November 2, 2025 • 48 mins
Welcome to my weekly MidLife Sports Card Q&A episode where I answer your top questions about collecting, investing, grading, the current market, and everything in between. Whether you're new to the hobby or a long-time collector, this Q&A dives deep into the hottest topics in the sports card world right now. This week, we cover a wide range of topics that include: Geoff Wilson talking smack about Card Ladder, some suspicious bidding on ebay, and much more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
What's going on, everybody? All right, here we are on
Wednesday. Been a really fun past week and
I've got some awesome stuff coming up this week.
Last week I got to have dinner. I hadn't mentioned this.
I mentioned it beforehand, but not posthand, but I got to hang
out with my buddy Dan of Dan's Vintage Baseball PC last week.
(00:34):
He was in town, he came to the house, we looked at some cards,
we went out to dinner, had a lotof fun hanging out with him.
The live stream Monday night, those are always a blast.
Thank you to everybody who came out live, especially if you
haven't watched it or you didn'twatch it live again, check that
(00:54):
out. There is the recording of it
that's also available. And remember, if you were one of
the 50 most active people in thechat during the live, you're
going into a drawing. I'm going to do that on my
Friday episode. So Friday is going to be the
midlife Community show and tell.And then on top of that will be
(01:18):
an additional drawing for the two giveaways from the Monday
live stream. Remember, the grand prize is the
free year subscription to Card Ladder.
The second thing is that awesomeClemente card, that custom card
from Scott of Reindeer Studios given to us by our friend Theo
(01:43):
Clemente Collector. Much appreciation on those on
Card Ladder, the team at Card Ladder for donating that year
subscription and then Theo for donating that card.
So that will be part of Friday'sdrawings in addition to the
drawing for the Pennyslever giftcards on for the month for the
(02:05):
midlife show and tell. So this is Wednesday though,
Wednesday's Q&A day. I have 5 more great questions,
one of which got me a little riled up, so let's start things
off with that. I don't go after other people
(02:26):
who have channels, but when people go after others and the
people that they're going after are people that I like, then I
get a little bit defensive. So let's take a look at this
first question and then I'll have a bit of a reaction.
(02:48):
Our first question says, I forget if you discussed this in
one of your Q&A's. Or your podcast, but.
Someone asked how to track theircard inventory and you gave a
very compelling answer to use card ladder.
I just watched Jeff Wilson's. Response video.
To the criticism he got for his $4000 up charge recently and he
(03:10):
and Teapot said that card ladderprices were wildly inaccurate.
Do you have any response to this?
Thanks. OK, so I don't throw a lot of
stones. One of the things I don't do on
this channel, and you all know it if you watch regularly, is I
don't really attack other content people.
(03:33):
I don't attack other people who have channels.
I let them there do their thing.I do my thing.
There are times where I will have some harsh comments towards
some of the big corporations when I think that they're doing
something that's not in the bestinterest of the card community.
But I don't usually go after other people who have channels.
(03:55):
That said, Teapot and Jeff Wilson recently went after Card
Ladder and they they said some fairly strong things.
And so the first thing I want todo is if you didn't see it, let
me just show you a clip of what was said by Teapot and Jeff
(04:17):
Wilson here. I think it's a huge problem that
they're deciding now what your card is worth and they're using
card ladder estimated values in many cases, which we know are
wildly inaccurate. And I'm not saying that because
I work on market movers. It's just a fact.
They're not accurate. They give the times they're bad,
and they're using that to determine the value of your
(04:39):
card. OK, so they they said that it's
just a fact that card ladder values are wildly inaccurate.
I want to say a couple of thingsright off the bat.
First, I actually like Teapot. I have had dialogue with teapot.
(05:01):
I have spoken on the phone with teapot.
We have texted several times. I I genuinely like teapot and I
love his passion for market movers.
And I think that Jeff has basically he has embraced the
hobby heel status. He he went from this guy who was
(05:26):
starting a channel and was trying to give investment advice
to now he's basically just accepted the hobby heel.
He just any attention is good attention lightning rod And you
know, I watched some of Jeff's content, but I'm not like a huge
(05:49):
Jeff Jeff Wilson content watcher, but I do watch some of
his things. I think some of the stuff he
produces is interesting. I appreciate some of the
attention that he has helped thethe hobby get.
But I I think that when wheneveranybody is talking about
investing and investment advice,especially when it comes to
(06:16):
modern cards and prospects, that's not an investment.
An investment is not saying thisprospect is a good investment
that those two things don't go along.
Now are there current players who I I think somebody could say
they invest in? Sure.
(06:39):
There there are some guys like Shohei and Aaron Judge that I
think are sure thing Hall of Farmers and you could
potentially talk about investingin them, but investing in
prospects, those things, that's an oxymoron to invest in a
(07:01):
prospect. Now, if you want to prospect in
a prospect, that's one thing. So, but that that's a whole
different conversation. I'm not going to get into my
pros and cons of Jeff Wilson right now.
I want to focus specifically on what they said about card ladder
because I I have aligned myself with card ladder.
I came out and I said I am deleting market movers off of my
(07:26):
phone. I am deleting VCP off of my
phone because I don't need them because card Ladder is the best
app. And I do believe that.
I do believe that. I still believe that regardless
of what those two had to say. So I just want to do a quick
little reminder to everyone fromthe National.
(07:49):
During the National, you know, alot of people were making videos
and posting videos. I'm going to show you our friend
Flippin Steve. This is a brief clip of Flippin
Steve's, one of Flippin Steve's videos from the.
By the way, I got to meet Flippin Steve at the National.
He's a really cool guy. I really like him.
(08:10):
In fact, Steve, if you are watching this and you ever want
to come on, let me know. I'd love, I'd love to do some
sort of collaboration with you. Let's take a look at at this
brief clip of one of his videos from The National.
Made our way back to one of the CARDS HQ booths.
So we're back here, the Cards HQbuying center, and they're using
(08:32):
the card letter, not the market.OK, so we have the owner of
Cards HQ who just agreed with the head of market movers, one
of the competitors, head competitors of Card Ladder that
the values that Card Ladder usesare wildly inaccurate.
(08:57):
But at the National when Cards HQ are are doing buying, they
are not using market movers, they are using Card Ladder.
So I guess my first question would be why are cards HQ
employees using card ladder instead of market movers?
(09:22):
Especially why are they doing that if if card ladder is wildly
inaccurate. OK, that that would be my first
question. Why aren't they using the in
house card valuation app? That's my first thing.
My second thing is this I I don't think anybody is ever
(09:43):
going to say that any card app is perfect.
I think that whenever any sort of algorithm or any sort of
mathematical equation puts approximate values on cards,
those cards, that does not mean that those prices are going to
(10:08):
be dead on. Because as we know, not all
cards are created equal. Even 2 cards with the same grade
are certainly not created equal.So to say that one app has
accurate values and the other one has bad values that that
that that doesn't even make sense to me.
(10:29):
For me, the the main thing that card apps do is 1.
The interface. OK, how easy is it to use #2 how
much data from how many different auction sites and
sales histories that are out there does a card app do?
(10:52):
And for me, who at times are looking for cards that have not
very many sales, there might be a card that's only been sold
three times in the last 20 years.
I want the app that has the longest history and covers the
most number of auction houses possible and the most number of
(11:16):
public sales possible, and even some private sales if possible.
And Card Ladder does that. Card Ladder has the the longest
history of auction results. It has the most number of
auction houses and and so the comps are really important.
So the ease of use to me by far easier with Card ladder #2 has
(11:40):
the best sales history by far inmy opinion.
And I like that Card Ladder has a variety of options on how to
value cards. So they have a few things,
including they keep an index, and that index is all of the
(12:01):
cards of a player at all of the grades, and it tracks what's
happening with that particular player.
