What's going on? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs, your hobby content alternative.

I'm your host, Brett McGrath. It's the flagship episode. This is that time of the week where we explore topics that are near and dear to the hearts and minds of you, the collector.

The subject is typically something that is rattling around in my brain, and I share my own experience or thoughts on that topic.

There is a lot to explore in today's topic, and I am not sure yet if this topic will transcend this episode and move into other episodes.

I have thought, should we do a series? What is a way to explore this topic? And I I'm undecided at this point. And a lot of stacking slabs happens week by week, and I wish I could say there is a ton of advanced planning.

But when you're managing several different shows that involve several different people and you've got, your own shows like the flagship to be responsible for.

Sometimes you can't be as strategic as you want to be. But, anyways, what I wanted to do here and perhaps in future episodes of stacking slabs is to explore the topic of nostalgia.

Now nostalgia has been discussed here in stacking slabs on the flagship episode and in collector conversations and in auction talk and in almost any show that we have put on here.

It is a theme. It would be a running theme. The thread runs from episode to episode, and and sometimes we don't just, like, hit it head on, but it gets brought up in the conversations.

And continually, when I hear nostalgia, I think about myself, and I think about my own collecting, and I think about its impact on my behavior.

And I thought, well, I'm not alone here. I'm not the only one, so let's talk about it. And so that's what we're going to do here.

I looked up before I hit record how many times has nostalgia been in a title of a stacking slabs episode. And I believe when this goes live, this will this will be episode 576 of stacking slabs. So, it's a lot of stacking slabs.

From a from a a a name recognition title, there this nostalgia has been in eight different episodes as a title or a primary theme. So it's been there, but I'm not sure it's ever been attacked like we're about to attack it today.

Like I said, like, I fly by the seat of my pants. Sometimes I know where we're going next, but other times, I'm not sure. It's kinda like mister toads wild right here.

The goal always is to inform and hit on collector topics that are near and dear to my heart, which I hope answers some questions for you or causes you to reflect. That's the goal. But that's what we're gonna get into.

We're gonna get into the power of nostalgia in collecting, define some things. Before I do that, I wanna wanna just shout out all of the wonderful, sponsors, things that are happening within stacking slabs.

Most specifically, make sure that you are continuing to tune into, Passion to Profession brought to the Stacking Slides main feed by my good friends at eBay. I'm having a lot of fun, having those conversations.

If you missed it, this past Monday, I had a conversation with Tate. Tate owns Hoodies Collectibles. Hoodies is one of the largest, sellers on eBay, also two brick and mortar, retail locations.

This is the fun part about this is is we're exploring kind of the entrepreneurial side of the hobby in these conversations, but I'm I bought cards from all of these, brands, and it's fun to meet the people.

And what we're trying to do here is introduce you to the people who you're buying cards from.

So really excited about this series. The the volume of feedback and and this isn't just like, I'm saying this because I have to, or I'm saying this because I wanna make sure everything is pumped up and going great at stacking slabs.

Like, some stuff that I put out, like, doesn't resonate. It misses the mark. It doesn't connect. I I hear crickets. With Passion and Profession, that's not one of the series.

The volume of feedback that I've gotten out of the gates for each of the episodes, publicly and privately has been incredible. I I literally screenshot all of that feedback, and I share it out, when I get it.

And I just think that to me, the mark of content resonating in the hobby is when you get a response, whether it's good or bad. And so I'm very excited about the early response.

This series is going to continue throughout the entire year, and I'm excited about the stories. We are all entrepreneurs, I believe, whether you think of yourself as one or not, and the way we operate and buy, sell, and trade.

And there are different levels and ways to progress and, you know, some individuals and some of you out there might, you know, want to create a full time career out of sports cards.

And I hope some of these episodes give you that inspiration. I never thought I'd be in the space where I am my career is in sports cards, but but here we are, and appreciate all of you out there for supporting what I'm doing over here.

What what I just wanna convey before we hit this is stacking slabs, we're building a content platform for you, the collector, and it's not stopping.

