I've always been a huge sports fan, but at age 40 I'm having the most fun in my entire life following professional sports.  Why?  My re-entry into the hobby of collecting sports cards this year.  Case in point, the 2021 NBA Draft. I wanted to watch the entire thing for the first time in my life.  And I did.  And it was super fun.  I wanted to hear Jay Bilas and the other experts talk about each pick. I learned that the 2021 NBA Draft could potentially (several years from now), be seen as on par with the 1984, 1996 and 2003 Drafts.  I was pumped my Pistons had the first pick and took Cade Cunningham, but had it not been for the hobby, I may not have even known about Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and others.  But the excitement that the hobby has infused into me has to be perfectly offset by the business person strategist in me also.  What I mean is, I've been so excited about sports and sports cards, that I definitely made a ton of purchases on emotion over the last 8 months, and now it's time to learn from some of my mistakes.  Well, maybe "mistakes" is harsh. Let's call them learnings.  Learning Number 1: Topps NOW and Panini Instant are for collectors only, not investors or flippers.  Learning Number 2: College uniforms are not resale (secondary market) friendly.  Learning Number 3: There are so many different kinds of rookie cards, that only a few specific ones hold real value. For my NFL version of this, click here.  Takeaway: I will be reminding myself to be extra patient, and exercise maximum restraint on buying 2021-22 NBA Rookies. I want them all, and passing on Panini Instant Draft Night was hard for me, but I'm glad I did.  I will only be going after Panini Prizm and Prizm Silver versions of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and a few other guys.  I will pass on Instant, Hoops, Donruss, Select, and a ton of other high priced Panini Releases.  My money will go into Prizm, and it will likely happen on StarStock.com (get a free $10 when you sign up using the promo code "nooffseason")  The proof is in the data, and after going back in past year's basketball cards, Prizm is the only brand sure to hold value.  The reason I like StarStock, is you can get "pre-graded" raw cards. Look for StarStock A graded cards, as a likely avenue to be a PSA 10, or SGC 10 or at least 9.5.  This is a safer bet than buying raw from a peer online not really knowing the condition of the raw card.  So as much as I wanted to drop the $9.99 on a Panini Instant Draft Night Cade Cunningham Rookie Card, the reality is that card would have been super hard to sell for any kind of profit.

Sport card breaks, or “breaks” are when a single person (or business) buys an entire box of sports cards, then charges individual collectors for the opportunity to “buy in” and keep a selection of cards from the box.  Typically the format is to enter a group on Facebook. The business/breaker makes a post stating which box(es) of cards will be part of an upcoming break, and gives a day, time and entry fee. If you want to enter the break, you pay the fee (usually via PayPal), and give them a number or team name.  HOW TO PICK A GOOD BREAK GROUP Admittedly, I don't have a ton of experience in break groups, and I've never conducted a break and don't plan to. :)  Still, I can offer some solid basic but important tips on how to pick a good break group.  1. Make sure you price out the box they're breaking against what they're charging. I've stopped entering breaks with a particular group because they were charging around $60 for a break slot, and breaking boxes that were about $60 for the entire box. Why would I do that? It made no economic sense whatsoever. Now, to their credit, they were including autographed helmets of significant NFL stars to people who got the lowest numbered card in the case they opened. So their overhead cost was likely a bit higher than just the cases they were opening.  2. Make sure they will mail you your cards free of charge regardless of which cards they pull for you. Some breakers will only mail out the "case hits" free of charge. "Case hits" are typically considered autographed cards, memorabilia cards or serial numbered cards. Another reason why I stopped breaking with the earlier group I was referring to is because they would charge to send you your regular cards, or hold them for months and send them all at once. I kind of thought this was a bit sleezy, even though it may be common. Not entirely sure.  3. Go with someone educational and entertaining. A group like @wildcardboxbreaks on Facebook is a perfect example of someone to go with. They are more educational than anything else. Getting entertained should be a given, but getting educated about each player they pull is super important.  More than anything, sports card collecting and investing is about acquiring knowledge. Knowledge about players, potential, situations, card manufacturers, sets, brands, inserts...EVERYTHING!  Wild Cards does this with all sports, but they're especially experts in Baseball, which can be the most complicated to understand which cards are actually valuable.  Participating in Breaks can be like buying lottery tickets. You get your hopes up, only to get crushed, honestly.  But it can be very economical, entertaining and educational and FUN if you pick the right group.  THIS IS WHY MY PICK IS WILD CARDS. THEY ARE THE SPONSOR OF THE VIDEO / SHOW SEEN HERE. MORE ON WILD CARDS (AND WHY I LIKE THEM) IS BELOW.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/338734097765425/permalink/371206284518206/ Wild Card Box Breaks is a break group, and the simple way to identify a break group is to buy bulk products and sell slots to individuals looking for specific players, teams, or divisions. For example, Wild Cards breaks baseball, football, and basketball, and their clientele desired other sports, we would do that as well. They are getting into soccer soon! So I'm pumped about that and encourage you to join here if you want more information on any of their upcoming breaks! What makes their group unique is the informational and educational aspect and the focus on the players from a value and fantasy perspective. They love to give background and history on the players on the cards and give their knowledge out for people that may not be as knowledgeable as they are. They buy and sell their slots on their Facebook group @wildcardboxbreaks. Most of their breaks are between $30-50 per team with the occasional premium product.

