Blake's Breaks Gets Broken

Welcome to The Drip, your weekly fix for all things sports cards. Here’s what’s in store for today:

• Blake Martinez’s scamming days on Whatnot are over 🥳 

• Post Malone makes a $2 million dollar purchase 💰️ 

1) In news that should shock no-one - Blake’s Breaks has been banned from Whatnot. I think I speak for the majority of us when I say:

Over the last few months allegations have been flying around about the various scams Blake’s crew have been running. Often linked to the “guess the energy” or “match the energy” games Blake frequently runs. Basically, a bidder guesses the energy in a Pokemon pack to win a prize. Blake and his goons used cheating and sleight of hand to screw bidders out of their 💰️.

Apparently, Sword and Shield and older Pokemon sets have a pre-defined pattern of how energies appear in cases, booster boxes, etc… A breaker opening one pack can figure out the rest of the pattern. If that breaker is on Blake’s crew… well here’s a brief list of allegations and evidence:

• Blake seemingly following a pattern to ensure the bidder doesn’t hit each time.

• Breaker Snee with some sleight of hand - this is wild. If you miss it the first time rewind and look again. That’s some magic act right there.

• Mapping energies in action

• The odds breakdown of these energy games - the math/stats this person did on reddit is great.

• A whole bundle of videos with evidence can be found on YouTuber Rattle Pokemon’s channel.

I’m glad Whatnot finally did something to clean up their platform. Now they just need to get rid of the rest of the degenerates…

FYI - be on the lookout for this rare dropping soon:

2) Now on to some positive news - Post Malone did it again! Previously paying $800k for an artist (Chris Rush) signed Black Lotus card (one of the most sought after MTG cards), he’s now topped that with a $2m acquisition of the recently found “The One Ring” card.

Here’s the moment when the deal was made:

This is cool to see. Post is known to be a huge MTG fan and has played in tournaments in the past. The man on the other side of the deal is Brook Trafton. He’s a retail employee in Canada who dropped by a local game store on his way home to pick up some newly release MTG cards. I’d say that went well for him.

If I had $$ like Post:

The More You Know 🌟 

Whether you are new or old to the hobby, you’ve likely heard about card grading and the various companies providing this service. Something that might be a little less familiar is what graders look for in cards when determining a grading value.

Here is a quick and handy guide on the features of a card that graders will check when your card is submitted:

• Corners - If there are any imperfections on the 4 corners of your card. Sharp, crisp corners are a must when sending a card to be graded.

• Edges - Edges should be sharp with constant color across. If there are blemishes or dents it will affect the grade.

• Centering - The image on the card is centered with left, right, top, and bottom border widths equal.

• Surface - Are there scratches, creases or other imperfections on the card’s surface?

• Autograph (if applicable) - Is the autograph smeared or faded?

The grades you can expect to see back range from 1 (Poor) to the coveted 10 (Gem Mint). Some less known values include N0 and AA which mean the card was verified as authentic but some form of alteration kept it from being graded.

Something else to watch out for if you submit to PSA are qualifiers that may be placed on graded cards. Here’s a list:

• MK - Marks - Cards that have writing or ink/pencil marks on them.

• MC - Miscut - The card was cut wrong at the factory.

• OC - Off Center - Once centering is determined on a card, if an image is more than 5% off center but qualifies for a 7 or higher grade it may receive the “OC” qualifier.

• ST - Stain - Why are you eating red sauce while breaking cards? Well now you got a “ST” on it.

• PD - Print Defect - Print lines or dots on a card.

• OF - Out of focus - What all your cards look like when you’ve had a few too many.

BREAKing News

Some hits from recent days:

• Wish I had a video of this one

• This Gunnar card is flawless

• The Big Unit RC

• The rich get richer

• Let me in on this action - hit of the Paldea Evolved line

Release Calendar

Wallets like 😢:

• 9th -

  • 2022 Panini National Treasures Football

  • 2023/24 Upper Deck MVP Hockey

• 11th -

  • 2022/23 Panini Mosaic Basketball

  • 2023 Topps Star Wars

  • Pokemon Scarlett & Violet Obsidian Flames

• 15th - 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

• 16th - 2023 Panini Immaculate Collegiate Football

• 23rd -

  • 2023 Panini Immaculate Baseball

  • 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

• 30th -

  • 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball

  • 2023 Panini Donruss Elite Football

  • 2023 Panini Encased Football

  • 2023 Panini Prizm WNBA Basketball

  • 2023 Topps Cosmic Chrome

Show Me That Card 📷️ 

Chris Jericho’s rookie card. This was part of the 1993 Topps Idolos De La Lucha Primero Edicion CMLL Wrestling box (longest set name ever?). Fun fact: Corazon De Leon translates in English to “Heart of Lion.” Jericho’s nickname in WCW was “Lionheart” and his finishing move was the “Lion Tamer.”

This card is extremely rare and it’s near impossible to find any more unopened wax or packs from this line. The one listing on eBay at the moment (where this pic came from) - a cool $500k

Meme of the Day

We can dream…