I'm more energized, more passionate, and more excited about where we're gonna go with what we're doing here than ever before. Builder, I'm a creator. I'm fired up. There's so much happening right now on the stacking slab site.

And in the hobby that it's just the space. It's like a open space for me to identify things in areas where I feel like I can contribute. I'll say this. I'm having the most fun, and this isn't hyperbole.

I'm having the most fun in the hobby that I've ever had ever had. This includes growing up collecting. This includes coming back into the hobby. This includes any years, big sales, big acquisitions, twenty twenty five rules.

I'm loving it. I get to spend time doing this, and I'm I'm obsessed with this, this intersection between collecting and content. I'm fired up about the trends, the data, all the the we have so much access to information.

It's incredible. It's It's not just here on stacking slabs. It's other Instagram accounts. It's other platforms, and we can choose what we what we like and what we don't like.

The data component is insane. You know I'm a I'm a card ladder simp. The card ladder team are my homies. Card Ladder is the official data provider of stacking slabs.

But I'm spending so much time in Card Ladder, and Card Ladder powers so many of these episodes that there is just new things that pop up every day that just really excite me through my investigation.

And speaking of which, a recording card letter confidential, five this week, and it will be live next Tuesday. So that show gets a ton of attention on this feed.

Josh and Chris have a awesome audience, and there's a lot of crossover, no pun intended, between both of our audiences, but you all show up and show out when that when that when those hit.

So just got done formatting the episode. Excited about that. I live in a world of formatting, concept formatting, but I love it.

If I don't format, if I don't organize, the content isn't gonna be as good. So make sure you check out card letter confidential. It's coming out next Tuesday and which will be the I think it's the eighteenth.

I'm, let me see here. Yeah. Next Tuesday, the eighteenth. There'll be a new episode on the main feed. Also, just like my collection cards, just very focused, having a ton of fun, and then the community.

It seems like the community is rallying around focusing in on the right things, and I'm excited about that. I've gotten so much help this year in terms of finding cards and trading and selling and buying and evolving my collection.

Okay. We're gonna get into the topic. Before we do. Gotta plug the Patreon seven day free trial, exclusive content, putting it out each and every damn day, fired up about, what's happening in the Patreon.

Also, just the threads that are happening in the conversations in that group are awesome.

There are different levels to conversations in the hobby, and the intimacy of what is happening in that group on a regular basis is not only cool inspiring, but it's causing me to think about the hobby differently, which is a good thing.

And I'm learning from others, and I love that. So if you wanna show your support for stacking slabs, go check out that free trial in Patreon.

And at minimum, tell a damn friend you're enjoying this. Please tell a friend. Hit that subscribe button. If you're not subscribed, do all the things that we as creators appreciate.

Thank you for tuning in. Alright. Let's get into the topic. So the inspiration behind this episode came, this week, and I knew it was coming, and I got reminded by a couple of you and appreciate that.

But it was Andrew Luck's appearance on Pardon My Take. And I saw I got, like, three messages during the day about, like, have you listened to this yet?

This this conversation is incredible. All very positive. And so I had not, and I'm like, you know, go figure. I'm sitting here recording a podcast, but I'm I'm way more of an audio guy than a video guy when I'm consuming my content.

But I wanted to watch Andrew Luck talk, as silly as that sounds. And so I had waited until my kids went to bed. And there was, like when I watched this, it was Monday night I watched it.

And there was, like, Raw was going on, and the Pacers had a game at, like, nine. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna watch Raw a little delayed, or or maybe I'll I I said I'm gonna save Raw for tomorrow.

I'm going to, you know, maybe tune into the Pacers game a few minutes late, but I gotta sit here and watch this interview. And it's like an hour long. It's like, I'm gonna sit here and watch it.

And I like watching him explain everything about football, his life, everything else, it not only, confirmed, my appreciation for Andrew Luck, the football player, but also, confirm my appreciation for Andrew Luck, the person.

