Sports Card Strategy Show

At NoOffseason.com, we strive to appeal to any and all collectors who want to be happy collecting.  Any number of things can make collectors happy. Low prices, hot cards, free stuff, nice people. We want to provide all of the above.  At NoOffseason.com, there's nothing intimidating. We are not sports cards experts. We are simply happy collecting and we want you to be too.  That's why every once in a while I rip packs with my kids and create content out of it.  My business is based out of the US, but my family and I live in Spain, so it's sometimes hard for me to scratch the itch of opening my favorite NBA, NFL and MLB cards (all of which I grew up collecting and are my favorite types of cards to buy).   But it would be silly of my not to take advantage of the fact that I live in the soccer mecca and rip some La Liga Soccer Cards. So my son and I have gotten into doing just that. While Panini MegaCracks are the high end cards in Spain, Max told me that actually Panini La Liga Premium Adrenalyn packs are some of his favorites to rip.   Mainly because out of the 10 cards you get in the Premium Adrenalyn packs, five of them are special cards like Super Cracks, Edicion Limitadas, Idolos, Diamantes and more.   Retailing for 5 Euro in Spain per pack (about $7 USD), they're available. We're selling them at NoOffseason.com for a little more than that, but the singles are available in our Dollar Bin, which can be found at the bottom of our Soccer Page on NoOffseason.com.  Anyone who thinks Adrenalyn cards are just an overproduced card game, I beg to differ. They're solid collectibles that can hold value and keep both adults and kids happy for years to come.  If you're just getting back into The Hobby and/or an avid sports card investor / collector or even flipper, I've got two great tools for you.  The first is Market Movers, by Sports Card Investor. It's what I use to track the historical value of tens of thousands of cards to make informed decisions about which cards to buy, sell and hold. If you're interested in Market Movers and want to help me out too, please use this referral link to sign up for Market Movers - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/pl... - You'll get 20% off your first payment by using this link!  The second is my book - What To Do After You Find Your Old Sports Card Collection, available on Amazon here - https://nooffseason.com/book Happy Collecting!

I want to share all of my ups and downs of sports card collecting with all of you. It's very easy to copy what everyone else is doing. I don't want to do that. No "is the sports card or NFT market crashing?" click-baity headlines here people. Just true, real world experiences as I re-enter the hobby strong.  Ups and DOWNS. My first PSA submission was returned, with a HORRIBLE result. I thought I could make a profit via Cross-Grading. I talk about it more in my book, available at https://nooffseason.com/book, but it's essentially where you buy a slabbed/graded card from a lesser tier grading company with a high grade, and send it in to a reputable grading company like PSA or SGC to have them re-grade it and slab it.  This, assuming it gets graded and slabbed, results in an easy 3x-5x return on your investment.  So, what happened to me?  Well, I bought a Michael Jordan 1990 Skybox card, graded GEM MINT 10 by GEM GRADING, INC.  I paid around $60-70 for it.  I knew sending it into PSA would cost me $64, regardless of how PSA returned it to me.    I even knew there was a risk that PSA wouldn't grade it at all and I'd be out all $125-$130.  Well, that my friends is what happenend.  PSA found that the card had been altered. Trimmed in fact.  When this happens, PSA simply returns it with no grade, in a Card Saver I case.  So, I bought the world's most expensive single empty Card Saver.  Am I disappointed? Absolutely. Am I mad or upset? No.  Did I get scammed by the seller? Maybe, but probably not.  The real scammers are two fold:  1. The person who trimmed the card and submitted it to GEM GRADING. 2. GEM GRADING, for grading all of their cards 10s regardless of true grade or alternations.  The reality is that this card is worth NOTHING.  This experience actually makes me thankful to legit grading companies like PSA and others for maintaining integrity.  This is a data point for me to get better as an investor and businessperson, and collector of course.  This is also a valuable piece of content I can share with you all. And with my first ever real grading submission a complete disaster, there's nowhere to go but up for me!!!!  Do not buy anything ever that says GEM GRADING on it, and don't ever assume that just because one company has graded a card high, that a cross-grading to PSA will result in a desirable outcome.

