💥 HOBBY EARTHQUAKE: Topps Chrome’s Wild New Anti-Scalper Strategy, The Massive PSA Backlog, & Chasing "Alter Ego" Inserts! 🏀

The hobby is moving at breakneck speed right now, and the latest wave of industry shakeups has collectors, flippers, and investors completely rethinking their strategies. From unexpected manufacturer pivots to massive shifts in the grading landscape, here is your breakdown of the biggest headlines hitting the card market this week.

🛑 The End of Shrink Wrap? Topps Breaks the Seal

In a massive, controversial move to protect retail collectors from immediate online flipping, Topps announced it is officially testing unsealed box shipments. Starting with the highly anticipated Topps Chrome Update Basketball Mega Boxes, product will be distributed without the traditional factory plastic wrap. The goal? Hurt the secondary resale value for scalpers who instantly list sealed wax on eBay at a premium, ensuring more product actually gets ripped by true collectors at suggested retail price.

🧬 Chasing "Alter Egos" & Ultra-Modern Heat

Speaking of Topps Chrome Update, the checklist is absolutely loaded. The community is buzzing over the debut of the Alter Egos SSPs—a gorgeous, comic-book-inspired 10-card insert set that reimagines top NBA superstars with super-powered personas. Collectors are heavily hunting the Alter Ego variations and high-end refractors of young cornerstone talents like:

• Anthony Edwards
• LaMelo Ball
• Jonathan Kuminga

👑 The Staples: Steph Curry & Michael Jordan

While the young guns are drawing massive eye candy, the blue-chip market remains anchored by the goats. Steph Curry’s cards continue to show immense market stability, especially with new iconic insert highlights tracking his historic career moments. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan continues to dominate high-end alternative asset discussions, as vintage MJ grails and Upper Deck legacy autograph inserts keep his market cap at an untouchable tier.

⏱️ PSA Backlog & Grading Strategy Shift

💥 Clyde Drexler Deep Dive

Transcript

All righty, guys. Welcome to this week's

show. Thank you so much everybody for

tuning in. This week, we are going to

talk about Topps Chrome update and an

insert set that's actually worth

collecting.

We are going to talk about some other

NBA related news. We've got a story

coming out about Jonathan Kaminga.

We're going to talk about LaMelo Ball,

Anthony Edwards. We're going to talk a

little bit more MJ PSA backlog tracker

update and a massive sale from Golden's

auction.

Kicking off this week though, we're

going to talk about 2526 Tops Chrome

update, why that this product matters,

why that they do update at all,

and just a little bit of a deep dive

into what we should be seeing from this

particular product, and also I've

actually found something that I think is

genuinely worth collecting. So, if

you're an insert set collector like

myself and you also like sets that have

fantastic artwork, stick around cuz

we're going to talk all about that.

So, I think the first thing just to

briefly outline is why does tops chrome

basketball matter? And this is directly

from the set.

The way I think about this is if you're

an old school NBA hoops collector,

this is like season two.

This is like series 2 and where they

update the players that have been

traded, who have been moved around,

either they've been cut and then

resigned. It will also generally have

updated photographs of the rookie cards.

And just in general, it'll just clean up

anything that needs to be cleaned up,

you know, any errors that they made in

the first one. So, that's a really good

thing. I think in the current

environment, too, where people are so

thirsty for product, it also gives tops

an opportunity just to get more product

out into the environment. And so, we're

going to talk a little bit about that

more later on in the show, but that's

something that definitely needs to

happen in the current climate.

The other thing that Topps have done in

this particular product, they've they're

going to be releasing their rookie debut

patch autographs. Each card pairs an

authenticated patch worn during an

player's NBA debut with an oncard

autograph, creating some of the most

desirable modern rookie cards in the

hobby. I think this is a fantastic

initiative by Topps and it's also

something that's

directly oppositional to what Panini was

doing where they went completely away

from playerworn material. And I think

most collectors, let me rephrase that,

all collectors would prefer to have

player worn, gameworn material than just

some napkin patch that was taken out of

something and has never been touched by

an NBA player. So, combined with chrome

signature refractors, colorful

parallels, and premium finish, tops,

chrome updates, basketball offers

collectors another exciting way to

collect the NBA season. Look, I think at

this point, everyone is just frothing

for more product. It just seems so hard

for people to get their hands onto

product at the moment. So, to be able to

see something like this coming out now,

it's just absolutely it's just cool.

