March 16, 2026 • 51 mins
The 2026 season is fast approaching and there is a lot to look forward to the year. Grand Salami & The Jewce discuss the top five things they are looking forward to the most this season and how it relates to this years baseball cards. We also discuss The Jewces recent card show experience and bring back the Buy/Sell/Hold segment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:12):
Hello and welcome to Officer Card with Randolami, and
we are in a bit of a roll of howto clean out the next Pokemon.
But you just have to find stillloving that on the door.
We're still making 40 minutesbefore actually comes out.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Yeah, moment that's it.
So I didn't want to fix it.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_03 (00:39):
We have three fifty that we're gonna open.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01):
Just find it out.
But barring anything crazy, Ican still connect a buy and sell
it right away.
Hopefully the air price is gonnaget too hot bad.
SPEAKER_03 (01:15):
Yeah.
It's already over 500 bucks abox as it stands today, the day
before release.
So wow.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
Well, how are you doing today, Bert?
SPEAKER_03 (01:24):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
It's been a busy day gettingready for Bowman's Best, but I'm
feeling ready.
I'm excited for tomorrow, andI'm excited to talk some cards
tonight.
SPEAKER_01 (01:33):
Yeah, we got a few things to talk about, even
though there's a lull.
There's never a lack of thingsto discuss.
SPEAKER_03 (01:40):
Never.
That's the best part about thehobby, honestly.
It's like it's like golf.
You know, you you you can playgolf and you can never be
satisfied with your game.
You can hobby and you can neverbe satisfied with your knowledge
of the hobby.
There's always more.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
There is always more to digest, a new, new site, new
platform, new product, oldproducts coming back up and
again hot, new players that youdidn't realize were the best,
and now all of a sudden they'rejust someone that you want to
chase.
There's always something goingon.
SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaking of which, if anybodyhas any Brennan Davis, sell me
some Brennan Davis, please.
Anyone that was chasing him backin 2020, I'm I'm all in on the
spring training hype train.
Let's go.
unknown (02:20):
All right.
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
So what do you want to talk about first today?
Well, I want to hear about yourshow.
You went to a show.
Yeah, this was my second show.
And this was last Friday.
My first show was on a Saturdayand a Sunday.
This was Friday from 5 to 11.
So it went pretty late.
I've never done a night show.
It was interesting.
(02:42):
The most interesting thing was,and I knew this going in, it was
like 99% Pokemon.
When I reached out to the guywho runs it, he's like, if you
know any more sports, guys, letme know.
And there was literally, I had asports guard next to me because
I requested a table next to him.
Um, just I thought it madesense.
And, you know, it was nicebecause he didn't really have
baseball.
Um, and he had mostly football,basketball, he had some other
(03:04):
stuff as well.
So if someone was like, hey, yougot baseball, he'd refer them to
me, and then football,basketball.
I'd be like, Oh, look at the guyright next to me if they were
like selling something orlooking to buy.
SPEAKER_03 (03:13):
Mm-hmm.
How are the sales?
SPEAKER_01 (03:15):
The sales were decent, not like my first show,
but my inventory wasn't as greatas my first show.
Yeah.
I built uh a nice amount ofPokemon slabs I was able to sell
while I was there, and I soldthem all out.
So the thing about card shows isnow you got a lot of guys that
are just buying for repackers,which some people won't sell to.
Me, I'm not a store, I'm just aguy.
(03:36):
And if someone wants to give memoney for my cards that I'm
looking to sell, so he's like,hey, what if I give you 85%
comps on these and clear you allout?
I'm like, Yeah, I'll do it.
So he wrote down Yeah.
He he wrote down what his offerswere on each card, and we ended
it all up.
We came to an agreement, so Igot rid of all of it.
I didn't want to be left withjust a few, so I took a hit on a
(03:58):
couple, but I didn't want tojust have like three Pokemon
left, and you're not reallygonna get anyone looking unless
they're looking for those veryspecific ones.
SPEAKER_03 (04:09):
85% comps, you're gonna get 85% paid out from eBay
after fees, so especiallysomething I wasn't really
attached to.
SPEAKER_01 (04:16):
And yeah, no no fees, no shipping, no worrying
about returns.
SPEAKER_04 (04:22):
Heartache.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:24):
Made some trades.
Got a nice junior Commonerorookie auto, PSA 9, that I like.
He traded me with that, withsome cash upgrade or what.
But that was the only card thatI really acquired that I'm
probably just gonna throw in thePC.
SPEAKER_03 (04:38):
Nice.
Which which uh which commonerorookie?
SPEAKER_01 (04:41):
I don't remember.
It was such a blur of a show.
There was so much going on.
So I wrote all my cards myself.
I know a couple guys at work.
One has Pokemon, one has likesome baseball, basketball,
football, UFC.
And I'm like, hey, name you havethe show.
You can come to my table and youcan sell your stuff for all I
care.
So they came and then one oftheir friends ended up stopping
by too, and then one of my oldfriends stopped by.
(05:03):
I saw.
So we ended up having like, eventhough it was just my booth, at
one point we had like fivepeople behind my booth.
So there was a lot going on.
Do you plan on going to the showagain?
SPEAKER_03 (05:13):
Is it like a monthly or a quarterly or something?
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
His next one is in May.
So it's every couple months, andhe's local.
It's a matter of having theinventory and the time with a
wife and two kids, you know.
There's and doing a podcast andobviously working.
This is not my full-time job,believe it or not.
Um, so you know, I I don't liketo spend too much time away from
(05:37):
them.
Luckily, they were very wellbehaved for her that Friday
night.
I was happy to hear that.
Uh, but it was literally rightdown the road from me at work.
It was five minutes away from meat work.
So I just I brought myself towork with me and I left work a
little early, headed down there,set up, and I was good to go.
If you're ever gonna do a show,you know, just make sure you're
prepared.
I would price everything outbeforehand.
You don't want to be that guythat's trying to look up prices
(05:59):
and comps, be confident in yourprices, build in a little room
to negotiate.
You know, no one's gonna reallypay sticker if someone's buying
a large amount of cards, helpthem out.
And strike up conversations.
Don't just be the only othersports guy that I saw there.
He pretty much just gave me anod when I tried talking to him
and he had no interest intalking about cards and his
(06:19):
prices were so overpriced.
I was just thinking, if Ibrought these cards that he has,
because we had a lot of the samecards, I could just undercut
him.
I'm not going to.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (06:29):
It's probably a slow sales day for him.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Know your audience.
You know, for me, it's just NewYork cards are gonna sell, which
is easy for me since I have somany.
Otani's always going to sell,the hot new rookies are gonna
sell.
But yeah, track ofconversations, get talking to
people, and they'll stickaround.
Eventually, something mightcatch their eye.
One of my favorite parts of theshow, actually, I mispriced a
card.
And what happened was I had thecard on my display.
(06:55):
It was it was a gilded card.
I had it marked, I don't evenremember the player.
I had it marked at just$10because it wasn't like any like
major player.
It was a retired player, maybenot even a Hall of Famer.
Um, so I had it like marked forlike$10.
And this kid comes up to me andhe's like looking at the cards.
And then I see him like musthave been 10 years old, and he's
with his friend, and then heturns to his friend and he
(07:15):
starts whispering.
Like, hand over the mouth ofwhispering.
And I'm like, I know exactlywhat's going on here.
I definitely mispriced thiscard.
Let's see what this kid does.
And it's nothing where Imisprice a card for like a
thousand dollars or something.
Like, if I put a card at$10,it's not gonna be worth any
crazy amount.
Because I would have just saw itand knew, it would have raised a
red flag.
But the kid comes, he looks atme and he's like, Would you take
(07:38):
$8 for this card?
And I'm like, Really?
I was thinking to myself,really?
You're you're gonna you knowthat it's worth more than this
and you're going to uh try tonegotiate.
But but I like the tactic.
So I look at him and I'm like,sure, I'll take eight dollars
for the card.
He only has a 20 on him.
I have a 10 in one single.
And I'm like, I'm like, I onlygot one single.
He's like, fine, I'll do nine.
So he gets the card, and I justsee this smile across his face.
(08:00):
So then I finally say to him,like, all right, so now now that
you have the card, I'm not gonnaback out of this.
This is your card, don't worry.
What is that card actuallyworth?
What did you just find out?
And you'd see the gears turningfor a second, like, oh my god,
did he just catch me?
Like, he acted like he just didsomething like terrible for a
second, and then he's just like$50.
I'm like, good for you.
I'm like, have yourself a goodday.
(08:22):
Enjoy the card, buddy.
And he came back over to thetable later.
I'm like, You're trying toswindle me again?
And he just got all shy.
Respect the hustle.
Yeah, yeah, doing that for akid.
I don't mind.
Oh, I'll do that.
If I have a card mispriced andlike yeah, if it wasn't a kid, I
would have been like, no, you'regiving me$10 for the card or
you're not, I'm not coming downat it.
But I was just so entertained byhow this kid was going about it.
(08:45):
And then I have a lot of Otanilower end that some of them I
missed repricing since my lastshow.
So this guy was going throughthe cards and like he sees this
Otani for 20 bucks, and like nowit's like a$40 card.
And like I see and put it to theside, I'm like, all right.
So I take the card, I'm like, Iwill sell this to you for$20.
I'm like, but I won't go downthe price for it.
(09:05):
It is actually worth like$40now.
The guy was like, no, no, no.
Then you put it at$40, you keep.
And I'm like, no, I will give itto you for$20.
Because like you seem likeyou're buying a few cards
anyway, but this one I'm notchanging price on.
And then he just insisted that Ikeep it and reprice it.
So I didn't argue that much.
SPEAKER_04 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:26):
Well, that's enough about the card show.
If you ever do have questionsabout card shows, I don't have a
ton of experience, but I feellike I have enough somewhere.
You can always reach out to meon Twitter, Instagram.
You can reach out to our podcastum itself, or just to my
personal Twitter or Instagram aswell.
So the fun thing to talk abouttoday, we are going to talk
about the top things to watchfor and that we're looking
(09:48):
forward to in the 2026 season.
SPEAKER_03 (09:52):
Yes, sir.
I can't wait for 2026.
I just hope we have a fullseason.
It's gonna be electric.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I'm excited for a lot of things.
The first thing I'm gonna goover, we did a top five.
I'm gonna give an honorablemention to this because it
doesn't have as much of a hobbyimpact.
But something that is a bigchange coming up is the ABS
system, the automated balls andstrikes.
This is a change everyone wasasking for.
How are you feeling about thisbig change to the new year?
SPEAKER_03 (10:19):
My first introduction to the ABS system
was at the Futures game inSeattle a few years back, uh,
and they were doing it.
And the one thing that Iremember is all of the kids in
the crowd watching the game wereso into it.
They were standing up, tappingtheir helmets, say challenge,
challenge, challenge.
And then they put it up on theJumbotron and they they give you
(10:40):
the K zone and they tell youwhether or not it was a ball or
strike.
And the kids were having thesehuge reactions to it.
And I thought, wow, they're ontosomething here.
This is great for the game.
Kids love it.
It's gonna keep fans engaged.
It's another thing to payattention to.
I think it's great.
SPEAKER_01 (10:56):
One thing I think we're gonna see quickly is that
the teams are all gonna advisetheir pitchers, unless it's like
an ace or someone that you can'targue with, they're gonna advise
their pitchers, don't challenge,leave it up to the catchers.
Because you're already seeing itwhere the pitchers they don't
have that correct eye on it,especially those they're those
pitchers that kind of fly overto the other side of the mound
(11:18):
and they're not getting theright angle to see it.
So I think that's somethingwe're gonna see as the season
goes on.
That teams are just gonna say,nope, just the catchers, unless
you're seeing like a reallytenured guy where they're gonna
trust them.
I don't know.
Do you think that that's fair tosay?
You think that'll head in thatdirection?
SPEAKER_03 (11:35):
Yeah, I don't know.
It's gonna be it's interestingtoo to see how pitchers adjust
because I think they're gonnaget a lot more pitches,
especially breaking balls at thebottom of the strike zone,
called for strikes thattraditionally, you know,
especially if a catcher doesn'tframe it well or if a catcher's
glove kind of drifts off intothe dirt when they catch it.
Traditionally, you're gonna callthat for a ball.
(11:56):
But a lot of these I'm seeing onABS are strikes.
So it'll be interesting to seehow pitchers adjust.
I think the throwing down in thezone is gonna become more of a
thing again, like it was when Iwas originally being coached to
pitch, but now we've had thisrevelation of you know,
fastballs high in the zone andstuff like that.
I don't know.
I think it's gonna change.
SPEAKER_01 (12:14):
I think if anything, it'll affect the vets more.
You know, with the young eyes,yeah.
They can adjust.
