You Can't Comp This: NBA Trading Card Podcast

Episode 258: Trade Tracker Chaos & Cactus Jack Chrome

Adam Amy & Russell Gibson Season 1 Episode 258

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This week’s episode covers two major talking points shaping the NBA card hobby right now: the NBA trade deadline and the Topps Chrome Cactus Jack Basketball release tied to NBA All-Star Weekend.

The show opens with a deep dive into the Topps Chrome Cactus Jack crossover, breaking down why Topps is leaning into scarcity, event-only distribution, and cultural crossovers outside the traditional hobby space. The discussion covers the design choices, checklist highlights, autograph structure, numbered parallels, and the implications of requiring physical attendance at NBA Crossover in Los Angeles to purchase boxes. The barriers to entry, potential resale impact, and unanswered questions around leftover product distribution are all examined.

From there, the focus shifts to the NBA trade deadline, working through deals one by one and analysing both on-court and hobby impact. The episode looks at Chicago’s aggressive reset, Boston’s financial manoeuvring, Oklahoma City’s continued draft-driven strategy, Atlanta’s post-Trae Young direction, and major moves involving teams like Golden State, Dallas, Washington, Indiana, New York, and Cleveland. Player hobby value is discussed throughout, including pop counts, recent sales, market saturation, and short-term versus long-term collectability.

The episode also tackles broader hobby themes: how market size affects card demand, why certain players never become hobby darlings, and where low-end opportunities still exist in a crowded market. The show wraps with a listener-submitted question around international shipping and customs delays, explaining what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how collectors can avoid future issues.





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Welcome everybody to this week's show. I am your host Russell Gibson and this is the You Can't Comp This MBA Trading Card


podcast. I hope life is treating you very well. And on this week's show, we have got a whole bunch to get through,


including and not limited to the NBA trade deadline. But for this week's


show, we're actually going to start off with something that's a little bit different, but actually I think this is


very interesting. We're going to start talking about the Topps Chrome release, which is going to be a crossover between


Cactus Jack and the NBA All-Star weekend.


Uh the reason why I think this is actually, you know, worthwhile to talk about is because


Topps are doing things differently within the hobby. They are absolutely trying to innovate and they're trying to


create releases that have genuine scarcity and I think they've ticked a lot of boxes on this one. I think also


for me why I'm know very interested in something like this.


It's because I don't even know who, you know, to for lack of a better word, you know, who is Cactus Jack? So, I think


that's probably also, you know, somewhere we can start here.


Cactus Jack is


Travis Scott. And that's where we need to start with this hit. So Travis Scott, American rapper,


and basically he's created this record label, but it's more than just a record label. He's also doing merch. He's doing


partnerships. Nike McDonald's, Oakley. Now to add into that list, too. Now we've got Topps Fanatics and Topps


Chrome. You know, I think if we're talking about growing the hobby, where Topps wants to


be in the next couple of years, what they're trying to achieve moving down the line, they're trying to grow the


hobby. And I think using someone like Cactus Jack, who is famous outside of


the hobby, trying to bring in some of those clicks from his circles back into the top circle, I think that's


absolutely ingenious. To top it off from that though, and this is what we really need to start talking about now, is the


All-Star weekend, which is upon us. We pretty well won't be talking about All-Star weekend today just for the fact


of there's just a lot going on at the moment with trade deadline happening. So, we'll get to that next week. What we


should probably start to do though is have a look at some of the cards that's coming through it and then we'll read a


little bit more through how it all breaks down.


and how all this is going to play out because that's also something quite interesting here. All right, so this is the card design of what you'll be


seeing. Obviously, this is one of the hit cards. I like it cuz it's creative. Like for


me, this is almost like a panini insert where they're taking some risks. They're doing something that's a little bit crazy.


One thing that's coming through to me with tops is that they're not particularly looking for streamlined


design. And so what I mean by that is there's a lot going on in these pictures. And that does seem to be a theme in a lot of their cards. You got


the rookie logo, you got the Cactus Jack logo, you got the All-Star logo, you've got the Allstar um neon sign going on


here. And I think what they're trying to do here is that's actually a sticker autograph. Then you got the Mavs logo,


you got Cooper's name, and then you got the Tops Chrome logo, which seems like like there's a fair bit of redundancy


going on there. In saying all of that, I, you know, I don't mind this terribly.


I don't think it's a horrible design. I just think that this is probably not going to appeal to, you know, every


single collector. So, for example, this, I think that's got a lot more sort of classic appeal. And I can see that, you


know, being received quite well. I think tapping into LeBron in a retro sense is also very clever because


while I think we all love LeBron, you know, whether you love him or hate him, you know, probably the LeBron of of


younger years is a lot more appealing at this point in time. Alan Iverson's going to be making an appearance in this. I


would love to see Iverson autos in this, too. I couldn't confirm whether that was going to be happening or not. And then


of course here we've got some other the some of the other big names we've got here. So we got Wii coming in here.


We got Steph Curry coming in here. Very similar to well it's exactly the same design isn't it to the one we saw up


here with the coupe. Back to WBY here. All righty. So


how this is all going to work cuz I think this is really interesting. Dropping exclusively at the All-Star weekend. Topschrome Cactus Jack


Basketball brings Travis Scott's signature edge to the biggest stage in the game. This ultra limited release


fuses Tops Chrome shine with Cactus Jack attitude, spotlighting the stars,


rookies, and moments that define allstar greatness. Collectors can chase a 100 card base set loaded with elite talent.