Now I'm going to move to the side a little bit because I'm
going to put up on the screen here.
I'm going to put up how one how when you are in card ladder and
you want to track the value of acard, you have multiple options.
(12:25):
So I have this Aussie Smith cardand if I put this Aussie Smith
card into my card ladder collection and then I I click on
it, what I can do is I can have the index plus what I bought the
card to help calculate the value.
There are multiple different ways that card ladder allows me
(12:48):
to choose how the card is currently valued based on which
of those options on the menu work best for me.
I like that because a lot of thetimes if there's a card that I
buy that's a 7 and maybe I bought it above comp and the
reason I bought it above comp isbecause it's an exceptional copy
of that card. Then using what I bought it for
(13:11):
compared to the average card andtying that to the index.
If the card goes up in if that that players cards are going up
in value, then this card is going to stay up high.
It it, it, it's kind of complicated to explain, but I
think that card ladder gives youoptions and I think that any app
(13:35):
that claims that their valuations are fantastic and the
other ones are bad. I think, I think that's kind of
lame because especially with vintage to to tie the value to a
number grade is just not how it works anymore.
(13:56):
So that's not how I use Card ladder.
I don't look at that for the value.
I look at it for the sales history and it has the best.
I look it for the ease of use and it's the best.
So because of that, I stand by card ladder and I we shouldn't
be surprised that the guys over at market movers are going to
(14:20):
throw shade at the company that is beating them.
You know that they are beating them.
Any company in any industry thatis losing is going to talk trash
about the company that is beating them.
So again, I'll continue to say this.
(14:42):
I like teapot. Genuinely.
I I think Teapot is a good dude.Jeff I've never met in person,
I've never talked to, I've nevercorresponded with.
I don't like how Jeff gives investment advice on prospects.
I think that that is disingenuous.
(15:05):
I don't think that a person who has been back in the hobby for a
short a period of time, as he's been back in the hobby, should
be trying to tell other people what they should be doing with
their money. And I also don't really love the
fact that his channel is called Sports Card Investor.
(15:26):
Because this is a hobby where a lot of people treat it as as
fun. And as soon as you start
attaching things like investor to it, it starts to attract a
different group, but it also starts to detract from the
nostalgia and the fun and the light heartedness of the hobby.
(15:50):
Not investment segment. I again, I, I could say a lot of
things. I could, I could, I could
commonly every time somebody says something I disagree with,
make a video about it. That's not what I'm doing here.
What I am doing is I am answering a question that one of
(16:12):
you asked about an accusation that a competitor company made
about a company that I am affiliated with and that I
believe in, and I'm going to defend them.
I did not choose to plant my flag with card ladder because of
(16:36):
any reason other than card ladder is better than the other
options. It's the best option.
That's why I planted my flag there.
That's the only reason. Our next question says question
for you. Like many of your viewers, I
collected when I was young and got back into this a few years
(16:58):
ago. I've spent a good bit of money
and added a lot of appealing cards to my collection.
However, if I take everything I have purchased in the past
several years, it doesn't measure up well against my
youthful collection. Is this also the case for you
and other midlife community members or am I an outlier?
(17:21):
To be fair, I collected into my early 20s and did go to card
shows and a variety of card shops in my youth since grading
wasn't a thing back then. Most of my most valued cards not
valuable are raw and will likelystay that way.
(17:42):
All right. This is a good question.
And and I think that we have to take your question a step
further and and it is actually proof, your question is actually
proof that this hobby is not a Sprint, it's a marathon.
It's not something where somebody can come in and conquer
(18:02):
it in a short period of time. You said you've been back in the
hobby for a few years after talking about how you were in
the hobby in your youth for manyyears.
And then you're wondering why the the collection from when you
were in it for many years is notas great as the the collection
(18:24):
that you have been back in it for just a few years.
We can't build the the same amount of nostalgia and memories
and occurrences that that reallycreate a a an amazing experience
in a short period of time like one of the like.
(18:47):
I don't know if you're saying that the value of your
collection is not as good now asit was then, or if your
appreciation of your collection.But when you're in the hobby for
like 1520 years, like it sounds like you were when you were
younger, and there are so many memories tied up in that
(19:12):
collection. There are so many hours of
accumulating and building and trading and buying and working
on curating your collection thatyou can't.
You can't duplicate, you can't replace, you can't.
You can't make better in just a few years of being back in the
(19:34):
hobby. What all of us want.
We live in this world right now,myself included, all of us where
every question that we have, we could have answered in seconds
literally at our fingertips. And what we've done is we've
created this world that has absolutely no patience.
We all want everything right now.
(19:56):
There's we. We don't have to wait for
anything, you know, Watch any game you want, any news article
you want any fact to prove. In in as evidence in a
discussion or a debate that you're having.
You can get it right now, but the thing you can't get
(20:17):
instantaneous is memories. You can't take years and years
and years and years of being in a hobby and the memories
attached to those cards and havean equivalent amount of that
quickly. It it takes time.
(20:38):
And if, if I look at my card collection, the cards that mean
the most are the cards that havethe stories attached.
And the cards that have the stories attached are the ones
that are the cards that are worth more to me than they are
to everyone else. See the cards that I just bought
on eBay and you know, I, I didn't really put a lot of
(21:01):
thought into it, but I thought Isaw it and I thought it was
cool. I'm not really emotionally
connected to that card. But the card where I went to the
National and I was with my friends and they looked at it
with me and I kind of thought about it and I negotiated with
the dealer. The story and the memory
attached to that card makes thatcard more important to me than
(21:26):
just that card because there's the emotional component as well.
So I have no doubt in the last few years, you've probably
picked up some really cool cards.
You've probably add some cards, added some cards that you didn't
think you would be able to have acquired at least when you were
younger. And you probably have have got
(21:47):
some really cool stuff. But you go, it just still
doesn't feel as great as the cards when I was a kid.
That's because the memories attached.
That's because of the nostalgia attached.
That's because these cards are not just cards, These cards are
experiences. So it's a card, but having it,
(22:11):
why you wanted it, how you got it, the the steps that it took
to add it to the collection is ahuge piece of this hobby and
part of what makes it unique from other hobbies.
And I think that this is a perfect reminder that it takes
(22:31):
time to build memories. When I was dating my wife, right
early on, I knew that I was enamoured with her.
But my love for her now, after going through all of the
experiences that we have, the highs, the lows, the UPS, the
(22:52):
downs, the places that we've gone, the things that we've
seen, the the experiences that we've had make our love so much
stronger now than it was back when I was completely head over
heels for her when I first met her.
There are times where the memories are the part that
(23:13):
really make the collection and we can't make the memories
overnight. The memories take time, the
nostalgia takes time. The experiences take time.
Remember this isn't a Sprint. Enjoy the memories along the
(23:34):
way. Take time in your acquisitions
because then it makes the cards that you do have that much more
special and that much more likely that they will be
permanent parts of your collection instead of cards that
you're easier to part with because they don't mean that
(23:56):
much to you. Because the acquisition of them
was just kind of like a a randomevent instead of a special
moment. This question says, have you
ever gotten the feeling that certain?
EBay sellers can see bidders. Max bids.
There have been multiple instances where I placed a Max
(24:17):
bid of an unusual amount like $212.12 and the winning bid
matched that exact amount even though the current price was
significantly below my maximum. It's just suspicious.
All right, this is an interesting one.
(24:40):
I, I don't know if there are shenanigans like that.
I, I remember there was this story a few years ago where
there was like online poker. And some of you might remember
this story where there was online poker and somehow some
people were, had, had hacked into some system where they
(25:00):
could literally see other people's hands.
