Transcript of PSA Value Tier Is BACK at $39.99… Is It Worth It?

Today on Collector Nation. PSA's Value Tier is back. $39.99 a card. And Ryan Knowles says PSA is the only player in town. 6,000 cards. One FedEx truck. Gone. CTCA founder Nick Jarman weighs in. 5 up, 5 down. Who's moving after Sunday? And a Donruss pack battle. Who pulled the bigger hit?

I'm Ryan Alford.

And I'm Bella Schaefer.

And this is Collector Nation.

Ryan.

Ryan. Ryan and Ryan.

It's, uh, Halloween almost.

Is this a mirror?

It's Halloween almost when this episode's gonna be coming out. We're recording this on a Wednesday.

We're both playing Ryan.

Yeah, so it's Ryan versus Ryan. Be really great for the pack battle we're doing here in a little bit. I'm hoping that some of the luck that you have rubs off and me and the Ryan—

I don't know if that's transitive, but transferative, I should say,

you know,

or transitive.

One can hope. But, you know, I just had to, to honor you as my boss on this Halloween.

I don't know if I take that good. I'll, uh, I'll take it as a compliment, or, uh, you know, I don't know. The gym shorts, I was like, I did kind of give you crap. Like,

hold up, we gotta show the

For the record,

I don't know, you actually can't see, but they go down. Yeah, yeah, they go down to my knees.

They look like men's shorts, but they are. Can we admit that you've never seen me, at least?

No, I felt more like you maybe when you were 15 years old.

Okay. Yeah, that's, uh, that was me in college. That's me. That's like going to class right there.

These shorts are also reversible, so, you know, dual purpose here. Hey, it's pretty comfortable.

I might have to get that garb going.

Yeah, it's your knees. I think Nicole would lose her mind. The

state of grading told like nobody else In the hobby, surface issues.

Today, PSA announced that they are reopening their value tier grading, not their value bulk tier grading. So not to be confused, they opened their, uh, $39.99 grading service, um, per card. Pretty exciting. However, it only has a $500 insurance cap on it. So You know,

I mean, you can't make this stuff up. I thought that was a joke or something. Okay, I hadn't read the fine print as much as you have, but, uh, yeah, it's back. And you know what's funny is we do pre-record this. It's probably something else, you know, new.

Probably,

you know,

with how fast things go. But they— so now this value tier, 90 to 100 days, And the other value tiers have kind of been bumped. So, or not value tiers, the other tiers have been bumped. So they'll be faster. This isn't old submissions. This is just the current new submissions starting today.

I'm trying to figure this out. So there's 7.2 million cards still in the backlog. All this is going to do, and this is not getting back down to the cheapest tier. Because as I recall, that was like in the $20, $25 range. $39, but $39 does open it up. for more entries and more cards that would be considered. But if you got 7.2 mil cards still in backlog and you're saying, hey, value tier, $40, 90 to 120 days, does that mean some of those cards are going to go ahead of cards that are still in the queue, the 7.2?

No. So they made it clear that it was going to be after all of those cards.

So it might be longer than 90. You can get them in, but it's going to— not necessarily going to be 90 to 120.

Um, I mean, it will be within that timeframe. So they're, so they're saying they're going to have the

Your card back to you in 90 to 120 days and the 7.2 million done theoretically.

But you know, we've had submissions in since February, still haven't received them, and we were told, you know, 90 to 100 days, and here we are.

But I mean, they got— we had Colin, uh, from— he's the general manager, he oversees Beckett.

Yep.

Uh, and it's a universal problem. There aren't enough people, not enough graders. So, you know, we're not picking on PSA. It's more just the reality of the number of graders, the number of cards, but how much demand. How long will this stay open?

Yeah, how long? I give it— let's, let's put in our bets. I say, well, okay, so we say that, but the other tier that they opened, you know, like a month ago, I guess, um, that was— how much was it? $60? Yeah, $59.99. has stayed open. Yeah. So I think they're incrementally getting $20 cheaper each time, and their weekly output is up about 50%. So they are taking the necessary steps to get through this backlog. And, uh, their next update is gonna be November 3rd where they come out and say if they're ready for the value bulk. But again, honestly, if I was them, why open the value bulk if you're probably making just as much money and not having to deal with all of the cards That shouldn't be getting graded anyway?

Well, you know, I think that's a— would be a complete policy change, and I don't think they're ready to charge. Yeah, I think they want the business back. They make money, I think, at that tier. So it's just, can they keep up with it? Yeah. So I think it's— you're— it's a fair question, but they're not getting as many, otherwise this backlog wouldn't be going down. So yeah,

they're not getting as many, but the price is higher, so I like— if you're paying 3 times as more for a card—

Oh hey, if you're trying to sell the company and you want that IPO to be as high as possible, you get all the tiers back open because you get all the money coming back in.

