Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 159 : 2026 Topps Update Overview

Transcript

Ep. 159 : 2026 Topps Update Overview · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome everybody to episode 159 of Cards and Categories.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I am Mike Coulard from Baseball Perspectives, joined by my
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: very good friend Jeremy Brewer from Razzball. We are right
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in the throes of the championship series. How are you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: doing tonight?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I'm doing fantastic. It's been some fun baseball. I'm a
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: little worried about how you're doing with your white socks.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Just kind of choking me. down the stretch and letting
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the Guardians come back 3-0 on them, but I'm doing fine.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I guess the bigger question is, how are you doing?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm doing fine, honestly. It is a bummer the way
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that the White Sox season ended, but this team also went...
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: 62 and no 60 and 102 in 2005 so like
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: uh 2025 uh 2005 was obviously a much better white
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: socks yes uh but because of that it's really hard
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to like feel too terrible about the way things on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: unraveled for the white socks even though it is heartbreaking
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: certainly to go up too low and then totally fumble
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: it from there. Uh, but certainly the guardians looked like the,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the much better squad. And, uh, it also works out
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: because I got to write the ALDS game five preview
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: at baseball perspectives. So that was fun crossing over to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the other side from the fantasy side. And on top
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of it all, we, uh, also it helped out my,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: my predictions from the beginning of the playoffs. When I
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was saying, Hey, I think, uh, guardians brewers looks like
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: where it might end up being, uh, for this playoff run,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and it's holding true so far. So we are currently
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: speaking on October 13th, just to kind of ground everybody
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and let everybody know where we're at. And we are
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: going to be covering the playoffs as they stand right now,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: especially in those two championship series from the ALCS and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the NLCS. And then we're also going to cover Topps
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Update 2026, which is coming out on October 14th. So
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we are speaking about a day before release. Usually, if
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you've figured out the cadence from this podcast, we do
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the releases on the days that they're released, so we
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: get a little bit more info. So we're going to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: do our best. We've got a lot of details from
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: various sources that are out there. And the nice thing
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: here is it's not quite as comprehensive as Alan and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Ginter was, or even Flagship Series 1 or Series 2,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Update Series. They really trimmed up the number of inserts here.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: They trimmed up the print run. And, I mean, I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: think when we get into the baseball card calendar, you'll
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: see why. There's a lot of stuff coming out. There's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of different things being printed over at Tops
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: by Fanatics. So, lots of great stuff to discuss tonight.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's start with those championship series first. Because,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, we touched on the Sox and the Guardians series.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but it feels like those division series
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: are already old hat at this point. So we've got
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the brewers going up to, Oh, on the Dodgers, which, uh,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: they looked spry. I will say, even though the first
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: game was tight, it was two to one brewers. And
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: then it was much more of a blowout than the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: second game. The brewers really ran away. They got Yamamoto
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: out of the game early tallied, a whole bunch of hits,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of base runners. Got on base with
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: bad pitcher fielding as well on both sides. But the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Brewers have looked spry in these first two games against
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers. Well, the Dodgers on the other end have
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: certainly looked kind of worn down, beat up. Especially Otani
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: being hurt doesn't help. But Friedman doesn't look 100%. And
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: just the Dodgers have looked slower and older compared to
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the Brewers. So how are you feeling? Do you think
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that the Brewers, the time has finally come that this
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: franchise can get back to the world series? Or is
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: this a situation where you're like, man, look out for
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: what just happened to the Sox. You can run out
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of steam fast and they got three games coming up
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: in LA that are pretty decisive. Yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, it'd be one thing if, if these games
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: had been in LA and the Brewers had done this,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I think there is going to be something to said
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that the Dodgers going back home, that's absolutely going to
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: be a factor. They just, they're, they're going to, they're
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: going to feel the support there, but That said, it
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: does feel to a degree like the Brewers being a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: complete team, top to bottom, the rotation, the bullpen, like
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: they seem like they have all the options. And what
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I will say is they seem to be playing the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: best pure baseball of all the teams out there. They're
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: not really doing unique things. They're not trying to like,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: bring the closer into the sixth and try to make
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: it happen right there. They're playing the way they played
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: all season. Um, whereas the Dodgers, they kind of like they're,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: they're pulling the hooks a little bit faster. They're trying to,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: you know, they're, they're dealing with should Otani be playing?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Like they are a little bit more of the stars
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: and scrubs to a degree, which is funny because there
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: is a ton of stars on the, on that team.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: But like the depth is, is, is being shown as
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a challenge that bullpen is being taxed. Um, and we
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: knew that bullpen was, was going to be an issue.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: So it's, Right now, it's really hard to bet against
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: the Brewers, and I get I pick the Dodgers going in,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: but they just have not looked like as much of
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: a complete team as the Brewers, and what I like
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: here is we look at the Brewers, got Mizorowski and
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Logan Henderson, who are, they won the first two games,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: they're going to get another turn, both of them, in
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: this series, and they've been so strong, I get it,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Logan Henderson can't throw to first base, that's a problem,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: he'll figure it out by then, but that's going to
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: be a really, really tough hill to climb. So I
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: think the Brewers, right now, they've got to be the frontrunner. Well, clearly,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: up 2-0. But I think it's going to be really
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: hard for the Dodgers to come back. Don't get me wrong.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I think they might win 2-3 in L.A., and we
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: might be going back to Milwaukee with a 3-2 lead.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: They've got to pick one up to close it out.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: But I think you have to say the Brewers look
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: like the team to beat right now.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I think I totally agree. And you also
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: look at the, I mean, by DRP on baseball perspectives,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the Brewers were number two overall as a team. And
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's really showing through here in this playoff
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: series with the Dodgers where there, it feels like every
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: grounder is an out no matter what with the Milwaukee Brewers,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: unless it's going to the pitcher as we've discussed, because
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: for some reason, the pitchers have just decided, Hey, we're
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: not going to do PFPs. We're going to let our team,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I just guess where we're tossing it to when we're
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: getting over to first base. But, I mean, Cooper Pratt
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: has looked amazing at shortstop. Like, the outfield has looked
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: pretty solid for the Brewers as well. And, I mean,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: that crowd in Milwaukee was rocking, which certainly, I think,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: helped and it certainly got on top of the Dodgers
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: quickly whenever things were starting to slip for them and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: going awry. So yeah, I think I do agree. I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: think it's going to come back to Milwaukee that the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Dodgers are going to be able to rattle off a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: couple of games, but the, it could disappear on them
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: pretty quick because Robert Gasser, I think is better than
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: people have given them credit for. If he is, he
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: certainly shows up and, he pitched pretty well down the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: stretch as well, as well too, that like he was
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: starting to really put a lot of things together. A
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: guy who has battled some Tommy John surgery and come through.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And I mean, Dustin may should be sitting there in
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: game four, but you got to like where you're sitting.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: If you're the brewers too, because on top of it all,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: they didn't have to tax this bullpen a lot. You know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: they got through the Padres efficiently, which was pretty big
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: because that series looked like it was going to go
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: five games and they got out of San Diego without
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: having to play a ton of games. They really pushed
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: their bullpen hard. But in the first two games of
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the NLCS, you know, looking Aaron Ashby, obviously through both games,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: because I think he's going to throw every game, but
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you're looking at 26 and 21 pitches that he put
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: up in those two games. Uribe pitched both games, but
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: 15 pitches, 13 pitches. And otherwise, they haven't even had
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to dip into Chad Patrick or Shane Drohan or Antonio Sensatella.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And they got 14 pitches out of Dustin May. It's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a really well... rounded out staff in terms of health
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and availability, where the Dodgers did have to dip into
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: some of that a little bit further in terms of,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you know, because Yamamoto got knocked out early, they had
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: to turn to their cavalry in the bullpen. And not
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: only does that wear you down, but then it also
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: kind of brings up the familiarity factor as well, too.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: So you don't want to go through what the Dodgers
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: did on Monday and had to try to, what is it, two, four, six,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: seven of their relievers to be able to try to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: finish off a game that didn't wasn't winnable at a
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: decent point so yeah it does put the Dodgers behind
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the eight ball but we're also dealing with seven games
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: we saw what five games could do in the DS
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: it can really allow you to make some big moves
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: fast where in a seven game series you got to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: be a little more steady with your hand which is
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: certainly playing in Pat Murphy's favor right now as opposed
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to Dave Roberts's.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was with you, and also the fact they
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: haven't had to use McGill. They've been able to, even
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: watching yesterday, they're just like, I'm going to ride Ashby
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: because I'm going to keep my clothes healthy and get
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the most out of him. If they do need to
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: play the game like everybody else and rely on multiple innings,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: things like that, from their best to their best, play
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the fireman role, they are set up well, and it's
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: also not been a single guy that's carried them across
