Aug 5, 2026
The National Was Bigger and Better Than Ever
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Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses. Setup required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18. If you are grading a card with PSA and you're doing Zebra express, mail it into PSA 10 to 15 business days for 350 bucks. That's three weeks. I paid $400 and got basically same day turnaround. After a week off, we are back. We just got back from the national. Trent, how's it going today? I'm good. I'm slowly getting back into that. Like I actually feel alive when I wake up versus the past week of just being Zebra exhausted every day. But oh man, what a trip. What a month with, you know, Fanatics fest with the national. Like I'm very much so looking forward to this month being a little bit more relaxed and chill and. Are you going Vegas, is it? Yu-Gi-Oh So I'll be going to the Vegas card show here in about a week and a half. Maniac Trenches. The grind never stops. Well, no, so, so for, for the listeners, I know you know this, but this is my last week in the Air Force. I separate from active duty on Friday. And so my wife and I like the job that I have lined up afterwards. I don't have a start date for it yet, so expecting it to be a couple weeks. So my wife and I said, hey, like we haven't taken a vacation since our honeymoon. Let's go out to California. Let's you know, go see a buddy out there and do some stuff. And we're driving. And I was like, well this lines up Perfectly with the front row card show in Las Vegas, so why not stop in? So, Yu-Gi-Oh three card shows in the span of a month. It's big card shows too. It's not just like, oh, Yu-Gi-Oh like your little rinky dink hotel ballroom, 100 card, 100 tables. Like, no, big boy. Yu-Gi-Oh these are big boy, big boy shows. And, and like, that's the thing is I was talking to somebody the other day and I was like, man, the national, like a phrase that we use in the Air Force to describe like basic training and stuff is like, it's the most fun you never want to have again. But for this, it's like, it's the most fun I want to have again in like a couple weeks. Like, give me a couple weeks and then I'll have the energy back. Yu-Gi-Oh give me a little bit and then I will. Then we'll be. We'll be good there. Yu-Gi-Oh exactly. Speaking of leaving jobs, Mrs. Clever Cuban, my wife left her job, got a new job, which is exciting. We'll open the door to some new expansions, possibilities, etc. That we'll get to talk about a little more about once things are a little bit more solidified on us in a timeline. But definitely it was a big week last week. Yu-Gi-Oh it was. I mean, every day. I mean, it was pretty much a week straight of nothing but cards from before the sun rises and deep into the nights at trade nights. So what were your general thoughts on the national this year? Yu-Gi-Oh so general, before I give my general thoughts, giving the audience a little bit of a forewarning today, Trent and I, we're just doing this off the cuff. We just said we're doing a national show. Oh. We have no outline, no plan. We're doing it live. National was incredible. It was. It blew away my expectations. I knew having the content booth where you were going to have cards out, be able to kind of film deals, trades, buy sells, all that was going to be really, really cool. I didn't expect it to be like, I knew the national was going to be crazy busy. I knew that it was going to set new attendance records. They haven't put out a number yet, have they? No, I haven't seen anything. But I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh no joke that the hobby is dying and nobody actually went to the national. Psych. There was a bazillion people there. Yu-Gi-Oh it is crazy the amount of people there were. For me, it was really like Wednesday, Thursday, where I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh Because those crowds were what I expected on like Friday, Saturday. Yu-Gi-Oh me too. Because you. I mean, Wednesday was effectively, you know, a half day. Right. And when I tell you just walking to go to the bathroom, it's like, oh, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Like, there's, there's lines everywhere. There's. Trent, you were able to leave the table to use the bathroom? Yu-Gi-Oh maybe once or twice. But there were a couple of days, truly, where I was saying to my wife that, like, it got to like, 1:30. And I was like, huh, I'm kind of hungry. And I'm like, oh, it's 1:30. And then I got. This is when we eat. Yes. And then it got to like five o' clock. And I was like, oh, I haven't used the bathroom since, like, 7:15 this morning. Cool. Yu-Gi-Oh When I tell you, like, just looking down at my watch and it's that same reaction of, oh, my gosh, it's 3:00 in the afternoon. We've been going at this for eight hours already. Yu-Gi-Oh And as I said, I had. You asked me before, you know, we talked about it. I knew it was going to be busy. I don't think that I could have anticipated or prepared for how busy it was. Like, I thought, oh, I'm bringing plenty of inventory. I barely had enough inventory by the end of the show. The cases were not full. I did bring enough cash, but I brought enough cash mostly because I bought a ton of stuff, but I also sold a ton of stuff. Like, I, I netted positive a little bit, but not like an insane amount because I bought so much and I sold so much. Obviously I needed to bring the money with me because I. There were times where I was up a lot and times where I was down a lot. But, I mean, it's. It was a true marathon of a weekend. I think they did a great job. It's. I'm always impressed with the general, like, crowd control, security, this and that. That, like. Yes. Is it crazy busy? Is it Beckett Absolutely. But with all of that money and all those cards and all those things, I didn't see any issues happen this weekend in terms of, you know, people talking about getting, you know, robbed, leaving the show or, you know, problems of that nature. There were some instances, like, I'm sure you saw the video of the guys that opened somebody's case and took out a Mahomes. Was it. Yes, it was a gold. It was a 20, Topps. Chrome SP, the variation of Patrick Mahomes. Like, I know that it's been talked about a lot. We don't need to get deep into it. But I even posted on my story and I said, like, Yu-Gi-Oh way to set an example for the young man. Because, like, I mean, brazen. Opening a case, taking a card out and walking away. Like, I hope that that guy gets caught. I haven't seen any updates, but, I mean, his face is plastered over the Internet right now. So I'm hoping, Yu-Gi-Oh he's held accountable. You can see the, like, two brain cells moving in his head when he does it. He opens it up, he pulls it out, and then he waits, sees if anybody saw him. Because I guarantee you that had somebody turned around and said, hey, what are you doing? There he goes. Oh, I just. You guys are busy. I just want to look at this car. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm curious how many times he did that over the weekend. I know. Yu-Gi-Oh Because that's the only time that's really been circulated. But usually in situations like this, it's not the first time that somebody's done something like this. So fingers crossed. Like I said, he gets held accountable for his actions, and hopefully the young man who was with him learns to not do those things because you can go flip cards and make money and then just buy that car. It's not Dad's head into the slammer. Yu-Gi-Oh Lock them up. Yu-Gi-Oh but I thought it was incredible show. Can't wait for next year. I think we're going to have any. From everything that I've heard, bigger and better. I mean, it seems like every year the national gets bigger and better, so. So you brought up something. What was that? Yu-Gi-Oh you. You brought up something really quick that I. I have to give a positive shout out. Yu-Gi-Oh Did you see cosmc's video that he posted yesterday about national security? Yes. That badge. Badge. Where's your wristband, dude? That had me laughing out loud. I was like. And I showed my wife. I'm like, this is. This is kind of accurate because, I mean, even getting into trade nights, it's like, hey, sports cards nonsense is sponsoring this trade night. And they're like, no, you can't get in. I'm like, I'm wearing the shirt. I have the badge. See my name? What do