My 2025 Predictions For Sports Cards, Revisited

A year ago I published my 2025 hobby predictions, and now is a great time to review and assess them.

I’m not doing a traditional 2026 predictions post or video*, despite the popularity, because it would be pretty repetitive: more corporate consolidation, more ways for the big companies to get your money and you to end up with little, and more scams.

Let’s look at my 2025 predictions one by one:

• A newsletter network: did not come true, as far as I know. -1 point

• A sports card YouTube network: did come true, sort of. Sports Cards Nonsense sprouted up. And despite me saying I would not be a part of one, I did start one with Graig of Midlife Cards and Adam of Splendid Sports. Neither is quite what I described, but they both fit. +1 point

• Hobby ESPN show: this did not happen, but I do think we’re closer today than we were a year ago. -1 point

• One major flipper will disappear from YouTube: this is a tough one to assess. I’m not familiar with all of them, and am not sure if any stopped. Sports Card Radio did drop off of YouTube, but they’re not flippers the way I intended. 0 points

• No migration from Twitter to Bluesky: this is difficult to believe now, but at this time a year ago everyone was saying the migration was in full force. I went against the grain and said it wouldn’t happen. Can I arbitrarily assign myself 10 points here? +1 point

• Mantel will become more prevalent: this did happen, through their hobby awards they gave out as well as their partnership with Cllct and Yahoo. +1 point

• PSA will continue to Amazonify themselves: this very much did happen. Here’s what I wrote then: “While I’m not sure that their goal at this point is to gain more market share in grading cards, they can definitely grow their business through their collaborations with eBay, and likely introduce more partnerships elsewhere. The end goal is for you, the card collector/seller, to more easily buy cards, grade them, and sell them, from start to beginning. And for PSA to make more revenue from the entire process.” Pretty accurate. +1 point

• Collectors (PSA & SGC’s parent company) will start making changes at SGC: again, this very much happened. A lot of people didn’t like or believe this prediction, but it was year two of the merger and it seemed obvious to me. +1 point

• Smaller graders, specifically HGA, would go out of business: another tough one to assess, but HGA was just purchased after being inactive for over a year. Their new parent company? Not someone anyone has heard of, and they don’t seem to have existed much prior. 0 points

• PSA will not move to AI/ML in a meaningful way: as far as we know, they haven’t changed anything on this front. +1 point

• Beckett will take a big swing at PSA: this one is hilarious now. -1 point

• More corporate consolidation, like Collectors buying SGC in 2024: yeah, that’s more like it. +1 point

• Gambling will continue to be a big problem: yes, yes, yes. +1 point

• There won’t be more calls for regulation because too many of the bigger people are profiting too much from it: yes, yes yes. +1 point

• Fanatics will continue to increase production & prices, and because of the aforementioned gambling problem, people will continue to buy it: is this two predictions? They both came true. +2 points

Results:

• 3 wrong

• 2 undetermined

• 11 correct

Net: 8 points

This is so easy when you make semi-vague predictions and then audit yourself!

*I will be talking about 2026 with Chris Sewall on Sports Card Clubhouse, to be published probably Monday

This Is Some Great Research

These Videos Really Spoke To Me

🎬 Upcoming Videos

Other than the typical ones, I have a fun one about a Carl Yastrzemski card.

🎙️On the Pod

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

My top 25 cards:

And a fun new Attic Find Friday:

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

I had a massive, massive week of buying cards. My upcoming mail day videos are going to be so fun. Here’s a teaser:

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

I went into my vacation week having watched 49 horror movies against my meaningless goal of 52 for the year.

To get me there, I ended up watching:

Annihilation (3.5 stars) — slow burn but I liked it a lot.

The Plague (4 stars) — really enjoyed this way more than I expected to!

The Plague: Anarchy (3.5 stars) — again, enjoyed it way more than expected

And it wouldn’t be a good staycation without some classics:

Die Hard (4.5 stars)

Home Alone 2 (3.5 stars)

Plus I watched:

Bugonia (3 stars) — really enjoyable until the weird end

Wake Up Dead Man (3.5 stars) — a lesser but still very enjoyable Knives Out mystery

Then, after 2026 started, I watched these:

The Housemaid (4 stars) — one of the best thriller books I’ve ever read, turned into a movie starring Sydney Sweeney? Yes please!

The Purge: Election year (3.5 stars)

The First Purge (3 stars)

Did I watch too many movies on my vacation? No such thing.

My Favorite Horror Movies I Watched In 2025

These are the 8 horror movies I watched that I rated 4.5 stars or better:

• Speak No Evil (5 stars)

• Companion (4.5 stars)

• 28 Weeks Later (4.5 stars)

• Eden Lake (4.5 stars)

• Bring Her Back (4.5 stars)

• Saw (the original) (4.5 stars)

• World War Z (4.5 stars)

• 30 Days of Night (4.5 stars)