welcome back to another flagship episode of stacking slabs your hobby content alternative here on the stacking slabs network i hope you are having a great week in life and in the hobby doing what you can to continue to build and develop a great experience for yourself during this period of rapid growth transactions and everything else in between football is back things feel normal once again i guess in my world they do there's a lot going on with the stacking slabs network behind the scenes excited to share some of those updates as they take shape appreciate everyone out there spending some time here listening to the stacking slabs content here on the network there's a lot of options i don't take your attention for granted if you're not already make sure you hit follow wherever you're listening to this to get more content if you're enjoying it tell a damn friend if you want new and exclusive content we got that in the patreon group i got all the plugs in we're talking about the honor of ownership this week we have talked a lot in previous weeks whether it's been on the flagship or some ancillary shows about transacting i wanna talk about owning cards and when keeping the card is the point we're gonna explore that in today's episode before we get into that shout out inferno red technology they are the sponsor of the flagship episodes at stackings labs and they're the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles like dc sports eighty seven comsea collectors upper deck and ebay from ai powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders their team can tackle your toughest technology challenge they build awesome software for the hobby for league and fans and everyone in between see what they can build for you at inferno red dot com think there's a question collectors get from people who do not collect it sounds simple you buy these cards then what do you do with them john and i were talking about this question while recording last week's episode of the football card podcast john was talking about his experience and his friends and friends who don't collect and the questions he get he got and as he was talking through that instantly i started documenting this could be a fun flagship episode the conversation stayed with me after we finished because the question carries an assumption it assumes buying the card has to lead to something else you buy it then you flip it you trade it you post it you use it to get your next card there must be another action that gives the purchase a point but what if ownership is the point what if the thing you do with the card is own it the answer sounds too easy it can even sound defensive if you say it to someone who does not understand collecting but i think it opens up one of the least discussed parts of the hobby the honor of ownership the pride that comes from looking at a card you spent years searching for the privilege of knowing that one specific card out of every copy and every possible option has a place in your collection the responsibility that comes with caring for it the satisfaction of keeping it when the hobby keeps telling you to move on we spend a lot of time talking about how cards enter collections we talk about the chase the deal the auction the trade the grade and the price we spend even more time talking about how cards leave collections we talk about when to sell where to sell how much to ask and what the proceeds can fund the middle gets skipped the years when the card is yours that's not dead time that is where collecting happens today i wanna talk about what ownership gives us why certain cards create pride how a card can become part of your identity why keeping something can be more rewarding than converting it back into money and where pride of ownership can turn into ego or poor judgment if we never question it this is not an argument that you should never sell it is an argument that ownership has value before a sale ever enters the picture there's a big difference between having and owning and i wanna start with the distinction having a card and owning a card aren't always the same thing you're gonna have a card in a box and feel no connection to it you can forget when you bought it you can forget why you wanted it you can see it as inventory even if you never listed it for sale that card is your possession it does not feel like part of your collection then there are cards you own in a deeper sense you know why the card matters you remember when you found it you remember who helped you get it you know how it fits next to the cards around it you know what would be missing if it left researchers have a term for this psychological ownership it is the feeling that something is mine beyond the legal fact that i paid for it researchers john pierce tatiana kosnova and kurt dirks identified three paths that build this feeling control over the object deep knowledge of it and an investment of yourself into it that maps well to collecting you decide what belongs in your collection and that's control you learn the checklist the print run the parallels the sales history and the story behind the card and that's knowledge you spend time searching building relationships setting money aside waiting negotiating and passing on other cards that is self investment the payment transfers the card the work creates ownership this is why two collectors can own cards worth the same amount and feel nothing close to the same thing one card arrived after a ten minute search and a buy it now smash the other took five years twelve conversations a missed opportunity a relationship with another collector and the discipline to be ready when it surfaced again the market might assign those two cards the same price the owner will not assign them the same value i felt this last week when i posted