When I first decided I wanted to sell sports cards online, I had nothing but road blocks.  eBay wouldn't accept me because I live in Spain but wanted to ship from a U.S. address.  Acquiring cards was difficult, shipping cards was impossible due to my location.  Then I found PWCC. Not only does PWCC store your cards in a vault for you, but they list them on their own marketplace for sale, and on eBay for you. They'll handle all of the fulfillment and shipping.  Also, if you want your cards shipped anywhere, they'll do that for you too.  So, on my recent visit back to the United States, I decided I'd send in all of my graded cards and sealed wax to PWCC. They'll store ungraded cards also, but you can only list graded cards and sealed wax on their marketplaces and on eBay through them.  While my primary way of selling cards is on my own website, https://nooffseason.com, PWCC gives me some additional leverage to sell cards in flash auctions, with 1-3 taps from my mobile device. From there, I don't even have to think about it; I just get money.  It also gives me peace of mind that my cards are safe, and I can view high res images of them at any time from my vault portfolio.

My son Max and I went to visit Chris at Nash Cards in Mt. Juliet, TN after the Nashville Card Show on July 10, 2021.  It had been nearly 30 years since my last visit to a Local Card Shop.  Much like my trip to the Nashville Card Show, I had ZERO expectations of Nash Cards. I mean, I had heard GREAT things about Chris and his team from different podcasts and people at the Nashville Card Show.  When I met Chris, he lived up to the hype. After I had my head in a $0.25 box of Bowman Chrome Prospects cards for about 15 minutes, Chris complimented my "Topps" t-shirt I was wearing and we immediately hit it off.  I explained that Max and I were in town from Spain, and looking to have fun and possibly trade.  My strategy was to introduce him to some La Liga cards that he had never seen before.  He was super patient with me and allowed me to teach him about some of the Messi and Ronaldo cards I brought with me.

Here are our top five takeaways from the July 2021 Nashville Card Show: Full blog here - https://nooffseason.com/the-top-5-tak... 1. People are helpful and open-minded.   2. Card Shows are more valuable business lessons than school.  3. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.   4. Be weary of price stickers.   5. SGC Could Be King.   The hobby is alive and well. We saw people invigorated by sports cards. We thought there might be 20-30 people at Lighthouse Christian School in Antioch. Instead, there were ~150-200 all day long, and many kids.  A big shout out to Tri-Star Cards. Two young teenagers and their dad had a very well organized, size-able collection ranging from a $0.50 box all the way up to $1k+ slabs and a Panini Noir Basketball break they were selling slots for.  These young men were not only impressive from a card collection standpoint, but clearly were honorable young businessmen, talking to Max and I for a long time, sharing their story, discounting their cards for us, and even dropping me a free Cassius Winston rookie card since I'm a huge Michigan State fan.  Everyone was interested in a free pack of Panini Megacracks Soccer from Spain (La Liga) and was willing to learn who to collect from that set from Max and I.  The amount of currently untraceable transactions at card shows are a sign that eBay is far from the only place that cards are changing hands, which is amazing for the hobby and the business of the hobby moving forward.  The Nashville Card Show is free to attend, is typically twice a month and I highly recommend it. For more information on the Nashville Card Show, following them on Twitter at @nashcardshow.  Please email me at paul@datadriven.design if you have any questions about our experience at the Nashville Card Show.  This blog is brought to you by MarketMoversApp.com by Sports Card Investor. Use the promo code "nooffseason" to save 20% on your Market Movers subscription or click here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/pl...

Today's blog / video is sponsored by Cardscore.com. Cardscore solves a huge problem in the sports card industry today - grading. Grading is expensive from both a time and money standpoint, and can easily drain your resources and shrink your profit margin. There is really no way, other than StarStock, to differentiate ungraded / unslabbed card values against one another. Cardscore is a crowdsourced way of assigning a score from 0-100 to any card.

I made a Facebook post the other day - ironically NOT about my book "What To Do After You Find Your Old Sports Card Collection," and a Facebook friend commented about needing help after finding his old baseball card collection.  https://nooffseason.com/book Long story short, as explained in further detail in the video, he has all of the sets from 1979 - 1989 that he collected (so they're not factory sealed), of Topps Baseball, as well as some years during that timeframe of Fleer, Donruss, O-Pee-Chee and more.   He basically wants to sell them as quickly as possible, but wants to maximize profits.  This video walks not only him, but all of you through my methodology for doing this in any situation you might find yourself in with your vintage sports cards.

StarStock solves three huge problems for the sports card hobby and market overall. Since I wrote my book in April 2021, the largest card grading companies PSA and BGS have shutdown their economy services and aren't accepting any new submissions until further notice.

I've been absolutely roasted in some Facebook Groups but owning non-rookie base cards that are PSA 10s.  The haters say things like...  "How dare someone ever get a non-rookie card graded?" "That's the reason why the backlog is so long" "I hope your entire card collection goes up in flames because you are the reason why the hobby sucks now!"  You think I'm exaggerating? Go join a Facebook Group or Subreddit as ask a question. See how "friendly," people are. :)  Anyway, I re-entered the hobby this year with the strong belief that as an adult... (enter Mike Gundy "I'm a man... I'm 40!" yelling here) ... we can all do what we want to make us happy.  It is after all, a hobby.  So, get whatever cards you want graded. Be positive, spread joy, etc.  Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, I can talk about two cards that I acquired over the last year, and am now selling at https://nooffseason.com.

Major League Baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani is doing what less than five players in the history of the game have ever done - put up all-star numbers as both a starting pitcher and a slugger at the plate.  As of this recording, he leads the MLB in home runs with 23, is third in RBI with 54, and is batting .272, and has 10 stolen bases.  Oh, and as a regular starting pitcher in the L.A. Angels rotation he is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA and more than 70 strikeouts.  And so rightfully so, his rookie card values have skyrocketed this baseball season.  So then why the heck am I LOWERING the price of all of my Ohtani PSA 10 rookie cards?  Simple:  1. I'm not a greedy seller  2. I want to provide opportunities for all collectors and investors to have some profit margin to flip after they buy  3. I'm trying to build a solid community of collectors that join https://NoOffseason.com