Collector Nation - $5K LeBron Pull… Then a Jordan Rookie Walked Into the Shop

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

In this episode of Collector Nation, Ryan Alford and Brian Ludden take listeners inside a week that perfectly captures today’s hobby — digital pulls, vintage surprises, and the unpredictable magic of sports cards. Brian opens up about hitting a massive LeBron refractor through an online pack platform, turning a risky gamble into a $5,000 card. That leads into a spirited debate: Jordan, Kobe, or LeBron — which actually holds long-term value? Ryan makes his case for Jordan, citing vintage scarcity, collector psychology, and why older cards continue to outperform modern print runs. Then Ryan shares an unbelievable story: a suspicious Facebook Marketplace listing turns into a real-life meetup and a full 1986 Fleer set walking into his brand-new card shop — complete with Jordan rookie and bonus Star card. They also discuss opening the shop, why physical retail still matters, how deals really get done, and what makes this hobby so addicting. It’s part investing lesson, part collector storytime — and fully Collector Nation. Key Takeaways Jordan remains the hobby king Digital packs bring upside and risk Vintage scarcity beats manufactured rarity Physical shops create unexpected opportunity Stories drive value The best finds are rarely planned

So I pull a 2003, Christine LeBron James refractor, PSA 10. Last count, 5100. Wow. This is how you become a degenerate right here. This is the path because let me tell you, that is ridiculous. Would you sell that card for an equivalent $5,000 Jordan card or a $5,000 Kobe card? What card do you think has the most upside? One, is fandom.

It would be Jordan. And number two, as an investor, Jordan, because cards are older, a little more rare. and all that stuff's going up. If you're trading and collecting, we all hit Facebook Marketplace occasionally. Basically saw it. Full 86 Fleer set with stickers with Jordans, looking for offers.

Made the guy an offer. And yours truly has a full set of 86 Fleer, 86 Jordan rookie, and the star. That's what makes this industry so awesome. There's stories all the time everywhere. And so I love that story. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on Collector Nation Network.

Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, you take you inside a hobby. Here are your host, Ryan Alford and Brian Lut. What's up guys? Welcome to Collect Your Nation, your Top 5 Sports Show on Apple Podcasts. We appreciate you for the velocity. That's what it's about, velocity of growth. Hey, that's what we're doing. That's what Linux is always doing.

It's about the growth of everything. What's up, Brian? What's up, my man? How you doing? I'm good, man. I was a little concerned with you if you would make it through Snowmageddon down there. I thought I was going to get a phone call of you, like in a closet, curled up. You know, I was one of the few people, you know, we have a range rover and those things can go underwater. It handled it.

So I actually went to work. My way thought I was crazy. But let me just tell you, the only thing you don't handle is all the craziness of people that don't know how to drive. that take all the things off the shelf because they think it's going to, you know, we create scarcity around here. It's not real scarcity. We create it because everybody thinks they're going to be locked in for two weeks. And we did have back-to-back storms, but it was, I don't know.

It's annoying. I'll just say that. Well, you made it. We made it. The kids had fun. The kids had been out of school like five days, you know. And I was thinking, I think about you, I was like, Chicago can't shut. down like for what we had like imagine

Chicago shutting down and the mailman not delivering like because I had a lot of stuff would be the shop opening I got cards coming every other day boxes and stuff it just stops just stops they don't deliver they don't nothing comes no nothing and I'm like in a big city

does the world just stop if two inches of snow comes no it takes honestly like a foot of snow in Chicago yeah yeah well we didn't have that we probably had four or five inches but you know yeah It's a lot. It's a lot for here. We don't have those salt trucks and everything else.

But we made it through. Speaking of ripping packs, so this week, Duke Chung, a friend of mine, started a company called Hay Shop, and it's a digital instant pack. Digital, you get the physical if you want. Everyone knows it. It's arena club, courtyard, whatever. But this is kind of a cool, it's kind of a cool vibe. So he asked me to get on there.

Is it an H-E-Y? H-E-Y. H-E-Y shop. Hey shop. Okay. Hey shop. Yep. Yeah.

And so I get on there. And I think one's like, I think I did the $450. You went all in on that. Gamble. $450. I lost that. I changed for a guy like you. Yeah.

