SPEAKER_01 0:11

All right, welcome to Talking Cards with Grand Salami and the Juice. It is back to just the two of us today. After, yeah, so I got Bert here. How are you doing, Bert?

SPEAKER_03 0:21

I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. It was a successful Bowman release week.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Yes. Very busy week for you, I'm sure. That's for sure. Uh yeah, a lot of fun though. Just on my end, just watching people pulling stuff. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to open any myself, not even some blasters. But after my card show I did, I was able to kind of reinvest back into some new Bowman stuff. So that's exciting. There you go. What did you sell at the card show? When did I sell? You know, there were a couple cards that got the most attention. The card that got the most attention, I had, and I still have it, the AJ Ewing Gold Share Auto PSA 10. Okay. So many people were walking by the table and being like, oh, that's a really cool card. No one actually bought it, but that's okay. One that I don't mind PCing. It's one of those ones that I put out there, say, hey, if I get an offer I can't refuse, I will sell this. If not, I'm happy to PC it. Otani obviously sells so quickly and so easily. It's insane. Because everyone knows.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Like there are so many people that are buying just to resell, which I'm fine with. Um, like I'm not gonna sell them like my whole, you know. Yeah, there's so they know there's people that are buying just to resell. If they get Otani, they just wait another month and his numbers are his cars are gonna sell more. If he wins a Cy Young, then somehow they'll go up even higher, just because that's how it is with him. And worst case, they'll just get their money back. But yeah, so sold a ton of Otani, made some trades to one of the trades. I traded a Conor Griffin auto, got a number, so the Conor Griffin auto was uh Bowman's best. I got I think it was a blue sky PSA 10 first Bowman Conor Griffin, a hundred bucks he gave me, and he also gave me a PSA 9 Sal Stewart black and white ray wave, a first Bowman. So that was a really cool card. So I thought it was a pretty even trade. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I knew that that Conor Griffin would sell, like everyone likes slab stuff, it always sells easier than the non-slab. And the Sal Stewart I was happy to hold on to. And then funny enough, that Sal Stewart I put on eBay tonight. And when I listed it, I've never done this before. I accidentally set the listing to a dollar somehow. So someone bought it within five minutes, and I was all immediately like, oh crap. And I was thinking, do I cancel it or do I just let it go? And I decided to cancel it because what I would do is if I mispriced it just because I didn't do my research right or something, or I didn't realize this player has been going off or something, like if I probably sell Stuart from where everyone thought he would be at this time of year instead of where he's actually been because he's been so good, then that's one thing. I would take that hit. But just because of a typo of putting something for a buck, I messaged a guy. Luckily, he was really cool about it. So good. Yeah. And then that's nice.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Sometimes people on eBay forget that there's a human on the other side, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

That's good when you get that type of eBay or so that's how my card stuff has been this week. And I also listed um my Albert Puhal's Bob Ross auto. It's red out of 10. And I've already got in like four offers and four people messaging me about it. It's been like just two hours.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah, very strange.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Uh oh, yeah, those are those were getting a lot of attention too at the show. Bob Ross. Yeah, yeah. Bob Ross. Don't get it. I it's it's such a fun rip for the price that they sell retail at, which is now over current secondary, yeah. 20 times that price. Yeah. Literally 20 times, I think, what it was originally selling for. Maybe 10, but all right. Anyway, so these last few episodes have obviously been very info dumpy. Just taking all this info, learn as much as you can about Bowman. So these next two episodes, we're gonna step it back a bit, not pound you with info. There's just gonna be fun hobby content, fun stuff to talk about. And before we get into that, though, we've had Bowman out for a week now. Bert, how's it been so far with Bowman?

