Jason: Welcome, all collectors, to another episode of Boomin' Sports Cards, the podcast where the hobby says hot and the card stays boomin'. I'm one of your hosts, Jason.

chat: And I'm Alex, so we'll be discussing last-minute prep for the nationals, crucial for safety tips, and top five essential apps. So let's get right into it, shall we?

Jason: Let's do it. So roughly over a hundred thousand collectors attended the National last year, making it the biggest week in the sports card hobby, with thousands of dealers, collectors, and millions of dollars and cards all under one roof. It's important to stay aware and protect yourself and your collection. A little preparation goes a long way, so here are some few tips to help you enjoy the show with confidence. So Alex, what should they do first?

chat: keep a backpack, one in front, a zippered. packed mentioned idols make it pickpocketing or accident opening of bags very easy. Keep it keep trade bags zipped, locked or worn, on your chest in tight crowds.

Jason: definitely. I mean, we we've

chat: yes sir.

Jason: seen those stories where like it's mostly like to towards vendors, people like just pick up a card and they take it. But this can happen to anyone. people can just pickpocket you, just quick zipper, take the zipper off, and then just grab your card and just walk the other way. And you won't be able to see because you're pretty much shoulder to shoulder with people in these crowds. And yeah, keeping your Your personal belongings in front of you is very important.

chat: it's really hard to feel when somebody's opening the backpack. You have a thick put bag on, yeah, you're gonna have a hard time feeling if anybody's going through your bag. So that's why you gotta keep it in front of you just to keep yourself safe. What's the next tip, Jason?

Jason: the next chip is never leave slabs or binders unattended when negotiating. When negotiating or making trades, keep your pelican case or binder in hand or secured between your feet. Never set high values on the item table edge where someone can swipe them while you are distracted. It's very similar, like we said, this people can be can have hands, those what do you call some Fast hands. They c they can take your stuff

chat: Yeah.

Jason: in a instance and like having your stuff for display or like having it on someone's table, someone can take it. personally yeah, I like to carry just a fanny pack across my like shirt, like top of my shirt. 'cause that you can hold that up front. It's easy to move. You're not bumping into people with a huge backpack. But just be prepared and Yeah, slabs, binders, cases. Make sure they're with you all the time. Visible. Be aware of your surroundings.

chat: Be aware. Keep your stuff near you. The next tip is the buddy system for high value moves. If you're carrying large cash amount or high dollar of inventory, never walk to the parking garage, hotel rooms alone after dark. Travel in pairs.

Jason: Yeah, I mean the the Rosemont area where this is taking place is very populated because there's a mall right right around the corner. there's a food area around the corner. there's a lot of stuff going around the nationals and stuff that's not around the nationals because there's also like a movie the like a theater next door. So be aware, stay with your your friends, stay with your family. yeah, just be per protect yourself because There's gonna be so many people. There's trade nights at every pretty much hotel around there and thousands of people. So yeah. Stick with your buddy or yeah, just be aware.

chat: what's the next tip, Jason?

Jason: hide your show badge outside the venue. Stash the national badge inside your pocket the second you leave the convention center, wearing it in nearby restaurants or garage advertises that you're carrying valuable cards. Like we said, there's so much value in the national. Just a card can be a hundred bucks or it can be tr forty, fifty, a hundred thousand dollars. And that badge can bring attention and Sometimes it could be unwanted tension.

chat: Yeah, with the rise of a card shows and like the hobby, people are more aware about how valuable card sports cards are, Pokemon cards, anything card base. People just n are know gonna be that, hey, I know this stuff is valuable, so if I take this off I could sell it online or sell it somewhere else. Overall, yeah, just be careful. People no are getting more aware about card shows. So let's not let's not flash our our cards. No, let's not flash Flash where we're coming

Jason: Yeah, and these parking garages, sure they have cameras in that, but people are c can be sneaky and like, I don't know, beat you up. Take your binder, take your your belongings, and you won't be able to do anything. next to you know it, you're you're out of your Caitlin Williams car that you just bought, Alex.

chat: No, please.

Jason: 'Cause cause a big dude just took you out and like not even to dinner. They just beat you up.

chat: No, my car just gone and I didn't get anything here.

