The $300,000 Mistake
How This Newsletter Can Help Collectors Avoid Making the Same Mistake
Image: 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card (cover image created with canva.com)
In April 2021, Geoff Wilson aka “The Sportscard Investor” spent $522,750 on a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan PSA 10 rookie card. The only problem was, the card wasn’t worth $500,000. Not only that, but it’s wasn’t even worth $300,000.
So then why would Geoff willingly overpay for this card?
The Hobby Myth
Before you laugh at Geoff’s huge mistake, you should probably look in the mirror first because Geoff isn’t the only one who has been overpaying for cards. That’s right, since 2019 most collectors have been shelling out big money for cards that will not retain their value in the future.
Which makes the only real difference between you and Geoff, the fact that your cards haven’t crashed yet. And Geoff has the value of hindsight to know that he overpaid for his high end cards.
Therefore, the real issue is that you’re the only one still in denial.
But why is that?
Why do you still believe that card values can only go up and can never go down? And not only that, but why do you still believe the hobby myths?
Building a False Perception
Whether we want to believe this or not, the only reason Geoff overpaid for his PSA 10 Jordan rookie is because the hobby built up his expectations. Starting in 2019, the sportscard market went on the biggest heater anyone had ever seen in hobby history. Before the Pandemic, card values were flat at best, but once everyone jumped into the market— sportscards became the easiest way to make a quick buck.
As a result, every card in the hobby went up in value.
In fact, the market was so hot that sportscards previously valued at under $100 were now selling for over $1,000.
And when that type of hype happens, people start to lose perspective.
This isn’t just a sportscard problem. This happens to every single market during a bubble. For example, the same thing happened to the real estate market from 2004 to 2008, right before the biggest real estate collapse in history. And the same thing happened in the stock market between 1998 to 2001 right before the Dot Com bubble burst.
Therefore, what happened in the sportscards market was nothing new, except that it had never happened before to sportscards. And because this was the first time the sportscard market saw a bubble—everyone lost their minds and started buying every card, regardless of how much it was actually worth.
And that’s what happened to Geoff and the 86 Fleer Jordan.
The $750,000 Auction
In January of 2021, a PSA 10 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan sold for $738,000 at auction (with the buyer’s premium, the total sale reached $750k). Unfortunately, there has never been a full investigation into what really happened during that auction.
But something is fishy.
Why would a PSA 10 Fleer Rookie Card that previously sold for only $36,000 in 2019 at Heritage Auctions now be selling for $738,000?
Was it shill bidding? Was it collusion?
Or did a real collector decide he wanted to overpay $700,000 more than he needed to for that card? And before you start to speculate, its important to remember there are 330 PSA 10s in existence. Therefore, this card isn’t the rarest in the hobby. So then, what really happened during that auction?
The #1 High End Card Lesson
Do Not Overpay for a Card - You Can Buy at a Card Show the Following Weekend
This newsletter is going to teach you a lot of high end card lessons. And the first lesson you should take away from this newsletter is that you should never buy a card at an online auction that you can pick up for less at a card show the next weekend.
Therefore, if you are one of those people who likes to monitor online auctions and ebay listings, then you should make sure to add this activity to your monthly routine — please visit more card shows in your local area and around the country in 2026.
If you can pick up a 1986 Fleer PSA 10 Michael Jordan rookie card for $175,000 at Fanatics Fest, then you should not pay $250,000 at an online auction. And this is the lesson Geoff Wilson didn’t know before he decided to buy his first PSA 10 copy.
So don’t make the same mistake.
Card Shows Tell You More Than You Realize
The reason you should go to more card shows in 2026 is because ebay listings are great, but if you want to know which cards are actually selling, then go to a card show and talk to the dealers. When you see row after row of the same cards that no one is buying, except for Repackers—that’s when you should start to worry.
One of the biggest blindspots new collectors have is that they do not like to go to card shows. They want to do everything from the comfort of their home—which means they never “fact check” what they are seeing online with what’s going in real life.
And if that’s going to be your strategy for high end cards, then you’re going to make the same mistake Geoff made.
The truth is card shows hold the key to unlocking the real value of cards in the market.
For example, we all know the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 10 card is the most valuable card in the hobby, but did you know you will never see one for sale at a card show?
