Published November 10, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

What we’re seeing in today’s hobby environment isn’t just speculation—it’s short-term memory loss disguised as market excitement. Every release, every “next big thing”, wipes the slate clean and resets what collectors think matters. “Value” has become a 30-day cycle, dictated by hype instead of history.

A community member in our group chat said it best while building a checklist of Chargers cards from 2010–present day—“it’s kind of scary to see how many of these guys are worth almost nothing now”. That single line says it all. We’re watching the same pattern repeat: modern cards of unproven players selling higher than legends who built the sport. How does Cam Ward outsell Joe Montana or Dan Marino? It’s the speculation gap in action—momentary emotion eclipsing long-term logic.

We’ve stopped asking the questions that used to anchor collecting:
On the monetary value front: What has this player actually accomplished? Is this card historically significant? Does it tell a story that will still matter in ten years?
On the intentional collecting front: Do I even like this player or team? Does this card mean something to me? Would I still want to own it a decade from now?

Instead, the questions have shifted to: What’s hot? Who’s next up? Which players are the most “liquid”? The algorithm doesn’t reward patience—it rewards immediacy.

Every era has its handful of “can’t-miss” athletes who somehow miss anyway—crowned before they ever took a snap or dribbled a ball, and forgotten just as fast. Hype made them stars. Time made them comps. Once a headline—now a footnote.

But the truth is, what’s hot right now rarely stays warm for long. When the hype cools, the majority of “must-have” cards fade into obscurity, just like hundreds of players who were once the “future” of a franchise. Collectors who chase the cycle eventually learn the hard way that hype has a half-life—and nostalgia doesn’t apply to things you bought out of impulse.

It’s worth remembering—we’re still talking about people. These aren’t ticker symbols or stocks to short; they’re human beings whose lives get turned into market movements. A 23-year-old quarterback has one bad game and his card prices collapse overnight. A promising rookie gets injured, and investors dump his market before he’s even had surgery. It’s a strange reality—where someone’s healing process, grief, or confidence becomes a data point for someone else’s gain. And while we tell ourselves it’s “just part of the hobby”, that kind of detachment quietly erodes empathy.

So how do we bridge the speculation gap? By collecting slower. By remembering history. By studying patterns. By asking why before how much. The hobby will always have peaks and valleys—but intention flattens the extremes. It’s not about rejecting hype, but re-framing it—seeing it for what it is rather than letting it dictate what we do.

Because hype isn’t evil—it’s just loud and chaotic. Discipline is patient and poised. And in this hobby, patience and poise usually win in the long run.

#CollectorsMD
Don’t chase the wave—study the tide.

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Published November 04, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

In his recent viral post on LinkedIn, Upper Deck President Jason Masherah addressed a topic few inside the industry have been willing to discuss openly: “Everything speculative is up right now—[stocks, crypto, trading cards]—and it’s pricing some collectors out”. As he went on to say, “it works—until it doesn’t”.

Jason Masherah’s viral post captured what many collectors have been feeling but few have said out loud—speculation has priced out the very people who built this hobby. The data doesn’t lie: when 10% of the population drives 50% of spending, it’s not passion fueling the market anymore—it’s privilege.

For years, the hobby has told itself a comforting story: that rising prices mean growth, and growth means health. That the flashier the sale, the stronger the market. That the next record-breaking comp somehow validates the integrity of the ecosystem. But as Masherah pointed out, what’s been growing isn’t the foundation—it’s the bubble.

When boxes cost $1,000 or more, you’re not buying nostalgia anymore—you’re buying into a system of speculation. You’re wagering that the card inside will justify the price you paid. You’re betting on scarcity, hype, and timing. And like any bet, it only works as long as someone’s willing to pay more than you did.

When collecting becomes a wager instead of a wonder, the meaning starts to fade. Masherah’s honesty cut through the noise—reminding us that this level of speculation isn’t growth, it’s fragility disguised as success.

Masherah’s honesty struck a nerve because it exposed what many collectors already feel but rarely admit: that joy has quietly been replaced by justification. That the thrill of the chase has been rebranded as an “investment strategy”. That we now talk about “liquidity” instead of legacy, “ROI” instead of remembrance.

It’s not just about money—it’s about what we’ve normalized. We live in what Masherah called a “new gambling economy”. The same dopamine loops that power sports betting, stock apps, and crypto platforms now power the hobby. If it’s not gambling, it’s breaking. If it’s not breaking, it’s chasing a bounty. If it’s not a bounty, it’s a repack promising “guaranteed value”. And when those numbers start slipping, we call it a “market correction” instead of what it really is—a correction of priorities.

