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What's going on everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs. This is your Hobby Content alternative. I am Brett. We have another Thursday episode coming at you. This slot is becoming the do whatever I want to slot for the time being.

This is the space, up until next year probably, where I will likely just talk about topics and ideas and thoughts and things that are on my mind. And you might ask, how is this different than the flagship episode of Stacking Slabs?

Well, Stacking Slabs' flagship is really around psychology and why we do what we do. And this slot, sure, it can incorporate that, but I almost just want it to be a stand alone spot.

Think of it as the free space where I can show up and I can talk about anything that I want to that is related to the hobby. Now, part of this is end of the year programming for stacking slabs.

We are figuring out how we close the the end of the year with specific, stacking slab shows and properties, and then how we, march forward into 2026 and the types of content and shows that we're we're gonna be doing.

And with that, I don't I'm not sure if it's going to be every week, but for the time being, there just seems to be in the calendar a open space where we can dive into this stuff.

Now there might be a week where card ladder confidential is in this Thursday slot, and there's not, an additional episode.

I it'll just vary, and I'd like to act like I don't fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to content planning, but I'm a team of one with some support around me, and I'm in startup mode still.

I'm I'm building, and sometimes I can't look months and months and weeks and weeks ahead.

It's most of the time just day by day. Now, what I wanted to do in this episode is explore 10 different themes over the last month that I've picked up on from stacking slabs content, conversations, topics.

Now I often have, said that stacking slabs continues to roll forward each and every damn day, each and every damn week. And sometimes, content that was released, yesterday expires by the time, you know, a day or two hit.

People move on. Things happen. There's new content coming out. There's more there's content coming out from other platforms outside of my own.

We're in content overload. We know when we get good content, there's usually something from those conversations that inspire us or cause us to think about something differently.

At least that's what it is for me. Now, I am so fired up to explore the hobby every day because there's so many different angles and different ways to look at it.

Our industry is changing so rapidly. This creates ideas. This creates inspiration. It creates rumors. It creates, speculation, it creates perspective, you name it down the list.

Like, but I think the fact that we're collecting in a space that is changing so rapidly is good for someone who creates content like me because there's no shortage of topics to talk about.

Now, with that being said, I do think sometimes we need to take a step back and we need to reflect on what we're learning, what what has been said.

And these are the moments where I think, as a creator, it's like, what do I what do I do here? Do I put something that new back into the space?

Do I do nothing at all? Or do I reflect on what we've been talking about and try to create some sort of summary view of here are the things that I'm thinking about or that have showed up over the past month or so?

And I think that that is a fun way to approach an episode, an episode like this where creative control is, it's endless.

We can talk about whatever we want. There's no demands, no, time limits. It's just a decision that we can make, and that's what we're going to do.

So in today's episode, what I wanted to do, because, I should've done stats on this, you know, let's say 20 plus episodes in October, that's we're about hitting that limit or threshold each and every month, which is insane to think that we're dropping at least 20 episodes every month.

And it'll be interesting to see how that looks going into next year, and I will share everything with you in real time on what we're working on, what we're doing.

This I'm in the business of show creation, and I've got a list of so many different topics that I want to explore.

And, you know, this just in terms of working and building, and sometimes it takes partnership, sometimes it takes collaboration.

So a lot of that is on my mind, and I'm really spending a lot of time working in the background, setting the stage for Stacking Slabs twenty twenty six to be a year that I'm fired up about, and hopefully you are too.

So with all that being said, what I wanted to do is explore 10 themes that I am focusing in on from all of last month's content.

I think the first one for me to dive into is emotional connection and nostalgia. I try to, as much as possible, talk about cards as personal and emotional objects and not commodities.

Sports cards to me are an expression of ourselves, and the emotional premium we put on cards is what fuels and drives the hobby forward. I can talk a lot about different times I'm buying cards and why I'm buying it, and I understand.

We don't all get to this realization instantly, and that's why I have been advocating for education across the board, education from industry leaders, and education from businesses in this space because I know that there is a surplus of new participants in this space.