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the board. So it just feels like a much more
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: complete team. And I think maybe the Dodgers have met
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: their match here. So I know I predicted Dodgers' raise
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: in the World Series. You wouldn't be like, hey, at
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: least we have the right four teams. We just went
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the opposite directions here. My bets look looking a little
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: less enticing as it is at this point. But I
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: have to say, if I'm betting as of today, yeah,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I think the Brewers definitely have pulled ahead in the
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: odds making now.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. And I mean, the other thing, too, is
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: it'll be pretty major. If the Brewers can finish this
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: off in game three and four and get the sweep done,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: then it puts whoever gets this ALCS finished off first.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Really in a tough spot because I think these Rays
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and Guardians are going to go back and forth. It
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: looks like it's set up to be a slugfest in
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: terms of like a boxing match slugfest. Maybe not as
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: much in the batter's box because these teams are kind
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of dinking and dunking their way to a good matchup.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: handful of runs against each other uh we also so
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: we're speaking tonight as we're watching alcs game two kind
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of on our second screens middle of the fifth with
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: rays up three nothing but that first game couldn't have
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: gotten much better for the guardians you know it was
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: tight for a long time they got a good outing
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: from foster griffin and then were able to really blow
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: open that game And when they did that, they got
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to drew Rasmussen, chased him from the game and then
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: just kind of allowed the bullpen to come to them
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: as well. So rattled off seven runs with all seven
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: coming after the sixth inning, which was pretty major because
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: it looks like drew Rasmussen was kind of giving them
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the Gavin Williams treatment of what Gavin Williams looked unstoppable
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: against the white socks. Like not only were the white
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: socks kind of cooked and like they couldn't hit the
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: broad side of a barn, but, Gavin Williams, I don't
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: know who would have touched him on Saturday night. Eventually,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Tristan Peters got a longer at-bat in there, and he
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: kind of wore down a little bit, Williams did. those
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: first five innings were some of the best pitching i've
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: seen all year and williams looks really set up to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: carry the guardians going forward but in game one of
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the alcs you know rasmussen gave up the two runs
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: then they got into having to force kevin cash to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: bring in tara wells and ian seymour and cole solcer
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and kevin kelly which is even a big one because
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: like when you have to use a guy like Kevin Kelly,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: who's a big part of your leverage part of your bullpen,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: but to just finish off the end of the ninth
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: inning to get you to the bottom of the ninth inning,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: that that's not what you want to see. If you're
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay right now, it does look like the rays
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: are going to be, I mean, they're in the driver's
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: seat again, but they were in this position last night
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: as well, where they were up. And then the guardians
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: came back on them because I will say there's a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: team that's playing like the team and destiny right now.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: It seems like it's the guardians.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree. Whichever team came out of that
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: matchup between the White Sox and the Guardians was the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: team of destiny. It didn't really matter. And it does
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: feel like it's whoever is going to be at the
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: plate in that tough situation. You had Nathaniel Lowe looked
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: awesome in that first game. You had Chase DeLotter just
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: looking like an absolute star. Jose Ramirez doing Jose Ramirez
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: things like it seemed like whoever was going to be
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: up in the situation was able to like adjust and
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: make contact, but it didn't feel like they were blowing
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: anybody away. It's just like, to your point, the things
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: are going to fall in, the hustle is going to
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: make it happen. That seems like the team that they,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: they are. And so I do think that Tampa has
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: more firepower in that offense. I do think they have
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: more top end pitching. I think they might even have
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: a stronger bullpen. Maybe I, Kate Smith at the back
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: of that Guardians bullpen is definitely his nails. So this
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: one's pretty neck and neck for me. I think I
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: have to stick with my Rays prediction going in. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I think it's really going to come down to the
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: pitching matchups. And I think it's interesting how the pitching
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: matchups have kind of developed because of the Guardians series
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: with the White Sox going long is that they're almost
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: inverted from their number one, number two, number three kind
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: of going through the Versus the Rays. And so the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: fact that the Guardians got that first game with Foster
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Griffin versus Drew Rasmussen was like a big boon for
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: them because they were chasing out the best pitcher that
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: the Rays have. Now, Peralta has been phenomenal the last
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: month and a half. So, you know, it clearly has
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: been so tonight. And I think Messick was pretty good tonight,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: except for some unearned runs, which has been unfortunate for him.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: But then you end up with Gavin Williams in game
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: three against Nick Martinez. that's almost the exact opposite. That's
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a big play in the Guardians. But then you end
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: up with Rasmussen and Peralta against Griffin and Messick again.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: It's this kind of mismatch of the pitching matchup, so
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: it almost feels like whoever's going to upset the apple
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: cart there is going to be the team that comes
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: away with it.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the other factor that's going to play in here
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: is also that the Remnants of the hurricane that went
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: through the southeast portion of the country is going to
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: be hitting the Midwest later this week. So it's coming
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: through tomorrow. On Wednesday, we're speaking Tuesday night. Thursday and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Friday are going to be rainy, and that's when they're
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: supposed to be playing games in Cleveland. And then you
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: also get a drop in temperature. Saturday is supposed to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: be like in the mid 40s. So it's going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: be quite the treacherous like weather conditions for the Tampa
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Bay Rays who have never really dealing with that, except for,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you know, when they're on the road in New York
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and Boston earlier in the season. But Cleveland plays through
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: it during the beginning of the season. So I do
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: think that gives Cleveland another big leg up where, I mean,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: if they can especially make a comeback here tonight and
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: take two in Tampa, it's probably over. But, you know,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the Rays are so good. Like the team that was
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: actually number one in DRP over Milwaukee was Tampa. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you could see it like Ben Williamson has splashed some leather.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Chandler Simpson has splashed some leather. Victor Mesa is a
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: great defender. And so that could be an X factor
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: as well, but also on the, on the flip end,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you know, when you have a team that is really
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: defensive heavy, if that breaks down behind you and it
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: was such a big portion of your team and you're
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: slipping and sliding in the rain, you're uncomfortable in the cold.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: It could really unravel quickly, I think, for Tampa. So
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: it's something to keep an eye on as we get
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: into the rest of the ALCS for this weekend and
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: what impact that weather could have playing in Cleveland.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: I will call it. I'm just making a bold prediction here.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I think the guy that's going to be a difference
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: maker is going to be Patrick Bailey. Um, he already
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: has been, he has been, but I was actually doing some,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: some research this weekend just because we got full season stats,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: just kind of looking through things. And Patrick Bailey just
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: continued to jump off the page with his underlying metrics.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: And I know the guy hit 206 and had 10
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: homers a season. But he just continues to show better
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: and better results under the covers and just hasn't come
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: through yet. And all of a sudden, we're here in
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the postseason, and the guy's just hitting bombs, having no problems.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: So I'm just going on a limb here. I think
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Patrick Bailey is going to be a difference maker in
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: this series, one way or the other, whether it actually
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: carries through or not from a results perspective. But I
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: was just excited to see a guy like that making
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: an impact.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Well, and some of it is just the carryover from,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: he put up the best WRC Plus of his career
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: with the Guardians, a 90 WRC Plus in the half
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: season that he played with them this season. I wonder
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: if there was something unlocked there, they figured it out,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and also maybe part of the reason why they went
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: after him when he came up on the chopping block
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: from the San Francisco Giants, where You know, the Giants
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: have not been well run underneath Posey and maybe they
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: lost track of what made Patrick Bailey tick. And maybe
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the Guardians and Steven Vogt and that front office have
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: found something again. So something to keep in mind, I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: think also going into draft season, because like what he
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: did for Cleveland in the half season, nine homers. So
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: you can double all these stats, nine homers. 32 ribbies,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: 26 runs with a 228, 292, 390 slash line. I mean,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: they'll play as a back end in a catcher two league.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: So something to keep in mind that he's going to
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: be free at the draft table for any 2027 drafts
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: that Patrick Bailey might be somebody that you're actually... oddly
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: targeting because like, yeah, it looks like a 20 to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: 25 Homer bat when it's all clicking and it's clicking
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: That's the catcher too, that you get for free at
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: the draft table. I'm calling it out. Patrick Bailey's going
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: to have a great season next year. Yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: And I mean, yeah, it has just kind of like
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: matured too. We've talked about these guys a lot fantasy
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: wise in terms of like the glove plays for so long.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Then the bat comes around later and, I wouldn't be
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: surprised to see Patrick Bailey in that spot. How are
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: you feeling about Jose Ramirez, though? Because, like, first, I mean,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: part of what has made Cleveland the team of destiny
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: is that shoe-tops home run that Jose Ramirez hit to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: send them into the ALCS to begin with, which is, like,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: what an absurd homer, too. Wasn't that the lowest homer?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Pitched home run in the StatCast era in the playoffs?