I, I mean, they don't

want it. And a lot of stuff's going to other competitors. Yeah, I mean, you know, Beckett's getting— getting more because they haven't been open. Obviously they're closed back now, but hey, CGC's gotten more. Everybody's growing while PSA is down. I mean You don't, if your goal is to sell more and your competitor's to sell less, uh, being these value tiers shut down, you're losing money somewhere.

That is true.

Uh, I do, I do feel like, and even talking to Colin at Beckett, I was surprised that he didn't immediately say, you know, we're probably gonna raise the cost.

Yep. He actually said—

I mean, I'm happy for it, but at the same time, I'm like you. I'm going like, practically though, can they keep up with it? with the volume that comes at those price levels.

Yeah.

And if they can, then great. I mean, I'm for the collector, but I'm for the collector to get what they paid for when they say they'll get it. If they can't deliver that, then price needs to go up. Uh, and

basic supply and demand here.

Yeah.

Um, and I, you know, there's— it's a double-edged sword really. Um, but I'm interested to see how long it will stay open, if it If, you know, they've had— they've built the infrastructure for it to stay open indefinitely, um, or at least, you know, until it becomes a big problem again. But I, I think they've made the necessary steps to kind of prepare for this.

It's still so fascinating, the hobby that we live in here, the hobby and the business that we live in, that we're having these discussions about pricing tiers like every day and like how long things go. It just seems so rude to me, like You know, right?

Like, it shouldn't matter, but it does.

Imagine if you change— talked about like hamburger prices changing every other day and whether or not they'd have them, you know? Like, are they gonna have that $2 burger or not? I don't know.

But you can go to thecollectornation.com and keep up with all of these pricing changes.

Backslash grading.

Backslash grading. Because you can keep up with all these pricing changes and it will give you an up-to-date radar of what company is charging what. Ryan, the He's the official contributor of Collector Nation.

I know, we're gonna get you like a sticker and all that stuff. You know, you are a verified creator, like one of the first, like pioneer on the platform. We appreciate that. What about the state of grading,

man? There's another hot topic, right? It's crazy to me because I think I actually heard Bella just say this the other day, uh, on one of your shows, or a clip I saw. That if any other company did the same things that PSA does in the world, they would be like completely ran out, uh, shut down, ostracized from the world. But they are so powerful that they can literally do whatever they want. I mean, I always say it this way, it's great for me because I'm a breaker, right? It would be like me saying, okay, it's $100 a spot to get into this break. You hit, you get your randomized team, whatever. Now this monster card comes out and I'm like, yo, Ry, if you want this card, you gotta send me another $1,500. Like, what? Maybe, maybe I'll come back. Dude, it's wild. It's wild. But you know, they're the only player in town and you know, it's crazy what's going on with that heist. I mean, it's, you know, it seems to me it's very obvious that's an inside job. On some level, uh, I won't say my opinions on where, but I mean, come on, you don't leave a million-dollar truck just unattended, you know?

Come on, I'm raised in Philly, bro.

I lived in Manhattan for 6 years. I'm from South Carolina, but I, uh, I don't know that it matters if you got a brain. Something's a little fishy, and it ain't the tuna.

Big sales, big moves, big news. The headlines.

Talking about, you know, the FedEx truck, we were talking to Nick with the CTCA earlier today, actually.

Yes, we were.

Um, about, you know, the state of the hobby and how, uh, we are kind of getting a control under theft and counterfeit and all these, you know, bad players that are creeping into this field faster than we can really keep up. And he actually had some really interesting points about this that, um, I think would be helpful for our audience.

We'll go to them. Nick Jarman right here. Talking to Nick Jarman. He is the founder and CEO of Certified Trading Card Association. Nick, what you're doing with, uh, Certified Trading Card Association, what you're doing there, I mean, it's much needed. Uh, talk about that. Um, talk about it being independent.

Yeah, I appreciate that. And yeah, so we are an independent 501 nonprofit organization. Uh, by law we have to be transparent in, in pretty much everything that we're doing, but that's what I believe in from the start. Uh, we want to be the trust infrastructure of the hobby, and so trust, transparency, accountability, all of that comes into play with what we're doing. You know, that's why I agree with you, just kind of the blue ocean of opportunity. Uh, you know, I come from the credit and collection field for 28 years, and about half of that I spent with the trade association. And I saw what regulation can do, both good and bad. And, you know, noticing that the hobby was growing, exploding at a rate that it probably wasn't going to be able to keep up with, I knew that something had to be done. And I thought, why not me, to be able to help put it—

I mean, it's the biggest story in the hobby the last couple weeks, right down the alley of what we're talking about. Uh, what's your thoughts on everything that went down with this FedEx and PSA theft that happened?

I, I think it's very unfortunate. Um, obviously people have their opinions whether it was an inside job or not, but I mean, when you hear 2 pallets of 6,451 cards go missing—

And you were ready to, with your, uh, your forklift. Oh, hmm, I'm just robbing this truck. I have no idea what's in here. I'm just gonna grab some boxes. Uh, let me, I'm gonna bring a forklift with me. that perfectly fits these pallets.

