Collector Nation - Keep, Sell, or Trade? Cards Getting Hot Before The National

Starting point is 00:00:00 I do want to bring out a couple of cards that I pulled this week. On card, Cooper Flag, Otto. Oh, wow. And it looks really clean. $1,500. Trevor Lawrence, PSA 10, silver rookie card. That's the home run. It goes for $1,600, $2,000.

Starting point is 00:00:16 I think he's going to have a big season. It probably will be a little overpriced because I like Trevor Lawrence. And an out of 50 gold. Jersey match, number two out of 50, perfect 10, Cooper Flag. That's a big card, too. These will be for sale or trade at the National. Brian, are you going to be trading, buying, or selling any cards? Oh, I have some stuff with me.

Starting point is 00:00:36 I'll be selling. I got a couple of tannies that I think I need to let go of. You're at the National. Come say hello. We'd love to talk to you. And we will be on stage in the VIP lounge. That's right. So if you're in the VIP lounge, come see us.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Yeah. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing. and grails are calling bluffs. You take you inside the hobby. Here are your host, Ryan Alford and Brian Lut. What's up guys? Welcome to Collect Your Nation.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Ryan, Brian, and the lovely Bella. Hello. Who is looking lovely today? She looks like a Bella today. Brian, you and I always look the same. You know, we're just kind of Brian and Ryan. I should dress up as one of you one day and just wear like a snapback and Yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:34 It's easy. You get up, put a hat on. It's one good thing. You know, you're an executive, but I guess depending on the meetings you have or don't have, you're in the card business. I mean, you can wear the sports gear and the hat, right? Yeah, it's like when the venture capitalists come in or like then I'm like, I go to the bathroom and, you know, get my hair all nice, put a button down shirt on and then as soon as it's over, I take it off. but yeah it's many hats many hats or no hat yeah exactly we appreciate everyone for listening if you're not if you're if you haven't checked it out on youtube go check out the youtube page

Starting point is 00:02:11 you get to see what we're talking about uh i'm rocking my camo collector station hat i can't even tell brian's got a dark hat on maybe uh lettox oh there we go shocker all the matters my favorite one is a Nike that's cool i haven't seen that one let it's ogy it's an ogy he's got the OG and Bella's just I don't do hats. Yeah, no hats no hats. My hair's too good to mess it up with a hat. We'll start, and I've

Starting point is 00:02:40 admitted that I'm not the big of the world's greatest soccer fan or knowledge base. But you know, the World Cup is in the United States, so I'm not a complete immune to it. And it has been exciting. I have caught and watched games that did not have the U.S. I did not think I would do that.

Starting point is 00:02:56 But it gets compelling in the last 20 minutes. I'll say that. So, full disclosure, DoorDash has a deal going on where before the World Cup started, if you picked whatever team you thought was going to win, and then they have like a pool of money and they're splitting

Starting point is 00:03:12 it amongst whatever team wins and whatever people picked that team. So I picked Argentina to win because I just guessed, and I was like, you know what, that seems like a reasonable guess you know, from the outside. Reasonable? So yesterday we record these on

Starting point is 00:03:28 on Wednesday. So yesterday when I was watching the Argentina-Egypt game, Argentina's down zero to two against Egypt. I was like, damn it. Like, this really sucks. Like, I want my door dash credit. It's probably going to be like a dollar. But, you know, I'd take it. And that, I think, was one of the most electric comebacks I have seen from our, from any sports game ever. Three points in like 15 minutes. It was insane. Yeah, that's what the U.S. couldn't do. No. Because we don't have messy.

Starting point is 00:04:01 They needed that. Yeah, well, they needed that bad on Monday night. And yes, it was exciting. I caught the tail end of that, which was, wow, that's what makes it interesting. Yeah. Yep. And Bella, a good team still alive. I mean, the funny thing about the U.S. game, and, you know, I think everyone knows my

Starting point is 00:04:20 stance on soccer, but when you're down goals and you only have one shot on goal, like, they don't shoot the, they don't shoot the ball. I'm like, how are you going to come back? They're like 40 feet away from the goal. I'm like, kick it. Like, see what happens. Like, it might get a ricochet. It might like take a crazy bounce.

Starting point is 00:04:39 But if you're down three goals and you don't shoot the ball, you'll never, and the math I'm doing is that you'll never come back. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. No, I agree, Brian. I will watch it. Now I watched the U.S. trying to come back. And I stopped watching like the last time. They're not scoring.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Then you got completely out of hand. But it was like, yes, kick it. Like, they're trying to set up the perfect play. I could tell what they were trying to do. I got it. I get this. I'm not an idiot. I can see the strategy that are going on here.