four t y hilton prism black finite one of ones the cards are from twenty twelve twenty thirteen twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen every one is only one copy when i see those four cards together i do not see four line items i do not start by adding up comps i do not think about the highest offer i've received or what another collector might pay i see years of focus i see a player who helped define an era of colts football for me i see the choice to stay in a lane long enough for the collection to gain shape i see four cards that did not sit together until i bought them together and that last part matters any one of those cards is rare on its own the group says something the single cards cannot consumer researcher russell russell belk wrote that possessions contribute to and reflect our identities he paid close attention to collections his point was that both the objects a collector chooses and the order the collector gives them expresses identity that is what a focus collection does it becomes evidence of taste it shows you what you noticed it shows you what you're willing to wait for it shows you what you passed on so you can stay ready it shows you that you did not let every trend pull you away from what mattered to you when i look at those t y hilton cards i feel pride i do not mean pride because i own something other people can own that is part of the factual rarity but it is not the same source of the feeling the pride comes from commitment tracking down one black finite can take luck tracking down several from one player takes clarity patience relationships and time the result is not proof that i won it is proof that i stay that is a form of prestige that i care about and i think the word prestige needs pressure testing in the hobby prestige often gets attached to the biggest number the highest sale the card in the auction house headline the grade at the top of the pop report the card people recognize before you explain it that is market prestige it comes from shared recognition it can be real it also depends on an audience collector prestige is different collector prestige comes from coherence a five dollar card can hold it a card can be common across the hobby and still hold a place no expensive card can replace inside your collection it might be the card your daughter picked out with you it might be the first card you bought when you returned to collecting it might be a player no one else in your group collects it might be a complete run that took you ten years it might remind you of a game you attended with your dad the price is public the prestige can be personal that does not make it less real one way to test this is to ask yourself a really hard question would this card still make me proud if no one else knew i owned it if the answer is yes the pride belongs to you if the answer is no the pride might be borrowed from the reaction of other people there's nothing wrong with sharing cards community is one of the reasons the hobby works a recent study of three hundred and twenty six online comments about sports card collecting found seven motivations financial investment was one of them the other motivations included learning identifying with athletes social connection entertainment and escape from stress that came from scott parrott on why do people collect sports cards fan motivations for collecting miniature sports media that research matters because it shows how incomplete the money only explanation is cards do things for collectors while collectors own them they teach us they connect us they give us a way to express who and what we care about they give our mind somewhere to go they create conversation a sales price captures none of that when a non collector asks what do you do with your cards they're asking about utility they can see what you do with your car a chair a phone or a new tool you bought the utility of a card is less visible that does not mean it's absent i see at least five forms of value that exist during ownership the first is access you can look at the card whenever you want you can hold it study the design place it next to another card and notice the difference you can pull it out on a day when the player team or memories mean more to you that repeated access has value if you buy a ticket to a game the experience ends the memory stays a card gives you an object you can return to it can reconnect you with a player game arrow or a part of your life attached to it the second form of value is identity your collection makes your interests visible belt called possessions part of the extended self his research argued that possessions can help us create preserve and understand identity my colts finite collection says something about where i'm from the team i follow the players i remember and the choices i've made it as a collector the black finites say something even more specific they show how i see prism they show how i think about one of ones they show why continuity across years matters to me someone else can look at the same checklist and build a collection that says something else that's taste the third form of value is achievement the hobby talks about the thrill of the chase we need to give more credit to the satisfaction that comes after the chase ends finding a hard card is an accomplishment bringing related cards together is an accomplishment building a collection that reflects a clear point of view is an accomplishment that satisfaction does not expire when the package arrives it should grow each time you understand how hard the result was to create the fourth form of value is memory belk's work describes possessions as ways to store memories and feelings about the past he found that people often treasure objects because those objects were called people occasions and