That means, if you do see one—then you know its a fake.
But here’s why its so important to go to card shows. If Geoff Wilson would have gone to a card show to buy his 1986 PSA 10 Jordan, instead of purchasing it online or through a private sale—he would have only paid $40,000.
The fact is the pop count for this card is 330.
That means there are 330 cards in the world, so when you go to a card show there is a really good chance you’re going to see one in a case. And do you think the dealer selling that card in 2021 was expecting to make $750,000? As you learned before, the highest known sale at the time was $36,000 in 2019.
Therefore, if Geoff would have offered $50k for that card, he would have made the dealer’s day and he would have saved himself $450,000. But wait it gets worse.
Not only did Geoff overpay for his PSA 10 Jordan in April 2021, he decided to double down and buy a second one in June of 2021 for $228,000 because he honestly believed the real value of the card was over $500,000.
Therefore, when you believe the hype and that the card’s value is $500k, then you might think spending $228,000 for a second one seems like a really smart move.
If you want to know the real value of the PSA 10 Fleer Jordan, as of the end of 2025, then watch the above video.
Why You Should Subscribe to this Newsletter?
This is a one of a kind newsletter. There is no other newsletter dedicated to high end cards that will also tell you the real value of those cards. And the reason there is no other newsletter like this one is because no one else has an A.I. bot that can analyze the entire high end sportscard market.
If you want to start following the high end sportscard market and you want to know what all of these cards are really worth, then you need to hit the subscribe button right now!
Card Values Change Over Time
The uber wealthy are buying sportscards and other collectibles because the dream has finally become reality. I started my YouTube channel “EDI Sportscards” back in 2022 and from the beginning I said, “you cannot invest in sportscards.”
In fact, I created an entire playlist going over the reasons why Sportscard Investing was a total Scam! (Watch the first video in the series here:)
But this is no longer true.
If Wall Street decides to create the first ever Sports ETF in 2026, then the game has finally changed. Sportscards will no longer just be a hobby, but it will become an official asset class. And if you watched my whole playlist, then you already know one of the reasons I said “you cannot invest in sportscards” is because there was no market or exchange for cards.
If Wall Street creates a Sports ETF, that’s no longer true. Therefore, this would fix that problem, which means it would create a brand new problem for collectors to worry about.
And that brand new problem has to do with card values.
How do you know how much these high end cards are actually worth?
Because as Geoff Wilson found out—guessing is not a good strategy.
If you’re a high net worth individual, you can afford to pay thousands of dollars for a high end consultant to do all the research for you and then analyze the high end card market and give you a high end card valuation report. Otherwise, how do you know which cards are the most valuable and which cards will present the most “return on investment?”
The truth is without these reports, you honestly have no idea what you are buying.
Which is exactly how Geoff ended up overpaying $450,000 for his Jordan Rookies.
But do you want to make the same mistake twice?
And the answer is no, of course not!
Which is why you really should become a free subscriber to this newsletter.
Free v. Paid
For the record, I will always publish free content for this newsletter. The more people who become a free subscriber, the better off for the hobby. And that’s because this newsletter is going to inform people about the high end card market. And right now, there is nowhere else to go.
Which means you literally have no excuse now to not become a free subscriber. Therefore, if you want to keep up to date on the high end sportscard market, and know which cards Wall Street might be targeting, then you should hit the subscribe button below:
Of course, there’s going to be more than just free stuff here. In the near future, when I start publishing valuation reports, that’s what paid subscribers will have access to. Therefore, anything that has to do with the A.I. bot and what high end cards are worth—will only be available for paid subscribers.
Just think how much Geoff Wilson would pay for this newsletter?
Don’t forget that he paid more than $700k for 2 PSA 10 Jordan rookies. And that’s $500,000 more than he should have paid for them. Therefore, if Geoff was a paid subscriber, he would have saved himself half a million dollars.
Isn’t that’s crazy to think about?
Now think about the high end cards you want to buy. Do you know how much they are really worth? Or do you believe the hobby hype too?
The truth is you can’t call yourself an “investor,” when you all you do is buy high and sell low. Geoff overpaid for his Jordan rookies. When you pay more than $500k for a PSA 10 Jordan and its worth less than $200k, that’s called bad investing.
