Hobby Quick Hits Ep.150 Springfield,Mass Trip Review

0:01 Hobby Quick Hits, delivering that breaking hobby numbers. You want to know those high shops, card shops. We've got your help, your host John new Name. Hello, everyone, that's another episode of Hobby Quick Hits, Episode one fifty. To be exactly, holy smoked. Even when I think about, you know, the combined shows, right Sports Carnation, we're in the high two twenties and this one one fifty. That's you know, almost four hundred episodes, uh combined. Where does the time go? Well, I'm speaking of time. I just returned from a weekend trip Friday, Saturday, left this morning Sunday. Just got back and recording this episode. I went to Springfield, Massachusetts for a card show and hobby panel at the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Naysmith Basketball Hall of Fame. First time there, invited by Rob Gerard sportscar Therapists, and had a great time. So this show was going to talk about that trip and chronicle logical order, not gonna be,

1:32 not gonna make it any longer than it has to be, just cover the main crux of kind of how the trip went, what I did, and all that and entailed. But before we get to that, let's hear from our great sponsors Mojo Break, and after that we'll get to some hobby news, the release schedule, and then the trip review. Mojo Brickshop dot com is the best place to get your sealed wax products and breaks. They not only have the best selection, but the best prices. Whether it's a box or a whole case. They are your guys. They ship worldwide to your doorstep. Their reputation as one of the most trusted in the hobby goes unmatched. They are the twenty twenty one tops rip party champion breakers from sports card to Pokemon cards. Their selection can't be beat. They offer daily deals and pre orders. Hey guys, John Newman here, Mojo's prices are already great, but to save an additional ten percent off anything in their store used to code quick hits. That's quic k h I T S. Check out the full service store that's opened seven days a week in Santa Clara, California, or the website at mojo break dot com. Let's check out this week's hobby wax releases. Take it away, Hey guys, it's own film sports

3:02 tread shot. Let's go over three releases on the twenty three of twenty twenty two, twenty three, PINEI Prison Basketball twenty twenty two, twenty three, PINEI Prison Premier League Soccer, Breakaway, twenty twenty three, Premiere Break of the Pieces of the Past Historical one of one edition to twenty twenty three, Star Hidden Transfers Football Autographed Full Size Helmet and The fourteen three of twenty twenty two, twenty three, Vivid Leaf Vivid Basketball twenty twenty two, twenty three, Pine Down on A Soccer twenty twenty two, twenty three, Panini Playbook Football, Pokemon twenty three, Minia Portfolio twenty twenty two, Tops Dynasty Baseball and The nineteen twenty twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, PINEI Prison w W Undercard twenty twenty two, twenty three, Panini Revolutions Basketball twenty twenty two, twenty three, Pine Select Loud League Guy Soccer twenty twenty three, Super Break of the Pieces of the Past. Art in Music twenty twenty, twenty twenty three, Super Glow one Time Edition Series one, twenty twenty two, Tops Metta Zoo Chrome twenty twenty two, Upper Deck a e W LUP Wrestling twenty twenty two, Upper Deck AE W Skybox Medal Universe twenty twenty one, twenty two, Upper Deck Credidentials Hockey, twenty twenty one, twenty two, Upper Deck sp Authentic Hockey, and twenty First We Have twenty twenty one, twenty three, twenty two, twenty three, Leave Opt to Chrome Basketball,

4:34 twenty twenty two, Pannini Clearly Doners Football, twenty twenty one, twenty two Panini Flawless Basketball, and last but not least, twenty twenty three Wild Card Automania rook in Prospects Edition Baseball. Have a great day. Congratulations to the Goucher family if they prepare to open up their second location LCS. Their Originals in New Buffalo mission going very strong, and they are working on opening up their Valparaiso, Indiana shop, and I saw some picks. It's going to be very nice as their first shop is too, So congratulations to the Gocher family. Let's go around the hobby verse and catch up on this week's hobby news. Yep, it's the same old story, same old song and dance my friends. As Steven Tyler so elegantly said, what am I talking about?