They got cameras and they never leave the trucks unattended. I mean, this is PSA's responsibility and they are the ones that, you know, unfortunately hire FedEx to transport their deliverables and it didn't get from one point to the other. So hopefully that's a lesson learned and there's some security measures that are in place that, you know, you just can't always trust private companies. to make sure things get done.

From the, like, the CTCA's perspective, I mean, where do you see your role in stuff like this?

I think on this, this type of story, I mean, we're focused on the collector. I mean, right at the end of the day, regardless of membership companies, this is a collector experience and it's a bad one. And, you know, the companies need to right the wrong. And, you know, as, as the CTCA and trying to be that voice of the hobby, You know, we can then, you know, we have the Global Trading Card Registry. We have all the cards listed on there. We encourage people to check that before they make a purchase so that they're not screwed in the long run by purchasing a stolen card. But, you know, we have reached out to PSA. We have not heard back, but we have, you know, we would love to work with them and find ways to make sure that this type of stuff doesn't happen again.

Yeah, so I mean, I was listening to this, this interview and I found it really fascinating, his points. Um, and another really interesting point that I had seen was that they came out and said that roughly $1 million worth of cards was stolen off this truck. If that were true, the average card price would be about $149.

Yeah.

I don't think that is a realistic thing, especially when the price of grading is what it is. For people to only set the average card price to be that, that means that there's cards less and higher than that.

Yeah. And doesn't it seem like, uh, but it seems like it'd be easy to get caught in a lie here because everybody that had their cards graded would come out, come together, or at least go, hey, I had mine. I don't know. So yeah, I think you could be able to call that bluff if they were completely lying.

Yeah. And some of the cards that were stolen off this truck that they know about, um, is, and these are one-of-ones. A 2026 Topps Silver Pack Ohtani Super Gold.

Is this the list of cards we're buying really cheap if somebody wants to sell? Oh, sorry. Oh, I'm just kidding.

Um, a bad joke. 2023 Leaf Vibrance Steph Curry Auto Gold 1 of 1. A 2025 Panini Black Box Trevor Lawrence Encased Rookie Auto Gold 1 of 1.

I saw you putting some cards in the case earlier. Sound a lot like— and you took that trip Okay.

You can't tell my secrets, Ryan.

I know. God. I'm kidding. We don't need the FBI calling us. Yeah.

This is all a joke. This is all a joke. I repeat.

All part of the bit. Yes. It's all big cards.

But something that's interesting to me is these are all 1-of-1 cards.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It makes it very difficult to sell them.

It also makes it really difficult to comp them what they're worth so that you're actually getting an accurate number for what the cards in that were stolen are worth. So that already calls to question the $1 million, and it also makes it really hard for you to declare what they're worth to get an accurate representation for what these collectors should be getting back from their stolen cards.

Here's the bigger thing. One of two things have happened. These cards will never effectively be able to sell again, or they're gonna become, uh, like legends.

Yeah,

they're eventually pop back up, or they get thrown into the— like, they eventually hit the market again somehow legally, and they're, they're just become these mythical lore things that got stolen. So they're either gonna, you know, multiply in price or never be sold again. So one of one, right?

No, that's a great point.

I mean, so because they're one-of-ones, they can't just hit the market because if they do, they immediately get— they're gonna get gobbled up. So they're probably gonna sit in some collector's special box somewhere like in Switzerland or China or somewhere offshore from the US, I would imagine. And they're gonna get them cheap because they're not gonna be able to display them or resell them.

Yep.

For a while. And then like 30 years from now, they'll resurface for sale.

Yeah. And I mean, like, even if they sent them, cracked them out of the case, sent them back to the grading company, the grading company probably has them flagged for something. So

Hey, I mean, it may have been an inside job, but they didn't— they took the 101s with— they took the completely unsellables, even if they'd be the highest ones.

Yeah.

So, I mean, it does— it raises an interesting question. They're effectively worthless now for at least temporary until—

Priceless.

Priceless or worthless, one or the other. And today they're worthless, potentially long-term priceless. What a interesting situation.

Yeah, it's, it's like stolen jewels, you know? Like stolen jewels.

Yeah, but you could track. Yeah, jewels are almost impossible to know it's one-on-one.

Yeah. Um, and another card that was in this mix, uh, is a 1935 National—

Oh, you can find those anywhere.

A Bronco Nagurski rookie card, uh, which was a PSA 7— if it PSA'd 7, is worth $402,000. Okay, so the customers know what this card graded. We don't know what the card graded. However, even at a PSA 2, $19,000.

Right.

So you're telling me that the average card in that truck was $149?

I'm telling you that, uh, that's what they said it was.

So

anyway, it raises a lot of questions.

Yeah, definitely does. And like I said, Nick Jarman over at the CTCA had some really good points, and, uh, you should go check out his pages, and I'm sure You can learn even more about, uh, what has happened over there.