I lost. I lost on that one. I got like a $300 card. And I think I sold a backtown for $250. Okay. So that means I'm in for 200 and I do it again. So I'm in for 450 and 200. I'm in for 650.

I pull a 2003 pristine LeBron James refractor, I believe, PSA 10. That's not 350. Last comp, 5100. Wow. Hey, guys. This is how you become a, a degenerate right here. This is where this is the path uh because let me tell you that is ridiculous. So you 10x that in that uh essentially you could you had 500 in and 10x that with a $5,000

LeBron James PSA 10.03. Is that a rookie year? Yeah. What was it? Oh yeah. Yeah. And you're you're watching it should be. If you're listening, we appreciate you. We love our listeners. But you should be watching this on YouTube. We'll have the card up. I have it. in view while Brian's talking and nice card Hay Shop is the is the link we'll give them some free pub you know

they'll have to pay for it afterwards Brian but we'll give a free pub for right now because that's a everybody's going I took you two hits to get that hmm dude they're on their keyboard's tapping that's it so I have a question for you because I'm

not a big LeBron fan and I don't know why it's just he's not not my guy so yeah would you would you sell that card for an equivalent $5,000 Jordan card or a $5,000 Kobe card what card do you think has the most upside Jordan I I've we've been if you've been paying attention to listening I grew up a South Carolina boy grew up Chicago boy had my whole room littered with Chicago so one is fandom it would be Jordan and number two as an investor uh Jordan because cards are older a little more

rare and all that stuff's going up and and so I do think it putting to aside what I'm going to say which is actually going to agree with where you started on this I'm not a LeBron guy so I would do it anyway because I'm not a LeBron guy even if it was like comparable but if I'm giving investment advice I think Jordan's the way to go because they're just It's older cards, fewer printed. You can make the argument that, you know, some of LeBron stuff came up in a decent time when they learned, you know, what they learned, had to learn in the 90s,

which is the overprinting and no rare cards and no one-on-ones or, you know, like refractors and things like that. So I do think he's got some great cards that benefited from the technology and printing and, you know, some of the things that make things more scarce now. So you could make that argue, but I just think Jordan as long-term vintage in the near 5 to 10 years. All bets are all 30 years from now, but like 5 to 10, I think Jordan stuff. And Kobe, Kobe's kind of the same as Brian. I think Kobe and LeBron are comparable probably tradeouts.

Kobe has different things that prop him up and fandom and all that. he's a different player. But similar time periods as far as card overlaps, I think that becomes a tomato-tomato discussion. Like, I think you'd have a hard time, like, falling on an argument that makes complete sense on one of those or the other. But Jordan, for me, for both desire and investment. But that'd be my take.

I'm curious to see what the audience says. But the one thing, if I rank them, it would be Jordan, Kobe, LeBron. because I don't um Kobe's not signing any more cards so it's a you know RIP you know yeah it was a guy so I mean there's that nostalgic part of him where LeBron could be signing cards for the next 30 years um but but I but I think a lot of people would whether it's just memory or not put LeBron above Kobe probably longevity like as far as a player as the player goes I'm not saying I do necessarily.

I'm just saying, but I think I would bet he's like, what? It's like Jordan and him fighting out the top. And then you get into that Kobe and then others and Magic Bird. Like, I don't know, like, I don't know, Chamberlain, I don't know, Russell. Like, we get a lot of different things. I think it seems like Jordan and LeBron are kind of, I don't think there should be a debate, but maybe debate of all time great. Yeah, I see that.

Well, I'd like to see in the messages, what does that call? Message, DM. Yeah, DMs, DMS or drop comments on, let's know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback on that. And make me an offer. If you have a Jordan card or a COVID card that's equivalent, I'm all airs. Dude, here we go. We already had people and we appreciate you.

Look, when you listen and you comment and you pay attention, you win. we gave away some Luddex. We're giving away some LuddX VIP passes to the national already from people that commented. So we put our money where our mouths are. If you pay attention and you comment, we want your engagement. And look, make Brian an offer that you can't refuse. Yeah, at least. You might have something that I like.

Yeah, it's funny that we're talking about Jordans. I didn't, you know, we were a day of. from even getting the store open. And I did, you know, a lot of people probably could relate to this story. If you're trading and collecting, we all hit Facebook Marketplace occasionally, right? That's where all good deeds happen, right? His Facebook Marketplace. You know what I'm talking about.