Jason Masherah recently joined Darren Rovell on CLLCTV to discuss the current state of the hobby—rising prices, market manipulation, and the widening gap between collectors and speculation. A much-needed conversation about where the industry is headed—and what it means for the people who actually love it.

The tragedy isn’t that collectors are spending money—it’s that many are losing themselves in the process. Somewhere along the way, the chase replaced the connection. What began as curiosity and community has become a cycle of motion mistaken for meaning, activity for achievement, and speculation for belonging.

As Masherah put it, “What we’ve seen since the beginning of time in this industry is that the market moves—it can move up, it can move down—but when it moves down, sometimes people get burned, and they don’t come back.”

It’s a sobering truth: when the market turns, it’s not the speculators who disappear—it’s the collectors who loved it most.

But here’s where things can change. Masherah’s perspective wasn’t cynical—it was a call for honesty. A reminder that fragile markets don’t collapse because of bad luck; they collapse because of denial. They fall when we forget what brought us here—the stories, the history, the sense of wonder in opening something unknown.

The hobby doesn’t need another boom. It needs balance. It needs leaders and collectors alike to start asking harder questions: Are we building something sustainable, or just inflating another balloon? Are we celebrating connection, or chasing comps? Are we teaching the next generation how to collect—or how to gamble with better packaging?

This is what speculation looks like—an object suspended between luck and loss. In a market where hype determines value, the same card can feel like a win or a warning. The more we gamble on meaning, the less meaning it holds.

The real reset won’t come from regulation or another platform—it’ll come from awareness. From choosing meaning over manipulation. From remembering that collecting was never about what something was worth—it was about what it meant.

Masherah’s words matter because they broke the silence inside the system itself. And if one of the industry’s most powerful voices can say, “This isn’t sustainable”, maybe it’s time we all start listening.

Maybe it’s time we start collecting differently—not for profit, but for purpose.

#CollectorsMD
The future of the hobby depends on what we value more—the cards we hold, or the meaning we give them.

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Published September 17, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

What sells isn’t always what plays—and what plays isn’t always what holds value.

In a hobby engineered around hype and “the chase”, the market often prices narratives over performance. Like clockwork, every single season, a young, hyped starting QB is tagged with a speculation premium—regardless of the box score—or before they even step onto an NFL field. Modern day break culture amplifies it: drip-fed supply, endless highlights reels, and hope outpacing the hard data.

Meanwhile, veteran markets without a fresh storyline tend to soften—unless they’re in that rare unicorn tier—superstars, like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. That’s why proven starters like Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, and Matthew Stafford or even retired legends like Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and John Elway often trail young names such as Bryce Young, JJ McCarthy, and Michael Penix Jr.; the hobby consistently prices upside over past performance.

A few key takeaways to stay informed and ahead of the curve in your collecting journey:

• Youth + Starter + Hype = Liquidity.

• Narrative > Performance (until reality catches up, à la CJ Stroud, or a fresh crop of quarterbacks enter the league; Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, etc.).

• Release cadence (Panini releasing an abundance of high end sets simultaneously) + influencer cycles (various break groups relentlessly pumping players like Trevor Lawrence) shape comps as much as if not more than on-field play.

Cards of young, unproven players selling north of $50K are the definition of speculation—superstar pricing for potential long before there’s even a résumé.

The card collecting hobby isn’t necessarily the problem; the gambling-like risk concentrates in and around break culture and prospect-chasing. Slower approaches—collecting meaningful PC pieces, set building, deliberate purchasing—are more intentional and far less volatile.

Here are a few questions to consider that can help you recalibrate as you navigate today’s fast-moving, hyper-competitive hobby landscape:

• Would I still want this card if the value was cut in half?

• Am I buying the player’s name—or the narrative I want to believe?

• Is this something I truly want and can afford—or am I just trying to keep up?

• If I couldn’t sell for a year—or five—would I be happy owning it regardless of how the player pans out?

For intentional collecting, keep these guiding principles in play:

• Pre-commit budgets and cooldowns before live streams.

• When you feel the urge to chase, choose a “no-spend action” (organize a binder, update inventory, list a card to sell, review the Collectors MD Recovery Guide, or text someone who holds you accountable) and set a 24-hour pause before any future purchase.

• Track outcomes: “hype” buys vs. “intention” buys—what actually brings you joy and satisfaction?

The bottom line: The sports card market can make absolutely no sense in the short term and still be perfectly consistent with speculation. Don’t let someone else’s hype set your compass.

Collect With Intention. Not Compulsion.

#CollectorsMD
In a hype-driven market, let intention be your edge.

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