It's just really good.

The two cards I did want to talk about

though is this one here, the alter egos.

This 10 card set transforms each player

into a dynamic illustrated superpowered

persona blending onc court identity with

graphic novel style. And I think that

It's really good to see them do original

content like this because I think some

of the stuff they're releasing earlier,

there was that downtown ripoff

and it just didn't seem to have the

originality that was needed throughout

their insert sets. Look, there was some

nice inserts along the way, but I think

this for me is the best one that's been

released so far. And I think they've

just absolutely nailed this on the head.

I think the artwork is absolutely

fantastic. I think the people who are

actually in the checklist are just

absolute all bangers and that's what you

want with a small checklist,

something that you can actually get

around and collect. You don't want a lot

of filler into it. And also too, I love

how they've played into the players

nicknames and then brought that out into

the artwork. So, Slim Reaper for Kevin

Durant. We got the King for LeBron

James. And I'm sure that this will

absolutely appeal to his ego. You can

see on the LeBron James one here. This

is actually the gold vinyl one of one.

There'll be also just regular parallels

of this too. We got here SGA

as a ninja. Kind of cool on that one

there. I'm sure there's going to be

heaps of gags around that being redrawn

him flopping.

Cooper flag with the main event spelled

as in the city of Maine.

Jamarant

and they've leaned into a stunt show

themed card onto that one there.

Conanapple with a con air/hornets

theme on that one there.

The total checklist is LeBron James,

Cooper Flack, Steph Curry, Wambi,

Conanapple, Nicole Yokic, Kevin Durant,

SGA, Jamaran, and also James Harden,

which I think for me is a little bit of

a funny one.

I think Anthony Edwards probably would

have been better at this point,

but that's my biggest complaint

out of this list. So, you know, it's

really nothing. The other one they

probably could have done that would have

gone down really well, particularly

after they won the championship, was

Jaylen Brunson. I think that would have

been an absolute banger.

But yeah, you know,

if that's the biggest complaint I've got

about this, it's no stress at all. So,

when I was doing a bit of a search for

this, I actually found this here. So,

this is from 2025 Tops Chrome update.

This is obviously not a basketball

thing, but this is where they've got the

influence for this particular alter ego

set to come from. And actually really

interestingly

the artwork is by Michael Blasovich.

And actually the whole idea behind his

artwork is a philanthropic mission where

he was trying to do pictures for people.

They would sell it at auctions. They

would sell it at charity events and

they'll bring it through. So then his

artwork's now being brought into Topps

products which I love that type of

stuff. That's like a super cool thing.

So they've this has done really well in

a different set and they've brought that

across to NBA. So that's a really cool

origin story on that one there.

The other thing to point out too is

these cards here, the Minions cards. Now

these are allegedly case hits and SSPs.

I am going to hold my breath on how well

that these particular

cards do. I'm not super high on this.

I'm not super low on it. I just think

these are something cool that they've

done, but

it's not particularly for me,

particularly if they go for hundreds, if

not thousands of dollars. You know, if

that is the case, I am I'm not touching

that with a with a 10-ft pole. I'm just

not touching it. So, however, I know

that some people will

go after these and they'll go after them

hard. And if that's what you're into,

yeah, I'm super super happy for you. I

think that I would be looking to

purchase some of these depending on what

the population count is. Like if they

are a true SSP of say a population

between 10 and 20, yeah, I think that

will be super collectible and also a

long-term hold. If they are in the

hundreds or the thousands and they're,

you know, allegedly a case hit,

for me, that's not particularly

interesting. And yeah, I'm just going to

stay away from it. In terms of pricing

on this product, it's still very very

early days, so this could go up, it

could go down.

I suspect with with Chrome, though, this

is only going to go up.

Breakers Delight is selling for $5,000 a

box. This is from our friends at

mintlectibles.com.au.

Not a sponsored or paid ad. This is just

some information I found online. The

pre-order box on the Topschrome update

is 3,000.

