Issue #7 | February 28, 2026
Comped
The Numbers
This week the data shows:
A continuation of every sports card/TCG trend from last week.
–Baseball speculators building their positions ahead of Opening Day.
–Basketball small gains, de-accelerating.
–Football continues to surprise to the upside
–Soccer baby bump
–Pokemon a 5-week freight-train-of-gain
–One Piece negative again
–S&P 500 back into the red
–Gold can’t seem to lose
–Bitcoin turns positive this week
Last week I spoke about the moves of gold, Pokemon, and One Piece…so let’s pivot back to the major sports and the S&P 500 this week.
Baseball has been creeping up in its trend for the past month, because seasonal demand is coming. A consistent cycle in mature markets is how a known arbitrage opportunity dies: As more and more people find out about the opportunity, the play becomes crowded, and so those that want to take advantage of it must do so earlier and earlier to race the ever-growing pool of those who join the fray.
As sports cards become more mainstream from a financial asset lens, it seems likely seasonal demand will follow suit. Prevailing wisdom of “buy in early march” naturally progresses to “buy late February” and on and on until the liquidity eventually erases the edge.
Shifting to stocks for a second, the S&P 500 confuses me. On the one hand, the general aura of unrest when I speak to peers about the economy in general and tech specifically is palpable. On the other hand, chance of recession (which was as high as 65% in August of last year) is down to 18.78%. according to the New York Fed treasury spread. Doom and gloom in the room aside, it seems like stocks are chugging along: The S&P is up over 6% in 6 months, and positive on the year.
The News
Sorry, not golf news
This is how I felt stumbling on a Sports Illustrated article called “Will Prices Crash? A 2026 Vintage Card Preview,” from January of this year. Man, I love good journalism.
My favorite quote from the piece is a headline:
“Set Collecting Has Evolved into Grail Hunting”
This is exactly what has happened. More savvy card investors take advantage of bull cycles to consolidate many pieces into one grail, because the demand is there for them to do that.
Collecting, an impulse that was historically dominated by a passion for completionism, is now fueled by selectionism.
This seems like a rational evolution in us spurred on by how the card market itself has changed. As the writer notes in his article:
“Jackie Robinson only has 16 baseball cards from his playing days. According to the American Card Catalog, Shohei Ohtani has over twenty-two thousand cards that have come out since his 2018 rookie season.”
We are forced into selectionism. This is one of the reasons why my most recent podcast dealt with bringing this to light, and some tools I’ll be making available on my website for Investor tier subscribers will give real targets to hunt in this vein…
The Framework
For Collectors who want to be Investors
This section is normally reserved for me to go in-depth on a topic I touched on on social media, but today the framework is much more valuable and expansive. See, I launched the new Slabnomics website, and it is jam-packed with free resources:
- Every podcast episode I’ve released with summary transcripts
- All past newsletters I’ve sent
- Topics and concepts I’ve touched on
For those that want even more access, even more frameworks for changing how you discover and capitalize on opportunities, as well as future tools that will empower you to do this at a glance, I’ve launched the Slabnomics Investor Tier. Currently, this tier already unlocks massive value for you:
- Frameworks page that ties together all most investing concepts
- The Slabnomics Portfolio – a real, tracked portfolio with cards only I built for friends and family who wanted to invest 9 months ago – you can see who I’ve been buying, and how my strategies shifted over the past 9 months
- Comped Investor Newsletter – A bonus newsletter every Thursday
- Slabnomics Investor Podcasts – Special podcasts only for Investor Tier
- Member-only Discord
This is already massive value, but because this whole offering is for those who are future-focused, check out what’s coming this spring:
Cross/sport arbitrage tool, Set Comparison Tool, and Parallel Value Tool.
I’m offering an exclusive chance to lock in Investor Tier pricing as a Founding Member for the next few days, or until the ceiling is capped. This tier exclusively gets you special pricing that will never rise, even as the platform becomes more and more powerful in the future.
As more and more people get into sports cards, just like in arbitrage, it’s those that are empowered with better tools and resources that continue to build success.
Sign up now on Slabnomics.com – Founding Member pricing ends soon, forever.
First bonus Investor Newsletter next week
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”
Abraham Lincoln
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.