SPEAKER_03 (12:20):
Just like the pitch clock did, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
All right, so number five on one of the things that I
am most excited for and lookingforward to to see.
Can the Dodgers three-peat?
That is how the season ended,and we'll get right into that to
how the season will begin.
What do you think?
How do you like their odds?
SPEAKER_03 (12:40):
Nobody, and I mean nobody wants to see the Dodgers
three-peat outside of Dodgersfans.
I think, you know, there's sucha negative stigma associated
with the Dodgers and whatthey're doing for the base for
baseball outside of Otani.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
I'm gonna correct you.
You caught it.
So the only other people thatwant to see the Dodgers
three-peed are Otani holders andcollectors.
They want to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think there's some interestingthings to watch with the Dodgers
this year.
We'll see, you know, as itpertains to the hobby, we'll see
how it affects Kyle Tucker'smarket.
If Kyle Tucker comes out thegates hot, I think you could see
a big appreciation in a lot ofhis stuff.
In my opinion, his cards havenever been, I think his cards
have always been a little bitunderpriced.
They jumped quite a bit when hecame out the gates hot with
(13:22):
Chicago, but they went rightback to normal and below where
they were once he startedhitting that skid.
LA's a different market.
Kyle Tucker, when you look athis career numbers, on track to
have a pretty amazing career.
Um and if he can kind of hit hisstride and perform like he did
in the first half of last year,I think you're gonna see his
numbers jump quite a bit.
(13:43):
Mookie, too, is an interestingone.
Mookie had his first kind ofoff-year in his career ever
since he started becoming aperennial all-star, perennial
MVP candidate.
Sounds like he's feeling prettygood.
And we could see a return toform for Mookie.
He's not that old.
SPEAKER_01 (13:56):
Um The thing is it's hard for like those stars to
like really shine in NLA whereyou have Otani kind of just
taking up like all thespotlight, and then you have so
many stars, and outside ofOtani, they they kind of wash
each other out, if that makessense.
SPEAKER_03 (14:13):
I mean, not to mention they have the best
rotation in baseball one throughsix, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
Yeah, like and they added Edwin Diaz.
SPEAKER_03 (14:21):
They have guys in kind of like their sixth and
seventh, you know, guys in theirrotation that would be twos and
threes and a lot of otherrotations.
So it's I don't know.
They're they're one of thoseteams that they're so loaded
that things can go wrong andthey can still go win a World
Series.
They've already proven that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
Next up, number four on one of the things I'm most
excited to see, Nick Kurtz.
Can he continue to be absolutelyridiculous?
Big homage.
Or is he heading towards thesophomore slot?
SPEAKER_03 (14:52):
I don't think that he's gonna put up the same
numbers that he did as a rookie.
But that being said, the numbersthat he was putting up were
insane.
MVP caliber numbers.
If you prorate it for the entireseason, he may have been in the
running for the MVP with thetype of numbers that he was
putting up.
So I don't think he puts up thesame.
I think he has a little bit of aregression, a little bit of a
(15:13):
sophomore slump per se.
And I do think his cards willtake a hit for that.
But a lot of people take cardhits in year two.
That's just as common as thesophomore slump, if not more
common, for your cards to comedown.
Look at Jackson Churio lastyear, right?
Like he didn't have a terribleseason, but his cards dropped.
Look at Julio Rodriguez backfrom 2022 to 2023.
(15:36):
Same thing happened.
Kurtz would have to put up somepretty gaudy numbers.
He'd have to be number one, two,or three in the MVP race just to
maintain his card prices.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
I agree.
I I think that he remains a top10 player, but not top five.
That's my prediction for him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:50):
I mean, he's damn good.
Don't get me wrong.
Like, I think it's it's just theway that the hobby economy
works.
When you go into that secondyear and your prospect status is
gone and you have that rookie ofthe year under your belt and you
are the top rookie in yourclass, very high expectations,
hard to meet expectations goinginto year two.
We'll see if Kurtz can do it.
I don't know.
He mashes.
(16:10):
Like, there's a lot of things tolove about Nick Kurtz.
I just don't know if it's fairto expect for him to be like
come right back out the gatesand be an MVP candidate in year
two.
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
I'm rooting for it.
I just uh hit two Nick Kurtzoils in the last two weeks.
So after not having any for thelast year.
SPEAKER_03 (16:27):
It's weird, right?
Like uh ever since the 2026products have come out, I feel
like the Kurtz, um the Kurtz,what's the term I'm looking for?
I feel like Kurtz isn't as shinyanymore.
You know, he's not that shinynew toy anymore.
And he's just in his secondyear.
But now all of a sudden we'rethinking about Roman Anthony and
Keggs in the 26 class.
We're thinking about ConnorGriffin and what he's been doing
(16:49):
for his first Bowman prices andstuff like that.
Like Kurtz all of a sudden isnot the poster boy for the
hobby, where he was for the backhalf of pretty much all the 2025
products.
SPEAKER_01 (16:59):
Yeah, I agree.
It's definitely taking some ofthat off of it.
But yeah, there's only so muchattention and focus where the
hobby can go.
SPEAKER_04 (17:07):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (17:09):
But if Nick Kurtz has proven it, so if I had to
put my money somewhere, it's onNick Kurtz at the moment,
especially because ConnorGriffin's prices are absurd.
Um, and Nick Kurtz has provenit.
So if I were to say Nick Kurtzare one of those hot new
rookies, all things being equal,yeah, I'm still in on his hype
over the others.
SPEAKER_03 (17:29):
Watch out for those athletics, man.
They're coming.
They're coming.
I mean, Leo DeVries is next.
He's my pick to be the numberone prospect in baseball this
time next year.
So we'll see.
They got a lot of youngfirepower.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
The next thing I'm most excited to see.
I'm not excited for opening day,but the next 161 days I will be
excited for.
Paul Skeens is opening againstthe Mets.
Is it no, it is not going to beMcLean.
SPEAKER_04 (17:57):
Who is it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, that's that's fair.
SPEAKER_01 (18:04):
Skeens McLean would have been awesome.
But yeah, that's I understandwhy.
Yeah.
So he starts off with the rookieof the year.
Next year he gets the Cy Young.
What is in store for him thisyear?
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
Oh, I think he could win the MVP.
I think all it takes is an Otaniinjury, and all of a sudden,
Paul Skeens is right there inthe MVP race.
He looks absolutely electric.
He looked great in the WBCyesterday against Mexico.
He's only getting better.
He's built like a brick shithouse.
It doesn't look like he's goingto have any injury problems.
He's got that bulldog mentality.
(18:43):
He's got some of the nastieststuff in the game.
He posted a sub-2 ERA last year.
I think he does the same again.
I have no reason to think not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:52):
When was the last time a pitcher was this hyped
and actually has met theexpectations each year so far?
I know we're only two years in,but yeah, even like the last
time I can think of a pitcherbeing this hype was Strasbourg.
And obviously he was great,especially those first couple
years, but he wasn't winning aCy Young.
SPEAKER_03 (19:10):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
You know?
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
Maybe like a Tim Lindsacum.
You know, he came out and he wonback-to-back Cy Young's.
And but everybody kind of in theback of their mind was how long
can this last, this little 5'9,175 soaking wet guy with these
crazy mechanics.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yeah.
Yeah, they never thought TimLindsacum would go down as like
an all-time great.
And he's one of my all-timefavorite players ever, Tim
Lindsacum.
He was just so much fun towatch.
But yeah, Skeens, his hype andactually meeting it has been.
SPEAKER_03 (19:39):
Well, as a Mets fan too, like as I'm thinking about
these more recent super hypedpitching prospects, you know,
you had the big three, right?
You had Matt Harvey, Thor, andDeGrom.
And two of those guys definitelydid not live up to the hype.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Yeah, de Gram's been so awesome.
That that was the first coupleyears, though, when they were
living up to the hype.
The Dark Knight.
Like it was He was good.
He was my favorite of the three.
Yeah, he was so much fun.
And then, you know, let's notbring up 2015.
Let's move past that.
Because I would like to movepast it eventually.
SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Eventually, like you still go to bed and have
nightmares about it.
SPEAKER_01 (20:17):
I still I think I have this argument at work all
the time with a couple of otherMets fans.
I still think it was the rightmove to leave him in.
I know hindsight being what itis, it of course wasn't.
But at the time, that's yourace, that's the guy.
(20:37):
Yeah.
The mystique of Matt Harveythere.
SPEAKER_03 (20:39):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
And just what he did and how dominant he was, and how
he's like, I want the ball, Iwant to finish this.
It felt like his World Seriesmoment, and it of course, uh,
history did not go that way.
SPEAKER_03 (20:51):
Oh, we don't have to talk about that anymore.
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
No, no.
Yeah.
Let's put that in the showarchives, never be touched
again.
SPEAKER_03 (20:58):
Sore subject.
SPEAKER_01 (20:59):
All right.
Number two, I want to talk aboutthe defending, reigning,
back-to-back NVPs, Otani andJudge.
Are they going to continue tostay at the top of their game?
SPEAKER_03 (21:14):
Man, it's their awards to lose.
I think, you know.
It's hard to think that somebodycould, if if they stay healthy,
it's hard to imagine anybodyhaving a better season than them
in e in either league.
You know, Judge didn't even havea fully healthy year last year,
and Cal Raleigh ends up hitting60 bombs, has an unbelievable
(21:35):
year, doesn't even win MVP.
Otani didn't pitch most of theyear, the man still wins the
MVP.
Otani back healthy, pitchingagain.
There's no reason to think thathe's not the major front runner.
Same thing with Judge.
Like he's so far and away thebest hitter in the American
League.
I see no reason that thosethings are going to slow down
(21:56):
this year.
It's going to take an injury.
SPEAKER_01 (21:58):
So uh to bring this for Full circle back to the
hobby.
Of course, I'm assuming thisyear they're going to do the MVP
buyback program again.
Who do you think are some darkhorses?
Who do you think are some darkhorses to maybe dethrone them
that maybe people can chase forthe MVP buyback?
For those that don't know, Toppsis a program where$20 for a base
(22:19):
card out of Topps Chrome, theygive you$20 per base card if you
you can either send it back intosome places or you can go to
your LCS to trade it in and youget$20 credit.
Of course, Otani and Joach havedominated that.
Parallels get you more money.
Who are some of your dark horsecandidates for that?
SPEAKER_03 (22:38):
In the NL, I really like what I've been seeing from
Mookie Betts.
I think he's a guy that couldimmediately get right back into
that conversation, especiallyplaying in LA in that powerful
lineup.
He's going to put up some reallyscary counting numbers.
If he could stay healthy and ifOtani takes a step back, I could
see Muki immediately jumpinginto that conversation rather
quickly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:58):
I think that unless Otani gets hurt, if Muki even
has a great season, I thinkOtani's just gonna, no matter
what he does, he's gonna have tobe taking some votes away from
Muki.
That's what I think is gonnahappen.
So for Mookie to really havethat shot, I think Otani would
have to get hurt, which nobodywants to see.
I don't care what fan map orwhat team you are, nobody wants
to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (23:17):
Another guy in the NL, you know, that could
immediately, he's already shownshown the ability to put up MVP
numbers, although now it was afew years ago and early in his
career is Fernando Tatis Jr.
But in the WBC, he looks likehe's got a different kind of
energy.
Maybe that carries over into theMLB season.
That's also a really goodlineup.
I could see Tatis putting upsome gaudy numbers if he stays
(23:40):
healthy too.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
I would love that.
In the NL, the two guys I wantto see, which yes, I'm a homer,
so that's what you can say aboutthese two.
But they've proven that they canbe in that conversation.
Lindor and Soto, I think.
SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
Those guys too.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
Soto was top three in the voting.
Lindor two years ago, he wasright there as well.
SPEAKER_03 (24:04):
Well, especially if Soto steals uh 30 bags again.
Jeez.
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
It'll be interesting what that new lineup does for
them, too.
So we'll see how that works out.
On the AL side, give me thehomer pick.
Yeah, yeah, I'll give you ahomer pick.
Julio, right?
Yeah, that's that's what I wasthinking.
SPEAKER_03 (24:22):
All he's got to do is start the season hot.
Um, he's been right there.
You know, if you break it downjust by halves of the season,
he's he's been second half MVP acouple times already now.
He's just got to have a goodfirst half and not get too far
behind.
SPEAKER_01 (24:36):
Julio was my pick as my uh dark horse guys.
I I don't think any of theseguys are really dark horses.
It's just they're always in themix and with a league that has
Judge and Otani in it, you knowthat there's not much uh not
much you can do when you havegenerational guys like that.
SPEAKER_03 (24:54):
Totally.
Yeah.
