what's going on everybody welcome back to stacking slabs this is your hobby content alternative i am brett fired up to be here it is an absolute honor to be able to talk into a damn microphone each and every week and have an audience of passionate collectors who are consuming this content and extending the conversation outside of this on apps like instagram text messages other dms it makes me happy it makes me happy to get feedback i appreciate all of you the day ones those who are subscribed here hitting the follow button telling your damn friends posting about it after you listen to it and perhaps running over to the patreon group to get new and exclusive content it feels very much like i am in my favorite spot i've ever been professionally working at the intersection of content and collectibles feels like this is where i should be i have so much energy i love the content i love the building i love navigating the industry learning about it having conversations building a business all of those things and it would not be possible without your engagement so for that thank you last week i talked to my good friend drake at drake's pc he has been a regular guest over the course of the history of the stacking slabs network we've unpacked a variety of topics and i think last week's episode on being a known buyer in a private market was my favorite there were so many good insights and information that was shared from drake's perspective that i think would be helpful for any collector who is buying privately i know after i got done with the conversation there was a lot of good nuggets in that that i certainly will be using and it got me thinking this topic can't just be a forty five minute episode with an awesome collector let's bring this damn thing over to the flagship and dig in a little deeper so that's what we're doing here and i'm excited to deliver it but before we do that i wanna thank my good friends at inferno red technology for being the sponsor of the flagship episode they are the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles like dc sports eighty seven commsi 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 so today i wanna talk about something that i think can change the way you collect if you take it seriously not the way you bid not how you scroll not the way you save searches but the way you operate the conversation last week with drake about the good the bad the ugly of being a known buyer is really the catalyst and if you listen to that episode actually i'll say this and i don't do this often but i'm gonna say this if you have not heard that conversation yet hit pause go listen to it it's not a requirement certainly but i think it'll it'll help offer some further context for why this episode this flagship episode exists one thing came through really clearly to me the private market is where a lot of the real action lives not because auctions do not matter not because big showcases do not matter but because so many of the best cards the cards that actually change a collection are sitting in private hands off the beaten path waiting for the right conversation the right relationship the right moment drake's own experience made that plain and he described private access and timing as the biggest advantages of operating that way and i wanna push the conversation further today because i think there are three questions sitting underneath that episode that matter for every serious collector first how do you balance patience with urgencies when a once in a decade opportunity shows up second how much of a premium should you be willing to pay for access and convenience in a private deal and third once you finally land the grail how do you keep the relationship alive so that it is not a one time score but part of a long game that's what this flagship episode is about we're not talking about hype we're not talking about going and chasing everything rare this is certainly not financial advice this to me is a collector operating system and the big idea i want to give you right out of the gate is this private market confidence comes from prepared patients prepared patients you are patient before the grail appears you are urgent after it clears your system that is the distinction and if you miss the distinction you get dragged all over the place by dopamine scarcity seller leverage and by fear that if you do not act immediately you are a coward that's nonsense what you need is not permanent urgency what you need is permanent preparedness negotiation research gives you helpful language around this and this is language when i was working in software that i can remember sales leaders being in a bullpen talking about this and i figured you know what let's dig from the past let's dig into some professional experience and share it because i think it applies here there's banta the best alternative to a negotiated agreement and there's zopa the zone of possible agreement and there's a reservation price which is true your true walk away point in normal collector language that means you need to know what happens if this deal dies whether this deal even has real overlap and what your actual maximum is before emotion starts improvising on your behalf most collectors don't do this i know i haven't done this in the past most collectors live off of save searches screenshots adrenaline coping a card pops up they feel a little something inside a little tickle they call it a grail and then they try to invent a plan after they already emotionally committed that is backwards if your only strategy is i'll figure it out if it appears i'm sorry to tell you but you don't have a strategy you have a wish so let's start with the first question how do you balance patience with urgency when a once in a decade opportunity appears my answer is simple you do not balance those in a moment you balance them before the moment the collector who wins in a private market is not the one with the fastest pulse it is the one with the most complete pre decision that means you need a couple lists the first list is your known grails the cards you already know you would move mountains for i've got those in