5:38 Beckett once again happened at the Mint. Now you gotta remember we do Hobby quick hits every other week now, so we have to cover two weeks of hobby news in each episode. So I know this is not new news. It happened at the Mint, but I wanted to give my take and report it on this show. And at the Mint, Beckett, who was there, announced a new gem mint grading scale. The first mistake to happen was they their scale was wrong that they had up on the mint wall to what they announced, so they had to put duct tape or some kind of tape over one part of it so that looked not so hot. And then the grading scale announcement was met with a lot of resistance and uproar and people in the hobby not happening happy about it. And then the next day and then they had made this announcement on April first, and then the next day they said never mind, after people complaining, we're we'll forget forget what we said. And again it was another instance of Beckett shooting itself in the foot and another bad look. And this company just continue used to be unable to get out of its own way and kind of self inflicted wounds here and don't know what direction they're going in. I'm not sure they do either, but

7:12 once again, you know, each each of these mistakes just kind of compounds and that window of opportunity closes for them to be really viable in the grading space against as they once were. And I think they're tackling issues, you know, Danny Black said this on on Hobby Hotline. I believe. I believe they're tackling issues that aren't the biggest one. They've got to get their priorities in order. They need to get cards sent to them that you rarely see Beckett reveal videos on YouTube now with graded unboxings, and their name is just not talked about in the grading space like it used to be, and they need That's number one. They've got to try to get back on that ledge that they've fallen off. How do you do that? If you ask me, you got I know they don't like to do this when it comes to margins in ry, but they got to lower their sub prices. They've got to get people sending in cards just because they're at ten to twelve bucks and get their name on YouTube like it used to be, rather than worry too much about a scale they've had for a while and not too many complaints about it before, so they got to get the priority straight. You know, I don't know who's calling the shots if it's multiple people. And again you know Keystone capers, but not a good look. So and then that's not the biggest story of the week. The biggest story of the week is

8:48 Fanatic slash Panini. You might remember some months back that Panini was rumored to be soon to be acquired by Fanatics. You know, if you listen to certain people, it was all but done, all but announced, and then it kind of went dormant, went quiet, right, we didn't hear anymore about that, and like what happened, right, but kind of just the story just sort of went away. So what I believe happened was I believe where there were smoked, there was fired. But I think the Fanatics offered to Panini was too low. They said, thanks, but no thanks, We're not selling to you for that price. You're not acquiring us for that price. And if you know anything about Michael Rubin and his Fanatics team, they are you know, cutthroat and very strategic. Right, nothing illegal here, but you know they ain't messing around. So at the Mint collective.

9:46 It's been reported they made several offers to several top and important key COG executives at the Mint collectives of Panini. A majority of those offers were accepted, and when the show was over and the Panini staff got back to the building on Monday, they turned in their resignations and announced they were taking their talents to the Fanatics side. And we're talking some major players on Panini. So this was like a major direct hit. You know, I use an analogy, right, It's like a battleship, right, and the torpedo hits right right in the engine room, right where all the gears and you know, everything gets that ship going right to right to the center of the ship.

10:39 And so what do you think the goal is? Right? I mean, it's obvious, right, Fanatics wants to weekend Panini to a point where they have no choice but to sell to Fanatics, much like what they did with Tops, where they undermined Tops just before the spack was to go public and sunk that ship and all the stock potential stock value with it and then acquire Tops. Right, very strategic. Some might call it, you know, a little low blow or dirty pool, but it's not illegal, all above board as far as UH financial laws go, and so I think it'll be very soon we hear Panini, uh you know, sell to Fanatics. However, it's been reported on LinkedIn that uh you know, one of the higher ups at state at Panini has listed those positions as available as looking to fill them rather quickly. So Panini's trying to the hustle and survive and keep their head above water. Let me go over some of the names that are going to Fanatics from Panini. VP of Product Developed, Product Development Nick Majevic, Actor of Football Product Development, Rob Springs, Brand managers Tim Yoda and Adam Johnson, Tim Trout, Keith Howard as well. We'll be joining U Fanatics

12:13 and h There's probably more that we don't know the names officially yet, but half of the acquisitions department of Panini are joining Fanatics. So a big blow with let's let's be frank folks, right. The goal of this is to get the licensings in for basketball and football sooner than twenty twenty six. That's the strategic goal here. Uh. Stay tuned to see how the Fanatics turns or how this how this winds up. Also at the Mint Fanatics Slash Tops announced their Major League debut patches. Every debut rookie debut and they may leagues this year. That player will have a MLB debut patch on his shoulder sleep just the right size for a one of one card to be produced with that patch. No word on what product these patch cards will be put in, no word of you know, how they will be distributed, will be packed, will be redemption although we know Fanatics does not like redemptions. We're not sure if there'll be rpas or just the patch, but they will be one on one to have announced that they're not going to cut the patch up into multiple pieces. It will be the whole patch. It will be one of

13:43 one card. And it's going to be interesting to see how these are distributed. And you know what these things go for once they're live on the secondary market. Right you got you know Anthony Volpi Yankees rookie start shortstop. You know, often compared to Derek Jeter, although it's very early for those comparisons. But what does that card of him bring once it's you know, pulled or acquired. So it's going to be interesting to say the lead Babe Ruth bat photo matched to being used at the Polo Grounds has set the new record for most money at auction from a game used bat. Babe Ruth brought this bat brought almost two million dollars one million, eight hundred and fifty k.

14:39 The seller, Justin Cornett, bought that bat in February of twenty eighteen for four hundred thousand dollars. So it's always nice when you can always almost five times your money, especially when it's five times almost five times four hundred k. And what made the difference that went in the Hunts auctions, what made the difference in the jumping value is the authentication of that bat to when it was used in photo met So congratulations to Justin Cornette. Robert Edward Auctions is rolling out their spring auction, highlighted by a PSA nine Roberto clement A nineteen fifty five top. Some other notables say, Jackie Robinson, I know a guy that likes him nineteen forty nine Bowman PSA nine, that's a beautiful card.

15:37 PSA nine, nineteen fifty five top, Sandy Kofax Rookie, I have half of the nine have a four point five sgc Cofax workie. But they're gonna have a nine Bill Russell nineteen fifty seven Tops Rookie PSA seven point five and a Jim Brown Tops Rookie SGC eight and a half will be some of the highlights. Babe Ruth baseball single signed rated eight and a half by PSA with a Mint nine signature, and a nineteen twenty one Christy Matthison baseball dating to nineteen twenty one, also at the Polo Grounds in a nineteen forties Josh Gibson Type one photo and nineteen thirteen Type one Joe Jackson photo by Charles Conlins.

16:26 So many, many great items are rolling out in the area spring Auction. Head over to area to check that out and bid if you're registered already or if not, register to bid so if you're of the reading persuasion. Check out my monthly column at Sports Collectors Digest. Sports Collectors Digest dot Com I did a feature on Nick Brower, who recently opened up a new card store in New Hartford, New York and is doing very well. Checked the Hobby is the People column out on Sports Collectors Digest dot com. Our feature presentation, Let's talk about this Springfield, Massachusetts weekend trip. First off, thanks to Rob Gerard, sportscard therapist reached out to me about a month ago, maybe six weeks ago, you know, said hey, I'd love to have you come to the show set up there and be part of the hobby panel that I'll be moderating on the Hall of Fame Basketball Hall of Fame main stage. Check mysel you know, anytime you get an offer like that, that's a wonderful opportunity. Checked my schedule and made it happen. Happen to have the week off from school spring break. So I left on Friday morning

17:59 and no events scheduled for Friday officially, so I came a day early to check out the Hall of Fame, the Nay Smith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, mass left my house around sixty five, got there about slightly after the Hall of Fame opened, around ten to fifteen. It opens at ten and uh, you know, spent a few hours checking the Hall of Fame out. It's the third Hall of Fame I've been to. We've been to Cooperstown for baseball and Canton for football, but this was my first time in the basketball Hall of Fame. Really nice place. It's kind of a a dome building in the middle of sort of a plaza mall, like a strip mall, but smaller scale. And it's not a huge place. But you know, they have a basketball court in the center. I heard one guy complaining, you know, the one thing I was a little bit disappointed with the basketball halls. They don't have plaques or bus as the Baseball and Football Hall of Fame. They have kind of class panels with each year's inductions class etched in the paneling, probably because of room. I'm told this is a newer version of the Basketball Hall of Fame, that it was in a different building, and they did things a little differently in the original building than they

