I want to talk a bit about a subject that has been nothing short of controversial. When eBay started their authentication program a few years ago, it wasn’t for cards, it was for shoes. Sneaker collecting had taken off, and fakes were wreaking havoc on the marketplace. The program was designed to root out fakes and prevent buyers from receiving items in a condition that was less than advertised. For the most part, it worked wonders.
Naturally, the idea of expanding the program to other collectibles was part of the plan since the start, as shoes were not the only thing that had issues. Purses, Jewelry, Cards, and other areas of the collecting ecosystem were all markets ripe with issues. Today, I want to talk about the successes and failures of the eBay authentication program because I absolutely hate it, but I also understand why it exists, and why it should continue to be a part of our auction experience – with a few tweaks, of course.
We’ve all been in a position waiting for the email telling us our purchase has been authenticated. Not just as a buyer, but as a seller too. Its a nail-biting experience in many cases because the program is only required when there is a lot of money at stake. Money at stake means emotional attachment, good or bad, and jubilation or madness depending on the result. Most of the time our experience has only been impacted by the amount of time it takes for the item to go through the program, not anything else.
There are a few times where things DONT go as planned, and for most of the people out there, those stories are filled with massive complaints and frustration, my own story included. Now lets start at a point of why this program exists beyond the objectives of it.
The program exists because the average collector has very little education, is impatient enough to buy things without researching, and then blame the wrong people when things go wrong. On the seller side, there is an element of deceit mixed in with the lack of education, which makes things even more complicated. The idea is to prevent the two sides from exploiting each other’s weaknesses without added cost (a key factor here), and make eBay a better place for all.
Where things tend to go awry is more based on the type of buyer and seller rather than the type of item, surprisingly. When a buyer is at the top of the education chain, knows what they are buying, and doesnt care as much about the things the program verifies, the whole thing is just annoying as fuck. Same thing for sellers that act within the means of their market, are honest and have no reason to fear big item transactions.
Because eBay cant police their massive marketplace in any real and meaningful way with established systems in place, they have to create this program that forces unwilling participants into the fold. Basically, they have to cater to the lowest common denominator, and for the most part it seems to have been very successful on their end. That being said, it is not without its faults or ways to navigate a complex buyer and seller relationship cycle.
Some cards are subject to the program and should not be – like why do I need to send a fucking redemption to this program for authentication? That just seems stupid. Others are subject to the program but should have the buyer option of declining the outcome. For instance, if I buy a 1/1 that I have been searching for over a long period of time, I dont want to risk losing it because some rando at an office park in Florida cant verify the condition as advertised, or even give me an option to proceed regardless of their feedback.
That’s the main issue right? If you offer a loophole in the program, it will inevitably create problems because no one will ever read the Ts and Cs. Buyers will opt out and then be upset when something goes wrong. Sellers will be put into extreme situations. Exploitation of the loop holes will impact feedback. Its a vicious cycle of major challenges, and as the purveyors of the world’s largest card marketplace, they should be required to put more thought into it.
Right now, eBay is seen as a necessary evil, because of their unwillingness to adjust any of their identified challenges that exist because they operate relatively lassez-faire of the problems most of us face. Whether its shill bidding, non-paying bidders, or any myriad of hurdles with their auction systems, they dont listen, EVER. Instituting a program like this feels more like a CYA for eBay than a help for the participants in their marketplace, even though I know there is benefit for both buyers and sellers.
The fact of the matter is that eBay is the largest card dealer in the history of the hobby, and they really have more issues with their product than most people should be willing to tolerate. For some large scale buyers and sellers, navigating the woven web of complexity proves to be a competitive advantage for their business, but for smaller casual participants, every hiccup is a giant impact to their collecting experience. Its unfortunate, because eBay has the means and the need to clean up their platform for the millions of items that are sold each week there.
For some reason they dont feel a need, despite major pushback from all areas of their universe. I hate doing business on eBay, and I similarly loathe dealing with people who dont know how the world works. It seems to be a perfect marriage of lack of features and function, as well as a lack of general education that necessitates the program’s extra wait time, and no frills experience when things go wrong. Im sure Im not the only one who feels that way.
I wish there were ways that things could change to better facilitate the buying and selling experience on the site, but I know that unless it has a financial implication to the bottom line, it wont make a difference to eBay enough to fix it. We are stuck here, and Im starting to see why the major auction houses have found ways to incorporate weekly auctions into their business model.
