Collector Nation - PSA Pricing, Super Bowl Card Hype & the Vintage Advantage

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

The sports card hobby is evolving — and the old rules don’t always apply anymore. In this episode of Collector Nation, host Ryan Alford is joined by hobby veteran and Ludex CEO Brian Ludden for a wide-ranging conversation on the real economics behind today’s card market. They unpack how Super Bowl performances impact pricing, why PSA grading fees keep climbing, and why vintage cards continue to quietly outperform modern hype. 🧠 What You’ll Learn: Why grading modern cards is riskier than most collectors admit How PSA pricing and turnaround times affect card velocity The growing dominance of raw card transactions Why vintage cards behave more like “blue-chip assets” How branding and auction exposure multiply card values What most collectors misunderstand about supply & demand This episode is less about hype — and more about understanding how money actually moves in the hobby. 🤝 Connect with Collector Nation Ryan Alford Website: https://ryanisright.com Instagram / X: @ryanalford Brian Ludden – Ludex Website: https://www.ludex.com Download the Ludex App (iOS) Instagram / X: @ludexapp 🌐 Collector Nation: https://thecollectornation.com

Hey, Super Bowl happened. I call it the Superbust. Everything about the Super Bowl was a bust for me. There was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. The game itself just was not good. And I'm happy for Darnold. No offense, but I'm fine watching Patriots get the butt kicked in the Super Bowl. Did you see PSA announcement? Yeah, I did see that.

Price increases and timing increases. Is that right? Yeah, that's what I saw. Hey, when you rule your own world, you can set all the rules. It's just you got to have the right level of scrutiny, and the tools are there with AI and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be great. I think the biggest risk you have back there is altered. People trimming those, but I like vintage. There's less pressure. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock.

Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs. You take you inside a hobby. Here are your hosts, Ryan Alford and Brian Lutton. What's up guys? Welcome to Collector Nation here on the Collector Nation Network. Always with my good buddy here on Fridays. Brian Luddn.

He is the CEO of LuddXS-L-U-D-E-X, the best scanning collection management, eBay listing software on the app store. What's up, Brian? What's up, my man? How you doing? I'm good, man. Hey, Super Bowl happened.

I call it the Superbust. Everything about the Super Bowl was a bust for me. I'm just going to put it out. I'm not normally a negative Nancy. I try not to be. But there was just nothing enjoyable about that whole experience. I agree. I mean, it was, I don't even know who bad bunny was,

and I don't ever need to know who he is. But the game itself was just, it just was not good. I mean, the Seahawks, I mean, they're a good football team. they probably were the best team all season. They beat some really good teams, really, by a lot of points. Yeah. And I'm happy for it, Arnold. Yeah.

And no offense, but I am fine watching the Patriots get the butt kicked in the Super Bowl. It was hard for me to root for the Patriots as the underdog. And they were. Four and a half points was a joke. Seattle looked like the better team coming in. The defense was dominant. It played out exactly. Is having no skin in the game?

not caring about either team. It played out exactly like I would have analyzed it too, which is dominant defense from Seattle. And Patriots defense was good too, but just a better overall showing. But it's hard to root for the Patriots. I guess it's too soon for them to be the underdog. And me to go, oh, yeah, hope the Patriots can, as the underdog,

really overcome Seattle. That narrative didn't really work for me. No, those. They beat them last time. that stupid play calling. So I was fine with it. I'm going to miss football. I mean, I don't watch the NBA.

I will watch March Madness. I do watch U of I basketball. I'm U of I fan. But honestly, I miss football. And, you know, baseball is the doldrums of, you know, of the time period with sports. You know, I do like March Madness, but then it's kind of, that comes and goes.

The playoffs of the NBA are just too long. I can't get into the, four months of the NBA playoff. I get into like the last two series. But the four month NBA playoffs, and then it's just count. It really just becomes, officially the Super Bowl is the countdown

to win football starts again. That's true. It does, does Tops pick it up, pick up the license now? I thought it was after the Super Bowl. I don't, I thought the date is technically the cards coming out like April or May.

Oh, okay. but I'm really, I'm excited because there's been nothing but Padini. It's been weird a little bit. You know the unlicensed top stuff I wasn't a big fan of. But now, but I'm a football card for my thing. Like that's my, it's funny. Talking to Cole, who's here at the shop, helping me manage the store. And I go, if you look around here, and we've got everything at the store,

but it goes, you know, tell me your owner's a football fan without telling me your owner's a football fan. We've got more football cards than anything. So bring on the tops licensed now. Yeah. Then I'll just be counting the days for when the season starts. Hopefully Clemson's a little better this year. I don't think that could be much worse, honestly.