I want to say Roman Anthony, buthis rookie rookie card prices
are already gonna be so highthat it's like I almost I don't
want him to win MVP becausethat's such a waste of a buyback
to have somebody whose cards arealready just on their own merit
pretty valuable.
It's more fun when you havesomebody come in and and win
(25:16):
that MVP buyback whose basecards wouldn't be valuable
otherwise.
SPEAKER_01 (25:21):
The only other guy is of course Bobby Witch you in
here.
Again, not a dark horse, butalways worth keeping an eye on
him, especially with all theseeyes on him for the world
baseball classic.
Even Skeens is loving it.
I don't know if you saw thoseand all the memes coming up of
him loving Witt over Olivia.
SPEAKER_03 (25:42):
Yeah, those are funny.
And Scoobyl, too.
Don't don't count out thepitchers.
I mean, he's in a contract here,and you know Detroit's gonna get
their money's worth with him inthe last year of team control
here, so you could see Scoobylput up some pretty, pretty crazy
numbers this year as well.
He's probably pitching pissedoff too, because a lot of
America doesn't like him verymuch for him bowing out of the
(26:04):
WBC.
SPEAKER_01 (26:05):
Yeah, I just, yeah.
I agree.
Um, all right.
And my number one thing to lookforward to this season, we've
already mentioned his name a fewtimes, Connor Griffin.
Everyone wants to see what thishype machine can do.
He is the rookie to watch thisyear.
First thing we want to know, youthink he makes the opening date
(26:27):
roster?
SPEAKER_03 (26:28):
I don't think he does.
I don't think he does.
I don't think he's put up thespring training numbers to uh to
merit that.
And I think they're gonna wannathey're gonna wanna bring him up
when he's really ready.
Start him out in triple A, lethim go off for a little bit, get
his confidence up, and thenbring him up.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
Yeah.
Yeah, I can see that.
Everyone is just so excited tosee him.
So what that means for us is arewe going to see him in series
two?
You think we'll have to wait forupdate?
SPEAKER_03 (26:56):
I feel like they're gonna put him in update.
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
You know what I love that they do?
They haven't done this for alittle while.
They did it back in the Julioand Wityear.
And uh Torkelson too, who's beenright.
Yeah.
Um, they they had their shortprints in series two.
And then there was the mess inTopps Chrome that year where
they forgot to put them in, eventhough they announced them and
had to do the silver packs.
(27:18):
But that would be really cool tosee.
I love those short prints, andI've been waiting for them to do
it again.
Of course, we'll have to seewhen he makes his debut.
I think the cutoff for update, Idon't know the cutoff for series
two.
Update, I believe, is June 1st.
I know that there's like a datein there.
SPEAKER_03 (27:37):
I think what it might end up happening is that
Griffin gets the kind of similarto a Paul Skeen's treatment
where like in Topps Chrome hegets a rookie auto, but he's
auto only.
And then his base, his first,you know, his flagship rookie
card ends up being an update.
SPEAKER_01 (27:51):
Yeah, I I think it I think series two is gonna be
tough.
But yeah, hopefully update.
And yeah, I just feel like Toppsdoesn't love to do that because
it really like crunches like theamount of cards that they can
get for such a hyped up playerbecause he's gonna sell boxes.
Him on his like like skiing soldboxes.
It's gonna be people hunting forhim unless something goes crazy,
(28:14):
you know, with his hype.
SPEAKER_03 (28:16):
You're gonna try to get him in as soon as they can.
SPEAKER_01 (28:18):
Yeah.
Next thing I want to talk aboutis what we want to see from the
2026 Topps hobby year, maybe alittle hobby wish list.
What new innovations would youlike to see out of Topps this
year?
SPEAKER_03 (28:32):
Well, I'd I'd like to see innovation.
You know, I think in 2025, whenit comes to Topps products, not
talking about Bowman, but whenit comes to Topps products,
rookies, veterans, legends,there hasn't been a whole lot of
innovation.
You know, back in 2022, you hadCosmic Chrome come around, which
was really awesome.
In 2024, you had the makeover ofTopps Black and White, which was
(28:55):
pretty awesome.
In 2025, I can't think of oneproduct that was materially
better than it's been inprevious years, or a brand new
product that was really goodvalue.
I think it's important for Toffsto continue to innovate and put
out some product like that wherecustomers can look at the
original sticker price and belike, oh, I finally get to win.
(29:16):
I get to have a positive returnrip at least one of these times
as I'm shelling out all thisdifferent cash for all these
different releases throughoutthe year.
So I'd like to see them dosomething a little bit new,
different, and value first andforemost.
We'll see.
SPEAKER_01 (29:33):
So I had this idea for new parallel, and you might
hate it.
I might just cut it from theepisode because it could be
terrible.
But I thought it'll be reallycool for something like Finest
or where you can get into likesome goofy ideas.
I'm about to say it out loud,and I feel like I don't like it
as much as I did.
Do it.
So I think like a chessparallel, like a more common,
(29:55):
like you have like you know howthey did like the Monopoly for
Panini?
So like chess, like you'll havelike pawns for like a more basic
one.
It kind of like the cosmic lineof planets where it gets rarer
as you go down the line.
A king would be a one-on-one,like queen, you'll have like out
of five or something, and thenall it doesn't even have to be
numbered, could just be SP.
(30:16):
I think it'll be cooler to juststand on its own like that.
But I feel like a chess pieceparallel would look really cool.
It could pop and it wouldactually make some sense.
SPEAKER_03 (30:23):
The planetary pursuit concept has been so
successful, you gotta think thatthey're gonna take that and try
to apply that in some other someother product.
And I hope that they do, right?
This concept of it's one line,the parallels aren't your
typical numbers, the parallelsaren't numbered, but they get
more rare, and there's you know,nine, ten different parallels.
(30:44):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (30:45):
So what do you think about my checkmate parallels?
SPEAKER_03 (30:47):
I'd be a buyer.
SPEAKER_01 (30:49):
It'll be fun to try to get the whole set too.
SPEAKER_03 (30:51):
We need somebody, yeah.
I'm trying to think.
Brent Rooker would be reallygood for that, right?
Rook.
Do we have a Hunter Bishop?
No, he can't quite make it.
There's got to be somebody else,though.
SPEAKER_01 (31:03):
Seaver King.
SPEAKER_03 (31:04):
Seaver King, yes.
Patrick Queen.
Nope, that's football.
SPEAKER_01 (31:09):
And yeah, I'm surprised we don't have a night.
But that that's my idea.
That is my small innovation ideathat I thought about.
So, not so much looking towardsthe future, but looking towards
the past a little bit.
What product would you like tosee them bring back?
SPEAKER_03 (31:23):
I thought 21 Rookie Cup was really good.
I would love to see them bringthat back.
Um, there's the ones that we'vetalked about ad nauseum already,
Stadium Club Chrome, bring itback.
That's a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_01 (31:36):
Rookie Cup, uh, I hit a one-on-one out of a
one-on-one auto, and I was sopsyched.
unknown (31:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:42):
Ended up not being so great.
SPEAKER_03 (31:43):
It was Evan White.
It was a great product, right?
Because it was niche.
There wasn't a lot of hypearound it.
The structure of the product wasgreat.
The price point was really goodfor the for the print run and
for the value of the cards thatwere.
SPEAKER_01 (31:58):
50 bucks, I think, right?
SPEAKER_03 (32:00):
Why not make one or two products like that every
year?
I was really disappointed not tosee anything like that come out
this year in tops.
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
They used to have, and it was one of my favorite
products was archive snapshots.
SPEAKER_04 (32:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:12):
That was$25 for a box, guaranteed auto.
A lot of old players and newplayers.
And I would always go all in.
I would buy up to the limit, andI would tell people, can you
order these for me so that I canhave some extra?
And I have hit some nice stuffout of that.
I hit a trout auto.
This is my first ever when Iwant to hit a Trent Grishom
(32:35):
Black Auto Redemption.
And there's a big uh Grishomcollector on on Twitter that I
that I was able to sell it toeventually.
But yeah, Archive Snapshots wasone of my favorites, and that
was the one that I hit theGriffey senior, and I was
thinking it was a junior.
Hit a nice Torkoal.
Oh, I hit those two uh bigdumper autos out of 10.
SPEAKER_03 (32:56):
That's right.
That's right.
Thank you for that.
So you're welcome.
One of the nicest racks I'veever gotten.
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (33:03):
So I don't know if we've ever talked about that on
the show.
A couple years ago.
Was it a couple years ago?
No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04 (33:10):
It was, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:12):
When I first started breaking with uh Bert as uh
Grand Salami, I was like, allright, hit me a gold auto and I
will give you this card forfree.
Because he expressed heexpressed interest in a while
ago when he was looking for bigdumper cards, and I had two of
them.
They were two gold autos, bigdumper out of archive snapshots,
(33:33):
and it has like those cheesy2000s photo shoot, like school
photo shoot backgrounds of likelasers and stuff, and it was
hand numbered to 10 uh two.
And at the time it was like awhat a$40 card or something,
maybe he didn't hit me the goldauto or a gold card, but I said,
you know what, I'm just gonnasend it to you anyway.
(33:53):
So I sent it to him, and then ofcourse, big dumper becomes big
dumper.
SPEAKER_03 (33:59):
Well, you have another one, and you just got a
jam on it, right?
SPEAKER_01 (34:02):
Yeah, just got a PSA 10 on it.
Literally just got back thisweek.
So I'm very happy with that.
I'm still happy to have sentthat to you.
SPEAKER_03 (34:09):
That's good cardma right there.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
Yeah.
Well, who knew that uh a coupleyears down the line that we
would be starting a podcasttogether?
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04 (34:18):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (34:19):
One other thing I know you wanted to bring up for
the things that you wanted tosee brought back, Bowman
offshoots.
You want to talk about that alittle bit?
SPEAKER_03 (34:27):
Yeah, I mean, um, that's been a really interesting
thing to see in unfold sinceFanatics has taken over, is kind
of the reduction in the Bowmanoffshoot brands.
Because you know, thinking backto 2022, we had Sterling, we had
Best, we had Platinum, we hadInception, we had Transcendent.
(34:52):
There was tons of differentBowman offshoots.
Uh, and in 2025, we have justone of those remaining, and it's
Bowman's Best, which is great.
But at the same time, you gottathink Fanatics is thinking about
how they can they know how bigprospect cards are in baseball.
You gotta think that they're inthe lab trying to figure out
what to do next with prospects.
(35:13):
I'm very intrigued to see whatwe see in 2026 because I don't
think it's just gonna benothing.
I don't think they're justgonna, you know, continue to
roll with the three flagshipreleases and Bowman's Best.
Like they're gonna they'regonna, I don't know, maybe if
it's in a little bit more oflike the tops now.
I doubt it because minor leaguebaseball doesn't have very much
hype and people want to see thecards in their major league team
(35:36):
uniform, right?
Pro debut doesn't do all thatwell.
Um, so I don't know.
It'd be interesting to see.
SPEAKER_01 (35:42):
I feel like it could also have to do with the fact
that they ballooned the Bowmanproduct so much, print run wise
and auto-wise, because Bowmandraft now has the megas.
You have the delight boxes, sothat adds on so many extra autos
that these players, even ifthey're stickers, they still
have to sign them.
They don't have as many productsto spread it out against if
they're putting them all intothese.
SPEAKER_03 (36:13):
And I think by eliminating a lot of these
offship, offshoot Bowman brands,they've kind of that's been one
of their levers that they'vepulled to try to elevate those
case-hit SSPs and flagshipBowman, but it hasn't worked
that well.
SPEAKER_01 (36:26):
Well, it's worked on me.
I was changing those garbagepail kids like crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (36:33):
Yeah, the garbage pail kids were great.
I guess I just get stuck on thespotlight.
SPEAKER_01 (36:38):
Spotlight I love.
I love the final brand card.
SPEAKER_03 (36:51):
Really?
That's it for how rare that cardis?
And how premium of player JJ isright now?
Doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01 (36:59):
Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
I really got to stop chasingthose and just start buying them
in secondary.
That that's gotta be the move.
SPEAKER_03 (37:04):
Um like you have to figure out how I think they've
done a really good job, it seemslike, on the top's chrome
basketball space.
Maybe it's just like maybe it'sjust a collector thing.
Like basketball and footballguys just love those case hit
SSPs, and baseball don't.
Like we'd prefer a first BowmanAuto, and there's lots of
different parallels to chase ofthose.
SPEAKER_01 (37:24):
All right, so for our final segment, we will bring
back our buy-sell hold thisweek.
We have a prospect, a rookie,and a vet to go over.
We will start with our prospect,someone who is projected to make
the opening day roster, andhopefully we'll be able to see
him in series two.
Of the Mets, I am talking aboutCarson Benj.
(37:46):
How are we feeling about CarsonBench?
SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
I feel like I should ask you first.
I was reading today that he's100% locked to make the opening
day roster.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (37:55):
I mean, it seems like it's his spot to lose,
unless, you know, somethingstarts to play every day.
I I would like him to.
I feel like that's what you gotto do with these guys.
I don't like them sitting aroundand you know, just if you're
gonna make them sit every otherday or something, for me it's
just keep them in triple A.
If they're like a big prospectlike this, someone that you
(38:15):
should be high on.
I don't think it does them thatmuch good.
If you're gonna bring them tothe show, let him play.
SPEAKER_03 (38:22):
In that case, he's a sell for me.
I'm always an advocate for thecall-up sell pretty much on
anybody unless I'm extremelyhigh on that prospect.
I think back to Brett Beatty andhow fast his cards plummeted
once he debuted.
Gives me, you know, CarsonBench, probably a better
prospect than Brett Beatty, butnot by that much.
(38:42):
So being with the Mets, it justmakes me think about that
situation.
I'd probably sell.
His cards are are pretty highright now, you know.
Uh yeah, that's where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01 (38:53):
As a baby holder, I can't say you're wrong.
I still have my babies.
And I'm still holding out hopeon him.
But, you know, that that's a PCcard for me.
So that has nothing to do withbuy, sell, hold.
That's just stay in the PC.
Yeah, I I can't disagree.
It's just time to sell.
By the time this show comes out,maybe they would have already
(39:14):
announced him.
I don't think that they willuntil a little bit later.
But once they make that officialdesignation of him being on the
major league roster day one,that's when I would sell, if not
opening day, when people areseeing him, when you got so many
eyes on him, when you see PaulSkeen strike him out three
times.
Yeah, right.
So do it just before that,because he's up against Paul
(39:36):
Skeen's day one.
That's a tough ass for anyplayer, let alone someone making
their debut.
SPEAKER_03 (39:41):
Look for that debut.
I have a somewhat big CarsonBench card to sell.
Do you want to buy it from me?
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
Send it to me.
I doubt it.
I just said I'm a sell on him,but I don't have any really nice
ones.
I have uh some pro debut autos,which are nice.
SPEAKER_03 (39:55):
You know what it was actually?
I got this as a surprise fromTopps because we had uh the card
that I had was a Xavier Isaacout of 2023 Bowman, true first
Bowman Gold Auto.
And Xavier Isaac hasn't signedfor a long time.
Finally, I gave up on it, and Ijust pressed find me a
replacement, and they sent meback a Carson Benge Bowman's
(40:17):
Best Black Auto.
I thought it was a fine return.
I'm gonna sell it.
SPEAKER_01 (40:21):
I'll trade you a dumper out of 10.
SPEAKER_04 (40:25):
I'm gonna take that.
SPEAKER_01 (40:27):
All right, our next guy.
Honestly, I'm gonna let you leadon this one, really, because I
don't know that much, and I wantto hear what you have to say.
Samuel, Samuel Basal.
How are you feeling about SamuelBisayo this year?
That is our rookie that we'regonna talk about.
SPEAKER_03 (40:41):
Samuel Basayo is one of the best hitters, one of the
best hitting prospects inbaseball.
He came up last year and he hada tough, tough go of it.
He did not put up very goodnumbers and is limited at bats.
Obviously, Baltimore has AdleyRutschman at the catcher
position, but I think betweencatcher and DH, you're gonna see
Basayo get a ton of at-bats.
(41:01):
He's been a little bit banged upin spring training.
I know he had that scary momentbehind the dish where he got he
got hit pretty good and helooked like he went down pretty
hard.
But I think Bisao as a hitter isis still one of the best
prospects out there.
I think his prices have duckedafter his performance last year
and maybe some of the injuryscares in spring training to a
point where I feel like he's ahe's a very solid hold.
(41:24):
I wouldn't go as far as to saybye.
However, I do think we may lookback on these 2026 rookies and
think, wow, those Samuel Bisayopick your player spots were
pretty cheap.
In the same way that I thoughtabout Junior Caminero in 2024.
Like, wow, why is JuniorCaminero so much cheaper than
(41:45):
Ellie, Yamamoto, Chorillo,Langford?
Like I think we might be sayingthe same thing of why was Pasayo
so much cheaper than Keggs,Roman Anthony, Mizurawski.
SPEAKER_01 (41:59):
Okay, that's fair.
Hopefully he is that guy, andhopefully people can use this
and be able to actually applyit.
And if you ever do have anysuccess about our buy, sell hold
segments, we would love to hearabout it.
You know, just make us feelgood, have a little hobby W for
someone.
They're hard to come by.
So if you ever get one, we loveto hear.
The last one we're gonna talkabout is our veteran, not just a
(42:21):
veteran, he is the veteran.
We are going to talk about buy,seller, hold on Shohei Otani.
SPEAKER_03 (42:28):
We're finally doing Otani.
Wow, tough one.
SPEAKER_01 (42:31):
I'm gonna tell you where I'm at.
I am going to answer D, all ofthe above.
I don't think there's a wrongway to go.
Because every time, I think I'vesaid it like about once per
episode.
Every time you think his pricescan't go any higher, they just
keep going higher.
(42:52):
So if you want Otani now, youbetter buy.
If you want to sell, I can'tblame you because his prices are
absurd.
I can't understand they're goingany higher, but they keep doing
it.
And if you want to hold, youknow, he's one of the he is the
premier baseball player of thisgeneration right now.
It's something that can be aforever PC item.
(43:13):
Pass on to your kids.
Hopefully they can sell it.
But yeah, I am deep all theabove.
I don't care what you do withOtani, what you do with his
cards.
It's just you really, I don'tfeel like you can go wrong
selling, you're gonna make aton.
I sell and hold.
Yeah.
Yeah, I I know that advice doesnot help you that much.
But yeah, I just I can make anargument easily for all three of
(43:37):
them.
He is he is a unicorn in thegame and in the hobby world.
SPEAKER_03 (43:41):
I kind of agree with you, but maybe I'll go a little
bit, I'll go a little bit moremultifaceted in like I agree,
buy, sell, hold, but dependingon the card, right?
So I think it's buy cards thatas the years go by will remain
the most desirable cards.
I'm thinking.
About Bowman rookies, ToppsChrome rookies, high-end dynasty
(44:06):
things like that, you know,rookie cards, not third, fourth,
fifth year angel cards, stufflike that.
Go after the stuff that as theyears go by are going to be the
most sought-after cards.
I think right now is a reallygood time to sell a lot of your
other Otani cards, your baseinserts and your high-numbered
(44:30):
non-auto parallels and thingslike that, you know, third,
fourth, fifth, sixth year,seventh year, maybe not your
Dodgers first-year cards, butdefinitely like the second year
cards and on and on.
Like those cards are demanding apretty high price, especially in
a PSA 10.
I'd look at all those cards,look to grade them, offload
(44:50):
them, and keep the ones that youthink as the years go by will
remain in super high demand.
Because Otani cards are notscarce.
There are a ton, a ton of Otanicards in the last in his in his
career, right?
Like some of the numbers thatsome of his more common stuff is
(45:13):
doing to me seems a bitoutlandish at this point.
SPEAKER_04 (45:16):
It's absurd.
SPEAKER_03 (45:17):
I don't think they're gonna create even like
20, even you know, if he goesdown as the best baseball player
of all time, which a lot ofpeople have already anointed
him, like 50 years from now, Idon't think a lot of those base
cards are gonna be what theywhat they're going for today.
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
There's no way.
I agree with you there.
And actually, for fulltransparency, I am selling a
bunch of Otani cards right now.
I just got back a PSA order.
One of the cards that stood outto me in the price and the
absurdity of it.
I got a Bowman Chrome Sapphirebase, PSA 10 of Otani.
I was like, all right, that'scool.
That's a couple hundred dollarcard for Otani.
That's a lot of money, unlikeany other player that's not a
(45:53):
rookie.
The last sale was for over$800.
I am selling that card.
It is a base card.
Yes, it's Sapphire, it's apremier product, but over$800
for there's no rookie card thatdoes that for a base.
It's it's absurd.
So yeah, I'm selling that today.
I just sold a purple tops blackand white PSA 10 for$425.
(46:19):
$429.
That was the exact price.
Um, and yeah, it's just it'scrazy.
Like that, that is not a card 20years from now that it's gonna
stand out in any significantway.
And there are some cards thatare creeping along where all of
a sudden people just love thosecards.
The Otani flamethrower out offinest, that insert.
(46:40):
I actually got a PSA 9 on that.
I sold it for$195.
SPEAKER_03 (46:43):
The Aces out of 23 tops.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:45):
The Aces is a big one.
The Stadium Club out of like 23,or maybe it was 21 tops.
2020.
Stadium Club Chrome.
Yep.
So some of these cars they justpick up lights of their own.
So they do.
unknown (46:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:00):
Well, I mean, today was a great example.
We did a seven years of Bowman'sBest break, and we opened a case
of 2019 Bowman's Best.
I pulled a refractor, just abase refractor, and and Bowman's
Best refractors are very common.
It's only a hundred-playerchecklist, and there's a
refractor every box or everyevery pack.
And I'm sitting there like, oh,that's probably a decent card.
And Pack to the Future, whoworks for Blaze Online now and
(47:23):
is very sharp in in terms ofcards, comps, values.
He's like, that's probablythat's a$250 card in a PSA 10.
And I was like, no way.
And I, what do you know?
I looked it up and it was.
Can you believe that?
Second year money refract, justa base unnumbered refractor out
of Bowman's best in an angel'suniform.
SPEAKER_01 (47:44):
Like, I don't know.
So full transparency, I'mselling, but I can't blame you
for buying or holding.
You know, it's the reason whythese cars do so much is because
there's so much market movement.
There's so many people buyingand selling.
SPEAKER_03 (47:57):
And that's right.
There's that's a great point.
That's a really good way tothink about it, too.
Like across the years, there'sjust not gonna be as much
commotion as there is now inthis economy around Shohei.
SPEAKER_01 (48:11):
And then there's there always seems to be that
guy that you think is gonna endup being like that greatest of
all time, that goat.
Before Otani, everyone thoughtthat about Trout, and his cards
have really, really lowered fromwhere they were.
They've really taken a hit.
And he's still an all-time greatplayer to me and to most people.
(48:34):
Before that, I would sayprobably Albert Poohs.
I wasn't collecting cards aroundthe time where his market was
there, and it was a totallydifferent card landscape, I'm
sure.
But there always seems to bethat guy where right now you're
looking at that and you'resaying, I'm watching the
greatest player of all time.
And at the time it's really funto watch, but looking back 10
years later, like, oh, if onlythis happened, you know, if only
(48:55):
so and so, if only he didn't gethurt, if only the end of his
career didn't, you know, falloff at this point.
Otani again is unique in a lotof different ways.
So I don't see that affectinghim as much as interviewing as
well.
SPEAKER_03 (49:12):
Yeah.
If his career ended today, likehis cards all time would still
maintain quite a high value.
SPEAKER_01 (49:20):
Even if two-way players became a thing where you
start seeing it from otherplaces, I don't think we really
will, just because MLB has notbeen embracing it that way
still.
unknown (49:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:29):
But he's still gonna be known as like the innovator,
the one that really did itfirst, that set it off.
So I don't really see thataffecting things as much.
But yeah, you just you justnever know.
Because people, you know, evenfive years ago would have told
you trout cards are are justsomething to buy and his prices
are never going down.
(49:50):
That's just the point I wantedto make.
SPEAKER_04 (49:52):
Well said.
SPEAKER_01 (49:53):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,everyone, for listening to
another episode.
Bert, any uh anything else youwant to say?
SPEAKER_03 (50:01):
No.
Looking forward to Bowman's Besttomorrow.
Good luck.
I guess as we we post thisepisode, I hope everybody's
pulled some nice Bowman's Beststuff.
SPEAKER_01 (50:08):
Yes.
So, Brett, if you're listening,I know that you've said that you
listen.
I am in your break tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03 (50:16):
Connor Griffin Superfractor.
SPEAKER_01 (50:18):
No, not not his, not his.
Well, that's somewhere else.
I would like to see thatsomewhere else.
You know what if Brad pulls thatgood for him and good for.
SPEAKER_03 (50:24):
I'm in Red's break too.
I have Thomas White, so I'lltake a Thomas White Superfractor
auto.
SPEAKER_01 (50:29):
I have a Thomas White red auto, but it's the
insert.
The VIP.
Wow.
That's uh that's in my PSA pileright now.
About to go up.
Nice.
So I'm very much on that train.
How's that oblique doing?
Do we know?
SPEAKER_03 (50:45):
I hope it's going good.
SPEAKER_01 (50:48):
All right.
