What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs, your hobby content alternative. Open Tuesday, bonus time, right around the holidays. Let's just get into some year end content. I wanted to make sure I got an episode in before the end of the year where I could talk about my cards.

Isn't isn't that where we're all at? Don't we all just wanna dig in and talk about the cards in our collection, the reasons we bought those? I figured because we all do the recaps and we consume the recaps in every walk of life. Why not do a top five recap of the cards that mean the most to me? And in preparing for this episode, I had fewer pickups maybe than ever before this year, but the quality of pickups were very, very high.

And the quality is the quality to me. I wanna make sure I clarify that upfront. What I wanna do in this episode is actually, let's let's cover some rules. And before we cover some rules, hit the follow button, tell a damn friend, leave a review, run on over the Patreon group. If you enjoyed stacking slabs content this year, do something to tell a damn friend.

Okay? My job is to grow this thing, so need your help. So I wanna cover this one time, make sure that it's clear. We're all on the same page. These are not the five most expensive cards that I picked up this year.

I don't associate my favorites with monetary value, although sometimes the more most expensive cards are my favorite. It just depends. But it that's not what I'm looking at in order to make this list. I'll say this too. When I made this list to cut down to five, it really was a culmination of a lot of different things.

Obviously, the card itself played a role. The the the the desire I had when I was acquiring the card upfront matters. The story behind the card matters. There's a bunch of different factors. And I didn't realize this going into this exercise, but the story of the acquisition and that process, that strain that each of these cards took me through is a big, big reason why I'm talking about it now.

You gotta feel a little pain, man. You gotta feel a little pain. And so that's an observation that I did not make until now. So that's something. These five cards aren't necessarily the cards that have performed the best, that have gone up in value.

As a matter of fact, are they all you wouldn't, yeah. So this tells you this tells you something, which, again, I didn't realize this until right now. These five cards, they're all one of ones. All of them. That wasn't intention until I just literally looked at the list staring me in the face, but they're all one of ones.

So there's no way outside of, you know, card letter value that these cards haven't been sold. So I don't know how well they're doing. But, again, that tells me something about the way I think about my collection, the fact that all five of these cards are are one on ones. This is probably the first time I have not done this before, but this is probably the first time ever that would have been the case. These five cards should do a decent job of illustrating right now.

This is how I collect. Each card earned a spot in the process. This wasn't impulsive. Quite frankly, I spent a decent amount of time selecting the five cards. And, like, three of the cards, it was like, yep.

And then there were, like the two others, there were debates, and I was trying to figure it out. But yeah. So I just wanna, like, cover those rules upfront. I will my goal here is I'm gonna take you through the same structure with each of these cards. It's going to, we're gonna get into, like, how I decided, what I ignored, what I'm looking for in my collecting, and basically what makes a card worth owning.

So the structure for each of these five cards, we're gonna talk about the card itself. We're gonna talk about, where the card sat within my mental math. What problem did the card itself solve, what emotion was present, what data mattered and what data did not, what did I say no to in order to say yes to that, for at least I'm gonna let my memory jog back there for whatever I can recall. What is owning the card change, and would I buy it again today? And I'll I can probably answer that.

It might be the most obvious obvious question. These are cards I I truly love, and they all have a purpose. Let's let's start with the only basketball card on the list. Let's do that. And I love this card.

This is the 2024 Prism Pascal Siakam Black Prism one of one. I acquired it raw. It is now in a PSA eight slab. Just, man. Looking at this card brings me back.

So I didn't necessarily have this card on any sort of list. However, this card presented itself. And when the card presented itself, it was for sale on a pub on eBay. And I saw the card listed, and I remember trying to trying to figure out, is this based on the price, based on the value, is this a card that I need? Is this a card that is going to change the way I think about my collection?

And so I started to process all of the different things that go into buying a card or wanting to acquire like a card like this. Now I I am not a collector of Prism Black one of ones like I am Black Finite in football. And so I didn't have a Siakam collection or a robust Siakam collection. So based on the price point, I needed to really figure out where this card was at. And so I reached out to the seller and started to have a conversation.

Well, what I learned quickly is that the seller, Max, I knew of him through a collection he was building, and he was amassing the entire twenty twenty two WWE gold prism set. Literally, the master set gold prism, which is insanity. And because we had a conversation and we started talking, I knew that based on my collection, perhaps there was an opportunity to use a card that he needed in order to get a discount on the Siakam. And so I I, like, debated this. I was literally trying to figure out, okay.

