The Probstein Controversy Explained In Minutes | What Collectors Must Know

What this episode is about

The Probstein controversy highlights issues in the trading card community, including fraudulent bidding practices and the impact of fluctuating card prices on collectors. The discussion emphasizes the resilience of the hobby amidst challenges, encouraging collectors to leverage technology for value and enjoyment while navigating the changing landscape.

Key takeaways

• In the world of collectibles, nostalgia trumps value—Goodwill is the hidden treasure trove for genuine hobbyists.
• Investors beware: the thrill of turning $500 into 'nothing' is the real magic trick of card collecting!
• The duality of Kabooms vs. Downtowns mirrors the collector's dilemma: art vs. investment. Choose wisely!
• In collecting, it's not just about price tags—it's about stories. The heart of the hobby beats loudly.
• Trading cards: where the finance meets fandom, and every 'oops' purchase could be an opportunity in disguise.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ryan Alford (Host) · 12 min speaking
• Brian (Host) · 8 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Lux
2. 15:00 – 20:00: Topps Chrome Basketball

Notable quotes from "The Probstein Controversy Explained In Minutes | What Collectors Must Know"

• Hello and welcome to Trading Cards and Collectibles here on the Radcast Network powered by Lux. We are always joined.

  about Lux · at 1:05

• A couple quick news things. I know you got to go, but Topps Chrome Basketball coming out and sold out in minutes. They're doing some Dutch auctions on some of the other stuff and boxes that started at like 700.

  about Topps Chrome Basketball · at 16:23

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Products & tech

• Topps Chrome Basketball — Product · Case study · 1 mention · first at 16:25
  Mentioned as a product that sold out quickly, highlighting trends in the collectibles market.

Sponsors

• Lux — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 1:11
  Lux is mentioned as the power behind the Radcast Network and is associated with a scanning app for trading cards.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 this whole posting thing, the snipe disaster like went down. The shield bidding, a lot of the other stuff is just total [ __ ]

0:07 This is a tough one. He's back on eBay. He's got to do some collateral damage like therapy because that's a brand thing. People doing so many different things. And that's why when people are like, "Oh, the hobby this." And there's no hobby. They're like, "Well, if card prices don't come down, this industry is ruined." No, it's not. You'll go to Goodwill and you get these cards and you scan them and you'll use technology to help you. So, I got some cards over Thanksgiving for my boys and I don't know, [clears throat] maybe I spent like $500. And I come in, I'm like, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, take a seat. The magic trick.

0:36 We're going to turn $500 into nothing." Yeah. In minutes. Other than scratch cards, there's not faster ways to do it.

0:47 Welcome to the Trading Cards and Collectibles podcast on the Radcast Network. From chasing grails to calling bluffs and going inside the hobby. Are you ready to collect? Let's get at it. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. Hello and welcome to Trading Cards and Collectibles here on the Radcast Network powered by Lux. We are always joined. Brian and Brian here. Brian Brian's Are you in the final days in the I mean, how many days you got left in that spot? Well, we got another week and that's it, man. It's like things are getting torn down like TVs. It's crazy. I mean, you you went through it last couple weeks.

1:31 God. Yes. Not fun. Not fun. I'm just still getting digging out all my stuff. I mean, I had to find this guy, you know? He's hiding. Somebody tried to take my

1:40 Yeah. What the hell is that, dude? That's my championship number one ranked show belt, you know.

1:46 Dang, dude. Is that real gold? That's real steel. It's real heavy. Mhm. That's awesome, dude. Congratulations.

1:58 Number one, I tell you, somebody can come take it out of my cold dead hand. That's that. Or just beat me in the rankings in the business c in business and marketing. You know, one or the other.

2:07 Both are very unlikely. I'm gonna let I'm gonna let you I'm gonna let you have this one.

2:14 I got a couple other things. There you go. To be the man, you got to beat the man.

2:21 That's awesome. Oh, yeah. What's cooking, brother? Um, you know, interesting. This morning, an investor called and he wants a card for his son for Christmas. And

2:36 okay, he wanted a Patrick Mahomes Kaboom uh downtown. He had $1,500 to spend and he wanted like a PSA 9. So I I misheard them and I bought a kaboom instead of a downtown.

2:55 Okay. So now I'm usually worth Kabooms are usually worth more than downtowns. They're depends.

3:01 I think they you know they fluctuate fluctuate. Yeah. But anyways, now I'm now I'm legged on a kaboom and then he's I got the downtown also for him. So the question for you is what do you prefer? like what would you buy?

3:17 I like both, you know, because they're both the more artistic cards, but I'm more You know what? I'm gonna let Bella's gonna go grab something for me. Um something I printed today that's going to answer this for you. I'm going to bring it on screen. So, this will tell you the answer because I'm doing stuff here. [snorts] Uh

3:40 in the office and I'm printing stuff. We got a really slick printer. This is 11 by7. Kaboom. Josh Allen. Uh custom that doesn't exist like that exactly.