Tops Chrome hobby box is 1,300 and the

value box is 110. So I've been reading a

bit online about this, you know,

recently what Topps is doing with the

pricing and essentially they're just

removing out the middleman in terms of

scalping

and just putting the price right to what

the secondary market price would be. I I

get the feeling that's what we're seeing

here. And so,

you know, we've seen higher from Panini,

we've seen lower from Panini. It it

definitely depended on the cycle, the

rookies that were in the product and all

that type of stuff. So, you know, I'm

not going to throw shade at this. We

have seen the products go down after

release date. So, that's something if

you feel confident in waiting for.

I've read online that that allocation

off the tops website was sold out not

instantly but it did get sold out and

that there's still some product

available say for example at Target but

again that's all sold out also too. So

yeah, you just have to you know really

wait and see what what's going to happen

with that.

I think we can move on. I think we've

we've done what we wanted to do into

that space there.

Let's go to some NBA rumors. Jonathan

Kaminga

declined his player option to become a

free agent. My assumption was he had a

fantastic

run with the Hawks and he would resign

with them, but that is not what the news

that's currently being reported. So on

the Shump Street podcast, he had Sham

Shirania on and Shumpet accidentally

slipped and said that Kaminga is signed

with the Lakers. Almost instantly,

Sham smiled and said that deal's not

done yet. However, it did seem as though

he knew something that we all didn't. So

allegedly, Kaminga is going to be going

with the Lakers.

I think if this does happen,

that is going to be huge for Kaminga. I

mean, this guy has been absolutely

eviscerated

in the hobby the last couple of years.

His value is just down so low.

So, I would love to see this guy get

some of his value back. And I think

going to LA is exactly what he needs.

Honestly, I I think this is super cool.

I just found a comp for 400 and then I

looked back. It was 2022. I had to

really go back and double check that.

All right, here we go.

One recently sold for $80 USD, 52 USD,

$69.99 USD,

$109 USD. So there is a very, very big

variation on these cards at the moment.

120 USD,

80. All right, so let's just say he's

going from anywhere between 50 and $100.

The the variation at the moment is is

crazy. 50. The next sale before that is

102.

We got a silver wave here for $36.

Yeah, look, I I love this a lot. And I

think that if we go and look at the

the Lakers depth chart here

and what that will give them, that will

give them Luca Donic, Austin Reeves,

Walker Kesler, who went on to Twitter

today and said that he'll walk through a

wall for this team. So, I think he's

ready to go to war for this team. Jake

Lavaria is the current starting power

forward. So, I think Kaminga would be a

fantastic addition here and that's what

this team needs. It just needs a little

bit of athleticism and needs somebody

that can run the floor, can be a running

mate for Luca. Luca loves setting people

up. I mean, we all know that Luca can

score, but he's also an insane playmaker

and he will make sure that other people

get their shots. I think he'll fit right

into that team. And in fact, that will

give that team a little bit of extra

life.

Z Williams also recently signed with

them, too. So, I would actually get the

feeling that Z would start over Jake

Lavaria. If Kaminga goes there, though,

that's a no-brainer. Kaminga will

absolutely be starting there. Look, I

think Kaminga is a buy at the moment.

It's very variable. So, we talked about

that a little bit already, but if you're

getting him for 50 to 75 USD, I think

that's a really, really good pickup

for Kaminga, particularly if he signs

with LA, that's just an absolute home

run.

All righty, some more NBA news. And I

just don't think we're talking about

this enough, so we're going to be

talking about it a little bit more. We

have got here a beautiful photograph of

these two guys together looking like

they're having an absolute ball

together. It is LaMelo Ball and Anthony

Edwards.

This is going to be an absolute sick

duo. This is going to be my League Pass

team straight away. Like that's it. I'm

watching the Wolves every day this

season. I cannot wait to see how this

team plays out. Let's just check some

prices. I want to see what's happening

with Anthony Edwards. I want to see

what's happening with LaMelo. LaMelo has

to be up. Like there is just I will be

shocked. Let's just look at the last

three months just to get a bit better of

an idea.

So for Anthony Edwards, the population

on his card is 2,200.

The last 3 months he's up 3.3%.

And the last month he's actually down

5%. That's super interesting to me. I

did not expect that.

LaMelo Ball has to be up.

Okay, he's down 1% the last month and

the last 3 months he's up quite a bit.

He's up 14%. So in the last 3 months he

was all the way down to 282. He peaked

very very recently at 670 and he's back

down to 455 now. Look, I think this is

actually a very very safe buy at the

moment.

Check out the population on that too.

Just 445.

When you see a population of 2,000 plus

on Edwards and then just a population of

that of 40 445 on that.

Yeah, I really like that a lot actually.

LaMelo Edwards. LaMelo Edwards. LaMelo

Ball. I'm putting him down as an A+ buy

at the moment. I think the price is good

at 445.

The the price is good at 455 and the

population at 445 is 10 out of 10. I

love that a lot.

Last week we did a Michael Jordan story

about Jordan signing some sealed packets

and those being insert into Goodwin's

champs as a redemption. And now this

week, Upper Deck is back with some more

Jordan related news. This is from

Twitter at Upper Deck Sports. History is

going on the block. In partnership with

eBay, Upper Deck is proud to present a

once in a generation live auction

featuring a signed and sealed 1986 1987

Fleer basketball hobby box autographed

by Marco Jordan. One of the most iconic

products in trading card history. Signed

by the greatest to ever play the game.

This isn't just a hobby box. It's a

piece of basketball legacy. Auction

begins on the 30th of June.

Learn more. Click the link here.

And he has inscribed it with his

beautiful autograph, Rookie Card Box,

one of one. That's insane. 10% of the

total auction proceeds will be donated

to the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Auction will run until the 9th of

August. So, that is a very, very long

run time on that. But that is

amazing.

I think the question after that then too

is do you rip the box or do you just

leave it as is? I think you have to

leave it, don't you?

All righty. While we're talking about

insane things being autographed, I know

this is not basketball card related, but

this is something that is not going to

happen very often, and also I'm not

going to overdo it. So, this is from

Instagram Jeremy Padawir. Last week, I

might have purchased the $3.6 $6 million

broadside declaration of independence

offered on golden auctions following the

extremely good fortune of the guy that

had the 1986 Fleer PSA 9 Jordan signed.

I did the same

large signature across the bottom. PSA

graded a very good EX4 autograph 9. This

is the highest grade ever given to a

broadside copy of the Declaration of

Independence. I estimate the new value

after signature to be amplified to about

$35,000x.

It's now roughly a $40 trillion item.

I'll be bringing this to Fanatics Fest

later this week. See you there. Let's

go. [laughter]

I think this guy is a little bit

unhinged, but at the same time, too.

That's insane.

That is super super cool.

I mean, good on this guy. Like if you're

into history and you're into basketball

and you're into Michael Jordan the GOAT

and you can afford all of this, like go

nuts, man. If this what makes you happy,

it makes me so happy to see you this

happy. Do you know what I mean? Like

that's super cool.

All righty. Earlier in the show, we were

talking about pricing on TOPS related

products, and this is something that's

going around the hobby now at the

moment. Lots of different outlets have

reported on, but this is the sports

cards nonsense story. And basically what

they're talking about is how Topps are

trying to stop flippers from

taking sealed product and then reselling

it onto the aftermarket. So what they're

doing now is if it's coming directly

from Tops, the box will be cut so that

the seal is partially removed. I don't

believe they're removing the entire seal

from it, just enough to break the seal.

And so I think they're doing this with

good intentions. And when I say good

intentions, I think they're doing this

so that

people then can't take those boxes and

put them away and flip them for a profit

in the future. tops are very concerned

or it's on their radar about the total

cost of what people are spending on

boxes and then what they're getting back

and so this is their attempt at doing

that. What my concern is is actually

this is not going to stop the problem

and people will still sell them on the

resale market. But what this now does is

lets people open up the boxes,

potentially search for packets,

get out the good cards from the boxes,

combine two boxes in together, and then

sell that back on as a sealed box

because that will be the the new norm

that hobby collectors will be

experiencing. And so the same thing will

be done for breakers.

Allegedly, TOPS don't want retail to be

broken. They want retail to be ripped. I

personally agree with that sentiment.