So basically, he had a post that he said, full 86 Fleer set with stickers with Jordans, looking for offers. Well, yours truly is always looking for that card. those that set now that I have a shop especially but even before that and I took debate hey I'm not going to be get scam I ain't sending any money down to China I'm not like paypaling you I'm not vimowing you I'm not cash apping you before I see something so you can't scam me with just if I waste five seconds sending a message no big deal I send a message and I say what I always say to people cash buyer no drama here's my cell phone number if you ask me to bet on that like

chances that I was going to get any response from that whatsoever, I would have put it at 2%. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, I get a text. It's a North Carolina number. I'm in South Carolina. North Carolina number. And says, this is X name. I won't mention his name. I got the Jordan in the 86 clear sets. It's like, give me a call. And I go, hmm, the plot thickens. So I call them. Sounds like a normal person. But, you know, AI's gotten pretty good, Brian. Correctors and all that stuff. I'm still on the edge of this is, this has gone to 10% chance of even materializing to like a legitimate meeting

where I even look at a card. You know, I mean, 90% chance is still bullshit. And coordinated, whatever. And we threw around some numbers. He shared some details. I have pictures, but don't see him physical. You know, I'm not guaranteeing anything. But we kind of did a little bit of a gentleman's agreement of where we would be at.

And he's about an hour up the road. and he says he would come to me and I'm at the shop and sure enough after about seven delays and enough things to make me think it was never going to happen he walked into my card shop at about 8 15 p.m. Him and a buddy and laid it all out in the crappiest Pokemon box I'd ever seen. He had 86 flea. I was telling you, you can't make this stuff up. I was like when he pulled the Pokemon box out, it was like a, it's like a ETB box or something. I'm like, it's either been.

kicked down the road. I'm like, what, what are we doing? What is this? What is in this box? Is it gun? And he's going to shoot me? No. Proceeds to pull out exactly what he said he had. A pretty damn good condition, full set of 86 Fleer, all stickers, all Jordan, and an 84 star Jordan on top of that. Graded by a crappy grading company. But clear enough to know that it wasn't counterfeit and it hadn't been cut. And went through it all. And the Jordan was, my good friend. friend Mike Baker. Actually, actually sent him some pictures and text. He was a lead grader. Mike Baker authenticated. Good guy. Gives him some love. Mike's going to be coming on the show pretty regularly. He actually talked about the landscape. But Mike sent Mike detailed pictures.

And look, if the lead grader PSA can't tell me something, then, you know. And he told me, yeah, Mike's the man. So he told me what he thought. Like, best case, worst case. Made the guy an offer. He went outside and smoked seven cigarettes and came back in. And yours truly, as a full set of 86 Flier, 86 Jordan Rookie, and the star. And I would say anywhere from the whole set, I would say, four to nine range. Yeah. Worst, no creased cards, no, like, bubble gum stuck to the front. No, like, nothing that you'd go, like, complete mismanagement.

That's what makes this industry. So, you know, it's awesome. There's stories all the time everywhere. and then people want to tell people about it. And so I love that story. The, well, we got this. What else we got here? We got Super Bowl.

Yes. Super Bowl. It is. Is it a weird Super Bowl? Is it because I just don't root for either one of these teams and like that it's weird or is just weird because media is weird that's either on your radar or off of your radar? I mean, I haven't like, I mean, I guess I'm rooting for Seattle.

but like give me a freaking break I mean the Patriots are like they're rebuilding you know and like I'm so sick of them but one of my best friends It's hard for them to be the underdog right It's like yeah it's hard to be like all you know the Patriots are the underdog

They had too many too like this is too fast Too soon I like when I want to hate a team I think about one of my good buddies Or someone I care about That is a fan of that team and then I can be like, well, I'm happy for Carlton. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I don't have any friends that are big Patriots fans, actually.

Do you have any traditions for? Look, you know what my honest traditions are? Eating a lot of food, drinking some beer, and watching the commercials like everyone else does. But I'll say this, I'm an ad guy. I've been in marketing all the way. It's kind of like the Super Bowl of ads. So I get a kick out of watching them and dissecting them from the strategy side of going, wow, they overspent or that was a stupid, like, I don't know.