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: If I recall hearing that.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Probably. I think I saw it was like 0.74 feet
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: off the ground, so it was like 8 inches off
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the ground, 9 inches off the ground. Obviously, he caught
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: it out in front, so he never let it get
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to its low point, but even the trajectory, it just
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: barely cleared that wall in right field perfectly, and it
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: just seems like Jose Ramirez is on a different level
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of performance right now. Like whenever you're seeing him bat,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: whenever you see them on the bases, he is so
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: fired up right now. And I think that's part of his,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I think he smells it right now where like getting
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to the world series is certainly, I think doable against this,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: this raise squad, especially after winning game one and given
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the guardians pitching set up the way you're talking about.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And certainly the brewers are for more formidable, but like,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I think they're beatable too. If you get all the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: right kind of pitching matchups together and you figure out
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a plan to be able to contain that offense a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: little bit there, there's a pathway for this guardians team
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to break the curse of not having a championship since 1948. Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think Ramirez is to your point, just
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: looks rejuvenated. He had a rough season, but a lot
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of it was just poor luck. Things just didn't fall
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the right way for him. And it's not like he
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: also just completely fell off a cliff. I actually think
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: he might be a little discount next year going into
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: the season. And, you know, I'm not playing a first
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: round or we already talked about that a few weeks ago,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: but I do think this gives you a little bit
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: of hope to say, yeah, we had a rough go
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: of it, rough season. He's still, still an all-star. He's
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: still fantastic, fancy player. So, I'm excited to see if
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: this carries through.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then, I mean, with the Rays and the Dodgers,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: because obviously we haven't focused on them as much, but
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: they could totally claw their way back. I think you
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: can see it with the Rays in terms of Some
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: of the pitching is going to come through. I mean, obviously,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Nick Martinez versus Gavin Williams probably doesn't make them feel great,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: but they still have a solid bullpen. The offense is better.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You do have to worry a little bit about, like,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: did you see the collision between Johnny DeLuca and Junior
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Caminero in game one down the foul line? And it
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: didn't look great. Like, Junior Caminero, I think, just kind
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: of got the wind knocked out of him. Let's hope
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: that's all it was, but he looked pretty banged up.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And if that does... linger at all, you do have
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to worry about the rest of this lineup because it's
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: actually a lot like the Guardians where they were in
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: trouble until Jose Ramirez woke up, but now that Jose
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Ramirez is awake, it becomes a much more dangerous lineup
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: where it's kind of the flip side of the coin
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: there for the Rays where if Junior Caminero isn't there
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: in the middle of this lineup, it gets pretty flaccid,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: pretty quick around him, and you're able to attack Yandy
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Diaz and Jonathan Aranda and Liam Hicks a little bit
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: more easily when you don't have to worry about Junior Caminero.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're absolutely right. If the top of that lineup
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: of the Rays isn't working, the bottom of the lineup,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: which has caused chaos in the base paths, isn't nearly
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: as intimidating. So a lot of it will come and
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: go with Yandy, with Caminero, with Hicks. I think that's
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: going to be the guys that have to carry it
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: through for for the Rays to make the play. Again,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: I think that they probably will come back and win
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: the series. Maybe that's just because that's what I predicted.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: So rose-colored glasses here, but I think they are the
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: better team. But we see it every year with playoffs.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: The team of destiny, whoever they are, it's like once
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: they get hot, like that's all it takes. And man,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: between Jose Ramirez and Gavin Williams, that might be all
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the Guardians need.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then, I mean, for the Dodgers, you've got
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Blake Snell, Tyler Glass now going in the next two games.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Then you get another dose of screwball Yamamoto. So you
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: can see how quickly you can turn around for them.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, the biggest issue for them is
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: that Freddie Freeman looks to have lost a little bit
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of a step. And then Otani is just like, it's
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: not good.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: He's clearly hurt. He's clearly hurt. But if you're Dave Roberts,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: how do you not play him? Like you have to
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: play him.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, that's the question. I mean, because it's
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: not only that, like, he looks banged up, but the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: swing decisions have been rough. And obviously he whiffs a
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: decent amount. Like he doesn't have the greatest in zone
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: contact rates and never has because he's got the talent
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: to be able to play around it. But when you're
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: banged up and you're off by just that tick and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: you're still not approaching, or if you're still taking that
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: bad plate approach in, it doesn't work. You know what
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I mean? It's like giving, like, I mean, you essentially
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: turn into what Murakami looks like for the White Sox
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: a lot. Or just like any other kind of whiff-grown
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: bat that you can think of. So it's something where
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: it also does give me pause for how this is
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: going to unravel for Otani. I think that for such
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a good player that the ride down the slope of
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the aging curve would look a little bit better. But
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: if this is actually what it looks like, obviously Otani
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: will have a little more time to be able to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: reconfigure his approach than just a couple of weeks to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: get ready for the playoffs. But it does give me
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a little bit of pause of this is the guy
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: who is 32, turns 33 next July, that like it
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: could be a pretty quick descent. And so something to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: keep in mind, maybe in kind of dynasty keeper situations
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of like, you do have to start keeping tabs on
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Otani in terms of, getting off this train in the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: near future. And certainly I don't think in 2027, maybe
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: not even 2028, but like the gravy train is going
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to dry up at some point, especially if you've had
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Otani in a dynasty league and it doesn't hurt to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: start kind of maybe making preparations for that now in
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: your fantasy leagues. Yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: And wherever you own him, you probably have a high salary,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: high traffic, whatever it would be to retain him. And so, Um,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I don't take this as go out and sell Otani
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: right now, but like, it's gotta be a little bit
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: more on the radar than it has been in the
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: past because he has shown a few more kinks in
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the armor, things like that. Um, it's still gonna be
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: hard to not have him as one of the top
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: few picks of any draft. Um, but whether it's from
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: a fancy perspective, whether it's from a card perspective. There's
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: a little chink in the armor right now, and it
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: doesn't take long for some of those markets to cool
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: on him overall. So, yeah, I mean, it could turn
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: around quickly. That's all it takes in the playoffs is
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: just one swing to make a difference. But, hey, as
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: things go right now, it looks like the Brewers are
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: our team to beat, and we'll see what happens on
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: the other side.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's get into some of those baseball card
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: set release calendar updates. Today is October 13th, so obviously
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: we've got Topps Update coming out tomorrow, which we're going
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to do our major overview of. Then later this week,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: on October 16th, we've got Topps Chrome 2026 Team Japan
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Samurai coming out. And I've seen some of the art
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: of this. It's pretty cool that, like, especially if you're
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: familiar with the Japan edition of Topps Flagship, There are
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: elements of that, you know, lots of cherry blossoms, lots
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of mountains and very Japanese motifs going on in the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: designs and especially the inserts. So I think it's going
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to be really fun to see some of the cards
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: that come out of there, especially if you're, you know,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: an Ishiro, Otani, Hideo Nomo, Yamamoto, any sort of these
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: big Japanese cards. Guys, if they're in your PC collections,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I think there's probably going to end up being an
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: insert or two or parallel or two that you're going
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to want to be tucking away. So certainly I think
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a fun single set, maybe a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: tough rip because it's going to be an expensive rip
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: certainly for you, but something to look forward to this week.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Next week, we've got Topps Holiday coming out. November 4th,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: we've got Topps Cosmic Chrome. November 11th, Topps Museum Collection.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: And then TBD, we've got Topps Pro Debut, Topps Gilded,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: which has a October 26 pre-order. So that got added on.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: And then we've got a TBD of Topps 5 Star 2026.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: No pre-order set up yet. Panini 3 and 2 still
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: kicking around, supposedly coming out November 13th. But I think
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: that one started back as like a July has been
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: when it's been on the calendar. We've been kicking that
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: one around for a while. Uh, so lots of fun
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: sets coming out, some new ones, some updates in terms
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of pre-orders and stuff like that. What stands out to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: you in terms of this calendar coming up? Yeah.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've talked about some of the, the, the
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: goodies holidays, always a fun rip. Cause of Corona was,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: is a little bit more expensive, but just wonderful art.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: The one that I will call out that we're talking
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: about now is tops gilded. Um, I would never rip
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: top skills just to be very clear. It's kind of
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: this high end, uh, feast or famine product, but the
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: cards look absolutely amazing. And so if you have a
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: PC guy in that set, it's absolutely one to target
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: at card shows, something like that later, uh, because they are,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's, it's the same as the tops Chrome
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: base card. but it's got some amazing artwork, kind of
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: a gold finish to it. So if you like gold
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Chrome cards, you're gonna love these even more. They have
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: this kind of elegant old timey feel to them, but
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: they really, really pop. So I think Toppskills is absolutely
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: a fun one, but it's a harder one to find
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: And not as many people are going to have access
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: to it because it is a little bit higher end.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: But really, this whole slate is a pretty strong slate
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: to finish the year. So which is kind of probably
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: why the reason we're talking about cards releases almost every
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: week right now. But this is this is a great,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: great slate all the way through five star. We'll see
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: if it actually happens this year.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a good point. Yeah. Whenever you get
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: in the TVD without a pre-order on the, on the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: schedule too, that does make it very TBD from what
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I've noticed in terms of the ebbs and flows of
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: this calendar, but great call out there on tops guild.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I actually, I picked up my first gilded card recently.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: It was actually from 2024. It's a satchel page and,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: parallel the other component of gilded is that all the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: number all the cards that come out of it are
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: numbered of 99 or lower uh because it is a
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: very high end set it's almost like sapphire yeah but
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: with all numbered cards and like you said it's all
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: laid out in gold so especially if uh yeah if
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you're like gold member you're gonna love these cards everything's
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: dipped in gold but something we consider i mean i