You started talking about disappointing teams that they're in the top. Ironically, it was us in Penn State, the biggest disappoints of the year in the Toilet Bowl game. that we lost that too. So, uh, anyway, uh, Drake May didn't have a great game,

but you know what? I know his cards are probably getting bashed, uh, a little bit. I haven't even looked at the pricing, quite frankly, I have a lot of his cards and I'll be holding those long term or selling them in the store overpriced.

But, um, the, uh, just kidding on that one. We have great prices here. Brown sale. Uh, but the,

uh, it's kind of as expected. First Super Bowl playing, one of the most ridiculous defenses of the last, I don't know, five to seven years. I'm not going to say all time. I'm not that guy. All time best defenses. No, a really good defense.

All time, last five years probably. We're right up there with some of the best. All time of the last. All five years, they were the best, Brian. I need some kind of hyperbole for this highlight clip. But, and he got rattled a little bit and didn't look good. But I don't think anybody was going to look good against them. No.

I mean, when will teams just dominate, like, the draft dominate, offensive line, defensive line? I mean, honestly, we've seen Mahomes look human when he gets hit. Brady lost because he got hit. Drake May had no time. He got hit. Like, I would just go offensive line draft, defensive line. Offensive line, defensive line, offensive.

Offensive defense. Then fill in the rest, like, whatever. But when you can get to their quarterback and protect ears in that NFL, you're a step ahead. I did think, I know they're running back at the MVP, but Sam, I mean, Sam Darnold is as a good story. He played really well. He's more, I mean, he looks like, he always had it in him. You could see, you know, streaks of it. But I wasn't rooting for a team in the game, but I was rooting for that guy.

Yeah, he's a likable dude, and he went through a lot of stuff. But, I mean, he came out of college. He was kind of doughy, and, like, I think he probably just, you know, didn't understand what it would take to make it in this league. And then I think he committed and, you know, matured. And, I mean, he'll be, he'll sign a big deal with Seattle and he'll be their quarterback for the next 10 years. Yeah. And it looks like a good investment in Minnesota. so to, you know, watch that.

I mean, right? Like, how do you let that guy out the door? And I guess you're hoping J.J. McCarthy's it. Maybe he still will be, but he hasn't shown it yet. We'll see. As a bear's fan, you don't really care, do you? No, I don't, I'm glad that we, JJ McCarthy. He's even a Chicago guy.

He grew up right by me. So, you know, no, I'm not. Is he, is he it? Is he got it or is he not? Do you know, do you have opinion on him? You know what? I think he's got to grow up a bit. Like when he was, when he talks in third person about nine, um, nine's out there doing this and this,

these are the type of plays nine makes. I'm like, stop. You're like, you're in the NFL now. Like, you're not a child. Grow up.

Commit to your craft. So I don't know. Right. I wish you would sometimes say that's what, you know, the kind of play Ludden would make. If you'd ever said that to me. I might have kicked your ass right there.

On the spot. I've been like, what did you just say? Yeah, I have not heard that. I'm glad I haven't seen that. I would have never talked about him. No one does that. He definitely needs to grow up. But I was happy for Donald.

His prices are definitely on the rise. I did buy a few of those before because I was pretty certain of that outcome of the Super Bowl. Oh, 124. His 2018 Don Russ Optic was $260. bucks and now it's 450. Sounds about right. Super Bowl pop.

Almost double. Almost double. I like it. It might have been up there anyway. But a 2026 Tops baseball is releasing this week. We will have that here at Clucket Station.

Just a little side note. But it signals, this is like the first thing, not only with the hobby, but sort of baseball in general. You get tops release. you get spring training and then you get opening day is right around the corner. Yeah, first week of April.

First week of April. Part of me is like, where's time going and how fast is it going there? Talking about long season. Holy crap. Yeah, baseball. April to October. When aren't you playing? When aren't you playing?

Exactly. The only time we're not. Exactly. So, top's 20, 20, 75 years of making Tops baseball. It's the 75th anniversary. I'm not good with that. But is that like,

is that 51? Bill will have to work that math for us. Yeah, 151. 1951. Is that their first year, I guess? Somewhere around there. It has to be. That's a long time.

I wish I had more. Yeah, I like some of those. Or just you. Yeah, well, 52 tops, mantle, right? Yeah, that's fine. Exactly. Give me some of those. Did you see PSA announcement?

Yeah, I did see that. Price increases and timing increases. Is that right? Yeah, that's what I saw. I mean, hey, when you rule your own world, you can, you know, set all the rules. I will say this. No one likes pricing increases. And it's fascinating to me what they're being allowed to do in this industry without much scrutiny.

But hey, Nat, hats off to them. He can get away with it. I mean, hey, good business, man, clearly. Nothing but respect for him. But look, in any industry speaking for business, if your demand is outpacing. your supply and you're you increase prices. Yeah, everyone does.