my head i know them they're they're they're right there like if that card's popping up i'm already prepared for it it's not fifty of them not one hundred of them it's got to be small it's got to be brutally honest it's a it's a very tight list if every rare card is a grail to you then nothing is a grail everyone says everything is a grail i'm a little distinction here like there is definitely a difference between your personal grail and what the industry declares to be a grail but i think in your own personal grails you can't have a million because if you have a million then you have none and you're just undisciplined the second list is your surprise grails these are the cards you can't name in advance but you can define by attributes maybe it's foundational rookie year parallel maybe it's a one of one from a key set maybe it's any card that would land in a top five of your collection the second it enters the room you may not know that exact card but you should know the standard that matters because private the private market does not always reward the collector who knew the exact card sometimes it rewards a collector who knew their taste well enough to recognize the card when it finally surfaced in the conversation with drake one of the big takeaways is that the whole way of thinking because the best results that he got was from a narrow focus from knowing the rare and scarce lane he actually cared about and for from being visible enough to get the right cards that could find him now once you have those lists you need to know what i would call a readiness stack you need dry powder you need liquidity sleeve you need trade sleeve you need a sell down plan and you need a partner or a family alignment in your household economics to require it it's important it is important because if you don't have this you could go off the rails if you're not prepared so we'll unpack this dry powder is obvious it's not glamorous it is the dedicated opportunity fund not the money you hope you can free up not the money sitting in your head real available capital but dry powder alone is not enough because most people are not sitting on endless cash waiting for a big card to appear so you need liquidity sleeve that means you should know which cards in your collection are good desirable and movable if the right opportunity appears not your untouchables not your best peaches pieces your movable pieces if you are always waiting until the grail appears to decide what you sell off you're late you are already late the market loves prepared sellers every bit as much as it loves prepared buyers then you need this trade sleeve there are certain cards that may not be permanent pieces for you but they are excellent grease in a private market negotiation they can close a gap create opportunity they can help a seller like they are getting something they actually value instead of hearing here's my number take it or leave it and then you need a sell down plan this is the part collectors avoid because it's uncomfortable you need to know in advance what would what would leave if something better came in i talk about judgment day a lot during the consolidation process drake said this in his own way when he talked about being ready as knowing where the card would rank and what would need to be replaced if this happened i think that's maturity that is the difference between collecting and accumulating prepared collectors do not just know what they want they know what they're willing to sacrifice and that is the key to patience patience is not passive patience is prebuilt optionality now let's talk about urgency because once the right card shows up i do think urgency matters but it has to be earned urgency a once in a decade card deserves urgency a once in a week dopamine hit does not so here is the test i would use when a major card appears ask yourself five questions immediately collection would i still be thrilled to own it five years from now do i know my ceiling before the seller's number anchors me do i know exactly how i can fund it do i trust the seller or pathway enough that the effort makes sense if the answer is yes across the board move and by god move quickly move clearly move professionally do not send vague messages communication matters do not say interested and then disappear do not act like you need three days to feel profound about a card you already know is a monster if it clears your system act like a closer and that brings me to a huge psychological trap in this whole episode which is anchoring anchoring is the reason so many collectors get cooked in private deals the first serious number you hear starts shaping every number after that research on anchoring shows how powerfully the reference point can distort judgment and the practical lesson is obvious if the seller's ask is the first real number in your mind you are already negotiating uphill that is why your number must exist before their number hits your nervous system because here's what happens the seller says eighteen thousand dollars you're probably thinking twelve thousand or fourteen thousand but now fifteen five seat feels reasonable because your brain has already been dragged upward that's anchoring so one of the simplest disciplines i can give listeners is this write your ceiling down before you reply not after the exchange not after the group chat conversation but before you reply and while we're here let's talk about another trap what economists call the winner's curse in uncertain value environments the buyer who wins is often just the buyer with the most optimistic estimate that is why overpaying becomes structurally like likely in a thin comp high scarcity situations sports cards are full of those situations one of one's hidden cards privately held grails weirdly unique example cards that haven't sold in years if you win because you were the most aggressive optimist in an uncertain field that does not automatically mean you made a good decision it may just mean you paid the optimism tax so how do you avoid it you do not try to eliminate emotion that is impossible in collecting you are supposed to care what you do not force