Now, I don't mind this at all because I think sometimes one of the complaints we have about hobby products or you know


any other product for that for that matter is that you you have product that


is just filled up with with filler. Basically, they're just you know blowing it out. So on this it's the complete


opposite. Cooper flag, Conapple, Dylan Harper, LeBron James, Kevin Durant,


Giannis. Obviously we've seen Iverson in there. We got LeBron in there too. Every


box delivers premium scarcity with parallels starting at 50 and autographs numbered as low as five. Look for the


standout Seiko cards insert capturing the wildest, most unforgettable All-Star game moments through a cap cactus jacket


lens with its limited run and event only availability. And we're going to talk more about this event only availability


in a second because this is a big part of this set and where I think this is going to drive the resale of this


product absolutely through the roof. is built for collectors who want


something rare, loud, and unmistakably different. Fans must purchase a ticket


to NBA Crossover, taking place at Los Angeles Convention Center in order to participate in this release. After


securing a ticket, fans will use the NBA events app to reserve a specific day to pick up their box, making this a fully


planned reservation reservationbased experience tied directly to NBA All-Star


weekend festivities. Each fan is limited to one box per person for the entire event and a reservation is required to


make a purchase. Walkups will not be accepted. Once a reservation is secured, fans will receive a QR code the NBA


events app which must be presented to staff at the Tops booth to unlock the opportunity to purchase their box. All


purchases will be made on site through Square with all ma major credit cards accepted. Cash will not be accepted. So,


I think there's a lot to unpack there in terms of you need to purchase a ticket to NBA Crossover. You need to be in Los


Angeles. You then need to make your reservation time. So, there's a lot of hoops to jump through here. And this is


going to eliminate a significant number of collectors. So, you know, that's all Australians or Canadians or Chinese


people like in all of that. Obviously, without excluding people who are going to be traveling to the event specifically for it. But I think that is


a very limiting thing. But I also think that would increase the scarcity of it because


I find it difficult to believe if you've got parallels starting at 50.


And I would say the wording for that it means that that will go up to say, you know, 125, 150, 199, whatever that's


going to be. There's going to be a fair bit of this stuff printed. And so what's going to happen to the leftover box? Will they be put onto the fanatics live


auction platform? Will they um do some type of du auction to get rid


of it? Will they be given to VIPs to staffers? You know, something along those lines. So, but again, I I still


think these are going to end up on eBay being auctioned at, you know, quite large prices. I also do like the way


they've organized it so you don't have the situation of, you know, people being in Target where you've got fist fights


and all that type of stuff. Do I think this is where the the hobby


is headed? Absolutely. Yes. So, more and more shops are moving away from


delivering product in stores just because of the issues that people are having. When I say people,


managers in shops with staff being abused, staff being hassled by customers


trying to, you know, purchase stuff. In fact, it's even, you know, one step further than that. It's happening for Pokémon


um even in Australian retail. So JB Highfiles is there recently. They've got very large signs up saying Pokémon is


online only. You can still get NBA. Um you can get like some uh Premier


League cards, stuff like that. But you know, obviously they've had issues around that. And I've actually got no problems with it. I think some of the


behavior with, you know, people fighting in car parks and all that type of stuff, you just


don't need that within the hobby. And it, you know, what's the what's the ad here? All righty. Really quick segue.


And we don't need to talk a lot about this, but it fits into this same can of new releases coming out. We've got our


first release of 2526 Panini unlicensed.


I'm very much in two frames of mind of this. I miss Panini dearly. I really loved some of the releases that they did


have, but it's amazing how quickly I have already crossed over to


the TOPS products and how I'm enjoying them so much more now. And I think that,


you know, it's quite interesting for me because I was publicly reluctant to be


coming across to Topps and my my take was that I wanted Topps to, you know, earn my love or prove to me that they're


the right person, you know, to take my attention. And so, I think they've done a pretty good job of that. I think some


of the things they've done has been fantastic. um the issue of the the Topps black hole


recently. I think they handled that really well. And so if you aren't caught up on that,


I'll really quickly just touch on that. They didn't put a blue X fractor into a


product. So to make up for that, what they're going to be doing now is you take your silver X fractor and you send


it in and you get a replacement card for that. Probably this is actually a good time to thread this in, too. There's


been a couple of different reports. So, for example, if you send in a jamarant, you might not get a jamarant back. And I


I think that's really like troubling for collectors because if you're spending $350, which is what the silver xractors


are now trading for in the Coopers, 350 plus, you're spending 350, you send in


your Cooper and you get back a Cedric Coward rookie card. Yeah, it's a rookie


card, but that's not the one you wanted. and you didn't want to spend $350 getting a silver cooper for that.


I I really hope that that report isn't true. Um, segueing back to Panini here,


we got Kabooms again. Is anyone going to want unlicensed Kabooms? I don't really think so. This is where though I think


it gets really interesting and where Panini should put all their effort into. They should make them oncard autographs.


They should make the autographs have fantastic artwork. So Trey Johnson, Cedric Coward, Luca Donic, Jaran,


VJ Edgecomb, and just hold our powder on VJ Edgecomb for two seconds. If I's in


it, Derek Rose, that's fantastic. And so I think what they really need to do here


is do something like what Tyson Beck does. Tyson Beck is unlicensed, but his products are highly coveted. The reason


why they're highly coveted is because they're really, really high quality. So, it's almost like Panini, what they need


to do now here is take a leaf out of someone else's book, and that would be Tyson Becks. Make sure all of their


stuff is on card autograph. Make sure all of their stuff is gameworn or at least event worn. Like, you're not


having napkin patches that are not associated to anything like that. I think that is the direction that they


sort of need to go into because I think if you're competing against a behemoth like Topps in the unlicensed space, you


need to be delivering premium like uber premium stuff that's innovative. And so,


you know, I kind of get the feeling that Panini won't do that just based on track record, but I'd love to see them do


something that actually matters to the hobby as opposed to just pumping out a whole bunch of crap.


We'll have to obviously wait and see where this goes to. And and yeah, I think that's all we can


really say for this one, guys. I think we can move on. Let's go to our first sponsor for this week's show. Thank you


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your ongoing support.


