Alright. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to stacking slabs. This is your hobby content alternative. I am your host, Brett. It is the flagship episode.

I am recording this well in advance at the end of my national run here, sitting in my hotel room, recording this on the bed. But I figured, you know what? I don't wanna lose this feeling, these thoughts, what's going on in my head.

So before I get back in the mix, before life resets itself and all of my primary responsibilities become present, I wanna share these thoughts with all of you regarding the national.

Let me tell you something about the national. It's loud. It's overwhelming. It's not stop nonstop.

But if you slow down enough, you'll start to see what actually matters. It's not just the cards and the showcases, but it's the stories behind them. It's not just the logos and the light boxes in the corporate area.

It's the people building real solutions that are helping mature this hobby, this industry that we deeply love. It's not just the handshake deals, but it's the relationships that made these deals possible. This episode isn't a recap.

It's not gonna be a play by play walk through of the showroom floor. You're gonna get that from a lot of different places, and a lot of different places that are probably gonna give you that recap way better than I ever could.

It's about perspective, and this is my perspective. And I wanna walk you through what I saw, what I heard, what I felt, most importantly.

Because the national isn't just a card show anymore. It's a mirror of where the hobby is headed, and I believe that. I wanna just out of the gates, shout out all of the amazing partners of stacking slaps.

Shout out eBay. Shout out PSA, DC sports eighty seven, card ladder, specifically card ladder. I can't tell you how much fun I had connecting with those people inside those businesses at this event, absolutely incredible.

I feel very, very lucky and very, very fortunate to work with an incredible group of brands and hopefully, many more brands that I trust and that I believe in.

The amount of opportunities that were given to me through those brand relationships are endless.

I'll tell you this. You're gonna experience this right out of the gates starting tomorrow if you're listening to this on launch day. We're launching a brand new series called Cards in Hand.

I got a chance to record seven episodes with seven collectors around seven incredible cards, and those conversations are gonna be brought to you on Thursday for the next seven weeks. Smashing Ben will be put on ice.

We'll be we'll be sharing cards in hand, and I'm gonna thank eBay specifically for sponsoring this series that's heading your way, but also Card Ladder for helping accommodate me, give me space to record these conversations at the show.

Got a chance to connect with Tory at DC Sports eighty seven, and, there's so much I wanna say about their operation and what they're doing, and we'll touch on that, a little bit more. But just an outstanding opportunity for me.

I got in the mix, during trade night. Was emceeing eBay's activation at trade night. It was quite the experience for me. Maybe a little bit outside my comfort zone, but we made it happen, and I am certainly, better for it.

This platform wouldn't be growing. It wouldn't be possible, without you certainly, the listener of Stacking Slabs, but without the the businesses that believe in what we're doing here and that support the content that is happening here.

So I just needed to get that out of the way. Work with people you like. Work with brands you like. It's just the key to success, I think, as a small business owner. At least, I'm I'm I'm trying to figure that out.

So I wanna break this down and this experience that I had in maybe three primary buckets, and we'll talk about some other things. The first, observation that I made at this event, the national, was the maturity of hobby businesses.

And I'm thinking about the maturity of hobby businesses from when I first got back in the hobby and attended my first national, 2021 ish to what I'm seeing now.

There were few companies, mostly manufacturers, grading companies back then that were front and center.

This year, there is the the corporate area was sprawling. Now some collectors might say, you know what? There was too much corporate. I thought it was great.

And for me, it was a signal that not only are there businesses that are here to create products and solutions for the collector and the hobby, but there's individuals more than ever before in this space that are fully invested in making sure that they're supporting and contributing to the infrastructure that is needed in a expanding category.

And that was just on full display. I was blown away by the activations. I'll I'll take card ladder specifically. When I, rolled up to the card ladder booth, my first impression was it looks like an Apple store here.

And they were a central point in a central location where people who I wanted to talk to and connect with would meet there, chill, charge their phones, hang out, and just have conversations.

And I think we don't promote conversations enough, certainly, on building a business based on conversations.

But the conversations that we all had at spaces like Card Ladder, and I'm sure these conversations happen in other spaces. This is what's going to keep us connected, and this is what's gonna keep us back coming back.

Conversations combat the transactional mindset that infiltrates our hobby. And we need conversations collector to collector, businesses to collector, collector to business in order to keep maturing and growing this space.

Do you want your cards that you just bought at the National to have a stable price and perhaps go up over the next two to three years?

Conversations and the the space to have those amongst each other from b to c, b to b, and from human to human is absolutely critical.

This year, the elevated presence and the tighter messaging within those companies and the focused product demonstrations was just exactly what I think this industry needs in this moment in time.

