re: 2026 Sports Cards and Memorabilia Thread

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This year so far has been mostly consolidation for me. I got back into collecting 1.5 years ago with my kids. Thankfully went heavy into lower end ($200-500) Ohtani cards. Those are now $500-1000 plus and have been moved to fund much of this. I do still have plenty of other Ohtani.

I mostly collect Altuve and Ohtani. This year I’ve added some Judge. And the OG 1990s Jordan insert.

Not even the best manager auto in frame. Hahah

This thread is heartbreaking, I sold off my high end auto patch collection that had a number of Kobe exquisite auto patches from 03-07. I also had autos of most NBA hall of famers including MJ, magic, bird, and LeBron in 2013. (Can’t imagine what I would have gotten after Kobe’s death and covid)

I thought I made good getting about 10 k for all of them but now it seems that 1 Kobe exquisite auto patch likely fetches 5-10k alone.

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This thread is heartbreaking, I sold off my high end auto patch collection that had a number of Kobe exquisite auto patches from 03-07. I also had autos of most NBA hall of famers including MJ, magic, bird, and LeBron in 2013. (Can’t imagine what I would have gotten after Kobe’s death and covid)

I thought I made good getting about 10 k for all of them but now it seems that 1 Kobe exquisite auto patch likely fetches 5-10k alone.

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Ouch. Hopefully you took the 10k and invested and it all worked out the same. But the Kobe, MJ, and LeBron autos are all probably 5x what they were 6 years ago.

Back in 2014, when I was just married and on a pretty low budget, I bought a "high end" card for me at the time. I was deciding between a Emilia Clark Game of Thrones auto and a Michael Jordan Dunk/n Go Nuts insert. Both cards were $500. Mrs. Iwy: "$500 on a Game of Thrones card! That's more than our house note." I figured the Game of Thrones card would peak after the show was over and I could make out pretty good. It did, and I sold it for over 1.5k. Was pretty good considering non sports cards weren't a thing like they are now.

BUT, a Jordan Dunk/n Go Nuts in a PSA 9 is well over 10K now. Insult to injury it's the only card left I need to complete the set.

USA! USA! USA!

Taking the mound in the WBC in 5 days.

This also from last month

I'm slightly addicted to Veriswap. I made another trade last night for two more Jordans. Consolidating my collection.

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Which Jordan would you be targeting in the 2-3k range. I have an Ohtani that is about to sell for $2k and have some small cards to add in as well that could get me to 3k.

Any love for the 1993 topps finest refractor PSA 8? 1986 fleer sticker PSA 8? Whatever scoring kings is valued in that range?

The only notable Jordans I have are the PSA 9 1992 Beam Team, PSA 9 1988 fleer all star, and the PSA 91998 ultra gold medallion. I had previously thought any Jordans were out of my range but now not because of Ohtani cards 2-3x.

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So many good ones in that range. Personal preference in that price range for one I don't have would be the Soul of the Game. A PSA 9 is in the 2200-2500 range right now. Still pretty low pop on the PSA 9's. Love the look of that card.

Metal Universe Titanium, Rock Stars refractor, and Electrifying PSA 8's are all in that range and pretty iconic. You can normally get a grade higher with Beckett and SGC for the same price if you wanted that route.

A random thing I found interesting on Veriswap is the interest I get in certain cards over others. For example, I have a 95 Beam Team (the die cut one) in a PSA 8 that's pop 284 and a 94 Skybox Emotion N-Tense in a PSA 10 that's pop 688. Both are almost identical value at $1500. The Beam Team is a more rare card, was much harder to pull back int he day, but I get 3x the interest shown/people wanting to trade for the N-Tense even though it's not as rare and has more 10's in it than 8's in the Beam Team. Just shows imo a lot of collectors gravitate more to the grade than the card. Which is unfortunate.

The first year of cards i remember is 1975. I had a couple hundred and started to complete it last year. I just finished it a month ago. It’s not high grade or anything, I did this mainly for nostalgic reasons.