And welcome back everybody. We're going to kick on today's show and we're going to talk about the trade deadline. I'm


not exactly too sure how I'm going to break all of this down, but I think we just sort of just try and do it one


trade at a time, one comment at a time. It's going to be higgledy piggledy, but it's going to be a whole bunch of fun.


We put up a post on a whole bunch of sites, Sports Cards Addicts Australia, NCM. We've got a few replies back and of


course on our socials too. We'd love you to follow, subscribe, turn on that notification


button of course that helps us out so much. Cam Herson, when will GM stop


answering Sam Prey's call? That is in reference to the trade where the Philadelphia


76ers sent off some draft equity.


for Jared McCain. So, the initial response from Sam Prey


is that he sold high on Jared McCain. And so, in response to Cameron's comment


here, when will they stop answering Sam Prey's calls? I think the answer is Cam, they're not going to. They've got so


much draft equity and when you're trying to win a championship, you need a little bit of talent now and you can give up


first future picks for it. Like this seems like a win-win deal because obviously Morris is happy with what he


got back with the first round pick, but also too, you've got Sam Pressie that's


very happy because you've got someone coming into the fold that can contribute right away. He fits into them with a


very cost-effective contract. And also, I'm going to go out to a limb here and say that they've checked up on his um


chemistry fit with the team cuz we all know that chemistry is a really important part to the Thunder success.


He's started in today's game, today being the 8th of February in Australia.


They're obviously very happy to have this guy come into the fold. I'm probably not convinced that he'll be


playing fourth quarter minutes in the playoffs or in the finals, but I think he's absolutely going to be a rotation piece for them. So, I think that goes


down for an A for both teams. I I don't really see anything there that's, you know, too nefarious for either sides.


Matthew Hull, I feel the most active team for a change was the Bulls. Hornets


taking Kobe White was a big call. Makes LaMelo nervous or happy. I don't know. I still want Sabonis at the Bulls or all


the picks they've been given now to get Giannis last minute. Maybe we'll see.


All righty. So, talking about the Bulls, the Bulls made multiple trades at the trade deadline. I think it's going to be


difficult to get through them all, but I will say this, the Bulls have emptied out their big man rotation. So, I think


there's going to be a lot of opportunity for people on their roster to actually fill out those big minutes. We're going


to go through the hobby value on that in a second. But the other thing they did too is they created an enormous amount


of space because they've basically they're going to have the most cap space in the league coming up to the off


season. So I think you need to take that in mind whereas it's


hard to sort of process if you're a Bulls fan now. You know, you might be really feeling, you know, a bit not too


happy with what's been going on. But at the same time too, I think you need to look longterm as to what the Bulls are


doing here. So, the Bulls have sent out Nicole Vousvich and a second round pick that's going to the Boston Celtics. The


Bulls going to get back Anthony Simons who's on an expiring contract and a second round pick. And so, I think if


you're the Celtics, you're really happy about this. You get rid of Anthony Simons. You've brought him in, you've


checked him out, he's not going to be filling your bucket. I think that's a very uh favorable term at the moment.


And so you get a big, which I think will fit in really nicely to the three-point


shooting that the Celtics like to do. I think Vousvich is going to fit into the Celtic system seamlessly. Not the best


defender, so I think the coaching staff are going to be pulling their hair out a little bit on this one.


Uh, and it also saves the Celtics money. So that's another one in the short term where they actually took back less money


compared to the Simons contract. So that takes them underneath the tax bracket.


The other trade which I think is the really interesting one to talk about is Chicago is going to pick up Rob


Dillingham and Leonard Miller. A whole bunch of draft equity is coming in there and they've given up on AO and Julian


Phillips. I think if you're looking at this again from the long term, Rob Dillingham has got the highest upside


and also the highest ceiling here. My question is is how does he fit into their roster in its entirety? I think


for me that's a really really tricky one to sort of like process and get your head around per se just for the fact


that they're very very guard heavy at the moment. So I think what might be


happening in Chicago the next 12 months or 6 months it's basically just going to be like a try out for next season. I'm


really got a lot of hope still left in Dillingham and it's a bit of a weird one for me why the Wolves gave up on that so


quickly. Aayodumu is going to go into their roster three and D can shoot the


ball can defend which is what they need a little bit more size than what Dillingham's giving them. So I think


that's an interesting one. Mike Connley was also dealt away from the Wolves in the last couple of months reportedly.


He's been waved. He'll go back to the Wolves to help them out there. Another Mike Connley deal here. And this is what


we want to talk about uh in terms of card ladder coming up in two seconds.


Mike Connley goes to Charlotte. He's going to be waved. Kobe White stays. Now, I think what we need to talk about


right now is Kobe White because this is the first hobby intersection that we


have to talk about here. We've been talking about PopCount the last couple of weeks and I think what we need to


really uh acknowledge here, see if I can bring this into the middle


of the screen. Yep, that's beautiful. Kobe White has got a population on this


card of 1,72. It's currently trading at $32. This is the classic thing where there is just


too many cards for the demand on this kid. Also, keeping in mind this was a co


baby rookie and so people were sending this off to PSA, you know, left, right, and center. If you look at the alltime


sales data on this guy, there was some insane sales on him. He was up to $1,084


at his absolute peak, which you know, now that you look back at it, this is the correct trading price for this guy.


If you are a Kobe White fan, I think you try and look for a color match. You can go for the red, you can go for something


even low number just for the fact that you're going to be picking him up for a little bit cheaper. I think probably my


issue for him moving forward for hobby value is now he's going to be behind LaMelo Ball


um Brandon Miller and then Con Canpple which is also currently an absolute hobby darling at the moment and so I


think for me with the population on this guy you know this is an absolute absolute stay away


for me. So yeah, just just stay away from anything that's got to do with Kobe


White. Chicago Bulls roster. This is what we need to talk about here because this is what I'm actually really


interested in. So look at who's going to be playing their center minutes. It's going to be Nick Richards. It's going to be Lachlan, which is, you know,


interesting, but I I don't think he's going to be getting an insane amount of minutes. The two people that I'm really


got my eye on out of this rotation here, obviously Basillus is going to be pay playing an absolute stack of minutes. I


think Josh Giddy is going to be playing more small forward, maybe even some power forward minutes. Pat Williams, I


think, you know, I'm probably a broken record on this guy, but I'm actually still pretty high on this guy. I've


still got hope for him. I really hope he takes some opportunity on this one here. But Jaylen Smith, Jaylen Smith for the


one for me, I really think we have to look at this


guy in terms of low-end hobby action that you can pick this guy up for cheap.