Oh, the provenance and registering every card. And in a way, they kind of are it if they're graded already. Everything is registered because everybody has cert numbers and you can find them. But a single registry, you know, makes sense.

It definitely does.

Still doesn't answer the raw card question.

And protects the collector. And at the end of the day, that's what we're all here for, protecting the collector.

That last sale was an outlier and you know it. Last Comp Lies.

So we talk a lot about comps and, you know, how they lie.

Yes.

But something interesting that we're seeing right now is that sealed sports product and sealed Pokémon product are both higher, doing better right now. They're both selling for higher, both doing better, even in the modern product. However, the modern cards for established sports cards, they're down 1.4%. And new release sport cards are down 5.1%, whereas newer Pokémon sets are down 11.6% and the older sets are up 2.5%.

Yeah.

So,

and this is a window. I think that's really important on the year. We're still like gargantuanly up. This is a window of this like 3 or 4 weeks of this month. But yes, I think we have a leveling out. I think you had a lot of things going on, especially on the Pokémon side. You had 30th coming out, they printed a ton of it, and a lot of it hit the market, so values came down. Some of the other stuff went down because everybody was interested in 30th.

Yep.

So you had a lot of rip-roaring rapids going on, uh, you ripping new packs of 30th. And so I think that plays into the Pokémon side.

I also think people haven't really been that thrilled with the sets that are coming out recently. Or they're not—

Before the 30th.

Well, I meant— Universally. Universally.

Yeah.

And they're not getting necessarily the hits that they want. And so it behooves them to keep it sealed because they're not making the money off it and they can resell it and, you know, keep it in their vault for a year, 5 years, 10 years, and, you know, potentially quadruple their money. And they're seeing the, the vintage market or the, you know, mid-modern era market cards are exploding right now. Even if they hit rate isn't that good. Like, the hit rate, especially for Pokémon, I feel like in certain sets the hit rate could be like nothing. Like, the highest card you're gonna get is $200, but that set for some reason sealed sells for like thousands of dollars. Like, yeah, why?

I don't— that's a great anomaly that I don't have an answer for other than that they have an assumption that it's going to be, I don't know, valuable long term. Maybe it's the supply of that sealed. I— that has never made Quite— because I look at that a lot too, because we're buying sealed for the store, and I'll look at older stuff to bring in, and I'm like, I know that set doesn't have the biggest hits. Why is a booster box $424? You know,

it makes no sense to me.

Yeah.

And I get it when you have the, like, chance of hitting a big card. Like, I know that there's certain sports sets that the, like, biggest card still hasn't been hit, which— not to play conspiracy theories, but

Might have been on a truck. Yeah, might have. Or it might be in the back room of one of the manufacturers, never hit the market. I don't know.

Yeah, so I don't know. I think it's very interesting and a little wacky. And then there obviously is certain things in the hobby that are very wacky, um, and I just think that that's one of them.

It's been here, it's been weird the last— I'll say this, the last like 2— like the boys and I rip a lot of sports. We've ripped the least We probably have in 2 years the last 45 days. Because the rookie class sucks in football. Sorry, all really great gentlemen, I'm sure. But, uh, not— this is no reflection of, uh, my judgment of them as people or players, but it's not a great rookie class as far as, uh, awareness and getting seen because they're not playing.

Yep.

You know, the quarterback— Mendoza's, uh, no single—

7 minutes.

Yeah, 7 minutes all year. He's the high— He was the poster child of the draft and of the class, and he's seen the field 7 minutes. He— and he's got— had as much pub as anybody, won the Heisman Trophy, won the national championship, all the pub in the world, and he's 7 minutes on screen on game day. Sorry, it's going to lead to what's been happening with or without the license, you know, like Topps.

Yep.

Like, no offense to Topps, they can't help— they can't— they can control everything, but The draft class.

And that's why Mr. Josh Allen is

on the COVID of, yeah, of the Topps Chrome soon to come out. It's a smart move. It'll make me buy more just because he's on the COVID

But I know you're probably gonna have a poster printed out of you like praying to the Josh Allen gods.

No, I won't do that. I might have it like cut out of the box or something. But yeah, but it all— but for real, it's— that's why, because it's like, it hasn't been— I will say Here's where kudos to Topps. I wasn't a big fan of Flagship, and mainly because they have something they can't control, which is the rookie class, but partly because, geez, ripping a bunch of Blasters and Megas, getting absolutely no numbered cards, nothing. You already know the players aren't going to be there as far as a rookie class. Yeah. So nothing to get me excited otherwise. The, the holiday boxes Have been we've opened three or four of these. This is a fun rip. They did what they needed to do. Okay, you still got some paper product. They blended it in. They created these little Easter eggs, different things on the cards, and they this isn't new by the way. So don't don't like come at me and say oh that's not new. I know it's not new, but it feels like it's definitely more elevated and in more things. So you've got heritage football, and then you've got. all the holiday boxes, both baseball and football.

