CARDBOARD POLICE

Boston Card Hunter just dropped a new 2026 card market forecast — and it arrives at one of the most crowded moments on the hobby calendar. The video, published this week, is the channel's take on where the market goes from here: after the National, with PSA's grading backlog back over 12.4 million cards, and with licensed Topps football about to return to shelves.

It's the kind of forecast that lands when the hobby's biggest storylines are all live at once — and worth a watch for exactly that reason.

What a Mid-2026 Forecast Has to Weigh

  • The PSA backlog: grading demand surged past 12.4 million cards after The National (CASE #0211) — a number that shapes supply, turnaround times and prices across the market
  • The return of Topps Flagship Football: licensed paper football is back August 21 (CASE #0214), adding a major new release to a second half already full of them
  • The post-National recalibration: the industry's biggest show of the year came and went, and the market is settling back into its regular rhythm

Boston Card Hunter has been a regular voice on these pages — most recently breaking down PSA's second major class-action lawsuit (CASE #0203) — and a market-forecast video is squarely in his wheelhouse: where valuations sit, what's moving, and what collectors should be watching as the second half of 2026 gets underway.

The Verdict

Any single forecast is one voice in a market with more open questions than answers — but the questions this one is asking are the right ones. The backlog, the football return and the post-National reset are the three forces that will define the second half of 2026, and a forecast that grapples with all of them is worth your hour.

Watch directly on YouTube

Channel: Boston Card Hunter