He's going to be coming in and he's going to be getting some minutes, meaningful minutes on on a team. And I


think the other really weird thing about the Chicago Bulls, too, is if we're, you know, looking at things over the, you


know, the long term, the last couple of years, I wouldn't say that they've overperformed, but they've never really underperformed either. So, I think, you


know, this team is still going to be on national TV. It's still going to be in the highlights. All right, so Jaylen


Smith, flawless autograph here, number to 25. PSA 9. There's nothing wrong with


PSA 9 in flawless cards, guys. Thicker cards are so much harder to to grade.


Best offer sold on that 80 bucks. That is an absolute win in this current market and the team that he's on. One of


one rookie jersey patch autograph number to 99. $35. Again, very good. I would


probably put the flawless um prime autograph and prime uh patch on that up


the the chain a little bit more. Uh and then we've got another sale of a one of one. Is that the same numbering on that


card? No, it's a different one that sold for $16. So, again, that is, you know,


really, really good. I think if you're looking for a low-end flyer who's going to a team that's in a very, very large


market, you know, being Chicago Bulls, Lo Los Angeles Lakers, you do have to factor that into hobby, yes. Would I


invest my entire life into Jaylen Smith? Absolutely not. We, you


know, I won't be doing that. U the final bulls trade, we'll just go through really quickly here. The Bulls are going


to get Yabaselli and some cash sending out Dale and Terry. I think Dale and Terry for New York is going to be


absolutely fantastic. Do I think either of these two guys move the hobby needles? Absolutely no. I don't think


that whatsoever. All righty, moving on to our next post.


This was done on NCM. I think it's the mighty Joe Fu which is like tipping in here. Chicago trading Kobe White and Vu


for extra guards and no bigs is a very bold move. What are they thinking? I think they're just thinking about trying


out guards and clearing out cab space. Yuki back on the court makes him happy. That's awesome, man. If you've got any


Yuki cards, guys, put them up online. Tag us in. We'll share them to social media for you guys. No problems at all.


Looking at the Yukon Comp this Facebook page, we got here Timothy Price. I'm a


biased supporter of Boston, but Celtics getting Vousvich and lowering their tax app is a massive win with Tatum possibly


on the horizon. They're now primed for a deep playoff run. I'm not too sure they're primed for a playoff run this


year, but they have absolutely managed their finances in a masterful way, and I think that that will give ownership


more potential to invest into the team maybe next year. I I think this year is a little bit of a write-off, man. But


yeah, I mean, wish Celtics fans all the best on that. Mark Smith, do you think a player's value in the hobby is better if


they stay loyal to one team, even if that's a small market, or force trades and play for numerous bigger market


teams? For example, if Giannis remains with the Bucks versus players like Harden and Durant. Look, I think this is


a really difficult question to answer. However, I'll do my best to do it. I think players like Steph Curry who have


been with one team, Durk Noitzky, Kobe Bryant, I'll say Michael Jordan, even


though he did play for two teams, I think it does matter a lot, but I think what more matters is the success


that they have with that one singular team versus someone being loyal to it. So, for example, I think Harden moving


around teams, you know, doesn't really mean that much because he hasn't been successful with teams. I think either


you're going to like Harden for what he is or you're not. I think that the reason why Harden isn't a hobby,


darling, is more to do with his playing and his lack of success versus the teams


that he's played on. Now, Durant is a really different one altogether because he has moved around, but he's had


success. And I think Durant's going to move into that space where he's actually undervalued for what he is.


And what people need to realize on that one is that


moving around probably isn't as detrimental as what we think. I think there's always going to be purists out there that want people to stay with one


team, but overall, yeah, not a massive deal here. Oven. Looks like the Hawks


nailed it with Landale. I like what the Clippers did. Got a bit younger and


moved on from Harden. So Jock Landale was traded


and then reported immediately to the Hawks. He drove himself in his car 5 hours to make sure he got to the game.


He went out and dropped 26 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks in an immediate revenge game. So he was traded


away from the Jazz and then um played them the the very same night. I think


that's really fantastic. I think this is f again fantastic for the Hawks because


after getting rid of Trey Young, I think they've got a little bit of roster instability there, but I think still


there's some really good opportunities here for people on the roster. Jaylen Johnson is still not on


card ladder. Let's find him in sales history because


this is the one. Oh, I think we should be looking at Jaylen Johnson, Silver Raw


rookie selling for $27. That's not through the roof, but at the same time, it's not dirt cheap either. Jaylen


Johnson archetype auto 41 out of 49. That's a card from Recon, which in my


mind is quite a low-end card and also quality of product that sold for 50 US.


I would probably rather take two raw silvers at 27 a piece in that recon auto, but I think that says a lot about


the market and where we're at. Jaylen Johnson, I still think is a really good buy at the moment despite


him surging quite a bit. I think in the next 3 years, we're going to see some really good things from Jaylen Johnson.


Back to our comments online here. Toga angry emoji times five Chicago.


Yeah, I get it. If you're a Bulls fan, you're not very happy right now. But at the same time, man, I think we need to come back in 12 months and then talk


about this just a little bit more. Let's have a really quick look on our Instagram page. I don't think we had


anything there. We did not. I think what we should do now is go to our second commercial break


and then we can come back and we will talk more NBA


trades.