Is this something that I wanna do? Do I wanna give up this Roman Reigns card that's in my collection? And there was an element of the fact that he needed it to create a master collection that made it compelling to me. And so we landed on a deal. And the deal was the Roman Reigns, then he gave me some money for the Siakam Black.

And essentially, I ended up with the Siakam card for way less than I thought I was going to have to come out of pocket for it. And it was a card instantly that meant a lot to me in my collection. Now Siakam was such a pivotal force on the Pacers' run. It made me think about the card itself. And we get into these emotions when we're our teams are doing well, and all I wanted at that time was a connection and a connection through cardboard.

And so I thought about the card and quickly realized during this process that this was Siakam's first Prism Black in Pacers gear. That meant something to me. That was significant. I didn't know that I needed this card until I saw it. It was one of those instances.

This card became an anchor for other Siakam cards that I have bought. The this card certainly came at a perfect time. My emotions and high my highs around my team were at an all time high. I looked at this card as a a grail. The Pacers were on this magical run.

And what was really important was the fact that looking or what has been really important is the fact that looking back on the situation right now is the fact that, like, yeah, even though the Pacers aren't great this year, they're star players out, Siakam's doing all he can, and it's not a great year to be a Pacers fan, the card still means a ton to me. And so, you know, when we were going through the back and forth and negotiation and this and that, like, we were we were both playing hardball in a way and realizing in the process, it's like, well, if I really want this card, I'm gonna have to bend a little bit. And there was some bending, and the bending allowed for me to get this card that makes the list. Now it does not come without sacrifice. That Roman Reigns card is incredible, and I had to say goodbye to it.

And I had it for a very long time. And, of course, I'd it's a card I'd love to have back right now, but it was the circumstances at the time and the situation. Owning this card really feels like I'm owning a piece of that finals run. Gold jersey. You can see the crowd in the back.

It feels like it could be a moment from that playoff run even though I know that it's not. And, yes, I would buy this card again nine times out of 10 if given the opportunity. So I wasn't sure if there would be anything but football cards on this list. Excited that the Siakam made the list. Awesome card.

Glad to have it in my collection. And we'll also say this, Max and I then went on to do another deal this year, He was responsible I guess maybe this is a segue here. And I'm not gonna go long on this because I just talked about it on an episode. But it is a I ended up buying Max's 2012 Reggie Wayne Gold Prism, which completed my Gold Prism run, and we got that deal done at The National. So I made a deal where I acquire acquired the Siakam, and I acquired at The National.

Got to meet Max in person and acquire the twenty twelve Reggie Wayne Gold Prism from him. So that Reggie Wayne Gold Prism likely would have been on this list if I didn't acquire the black finite. And so we'll introduce the second card, which, again, because I just did an entire episode on it, I'll be very brief on it even though it is easily my favorite pickup of the year. And I wanna go Broadway again on it, but I also wanna be respectful that I just created an entire episode of it. So if you want the full story of this card, there is an episode in the archive not too long ago.

You'll see it. The title is about twenty twelve Reggie Wayne, prison black finite one of one. And it's a raw card on top of that. This is what I wanna say in this that I might not have reiterated, but or might not have mentioned if I didn't mention it, I wanna reiterate it. This is the one card that truly blew my mind this year.

Seeing it, the way it made me feel, it felt like a unicorn. I had never seen this card before, and I feel like that with a lot of the twenty twelve Prism Black Finites that pop up. It's this special feeling, and that's what I know. It's like, because I'm getting this special feeling, these cards mean something to me. Now I am certainly not a rookie card truther.

I know there's a lot of rookie card truthers out there. 2001, Reggie Wayne's rookie year. There's cool rookie cards. But I will for me, in my personal taste, knowing that this card existed, knowing that this card, is a part or could have been a part or is now a part of the broader collection that I'm building. I I in my understanding of Reggie Wayne's catalog, although I'm not I'm no expert.

I'm no expert. I've not dug in. I've never been a Reggie Wayne player collector, but I have some general understanding through being a Colts collector and through doing content. I will I will say that I don't think I would rather have another Reggie Wayne card than this card, which is a big one, not only because it represents Wayne, but it represents the first year best card of a product that I adore. It just checks all the boxes.

So this card, when I think about my collection, this card certainly is a card that I never would have imagined that I would have ever owned. And because of that, it does not really solve any problems. It's, the performance enhancing drug to the collection that I'm building. Shoot it right in the arm. The getting stronger.

We're starting to make some moves. That's what this card feels like to me. It's like the HGH of my Prism catalog. It's the emphasis. It's the point.

