Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

GemRate has earned a place in the hobby in a short time - by bringing data analytic capabilities to pop reports - thanks Ryan for your free GemRate e-newsletter.

Industry veteran Ted Barker discusses exciting current trends in trading card industry events - not just card shows any more - lots more to offer!

Dustin has been a guest here before and has his own YouTube show - but this was a chance for us to exchange questions with each other about the hobby - thanks Dustin!

Should you open your box of sports card product immediately or wait a while? - or flip it unopened?  This dilemma repeats itself every day in the modern hobby - we discussed this  on Hobby Hotline with Val Marz, Adam Palmer, plus live call-ins and commenters.  

Rich and I break down the enigmatic 1981 Donruss baseball card product, which was rushed to market, and hence not their best product in hindsight, and yet by 1984 Donruss was riding high.

Ryan Stuczynski shares his hobby origin story, resulting in his founding of GemRate, which has been steadily gaining traction in the world of making sense of pop reports and grading capacity/velocity.  Thanks Ryan.

Industry veteran, Ted Barker, shares his sports card hobby journey experience, having worked for many of the key players in the industry, now serving visibly at Beckett Media.

Ryan and I continued our discussion of the mysterious allure of 1987 Topps baseball cards, and how that product has played some role in the renaissance of the hobby in the past two years.  Thanks Ryan.

Ryan Fagan, senior baseball writer for The Sporting News, joins me for a discussion of the historical importance of that weekly tabloid, to which I was faithfully subscribed in my early days in this hobby.

We had a three-person question session that was fun with three old-timers reminiscing about the good old days of the hobby (when it really was a hobby) - thanks TS and thanks Rich!