And I think for all of us, reaching this point where we all are at, where we're enjoying what we're doing and we're collecting for ourselves, is something that I think will take education and take collectors to realize, and that's why I spend so much time in this space.

I think collectors often admit they buy cards with a gut feeling.

You know, you it's it's almost like this feeling of an intoxication when you see a certain card that you've been looking for or thinking about for a while, and just think about that culmination of your passion, your interest, and your desire.

Think about those things.

That that nostalgia or that personal meaning will inflate the value in most instances when we're thinking about, cards, iconic players, childhood heroes, things players that mean or cards that mean something to us likely ahead of, anybody else.

And I think that's very, very interesting.

And I think it's interesting from the perspective of the conversation around comps and how everyone wants to put certain cards and prices in boxes, and wanna question, how could someone spend this much money on this player and this set?

And because I wouldn't do that, that doesn't make any sense to me. But that's the whole point, I think, of collecting.

It's the value that we all put on individual cards is will never be the same. And that, to me, makes the hobby interesting. I think we assign personal value to cards based on our loyalty to a specific card set, product, player.

And it's that nostalgia that strengthens attachment and justifies spending beyond comps. Like, think about this moment that you have where a card becomes available, and you don't even have to blink.

You just say, okay. I'm ready to go. This happened to me recently, and this happened, the Jack Doyle, former Colts tight end, Cathedral High School grad.

My father-in-law coached him to a state championship, here in Indiana in Indianapolis. Personal connection there, obviously, was a good pro.

I hadn't been able to really I mean, I found I found a card here and there of Doyle that would fit within my Prism collection, but luckily, like, an account posted a rainbow without the black finite, and it was for a $140.

Oh, maybe I don't even remember if it was OBO, but it was like someone posted it, and I reached out to the, seller and I was like, I want this.

And I just I didn't even it was not even I didn't even I said, I'll take it I'll take it for a 140. I didn't need to negotiate. I didn't need to do any of that.

And I panicked for a while because it wasn't a very active Instagram user, and, eventually, he saw my message and, he reached out. We got a deal. But I I didn't even negotiate because I thought about it, and it's the whole rainbow.

And all I really cared about was the the gold prism and the gold vinyl out of that badge, because that's what I collect, and that that's what fits into my collection.

But I I think about that, and I think about even if it was just those two cards for a 140, what would I do?

I I wouldn't negotiate. I would make it as easy as possible because, personally, I value those cards way more than the seller selling them for and likely mostly anybody else's.

So it's almost to me, and this might sound crazy, but it's I don't even wanna get into the negotiation of it all and trying to get deals of it. What what am I gonna say?

Like, let's let me let let me spend time communicating here and say, like, would you do, you know, a 125? It's like, I 50 like, my time is better served, like, than $15, and I get, like, we're all in different positions.

And I I'm not saying, like, I wouldn't appreciate the extra $15, but what I'm saying is I value those cards way more than anybody else. So to me, that drives my collection. I'm it it felt like, this moment where I I almost lost it.

I was like, holy shit. I haven't seen these cards, and now they're available. So I think that's an interesting component to cards, prices, nostalgia, all these factors is cards are an assets first.

No matter how we want them how they are positioned to us and how the mainstream talks about them and no matter what sort of businesses pop up where multimillion dollar cards are sold, like, I think the found the foundation of what we're doing and why we're here is because the cards are personal.

They're more personal to us than anything else. And why we pay more for certain cards even when cheaper ones are available, is part of the individual collecting strategy and process that we all create for ourselves.

This idea of story driven collecting is way more satisfying long term, and it's if we are chasing cards to bury in our collection forever, that likely is the best way to measure the health of the hobby right now and long term, and I don't even know what that would look like.

Right? You'd have to source individuals and have some sort of data around how many cards did you buy this year that actually stayed in your collection, and what does that look like? What's that makeup look like?

And I think, like, the like, that the fact that, like, we're taking cards off the table because we actually want them rather than just to resell it is a really good barometer of collecting for keeps and what what I've been talking a lot about.

And I think this matters a lot. I really do think the emotional connection and nostalgia around cards in our own collection matters probably more than the industry and the hobby is giving it credit for.

