What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to stacking slabs.

This is your hobby content alternative. We're here, flagship episode time, one of my favorite times of the week. Get an opportunity to gather some thoughts, share them with you, get your feedback, and continue to march forward.

I am fired up. I've been fired up. I have this surge of energy as we're entering the last lap of 2025 where I wanna keep pushing forward, and I also want to start setting the stage for stacking slabs in 2026.

It's an exciting time for the brand, and it is an exciting time to be collecting sports cards.

What a year. I am, at some point, going to go back and just document all of the major milestones, moments, things that happened in 2025 and talk about them.

I think those kinds of conversations are fun. I like to be reflective. And it feels, as I think about it, like 2025 from a news events, big sales, all those things, new product, new manufacturer, new innovation, all of those things.

It feels like this year was on full throttle, which is amazing for anybody who is building in this space and anyone certainly who is collecting in this space.

It wasn't too long ago that cards were, an afterthought. Cards weren't part of the mainstream conversation. People didn't believe in cards like they do today.

And I'm not saying there hasn't been individuals out there and likely many of you who are sitting here listening to this who have been fully vested and and and have cared about cards your whole life, I'm mostly referring to that as a volume from a volume perspective.

And I haven't been shy about sharing my thoughts regarding the growth and the sustainability.

I believe education is a massive component to all of this, and I hope, especially as we're moving into the new year, that many in companies, individuals who are driving growth are thinking strategically about how they can incorporate education as a part of their customer's journey.

The more, educated, and aware hobby participants are regardless of their intentions and regardless of their individual operating in the hobby, the better off the hobby will be.

It's just that simple. So I'm a big fan of creators, not just because I'm one myself in building a business around this, but I just think there needs to be more.

So those are just some early thoughts out of the gates. And what we're gonna do in this conversation, it's wild. We're continuing to march forward, and we're nearing kind of the end, which is, I wasn't expecting this.

And this is part of the stacking slabs brand is, like, we do thing I do things that I don't expect, and then I'm having fun, and I get a lot of good feedback.

And so I just keep it keep keep doing what I'm doing. And I'll say this, shout out to everyone who gave feedback on last week's episode about letting go and letting go of cards.

You know, that, idea has in letting go hasn't been easy for me over the years, but I knew when I was putting collecting for keeps finding meaning in a hobby built on hype, I knew that that needed to be a part of the dialogue.

And when I shared out that episode, I got a lot of feedback from individuals letting me know that, you know, that resonated.

They're going through something right now with letting go of cards, and the the episode helped. So I appreciate that. I I legitimately, can't tell you how thankful I am, on the feedback front.

That to me is one of those intangible signs that what I'm doing is working when it not only resonates, but someone reaches out to me and just, like, shares, like, this hit the mark here and this is why.

It's fuel to my fire. And what's fun about building stacking slabs is the feedback is, there's more feedback than ever before, which is awesome, and the feedback is coming from new places, individuals I've never interacted with.

So I feel very fortunate that, the more time I've spent building, creating content, and delivering content, the more, new eyeballs or ears are turning up and turning on to stacking slabs.

So we're not stopping. We're we're continuing to go. I am I'm I am I got the drawing board out behind the scenes. I've got so many different concepts.

I am looking for brand partners to help me bring those concepts to life, and that's what I'm working on right now. There's a lot there's a lot of gas left in the tank, and we're gonna take this brand to the next level.

And you're all helping me do that, so I do appreciate that. Make sure if you're enjoying what I'm doing here, you hit the follow button, tell a damn friend. And if you want more, head on over to the Patreon group.

The link is in the show notes. What we're gonna be talking about today comes from collecting for keeps. We're gonna be talking about community and how relationships shape our journey.

I pay a lot of attention into what a lot of builders and individuals creating businesses say in this hobby, how they're doing it, how they're thinking about it.

And the key piece of all of those conversations and when I always find what I always find value and it's always a reminder, and this is not just in building of the businesses, but this is can also be like enhancing and building your collection, is the thought that, yeah, this is fun and we'd be able to do this by ourselves and take it to a to a certain level, but it always is better when there are other individuals involved sharing ideas, sharing concepts.

And I have to pull myself out of the stacking slabs bubble that I'm in to engage with individuals and to have conversations, about what's happening in our industry, what's happening with the businesses they're building, mistakes they're making, and how people help, how people are finding cards, like, all those things.

And it's I always get closer to where I wanna be when I'm having conversations with the network and with, the right people.

