Yes, the collectible cards market is in summer lull and the whole market could be dragged into an all industry correction due to the major TCG correction. However, GOATs will still be GOATs from a card collecting standpoint. Many of my points below are from what I wrote in previous post(s).
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GOAT in each major sport and collectible cards trends for September 2026.
Basketball: GOAT – Lebron James. Jordan will no longer be considered the absolute GOAT within two decades.
Baseball: GOAT – Barry Bonds. Statistically speaking, even with the great pitching, Ohtani will likely come up short in the GOAT status conversation. Babe Ruth will still be a myth but with persistent lower offensive production in MLB within the three decades at the very least, there will likely be no one that could challenge Bonds’ records. As sports gambling and similar vices become more accepted, Bonds’ controversy while in MLB likely will be looked at much differently in a few decades.
Football: GOAT – Unknown but likely won’t be Brady for long. Brady’s records are very vulnerable to being broken. He had the chance to put it away for good by playing longer with the Bucs but ended up not being able to do so. Perhaps not a single person will break all of his records but his passing yards and TD records are very much in reach. Bree was only about 9,000 yards short and 70 TDs shy of those records. Brady could really go for the mythical 100,000 passing yards and 1,000 TDs but didn’t which leave the GOAT conversation wide open. Anyone who gets to the next digit number level will be squarely in the GOAT debates. The seven Super Bowls will likely be broken by role players but are in the right place at the right time. The five Super Bowl MVPs will likely be tied by Mahomes, who already have three, or someone else.
NASCAR Racing: GOAT – Jeff Gordon. Gordon was like Michael Jordan for NASCAR in the 1990s and 2000s. He literally dominated the sport. Earnhardt and Petty are legends like Bill Russell, Walt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Mickey Mantle, while they are great and probably have better statistics than many GOATesque players, they ultimately did not become the GOAT.
Cricket: GOAT – Joe Root. Without going into details, I think he will be the GOAT.
Hockey: GOAT – Alexander Ovechkin. He plays in one of the toughest eras to score a goal, holds the all-time goals record and will likely exceed 1,000.
Golf: GOAT – Tiger Woods. Let’s be honest, would Jack Nicklaus or Sam Snead attract that many people to watch golf? Woods’ kid also appears to be good at golf which will likely keep Tiger Woods name in conversations for years to come even when he retires from the PGA.
Tennis: GOAT – Iga Swiatek. At 25, she only turned pro for a few years yet she already been the number 1 player in the world for a few years and her life-time winnings is already about halfway from earning leader Serena William’s total. She lost her number 1 status mostly because of injuries. She is also very marketable as an athlete which as you know I can’t really talk too much about as to why. I think she has the physical tool and will likely have the career longevity to become the number 1 money earner of all time in her sport partly with help of inflation but that is another story. Too much power parity on the men side to pick a GOAT in men’s professional tennis.
Table Tennis: GOAT – Ma Long. He is the undisputed GOAT of the sport. I think once he retires his national team will decline in the sport as Japan takes over. Japan already got some of the top youth table tennis players in the world. I think Ma Long will play in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. If you can buy his rookie card for a buck or two, it’s probably a solid deal.
Rugby: GOAT – Dan Carter. The issue is there are basically two QB equivalents in Rugby, fly-half and scrum-half. Though fly-half is considered most important position, the scrum-half also get a lot of shine. Players on the field play both offense and defense. Richie McCaw is great but he is a forward in a game that consider a particular type of back the most important in the game.
Pickleball: GOAT – Anna Leigh Waters. The sport for various reasons appears to be a bit different versus tennis in terms of separate tours for the men and the women’s side. Men actually don’t have an advantage over women in this sports due to biology. While Ben Johns is great, Anna Leigh Waters probably means much more for the sport and for various demographic groups.
Formula One Racing: GOAT – Lewis Hamilton. I think he will be in the sport for a few more years and break Schumacher’s all-time record then retire.
Cycling: GOAT – Lance Armstrong. Yes, no one is perfect. He is the American GOAT in the sport which means a lot in the GOAT conversation.
Boxing: GOAT – Mike Tyson. Yes, people will argue Ali is the greatest. Heck, people will even say Mayweather was better. In reality, the difference is in perception and not so much in records. They all lost a match at some point in their career be it in professional match or in the Olympics. Heavy weights usually get more attention in the sport. Ali may be great, he was also living a turbulent times and was somewhat polarizing for political reasons. Tyson though controversial as well, boxed in a time of mostly prosperity and in an era of generally/mostly happiness. I hate to say this but think about why people believe Ali is a global ambassador. Did his beliefs and aspirations for his pet projects actually workout from a humanity contribution standpoint or was it just another 50 years of relative non-contributions versus other more prolific demographic group(s)? Tyson was a global ambassador of pop culture who stayed in his own entertainment lane but still remained extremely impactful on non-sports areas.
UFC: GOAT – Jon Jones. I think the GOAT will eventually become very popular as well.
Bowling: GOAT – Walter Ray Williams Jr. He is probably the GOAT in the sports versus Pete Web on records alone.
BMX: GOAT – GOAT – Mat Hoffman. He is probably not the consensus GOAT but probably has enough GOATesque to be the GOAT over competitors.
Motorcross/Supercross: GOAT – Ricky Carmichael is the undisputed GOAT in the sport.
Swimming: GOAT – Michael Phelps. He is the GOAT and the greatest Olympian of all-time.
Surfing: GOAT – Kelly Slater. He is the GOAT in the sport.
Lacross: GOAT – Gary Gait. He is the GOAT in the sport.
Water polo: GOAT – Maggie Steffens. She is the GOAT in the sport.
Volleyball: Karch Kiraly. He is the GOAT in the sport.
Snowboarding: Shaun White. He is the GOAT in the sport.
Track and Field: Quincy Wilson. He already won an Olympic gold at 16 in 2024. He broke a lot of important records for his age group. I think he has a chance to be the GOAT.
Gymnastics: Simone Biles. She is the GOAT in the sport.
Figure Skating: Alysa Liu. I think she has a chance to become the GOAT due to her current age and potential to win more Olympics medals. Not only is she popular and transcendent in the cultural sense but is also a potential geopolitical icon.
Horse Racing: GOAT – Victor Espinoza. It’s a tough call between wins and money won. But I think money does bring the best competition within people so him winning the most money in the sport probably means he is at least one of the GOATs.