SCN Challenge Week 3 Wrap-Up, Week 4 Preview

With QB injuries piling up, waiver moves are being made and a new leader at the top of the board.

SCN Challenge | Mike Sterk

We broke down the SCN Challenge last week in our preview, so check it out if you need a refresher.

In the SCN Challenge, we combine Fantasy Football and card collecting into a season-long league where content creators, football fans, and card collectors compete to build the best portfolio over the course of the season through the Super Bowl. We're now a few weeks into the season, and as the chaos from the early weeks has died down, we are starting to see moves made on the waiver wire.

NFL Week 3 Review

SCN Challenge Post-Week 3 | SCN Challenge

Trent is back on top after Week 3 and before waivers have finished up, but with him making no moves, he'll hold onto the top spot. He's led by his 2025 Panini Prizm Tyler Shough Silver Auto in a PSA 9 which is up 60% over the first three weeks.

In fact, Trent has four cards up over 20% each and only one card is negative.

I'm currently sitting in second, but my Tyler Shough card is only up 16.8%, so I don't get the same benefit of Trent, despite all of my cards being up. We'll get to my controversial waiver wire move in a bit.

Wrapping up the podium places, Jason Otero from The Ballcard Show drops from 1st to 3rd after he did not move his Caleb Williams Optic Red Pandora PSA 10 or his Matthew Stafford Topps Finest PSA 10 as his hero card.

Week 3 Waiver Controversy

JSN Green Scope Auto /75 PSA 9 | Card Ladder

I made the move after Week 2 to move my Caleb Williams Purple Shock PSA 10 and swap it in for a 2023 Jaxson Smith-Njigba Prizm Green Scope Auto PSA 9. The Card Ladder values were similar, with Caleb set at $200 and Smith-Njigba at $195. However, after loading it into the Card Ladder collection we have built for this SCN Challenge, the Card Ladder Value jumped to $685. After some deliberation, it was determined by our Benevolent Dictator, Jeremy, that I had to swap, as the CL Value for raw cards was significantly higher than the PSA 9.

With needing to swap, I was left in quite the pickle. While this move won't count against my 5 moves for the season, I had a strategy I wanted to stick with and Smith-Njigba was a short-term play as his next few weeks were very easy and he's off to a hot start.

Patrick Mahomes Blue Wave /150 PSA 10 | Card Ladder

Without giving away my strategy, I need something in the short term that could jump quickly in a few weeks. I decided on a 2025 Topps Chrome Patrick Mahomes Blue Wave /150. The CL Value is still below the Caleb Williams I traded in, but the Chiefs' next few weeks are very easy with the Raiders and Chargers before things get difficult. A true-blue sold for $400 right near release, so ideally a few big games and a blue wave could get closer to $300. Time will tell!

So, was it a good trade?

Looking Ahead to Week 4

Jesse Gibson is at the bottom still and needs something big from C.J. Stroud or Jordan Love to get their markets to rebound. He's in a distant last place as only Gary LeMaster and Mike Gioseffi are in the negative with him. For Gary, he needs a rebound from his Matt Stafford card. Mike needs a big rebound from Drake Maye.

As it stands now, Jordan Love and Drake Maye are the two names that are down the most in the competition. Safe to say they have both been extremely disappointing and the market has responded accordingly.

Check back in after Week 4 to see if the main hosts of SCN can get out of the negative.