And him talking through these moments and him talking about his teammates and everything else, it caused me to get so much nostalgia.

It was like listening to a long lost friend talk. I was like, god. I haven't heard from you like this in a long time and just your level of intelligence and the way you look at life.

You know, a lot of people would consider luck a weirdo just based on the nature of him, and maybe he would consider himself a weirdo. But I think that weirdness of him makes him unique and makes me appreciate him even more.

Undeniably, a highly intelligent individual, and you can see how he took that intelligence and applied it to the game of football. And those natural skills and ability and all that coming together made him who he is.

My favorite part of the whole conversation was and you gotta listen to it, and I'm not gonna walk through all of it. But I'm just setting the stage here.

But my favorite part about the conversation they were talking about, like, him, you know, when they're, you know, talking about during the off season about how he's gonna be the in college, the number one pick and whatever, and they were going through that.

And he was just like, of course. Like, I knew how good I was. And I just like that self confidence he has, he he, like, didn't he didn't, like, hit people over the head with it ever.

But, like, when put in the position, he was just being honest and be like, yeah. I knew my skills were off the charts.

But it wasn't just the skills, and we see guys that are highly skilled all the time that come into the league, but it's just the seriousness of how you take that and you treat it like a profession, and you don't just show up and you don't just expect your skills to prevail, but you put in the work, and you find the strategic edges, and you build the chemistry with your teammate.

It's like luck had all of that.

And so, like, watching this interview caused me to be super nostalgic. Now the best part about this nostalgia boost for me wasn't like I need to go out, and I need to go out and buy Andrew Luck cards. I have so many Andrew Luck cards.

As a matter of fact, I had to make some space and get rid of some Andrew Luck cards just because I my collection's out of control, and I'm trying to focus on the exact type of collection that I wanna build around Andrew Luck, which centers around the prism nature of my PC.

And I'm not gonna lie. I've got the best Andrew Luck prism collection there is. I do. And that's something that I'm excited about, and that's the prized possession of my PC is my Andrew Luck prism collection.

And so because of that and and, yes, there are some gaps, and, of course, there are some cards that I would still absolutely love to have.

And I would love to complete the the finite run. Don't have all of them. Have most of them. And we'll use this platform as I've done in the past that if you have information on ones that are out there and available, let me know.

I want those cards, and I want them in my collection because it is nostalgic, near and dear to my heart, and it hits me a little bit different because the transition, Andrew Luck, time and place in my life, the happiness he brought me, all of those things.

But that's what's fun about nostalgia. Now I didn't go out and buy a new card.

So I my decision after I watched that episode was to turn on the Pacers game, and I just grabbed my collection. And I just started looking through it and remembering all the time, remembering all the moments.

And I think that's what's fun about nostalgia. It's like it it can inspire new lanes of collecting, but and buying new cards, but it most importantly, it can cause you to reflect on what you already have.

What is nostalgia, and how does it influence our collecting habits? I just talked very passionately about how Andrew Luck made me feel, and it's because of nostalgia.

Now what what is the reason and why? So what I wanna do here is give you the stacking slabs audience clarity on nostalgia's purpose in collecting and whether, it's a force for the good or not.

Now when we talk about nostalgia, we need to define it. Right? What is nostalgia? It's a sentimental longing or affection for the past. When I think about nostalgia, the place where I go instantly is my childhood.

Now I just talked about luck, and, obviously, luck wasn't a part of my childhood. It was part of my post college career. He was there. But that that was a long time ago. That wasn't yesterday, and I'm I'm very nostalgic for that.

But when I think about nostalgia, I go back to the early days. I think about, like, this time frame of, like, between, like, seven and 12. Like, that core, that was, like, five years. It's a lot of nostalgia.

I'm thinking about, like, Ninja Turtle sheets. I'm thinking about everything wrestling related, like, everything. The whole like, if if you if if the if WWE, WWF at the time could have thought about this is how think of strategically.

