what's going on everybody welcome back to stacking slabs your hobby content alternative we're at that time of the week we're opening up the doors offering a ancillary episode because there's just so much happening and we're not here to cover the news we're here to cover what's going on inside the psychology of a sports card collector and i'm gonna be the subject for today's episode because i'm going through something we go through these things in the hobby and oftentimes we there are moment maybe they last a while maybe they just take shape and grab ahold of you and never let go but fortunately i have a microphone and i have a documentation process and i've got a network where whenever i have one of these things going on i can just hit record and share and so that's what we're doing here today wanna thank you for supporting stacking slabs by hitting the follow button telling a damn friend or running on over to the patreon group gotta take a minute here to just promote all the great stuff happening across the network make sure you are tuning in each and every day to a new episode of one of the shows that's happening across this network i am so fortunate that i am partnering with so many amazing brands and people to bring this collector focused content to you the collector of sports cards each and every damn day try to be team no days off sometimes there's a day off but this year has been a very it's been very intentional i want to show up i wanna be on offense i don't wanna just create to create but i wanna create to provide value to you the loyal listener the collector in this space this industry is growing it's expanding the numbers are going up there's a lot of different flavors of this hobby that are being offered this is a space for the collector to talk about cards to talk about collecting philosophy psychology all of those things and i appreciate you being here and there is just something on my mind that i wanna talk about today and i have absolutely no idea how long this is gonna take so when something is happening in my collecting world that i feel like could be shared with you i try to share it i share it on the podcast i share it on my instagram at stacking slabs i share it on the weekly rip the substack newsletter or hobby jobs which is another piece of that pie make sure you're subscribed there link is in the show notes it's free but i just try to share sharing is what has helped build and elevate this brand today it is what is gonna continue to shape it in the future and there's a topic that i'm going through right now and it is rediscovery and rediscovery and collecting and that is what this episode is all gonna be about because if you have been in the hobby and collecting long enough you already know the truth that there are more collecting lanes available to us than any one person can fully explore think about this you can collect players you can collect eras you can collect sets products brands parallels color matches rookie year insert autos relics grails hall of famers sleepers nostalgia pieces weird niche categories that only three other people on the internet collect that's part of what makes collecting so damn fun it's part of what make makes collecting so dangerous as well because when the menu is basically infinite you can start mistaking motion for meaning you can start thinking that as long as you're buying trading chasing watching discussing bidding grading and posting then you must be collecting as well but activity is not the same thing as alignment and i think one of the biggest signs of maturity in collecting is learning the difference it is learning that a lane is not just a category a lane is where your passion actually lives that matters a lot and it keeps coming it keeps me coming back to the same idea that collections are not just piles of stuff they're tied up with identity self development knowledge social connection collector identity and collector engagement can make our lives better while just buying stuff pulls us in the other direction so from the jump this is bigger this episode i want to project to be bigger than the cards this is about what our collections are doing for us and to us there is a lot of lanes and a lot of going lot of things going on and we're constantly being pulled in a lot of directions but i think that's what makes the hobby interesting because most of us are not pulled in just one direction we're pulled in five directions at a time we are pulled by love we're pulled by memory we're pulled by upside we're pulled by community we're pulled by content even we are pulled by what our friends are excited about we are pulled by what the market says matters we're pulled by an algorithm and what it puts in front of us we're pulled by a breaker yelling over a livestream believe it or not we are pulled by the feeling that maybe this is moving or maybe this is undervalued or perhaps it is next and i think what is wild is that it's this tension that exists that makes collecting interesting collectors can be motivated by what we believe and what we value can be motivated by education identification with our favorite athletes the upside or the financial investment the addictive chase social connection entertainment and the escape from life's most stressful events and that is a brutal combination because all of those motives can exist in one person at one time so sometimes what we call a collecting decision is not really just one thing it's a bunch of motives fighting inside of one purchase and if you don't know which motive is driving you then the motive is going to drive the wheel that is why i think maturity and collecting is not just about learning more more about cards or getting disciplined with spending it's about learning