Prices will always fluctuate, but personal meaning will drive long term collecting habits.

Always. Like, the way you are thinking about the cards you want in your collection will continue to likely be that way, especially if it's something that's established in your mind and has personal meaning.

I think it's these emotional anchors that help us collect with confidence, help us stay in our lane when trends shift.

The easy thing for everyone to do is to shift with the tides. And as we go up one way, go follow them. Like, what's really hard is to be like, I don't give a shit about what anyone else is doing. What's going up?

What the market says? Like, I got this project I'm working on, and it's because these are the cards that mean the most to me, and so I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing. And getting to that point does not happen overnight.

But when you get to that point where you feel absolute confidence because what you're doing feels like an adventure, and what you're doing feels like an escape, and you're literally getting the opportunity to detach yourself from the rest of life's trials and tribulations and stresses to go on this exploration for Jack Doyle cards.

Like, that's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about, like, this isn't good to go after cards that are going to eventually go up in value so you can make some money.

Like, for sure, like, that's a part of this. This is why it's fun. There's so many different flavors of the hobby. There's so many different ways to do that, and you could do both.

But what I'm saying is the more people that are out there chasing the Jack Doyles for their primary collection, the more that's happening, the better off our hobby is going to be long term.

Alright. That was one topic. The next topic is chasing, the psychological high. And I think a reoccurring focus in a lot of content that I've been exploring is on the psychology of impulse buying.

Chasing cards triggers a feeling. It triggers this dopamine hit. Right? This reward chemical from a surprise or treat. I think about this reward chemical my kids wanna be on post Halloween.

It's like they're they're looking for that dopamine hit, but they're they're not getting it in Jack Doyle, gold vinyl, or gold prisms. No. They're getting it in, you know, Reese's cups and Skittles.

It's like they're looking for that. They want this dopamine. I'm like, it's gonna rot your teeth. They're like, I don't care. I'll take the dopamine hit right now, and we'll worry about it later.

We want dopamine hits for male days. That's real, for sure. And it's not a bad thing. But I think dopamine doesn't care what the object is. Am I doing this for a dopamine hit, or because this truly belongs in my collection?

On the other side of that, there's FOMO. Right? It's it's called out as a trap. I talked about it in the book, collecting for keeps, and I made mention if you're not careful, you feel FOMO over stuff that doesn't fit in your PC.

And that's the crazy part. It's like, you are chasing something because the value is moving in one direction, and you don't even need to care about what the actual card is. And that's when things get twisted.

And I think this mindset challenges what I what I wanna do with this these episodes, and what I've been talking a lot about this year is to challenge collectors to recognize the thrill of the chase and not mistake it for meaningful value.

Otherwise, one ends up skimming a bunch of auctions for the buzz alone later to be flipping cards without purpose, and then what happens?

Right? We've all been on that side of the equation where we don't end up selling the cards for what we bought them for. We're wired as humans for the thrill, not always the outcome. What motivates you?

And I think this is an interesting, question from a hobby perspective. What motivates you? Is it thrill or is it fit? If it is for the thrill, this likely means you are chasing what's hot. You're probably buying into breaks.

You're probably buying into repacks. It's feeling more like a casino and more like gambling, which isn't the worst. It's it's part of it. It's part of the flavor of the hobby, but it's hard to sustain being on that treadmill.

And so what I have found the most interesting in my exploration around this topic is individuals that either, number one, started off in the casino mindset and then ended up collecting for long term because they figured stuff out before, versus the individual who's in the casino mindset and literally doesn't care to get off of that because that's what they wanna do and they have no intention to collect.

And I just think, like, those motivations and desires and that push and pull across the industry is the reason why some things are unexplainable and is the reason why, even though we have data providers and data sources like Cardliner, it gets really complicated to justify and begin to stack rank and say this card's better than the other.

It's all context. It's all variable. It's all reliant on the individuals and what their motivations are. These hobby cycles speed up with tools like Instagram, like x, all the social media platforms.

