: that went for around eighty bucks, and you've got a
1:23:14
Speaker 1: Mark Fidrich that only went for twenty five. That feels low.
1:23:17
Speaker 1: Maybe that person in the long run will regret posting
1:23:21
Speaker 1: it for that, but it is a Mark Friedrich rookie
1:23:25
Speaker 1: card with the cup on it in the big curly
1:23:27
Speaker 1: red hair, So that is one of the popular seventy
1:23:30
Speaker 1: seven cards. I think that one's gonna be a big chase.
1:23:32
Speaker 1: You know, you've also got the likes of like Willie
1:23:34
Speaker 1: McCovey and things like that, But I don't see a
1:23:37
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson here. Let me type it in just to see.
1:23:40
Speaker 2: Those the Rookie year of Andre Dawson to hil Murphy,
1:23:43
Speaker 2: Bruce Suter. I don't know that they're gonna throw in
1:23:46
Speaker 2: the rookie cards for bucks.
1:23:48
Speaker 1: I bet there's probably some they usually do so, especially
1:23:52
Speaker 1: with like your Gibson that you've chased down. They've got
1:23:54
Speaker 1: some of the big ones in that. But it'll be
1:23:57
Speaker 1: fascinating to see if a Reggie Jackson does service and
1:24:00
Speaker 1: what the price will be. Because that's the other thing
1:24:02
Speaker 1: is that as you get into the Stars, you can
1:24:04
Speaker 1: definitely tell by the distribution of them on eBay that
1:24:09
Speaker 1: certainly they have much more, many more of the commons
1:24:13
Speaker 1: out there with these buybacks than they do the Stars.
1:24:16
Speaker 1: So I mean, especially like that Fred Lynn and the
1:24:19
Speaker 1: Mark Fidrich, there might not be too many of them
1:24:21
Speaker 1: that surface. And so if you do find one that
1:24:25
Speaker 1: you like and it is for a Star and as
1:24:27
Speaker 1: at a decent price, certainly jump on it because it
1:24:30
Speaker 1: is something where we talk a lot about where the
1:24:33
Speaker 1: actual kind of day of release, week of release, month
1:24:36
Speaker 1: of release, the cards are much more expensive. But I
1:24:39
Speaker 1: think if you're chasing some of these buyback cards, you
1:24:41
Speaker 1: have a favorite player from the seventy seven set that
1:24:44
Speaker 1: you want one of these and you see it, jump
1:24:46
Speaker 1: on it fast because they don't surface very readily and
1:24:49
Speaker 1: they're pretty rare, so something to keep in mind.
1:24:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I did find a few of these out
1:24:54
Speaker 2: there for the big names. Nolan Ryan buy back from
1:24:57
Speaker 2: that was went for one hundred and fifty dollars on Eba.
1:25:00
Speaker 2: Your Thurman Munson, which is actually a pretty popular car
1:25:03
Speaker 2: for them, one hundred and twenty you, Tony Perez was
1:25:05
Speaker 2: like a seventy five dollars, Fred Lynne around the same thing.
1:25:09
Speaker 2: Willie McCovey is around forty something like that. So you
1:25:12
Speaker 2: got some of those bigger names that got up there.
1:25:15
Speaker 2: They even had some of the like, you know, inserts
1:25:17
Speaker 2: of that time that were buy back stamps. So like
1:25:20
Speaker 2: they had like the turn Back the Clock that was
1:25:22
Speaker 2: actually an insert in seventy seven getting stamped un So
1:25:24
Speaker 2: it's like an insert on an insert. So yeah, you
1:25:28
Speaker 2: get some of those big names that they're gonna be
1:25:29
Speaker 2: hard to find. But if you run into a Nolan
1:25:31
Speaker 2: Ryan or a Dale Murphy or Reggie Jackson or something
1:25:35
Speaker 2: like that, yeah you've you've got a really sneaky, valuable
1:25:38
Speaker 2: car that you didn't realize.
1:25:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. Okay, Well, I think that's gonna
1:25:42
Speaker 1: wrap us up for twenty twenty six Tops Heritage regular.
