What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of stacking slabs. It is your hobby content alternative, and I am fired up to be here on a wild card Thursday. This conversation, we're talking about a deal.

It's gonna be all about one deal that took place over the last couple weeks for me. I was debating, do I do this? Do I wait? And because this is wild card Thursday, I decided let's get a little wild.

Maybe we should start calling this something else. I don't know. But for now, we're gonna call it wild card Thursday. And today's episode is going to document my biggest deal of the year, the biggest card that I've acquired in 2025.

Never say never. I certainly thought that my year was a wrap on the collecting front. But one of my favorite parts about collecting sports cards is that the unexpected is always there right around the corner.

And right when you get settled, it pops up and you have to take action. And today's episode is a story about, taking action. It's about planning, thinking, considering. It is about patience, managing anxiety.

It's all of the above. This deal is a big deal for me in my collection. My hope is that by talking through this, deal that I made, it helps you consider all the different elements at play for deals that you are making yourself.

What I'm about to share with you is by no means a playbook on how to land grails or what to do when a card you need pops up. Everybody's situation is always so very different.

But I have learned in doing stacking slabs in episodes and talking with other members of the hobby for five plus years that the more we share stories, especially stories like this about cards and talking about the acquisition, talking about the psychology, talking about the building up of your own personal collection, talking about the sacrifice that follows.

When you get organized and you have conversations about stuff like this and the stories behind it usually is helpful.

My goal here is, to help, hopefully, you navigate any deals that might present themselves right now or might have presented themselves right now.

Or potentially as we move into 2026, it can give you some sort of guidance on how another fellow collector managed a big time card that, came across your desk.

So that's what we're doing today. I'm excited for you all to be here. Before we get started, hit the follow button for me wherever you're listening to this. Would love that. If you're digging what I'm doing, leave a review.

I'm trying to build better engagement on specific platforms where you're listening. Tell a damn friend. Do all the things. Join the Patreon group. You know the drill. But why don't we get into the conversation?

I think there are moments in collecting when cards show up and everything gets quiet. It is in these moments where you have to decide what is the move, how are you going to go about it, and what are the ramifications at play.

It was two and a half, three weeks ago at this point that an opportunity presented itself to me, and we're going to get into it.

Before we get into the card itself, I will say this. I find it extremely fascinating how so much of our decision making in this space is reliant on what somebody else does.

Like, I can't just say right now, I want this card, and I've got enough cash to pay double whatever it sold for last.

That's just not how it works. How it works is individuals have to make a move, and they present cards for sale or list them on platforms, and then the buyers react to what somebody else is doing.

That, like, science of how the hobby is organized right now is fascinating to me. I am thinking a lot about how we buy and why we buy.

And I think one of the conclusions that I've come to, because I have had countless conversations and I have made more transactions than I probably care to admit, is that so much of what we do is we buy the card because we're looking to fill some sort of void.

And, yeah, as we mature, we get more, organized around the lane that we're collecting in, and we can block out certain stuff.

But there are so many purchases that happen regularly because we see a card that's available or it's in our safe searches, and we say, you know what?

This is a cool card. If it's within a price point, I'm just gonna buy it before somebody else does. Now there's nothing wrong with that.

But for me personally, whenever I have that happen to me, the chance of that card staying in my collection for the long run is slim to none. So I want you all to know that this conversation is not about that.

This conversation is about making a decision about a card that my hope is that it's in my collection for as long as possible because I believe that this card is an anchor card.

So maybe today now is a good time to introduce the card itself.

And, obviously, if you have read the description of the show, you know what the card is, but let's get into what it is. So I had the chance to acquire the twenty twelve Reggie Wayne prism black finite one of one.

This card is a card that I had never seen before. Didn't even know it existed. Well, I knew it existed, but I had no idea where it existed. And in a way, when I saw the card for the first time, it felt very much like a unicorn card.

And the feeling lit me up inside in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. I got sent this card by several people. It was one of those moments where I was recording a podcast or in a meeting, and it got over with.

And I checked my Instagram DMs, and I had several messages from several people. And I looked at it, and it was looked a little looked like there's like, something was going on.

I'm fortunate to get a lot of messages from different members of the community, and managing my inbox is something I like to keep stay up on, but it's a lot of work, going through all of them and responding and having conversations.

But, like, this was one of those instances where it just I I instantly felt based on the volume.

I was like, what is happening? So I I clicked into, like, the first three or four messages, and I just, like I I didn't even, like, click the picture.

I just I clicked and just kept clicking. And then finally, on, like, the third or fourth one, I clicked in at the picture. And what I saw was a Facebook post in a Colt's collector group that was very small.