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: picked up that that satchel page card for 15 bucks
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: just two weeks ago. So if you do have a,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a PC component that is in gilded and you don't
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: want to pay the release prices and you're not too
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: worried about being able to track down a card, uh,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: put it on your watch list, put it on your, your,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: your kind of list of cards to collect and come
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: back to. Cause again, the prices do drop off on,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: especially like the quote unquote base cards that are like
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: of 99 or of 75, where they're a little bit
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: higher numbered. But I think it's also a little bit
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: of like, it's almost like the donut hole of hitting
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: where like, you know, all the good line drives are hits.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: And then there's like a, everything's an out. And then
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it goes back to like poorly hit balls or hits
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: because of their like the little like bloops and stuff.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I think we're in that little bit of a zone where,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: especially Gilded when it gets two or three years old,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I think this happens with Black Chrome too. I've seen
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: it a little bit where the prices dip a little bit,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: but I actually feel pretty good about some of these
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: higher end sets like Topps Black Chrome, Topps Gilded, actually
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: holding longer term value. We're already seeing this in the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: 90s market, that the 90s market, especially if you're a
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Griffey collector, you've probably had a little bit of a
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: debate within the past month or so about like, do
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you move your Griffey's? Cause the, the, the, the costs,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the prices have shot up on all the nineties inserts
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: and everything. I think it could happen with some of
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: these gilded and black Chrome cards in the future.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I fully agree. I, I remember it was about three
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: weeks to a month ago that the King Griffey members
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: choice stadium club car just jumped. And I actually looked
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: and looked at the, the dollar box I have sitting
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: around that if I ever step at a show, which
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: never happens. And I had like two of them just
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: sitting in there for a dollar and they were now
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: $ 20 cards. Like, and that's the kind of stuff that people,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: you know, people grew up collecting. It was harder to find.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Now it's available because you have the income to be
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: able to do it. That's the stuff that people are
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: going back to. Cause I think you're seeing a shift
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: in the market from the modern what's available to the greats.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: And I'll call it the 90s nostalgia type of stuff.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: And so high-end vintage, 90s nostalgia, that's the kind of
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: stuff that is continuing to go up and up because
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of folks are kind of shying
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: away from the breaker market and things like that and
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: putting their time and efforts into things that they believe
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: are going to last and mean something to them.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I think that there's also a component
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of like, people getting those cards and wanting to grade
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: them now and get them put together. So if you've
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: got nice versions of them too, that's, I think, easier
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to do with Black Chrome and Gilded where they've been
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: treated well now. But once they start getting tucked away
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: into people's megaboxes and tucked away into garages and basements
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: and areas that flood or into storage units or... into
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: collections of people who eventually pass away and get forgotten about,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: they can start to degrade a little bit, and it
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: kind of limits the population even further. So if you
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: get some of these higher-end cards where, honestly, they would
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: probably grade pretty well because they were cut well they
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: were produced well that tops put a little more effort
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: into them because they were more expensive products i think
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you've got also better long-term trajectory on those if you
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: take care of them now and make sure they're in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: good storage condition because when you go and peel them
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: out in a couple of decades that's what people are
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: going to be clamoring for is really well taken care
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: of cards is just time passage of time and and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: weather has eaten a lot of the other collections alive Yep, absolutely. Okay, well,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: with that, we're going to take a quick break. We'll
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: be back on the other side to discuss 2026 TOPS updates.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: All right. Welcome back, everybody. We're going to get right
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: into 2026 Tops Update. And before we do that, I
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: am going to encourage you to go down into those
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: show notes and click on the related Razzball link for
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: this post. Because when you get to Razzball.com and see
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the post that goes with this podcast, you will see
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: pictures of the cards we're about to discuss. So we're
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: going to do our best to describe them for you.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: But a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: And you'll just kind of give you a better idea
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: perspective of what we're trying to describe. The other component, too,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: is because we are talking about this a day before
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: release date, usually we cover these products on the release date,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: so then there's plenty that has flooded the market on
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: eBay at that point, where we can see examples of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the cards and describe them. I think we're in pretty
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: decent shape for most of these cards, but not all
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: of them. I think I've seen copies of inserts and
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Obviously, when I was researching this Earlier today,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit more muted. And now people,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: you know, the people that get the Topps products early
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: are told by the distributors, obviously, not to open them
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: and list them on eBay early so that they can
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: try to contain the market a little bit. But that
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: just unravels further and further as you get closer and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: closer to the actual release date on October 14th at
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the strike of midnight. So I think we'll probably have
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: a few more cards on eBay to discuss. And it's
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: very possible that some of the things that we're going
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to discuss, and if we can't find them to talk
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: about while we're recording this podcast, I might have in
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: the meantime found a picture and put it onto the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Ras Ball post. So go to rasball.com and check out
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the posts I'll go with this pod. Obviously, read the
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: work there, too. There's lots of great stuff still going
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: on in the offseason where the Itch is posting all
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the prospect reports. The Gray's still got everything going. And
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: there's lots of great work still going up on rasball.com.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: 2026 tops update should be a fun set here we've
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: got 350 cards we've got some big rookies and we've
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: got a little bit more of a limited print run
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: so something to keep in mind which happens every year
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: with tops update uh you're also looking at like i
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: think it's you know each of your flagship cards from
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: series one series two had roughly like a million and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: a half of each base card while for tops update
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: i think it's about half of that so um obviously
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: i'm just going off of random information that people have
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: used to calculate from the pack odds but it's probably
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: maybe three-fourths when you get to it considering like all
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: the different various ways you can buy Tops Update. So
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: this is another annual card release that we're looking at.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Fourth time that we've covered it here on Cards and Categories.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: So you can go back and check out other times
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: we've talked about Tops Update. Yearly comes out in October. Brew,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: what stands out for you for Tops Update every year
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: that you're looking for? And maybe anything that kind of
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: strikes your fancy as you've been looking at the 2026
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: checklist off the bat.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, for me, every year is an opportunity
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: for those upstart rookies that may have made the teams
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: early in the spring but missed the Series 2 cutoff,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: but were clearly guys that should have been included, and
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: we're going to get their true rookie cards. I think
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: that's the biggest one, and every season it seems like
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: they hold one or two guys off into that. the
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: flip side of that is what we always kind of
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: joke about, uh, tops update is that means everybody is
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: rookie cards in there. So it's every middle reliever you've
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: never heard of all those kinds of guys, um, as well.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: So that's, that's always fun. Um, I think the, the
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: other thing to call out, uh, around update, um, is,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: you know, because you're kind of getting past the season,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: you're now into the, to the playoffs. Like it's tends
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: to be a little bit more available, uh, something that
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: you can go after out in the marketplace. The price
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: tends to not jump up like you would Series 1
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: or even Series 2. Even Series 2 kind of over
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: the years will go up and down. So what I
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: think I like the most here is that as much
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: as you and I have not loved the Topps design
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: for 2026, I think that they've continued to do a
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: good job of retaining the things that we've liked and
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: trying new things. But the overall parallel set, The insert sets,
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: the hits, I feel like they've done a very, very
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: solid job at flagship. This year, like I said, the
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: overall design, maybe not our favorite, but they've continued to
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: do a good job. There still are a few gimmicks,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: which I'm not a huge fan of, and we'll talk
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: about a few of those. But overall, Topps Update, it
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: is that third flagship release. It still is a good one.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: And if you love rookie hunting, this is the set
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it especially pays off for... In
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: terms of ripping, I've had more success with Update than...
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I have with series one and series two in the past,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: just because one update usually is a little bit cheaper
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: because of, especially what we're talking about with not only
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: like the no name rookies in here, but you're also
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: getting like anybody that's kind of changed rosters, teams, teams,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: or they haven't given a card in a while. So
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: you get a lot of like really random relievers and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. in this product on top of the rookies.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: So sometimes the base cards are a little bit less desirable,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: but then what also happens is because there's so many
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: rookies and the way that baseball works out, guys can
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: take three, four years to fully develop and kind of
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: pop and round the corner into an all-star year or
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: into a career that is getting you to a superstar status.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: And if you've got some of those update cards tucked away,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: great example of this, Cal Raleigh, I mean, when Cal
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Raleigh had his cards come out, like there was a
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: lot of his cards that were buried in boxes and
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: then unfurled and refound last year during that run. And
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: so you can do that with tops update a lot
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: more easily. And the price points a lot better. You're
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: looking at like, 110 to 125 dollar hobby box and
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: that hobby box you are getting the one autograph or
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: relic jumbos are cheaper too i mean those will range
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit more especially as we're talking some of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: these rookies and it just being released today but i
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: i think jumbos usually will settle around like 200 ish
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: generally for update and you're getting one autograph and one
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: relic in there. You also have value blaster boxes, hanger boxes,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: fat packs, super boxes, and all sorts of other ways
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: that you're going to be able to find update out
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: there to grip. And so it's going to be available
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: in hobby shops and retail markets, Costco's, targets, Walmarts, all
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: sorts of different places. So it's going to be relatively
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: ubiquitous because of that. What do you think about that?
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Have you had more success with update in the past
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: than others, or is that just me getting lucky with
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: some of my hits over the years?
