u/LargeManufacturer782

Here are a few more shots of Noodle and her big sister, Nala

Meet my new little girl, Noodle.

A few months ago I had a date, and as I was giving her a tour of my home, I saw a not so good look on her face when we got to my home office. I had multiple stacks and boxes of cards in there, and I’m confident it definitely qualified me to be featured on an episode of “Hoarders”. (Good news was it wasn’t a dealbreaker for her and was a very good night for both of us).

Her facial expression was enough of a motivation for me to do something about the clutter, not to mention the amount of money I had tied up in cards which isn’t good financial management. Truth is I had sold all my big hits, put the ones I PC in my collection, and the rest kind of accumulated. It was so overwhelming I really didn’t know how to start.

I consulted with a couple of my friends who work for Fanatics and asked for their guidance, which proved to be very prescient. They referred me to a really cool guy, they have used personally, whose business is to evaluate which cards have a high likelihood of grading as a gem 10. The cards which make the cut, he then cleans and prepares the cards for submission, and drops them off at the PSA store at Burbank Sportscards in my PSA

The ones with no shot at a 10, I shipped to Fanatics Collect raw for auction.

The first step which made was really key, was to remove all of the base cards from the stacks; I’m guessing they represented at least 85% of the volume of cards, and put those into shoeboxes. After that I could really see what I had and found so many cards I had forgotten I had. (I donated around 15,000 base cards to my daughter’s school to use as prizes for the school carnival. I also donated around 10,000 to the fire department and still have more to give away.)

I thought it prudent to do a trial run before I did thousands, and had him evaluate a batch of approximately 150 cards a couple of months ago. Of those, we submitted 44 cards to PSA; I paid for PSA quick turnaround on 9 high end cards, all received 10’s. I’m still waiting for the grades on the others. In the meantime, all of the other 106 cards were sold through Fanatics Collect and I have been paid for those.

Today I gave him +/- 1000 cards to evaluate. Photos of the 150ish being submitted to PSA are attached to this post. All the rest I shipped to Fanatics this afternoon. I still have a lot more cards for the next round, but I now can actually see parts of my countertops!

Will make follow-up posts when I have grades and sales. I feel like I have accomplished something and now I have more cash in the bank and more money to buy new cards with.

I just received the second of two Mahomes redemptions from Panini. I PC the Chiefs and am keeping both forever, so resale value isn’t a first priority here, but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed because both are sticker autos from expensive hobby products.

The first, numbered 3/7, I pulled from six boxes of Photogenic FOTL (+/- $3000) I bought directly from Panini in their Dutch auction. The second (48/75) I pulled from a case of Select (+/- $7500) I bought on release day from my LCS.

I’m totally grateful that I got these cards, and were from two of the last licensed products Panini manufactured. They are both strikingly beautiful in person, and they make me smile every time I see them in my office.

A pertinent topic of discussion is what is Panini going to do post licensing? It seems to me that the only viable path for them is to offer products which provide true value to customers. In other words, some people will buy unlicensed cards if the patches and autos and whatever are so sick, and at a lower price point than Topps. I’ve bought quite a bit of Panini Three & Two over the years, even though unlicensed, because the cards are at a National Treasues quality and memorabilia quality, but it’s a lot less expensive than Five Star or Definitive. The resale price will always be less than licensed products but it gives collectors an opportunity to get really cool cards of players they like which they might otherwise not be able to afford.

Sticker autos on high value, rare, grail cards certainly isn’t a value proposition that makes me want to buy anything new from Panini. Their customer service always was inferior to Topps but they could get away with it because they had the licenses. Not so much anymore.

It just seems like any autographed card from a top-tier player pulled from an expensive hobby product numbered to, let’s say 25 or less, should be on card. And, a redemption card you have to wait months or longer to receive should be the same.

What do you think about:

1. What would Panini have to offer that would make you willing to buy unlicensed cards?
2. Do you agree with me on sticker autos?

Says Dr. Evil

Thoughts?

Asking $3500

I live in Los Angeles and PC Lakers. My local friends have differing opinions. I do know for a fact that his dad thinks he’s awesome 😂