Thank you to Neon Trading Cards for your ongoing love and support. Please go to


neontradingcards.com.


You can find all of your breaking sealed product needs. Also, don't forget


Neon Trading cards, a one of the tops fanatics


direct partners. They are also one of the three regulated


breakers in Australia on to whatnot. That is huge in that breaking space.


What what not breaks have been absolutely going crazy for the boys


and they have been breaking neon sorry they've been breaking midnight products


absolutely like crazy some of the hits that we have got here include the Kooper


flag numbered to 50, the SGA numbered to 12.


I don't mind the design on that at all. We got the Larry Legend oncard autograph


number to 20. We got the Dylan Harper 35 there. We got an SGA Midnight Oil Marks


Redemption, a Desmond Bane one of one sticker. They absolutely jumped the ball


on that one. That should have been an oncard autograph. Come on, Tops. Get rid of sticker autographs and one of one.


There's no place in the hobby for that. Number to 35, but on card autograph. This makes no sense at all, but that's


totally fine. Cedric Coward. That's actually quite a nice looking card. And so this is the second time I've


mentioned Tyson Beck in today's show, but that's really tapping into that sort of creative artwork that you get from


someone like Tyson.


It's not a paid segment for Tyson, but that's a nice little shout out. Thanks so much to Neon Trading Cards for your


ongoing love and support.


Righty,


guys. Welcome back. Thanks so much for tuning in. We're going to continue on here with our


NBA trade deadline extravaganza. I think that's the only way that we can


talk about this. Again, continuing on in our ad hoc fashion, we're going to talk about next


the Washington Wizards trade that landed them. Anthony Davis, Jaden Hardy,


D'Angelo Russell, Dante Exom, Charlotte receiving Malachi Brandon, and


Dallas getting Chris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Tus Jones, Marvin Baggley. a


22nd first round pick via Oklahoma, a 2030 first round pick via Golden State,


and three future seconds from the Wizards. And so I think if you're looking at this from Dallas's


perspective, that 2020 2026 pick from Oklahoma is not going to be great. It's


probably going to be 30th or 29th at the absolute worst case scenario. I would suggest the juicy pick


out of all this is the 2030 pick via Golden State. I think if you are a gambling person,


and I'm assuming this is what Dallas is doing here, they're looking at what their team is going to look like in a


couple of years. There's no point building around an injured Anthony Davis, paying him up to $60 million or


even under the new collecting bargaining agreement. It might be 70 or 75, which is an insane thing to say, but that's


also the reality that we're currently living in. You know, AJ Johnson is not the most


fantastic prospect that you're getting back, but I think that pick is worth gambling on and


also just redirecting your team around Cooper. I think Cooper's done more than enough to warrant him getting the keys


to the franchise. So, I've got no problems with this at all. From the wasn't from the Washington Wizards perspective. For me, I'm going to give


them an A+ on this because basically what they've done is they've turned a whole bunch of low-end talent into all


stars. or let's just be generous here and call them all stars past their prime. But I think if you're a Wizards


team that really lacks direction and also to you are


like a team that's just always floating in the middle. They never really seem to nail their draft picks. They they have a


lot of trouble with their free agency signings. I think getting something that's a sure thing, even if you know


what they are, you know Anthony Davis is only going to play half of a season. you know that Trey Young is not the most


fantastic defender, but on the nights that you've got these two guys on the court, like that's a really good product


and I think it's going to cause some teams trouble on some nights. It's going to get people tuning in to make sure


that they are watching the team whether it's going to be on cable, whether it's going to be,


you know, in the stadium. I think, you know, this is a relatively fun team and I've got no problem. The reason I've got


no problem with this is cuz what they paid for it. Let's go through this. Clutch sports on Twitter. Turn Bill's


$250 million contract into Chris Paul. Flip Chris Paul for Jordan P. Jordan


Pool for CJ McCollum. Kyle Kosma for Chris Middleton. McCollum to get Trey Young. And Middleton to get Anthony


Davis. You would do that every single day of the week. In addition to that, Kahan George was added Alex Sar who's


becoming a very good pro. And I think the SAR addition to that team makes a


lot more sense now cuz he's never going to be a number one option, but he's a very good third or maybe fourth option,


which he will be around Anthony Davis and Trey Young. So, I'm totally fine with that. Now, Trey Johnson is the guy


that I want to talk about, and I've been meaning to talk about this guy for multiple weeks, but I just haven't been


able to sort of weave that in. So, let's talk about this. Trey Johnson, one of the best shooters in the league, and I


think more people need to be talking about this guy. The reason they're not talking about this guy is because he's on an absolutely terrible team. I was


going to say dog ship, but let's let's not go down that route. Let's try and


keep this PG and uh friendly. 2024 Panini Prism draft pick sensational


signatures Trey Johnson Mojo $210. I am very wary of these prices, but here


we go. 2526 Topschrome Trey Johnson Pulsar Rookie SP


$5.50. I got to tell you, who on earth is paying $210 for a Prism Draft picks


card?


That is insane. All right, I'm going to give that an F minus. I love this kid. I think he's


fantastic, but do not spend $200 on a Draft picks card. You will get absolutely flushed.


All righty.


Trey Johnson Topps Chrome X Factor 375. I think this guy's a buy. I really think


this guy's a buy. These cards are selling for $1 and $2 each. Rookie silver refractor $5.


The range on this kid is Steph Curry, Clay Thompsonesque.


And again, when you've got people who are going to draw a lot of gravity to the court, I like Anthony Davis and also


Trey Young. And and actually, you know, the funny thing about Trey is that he's a ball hog guy, but actually he gets


dimes. It's not like the kid never passes. I I think there's a lot of action to be had on this guy. I'm going


to put this actually down as a prospecting chance here because what I think you will be seeing out of this kid


is that you you've got a lot a lot of upside. And I also think too the market


has not reacted to him at all. Look, you might say this is a deep cut, but yeah,


I am absolutely into this guy in a very very big way.