Well, I think that's enough fortonight.
Thank you so much, everyone.
Good night.
SPEAKER_03 (50:52):
Good night, everybody.
Hello and welcome to Officer Card with Randolami, and
we are in a bit of a roll of howto clean out the next Pokemon.
But you just have to find stillloving that on the door.
We're still making 40 minutesbefore actually comes out.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Yeah, moment that's it.
So I didn't want to fix it.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_03 (00:39):
We have three fifty that we're gonna open.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01):
Just find it out.
But barring anything crazy, Ican still connect a buy and sell
it right away.
Hopefully the air price is gonnaget too hot bad.
SPEAKER_03 (01:15):
Yeah.
It's already over 500 bucks abox as it stands today, the day
before release.
So wow.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
Well, how are you doing today, Bert?
SPEAKER_03 (01:24):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
It's been a busy day gettingready for Bowman's Best, but I'm
feeling ready.
I'm excited for tomorrow, andI'm excited to talk some cards
tonight.
SPEAKER_01 (01:33):
Yeah, we got a few things to talk about, even
though there's a lull.
There's never a lack of thingsto discuss.
SPEAKER_03 (01:40):
Never.
That's the best part about thehobby, honestly.
It's like it's like golf.
You know, you you you can playgolf and you can never be
satisfied with your game.
You can hobby and you can neverbe satisfied with your knowledge
of the hobby.
There's always more.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
There is always more to digest, a new, new site, new
platform, new product, oldproducts coming back up and
again hot, new players that youdidn't realize were the best,
and now all of a sudden they'rejust someone that you want to
chase.
There's always something goingon.
SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaking of which, if anybodyhas any Brennan Davis, sell me
some Brennan Davis, please.
Anyone that was chasing him backin 2020, I'm I'm all in on the
spring training hype train.
Let's go.
unknown (02:20):
All right.
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
So what do you want to talk about first today?
Well, I want to hear about yourshow.
You went to a show.
Yeah, this was my second show.
And this was last Friday.
My first show was on a Saturdayand a Sunday.
This was Friday from 5 to 11.
So it went pretty late.
I've never done a night show.
It was interesting.
(02:42):
The most interesting thing was,and I knew this going in, it was
like 99% Pokemon.
When I reached out to the guywho runs it, he's like, if you
know any more sports, guys, letme know.
And there was literally, I had asports guard next to me because
I requested a table next to him.
Um, just I thought it madesense.
And, you know, it was nicebecause he didn't really have
baseball.
Um, and he had mostly football,basketball, he had some other
(03:04):
stuff as well.
So if someone was like, hey, yougot baseball, he'd refer them to
me, and then football,basketball.
I'd be like, Oh, look at the guyright next to me if they were
like selling something orlooking to buy.
SPEAKER_03 (03:13):
Mm-hmm.
How are the sales?
SPEAKER_01 (03:15):
The sales were decent, not like my first show,
but my inventory wasn't as greatas my first show.
Yeah.
I built uh a nice amount ofPokemon slabs I was able to sell
while I was there, and I soldthem all out.
So the thing about card shows isnow you got a lot of guys that
are just buying for repackers,which some people won't sell to.
Me, I'm not a store, I'm just aguy.
(03:36):
And if someone wants to give memoney for my cards that I'm
looking to sell, so he's like,hey, what if I give you 85%
comps on these and clear you allout?
I'm like, Yeah, I'll do it.
So he wrote down Yeah.
He he wrote down what his offerswere on each card, and we ended
it all up.
We came to an agreement, so Igot rid of all of it.
I didn't want to be left withjust a few, so I took a hit on a
(03:58):
couple, but I didn't want tojust have like three Pokemon
left, and you're not reallygonna get anyone looking unless
they're looking for those veryspecific ones.
SPEAKER_03 (04:09):
85% comps, you're gonna get 85% paid out from eBay
after fees, so especiallysomething I wasn't really
attached to.
SPEAKER_01 (04:16):
And yeah, no no fees, no shipping, no worrying
about returns.
SPEAKER_04 (04:22):
Heartache.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:24):
Made some trades.
Got a nice junior Commonerorookie auto, PSA 9, that I like.
He traded me with that, withsome cash upgrade or what.
But that was the only card thatI really acquired that I'm
probably just gonna throw in thePC.
SPEAKER_03 (04:38):
Nice.
Which which uh which commonerorookie?
SPEAKER_01 (04:41):
I don't remember.
It was such a blur of a show.
There was so much going on.
So I wrote all my cards myself.
I know a couple guys at work.
One has Pokemon, one has likesome baseball, basketball,
football, UFC.
And I'm like, hey, name you havethe show.
You can come to my table and youcan sell your stuff for all I
care.
So they came and then one oftheir friends ended up stopping
by too, and then one of my oldfriends stopped by.
(05:03):
I saw.
So we ended up having like, eventhough it was just my booth, at
one point we had like fivepeople behind my booth.
So there was a lot going on.
Do you plan on going to the showagain?
SPEAKER_03 (05:13):
Is it like a monthly or a quarterly or something?
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
His next one is in May.
So it's every couple months, andhe's local.
It's a matter of having theinventory and the time with a
wife and two kids, you know.
There's and doing a podcast andobviously working.
This is not my full-time job,believe it or not.
Um, so you know, I I don't liketo spend too much time away from
(05:37):
them.
Luckily, they were very wellbehaved for her that Friday
night.
I was happy to hear that.
Uh, but it was literally rightdown the road from me at work.
It was five minutes away from meat work.
So I just I brought myself towork with me and I left work a
little early, headed down there,set up, and I was good to go.
If you're ever gonna do a show,you know, just make sure you're
prepared.
I would price everything outbeforehand.
You don't want to be that guythat's trying to look up prices
(05:59):
and comps, be confident in yourprices, build in a little room
to negotiate.
You know, no one's gonna reallypay sticker if someone's buying
a large amount of cards, helpthem out.
And strike up conversations.
Don't just be the only othersports guy that I saw there.
He pretty much just gave me anod when I tried talking to him
and he had no interest intalking about cards and his
(06:19):
prices were so overpriced.
I was just thinking, if Ibrought these cards that he has,
because we had a lot of the samecards, I could just undercut
him.
I'm not going to.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (06:29):
It's probably a slow sales day for him.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Know your audience.
You know, for me, it's just NewYork cards are gonna sell, which
is easy for me since I have somany.
Otani's always going to sell,the hot new rookies are gonna
sell.
But yeah, track ofconversations, get talking to
people, and they'll stickaround.
Eventually, something mightcatch their eye.
One of my favorite parts of theshow, actually, I mispriced a
card.
And what happened was I had thecard on my display.
(06:55):
It was it was a gilded card.
I had it marked, I don't evenremember the player.
I had it marked at just$10because it wasn't like any like
major player.
It was a retired player, maybenot even a Hall of Famer.
Um, so I had it like marked forlike$10.
And this kid comes up to me andhe's like looking at the cards.
And then I see him like musthave been 10 years old, and he's
with his friend, and then heturns to his friend and he
(07:15):
starts whispering.
Like, hand over the mouth ofwhispering.
And I'm like, I know exactlywhat's going on here.
I definitely mispriced thiscard.
Let's see what this kid does.
And it's nothing where Imisprice a card for like a
thousand dollars or something.
Like, if I put a card at$10,it's not gonna be worth any
crazy amount.
Because I would have just saw itand knew, it would have raised a
red flag.
But the kid comes, he looks atme and he's like, Would you take
(07:38):
$8 for this card?
And I'm like, Really?
I was thinking to myself,really?
You're you're gonna you knowthat it's worth more than this
and you're going to uh try tonegotiate.
But but I like the tactic.
So I look at him and I'm like,sure, I'll take eight dollars
for the card.
He only has a 20 on him.
I have a 10 in one single.
And I'm like, I'm like, I onlygot one single.
He's like, fine, I'll do nine.
So he gets the card, and I justsee this smile across his face.
(08:00):
So then I finally say to him,like, all right, so now now that
you have the card, I'm not gonnaback out of this.
This is your card, don't worry.
What is that card actuallyworth?
What did you just find out?
And you'd see the gears turningfor a second, like, oh my god,
did he just catch me?
Like, he acted like he just didsomething like terrible for a
second, and then he's just like$50.
I'm like, good for you.
I'm like, have yourself a goodday.
(08:22):
Enjoy the card, buddy.
And he came back over to thetable later.
I'm like, You're trying toswindle me again?
And he just got all shy.
Respect the hustle.
Yeah, yeah, doing that for akid.
I don't mind.
Oh, I'll do that.
If I have a card mispriced andlike yeah, if it wasn't a kid, I
would have been like, no, you'regiving me$10 for the card or
you're not, I'm not coming downat it.
But I was just so entertained byhow this kid was going about it.
(08:45):
And then I have a lot of Otanilower end that some of them I
missed repricing since my lastshow.
So this guy was going throughthe cards and like he sees this
Otani for 20 bucks, and like nowit's like a$40 card.
And like I see and put it to theside, I'm like, all right.
So I take the card, I'm like, Iwill sell this to you for$20.
I'm like, but I won't go downthe price for it.
(09:05):
It is actually worth like$40now.
The guy was like, no, no, no.
Then you put it at$40, you keep.
And I'm like, no, I will give itto you for$20.
Because like you seem likeyou're buying a few cards
anyway, but this one I'm notchanging price on.
And then he just insisted that Ikeep it and reprice it.
So I didn't argue that much.
SPEAKER_04 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:26):
Well, that's enough about the card show.
If you ever do have questionsabout card shows, I don't have a
ton of experience, but I feellike I have enough somewhere.
You can always reach out to meon Twitter, Instagram.
You can reach out to our podcastum itself, or just to my
personal Twitter or Instagram aswell.
So the fun thing to talk abouttoday, we are going to talk
about the top things to watchfor and that we're looking
(09:48):
forward to in the 2026 season.
SPEAKER_03 (09:52):
Yes, sir.
I can't wait for 2026.
I just hope we have a fullseason.
It's gonna be electric.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I'm excited for a lot of things.
The first thing I'm gonna goover, we did a top five.
I'm gonna give an honorablemention to this because it
doesn't have as much of a hobbyimpact.
But something that is a bigchange coming up is the ABS
system, the automated balls andstrikes.
This is a change everyone wasasking for.
How are you feeling about thisbig change to the new year?
SPEAKER_03 (10:19):
My first introduction to the ABS system
was at the Futures game inSeattle a few years back, uh,
and they were doing it.
And the one thing that Iremember is all of the kids in
the crowd watching the game wereso into it.
They were standing up, tappingtheir helmets, say challenge,
challenge, challenge.
And then they put it up on theJumbotron and they they give you
(10:40):
the K zone and they tell youwhether or not it was a ball or
strike.
And the kids were having thesehuge reactions to it.
And I thought, wow, they're ontosomething here.
This is great for the game.
Kids love it.
It's gonna keep fans engaged.
It's another thing to payattention to.
I think it's great.
SPEAKER_01 (10:56):
One thing I think we're gonna see quickly is that
the teams are all gonna advisetheir pitchers, unless it's like
an ace or someone that you can'targue with, they're gonna advise
their pitchers, don't challenge,leave it up to the catchers.
Because you're already seeing itwhere the pitchers they don't
have that correct eye on it,especially those they're those
pitchers that kind of fly overto the other side of the mound
(11:18):
and they're not getting theright angle to see it.
So I think that's somethingwe're gonna see as the season
goes on.
That teams are just gonna say,nope, just the catchers, unless
you're seeing like a reallytenured guy where they're gonna
trust them.
I don't know.
Do you think that that's fair tosay?
You think that'll head in thatdirection?
SPEAKER_03 (11:35):
Yeah, I don't know.
It's gonna be it's interestingtoo to see how pitchers adjust
because I think they're gonnaget a lot more pitches,
especially breaking balls at thebottom of the strike zone,
called for strikes thattraditionally, you know,
especially if a catcher doesn'tframe it well or if a catcher's
glove kind of drifts off intothe dirt when they catch it.
Traditionally, you're gonna callthat for a ball.
(11:56):
But a lot of these I'm seeing onABS are strikes.
So it'll be interesting to seehow pitchers adjust.
I think the throwing down in thezone is gonna become more of a
thing again, like it was when Iwas originally being coached to
pitch, but now we've had thisrevelation of you know,
fastballs high in the zone andstuff like that.
I don't know.
I think it's gonna change.
SPEAKER_01 (12:14):
I think if anything, it'll affect the vets more.
You know, with the young eyes,yeah.
They can adjust.
SPEAKER_03 (12:20):
Just like the pitch clock did, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
All right, so number five on one of the things that I
am most excited for and lookingforward to to see.
Can the Dodgers three-peat?