And I have found that staying grounded helps you make moves that matter. And it's okay to pay attention to the the stuff that's you wanna pay attention to, and what's hot, and what's trending.

Like, I follow that stuff because for me, it's good context to understand when I start to see a trend or a theme or I'm talking to someone on a podcast, I have full context based on what's happening.

I think ultimately, what we're all looking to do is to avoid burnout and not waste our money.

And that's that's just part of it. We we we wanna do whatever we can to safeguard our hobby experience, and that's why I think we're always going to have to try to protect ourselves from chasing that high.

But it's like anything in life. When you're in a good relationship and you're feeling confident, you don't need to go chase something else because you're full you're you're fully satisfied.

You're you're in a good spot, and I think My hope is that the conversations, content, and what we're doing here on Stacking Slides by bringing in business leaders, collectors, you name it, help guide that for individuals out there who are listening who might be trying to figure it out.

I I I third topic that I'd love to talk about, and I will always talk about this for as long as stacking sliders is a thing, but it's collecting with intention.

It's having that c a CEO mindset. Many episodes that I do stress shifting from reactive buying to strategic CEO style of approach. I think collectors who have a vision treat their collecting collection like a project.

That CEO mindset to your personal collection in setting that vision, crafting the strategy, and being goal oriented helps build a collection full of meaning.

This is different than buying on impulse, which is what so many of us have done and what so many of us continue to do.

We are in a much better space, or I believe I'm in a better space. I don't wanna be speaking for you, but when you define themes or projects, whether it's players, sets, parallels, whatever.

Every card you buy becomes a conscious decision that fits into a bigger story. Four years ago, even though there's a connection with Jack Doyle, those cards wouldn't mean as much to me if they came on the open market.

But because I have a project going where those cards are like pieces of the puzzle, the my personal value of those cards are endless.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you know when you're trying to connect cards together, to and you're building something.

As a builder, it's you need certain pieces in order to continue your project. And so I feel like I can't whenever I have a card, it's it's it's like, I'm I'm gonna put this from a CEO perspective.

Okay? I'm a CEO of a software business. I'm going back to my previous life, and I'm, I'm I'm giving the marketing department a new headcount.

And in that headcount, right, we're gonna start a new team. It's going to be the AI team. And I'm literally just making this up on the fly.

But we go out and we hire our first member of the AI team, and we say, this is our goal. We're going to help bring AI into this business, and it's going to help us eliminate time workflows.

It's going to help us bring different functional units together, and we're going to start doing things more effectively and efficiently using one of the industry's biggest trends to our advantage.

And we're hiring you because you're the guy to do it or the gal to do it, and we believe in you, and this is our vision. We're going to hire you. We're gonna bring you on. Then we're going to have you help us build out this team.

And in each of these and in each of the this this team is gonna have functional leaders, and the functional leaders on your team are going to be planted with inside each of these departments to make sure that we're continuing to elevate this initiative because I, as the CEO, believe this is the initiative that's not only gonna help save us time, but it's also gonna help add shareholder value, and it's gonna make us a whole lot more money.

So let's go. And here's the plan forward, and this is how we're gonna get you to crawl, walk, run into this. We're gonna start in marketing, and let's go. And so that is a new new initiative much like starting a new collecting lane.

And as I monitor and watch the progress or lack of progress, one of the, situations based on the vision of this plan in this hypothetical is we're going to scale this.

Well, certain things have to happen in order to scale it. Right? That individual's gonna have to be productive.

They're gonna have to provide data outcomes, show big wins. This sort of thing for us as a business to feel confident in having that individual build this team out and then put these individuals within these different departments.

Well, there can be instances where we get real fired up and excited about this initiative, and then we look at the card or look at the person doing the work and lose our excitement and lose our luster.

And instead of just buying more and putting more in knowing we don't love it, we make the conscious decision of saying, you know what? It's time to move on. This wasn't working out. And I believe that is okay.

It is okay to try new things. It is okay to take risks, especially when we're fired up, and we're fired up enough from a business perspective thinking that this is going to be transformational for the our entire business.

Or from our collecting perspective, this is gonna be transformational. We're going to, you know, start something brand new that we, you you know, that is gonna guide our collecting forever.