When I started this site back in the mid 2000s, I did so as a counterpoint to the all rainbows and no rain approach of the existing hobby news sources. I felt that the print magazines like Beckett and Tuff Stuff rarely covered topics that didnt make the hobby look like everything was a utopia of collecting, and it inspired me to use my english degree to write about cards. That venture has now lasted 17 plus years of coverage, and Ive seen a lot of things change over that timeframe.
One thing that has remained constant is that hobby news coverage has proven to be more frustrating than informative, with more and more focus on making money for a platform than just covering the news as it happens. I get it though, not many people have altruistic enough tendencies to want to dedicate HOURS worth of work on a piece for no monetary return. Instead, they need to ensure they have revenue, advertisers, and an audience that all enjoys their work at the lowest possible news denominator so that it all can be easy to digest no matter what level of understanding the reader has.
Most of the people on Twitter and IG fancy themselves more advanced and as a result, derivative content that speaks at a base level of understanding seems to be worthless to the people that have the loudest voices. Content that delivers more pointed takes and deep dives into specific areas of the hobby that most longtime collectors appreciate is harder to market, and therefore harder to fund. That begs the question – is there a place for both the base level and advanced level in hobby news? Lets go a bit deeper.
First we have to look at the type of people who have a platform to deliver hobby news given their existing audience. Funny enough, Beckett still exists somehow, and even though their platform has been reduced with a shift away from periodicals in a Barnes and Noble, they have become a checklist delivery device and product sell sheet recount machine. Beckett has always had one of the largest platforms in the hobby, and one of the platforms I have rallied against since the inception of this site. Beckett used to give VERY unrealistic expectations of what the hobby was capable of delivering in value, and I hated that they were the welcome wagon for many new collectors coming to the fold. Honestly, seeing who the welcome wagon is these days, Beckett was better than I thought.
Aside from Beckett, you have people like Geoff Wilson, whose Sports Card Investor persona online has become a lightning rod for criticism as the new point of entry for a number of new collectors who have joined since the boom of the Pandemic. There is one thing that Geoff has figured out, and that style is more important than substance. He figured out, rather ingeniously, that actually knowing what you are talking about is less important than making your content look good. As a result, he has propped himself and his company up as the new face of the hobby, despite many people calling out that this is a terrible idea due to his lack of in depth coverage of some of the major issues out there, and cringeworthy behavior when criticized. It doesnt help that he co-authored a recent book called “Sports Card Collecting and Investing for Dummies,” as most of us think he is the dummy, not the teacher.
I mentioned above that in depth content is what most collectors feel is missing from this space, and Ben Haines (aka Eric Whiteback) tried to step into the shoes that Geoff Wilson tried to fill, while going a completely different direction. The problem is, the platform created by his social media content is just as controversial, mainly because of the way it is presented and monetized. Collectors want a coverage model that speaks to them at their level, and they want someone to deliver it who has been around for long enough to know the grifts when they are evident. The issue is that very few collectors out there are entertaining enough to fill this role, and the time it takes to deliver the content is akin to another job. Most of us have families and jobs, and thats why people like Haines can fill a void – but not without some personal reward in the mix.
Haines recently sold his account to FuckJerry, the aptly named group responsible for the ill-fated Fyre Fest that failed so miserably, it became a meme. There are theories that Haines was hired to run the Topps social media account, a factoid unconfirmed at the moment. This brings me to the next group of news delivery, the manufacturers themselves. For ages, there was UNPRECEDENTED access to the companies that made the cards, something that is unique to this space. Since the boom, a multitude of people have needed that access, so its become less of a back and forth with the actual collecting base. Similarly, the manufacturers have always had a need to focus on the positive aspects of their product for obvious reasons, so their press is predominantly biased for their business needs exclusively.
After burying the lede for so long, lets get to the new player in the game, CLLCT media. This new hobby coverage outlet was formed by Darren Rovell and some partners from Fox Sports, ESPN, and other professional sounding places, aiming to be the first ever pro-journalist run hobby news platform. If you are unfamiliar with Rovell, he is a smug former ESPN reporter on the business of sports, and everything you need to understand about him is covered in this takedown piece that Deadspin posted years ago. Over the course of the Pandemic, Rovell has gotten deep into collecting, and frequently covers his experience on Twitter. He now feels that he wants to start the ESPN of cards and collectibles, and many have wondered how this was going to play out.
CLLCT launched their site and content this week, with articles, videos and podcasts, clearly leading into other media channels that they are looking to bridge. With seed money of four million dollars from investors, they have established an office and are building a studio to accompany a snazzy new website to act as their hub of coverage. This all goes back to the question I aimed to answer at the top of the article, mainly if something like this is really necessary?