what you what you do is force emotion to answer the structure and that brings us to the second question how much premium should you be willing to pay for access and convenience in private deals my answer is this there is no universal number and anyone giving you one as a law is selling you something and it is stinky the right question is not is this above comp the right question is what is the premium actually buying me because sometimes the premium is nonsense and sometimes it's completely rational a private market premium can buy access it can buy privacy it can buy certain certainty that the card does not go public it can buy speed it can buy run completion it can buy the end of a year long search it can buy the avoidance of a public feeding frenzy those are real things they have value but they do not have unlimited value so the framework that i think about this through is start with your best estimate of base value if comps exist use them if comps are thin use a range not a fantasy point estimate if comps do not exist move to replacement logic and replacement logic is not what did the last one sell for replacement logic is what would it cost me in money time and probability if i say no that's the real question because for rare a rare private card the last comp may be stale irrelevant structurally misleading the better question is whether this is a card that can actually be replaced or a reason on a reasonable timeline then add what i would call a premium stack first the access to premium what is it worth to get the app at all second the certainty premium what is it worth to avoid public competition buyer's premium and a bidding war third completion premium what is it worth if this card material materially changes your collection fourth relationship premium what is it worth to buy someone's credible clear and easy to work with card rather than be a part of a circus and then subtract friction because a difficult seller should reduce what you are willing to pay not increase it let me repeat that again a difficult sell seller should reduce what you are willing to pay not increase it if the seller is using fake urgency vague higher offers shifting terms or generally behaving like a clown then the process itself is telling you the premium should go down drake spelled it out in those exact warning signs in the conversation last week and they matter because they are not just annoyances they are signals about what the relationship might look like later if something goes wrong so if you press me for an actual operating rule here's mine if comps are good and the seller is trusted i think a modest convenience premium can totally be rational if comps are weak and scarcity is very real a bigger premium can still be rational but only if the card is genuine genuinely core and once the premium starts entering a territory where you would feel embarrassed explaining it to your calm rested self ninety days later you're probably not paying for relief that is a bad place to buy from let me say it again because i think this whole episode can be summed up in one sentence or a couple of sentences convenience has a price panic has a tax don't confuse the two this is also where knowing your banter matters if your fallback is acceptable keep your capital keep your pieces wait for another path keep building relationships then you can negotiate with a straight spine if your fallback feels unbearable then you're begging not negotiating and collectors who beg get skinned now one more uncomfortable thing a lot of collectors ask well if i don't have the money sitting there what am i supposed to do and i think we all need to be honest here sometimes the honest answer is you are not ready yet and pretending you're ready is how you damage your collection if your answers depend on high interest debt chaotic borrowing or vague promises to move pieces later you're inviting fragility into the hobby borrowing against volatile assets amplifies downside and can force liquidation when conditions turn against you and there's a likelihood that those conditions will turn against you trust me even though collectors are not literally margining cardboard in the formal market sense the lesson carries over unstable financing makes you weak at the worst possible moment so what else beyond collection equity here's what i'm thinking about build an opportunity fund keep a movable card list keep trade material negotiate terms only if you can absolutely honor them maintain liquidity outside of the collection and pre clear the big picture boundaries in your household the last one matters more than i think a lot of us like to admit a lot of collectors act like discipline is only about comps and card knowledge it's not discipline is also about not creating chaos in your actual life because a patch auto surfaced on a wednesday afternoon if you want to be on offense your life has to be structured enough that you can make a decisive decisive move without detonating everything else around you now let's get to the third question how do collectors maintain relationships with sellers after major transactions i think this one matters because private market success is not just about landing one grail it is about becoming the person sellers think of the first time something important surfaces and the answer is less sexy than i think a lot of us want be clear be fast be gracious be discreet be easy that's it collectors obsess over networking like it's some dark art most of the time it's not most of the time it's simply being the least annoying serious buyer in the market this is the way i think about it most people are looking for a deal most people during a negotiation aren't thinking strategically about it so if you're just a kind person who's willing to pay strong that's usually a great starting point that'll give you an edge over so many people the conversation with drake is really valuable because he made the point that reputation you want the reputation you want is not a huge spender it's being trustworthy and consistent he also made it clear that even when someone brings you the wrong card you handle that conversation well because