But again, all I think that's going to

happen is breakers now have open boxes

and then the potential is there for the

packs to be manipulated. So I actually

don't believe in the greater good for

the hobby. This is a step forward in all

eventuality. What I suspect is going to

happen is going to have so many problems

associated with this. They won't do this

again. It'll be just like a one-off sort

of thing. My other comment about this

too, and this is a very strongly held

belief I have about this, is once you

sell a product, it's no longer yours to

own. So what somebody does with it

afterwards is completely out of your

hand. So, if the value of a sealed box

goes up after you sell it at a retail

price, I actually don't think you should

be sad for people. Like, this is a way

that people

roll money back into the hobby. It's a

way that people do engage with the

hobby. And

not all scalping is healthy for the

hobby. I know that. I understand that.

But flipping

people rolling around money in the hobby

is a good thing. And actually, we do

need that and we need it at all

different price points. Not everybody

can afford a $1,000 box, but maybe they

could be investing in a $100 boxes or

the like. So,

it's just a little bit for me

of a micromanagement situation that

actually might not solve any problems

and actually might makes things worse.

That's my sort of gut feeling about

this. But

overall, you have to kind of give it to

Tops.

My preference for this of how this will

play out though is that this is done in

hobby shops. And what I mean by this is

this, and Rob from Burbank was talking

about this. You have two prices on the

menu for the same product. One is sealed

and you take it away and it's say $200.

I will open the seal for you now and you

rip it in store and you have that

instore experience. The price is $110 or

whatever the pricing works out to be.

But I think that's a much better system

of doing it so that

there isn't that potential for people to

manipulate the boxes on the back end. I

think that's what really should be done

in that space.

Moving on to our next story here. This

is from at PSA card

and the ultimate cell

media spin here. Without sacrificing

quality,

our current backlog now stands at 11

million cards as we continue to

accelerate our output. July's grading

projections are on track to surpass

June's record pace. Learn more about

this update with the PSA backlog

tracker.

Click here. The current backlog is at 11

million and the value tiers will reopen

at 5 million. So, we still got about six

more million cards to get through.

And I think this is the perfect time now

to go onto gem raid.

So, in one week alone, they've created

basically, let's just call it half a

million cards, which is actually down

from the previous week.

So, I mean, when you say it like that,

it's only

without adding any extra cards, which we

know more cards will be added into it. I

mean, that's only 12 weeks, isn't it?

That's nuts, isn't it? That they're

doing 492,000 cards a week.

I actually contacted Ryan recently to

ask him about

other grading companies and their

numbers post the shutdown with PSA.

But basically he was saying that his

numbers only encapsulate the cards that

have been graded. It's not about the

cards that have been submitted. So it's

a little bit too early to see that. But

I think pretty shortly we'll be able to

I'll be able to sit down and look

through it and just sort of go through

to see if there is any

changes in the trends for that because I

think that's something absolutely to

keep an eye on what's happening at the

moment in the grading world.

I mean, yeah,

it's just that's just insane, isn't it?

This one here from July the 13th.

618,000 cards graded last week.

And to finish off this week's show, we

have got a little bit of card porn. This

comes from Golden Co. and one of my

personal favorites, Panini Eminence. The

absolute most left on product in the

hobby. Final price on this 2425 Panini

eminence jumbo patch autographs Stephen

Curry signed patch card 161,040.

Beautiful, beautiful card on this one

here on card autograph. Look at that

fantastic threecolored patch

of the bridge on that there.

I think the photograph of that actually

fits in really nicely onto the card,

but I personally would have preferred

him doing a jump shot, but at the same

time, I mean, that's really nitpicking,

isn't it? That's an absolutely beautiful

card. Thank you so much for everybody

who has tuned in today. I really

appreciate you all jumping in. I hope

you've enjoyed this week's show.

We will catch you next week.

Hopefully, I'll have a guest to come on

this week. I wasn't organized enough to

get someone to come on. So, I do

apologize you stuck with me,

but we will keep rolling.

Happy collecting, guys, and we'll see

you later. Bye-bye. Shout outs NBA card

kings TCG reveals India Ajit Gabcure

My

Yousef

Mo Shane Marcus 5259

Giannis Gazels and Quinton Cope. Thanks

guys for tuning in. Appreciate you.

late addition to the show at Calman

Collectibles. People will realize Panini

wasn't too bad once we look back.

Oh man, what do I think you were talking

about with that?

I might even DM you, man, just to

clarify on that. I can patch it in later

on in the show.