And just those little Easter eggs, the little hits and things like that. And then the Dak Prescott. Yeah, pretty fun. We got one last night, by the way. Really? Yeah, it says F cancer, uh, but spelled out completely. And what's funny is I'm probably gonna make a custom— my wife had breast cancer and recovered, but I'm probably gonna like do a custom card of that. Nice. In pink though, right? So husband's gonna help me, uh, do that. But, uh, but nonetheless, I think they did a good job. making up for that with some of the Easter eggs and some of the little things. Yeah, I don't think they necessarily did that on purpose. Supposedly it's an error. I think they probably knew, but nonetheless, they're doing what they should do when you don't have a great plastic. You gotta create some other excitement.

I do think it's funny that they release a holiday set in October.

Who's hot? Who's not? One to watch. 5 up, 5 down.

Well, another week of football has come and gone.

Yes.

And, uh, there was, there was some movement in the card market. We've seen, um, Joe Burrow somehow, somewhere, somewhat pulled a rabbit out of his hat on that game. 35 consecutive points. I don't know, I don't know where he did that.

That's a total Joe Burrow move though. I mean, he's kind of Joe Smooth. Like, I, I gotta say, like, I already have, you know, like, 2 of the best quarterbacks in the league, so that feels a little bit like cheating. You know, I like both of them before they were stars.

Yep.

Joe would be like, there was going to be a runner-up of favorite players. He'd be on there.

See, Joe Burrow, what, like, I watched him when he was in college and I like, I love a good underdog story. So him like not doing well until his senior year, like I—

He wasn't to be the underdog. He's got a lot of swag now.

So

I think people are finally like, he's a really good player. They've had bad defenses. They've been in a lot of I don't know. I think their coach is still a little bit of a bozo. Sorry. But people want him to go higher. Yeah. They want his car. He's a quarterback. He's flamboyant. He's good. There's been a lot of reasons.

Frosty tips.

Yeah. All those things. Yeah. Frosty tips. A little bit of a bad boy. I mean, you know.

Yep.

But anyway, I do think the market's dying for him to go up. And so if he does anything remotely good, oh, up.

Yeah.

And I've been, I think he's a gamer and his market should be healthy, but I think it's a sensitive market. It wants that. People are dying for Joe Burrow cards to be higher.

Yep. I agree.

Same one with this next one a little bit, myself included. Bo Nix is, I think, a little bit better of a, more of a Boy Scout. And he's good and very, let's just say he's a little bit, he's up and down sometimes. I'm like, is this guy any good? And then he makes a throw or a run or something. I'm like, he's very good. I still can't, I don't know if the jury's out completely. Clearly a franchise-level quarterback, but whether he's tier 2 or tier 3, I'm not sure yet.

Yeah, I have a weird preference towards the Broncos. Maybe it's 'cause I really love Colorado. I don't know. But I like subtly in the back of my head, like always am rooting for him. So his 2024 Select Premier Black and Green card is up 240, sorry, 274% over the last 30 days. So his cards are up too. And then we got Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

His card should be up the most because he's like, he's on pace to break the NFL, uh, receiving yard record, which hasn't been like even remotely been close in a long time. And then he's an absolute terror on the field. Like,

yeah,

you, the, the defense know he's coming. And they still can't stop him. I mean, he— so funny, they said on this, the— I thought about it, he's not a burner, but he starts and stops fast. He stops faster than most. Like, he can get going quickly and he can stop quickly, and his cuts are great. So he's a beast.

Yeah, I'd agree.

I hate the receiver. That's the only thing I don't love about the market. It's like, if you're a skill player, I'm not saying you're gonna be quarterback value, but the skill players, the running backs and the wide receivers, should get a little more oomph on the card values. Sometimes it blows me away.

Yeah, no, I agree. And especially 'cause like a receiver is like the second, you know, you have the quarterback, but then the receivers are the next people that you think about. So like, why are their markets not the same? Yep. Then we have Ted McMillan, his 2024 Bowman Chrome U.

Just buy him.

Just buy his stuff.

I'm just saying he's, he's a beast. And yeah, I would just, he's a safe bet. I mean, unless he gets hurt, it could be any player. I would just be buying his. Yeah.

His, his Bowman Chrome U is up 75%. And then we have Mr. Irrelevant.

It's probably right down, like, it probably ended up down like a couple days. I know these data might have been a day or two ago, like, probably started trending down just because he threw those picks and all that.

But, but he's still—

no, he's still probably MVP candidate if he gets his guys back, and he can pick that back up. Nobody's gonna have perfect game in the NFL. Everybody's good.

Yeah. So, and you know whose gameplay really surprised me this week was, uh, the Seahawks defense. And the lack of a Chiefs offense.

Yeah, you— I wonder who picked that game when 90% of the public was on the Chiefs. That would have been the system.

CollectorNation.com/picks.

Seahawks -3 and like heavy. We had them winning by 10, I believe, and they end up winning by like 17, 20.

And I think we're at 22-9.

Everybody's like, Chiefs 22-9 and 1 too against the spread. Yeah, unheard of. Most people pay for that percentage.