Right, Trey Johnson. Range is absolutely limitless. Look at these shots. Literally coming in from the logo here


again all the way back nearly at half court there. This one's off the dribble that we've got coming in here. So, he's


not just a catch and shoot guy. He can catch and shoot, but he's also got a little bit of handles there. I I'm


insanely high on this kid. I think we need to keep watching him. Yeah, that's absolutely a takeaway from all of this.


All right, moving on down the list. The Warriors have finally moved on Jonathan Kaminga. I I feel like this for me is


just a relief. This has been simmering in the background for such a long period of time and I'm kind of glad that it's


over. Like it's really been like just too much, you know, like for


someone who's barely in the rotation whose cards are selling for $244


as a rookie card. We have spoken about Jonathan Kaminga too much. Again, we've


already spoken about the Hawks today with Jaylen Johnson and the hobby opportunity that's going to be going on there. Look, I like this a lot. Okay,


I'm not going to lie to you. I don't think the fit is perfect with Kaminga and also Jaylen Johnson. I think it's


going to put a bit of like rotational maybe pressure on these two guys, but maybe they can, you know, work it out


and just, you know, have something there that's going to work really well. I think shooting is going to be an issue


for those two if they're both on the floor at the forward positions, but like let's give it some time on this. I


really hope he turns up to the Hawks with a great attitude, gives it his best go


and then basically, you know, just tries to make something happen because I would hate to see him go to that team and then


there's just nothing going on, right? I think that would be a terrible, terrible outcome. Chris's Porzingis is being


traded to the Warriors. I think on paper this fits very very well. I think also


too it creates um a lot more definition within their rotation. So what I mean by that is means Draymond doesn't have to


play center anymore. It means Porzingis is always going to be playing the five. I think it gives them Hford coming off


the bench. Maybe Porzingis comes off the bench. I'm not exactly too sure on how that's going to play out. The other


thing you have to mention about Porzingis is that he is chronically injured now and we won't be expecting


him to be playing, you know, more than 60 or 70 games. So, we do need to keep that in mind. But in


saying that, you've got a a good enough big rotation to sort of hold this through. This is somebody that I've been


very high on for a long period of time, and I think it's at it's at the point now where he's never going to recover.


This is the value that he's at. He's currently trading at $56 on his silver PSA 10. The population on this is


absolutely fantastic. It's $164. Alltime high traded at about $1,600.


Yeah, look, I love this guy. I think he was one of the original unicorns. He means a lot to the league. He's, you


know, fantastic on so many different facets. However, his days of being the number one option


are absolutely gone. Is this the best possible outcome for him? Absolutely, this is the best possible outcome, but I


still don't think the needle is going to be moving all that much. So, yeah,


nothing huge there on the hobby standpoint. However, the onc court, that's a that's just such a big win. I


also kind of feel like the buddy heal things a little bit funny because it just seems like they wanted to get rid of him and just move off altogether.


Pistons, sorry, Pacers have acquired Ivaka Zubach and Kobe Brown. They've


given up Benedict Maturan and Isaiah Jackson and three picks are going to LA.


26 first round pick from the Pacers, a 29 first round from the Pacers, and a 28


second round pick. I personally think this is an overpay to get Zubach. However, I will say this, the Indiana


Pacers were in the playoffs in the finals less than 12 months ago. So maybe in their mind they're like


Hallebertton's coming back. We need to retool our rosters with guys who can win right away. The only thing I'm a little


bit interested on is that the way that they're coached in Indiana, they play a very fast up and down game.


They also like their bigs to stretch the floor. So, I'm not entirely sure how that Zubach fits into that. And will


that actually diminish his effectiveness or will he just allow their guards to


run out because he's going to be doing all the dirty work inside? You know, it could be sort of either way or actually it could be both, too. But I'm just


really curious on that cuz for example Isaiah Jackson, yes, he's probably not strong enough and big enough to play the


five. But when he did play 5 minutes, his defensive rotations were fantastic and his stretch shooting really made


them hard to defend. And so, you know, that's like, you know, that's a little bit of an interesting one for me. I


really liked Isaiah Jackson as a rotation piece for the Pacers. Benedict Matan's an interesting one. he can go


off for, you know, big points very, very quickly and he's had 40 points in the playoffs already before. I think the


catch with this guy and probably where he has become expendable is that he's very inconsistent and so you can't rely


on him for 20 points a night. He's very much a five points or 25 points type of guy. I think for the the Clippers


picking up cheap talent who's young and also future picks, they can't say no to this


trade. I really think that was a a trade that they couldn't pass up on this one here. I'm not going to talk about the


Suns trade. You know, there's really nothing to talk about there. We've already done the Hornets trade. Jose


Alvarado going to the Knicks. I think he is going to become a fan favorite almost instantly. And I also think this too is


going to be a little bit of a hobby needle mover because we're talking about big markets. Chicago, Los Angeles, New


York also fits into the big markets here. Let's see what we've got going on with Joseé Alvarado with sales. $2


for a update card from Chronicles. $9.50


for a blue shimmer autograph. This stuff is cheap. This stuff is really cheap. Penman autograph


PSA 10 auto 10 sold for 40 bucks. I mean that barely covers your cost of grading.


Penmanship autograph selling raw for $549. Look, I don't think that you're


ever going to make a million dollars off this guy. Do I think he's got some hobby legs? Yes, I do. I think he's going to


become almost like a cult figure for that team. And I have called out guys to be cult figures before and been very


wrong. But I think someone like Jose who plays very very hard, does that sneaky


thing where he sits behind the baseline and runs up on people, I think the Knicks fans will actually quite enjoy that.


