The Short Print

    In what should be the pinnacle of baseball’s historic rivalry, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are set to face off in a highly anticipated World Series. Fans are gearing up for a showdown between two of the most storied franchises in Major League Baseball. But let’s be honest—most people don’t care who wins. What they really care about? The sports cards. With Shohei Ohtani now suiting up for the Dodgers and Aaron Judge still holding down the fort for the Yankees, collectors across the globe are ignoring the games and frantically refreshing eBay listings, desperate to secure the latest cardboard gems featuring their favorite players mid-strikeout or maybe chewing gum in the dugout. “I Haven’t Watched a Game Since 2019,” Admits Collector “I mean, sure, it’s cool that the Dodgers and Yankees are playing,” said Greg Martin, a lifelong Yankees fan who has meticulously avoided watching any actual baseball since discovering sports card trading. “But did you see that ...

  Forget about cash, it's all about trading cards in the new economy! In a move that has shocked both the financial world and anyone who thought Beanie Babies were the peak of speculative absurdity, trading cards have officially replaced traditional currency in 2024. As of last week, major grocery chains across the U.S. announced that they will now accept Pokémon, sports, and even Magic: The Gathering cards as legitimate payment—because who needs cash when you’ve got a mint-condition Charizard? The shift, sparked by economic instability, inflation, and frankly, sheer boredom with paper money, has collectors everywhere scrambling to assess the current market value of their junk drawer treasures. Charizard: The New Benjamin Franklin “Honestly, I was just trying to buy a gallon of milk,” said Samantha Jones, who first discovered the new payment system while grocery shopping in Kansas City. “The cashier noticed the 1999 Charizard in my wallet, and next thing I knew, I’d covered my groc...

  Topps has once again set the card-collecting world ablaze with their latest release of Topps NOW cards, commemorating every single thing Shohei Ohtani does in a Dodgers uniform and Paul Skenes’ rise to stardom with the Pirates. Fans of both players are scrambling to keep up with the near-hourly drops, which now range from highlight-reel home runs to “minorly impressive batting practice swings.” Ohtani’s Day at Dodgers Blue Brings Historic Levels of Topps NOW Cards Since his controversial signing with the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani’s Topps NOW presence has reached unprecedented levels. What started as a tribute to his historic two-way skills has now turned into something bordering on the absurd. Every time Ohtani even breathes in a Dodgers jersey, Topps is ready to drop another card. “We couldn’t resist,” said a Topps spokesperson, while casually unboxing the 348th Ohtani Topps NOW release of the season. “Fans demand it, and Shohei’s done a lot since joining the Dodgers. Just last ...

  Who knew that the pharaohs were avid collectors in their afterlife? In what might be the greatest discovery in the history of cardboard — or archaeology, for that matter — self-proclaimed sports card collector and amateur archaeologist Randy “SlabMaster” Jenkins claims to have unearthed a hidden chamber of ancient Egyptian tombs containing rare Pharaoh rookie cards. According to Jenkins, the stash includes never-before-seen mint condition cards of iconic rulers like King Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, and Ramses II. “This find is massive for both the card-collecting world and ancient history nerds,” Jenkins declared, standing proudly next to a plastic binder filled with 3,000-year-old pieces of papyrus, each depicting the likeness of a famous Egyptian pharaoh. “I always knew there had to be some ancient parallels out there. I mean, who wouldn’t want a rookie card of Ramses the Great?” King Tut Gem Mint 10: The Holy Grail of Antiquities? The most prized discovery of the lot? A PSA-grade...

  Friends Secretly Place Bets on When He’ll Admit Defeat   In what can only be described as an inspiring display of delusion, local collector Greg “CardKing87” Thompson is continuing to insist that purchasing an entire case of 2023-24 Prizm Basketball was a “brilliant investment” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Thompson, 34, spent his entire tax refund and part of his daughter’s college fund to secure the 12-box case, convinced it would propel him to sports card stardom. “It’s just a matter of time before these rookie cards blow up in value,” said Thompson, holding up his 17th Isaiah Todd base card, which he’s now framing as a "hidden gem of the future." “You don’t understand the market, man. The real collectors are playing the long game. I’m just sitting on a goldmine waiting to explode.” Thompson’s confidence appears unwavering, despite the fact that most of his box breaks have yielded more base cards than the junk wax era. His prized pulls so far include th...

  In a shocking turn of events that no one saw coming (except literally everyone who’s been paying attention and Sports Card Radio ), the sports card market has crashed harder than a PSA 1 on eBay. Once prized cardboard treasures that fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars are now being repurposed as coasters, doorstops, and in one particularly tragic case, a makeshift birdhouse. The collapse happened overnight. Collectors woke up expecting their 10x returns, only to find their prized 1-of-1 Luka Doncic rookie worth less than a pack of gum from 1993. "It’s like the entire market just… vanished," said one distraught collector, staring at his mountain of slabs. "One day I was a cardboard king. The next, I'm using a BGS 9.5 Patrick Mahomes to prop open my bathroom door." The Great Panic of '24: When Dreams of Flipping Became Nightmares of Tripping It all began last Tuesday, when a mysterious and poorly understood algorithm (probably running on a server locate...

      Welcome to the year 2050, where sports card collecting has finally achieved the levels of insanity no one could have predicted, except, of course, for those of us who knew the hobby would eventually turn into a sci-fi fever dream. Gone are the days of cardboard and paper stock. In the future, no true collector is satisfied unless their cards are holographic, implanted with AI, and capable of having full conversations with their owners. And why settle for static images of athletes when you can own a card that emotionally bonds with you and critiques your fantasy league choices in real time? The Rise of “Living” Sports Cards It started innocently enough. First, there were the 3D lenticular cards in the 2020s. Then came the animated NFT cards, which led to the inevitable: fully sentient, interactive hologram cards. Panini's latest release, the "Eternal Rookie Series," allows you to talk directly to a holographic version of your favorite athlete, who responds with pre-...

     I bid you much ado with our special guest writer today: Act I: Scene I – The Bard’s Study, whereupon Sir William doth contemplate his newest obsession To collect, or not to collect—that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous eBay auctions, Or to take arms against a sea of Topps, And by opposing, end them. To bid, to win— No more—and by a bid to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To bid, to win— To win—perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub, For in that win of cards what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. Alas, dear sirs and madams, hath I—William, the Bard of Avon—become ensnared by this newfangled vice most seductive: the collecting of sports cards! Verily, 'tis a passion most perilous, for I find myself more entranc...