Yeah.

Uh, yes, I'm gonna call it AIR pick system. AI and Ryan.

Oh, I was like, what's the R?

AI crunches the numbers, but then I apply the human, like, sharp, better layer of, like,

of their

play, watching way too much football for way too, you know, like little nuances seem to be helping. We'll see. We're on a hot, hot ish streak, but we've won 6 out of 7 weekends, like winning. Yeah, so

yeah,

you never know though, it could flip around.

You never know. Um, and how'd your— your boy—

I was betting on that. I'd say no.

How's your, uh, boy T-Law and, and, uh, Josh Allen doing this week?

Uh, good. I mean, they had, they had byes both. Oh, that— I'll tell you, that's a, that's a bummer.

Your 2

favorite players get a bye on the same weekend. Who were— the NFL gods didn't help me out there, you know? Like, that can't happen.

No.

But at least now I know there'll be never more. They'll be all straight through

the

rest, the rest of the season.

Oh, it'll be unfortunate if they, uh, meet in the playoffs again and then you have to pick.

I will say, and I, you know, I brought some of his cards. I've been buying them, was buying them way before he showed out. Like I said, his upside— JJ McCarthy.

Yep.

I've made quite a penny on, uh, buying him at the bottom of the market. Now I don't know if it's responding fast enough. He's had 2 really good games. He looked good again. I'm like, Minnesota, 5th round draft pick for that? Like, he looks like, he looks kind of like Jaxon Dart out there. Dart can run a little bit. Like, they look like similar players.

And he's probably happy to have been traded.

Yeah. Oh, he's, this is a, this is his tryout to get a big contract next year. Like, this is perfect for him. And so I've been buying his cards. So got a few more here. It's still undervalued, I think. Um, I've got more coming. Downtown's Kabooms. Oh my, uh, it's a little bit of everything.

Yeah, I saw, I saw the shipments come in on Monday and I was like, oh, yep, JJ, JJ, JJ across the board.

And those were ordered before the game on Sunday. So like, again, it's less that Ryan is saying JJ's going to be perfect the rest of the year. He's an all-star. He should have— his market had nowhere to go but up. He's a quarterback. He's on the Giants, the New York team. He's got awareness built. It has nowhere to go but up. It can't really go that many— yeah, it could go a little bit down, but it's not gonna hurt your pocket.

And he's got the headlines behind him.

Yeah, exactly. So

people love a story. People love this.

I almost don't like giving this out because then everybody's fighting me on the eBay auctions, you know, like they were. Like, I mean, I was buying stuff 3 weeks ago Oh man, it was no competition. Now,

so who are you selling this, this halfway or a little about halfway through the season?

I, I don't know that I'm sell— I, I'm rarely selling anything 'cause I'm always playing the long game, but except for little things like JJ. Oh, I'm putting, tucking away, like I've got my personal collection of stuff of his I'm taking away, but then day trading on duplicates of those cards. I'm not, I don't know that I'm holding anything that I'm going, I got to get this gone. I think, trying to think of who I would be selling. I don't know that, you know, Cam Ward is suddenly playing a little bit better. I would have been on the fence if I didn't have a ton of his, I had a few, but I would have been probably on the fence and might still, while you got a little reprieve. I don't know if I've seen enough that if you're heavily in it, I might let a few go.

Yeah.

And that doesn't mean I don't— I think he's a good quarterback. I don't think he's like a fraud or anything. Like, I'm not going to say like if I did, I'd go sell, sell, sell. I think that I'd be watching his market. Tennessee, I just don't believe in as a, as a program overall.

They're a little weak. I mean, you don't, you don't really hear about them very often. So we'll see. What games are you excited for this coming weekend?

You know, my Clemson Tigers play Florida State. We're now 4-3, firmly out of it. And I think we might get our ass handed to us this weekend just because Florida State's played well but lost. They played really good teams, though. This would be their chance if they— if Norvell, their coach, still has them in it. And I think they— he does. It might not be pretty. I don't think they're going to be like 50 to nothing or anything, but it could be like a 34 to 10 beatdown or something. Like, I don't have a good feeling. Well, that's 7 p.m. funeral. I mean, party.

Hey, we gotta be optimistic here.

I'm a realist though.

Yeah, that's fair.

I'd say the same thing. And then whoever— I had seen it but don't remember who my guys are playing, but it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, victory's coming. Winter is coming and so is victory, and you either get that or you don't, my Game of Thrones junkies.

Cheaper than real therapy, probably. Pack Therapy.

You ready?

I'm ready. What are we doing? Opening that Donruss?

Yep.

Okay. Hey, it's usually like 1,000 packs. Yeah, no, not that bad. Does that say 80 cards? 10 by 6.

All right, so we picked up a little Wreck League—

I mean Donruss.

Donruss Blaster. I know, I was actually—

professional football box. It's not an NFL box.

Yep. So they have college and, uh, the NFL. And that really threw me off because I was like, what teams are these? And so— Why?