Lets separate that from a monetary return here, because this industry and hobby have EXPLODED to a point where there is money to be made in creating a space like this. That doesnt necessarily mean that we want it to exist, or need it to exist, but rather it will exist because there is money available to be made. In fact, that’s always been the problem many collectors seem to abhor, people looking to exploit their interest in the name of making money. Although Rovell definitely feels like he wants to do it for other reasons as well, its almost a moot point. As mentioned above with Geoff Wilson, having good looking content is more of a step towards credibility than accuracy. Hobby participants have always been accustomed to approaches that never put the look and feel up front, and it creates a vacuum where hobbies like Video Games and Cars have entire TV channels to support their experience.
Here is my take on this whole thing. I believe you can absolutely buy your way into credibility in this hobby, as much as everyone would like to think it isnt possible. Collectors love shiny new toys, regardless of their true value to the narrative. CLLCT seems like they have they have the money to expand the conversation to suit their monetization, and also provide some level of storytelling that the hobby has missed at some level.
Additionally, Rovell has an undeniable following, and its clear to me that he does have a platform to increase the number of eyes on cards and collectibles. That is a good thing, even if many long time collectors want to gatekeep the type of people who those eyes belong to. From my perspective, expansion of the hobby is always a good thing, even if the archetypes of new participants dont even come close to matching the archetypes of old. We need to serve more than just one segment of people in all aspects of the hobby, and though the collector segment might be the most vocal, they are definitely not the most populous or most well defined persona in the entire space. Most people identify themselves as collectors, but still have a need to occupy other aspects of what makes the hobby grow. Rip and flip, investing, collecting, all have roots for most. The difference is, a lot of them dont fancy themselves an influencer or content creator.
When we get a year down the road, Im interested to revisit this conversation, because its a controversial one, and its a topic that changes almost weekly. Seeing new entities try to wedge their way in can definitely ruffle feathers along the way, and that always creates a dialogue worth following on social media. The good thing is, there are already a ton of content creators who are committed to delivering a positive coverage experience for hobbyists, and I hope they continue to exist in their space too.
Its been around two years since a box of WWE cards sold for 1000 a box. The last time it happened, the collective mainstream and wrestling hobby absolutely lost their shit. We are talking full meltdown mode, bickering in the community that has lasted to this day, and a market crash that continues to be one of the most controversial topics in the entire history of wrestling cards. There are a lot of reasons why Prizm WWE, which debuted at 1200 a box should have been 1200 a box, as well as many reasons why it shouldnt have been.
Despite these reasons, we are back there again with WWE Impeccable, a product that hit the streets last week, and has been making waves on breaking platforms and eBay. I want to break down some of my thoughts on the product and what to expect now that the market has heated up again.
Recreating the Lessons of 2022 Prizm WWE Pricing
Since its release, Prizm has been responsible for more five figure sales than any modern WWE product ever produced. It is also the only product in wrestling card history to deliver a six figure sale. This tells me that at some level, a 1200 dollar price tag was warranted. Impeccable WWE has none of those things and will never have them, but yet we see a four figure price tag was still pushed by secondary market wax dealers as the market heats up for WWE thanks to a historic run for their TV product and a slew of whatnot breakers who have made WWE wax a focus of their channel.
Even more so, for the first time ever, the WWE equivalent product was originally priced higher than its sister football product. Yes – 2023 Impeccable WWE started at a higher box price than 2023 Impeccable NFL. That is a fucking scary proposition, because at this point in the market, no WWE product should ever cost more than the NFL version. Although there is less of the wrestling version, the value spectrum of hits resides in two different pricing universes. Pricing them on similar levels is just insanity.
As if that wasnt scary enough, Immaculate WWE should continue the trend, given that its a better product, with more valuable hits, and aspects of the product that will be immensely popular among collectors. 2023 Immaculate NFL currently sits at $1249 per box, and I fully expect WWE to be more than that. Absolutely horrifying.
This begs the question – why is the price so high?
There are a few main reasons, and also the same reasons why this price wont hold. First, the allocation of Impeccable WWE seems to be down, even though it really doesnt look like Panini is giving us any information that confirms it. Per the discovery document from the WWE/Panini lawsuit, the case allotments are actually higher than 2022.
Ive also heard blame thrown Panini’s way as the catalyst for the pricing increase, with many posts speculating that Panini had made the product exceptionally more expensive to acquire from them. That also is not true, with dealer cost at $391, very similar to last year’s cost. This would drive expectations that box price should end up around $450-550 per box, almost spot on with last year at a 20-30% markup.