you want? We are literally a corporate spot. Nope, sorry. Can't get in. But to that point of the security and all this and that they had a job to do and they did it. Yes. I'm curious on. Now, you said you. You stayed at Trade Net a little longer than I did. Yu-Gi-Oh How was your trade Net experience? Awesome. And equally terrible. Same way. Let me explain. It was awesome. Because it was another card show. I mean, it was another full fledged card show where people are sitting on the ground with cards laid out. There are people in every single table. But at the same time, having that opportunity to see hundreds and hundreds of cards, you're also stovepiped into like, oh, I can't walk this way because there are 12 people with cards laid out right here. Like, you had to navigate through the maze and, like, walking around and carrying it. For me, I've got that large pelican case that I roll with me. I'm like, the space isn't wide enough for me to get through here. So that's why I say it wasn't terrible. It was just inconvenient, I should say. Well, I think that it's a problem, and I don't know what the national solution is, given the space. And I think that trade night has grown to be bigger and bigger and bigger every single year. The demand for trade night grows. And a lot of the hotels were cracking down on, you know, these massive impromptu trade nights that, like, I'm sure there were a lot of people who now were dead set on doing trade night because they Goldin go to the Hyatt lobby. Yu-Gi-Oh And I understand there was a. We didn't have a podcast last week. Things were just too busy with the national, but we would have talked about it. I both understand the disappointment because it was such a fun, impromptu thing that just like, felt so organic hobby. Just that, like, everybody's here, Go down to the lobby, hang out, see what people have for cards. But I also understand it from the hotel's perspective of you have realistically millions of dollars in cash sitting in your lobby. You have millions of dollars in cards. You. And it's, it's a, you know, it's a safety question. Yu-Gi-Oh they. They probably would have needed to hire security and, you know, to some extent, crowd control. And I understand them being like, that's not what we're here for. If you're staying at the hotel and you want to come and chat with your friends in the lobby, that's fine. But laying everything out and, you know, doing all these big deals, I get it. But I think that that also contributed to the growth in trade night. But where can they put more trade Night? I don't know. So I actually did a little bit of just thinking about it, and I have an idea in case the national folks are listening. I mean, there's a gigantic section for autographs. Why don't they just take down the walls that are there and turn that space into the trade night space. Because obviously at, you know, 9:00pm, 8, 9:00pm, all the athletes who are signing have already left. So, I mean, if they just keep the tables in place and just take down those walls. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I feel like that gives plenty of space for. And it's still in the same convention center where folks don't have to go Zebra far or they just add that as another section. It's just an idea, but I get it. The logistics behind it are pretty difficult to really hammer down, but it's an idea. Yu-Gi-Oh And I mean, I don't know what the logistics also could be. Where the VIP room is, there's another, like, on the bottom Fleer as well. Below that. There's also, to some extent, rooms, like, rooms like, I know in 2023, I think it was. Yu-Gi-Oh the VIP room was down there, like downstairs on the first Fleer It was way smaller. Like, way, way smaller. But, like, there might be. I wonder if there's more space in the convention center that they could tap into to some extent because the demand is there. I know a lot of people like the trade nights because they feel like they're able to get better prices on cards. I know neither of us were really able to walk the Fleer a ton this year. What was your take on dealer, vendor pricing, et cetera? Yu-Gi-Oh so it actually happened at one moment in the show. So you were there for it. I Beckett up a 54 Jackie Robinson that I was like, oh, this is a really good looking card. I tossed a sticker on it at what I would be willing to take for. I think it was going for around 800 bucks. Right. I stickered it for, I think, 820. And I said, you know, hey, I'm happy making 20 bucks. Put it in the case. It's gone in less than 30 minutes. And immediately, like, I have that seller's remorse. But I mean, obviously, like, I went into it and I. You're putting it in your case. It's for sale. I sold it and I go, well, I kind of want to pick up another 54 Jackie Robinson. I was walking the Fleer and I saw somebody who had one in the same exact grade. And it was. I. It wasn't stickered. So I said, hey, like, how much are you asking on this 54 Robinson here? And the guy, no kidding, goes, $3,000. What grade was it again? It was a 3.5. I know. And I was like, I mean, that's too high, right? I'm like, look, I get it. If you say a thousand, you know, I 20% bump. Okay, fine, like, and then I can, you know, offer at the comp and buy it. Yu-Gi-Oh totally fine. But when you were asking literally 3x like it's. You can't expect to make a deal, you really can. Yu-Gi-Oh I, we were talking a little bit last night during my live stream where I was selling some of my singles from the national that I got about how a lot of dealers and you hear it every year, one that a lot of dealers prices are high, but also too that there's so many people and so many deals that happen in the VIP room and a lot of dealers are not happy that people in the VIP room are able to set up their cards, you know, lay things out, do deals there. Etc, and my response to some extent was as somebody who was essentially a dealer this weekend we were there making content, but like we were. I was there to do my content is my car business. Yes. So like I was there doing business. And my response was I had no problems doing business because I was there to do business. I was there to you. You came up and you made me a fair offer. If you say, hey, you know, this card sells for 100. I had a card that I had stickered at 150. The last three sales were 120. Would you do 120? Yu-Gi-Oh absolutely, of course. Or 110. Would you do 100? Yes. I, I don't need to milk every last penny out. I would rather keep it moving, get deals done and be able to buy and sell a ton. And I feel like a lot of dealers who have the complaints about the VIP trade room because I can't my, I didn't do trade night really because I felt like for me, my whole thing with trade night normally is that's where I go to buy cards. But I had such a good time buying cards just at the table that I was like, I don't really feel like I need to do this because if I'm offering 80 ish percent plus or minus 5% generally was where I was at the show this weekend, I'm going to get laughed at in the VIP trade room. Yu-Gi-Oh exactly. I was able to buy cards more easily because we had a table and But I was there to do business. And I feel like a lot of the dealers who complain are the ones who also maybe had their Jackie Robinson Price at $3,000. Yu-Gi-Oh it's tough. I mean, it really boils down to are you there to sell or are you there to show off? Because I mean look, we, I think both of. Well, I don't know if you did, but I'll fully admit to me I had a couple cards in my case that I said, hey, this is the price that I'm willing to take. Is it high? Yes. Go find another one you can like, I had one of ones in my case that I'm like, this is what I'm willing to take for it. So is it showing off? I mean, you can argue yes and no, but, you know, it still has a sticker on it. It's still for sale. It doesn't take me asking, hey, what's the price here? What's the price here? What's the price here for everything? Because there's no stickers anywhere. Yu-Gi-Oh no, I, I. My approach that I took on my, on my case and I did very well with this was if it is a card that frequently transacts, is fairly readily available, etcetera, I'm going to price it generally at comp, maybe oh, so slightly over. If it's, you know, Ohtani, where I'm like, okay, his stuff just seems to be going up every single week, and therefore giving it a 10% premium means that realistically, I'm just gonna