That is how the season ended,and we'll get right into that to
how the season will begin.
What do you think?
How do you like their odds?
SPEAKER_03 (12:40):
Nobody, and I mean nobody wants to see the Dodgers
three-peat outside of Dodgersfans.
I think, you know, there's sucha negative stigma associated
with the Dodgers and whatthey're doing for the base for
baseball outside of Otani.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
I'm gonna correct you.
You caught it.
So the only other people thatwant to see the Dodgers
three-peed are Otani holders andcollectors.
They want to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think there's some interestingthings to watch with the Dodgers
this year.
We'll see, you know, as itpertains to the hobby, we'll see
how it affects Kyle Tucker'smarket.
If Kyle Tucker comes out thegates hot, I think you could see
a big appreciation in a lot ofhis stuff.
In my opinion, his cards havenever been, I think his cards
have always been a little bitunderpriced.
They jumped quite a bit when hecame out the gates hot with
(13:22):
Chicago, but they went rightback to normal and below where
they were once he startedhitting that skid.
LA's a different market.
Kyle Tucker, when you look athis career numbers, on track to
have a pretty amazing career.
Um and if he can kind of hit hisstride and perform like he did
in the first half of last year,I think you're gonna see his
numbers jump quite a bit.
(13:43):
Mookie, too, is an interestingone.
Mookie had his first kind ofoff-year in his career ever
since he started becoming aperennial all-star, perennial
MVP candidate.
Sounds like he's feeling prettygood.
And we could see a return toform for Mookie.
He's not that old.
SPEAKER_01 (13:56):
Um The thing is it's hard for like those stars to
like really shine in NLA whereyou have Otani kind of just
taking up like all thespotlight, and then you have so
many stars, and outside ofOtani, they they kind of wash
each other out, if that makessense.
SPEAKER_03 (14:13):
I mean, not to mention they have the best
rotation in baseball one throughsix, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
Yeah, like and they added Edwin Diaz.
SPEAKER_03 (14:21):
They have guys in kind of like their sixth and
seventh, you know, guys in theirrotation that would be twos and
threes and a lot of otherrotations.
So it's I don't know.
They're they're one of thoseteams that they're so loaded
that things can go wrong andthey can still go win a World
Series.
They've already proven that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
Next up, number four on one of the things I'm most
excited to see, Nick Kurtz.
Can he continue to be absolutelyridiculous?
Big homage.
Or is he heading towards thesophomore slot?
SPEAKER_03 (14:52):
I don't think that he's gonna put up the same
numbers that he did as a rookie.
But that being said, the numbersthat he was putting up were
insane.
MVP caliber numbers.
If you prorate it for the entireseason, he may have been in the
running for the MVP with thetype of numbers that he was
putting up.
So I don't think he puts up thesame.
I think he has a little bit of aregression, a little bit of a
(15:13):
sophomore slump per se.
And I do think his cards willtake a hit for that.
But a lot of people take cardhits in year two.
That's just as common as thesophomore slump, if not more
common, for your cards to comedown.
Look at Jackson Churio lastyear, right?
Like he didn't have a terribleseason, but his cards dropped.
Look at Julio Rodriguez backfrom 2022 to 2023.
(15:36):
Same thing happened.
Kurtz would have to put up somepretty gaudy numbers.
He'd have to be number one, two,or three in the MVP race just to
maintain his card prices.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
I agree.
I I think that he remains a top10 player, but not top five.
That's my prediction for him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:50):
I mean, he's damn good.
Don't get me wrong.
Like, I think it's it's just theway that the hobby economy
works.
When you go into that secondyear and your prospect status is
gone and you have that rookie ofthe year under your belt and you
are the top rookie in yourclass, very high expectations,
hard to meet expectations goinginto year two.
We'll see if Kurtz can do it.
I don't know.
He mashes.
(16:10):
Like, there's a lot of things tolove about Nick Kurtz.
I just don't know if it's fairto expect for him to be like
come right back out the gatesand be an MVP candidate in year
two.
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
I'm rooting for it.
I just uh hit two Nick Kurtzoils in the last two weeks.
So after not having any for thelast year.
SPEAKER_03 (16:27):
It's weird, right?
Like uh ever since the 2026products have come out, I feel
like the Kurtz, um the Kurtz,what's the term I'm looking for?
I feel like Kurtz isn't as shinyanymore.
You know, he's not that shinynew toy anymore.
And he's just in his secondyear.
But now all of a sudden we'rethinking about Roman Anthony and
Keggs in the 26 class.
We're thinking about ConnorGriffin and what he's been doing
(16:49):
for his first Bowman prices andstuff like that.
Like Kurtz all of a sudden isnot the poster boy for the
hobby, where he was for the backhalf of pretty much all the 2025
products.
SPEAKER_01 (16:59):
Yeah, I agree.
It's definitely taking some ofthat off of it.
But yeah, there's only so muchattention and focus where the
hobby can go.
SPEAKER_04 (17:07):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (17:09):
But if Nick Kurtz has proven it, so if I had to
put my money somewhere, it's onNick Kurtz at the moment,
especially because ConnorGriffin's prices are absurd.
Um, and Nick Kurtz has provenit.
So if I were to say Nick Kurtzare one of those hot new
rookies, all things being equal,yeah, I'm still in on his hype
over the others.
SPEAKER_03 (17:29):
Watch out for those athletics, man.
They're coming.
They're coming.
I mean, Leo DeVries is next.
He's my pick to be the numberone prospect in baseball this
time next year.
So we'll see.
They got a lot of youngfirepower.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
The next thing I'm most excited to see.
I'm not excited for opening day,but the next 161 days I will be
excited for.
Paul Skeens is opening againstthe Mets.
Is it no, it is not going to beMcLean.
SPEAKER_04 (17:57):
Who is it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, that's that's fair.
SPEAKER_01 (18:04):
Skeens McLean would have been awesome.
But yeah, that's I understandwhy.
Yeah.
So he starts off with the rookieof the year.
Next year he gets the Cy Young.
What is in store for him thisyear?
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
Oh, I think he could win the MVP.
I think all it takes is an Otaniinjury, and all of a sudden,
Paul Skeens is right there inthe MVP race.
He looks absolutely electric.
He looked great in the WBCyesterday against Mexico.
He's only getting better.
He's built like a brick shithouse.
It doesn't look like he's goingto have any injury problems.
He's got that bulldog mentality.
(18:43):
He's got some of the nastieststuff in the game.
He posted a sub-2 ERA last year.
I think he does the same again.
I have no reason to think not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:52):
When was the last time a pitcher was this hyped
and actually has met theexpectations each year so far?
I know we're only two years in,but yeah, even like the last
time I can think of a pitcherbeing this hype was Strasbourg.
And obviously he was great,especially those first couple
years, but he wasn't winning aCy Young.
SPEAKER_03 (19:10):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
You know?
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
Maybe like a Tim Lindsacum.
You know, he came out and he wonback-to-back Cy Young's.
And but everybody kind of in theback of their mind was how long
can this last, this little 5'9,175 soaking wet guy with these
crazy mechanics.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yeah.
Yeah, they never thought TimLindsacum would go down as like
an all-time great.
And he's one of my all-timefavorite players ever, Tim
Lindsacum.
He was just so much fun towatch.
But yeah, Skeens, his hype andactually meeting it has been.
SPEAKER_03 (19:39):
Well, as a Mets fan too, like as I'm thinking about
these more recent super hypedpitching prospects, you know,
you had the big three, right?
You had Matt Harvey, Thor, andDeGrom.
And two of those guys definitelydid not live up to the hype.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Yeah, de Gram's been so awesome.
That that was the first coupleyears, though, when they were
living up to the hype.
The Dark Knight.
Like it was He was good.
He was my favorite of the three.
Yeah, he was so much fun.
And then, you know, let's notbring up 2015.
Let's move past that.
Because I would like to movepast it eventually.
SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Eventually, like you still go to bed and have
nightmares about it.
SPEAKER_01 (20:17):
I still I think I have this argument at work all
the time with a couple of otherMets fans.
I still think it was the rightmove to leave him in.
I know hindsight being what itis, it of course wasn't.
But at the time, that's yourace, that's the guy.
(20:37):
Yeah.
The mystique of Matt Harveythere.
SPEAKER_03 (20:39):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
And just what he did and how dominant he was, and how
he's like, I want the ball, Iwant to finish this.
It felt like his World Seriesmoment, and it of course, uh,
history did not go that way.
SPEAKER_03 (20:51):
Oh, we don't have to talk about that anymore.
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
No, no.
Yeah.
Let's put that in the showarchives, never be touched
again.
SPEAKER_03 (20:58):
Sore subject.
SPEAKER_01 (20:59):
All right.
Number two, I want to talk aboutthe defending, reigning,
back-to-back NVPs, Otani andJudge.
Are they going to continue tostay at the top of their game?
SPEAKER_03 (21:14):
Man, it's their awards to lose.
I think, you know.
It's hard to think that somebodycould, if if they stay healthy,
it's hard to imagine anybodyhaving a better season than them
in e in either league.
You know, Judge didn't even havea fully healthy year last year,
and Cal Raleigh ends up hitting60 bombs, has an unbelievable
(21:35):
year, doesn't even win MVP.
Otani didn't pitch most of theyear, the man still wins the
MVP.
Otani back healthy, pitchingagain.
There's no reason to think thathe's not the major front runner.
Same thing with Judge.
Like he's so far and away thebest hitter in the American
League.
I see no reason that thosethings are going to slow down
(21:56):
this year.
It's going to take an injury.
SPEAKER_01 (21:58):
So uh to bring this for Full circle back to the
hobby.
Of course, I'm assuming thisyear they're going to do the MVP
buyback program again.
Who do you think are some darkhorses?
Who do you think are some darkhorses to maybe dethrone them
that maybe people can chase forthe MVP buyback?
For those that don't know, Toppsis a program where$20 for a base
(22:19):
card out of Topps Chrome, theygive you$20 per base card if you
you can either send it back intosome places or you can go to
your LCS to trade it in and youget$20 credit.
Of course, Otani and Joach havedominated that.
Parallels get you more money.
Who are some of your dark horsecandidates for that?
SPEAKER_03 (22:38):
In the NL, I really like what I've been seeing from
Mookie Betts.
I think he's a guy that couldimmediately get right back into
that conversation, especiallyplaying in LA in that powerful
lineup.
He's going to put up some reallyscary counting numbers.
If he could stay healthy and ifOtani takes a step back, I could
see Muki immediately jumpinginto that conversation rather
quickly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:58):
I think that unless Otani gets hurt, if Muki even
has a great season, I thinkOtani's just gonna, no matter
what he does, he's gonna have tobe taking some votes away from
Muki.
That's what I think is gonnahappen.
So for Mookie to really havethat shot, I think Otani would
have to get hurt, which nobodywants to see.
I don't care what fan map orwhat team you are, nobody wants
to see that.
SPEAKER_03 (23:17):
Another guy in the NL, you know, that could
immediately, he's already shownshown the ability to put up MVP
numbers, although now it was afew years ago and early in his
career is Fernando Tatis Jr.
But in the WBC, he looks likehe's got a different kind of
energy.
Maybe that carries over into theMLB season.
That's also a really goodlineup.
I could see Tatis putting upsome gaudy numbers if he stays
(23:40):
healthy too.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
I would love that.
In the NL, the two guys I wantto see, which yes, I'm a homer,
so that's what you can say aboutthese two.
But they've proven that they canbe in that conversation.
Lindor and Soto, I think.
SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
Those guys too.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
Soto was top three in the voting.
Lindor two years ago, he wasright there as well.
SPEAKER_03 (24:04):
Well, especially if Soto steals uh 30 bags again.
Jeez.
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
It'll be interesting what that new lineup does for
them, too.
So we'll see how that works out.
On the AL side, give me thehomer pick.
Yeah, yeah, I'll give you ahomer pick.
Julio, right?
Yeah, that's that's what I wasthinking.
SPEAKER_03 (24:22):
All he's got to do is start the season hot.
Um, he's been right there.
You know, if you break it downjust by halves of the season,
he's he's been second half MVP acouple times already now.
He's just got to have a goodfirst half and not get too far
behind.
SPEAKER_01 (24:36):
Julio was my pick as my uh dark horse guys.
I I don't think any of theseguys are really dark horses.
It's just they're always in themix and with a league that has
Judge and Otani in it, you knowthat there's not much uh not
much you can do when you havegenerational guys like that.
SPEAKER_03 (24:54):
Totally.
Yeah.
I want to say Roman Anthony, buthis rookie rookie card prices
are already gonna be so highthat it's like I almost I don't
want him to win MVP becausethat's such a waste of a buyback
to have somebody whose cards arealready just on their own merit
pretty valuable.