that person may know the right person later that means after a major transaction i think there are five things collectors should do first confirm receipt cleanly and quickly second say thank you like a human being not a robot who just received inventory third ask about privacy do not assume the seller wants the price blasted everywhere five minutes later some don't care some absolutely care fourth follow back up later not to work with them but to stay connected maybe share how the card fits in your collection maybe ask what they're chasing maybe send something relevant to their lane and fifth return value that might mean sending them a lead it might mean connecting them to another collector it might mean helping them move something they care about that is what separates relationships from transactions a lot of people say that they value relationships what they mean is they value relationships that send value one way the real ones send value both ways and let me add something that i think collectors underrate documentation matters if you are a if you are serious about the private market keep a simple relationship ledger nothing weird nothing corporate just a note on who collects what how they communicate what was your last deal whether they prefer privacy whether they like structured trades whether they care more about speed or price and what their trusted threshold might be you might ask man that seems like a whole lot of work why i think it's because relationships are part of your collecting inventory they are not abstract they're not assets now let's bring this into summer summer show season because this is where i really think that we can apply some of this instantly we've got the national coming up we all know what that means means one thing if you show up to a show like that with no plan let's just see what's in the showcase you're wasting the real opportunity and quite frankly i'd say you're wasting your time because the real opportunity is not just what is visible it is the network density of people the concentration of information the concentration of off table inventory the concentration of sellers looking to move collections it's the concentration of auction and consignment channels in other words the show is a sourcing event so before the show get specific not broad specific identify fifteen or twenty people or tables that actually matter in your lane not everyone not random big accounts the people who have a credible chance of helping you then send them a message be nice say hey i saw you're going to be there i'm going to stop by your table i'd love to meet you be precise precision matters and while you're at it do not just contact dealers contact people working in the industry contact anyone who you want to be a part of your system and once you are on the floor ask a better question do not just ask do you have any x player cards do not just ask what's your best price ask what do you have that isn't out or what do you know about in in this lane that hasn't surfaced yet or do you keep anything at home you think about moving that sounds simple but it matters because your own conversation and the conversation i had with drake points to many truths that collectors forget a lot of the best material is not in the case it's in someone's closet safe desk door the floor is not just for shopping it's for activating memory and here is another move i think we should all use carrier want list in a form that people can actually use not a ten page spreadsheet not a giant theory of your collection a clean note with your top priorities acceptable conditions the fastest way to reach you make it easy for someone to help you because people want to feel useful they don't want homework build your days around conversations and not only just lapse looking at the same showcases of the same cards that flood big shows i know the hobby encourages wandering but if you are serious schedule stuff schedule a few meetings coffee table meetup walk through five minutes ten minutes that is where all of the off the market stuff starts moving and let me say something maybe a little more pointed collectors who rely on showcases are often telling on themselves because what they are really saying is i am willing to buy what is easily available but i am not willing to become the kind of person who gets access to what is not it's a big difference between passive people and proactive people private market confidence is not just about bravado it's about becoming legible reliable easy enough that hidden inventory has a path to you the path is built through posting your cards being visible in your lane being gracious with people who bring you the wrong stuff paying quickly when you say you will honoring your word and not treating every conversation like a negotiation to death that is exactly the kind of trust building behavior that came from my conversation with drake and i wanna end this conversation by going back to a central distinction because i think it is in the line that can actually help you as the collectors the next time a monster card appears patience and urgency are not enemies you need both but they belong in different stages you need patience while building your lane patience while sharpening your want list patience while accumulating capital patience while cultivating relationships patience while deciding what would leave for something better patience while learning who is trustworthy and who is not and then if the right card appears and it clears your checklist you need urgency not emotional urgency operational urgency clear terms fast replies clean offers real funding path no drama the private market rewards that so here's the final message i wanna leave all of you with in this flagship episode of stacking slabs do not wait until the grail appears to become the collector capable of landing it become that collector first appreciate your support engagement for stacking slabs i love doing this wouldn't be able to do it without you make sure if you enjoyed this episode to tell a damn friend we'll be back with more content on the stacking slabs network very very soon take care happy collecting