It's the card that I take out and share everyone share with everyone before I talk about any other cards. The status for me of this card is through the roof. I did a whole deep dive on it, very emotional, purchase, emotional, getting rid of and saying goodbye to cards that have been with me for a while and some cards that haven't. But, yes, that sucks. And the certainly, data played a role in this process.

And quite frankly, like, the card was listed at a price that I would have just said this seems like a great price. But there was an OBO, so there was some negotiation to it. But I I because of the category, I'm pretty informed on the market and so made sure I, did my due diligence looking at it. This card is a start of it it feels like it's a start of this collecting era for me where I have put my planted a flag in the ground of what I'm really truly trying to collect, and this card will forever be a symbol for it. And I would buy this card over and over again, and I hope I get the opportunity in 2026 to acquire a card that means as much as this card means to me right now.

Alright. The next card. This one was tough because I had a debate, and it was a debate between Jonathan Taylor cards. And the debate was the 2024 black finite or the 2020 select rookie black prism one of one field level. And I love both the cards so much, and I'm a prism over select guy.

But the whole story of this Taylor rookie select finite puts it in the, puts it in this on this list. I'll also say, like, this list is, it's not in any sort of order. I'm just talking about my cards. So if you're a rookie card collector and you're scanning and evaluating and looking at all of the different, types of cards and you like shiny cards, I think a lot of people really lean towards the select field level rookie black Prism one of ones. I think these cards are super cool.

I think the Select brand certainly has gone through some cycles towards the end of it. Not great. I would say 2020 still is in a place where the cards look really, really cool. I mean, aesthetically, have the the the black prism look. You've got Taylor, you know, looking like he's given a stiff arm, but then you've got that checkerboard checkerboard pattern, which I think is certainly amazing.

This card is in a PSA nine. Not that that mattered at all. And I think one of the elements that you can say, you know, this this card isn't maybe the best or isn't the greatest or has some dings is the fact that, like, the select product has the multiple levels. And I I'm not necessarily a fan of the multiple levels because then you get into the conversation of which rookie card's the best one. Is it the first one?

Is it the field level? It's this whole thing. And so for that, that doesn't, like, light me up, but the card itself kicks so much ass now. I had a gold, PSA 10 probably a year ago and sold it in a consolidation and always wanted that card back. So to recover that moment and get the better card was certainly awesome.

So very familiar that this card was, out there. Also, outside of the box, even though it seems wild, outside of the box from my primary Colts collection, but you make exceptions to the rule, and this card just had all of the qualities that I could have ever dreamed of. The other element that I think makes this card notable is the acquisition. The acquisition is maybe the most fun way to win win cards, and that's at auction. And I felt at the time that I was actually when we were in this, moment of one of ones being of these types of profile of cards going for, you know, percentage points higher than they it ever had.

I was very, concerned that this card was going to cost me a ton of money. And I don't remember if I can tell what my mega bid was at the time, but I ended up winning the card for $1,202, which at the time seemed like the steal of the century, especially with how Taylor started the season. Jonathan Taylor, has been my favorite Colts player. This card is so good. I don't even again, I don't think I really considered data points.

It was just like I needed this card, and I had a set price. I don't know if it was like 4 k or something. I got the card for significantly, like, more than half less than what I was expecting. And it was one of those situations where it was like, man, I feel like I've got some money to spend, money burning a hole in my pocket, which how about that? You which this never happens.

And I can assure you with the rest of these cards, this wasn't the case. But this was a the unique case of being able to acquire a brand new card that I absolutely love, that I just adore for way less than I was anticipating paying for it. And that's what you get with the auction format sometimes. I don't know if people just didn't see this card. I I still can't explain it because after the fact, when I finally posted the card, I got so many DMs with people just messaging me of, like, stunned at the price.

So that one's a cool card. Really pumped to have it in my collection. So we've got two more to go. Let's do the again, so I picked the Taylor. I left out the 24 finite.

This is another leave out the 24 finite. This was, like, debating, and I'm I'm leaving out the 24 prism finite pitman, which I have, and I'm instead talking about the nebula choice one of one. Now, you know, the last part of this is interesting because I'm so adamant on being a gold, gold vinyl, black finite collector. And these and under the Prism umbrella, and these cards are outsider one of ones. But I don't know.

Something about being an outsider one of one gets me excited. So let's see here. The card is the 2024 Michael Pittman Nebula Choice one of one. I bought this card raw, and I think I was trying to wrap my head around these cards. And this is there was a period of time where the Nebulas came out and started to hit marketplaces, And they were expensive, but they hadn't quite reached, like, the heights of, like, a bunch of other investors or flippers or collectors coming in and wanting to get their their their goblin up for the prices that they were.

