Published September 20, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

When tragedy strikes, the marketplace rarely pauses to reflect—it rushes to capitalize. We’ve seen it too many times. A card that sold for $20 yesterday suddenly soars to $400+ the next day, not because the ink or cardboard changed, but because the life behind the image has ended.

Recently, that’s been the case with Charlie Kirk’s lone “licensed” card. His untimely passing turned a once-overlooked collectible into a 20x inflated commodity overnight.

This cycle is nothing new. When Kobe Bryant tragically passed, his cards and sneakers spiked in value within hours of the news. The same happened after Hulk Hogan’s shocking death earlier this year, as collectors rushed to grab anything tied to his legacy. We saw it again with NBA icons like Jerry West and Bill Russell, whose passings instantly transformed once-accessible collectibles into scarce, highly priced assets. Rickey Henderson—another legend whose passing shifted grief into profit—showed yet again how quickly the market turns loss into leverage. Even Pete Rose, despite the controversy surrounding his career, became the subject of frenzied buying when he died.

Time and again, we’ve watched grief transform into a marketplace feeding frenzy, where memorabilia and artifacts shift overnight from mementos of admiration to vehicles of profiteering. And it doesn’t stop at cards—sneakers, signed items, ticket stubs, anything tied to the individual becomes fuel for speculation the moment their story comes to a tragic close.

When loss turns into listings, ‘eBay greed’ shows us just how quickly tragedy gets priced and sold.

Profiting off of tragedy and loss is the lowest form of greed. What’s most unsettling is how normalized it has become. Entire ecosystems of buyers and sellers move like vultures, circling grief as if it were just another arbitrage opportunity. And yet, it’s not so simple to assign blame. Are the sellers wrong for listing at inflated prices, or the buyers wrong for validating those prices? Both sides play a part in turning mourning into market movement.

At its core, this phenomenon reveals something bigger than supply and demand—it exposes the hollow space where intention should live. The hype doesn’t care about legacy, memory, or respect. It cares about profit. And in that vacuum, the line between celebrating someone’s life and exploiting their death becomes disturbingly thin.

As collectors, we have to ask ourselves: What’s the cost of chasing cards tied to tragedy? What are we really honoring—our love for the athlete or entertainer, or our hunger for profit? Because if it’s the latter, we’re not collecting with intention. We’re speculating on loss. And that, more than anything else, should make us pause and seriously reevaluate why we’re in this hobby in the first place—and what we truly want from it.

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When the market feeds on grief, our responsibility is to ask whether we’re honoring a life—or exploiting a loss.

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Published August 26, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Last week, a disturbing story broke from the Little League Baseball World Series: offshore betting websites were offering lines on games played by 12-year-olds.

Team managers rightfully called it “dirty” and “inappropriate”. Little League International formally denounced it, reminding the world that youth sports are meant to teach teamwork, integrity, and joy—not serve as fodder for betting platforms.

Like sports cards, baseball starts as a childhood pastime—a defining moment of joy, growth, and identity. But when greed, profit, and exploitation insert themselves, the innocence shatters fast.

The kids think they’re just playing a game. But behind the scenes, grown men are betting on every catch, swing, and stolen base. Youth sports are meant to teach these young individuals teamwork and resilience, not fuel gambling markets.

What struck me most about this news is how eerily familiar it feels. It’s the same erosion we see in the hobby when the culture shifts from passion to profit, from story to speculation. A space that once belonged to children and dreamers becomes a marketplace for greed. When the thrill is monetized at every turn, we risk hollowing out the very thing that gave it meaning in the first place.

At Collectors MD, we often talk about endless chase. Offshore betting on Little League games is a grim reminder of where unchecked greed leads. The stakes climb higher, the bar keeps resetting, and what once felt pure becomes transactional. If this can happen in youth baseball, is it any wonder it happens in our hobby too?

The question we each have to ask is simple: what are we really chasing? Is it joy, nostalgia, connection—or just another “win” to mask stress, boredom, or the fear of missing out?

Because at the end of the day, if we don’t pause, reflect, and reclaim our clarity, the game stops being a game. The cards stop being stories. And suddenly, what once felt like pure, innocent joy begins to feel like captivity—dictated by the predators and bad actors who profit from it.

#CollectorsMD
The game is supposed to be for the kids. But unapologetic greed keeps stealing the spotlight.

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