Jason: Yeah, facts. What's next, Alex?

chat: Next tip the next tip is a packed high capacity power bank. Sale server searching indoors burns phone batteries fast. Bring a portable charger so you aren't stranded with a dead phone at two p.m. Yeah, the with the nationals b being in the Stephen A convention center, the they have terrible servers, I'm not gonna lie. So your phone's constantly trying to get one bar throughout the building and with the phone constantly searching for a bar. Your phone's designed faster, so try to have a charger or batter power bank just in case your phone starts to get low on the battery.

Jason: Yeah. Now phone days they they drain through battery just by having apps open in the background. And during the national you will have a lot of apps, which which would lead to our next next topic, which is our essential apps of the national. But these power banks are very vital 'cause you wanna have your phone, you wanna check these prices, and without it you can get some you can get ripped off and you won't be able to like you'd just be stranded in that area. Sure there's lot of traffic there, but stay prepared. Keep your phones charged, you know?

chat: Keep your phone in charge.

Jason: So with thousands of tables and non stop activity, having the right apps can make the national experience much easier. From checking card values to staying connected, here are some essential apps every collector should have before the show. So Alex, this was one of the apps I was telling you about. So Luddic Luddix? Ludic?

chat: Linux.

Jason: Luddix. so it's it features now n the National Sports Card Convention floor layout. I'm pretty sure they had this last year, but it was less interactive. now you can click like every single table and they can t it can show you what the brand is, what kind of table it is, like the like the shop if it's if if it's attributed to a shop. It's very easy to like star them as well, because that can if you looked at something cool, you can just save that number of the of the table and just go right after it. It's a very cool interactive app that obviously has other features, but for the national, it's very vital having this app.

chat: Yeah, I remember they had the app last year but it wasn't really that not not that good in my opinion. I think think hope they worked out the kinks this year so it could be more interactive and easier to use. So we could find find the cards we need to find and find the boost we want to find. So can't wait to use it.

Jason: Yeah, it has like booth numbers, specific, you can pin your specific vendors, locate autograph zones, just straight from your phone. I mean, it's very important to have this app 'cause you'll quickly realize there's so many tables and you can get lost really quick. And you wanna get to like those free items pr like shops and like vendors, manufacturers. so that app can lead you the way and make your experience so much easier. So Alex, what is the next card?

chat: eBay I know e yep, eBay the app. eBay has a built in card scanner and price guide. eBay just recently updated their mobile app with the feature that lets you scan cards. Snap a photo of a raw or graded card instantly to pull eBay's completed sales, including best offer prices, CGC, PSA population, whatever you think of. Perfect for a quick comp right at the dealer booth. it's a good way to not to dig It it's not that bad. I'm I personally I use it every day to see prices cards when I'm putting them up on eBay. to let you know that eBay has recently just put this up and that it only has two ye the history of two years of like older cards. So anything older than two years, you're not gonna find the history in that card. So that's what I found out the other day that the data only it goes back two years. So

Jason: That's interesting. Yeah. I really love this feature that eBay added. it's so much easier. You just click a less little listing and there's like view insight of the card and it can lead you to when it's sold, how much it's sold, the trend. a lot of valuable information. And when you're looking at these cards at the national, it's important to take your time to look at these cards. Everyone knows it's a business, everyone knows everyone wants the best deal. So using an app like eBay. to get the best card best price possible is very important. And just by simply taking a picture of it, I mean, you can get so much information. So yeah, eBay's probably my w my one or two top two in all the apps you use in the national.

chat: Yeah, it's gonna be one of the great apps to use to get comps fast. the way it works, snap a photo, it'll scan the card and actually look up matches and then you have to look through it and you'll be fine. You'll be fine to find a good deal. What is the next app, Jason?

Jason: So the next app is Market Movers. Just like eBay, this is a heavyweight market analytics app. So it pretty much gives historical price charts, multi-platform sales tracking. It's it's different from the last year. I don't know if if people are casuals or haven't used this app t too much. they changed their pretty much the whole interface. Now you look up the card, your specific card, and that leads you to the the prices and everything. You previously there's only like the player you can track and gives you like a big list. but yeah it's a it's a good app. Check the prices. pretty much tracks from like anything from eBay, Fanatics, Collects. yeah, so it's a nice tracking app. Make sure the prices are correct that of the items you're buying. So market movers is very important.

chat: Yeah, Jeff Wilson. We might yeah, Jeff Wilson loves Market Movers. So you see a bunch of Market Movers ads and then we're and you see a guy who who's telling you to download market movers, that's Jeff Wilson. But yeah. Market movers is a