And so when they were playing online poker, they they
literally knew what everybody else had as they were betting
and there was some sort of hack that they did.
I mean, is it possible that something like that is
happening? I suppose.
But I have to think, and maybe I'm naive, that eBay probably
(25:22):
has about as sophisticated of a security system is just about
anyone. But I don't know.
Here's the thing. I do know that with cards, there
are kind of some ranges on what the card sells for and in some
cases the range is a pretty small range.
A card that is frequently sold, you know, like like sold daily.
(25:47):
Ricky Henderson rookie card topsrookie card in, you know, A7.
I bet that card sells just aboutevery day.
And so from one day to the next to the next to the next one,
there's another one coming the following day or a few hours
later or a couple hours later. They don't suddenly usually have
wild swings and prices. And So what ends up happening is
(26:10):
the the price range is pretty narrow.
And then maybe it goes up a little bit and then it goes up a
little bit and then it comes down a little bit.
But in a series of of time, they're, they're pretty close.
So it wouldn't shock me on a card like a Ricky Henderson
rookie card in A7 that when we can see the comps, when we can
(26:35):
see the sales history that theremay not be that much different.
I mean, if, if they've been, andI don't know what that card is
selling for right now. I'll say, let's say it's selling
for $190.00. That's a guess.
I don't know what it's at at themoment.
It, it's not like if you bid $195, it's, it's probably not
(26:59):
that likely that someone's goingto come and bid 220 since
there's probably another one that's going to be for sale
soon. And then the other piece of it
is, is when you get into those price ranges, you know, the
jumps, the, the bid increments are like we'll say $5.00.
So if the last four, which sold over the last two days sold
(27:21):
between, you know, 185 and 190 dollars and the bid increments
are 5 bucks, then it's probably pretty unlikely that they're
going to bid much differently than you bid.
So I guess for this one, if it was a, a card that doesn't
(27:42):
commonly sell at that particulargrade and and there have been a
month or two, then this sounds kind of that does sound a little
bit strange. But if it's a commonly sold, a
very frequently sold card, you know a a show, Hey, base batting
rookie like that card, I bet it sells 10/15/20 times every day.
(28:08):
So it wouldn't really shock me if somebody else bid within the
same $5 bid increment as you, putting their your bid right at
your Max. So I guess I would need more
information. I I'm not really a conspiracy
theorist, but there have been conspiracies before, so I
(28:29):
suppose it's possible. But I'm guessing that you're
probably talking about cards that are frequently transacted.
And to be honest, this doesn't surprise me that much because of
the bid increments and because of the frequency of the sell
sales making the price ranges pretty tight on cards like that.
(28:49):
This question says hi, Greg. You have gone on the record
saying that your preference is to buy cards at a card show or
in person versus buying a card that is listed on eBay, for
example, because you're able to hold the card in your hand and
examine it for yourself. My question is, do you ever feel
any kind of pressure or anxiety over this?
(29:13):
If you are spending a certain amount of money, do you take the
card out of the top loader and examine the surface?
Since being back in the hobby I have had to build a rhythm and
game plan for going to shows as the bind dynamic there is
completely different than buyingonline.
I bring a small 10 loop magnifier to take a closer look
(29:36):
at cards that I might want to grade.
I'm not exactly uncomfortable doing that, but I've also
noticed anyone else isn't carrying that around.
And a bit like a recent midlife discussion topic about whether
or not we should care what others think about our
collections. I do feel a little bit of
(29:56):
anxiety about this, even with this ability to hold cards in my
hand. I have brought 3 cards home
recently from 2 separate shows only to notice a bend, a back of
a card wrinkle, and a surface issue that I had not noticed
when closely examining the card at the show.
(30:18):
Have you experienced anything like this?
Any advice you can offer? Brad, OK, it sounds I'm a fairly
particular buyer. I am, I am fairly I don't, I
don't usually keep cards in my collection long term that have
(30:39):
some sort of issue that bothers me.
I I've I have absolutely purchased cards, got them home,
noticed something or it botheredme more once I got it home then
when I was looking at it and I ended up going I can't handle
this I have to sell it. That generally happens more when
(31:02):
I'm buying online. And to your point, that's why I
try to encourage people and personally I like to buy cards
in person is because remember, cards are three-dimensional
objects. They're not 2 dimensional
objects. So when you're looking at a
picture, you're looking at A2 dimensional picture of a
three-dimensional object and it's impossible to see
(31:24):
everything about the card by A2 dimensional picture.
So I like seeing it in person where I could see it 3
dimensionally right. It has depth to it.
It's it's, it's up and down, it's left and right.
But then it's also not completely flat.
And because it's not completely flat, there are surface issues,
(31:48):
surface issues. See what I did there now by by
the way, can I just say this as as as didn't that was not
planned. If you've not yet subscribed to
our new YouTube channel that I have with Mike of junk wax hero
and Adam of Splendid Sports called sports card clubhouse,
(32:13):
would you please consider subscribing?
I don't ever ask people to subscribe to this channel, but
as we're starting out this new channel together, we would
really appreciate your support. So if you guys could make an
impact for me and go subscribe to Sports Card Clubhouse if
(32:36):
you've not yet done it. We're putting out some cool
stuff over there and a lot of people are missing out on it
because they're not subscribed yet.
So if you'd consider doing that,I'd appreciate it.
But to to your point, there are times there are surface issues
on cards that you can't see on pictures that you might be able
(33:00):
to see or are more likely to seein person, which is why I like
buying cards in person. And here's the thing, like you
just said, there have been several times you've gotten
home, you've looked at a card and you saw that you missed
something. Has that happened to me?
Absolutely. Has it happened to my dad?
(33:23):
Absolutely. Has it happened to my friends?
Absolutely. And why does that happen?
Because we're humans. Because we're taking a quick
look at it, because it most shows the lighting is awful.
So what are some things we can do?
Number one thing I would recommend is bring a flashlight
(33:44):
with you. Just one of those little
high-powered strong flashlights that you can click in the end
and you can shine it over the card.
When you shine it over the card,it is so much easier to see a
surface issue. Now when I am buying a really
expensive card, that's even moreimportant.
If I'm buying a $3040 card, I'llbe honest, I don't look it over
(34:07):
probably as well as I should. I bought that mini Minoso 52
tops card at a card show about amonth and a half ago and it had
a fairly significant wrinkle in the front of the card.
And I kind of noticed the the lighting in the in that room is
awful. And I kind of noticed a little
(34:29):
something didn't seem like a bigdeal.
And then I got it home and I looked at it under better light
and I'm like, that's kind of going to drive me crazy.
That's kind of going to drive mecrazy.
So I ended up selling it. The card had beautiful eye
appeal, but that bugged me because it bugged me.
Instead of sitting there going, well, I'm just going to keep
(34:51):
holding on to it. Even though there's something
about a card I don't like, I just cut bait.
I just said, no, let's just cut our losses.
Off it goes. I sold it, no problem.
I'll find another one someday. Not a big deal.
Not a big deal. That's the beauty of cards.
Now in certain grades we do knowthat wrinkles are possible and
(35:16):
even likely. You know if a card is a 1 1/2, a
two or three, it probably has a wrinkle.
You may not see it at first, butit's probably there.
And a flashlight helps a lot. So that would be 1 suggestion.
Another suggestion I would make is have a hobby buddy at your
shows before you buy a card havea friend look at it.
(35:39):
Have another person even if it'snot a friend it's just someone
else at the table. Go what do you think of this
card and and show it to the person who's standing next to
you. What are the pros and cons of
this card? I'm thinking about buying it
what do you think? Like when I bought my Ty Cobb I
had 2-3 friends. John Mangini look at it.
I had John Wade Boggs fan look at it.