Because there's no logos on it?

Yep, really threw me off. And I was like, well, I'm really—

It's the Detroit, uh, Rec League.

Yeah, yeah, Detroit Rec League. Ohio State Rec League.

Uh, he's— he retired, but he's playing now for the new Rec League in Detroit known as the Vipers. I, I don't know, made that up, but It kind of looks like it.

Yeah, so I'm excited. Okay, so

I think that's like the mem card. I want you to have the mem.

Oh, thanks.

Non-game worn. Yeah, correct.

We got our pack battle for the week, and this is sponsored by Chris. If you need to move this, you can.

Sponsored by who?

Chris.

Yes,

Chris helped us secure this Donruss. Otherwise, we were going to be opening some Heritage Football. All right. I'm currently winning in opening the, uh, pack over here.

Uh-oh. I'm going slower. Oh, did I get the mem? I tried to give you the mem and I got it.

Damn it. Okay. I hate when they keep flipping the cards. Oh, we got a little pink card here.

Whoever gets the downtown, you know, the other one has to buy 'em dinner or something.

Let's see. Ooh. Okay. Wait, I like this insert.

Oh, look at that.

Um, I have a Ray Lewis.

Ray Lewis, one of the greatest linebackers. Oh, that's a nice corner right there. That really ups the resale value. Look at that thing.

Oh, yep.

Yep.

Soft Corners Club.

Yes. Welcome newest member.

All right. Yep. Whole bunch of paper.

Oh yes. Brett Favre beans, man. Every other card turned the other way. Come on.

Yeah, I, I was gonna say that's, uh, very annoying.

Paul Krause. David Carr with the Houston Rec League Texans. Up, up. Mark Rippon. Ooh, that's a, Some kind of variation there. Red, that's gotta be numbered, right? Maybe not. Maybe, possibly. I gotta get it in the light here. Nope. Mark ripping, Mark ripping packs. That'd be a good one. Hey, DeSean Jackson, he's very fast. Oh,

all right,

Bryce Underwood on the— wow, really shiny fancy card. Too bad he's got benched, but that's still a cool looking card.

I like that insert.

Is that numbered?

I love a good pink insert.

Hey, that is nice. Okay.

Okay. Let's see.

So did I win the first round there?

I think we're about tied.

Tied? What'd you get?

Uh, we're not tied.

What?

I didn't look at the, uh, I thought you said— Oh my God.

I got a co— I got a rainbow over here.

Pack number 2, we got Art Monk. I really hate how these cards are flipped.

Uh, it's so annoying.

Joe Greene.

Me and Joe Greene.

And Bernie Kosar. I like Bernie Kosar.

Weekend at Bernie Kosar's.

Oh, look at that.

Hey, I feel like I've seen Seen him before.

Keith Butluck. There's a Bullock.

Keith Butluck. He's my favorite player, Butluck.

Oh man. My eyesight did me dirty.

Hey, Bullock, that's a nice auto though. Is that on card?

No sticker. Okay. Because why would it be on card? Still, this just looks like he took his kids and had them scribble on the card.

I gotta see that. Whoa, it's on thick. Hey, that's nice. Out of a blaster. Come on. Keith Butler.

Oh, okay. Another insert. Marcus Allen. Haha.

All right.

So it looks like I'm winning.

Only thing memorable about that is nothing. Deion Sanders in the red outfit. Donovan McNabb. All I think about him is soup commercials. DeMarcus Ware.

I already pulled the auto, so.

Okay. Tavion St. Clair. Didn't he, he play on Saturday? He's the backup. Up, up. What do we have here? Oh, he is, he is very good at football. Charles Becker, the, the wide receiver for Indiana. This guy's going to be the first receiver taken, top 10 pick next year for sure. Oh, look at there, another shiny pink.

I'm really loving the pink representation in this set.

I will say Donruss is doing exactly what I said they had to do, which is put a lot of like cool flashy inserts in. Mm-hmm. To make up for the rec league jerseys. And they've done it. Gronkowski. All right, there we go.

All right. Last pack,

man.

Let's see. And you, okay. I got the auto. I don't wanna hear it.

Just 'cause it's an auto doesn't mean it's all but luck.

Uh, it was the confidence in which I said it too.

Yes. I think that's what it was really. So, all right.

Orlando Pace.

He was a very good offensive line. What is this?

Elite Deck TJ Moore.

Oh yeah. Woo. That's a good looking card for the good guys.

Okay. Also pink.

Did we get any sleeves? No.

Nope. 'Cause why would I become, why would I be prepared enough for sleeves?

I'll hold up your card to my camera. That's definitely the coolest card we've gotten. Look, see, that's what I'm saying. They did right by the insert.

Yeah. I got you an elite deck. Oh, and an auto of 2 random players though. But he's not exactly who you'd want.