Even when those things happen or they don't happen and we don't continue to build and add off that momentum, sometimes the easiest thing for us to do is just cut the cord.

That's what the CEO mindset is. It's not just collecting with intention, but it's when we make a decision that's not going the way we want to.

Instead of just adding to it, we shift our focus and we make key decisions that are going to map back to whatever our personal or professional goals are based on the situation. I hope that was hope you're able to follow along on that.

I I think so much about collecting from a business perspective too even though I shouldn't, but just the the nature, the visuals I have in my mind, how I organize, run, build, eliminate, recruit, all these things.

Like, I I it's weird, but the more I do it, the more I draw those connections.

But I think you can we can all think of our collection as a company. Right? We all have the opportunity to plant this vision, goals, and execute. Right? We all can say no to certain things.

Right? No to hype. Every card that we buy, getting in a space where it earns its place is is really good. And so why I believe the CEO mindset matters more now than ever before is because 2026 is going to be another year of change.

Right? Inventory is going to flood. New sets are gonna drop. There's gonna be a lot of distraction, and having clarity cuts through the chaos. And having a plan makes your collection unique, not trend driven.

Alright. That was a long one, I think. Okay. We're we're moving on to number four, which is navigating a booming market. And this was one of my favorite topics to explore, but the sig the signal versus the noise.

I think almost in every episode, it had something in October to do with overheated market and hype blitz, record breaking sales, the hobby being louder than ever before.

I I attribute a lot of the stuff, like, example, last week when there was just the buzz.

It was like, alright. Fanatics is buying Panini, and, like, everyone went nuts with that. Flashy headline, social media hype, everyone getting tied to that. It's like, wait. Is this factual, or is this rumor mill?

And then you I see collect put out an article saying, that's not true. We've talked to too many people. We talked to some of our sources at Fanatics, and it's like, okay. We're spending all this time getting wrapped up on noise. Right?

And when we wrapped up get wrapped up on noise, what does it do? It takes us away from focusing in on our own collections. And I think the the key lesson for me is finding that sign signal, amidst the noise for our own personal goals.

I think when we figure out what interests us the most and what our collection part of our collection excites us the most, defaulting toward those things outside of what's being tossed at us through social typically helps with my own mental health and my own mindset when it comes to collecting.

Overexposure creates overwhelm, and this overexposure can happen a lot of different ways. Overexposure could be rumors and people's takes on rumors going over and over again, people spinning around and saying the same thing.

Overexposure could be you've got a card at auction, and I'm just gonna continue to push it in your face. And it's like, oh, if you're gonna continue to push it in my face, like, I don't that makes me not like the card even more.

It can be overexposure can be, I've got this card, and I'm just gonna continue to share it over and over and over again.

I think we as individuals in this hobby want what we can't have or what we haven't seen. And to us, true value and true excitement happens in that context.

So I run away from what is the overexposed. I try not to pay attention to it. And and quite frankly, I try not to do commentary or talk about it, but inevitably, I don't know.

We're we're evolving at Sacking Slab, so maybe we'll create some content where we, get into our takes on the latest rumor mill and the hobbies. Probably not, but you never know. It's important, and I've said this, filtering the noise.

Not every headline is gonna matter, and quite frankly, most of them could just be a distraction. And this causes us to focus in on the signal, which could be the PC we have, data we're following, content we're creating, what we value.

And I think this matters going into 2026 because this market is louder than ever before. There's new participants. There's new people who know more than you and I or allege they do, and they're going to continue to talk.

They're going to continue to share. And what becomes valuable in that instance is clarity. Like, we all are seeking clarity across our own collecting experience.

So if we can, as collectors, begin to filter out the noise and focus in on curating an experience in this hobby that excites us, motivates us, gets us to do all the things, like, that's pretty cool.

And those individuals in this hobby who filter out the noise will likely enjoy the hobby the most and have a great experience.

Alright. Moving on to five. Emotional premium and pricing. Closely related to emotion is how prices can exceed fundamental fundamentals.