So that brings us to the real reasons why this price is up. The first is online dealers like Blowout, Steel City and Dave and Adam’s. At solicitation, they seemingly drew a price out of their ass and posted it on the site without true reasoning other than they felt the WWE market could support it. For the most part, they were correct. Because of the suffocation of WWE wax due to the lawsuit, many breakers and collectors were starving for product, and like Elite, they knew they could easily squeeze a few extra dollars out of their first pre-sales of the product because of that reason. I dont think any of them expected that price to hold, but when you see the sell sheets delivering gorgeous looking cards, its not shocking that there are breakers and collectors who wanted a piece.
This reason leads into the next reason which Ive explained on a few videos now – online breakers are buying the absolute shit out of Impeccable. Back when 2022 Prizm was released, there were no channels on Whatnot delivering breaks like we see today. As of last count, I saw 18 different channels offering Impeccable WWE breaks on their page. Because they can move slots at a much lower cost per collector, they can support a huge case price. Also, with many of them buying product directly from Blowout and DA, its no shock why the online retailers put the price where it was.
Lets be 100% honest. If Blowout put Impeccable out there at last year’s box cost off the bat, it would have been gone in the blink of an eye. The market is hot again. They are a business and their goal is to make as much money as the market can support.
A Gorgeous Set All Around
There is one aspect of Impeccable that has made me a fan since its inception in the NFL back in 2017 – its one of the best looking products Panini makes. Every card in the set looks great with the artistic approach to designing a set that stands apart from the other sets. Its motif is gallery art, and it delivers in spades. Canvas like stock, painted strokes in the background, and themes around watercolor and the beauty of the work.
If anything, there is not much to complain about here, because Panini absolutely has found their path in creating high end products long ago. The addition of jumbo patch autographs and legend focused signature subsets add to the allure of the design, but the cloud of high box price continues to loom over the set since day one.
Last year’s set was absolutely stunning as well, and I think its a big deal when you see how the product has evolved year over year. Even the base cards look tremendous, which is saying something, considering how incredible they looked last year. The base set might have been the best of 2022, and in 2023, it might be again.
The one thing that Panini has never had issues with is photography, and I think that is actually a gigantic improvement this year, as they have designed the cards with more differentiated approaches on the photos included across the many subsets. Just looking at the Indelible Ink subset Kane and Undertaker cards should be a defining example of how a photo can make a card that much better. Base card photos of Zelina Vega, Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley and others all have amazing shots. This brings eye appeal to an already fun design.
Going back to 2022, there was no bigger attraction than the Impeccable number cards celebrating returns, championships and Wrestlemania appearances. This year, Panini has done a good job on a follow up to these absolutely stunning cards, and they remain some of the most beautiful WWE cards there are. Adding in some additional 1/1s and low numbered examples will hurt set collector approaches, but add huge value to the overall market.
Content Improvements Over Last Year
If you are going to expect people to pay the increased box price, content needs to be adjusted to make sure that the ask doesnt fail. There are elements of this set that are different than 2022, and for the most part, they are absolutely awesome.
I already talked about the addition of Jumbo Patch autos, which were a big plus seeing the way box breaks can shake out. Huge spaces to display the colorful relics that adorn many of the WWE shirts sold on their online shop, and much like Topps Dynasty in Baseball, its fun to watch box breaks online just to see what pops out.
Panini also made it a point to include WWE logos on the 1/1 elegance relic autos, which feature a smaller swatch, but a great design that should make the better ones some of the most valuable cards in the product. This new approach to creating memorable 1/1s for the product is a key development in Panini coming to WWE, and one I am excited to see go further as we get to products like Immaculate. I think using the WWE logo as a chase is something that has created the most valuable cards in the NFL and NBA spaces, as well as all other sports, so its good to have that carry over to WWE.
Major Drawbacks Besides Price Still Exist With the Product
As good as I think Impeccable is from a look and feel perspective, there are major issues with the release, all likely stemming from challenges over the summer with the lawsuit. The most impact comes in the form of checklist and autograph signings, which by all accounts seem to have gone exceptionally well over the last week at Wrestlemania. Outside of that, it seems like a good portion of the checklist was built a long time ago prior to the delays that were put in place, so outside of the addition of CM Punk to the base set, some major names are just not present.
There is no hotter name in WWE than Tiffany Stratton, and she is basically absent from this entire product. Other names from NXT, some key legends like Trish Stratus, and others are missing from the auto checklist as well. Couple that with other issues, and I can see where collectors would be upset.
