Winter Olympics Are Coming, As Are The Cards

Alright, we finally made it. It’s 2026 Topps Chrome U.S. Winter Olympics & Paralympic Team Hopefuls (geez, don’t they know I’m on a word limit!!) launch week!

That means we’re all going to rush to buy boxes in hopes of getting autos of Winter Olympics legends and future stars so that we can list them on eBay and turn a profit (when in reality we’ll probably hit an auto from the back-up curler and get an OBO of $3 for it…).

You know I’m a sucker for Winter Olympics autos - how may times have I written about Alysa Liu over the last 6 months? Too many. What’s one more time among friends, eh?

Here now, the moment you’ve been waiting for: J.R. Fickle’s Most Wanted Topps Chrome…[see above for the rest, I’m not typing all that]... and I’m excluding Alysa Liu because you’re sick of me saying her name:

1. Ilia Malinin aka The “Quad God” (figure skating): If you’ve been reading Mail Day for a while you know I’m in the “Quad Squad” (did I make that up?). Malinin had autos on the Stars on Ice website but he hasn’t had a trading card auto yet. His photo autos are going for around $100. He’s likely going to be the most talked about up-and-coming athlete on Team U.S.A so I would have to imagine that you’d be hard-pressed to find any of his Chrome autos for under $100. 

2. Amber Glenn (figure skating): I’ve mentioned her in the past as well, but for those not in the know - and believe me when I say I wasn’t in the know until like, yesterday - Glenn just won her third consecutive U.S. National Title this last week. WTF. That’s incredible. Glenn does have Leaf autos that sell around $50 on eBay, so you can only imagine given the “ew, Leaf, gross” mentality so many have within the hobby that her autos are going to soar in Topps Chrome’s set. 

3. Chloe Kim (snowboarding): She has a “great story,” after taking some time away from the sport only to return to try and win her 3rd World Championship in 2025. She’s looking to be the first female snowboarder to win three consecutive golds in the halfpipe event. Sick!

4. Jessie Diggins (cross-country skiing): This will be the final olympics for the “glitter queen” who is looking to win the gold medal for Team U.S.A. She had cards in the 2018 Topps set, which wasn’t Chrome, btw, and those are selling for around $125 on eBay. She’ll get a lot of air time because this is her last go at it, and if you know me I test the market based on social media following and she has over 250k followers on Instagram, which tells me there’s a market! 

5. Jordan Stoltz (speed skater): This is another one of those “generational talents” and this set will include his “rookie card” and first auto. He’s going to (probably) win a ton and I think we’ll all look back many Olympics from now and celebrate him as an all-timer. I think. 

This set also has the legendary names like Shaun White and Lindsay Vonn, though it’s unfortunately missing some fun ones like Tate Frantz, who is a 20-year-old ski jumper, and Anna Gibson, who was a former track star now turned “Skimo” (Ski Mountaineering) hopeful — with Skimo making its Olympic debut this year. 

Laila Edwards is another big name without a card to watch — I feel like it was a miss not to have her in this set? 

Also, reminder, I don’t know “jack” about these sports and am just a guy reading stuff and speculating so, you know, proceed with caution. Go Team USA!!

OK, one last quick thing this week.

The dude in the IG video above (allegedly) paid $1,200 for a $30 card in a WhatNot auction in one of those 5-second screaming-streamer sales where they yell “CHAT! CHAT!! WHAT ARE WE DOING?! WAKE UP! THIS IS A LIFE-CHANGING CARD! YOU GUYS ARE KILLING ME HERE!!!” and hype buyers into over-paying. 

There’s a ton of TikTok accounts that expose these jerks. 

I know, it’s his fault — he bid, he didn’t do his research — but the sellers never should have sold him that card for $1,200. And we need to stop pretending like these auctions are anything but scams. These dudes are not your friend, as “chill” as they are in the chat. They are not looking to give you deals, not looking to be your “boys”... they are looking to scam you. 

Each and every one of them. In no world is a 5-second and even 10-second sudden death auction made to support the buyer. It’s made to SCAM the buyer. 

Think of it this way: where else do you have 5 seconds to compete with someone else to purchase anything? If you go to the grocery store do they try and sell you and 100 other people an apple in this capacity? What about gas? What about literally anything?

OK, let’s go to auction houses: if this was the best way for you (the buyer) to compete for something - why doesn’t Sotheby’s do it? Or even eBay? NO OTHER SERIOUS AUCTION SITE OR AUCTION HOUSE DOES THIS. 

Because it’s a SCAM and because these dudes don’t care about you, they aren’t your boys, they aren’t you buddies, they are trying to steal as much money from you as possible. 

Hope you remember that as you check out WhatNot next time. 

Sorry, that wasn’t quick. But I do like you and while we all have made hundreds of dumb decisions in this hobby I just think these aren’t dumb decisions, just flat-out dumb.