1:25:45
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll be back probably in the fault that
1:25:47
Speaker 1: discuss high number a little bit, especially as we get
1:25:49
Speaker 1: the rookies that come along here this season and get
1:25:52
Speaker 1: into that set. But I'm pretty excited for this heritage
1:25:54
Speaker 1: compared to some other years, just because the inserts are cool.
1:25:58
Speaker 1: The lots of the hits are cool, so good price
1:26:01
Speaker 1: point out there too. You should be able to get
1:26:03
Speaker 1: a hobby box for roughly one hundred and twenty bucks,
1:26:05
Speaker 1: and so you should be able to have a little
1:26:08
Speaker 1: bit of fun rip in this set, I think out there.
1:26:10
Speaker 1: So we're gonna wrap it up for this week. Brew
1:26:12
Speaker 1: Let everybody know where they can find you on socials
1:26:15
Speaker 1: and read your work yep, and find me on Twitter,
1:26:17
Speaker 1: ex Blue Sky Jay Brewer one seven, find me in
1:26:20
Speaker 1: Rasball on Sunday's Top one hundred hitter rankings or hitter profiles.
1:26:24
Speaker 1: Cooley work Folks finds you. Yeah, you can find me
1:26:27
Speaker 1: on Blue Sky at M cool seven. The cool is
1:26:30
Speaker 1: spelled like my last name co O U I L L.
1:26:34
Speaker 1: And then a little bit of a surprise, a little
1:26:36
Speaker 1: bit of a nugget to drop here in the pod
1:26:38
Speaker 1: that I will not be writing at Rasball this year.
1:26:40
Speaker 1: I'll be at Baseball Baseball Prospectus. That is a little
1:26:44
Speaker 1: bit of a mouthball if you've been talking. So I
1:26:49
Speaker 1: will have my first piece up there coming out within
1:26:52
Speaker 1: the next few days. Cover and just overall draft auction
1:26:55
Speaker 1: strategy that all the writers do at the beginning of
1:26:58
Speaker 1: the year and then covering starting throughout the year, so
1:27:01
Speaker 1: you'll be able to check me out on BP certainly.
1:27:04
Speaker 1: I mean obviously as touting a raspball subscription, get a
1:27:08
Speaker 1: BP subscription as well. Get a fangrass subscription. Support all
1:27:12
Speaker 1: your independent baseball media out there. That's lots of folks
1:27:16
Speaker 1: out there, put in great, good hours, hard work, great copy.
1:27:22
Speaker 1: There's lots of great writers out there. So I'm happy
1:27:24
Speaker 1: to join the team at BP. And whoever has taken
1:27:28
Speaker 1: over that Waiver Wire column and Rasbell, I hope I
1:27:32
Speaker 1: didn't leave you to monumental attests to pump out three
1:27:36
Speaker 1: thousand words every week. But so you can find the
1:27:40
Speaker 1: podcast on Blue Sky at cards Categories. You can email
1:27:44
Speaker 1: the podcast at Cardscategories at gmail dot com when you're
1:27:47
Speaker 1: in those show notes which I've been sending to you
1:27:49
Speaker 1: all podlong. You can also get some gear that has
1:27:52
Speaker 1: Cards and Categories logos on it. So click on those
1:27:55
Speaker 1: links down and there, and we're gonna wrap it up
1:27:58
Speaker 1: for this week. We'll be back next week. We'll be
1:28:00
Speaker 1: talking right before opening day, and so it's gonna be
1:28:06
Speaker 1: the buzz is coming. The highs of the WBC are
1:28:09
Speaker 1: gonna be reignited here in just a short week. Good
1:28:12
Speaker 1: luck in those fantasy drafts this weekend, good luck getting
1:28:15
Speaker 1: all your lineup set, and I hope that no injuries
1:28:17
Speaker 1: hit our player pool for the rest of the week,
1:28:19
Speaker 1: so we'll see you, same time, same place next week. Everybody,
1:28:22
Speaker 1: take care of the