These Cards Are Breaking Their 2021 Bubble Highs

[00:00:00]Hi, YouTube people. Yesterday we talked about how the price chart just keeps going up. The monthly sale volumes keep going higher and higher and higher.

[00:00:12]And what I was curious about today is what and this is not an all-encompassing list. I I just looked at some pretty popular cards to see what I was curious was what has actually broken past its COVID highs from the pandemic and what is still way off the mark.

[00:00:39]And a lot of iconic cards are now selling for more today than they did during the COVID boom.

[00:00:48]And there are still some that haven't gotten anywhere close to it and there's a weird divide there.

[00:00:53]So that is what we're going to dive in and talk about today, but first shout out to today's video sponsor the Penny Sleave. Grading shut down, what are you supposed to do?

[00:01:03]How about just put a nice mag on it.

[00:01:06]Penny sleeve that bad boy, put it in a top loader. Or maybe you're still sending in for grading and you need and you need some semi-rigids and some penny sleeves to protect them. Head on over to the Penny Sleave, use code Neo 2026 to get 10% off your first order.

[00:01:23]High-quality supplies, great stuff over there at the Penny Sleave. Head on over and check them out. So first, we're going to dive into Market Movers link in the description down below.

[00:01:35]Let's look at some cards that have in some cases blown past their COVID level highs and then we will look at some that are nowhere close in a lot of cases and there like I said, you will notice there's one exception to this but for the most part there is going to be a trend here.

[00:01:57]Uh, first, we have the iconic 2000 Bowman Tom Brady in a PSA 10.

[00:02:02]This card, at the peak of the COVID boom, was selling for 15k. That's where it topped out at. Now, keep in mind, a lot of these peak sales are February of 2021. February of 2021, Tom Brady won his last Super Bowl. So, you can see what happens here as this thing goes from here to here. Part of that's COVID boom, part of that is Super Bowl.

[00:02:22]And then, you can see it retraces all the way down. It bottoms out at around, uh, let's just call it like 5k, give or take. Today, it is $16,000.

[00:02:34]Most recent sale, 16k. There's actually some that got up to 18k.

[00:02:39]So, it has surpassed its COVID level boom.

[00:02:43]This one is crazy. Kobe Duncan Go Nuts, 1998 classic card in and I pulled a BGS 95. And for the for the grade choice here, I tried to pick pick things that sell fairly frequently.

[00:02:58]So, BGS 95, there's a lot of these in BGS copies. Back during the pandemic, this card in a BGS 95 was going for about 5k in February of 2021.

[00:03:10]Today, $16,000.

[00:03:14]15.7 to be exact. If you think that's crazy, prior sales to that were around 10k, 11k. Uh, what do we have here? We have a 12k. So, plenty of sales at 9, 10, 11, 12k plus, dwarfing the pandemic highs.

[00:03:32]Next, one we talk about a lot, the Jordan Scoring Kings, PSA 9.

[00:03:38]Back during the pandemic, peaked at about 4k, let's call it. 3.8, we have a 4k there. There's one rogue 5k. There's a 3.5. So, let's just call it 4K.

[00:03:52]Back in February of 2021, today that same card sells for $9,000.

[00:04:00]So, more than double what it was going for at the quote-unquote peak of the sports card market.

[00:04:11]This is one that breaks the mold a little bit.

[00:04:14]We've had a couple of We had the Tom Brady as like a quote-unquote base rookie. And then we had two inserts. And now we are back to a base rookie in the '89 Upper Deck Griffey.

[00:04:24]Back during the COVID boom, it was selling for just north of 5K. Today, 5.5, 5.6. Now, this one has not It's basically gotten back to where it left off.

[00:04:39]It is not It is not blown past it like the Scoring Kings did, but it is all the way back to where it was at the very peak of the COVID bubble. Next, 1998 Jordan Round Ball Royalty Refractor in a PSA 9.

[00:04:56]Back during the COVID boom, $1,500.

[00:05:00]Today, $3,700.

[00:05:05]$3,700.

[00:05:06]So, 3X almost what it was during COVID.