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Six Bowman has been pretty darn good. And I would say a lot different. The landscape a lot different than previous years Bowman. A lot of the stuff that we talked about with Slap Squatch when we were talking about the pack odds that we kind of anticipated when they published when we when they published the pack odds and then we analyzed their slap squat, analyzed them, and then shared his findings with us. It seems that they put a lot of the SSPs, a lot of the dark desirable SSPs, anime, spotlights, final draft, patchwork, etc., into blasters. That is very cool. And it also means that they come out a little bit less in the hobby configuration. So, folks that have been ripping blasters, I think the sentiment has been extremely positive. Seen a lot of really big hits come out of blasters, which is super cool because that's by far the most attainable product at MSRP out of the entire Bowman line. So I'm a fan of that. Delight, as per usual, has come out really strong of the three hobby configurations. That's definitely gone up most in price. We've kind of seen the same thing happen with Bowman baseball as we've seen with um the past few big tops releases where you see this massive spike in secondary price for sealed cases the day before release day, and then they drop immediately and kind of plateau. They haven't continued to go down like Bowman basketball has. Bowman basketball's kind of plateaued, even gone up a little bit over the past couple of days, now that we're what, like a full week after release. So it seems like the wax market is pretty strong. I would say the singles market has been pretty strong, a little bit surprising. You know, I'm looking at my Prospects Pulse app here by Dahl, and I'm looking at the top five auto prices. Number five is going to be Justin Gonzalez at $126 on average, base Chrome Auto. Number four, Ava Arquette, 103. Edward Florentino, $186. Number two, Ethan Holliday, the big name, $232. Pretty far above Florentino. I wonder how long that lasts. I don't think it'll last very long. And then in the number one spot, shout out to Big Bob, who mentioned this on the podcast, that he really thought that this guy might have been one of the most underpriced guys in PYP breaks. And it turns out that he definitely was Sung Jung, Sung Jun Kim, a two-way guy out of Korea. He's going for $256 a base auto, and he's been coming out fairly frequently, too. It's not like he's short printed or anything like that, too. So it's always fun to see that. It'll be interesting to see how the comps play out over the next few weeks. We'll have to have Dahl on and talk to him about what he's learned because things move so fast in Bowman, both wax, singles market, all over the place. But for the most part, it's been a really entertaining rip. I have some things that I would, you know, constructive criticisms that that I would give for the product for next year. And I have some things that I think that they did really well, like we talked about with the blasters this year that I hope they continue to do. But overall, it's been a it's been a fun product to open. I would say for this, for this boom economy that we're in, the return on investment, the return on investment, the return on rate of return has been pretty solid, I think, for collectors and folks that are joining breaks and ripping product.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

So yeah, it's been solid. I just think it's really cool how much the guys that we had on really nailed the information that they gave us. Like I know you said it, I just want to reiterate it. Like Slab Squatch was right on about blasters for SPs, the value is there, go for it, the light and the frequency of the auto and the color coming out, as far as he was saying it was about just three base autos per case, the rest color, and that's about what we've been seeing. You know, Max and Bob just with their info. I think it was I I get it all becomes jumbled up eventually. One of them mentioned, yes, that Florentino was not going to be priced as the top guy, even though he should be. And that's what we're seeing. So Florentino, you know, if you have a chance to get that right now, you know, I I don't know if it's gonna get lower really. I know that it o there's always like that that dip after Bowman, but people are taking notice of what he's doing now because he's getting so much attention in Bowman as a name. So I don't know where that's gonna go. And just compared to everyone else, he should be higher.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

You know, I think another thing too, just reflecting on the past week or so. It feels like compared to a normal Bowman flagship release, and tell me, Juice, if you get the same feeling, but and this is without like really doing any research. You can look at the numbered app, you could look at Bowman one of one collector, he tracks the superfractor autos that are pulled over on Instagram, but it feels like there haven't been a whole lot of the one-of-one superfractor autos pulled out so far out of this product compared to like a normal Bowman flagship release. It feels like we see a lot more come out than we have so far in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Um, so the chase continues.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, I didn't even think of that, but now that you're saying it, yeah, I haven't been seeing those.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah, I haven't really seen hardly like any of the big names. I I don't recall seeing it. Usually they blow up and go viral on social media, but I haven't really I saw Rolly Burrito.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

I think he came out of a blaster even. Okay. I think I saw someone tweet that out. Wow, which is pretty cool. And uh what is he, like a top 10 guy? Top 15?