(36:02):
I had Adam Splendid. I don't know, Adam Vintage
Sanctuary, look at it. I had my dad look at it.
Adam Vintage Sanctuary. He looped it.
He's a former coin collector andis really good on a loop.
And I said, hey, will you check out the registration in his eyes
for me? He looked it over.
I said, what do you see? And everybody kind of gave me
(36:24):
the green light. And then I went over and I
bought my Cy Young T2O6. And when I bought my Cy Young
T2O6, I before I, I saw it, I said, I think I want to buy it.
I went over, I got Tony of Southern collector 14.
I got Mike Petty. I got Mike junk wax hero went
(36:46):
back over and said, will you guys look at this card with me?
What do you see? Do you like it?
Do you see anything I'm not seeing?
And I had other people look at it.
Another thing I've done, and this might sound weird and maybe
I'm weird for doing it, but another thing I've done is I've
gone to the dealer and I've said, so this card got a two.
(37:06):
What do you think the reasons are?
It got the 2. Is there a is there a crease
that I'm missing? Is there a wrinkle that I'm
missing? Is there a pinhole?
Is it a is there a stain? The lighting's really bad.
Can you tell me, is there a crease in this card?
Is there a wrinkle in this card?The dealer's probably going to
know his cards and, and if they say no, there's no crease and
(37:29):
then you turn away and you walk away and you go outside and you
look at it under the sun and yousee a big crease.
It's like, wait, what a SEC. I'd walk back in there and go,
wait a second. I told you that I didn't see the
lighting very good. And you know, is there a crease?
And you said no, but there's this big fat crease right here.
I couldn't see in the light likeI would ask the dealer.
(37:52):
So I think that those are a few things that I would suggest.
Those are a couple of things that I would consider is to have
a have a buddy look at it or a fellow collector look at it.
I'd ask the dealer for details about the card that they've
noticed on the card. I would bring a flashlight
(38:13):
because that really helps you tosee the texture better.
That's probably the best piece of advice because at times a
loop magnifies, but it doesn't help you see the texture of the
card. And usually when we miss
something, it's not the big chunk missing out of the top
right hand corner. It's not the big stain right
across his face. It's usually some sort of crease
(38:35):
or wrinkle. And the flashlight, again, just
shining a flashlight over it andand from different angles,
you'll usually pick it up. I need to be better at that.
I need to be better at that withlower end cards.
But when I'm buying expensive cards, I always have somebody
look at it and I always hit it with a flashlight, which I carry
(38:56):
in my backpack with me. So if you're ever to show and
you don't have a flashlight withyou, and you want to look at a
car with a flashlight, you're welcome to borrow mine.
And finally, this one says question for next week.
The PSA offers program seems to be gaining traction.
Should card ladder, market movers, VCP, etcetera be
(39:17):
capturing these transactions in their sales history?
OK. I think this that is a very
valid thought and question on you know, a lot of people are
submitting cards to PSA or they have cards in their their PSA
vault and they're getting offersfor cards and they're doing
(39:39):
these transactions with with collectors.
And then what happens is we don't know about what those
prices are selling at. And if a lot of people are doing
that and that's gaining traction, then wouldn't it be a
good thing if we could add thoseto the data of the sales prices
(40:02):
of what cards are selling for? Makes perfect sense.
So I said down below of that comment, I said.
You know, I'm going to ask Hosh,I'm going to ask Chris Hosh
that. So I texted Chris and I said, do
you guys do this? And he said, we've actually
talked about this on their show The Crossover.
So Card Ladder has their own YouTube channel.
(40:26):
They have a show on Fridays called The Crossover.
It's great. I usually listen to it recorded
because Lucy's been having gameson Fridays.
And what what he said was the the they don't card ladder does
not. And the reason that card ladder
does not is because it's not a public sale.
(40:48):
A card sale through an auction house, REACIA, Golden, eBay,
those are public sales where theprice is out there publicly,
people are bidding publicly. The final hammer price is
public. It's all out in the open.
These sales happen privately. Now Card Ladder does record
(41:11):
private sales, but in order for them to utilize private sales
they have to a verify it and B, they have to get both parties to
sign off on it. So you can't take a private sale
and make it public without both sides saying it's OK to make it
(41:35):
public. So Chris said that Card Ladder
has suggested to PSA there just be like a little box when they
accept or reject the deal, it's OK to make this a public sale
and then they have the consent of the seller and as a result
(41:56):
they could then make it public. We can't take private
transactions and make them public just because we want to
make them public. It's not like it's a transaction
that goes through a government agency like through the DMV or a
house changing title. It it's like it's, it's like
(42:20):
somebody selling something at a garage sale, right?
And as soon as you start consenting to these things, you
know, to private sales becoming public, then there's, you know,
there's tax stuff that you know there.
It's important and I agree, it'simportant that both sides
consent to the private sale becoming a public sale.
(42:44):
They have thrown that out there to PSA to include that and and
Card Ladder has said that they would absolutely love to include
that data in their sales historyfor comping purposes.
But until that were to happen, they're not going to do it
because it's a violation of somebody's privacy.
(43:08):
Frankly, my personal opinion is I don't really know how valuable
that sales data would be becauseit's not an end user who's
buying it. When somebody takes APSA offer,
they're basically selling it at a wholesale price because
(43:31):
they're selling it to 1 of PSA'sapproved dealers or whatever
their list is of people who theylet have the offers go through
and and they're then going to sell it.
So you're basically taking a card when P when someone takes
APSA offer, it's basically a wholesale transaction instead of
(43:57):
a retail transaction. So I don't think like if, if
every time I took cards to a show and sold them to a dealer
that that should be now a new comp when an end user is selling
it to a wholesaler, a dealer, because it's, it's like a
(44:18):
different category of sale. The, the sales that I think are
the ones that are best to comp are the ones that are to the in
theory at least end user the buyer at the retail price when
we're valuing cars, right. If you're valuing a a car, do
(44:41):
you when you, when you look at the sales history, if you go
into Kelley Blue Book's website,you don't look at what the trade
insurance were like the trade invalue is a different tier than
the private party transaction sales history, right.
So if if somebody trades their car into the dealership, that
(45:05):
doesn't then affect the value ofthe car for private party sales,
they're like in their own category.
And to me that's what this is. This is a wholesale sale by the
person who owns the card to PSA and their list of of buyers who
(45:29):
PSA does the transactions for. So I don't really know if that's
a perfect fit. Now maybe you all think that I'm
crazy for saying that, but again, I don't think if I had
five cards for sale and I calledup Ash and I said, hey, Ash, I'm
going to sell you 5 cards. Or if I called up Chris Sewell
and said, hey, I'm going to sellyou 5 cards and then they give
(45:51):
me say 80% of the value because they're going to turn around and
try to sell them for 100% of thevalue.
I don't think that most of us would think those cards should
those sales, those private salesshould now be in the sales
history because I sold them wholesale to a dealer.
That's my personal opinion, but I appreciate the question.
(46:14):
I asked Hoge himself. That was his answer that they
don't have consent from the two,but otherwise they would be open
to it. But it's a good question.
Couple of questions involving card ladder this this week.
Remember, as always, if you all have a question for an upcoming
question and answer episode and Ask me anything episode,
(46:37):
whatever you want to call these down below in the comments,
simply type out your question. I'll add it to the list.
Remember later this week, Midlife Community Show and tell
there were some massive pickups this month, a huge number of
submissions. As always.
I love it. Also in that episode, not only
(46:57):
will we be raffling off those 4 subscriptions, not for the the
four credits, the the gift cardsto the Penny Sleever, but we
will also be raffling off the card ladder, one year
subscription and the Clemente card from our friend Theo
(47:21):
Clemente Collector. Remember, for those you had to
be one of the 50 most active people in the chat on Monday,
and in order to be in the drawing for the Penny Sleever
gift cards, you have to be have submitted a card for this
month's Midlife Community Show and Tell and I can't wait to
(47:44):
release that episode later in the week.