relationships collectors know that without reading a research paper ask someone about a card they say they'll never sell the answer is rarely a pop report you will hear a story they pulled it with their child they brought it they bought it after getting their first job it came from a collector who became a friend it marks the season their team finally want it all it was the card they wanted when they were twelve and bought it when they were forty the slab holds the card the owner holds the story the fifth form of values connection some cards create relationships before we own them we ask around we learn who has the card someone makes an introduction another collector sends a message months later because they remember arlene the card enters the collection carrying the chain of people with it the ownership creates new connection we show the card to another collector it starts a conversation it teaches someone about a player or set it gives another collector a lead for their own search this isn't passive ownership creates value when we're taking part of it i think we treat ownership as a status when it is closer to a relationship the hobby asks do you own it the more useful question is how do you relate to it do you know the card do you spend time with it does it connect to the collection around it has its meaning changed as your life has changed would you notice if it was gone the relationship explains why ownership can deepen over time a card can mean more to you in a year in year ten than it did the day you it arrived at your doorstep it has been with you through seasons of your life you have told its story you have learned more about it you have turned down offers you have watched related cards surface and disappear you understand where it fits time can add value without adding one dollar to the last comp this is one of the hobbies constant push towards the next card works against experience many of us say that we want we say we want connection then we move too fast to form it we say we want a collection with meaning then we treat every card as a temporary stop on the way to another purchase we say a card is a grail then three weeks after it arrives we need a new grail that is not always ambition sometimes it's an inability to receive satisfaction from what we already own acquisition gives us a clear event there is a search a decision a payment a shipment and an arrival ownership asks more from us it asks us to pay attention without the reward of something new and that that is a skill the word honor i think carries a lot of responsibility if owning a card is a privilege the collector owes the card something care for it protect it learn its history keep the story with it be honest about condition provenance when the when the time comes to transfer it give other collectors access to knowledge even if you do not give them access to ownership the national baseball hall of fame and museum holds more than a hundred and forty thousand baseball cards the smithsonian archives include the ronald s korda collection of sports and trading cards from nineteen fifty two through nineteen ninety six those institutions treat cards as records worth preserving a personal collection operates at a different scale but the principle is related collectors preserve parts of sports history that institutions will never have the space or reason to hold we preserve player runs overlooked teams regional stories we preserve sets that failed in the market but mattered to the culture we preserve the details that disappear when the hobby pays attention only to record sales your time with a card is one chapter in the card's life for a one of one the responsibility feels direct there is no replacement copy sitting somewhere else if the card is damaged lost or stripped of its story something leaves the hobby with it stewardship does not mean you have to keep the card forever it means you respect it while it's yours it also means that when you sell you can pass along more than just a tracking number you can pass along what you know where it came from why it matters what you learned while owning it this is one way a card builds prominence each owner adds context instead of wiping the slate clean now we get to the money question i wanna be precise here saying that ownership can be more valuable than money does not mean price is irrelevant it does not mean every card should be held it does not mean refusing an offer as proof of conviction it means the market price measures only what another person will pay it does not measure everything the current owner would lose suppose a card is worth five thousand dollars in the market that number tells you what cash the card can become it does not tell you how long replacement would take it does not tell you whether the another copy exists it doesn't tell you whether the card anchors or run it does not tell you whether the card carries a family story it does not tell you whether selling it would break a collection you spent a decade of building those factors create owner value this connects to the question john and i discussed if you are not selling a card at its current price are you saying you would buy it again at that price i do not think those decisions are equal the buyer is deciding whether to exchange cash for a card the owner is deciding whether to remove a known piece from a collection and accept the chance that it never returns the owner already has history knowledge and identity attached to the card a new buyer does not the difference is real but it does not it it does not automatically become wise the endowment effect is well established tendency for people to demand more to give up an object than they would pay to acquire it it is a set of market experiments daniel kahneman jack niche and richard thaler found that people