As with every Wrestling product, redemptions can be a hairy situation. Topps struggled tremendously with them in the last year of their deal, and Panini has not had much of a different experience. When a product is built on hard signed cards, its inevitable that any delay in the signings will result in redemptions. It happened with Elite, and it has happened again with this product too. Here is the thing – Panini has done a pretty good job in filling what they can. Immaculate redemptions seem to be coming back on a really nice return rate, and previous sets have had good performance outside of a few repeat offenders.
If you are holding a 2022 Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Triple H, or Charlotte Flair redemption, your wait times have become basically unmanageable. They arent the only ones either, but they are big enough names that its a problem. Now, would you rather have no cards of those people vs having a redemption? Personally, the answer for me is always “Im patient enough to wait as long as it takes.” For others, that might not be the case, especially given the value of these cards. The good thing is, the redemptions do hold a high enough value that you are able to sell them and buy live cards if you so desire.
The bottom line is that people overreact to redemptions in this hobby as a whole. Its just the nature of the beast. Ive been around long enough to understand what is going to happen anytime the subject is brought up. There are hard line individuals who want rid the products of redemptions, and I think that is just as laughable as any take that is out there, especially if you are part of the anti-sticker crowd as well. Card manufacturers have budget timelines to hit, signing timelines to hit, and revenue targets to hit – their product calendars are designed to support those things because they are a business. As CM Punk famously said on his return, “Im not here to make friends, Im here to make money.”
Given that is the situation, their primary target they work towards is that minimum guaranteed licensing cost that all card manufacturers owe to their licensors. More importantly, the hobby seems to have zero issue with the things going down right now. We all still sell out the boxes, and we pay for the singles. As long as that is the case, there is no incentive to change.
Its also not as simple as the childish call to action “PEOPLE JUST NEED TO STOP BUYING.” Mainly because that is such a fucking stupid way to look at it – we have a better chance of the Eclipse causing the apocalypse than people stop buying. In my experience there are two things that need to be better from the companies, education and information.
The average collector still thinks they are getting actual news from customer service when they call in to ask about their card instead of script to handle the hundreds of people they deal with. Providing real information about signings and autographs will help to inform collectors and deflect calls from an overwhelming customer service agent staff. The second is providing more understanding of how cards get signed, and some of the reasons why redemptions are required.
Lastly, the replacement process needs to improve, and I have said this since 2004. Twenty years later and fucking points and worthless sparkle packs are still the best Panini has to offer. Topps just switches out cards without true understanding of market value. Both are terrible approaches. Until this aspect changes, nothing else matters.
The Verdict
If I have to boil down my thoughts on Impeccable to a final paragraph, I think its harder for this product than any other wrestling product Ive usually taken to here to review. The cost is such a deterrent in terms of the perceived joy of ripping this product. Remptions are an issue, checklist is an issue, but the cards look absolutely awesome, and the content is improved. Pros and cons considered, I think Impeccable is a solid product, but will be blown out of the water by Immaculate. Because we wont see Immaculate until later in the year, I think its something that can easily hold our attention as long as the cost comes down to earth. Wrestling on TV is on fucking fire, and I cant see that as anything but a positive towards the card market. I hope we see as much growth here as anything.
If you watched the end of Wrestlemania and didnt walk away feeling like something fresh was starting, I dont know what to tell you. Everything about the extensive run of the Bloodline remains one of the best, if not THE best wrestling story ever told. Seeing Cody Rhodes hold that title as a new champion for the first time in about 4 years is just a weird but emotional feeling. Not only that, but multiple other new champions were crowned, and we even got a brand new signature open for the program, which was beyond cool in its own right. This feels like the start of a new era, and I must tell you, I am almost more excited to see what comes next than anything.
The End of the Story
Seeing Samantha Irvin, the ring announcer for WWE, struggle to get her announcement of Cody’s win across to the fans is something that showcases how special this moment really was for all involved. This was a historic win, a match that featured a good 3/4s of the WWE Mount Rushmore, and a close on Roman Reigns’ incredible journey as the Tribal Chief. If anything, I think people were just as happy for all he had accomplished as much as they were for Cody to finally get his time on top. The celebration in the ring was something we have never seen on WWE TV before, and it was deserved. The call to keep the belt on Roman another year after WM 39 was the right one, and it paid off in spades.
