The Professor joins ‘The Chase’

The Professor joins ‘The Chase’

By David Yarger

Co-Host “The Chase”

Another day, another episode of “The Chase” in the books. As we have since our return from National, we continued our interview collection, this time we had The Professor from House of Waxx on the show.

The Professor gave us an insight on his beginning in collecting and breaking and, of course, how the heck he got the name “The Professor.”

He simply said the name came before the WhatNot debut. Him and the guys were sitting around wondering what a good nickname for him would be and then one of Professor’s friends, Ben, said “You look mature, very scholarly with the glasses and you’re always educating, how about the professor?” From there, the nickname stuck.

He added that he uses the nickname to his advantage, saying “Class is in session” at the beginning of his live breaks and then “Class is dismissed” to wrap up. Additionally, he said he’s working on a breakers cutter that looks like Dixon Ticonderoga pencil, keeping it as classroom-like as possible.

As far as public reception, Professor said, “It’s catching on slowly. A lot of people knew me from Instagram.” He added that a lot of people knew him under his real name, Jacob.

At the time of the interview, Professor said he’d been breaking a ton of Optic first off the line, which has included Mac Jones autos numbered to 50, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson and more. His biggest hit, though, a true gold vinyl Joe Burrow.

“There’s always a nice numbered card in every single box, so I love breaking that on WhatNot, because I don’t really see a lot of dead boxes, I can rip through the case with no issues,” he said.

While it’s a great feeling ripping bangers at his fingertips, Professor said it’s an awesome experience to witness the customer’s reactions to receiving the card.

“When they do find out, (I) try to stay in touch with them as much as possible, just because, you know, it’s cool. You see the guy that pulled the gold vinyl Joe Burrow, got that off a $35 spot!” he said.

Professor proclaimed his interest as a collector and said he began at a young age with his dad. He also added he’s a Patriots fan and his collection started with cards from older New England squads, including some Tom Brady’s.

Additionally, Professor said he’s dived into the F1 part of the hobby.

“My best friend got me into F1 about a year and a half ago,” he said. “I watched a couple races, did a deep dive off into YouTube, watched four hours of F1 videos … next thing I knew, I fell in love with the sport.”

He said the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” added a lot of hype into the collection of F1.

While at the National, Professor said one of his favorite moments was meeting one of his biggest clients. He said he was at a blackjack table at the Borgata and sitting next to a random guy. The guy saw his Lil Pullman (House of Waxx) apparel and asked him who The Professor is, and obviously the guy had no idea he was sitting right next to him.

To find more on The Professor, follow him on Instagram.

Also on “The Chase” …

-Around the hobby, we took a look at the updated bidding for the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, which is graded a 9.5 by SGC. With 10 days left in bidding, the card has already reached $6.55 million, $7.86 million with buyers premium.

With so much time left, there is a realistic chance we can see this card get into the eight-figure range.

To stay up to date with the bidding for the “Finest known example,” check out the Heritage Auctions website.  

-Additionally, in other bidding news, a Trey Lance card is working its way up to six-figures. The one of one 2021 Panini Flawless shield auto of Lance was at $95,000 at the time of the show and only going up. This shattered the record for expense on a Lance rookie card, which was previously at $61,000.

To keep an eye on the bidding, visit PWCC’s website.

-As we always do, we had another box rip giveaway. Today the boys ripped the new release of 2022 Panini Obsidian Basketball. This included a CJ McCollum patch auto out of five. To win, comment on the YouTube video who you feel will win this upcoming season’s NBA Finals.

-For more information on everything Dave & Adam’s Card World related, visit dacardworld.com or visit all the social media platforms here.