WHAT'S THENEXT SLICE?

That might sound backward for a sports-card Roadshow, but after visiting Bridgeport Hobby in Chicago, it made perfect sense.

Bridgeport caught our attention not only because of the cards in the shop, but because of the personality surrounding them. Pizza-themed concepts such as Cheesy Chaser and Super Slice turned something distinctly Chicago into part of the collecting experience.

And that got us thinking about something bigger: How did the hobby get from somebody pointing a camera at a box of cards to today’s world of live breaks, repacks, entertainment and communities built around the rip? And where does it go next?

Modern online breaking grew out of a simple idea: put a camera on the cards and let collectors experience the opening with you. In the mid-2000s, New Jersey dealer Rick Dalesandro — better known as Dr. Wax Battle — was posting recorded pack and box openings. Chris Justice of Cards Infinity later described seeing that early format and expanding it in 2007 by selling spots in cases online and then opening the product for those buyers on video.

That changed more than the economics. Suddenly collectors could watch the pack open, see the color appear, recognize the player, watch the card turn over and experience the hit with everybody else in the room.

That distinction still matters. Today’s best live breaks are not simply transactions. They are shows.

Traditional breaking begins with manufacturer-sealed wax. Repacks change the equation: previously pulled cards are sourced and curated into a new mystery-card product.

Now different questions matter. What is the floor? What is the chase? Which players belong? How much value is actually inside the run? Is the product transparent? And why should somebody choose this repack instead of another one?

That is where curation, branding and personality become part of the experience.

Bridgeport Hobby gave that concept a distinctly local personality.

CHEESY CHASER. SUPER SLICE.

Pizza and sports cards should not necessarily go together. But in Chicago, somehow they do.

That is one of the things we are looking for on The Lyons Edge Roadshow. We are not traveling around looking for shops that all do the same thing. We are looking for what makes each shop memorable — what they figured out, what we can learn, and what cards stop us in our tracks.

When we got back from Bridgeport, we put Connor and Tommy behind the studio bar and brought out the pizza.

The rule was simple: First judge the slice. Then judge the card.

That is where the Roadshow video begins. But the pizza was only half the story, because Tom did not leave Bridgeport empty-handed.

Shaquille O’Neal. Alonzo Mourning. 2023–24 Panini Immaculate Collection Basketball. Dual Autographs #11. Serial number 10/10. BGS 9 Mint.

The published Immaculate checklist confirms the Shaquille O’Neal / Alonzo Mourning Dual Autographs #11 is limited to 10 copies.

Two Hall of Fame centers. Two autographs. Both represented with Miami. Only ten copies in the run. And ours is the 10/10 bookend.

There is just one little problem.

That is not normally a sentence you will find in a sports-card company’s article about its latest acquisition. But that is exactly why we are writing it.

We are not going to manufacture a convenient comp after the fact and tell everyone we bought a $1,400 card for $1,400. We paid $1,400 because we were willing to pay ahead of where we believe today’s immediately supportable market sits.

That creates a test. We are not buying only what the card was worth yesterday. We are making a thesis about what it could become tomorrow.

Because the card itself is only part of the decision.

Our thesis combines Shaquille O’Neal market momentum, a print run of only ten, two Hall of Fame autographs, the Miami pairing, the Immaculate brand, the 10/10 bookend serial number and BGS 9 preservation.

Our thesis is that broader demand for Shaq may eventually migrate into scarcer, higher-end cards such as this one. We could be right. We could also be wrong.

A completed sale tells us something extremely valuable: what somebody paid. It does not automatically answer what we should pay now, and it certainly does not tell us what somebody will pay three months from now.

With a card this scarce, the problem becomes even more pronounced. There are not enough identical transactions to create the kind of liquid market that exists for a mass-produced rookie card.

So we examine more than one number: supply, demand, player trajectory, comparable autographs, comparable Immaculate cards, serial-number hierarchy, buyer depth, liquidity, timing and alternative cards available at the same price.

Our first checkpoint is November 2026. By then, we will ask one question: Has defensible market evidence caught our $1,400 acquisition cost?

If yes, the forward thesis is progressing. If not, we say so.

Then comes January 1, 2027. By the beginning of the year, our thesis calls for the card to have the potential to move above our $1,400 acquisition cost.

That is a forecast, not a guarantee. We are deliberately publishing it beforehand so we cannot rewrite the story later.

This is where Roadshow feeds directly into The Edge — Sit Down.

The Roadshow found the card. Dad bought it. Now Connor and Tommy get to put the purchase on trial.

Would Connor have spent $1,400? Would Tommy? Who is the eventual buyer? Is it a flip, a hold, a long-term collection piece, or a TCC — a True Collector Card? What evidence would cause us to change our position?

That is more interesting than simply announcing, “Here’s what the card is worth.” Sometimes nobody actually knows.

That is what we want The Lyons Edge Roadshow to become.

Bridgeport gave us the Cheesy Chaser, Super Slice, the evolution of repacks, pizza, the Shaq/Mourning 10/10 and an extraordinary Ohtani All Kings card that deserves its own story.

One stop should not equal one piece of content. A great stop should leave us with questions we still want to answer after we have left.

Breaking began with somebody putting a camera in front of a box. The box became a shared experience. The shared experience became entertainment. Repacks added curation. Shops added personality. And collectors kept finding new ways to experience the hobby.

Bridgeport found its slice. Now we are looking for the next one.

Somewhere along the way, we put $1,400 on a Shaq and Alonzo Mourning card that we openly admit we believe we paid ahead of today’s market for.

Now comes the fun part. We wait. We measure. And in November, we come back to the card.

No changing the prediction. No rewriting the purchase. No pretending we knew the outcome.

First we judged the slice. Now the market gets to judge us.