Is This the New Hobby Normal? + David Chase’s ULTIMATE Grail Reveal + Buying in a Crazy Market
Sports Cards LiveShow Notes
Are today's sports card prices sustainable, or are collectors setting themselves up to relive the painful correction that followed the 2021 boom?
Adam from Splendid Sports joins Jeremy Lee and David Chase to talk about changing your mind in the hobby. Months ago, Adam publicly said he was backing away from buying as prices became increasingly difficult to justify. Since then, he's jumped back in.
So what changed?
We discuss price exhaustion, the fear of buying at the top, whether collectors eventually become comfortable with higher prices when they persist long enough, and the lingering "PTSD" some collectors still carry from watching cards they bought during the last boom collapse in value.
Then Joshua Adams joins the show and it's finally time for the moment we've been teasing all night.
David Chase reveals his ultimate grail: ???
Not just another big pickup. Not simply another card on the want list. This is the card David ranked above everything else in the hobby, including a T206 Honus Wagner, and one he genuinely believed he would never own.
David gets emotional explaining how years of buying, selling and consolidating ultimately put him in a position to acquire it without putting new cash into the hobby, why owning it makes him strangely uncomfortable, and what the card represents beyond its monetary value.
We also dig into just how scarce the ??? really is, compare its availability with other major cards from the set, and examine David's PSA ? against a much higher-graded example.
Which raises another question: when one copy has better centering, registration and overall eye appeal, how much should the number on the holder really matter?
Check out The Hobby Spectrum at thehobbyspectrum.com and discover more about who you are as a collector.
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And check out Pops & Comps: A Sports Card Collector's Guide to Navigating the Modern Hobby, available on Amazon.
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More from Sports Cards Live
When is it appropriate to comment on someone else's collecting decisions? And where do we draw the line between expressing an opinion, constructive criticism, and simply being a jerk?
What brings people back to the sports card hobby? Is it nostalgia, the excitement of collecting, the potential to make money, or some combination of all three?
What makes a sports card truly iconic? Is it the price, the rarity, the player, its historical significance, or simply how many people recognize it?
On this episode of Sports Cards Live, Jeremy Lee and David Chase are joined by Al Crisafulli of Love of the Game Auctions and Joshua Adams for a fascinating discussion about eye appeal, third-party stickers, grading consistency, and the most important cards in the hobby.
Al Crisafulli of Love of the Game Auctions joins Jeremy Lee and David Chase on Sports Cards Live for a fascinating conversation about vintage cards, auction history, and some of the hobby's most iconic collectibles.