your actual lane not the lane that gets applause not the lane with the hottest comps or cards not the lane that makes the best instagram post the lane that gives you energy that lane that makes you wanna learn the lane that sends you deeper instead of wider that lane still feels alive when no one else is really looking but even when you do find that lane something happens no matter how much it sucks you in no matter how much fun you're having you can still leave and i think that's important because sometimes collectors talk like leaving a lane means you never really loved it and from my own experience that's not something that i subscribe to or buy at all i think sometimes you leave because you're spread too thin you can leave because another opportunity in that moment looks better you can leave because you wanna free up money for a bigger card you can leave because the market around that main lane changes you can leave because your attention gets hijacked by content hype community momentum and sometimes you leave because even your own passion needs some space that does not mean that lane was fake it just means you are human and you can't forget humans are collectors the modern hobby makes this even harder because the amount of available choices are insert absurd the hobby does not just offer us options it offers us too many partially meaningful options all at once all the time and when that happens leaving a lane can feel like a betrayal and more like a defensive move it can feel like you're stepping back because you can't hear yourself anymore and this is where i wanna talk about rediscovery just because we leave a collecting lane does not mean it's gone forever i think a lot of us know that intuitively before we ever have the language for it some old lane never fully leaves you it sits there quietly maybe for months maybe for years maybe buried underneath newer purchases newer interests newer market cycles but then something happens you see a card you hear a name you remember a feeling you watch a break you notice a new product you reconnect with someone in that community and all of a sudden that part of you that you cared about that cared about that lane previously wakes up this is the moment of rediscovery and it matters because nostalgia is not just something that's sentimental nostalgia is meaningful it's a mixed emotion that can increase our connection with the hobby it can make us feel better it strengthens a lot of elements in our lives and can connect us with the past or can even connect us with the present something that we just had left behind i think it's a powerful way to think about an old collecting lane returning it is not just that you remembered it it is that it still belongs in your collecting story and this is why rediscovery can feel like meeting an old friend again not be not because nothing changed but because enough remained true and i wanna be cautious here because i do not want to make this sound cheesy or automatic not every old lane deserves a comeback i gotta be honest a lot of old lanes that i was left left behind in the hobby i hope are buried six feet deep and never come up again some things should just stay in the past good learning experiments but i think some lanes were never real passion they were just heat checks status moves emotional substitutes rediscovery is not about proving that everything old is sacred it's about discovering what still has a pulse and that matters because it's pretty clear that collections become meaningful when they're they're tied to our identity and not just a bunch of cards that are accumulated i go back to this example the showcase full of stuff and the showcase full of curated memories and moments and one is not one and one and two are not the same one doesn't look like the other one feels stale stagnant generic mainstream and the other feels detailed cohesive organized there's a big difference there the rediscovery is actually a test it shows you whether you are reconnecting with yourself or just flirting with an old memory of yours probably the biggest reason that i'm delivering this episode is my connection to wrestling cards because i'm living this right now wrestling cards are what got me back into the hobby in the first place so if you've been listening to stacking slabs long enough really the reason why i started this show was for a lot of different reasons but it wouldn't have never have taken place if i wasn't exposed to box breaking and box breaking with wrestling cards that was really the catalyst for all of this so there was a connection there and this really sucked me in and part of it actually most of it is because i have been a wrestling fan my entire life one of the first memories that i have in my head outside of visiting my grandparents' house and maybe going to preschool and meeting my first friends was seeing demolition wwe hall of famers now on my tv the face paint i was three or i had to have been three or four years old but i saw these guys yelling at the camera in face paint and i was like what is this i was hooked and once wrestling gets in your blood you know this if you will if you are a wrestling fan out there it tends to stay there and i've collected everything wrestling related my entire life from figures to memorabilia to autographs you name it and cards came much later but the obsession with collecting wrestling has always been there the cards were not creating the passion they were giving shape to a passion that already existed and i think that's a really important distinction as i'm digging through and talking about discovery with all of you because when cards enter an existing passion they don't just become objects they become evidence they become touch points they become little