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School News Article

9/9/2021

Recently for my school newspaper I published an article talking about my school's vaccination mandate and how athletes felt about it. This has been a very controversial topics even in professional sports as many athletes wish to not get vaccinated due to possible side effects that could prevent them from playing.

https://hwchronicle.com/101919/sports/vaccination-mandates-sparks-controversy/

2021 NSCC Recap

8/12/2021

After a one year hiatus of the National Sports Collectors Convention (NSCC) due to the pandemic, the National Card convention opened up with a bang this summer in Chicago. I was fortunate enough to attend three days of the show. I have gone every year since 2016, and it was such a shock to see how far the hobby has come since then. Before, it was mainly men that would show up to the shows, but this year, I noticed younger children as well as families showing up to attend the convention. I believe this to be partially due to the increasing popularity of sports cards. Most recently, a Patrick Mahomes football card sold for $4.3 million, a record high for any football card. This card was on display at the convention, and people were lining up to get a glance. Although there was not an exact head count, it was reported that over 100,000 tickets to attend the convention were sold. Normally only around 50,000-60,000 people attend the show on average. This is a huge increase, and it definitely was noticeable while walking around from each table. Walking around the show, I could feel the energy from everybody as people bargained for deals or worked out trades on the side. Words can't really explain how hectic the show was. I had a great time talking with old card friends and helping out PC Sportscards at their booth. To reinforce how healthy the hobby is, after the show closed, in the small lobby at the Loews hotel, easily a thousand people would go and set up their cards for sale. It practically became a smaller card convention outside the national card convention. As a seller of one of the highest priced cards recently, it was interesting as some dealers would ask me why I even bothered to show up. They assumed that because I sold a card for nearly two million dollars that I am too high end for the show, but for me, I enjoy talking to new collectors and conversing with card buddies that I have known ever since I started to delve deep into cards. Overall, to say I was amazed by the convention would be an understatement, and I hope to see just as many people if not more next year at the convention in Atlantic City.

NCAA Athletes Finally Being Paid

7/22/2021

Recently, the NCAA is finally allowing college athletes to collect money off their name and likeness. This is one of the most significant rule changes since the beginning of the NCAA 115 years ago. Although the ruling has just been passed, this change has been in the talks for many years. Prior to the ruling, athletes have been banned from being paid to promote goods, and doing so would result in a termination of their scholarship and them getting banned from ever playing collegiate level sports. Although the NCAA had indicated that they had no intention of changing the ruling to allow athletes to get paid, pressure from powerful states such as California in 2019 changed the NCAA’s plans. Compared to making nothing before, some college superstars could be making millions now overnight. In my opinion, I think this is great that the NCAA is finally changing their rules as it brings in more exciting players into college sports. Recently, due to the inability to make money in college, many popular basketball stars such as Lamelo Ball opted to play overseas rather than attend college. Additionally, the NBA sought an opportunity to bring more popularity to their development league and offered promising high school players to join their league rather than go to college which proved to be enticing enough to make many top recruits accept the NBA’s offer. Most recently, with Bryce Young receiving endorsement offers of seven figures, it will be interesting to see how these young athletes are able to progress with all the newly added distractions that endorsements and money can bring. Recently, we have seen more and more athletes beginning to buy their own sports cards. It will be interesting to see if college players decide to join this trend due to the inflow of money that they used to never be able to receive before.

Tainted NBA Playoffs?