Jason: Don't do it. Actually do it.

chat: I know, right? Yeah, Market Movers is free but there's some limitations. if you do wanna get the subscription subscription it'll be like ten dollars a month. You get a little bit more features to help Buy cards, track cards, track your collection. But overall it's still free to use. next app we got price charting. 100% free. it has the same thing as Market Movers where you could search up the cards. you can actually use take pictures of the cards and help try I'll try to identify the nearest card that looks like it. it tracks about eBay, heritage, P WCC and more features. That included our what you call it, it tells you what ungraded cards estimated PSA slabs are, like tens and nines. So if you're thinking of buying a raw card and there's no PSA tens, there's gonna be a feature on there where it tells you what the estimated prices is. But it's not the exact like it's not what it really is worth until you actually sell it, but it gives you like overall estimate of like the card's PSA ten. But this is a good, excellent budget alternative. You need a quick photo based comp checks and without paying any subscription.

Jason: Yeah, it's a dope app. I use it a lot just to like track my collection. but yeah, finding prices it helps with that. there are some inaccurate prices, so it's always important

chat: Yeah.

Jason: to double check your prices and what that actually item sold, the actual listing of the item. but price charting is very cool app. Yeah, hundred percent free, can't beat free. Dope app. which leads to our fifth app it's card ladder. industry leading sales database going back to 2000. covers millions of verified historical sales across major platforms, verified player indexes, and population reports. So Card Ladder, it's not one of the apps I use frequently. I feel like it's very limited with for the free stuff, for the free options. So But from what I've heard, it's very good. I see it promoted everywhere. like we said, there's so much analytical things they provide. It's a dope app. just yeah, it's a little limited. What's your thoughts on card ladder?

chat: car letters is a another way to look at prices. It it ranges for fifteen to twenty dollars a month. that's n really not that great for free. So this is something if you are trying to get into bigger like car collecting and card buying and you really want to be a pro at it, I recommend getting car letter. But it's more much more expensive in market movers. So if you do want to get the better option Well, I I personally think market movers is better, but Car Letter has the exact s last sale of that card you're looking for. So it's something if you want to go to toe to toe with a seller and get the right prices, yeah. and then they also do like market players. So if you want to see a player is trending well and house the other cards are doing, you can look up their name and see if there are c any cards being sold. So like when I look up a kunin I'm like, Okay, cool, is my investment coming back? And then I see that no one's buying his cards and I get a little bit sad. So

Jason: Damn. Hate to see it. Yeah.

chat: Hate to see it.

Jason: I'm looking at it right now. It's a pretty it's there's a lot of cool features. Check all the indexes of like each sport, yeah, football, basketball, even like Dragon Ball Z and stuff like that. for the pro version, which is you gotta pay a little bit more. There's a watch list where he tracks the the items, prices and just a collection air section. So it's a dope app. Like you said, it's limited. I love market movers a little bit more than card ladder. Prefer that's just preference, but check it out. so another app is 130 point. To go browse the go-to browser app tool to double check exact accepted offer values on specific eBay sales when evaluated individual high-ticket cards. So pretty much you look up the exact name of the card and It gives you the most recent sales. You can see if it was an offer, if it how it's sold on bid. It just gives you more information. it's very it's very cool that it tr it goes to the specific sale. Sometimes it's down for me. I don't know how much yours, your experience with with thir one thirty point.

chat: I don't know. I haven't had maybe like once. I haven't had I haven't really been using thirty one thirty point as much. I only use it for to find comps that have been 'cause when most sales on eP because one thirty point uses eBay sales and they usually have like whatever golden and not like for other they're like separate. One thirty point does separate like history on a card, so but it's usually majority used on eBay. So say if a card has sold on eBay and I need to know what the price is, I'll copy the title of that card or the sale, plug it into 130 point, and it'll tell me like the accepted offer because the accepted offer on eBay is don't show. They just cross the price out and then you don't really don't know how much it really went for. And 130 point is a good way to see what that card sold for. and maybe again you get to see various other sales of the same card. it is limited though. It is limited though, due to the fact that you you have to use certain keywords for the card in order for all the pr s sales history to pop up. But it is something that you could use to see what the last offer what the offer went for. So it could just help you determine what price asking you wanna do for a car.