19:30 do here. The only other thing I mean that's, you know, it is what it is. Still a beautiful place, still a hall of fame to pay your respects to the greats of the game. Lots of displays. The only other complaint that I can complain about or notice was not every piece of memory bill in the glass displays had a description out of it on it. Come of it, you can tell without a description, right, A lot of a lot of things didn't, and you kind of had to let your you know, mind think to what that might be or try to put two and two together. So I don't know if it's maybe a work in progress there, but I really had a good time. I spent a couple hours there. That's kind of all it took to go through, grab some lunch, and headed to Enfield, Connecticut, which is seven miles away.

20:26 That's where my hotel and where I was staying at. So I stayed in Enfield and made the trek, the long trek of seven miles to Springfield. But after the Hall of Fame, grabbed grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed to my hotel room to check in, get get my stuff. All situated, kind of relaxed, uh you know, watched a little TV unwound, and then had made plans to go to dinner with Ken Carnes. Ken Carnes as the host of the Sports Card Lessons podcasts, and I've gotten to know Ken a little bit more and and talking to him and conversating with him, and he was excited to hear I was making the trip.

21:11 He also was serving on the discussion panel on Saturday night, and he said, hey, man, uh, you know, I got some things to do earlier in the day, but how about Friday night, we grabbed some dinner, you know, an Enfield and we went to a Longhorn steakhouse right near my hotel and a couple hours spent with Ken over some steaks and and uh rip by and it was a great, great conversation, great camaraderie. You know, uh talked, talked hobby, talked content creation and uh uh talk life as well. And really we probably could have talked a lot longer, but uh, you know, a couple of hours and then uh, you know, he was tired, I was tired, and it was time to get ready for the show the next day, right, and uh, especially I'm a guy likes to get there early and get set up, and this was uncharted territory for me. Right, this was my first show out of state and I think double digit years. I used to do them all the time and then kind of stayed local in the last last decade. So I want to thank Prime Time Sports John for the hospitality and allowing me to set up at the Springfield show on Saturday. And you know I set up.

22:33 I was kind of in a block with three or four other folks. Got to know them throughout the day and talking to them and I will say that the locals were very friendly, very helpful. One gentleman said, hey, before you leave, go to the Country Diner in Enfield. It's one of the best diners you can ever go to. Get some breakfast there before you head back to Syracuse. And I did listen to him. So Sunday morning, I did go to the diner and uh for breakfast, and it was very very good. So he was right on point with that. Uh. The show was okay, you know, financially like for how I did it was it was okay. I thought I would do a little bit better.

23:17 Um, a lot of hockey. Uh, And I didn't bring a lot of hockey, so sort of guests wrong. So I'll blame myself more than than anyone else there. And a lot of times with a local show, sometimes the clientele, right, the consumers have their dealers, they're sort of loyal and fond of and I kind of saw a little bit of that, and I'm the new guy, and uh, you know, I don't know if that was an X factor or not, but I'm sure it didn't. You know, it didn't help, But people were great. I saw some people from Central New York who came up to my table and talked to me, Hey, you know, it's weird seeing you here, but knew I was there, so that those uh, those are great conversation. Asan had a few other gentlemen who were fans of the show but didn't realize I was going to be fans of the podcast Sports Carnation, didn't realize I was going to be set up there, and shook my hand. Was glad to meet me in person for the first time, and that's always obviously a good feeling. J SA was on site doing authentication and I have a Steph Curry personalized jersey that says to John, thanks boss on one letter and he signed it on the other letter. I won't say who gave that to me, but it's from a hobby dignitary that unfortunately friends with who was nice enough to give that to me. And I brought that with me knowing that JSA was