7/16/2021

With fans finally back in person to support their favorite teams in the most important part of the season, the playoffs, it has been a disappointment to see so many star players injured, causing them to miss vital games. Superstar Lebron James believes that all these injuries are due to the shortened offseason that athletes received to rest and recover, and it seems that other players agree with his statement. More than eight All-Stars have missed games in the playoffs, an unprecedented number. Albeit not All-Stars, key players also suffered season ending injuries shortly before the playoffs, making them unable to help their teams. During the playoffs, these All-Stars and key players are expected to play an even bigger role, due to sheer pressure put on them to score many points, allowing their respective team to advance in the playoffs. However, with these star players out, it not only diminishes the team’s play, but also leaves many doubts for what could have been. Fans are left to question the competitiveness of this year's playoffs, with many star players out. One might wonder, if Kyrie Irving never sprained his ankle, maybe the Brooklyn Nets would not have been eliminated from the playoffs. Now it seems as if the key to winning the championship may be to just have the team with the least amount of injured players. Although many claim that these playoffs are now tainted due to all the injuries, it is worth noting that injuries are a part of all sports. Injuries are unfortunate for fans and players, but ultimately, it is just a part of the game and can not be controlled. Although it is disappointing that all teams are not playing at full health this playoff season, the winners of the NBA championship should still be considered legitimate. For card prices, these injuries have been detrimental. Furthermore, we may not see a huge increase in card prices for the winner of the championship due to fans believing the championship win is not legitimate. We saw this last year when the Los Angeles Lakers won in the "bubble." Even though they won, we saw many people commenting about how the ring should have an asterisk next to it due to weird situation the NBA Finals took place in. Despite this, the question “What if?” will forever haunt the 2021 NBA playoffs.

Wharton Moneyball Training Camp

7/15/2021

This past week, I was fortunate enough to be able to learn about data analytics in sports through the Moneyball Training Camp taught by Professor Adi Wyner. Throughout the one week, it was packed with many great insights in the sports industry as well as information on how sports teams use data in order to come to conclusions about their own team or other teams. At the base of all data analytics is the use of the computer program R. R is commonly used for data analytics, and I was able to learn how to use R to create graphs as well as showcase how a certain player might perform in the future based on past results. Daily, I would receive a live lecture from professor Wyner as well as Erig Eager, the VP of Research and Development at Pro Football Focus. I learned many different topics ranging from standard deviation all the way to probability. Using the knowledge learned from them as well as R, I was put to the task of creating a project to answer a sports question. With my group, we decided to see whether Shohei Ohtani or Jacob deGrom should be the most valuable player. Ultimately, based on regression data, team success, and hitting/pitching stats, we came to the conclusion that although both players are amazing, deGrom should have a slight edge over Ohtani as the most bauble player. It was great to work in a group on this project because we all had varying ideas about who should be the most valuable, but when we finally got all the important data that we were looking for, we were able to come to an easy consensus. In my opinion, the most exciting part of the week was the guest speakers. The guest speakers came from extremely reputable sports organizations such as the Washington Nationals, Washington Wizards, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Listening to the Assistant GM of the Washington Nationals, Samuel Modry-Cohen, was extremely enjoyable because as an avid fan of baseball, I was able to hear about the insights that teams use that most people would never hear about. For example, there is a company that runs data analytics for baseball teams, but they only take one team per division in order to prevent taking direct competitors. Although the information I learned this week pretty much only relates to sports, I really enjoyed taking the class as it opened up my eyes to the hidden part of sports that many people do not bother to think about. Sports is not just about pure skill from the players, but the data and research team in the shadow of the players also plays a key impact in the results that these players have in their career. The knowledge I learned while taking this camp can also be used to when buying sports cards. Using data from previous years, in R, we are able to create graphs that can predict future stats of players. Obviously it is not 100% accurate and never will be, but it is a great way to get a feeling as to whether a certain player is worth investing in or not.