Starting point is 00:05:10 But at a certain point, you just got to start firing that, baby. Yeah. Well, as far as cards go for Messi, he's had some crazy upsides. You know, some of his cards are up 40%. Some are up 80%. He is, you know, one of his... 2006 Panini World Cup Germany stickers is going for $575 and up 80%. So he deserves it.

Starting point is 00:05:41 Yeah, he does. He's currently in the top contender for the golden boot. Yes. The golden boot. What's it all the boot? I'm personally hoping that Holland wins the golden boot. I think he's just the funniest character. Okay, from Norway. Yeah. All right. And I've recently found out that I'm like 50% Norwegian, so I gotta go back to my.

Starting point is 00:06:10 That's a blonde hair. Yeah, that's what that comes from. That's not a bottle, is it? No. Oh, not anymore. Started to come in there. Yeah, but his, his cards have seen an 170% increase. Jeez. I mean, I'm just amazed at all and proud to be in America. American, even though we lost. I like the videos. I like the videos where, like, they apologize to the U.S. and they're like, you know, we are so sorry. We, we, we're talking so much shit about you in the U.S.

Starting point is 00:06:44 and how dangerous it is and people are, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, this is the most fun country. I've ever been in, most beautiful country, the friendliest country. I'm like, don't read, don't read the media, man. Don't read the newspapers. Like, come to America and check it out. And they did. It was pretty cool.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Yeah, that is cool. I saw that. And it's like, come on. Like, people believe, like, there's been this sentiment. I think, you know, with politics and everything else, I think outside of America, like, oh, my God, you know. And you just don't watch the news. Come experience it yourself. And then in Chicago, like, they're like, you're not surprised you don't get shot every day in Chicago. It's so bad. I'm like, no, it's not. I'm living. I'm doing it. I walked around for two days in Chicago and have hundreds of times live there for eight months many years ago. But let me just tell you, Chicago is not unsafe. Okay, y'all also have big scary man privilege. Maybe, but I don't know. Chicago's not scary to me. I'm sure there's a couple streets here and there, but not, I don't know, the main drags.

Starting point is 00:07:57 I hope that stands true at our Airbnb for the national. Oh, yeah. For the national, yeah. You guys should send you that address just to make sure. Yeah. Oh, it's no backing out now. You know, we'll send extra security over. We'll hire a security guard over there.

Starting point is 00:08:14 I don't think it's a bad area. No, no. I was just messing. But one last thing about the World Cup I have saying, then we can move on. I, as much as the rest of the world has, have fallen in love with Cape Verde and their goalie. That story just really warmed my heart,

Starting point is 00:08:36 and I felt bad that they didn't, even though I was kind of pulling for Argentina because I wanted them to continue, I felt bad that Cape Verde didn't win. I was really hoping. I watched that game. So I watched the last, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes, maybe an hour.

Starting point is 00:08:53 I don't know, I was watching it. You can't go up into the, the crowds. The reason they lost is they celebrated the win in the sixth inning. Baseball people out there listening will understand what that means or in the third quarter of a football game. They were celebrating like they had won when they tied it and all that. And I get it. This is a upset and you're excited and you are in it. And he's up in the crowd kissing babies, his girlfriend. I think he proposed and then she broke it off all because they lost. But this, you can't, you don't win until the game's over. And,

Starting point is 00:09:26 And they lost. And I said, I forget whether it was my son or my wife sitting there. I was like, when he was in the stand, I was like, oh, that's the kiss of death right there. It's definitely going to lose. And they did. So it's a great story, but you don't celebrate to you again. Yeah. But I mean, 40-year-old goalkeeper.

Starting point is 00:09:44 Because the ties of wins in soccer. Make it make sense, along with the talk. Not in the knockout rounds, not in the knockout rounds. I don't know. They do the penalty kicks. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but I'm interested to see season talks with intermarmarmoner. Miami. So I'm interested to see if that actually happens and how that will go. But I think

Starting point is 00:10:05 it's been a successful World Cup and brought the world together. You can take a trip over to Cape Verde. Yeah. It's gorgeous. Yeah. It should be. Highland, you know. Yeah, 500,000 people. I do want to bring out a couple cards that I pulled this week. And one of them is not like actually that big of a card. But Cactus Jack, that's Travis Scott's subbrand with Tops. They came out with football, or basketball, excuse me. Cactus Jack basketball and Nash and I opened a box, a hobby box of that last night. Had to sell a kidney for that, but I guess I can't sell a kidney.