24:47 going to be there, and I got that authenticated. I gave them the providence and let them know how it was obtained and why and all that, and uh, you know, in about three hours they came back to my table said it was done and I'll get the I get the letter in card in the mail, but they put the JSA sticker as they do in any authenticated jersey, So it's going to stay in my personal collection. It's not a for sale item, but I still wanted to get you know, that authenticated as genuine, which I already knew it was from where who it came from and where it's the providence of it. So the show, uh, you know, it was ten to five. It was longer than my home shows here in Syracuse, which are nine to three. Um, I'll say this about one o'clock. It really seemed to slow down as far as spending goes. And uh, I know there was a Mohegan Sun show like a week or two before that, and so maybe people had spent some of their money there. But still fun doing a show and seeing fresh faces, right people, you know, and I love all my regular faces too, don't get me wrong, but always different perspective, right. And the other thing I noticed doing the show is and I'm it gave me the idea to convert.

26:18 I have kind of big, heavy all state aluminum glass cases. Got some weight to them. You know, the older I get, the heavier those showcases are too log around. I've seen a good percentage of the dealers at the Springfield Show using bulletin board lockable bulletin board cases like the cases you see on a school wall or a you know, a business wall with the like salary requirements and notices, public notices. And I thought that was really interesting. And they look sharp. They're acrylics, so you cannot you can they scratch actually easily, and you cannot use like windex, which I'm a Windex guy in my glass cases. But I did order a couple of these when I got back. I'm going to convert my all State cases to these two instead of the All State travel A little bit lighter, a little thinner there. They are definitely thinner, but a graded card will fit in it, and so look forward to I haven't got them yet, but I'm going to convert over to those. And I don't know how it is. I don't know if it's a Springfield thing or if this is a trend with shows.

27:34 If you're a dealer and you use these or you've seen them, let me know that this is probably more than a Springfield thing, and I imagine it is. And uh, I thought it was very cool to see those UH in action and very portable, very light, and I'm trying to get more portable, and I'll talk a little bit about that when I get to the Sunday. So the show was overpacked loading my car up, and uh, the panel was an hour the panel discussion was an hour after the show ended, so you had a little time to kind of pack up, load your car. And the Hall of Fame, where where the Hobby panel talk was is about a mile away from where the show was at the Mass Mutual Center, So only took five minutes eight minutes to get to the Hall of Fame. One thing I will say that's great about the Hall, especially compared to other Hall of Fames, the other two that I've been to, it has its own parking lot, you know, a lot. And the other two hall of Fames you got to try to find a spot on the street, which can be difficult at times, or parking their shuttle shuttle lots which are a couple of miles away and take like a trolley or minibus to the hall. But the Basketball Hall of Fame has their own parking lot. Like uh, you know, they were closed, they were just opened for the panel talk and then trade night following that, and so I got a nice

29:07 close parking spot and went in and uh. So, well, let's let me tell you who was on the panel. Rob Gerard was the moderator. Uh. He asked questions himself and took questions from the audience. Some good questions there. The panel consisted of myself, uh, Chris Costa of Costa Cards. They're opening up multiple retail locations and even some sports venues. John the basketball card guy who's a very prominent hobby gentleman, Ken Canes. As I said earlier, sports card lessons, and MC cards. Mike Knts, big consigner, big eBay Selling, does a lot of shows. He has quite uh the inventory. I'm sure I bought a few cards uh in the in the last few years myself from them. Uh maybe not even realizing it.

30:11 Uh. Jake Jake Roy nineties basketball cards UH did all the cinematography and uh Randy the video and uh also worked in the audience, taking the audience questions and uh. Like I told Jake he had, he had every right to be up on the panel too, but he wanted to do that and did a great job. So shout out to Jake as well. Shout out to Rob Uh, you know, being a panel moderator, you know is you know, like I do in Hobby highline, It's not as easy as some people, uh make it look and did a tremendous job. Uh.

