what's going on everybody welcome back to stacking slabs this is your hobby content alternative flagship episode time appreciate you being here you could be spending your time anywhere but you're here with the stacking slabs network and the flagship episode hopefully you're getting a chance to check out the variety of content that we have for collectors and for builders in the sports card industry here on the stacking slabs network one of the ambitious goals that i had at the beginning of this year was let's put out a new episode for a collector for an industry professional every day of the week and we've been doing that it has been a grind i'm in startup mode this is fun it's exciting i love working in this space i love getting to think about episodes like we're gonna deliver today which is the topic is why getting better at collecting makes buying harder a lot of this comes from personal experience as a collector but then a lot of it also comes from all the conversations that i'm having synthesizing these thoughts and ideas and whittling it down into about a thirty or thirty five minute episode like we do here each and every week if you're here for the first time just wanna say welcome thank you hit the follow button if you like what we're doing over here tell a damn friend we got more content on in the patreon group link is in the show notes but i'm ready to go i'm fired up it feels like a great time to talk about collecting in this wild market that we're in we are not gonna be talking about charts today we're not gonna be talking about all time record breaking sales we don't typically do that here what we do do here is dig into the mindset around collecting the experience ask ourselves some questions and hopefully come away with something that we can take from each of these episodes and either apply or think about as we move forward in our own personal collecting journeys we would not be able to do this episode without our sponsors inferno red technology we have an episode of built for the hobby with scott locke their ceo that should drop tomorrow if you're listening to this on launch day but in info infrared technology is the engineering team behind the biggest names in sports and collectibles like dc sports eighty seven comsea collectors upper deck and ebay from ai powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders their team can tackle your toughest technology challenge they build awesome software for the hobby for leagues and fans and for everyone in between see what they can build for you at inferno red dot com this topic is one that has been percolating for a while and it's coming from my own experience i'm thinking about how do you get better at collecting and i think there's a lot of that a lot of maturation that we go through as collectors we're all on our own individualized journeys collections evolve mindsets evolve process evolves strategy evolves and you reach this point where taste experience is refined so much that the way you buy isn't the same as how you've bought before and i find that very interesting as a personal use case i've been reflecting on that myself i've added about ten cards to my collection this year i've sold around a hundred and fifty to get there i was thinking about this a couple years ago i was getting cards in the mail like every other day there was always something new coming in always another purchase to look forward to i would see a card i thought was cool i would buy it and get that hit when it arrived i enjoyed that feeling i think many of you enjoy mail days i don't know if i've ever met a collector who doesn't enjoy mail days but those purchases weren't sustaining my interest in the collection i wanted to build but this year twenty twenty six has felt very different and perhaps it's the nature of the circumstances i am in in my life i've got three young daughters i'm spending a lot of money on groceries a lot of money on their schools a lot of money on my house car payments a lot of money on my business and it's been a very very interesting year just trying to figure out the financial side of things and then also while this is happening my taste and maturity within my own collecting has reached new heights buying has gotten harder for me collecting has become something i enjoy more i wanna sit with that today because i think those two things get confused when you buy fewer cards it's easy to assume something is missing you aren't participating the way you used to you aren't getting the same number of packages you don't have a pickup to share every week on instagram but what happens when the purchases slow down because you understand what you really want what happens when you still love cards still enjoy the conversation still spend time learning and still care about your collection but fewer cards qualify for a place in it that's where i find myself today my taste is developed my expectations have changed i've gotten better at taking a card that catches my attention and doing the work to understand what it actually means to me there's more space between seeing something and buying it and i'm comfortable with that space i don't look at those ten new additions i've had this year and feel like i need to catch up i look at them and think about what it took to get their decisions the research the cards that i left the interest i chose to keep pursuing and i've enjoyed that process i wanna talk through why knowing more makes buying harder that's the topic for today i also wanna examine what we do with that knowledge because a filter that helps you build a collection can become harder than a filter that prevents you from enjoying a card you get to decide whether your process is serving you and the number of purchases you make won't answer that question on its own think about the feeling of having a card on the way you have something to anticipate you check tracking you know there's going to be a moment when you get to hold the thing you've been looking at on a screen the anticipation is part of collecting i don't wanna pretend it doesn't matter i felt it plenty of times but i've also learned that enjoying the arrival of a card and enjoying its place in my collection are separate experiences the arrival gives you a moment the collection