What If We Started Over With Sports Cards???

What's going on, everybody? This is me and Darren. Off topic here on the sports card clubhouse again. Once a month we like to participate in the clubhouse together as well. Darren, what's up, buddy? Not much. How you doing? You're. You're very reserved. Soft spoken. Side is overwhelming the microphone, buddy. It's exciting, isn't it? So something, something that happened I did earlier in this week is I did an episode and I was talking about some of the downsides of cards going up in value. And sometimes when cards go up in value to a certain point, it changes people's perspective on their collection. And, and one of the things I've heard a few people talk about is our value is getting so high that it's actually in a weird way taking some of the joy out of the hobby. Do you. Because you've got a big collection with some monster cards you, you know, on your channel, you show all the time. Your pickups. You recently had three very cool pickups on an episode that Tribute last week. Do you, do you think that any of the joy has changed or anything in that regard because of the values spiking like they've been doing recently? I think so, Yu-Gi-Oh From. I mean personally, I would say one. I mean a couple things, right? One is because they're. It's because stuff's so much more expensive. You're either not buying the same level of stuff you're buying in the past or you're buying less stuff. So that's not necessarily like a positive, right? You know, I think me personally, I. I'm uncomfortable with the value of my most valuable cards. So they're all in the safe deposit box. I used to have like eight cards in my safe deposit box. I literally had to buy a second safe deposit box because my bank didn't have any larger ones available. So I have two regular size ones now. And I have. I went from having like eight cards in there to I've got like 30 cards in there. It's funny because I, at my work, so I have this new job, I'm at a new school in a new department and we all get along great. And one of the guys I've been friends with for a long time and I already knew him and, and so I'm kind of a question inquisitive type person. And we all eat lunch together every day. And so we sit across, we sit in the same spot every day. There's six of us. And, and I went around and I said, how much money would it take for you to retire And I went around and asked each person, and each person gave their number. And it's funny because everybody's answer was directly correlated to their age. The youngest person said the biggest amount of money as you would expect. And the person who's a year and a half away from retiring, she said the lowest amount of money. And, and money is obviously something that we all have to think about and we have to be careful about what we buy and all that kind of stuff. But as some collections, and, and I'm not talking about me. I have a very, you know, me, not me. I have a very, I'm very blessed to have the collection that I have, but my collection isn't, isn't a crazy amount of money that anybody could retire from. But it gets to the point, and Petty's talked about this, that sometimes he's looked at the values of some of his cards and he's like, man, I got a lot of money tied up in cards. Yu-Gi-Oh And I mean, that's, Yes. I mean, it's, for me, it's, it's, it's. You can't buy as much stuff or you can't buy at the same level of the Topps of cards and, and rarity that you were buying before. And if you do, you just buy much less. Personally, I don't see my best cars because they're all locked up in a box. I don't want them in My House because of what the values are currently on them. Honestly, like, as you get, you know, for the younger viewers, someday you'll be old like Greg and I, and you have to start, like, planning, you know, financial planning is more than, you know, beyond just like, hey, I'm putting money away for retirement and I'm, you know, paying bills and taking vacations and buying baseball cards, Right? Like, it becomes more nuanced and you start to look at the value of your collection as a percentage of, you know, your overall net worth, and you look at it based on the current values and you're kind of like, that's just weird to me. Right? It's just, it's weird. Yu-Gi-Oh I thought about this the other day, right? I love my cards. I love my cards. I, I, I, the ones that I. There's, there's a lot of car, I've sold some, but there's a lot that I don't think I would ever sell, but I'd be tempted if card ladder had a button like Zillow used to have of basically, Zillow would be like, here's the zestimate on your house. And you're like, cool, Zillow. Buy My House. If Card Ladder had a button, I could just click and say, Yu-Gi-Oh sure, this is the value of my collection. Buy it from me. That is a really. Because now let's think about this. Probably would. In the la. I've had a. I've had a crappy last two, three weeks. And I probably during that time would have. Would have just clicked the button. Okay, we need to dig into that a little bit, because that's quite a statement. But let me just first throw out and expand a little bit of what you're saying. So, like psa, when you have a card in the vault, for example, in psa, there will be times where you'll have an offer for a card in the vault that a partner would be willing to pay for the card. What? And since PSA and Card Ladder are owned by the same parent company, what if they expanded that to your Card Ladder collection? Like