PSA Pricing, Super Bowl Card Hype & the Vintage Advantage

Hey, it's Super Bowl happened. I call it the Super Bust. Everything about the Super Bowl was a bust for me. There was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. The game itself just wasn't not good. And I'm happy for a Darnal. No offense, but I'm fine watching the Patriots get the butt kicked in the Super Bowl. Did you see PSA announcement? Yeah, I did see that. Pricing creases and timing increases, is that right? That's what I saw. Hey, when you rule your own world, you can set all the rules. It's just you got to have the right level of scrutiny. And the tools are there where they are and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be great. I think the biggest risk I have back there is altered to people trimming those. But I like vintage. There's less pressure. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing rails or calling bluffs. You take you inside the hobby. Here are your hosts, Ryan offer and Brian look. What's up guys? Welcome to Collector Nation here on the Collector Nation Network. Always with my good buddy here on Fridays. Brian Ludden. He is the CEO of LudXS L U D E X. The best scanning collection management eBay listing software on the app store. What's up, Brian? What's up, my man? How you doing? I'm good, man. Hey, it's super well happened. I caught the super bust. Everything about the Super Bowl was a bust for me. I'm just going to be just going to put it out. I'm not normally a negative Nancy. I try not to be, but there was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. I agree. I mean, it was, I don't even know who Bad Bunny was. And I don't ever need to know who he is. But the game itself was just, it was, it just was not good. I mean, the Seahawks, I mean, they're a good football team. They probably were the best team all season. They beat some really good teams really by a lot of points. Yeah. And I'm, I'm happy for a Darnell. Yeah. No offense, but I, I'm fine watching the Patriots get the butt kicked in the Super Bowl. It was hard for me to root for the Patriots as the underdog. And I knew, and, and they were four and a half points was a joke. Seattle looked like the better team coming in. The defense was dominant. It played out exactly is having no skin in the game, not carrying about either team. It played out exactly like I would have analyzed it too, which is dominant defense from Seattle. And, and Patriots defense was good too, but just a better overall showing. But it's hard to root for the Patriots. I guess it's, it's too soon for them to be the underdog and me to, to go, oh, well, yeah, hope the Patriots can, as the underdog really overcome Seattle. Huh, that narrative didn't really work for me. No, that was, they beat them last time on that stupid play calling. So I was, I was fine with it. I'm, I'm gonna miss football. I mean, I don't watch NBA. I will watch March Madness. I do watch U of I basketball, U of I fan. But honestly, I miss football and, you know, baseball. It is the doldrums of, you know, of the time period with sports. You know, I do like March Madness, but then it's kind of, that comes and goes. The playoffs in the NBA are just too long. I can't get into four months of the NBA play. I get into like the last two series, but the four month NBA playoffs. And then it's just count. It really just becomes officially the Super Bowl is the countdown to win football. Starts again. That's true. It doesn't, doesn't, does tops pick it up, pick up the license now? I thought it was after the Super Bowl. I don't, I thought the date is technically the cards coming out like April or May. Oh, but I'm really, I'm excited because there's been nothing, but Padini. It's been weird a little bit. You know the unlicensed top stuff. I was in a big fan of, but now, but I'm a football cards or my thing. Like that's my, it's funny talking to Cole who's here at the shop, help him to manage the store. And I go, if you look around here and we've got everything at the store, but it goes, you know, tell me your owners, a football fan without telling me you're there's a football fan. We got more football cards than anything. So bring on the tops licensed now. Yeah. Then I'll just be counting the days for when the season starts. And hopefully Clemson's a little better this year. Well, I don't think that could be much worse, honestly. Yeah. Like you started talking about disappointing teams that they're in the top. God, ironically, it was us in Penn State, the biggest disappoints of the year in the toilet bowl game that we lost that too. So anyway, Drake May didn't have a great game, but you know what? I know his cards are probably getting bashed a little, but I haven't even looked at the pricing quite frankly. I have a lot of his cards and I'll be holding those long term or selling them in the store overpriced, but the just kidding on that. We have great prices here. But the it's kind of as expected. First Super Bowl playing one of the most ridiculous defenses of the last, I don't know, five to seven years. And I'm going to say all time. I'm not that guy. All time best defenses. No, a really good defense all time last five years, probably. We're right up there with some of the best all time of the last all five years. They were the best Brian. I need some kind of I need some hyperbole for