Collector Nation - Why Are Some Sports Cards Worth 30X More? The Reality of Today’s Card Market

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

The sports card market keeps climbing, but does the value of today's cards actually make sense? Ryan Alford, Brian Ludden, and Bella Shafer break down another big week in the hobby, from record-setting sales and the strength of high-end cards to the growing debate over modern cards versus cards that have already survived multiple market cycles. Ryan also shares a recent product comparison that revealed nearly a 30X difference in card value, despite pulling numbered cards and an autograph from the competing product. The crew also discusses Justin Herbert and football players they're watching, the return of Topps flagship football, Cooper Flagg, buying collections, the explosion of parallels, Collector Station's first eBay Live streams, and new Ludex features. Topics Covered Sports card market prices and record sales Can the current hobby boom last? Modern cards vs. proven cards The surprising 30X card value difference Cooper Flagg and Topps Chrome Update Topps Signature Class Basketball 2026 Topps flagship football Justin Herbert and football cards to watch Buying large sports card collections The problem with too many parallels Collector Station's first eBay Live streams What's new at Ludex 🔗 Links Collector Nation Website: https://thecollectornation.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecollectornation TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecollectornation YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecollectornation Collector Station Website: https://thecollectorstation.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecollectorstation Ryan Alford Website: https://www.ryanalford.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford Brian Ludden / Ludex Website: https://www.ludex.com App: https://www.ludex.com/download Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ludexapp ⭐ If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe to Collector Nation, leave a comment, and share it with another collector.

I did a top signature class, 2025, 26 basketball megabox, versus a top chrome update. So obviously pulled a ray wave of con and Cooper flag. But then I pulled an out of 50 from the signature class, Michael Bridges, from the Knicks, at a 50. And then I got an auto out of a megabox, and it's just Spencer, Denwitty. So an auto and out of 50, and I know they're not Khan and Cooper,

so I knew these were more. Does anyone want to guess in our panel here of two the spread difference between what's on the table. I say it's one and a half X. I'd guess the signature class are less than $100. So 30x is a difference. The con and the Cooper are right at $300. Wow.

10 bucks for the auto and the out of 50. They're like five bucks each, maybe. My issue is like art-wise, I think the signature class looks 30 times better than the update series does. Yeah. There's your 30X again. There you go. I'm Ryan Alford. And I'm Bella Schaefer.

And this is Collector Nation. We're curating all of the content in the hobby just for you all in one place. All the videos, all the podcasts, all the reels, all those drops you want right here, right now. What's up guys? Welcome to the Collector Nation. It's Ryan, Brian, and Bella. Hello, hello. What's up, guys?

Here we are. Here we are again. Once again. I can't believe it's almost a month past the National. I was thinking about that. Is it really? It's been a month. Yep.

I look at it's a month closer to the next national. A little ASMR of my drink opening for everyone. Oh, yeah. This was a guest I had on my business show this week, and he was so nice to send. Yeah, he sent us a little care package. Got a little potion with the motion. It's motion. Wow.

Clever. Smells nice. It smells nice. How's it taste, though? Not bad. So we got these other energy drinks that I loved and everyone else do not love. Oh, God, they're so bad. We're not going to name them.

I think you already did. Oh, man, everybody was in the office, studio, wherever the hell we are in, in our store. It was like, what is she talking about? Because no one likes them except her. I love them. I gave myself like a minor caffeine addiction. Yeah, be your own person. Thank you.

Don't listen to anyone else. This is the energy. needed. Yeah. Anyway, moving on to Havi News of the Week. Another day, another $10 million card. I mean, it seems like every week we make these episodes and every week there's a new million-plus dollar card that sold. I mean, I tell you, I tell you, like, if they're not going to come down, they're not coming down, the high-end stuff. Yeah. Well, it's like you constantly, like it's, it's like NFL, uh, rookie contracts.

