The Buyer of the 1979-1980 O-Pee-Chee Case of Hockey Cards Is Bored With His New Toy

Have you ever bought the last of something in a store and someone came up behind you and was disappointed that they didn’t get it? Did you feel empathy for them and want to give it to them instead of getting it yourself? That’s what has happened with the buyer of the case of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, according to CBC Saskatchewan.

For a primer on this story, watch my video on it, which is one of my more popular videos ever:

Jack Arshawsky, a real estate agent in Ontario, has paid for $3 million of the $3.72 million purchase, and has decided after hearing a Heritage Auctions executive talk about how disappointed an under bidder was, that he wants to find a true collector to sell the case to.

Arshawsky, who, according to Sports Collectors Daily, inherited his money when an uncle passed away and is not a collector, has reached out to the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Drake to see if they want to buy the case for what he paid for it, but there’s no word on if he asked Heritage who were the disappointed under bidders so he can offer it to them.

Arshawsky has a Gretzky rookie — raw — but apparently no other cards.

He says he chugged four Red Bull energy drinks during extended bidding in order to stay sharp. Don’t chug energy drinks and bid on things you don’t want.

He also, very peculiarly, says he thinks his “true soulmate” was a girl he met in grade school many decades ago, and he’s considering giving the case to her as a gift. I can find no evidence of a follow-up question about when he last spoke with this soulmate.

Nellie Moulton was my soulmate in second grade at Williams/Cone School in Topsham, Maine. I haven’t seen her or spoken to her since she moved away during grade school. I’m trying to imagine gifting her something — anything! — now, almost 40 years later, and how weird and awkward that would be.

Unusual Newsletter This Week

I hadn’t planned on releasing a newsletter this week because I’m away on family vacation, but a) I need far less sleep than my family, so I end up sitting awake in a dark and quiet hotel room by myself and have time for this, and b) I added a ton more subscribers and want to keep my routine going.

I’m hoping to do one video this week, but otherwise not much else. I haven’t taken any time off from my channel in 3 years. It’s not work to me, so I’ve never felt the need to. But this is my first family vacation away and I won’t have time to do any videos.

I intended this to be an abbreviated newsletter, but still wrote a lot.

PSA Takes Over eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee

Somewhere last week (maybe this newsletter), I talked about my source telling me that another shoe was going to drop soon on the eBay / Collectors / Goldin news, but my source wouldn’t tell me what it was. I thought about it and then tweeted this out on Thursday:

Danny at Hobby News Daily has since confirmed this to be true:

PSA takes over the raw card AG from CGC. So here’s how I see this working:

You buy a $250+ card from eBay. It goes to PSA for authentication. PSA will try to upsell you on grading the card. And then you can vault it with PSA or list it for sale on eBay. You will never take physical possession of the card. One-stop shop.

Danny adds this other detail:

It sure is convenient. I’ll share when I know what the price structure is going to be.

Speaking of which, I was on Hobby News Daily to talk about the PSA / eBay deal:

Slabbing Sentimental Cards

I saw this tweet this weekend:

This was probably slabbed for sentimental reasons. A card that meant something to someone and they wanted it protected. In the responses to the tweet, he points out that it’s for sale so it couldn’t have been too sentimental, but I think that’s irrelevant. The original slabber may have passed away, or they need money now, or the sentimentality wore off.

It’s a cool card and there’s probably a cool story behind it.

YouTube Channel Highlights From the Past Week

Friday morning I wanted to do a video but didn’t have a topic and didn’t have time to do research and editing. Then I was watching a Splendid Sports video on grading cards and realized I had the perfect topic:

That video is closing in on 4,000 views, which is pretty solid.

I did a video on a Facebook Marketplace collection I was dying to buy:

And my big pickup of the month:

My Pickup Of The Week

I shared this on Instagram and on a video, but I paid $13 + shipping for a PSA-graded 1960 card of one of the greatest American track & field stars ever. Big W.

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