Starting point is 00:10:54 I only have one. Well, hey, there's a trivia fact for you. I do. There you go. Everybody learned something today. But I will say, these are cool cards. Fun rip. I got, this is just a base. It has kind of a black and white look to it. But that's the base card. Yeah. That's a base. Yeah. Cooper flagged base card. That's their base. And the base should look like that. Amby made a gold for the price of them. But so yeah, pulled Cooper. We didn't pull any that great. He was most normal. But I really like what they did. Is it on it? Yeah, it's like 50 bucks for the base card. Something like that, 4 or 50.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Now, this on the other hand, top signature basketball, which a lot of people, it's been a polarizing, some people like, some people haven't. It's been really good to the Alford's, particularly this guy.

Starting point is 00:11:43 Very good. Every, I've opened a couple, two hobby boxes now. They have two autos guaranteed. And the first one got the Magic Johnson on card and the, another big player,

Starting point is 00:11:57 can't remember the name of, but got a lot of, We got like $3,300 worth of the cards and a $600 box. That's a win. Well, the second one was opened on the boat this weekend. I do have video of that, by the way, of this poll that we will be sharing. I'll put that up for the team to have while I'm talking about this very thing. On card, Cooper Flagg Auto.

Starting point is 00:12:20 Oh, wow. On card, Cooper Flag Auto about. And it looks really clean. $1,500. Yeah. Yeah. Blue ink. Yeah. So, score.

Starting point is 00:12:33 You'd get a graded? I don't know. I might. I mean, even the auto, like, it looks pretty centered. It looks like a clean auto. Yeah. It could be a solid 10 on the auto, and I'm going to guess a 9. It's hard to get a 10. It's probably a 10, 9. Speaking of score. But it's going for about 13, 1,500.

Starting point is 00:12:54 Yeah. It's just a base on card. We have, I have about three of these, so I'm going to take one. Trevor Lawrence, PSA 10, silver rookie card. That's the home run. That goes for $1,600, $2,000. I think he's got to have a big season, so that would be a good pickup for you. It probably will be a little overpriced because I like Trevor Lawrence.

Starting point is 00:13:17 I got a downtown Cam Ward, PSA 10. That will be available. I am taking it just to see. I did last year at Fanatics Fest. I got this autographed. It's before Jackson Dart had played a single down, but I had already bought this card before the season began for the hype train even started. It is an out of 10, Bowman U, 9 out of 10, perfect 10.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Jim Mint 10 autoed by Jackson Dart. So, big card. Big card, 9 out of 10, perfect 10. And autographed with verification. on the back. We do have that JSA certification. And I have the picture in my phone that I will text you where he signed it when he was signing it in his hand. So you have all the validity that you need behind the provenance of that autograph and an out of 50 gold. Jersey match number two out of 50 perfect 10 Cooper flag. That's a big card too. Those are just a few. And they're for sale?

Starting point is 00:14:21 These will be for sale or trade at the national. What would you be trading for? Like, what would you take? I'm looking for Bo Jackson's, Michael Jordans, Ken Griffey Jr. I want to, my goal is to walk with the 89 Griffey Jr. PSA 10. So, and I've got, I mean, a couple of these cards, one of these cards might be worth that. I mean, some of them are. But then we could get creative.

Starting point is 00:14:47 So if you see us at the national, number one, if you see me, Bella, O'Brien, come say, hello, we would love to talk to you. Yes, we would. We would love it. And I'd love to trade with you if you have interested in any of these. Brian, are you going to be trading, buying, or selling any cards? I'll have some stuff with me. Yeah, I'll be selling. I got a couple of tannies that I think I need to let go of. Part ways.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got some V-Friends and wax that I think I'm going to let my fly. But, yeah, we'll see. Before we get back to the show, I want to thank one of our reoccurring partners, If you've listened to Collected Nation for any amount of time, you know we're collectors first. That's one of the reasons we like working with pristine auction. It's a real auction built for collectors with thousands of items ending every day across sports cards, autograph member of billi, entertainment collectibles, and more. One thing I always tell people is to check out their daily auctions and live streams.