net at full comp value, which I'm fine with. Then there was the stuff that was, you can't go just buy that card. I, you, you said it. And I say it all the time. Go find another one. If you come to me, if you say, hey, Alex, you have this card in your case, you have a sticker at. Great example, Garbage Pail Kids. Ohtani. The last sale, I believe on mine that I had was like 350, 400 bucks. Yu-Gi-Oh And for the record, this is the. The Garbage Pail Kids set, not the Zebra short print. Yu-Gi-Oh Yes, the Garbage Pail Kids set, which we're going to talk about in a bit. In a bit here. Last sale was 350, 400 bucks, the lowest available on the card that I had. The lowest listed. There was two listings on eBay, both at 750, so I had mine stickered at 750. I moved it for 700. Yu-Gi-Oh the last sale was 400, but that person wanted that card and they knew that they Goldin just go find another one. Yu-Gi-Oh it's all it is. If you're gonna sell something, at least be reasonable. Like, to me, look, I know there are going to be people who comment, like, what? That's not reasonable. If comps are, this is what you surprise it at. No, like, if you can't find another one. Sticker it at what you're willing to take, and if somebody really wants it, they're willing to buy it. Supply and demand. Demand for Ohtani is through the roof. The supply of those cards is not that high. What does that mean? The prices go up. Well, and my thing, too, that I would anchor that, anchor with that as well, is if you go find another one at a better price, come talk to me. I'm willing to work with you, but I'm pricing it. You know, all that a comp is is a card that is no longer available for sale. If you wanted to buy it at that price, you should have bought it there. If I wanted to sell it at that price, I should have sold it there. Like, it's a marker. It's not a, like, set in stone. And if it's a rare card, you know, I had as a way to kind of transition us into a little bit of some show, show and tell of some cards that we got. Fun little story. One of my regular buyers stopped by the table a couple of times over the weekend, which was. It was awesome to be able to meet so many people who are like, oh, I'm, you know, this username, or like, I followed your stuff for a while. Amazing, amazing, amazing. The best part of the weekend, truly, was getting to meet so many people who have followed my content, followed the journey, and, you know, fantastic. That's what it's all about. I do this for the community. I. It was awesome to meet everybody, but stopped by the table a couple of times on. I think it was. I think it was Saturday. It might have been Friday. We're going. I'm, like, trying to do the math in my head. I'm like, what. What day was it? What day is it right now? I don't know, but stopped by and said, hey, you know, we're getting ready to head out. I just wanted to stop by and, you know, say bye. Also wanted to show you a card that we got, and it was a PSA 8 show, a Ohtani constellation out of Cosmic Chrome. And he did not know this, but I. That is one of the cards that I have been searching for for literally, like, months. Over six months. Yu-Gi-Oh Like, I'm trying. As I'm talking right now, I'm trying to go back into my Instagram and scroll to see. When I first messaged, there was a kid that I met that had a PSA 10. Yu-Gi-Oh And I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh I want that. And he's like, I'll make it available eventually and he has not made it available. March 28 was the first time that I messaged him his. So the one that walked up to the table was a PSA 8. I offered him well over what value is in my opinion. The last rod at 4200 bucks. I offered him probably between cash and trade, easily 5,000 plus. Which is what they asked. Yu-Gi-Oh One, because I really wanted the card to that point of a comp is only when it matters. There's the lowest listed on ebay. Raw is 6500 bucks. Yep. And he's a good customer. I have no problem paying up to somebody who has shown me a lot of support. They didn't want to sell the card. That's fine. To the point of, though, go find another one. He did. I found another one. Not literally. I think not even 10 minutes later. After that, the eight left the table. The nine walked up over to Mike. Yu-Gi-Oh You had to deal with this really cranky dealer. Yu-Gi-Oh Mike. Mike Geo. But walked up. He was asking 4900. I was like, I'm close. I understand that. Where, you know, most of the raw sales are 4,000. Like 4,200 to 4,500. There was a sale over 5,000, but that one was sealed directly from top. So I feel like it got a little bit of a premium because I think there's an expectation that would grade better. I ended up buying it at 4, 500 bucks. I was thrilled to grab it. That's one of my favorite pickups of the weekend. The other, like, big, big pickup of the weekend was the Mookie Bets Superfractor. Zebra Zebra cool. That was like, I think one of, if not the first deals that I did, period, at the show. That was so early. Yu-Gi-Oh it was definitely one of the Zebra early ones on Wednesday, that card coming up. And you know, that's the thing is like the whole PSA grading experience. I know we can talk about what happened there, but, I mean, I. At least for my perspective, I thought it went fine. I mean, you also had a hiccup with yours if you want to tell the listeners about that. We paid for. You and I both Tribute cards off at the exact same time and we paid for the same day service. Tribute it off on Wednesday to full credit. Wednesday is a half day at the show. They say that if you drop a card off on Wednesday, it will be ready on Thursday. So just giving it that preface of neither of us expect it to be ready on Wednesday come Thursday. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that lock article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability various 18 plus I have an Ohtani astrologically aligned black that we talked about on the podcast a few weeks ago. Former BGS9 that I cracked that card is already graded grades ready ready for pickup. The mookie still has not even been like scanned. It shows that they received the card but it hasn't even got like it has not gone into research and id. It has not gone to grading like no movement at all PSA and I know everybody's already talked about this has our had took in more cards on Wednesday at the national this year than they did all of last year's National. I made a video about this when I talked about going and dropping rating off the Moki. Like it or not, you can absolutely disagree with was a fantastic deal to grade cards at the National. Yu-Gi-Oh 100. If you are grading a card with PSA and you're doing Zebra Express. If I were to take that Mookie bets, crack it and say I want to shoot my shot at a 10 again. Mail it into PSA 10 to 15 business days for 350 bucks. Business days. That's three weeks. I paid $400 and got basically same day turnaround time. This one was a day delayed. It's fine. I don't really want to sell it anyways. So like I'm not the Otani I was glad to get back. It did not end up selling at the show. But like that's fine. It was a like I'm not surprised that they got so much demand because it was in the current status of the market. Like it or not, the market's going to market. It was a really good deal. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean I was shocked that my strokes of gold shohei didn't sell because I and the thing was I priced it competitively. For the people who are wondering what does competitive pricing look like? 10% of comps, I think 10% over. I'll buy it for 10% right now. Trent. Okay, okay, 10% over comp. But I mean that's what it was normal. You heard that. That's a deal. Take it easy. Take it easy. So it regularly sells around 4k. I had it stickered at 4400 with the hope to get a 4k offer. I didn't get a single offer and I was genuinely surprised because it's an Ohtani Zebra short print. It gemmed, I don't know. But at the end of the day, both of us had some big cards that we graded, and all in all, it was successful. What, two tens and a nine, right? Yu-Gi-Oh And you thought yours was going to jam, right? You were fairly. I knew I was expect. I was hoping for a 10, but I wouldn't have been shocked by a 9. Okay. I said, you know, despite the fact that the cosmic ohtani was a BGS9, I said, I think it's a 10, and I think the Mookie's probably a 9. I'm hoping for a 10. And that's exactly what happened. But I think it was a really. Despite what everybody says and all people getting mad, you got to realize that there's only so much control that they have in terms of that funnel and they shut down some of it. They said, hey, end of show submissions gone. We're not doing those. And some of those that you Tribute off on Wednesday for end of show are not going to be done. So we're going to refund you some of your money and it'll be done in this time period. Did they actually refund money they put out a statement for if you did an end of show submission or even. I think there were some people who did same day submissions. I believe there was a statement put out that they, you know, knew that they were not going to be able to complete every single one. And if it was not, it would be securely taken back to the PSA offices, graded mailed back to you, and you would get a partial refund. Interesting. I wonder if they'll actually do that or if it'll just turn into like vouchers with psa. Yu-Gi-Oh I'd be curious if it's like a direct to the credit card or if it is a like actual, like just like a credit. But Yu-Gi-Oh I feel like it was a overall positive grading experience even. Like, you have to give people, companies, etc, some grace. Everybody wants everybody to be perfect all the time. And we've said it on this podcast before, when I pull, you know, when. When one of us has a box that has not. That has a missing auto at scale, when you run a business and when it's huge, there are going to be mistakes that happen. There are going to be things that you promise on and say, hey, we're doing Same day turnaround. And it's not, it's. It doesn't happen. What matters is how you respond to it. The PSA customer service people this year were great, Zebra nice. Were, you know, explain it to me. They said we're so sorry. Crazy Beckett up. It probably just got that one got handed to this grader and put in this queue in line and one got put into that grader in that queue. And it. You got to give people some grace. But figure out what are you going to do to be better next time and what. And how can you respond. I saw, I think Ryan Hoge was the one who made the statement of like, we see the demand for people grading on site. My hope is that they see that and they say, hey, let's go to more shows and do more on site grading. They didn't do on site grading at Fanatics Festival. I will say this. I am anti grading on site at shows. I'm saying it, I'm saying it out loud. Why? Because the freaking sonic welder machine gives me a headache every single time, dude. For those of you listening, you know what I'm talking about. It is an awful screeching sound every 30 seconds for them sealing the slabs. It just sounds awful. Yu-Gi-Oh that is true. I will give you that. But I mean, hey, I know, I agree that actually grading at shows, having the opportunity because even if Fanatics Fest arguably like a top, I mean I'm just gonna sit just to avoid anything. A top five show in the United States. You're only doing drop offs. Like it's kind of tough because I mean they would make a killing. I mean they made a killing at the national just on Wednesday for $400 a card. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh it's. I, I hope to see them do more of it. You know, partner up with front row who has all these big shows. Partner up with the Dallas card show. I mean Beckett been doing on site grading at Dallas for a long time. I think it's possible I showed off some cards. I have some more that I want to show off, but I want you to get some. The opportunity to do a little bit of show off. Yes. So I. In no particular order. Well, actually I will go in an order. I'll start off with the big one that I know that you also really liked. But see, ladies and gentlemen, this is when you get lucky. Alex walked away for one of his three times throughout the day to do whatever. And this bad boy walked up to the table. Juan Soto majestic laundry tag auto 1 of 1. I ended up trading a bunch of prospects for it. But I was like, man, like, that is probably the coolest Juan Soto patch auto that I've seen at the entire show. And I thought the guy was asking a reasonable amount on it. And I said, you know what? I got a bunch of stuff. I don't know if I have all the cash that can. Like, I kind of want to keep some of my cash, so if you want to make a little trade, let's get it done. And he looked through all my stuff. We came up with, you know, nice stack of things and then some cash. And I was like, I'm Zebra happy with this. He was Zebra happy. Done deal. It was awesome. It is a Zebra cool card. I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I would have gone for it. Really? Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, it's just one that you like. For me, I really enjoy just crazy patches. For me, even if it wasn't an auto and it was just the laundry tag, I probably would have still gone for it. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's Zebra cool laundry tags to me, aren't they? Like, oh, my. If it was a logo, man, I'd be all over it. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh But then it would have been 10x the price. Probably just saying. Yu-Gi-Oh I, I, and I, I mean that like, truly. Like, in other words, the card's too small for Alex. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh No, I'm kidding. Trent, what else you got? All right, this one. So you've seen my Redding collection. I went to the show with two cards in mind that I wanted to buy. A Willie Mays red ink and a Hank Aaron red ink, and I got the Aaron. I know that the, the camera doesn't really do it justice, but 2020 Heritage, they're numbered to 25, so Zebra duper rare. It's an authentic slab, but it's an auto 10. And for red inks, if anybody knows about red inks, the, the red fades over time. And with this being a six year old card, still Zebra bold red auto from one of the greatest players of all time who's no longer alive. Like, Yu-Gi-Oh I want that. Yu-Gi-Oh that was a Zebra Zebra cool one. I was thrilled for you to be able to grab that because I know adding it to the red ink and again, it's not an easy one to come by. No, not at all. And this goes back to your point before of don't be afraid to pay over for it. I mean, there was a raw sale at this for 2k and I paid over that. Because there's 25 in the world. Go find another. Yep. So it's like, Yu-Gi-Oh I'll pay overcomp for something that is incredibly rare that I will not see again. Yu-Gi-Oh You showed off a Soto. I'm gonna show off one that I got with a fun little story as well that I think is a good also just like hobby lesson, etc. So Soto is yours. 5 star as well. Yu-Gi-Oh When did you get that? Did I not show this to you? No. That is sick with the believe inscription. Yu-Gi-Oh That's incredible. That's your Jordan is, I think, 2021. 2019. Sorry. 2019 is mine. Yu-Gi-Oh Nice. Look at us. So Underdog Collectibles in Knoxville, Tennessee, they have a guy, Rob. Ripping Rob. He's awesome. Zebra Zebra nice. I've done a lot of business with him at previous shows. He comes to the national show, sets up with Underdog. He does a bunch of them. He told me that he, like, years ago, he told me that he PCs. He's probably the biggest Anthony Rizzo collector out there. He played baseball with Anthony Rizzo, grew up with him, you know, still talks to him, thinks that it's amazing some of the things that he does. Like, Rizzo's an amazing human being, just as I PC Anthony Rizzo. A few months ago, honestly, maybe even more than a few months ago, I got a Anthony Rizzo first Bowman Orange auto off of DC Sports. Last few sales were like 500 plus, I believe. And I got it for like $200. Nice. Crazy good pickup. Last time that I saw him at the Nashville show, or no, at Fanatics Fest, I gave it to him, actually. I said, hey, Rob, you know, I have this. He goes, oh, my God. How much you want for him? Like, take it. Like, take it. He then told me at the national, hey, I have something for you. He said, this, walked up to the table and I grabbed it for you. That's. See, that's the hobby. That's the hobby. It is like that. But, like, that's what it's about. And, you know, I one-of-one lie in terms of I have people that, you know, Bartley, who is a guy who buys from Mike and Eddie all the time on SCN breaks and, you know, local guy here In Tennessee, he PCs Fernando Tatis Jr. He also enters a ton