There was, a small period before, like, the explosion happened. And so I bought this card on 01/10/2025 on eBay. I bought it raw. I bought it for $1,315 or excuse me, 1,300, $10. This card when I saw it, I think what there's a lot going on in my head, And I remember exactly where I was.

I remember so my we were out doing errands, and we looked at the clock, and my wife was like, alright. We've got an an hour until Ruby, who's my youngest, or my middle child. I don't I don't know when this is going to drop. New kid on the way coming soon, banking some of these episodes, programming note. The and I'll never forget this.

So we're like, alright. Well, let's get lunch out. And so when we get done with the lunch, we can I can we'd, you know, get home and I'll take Ruby up and she'll she'll get her nap? And I we were on Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis, which is a big avenue. And I'll never like, I was approaching the line.

I'm like, oh, we gotta do Culver's. Who wants to do Culver's? And everyone's like, Culver's. And maybe a little side tangent. I don't eat a ton of fast food.

Just I try not to. Although, you know, I will if if it's a special occasion. But when I do fast food, man, if Culver's is an option, that's that's that's my jump off. So tier one Culver's fast food for sure. I'm all about it.

So I'm fired up because I'm like, alright. Get a spicy chicken sandwich. It's Saturday. This rules. And we my wife got my oldest Jolene in, and I was getting Ruby out.

And I grabbed her, took her passe out. We were going inside. And I don't know what it was in this moment, but I had this I had this, like, feeling. It was like, check eBay. And I checked eBay, and think I hit my Colts one of one save search, and this card appeared.

And I looked at the card, and it was felt so different because it was Nebula in Prism football. And the image is my favorite image on a Michael Pittman Prism card easily. Blue jersey, blue pants. He is the action shot is so, so good. The photography is so, so good.

He's got the ball cradled, and it looks like he's just taking off off the card. And I had had the gold at the time. I think I acquired the gold vinyl after this. And I I can't remember if I had the finite first. I think I had the fun I can't remember.

But I've got the the gold, the gold vinyl, the finite, and the nebula of this card, because I love this card so much. But when I saw the card, I looked at the price, and I can't remember. Maybe it was listed at 1,800. I don't remember. But it was expensive.

But I felt so compelled to wanna make this happen because it just it it blew me away. This card legitimately blew me away. And I started thinking about all the factors. First year Nebula Prism, all these things. And I was like, I love Pittman.

Like and I it was like one of those situations where I was like holding my kid. I was like ordering food. I had like the offer screen up on my other phone or other hand. It was, like, multitasking at its finest. And it took me this is when you know.

It took a matter of maybe a minute of processing to and again, reminder, like, I didn't feel like I had to smash a bit on it because the momentum of this category hadn't really exploded yet. So I was filling up my Diet Coke, and I made an offer. Got the food back to the desk or back to our seats. I'm trying to be a normal person, enjoy my company, enjoy time with kids. I can't I can't stop thinking about it.

Am I gonna get this card? Is this happening? What's going on? And anybody who's got one of these cards, which I know there's some friends who listen to this show who are who've got some of these, dude, The scope, the color, 24 prism is so cool. The photography is so good.

It's just ugh. I was like, come on. Come on. And I looked at it once. Nothing.

And then I was debating. I was, like, eating my spicy chicken sandwich. I'm, like, debating. I'm, do I smash bin on this thing? And I pulled my phone back out, looked at it, and the offer had been or there was a exchange.

The seller DMed me, and this is a Saturday, like, pre lunchtime. And I remember vividly having a conversation with the seller on eBay DMs, and he's asking me about if I'm a Colts fan. And he's, like, bought into some choice breaks, and he had a bunch of Colts cards. And he was he's, like, asking me if I wanted these other cards. And I'm like, well, are you gonna accept this offer?

And built that relationship and made that connection and offer was accepted. And I got this card. And I was so thrilled. And when this card came, I was so pumped because I had never seen one. It was the first year I held it in hand and it was like, damn, this card rules.

And it was like that moment, I was so fired up about that decision to get that card when I did. I'll also say added bonus points. And anytime this happens to you, it's great. But, of course, like, I wanna get my cards protected, authenticated, send it to PSA. It comes back a PSA 10.