3:53 Uh I uh designed that. And I'm putting this on hardback and gonna have them like some custom of our owns. So I like both, but I'm a kaboom guy.

4:04 We need a Ryan Kaboom. Yes. Dropping the Kaboom, baby. I'll do the downtown. We have London downtown and uh Ryan Kaboom, you know, or you know, like we we'll make our own, you know, trading cards that become rare in our own minds.

4:23 Yeah. Yeah. One of ones. Uh so I like the Kaboom. So what are you going to do with that Mahomes Kaboom?

4:31 He said he might buy it for his own collection. Well, I might buy it if he did.

4:36 It was uh I mean it was it's fine. I mean I don't think you lose money on those things. No. What year is it?

4:44 The kaboom was 24 and the downtown was 25. Yeah. Okay, dude. The 24 downtown. I think it was 24.

4:54 They had like a wolf in the back. They had a Campbell soup can. I'm like, it looks like a Disney Lorana card.

5:01 I didn't like it. It's a little funky. They get a little It's It's weird. They're either really kind of cityscape nothing or not that interesting or they're like whoa

5:13 I can't wait I can't wait to get the the wolf I don't even know what the [ __ ] the wolf was doing on there like I'm like you're not like from Minnesota it's Kansas City

5:23 what would be what would you Okay the Brian Luten card so we'd have Chicago backdrop you know what else would we have on there

5:33 I'd put Chicago dogs on there. Chicago hot dog. Okay. Okay. Um All right. And then I'd put uh maybe Michigan Avenue, like a nice like winter escape.

5:48 Yeah. Um and then maybe like something Sounds like you. Yeah. Something stupid like

5:53 a fish. Collectibles.show is where you'll find all of the channels and learn more about what we're doing. And ultimately, hey, we want to hear from you. You do case hits at collectibles.show. We want you to send in your favorite pulls of the week. And here's the difference. This isn't about just value. Hey, we want to see some $10,000 hits. Had a couple of those myself a few months back. But it's not just about the value, it's about what you're collecting. What means something to you? Share a story. Share a video of you holding up the card that you hit last week that was your favorite player and you nailed it. So, case hits at collectibles.show. Send in those videos.

6:32 I want to know the stories. We're going to bring them to life here on the show. We're going to do a segment each week. Once we get rolling and get some videos in where we share that on the show with us. We want to feature you on Collectibles show. Before we get into some of the scams and some of that stuff, I do want to address something cuz we, you know, I don't want to be the show that responds to one comment, but I'm going to be the show that one comment. the last show that we actually recorded or one of the last shows we recorded like the day after this whole probing thing, the snipe disaster went down. So the only knowledge that we had at the time when that show was was that the tech went to haywire. We didn't know have the hindsight, the foresight of all of the other things that have come out since.

7:16 So, I think if you have if you've been paying attention, Brian and I are not politically correct and we are not here to uh gloss over anything. So, we we knew what we knew and that's from our own experience and Brian certainly most recent experience, my older experience in tech and IT uh in knowing that it's a lot harder than you think and you better have your servers together. about all we knew was uh they didn't have the backbone. But since then uh as we were called out in this comment, Brian, um you know, the shilling, shill bidding, a lot of the other stuff that's just total [ __ ] and should not be glossed over, but uh you got to have the knowledge to talk about it. So now that we have the knowledge, we can at least give our opinions.

8:02 Yeah, man. That was rough. That was rough. I mean, this industry in general forgives a lot. like it. Everyone's gets so offended by it and it's all over the news and they're like, "Well, they still grade the PSA or whatever it is, right?" Um, but this is a tough one. He's back on eBay and he's got to do some collateral damage, you know, like like therapy because that's a brand thing.

8:31 100% brand thing. But I just don't People are so ma like crazy about these cards. It's almost like they don't care cuz they just the the fever for the industry. You know what I mean?

8:44 Yeah. I don't It's like uh he's just, you know, he might be a scumbag or dirt bag for doing that, but I want that card. I don't care who's selling it. And as long as I don't have to over overpay for it, who cares?

8:59 Yeah, it almost seems that way. There's not like you need the moral police in this. Like it's it kind of polices itself, but like at some level, you're right. I mean, if someone has a good deal on a car, they buy it, you know?