What's going on, everybody? All right, here we are on
Wednesday. Been a really fun past week and
I've got some awesome stuff coming up this week.
Last week I got to have dinner. I hadn't mentioned this.
I mentioned it beforehand, but not posthand, but I got to hang
out with my buddy Dan of Dan's Vintage Baseball PC last week.
(00:34):
He was in town, he came to the house, we looked at some cards,
we went out to dinner, had a lotof fun hanging out with him.
The live stream Monday night, those are always a blast.
Thank you to everybody who came out live, especially if you
haven't watched it or you didn'twatch it live again, check that
(00:54):
out. There is the recording of it
that's also available. And remember, if you were one of
the 50 most active people in thechat during the live, you're
going into a drawing. I'm going to do that on my
Friday episode. So Friday is going to be the
midlife Community show and tell.And then on top of that will be
(01:18):
an additional drawing for the two giveaways from the Monday
live stream. Remember, the grand prize is the
free year subscription to Card Ladder.
The second thing is that awesomeClemente card, that custom card
from Scott of Reindeer Studios given to us by our friend Theo
(01:43):
Clemente Collector. Much appreciation on those on
Card Ladder, the team at Card Ladder for donating that year
subscription and then Theo for donating that card.
So that will be part of Friday'sdrawings in addition to the
drawing for the Pennyslever giftcards on for the month for the
(02:05):
midlife show and tell. So this is Wednesday though,
Wednesday's Q&A day. I have 5 more great questions,
one of which got me a little riled up, so let's start things
off with that. I don't go after other people
(02:26):
who have channels, but when people go after others and the
people that they're going after are people that I like, then I
get a little bit defensive. So let's take a look at this
first question and then I'll have a bit of a reaction.
(02:48):
Our first question says, I forget if you discussed this in
one of your Q&A's. Or your podcast, but.
Someone asked how to track theircard inventory and you gave a
very compelling answer to use card ladder.
I just watched Jeff Wilson's. Response video.
To the criticism he got for his $4000 up charge recently and he
(03:10):
and Teapot said that card ladderprices were wildly inaccurate.
Do you have any response to this?
Thanks. OK, so I don't throw a lot of
stones. One of the things I don't do on
this channel, and you all know it if you watch regularly, is I
don't really attack other content people.
(03:33):
I don't attack other people who have channels.
I let them there do their thing.I do my thing.
There are times where I will have some harsh comments towards
some of the big corporations when I think that they're doing
something that's not in the bestinterest of the card community.
But I don't usually go after other people who have channels.
(03:55):
That said, Teapot and Jeff Wilson recently went after Card
Ladder and they they said some fairly strong things.
And so the first thing I want todo is if you didn't see it, let
me just show you a clip of what was said by Teapot and Jeff
(04:17):
Wilson here. I think it's a huge problem that
they're deciding now what your card is worth and they're using
card ladder estimated values in many cases, which we know are
wildly inaccurate. And I'm not saying that because
I work on market movers. It's just a fact.
They're not accurate. They give the times they're bad,
and they're using that to determine the value of your
(04:39):
card. OK, so they they said that it's
just a fact that card ladder values are wildly inaccurate.
I want to say a couple of thingsright off the bat.
First, I actually like Teapot. I have had dialogue with teapot.
(05:01):
I have spoken on the phone with teapot.
We have texted several times. I I genuinely like teapot and I
love his passion for market movers.
And I think that Jeff has basically he has embraced the
hobby heel status. He he went from this guy who was
(05:26):
starting a channel and was trying to give investment advice
to now he's basically just accepted the hobby heel.
He just any attention is good attention lightning rod And you
know, I watched some of Jeff's content, but I'm not like a huge
(05:49):
Jeff Jeff Wilson content watcher, but I do watch some of
his things. I think some of the stuff he
produces is interesting. I appreciate some of the
attention that he has helped thethe hobby get.
But I I think that when wheneveranybody is talking about
investing and investment advice,especially when it comes to
(06:16):
modern cards and prospects, that's not an investment.
An investment is not saying thisprospect is a good investment
that those two things don't go along.
Now are there current players who I I think somebody could say
they invest in? Sure.
(06:39):
There there are some guys like Shohei and Aaron Judge that I
think are sure thing Hall of Farmers and you could
potentially talk about investingin them, but investing in
prospects, those things, that's an oxymoron to invest in a
(07:01):
prospect. Now, if you want to prospect in
a prospect, that's one thing. So, but that that's a whole
different conversation. I'm not going to get into my
pros and cons of Jeff Wilson right now.
I want to focus specifically on what they said about card ladder
because I I have aligned myself with card ladder.
I came out and I said I am deleting market movers off of my
(07:26):
phone. I am deleting VCP off of my
phone because I don't need them because card Ladder is the best
app. And I do believe that.
I do believe that. I still believe that regardless
of what those two had to say. So I just want to do a quick
little reminder to everyone fromthe National.
(07:49):
During the National, you know, alot of people were making videos
and posting videos. I'm going to show you our friend
Flippin Steve. This is a brief clip of Flippin
Steve's, one of Flippin Steve's videos from the.
By the way, I got to meet Flippin Steve at the National.
He's a really cool guy. I really like him.
(08:10):
In fact, Steve, if you are watching this and you ever want
to come on, let me know. I'd love, I'd love to do some
sort of collaboration with you. Let's take a look at at this
brief clip of one of his videos from The National.
Made our way back to one of the CARDS HQ booths.
So we're back here, the Cards HQbuying center, and they're using
(08:32):
the card letter, not the market.OK, so we have the owner of
Cards HQ who just agreed with the head of market movers, one
of the competitors, head competitors of Card Ladder that
the values that Card Ladder usesare wildly inaccurate.
(08:57):
But at the National when Cards HQ are are doing buying, they
are not using market movers, they are using Card Ladder.
So I guess my first question would be why are cards HQ
employees using card ladder instead of market movers?
(09:22):
Especially why are they doing that if if card ladder is wildly
inaccurate. OK, that that would be my first
question. Why aren't they using the in
house card valuation app? That's my first thing.
My second thing is this I I don't think anybody is ever
(09:43):
going to say that any card app is perfect.
I think that whenever any sort of algorithm or any sort of
mathematical equation puts approximate values on cards,
those cards, that does not mean that those prices are going to
(10:08):
be dead on. Because as we know, not all
cards are created equal. Even 2 cards with the same grade
are certainly not created equal.So to say that one app has
accurate values and the other one has bad values that that
that that doesn't even make sense to me.
(10:29):
For me, the the main thing that card apps do is 1.
The interface. OK, how easy is it to use #2 how
much data from how many different auction sites and
sales histories that are out there does a card app do?
(10:52):
And for me, who at times are looking for cards that have not
very many sales, there might be a card that's only been sold
three times in the last 20 years.
I want the app that has the longest history and covers the
most number of auction houses possible and the most number of
(11:16):
public sales possible, and even some private sales if possible.
And Card Ladder does that. Card Ladder has the the longest
history of auction results. It has the most number of
auction houses and and so the comps are really important.
So the ease of use to me by far easier with Card ladder #2 has
(11:40):
the best sales history by far inmy opinion.
And I like that Card Ladder has a variety of options on how to
value cards. So they have a few things,
including they keep an index, and that index is all of the
(12:01):
cards of a player at all of the grades, and it tracks what's
happening with that particular player.
Now I'm going to move to the side a little bit because I'm
going to put up on the screen here.
I'm going to put up how one how when you are in card ladder and
you want to track the value of acard, you have multiple options.