this highlight clip. Oh, but and he got rattled a little bit and didn't look good, but I don't think anybody was going to look good against them. No, I mean, when when will teams just dominate like the draft, dominate offensive line defensive line? I mean, honestly, we've seen the homes look human when he gets hit Brady lost because he got hit Drake make had no time. He got hit like he, I would just go offensive line draft defensive line offensive line defensive offensive defense. Then fill in the rest like whatever like, but when you can get to their quarterback and protect ears and then I fell, you're you're a step ahead. I did think the I know they're running back. The MVP, but Sam, I mean, Sam Darnold is as a good story. He played really well. He's more than I mean, he looks like I know he always had it in him. You could see, you know, streaks of it, but I was rooting I wasn't rooting for a team in the game, but I was rooting for that guy. Yeah, he's a likable dude and he went through a lot of stuff, but I mean, we came out of college. He was kind of doughy and like, I think he probably just, you know, didn't understand what it would take to make it in this league. And then I think he committed and, you know, matured and I mean, he'll be he'll sign a big deal with Seattle. And he'll be their quarterback for next 10 years. Yeah. And looks like a good investment in Minnesota, you know, botched that. I mean, right. Like how do you let that guy out the door? And I guess you were hoping JJ McCarthy's it. And maybe he still will be, but he hasn't started yet. We'll see as a bear's hand, you don't really care to you. No, I'm glad that with JJ McCarty. He's even a Chicago guy. He grew up right by me. So, uh, yeah, no. Is he, is he, is he got it? Or is he not? Do you know, do you have a opinion on him? You know what? I think he's got to grow up a bit like when he was, when he talks in third person about nine, I'm nine's out there doing this and this, these are the type of plays nine makes. I'm like, stop. You're like, you're in the NFL now. Like you're not a child. You grow up, commit to your craft. So I don't know. Right. I wish you would sometimes say that's what, you know, the kind of play a lot and would make. Have you ever said that to me? How about a kick trash right there? On the spot. I've been like, why did you just say? Yes. I have not heard that. I'm glad I haven't seen that. I would have never talked about him. Uh, no one does that. He definitely needs to grow up. Uh, but I was happy for Donald. His prices are definitely on the rise. I did buy a few of those before because I was pretty certain of that outcome of the Super Bowl. Oh, 124. His 2018 Don Russ optic was 260 bucks. And now it's 450. Sounds about right. Super Bowl pop almost double almost double. I like it might have been up there anyway. But a 2026 tops baseball is releasing this week. We will have that here. Just a little side note. But it signals. This is like the first thing not only with the hobby, but sort of baseball in general. You get pops release, you get spring training. And then you get opening day. Is right around the corner. Yeah, first week of April. First week of it. Part of me is like, where's time going and how fast is it going there? Talking about long season. Holy crap. That baseball April to October. Yep. What aren't you playing? Winner. Exactly. Exactly. You know what time we're not. Exactly. So tops 2026. 75 years of making tops baseball. That's the 75th anniversary. I'm not good with that. So is that like. 51. I don't want to work that math force. I'll fix that. Yeah, 51. 1951. Is that their first year, I guess? Somewhere around there. That's a long time. Seven. I wish I had more in the world. Yeah. I like some of those. Or just you. Yeah. Well, 52 tops. Manel. Right. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. I'll give you some of those. Did you see PSA announcement? Yeah. I did see that. Price increases and timing increases. That's what I saw. I mean, hey, when you rule your own world, you can, you know, set all the rules. I will say this. No one likes pricing increases. And it's, it's fascinating to me what, what they're being allowed to do in this industry without much scrutiny. But hey, Matt hats off to them. He can get away with it. I mean, hey, good business. Man. Clearly. Nothing but respect for him. But look, in any industry speaking for business, if your, if your demand is outpacing your supply. And you're, you increase prices. Yeah. Everyone does. Everyone does. If there's more demand, then you have supply prices go up. In this industry. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. In this industry, people get so offended. And I'm like, what do you think has happened to wages in the last two years? Like, and also, to be honest, like, that's a really, really human intensity. Like to, for, to grade and human beings are expensive and you have to hire more people. The technology is where it flips. Right? And if you start using more technology, then you can be more efficient and you would actually cut the times down and you probably bring the prices down because you're doing more. But they, they haven't really solved that yet. And, but, you know, they, they're running a business. And it's also interesting because when you look at it, they're, let's say they charge 20 bucks. And they get you a 10 in your card doubles and value. So, let's say it goes from under to 200. You make, you know, 80 bucks. I mean, if it goes to 23, you're still like, it, like, it shouldn't matter. Yeah. Right? Like, as a percentage, it doesn't matter. I mean, I don't like it. And it is, vintage is different. But modern stuff. If you, it's 10 or not, it's 10 or bust. Like, because anything else. And it, it nines are pretty much worth raw now. Yeah. It's almost identical. It nines. And then eights. It's your below. Hey, eights called what I call. And I'm not talking about the drug crack city. It's crack city. If you get an eight, you, you better keep some good pliers around. Because there's no reason to keep it in there for modern. Modern only. Don't take that. Yeah. This is not investment devices. It's not PSA cracking advice. This is just opinion. Yeah. Is that an answer? That disclaimer. But it also appears to us. If you get an eight, it's modern. Crack it. Because it's worth less than raw. Yeah. Right. And also, when you, let's talk about modern. Like, the time, I would say instead of like raising the prices. Like, the biggest thing is the turnaround. Because like, these cards every week, you and I are talking about them. And they're doubling in price and having in price. And, and like, you know, your guy can get hurt. So, I think it really, I would do more concerned about the turnaround time with the modern stuff. Because things get hot and then they get not. I almost forgot this. I bought a, this is how we talked about, like, so much happens on a week bride. But it's related to this. I bought a box full of vintage baseball, football, basketball. We're talking 1950 to 1980. Talk about some really cool cards. Kevin Michele rookies, like, cool shit. And if you, grading vintage is a no brainer, you know, in bulk. Because even if it's a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, it's worth more, way more than raw. It way more, it typically speak and generally speaking more than the grading, way more than the grading fee. Yeah. To, to know that you have a 4 in a vintage card, that 2025 buck fee, it more than pays for that. Yeah. And it, and it creates more demand because there's no mystery of what the card is. I mean, that's what it removes. And so sometimes the basis for our dissension and ups, and reason were upset, is because there's a failed premise to begin with. Or the problem is a lack of understanding or not being happy with the pricing or stuff like that. But when the premise should have been, this is probably underpriced already, compared to what you can get for the right cards. It's just, you got to have the right level scrutiny. And the tools are there where they are and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be graded. Yeah, I think the biggest risk gap back there is altered, you know, people trimming those. I mean, but you get them graded no matter what. And that just authenticates them and you're good to sell those things. But then I love, I like vintage. I mean, there's less pressure. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock. New players and AI stocks. Hey, you sound like Ken Golden, who was on the show. And it will be, what date is that release, Bella? The 24th. The 24th. That's Bella Schaefer, the lovely and wonderful executive cruiser here. A long lecture nation. Say hello again, Bella. He blushed over there. There you go. She runs the show over there runs the show. I try. So yeah, Ken Golden will be on and he had that he talked about that very thing. I had a raft of fire with him, Brian, and pretty much the same thing. He's like, vintage, vintage and vintage, vintage baseball, especially. But vintage, anything is a safe bet long term, short term, everything. He's a nice guy. I like Ken. So we do have, okay, in top series one, they are going to have some 1952 tops variations in there. Maybe 1952 was their first year since that's what their stain is going to be in that exhibition. Yeah, that could work. That math works. Yeah, 51. They're going to have some 1952 tops variations. All Kings, all ACEs, cover athlete, autos, celebrity autos. Brian Luddon might or might not be in there. We'll leave it up for mystery. Check my email. I'm sure it's there. Exactly. You missed the signing. You were probably when my spam. Yeah. Too busy counting your door and Ricky cards. 1991, top soddos, home field advantage. And actually this week, this should be, is this coming out this week? Two 18 is that this week or next week? V friends, super stickers. We will have those here at collector station. We are an official distributor of V friends and Gary V's team because he will work with. Love that. And fun. I love the messaging with those, man. I think kids need something positive. And I think Gary's doing that with his cards. Assign Michael Jordan trading cards sold for 800,000, 800,000 big ones. I mean, I think they wrote money on that. Like whoever bought that. I don't know what the card was. I'll see his trading card. I don't know what card it was. So if it's a rookie card, probably not. If it's something else, then maybe. Well, I might get that detail worse before this is over. We'll leave that as a cliffhanger. What do you think? I think. If it's like any rookie card, star card, whatever it is. And the pop reports low. I don't take you ever lose