9:10 Yeah. Exactly. But yes, all the time, energy, and money to just try to fake it all and to like I like why? Like it's the show bidding thing. I'm like if you outbid yourself and then you you or your confidant or whoever wins the [ __ ] then what did you do? You bought your own thing. like that's got to happen. But sometimes it does seem like people spend more time, energy, and effort cheating to not do any better,

9:41 you know, like but maybe they do. I don't know. They're probably He's might be laughing his way to the bank, but who knows? But it it's just do better, you know, like let's be better. Um on better news, who's uh I would think I could name them without even if I didn't know them. Uh, who's popping on the LEX app? Uh, we uh I know we had the uh the 19,000 scans. Uh, we don't know who's winning the record for the week.

10:10 Pete Meyers in Florida. Uh, you believe a guy in one day scanned 19,000 cards at the Lux.

10:17 Yeah. So, I I called the guy. I talked to the guy and I'm like introduced myself and I said, "Hey, what do you got going on here?" He's like, "Well, I got I got the scanner and I go to Goodwill and I buy pallets of cards and I just throw them in there, the 19,000 in a day and the ones that are over x amount of dollars he takes out and the rest he throws in the garbage." And I mean, 20,000 cards a day, that's insane. Like that's what that what is that like 140,000 a week, which is like what? Uh, but you know,

10:53 is that just a random date or did he say he was going to keep it up? No, he's got like he's got like 300,000 cards.

11:00 Oh [ __ ] Yeah, he's like, I get 300,000 cards a week. That's what I get. Wow. Um, but yeah, I mean, super interesting guy. Like it's it just shows in this industry there's so many different way people doing so many different things and and that's why when people are like, "Oh, the hobby this and there is no hobby. It's like all these micro hobbies and collectors and like they're like, "Well, if you know, card prices don't come down, this industry is ruined." No, it's not. No, it's not. You'll go to Goodwill and you get these cards and you scan them and you'll use technology to help you. Um, so yeah, it's just an interesting use case.

11:35 Scans of the week. We got we got some names. Who's up? Who's down? I'm going to let you guess um on the ups. Yeah, I'm gonna say quarterbacks. It's football season. If Caleb Williams and and Drake Bay are on this list, then I quit.

11:53 Ding, ding, ding. Yes. [clears throat] And I own hundreds of them. Both. Yeah. I mean, they're up Drake May's been number one for like three weeks and four weeks in a row now. Um,

12:07 hot in football. Yeah. And it's up it's up 15%. Um, and finally, Caleb's getting a little love, but honestly, Caleb didn't play great, but he's winning.

12:19 They win. He's winning. The next one's Bryce Young, which he has not been up here in a while, man.

12:25 No. And he plays for the Carolina Panthers. They beat the Chargers. They've been He's been hot, but he still kind of plays up and down, too. The team's winning. I think he has good co better coaching, but uh that's gonna be interesting to want to track.

12:39 Yeah. And then I I hate the Fers, but the Faulers you I'm gonna uh give you a chance. Um they are three quarterbacks. Um yeah, they're not doing so good.

12:51 I know Jaden's on there. He's on there. God, he's he's got to be falling. I mean, he's not playing. And I still think he's going to be a star if he But he exactly what I was worried happened with him happened. Is he gonna be fragile and he snaps his arm or shoulder or wrist or elbow, whatever it was it was arm related. Is he gonna be durable enough? He's talented. He's still the most talented of the rookies, but it's is he durable enough? That's the question.

13:22 Do you remember like RG3? [clears throat] Yeah, similar. So, this is the issue that I have. And I'm going to throw Mitch Trabiscy in here and I'll throw uh uh Josh Fields or Justin Fields in here. So these guys first year they go out, they use all their assets. I run, I do this, it's a they're pain in the asses and they have a good season. And then their team's like, "Hey man, don't run so much because you're going to get hurt and makes them a pocket passer and that takes away 50% of what they're good at." And and I I've seen it and I would just be like, "Keep running. Just run run."

13:57 Um because if that's how you're going to make your money anyways, you're not a pocket pass.

14:00 Well, the problem with that with Jaden is just he's not durable enough. And I he can actually I think throw it well enough to actually be a pocket passer.

14:08 He could. Now the other guys you named I would absolutely put in there. And Lamar's turned into a weird case because I know I think he's probably one of our followers if I had to bet.

14:19 You are right. Yeah, you're Lamar Jackson. Um it he's actually turned into a lot much better pocket passer and but the team's weird. It's just it's strange dynamic there. I I'll just say this. Lamar's still to me one of the best top five quarterbacks. Who's our number three faller?

14:43 Gino Smith. Oh, okay. There I'll put the blame on Gino. Throws too many too many interceptions. like it's a lot of variables, but he's one of them.

14:54 So, this Sorry, this is a funny card because I had to check it with my team. It on uh November 28th in an auction, it sold for $35 on the first another auction sold for four. Rookie card.

