Beckett Offline, Fanatics Robbed, Pop Culture Cards Keep Climbing.
A collectibles industry update covering Beckett's unexplained week-long website outage, Fanatics' record-breaking debut patch auction sales, a robbery at a London card shop, and an explosive pop culture card market with Disney Chrome cards selling for unprecedented prices.
Summary
The host discusses multiple major developments in the collectibles market during an eventful week. The primary technical story involves Beckett's website being offline for over three days starting September 9th with minimal advance notification and vague communication, though management indicated a planned September 15th return coinciding with price changes. The host speculates this may involve backend integration issues with PSA's infrastructure but notes the lack of transparency is unusual for major companies. On the Fanatics front, their premier auction launched with explosive results: the Cooper Flag debut patch leading at $2.1 million, Dylan Harper at $460,000, and Kajon Canipple at $220,000 with 12 days remaining. Notably, these modern cards are vastly outpacing vintage offerings like a 1933 Babe Ruth autographed card at $170,000 and a 1951 Mickey Mantle Bowman at $65,000. The host personally observed lighter attendance at local Ohio card shows compared to historical norms, attributing it to back-to-school season, college football kickoff, and poor weather. A significant security concern emerged with robberies at both Fanatics' London flagship store and UK-based breaker Global Nostalgia's facility, prompting the host to warn breachers about their inventory security vulnerabilities. PSA launched a new lower-priced service tier despite ongoing backlog complaints, with the host theorizing the market for $80 grading may be exhausted and this move could stimulate new submissions. PSA Vault now enables vault-to-vault transfers, though the host identifies vault-to-vault trading as the real game-changer feature still missing. Golden Auctions' pop culture summer auction perfectly timed the market explosion, with a Final Fantasy 7 copy at $185,000, a Harry Potter triple-auto reaching $100,000 (believed to be the most expensive Harry Potter card ever), and most dramatically, a 2024 Topps Chrome Disney Mickey Mouse gold refractor (PSA 10, one of 50) selling for $91,000. Additional notable sales included a Star Wars booklet at $76,000, a Spongebob Squarepants red refractor at $61,000, and vintage Nintendo Power at $32,000. The host expresses nostalgia about his childhood Nintendo Power collection while noting sealed video game prices like Halo at $45,000 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare at $43,000. Market analysis reveals 2023 Topps Chrome Disney sealed boxes up 821% year-over-year to $15,000, and 2024 Marvel boxes surging 623% to $3,500 in just weeks. Baseball sees Pete Crow-Armstrong's Bowman refractor auto up 280% to $2,600 in 180 days, with the host questioning how much potential baseball labor disputes affect pricing. Shaquille O'Neal cards show extreme appreciation across all grades: a 1992 Upper Deck PSA 10 at $8,000, 1992 Topps Gold PSA 10 at $3,700 (270% increase), and even raw cards up 85%. The host previews upcoming Topps releases including Heritage Football, Vault Marvel, and particularly Stadium Club WWE, expressing enthusiasm about the latter's photography potential for WWE auto collectors.
About this episode
Another wild week in the collectible market. https://www.thepennysleever.com/ NEO2026 Code for 10% off 1st time customers. Go Check the Current CIA Auction here https://collectorinvestorauctions.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/HHv7dkcB98 eBay partner link: https://ebay.us/zmiusO #ad MySlabs partner link: https://myslabs.pxf.io/nLNBJx #ad Fanatics partner link: https://fanatics.93n6tx.net/mgALb7 #ad Amazon partner link: https://amzn.to/3uh7ovE #ad PWCC partner link: https://pwccmarketplace.pxf.io/6eVAy3 #ad Link to the market movers tool set: Coupon Code NEO for $1 for your first month, partner link: https://marketmoversapp.com/neo/ #ad If you enjoy the content and want to support the channel consider becoming a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkry0N3iMPzDLUBr24i4fcQ/join Follow me on Twitter & IG: Twitter: @NEOCards_Comics IG: neo_cards_comics https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en Discord: https://discord.gg/HHv7dkcB98 "As an Underdog Fantasy Associate I earn from qualifying deposits via my affilate link" “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” “As an eBay Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” “As an Fanatics Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” “As an Topps Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” “As an Walmart Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Key Insights
- Beckett's website has been offline for 3+ days with no advance notification to users, which is unusual compared to industry standard practice of pre-announcing maintenance windows, and the company failed to provide clear updates despite a stated September 15th return date.
- The host's local card shows in Ohio showed significantly lighter attendance than historical norms, possibly due to back-to-school season, college football season start, and poor weather creating competing activities on the same Saturday.
- Robberies at both Fanatics' London flagship store and a UK breaker facility suggest that breachers with significant product inventory may have inadequate security compared to public-facing shops, creating vulnerability to theft.
- PSA's new lower price tier launch may indicate the market for $80 grading submissions has been exhausted among existing collectors, and the price reduction is designed to stimulate a new wave of submissions before volume slows again.
- A 2024 Topps Chrome Disney Mickey Mouse gold refractor (PSA 10, one of 50) sold for $91,000 at Golden Auctions, representing extreme price appreciation in pop culture cards that the host finds difficult to justify but acknowledges is market-driven.
- 2024 Topps Chrome Marvel sealed boxes increased 623% in price from $750 in late July to $3,500 currently, with Marvel experiencing significant recent market momentum.
- Pete Crow-Armstrong's Bowman refractor auto is up 280% in 180 days to $2,600, but the host questions whether ongoing baseball labor disputes are suppressing prices by creating uncertainty in the market.
- Shaquille O'Neal's 1992 Upper Deck card in PSA 10 now sells for $8,000 with only 357 copies on the population report, while the PSA 9 with 4,200 copies sells for $375, showing extreme grade-based price separation in vintage basketball cards.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] Ah, YouTube people, another wonderful, wild and crazy week in the world of collectibles. We have Grady Nonsense with PSA price changes, whatever the hell is going on with Beckett, which we'll talk about in a second. We have fanatics lists for photos getting left behind in product that shows everything that's in there. We have pop culture stuff continuing to explode in price, including singles and sealed wax. [0:34] And a football season has officially started, which means my depression about my local team is will be in full effect later today, watching Deshun Watson play football. Let's kick things off with the becket of it all. Uh the one thing I didn't get a chance to talk…
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Beckett is Kind of Back?
Beckett has reopened with base and standard submission tiers at their previous prices after a shutdown on September 15th. The company is implementing a dynamic demand model that will temporarily close overloaded service tiers to maintain posted turnaround times. The speaker emphasizes that accurate communication and hitting stated turnaround times are more important to him than pricing.
Is It Time to Sell All Our Cards?
The speaker discusses whether baseball card collectors should sell their cards ahead of an anticipated 2025 MLB labor stoppage. He shares his personal strategy of liquidating speculative holdings while keeping sentimental cards, and explores how a potential work stoppage could significantly impact card prices across the market.
The Ungraded Truth 23: Non-Sport Card Mania
The Ungraded Truth Podcast covers the explosive non-sport trading card market boom, featuring discussions on Marvel cards, animation cels, video games, and original art collecting. The hosts analyze market dynamics at Collector Summit in Las Vegas, examine specific high-value sales, and share their personal collecting strategies for the next few months as potential MCU movie hype could drive comic book value increases.