On The Cards - A Podcast about collecting sports cards.

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode Hank and Mick discuss the big trades within the NBA, and what this means for the card market. With key players like Giannis, Ja Morant and Jaylen Brown being traded to new teams, we chat about how this might affect their card prices and collectability. And with Kawhi flipping back to the Raptors, does Mick think this is a positive or negative? Hank thinks this all...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss Good Looking Cards! What is it about a card that gets your interest... and makes you stop and take notice. Is great card design and major factor in driving prices? We chat about PMGs, Linchpins, Star Rubies, Kabooms!... all the shiny, colourful, eye candy that makes us spend stupid dollars on cardboard.  Hank challenges Mick that the Superf...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Hank and Mick tackle the battle between collectors who play the long game and those chasing the latest hype. Along the way, we reflect on why we love the hobby so much, from the thrill of the hunt and building collections to the friendships, nostalgia, and joy that cardboard continues to bring years after getting back into the game. We then shift to the grading boom cur...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick do a deep dive into three cards they each own, and discuss why they think these cards are important in the hobby. Each card has a story behind it, a reason why it deserves a place in our collections.  We chose to select 2 sports cards, and 1 Non-sport card each. It was great thinking deeply about why we believe each of these cards matter. Sometimes...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss the boom we have seen in card shows. There has been an explosion in the number and size of card shows in Australia over the last few years... and we love it. We chat about our recent experience at the Hobby Hangout XL in Melbourne, one of the biggest shows of the year.  We chat about all that we love about it, from meeting our fans, to hunt...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss the concept of finding your niche as a collector. The trading card market is a huge sea of cardboard  - from sports cards to TCG, vintage cards to modern... and within each of these are more sets, inserts, players and characters that your mere mortal mind can comprehend. So how do we shrink the sea? How do we find the cards that matter to u...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank and Mick discuss everything there is to discuss (within half an hour) about pricing cards. From overpriced cards at card shows, to stores not even putting a price sticker on anything in their display cabinets, we chat about what we love and hate about the fine art of pricing cards. Hank discusses what constitutes a fair price. Is taking an average of the last...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick chat about pulling the trigger on a new purchase. It could be another card for our main PC, or a new player or set. We spend so much time doing research on cards, players and sets we are interested in - but do we back it up enough? Hank feels like he is caught in a trap, where the cards he wants are now too expensive. Mick discusses how sometimes h...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank and Mick discuss the Whales of The Hobby. The pinnacle of collectors and their monumental collections. How do we mere minnows feel about it? If often blows us away at how ridiculous these collections are. They feel so unattainable and out of reach. Are we inspired to grow our collections, in the hope of one day joining them... or are they so untouchable that...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss a couple of hot topics and look at how they possibly affect our collecting approach for the year. We start by discussing the second PSA price hike in the last few months. With grading prices going up and turnaround times getting longer - is it starting to feel like 2020/21 all over again? We also discuss the big NBA trades that recently hap...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick put each other on the spot, and discuss what cards they would purchase if they had $1000 to spend this week. The rules are pretty simple... we can buy one card or multiple cards, on any sales platform... but the cards must be held in our collection for the next 5 years.  In a space where flipping cards is almost the norm, this helps to narrow our f...

Send us Fan Mail In our 20th Episode, Hank and Mick discuss their hobby plans for 2026. We chat about whether we will continue to hunt for big cards to add to our collections this year. Is the Sports Card market going to have another huge year like 2025... or is it going to cool off or go sideways for a while? We discuss the recent acquisition of Beckett by Collectors, and if we intend to grade wi...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss the various scandals and headaches that have hit the Hobby in recent months. We chat about the PSA debacle, where a selection of PSA 9s magically were re-labelled PSA 10s. We talk about SNYPE and the monumental disaster that unfolded during its inaugural auction.  We also hit on the Patrick Ryan shill bidding nightmare, where he live-stream...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss their belief that we are at the Top of the current cycle of the Sports Card Market. We discuss how the last couple of months of each year are usually buying months, with prices and sales volumes slightly dipping. Has the Pokemon and TCG boom of 2025 been the driving force behind the market uptick? We chat about whether Bitcoin and other alt...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank and Mick chat about the pressure to chase new players and new cards in the hobby. Is it really a smart move? Is it important to keep adding new, fresh things to your collection?... or can your improve your collection by focusing on getting better grades of the cards you love and already own. New is not necessarily better, especially in a hobby with deep veins...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank and Mick do a deep dive on the handover of the NBA Trading card licence from Panini (who have had the NBA licence for the last 13 years) to Topps (via Fanatics) who will be exclusively be printing NBA trading cards for the foreseeable future.  We discuss in detail the first Topps NBA licensed product to hit the market this week: Topps 2025-26 NBA Basketball....

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick have a ramble about Kabooms!... and the crazy price moves and sales these cards have had recently. With record prices constantly being set for these inserts, is it a good sign that the market is over heated? We also chat about the wash-up from our trip to LA for the West Coast Card Show, and the joys of finding something at the show, or afterwards,...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss Big Moves in the hobby. With high profile podcasters such as Chris HOJ & Cajun Cardboard recently making moves into 1/1 Jordans and major consolidation... we chat about our thoughts about making similar moves and pivots. Is now the best time to take a different direction, or is the market too hot? Mick has made his own strategic move, h...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Hank & Mick discuss the current state of the market - which is scorching hot! We discuss our tactics and thoughts of collecting through a bull market, from consolidation to fewer but more significant cards, pivoting to cheaper and more attainable side PCs, and selling into the hot market.  With every up, there must come a down. So try not to lose your head. St...

Send us Fan Mail In our biggest and best episode yet, Hank & Mick get out a pair of stone tablets, and chisel our 10 Commandments for The Hobby. From tips such as avoiding the hype, embracing selling cards, and adding cornerstone cards, we dig deep on the most important guidelines for our current collecting journey.  So lace up, grab a ball and bumper bowl your way to hobby happiness!

Send us Fan Mail In this second part of our ongoing Grading discussion, Hank & Mick chat who we grade with - for us, its a choice between PSA and BGS. BGS has sub grades, half grades and a sturdier slab, where PSA is the industry leader and PSA 10s are getting harder to land. We discuss the key differences between the two, regrading cards across each grading company and preparing cards for gra...

Send us Fan Mail In this Bonus Episode, Hank and Mick begin a multi-part discussion about all things Grading. This episode is all about the beginnings of grading in the 1990s. We reminisce about how when we ran our cards store in 1993, grading was purely subjective: it was up to us to decide the grade of a card. Beckett magazine was our price guide and hobby bible. PSA changed the game in 1991, bu...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Hank & Mick discuss collecting Vintage vs Modern cards, and which has the better long term value. Vintage cards are all about condition: centering, corners, registration, surface etc... In 1986 Fleer, there were approximately 3 Jordan rookies in each box. They aren't rare cards - but their value is all tied up in condition. In Modern collecting, the most...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Hank and Mick discuss everything to do with inserts and parallel cards. We kick-off sorting out what actually is an SSP, and then deep-dive about how inserts shaped the 90s era and how parallels have dominated the modern era. Hank thinks inserts have been killed by the hunt for serial cards like the gold/10 and Black 1/1s parallels. Mick has other thoughts and dis...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Hank and Mick are excited to discuss Card Shows in Australia and Overseas. We chat about the upcoming Hobby Hangout XL show in Melbourne, Collect Fest in July and The Oz National in September. We talk about buzz of attending these card shows, connecting with other collectors in-person, and what we have learnt buying and selling at these shows over the last couple...