of breaks and has a ton of bulk that I love to buy off of him. But when I find a cool Fernando Tatis Jr. Every time that I go to Bartley's house to go buy stuff from him, I bring Them a cool tatis. Yu-Gi-Oh Because it's at the end of the day, like some. So many people are so caught up in like, oh, I need to make the dollars, I need to make the deals. Like, like, no, dude, I don't think you realize, like you're making friendships, you're making connections. That's what matters the most. And not that it needs to pay off, but it does also build up those relationships. Relationships are what matters. That if you're looking for a Zebra rare card or you know, you are needing to do a deal or you need to buy or need to sell or whatever, having those established relationships makes a big difference in being able to, you know, do business in the hobby. But Rob just grabbing that for me, awesome. Zebra Zebra cool. Like, and that makes your day. So this, this just goes to show, I think, I think that using that card as, as a storyline for us to describe the week perfectly encapsulates it. For the entire week, Alex and I were set up a foot and a half away from each other. Our showcases were touching and I didn't know that that walked up to him. If that doesn't say how busy we were, I don't know what does because, I mean, we were right next to each other the entire show and I didn't even notice that. Yep. I think I said this to you, that I was looking forward to chatting today and hearing it because I, like, I don't really feel like we even got to like talk that much. No, we didn't. Which is Zebra funny. Yu-Gi-Oh Because I mean, like, we wanted to record an episode, but I think, you know, Mike, Jeremy, everybody was saying like the two of us were the ones who were just like grinding the entire show and just going, going, going. Yu-Gi-Oh Because Yu-Gi-Oh we were chatting with everybody who walked up. We were making deals with almost everybody who walked up. We didn't have time to record an episode. We got to the end of the day on Wednesday, it was 8 o' clock and I was like, oh, we talking about doing that? Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh But I mean, it was Zebra cool. For those of you who didn't come up to the booth, there was a full fledged studio. We had a giant like horseshoe where everybody who's on the SCN network had a table and was able to chat with folks. So Yu-Gi-Oh And word is next year it's going to be even cooler. So I'm excited for next year. We'll see what, we'll see what Jeremy and Mike and co are able to put together. But it's the national it's going to be incredible regardless of what it looks like and regardless of what we're doing, because it's an absolutely incredible show. I just wish that it happened more than once. But if it happened more than once a year, then it also would be a national, so. Yu-Gi-Oh and then. And then it would be called Nationals, and it's not Nationals. It's not Nationals, ladies and gentlemen. All right, you got anything else to show off? Because I got one more. I got a couple of, like. I don't want to call them. They're not like the huge, huge pickups, but some fun ones. Yamamoto on the World Series at night, you know, he was the World Series MVP during that year. WEMBY numbered to 10 on the levitation. I don't buy a ton of basketball, but, like, that was cool. Another very cool story, actually, in terms of hobby friends. So actually maybe two stories. And I don't know if you know this Eddie, who is, you know, SCN breaks. He does all. Not all, but the vast majority of the breaking for SCN right now. Eddie, incredible human being. First off, Zebra nice guy. Met him for the first time. Zebra awesome dude. Yu-Gi-Oh I pulled out of the national packs this year that Topps had, which I want to talk about after this. I'm curious on your perspective. I pulled a Steph Curry the National Collection ssp. On the back of the card, it says, congratulations, you've pulled a limited edition SSP from the 2026 National. No clue on value on it, etc. As far as I'm aware, none of them have sold. But I showed Eddie that. I was like, hey, check out what I pulled. And Eddie collects Curry. So Eddie says to me, Yu-Gi-Oh there's only been four sales total of any of the national SSPs. Eddie says to me, hey, depending on where that nets out ends up in value, let me know because I'm interested in it. Like, before you sell it, just tell me. He goes, if somebody on ebay wants to pay you $4,000 for it, take it. I'm not gonna pay that. But he goes, if it ends up being an $800 card, I'll buy it. Yu-Gi-Oh The next day, Eddie, one of the things that he is known for is that he loves to rip. No, obviously as a breaker, but no, he. He's also. And he will not have a problem with me saying this. He's a degenerate. Ridiculous amount of wax every year. He's ripping Top's Finest. No, no, no, no, no, no. We need to preface this a case. Oh, was it a Case. Yes, it was a full case that he was just tearing. I was like, oh, my gosh. Oh. He came to the national show, he ripped two or three cases of Dynasty at the table. Oh, my goodness. He loves to rip. He does very well for himself, which we'll get to in a second here. He pulled the Aaron Judge aura, hardest SP to hit out of Finest this year, I believe. And he walks it over me, says, hey, do you want. Would you be interested in this? Yu-Gi-Oh let me take a look. It's doing about. About $800. And I said, you know what? I got an 800 offer on the curry, which I think was a little low given what some of the sales are like. A roman Anthony did 800. A Caleb Williams did 820. Like the curry is probably more given those maybe 12 to 1500, roughly. But I said, hey, let's just trade one for one. He goes, absolutely, I'm in. Yu-Gi-Oh Now, I proposed that trade to him at what was maybe one of the coolest things that I did at the national, which was on Saturday night, Eddie hosted a little dinner for some of his SCN Break regulars that he does every year at the national, where he pays for dinner. They go to a little, you know, bar restaurant. It's, you know, it's not a fancy place by any means, but it was great food, good vibes, etc. And he hosts a free break. Free break. Everybody there got a team. I got the Brewers. Do you know what product he broke, Trent? I do. I do know what he broke. And it gives me like the shakes thinking about it, cuz I'm like, oh, I don't think that product's meant for me. He broke a case of Transcendent, which is roughly $20,000, and a case of 20, 26 Tribute. Absolutely for free. And in the case of Transcendent, Eddie pulled an Otani auto number to 25. So somebody was at that dinner, got the Dodgers in the random, just, you know, handing out the cards, and walked away with a 10,000 plus dollar card for free. Yu-Gi-Oh that's. That's just awesome. Not just that and a Kurt's Rookie Auto. Yu-Gi-Oh what else? There was a bunch. I mean, it was. It's transcendent in Tribute. Like, it's. They're huge products. Yu-Gi-Oh he pulled some incredible stuff. And to just give that all away is just like, you know, it shows. And I know that he bought everybody. The amount of food that he ordered was ridiculous. Like, there was probably two or three tables that were just filled with like, appetizers and things like people go eat. But it was awesome. Zebra Zebra cool. But again, like, it's. I love being able to connect and spend time with so many of the great people that I know in the hobby. Getting to see how great they are and see it just like in action and see the difference that you're able to make. So I think that was a really, really cool moment for me, national wise. All right, I have a really, really cool moment and then we can talk about the national packs because I'm itching talk about. I've already made like three videos about this, but coolest moment of the show for me was first day when we got in there Wednesday and you and I had set up and we said, all right, well, let's go walk the Fleer now, because we don't know when our opportunities will be. Yu-Gi-Oh I heard through the grapevine that a really good tight end in who will be a future NFL hall of Famer, if he's not already. I don't know he is, but I was like, Gronk is going to be at one of the trade nights and he might be at ours. So I'm going to pick up a couple of rookie cards and hopefully I can get him to sign one. Well, he didn't come to the SCN one. He didn't come to the one after that. And I said, you know what? Hey, like, maybe, maybe he's just not going to make it this year. So be it. I've got two Gronk rookie cards that I can just hold on to. They're both CSG nines, and we're, we're hanging out at the table shows winding down. It's like 5pm show ends at 6. Yep. And Alex Tressler, Army ATC, runs up to the booth and goes, do you have any Gronk cards? I need to know right now. And I go, I have two, but they're in slabs. And he's like, we gotta find a way to crack them. I can get us 30 seconds with them. Let's go. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. So I lean over to my, my good friend Alex, who goes, I have a plan. You put that thing on the corner of your case and I stomp it. Just one stomp and it cracked it perfectly on the corner to where we could just boop. And got the cards out. So got to go meet Gronk and had him inscribe, go Air Force on the top of his rookie card. Surreal experience. Future hall of Famer. This Will not be for sale at any point. That is just too cool. It's going to stay on display and it's just a great memory from the show. Absolutely. I got to meet somebody cool as well. Yu-Gi-Oh you did. Got to interview Bo Jackson which is pretty fun. Got to chat with him about Jackson Battle arena, his TCG that he does. Working on getting that clip to include in some videos post out that has not been put out yet but as soon as I get that, that should be coming out hopefully later this week. I just got to get the clip from Alan. That was really cool though to get to meet. It's such a cool opportunity to get to meet athletes, chat with envelope cards and I think that like I'm curious on your perspective here. Do you feel like the athlete interactions at the national are different than the athlete interactions at Fanatics fest? Yes, 100%. How so? I agree. At least in my experience. So I also got to interview Johan Santana as a die hard Mets fan. The only no hitter in Mets history. Incredible moment. But the thing was me being a Zebra nerd for the Mets, he's wearing regular clothes, he doesn't have security with him and he's walking by and I just go Mr. Santana. And he turns his head and I go can I get a picture please? And he goes absolutely. And Alan took a. Or maybe it was Brendan, somebody took a photo and Alan said hey, why don't you interview him? So I impromptu interviewed him for 10 minutes. But it's one of those things where at Fanatics Fest he would have had three or four security around him, go talk on a panel and then immediately leave for here. There aren't as many athletes who are walking the Fleer really. So seeing them and they're just in regular clothes. So it's definitely a more just normal dude to dude experience versus an entourage of security and then an athlete. Yu-Gi-Oh it was interesting. It was cool. On Saturday Bo Jackson Ballerin when I got to interview Bo Jackson had their like madness tournament which is kind of one of their Topps of one of their game modes. Basically there's a couple different ways that you can play the actual TCG and they had a bunch of athletes that come and Blue Ice well. They had Reggie Jackson, Rolly Fingers, Antonio Gates, DEZ Bryant, Mike Tyson, like and those people auto of them right there hanging on my wall. That's cool. Those, those athletes were sitting at a table across from just you know, regular people who were playing the game in this tournament. Like it just. I feel like the interactions to some extent feel a Little bit more like organic and natural, which is just cool. Like, I felt like some of the, like, I feel like there's maybe less of the like separation between like, I am a star and you are an Whatnot to some extent. Like, I saw Grant Williams just walk past our table at one point. I didn't get to talk to him, but like I saw him walk by. So Yu-Gi-Oh it's definitely, I mean both are amazing opportunities and Fanatics Fest definitely has more athletes, more big name athletes, et cetera, in terms of, I think current guys, especially because there's a lot of guys that sign at the national but aren't necessarily just like walking around, but really, really sweet. Even, even just non athletes, just, you know, major figures in business and stuff walking around, like Michael Rubin, Mike Mahan came to the SCN booth for an interview, Got to chat with Steve Sloan, the CEO of Haystack. Like getting to chat with these guys is just Zebra awesome and just, you know, like I was like talking to Mr. Sloan, I was like, hey, like, I really love your product. Like, it's helped me list hundreds of items on ebay with one issue in the entirety of me using the entire system. Like, you know, talking with these people, getting to know them and learning that like Steve's a collector. Like he, at the end of the day, like, I like supporting people who come into this space with the love for cards before the love for making money or making a product or something like that with the intent to help boost the collector versus just boost their wallets. Well, that was something that Mike Rubin talked about at when he interviewed with Mike and Jesse is that Ruben was saying. He said, we have a lot of people, a lot of athletes and people that come in and say, hey, I want to open a hobby shop, but they're not collectors. And so he's like, I don't think it's a fit. Like if you're somebody who really collects, they, Reuben Mahan, Fanatics, etc. Will support that person getting involved and you know, opening a shop, doing things, etc. But if they're just somebody who's in it to make a quick buck because they see that there's money in the hobby. He says, he said, we have people all the time that ask us and we say no. Which, like, it's awesome to see the athletes, especially at a show like the national, who really are there for a national experience to like be at the national, collect, engage in things like that. It's just really, really cool. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean we, we did something Cool. It's actually if you. I don't know if you can see it. Little white package right there. But we did a giveaway at the national too. Like, I mean, like, that's something that I really enjoy of, you know, meeting the prominent figures I love. I mean, I'll just be straight with you. I love the free T shirts. I'm a T shirt junkie. I'll use them. I'll go run with them. Like running. Just a T shirt that I, you know, I don't care about as much. But also, plenty of booths are doing giveaways. We gave away a Nick Kurtz rookie auto that is going out today for, for somebody on Instagram who just followed us. Like, it's so cool just to have the opportunity to give back to other people at a gigantic show like the National. Yu-Gi-Oh it's again, the national is like nothing else. I want to talk about the top silver packs and then what the national could maybe improve on so that it's not just an hour of us glazing the national for how amazing it was. Because it was. I know, I'm sorry. Yu-Gi-Oh In case, if you were not aware, so silver tops for since 2016, maybe you could, you could make up a number and I would believe you, has been doing basically a silver pack, which is a national exclusive package. Where in years past, the way that it was, was, it was a wrapper redemption. So you would take a sealed box to the tops booth, they would cut off the wrapper, you would keep the box with all the packs in it, but in return for cutting off the wrapper, they would give you a pack. And that pack generally has four cards. You have the opportunity to pull numbered cards, autos, things like that. This year they changed it. It was no longer a wrapper redemption. In years past, the wrapper redemption was due to, you know, helping them, you know, move some of the product that maybe sat for a little bit. You know, Topps series one, that has a huge print run. You have dealers and retailers that have cases and cases left and they say, hey, bring it to the national and we'll make sure that it not only is sold, but it's sold at a good price because those packs have some amazing cards in them, low numbered stuff, autos, things like that. In previous years, the patch would sell for 80 to $100 individually. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. It ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required. Compatibility and availability various 18. Hey guys. Finding the perfect gift for the food lover in your life is easy thanks to Goldbelly. Goldbelly ships America's most iconic foods straight from world famous restaurants right to your door. So if you want to treat someone to Joe's Stone Crab from Miami, Franklin Barbecue from Texas, or desserts from famous foodies like one-of-one Garten or Martha Stewart, Gold Belly has you covered. Just go to goldbelly.com and for a limited time get 20% off your first order with promo code gift. That's promo code gift. So the value proposition of I'm Gonna go buy $150 hobby box, but I'm gonna get a pack that's worth $80. That's pretty intriguing. Yu-Gi-Oh This year they did it a little differently. It was no longer a wrapper. Redemption. My assumption there, and I may be wrong, but my assumption is that they don't really have dead inventory right now. No, that's what I mean. Everything's pretty much selling. The hobby's hot. People are buying these boxes and paying the prices and they don't need to create a financial incentive for people to rip these packs because people are doing that. But they didn't want to just abandon the silver pack. And so what they did is they had them this year and they was. It was a national exclusive box and you had to enter an EQL drop and they had boxes. What was cool this year is given that they have the licenses, they had NBA, NFL, mlb, wwe, Star Wars, Star Wars. Yu-Gi-Oh And there was one more, I thought. Did you say NFL? I think so. I don't know. Yu-Gi-Oh that's what I mean. It was a bunch. There are a bunch. Yu-Gi-Oh You would enter the EQL and if you got it, you would get a box for that. You could enter the EQL for one of them. If you'd only want a baseball, you could do that. If you wanted baseball, basketball, football, Star Wars, WWE, etc. You could enter the mall. Boxes were anywhere from 200 to $300. I think the NBA box is the Most expensive at 300. Curious on your thoughts and perspective on it? Like it, don't like it? I have a pretty strong opinion, but Yu-Gi-Oh So my genuine opinion is I don't like it as an eql. I like it as an incentive to customers who are already buying products versus another opportunity to make cash. That's my honest, genuine opinion on it. Now, don't get me wrong, I still bought one, I still ripped it, and I actually ended up giving away arguably my biggest hit to a kid who I traded with. But it's one of those things where I feel like the national, when you're a corporate entity in the national, it should be more of a thank you for supporting us kind of deal. But, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with it either. I understand that perspective. And the thank you for supporting us does resonate a little bit with me. I actually think I disagree with you, though. That's fair. And I think that my perspective on that is that in previous years, what would happen is you would have a box of, you know, I would always try and figure out what the box, what the rapper redemption options were going to be, because if you waited to buy it on the show Fleer the price of that box would get inflated because they knew, you know, David Adams, Steel City Blowout knew that people needed those boxes to get those passed. And what was two months before the National, a $90 box of Heritage is all of a sudden 130 bucks. And let's be honest, do I like Heritage? Yu-Gi-Oh I like Heritage. But like, I like Heritage for the big hits, Yu-Gi-Oh the singles, I'm not a Heritage ripper, set collector, etc. And so for me, what it would lead to is for me to get four silver packs, I would have to go spend, you know, generally the boxes would get up to about 150 bucks a box. I'd have to go spend $600 to get those boxes and then bring those boxes over. And yes, I got four boxes that I got to rip. But would I have ripped those boxes? Probably not. Like, if it was not for the silver pack. And granted, that was the whole purpose of the silver pack, I would not have bought one of those boxes to rip. Right. And so for me, who really enjoys the silver packs because they have tons of cool numbered things, autos, etc. As you mentioned, I look at it and I say, okay, I can pay $240 for the MLB. For me, MLB may have even been $220. It was 225 for MLB. Yu-Gi-Oh $225 for the MLB and just have that get four packs. Or I could go pay $600 to get those and have it be that I now have the. The privilege of ripping some Heritage boxes, which you Know, you might pull something cool. I think in my three previous years of doing the National, I only ever pulled, like, one nice card, and it was a Acuna home field, which, like, that was a cool card, don't get me wrong. But, like, it wasn't anything that, like, was, like, worth spending thousands of dollars on wax. You got me. All right, You've convinced. No. I have one other note, though, as well. Okay. What it also did by making these boxes is it got rid of some of the rng, the randomness. I had times in previous years where I would open up eight packs and pull one numbered card, and there were people who would open up three packs and pull four numbered cards in an auto. Yu-Gi-Oh What the boxes did is it got rid of that by saying each box is guaranteed two numbered cards. So I know that I was gonna get two numbered cards. It got rid of some of the randomness, and I feel like, made it a little bit better of an experience. So I think that there's probably some people who feel fairly negative about the change, and I. Your opinion is valid, but my opinion is I actually think it's a positive thing from Topps, Yu-Gi-Oh now that. Now that I really think about it, you're. You do make a very strong argument, and I agree, because, I mean, last year I spent 600 bucks, I bought a Bowman Jumbo. Yep. I got two packs, no numbered cards, no big rookies, and I was like, man, like, that was kind of disappointing. And then I opened the Bowman box, and I get two autos of the same dude. And I'm like, was the dude at least good? No. But, I mean, it is what it is. And now you make a compelling argument. I'll give that to you. That's. That's fair. Yu-Gi-Oh All right. Wrapping us up, things the national could have done better. I mean, I don't know what. Because, I mean, really, like, we've kind of touched on this, but, like, the logistics of Trade Night, the same thing with the logistics of the show. It's. The hobby is exploding. Like, it's. It's still, like, just going up, and the number of attendees is just still going up. I don't know how they make it better without getting a bigger convention center, which is like, it's a gigantic convention center as is. I don't know how they make it bigger. So there is room, a fair amount of extra room in Hall G on that second Fleer Yu-Gi-Oh I think Hall G, the second Fleer was vastly improved this year. It still was not perfect. Some of the aisles were still Definitely a little tight. We didn't have to necessarily experience that because we had our table. We were kind of off in like a back corner where like there was a little bit more room to navigate, but it definitely was a little tight. Crowd control wise or just like crowd wise, which is fine outside of the fact when you look at and see that there's all of this extra space still in here, it's like, why aren't we utilizing it given the size of this? So I think that that is a critique of like, hey, I think you can do more because there is still more space. It was pretty hot on the second Fleer as well. It was, Yu-Gi-Oh The difference between the second Fleer and first Fleer is pretty, pretty significant. First Fleer AC was incredible. Second Fleer is definitely a little warm and like that. It was toasty. Sometimes that is outside of your control. You know, if the AC is having some struggles and you know, or goes out the week of an event, the center has to fix that. And how quickly are they able to do so? It's. I, I don't blame the national for the temperature being too high, but like, it is a note of just like, hey, with everybody so closely crammed in together in this space, it was definitely a little hot up there. So I definitely would try to improve upon that. We mentioned Trade Night as a just like thinking about what ways you could grow that feasibly, maybe using some of that extra space that we're not utilizing right now, as we said. But I also think that I would like to see the Trade night wristbands in the same realm and vein of tops doing their boxes. As an eql, I would like to see it as a lottery system as opposed to a go stand in line for three hours