It's more fun when you havesomebody come in and and win
(25:16):
that MVP buyback whose basecards wouldn't be valuable
otherwise.
SPEAKER_01 (25:21):
The only other guy is of course Bobby Witch you in
here.
Again, not a dark horse, butalways worth keeping an eye on
him, especially with all theseeyes on him for the world
baseball classic.
Even Skeens is loving it.
I don't know if you saw thoseand all the memes coming up of
him loving Witt over Olivia.
SPEAKER_03 (25:42):
Yeah, those are funny.
And Scoobyl, too.
Don't don't count out thepitchers.
I mean, he's in a contract here,and you know Detroit's gonna get
their money's worth with him inthe last year of team control
here, so you could see Scoobylput up some pretty, pretty crazy
numbers this year as well.
He's probably pitching pissedoff too, because a lot of
America doesn't like him verymuch for him bowing out of the
(26:04):
WBC.
SPEAKER_01 (26:05):
Yeah, I just, yeah.
I agree.
Um, all right.
And my number one thing to lookforward to this season, we've
already mentioned his name a fewtimes, Connor Griffin.
Everyone wants to see what thishype machine can do.
He is the rookie to watch thisyear.
First thing we want to know, youthink he makes the opening date
(26:27):
roster?
SPEAKER_03 (26:28):
I don't think he does.
I don't think he does.
I don't think he's put up thespring training numbers to uh to
merit that.
And I think they're gonna wannathey're gonna wanna bring him up
when he's really ready.
Start him out in triple A, lethim go off for a little bit, get
his confidence up, and thenbring him up.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
Yeah.
Yeah, I can see that.
Everyone is just so excited tosee him.
So what that means for us is arewe going to see him in series
two?
You think we'll have to wait forupdate?
SPEAKER_03 (26:56):
I feel like they're gonna put him in update.
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
You know what I love that they do?
They haven't done this for alittle while.
They did it back in the Julioand Wityear.
And uh Torkelson too, who's beenright.
Yeah.
Um, they they had their shortprints in series two.
And then there was the mess inTopps Chrome that year where
they forgot to put them in, eventhough they announced them and
had to do the silver packs.
(27:18):
But that would be really cool tosee.
I love those short prints, andI've been waiting for them to do
it again.
Of course, we'll have to seewhen he makes his debut.
I think the cutoff for update, Idon't know the cutoff for series
two.
Update, I believe, is June 1st.
I know that there's like a datein there.
SPEAKER_03 (27:37):
I think what it might end up happening is that
Griffin gets the kind of similarto a Paul Skeen's treatment
where like in Topps Chrome hegets a rookie auto, but he's
auto only.
And then his base, his first,you know, his flagship rookie
card ends up being an update.
SPEAKER_01 (27:51):
Yeah, I I think it I think series two is gonna be
tough.
But yeah, hopefully update.
And yeah, I just feel like Toppsdoesn't love to do that because
it really like crunches like theamount of cards that they can
get for such a hyped up playerbecause he's gonna sell boxes.
Him on his like like skiing soldboxes.
It's gonna be people hunting forhim unless something goes crazy,
(28:14):
you know, with his hype.
SPEAKER_03 (28:16):
You're gonna try to get him in as soon as they can.
SPEAKER_01 (28:18):
Yeah.
Next thing I want to talk aboutis what we want to see from the
2026 Topps hobby year, maybe alittle hobby wish list.
What new innovations would youlike to see out of Topps this
year?
SPEAKER_03 (28:32):
Well, I'd I'd like to see innovation.
You know, I think in 2025, whenit comes to Topps products, not
talking about Bowman, but whenit comes to Topps products,
rookies, veterans, legends,there hasn't been a whole lot of
innovation.
You know, back in 2022, you hadCosmic Chrome come around, which
was really awesome.
In 2024, you had the makeover ofTopps Black and White, which was
(28:55):
pretty awesome.
In 2025, I can't think of oneproduct that was materially
better than it's been inprevious years, or a brand new
product that was really goodvalue.
I think it's important for Toffsto continue to innovate and put
out some product like that wherecustomers can look at the
original sticker price and belike, oh, I finally get to win.
(29:16):
I get to have a positive returnrip at least one of these times
as I'm shelling out all thisdifferent cash for all these
different releases throughoutthe year.
So I'd like to see them dosomething a little bit new,
different, and value first andforemost.
We'll see.
SPEAKER_01 (29:33):
So I had this idea for new parallel, and you might
hate it.
I might just cut it from theepisode because it could be
terrible.
But I thought it'll be reallycool for something like Finest
or where you can get into likesome goofy ideas.
I'm about to say it out loud,and I feel like I don't like it
as much as I did.
Do it.
So I think like a chessparallel, like a more common,
(29:55):
like you have like you know howthey did like the Monopoly for
Panini?
So like chess, like you'll havelike pawns for like a more basic
one.
It kind of like the cosmic lineof planets where it gets rarer
as you go down the line.
A king would be a one-on-one,like queen, you'll have like out
of five or something, and thenall it doesn't even have to be
numbered, could just be SP.
(30:16):
I think it'll be cooler to juststand on its own like that.
But I feel like a chess pieceparallel would look really cool.
It could pop and it wouldactually make some sense.
SPEAKER_03 (30:23):
The planetary pursuit concept has been so
successful, you gotta think thatthey're gonna take that and try
to apply that in some other someother product.
And I hope that they do, right?
This concept of it's one line,the parallels aren't your
typical numbers, the parallelsaren't numbered, but they get
more rare, and there's you know,nine, ten different parallels.
(30:44):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (30:45):
So what do you think about my checkmate parallels?
SPEAKER_03 (30:47):
I'd be a buyer.
SPEAKER_01 (30:49):
It'll be fun to try to get the whole set too.
SPEAKER_03 (30:51):
We need somebody, yeah.
I'm trying to think.
Brent Rooker would be reallygood for that, right?
Rook.
Do we have a Hunter Bishop?
No, he can't quite make it.
There's got to be somebody else,though.
SPEAKER_01 (31:03):
Seaver King.
SPEAKER_03 (31:04):
Seaver King, yes.
Patrick Queen.
Nope, that's football.
SPEAKER_01 (31:09):
And yeah, I'm surprised we don't have a night.
But that that's my idea.
That is my small innovation ideathat I thought about.
So, not so much looking towardsthe future, but looking towards
the past a little bit.
What product would you like tosee them bring back?
SPEAKER_03 (31:23):
I thought 21 Rookie Cup was really good.
I would love to see them bringthat back.
Um, there's the ones that we'vetalked about ad nauseum already,
Stadium Club Chrome, bring itback.
That's a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_01 (31:36):
Rookie Cup, uh, I hit a one-on-one out of a
one-on-one auto, and I was sopsyched.
unknown (31:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:42):
Ended up not being so great.
SPEAKER_03 (31:43):
It was Evan White.
It was a great product, right?
Because it was niche.
There wasn't a lot of hypearound it.
The structure of the product wasgreat.
The price point was really goodfor the for the print run and
for the value of the cards thatwere.
SPEAKER_01 (31:58):
50 bucks, I think, right?
SPEAKER_03 (32:00):
Why not make one or two products like that every
year?
I was really disappointed not tosee anything like that come out
this year in tops.
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
They used to have, and it was one of my favorite
products was archive snapshots.
SPEAKER_04 (32:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:12):
That was$25 for a box, guaranteed auto.
A lot of old players and newplayers.
And I would always go all in.
I would buy up to the limit, andI would tell people, can you
order these for me so that I canhave some extra?
And I have hit some nice stuffout of that.
I hit a trout auto.
This is my first ever when Iwant to hit a Trent Grishom
(32:35):
Black Auto Redemption.
And there's a big uh Grishomcollector on on Twitter that I
that I was able to sell it toeventually.
But yeah, Archive Snapshots wasone of my favorites, and that
was the one that I hit theGriffey senior, and I was
thinking it was a junior.
Hit a nice Torkoal.
Oh, I hit those two uh bigdumper autos out of 10.
SPEAKER_03 (32:56):
That's right.
That's right.
Thank you for that.
So you're welcome.
One of the nicest racks I'veever gotten.
That's right.
SPEAKER_01 (33:03):
So I don't know if we've ever talked about that on
the show.
A couple years ago.
Was it a couple years ago?
No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04 (33:10):
It was, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:12):
When I first started breaking with uh Bert as uh
Grand Salami, I was like, allright, hit me a gold auto and I
will give you this card forfree.
Because he expressed heexpressed interest in a while
ago when he was looking for bigdumper cards, and I had two of
them.
They were two gold autos, bigdumper out of archive snapshots,
(33:33):
and it has like those cheesy2000s photo shoot, like school
photo shoot backgrounds of likelasers and stuff, and it was
hand numbered to 10 uh two.
And at the time it was like awhat a$40 card or something,
maybe he didn't hit me the goldauto or a gold card, but I said,
you know what, I'm just gonnasend it to you anyway.
(33:53):
So I sent it to him, and then ofcourse, big dumper becomes big
dumper.
SPEAKER_03 (33:59):
Well, you have another one, and you just got a
jam on it, right?
SPEAKER_01 (34:02):
Yeah, just got a PSA 10 on it.
Literally just got back thisweek.
So I'm very happy with that.
I'm still happy to have sentthat to you.
SPEAKER_03 (34:09):
That's good cardma right there.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
Yeah.
Well, who knew that uh a coupleyears down the line that we
would be starting a podcasttogether?
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04 (34:18):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (34:19):
One other thing I know you wanted to bring up for
the things that you wanted tosee brought back, Bowman
offshoots.
You want to talk about that alittle bit?
SPEAKER_03 (34:27):
Yeah, I mean, um, that's been a really interesting
thing to see in unfold sinceFanatics has taken over, is kind
of the reduction in the Bowmanoffshoot brands.
Because you know, thinking backto 2022, we had Sterling, we had
Best, we had Platinum, we hadInception, we had Transcendent.
(34:52):
There was tons of differentBowman offshoots.
Uh, and in 2025, we have justone of those remaining, and it's
Bowman's Best, which is great.
But at the same time, you gottathink Fanatics is thinking about
how they can they know how bigprospect cards are in baseball.
You gotta think that they're inthe lab trying to figure out
what to do next with prospects.
(35:13):
I'm very intrigued to see whatwe see in 2026 because I don't
think it's just gonna benothing.
I don't think they're justgonna, you know, continue to
roll with the three flagshipreleases and Bowman's Best.
Like they're gonna they'regonna, I don't know, maybe if
it's in a little bit more oflike the tops now.
I doubt it because minor leaguebaseball doesn't have very much
hype and people want to see thecards in their major league team
(35:36):
uniform, right?
Pro debut doesn't do all thatwell.
Um, so I don't know.
It'd be interesting to see.
SPEAKER_01 (35:42):
I feel like it could also have to do with the fact
that they ballooned the Bowmanproduct so much, print run wise
and auto-wise, because Bowmandraft now has the megas.
You have the delight boxes, sothat adds on so many extra autos
that these players, even ifthey're stickers, they still
have to sign them.
They don't have as many productsto spread it out against if
they're putting them all intothese.
SPEAKER_03 (36:13):
And I think by eliminating a lot of these
offship, offshoot Bowman brands,they've kind of that's been one
of their levers that they'vepulled to try to elevate those
case-hit SSPs and flagshipBowman, but it hasn't worked
that well.
SPEAKER_01 (36:26):
Well, it's worked on me.
I was changing those garbagepail kids like crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (36:33):
Yeah, the garbage pail kids were great.
I guess I just get stuck on thespotlight.
SPEAKER_01 (36:38):
Spotlight I love.
I love the final brand card.
SPEAKER_03 (36:51):
Really?
That's it for how rare that cardis?
And how premium of player JJ isright now?
Doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01 (36:59):
Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
I really got to stop chasingthose and just start buying them
in secondary.
That that's gotta be the move.
SPEAKER_03 (37:04):
Um like you have to figure out how I think they've
done a really good job, it seemslike, on the top's chrome
basketball space.
Maybe it's just like maybe it'sjust a collector thing.
Like basketball and footballguys just love those case hit
SSPs, and baseball don't.
Like we'd prefer a first BowmanAuto, and there's lots of
different parallels to chase ofthose.
SPEAKER_01 (37:24):
All right, so for our final segment, we will bring
back our buy-sell hold thisweek.
We have a prospect, a rookie,and a vet to go over.
We will start with our prospect,someone who is projected to make
the opening day roster, andhopefully we'll be able to see
him in series two.
Of the Mets, I am talking aboutCarson Benj.
(37:46):
How are we feeling about CarsonBench?
SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
I feel like I should ask you first.
I was reading today that he's100% locked to make the opening
day roster.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (37:55):
I mean, it seems like it's his spot to lose,
unless, you know, somethingstarts to play every day.