How do we, during this time frame in the nineties, build a customer for life? Like, I am that example. So I was like hook, line, and sinker on everything from the jump.

I think about my action figure collections, wrestling figures, starting lineups, turtles, all those things. I think about NBA Inside stuff with Ahmad Rashad and Summer Sanders.

There's something about that show. There's something about that magazine, all those things that just was larger than mine. I think about the Sega Genesis I have in my room. I think about kicking ass at Streets of Rage.

I think about Joe Montana football. I think about playing Mortal Kombat until my eyes bled. And we know Mortal Kombat on Sega was way better than Mortal Kombat on Super Nintendo because you had blood on Sega, man.

Better finishers. You could rip out the heart. You could rip off the neck. Mortal Kombat on Sega, so many levels better than Super Nintendo. So when I think about nostalgia, I think about how nostalgia is tied to memory and emotion.

And I think about processing memories, and nostalgia is tied to, the way we think about kind of our own memories and episodic memory, which stores our own personal experiences.

When we see an old card, it triggers memories of where we were, what what we're doing, and how we felt at that time.

I think about the emotional regulation of it and and, you know, digging into the fact that nostalgia boosts mood and helps us feel more connected to our past.

It's often triggered during stressful times as a coping mechanism. I think about just us forming our own identity and how nostalgia reinforces who we are by reminding us of these formative experiences.

I just talked about some of those. This is why collectors often gravitate towards cards from their child childhood. It's a way of reconnecting with your younger self. There's that dopamine and reward system.

Right? When we experience nostalgia, our brain releases dopamine. It's that same chemical tied to pleasure and motivation. This is why revisiting old sets or seeing a familiar design can feel really, really good.

Also, I think when we enter into cards or back into cards, like, the best advice I think I could give everyone is, like, don't go chase what to do.

Go dig into your past. And when you dig into your past, some cool things happen. And there's this connection with cards. It's like we think about the first packs we open. We think about the the players we are watching growing up.

The design, the logos that instantly transport us into a specific time in our life. I think primarily, like, the takeaway for me is nostalgia is more than just a a feeling. It's it's more than just, like, a feeling that we get.

It's a psychological triggers trigger that helps shape the decisions that we make as collectors. I collect Andrew Luck because Andrew Luck is nostalgic to me. So how do we experience nostalgia? What sparks nostalgia?

I think watching an old game or interview, like, if you go through my YouTube search history, the volume of moments that I've searched for, Andrew Luck, wild card round against the Chiefs comeback, specific passes.

It's nuts. It's like my whole search history.

I think seeing cards from our past, like, I can't I can't not think about when I think about collecting cards as a kid, the first set that comes up in my mind is ninety one ninety two upper deck basketball.

I can see the box right now in my brain. I can see on the on the box the cards you've got. Dennis Scott, you've got Michael Jordan, Tim Hardaway, and Tom Chambers.

I think about then I think about Tom Chambers, and the Tom Chambers of it all sparks me into thinking about sitting there with the factory set or opening up packs of that stuff and playing on my Game Boy NBA all star challenge.

NBA all star challenge ruled. And if you had a Game Boy and you played that game, you could just all day, all night.

You know? And I think about the fact that I think I learned from that game that Karl Malone and Jeff Malone Karl Malone had a brother, Jeff Malone, and and they were brothers.

But I remember also too being, like, asking my dad, like, who's Kelly Tripuka?

And my dad was like, Kelly Tripuka played at Notre Dame. And it's like, I remember that conversation by playing that game and all that stuff. And it it that's nostalgia.

It just, like, triggers all of these things, and it's freaking awesome. Now nostalgia, when you compare it to fear of missing out, there's a big difference. Right? Nostalgia makes you revisit the past, but it doesn't push you to buy.

This is why I think nostalgia is really powerful. It's an open space for you as a collector to explore what makes you feel that something. If you take the time, you can be in control, and no one is pushing any narratives.

Now the difference is appreciating what you have versus appreciating what you there's a difference between appreciating what you have versus trying to recreate your past.

