I really enjoy on card autos and relic cards where the material is from a specific game. What I really like about them is that there is a story a real tangible connection to a shared moment. On card autos are special to me because the player touched the card and for me, as cheesy as it might sound, I have a connection to her/him. Stickers seem so devoid of a connection for me. The same goes for a relic piece from an actual game.

I wonder why there isn't more story telling in a collectible and the "journey" it took to get to the collectors hands. My most treasured collectible is my Jackie Robinson auto. But why I treasure this is that there was a kid, Calvin who wrote in to Jackie back in 1952 asking for advice. Jackie took the time to respond and sign the card, but what was really neat for me is it came with the postcard and auto, the return envelope with the stamp from Jamaica NY and a postcard picture of Jackie.

I know today's industry is very keenly focus on a cards' value and marketing from Fanatics/Topps et al espouse a hit and its value. I strongly feel this is short sighted and that taking time to tell the story of the card and providing the history of when it was signed and where the relic came from will ultimately create this provenance that will drive value both qualitatively and quantitatively -- just takes effort and the intent.

I know others have posted about this, but it got me thinking about this in a different lens than I had thought in the past. I got this Barry Sanders (which I love btw) as a blockchain redemption in a Flawless break. I redeemed it and thought a bit disappointed that I didn't get the physical card, but if I recall correctly, the Physical version exists, just Panini holds it.

Fast forward to today. I've been moving all my physical graded to vaults largely because of space, security and the spouse aggro on all the space and clutter.

I know folks are divided on NFT/Blockchain. I'm in the camp of its a utility to enhance the physical camp but topic for another day.

Where I think this could be interesting is in breaks and solving the 'friction' of multiple shipping and handling of a card. Imagine a normal break. With AR becoming so advanced, could an application is the digital cards in a rip and the hits just stay in a vault and the winner just gets that card assigned in the vault and on the analytics table (be it a public analytics table or blockchain)?

The other cards, mostly low value hits, I'd just assign to be listed on the virtual marketplace instantly and if you add some game systems of crafting/collecting, one can collect assemble and redeem for exclusive set cards only available to the game system of crafting. Panini has some of these systems currently which I intend to go deep into, the former video game guy in me wants to understand. I think something is here...

I don't know much about the card history for Tennis minus the obvious big ones from Exquisite for Serena. Did a few breaks to learn the product/sport and got a nice one. I grew up watching Bjorn Borg and Agassi, Chang and of course Graf. Got back into it because Serena and Hingis rivalry.

If anyone is a big Tennis nut and likes Novak, hit me up. Happy to do a trade of an old school tennis player!

With the proliferation of auto cards on modern, I've seen some really bad autos with low effort but some amazing ones. I think the vintage players have some of the best autos.

For me: Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson, Andre "the Hawk" Dawson, Sandy Koufax , and Ken Griffey Jr all have beautiful autographs.

Who do you like?

Some new and one old piece that I was told was the concept piece for the Hamilton Star.