When I think about community and I think about my role in community, part of my mindset and part of my approach when I show up show up here on the podcast, show up on Instagram is my mindset is I am here to share.

I'm here to add value, and I'm not looking for anything in return. I am just looking to share because I am passionate about it.

And I know if I continue to share, whether it's new content, new cards, new ideas, new thoughts, those things are going to be magnets for other individuals who are thinking about something that I'm thinking about, who are collecting what I'm collecting, or who have ideas similar to mine that I'm trying to get validated.

And what that does is, it creates engagement and those the that engagement starts conversations, and those conversations turn to relationships, and those relationships turn to friendships, and those friendships turn to business opportunities.

And it's just the cycle, and it's really hard for individuals to see it because a lot of us have a transactional mindset where we just want what we want right now.

And the fact of the matter, and I can attest to this, especially attest to this in the life cycle of stacking slabs where in the first four years, I didn't ask for anything.

I was taking in no revenue. I was just doing this for the love of the game.

And it was in that period of time where I started to realize that everything that I wanted in my professional life in terms of how I built audience and how I marketed was growing more rapidly over here.

And part of the reason for it is there wasn't any hook. I wasn't trying to hook people in on stacking slabs to some, you know, program or some product. Like, that wasn't the point.

The point was to share, and the point was to engage with you and to be sharing our passions and sharing our ideas. And the more I leaned into that, the more you all listened and the more you gave me feedback.

And then it reaches this critical juncture where it's like, well, wait a minute. I got this opportunity to build this media company inside the hobby, and this can be my full time job.

So within that, you know, you bring on brand partners, you try to figure out how to bring in new voices, and you try to scale the business.

And that's what I'm doing right now. But the at the core, none of none of what I'm doing and what I'm most protective of is the brand and what stacking slabs represents and the value we offer because that's what got us here.

And that's what got us here because you, the members of the community, have continued to pour in, tell a damn friend, and I would not be able to do what I'm doing without passionate conversations and passionate listeners about who give a shit about sports cards.

And so I think very much of about community. I think very much about interactions, individual engagements, responding, communication. Like, communication is table stakes in this space.

Like, you have to be excellent at communicating if you want to take your collection or your business to the next level. And part of this conversation, I'm gonna be talking about both because I am both.

I'm a business owner, and I'm a collector. So I will try to decipher that through this conversation. And, these are fun. I love flagship. I never know how long it's going to go, but I've got some, a little bit of a format prepared.

And I've obviously already shared a lot of good ideas, but I'm ready to dig into this because I think long time collectors know the feeling after years of chasing cards.

And you ask you start asking yourself, especially as, like, priorities happen. Right? I have two children, two and four. My two year old man, it's like, once she turned to is like, I'm I'm ready to go, and she is just on a mission.

So it's, she is just, man, opinionated, challenging, but a sweet and lovely little girl. But I've got a two and a four year old, man. It's and I got another one coming in a couple weeks.

It's it's crazy. So it's like, you know, you ask and I'm building this business and, you know, I'm sure many of you out there in similar positions where it's like you've only got so much time and you're like, ask yourself a second.

Am I doing this for the right reason? And, like, where am I going with all of this? Like, have you ever asked yourself this question? It's like, think about all the time you're spending and the money.

Where are you going with this? I think it's natural to wonder if this space and what's happening in this space still fits you, and you should be spending the time you do in this space.

I always think, like, collecting starts as this personal journey, but it is the interactions and the relationships in the community that makes it more sustainable.

We hit these crossroads. Community often holds the answer. Other collectors are people who who think like us, remind us why we're here, why we care.

They help us refocus on our goals, share in the fun so it we're not just doing it solo. I don't know. In other words, the relationships we build become the meaning in our collecting journey.

And I'll tell you this. I rely heavily on community from a collecting and a business perspective, especially because I am a solo business owner who's got great support through a network of contractors.

But I'm sitting here talking to you by myself, staring out the window right now, and I I'm not going to, like, go stop by somebody's cube and with a coffee and catch up and have a conversation.

Like, that's not happening. I am not going to go, like, grab a coworker and say, hey.

You wanna go get lunch at Chipotle today and have a conversation? That's not gonna happen. Because I'm an on a I'm an on a on an island building this. Is that what's going to happen forever?

I don't know. Who knows? But right now, in my professional life, it's very, solo. But that is why I lean heavily on other people building businesses in the space to help, share in what they've learned in their experiences.

And then, also, when I'm collecting, I'm trying to do whatever I can to get as much information as possible because it's helpful. I think these days, Instagram is the heartbeat of the hobby.