And I think whenever you feel like you might be feel FOMO or you're getting pushed in a certain direction, always take a couple steps back and reflect on the experiences that you had in those formative moments growing up, and that's where nostalgia can play a a pretty big factor.

It's often triggered by mister external factors, but if it affects everything, every collector differently. Now we need to make a decision.

Right? Well, we don't have to, but I think it would be good. Is nostalgia a good thing? I think there's a lot of positives. I think it connects you back to your roots and hobby. I think about basketball cards.

I think about the memories. And I maybe haven't taken action and build out a nineties basketball collection because it's freaking expensive, but I appreciate learning and exploring and seeing other collectors share their collections.

I think it brings joy without needing constant purchases. Nostalgia doesn't just need to be from your childhood. Like I mentioned, it can be, you know, from ten years ago.

Think it helps you refine your collection based on truly what matters. Now there's downsides to nostalgia. Right? It can lead to overpaying for cards that are meaningful only to you. Okay. So I'm the sucker here.

If someone has a Andrew Luck card that I need and I don't have, then I'm probably paying more than anyone else. But that card, I have no intention of selling. That card is is a card that I wanna have deep in my collection.

Another negative is it can make it hard to move forward and embrace brand new collecting opportunities. The nostalgia can be powerful, but unchecked, it can influence spending in ways that might not align with your long term goals.

What cards do you hold on to that you never sell even if the market shifts? Do you ever look at a card and get trans transported back to a specific moment in life?

Have you ever rebought something you once had as a kid? I think about nostalgia, and I think about the way certain collectors collect and explain why they collect things.

And examples that I can think of is John at Spurfan Ad Tech, and I think about his insane nineties collection. I think about Andy Buy Buy Baby Cards and think about his insane nineties collection.

And these two collectors are very focused on buying these cards that obviously have stored value to them, but then obviously also connect back to time and place for them.

So I think understanding in your collecting can help you make better decisions about what to keep, sell, and acquire.

Think one thing we have to be aware of that businesses understand nostalgia and businesses are trying to capitalize on it. No better example than that is seeing what Panini did with Prism Deca. Right?

There's nostalgia in reintroducing the debut of a product, successful product in in in a new format. And I think there's constantly going to be shifts in marketing opportunities for big business, especially when it comes to nineties.

Right? A lot of nineties kids who grew up in the nineties are now, you know, successful professionals, have kids, have some discretionary income that they can spend on this stuff.

I think nostalgia, those like, true nostalgia is really freaking hard to manufacture. Like, it's really hard to manufacture.

Like, companies can try, but it's really hard to hit the same emotion when something is recreated specifically to elicit that feeling. I think nostalgia will always shape the future generations in the way we collect.

What's nostalgia for me now might not ever be nostalgia for some somebody, but, you know, I think about kids collecting during the pandemic boom and that stuff is probably gonna be nostalgic to them ten, twenty years from now.

Big nostalgia isn't just personal. It shapes the entire hobby over time. Maybe there's gonna be more to this because I still have a lot to say, but we gotta close out this episode.

I think I wanna close this out by just saying, you know, we gotta just reiterating that nostalgia is a powerful force in collecting, but it's important to recognize why we feel it and how it affects our decision making.

I think nostalgia for me has always been a positive. I don't really view it as a negative. It gives me a special feeling and allows me to enjoy collecting in a way that I'm not sure I could collect enjoy without it.

I guess my question to you as we close this is what's the most nostalgic card in your collection? What is that one that you wouldn't sell on under any circumstance no matter of any market conditions because it hits you a certain way.

Share that damn card. Tag me at stacking slabs. I would love to see it. Repost it. I'll do all the things. Appreciate you taking some time out of your busy day to listen in on stacking slabs and supporting what I'm doing over here.

I believe this era is the era of change, but there's a lot of fun happening. And what's really important is education, and I'm just trying to play my part in that process. Appreciate all of you. Take care, and we'll talk to you soon.