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Yeah, and and Max says that he's the best buy in the product. His base autos are only going for like 55 bucks, so he's pretty far down there on the list, but he's probably a top five guy in the product.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, and you got to target him in player breaks if you want him that way, because in a team break you're gonna pay that Ethan Holiday premium, of course.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I mean, if you're willing to pay it, then yeah, you got a chance at two pretty top guys. But the other thing I noticed is after being spoiled by not a lot of redemptions lately, there's definitely been an uptick in this Bowman product. A lot of redemptions, which usually prospects, it seems like they their turnarounds are usually quicker on getting those, getting those back. So you know, I'm just wondering what we'll see with that. But yeah, just something I noticed just after Toss has been so good about it and making good on like their promise to have less redemptions, it kind of went the other way on this one.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Yeah, it did. It I've been trying to hypothesize how some of this happened because there's some patterns that have been popping up with the redemptions. For example, it seems that a lot of different players have redemptions for the HTA choice parallel, like almost thinking that something happened with that run somehow. And because there's some there's some guys that have redemptions for HTA choice that don't have redemptions for other cards, which is really weird. But yeah, like you said, we opened up a dual case delight where there was only 24 total autos in small sample size, obviously, but I feel like there was like seven or eight redemption autos. A lot of the big name rookies, you know, Murakami's a redemption, Ava Arquette on the prospect side is a redemption. Um definitely not trending in the right direction. But hopefully it's just um hopefully it's not a sign of things to come and it's just a one-off.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah. And yeah, like you said, there are definitely some trends. Like the big rookies, you'll see redemptions with them and uh Bowman products, more international guys, um like the guys from Asia, you'll you'll see. So you know what's weird?

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Sweep today out of a blaster box, we pulled uh Ethan Holiday blue paper auto and it was a redemption. A sticker auto. That's a redemption. You always hate to see that. Like that's there's no reason why that should happen.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, I don't understand it. But unfortunately, if the international trend uh players are international that's signing right away continues, then this will leak into Bowman Crown, because of course that's an international player heavy product. But that remains to be seen. Overall, though, I think this is very nice uh Bowman release from what we've seen. It's pretty much everyone was their information was all correct so far. And next next week we'll do a Bowman revisit for one of our episodes.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

I think the last thing, too, that we should definitely touch on that I haven't talked about a little bit is the is the quality control because that's always really important. It seems compared to recent Bowman flagship releases that the the centering appears to be a little bit of an issue on the hits. Gives me a little bit of PTSD about the centering on like 2020 Bowman draft, which of course had the very rectangular, symmetrical, full border. Um, you kind of get the same thing where it's very easy to see centering issues with this new design, but it does seem like that's kind of an issue. And also, like from the from the auto side of things, it seems like the corners have been a little softer than previous Bowman releases, too. Now, a lot of that happen has has to do with handling by the players and by the folks who are who are doing the pack out on the line, and then of course how the product makes it in transit and things like that. But yeah, that's it's never good to see those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, those videos come up every once in a while on like Instagram and stuff of the player signing their cars, and you just see them in like the most messy pile. And I I get you're signing thousands and thousands of cards. I get like you're not gonna be like perfect with them, but it's just as a collector, it just hurts to see sometimes just those cards of them.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

It's like they're doing that full shuffle, you know, that they do at the casino whenever they got new decks of cards and they're moving them all around, like are they gonna dive into a they're gonna dive into a pool then like Scrooge McDuck. I don't know though. I I do really wish that they would bring back the thick refractor stock for hits. Um it's it's disappointing to me that they've done away with that almost completely now, seemingly. Well bring it back. Bring back the thick stock refractors, please.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

