Issue #19 | May 25, 2026
Comped
Thank you to all who have served in the military as well as their families for their sacrifices.
The Numbers
–Baseball meh week
–Basketball 12 week streak
–Football waking back up
–Soccer World Cup in 19 days
–Pokemon 19 consecutive weeks of gains
–One Piece surges
–S&P 500 continues its hot streak
–Gold another cold week
–Bitcoin continues to fall
A note about the basketball market: This year it’s been nothin’ but net. The broad Basketball index has returned 17.79% from the start of the year, the most among the four major sports.
Pokemon is up over 72% in that time.
Turning to U.S. monetary policy for a minute, there’s a new Chair of the Fed, Kevin Warsh. Put his job high on the “sucks to be you” scale: He has President Trump on one side publicly calling for rate cuts, as monetary policy data shows a better environment for rate hikes (wholesale inflation hit its highest market since 2022 in April).
Rate hikes normally result in the stock market throwing a sell-off tantrum, while rate cuts call for a chorus of “hell yeah, brother” from the Pantagonia-clad crew.
The first FOMC meeting under Warsh will be an interesting one on June 16-17 (as interesting as monetary policy meetings can be, I mean).
The News
Alt (the marketplace with the worst auction-ending mechanism in the game) has announced a Chrome Legacy Auction running in the middle of June.
Readers of this newsletter know that old chrome has been running HOT, and you can be sure I will be all over this auction like a tick on a hound dog.
Funny timing, as Fanatics will also be running a special World Cup Soccer auction May 28 – June 7. Soccer and chrome are the two investment lanes I’ve had, so I’m going to need to find some new ways to spend money in late June…
In grading news, PSA has raised prices again, adding $3/card to value bulk and $5/card to the Value, Value Plus, and Regular tiers. This third price raise in the past year further disincentivizes grading in the low-end card market.
Oh, and I almost forgot, they increased waiting times too, stretching the value bulk timeline from 95 business days to 150 business days. That’s over 7 months.
The Framework
Coming Soon…
I try to keep a lid on most things I’m working on, but I plan to release a major project this week for my Investor Tier subscribers.
One of the key milestones for the data and analytics I’m bringing to the card market is the development of the MLD Valuation, not just as a framework for thinking, but as a real metric.
The problem in cards is that we don’t have objective means for valuation of the assets…
I’m going to change that.
The MLD Valuation v1 uses 24 different inputs tied to the player and card’s market, legacy, and design to distill into a Slabnomics Score for that specific card.
What this empowers you to do is:
- Compare players across different sports
- Forecast how changes will affect player values (trades, injury, news, etc.)
- Track and measure change for player markets
- Unearth diamonds in the rough before others
There are other metrics that will come along with this project, and I anticipate launching v1 this very week.
This data will be available to Investor Tier subscribers only, learn more here.
Last thing on this, I’ll be cutting of Founder Investor Tier access on Friday this week, so this is your last chance to get Investor Tier access locked in for a low annual cost. Regular Annual Investor Tier is a still a better value than monthly access, but as new technology costs arise, this tier will get more expensive in the future.
Founding Investors will always be locked in to their initial cost. Forever.
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
W. Edwards Deming
Keep Building,
DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. The content reflects the author’s personal opinions and analysis and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any assets. Sports cards and collectibles are speculative investments with significant risk of loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The author may hold positions in assets discussed in this newsletter. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with qualified financial, tax, and legal professionals before making any investment decisions. By reading this newsletter, you acknowledge and accept these terms.