Adult Prices, Kid Culture: Where the Card Hobby Is Headed in 2026

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. 0.26. It's here. On, collector, nation, it's so funny there was a line that we were looking at, like, topics and stuff. It's a whole hobby's adult price, but sort of youth-driven. A lot of old guys that face a lot of decisions on assuming they know how it is and the world's changed quite a bit. So, if you come to collect your station, by the way, we're making this rule. If a train goes by, what customers in the store, 10% off, one item, if the train goes by while you're here? If a patchy, you think, is like, they're jersey, like, I would never see a jersey patch or going to be like, oh, that's their jersey, but it's not. If you're going to get a patchy, make a game horn. Collecting is much about the median entertainment as it is about collecting. We're going to collect some of these when we might sell some, but the active opening is much about the entertainment than anything else. Yeah, I do. And I guess if you got a one. 8% off. Hey, 10% off. You're here at collector's station. Yeah. There it is. Welcome to the collector nation podcast on the Radcast Network. From chasing grails to Colin Bluffs, we're going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hello, and happy new year here on collector nation here. The first week of January, if you've got those New Year's resolutions, I hope you've stuck with them. How many days we are into it? Do I know my good buddy here? He's also known as my son Hudson. Good to see you, buddy. Oh, yeah. Hey, hey, I can't. I got to bring the future stars here, you know, I need something to carry this thing. What's up, baby? Not much. Yeah. Happy New Year. Yeah. Happy New Year. It's 2026. It's here. 2026. I was a kid the year 2025 sounded like, you know, outer space futuristic. How does it feel to be, you know, 14 in 2026? I mean, when I was like speaking of what you said, like when I was like 2022, I was like 2026. Sounds so weird. Even though it's not that far off and now it's here and like, oh, wow. It is here. Yeah. And guess what? You still got to go to school. A few more years. Don't stop. You're almost there, though. Yeah. I remember kind of joking with you and you were like second or third grade. You got 13, 12 year, whatever it is, 10 more years. I don't know, not so much, buddy. Yeah. Let me get three more. Three. Yeah. After this, man, it flies by. I've got four boys, Hudson, strong, armed, amended, nah, he's, he didn't mind getting on the mic. No. Might have to take over the podcast for me one day when I'm unable to speak or talk or do anything. But we've had a good time collecting. I talked a lot about the four boys and I getting into it a little over probably 18 months ago, a year ago. Is that's been a whirlwind, dude? Yeah, no. Like, like, it started from like opening this at our table and now we're doing all podcasts. Did you think your dad, you know, did you think I was going to pull it off? I think I was going to do this once I started talking about it. Well, I think I know you can, but I wasn't sure if you're actually going to like do it. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool, huh? I know. Top 10 sports show. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. It's all it's nuts. Oh, yeah. You know, a million people could be listening to this at some time at some point in the archives. By the time it gets, you know, total plays like in the history, it'll probably millions like like 10 years from now. That's the thing about podcasts to kind of live forever, so I'll mess it up. I'm just kidding. I'm really making him feel comfortable. The, no, he's easy, easy. We've had a good time, so I've talked a little bit about it. If you're listening for the first time, you're going, all right, what's going on here? So I mean, my four boys kind of pulled me back into the hobby, I think accidentally a bit. Yeah. I don't know exactly. I was like, oh, he got into collecting like basketball cards. He's like, look at all these cards. His dad gave him a bunch of baseball cards and then like, oh, cool. And then like we would do a storm or like, was passing past, I was like, yo, you want to pass the facts? Okay. It was about the facts and $100,000 later and we opened a lot of packs over about six months. I mean, more hobby boxes, retail boxes, there wasn't a box. We didn't like. No, no. Some cards though, like some boxes have like loads of base cards in them. Oh, yeah. No, we're actually going to while we're talking. So if you're listening, you should be viewing. If you're viewing and you're in the car, you can listen. But we're going to open a few while we're talking in the midst of this. We're going to talk a few topics. So not going to be the, hey, what card do you like? We're going to try to keep kind of interesting. We'd always do a little bit of the business thing when I think it's, it's so funny. There was a