So next week we'll get into more of a um team by team player breakdown of like, you know, not every team, every player, but just some of like the big guys, some of the sleepers, how they're selling, how they're looking, things like that. For now, though, we're gonna do some fun stuff. So, what I want to talk about for this next segment is we're gonna do some top five. So, today we're gonna do a top five. Next episode, we're gonna do a couple. The one I want to talk about today, have some fun with it. I'm gonna talk about my top five favorite tops products. Okay, all right. And yeah, obviously, this is just an opinion. This is mostly based, not really on price, although it does it does come into play now that I'm looking at my list, but it's just how much fun it is to rip the product or break the product and things like that. Just how much I really just enjoy these cards. Okay. Uh, so the first one, I know I said not based on price, but I'm gonna give an honorable mention to this one for a pro debut. So the only reason why it's here is because it's so cheap and it's such a fun rip because you're ripping for compared to other products next to nothing. It is so much fun and you have such a good chance to really hit some decent stuff. Obviously, yeah, those cards aren't gonna sell for crazy amounts, but sometimes you can really get a decent return on them because you have these guys that haven't really been in a tops product yet. And if they had don't really have a lot of autos out there and you have one in the few, like if you have Cotta Griffin auto from Tops uh Pro Debut, or last year I had Skeens from Pro Debut before we had a lot of other Tops autos out, you're still gonna get a decent price for those cards, definitely better than you would from, you know, like a panini or a wild card or something like that, or or a leaf. So uh just such a fun product to me.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

I'm looking forward very much to 2026 Pro Debut. There was a major improvement year over year with the 2025 Pro Debut product. It was loaded. It was so much fun to break, and it took a while for the market to catch on. So we were running cases and cases and cases of it for a while before the market finally caught up. They do a really good job at the checklist curation on that. Like, like you said, like the biggest names are in there. And even though it's the minor league logo, they're still fun cards to have. And just the amount of sheer color that comes out of them is just it's so much different than your typical Toffs product.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

And they also last year they made that change from the confusing skews of Jumbo and Hobby, where Hobby had more autos than Jumbos, but Jumbos had more chrome and better chance of chrome hits. So now it's just down to one skew, and it's less confusing for which one to get.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

And the chrome reflector auto is big, big, big, big addition. Yeah, yeah, definitely on call. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

I might actually have an AJU ing. I have to go check. Um, because that is right in the wheelhouse of the examples that I was just giving. Not a lot of AJ Uing. So he's just fun. He's not doing anything crazy, but he's just been he's been fun. The whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Benji's really starting to hit. I've been seeing Benge has been leading off quite a bit, and he's starting to kind of heat up a little bit. His batting average was under the Mendoza line for a little while, but now he's up at like 260, 270.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

As of recording, the Mets have lost their last two, but they've been doing better. You know, they won the series against the Yankees in comeback fashion. Then they had that 10-run 12th inning the other day. So that was fun. So in New York, it's a lot of fun right now. You got the Knicks, obviously, with their crazy, crazy comeback last night. So New York sports has been fun. Heck yeah. Number five. I'm going to say Stadium Club. But I will say if it continues like it was for this past year, 2025, this will be out of my top five. Um, it would actually probably be higher. I'd probably have it like number three or so if it was like uh previous years. And of course, I'm talking about the chrome issue. Yeah, and bitter about that. Uh, it just the photography I think was down this past year. The hits, it was always tough hits in this, but it just seemed tougher this year. Maybe I look at past years with like rose-colored glasses, I don't know. But overall, if I'm saying that this last year is an aberration, Stadium Club is just such a fun product. It's it's for everyone. You can get blasters of it, so everyone can get it. I always go back to that super fracture you can get out of a blaster. You never know. It's just the the cards can become iconic. And yeah, I just love that product. The autos always look so clean on them on card. Doesn't need inserts, and that's okay because the inserts aren't great. The cards just stand in their own.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