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Starting point is 00:16:16 Christine auction, win the real thing. What else we got? Well, Brian, you had mentioned Otani, and this week, Otani hit his 300th home run, and he's the first Japanese-born player to ever do it, and they clocked his ball at 112 miles per hour off the bat. Crazy. So, great time to probably sell your Otis. Yeah, good. That guy is amazing. I mean, but if you think about it, like, there's certain baseball. certain baseball records that would never be broken. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:53 But the home run one is they could break, someone could break that. Yeah. And I think it'll be him if it's anyone. I feel like, yeah, there's, there's going to be,

Starting point is 00:17:07 I don't know, I feel like there's this swelling of suddenly the balls. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know if it's going to happen or it's just the players getting stronger. You're going to have just, there's going to be a year

Starting point is 00:17:19 it comes. up where they're just flying out of the park. I think it's coming. You're starting to see the numbers creep up a little bit more. I don't know if they've changed the bats, the balls. I don't follow the tech enough. I know they dialed it back because too much that was happening. I think they've maybe reduced it,

Starting point is 00:17:35 but I think players are getting bigger, stronger, healthier, just based on modern standards, right? You play longer. Yeah. The one that will, I mean, one of many that will never get broken is seven no-hitters by Nolan Ryan. Did you see that Marlins pitcher? He had a perfect game, and he had 90 pitches in the seventh inning.

Starting point is 00:17:55 And the manager goes out there, and it's like, what are you doing? How do you do that? How do you take him? It's not the World Series. It's like a freaking, you're the Miami Marlins or whatever you are, and you're a 500 team. I don't even know, maybe. And you're like, let the kid get freaking into a Hall of Fame with a perfect game.

Starting point is 00:18:14 Let him lose it. But no 7-0 hitters will never be broken. They can't even freaking do a perfect game. Exactly. That's crazy. The All-Star game, the 14th, that's coming up. That's next week, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:28 Oh, my gosh. Time is flying. That's a week from yesterday. Oh, gosh. Monday. That's Monday. And, you know, the year's already over in my head. Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:18:38 Yeah, next Tuesday. So, you know, the Braves are slumping. It's every time I turn it on. And that's one baseball team that I really follow and grew up, watch World Series, you know, all the way from Dale Murphy and Bob Horner and Raphael Ramirez to Chipper Jones and Dave Justice and Smoltz and Glavin. Yeah, I'm name dropping. But that's now I don't have enough time like I did when I was a kid. But when I go and watch, they're, they had the best record in baseball, but they've been losing like two out of every three, the last.

Starting point is 00:19:15 couple weeks. So I got to get back together. That's all I got to say. You got to give them a speech. I know. I think you're going to have to. I mean, I have to pump these guys up. You're sucking. Do better. I know. The pitching is not great. Last night, it's terrible. It's like 12 to three or something. I mean, it was just terrible. Pitspurps. Hey, at least it's not the Mets. No, they beat the Mets. I think everyone could be the Mets. I was like the only series. I think they won. And I don't know if they won that one. That division is not. That division's not as good as people thought.

Starting point is 00:19:50 No, the Mets were, their manager got fired in the first like 30, 40 games. They thought they were going to be like division leader and they're like, not great. So free agency and basketball has been crazy. Yeah. I'm curious what are your all's thoughts about LeBron, not going back to the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:20:09 where do you think he's going to go? How do you think it's going to impact his cards? Uh, cards very little. I don't think. I think he has a chance to go up. Like if he were to just have, look, he's played like a top 15 player in the league last year. There's a 41 year old, 40 year old. Like, it's pretty incredible.

Starting point is 00:20:31 If he plays as good as he did last. And I don't, his efficiency wasn't, if you look at some of the numbers, wasn't as good as it really appeared to be, but it was still elite, especially at his age. if he can have another season like that a year older for another team, he might could help another team get to the end of the playoffs, is not win is the right team. And his cards could go up. I don't see him going down.

Starting point is 00:20:54 I mean, I just think, what, oh, he, 41, he has a slump year. Okay, all right, he resigned. Like, give me a break. What do you think, Brian? I mean, I just,

Starting point is 00:21:04 I don't know why he'd want to leave one. I mean, he's going to chase a championship. obviously that's what he's trying to do. So New York becomes a pretty logical move for him. I don't know what the salary cap has to do with it, but he's not going to San Antonio. He's not going to go from L.A. to San Antonio and hang out there.

Starting point is 00:21:25 It's speculated that he's going to go to the heat or the 76ers. Or Cleveland. Yeah, Miami. I root against them. That's why I don't love LeBron James. I mean, like stay where you are. fight it out but like he's going to go somewhere and like they're going to talk about it and it's going to be all this pressure and he can win a world championship but at the same point like

Starting point is 00:21:49 just stop yeah i don't know i need to know more about if he felt pushed out if like the lakers were i don't know what the you never know what the politics and all that were i mean true i think he got along with the players i think him and don't actually got along i think him and rees are actually buddies. So, I mean, he was trying to be kind of the, as much as you can when you're LeBron James be the senior leader and all that sort of thing. I didn't think it made a lot of sense. I agree with you, Brian, if there's not something else, link, you know, a reason or

Starting point is 00:22:23 or if he got sort of pushed out silently, which I have a hard time believing. Then I agree he should just stay there, the Lakers. I mean, L.A., like finish it out. It's not like they're a train wreck. They weren't that far away. They picked up a couple pieces. Uh, your son's still there. Yeah, there's something we don't know.