line that is we were looking at like topics and stuff. It's a whole hobby is adult price, but sort of youth driven and a lot of old guys that base a lot of decisions on assuming they know how it is and the roles change quite a bit. But what hadn't changed is the fun of chase. So we're open to 2025 Don Russ football. Oh, yeah. What would you, is this the heaviest blaster box you're putting your hands on? I mean, there's a blaster. This, this I would understand like a hobby box, but 90 card. 90 cards. It's like a full set of cards on this like in the blaster. I wish I would feel this. This thing is heavy. Holy cow. There was a 90s group called the ace of base and this, this box is the ace of base. It's, it's got some was base in it. I think downtown, downtown on air would be awesome though. That would be crazy. I mean, let's be honest, that's what you're chasing. Yeah. So we're just going to kind of talk and rip at the same time. So we can, we can, we can walk and chew gum at the same time, that's for sure. First of every had a great holiday, wherever you are, whenever you're listening, I hope you got everything you wanted. We're here at collector station. And you can visit the, at the collector nation.com and then you'll see a button for collector station. So you can see stuff that we have in the store should be live by the time this goes. If it doesn't, and you get a under construction, you just wait, uh oh, we got our first hit. Yeah. First rookie TJ Sanders. Okay. Fence of tack over the bills. There we go. That's good. Good. We got Carson, West singer. Um, I really like some rookie from the two rated rookies in the Browns. We got, we read Rick and I think that they get, I mean, you think about me graphics. Yeah. There's like a gold card. I know. Like a, I think that's Michael Parsons. I do think we've, we opened some mega boxes. And his cab was uniform. Interesting. Okay. Haven't changed it yet. You know, he saw him. Hill James Conner. We'll travel the skills. We'll see. And then we got Caleb Johnson on the rookies card. It looks like it's gold, but it's just good. It's really good. The Steelers players always gets you. Yeah. Gold. One of a million. Yeah. Mike. Yeah. Yeah. And Theo Johnson. Oh, Theo. Josh Hans Allen. Jaguars. Nice. Hudson's Jaguars fan. We're all Jaguars. Yeah. San LaPorta. Other Jags gave Davis. Davis. And NFL reporter. You get enough base cards there to, I don't know, make it hold, you know, kids school. If there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 trees. There's 12, like non-rokey bases in a pack. How many? Hey, if you're set collecting, if you're, if you're in a putting sets together, which I don't know if kids, the kids still do that, not really, but these two are like, what's old Monday? I see a bunch of old men putting together at shows. Yeah. But if you are, blasters are where you want to go. Yeah. You're going to be able to put a whole set together in three blasters. Leave out every base card you need. So, yeah. For the good blasters. Great for collecting, getting on the cards, but it's a chase and hits on the way to go. Unless you're lucky. Hudson, we ripped a lot of cards. And I think I know what you're going to answer. But. Yeah. And we've got a lot of, we've almost started a card shop with what we ripped last year. Yeah. Somebody we root. Yeah. Yeah. What's the best card you remember pulling pulling pulling pulling? Gosh, we've opened so much maybe me that like you. I know. Okay. So last year, this was like, really late at night, we were just ripping like tops, finest, like one of those. Yeah. Boxes and I pulled a. Bonyx rookie. signatures out of 50 autographs from Boonex. It was unlicensed though because it was tops. Yeah. Only if it was licensed, but it still I get the time, like five or six hundred dollars, I think. Yeah. It was up there. I think we sold it around three or four. Yeah, three or four. We didn't have much affinity to him. I'm going through my pack here. I mean, I bet it's up the red. Jonathan Mingo on the red press proof behind it is Jaden Higgins. He's been in every pack of 25 open. Jaden Higgins. I don't know why. And is that just, you see that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. All he control is pretty bad on these. All press proofs. It's always terrible. Green and reds are terrible. You can see every white speck. I wish I could see that. But yeah, Jaden Higgins ready to rookie. Yeah. Josiah Stewart never heard of him. I'm sure he's a great player. Yeah, on the Rams. I'm on space. It's not going to go all the way over to play where you just know that we've got half a set put together now. And there you have it. Yep. Holy. Your pack was better than mine. But yeah, cool. I mean, you gotta. This is a game of rummy. I mean, like, yeah. I don't know what to do with all that heavy. Oh, wow. Motorcycle is going by. Adding to the effects here. That's why it is. Collect your station. Would you have a train? Yeah. Train