That's high praise. I feel like to put it in your top five, especially after the disaster that was this year. Because it was bad this year, Juice. It was really bad.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Can't knock it out. Maybe that should have been the honorable mention, but I I have to mention Cadium Club because yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a product of the year if they if they are able to eventually get it back to where it should be. That's gonna be tough because it's still seen as like, and I still put in that category of tops like flagship, like series one, series two update or talking paper non-chrome, of where it has to be accessible for everyone. And because of that, you're not gonna get like crazy autos. Like it, you might not even get any crazy autos in a whole case, but it's just the cards themselves, they can stand up to any other card that's out there, like any other base card that's out there.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

The concept itself of Stadium Club is so fantastic, it's so unique. It's also got the tradition and the history behind it, so many years of Stadium Club. I just hope that they reinvest in the concept and they don't get lazy about it like they did in 2025. Stadium Club has a lot of potential, especially without doing Stadium Club Chrome. Like, if you're just gonna have one stadium club product, make it awesome. You could print the heck out of it, and there's a there's a way to still print the same amount as you did in 2025 or even a little bit more and do it so much better. There really is.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

It makes makes no sense how they got rid of Chrome. I really think that they messed up. Not not like they messed up, like, oh man, why didn't we do that? I mean, they meant to do it a certain way, and something got messed up at tops. Because all of their product information was going other way of showing Chrome, Chrome, and then all of a sudden, like, actually, no.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Um, it doesn't make any sense to me.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Hopefully, it makes a big comeback in 2026. I'm confident that it will because Stadium Club is it's awesome, man. It's a fan favorite. Everybody loves Stadium Club.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

And let's go to my number four tops product, and I'm gonna go with Topps Chrome. So this edges out Topps Chrome update because I hate those rookie debut cards. I'm not a fan of them. Just they give me false hope of hitting a guy and they seem like image variation sometimes, and they trick me for half a second. So topps chrome typically, you know, it always depends on like the class and everything, but all things being equal, topps chrome edges that out. The only reason why update would beat it is because of debut patches, of course, but that's a discussion for another time. But topps chrome, top by product number four for me. It is the card you think about when you think of a player's rookie card. When you're thinking about the rookie superfractor, that's it. It has the chase. The product has become harder to hit. They've changed their SKUs a bit where the autos are less frequent. But again, on a card by card basis of just this card up against this card, Tops Chrome is number four.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

All right. All right, I hear you. I feel like there's going to be a real interesting halo effect with Tops Chrome basketball and tops chrome football having the success that they have. Like a really interesting thing to have seen play out is how relative to Cosmic in basketball, the first year, obviously, of having the licenses for the NBA, Topps Chrome has been so much stronger than Cosmic on a per box basis. Whereas in baseball, it's very much so the opposite. You could get a box of Topps Chrome 2025 baseball for what, like 250, 300 bucks. Cosmic Chrome's like 900. In basketball, it's like, yes, 900 for a box of Cosmic Chrome, but like almost what is it? I don't know. It's something they're probably 100, 700 for a topps chrome hobby box of basketball. Like the ratio is just completely different. And I there's not that much different about the configuration or the print runs of the product or the way that the checklist is curated or anything like that. Like they're very analogous products, even though it's cross sport. I don't I don't know what that means for Tops Chrome baseball and the future of Tops Chrome baseball, but you're absolutely right. Like if there's one, if there's one rookie card that out of the 50 of them that there are now that is king, it's good it's going to be Tops Chrome.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

I don't know. I I may not necessarily agree with you putting them in your top five, but I also understand the sentiment and like the perspective that you're bringing to the table there. Cause like people have kind of in baseball, I think, lost sight of Topps Chrome being the king in terms of rookie cards. That's been an interesting shift, I think, over the past probably like five, even going back 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