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I think generally, yes. I wouldn't say necessarily at the
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: top end of things, but yeah, In general, I think
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: because of the rookies, the rookie debuts that you're going
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: to have in there, you do feel like there's a
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: little bit more of a chance of hitting one of
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: the guys. And so last year with Nick Kurtz, this
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: year we're going to have with Connor Griffin, Carson Bench,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Kevin McGonigal, guys like that. It's not that you're just
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: chasing the one rookie card. It's the rookie card, it's
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: the rookie debut, it's the insert. There's a number. So
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: you do kind of get a feel that you are
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: getting more of those hits. because they're coming out of
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: some of the base cards or the general inserts. So yeah,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've felt better opening update. Again, I
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: think from a high-end hit perspective, it's no different. But
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: you do kind of feel like you've had a little
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: bit better shot with some of those rookies. And it's
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: always hard not to just squirrel some of those ways. Like, hey,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: this guy may turn into something. He might get hot
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: in the playoffs or something like that and have something
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: to flip over. So yeah, I think it's fair that
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: update has that feel to it as long as there
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: is the one or two big rookies to carry which
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: we which we have this year.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah so let's get into some of those rookies we've
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: actually out of the 350 cards 125 of them are
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: either outright rookie cards or rookie debut cards so rookie
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: cards are what you have in terms of that base
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: rookie card and it's going to come in that 2026
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: design with the one quarter of it being a jersey pattern,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: and then you've got the frame around it and everything.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: And then the other three-fourths of that card will be
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: just kind of the blank frame where they're allowed to
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: play with for some of the parallels we're going to
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: get into. And then what you're looking at for those
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: rookie cards is just the plain card with the rookie
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: card RC shield stamped onto it. The rookie debut cards,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: certainly a lot less desirable, but still collectible and considered
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: rookie cards, but not like the true quote unquote rookie cards.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: And these will be cards that say rookie debut on it.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: And then they do a little bit of like a
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: story on the back of their actual debut game, as
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: opposed to the flagship rookie card. We'll go through and
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: give you the stats and all kinds of the normal
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: stuff you're used to on the back of the baseball card.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: So yeah, here's guys that are we're focused on for
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: flagship rcs rookie cards there's a lot more rookie debuts
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: of other guys that have been in series one and
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: series two and had their flagship rookie cards but the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: ones that you're going to be chasing here with their
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: flagship rookie cards in 2026 update are connor griffin justin
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: crawford carson benj kevin mcgonigal walbert urana which we wouldn't
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: have said a couple months ago, but he's really come
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: together for the Angels.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: J.J.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Weatherholtz in here. Yonkel Fernandez, baby. We got a Yonkel
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Fernandez rookie card finally. Andrew Painter, Trevor Bazzano, who I
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: kind of lost track of that he was going to
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: be in update, and that's kind of a big one,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: especially if the guards go on a big World Series
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: run and Bazzano's a part of that. This would be
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: a big collectible card out of that. Noah Schultz is
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: in here. Joe Mack, Foster Griffin, Cody Ponce, Sam Antonacci,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Tristan Peters, Jefferson Quero. So that's kind of the bigger
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: names and you've got lots of other lesser names below
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: another tier. Any of those stand out to you, Brew,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: as ones that might have a little more weight in
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the future of the hobby than they do now that
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: you're not worried about tucking away? Obviously, Griffin, Weatherholt, McGonigal
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: are going to be the top three that everyone's chasing.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: But what do you think about the rest of the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: class here?
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think as a strong class, I
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: think there's going to be a few of these pitchers
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: that are going to be guys to kind of watch.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: I think the Noah Schultz, the Andrew painters.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't probably go there and say with like Foster Griffin,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: but like, I think those guys have high end upside,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: but the really wide variations of outcomes, like we've saw
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Andrew painter looked really strong towards the end of the season.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: And so there's a little more hope for, for those guys.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, probably after base cards, but some of
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: their inserts or their autos, things like that, those are
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: the guys that are a little bit more interested there
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: just for like a long-term perspective versus what you see
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: right now. Like, if I'm looking at this list, honestly,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: the guy that most got about is the guy you
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: mentioned is Kevin McGonigal. I just think the upside of
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: that guy is so high. And for whatever reason, he
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: didn't get as much love this season as I think
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: he should have. And I just think he continues to
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: get better and better and better. So I think Griffin
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: had such high expectations. I think a lot of that's
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: baked in. Weatherholt. Kind of the same thing. Benj being
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: in that big New York market, I think he's already
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: got a lot of that baked in. I think McGonigal
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: being in the Detroit market, not having as much eyes
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: on him. I think there's a little more growth in
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: his potential. I think Bazana can fit in that to
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: a degree as well. But I think the playoffs here
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: are probably going to make or break that one to
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: a degree with the timing of this release. So really
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: strong group. I looked through. The only guy that I
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: feel like you missed was TJ Rumfield, which was another
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: one that's there. But, like, you did a pretty gosh
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: darn good job of catching everybody here. But a reminder,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: as you kind of mentioned and alluded to, the rookie
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: debuts aren't necessarily the same as all the rookie cards.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: You're going to have guys like, you know, Nolan McClain,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: you're going to have Jack Caglione, you're going to have
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: guys that didn't get a rookie debut card yet, and
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: they're going to get one here but not have a
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: base rookie card. So there'll be some other big names
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: out there. Cam Schlittler, another good example that you'll be
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: chasing after there, and it'll kind of get a little
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: of the rookiness in the set.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the other component there, too, is
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: it gives you a shot at some of the Golden
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Mirror SSPs and other parallels on that, which will be big. So, yeah,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: like the Murakami, Samuel Basayo, Roman Anthony, those types of
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: folks that were in Series 1, Series 2, Peyton Tolley,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Jacob Misturowski. You'll have some of their cards in here, too. And, yeah,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: especially if you're getting the shot of some of the parallels,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: I think that boosts this entire class even more. So
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of those parallels, because this is
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: where they have zigged, I think, a little bit from
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Series 1 and Series 2. So I counted out, we've
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: got 44 total parallels, I believe. So I will let
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: you rest your vocal cords a little bit as you
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: prepare to rattle those all off. But you've also got
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the Golden Mirror SSPs, which is just a variation of
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: the actual card itself. It's got an alternative image on it,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: and the back of the card will be gold. And
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: it'll stand out because it'll be flipped around in your pack.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: And the picture should also stand out to you as
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: well because it's usually goofy or off-field. There's a component
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: to it where you're like, this is not a normal
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: baseball card flagship picture, so it'll stand out pretty quick
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: to you. Always going to be desirable and very short-printed.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: You've also got the 1952 rookie variations, but that is
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: only limited to 25. So there's only the top 25
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: rookies pretty much got that. And that is going to
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: be exactly what it sounds like. It's the 1952 tops design,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: but it's going to be a short printed variation parallel.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: You've also got in terms of the clear acetate cards,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: the team border color border cards that we love, the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: true photo cards. And the vintage stock variations, which is
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the card printed on like a, it's more of like
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: a Topps Heritage stock than what you look for in
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: terms of the flimsier flagship stock. Each of those, so
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: that's clear, team color is True Photo and Vintage Stack,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: there's only 100 cards in those parallels this year that
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: are in the update series. Those have been a little
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: bit more expanded across other products at other times, but
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: they're limiting that to just the 100 cards here. And
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: then you've also got the player number variations, which is
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: like the team color variations where those team color ones,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: it's just the team logo and the border and that
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: three quarters portion of the border I was talking about.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: that tops has to work with on the design. You're
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: getting it with numbers, I believe on the, on the border,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: but it could also be in the background. I don't
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: know if I've seen a good picture of this yet,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: but that'll be matching the player's number on their Jersey.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Only 25 of those. You've also got the holiday variations,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: which traditionally have come on all the cards in series
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: one and series two. They, they tweaked it here. They've
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: brought it down to just a hundred cards, just like
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: those clear cards. team color to photo vintage stock. Only
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: 100 cards out of this set will have the holiday variations.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: And there's seven parallels of those holiday variations. So something
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: to keep in mind if you're putting together these rainbows,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: that if you've got a bigger name, you've got a
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: lot more variations than just the 44 base parallels. The
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: 44 base parallels and the gold mirror SFP will be
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: for all 350 cards. So that will be your kind
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: of true rainbow. And then you've got extraneous rainbows for
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: bigger names. With all that, Brew. You ready to hit
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: them with the 44 variations?