Starting point is 00:22:42 Does his son go with him like in his gym bag and he's like, oh, by the way, you got Brony too. Well, and Brani is probably a really great G League player in borderline NBA play. He's not terrible. I mean, he's a good kid. I think he's talented, but I don't know if he's NBA material. But honestly, you know, if I'm LeBron, I'm not saying anybody deserves it, but. And I'm not a gigantic, I'm a Jordan guy. I mean, I'm not a LeBron guy.

Starting point is 00:23:12 But if anybody's earned it, I, if your son truly is borderline, I'm okay with a little bit of, like, nepotism. In that case, because I have four boys. And if I was one of the goats or considered on that list, not me personally thinking that, but a lot of people do, and you're my son's borderline at all. And he's not hurting the team. He's not a distraction.

Starting point is 00:23:35 He's not like, you know, getting into. trouble. He's actually, you know, doing the, you know, running the laps, doing the stuff. I don't mind a little bit of favor. I think you've earned it, maybe. I'm okay with that. What about you? You okay with that, Brian? Yeah, I think that's, yeah, I like that perspective. Yeah. But I still think you should have stayed in L.A. too. I just think there's something we don't know for why he isn't. Because chasing the championship, L.A. was in the playoffs. They won the first series. I mean, weren't, they've picked up a couple pieces. But if he is chasing it and he just thinks

Starting point is 00:24:09 Luca's never going to win one, I don't know. Lucas games, and I love Luke. I do. I enjoy watching him, but I'm not, is he going to win a title? I don't know. I think if he has the right guys around him, we'll see. But I think, but then some of the other things, Jalen Brown going to 76ers.

Starting point is 00:24:26 I mean, if they got Jalen Brown and LeBron with N&B can stay healthy, they're suddenly, I think the frontrunners in the east. I still think all things run through San Antonio. Yeah. Wemby's reach can't really be beat right now. But for the East perspective, I mean, New York's not worse, but I think the 76ers got markedly better. Jaylon Brown's the truth. He kind of annoys the shit out of me, but he's a legit player.

Starting point is 00:25:02 It'll be interesting. I want to see the Celtic. I'm kind of like a still Celtics, like, closet Celtics fan because I just grew up with Bird, McCale, and Parrish, and all those guys. Doc, was it Doc Rivers that played from the Celtics?

Starting point is 00:25:20 Yeah. And Danny Aange. Danny Aange. I may do myself here, but, you know, like I still have the nostalgia. And I like Tatum as a guy. I think he's got a lot to still prove to be, like, too, up at Bresch line,

Starting point is 00:25:34 he comes back to that injury. but it'd be interesting where they go. Donovan Mitchell just got really, really rich. Yeah. Richer. $270 million over four years. I think that's what I saw. I'd change teams too.

Starting point is 00:25:49 I'm like. All right. Switching lanes a little bit. Football. Preseason's coming up. It's going to be here before you blink an eye. Minus, you know, Trevor Lawrence and Josh. Allen. What quarterbacks are we buying? What quarterbacks are we looking for? Which ones are we

Starting point is 00:26:14 holding? Which ones are we selling? I do like the ones you have on the screen here, Jaden Daniels and Drake May. I think Drake May's got upside still, even though he's pretty high right now. A lot of his is baked in. Jaden's, there's actually a card we had in the store that I meant to take out of the cabinet. They got sold last week. It was a Pandora out of 24. Jaden Daniels is a sick card. And I was, I've been eyeing it for months going, I'm going to just take that. I'm going to keep that.

Starting point is 00:26:46 And someone else beat me to it. Mind you, we haven't like singles, we don't sell nearly as much as sealed packs. So the fact that it sold right before you were going to take it out of the case. I knew I left it too long. I've been eyeing it every time, but buy it. He has this down as like Herbert, like in Burrow. They're down a little bit, right?

Starting point is 00:27:06 I'd be buying Burrow. I think Burroughs going to have a bounce back here. I think he's always popular, so I don't think he's, like, that much lower than where he should be, but he's lower than he should be. And I think he's going to have a bounce back. These receivers are healthy. He's healthy. It is one of those teams, though, that just seems a little snake bit that I go, you know, the Bengals, like things like they can't get it all together at once. But they made some, they picked up Dexter Lawrence on the defensive line, my boy from Clemsie.

