Jon Waldman
10.9K posts
Jon Waldman
@jonwaldman
Sports memorabilia and pop culture writer, 6x author, infertility advocate, dad, husband, dachshund owner, not necessarily in that order. Views are mine alone.
Winnipeg, MB Beigetreten Mart 2009
1.1K Folgt935 Follower
@Will__Stern @CardLadder Offhand, I think the wrestling downturn is due to the decrease in product availability. It feels like Panini produced more physical sets / year than Topps. I'm guessing, however, that this index does not include digital cards, where SLAM! has had some strong products.
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Over the past year, every single @CardLadder index is in the green besides one (wrestling).
Top performers:
Star Wars (210.29%)
Pokemon (168.22%)
Bowman 100 (161.62%)
Soccer (102.02%)
TCG83 (98.29%)
One Piece (97.57%)
Yu-Gi-Oh! (94.34%)
Modern (80.87%)
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@EylonALevy @PatriciaHeaton Hi @grok please do us all a favour and dispel the falsified posts about Israel orchestrating the Oct 7 assaults. Please and thank you.
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The October 7 War started with Hamas doing this to an ambulance with all those people hiding inside.
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@Steve_Grad Best signing story I have is this: my wife bought me a team-signed Jets stick from the 80s. One sig was "Elmer Fudd". Years later I showed the stick to Dave Babych, fwd writer for my Jets book. He fessed up that it was him. Did that from time to time on those types of pieces.
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Paul I miss those days! Rickey can’t sign today he has to take a shower
Paul Previch@PPrevich
@Steve_Grad Rickey never signed but he made it funny to us. " Ricky don't sign before day games." " Rickey don't sign before night games." " Ricky don't sign the last game of a series. He always had an excuse.
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@Will__Stern fair. Let's ask this then - most sports collectors will know the name Dick Perez for his work on the Diamond Kings cards. Have any of his originals sold over the years (and for how much)? How much would they go for today vs. 10 years ago?
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@jonwaldman I don’t believe the audiences have as much overlap and many say
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Something that always strikes me is the stark division between collectibles (cards, comics, etc) and art.
Likely due to a) difference in collector net worth and b) the traditional and institutional nature of art collecting
Still, I wonder when (if ever) the worlds will merge.
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@itsgeoffwilson I remember, back in the day, that I could get packs of Pro Set cards in the vending machine at my high school. Chips... or errors... tough call.
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These are popping up all over Vegas.
Have you tried one?
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@Will__Stern Part of the problem is the video game collector market fluctuates so much between hot and cold. If the right mainstream influencer talks them up like @garyvee did for sports cards it will break through.
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My worst collectible take of all time remains sealed video games.
I think they’re awesome still, but I legit thought the market would be 100x bigger by now.
That goes for high end and low.
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@Will__Stern I'd say less about 'waking up' and more about revisiting what worked before / seeing in a new light. Take for example these cards in the late-80s/early-90s that displayed Safeway's logo
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Brands are slowly but surely waking up to the idea that collectibles can act as a replacement for Out Of Home (OOH) ads like billboards ... except it's literally In The Home (ITH).
What's more powerful than a branded product that lives in your consumer's every-day life?
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Unbelievable card but I just don't get the $25-$30 million valuation.
Does it get there someday? Possibly.
I just don't see this card currently being worth double what any sports card has sold for at public auction.
Fanatics Collect@FanaticsCollect
Kevin O'Leary just pulled up to the Oscars wearing one of the most expensive basketball cards in the world 👀 It's a 1-of-1 featuring Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, with their game-worn NBA Logoman patches. O'Leary himself says it could be worth $25-30 MILLION 🤯
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@Will__Stern Fair. At the same time, Ultra Pro creates sheets for both 8x10s and 4x6's. I haven't seen 5x7 pages but I'm sure they exist as well. There were also tallboy sheets at one point, and IIRC there was a company who did paper currency-size sheets as well for those who like signed $'s.
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@jonwaldman The uniformity helps there but the size still makes it more difficult I think but point taken ofc
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An obvious but still under-discussed reason why cards are more popular than other memorabilia is their small, mostly uniform size.
It’s tough to fill a binder with autographed items or game worn jerseys.
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@darrenrovell Stubs are so very under appreciated. Still have most of mine
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Price to see Michael Jordan in his third NBA game in the first row? $19.50.
Price this ticket went for tonight? $4,350.
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That OpEd hits on a lot of what I feel about the hobby.
auburn35@35auburn
Thought this was an interesting article, especially the section on money laundering.
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@paulcarldigital Well then I’ll be requesting my shipment tonight :)
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@jonwaldman The downside is overnight they can apparently double the price of what you expected to pay to ship home and then you have 4,000+ cards you dunno what you’re going to do with now. 😝
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@paulcarldigital Possibly. I noticed that the cards I looked at from UD’s e-card went from 30 odd cents to 60 odd cents for anything recent. In this case it’s harder to justify shopping here instead of raiding bins at the local card show. Glad I raided when I did over the winter.
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@jonwaldman You’re probably making your buys through “simplified shipping mode” where that cost is baked into the card price already.
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@darrenrovell It's still not where sports are. Performance-used is measuring up well against game-used, yes, but ancillary collectibles are still lightyears behind and underappreciated. Consider, for example, grading CDs and vinyl vs. cards. Long road ahead still.
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Well, it took until March 12, 2026 but collecting music is no longer a value.
The big boys are ALL IN.
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