physical pieces of a world you already care about for me breaking was a huge part of that entry into the space and i can still trace that feeling watching wrestling card breaks was not just about the possibility of pulling something big it was about seeing the world i already love translated into a new language and maybe it was a new but old language that i was familiar with it was a spectacle suspense conversation access learning all happening at once and it was one of the reasons the hobby felt open to me it gave me that on ramp and that piece matters more now than it probably i probably understood at the time because even current wrestling conversation or card conversation talks about the connection of for wrestling card collectors and how it's very community driven it points people towards breakers hey i see this spot available in this break i know you collect that wrestler just making sure you saw it the connection is stronger than any other category i've observed on social platforms and the relationship between collectors and the access to those relationships help this flow of one collector helping another collector out because they see a card and they know that they collect that card breaking was not a gimmick that happened to sit next to my collecting it was part of how collecting the collecting world became real to me in the first place during my original run wrestling cards i built a pretty significant collection i was very focused on first it was broad collecting sets i was collecting twenty fourteen topps chrome gold refractors the first gold refractors and then parlayed that into being a little more narrow and i got even the most narrow where i was collecting roman reigns base exclusively rare and scarce parallels and like a lot of collectors i didn't keep every piece forever most of it not all of it ended up being used to help me land other grails in my collection and that was a part of my journey too people talk sometimes like selling or moving cards means you love them less i don't think that's true sometimes moving cards is exactly what lets you identify what matters most but after that run i took a break from wrestling cards and it just made sense to me at the time i was focused on other areas of course i was still watching wrestling i wasn't just i just wasn't buying cards one of the big reasons for the pause was the licensing landscape change panini was the exclusive wwe trading card partner in twenty twenty two and fanatics came in and took over in twenty twenty five and it just felt like time for a break i had sold some key cards i had a lot of other things going on so i hit pause so from a hobby standpoint this wasn't i'm bored this was a real transition point in the category and it felt like a natural place for me to take a breath and exhale and i think sometimes that's the right move sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is take a break let your attention reset and let your own desire tell the truth because if you never step back you never learn whether you're still choosing something or merely continuing it then about ten months later i came back and i'm having and i i know i've said this and this sounds hyperbolic but i i really believe i'm having the most fun collecting cards ever than right now in this moment and it's it's not an exaggeration in some ways this might be the most fun and it has a lot to do with the rediscovery i'm studying new product i'm researching more i'm reconnecting with people in the community started book to last podcast shout out adam and ryan on the stacking slabs network i'm building a collection again but i'm building it differently and i think that difference is everything and i think about this i'm a startup guy i've worked in startups my entire career i'm starting my own business i like this stage i like the early stage of building a collection figuring it out buying cards knowing not every card i buy sticks taking casting a wide net figuring out what i like aesthetics photography product wrestler all these things it's awesome it's so exciting and so invigorating and i've also shared this with some of my friends it's like so many people in this space are focused on one wrestler and that's all they collect and it provides a lot of opportunity to buy cool cards for someone like me who has a lot of different interests part of the inner energy is external this lane did change me and not only did this lane change me but this lane had changed topps chrome wwe returned in early twenty five you have new products coming out at a rapid rate universe exalted royalty the brand new chrome sapphire's coming cosmic is coming so there's a genuine terrain to learn this is not me walking back into the exact same room the room had changed but part of the energy is internal and i think that part matters more because when i came back i did not come back as the same collector i came back with less confusion i came back with more context i came back with a deeper sense of what wrestling actually means to me and i came back less interested in collecting to satisfy the room and more interested in collecting to sag satisfying signal and that to me is rediscovery i actually think there is a second i actually think that there is a reason second runs can be better than the first ones the first ones are often fueled by excitement your adrenaline access it's real that matters i'm not dismaying any part of that but the first run can also be noisy you're still trying to figure out how to take shape of your own standards you're still learning where your tastes are genuine and where it's borrowed you're still vulnerable to every outside voice you still think you need to say yes to too much the second run can be cleaner because now you know