Eight weeks into the new year, the sports collectibles market has its first major acquisition and it's a doozy. Collectors Holdings, parent company of PSA, now owns SGC. Both are very familiar to anyone who's even thought about grading a trading card--baseball, football, Pokémon or Tiddlywinks. Both have been around forever. Neither has revealed much about … [Read more...] about Preemptive Strike or Logical Logistics? Hobby Reaction to PSA’s Purchase of SGC
Joel Belfer
Mint Condition: Buys and Sells Ahead of the 2024 MLB Season
Leading Off It’s the dead of winter and that means one thing for me in the collecting world — it’s a great time to have an eye on spring training and start purchasing baseball cards while prices remain depressed in the offseason. Back by popular demand, you’ll find below a snapshot of some of the players I am buying up and staying away from. Like what you’re reading? If … [Read more...] about Mint Condition: Buys and Sells Ahead of the 2024 MLB Season
Mint Condition: MySlabs’ Success, Outlook and New Fundraise
Leading Off Over the last five years, a number of new collectible marketplaces have popped up in hopes of taking share away from legacy platforms like eBay. The boom in sports cards that happened during COVID accelerated this trend, as seemingly every new company entering the space had on its roadmap to develop their own marketplace. While strategies about how to get enough … [Read more...] about Mint Condition: MySlabs’ Success, Outlook and New Fundraise
Mint Condition: Breaking Down Fanatics’ Acquisition of PWCC
Leading Off Just a few weeks after PWCC announced employee layoffs, the company was acquired by Fanatics on May 22. This was just the latest ball to drop in a hobby that has come to expect that change is occurring and there are many unknowns around what the future hobby may look like. There’s a lot to break down here so let’s get into it… Mint Condition’s … [Read more...] about Mint Condition: Breaking Down Fanatics’ Acquisition of PWCC
PWCC Marketplace Sold to Fanatics
Fanatics Collectibles, which pledged to enter the auction space when it acquired the future rights to baseball, football and basketball trading cards in early 2022, did just that as the week began, announcing the purchase of Oregon-based PWCC Marketplace. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Fanatics and PWCC informed employees of the sale on … [Read more...] about PWCC Marketplace Sold to Fanatics
Notes: Kareem Milestone Basketballs; New Advisory Business; Shop Burglary, WNBA Card Record
The career scoring torch has been passed and now a couple of key items from the former NBA career scoring champ are on the auction block. Goldin Auctions is offering the final final regular season game ball of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career, used to score the last of his 38,387 career points. The current high bid is $100,000. Also on the block is the ball used in the … [Read more...] about Notes: Kareem Milestone Basketballs; New Advisory Business; Shop Burglary, WNBA Card Record
Mint Condition: What’s Ahead for the Hobby in 2023?
Leading Off 2022 was an interesting year in the hobby — Fanatics acquired Topps, eBay acquired TCGplayer, startups like Altan Insights and Arena Club raised funding, the first MINT Collective was held in Las Vegas, most card prices declined, and more. So as we turn the calendar — new year, same hobby? In this edition of Mint Condition, I lay out my thoughts on what to … [Read more...] about Mint Condition: What’s Ahead for the Hobby in 2023?
Mint Condition: Perspectives on Hobby Stability Against Potential Recession
Leading Off A few months ago, I wrote a piece about how a potential economic downturn could impact the hobby and what companies and collectors alike should do to prepare. Fast forward and it still seems we are in a bit of an interesting place today with the hobby specifically and the economy overall. We are seeing record-breaking prices for cards ($12.6m for a ‘52 … [Read more...] about Mint Condition: Perspectives on Hobby Stability Against Potential Recession
TCGplayer Accelerates Growth with Key Acquisition
Joel Belfer makes his SC Daily debut with this edition of Mint Condition, his newsletter focused on the business side of the hobby. Leading Off We don’t talk about the trading card game (“TCG”) piece of the collectibles industry (think Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Pokémon), but when the lines begin to blur between the players in the TCG and sports card spaces, it feels … [Read more...] about TCGplayer Accelerates Growth with Key Acquisition