[00:05:10]Last but not least on this list, the 1992 Stops Topps Stadium Club Beam Team in a PSA 9.

[00:05:18]During the COVID boom, this bad boy was going for a little over a thousand bucks. Let's just call Let's call it 1,200.

[00:05:25]Today, 3K. Multiple sales over 3,000. A lot of sales over 3,000 over the last couple of weeks.

[00:05:34]A 2,000% increase.

[00:05:38]So, a couple of things you notice here.

[00:05:40]One, inserts performing extremely well.

[00:05:42]We have four inserts on this list. We have two base cards. The two base rookies, the Griffey has basically gotten back to where it left off, slightly higher. The Brady is also slightly higher, couple of like 10% higher than where it was in the COVID boom. But what you are seeing that has huge increases are insert style cards. We have three Jordans and a Kobe.

[00:06:12]Let's look at some things that have not come anywhere close.

[00:06:17]And you're going to notice a trend on these.

[00:06:19]These are all just straight their primary rookie card.

[00:06:24]Now, we do have one refractor in here, but one of the craziest ones on this list, the Magic Irving, Bird in a PSA 9.

[00:06:35]During the COVID boom, we have one sale at $90,000.

[00:06:41]We have others that are lower leading up. We have 30k, we have a 50k, we have a 75k, a 90k, and then it dips back down again a 72, uh a 45, a couple 45s, and then it stair-steps its way back down again.

[00:06:57]This card eventually bottoms back out at around 10, $12,000.

[00:07:03]Today, it is at 20,000. So, a nice rebound from where it was at the bottom of the market, but nowhere close to pandemic level pricing.

[00:07:14]86 Fleer Jordan, PSA 8.

[00:07:17]During the COVID bubble, topped out at 25,000.

[00:07:23]Today, 17k.

[00:07:26]So, still has not got back to that very peak of the market. Sale prior to that 25k, we have a 19k and a 21k.

[00:07:37]So, it still hasn't even gotten back to those numbers. LeBron PSA 9 Refractor.

[00:07:44]It's the light blue line. Peaked at about $60,000.

[00:07:50]Today, just under 20. 17,000 is where LeBron PSA 9 is. Once again, this card bottomed out I don't know the exact bottom, but 7,500 you could have got one of these for 8,000, 9,000, 7 and 9K you could have got one for anytime in this wide swath, which we'll talk about here in a second.

[00:08:12]Jerry Rice PSA 9.

[00:08:15]Currently selling for $4,000.

[00:08:17]During the peak of the market was at about 5.5K.

[00:08:23]Joe Montana PSA 9 currently at 3.5 thousand.

[00:08:27]Back during the COVID boom, just over 5K.

[00:08:31]And the 1996 Topps Kobe Bryant in a PSA 10 currently sitting at $2,200.

[00:08:39]Back during the COVID boom, this thing got a little bit crazy, was just short of $10,000.

[00:08:45]So, that one is way behind.

[00:08:48]That one is the furthest behind by a wide margin.

[00:08:52]This card did bottom out at under $1,000 if you bought during the lull period.

[00:08:56]Let's talk about that lull period.

[00:08:59]Basically, anything from the summer of 2023 to the summer of 2024, if you bought any all-time card during that point, you are way up.

[00:09:16]Even this stuff that that hasn't fully rebounded yet. If I change this price chart and [clears throat] we go Let's change this to July 1st, 2023.

[00:09:27]And here, even on the stuff that hasn't reached COVID levels, and you can see some of the stuff even dips a little bit cheaper in the summer of 2024. Uh we have the Bird Magic up 20%, the Jordan up 180%, the LeBron rookie refractor up 160%, the Montana up 30%, and the Kobe tops up 123%.

[00:09:53]If we go back to the previous and look at the ones that have well surpassed their COVID highs, and let's do the same thing. Let's switch this to July 1st, 2023, and look at the percentage gains from there, they get crazy. The Tom Brady up 200%, the Kobe Bryant Duncan Go Nuts up 522%, the Scoring Kings Jordan up 300%, the Griffey Upper Deck up almost 200%, the Jordan Round Ball Royalty up 200%, and the Beam Team up 400% percent.

