"PSA is trying to eliminate Beckett!"

Simon466 puts out some interesting, thought-provoking videos on YouTube. The one I watched on Sunday shared a little nugget that I hadn’t heard before, and the whole video is worth a watch.

The gist is that PSA is adding a new office in Plano, Texas, where Beckett is headquartered, and that this is a sign that PSA is trying to kill off Beckett. Again, the video is worth a watch. He makes some interesting points and arguments.

My reaction is that Beckett dying off completely would be bad for the hobby. And at the current rate, it doesn’t look promising for the former hobby heavy hitter. (That’s a link to my SI article, which lays out a lot of the details.) That would leave CGC, which graded just 12,000 sports cards in September (to Beckett’s 23,000), and SGC and PSA, both of which are owned by Collectors. Those two companies combined to grade 883,000 sports cards in September, or 97% of the sports cards graded by “the big four” third-party graders.

It seems crazy to think that PSA would go after such a small portion of the market. But they could also be trying to force Beckett into a position where they need to sell. And then PSA would own three of the four.

Does the government step in then and stop a monopoly? Doubtful.

And collectors lose, while Collectors wins.

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

After I’ve mentioned Twitter user I Am Meatballs many times, and then did a video about Grand Salami Sports Cards:

I like meat, what can I say?

🎬 Upcoming Videos

I think I am going to start chunking out my ACE100 list to catch up, and maybe do 3-5 cards per video until I get to 50 or so.

I also have an 8-card PSA/DNA return coming on Tuesday. I’m really excited about that one because of a couple of the cards in it.

And my dual-autographed Nolan Ryan rookie comes back from PSA/DNA. I’ve seen the grade already, but I’ll have a video on it.

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

I was thinking about writing a newsletter about hobby budgeting.

Also maybe one with some great responses to my poll about buying Topps Now cards.

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

I especially liked this thumbnail I created. It looks like Nat is staring longingly at the card before increasing the grade to a 10.

And something a little different, where I talk about active MLB players and which of them will make the Hall of Fame:

This was a reaction to Mike Baseball Collector’s video on the same topic, as well as Chris Sewall’s. And what I didn’t realize is that Legends Never Die had done this topic in the spring. In a separate episode, they had covered “the future of the HOF pitcher,” which is something I had discussed in my video. This is my jam, and I need to watch these more. I just get intimidated by long videos.

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

Video coming as soon as I have the card. A PSA 1 went for $170 more Sunday afternoon. I think the 1 looks a little better, but my seller made the crease in mine obvious, whereas the PSA 1 looks like it has one but the photos aren’t as clear.

As a bonus, the seller knew my channel from my eBay name! I think this is the first time this has happened.

I was also eye-balling this Oscar Robertson rookie, and it sold for well under PSA 2 comps, but the stains on the front turned me off. Also, I blew through my card budget already.

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

This section is going to be longer than usual. It’s October, after all!

I watched the first two episodes of Teacup on Peacock and am really excited about it. It feels like the early days of Lost. I just hope we don’t find out at the end that they’re all dead. (Spoiler alert, kind of.)

I don’t want to spoil anything about the show, but it feels a little like Stephen King’s The Dome. (I didn’t watch the show, but I read the book many years ago.)

Then I watched Haunt Season on Amazon Prime Video. At the time, the average rating on IMDb was 9.1 with a small sample size (it has since plummeted to 5.2). I didn’t realize it was so low-budget when I started it, and I’m glad I didn’t know. It starts off good, then really slows down in the middle. Then the action really picks back up toward the end and has a great finish.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Next weekend I’m going to see Smile 2 (I think) with friends.

Horror movie news:

#SaveChucky – Fan Campaign Attempts to Bring the Cancelled Killer Doll Back to the Screen — I support this since the first three Child’s Play movies were favorites of mine when I was a kid.

Mondo Launches New Collectibles Line With ‘Halloween II’ Toys in Pumpkin Packaging

🔗 Links:

87% of eBay's trading card experts 'earn less than a living wage,' say union organizers

I also enjoyed this: Collecting Genius: The Albert Einstein Rookie Card

In “questionable” collectibles news:

Auction house withdraws shrunken heads and other human remains from sale following outcry