That's kind of an interesting little pickup there. Let's go to our third and final


advertisement for this week. It is going to be the Hobby Hangout. Thank you so much to the Hobby Hangout. Go to tickets


osix.com.au. There you will find your tickets for the hobby hangout. Pre-release is currently


selling at $19.90. General admission for under 12s is free,


but you have to be accompanied by an adult. Doors at 10:30 a.m. Finishes at 5:30. It will be in Melbourne.


Royal Exhibition Building Sunday the 26th of April, 2026. So, it's going to


come up on us very, very soon. 400 plus tables, international and national vendors, sports cards, NBA, NFL, MLB,


AFL, NRL, soccer, and more. Pokémon, of course, there's going to be Pokémon there. Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, MTG,


entertainment cards, live breaks, dedicated trading zones. This was very, very wellreceived in other shows. Free


play areas. Bring along your deck so you can play with other people. So, if you're a Pokémon player, One Piece,


Yu-Gi-Oh, bring your stuff along, guys. Play with other fanatics while you're there at the show. Expert panels,


speakers, and international guests. Thank you so much to Hobby Hangout for your ongoing support.


And we're back and we're going to keep talking about the NBA trade deadline and what's been going on around the league.


It has been a very very busy NBA trade deadline


with the Warriors picking up Chris's Porzingis. They needed to free up some minutes in their big man rotation. The


Raptors needed a big man. So again, this is a win-win trade. Golden State


receives a Lakers 2026 second round pick. Not a huge amount of value on that. The real value ad for the Warriors


here. We're saving them some money on their salary. Trace Jackson Davis goes out. He is a very serviceable big. He's


not overly talented, but he's an NBA caliber player. He's going to fit into the Raptors just fine. The Raptors have


fully embraced the positionless uh basketball this year, and they're a fun team to watch. By the way, guys, if you


haven't watched much Raptors this year, absolutely check them out. Scotty Barnes has been having a great year. Brandon


Ingram's been playing really well. I think they do need a little bit more rebounding though and maybe even just a


big body underneath to give away some fouls. I think that's totally fine. The Lakers traded away Gabe Vincent. In


return, they got Luke Canard. Basically, what you're giving away here is some defense, but you're getting back a whole


lot of shooting. Luke Canard is one of the best shooters in the league. Luke Canard was also in the league at a


time. I'm going to guess that he's on card ladder on their actual ladder. Yeah. 2017. There was actually some


hobby love going into this guy. Population on this


is just 88. All right. Here we go. Is this a buy at the moment? Currently


trading at $28 going to the Lakers. How much bump will this guy get? I think


this is going to be really tricky to buy and flip and make money off it. The only thing I would say about Luke Canard is


that he's going to be going to the Lakers. They will be in at least the first round of the playoffs, probably first round and out.


I think this is one if you got Luke Canard in your PC and you want to move them on. This is more of a timing sale


as opposed to a buy and a sell at the moment. So, check out your your rubbish


boxes. If you've got any Luke Canard in there, get them out, start sorting them, comp them up, put them up for maybe five


or 10% less, move them on quickly as you're going to see a little bit of buzz going on with some Lakers fans trying to


pick up some Luke Canard. I I think that's probably the play right now for this guy. There's not too much more happening there. Chris Paul to the


Raptors in three team deal. Toronto gets Chris Paul. Brooklyn gets Oceabaraj.


And then the Clippers get the rights to Vanja Marinov. I hope I've pronounced


that properly. I'm pretty sure that I didn't. Chris Paul has been waved. He will not be reporting to Toronto.


I don't know who's going to pick up Chris Paul at this point. I think that's a really tricky one. I'm really


surprised about the Abaj one though. I think he's a NBA defender. Would I call


him an elite defender? Probably not. But I think to give him up for


what I suppose really it's an addition though, isn't it?


The the Nets have picked him up for basically nothing


and also got a pick back too. So basically they've taken on salary, haven't they really there? I think the


other really interesting one we have to tie into this now is Cam Thomas because Cam Cam Thomas was let go and the plus


minus numbers with Cam Thomas on the court is really really bad. Basically,


I'm not 100% I've actually bookmarked this, but basically the on-off numbers with his defensive uh rating is is


shocking to to the point that you can't play winning basketball with that. And look, that could be a little bit of him


who he is. I I think that is absolutely part of who Cam Thomas is, but also too he was playing for a contract trying to


get his numbers. So, you know, getting rid of Cam Thomas, bringing in a bar, you actually might see the Nets win a


few more games just because of their increased defensive efficiency around that one there. Jock Landale, we've


already spoken about this here, goes to the Hawks. Utah gets Lonzo Ball two future seconds. There's a report out


that Lonzo Ball's going to be waved on that. Charlotte gets David Tieleman and Cash. Boston gets a second round pick.


Again, a cash saving move for that. Not a lot to talk about on that one there. I'm not even going to talk about the Josh Mino trade there. All right, we're


getting down to the deep stuff. Oh, I missed one. I absolutely missed one. James Harden goes to the Cleveland


Cavaliers. Okay, this is actually worth talking about. James Harden again on his


championship merrygoround trying to find a team that


will give him a championship. I think what he really should have said was he's on a partially guaranteed deal for next


year. The Clippers didn't want to pay him the money, so essentially he's demanded a trade.


I I really hate the spin that sometimes comes in on, you know, some of this stuff. Like just just tell us the truth.


You know what I mean? Like you didn't get your bag. You wanted to get paid. You know, I'm demanding a trade. I I


think that he is lucky in the sense that he found a team that is actually contending and they're willing to give


up a young asset to get him and in that sense I think it's a win-win. So basically the Clippers are getting back


Darius Garland and a future second round pick. I reached out to a Cleveland fan. So


shout out to Ryan from Gem Rate. He was actually happy to see Darius Garland go just because of the lack of size in the


back court and the defensive problems that that actually creates and also too because of the injury history that


Garland has got. He's not that robust of a player. I don't particularly think Harden is that robust either. But in


saying that, maybe some of the stuff he set out was more to do with him not getting what he wanted. So when you've


got a motivated Harden in the first two years of the deal, actually you're on to a really good thing.