And in that group, there was a listing, and the listing had two cards. The two cards that were listed were a Reggie Wayne, black finite, one of one, and a Reggie Wayne gold prism out of 10.

Both of these cards were raw copies of the card, and I I couldn't quite believe what I was looking at. Now fortunately for me and for my wallet, I had already purchased the twenty twelve Reggie Wayne Gold Prism earlier in the year.

It was a deal that I had made at the national. So I didn't need that card, and I believe that card has since been purchased. But the card that I did need was the Reggie Wayne Black Finite one of one.

So many thoughts were going on in my head when I saw this card. First of all, you know that feeling you get when you see a card for the first time that is truly unique, rare, scarce, all of the elements.

A card for which your collection, the collection that you have built is essentially based off of.

Like, Like, a main character in this show that you have is all of a sudden gone has is entering the the scene for the first time, and you don't know you know that he's a main character because he's been talked about, and you have other, characters who resemble him, and he's been a part of the storyline for a while.

But then all of a sudden, he appears, and you're just like, holy shit.

That's what happened. I could hardly digest what I was looking at. That was the moment. It was, is this even real? What is going on here? I can't believe I'm seeing this card.

Twenty twelve prism black finites for one are buried away and aren't often seen. Here's some data for you. I looked it up before I hit record on this, and I wanna let you know, like, this is might be mister Toad's wild wild ride.

I'm very unorganized on this. I'm just like, hit record. I'm like, let me just go. But I did look up some data on this before we jumped in.

There have been in 2025, there have been just 17 public sales of twenty twelve football black finite one of one base set cards. Just 17. That is shows you and shows you how not only are these rare, but they're very, very scarce.

And I think for many of you who play or collect or team collect or collect shiny cards or collect this stuff or, like, in it, like, actively buying Prism stuff, you know, like, there are I for me, and I spend all of my time on this and study this lane habitually, there are there's a majority of the cards I've never seen before.

When I see one of these cards, I wanna celebrate even if I'm not going after it. So in this moment, I wanted to take a step back and just celebrate the fact that I got the opportunity to look at this card and see a photo of this card.

So then the next move was I do this, and I don't know why I do this, but I, like, shut everything down.

I just, like, close out all the apps, put down my phone, and I try to occupy my brain with work or go for a walk. I just needed to get away, and I needed to get away.

And it's weird because, like, it in other situations, it's, like, way more impulsive, and it's like, I'm gonna react. I need to buy this card right now, but that's not what it was here.

I needed enough time to digest the situation. And part of the reason why and this reminds me a lot of, like, the deal making on in my previous life on the software side.

Like, it is easy to spin up a bunch of lower ACV contracts and just make that transaction a part of your routine. It is much harder to close enterprise deals, and the enterprise deals are way more complex. They take resources.

They cost more money. And it was there's just a lot at play there. And so it reminded me a lot of that where I needed to take step back to gather myself. And when I was gathering myself, it was instantly, I knew this.

I knew that I was going to have to make a decision on what had to leave in my collection based on this card if I was gonna make it happen, and it was going to be substantial. My collection and and here's the reason why.

I I have my my preference right now in my life, in my situation, is to make sure that I have as much cash flow as possible tied up in my business so I can make decisions on helping grow the business.

And, consequently, the cards that I want don't stop moving. So I typically, not in all cases, but in cases like this, I typically try to figure out what's the easiest way from point a to point b.

And it's typically finding a comparable comparable card in my collection or cards that I must give up in order to acquire a card, this card.

Gone kind of are the days for me where I can take and this might change with time, but I don't I'm not in the position right now to take, like, 30 or 50 cards to turn into one, just not how my collection is built up.

I've been in that space before to do that, and it's fun to do that, but this isn't an instance.

So I needed to recognize that if I was going to give this card up or was going to acquire this card, then I was probably likely going to have to give something up that was a card that I loved and a card that was substantial.

It's a nature of the beast.

So, what direction do I wanna go with this? So I guess talking about the listing itself. Now this card was listed for $12,000 or best offer. I'm gonna be try to be as transparent as possible, with some of these prices.

So that that that moment was when I saw it and trust me, like, years ago, I would have seen a 12 k number and said, nope. Out of my league. Not my not no chance. This was different, and it was different for a variety of reasons.

Right? I build up the equity in my collection, and, naturally, I looked at what had happened. And mind you, there has been a quite the injure end of the spectrum with black finite sales prices this year. So and and and trust me.