Jason: Yeah, I absolutely love that it displays the accepted offer 'cause yeah, when you go on eBay it just shows it X'd out and it sold. And you won't be able you won't be able to know like how much it actually sold. So that's very cool feature they have. And not many of these like price charting cards have that. So yeah, one thirty point. Very very cool app. Alex, so what's our last one? What should everyone have?

chat: then well everybody should have it because it's used for daily life, but this could be used daily as a card, card card collector. Venmo, Zell, PayPal, Cash App, whatever ways you use to s send money. it's a peer to peer digital payment which sellers don't accept credit cards or cash run low. Say if a seller doesn't have a lot of money to exchange, Say if you bought a expensive card but they need change, but they don't have the exact change. The Zell, Vemo, PayPal, Cash App could be the way to sell the send the card and everybody's happy. pro tip, don't let's set up a face ID, anyway to get past passwords, but also to keep it secured. So let's keep it secured. Something fast so that you're not wasting the seller's time by trying to log into your your weight of way of selling what do you call the card. Or selling sending money, my bad. But overall, cash is king, but does this come in handy when you're able to be flexible with the seller and they're like, All right, I'll do PayPal and Zell and Venmo. So yeah.

Jason: Yeah, having probably all three of these is very important 'cause people don't wanna share the numbers so Zell's out the way. some people don't wanna bother with Venmo and only use PayPal or or the opposite. So having all these apps is important 'cause maybe you see something really cool towards the end of the show and you're all out of cash. So having virtual currency like ways to like send cash over, send money over, it's important 'cause Next thing you know you have a great deal and you don't have cash. So always important have these apps, just in life, but in the show import is more important. so yeah, that's all the apps you should use in the national. It's very important to be prepared because you don't know what exp what comes your way. Maybe you you can't find a booth that you were just at, and you can use the map to look for it, or you can look for the price of these cards that you for you don't get scammed. So Yeah, use these apps.

chat: Use the apps. That's you guys this is probably the last episode before the nationals, so you guys have fun out there, be safe, make some friends. That's the whole hobby is about making friends and having a good time.

Jason: Absolutely. So now let's move on to Collector's Corner. Woo! Collector's Corner. Whoa.

chat: Whoa whoa.

Jason: All right, Alex. Let's start with players on the radar. What players are you looking at? Anything cool that you want to buy? What is on your radar?

chat: I wanna buy everything, Jason. Come on, like don't you just look at like a Tom Brady in your like you like watch list a Tom Brady card and you're like man one day Jason has

Jason: Yeah. Yeah, but it's hard.

chat: it in his cart and he just can't pull up can't press the button to buy a freaking three thousand dollar Tom Brady rookie

Jason: One day.

chat: card.

Jason: Sometimes I think I was like if if I sell my whole my whole collection, I could probably get that like that chrome Tom Brady card. That rookie chrome Tom Brady card.

chat: I know I I look at that and you're like, Man, I can th I can buy these cards later again.

Jason: I can restart my collection and just have one badass card.

chat: Then you could just tell everybody, yeah, I have a Tom Brady with Kickard. And you're like, You do? And then you're like, What else do you have? I'm like that's that's all.

Jason: That that's it. And then the then you get passed that to your family. yeah. Generational. Yeah. So what players design

chat: Generational wealth.

Jason: your radar?

chat: so Tops Chrome just popped out, and I'm sad because it's expensive as hell. Jacob Mazarowski cards, a refractor, man, wave refractors going for a hundred bucks, which is crazy. yeah, him, Merkami. And then I've been looking at the guy you told me, E Igor Denim? How's he say his name?

Jason: Yeah, Igor Diamond, yeah, yeah, from the Brooklyn Nuts.

chat: Yeah, yeah. Looking at him and the other player, Miguel Vargas, he's killing it right now. He's did a home run at the all star game. People are looking at him more more what do you call it? Favorable. So it's he's looking good. I was looking at more cards. Now I wish I would have bought more cards of his like maybe about a month or two ago. What do call it? it is like a more like not more expensive but just twice. But but yeah, he's on the radar right now.

Jason: That's awesome. Yeah, he was one of those players where he d not much was expected. He's not a very well known player. And that then all of a sudden he's an all-star killing it with the White Sox. And right now pretty much tied for first in their division. so that's a pretty that's those aren't bad players at all. On my radar,

chat: What about you, GT?

