Hey, we’re in the thick of summer and you know what that means; your buddy J.R. Fickle has been doin’ some thinkin’. 

Yeah, the missus will tell you that when I do some thinkin’ that I often find myself in trouble. But, we’re all friends here, so let’s unload the thoughts rambling around in my brain and see if we’re thinking the same things. 

First, I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about Leaf. Everyone’s least-favorite-favorite trading card company. See, there’s this old David Cross joke about a garbage man who tries to pick up a pretty girl while at work (“come on, pretty pretty”) - the ah-ha moment in the joke being about how the garbage man is just playing the numbers; if I hit on 100 girls at work and 99 of them say “no, well, maybe that 100th chick likes to [curse word] on a pile of garbage.” You see where I’m going with this, right? 

Leaf plays the numbers. Putting out set after set that just makes absolutely no sense, has lazy designs, ugly designs, poor QC, etc. Well, that 100th time maybe they land on a brilliant set like the Benihana collection.    

It’s 11 fun cards for only $25, and in this mini set you have color, parallel, SP, auto hits from some pretty great names - like, Lamine Yamal, Steph Curry, Barry Sanders, pro-bowling legend Pete Weber, and even the Benihana chef himself. 

It’s incredible. It’s not over-designed or hokey, like Leaf is often to do. It’s just good, cheap fun. A way better purchase than the World of Wonder soccer set. 

Next, let’s talk about the Eric Michael Show grifting and shill bidding shenanigans that are making waves across the hobby. If you don’t know who Eric Michael is, well, lucky you. If you do know who he is, well, we need to put our phones away more often, don’t we?

Eric Michael created a live call-in show for his “students” that allows you to buy into his “class” and just like (he pretends) him, you too can make millions of dollars off of sports cards. The whole concept is disingenuous - you won’t make millions, in fact you will almost certainly lose money - but what pisses me off the most is that… I kinda love the idea of a live “call in” sports card show. 

Here’s what I’m thinkin’, though: the guy’s a punisher (aka someone who you get stuck next to at a party and just abhor every word that comes out of their mouth) and he’s terrible for the hobby – except he’s given us the villain we need. Someone to rally around, someone who will punish his fellow punishers much more than he will the hobby community. Hey, maybe we need him more than he needs us?

My newest obsessive purchase has been scooping up as many Olivia Babcock, Bergen Reilly and Harper Murray cards as I can. Yeah, I’m thinkin’ about collecting women’s college volleyball. Why? Because it’s insanely popular.

A couple of quick facts:

Yeah, this feels very pre-Caitlin Clark WNBA collectors moment where you can get in on the ground floor. I recently bought a few of the Downtown-styled SP cards from the ONIT sets. Thinkin’ about maybe getting some more while the getting is still good. 

Speaking of women’s sports, I bought 4 different color variation autos of Sienna Betts 1st Bowman cards; thinkin’ about stopping. Four seems like enough.

Been thinkin’ about how hilarious it is when you look at the “Top Falling” cards over the last 30 days, according to ALT, as of this writing 9 of the top 10 fallers are Pokemon cards and the 10th is Carmelo Anthony. This after the Knicks won a title - people were like, “fuggetaboud him!!” Sorry, Melo. 

Finally, I've been thinkin’ about how Topps can’t help but trip over their own feet. They started off with a banger by announcing that Topps Chrome Update Basketball Mega Box product will ship with the factory seal removed to keep “flippers” from buying up all the product and jackin’ up the prices on the secondary market. The idea to keep the cost of the product “low” so that the regular collector can get in on the fun. 

Funny thing is, Topps then went and priced the Mega Box at $89. I’m old enough to remember when Mega Boxes were considered “expensive” if they were over $50 at retail. That’s $89 for 42 total cards - most of which will be worth pennies. Thanks for the hookup, Topps!

Funnier is, while Topps did this to discourage flippers - if you go look on eBay and check out the sold product you can see that dozens of boxes have already sold on eBay (in the preorder phase) for anywhere from $130 to $239 per box.  

That’s all I’ve been thinkin’ about lately. Thanks for letting me think along with you. If you have some thoughts that are just dying to get on paper then feel free to send them my way. I’m more than happy to lend an ear.