No matter what our religion, our belief, our faith, our worldview, or many other spiritual-related quandaries, we can all agree on one thing: 

Pope cards will never be worth anything. 

But man… they are cool. 

Why do we collect? Is it to hoard cards for years in hopes they double in value, only to sell them and lose that entire accrued value through fees and shipping costs?  Is it to gamble your hard-earned money away by watching someone rip open packs of cards on a webcam while making highly inappropriate comments? Is there something greater? Could it be some people just collect… for fun?

I can tell you I fall into the final camp. Fine, yes, I will buy Burger King advent calendars and SI For Kids issues in hopes of selling them for profit. But who doesn’t? (Don’t answer that, I know it’s “kids”). But at the end of the day, I buy cards because they’re cool. “Where Monsters Live”? THEY GLOW! Glenn Hubbard 1984 Fleer (check it out on eBay)? THERE’S A SNAKE!! Pope Leo XIV Leaf Metal? PIZZA!!

And it wasn’t just Leaf… and it wasn’t just pizza. As the bells were still ringing in Rome, Topps also announced Pope cards… and I blew my monthly collectibles budget on buying multiples for family members. Although to be clear, the pizza and hot dog are for me. 

I will put them all in a plastic tub, and in five years I’ll rifle through the Pope cards and remember a fun little day of work slowing down and everyone watching the news. Well worth the $9.99 plus shipping!

On to the rankings!

5. Leaf Metal Skyline card – eh. 

4. Leaf Metal Snow card – it was May when the new pope was announced. And I enjoy a holiday-themed card as much as anyone, but it didn’t make sense for a second. Then I thought it was white smoke and someone just mis-labeled it. . But no, it is snow. 

3. Leaf Metal Hot Dog card – I like the idea, and I fact-checked to make sure there was no ketchup, but it felt more stock image than truly Chicago-ey

2. Topps NOW Pope Leo XIV card – I think this will be the eventual classic “official” version. It’s fine, the photo looks great, and it has a good “feel” to it. 

1. Leaf Metal Pizza card – I will regret not buying more of these just to support the creativity of it all. 

A few more notes on “Pope” cards:

1. This guy has too much money or free time to send this many Pope cards to PSA (you may have to read the item description).

2. There IS a Pope Francis “rookie card” — it was given away at Citizens Bank Park when he visited the U.S. in 2015 (Buy it on eBay). 

3. That all being said, the Allen & Ginter 2013 card (check it out on eBay) is an inexpensive way to grab a Pope Francis card that has a great look and feel to it. 

4. More than 134K people purchased the Pope Leo XIV Topps NOW card, making it the best selling non-sports NOW card of all time. 

   
   

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You know what was cool that time has kind of forgotten about? The Mickey Mantle x Topps boxes from 2021 (check it out on eBay). 

The cards had great designs, you had a shot at some pretty valuable stuff… and then it just kind of floated into Cards Ether. 

I often wonder why it never caught on. Were there too many Mantle reprints made over the years as inserts? And so $10 then (and $30-$40 now) for a five-card pack that might ultimately result in five shiny reprints is a bit of a money vacuum? Maybe the chase cards weren’t sexy enough… maybe it just came out at the wrong time? This was peak NFT annoyance on the timeline. 

I bought five boxes at the time. I can’t remember if it was that typical “frenzied chase at exactly noon” or if they were on the site for a few days and you could just pop in and buy at your pleasure. And while the opening experience was fun, I was very much “okay now what?” with a stack of 50 reprints. I’m sure they’re in a tub somewhere, but when I open and flip through they won’t have that same “ah yes remember when” nostalgia of my Pope pizza card. 

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I try to include as much fast food news as possible here, as Mantel’s CEO Evan (who now bylines himself on the Thursday newsletter that he prefers over this one) enjoys it, but… nothing shaking this week, unfortunately. McDonald’s is in its refractory period after the Minecraft run — but they kick off Stitch next week! 

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Random thought of the week: I am glad pins do nothing for me. I never got into them but I can see how one can drop a lot of money on some cool ones.

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By the way, on the whole Mickey Mantle topic, there was a great story in The Athletic about the infamous “vulgar letter” and its current owner: McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. Who goes on to detail his collector-dom. 

I don’t want to speculate on Brown, who I only know through this one column, but he feels like someone who posts on Mantel. Probably. Maybe. Likely. Is this libel?

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Have a good week everyone!! May all your Pope cards arrive in PSA 10 condition!