From a hobby perspective, Roman has seen incredible value increases since the beginning of 2022 and rightfully so. He remains one of the most decorated performers in WWE history, and I would say that even though his cards are insanely expensive already, they are still undervalued. He will continue to be a part of WWE’s movement going forward, and lots of the story with the Bloodline should continue. I think Roman should be in the discussion of top valued stars for a long time to come.
Cody’s cards have had some major ups and downs since his return to WWE, and I think that like Roman, he will see some nice increase in his value as the man to dethrone the Tribal Chief. The main issue is that many of his 2022 autographs are still outstanding redemptions, and that hurts the value with no live cards. For 2023, most of his stuff is live, and after last night there were some interesting sales, but I would expect that as breaks of Impeccable start landing with collectors, they will see some increased value across the board.
As for the Rock and other focuses of this last chapter of the bloodline’s run, he showed this week why he is the Great One. Not only did he put on a great performance in the main event of Night 1, but he also was a primary focus leading up to the show. He was must watch TV every time he was on, and I think we all felt a little bit of that electricity now that he wants to be back in the fold.
His cards have been a controversial topic over the last two years, but undeniably the most expensive. His six figure sale from 2023 will sit alone at the top of the mountain for YEARS to come, and we can all still hope that he will eventually sign for Panini or Topps. Even crazier, as if the fates had decreed his return, Leaf released the first autographed cards of his for the first time in almost two decades, and without much shock, sold for crazy money. I doubt any of his performance here sullies that value, and if he eventually does sign some licensed cards, look out.
Mami is Still On Top
I think there were two predictable outcomes from Wrestlemania, the first being Cody’s win, and the second being the continued run of Rhea Ripley as Women’s World Champion. Let me put this as bluntly as I can possibly put it – as big as Cody Rhodes will be in the future of this company, Ripley will be just as big. I cant state this enough, she is such an incredible presence in WWE, and I expect her to be the top of the mountain when its all over.
Despite Becky Lynch’s best selling book, Rhea remains the champion in one of the only belts not to change hands over the weekend, and even as one of the biggest Becky fans out there – it was absolutely the right call. Even though Becky was noted as having a fever and strep throat through the whole week, they put on a great match to open night one, with Mami eventually getting the job done. Rhea continues her dominance until likely next year, and I think that will be a really fun reign to see carry on. Lots of stones left to overturn.
Prior to the Panini era, WWE cards were dominated by the women, as pervy collectors treated most of the women like Benchwarmers type releases. Their male counterparts saw very little to no value outside of the attitude era stars like Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin. That has changed dramatically, but not completely. All that being said, Rhea Ripley remains one of the top valued stars on any checklist and she undoubtedly deserves it.
I think she also had one of the most interesting weeks from a hobby perspective as well, joining the Fanatics Live stream (as many did) during the festivities at WWE World. As part of the giant convention, Fanatics had many of the WWE’s biggest names sit and sign with them as fans looked on and bid from the crowd or from the app. Multiple pieces of cut up and autographed mat from night one were sold, and multiple pieces sold at close to four thousand dollars to create a new benchmark for items auctioned in this format.
As for Becky Lynch, I think there are a number of question marks on her future, as her contract seems to be up in the next few months. Although I never expect her to leave WWE, I definitely expect some major changes to happen as she continues down her historic run as well. Much to the chagrin of my bank account, her cards are among the most valuable out there, and as her role fades and people like Rhea and Tiffany Stratton shine as the new faces of the company, I think her value will remain high alongside the new guard.
A Woven Web Of World Title For CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins and Damian Priest
Before the end of the main event of night 2, there was no bigger story in wrestling than the return of CM Punk to WWE after a 10 year absence. Right after Thanksgiving at Survivor Series, Punk shocked the world by appearing at the end of the broadcast, setting in motion a CRAZY path to Damian Priest ending up with the title coming out of Wrestlemania.
Without spending pages of text breaking down the story, the feud between Punk, McIntyre and Rollins was absolutely the best TV every week. Actually, let me clarify that – Drew McIntyre has been the absolute best TV each week. There has been no better man on the mic through this whole thing, and I was actually rooting for him to end up with the belt when the music stopped and chairs were filled. Drew has struggled since his own title reign ended during the Pandemic era, and he has found a new life in every part of his game since the Royal Rumble. With his contract coming up, and no solution in sight, he is on a list of people that I absolutely want to see more of in WWE, especially if they are going to let him feud with Punk to its ultimate end when healthy.