So it's like all the things. It's all the things line up. And so this card, is amazing. And I feel very fortunate this year to not only have acquired this one, but then the Black Finite two and to be able to I think I was the first one that I knew to be able to pair to pair the which makes me think I can't remember which one I got first. I gotta go back and look.

But I was one of the first to be able to pair up a Finite and a Nebula out of 24, and I love both the cards. So glad I have that. We've got one more card to go, and it is a card that I have talked about. It is a card that I very much enjoy. I am trying to pull the profile up here in my collection and card ladder.

You know, this is a year of transformation for me. I I always did such a bad job of managing my collection and card ladder, but I've certainly made it a part of my workflow this year and am way better for it. The final card I wanna talk about is the 2012 Prism Andrew Luck Pylon orange one of one in a BGS 9.5. Potentially, it's it's close to the top of the list for favorite cards of the year. It's a card I I certainly knew about.

I dreamt dreamt about. I wanted this card so bad. Never thought I'd have a chance, and it became available. Now when it became available and I knew it was going to be mine, my sacrifice of it was shedding off layers of Andrew the Andrew Luck collection that I had spent the last three years building. Now what happens in these moments where you focus in on one of ones and you try to consolidate is you realize that some of the cards that you've made made up, you appreciate.

But if you can package those cards together and end up buying one card, then you do it. And that's what I did with this luck card along with, some cash. And, also, shout out this card. I'm trying to think of any of the others. Yes.

The Reggie Wayne. I'm thinking about funding. Reggie Wayne was funded and then this card, the twenty twelve Pylon Andrew Luck. I've shared my man Gunther slid into the DMs just with the picture of this card, and I was like, dude, I need this card. And the price was $5,500, and there was no moving off the price, which I respected.

I appreciated the access by Gunther. You know, he he could have just listed on a marketplace, put it up for auction. The likelihood of this card selling for higher than I bought it for, especially now, is high. So thank you. I'm not sure I've ever thanked someone for selling me a card for $5,500, but I wanna thank Gunther for that because, I'm sure I'd have to pay more now.

Now the reason why I wanted this card, even though I own no other pylons, first of all, if you I don't know if you haven't held one of these in hand, I'd highly recommend you do that. The shine of the silver is so great in these early years, and you pair that with this orange hue on the side, and it's just a wonderful, magnificent card. Now thinking about the base set one of ones in 2012, there's only two that exist. It is the black finite and is the pylon. Now the pylons weren't pack pulled.

There's a process there that Panini ran to auction these off. But the fact that they never showed up again is was appealing to me. The the if if I consider myself an Andrew Luck prism collector and have the gold prism run and the, gold vinyl run and have, you know, five or six of the finites. This is a card ultimately that I needed. I needed this card because it really represented my the current state of my Andrew Luck collection.

You pair that with time and place. 2012 license changes, 2012 Andrew Luck rookie year, and you start to get into a lot of different cool cool things when you're thinking about this card. And so I didn't really even need it. I never needed to think about it. I didn't need to sell myself, and $5,500 is a lot of money.

But my appetite for an Andrew Luck card like this was higher than ever before. And to be able to make a clean decision on, like, these cards are going to go to help fund this, like, it was really, really easy. This is a card along with the Reggie Wayne that I knew existed and never thought that I have a chance to acquire but was able to do it. Now it took relationships. I know Gunther.

Gunther and I have had tons of communication about cards, and there's an appreciation there where Gunther didn't have to, but he came to me. Like, that played a role. Like, that played a role to have a shot at it. And I don't know. I talk about this a lot, and I try not to, like, hit people over the head, but it it does matter sharing your cards and letting people know what you like.

It does matter building and developing relationships. All of these cards that I've talked about in this episode take being a human and take being able to have conversations and to be able to, you know, find common ground and negotiate. And this card specifically is one of those instances that I I I feel so grateful that I have this card. So that is the list. You've got the to recap, the 2024 Michael Pittman junior Nebula one of one in a PSA 10.

You've got the '20 12 Prism Pylon rookie Andrew Luck and a BGS nine five. You have the 2020 Jonathan Taylor black Prism at a select field level and a PSA nine rookie. We've got the '20 24 black Prism Pascal C. Yakum in a PSA eight and the '20 12 Prism Reggie Wayne Black Finite one of one Raw. That is the list.

It has been a fun year of collecting sports cards. Thank you so much for your support. There will be a flagship episode tomorrow on Christmas Eve, so enjoy that. Happy holidays to all of you, and I hope you are all as fired up about what you purchased this year as I am. Thank you so much for tuning in, for listening, Sporting Stacking Slabs.

Talk to you soon.