Nonsense Newsletter No. 158: A Rival for Skenes, the Olympic Triple Auto, "that" card for you... and more!
In this week’s blustery cold and frigid temperatures edition John Dudley tries to find a hobby rival for Paul Skenes. I wax poetically about “that” card, and Cole Benz talks about the elusive Topps Olympic Triple Auto! Oh, and, of course, the Quick Hits is top-notch! So, in short, it’s another amazing edition of the Nonsense Newsletter!
By John Dudley
Paul Skenes is doing the impossible and making waves in the hobby as a pitcher. His Topps Chrome Refractor Autos are going for between $600 and $700 raw or about 10x to 20x more than most hyped-rookie pitchers ever sell for. Is he a unicorn, or is he a harbinger of change that will lead other pitchers to hobby relevancy? My money is on unicorn, but let’s check out the candidates to join Skenes atop the hobby to see if we can do better than a knee-jerk reaction.
By Cole Benz
One of the biggest cards Fanatics and Topps has produced in recent history has yet to surface.
Yes, the elusive triple auto of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry donning their Olympic attire is still sitting in a sealed pack, possibly listed on eBay right now.
This cannot be what Fanatics envisioned when developing this one-of-a-kind collectible. With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding it I’m sure Fanatics was ready for all the promotion they could give the card and the collector once it surfaced.
What does this mean for the hobby? Is it good? Bad? And how could Fanatics have prevented the packs from ending up on the secondary market, going for upwards of $3,000 at this point?
By John McTaggart
Recently, I’ve had to make some changes to my business, to its social media accounts, and to the entire structure of the company.
In many ways, this has been a pain in the backside, but on the other hand, it’s forced me to comb through a lot of old posts, conjure up some old memories and I’ve really found that to be kinda fun.
Plus, it’s never a bad thing to look at your business from a different angle, right? Which is something I’ve had to do that as well over the last few weeks.
Now that I’ve got all that out there, what did I discover?
Quick Hits
Hobby News- Topps created a Chris Berman-inspired MLB set. The cards lean heavily into Beerman’s nicknames and catch phrases. Each box comes with 6 packs of 10 cards with 2 of those being “hits” that could be autos, parallels, or inserts with autos falling every other box.
Vintage- If vintage basketball cards are your Kung Fu, then this is actually a very cool article put together by Sports Collector’s Daily. Check it out here.
Hobby News- Topps also released the Brooklyn Collection, which surprised many collectors with its sell-out speed. With two on-card autos a box and a strong auto checklist, it shouldn’t be that much of a shock, but low singles prices, lack of buzz, $199 price, and a divisive design had many expecting this to be more readily obtainable.
The Sports Card Nonsense newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors and contributors. They are for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation for purchases or of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any assets.