(12:25):
So I have this Aussie Smith cardand if I put this Aussie Smith
card into my card ladder collection and then I I click on
it, what I can do is I can have the index plus what I bought the
card to help calculate the value.
There are multiple different ways that card ladder allows me
(12:48):
to choose how the card is currently valued based on which
of those options on the menu work best for me.
I like that because a lot of thetimes if there's a card that I
buy that's a 7 and maybe I bought it above comp and the
reason I bought it above comp isbecause it's an exceptional copy
of that card. Then using what I bought it for
(13:11):
compared to the average card andtying that to the index.
If the card goes up in if that that players cards are going up
in value, then this card is going to stay up high.
It it, it, it's kind of complicated to explain, but I
think that card ladder gives youoptions and I think that any app
(13:35):
that claims that their valuations are fantastic and the
other ones are bad. I think, I think that's kind of
lame because especially with vintage to to tie the value to a
number grade is just not how it works anymore.
(13:56):
So that's not how I use Card ladder.
I don't look at that for the value.
I look at it for the sales history and it has the best.
I look it for the ease of use and it's the best.
So because of that, I stand by card ladder and I we shouldn't
be surprised that the guys over at market movers are going to
(14:20):
throw shade at the company that is beating them.
You know that they are beating them.
Any company in any industry thatis losing is going to talk trash
about the company that is beating them.
So again, I'll continue to say this.
(14:42):
I like teapot. Genuinely.
I I think Teapot is a good dude.Jeff I've never met in person,
I've never talked to, I've nevercorresponded with.
I don't like how Jeff gives investment advice on prospects.
I think that that is disingenuous.
(15:05):
I don't think that a person who has been back in the hobby for a
short a period of time, as he's been back in the hobby, should
be trying to tell other people what they should be doing with
their money. And I also don't really love the
fact that his channel is called Sports Card Investor.
(15:26):
Because this is a hobby where a lot of people treat it as as
fun. And as soon as you start
attaching things like investor to it, it starts to attract a
different group, but it also starts to detract from the
nostalgia and the fun and the light heartedness of the hobby.
(15:50):
Not investment segment. I again, I, I could say a lot of
things. I could, I could, I could
commonly every time somebody says something I disagree with,
make a video about it. That's not what I'm doing here.
What I am doing is I am answering a question that one of
(16:12):
you asked about an accusation that a competitor company made
about a company that I am affiliated with and that I
believe in, and I'm going to defend them.
I did not choose to plant my flag with card ladder because of
(16:36):
any reason other than card ladder is better than the other
options. It's the best option.
That's why I planted my flag there.
That's the only reason. Our next question says question
for you. Like many of your viewers, I
collected when I was young and got back into this a few years
(16:58):
ago. I've spent a good bit of money
and added a lot of appealing cards to my collection.
However, if I take everything I have purchased in the past
several years, it doesn't measure up well against my
youthful collection. Is this also the case for you
and other midlife community members or am I an outlier?
(17:21):
To be fair, I collected into my early 20s and did go to card
shows and a variety of card shops in my youth since grading
wasn't a thing back then. Most of my most valued cards not
valuable are raw and will likelystay that way.
(17:42):
All right. This is a good question.
And and I think that we have to take your question a step
further and and it is actually proof, your question is actually
proof that this hobby is not a Sprint, it's a marathon.
It's not something where somebody can come in and conquer
(18:02):
it in a short period of time. You said you've been back in the
hobby for a few years after talking about how you were in
the hobby in your youth for manyyears.
And then you're wondering why the the collection from when you
were in it for many years is notas great as the the collection
(18:24):
that you have been back in it for just a few years.
We can't build the the same amount of nostalgia and memories
and occurrences that that reallycreate a a an amazing experience
in a short period of time like one of the like.
(18:47):
I don't know if you're saying that the value of your
collection is not as good now asit was then, or if your
appreciation of your collection.But when you're in the hobby for
like 1520 years, like it sounds like you were when you were
younger, and there are so many memories tied up in that
(19:12):
collection. There are so many hours of
accumulating and building and trading and buying and working
on curating your collection thatyou can't.
You can't duplicate, you can't replace, you can't.
You can't make better in just a few years of being back in the
(19:34):
hobby. What all of us want.
We live in this world right now,myself included, all of us where
every question that we have, we could have answered in seconds
literally at our fingertips. And what we've done is we've
created this world that has absolutely no patience.
We all want everything right now.
(19:56):
There's we. We don't have to wait for
anything, you know, Watch any game you want, any news article
you want any fact to prove. In in as evidence in a
discussion or a debate that you're having.
You can get it right now, but the thing you can't get
(20:17):
instantaneous is memories. You can't take years and years
and years and years of being in a hobby and the memories
attached to those cards and havean equivalent amount of that
quickly. It it takes time.
(20:38):
And if, if I look at my card collection, the cards that mean
the most are the cards that havethe stories attached.
And the cards that have the stories attached are the ones
that are the cards that are worth more to me than they are
to everyone else. See the cards that I just bought
on eBay and you know, I, I didn't really put a lot of
(21:01):
thought into it, but I thought Isaw it and I thought it was
cool. I'm not really emotionally
connected to that card. But the card where I went to the
National and I was with my friends and they looked at it
with me and I kind of thought about it and I negotiated with
the dealer. The story and the memory
attached to that card makes thatcard more important to me than
(21:26):
just that card because there's the emotional component as well.
So I have no doubt in the last few years, you've probably
picked up some really cool cards.
You've probably add some cards, added some cards that you didn't
think you would be able to have acquired at least when you were
younger. And you probably have have got
(21:47):
some really cool stuff. But you go, it just still
doesn't feel as great as the cards when I was a kid.
That's because the memories attached.
That's because of the nostalgia attached.
That's because these cards are not just cards, These cards are
experiences. So it's a card, but having it,
(22:11):
why you wanted it, how you got it, the the steps that it took
to add it to the collection is ahuge piece of this hobby and
part of what makes it unique from other hobbies.
And I think that this is a perfect reminder that it takes
(22:31):
time to build memories. When I was dating my wife, right
early on, I knew that I was enamoured with her.
But my love for her now, after going through all of the
experiences that we have, the highs, the lows, the UPS, the
(22:52):
downs, the places that we've gone, the things that we've
seen, the the experiences that we've had make our love so much
stronger now than it was back when I was completely head over
heels for her when I first met her.
There are times where the memories are the part that
(23:13):
really make the collection and we can't make the memories
overnight. The memories take time, the
nostalgia takes time. The experiences take time.
Remember this isn't a Sprint. Enjoy the memories along the
(23:34):
way. Take time in your acquisitions
because then it makes the cards that you do have that much more
special and that much more likely that they will be
permanent parts of your collection instead of cards that
you're easier to part with because they don't mean that
(23:56):
much to you. Because the acquisition of them
was just kind of like a a randomevent instead of a special
moment. This question says, have you
ever gotten the feeling that certain?
EBay sellers can see bidders. Max bids.
There have been multiple instances where I placed a Max
(24:17):
bid of an unusual amount like $212.12 and the winning bid
matched that exact amount even though the current price was
significantly below my maximum. It's just suspicious.
All right, this is an interesting one.
(24:40):
I, I don't know if there are shenanigans like that.
I, I remember there was this story a few years ago where
there was like online poker. And some of you might remember
this story where there was online poker and somehow some
people were, had, had hacked into some system where they
(25:00):
could literally see other people's hands.
And so when they were playing online poker, they they
literally knew what everybody else had as they were betting
and there was some sort of hack that they did.
I mean, is it possible that something like that is
happening? I suppose.
But I have to think, and maybe I'm naive, that eBay probably
(25:22):
has about as sophisticated of a security system is just about
anyone. But I don't know.
