2026 Hobby Predictions: The Long-Awaited Part 2

Welcome back to Part II of J.R. Fickle’s 2026 Hobby Predictions (read Part I here)! This is where I predict things that I think will happen, probably won’t happen, and ultimately won’t be held accountable for if/when they don’t happen. 

(Though I did assume my predictions from Part I would have more than a week to marinate before they got blown to bits. Yesterday PSA-parent company Collectors announced they were purchasing Beckett… right after I predicted Beckett would have a big 2026 (clairvoyant) and would be a good counter to PSA’s monopoly (D’oh!).

Anyways… here we go!

8. Vintage is going to be the most annoying word in the hobby

We get it, “vintage is the way to go, buddy!” All “your” modern cards are trash. And “I would rather have a Ken Griffey, Jr., rookie than an Aaron Judge.” We get it! 

Every collectibles podcast or think-piece mentions “vintage” as the way to go, and fine that makes sense from a “we know what we know” perspective but it’s all Monday morning quarterbacking at this point. 

Also, when you think about buying vintage cards as a non-vintage collector because some dude on a podcast told you to; think to yourself, “how much vintage does this guy have?” Meaning, how invested is he in pumping the vintage market? 

I’m sitting on a chair made of C.J. Stroud rookie cards because I have more than my house will allow and you better believe if I’m on some talking head podcast you are going to hear me say, “Gents, hot take of the year - the best investment right now, the golden key in the NFL card market… C.J. Stroud. You heard it here first.”

9. …and of course more Sophie Cunningham predictions! 

17. She gets sponsored by Boar’s Head and they create a Cunning Ham product, which is a meat that looks like ham but is actually turkey. Very… cunning. 

19. Will win a WNBA title.

21. Invents the game CheebCheeb - what’s CheebCheeb? Who knows, she hasn’t invented it yet!!

Alright, sorry, needed to get those ones out. (Editor’s note: No, you really didn’t).

10. You’ll wish you had gotten a 7-Eleven x Timex watch

This is not financial advice so please don’t buy if you don’t like the watch. However, this has one of those dumb Antique Roadshow vibes to it where you’ll watch that show 30 years from now and someone will be on there with one of those watches and they’ll be like “oh, yeah, they made these in 2025 and people hated them so they only made 50 of them… and I would guess this is worth around $4 million” but then you remember that with inflation, $4 million is actually only like $15 in today’s money (and that’s before taxes!!) and what does it even matter because money actually doesn’t exist anymore and neither does time because this is 2055 and time stopped 15 years ago when all computers couldn’t turn their clocks from 2039 to 2040 because the guy who invented clocks a thousand years ago thought “2039 is high enough” and now time is nothing and we are nothing but that’s OK because we come from nothing so we are, if anything, finally home and I wish I had a watch that glows in the dark.

It kind of feels like that. 

11. More people will focus less on their PC and more on their FunC

Or maybe we should call it our “funsies.” There’s a small nuance between the PC (personal collection) and the FunC (your fun collection). 

Your PC has cards like Victor Wembanyama rookie cards, because you love watching him play and you think he’s going to ultimately become one of the greatest to ever play the game. That’s great and all, but that often tends to ride the imaginary line between a card you like and an investment card. Like, I have a Joe Burrow autograph rookie card in my PC not because I like him - I don’t dislike him - but because it’s a cool card and I think he could win a Super Bowl one day… and when that day comes I’ll immediately sell it at the height. 

That card lives in my PC. In my FunC is an Ed Gale Topps autograph card. Who? Oh, the guy who played Howard the Duck. That card will never be worth more than I paid for it, no one will ever want to buy it from me, but it’s FUN. See?

Let’s normalize more FunC (or funsies) in the hobby! 

Alright, let’s do some quick hits.

12. The pitcher market will usurp the hitter market 

Shohei Ohtani, the hitter, and Aaron Judge, also the hitter, aside; the pitcher market is ready to boom. Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are essentially rounding out the top 6-7 players in the market, and with the craze that Jacob Misiorowski ran in the regular season, and Trey Yesavage and Cam Schlittler had in the playoffs – pitchers are making a comeback!

13. Hockey cards are an untapped market 

Everyone goes crazy over Bowman-prospecting in baseball and general QB-prospecting in the NFL, but what if I told you that three of the top 10 points leaders in the NHL this year are 20 years old and under. (See: I can do newsletter without mentioning Connor Bedard!! Oh, crap.).

14. I will be buying more music artist autographs this year

Not really a you prediction, more of a me thing, but wanted to share. Just a case in point: you can get a PSA-certified autograph from Taylor Swift for under $150 or you can get a trading card of Washington Wizards Will Riley who is averaging 10 minutes and 4 points per game this season for $150. Apples to apples aside, go ask 100 people if they know who Will Riley is - Wizards fans, included. 

Why aren’t we buying more autographs from musical acts? Why?!

That’s it for Part II- I promised the editors there would be no Part III but I have tons of hot takes and predictions, and assume most of you will forget which bets I placed by next year, so accuracy won’t matter too much here. Maybe next week I’ll toss out a few more… who can predict?