asks what happens after that moment after you've opened the package looked at the looked at the card and put it away what keeps you as a collector interest interested do you wanna learn more about it does it connect to something you care about does it add to a project you're building when you come back to it is there still a reason you want to own it those are the question i wasn't answering through purchase frequency when cards were arriving every other day another arrival was always close i had a way to keep that feeling going but getting another car didn't tell me how much about whether the last one actually belonged the next purchase gave me something else to think about before i'd spent much of the time with what i already owned looking back the part i needed to understand was the difference between wanting another purchase and wanting that particular card you can feel both of those things at the same time a card can interest you and you can also want the experiences of buying something being honest about that helps you understand the decision that you made if you want that card you can explain something about it that survives the transaction the reason stays with you after the package arrives if you want if what you want is another arrival there are a lot of cards that will satisfy that feeling for a moment the specific card becomes easier to replace that's a distinction worth examining before you buy if this card disappeared from the listing would i keep looking for it or would i move on to something else to get a purchase done there's information in that answer it doesn't mean every purchase needs to become a lifelong commitment you can experiment you can buy something because you want to see it in person some purchases teach you what you don't want and that has a place in collecting but i think we need to recognize when exploration stops teaching us anything if you keep making the same kind of purchase getting the same feeling and losing the same interest afterwards what are you actually learning at some point you have enough experience to change the question you ask before you buy for me the question has moved beyond whether i like the card in front of me i like a lot of cards i want to know whether i want to keep coming back to it that takes more thought it also gives the purchases i do make more of a purchase when i say i've gotten better at collecting i'm talking about understanding my preferences and making decisions that reflect them i know more about what holds my attention i have more experiences with purchases that worked for me and purchases that didn't i can use that experience when another card appears the price of my cards doesn't establish that progress neither does the number of cards i sold you can develop your taste while building a binder you can develop it by focusing on a player a set or the images you want to own your collection doesn't need to become more expensive for your judgment to improve the question is whether your decisions are getting closer to what you want from collecting for me part of that has been raising my expectations i see plenty of cards i appreciate some have designs i like some represent a player i care about some have attributes i know collectors like to pursue there was a time when one of those things gave me enough of a reason to buy now i want to understand how they work together in that card and how that card fits with what i already own why this example what does it give me that another card doesn't how much does that difference matter to me having those questions makes more purchases optional i can see a card appreciate it and let someone else own it i don't need to turn every interest into a transaction that has become part of the collecting i enjoy i get to learn about cards without creating an obligation to buy them but here's where i want to challenge the idea of getting more sophisticated if your expectations rise you need to know whose expectations they actually are are you getting more specific about what you enjoy or are you getting more concerned about what another collector will think of the purchase this is a topic i could spend an hour on and perhaps i will at some point there's a difference between learning that a certain card matters to you and learning that a certain card will get approval both can make buying harder only one helps you understand your taste if a card has to impress someone before you'll consider it your process has acquired an audience you start evaluating the explanation you'll give along with the card itself that deserves attention especially if you describe every card you want using someone else's order of importance knowing how the hobby ranks cards gives you context you still have to decide how you rank them as a collector you have to be able to explain why a card with less market recognition deserves a place in your collection and this is one of the most fun parts about collecting i'm telling you this is the track i'm on right now and i'm having a blast you also have to be able to admit when a card with market recognition doesn't interest you getting better gives you more responsibility for that decision you understand enough to have a view you can no longer rely on the fact that everyone else wants it as your own entire reason and you don't need to reject a card because other people want it either agreement doesn't erase your own interest the work is understanding where your interest comes from and whether you're comfortable acting on it that kind of sophistication has value to me it makes my choices more specific it gives me a reason to pass without feeling like i failed to participate one of the parts of the process i've enjoyed is getting better at the connection between research and meaning a card catches my attention that's only the beginning i wanna know what i'm looking at and why i'm responding to it i can research the set understand the release look at other versions learn how the card relates on the players to the player's career or the period that i care about some of that research helps me establish what the card is some of it helps me establish whether i want it and those aren't the same tasks i'm going through this right now as i record this with a card i'm trying to make a decision