Here's the thing. I do know that with cards, there
are kind of some ranges on what the card sells for and in some
cases the range is a pretty small range.
A card that is frequently sold, you know, like like sold daily.
(25:47):
Ricky Henderson rookie card topsrookie card in, you know, A7.
I bet that card sells just aboutevery day.
And so from one day to the next to the next to the next one,
there's another one coming the following day or a few hours
later or a couple hours later. They don't suddenly usually have
wild swings and prices. And So what ends up happening is
(26:10):
the the price range is pretty narrow.
And then maybe it goes up a little bit and then it goes up a
little bit and then it comes down a little bit.
But in a series of of time, they're, they're pretty close.
So it wouldn't shock me on a card like a Ricky Henderson
rookie card in A7 that when we can see the comps, when we can
(26:35):
see the sales history that theremay not be that much different.
I mean, if, if they've been, andI don't know what that card is
selling for right now. I'll say, let's say it's selling
for $190.00. That's a guess.
I don't know what it's at at themoment.
It, it's not like if you bid $195, it's, it's probably not
(26:59):
that likely that someone's goingto come and bid 220 since
there's probably another one that's going to be for sale
soon. And then the other piece of it
is, is when you get into those price ranges, you know, the
jumps, the, the bid increments are like we'll say $5.00.
So if the last four, which sold over the last two days sold
(27:21):
between, you know, 185 and 190 dollars and the bid increments
are 5 bucks, then it's probably pretty unlikely that they're
going to bid much differently than you bid.
So I guess for this one, if it was a, a card that doesn't
(27:42):
commonly sell at that particulargrade and and there have been a
month or two, then this sounds kind of that does sound a little
bit strange. But if it's a commonly sold, a
very frequently sold card, you know a a show, Hey, base batting
rookie like that card, I bet it sells 10/15/20 times every day.
(28:08):
So it wouldn't really shock me if somebody else bid within the
same $5 bid increment as you, putting their your bid right at
your Max. So I guess I would need more
information. I I'm not really a conspiracy
theorist, but there have been conspiracies before, so I
(28:29):
suppose it's possible. But I'm guessing that you're
probably talking about cards that are frequently transacted.
And to be honest, this doesn't surprise me that much because of
the bid increments and because of the frequency of the sell
sales making the price ranges pretty tight on cards like that.
(28:49):
This question says hi, Greg. You have gone on the record
saying that your preference is to buy cards at a card show or
in person versus buying a card that is listed on eBay, for
example, because you're able to hold the card in your hand and
examine it for yourself. My question is, do you ever feel
any kind of pressure or anxiety over this?
(29:13):
If you are spending a certain amount of money, do you take the
card out of the top loader and examine the surface?
Since being back in the hobby I have had to build a rhythm and
game plan for going to shows as the bind dynamic there is
completely different than buyingonline.
I bring a small 10 loop magnifier to take a closer look
(29:36):
at cards that I might want to grade.
I'm not exactly uncomfortable doing that, but I've also
noticed anyone else isn't carrying that around.
And a bit like a recent midlife discussion topic about whether
or not we should care what others think about our
collections. I do feel a little bit of
(29:56):
anxiety about this, even with this ability to hold cards in my
hand. I have brought 3 cards home
recently from 2 separate shows only to notice a bend, a back of
a card wrinkle, and a surface issue that I had not noticed
when closely examining the card at the show.
(30:18):
Have you experienced anything like this?
Any advice you can offer? Brad, OK, it sounds I'm a fairly
particular buyer. I am, I am fairly I don't, I
don't usually keep cards in my collection long term that have
(30:39):
some sort of issue that bothers me.
I I've I have absolutely purchased cards, got them home,
noticed something or it botheredme more once I got it home then
when I was looking at it and I ended up going I can't handle
this I have to sell it. That generally happens more when
(31:02):
I'm buying online. And to your point, that's why I
try to encourage people and personally I like to buy cards
in person is because remember, cards are three-dimensional
objects. They're not 2 dimensional
objects. So when you're looking at a
picture, you're looking at A2 dimensional picture of a
three-dimensional object and it's impossible to see
(31:24):
everything about the card by A2 dimensional picture.
So I like seeing it in person where I could see it 3
dimensionally right. It has depth to it.
It's it's, it's up and down, it's left and right.
But then it's also not completely flat.
And because it's not completely flat, there are surface issues,
(31:48):
surface issues. See what I did there now by by
the way, can I just say this as as as didn't that was not
planned. If you've not yet subscribed to
our new YouTube channel that I have with Mike of junk wax hero
and Adam of Splendid Sports called sports card clubhouse,
(32:13):
would you please consider subscribing?
I don't ever ask people to subscribe to this channel, but
as we're starting out this new channel together, we would
really appreciate your support. So if you guys could make an
impact for me and go subscribe to Sports Card Clubhouse if
(32:36):
you've not yet done it. We're putting out some cool
stuff over there and a lot of people are missing out on it
because they're not subscribed yet.
So if you'd consider doing that,I'd appreciate it.
But to to your point, there are times there are surface issues
on cards that you can't see on pictures that you might be able
(33:00):
to see or are more likely to seein person, which is why I like
buying cards in person. And here's the thing, like you
just said, there have been several times you've gotten
home, you've looked at a card and you saw that you missed
something. Has that happened to me?
Absolutely. Has it happened to my dad?
(33:23):
Absolutely. Has it happened to my friends?
Absolutely. And why does that happen?
Because we're humans. Because we're taking a quick
look at it, because it most shows the lighting is awful.
So what are some things we can do?
Number one thing I would recommend is bring a flashlight
(33:44):
with you. Just one of those little
high-powered strong flashlights that you can click in the end
and you can shine it over the card.
When you shine it over the card,it is so much easier to see a
surface issue. Now when I am buying a really
expensive card, that's even moreimportant.
If I'm buying a $3040 card, I'llbe honest, I don't look it over
(34:07):
probably as well as I should. I bought that mini Minoso 52
tops card at a card show about amonth and a half ago and it had
a fairly significant wrinkle in the front of the card.
And I kind of noticed the the lighting in the in that room is
awful. And I kind of noticed a little
(34:29):
something didn't seem like a bigdeal.
And then I got it home and I looked at it under better light
and I'm like, that's kind of going to drive me crazy.
That's kind of going to drive mecrazy.
So I ended up selling it. The card had beautiful eye
appeal, but that bugged me because it bugged me.
Instead of sitting there going, well, I'm just going to keep
(34:51):
holding on to it. Even though there's something
about a card I don't like, I just cut bait.
I just said, no, let's just cut our losses.
Off it goes. I sold it, no problem.
I'll find another one someday. Not a big deal.
Not a big deal. That's the beauty of cards.
Now in certain grades we do knowthat wrinkles are possible and
(35:16):
even likely. You know if a card is a 1 1/2, a
two or three, it probably has a wrinkle.
You may not see it at first, butit's probably there.
And a flashlight helps a lot. So that would be 1 suggestion.
Another suggestion I would make is have a hobby buddy at your
shows before you buy a card havea friend look at it.
(35:39):
Have another person even if it'snot a friend it's just someone
else at the table. Go what do you think of this
card and and show it to the person who's standing next to
you. What are the pros and cons of
this card? I'm thinking about buying it
what do you think? Like when I bought my Ty Cobb I
had 2-3 friends. John Mangini look at it.
I had John Wade Boggs fan look at it.
(36:02):
I had Adam Splendid. I don't know, Adam Vintage
Sanctuary, look at it. I had my dad look at it.
Adam Vintage Sanctuary. He looped it.
He's a former coin collector andis really good on a loop.