30:52 And we had some great questions from the audience about a lot of it, like where's the hobby going, what's the future to hobby going? Like? Uh, some tips about how can I be a better seller or how how do you adapt? Would it ever change in how hobby? Rob asked some you know, content creator questions as well, and it was a fun time. We all kind of took turns uh answering and sharing, you know. Uh, two guys shared one mike and when you know, we would just pass it to the next guy, very seamless, no no issues, And it was a fun night with stream done. Uh Rob's ig live and I think I'm sure he left it up for posterity. You might hear it in a future audio episode as well. Uh, if you get a chance, take a listen. A lot of a lot of great information uh came out of the event, had a decent amount of people in the crowd, and it was it was fun to do. It was the hour went quick to me. Anyway, it seemed like we it's arted, and it was it was time to wrap up, and that really was the end of my trip.

32:05 I did go back to my hotel to get a night's sleep before heading back to Syracuse, uh Sunday morning, and I am back now and recording this here pretty soon after my return to get this episode out on Monday, as I always do. And again I want to thank all the powers that be. I want to thank Rob Gerard for the invite John from the New England Card Show for his hospitality, Uh you know, Jake for doing that at the Hobby panel, all my fellow Hobby panelists and uh you know Ken for his friendship and uh you know, getting to go to dinner with him Friday and uh you know, breaking the ice and finally meeting him in person.

32:49 Was a great trip, quick three days, two and a half days or whatever it worked out to be, and uh you know, three hours and fifteen minute drive so driving when some went to breakfast at the Country Diner and Enfield definitely highly recommended if you're ever in the air that area. And then I got on the road about seven fifteen and about eight o'clock got on the road and made the trek home three, like I said, a little over three hours. And you know, when you drive and you're by yourself, right, you think about observations. And I really thought about you know, I got a show coming up here in Syracuse on the April nineteenth, and you know, I saw some things how people. You know, you always take inspiration or ideas from how other people set up. So, like I said, I got two of these bulletin board typecases coming to replace my over twenty year old all State cases, which are still battle tested. They've they've got definitely some some war wounds, but it's time to go a little bit lighter and a little more modern, i'd say, with these bolton board cases, which are not really designed for cards, but you never know it when you see cards in them, it's it's kind of funny. And so I got a couple of those coming. But I'm also going to redo some of the way I do by you know, monster boxes and shoe boxes with

34:21 vintage and by player and by numbered cards and by variations and game us. I'm going to try to streamline it. There's some cards in those boxes that frankly probably shouldn't be there anymore. They're not as highly desirable. So I'm going to go through that and sort of freshen it up, take some stuff out, add some stuff to it. So if you're going to the Syracuse Fairground Show and on April nineteenth, you might see. I definitely got some new table runners that I had already received before I did the Springfield Show, so they were in action there. But uh, you know, I only had one table at the Springfield Show, so had to sort of condense.

35:08 So when you see me, if you're familiar with my setup, when you see me in April nineteenth, it will look different of some new cases. You know, I'll have some new shelving that will be actually off the table and behind the table with wax that I have rather than have it on the table, and so I'll be doing some things differently. I'll have a different look, and you you take inspiration sometimes from others. So that's probably as far as the show was on Saturday, I think that was the most. You know, the thing I got from it the most is is change it up a little bit. Do do something a little bit different, and refresh your boxes, do the shelving behind the table, new cases and that sort of thing. So looking forward to my home show, right and sort of having my client tell that kind of knows me and it looks for me.

36:02 That's always a nice a nice perk to have, right, kind of your your home field advantage. So that'll be April nineteenth, and uh, you know, I get now, I got to try to get everything done before then. But somehow we'll we'll get it done. It might be a couple of late nights in there, but we'll make it happen. So with that being said, I want again thank everyone that made the trip fun, made it possible. I don't always, you know, get on the road that often. You know, obviously the National every year, Uh sometimes Dallas. I'd like to go to Dallas every year. It hasn't worked out exactly like that, And so when an opportunity arises to where you can do that, it's always fun. Right. You don't know how many times that opportunity will present itself or if it will again, so when it does, it's always nice to take advantage. So thanks to everyone that I met or met for the first time and offered hospitality as well. So we're gonna call that.

37:07 Uh. This week's episode of Hobby Quick hits. Thank you out there for listening. If you enjoy the show. We appreciate great reviews. Uh. We appreciate your time. You could be listening to something else or doing something else, and you're here listening to me, and I appreciate that, and I thank you for it. We'll see you next time.