So the next one is probably my favorite one to actually rip. So that's why I have it here. But I was debating like actually like open or get into breaks and things. This is probably my favorite product for it. I was debating between Bowman products. So I love Bowman's best. It did not make this list. So we're up to number three. For me, you have the three premier Bowman products. You have Bowman Draft, you have Bowman, and you have Bowman Crohl. Bowman Draft takes the cake for me as far as which of these is my favorite to open and rip. Because when I'm looking for Bowman, I'm looking for prospects. And that is all Bowman Draft is. You are just getting a heavy, heavy dose for a heavy, heavy dose of prospects. It's hard to get hyped for the actual product launch until it is post-draft, of course, because then you want to, you know, see all those players come to life on these cards. Um, I only wanted to include one Bowman, and this one had to be it. It's just the the breaks just they last for like months, it seems. People just ripping this product. And it just it ends the Bowman year um on such a high note, and just ripping it yourself.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

That there's just you're always timing and this and the seasonality, like the the time in the calendar that Bowman Draft comes out is so interesting too now that's coming out December, January. Like you get a couple months of ripping without seeing any live at bats from these guys. And so, you know, we talked a lot about it in the lead up to Bowman baseball about how it's going to be highly volatile based on you know the at-bats that we're seeing in real time during release week, after release week, in the weeks following and the months following. Bowman draft, you get a couple months with no at-bats where everything kind of stays a little bit more stable. And I think there's something to be said about that too. And that you know what though? Bowman draft. I feel like the one thing that they need to do in this new world of like case hits, focus on case hits and things like that, like you gotta figure out a way to elevate the Bowman Draft case hits. I don't know what it is. It seems like they did it with the garbage pail kids inserts in Bowman Chrome. That was an excellent addition. It doesn't feel like they've really found something good in Bowman Draft. They did the final draft thing and now they have final draft for Bowman baseball. But like the first Bowman, Bowman draft card, it's like even more than a first Bowman and Bowman Chrome and Bowman baseball carry so much weight. I don't know what it is. Probably just the fact that these guys are, you know, USA products for the most part that are drafted. But it feels like the SSPs don't carry as much value. They gotta figure out a way to like, they gotta figure out a way to have those carry weight. Like the first time a guy has a spotlight or the first time a guy has an anime should mean something. And right now, when you look at like the value of their first spotlight versus like their second Bowman spotlight while while they're still a prospect, there's not that big of a difference in the value. I feel like there needs to be. I don't know. Is it putting a first on it? Is it putting some type of designation on it that is their first spotlight anime crystallized? I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Well, let's move on to my number two. So my number two is going to be tops black and white. And honestly, this would have probably been number one if it was not sicker autos. These cars, they are just beautiful, they have great imagery. It's what Stadium Club could be if they were to do it right. Imagine like black and white chrome or something. It's got such a fun checklist, it's only got top guys, it's not anything where, you know, it's this huge, huge checklist, so you have a decent chance to hit someone decent. I am also still kind of bitter about top screw up with their pre-orders and where the pre-order products did not include certain hits. But yeah, that I'll always be bitter about. Uh, I do like the additions they made. Golden Hour is one of the nicest cards that you can get. I love those. And then I have my redemption I'm waiting on for Soto for I forgot what it's called. The one where it is on card, though. They're only numbered to like 10 or something. And then the number one, one of one is like Gold Inc., I think. Uh, they were new this year. I can't remember the name, but yeah, everything they've done, they changed the skews from the four smaller boxes to just one big box, and the big box guarantees an auto. And again, if we're looking at this just a card by card basis of me looking at these cards, I mean, like, I love to have these in my PC. Black and white is number two.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