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: I am ready to, but we've got to twist this
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: time around just because the checklists have come out. Don't
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: give it to us in what we have of our
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: typical ordering, where you go from least to most rare.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: The checklist that we have available goes by type of box,
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: and they're available outside of the ones that are available
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: in everything. I did think about trying to collate the
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: whole thing and do it live as we go, and
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: then I realized that's going to be an absolute disaster,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: so we're going to stick with the checklist here, but
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: So we're going to cover first is the parallels that
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: you can be found across the board in all the products.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: And so that's going to be your rainbow foils, your
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: aqua rainbows. It's going to be your gold typical out
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: of 2026. Independence Day out of 76. Got your 75
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: years of tops out of 75. You got a black
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: out of 75, a canvas out of 50, a wood
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: out of 25. Your Memorial Day camo out of 25
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: and your printing plates one of one. Again, those are
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: available online. and all the different products. From a hobby
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: and jumbo perspective, you also will have purple rainbows out
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: of $ 250, blue out of $ 150, green out of $ 99,
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: gold out of $ 50. These are all rainbow variations. Orange
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: rainbows out of $ 25, black rainbows out of $ 10, red
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: rainbows out of $ 5, and a foil fractor, one of one.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: In your jumbo only, so these are not in the hobby,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: just jumbo only, you have sand glitters, you have gold
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: sand glitters out of 50, orange sand glitters out of 25,
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: black out of 10, and red sand glitters out of 5.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: On the retail side of things, these are in your blasters,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: your fat packs, your hangers, and your super boxes. You're
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: going to have your holofoil, your pink holofoil, your aqua holo,
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: your purple holo out of $ 250, your blue holo out
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: of $ 150, your green out of $ 99, gold holos out
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: of $ 50, orange holos out of $ 25, black out of $ 10,
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: red out of $ 5, and then your rose gold holo
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: one of ones. From a hanger perspective, so we'll get
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: back to Into retail here, but only in your hangers,
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: you're going to have your Diamante foils. I'm not going
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: to say Diamante 10 times here. So you have your
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: pink foils, your green foils, your gold foils, your orange, black,
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: and red. They are not numbered in this checklist, but
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: I believe they will be numbered just like everything else.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: So your orange can be out of 25, your black
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: out of 10, and your red is going to be
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: out of five. You will have in the Fanatics exclusive
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: a Topps logo foil pattern. That's going to be available.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: That's going to be one out of every two Fanatics packs.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: You will have your Japan exclusive, which in your Japan hobbies,
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: you're going to have your Cherry Blossom parallels there. And
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: then your Superbox, you're going to have your Silver Crackle
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: parallels as well.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: So.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: That is the whole list. But remember, with a few
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: of these, you can only get them in very, very
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: select products like your Japan, your Fanatics, and your Superboxes.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: So just keep an eye out for those. It may
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: feel like there's plenty of them out there because you
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: can get them very plentifully in those boxes, but they're
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: only available in those boxes. So top logo foils, cherry blossoms,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: silver crackles, be a little bit harder to find than
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: what you actually expect.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think that is very fair. And while you
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: were running through all those parallels, I did answer a
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: few of my own questions. One actually in series one
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: and series two, the holiday variations were just limited a
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: hundred card checklists. So that actually matches here in update.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: So something to keep in mind that is new for 2026. Previously,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: that was not the case and you could get those
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: in a much more expanded versions. And then the player
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: number variations for 2026, it is in the border. So again,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: The first time it came out last year, it was
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: in the background everywhere. These ones for 2026, it's just
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: along the border, which makes them look less maniacal. I
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: will say that it's a little bit more contained and
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit like disorienting from 2025. So
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: good to see that cleaned up. Yes, it is a
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: lot of parallels. There's a lot of different things in here.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: So especially if you are ripping this and you're not
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: totally certain when you got Use the checklist that we've
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: linked to down in the show notes. It should be
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: able to help you out. Otherwise, you can go to Reddit.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: They're always extremely friendly about people checking in to see
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: what parallels they have. Obviously, there's a little bit of
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: sarcasm tinge in there. A couple of other parallels to
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: talk about are golden mirror legend SSPs back again, 50
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: card checklist. So this will be 50 of the base
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: cards they've picked out. And they've also made a golden
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: mirror legend SSP that goes with that. And what it is,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: is like it says, it's a legend. So it's going
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: to align usually with that team of the player from
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: the base. And you've got all sorts of hall of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: famers and greats in there in terms of Babe Ruth,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Ken Griffey Jr., Hank Aaron, all the way down to
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: somebody like Ron Santo or Alan Trammell. So pretty much
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: if you're a legendary, like a top 50 player of
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: all time in most collectors and fans' eyes, you're in
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: that set and it's going to have a cool photo
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: to go with it. I'm glad that they brought those
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: back because those were always a fun part of the
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Tops flagship sets and they'd been missing for a couple
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: of years. It's great to see them back. The other
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: variation you're going to get is a short printed versions
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: of Adley Rutschman on the Red Sox and Tariq Skubal
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: on the Dodgers. So the way that you would see
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: in series two where they would short print some of
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: the hot rookies and put them in as hits, they've
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: done it with these players here too. So, I mean, certainly,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: interesting choices because treat school, obviously one of like the
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: best handful of pitchers in the world. And as the Richmond, uh,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: certainly a big name, but, uh, I think it's careening
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: pretty fast in terms of his career. So, uh, one
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: might age a little bit better than the other from
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: this 2026 set, my view.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: And those are, I didn't do the actual odds to
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: try to figure this out, but they are pretty, pretty rare.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: So we're talking in the, the hobby box one in,
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: 1486 packs, one in 363 jumbos. Like these are actually
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: a lot harder to find than what you probably would expect.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: And it being kind of not a rookie variation, just
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: a traded player variation. I think these are ones are
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: going to get missed. I honestly think people are going
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: to miss them. I couldn't find any examples yet to
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: see kind of what they look like. And if there's
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: anything that makes them really stand out, but I don't
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: think they're going to stand out because I think they're
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: just going to be Scoogle and Rushman on their new teams.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it will be flipped backwards in your
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: pack as a hit, but it's not going to be
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: like a golden mirror where like a golden mirror is
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: easy because it's like, oh, the back of this card
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: is gold.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: Especially like, oh, that's that was put in there wrong. Like,
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: and just looking at me like, yes, yes, on the Dodgers. Yes,
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: of course.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, and especially given that Update is used to put
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: players on their new teams post-trade deadline. Or Alex Bregman
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: on the Cubs. This is your first card with Alex
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Bregman on the Cubs. It's going to be a big hit,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: or at least in terms of a flagship card of
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Bregman on the Cubs. But it could be easily overlooked.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Something to keep in mind. If you find one in
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: a dollar box, pretty awesome.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into some of the hits that you're
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: chasing with those cards. jumbos and hobbies and these will
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: obviously show up in the value boxes at a very
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: low rate as well so first we've got the autos
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: we're bringing back the flagship and golden mirror real one
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: autos plus they're gonna have also there's real one patches
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: but also real one patch autos too so uh they're
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: really leaning into i think this real one stuff more
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: and more which is i think good for tops that
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: like I've gotten pretty tired of baseball stars as my
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: insert for an auto perspective. It's good to see a
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: little bit of a mix here. And I, they're very
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: popular because you're not going to go wrong with having
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: an on-card auto of a base card design from that year.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: It just, it's perfect. So going to be some big
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: names to chase there. You've got 75 years of top celebrities,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: which are very short printed. You've got just six, in
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: there you've got billy crystal the chef reactions guy from
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: tiktok jesse eisenberg kat dennings manny fresh the rapper maria
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: taylor from nbc sports so we also saw a good
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: handful of those folks just last week alan and ginter
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: so Topps sent quite a few products to a few
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: of those folks and had them signed from there. You've
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: got 75 years of Topps die cut autos, which are
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: baseball players. You've only got six in that set of
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: Adrian Beltre, Dustin Pedroia, Eli De La Cruz, Francisco Lindor,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Mookie Betts, Pedro Martinez, 75 of those a piece. There's
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: only five a piece of those celeb ones. So those
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: are actually going to be pretty big hits at the
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: end of the day. I think especially for all the
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: geeks and weirdos out there, the Kat Dennings one of
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: five is going to be a big auto hit out
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: of this set. I will say maybe that is one
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: aspect of the update is that between Flagship, Golden Mirror,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: the 75 Years of Tops on both ends, those are
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: probably the biggest hits of the product. And they're not
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: they don't reach the heights that we were talking last
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: week with Allen Ginter of cut autos and all sorts
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: of booklets and stuff like that. So the heights here
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: on update aren't quite as high from the upper end hits,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: but I mean, some fun tips here. What do you
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: think about these kind of big hitters from the hits? Yeah.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, I, I'm a big fan of the real one,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: any version of it. I think that they've done a
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: great job. Like it's stealing that from heritage, like the
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: real one. on-card autos, so that was a great move.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: The 70 Years of Tops die cut, it feels like
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: it should be gimmicky, but it works, and it really
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: is a very, very good-looking card, and the same for
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: any of them that have the auto on there. From
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: a purist perspective, those are going to be a tough
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: one because it feels like all that 90s insert die cuts,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: something's just going to go wrong with them immediately with
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: all the chip corners, things like that, but they are very,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: very cool And it's not often we see tops taking
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: something like a 75-year anniversary and making it into a
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: great card. Usually it kind of falls flat when they're
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: trying to celebrate themselves to a degree that doesn't work
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: as well as what they have. So I think those
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: are the big ones. We're going to see the typicals,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: the baseball stars, things like that. But for me, I
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: do think those autos, the 75-year tops die cuts and
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: the real ones are really the big hits you're after.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: I know we'll cover it a little bit later, but