tracks right there as part of the ambiance. So if you come to collect your station, by the way, we're making this rule. I don't know if you heard this Hudson. If a train goes by, well, customers in the store, 10% off one item. Ooh. If the train goes by while you're here. So there you have. We are building out the store. Hey, this look a pretty good stock over there. Yeah. So lots of cards. And and some on and some are open cards. Yeah, lots. We got pretty good. I mean, yeah, I started to look a story here. I say you're going to be experienced. So when you, if you come to collect your station, be ready for a camera to turn on. We're going to be listening to like porn stars and be like, Hey, especially if you come to make a deal and turn that baby on, it's going on YouTube. Oh, yeah. So be ready. I'm ready to make some deals by sell trade, baby. Oh, yeah. Yep. Um, so let's talk about this. Put this down. You really like the first generation that never knew what it really used to be like because you've grown up at a different time table. It's like you all grew up with all those vintage baseball and all that, all that cool stuff. And then now ours, we grew up with the modern, all that. So yeah. So there's a gap between what adults collect and what kids care about. I mean, would you, do you agree that you've been doing enough shows now and walked around? Do you see that? Yeah. Like the older people that used to be collected for years and years, you go to their table to have like some modern, but it's a lot of it. Most of the time, it's vintage cars that they've been collecting forever. And then if you go to like, I don't know, younger people, younger booths, you'll have more modern cars there. And yeah. What are, what are kids actually, you know, we had, we did a video about PSA and the perspective there. I mean, what cards are kids flexing versus maybe what's valuable or are they one in the same? I feel like it's a lot of it is the same, but sometimes it's like, like, I would say like downtowns and cabooms are like the moon, but like they're expensive and they're cool. And it's kind of like the flex, the SSP to set. But then some cars like, I would say, I don't know, like stain glass, like, it's like not like, caboom, downhand level, but it's still like SSB. And I think that's, it's really cool car and like, show it off too. Yeah. It's still an SSB. I think I got a thick one. Uh-oh. I'm on a men's car to order. I'm on a good Anderson take on Barclay. So we got green, Michael. Hey, Jackson dark, rookie, rookie. Not the patch though. Cool. And we got when yours. Hey, he started quarterbacks starting. Yep. For And I think this is it. Yep. We got tuba hovered on the patch car. Nice. Two great rookies. And a little little little tuba. Yeah. I'd be not sure about tuba, tuba hovered. Nice. Yeah. So all these would be for sale on collector nation, the collector nation.com under collector station. Anything that's a value that we pull while we're sitting here. Yeah. Um, yeah. I would say we make these like, I know that they can't make them all game more. Yeah, out of this be game more. No, let's just call it. Yeah. This is, uh, hey, your daddy owns the Radcast. We speak our mind. You say what you mean, mean what you say. So let's just say it. Say it. Say it the way you want to say it. I wish. If you're going to do a patch, it should be game. Because like, if a patch you think is like, they're jersey. Like I've never seen a jersey patch. You're going to be like, oh, that's their jersey, but it's not. It's just all tending the barely is not from a specific game or event, which is it was, it was what I think of as basically, they just grab it. Because otherwise, why does it matter? It was, it was not the, what's the point? Oh, it's a piece of cloth in the card. If it's not game one, what I think of is like, they go to up to this cost cut of square out and just glued in a card just to make it just so they can have your guarantee to cool, you know, patch card, but it's really not that much. Like some of them are really cool, but just the blue though. Yeah. If you're going to do patches, make them game more or at least player warner player, it was definitively the players jersey or something like not just, I don't know, some random extra cloth they had in the fact that may or may not have ever seen a jersey. Yeah, that's what yeah. Two rookies here, Savion Williams and Devon Neal. I'm sure they're great players, but again, have you heard of those guys? No, and we watch a lot of football. Yeah. So, but I will say who I've heard of, Travis ETM base, and you're definitely going to have heard all this base is like following off. I have nowhere to put it. I mean, look, I was trash on the day of over. It's crazy. 