who receive ordinary goods were reluctant to trade them even when the standard economic theory predicted more exchange ownership can reveal value ownership can also distort judgment and both can be true the goal is not to eliminate attachment the that would result that would eliminate much of what collecting is worth doing the goal is to know what kind of attachment you have are you keeping the card because it serves the collection or are you keeping it because selling it would force you to admit you no longer want it there's so many questions that we can ask ourselves pride of ownership is healthy when it creates gratitude care connection and clarity it becomes a problem when it creates denial i think there's a big difference between pride and ego pride says i'm grateful this card is here ego says this card proves i matter more pride wants to understand the card ego wants the reaction pride can celebrate another collector finding a great card ego treats every collection as a ranking pride protects the object ego protects the owner's image this distinction matters more as card values rise an expensive card can become a scoreboard a rare card can become a way to control access a collection can stop reflecting tastes and start reflecting a need to be seen that is not the honor of ownership the honor is not that other people cannot have what you have the honor is that you get to care for something that matters to you the honor is also temporary every card had a life before it reached you many will have a life after you even the cards you plan to keep forever will will one day become a decision for someone else that perspective should make us less possessive and more responsive you do not need to downplay a great collection you can be proud of the work you can enjoy the scarcity you can recognize when you have built something few collectors can build but if the collection needs constant applause to feel valuable the ownership is not carrying enough weight on its own so how do we get more from cards that we already have first spend time with your collection without shopping don't open up ebay don't check the ending soon page do not compare your collection to what someone posted that morning open the box pull out a row choose a card ask why it is still there next you can rebuild the story write down when you acquired the card where it came from who helped with it what you paid for it and why you wanted it the details feel permanent until they disappear create access if every meaningful card lives in a dark box that you will never open ownership becomes harder to experience display what you can protect rotate the cards keep photos build small groups with your cards learn one new thing about a card you already own this is one of my favorite things to do i like to spend time investigating each individual card that i previously bought research the set read about the season study the design find out what else was on the checklist knowledge deepens ownership share the reason before the result when you post a card tell people why it matters these are my favorite posts to read the image shows you what you own the story shows you what collect make sure you let ownership reduce the need to acquire a card that gives you satisfaction should create space it should make it easier to pass on the next card that doesn't fit if every acquisition increases your appetite but never your satisfaction the collection is not serving you audit the cards that no longer carry owner value selling is never a a failure of attachment sometimes it is proof that you understand your collection if a card no longer fits or no longer gets your attention or no longer carries a story of of what you wanna keep moving it can give another collector the chance to build a relationship with it ownership should be intentional on both sides intentional when a card enters intentional when it stays and intentional when it leaves covered a lot of ground in this episode but i think these types of conversations are important very few people are talking about them these are the thoughts that are running inside almost every collector's head so what do you do with the cards after you buy them you live with them you learn from them you care for them you connect through them you let them remind you who you are what you noticed and what you choose chose you give them a place in a collection that no one else would build the same way sometimes you sell sometimes you pass them down sometimes you keep them because the cash would be useful but the card is worth more to you than what the cash would replace that is not irrational by definition it is a form of value the market cannot see when i look at the twenty twelve twenty thirteen twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen ty hilton prism black finite one of ones together i know what i'm looking at i'm looking at t y hilton the ghost i'm looking at the robin to andrew luxe batman i'm looking at colt's history prism history i'm looking at four cards that took time patience focus and relationships to bring those cards together i'm looking at my choices as a collector the collection does not need to lead to another transaction have value the ownership has value now the next card will always be there the harder practice is stopping long enough to recognize what is already here take a look at your collection this week find the cards that still make you proud do not start with what they're worth start with why they are yours i'm brett mcgrath i collect sports cards i create content about sports cards and collecting here on the stacking slabs network appreciate all of your attention appreciate your passion and engagement if you enjoyed this episode tell a damn friend we'll be back with another very soon take care happy collecting talk soon