When I first got back into The Hobby in early January of 2021, I really didn't know I'd be where I am today. I've launched an eCommerce membership-based website now that focuses as much on families having fun with cards as it does on serious investors and flippers getting what they need also. I'll admit, early on, I was focused on making a buck doing what I love. Now, I'm more focused on just doing what I love. Case in point, ripping packs with my kids. The NBA Stickers & Cards Collection is the perfect mix of family fun and potential reward from a monetary standpoint. It features premier rare rookie cards and stickers of the top guys like LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman. In addition, ballers with serious potential, like Obi Toppin, Patrick Williams, Devin Vassell and more have rookie and draft stickers and official "RC" cards that standout in the collection. The NBA Stickers & Cards Collection also has really cool inserts and parallels like shiny holo stickers of the top players from each team, new Fathead stickers of the top players from each team, All-Star stickers, team holo logos and several Logoman Puzzle-piece stickers. There's also regular season highlights and playoff highlights featuring the top players from each team. And, let's not forget, for the kids who want to collect the whole set, the sticker album itself. It's like a magazine, binder and checklist all-in-one. When I first started acquiring the sealed boxes and packs of the NBA Stickers & Cards Collection, my thought was that I'd keep them all sealed and sell them at NoOffseason.com for a mark-up, since they sold out pretty quickly online at PaniniAmerica.net. Living in Spain, I can still get them at retail, and online at Panini's Spanish Website. While I still have several sealed boxes and packs available for purchase, I have to say, I've had more fun than imagined ripping packs with my son and daughter, which is why I wanted to share this video with you so you can see what this collection is like and who we've pulled over the last few weeks. This compilation video features some cards that are now available on our NBA page here.

On our recent family vacation to Barcelona, Spain, my kids and I picked up some packs we've always wanted to rip together - the Topps 2020-21 UEFA Champions League Sticker Collection.  They're not available everywhere in Europe, and are very hard to find in the United States, so we're selling some on our website. The Topps 2020-21 UEFA Champions League Sticker Collection is super fun to rip. In each pack there are 10 stickers, including one oversized sticker that is more often than not a Rising Star shiny holo.  The ultimate for any soccer fan, this collection features the top players from La Liga, The Premier League, Bundesliga, and the Italian and French leagues.  You have a chance to get everyone from Harry Kane to Mbappe, Messi, Fati and Ronaldo.  Comment below if you want to hear a funny story about how we bought these packs!  Happy Collecting!

The Proof Is In The Data. It's now officially recommended that you submit your cards to SGC during the PSA shutdown. Their short term and long term value will not only be fine; it may be amazing.  After spending January - March of 2021 researching graded card data on the market, I was shocked to find how quickly and drastically things have changed in just a few months.  SGC has come back strong, scaling and proving their ability to provide top notch customer service, turn around times and competitive pricing. But let's be honest, that's NOT enough for us competitive sports card collectors to give in and abandon our trusted industry leader, PSA.  We need to see some real data that compares the sales prices of SGC graded cards against their PSA equivalents.  In this episode of Sports Card Strategy, I do a shallow - but deep enough dive - into three relevant cards with both PSA and SGC sales data.  Thanks to Sports Card Investor and Starstock, I was able to find some super interesting takeways that may shock you.  I'd love it if you watch and comment!  Happy Collecting!

Dapper Labs has done an amazing job removing the barrier to entry for NFTs. Normally, you'd have to get an Etherium Wallet, convert your FIAT currency into ETH (Ether), then remember how much the conversion is for each digital collectible you buy so you can keep track of how much you're actually acquiring it for.  But thanks to Dapper Labs, sports card collectors can easily flex into NFTs by acquiring TopShot moments using their regular bank accounts and credit cards.  You can even sell your digital NBA TopShot NFT trading cards on the marketplace after picking them out of packs like I do in this video.  But even more special, Dapper is making an upcoming release for new collectors only. A requirement for Release 37 on May 28, 2021, is that you can't have purchased more than 2 packs in order to get in on it.  While I was bummed to miss Release 37, I ultimately think it's the right thing for Dapper and the NBA to do, to ensure the long term health and accessibility of the digital trading card sector.  Living in Spain, not really having a reliable US Mailing Address at the moment - NBA TopShot Moments have become a way for my family and I to stay involved in something other than La Liga physical cards and stickers.  Now, to the pack reveal. Spoiler alert, in this reveal of my Base Set Series 2 Release 36, I pull a low-serial number Trae Young, a Rookie Minting of Onyeka Okungwu, a teammate of Young's who was the sixth overall pick in 2020, and Jarrett Allen - an underwhelming serial number but a player who is potentially going to play this summer for the USA Olympic Basketball team.  All-in-all, an amazingly fun investment for only $9.

