Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

Josh and I discuss Card Ladder - an impressive analytical app that provides a 21st century price guide approach to many of the inter-related high demand cards in our hobby as well as other cards suggested by the followers. 

Brody the Kid and Brad Bethune (@TXCardDude) were my co-hosts a couple of weeks ago on Hobby Hotline (available live or as an audio podcast) - this was the part of the show that elaborated on my kids' product idea.

Bowman came back with a splash in 1989 when Topps brought back the first of these prospect-driven baseball card sets, which have continued to be anticipated staples within the annual mix of baseball card releases.  Rich and I cover the first three years of Bowman baseball sets.

Gabriella had some questions she wanted to ask me about the sports cards hobby for her college psychology paper about how nostalgia has played an important part in the resurgence of collecting during the pandemic.

Buy on the big dip, the little dip, the future dip, the permanent dip?  Very confusing especially in a raging bull market for sports cards.

In sports card grading the spread between the values of 9's versus 10's is not a fixed constant, as it floats and is dependent on many factors especially the condition sensitivity of the card.  Here's what I would do if I think 9's are undervalued with respect to 10's (of the same card).

Question submitted about whether 1 of 1's should be graded - here's ten considerations that are relevant to me on my decision in that regard.

We hear Brad's sports card origin story including how his wife surprisingly encouraged him at a strategic crossroads.

Val and I trade questions back and forth, and not all questions were NASCAR related.  Val's love of sports card collecting, especially racing, and NASCAR shines through!

Josh shares his sports card origin story and how he began his content creation activities culminating in co-founding Card Ladder.