Good
Actual card shop/business owners were used for parts of the film and give great first hand accounts from the perspective of shops.
They gave a brief behind the scenes view as to what goes into making the cards, specifically the game used/patch cards Clear explanations of certain hobby terms, meanings, etc.
Hobby vs Retail SKUs Grading (great visuals on what to look for) Population Reports Accurate description and coverage of the downsides to issues such as retail flippers and buying wax on eBay Geoff (Sports Card Investor) actually admits first hand that not all of the guys he expected to do well worked out and that is IS a gamble Explanations as to why this is not a repeat of the 90s card market crash Steve Aoki REALLY likes collecting and comes across as more than just the "influencer" tag most people (myself included) have given him This review was written while listening to Steve Aoki's Neon Future II
Bad "If you had taken $1,000 from one of the stimulus checks the government sent out and put it in the sports card market. You would've had $10,000 or more less than a year later" -Geoff Wilson While not entirely wrong, this is a wild oversimplification and flat out not true for a lot of people.
"The ONLY reason the sports card market took off was because of me" -Vegas Dave Already one of the most oversized egos in the hobby (and world), showing and featuring him does nothing to help this.
PARTIALLY true because he does have a broad platform which will inevitably bring more eyes in Too many absolutely insanely egotistical (and false) claims by Vegas Dave to list When talking about a card selling for $15,000 they show an eBay ASKING price on a card even though there are plenty of examples of actual sales in that price range It's in an HGA slab (nitpicking, I know) It's not even an actual Bowman auto, it's an aftermarket auto and not an accurate representation of the Bowman market So, so many terrible dramatizations that don't even say they're dramatizations Includes a fake box break when actual box breaks videos were used throughout the film Interview camera angles switched sides (again, personal nitpicking) which is just a no-no for camera work in interviews. Rich Layton appeared to be talking to himself at times because of the camera angle switches "I limped in, I had a dealer send me $100,000 in cards. Diversified box." -RobG Some people have it like that, and that's great. All of the high end talk in this film shows a huge disconnect between the average collector and those in the film "I'll never understand vintage. How can a guy's card go up when he's in the grave, dead." Wildly naive for someone that is portrayed in the film as the guys that knows it all He doesn't "believe" in vintage even though it's a LARGE part of the market Introduction of the "iconic" rated rookie logo and the first card they show as an example is a card from Origins which has no Rated Rookie logo on it "Not once have I bought a raw card." -Vegas Dave Earlier in the film he claims to have been making $1,000 a week selling cards when he was 12-13 which was before grading even existed (nitpicking but still a bad look) A card is cracked from a PSA slab to be submitted with SGC and it is the most terrifying crack of a graded card I have ever seen in my life When talking about Panini blockchain technology, the closest box is a 2016 Topps Update Series jumbo box
Summary While I believe this project was started with good intentions, I feel as though it only showed a very, very small window into the hobby and that window is far away from the common collector.
Overall Score: 3/10.
They gave a brief behind the scenes view as to what goes into making the cards, specifically the game used/patch cards Clear explanations of certain hobby terms, meanings, etc.
Hobby vs Retail SKUs Grading (great visuals on what to look for) Population Reports Accurate description and coverage of the downsides to issues such as retail flippers and buying wax on eBay Geoff (Sports Card Investor) actually admits first hand that not all of the guys he expected to do well worked out and that is IS a gamble Explanations as to why this is not a repeat of the 90s card market crash Steve Aoki REALLY likes collecting and comes across as more than just the "influencer" tag most people (myself included) have given him This review was written while listening to Steve Aoki's Neon Future II
Bad "If you had taken $1,000 from one of the stimulus checks the government sent out and put it in the sports card market. You would've had $10,000 or more less than a year later" -Geoff Wilson While not entirely wrong, this is a wild oversimplification and flat out not true for a lot of people.
"The ONLY reason the sports card market took off was because of me" -Vegas Dave Already one of the most oversized egos in the hobby (and world), showing and featuring him does nothing to help this.
PARTIALLY true because he does have a broad platform which will inevitably bring more eyes in Too many absolutely insanely egotistical (and false) claims by Vegas Dave to list When talking about a card selling for $15,000 they show an eBay ASKING price on a card even though there are plenty of examples of actual sales in that price range It's in an HGA slab (nitpicking, I know) It's not even an actual Bowman auto, it's an aftermarket auto and not an accurate representation of the Bowman market So, so many terrible dramatizations that don't even say they're dramatizations Includes a fake box break when actual box breaks videos were used throughout the film Interview camera angles switched sides (again, personal nitpicking) which is just a no-no for camera work in interviews. Rich Layton appeared to be talking to himself at times because of the camera angle switches "I limped in, I had a dealer send me $100,000 in cards. Diversified box." -RobG Some people have it like that, and that's great. All of the high end talk in this film shows a huge disconnect between the average collector and those in the film "I'll never understand vintage. How can a guy's card go up when he's in the grave, dead." Wildly naive for someone that is portrayed in the film as the guys that knows it all He doesn't "believe" in vintage even though it's a LARGE part of the market Introduction of the "iconic" rated rookie logo and the first card they show as an example is a card from Origins which has no Rated Rookie logo on it "Not once have I bought a raw card." -Vegas Dave Earlier in the film he claims to have been making $1,000 a week selling cards when he was 12-13 which was before grading even existed (nitpicking but still a bad look) A card is cracked from a PSA slab to be submitted with SGC and it is the most terrifying crack of a graded card I have ever seen in my life When talking about Panini blockchain technology, the closest box is a 2016 Topps Update Series jumbo box
Summary While I believe this project was started with good intentions, I feel as though it only showed a very, very small window into the hobby and that window is far away from the common collector.
Overall Score: 3/10.
