We’re back for Episode 302, and Part 1 sets the table for the whole night. Jeremy and Joe Poirot kick things off with a West Coast Card Show recap, what it’s like seeing the hobby in person again, and why the best parts of collecting rarely show up in comment sections.

Then it’s time for a live moment: the Shields Family T206 Honus Wagner ends during the show and the final price catches us off guard. We compare it to the other Wagner running at the same time, talk eye appeal versus back damage, and react to what the result might actually say about the ultra high end market.

We also connect the dots to the $16.492M Pokémon Illustrator sale on Golden and pull a few practical insights for sports card collectors, especially the difference between buying for love, buying for investment, and buying for status when money stops behaving like money.

Part 1 closes with Joe’s West Coast show ritual: the PC audit, the liquidation run, and the consolidation mindset that leads to a major Jackie pickup.

Listen now, then make sure you’re subscribed because Part 2 moves into Leighton Sheldon and the vintage conversation.

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In this solo episode, I take a step back and look at the hobby through a different lens. Sometimes the best way to understand how something works is to look at the system as a whole rather than focusing on individual opinions or trends.

This episode is more of a thought exercise than a hot take. It is about how different parts of the hobby interact, why movement matters, and what keeps everything functioning whether we notice it or not.

If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to like, subscribe, share it with a fellow collector, and leave a review wherever you listen. Your support helps the show grow and keeps these conversations going.

Thanks for listening.

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A trading card just sold for $16.5 million.

Public record. Headlines everywhere. Attention across the hobby.

But this episode isn’t about celebrating a sale.

It’s about what reflecting on that sale made me realize.

On a walk in Arizona last week, I started thinking about price sensitivity, constraint, and where markets actually move.

At the lowest levels, money often doesn’t matter.

At the highest levels, money often doesn’t matter.

So where does it matter?

And what does that mean for sports cards?

This solo episode unpacks that framework and why understanding it may change the way you interpret big sales and your own buying decisions.

Not investment advice. Just perspective.

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This episode picks up right where the last one left off.

Only this time the book is no longer an idea on a screen. It is sitting in my hands.

About thirty minutes after Amazon dropped off the very first physical copy of POPs and COMPs, I jumped onto a live stream and hit record. No script, no planning, just raw reaction to seeing months of work turn into an actual finished object with my name on the cover.

The audio is not perfect because I forgot to pull the microphone in front of me, but the moment is real. You hear the excitement, the disbelief, and the first impressions as I flip through the pages and realize this thing actually exists.

I also talk about the messy path to publishing, the pricing mistake I made right out of the gate, and how strange it feels to move from writer on a laptop to author holding a book. It is part celebration, part behind the curtain look, and part thank you to the people who helped along the way.

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This is a special solo episode, and it’s a personal one.

I’m looking back on 2025 as a year that quietly changed my life. Not because one huge thing happened overnight, but because a few small decisions snowballed into momentum I didn’t see coming.

In this episode, I take you behind the scenes on what shifted for me, how my routine changed, and why that change ended up fueling my biggest creative stretch yet. It’s the story of how two major projects took shape in parallel, how the ideas actually formed, and what it felt like to build while still showing up every week for the hobby.

I also share a few lessons from the process: what surprised me, what I underestimated, what I had to learn the hard way, and why I’m walking into 2026 with more clarity than I’ve had in years.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, overcommitted, or like you’re sitting on an idea you can’t quite bring to life yet, this one will hit.

Search POPs and COMPs on Amazon.

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This solo episode digs into a question that sits underneath so many hobby arguments. Is the sports card market actually an efficient market?

We start with the basics and define what market efficiency really means. Not the casual version people throw around, but the economic definition used for stocks and commodities. Then we look at the ideas of market equilibrium and rational behavior and ask a simple question. Do sports cards behave anything like those systems?

From there the episode compares cards to markets that are considered efficient, like equities and commodities, and then to markets that feel much closer to our own, such as fine art and luxury goods. Along the way we talk about information gaps, inconsistent grading, thin liquidity, private sales that never hit the comps, and why two cards with the same grade can live in completely different price universes.

There are real threats that come from this inefficiency. Hype cycles burn collectors, bad comps mislead buyers, and new entrants often assume the hobby works like the stock market with pictures. But there are also huge opportunities. Knowledge becomes an edge. Taste matters. Patience gets rewarded. Relationships actually move deals in ways no financial market ever would.