Starting point is 00:27:38 He is the truth. He's going to plug the middle. That's the first, like, superstar. They've had other guys, but they got some dudes. They had Hendrickson. Yeah. So it's like, I think they could make a run this year. They've got a tough division, though.

Starting point is 00:27:53 So I think Jaden's going to bounce back if you stay healthy. And I'm going to make Brian happy. He's not surprised at this. But I'm holding every Caleb Williams. I got to tell you that right now. He's a superstar. There's a rumor that he's opening up some card stores here in Chicago. I might know that I might know the answer of that rumor but yeah I like him more

Starting point is 00:28:16 I would be buying Caleb Williams I would be buying Jaden Drake May I think values kind of in I would at least hold on like I got the reason I'd be selling that I think Boonex is is a guy and I think his coach is legit you got Sean Payton there you got a lot you got a lot lot of support around him. They're going to be in it. Jackson Dart, that's kind of why I'm taking to. I don't want to give away my hand here. He has.

Starting point is 00:28:49 I was going to stay at, but I didn't want you to feel bad. No, that's why I'm taking it. That's why it may or me not have me for sale at the National. Now I'm undervalue my own card. But very speculative market, like every rookie quarterback. But I think Cam Ward is a better prospect and a better

Starting point is 00:29:08 and has better upside and showed a little bit more. And Jackson's exciting and he did a few things and he got hit really hard on the sidelines and he seems like a really cool kid. I can say that because I'm 20 years older than him. But I hadn't seen enough to warrant holding him. You know what, Ryan, there's always these year two quarterbacks, the year two quarterbacks, there's always half or a third of them that just never ever hit their rookie.

Starting point is 00:29:40 And maybe they get scouted, maybe the defenses get smarter, maybe they don't work as hard. And like, I don't know what it is, but some make adjustments into the professional life and some like a shooting star and then,

Starting point is 00:29:51 and then fizzle out. And it just happens all the time. And I wonder if that's work ethic. I mean, what do you think? It takes to be an NFL quarterback, but you see the same thing? I see the same thing.

Starting point is 00:30:04 And the only asterisk I'm putting on this I want to save this because I know I'll either get, if you were to have a great year, somebody will replay this for me. But I'm going to put this ashter. The only reason I hold out a maybe and a hope, he's got talent. Everybody's got talent in the NFL. John Harbaugh is a coach now. And John Harbaugh is a hell of a coach.

Starting point is 00:30:28 And he's going to put him in the best system for success. He's going to support him. You've got Scatibo coming back, who I like, who's tough as nails. and if he stays healthy, they're going to, John's not going to let them throw it 70 times a game. John doesn't play that way. John doesn't, like, blow games, you know, because you think you have a bad team or something and let your quarterback throw 70 times. He keeps his teams in games with good defense and running the ball and not putting his quarterback out to dry if that's,

Starting point is 00:31:00 they're just not talented enough. He wins games where they're the less talented team sometimes. That would be the only thing I, think that can help that that's going to help but we'll see i just hadn't seen enough to warrant the values there are now which i think that's what we agree on brian yep it's time for this week's on it segment of the week hey everyone what's up it is bella back with the on it segment of the week i'm here with the one the only leonard barry who is the digital marketing specialist at on athlete Leonard what is up what's up bella it's a good to see you again it's been a busy month but

Starting point is 00:31:44 things are finally kind of kind of slowing down I guess for me but things are ramping up here obviously as we go into this summer season yeah I mean big MLB draft prospects that you all have can you kind of give us a little bit of an insight into what that's looking like on on its end yeah um yeah as folks know we've been talking about gravity baseball for the past couple of weeks We've got plenty of draft prospects in there. And with the MOB draft coming up this weekend, really excited to see potentially some of our names get called Rock Chilowski. We've talked about him quite a lot.

Starting point is 00:32:18 But there's a very high chance that he's going to end up being the number one overall pick. You got Drew Burris and Von Lacky, potentially going in the top 10 there as well. Sawyer Strow Snyder, Liam Peterson, Chris Hocopian, Ace Rees, Caden Sorrell, tons of names. Ryder Helphrick is a name that's getting a lot of love right now out of Arkansas. Jared Avanchula as well from Georgia Tech is a guy who folks have been kind of

Starting point is 00:32:45 his draft stock rose throughout the course of the year and just another one, potentially three Georgia Tech guys who get drafted this weekend, all who signed with us. So that would be really cool to see from our Georgia Tech team set. But I'm just really looking forward to seeing if Rock can hold on to that number one overall pick spot because Grady Emerson, the high school kid, has been generating a lot of buzz recently.