Sticky Substances: Detrimental to Baseball

7/9/2021

As an avid fan of baseball, I have noticed that this year especially, pitchers have looked as commanding as ever. Baseball has not even reached the halfway point in the season, yet the record for no-hitters in a full season is 7, and already there have been six no-hitters! Wondering why there were so many dominating pitchers on the scene these days, it may be in large part due to the discovery of new substances. These grip enhancing substances are applied by pitchers onto the baseball increasing the spin rate, making the baseballs even more difficult to hit. In a sport where a 33% hit rate is considered elite, now that pitchers have access to substances that give more of an advantage than before, I have to ask: is this fair? After decades, the unwritten rule of doctoring baseballs is finally gaining mainstream attention from not only Major League Baseball (MLB) officials, but the world. Although the use of substances to enhance grip for pitchers is not new to major league baseball, this is the first time that it is being addressed on such a high level. With the average spin rate on baseballs dropping to a season low after MLB announced punishments for pitchers caught doctoring baseballs, it seems evident that pitchers were enhancing their performances through the use of foreign substances. As for the card market, this is a bad look for any cards of pitchers. Even though many people do not collect pitchers in general, the fact that is is coming out that nearly all pitchers have been cheating the whole time causes some questions. How good are the pitchers we are investing in? Was it all just a fluke? Those are some questions that investors and buyers might take into question with all the recent drama about pitchers using sticky substances to enhance their performances. With MLB reporting to announce a major rule change in the upcoming days, it is a positive sign to put the game on a path to become a more fair and balanced sport.

Yearly Tradition: Visiting Paula's Sports Cards

4/3/2021

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNNgp69M_3S/?igshid=1xv1uefpr20lx

Over Spring Break, I was able to continue my tradition of visiting Paula’s Sports Cards every time I visit Honolulu. Unlike other card shops I have visited, Paula always takes the time to interact with all her customers and genuinely enjoys the hobby. She never fails to strike up conversations with her customers. The last time I visited around a year and a half ago, I was sad to hear that Paula would be retiring and likely selling her shop. However, due to COVID-19, she decided to maintain the shop and open part-time Wednesday-Sunday. Fortunately, I was able to visit her shop on Wednesday before I flew back home on Thursday.

As I entered her store for my fifth time, a flutter of memories came. Paula’s inventory never ceases to amaze me as she had cases of 2001 SP Authentic Golf, which contains Tiger Woods’ rookie autograph card. Seeing a sealed box is an amazing feat, but to have sealed cases is a spectacular sight in the card collecting world. I remember the first time I visited, I purchased a box of 2014 Bowman Draft Super Jumbo; on her shelves, I noticed one lone box left of the same product. For old times sake, I was tempted to purchase it, but her shop had so many amazing diverse products that it was extremely difficult to make up my mind. After chatting with Paula about the hobby craze and influx of new buyers for about an hour, I settled on purchasing two boxes of 2020 Bowman jumbo, one box of 2020-21 Prizm Basketball, and some packs of Pokémon cards. In 2020 Bowman, although Bobby Witt Jr. is the popular name right now due to his performance in Spring Training, I was definitely chasing Jasson Dominguez! His 1/1 Superfractor auto has not been pulled yet, so I was hoping to be the lucky person to finally unearth it.

For me, opening Prizm used to be done quickly with little care about the design or photos used. This year with one box costing over five times as much as last year, it felt like a completely new experience. I no longer opened the packs in seconds and threw aside any cards that were not of interest. Rather, I took my time to really value the cards. Prizm used to not be considered a high-end product like National Treasures, but with the new resale price, it felt similar to opening a box of National Treasures. Although I did not pull any Lamelo Ball cards or rather any high-value cards, I had a blast opening the box and opening Prizm is always something I look forward to opening. Hopefully next year I’ll finally hit a Silver Prizm or maybe a Gold Prizm of the top rookie!

The first box of 2020 Bowman was lackluster and did not contain autos of any of the top players. In the second box, I was down to my last pack; I knew I had one auto remaining. At this point, I was hoping for anything numbered, color auto. As I slowly rolled the last auto, I noticed it was a base auto to my demise. Since it was not a superfractor that I was looking for, I jumped straight to the auto. I let out an audible gasp as I saw the name Jasson Dominguez and the blue ink from his signature! I viewed this as a sign because for the past couple of years, whenever I have opened boxes from Paula, I have always pulled an auto of the top player. A couple of years ago it was Ronald Acuña Jr., and this year it was Jasson Dominguez.

Visiting Paula and her shop has been a tradition that I always look forward to. I am 16 now, and I first visited her shop when I was 11, just beginning sports card collecting. At that time her shop amazed me due to all of her sealed boxes and cases, which put my local card shop to shame. Hopefully, I am able to visit again soon and add more positive memories.

