I got back in around the pandemic. Working from home is great but sometimes boring so I collect to break up the monotony. The whole thing has the drama (sometimes good and sometimes bad) of wrestling or a thrilling TV series... IG - It's entertaining to say the least. It's cool to see passionate col...

I also wonder how these dealers are always getting new inventory, seemingly every few weeks some of these big IG accounts are always showing off their new 100k of pickups. And they aren't getting them from auctions, and they are looking to liquidate the pickups immediately for a profit. Who on earth...

Maybe it just shows the current state of things, that this doesn't even sound all that bad to me. If you're going to let 1 person or a couple pretend people hype up a card and that alone influences you to spend more, well then you're kind of to blame IMO. Many accounts on IG hype and pump shit left ...

Do you think it does more harm or good for the hobby? I think if they deleted the "CL Value" is would be great, but trying to guess the value of a card seems really really stupid to me, let the collector make their own decision without outside influence.

Reading these kinds of posts always feels like a much needed detox for my brain from the IG machine. IG just glamorizes money and status. People fawning over people who would slit your throat to make a few bucks. I will never understand why people look up to these so called "dealers'. Like OMG ...

Even reading that old forum post, I haven't the faintest idea of what Nick U did. I don't know if there is some type of "hobby cabal" but I'm too new to know the history. I'll buy anyone a coffee if they're willing to go in depth on the history of it all but you gotta name names.

Just curious if anyone has thoughts on this topic. I wonder how many people that got back into the hobby are going to stick around and what the average duration a card stays in someone's PC. I see so much action and so much sales volume on cardladder and I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad t...

Grading is overall good for the hobby imo, as things like TAG become more accepted, the other companies will need to improve (hopefully). While I do find it frustrating that there is no transparency, and that the same card can get different grades, I do think they get it right most of the time. It g...

This may just be me looking at things with tinted glasses, but I think people collecting for the sake of building curated PCs of players/teams/etc.. are definitely in the minority nowadays. It seems like the majority of what I see on social media is people who "collect" cards, but what th...

I also think in 10 -20 years we'll back with some nostalgia for the current products. Like we do for 90s. Over time the cream will rise to the top, the junk will be forgotten. Right now we compare the very best 90s sets and cards to everything panini shits out every year, which isn't really fair - n...

I feel like the term collector has changed. Had an interesting convo with a buddy so credit to him, but he said people don't collect the same, no sets just more of curation. If its not a big card or super rare we don't want it - I'm guilty of this, I have some lower end stuff too but it doesn't get ...

I think the golden age of collecting is still to come. Cards are cooler, we have more access than we ever did before with ebay and comc etc, theres more knowledge. It's an easy take to shit on fanatics but we should give them a chance... I feel like people tend to complain when any type of change ha...

Damn selling that molten metal fusion MJ for 1k back then wasn't bad. Crazy to think where it is now though

2003 black diamond rainbow /10. Working on it slowly - its like a good tv show / book you that you don't want to end, so go slow Nice! Love that set. I've picked a few of those rainbow parallels (I think they're called correct?) over the years. Might have one or two of those for you. I'm definitely...

2003 black diamond rainbow /10. Working on it slowly - its like a good tv show / book you that you don't want to end, so go slow

I don’t remember a time they were not popular and expensive. Beckett wrote an article about how stupid the set was (base set) but that couldn’t be further from the public perception in NY. All the kids and teens loved it. The PMG’s were a myth to most and the low print run added to the allure. Reme...

Thanks Ryan, do you know when the football license runs out for Panini? I'm kind of interested to see what happens to the GU and Auto market after Fanactics get the licenses and if Panini releases a ton of product like you said above. I learned recently from a wise collector that most people see aut...

Just curious if you guys know when the licenses end for panini, and what products we can expect from Fanatics. Will there still be unlicensed cards from Panini similar to what upper deck does?

Also do we expect more autos and crazy shield / logoman cards to keep flooding the market?

Maybe my initial post was wrong, I guess basketball PMGs were a big chase card for collectors right from the initial release. Although no where near there current prices, it does explain a lot.

Curious over what period time they gained such popularity. Based on the data on cardladder, the football at least, really took off in 2021 and were not expensive at all in 2019 - but I hear basketball were already pricey?

From what I understand, the initial reception was not overwhelming and the cards were not that valuable. Does anyone know how they rose to their current status?