In terms of his hobby future, I still dont see much of a change for Drew McIntyre, even though he should have some really good numbers across the board. The fact is, he is a victim of the situation I explained above, where modern champions dont get the love they deserve in this hobby. His cards are cheap as shit, and they shouldnt be. Now a three time champion, he should have more value to his name than he does, and I hope he eventually gets it.
Seth Rollins has been a staple on WWE TV for a long time, and his run as the Visionary has gone from an unexpected gangbusters success to a supporting role in Cody’s story. Rollins played a key part in the weekend, even bringing his Shield betrayal of Roman Reigns full circle. Much like McIntyre, his hobby value doesnt come close to reflecting what he deserves, but I feel that as the time moves on in cards, that could change. If he retired today, he would be a first ballot HOFer, and that’s not up for debate.
Lastly, Damian Priest is the new champion, and I feel torn. I love what he can do in the ring, but he is about as boring a character as can be. Ripley has been the focus of the group, and Priest has always just been there as a peripheral member from a story perspective. However, his work with Bad Bunny during their story has put him in this spot, and winning MITB this year has been a focal point for their group. The issue is that he feels like a placeholder for now, even though Triple H loves long reigns in his booking, and that will hurt his run in the same way that it hurt Iyo Sky’s run. Unless they find a new direction for him to go, Im not bought in at all for him.
Overall, this weekend was historic in a lot of different ways, and I think history will look kindly at this being both a culmination of the previous era and the start of a new one. We heard multiple times this weekend that this was now Triple H’s show, and that is 100% truth. He deserves an absolute mountain of credit for what he has done, and I think Wrestling Cards have and will continue to see massive correlative results from his booking. To borrow from his catch phrase – ARE YOU READY!?
Let me set the stage. Its 1am, the kids are in bed, the night is over, and you have just finished binging the latest show on Netflix. Things are boring, so you log onto Whatnot to see if there are any breaks going on to keep your interest before going to sleep. Shockingly, multiple rooms are up and running, with close to 100 people viewing and/or participating. You enter one of the rooms, greeted by a full heads up display of craziness. Two guys are on camera in gaming chairs, and the rest of the screen is a still shot of an LED screen with snazzy graphics behind a wall of weird looking boxes with insane names on them.
On the screen is a slider bar where you can bid on any number of things that are flashing across the screen. “Pick 3, choose 1!” a giant dancing astronaut boogies across the screen. The number assigned to the item jumps into the multiple hundreds of dollars, and the buyer spits out numbers which corresponds to cards in a stack. Its all a blur, but after about an hour, all the boxes on the screen get ripped open, and the cards sent to their respective buyers.
This experience is now a major hub in the hobby experience for many people out there. I have affectionately named it the “24/7 Card Casino” not only because of what the experience reminds me of, but also because of how it operates. Hundreds of millions of dollars of product in one space, running at all times every single day of the week. They sell everything from boxes, to cases, to singles, and more, sometimes in formats that might be like learning craps for the uninitiated.
Before I get into my own understandings, let me spell out how insane some of these rooms have gotten. Because products like Prizm and Flawless in the NFL and NBA have become so expensive to obtain, many of the breakers are unable to sell enough slots in an old fashioned “pick your team” setting to run breaks through an entire cycle. Therefore, many have resorted to buying single cards in bulk, grading them, and repackaging them into products of their own. They use these self architected products as a way to get people to buy into a break for just about every product that exists.
Now, when you decide to start gambling in the card casino, most users have to engage in gambling style game, where the host will have a deck of cards with teams to choose out of a large stack. Each card has a city’s worth of teams, so the Minnesota card would have the Vikings, the Timberwolves, and the Twins on it. Because the repack products are multi sport, all teams need to be represented, and this allows the breaker to make it more easy to determine which buyer gets what card broken.
In the past, breakers would sell teams based on the amount of cards they have in a break, and assign a relative value derived from the total cost of the case, plus fees and shipping. Now, the boxes of product being broken almost have as little value in the break as anything, because the repacked boxes from the breaker themselves are almost always the focus.
Its a pretty ingenious way to offset the need for a constant flow of product that is becoming borderline unmanageable in costs because of how many people want access to each allocation of cases released by the manufacturer. Creating your own product becomes a sustainable venture for growth, as long as people continue to trust the results of what is shown on camera.
This is where things get really complicated, as if they weren’t complicated already.
Most casinos are HEAVILY regulated by a gaming commission. Of course there is still an illusion of regulation upheld by the major houses in Vegas, but for the most part, if you go to a casino anywhere in the world, it is usually under scrutiny by some sort of governing body, from the whale spending millions to the casual gambler spending a few dollars, or even just eating in the buffet. This is oversimplifying it grossly, but for the sake of this post, lets digress from the minutiae of the matter.
