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Betting On Collectible Trump Bricks from the East Wing
And Fickle Picks His Mantel Hobby Award Favorites
J.R. Fickle
November 11, 2025
Before we get into the boss-mandated “write about The Mantel Hobby Awards or we’ll come take away the Mantel corduroy hat” portion of Mail Day, I have a few awards of my own to give out.
As the week goes by, I take notes on things I see and hear…and feel…and touch...
Where was I? Right.
Sometimes they turn into 800 word stories. And other times? They get jammed into a loose theme so we can promo trading card awards due to corporate pressure!
Credit: Yahoo/Getty Images
The Safest Bet of the Week: Donald Trump will sell bricks that were part of the White House east wing demolition
Trump, I believe, is a collector. I am guessing he has multiple Mantle rookies somewhere. Maybe a game-used DiMaggio jersey. He released NFT cards of himself and has an objectively eye-pleasing autograph. You think he’d let construction crews just throw away White House bricks?
How much will they charge per brick? Back in 1989/90 they sold pieces of the Berlin Wall for $20 on QVC (which you can now Buy on eBay). But you could buy cars for $7500 then, too. My guess is $250 for a piece of brick at minimum. Would I pay? Yes. It’s a piece of the White House! From a controversial moment!!
The ‘Way to Ruin a Fun Thing” Award: JG Limited’s unpublished shipping costs
Between the buyer’s premium and the shipping charges for a photo I won last week, they nearly doubled the $25 price of the original item. Come on man — I mail things! We all mail things! We know how much it costs! And it’s not $12.
The “Welcome to the Party, Pal!” Award: A giant company like Starbucks somehow doesn’t understand demand, scarcity, or how to deal with any of it
Starbucks apologized for running out of their Bearista cups. I think anyone who reads Mail Day knows you don’t apologize for creating a collectible, even if it is a piece of garbage plastic cup — you just create a new one for Valentine’s Day. And then another for the 4th of July. And then another for Halloween, until people grow tired of them and they take up too much shelf space at their homes, and they wonder why they bought these again? and so next Christmas they’ll gather dust in the store.
The “What Do They Know That We Don’t?” Award: Target’s Topps Holiday stash
SiriusXM has 23 Christmas channels now. And Topps Holiday is BEHIND THE LOCKED GLASS at Target!! Tis the Season!
For real, though. What does Target know that we don’t about Topps Holiday? Is this one of those instances where we should be buying before some crazy short prints or inserts are revealed?
On to The Mantel Hobby Awards!
As you remember, J.R. Fickle was not given a vote for The MantelHobby Awards. Or, I guess, I do have a vote, I just have to do it alongside the peasants instead of as a celebrity judge . When I asked why, all I was told was, “We didn’t actually think Rovell would say yes and he took your spot.” Strangely enough, I WAS asked to vote in The HOBI Awards (honoring the best in homebuilding for 2025), which take place tomorrow in Plantsville, CT. Come by and say hi! Mary Gamble Gamble is nominated for Influencer of the Year in those awards, too!
Anyway, I wanted to share my ballot with everyone, so on to the Awards! I’m looking at these for the first time so it’ll be pure!
I find all breakers insufferable, so I refuse to cast a vote.
CardCreator5000 wasn’t nominated?? Distortedd? NO? I guess there are a lot out there… Alex Pardee? No? I’m abstaining from this vote, too. Not out of protest, just because I’m not picking a favorite. What you like is what you like, and I actually like a lot of these artists too much to choose just one.
I had the most fun at FanaticsFest, but I get all my cool cards at The National (and tend to spend too much money browsing around with no plan. Did I need a Gary Hart button? …maybe). Anyway, I will go with FanaticsFest, with the tiebreaker being “dependable air conditioning and bathrooms.”
Look, I’m a fan of the little guy, always. But eBay has a gigantic head start on everyone. Maybe I’m just comfortable there, but I like to think of where I want to be when someone screws me over, and eBay has been great every time. Plus I can buy an Apple TV remote, a Bowman 1st, and a Marge Simpson Playboy all in one fell swoop.
This isn’t really fair, because I haven’t been to all of these. I will say Bleecker Trading has a fantastic staff and Burbank is a really fun shop. Another abstain!
I really enjoy them all, but The Realest has such a cool and different vibe to it — and the items are well-curated and interesting. Is it the “best”? I don’t know. But it is the… most intriguing.
Leaf Metal Pop Century. I am a full-on Leaf enthusiast, though I would’ve voted for that weird Panini “Herky on Parade” set, had it been nominated.
The story behind the finding of the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch was insane. Do you remember that? The theories, bounties, and conspiracies behind what turned out to be just a kid affected by the California wildfires pulling the card out of a box? It was such a feel-good story that was destroyed every step of the way. And then Dick’s bought it for $1.1M and it got even more intriguing. I will not abstain here. The Skenes Rookie Debut Patch journey was an event. That’s no longer just a card.
Topps Chrome Update, once the Skenes Patch hype died down and hobby box prices settled, turned out to be a fun, joyful box of cards.
I’m a fan of CollX, but three of the other entrants here seem to do the same thing, so I am a little wary of saying “hey CollX is the best” when maybe they weren’t first to market? And if we’re talking innovation, that becomes important! This stuff matters to J.R. Fickle!!
HALFTIME!
We’re almost there…
I think there are two kinds of voters here: people who voted for this category before and after Jason Masherah’s LinkedIn post.
Executive Eyebrows of the Year Based on Submitted Headshots, though? Tie between Mike Mahan and Nicholas le Jeune
Also, shoutout to Chris Ivy. I’m biased here because I’ve met him a few times and he’s just a great dude. I think I’d also want to have beers with Brahm Wachter, too. And make him say his name a few times slowly because I’m not sure how to pronounce either of them.
Sports Card Nonsense. I think they do it right and they introduced me to the Clever Cuban Cards guy!
CGC turns it around quickly and I really like their redesign. PSA is the Gold Standard but man… did you read our newsletter a couple weeks ago about the pricing?
This is a weird one because I really dislike about half of these people. But I love Naturluvzyou. He’s fun, he gets it. I hope he wins!
Might as well finish on an abstain! How do you pick just one??
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