Starting point is 00:33:09 So it'll be interesting to see. That would be insane. I can't even imagine being like 18 years old, just going right into the MLB. But I think that's also something that makes the MLB kind of special and fun. Yeah, I mean, having 15 top prospects just as on athletes is amazing. and yeah, three from Georgia Tech, all getting signed in the first round would be pretty cool, pretty cool. Has everything with gravity baseball still been good, good reception? Yeah, I've seen a couple people submit their hits to us, so that's been pretty cool.

Starting point is 00:33:50 Onathlete.com slash highlights is the place you can go if you want to do that. I've seen some hollow forums, which is the brand new insert. I've seen some folks with Autographs number to 9 So been super cool to see the community Kind of reception and people getting big hits You know as a retail product It's with no guaranteed autos

Starting point is 00:34:10 It's not always easy to find Some of those low number of autographs So to see the people out there pulling them in the wild Sent in us Seven Wonders It's been super cool to see And like I said We got quite a few in the draft prospects In that product even though it's just limited

Starting point is 00:34:24 To 10 teams versus the 21 that we work with this spring You still do have Sawyer and Ace Reese and Chalowski's in there as well. So nobody sent me the Rock Chilowski 101 Auto. Maybe they haven't. And they're waiting for him to get drafted. Maybe they're waiting for draft day so they can put it up on eBay and say White Sox number one overall pick, you know. But I don't know if anybody even has it yet. Yeah, that's crazy.

Starting point is 00:34:48 All right. Shifting gears a little bit. I know we got like three weeks just about until the national. What do y'all got going on at the national? I know I've heard some rumblings of some exciting things that y'all are doing. So let's fill the audience in and what they can expect. Yeah, so we are going to be back at the National with, once again, we'll have a booth. So for folks that were at the National last year, that maybe came by the On-It booth,

Starting point is 00:35:14 it'll be pretty similar to what you saw last year. We'll be streaming from there once again. So we'll have our live TikTok and whatnot ripping chips going on there at the National. We'll have the booth set up with a Bunt on-it product as well. some of the folks, you know, who work at the company, uh, will all be there at the booth. So if you want to meet, you know, Matt and Kyle from the TikTok and whatnot side, or if you want to, uh, you know, maybe talk to some of our sales reps. If you're a hobby shop or just somebody who's looking to get some distribution or direct account, uh, will be there out in force. So for folks that

Starting point is 00:35:48 are going that are, you know, in the card space, like we will definitely have a lot of opportunities, uh, for you to get in touch with us out there. And then, for just fans and card collectors and stuff, we're going to have some special packs. We had last year we had the silver packs, which everybody seemed to love. There were a ton of huge hits in there for a lot of different schools. The silver packs will be back.

Starting point is 00:36:11 And with us doing Onet Black in a new form this year, we're going to have some On It Black packs there as well that are exclusive to the national. So folks can expect to find some never-before-seen autographs across those new packs, which I think, or I hope that collectors will be very excited about. Yeah, that's awesome. And are those only going to be available at the National?

Starting point is 00:36:33 Can't get them after? That is correct. Yeah, they are going to be national exclusive. So both the Silver Products and the Onet Blackbacks are going to be national exclusives. So stop by the Onet Athlete booth. Or if you're not at the National, you can also check in on our streams. So I know there's plenty of people who can't make it out to the Chicago area for a variety of reasons, whether it's work or whether, you know, it's just the cost.

Starting point is 00:36:57 I mean, the cost to travel is not cheap these days. So you can check it on our streams as well. We'll be running some special promos for folks that can't make it in person, but still want to have opportunity to get their hands on them, but it will only run through the duration of the national. So if you hop in after the national ends in August, you're going to be disappointed because you missed out. Leonard, can you drop some of the deets again?

Starting point is 00:37:21 Can you drop that link again for people to share the, gravity baseball hits that they get. Yeah, absolutely. It's onathlet.com slash highlights. You can submit your gravity baseball hits there, but honestly, you can submit anything as well. It's kind of open for submissions. Obviously, we'd love to see folks ripping gravity baseball, but if you're going to the national, you know, and you get one of these silver packs or these black packs and you

Starting point is 00:37:45 get something big in there, we'd love to see those hits from the national too, or even if you're just hitting stuff like on streams, you know, with other folks in the community breakers or going out and buying it a hobby shop and opening there. Like we'd love to see anything and everything that folks are there. So onathlet.com slash highlights is that link. And for you, Bella, you mentioned going to the national. Definitely stopped by the booth because the silver packs are going to have some women's sports in there. So you might be able to find a little mixture, some gymnastics, some volleyball in there.

