Howdy, Collectors.

The trading card market somehow managed to set records again in April, with Card Ladder tracking more than $616M in secondary-market sales and GemRate logging a record 3.1M cards graded, according to The Athletic’s Ben Burrows.

I get the same question all the time from collectors… are we in a bubble? This much I’m sure of… nobody knows! But I’m encouraged about the state of this Hobby, as the big dogs continue to invest for the long haul (e.g. Fanatics signing an exclusive deal with FIFA that doesn’t kick in until 2031) and as collectibles news seems to always be circling around the front page (GameStop’s bid for eBay, anyone?). Even our buddy Josh Luber popped up on the Today Show this week.

So are we in a bubble? What do I know? But it sure feels like The Hobby has wind at its back.

GameStop’s attempted $55B takeover of eBay lasted about as long as it takes to be disappointed by a repack unveil. eBay officially rejected the proposal, calling it “neither credible nor attractive,” while Wall Street largely treated the entire thing like a fever dream from the meme-stock era. The biggest issue was always financing: GameStop is dramatically smaller than eBay, the debt load would have exploded, and analysts questioned whether Ryan Cohen’s promised cost cuts would gut the marketplace itself. Cohen has signaled he’s not moving on, however, so we’re certain this is not the last time we’ll write about the topic here in Above the Mantel.

PSA says it prevented more than $200M worth of counterfeit collectibles from entering the market in 2025, which shows just how widespread fraud has become across sports cards and TCG. Pokémon cards accounted for the majority of counterfeit submissions, while iconic cards like the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle and 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan remained major targets for scammers (a free, probably obvious, tip: be extra careful when offered raw copies of grail cards). PSA also noted that counterfeiters increasingly focus on lower-tier cards with simpler printing technology, rather than just ultra-high-end grails, which should make all of us a little nervous.

At the peak of the early-1990s card boom, Fleer’s Philadelphia factory was producing cards so valuable that employees allegedly tossed boxes out windows to waiting accomplices, while uncut sheets and cases quietly leaked into the market. The Olney plant, where iconic cards like Michael Jordan’s 1986 Fleer rookie were printed, became a neighborhood institution and symbol of the junk wax era’s excess. Former employees recalled a factory culture where baseball cards felt “like gold” until overproduction, the 1994 MLB strike, and collapsing demand turned truckloads of inventory into what collectors now call junk wax. A cool story about a bygone era of sports cards.

Nikola Jokic’s hobby market finally hit seven figures after his 2015-16 Panini Immaculate Logoman RPA sold for just over $1M at Goldin, putting him alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander among modern MVPs with monster card sales. But the spread between (active) former MVPs is massive: Giannis leads the pack at $1.8M, while Joel Embiid and James Harden trail far behind despite their on-court accolades (I can guess why). The common thread? Logomans still rule the hobby. MVP trophies help, but true 1/1 patch grails remain the cards that push players into another pricing tier.

Beckett is leaning hard into nostalgia with a full brand refresh that brings back its classic “B with laurels” logo while retiring the much-maligned B-Star branding. The company also unveiled a redesigned grading label with larger grades, cleaner subgrades, and upgraded anti-counterfeit tech including holographics, UV details, microprinting, and QR-based verification. Coming just months after PSA parent company Collectors acquired Beckett, the move feels like an acknowledgment that the brand lost its identity over the last decade and is now trying to reconnect with the trust and credibility that once made BGS slabs a cornerstone of the hobby. You love to see it.

I’m a huge Dodgers fan, so I especially loved this piece from J.R. Fickle that alerted me to the amazing story of Patrick Copen, who might be the best under-the-radar buy in 2026 Bowman Draft. The Dodgers pitching prospect has elite strikeout numbers, a strong start at Double-A Tulsa, and one of the wildest stories in baseball after returning from an injury that permanently blinded him in one eye. Despite that, his cards are still dirt cheap because he hasn’t cracked the mainstream prospect conversation yet. There are risks — some scouts project him as a reliever and the Dodgers rotation pipeline is crowded — but this is exactly the kind of low-cost, narrative-driven prospect play collectors usually notice way too late. This is not investment advice, but I’m going to be a buyer.