Everyone does. If there's more demand and you have supply, prices go up. In this industry, it's like, yeah, in this industry, people get so offended. And I'm like, what do you think has happened to wages in the last two years? Like, and also, to be honest, like, that's a really, really, uh, human intensity, like, to, for, to grade. And human beings are expensive. and you have to hire more people.

The technology is where it flips, right? And if you start using more technology, then you can be more efficient and you would actually cut the times down. You'd probably bring the prices down because you're doing more. But they haven't really solved that yet. But, you know, they're running a business.

And it's also interesting because when you look at it, let's say they charge $20. And they get you a $10 and your car doubles in value. So let's say it goes under $200 to $2.000. You make, you know, 80 bucks. I mean, if it goes to 23, you're still like it like it shouldn't matter. Yeah. Right.

Like as a percentage, it doesn't matter. I mean, the other thing I don't like in it is vintage is different, but modern stuff. If you, it's 10 or not. It's 10 or bust like, because anything else and it, nines are pretty much worth raw now. Yeah. Like, it's almost identical. and then eights or below.

Eights called what I call, and I'm not talking about the drug, crack city. It's crack city. If you get an eight, you better keep some good pliers around because there's no reason to keep it in there for modern. Modern only.

Don't take that advice. This is not investment advice. This is not PSA cracking advice. This is just opinion. There's that announcement, that disclaimer. But in all seriousness, if you get an 8, it's modern, crack it, because it's worth less than raw. Yeah, you're right.

And also, let's talk about modern. Like, the time, I would say instead of, like, raising the prices, like, the biggest thing is the turnaround. Because, like, these cards every week you and I are talking about them and they're doubling in price and halving in price. And, like, you know, your guy can get hurt. So I think it really, I would be more concerned about the turnaround time with the moment. modern stuff because things get hot and then they get not. I almost forgot this. I bought a, this is how we talk about like so much happens in a week, Brian, but it's related

to this. I bought a box full of vintage. Baseball, football, basketball. We're talking 1950 to 1980. Talk about some really cool cards. Kevin McHale rookies. Like, cool shit. And if you,

grading vintage is a note. brainer, you know, in bulk. Because even if it's a three, four, five, six, seven, it's worth more, way more than raw. Way more. Typically speaking, generally speaking, more than the grading, way more than the grading fee. Yeah. To know that you have a four in a vintage card. That 20, 25 buck fee, it more than pays for that.

And it, and it creates more demand because. there's no mystery of what the card is. And that's what it removes. And so sometimes the basis for our dissension and reason we're upset is because there's a failed premise to begin with. Or the problem is a lack of understanding or not being happy with the price increase on that. But when the premise should have been, this is probably underpriced already. compared to what you can get for the right cards. It's just you got to have the right level of scrutiny,

and the tools are there with AI and other things to help you with the scrutiny of what should or shouldn't be graded. Yeah, I think the biggest risk you have back there is altered. You know, people trimming those. I mean, but you get them graded no matter what, and that just authenticates them, and you're good to sell those things. But then I love, I like vintage.

I mean, there's less. pressure. It's like buying a bond instead of a stock. Like new players and AI Hey, you sound like Ken Golden, who was on the show. And it will be. What, what date does that release, Bella? The 24th. The 24th. That's Bella Schaefer, the lovely and wonderful executive producer here on collector nation. Say hello again, Bella. Making me blush over there. There you go. She runs a show over there, runs a show. I try.

So, yeah, Ken Golden will be on. And he talked about that very thing. I had a rafire with him, Brian, and pretty much the same thing. He's like vintage, vintage and vintage, vintage, vintage baseball especially, but vintage anything is a safe bet, long term, short term, everything. He's a nice guy. I like Ken. So we do have, okay, in Top Series 1, they are going to have.

some 1952 tops variations in there. Maybe 52 was their first year since that's what they're saying is going to be in that. Yeah, that could work. That math works. Yeah. 51. They're going to have some 52 tops variations. All kings, all aces. Cover athlete autos, celebrity autos. Brian Luddn might or might not be in there. We'll leave it up for mystery. I yeah, check my email. I'm sure it's there. sell right. Exactly. You missed the signing. It probably win my spam. Yeah, you're too busy counting your Jordan Ricky cards.

1991, Topsado's Home Field Advantage. And actually this week, this should be, is this coming out this week, 218? Is that this week or next week? V-Friends, super stickers. We will have those here at collector station. We are an official distributor of V-Friends and Gary V's team. Good people to work with. Love that. And fun.

I love the messaging with those, man. I think kids need something positive. And I think Gary's doing that with his cards. A sign Michael Jordan trading card sold for 800,000, 800,000 big ones. Do you think they have money on that? Like, whoever bought that? Depends on what the card was. All I see is trading card.