I'm gonna introduce one price that's ironic for the current state I'm in as a fan, but the Philip Rivers, the new new Colts quarterback or member of the Indianapolis Colts, dad gum, his black Finite sold for $2,500 in January, which is insane.

I remember seeing the card and looking at it and being like, that seems like a good price.

But I had just got done, like, buying something big, and it was like, I just didn't wanna spend another $2,500. Now it's like, damn it. Like, I spent $2,500 on his gold prism earlier this year.

So that shows you where the market's been. So you've got that sale in January. You've got, obviously, my man John at Pack Nicholson's 12 sale of the Jay Cutler, which we've talked about ad nauseam.

And then you've got the Marshawn Lynch sale that everyone went nuts and talked about that was sold for 45 k. So you've got this this is all $20.

25. And, again, the there's 17 of these public sales that have happened, and those are just three examples. So this card being listed at 12 k OBO, instantly, I thought, well, this seems like a great price.

And I know it seems crazy. But when you begin to understand value relative to the market and relative to me, that's when you start to make try to make decisions to justify and then try to make decisions to, acquire this card.

So I instantly instantly when I when it, like, came to my brain of, like, wow. This card is listed at the same price as Cutler, and there's a there's some wiggle room according to this post.

This is something that I think I should be engaged about. Also, I'll say this. For me, in the collection that I'm building, the the there is maybe one or yeah.

I I I'll say this. I would I would rather have the twenty twelve rookie black finite, no autograph, base, Andrew Luck. I would rather have that card. The next card on my list is this card, this Reggie Wayne.

And this is out of the entire catalog of prism. And my whole whole everything about my collection and what's most important is my Colt's prism PC. And so this we're looking like I just want you all to, like, realize this.

Like, we're looking at this circumstance where all of a sudden, based on the current environment and what I like to collect, I have the opportunity to collect or to buy one of the the number one cards on my list of all cards.

It's available, and the the the starting price point is justified based on market conditions.

And so these things are lining up where it is okay. It is time to try to dance here. The the other thing here I wanna say is there was a ton of anxiety and a ton of nerves and a ton of manufactured thoughts.

And this is this is where it came from. Number one, whenever there is a card of this magnitude that's publicly available, there's always concern that there's going to be someone to swoop in to take the card.

Always. As this deal was unfolding, I started to think about all of the people who sent it to me.

And if those three or three to five people know about the card, how many other people know about this card, and how many other people are processing the the price of this card and looking at the market.

And so you start to start to create some manufactured thoughts pretty quickly, which is not fun. And I was in a space of not fun for, quite a bit.

The I guess one thing that I will just it's important to to talk about here before we get into, like, the dialogue of the deal is Reggie Wayne. I I think Reggie Wayne is a eventual hall of famer.

I think he falls victim of being kind of the second option on one of the most prolific option offenses of all time. This is the same conundrum that, you know, face the Rams between Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt.

It's kind of the same scenario where, like, the hall of fame voters don't they they don't necessarily jump at the chance to bring in a number two guy even if the number two guy has number one numbers and is top 10 in all the metrics.

And then you have this backlog of receivers, and Larry Fitzgerald's coming. So you've got all these guys. So I think, like, just from a, like, rating Reggie Wayne perspective, I think he's an eventual hall of famer.

Also and this is like me taking off, like, my my Colts hat and just thinking about this because when you're spending a lot of money on a card, you you have to walk through all these things.

And I, like, I also think, like, if you were to break down and I have not done this yet, and I didn't do this exercise, but I'm just thinking through this.

Like, if you were to break down, like, the twenty twelve prism football checklist, like and you're doing a top 20 guys on that checklist, maybe even top 15, like, Reggie Wayne is is on that list.

So I would put him in maybe not, like, the tier one where a tier one, I'd put, like, the black fine arts of, like, you know, Manning, Brady, Brees, Rogers, Adrian Peterson, maybe like those guys.

Like, Reggie Wayne's probably like that next tier. Reggie Wayne, I've always referred to him as mister Colt, because Reggie Wayne played in the era with Manning and then decided to take a small deal to play three years with Luck.

So he's one of the few pieces that straddled both the Manning and Luck era, and now Reggie Wayne has been coaching on the the receivers for several years now.

So he's just, like, integrated in Colts culture and is such a monumental player. He had Super Bowl touchdown. It's just he's he's a top colt of all time.

Easy. So I think about what I just said about Reggie Wayne, and then I marry that with the actual card itself. And you've got just premium brand, premium parallel, debut year, all of these things.

In my current collection, I have one other black finite from 2012. I have many black finites, but one other black finite from 2012, and that's t y Hilton.