[00:10:31]So, once again, those style of cards have greatly outperformed the more true rookie of these types of players, and that is the one thing that I noticed from this list.

[00:10:44]The more insert/iconic cards have been what has outperformed everything else. Not to say that if you bought this stuff in the in the summer lull of '23 and '24, you're still living great.

[00:11:01]But, if you bought at peak of COVID, you're still not back there yet. This stuff, if you bought at the peak of COVID, you're still up even from the peak of COVID. You know, if I switch this again and back this stuff off to February of 2021, let's just look at that real quick.

[00:11:21]We'll change this to February 1st, 2021, and look at this, we still see green across the board. Now, we're we're running this from the all-time highs of the COVID bubble. The Brady's up 28% the Kobe's up 213% the scoring Kings is up 140% the Griffey is only up about 5 to 10% the round ball royalties up 260% and the beam team is up 178% from the quote unquote peak of the COVID bubble.

[00:11:53]Whereas if we did the same let's do the same thing over here with this stuff that has not performed quite as well.

[00:12:00]Still doing pretty good but let's go back to February 2021 on these and we see red across the board.

[00:12:07]The Bird Johnson down 73% 86 Fleer 30% down LeBron refractors 75% down Rice down 30% Montana down 30% and the Kobe down 64%.

[00:12:23]So we see a clear divide here between the quote unquote boring old rookie card versus the insert chase whatever you want to call it on this type of stuff. There are two exceptions the Brady and the Griffey. So is this stuff here way overheated?

[00:12:44]Are these types of cards still potential buys? I don't think these ever get back to COVID level pricing. I don't think this Bird and Magic is getting anywhere close to the 75 to 90k number. That's just nonsense.

[00:13:01]But in this market you know we talked on Off Centered this past week about how heading into the national I don't I don't even really know what I'm looking for. The prices are so insanely high on this stuff. I don't know that I'm willing to pay them.

[00:13:16]You know there's some stuff that I wouldn't mind owning on this list but do I want to pay these inflated prices?

[00:13:22]You know are we in the you know the classic are we in like the fourth inning or are we in like the eighth inning?

[00:13:28]Am I going to look back and say I missed my window again in 2 more years when this stuff keeps going up, these more iconic cards?

[00:13:37]Or am I going to look back and be like, "Ah god, why did I buy that at the peak of the market again? And now look, I'm in the red again and I got to wait this out again. Like, what am I doing? Am I that big of a dummy?

[00:13:48]Or am I going to be the dummy that looks back and says, "Ah god, why didn't you just buy the damn card? Now it's three times even more expensive and now you really can't afford it. Now you really don't want to pay for it. Like you had the opportunity back then, but you you you held off." Which is it?

[00:14:02]Once again, like I said yesterday, no none of us really know.

[00:14:05]But it is interesting to see this difference between the inserts versus the more classic rookie card and how these types of cards, these regular old rookies, got overheated during COVID.

[00:14:22]The inserts got heated, but not as much. And now the roles have reversed.

[00:14:30]So, should we be selling these cards and running to buy these?

[00:14:35]Is it it's not really popper port related. Like, this stuff's pretty rare.

[00:14:39]This stuff's pretty rare in the grades that I pulled.

[00:14:45]I don't know.

[00:14:46]I don't know. Is the draw for the '90s and 2000s inserts that crazy that people are battling in the streets over Beam Teams and Scoring Kings and Dunk'n Go Nuts?

[00:15:01]God, I don't want to see what you know I had that Vince Carter PSA 10 Dunk'n Go Nuts for a long time. I made a nice little profit on that card, but I can only imagine what something like that would sell for today. Card was clean. It was clear as a bell.

[00:15:14]I don't know. I don't have all the answers. I don't have any answers here.

[00:15:16]I'm just pointing out what the market's doing.

[00:15:19]Curious for your thoughts and comments down below as always.

[00:15:23]Catch you on the next one.

[00:15:24]Peace.