the instant offer? Sort of like when I look my car up on Kelly Blue Book. Yu-Gi-Oh And it says, do you want an instant offer? That would be a really interesting thing. Now, you said you would. You would have been tempted to do it. Like, okay, let's just. I got. You can't just say that and let me walk away from it. So if it. Let's just say you did that. Let's just say for a second that whatever the amount is that Card Ladder says it was, you had an instant offer for that amount. And over the last couple of weeks, you click the button that said, yes, sell it, and the collection is gone and that money comes in. Let's just say that happens. What do you do next? Are you done with cards or do you start to build your collection again? And if you start to build your collection again, what direction do you go with it? Honestly, the, the absurdity in my mind of where my, of what Car Ladder is claiming, I would have clicked the button and I would have told my wife, guess what, we're retiring. And then, okay, maybe I would start recollecting cards. But I would be definitely smaller budget. But. So, I mean, I, I enjoy collecting cards. I love looking at cards. I. I love finding cards. So I definitely would collect. I would honestly, if I had the value of my. What it's. And again, I think what the value is is very unlikely for me. I mean, I'm sure there's cards in there that might go for that. But at the same time, I think that I don't think I could get what I would say, my top 100 cards in my collection. I don't think I could get, get the card ladder price if I were to sell any of my top 100 cards. But let's just keep going down the road. So you clicked the button, you said you're going to continue collecting. You told your wife, we're now retired. So here is Darren, retired, living now on his retirement income. And you decide, all right, well, I like cards. I'm going to start collecting cards. Given the financial situation you'd be in, the age you're in, all of that, what do you go buy first? What is the card? You go, okay, time to start rebuilding. This is the first thing I'm gonna buy to start the new collection with the new finances. What's the card? I would probably, Honestly, I'd buy stuff from my childhood probably because price point wise that would make the most sense. So I don't know, I'd probably buy. I mean, I've got a, I've got it still right inside. Yu-Gi-Oh I've got my, my don mattingly tops, Topps rookie card right here. Mine's a 10. Is it Tiffany or regular? The whole bunch. I, I, Yu-Gi-Oh it's not the Tiffany, it's just the regular. If I, So maybe I'd buy that back in like a five. A five. So the first card that Darren, the newly retired, starting to rebuild his collection again. I call BS Darren, I don't think that you buy that card in a five because you can buy that card in a seven for like 30 bucks. So I don't think that you would buy. I'd be on, I'd be on a fixed income. A5. Darren, you'd buy that card in a5 without. I'd be in the fixed income, paying for health care now. Darren, I've never cussed on the channel. I've been doing this for four years, Darren. I, I've never cussed on the channel. And I do not believe that the first card you would buy is an Topps. Don Mattingly in a PSA5. I just, I just, I don't believe that I, I would buy you better than a five. I, I will. If that's the card you want and you're on a new fixed income. Darren, I'm gonna buy you an eight, buddy. I'm gonna buy you an eight if you sell, if you sell the whole collection and that's the card you want first. I want to have the honor to buy you that card in an eight so you don't have to have it in a five now. I know it just happened. I know it just happened. Darren. A whole bunch of people just said, Greg, why is an 8 automatically better than a 5? Why are you hating on people who collect fives? Greg, it's not that fives are bad cards. That's what people are saying right now. Okay, you're right. Sorry I pushed a five, Darren. Could be a beautiful card as well. I. Here's what I would do. I would buy you NBA gold sticker. I would. Here's what, here's what I'm gonna do. I don't care the grade. I'm gonna buy you a really nice looking PSA. Topps. Don Mattingly. As soon as you sell your entire collection, don't let Dean snipe in. He's not gonna snake in there and do it. First you say, I just sold it, Greg. And I give me 10 minutes to get onto ebay and buy a really nice looking one. I have a feeling it'll be better than a five grade wise. The condition might not be better than an 8, but the number on the slab will be better than a 5. Apparently. I have admitted today that I am a grade snob. I. I guess I'm a grade snob because I'm not buying of five and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. You could be Grace. I'm all you want. It's how you collect and in this case, how you gift. And there's no. Yu-Gi-Oh there's no right or wrong way in gifting. So I appreciate. I think you, Darren, are worthy of at least. At least a six and a half. I'm gonna get you at least a six and a half of the card. Somewhere between a six and a half and an eight is probably where I would land. Okay. Yu-Gi-Oh I appreciate that. But in hindsight I would. The stuff that was not going great's going better now, so. Oh, that's good. I'd be less hesitant to. I mean, I wouldn't say it's going better now. Some like stuff happened that wasn't. I mean my dog died. He was 15. And that was rough. And Yu-Gi-Oh we. Then we had. Then we had another. We had a family