PSA & Fanatics Partnership, DC Sports 87 Drama & More.
A comprehensive sports card market review covering major sales of rookie patch cards (Flag, Harper, Canipple), grading company updates (PSA delays, Beckett website issues), the Fanatics-PSA partnership, and market implications including concerns about counterfeit cards and shipping issues via FedEx.
Summary
The host provides a weekly sports card market analysis starting with MLB season ending and playoff implications. Three major rookie debut patch card auctions concluded with Cooper Flag selling for $8 million, Dylan Harper for $2.8 million, and Conner Canipple for $2+ million—totaling $13 million and generating significant mainstream media attention expected to attract new collectors. Pete Crow-Armstrong's MLB 1/1 debut patch is currently at $500,000 with 3 days remaining, creating an interesting comparison since PCA completed a 40-40 season and will win MVP, unlike Flag's single season with only potential. The grading segment reveals PSA reduced delays by nearly 1 million cards to reach 9 million total backlog, opened a $60 service tier, and is processing approximately 1 million cards per update. The host estimates they could reach 5 million backlog by end of November, with budget pricing unlikely until next year. PSA opened a Germany office handling 30% of European volume, alleviating processing pressure. Fanatics and PSA partnered through Lids (Fanatics-owned) to offer PSA Go pickup points, demonstrating PSA's brand strength and suggesting potential future collaborations with Collectors Universe. Beckett faces ongoing website issues after 3+ weeks of downtime, recently reopened limited service levels only to close again, with no estimated recovery timeline. The speaker expresses frustration about lack of communication from Beckett and Topps regarding status. Regarding the DC Sports 87 counterfeit card controversy, the host argues DC Sports 87 is a commission agent, not a certifier, and shouldn't be expected to catch counterfeits—that's the role of PSA, eBay, and other checks and balances. The host expresses desire for Fanatics and Topps to provide official statements through content creators rather than direct public channels, though understands their hesitation due to amplification concerns. FedEx shipping is strongly discouraged due to widespread theft reports; the host recommends obtaining a PO Box subscription to force USPS delivery, eliminating FedEx from the equation entirely. Topps Flagship Collection release was postponed from this week to October 6th. Market data shows Pete Crow-Armstrong's autograph Bowman Chrome Refractor PSA 9 up 725% and PSA 10 up 270% since March, though prices have begun stabilizing after early September peaks. Jackson Dart suffered injury-related price drops of 15-20% on his cards, while the host suggests potential buying opportunities on Caleb Williams cards if his injury is short-term.
Key Insights
- The $13 million in combined rookie patch sales (Flag, Harper, Canipple) will generate mainstream media attention that could attract new collectors through local exhibitions and retail channels, particularly those purchasing packs at Target or card shops
- PSA's opening of a Germany office handling 30% of incoming European volume represents a significant processing bottleneck solution that didn't reduce their workload but redirected it geographically, maintaining quality control while freeing domestic capacity
- The Fanatics-PSA partnership through Lids (PSA Go) demonstrates PSA's brand strength and suggests Fanatics may view cooperation with grading companies as more profitable than competition, unlike their initial acquisition ambitions
- Pete Crow-Armstrong's 40-40 season completion and National League MVP achievement represents a more substantial accomplishment than Cooper Flag's single NBA season, yet Flag's card commands 16x higher price, suggesting market valuation is driven by hype and potential rather than proven performance
- The speaker argues DC Sports 87 should not be expected to detect counterfeits as they are commission agents, not certifiers, and increasing their inspection duties would require collectors to accept unwanted handling of legitimate cards by non-specialist personnel
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] Hello, YouTube viewers. Welcome to another weekly review of the sports card market. It will probably be a busy release? There are many events, there is something to talk about. So let 's get straight to the point. First, let's discuss the general state of affairs. Baseball season is coming to an end. Today is the last official day of the MLB season, and we move on to the playoffs . These will be strange relegation games with the expectation of a possible lockout. So it will be interesting to watch card prices during the [0:30] offseason. The PCA reached the 40-40 mark. Topps Now is probably already printing a million cards for the occasion. We'll talk more about…
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