I think, you know, we kind of talked about it with Stadium Club. Like, everybody loves Stadium Club. I would say that even more about tops black and white, ubiquitously loved by collectors, folks that like want to order a box at release and rip a box or two, or three or four. Like, it's just seems like a a really well-designed personal rip product.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah, and it's it's just fun. It's just a fun product. You're getting a parallel pretty much per pack, or like an image variation or something. There's lots of color in there. And the color, the way they do the color, it's not just a colored border, which for some products is great. That's just how it's going to work. That's fine. But they're literally the whole card, it's a different color.

unknown 27:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Because you're going from black and white to all the different color tones, or you know, like sepia, purple, blue. Then you got full color for the one-on-one, which I always thought was funny for a product that's called black and white. The premier hit is full color, the exact opposite of what the product is called. Right. But yeah, uh, those are it's just so much fun. They're such nice cards. And then we will bring you to my number one. And this is actually a lot of people's number one over the years, but what they've done with it every year, I feel like it's gotten better. Obviously, the price has gone up for this one, but Cosmic Chrome. Uh, that it's really it definitely is not for everyone, although it seems like it is because so many people love it. But I definitely get why it's not for everyone because it is a very out there product, so many different things going on. I love the the short prints that they do. Stella Nova, I don't think got enough love when it was out. The die-cut ones. The what what is it? Planetarium, uh, the one that's the like shadow boxy one. Those are such cool cards. And then, of course, you have the different planets, which everyone loves, the unnumbered SPs there. And then you, you know, you have like a one in three, one in four box chance of hitting an auto. And the autos are pretty much all really great players. I was lucky enough to have some really awesome hits out of this too, which helps. But again, these cards are really able to stand out as something that really adds to your PC as something really nice.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

Yeah, 22 was the debut. There was no planetary pursuit. 23 was the follow-up year. They increased the print run a bunch, but they added the planetary pursuits, which made it a really big chase. 24 loaded rookie class, very similar print run to 2023. And then they added the Star Fractors. And also in 2023 and 2024, they added a couple new parallels, right? Like Aqua wasn't in the original Cosmic back in 2022. So yeah, there was a big increase in the print run from 22 to 23 and then 24 and another gradual increase for 25. But man, oh man, the planetary pursuits are just such hot cards. One of the best sets out there. You know, look at the comps and that'll tell you all you need to know. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. I had a Shohei year, uh, I had a Shohei, I had two Shohei Pluto's, both of them PSA 10s, and I parted way too early with those. At the time, I thought I'd made a nice little chunk of change, but I think I sold my last one for about 5,000. I think that same card right now would probably be comping more at like 15 to 20. You know, there's some there's some really, really big chase cards in cosmic. People love it in baseball. Hasn't stuck as much in basketball. Be interesting to see how football goes.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Did I uh did I ever tell you what I hit in my box? My crystal box I got on top in uh this year?

SPEAKER_01 30:04

No, um a few years ago. I hit uh Wyatt Langford Super Fractor.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

Oh sick.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Yeah. And in that same box I hit a red auto. I don't even remember the player. Yeah, I hit a red auto in that very same box.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

You know, you know what? 2020 2022 Cosmic was just on a different level. It was um It came out of nowhere. Half the print run of what it is now, it was brand new. It came out of nowhere. Everybody was when they first announced it, everybody shit on it. Like people were like, this is the hokiest, most, you know, manufactured BS, uh junk wax era, all the different things that people say. Unnecessary product. And then it came out, and people were like, I get it, and this stuff is loaded. If you would have read the pack odds and the checklist, you would have known that ahead of time. I had the most fun ever joining brakes with that product, more so than anything. And I didn't even hit anything huge. That's a sign of a good product where you could really, really enjoy joining the break, even when you don't hit it like a giant card. The best card that I hit was like a I was buying Mariner PYT spots in as many cases as I could find. I think the best card that I hit was like a blue Cal Raleigh non-auto. Like I didn't hit any big Julio and any big Julio autos at the time, but I still had so much fun with it. You know, you grade the base, you grade the refractors, you get the nucleus refractors. Cosmic is awesome. It's a great concept. It's in the same mold as finest flashbacks, bring back finest flashbacks in the same mold as Tops Chrome Ben Baller. Abbreviated auto checklist. You might not get an auto a box, but when you do hit an auto, it's probably going to be a good one. It's the opposite of a of a topp's chrome in that way. And uh yeah, I completely agree with you. I'd it'd probably be one for me, too, honestly. Cosmic's Cosmic's great.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