2020 Sports Card Year in Review

1/3/2021

2020 has easily been one of the biggest years in recent memory for sports collectors. Not only have there been numerous record-breaking sales, but an influx of new collectors have also joined the hobby. In addition, more mainstream media sites such as ESPN, Forbes, Business Insider, and many more have all published numerous pieces about the rise in price as well as the popularity of sports cards.
One of the biggest sales in sports collecting history is the 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Superfractor. Selling for nearly four million, not only is this the highest modern-day card sold, but it’s also the highest publicly recorded price for any trading card. Its counterpart, the 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Red Refractor sold for over $900,000, which was the record for the highest modern-day baseball card until the Mike Trout Superfractor easily stole the top spot.
Other notable baseball card sales are the Fernando Tatis Bowman Chrome Red Refractors (x2) and a Ronald Acuna Red Refractor, which were all sold by Goldin Auctions. The Fernando Tatis Red Refractors sold for an average of around $230,000 each. The Ronald Acuna Red Refractor sold for nearly $240,000. These sales are huge for the modern-day prospecting market as these are both fairly new players that have not even been in the league for four seasons yet. These are highly risky purchases, but if all goes well, it is possible for those cards to jump near the same price as the Mike Trout Red Refractor that got almost a million due to the growing card market. Just a couple of years ago, a Tatis Red Refractor auto sold for only around $20,000 on eBay, which is nothing compared to its price now. In addition, at release date in 2017, a couple of Ronald Acuna Red Refractors autos were on auction on eBay and fetched around $2,000 apiece.
The basketball market, in my opinion, has seen the most increase in price and popularity. A massive collection of rare Upper Deck Exquisite Basketball cards from Puerto Rico were acquired by Goldin Auctions. Many collectors have not seen these Exquisite Basketball cards since their release date in the early 2000s. Therefore, these cards brought a lot of interest and commanded significant prices. I sold the Giannis Logoman National Treasures rookie card one of one at auction for a bit over $1.8 million. As of now, it is the highest publicly recorded basketball card sold. In addition, two Lebron Exquisite RPAs graded 9.5/10 were sold for over a million a piece. The gold variant Lebron Exquisite RPA #/23 sold for a little less than the Giannis Logoman National Treasures rookie card one of one that I sold. The #/99 Lebron Exquisite RPA copy sold for a bit over one million. In 2015, the gold variant Lebron Exquisite RPA was purchased for $95,000, which is practically pennies compared to what it is worth now. Even though the Lebron Exquisite RPA #/23 was sold during the middle of 2020, Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, has another copy of the same type of card that he believes will bring $3-5 million dollars if auctioned off in the near future.
In early 2020 and previous years, it seemed highly unlikely for any modern day card to fetch over a million, let alone four million. However, in 2020 alone, there were over four publicly recorded sales of cards selling for over a million. There were many more private sales of cards fetching over a million from the Upper Deck Exquisite Basketball card collection from Puerto Rico. This can be attributed to the private investors and hedge funds entering the market. Cards used to be seen as a small investment for fun or just for personal collection, however, they are now being seen as worthy alternative investments and are capturing the eyes of big time investors.