But all of this could be avoided if you become a subscriber to this newsletter right now!
As I said before, I will always publish free content, which means you have no excuse to not hit the subscribe button right now. In fact, when you become a free subscriber, you will put yourself on the inside of the high end sportscard market.
This newsletter will tell you about everything that’s going on in the high end market before everyone else in the hobby—which means you will be able to profit off the information.
Knowledge is power.
And this newsletter will give you the knowledge you have been looking for when it comes to high end sportscards.
More Details About the A.I. Bot
This newsletter is unique because I created an A.I. Bot to help me analyze the entire high end sportscard market. And what this A.I. bot is going to be able to do, in the very near future, is tell us exactly what each card is really worth.
And that’s big news!
As soon as its fully operational, I will be able to enter in any high end card and then the A.I. bot will be able to tell us how much that card is really worth. As you know, card values change over time, which is why I will publish a brand new valuation report every single year.
This means only one thing. This newsletter will become the Gold Standard for the hobby.
The reason I’m so confident the hobby is going to covet this newsletter is because without it, no one knows the real value of high end cards. That means, Wall Street isn’t going to buy cards they don’t understand. And high end collectors aren’t going to pay for cards, when they already know Geoff Wilson made a half million dollar mistake.
Therefore, the hobby needs this newsletter right now!
I cannot wait for the A.I. bot to start helping me creating full page analysis reports on every high end card in the market. And as you know a full analysis report takes a lot of time in order to generate. That’s because it takes hours of research and analysis to put one valuation report together.
This why one report costs thousands of dollars and why only the uber wealthy spend the extra money before they consider buying a high end card. Wouldn’t you want a full valuation report before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a sportscard?
Just imagine what would have happened if Geoff Wilson paid for a valuation report before he bought his Jordan Rookies? The fact is he probably wouldn’t have bought his Jordan rookies at auction or overpaid by $500k.
Final Thoughts
I want to remind people that the sportscard hobby is a lot of fun when people don’t lose thousands of dollars. And now you know why I created the A.I. bot in the first place and why I am spending the time to write this newsletter.
I’m honestly sick and tired of seeing so many hard working collectors overpay for their cards. It’s simply not fair. The problem is the only way to fix it is if we provide collectors with more real time data and information, so they don’t keep making the same mistakes.
That is why I’m so confident in the long term success of this newsletter. The fact is people need to know what their cards are worth, otherwise the trust and confidence people have in the sportscard market will simply go away. Yes, the sportscard hobby is having a moment right now, but that moment will quickly go away the minute people think that card values are all “fake.”
Therefore, this is why the hobby needs this newsletter.
Without this A.I. bot, people will not know what the real value of high end cards are, and without that information, how many people will end up getting duped into overpaying for cards?
The truth is no one feels sorry for Geoff Wilson. But Geoff can’t even complain because he earns a living off the hobby, therefore, he has to “accept” that he overpaid and just move on.
But I’m sure he’s not happy he overspent half a million dollars on 2 cards.
How would you feel if you wasted half a million dollars?
At this point, the more collectors overpay for cards, the more people are going to want to get out of this hobby. Which means, this is a scary moment of truth. The only way your PC is going to be worth more in the future, is if more people to want to buy and collect cards in the future.
Does that make sense?
Therefore, the only way to make your cards go up in value is if we can increase demand for your cards.
That is why you have a real incentive to share this newsletter with as many people as possible. The fact is the more free subscribers there are, the more chances you have of your card values going up. Because knowledge is power— and this newsletter is giving everyone who subscribes the real knowledge of card values—and not fake values.
And that is the key to the longevity of the hobby.
The only way the high end sportscard market succeeds is if more people trust the hobby, more people have confidence in the value of cards and more people are watching the high end sportscard market.
Part of the success of high end cards is how many people are watching high end cards. And that’s what this newsletter is going to do. This is a spectator sport. And the more eyeballs that see values go up and up, the more trust and interest people get in high end sportscards.
The hobby needs more transparency around card values and this newsletter is going to give more transparency.
Therefore, the final question you need to answer is: Do you want to know what high end cards are really worth? Then the answer is subscribe and share this newsletter right now!