15:11 Uh 2013 Platinum Gino Smith. I don't know if that's his rookie or not. That probably it's got to be. Jeez, he's been around a long time. And then number two, come on, Gina. I mean, I'm beating on him a little bit, but his rookiey's got to be more than $4. Come on.

15:31 Wait, wait. If you listen, he just threw another pick. That's funny. He's the interception machine.

15:39 I mean, if that card was on, you know, let's another site, it might have gone for higher. I could have shield I could have shield build that one.

15:46 Bid that one. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you if if you hold if you're holding any like mass collections of Gino, you are shill bidding your heart out,

15:59 try to get those values up. And that exists on eBay all the time. Like there's there's sales, ghost sales that like and it really hurts like a tech company trying to figure out data. That's why we're coming out with our own pricing algorithm like in a couple weeks. But it's so hard, you know, cuz you and I can make a trade for $500 and we pay eBay, but we don't do anything else. And

16:19 yeah, exactly. Um, refunded. A couple quick news things. I know you got to go, but um, Topps Chrome Basketball coming out and sold out in minutes. They're doing some uh Dutch auctions on some of the other stuff and boxes that started at like 700 800 retail Dutch auctioning starting at 35 hyundo. Geez. Uh I I no hate on tops here. This board is like wow. Like I don't know. It's like these numbers are crazy.

16:56 That's Yeah, that's insane. I mean, again, it goes back like people are going to [ __ ] about it and be like, "Well, the industry's ruined. Finan's ruined the industry." Well, not really. Those cards will get out to the ether and people will buy singles. But, I mean, ripping is just so I So, I got some cards over Thanksgiving uh for my boys and I don't know, maybe I spent like $500, right? And I come in, I'm like, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, take a seat. The magic trick. We're gonna turn $500 into nothing.

17:31 Yeah. In minutes. Other than scratch cards, there's not faster ways to do it. I mean, it's roulette. I I lost in roulette.

17:39 Did you Did you get anything? No, we actually did. Um my son Okay. Yeah. My son got a Bo Knicks. Um I don't know. Some some card. $300 RAW.

17:51 Whoa. Hey. Hey. You can't beat up on the cost and then get a $300 card in there. Come on, man.

17:59 No, I I think you're right. I I should His cost basis was zero. So, he did really well.

18:06 Hey, he he did great. Uh I'm not sure dad did any better, but it's you more joy of your son getting it, you know. And um any other final thoughts before I let you get to your meeting?

18:18 No, I just like when you when's the shop, what's it looking like for you? Um, I I I plan to open soft opening this month.

18:28 Two or three weeks, maybe right before the Christmas, like soft opening like a few days a week, just getting some traffic flowing, you know, not a grand opening, but like a soft opening. Then do like a grand opening mid to end mid January, late January.

18:45 Get some things kinkedked out. Get some, you know, overpaid inventory worked out. You're you're a very efficient person. So, you know, I assumed it was going to be sooner than later.

18:57 Hey, man. I move, man. Not me. You're You're efficient. You're inefficiently efficient.

19:09 No, you're just moving big. You're doing bigger things, you know? Like I'll just I do like a thousand small things and you know, like you got like two behemoths, you know. Feels like that sometimes.

19:22 I know. But cool, man. Good luck with everything. Let me know how Walmart goes.

19:27 I will. Big names, big people, big Hey, that's all we're talking about. Hey, big things happening here with Lux and Trading Cards and Collectibles. Appreciate you, brother.

19:37 Always a pleasure. Hey guys, you know where to find us. Trading cards and collectibles. Look it up. Search it up YouTube. And of course, go to the app store. L Ude Dex spells the best scanning app on the marketplace. It is the best. I'm telling you, I am a all-time user, firsthand smoker uh of the Lux app. Only thing you're going to get secondhand dollars made because again, tracking your collection and keeping up with an instant dropping them on eBay. I mean, it's it's slick, guys. Just trust me. Take my word for it. You'll love it.

20:16 We love you. We'll see you next time on Trading Cards. Like, thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform and don't miss the full video version on YouTube. You can find us at www.colctibles.show or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Ulford. Now get out there and collect yours.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Probstein Controversy Explained In Minutes | What Collectors Must Know"?

Ryan Alford (Host), Brian (Host).

What is "The Probstein Controversy Explained In Minutes | What Collectors Must Know" about?

The Probstein controversy highlights issues in the trading card community, including fraudulent bidding practices and the impact of fluctuating card prices on collectors. The discussion emphasizes the resilience of the hobby amidst challenges, encouraging collectors to leverage technology for value and enjoyment while navigating the changing landscape.

What is mentioned in this Collector Nation episode?

2 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Topps Chrome Basketball. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Probstein Controversy Explained In Minutes | What Collectors Must Know"?

The episode runs 21 min; the transcript is about 3,699 words in 76 timestamped sections.

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