I don't know what card it was. So if it's a rookie card, probably not. If it's something else, then maybe. Bella might get that detail for us before this is over. We'll leave that as a cliffhanger. What do you think? I think honestly, if it's like any rookie card, star card, like whatever it is and the pop report's low,

like I don't think you ever lose money on those high-end cards. I mean, I've talked to people, I've probably talked to five companies in the last five months, so one a month, that, you know, these funds are coming in. The Mr. Wonderful, but like there's a lot. There's a lot of funds that are like, hey, let's get this high, high-end stuff and hold it. And when it becomes a herd mentality and there's too many of them, they tend to move the prices up too much and kind of stifle what their return would be. But, I mean, look at the Honus Wagner coming up.

Like, I mean, that guy made how much money and how much time? So the card was a auto 2003-2004 upper deck exquisite collection. logo man one of one. Oh, okay. They'll make money. They'll make money. That's $3 million card in 10 years. Maybe not in that long.

Yeah. Is Michael Jordan, how do you get Jordan's signature these days? I mean, has he even do them? No, I mean, I think he's still with Upper Deck, but he doesn't sign anything anymore. I had my buddy Erlacher plays golf with him twice a year. I was just thinking about like, hey, Brian, could you just ask him to sign a couple of things? Yeah, could ask him to sign these rookie cards I got? Dude. I mean, come on be a friend.

You know what? You know how much I do for a locker. Anything else we miss, Bill? I mean, just that Pokemon over the last two years has outperformed gold and the S&P 500 index. Oh, yeah, we didn't miss nothing. But, you know, that's not showing the state of the hobby. I don't know what it is. But don't buy those gold Pokemon cards. Those are fake. Yeah. Look, good story. Good story to close. you know, they say you don't get high on your own supply.

Well, I, I tend to question that, that thought. I was ripping through some Pokemon last night late. Look, I was working on the app at like 1 a.m. Brian, I got to have like some Sandy. So I'm, I'm working, ripping a pack. Working, ripping a pack. Well, mega evolutions. I got the gold, uh, mega Lucario.

That's the big hitter in that thing, like eight packs in. What's that? I, it was. it's like $700 three months ago, but it's like three something, 350, 350. And it looks like a 10 to me here. We've got to put it under the microscope,

but it could be a 10. It goes to a 10, you're on my $900 card. Well, how does it, a Pokemon card, it's not like he went on the field and broke a leg or something. Like, how does it get her?

You know, it's like, I mean, and he had a really rough. He had a concussion, and he got taken out, you know, Charzard.

He gets a little rough and he messed up Lucario pretty good. Yeah. That's interesting. No, because of speculation, I guess, you know, hype like everything else, the set, it was a mega evolution set. And so it comes out. All the cards are overpriced. I think it's now more of where it should be and probably will be long term.

Beautiful card, all gold, but it's not fake. I did not print it. And it was in the pack, Brian. That's awesome. Good for you. So you see hard work. Hard work pays off. Stamp late kids.

And to be truthful, I wish someone would have just bought that box and ripped it in the store. I wasn't trying to take that opportunity away from someone. It's just if it sits there long enough and I got nothing else to do, I start ripping cards. You're like staring at it. You're like, I had this box. I've been carrying it around for a week and hadn't opened it. And then I was like, I'm going to rip some packs tonight while I'm working. And this is what happens.

Folks, kids listening, you know, the speculation, opportunity and risk, combined with a little stupidity and beer, you too can rip a car to your dreams. Making the next generation of gamblers. I think exactly. I think that's the... I don't think we're doing that.

I think that's more like, you know, stadium club and all those guys can live with themselves. They're the ones doing that. And your friend that got you ripping that tops or the LeBron. Hay shop. Hey shop. Hey shop. Exactly.

I'm going to have some. What are you getting that card? You getting that card in? I got it. You already got it? It's at home. The LeBron? Yeah.

Yeah. I got it like three days later. It was pretty awesome. Dude, you need to bring that on the show next week. I want to see that. I'll bring on the show next week. And sell it to me. I give you 65%.

70. All right. Traded him for Jordan. I'm doing. I think that's all we got. Brian, any final words? No, man. All good. Always a pleasure, my man.

I appreciate you. Hey, guys. We appreciate you. A little loose episode here on Collector Nation. This is what it looks like as guys. Two guys. Hey, we like the game as much as we like playing it. And we like bringing it to you.

We appreciate you for listening. Hey, you know what to find us. First, go to that app store. L-U-D-E-E-X. Download L-D-X. Thank me later. Collection management, values, eBay loading,

so that you actually make some money back for all the money that we spend on these things. See where you get digital collection management. You'll change your life. L-U-D-E-X, L-D-E-X, in the app store. And, of course, the collector-nation. Dot com.

For Brian Ludden, I'm Ryan Alford. We'll see the next time. I'll clicker nation. Thanks for tuning in to 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.