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: there are a few gimmicky ones that are truly the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: big chases that are in here with some of the
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: special redemptions and things that they have going. We'll hit
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: that a little bit later. But those, if you're really
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: looking for your high and high end hits, those are
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: the kind of the oddball gimmicky ones that are there
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: from a more of a one-on-one perspective.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I think rounding out your auto hits,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: you've got, as you said, baseball stars. You've got postseason
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: performance autographs, which is just going to be guys from
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: last year's 2025 playoffs that have an auto that's on
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: a picture of a big moment from them in 2025.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: The rounding the bases relic, which I didn't get details,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: but I believe it should be the a piece of
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the base that's in there so that'll be a big
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: hit as well and then otherwise you've kind of got
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: we'll get into it more so with the inserts but
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: pretty much every insert except for some of the case
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: hit ones has an auto version of it too so
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: 1991 tops all-star and regular and chrome cards uh all-star
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: game inserts the cover athletes the first pitch inserts the
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: heavy lumber Major League Materials, along with Duels on there too,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Rising Rookies, all those inserts and other relic hits that
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: we're going to get to have auto versions as well.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: And they've done a great job of picking the best
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: of the best inserts and just adding autos to them.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to give Topps credit here. Like that's
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: what makes the autos work. There's very few autos you're
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: going to pull and be like, ah, this is not,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: I'm disappointed by the auto. You're going to be disappointed
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: you pulled the middle reliever out of that, but you're
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: not going to be disappointed because of the card design.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. And I mean, that
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: is going to be something that stands out from this
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: set as well too, is that honestly the inserts are
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: pretty solid. So compared to what we were looking at
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: last week and we were very disappointed in Alan Ginter's inserts,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: the designs here on the inserts are, it feels like
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: they've trimmed it down to kind of like the ones
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: that are required for a flagship product and not getting
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: too over their skis.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: I will say, and I know we're jumping ahead, but
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: since you're, really, I mean, we're kind of covering the
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: inserts as we are. The one I'm waiting for is
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: the Topps Black Gold Gold Auto. I mean, can you
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: imagine that the thick gold pen auto, like self-numbered 101
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: on a Topps Gold, Black Gold card? Like, come on, Topps,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: like that's an obvious one. Please, please do it. You're
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: doing so much other things with like the heavy lumber,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: things like that, which obviously deserve it. That one's just
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: like waiting for you to push like Inception and with
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: update together and giving us an amazing golden graphs type
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: auto on Topps Black Gold. So I'm making my pitch now.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: Let me know, Topps, if you would like me to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: conduct the signings for those happy to do it.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll hear from them soon. I can't wait
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: for it. Let's get into some of the other hits
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: that you'll be getting. Most likely, you'll be getting a
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: relic from when you're going through your hobby boxes and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: your jumbos. Although in the jumbos, you get one relic,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: you get one auto. The nice thing here is that
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: it's another product where you don't have any of the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: fake relics, I would say, quote unquote, where, I mean,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: the legitimacy of these relics, we can debate, but it's
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: none of the ones where it's like, essentially like the
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: fridge magnet, but they took the magnet off the bat
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: and put it in, or a patch, like a manufactured patch.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: They have gotten rid of that again. So the relics
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: that you're looking at are real one-night relics that we
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: covered there, where that's going to be a relic of
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: the card in the 2026 design. So that'll be nice
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: and clean and looks really great. You get the same
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: thing for 1991, the all-star inserts and the regular inserts
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: as well. as the chrome versions as well you get
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: all-star stitches which uh is going to be a baseball
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: i believe but um i haven't seen.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: A picture of that one yet they're they're dreadful okay
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: like i'm looking at now like i i can see
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: what they were trying to do it kind of harkens
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: back to some of the like early 2000s relics but
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: like it's bad like i don't It's basically a, the
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: all-star logo with a really rough looking patch. And then
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: just this kind of starburst of white and red, white
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: and blue stars flying over the place. And it's kind
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: of like an old timey finish on it. Like I
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: see what they were trying to do.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: It's bad.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: It just did not work. And so I feel like
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: that's going to be the one that people are like, Oh,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: I got this one. It's kind of cartoon-esque. And I
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be a miss considering the, some
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: of the other relics you have where like the 1991
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: is a really, really clean design. The majorly material I
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: think is probably the best one that has been in years. Um,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: and so I think it is unfortunate, uh, that that one, uh,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: all-star stitches, which actually should be great. Um, I think
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: for a few years in a row now, we've really
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: kind of missed the boat on hitting the all-star stitches, uh, relics.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that is going to also be themed with
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: the All-Star game. And actually, I missed that. There are autos, too.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: So there's going to be autos for that as well.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: But I mean, I think what gives it a little
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: bit of a leg up is unlike some of the
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: Major League Materials relics, which was the next one I
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: was going to cover. And then I think there's Rising
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Rookie relics as well, too. So the Major League Materials
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: ones are going to be those standard kind of like
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: player worn or... game used and it's kind of unspecific. The,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: the all-star ones are event used, which usually does hone
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: it in more so on like the player used it
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: during the all-star weekend sort of thing. So I think
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: that is one of the, the components of the all-star
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: stitches that gives it a little bit of like a,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: a leg up over major league materials, but you know,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: otherwise you're looking at pretty much like it's the standard
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: kind of progression that you're looking at. When you have
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: any of these tops relics where the base version is
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: going to be the napkin patchy looking relic. And then
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: as you get lower and lower numbered, you're going to
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: get cooler and cooler multicolored patches and everything is I'm
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: looking on eBay right now where like they have the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: Ernie Clement one. of the one of one somehow got pulled.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: They asked me for 50K for it. Good luck on
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: getting 50K for an Ernie Clement one of one that's
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: not even signed. But it has like a really sick
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: patch on it that goes from gray, black, blue, white,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: back to blue. So they do make sure that they
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: use the best of the relics for those lowered number
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: cards um and then let's get into the other hits
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: that you you hinted at the other hits are going
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: to be where some of the the products shine so
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: you've got authentic redemptions from fanatics uh those will be
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: in the fanatics boxes themselves too and what it is
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: you get a redemption to send in and get an
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: actual kind of signed piece of memorabilia or other other
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: piece of memorabilia that fanatics will hold and the ship
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: out to you so it's like a Signed jersey, signed bat,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: signed card, signed helmet. Things like that, which will be
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. A 75th Anniversary Tops jacket, which I have
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: not seen the design of, but if that's a leather jacket,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: that might be kind of cool. Cool little hit. And
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: then you've got buyback redemptions, which we've had in the
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: past few flagship sets, and they remain to be super cool,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: where the redemption's actually for a graded card of a very,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: very classic card. rookie card that has been out there
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: so uh and this one you know you're getting anything
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: from back in the day of like a like Roberto
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Clemente all the way up through like a more modern
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: one like Shohei Otani so uh between these relics and
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: these redemptions what do you like from those checklists Boo?
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah I mean from from the relics I wasn't very
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: kind on on the uh the all-star stitches but Like
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: I said, I think the rest of the relics are really,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: really strong. Rising Rookie is a very cool design. Major Materials,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: I think, is actually bordering on some of the higher
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: end products as far as the design on that one.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: So I think the relics actually do a great job,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: which is saying something because that's generally what you're going
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: to get. If you have a hobby box, you're probably
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: going to hit one of those relics. But I think
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: those are great. We look at the others. The Fanatics
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: Authentics one is kind of an oddball one. I personally
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: am a believer in collecting other things as far as
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: the Authentics go. And so I'm a guy that has
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: bats and cleats and helmets and things like that within
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: my personal collection. But it is not necessarily for everybody
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: because those, as funny as it seems, you would think,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: getting an autographed bat or helmet or something like that
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: is going to be more valuable than a baseball card. Typically,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: actually not the case. And so people actually tend to
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: be a little disappointed when they pull these in an
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: odd way. But the big ones for me here is
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: the buyback redemptions. And this kind of goes back to
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: what we covered right at the beginning of some of
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: the baseball card talk is kind of the honing in
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: on the greats. and the 90s inserts and things like that.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: And this is an opportunity to get a 1956 Jackie Robinson.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: You can get the Nolan Ryan rookie graded. You can
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: get an awesome, you know, top straight Barry Bonds rookie graded.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: You're going to get an opportunity to get a number
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: of King Griffey graded. You're going to get the Mike
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: Trout graded. You can get a Shohei Otani graded. graded
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: rookie and so I think this is a really cool
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: way to get some of those iconic vintage cards graded
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: or some of the more modern chase cards graded It
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: is still kind of a lotto ticket out there. You
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: don't know what you're going to get from a grade
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: perspective until you actually redeem it. It could be a
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: wonderful PSA 1. It could be a PSA 10. You
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: don't know. They don't actually tell you. But I think
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: this is, to me, it's a really cool one because,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: especially with the speed of grading these days, which we
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: don't really cover much on this podcast, but it's not fast.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: You're actually maybe faster to get a redemption from Tops
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: on a graded rookie buyback than you are to actually
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: grade the rookie card itself.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a good point. Yeah. Like if you
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: are looking for one, that might be one of the
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: ways that you actually get the graded card that you're
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: looking for.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: I've been searching for the Nolan Ryan and also the Jackie.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: I just don't think I'm able to afford the Jackie.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: But if you hit the Nolan Ryan one, I'm all ears.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: I'm game. I think it's going to grade a lot faster.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very true. Actually, the other component here too
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: is I'm scrolling back through the checklist and They added
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: stuff since I built out our rundown. So some of
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: the things I do want to call out that I
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: had missed that have been added to the checklist because...