The Rise of Sports Cards

9/19/2020

Mike Trout, the star MLB player, is regarded as the best current player and has many years to become possibly the best baseball player of all time. His performance on the field has led to expensive sales of his baseball cards, highlighted by the record-breaking sale of an autographed rookie card for nearly 4 million at an auction in August. This sale has caught the attention of major news outlets which has brought new attention to sports cards.
Many people associate sports cards as pieces of cardboard that barely hold any monetary value. The so-called “Junk Wax Era,” which occurred in the mid-80s till the early 90s, was a time during which sports cards were overproduced. With the card collecting market being extremely popular during the Junk Wax Era, card companies began to print way more cards than previous years. Nevertheless, despite this increased production, people believed that these cards would go up in value. In 1988, The New York Times published an article titled “A Grand-Slam Profit May Be in the Cards,” which suggested that sports cards were great investments due to their values increasing on average nearly 32% every year since 1978. Now, cards from that era hold little to no value, and collectors from that era are left with only memories.
Now, every sport has their own single card manufacturer that is allowed to produce official sports cards, which limits the supply. This new approach to printing cards has made it easier for collectors to identify which cards to buy as well as which ones will have the best chance of becoming worth more in the future. In addition, some sports cards come autographed, and some cards only have few copies made. For example, the autographed Mike Trout card that sold for nearly four million dollars only had one copy printed. Aesthetically, modern cards are higher quality, and some even contain patches from game-worn jerseys of that player. Compared to the dull, cardboard finish on cards from the Junk Wax Era, cards now have glossier, “refractor” finishes which make them more appealing.
One of the most popular strategies for investing in sports cards is “prospecting.” Prospecting is when someone buys a card of a little known player hoping that the player will become great in the future causing the card to go up in value. Information on prospects can be found from companies dedicated to scouting prospects such as Fangraphs and Baseball America. These companies put out yearly rankings of the top prospects in baseball. Trout, for example, was the number one prospect in 2011, at which point his autographed card was worth around $100. Another prospecting success story is Franciso Lindor. Lindor is a multiple time all-star for the Cleveland Indians and a superstar in the MLB. At first, one of his autographed cards could be had for around $50. Now, that card sells for more than $800 with plenty of room to grow.
It can be quite overwhelming to find information on where to start collecting cards. The consensus for the most return when buying a baseball card is to buy the player’s Bowman Chrome autographed card. These Bowman chrome cards have multiple variations that are all numbered differently. The best card being a 1 of 1 superfractor is one that not everyone can afford or get, so the safest for new collectors is to start with a base autograph bowman chrome card. The “base” bowman chrome autograph card is not numbered, but they still do not have unlimited copies in existence causing the value to go up if the player does well.
Over the past couple of years, even before the record-breaking sale of Trout’s card, baseball cards have seen major attention. A likely cause of cards selling for more than ever is the idea of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). When players are identified as up and coming, collectors are willing to pay a lot for these players’ cards because they do not want to miss out on the next 6- or 7-figure profit. This FOMO effect has driven up prices of even lower tier prospects compared to previous years. However, not everyone can be Mike Trout. Data from the past 10 years of the top 5 up-and-coming players from each year show that no one is even close to touching the prices of Mike Trout. Out of 38 players (some players are repeated on the top 5 lists), only 18 are worth more. That is less than 50%, and none of those 18 players' base autograph cards are worth more than $1,000 whereas Mike Trout's base autograph card is over $10,000.
In addition, high profile investors and athletes alike have started to collect sports cards and openly state their interest in the hobby. Gary Vaynerchuk (“Gary Vee” to his legions of followers) has recently joined the hobby and makes it known that he believes sports cards are great investments for the future. Gary Vee is known for his work in digital marketing and social media as the chairman VaynerX and as CEO of VaynerMedia. In 2019, Gary Vee wrote “in the next 24 – 36 months, we are going to see enormous growth in the sports card market. Even more than what we’ve seen in the past 2 – 3 years.” A year later, this prediction has already begun to come true. In the past few months we have seen record sales for sports cards occur such as a Lebron James card selling for nearly 2 million dollars. In addition to Gary Vee, athletes such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Phil Hughes have showcased their collections which attracts new collectors.
As cards go up, people often can get greedy and hold the cards for too long. The hard question is when is it time to take the profits and run. The safest way is to not get overly attached to a card. It is very possible that the card may go up, but at the same time, there is the possibility that the card goes down. It is safest to take profits when you can, and with the profits, one can reinvest back into the sports card market. When collecting or investing, it is great to have a short term memory so that one does not get caught up in all the times they missed on more profit. Often, collectors only remember the time they sold a card too early, but they never remember the time when they “cashed” out at the perfect time.