22 have done a lot of stuff. If you want to open a lot of stuff, if you want a lot of cards, if you enjoy a lot of cards, this is the box to get. Yeah. But I will say, I do think they did a good job with this particular, um, what do you call it parallel or I don't know, the look. Travis Hunter bomb squad. That's one year's looking. Yeah, this year's bomb squad. A little bit Joel and our team and editing can probably zoom that in a bit. Um, nice card. I like this. Jaguars. He's my, my God. Unfortunately, he's out of the rest of season. I'd say that's my favorite card we've got yet. Yeah, that's, I mean, I think it looks better than last year's. I do too. Some of the cards though, I actually look like an SSP to it. Yeah. If they if that had some, um, like gold, yeah, gold accents, shimmer, little, little hollow effect, you they can make that an SSP. Yeah, that's really cool. I might have to, you know, take that time and make something with it. Yeah. Um, that'd be cool. There we go. Lots of bass though. Yeah. So, uh, other, you've been international. We went to fanatics fast. We're going to be doing both again this year, by the way. Oh, cool. Um, which one did you like better? So cards wise, I think I prefer the national just because it's, that's the main thing is national trading card convention. But the fanatics fest, the like, I don't know how to say it, but like the experience there, I think it was better because there was more than just cars. There's a lot of other stuff that you could do, but still the cards are cool. I saw like a $300,000 let me name all one of one crazy rookie card. So if you only could do one, oh, that's hard. I mean, I'd probably choose the national again, just because I think there were a lot more selection of cards. And that's kind of what we went for. Yeah. Like, ten of fanatics, that was just cards. And I think cards in general, I would rather be in a space with more cards and more like attractions and all that. I mean, it was a sea of cards. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was like a fire hose. It's high your phone, which is like, I was like, oh, my God. You almost didn't know where to go. And it was good. He's like walls built up in their booths that had cards laid on. But it really is like, if you're into cards and collecting, it's like the greatest candy store of all time. Yeah, it's great. You never, that never and some people sell more than just cards. Like, some people sell like comic books. I've seen like a ton of stuff. And last year, actually, I bought from this guy, he sells those like card stuff, PSA, as you see, all those card like rubber sleeves around it, which I bought some of those were pretty cool. Thought to me about, we got one more package that one more each. Yeah. Um, breaking and whatnot and, you know, live selling. That's something that absolutely was is new to this generation. Yeah. And it's changed the whole game. Yeah. These guys, it's like for all the biggest hits you need to come from. You know, when we got into it, it was all about ripping and hanging out family time, having fun. Then we can, you know, it's we started collecting. We started doing the breaking thing. We did some our own. Yeah. And then but we watched a lot. You guys got it and buying it. But you guys are kind of falling a little out of that. Yeah. So talk, maybe on two sides, one overall, what you think about it now sitting here. And then why you think you've kind of coming on with it. So like when I first came to the like we got into the hobby, I figured out about what not. And I was like, Oh, cool. It's like a face you can watch people like buy cards online. And I was like, cool. It's a great place to start. If you're not like a lot of trying to try to say is you don't a lot of the hobby now, it doesn't start with like going to like a card shop or going in person. You can like start like like online without even going anywhere. You're watching them come through. You can generally know if they're decent value, you can bomb lower high. Speaking on that, the reason like that I have kind of like not used it as much as I think it was a great starting thing to get a bunch like starting cards and all that. But now that I've kind of got my collection build up a little bit, I kind of like, okay, it's cool still, but I probably won't go over there and buy it just because like shipping prices and all that just I would rather come to like a store in person or something. Yeah. It was a good way to enter in. Yeah. And then now, you know, we're the experience. And I think I here's what surprised me. You know, we watched it. Maybe it's just the way things kind of come and go to come back around. I probably watched more than you guys do now. Yeah. Like as far as like, you know, Pac-Man or Kyle shout out to King of cards. Yeah. He's been great. Oh yeah. And the watching people open either open packs or doing deals and being at shows. You guys, I'd see y'all on your phones. That's all you watch. Yeah. We have it on the TV. Yeah. Seems like it kind of comes and goes now. It's just like one of those interest things like you might come back around right now. I understand the other things. I think that's probably what it is because when we first started collecting, we were like, all we did was kind of watch this stuff. And then like, now that we're kind of in like transition from like, really collecting more and then kind of building a space for the car job and everything is kind of slowed down. But I think once everything's like come together and like, car jobs finished, I rise collecting again. I think it'll come back. Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. Um, it better get around and be here all along. But it's, it's interesting. And I think it's like we're collecting, you know, is, is much about the median entertainment as it is about collecting. Yeah. You know, like a lot of people like over people, like they're collecting a player. Yeah. And it's like, how can I keep this archive of all this stuff? And then, you know, you've got stuff that you might keep forever. But like, it's as much about the entertainment factor. Same thing with like rhythm packs. Like we're sitting here doing this because it's entertaining. Yeah. And yeah, we're going to collect some of these when we might sell some. Yeah. But the active opening is, is is much about the entertainment than anything else. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's fun to collect cards, but like, where you're getting those cards is opening packs and doing all that. That's kind of where the fun is. Yeah. But it's also fun to like buy some trade. That's fun to just like, yeah. That's why I liked it because teaching you guys like, buy low sell high, you know, when I can't, you make a little money here. Yeah. You guys walk around shows, walked out more money than I had. I know. Like, wait a second. Maybe you get it figured out, walking around. Lots of bass here. I don't even see any pearls. I see nothing. Really? Let's see here. Ryan Thomas Jr. though. Russell Wilson. Josh Simmons on the rookie. Hey, take me on the front. Hey, good time. Hot season. Yep. Will Howard. Feeling hurts and drew blood. So, uh, Mark Burnell, Bucky Irving. Hello. Hello. Woffe. Demi. Okay. I spoke too soon. Red Hot Ricky. You know, that is. Hello, Femi. Oh, yeah. I don't know how to pronounce this name. Yeah. I don't want to beat it up. Amika Ibu Ibuca is hard enough. Golden Tate. He's had a big year for Tampa. Oh, yeah, Magba. Ibuca. Yeah. Yeah. Golden Tate. They're cool looking. They're pretty good with their serious need. Auntie David. Oh, Will Howard on the on the rookie. I don't know. Those look good. The great. These are my favorite. Yeah. It's got a little tag. We've got a Jackson Dart like a canvas one. Yeah. There we go. I'm not going to insert. Got Justin Jefferson, EJ Speed, Luke Musgrave, and Kendra Miller. No downtowns. We did get the Red Hot rookie. The greener. Probably that is the hottest. He's probably when Ricky the year in the own offense. He's up there. The rest of them. Yeah, I think we did get. Got rookies, bomb squad, Red Hot rookies, and then the gridiron games. Jackson Dart on the base. So 2025 Don Russ football. Blaster. We've already opened a mega box. Those are fun. A lot more hits. You get the optic previews too. Yeah. One to ten. What do you give the Don Russ Blaster? Considering all Blasters? Like Blasters? Not compared to like the mega. All Blasters, I would give it seven. I enjoy Don Russ a lot. It's kind of good. Yeah. Seven is the right number. Yeah. So much base though. Yeah. If they had put more hits, like obviously you can't put as too many hits because then you probably have to raise the price of the box. But like if there were more hits and maybe less common cards, that would be higher up in the scale. Yeah. So if it executive from tops was listening, they've got all the licenses. What would you tell them to do from a 14-year-old's perspective? To do or not to do? Would you tell them, you know, you and I have had this discussion and I've talked about them so everything's gotten real expensive. Oh, yeah. I mean, and you know, the average kid isn't can't afford a hobby box. Yeah. And then I could save up for it, get for, you know, one for birthday or something. And we've opened some together because your dad's been investing and doing things. But like, it's not something you're going to buy in a hobby box. No. But at the same time, you probably wouldn't get excited about the cards if they didn't have the potential of the value. Yeah. It's like the slippery slippery. I get it. Yeah. So it's like, if I told you you could get hobby boxes for a hundred bucks, but the highest value card in there is a hundred dollars possible. Like, it's like, I don't know where the balance is. Yeah, because like, some people like, I like collecting because it's fun, but some people will do it to make money, which is kind of hard and like flipping cards and like all that. But if ever, I mean, I would not be buying that because your ceiling is a hundred dollars when you pay