So I kind of geek out on the ads. More than like, yeah, they entertain. But I kind of geek out on the ads. That's lame. Yeah, that's what you do, though. That's great. Yeah. My tradition is I go to bed before the halftime show.

because my team's never in it. I hate that it's on a Sunday. It should be on a Saturday. Yeah. I mean, and those games are like five hours long. I got shit to do, man. I know, you're a CEO. I mean, it's like,

what's, talk to me about the Lenox card shop and what's coming up. I know that you guys are close here. You're moving along. What's on the radar? So I decided with my, partner that we're going to open the shop February 20th and 21st for a sneak peak. So just like we kind of run that VIP party at the national, we're going to have like open from 12 to

seven, four to seven is the rip night. And then after seven, it'll be invite only, DJ, food, drink, all that. And then close. then we're like closing for you know a couple weeks and then what's the date of that that's a the February 21st is the oh yeah Tom's right you're a marital had the pile going on a couple's retreat god I might I can't feed I'd rather I'd rather I'd rather go on a couple's retreat all right okay hot tub and no mouth that's awesome Yeah.

Yeah. So it was offered, you know, I'm just saying. Yeah. So we'll have some people there. I think, well, we'll have fanatics and Beckett and V friends. Just little companies you've never heard of. Just little companies helping us out. Yeah.

Yeah, we just don't. It's like, it's probably going to be like 75% kind of done. But good enough to have a party. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. But, hey, you got to catch up, man. I mean, clutch station is, is. is open for business officially. We sold our first stuff yesterday.

Like, I'm going to exaggerate a little bit, but it's close enough. I mean, we always did like a thousand bucks. First, like three hours. Wow. Like a little shot of four or five customers. And then that was kind of it. But we haven't really, but I have it. I'm a marketing guy, but I haven't marketed.

I just turned our website on yesterday. I didn't want people coming in. we're in the middle of remodeling and doing it. I wanted the store to be ready. Like, at least for the soft opening. Still working out the tech stuff. I got some cool little ad on apps I've done just for the store that are, uh, showing on our monitors and stuff.

Yeah, I'm real fucking dangerous right now, Brian. I'm doing tech and marketing and the store. Like you're getting like, uh, well, hold him down to earth, man. He's going to get, he's going to be floating up there.

It's really hard. Got a humble. No, I'm just saying, like, what I get to play with, like, because, you know, having your own retail space, I always did this for other people. You know, like the actual selling of things, you know, and was pretty good at it. So now, like, bringing it to life and being able to, like, visualize it within your own retail space. It's fun. It's less about bragging that I'm going to sell $1 billion or something. It's more like, you know, dangerous with how many toys I get to, like, implement.

I would say how dangerous my, with my own budget. That's why it's going to more what I bet. Still, don't drug dealers, don't do your own drugs. You might get a money dollar in sales, but $900,000 are you? Yes. On the app I built who, you know, like open a pack for me. That's awesome. Hey guys, L-U-D-E-X, go to the app store.

Download L-U-D-X. Let me just tell you. Collection management, values, linkage with eBay. You want to sell, look, we all like to collect, but let's be honest. No one has, you know, more in-depth than me in this hobby. Like the last couple years with my kids. Way to make it back is to push those cards eBay. You know how you don't lose your mind and your time?

It's L-U-D-E-X. You got to link it there. Sell those cards you don't want so you can buy some more and rip them like I do. Believe me. You'll trust me. You will thank me later. It is the best scanning card app. And if you're a Pokemon person, let me just tell you there's no better.

It scans one and done every time. L-U-D-E-X. Brian, I love you, brother. Appreciate you. Love you, my man. Always appreciate it, brother. Hey, guys. Thecollectornation.com, full highlight clips, all the episodes.

And go to the iOS store. Didn't talk about this, but I'm going to go ahead and leak it out right now. search for the Collector Nation. We're working out of the kinks. I'm going to keep it on the deal. I'm not going to tell you how great it is, wonderful it is, but it's going to be. You want to go take a peek under the hood.

You'll see everything there and a lot more coming. The Collector Nation in the App Store. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on Collector Nation. Thanks for tuning into the show. Be sure to follow us on your go-to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at Collectornation.com

and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.