The episode wraps with a simple conclusion. The sports card market is not perfectly rational and it is not purely irrational. It is human. And that might be exactly why many of us love it.

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In this solo episode, I slow things down and explore a question that sits at the center of how many of us collect:

I talk about price as a signal, price as validation, and why using value as a scoreboard can quietly shape our preferences without us realizing it. I also dig into the difference between owning a one-of-one and owning a card that others own too, and why shared ownership can sometimes be more fulfilling than absolute uniqueness.

This episode touches on collecting as a social experience, the role of community and connection, and why owning the same card as someone else can create a sense of belonging that price alone can’t explain. From card bros to family bonding, collecting together adds a layer of meaning that doesn’t show up on a price chart.

This isn’t about right or wrong ways to collect. It’s about asking better questions and understanding why certain cards matter to us when they do.

If this kind of thinking resonates with you, these are the same themes explored more deeply in my upcoming book Pops and Comps, available mid-February.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Agree or disagree, feel free to reach out directly at [email protected].

Join us live on Saturday, February 21st, and we’ll be back to the regular podcast format shortly after that. If you enjoy the show, please consider telling a friend, leaving a rating, or sharing the episode.

Thanks for listening.

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In this solo episode, I slow things down and talk through my personal collection policies, or PC policies, and why I’ve chosen to put certain boundaries in place around what I collect and what I don’t.

These aren’t rules meant for anyone else. They’re filters I’ve developed over time to help me stay focused, intentional, and aligned with my own taste in a hobby where it’s very easy to drift or overspend. I share how some of these policies came to be, how they’ve evolved, and how a few of them led to outcomes I never expected.

This episode isn’t about telling anyone how to collect. It’s about understanding yourself as a collector, the tradeoffs you’re willing to make, and why having constraints can sometimes open more doors than they close. I also talk about when policies make sense, when they don’t, and why buying what simply catches your eye can still be a perfectly valid approach.

If you agree, disagree, or have your own PC policies, I’d love to hear from you.

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Thanks for listening.

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In this solo episode, I slow things down and explore an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time: the hobby either chooses you, or you choose it.

How you enter the sports card hobby shapes how you experience it, how you relate to other collectors, and why certain tensions keep resurfacing year after year. Some of us come to cards organically, through curiosity, nostalgia, and connection. Others arrive intentionally, through opportunity, markets, and money. Neither path is right or wrong, but they lead to very different perspectives.

In this episode, I talk about why those differences matter, where gatekeeping comes from, how the modern hobby ecosystem evolved, and why refusing to let people change over time creates unnecessary friction. I also share my own entry point into the hobby, how my mindset has evolved, and why coexistence matters more than consensus.

This isn’t about telling anyone how to collect. It’s about understanding why we collect the way we do, and how the hobby can be big enough to hold more than one story.

If you agree, disagree, or land somewhere in between, I’d love to hear from you.

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Sports Cards Live returns to its regular live format soon.

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This is another solo episode recorded while I’m away from the live show. No Saturday night Sports Cards Live this week. No panel. No chat. Just me, the microphone, and a collecting idea that’s been on my mind for a long time.

In this episode, I step back and talk about how I think about value, meaning, and enjoyment in the hobby, and how those ideas have changed for me over the years. It’s a personal reflection on collecting philosophy, not a rulebook, and not an attempt to tell anyone else how they should collect.

This conversation touches on how collectors respond to scarcity, checklists, pricing, and external signals, and why different approaches resonate with different people. It’s less about specific cards and more about how we decide what deserves a place in our collection in the first place.

If you’ve ever felt torn between what the hobby tells you is important and what you actually enjoy owning, this episode is for you.

If you have thoughts on this topic or want to share how you approach collecting, you can email me at [email protected]. I read those messages and appreciate thoughtful disagreement.

If you haven’t yet, visit hobbyspectrum.com to take the Hobby Spectrum assessment and explore how collectors approach the hobby in very different ways. Depending on when you’re listening, early access may already be open.

As always, thank you to all the sponsors and partners of Sports Cards Live, and thank you for listening. I’ll have more solo episodes coming while I’m away, and then we’ll be back to the live format soon.

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