Starting point is 00:38:18 That's one of the things obviously that we were a card on is to get those women's sports representation out there. out getting some softball, some volleyball, some gymnastics in those packs as well. You know, big names, maybe even, I don't know, I can't say for certain, but maybe there'll be some more Jordan Child stuff in there. You've piqued my interest because I actually said, I was like, okay, I need to like figure out what cards I want to get at the national. I don't like, you know, sports cards aren't huge for me. I'm more of into the Pokemon and gymnastics. So I was like, maybe I can try to find some gymnastics cards, and that's definitely going to be where I'm heading. So shop onitathlet.com. Use code collector nation at checkout to receive 15% off your first order.

Starting point is 00:39:07 Or go check them out at the National. I'll probably be there ripping some gymnastics packs if I'm lucky, getting that Jordan Child's Auto. If I'm even luckier, maybe that's where my luck will turn around. Any final thoughts, Leonard? I just appreciate it and looking forward to, I mean, I won't be there, but looking forward to seeing everybody at the national, at least from the on-it sense. So I hope to have a great turnout. It was amazing last year and the fan base is only grown this year. So we're looking forward to seeing everybody out there in Rosemont and looking forward to building into 2026. Yep, super excited. Thanks, Leonard. All right. Wow. Is there any final thoughts from either of you? Any maybe words of advice for people that are starting to pack for the national and what they should bring, what they shouldn't bring? Yeah, if you're not in walking distance, make sure you take some more time to get your Uber.

Starting point is 00:40:05 Maybe reserve your Uber. Yeah. And ahead. Hire a driver. Yeah, hire a driver. It's, I don't think so. I think I've got some tips and things that we're going to be releasing. They're a little, some tongue and cheek, but a little different.

Starting point is 00:40:22 I'll say that for that segment. We'll link to that when we release it. We did a nice little 10 minute segment where I gave some insights that are a little different than what you normally hear. And I do think it's so overwhelming with how much is there. I think either just embrace that or comfort. focused on whatever you're trying to get done, you know, and have a plan. If you're plans just to be there and absorb it all, great. Absorb it all.

Starting point is 00:40:51 Just walk around. Great. If you're there for a day, just soak it all in. There's also the Luddux Interactive map that we could show on the screen. But that's now you can put notes in there on the different tables. And the vendors, something we added this year to the Luddx Interactive map. is that the vendors get to put a more description of what they have and some of their bigger cards that they want to that they're bringing. So it's a good way to plan ahead of time and at least visualize how big this thing is.

Starting point is 00:41:24 So, yeah, proud of my team. How do they get to that, Brian? Let's drop that for them. That's on the Ludox app. So if you have the Ludix app, it's a front and center on landing page or it's on the NSCC website. it's on there also. And it's honestly better to look in the beginning on the web than it is on your phone. But the phone works pretty well during the event.

Starting point is 00:41:51 But plan ahead on the web. Exactly. Especially because there's probably going to be very difficult to get a good service. I will say this. And I'm glad Brian brought it up because I used it last year. It's really nice to the map. It is necessary. I pride myself in not really needing maps.

Starting point is 00:42:09 and you need it and you need to know where the vendors are and that's the value there. So L-U-D-E-X, get that in the app store. You should get it anyway. Best Card-Scanning app in the store. But it's just another reason. And look, the National doesn't trust anyone

Starting point is 00:42:25 to manage something like that. So that should tell you all you need to know. Any other things, Bella? Nope, that's all for me. Thecollectornation.com. Learn more about what we're doing, bringing all the hobby together, all the content.

Starting point is 00:42:38 working with all the best players. Hey, you got the best players here. You got Brian and Bella. Already got all the content of Collector Nation there and, of course, the podcast. So there's some cool functionality. That's going to be rolling out on the app store in the coming weeks, probably right around national time, and more announcements to come. And if you, hey, if you want to just shop the collector station where we're at here,

Starting point is 00:43:03 the collector station.com. Got all our inventory there. All the best products. Yeah. Learn more about the store, what we're doing, events. So if you're in the South Carolina area, you come through, this needs to be on your roadmap for a hobby shop. We are flagship store of South Carolina.

Starting point is 00:43:21 I'm just going to say it now. I know it. I've been in them. They're all, there's some cool ones, but this is it. We appreciate you. We appreciate Luttex. We appreciate Brian. Bella.

Starting point is 00:43:31 Appreciate you. Yeah. See you next week, everyone. See you guys. Much love. 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.

Starting point is 00:43:50 Now get out there and collect yours.

Collector Nation - Keep, Sell, or Trade? Cards Getting Hot Before The National

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