MLB 2025 Season

Wobbie said:

mets hire the smartest guy in the room.

F Me In The Brain said:

Ha.  Buck is certainly the smartest guy in every room

Just ask him!

I like it as long as they let him manage.  If they go full on analytics then this won't work.  

he is a great clubhouse manager which they obviously need but if he has no say in a game I don't think he will last long.

Looks like Fanatics is buying Topps which is good news.

MayDay10 said:

Looks like Fanatics is buying Topps which is good news.

Funny I was just writing to an industry friend about this.

No it's not.

Fanatics paid a shit ton of money to acquire those licenses.  They will want a return on their investment.  I can see the presses being wide open for cards and junk era 2.0 upon us.

I hope I am wrong.  I mean they did a hostile takeover w Steiner though...

Jearlpam0925 said:

I think the real issue here is Fanatics usually wants to own an entire industry, all the merchandise. Additionally, they're pretty involved with NFTs and all that bullshit, so I could see that being their end-game. Which really, really sucks. Imo Topps is just the brand name they want.

Will they produce cards or you think they'll just run with NFT's using the topps name?

Either way I see them doing some form of damage to the industry.  If they can maintain a healthy growth in it then that would be great but I am not sure how they do that?

I am personally excited to see topps chrome basketball cards come back in 2026!

I haven't collected basketball cards since 09 when Panini took over.  I immediately hated their cards...  I still don't care for their Mosaic, Noir and Flawless stuff either.  Wayyyyyyy overpriced.

HesCalledDyer said:

tempo_n_groove said:

MayDay10 said:

Looks like Fanatics is buying Topps which is good news.

Funny I was just writing to an industry friend about this.

No it's not.

Fanatics paid a shit ton of money to acquire those licenses.  They will want a return on their investment.  I can see the presses being wide open for cards and junk era 2.0 upon us.

I hope I am wrong.  I mean they did a hostile takeover w Steiner though...

Junk 2.0 is already upon us and it's only gonna get worse.

So here is the reason it's technically not 2.0.  Print runs for Topps are not anywhere near what they were back in the day.  You can crunch numbers from a pack of cards.

Panini and basketball prints a decent amount but still not like years before.

What is happening is every one IS collecting, grading and the birth of a common card actually holds value now.

When more people realize that their Henry Owens Orange Auto isn't worth anything they get disgusted because its a rare ass card so it should be worth something, right?

Another 2 years and you might see some lag, as of right now it's not slowing for the bigger cards.

Its hard to tell about 'junk 2.0' the way cards are produced and consumed now.  Back in the 80s and 90s we only had base sets pretty much.  Now, we have manufactured scarcity, including autographs and relics.  If you have a Vlad Guerrero Jr base rookie card, maybe it wont be all that great... maybe a blue variant or even chrome refractor wont be all that much...

But what about a Guerrero Jr rookie patch/auto that is numbered out of 5?  Or even a 1/1?  A card with a button from Mike Trout's jersey?  


We will see if Fanatics gunks this up.  IMO the card industry does need some sort of jolt.  It is a bit of a confusing mess at this point and could possibly be reigned in a bit.  I am glad Topps and their history/product lines are preserved for the most part.  

I decided to slowly acquire older, pre 80s cards (select 80s too) as those are fairly timeless and if preserved can only maintain or increase value.  I also hate the amount of space that common cards take up that you acquire while chasing nice hits.  

I haven't purchased a pack in a long time, but my wife and I are both huge baseball fans. I still have all of my cards from when I was a kid.

Anyway, I'd like to get her one of the newer autographed cards of her favorite player (Yuli Gurriel) but have no idea where to start...any ideas? Not sure if I should be looking at eBay or if there was somewhere else I should look. Any advice is appreciated!

We met him at Spring Training in 2020, but he wasn't signing that day.

mfc2006 said:

I haven't purchased a pack in a long time, but my wife and I are both huge baseball fans. I still have all of my cards from when I was a kid.

Anyway, I'd like to get her one of the newer autographed cards of her favorite player (Yuli Gurriel) but have no idea where to start...any ideas? Not sure if I should be looking at eBay or if there was somewhere else I should look. Any advice is appreciated!

We met him at Spring Training in 2020, but he wasn't signing that day.

I'm in a bunch of card groups.  I am sure I can get you one pretty easily.  Price range and I will take care of that for you.

tempo_n_groove said:

mfc2006 said:

I haven't purchased a pack in a long time, but my wife and I are both huge baseball fans. I still have all of my cards from when I was a kid.

Anyway, I'd like to get her one of the newer autographed cards of her favorite player (Yuli Gurriel) but have no idea where to start...any ideas? Not sure if I should be looking at eBay or if there was somewhere else I should look. Any advice is appreciated!

We met him at Spring Training in 2020, but he wasn't signing that day.

I'm in a bunch of card groups.  I am sure I can get you one pretty easily.  Price range and I will take care of that for you.

Sending you a pm. Thanks, man!