what it feels like to leave and if someone still calls you back after that if something still calls you back after that it means something different a good collecting lane is not random purchasing it's structure it's coherence it is a way of saying out of everything i could chase this is where i'm going to be building meaning and i think rediscovery sharpens that because when you become when you come back after time away you are less enchanted by the fact that something exists and more interested in whether it belongs and that is a great way to collect i also think my time away gave me something that's really important and not talked about enough appreciation sometimes stepping away is what you need to feel the electricity again that does not mean you should manufacture these fake brakes in from things you love it just means you should stop assuming that a pause equals death sometimes a pause is a reset sometimes it can be a filter the pause can be the very thing very thing that allows this next version of your collection to become better than your last one and that is what i feel with wrestling cards right now not that i returned to the past that i returned to something true and this is where i think the wrestling story opens up into something larger because even if wrestling cards are not your lane i think most collectors have a version of this or gone through a version of this there is some category some player era weird pocket in the hobby maybe not weirder than wrestling cards because wrestling cards are really weird and everything about it's weird but the weirdness is what is fun for me maybe you stepped away because you needed money or the market moved because you got distracted by something else or maybe it was content conversation whatever it is it happens the better question is not whether you left the better question is whether it still means something to you now and i think there are a few signals that can help answer that when you look at an old lane does it feel like relief or obligation do you want to learn again or do you only want to own again do you find yourself excited by the hunt the learning the history would you still collect if no one else cared i think the last question's the most important because if the answer is yes then you may not be dealing with nostalgia alone you may be dealing with rediscovery i think it's really important to talk about what rediscovery is not because i think this is where people can get soft on this subject it's not an excuse to binge buy your past it is not proof that every lane deserves emotional language and it is definitely not proof that upside does not matter money matters opportunity matters timing matters and i'm not here to pretend otherwise what i am saying is that when money becomes the only language you let yourself hear you get cut off from that thing that makes collecting worth doing in the first place this is exactly why the distinction between identity and materialism matters so much in research engagement tied to collector identity can enhance life satisfaction materialism does not do the work so if rediscovery is real it should make you more honest not more reckless it should make you more aligned not more active the mature collector does not come back to elaine and say i need all of this the mature collector says now that i know myself better what actually belongs here and that's a freaking hard question but it's a beautiful one if you answer it appropriately and for me i think this is why this moment of wrestling cards feels so special because this is not just me liking something from my childhood this is not me just dabbling this is not me making a cute turn back into an something nostalgia just so i can feel good again this is me rediscovering something foundational inside the hobby that still maps to who i am i'm a lifelong wrestling fan wrestling cards got me back into the hobby breaking was a part of the doorway i built a real collection i used much of that collection to land grails i took a break at a real transition point and now i'm back in a lane that has changed in a lane where i have changed and in a lane that somehow feels more alive than ever that is not regression that is refinement my friend so maybe that is the thought i wanna leave you all with just because you leave a collecting lane does not mean it's gone forever sometimes it's gone sometimes it should be but sometimes it is waiting for you to come back with clearer eyes sometimes it is waiting for the noise to die down sometimes it is waiting for you to stop asking what has the most upside right now and start asking what still feels like home because the best part of rediscovery is not that it returns you to the past it is that it reveals which parts of your past still belong in the future and that to me is what collecting at its best can do it can help you discover what you like then it can help you lose it and if you're lucky and honest and paying attention it can help you find it again i do appreciate you spending some time with me i know you're all busy you got a lot going on but i think these topics are important we escape to our hobby when we are trying to destress when the kids are in bed when we wanna forget about working for a minute there's a great opportunity to be intentional to not let what we're seeing take control of the experience but to own the experience and a great way to own your collecting experience to the fullest is to reflect consider and sometimes rediscover what you've collected in the past my name is brett i collect sports cards i have a entire podcast network about collecting sports cards appreciate you being here we'll be back with more stacking slabs on the other side happy collecting take care talk to you soon