TJ Moore's cool. I mean, you know, just 'cause he drops the ball a lot doesn't mean we don't love him still. So Clemson guy. All right. Champ Bailey, Walter Jones. Yeah. Not Arch Manning Bell. Ashton Daniel. Oh God. I had to get him. That's a bad sign. That's who Clemson has to play on Saturday.

Uh-oh. Dun dun dun.

Uh-oh. Who we got here? Micah Ford on the pink. Oop. Mario Williams on the pink Elite. Donruss Elite. Oh no, I'm getting all Clemson. Has to play them too. Lenore Sellers.

Well, we'll play this back when we first saw that.

He's pretty good though. He's been suddenly, suddenly towards the end of the year when we have to play him, suddenly playing better. Yeah, of course.

All right, so the 2 best cards that were pulled, we have our Keith Butluck. Sorry. And, uh, our TJ Moore, and both pulled by yours truly. Oh, so I think I won.

But let's just go to, okay, who has the most upside? Well, let it— let— we would say again, because it can't get any worse, Bryce Underwood, who should eventually get it figured out. Charlie Becker, who's going to be a top 10 draft pick, best wide receiver after Mr. You-Know-Who at Ohio State. And Tavian St. Clair, next in line at Ohio State. So the upside The, the, the best upside's over here. The maybe is over there. Just kidding.

Why do you steal my joy? Why?

I'm just speaking facts because Butlock, I mean, Butlock has no upside. He's already retired. And TJ Moore, you know, sometimes less is more, but hopefully he's got upside too. He's good. I, I'll admit you won that, that battle.

My, my cards are cooler and this one's embossed and that's the

best card.

Yeah. So, okay. Pack battle won. I won it. So I think that's Bella won Ryan like $10 million and I'll take it.

Yeah, you get it.

What's dropping, what's worth it, and what's already gone. Release Radar.

Hey, we're closing out. A few releases before, well, I mean, we'll have another episode, but it won't be this type of newsy episode. Flagship Basketball. comes out next week. I'm anxious to see this. You got a lot of prospects again, uh, so which is good. It is the flagship, the paper product. Be interesting to see how they— if they've updated it all, if it's going to feel exactly like football did. Mhm. I think it helps it immediately though is lots of rookies that are playing already that are in market, so you already know who's kind of a few weeks in and who's real and who's Yeah, maybe a little shaky and it take a little time. And so I think that helps, but I think it'll be interesting to see how sales go. We've got a lot of it coming in.

I'm excited to see it. And correct me if I'm wrong, but AJ DeBonce hasn't played yet because he's been injured. And obviously that was, you know, one of the people that everyone's been anxiously awaiting and anticipating. So I'm curious to see how his market responds to this release. And, you know, being injured right off the bat of your rookie season doesn't bode well for you being a resilient player in the future.

Potentially.

And I'm curious if the market responds to that.

I think the market will respond if he continues to get injured. If he comes back and he's like out again at some point in the season, you'll see the market respond.

Yeah,

I think he'll get a little reprieve. What, you know, he wasn't injury-prone at BYU like every— I mean, he had a couple little things, but he wasn't like forever on the bench. So we'll see what happens. The, uh, but I do like— excited for that. You got other— come other— some other high-end releases. Bowman Football Sapphire, bring it up, go chase it. Big upside, big risk. Bowman U Best Football, you got some major prospects in that coming out the end of October. Uh, that will be out by the time this goes live.

Yep.

Uh, so

handout today is Topps Five Star Baseball, um, 6 packs of 1 card each, so you get 6 cards and, uh, $1,000

plus.

Yep. It, uh, originally was selling for almost $1,200 and, uh, now is at $2,250. So,

and

pretty big upside there.

This came out last week. Bo Jackson Battle Arena. Wouldn't miss them. That came out last week.

Huge fans of the Bo Jackson Battle Arena over here.

Yeah, we'll be carrying that at the store here in the next couple weeks.

I love the hot dog cards that they give you.

Right.

Always fun.

And, uh, yeah, so check that out. Fun. We have the game here. Been pretty hot product, hard to get. You'll see it occasionally at like Dick's or some of the other large retailers if you can find it, but we will have it here. at Collector Station. Get a Mahomes—

Mahomes

or Mahomes—

Mahomes and Butlock—

Merlomes. Like all the— well, mine at least had a different spelling of it. Oh,

I thought you were actually just saying it wrong.

No, I don't do things like that. I'm just kidding. But, uh, yes, they do all these characters. It's fun. So you can get an auto on, and all autos are pretty good. They're all on-card too. Hint hint. on-card autos, you know.

No hate to anybody, but yeah. Anything else, Ryan?

That's it. Go download the app. Yeah, go check us out.

Go follow us on YouTube if you're not already watching there, or go watch us over at the Collector Nation app. Uh, you can see Ryan and Ryan 2.0.

Happy Halloween.

Yeah, happy Halloween. Go, uh, get your candy. Hope your Halloween costumes are good. Um, and hope everyone has a safe time doing whatever you do on Halloween.

Totally agree. We'll see you next time right here on Collector Nation.