tragedy as well. Like literally a week later. So like that was crappy. So that stuff's still crappy. But like moving on right now, I probably wouldn't sell them because there's cards in my collection that are worth more to me because of who gave them to me as a gift and they're more meaningful to me. Than that. So like, you know, I have cards where car ladder might say it's this much. And I say, Yu-Gi-Oh if I were to sell it, no chance. But to me it's worth more than, than. There's no number you could put on it. Right. So that would be the case. So like, Yu-Gi-Oh I, I, So just to review here, just to review, you're not going to sell the entire collection. And but if you were going to sell the entire collection, you're going to let me buy you your first card when you return to return to collecting, is that right? Cracked Ice a retired fixed income Darren with a different collecting style completely. Okay, let me ask you this, Darren. What's the second card you would add to the collection? It's got to be a Jeter or a Nolan Ryan. I'm thinking I was gonna say, Yu-Gi-Oh probably 19. I'd probably go with like a 1975 Ryan and like a four. Know what I've noticed about you? Ever since you've been working out like an animal, you, you do this a lot more and you're like flexing. You're like doing a lot of. No. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Oh, oops. Was I showing off my biceps? Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Just scratching my neck. I've actually, what's funny is I've been mountain biking a lot recently, so like I stopped lifting heavier weights. So I, when I, I actually did, I worked out today, like with weights. And I've lost quite a bit of strength actually because I've been more focused on my, on my cardio and I've lost quite a bit of strength too. So we have that in common. What was the card? I'm sorry, I got sidetracked by the definition. In your arms. 1975 tops. Nolan Ryan and a. In a Beckett 4. The. With you in a Beckett 4. Just to keep things interesting and keep everyone on the toes. Would you go with the mini or would you go with the full size? Topps, Ryan? Full size. Full size. So you're a full size guy. Splurge for my collection. Yu-Gi-Oh So you go with the full size Beckett 4 to go with your gifted PSA 784 tops, Don Mattingly. All right. I mean, that's, this collection is the start of something, especially in the right direction. Right? Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh So I have one last question before we wrap up up this extra innings episode on the Sports Card Clubhouse. Again, if you're not subscribed to Darren return to collecting, check him out and subscribe to his channel. If you're listening to this on the Sports Card Clubhouse network and you are not already subscribed. My final question for you Darren, and this is going to catch a lot of people by surprise what I'm about to ask you. What is the third card you would buy to start your collection? Your return to return to collecting. He's thinking, he's looking around the room. He's leaning back in his chair. 1954 tops Hank Aaron in a SGC 1.5. Yu-Gi-Oh So he's gonna now mix in an iconic vintage card from the 50s to go with an iconic card from the 80s and an iconic card from the 70s. So I'm thinking your fourth card would probably be from the 60s would be my guess. I think that's a fantastic choice and to be honest with you, I was kind of thinking that that would have been the first card that you wanted is, is the Hank Aaron? Because if I'm not mistaken now correct me if I'm wrong, after you returned to collecting you were you received a gift from your parents for your Nolan Ryan and then the first big card you want you bought. Wasn't it the Topps Hank Aaron? Yu-Gi-Oh So I was buying, I got, I got the gift card for my parents and then, and then he did a Nolan Ryan run and I started doing my Nolan Ryan run. And while I was doing my Nolan Ryan run I bought the Topps Hank Aaron and on, on, on a video, on a collaboration we did at some point, maybe it was a live stream. We talked about the card that we think is the prettiest card in the hobby and that was my pick for that card. And a bunch of people in the comments were like it's what's the prettiest, not the most expensive. And my response is I, I don't care what your opinion is of my opinion and I still think it's the best looking card ever made and I would get it. The reason it wouldn't be my first is because fixed income Darren would need to spend time finding a good 1.5 versus it's easier to find a nice looking the other two cars. I could find a nice looking one of those fairly quickly. It would be tougher to find one that I like the IPL of and that grade for that car. So that's why it'd probably be third and then you'd have one psa, one Beckett and one sgc. So you're all in with collectors universe. Yes. And that, that to me is more important than the cards. On joking. All right. All right buddy. Appreciate hanging out with you again. Check out Darren. Return to collecting if you're not already subscribed. And we'll. We'll be back again. We'll be back again next month. If you're interested in hearing from us again, we like to do a little code down in the comments below. I think for this one, I'm gonna say the code if you made it to the end. This is how we know if you made it to the end. As you put the code in the comments below, the code is going to be Mosaic Mosaic All right. Does that sound good, buddy? Sure. Off we go. All right, thanks, everybody.