I, like I mentioned, pay premium simply because the card means something to me, and I'll always do that. In other words, I, as a collector, rationalize high prices by future value and the love for the card, not just scarcity.

And I think what's important when we factor in emotion to scarcity, rarity, sets we're building, there is this multitude and melting pot of factors that cause cards to go at certain prices.

And this year, especially, there has been more, sideline commentators, where it's how dare someone spend this much money, and it's like, it's collecting cards.

This is what happens, and I think recognizing this helps explain why certain cards sell at certain prices.

Right? They're not just investments to everyone else, but they're trophies. I think it's okay to overpay, especially if it's based on something you've been chasing.

That card's going to matter to you differently than it matters to someone else. And I think going into 2026 in a volatile market, comps will always be unstable, but emotional premiums create staying power.

Holding cards that you love is the best. Cards that you just can't possibly get rid of and having confidence on that of that is the best.

One of the episodes I did, looks like last week, I guess, was just on letting go, and that's another theme from, this batch of October episodes, but it's challenging to sell cards.

It is it can be scary. It can be, man, I thought this was a forever card.

But I think what's scary is that change is intimidating to everybody, and we can't forecast the change in movement in our collection and personal interests, and because of all of this, it causes us to not wanna get rid of cards, or it causes us to wanna be stagnant, I'll be damned.

The last thing I'm going to be in this hobby is stagnant, especially if I'm considering or thinking it. Let me run this with you, but this is something that I've been just saying in my head a lot.

It's just a card. I've I've sold a lot of cards, and once I sell a card, it's there's very few times that I've regretted it. And I think that's simple, and I'm not trying to downplay cards. They obviously mean a lot to us.

They obviously you're spending time listening to me talk about cards, so you care at some level. But I just like, we're there's so many other things in our lives that are way more important than cards, and, like, recognition of that.

Like and this is coming from someone who left my job to do this full time, and I spend every penny I have on, the business which supports my family or on cards themselves because I love them.

And I I spend all of my money doing this, but I can still recognize there are things way more important than just all of this.

And I think when you get to this mindset where you're able to recognize that, that it's not like a life or death thing when you sell a card, like, you're in a you're in a better spot.

It's not a failure. It's an evolution. And I'm gonna continue to say that. And I think freeing up funds helps you purchase your next card and affords you opportunities.

And this will matter probably more than ever before going into next year is because the the most impressive collectors I've ever met always find an opportunity and time to pivot when the prices are right, and I think letting go creates room for deeper collecting.

I don't wanna belabor this because we just did three episodes, but the Prism trilogy, that's a topic.

And I'm not gonna revisit Prism in this short sound or this short segment, but I'll just say this. What I'd I'll recognize this from your response as the collector.

What I have picked up on from all of you based on that trilogy, which the great response, great reaction, all the like, that doing that is validation for me of why I can just, like, spend Thursdays and test some different things to do, and that's why you're getting this episode.

But it was just so great. People wanted the content. People wanted the understanding, the tip, the timeline, the milestones, all those things.

And people are interested in product level knowledge. People are interested in cards. Go figure. We don't just need to talk about prices. Although we talked about prices a little, I tried to make it not just all about prices.

I wanted to talk about emotion. I wanted to talk about all those things that we have on our stomachs that make us feel a certain way about a product, and that example was Prism. This can happen across any product set.

We can dig dive in. We can dig in, and it is one of the biggest gaps we have right now in our industries. We do not have a great centralized location for product information that is consistent across year sets.

It's it's a tremendous gap, and we need this. We need this in order to keep pushing the hobby forward. There are different levels and styles of participants in this space.

The people who the collectors who I feel like I connect with the most are those that treat this space from a scholarly perspective. Now, I don't mean they go home and study and read books on sports cards, but they're naturally curious.

They don't just wanna buy to buy because someone else is doing it or because they see something and it looks cool. Sure, that's a part of it. And we just talked about dopamine hits.

But the collectors that I think are crushing it right now are the collectors who are spending time much like they would in preparation for an exam, doing their own research, doing their own due diligence, and this happens through whatever's available on the Internet, whether it's on social media, on a message board, on cardboard connection, whatever these sources are.