Like they constantly are getting higher and higher and higher and higher because they have to outdo the one before. And it's the same thing with these cards. They're just constantly going to get higher. And it's like, I mean, at some point there's got to be a cap, I'd assume. But it's also like then we see these rookie contracts that seem to not have a cap. I think the only thing is going to come down is like overprinted like stuff. But I think the short print like true, especially. Otan,

anyone greatest, maybe the greatest player of all time. I mean, that stuff's not coming down. I mean, I think the cream of the crop is going to stay up

that I think you might see dips. I will say it's funny. This is related to unload. So I've been, you know, with the collector nation. Dotcom launching and so much news funneling in

and editorial content and all that. So I'm in it now. It's so funny. You know, the hobby can't help itself. So I'm just going to, I'm going to push a lot of things in. It's having a good season.

And, you know, 2000 and 2001, I get it. And I wasn't in it then. I was a long time ago. Then I came back, but I was on the other side of that. So when I, you had so much fake money in, in the economy in 2001. You had all these reasons for why it tanked like it did. And I have no, I'm not a predictor of what the market's going to do or not do. but they just can't

I'm not an oracle. I'm not an oracle. But it's so funny watching the videos and every one of them we're in for a darn town turn. I know it's coming. There's another downturn. It can't stay like it is.

It's just like 2020. They can't enjoy success. No, they can't. And I get it. Nobody should be living in a, you know, bubble and not, you know, reality. But it's like they're going to manifest a downturn to happen, you know, because it's just too good.

I'm like, I'm not having my head in the sand, but like there's so many other measures involved right now that are way beyond what happened in 2021. So in the stock world, in the stock world, people could short a stock. So that means like you could really, you can bet if the stock's going down, right? And so when there's a saying that if you bet on a stock that's going down and you could be so right, but the market could stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. And that's kind of the thing. Yeah. The card market can stay irrational and then longer than you could stay sane from seeing it go irrational. Now, yeah, that's a good point. Just ride the wave, bro. Just ride it. That's it. That's it, man.

Yeah. Don't ever think it, bro. I also think that there's so much power. and wealthy people coming into this space that they're going to make it work whether or not it is. Like, Mr. Wonderful isn't going to invest in something and not make it work. Yeah. It's just not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. And he's only one. There's like, there's going to be 10 of those guys next year. Yeah. There's a, I call it durability. And the durability of what's happening right now

is on much better footing than it was. five, six years ago. And it's, some of the things are similar. I think 30% of it's similar, but I think the things that matter are more durable. We also had a vintage card record set this week. A complete 1997-198 Jordan PMG red set hit auction at $1.47 million.

And if you say those years that you didn't exist. Vintage. Yeah. Man, I'm really vintage. I was 20 when that came. I like that, put that in the respect. But I mean, I was your age from that game. It's like a classic car is now like 20, 2003 or 2004 counts as a classic car.

Oh, come on. That would never be a classic car. But yeah. No, no, no, no. But I'm saying like now. I know what I mean 20 about the years but you know but I guess do we is it like is it relative to the person that's talking about it or is it relative to the industry so like vintage to me is always like

like the old cards that aren't have don't have parallels and like you know there's one set like tops or you know and it was Mickey Mantles and earlier and some 80s but I really thought I really feel like 80s is too new I think 70s and below I think it's 75 and below that's what I think. But even if I'm like, even if I was Bella's age, I would still be like, that's vintage. Yeah.

And then you'd say like modern, like near modern. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I just, I don't know because it's like self-preservation. I want to say that 1987 is not vintage. I mean, when you're 30 years removed. It doesn't feel like it to me.

It does. I don't look like it. Because it was so overprinted and so shit. It's like. That's a shirt that you should have. have. I should have, I should get a vintage shirt because I was born in the 70s. And I had so much of it. God, I have so much of it. Like, it's like, you know, pulling my collection off the shelf didn't really like net a whole lot. No. They're going up now, though.