I I would like him to.
I feel like that's what you gotto do with these guys.
I don't like them sitting aroundand you know, just if you're
gonna make them sit every otherday or something, for me it's
just keep them in triple A.
If they're like a big prospectlike this, someone that you
(38:15):
should be high on.
I don't think it does them thatmuch good.
If you're gonna bring them tothe show, let him play.
SPEAKER_03 (38:22):
In that case, he's a sell for me.
I'm always an advocate for thecall-up sell pretty much on
anybody unless I'm extremelyhigh on that prospect.
I think back to Brett Beatty andhow fast his cards plummeted
once he debuted.
Gives me, you know, CarsonBench, probably a better
prospect than Brett Beatty, butnot by that much.
(38:42):
So being with the Mets, it justmakes me think about that
situation.
I'd probably sell.
His cards are are pretty highright now, you know.
Uh yeah, that's where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01 (38:53):
As a baby holder, I can't say you're wrong.
I still have my babies.
And I'm still holding out hopeon him.
But, you know, that that's a PCcard for me.
So that has nothing to do withbuy, sell, hold.
That's just stay in the PC.
Yeah, I I can't disagree.
It's just time to sell.
By the time this show comes out,maybe they would have already
(39:14):
announced him.
I don't think that they willuntil a little bit later.
But once they make that officialdesignation of him being on the
major league roster day one,that's when I would sell, if not
opening day, when people areseeing him, when you got so many
eyes on him, when you see PaulSkeen strike him out three
times.
Yeah, right.
So do it just before that,because he's up against Paul
(39:36):
Skeen's day one.
That's a tough ass for anyplayer, let alone someone making
their debut.
SPEAKER_03 (39:41):
Look for that debut.
I have a somewhat big CarsonBench card to sell.
Do you want to buy it from me?
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
Send it to me.
I doubt it.
I just said I'm a sell on him,but I don't have any really nice
ones.
I have uh some pro debut autos,which are nice.
SPEAKER_03 (39:55):
You know what it was actually?
I got this as a surprise fromTopps because we had uh the card
that I had was a Xavier Isaacout of 2023 Bowman, true first
Bowman Gold Auto.
And Xavier Isaac hasn't signedfor a long time.
Finally, I gave up on it, and Ijust pressed find me a
replacement, and they sent meback a Carson Benge Bowman's
(40:17):
Best Black Auto.
I thought it was a fine return.
I'm gonna sell it.
SPEAKER_01 (40:21):
I'll trade you a dumper out of 10.
SPEAKER_04 (40:25):
I'm gonna take that.
SPEAKER_01 (40:27):
All right, our next guy.
Honestly, I'm gonna let you leadon this one, really, because I
don't know that much, and I wantto hear what you have to say.
Samuel, Samuel Basal.
How are you feeling about SamuelBisayo this year?
That is our rookie that we'regonna talk about.
SPEAKER_03 (40:41):
Samuel Basayo is one of the best hitters, one of the
best hitting prospects inbaseball.
He came up last year and he hada tough, tough go of it.
He did not put up very goodnumbers and is limited at bats.
Obviously, Baltimore has AdleyRutschman at the catcher
position, but I think betweencatcher and DH, you're gonna see
Basayo get a ton of at-bats.
(41:01):
He's been a little bit banged upin spring training.
I know he had that scary momentbehind the dish where he got he
got hit pretty good and helooked like he went down pretty
hard.
But I think Bisao as a hitter isis still one of the best
prospects out there.
I think his prices have duckedafter his performance last year
and maybe some of the injuryscares in spring training to a
point where I feel like he's ahe's a very solid hold.
(41:24):
I wouldn't go as far as to saybye.
However, I do think we may lookback on these 2026 rookies and
think, wow, those Samuel Bisayopick your player spots were
pretty cheap.
In the same way that I thoughtabout Junior Caminero in 2024.
Like, wow, why is JuniorCaminero so much cheaper than
(41:45):
Ellie, Yamamoto, Chorillo,Langford?
Like I think we might be sayingthe same thing of why was Pasayo
so much cheaper than Keggs,Roman Anthony, Mizurawski.
SPEAKER_01 (41:59):
Okay, that's fair.
Hopefully he is that guy, andhopefully people can use this
and be able to actually applyit.
And if you ever do have anysuccess about our buy, sell hold
segments, we would love to hearabout it.
You know, just make us feelgood, have a little hobby W for
someone.
They're hard to come by.
So if you ever get one, we loveto hear.
The last one we're gonna talkabout is our veteran, not just a
(42:21):
veteran, he is the veteran.
We are going to talk about buy,seller, hold on Shohei Otani.
SPEAKER_03 (42:28):
We're finally doing Otani.
Wow, tough one.
SPEAKER_01 (42:31):
I'm gonna tell you where I'm at.
I am going to answer D, all ofthe above.
I don't think there's a wrongway to go.
Because every time, I think I'vesaid it like about once per
episode.
Every time you think his pricescan't go any higher, they just
keep going higher.
(42:52):
So if you want Otani now, youbetter buy.
If you want to sell, I can'tblame you because his prices are
absurd.
I can't understand they're goingany higher, but they keep doing
it.
And if you want to hold, youknow, he's one of the he is the
premier baseball player of thisgeneration right now.
It's something that can be aforever PC item.
(43:13):
Pass on to your kids.
Hopefully they can sell it.
But yeah, I am deep all theabove.
I don't care what you do withOtani, what you do with his
cards.
It's just you really, I don'tfeel like you can go wrong
selling, you're gonna make aton.
I sell and hold.
Yeah.
Yeah, I I know that advice doesnot help you that much.
But yeah, I just I can make anargument easily for all three of
(43:37):
them.
He is he is a unicorn in thegame and in the hobby world.
SPEAKER_03 (43:41):
I kind of agree with you, but maybe I'll go a little
bit, I'll go a little bit moremultifaceted in like I agree,
buy, sell, hold, but dependingon the card, right?
So I think it's buy cards thatas the years go by will remain
the most desirable cards.
I'm thinking.
About Bowman rookies, ToppsChrome rookies, high-end dynasty
(44:06):
things like that, you know,rookie cards, not third, fourth,
fifth year angel cards, stufflike that.
Go after the stuff that as theyears go by are going to be the
most sought-after cards.
I think right now is a reallygood time to sell a lot of your
other Otani cards, your baseinserts and your high-numbered
(44:30):
non-auto parallels and thingslike that, you know, third,
fourth, fifth, sixth year,seventh year, maybe not your
Dodgers first-year cards, butdefinitely like the second year
cards and on and on.
Like those cards are demanding apretty high price, especially in
a PSA 10.
I'd look at all those cards,look to grade them, offload
(44:50):
them, and keep the ones that youthink as the years go by will
remain in super high demand.
Because Otani cards are notscarce.
There are a ton, a ton of Otanicards in the last in his in his
career, right?
Like some of the numbers thatsome of his more common stuff is
(45:13):
doing to me seems a bitoutlandish at this point.
SPEAKER_04 (45:16):
It's absurd.
SPEAKER_03 (45:17):
I don't think they're gonna create even like
20, even you know, if he goesdown as the best baseball player
of all time, which a lot ofpeople have already anointed
him, like 50 years from now, Idon't think a lot of those base
cards are gonna be what theywhat they're going for today.
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
There's no way.
I agree with you there.
And actually, for fulltransparency, I am selling a
bunch of Otani cards right now.
I just got back a PSA order.
One of the cards that stood outto me in the price and the
absurdity of it.
I got a Bowman Chrome Sapphirebase, PSA 10 of Otani.
I was like, all right, that'scool.
That's a couple hundred dollarcard for Otani.
That's a lot of money, unlikeany other player that's not a
(45:53):
rookie.
The last sale was for over$800.
I am selling that card.
It is a base card.
Yes, it's Sapphire, it's apremier product, but over$800
for there's no rookie card thatdoes that for a base.
It's it's absurd.
So yeah, I'm selling that today.
I just sold a purple tops blackand white PSA 10 for$425.
(46:19):
$429.
That was the exact price.
Um, and yeah, it's just it'scrazy.
Like that, that is not a card 20years from now that it's gonna
stand out in any significantway.
And there are some cards thatare creeping along where all of
a sudden people just love thosecards.
The Otani flamethrower out offinest, that insert.
(46:40):
I actually got a PSA 9 on that.
I sold it for$195.
SPEAKER_03 (46:43):
The Aces out of 23 tops.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:45):
The Aces is a big one.
The Stadium Club out of like 23,or maybe it was 21 tops.
2020.
Stadium Club Chrome.
Yep.
So some of these cars they justpick up lights of their own.
So they do.
unknown (46:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:00):
Well, I mean, today was a great example.
We did a seven years of Bowman'sBest break, and we opened a case
of 2019 Bowman's Best.
I pulled a refractor, just abase refractor, and and Bowman's
Best refractors are very common.
It's only a hundred-playerchecklist, and there's a
refractor every box or everyevery pack.
And I'm sitting there like, oh,that's probably a decent card.
And Pack to the Future, whoworks for Blaze Online now and
(47:23):
is very sharp in in terms ofcards, comps, values.
He's like, that's probablythat's a$250 card in a PSA 10.
And I was like, no way.
And I, what do you know?
I looked it up and it was.
Can you believe that?
Second year money refract, justa base unnumbered refractor out
of Bowman's best in an angel'suniform.
SPEAKER_01 (47:44):
Like, I don't know.
So full transparency, I'mselling, but I can't blame you
for buying or holding.
You know, it's the reason whythese cars do so much is because
there's so much market movement.
There's so many people buyingand selling.
SPEAKER_03 (47:57):
And that's right.
There's that's a great point.
That's a really good way tothink about it, too.
Like across the years, there'sjust not gonna be as much
commotion as there is now inthis economy around Shohei.
SPEAKER_01 (48:11):
And then there's there always seems to be that
guy that you think is gonna endup being like that greatest of
all time, that goat.
Before Otani, everyone thoughtthat about Trout, and his cards
have really, really lowered fromwhere they were.
They've really taken a hit.
And he's still an all-time greatplayer to me and to most people.
(48:34):
Before that, I would sayprobably Albert Poohs.
I wasn't collecting cards aroundthe time where his market was
there, and it was a totallydifferent card landscape, I'm
sure.
But there always seems to bethat guy where right now you're
looking at that and you'resaying, I'm watching the
greatest player of all time.
And at the time it's really funto watch, but looking back 10
years later, like, oh, if onlythis happened, you know, if only
(48:55):
so and so, if only he didn't gethurt, if only the end of his
career didn't, you know, falloff at this point.
Otani again is unique in a lotof different ways.
So I don't see that affectinghim as much as interviewing as
well.
SPEAKER_03 (49:12):
Yeah.
If his career ended today, likehis cards all time would still
maintain quite a high value.
SPEAKER_01 (49:20):
Even if two-way players became a thing where you
start seeing it from otherplaces, I don't think we really
will, just because MLB has notbeen embracing it that way
still.
unknown (49:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (49:29):
But he's still gonna be known as like the innovator,
the one that really did itfirst, that set it off.
So I don't really see thataffecting things as much.
But yeah, you just you justnever know.
Because people, you know, evenfive years ago would have told
you trout cards are are justsomething to buy and his prices
are never going down.
(49:50):
That's just the point I wantedto make.
SPEAKER_04 (49:52):
Well said.
SPEAKER_01 (49:53):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,everyone, for listening to
another episode.
Bert, any uh anything else youwant to say?
SPEAKER_03 (50:01):
No.
Looking forward to Bowman's Besttomorrow.
Good luck.
I guess as we we post thisepisode, I hope everybody's
pulled some nice Bowman's Beststuff.
SPEAKER_01 (50:08):
Yes.
So, Brett, if you're listening,I know that you've said that you
listen.
I am in your break tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03 (50:16):
Connor Griffin Superfractor.
SPEAKER_01 (50:18):
No, not not his, not his.
Well, that's somewhere else.
I would like to see thatsomewhere else.
You know what if Brad pulls thatgood for him and good for.
SPEAKER_03 (50:24):
I'm in Red's break too.
I have Thomas White, so I'lltake a Thomas White Superfractor
auto.
SPEAKER_01 (50:29):
I have a Thomas White red auto, but it's the
insert.
The VIP.
Wow.
That's uh that's in my PSA pileright now.
About to go up.
Nice.
So I'm very much on that train.
How's that oblique doing?
Do we know?
SPEAKER_03 (50:45):
I hope it's going good.
SPEAKER_01 (50:48):
All right.
Well, I think that's enough fortonight.
Thank you so much, everyone.
Good night.
SPEAKER_03 (50:52):
Good night, everybody.
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