on if i want to purchase it and i've gone back and forth but the more i've done research on this card the more inclined i am to buy perhaps after i get done recording this i'll finally get enough courage to trust myself and reach back out to the seller and say you know what let's make this happen i think you can prove that a card has a low print run you can establish that it's from a debut set you can find sales that show other collectors want it you still haven't answered why you wanna live with it in your collection i think we sometimes get so good at describing attributes that we mistake the description for the actual reason we can tell someone the serial number the population the year or the last sale we have a lot of information but when someone asks why the card matters to us we go back to the same information for me the work continues after the facts are already established what does this card connect me to why does this version represent that connection what would i enjoy about owning it when there isn't another sale to discuss take a hypothetical player collection you have two cards of the same player one has a rookie designation collector's pursuit the other shows the player during a season you watch and still think about learning about the cards give you gives you context for both it doesn't choose your preference if the memory is the reason you're collecting that player the card from the season deserves consideration you don't have to pretend the rookie designation is irrelevant you have to decide how much it matters to your purchase this is something i actively go through as i collect my favorite basketball player tyrese halliburton he's a pacer i love him so many moments welcome back tyrese glad you're on the floor pal but he is rookie year he's in king stuff now for so long i didn't collect the king stuff but since because my affection for him has grown as a player outside of the pacers i have dabbled in buying his rookie cards that is where i think research helps you understand your own decisions instead of supplying a decision for you another collector can arrive at another answer they can care about the same player and want that rookie you don't need to resolve that disagreement you need to understand your answer i also think the process needs room for research to reduce your own interest you start with a card you like you learn more you see the alternatives you find out that the attribute you cared about isn't doing as much as you thought it might be and so you decide to pass that is a result of research the time you spent doesn't require a purchase at the end otherwise you're making the effort another reason to buy you've invested time so now you want something to show for it but understanding that a card doesn't belong is something you gain it leaves your money available it also leaves you with a clear view of what you're looking for when research strengthens my interest i want to know what strengthened it did i find the connection that makes ownership matter more to me did i understand something about the card that i hadn't recognized i love it when that happens and that typically happens through research or perhaps i found language that makes the purchase easier to defend that's a question i have to keep asking i can become more informed and still use that information to justify the decision that i've already made the process works when it can change the answer i wanna research i want the research to give me permission to pass as much as i want it to give me the confidence to buy when i talk about a qualification process i don't mean i need to document a document for every card i mean there are questions i want to answer before i commit the first thing i want to establish is what drew me to it that's worth putting into words before i spend time looking for reasons to buy if my interest starts with the image i want to acknowledge that if it starts with the player connection i want to understand that i don't need to dress it up i need to know where it began then i want to consider this version of the card there are often other ways to collect the same player moment or set what makes this example the the one i want sometimes the difference matters sometimes seeing alternatives helps me realize that i was responding to availability which is something most of us do as collectors think about that the card just becomes available and so you feel this obligation to buy it because it's in front of you this was the card in front of me so this became the card i thought i needed having alternatives in view helps me make that distinction the next question is about its place in my collection if i own it what does it add does it deepen an interest i wanna pursue does it offer something i don't have is an experiment i'm choosing to make the last question matters because a collection needs room for curiosity i am a very curious person i built my career on the back of curiosity i ask questions i investigate i discover and that is brought into the way i collect every edition doesn't have to continue a project you've already announced but i wanna recognize when i'm opening another project a purchase can bring more targets with it you buy one version then start thinking about the other version that's worth knowing before you begin then i wanna consider commitment the price is part of it so is what spending that money means for other cards and the responsibilities i have outside of collecting i'd imagine you all have some responsibilities outside of the money you spend on cards wanting the card doesn't remove those considerations understanding why i want it helps me decide whether the commitment makes sense finally i wanna know what would change my answer if i can't name anything that would make me pass i should look at whether i'm qualifying the card or defending it the price can change the answer so can condition research can reveal another card i'd rather own my priorities can change while i'm considering the purchase i want those things to remain part of the decision none of this requires me to know everything there will be gaps there's always gaps there will be cards with little sales history there will be a point when i have to make a judgment with what i know but having a process