The inserts are from there. That's a, that's an awesome set. I have not found one of those. I've been looking in my collection. I have not found any PMG red. Love it, man. That'd be like my dream set. Once I grow up and make some money. Well, if you have $1.4 million, lying around, it can be yours. I'm about to run some newspaper ads, like literally, little ads in the newspaper. It was like an infomercial. You run these little ads. Somebody's listening, and they got that joke.

But in all seriousness, saying buying collections, you're not going to find it. These guys aren't on Facebook. These guys are reading newspapers, right? They're still reading newspapers. Ty Wilson with Jason Carpard. He thought that's what they do. Yeah. Yeah.

Makes out of sense. I was like thinking where you find these collections. I think we live in a treasure trove hidden around us here easily. I think there's a lot of it. A lot of older neighborhoods. I think there are Mickey Mantle surrounding us. I feel it almost like a track of being. Ty Cobbs.

Ty Cobb, the Georgia Beach. I just know it. I'm going to find it here. The hidden treasures in Easley. You know what's interesting. Now that you guys say, like, this sign, like, driving in Chicago, there's like, people just put signs up and say, we buy houses, we buy cars. And they're just like handmade, like, at every, at a stoplight. And they're usually in pretty bad neighborhoods, but like, I'm just going to put one.

I buy sports cards. And they put my phone number on there and see what happens. I think you'd probably regret the decision because you'd probably get so many phone calls. I keep a running Facebook marketplace ad saying that. and I get probably five leads a week from it. Any good ones? One in five. Decent.

One in five maybes. We had a huge collection that was sitting in the back for a while. Is it a back there? Yeah, it is. I got to call him today. Yeah. It's a world's largest collection of $2 cards. It's not junk bags, but it's all it's all $2 to $4 cards.

And it's so well organized. it is impressive. Like each binder is labeled with the team, the year, and it's all correct. It's a hard one to get a fair value on because like, we'll probably put it in dollar bins or whatever, and we wouldn't sell it all because he was a undiscerning collector. I'll just say that.

Offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, place kickers. Everyone got equaled. And your Tom Brady's, your Tom Brady's and your Peyton Manning's were intermixed with the place kickers and the O'Londman. Like, equal opportunity. It was a true collector.

That's what I had a guy drop, drop a hockey set off. Super organized, like, unbelievable. And he's like, I want $30,000 for it. And it really, it's worth, it is like value to probably 40,000. Yeah. But I'm like, there's like $20,000, $2 cards. I'm like, no, I don't. Yes, I mean, what are you?

I mean, what do you can do with those? Then they're going to get offended. Like if you're not going to offer them 40 and you're probably not even offered them 20. So it's like, what am I going to do? Like mail $2 cards and sell them on eBay?

No. But you're not. Even if you could, you're not. You can. You have the software to do it, but you're not. Like, give me your 100 best.

That's all I care about. Yep. Yeah. And those are $4. Exactly. So I've got to come up with a number today. I'm just like, I think he's very reasonable though.

So we'll see. I want to just, I got, there's like, There's like 100 cards I want to send for grading, but without value grading, you're kind of like, you know.

You should have a wheel. You should have a wheel in there. And like when someone comes in to sell a collection, you should just like put some like whatever the slats are and just spin it and be like, nothing. Percentages. 10%, 5%,

70%. Hey, people love a game. So that'd probably honestly work. They do. They love it. And what's interesting that, I mean,

we were talking about the 80s and the binge and stuff. and this is an article. I might have teased it last week. I can't remember. My week's running together. But I did write an article comparing, I pulled that alter egos, no jokeage, comparing it and a PSA 10, Ken Griffey Jr. So the fact that they're both $5,000 cards, but one has proof and one doesn't.

You know, one's gone through a session, one's gone through seven downturns and seven re-ups, and the market has established what it's worth. And one is from a company that's learned how to print $5,000 bills. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, which is impressive in its own right. So, anyway, I go deep on that. That's a good take. That's a good take on it.

