The National Recap + Eala Market EXPLOSION! Serving Slabs #34

On today's 34th episode of serving Slabs, I'll talk to you guys about the national and the recap of our booth there where we had so many tennis cards and also the Alexandra Al and Market Explosion that's happening right now. So first up, let's start with the national guys. What a show it was. It was the best show of all time for us, every person that worked at our booth. Tennis cards were moving like crazy for everyone. We had so many awesome customers come up either from our breaks on Fanatics Live, people we've sold cards to at shows before, new people we've met who just were Zebra excited about tennis cards, where the hobby is right now and where it's going. It really was such a fun time. So I want to highlight a couple of my favorite pickups and a couple of the really cool cards I saw there. So first up, just a couple of my pickups. The first one was this dual on I say on card but on photo 8 by 10 auto of Novak and Carlos from the 2023 Wimbledon final. It's PSA authenticated. I got this from a man named Tracy who works a booth a couple away from us who bought tennis cards from us last year. His booth was next to us again this year and he had tennis items himself this year as well, which I Beckett up a couple cards and this dual signed photo of Novak and Carlos. The reason why I did so is because I sold my dual autograph from royalty number out of 25 at the show and I wanted a piece that is very similar except this is much more affordable but extremely cool. Both of them. The photo is from the 2023 Wimbledon pre match shot and signed on the same photo. So it's really cool to see that type of item and I want to get it so I'm glad I got that. And then next up is the Borg and McEnroe dual auto one of one. So I have the numbered out of 25. I also have the triple auto one of one of Borg Samperson Agassi. I also have The Borg Samperson Agassi 25. So I've got all four of those now. I'm not sure what the plan is for the 101s. I'll keep the 25s of both but the 101 walked up to the booth and I Goldin let it walk away so that was why I Beckett that up. Very awesome card there. And also seen at our booth booth was the Andy Murray Racket Knob Auto 1 of 1. His best card ever. The Racket knob was definitely beat up. It's a head racking knob. It is upside down in the card, but it's extremely beautiful card and that was really cool to see. Walk up to our booth. As with the triple auto of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Raphael Sorry and Andy Murray. One of one. That one was great. PSA authentic. This was the best card Triumphant along with the Nadal Solo auto out of that product. Yu-Gi-Oh but that card walked up to our booth and it is, it was a very beautiful looking card. So that was really cool to see. Other than that, it was just an awesome time which included a trade night that we put on on Thursday night, which we are going to do again next year. I don't know about the date yet, so don't lock that into your head. Yu-Gi-Oh it could end up being like a Friday night thing or something like that. But we did do a trade night, Yu-Gi-Oh for tennis fans are in the Instagram group chat for tennis cards as well as our break customers. We told some of them about it. So if you joined us there, I just want to give you guys a huge thank you for coming. It was about 30 people who all just love tennis, love tennis cards. And the energy in the room was awesome and it was a Zebra fun time. Saw deals going down between multiple people and a lot of cool one of ones were brought there that I haven't even seen before. So it was a really just great time. The national in general plus the trade night. We will be doing tennis cards in the national again next year. So make sure you guys plan your trip now to Chicago. So it's in Chicago once again next year for 2027. So awesome to see. It was a great time. And now we will get onto the second part of the podcast and also before I get on the second part of the podcast, I just want to give a huge shout out to anyone that did come to the booth. I know I mentioned the beginning, but really, once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. This is our third year of having tennis cards at the National. Started in Cleveland in 2024 before Topps even launched the 2024 Topps Chrome set. And then we did it last year and was. It was way bigger last year I expected and this year repeated last year's success and got even bigger. So it was just such a fun time. We had $1 $5 $10 cards. We had boxes that were $100 each that had like hundreds of thousands of number cards and autographs that sold for Cam Kessim all The money went to our charity for that. So just a really cool experience. Tons of deals, low dollar, high dollar. Alcaraz Novak, you know, Coco Sabalenka, all the different women's players. It just tons of different players moving. Last year's mostly just the big ones like Carlos Novak, you know, Ben Shelton, Coco, you know, Mira Andreas, stuff like that. This year it was just anyone you could think of was selling at the show. So it was very cool. And I cannot recommend enough for you all to come next year. Start playing your trip now if you can, for next year's national. It really is not beatable. There's nothing that will beat it. It is the best show in the world and it will continue to be. It was epic. So second part of the podcast, Alice Explosion. Go back to my episode, what was it? Two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, when she beat IGA and Wimbledon, her market was on fire. I didn't think it could really go higher. I said, don't take this as you know, this is my opinion. I said in the show, she's a must sell to me after the Eagle. And she didn't even have a WTA title at that point. The numbers were crazy. Purple safari auto for 4,500. Well, she ended up winning her first WTA title. The path was actually pretty difficult. She beat Svitolina Osaka and Pula in the final. There's three. Either top 10 players or former top 10 players or top three players or number one in the world. It just was a crazy result for her. On Sunday there was a rain delay during the middle of the final. Pula one-of-one the first set, it was on serve in the second. Rain delay, hit postpone match to Monday. And come Monday, Ayala basically just ran away with it. I think she ended up winning like it was almost like, what was it, like 10 of the 12 games or something