When I first got back into The Hobby of sports card collecting back in January 2021 after a 30 year hiatus, I didn't really expect my kids to be interested in joining me for the journey.  But, I'm lucky that they have becomg super interested - especially in that one activity we all treasured as kids - RIPPING PACKS!  So I've decided that this could be a regular thing at NoOffseason.com, but we'll see.  In this video, my kids open up several packs of Panini Stickers, some very desirable, and others not so desirable.  The hot rips include NBA Stickers and Cards Collection, and La Liga 2020-21 Este Collecciones Stickers.  Even the Marvel 80th Anniversary collection of stickers is pretty sweet.  Then, there's the family inside joke - The Disney Incredibles Stickers.  I'd love your thoughts in the comments on our pulls, and on if you rip packs with your kids - how does it go? :)  Happy Collecting!

My first several months of getting back into the hobby, I had no strategy for what cards to buy. Nevermind which cards to sell or hold - I could only think of acquiring cards. And I know most of you out there are the exact same.  That's great! That's why they call it "The Hobby." You should be buying cards. But I think it's important to have a strategy as to which ones you're buying and why.  Using data from Starstock (I have no partnership with them - they definitely have no idea who I am as of this publishing date), I have been able to start to determine which players, which cards, and which grades of cards (including from which grading companies) I should buy, try to sell, or hold if I already own.  Using two players that I'm extremely high on right now, Angels P/DH Shohei Ohtani and Knicks PG RJ Barrett - I break down data from Starstock.  I love that Starstock shows you how many total cards they have in their vault, and how many of them are listed for sale. In general, the sports card strategy principle is - the lower the percentage of a player's cards for sale, the more valuable the collectors see the player's cards being long term.  Breaking that down further, on a per card basis, you can look at say Shohei Ohtani's 2018 Topps Chrome Rookie vs. his 2018 Topps Update Rookie and contrast the percentages. It may be that all Ohtani cards are mostly being held; or it may be that only a certain number of them are.  With Panini cards for example, you can do your own comparison of Prizm vs. Hoops (or another set).  Then, another one I'm fascinated by, is by grade and grading company.  So on the Ohtani comparison in this video, I find that his PSA cards are being held, but his SGC cards are being listed for sale. So PSA is still seen by collectors as the more valuable as a long term hold based on this data.  The Barrett data comparison supports the same conclusion, as the PSAs are being held, while the BGS graded Barretts are being listed.  I hope this content helps you in crafting your own data-based sports card strategy.  I'd love your thoughts in the comments.  Happy Collecting!

In this NBA TopShot pack reveal, I get the equivalent of an NBA TopShot "rookie card," which I'll explain, my favorite current player, and a totally forgotten about man in the NBA.  Now, I'm no certified baller, so please don't be intimidated at all by my pack reveals if you're just getting into NBA TopShot and trying to figure out how buying these moments are different from simply watching the highlights on YouTube.

I found my old sports card collection on January 4, 2021, and after a couple hours of Google'ing prices, I immediately knew I wanted to have about 200 cards graded by PSA.  After a month of organization and research, I made 6 submissions on February 21, 2021 - five cross gradings and one bulk submission of 178 cards - modern vintage NBA, NFL and MLB.  After 3 weeks with no confirmation of receipt of the packages, I was having heart attacks every hour, on the hour.  But then, in early March, I - like many of you - got an email blast from PSA President Steve Sloan stating that they had so many submissions that they couldn't even get to their PO Box to sort through them all and get them into their warehouse.  A few days after that, I started getting official confirmations from PSA that each of my 6 boxes had been received.  Whew. But then they doubled their prices. And then in April they stopped taking submissions. By this time I was fully back in the hobby and had acquired about another 200 modern cards that I wanted to send in for grading right away.  I was a bit disappointed, but on the bright side expected my earlier submissions to speed up, and they have!  As you can see in this video, my bulk submission is in Research and ID, and my cross gradings are now all in Grading!  I'm anticipating getting my Michael Jordans, Scottie Pippen Rookie, Reggie Miller Rookie, Dennis Rodman Rookie and Kobe Bryant Rookie back before PSA opens back up again on or before July 1.  Let's go!   Happy Collecting!