Like, that's like the Griffey has gone through it all, you know, and like, now it's worth X. And it was down. It was. trampled on, it was needed, and now it's right where it should be. Is that card next to you? Is that like, are you like getting smaller or is that a massive country future car? That's by collector creatives.

We met them actually at the National. They were actually going to soon have some of their products available in store. But Zach Nighet, he takes Murray Henderson's artwork and turns it into XL cards. And it, I mean, they're awesome. We also have this one. I'm spinning this.

I could just do this the whole time for everyone. You can't want to wait it. If you're listening, you need to be watching and see me spinning this thing and not turning it over. This one's a little bit harder to see, but this is MJ. MJ. Are those like the size of like, sorry for all you listeners. Are those like comic book size?

Yeah. That's probably about right. Yeah. They're pretty cool. I thought a little slab in there, you know, the kid. I loved them. I bought these there and then someone was so nice to give me one. A couple friends gave me another one.

They were very generous. And I'm very fond of them. Yeah, they're awesome. And we're going to have some in store soon. Yeah. Better specific to our store. I just had to make sure that my vision was correct. I'm going to see the Ryan looks extremely small

which never happened ever or that's a big ass card yeah said no one ever or that's a big ass card no it is and they're they're awesome I mean I would I we've shouted a mound on the podcast like probably three times now

at this point and I would do it every episode because they're such awesome people I'm really enjoying this train yeah yeah yeah especially at the national I was so so happy with the amount of amazing, wonderful people that we got to meet. And you'll be seeing a lot of that content.

A lot of the videos come out. I know Brian has posted his team, posts some stuff to LinkedIn. Go check them out there. Unbelievable. Social. Yeah, unbelievable. You guys do such an awesome job. That's amazing.

Love you, Brian. Yeah. Throw back at you. I'll mention one other thing, article related. There's several up there. but I'm trying to give people like really more insight behind some of this stuff and not just parroting the same thing like what it is, how much it's worth, and it's a downtown. So, you know, trying to give some reasons to buy, reasons to sell different things,

and then insights on, you know, what certain things that happen that on the surface seem like the surface. but they usually signal bigger things. And so, you know, I'd love your feedback. Check it out on the Collectorynation.com under Analysis. Enalsals. Yeah. Analysis paralysis is what's free.

It's free. That knowledge is free for anyone who visits. And if you don't listen to it, I have to listen to it. So please, go listen to it. I'm going to listen to it. have audio and video versions of those kind of takes. So trying to give every, you know, you're an audio person, listen to audio. If you're a reader, you can read it.

You know, you know how people have that sleeping sounds like rain. I have Ryan. I just have Ryan talking about that. With spring sweet nothings into your ear. He's just giving me industry knowledge and I'm falling asleep. I will say, yeah. I try to make an interesting at least. We'll see.

You do a great job. I mean. I will say. I am excited. Football is my favorite time of year. We live in football country, and we've got football finally back. God, it's so long.

February to August or September, it's too long. And it'll feel like a snap, and we're talking about the Super Bowl, but I'm going to enjoy it because it's here. We should do a team trip to Death Valley and go watch a question game. Yeah, Brian's got it. It needs to definitely come down for that.

I mean, I've actually never gone and seen a game in Death Valley. Are you serious? I have never. Oh, my God. I know. There you go. I feel like it's like that's a criminal offense. We're definitely going to a couple this year.

Nash is fine. It's of it is 10 now. It's not that we haven't gone, but like very sporadically the last like when they were kids. It's just not a lot of fun with small, small kids. No. No fun at all. And I know people that do bring them and that's great. But now I think we're getting back to,

we got the prime age for them to enjoy. We're both, everyone enjoys it. Yeah, I mean, he could have a couple. He could tailgate, have a few beers. He's good. Yeah, exactly. Passing back. We'll drive home.