money on those high end cards. I mean, I've talked to people. I've probably talked to five companies in the last five months. So one a month that these funds are coming in. The Mr. Wonderful. But there's a lot of funds that are like, hey, let's get this high, high end stuff. And hold it. When it becomes a herd mentality and there's too many of them, they tend to move the prices up too much. And kind of stifle what their return would be. But I mean, look at the owners Wagner coming up. Like, yeah. I mean, that guy made how much money and how much time? So the card was a auto 2003, 2004 upper deck exquisite collection logo man one of one. Oh, okay. They'll make money. That's $3 million card in years. Maybe not in that long. It's Michael Jordan. What how do you get Jordan's signature these days? I mean, is he even do him? No, I mean, he's I think he's still with upper deck, but he doesn't sign anything anymore. I had my buddy Erlocker plays golf with him twice a year. I was just thinking about like, hey, Brian, can you just ask him to sign a call? Yeah, can ask him to sign these rookie cards I got. You didn't mean to ask me a friend. Can I play that hard? Yeah, how much I do for Erlocker? Anything else we miss, Bill? I mean, just that Pokemon over the last two years has outperformed gold and the S&P 500. Oh, yeah. We didn't miss that. Yeah. But, you know, that's not showing the state of the hobby. I don't know what it is. Don't buy those gold Pokemon cards. Those are fake. Yeah. Hey, look, good story. Good story to close. You know, they say you don't get how on your own supply. Well, I I tend to question that that thought. I was ripping through some Pokemon last night late. Look, I was working on the app at like 1 a.m. Brian. I got to have like some Sandy. So I'm I'm working ripping a pack, working, ripping a pack. Well, mega evolutions. I got the gold mega lucaria. That's the big hitter and that thing like eight packs in. I was just like $700 three months ago. Like three something three three fifty three fifty. What do you have about games? It looks like a 10 to me here that we've got to put it on the microscope. But it could be a 10. It goes to 10 and I'm on $900 card. Well, how does a Pokemon car? It's not like he went on the field and broke a leg or something. Like how does it get her? You know, it's like I'm in here to get a really rough. Yeah, because he got taken out, you know, cars are he gets a little rough and he messed up lucaria. Pretty good. Yeah. It's interesting. No, because of speculation, I guess. You know, hype like everything else is set. It was a mega mega evolution set. And so it comes out. All the cards are overpriced. I think it's now more of where it should be. It probably will be long term. Beautiful card. All gold. But it's not fake. I did not print it and it was in the pack Brian. That's awesome. Good for you. Hard work. Hard work pays off. Stamp late kids. And work. Yeah. And look, I end to be truthful. I wish someone would have just bought that box and ripped it in the store. I wasn't trying to take that opportunity away from someone. It's just if it sits there long enough and I got nothing else to do. I started ripping cards. You're like staring at it. You're like. I had this box. I've been carrying it around for a week and hadn't opened it. And then I was like, I'm going to rip some packs tonight while I'm working. And the street itself is folks. Kids listening. You know, the speculation, opportunity and risk combined with a little stupidity and beer. You too can rip a card of your dreams. Making the next generation of gamblers. I think exactly. I think that's what we're having. I think we're doing that. I think that's more like a stadium club and all those guys can live with themselves. They're the ones doing that. And your friend that got you ripping that tops or the LeBron. Hey shop. Hey shop. Hey shop. Exactly. I'm going to have some of those. What do you get in that card? You getting that card in? I got it. You already got it. It's at home. The LeBron. Yeah. Yeah. I got it like three days later. It was pretty awesome. Dude, you need to bring that on the show next week. I want to see. I'll bring it on the show next week. And sell it to me. I give you 65%. 70. All right. Traded in for Jordan. I'm doing. I think that's all we got. Brian, any final words? No, man. All good. Always a pleasure, man. I appreciate you. Hey guys. We appreciate you. A little loose episode here. A collector nation. This is what it looks like. Two guys. Hey, we like the game as much as we like playing it. And we like bringing it to you. We appreciate you for listening. Hey, you know, to find us first, go to that app store. L-U-D-X. Download. X. Thank me later. Collection management. Values. eBay loading. So that you actually make some money back for all the money that we spend on these things. See where you get digital collection management. You'll change your life. L-U-D-X. L-U-D-X. L-U-D-X. In the app store. And of course, the collector nation. Dot. Com. For Brian Blooden, I'm Ryan Allford. We'll see you next time. I'll click your nation. Thanks for tuning into the show. Be sure to follow us on your go-to podcast platform. And catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at collectornation.com. And follow Ryan on Instagram at RyanAllford. Now get out there and collect yours.