When it comes to the online card casino that Whatnot has become, there is almost no oversight. There is no regulation outside a set of rules delivered from the owners of the platform. More importantly, so many of their major breaking outfits that are on the platform have had issues, that many collectors have sworn to never go on the platform again. Backyard Breaks, one of the pre-eminent “companies” (in quotes for a reason) has been brought before the hobby social media tribunal so many times that its become a meme. They have been accused of stealing from consumers, rigging breaks, and all sorts of other nefarious things, with seemingly NO repercussions from the overall Whatnot platform oversight. If you go on at 4am on a Sunday, they remain one of the active rooms at all times.
The scariest part is that Whatnot provides tools that seemingly could have impact on oversight, things that these major breakers could use to give more of an illusion of oversight, but few of the rooms actually use the tools. The wheel has become a staple of this entire scenario, where “random” spins determine a team or a player for a slot purchased. Whatnot has a native wheel built into the technology for their platform. Few, if any, of the big rooms actually use it, opting for showing laptop screens or using decks of cards they shuffle casually like a friendly game of poker at your buddy’s house.
Its crazy to believe that there are actual people that trust these breakers to provide a fair and equitable gaming experience, using tools that are befitting of a house game, not a card break with 10k worth of product in one fell swoop. In fact, I believe that the few hundred people who read this will be as shocked as I am, only because the people who have a normal and critical thought process around experiences like this are not the target market for big breaker rooms on whatnot.
The market most of these rooms align to is the same market of people who love daily fantasy sports, love betting on games, and have little interest in actually collecting the cards they “win” from these breaks. Im over generalizing here for a reason – this class of people in the hobby is loathed by most of the circles ive surrounded myself with over the last 10-15 years. Most of the collectors out there see these gamblers as vermin, infesting the hobby they love and making it generally uninhabitable. The problem is, the members of the old guard are generally outnumbered 10:1 by this new class of hobbyist.
In fact, Fanatics seems to be leaning quite heavily into the category themselves, launching their own breaking platform, and offering five figure bounties when big cards are pulled in their rooms. Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics, has infamously claimed that he wants to “10x the hobby.” Well, they seem to believe that catering to the gambler tendencies many collectors have displayed is the way to do it.
I actually dont disagree there. We all are gamblers at heart, especially if it comes to wax and opening packs. Ive said on this site before, there is no better legal rush in life than pulling a huge card from a pack. The dopamine release from that card being revealed in your hand is enough to have people chasing dragons for life.
The main issue that I see here is just a lack of oversight and a lack of trust. Allowing people to police their own money making schemes is a power no one should have, especially given the amount of money being traded here. Because the rooms run all day and all night, its impossible to keep track of what is going on, and because the packs are built by the breakers with no transparency, the collectors just have to trust that these packs deliver. Word of mouth around quality of content doesnt really impact much either, because all it takes is one big hit to get people back on board.
If that isnt enough to turn your stomach, most casinos are required to have some level of mental health staff on hand to monitor abuse and mitigate potential disaster. In all seriousness, it likely only helps to a minor degree, but its there. Entering into a platform like this, with no support for the tragic tendencies that tend to accompany a gambling addition may even be illegal at this point.
Although the card casino operates in a gray area between true gambling and goods/service, its without a doubt something that deserves more operational criticism than it gets. More importantly, the big rooms operate on a level I refuse to participate in, only because its not my realm of collecting. I absolutely participate in the lower levels of the platform with Wrestling Cards becoming a staple of the small niche I do operate within. The difference there is that most of the rooms at my level seem to operate very closely to the way things used to be – for now.
That being said, its hard to avoid the snazzy animated graphics and in your face marketing of the big rooms that fund the platform. I would even venture a guess that the embedded relationship between breakers like Backyard, We The Hobby, and others is noticeably light in regulation for a reason. They realize that right now, all parties involved should continue to expect golden eggs from their golden goose until things get too far down the wrong path.
If and when newly interested parties like the government and other regulatory bodies do get involved, either through a class action lawsuit or just general interest given the money changing hands, Im curious if the card casino will need to change. Right now, trusting my thousands of dollars to a bunch of college kids who are breaking to make ends meet seems a bit of a stretch. But for hundreds and hundreds of people out there, it isnt.
This is the hobby now, and though there are still major breakers out there still grinding away the old fashioned way, its becoming more and more difficult to ignore the way this platform has changed the face of the collecting mindset.