I'm not too sure how much this moves the needle for the Cavs. Do they win a championship with Harden? Look, I think


it makes them a lot deadlier, but I think the thing that you cannot look past is Harden's previous performances


in the playoff. He has never been an outstanding playoff performer. And so


I'm a little bit reluctant to talk about this in terms of like a true win for


anybody that has um invested heavily into Cleveland in


terms of their gambling odds for the championship. So I think you'd be happy about it, but I don't think it moves the needle that much. Let's talk some hobby


value here. James Harden 2009 Tops Chrome base, which was numbered to 999.


Can you imagine if base cards were now numbered to 999? It's outrageous. PSA 10


is population of just 64. It's currently trading at 1,800. I actually have no problem with the


value of this card. I I think that the card value is representative of somebody that's going to be a first ballot hall


of famer and if he's not first ballot, he will absolutely get in on his second ballot.


You know, I think the real question is, are you buying, holding, or selling this? And for me, that's a really difficult one to answer because at


1,800, I probably think you could buy something else. It's pretty juicy.


You could get half of a Jordan autograph. You could get a LeBron autograph. You could probably get a Kobe


Patch autograph, maybe on the lower end for that. And so, would I be thinking about that? Maybe. But at the same time,


too, the pop on this stuff is very, very low. He might experience a bit more driving forces moving forward. We can't


not talk about this card though. The refractor number to 500


pop on this is just 24. It is trading at 2,900. For me, that's


really interesting because the intersection between these two cards, like why isn't the number to 500 a lot


more expensive than this? So, actually, you might argue that this one's a little bit undervalued in proportion to the


other one. Number to 999. Again, it's just a question is, do you


want to put this much money into somebody who has some hobby popularity, but is absolutely not a hobby, darling?


I think that's the the one there. So, I for me, this is a little bit of a stay away, but I definitely wouldn't, you


know, poo poo anybody that's wants to buy onto this guy. Do we talk about Darius Garland's hobby value? I think we


do. Is Garland on the ladder? He is fantastic. Thank you, Card Ladder. All


righty. Daryus Garland silver PSA 10.


O population on this is 1,652. Does it go up from his $50 mark going to


Los Angeles? Absolutely not. I don't think this is even anything near


something that you would be hoping to achieve um in terms of someone being


traded to a location to improvement. Are they going to win the championship this year? I mean, geez, I think they're such


a dark horse. It's hard to find that much black paint. Look, I think Kawhi Leonard is one of my favorite players of


all time, but there's just a lot of roster. I think instability now with Zubash going, Garlin coming in. I think


that's too many changes. I'm going to watch some Clippers though. I really want to see how this Garlin Quennon


partnership turns out. I think that could be really nice. And I also think too maybe the chemistry is going to be a little bit higher for the Clippers


because I think there was some weird stuff going on with


Harden and Qui Leonard too. You know, you can't really, you know, look past that. We're going to just do one last


story for today's show and then we're going to sign off. So, thank you everybody who has tuned in to this week. This is a story from Cardub Sports Card


Exchange Australia on Facebook. Cow and JM get a day team. Just curious. The other


week I sent two shipments to the US and they cleared customs fine card stock. I then sold a couple more on eBay and


printed the label from Opost. They've been rejected at customs this week. Has something changed between then and now?


So, the answer is no. Nothing's actually changed in that short period of time, but probably what's happened to you've


been caught up in a customs uh examination. They can't examine every


single card that goes through. And so unfortunately when you don't complete your forms properly, it either triggers


it to be just ushered through and you know you're one of the lucky ones or it gets triggered for somebody to actually


pick it up and look at it. Most likely what's happened to you is you haven't filled in the paperwork properly


and then um it's been returned to sender, which it's a really it's a really crappy


system what they've done on that. But at the same time too, there is actually a process um that's been set up for this.


And I think that the communication around this hasn't been fantastic. And this is where you need someone who is


really u supporting you and also trying to help you out when you are at your


post office. So I'm blessed when I go to my local post office. I actually feel like my my service attendant tries to


get me the best price on postage, will teach me how to save some money on what to buy and all that type of stuff. And


so, for example, too, when a new process is implemented, which is, you know, very poorly advertised and I think, you know,


if we're being uh genuine about what's happened here,


it was ushered in in a very quick sense because of the way that Trump implemented the change. So, there wasn't


a lot of time to to talk about it. So, I'll give them, you know, some time on that. But there's also something to be


said about you getting good customer service at your OSOT. If you're not getting that, what you might not know is


there is actually a process set up for this. You log into your Zonos account. You then step, it literally tells you


what to do step by step. And I'm not saying it's an idiot's guide because, you know, it's not that sort of straightforward. However, once you've


done it once or twice, what you'll find is it's actually all very intuitive in that you just put in your values, it


will create how much tax or tariff that you need to pay and then it will go through. What you need to understand um


when you're shipping is that anything that goes through in an automated fashion is infinitely better when


someone picks it up. And so I I see this in my day-to-day job so much. Like if


you make an error or someone makes an error along the way and it triggers human intervention, it just really slows


everything down. Anything that can be done automatically or by a computer is the way to go. So unfortunately, it's


more red tape for you to jump through pre, but post, you know, you won't have these issues where your cards are being


returned to sender um and then you have an unknown wait period and then the person you're


selling the card to is left in limbo and their cash is being held. you know, it's just a bad outcome all around. So,


Coward, I'm very sorry that this has happened to you. However, there is some


uh light in your in the end of the tunnel on that one there. So, guys, on that note, I would just like to say


again, thank you everybody who's tuned in today. I am Russell Gibson. This has


been the You can't comp this NBA trading card podcast, and we will catch you next


week. Goodbye for now.