@Sportsbalt Hosted By Danny Black. Analysis, news, and fun for sports, cards, and memorabilia · Danny Black

Card Mensches E3: Do you like it Raw? Talking Ungraded

·50 min·3 clips

John says a 2011 Mike Trout Update can fool experienced eyes and still come back as seven fakes.

Episode three stays loose and practical. Danny Black has John Newman on, and John is literally tracking an eBay auction for a 1938 Churchman’s Boxing set while they talk. That live clock gives the episode a useful sense of stakes. The conversation centers on buying raw cards without getting fooled by the look of a listing. They keep coming back to trust. A raw card can be easy to buy and hard to prove, especially when the buyer and seller do not already know each other. The show uses hobby shorthand naturally, the way collectors actually talk at a table. John and Danny explain how a card like a Trinity Rodman autograph rookie creates a different selling problem when it is ungraded. They also mention the Center Stage app. It helps by scanning a card and linking it to a previous eBay sale so a seller can point to some actual market history. Even so, they do not pretend that a scan solves everything. A buyer at a show still has to decide whether the person across the table is asking for trust or asking for a leap of faith. That leads them into the idea of a conditional sale. If both sides know each other, one option is to agree on a price, send the card in for grading, and settle once the grade gives the deal more shape. The episode is honest about how awkward that can be in the real world. They also get into the ugly side of platform sales. John describes a situation where a buyer claimed a card was not what they expected and returned a worse copy instead. The switcheroo story lands as a warning, not a theory. From there, grading starts to look less like hobby ceremony and more like one of the few guardrails that helps keep raw-card deals honest. The whole thing feels like a hobby-table conversation with microphones on, which makes it a good fit for collectors who want the practical mess, not a polished sales pitch.

As heard by us

A practical raw-card discussion that still leaves room for caution.

Card Mentions episode three starts with a live eBay auction for a complete 1938 Churchman's Boxing set, but the real interest is the plain business of buying and selling raw cards.

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Why you'd press play

A live eBay auction turns raw-card advice into a real-time stress test.

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