So and that's t y Hilton's rookie card. So I have a t y, and now I have had the opportunity to pair it with the Reggie Wayne. So it was like old and new in that moment together.

So that's a lot of fun. The the my my it's like this these moments you have where your head and your heart connect in a way around a card that you will do whatever you can to make it happen certainly became clear.

I knew I needed this card. I knew that because it was in my mind that my collection was moving towards this prism cults project to it being my collection.

Not to say that I don't have cards or I don't have cards outside of that cults prism PC. I certainly do. But the key piece here is that I am willing to sacrifice those cards, which I which I am.

There are cards, and, I'm not gonna make this episode about the cards that I'm sacrificing. Just know that there are massive car there's one there's all I gave up three cards.

They're all very nice cards. One in particular is a card I've talked about a lot. And, yeah, it's it's it was time to say goodbye, but I don't wanna make this episode about the sacrifice.

It sucks already enough. I wanna make this about the card in the process. Sacrifice certainly is a part of it. But I I sense that my collection was moving towards this trend.

I've invested all this time, energy, money, and resource into this collection, and you I felt like when a pinnacle piece of this collection is available, I can't not go for it.

I need to go for it. I was waiting for one more anchor to come available to tell me this is what I'm doing, and this was the card.

This gave me this immediate clarity that, like, I need to do this. It is rare that these opportunities happen in modern collecting the way this has gone down.

It is rare to see unicorn cards. I think I initially hesitated, and that hesitation coulda cost me just based on the the cost of the card even though I thought it was priced well.

Also, though, I have learned and matured as a collector to not irrationally speed towards the end because when you're pushy, it doesn't work.

When you move too fast, sometimes shit falls apart. But I I I leaned on my preparation and what I know about myself as a collector collector.

It's this weird state where you have to glide in between emotion and execution. So it's like this, very emotional period of time when you're working through this, and then you have to, like, try to ground yourself.

And so there it's like this meeting of floating and then bringing yourself down to earth, and it's just like constant it's it's like a teeter totter back and forth.

But there is this readiness that I had, and this readiness helped carry me. And this readiness wasn't a, oh, I woke up this day day and realized I have I think I'm going to be a Prism Golds collector.

It was I already knew that. And because I knew that, I was ready for when a card like this might present itself to take action.

So these deals touch more parts about your process in your system than you can imagine and you know, and I'm sure you've been through that. Because you consider opportunity cost, you start questioning, am I overextending?

You start running numbers differently, and your brain begins to fight your guts your gut. And I think, like I mentioned, you make mistakes when you rush, and you can also make mistakes when you freeze.

And so it's this it's about walking the line. It's about finding the right, pace. It's also about understanding the right resources needed.

Right? I've already broken down how I went about this. And, ultimately, it was this moment, and it was a moment that I don't say I I dreaded it, but I knew would come if it something like this happened.

And because I had this feeling of preparation, I just knew what to do. And so because I could cover myself in this deal, I decided, you know what?

This is the time. This is the moment. This is the way I go about it. And so I've I've shared all of this with you, and I haven't even gotten to the conversation and the engagement. And I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna get into the mechanics. I'm gonna get into all of this. And it is certainly a deal that I won't forget. So when I got back, the interesting part of all of this starts with the fact about when we're thinking about platform.

So the platform that this was posted on was Facebook, which I have an account. I'm not really an active user. And it was in a group, and I'm sure many of you have been through this when somebody sends you a listing.

You're not in the group. So then you look at the person's name, and you're, like, trying to find them on Messenger, and you shoot a message.

You're like, I hope someone sees this. So I sent the seller a message, and it was as simple as this. And I'll just I will use first name, and that's it. But I I mentioned his name this I this is with Travis.

Shout out, Travis. Appreciate you. But I mentioned, Travis, your name was passed along to me about your Reggie Wayne post in a Colts group. Do you still have the Reggie Wayne twenty twelve black Friday?

Travis said, yes, sir. I do. And, instantly, I made an offer. I offered him $8,500. You could call that what you want. $8,500 is a lot of money to me. It's probably a lot of money to a lot of people.

And when I made the initial offer, he made mention that he was trying to get at least 10 k out of it. So I knew then okay. If he's looking to get 10 k out of it, let's get to know each other a little bit.

So we started to talk, and this is what is, like, really important. Trying to build some connections, some common ground, trying to make it not just about cards, but I learned few things I learned about, Travis.

He's had this card since 2012 or 2013, and this is another theme about these finites if you're looking for them.