Going through and just documentation, learning, figuring it out because they're curious, and then coming to the determination based on their own emotional connection and everything that they studied leading up to this to making the purchase on the card.

Like, those are my people.

The people who are operating like this. And so I just think we as human beings and as collectors, like, we can't just take everything at face value. Just because one person bought a card for $5 doesn't mean I should buy the card for $5.

But if I am going to go do the work myself, going to study, going to research, going to figure it out, going to see the card in hand, going to do all these things and then come to the realization myself that shit, this isn't just a $5,000 card to me.

This is like a $6,000 card to me because of all these reasons. Then that's genuine interest, and that genuine interest happens through self discovery and self research.

So I say all that to say, I'm glad you enjoyed the Prism episodes. I wanna be more focused on this type of content because very few are doing it, and there's a way to do it, and there's a way to organize it.

There's a way to deliver it that is not going to feel like we're isolating certain topics, certain cards, certain errors, but there's a way to do it where we're all going to feel like we have learned something.

And that's the whole point. And I think as this hobby matures, flagship products, like a prism, will shape how we look back.

I am just someone organizing the information and layering in my thoughts on areas that I feel like I'm pretty decent at, which is studying human be human and consumer behavior and studying markets.

I I say this a lot. I was in marketing. My my my primary functions throughout my entire career have been studying consumer behavior and studying markets.

So I will always offer and and through the human behavior, that's why I talk so much about psychology, and through the markets, that's why I talk so much about signal and noise.

And so I will constantly be trying to do what I can to contribute to the space when it comes to not just showing up and sharing everything on the surface level.

Alright. Number eight. Car design and aesthetics. Talk a lot about emotion. Talking a lot over the last month about the artistry of card designs. If you're in the Patreon group, you hear this every week when I deliver cool cards.

I share a reel on Sundays of cool cards. It's like three cards that are on that reel shout out. My cohost, Pac, at Pac Nicholson for helping put those together.

But the in I that's a weekly show that I do, and I'm talking about cards that I see on the on Instagram that I think are beautiful, that are cool, and I spend time doing that.

So if you want more from me, I'm trying to give you it all. I'm trying to put it all out there. Go join the Patreon.

I gotta plug it in. But I think that the digging into designs, timeless visual appeal, having these sorts of conversations on photography, color schemes, refractor effects are just as impel compelling as talking about the player itself.

A beautiful and innovative design can stop collectors or serve as that pattern interrupt, and it can reinforce that card collecting is about appreciating not just the player, but craftsmanship.

And there's this crazy dynamic that I'm, like, not ready to talk about, but I'm going to preview with you.

There is this element in the hobby where you've got people looking at everything that happens from a collecting perspective through a player perspective.

Then there's a whole another world where people are looking at everything from a design, aesthetic, and art perspective. And underneath those two umbrellas, there is a lot to unpack. There's a lot that we can explore.

There's a lot that piques my curiosity, because, fundamentally, those viewpoints on value and the different angles that we can explore tied to collecting and the reason why are fascinating, and I've never heard anyone do it.

Most of the hobby talks about everything from the player lens. It took me about three years to realize, why are we doing it this way?

Like, because players are on card. Duh. But it's much more. It's much more. It's why so many of these businesses we saw during the pandemic boom just imploded because they were all organized and built around the player first.

And I'm not saying looking at cards through a player lens doesn't have potential or shouldn't be a thing. It certainly should, but there's much more.

Card design and aesthetics matter. In a flooded market, and this is kinda how I'm looking at it going into next year, in a flooded market, the design will separate what's memorable and what's un or what's forgettable.

There is going to be more product pumped out than ever before.

We're in this we're in this period of change right now. Wait until we're on the other side of it. There's gonna be products coming at you left and right, different configurations, you name it.

You name it. What's going to separate them? We we're coming off of this arrow of the Panini one and one. It's the arrow of the one of one. Right? There's but but within that, there's different one of ones inside the same product.