And I said, hey, will you check out the registration in his eyes
for me? He looked it over.
I said, what do you see? And everybody kind of gave me
(36:24):
the green light. And then I went over and I
bought my Cy Young T2O6. And when I bought my Cy Young
T2O6, I before I, I saw it, I said, I think I want to buy it.
I went over, I got Tony of Southern collector 14.
I got Mike Petty. I got Mike junk wax hero went
(36:46):
back over and said, will you guys look at this card with me?
What do you see? Do you like it?
Do you see anything I'm not seeing?
And I had other people look at it.
Another thing I've done, and this might sound weird and maybe
I'm weird for doing it, but another thing I've done is I've
gone to the dealer and I've said, so this card got a two.
(37:06):
What do you think the reasons are?
It got the 2. Is there a is there a crease
that I'm missing? Is there a wrinkle that I'm
missing? Is there a pinhole?
Is it a is there a stain? The lighting's really bad.
Can you tell me, is there a crease in this card?
Is there a wrinkle in this card?The dealer's probably going to
know his cards and, and if they say no, there's no crease and
(37:29):
then you turn away and you walk away and you go outside and you
look at it under the sun and yousee a big crease.
It's like, wait, what a SEC. I'd walk back in there and go,
wait a second. I told you that I didn't see the
lighting very good. And you know, is there a crease?
And you said no, but there's this big fat crease right here.
I couldn't see in the light likeI would ask the dealer.
(37:52):
So I think that those are a few things that I would suggest.
Those are a couple of things that I would consider is to have
a have a buddy look at it or a fellow collector look at it.
I'd ask the dealer for details about the card that they've
noticed on the card. I would bring a flashlight
(38:13):
because that really helps you tosee the texture better.
That's probably the best piece of advice because at times a
loop magnifies, but it doesn't help you see the texture of the
card. And usually when we miss
something, it's not the big chunk missing out of the top
right hand corner. It's not the big stain right
across his face. It's usually some sort of crease
(38:35):
or wrinkle. And the flashlight, again, just
shining a flashlight over it andand from different angles,
you'll usually pick it up. I need to be better at that.
I need to be better at that withlower end cards.
But when I'm buying expensive cards, I always have somebody
look at it and I always hit it with a flashlight, which I carry
(38:56):
in my backpack with me. So if you're ever to show and
you don't have a flashlight withyou, and you want to look at a
car with a flashlight, you're welcome to borrow mine.
And finally, this one says question for next week.
The PSA offers program seems to be gaining traction.
Should card ladder, market movers, VCP, etcetera be
(39:17):
capturing these transactions in their sales history?
OK. I think this that is a very
valid thought and question on you know, a lot of people are
submitting cards to PSA or they have cards in their their PSA
vault and they're getting offersfor cards and they're doing
(39:39):
these transactions with with collectors.
And then what happens is we don't know about what those
prices are selling at. And if a lot of people are doing
that and that's gaining traction, then wouldn't it be a
good thing if we could add thoseto the data of the sales prices
(40:02):
of what cards are selling for? Makes perfect sense.
So I said down below of that comment, I said.
You know, I'm going to ask Hosh,I'm going to ask Chris Hosh
that. So I texted Chris and I said, do
you guys do this? And he said, we've actually
talked about this on their show The Crossover.
So Card Ladder has their own YouTube channel.
(40:26):
They have a show on Fridays called The Crossover.
It's great. I usually listen to it recorded
because Lucy's been having gameson Fridays.
And what what he said was the the they don't card ladder does
not. And the reason that card ladder
does not is because it's not a public sale.
(40:48):
A card sale through an auction house, REACIA, Golden, eBay,
those are public sales where theprice is out there publicly,
people are bidding publicly. The final hammer price is
public. It's all out in the open.
These sales happen privately. Now Card Ladder does record
(41:11):
private sales, but in order for them to utilize private sales
they have to a verify it and B, they have to get both parties to
sign off on it. So you can't take a private sale
and make it public without both sides saying it's OK to make it
(41:35):
public. So Chris said that Card Ladder
has suggested to PSA there just be like a little box when they
accept or reject the deal, it's OK to make this a public sale
and then they have the consent of the seller and as a result
(41:56):
they could then make it public. We can't take private
transactions and make them public just because we want to
make them public. It's not like it's a transaction
that goes through a government agency like through the DMV or a
house changing title. It it's like it's, it's like
(42:20):
somebody selling something at a garage sale, right?
And as soon as you start consenting to these things, you
know, to private sales becoming public, then there's, you know,
there's tax stuff that you know there.
It's important and I agree, it'simportant that both sides
consent to the private sale becoming a public sale.
(42:44):
They have thrown that out there to PSA to include that and and
Card Ladder has said that they would absolutely love to include
that data in their sales historyfor comping purposes.
But until that were to happen, they're not going to do it
because it's a violation of somebody's privacy.
(43:08):
Frankly, my personal opinion is I don't really know how valuable
that sales data would be becauseit's not an end user who's
buying it. When somebody takes APSA offer,
they're basically selling it at a wholesale price because
(43:31):
they're selling it to 1 of PSA'sapproved dealers or whatever
their list is of people who theylet have the offers go through
and and they're then going to sell it.
So you're basically taking a card when P when someone takes
APSA offer, it's basically a wholesale transaction instead of
(43:57):
a retail transaction. So I don't think like if, if
every time I took cards to a show and sold them to a dealer
that that should be now a new comp when an end user is selling
it to a wholesaler, a dealer, because it's, it's like a
(44:18):
different category of sale. The, the sales that I think are
the ones that are best to comp are the ones that are to the in
theory at least end user the buyer at the retail price when
we're valuing cars, right. If you're valuing a a car, do
(44:41):
you when you, when you look at the sales history, if you go
into Kelley Blue Book's website,you don't look at what the trade
insurance were like the trade invalue is a different tier than
the private party transaction sales history, right.
So if if somebody trades their car into the dealership, that
(45:05):
doesn't then affect the value ofthe car for private party sales,
they're like in their own category.
And to me that's what this is. This is a wholesale sale by the
person who owns the card to PSA and their list of of buyers who
(45:29):
PSA does the transactions for. So I don't really know if that's
a perfect fit. Now maybe you all think that I'm
crazy for saying that, but again, I don't think if I had
five cards for sale and I calledup Ash and I said, hey, Ash, I'm
going to sell you 5 cards. Or if I called up Chris Sewell
and said, hey, I'm going to sellyou 5 cards and then they give
(45:51):
me say 80% of the value because they're going to turn around and
try to sell them for 100% of thevalue.
I don't think that most of us would think those cards should
those sales, those private salesshould now be in the sales
history because I sold them wholesale to a dealer.
That's my personal opinion, but I appreciate the question.
(46:14):
I asked Hoge himself. That was his answer that they
don't have consent from the two,but otherwise they would be open
to it. But it's a good question.
Couple of questions involving card ladder this this week.
Remember, as always, if you all have a question for an upcoming
question and answer episode and Ask me anything episode,
(46:37):
whatever you want to call these down below in the comments,
simply type out your question. I'll add it to the list.
Remember later this week, Midlife Community Show and tell
there were some massive pickups this month, a huge number of
submissions. As always.
I love it. Also in that episode, not only
(46:57):
will we be raffling off those 4 subscriptions, not for the the
four credits, the the gift cardsto the Penny Sleever, but we
will also be raffling off the card ladder, one year
subscription and the Clemente card from our friend Theo
(47:21):
Clemente Collector. Remember, for those you had to
be one of the 50 most active people in the chat on Monday,
and in order to be in the drawing for the Penny Sleever
gift cards, you have to be have submitted a card for this
month's Midlife Community Show and Tell and I can't wait to
(47:44):
release that episode later in the week.
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