Any simple comment or a DM on Instagram can really light a spark in your collecting. Sometimes all it takes is someone commenting something like cool card or sliding in your DMs. I saw this and thought of you.

It's those small gestures, a like, a story shout out, a collaborative post. Those things build trust and remind us we're seen by others who share in the passion. If you notice, most people on Instagram are just sharing their stuff.

Right? They're sharing their stories. They're sharing. They're promoting. They're doing all this. It's the it's a wonderful tool to promote anything you have in the hobby.

But I think what really builds trust and what really builds connection is when you start elevating other people around you or you start recognizing what other people are doing.

And like I mentioned, it's as simple as a comment or or a a share. The Instagram feed in stories are the spot where we celebrate each other's male days, and those moments help create bonds.

And over time, the regular interaction and comments or DMs turns strangers into friends who remember what you chase. One collector's passionate post can snowball.

It can give people more eyeballs. But what I've realized, and I know this is true because I'm 40 and I don't wanna share too much detail here, but sometimes I have to get out of bed and go to the bathroom at night.

And sometimes, I try not to do this, I'll grab my phone and just pop open Instagram.

And it doesn't matter the hour. There's always something happening on Instagram. It's like a twenty four seven seven hobby clubhouse. Trust grows when collectors on social media routinely tag or message each other about deals.

I have so many stories about gaining cards and about being able to level up my collection. I think community isn't just a buzzword. It shows up in concrete and powerful ways.

I can say I've got a Patreon community. It's almost a year in running, and it's been super helpful for me to shrink the sea of Instagram and connect through my content with other people and have conversations.

In the Patreon, I share a Friday note. Every Friday note is a reflection based on what I'm thinking, what I'm hearing from the community.

That has been a place for me to really think about community. I think about my own personal networks. I think about Peyton Manning collector chat.

It's been a group of us for a long time sharing information and talking about things outside of football. But that when stuff happens, sometimes I'll just think of that group and be like, alright.

What's a quick way I can get feedback or engage or, you know, have a few have some dialogue, and I'll go directly to that group. I think those community powered moments become highlights.

Someone finds a rare card that they think should go to you or send you a quick text. It all adds sense to what we're all doing together and reminds us what we're doing doesn't need to be isolated.

I can think of as I was, like, preparing this and I was getting ready to hit record, I thought to myself, well, I probably should have some examples of how community helped me in cards.

And these aren't I've shared these, I'm sure, over the history of stacking size, but just like these are three quick ones that come to my mind. But I think about my Andrew Luck Casino lot casino parking lot deal.

And being in a space where I'm, like, walking out of my car to meet a stranger and knowing that that stranger had shoeboxes full of the most rare and scarce prism, you name it, optic, Andrew Luck cards.

And knowing that I'm about to get those cards and they're about to be brought back in my collection, like, that would never have happened if it wasn't for someone who gave me information about that individual who had those cards and me being persistent to get them.

I think about deal I just did this year with Gunther on the Andrew Luck Prison Pylon.

And Gunther, we all know what's happening in that market, and Gunther probably could have gotten more money in the open market or putting that at auction, but he got access access to the card, and he came directly to me with a price and got the deal done.

I think about Nick at the worst sports cards recently. Just he pulled the Andre Johnson twenty fifteen gold vinyl and was like, hey. Are you interested in this? I was like, are you kidding me? Of course, I'm interested in this.

I need this card. Or was it a gold? It was the gold. It was the gold. I have the gold I had the gold vinyl. This is what happens when you're building the ultimate Colts Prism collection is, like, this is the story of my life.

Like, do I have that? Oh, I've got the gold, but I don't have the gold mine. It's like a constant thing. And I I keep track of it, but just in real time, oftentimes, it's hard.

But in my collecting journey, my favorite cards would never have been in my collection if it wasn't for people. Psychologically, humans crave belonging almost as much as basic needs.

I think there's, plenty of studies out there that note, by nature, we're a social animal, and being part of a group provides a sense of belonging we need as we need food and shelter for survival.

Thinking collecting, that looks like finding our people. Fellow fans who speak our language, who like the same stuff as us, who share our quirks.

When you align with the community, you tap into a shared identity that feels emotionally safe and meaningful. It's in those groups that our passion feels validated. Community also satisfies a hunger for shared purpose.

It's this social connection. Activity based communities like hobby and the hobby and collecting gives a collective sense of accomplishment. Right? We're all in this together. We're all building trust. It's much like fandom.