They need to make more products like Cosmic. And it's funny because the very next product that Topps released for, I believe it was the very next one that Tops released, kind of went with the junk wax, this is garbage, nobody wants it. They released Topps Chrome Sonic. And yeah, that if anyone ever wants to buy a case for cheap, I don't know if those are still super cheap, but yeah, you can get those for like next to nothing compared to other people.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

Oh my god, it was such a phenomenal run in 2022 of those three products, and they came like they came like one after another. Like there couldn't have been more than a couple months separating each release, but that flashbacks, cosmic Ben Baller run was just so awesome.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

You you just took my uh next thing that I was about to bring up before um I ended this. So, what could have possibly been number one and definitely would have broken my top five, is if they continued finest flashbacks. And you mentioned cosmic was your favorite thing to get into breaks for. I think that finest flashbacks, it was 22, right? 22 was my favorite.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

You know, 21. If you take the checklist out of it, obviously 21 has a really bad rookie checklist. But if you throw that out and look at design, print run, parallels, you know, look, feel, frequency of hits, all that kind of stuff. 21 was awesome. 21 was so good.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

When they released 22 finish flashbacks, some people remember this. There was like a snack oo at tops where it looked like they canceled everyone's orders or something for the pre-order, and then they so then they were like, oh no, we didn't mean to do that, and they resubmitted our orders, but the original order never actually got canceled. So I got three boxes for free, which was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

Yeah. And this was also it was it was kind of a controversial release, too, because this was back when they used to have releases where they called them tops.com online exclusives. And they don't really do that anymore. They don't try to make that like a thing really anymore. This was a very like Montgomery Club era type thing that they did, but yeah, it was clear based on the way that they were distributing the product that it wasn't just a tops exclusive.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Like they were definitely backdooring a fair amount of it, but black and white, Brooklyn, which I miss again. That's something that could have possibly made the top.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

I'm surprised you didn't put Brooklyn Collection in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

The only thing about Brooklyn Collection, I don't love the cards that much. The frequency it hits is very nice, especially for the money that you're paying. But the design, it just doesn't do for me. The thicker cardstock, too. I have gotten some very nice cards out of it, but that's definitely an issue. And then also breaking it myself or ripping it. I don't really like just like ripping and having eight cards and nothing else. I know the rest can really be seen as junk if it's like more cards, but I like to take my time. I like to play with my food while I'm eating it. Um, I don't yeah. You know, maybe um another episode we'll do your top five and hear your.

SPEAKER_03 34:49

I mean, it's yeah, maybe like uh if I could get in a time capsule or a time machine.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

You can do your top five all time to maybe differentiate it, like your top five like releases all time.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Like specific year, specific product would be really fun too. Because it gets me thinking about like, man, if I could jump in a time machine and go back and rip cases of any of the cases that I broke, because I started breaking in like 2020, 2020, 2021. Like 2022 Cosmic comes to mind, 24 Brooklyn Collection comes to mind. Like, that would be a really fun list to do.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Yeah. So I'll I'll give you that homework whenever you want to do it. Uh yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for listening. If you like these top this top five lists, we're gonna be back with a couple more next episode. Oh, thank you for listening. Bert, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

If you're watching on YouTube too, we'd love to hear what you guys think of the top five. What are your top five? Would you add anything? Do you think juice is crazy about Topps Chrome or Stadium Club? Thank you everybody for listening.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Thank you, everyone. Have a good night. This is the Talking Cards Podcast with Grand Salami and the Juice.