You know, it reminded me of being in tech my whole career and watching companies evolve and watching those companies, share and contribute and, put on activations at these big shows.

And I just thought this like, I'm not sure anybody's really gonna comment or have commentary on that.

But I to me, this was, like, one of the most important takeaways I had. Okay. I I think about, like, my partner, DC sports eighty seven. Shout out, Tory. I love doing the staging area. It's a great show. I'm really digging it.

Got a chance to talk with Tory for a for a minute. Go inside the booth. Go behind the scenes and see how it all is being run. And not only the they are crushing it right now because they're investing in their brand.

The DC sports eighty seven brand was absolutely everywhere. If you went to the show, you saw DC sports eighty seven everywhere. There's banners everywhere. It was just, they killed it.

They they were doing same day consignment. And you like, I'm I'm like, how are you doing this? What's happening? And to go behind the scenes and see the the alignment between strategy, process, people, and technology was incredible.

Like, taking on volume, making sure that volume gets listed in eBay, those cards go up and expectations get set. It's not easy, but, like, that business is crushing it because they are so focused on creating experiences that don't suck.

Experiences that aren't going to make us, cause any friction. It's going to help elevate all of our experiences, and to see a consignment business just next level like that is is is incredible to see.

You know, I think I I just view the adoption of technology across the board and what tech is doing in this space.

And I hope on this platform, I have an opportunity to talk more about tech trends that are shaping this hobby, because I think they're that's a a very underrated theme that is happening at the macro level.

The companies that are kicking ass and crushing it in this space are the adopters of the new tech, and the new tech to save them time to help their people do their job better.

And what's incredible is there's so much great tech in this space that's enabling businesses to offer us the end consumer better experiences.

I might have a unique point of view on that. I spent my whole career in tech. But I think the hobby is finally speaking in product language, not just marketplace language.

They're the winners are designing around the problems, not just the trends and not just the trends to get a CEO rich. Trends to create experiences that are first in class.

Experiences that transcend, walking into a small hobby shop like I did in the nineties. I think there's still a gap between tools and trust, but the best companies in the space are crushing it.

This is not going to be a fad. This is a market maturing before our very eyes. And ultimately, like, whether you care about the the the business side of this hobby, whether you care about tech, whether that, like, it's fine.

Like, you don't have to care about it. You could just be worrying about the cards. But I'll tell you what one thing right now.

If we want a a a consistently strong performing market, if we want to keep buying cards and believing those values are going to stay, we need stakeholders in this hobby with skin in the game, stakeholders that aren't scared to take chances, stakeholders that are leaning into tech in order to make that happen.

That was a massive take away I had and it fires me up right now as just someone who spent the first part of their career building businesses and creating tech to help businesses run faster.

My next observation, the national is a closing event.

The show isn't where deals start anymore. It's where they finish. I experienced this. I heard this from collectors, sellers, businesses. The lead up to the national is now as important to than the event itself.

I mean, you think about your national experience whether this year or previous years, you know, you go, There's a million things you can be doing. Of course, you wanna look for cards. But think about the experience.

Right? Outside of the national, we've got access to marketplaces, at our fingertips. We've got, platforms like eBay that are where all of our safe searches are, up and running, and we get notified when cards we want pop up.

The card show experience doesn't have that same thing. Are there benefits? For sure. But it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

Right? There's a million cards. They're changing hands quickly, And you could be about that. And that's cool. I like it. I like that. There's a state of uncertainty and there's some charm to that.

But there's also, I think, some value in leaning into the relational side and building those deals in advance so that when you come home, you have an expectation of what you're coming home with.

And that's because of all the communication that you did, on the front end to land those cards.

Now I shared, on Instagram and probably some other places that I was a participant in this, and I knew this year was gonna be a lot different than years past for me.

Specifically, that difference came from 85% of my time, was spent as a business owner in the space, which meant creating content, meeting with my partners, building relationships, and extending conversations, on potential partners that wouldn't have happened outside of the event.

Spent very little time searching for cards. But that's why I think I was so aggressive upfront at this show to make sure that I got a deal done.

And I did get a deal done. And I landed my 2012 Reggie Wayne Gold Prism p BGS nine five, to complete my 2012 Colts gold prism team set, which was two years in the making.

But that wouldn't have happened if I didn't go to Instagram ahead and put out the bat signal. And then football cards s f s, Max, who we've done deals, answered the bat signal and said, hey. I got the card.

Let's get the deal done. And I was at the card ladder booth, and Max came by. I had the cash. He had the card, and we got it done. And so I think this matters because the relational shy side is reshaping the show dynamic.