So let's talk about kids going to sporting events. So I'm at the White Sox game with my son, Nick. And this baby, like, it almost is like she gave birth on the way to the game. Like this baby was like so young. And she had these like headphones on the baby. And I'm like, what the hell is this? Like that baby's like, you went to your first socks game. I brought you the first socks game.

I mean, the kid, I mean, there's drunk people fighting and spilling. And like, I just would never, that's just not my jam. So I actually kind of have a funny story about when I was a kid, my parents or my dad specifically is a big Notre Dame fan. And so Notre Dame was playing near us. So we went to the game. I was maybe like seven or eight. And next to me, there was this guy that was so drunk, so drunk. He was like spilling his beer all over me.

He put his beer in my drink, like just because he thought the cup holder was empty. He was fighting with the people over me because they were fans of whatever other team that they were playing. I can't even remember. But they were fighting like literally almost about to brawl. We had to leave early because I was like sobbing because my poor slushy, it was ruined, and I was getting beer spilled on me. It was terrible. So, yeah, I, as a child that was forced to go to the games. Trauma.

Yeah. They call him the fighting Irish for nothing. Well, I don't even think he was a Notre Dame fan, which made it even worse. You know, like I could have maybe excused it if he was. Yeah. If he was Irish, you can excuse it. I've seen those things that have going down before and it's like it's just a train wreck and I had to step in a couple times with some really idiots doing stupid shit but it's like usually

you know the drinks are pouring faster than they should be yeah yeah well I was we at that same game uh we are front row I like to sit like front row bleachers right and these these amateurs who probably never have played a sport in their life decide that they're going to heckle the center fielder. And I mean, the stuff that they're thrown out there, like, you're short. And I'm like, by the seventh inning, I'm like, dude, these guys have said 300 things

and not one of them's funny. And they just, they never stopped. I'm like, dude, if you want to chirp, I'll tell you how to chirp. I play baseball through college. There's chirping. That's not chirping. That's annoying.

And yeah. So drunk people. Drunk people at games, babies at games, I would have probably been drunk also. The amount of people that cannot handle their beverages and that go to the games, like you got to know yourself. Like you're 38, you're 42. You should know yourself by now.

Like this isn't acceptable. You know how you get. We don't need to be the ones to tell you. Like you can have a good time, but you know you go sideways and do. You do don't stuff, and we shouldn't be the ones that have to suffer for it. Yeah. Well, to go back to cards, our tangent about drunk people at sports games.

Brian, I know it's been a couple weeks since we had seen you football's heating up. Who are you looking at this preseason and who have you seen this preseason that you're excited for? I am buying Justin Herbert. I think that he's due for a year, breakout year. And I think his stuff is, even Mahomes is down a little bit. Like I've been scooping a little bit of him up.

But for me, I think Herbert. I like him. I think there's a, with Harbaugh, isn't Harbaugh the coach now? Yep. Yeah.

So I think he's a winner. Yeah. So that's what I'm doing. Those two. What about you guys? The rookie class is kind of, eh, we'll see. I mean, I don't think Mendoza's going to play, and he shouldn't play.

I think Cousins should start and see, let him watch a few games. I mean, if Mendoza's just that good and, I mean, that practice, then sure. But he probably, he's, the best thing he do is you had a really good backup to be in Cousins, maybe started it for now with backup if you need it. Like, I would let Cousins play. They don't have the, they don't have the dudes to, you're not going to make a run. I don't think you have to rush it. And that dude's going to be legit.

So let's not get anything. Let's let the Raiders not get in their own way, which they, you know. That's a good. I don't know about that. So we'll see. But, you know, back look good in the one game I saw. We'll see. He might be the first, you know, QP to actually see the field from the rookie class.

