Happy Hobby Sports Cards Podcast · David Gonos

🎙️Happy Boxtober! Celebrating Several HUGE Sports Card Releases! - Ep. 2.40

·43 min·2 clips

Topps Basketball returns for the fourth time, with Cooper Flagg as the chase card and a lower hobby-box price.

October is the main event. David Gannis opens by treating the month like a collector holiday, tossing around names like Boxtober, Hobtober, and Cardtober while baseball, hockey, basketball, WNBA, and baseball prospects keep filling up the calendar. The timing matters. He points to the MLB playoffs, the push toward the World Series, the start of the NHL and NBA seasons, and the just-finished WNBA finals as proof that the hobby gets busy when the sports calendar does. Budget is the filter. He keeps coming back to the idea that the show is for collectors working with limited money, so every release gets weighed against what actually feels worth buying. Topps basketball gets plenty of attention. He walks through the presale pricing for hobby and jumbo boxes, then compares that with last year's Panini basketball products to show why the new license feels like a different kind of entry point. The gap is the story. He likes that Topps basketball can land well below the Panini hobby-box price point, and he frames that as good news for bargain collectors who want in without overreaching. Cooper Flagg enters the picture. David notes how Topps' NBA rollout lines up with Flagg's arrival and jokes that the timing feels convenient. He keeps moving. From there he runs through recent rookie-year context around Anthony Edwards, Lamella Ball, Zion Williamson, and Victor Wembanyama, using those examples to think aloud about which classes have held up and which ones have not. Wemby gets his due. He says a cheap rookie stash on Victor Wembanyama looked smart, especially now that the health concerns have eased and the ceiling still looks huge. WNBA still matters. The episode finishes by pointing listeners toward upcoming WNBA singles and rookie cards, including numbered singles for Beckers and Caitlin Clark, and he says he will likely write more about the 2025 Don Russ WNBA rookie cards to collect. It lands like a checklist. David closes by asking what listeners are most excited about and inviting comments by YouTube or email, so the whole thing ends as a conversation starter rather than a sales pitch.

As heard by us

A budget-minded look at October's packed sports card releases.

October lands as one of the busiest stretches for the hobby, and David Gannis uses that moment to sort baseball, hockey, basketball, WNBA, and prospect releases for collectors on a limited budget.

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Why you'd press play

You want the October card-release flood sorted without losing sight of your budget.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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