You walk in with clarity and and not chaos. It's about planned pursuit, not not wandering not wandering randomness. And that needle in the haystack model is fading.

People are building towards these types of moments. I think the best deals come from long games and long conversation. Final point I wanna make is the people to people and the foundation of the hobbies.

Relationships are always better than transaction. The deals the deal that I made was built on trust, and I think the hobby rewards those who stay consistent, curious, and connected.

Conversations that I had about collaborations with stacking slabs and with cards that started months ago continued at the show.

Meeting folks that I've only known through DMs. Closing the loops on those collaborations, future podcast guests, shows show concepts. This was the moment for those initiatives and conversation to be pushed forward.

And I this is so obvious, but, like, the opportunity to break through and not just be on the Internet, but, like, in staring across the screen or our phones, but to continue those conversations in real life are incredible.

And there were times where I was having a conversation with someone that was very public, and then somebody else saw it who is also a part of the conversation at a different time joining.

And it's like, I'd spent like two months trying to align and connect all these dots, and organically these things just came to life.

And I think that's cool, and I think that's special. I think we're building something bigger than cards when we're doing what we're doing. For me, it's about building a business in the hobby and being fully vested.

It's about building collections. It's about contributing to the conversation. This hobby doesn't just run on money. Right? It runs on people. We need each other in this space to continue to push it forward.

This national for me went above and beyond anything that I could imagine, both as a collector and both and as a business owner in this space. I was so inspired by the the energy across the board.

It was just I'm still like, as I'm leaving Rosemont, Illinois and heading back to Indianapolis, I'm I've got so much energy right now. And I just wanna run through a wall because I'm fired up.

I'm fired up from all the positive conversations. I'm fired up from seeing all the cards, just the one to one interactions, all the brands that I interacted with and had conversations with. There's just so much to be excited by.

And I don't want you to listen to this and take this as like, oh, he's just blowing smoke up your our asses. I don't think that's the case. I'm trying to be as real and authentic and, like, yes, should we be skeptical?

Yes, we should be cautious. Yes, we should operate from a perspective of, like, hey, we demand trust and we need the trust to be built in order to be believers.

But I can tell you this, right now, the way the hobby is structured and the way the businesses are organized and the initiatives they're organized around are it's about creating better experiences.

It's about creating better experiences for us as the collector. And I'll I'll say this, there was so much stuff happening at the national that wasn't for me. Stuff that I don't do.

Stuff that I don't care about. But I am more open than ever before that there are so many flavors and so many different ways to experience this hobby. It's better to be supportive of those differing areas than to be against those areas.

The more open we are to areas in this space that aren't designed around around our wants, motivations, and desires as collectors, the more open were we are to other things, I think the less pissed off we're gonna be when we see something online, the more and the better experience we're gonna have.

I I I that's the clarity I have as I'm leaving this event. I think this is a special hobby. It's very it's it's it's more than a hobby for me. It's my life. But I had expectations going into this event.

And this year, I'm telling you, it blew me out of the water. I hope many of you who were at this event experiencing this, had your takeaways. Those things that you're thinking about as you're driving or flying home.

I hope those are on your mind right now. And I I would say this, like, don't let those things fade. Like, unfortunately, I can just hit record and share them out, and those will continue to exist.

But don't let yours fade. Like, yours might be different than mine, which I think is good. The diversity of takeaways that we have, after the a show like this is is really really important.

But at the end of the day, I I really hope you all had a great time. And even if you weren't at the national, I hope you enjoyed following content. I hope, you enjoyed following along, and, maybe you can get out there next year.

I think, I can't say enough about this event. The national's the national. There's content on top of content around it. But the takeaways that we have after something like this are deeply personal to us.

And as a business owner in this industry, I could not be more excited and optimistic for where we are headed. I appreciate all the conversations I had with all of you. I talked with so many people that I interact with on the Internet.

And I got so much great feedback, and that feedback is fuel. And I'll just say this, there was one piece of feedback that I continue to get from so many people. And I I'm not good with compliments.

I really am not. I just the recognition thing is not not big for me, but I heard one thing that's very important to me in validation, and that's the word consistency. Individual saying, I appreciate your consistency.

Your consistency is what differentiates you. You're always consistent. And I hope, that comes through in the content, the way I deliver, how I deliver, and it's not gonna stop anytime soon.

We're just getting started, baby. I'm fired up. Let's continue the same excitement that we had leading up and at the national to a post national world.

We've got a lot to be excited about, around what we collect, the space we're playing in, and all the conversations and relationships that we all have. Thank you so much for supporting Stacking Slabs. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.