Are the Most Hyped Cards of 2026 Going to Zero?

The video opens with sponsorship from Penny Sleeper, a card supply retailer, before diving into the main topic: price depreciation of heavily hyped trading cards following the 2026 National convention. The speaker notes that five players dominated pre-National hype: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Shohei Ohtani, with their cards commanding inflated prices. However, post-National analysis reveals a mixed picture. Not all cards crashed; some second and third-tier legends like Shaquille O'Neal and Peyton Manning actually gained value, and notably Kobe Bryant cards held their prices or even increased slightly. The speaker provides specific depreciation data: Jordan's Roundball Royalty PSA 9 down ~10%, Jordan's Warp Speed PSA 9 down 13-14%, Jordan's Scoring Kings PSA 8/BGS 8.5 down ~35% (speaker's own BGS 8.5 traded at $5,000 now worth $3,400), Ohtani's All Aces PSA 10 down ~12%, LeBron's Topps Chrome PSA 10 down 20%, Tom Brady's 2000 Bowman PSA 9 down 36%, and Ohtani's 2018 Bowman Chrome down 32%. Exceptions to the decline include the 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck, which grew 2.5% recently and 26% over the past year at a steady pace. The speaker identifies two unifying factors among depreciating cards: massive pre-National hype and relative abundance rather than true rarity. The Scoring Kings card exemplifies this—while rare in high grades, it's common overall and appeared in every storefront during the National exhibition. The speaker explains dealer behavior: as prices skyrocketed before National, dealers flooded the market to capture profits, increasing supply precisely when collectors were seeking these cards. The speaker describes his own strategy: trading his Jordan Scoring Kings BGS 8.5 (purchased for ~$650, peaked at $5,000-5,500) along with Warp Speed and Ohtani All Aces for a Black Lotus Magic card, which has remained stable at $12,000-14,000. This trade was motivated by observing Scoring Kings cards in nearly every vendor booth, confirming his suspicion that the hype-driven peak was unsustainable. The video distinguishes between easily replaceable common cards and genuinely rare cards that seldom appear for sale, using a Jose Ramirez Topps Finest Gold Refractor PSA 9 autographed rookie (print run of 50) as an example of a card worth keeping despite market fluctuations because replacements are difficult to find. The speaker concludes that hyped common cards will depreciate toward a new equilibrium (predicting Scoring Kings BGS 8.5 around $3,000) but won't go to zero, and advises dumping hype cards unless they're genuinely rare or personally collected.