situation. Yu-Gi-Oh it, it's tough because now like the only downside with doing it that way is then it turns into people scalping the trade night tickets. That's what I think it would turn into. What they did is and I, we didn't do this. So you wouldn't have known this if you waited in the line for Trade Night to get a wristband, to get guaranteed access, they put it on your wrist. Yu-Gi-Oh In that line, if you do a lottery system in the same way that the top CQL was, you say from 9 to 11, you have to enter and then we'll announce at 2 o' clock who the winners are and you have to come collect your wristbands. When you go collect your wristband, they put it on your wrist and then you can't Sell it to somebody else. Because, like, I do. I think it is really good that they do not allow people away to like resell those wristbands because they would resell. But I think that finding a way to make it more fair and I think that it would have to be a, hey, we're entering, you know, as a group of three people because it would stink if you went with, you know, if a group of friends or your family, whatever, and you went and not everybody got it. Like, should be a. Like you can enter as a group. But I think finding a way to keep people on the show Fleer and not have to go stand in line to get a wristband for Trade night would probably be a good thing. I had that critique last year as well though. Like, and I get it. People want to go to trade night. I do too. But I think that that would be a way to maybe improve things a little bit. Yu-Gi-Oh Well, one last thing before we wrap up. I have to show off some mail that I got. I've been waiting 10 months patiently for this. I saw that you and I, you and I talked about it at Fanatics Fest. We were like, you're like, hey man, maybe go talk to Topps and see if they would offer some sort of replacement because I don't know if it's going to happen. But I got in my Aaron Judge one of one Bat Knob Auto. It shipped on Thursday of the national because Wednesday we talked about, it's like, well, maybe we'll go talk with Topps tomorrow about it. And then the stars aligned and I got the email saying that, hey, confirm your address. We're about to ship this and this thing is gigantic. I only have one critique about it though, and I don't know if you guys can see it online, but the space for this one touch is. It's gigantic inside. It's made for like a probably 360, right? A 360.1 touch. But the card itself is maybe like 180, maybe a little bit thicker. So there's a big gap in there and I feel like it's rattling around a little bit. I don't know, but it, the card's beautiful. It's phenomenal and I'm glad to have it in person. I wish I had it for Fanatics Fest slash the national just to have it in my showcase. But it's an Aaron Judge one of one Bat Knob Auto. Like, I'm not complaining about it. And what's your plan with it? The goal is to sell it and put it towards something that I collect more. But we'll see. I mean that's the thing. It's. It's very difficult to price a card that has really no Zebra good comparables. Yu-Gi-Oh it Batnob Autos have sales in like 2024 for Judge the bat barrel from tier one did 20,000 I think. I think the bat knob's a little bit more desirable than the barrel. My opinion. So I'm thinking a little bit north of 20k maybe like 2530. But we'll see. I've already gotten a few offers on it and I'm not used to these high end cards. I prefer playing in playing in cheaper cards. Yu-Gi-Oh no, Yu-Gi-Oh I, I'm Zebra curious. You'll have to let us know when you sell it. Yu-Gi-Oh like keep us updated in terms of that. One last note on my end is we're not talking release week all this and that but we will I do have to plug tomorrow is the release of 2025. I think it still is technically Topps Chrome Update Basketball. I have two jumbo boxes coming. They're actually out for delivery today. Oh, I'm gonna do a rip and flip with them. I'm gonna try it. I've never done anything other than baseball but I figure it's a fun thing. Am I maybe gonna get cooked? Quite possibly. I don't know. Like I have quite likely. I have no clue what to to expect here. There's gonna be six autos which is nice like really good rookie class with Cooper Flag Con, you know etc. So I think that hopefully there's some good upside. Obviously there's some huge upside in the NBA debut patch chase but I bought them initially thinking I was going to hold it for maybe a future shop. But I also don't know. It's such an expensive box with the packs being so expensive that like I don't know whether or not that's how well that will do. So I think we're just going to try it. The reception to the Topps Chrome Baseball rip and flip was really really amazing. So I figured let's give it a go. So Thursday 6:30pm I'm gonna be doing a little bit of a mixed stream. I'll have the rip and flip or rip two boxes, sell those singles from those boxes and then have some singles from the national that we will also sell over on ebay live. So make sure to come check that out. We didn't talk about it by the way but quick little sponsor plug. I know you mentioned Haystack. I know That I told you about my, what I did at Arena Club on, at their booth at the National. No, you didn't. They did a competition that was a draw off. So they had two downward facing cameras and they would throw an image up on screen and then you had to recreate that image and draw that yourself. And the winner got a slab back. Oh, well, you didn't come up to me and say, dude, check out this, this slab that I hit on Arena Club. I'm a little biased, I will say. Just rooting for the, the challengers versus the influencer who's here. I went over 14. I think I probably should have one-of-one a couple. I'm sorry. Over 14. I think I, I think I should have one-of-one a couple. But I think you're not left handed. I think they wanted the people to get free slap packs, not Alex. To get free slap back over 14 is. Is crazy work, by the way. I wouldn't have admitted that to the Internet if I were you. Hey, we admit things. That's what we do. But Yu-Gi-Oh that was, it was a really fun thing. Like last year they just did kind of a like, hey, come chat. And it was, it was decent, but it was not Zebra Zebra popular. Like, people weren't in, like, weren't really wanting to stop and engage, whereas this was like a much more fun way to do it. So props to them. Was a really fun kind of way to go about it and got a lot of people free slab packs, which is a one-of-one Yu-Gi-Oh huge one-of-one Awesome. So I think that's it. Unless you got anything. No, that's it. Las Vegas or front row card show in Las Vegas. And then I'm working plans now to, to come out to Tennessee in October. Yu-Gi-Oh let's do it. Get you out here for the Nashville card show. The National. The nat. The National. N A S H. All right, well, Yu-Gi-Oh Appreciate you guys listening to this week's episode. We'll catch you next time. See Yu-Gi-Oh Hey, guys, have you heard of Gold Belly? It's this amazing site where they ship the most iconic famous foods from restaurants across the country, anywhere nationwide. I've never found a more perfect gift than food. Gold Belly ship, Chicago deep dish pizza, New York bagels, Maine lobster rolls, and even one-of-one Garden's famous cakes. So if you're looking for a gift for the food lover in your life, head to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order promo code GIFT. That's goldbelly.com, promo code GIFT. Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions. I have sold my chariot on Carvana. 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Episode summary
Alex and Trent are back from Rosemont after a week at The National. We look back at what worked and what didn't in and around The National. Plus, plans to make it bigger next year? We dive into pricing around The National and whether it was as bad as some people said. Pickups of the show, Silver Packs, Grading, and so much more!
0:00 - Intro and back from The National
9:00 - The National could be bigger and better next year, but how could it be bigger?
12:00 - How was pricing at The National?
22:20 - Grading at the National
29:00 - Pickups of the Show
42:00 - Meeting Gronk and Bo Jackson
50:00 - Topps Silver Packs
58:25 - What could have been better?
1:03:00 - Trent finally got his massive Judge
1:06:00 - Wrap up with Topps Chrome Update Basketball Release.
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