Arya of Barstool Sports joins The Chase

By David Yarger

Co-Host The Chase

Good morning and happy Monday everybody! The Chase was back and started off the week with a box rip of 21-22 Mosaic Basketball and a wonderful guest. Today the crew welcomed Arya, a producer from Barstool Sports on to the broadcast. Arya, on top of producing content for Barstool, is a huge collector in the hobby. 

We got to talk about his collection, the current status and future of the hobby, as well as discussion about possible hobby content over at Barstool. 

Arya is also an avid wrestling collector and following the Royal Rumble on Saturday – which Cody Rhodes won – Arya agreed that you expect to see a jump in Rhodes’ product. He added that it has been exciting to rip wrestling products of late. 

Arya said his collecting began around the age of 6 or 7 when his sister gave him some old Fleer baseball cards and he became obsessed. 

“Back then I mowed lawns for an entire summer to get like $150. And I got a complete SkyBox set just to get a Michael Jordan card,” he said. 

He later got into Pokémon but left the hobby for a bit. Around the time of the pandemic, he said a buddy of his noted that cards were coming back, and he decided to give it a peak again. 

“He showed me Luka – and I was a huge Ja Morant fan. So his upcoming class was (good) and I said I would start collecting with Ja getting back into it. … So that’s when I started getting back into it,” he said. 

To current day, Arya said Topps is his favorite brand and he’s been collecting a lot of baseball. 

Arya did have some hot takes regarding certain aspects of the hobby. For example, he voiced his displeasure with memorabilia cards, saying he doesn’t care if a player wore the part of the jersey. 

“Most of the time it’s not even game used. A lot of the time these guys are in their autograph session, and they put the jersey on, and they take it off and then it counts as player worn,” he said.

He also said regarding quality control: “The quality control is insane. I’m kind of torn on that where quality control with centering and printing lines and all this crap, I’m just like how can you not get it right? I just don’t understand it. But then the part where I’m torn is, if every card was perfect then everybody would have PSA 10’s of you name it.”

As far as the future of the hobby, Arya said he’s nervous, but is looking forward to what Fanatics has to offer as they enter the hobby. 

“I’m hoping that having a monopoly doesn’t destroy quality or overprinting. I just hope they don’t dilute the market,” he said. “I think they’re a great company to be acquiring the rights and to produce all this awesome, but I’m just worried about diluting the market. You already see with Topps how the print run on Topps this year is insane compared to next year. I mean Julio Rodriguez has like 12 rookie cards. … My thing is, I think Fanatics is going to be very good for the hobby, as long as they don’t mess with overprinting and quality over quantity.”

To see the full interview with Arya, check out the YouTube replay here.

Additionally, check out Arya on Twitter and Instagram!

Also on The Chase

Following the interview with Arya, we ripped a box of 21/22 Mosaic Basketball. The one auto we pulled was legendary Denver Nuggets player Alex English. 

On top of that, there were several rookies pulled, including Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, Josh Giddey, Jalen Suggs and many more.

To win all the cards, comment on the YouTube replay a possible NBA Finals matchup for this season. 

A winner will be announced on Wednesday’s episode, which is a big day for The Chase! The next episode marks episode 100 for the crew. There will be giveaways and some special guests, so be sure to tune in at 11 a.m. Wednesday!

For more information on everything Dave & Adam’s Card World related, visit dacardworld.com or visit all the social media platforms here.  Additionally, check out all of The Chase’s social media here!