What separates it? Design, aesthetics, appeal. Like, all these things, they do. And we should talk about it more. Aesthetics help you enjoy your collection even if the value changes.

That's a topic that fires me up. Maybe I have a topic for next week's episode. I don't know yet. I don't know if I'm ready to dig in. This past week, and I think this is a regular topic.

And since we just talked about it, I'm not going to dive into it, but community, certainly powerful. We seek belonging and learning through shared experiences, and community validates and motivates the collecting we do.

I love creating content. I also love consuming content. The more content equals more voices, which will mean more learning.

I'm a big fan of supporting creators who speak to their style. I try to support creators by, do do collaborating with them when I can. I try to support creators by sharing their stuff, trying to be more intentional about that.

But I think we all have an opportunity, whether we consider ourself a creator or not, to share our story, to help strengthen the hobby by sharing your knowledge.

And this matters going into next year because I think the hobby grows with great content.

Listeners today are creators tomorrow, and finding your crew or your people or your the type of people who collect what you want will only enhance the your own hobby experience. Alright.

We are going to close this out with a topic that certainly always matters, but something we were talking about is integrity and ethics in the hobby. Ethics and accountability amongst hobby influencers are really, really important.

I hope as someone who gets up here and talks on a microphone and shares my thoughts and ideas and how I feel, what I think on a regular basis, you all are challenging what I'm saying. You're all thinking about it from your own lens.

You're all very cautious of people who are talking all the time because as we see and we just saw and we continue to see, we've got people with microphones continuing to manipulate the market through tactics like shill bidding.

There's so much greed in this space. There's so much nefarious activity.

There's so much dishonesty. Think integrity runs through the content that I've been creating in October is because we're celebrating the hobbies boom, but we need to remind each other that trust and transparency will always matter.

We can do this by calling out bad actors and promoting it promoting honest hobby discourse. Yeah. Hobby honest hobby discourse might not get clicks, but who cares? The community will become more responsible when we do that.

Trust is the foundation of this hobby, and that'll never be broken. Once it's broke well, it can be broken, and trust will always be the fundamental ingredient, but but when it is broken, it's really hard to rebuild.

We I think we should call out bullshit when we see it. We should be transparent. We should support good hobby ethics. It's never gonna be perfect, especially in an unregulated market, but we can do our due diligence.

Remember, it's an escape. Would you want to go on vacation? Would you want to get away? And would you want to, be away and turn your brain off for a minute?

And, you know, a lot for a lot of people, it's, you know, going to the beach, and you're sitting on a chair. You're by yourself. You're like, god. This is great. I'm not worried about life stress or whatever.

And, like, just like someone walking by just, like, turns and just, like, farts in your face. Like, that's that's what it feels like at times. It's like you're you're trying to, like, corrupt my space right now.

You know, get your get your farts out of here. But I I try to be little tongue in cheek there. But, it's it's a very serious matter, and we are fortunate that we have platforms to hold people accountable.

But the hobby's too big for silence. Holding standards matters. Long term collectors will always choose trust over trends. And so that's what's on my mind.

That's what that's what we talked about just at a macro in October, a lot of different topics. I had no idea how long we were gonna run this. But, hopefully, you you you gather some of that, and it helps.

It benefits you. Or, at minimum, you've consumed some of this content, and it's been a reminder to you just in terms of your own collecting journey and what you think and what you're doing.

I'm I'm I'm more fired up about what we're doing in this space from an industry perspective than I think I ever I have ever before.

I feel very fortunate to be able to work in this space each and every day. It's fun. It's exciting. I believe I feel like I was built to work at the intersection of collecting content.

I'm getting to do that. And so part of this is just sharing my thoughts, my ideas, my beliefs, and, hopefully, it's helping someone out there, who is trying to navigate this hobby.

It's it's it's convoluted. It's complex. It changes all the time. But at the end of the day, I think this place is special and collecting cards, man, it's fun, isn't it? Appreciate you supporting Stacking Slabs.

Make sure you hit the follow button, tell a damn friend, run on over to the Patreon group, do whatever you can do to spread the message of Stacking Slabs. Appreciate you. Take care, and we'll talk to you soon.