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: You know, Topps is not always great about putting out
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: the full checklist nowadays. That is kind of like a
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: fly-by-night operation. And especially when you get to the odds
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: and stuff, we don't always get those right away. So
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of other autographs and relics, I want to
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: call it. There's City Connect autograph relics. These are eight cards,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: 99 apiece. That's also really cool to see in terms
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: of it's going to be an actual patch from a
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: city connect uniform and they've been doing this now for
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: a couple of the flagship series as recently and now
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: you're going to get those as autograph relics only eight
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: cards in that checklist there's also world champion autographs there's
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: three cards moogie bets max muncy and justin robleski uh
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: i mean these are crazy crazy short printed like Just
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: the base of these world champion ones are one in
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: every 60,240 hobby packs. The City Connect ones, the bases
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: are one in every 12,993 hobby packs. So I can
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: see why they got added a little bit late. So
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: just wanted to call those out in case people are like, hey,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: you guys, you missed some stuff from the checklist. It
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: was not there when I put together the rundown. earlier
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: this morning so good to see that we're still getting
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: stuff that's coming out and getting on here so there
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: are other things that we missed keep that in mind
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: that we were working the day before release and things
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: are still kind of getting updated as we're moving along
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: so let's get into the inserts that we keep alluding
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: to so we've got some of the standard ones And
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: they've been either in previous top sets in the past,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: or we've seen them already in 2026. So you've got
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: the 1991 design of the inserts. You're going to have
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: both the regular version and the all-star version of that.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: You're going to have an all-star card set, which kind
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: of goes on theme with what we're talking about with
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: those all-star stitches. You're looking at cards of... players who
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: were in the 2026 All-Star Game. You've got your All
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Aces and All Kings short prints slash case hits in here.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Bull Collar Dory is back, which we hated from Series 2,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: but they brought it back here for update. Unfortunately, Cover
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Athletes is back, which has not necessarily been the most
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: popular insert, but it is a card where you've got
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: a player who has been on the box for Tops
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: in the past, and they brought them back as an
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: insert with a picture of the card set that they
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: were in. First Pitch, which is a celebrity insert set
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: that shows first pitches from celebrities out there. And then
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: you've also got Heavy Lumber and Home Field Advantage was
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: your standards. Mystical, which we've got coming back. Rookie Sensations,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: which we had as an auto. This one, it hasn't
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: been in for quite a few years, but it's a
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: pretty straightforward card. It's like a faded background behind each rookie,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: and it's a nice little rookie card hit. I think
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: they actually mostly put it in because they wanted to
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: just get more Connor Griffin, McGonagall, Weatherholt, mclean miserowski cards
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: out into the atmosphere and this is a good way
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: to do it with a rookie sensations insert set we've
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: got stars mmlb back and we've got tops black gold
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: which you alluded to so what stands out from those
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: inserts that are returning back to update here.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah i mean you're you're gonna have the the the
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: big chases with your like all aces all kings those
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: types of things Um, always been a big heavy lumber
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: or home field advantage, uh, fan. I do want to
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: call out cause I just saw it a second ago
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: that the black gold insert has a little bit of
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: a different design this time around. Um, it kind of
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: got a four quadrant in the, in the outside. And then, um,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of, you got a, I would say
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: it was like a black kind of border, um, around
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: the shape in the middle. So like, I, I don't,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing a great job explaining it here. I'm
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: looking at JJ Weatherholt rookie version out there. Again, it's
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: not going to be terribly expensive, but it did diverge
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: from the traditional design just a little bit, but I
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: think it works. And so I think that's going to
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: be fun as well. I do think the, the bulk
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: order of the first pitch cover athletes, probably not my thing.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: They don't get it to me, especially the first pitch.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: Like whenever I, I, pull one of those. This feels
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: like it should be a short print, feels like it
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: should be really, really valuable. It's kind of the Alan
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: Ginter-esque of having somebody else on a baseball card that's not.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: So those ones do kind of drop to the back.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: And then, of course, your Stars of MLB is always
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: the bulk order, the bulk order type of thing, where
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: you can get those in every little product, nook and cranny.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: Those things are worth about as much as the paper
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: that they're printed on when you get those ones. So
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: That said, I do, again, I think I said earlier,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: I think that they've done a pretty good job of
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: pulling in those strong inserts. And you always are going
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: to have to have the carryovers or a few of
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: them that aren't as amazing like the Stars and MLB.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: But all in all, a very, very strong kind of
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: returnee insert set here for sure.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree that you've got a few duds in
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: terms of bulk order and stars of MLB, but otherwise
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: it's a pretty strong set of inserts right there. I
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: do want to call out again, I missed another set
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: of hits that I think is going to be pretty big.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: As I'm scrolling back through the checklist again, there's an
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: America 250 redemption. It's a huge checklist. No wonder I
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: can't believe I missed it when I was scrolling through.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: But you're looking at 426 cards, and it's a redemption
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: of USA 250 patch relic redemptions. There's no odds. on
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: the checklist we're looking at. I have a feeling it
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: might be the actual, like, USA 250 patches that were
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: on hats or jerseys or something from the regular season,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: so something that will probably also be a pretty big
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: hit that I want to call out, just that we're so...
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: unfurling the details from that one and it is like
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: a it seems like it might be a really really
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: short print of each card because you're looking at all
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: sorts of players and managers and coaches so it's anybody
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: who was on the field in 2026 runs the gamut
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: from you know all the way up to the likes
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: of a, is Shohei in here? Let's see. No, Shohei
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: is not, but you're going to get, I mean, you
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: could get like a Sam Bachman, but all the way
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: up to somebody like Randy Rosarena or Rafael Devers. So
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: also like Edgar Martinez, you know what I mean? So
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: you got all sorts of players in that. We'll see
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: what the redemptions are like, because like, I don't think
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: anybody knows what they're like because they weren't in any
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: of the materials I saw.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I couldn't find anything on eBay or anything
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: like that yet, so.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll see as those come out. Let's get
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: back to the inserts, though, because we do have some
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: new ones here. We have Autumn Ascensions, which is going
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: to be like what it sounds. You've got an an
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: autumn based card there and it is going to be
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: with a playoff tie-in as well and then you've also
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: got uh stat stars which we keep seeing variations of
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: this it's not really terribly that interesting to me anywhere
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: anymore where you get an insert where they're outlining some
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: sort of stat or something from a player and highlighting
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: it on the back uh we've been seeing this in
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: Very different forms over the years. So a little bit
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: of an insert twist there. And then I saved the
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: best for last because I think this will be another
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: one of the cooler hits. It'll be cool, but I
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: don't know how the market will value it in the
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: long run. Matt Cesar, the former outfielder for the Cubs
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: and went over to Japan. He's he does art now, too.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: And he does it like raises it for good causes
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: and things like that. He's actually got one of one
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: cards of all sorts of like Matt Caesar art cards
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: in this set where you might have encountered this previously
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: in flagship sets where you'll get like sketch cards of
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: like famous artists that have been putting together baseball work
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: for a long time especially it tied in well when
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: they used to have Topps Gallery because these used to
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: be the artists that would actually create the Topps Gallery
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: art that went into those cards and then they would
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: make other cards for Topps and there are various artists
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: that will work their way into various sets and this
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: time it is uh matt caesar from the the old
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: outfielder so that's pretty cool um what do you think
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: about some of these new ones.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah i mean i i always love the unique things
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: they will do like matt caesar uh where it's it's
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 2: also funny he has his own um oh what was
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: it here we have his own men's personal care soaps
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: and deodorants is another line of business he's got into
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: so it's all on his website if you want to
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: check it out but the one I actually want to
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: call out is the stat stars like it'll be interesting
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: to see but it harkens back to the 2000 I
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: think it was 2000 own the game stat stars which
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: was it's a very very similar design now those ones
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: from 2000 I think there's a little bit more foil
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: a little bit more oomph to them and also that's
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: where you get like Ken Griffey Jr. and guys like
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 2: that that are But it does kind of give that vibe.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: And so I do like the attempt to bring that back.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 2: I think it is interesting. You're right. We have had
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: this like stat version many, many times. But this one
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 2: actually feels like kind of a return back about 25
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: years later of that own the game set that the
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: tops had. So I like that one personally. Again, any
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: unique art is always going to be fun to find.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 2: autumn ascensions i think it's it's it's a neat card
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: but i to me it kind of fills in the
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: gimmicky of like the uh you know halloween type holiday
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: cards that we have it's like it works really well
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: when you open tops update in the fall uh especially
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: if you're in the midwest um or the east if
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: you're out out west or down south where you don't
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: get as much of the fall uh like you know
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: say southern california or texas or something like that you're
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: like what's What's this thing? I don't see the autumn
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: leaves falling as much. So that one to me is
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: a little bit more gimmicky. But like I said, I'm
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: a big fan of stat stars coming back. I'm just,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: I want to see it in person to see if
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: it actually holds up to my expectations.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I think that is all very fair. And then,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah. And the other component with stat stars
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: is one of the first ones that came up when
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: I was looking on eBay was a Burakami card because
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: you can kind of see it in all the inserts.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: they did their best to shoehorn Murakami into as many
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: of them as possible, which is also just kind of
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: funny in hindsight, because obviously Murakami was a big hit
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: in the first half, cooled off in the second half,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: And you're looking at like, some of these are missing
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: like Connor Griffin and McGonagall in the, in the inserts.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: That's where I think if tops could go back a
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: couple months when they were planning out update, they might
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: fold in a little bit more kind of Griffin and
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: McGonagall than Murakami, but a huge, huge set. If you
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: are going to be looking for the white socks spot,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: I think in any breaks, something to keep in mind
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: going forward. Cause there's a Murakami all over the place. Uh,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to wrap us up. I'm scrolling
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: back through the checklist one more time to see if
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: there are any other components I missed that might have
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: been added while we were talking. In the meantime, we've
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: also seen the Rays wrap up game two of the
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: ALCS and notch it back up at 1-1 with the guards.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: So we'll shape it up for some good playoff baseball
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: while you're out there ripping some tops. Update 2026. If
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: you hit any of these cool cards or any cards
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: that we might have not talked about because we didn't
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: have the full details when we were recording this podcast,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: hit us up at cardscategories at gmail.com or find us
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: on bluesky at cardscategories. We'd love to hear from you. Brew,
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: let everybody know where they can find you on socials.
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me at jbrewer17. Find me on Twitter, X,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it, and Blue Sky. Reach out. Cooley,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: where can folks find you?
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on BlueSky at mpool7, spelled
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: C-O-U-I-L-L on cool there, like my last name. And I
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: will continue to be writing at Baseball Perspectives all offseason.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: So I should have weekly-ish articles going up and covering
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: all sorts of different aspects of the 2026 fantasy season
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: and then rounding our way into 2027 draft season. It's
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: fast approaching, especially for those of us that will be
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: going to First pitch Arizona a couple weeks. If you
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: were down in the show notes looking for that link
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: to the Raswell post, you were also probably pretty close
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: to the link that would send you to the store
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: with Cards and Categories gear. Check it out if you
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: need a new hat or T-shirt or coffee mug that
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: has a Cards and Categories logo on it. If you
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: have not rated and reviewed us wherever you're listening to
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: this podcast, we would greatly appreciate it. if you would
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: do so, just helps us grow our audience and get
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: feedback on how we're doing. So thanks everybody for checking
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: out this podcast and we will be back roughly same time,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: same place next week. Thanks everybody.