to a hundred dollars. Yeah. It's like the best. And it might be more than that. But you know, I mean, relatively, but it's ceiling on like, even this, if we pulled the hottest rookie downtown, I think they're like two grand right now. Yeah. I don't know why there's so much higher than last year, but they are this year. So two grand, I mean, yeah. And that's a $25, $30 box. You got that upside. And I guess if you got a one 8% off, hey, 10% off. You're here at Clevver Station. There it is. The train rolling in. Hey, it's on brand, though. Yeah. So I don't know, but either you tell Topstrip what they should or shouldn't do. Topstrip. Now they get all the licenses for the most popular sports. I would say like, show off that license. Like, make the players have their all the legos showing, like, kind of use that to your advantage. Like, Penini's going to start trying to hide all the, like, have the photos on the cards that's trying to like, obviously you can't, you won't be able to see it, but try like make it look like it's still there. But I want like Topst to like, really get the logos in there. I don't know. Yeah. Just show them off. Do you think, uh, I think they got to get busy. And we'll see, it's been weird because there's been no Topst Unlicensed football out. Yeah. This year, last year they had it out. They decided not to even make it. Oh, wow. So next year. Oh, cool. So the first football will be interesting. I think, you know, they need to make some inserts. Like, you got to, with no cabooms and no downtowns are licensed. Yeah. I want to see some cool larps, like SSP stuff. Yeah. Like, again, stained glass. Like, those are really cool. Yeah. It's all creative. Yeah. And I mean, I know, I mean, they have some stuff, but I'm, but, you know, like, all the egos kind of like, yeah, you know, I know it's valuable, but yeah, I don't know. And I know it's like, familiarity breeds, you know, you know, downtown. So you like downtown. But I need to get wild by something. Yeah. You know, like, wow, that is cool. Cool idea. And do you think if they don't come up with much stuff, like we see that there's not a lot, she think more people will still stay to Penini or they go back where they stay. It's going to be interesting. I, you know, I have, I've heard a lot of breakers, like, even a lot of people go, well, here's the first and the last by Penini. They have made it sound like Penini's going away and not going to make unlicensed. Yeah. I haven't heard or seen any announcement that they are or aren't. Yeah. And I would assume that they would be. Yeah. They've been making baseball. Yeah. It's crappy as it is. Yeah. Unlicensed, you know, I mean, I got to think they're not going to bail it on football. No, I don't think they'll do unlicensed in. I don't know. We'll see what they got up to slew. Because if there was no money in making baseball cards, they probably wouldn't keep doing it. But there's something like football. Thanks. Thanks. They're, I think it's their highest revenue. Yeah. Like next to basketball. I think stopping is very smart. I think they would keep going. Yeah. It would just be interesting how the yeah, because it plays out. Look, I mean, they almost feel like they barely see his logo. I know they, and look at Will Howard. Yeah. Almost feel like they were practicing. Yeah, they're practicing. They're practicing for like next year because that's, those could be unlicensed. Yeah. He's getting rid of the Nike and the New York. Yeah. I almost feel like they're teasing a little bit so that next, so there's not this big disconnect next year. Like they'll be like, it's kind of like a fading in. Yeah. Like you're still showing it, but you're not having it as much. Yeah. It's like, maybe it's not like a jump from like next year. Yeah. It's kind of like, no, no, no. All over. Exactly. Like fading in. I think they might be, but yeah, just so they don't look at what the unlicensed or if they come out with it, yes, we'll see. Any final thoughts? No, I think we're good. All right, man. Appreciate you coming on. Hey guys, you never find us. Yeah. ThecollectorNation.com. You'll see this on social media. You see the boys on my social at Ryan Allford whenever I can strong on them into being in the videos. No, more time. Yeah. As I play in sports, you know, doing all that homework. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. You know, but yeah, it's going to be fun. We're excited and we'll different episode here with Hudson talking what it's like from the 14 year old perspective as we bring collector station to life. Yeah. It's been fun. I'm excited to see how it's going to end up. Exactly. So you know, to find us, we appreciate you for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Thanks for tuning into the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at collectorNation.com or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Allford. Now get out there and collect yours.