Think about that for a second. You know, we've had these, you know, years. Even last year wasn't a big one, but you had, you know, Dart and Ward, both starting, having pretty good years. And then the year before, I mean, I got all pretty all pros. You got Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, literally all but, I mean, Drag May, go on and on. Pinnix and JJ, we'll see. But even Pinnix has still got, I think, a shot at it.

I don't think he's going to beat out Tua. But we'll see. I think he's got to get healthy first. And then, but this year, I mean, Jeremy, I love, you know, looks exciting. I saw where he had taken off the field too. So I was like, I don't know if that was just temporary. I'm not announcing an injury, by the way. But I'm like, oh, that's not a good sign.

I think also I think running backs are like pitchers. Like, no, Tani. Throw Otani to the side in skeins because he just came on like as big as possible. But like the running backs don't get a lot of love. And neither does like the Hall of Fame pitchers either. Like that. Yeah. Running backs have been.

diminished a little bit, whether that's fair or not or should be reality, but I think it has been, because they've been, it's all about the wide receivers and the quarterback, I mean, at the end of the day. Yeah, like Walter Payton's cards should be way more. Yes, I have quite a few of them, and I agree.

On the, uh, brand, well, as of this episode releasing, the brand new tops flagship football, there's actually a dual auto of Jeremiah Love. and Beck, which I think will be a pretty cool card if they both play well. Yeah. They, um,

it's interesting for that. Flagship football back for the first time, not first time, for a long time. Yep. First 2026 football cards. So you first look at the rookies on a protein card. Uh,

and we'll have a lot of it here, like your station. We have hobby box, jimbo boxes, megaboxes, value boxes, tops flagship. I'm excited for that. I mean, it's just, it's always cool open in the newest year.

So it's kind of cool that it's flagship first too. I mean, I'm sure that was purposeful. Good job, tops. Good job, tops. I mean,

so this product, they had, it first ran in 1957. And so one of the inserts is actually they took the old 1957 art and it's only going to be able to be found in this product moving forward. And I think it looks very, very cool. Like I think they did a really good job and making it like iconic design. Yeah. Looks great. So it's, they have like iconic moments from Super Bowl and iconic players and their

autos. So it's like one of the short prints that they're doing. Oh, that's cool. The Ring of Honor. They got a lot of, I can't keep up. Once I start opening them and seeing them, my brain starts registering. I'm reading them. Like, and I get to like, you know, parallel number 47. And I'm like, okay, I. I'm, All right, I just got to, once I start seeing them in rips, I kind of start, I'll know way more than I should, kind of like I do with Topps Chrome update right now and signature class basketball. Like, I did rip those. I think my guy said there's over 100 parallels in Topps Chrome this year. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. What if you're colorblind?

Hey, hopefully. I mean, I feel colorblind looking at them sometimes. It's just colorblind. You can still fill the imprint of the number. Oh, that's one out of 50. My thing is that sometimes it'll be like gold and, but it looks orange or yellow or something. And like, there's no recognition that it's a gold card versus just knowing. And that's where I feel literally insane.

Oh, we know. We deal with that a lot, a lot. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure that's like the bane of your, of Ladex's existence. Orange, yellow, gold. Which one? And they all look the same. And I...

Are you kidding? There's definitely no differences. I like a guy that reached out to us another day. And he was complaining about our parallels. And it was a silver prism. And it kept coming up red. Red, red. And we look at the pictures and we're like,

what color shirt are you wearing? He's like, red? And so... It was a reflecting. It was reflecting off his shirt. And so he's like, this is not a red parallel. I'm like, dude, you're reflecting your red off the card. How's the AI know that?

Like, they don't. AI is not that smart. So, yeah, parallels are awesome. Sometimes people don't use their head. Yes. No, it's funny, though. I like to complain, though, in this industry. Speaking of parallels, so I had an interesting.