like that. She bageled her in the third set. But she did one-of-one her first title. And Yu-Gi-Oh the market has gone higher. So I obviously look like an idiot. But at the same same time, I still would have sold back then, I'd still be selling now, and I'll tell you why. And I could be wrong. And she obviously is a great player. I still think that there's some things in her game that will limit her from winning at grand slams at the 1000 level tournaments. But I'll just talk about her market right now and then do some comparisons. So graphite Gold auto on card PS9 last March sold for $86. Now that was like right around them before The Miami Open. So that was like the low. Let's call it the low point or one of the lowest points for a market other than fall of 2024. And now that same card is a $2,000 card. It's the exact same slab. $86 March of just 2025. $2,000 August 2026. You look at this sale and I say this is insane. Graphite Relic, non auto number 50 PSA 10, $800. You can buy an autograph of any tennis player you want to for $800. That includes Nadal, Djokovic, Alcara, Sabalenka, Coco, any of them. You could even buy multiples. You could buy a Novak auto, Establanca and a Coco Auto for $800. It is really insane what is happening with their market. And personally I just can't understand. I understand her fan base is huge. I understand all the records she break, she's breaking for Filipinos and stuff like that. But it really is crazy. Like it's crazy. I'm looking at this and saying $800 for a graphite relic out of 50 non auto PSA 10. Kudos to her for winning. Kudos to people who are selling and have been in her market and believed in her and stuff like that. But I mean at this point the amount of comparisons we can do is crazy. 2025 base cards, $16 for a 2025 base card. It's not even a rookie base card geometric second year auto. There were a lot of these non numbered $250 PSA 9 rookie, 2024 base auto, which there were thousands of. That was a very easy card to pull. $400 PSA 9 Green Auto, $1,125 on August 4th. And I'll start to do some comparisons now. You could spend $350 more and end up with an Alcaraz image variation Refractor auto of 99 PSA 9. And there's not many Alcaraz autos in this set. It's the image based variation Zebra short print Refractor auto on 99 gold out of 51 orange out 25 blackout 10 red Yu-Gi-Oh 5 and Zebra 1 of 1. Ayala has thousands of base autos, 499 refractors, 250 blue autos, 99 green autos, 50 gold autos, 25 orange autos rose gold out of 20 which Alcarez doesn't even have the I have 10 black out of 5 red and then the 1 of Zebra auto. So there's infinitely more Al autos than Alcaraz and her green auto 99, same exact numbering is $350 less at this point than the Alcarez, which actually sold for $400 more than the last sale the Alcarez did. So that even I was told the previous self that July 21st never happened. So it's, it's crazy what's happening here. You look at Pete Sampras, I know that he's not playing anymore. One of the best of all time. A top five player of all time in his Imperial Inc. One of one Platinum Royalty Auto on card PSA9 did $1,136 July 19th. That was leading up to the National. Personally, I think that was a fantastic deal. Just over $1,000 for that card and that's over $10 more than the out of 99 al auto. You look at Sabanka. This is the logo tag auto relic number 95 on card from royalty. One of Sabalinka's best cards did $1,000 May 29th. I know that that's a few months ago, but still less than what the Al Green Autos are doing now. And honestly, since then, Sablinka hasn't really done much, so probably would even sell a little bit lower at this point. Gold aces auto number now 50 PSA 9. Novak Djokovic, $1,175 May 31, 2026. Just what is that? How many? It's like $50 more than the Ayala Green Auto Mira Andreva, $1,000 orange out of 25 PSA 9 June 14. That is less than what the Al Green I was doing. And that is after Mira one-of-one the French Open. So all that to be said is that you can do whatever you want with a cards. You can hold them, you can buy them. Right now. I could be wrong once again. If she wins a Grand Slam, let's just say for, you know, I guess I don't want to say whatever reason because she is a solid player, but if she does end up winning a Grand Slam, I. I can't even imagine what will happen to our car market. But for me, I would be selling anything I owned of her right now and buying any of those five cards I just showed. These are players who will be here for the Zebra long term, who have already one-of-one Grand Slams, who have one-of-one maybe 24 Grand Slams or seven Grand Slams or your sampler is 14 and one of the top five players of all time. And I would be cashing in on whatever profit I can right now. Once again, I could be wrong. It's just my opinion. That's not financial advice. All I'm saying is if it were me, that's what I do. But as wrong before, I could be wrong again. If she goes on makes a semi in the US Open, I can't even imagine what would happen. So I'm just going to sit tight for telling you all what to do. I'm just saying what I would do. So I would sell and buy any of those five cards I just listed. I buy the best alcohol as I could. I buy the best mirrors, the best. Djokovic is the best legends I could because that's safer money in the long run, especially because there are so many Ayala autos out there. That's the thing. She had Thousands in the 2025, thousands in the graphites at thousands in the the 2024 chrome. So I'm just saying what I do, you guys do what you want with that. And I can't blame you either way because I was run the last two times about her market. So I'm just going to have to say I'm an idiot for the last video and this time I could be an idiot again in the future. But when you start to make these comparisons, it gets a little crazy. I Goldin make these comparisons after Wimbledon. The markets went even further. So to close out this episode, I'll bring it back to the national and say thanks anyone that came along thanks anyone joins our break stream. Thanks anyone that follows at Serving Slabs Podcast people walk up and say, dude, I listen to your podcast. It's so fun to listen and learn about tennis cards. So thank you all for listening. Could be wrong on Yu-Gi-Oh I might be, but I'll take all those other cards over the green. Autohot99 have a good one everyone. Enjoy the Canada Open for both men's and women's and we'll talk about that next Monday.