In other words, shared interest in collecting can become bigger than one individual. Building a theme set with others, debating card conditions, or contributing to a community archive can give our hobby a deeper purpose.

Instead of merely trying to make some money acquiring cards, collectors together create history and legacy, and that was the point of the Prism series I just did.

If you go back and listen to that trilogy, that was the core thesis is that, yeah, these cards are expensive and, yeah, they grew over time, but we all did this together.

The sense of being part of something lasting and bigger than yourself roots the hobby and identity and meaning.

And when you connect with others who get why you value a certain card the way you do, you start to see your collection as a reflection of a shared story, not just the bank account. And that's what makes every card more special.

Community to me is tremendous upside and it always has, but it can amplify pressure. The same bond that inspires us can unintentionally push us to follow trends. There's this bandwagon effect. Right?

We're naturally inclined to adopt an interest or purchase simply because everyone else is doing it. I can't remember how many times I got in trouble in, growing up, and I my response to my mom was, well, everyone else is doing it.

That was stupid. But in this space, in this fast paced hobby, it's easy to get FOMO or to chase what's hot. I think the danger is that we end up buying what's trending rather what truly excites us, and we fall prey to groupthink.

You might not be falling prey to groupthink in 2025 because you've reached a certain level, but you can monitor what's happening in different pockets and say, this is a groupthink thing.

I think to stay grounded, it always helps to look for collectors who understand value beyond price. Would you rather have the cards or the cash in your pocket? You don't need validation to enjoy the pickups.

Those are the values that keep the hobby fun. And when you feel peer pressure creeping in, take a step back. Ask yourself if you're buying or chasing a card because it genuinely excites you or simply because it's what others are doing.

I think it's healthy to occasionally unplug from the hype machine, maybe mute group chat or a thread or not hop on Instagram as much.

Set your boundaries like budget limit and check your interest. Right? I think good communities actually respect that. They celebrate passions and will gently check you when you start to drift, but ultimately value you over your wallet.

Collecting will always be personal. Sometimes the joy comes from quiet moments, reminiscing of a childhood hero, or scrolling through eBay alone, or maybe it's this meditative thrill of sorting a collection after work.

Being a part of a community can make life feel more meaningful and enjoyable, and I think that's why we get so wrapped up in this.

When a collector flips through their case, and they start reflecting on memories and personal stories, it's super powerful.

Imagine telling one of those stories in a chat or a thread and watching others light up because they feel that same way.

That's the magic of taking this from, like, a solo endeavor to a community effort. It's a it's a we we gotta balance both, though.

We need time alone to process, find, sets, goals, and remember why we started, but we also need friends around to celebrate, share information. When solo passion and social connection work together, collecting becomes deeply fulfilling.

I think we all know that this is a community oriented space. I think we all understand the value of relationships and building with, collecting and building with other people.

This is understood. I'm not, like, sharing any new or novel information. I'm just reminding you to take the time to reflect on how community is impacting your journey and how it's helping.

Or maybe you haven't engaged or maybe you haven't been contributing in a while because you're busy and wrapped up, and that's okay.

Right? It's just cards, man. It's it is what it is. And, sometimes it's even better if we don't take it too seriously. And that's the best when you can find other people who love what you love and don't take it too seriously.

It's a hobby at the end of the day, and it's a whole lot of fun. But I know this. I know that this escape would never be complete without those interactions.

When I think about an escape, the the visual that comes to my mind, is being, and maybe I'm not a huge beach beach person, but there's enough beach in my life that this is where it I visualize.

I visualize, like, being alone, listening to a podcast, laying on the beach, and it getting too hot and the podcast episode getting done and me walking over and being really hot and sitting down and at, you know, one of those, like, little tiki huts or a bar that's by the poolside and walking up to the chair and getting a Diet Coke and sitting down and looking over and seeing someone next to me wearing a Colt's hat.

Well, that solo effort then becomes a conversation, and that conversation, starts to be something where passion gets shared, information gets shared, and maybe I meet a new friend.

That to me and those moments, and this happens all day every day in the community, it's just really hard because we're all online, and a lot of that is anonymous in a way.

But it's those moments that can snowball and be super powerful and can help you and enhance the experience of the hobby.

I'm having fun doing these. I guess I should plug it. Collecting for keeps finding meaning in a hobby build on hype is a book I put out this year.

It's free. It's digital. Link is in the show notes. I really appreciate all of your engagement and you sticking around, to give me feedback along the way. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.