means i can identify the uncertainty i'm accepting i can decide whether i'm comfortable with it instead of treating uncertainty as something i need to ignore to get the deal done it also helps when a card appears and i need to act if i've already done the research and consider the commitment i don't have to start from the beginning a decision can happen in seconds because the qualification took place before the listing speed on its own doesn't tell you whether a purchase can come from impulse the question is what happened before the moment and when i haven't done the work i have to accept that taking the time can cost me the card that's something we all deal with and battle with during deep decision making with cards hell i'm dealing with this now an individual gave me access to a card that for the last three days i've been investigating been spending time but i also know that it is that owner's right to present the card to somebody else and that might cost me the card i think that's the consequence of the process i don't enjoy missing something i wanted but i also don't wanna fear of missing it to answer questions i haven't considered i gotta do my due diligence i'm trying to get better at making a decision i stand behind including the decision to let an opportunity go i've added ten cards this year and sold around a hundred and fifty to get there i wanna come back to those numbers because buying explains only part of what i've been doing there's a lot of collecting inside decisions about what stays you have to spend time with your collection you've built you have to look at the cards you chose at another point and consider whether you would make the same choices today and that can be very uncomfortable there's reasons you bought them some took effort to find some represented a project you cared about you can remember that effort when you're deciding what to do next but the fact that a card had a purpose doesn't require that purse purpose to remain the same i can appreciate what i purchased what a purchase gave me and decide that i want to use the resources elsewhere the enjoyment i had doesn't disappear when i sell the card sometimes the purchase taught me about the set sometimes it helped me understand what attributes i valued sometimes i owned it long enough to realize that the interest wasn't going to sustain itself i can use that information i don't need to keep the card to prove that experience mattered that's been part of the refinement process for me looking at what i own with preferences i have now making decisions that bring the collection closer to those preferences and i wanna be clear about what those a hundred and fifty sales don't establish they don't mean every collector should sell that many cards they don't mean that cards that left lacked value they don't mean a collection gets better every time its card goes down they reflect the decisions i made to get the additions that i wanted someone listening has a collection with hundreds of cards they continue that continue to serve a purpose they enjoy the breath they like moving between player sets and errors taking cards out of that collection for the sake of having fewer would take something away from their own personal experience and i don't want my process to become a rule for someone else's collection when i what i think transfers is the willingness to evaluate the cards you own to give them attention to understand whether your interests in your collection still connect you aren't required to sell anything to have that conversation with yourself you might look through the cards and realize you wanna spend more time with the project you already started you might find something you had stopped thinking about you might confirm that the collection you have is what you want those are collecting decisions too and i've enjoyed refinement because it's made me more engaged with what i already own i have to understand it i have to make choices i have to acknowledge what i'm willing to give up for something else there's a cost to that even when the even when i want the result a card can leave that i enjoyed owning i don't think you have to erase that feeling to make the decision work you can miss a card and still prefer the collection you built through selling it that requires a different kind of patience than waiting for a listing you have to give yourself time to live with the decision you don't get to judge every sale by whether you feel good about it every day afterwards for me the process has been rewarding i enjoy getting more specific about what belongs i enjoy knowing that the additions came through decisions i considered the sales are part of the story the number of packages at my door would leave most of it out now i wanna put some pressure on what i've said because you can listen to all of this build a filter and end up making the collecting harder in a way that doesn't serve you you can start asking every card to make every expectation you can keep adding requirements until nothing qualifies you can make the process so demanding that you spend more time worrying about the decision than enjoying what you bought and that deserves a check there's a difference between passing because you understand your preference and passing because you're afraid of choosing wrong one gives you an answer the other keeps you moving to the point at which you're willing to decide think about a card you keep returning to you like the image you like the print run you understand what it is the cost fits the amount you've set aside for collecting and you know why you own it but you keep waiting for another fact to make the purchase beyond criticism what fact are you waiting for what question will it answer is there an answer that would allow you to act those are worth asking because research can become a way to avoid accepting that a purchase will evolve judgment you can always find another comparison you can always wait for another sale eventually you have to decide what information means to you being informed doesn't remove the possibility of regret it helps you make a decision with more understanding another place the process needs to check is when your definition of progress keeps getting more expensive if every next card has to cost more