I did a top signature class, 2025, 26 basketball, megabox versus a Tops Chrome update, which obviously the newest set. You see, which one netted the best cards. And I will say, I knew that Tops Chrome update was likely more values, the hotter, newer set, and being, you know, Chrome, just sort of the flagship of Tops. But they're both made by Tops.

After, when you get them on the table, and I'll have the, there's a video for this, I'm putting, you'll see that out on my channels. We'll have it maybe linked with this. So obviously, pulled a, you know, I think it's a ray wave or X, this is X Factor,

this is a ray wave of Kahn and Cooper flag. Obviously the players, I knew they were good. But then I pulled an out of 50 from the signature class. It's Mikel. I always want to call him Williams.

I think there's a football player that. Mikel Bridges from the Knicks at a 50. Out of 50? No joke. And then a sign, I got an auto out of a mega box. And it's just Spencer, I think it's Denwitty. Every name, you got to remember.

He'd be like, I know every basketball player. Spencer would be right on the outside looking in, if I'm being honest. But no offense, Spencer, you know, you're just kind of like right out that cusp. However, I've heard of him. Auto, you got a refractor. So an auto and 9-50, and I know they're not con and Cooper. So I knew these were more. Does anyone want to guess in our panel here of two, like the spread difference between what's on the table, like as a percentage or even just a guess on values?

Anyone. You go first, Brian? I say it's one and a half X con and Cooper. All right. It's out of 275 on the con, by the way. Two and a half X. I mean, I'd probably agree with that. What is?

Out of 50? I mean, I'd guess these cards are, the signature class are less than $100. So 30x is the difference. 30x. The con and the Cooper are right at $300. Wow. And the, it's one, it's like 175 and 100, like 275 and 100, like 275. And you can do the math from there.

It's like 10 bucks. Yeah. 10 bucks for the auto and the out of 50. Like this, they're like five bucks each maybe. Yeah. Wow. Because I, I mean, I was thinking, I was going through our $5 bin and comping some cards and seeing what they were at.

And I probably pulled out a handful that were. the signature class and, you know, out of 50 or out of 100, whatever. And I mean, look, you got the two of the hottest rookies. You got several things going for. Newest, you know, release, two of the hottest rookies. Good parallels, a numbered one. So, like, it was going to be a lot. I knew that, but I just couldn't believe, like, less about what these were worth.

More like, oh, God. What were you thinking, like, when you pull, like, what would your guess would have? I would have guessed, I would have guessed, I know these sets really well. I knew it will, you know, a little bit of leading the whole thing. Like, once I knew what I had, I kind of, I would not have guessed quite the spread. I was thinking like 20 bucks for that. I mean, if you're out of 50 and you're not worth $20, like, and that's low. Like, if it's anybody.

And he's a pretty good player, too. He's not terrible. He's not, it's a good player. It's won a national, or national, NBA title. And then even, um, Dunwood, he's not a scrub either. And it's his auto. And it's a parallel. And it's a refractor.

And it's like five bucks each. Come on, man. Those guys both will make over $100 million in the NBA. Yeah. Yes. And my issue is like art wise, I think the signature class looks 30 times better than the update series does.

Yeah. There's your 30X again. There you go. Everything's 30X today. I like to look at these autos. Like that's like the design. Like those just genuine. Like that's kind of carried through several of their inserts.

The manuscripts is what it's called. I think the X-Fractor is one of my least favorite. Is what this is? Yes. I don't like the way they look. Personal, maybe that's personal preference. I just really don't. I don't like the way it refract.

Do you like the ray wave? Yeah, no, I do. I don't mind that one. Lava kind of look. Yeah, it's really just the X-Fragor. I don't, I think the checker board makes it difficult to see the card. Yeah. I agree.

I don't know. It's just not my favorite. I hope they stay up in value, though. At least so I sell them. These will be available on the collector station.com on the website. Excellent. Same was plug, but they will be available. Or our eBay. Send us an offer. Yeah, eBay, eBay Live. Yeah, eBay.

