Is the Hobby Smarter This Time? + Which Cards Get Crushed? + The Hobby Never Sleeps

If the sports card market eventually turns, will every card get hit equally? Jeremy Lee is joined by David Chase, Joe Poirot, Chris HOJ and Josh Adams for a wide-ranging hobby roundtable about what the next market cycle could actually look like and whether collectors are better prepared for it this time. The panel debates whether the hobby has really gotten smarter since the last major downturn or whether there is simply more money in the market today. If collectors suddenly need liquidity, do they sell their best and most valuable cards first because one transaction can raise the necessary cash, or do they protect those cards and work from the bottom of their collections instead? That leads to one of the biggest questions of the episode: high supply versus scarcity. Could cards with enormous populations face significantly more downside if sellers flood the market, while scarce cards, low-numbered issues, one-of-ones and important vintage cards prove more resilient because demand only has to compete for a limited number of available copies? The conversation also turns to the return of football, basketball and hockey. After an unusually hot summer for retired players, vintage cards and 1990s issues, what happens when current athletes begin generating daily headlines again? Does hobby attention shift back toward active players, and could that create buying opportunities elsewhere? The group also discusses whether there is even such a thing as a hobby offseason anymore. Collectors are connected to auctions, marketplaces and their watchlists 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Does it still matter what night an auction ends, or has technology permanently changed collector behavior? Plus, David wonders whether the traditional November and December buying opportunity will return this year, Chris looks at historical fourth-quarter market performance, the panel considers how a potential baseball work stoppage could affect modern baseball cards, and Joe explains why rising prices have him returning to one of the simplest collecting principles of all: finding cards with great aesthetics and character. Subscribe to Sports Cards Live on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. Take the Hobby Spectrum Assessment and learn more at thehobbyspectrum.com. Discover cards across multiple auction platforms with AuctionWire at auctionwire.ai and use promo code SCL for 60 days free. Check out Card Ladder for sports card sales history, market data and research. And pick up Jeremy Lee's book, Pops and Comps: Truths, Insights, and Psychology Behind the Numbers That Drive the Sports Card Market, available on Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices