How a Bluey Episode Put My Collecting Losses in Perspective
· Yahoo Sports
For those of you who watch — whether by your own hand or smaller ones — the show “Bluey,” you may remember the tale of the farmer and his horse from the episode “The Sign.”
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And yes I realize it is basically an ancient proverb that pre-dates the cartoon by many years, but let’s just stick with the Bluey theme. It’s fun!
In the parable, for those unfamiliar, a series of seemingly lucky and unlucky events happen to a farmer. Whenever anyone comments on how lucky or unlucky he is, he says, “we’ll see.” Eventually another related event happens to prove that the initial assessment was wrong. His son breaks his leg — unlucky. But he avoids being drafted into war because of the injury — lucky.
I bring this all up because this past week seemed to deal some Ls to JR Fickle… but hey — you never know.
The first and most glaring example of this was the suspension of Falo Balogun being lifted on Sunday. We had already written this week’s newsletter on why Ricardo Pepi cards were the best buy in the universe at the moment. As always, I follow my own advice, so I already had several Pepi cards en route. We were even sending the newsletter on a Monday to give everyone a few hours to acquire them before the game.
And yes it’s a giant bummer personally that Balogun will play and Pepi may not have that big chance to score… but guess what — most of what we initially wrote about why Pepi deserves more hobby respect still rings true. So we’re leaving it!!
The Balogun news wasn’t the only memorabilia letdown for me this week. On Thursday, I received news that my Caroll Spinney-signed Sesame Street vinyl was, in the eyes of autograph authenticator pro Steve Grad, more like a ”Caroll Spinney” autograph. This one hurt because it wasn’t a “flip” thing for me — it was a very cool piece of Americana that included Spinney’s sketch of Big Bird. And Spinney was a talented artist who illustrated a full Oscar the Grouch book.
I haven’t found a silver lining to this one yet, but as a knee-jerk reaction to it likely being a fake I went and purchased a Cinnamon Toast Crunch original animation cel for under $20. Not really quite the same at all, but it partially fills the record-sized hole.
The third letdown doesn’t really apply to me personally, but it was another One Piece giveaway that left me wondering why. And how. The Dodgers gave away a card and hat to 52,000 fans — and there were stories everywhere about people offering $500-600 for the combo. And I know I asked this already, during the college tour, but why are people acting like 52,000 of anything is rare? And if you’re paying $500 for this, you have to sell it on eBay for about $700 to even make a slight profit.
I’m sure this makes sense to people who bought them for $100 and can sell a bunch before the rest of the world figures out how large of a number 52,000 is. But man…even “first 10,000 fans” is too much for this type of eBay behavior.
So…here is the original Pepi newsletter you’ve all been waiting for, slightly altered to reflect the Balogun news.
You’re probably asking yourself why you’re getting this on a Monday. It’s an Emergency Mail Day. J.R. Fickle doesn’t adhere to schedules when mischievousness is afoot!
And what’s so important we couldn’t wait a day?
Ricardo Pepi.
I think we need to buy all of his cards right now.
Follow me — won’t you? — down another rabbit hole.
We’re going back to the Ricardo Pepi Craze of 2021. As an 18-year-old, he became the youngest player to score three goals in an MLS game. He not only made the MLS All-Star Game that year, he won the Cross and Volley Challenge. He was eventually named MLS Young Player of the Year. At the same time, he was scoring goals in force for the USMNT, with three goals and an assist in his first two games. He became such a phenom that Panini quickly created a Pepi card to entice USMNT set sales.
After a season playing for Dallas in the MLS, Pepi went to the Bundesliga in 2022. He’s won three Eredivisie titles in a row.
Here’s where it all gets a little weird: In 2022, a 19 year-old Pepi was left off the World Cup squad by Gregg Berhalter, who was later caught up in that whole Reyna controversy and eventually deposed in favor of the fun, animated, offensive mastermind Mauricio Pochettino. That started a weird downslide of perception that Pepi hasn’t recovered from. It’s not like he was hyped and didn’t deliver — he was hyped, he delivered exactly what he was supposed to… and then he kind of fell out of favor.
I have no idea who decided all his cards should be cheap, but it feels like at some point, someone suggested “hey, Berhalter’s right, this guy sucks, let’s give up on him at age 19!” and everyone else just paused and then shouted “YEAHHHH!!” and drove his autographed cards down to $10. He’s 23, he scores a ton of goals, he’s won three titles (who cares if it’s a “lesser” league?), and – most importantly – he has a chance to elevate his profile with a big moment in the World Cup. If Ricardo Pepi gets enough playing time and/or scores a goal of any significance, those $10 cards become $40. Maybe people will start waking up from their hazes and wonder how they got here and why they’re covered in pig blood while waist-deep in a lake worshiping a giant fiery wooden structure of Gregg Berhalter.
And if Pepi doesn’t score any goals and the US loses 3-0? He’s still won three titles in a row and the official US soccer site calls him one of the “most prolific strikers” of his generation. Reminder: he’s 23. He was almost transferred to Fulham earlier this year; another try at a transfer could be on the way. And if not? Maybe he has five goals in a game next season and people take notice. The point is he has YEARS of potential ahead of him, even if this “buy his $10 autograph cards NOW” gambit doesn’t pay off by midnight tonight.
But it might.
Again, I’m not a soccer expert. But I am a storyline expert. Get in on Ricardo Pepi before he becomes America’s Darling… again….eventually. There’s always 2030!!
“‘We’ll see,’ said the farmer”
Quick word on the The World Cup cups — they aren’t collectibles. I think that’s pretty clear. But they are sturdy and just the right size for drinking your water around the house. I have come to love them. And earlier this week McDonald’s whipped up new “World Cup meals” with cheaper prices. I assume this is because people weren’t scrambling to pay a ton to get the cup (even though the breakfast deals aren’t that bad), but you can now get a meal and a cup for about $9 if you feel like a McChicken tonight.
Or, as we previously guessed, wait a few weeks and you’ll be able to just buy a cup for like $3.
Enjoy your Pepi watching everyone!! May your $10 cards at least get to $12!