Yeah, put them on eBay Live. Underscore. Yeah, speaking of I.Belive, we did our first two live streams. Yep. First one was there was a couple hiccups. We learned from our mistakes on the second one. But yeah, it was fun and exciting. Yeah, good turnout.

I mean, Bella, do you have, are you going to be the breaker? Are you going to do it? No, I'm the admin and yapper. Okay. The admin and the yapper. The rapper and the yapper. Yeah. But not the breaker.

No. I think everybody's going to kind of try their hand a little bit, just because we're kind of figuring out, like, where the audience is and what's doing it. I think Bella will be on screen in some way for the majority of them when she's available. But I think it's like, you know, we're kind of just figuring out our audience. I think we've got a few things up our sleeve to kind of keep things moving and interesting. Yeah. Takes time. Yeah.

I did pull this Arch Manning, too. I forgot about that I was going to talk. Yeah. That's kind of cool. That's the red ice. Ryan. Red eyes. It's like crazy the things you hold.

Good things happen to good people. He's living right. Yeah, where's my good karma? I don't know. I think you got to look yourself in the mirror by now. I think it must be something wrong with me, truly. Because, like, still. And maybe it's just volume.

Like, he's obviously showing us the hits. two last night. Okay. Yeah, that was it. It's volume does matter for sure. It does. It matters. It's been good lately. I can admit that. It's not always that good.

Got a hot hand. I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Still talking about it. Yeah, it goes back the other way too fast. Believe me, I've been in the, yeah. No good club, many more times. So we're going to keep.

the karma and the Chi high. Brian, is there anything fun happening over in Ludax land? Oh, gee. What do we got? Released some more updates to the app and released more to the web. It's still in beta, but it's getting close, everyone. What kind of updates? Check it out.

Sort and filters. on the web it's pretty cool like I have 5,000 cards and I could find like my Jordan's worth between 25 bucks and 50 bucks and then I could take those and share those with people if they're interested I could then eventually trade them with people and people can make offers on them so we are working towards that at Luddx in Luddux land all the um it's funny like you know You know, you get the core of like a, like functionality. And then it's like the 700 add-on things, you know, like that make it better and great, but it also just takes time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, building the foundation, like those guys who build the house and they put the studs up, that's not fun. No. No. The decorator has the most fun. Exactly. And then you start seeing it.

Because the foundation is like, what's there. but it doesn't really do anything, but it's set up to do things. It's true. Oh. How about you guys? One last thing I have for Anar said. Ryan might have some more.

But I found out this morning that the collector that got the Cooper Flag 101 is from Clover, South Carolina. Wow. That's like maybe an hour from us. Isn't that so fun? Awesome. Could have been you. Could have been.

For a measly, he only paid $500, $515 for the break. There you go. Hey. But, yeah, little clover. It is a very small town. It sounds like a friendly town. I know. It's like right outside of Charlotte.

Yeah, right next to Four Leaf. Yeah. Leper Con Street. Sad joke. Rainbow Road. Oh. Yes. I don't think I have any more updates. Okay.

Thecollectornation.com. Check it out some of the news we talked about today. And of course, LUDX Ludex in the app store. Best app out there. We have the, I will, back, me and my buddy Tim, we always go, uh, hat backwards bros. I was hat backwards today. So Brian was. We were a Loddx hat bros today.

Yeah, I need a hat. That's a good backwards hat. This is a great background. Why do you grab one? We had like 700,000 of them at the National. I didn't think about it. Yeah. I now have a collection of hats.

I'll have Julia. I'll have Julia send you a couple. Oh, good. Okay. Well, that's all from us. Go check them out. Lodex in the App Store. Best card scanning collection management.

All that stuff. We love you, Brian. We'll see you next time. Much love. Much love. See you guys. Thanks again. See you next time.

Thanks for tuning into the show. Be sure to follow us on your go-to podcast. podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at thecollectornation.com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.