Every old finite that they seem to have purchased for the most part has been with one collector or two collectors since the beginning, and that's interesting storyline to me.

But I learned that he's had this card for a while. I learned that he's a dad, like, literally just had another girl.

I'm a girl dad. So we we we started just having a dialogue about, having a dialogue about this. And mind you, this is happening when he's in the middle of having another child in the middle of Thanksgiving.

It's just a very complicated time. So after we got to know each other a little bit, I just I made mention. I said, hey, man. Like, would you do nine k?

And we got to talking a little bit, and it was agreed upon after fees, shipping, everything, like, he would he would net 9 k. Now I made mention that I was using a funding service. Shout out Nick at the Wharf Sports Cards.

But, again, you're bringing in another I'm bringing in another party. I am it's the holidays. I am feeling good because the deal was agreed upon, but the deal wasn't over yet. So I am trying to interrupt Nick as he's doing family stuff.

It's just this whole thing. And no one's working on Thanksgiving. And the whole time, I send him a message. I'm just like, hey, man. Like, it's the holidays. We'll try to get the sun.

And he said this like, he made mention of, like, I am here to work with you through this, and I'm in no rush. We'll get it done. And when he said that, I felt really good about the situation. And the whole time, I'm worried.

Like, I know how in demand these cards are. I know with each day passes that the deal doesn't get done. It's brings in an opportunity for someone to come in and swoop this card away. And so, again, like, I can be very anxious.

I've got anxiety. Luckily, I see a therapist and talk about it, and so I'm, like, trying to use some of these, like, skills that I've learned through therapy in this process to not, like, freak out that the deal is not final final.

Well, eventually, because this is how everything typically happens when the dust settles and, you know, where everything's back to normal.

Bring everyone together. Deal gets done. Gets paid. I make mention, like, the package is about to get shipped out, and I make mention, like, don't ship out the package yet.

I'm gonna be gone for a couple nights with my family away on a vacation. And so the package is as I'm recording this, it's on its way. It'll arrive by the time this episode goes live.

But, yeah, that is the situation that I've I've been working through. I will say on the consolidation side and do working with a funding service like Wharf Sports Cards, like, my MO is, like, rip the Band Aid off.

Once the deal is finalized, I don't wait I don't waste any time. I get the box together. I send it away and just get that part of the process over with.

And so I think about this scenario, and I think about all of everything that has gone into this and all the the conversations, all the communication, all the back and forth, all the resources, all the time, all the money, everything, and I'm left with so much excitement still.

And that's the sign. The sign that I have that this is the right move is the fact that I'm so excited about adding this 2012 Reggie Wayne black finite to my collection.

When I think about my current collection and you were asked me, like, what are your favorite cards?

That t y Hilton black finite rookie 2012 will always come up. And it is a reminder to me that product, year, design, aesthetics, all of those things matter substantially to me.

And in most cases, they matter more than the player itself. Now there's obviously variance with that statement. Like, a player like Reggie Wayne is going to be held in higher regard in a prism set than a Dante Moncrief or a Hakim Nicks.

Like, that's just natural. But when I compare these cards and this brand with other cards in my collection or other eras in my collection, it's almost noncomparable.

And this isn't me telling you these cards are the most important. This is me telling you that these cards are my favorite. And to get an opportunity at a card that I consider a favorite is special.

And so I wanna celebrate this special card and this special acquisition by doing this episode and explaining to you. Like, this year, I acquired the 2012 Andrew Luck pylon.

I acquired the 2012 Reggie Wayne Black Finite, and that is alongside of a lot of other really cool cards in that Prism PC. But just saying those two cards, those are dream cards for me, and just saying that out loud feels really good.

And I think sometimes cards just feel impossible to get, but, also, you just gotta remain patient because you never know what's going to pop up next.

And I think, for me, understanding not only the current construct and makeup of my collection and where I'm dedicating resources, but then also having a deep understanding of the vision of my collection and where I want it to be is critical.

It is vital. It did play a role in helping me get to the stage that I am where I made the decision to sacrifice some cards to bring in resources to make this happen.

And I'm damn pumped up about it. I think these moments that we go through that aren't easy define why we collect. I'd encourage all of you to understand your identities so you can act confidently when your moment arrives with the card.

I wanna thank all of you for tuning in, supporting Slabs this year, and especially for anyone who out there who's helped me, you know, bring awareness that these cards are available and exist.

Like, appreciate all of you. I can't wait for this card to be in my collection for a very long time, and I can't wait to share it all with you.

Hope you're enjoying some of these impromptu conversations. I'm enjoying having them. You all take care. I'll talk to you soon.