than the last one take a look at the standard that you've created for yourself what does the price have to do with the experience you're trying to build there are attributes you value that carry a cost that's part of buying cards but spending doesn't establish that you've learned more about yourself you have to leave room for something that interests you for a reason you didn't anticipate a photo can do that a memory can do that you can learn about a player of an or a set and want to explore it before you even know where it led led your process should help you decide how to pursue that interest if it rejects that interest because it doesn't match the plan you wrote months ago revisit the plan i've talked about raising expectations i want those expectations to reflect what i care about right now they need to be they need to be able to change as i learn otherwise i turn turn the collection into something i have to maintain on behalf of a decision i made in the past there's another part of buying fewer cards that i think collectors need to talk about how do you recognize participation when you're adding something purchases give you evidence you can share here's the card here's the photo here's what i picked up people understand that kind of update the work before a purchase is harder to show so is the decision to pass so is the time spent considering the card you already own but you know the work took place you know the conversation changed how you see a set you know the research helped you understand a card you've been looking for you know why deciding to keep it you know why you decided to keep something you don't need a pickup post to establish that you were collecting this week i think that's worth saying because the absence of a purchase can start to feel like the absence of progress especially when you see other collectors adding things and you don't have anything to share for yourself you can respect their process without using it to grade your own they have their own interests own resources own experiences and expectations if you're taking time because you know what you want that time has a purpose you're you aren't failing to participate because the card you want hasn't appeared or because the available copy doesn't work at the price you can stay connected through part of collecting that makes you understand what you're actually waiting for and if you're enjoying the collection you have you don't have to create a new target to make the enjoyment count i don't want to replace the pressure to buy with pressure to make the hobby moment productive either you can look at your cards because you want to look at your cards every conversation doesn't need to improve strategy part of the value of having a process is that it gives you boundaries around decisions you can put the buying questions down when you aren't making a buying decision and that matters to me i wanna stay interested in collecting without feeling like every hour requires another choice about what i wanna acquire there's a question i would encourage you to consider here if nobody saw your next purchase what would you still want to add then consider the other side if you made no purchases this month what would you still enjoy doing with your collection your answers give you something to focus on with your attention one helps you understand the additions you want the other helps you understand the collecting experience you already have and both deserve time i wanna take one card you've been considering and give yourself a chance to understand that decision start with what you what made you want it put the reason into words before you look for more reasons then consider why this version matters and what owning it would add to your experience look at the commitment it requires ask what information is still missing and whether that information has changed your answer you don't have to force a purchase out of this exercise you don't have to force yourself to pass you're trying to understand what you are deciding then spend some time with a card you already own give it attention you've been giving the next potential purchase consider why you chose it what have you learned since you've it's arrived why do you still enjoy owning it the card has information for you too i've added ten cards this year i've sold around a hundred and fifty to get there my buying has slowed down and i've enjoyed the refinement there was a time when the next package gave me a lot of what i was looking for now i want more from the place a card holds in my collection understanding that has made it harder to buy it has also made it easier to appreciate the decisions that i've already made i don't think you need to measure yourself against my numbers i want you to look at whether your process is bringing you closer to the experience you want if you buy fewer cars and enjoy collecting more there's no purchase quota you need to meet you can let that just be the result if your process has made every decision feel like a test you're afraid to take give yourself some room to examine the process you don't have to keep a rule because you once thought it would help the point of learning what you want is to use that understanding to make choices you can explain to yourself to get to spend time with your cards and interests you want to keep returning to i still see cards i think they're cool i still get interested i still enjoy learning why people care about something i hadn't considered i get to decide which of those interests become purchases the that decision has become part of collecting i enjoy and when a card does qualify i know more about why i want it to be there think about your last addition after the package arrived and the excitement settled what kept you interested that that's a reason i think worth carrying into your next decision i'm brett mcgrath builder here at the stacking slabs network appreciate you spending time out of your day to listen to me talk about my thoughts on collecting buying building a collection that satisfies me hit the follow button if you enjoy this and you're not already following what we're doing over here at stacking slabs and most importantly if you enjoy this episode tell a damn friend happy collecting take care talk to you soon