Base Set: 200 Card Checklist Below is the full base card checklist, numbered 1 through 200: Iron Man Thena Eros Ronin Vulture Agatha Harkness Mystique Solarus (1st Appearance) Bloodline Layla El-Faouly Super-Skrull Namor Prowler Echo Omega Red Swarm Taskmaster Kraven the Hunter Havok Nighthawk Molecule Man Sunfire Nova Photon Kronos Mole Man…

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Base Set Breakdown (100 Cards Total) Three Tiers, from legends to rookies—all decked out in foil parallels. Tier 1 (Cards 1–20: Past Legends) Rarest tier (~1:30 packs; huge hits), featuring icons like: Ty Cobb Sandy Koufax Harmon Killebrew Pedro Martínez Randy Johnson Dizzy Dean Cal Ripken Jr. Alex Rodriguez Christy Mathewson Eddie Murray David Ortiz…

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Here’s your full 200-card base set checklist upfront—because no one likes hunting for card numbers in a sea of commentary. Base Set Cards: 1–200 (Collector’s Checklist) Smitty Werbenjägermanjensen DoodleBob The Flying Dutchman Patchy the Pirate Potty the Parrot Mermaidman Barnacleboy Man Ray Moth Pearl Krabs King Neptune Larry the Lobster Squilliam Fancyson “You don’t need…

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Oh man, you’ve hit on one of my favorite topics: why suddenly guys who normally buy yachts, vineyards, and Teslas that drive themselves into lakes are now dropping six and seven figures on sports cards. Let’s break this down hobby-content-creator style—with a few laughs—into the big factors fueling this wave of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) joining…

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Prelude: Why This Set Changed The Game Remember football cards before 2017? They were fine—Topps, Donruss, Score—but they lacked something. Then Prizm Football exploded onto the hobby scene like a viral TikTok dunk. Glossy surfaces, refractors that caught your eye mid-rip, rainbow parallels, and rookies like Patrick Mahomes II (#269)—a future legend whose rookie card…

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Introduction: When Panini Dropped the Hobby’s Mic Imagine being a collector in 2012. The NBA is stacked with talent. We’ve got LeBron deep in his Miami Heat reign, Kobe still putting on Mamba clinics, and a rookie class that looks like it was handpicked by the cardboard gods: Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie…

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Introduction: The Hobby Before 1989 Let’s set the scene. In 1989, baseball card collecting was already booming. Kids were ripping wax packs of Topps, Fleer, and Donruss, building sets with gum-stained fingers, and trading “commons” on the playground like a second currency. The hobby was fun, affordable, and… a little stale. Topps, Fleer, and Donruss…

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Intro: When Card Collecting Went Luxe If trading cards were luxury cars, 2003 Exquisite would be a blacked-out Rolls-Royce Phantom—sumptuous, rare, and leaving the rest of the hobby in its dust. Debuting in the 2003–04 season, Upper Deck went all-in on premium. These cards came in wooden boxes, just five cards each, with serial numbering,…

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Introduction: When Football Card Collecting Got Its Cheer Chant If the card hobby were a stadium, 1989 Score Football is the roaring crowd that made it feel alive. It marks not just the set’s debut for Score, but a seismic shift in the late-80s football card scene—which had been dominated by Topps and the fledgling…

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