Jason: yeah, on my radar, I'm looking at Chicago champions. So I was talking to Alex, I was like, I really want to start a new binder. I haven't even finished my first one, which is the blackout set. Almost done. but I want to get more Chicago team champions. so like the 2005 White Sox, the Cubs, the the Blackhawks dynasties. So it had like their starting lineup in a binder or like some type of display be kind of cool. So like Patrick Kane, Paul Conurco, Kyle Schwarber, having like those cards, getting a cool card. I'm not sure if I want to go with like an auto for each of these players. They're not too expensive, probably like twenty bucks a piece, but like obviously the big players are like a hundred. Like Patrick Kane and like Jonathan Tay's that's like a hundred probably each, but like those are cool players overall. So I don't know if I want to do autos or just like cool like numbered cards and cool just like I don't know, random cards of theirs. But yeah. So that's on my radar.

chat: Patrick King might come back to Chicago to play with this guy. So I can't wait.

Jason: Yeah, Bedar. That's be dope. That's gonna be dope if that happens. so now let's move on to experiences, Alex. I'll start off first. so the World Cup just finished. I got that PSA ten Lemingham All Chrome UI Fut Champions League card. It didn't go up as much. He didn't have like a crazy World Cup, unfortunately. Yeah, he won the World Cup, which is pretty dope at nineteen years old. But he didn't have that many goals. I'm pretty sure he only had one goal in like three or four assist, but he's still super young. There's popularity is there. Car didn't go up that much, but I think I'm gonna sell it at the national. So that's what I've been thinking about this week.

chat: Jason's about to get low ball out of his mind.

Jason: I already know it. 'Cause it's like it's sometime hover like I think it like hovers around like six hundred something, but like they a bunch's been selling around like five hundred, like ninety. So it's a little weird. The the sales are weird. Like the buy now price is like six seventy five, but last sold is like five forty or something like that. So I don't know. Probably be low bulb.

chat: He's gonna get low bought out of his mind. That's the funny part. Some guys gonna be like Jason is like, it goes for a thousand dollars. Some guys are like, All right, five hundred and you're like, What the hell? Five hundred dollars.

Jason: But I don't wanna like sell it online either, 'cause then you gotta go through authentication, takes forever, fees. So like there's a trade off, but I'll figure it out. I'll see wha what goes around.

chat: We're we're we're gonna I'm gonna just hope well Jason Jason's smart off he'll he'll have the apps that we mentioned earlier so he won't get low pawed and screwed on his card.

Jason: Facts.

chat: same thing for me. the L minimall I sent we me and Jason recently well the experience for that is that me and Jason both got a Limini Mall Jade card. It's the paper one, not the Chrome. But for twenty five bucks to come back in March. the prices are going crazy for me and I bought it for twenty five and that's a hundred like one hundred and twenty five dollars and I sent it to get graded back in March and I'm hoping it gets a ten because the last sale was seven hundred dollars for ten, which that'd be crazy to get. 'Cause I might I might keep it or I might use it as a trade. But I know, right?

Jason: That'd be dope. Yeah. That'd be crazy. It's a cool card. I I I really like that card that we got.

chat: It's nice card. And then I didn't have any anything else going on. I've been just I sold my La Messi card. I doubled it, double the price. I b I sold it before the World Cup, by the way. And the th one of the things is that it's it was offstandered horribly. Somebody still bought it for sixty bucks and right after World Cup he lost. So kind of glad I got that card out of my

Jason: W scammer.

chat: head. It's not a W scam, it's just

Jason: Scammer alert. Alex, why

chat: Scammer alert.

Jason: why are you scamming people now? That's on them. If they don't see the image, it's on.

chat: I was waiting for like 'cause it got delivered and I was just waiting for that one review saying card was s centered wrong and I'm gonna be like, it's

Jason: Yeah.

chat: in the picture man. Can't can't card conduction is fine. Corners are fine, everything's fine, the card's not damaged, it's just it's off centered horribly. But

Jason: That's on them.

chat: yeah, can't wait to hear see that PSA PSA ten Leminumal coming. it's supposed to come in August or September, but we'll get we'll see when we see it.

Jason: Yeah.

chat: that's gonna do for today's episode of Boom Sports Cards. If enjoyed the show, make sure to give us a follow on social media or wherever you enjoy podcasts. Stay ripping, stay collecting. Remember the hobby's always booming. We'll catch you next time. I'll catch you at the nationals. Hope you we we get to make some friends out there, Jason.

Jason: Hell yeah, get them deals as well. See ya.

chat: See