Sports Cards are Dope

One Cooper Flagg card sold for $8.04 million. Is it a piece of NBA history worth the price, or a massive bet on what happens next?

I break down both sides of the sale, the Dylan Harper and Kon Knueppel results, and where I land as a collector. Which card would you choose?

You can now submit sports cards for PSA grading at participating Lids locations — but should you?

I break down how PSA GO at Lids works, who I think should use it, the cards I wouldn't submit this way, and the biggest mistake collectors could make now that grading is becoming more convenient. Plus, why PSA moving into mainstream sports retail could have much bigger implications for the sports card hobby.

Sports card shops are changing. After visiting Tom Brady’s Card Vault in Austin, I started thinking about what happens when the traditional local card shop model meets corporate money, rapid expansion, fixed pricing, wax allocation, and investors.

We’re breaking down Card Vault’s model, why negotiating gets harder at scale, the advantages local card shops still have, and what I’d do differently if I opened my own sports card shop.

PSA just launched a new $59.99 Standard grading tier while its cheaper Value options remain paused. On the surface, this could simply be PSA's next step toward reopening cheaper grading—but could it also be a test of what collectors are willing to pay?

We break down PSA's new pricing, the massive grading backlog, what SGC's recent changes could tell us, and the biggest question: when PSA Value returns, will $20–$25 grading return with it?

SGC just changed its grading service levels, with standard grading now starting at $50 as demand and turnaround times surge. But could SGC's move tell us something much bigger about where PSA and the entire card-grading market are headed?

We break down SGC's new pricing, its dramatic grading-volume trends, the PSA comparison, and whether $50 could become the new normal for sports card grading.

Fanatics is experimenting with a completely different way to buy hobby packs—and I spent $100 of my own money to see what it’s actually like.

The cards are physical, the pack opening happens digitally, and collectors can immediately ship, vault, or sell what they pull. That convenience could make hobby products dramatically more accessible—but it also raises some interesting questions about how easy ripping should become.

Timestamps

00:00 Why this could change hobby collecting
03:23 How the digital hobby pack actually works
04:05 I turned $100 into about $7
09:06 The biggest advantages for collectors
12:19 The problem with making ripping this easy

The episode ultimately argues that accessibility is a genuine benefit—especially for collectors without easy access to hobby shops—while acknowledging the spending risks created when buying packs becomes nearly frictionless.

PSA grading has a problem most companies would LOVE to have: too many customers.

After shutting down its Value grading tiers to attack a massive backlog, PSA has now extended turnaround estimates on cards already in the system.

So is PSA failing collectors — or is this actually the ultimate proof of how dominant PSA has become?

We break down the backlog, the frustration collectors are feeling, why people keep submitting anyway, and the one question that matters: How bad would PSA have to get before collectors actually leave?

ALT is taking bids on the massive Cooper Flagg 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch Auto — without actually having the card consigned. And that raises a fascinating question for the sports card hobby: should every major auction house do this?

We break down why this model could give sellers more power, why auction houses might hate the transparency, and whether this could become the sports-card version of free agency for the hobby’s biggest grails.

or it didn't. i dunno. but also i recorded this BEFORE the Cooper was hit. that's on me. 

I spent about $9,000 at The National.

But the craziest part?

Prices were HIGH. Deals on the most desirable players were tough to find, the aisles were packed, and I searched the entire show for one specific card without finding it.

I broke down everything I noticed—and how the trip changed the way I’m thinking about my collection.

New episode is live.